make marketing make sense

I've had the pleasure of interviewing Rich for various marketing articles and getting to know him through The CMO Club. He is among a small group of forward-thinking marketers who have the unique ability to understand the big picture while making sure all the pieces of the marketing puzzle are optimized. He is a master of his craft.

I have had the opportunity to work with Rich Smith across several organizations, and he consistently demonstrates the leadership, strategic discipline, and operational rigor expected of an enterprise Chief Marketing Officer. Rich brings a well-developed ability to align brand strategy with clear business objectives, ensuring that marketing contributes directly to revenue growth and organizational performance. Rich operates effectively in high-pressure environments where executive teams have defined KPI targets and accelerated timelines. He earns trust quickly at all levels of the organization through strong communication skills, sound judgment, and an approach that is both data-driven and collaborative. His ability to balance long-term brand stewardship with near-term performance goals is a distinguishing strength. In addition to his strategic capabilities, Rich is a builder of teams and culture. He fosters alignment, accountability, and enthusiasm within the organization, creating an environment where people can perform at their highest level. He is a champion. Rich is an exceptional marketing executive and a reliable partner to the business. Any company seeking a growth-oriented CMO with the ability to lead, inspire, and deliver measurable impact would be well served by his contributions.

Rich brought a rare combination of strategic insight and practical experience to our brand messaging work at ProPair. Having worked with him both as a consultant and previously as one of our key customers during his time at PenFed, he understood our value proposition from both sides of the table. He helped us step outside of our business to understand how the market viewed us—and more importantly, how they might view us. That gave us the foundation to be proactive with our messaging and shape the market, rather than be defined by it. I’d recommend Rich to any B2B leader looking to sharpen their go-to-market message. And he's a pleasure to work with as a partner.

As the first CEO to bring Rich Smith on as a marketing strategy consultant, I was immediately drawn to his track record at Recovery Centers of America, and once we started working together in 2018, he surpassed every expectation. Victory Bay had only been operating for about a year, and Rich made an immediate impact. He built the brand messaging that became the backbone of our entire marketing function and helped us gain real traction in the marketplace through a strategic website build and targeted content that genuinely connected with prospective patients. As we grew and launched Harmony Bay Wellness and Advantage Behavioral Health, Rich’s role naturally expanded from Fractional CMO to a trusted member of our Advisory Board. He consistently brought the level of judgment and strategic insight you’d expect from a seasoned C-suite leader who truly understands how to link great marketing with real business growth. Rich’s ability to pair hands-on marketing execution with boardroom-level strategy has been invaluable to our organization’s success. And he’s a pleasure to work with, patient, thoughtful, and deeply collaborative.

We had built TRIO Education to solve our own electrician shortage, and while it was working through referrals, I knew we were sitting on something bigger, we just didn't know how to unlock it. Rich came in and didn’t just hand us a strategy deck; he built a complete go-to-market roadmap and brought in the right people to actually execute it. What impressed me most was how quickly he understood both the trades education landscape and the direct-to-consumer opportunity, then translated that into actionable steps that moved us from a referral-based program to a scalable growth business. If you're looking for someone who can bridge strategy and execution while bringing vetted resources to the table, Rich is your guy.

Rich Smith is that rare executive who combines strategic vision with exceptional execution. He doesn’t just see opportunities others miss—he turns them into market-defining realities. As CMO at Ditech, Rich became an enterprise customer of LeadiD and was instrumental in identifying an untapped use case that evolved into the Activate platform, contributing significantly to our growth and our successful rebrand to Jornaya. We later brought Rich on as CMO of Jornaya to help position the company for optimal acquisition potential, and he quickly became an essential part of the leadership team that achieved a nine-figure acquisition by Verisk. Rich’s unique ability to architect growth strategies, build category leadership, and drive measurable outcomes is why I’ve partnered with him multiple times, including helping to launch Vojomo—and why any company serious about accelerating revenue should have him in their corner.