Investigators' Round Table
Investigators' Round Table is a virtual space where those in the private investigations, security, and legal industries can come together to discuss topics included but not limited to industry trends, services offered, business strategy and fun stories that are otherwise good at cocktail parties (we are usually the most interesting ones in the room). The goal of the podcast is to provide industry camaraderie for those that participate in the discussions as well as transparency so that the general public has a clear understanding of how they can benefit from our services. Podcast will be playable on all major platforms (apple. Spotify etc.) as well as social media, and private webpages such as this one. It will also be shared in industry networking groups.
If you would like to be interviewed please contact podcast host at amanda@immaculatepi.com.
Investigators' Round Table
Educators Turned Detectives with Prism Investigations
How do you turn a background in education into a thriving private investigation business? Join us as we chat with Tania Tong, the CEO of Prism Investigations, who has done just that. Tania's expertise, alongside her team of former educators, has revolutionized the handling of public complaints for government agencies, particularly in tackling harassment, discrimination, and civil rights violations. You’ll gain insight into Prism’s innovative use of climate assessments and AI-driven data analysis to unearth systemic issues, providing a unique lens on how technology aids in identifying patterns of misconduct.
The pandemic has shifted many industries, and private investigations are no exception. Discover how the transition to virtual interviews has not only maintained but enhanced the quality of investigations. Tanya discusses the surprising benefits of remote work, such as increased comfort for interviewees and cost savings, drawing parallels to the rise of online therapy. She also details the techniques her team uses to ensure the thoroughness of virtual interviews, including comprehensive environment scans to account for body language and minimize distractions.
Marketing a private investigation firm requires strategic finesse. Learn about the successful strategies Prism Investigations employs, from targeted mailing campaigns to partnerships with educational and governmental associations. Tanya also shares the value of trauma-informed interviewing techniques, like the Forensic Experiential Trauma Interviewing (FETI) method, and the importance of networking for private business owners. Get inspired by Tanya’s journey, leveraging her military background and business acumen to lead Prism Investigations to success while fostering a robust network and expanding their services into new arenas.
Podcast Guest:
Tania Tong
Prism Investgations LLC
https://www.prisminvestigate.com
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A virtual round table where leaders in the private investigations and private security industries come together to discuss, tips and tricks for newbies, business strategy, and stories of memorable cases.
Sponsored by:
Safewatch360.com
Promo Code: PODCAST30
immaculatemerch.com
Promo Code: thankyou20
This podcast is hosted by:
Amanda Appi
Immaculate Investigations LLC
southcarolinadetectiveagency.com
Welcome to the investigators roundtable, where I, your host of real life PI, will interview leaders in the private investigations and private security industries. We'll be discussing things such as business strategy, tips and tricks for newbies and going over some memorable cases that we have worked. My goal with this podcast is to create a virtual space for industry professionals to come together and to collaborate, as well as to pull back the curtain so that you, the audience, can see behind the scenes in what is sometimes a mysterious and misunderstood profession. I'm your host, amanda Appy, of Immaculate Investigations LLC, located in Myrtle Beach, south Carolina. For more information on me or my company, you can go to SouthCarolinaDetectiveAgencycom. I hope you enjoy this episode and thanks so much for listening. All right, so it is Friday, august 30th, 1.02 pm, eastern Standard Time, and I'm here with Tanya Tong of Prism Investigations out in Oregon. Welcome, tanya. Thanks so much for joining us. Would you do us the honors of introducing yourself and your business, if you don't mind?
Speaker 1:Sure. Thanks, amanda. I appreciate being here. I'm excited to talk to you today. So I'm Tanya Tong and I'm a licensed private investigator and the CEO of Prism Investigations, and myself and a team of co-investigators provide third-party independent investigative services to local and state education agencies, city and county governments, public defenders offices and private businesses across the United States. Wow, so you are busy. We are. We're currently in seven states.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, so what other states are you in besides Oregon?
Speaker 1:We provide services in Vermont, montana, oregon, utah, kansas, new Hampshire and Nebraska.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you guys like cold weather, then I'm down here in Myrtle Beach. It's like 80 something and humid today. So I'm from Connecticut originally, but I've moved away from the cold weather and I do not miss it. So what did your company? You kind of gave us a general overview of what you do. What would you say you specialize in? So like your meat and potatoes? Of what investigations do you take on the most?
