Leader
Author
Mentor
Coach
Deb Canja
…is a success and growth catalyst dedicated to transforming lives through personal development and entrepreneurship. She writes, teaches and coaches on the topics of transformation, abundance, manifestation, and business success. As a success coach, her approach focuses on removing hidden mental and emotional blocks, keeping a laser focus on desired outcomes, and strengthening manifesting abilities while building the habits of thought and action that bring success. She is focused on empowering individuals to thrive personally and professionally and on guiding spiritual entrepreneurs to success as they share their unique gifts and messages.
Deb’s legal background together with her leadership and management experience, give her a unique ability to quickly identify blind spots as well as opportunities for leveraging strengths into accelerated growth. Editor of the new Universal Edition Workbook of A Course in Miracles (launching this year) and
Deb’s legal background together with her leadership and management experience, give her a unique ability to quickly identify blind spots as well as opportunities for leveraging strengths into accelerated growth. Editor of the new Universal Edition Workbook of A Course in Miracles (launching this year) and author of Swim the Lake Before You Row the Boat: Awaken a Boy’s Success Mindset, Unleash His Confidence and Give Him the Foundation for a Great Life, her approach gives others the strategies and insights they need to take control of their own lives and enables them to protect, support and nurture those they love, and contribute to a better world.
author of Swim the Lake Before You Row the Boat: Awaken a Boy’s Success Mindset, Unleash His Confidence and Give Him the Foundation for a Great Life, her approach gives others the strategies and insights they need to take control of their own lives and enables them to protect, support and nurture those they love, and contribute to a better world.
Deb is passionate about public speaking and sharing actionable insights to advance meaningful causes. She facilitates professional development for educators to boost student achievement by building confidence and success in students. She also combines her legal expertise, personal growth strategies, and a service-oriented approach to empower entrepreneurs and educators to unlock their potential and foster success.
Deb’s professional career has been guided by three core values:
- Empowering others with information and training,
- Creative problem-solving while working with available resources, and
- Service and contribution.
1. EMPOWERING OTHERS WITH INFORMATION, INSIGHT, AND TRAINING
Success Coaching
Success in business and life is not only about strategy, but also about getting out of your own way. As a Success Coach, Deb delivers high-impact group and personalized master class coaching to entrepreneurs at all stages, from those just starting out to millionaires. By focusing on actionable goals, streamlining business strategies, and the mindset shifts that come from identifying blind spots and limited beliefs, Deb helps entrepreneurs accelerate growth, overcome challenges, and achieve measurable success in a fraction of the time. Through targeted strategies and daily accountability, clients achieve more in 30 days than in the previous 90.
Bridges 4 Kids
In 2002, when there was not an easy way for parents to find information to help kids with disabilities and special needs, Deb founded Bridges4Kids, creating one of the first comprehensive online portals to give parents needed information. It also became a trusted resource for teachers seeking specialized information on IEP goal setting and constructive ways to gain parent support for improved student outcomes. Operated as a public service, Bridges4Kids filled an information gap and regularly received millions of page views.
Swim the Lake book
“A success mindset” is a set of beliefs centered on self-competence, self-confidence, and self-acceptance. When those come together, and a person has confidence in their ability to tackle new things, persevere and come out on top, they become unstoppable. The Flying Eagle Formula is a process for creating a success mindset in young children. It was crafted from lessons learned from nearly three decades of guiding thousands of young boys through a unique summer camp experience and the six decades that followed that proved the Formula works, as the boys went on to become successful husbands, fathers, business and community leaders and credited their early experience as being central to their later success. Giving parents, teachers, and coaches information about the Formula is the goal of Deb’s book, Swim the Lake Before You Row the Boat: Awaken a Boy’s Success Mindset, Unleash His Confidence and Give Him the Foundation For a Great Life.
Universal Edition Workbook
A Course in Miracles is a metaphysical and spiritual masterpiece studied by millions worldwide. However, millions more have probably bought the book, but, for a variety of reasons, never finished it. One such reason might well be its antiquated language that does not connect with a newer generation. After leading several groups of students in the ACIM Workbook’s daily lesson practice, Deb saw first-hand the way many struggled with the language. Wanting to remove those barriers to understanding, she embarked on a four-year quest to update the language while carefully preserving its meaning as well as its beautiful and poetic, iambic pentameter structure. The result is a book making ACIM’s powerful training accessible and meaningful to an even larger audience.
2. Creative problem solving
From designing systems to help workers collaborate more effectively and make workflows more efficient, to creating streamlined processes for collecting the right information needed for problem solutions, to reducing conflict and infighting among key decision-makers, Deb has repeatedly crafted innovative and effective solutions. An important hallmark of her approach is a desire to work within current and available resources wherever possible.
Results:
- 97% successful resolution for department with over 2000 annual federal lawsuits;
- New process for categorizing, prioritizing, and effectively tracking and managing the assignment and resolution of all existing and incoming issues before another department;
- New process for including all stakeholder and key decision-maker views that quickly reduced disagreements and dysfunction.
3. Service and contribution
Deb comes from a family tradition of public service. Her father, Alex, was orphaned at the age of eleven and raised himself at the YMCA, yet went on to become an All-American diver and swimmer at the University of Michigan.
He interrupted his academic career to serve in WWII. After the war he became a high school English teacher and coach before becoming the Executive Assistant to the head of Michigan’s Department of Education, a role he held for the next thirty-three years. He considered it an honor to serve the public. Because of his early childhood experience, together with wife, Tess, he went on to own and operate a highly successful summer camp for boys where he created a unique formula for instilling in young boys the mindset he knew they would need to succeed.
Deb’s mother, Esther “Tess” Canja was tireless advocate for improving the lives of others. As the Executive Director of Michigan’s Area Agencies on Aging Association she was recognized by the Michigan Legislature as instrumental in the passage of several significant laws providing services and support to Michigan senior citizens.
She went on to become the National President of AARP, traveling the United States and the world championing initiatives to help older adults survive and thrive. She repeatedly testified before Congress on topics such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and housing standards. But it was the summer camp’s legacy of helping thousands of young boys develop a self-image of success that brought her the most joy.
Deb’s own public service journey includes:
- 20 years as a government attorney fighting unreasonable insurance rates and protecting the public from unscrupulous or untrustworthy banks, credit unions, insurance companies, payday lenders, mortgage lenders, and all agents;
- 9 years on the Board of Trustees of a large community college with a focus on making a college education affordable and accessible;
- 22 years as Founder and CEO of Bridges4Kids;
- And many, many years serving in a variety of other positions including PTO President, President of her local homeowners association, President of her local chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women, Science Olympiad Coach, organizer of after-school activities for elementary-aged children, and many hours as a middle school “Lunch Lady.”
To see more of Deb’s professional background, visit LinkedIn here
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