Building Brands That Matter - Maria Del Rio

0:00Hey, welcome to the CMO Whisper Show. I'm your host Steve Olenski. Part marketing practitioner, part ad agency veteran, part journalist. I was a writer for Forbes for 10 years. I've had so many insightful conversations over the years with business leaders, to athletes, to celebrities, to, of course, CMOs. The only difference now is instead of sharing those insights through written form, I'm doing it this way. My guest today is Maria Del Rio, Chief Marketing Officer at DNA Vibe. And let me tell you, this is not a, quote, remember the logos, colors kind of marketer. Oh, no. This is a builder, a scaler, a leader who's been in the arena for over 25 years, shaping brands, launching growth engines, and helping companies move from interesting idea to real market impact.

0:51At DNA Vibe, Maria is steering brand creative and growth as the company expands across wellness, performance, and health tech. Before that, she was CMO at Chromatic Technologies, and earlier in her career, she helped drive global brand powerhouses at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark, and Molson Coors. Translation, she's seen marketing at every altitude. I love that. From scrappy scale-ups to Fortune 500 giants, from early-stage chaos to enterprise precision. and she knows exactly what it takes to build brands that actually move people and generate revenue. Maria Del Rio, welcome to the show.

1:33Thank you so much, Steve. I'm so happy to be here and thrilled to have this conversation. The pleasure is all mine. We met a couple weeks ago as we're recording this at CES and when I said I got to get you on my show. You're an absolute gem. I can't wait for my audience to benefit from your experience. I got to start with Deanna. And I got to start with your journey, right, to DNA Vibe. And in fact, let's back up. Let's even, what is DNA Vibe for those who don't? Let's start there. Yeah, well, DNA Vibe is actually a company that has a purpose and a mission. Okay, that's, I think, the one thing that is more important.

2:10But it's been 11 years in the market, and it has an amazing product, which is a regenerative wearable product for health and wellness. So what it does is that it really prevents injury before it happens. And it does other things, especially for achieving, for allowing people to achieve the best potential physically and also mentally. I mean, this is a word you can put in any part of the body, right? And the science is patented. It works really well. We have a 97 % satisfaction rate, very high referral rate. It's really an amazing innovation, and it's the only one on its kind. So I can get more into that, okay?

2:55But on top of that, and I think that's what attracted me more to DNA Vive, is its mission. And there is a mission to not only allowing people to get their best potential in the way they feel, what they can achieve mentally, and also obviously avoiding any healing and avoiding any injury and pain, but also revitalizing the communities that serve these people. Okay. And this is what we call the Shine Movement. That, for me, was even more important for me to join the NMI than anything else. You know, the fact that it has a purpose, then it's acting on that purpose. It's not simply fluff. It's really what they do and how they think and how we are going to be growing in the years ahead.

3:40And to me, that was the most attractive part of DNA Vive. Yeah, I mean, it's, and I know a little bit about it, and I've tried the product, and it works. Trust me, it works. How did you end up here, though? How did this role come about? Well, everything in life to me is about serendipity somehow. It's like what opportunities are in front of you, whether you say yes to, whether you say no to. I have said yes many, many times and I have said no. Sometimes those no's I have regretted, but here I am. And I've had a very interesting career through several countries, also working globally in some cases.

4:19So I know a lot of different cultures and different challenges and I love challenges. But at some point in my career, I stepped into more entrepreneurial operations. And to me, that was maybe my sweet spot because I am bringing all this experience and everything that I can apply to decision making and to how to do strategy and to move things, which is probably the main trait that I bring. It's like I really want to get things done. I think strategic, but I am also operationally very strong and I just make things happen. So when I have a challenge, that's what I thrive the most. So in entrepreneurial operations, you have a lot of things to solve and you're in control of your own destiny.

