Beyond the Hashtag with Cindy Richards

Cindy Richards, is one of the women behind the travel website TravelingMom.com, and also runs the #TMOM twitter party on Monday nights. I got the chance to travel with Cindy last year to Mexico, and she was everything she is online; fun, sweet and full of travel knowledge! Follow Cindy on twitter at @CindyRichards, and read on to learn more about the women behind the hashtag.

1.    Describe your job and how you came to work there.
I am a veteran journalist. I spent the first half of my career as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, then as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, then as an editor for Chicago Parent, an award winning regional parenting publication. But I've always been an avid traveler. At Chicago Parent, we ran a travel story each month. The editor was moaning about how hard it was to travel, write the stories and put out the magazine. I responded, "I can help."
I left the magazine in 2006 to launch my freelance travel business and met Kim Orlando, the founder of TravelingMom.com in 2008. We hit it off immediately and realized our strengths are the perfect compliment for one another: She is full of energy and incredible ideas and I'm the more organized one who keeps things on track. 

2.    If you could meet a legend dead or alive, who would it be?
Amelia Earhart. I love an adventurous woman and I'd really like to know where the heck she ended up after that ill-fated flight.

3.    Who would play you in a movie about your life?
I'd love to say someone sleek and sexy like Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Anniston, but a brassy broad like Kathleen Turner is probably closer to reality.

4.    What brings you happiness?
My children. My husband. My dog. Warmth. Sunshine. And booking a plane ticket.

5.    What is your biggest fear?
Creepy crawlers like bugs and snakes. I'm not much of a woods-and-nature kind of gal.

6.    Book you’ve read that’s a must read.  Did you read the actual book or an electronic reader?
Just finished the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Loved them. And I read them on paper. I use both, but my preference is paper.

7.    What application do you use to participate in #TNI – tweetgrid, hootsuit, tweetdeck and why?
Tweetdeck. It's the one I started using when we launched the TMOM family travel Twitter parties on Monday nights and it rarely fails me. I like it even more now that you can schedule tweets to go out later.

8.    What motivates you?
Doing good work. Making a difference in people's lives, whether it's helping one of my writers learn about SEO or write a better post or helping one of my kids get through a crisis. And, of course, like everyone I'm motivated to keep working because I need to pay the mortgage.

9.    If you were given $100 to start a business, how would you do it?
Wow. $100? That's not much money. I suppose I would use to buy snacks because I would be working a lot of long hours trying to launch a business on such a short shoestring.

10.    Do you have a trip planned for this summer? If so, what is it and what tools did you use to plan it.
We haven't figured out our summer travel plans yet. Both my husband and I are self-employed, which means we can be more flexible about travel. We tuck it in around the corners of our work demands.

Bonus Question – what’s your favorite thing about #TNI?
It makes me laugh out loud.