Meet David Smith

We recently connected with David Smith and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience started at a young age. I always strived to be the best. I always considered myself a hard worker and dedicated to achieving goals. If I found myself not good at something, I would work incredibly hard to make myself better. When coming into mushrooms it was no different. We had a lot of trial and error starting this business. Many failed attempts. But we stayed resilient through the ups and downs and here we are with a store front, online store, and a successful grow op.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I specialize in gourmet mushrooms. We cultivate and distribute mushrooms and local produce all over St Louis and surrounding areas. We support local farmers and local small business. I am passionate about what I do. I believe that local, fresh produce should be available to everyone. Mushroom Dave’s Place is a local grocery store, restaurant, and distribution hub. The store front opened in July of 2024. We are located in Pacific, MO just past the Six Flags exit in Eureka, MO.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I believe that every experience and every job has gotten me ready for my position as President and CEO of Mushroom Dave’s Place. I have done every job under the sun. From being a UPS Supervisor, personal trainer, grocery store manager, construction, sales, service, and everything else in-between. I use all of the skills I acquired along the way to fine tune my skills to be able to do pretty much anything and everything. I believe that everything I learned in school and in the workforce has helped me get to this point in my journey. I believe that the next generation of entrepreneurs needs to take both school and life experiences and use them as building blocks for future success.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

I have always been very self-driven, but a few people have impacted my journey in a positive way. In my most recent job history, my boss and mentor TR Davis really helped to give me the confidence and skills needed to take the leap into being an entrepreneur. I managed Earth Angel Mushrooms and worked in a variety of positions. Starting out at the bottom as a part time grunt worker and quickly working my way up with increased responsibilities and duties. I excelled at all of these, and I was eventually able to break free and start my own mushroom business. TR was very supportive and influential in taking that plunge.

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