How Urina Harrell Became a CEO Who Builds Purpose

From Track Star to CEO: Urina Harrell's Uncommon Journey | Becoming Uncommon Podcast

What happens when the identity you've spent your entire life building suddenly changes?

In this episode of Becoming Uncommon, I sit down with Urina Harrell, CEO of VoxPop Branding, former Duke University student-athlete, Serra High School Hall of Famer, and one of the most thoughtful leaders I've had the opportunity to interview.

Our conversation explores much more than athletics. We discuss how injury, identity, education, and curiosity shaped an entirely new path—from elite collegiate athletics to building a company that helps organizations amplify purpose and create meaningful change.

In this episode we discuss:

•  Growing up competing in Long Beach and Gardena 
•  Becoming a Serra High School Hall of Fame athlete 
•  Being an Elite high school heptathlete and hurdler 
•  Transitioning into a primary thrower at Duke 
•  Navigating injuries and the emotional challenges of changing athletic identities 
•  Balancing elite athletics with high academic achievement 
•  Why studying abroad transformed her worldview 
•  The lessons that eventually led to founding VoxPop Branding 
•  Helping entrepreneurs, accelerators, and organizations discover and amplify purpose 
•  Leadership, resilience, reinvention, and finding meaning beyond sport 
•  Plenty of laughs reminiscing about Southern California track and field 

Whether you're an athlete, coach, entrepreneur, or leader, this episode is a reminder that your greatest opportunities often begin after your original plan falls apart.

Subscribe for more conversations with Olympians, coaches, scientists, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are Becoming Uncommon.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Beautiful. All right. Oh, I do.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Just asking for a friend. Oh, you would have had no sound?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Just for this one. Oh god. Again, three.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

You are not kidding at all.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

I'm telling you, I've messed up some of the things.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

For the folks who don't get to sit in these chairs. Yes, it's three cameras.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Don't be putting my secrets out there.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

You shouldn't have invited me on. You're like, I knew him when.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Oh, no one's gonna. I edit everything. Yeah, okay. I edit everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

In the comment section. Things were edited out that should have been given.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Raw version number one.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

We're both in all black.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yep. Like we planned it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Indeed. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

So how do you do yours?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Yep. I just jumped right in. Let me make sure that's recording. Have there we go. My assistant isn't here to help me out. She had to use the bathroom. No, no, no excuses. Um, no unions here. Hey, what's up everyone? Uh, this is Coach Richardson. This is another episode of Becoming Uncommon. So I have a good friend. Um long time we're actually reminiscent about a lot of things, uh, Urina, and for me it's an opportunity to kind of bring things together. But um before we kind of get into the weeds of some stuff, um, why don't you introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Hi everybody, I'm Urina Hurrell. I have known Coach Chris since I don't even want to say. Yep. Uh he's probably gonna edit this part out, but like when he had the front was still doing the decathlon. So it's been a while, it's been a long time.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah, so when we go all the way back, because one thing I really like to do is just kind of reflect, especially former student athletes that have done it at a high level, um, and obviously now taking over in the business world and you know, kind of doing your thing on that scope. But what are some lessons you like to you've learned and things? So we'll get into that, but just let's go over your background. Um, what are some of your early accomplishments and accolades going through your athletic career?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, so um I started out started running when I was six, seven years old. Um, wasn't that great at first, but then I realized it was really just coaching and people seeing the potential. Um, I was the athlete who would get second or third or fourth or fifth in all the different events. So I was throwing, hurdling, jumping, running, and I was getting these different places. Um and I had a wonderful mentor who was like, you know what, I think you're a hept athlete. Um, so she actually started me as a pent athlete because I wasn't old enough for the heptathlon yet. Um, in my first year, that's the first time Arcadia, for example, had uh the multis.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Really?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

And they it was supposed to be for high school. They let me actually my second or third year, they let me come in, I think, as a seventh or eighth grader and compete. Wow. Um, and I did well. I think I got like fifth that year, um, came back in the next few years, just kept doing well, um, and ended up, you know, winning a few cool, you know, heptathlons. Um won the the New York Armory indoor pentathlon um as an eighth, no, as an eighth grader or ninth grader, I can't remember. It's been a long time. Um, and really most of my high school accomplishments happened between seventh grade and my tenth grade year. Um, I tore my ACL, my tenth grade year, um, and then I just kind of turned into a thrower while I was waiting to heal. But that's a lot of my my early accomplishments, and for throwing, I you know, won a f a few good medals and got some good titles there.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Alright. So when you when you say throwing, what events did you?

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Um shot put, I was not a great javelin thrower. That was not my ministry. Um but for some reason um shot put was really somewhere where I could excel. Um, even before I was uh a multi, I was like doing good in hurdles, doing good in shot put, and then that was like my two things, and they're like, what this is such a weird mix. Um so shop put was was like my baby, and that's actually what I did mostly in college after my my ACLs.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Okay. Did you ever try the hammer?

