Nothing teaches a life lesson like dealing with temperamental rock stars. Ask Karen Wright Bacon.
She spent five years doing just that while making ad buys, as well as handling marketing and the box office at The Strand Ballroom & Theatre, an iconic Providence music venue she ran with her brother, Steven Wright. Between dealing with promoters, employees not doing their job and robbing Peter to pay Paul, it was an eye-opener. “I couldn’t have got a better education at Harvard,” she said.
It’s been a long, winding road since those days in the 1990s when Bacon was dodging beer bottles as Oasis’ famously feuding Gallagher brothers hurled them back and forth backstage. (The brothers eventually finished the show.)
Today, she’s president of a Warwick financial planning firm, managing hundreds of millions in assets. Diversified Resources LLC helps clients with retirement and income planning, education funding, estate planning and major events such as divorce or getting an inheritance.
Bacon grew up in a close family near Rocky Point in Warwick. “When the wind was in the right direction, we could hear people screaming as they rode the Corkscrew [roller coaster],” she said. “We used to walk along the beach to get there.”
She was also interested from an early age in business and making money. “If I wanted a bike, I wanted to buy it, not ask my parents,” she said.
She made a little cash by giving Nu Skin product demos to her mother’s friends, then got her first real job as the Easter Bunny in a full bunny costume at Warwick Mall. Her boss wanted her to hop down the main concourse to her chair.
Her friends, predictably, were merciless. “They’d harass me, but it was fun with the kids,” she said. From there, she moved on to Baskin Robbins, which introduced her to the retail world. “I realized tips were where it’s at,” she said. After that, she waited tables at Newport Creamery and took tips home in bags, then worked at Cherrystones in Oakland Beach and Shooters in Providence.
“It was a great background in interacting with the public and being organized,” she said.
The money and experience were good, and she loved working with others. It also helped pay for college.
Bacon graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1993 with bachelor’s degrees in Italian and business, then worked at Putnam Investments. Her older brother, Steven, loved music and had planned live events at URI when he was a student. When he got the chance to open a music venue at The Strand, an old vaudeville theater in Providence, he jumped at it and asked his sister to help.
“I was working at Putnam and had this decision. Mutual funds or rock and roll? I chose the latter and for the five years we operated it, it was amazing,” Bacon said. “It taught me how to deal with stress and to think clearly in those situations.”
The first night’s act in 1993 was Little Feat. Over the years performers included Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, B.B. King and David Lee Roth. Perhaps the most memorable night was in 1997 when they booked Johnny Cash.
“We wanted everything to be perfect,” Bacon said.
But on concert day Cash wasn’t feeling well and canceled an in-person radio interview, which would have pushed same-day ticket sales. Cash phoned it in instead, and sales were disappointing. Bacon, in her mid-20s, ventured to Cash’s dressing room, where he sat alone, all in black.
“I told him we lost $20,000, and if he’d done the interview in person, we’d have done better same-day ticket sales. I asked if he’d reduce his fee. He looked at me and said, “Little lady, I have people to pay, too. A contract’s a contract.”
Later that year, the owner of the Strand building decided to sell, ousting the concert business. Not sure what to do with her life, Bacon went to Babson College for an MBA focusing on finance. Her father, George Wright, had sold insurance before moving into financial planning. The field had intrigued her since she was a kid and her dad talked about helping people through life events.
“I loved being an entrepreneur and the idea of educating people, and this career had these elements,” she said.
After three years at another company, she joined her father’s firm as an associate adviser in 2004 and became president in 2015 when he retired.
Since then, Bacon’s modernized operations for the 40-year-old company, expanded and renovated office space, and grew the business from $125 million in managed assets to $284 million. She says she couldn’t have done it without support from her husband, Brad Bacon, and their boys, Zak and Alex.
As a financial planner, her day is full of meeting clients and answering their concerns: Will I have money to pay for my kid’s college? Retirement? Long-term care?
In a predominantly male profession, many of her clients are women.
“It’s important for women to understand their money and not rely on anyone,” she said.
And having been in the business for 20 years, Bacon has longtime relationships. “I like it,” she said. “It’s rewarding.”
