When he was little, Brandon Williams could be spotted running around the playground at Wildwood Elementary School in cowboy boots, not Nikes.
Then he played BREC basketball. The coach said to his mother, Patricia Williams, “Do you see how Brandon gets to the other end of the court? Brandon should be running [track].”
“It was always ‘Brandon should be running,’” Patricia Williams recalls.
And he did run.
But now, Brandon Williams’ passion is squarely dialed into getting other people to run. They don’t even have to go fast, he insists. Just get the feet above the ground.
His toughest convert? Mom.
But he’s eternally positive. He keeps on trying. “That lady is stubborn,” he says.
“I don’t think my body can handle all that pounding in running,” she protests.
And yet, she is exercising, she adds. She’s doing Zumba and boot camp, too.
She works out way more than she might be if her boy wasn’t the unofficial mayor of running in Louisiana.
In early 2011, Brandon Williams, 26, caused somewhat of a sensation in the Capital City when he created the Claim Your Journey website.
Part community, part magazine, part video feed and part movement, Claim Your Journey started out as a blog that Williams, once a high-school track runner, hoped would help him get back in shape.
The site quickly morphed into a fan-driven running news beacon with 20,000 unique visitors a month.
That led to a clothing line and a blue carpet at every major fitness event in the region, where all are welcomed to become a part of the running revolution that is Claim Your Journey. Williams also recently stepped up to steer Happy’s Running Club, another successful Baton Rouge running venture, which adds to Williams’ clout as a mega-player in the local fitness industry.
At events around Louisiana, wandering racers are often met by Williams himself.
He’s an outgoing guy who somehow manages to improve his own fitness and business results (he recently ran a personal record in the 5K of 19:56) without donning the unapproachable ego or attitude that can come with increased success.
“Come take a picture on the blue carpet,” Williams insists.
The blue carpet is a Claim Your Journey trademark, a swath of Smurfy, roof tarp-colored fabric that draws people to the organization’s tent. Williams also drives a truck that is this particular Claim-Your-Journey blue.
No matter how sweaty or heat-beaten people are, they can’t say no to this guy with a constant grin. They grin, too, and pose for his camera.
Later, they log onto his website, and then they’re hooked—joining the many players in the area’s story of everyday champions.
“We’re the opposite of elite,” Williams says of Claim Your Journey. “There’s a market of elite, fast runners, where if you’re not running this fast, you can’t be a runner. But here’s a crowd where none of that matters.”
It’s a formula that is working. At a time when many star athletes—Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong, for instance—have proven themselves to be less than heroes, many people have decided to become their own brand of winners, to inspire and be inspired by the average Joes and Janes who are working hard all around them.
Williams was recently approached by a couple of Austin fitness fiends.
In the city by Town Lake that invented one of the finest social running scenes alongside its music scene, they want to know how they can get in on what Williams is doing with Claim Your Journey in Louisiana.
Last January, the organization won the “Best in Baton Rouge” SMartie award from the Baton Rouge Social Media Association. Claim Your Journey edged out such heavy hitters as Community Coffee, LSU Football and Visit Baton Rouge.
Now, Claim Your Journey is moving into other markets around Louisiana, building a presence in Lafayette, New Orleans, Lake Charles and Alexandria.
On Dec. 8, Claim Your Journey hosted Run Louisiana Day. The goal: To get every person in Louisiana to run, even if it’s just for a little bit, to raise awareness of obesity. Louisiana ranks second in the nation for obesity, and Williams believes running might be the best way to solve the problem.
“As a state, we have people in our community who believe in running so much, we’re going to celebrate it,” he says.
The music video Williams made with a few Claim Your Journey buddies to promote Run Louisiana Day has became a sensation in itself, retweeted by Lolo Jones and viewed 10,000 times on YouTube (see page 35).
During a recent visit over lattes at Magpie Cafe, Williams talked about his running passion and the future of Claim Your Journey in 2013.
