What actually matters here?
That's the question I've spent more than 20 years asking as a journalist, strategist, marketer, creative director, CMO, professor, filmmaker, and occasional professional pain in the ass.
Because whether you're building a brand, telling a story, leading a team, or trying to change something that needs changing, the work gets better when you're willing to challenge the obvious answer.
That's pretty much what Local Boy is built to do.
TURNS OUT, NOT STAYING IN ONE LANE HAS ITS ADVANTAGES.
STRATEGY: I've sat in the C-suite and had to make the call — not just make the deck.
CREATIVITY: I've spent a career finding stories, building campaigns, making films, and figuring out how to get people to give a damn.
LEADERSHIP: I've built teams, coached leaders, taught students, navigated change, and learned that good ideas only matter if people can actually bring them to life.
Local Boy exists at the intersection of all three.
Hugo Pérez is the founder of Local Boy Co., a strategy, creative, and leadership studio built around the power of story — and a healthy disregard for boring.
For more than two decades, Hugo has zigzagged through advertising, journalism, higher ed, startups, nonprofits, and global brands, building a career around one deceptively simple question: What actually matters here? He has a knack for finding the answer, sharpening it, and turning it into strategies, stories, and ideas that move people.
A former network news producer and Emmy winner, Hugo went on to become a creative and marketing leader behind work for brands including Starbucks, Taco Bell, Allstate, MTV, Frito-Lay, AT&T, Mars, and AstraZeneca. Most recently, as CMO of a global plant-based food brand, he led omnichannel growth spanning brand, creative, digital, retail, content, and major sports partnerships.
Today, Hugo brings all those worlds together at Local Boy Co. — part strategist, part storyteller, part creative instigator, and part experienced executive in the room when things get complicated.
He’s also a professor, filmmaker, mentor, and lifelong believer that the best work rarely comes from the most obvious answer.
AND SOMETIMES I GET THE MICROPHONE…. AND HAVE THINGS WORTH LISTENING TO.
From rebellious leadership and courageous decision-making to storytelling, creativity, and what it takes to create momentum, Hugo brings the ideas behind Local Boy and SPARKED into rooms full of people ready to do something with them.
DON'T JUST INSPIRE THE ROOM. CHALLENGE THE ORDINARY.
NEED TO MOVE A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE?
Let's give them something worth talking about. Stories, ideas, a little provocation—and practical tools they can actually do something with.
NEED STRATEGY? CREATIVITY? LEADERSHIP?
Or somebody willing to ask the question everyone else in the room is avoiding?