I am Jason Messier, the President & Owner of Wicked Local RI. I was born and raised in Coventry, living there until 2013 when I moved “all the way” down the road 3 miles into West Warwick. That same year I literally began anew on almost every aspect of his life. I sold my former business; Donkey Dodgers Poker Tour, broke up with my ex fiancé and set out on an unknown path.
I knew my life needed more. While I made decent money at that job, I was having too many long nights at the bar and not enough time with the people that mattered most; my children; Autumn & Jacoby, then 13 & 4. I went back to delivering pizza for six months, then worked odd jobs for the next year while moving into a small studio apartment and assessing what I needed and wanted in my life moving forward.
Shortly thereafter I started several Facebook groups & pages. They were at first a venting page for grievances and negativity but it slowly evolved into the epicenter of positivity in our community. When you find your calling in life, you just know and feel it. Helping the community, is my calling. The struggle for me was going to be finding a way to do that while also supporting my family financially. Throughout 2014 & 2015, I slowly morphed into a community leader. Most notably, driving my Crazy Christmas Wagon around during the holidays collecting gifts and donations for families in need while spreading good cheer to all. However in December of 2015 I was again without a job, at a huge crossroads. I wanted a job where I could be creatively fulfilled, support my family sufficiently and be able to help the community! But there didn’t seem to be one set fit for me; so I paved my own path and created it; Wicked Local RI!
I always thought it would be awesome to have a “Restaurant Week” in West Warwick. So I literally did the arduous task of walking restaurant to restaurant with
the “cold sell” to local businesses to be part of “Wicked Local Week West Warwick”. The niche to our promotion would be promotion of this week throughout my then, much smaller social media network, and a personal approach to the advertisements. When all was set and done, we ended up including more than just restaurants, highlighting 40 businesses in March of 2016 including salons, specialty shops, trade based businesses, oil companies and of course restaurants and bars. It was such a success that I immediately went to the Secretary of States Office and became an official LLC under the name Wicked Beautiful Rhode Island LLC. We went on to promote 50+ businesses in Warwick, 50+ more in Coventry and over 200 overall throughout the state before the year was over!
While each business is promoted uniquely, the goal is the same throughout. Highlighting businesses in a truly personal approach. What we do isn’t a cookie cutter newspaper style advertisement. The cost to advertise with us is a fraction of the price of print, radio or other media in the area and the reach is unquestioned! We have slowly and organically cultivated a huge audience of almost 50 thousand followers and growing! While everyone needs to make a living, my main goal is always to be a good community neighbor, help those in need to the best of my ability and make a small positive difference to those around me. I’m blessed to be able to have a job which enables me to do both!
