Goaltender. Broadcaster. NHL Insider. Businessman. You may be wondering, what do those four things have to do with each other? Well, they all describe Kevin Weekes.
Weekes worked hard to climb his way through the minor leagues and reach The NHL. Once his playing days ended, he transitioned into a role that fit him like a glove; that of a respected broadcaster. Part of his evolution as a broadcaster has seen him become one of hockey’s top Insiders; often breaking news before many other Insiders and doing it in creative ways to boot.
But that’s all stuff that you already know. What many of you might not have already known is that Weekes is also a shrewd businessman. A little over a month ago, Weekes and his wife Megan teamed up to form a new media branding and advisement company named Speekes and the joint venture has already taken off faster than a jet plane flying off a runway.
“In many ways, this was born out of necessity,” Weekes told Blittner’s Blue Line. “We’ve got a really good proof of concept because a lot of it is what we’ve already been doing. And certainly, with a lot of the different factors in the world within the last three to four years, we’ve been doing a lot of this stuff already. My wife in her traditional C-suite global role on Madison Avenue, as an International Global CMO, and then, same for myself, as a broadcaster. I’m on TV more than any hockey analyst in the world. I’m on all the time, on multiple platforms; in addition to a lot of this other advisory and consultancy that we’ve been kind of doing anyways.
“The world has changed and continues to change,” Weekes continued. “We’ve had, if you think about it, you’ve had Covid, post-Covid, you had the return to work, you had remote work, you’ve had Roe V. Wade and LGBTQ+. There’s been the Israel-Hamas conflict. You’ve had Black Lives Matter. You have a war in Ukraine and Russia. There’s just been so many different things. Plus it’s a very different and ever-changing multimedia landscape. Not only socially, but the multimedia landscape has changed a lot as well. For us, a lot of it is just about helping a lot of businesses, brands, and people, be their best selves; because not everybody knows how to navigate these things. Not everybody knows how to navigate a lot of those challenges on a day-to-day basis.”
There might never be a truer statement than what Weekes said about people not knowing how to navigate a lot of challenges on a day-to-day basis. We’ve all gone through it at some point and we’ll continue to do so. But now, with a company like what Megan and Kevin are building, those challenges might not seem so daunting.
“Let’s say one of our clients is a large financial company,” Weekes began. “The reality for their employees, their staff, their workforce is different in New York versus a place like Montreal. It’s different in Montreal versus Los Angeles and it’s different in L.A. versus in Switzerland. Switzerland is different from Italy. You know what I mean? So being able to navigate these landscapes on the external, but also on the internal, it’s a very slippery slope. We’re certainly at the top of our respective professions; my wife and I and our team. So, ultimately, we felt it was the right time and a lot of our clients in the marketplace told us it was the right time. And our own experience in the marketplace told us it was the right time as well.”
“For example,” Weekes continued. “The atmosphere in New York is very different from the atmosphere here in Miami, even though there’s a ton of people that go back and forth. But doing business here is very different. The media presence here is very different. The media concentration here is very different from doing media living in New York or the Metro New York area. You have all the major networks in New York. They don’t miss too much.
“That atmosphere is very different than in Miami. Let’s say, it’s an external piece of communication. If you’re doing a press event in Miami, it’s gonna gain different traction, although it is global and it’s now becoming an economic superpower. But it’s not gonna gain as much traction as it would if that happened in New York. Understanding those different things, even understanding the laws — the law could be very different in those places — which certainly will be impacted by your decision-making, will be impacted by what you do.”
“All of these things require a certain fluency and understanding of nuance,” Weekes said. “That attention to detail, understanding your audience, where you are, and what’s at stake. So again, for me, on a nightly basis, I have that on the tip of my tongue. Let’s say it’s the Rangers. All right, well, it’s different at The Garden than it is for the Panthers down in Amerant Bank Arena.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that understanding all of those nuances Weekes speaks of, they are not easy for most of the population to understand. And it’s a good thing Weekes has basically been groomed for this type of role ever since he was a teenager.
“I wasn’t a hockey player in a vacuum,” Weekes explained. “It’s very unique when you’re a black hockey player, let alone a black goalie; that’s a very different experience. So I’ve always had to be very cognizant of what I said, how I said it, how I communicated to the media, how I interacted with the media, how I interacted with my teammates, how I interacted with the fans, and how I interacted with corporate partners. When I was 16-, 17-years-old I went to my first Junior Training Camp and I already was a part of a documentary. I rolled into Training Camp and the cameras were behind me.
“Why that’s relevant is that’s on-the-job training. That’s on-the-job training of communication, of tone, of understanding the marketplace. I was under a hypermicroscope my entire career. A lot of that came with, ‘Okay, now you’re speaking to our corporate partners from Bank of America.’ It wasn’t really an accident that I ultimately ended up becoming this multifaceted broadcaster because I had a lot of this practical experience along the way. ‘Okay, we want you to speak to the head of the Boys and Girls Club.’ Now, you’re playing for the Rangers. It’s ‘The folks from Chase Bank are here, we have The CEO, The CFO, some of the other C-suite executives, and some of their top investors, we need you to talk to them.’
“So a lot of that, I was getting that on-the-job training and a lot of those reps. I’m smart enough to know what I don’t know and I’m smart enough to lean into the people who I know that do know. So I’ve had a lot of that crossover that people necessarily wouldn’t have seen ’cause they saw me with a mask on. And I have a ton of that crossover, post-playing career, in the multimedia space, because I’ve been a spokesperson for different companies.”
He’s too humble to say it, but there’s no doubt Kevin Weekes is always one of, if not THE, smartest people in the room – regardless of what room that is. And that goes for his wife Megan as well.
“Our house, in a lot of ways, is a newsroom,” Weekes explained. “It serves as a newsroom because I break news as well. And then, there’s other news that we don’t break. It’s the same for my wife. She’s pitching different clients, she’s pitching different media; you name it. She’s giving her expert opinion on different things. So, we just have kind of a unique path — both of us. And certainly, we’re stronger as a team.”
Just in case you need another example of why Kevin Weekes is meant for a role like what he’s building at Speekes, look no further than when he was asked to MC Henrik Lundqvist’s Jersey Retirement Night.
“I was hand-selected to MC Henrik Lundqvist’s Jersey Night,” Weekes regaled. “Henrik could have had anybody. He and his family, they hand-selected me to do that because of trust and belief. They knew that it was in the right hands. Just like when I’m on the air. The National Hockey League knows when I’m on their platform, having been the face of their network for 15 years, it’s a $6 billion league. They know they’re in safe hands. There’s trust there. It’s been a unique path. It hasn’t been linear for either one of us (me or my wife). But it’s certainly been very unique and our experience is far and wide in the things that we know. We know what we don’t know as well and in instances where there’s the odd thing that we don’t know, it’s usually only a phone call away. There’s a wealth of people who are only a text or a phone call away when we need them.”
Safe, smart, and trusted hands indeed. And for those still wondering why Kevin and Megan want to take this venture on? Well…
“We always want to perform, we want to service, we want to deliver,” Weekes said. “For me, every time I’m on the air, it’s about delivering for the fans around the world. It’s delivering, and showcasing the players who are among the best athletes in the world. It’s putting the game in the best light. It’s putting our clubs in the best light, our corporate partners. It’s the same thing for her. Her global marketing, advertising, and PR. It’s the same thing.
“With Speekes, we want to deliver that same vein of that spirit of teamwork, collaboration, delivery, and performance. We wanna be able to help elevate those people who we work with and the clients who we serve as well.” For more information about Kevin and Megan Weekes’ new company Speekes, you can check out their site https://www.speekes.co/