Speaker 1:I would say public complaints for government agencies. So, complaints related to harassment, discrimination, bias, retaliation, sexual harassment and assault. We also do Title IX investigations, as well as workplace, school climate and educational investigations.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So a lot of occupational workplace stuff is what it sounds like. Yeah, occupational and civil rights, civil rights Okay, very interesting. That's different. I think there's not a lot of private investigators that do that. That's quite an interesting niche and, I bet, very profitable at times. For sure. How did you get into the field in general and then how did you get into that specific niche of the industry?
Speaker 1:We're all former public school educators. Wow, and when the pandemic happened, many of us decided we wanted to try something different. Okay, and so we're using our knowledge, knowledge and skills in public education and working in very large institutions. Okay, you know, having that content knowledge. And then in Oregon we're required to also be licensed private investigators.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then from there, it really was networking with parties who needed this service, as well as contacting all 50 state departments to find out how we could contract with them through their bidding process. So many of our clients are actually state departments and we have like multi-year contracts and we're on a roster.
Speaker 2:That's fascinating. Yeah, I've just actually started to kind of looking into government contracting more on the federal level, but there is quite a few opportunities that I did come across on the state level that I had no previous knowledge of. So that's, that's great. Actually, that's good for you. That's. That's an important one. What would you say? Just transitioning kind of more into, I guess, the specifics of it, what was the most interesting case that you've worked on in recent memory?
Speaker 1:We recently had one in which we were doing a systemic investigation, so the allegations were that certain things were happening across the whole system. Wow, so the whole state. Like the whole, it was a state one, but in this case it happened to be in a large comprehensive school district.
Speaker 2:Okay, gotcha, so across the whole district or something like that.
Speaker 1:So that requires a lot of patterning, having to identify where patterns or errors or misconduct might be over a large group of people.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And so what are some of the techniques you use for that? I'm assuming interviewing is a big one.
Speaker 1:Yes, we also do a lot of climate assessments in the workplace which may start out with a complaint. So someone may make a complaint about something and as the agency or the client starts digging into it, they realize that there might be more there than just this initial complaint. That may just be scratching the surface. So we're engaged then to go and interview the entire staff or the entire group of people, or, if that's not possible, we do a statistically relevant sample size of at least 30%, okay, and then we ask a series of questions, depending on what it is we're looking for Right, and then from there we compile all of those witness statements into an investigative report and we're actually using AI to help us identify bias, not only within individual parties but across the sampling that we've interviewed.
Speaker 2:That is quite the process, and AI is so interesting, because I don't know how I feel about it, but I can tell you it's making my life easier, especially in regards to marketing. But I won't even get into that.
Speaker 2:But for data analysis specifically, it's you kind of can't beat it. It's the most efficient way for sure. So in the case that you worked on recently, that was kind of systemic. Was it a conspiracy, like were all these people working together and knew what the other ones were doing, or was it kind of just the culture caused this issue?
Speaker 1:I would say it was a perfect storm. There was no, no malintent. Okay, you know, sometimes stars align or they don't align the way they should, and you know there's lack of staffing, there's lack of money, there's lots of miscommunication, and so just sometimes a bunch of junk gets just thrown in a pot and outcomes the need for an investigation.
Speaker 2:Right. Do you do on the flip side of it, do you do a lot of consulting as well to try to prevent these issues from happening?
Speaker 1:We do absolutely both upstream for preventing specifically discrimination and bias incidents. Actually, in our area there was a recent report that came out that there has just been a significant increase in complaints specifically related to bias incidents. Really to help agencies first help people understand our brains and cognitive bias and how that really impacts everything that we perceive in the world around us and how we interact with people. So that's kind of upstream. But we also consult and train internal investigators. Okay, we certainly can't do investigations for all agencies.
Speaker 2:Right right, right, okay, we certainly can't do investigations for all agencies, right Right? We generally are called in when it's a complex, complex situation.
