Finance Executive & Women’s Fiction Author Michelle Gable on Having a Dream Job – and a Regular Career  

In the ongoing conversation surrounding entrepreneurs, so much emphasis is placed on knowing when to take the leap and exit a “traditional” career to forge the path into entrepreneurship. For the super-organized, however, there is another option: dual careers. (Not to be confused with “dueling careers,” though for some, that might seem synonymous.)  it’s not the case for Michelle Gable, however; instead, hers is a tale about pursuing a “dream career” while remaining firmly planted in a “real career,” and the successful management of both.

The backstory of why the balance for her has been smoother: she has had a love of writing since she was young, but for years, practical pursuits took priority. A graduate of The College of William and Mary, Gable enjoyed a career in finance and accounting, leading up to her current position as Vice President of Investor Relations at mortgage software giant Ellie Mae. That job track was so successful, in fact, that not even her husband knew the extent to which she was writing (almost as a sort of secret pastime/stress reliever).  And her role at Ellie Mae kept her plenty busy, from five hour marathon conference call sessions to touching down in multiple countries — and continents — within a week’s time.

Her story of being a writer is of the longest-ever-overnight-success variety. After enduring rejections from numerous agents, followed by rejections from numerous publishers, her agent sent her an email about a recently discovered Parisian apartment loaded with relics from the Gilded Age, saying, “There’s something awesome and haunting about this.” Gable was instantly intrigued. “I love the era. Such exuberance, no concept of world war. People always say ‘write what you know’ but I think it’s more like ‘write what you want to know.’”  She did her homework, got to work, and her debut novel A Paris Apartment was born.

And then, in April 2014, everything changed when it was published.  This could easily be a how-to story for corporations on retaining top talent by allowing balance in employees’ lives; as Gable’s career-as-author was heating up, Ellie Mae gave her an entire summer off for a book tour promoting A Paris Apartment. “They’ve been so supportive,” she raves, with her bio on the company’s website even lauding her as an “internationally bestselling author.”

However, about the tug and pull she started to feel during the book promotion, she notes, “I found myself missing the people I worked with while away promoting A Paris Apartment.” Citing the company’s “collaborative energy and momentum,” she says that though Ellie Mae is a large, publicly-traded company, “it still has that entrepreneurial energy that a small company has, where people have the same goal, working with the same mission, not just clocking in and clocking out.”

So, though initially having every intention to leave finance and pursue writing full time, Gable instead returned to her post at Ellie Mae after her summer book tour, with Ellie Mae even tailoring her responsibilities to her specifications: she chose to be solely focused on investor relations, scaling back from her previous, larger-scope financial planning and analysis role.

A Left-Brain/Right-Brain Success Story

Though her book has been proclaimed a bestseller (a term she calls “a bit nebulous”), she still has trouble fully committing to the author side of herself. When asked how she replies when queried about what she ”does,” she says, “I usually say I’m the head of investor relations for a software company and then I say, ‘Oh and I also write books.’ It still feels weird to say I’m a writer because I feel like people think it’s not a real job, and when I said I had a book coming out, people didn’t know that I wrote. Even my kids didn’t know – it had always been something I just kind of did on the side.”

She continues: “I’m getting more comfortable with it now that my book is out in the world, but I always say the investor relations first — never the writer — which is odd, because people would argue being a writer is more interesting. People don’t really ask follow-up questions about mortgage banking software,” she laughs.

Despite the seeming chasm between investor relations and writing historical fiction, Gable makes convincing connections between the two: “I think the finance world helps with the writing because you do need to have structure to your story. You do need to have a beginning, middle and end. It can’t just be words on a page rambling on, and you need structure and balance to build a financial model.”

Gable explains further also how her career at Ellie Mae prepared her for the grueling process of going from manuscript to published novel: “Again, it’s about the discipline, the time management. I’ve approached the whole writing thing as a business, and not just a creative process. I know that’s appreciated by my publisher; in other words, I’ve also been realistic — I’m not just whimsical.”

