How Trisha Addicks Built A National Sorority Recruitment Coaching Brand

Trisha Addicks, CEO and founder of It’s All Greek to Me and author of The Rush BiblΣ, joins The Female Founder to share how years of informal mentoring evolved into a nationally recognized coaching business. What began as helping friends prepare their daughters for sorority recruitment became a mission to empower young women through confidence, communication, and personal growth. By identifying a gap in a niche market, Addicks built a business that has guided thousands of families while redefining what recruitment coaching can look like.

Addicks discusses the importance of validating a business idea through market research, staying focused on a clear niche, and educating customers on a service that previously didn’t exist. She also reflects on scaling beyond a solo operation by building a nationwide team of mentors, establishing trust through storytelling and social media, and expanding her brand through a bestselling book. Her entrepreneurial journey highlights how purpose-driven leadership, strategic focus, and a commitment to long-term impact can transform a simple idea into an industry-defining company.

Join us as we discuss:

•  Turning informal mentoring into a national coaching business 
•  Using market research to validate a niche opportunity 
•  Building confidence and communication skills beyond recruitment 
•  Scaling from a solo founder to a nationwide mentor network 
•  Growing a brand through storytelling and word-of-mouth referrals 
•  Landing a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster and expanding into entertainment 
•  Measuring success through personal growth rather than traditional outcomes 

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Transcript

Welcome And Founder Spotlight

SPEAKER_00 0:07

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick exclusively on ASBN.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Hello everyone and welcome to the Female Founder Show. Today's guest is Trisha Addocks, founder and CEO of It's All Greek to Me and the author of The Rush Bible. What began as just helping a few friends prepare their daughters for sorority recruitment has grown into a company that serves families across the country and helped create an entirely new industry. Today we're talking about entrepreneurship, building trust, and what it takes to turn experience into a successful business. Tricia, welcome to the show. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I

The Aha Moment To Start

SPEAKER_01 0:51

would love to start with from the beginning. So you are helping families. What was the moment that clicked with you when you're just helping families to the moment that you thought you could turn this into a business?

SPEAKER_02 1:04

So I like you said I did it for years for friends, daughters, and it was very informal, very much like, oh hey, I'll help you with your resume or whatever. And then in 2017, I had an aha moment and I was like, I need to do this with the real research because I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything and that I was giving them all the tools. That's what made me start my business.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

So when you were starting the business, um there was nothing else out there like that, correct?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

So well, there were people like who did it in Texas. There used to be a thing, and sometimes people think there still are, they would do packets, like help them put together their resumes with bows on it, and send it into the sorority houses. And there were people who would do a fraction of what we do for schools like in Texas, or maybe a Memphis person would do it for Ole Miss, but there was nobody who was doing everything, taking care of everything soup to nuts from beginning to end, including working on confidence building and communication skills. That was what I created.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

That that is huge because these girls going into college need that probably more than they need recruitment into the sorority, I'm sure, because of all that they go through their first time out away from their parents and their their little bubbles, so to speak, and that that is really a huge, huge help to so many of them, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

And it's it's such a big transition from high school to college, and being able to navigate that is so important, and to have the skills to do that, which also translates into, you know, when you're applying for internships and jobs, you just you need those skills.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah. So I would love to talk about a little bit of the process that's involved. Are you I'm sure you have a team now helping you. Um was there a moment when you realized, okay, I can't do all of this by myself anymore. I need help. What was that moment like?

When Demand Forces You To Hire

SPEAKER_02 3:06

So it was word of mouth for many years, obviously before I started the business, but then for I think four years I did it by myself, and it just got to be too much time-wise, and it's a very stressful week. And so I was work working with the daughters, but then also the parents were calling me at all hours, and since I was doing any school, it was sometimes for two months that I was up all the time working with these clients and their parents, and so I was like, Okay, I need help.

Comparison Culture And A Personal Why

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

So what do you think is the biggest pain point for these young women when they're trying to rush for sorority?

SPEAKER_02 3:48

The biggest pain point I think is the comparison game. And there's social media, they're looking at their friends on social media at other schools, or they're just looking at social media in general and they're comparing themselves, but as we know, social media isn't a clear picture. Right. And so it's really hard to do. And during rush itself, you know, you might hear people screaming, they're so excited, and then you didn't get asked back to a house that you want, so it's really hard to not compare.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

And part of the reason that you started doing this is because you actually had that experience, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:24

