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By RON FANFAIR
Minutes after breaking the news on television that the National Hockey League (NHL) was shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin Weekes was fielding calls asking for assistance in handling media inquiries.
While shopping in South Florida at the height of the Black Lives Matter Movement three years ago, an agent for a prominent NHL player phoned, seeking his guidance as to how his client could craft his messaging on social media to demonstrate solidarity.
In this era, professional athletes are powerful social media influences on opinions and actions.
Occasionally, NHL team owners reach out to Weekes for his thoughts and advice on complex social justice issues.
Earlier this year, the NHL’s first Black hockey analyst and his wife – Megan Weekes – launched Speekes to help people, brands and businesses unlock their full potential.
With over 17 years of marketing, communications and media experience, Megan Weekes has worked with some of the best global media brands and companies, including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Sky News and Spotify.
Sitting at the intersection of media, business, sports, advertising and advocacy gives the couple an unprecedented understanding of the cultural ethos and a unique perspective with their combined experiences, ranging from C-suite leader to media personality and advocate.
Meeting through work, they have spent the last four years working on creating their business.
“In that time, we received nearly 500 phone calls asking for our advice,” she said. “There have been so many changes in the cultural landscape and the discussions around social equity. For so many people, it just feels as if the landscape beneath them has changed and transformed and, because of that, they need new skills. It seemed there was no place for them to call to get all the answers. We are a mixed couple of immigrant backgrounds and people felt compelled to call us because of our communication fluency, our understanding of the social landscape and the blend of our skills.
After offering their professional services for free for years, they felt it was time to monetize.
“This was a long time coming,” said the former NHL player-turned-broadcaster. “Though it was informal before, we were providing the same counsel. While we were doing it for free, a lot of it was relationship-based and trust-based. In instances where people were calling, it was because they trusted us to ask about the messaging for their shareholders meeting or advice on how to handle an internal crisis.”
In these challenging economic times where brand investment is no longer a choice, Speekes offers reputational excellence, decision-making assistance in times of crisis and guidance with investments so businesses can create very favourable equity in today’s marketplace.
“Right now, brand decision-making is paramount,” said Havas Health Network’s first Global Chief Marketing Officer who is fluent in French and Spanish. “If you don’t have utmost value and trust in your brand, you are going to struggle. So many brands have been tested in the last few years because of major political events, social justice movements and a global pandemic.
“The financial landscape is pushing brands to the brink of making almost perfect decisions. To do that, you need objective counsel and people who can tell you how to steer the ship. We understand, know and have seen that reputational value and return on investment and stock performance are directly linear in terms of how they are related.
“If you have a major crisis for a publicly traded brand, you see dips in the price within moments. If the crisis is not well managed, those dips never return.”
Starting a business involves risk and timing is never going to be perfect.
With changes in the media landscape unique to their skill sets, Megan Weekes – who has worked with high-profile brands, including Disney, Walmart and Next Issue – said there was a demand for their expertise.
“Legacy media have changed the way they have been operating,” she said. “Because of COVID, we have a more global and faster-moving media cycle than we have ever had in history. Non-traditional media sources are also bigger than traditional media sources for the first time. Because that cycle is faster than it has ever been, people need counsel quickly to make decisions within a moment’s notice.
“The speed and ability to be nimble that we can offer, the fluency we have in the cultural and media landscape and our natural dynamics as a household are very unique. The influx of phone calls led us to believe that our unique skill sets independently are rare and needed right now, but together they are exceptionally rare.”
In addition to offering advisory services, Speekes has a Speakers Division.
“As of now, it is just us two, but not limited to,” said Weekes, who has appeared at the White House and spoken on Capitol Hill. “Up until now, our speaking engagements have been pro bono. We have spoken at major events because of our roles.
“For the two outdoor hockey games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey last February, I made two appearances with Amazon Web Services and Discover Card. Meg has done a bunch of them. We have had a wide landscape of these speaking opportunities. At this point, we know it is a very big part of what we do going forward. It is an opportunity for us to connect with not only the greater audience, but the partners and people we work with.”
His wife concurs.
“Because of our Rolodex, many people reach out to us when they want to influence their employees en masse,” the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business Bachelor of Commerce graduate said. “We look at the Speakers Division as an extension of being an advisor just advising maybe hundreds of thousands of people at one time.
“We understand that companies, to reach a goal, need to mobilize around that goal. To do that, you need to impact and influence them so that you have them operating from the same mindset. Kev can command a room with the best of them and I love to speak simply because I am so passionate about so many of these different topics. We can offer real tactical advice, honesty, inspiration and vision while helping them mobilize their larger groups of people towards the goal they are working toward as a company.”
Living in New York provides the power couple with access to many influential people and high-profile places.
Earlier this month, they were at FINTECH TV studio at the New York Stock Exchange trading floor discussing their business venture.
“The Stock Exchange is home to the best traders in the world,” she said. “I think because of myself and Kevin’s perspective on business, we have tremendous respect for those who lead the financial practice of business. It is not our specialty, but we have a great interest in those who run that side of the operation. We understand that reputational excellence and communication have a linear relationship with financial performance.”
With social media consumption shaping sports broadcasting, Weekes is at the forefront of using various platforms to reach wider audiences. He has posted news via social media from various locations, including a spa and a barber’s chair.
