Woman Wednesday Issue #28

Name that Woman Trailblazer: She is the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and became one of its most influential justices. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and served from 1981-2006.

👉 Click here to reveal this woman.

Hi, I’m Tess!

I am a leader, educator, life-time learner, and outdoor adventurer with over 10 years of experience in global marketing, operations, and investing.

I now lead an amazing team at Acceleration Partners (AP), a Global Marketing Agency, as the VP of Operations and Technology.

I’m also the founder of Wealth with Tess, an online newsletter and beginner investing course that helps professionals grow their wealth through investing, even if they are beginners or have some debt. While Wealth with Tess is an inclusive community for everyone, my mission is to reduce the gender investing gap by educating more women+ on financial basics and investing. 

🔗 Want to connect with Tess? Say “hi” on LinkedIn and Instagram.

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The best part is you’ll stay at unique venues that are always within 30 minutes of an airport, so you’ll never deal with tricky and long routes.

Q: How did you get into your current role/industry?
A: I found my current company, Acceleration Partners, through a connection on LinkedIn. I took an entry-level position and a massive pay cut, but the company ticked all my boxes so I took a chance! Over the last 6 years (and 7 promotions later), I’ve worked my way up to VP of Operations and Technology and was even lucky enough to live and work in Singapore for a year.

I’ve also always been an avid stock and real estate investor but made some big mistakes in my investing career. To help others avoid mistakes (that cost me thousands), last year I founded Wealth with Tess in an effort to help professional women grow their wealth in a simple and effective way. Once you learn the basics, investing is just NOT as complicated as we’ve been led to believe, and I’m on a mission to help amazing professionals build their money confidence through financial education that’s digestible and demystifies financial jargon.

Q: What’s something you do to help boost your productivity?
A: I’ve tried a lot of different things but always come back to two things:

1. Commit to 3 — In my role, I oversee a big team and 5 different operational functions that all have different goals and needs. I will never be able to check everything off my to do list, so every day, I write down my top 3 things that I know if accomplished will help move initiatives forward. Sometimes I only have time to get 1 thing done, but by thinking about this ahead of time, I can make sure I’m prioritizing the right thing.

2. Clarity breaks — I love going for walks to clear my head. If I have too much going on in my head I’ll start to multitask on things that aren’t the most important. Taking a clarity break is truly one of the best things I do. As silly as it sounds, sometimes I just go do a handstand somewhere and it clears my head.

Q: How do you find work-life balance?
A: Table stakes are that my health comes first.

If I’m starting to suffer mentally or physically, I know I need to take a step back and make immediate changes. That said, I don’t know if I believe that we can consistently achieve work-life balance.

I think there are going to be times where you can maintain a good balance, but life happens when you least expect it, and sometimes work is just crazy.

For me, trying to achieve a perfect work-life balance feels like a lofty goal so I’ve adjusted my thinking on this. My goal is to be present at work and present in my life. If I’m working too much to the point where I can’t be present with my friends or on adventures, then I know something needs to change.

My focus on career has felt like the ebb and flow of seasons, so rather than trying to achieve a perfect balance, I focus on being present and that feels more attainable for me.

Q: What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve received so far?
A: 1. For mid-career – You will always be your best advocate. If you want to grow in your career, picking the right company that has growth opportunities is huge, but at the end of the day, it’s up to you to make it happen. I requested feedback relentlessly, humbly self-advocated, and looked for learning opportunities everywhere.

2. For leaders – There is never a lack of resources only a lack of resourceful people. Once you’re a leader and managing multiple functions, it’s impossible to be an expert in everything.

When someone I trust told me to start shifting my mindset from “how do I solve this problem?” to “who or what resource can help us get to where we need to be?”, my whole world changed and my team and I started to thrive at whole new levels.

Q: What’s a book or podcast you’d recommend to a colleague?
A: Book: Radical Candor by Kim Scott; This is a must read for any manager and truly one of the best professionally development books I’ve read.

Podcast: Money with Katie; Entertaining and super educational on finance, business, and more.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time outside of work?
A: I love the outdoors. I’m always trying to sneak out for the weekend to go for a hike or rock climb with friends. I also love to travel (I’ve been to 40 countries so far).

I also support and volunteer with BUILD Boston, an amazing education program that supports youth in under-resourced communities through entrepreneurship education, where kids actually build and sell their own products! It’s basically “Shark Tank” for high schoolers and it’s just such a cool organization making a massive impact

🤔 Read more about shifting your mindset on work-life balance
🧠 Learn more about clarity breaks.

• ✅ An interactive PDF that yes, lets you literally check off boxes!
• 💡 Actionable tips to improve retention that can be put in action immediately.
• 🔄 Different areas of the employee lifecycle to focus on.
• ⚒️ New tools and resources to consider when working with your teams.

When I was 24, I had saved some money from working on cruise ships and wanted to make sure I invested it the “right way”, so I hired a financial advisor — someone I knew and trusted. Long story short, after a few years I started getting more interested in what I was invested in, how much I was paying in fees, and understanding financial products.

I quickly figured out that some decisions made on my behalf were costing me thousands of dollars per year, and hundreds of thousands over time. Now I manage my own investments, save about $8,000 in fees per year, and get higher returns. And guess what? It’s easy. Investing isn’t hard, it’s just unfamiliar because most of us haven’t taken the time to learn it.

What I learned through this experience and through many challenging and complex projects in my current job, is that most things aren’t as complicated as you think and everything is “figureoutable”.

You just have to break the challenge into digestible pieces and find the right resources to guide you — they are out there!

We are living in this incredible digital age of information and you can literally learn ANYTHING you want, and sometimes, one skill can be life changing. Investing is one of those things.

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• Virtual Assistant
• Bookkeeper
• Social Media Manager
• Website Specialist
• Accounting Clerk

• Get Bonusly’s Essential Guide to Employee Engagement.
• Read tips on reducing employee turnover.
• Find more info on the Employee Retention Credit (US companies).