Meet Rob Phillips

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rob Phillips. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rob below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Rob with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I’m from New Jersey, and let me tell you — I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone from Jersey who didn’t have a work ethic. It’s practically a birthright. You take the job in front of you, you grind it out, and you don’t half-ass it. That’s just how it is.

I’m the youngest of five kids. My three sisters and brother were from my mom’s first marriage, so by the time I came around, the house was already running like a small union shop. Everybody pulled their weight. My dad was a Chevy salesman, but he wasn’t one of those cliché car-lot hustlers. He was honest. Straightforward. The kind of guy customers came back to because they trusted him. He worked hard enough that sometimes he came home with Yankee tickets. For a kid in Jersey, that was like front-row seats to heaven. And those tickets weren’t luck or freebies — they were the payoff for long hours, rain or shine, grinding it out on the lot.

And my mom? She was a seamstress working out of the house, and damn, she was good. She could take fabric and turn it into something you’d swear belonged on 5th Avenue. Watching her work taught me as much as anything else — skill, patience, and the kind of focus you don’t shake off.

We never took anything for granted. Everything we had came from sweat, from hours, from work. For me, that started with the small stuff — raking leaves, cutting grass, shoveling snow — the classic Jersey kid starter kit. My first real job was no glamor shot either, but it didn’t need to be. It taught me the same thing my parents lived every day: you show up, you put in the effort, and you take pride in it, whether you’re bagging groceries, making a film, or running your own business. That’s the Jersey work ethic.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’ve been in the film industry since ’92. Cut my teeth on commercials — Burger King, Delta, Disney World, Mercedes — then music videos for Korn and TLC. Features too, everything from Death Match (oof) to Behind Enemy Lines and Stay Alive. Plenty of short films and docs along the way.

Then came a wild one: producer Stephanie Austin hired me as a PA on a James Cameron project about the first manned mission to Mars. Cameron’s a perfectionist with a brain wired about three galaxies ahead of the rest of us. I was nervous as hell, but I stayed sharp, delivered, and pretty soon I was helping both Stephanie and the art department. Learned a ton about Mars, NASA, filmmaking — the project never got made (still parked in orbit), but it was the kind of gig you don’t forget.

Stephanie and her husband, Scott Thaler, kept me in their world — productions, script reads, all kinds of inside-baseball stuff. They treated me like family, and we’re still tight.

After Sahara, I switched gears. Not by choice, but necessity. Work was slowing down, and I wanted something steady. Landed at EFilm in 2005, the top digital color correction house. Started as a coordinator, busted my ass, and by ’09 I was a DI Producer. That meant everything from indie darlings to tentpoles — Love & Other Drugs, War Horse, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, Mud, Midnight Special, The Christmas Chronicles, Bardo. Some shows ran like clockwork, others had us pulling 24-hour marathons just to hit deadline. Met the geniuses, the maniacs, and everyone in between.

Then came the big hits — COVID, strikes, the whole industry on life support. I got cut loose end of 2024. Sudden, but not shocking. Still knocks the wind out of you.

But you get back up. I launched Robbie Rob’s Rub & Spice Co. — a rock ’n’ roll side hustle turned new chapter. Bold blends, big flavors. I want people’s kitchens screaming for more. Still figuring out the promo game, but the same Jersey boy work ethic that kept me alive in film is what’s pushing this forward.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, the three things that really carried me through were:

1. Work Ethic.
Sounds obvious, but it’s the foundation. Show up, do the work, don’t cut corners. In film, you’re only as good as your last job. People remember if you deliver — and they remember even faster if you don’t. For anyone starting out, take pride in the small stuff. If you’re sweeping the floor, sweep it like Scorsese’s gonna shoot on it tomorrow.

2. Adaptability.
Nothing goes according to plan — not on set, not in post, not in life. The Cameron Mars project never got made. The industry shifted, COVID wrecked it, strikes froze it solid. Each time, I had to pivot. Sometimes you plan those moves, sometimes you don’t. But being able to adjust without losing your head? That’s survival.

3. Relationships.
This business — and honestly any business — is people. The producers who treated me like family, the cinematographers and directors who trusted me, the crews that pulled 24-hour shifts together — those bonds mattered more than the credits. If you’re just starting out, don’t burn bridges. Ever. Work hard, be decent, and people will remember.

Advice? Don’t chase “perfect.” Chase better. Keep learning, keep adapting, keep showing up. The glamour’s fake; the grind is real. If you can love the grind, you’ll be alright.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

If I only had a decade left, I’d spend it on the road. Travel, eat everything, meet people, listen to their stories. I’d get lost on purpose — in back alleys, night markets, roadside diners. I’d chase flavors I’ve never tasted and conversations I’ll never forget.

Yeah, it sounds cliché, but to me it’s not. I’ve spent a lot of my life grinding, head down, chasing deadlines. I feel like I missed out on some of the discovery — the stuff that cracks you open and makes you see the world differently. Ten years left? I’d want them to be full of that. Full of places, faces, food, and the kind of happiness that doesn’t come from a paycheck or a credit roll.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbierobsspiceco/profilecard/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robephillips/
• Other: https://substack.com/@robbierob2

Image Credits

Picture of me is by Michelle Winters Photography
Photos of product is by me, Rob Phillips