Robin Lehner, NHL Goalie

Immersion learning

Working with Robin Lehner has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. From a branding standpoint it has been fascinating thinking about this man, this human being, this NHL goalie in “branding” terms. Usually marketers are trying their best to personify a brand, not brandify a person.

But far more importantly it’s been rewarding because of Robin’s incredible story. Perhaps you’ve heard about him by now. He’s one of the elite goaltenders in the NHL this year and is the comeback story of the year, having gone public with the fact he has bipolar disorder. It was an enormous risk to go public with that information, but Robin wanted to do it so he could take a stand against mental illness, inspire others with mental illness and do some good in the world.

He wanted help packaging up who he was for the public, for the NY Islanders fans and for himself. His goal was to create a movement to, as he put it, “Take the crazy stamp from bipolar disorder.” I immediately wrote that down when he said it.

When I sat down with Robin for a day in New York City it was before he’d gone public with his story and I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I heard floored me. Shocked me. Almost brought me to tears. It’s a painful story of heartbreak as a child, unspeakable abuse from people he loved, fear, addiction and mental illness. For more on his tragic childhood read this touching article from The Atlantic where Robin opened up about his past: “I could not stand being alone in my brain.”

But Robin’s is also a story about redemption, changing environments and battling back. I learned that day Robin had a plan. He was fresh out of rehab for alcohol addiction, he was getting treated for his bipolar disorder, he had the love and support of his friends and family. He said he’d never been more ready to take on the world than he was on that day.

I was in awe of this man, having gone through what he’d gone through yet still so full of hope and promise.

Key insight: Battling what’s in front of you requires battling what’s behind you first.

the ideas

I went to Robin’s apartment in New York about a week after our very emotional Immersion Session to present 11 different brand ideas.

I did my best to provide a range of thinking and a range of tone. I wanted something that reflected his essence, but also something that could inspire others as well. My thought exercise was this: if Robin wrote a book what would it be called?

Below you can scroll through each idea exactly as it was presented right on his kitchen table (see image to the right).

Tip for the slides below: make your browser bigger so the images become big enough to scroll through and read.

It’s different presenting “brand ideas” to a human being. No bureaucracy, no cascading series of meetings, no checking with the founder. Robin Lehner was the CMO, the CEO and the CFO all wrapped up in one. In short, Robin was the brand, which made it simple.

After seeing the 11 ideas, he narrowed it down quickly to three or four, but there was one he kept picking up and nodding his head. It was “Battle.” It rang true for him personally but also rang of hope for others. He immediately saw the power in this idea and without much ado, said in his Swedish accent, “Dis is da one.”

If battling back requires decisiveness, Robin will have no problem. Now it was time to write the manifesto for that idea.

manifesto

My strategy for the manifesto was to write it in the first person. These should be words I could see Robin saying out loud. Plus, all the “brand manifestations” coming out of this exercise would be in his own words—interviews, his web site, his social media posts, etc. So I wanted to give him language that could inspire all those personal brand manifestations.

Activation

This idea was only recently adopted so there is not much activation yet, but he has big plans for the future. Still, even in the short time since he’s adopted this idea, the spirit of the manifesto has inspired the very emotional article he wrote for The Atlantic. Robin is also using the “Battle” theme in many of his post-game interviews (see below).

But the season highlight had to be his winning of the 2019 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. In other words, the player who “battles” most. Here’s his moving acceptance speech: