We recently sat down with the wonderful Tessa-Jay Slight, Managing Director and Co-Founder of PR Agency onetwo, to hear about her story and what lead her to starting one of Australia's leading PR agencies.
Tell us a little about yourself in a couple of sentences:
My name is Tessa Jay and I’m one of the Managing Directors at onetwo agency located in Melbourne.
I’m a new first time mother of one. I have a love for fashion, weekends away & reality TV. I’m creative, a control freak and a workaholic.
When and how did your business come about?
I had worked in PR for just over 5 years and it had always been a dream of mine to run my own business. Rachel my business partner was in the same industry and mirrored my dream too so we came together and jumped into it and didn’t look back. Onetwo agency will turn 6 years old this year!
Did you always know you wanted to work in PR?
Not really, I always wanted to be a lawyer! I loved legal & law the most as a subject at school. A slightly different path I went down.
I had a love of fashion and events growing up & went into blogging originally. Through that I met some great people & PR agencies while attending events and working with brands: all the while completing my degree in commerce which had a couple of PR subjects. I was interested from that time however learnt PR is very different ‘in real life’ than studying at university.
What are you most proud of / what has been a highlight of your career?
I’m of course most proud of starting our business onetwo agency and working with amazing brands (such as BIANKO). We focus on building long standing clients, which I feel is a testament to the hard work the whole team puts in to each client and project.
I’m also very proud of all the brands we had listed down when we started as dream clients to work with such as Country Road, Target, Mercedes Benz & Converse to name a few - and our dreams came true & are living them out currently!
Lastly, a career highlight was working on the Forever New campaign to launch the Kendall & Kylie Jenner collection - what a wild ride and working on the events and activity around the campaign as one of the leads on the account was surreal. Anyone knows I’m a huge Kardashian fan 😂
What was the most unexpected challenge?
Learning all the ins and outs of a business. And 100% COVID-19 two to three year period - what a time that was however we all worked together and ‘pivoted’ and came out the other end with our clients standing by us too. It probably falls under the proud category too!
Who inspires you the most?
My fiancé, he is my rock and biggest supporter in everything I do. We work in similar industries so love to bounce ideas off each other. He’s always calm and level headed which helps me 😂 He has been there from the beginning of onetwo and believed in us.
If you could say anything to your younger self, what would it be?
Learn from your mistakes & don’t sweat over the small things. Also the phrase I live ‘everything happens for a reason’ and I still believe that.
What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of starting their own business?
Be prepared to work super hard. Nothing comes easy but it’s totally worth it and if you find something you love doing, it won’t feel like work and your will really enjoy it. 
Discover more:
Tessa-Jay @tesseljay
onetwo Agency: @onetwoagency_
https://www.onetwoagency.com/