Meet Parker Rider | Media and Marketing Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Parker Rider and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Parker, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When I graduated college and started my first corporate job as a data analyst in 2017, I felt satisfied for a couple years. I worked so hard to get through college that I was determined to continue using my degree. I thought it was the safe thing to do and would ultimately lead to much bigger and better things. But it wasn’t long until I started to grow tired of a boss I didn’t like, old school office practices I didn’t care for, and seeing the greed and callousness of big business. I was starting to think a lot about how my dad had his own business and all the freedom he had to spend time with my brother and me.

I eventually changed jobs in March 2021, while dating my now wife. We had our daughter about a year and a half later and I made sure to make my family my primary focus. But, I was still gone ~9ish hours a day (with commute). So, I would often circle back to trying to think of ways to become self-sufficient. Then in November of 2024, I was let go from my job, and that was kind of the final push to do something, because I had to try to find more income. I wanted to create a little distance from being an analyst, yet do something where I could tap back into my analytics experience eventually. Also, in my previous work I had worked a bit with Marketing and Social Media teams and found it pretty interesting. So, after having recently built a couple websites, I decided I would give a media and marketing agency for small businesses a go.

What should our readers know about your business?
What sets me apart from others is my resourcefulness and creativity. Hard work is an awesome quality to have, and I do, but often things don’t go as planned and require problem solving skills beyond just trying to power through. Some people might not think analytics and creativity go together, but I’ve seen a lot of data in my life. It’s usually a mess and requires thinking outside the box to piece it all together. And, that’s the same for a lot of other things. So, I’m great at figuring out how to make things work well with the tools I have.

Getting to where I currently am, has not been easy. Landing my first client was awesome, and what I’m most proud of, but getting more clients has been a big challenge. Talking to small business owners, I know there is a demand for my services, but they are struggling just as much as a lot of us and investing outside their business in marketing or social media management is a tough decision to make. And I truly empathize with that. But, that investment does give them time to focus on other parts of their business and lives.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
One of my favorite activities to do is go to Activate Southlake. It’s not a small business, but it’s a lot of fun and affordable. My wife and I also love to do escape rooms in the area. One of my favorite foods spots is a taco truck called Tacowboy, and Society Coffee on Main in Euless has never disappointed. There’s a really nice small bookshop in Grapevine called Talking Animals Books.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My biggest thanks goes out to my wife. Also, score.org is an excellent resource for small business owners.

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