4:58So after doing that, a friend of us, I met the CEO and founder of the Ennevive. And he actually, his first words was, are you interested in disrupting innovation? Disruptive innovation. Obviously, I am. But I'm like, let me see what this is. Because I didn't want to get into something where then the founder gets tired. They want to invest more or whatever. I want to see what this was. And that really started a very interesting relationship and fruitful relationship with the founder, which is Perry Camel. And he has charisma. He believes in what he's doing. And he's like, oh, my God, super smart.

5:36And obviously, we kind of got along with each other, you know, in the way we were interacting from the very beginning. So I started learning about the company a lot before I joined. and I met the team and he and the team, they choose very carefully who joins the team because the culture is very important. So that's how this happened. And it's just, again, because I said yes, because this opportunity presented itself and I was coming from abroad and I remember telling Perry, I can only meet when I come back. And then we just met for coffee and then everything started in this relationship. And it's just amazing.

6:12That's how it happens, right? I mean, it's just over a cup of coffee and you had to have that, pun intended, vibe with the founder, right? And good people and all those things. That all has to click. Absolutely. And the team is maybe handpicked by Harry and by whoever is there. And it's just a blessing, you know, because when you have this culture and you feel that you can work really hard but also have fun, it's really energy. Totally. Tell us about the Shine movement. Yes, well, the Shine movement is actually what really is the materialization of the purpose of DNA Vive. Even though Shine is created by DNA Vive, but can exist on its own, because what we want is other companies to join us in Shine.

7:04So let me explain what Shine is. What Shine is, is a movement that is integrating. Basically, to explain it easily, it's two systems. As I said, in one hand, we want to have people and societies and communities that are achieving a very high state of well-being in all of its meaning at scale. But on the other hand, we want to do that under the belief that any person that is going to feel good needs to come from a community that is also having the vitality and the jobs and the movement that also the economic movement, okay, that a community need. Okay, so all of those two are reinforcing each other.

7:47One cannot exist without the other. That's the intersection of this movement. So on one hand, we have the technology to achieve that individual well-being on what we do, supporting the healing, supporting and preventing injury and recovery. But on the other hand, everything that we do is going to be created in local manufacturing facilities. And that is the other breakthrough of DNA Vive is they've been in the market for 11 years, but they've really studied how do they bring a high-end scientific, technologically advanced product and make it in a way that it can be done in a micro manufacturing facility.

8:30If you think about it, it's like a Starbucks. You see Starbucks everywhere, but there is a system. There is a method. Nothing is improvised. Same thing with an iPhone. They say things can be done. It's almost like, how can you break those barriers, bring that into local manufacturing facilities in the U.S. so that we are close to the consumers that we're serving? That's the other part of the movement, okay? And our objective is to inspire other manufacturers, other manufacturing companies to do the same, because it's possible, right? And they believe in that when you bring things from another country, you know, that country is producing at scale.

9:11You bring it, okay, you bring it at a cost and you have a great economics, right? But you're not benefiting the community. On the other hand, if you bring that manufacturing facility to the U.S. and you place it, let's say, in Detroit, you're benefiting Detroit, but you are, in one hand, screwing where it came from in whatever that country abroad was. And you're not benefiting the U.S. as a whole, the community of the complete United States. So that's what the movement is also breaking. What we call local advanced manufacturing pot is breaking that convention. You could actually break it down into a process that can be reapplied in many, many places locally.

9:57So you are injecting that vitality. You're injecting that production facility in many, many places. I really hope that message gets out about the impact on a local economy something like this can have. Right. Yes. It's just such an amazing vision, right, and movement. And it's happening. It's not just a vision, right? It's happening already. We are producing in Centennial, Colorado, and it's considered a local advanced manufacturing pod, a LAMP. And we just opened the second one in Las Vegas. Okay, that was 10 days ago. And our objective is to probably be opening 10 to 12 in the U.S., but it will continue.

10:38Okay, it will continue in the U.S. to a point where we have, I don't know, 250 labs. Okay, at a point in time, as we expand our program. At the same time, we really hope to also have other companies join us in the same movement. Yeah, we're recording this, I think, around a couple weeks before the Super Bowl. And I know there's some interesting things, lack of a better, coming up regarding the Super Bowl. Tell us about that. Yes. We are going to have an activation during the Super Bowl week leading up to the Super Bowl. And this is a very important thing because in 2026, we're focusing on athletes.

