September 16, 2025 • 10 mins
Brand builder. Growth strategist. Culture connector.
From Olympic-level activations with USA Track & Field to leading innovation at Kraft Heinz, Robert helped brands drive double-digit growth and create real impact. Passionate about bridging insight with strategy, and always moving with purpose, whether in the boardroom or on the run.
From Olympic-level activations with USA Track & Field to leading innovation at Kraft Heinz, Robert helped brands drive double-digit growth and create real impact. Passionate about bridging insight with strategy, and always moving with purpose, whether in the boardroom or on the run.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Like I think to your point, we always think about
how do we continue to go to the next level
for brand health, and one of them in the beginning
is about you developed your story all this good stuff,
but the next level is having your advocates do it now. Right,
So that continues with the brand health that is huge.
But I wanted you to go back. We're people you do,
so I'm trying to understand your process. Like you said,
(00:20):
you just gave an example where it didn't take all
this data or whatever, but you were able to sell
out a five K with on your platform because what
you explained.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So yeah, So I mean it all started with me
building out a brand strategy for the five K, right,
we because I'm the runner and my wife is like
the community organized in the neighborhood that we live in.
So you know the plug it you know, it's called
the Mattipan five K Unity fat Right, And if you're
not familiar with the neighborhoods in Boston, Mattapan is probably
the most probably the largest predominantly black neighborhood in Boston. Huge,
(00:55):
huge population of immigrants, high population Haitian immigrants and Latino immigrants. Well,
so with that said, We knew that creating a race
in this neighborhood was necessary because other neighborhoods do have races,
and door Chester is another predominantly black neighborhood, as is Roxbury,
and both of those neighborhoods have races as well. We
wanted to create one in Madapan as well, and given
(01:18):
her network within like the civic world and my network
within the running community here in Boston, we knew it's
something that we could pull off and at minimum get
one hundred runners, right. But the strategy that I proposed
was number one. I created a strategy of understanding who
we wanted to target, which number one was people that
existed in Madapan and more so to get people in
the neighborhood running because it might be familiar in urban
(01:41):
communities across the US. You know, it's like, oh, why
should I run? That's not for me. We want to
ensure that the people who are in our area know
that this is something for you and people who look
like you also do this. So that was like our
key target, secondary target where people that existed in the
running community already, which I know would already show up.
So that was our strategy, and then we wanted to
(02:03):
create sort of ethos of what we wanted to tap
into both of us, like Soca music, so we knew
that it had to be something that was rooted in
music and rooted in the food that exists in our
culture as well. My wife, like I said, my wife
hatation and I'm Guyanese, so you know, having food and
music that sort of mixes both cultures is something that
we wanted to communicate and have our followers to sort
(02:25):
of experience. So that was sort of the mission statement
of what we wanted to create. That manifested itself into visuals,
which you know we had. We wanted it to look
like a Soca party, so we borrowed stuff from that
existed from larger Soca promoters throughout the world and gave
that to a designer, and designer created our logo, and
(02:47):
designer also created our first fire, which looked like it
was a Soca party. So with that said, I was
able to sort of create the flyer and that was
sort of our Savid Day. We created our social channel
and we ran an ad around that flyer, and then
separately I was able to sort of create use that
same vision to create a video production brief which number
(03:12):
one had to tap into my network and my WISS
network to figure out people that would show up in
a video shoot. And I used that inside of what
does running and Matapan mean to you? What does you know?
What does it mean to sort of what does your
health mean to you? And why is this race important
to you? And we used that as father for the video.
We ended up running ads behind that video. And the
(03:33):
ads that I ran were the people that I mentioned earlier.
I you know, looked at a couple different things with
an Instagram and I ended up targeting people that existed
within those spaces. And after I ran that ad. Prior
to running I AD, we had roughly thirty people registered.
A month after running that ad, we had three hundred
people registered. So and that's outside of that. We did
(03:55):
multiple other things, you know. We were able to get
sponsors as well, and sponsors helped pay for a billboard
in our neighborhood. And my wife, as connected as she is,
we had a lot of community partners. Just about all
of the run crews that I run with her in
Boston were able to sort of support us as well,
and they posted on social posted on their Halo channels
(04:17):
and the community partners that she knows in a music
space in the city as well as civically. We were
able to do cross collaboration posts with them as well.
