Changing The Game with Wilson Casado - Tracie Clark

I could probably make an entirely separate article from this one just to list Tracie Clark’s accomplishments, she’s an entrepreneur who’s had two extremely successful businesses, a board member and advisor, an investment professional and so much more.

Born in Perth and raised in New Zealand, Tracie started out her career in accounting, though always making her own investments here and there, and as it tends to happen, her side hustle became her main gig and the way she found to completely change the game.

Today Tracie is self-employed and provides financial advice to several enterprises, all the while being the vice chair of Perth Angels, a committee member for the WA Cancer Council, all of which made her a blast to have on the Changing the Game Podcast

Unusual Places, Familiar Faces

Going back to the start of her career Tacie recalled that her interest in economics began when she was young, when she would visit her auntie who, despite the fact they lived in a small rural community, would take the time to teach her about the stock market.

Now, if the idea of someone learning about the stock market in farm in New Zealand is not interesting by itself, we also have an element that has been present on the podcast since day one, which is the role of outside influences.

As we grow up we don’t really know that much about the world, which is why any conversation with more experienced people tend to have a huge influence on the path we pick far ahead.

So, whenever we are talking to younger people, or from the position of someone senior, it’s always a good idea to take into account the ripple our words may produce in their life.

The Turning Point

Fast forwarding to the end of Tracie’s period in accounting, I asked her about what the trigger for this switch in her career path, which she attributed to a “unfortunate situation” where an offer to become a partner of her company was pulled due to her being pregnant.

The reason given by the company for pulling the offer, according to Tracie, was that they “weren’t sure if she could cope” with being a partner and a mother, well, it turns out she could, as she then went on to found her first business when her daughter was just six weeks old.

So, not only was she doing the same job “with the added stresses of owning your own business”, but she did it while looking after her new born, and managed to make quite a life for herself.

Sometimes you will knock on a door and it won’t open, and that’s okay, but other times it will be slammed in your face for unfair reasons, and if that happens, being able to prove the people slammed it wrong like Tracie did can be not only beneficial, but quite satisfactory.

Choosing An Investment

In case you’re unfamilar, Perth Angels is a community of business people that prospects up and coming enterprises to invest in, and Tracie, as you already know, is part of their board with myself, so I asked her what were her parameters for choosing these businesses.

Firstly, she listed market values such as whether they have a product which customers would be interested in, if there is a market for it, if the customers are willing to pay for what is being sold and so on.

Then, she listed a much more human factor: The team. That is, if they are personally invested in the business, if they have a good notion of the market and how to run a business, and if they are aware of the missing skills that need to be filled.

Burnout

Despite the fact that Tracie already has seventeen successful investments under her belt, there have also been two companies that didn’t pull through despite angelic intervention, and according her, one of them fell primarily because of “founder burnout”.

In other words, the companies founder was adding more responsabilities to an already exhausting role, straining herself beyond the point of productivity, by trying to do too much, she was doing too little.

This burnout, mixed with the fact that some of the capital investments made by the company didn’t have the expected return, which made the angels work towards a position where it could be sold, though at a lower price than the ideal.

Diversity in Entrepreneurship

Within Perth Angels, Tracie is also a part of Scale Investing, a group solely dedicated to investing in enterprises founded and led by women, and she tells me that “over 50% of my investment portfolio is female founders”.

Not only that, as she explains, Perth Angels made a point to evenly divide their investiments for last year in 50/50 between men and women. Something I am also very proud of.

Tracie also had a suggestion for any young women that are looking to change the game themselves and become business owners, saying that:

“There are so many resources out there now, some really good accelerator programs, incubators where you can go and apply to get some ideas, financial support as well, some government grants which are supporting female businesses.”

So, her main advice is that if you are a young girl with a business idea you’d like to develop, her main advice is that you take advantage of all the resources that are at your disposal, from workshops, to grants, to seminars and so on.

Conclusion

When it comes to changing the game there are many ways to go about it, you can help entire groups of people through activism, individual people through charity, or you can help businesses through investing as Tracie does.

What makes this particular way to change the game so important is that it gives you a bit of both spheres, you are helping the individual by empowering them to build a space for themselves, and you are helping the group by giving them a welcoming place in the market.