Tina Lesyk
CEO
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Tina Lesyk is the creator and CEO of Pineapple Eventworks. Tina has been in the event-planning industry for close to 15 years. Before devoting her life to Pineapple Eventworks, Tina worked at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, for ten years. She began her journey as a dining room server. She then went on to teaching Basic Bartending classes. Next, Tina prepared and trained hundreds of hospitality students for work in high-end service environments, teaching them Fine Dining Service. In the last six years of the tenure, she was the Institute’s first Banquet and Catering Coordinator. It was during this work term that Tina realized the need for a skilled event staffing service in Atlantic Canada.
Tina is a results-driven professional with experience in event coordination, customer relations, business development, human resources, and adult training. During her career, she has coordinated, executed, and staffed over 1000 small to large scale events, including over 500 weddings and two royal visits. Tina’s calm demeanor has largely contributed to her success in the events industry.
Her educational background includes an honours diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the Culinary Institute of Canada, as well as a Certificate in Adult Education from the University of PEI. Tina is fluent in English and French.
Tina has extensive experience working in hospitality and the food & beverage industry across Canada
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What are you most proud of professionally? And who or why?
I'm most proud of employing over 60 part time working Atlantic Canadians. My business gives students, newbies into hospitality and former hospitality workers a chance to work in events and essentially set their own schedules. We offer good pay and flexible hours. In our short 4 years we have retained the majority of our core team. I am often told “I’ll be working for Pineapple for the foreseeable future”. It feels good to train new staff, teaching them skills they can take with them to future jobs.
What’s your vision for Atlantic Canada in 10 years? What’s our biggest opportunity now?
Tourism and Hospitality. We are the home to so many amazing restaurants and tourism operators. Our beautiful landscape and the calmness our parks and beaches exude. Going through the COVID pandemic, I think people are going to feel less like living in big cities with loads of people. They will want to move to Atlantic Canada and enjoy our somewhat “slower pace of life” and our Atlantic hospitality.
What was your greatest stage of growth? What made it a shift for you?
From the Incorporation of Pineapple Eventworks in 2016 until now, we have grown exponentially year over year. Word of mouth is our most powerful marketing strategy.
What’s your favourite or most read book or podcast? Now or at each of your greatest stages of growth?
I enjoy listening to “Love by Lynzie” podcast-Lynzie Kent is an event/wedding planner from Toronto. She is always sharing valuable content for both people planning an event/wedding and event professionals.
For book choice it would have to be Profit First. This book teaches entrepreneurs and business owners how important it is to pay yourself first rather than paying yourself what is left after all your expenses are paid. A lesson that many entrepreneurs need to learn early on.
What’s your deepest learning from this past year? How did/will you apply it?
Covid-19 presented all kinds of learning for me. I learned never to take anything for granted because it could be gone tomorrow. I took for granted that people needed my services, since March 2020, most events have canceled or postponed. Learning to pivot and make changes was/is hard but an important lesson i have learnt this year. An entrepreneur sees opportunities when faced adversity instead of seeing challenges. I’ve really had to think outside the box of my comfort zone on how to generate revenue while staying true to myself and business
Who’s inspired you, directly or indirectly? How have they inspired you?
I can't name a specific person but the wedding and event industry vendors in this region inspire me every day.
What were your priorities and how did they help you overcome some of the struggles you’ve faced?
My priority was and remains to keep my company going through these hardships. That meant reducing expenses as much as possible and counting every dollar spent. I plan to come out of this better than before. This down time has allowed me to focus on developing processes to run my business more efficiently. Pre covid, Pineapple grew rather quickly. I felt like each day was tough juggling everything on my own without effective processes. I feel better prepared for when events and parties come back with a vengeance! I am highly motivated to do everything in life the best I can, you might call me a perfectionist. I live by proudly doing the very best I can and helping people’s wedding and event dreams come true. It sounds cliche, but I am very passionate about helping others.
How have you recovered from fractured professional relationships? What uncomfortable truths have you learned about yourself in those experiences?
Post Covid I actually feel like my professional relationships have become stronger. We are all in this together. Our community of event vendors has really come together to support one another and help by sharing new information and figuring things out.
I did learn while watching my business lose all its work that I can be too accommodating at times and too compassionate. To the detriment of myself and business. There is such a thing as being too nice. It can be a negative thing for a business owner
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Foodie, cocktail creator, event coordinator, bartender, server, small business owner, devoted, experienced, friendly, funny, event professional, organized, detail oriented, perfectionist, lover of events, lover of all animals