I did. I went through rush my freshman year at the University of Georgia, and I did not get in a sorority, and I was devastated. I was in a new state, and my friends that went through rush with me did get in a sorority, and so it was really, really hard. And that's that's the motivation, that's my why, that's why I do this. Yeah, nice. So that doesn't happen to other people.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Very nice, yes. I'm sure you are making a lot of women very happy with that, helping them do that. So I also wanted to talk about um there were the the packets, and people were doing this across the country, but not to the level that you're doing it, really, really hand holding from getting them into the sorority to, like you said, to the confidence and all of that. That really wasn't being done before. You really are a category creator in this sense. And I know what that's like. I did that with my husband with another company of ours, CBT News, which um 13 years ago did there was nothing like it out there. So I know the difficulty of starting a business, but then starting a business that you really have to educate your clients on because they don't know it doesn't exist. Talk to us about that and what that was like.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

So

Passion Research And Trust Building

SPEAKER_02 5:35

it was really important to me that people understand when you're starting a business, first off, you have to have the passion. You have to have, like I just said, the why. If I hadn't had the why, I mean it's a lot of work and it's daunting, but I really believe that anybody who wants to start a business, if they have a passion and an idea, there are the tools out there to research and figure out how to do it. So that's the important thing is to do your research, in my opinion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Was there ever a time when you felt like you were you wanted to quit? Multiple.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yes, I mean, like I said, it's a very emotionally charged thing. And parents, this is the first time that they don't have control over their daughter's actions and what's happening to them, and a lot of times it's the first time that they're not physically with their kids, and so with that comes a lot of angst, and and that's hard to be in charge of that basically for their daughters, yeah. And this I'm I'm the I'm the person that they're turning to when they're having the stress.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Right, and and you probably do take somewhat of a mother role with these young women, I'm sure, too. So and they they realize that, so like, okay, you've got this, you've got them, right? Right, exactly. No pressure, right? No, none at all. So

Social Media That You Control

SPEAKER_01 7:05

you're talking about social media with the girls, but um, you have a strong social media presence as well. Talk to us about how that's helped your business.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Well, I think social media is everything now, and I do have people who we when they become our clients, they're like, Well, we don't let our daughter have Instagram in our house. And I think for anything, social media is what you make of it, and you have complete control over what is on your social media. So it's a really important tool, and one that I use to make sure that people understand my motivation and understand where we're going with this.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, for sure. Are there any other tools specifically that you use to help your business grow?

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Well, still word of mouth, yeah, social media, and I really think it's important to talk to people one-on-one as much as possible. I think everything is about connections.

unknown 8:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

And so connecting with people all over and just talking to people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Now,

The Rush Bible For Everyone

SPEAKER_01 8:09

because you were really the original, and you have become an authority in this space, so you have written the Rush Bible. Let's talk about that. What do you want your, what are your readers getting from the Rush Bible?

SPEAKER_02 8:23

So our business is expensive. Our services are expensive, it's a lot of hours. And I want people to get what we provide to our clients for the price of a book instead of so I want it to be available for everyone. And what readers will get from this book is not only exactly what recruitment is, exactly what they need to be doing, but also give them a chance to reflect on what makes them unique so then they can prepare they can show that when they go through Rush.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

For sure. And you were published by Simon and Schuster. I mean, what a powerhouse. Yes. Talk to us about that experience. I'm sure that has really helped get this out even, you know, everything.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Yeah, so it's really, it's really cool. I had an agent who was not the right agent for me for a while, and he said, You should write a book about life lessons. And while there are a ton of life lessons in there, that was not that was not the route. So I got a different agent, and she said, write what you know. You're the expert, you're the one who can write this book. So I did that, and when I when she took it out to publishers, all the major publishers bid on it. It was a bidding war, it was an auction. And I think the lesson from that is, and what I tell people who also want to write books, is write what you know and stay in your lane. Don't go too broad. Because, like I said, there are life lessons in there. But when I leaned into what I was an expert in, that's what really resonated with these publishers. And you know, I would Simon Schuster is a dream come true. Yeah. You know, there it's just and they've been so supportive and they they really like the book. Good, good.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Congratulations, thank you. That was really exciting. I know it's turned into even more than that. You've been on Inside Edition, you've been on Fox and Friends, and so many, so many others. Talk to us about that process and what that's been like.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

So it's all a learning, it's it's so cool to be my age and having these experiences. I'm on, you know, I'm made cover Wall Street Journal, you know, all this cool stuff that's happening that I could have never imagined when I was just helping daughters go through Rush. But it's also super cool. I'm learning something every single day that you know I would have never thought that this would be my world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

And now you get to spread that the message of what you do to help people. Talk to us about what your team looks like. Do you have and it's not just you anymore, do you have other as it do you call them coaches or counselors?

SPEAKER_02 11:03

So, yes, I have uh two co-directors that run my company, it's all Greek to me, and then we have it varies based on um the year, and but around 28, who I call mentors who work directly with the clients, and the mentors are between the ages of 23 and 30, and they were very active in their sororities andor panolinic on their councils uh on their campus. So they are the ones who work directly with the clients.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

That's great, that is really great.