Speaker 1:There's a conflict of interest, it's politically charged and they want somebody else making the decision Right, and so we can go in and do those kind of you know heavy hitting cases. But then we also consult and train you know, your everyday investigator who is in the agency, right, and they get the initial complaint about somebody's harassed me, right, and they can go in and do the investigation. And then we provide training on trauma-informed interviewing, cultural competence, the role of the investigator and mitigating bias in the investigation.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is truly impressive and very interesting. There's a lot of psychological factors. I would think that go into some of these things as well, understanding, like you said, why people are perceiving things the way they are. And psychology is always interesting. You know, that's kind of the why. Why are you doing what you're doing? You know, the motives behind things are interesting. I I am I just got certified, actually as a fraud examiner and it's very similar just on the fraud spectrum and finances. As far as you know how to prevent fraud. What are the red flags here? What is the perfect storm that is going to? The outcome is probably going to be embezzlement or things like that. And why do people do you know? Why do they commit fraud? Why do they do the things they do? So it's, I don't know. I'm always fascinated by that. I don't know why. I think maybe because people are just so unpredictable. It's just trying to make sense of you know, just trying to find answers and digging deeper and making sense of the world around us and our communities for sure.
Speaker 1:And then also understanding that, within an investigation, everybody involved whether it's the investigator, the client, the parties that you're investigating, the witnesses that are part of it they're all coming in with their own bias and their own perceptions. Everybody has a role to play.
Speaker 2:Right, that's so true. So do you have a background in psychology at all?
Speaker 1:I do. I actually have a bachelor's of science in psychology.
Speaker 2:Interesting, interesting. I don't have one in psychology, I have a business one, but it was heavy on the psychology side of things, so I always found it fascinating. So what would you say is your favorite part about doing that? I mean, obviously you're kind of this, you're investigating, but you're almost a change agent, if you will, for the better. So I would imagine it's rewarding. But is that? Am I right or no?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is rewarding because you're, you know, uncovering the facts right and there's kind of a difference between facts and the truth, but you know we're neutral fact finders, okay. And so, with that wanting to provide an excellent investigation that is standardized, and we're following all of the best practices so that when we give it to the client, they know that they have a legally defensible investigation. And if they're asking us to make recommendations, then we certainly do that. But, yeah, definitely, the outcomes of our work definitely create changes.
Speaker 2:Right, that's kind of where I was going with that. If you, as part of your consulting after you do your investigation, if you sit down with them and help them make better policies or improve their compliance, training programs or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that definitely can be a service and some of our clients actually have that like, say, at the State Department, If there is a finding, then they order corrective action.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay that needs to be completed. Right and they ask for your input on the corrective action.
Speaker 1:Yes, we give suggestions, but we would not be the people implementing it Right. And they ask for your input on the corrective action. Yes, we give suggestions, but we would not be the people implementing it Right, right that makes sense.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, Wow. So I'm trying to think where I want to go with this, because it's such a unique, it's such a unique line of work there. Is there anything about it that you don't like that specific? You know any of the specific types of cases maybe that are not your favorite.
Speaker 1:No, not, not yet. I mean maybe, maybe I'll come to that point.
Speaker 2:So typically the answer I get from PIs when I ask that question is long hours in the car doing surveillance and I don't think you do much of that. So we don't know. Do you do any covert activities at all, like if you need to go kind of spy on an organization? Do you do no?
Speaker 1:none of that.
Speaker 2:No, we get called frequently for that, yeah, I would imagine I get called frequently for that is even something as simple as you know, kind of being a secret shopper but not trying to catch other things besides stealing, to your point of employee harassment. You know employee misconduct, things like that Interesting.
Speaker 1:We'll have to get together.
Speaker 2:Go ahead. I said we'll have to get together outside of this to figure out. I'm just. I have questions that I won't put on here.
Speaker 1:I'd love to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah that would be so interesting. I've never I've never talked to anyone with that specific niche. I guess I keep saying that word, but that's really what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it really is. And what I would say is that what the pandemic did? Is it really opened up this as an opportunity nationally? Really? Because I think that I think the perspective before COVID or the pandemic was that to do an investigation you had to be eyes on on site investigation, you had to be eyes on on site, okay, and so I don't think maybe there was even. I mean, perhaps it was happening in small pockets, but I don't think to this extent that you can do a remote investigation, so we generally don't even go on site. I mean, if we, if we need to, we do like the client or the parties we're interviewing request that and it's reasonable, and you know, or I need to see a specific thing, okay, but technology now, just like this, right, we're talking across the country from one another, right, right, and I do my interviews this way.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's interesting. Let's elaborate on that. So I have a lot of training in interviewing, just interviewing techniques, especially, like I said, in relation to the fraud stuff, but witness statements, things like that. What do you find are the challenges of doing a virtual interview versus a? Well, and by virtual let's define that face-to-face on the computer, like we are now not on the phone, versus an in-person one? Do you find it to be that big of a difference? I have never done a virtual interview, so I'll just be straight up honest. I've only do them in person, really. But just, you know, since you're you're used to doing them. Do you find it to be you have to adjust your techniques and your tactics at all?
