Guy Richards / Ordinary Life with a Brand Strategist

Hurting Parent

My daughter was running with her hands in her pockets stumbled and smacked her face on the pavement this week. The day after it happened she was throwing up all day.

That night I was putting her to bed and she held me, looked at me with her scabbed up face crying "daddy give me something to drink." I couldn't because she was throwing it up. My heart broke. Her I'm her dad and I can't comfort her.

At that moment I thought of all the parents around the world listening to their kids cry of hunger. This was hard to go through but I'm thankful I was able to be reminded of the lives saved through Abiah's "Precious Seeds" program. This month 504 kids were feed and told about Jesus through Compassion.

From phone

Sharing My Birthday

I'm sitting in Panera Bread between meetings and thought I'd share a God moment with you.

As some know today is my last day in my twenties. What's rare is that Lisa Price our Coo shares the same birthday with me. Funny huh?

Well this morning we had a meeting with a board to prep for a presentation for them. It went great and as we were saying our good byes we found it we shared a birthday with one of the three ladies at the meeting.

Hope you enjoy hearing how great of the stories God creates.

Thumb typed from my phone

Praying for the most talented people in the world

I'm amazed how God makes connections. I was headed out to Orange County this weekend and I recieved an email from Mike Duarte who connected through Abiah's site. Mike runs an online programming company who specializes in social media.

I noticed he had a 949 area code which led me to ask if he was in Orange County. Come to find out he was a few miles away. We met at Starbuck's earlier today.

I have been asking God to send in the most talented people in the world who love Him to support Abiah. Mike is no exception. He has a heart for Kingdom work and portfolio that includes the top companies in the world. In the next few weeks he will be presenting a application to Bill Gates.

Trust Him
From my phone

Re-routed to San Diego by God

Last Monday I was scheduled to catch a flight out of Philly to San Diego at 615am. I was super tired because I didn’t sleep all that night. I swiped my card in the itinerary machine, grabbed my ticket and moved on. When I got to the gate I tried to sleep a little. I woke and double checked my ticket. I was scheduled a little after 8am. “What?”

Somehow they switched me and I didn’t notice. Now I will be getting in over 2 hours later. Instead of getting upset I said to myself, "God has a bigger plan." Let me keep my eyes open for it. Now in Minneapolis (which I should have been in Detroit) I boarded my second plane.

In seat 13A looking out the window, ready for the warm weather, I noticed a problem. A man approached me and said I was in his seat. “They double sold my seat!?” He sat next to me, talked a little and we waited for the flight attendants.

He shared how this was just one of his problems today. Earlier in the day someone used his identity and boarded with his ticket. I laughed and told him how I was given a ticket that delayed me two hours and rerouted my flight.

Now the flight attendants came up and said "Robert Richards." We both said "yes," (my full name is Robert Guy Richards III) looked at each other confused and realized the whole dilemma. They thought I was him and gave me his flight.

Everyone around us was in an uproar, it was like a skit out of Seinfeld.

To my surprise God did have something in store. I was going to meet Sam Wolgemuth who is on the board of a school in San Juan Capistrano. The dad of the man the airline confused me with was the architect who built his school. What a talking point. Let me say this might sound weird for a lot of people but it happens all the time when people allow God to direct their paths.

A bowl of soup with the one I love

Today was great, I saw God work and I loved it so much.

I have been having a financially hard time the last few months. They have been extremely painful but God has used them to teach me.

The other day I was talking to God about the situation in great aguish. Because I know that if God didn’t show up I had know one to turn to.

But he did under crazy circumstances. Yesterday I had someone close gift me money without me asking or did I tell them what was going on. My wife was cleaning and found two checks. One was a tax check from 06 that was a large amount. The tax check was so old it could not be cashed. Last night I told my wife I would try to call and work it out. Today (before I called) we received in the mail a new one from the government stating that they noticed we haven’t cashed the check and gave us a new one.

I have failed in these situations before. I have depended on other things but the Lord. All I had this time was Him. And I was reminded that if I had to give it all up for Him I gladly would. Because a bowl a soup with God in the wilderness is better then steak with the president at White House. 

PS. Enjoy His work, somewhere in the mid-west.

