We recently connected with Richard Crowley and have shared our conversation below.

Richard, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

For over twenty-five years, I’ve been engaged in public hands-on education around conservation and captive-care, rehomed a wide range of reptile and amphibian species ranging from the smallest to the largest animals and provided expertise to local, state and federal authorities. I have been a dedicated advocate for responsible and ethical stewardship of reptiles and amphibians. My focus is on encouraging and strengthening positive public perceptions and personal interactions with all reptiles and amphibian species.

My love for cold-blooded animals grew from researching, keeping and eventually breeding a number of incredible species. I discovered and eventually focused on my favorites groups of species. Through this journey, I found an unlikely calling increasing my personal confidence and industry reputation. This led me to authoring the only publication on the species, “A Passionate Journey with Short-Tailed Pythons” selling copies world-wide. I have been sought after as a subject matter expert and invited speaker at national reptile conferences, university emergency management and animal welfare courses, professional societies and actively mentoring other professionals.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So who and what is R&D Exotics LLC? It is the mature representation of Rich Crowley Reptiles.

The Tree of Life is an inspiration to me and conveys my passion for all natural life. It evolved out of my Celtic/Irish heritage which I embrace in a more modern and universal sense. The color RED is a representation of “blood” and “passion” both tied to what I feel is a core embodiment of the business. Bloodlines and selection of deliberate breeding lines for a modern take on living art. The passion permeates all that I do and the strength of commitment for what I do in all aspects. The images are inspired also around the DNA image and preservation of species both in locality and purity of speciation. The image is very reminiscent of the old ‘wax seals’ acting as my seal and commitment.

The name R&D Exotics has multiple connotations and no one singly has more significance over the others:
– Research and Development: constantly experimenting, using science-based information and applying best practices to everything we do
– Rich and Debbie: joint effort in that I need support from my family and my wife is my rock, my foundation in support
– Exotics and novel is my approach to what I do. Essentially I am commercializing on my successes with reptile husbandry but driving the resources generated into maximizing my conservation and volunteer-based activities.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

As a leader to one of the most renowned herpetological organizations, I assisted many organizations including many prestigious zoological and educational institutions. Coupled with my sincere generosity with sharing information on what I know and how I do it appears contagious with prospective clients. My passion is real and visible and this translates to great customer service. This is genuine as is the love of the work I do and the animals I work with. Authoring my book was another element to my reputation expanding my reputation to outside US borders. This eventually led to invitations with influencers in the reptile community expanding my reputation to new entrants and veterans alike.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

References from other peers and influencer videos, participating in breeder conferences where new clients/newbies attend.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.richcrowleyreptiles.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rich.crowley.reptiles/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richcrowleyreptiles
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@richcrowleyreptiles

Image Credits
Photo with small python: photo credit to Steve Barten, DVM Photo with DuPage County States Attorney Bob Berlin: no photo credit provided. Photo with big alligator: photo credit to Bob Bavirsha Photo with big python: photo credit to Dick Buckholz