MEMBER SPOTLIGHT | NOVEMBER 2021 (Joe Ricco)

Perseverance. That's what Joe Ricco learned most from wrestling and what has made him successful in business. It wasn't head/hand positions or grips. It was the intangible skill that wrestling taught him that he has valued more than anything else; Perseverance.

This month, we are excited to spotlight Joe Ricco, the co-owner of Security Solutions Inc, headquartered in Charlotte, NC. Security Solutions is a company that provides end-to-end solutions for residential and commercial needs (security/camera, fire protection, and access control). Security Solutions primarily works in the mid-Atlantic region and typically works with customers from Charleston, SC to Richmond, VA, to Nashville, TN. For anyone interested in reaching out to Joe for advice and/or business, please reach out to him at jricco@mysecuritysolutions.com. Even if Joe can't help you, he is happy to provide advice on security needs and might even be able to provide a reference with whom you can connect.

Joe got a later-than-normal start to wrestling. He didn't start wrestling until his sophomore year of high school, primarily due to the influence of friends. Once he started, he was hooked. What really cemented the sport in his mind was that he could measure every day whether he was improving. "There is no instant gratification in wrestling," he said, but he could see when he was getting a bit better…. maybe it was one more takedown or not getting turned. But he could see he was getting better. Joe wrestled during high school in New York, and he faced some of the best competition in the country, and he kept getting better. He credits much of his success to the relationship he formed with Gene Mills. Joe went to one of Gene's camps and, fortunately, Joe made an impression. After the camp, Joe would drive 2+ hours to work one-on-one with Gene. That work paid off. Though Joe never won a state championship, he wrestled against the best, and although he lost some very close matches to these wrestlers, he wrestled tough. And this led him to Western New England College with Coach Bob Skelton.

Coach Skelton was highly influential on Joe, and he is sincerely appreciative of the structure and discipline that Coach Skelton provided. It would form the foundation upon which his professional success would be based. Though Joe never graduated from WNEC (6 credits short!), he has started two very successful companies and attributes his success to what he learned through wrestling. Perseverance.

After Joe left WNEC, he began working door-to-door sales for home and commercial security systems, and he excelled. For 18 months, he did this and did it well. However, he thought he could do it better. At 24, he started his own company in the same space (Security Logistics). And this wasn't easy. There was uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and wrestling got him through this. Where others who start companies don't know how to deal with this adversity, Joe dealt with adversity through wrestling, which got him through the tough times.

In 2011, Joe moved to Charlotte, NC, due to his wife's career, and Joe still led Security Logistics for the following year. He would sell the company in 2012 and become a "full-time dad." As a matter of fact, he is proud that he prioritized being a father more than being a business owner through his entire business enterprise.

But in 2012, Joe started a new company: Security Solutions Inc. This company provides similar solutions as his previous company. He works with residential and commercial customers, focusing on security systems, camera solutions, fire prevention systems, and access control systems. As much as he works with customers directly, he equally works as a sub-contractor for others. Joe has always been customer-centric and relies much more on word of mouth than advertising and marketing. Security Solutions doesn't even have a web page and, yet, they have an impressive list of clients and satisfied customers.

How did wrestling help Joe? It taught him that it was OK to fail. Just like in wrestling, you had to move on from a tough loss. You just had to learn from that loss and not make the same mistake again. He has never dwelled on a loss. Instead, he learned from it moved on. From a business sense, he realized that he had to make sure the learning curve was faster. In business, he had to learn/adjust/change even faster than in wrestling. But wrestling gave him that background to be successful.

Joe has always focused on being a father/husband first. And he has built his business cadence around the needs of his family. He has two children. His son was a very successful HS wrestler and is now a student at Virginia Tech. Joe believes that his very best memories of wrestling have been those of his wrestling with his son. He also has a daughter (HS senior) who was recently accepted to the University of Georgia and will be heading to Athens next Fall.

We have so many great members at WIBN. Joe is certainly one of them and is doing great things for our Charlotte Chapter. We are thrilled to have our wrestling alumni who continue to give back to our sport, and Joe is certainly doing exactly that. Perseverance.