A Series Deal And Staying In Your Lane

SPEAKER_01 11:34

I would love to talk about um some other exciting news that you have coming out, and well, it's been talked about, but you have a series coming out. I do. Talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

So that was another cool thing. So um my book was purchased, the media rights to my book were purchased, and we are doing a fiction, so it's not it's not a reality show based on my book and the stories that are in there. There's some really good stories, but there are also a lot of stories that aren't in the book. And yes, so Legendary Entertainment and Eva Longoria's company Hyphenate bought the media rights to my book, and we're working on a series.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Do you have a time when that's gonna be coming out?

SPEAKER_02 12:16

I'm not sure. We're still working with uh finding a writer, and then we'll attach some actresses and actors, and so the timeline is just when it's right, but we're working on it actively now.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah. Well, congratulations. That's really exciting. Lots of really great things going on in your world. Um, I would love to know um what if you have any advice for someone that might be thinking about starting a business.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

I think the biggest advice is research and make sure that you know, very much like writing my book and staying narrow, making sure that you know what only you know. And I feel like that's really important to not go too broad with it.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, that's a good message that you've mentioned twice now. So you are very passionate about that. And I I agree with that. You can spread yourself so thin that the audience gets kind of watered down.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

So I think I think it's yeah, I think it sometimes you spread yourself too, you're good at a lot of things, not you, but just people are good at a lot of things, so they don't really know how to narrow it. And I think that is that was the secret to my success, and it's also really important because you can't do everything well.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, right, right. So you are extremely busy, and I know the topic of work-life balance is sometimes people f frown upon that because there really is is no balance. But do you have any morning routines or anything that is non-negotiable in your day that you that you like to to do?

SPEAKER_02 13:50

That's a good question. Um, I do. I walk every single day, and it's kind of a funny thing with my husband. He's like, Do you want me to walk with you? I'm like, No. At that time, yeah, and I mean it could be raining, sleeting, snowing. I am walking outside. And so many health benefits, not only it's it's definitely for health, but it's way more for my mental health. And that, like you said, that's a non-negotiable and everybody knows it.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

That's great. And so is it a certain time of day, every day, or just whenever you can?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Whenever I can get it, but I have a certain distance that I have to walk every single day.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Okay. Yeah. That's good because sometimes in the morning it's it's impossible to get you know a walk-in or a workout or meditation or whatever someone does. So it's good to not that put that pressure on yourself. You're gonna walk right at some point during the day, you're gonna get it in. But no, I'm gonna get it in.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

And I recommend in my book, and I have a meditation for during rush, but I personally am like, okay, I don't have time to meditate. And I probably would if I made that a priority, but yeah, right, right, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

So you talked about some stories that are gonna be kind of talked about in the series and that that you have in your book.

The Confidence Win That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Is there a story that you can share with us um here today that kind of sticks out or comes to mind, or could be a success story or one that so this is ironically, um I wouldn't have a business if this worked were every client, but I had a client who I worked with.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Her family was very involved in Greek life when they were in college, her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and I started working with her, and she was gonna go through rush at um you know in the fall, and I was working with her in the summer, and she came to me and she said, I have decided I don't want to go through rush. This is not what I want. I want to be involved in the theater and my school. And she said, the fact that I have the confidence to say that is because I worked with you preparing for rush. And that is probably my biggest success story, which again, a little ironic. I wouldn't have a business if all my clients felt like that. But and the parents were like, Wow, okay, yeah, this is what makes her her. And so they were super excited to have paid me the money to prepare her for rush, and she didn't go through rush.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

That's a huge testament to what you're doing for these young women every day.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

I I think, and that is that's all I'm trying to do. I mean, I always say, I'm not sitting here with a bow in my hair saying, Oh, everybody should be in the sorority. Right. I feel like you should have the tools to do whatever you want. If you want to be on the equestrian team, then you should have the coaches to do that and the tools to do it. But it's all about however you want to do it, but finding your people. So she found her people in the theater.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

So that's great. That's all that matters. Yeah, you're helping them figure out if they even want to be in a sorority, which is huge because if they do just go through the motions because their parents did or whatever, they can't their sister, whatever, they're you know. Um, I that's so huge. So good work. So too. Thanks. Yes. Well, thank

Final Thoughts And Invitation

SPEAKER_01 16:59

you so much for joining us today. This has been such a pleasure, and congratulations on all your success and all the exciting things that are going on in your world right now.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

You too, and thank you for having me. This is such a treat. I love that I'm a female founder. Yes, you are.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Thank you so much. Thank you. This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur, Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN. If you're a female founder and would like to help other female founders with your inspiring story, we would love to hear from you.