We recently connected with J. David “JD” Rich and have shared our conversation below.

JD, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

Thanks for having me! I’m stoked to be here to talk content! For me, social media has unexpectedly become a calling card in the last several years. It’s helped me land a number of non-social media based roles with various companies throughout my career, and even helped pave the way to my current role at Monster Energy. So I would absolutely recommend getting involved and online building your brand, regardless of your approach.

As a kid growing up, especially throughout high school and college, I was really into skateboarding and the automotive scene, while also being a major film nerd. These multiple passions ultimately crossed paths when I began making skate and drifting videos as a side hobby in my teen years. Nothing too crazy or impressive, just content to make my buddies look cool while further exploring and pushing my creative side and enjoying a hobby. I just enjoyed sharing my vision of what events or venues I was attending.

My approach to social media started changing when I was just out of college. I started to notice a trend where people of all walks of life were using short form content to push and really show the story of their lives – content very similar to what I was already producing myself. While a lot of folks still just use it to share every day photos or share a hot take, I was seeing a shift in interaction from people that were using it to tell the story of their life, and doing so through some really rad and captivating ways. Once I had noticed this, the realization quickly became that in order to get a defined audience for my work, there had to be some kind of story to go with it to help further drive the impact. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Why not use some of those words for captivating story telling?

People started to take notice. During a career transition, I was applying around for different roles, and my dream company of dream companies came calling, Monster Energy. This was far from my first introduction to Monster, as it had actually inspired a lot of the lifestyle, online and off, that I had looked up to. The best and baddest athletes, all the rad and unique events, and who can forget when the Monster Girls came on the scene? As a teenager growing up, that lifestyle looked to be the one that I wanted more than anything, so the fact that I even got an interview was huge. Ultimately, the manager that first hired me told me that while my interview was great, it was my social presence and already living the “Monster lifestyle” that got me hired. I still look back to that being one of the biggest opportunities I’ve gotten and my career, and it came solely because I put a little effort into my content.

Now that I’m deep into the Monster fold (I just celebrated my four year anniversary with the company in August), things are the best they’ve ever been, personally and professionally. And let me tell ya, they give me a ton of great opportunities to get killer content every day on the job! As you can tell, the approach was very much my own, and I think that attributes to the successes I’ve found to this point in my career.

JD, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Absolutely! I was born and raised in Murfreesboro, TN, and after a brief stint in Colorado last year, I now happily reside in Nashville.

I grew up loving action sports and cars. I was raised on Dukes of Hazzard reruns and NASCAR racing, so needless to say that I always dreamt of a life around loud motors and talented athletes, but after growing up in the south, where action sports weren’t really a thing at the time and everybody and their momma wanted to get into racing, I always thought it would be a dream.

Ultimately, after struggling to figure out where I wanted to go in life, I landed a job at Hankook Tire. After several months of learning the technical aspect of the tire industry, the company had seen everything I was doing in the motorsports realm for my media company and selected me to run their US based motor sports teams. Within two weeks, I went from inspecting tires for warranty claims to working side by side with some of my favorite drivers and athletes from childhood. Not very long into the season, we were winning a couple of Formula Drift championships with Chris Forsberg and Kevin Lawrence, and even taking home a class victory at the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with Rhys Millen (who, ironically enough, was one of the stunt drivers on the Dukes of Hazzard film from the mid 2000s). While we quickly found success, there were some changes made outside of my control, and unfortunately all the motor sports programs were shutdown at the end of that year, leaving me looking for options of what to do to scratch the itch of the addictive lifestyle that it provided, and one I craved.

This led me to Monster Energy. As I mentioned, I wanted to work for Monster for as long as I knew what they were, so once I got hired on, it was seriously like a pipe dream. At first, I was only hired on as a part time brand ambassador, going to help at events and getting cold cans in hand, so I needed another gig to keep afloat while I waited for the opportunity to advance in the company. For the next two years I had a second job at Discount Tire, where I would become a full time assistant manager during the day, and provided the opportunity to moonlight as a rep for Monster at nights and on the weekends. Two full years of back breaking, blood/sweat/tear losing, 80+ hour work weeks, but I used this time to build my brand knowledge of the Monster family, while cultivating my sales knowledge at Discount. And it paid off when I finally got the call to go full time with Monster at the end of 2020.

I dove head first into the Monster-sphere, moving to Colorado Springs, building relationships with customers, bottlers, and Monster Family alike. I quickly became one of the fastest growing reps in my role, and really learned the business side of what makes Monster, well, Monster! It was great! I was more involved than I ever thought I would be with the company, and was loving every second of it. On the personal side, however, I was really starting to miss the things back home that I grew up around, and started to realize that maybe I was a little wrong about wanting to leave.

So I worked hard and got myself promoted, I was able to come back towards the end of 2021. I was so fortunate to get the opportunity to move back to where I wanted to be, while still moving up on the corporate ladder. Nowadays, I’m calling on the greater Nashville market and making sure that I don’t miss a single race, event, or concert along the way! And the opportunities haven’t stopped there. While I’m a sales rep on paper, I also get to do a ton of other rad things with the company – I’ve gotten to do everything from hosting guests at CMAFest and NASCAR events, to traveling out to Vegas for our big Monster Family reunion earlier this year. My old boss once told me that I would thrive if I got the opportunity to come back to Nashville, and I’ll be damned if that hasn’t been the truth ever since the first day I was back!

So as you can tell, I’ve had quite a colorful career so far, but the one constant in any of the roles I’ve done is this: if you keep your head up, and leave everyone in a better way than when you found them, you’ll go wherever you want to go, and some that you would’ve never expected. These days, I try to share that same message and tone in the content that I produce. There’s enough negativity in the world, and if I can create something that’s useful to someone, even if it merely just brings a smile their face, then in my mind, I’m doing it right

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Metrics! I didn’t start using any of the tools that are available for content creators and influencers to use. I wish I would’ve starting using those sooner because today its practically essential to know what does and doesn’t work for your audience.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As mentioned, I had been creating content since I was a kid, so I’ve always had somewhat of a knack for it.

I’d say to just not be afraid to try new tactics and techniques, whether that’s following the latest trends, or trying out a shot that you’ve only seen in your head. Not everything is going to play to your audience, but you’ve got to test the waters to know for sure. And sometimes the screw ups make for some great learning experiences. Some of my biggest learning opportunities came from my own failure, and has even made some of the best content (although, sometimes at my expense – haha)!

My biggest advice would be to stay true to who you are, and where your passions lie. People will pick up on a facade, and at the end of the day, you won’t be conveying who you really are. But also just have fun with it. People who are actually enjoying what they’re doing in their content comes across, and your audience will quickly realize how genuine that is.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @JDavidRich
• Facebook: J. David Racing
• Linkedin: J. David Rich
• Twitter: @JDavidRich
• Youtube: JDR Media
• TikTok: @JDavidRich

Image Credits – Jon Morgan Photography
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