👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
Welcome to the Secrets of… Series — in which I’ve carefully designed a series of eleven thought-provoking questions to tease the most interesting and insightful information out of the best brand builders in the world.
This week, I sat down with Bobby Dunn — one of the most creative and charismatic humans I know, and one of my favorite people.
Bobby and I met years ago when the branding agency where I worked became the first renters of an office at Anchor, the coworking space he founded.
If you were to look up “a man of many hats and talents” on Wikipedia, you would 100% find a picture of Bobby.
He’s the marketing genuis who created the major community magic behind electric skateboard innovator Boosted Boards, helped launch freight forwarding giant Flexport into its unicorn valuation, and built out Rickshaw Stop — a 4K-square-foot mechanic shop in San Francisco that he transformed into a 500-person brand, dance party, and tech talk venue with 1200+ attendees each week.
All of this, plus creating the most chill coworking space in SF, where he plays matchmaker with founders and teams — and is there to advise them on all things business, life, and Burning Man while keeping the Fireball Fridays tradition alive.
Bobby Dunn is a high-energy, game-changing marketing leader offering 18+ years of experience building new product categories and successfully launching 3 startups. Known as an expert in balancing creative and business development knowledge to deliver innovative, high-quality, cost-effective strategies that drive business growth and scalability in a fast-paced environment. Curious, confident, and adaptable with a proven track record reflecting strong leadership experience that builds and leads motivated teams.
1. How would you explain what you do to someone who has no idea?
I'm a connector. I’m able to see potential connections where other people might not. Knowing when people should know each other — that's kind of my sweet spot.
For example, at Anchor, I used to put people next to each other if I thought they would get along. One time, I sat a girl next to two guys who were working on similar projects. The two guys decided not to work together on their original project anymore — and she joined the one who was staying on the project. The two of them went on to fundraise, and now they have a 50-person company.
Another example was at Flexport. There was a conference happening in a really small town in Germany. And Flexport’s founder Ryan Petersen said “Oh, we should have a party there.” Through my connections and people I knew, I ended up putting together a huge event in a completely random town.
Making connections just comes naturally to me.
2. One of my favorite quotes about branding is this one from Wally Olins:
Fundamentally, branding is a manifestation of the human condition. It is about belonging; belonging to a tribe, to a religion, to a family. Branding demonstrates that sense of belonging. It has this function for both people who are part of the same group and also for the people who don’t belong.
What brands have made you feel like you belong in your lifetime? These could be brands you belong with right now—or in the past (say, when you were a teenager).
That would have to be Boosted Boards.
When I worked on Boosted, I traveled all around the world building communities of people who represented the brand.
You’d find every sort of person there. We had doctors, we had athletes, we had kids. Our brand attracted people who were trying to be different — but who were also nerds who thought the technology was cool.
When people showed up to one of our events, everyone was on the same playing field. It didn’t matter who you were.
And it wasn’t really about the board, either.
One thing I focused on was that you didn’t have to have one of our boards. You could come with a regular skateboard, or no skateboard at all, and still be a part of our community.
It was more about the people and the excitement than it was about having the products.
We were bringing together really creative people from all around the world, and everyone felt at home.
And even though the company is not there anymore, those communities are still thriving.
3. What event or interaction in your life has most shaped who you are today as a marketer?
Building this army of people around the world who I trusted to represent Boosted.
At the time, “microinfluencers” wasn’t a term. And people hadn’t started to recognize the power that they have.
Everyone assumes people with tons of followers are good. But these small people who are creating are more engaged with their users.
They set the core of the foundation for bigger communities.
I don't think a lot of brands have been able to work with microinfluencers in meaningful ways.
Lots of brands do it half-ass, and it doesn't get executed very well, and it shows.
A lot of these companies will just set up a system and let it run, rather than continuing to nurture the process and nurture the relationships with these people.
One of the reasons I was always on a plane all the time was to continue nurturing these relationships. I was there in person, curating these experiences. And whether these were people working for me or people in the communities, I was constantly there for them.
If you give anyone a product and they’re not into it personally, that shows. It looks like they’re getting paid to show it, rather than actually using it. The trick is finding people who are just as passionate about the product as you are.
Brands overlook how powerful these personal connections can be — and the ways that you need to nurture them.
A lot of companies don’t know how to nurture or don’t think they have the time for it.
4. What is the marketing-related book you would gift to someone who isn’t in marketing? And what is the non-marketing-related book that’s had the most impact on you as a marketer?
My Marketing-Related Book:
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
It’s just a happy book. I reread it after he passed away last year.
It talks about how to focus on the customer and all these things that companies try to be good at but don’t always execute properly. It’s an eye-opener.
My Non-Marketing-Related Book:
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
This book drew my attention to how much outside influences impact you — without you even thinking about it.
For example, where you went to high school. Let's say you went to a private school, and all the opportunities that you're getting there subconsciously that other people might not get.
And the timing of it — you might have had a better computer, and because you have a better computer, you're able to program more… and then you could have a fancier job.
I think that some people take all the influences for granted, instead of thinking about how all of the influences can help them. And how all of the influences are possible connection points.
