Who Are the Hubbells?
Rick Hubbell – Business Growth Specialist, Kingdom-Hearted Entrepreneur
Rick Hubbell met the Lord at the age of 23 in a dramatic encounter which changed the course of his life. By conventional wisdom, prior to that, it appeared he was doing fine. It wasn’t that he hadn’t accomplished things, hadn’t tried to be his best or didn’t grow up in a great home. He did, but lacked the sense of divine purpose that can only come from on high.
Even so, there were bright spots. Excelling in music, schoolwork, and athletics from a young age, he became fairly ‘well rounded’. As a middle-schooler, he was a nationally ranked chess player, winning a State title. In high school, a tragic event occurred to a young girl and he wrote a song for her which impacted the entire community. Later accepted to Oberlin College, he was elected co-captain of the Varsity Lacrosse team and yet ultimately partied that outstanding educational opportunity away, dropping out junior year.
Though he grew up attending church regularly in his rural New Hampshire hometown, he never knew God. But when God woke him up years later, things were different. His past suddenly seemed self-absorbed; the future, significant. He was overcome with the desire to live a purposeful life and follow God’s leading, wherever it went. The only way he could do this, he thought, was to become a fulltime church Pastor or missionary.
In the meantime, he went back to college at the University of North Carolina (Asheville), finished his degree and was then offered an entry level position at a natural pharmaceutical company. Though his skills were raw and he didn’t know the first thing about business, he applied himself and was promoted within a year and a half. As his work responsibilities grew, so did his involvement in his local church. While serving in multiple ministries, he met the perfect, beautiful-young-twenty-something there, named Jennifer. Within a year they were married.
At the pharmaceutical company, his work duties readily expanded to include writing, marketing, educating, selling, branding and pioneering a new system for packaging products that enabled doctors to use them more effectively. Sales in his area of responsibility increased 92%. But the call to church ministry proved stronger and he soon accepted the opportunity to become an Associate Pastor. He counseled, taught, worshipped and prayed, leading Creative ministries, singles ministry, prayer meetings, founding an entrepreneurs group and loving all of it. Seeing a need, he developed a workshop called Coming Alive with the Purpose of God, Action Steps to Fulfill Your Destiny to help people truly know their calling. As the impact and attendance grew, Hubbell was increasingly amazed by the glimpses he caught of the treasures God placed within people, so ready to come out, but held back for many different reasons. To him, seeing people come into and become truly established in their callings, was the best part of ministry.
After wonderful years enjoying church growth both in numbers (from about 140 to 1200) and in deep, rich experiences along the way, through a remarkable turn of events, the Lord called him back into business from church ministry. He didn’t understand it, but cooperated, knowing it was God. During the years since then, the Lord has continued to lead him through a divinely orchestrated, real life boot camp in business at many levels. From entrepreneur to corporate executive, his experience includes founding multiple businesses, owning a successful franchise, roles as Assistant VP, Vice President, President, and Senior Consultant – consulting with organizations around the US and several foreign countries in multiple specialties. Hubbell has led planning sessions with both major ministries and businesses, worked with dozens of startups and hundreds of individuals. His life mission, ‘Developing business and business people for Kingdom advancement’ is also something he loves.
He is a business growth specialist who provides consulting and services to current clients around the US and beyond, across multiple business sectors.
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Jennifer Hubbell – Business Owner, Creative Manager, Mom of 4
The daughter of a Pastor with missionary mindset, Jennifer has walked with the Lord since the day of her sixth birthday!
When you meet her in person, her smile, style and contagious positive attitude are probably the first things you will notice. But with Jennifer, those qualities simply introduce a woman that delivers real positive impact to individuals as well as organizations.
An accomplished business leader, she exudes confidence and instills excellence. At one point early on in her career, in under a three year period she was promoted in a regional chain from retail sales associate, to store manager, to corporate level trainer and then all the way to multi-store mentor. On that road she was specially awarded five times for sales, management and profit increases – including a 57%, six-figure increase in just 18 months.
She also built, owned, operated and then resold a mall franchise store that turned its first profit in just four months under her direct management. Her experience includes owning a franchise, building a company from her basement to 1200 stores nationwide, buying and selling small businesses, working for a chain of retail stores and more.
Most recently, she launched, then profitably sold, a ‘ gently used’ consignment business, Posh Baby Events, which had sales with more than 10,000 items in one sale and donated any unsold clothes to deserving charity. She focuses major attention on the raising of her 4 children, yet consistently finds creative involvement in the marketplace and looks forward to public office one day as God directs.
