A version of the following article appeared in the Monday, August 31, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Sorority rush at the University of Georgia in 2023. (Photo courtesy of Kaylee Daughtry)
by Carroll Walton
Trisha Grode Addicks grew up in Charlotte, graduated from Charlotte Country Day and set her sights on becoming a member of Chi Omega at the University of Georgia in the late 1980s.
Then bid day came, and she was handed an empty envelope.
The rejection she felt, and what she learned in the year to follow when she re-entered rush and pledged Chi-O, stayed with her. In 2017, Addicks decided to turn her practice of advising friends’ daughters through recruitment into a consulting business.
Now, she’s regularly quoted by national outlets such as ABC News and the Wall Street Journal on the topic of sorority rush. In May, Simon & Schuster published her book, “The Rush Bible,” a sorority recruitment guide. A fictional TV series based on the book is in development with Legendary Entertainment and Hyphenate Media Group, a production company co-founded by actress Eva Longoria.
The entertainment-industry publication Deadline said Addicks is “widely regarded as the nation’s top sorority rush consultant,” and it quoted a TV executive explaining that he wants to adapt the book for television because it is “a story about power, identity and belonging with remarkable authenticity and emotional complexity.”
Addicks’ advice doesn’t just apply to 18-year-old girls in matching outfits using their fingers to spell out Greek letters and posting dance routines on TikTok. Addicks and her team of two dozen mentors with her company, It’s All Greek to Me, are teaching girls how to “find their people” through multiple rounds of parties by preparing, practicing conversation and building self-confidence, which are principles easily applied in business interviews and beyond.
“I've heard from people who’ve read the book say, ‘I learned so much about connecting and confidence, and I don't even have anybody going through rush,’” said Addicks, a wife and mother of three who makes her home in Atlanta.
Trisha Addicks, originally from Charlotte, promoting her book “The Rush Bible.” (Photo courtesy of Addicks, It’s All Greek To Me consultants.)
One of her readers is Meredyth Cole, head of the prestigious Lovett School in Atlanta, who told Addicks any woman would benefit from reading it.
“I’m leaning into ‘The Rush Bible’ because that’s what’s going to get [young women] to listen,” Addicks said. “But they’re getting skills that are going to serve them no matter what they do.”
The No. 1 mistake Addicks sees clients make is showing up unprepared.
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