Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Dickey.
Daniel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
For me personally, one of the things that makes my journey really different is the fact that my whole life I have always tried to figure out how I can get paid off of being who I actually am innate as a person. It wasn’t me learning new skills because the things that make me dope at what I do now are because people have a high regard for me and the ones who know me personally have a warm and sincere love for me as well. People meet me for the first time and feel a real warmth and assurance that they get from my energy alone as if we’ve known each other forever. So, people have always been available to me for whatever I needed that fell into their skill sets, I’ve always been connected, I’ve always had someone I can call to get this or that.
My walk-through business is my walk-through life and I walk with God through it all and he has a way of always reminding me that he’s there. I worked in banking, I’ve always been a very detailed oriented person – it worked, I moved professionally into PR with Nicole Garner Scott at The Garner Circle PR, I’ve always been connected – it worked, my family name meant something growing up and that actually taught me something very valuable as well. Plus, I’m a Virgo! lol! Team Virgo!!! So things have to make sense to me, they have to be logical, especially with money.
During my time at Generations Community Credit Union which is a minority-owned credit union, I moved marketing initiatives forward easily and organically because I could make the personal calls to the local news affiliates for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX news to make that a part of what I was up to. So opening The Resource Guild was the next logical step in my progression. I had my 1st business utilizing the RESOURCES around me at the age of 12, I actually started a business cutting lawns around my neighborhood except I wasn’t the one cutting the lawns, I had an old white man, who was probably around forty to fifty years old to cut the lawns that I was booking for him.
I also have to mention again that I was only 12 years old at the time and I was actually making the lion’s share of the money. So fast forward to now and here I am running an agency simply built around RESOURCES, people I can call to get this or that done for my clients all across the world!
I went to college on vocal scholarship and got my degree in Mass Communications/Marketing, worked in banking and finance, moved to Atlanta, ascended to the highest levels in Public Relations at The Garner Circle and then opened a 360 Brand Management & Strategy Consulting Agency that advises businesses on essentially every aspect of how they do business including their branding, advertising, public relations, consumer engagement, celebrity procurement, sponsorship procurement, financials, HR and legal consulting. The Resource Guild is really a one stop shop!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Anytime you have a passion for anything that you will ever do in the world, there will always be some sort of adversity that you face. I think that’s God’s way of seeing if we really want it or not. You are going to automatically deal with struggles. I certainly had my share of struggles when I moved to Atlanta. When I moved to Atlanta in 2007, I had a sizeable amount of GUACAMOLE (money), just about $10,000 stashed away in my savings account.
When I moved here, I was like a kid in the candy store. I moved in May of 2007. So throughout May, June, and July, I wasn’t even looking for a job. So I was in these “ATL Streets” every night, I would go from the 112’s to the Buckhead clubs and back. Those first few months in Atlanta were a lot of fun. At this point, my face card gets me into every door in the city and most across the country but I still have fond memories of the shenanigans and finagalings that initially got me into some of these rooms initially and feel like it was one of the funner times in my Atlanta journey.
I definitely did hit rock bottom. I started working at BB&T, right when the mortgage crisis came clearly into view. I was later let go, over time I had liquidated my savings and was out here for quite a while looking for jobs to no avail. The walls started closing in, my bills were still due every month and I was simply out of money. So I made a request to my dad to give me a couple of dollars. My dad basically said, “The only way I will give you money is if you move back to North Carolina.” My move to Atlanta and everything I wanted to do in Atlanta just seemed like something I needed to get out of my system to my parents. I disagreed with them, at that point, I didn’t see my life anywhere else.
So I stayed in Atlanta I lost EVERYTHING, car repossessed, credit cards maxed out, etc, etc ROCK BOTTOM! Now we fast forward like 8 years to me owning an award-winning agency working with some of the top brands and top names in the industry and the rest is history. I can now feel how proud my parents are of me when they meet people who know me and rave about their son, who I am to them and what I’m continuing to accomplish here in Atlanta and across the country. I remember one year I got the front row seats and backstage passes to hear Tamela Mann, Le’Andria Johnson and more at The McDonald’s Choir Showcase in Charleston South Carolina with my good friends Gerald and Tia Footman.
I met them at the door, walked them up to the front and as we got closer, my fussy mom was like “Daniel, why are we walking all the way up to the front” I replied, “Duh Mom, because this is where your seats are!!” and she had that look like “OH! Okay well, excuse me” lol. I’ll never forget that moment with them… so when I took them backstage to meet and take a picture with Tamela Mann, they were just over the moon proud and my mom had this lil photographer trying to flirt with her, I almost got him fired lol! Keep going people!! God’s timing will be the only one that will ever work out for you!