5. You're getting put into the Marketers Hall of Fame. What campaign do you want to be remembered for? And what campaign do you wish would be forgotten?
My Campaign to Be Remembered For #1
Boosted on the Cover of Time Magazine
We were on the cover for Invention of the Year. That was pretty rad.
Seeing your baby on the cover is a really proud moment. It wasn’t a campaign, but it was a culmination of many years of my marketing work.
My Campaign to Be Remembered For #2
Boosted Citywide Scanvenger Hunts
Whenever we came out with a new product, we would have massive scavenger hunts and have cities compete against each other. People who had our product and people who didn’t participate in the hunts.
We would release clues throughout the week that they had to figure out. And at the end of it, the last one gave them the clue of where the prize would be.
The level of engagement was just crazy. We had people camping out in New York City in Battery Park to get the final prize in the morning.
In San Francisco, I’ll never forget that two people were sprinting — one from uphill and one from downhill — to get the prize. The uphill guy won.
In terms of being creative and getting engagement, that one was great. We got a Shorty award for it.
My Campaign to Be Forgotten:
Boosted’s Scooter Launch
It was the wrong product. The time was off. Investors were rushing things, and we were doing announcements with products that didn’t work.
There was a whole series of events before we officially launched where we gave the product to some reporters and a few times, the handle smashed someone’s finger.
Even though we told them it was a prototype and it might break, they wrote bad stuff. All of these things went wrong.
We were trying to have the best scooter for commuting. And, this shoots me through the chest all the time — we made the wrong scooter.
6. What marketing principles do you think great marketers overlook all the time?
#1: The product needs to be the right fit for the audience.
With the Boosted scooter, this is part of why the product failed.
At a lot of places, you have the marketing team and sales team. And then you have everyone else. And they’re fighting all the time.
At Boosted, they had me, who is on a plane every week. And knows all of our customers. And knows them personally — thousands of people. I knew what people would want and buy.
Then, we have all these engineers who are really smart, but they don't even use the product. They want to innovate and be creative.
They made this product that was very cool, but it was super heavy. And it was really expensive.
The whole time, I said, “Guys, we need to make a light one, that’s about 14 pounds, and less than $1000.”
And no one would listen. So we made this heavy, expensive scooter that failed.
A lot of times marketers have an issue like this — where the product isn’t right. But they’re so intent on trying to reach a certain customer, that they ignore the problems with the product.
#2: The product should lead — not a playbook or principles.
Often, marketers will focus on the process and what they assume they need to do to launch or sell a product.
But you need to dive into product to understand how you should be marketing it.
For example, you're going to market a cup of coffee a lot differently than you're going to market an iPhone — when you think about the product.
A lot of marketers will just follow a playbook of what you’re supposed to do rather than getting creative with it.
They’re not passionate about it.
And they’re not letting the product drive the marketing in interesting and unexpected ways.
7. What advice would you give your 26-year-old self—both career-related and not career-related?
Career-Related Advice:
Learn how to say “no” earlier.
I think a lot of people have this problem.
I’d tell myself not to spend a ton of time working on things that I just know aren’t going to work.
Non-Career-Related Advice
Focusing more.
Writing out a plan for life — and sticking to it, at least a little bit.
Oh, and learn more about taxes. Maybe that should be #1…
8. What’s the most valuable positive feedback you’ve ever been given? And what’s the most valuable negative feedback you’ve ever been given?
Positive Feedback:
You’re good at diffusing bad situations.
Whether it’s at work or with friends — I sometimes get invited somewhere to make sure everyone is not going to kill each other.
I’ve been told that I’m good at keeping “productive peace” and making sure things are getting done.
Negative Feedback:
You accidently overwork people.
One time I was at X Games in Austin, Texas. I had 30 people with me. And it was super hot outside…. like, crazy hot.
We were outside on this racetrack, all day, every day — for maybe 12 hours.
When I am in situations like that, I just think about what needs to get done. And I’m also making sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to do, so I don't really eat or rest at all.
And on the second day, everyone had an epic meltdown at the exact same time.
They said, “Bobby, we're not you. We need breaks. We need to eat. We need water.”
And I said, “Ohhhh, I didn’t even think about that!”
Straight up, I told them, “I am so sorry. I don't need those things. didn’t know that you did either.”
9. What motivates you to get up and go every day?
Getting ready for more.
10. Who do you most admire—and what question would you most like to ask them?
Greg Norman.
He’s one of the best golfers in the world. And he’s taken golf — and made it into all of these different businesses.
I’m so inspired by people like that, who have so many businesses going on and have diversified their interests.
And by someone like Greg, who has taken his skill and built an empire around it.
I would ask Greg, “How do you manage your time? And how do you figure out what to work on next to not take away from other things?”
I’d want to ask the same thing to Tony Hawk and Richard Brandson.
“How do you do all the things?!?”
I want to do all the things.
11. Last question—what's a secret?
It’s not that hard.
People think too much about things. And one thing that has been good for me is that I don’t always think about things… and I just do them.
And oftentimes, it turns out awesome.
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About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.