11:16And why athletes? Because that's where you see the need more clear in terms of recovery, prevention of injury, being available. and really be at their peak potential. So we started there and we have a group of philanthropists that are redirecting their philanthropic funds to donate our product, which is the Jazz Band Life Pro to all these athletes. We're donating a million, million of this wearable technology to athletes. So it was a perfect opportunity because a lot of athletes are going to be gathering around that week. We also have media. We also have community leaders, right? So that activation is actually a very serious of conversations that are going to happen in those three days, okay?

12:04And also field trips. So we are bringing, obviously, important conversations from the founder, talking to some former NFL athletes, current NFL athletes. Also Parity, which is also a company that has a mission to establish women equality, okay, in sports. And we have party tea as well, which is very important also for athletes. We also have a lot of trainers and athletic directors participating in the conversations. Every conversation is going to have a podcast. So it's going to be also spread out in the different distribution channels. There's going to be a lot of networking opportunities. And we are incorporating as well field trips.

12:50So one of the field trips is going to be to a local school. It's going to be a shine school. That's the way we call it. And we're going to be donating jazz fans there, as well as also building a training center to leave a legacy, okay, in that school. And also we have another activation, which is a trip to a field, a football field. And there's going to be training and recovery sessions in that field. And then, again, it's just reinforcing the fact that that is important for athletes, okay? That's a part of the routine. It has to be incorporated as part of the routine. So it's taking really, really well.

13:25I am very excited about what's coming and being able to really spread what the movement is about during those three days. What's going to come? Okay, that's Super Bowl, and that's a lot. You're going to pack a lot into three days. Give us the six-month, year, three years from now. What's coming up for the brand? How are you going to get, quote-unquote, get the word out? We have other events. That's not the only one that we are doing this year. And the objective, again, of each one of these events is the experience athletes get, okay, and the use of the product and to have them become somehow ambassadors of, you know, what this does, okay, for the body, for their mental health, etc.

14:10So there is a series of events happening. Okay. We also are obviously in this particular year, 2026 using, believe it or not, we have different community audiences, the way I call it. Okay. We are talking to older people. We're talking to moms of athletes. We're talking to athletes directly, right? So we have all these communities we serve and we need to have different channels. So we're also stepping into having a streamer, okay, stream some of the events because they're getting too young. longer generations as well. And then we continue with all our channels of distribution. So while our focus this year is going to be athletes, we're also going to be launching new innovation, okay, for the products.

14:54Okay. I cannot talk about that because it's confidential, but we continue working on what else, what is the next thing that we need to launch, okay, with this technology. Okay. And that continues to be a work stream that we are advancing. There is never enough, when it comes to innovating and making products better. But as we continue to advance with Shine, this movement's objective is to be a global movement, not just a U.S. movement. So the U.S. will continue its pace. We're going to be expanding into veterans and also people that are in most need of recovery, daily recovery support. And then we continue to advance to really expand across populations and settings in the U.S.

15:37for the years. But as we do that in the U.S. and it comes to 2027, our ambition is that we should be expanding now in Europe, right? And after that, we're going to look at Latin America and Asia. So the idea is that we are successful. We're looking for success. We're looking at a movement that changed the trajectory of how manufacturing is made and the purpose behind it. And we want to take it globally after 2027. So I mentioned your career has been very varied, to say the least. But you were at P &G, Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark, right? Those very, very well-known brands. And I'm curious, and I know my listeners and audience would be as well.

16:21Those are huge. Everybody knows those brands. Now you're at a brand that very few people know about yet. How are you applying or thought about using your experience from those very well-known brands to this brand that really doesn't, no one knows? That's an interesting question because when you step into an entrepreneurial role, and at least from my perspective that I bring all this experience in those bigger brands, bigger budgets, but also a lot of, I wouldn't call it necessarily red tape because that's negative. But yeah, you have a lot of decision makers and it takes a while to get things done.

