Connect
To Top

Meet Tanya Moushi of Moushi & Co. in Downtown/Midtown

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanya Moushi.

Tanya, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I studied business and professional ethics in school and really was in awe of the destruction done by corporations of the public’s morale and faith and trust. You know people have this connotation that business is this non-human thing, and I think for a long time (after studying Enron especially), I wondered how we could change the connotation of Business. If it was such an influential force in the realm of destruction, could we use it in a positive way? Could we make Business Good in a way that promotes and encourages virtues. Could we market kindness, could we make generosity a business model and gratitude a service model.

I became really obsessed with thinking about things much more deeply and trying to understand the subtleness of impact. I study what makes a difference; what tiny things make a huge impact. I’ve always been really curious about this.

My undergraduate degree was in Global Business Finance with a minor in Philosophy which my finance advisors were not pleased with–my philosophy advisor, however, was thrilled and this made me so happy that someone else could see that crossing philosophy and business might, in fact, be a really great idea, or at least useful in thought experiments.

In the middle of my graduate degree which focused on existential entrepreneurship and doing Good Business, I opened a coffee shop which interestingly enough was modeled after a version my 14-year-old self did many years prior in Google SketchUp. It was an interesting subconscious catch. People ask why I sold the company and it was very plain that I wasn’t interested in the business of coffee, but rather, what coffee meant and was for people. I loved that it was this thing on somebody’s desk while they were creating–I thought that was a very fascinating thing to be part of.

Since then, I had designed businesses for fun. I designed full-scale businesses with logistics in place, and never really did anything with them. It was just the expansion of the idea and seeing how/if it would work and in what market that excited me the most. From there, I began to publish trends in this area of Good Business and pushed to promote humanity in business. I began my design and consulting firm almost five years ago now which was built to help a market that everybody else ignored. It was built to help people that were too small for full-service agencies, but too serious for a commodity-like firm. Most of my clients are small to mid-size professional service firms, executives turned entrepreneurs, and startup organizations looking to make a mark.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Overall, I’d say it has been a smooth road but it definitely doesn’t feel that way when you’re in it. I think I’ve got a knack for high-level views and when I’m looking at it like that, it is smooth. In it, however, there are a ridiculous amount of bumps from your own experience level (my first company even before the coffee shop I was trying to consult for a living–I was 18 years old. Good luck, right?) to learning and understanding how you work, to what’s needed in the market, to who and how you align yourself. I think I’ve been very fortunate and very curious and very intentional. There have been clients I’ve despised worked with, and some that I would jump over the moon for and I think this process is very much like love: you don’t mind the struggle when your heart is in it.

I think when you’re bored, it becomes a challenge as well. You start to play mind games and take a project that should take 3 weeks and try to pack it into 3 days–just for fun. Whenever I get to that place, I’m reminded to refine the process and/or to pivot a little bit. It’s easy to get stuck in what you do well, and finding the balance between repeatedly doing what to you might be “grunt work” and finding those big challenges that scare the hell out of you but allow you to grow–that’s the sweet spot I think we’re all going for.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Moushi & Co. story. Tell us more about the business.
What a sweet series of questions.

I’m probably best known first for empathy and communication strategy, and then for intuition. When it comes to design, I’m actually a really intuitive designer which has made it hard to bring on help but is also okay as it allows me to hone those skills.

My business has two components: I’m a featured Squarespace expert and authorized trainer, designing websites on their platform and teaching others to build their presence online. I’m also a consultant that focuses primarily on Business Design, Communication Strategy and Idea to Market Validation. That latter part is a fancy way of saying that I help people turn ideas into businesses, and help them establish and align their online presence with their physical presence. People forget that authenticity is felt.

I speak on the GECKO Model which is an acronym I’ve developed for Gratitude, Empathy, Care, Kindness and Optimism that helps instill virtues within a company, shaping culture and influencing impact on all kinds of stakeholders–employees, customers, shareholders, the community. I also love to write–I write about things that make people think. I’m utterly fascinated by this idea that we can make people feel things–that to me is art, and I try to do that with my writing both personally and professionally.

I’m most proud of the way my clients trust me creatively to do what I believe is best for them. It looks weird from the outside sometimes, but most people understand that I really live for finding the connections that not many people can see, and for learning from them. I take the small and subtle things that most people ignore and I blow them up and make them the focus. I think those minor details make or break a situation or strategy or design, and I’m not shy about that belief. I’m proud to find the intersection of psychology and philosophy and business and to prove to that Undergraduate Business Advisor that this direction was a damn good way to go because Business needs Art and Philosophy and I’m hellbent on bringing that to the table unabashedly.

Is there a specific memory from when you were younger that you really miss?
My favorite childhood memory.

I used to stay up late–I still stay up late, but when I was a kid, my parents used to make these elaborate breakfasts at like 1 in the morning. My Dad would be cooking and my Mom would come into my room and ask if I was hungry, and I’d go sit with them and eat. Just sitting there and eating and talking and laughing and I knew it was late and it was a school day, but they never really cared about that. They knew I’d get up and it would be fine. They always invited me to the table no matter my age and how late it was, and for some reason, that memory has always made me smile.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Brandi Howell, Shaunté Glover

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in