Boss Money: Trenna Probert, Founder & CEO, Super Fierce & Fierce Impact
With close to half a century on the planet, Trenna understands why finance matters and how to harness its power for good. She is a tireless innovator and experienced entrepreneur, passionate about people and fluent in finance. Trenna has designed institutional investments; run strategy for a global private bank; been GM for an independent advice business; worked with global CEOs at Amex; and spent more than a decade as an entrepreneur, founding three highly successful businesses in the past 15 years.
Those experiences, together with her personal story as a single mother who started life again at 34, fire her passion for arming women with the financial confidence and tools they need. Vivacious, bright and fiercely determined, Trenna left her last corporate gig as Head of Strategy APAC for Macquarie Private Bank to focus on building social enterprises which will bring her vision to life.
Super Fierce is a social enterprise that links deep financial smarts with her heart-fuelled mission to empower Australians to age with dignity, and women to control their financial future.
Can you tell me more about Super Fierce?
Super Fierce is a social enterprise purpose-built to empower women financially.
Women represent half the world’s population, control 40% of the world’s wealth and their earning power is growing 2.3% faster per annum than men. But today we still have a $30 trillion-dollar global gender wealth gap. It is closing, but not fast enough. Traditional financial services haven’t stepped in to meet this opportunity. Other than some pink-washing here and there, most products, services and delivery mechanisms are designed by men, for men. However, women’s needs are different. Our wealth building trajectory is not linear and our approach, goals, risk appetite and needs are not homogenous. Women need a purpose-built solution. And they’ve started to demand it. Financial education is important, but alone it's not enough to close the gap. It also won’t satisfy these increasingly savvy and self-determined women for long.
So at Super Fierce we're giving women more. We’re not just closing the gap. We’re building a personal wealth platform which will make it easy for women to get financially fit. For life. Not settling for incremental change, but empowering them to build, grow and protect wealth. On their terms. We've started by making it easy to save on super - the average savings for an Australian woman in pointless super fees is over $100,000! So today our customers are able to go to our website, answer some questions and they receive a free digital report which shows them how much they have in super, how much they are on track to retire with, and how much they can save on fees if they move into a lower cost fund in a range of different investment categories. If they need our help to make a change, we charge an implementation fee which they can pay by card or from super. And if they do, we donate $100 of that one-time fee to our philanthropic soul sister, Super Fierce, to help Australian women in need.
We're excited by the impact we're already making - so far we have saved our customers more than $21million in fees! But we won't stop there. We're working on the development of new features and products in the other key pillars of wealth creation, so that women can learn and take action in one convenient digital platform - it will be like having a digital coach in your pocket making it easy to make good financial decisions. Ultimately, our goal is to make appropriate, affordable advice accessible to every Australian woman.
What personally inspired you to start Super Fierce?
I've always been a creator and a builder, even when I worked in other people's businesses. Invariably my role was finding creative solutions to abstract problems; I was bold, tenacious and unconventional. So I got results - fast! - but I wasn't good at fitting in. It turns out the reasons I didn't, are the reasons I'm a natural entrepreneur.
Originally I think I started my own businesses because I had so many ideas and so much energy bubbling out of me. I couldn't resist!
Super Fierce is totally different. In the past I couldn't resist - now I feel I have no choice. I know this is what I am here to do. Everything else has just been a training ground and a reason to care. Despite a successful career in financial services, at the age of 34 I had to borrow money from my parents to start life again as a single Mum to a gorgeous little boy. I learned the hard way the importance of self-confidence and financial independence for women. With decades of experience as a finance executive, and a heart filled with hope, I am determined that other women won't have to make the same mistakes I did.
That's where Super Fierce comes in. We make it easy for women to get financially fit for life, so they have the power of choice.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
You don't need all the answers - not when you start, on the way though or even at the end! You just need curiosity, a hunger to solve a problem for your customers, willingness to try and fail, the humility to learn, courage to keep striving and a passionate heart to wake you up each morning excited about what might be possible. The old adage is true - It's not about the destination, it's the experiences on the journey that matter. So don't forget to be present, make time for joy, and celebrate every little win.