SPEAKER_02 4:49

I tried the hammer. Um, I like to say I am rotationally challenged. Okay. So so I tried the hammer, I tried disc, and you know, that's why I was a glider through and through as a shot putter.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Alright. What about javelin?

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Javelin, I don't know what it is about running and stopping. Like, that is not my thing. Um, I did good in high jump, but between javelin and long jump, those are just not like this idea of like converting that energy forward is just I don't know, my body didn't like it. Huh. Interesting. It didn't like it. It could go backwards though. Oh shit. And javelin.

unknown 5:25

Oh no, I blacked it out.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Okay, that's like you can look you can look it up, I'm sure. Yeah, that's like in the It's like it's blacked out.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah, I don't know how good I editing, but I'll put it right here. But um, all right, so as you're kind of navigating that journey, looking through and kind of figuring things out, you said you had a you know ACL um at a young age, especially because you've experienced so much success, you kind of had that stumbling block. Yeah. So, like, how did that affect you and your identity as an athlete, and how'd you navigate that?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

I think it's really interesting. I mentioned I started running when I was like seven years old, actually six years old, turning seven, and my life turned into being known as the track girl, right? Like, I was that my my friends ran track, all my the parents and stuff that I looked up to, they were in my track world. Um, and when I got hurt, I remember I got hurt on like a Thursday, and Friday, Saturday happened, and there was a track meet on Saturday, and all my friends went to the track, and I was at home, like, mom, what am I supposed to do? And she was like, You didn't want to go to the mall or something. I was like, What do kids do on Saturdays? Because for me, I always only knew, you know, running. Um, so my identity, my complete identity was like this track person, and it completely shattered uh my first ACL. Then I was like, okay, I'm gonna fight to get it back. I had an amazing PTs. I went to the same um PT office as like Kobe Bryant, literally, right? So I'm thinking like I am I'm gonna come back. Um, and it was it didn't come back as strong and as fast as I thought. And then my hurdle race, I had just got the confidence to start hurdling, and I tore my second ACL. Same leg? Different leg. So now I have bilateral ACL tears. I'm still a I'm a junior in college at this point.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Um also the second one happened in college.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

This no, the second one, not sorry, junior in college. I'm a junior in high school, apologies. Um, and I'm like, I thought track was gonna be my way out, it's gonna be my scholarship and everything, and I'm thinking everything's over. So for me, I went into a deep depression because I thought that like my entire I was that I was gonna be in the Olympics as a heft athlete. Like I had this whole vision, um, and it it shattered until I start getting those calls for recruiters who were still recruiting me based off of what I did, yeah, my freshman and sophomore year of high school. So that was like my saving grace.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, that's cool. Because yeah, like it seems like you came out of it any particular moment or person that like obviously kind of I can see the spiral obviously happen, but then they help you forge back up, obviously, yeah, like getting recognized for your hard work in the past, but any particular move, like person or moment that like really springboarded you to get you know reinvigorated?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

It's funny, everybody who I grew up with, um staying on the high school side, they all knew what I had done, and they also know that I'm a fighter. Like I don't, even if it's a a relay, I never wanted to be in the front where I was getting chased. I always wanted to be able to like catch someone.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Like that mindset is like me. So for me, it was like a chip on my shoulder that I eventually turned into like how hard I worked, how hard I lifted, how hard I wanted to come back. So in high school it was fine. Everybody had complete confidence that I was gonna like go to college and kill it.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

It was when I got to college and the coaches who had recruited me like put me kind of on a on a timeline for how fast they needed me to be back. So I redshirted freshman year, but I literally had surgery a week before my graduation.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

No.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Uh my high school graduation. So then I go into college, I'm literally off of crutches for a week, first like freshman, first week of freshman year, and I'm immediately redshirted and like going through BT while in school. So my whole freshman year, I was trying to like prove that I can come back in time for the next season, and this is before NIL and all this stuff. This is before the transform portal. This is when like a coach can release you and you just gotta figure it out. So it was a lot of stress um and a lot of trying to prove that I could I could still be this this multi. Um it was a it was a hard time.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Um for now going into college, you know, you're able to kind of make that move. What were some of what was some of the decision processes that went in for you, you know, selecting um Duke?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

