Embrace the Side Quest: Rita Richa on Finding the Right Room
- S1E8
- 49:50
- June 5th 2026
Rita Richa grew up performing. At four she was auditioning for commercials. In pre-K her teacher told her mom she would be on radio someday. In freshman year she stood up in English class, told everyone she was going to be Oprah, and the whole class laughed.
Life had other plans. She ended up in automotive sales, then at Tesla, working long hours in a culture where going to the ER from burnout was a rite of passage. She would walk through the service shop singing Belle from Beauty and the Beast and get in trouble for it. Then she watched Moana on the couch, started sobbing, and finally understood why nothing had been working.
What followed were years of side quests — spray tans that went wrong, a floor lamp from Walmart standing in for studio lighting, a podcast agency that should not have hired her. All of it was training she did not know she was getting. All of it became Reignite Media, Bippity Boppity Business, and a career built entirely on the things she was told were detours.
This is Episode 8 of Loving the Journey, and it is one I keep thinking about.
Guest: Rita Richa | Host of Bippity Boppity Business | Founder, Reignite Media
About Rita Richa:
Rita Richa is the founder of Reignite Media, a podcast consulting business helping podcasters get better and grow bigger. She is the host of Bippity Boppity Business, a podcast that uses Disney storytelling as a lens for exploring entrepreneurship and business principles.
Rita also serves as a contracted host for Lenovo's Work Reborn podcast, produced by Be the Stage, where she interviews leaders at conferences and events about work, technology, and the future of business. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Rita's story is one of childhood creativity, unexpected detours, and eventually finding the right room.
5 Things You Will Learn:
1. Why your side quests are not distractions but the ingredients of your story
2. How to recognize when you are in the wrong room and what it costs to stay
3. The moment a Disney movie made Rita sob and changed the direction of her life
4. How saying yes when you are completely unqualified can open the door to your calling
5. Why you are not just someone with a voice, you are needed
Timestamps:
* [0:01] Welcome and introduction — Rita Richa, founder of Reignite Media and host of Bippity Boppity Business
* [2:55] Childhood creativity, theater, and a pre-K teacher's early prediction
* [7:00] The high school Oprah dream, the lost college fund, and pivoting fast
* [12:28] A toxic work culture, a panic attack, and the Tesla turning point
* [16:41] The Moana moment that cracked everything open
* [31:32] How podcasting accidentally became a business
* [45:10] "Embrace the side quest. Yes is the side quest."
Connect with Rita Richa:
- Website: BippityBoppityBiz.com
- Podcast: Bippity Boppity Business
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ritaricha
Ready to grow your influence?
Take the free Influence Scorecard and find out where your message is landing and where it is leaking: www.365businessmaker.com/scorecard
About the Host:
- Learn more about Donna Kunde: www.donnakunde.com/llm
Loving the Journey with Donna Kunde
Every voice you hear on a podcast belongs to someone who decided to keep going — even when it was hard, even when the downloads were low, even when they wondered if any of it was worth it.
Loving the Journey goes behind the microphone to hear those stories. The early days. The near-quits. The turning points. And the reason they're still here.
This is not just a podcast about podcasting.
It's a podcast about courage, consistency, and using your voice to build something meaningful — even when the path isn't clear yet.
If you're a podcaster, creator, or message-driven entrepreneur who's already in it and wants to keep going, this show is for you. Each episode, you'll hear from someone who started with a message and a microphone and figured out the rest along the way — what worked, what didn't, and what they would do differently.
The goal is simple: to remind you that your message matters, your story matters, and the journey is worth it.
Hosted by Donna Kunde, 2x International Bestselling Author, Podcast Profit Strategist, and founder of 365 Business Maker. She has produced over 15,000 podcast episodes and helped entrepreneurs, podcasters, and creators turn their message into their business. Her books, The Influencers Formula® and Your Message Is the Business, are the foundation behind everything she teaches.
Meet the Host
Hosted by Donna Kunde, 2x International Bestselling Author, Podcast Profit Strategist, and founder of 365 Business Maker. She has produced over 15,000 podcast episodes and helped entrepreneurs, podcasters, and creators turn their message into their business. Her books, The Influencers Formula® and Your Message Is the Business, are the foundation behind everything she teaches.