Who's that Gal: Robbin Mangano, Founder of Wave Collective and Co-Founder of The Golden Cod

Name: Robbin Mangano
Occupation: Co-Owner & Co-Founder of The Golden Cod; Owner & Founder of Wave Collective
Hometown: Fairfield, CT
Current ‘hood: Scituate, MA
Book you’ve loved most this year: How I Built This by Guy Raz (I also love his podcast)
Movie you’ve rewatched the most: Either Frozen, Moana or Trolls, because my 2-year-old daughter insists we play it on repeat.
Favorite quarantine activity: Finally making time to work out and focusing on self-care.
I never leave home without____: My Fujifilm camera.
Favorite music to dance to: Disney soundtrack hits -- I love seeing my daughter recognize the songs and getting excited when we play them.
Favorite holiday treat: Coconut and chocolate macaroons. And, Italian wedding cookies with sprinkles. In the past when spending the holidays with my family, someone would always bring an assortment of cookies and I’d always grab all the Italian wedding cookies.

Tell us a little more about you. How did you get started in your career?

My career started when I was in college and had a huge interest in broadcast news and the media industry in general. Most of my internships were spent at local news stations and I was obsessed with the idea of reporting on a story. Post graduation, back in 2010, we were only two years out from the recession, so job hunting was difficult. After months of frustration, I had found a job listing for a Public Relations Assistant for a television network and noticed a lot of the job responsibilities were similar to what I had just learned through my internships, just from the other side of the industry. I ended up applying and getting the job and that was the start to my public relations career. While I still love broadcast media, I realized that I’m more passionate about bringing a brand’s story to life and finding unique ways to present it to both the media and through social media storytelling.

You are a founder of Wave Collective, a PR and Marketing Company. What sparked your interest in PR and Marketing?

It really all comes down to storytelling. Growing up, I was obsessed with reading fiction books. When a story hooked me in, it was common that you wouldn’t see me coming out of my bedroom for hours as I tried to finish the book in one sitting. Years later, I noticed this love for storytelling translated into my own career. Public relations and social media are all based on telling a story - that then paved the way for everything I do.

Any tips for aspiring marketers? How do you build your presence online?

These days, if you’re entering the marketing world, you should build your own personal brand online -- whether it’s through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, or YouTube. Not to say everyone needs to be a content creator, but a quick glimpse at one of your social media channels should give me a glimpse of you, your work, your skillset, and your interests.

To build a presence online, you have to be authentic, consistent, and always provide value. And, never go into it thinking, “How can I monetize my social media accounts?” If you’re just starting off, that mindset won’t get you anywhere. First, focus on providing value, sharing content consistently, and being you. And if you aren’t providing value, if you aren’t sharing content consistently, and if you’re being something other than yourself, you won’t attract new followers and your current followers will either become uninterested or unfollow.

You’ve also founded a new company, The Golden Cod, what inspired you to create this company?

Years ago, I was visiting my family in Marblehead, MA. While driving there, my husband and I kept on seeing these wood carved golden fish above everyone’s doors, on their mailboxes, on top of cupolas...and once I arrived at my aunt’s house, I peppered her with questions about the golden cod. I’ve always been a history buff, but never had heard or learned about the story of cod fishing and how it essentially built New England. Cod fishing was the first industry established in Massachusetts and single-handedly built our region’s economy. Eventually, it was considered a state symbol and you can find a massive wood-carved cod fish in the Massachusetts State House. From there, I was inspired to create a brand around this story and bring it to life through jewelry and apparel.

You launched The Golden Cod during the pandemic. How has that impacted your business and the work you’re doing?

The idea for The Golden Cod began back in 2016 but didn’t come to fruition until years later. Our plan was to launch during the spring of this past year, but due to covid, we were hit by delays from every angle. Eventually, we asked ourselves if we should just wait until the following year to launch. But, because everything was so up in the air, we chose to take a chance and launch mid-summer to capitalize on New Englanders still wanting a “piece of New England,” whether it was one of our crewnecks, a hat, our coin pendant necklaces, or our wood carved golden cods for the home.

You also work directly with your husband. What do you enjoy about being business partners? What’s challenging about working with your spouse?

Through Wave Collective, we’ve had a bit of experience over the years of working together. He’s helped me (behind-the-scenes) with different aspects of my business, like the accounting, and acting as a soundboard for ideas.

When launching The Golden Cod together, it was a bit different, and this was the first time we had really worked together on a project like this. Once we were able to define our roles in the company, it made everything run more smoothly. For example, Jeff oversees our Shopify website, anything financially related, placing new inventory orders, and more. Whereas I’m focused on working with our artist vendors on designs, the social media marketing and photography, and influencer relations.

You’re also mom to a two-year-old. How do you balance your work life and your home life? Any tips for other working parents?

It would be a lie to say I had everything all figured out and that I’ve learned how to balance being both a mom and a business owner. The first step was finding a good local daycare that my daughter enjoys and thrives at. There were a few weeks where we didn’t have daycare and… it was very hard. I know a lot of working parents felt the same way during the pandemic. You want to do it all: be a good mom, a good spouse, a good business owner, and boss. Eventually, it catches up to you. And for me, it meant really learning how to delegate, determine what was important to work on, and what could wait until later.

Tell us more about what you do day-to-day. What do you love about your job (or should we say jobs?!)?

I hear this often in the industry I work in… but the best part is that each day is different. One day could be filled with client meetings, phone calls, and emails. The next day could be an in-studio photo and video shoot. The next day could be fielding media requests for clients and building out social media strategies. The following day could be a restaurant opening (pre-pandemic) or influencer event for a brand. And so on and so on. There’s never been a time in my career where I’ve felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again, which is what has made it so interesting for me.

What’s hardest about the work you do?

For Wave Collective, the hardest part has always been around balancing the number of clients with the size of our agency staff. You have to find a way to build your clientele, but also grow your staff. The PR and social media agency is notorious for its ebbs and flow, so I’ve found that to be the hardest to navigate. Thankfully, we’re in year 5 for Wave, and it’s starting to get easier to figure out.

For The Golden Cod, the hardest part is to try to not be discouraged by the pandemic and pivoting to find other ways to get our new brand in front of the appropriate audience. Originally, our business strategy was to pop up at events all throughout New England so that people could see the product, try it on, talk to us, learn about the history of cod fishing and the reason behind our brand. That took a back seat for now. But, we are very excited to take that next step with our business once it is safe to do so.

What skill is most important for you to be successful? Why?

Building relationships. That can be said for both Wave Collective and The Golden Cod. Whether it is client relations, team relations, vendor relations. If you can’t build relationships with people on a personal and professional level, it’s difficult to grow your business and build trusted partners and recurring clients.

Any advice/words of wisdom for other professional ladies?

If you’re currently in college, I can’t stress enough the importance of internships. When we hire anyone entry-level at Wave Collective, it’s a given that they are very, very new to the industry. But if they have a few internships on their resume that can help us identify that they have at least some knowledge of what we do. That’s a big leg up on others.

For women who are a few years in, be confident in your skillset and work. Don’t let others undermine your expertise, only because they think they know better (when there’s a good chance they don’t). Speak up in meetings. Take credit for your ideas and work.

How can JUGs readers learn more about you?

You can find me on Instagram, where I often post daily: www.instagram.com/robbinmangano

For updates on The Golden Cod, you can follow us on Instagram as well: www.instagram.com/thegoldencod

To learn more about Wave Collective, you can check us out at wearewavecollective.com

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Lindsay Gardner is an Instructional Designer living and working in Boston. You can follow her on Instagram @lindsaygardner09.