The Dot Connector in Branding

A devoted dot connector in branding and technique is detailing his rise from small-town beginnings to shaping a few of right now’s greatest cultural moments.

Earlier than Daniel Dickey was negotiating multimillion-dollar model partnerships or orchestrating culturally impactful campaigns, he was a 12-year-old entrepreneur pushing a lawnmower by his Wilmington, North Carolina, neighborhood. However even then, his present was not the grass reducing; it was really in dealmaking.

“I had a 55, 56-year-old man who was really reducing the grass for me,” Dickey informed BOSSIP with fun. “I paid him a payment per yard and made more cash than he did as a result of I negotiated the offers, purchased the fuel, and it was my dad’s lawnmower. That’s actually what I nonetheless do now: negotiating and fixing issues.”

That early entrepreneurial intuition laid the inspiration for The Useful resource Guild, the Atlanta-based 360-degree model administration and technique company Dickey based greater than a decade in the past.

Recognized for high-impact storytelling, purpose-driven execution, and a holistic strategy to model growth, the company has develop into a trusted companion for shoppers throughout movie, life-style, sports activities, leisure, enterprise, nonprofits, and training.

“We’ve by no means performed a single RFP or paid advert; all the pieces has been constructed by phrase of mouth,” he mentioned. “It’s all the time been good, lovely folks making the company what it’s.”

Dickey arrived in Atlanta in 2007, recent from a profession in banking and finance, the place he had earned accolades corresponding to Worker of the 12 months. However the metropolis’s cultural vitality and entrepreneurial pulse drew him to one thing greater. He joined one of many nation’s prime Black-owned PR companies, The Garner Circle, however quickly realized the normal label of publicist couldn’t comprise him, as a result of it was “too minute” for him.

“I wanted greater than that as a result of our folks wanted greater than that as a result of numerous occasions companies, they have to be informed to not do PR,” Dickey informed BOSSIP. “As an alternative of pr, let’s get the roaches out of right here as a substitute of PR, let’s get this brand, let’s get this web site collectively, let’s get that ratchet of woman out of your entrance desk. Let’s do away with her. And so having so many individuals that have been inquiring about PR after which figuring out that they weren’t prepared for PR was one of many explanation why I made a decision to open up one of many first of its variety consulting companies.”

As we speak, his firm, The Useful resource Guild, which simply celebrated its 25-year anniversary, delivers strategic model growth, public relations, promoting, experiential advertising and marketing, celeb procurement, content material creation, and partnership technique. The agency’s shopper record reads like a cross-section of cultural affect: Ferrari, Maserati, Moët Hennessy, Lincoln, NFL, NBA, Xbox, Disney, MillerCoors, and Emory College. On the leisure facet, Dickey has collaborated with Usher, Kevin Hart, LeBron James, Tamela Mann, Miguel, Daymond John, T.I., Swin Money, 2 Chainz, and several other Atlanta mayors, together with Andre Dickens, Keshia Lance Bottoms, and Kasim Reed.

“I’ve sat down with folks, I’ve modified their logos, I’ve modified the ways in which they do enterprise, he informed Managing Editor Dani Canada. “I’ve modified who their goal audiences have been. And so model administration simply offers you a extra complete area. So it positively nonetheless consists of pr, however PR as one ingredient within the gumbo as a substitute of it being the first ingredient.”

Dickey’s community is famous, with greater than 23,000 contacts spanning enterprise, leisure, and civic management. That Rolodex has helped him launch a few of Atlanta’s most notable occasions and initiatives, from One MusicFest and a pair of Chainz’s Road Execs Studio to the R&B Soul Picnic, the Poet Life Pageant, and the Atlanta Greek Picnic’s twentieth anniversary. He has additionally steered high-profile model activations such because the Moët & Chandon Seal It With Rosé Brunch, Miller Lite Faucet the Future with Daymond John, and Coors Gentle Seek for the Coldest with Pharrell Williams and Ice Dice.

Recognized professionally as a “Win Coach,” Dickey builds campaigns and mentors leaders, bringing collectively Fortune 500 corporations, high-growth startups, nonprofits, and group initiatives beneath one strategic imaginative and prescient. He has additionally channeled his vitality into youth sports activities, teaching basketball and soccer gamers who’ve gone on to NCAA Division I and NBA careers.

Reflecting on his journey, Dickey mentioned what makes his profession most rewarding is the liberty to reside authentically whereas doing what he loves.

“Truthfully, my mission was to receives a commission to be myself,” he informed BOSSIP. “And since I’m nonetheless getting paid to be myself, all the pieces stands out.” That authenticity, he defined, is what drives The Useful resource Guild’s success. “We’ve been in a position to introduce the world to some actually cool corporations and premiere some wonderful movies, however what actually stands out to me is that for so long as The Useful resource Guild has existed, we’ve by no means pursued enterprise. We’ve by no means performed any RFPs, we don’t promote — our complete operation runs on phrase of mouth. To have a sustainable enterprise constructed solely on fame and relationships means all the pieces.”

Past enterprise, Dickey embodies what he calls the Renaissance man: a classically educated vocalist who attended Barber-Scotia Faculty on a vocal scholarship and has opened for John Legend, Robert Glasper, Ryan Leslie, Jagged Edge, 112, Lloyd, and Cam’ron. He’s additionally a motivational speaker, civic chief, and educated in menace visualization and weapons security, equally snug at an opera, a symphony, or a boxing match.

“My grandparents taught me that objective and excellence go hand in hand,” Dickey mentioned. One grandfather, Dr. Daniel Carter Roane, was a pioneering civil rights doctor who helped combine Wilmington’s hospitals and faculties. The opposite, Reverend Dr. W.Ok. Raynor, preached for greater than 80 years and obtained a number of honors, together with the Order of the Lengthy Leaf Pine. “Every little thing I’m stems from that. Activism, mind, artistry, it’s in my DNA.”

As The Useful resource Guild continues to develop, Dickey envisions increasing each his private {and professional} affect.

“Within the subsequent 5 years, I wish to share extra of myself with the world,” he mentioned. “I see myself onstage as a speaker, as a performer, fusing artwork, inspiration, and enterprise, like a combination between Les Brown and Stevie Marvel.”

He’s additionally deeply invested in mentorship and civic engagement, serving as Chairman of the Younger Skilled Influencer Advisory Board for Hosea Feed the Hungry and Program Director of Massive Brothers Nameless, a transformative mentorship initiative in partnership with the Obama Basis’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and the Fulton County Youth Fee.

For Dickey, the identify of his company is as significant because the work itself.

“The assets are the folks,” he mentioned. “There’s no Useful resource Guild with out the workers, companions, and shoppers who’ve constructed it. It’s by no means been a military of 1; it’s all the time been a collective of good, lovely, dope folks.”