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Connecting Disciplines: Bridging the Communication Gap
April 26, 2011
Tamela Rich
Although writing was her original passion, Tamela Rich (Weekend Executive MBA ’00) didn’t think she could make a viable career out of it. She got a taste of her dream job in the ‘90s, though. While staying at home to raise her children she was a freelance writer and a columnist for The Charlotte Observer. But when she decided to go back to work full-time, she chose to reenter the world of finance via the insurance business.
She had pursued a finance career because that’s what she knew—she came from a family of insurance professionals. The only problem was that she hated it, she says. The longer she stayed in finance, the further entrenched she became, until she decided to get an MBA at age 37, hoping it would lead to a career change.
“Going to business school at Fuqua opened a portal for me,” says Rich, who lives in Charlotte, NC. “It allowed me to break free from the insurance sector.”
Indeed, at Fuqua she got more than a traditional business education. She also gained practical business writing experience by editing team assignments and by assisting classmates like Rita (Geiger) King who began a software and consulting business before graduation.
“My first real challenge was naming the business,” remembers King (Weekend Executive MBA ’00). “Tamela helped me to brainstorm and we ended up with InfoStrength, which is still in use. She also answered so many questions about marketing materials and communications—she was a natural at making communications simpler and creative.”
Through such experiences, Rich gained the confidence to pursue new ventures. A year after graduating she became Chief Operating Officer of an e-learning company. Then in 2003 she started her own business, Thor Industrial Services, specializing in cleaning industrial sites and in wastewater/pre-treatment operations.
The company folded after about four years, and suffering from a great financial and emotional loss, Rich turned back to what she knew best, but with a twist. She combined her passion for writing with her finance and business expertise when she hung out her shingle as a business writer.
“I figured that I had nothing left to lose and that I might as well start writing again,” Rich says. “I started marketing myself and fortunately, with the rise in social media, there was an increased need for content. I came along at a good time.”
As a one-woman show, she specializes in ghostwriting for financial advisors, accountants, and attorneys. It’s a niche that’s perfectly suited for Rich.
“I don’t love finance enough to spend my career in it, but I know enough about it to put communications in audience-appropriate language. Most people in finance are not really wordsmiths,” she explains. “Being able to communicate is more essential than ever before because of the web, and companies need writers who know their discipline and can pull together a team’s thoughts to create one voice.”
Her ability to translate often complicated information into easily understood messages led to her involvement with another project—a book she’s writing with financial trader Matt Davio. Tradeoffs: Leveraging the Longs & Shorts of Life, should be available in 2013 and focuses on lessons that may be learned from financial traders about making and living with life decisions.
As part of her research for the book, she took part in a cross-country motorcycle trip last summer, only three months after learning how to ride a motorcycle. The ride simultaneously supported the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Interviews with cancer survivors regarding life decisions provided fodder for her book and also prompted her to begin writing Live Full Throttle: Life After Your Cancer Diagnosis, which she plans to self-publish later this year. Rich also chronicled the trip on her blog, and she’s planning a similar trip for this summer.
“Traveling mostly solo across 20 states and 7,500 miles enabled me to re-launch my life,” Rich says. “During the six weeks I was on the road I was still able to keep my clients’ deadlines … being a writer is a great career if you want to lead somewhat of an itinerant lifestyle.”
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