32 APRIL 6, 2020 | ADWEEK
®COURTESYOF^ASTOUND^COMMERCETALENT POOL
Rigel Cable
FROM ANALYTICS
TO ADVOCACY, THIS
MARKETER IS FORGING
COMMUNITY AND
BREAKING BARRIERS.
BY NICOLE ORTIZRigel Cable is a director of data
analytics at digital commerce
agency Astound Commerce—
but you might know him better
by his influencer persona,
Rigel Gemini.
Though Cable makes
sure to keep his influencer
advocacy and day job separate
from each other, he still
tries to bring “visibility and
presence” to both ends of his
life as a queer person from a
mixed background. Through
Astound, Cable said he’s able
to bring insights to gender and
behavior that clients might
otherwise not consider.
“I am proud to be openly
LGBTQ+ in the workplace,”
he said. “I know that for some
clients, I may be their first out
LGBTQ+ business partner, and
that’s a great opportunity.”
Before Astound, Cable
worked with Goodby Silverstein
& Partners while still in college.
“Many of my undergraduate
classmates were joining
investment banks,
management consulting firms
or entering politics, but I knew
I wanted to be in the creative
marketing industry,” he said.
He spent the early days of
his career working with clientslike Adobe, Doritos, Got Milk!
and Häagen-Dazs.
“Analytics has allowed me
to balance my quantitative and
logical mind with my creative
and strategic skills,” he said.
Cable spent his final three
years in California in Los
Angeles, where he got deep
insights into social media,
which helped him grow his
influencer track. After getting
encouragement from his
artist husband, Cable grew his
Instagram account and landed
some impressive gigs. He was
an official ambassador for L.A.
Fashion Week and L.A. Prideand also held partnerships with
brands like Google, Johnson &
Johnson, Lexus and LifeStyles.
As Rigel Gemini, he
focuses on advocating to
his over 100,000 followers,
which is largely made up
of queer, trans and gender
nonconforming youth
across the world. Now in
Atlanta, he partners with
local LGBTQ+ organizations
like Atlanta Pride and
produced an art show with
his husband last year called
Fabnormal, sponsored by
Lexus. In its inaugural event,
they saw more than 400attendants, had over eight
queer performances and
raised close to $2,000 for
TRANScending Barriers,
a trans- and gender-
nonconforming nonprofit
in Georgia.
“Creating space for the
queer and trans communities,
showcasing talent from our
community and centering
voices for people of color
have been core to what I want
to do,” he said. “It’s what I’m
passionate about, and it’s a
place where we all can help
contribute where others have
dropped the ball.”Big Mistake
Cable said the biggest mistake
starting out in the agency
world was “feeding into
workplace pressure to be part
of the ‘cool kids’ club.”
“Agencies can be like
fraternities or sororities,” he said.
“And it used to bother me that it
felt like there was always an ‘in’
group and ‘out’ group.”Lesson Learned
Cable feels he wasted his time
trying to impress workplace
cliques. In the end, seeking the
approval of others never ended
up being worthwhile (“except for
maybe your boss,” he noted).How He Got the Gig
He interviewed with current boss
Bridget Fahrland, head of digital
strategy at Astound Commerce,
where to this day she jokes that
“[he] talked her into hiring [him]
in one meeting.” Cable spent
six years as a senior analyst,
then made his way to associate
director and is now director.
(Astound Commerce merged
with customer experience and
software solutions company
Fluid in March 2018.)Pro Tip
“I keep my influencer work
totally separate from my day job
and restrict it to the nights and
weekends, but I’m a Gemini so I
love the duality. I get this question
all the time in the professional
world: ‘How do you have time?’
My answer: ‘We’ve made the
choice to have no kids!’”