Thomas Ritchie is a storyteller at heart. As a child, like many of us, he idolized his grandfather and wanted to be a farmer but ended up far from it. When college came around he studied mass communication at Mount Marty in Yankton South Dakota. He then worked in journalism for 25 years and worked in news rooms. He worked a very interesting job for these years and he spoke of some of his most interesting news stories he had to write about. One was a visit to a nursing home where he needed to interview a centenarian. When Richie asked the man what the secret to his longevity was, the man answered, “smoking cigars and having lots of sex.” He has even been in the same room with most presidential candidates during his time as a journalist.

Now Ritchie works in corporate marketing, not the sexiest sounding job out there. To describe his role he said he is a “strategic digital marketing generalist.” His day to day is a hybrid style where he has the ability to work a few days in the office and a few days at home. When he first started his job and asked about working a few days from home they thought he was crazy. Now post pandemic Ritchie got what he hoped for as people worked from home for one and a half years and businesses got the picture of what it would look like for their employees to be hybrid. 

Ritchies corporation is the Great West Casualty Company which is a trucking insurance company. His role in the company as a strategic digital marketing generalist is to create things to drive people to their website or call to buy their insurance. He says that it’s a “big climb to get people to the website.” This is where his skills in storytelling come in. He must compel others through writing to use the insurance they are selling. 

Journalism is just not the same anymore there is not as much opportunity in it as there is in marketing. This is why Ritchie finds himself where he is now as a journalist turned marker. Currently Ritchie would choose marketing over journalism because journalism not the same anymore. Journalism is now consumed by the media and there are a million biased voices speaking. Media is more opinion based now. Media used to be more for communication now there is so much more wavering away from just the facts and observations. Because of this Ritchie said that “Media consumption is very splintered.”

After Ritchies many years of experience in the workforce and given his perspective, he gives us these inspiring words of parting advice. He says to learn to be really good at one thing first then develop skills around that. Also take risks, learn how to use social media well and finally, be confident in what you do.