Meet Roger Starkweather

We recently connected with Roger Starkweather and have shared our conversation below.

Roger, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I recently found my purpose due to me finally accepting who I was born to be. At my core, I was born gay. It took me 60 years of bouncing back and forth, both in my mind and in my heart, of not caring about what others thought of this predicament. And it was just that; a choice of acceptance. Always struggling to please others, to make sure that I was seen as ‘normal’ – I pushed down the emotions and feelings that I could cloak myself into the real world’s expectations of playing a straight man. I was good, or so I thought.

After acceptance, it became quite clear, that no one was shocked, and the only person I was afraid of, was me. This gave me a foundational base on which to build. The first level was learning how to love myself. Truly learning to love yourself should have been instilled in early adolescence, sadly it is not the case. At 59, I started meditating. I was beginning to get clarity of how loving myself, gave me the shining light to give back to others, and accept myself as an artist, as a father, as a civic leader, and as a mentor.

Looking back after the past two years – I stand tall, more confident than ever, and the happiest I’ve ever been. All this positive energy equates to a clear understanding of “why” I exist and “how” to navigate the future.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

There are many focused projects in my life today.

As a business person, I am grateful to be partnering with my brother for another mother; Steven Picanza. Steven and I founded ANEWBrand, two years ago. We focus on supporting start-ups, scale-ups, and non-profits. Being a Brand & Marketing Design Agency, we help emerging businesses succeed making their brands captivating and compelling, so they’ll naturally attract clients without ever needing to plead for their trust.

We both come from the world of giving back and educating – so we formed our business model around helping the under-resourced and the misguided. As brand sherpas, we get up every day and strap on the light that helps give others insights in the hope of converting their visions into reality.

This all gets accomplished from a love of giving back and sharing with others a collaborative and collective wealth of experience we’ve gained.

Side projects – I’ve Written a screenplay (pitching it to become a feature film), I sit on two non-profits, and continued to support civic opportunities.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1) Take risks – life is too short not to fail! And by failing, learn what not to do…and, enjoy what you did accomplish.
2) Definitely learn to listen more than you speak (Two ears, one mouth is a thing…)
3) Seek a mentor. Connect with those who have journeyed before you.

Be accepting of where you are today and understand that it takes a universal leap of faith to get you to where you’d like to be. Stay flexile as everyday change occurs. Don’t give a F*&^ about what people, think Be you, Be kind!

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

Learning that unconditional love can exist. It’s not always perfect, but in the big picture, if your family/your community has your bak – you can accomplish anything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anewbrand.co/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/rogerstarkweather