Speaker 1:No, Okay, absolutely not. And people are surprised. I was surprised myself.
Speaker 2:Clients were surprised Right.
Speaker 1:One of my clients before required all in-person interviews, right. And then the pandemic happened and they had to go to virtual because the investigations and the timelines couldn't stop, because you couldn't go in person. So they switched to virtual and they've not gone back. Wow.
Speaker 2:So the advantages are it's cheaper cheaper for the client, they're not paying travel costs. Right Now here's something in in. I've pondered in my head Um, when you interview somebody, virtually a lot of times they are in a space that is familiar to them and that is comfortable for them. Do you find them to be less nervous and more cooperative than they would be? Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 1:So there is an advantage there, yeah, and there's actually emerging evidence They've done a couple of studies that it actually is a trauma-informed approach, particularly when someone is sharing about a traumatic event. That makes sense Because you're right, because they are in their comfort zone, and there is, I mean, I still feel just even you and I having this conversation, right, right, I don't feel a barrier to me sharing information with you.
Speaker 2:I still feel like I can have an engaging conversation with you, even though we're doing it between the computer yep, no, that makes perfect sense and I guess that's also why you know, like online therapy, I think during the pandemic took off as well, um, and I think it stuck for that reason. It's successful because people can sit in the comfort of their own house and talk about their problems rather than, you know, go somewhere and be in a more uncomfortable environment. I guess the only thing I wouldn't like about it is the being able to read somebody's body language is a little bit limited, I would say, because you only get from here up, unless you had said it on that, there it's like a whole body shot. That would be where I would probably have the most issues personally, but I would like to see the evidence on that because it might be, you know, the reward of them opening up more because they're comfortable might outweigh the need to read the body language.
Speaker 1:So I would yeah, and sometimes you can ask them like if you had issues with that, like if you think something might be going on, like are they texting somebody? Is there somebody else in there? I ask is there anybody else in the room? Are you texting anybody?
Speaker 2:I knew this is all recorded.
Speaker 1:I right, I audio record all of my interviews, right, right, Okay, you can ask the person to move back so you can see their full body or do a scan of the room, right?
Speaker 2:So when I just took this CF exam recently and it was live, it was being proctored from, I think, somewhere in India, but it was intense the security. To even be able to take this test I had to take my laptop and show them all the corners of the room under the desk, you know, make sure there's nothing. So I guess there is ways to be able to get around that as well. You're right, that's interesting. Just being kind of, you know, before you got into this, I think you said no, you came right from teaching you know being or being in public education right into this field. Right, you didn't do anything.
Speaker 1:Yes, except yes. Except I was an administrator, oh OK, and so I had a lot of experience with supervision of employees, as well as conducting investigations workplace type investigations for the agency I worked for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, perfect, and so let me think where I want to go with this. Let's switch over into the business side for now, if you don't mind. Okay, sure, what have you found to be the best marketing strategy for, for this type of work? Obviously, like we talked about government contracts, I bet that's a huge one. What do you other than that? What do you think is the best way for you to get your ideal referral?
Speaker 1:So right now I am focusing on two primary areas, with a third kind of online right now. The first is we do a mailing campaign twice a year and I just have very bright, colorful stand out in a stack of mail postcards. Ok, I have one to show you right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, perfect, love it. I love marketing material. I was just going over mine earlier today and adjusting everything. Okay, oh, that's very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then on the back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is it do you target it to specific people, or is it just geographic?
Speaker 1:Oh no. So this one goes out to like all of the public schools, all the colleges, all the universities, all the government agencies, Right, right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, because you have a very targeted market that you need to go after for sure, so right.
Speaker 1:And we don't. Just, everyone is not.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you do a lot with like associations and stuff like that as well. I'm not familiar at all with education, but I'm sure teachers have associations and administrators boards Okay.
Speaker 1:So we partner. We partner with some of those associations and we vend at their conferences as well as present like in their workshops. Right, so I'll do a presentation on like best practice for interviewing or the role of the investigator or cognitive bias in an investigation interesting that's fascinating, yeah, and then we just launched a blog and I'm then we just launched a blog and I'm sorry, we just launched a blog Really Literally last night.
Speaker 2:Oh, a blog Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's called Paradigm, monthly Paradigm.
