Marcus Richards
Paradox Group is an agency with a mission to connect brands to their audience. The difference with Paradox is we specialise in doing this for industry sectors that otherwise would not be able to without extreme difficulty.
Tell us about yourself?
My career history expands from working with Charities and NGO’s to FTSE 100 and start-ups.
I studied Mathematical Science at University to achieve a 1st Class honours degree.
In my various roles over the last decade, I’ve run a multitude of projects to restructure failing departments and businesses to turn them around into flouring with £M+ profits.
Most recently, I’ve taken on senior multi-functional roles specialising in HR, Legal, Compliance and Finance. This is secondary to the typical corporate restructure and change management required.
The best part of roles like this is working with industry novices and turning them into leaders and pioneers as they should have always been.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Choose challenge over money.
There’s one currency that will triumph over any amount of cash. That’s the ability to learn. Money will come eventually, but you must invest the time and work shoulder to shoulder with people in businesses to learn from their success and mistakes.
It’s definitely cheaper than learning from your own mistakes.
What problem does your business solve?
Advertising online for industries that are not able to post their ads in places the largest portions of their prospects really are.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
To enable Web3 and Crypto businesses to operate legitimately and shoulder to shoulder with their counter competitors working in the regulated industry. It just doesn’t seem fair. The playing ground needs to be made equal.
A way to do that is to educate the people and navigate the realms of advertising.
What is your magic sauce?
Assemble a team that your trust. And ensure they know WHY you do what you do. There’s nothing worse than being led on a journey not knowing the reasoning.
Once you have the buy-in of the people. you will earn loyalties that cannot be purchased. That itself will resonate with suppliers and customers. before you know it, you’ve created a community that sees your vision but also HOW to get there and WHAT to do.
Trust their knowledge. But don’t be afraid to ever challenge the status-quo.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Through the business, I run today, enable other small businesses to join the journey, and build their brand awareness. As well as mould leaders in this company to then lead teams of experts across the world.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
You cannot change course. For as long as the vision is in existence and has a case to be in existence, then you must stay on course. There’ll be bumps to slow you down or stones you must go around.
The biggest challenges are the people. You must ensure you have the right people in place that are committed to the goal. Change is a constant in this. Your team will be left perplexed if they understand none of it.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
The mission statement. Make that short and clear. Ours is “Connecting brands to their audience with agility and intent”.
TAs well as a vision statement. Don’t lead them blindly. Show them where you’re taking them. And never forget to tell them why.
