Founder and managing partner of TEAM Education Consulting Company, Tess Robinson, knows a thing or two about how to help students and families access fantastic educational opportunities abroad. She has been assisting students in preparing for and applying to colleges and universities in the U.S since 1998 and she has quite the list of impressive student admissions including, Harvard Business School, Wharton School of Business, UC Berkeley and UCLA. In this episode, she shares part of her entrepreneurial journey, tips and wisdom for setting students up for future success as well as some of her experiences balancing life abroad as a longtime expat, business owner and mama of three boys.

I believe that education is the right of every child.

Show Notes

How she got to China

Tess came at the request of her husband. Thankfully, she’s pretty adventurous and so was excited about the possibility of living here. Tess says it wasn’t always fantastic in the beginning, but after 10 years, there’s obviously a love to China that’s holding them here.

Her current project

Tess is an educational counselor. Her job is to help families properly evaluate the educational landscape, understand/acknowledge their goals, evaluate their child realistically and help set a path to success for the child. Her counselors at TEAM Education Consulting supports families by teaching them about the different school systems and schools, colleges and universities and help them evaluate their choices with a goal of making the best FIT choices for the child.

Failure moment

I love Tess’ take on failure. In her business, she says that she, “can’t afford to fail.” There’s simply too much at stake when a child’s future is put into your hands. We dove then into a conversation about how to help mitigate failure in your own business and I know it helped me immensely in mine. Tune in to hear for yourself!

Lessons learned along the way

• To learn how to do business in China, empty your mind of everything you think you know and go with the flow.
• Recruiting is hard when your business structure always put your clients above the bottom line; but when you find the right people, their passion and enthusiasm for the mission will match yours.
• Get advice from experts instead of seeking anecdotal advice.
• Plan for long-term survival; put down roots and do things the right way.

Tess’ tips for balancing life

With a very busy schedule, I needed to ask Tess how in the world she balances everything. Her first tip is to establish your goals and prioritize them monthly and daily. The day is only so long so you need to make sure you’re able to schedule in time for everything that’s important to you. (Tess also doesn’t need loads of sleep so that helps!) Secondly, definitely find something that energizes you instead of drains you! And she takes a half day of each week for herself.

Episode Links

• TEAM Education Consulting
• Yew Chung International School
• Community Center Shanghai
• Mr. China, by Tim Clissold
• Execution, by Larry Bossidy
• 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, By Stephen Covey

Connect to Tess

Email: tess@teameduconsult.com
Facebook: teameducationconsult
WeChat: teameducationconsult
Linkedin Tess Robinson

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