Speaker 2:Monthly. Okay, where can we find that? Is it on your website or is it a separate website? It is.
Speaker 1:Yep, it will be. It's a monthly pub, it's a monthly blog and it will be a focused look on investigating, and you can find that at prisminvestigatecom.
Speaker 2:Prisminvestigatecom Perfect. And while we're doing plugs, I do need to plug our sponsor. This episode is sponsored by SafeWatch GPS and these are trackers. I don't again, I don't think you have the need for them, but if you know a PI that does, they are an invaluable tool. A lot of our, we do a lot of domestic cases and I can't begin to describe how valuable they are for that.
Speaker 2:Catching cheaters and trying to figure out where parents are taking children, our, our GPS trackers save our clients a lot of money and safewatch360.com is the website. They are the best company I have ever worked with as far as trackers are concerned. Not only do they have excellent equipment that has extended battery lights, extended battery packs, which extends the life of the tracker, they also have top-notch customer service. So I can call these guys up on a Sunday night and be like, hey, something's going on with my tracker up in whatever county, and they'll take a look, reboot it, whatever they have to do, and it's up and running. And I've never quite worked with a company that had that level of customer service. And they're nice enough to give us a coupon promo code of podcast 30. And that would be 30% off of their equipment for just listening to our podcast and putting in podcast 30 as the promo code. So that's safewatch360.com.
Speaker 2:And now back to our line of interrogation and interviewing. Right? Do you have any specific interview, like any training that you've taken? Yes, For interviewing and stuff like that, absolutely yes.
Speaker 1:What do you recommend? Yeah, that's super important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm always interested to know what kind of education other people have as far as continuing ed and credentialing things like that. What would you recommend for that? Since I know that's a's a, you must do a lot of that, and what?
Speaker 1:we do, yeah, absolutely. We use a method called FETI, okay, e-t-i, Yep, and that stands for forensic, experiential trauma interviewing.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've heard of it, but thank you because I would have not been able to name it. And why don't you just explain the trauma part of it? So, because that's unique. So, while I think most PIs, when they have some interviewing training myself included it's not specifically focused on trauma. It's more focused on trying to solicit a confession, to be quite honest or to get details from them being a witness. You know an experience where they were a witness. So how does it focus on the trauma part of it? Because I think that's unique.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that the main premise is that every party is treated to an equal experience, regardless of what role it is they play, whether they're the complainant or the respondent, or you know, in some places they would call it a suspect Right. And so they all have an opportunity to a trauma, informed interview experience, and so that means making sure they're comfortable building rapport in an authentic way. And so it's not talking about the weather or talking about, you know, your son, johnny, or dogs, because, frankly, this is a intense situation and it's it's not truthful honestly to, like you know, approach somebody. It could be offensive, to be quite right, they don't want to talk about the weather.
Speaker 2:They're in a crisis mode and all this stuff is kicking in, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, first, the interviewer needing to recognize that everybody's coming to this with their own perspective and their own experiences, which may or may not be traumatic, right, but we set it up so that we can give everybody an opportunity for a safe and comfortable experience. So there's the rapport building, there's recognizing, right, that people also have different ways to store our memories and they're not sequential, so different ways to ask questions, and it really is about trying to help, cognitively, the person that you're trying to get information from to remember. And so it's asking different types of questions open-ended questions, questions where you're going to get a lot of information rather than just a yes or no response, right.
Speaker 2:And that's pretty standard for interviewing techniques in general, but you know the open-ended questions I mean, at least in everything I have been trained in. But that trauma part is definitely unique and that's something you would definitely need. I think you know that's again a very specific niche. I keep saying it, but that's, that's fascinating, and I bet there's not a lot of people in the country that have that the trauma stuff incorporated into it, other than maybe therapists or, you know, forensic psychiatrists or something like that. So that's fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. What advice would you give to somebody that wants to do what you do? Usually, I ask the question of what advice would you give to someone just starting a PI business. But yours really doesn't go along the normal flow of what a startup PI business looks like. So what advice would you give to somebody that wants to do what you do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, hmm, that's a great question, I would say, first to kind of understand what skills you need to do the job. Okay, and the reason I say that is because there really are not established training programs to be, you know, a licensed PI. You can go out and get different certifications, like you said. You're now a certified fraud examiner. I've gone and I've done different certifications, right, and you kind of like bolt those on to your experience, like as you go right, but there's not like a.
