Tessa Lee, managing director of adviser fintech support firm Moneyinfo, looks at why building a powerful networking community for women working in finance is a game changer.
Earlier on in my career, I would have loved to meet women doing similar jobs, or facing similar challenges, and to have honest chats about confidence issues, leadership skills or career progression.
Those conversations were hard to find back then, especially outside London, where many assume financial services begins and ends. It took me another 25 years to do something about it.
When Chris Baigent-Reed and I launched the Women in Finance Collective back in March 2025, we wanted to create something rooted in the Midlands, where excellent advisers, Paraplanners, fintech businesses and professional firms do exceptional work every day.
Ironically, networking has never been my favourite thing - people ‘working’ the room, swapping business cards, awkwardly scanning name badges.
But what we had in mind was something more relaxed, focused on honest interactions between people who understand the realities of the profession.
The response has been startling. What began with a small handful of local connections has mushroomed into a community spanning Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire - and beyond - bringing together dozens of women at every stage of their careers.
Most of our get togethers take place over breakfast. There's something about starting the day with a good conversation before everything else crashes in. And women attend for all manner of reasons - some want to make new connections, others are after a fresh perspective and some simply want a break from the routine day-to-day.
It’s important that the topics truly reflect what people genuinely want to talk about. We've spent mornings on confidence, personal brand and career development, and used tools like Motivational Maps to help people better understand what drives them.
We've also been keen to give younger Financial Planners a platform to speak - not just to be mentored - to make sure more experienced professionals understand how the next generation thinks about work and ambition.
One particularly memorable session explored the Caplor House framework. Using the metaphor of a house, it helps people understand their behavioural preferences and communication styles. It sounds dry and abstract until you're in the room, but the conversations it sparked about how we lead and how we work with people who think differently from us were some of the most honest we've had.
There are plenty of opportunities in our profession to learn about products, regulation and technical matters. Important, of course, but we deliberately focus on the things that are harder to find the space for: self-awareness, confidence, leadership and the web of relationships that often or not shape a career way more than any qualification.
The most valuable moments rarely come from a presentation. They come from someone speaking truthfully about a difficulty they've faced, or something they wish they'd known sooner. After the events are over, the conversations continue, with women offering support, making connections and opening doors for one another.
That's what the Women in Finance Collective is: a community that wants women to succeed, where women can learn from each other, support one another and grow in confidence. Along the way, we've had some cracking conversations, made lasting connections - and usually enjoyed a very decent breakfast too!
If that resonates, we'd love to welcome you to a future event. Drop me a line if this is of interest.
Tessa Lee is managing director of Moneyinfo, a fintech firm based in Warwickshire, specialising in client portals and mobile apps for the wealth management industry. She has more than 20 years’ experience working in financial advice and fintech and holds several CII Financial Planning qualifications.