Alumni Spotlight – Eric Thiegs ‘91

Typically, alumni profile features are for those at, or approaching, the end of long, successful careers. But occasionally you hear of a “thirty-something” whose story is worth telling, even though it has many more years till its end. The tale-to-date of Eric Thiegs, a proud member of the Class of 1991, who founded a social networking outlet with the mission of “Changing the world, one story at a time,” is one of them.

Eric was very active in Susquehannock’s theater program, participating in school plays and musicals in each of his four years. He refers to theater as “the center of my student life.” The highlight for him was playing the lead in Me and My Girl his Senior year. He was also in choir, wrestled for a season, and served as class president for four years. He spent a summer in Sweden through the AFS summer abroad program, a time he calls “a transformational experience.”

Eric attended the University of Minnesota where he continued his passion for the performing arts, expanding his interest to include film. He worked his way through college, waiting tables at Planet Hollywood in the famed Mall of America, but returned to Southern York County in the summers where he worked in the School District’s maintenance department.

After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications in 1996 with recognition as the department’s most outstanding graduate, Eric began working for his alma mater as a Big Ten academic recruiter, a position he held for two years. He then spent five years with the Carlson Marketing Group in Minneapolis, eventually moving to Philadelphia while continuing with Carlson as a telecommuter. The move was driven by a desire by Eric and his wife Becky (Wilhem ’92) to return to the East coast. His career path included senior marketing positions in two other organizations amidst a return to York County.

In 2010, Eric made the most important career decision of his life. With a young family now blessed with two girls and in a troubled economy, he left a career with a good salary and benefits to start his own business. Beginning with a few successful cold calls in a time that “couldn’t have been scarier,” he created Stages of Life LLC, a marketing firm, specializing in building loyalty-based merchandising for organization members and business customers.

An important part of his venture is the innovative blogging site, “Stage of Life,” which attracts about 300,000 unique viewers per month and has received media attention in national outlets, including Time Magazine, Fox Business Channel, Wall Street Journal, and ABC. For his success, Eric was recognized by the Central Penn Business Journal as one of the area’s top executives under 40. “It was a little idea,” he says, “but little ideas can change the world.” The blogging site gives members the opportunity to write about their experiences during key stages of life: high school, college, independence, wedding, marriage, parenthood, property ownership, grand-parenting, and retirement. (Click to enter the Stages of Life site).

Throughout these career re-directions, performing arts were always an important part of Eric’s life story. While in Minneapolis, he and Becky formed a four-piece urban folk band, Bug Candy, which recorded four CDs sold from the stage. He has performed at the York Little Theatre and in various touring productions of Tony and Tina’s Wedding. Currently he directs student musicals at Red Lion Area High School, an activity he “loves beyond words.”

Eric gives major credit to his experiences at Susquehannock for the confidence he needed to start Stages of Life. “The opportunities it gave me to experiment and get involved showed me that anything is possible,” he said.

THANK YOU ERIC THIEGS ’91 FOR MAKING US WARRIOR PROUD!