{"id":134052,"date":"2023-01-06T08:25:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T13:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=134052"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:41:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:41:26","slug":"ddn-wright-state-alum-honored-for-achievements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2023\/01\/06\/ddn-wright-state-alum-honored-for-achievements\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: Wright State alum honored for achievements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Richard J. Kaiser, the founder of Wilderness Agency, was named the 2022 Wright State Alumnus of the Year.<\/p><\/div>\n

From college dropout to 2022 Wright State Alumnus of the Year, Richard J. Kaiser has taken a circuitous path to achieving success.<\/p>\n

Kaiser was honored by the\u00a0Wright State Alumni Association<\/a>\u00a0in October and struck a rather unassuming chord with regard to his receipt of the Alumnus of the Year Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was humbled to be nominated, let alone win,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are so many amazing people who come out of Wright State University that I felt undeserving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser is the founder of Wilderness Agency, a hybrid marketing firm that provides branding, digital marketing, videography, development, public relations and sales integration services to more than 100 organizations, from emerging businesses to Fortune 500 companies. The agency\u2019s focus has been on manufacturing, health care, education and government sectors, helping to identify opportunities to invest in marketing to help organizations augment and flourish.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Wilderness Agency was recognized by the Dayton Business Journal as a Business of the Year and included the agency on its Fast 50 in 2019 and 2020. Kaiser received the 2020 Spark Award from the Better Business Bureau for excellence in community, culture and character.<\/p>\n

\u201cA decade after I graduated, my company was named the fastest-growing company in Dayton by the same newspaper I interned years earlier,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve received awards that were made at the factory where my dad and I worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the age of 8, the entrepreneurial Kaiser began doing odd jobs at the factory where his father worked so that he could buy the stuff cherished by a typical kid his age. By the time he turned 16, Kaiser transitioned to working in restaurants, first as a dishwasher and then, ultimately, as manager.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he matriculated at\u00a0Wright State University\u2013Lake Campus<\/a>\u00a0but later stopped going because he saw two paths for his future: purchasing a restaurant or hitting the big time with the punk rock band of which he was a member.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Upon further contemplation, he opted to return to Wright State, earning an associate degree in business from the Lake Campus in 2008 and then a\u00a0bachelor\u2019s degree in marketing<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0Raj Soin College of Business<\/a>\u00a0in 2010.<\/p>\n

In a speech he delivered the night he received his Alumnus of the Year Award, Kaiser said, \u201cThank you Wright State University for taking me back after our little break-up in my early 20s. I\u2019m proud to be an alumnus. I am grateful for the opportunities post-graduation to be able to give my time and talents back to the students and the university.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser returned to Wright State thinking he wanted to work in sales and left realizing that he could use his talents to help companies grow and attract the right talent. A professor recommended he read a book on advertising and after voraciously doing so, his path was clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe qualities and traits to start a business in my perspective are compassion and tenacity,\u201d Kaiser said. \u201cRunning a business is simply working with people. As a leader, you have a vision, and you are trying to attract the talent who will be inspired and help you achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Wright State and the Boy Scouts of America have impacted Kaiser\u2019s life significantly and he actively gives back to each.<\/p>\n

He mentors Wright State business students through the Emerging Marketing Leaders Program offered by the Raj Soin College of Business. Additionally, he serves as the vice president of marketing for the Miami Valley Boy Scouts Board of Directors.<\/p>\n

Kaiser cautions those thinking about entering the entrepreneurial world to do so for the right reasons and be absolutely certain that is what they want to do as their vocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI usually tell them not to, enjoy your life,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople who start businesses are insane. They are willing to work 80-hour weeks so they don\u2019t have to work 40 for someone else. They take all of that time, all of their money and bet it on something with a 10% chance of success. But if for some reason you can\u2019t stop yourself from trying, then make sure you know your \u2018why.\u2019 Because on the 14th week of working 14-hour days, while all of your friends are at the bar hanging out and having fun, money won\u2019t be enough to keep you going. You need to have a higher purpose than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaiser was honored by the\u00a0Wright State Alumni Association\u00a0in October and struck an unassuming chord with regard to his receipt of the Alumnus of the Year Award. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":133619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145181,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134052\/revisions\/145181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}