Richard then went to Camp Lejeune for advanced training for another 3 months. After that, he trained for several months with the field artillery unit located at the 3rd Battalion, 14th Marines, based in Philadelphia. He then trained with the 4th Force Reconnaissance Platoon based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

He later trained for a few months with First Troop Philadelphia City Calvary. Established in 1774, the First Troop is the oldest continuously active military unit in the United States with its roots forming during the American Revolution. While with them, Richard had the opportunity to enroll in training to drive and operate the M-1 Abrams Battle Tank while at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Richard has run two 26-mile marathons in Philadelphia, and continues to run an hour each and every day all year round.

Richard has worked with the White House Advance Team on five presidential visits. His assignments with the Advance Team included recruiting drivers and participating in the Presidential motorcade, securing loaned vehicles from area car dealers, recruiting volunteers to serve as guides for visiting staff at special events, and administrative computer support work.
 

Richard served with eight political campaigns to include: Office of the Mayor, State Representative, District Attorney and United States Senate.

Richard launched the Panorama Toastmasters Club for public speaking while President of the 1500 Locust Residents Association in 1992-93. During this time as President, Richard also recruited leaders for and launched six other community clubs to increase fellowship and community participation among the 800 residents. The Panorama Club still exists today, some 15 years later.

Richard was the founder and past chairman of the Philadelphia Pyramid Club's Programs Committee, one of Philadelphia's premier social clubs.

In 1998, Richard was hired by Lord Abbett, an international financial firm then headquartered in New York City. He was tasked with creating the firm's first Technology Education Department from scratch.  He created more than 60 technology courses to teach the 500+ employees more advanced skills in computer technology.  Richard  specialized in troubleshooting blockages, and designed more than a dozen software solutions to save time and money in manpower. Such applications would often take projects that took hours of manual work and thousands of dollars, and reduced such tasks to mere minutes. Richard wrote several technology manuals, which can be downloaded here. Richard created the Lord Abbett Public Speaking Club, which became the most successful and most popular voluntary training program in the 70-year history of the financial firm.

In 2001, while seeking to gain mastery of skills in public speaking and professional selling, Richard enrolled in and passed the Dale Carnegie Instructor Course, and the Dale Carnegie Sales Instructor Course. Richard is a recipient of the Dale Carnegie Highest Achievement Award, 1994.

Richard volunteered 700+ hours with the Dale Carnegie training staff on a part-time basis over an 8 year period of time. This background as a corporate trainer gives the experience and skill to reach and connect with audience members from all walks of society, resulting in a fun packed and entertaining performance that will reach your audiences in a remarkable and memorable way. Richard has read Dale Carnegie's book many times, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", and incorporates much of these teachings in both his motivational seminars and leadership seminars.

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. There were more than 215,000 members and over 11,000 clubs located across the United States and in approximately 90 other countries.

As an active member of Toastmasters, Richard has won 14 First Place Ribbons for public speaking. He also won nine trophies for his speeches in public speaking contests at the local, area, and division levels of Toastmasters.

His peers voted on his speeches and frequently praised his ability to organize and structure his presentations, inject humor and enthusiasm, and project energy that stirred his listeners.

Many of Richard's speeches focus on motivating and inspiring others to live their lives to the fullest. He shares stories and lessons learned from his own experiences and many adventures. Richard has constantly sought to make his speeches, motivational seminars and magic shows full of energy, enthusiasm, animation and excitement.

Richard frequently uses Dale Carnegie's teachings to encourage people to seek their fullest potential. Richard believes that by projecting a high level of energy into the audience, that this "focused enthusiasm" is powerful and contagious.

Richard teaches that by creating a powerful emotional experience, the natural barriers drop and people are receptive to the lessons and teachings being shared with listeners.  He closes all speeches, seminars and shows with "action statements" to challenge people to live life more abundantly.