Richelle Smith on Finding Common Ground in our Differences

“You may feel different, but you’re really not that different,” Richelle said.

If you ask Richelle Smith, a Senior Manager of Training at Bridgecrest, what makes her different, she might mention her passion for Stars War and Marvel, her role as a drummer in a lesbian band that recently celebrated 20 years together, or that she is an audio engineer on the side. What she’s found over the years, though, is that these layers of “differences” are what help her find commonalities with others.

“These kinds of things give me an opportunity to make connections while also expressing the fact that we’re all different,” she said.

October marks Global Diversity Awareness Month, an opportunity to not only celebrate different cultures and ethnicities, but also the invisible things that make each person who they are. For Richelle, she knew early on that she was different from her friends, but it wasn’t until she turned 18 that she could put her finger on why she felt so different.

Born with Music in Her Bones

Richelle, who grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, was born with musical talent. From the time she could walk, she gravitated toward the drums, a passion that came as no surprise to her mother considering musicality runs in the family.

“My mom actually was a singer,” Richelle said. “She sang before I was born until I started school and then she kind of dialed it back and was only focused on local bands. My mom says that I used to stand in between the drummer’s legs while they had band practice in the basement. So, I just grew up with music.”

It wasn’t until middle school that Richelle embraced her love for music by joining the school band. While drums are her instrument of choice, she also plays bass, guitar, piano and sings.

“Drums has been the one that has always called to me,” she said.

However, high school brought its own set of challenges. Despite her love for music, she chose not to join the band. “I was already different enough,” she said. “I did not want to be any more different. I just wanted to get through high school unscathed.”

It was around this time she started noticing she felt different from her friends. While she dated boys in high school, she often found herself hesitant to commit.

“I was the one that was most likely to break up with my boyfriend when he wanted to get serious,” she recalls.

Shortly after high school, everything clicked, and Richelle realized she was gay. She pulled her mom aside to share her truth, and as she puts it, “That was pretty much it. Everybody in my family pretty much already knew. I was very blessed. It was an easy coming out for the most part. I mean, you always have a couple of those relatives that don’t understand or that are confused.”

From there, Richelle attended the University of Cincinnati for English but ended up moving out to Arizona after her mom moved to the desert. After spending almost half her life here, she can’t imagine ever moving away.

“At this point, I consider myself a desert rat,” she said.

Sandwiches, Coffee, and Automobiles

In 2012, Richelle completed a Master of Audio Engineering degree at the Conservatory for Recording Arts and Sciences. And she currently works at the Musical Instrument Museum running sound for some of the signature events on the weekends.

Most of Richelle’s professional background, though, is in food management and training. Her first job after moving to the valley was at Cheba Hut, where she may have developed a sandwich or two.

She did that for about 5 years and then she worked at Starbucks for 9 years. It was at this point that she was looking for a change and heard from a friend that Bridgecrest was a great company to work for.

“Having come from Starbucks, which is a wonderful company to work for, I wanted something that was equally great,” she said.

In February of 2016, Richelle joined the company as a Total Loss Advisor. She was quickly promoted to a team lead and over the years has worked in remarketing, impounds, and skip recovery before landing in her current role.

“I officially onboard all of the external new hires for the loss mitigation teams here in Mesa,” she said. “But what’s really cool is loss mitigation didn’t have a formalized onboarding process and needed some updated training materials. So, since joining the team last year, we’ve started building updated trainings for these teams and now we have this great onboarding experience that creates this wonderful camaraderie across all the departments that I really love. I’m really happy to be a part of that and help our new hires come in and feel like they’re part of something bigger than just the department.”

Embracing Authenticity

To those that know Richelle now know her as being unapologetically herself, but looking back over the years, it hasn’t always been that way. Even though there were prominent figures like Ellen DeGeneres and Melissa Etheridge publicly coming out back then, it was still a struggle at times to take a stand, especially for Richelle who outwardly presents herself differently than traditional heteronormative women.

“The 90s was a very different time,” she said. “There were definitely times that I was afraid of being myself, but I never changed who I was.”

For those who may be facing similar struggles, Richelle encourages seeking out supportive communities, reminding them that there are allies and friends waiting to stand up with them.

“You may find that you have friends that you didn’t even know you had because they also want to stand up with you,” she said. “Sometimes living your honest truth also means that you have to be patient with others to catch up to you.”

When it comes to being different, though, Richelle finds it’s in those differences that people find their common ground.

“Global diversity is about accepting who you are and knowing that we’re all in it together. I always make the joke with my new hires that it takes a village and what I love about this company is we are a village. I don’t want to look around and see me in every seat that’s out there — that’s boring. I want to see all of the differences because every single person brings something new and unique. We’re all bringing different things and I love that.”