Teresa Wade is an accomplished singer-songwriter turned award-winning sustainability advocate and business advisor. As an entrepreneur, songbird, and solution finder, she has created success in the golf, franchise, nonprofit, sustainability, and music industries.
As a tomboy in Stone Mountain, GA, at the age of 6, she sold her chickens’ eggs each week to friends and neighbors. It was the start of Teresa's college fund and her life as a business woman. She honors the privilege to live her American Dream and reveres the freedom she has as a business owner.
“Entrepreneurship is my passion, my purpose, my path; I am a visionary. But I’m also a strategic thinker and a realist, applying intellect and gut to push or pull ideas to fulfillment, or drag them to the recycle bin. My advice to entrepreneurs . . . exhaust your dreams; something amazing will happen.”
For 15 years, Teresa honed her songwriting skills in Tennessee, as a staff songwriter for Charlie Daniels Music and BMG Music Publishing before releasing her own album. Artists in the US and Europe have recorded her songs. She wrote nine of the 11 songs on her album The Real Thing. “The Kudzu Song,” is autobiographical about her Georgia roots that keep her growing tall. Between her Miss DeKalb County title (1993) and her professional music career, Teresa has performed for causes and events across the southeast US, including NASCAR, listening rooms, festivals, concert halls, as well as three tours in Russia.
As an avid golfer, the sport provided yet another platform to make a difference through entrepreneurship. Teresa founded Experience Green, a nonprofit on Hilton Head Island, SC, and created the first in the US sustainability in golf program. She orchestrated a collaboration with The Sea Pines Resort, RBC, and the RBC Heritage PGA TOUR event that impacted the local golf community and was recognized internationally when Hilton Head Island was awarded the first ever International Sustainable Golf Destination Award 2017.
Teresa is zealous about making a difference for more than just the bottom line. She’s a creator that can write a musical masterpiece with a blank piece of paper and a guitar. But she’s also a strategic developer of projects with a unique flair. As a franchise professional, she helps franchisors connect with the right candidate to become business owners.
She lives the values of CREATIVITY, FREEDOM and SUCCESS, and through all, she strives to inspire others to make a difference too. Outside her passion for business ownership, golf, and music, Teresa loves being a dog parent to Lucy, her Vizsla.
Teresa is a graduate of the University of Georgia. She holds an MBA from Belmont University with a focus in marketing, negotiations, and international business, as well as a Certificate of Graduate Study in Sustainability from Lipscomb University.
