Alexis Grant is executive editor of The Penny Hoarder, which was ranked by the Inc. 500 as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. A member of the company’s three-person executive leadership team, she oversees the editorial side of the company with a focus on strategy and growth.
Alexis’ background is in traditional journalism. She worked as a full-time journalist for U.S. News & World Report and the Houston Chronicle before transitioning to digital publishing. In 2010, she founded Socialexis, a content-marketing firm. The Penny Hoarder acquired that firm in 2015, and since then, Alexis has worked alongside the company’s founder to scale the company from three employees to 79.
Alexis is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, an upstate New York native and lives with her family in St. Petersburg, Florida.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
I lead with gratitude at the forefront, and I think that’s because of values instilled by my parents, my education at a liberal arts school and time spent traveling around the world to places where women simply don’t have as many opportunities as most do here in the U.S.
I constantly find myself feeling grateful at work -- for our full health coverage, for our culture, for the people I get to work with every day. And I’m grateful at home, too -- for my family, our house, our health. I think that comes across in my leadership. It helps me lead with empathy and gives me the strength to make difficult decisions, because I’m committed to making the most of every opportunity.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at The Penny Hoarder?
I worked in journalism for a handful of years -- first at the Houston Chronicle, then at U.S. News & World Report -- and I relied heavily on that experience when building out The Penny Hoarder newsroom. That content experience, combined with my entrepreneurial spirit, makes me uniquely positioned to grow The Penny Hoarder.
When I worked as a reporter, I never would’ve imagined I’d turn into a businesswoman! But I found satisfaction in growing my own business; I like applying my creative genes and execution strengths to the challenge of making money. And this role hits that sweet spot at the intersection of mission-driven media and business. I love that we’re able to help our readers earn and save money so they can do what’s important to them in life while we simultaneously grow a profitable business. Seeing that come together is what makes this job fulfilling.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at The Penny Hoarder?
Highlights: When my content-marketing company was acquired by The Penny Hoarder, scaling our startup from three employees to 79, hitting the Inc. 500 as the fastest-growing private media company in 2016 and again in 2017, and moving my family from Washington, D.C. to St. Petersburg, Florida to work at our headquarters full time. It’s more fun to see my colleagues in person every day!
Challenges: Letting go of an employee for the first time, helping direct reports navigate personality differences and making important decisions for our company after being up all night with my baby. With every stage of growth we face new challenges as a company, but those are all truly good problems to have.
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in the media industry?
The same advice I’d give to any young professional: build relationships. Skills are important, but relationships are more important. And the people you meet early in your career will go on to do bigger things later! Treating your fellow interns with respect will come back to you years down the line when they become directors and vice presidents at media companies.
Build those relationships early. It’s your best career currency.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
Get comfortable with uncertainty. Especially in the fast-moving startup world, I often find myself in situations where I don’t know the answer. If I let myself get stressed out every time that happened, I’d constantly be stressed. Instead, I remind myself that I’m good at figuring things out. I don’t always need to know the answer -- I need to remain confident that I will figure out a smart path forward.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
I’m a relatively new mom, with a toddler and infant. So the answer to this is very different than it was two years ago!
I love productivity hacks, and I’m constantly tweaking my schedule to get the most out of every day. But the truth is, there are never enough hours. I don’t have enough hours to work, I don’t have enough hours to spend with my family, and I certainly don’t have enough hours to sleep. (I’m hoping that last one improves as we exit the baby phase.)
Having children has forced me to recognize that there will never be enough time, that my to-do list will never be complete. Instead, I focus on prioritizing. I’m selective about what I say “yes” to because saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to another. I spend time and energy on things that really move the needle -- both at work and at home -- and let other things slide. I remind myself of Tim Ferriss’ advice: to get big things done, let small bad things happen.
I’m also a fan of creating systems and outsourcing. Often we think of these words in reference to work, but I apply them at home, too. When there’s something my family has to do again and again, I ask myself, is there a system that would make this easier and faster? And when there’s a chore that takes time and energy, I look for opportunities to have someone else do it. One example: We cook at home frequently, but I almost never go to the grocery store. Then I spend those hours with my family or on growing the company.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
I see balancing work with family as one of the biggest challenges for women -- and for men, too! While gender roles are shifting, studies show women still tend to take on more of the household responsibilities, even when both parents work full time. That can be a lot to bear, especially for women who have demanding jobs.
I often find myself jealous of men I encounter in my professional life, wishing I had a stay-at-home spouse to organize doctor’s appointments, make sure we have enough diapers and just generally keep our house in order. (Of course, some women have stay-at-home husbands as well, but I don’t come across that as often.) This isn’t a slight against my husband -- he’s amazing and carries his full share of the weight for our household. But we’re both into our careers, and while we love our children, neither of us wants to stay at home full time right now to care for them. As much as I enjoy watching my kids grow, I find it frustrating that I don’t have the same mental energy to devote to work as I did before having children. Juggling that is a challenge.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
When I was fresh out of journalism school, I got a lucky break: I landed a reporting job in the Washington bureau of a major newspaper, the Houston Chronicle. Back then, the paper had about a dozen correspondents in our nation’s capital, and those reporters shared an office with journalists from other Hearst papers.
Someone interesting sat next to me in the newsroom: Veteran journalist Helen Thomas. Helen’s a legend in the journalism world. She was one of the first women to cover the White House, paving the way for women to play a meaningful role in accountability journalism, which was traditionally a man’s job.
Helen was a real firecracker, even in her late 80s when I found myself in the cubicle next to hers. She often shared her knowledge with young female journalists and was quick to remind us we didn’t need a man to accomplish our goals in life. Not only did she teach me about journalism, she set an example for paying it forward.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
My mom! She and my dad are true partners in life, and I admire how they worked together to raise my siblings and me, aligning on the values they wanted to instill in their kids. My mom was flexible with her career so she could spend time at home with us when we were young, and she somehow managed to get her nursing degree when we were little. To this day, no matter what she has on her plate, she prioritizes volunteering and helping others, so that was a big part of my life growing up: spending time with residents of the local nursing home, making meals to serve through the food bank, supporting a family in need during the holidays.
I follow her example as an adult, looking for my own ways to give back, something that’s not always easy to do while working full time and raising my own family! My husband and I -- and sometimes with the help of our friends and family, too -- support a Cameroonian family each year, covering school fees for a large group of children. It’s a family I met while studying in West Africa during college, and I like that we can give to them directly in a way that makes a big impact on their future earning potential and quality of life. I credit my mom with instilling in me that desire to help others.
What do you want The Penny Hoarder to accomplish in the next year?
We have a lot of growth ahead of us! Our big mission is to help our readers put more money in their pockets, and we have plans to launch a number of innovative content products in the coming year that serve our community.
To do that, we need to hire great people. We’re always looking to fill a number of roles and we need to continue to make our office an amazing place to work so we can attract the right talent.
With that in mind, one big thing I’d like to see us accomplish in 2018 is maintaining our supportive and collaborative workplace culture, even as we grow past the 100-employee mark. We’re also planning to launch a program that helps our employees with financial wellness -- creating and executing a plan that sets them up financially for the future -- which is in line with our company mission. I think that’s the type of perk that matters to employees. Benefits that truly affect our lives make more of a mark than an air-hockey table and beer fridge (though we have those, too!)