When life throws challenges at you, it’s up to you; you either live with it or rise like a phoenix. Tessa White decided to conquer every hurdle along her way, beat every odd, and rise. Today, she is a successful entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and an acclaimed career expert helping others find their peace and purpose.
Tessa is the Founder of The Job Doctor, where she put all her enriching, hard-earned experience. Through her company, she is moving employee performance from average to extraordinary and building strong company leaders with highly engaged employees.
Inspired by her passion for filling in the puzzle pieces of talent in order to create cohesive teams, we at Insights Success had a conversation with Tessa to learn more about her journey.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at The Job Doctor. What challenges you have to overcome to reach where you are today?
I started my journey as a single parent, just past the age of 30, when I found myself a mother of three, and now responsible for caring for three children, making a house payment, without a college degree or formal training in any particular career. In one of the most fortuitous happenings in my life, I ended up working with legendary Stephen R. Covey and his company, where I learned success principles that still guide me today. If you fast forward twenty years, I became the head of human resources within Fortune 50 company and in fast-growing publicly traded companies.
I left at the height of my career as head of Human Resources at Vivint Solar to pursue business on my terms. I first led out helping women find their footing—especially those who may have been impacted by divorce or unanticipated life events.
A year later, when the pandemic hit, I was locked in my house and had to re-imagine a business model, and The Job Doctor was born. I realized I could help both men and women reclaim their workplace satisfaction and come to the other side of the corporate fence, showing people how to navigate their careers. Within one year, I have almost 1,000,000 followers across multiple social platforms, and I have made guest appearances on GMA, The Doctors, as well as listed as one of the top entrepreneurs to watch in 2022 by USA Today and Disruptor Magazine.
Tell us something more about The Job Doctor, its mission, and vision.
My goal is to help people get the job, get the pay, and get the confidence they need to pursue the career that brings them fulfillment. Having sat on the company side, I know how people rise or fall in companies, and my goal is to educate about how to win in the workplace and create frictionless growth.
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the HR niche through your expertise in the market.
You always hope you are making a difference, and for me, it’s the 200 emails I get each day from people who are either seeking help or have used my principles to help improve their work-life. Sometimes I get to see up close and personal a client gets the big promotion, or take the step away from work to commit to a living dream in another facet of life. Seeing a former sex trafficking victim find a career is just one example of many that I have.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Technology made my business scalable. I use a CRM, and several plugins, in order to fulfill client rent-my-brain sessions and deliver small group masterclass mentoring. While I thought I would be overbuilding when I first started, the day we turned on my website, I began getting orders. It has allowed me to serve people across the world, not just in my own community.
And social media, especially TikTok, which I had always thought was a forum for teenage pranks and dance-offs have connected me to executives, writers, new college graduates, and so many other individuals who enrich my life and my business.
If given a chance, what change would you like to bring to the HR industry?
I’d like to move from human resources to HUMANE resources, where employees aren’t a cog in the machine but instead a whole person, with needs, emotions, and a life outside of work. When we see employees instead as people, it makes a huge difference.
What, according to you, could be the next big change in HR industry? How is The Job Doctor preparing to be a part of that change?
Businesses are not responding fast enough to the changing needs of today’s workforce. Millennials and Gen Z are not our parent’s generation where long term benefits like pensions or 401k, or life insurance were needed. Today’s workforce cares about mental health, not long-term disability, and variable pay that rewards immediately for performance rather than annual increases.
The employers who respond to the flexibility requirements, a more immediate reward system for excellence, and the pain points around getting basic needs like housing and transportation secured, will have access to previously untapped workers and will win the hearts and minds of the most talented people.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for The Job Doctor?
Some people have just a job. Some have a fulfilling career, and a few lucky others, like myself, have a calling. I want to change people’s lives and create the means to have a good life and provide for their families. I see the realization of a dream to help hundreds of thousands of people through a show similar to Home Makeover, where I take individuals and in 24 hours, do a makeover on their resume and their interview to help them improve their lives.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the business sector?
Even if you don’t know what to do next, do something every single day to create energy. When you take action every single day, it WILL move you forward. You don’t have to see the whole vision at once. You only need to know what the next FIRST step is.