“They say 80% of people want to write a book, or think they can write a book, but I think the actual start-to-finish and structure is what keeps most people from doing it,” she continues. “Plus, being so busy (at Ellie Mae) helps me because I’m very disciplined — I don’t sit around and wait for inspiration. I have from this time to this time to write, and I have to get it done.”

So, is one “an intentional escape” from the other? “Definitely,” she says without pause. “That’s kind of why, all the years that I’ve worked in finance, long before my book came out, I always wrote on the side as an escape. It’s just a different way to use your brain. Writing is very solitary, and with finance, I’m on the phone for hours, so I like having the balance of the two.”

How to Do it: Rise Early, Have Goals, and Be Flexible about Writing Time

Here’s how an uber-organized, dual-career woman balances the demands of both roles, in addition to those of having a family: “I make weekly goals that I back into a daily goal. Also, I’m an early riser. I feel like I have a good sense of how long something takes me, so I can assess my day, knowing what I need to finish by the end of the week. I wrote my second (upcoming) book in pencil between softball games, in the car…wherever I can get it in. You can find a half hour here, a half hour there.”

Given her success in both of her fields, Gable seems the ideal person to offer advice on for anyone interested in pursing a dream career. “You have to commit to it,” she says. “Treat it like a business. And you just have to do it. Don’t just say you’re going to do it, just do it and keep doing it. Let the rejections just roll off, and be determined. The difference between a person who wants to be a published writer, and a published writer is determination. Plow through.”

Young Dreams, and Mature Success   

She attributes her drive in large part to her father’s oft-repeated advice. Though chock-full of funny sayings and ‘Tom Gable–isms’ (“We used to have a Facebook page dedicated to all of them!” she laughs), one in particular still resonates: “Ask for the order.“ It’s the same thing as saying you have to go after what you want.”

She also shares a story about her passion for writing coming full-circle with A Paris Apartment. “When I was ten, my dad gave me a book called Someday You’ll Write, and then, the night of my launch, my parents still had the book and they ‘re-gave’ it to me almost 30 years later.” (What would she tell her 10-year-old aspiring writer self? “You’re doing the right thing. Keep doing it.”)

“It’s funny because the book came out, and did well and I felt like this was happening so fast. I’d told my husband on the night of my 31^st birthday that I was going to do something with this ‘writing thing’ — and then that book came out a few weeks before my 40^th birthday, so really not exactly an overnight success,” she laughs.

Finally Feeling Like a Real Author (plus a New Book in the Works!)

While Gable still identifies with her finance side when asked about her career, to her, it’s her writing that defines her success. But what will make her feel most successful? “Continuing to have a career in writing and continuing to build an audience.”  And with her characteristic realism, she adds, “Would it be nice to be a New York Times bestselling author? Yes, but you can’t control that.”

What’s been the most gratifying part of her experience as an author? “The way people have been so supportive,” she says. “I mean, it’s like people are just as excited as I am!” She shares anecdotes of friends snapping photos of her book in far-flung spots – at a Costco in Alaska! A woman reading Paris Apartment in a Boston-area Starbucks! – and of receiving fan mail from around the globe (the book has been published in multiple languages).

Her most cringe-worthy experience? “You get nervous in general just about people reading it and then you worry if everyone’s going to like it. I only had one friend come right out and tell me she didn’t like it – but I just thought, ‘You can keep that to yourself!’” she laughs.

Gable is currently entrenched in promoting the paperback release of A Paris Apartment (on top of her “real job” responsibilities at Ellie Mae). Her second novel, I’ll See You In Paris, is due for release in February 2016. It’s not a sequel, but was inspired by some of the research she did preparing to write A Paris Apartment.

Even though hers is a dual career success story, it’s hard not to wonder if there may come a time when Gable might pursue only one – especially when that one is something she’s dreamt of her entire life. “For now, if I can do both, I’ll do both,” she says confidently.

Note: Following our conversation, I find myself compelled to compare my productivity against Gable’s, or rather, how unproductive my productivity could be deemed to her standards. And even after her detailed explanation on how she makes it work, I still find myself marveling at her ability to, well, do it all. An answer to which she offered a hint of in a recent post on her personal Facebook page: “At book signings people always want to know my ‘secret.’ Well here it is…my house is a (bleep)ing disaster area.”