Female Founders: Teresa Heath-Wareing On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
You have to learn stuff fast — Most people go into business because they are really good at something, normally the service or product they are selling. However, I completely underestimated how much other stuff I needed to know. Things that I didn’t even think about such as systems, finance, managing people or selling! Doing my actual job was the easy bit, it was all the other stuff that was challenging. ⠀⠀⠀
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Teresa Heath-Wareing.
Teresa Heath-Wareing is an online business & marketing expert who works with small business owners from across the world, helping them to build a business and life they love. An international award-winning speaker, TEDx speaker and podcaster, Teresa is recognised alongside some of the world’s digital marketing thought leaders and is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading marketing influencers. Teresa hosts a popular weekly podcast called ‘Marketing that Converts’ and has interviewed the likes of Amy Porterfield, Pat Flynn, Michael Hyatt, Jasmine Star, James Wedmore, Mike Stelzner and Dean Graziosi. For more visit https://teresaheathwareing.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I have been in marketing for about 17 years now. I did a degree in it and started my career. I was always happy being an employee and never dreamed about having my own business. However, after ten years in various marketing roles I found myself as a single parent of a four-year-old. I was head of marketing for a local agency and after coming through a separation I thought I needed a change. I joke I must have gone through an early midlife crisis because without getting another job I handed my boss eight weeks’ notice, thinking “I am really good at my job I am sure I will get another”. One thing I overlooked was that I was on a good salary and lived in a small town and jobs like that weren’t often available. Three weeks into my notice and no job offers I started looking at other options, including starting my own business. My boss found out this might be the case and understandably asked me to leave! Within one week I had started my new marketing business!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
This is a tough one to answer because so much happens and as business owners we tend to have a really short memory when it comes to achievements or milestones as we are quick to move on to the next one! I guess one story which springs to mind is when I was at university doing my marketing degree, we were taught from a book written by Dr Philip Kotler, who is known as the father of marketing. A few years back someone got in touch with me after watching my TEDx talk and asked if I would speak at an event. It turned out that it was Dr Philip Kotler’s event and the first and only one he has done in the UK! It was one of the most surreal things ever, standing on the same stage as the father of marketing whose book was my bible when at university.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Well, I made all the mistakes. No plan, no idea what I really wanted to offer and naming my business after my ex-husband’s name and now I am remarried you can only imagine how that goes down when we go somewhere, and people call my husband Mr. Heath-Wareing (which is my ex-husbands name!). Also, when I started my business I set it up as an agency and called it THW Marketing (THW my initials) however when you type that into google it thinks you have made a mistake and auto corrects it to The Marketing! I told you I made all the mistakes.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One of the things I found when I started my business was the general lack of support or even interest. I didn’t have anyone in my world that had their own business and that can be really lonely. However, along the way there have been many people who have supported me get to where I am and it’s really hard to pick one! Firstly, having a cheerleader on your side is super important and for me this is my husband. He is my biggest cheerleader and some days has more faith in me and what I can achieve than I do! I know lots of business owners who don’t have the support of a loved one and that is so tough.
But the other person I must mention is my coach and now dear friend Mary Hyatt. I knew I needed some help and extra support for myself and the business and after listening to a podcast of someone I admired they talked about their coach Mary Hyatt, so I decided to take a look at her site and it just spoke to me. She has been so very important in my world and for my personal development. We worked so much on mindset and self-development and that felt like the key that unlocked lots of my success. If you don’t have a coach then I really recommend getting on and checking out Mary!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
This is such a complex area as I think there are loads of things that stop women starting their own companies, however, I don’t think that is helped that males have had almost a 2000-year head start on us! If you look back as recently as the 1960s, American women needed their husband’s permission to open a bank account in their own name. And as Deborah Sweeney in her Forbes article explained — until 1988, women entrepreneurs could not get business loans without a male relative as a co-signer.
It is going to take some time to change that tide, which is why it’s so important for women business owners to stand up and show themselves so they can inspire other women to do the same.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
I think starting in school is a great place to start as when I was at school starting your own business was never talked about, let alone encouraged as an option. As a mum of a 12-year-old girl I actively encourage her to look at how my business is run and include her as often as I can, so that she knows this is an option open to her.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Having my own business is the best thing I have ever done. I get to manage my time and what I do with it and who I work with. I worked in many male-dominated industries before starting my own business and the way I was treated as a woman was very much different to the other men I worked with. I was not as well regarded or thought to be as capable and in some cases was often there for show! Now I have my own business I feel like I am in control of me, my business and how I am treated on a daily basis!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I think when you first start your own business free time is a myth. When I first started I thought “great I get to work my own hours that I want to work and I can take time off as I need”. That’s not necessarily true! As I said in the last question, I get to manage my time, that is very different from having free time. I worked so many hours when I first started and it is only seven years later and having a team that has allowed me to start to take some of the time I need. But there is always stuff to do and even when you aren’t working your brain never turns off from thinking about what you could be doing!
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
This is an easy answer — NO not everyone can and will do this and that’s fine — it’s not for everyone. To be a business owner you need tenacity, you need to be able to motivate yourself and get the work done even when you don’t want to. You need to be flexible and quick thinking as things change all the time. And you need to be able to manage your mindset when know money is coming through the door, because these times will happen!
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
#1 You have to learn stuff fast — Most people go into business because they are really good at something, normally the service or product they are selling. However, I completely underestimated how much other stuff I needed to know. Things that I didn’t even think about such as systems, finance, managing people or selling! Doing my actual job was the easy bit, it was all the other stuff that was challenging. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#2 You may lose friends — Having a business changed me and I found that some of the things I had in common with some of my friends changed. We found ourselves not knowing what to talk about. And some of them didn’t like the new Teresa that was running her own business and reaching for the stars and that was ok. People change and move on and I noticed this happened because of the business. However, I would also like to add that you can’t do it alone — Running a small business can be tough and you need people around you to help. These may not be currently friends and family and you may have to look for new groups to support you but you need those people. ⠀
#3 Your brain never turns off… ever — I never stop thinking about my business and everything surrounding it. In the shower, falling asleep, cooking dinner, on the school run, doing the food shopping, I mean all the time! And this can be really hard to manage, switching off has been very difficult for me especially because I love what I do. You have to make sure you find some way to have down time — Gin helps lol! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#4 You need to have a good mindset — You need to gather together some good tools, tactics and strategies to use when your mind doesn’t want to. So many things in business can make us stumble and block us from being successful. So mindset work is key! And as part of this you should learn to embrace failing — My resilience has gotten better as time has gone on. The more things went wrong or didn’t go as I had hoped. Or the times that it straight up failed! In business you turn each failure into an opportunity to learn.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#5 You need systems and processes — Over the first 2/3 years of my business I must have wasted so much time and so many opportunities, through being unorganised and not having the right systems in place. I know systems and processes don’t feel very exciting, but honestly I could not run my business without them. If you do something more than once in your business it can be a system and when you grow someone else can do that thing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Over the years I have helped hundreds of women business owners create the business and life they dream of. I have watched them grow and achieve things they never thought possible and that is amazing. Within the business, I have an amazing team who get to grow with me and benefit from our joint success through weekends away and gifts for their children. I have also volunteered my time and expertise to help many charities.
One of my plans for the future is to start my own charity.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
My movement would be around helping people in marginalized communities start their own business that would not normally have the opportunity or where it is not as encouraged.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love nothing more than to sit down for lunch with the amazing Glennon Doyle — the world is a better place for her being in it.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Female Founders: Teresa Heath-Wareing On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.