The Midas Touch: Interview With Sergio Barbosa

Located in the Andes and known for the beauty of its landscapes, Columbia is known internationally, with growing cities such as Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla, and Cali, among others for their developing infrastructure, a robust economy, and rising tourism. The country has produced some exceptional talent over the years. 

Our focus today is the very erudite, witty and extremely successful Sergio Barbosa. He built his own empire and made an astounding name for himself in the entertainment business. Touted to be a high-profile talent scout, Sergio is perhaps one of the most positive people one would want to rub shoulders with. 

Watch Sergio Barbosa conducting a workshop with corporate types, speaking to an audience at a conference or performing in front of the camera, and you understand why he is so popular across the creative, media and marketing ecosystem. Journalist specialised in strategic marketing, creator of entertainment formats with high profitability and audience, influencer, news generator and trend hunter, with such wide experience in various mass media, it is no wonder Sergio is the man with the ‘Midas Touch’.  

Victor magazine had the opportunity to speak to this suave ex-presenter and director of Estilo RCN, who has mentored more than hundreds of people and continues to inspire many by sharing his life lessons. Sergio Barbosa dedicates his free time to teaching presentation classes for new young talents. If there is something that Sergio Barbosa enjoys in addition to his job at the head of this successful fashion and entertainment program, it is the training of presenters. During his stint with RCN, he felt the need to design some presentation workshops, seeing the need to have new presenters, because universities as such do not provide this type of training. 

Apparently, the workshops are free and are divided into two parts: a theoretical one, where students learn about the great figures of presentation in the world such as: Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, Jaime Bayly, among others, who have managed to transcend media communication. The practical part of the training comprises teleprompter reading, writing, improvisation, diction exercises and speech therapy.

When Sergio exited the comfort zone of RCN looking for greener pastures, it was a total departure. What came to him after exiting the channel was a sense of realisation to tap into avenues he had not envisaged in the past. That was ‘Travel and Fashion’. He chose to be on the catwalks of Milan and Paris. He also developed his own web platform www.sergiobarbosastyle.com. 

His taste for fashion apparently emanated from his love for his grandmother. A true fashion iconoclast, she was a collector of fashion encyclopedias, and in his words “a fanatic” when it came to clothes, shoes and styles.  Fashion for Sergio is just about ‘anything’ – because “every personal style tells a story”. When asked about maintaining his own personal style, Sergio adds – “It is a natural seal that must be cultivated.” 

When asked about his take on the importance of sustainability in fashion, Sergio further comments, “Fast fashion has a huge carbon footprint resulting from mineral creation, manufacturing and even the significance of reusing textile waste that is decomposed in landfills.” 

Apparently the country develops its expertise using various forms of design as well as teaching its people to draw inspirations of its ancestors and use that as a creative outlet in designing new things. He even cites the importance of using various methods of work that can be transformed into unique and captivating designs. “Colombia has the most beautiful minerals in the world. Before, there were different forms of working with certain elements such as silver and gold, when it comes to creating various designs in fashion with an artistic twist. If someone still uses this approach, it will be a good incentive to show the world new elements of fashion”, comments Sergio. 

Within the tough exterior of an uber successful individual, lies a beautiful soul with a simple message of spreading love. Here we are talking about love for pets. And not just the usual, but something unique. There are many international celebrities who decided to have unconventional pets, such as George Clooney who had a little pig whom he classified as his best friend, Leonardo DiCaprio who acquired a turtle as a pet or Paris Hilton who adopted a kinkajú, a mammalian relative of the raccoon. An interesting aspect of Sergio’s life is his pet rat – Blu.  

“As my days with ‘Blu’ go by, I understand the species more and more, I appreciate its intelligence and nobility, I don’t understand how humans can be so cruel to them. Those sticky traps in which the little species cannot even take off their legs, or poison them – when they only seek food, their only crime is to exist! I can assure you that it is the best pet and the best company”, opines Sergio.

A strong believer of discovering the balance between reflection and moving forward with our lives, Sergio’s words of wisdom leave us overwhelmed. He says, “Everything you did yesterday is yesterday’s newspaper, no matter how many achievements or awards you have, you will always be judged by the last stage of your work. That is very hard.” And we couldn’t agree more.