God meeting Guy Richards in Orange County California

Let me set the stage. I get an invitation to come out to Orange County California (from NJ) to meet a possible client. I’m a little hesitant just because of the fact that it isn’t a client yet and I haven’t talked to them. The invitation came through a friend. This friend is Jerry Twombly. Jerry is an author, fundraiser and leadership developer to name a few. Bust most importantly he has a heart for the Lord.

So I decided to come. This is my first time in CA. We get to the house where we are staying and Keri the owner of the house leads me to my room. I walk in and see my client’s (Surfing Artists International) pictures on the wall. I  quickly opened my suitcase and pulled out my portfolio and showed Keri and Jerry the catalog I designed with these exact paintings in them.

 Surfing Artists International is not only a client of mine but the founder Phil DeAngelo is a great friend, my deacon and the one praying for me. I called Phil and told him the story. “Now way” was his response.

Tears started filling my eyes thinking how GREAT God is.

God Moments at the ICRS Show / part 2 “Chuck Colson”

I really wanted to meet Chuck Colson. (For those who don’t know who Chuck is: Chuck got locked-up because he was a part of the Watergate scandal with President Nixon. While he was in jail he gave his life to Christ and then started what is know the largest prison fellowship ministry in the world with about 50,000 volunteers.)

The weird connection I had to meeting him was because of someone who i thought was in his ministry, Catherine Rohr. She was a six figure Wall-Streeter who gave it all up because God pulled her to use the gifts of venture capitalism to help locked-up crack dealers start businesses.

May sound funny but it is true. The Executive Summary for the program starts out stating “One hundred thousand dollars in sales per week … 90% net margin … 90% repeat business … On an investment banking teaser, this company profile would have generated widespread interest among the investment community—had the core product not been crack cocaine.

This resonates with me because this was my life. Young in life I bought into the world’s view that went like this MONEY+THINGS=HAPPINESS.

It started the first time I was in seventh grade starting off selling weed then escalating in high school were I was mainly hustling crack. This drug had great brand loyalty and huge profit margins. They weren’t what Catherine states at 90% but were about 65%. Still much higher then any business I have ever run or client’s I have managed. But regardless of the profit margins, cars, toys and popularity this pursuit left me hopelessly depressed of ever finding realness and contentment. Then God wiped off the glossy candy coating showing me He was real and cared for me even know I as not “the kid who helped old ladies cross the street.” I then gave it all up and sold out my life and now share what He has giving me with others.

(Well back to the point.) One weekend I thought “what if I could write a book or something to encourage these ex-hustlers to use their gifts in business. Like I’m doing now. If I told some of my muli-million dollar clients I use to hustle crack, I’m not sure they would believe me. But that is the point. If these prisoners who are unbelievably talented business minded people could paint a picture of what they could look like and encouragement on getting there (With Christ only!) CNBC would have nothing else to talk about but ex-crack hustlers changing the world. It would give people like me hope.

Well on Monday day Eric Spence a brand Strategist in Canada sent me a link to the Catherine’s site. I was blown away someone was doing something about this.

This ministry made me very intrigued and i somehow linked it with Chuck.

So I walked past the Zondervan booth and the line was wrapped around the small parking lot of a booth. Even if it wasn’t a long line I’m not sure I would of got a book signed. I just wanted to talk, see his heart and maybe build a relationship.

I went back to the Abiah booth and shared with Lisa (Abiah’s Chief Operating Officer) that I wanted to meet Chuck but I wasn’t sure if it was me just pushing for my own agenda or if it was for God’s plan. So we prayed and I surrendered it to God and asked Him to allow me to meet Chuck if He willed.

It was now about 5:30pm and Chuck was speaking at 7pm. God gave me an idea to give Chuck a present. So I grabbed a case of Callaway golf balls we had at the booth and headed off to grab a bite to eat before the session. On the way Lisa and I got side tracked a few time and lost the guy we were going to eat with. Now about 6:30pm in a last ditch effort to get a bite before he spoke, we headed to the closest hotel we saw.

It was raining and hot. Stuck at a light in front of the hotel I look up and here comes Chuck with what looks like an entourage of secret service all in black pressed suits. One guy was holding an umbrella over Chuck as the rain fell on his owned head. In excitement and absolute reverence of God answering my prayer I quickly unzipped my bag and grabbed the golf balls. When he came up I shook his hand shared a few words and teared up because I know God delivered him by the collar.

What this did was rekindled a fervent love I have for God, my Dad and best friend.

PS. If you have a testimony, share it.