Speaker 1:There's not like a full one or two year PI school that you go to.
Speaker 2:Right, I just found out in Oklahoma there actually is, but it's not that long Really. So the last PI interviewed and the last podcast was from Oklahoma and their requirement is PI school. I think it's maybe six months, not a year or two, but that was the first I've heard of a state having actually mandating a PI school as part of their credentialing process. So, interestingly enough, it depends on the state, as everything does, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely yeah. So knowing that you really have to be an independent learner yeah, self-motivated, definitely Self-motivated to really know you know what you're getting into and make sure you have the skill set to do it. Networking is huge, absolutely huge, and I would say that as somebody coming previously from a very large organization where the networking is built in Gotcha. Right the network's built in because you go to work.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And everybody there is connected to all the different agencies. That's right. When you're a private business owner, you have to create that network.
Speaker 2:Oh, exactly, and that is the most. That's the name of the game, right there. As far as being an entrepreneur, that's really what it's all about, to stay in business, for sure. And you know what it's even more specific, just being a PI, though, because you know, like I said, I was talking about our vendors, safewatch360. We have our own network of vendors that you know, we, or people, even other PIs, that we outsource things to, and I really like the whole networking team approach to even just getting a case done and to, you know, as efficiently as possible.
Speaker 2:And so for the customers, it's important, you know, to gain the clientele but also to be able to, you know, have these good relationships with people who have an expertise in something that you don't, I think is also as important for sure. So you kind of already went over how your business is structured. You, you are in multiple states you said seven states, um and you do a lot of virtual stuff, so you're not so much in an office setting or really even out on the road doing surveillance, like a lot of other pis are, um, is there anything? Hey?
Speaker 2:we have a we have a clubhouse you do explain that.
Speaker 1:Tell me about that house. Yes, well, it's our office. We do we have, we have an office. I mean, we are all hybrid, but we come together to co-investigate and collaborate and train in an office that we have decided to have it be fun, and so it's a clubhouse and we're all sleuths and we come in and we solve cases.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. That's fun and because you know what it is. A very individualistic profession it can be at times, and so you can get kind of lonely, especially if you do come from that big organization and now you're kind of out here on your own. It does do a lot for the morale to have team meetings or to go out to lunch together or to collaborate, for sure, and that's kind of the approach I try to take, so nobody feels like they're on their own. Do you have anything? Let's see, let's. Actually, let's wrap up with the business side of things with this question what are your goals and plans for the future of your business? What, what clientele or what market do you want to target? If, if any you know, different than what you're already doing? And if there isn't sorry, it's a complex question If you don't want to change markets, if you're doing exactly what you want to be doing, what are your goals for the future with that?
Speaker 1:I would say definitely expanding our current market Okay, which is public agencies and government institutions and corporations, because we're really like a business to business agency versus a business to private and, I think, expanding our climate assessment offerings where an organization, a business of any size, can receive information from the interviewing process which really allows the person who is speaking to me, where I'm collecting the information, to in an authentic way share with us what's happening in their organization Interesting and then take all of that information and provide it back to the client and say this is what your staff said.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's great. Okay, so it's almost like an audit. It's almost like an audit of is that an?
Speaker 1:accurate.
Speaker 2:That's a good way to yeah, yeah, because it's not so much an investigation at that point, but it's kind of like a temperature check of, yeah, these might be some issues, you know, issues down the road or now or whatever.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's, I think that's important, that and training and our training is expanding our trainings to other investigators.
Speaker 2:Okay, interesting. Do you do any work in South Carolina at all?
Speaker 1:We sure could. Yeah, that's interesting. We're ready to go.
Speaker 2:We have lots of collaboration on that I think our county specifically is the fastest growing county in the country right now and I know they have a serious problem. My kids go to private school, but the public school system, from what I understand, is, at least in this area, seriously overcrowded and has a whole set of issues and stuff like that. So, yeah, we would be a good target market for you. So thank you for sharing that, and then I'll conclude by letting you ask me any questions that you want and then also promoting your business. You know where we can find you stuff like that?
Speaker 1:Okay Well, let's start with my questions for you. Okay, well, let's start with my questions for you. Okay, yeah, so tell me about your journey to becoming a PI.
