A Satisfying Plot Twist

By Carolanne Roberts

Photo by Mary Hulbert

Hollywood, celebrities, movie sets, glitz and glam, blur-speed days and nights, private jets zooming around the world and being an important cog in the center of sizzling excitement – that’s what fabulously filled Virginia Trinkle’s childhood career dreams. It all happened, and more. Notions like an executive role with a delivery service during a pandemic and a future as an entrepreneur were far from figuring into the picture, until suddenly they did. Life is like that, with unpredictable curves that lead in surprising and rewarding directions.

Perhaps most logical of all, as it turned out, was recently earning an MBA from Mississippi State University.

MSU was 'the missing piece' – what I needed,” says Trinkle from her home base in Alabama. “In all my other jobs, I had the perception that something was missing. I’ve got ideas, I’ve got a work ethic and I knew I wanted to start my own business, but I needed the building blocks. And all the stars have aligned now, thanks to the classes and the professors and the degree.

Looking back to Virginia’s childhood in Florida, Alabama and Virginia, she was the family entertainer. The kid who knew all the lyrics to the Annie album at the age of four. The one who loved making her two sisters laugh.

“I didn’t think about being on the stage, but I knew I wanted to be in that world,” she says. “And my mother, who was very old-school, told me I was not going to California. My father encouraged me to get a business degree at Auburn, and I’m thankful I did. He said, ‘It’ll translate,’ because every business needs and requires that background.”

Trinkle tried, she really tried, to fit into the traditional business mold, working in a “sensible job,” as she calls it, in investment banking in Washington, DC. The little voice in her head calling her to the entertainment industry grew louder when she and a friend decided to track down the filming of a Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg movie in a DC neighborhood. The one person she managed to meet there turned out to be Kurt Uebersax, an assistant director with a heart. Right away, he allowed her to watch a scene in a ballroom, and she was agape at both the celebrities and the process. Becoming her mentor, Uebersax started his protégé at rock bottom to build her skills on sets of various TV shows and movies in the local area, fit in around her other job. Eventually Trinkle turned in her notice at the investment firm and pivoted full-throttle to a new life.

Getting started in the DC market was one thing; her move to Hollywood was another.

“I applied for 42 jobs before a got a single call,” she recalls.

What finally happened was a fortuitous journey in another direction within the industry, first as personal assistant to actor Michael Chiklis of The Shield, The Commish, Fantastic Four, and other shows. Then she took a personal assistant role with up-and-comer Eva Longoria, starring at the time in TV’s Desperate Housewives.

“I was there when she went to sleep, and I was there when she woke up,” Trinkle says. “Her friends were my friends; her family was my family. I would go over her finances that came from her business manager and review everything from the publicist. I solved problems around the clock. I’d schedule meetings, anticipate needs and fly with her to amazing places.”

All the while, Trinkle soaked up inspiration.

“Talk about people who can do it all,” she says. “Eva was doing the TV show and also films on the side. She was getting her master’s degree in Chicano studies at the same time to support her work to empower Latino women. She was climbing to fame herself, directing, acting, addressing issues and being involved in endorsements and philanthropy.

“I liked the conversations we had,” Trinkle continues. “I hadn’t encountered the same issues in my life – about farmworkers or children born in America to undocumented citizens, for example – and with her, it was all about being educated. I saw from her what’s possible if you work really hard.”

When Longoria formed her own production company, Trinkle shifted into a producer/developer role there. The ending should be happier but isn’t. Of the handful of shows the company sold to networks, none actually aired. Her dreams of making films seemed to shrivel as quickly as they’d flourished.

Trinkle calls her MSU MBA "the missing piece" that she needed.

Photo courtesy of Virginia Trinkle

In fact, Trinkle left California, left the industry and returned to Alabama. Her mother, who meant so much to her, had passed away, and her father was requiring care. Her spirits were low. The thought of job-hunting in Alabama was daunting.

“I had a little bit of finance experience, a resumé filled with production and entertainment and a very nontraditional career,” she says. “I knew I had to meet people and talk them into the fact that I was going to change their lives. Kind of ‘Hire me, let’s go.’”

Shipt, the grocery store app/delivery service, proved to be grounds for her management skills and creativity. She ultimately became Director of Shopper Operations and oversaw, encouraged and nurtured a team of 17. During the work-from-home pandemic – when Shipt’s shopper base more than doubled – Trinkle carried on, balancing work with domestic projects like laying seven 3,000-pound palettes of sod in her yard, building a pergola with her new band saw and wiring her own pathway lighting.

During this time the idea of an MBA began to shine like an inviting beacon.

“Dean [Sharon] Oswald was a professor of mine at Auburn, and we had kept in touch,” she says. “I drove to Starkville and toured the amazing E-Center [Center for Entrepreneurship & Outreach] and spoke to students about the importance of a business degree.”

She completed her MBA over the summer and fall of 2020 and spring of 2021. Each class added fuel to Trinkle’s mission.

I’d had this idea and that idea over the years, but I feared failure,” she remarks. “And, as I said, Mississippi State was the missing piece, exactly what I needed to learn and execute. One of my favorite classes was Supply Chain & Operations Management taught by Dr. Chris Boone. And I especially benefited from the capstone class where we put our learning into practice. Our group did a great job with the presentation.

Armed with the MBA, Trinkle has a bright future. Ideas that were once merely ideas now seem possible. There’s an app under consideration and a crowd-based decision component to explore. Job offers – good ones – are coming along. And the Hollywood days, in retrospect, seem like valuable steppingstones to today.

“When I was a little kid, I thought I’d do everything,” she muses. “To me that seemed normal. I feel that I’m capable of so much. About 15 years out of college, the MBA path has been such a good thing. As an undergrad, when parents may be paying and you take it for granted, you squeak by. With the MBA, it’s a different game. You realize that you’re paying and you know why you’re doing it.

“Now I have the tools to take ownership, not just work hard for other people. I’m motivated, I’ve got vision and I can see down the road.”