Owner, RMC Strategies

Ryan McCollum

Ryan McCollum when he was named to the 40 Under Forty class of 2012, and today (top)

Ryan McCollum says he likes to have the circles in his life intersect.

And by circles, he means people who are in his life for various reasons — clients, friends, colleagues, elected officials — and causes and agencies he supports, everything from early childhood education provider Square One to the game of golf, especially for populations not generally associated with it.

To get his point across, McCollum gave a couple examples that help tell his story, and this particular story of how he is again a finalist for the coveted Alumni Achievement Award.

One references his involvement with a group called 16 Lyrics (formed with 15 friends), which is committed to combating racism and, among other initiatives, helps provide schools with books featuring diverse characters, authors, and storylines — “because, whether it was books or TV, it was hard to find characters that looked like me,” he noted.

“We had a golf tournament last year,” he said of 16 Lyrics. “I had Trap Golf, which I work with to bring people in the game, donate a bunch of stuff. I had a client from PricewaterhouseCoopers play with me. I made sure to ask elected officials to play or sponsor — we had a cart full of state reps. My wife and daughter helped in planning it. Circles intersected: my charitable world, a lobbying client, my family, and all my friends, and Get Set Marketing designed and printed all the tee signs and the like, and I work with them.”

The second example involves one of his clients, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, and the kickoff to his re-election campaign in February.

Garcia wanted Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll to attend, and McCollum made some calls and secured an appearance, not just for that announcement, but also for a tour of the Hope for Youth Arts Center (formerly CityStage), a project being undertaken by another McCollum client, Robert Bolduc, and his Center for Hope & Families Foundation. He also helped organize a fundraiser for the lieutenant governor at LightHouse Holyoke, a non-traditional middle and high school that is another McCollum client. And to top it off, Young at Heart, the Northampton-based chorus and yet another client, performed at the event.

You might say bringing worlds together and having circles intersect is what McCollum does. Professionally, he’s an entrepreneur, the owner of RMC Strategies, a consulting firm that partners with Get Set Marketing to provide one-stop shopping for those with political marketing needs. He’s worked on several campaigns over the years, including those for Garcia and State Rep. Orlando Ramos, another of this year’s AAA finalists (see story on page 19).

McCollum is also heavily involved in the community and has been for decades. He’s among the founders of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield and currently sits on several boards, including those for Square One, Suit Up Springfield, 16 Lyrics, the Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley, and the National Conference for Community and Justice.

“When people ask me what I do, I tell them I’m a political consultant, I tell them I’m a lobbyist, but I do a lot of connecting of folks whom I think should be connected,” he said, adding that this unique and important skill has defined his professional career and personal life.

And it certainly explains why is a finalist for the Alumni Achievement Award for the second time in three years.

As does his outlook on simply … being kind.

“Kindness, and being kind, is a great business and career strategy, and on so many levels,” he told BusinessWest. “Especially in my business — the relationship business. Treating people kindly goes a long way. It can be hard to be kind all the time, because we’re all human … but it’s important, and it’s something I work on.”

As for the game of golf, McCollum plays whenever he can — he’s partial to Springfield’s municipal courses, Franconia and Veterans — and has become involved with various efforts and outfits, such as Trap Golf out of Atlanta, which was created to bring more people into the game, “especially communities that don’t intersect with it often,” as he put it.

“I like to be America’s golf guest,” he joked, adding that he plays with friends as well as entering tournaments for various causes throughout the summer.

“It’s a great game,” he went on, adding that, among other things, it provides more opportunities to enable circles to intersect and for him to continue his work as a connector.

—George O’Brien

FAST
FACTS

Age: 45

40 Under Forty Class: 2012

Title Then: Owner and Principal, RMC Strategies; Marketing Consultant, Get Set Marketing

Title Now: Owner, RMC Strategies

Walk-up Song: “Get By” by Talib Kweli

Years an AAA Finalist: 2

Owner, RMC Strategies

Ryan McCollum has grown not only his business but his civic impact since being honored by 40 Under Forty in 2012 (below).

Ryan McCollum 2012

When he became a member of the 40 Under Forty class of 2012, Ryan McCollum had already established an impressive track record of entrepreneurship, community involvement, and simply being an advocate for, and supporter of, the Western Mass. region and its business community.