So all of its started with an idea, a brand strategy,
and these were different components of execution that we were
able to do this sort of drive sort of the
three hundred and eighty people I read it. For the race,
(04:37):
my wife was in charge of creating the experience, you know,
being on the ground. I was in charge of the
race experience. She was in charge of the fet or
festival experience, and I made sure that the route was
what it needed to be. We had water at the
right places, we had run cruise positioned on the course
to share people on. And she was responsible for finding
the food vendor, finding other vendors as well to help
(05:00):
sort of promote health of Hollness in our neighborhood. And
she knows the DJs, so she was able to sort
of bring in DJs and sound to sort of create
the experience that we wanted to create. And ended up
running a survey after the race and people loved it.
One hundred percent of people who took the survey said
they we want to come back next year, which you know,
I'm excited after this baby comes at least a plan
(05:20):
for the race next year, So something that her and
I came together to do. You know, our worlds and
I'm you know, the race day. We got no sleep
the night before, but seeing all the people running and
loving the food and the music, you know, made both
of our hearts warm.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So thank you for that. First of all, that is
going to be like just the highlight, because no, the
example that you just gave, you executed everything that you
preached and that you teach and that you do with
every company. I heard every touch point within there, all
the way from conception to delivery, starting with the idea,
(05:57):
knowing what your exact story is going to be, knowing
what the story has to be based on who you're targeting, right,
you've got to create it a certain way, and then
putting a visual to that, and then connections, collaborations. That's
huge touch point of individuals that can help you execute
(06:19):
in those particular areas like you talked about earlier, but
also collaborating with individuals who can help you in areas
maybe that you don't know, inspire you in certain areas,
or just deliver based on what you need them to
actually do, like that whole example you just gave and
going from thirty and also giving us the nudge that
(06:41):
we can't just say something right, We can't it's big
to us. We know it's big to us. And sometimes
I think when we get caught up is when we
want to do things and we know how big it is,
and we think we just say it's big to someone else.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It may be just as big to someone else.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But to your point, you had to convey how big
it is and for them to say, hm, that's big
to me. So thank you for that run through on that.
How can we influence or just inspire current entrepreneurs doing
different things and somebody even be entrepreneurs some days just
(07:18):
be doing a thing that they want to, you know,
be big to really understand what does that actually mean?
How can you have impact if you were to walk
away with something to say, this is what I want
install in you, or if it's a client, this is
what we would walk through. What is that thing to
bring you to that next level of really understanding branding
(07:39):
and marketing and it becoming bigger than just I have
a business, but it can actually be influence and impact.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Have an idea, but have a strategy behind it, and
any idea can seem too big, But once you have
a strategy that can help it, help it grow at
the end of the day. And if that's overwhelming, you know,
I have ADHD. So people say that you have to
like break things down into digestible chunks, and for me
that's helpful in terms of helping me execute. So if
(08:07):
it seems overwhelming, just map out all of the different
components that you think might exist within that thing and
then use that to sort of help with your strategy.
And then secondly, your network is important, and your network
can help teach you what you don't know. Everything that exists,
you know, has some kind of framework. Right before I
(08:27):
had marketing experience, I didn't know what a brand strategy was.
I didn't know how to put an idea on paper.
But there's a framework to building out a brand, there's
a framework of building out a business. Very important to
understand what that framework is and then fill in the
holes of what that framework is for your business or idea.
Even if it doesn't work right away, at least you
have something to start with. And I think that's incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So if individuals have that taking that advice you just gave,
but they don't have all those other things you mentioned
earlier in place, how successful.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Do you see that being are so if you.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Were to go abc D or some things may even
be simultaneous. What are some of those things you will
say to do to be a successful impactful brand? Not
just by these make sures. Oh I'm making some money here,
I'm making some How do you be a successful sustainable
impactful if you look at abc D or.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
A b C D. I think a sustainable impactful brand
is a sustainable impactful business. Right if you if your
business fundamentals aren't strong, you know your your brand will
be big. But you might bring yourself out by doing
too many things.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
There's plenty of people that you or I might know
that you know are big and say our music promoters
are our party promoters, right, and they know that all right,
I have a party happening, this is my network. Cool
people show up with my party, and then that's how
I make money. But it's being a party promoter sustainable,
I don't think so. There's a lot of people who
(10:05):
do that who transition into ownership. Right, people, Sorry, let
me take a couple steps back. There's a lot of
people who start off as party promoters, and that's a
side hustle in college, and that's that. There's a guy
I know here in Boston who started off as a
party promoter in college and ended up pivoting that into
owning his own restaurant. Now he owns a restaurant and
(10:25):
obviously has nights each week that you know, cater and
relate to his crowd.
