Rick Rochon is dedicated to educating and training small business owners to market smarter. Rick was born with an entrepreneurial spirit and intimately understands the challenges small business owners face, especially when marketing their businesses in a rapidly changing environment. Planning, placing and perfecting marketing plans and strategies are essential to all small businesses and Rick's hands-on approach empowers the small business to make immediate and measurable changes to their marketing plan. While Rick is submerged in new media, he also brings to the table an in-depth knowledge of traditional marketing and understands how to leverage both avenues to grow your business, save money and improve the bottom line.
Destined to be an entrepreneur, Rick honed his entrepreneurial skills from an early age as the standout chocolate bar salesman at St. Benedict's School. In the late 80's, Rick cut his teeth in his first "real" enterprise by launching Bravado, a successful espresso catering company in Seattle. What was becoming clear to Rick at this early stage in his path was that learning how to fail in business and get back up and try it again was critical; that the knowledge you gain from failure was even more important than the knowledge gained from the small victories.
In the 90's and 00's, Rick dove headlong into the new and exciting world of Internet marketing and advertising. In addition to working at a number of dot-com start-ups, Rick also applied his knowledge of sales and marketing and new business development at traditional media companies like Knight Ridder and Classified Ventures, helping them to move from exclusively print and paper to the exploration of new media options.
In 2005 Rick founded AdSymetrix, Inc., a marketing measurement platform for small businesses to evaluate their marketing's ability to drive business, where he currently serves as CEO. Based on the resounding need he kept hearing from his small business clients, Rick spun-off a new brand from Adsymetrix, a company called Illuminate Marketing. Illuminate is driven to educate small businesses on how to market smarter and more effectively with best-of-breed marketing tools and products.
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Rick now lives in beautiful San Francisco, California. When not obsessing over how new Internet products can help small businesses to shift dollars from traditional media and grow their revenue while saving money, Rick most likely can be found chatting happily with friends at a corner cafe in San Francisco.
Rick's combination of life-experiences, professional know-how and quick witted humor provide for memorable and effective workshops and presentations.