16:55And you need to break a lot of barriers to put something into the market, right? Because there is a lot going on. There is a lot of resources available. But at the same time, everyone wants to be financially disciplined in these companies. So when you bring this experience to an entrepreneur organization, and I consider myself a mix of a strategic mind and a doer as well, I'm not afraid of rolling up my sleeve and doing what it needs to be done and also learning how it's done so that I can also advance if I need to on my own, okay, with very little resources. So on the other hand, my mantra is that I need to build my team, empower them, making sure that they are learning every day.

17:39My team is very young, very talented, have a great attitude and energy. And those are amazing people to work with because then you are teaching them every day or you are encouraging them to make decisions on their own. And very importantly, you need to surround yourself also with a support system of experts, right? So I have PR expert agency and I have also, you know, in other companies, not yet in this one, but we need to have social media really well dialed up. Okay. And we also have design. Design is another area that we need to amplify. Right. So you need to surround yourself, you know, with people that can bring that expertise to us.

18:22Right. Work with us. Have the strategy first and foremost. And then that allows also to nurture the team knowledge, okay? And the team grows with those experiences. So that's the way that works for me to advance in a situation like this, to manage a little bit the chaos at times and to intervene. And today, thanks to all the tools available and including AI, I think there is nothing that is impossible. You can learn anything on your own, almost, right? So that also thing about, we just need to make it happen. How can I encourage the team also to have that curiosity and figure it out, make it happen?

19:05And then I intervene, obviously, to remove barriers, to understand it myself. But I have to continue coaching my team. Nowadays, you can really do a lot of things that way. Fortunately, if you have the energy and the passion, you can do things that way. Listen, the best leaders I know, CMOs or any other leaders, you have to have a sense of humility that you don't know everything. And that's why you surround yourself with the best people. Correct. Yes. And I tell you, we are very different in my team and also the agencies that support us. And that's the thing. They know more in certain areas. That's what we need to learn from.

19:44And that's how we do. We have an amazing website agency too. everybody's killing themselves in other words because we all believe in what we're doing that's the other amazing thing you're you're really having this ecosystem that you are forming around the nearby right because we all believe on what we are doing we're willing to advance work together really well solve issues because not everything is going to be smooth all the time But we all have the end in mind. And we also have fun with each other, which is important. I want to look at this. My audience is a lot of CMOs, as you know, and other leaders.

20:24But specifically about CMOs. And when you look at the role of a CMO today versus even just a few years ago, what are some of the biggest differences you've seen that CMOs have had to go through and change even three, five, seven years ago, in your opinion? And one of the things is CMOs now more than ever, they have the accountability of revenue. And that is very important. It's not just, you know, creation and ads and how beautiful things are, but it's how are you showing up, okay, at the shelf to a consumer? What is the consumer experience overall when they get your product, when they call your customer service, when they go through your website to get something, when they meet you?

21:11There is a lot of things that go on in that consumer experience. But more importantly, what is arriving? So everything needs to have a business objective. OK, and you need to measure results, even if it's not right away, because sometimes marketing, you need to build the equity and then cultivate that equity afterwards. However, everything has a reason for being, right? It's not like you're doing as much as you can to see if something sticks. I mean, that doesn't work. You need to have a strategy. You need to also question everything you're doing, making sure you're making the right choices versus being overwhelmed with a thousand things and losing control.

21:50So to me, that is important, you know, the revenue accountability and also how fast information is flowing today to consumers. That really requires a lot of discipline in terms of messaging, in terms of, you know, what are the channels that are working for you, analyzing things more carefully than before on a weekly basis, right? Those are the things that nowadays a CMO has to be adapting to the constant change of how our consumers are digesting information today, right? What really makes a difference? And again, at the end of the day, the moment of truth is also when they use your product and they experience it and they experience you, whether they call you back, give you a testimonial or have a bad experience.

