Rick Wittenbraker - Humility, Generosity, and Building One-of-a-Kind Brands

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Rick Wittenbraker is the CMO of Howler Brothers, an Austin-based apparel company that creates some of the most unique, stylish, quirky, and highly functional outdoor clothing for adventurers of all stripes. In a little over a decade, Howler has firmly established itself as the go-to brand for anglers, surfers, travelers, and fun-seekers– the kind of people who value good times with good friends in cool places.

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Rick was born and raised in Texas, attended UT Austin, and spent the first years of his career in traditional businesses such as finance and sales. But in 2009, he joined an up-and-coming cooler company known as Yeti, and that is where Rick’s genius for storytelling really broke through. He eventually became Yeti’s VP of Marketing and was one of the major forces behind Yeti’s groundbreaking approach to building a brand through outside-the-box storytelling. Along the way, he met Howler Brother’s founders– Chase Heard and Andy Stepanian– and eventually decided to join them and apply his brand-building expertise toward expanding what is now known as “The Howlerverse.”

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Rick has been a longtime mentor of mine, and I credit his wisdom and counsel as being one the main factors that have allowed me to build Mountain & Prairie from a silly little side project into my full-time job. And there are countless creatives and entrepreneurs who have a similar story of Rick generously taking an interest in their project, offering his hard-earned wisdom, and expecting nothing in return. So this episode with Rick was long overdue.

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We recorded this in Austin, at the Howler Brothers HQ, and we covered a lot, including: Rick’s career path, lessons learned from living internationally, his philosophies around building authentic, completely original brands, his ever-present focus on generosity and humility, separating personal identity from brand identity, growing without abandoning core values, the spirit behind the Howler Brothers brand, the Howler Brothers book, some of his favorite books, and much more.

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A big thanks to Rick for taking the time to chat with me, as well as for everything he’s done to help Mountain & Prairie grow and evolve over the years. Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

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• Rick on LinkedIn
• Howler Brothers
• The Howler Brothers book
• Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/rick-wittenbraker/

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

4:00 - Rick’s childhood and what he wanted to be when he grew up

9:15 - Rick’s first job out of college

11:15 - Rick’s mentor in his first job

14:45 - When Rick became interested in marketing

18:00 - When Rick realized he and Yeti were onto something big

20:45 - Inspirations for Rick’s style of marketing with Yeti, and why it works so well

25:30 - Fun that Rick has had on the job

27:45 - Why Rick decided to move along from Yeti

29:45 - A bump in Rick’s career road

31:15 - Balancing the merits of business ideas and businesses with the people who implement them

38:00 - Describing Howler Bros.

44:15 - How Howler Bros. balances their identity and values with the need for business growth

46:15 - Separating personal identity from brand identity

49:30 - Balancing initiative and recklessness as it pertains to business progress

51:30 - Where Rick’s generosity and willingness to help comes from

54:00 - The future of Howler Bros.

58:15 - Rick’s book recommendations

1:03:00 - Rick’s parting words of wisdom

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