Indeed, at that time, he had established RMC Strategies, a full-service consulting and government-relations firm, as a force in the region. Meanwhile, he was involved in civic work — and helping to promote and strengthen the 413 — on many levels, from his work to help launch the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield to his service on the board of Best Buddies.

To say that, over the past 11 years, he has only built on this deep and impressive résumé would be a huge understatement.

As an entrepreneur, he has established two new ventures — Shoe Leather, a text-messaging marketing company, and Goldilox, an online payment platform for candidates and nonprofits — and he is also part-owner of a cannabis dispensary set to open this fall in Monson, part of the growing portfolio of Holyoke-based DAZE, one of his clients at RMC.

Speaking of RMC, McCollum continues to grow that venture and take it in different directions. Indeed, while he still handles political campaigns — he served as consultant to Joshua Garcia in his successful bid to become the first Latino Mayor of Holyoke in 2021, for example — he continues to build his client list and, recently, his portfolio of work as a lobbyist. When he spoke with BusinessWest, McCollum was driving to Boston to lobby for the Coalition for an Equitable Economy. He’s also done some lobbying for a company looking to enable small businesses — bars, restaurants, and private clubs — to be a part of the burgeoning sports-betting scene across the state.

But it’s his ongoing efforts to expand his volunteer work within the community that is perhaps most impressive.

Indeed, the current list of agencies and causes he’s involved with includes Suit Up Springfield and Square One, which he serves as a board member; Roca, which he serves as an advisory board member; the Springfield Museums, where he has been a member of the marketing and communications committee; the Children’s Museum in Holyoke, for which he was a celebrity dancer for its Fancy Steps fundraiser this year; and many others. He’s even involved in work to help bring others into the game of golf, a sport he discovered years ago and is now somewhat passionate about.

“If ever Ryan leaves a board, he immediately joins two more,” wrote Timothy Allen, principal at Birchland Park Middle School in East Longmeadow and a 40 Under Forty winner himself (class of 2013), who nominated McCollum for the AAA. “Despite the success of his personal business, it is still the community side of his work that drives his daily motivation.”

Increasingly, this work in the community has involved efforts to combat racism and level the playing field for all residents of the 413 — and beyond.

McCollum is now a board member for the Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley as well as the National Conference for Community and Justice, and he recently became a member of the Longmeadow Coalition for Racial Justice Task Force. And then, there’s the recently formed nonprofit he founded (with 15 friends and colleagues, many of them involved in education) called 16 Lyrics.

“We fight to conquer and dismantle systemic racism through education, community outreach, and intensive support of those in the same battles.”

“We fight to conquer and dismantle systemic racism through education, community outreach, and intensive support of those in the same battles,” he said of the agency’s mission statement. “Our first initiative has been to provide kids with books that have diverse characters, diverse authors, diverse storylines — and we do that all over the country; we’ve given out books that we’ve purchased from Black-owned bookstores to places in New Jersey, Chicago, and, of course, Massachusetts. It’s been fun, and I think we’re already making a difference.”

While his work in the community and as a business owner and lobbyist are all impressive, perhaps McCollum’s most important work, Allen said, is as a connector — connecting residents, political candidates and office holders, and organizations with resources and opportunities for growth and advancement.

“He is the person to call to connect people and form other lasting bonds, which further creates great energy and outcomes here in Western Mass.,” Allen wrote. “Instead of sitting on each board he is asked to sit on, he’s working on setting up a talent bank of young and diverse leaders to sit on boards and fill other roles he’s often asked himself to take on.

“While clearly becoming an even more of a behind-the-scenes and sometimes out-front leader in the community, it’s Ryan’s ability to push for others that sets him apart,” Allen continued. “He consistently extends opportunities to those who may not have the connections or relationships to be thought of, but have the talent and love of the community to serve as well as anyone.”

When he became a 40 Under Forty honoree in 2012, McCollum summed up his work — and his overall mindset — this way: “I want to leave the world a better place than I found it … this is the driving force behind everything I do.”

That is still the force that drives him, and 11 years later, there is much more to talk about when it comes to ‘everything I do.’

And that’s why he is one of the finalists for the Alumni Achievement Award in 2023.

—George O’Brien