Her Story
About Rhea
I have over 10 years of experience in communications and editing. I was an editor at a public policy research organization for the last 6 years, and before that I was doing freelance journalism. I also worked as an editor and writing instructor for youth in Ward 7 and 8 of DC to get them published and give them a greater chance of getting into college. Before that, I worked for the National Park Service. My favorite achievement in my career was when I worked at the National Park Service as a Public Health Fellow. Me and a team of like five other ladies and our videographer Matthew traveled to different states throughout the U.S. that had different national park sites to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of the first Africans being brought to America. We developed this beautiful 4-minute video that took 7 months to film, edit, and create, and I wrote the comprehensive reference guide for it because the video is very aesthetically pleasing but there's a lot more context to why we picked the audio we picked and the people in certain scenes at certain locations. It serves as an evergreen educational piece and exists on the National Park Service website. That's my go-to writing sample for anyone that ever needs to see a writing sample. I recently launched Warren's Workshop, my editing, writing, and strategic communications practice, and I'm building it from scratch.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rhea
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my faith in God, the support of my family, and the support of my community. I also credit trusting myself and maintaining self-love for myself. While starting this business, I've had some meetings with potential male clients specifically that either have tried to cross boundaries or were condescending. I think it's important to not allow lines to be blurred and to stand firm on your ground and what you bring to the table, and not let anyone take that away from you.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is don't be afraid to fail. I think it's like, you know, what if I'm taking a leap and what if I fall? But it's like, what if you fly? I don't want to sound cliche, but that's how I've been living my life right now, just walking on faith and instead of consistently being anxious about failing, having the faith that I'm gonna fly.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say, becoming an entrepreneur, not allowing people to condescend you or insult your authority, insult your intelligence, your experience, your education, how far you've come. Stand firm as a woman that you don't have to shrink yourself to make a man feel better. Don't shrink yourself ever, for anyone. You're a flower, you're meant to bloom.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In terms of opportunities, I think people need help constructing their work. If you're an author and you're too close to your work, you'll tend to overlook mistakes. Someone that has fresh eyes looking at something can assist you with making it the best product it can be. From my years as an editor, I've seen amazing writers and amazing scholars who, because they're so close to their work, needed someone else to critique it and just make it perfect. You kind of miss points, or points don't connect, or there are typos or words that are just clunky. In terms of challenges, for me right now it's retaining clients. This is all brand new right now, so a lot of it is just networking and writing contracts and seeing who's agreeable on pricing, negotiating pricing. Just launching it from scratch, from off the ground.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me in my work and personal life are honesty, loyalty, effort, persistence, and authenticity.
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