Speaker 2:So it's an interesting one. So I do have a military background. I was an MP, I'm a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and then after that, I got my business degree. So, as you can imagine, there was some law enforcement, but then I'm very entrepreneurial minded and, honestly, I think I would have joined the circus if the circus got to me before the army recruiter did. But anyway, that's the route we went. So I'm all about leveraging stuff like that leveraging assets, leveraging, you know, your experience, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So I moved here to South Carolina in 2016 after a really bad domestic violence situation and I basically had an opportunity to reinvent myself. So I had to sit down and do an assessment of my skills, my experience, and figure out which direction I wanted to go, and so that is what I came up with Private investigations. I do also have a brief period in law enforcement, but I didn't want to go back to that for several reasons. I won't get into God bless cops, but I'm not one of them, so that's really. I then went and got hired by another PI in South Carolina. You have to work under somebody before going out on your own, and he was kind of a general PI. You know just a lot of. You know whatever would come his way he would take. So I gained a lot of experience that way and then I went off on my own, did a lot of and still do a lot of domestic, so a lot of adultery, a lot of child custody.
Speaker 2:But I began to see a need for financial investigations within that realm and also outside of that realm, just in relation to fraud. It was just it's not an area that's well covered in my area, my specific area. So that's kind of began my journey to get the CFE and to be able to market myself more towards that aspect of things. So I'm a big believer in the fact that nobody hides assets better than a jilted spouse. So let me help you when you're divorced, or at least have justice within your divorce. And then also, just being an area that's expanding with businesses, I noticed a lot of employers don't do due diligence on business partners or background checks on employees, things like that, and it creates a really bad climate for fraud and, I'm sure, other things employee misconduct, like kind of what you see. But I like to focus specifically on following the money. So that's really what we do here so yes, I moved to South Carolina in 2016.
Speaker 2:Just to recap, I worked under somebody kind of general, general stuff, a lot of domestic stuff. So South Carolina is unique in the fact that it's an at fault state. So we actually are heavily involved in the family court system here and through that, through just doing so many cases where I saw the real issues, I mean obviously listen, don't get me wrong Cheating is terrible, adultery is awful, child custody issues I'm passionate about. I just, children are our future and deserve to be protected. But there was a lot of financial fraud. So that kind of brought me into my financial journey and now that's really what we focus on here.
Speaker 2:As far as cases that we take on, we don't do any criminal stuff. We don't really even do any insurance kind of stuff, workers comp stuff, like that. So most of the stuff we do are corporate investigations, such as employee misconduct. So that's why we need to talk, talk off the record about how we can help each other. And then and then fraud you know the financial aspects of that and then also domestics and, like I said, kind of what sets us apart from everybody else in the area that does do domestics because it is pretty common is the fact that we do take it one step further and kind of do an all-encompassing financial investigation along with the surveillance and things like that.
Speaker 2:So that is why our vendors are so important here as far as GPS trackers go, and just wanted to remind everybody that safewatch360.com has been nice enough to give us a 30% off promotion code of podcast 30. So check them out and try out their trackers. You won't be disappointed if that is something that is in your toolkit. So I hope that answered your question. I don't know, did I ramble too much? Did I answer?
Speaker 1:No, it was great, Very very.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of, I think I would call myself an entrepreneur first and then a PI second, but I do love the investigative side of that and more than that, I love being able to have a team and to build up my team of investigators, to have a career and do something that is unique and rewarding. I think if there's anything I don't like about it, it's that we're kind of misunderstood in a lot of ways. I don't know if you find that to be the case, but I think people just get an idea from Hollywood and think that we can do a bunch of stuff we can't do. So they're very much more grounded, I think, than we're portrayed sometimes. Yes, same here. So yeah, do you have any other questions for me or?
Speaker 1:No, I think that's good. I'm going to have to get going in a second.
Speaker 2:I agree, yes, so I appreciate you taking the time and then, if you want to, just again just tell everybody where we can contact you, where we can find information about what you do, your website information and things like that, and then we will wrap it up.
Speaker 1:Great Sure. So I'm Tanya Tong, with Prism Investigations, located in Ashland, oregon, and we provide legally defensible investigative services that are impartial. And we provide legally defensible investigative services that are impartial, responsive and confidential. We believe that investigations are like a prism what you see depends on how you turn the glass. As investigators, it's our responsibility to turn it all the way around. You can check us out at prisminvestigatecom.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's great. Thank you for explaining the prism part of it. That's excellent, and thank you so much. We'll keep in touch and good luck on your journey and have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks, amanda, great to connect with you. Hope to hear from you soon. Okay, take care. Bye-bye.