The Resource Guild – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Resource Guild is a solution based 360 Degree Brand Management & Strategy Consulting Agency, we are only here to identify and solve problems for growing businesses. It’s funny because one of my best friends the award-winning author of the book “Mind of A Winner” Steve Canal once described me as “The Human Google” because I literally know somebody that does everything! From A to Z, mechanic to the medic, celebrities to high-ranking executives and everything in between all the way down to some of the less fortunate in our world – the whole gambit!
The Resource Guild is a place where resources come together to benefit our clients who are looking to go to the next level and enhance their brands in the realms of public relations, branding, advertising, and consumer engagement. Our widespread services span from celebrity procurement, sponsorship procurement and cross all the way over into legal and HR consulting. We work all these different angles because the lens that I work from is one where if all those things are not agreeing, then your brand isn’t clicking on all cylinders. You could be making money, but if people don’t like your staff then that’s a problem. If people don’t know how to find your business, then that’s a problem. If people think your website is a disaster, then that’s a problem… all of these problems and MANY more are solved at TRG.
To be able to trust the company and believe in what they are doing enough to support them and to be an evangelist for them are the kinds of things that we create over at The Resource Guild. We have been blessed to work with all kinds of companies like Ferrari, Maserati, Nissan, Nike, MillerCoors, Martell Cognac, Hennessy, UN Humanitarian of the Year Winners and more all the way across the spectrum to film/television companies like ABC, NBC,CBS, Swirl Films, BobbCat Films, recording artist like 2 Chainz, Bankroll Fresh, Gilles, Reneard and more.
Our passion is for small businesses, churches, faith-based clothing lines, nonprofits like Hosea Feed the Hungry and more… if we like you, if we believe in you and if you can afford us! What quite a few people don’t know about me is that I’m also a singer/songwriter who attended Barber-Scotia College on a vocal scholarship traveling all across the country with a nationally touring choir under the direction of Dr.Jimmy A. Cheek.
I’m from a family of singers, preachers, educators and civil rights activist. I grew up singing in church very much like every other real singer but I found my love in R&B/Soul. Listening to an artist like Stevie Wonder, Brian Mcknight, Boyz II Men, Mint Condition and more allowed me to find my voice and my sound. To date as an artist, I’ve shared stages with extraordinary artist and musicians like John Legend, Carl Thomas, Ryan Leslie, Robert Glasper, Bryan Michael Cox, Jagged Edge, 112, Lloyd, Donnie Mclurkin, Donald Lawrence and many more.
The general consensus on my style is that it’s a fusion between Stevie Wonder, Carl Thomas and Musiq Soulchild, it humbles me greatly to constantly hear that and I’m honored to be likened to such amazing artist. I’ve been offered (3) major recording contracts so far but with me being a branding and public relation guru with tremendous major brand and media contacts, I can’t be offered the same 360 deals they offer traditional new artist, my situation is a bit more add water and stir than that at this point. Majic 107.5 is playing one of my records as we speak and I will be releasing a single in the fall. My music can be found on my Soundcloud page at www.soundcloud.com/
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think if you are working in your passion, your life’s purpose, your calling and in your unique gifts you are EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL! My name is Daniel and Daniel in the Bible is someone who interpreted dreams. The name Daniel actually means “God is my judge” so I’ve always been a very unapologetic and fearless individual because everything I’ve ever done has produced favorable results.
I get to interpret and help people actualize their dreams for a living. I don’t go on any searches or quests for motivation or encouragement. My clients call me all the time and send me the sweetest messages, or they call crying over something I told them was going to happen a year ago and now it’s actually coming to fruition. We have always produced results as well. As long as I’m able to continue to move with my own rhythm and at the beat of my own drum to help benefit my PEOPLE, their businesses, their growth, and the actualizing of their dreams I don’t think I will ever be looking for any additional motivation.
Apart from being an entrepreneur and starting your own business is it has to be a self-medicated environment. There has to be a fire that burns insides YOU or you might as well just go collect a paycheck somewhere. If something doesn’t burn inside you that tells you, you can do more, be more, and see more, then you won’t ever do it! If there is a fire, then that’s a flame that you have to fan yourself. So passion is a big marker to success for me, I like working with people who feel the most alive doing what it is that they do for a living.
Pricing:
- $150.00 an hour is my hourly rate for consultations and strategy sessions.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theresourceguild.com
- Phone: 770-896-1406
- Email: connect@theresourceguild.com
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