Today we’d like to introduce you to David Richardson
Hi David, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I think this professional journey is best in chapter form. Here we go:
Chapter 1 – Cutting my Teeth
My professional career all started in the trade show industry working as a Marketing and Sales Associate for a small boutique exhibit shop. I got to really cut my teeth at this company. I was the only person responsible for Sales and essentially, the overall growth of the organization. Plenty of mistakes were made and lessons learned in these first 4 years. This was the perfect start to my career because it had a perfect balance of pressure for success and room to try new things. But it was time to expand my network it I wanted to get to my long-term goal of having a corner office downtown as an Executive of a booming business.
Chapter 2 – Expand the Network
I took a job as a Business Development Manager at one of the largest staffing firms in the world, working for a division that focused on the marketing and advertisement industry. This was a strategic move to work for a larger organization that was already working with top companies in DFW. Over the year and a half of working here, I was able to make countless connections with business development and recruiting activities that gave me the chance to help place key executives and work with key decision makers at enterprise organizations. My rolodex of contacts exploded with this job and it came back to pay off later in the career.
Chapter 3 – Breaking in to My Dream Industry
After working in the staffing/recruiting world, I was ready to get in to the advertising agency space. I called all the CEO’s of ad firms that I knew and asked them what job they hated to do the most. Almost all of them said “business development” and I found my way to get in to an agency. Finally an agency gave me a chance and I started doing new business for an agency. I did this role for 2 agencies over 3 years until I found my “happy place” with an agency that truly aligned with what I wanted in my career.
Chapter 4 – The Dream Job
I finally landed at a small agency called Spire, working with a great group of high-end branding experts that were ready to take the agency to the next level. The leadership team was ready to listen to the ideas that I had and make the necessary changes to grow the firm. After repositioning the firm to be a “B2B Branding Agency” and developing some key new business strategies, we took off like a rocket ship. I finally was able to take on more responsibility at an agency and ended up becoming the new VP of Strategy over all account management, strategy and agency growth for the firm. I literally had the dream job of being an Executive with a corner office. And then……..COVID.
Chapter 5 – The Worst Job I’ve Had
In March of 2020, COVID stopped agencies in their tracks and Spire was no different. We were figuring out how to pivot when I got a phone call from a client of ours that wanted to hire me on to be their VP of Sales. It was not the dream job or an industry that I wanted to be in, but the offer was lucrative and the future of the current job was unsettling. I ended up chasing the money and took the job. After 90 days of rebuilding the Sales infrastructure and getting everything put in place, I was fired for the first time in my career. It was one of the worst days of my career that ended up being the best thing in my career.
Chapter 6 – The end of Jobs
In October of 2020, I was two months from being fired for the first time and couldn’t find a job with U.S. unemployment through the roof. I went on a long, long walk to figure out what I want to do. Is now the time for me to finally start my own business? What kind of business should I start? How many clients will I need? What do I charge people? What am I selling? What should the website look like? Who do I call? By the end of that long walk, I had an answer to every one of those questions. That next morning, I gave myself one day to build a website about the business I wanted to start and then built it. The next day, I called 10 of the smartest people I know and told them the business model and asked them to provide feedback. They did and 3 of them actually said “send over a contract, I want in”. Within 1 week of launching the R Squared Group (a B2B Growth Consulting Firm), we had a full roster of clients and 6-month retainers in place for all of them.
Chapter 7 – Onward and Upward
We are about to hit 4 years in business and I couldn’t be happier. We’ve consulted with some of the best companies in the world from multi-billion dollar organizations to top PE-backed companies to innovative boutique shops ready to take on the big guys. We’ve nearly doubled the business every year since we’ve started and there is no turning back. This is the best part of my career and I can’t wait to continue to grow it.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’d like to meet the person that has had a smooth road in their career. No, it’s not been a smooth road but that’s part of the journey. Nobody gets to the top of the mountain without some bumps and bruises or without having to take some steps back to try a different route. Here are some of my most memorable challenges:
Challenge 1 – I got fired in the middle of COVID for doing what I was hired to do………..grow the company.
Challenge 2 – I had a contracted vendor who was building a website for one of my clients completely screw the entire project up and deliver an unusable website. I had to do the right thing and rebuild the entire website with another vendor and eat $20,000. Ouch.
Challenge 3 – I have had clashes with my managers where I didn’t follow protocol but hit the sales numbers I was expected to hit.
Challenge 4 – I had a Principle of a firm deliberately go out of his way to make sure that I failed. Wouldn’t allow any leads to come to me and instructed his team not to work with me on internal projects.
These are just a handful of some of the challenges and obstacles during this journey.
We’ve been impressed with R Squared Group, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
R Squared Group is a B2B growth consulting firm that specializes in brand, demand generation, sales enablement and go-to-market consulting for companies that are between $25M and $250M in revenue. Organizations that work with our firm are either in two states of the business: they are either in a state of disruption or in a state of rapid growth. What sets apart R Squared Group from other consulting firms is that our consultants have played on both sides of the Marketing and Sales aisle within B2B organizations. This allows for our team to bring together strategies and growth tactics of all related team members in to a cohesive growth roadmap.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rsquaredgroup.com