He credits his younger sister, Renee Weekes Duncan, with turning him on to social media.
“Just as I was about to start my TV career, I was at the league office in New York when she told me I had to get on Twitter,” Weekes said. “I reluctantly got on and started getting a sense of what it is and how it was evolving, how it was shaping conversations and how it was connecting and uniting people. Twitter elevated my appetite for social media at that point. Then Instagram and LinkedIn came on and I got into them.
“But the main one is Twitter. It exploded and went viral at my sister’s suggestion. I have always had news and wanted to break it. My wife said that if I wanted to get it out, I should tweet it myself. We were at the spa at 11 a.m. on a Sunday and she told me I could do it right there in a bathrobe. I took her suggestion and people were fascinated. I did another one in the barbershop and it took off from there. The coolest part for me is the ability to connect with people.”
Weekes’ viral ‘Breaking News’ has garnered nearly 200 million views.
Though relishing social media platforms, he is happy to have played in an era before their arrival.
“It is tough for players to navigate,” said Weekes who led the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup final in 2002. “How do I communicate something that does not offend someone or a group, but is important to my family, cause or culture? How do I effectively communicate that in a way that is not offensive, but is factual and objective?”
Growing up in Scarborough playing street hockey with his cousin, Ian Webster, and their friends, he participated in the Toronto Red Wings minor league program and the Ontario and Canadian Hockey League Top Prospects game and was ranked among the Top 20 Prospects and the number two goaltender in the world.
Selected by the Florida Panthers in the second round of the 1993 Entry draft, Weekes played three years in the American and International Hockey Minor Leagues before representing seven NHL teams in 11 seasons.
In 1999 while with the Vancouver Canucks, then coach Marc Crawford accused him of faking an injury and being not a good teammate.
Having to work twice as hard to get to the NHL, Weekes didn’t take lightly to the accusations riddled with obscenities.
They have not spoken since.
“This was in a different time culturally where a lot of those things that were seen as acceptable would not be acceptable today in terms of the soft skills and how you treat people,” said Weekes whose parents, Carl and Vadney, are immigrants from Barbados. “In much of the world, things have changed, but there is room for more change in our sport. It just comes down to people. I like the fact that people now have a voice and an opportunity to express themselves around the way in which they are treated.
“Back then, I didn’t feel that I could say anything. I was one of the few Black players in the NHL. I had to swallow everything that was thrown at me. It was very challenging and that was the most difficult thing I had to go through in my career.”
In 2019, Crawford faced allegations from NHL players, accusing him of physical and verbal abuse. Last year, he was suspended for a game after it is alleged he directed a homophobic slur at a referee during a contest in Switzerland’s national league where he is a coach.
Seeing the writing on the wall after appearing in just 25 games in his last two seasons with the New Jersey Nets combined with the unattractive offers he received as an unrestricted free agent resulted in Weekes marketing his communication skills.
Discarding Russia as an option because of the economic crisis and the fact they were not paying the premium they did a year earlier for import NHL goalies, and the one NHL offer for about half of the US$2.2 million that John Grahame made a year earlier who had fewer games under his belt, Weekes launched his second career 15 years ago.
He signed a one-year contract with CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada (HNIC), making him the first Black on-air commentator to appear on the popular Canadian television program. He was also a Guest Analyst with the NHL Network, doing HNIC West Coast games while blogging and occasionally appearing on the team’s late-night show.
Over the years, he has been featured on ABC, NBC, MSG, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View and ESPN where he has been part of the broadcast team since 2021.
With his two-year ESPN contract expiring at the end of the 2023-24 season, Weekes – who has worked every Stanley Cup final and All-Star Game since he started broadcasting in 2009 – and his agent are negotiating a new deal that addresses his brand, their new business and family considerations.
The couple have a 20-month-old son.
“What is interesting is that because my chosen sport is not football, basketball or soccer, the path is different for me,” said Weekes who singled out Al MacInnis and Sheldon Souray as the players with the hardest shots he faced while in goal. “Signing a contract has never been easy, whether as a player or broadcaster. It has been sticky and needlessly challenging and they took a little bit longer than they should. At the same time, I think for us now with our company, family and what we have accomplished, we want to be more judicious and be a lot more selective with who we partner and what the terms of those contracts and partnerships look like. With all the experience we have now, we do it from a more empowered place. We have beyond paid our dues.
“We have our own considerations and our own family and what does that look like for us? How does the show requirements allow us quality time to be together as a family in ways that work for us and not ways to where the pendulum only swings one way and is advantageous for others and not us? We are in a safe and secure place working with each other as a curated team. That is very uplifting. It is not often that women and people of colour feel secure in where they are.”
Megan Weekes said her husband has earned the right to get a contract that is best for his brand and their family.
“Many athletes are pursuing brand ownership and running their businesses,” the former Rogers Communications Strategist & Head of Creative Services said. “We look up to them more as business leaders than we even do for their amazing performances in sports. It is much more about coming from a place of empowerment and personal ownership along with their investment. It is less where you sign a conventional endorsement deal and the rest of your life is tied to that. Athletes in general, are taking a more empowered stance by standing up for the things they believe in. They are demanding they have a stake in the things they are involved in. Instead of endorsements, many of them seek out ownership.”