22:38That's the moment of truth, no matter what. And that will never change. But it's having that calls on the consumer every day. It's, it's, I'm chuckling because you, you make it, and it's supposed to be that direct and almost simple, but we both know things get so complicated and I'm not naming names, but we've seen brands who just, for lack of a better term, cannot get out of their own way. Yes. Well, one thing that I also do is nowadays, because of the experience I have, is sometimes I have a bad gut feeling about something. What I have learned also through the last few years is that if I have a bad gut feeling, I should listen to that.

23:20And I should then get deeper into that versus saying, well, it's OK, let's just go. For whatever reason, that gut feeling at the end demonstrates to me, at least, that I should have been more careful. And that is a reason why I had that gut feeling, right? So that's one of the things that I also, I would give as an advice. If you have a lot of experience as a CMO and you have a gut feeling that something is not right, just stop and think. Don't continue. I would, I would start to interrupt you. I think it's even more exacerbated or pronounced in the AI age where your gut, you go, nah, I mean, I'll just drop it into chat GPT and it'll tell me what to do.

24:01No, no, no. Your gut tells you. Exactly. Also, exactivity can help adding additional points. But you need to have a point of view first and foremost. You need to know what is it that you want to do and why before you even try to justify why. You need to have that justification on your own terms, based on where you know the strategy and how you achieve your objectives that way before you get any other help or you involve anyone else. So that's important. The other thing that is important, too, is that I am completely against launching products and launching things just because, you know, like if that was what the brand does, if there is not a brand, brand equity, you know, a brand that consumers say, OK, I know what that brand stands for.

24:51When I remember that brand, this is what I think about. If that doesn't exist, what you're doing, launching products, is not marketing. It's just, I don't know, opportunistic things that you are doing to see if something sticks, right? And I'm not about that. I'm about building long-term brands, and that requires some discipline. Sometimes it requires to say no to certain things, because that's not going to build a brand. And patience. Patience. Yes. Patience. And that's why for a CMO, when you're accountable for revenue, you need to have the patience, but you also need to ideate ways to get revenue, no matter what.

25:31Listen, you're preaching to the choir here. You know, I talk to CMOs all the time. To me, it's the hardest job in the C-suite, but, you know, I'm a little biased. But to have that balance of short-term, long-term, all those things come into play. And balancing that, someone who does it as well as you have gets my utmost respect. It is a balancing act, and also because, as you probably know, everyone has an opinion about marketing. Everyone is a marketeer. I've heard that. Yeah. And exactly. So you need to listen. Good ideas come from anywhere. But sometimes you also need to be very persuasive of why something doesn't make sense.

26:13I mean, you need to take the time, OK, to explain why. So at the same time, you're kind of educating your team, educating your leadership team as well, so that they understand why not everything is a good idea. But I still want to hear it at the same time. Exactly. Hearing is important, considering it, and maybe then do something with it. But at the same time, the pressure on revenue is something that a CMO needs to be super accountable for. And that's why it requires all these different compartments, right? That you are doing the right thing, but maybe you need to create some revenue streams, some promotional activity, or something that you do in parallel, okay?

26:55But even promotions can be strategic, depending on how you position the promotion. So again, everything needs to work for building the book, no matter what you do. Where can people learn more about DNA Vibe? We have our website. We just revamped our website two weeks ago. We wanted to be ready for that launch that we did of the lamp. And there is a lot of great information there on how our product works and also about the shine movement. So that would be the first source I would point people out. And we're going to have different events throughout the year. Okay. Soon, very soon, we're going to be announcing where the podcasts are going to be distributed.

27:38So that's going to be an important opportunity. We're going to be posting that in LinkedIn as well and other distribution channels. So there is going to be a lot of opportunities to learn about the NIVive. That way, hopefully people take a little bit of, there is a little bit of curiosity about what is DNA Vibe and what is that wearable technology? Let me hear about it. And then they learn about Shine. And all together, hopefully, they get inspired the same way we are. And they try us and they support the movement. Maria Del Rio, Chief Marketing Officer at DNA Vibe. You are an absolute treat. I can't thank you enough for coming on my show.