Like I think to your point, we always think about
how do we continue to go to the next level
for brand health, and one of them in the beginning
is about you developed your story all this good stuff,
but the next level is having your advocates do it now. Right,
So that continues with the brand health that is huge.
But I wanted you to go back. We're people you do,
so I'm trying to understand your process. Like you said,
(00:20):
you just gave an example where it didn't take all
this data or whatever, but you were able to sell
out a five K with on your platform because what
you explained.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So yeah, So I mean it all started with me
building out a brand strategy for the five K, right,
we because I'm the runner and my wife is like
the community organized in the neighborhood that we live in.
So you know the plug it you know, it's called
the Mattipan five K Unity fat Right, And if you're
not familiar with the neighborhoods in Boston, Mattapan is probably
the most probably the largest predominantly black neighborhood in Boston. Huge,
(00:55):
huge population of immigrants, high population Haitian immigrants and Latino immigrants. Well,
so with that said, We knew that creating a race
in this neighborhood was necessary because other neighborhoods do have races,
and door Chester is another predominantly black neighborhood, as is Roxbury,
and both of those neighborhoods have races as well. We
wanted to create one in Madapan as well, and given
(01:18):
her network within like the civic world and my network
within the running community here in Boston, we knew it's
something that we could pull off and at minimum get
one hundred runners, right. But the strategy that I proposed
was number one. I created a strategy of understanding who
we wanted to target, which number one was people that
existed in Madapan and more so to get people in
the neighborhood running because it might be familiar in urban
(01:41):
communities across the US. You know, it's like, oh, why
should I run? That's not for me. We want to
ensure that the people who are in our area know
that this is something for you and people who look
like you also do this. So that was like our
key target, secondary target where people that existed in the
running community already, which I know would already show up.
So that was our strategy, and then we wanted to
(02:03):
create sort of ethos of what we wanted to tap
into both of us, like Soca music, so we knew
that it had to be something that was rooted in
music and rooted in the food that exists in our
culture as well. My wife, like I said, my wife
hatation and I'm Guyanese, so you know, having food and
music that sort of mixes both cultures is something that
we wanted to communicate and have our followers to sort
(02:25):
of experience. So that was sort of the mission statement
of what we wanted to create. That manifested itself into visuals,
which you know we had. We wanted it to look
like a Soca party, so we borrowed stuff from that
existed from larger Soca promoters throughout the world and gave
that to a designer, and designer created our logo, and
(02:47):
designer also created our first fire, which looked like it
was a Soca party. So with that said, I was
able to sort of create the flyer and that was
sort of our Savid Day. We created our social channel
and we ran an ad around that flyer, and then
separately I was able to sort of create use that
same vision to create a video production brief which number
(03:12):
one had to tap into my network and my WISS
network to figure out people that would show up in
a video shoot. And I used that inside of what
does running and Matapan mean to you? What does you know?
What does it mean to sort of what does your
health mean to you? And why is this race important
to you? And we used that as father for the video.
We ended up running ads behind that video. And the
(03:33):
ads that I ran were the people that I mentioned earlier.
I you know, looked at a couple different things with
an Instagram and I ended up targeting people that existed
within those spaces. And after I ran that ad. Prior
to running I AD, we had roughly thirty people registered.
A month after running that ad, we had three hundred
people registered. So and that's outside of that. We did
(03:55):
multiple other things, you know. We were able to get
sponsors as well, and sponsors helped pay for a billboard
in our neighborhood. And my wife, as connected as she is,
we had a lot of community partners. Just about all
of the run crews that I run with her in
Boston were able to sort of support us as well,
and they posted on social posted on their Halo channels
(04:17):
and the community partners that she knows in a music
space in the city as well as civically. We were
able to do cross collaboration posts with them as well.
