Found His Calling by Helping Others Find Theirs
When he was a teenager, Dick Singer wanted to be a disc jockey on the radio. He held tightly to that dream, majored in communications at Temple University in Philadelphia and worked in broadcast sales and management — not as a disc jockey — for over 30 years.
After 9-11, business was down dramatically, and a new CEO was brought into the broadcast group. As a result, Dick was terminated.
“My marketing professor at Temple told me, ‘You haven’t lived until you’ve been fired,’” Singer recalls. “And I have to say that he was absolutely right. Had that not happened, I wouldn’t have found Vistage.”
Singer was working as a consultant when he heard about Vistage. After researching it, he fell in love with the organization’s mission and purpose.
That love has led Singer to a prolific, 20+ year career as a Vistage Chair, which includes attaining Master Chair status, winning the 2013 Pat Hyndman Chair Award and, most recently, receiving the 2024 Don Cope Memorial Award, the highest accolade for a Chair.
After slipping the famous Cope blue jacket onto his shoulders, Singer says it still hasn’t quite sunk in.
“I’m just so very honored. I look at all of the previous Cope winners. They are, to me, the icons of Vistage,” Singer said during his awards ceremony last January at ChairWorld. “I share this award with all the Chairs — because I learn from them, as well.”
Singer says that learning and helpfulness kicked in shortly after he graduated from Chair Academy in 2003. With the help of local Pittsburgh Chairs, and his network, Singer hit the ground running and launched his first group within five months.
When it comes to being an effective Chair, Singer says one particular quality stands out.
“You have to be willing to be vulnerable. When you expose your own vulnerabilities, the members will expose theirs. Members want to stay up here,” Singer says, gesturing to the head. “But it’s the Chair’s job to get down to what I call the ‘mineral rights’ of the issues — the guts. Sometimes, members don’t want to go there, and you sort of have to push. Once they get there, that’s when the bonding begins — and when the magic occurs.”
Singer recalls the story of a member who ran a professional services company. One day, five of his key employees resigned to start their own business. Singer had him bring the issue to the group’s next meeting.
Singer says that at first, the group didn’t understand what the member was dealing with. When he asked the member what he was feeling at that moment, the member broke down in tears.
“Then the group began to understand that this was a much deeper issue, and the deep questions followed as the group became emotionally involved in the issue,” he says. The outcome? The member drew on the strong support of his group to rebuild his business and create one of the largest, most successful midsize professional services companies in the region.
Singer says stories like this remind him why issue processing is “the heart of the practice. To me, it’s the secret sauce of Vistage.
“I’ll throw the entire agenda out the window — except the speakers — if I see issues we need to delve into,” he says. “We’ve got to get our members talking about those issues so they can become better people.”
Looking back, Singer laughs. As an adolescent, he wanted to work in broadcasting to influence people. Now, as a Chair, he does that every day.
“You can’t put a value on it,” he says. “You have the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, in their companies and in their communities. It’s a gift.”
