We recently connected with Roberto Baldea and have shared our conversation below.
Roberto , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I got the chance to work on was in 2024 during the summer when Levi’s reached out to me to promote the clothing collection they were going to release with McLaren and it fell perfectly as I was also going to the Indycar race in Toronto which gave the perfect opportunity to promote the clothes in my natural context (doing photography) at a race weekend. It was meaningful first because Levi’s is a big brand and it always means the world when a brand such as them trusts you with something. It was also meaningful to me as it showed a transition from only being known about Motorsport to dabbling into fashion and other domains.
Another project that was extremely meaningful was creating a hoodie with the Parc Ferme brand at the end of 2023 and having one of my pictures on the back, not just slapping it there but thinking, working and helping create the design. The hoodie looked beautiful, I am very proud of it. All the profits were given to the Parc Ferme charity which helps kids who don’t really have the money to attend racing events, the opportunity to! It meant a lot to help this cause as someone so passionate about racing and wanting others to have the same opportunities.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
1. How I got there
I had no contacts in the world of racing, none, my parents are immigrants from Romania. I met one friend during the 2019 Canadian GP & we took a picture together because we were both wearing our racing helmets his painted in Sebastian Vettel’s design and mine in Michael Schumacher’s. He went on to do karting competitions, despite wanting to I unfortunately did not have the funds to access this endeavour but I did come to the last race of the 2022 season to support him after we reconnected through social media (as I started posting as a content creator since 2018, I was 14 back then) I took my camera and started photographing the different drivers/teams and since the team/driver’s names is everywhere along with sponsors I managed to tag everyone on social media, they liked my pictures and the next year before the first race they asked if I could come and work for them, and I’ve worked with the same clients ever since! That’s for photography, for content creation/social media, it basically started because I had no one to really talk to about my passion so making content seemed really fun and when the pandemic hit in 2020 I joined TikTok and started creating content there as well stayed consistent, I don’t think I have missed 3 days in a row since 2022, and the more you post the more your engagement compounds and it got me to the place I am!
2. What types of products you sell
I sell my photography, but also advertising and promoting of other brands through my social media platforms such as I’ve done for Levi’s, adidas Motorsport, Automobilist, Lego and more.
3. What sets you apart
I feel like all I do is try to be as authentic as possible, through my content, by speaking in a normal tone of voice, my showing how excited I am truly excited, not being scared to be judged, but not exaggerating an emotion. I am also extremely passionate, since I was a child, about racing which makes me quite a versatile pick for brand like McLaren for example who are looking to have a younger audience but also people who represent the heritage of their team, it is probably why I have worked/got proposed to work with McLaren sponsors. I am also willing to go outside of my comfort zone to help a client, for example when photographing karting, no one was doing videography and the drivers wanted some videos like they saw in Europe, so by the first race of 2023, that’s what I brought forward and it’s still why a lot of karting drivers choose me over others, by 2024 every team in the championship I am covering (the Coupe de Montreal) got a videographer, I don’t mean to say I was the instigator of this shift but I think I could have been a factor, when other teams saw the content I was making for drivers like Lucas Nanji, Alexandra Rioux, Leopold Schrevel and Brando Londono.
4. What are you most proud of
I’d probably say my consistency, I’ve always had to have content creation be on the side of my studies, I started when I was in high school at the College Notre Dame de Lourdes in the IB enriched program on the south shore of Montreal, then studying in the law & Civilization program at Champlain college (this is a Cegep, it’s a 2 year mandatory program to study in university here in Quebec), and now I study Economics, History & Communications at McGill university in Montreal . I never had the luxury to only be able to focus on my content, which led to short nights as I have to dabble between doing homework/studying and creating content, leading me to create content often between midnight and 2 in the morning before waking up at 6h45 to get to McGill. It is very taxing mentally, but the positives content creations have brought me far outweigh the negatives, from the people I have met, to the opportunities I have got, the rooms I have been in, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
5. What is something you want potential fans to know about you
I am not special, you could be doing the exact same thing as me, in any field you want, you just need determination, consistency and not listening to closed minded people around you who don’t understand what chasing your dreams can bring you!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Back at the end of 2022 I wanted to quit social media entirely as after 4 years of posting content, trying, nothing seemed to come out of it but I heard the quote “people often give up right before they win” and that stuck in my head, I decided to continue posting and start posting things that were more truthful to me, share stories about my own experiences, more talking videos and 6 months later I was invited by Mercedes Benz Canada to meet with their then F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, Demi Chalkias (who I worked with in the future), and Marc Lafleur during a conference they organized at the Ritz Carleton hotel in Montreal for the Canadian GP. This moment most significant because it showed that a brand did trust me, even at 18 years old, that I had my place there just like any other person, and that there is so much more that can happen if I just do not give up. There are no winners and losers, just people that quit and others that didn’t.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
It’s probably to meet other like minded people in all sorts of domains to get to exchange with them, and take/learn things from them in their industry and see how it can apply to yours it’s always fascinating for me to meet other people. People call it networking, I call it making friends. People help other people they like.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://robertobaldea.myportfolio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertobaldea?igsh=MWxnbHZ0anNhbnV3bg==
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberto-baldea-978821244?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@robertobaldea?si=lmkAPsAuSKJ8Ibug
Image Credits
Roberto Baldea Photo