It’s bustling. And every few minutes, Williams nods his head or waves at someone. It’s rare, he admits, that he can go to a place and not run into at least a few people he’s met working on Claim Your Journey.
“It weirds people out when I want to be alone,” he says. But he has a shy side and likes to pull away from constant socializing once in awhile.
Williams grew up in a quiet neighborhood near Staring Lane and Highland Road. His mom was single, so she looked to her neighborhood, school and church for support in raising her only child.
He was a gift to her.
“Brandon never had a bad day,” Patricia Williams says. He was a happy baby. A happy kid. A happy teen.
“I don’t have a reason not to go around smiling,” he agrees.
And yet, Williams faced many of the pressures growing up that, statistically, might have led to failure.
He recalls being scared when he was a student at Kenilworth Middle School and gangs from Gardere and Mayfair were clashing.
“Every day there was a gang fight,” he says. “Kenilworth was a really hostile situation.”
Williams responded by reaching out to anyone and everyone. He became a peer helper, responsible for assisting his fellow students. He focused on getting good grades.
He set a goal to earn a spot at Baton Rouge High School and worked hard to make it in. There, he became a track star. But a hip injury put his Olympic dreams on hold. In college, he had to figure out whether or not he could run just for the love of it.
The answer: absolutely. He started Claim Your Journey to track his own progress. As it turns out, there’s a lot of glory in being an also-ran.
“Even if I’m not the best runner, I can still be the best to running,” he says. “I never thought, ’til now, that I could still have impact on the running industry.”
When Williams told his mom last year he was quitting his day job in an information technology department at LSU to focus full-time on Claim Your Journey, she got a little bit worried.
“When I found out, I said, ‘Oh, let’s get medical insurance,’” she says. Once that was taken care of, she decided she could get behind her son’s idea.
“Brandon has a vision and a goal, and he’s going to do what it takes to take care of that,” she says.
Shortly after he started Claim Your Journey, Williams brought two partners into his project. Robert Guasco runs the website’s technical side, and Wayne Arena takes care of graphics.
Talk with Williams and his business partners for a few minutes, and it’s clear that, beneath his smile, Williams is a focused, hard-driving competitor.
“I get into work for my regular job at 6:30 in the morning, and I already have emails from him from 5:30 in the morning,” says Guasco.
“He does strive to get where he wants to be, so if you’re not up to snuff, he probably would jump on you,” says Arena. “But we haven’t gotten to that point.”
Williams, who graduated from LSU with a degree in merchandising and business administration, has been spending a lot of time at Varsity Sports, where mentor Jenni Peters doles out marketing advice, shoe know-how and running common sense.
Right now, most of the website’s revenue comes from advertising. Marketers are drawn to the grassroots feel of Claim Your Journey, Williams says.
In the next few years, Williams and his team will be focused on growing the site by adding resources for new cities and regions, all the while staying true to the motivational, community feel of the enterprise.
“I do have a goal to be a millionaire,” he says. “But it’s not for the sake of money. I’m enjoying having this conversation about running.”
Making a video? It’s not so hard. The Run Louisiana video that became a local internet sensation during the summer came together rather quickly. Plus, it was fun. Attorney Stephen Jones wrote portions of the rap in his office during a short work break and added them to the words Williams crafted. Music producer Matt Tortorich, AKA CrackaTrax, wrote the tunes behind the rap. Jones, Williams and Katelyn Young sang the riffs. And a whole bunch of Claim Your Journey die-hards showed up to shoot the oddball video by Tommy Talley. Then Lolo Jones told her Twitter followers about the video, and people around the country started bopping to its key riff: “I run Louisiana. Every day.” One viewing just isn’t enough. To see the clip and a behind-the-scenes look at how the video was made, visit ClaimYourJourney.com and click Videos, then go to page 2 and scroll down a bit to find “Behind the Scenes—The Making of ‘Run Louisiana’ The Song.”