What's the biggest business money lesson you've learned since starting your business?
Make sure you get paid! Revenue matters and so does being able to pay your bills. You didn't go into business to starve or beg for money. Right? So, if you want your business to be more than a hobby and become your livelihood, you need to get the cash flowing in the right direction. To you! If you don't like icky money discussions, build processes which reduce the need for them, choose values aligned partners with skin in the game, and pay attention to the numbers on the way through. You've got this!
What's been your biggest financial win as a business owner?
I mentioned before the importance of celebrating every little win, and that's how I need to answer this question. That's because at different stages of business growth, different things can be HUGE. These are the most important ones for me - from different businesses at different stages of my entrepreneurial journey ...
1) Talking my way into a redundancy to fund my first business - that was a major victory!
2) Getting paid a silly amount of money for something super easy for me which I loved
3) Exiting a business I no longer loved with a big chunk of cash in hand
4) Bootstrapping a disruptive fintech, switching on revenue, and now being able to pay myself. Yep - that's the most recent win!
What kind of legacy do you wish to create with your business and why?
Super Fierce is a digital financial advice platform combining heart and smarts to close the $30 trillion gender wealth gap. My legacy will be a world where gender equality is a no longer a dream because women will have equal financial power.
What does your business empower you to do?
Dream big, live large and change the world. My way. With sparkles and joy. I'm a confetti loving feminist!
Who's in your 'A Team' ?
There is a persistent (and annoying voice) in my head and heart which pushes me forward every single day. She's in charge!
Backing her up is my comrade in life and business, my husband who believed in me long before I even dared to dream that I could. He's also a massive pain in my arse, and I drive him crazy chasing the stars, but we make each other better and somehow it works.
Rounding out the A team is my amazing business partner who helps me to solve any problem with ease, and patiently strives to bring my crazy dreams to life with technology, whilst keeping me grounded with humour and occasional big doses of reality. I also have the most incredible young woman who asks me every morning "How can I help?" Within a week of starting at Super Fierce I told her she would be CEO in 6 years. Nothing so far has changed my mind. Nothing is too hard, she makes me laugh, my big dreams don't scare her and she hangs on with delight as we strive to change the world.
I also have two coaches - both Julies! - who help me with different things. In my mind they have a special t-shirt which says "CEO Shrink". That sums it up nicely. And as if that's not enough, I have an extraordinary, deep network of amazing colleagues, experts, advisers, big hearted change-makers and friends who always cheer me on, and will step up to help whenever I might ask, and know to turn up and offer when I don't. I really am truly blessed. Thanks for asking that question! It made me stop, think and now rejoice in that quiet realisation.
What advice would you give to another lady hoping to start her own business?
Surround yourself with people who will lift you up and push you forward - understand they may not be the same people who did that for you before you started entrepreneurial journey. Not many people will be able to understand, and their fear for you could hold you back. It can be hard and feel like a betrayal, but let them continue in their old roles in your life. Let the right people for this part of you bubble up and stick to you. Because when you start to believe that you can, you should and you will, they will be attracted to you.
Until then ... just get started. Everything else will come.
And finally, What are you looking forward to right now?
Covid has separated me from my husband and 3 of our 4 kids for 4 months now and we have a couple more to go - we think! I'm looking forward to the borders opening. I'll race into my husband's arms, put the top down and sing wildly with the kids in the car, and invite everyone over for laughter, tears, stories, joyous reunion and ... bubbles. I always look forward to bubbles. But most importantly, I look forward to what that signifies - moving forward with our lives with hope, greater perspective and gratitude. I believe that's what we all need right now.
If you haven’t done a health check on your superfund, then you must check out Superfierce. You can also follow their pages on instagram @besuperfierce, facebook and linkedin. If, like me, you’ve been girl-crushing on Trenna and want to get know her better then connect with her on linkedin or on instagram @trennaprobert_