So all of its started with an idea, a brand strategy,
and these were different components of execution that we were
able to do this sort of drive sort of the
three hundred and eighty people I read it. For the race,
(04:37):
my wife was in charge of creating the experience, you know,
being on the ground. I was in charge of the
race experience. She was in charge of the fet or
festival experience, and I made sure that the route was
what it needed to be. We had water at the
right places, we had run cruise positioned on the course
to share people on. And she was responsible for finding
the food vendor, finding other vendors as well to help
(05:00):
sort of promote health of Hollness in our neighborhood. And
she knows the DJs, so she was able to sort
of bring in DJs and sound to sort of create
the experience that we wanted to create. And ended up
running a survey after the race and people loved it.
One hundred percent of people who took the survey said
they we want to come back next year, which you know,
I'm excited after this baby comes at least a plan
(05:20):
for the race next year, So something that her and
I came together to do. You know, our worlds and
I'm you know, the race day. We got no sleep
the night before, but seeing all the people running and
loving the food and the music, you know, made both
of our hearts warm.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So thank you for that. First of all, that is
going to be like just the highlight, because no, the
example that you just gave, you executed everything that you
preached and that you teach and that you do with
every company. I heard every touch point within there, all
the way from conception to delivery, starting with the idea,
(05:57):
knowing what your exact story is going to be, knowing
what the story has to be based on who you're targeting, right,
you've got to create it a certain way, and then
putting a visual to that, and then connections, collaborations. That's
huge touch point of individuals that can help you execute
(06:19):
in those particular areas like you talked about earlier, but
also collaborating with individuals who can help you in areas
maybe that you don't know, inspire you in certain areas,
or just deliver based on what you need them to
actually do, like that whole example you just gave and
going from thirty and also giving us the nudge that
(06:41):
we can't just say something right, We can't it's big
to us. We know it's big to us. And sometimes
I think when we get caught up is when we
want to do things and we know how big it is,
and we think we just say it's big to someone else.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It may be just as big to someone else.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But to your point, you had to convey how big
it is and for them to say, hm, that's big
to me. So thank you for that run through on that.
How can we influence or just inspire current entrepreneurs doing
different things and somebody even be entrepreneurs some days just
(07:18):
be doing a thing that they want to, you know,
be big to really understand what does that actually mean?
How can you have impact if you were to walk
away with something to say, this is what I want
install in you, or if it's a client, this is
what we would walk through. What is that thing to
bring you to that next level of really understanding branding
(07:39):
and marketing and it becoming bigger than just I have
a business, but it can actually be influence and impact.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Have an idea, but have a strategy behind it, and
any idea can seem too big, But once you have
a strategy that can help it, help it grow at
the end of the day. And if that's overwhelming, you know,
I have ADHD. So people say that you have to
like break things down into digestible chunks, and for me
that's helpful in terms of helping me execute. So if
(08:07):
it seems overwhelming, just map out all of the different
components that you think might exist within that thing and
then use that to sort of help with your strategy.
And then secondly, your network is important, and your network
can help teach you what you don't know. Everything that exists,
you know, has some kind of framework. Right before I
(08:27):
had marketing experience, I didn't know what a brand strategy was.
I didn't know how to put an idea on paper.
But there's a framework to building out a brand, there's
a framework of building out a business. Very important to
understand what that framework is and then fill in the
holes of what that framework is for your business or idea.
Even if it doesn't work right away, at least you
have something to start with. And I think that's incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So if individuals have that taking that advice you just gave,
but they don't have all those other things you mentioned
earlier in place, how successful.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Do you see that being are so if you.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Were to go abc D or some things may even
be simultaneous. What are some of those things you will
say to do to be a successful impactful brand? Not
just by these make sures. Oh I'm making some money here,
I'm making some How do you be a successful sustainable
impactful if you look at abc D or.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
A b C D. I think a sustainable impactful brand
is a sustainable impactful business. Right if you if your
business fundamentals aren't strong, you know your your brand will
be big. But you might bring yourself out by doing
too many things.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
There's plenty of people that you or I might know
that you know are big and say our music promoters
are our party promoters, right, and they know that all right,
I have a party happening, this is my network. Cool
people show up with my party, and then that's how
I make money. But it's being a party promoter sustainable,
I don't think so. There's a lot of people who
(10:05):
do that who transition into ownership. Right, people, Sorry, let
me take a couple steps back. There's a lot of
people who start off as party promoters, and that's a
side hustle in college, and that's that. There's a guy
I know here in Boston who started off as a
party promoter in college and ended up pivoting that into
owning his own restaurant. Now he owns a restaurant and
(10:25):
obviously has nights each week that you know, cater and
relate to his crowd.
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