Lisa Tretler (WG'99)

Can you please tell us what you do now and where you are based?

My name is Lisa Tretler and I am based in the New York metro area. As for what I do now, I like to say I have a portfolio of things that I am involved in. 

I am a consultant, I am a mentor, and I am an educator. In terms of the consulting world, I have my own business (Business Boosters Consulting) where I work with women entrepreneurs and I help them develop business models and scale later-stage ventures. I love working with students so I do a lot of work advising students on career opportunities. I am currently a strategist in residence at Iona University and an adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Iona University and Columbia university. I am also involved in a number of nonprofits and have two daughters in college, so I recognize the importance of supporting other young people! 

1. What is an average day in the life for you? 

Many people may say this, but no day is the same. I think that is actually intentional for me because I like to fill my day with a number of different things. 

The classes that I have been teaching this semester have been in the evening hours and I generally work with students in the late afternoon. Most of my consulting work happens in the morning. I try to make some time for myself in between to try and see friends or take care of other things. 

The weekends are generally quieter, however, one of the benefits of being my own boss is that I have a chance to dictate what my hours are so they don’t always follow a typical 9-5 schedule. 

2. What do you think has been your proudest moment or greatest accomplishment in your career so far? 

One of my proudest moments was when I came to Wharton as an MBA and also got a dual-degree at the Lauder Institute. I went in with the bare minimum language level and was on the Spanish track. I remember that it was so hard for me to learn the language and I really did not know if I would be able to graduate with that degree because I was having trouble reaching fluency. So, a few months before I graduated, I found every friend of mine that lived in Latin America and asked if I could stay with their families and truly immerse myself. I was able to pass the fluency exam and I just remember feeling so proud because I had worked so hard. 

I also feel like launching a business was a huge accomplishment for me. I actually worked in more traditional consulting: I was a strategist consultant at Accenture and an internal consultant at American Express. It was a very hard decision to move away from that but I was proud that I took that risk to chart my own path. I have actually started two businesses (Business Boosters Consulting and WomInsight)  and a non-profit (The Acceleration Project) since then. 

3. You mentioned you work very closely with women entrepreneurs. If it has, how do you think being a woman has affected your career trajectory or experiences?

I can’t say that it has affected me adversely in any way, but being a woman and being an entrepreneur myself, I very quickly realized that I wanted to mostly support women because I saw that there were no networks to support women and the fact that women have unique needs. Working in big corporations, I have learned about some of the challenges that women face there and believe that the females are a very important demographic that needs more attention. The work that I have engaged in so far has been very rewarding. There have been opportunities to support women in both the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. I have built educational programs to support all types of women entrepreneurs. Each experience has made me more committed to wanting to help women having seen the very specific challenges that women face and that I want to solve problems for. 

4. We would love to hear about what nonprofit work means to you and why do you think it is so important for young individuals to engage in it?
I love to give talks about the topic of “Strategic Volunteerism”. What that means to me is this idea of finding volunteer opportunities that are meaningful to you, but at the same time it’s also okay to get something in return. Specifically, building new skills that you might not otherwise be able to develop. As an example, if you are joining an organization and you are not really a finance person, volunteer to be a treasurer. This is a low risk way of developing skills. Or, volunteer in organizations where you are going to meet a lot of people that you are going to learn a lot from. Volunteering can be a wonderful way of enhancing your skill set, it's almost like another form of education. 

I am a big believer of having a portfolio of things that you are engaged in that can really make you whole and fulfilled, and I think that volunteer work is one way to really fulfill a part of you and feels like you are giving back. 

5. Pivoting to advice, what guidance do you have for our members as they begin exploring internships, careers, and the business world at large? 

I have two big pieces of advice that I wish I had and I have given to my daughters. 

The first piece of advice is to really get to know your professors because they are a wealth of knowledge, they have so much experience, they can connect you with people, and they are such a wonderful part of your education. I would say push yourself to see a professor during office hours to talk about something you found interesting in a lecture, ask them questions, and tell them about some of the things that you are thinking about professionally. 

My second piece of advice has more to do with the career search. I was an undergraduate international relations major at Penn and I remember feeling very much pressured to look at jobs that everyone else was looking for. As a student that aspired to be the best at whatever I could be, it is very easy to be drawn to certain career paths. It’s not that that is a bad thing, I am actually a huge believer in doing consulting work after you graduate, it's such a good learning experience. But where I would give advice is that there are some gem-like companies that are not always the biggest and most well-known but should not be overlooked. Name and size are not always the best guidelines. Sometimes it requires a little bit more digging for those types of smaller companies, but these are amazing opportunities. I would say don’t always listen to the masses and look into more alternative types of opportunities.