About The Founder:  Rick Nielsen

The Man Behind The Trades Person organization

So what is this whole trades person thing all about anyway?

It’s about freedom. It’s about mastery.
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And it’s about helping good, hard-working people in the trades build something that gives them autonomy — not just another job that owns them.But before we get into all that, let me back up and tell you who I am and how I got here — because my path wasn’t exactly “straight and narrow.”

It was more like a zig-zag through the backroads of small-town America, chasing opportunity, learning the hard way, and refusing to quit until I figured things out.

‍From Grease Monkey to Growth Architect
‍I went to college to be a mechanic — because in my world, you learned to fix things with your hands before you learned to fix them with your head. I started out washing cars at a local dealership in my hometown. Eventually, I made it into the shop as a mechanic… and later into sales.

That transition from wrench-turner to deal-maker taught me one of the greatest lessons of my life: success has less to do with what you know and everything to do with how you communicate it.It was the first real taste I had of persuasion, service, and understanding human behavior — lessons that would come back around years later when I started teaching tradespeople how to market themselves.

But back then, I had no idea that I’d one day be building marketing systems and websites that generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in leads for carpenters, painters, roofers, and remodelers across the country. I was just a kid with grease on my hands and something to prove.

‍From Sales Floors to Financial Freedom
‍Eventually, I left the dealership life and took a sharp left turn into the world of finance.Yeah, I know — a mechanic turned financial services entrepreneur sounds like the setup for a bad joke. But I was hungry, curious, and I refused to be boxed in.I built a financial services firm from scratch — no investors, no corporate safety net, no “business plan blessed by the MBA crowd.”

Just sheer persistence, long nights, and an obsession with figuring things out. Within a few years, that company grew to over 500 reps across three states.

That chapter taught me the power of systems. It taught me how to duplicate success. How to teach success. And it showed me that leadership isn’t about barking orders — it’s about creating belief.When I eventually sold that company, I didn’t walk away burnt out. I walked away with a deep understanding of how business really works — and how much of it is just psychology, process, and persistence.

‍The Accidental Web Guy
‍Then came 1998.The internet was young, ugly, and slow. But I saw potential — a way to help small businesses punch way above their weight. So I dove headfirst into learning web design, marketing, SEO, and everything else nobody was teaching back then.

No degrees. No formal training. Just brute-force self-education and a lot of caffeine.Before long, I was building websites for everyone — from mom-and-pop shops to Fortune 500 giants like Hallmark, DuPont, and McDonald’s. Over the next couple of decades, I built and launched over 700 websites.

But even after working with the big names and racking up a high six-figure business, something kept gnawing at me.I wasn’t doing the kind of work that meant something to me anymore.

‍Back to the Trades
‍In 2016, everything changed with one small project — a four-page website for a land surveyor in Missouri. It was nothing fancy. Just a simple site with some basic local SEO tricks I wanted to test.No expectations. No big launch. Just an experiment.And then it took off.

That little website hit #1 on Google in two small communities and started pumping out leads like a slot machine on a winning streak.

With over 850 qualified leads in the last 34 months, that once-struggling surveyor was practically semi-retired — living proof of what happens when marketing actually works.

That was my “lightbulb moment.”I realized I didn’t want to be a generalist anymore. I wanted to go all in on the trades. So I did.

I spent the next few years building out systems, training, coaching, and services specifically for tradespeople — folks who can build, repair, and restore just about anything but often never got the same training on the “soft skills” that make a business thrive: marketing, communication, persuasion, and financial intelligence.

‍Legacy Runs in the Blood
‍Maybe it’s in my DNA. My dad — who, at the time I’m writing this, is 86 years old — has been swinging a hammer since he was 13. He’s been self-employed his entire life. No excuses. No safety nets. Just skill, reputation, and grit.

Growing up watching him, I learned the true definition of a tradesman: someone who shows up, keeps his word, and builds a life with his own two hands.That’s the heartbeat behind The Trades Person.

‍It’s my way of giving back to the men and women who live that same code every day.

‍Built, Not Born
‍I’m not college-educated in business or marketing — and I wear that as a badge of honor. Everything I know, I learned the hard way. Through trial, error, repetition, and sheer stubbornness.If there’s one thing I’m deadly good at, it’s self-learning — breaking complex things down, making them simple, and teaching them in a way that actually sticks.

I live for that “ah-ha” moment when someone finally sees how all the pieces fit together and realizes they can do it too.That’s why I built all of this — the tools, the trainings, the books, the bootcamps, the newsletters, the coaching calls, the web systems.

They all exist for one purpose:
‍To move you from clueless to confident.
From scattered to strategic.
From working for your business to having your business work for you.

‍And when you use what I teach — when you take the systems and make them your own — your business stops being a grind and starts becoming what it was meant to be all along: a vehicle for freedom.

That’s the ultimate goal here:
‍Autonomy.
No Fluff. No Corporate Buzzwords.
No Pretending.

‍If you stick around long enough, you’ll notice something — I don’t do “fluff.” I don’t sugarcoat. I don’t play the fake “guru” game.I tell it like it is. Sometimes with sarcasm. Sometimes with a terrible joke.

Always with your success in mind.I believe in results — real ones.
I believe in marketing that works — not marketing that wins design awards.
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And I believe in people — the kind who are willing to show up, learn, and put in the work to build something that lasts.You’ll never catch me preaching perfection. I’m far more interested in progress — consistent, persistent progress. That’s what wins.That’s what separates the ones who make it from the ones who quit too soon.

‍Why I Do What I Do
‍At this point in my career, I could’ve easily stayed behind the scenes — building quiet, profitable websites for corporate clients who don’t even know my name.But that’s not why I’m here.I’m here because I believe tradespeople deserve better. You deserve tools, strategies, and systems that work as hard as you do. You deserve marketing that brings in the right clients — not just any clients. You deserve to stop worrying about feast-or-famine months and start building a business that gives you leverage, lifestyle, and legacy.

And if I can help even a handful of good people in the trades gain that kind of control over their business and life — then my mission’s complete.

‍In Plain English
‍Here’s the deal. I love what I do. I love helping tradespeople win. And I love having fun doing it.I’m sarcastic. I’m raw. I’m not politically correct.
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I believe your fate is in your hands — no one else’s.

If you’re looking for a padded-room version of business advice, you’re in the wrong place. But if you’re ready to learn, laugh a little, and build something powerful… then welcome home.

Stick around, read the newsletter, grab a book, jump into a bootcamp, or just shoot me a message. You’ll find that everything I’ve built — from The Journeyman Newsletter to The Success Syndicate to MarketLock Websites — was designed with one goal in mind: To make the complex simple, the hard doable, and the impossible achievable for the men and women of the trades.

‍Because the truth is, if I can figure it out — you sure as hell can too!