This is my favorite process. So at first I was just like going based off of prestige and what like I thought. Um and then there was this whole move where every I was, you know, grew up in LA. Everybody I know were going to, who was like, you know, really good in track, they were being recruited by USC, UCLA, and then maybe Stanford, right? I wanted to like forge my own path and meet new people, so I took UCLA and USC like off, even though I had coaches like talking to them and there was like conversations happening. Stanford actually the got recruited, but they rejected me academically, which was crazy because I had a 4.2 GPA. I was like, really? Um, and then I got into all these like Ivy Leagues on the on the East Coast, and my mom was like, Well, you're going to Ivy League, like if you have Ivy Leagues calling you, you're gonna go to one of those, you're not going to the state school. And I was like, shoot, like that dwindles it down. Um, but to make my decision, I did a chart. This is like so my behavior. Okay. So I did a chart and I weighed it based on what was important to me, which I had like food was like on the top. What was the accommodations like? Then it was like, even what's the partying like, because you get a visit, so you can figure that out. Um, track program, like how good the track program was and how good the academics were. And I kind of ranked it based on that, and like after each recruiting visit, I'd be like, the food sucked, or the accommodations were nice, or like Cornell. I just straight up hated the travel to get there because a little tiny plane you gotta do to get to Ithaca. And I literally just added up like which one had the highest score.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

You're kidding.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

And I was like, oh, okay, Duke. And that's that's how I chose. And then my mom had had picked a favorite for me, but she wouldn't tell me until I told her where I wanted to go. Um, and we both just lined up on Duke, but I made a chart, like Wow, and that's how I chose.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Alright, so I gotta tell you. So what I do, because I help my student athletes transfer, that's like my like I really hang my hat on being you know very involved in that process. And so one thing I've been doing for a long time is I tell them to create priorities. I go, all right, there's academics, athletics, environment, location, and um environment, location, wait, athletics, academics, environment, location, and financial. Okay, and with those five, because you could take all 350 schools, and as you dwindle it down, you're gonna end up with a few, and then you can start asking questions and and make an informed decision.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Uh, because a lot of people, it's still the case today, they think I'm gonna run, and then the school's gonna call, and then whoever is the best, I'm gonna go there. But it might not be right for you. And what is the best for you? Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Because the best for some people is a small school. The best for me, well, one, like, I took one of the to your point, one of the points was already taken off because they were all Ivy's, right? Or Ivy belief related. Like, Duke's not an Ivy, but yeah, high academic. High academic. So that one wasn't like the biggest issue. I was looking at the other priorities. Um, but I can say, and also like some things people need to look at were like coach turnover. That's not a popular subject, but I was thankful that Stanford somehow rejected me and whatever you believe in, I think it was destiny because before I got there, that coach got fired. So I wouldn't even have the coach who recruited me if I did go there, and that was my number one choice. So, like, to your point, I think those priorities and looking at like, okay, what's my plan and and how does it line up? Oh, and the focus. I knew I wanted to study psychology. Okay, and my the coach's wife at Duke was the head of a cyclop. So it was kind of like that makes sense, you know, yeah. Really nice there.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Were you able to use that to your advantage?

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Yeah, she's one of my closest friends to this day. She ended up being my psych advisor once I uh declared, because you have to declare first. Um, and she is probably the reason why I'm doing marketing now, um, because she let me see the full scope of like I didn't want to do be a therapist, um, I didn't want to practice in that nature, and then I realized what being in academia really means as far as like getting published, tenure in the politics, and I was like, ooh, let me let me do something I have more control over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Oh wow, okay. Yeah, um, so going through college, um, being a student athlete in college, and now you know, uh because I want to transition also to like your professional life, but what are some lessons that you took from your you know experience as a student athlete in college to like your professional life now?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yeah, I think it's reimagining who you are. Um, I talked about the hept athlete and seeing myself as that for so long. I never competed in a heptathlon or run ran in any race during college. I was I ended up being a complete thrower. Um, and that was a hard mental reset for me. But like I realized like that given the academic load, given what my body was doing, given the pressures from the coaches, it was best for me to transition in that way. And I still got fairly far, you know, even just being a thrower, just doing shot put, which when I say being a thrower, I was literally doing one event. So I went from doing seven to one and just focusing on that and having to go from, you know, in the hip, you mess up on one event, you can kind of like repurpose your energy to like get back somewhere else. If I threw bad in a meet, like I had three throws to figure it out, and and if I don't get to finals, that was it. I practiced this whole time for an event, and it was just like I'm done. And that was a big reset, right? Like showing up now and being able to focus on just one thing. Um, and then from a student perspective, it was still hard. I mean, I trained as a hep for two and a half years while so I still was crazy busy. Um, but just realizing that like one, you choose your priorities, and two, you also it's you're you need to find outlets, right? Like your friends can't just be your track team. You need to have people who can give you perspective on what it's like to be just a regular student or what it's like to be involved in other things. And that was my lifeline. So for any college athletes, students, whatever, my recommendation is if you're going into a school, especially a four-year or transferring to a four-year, don't just be friends with your team. Find friends who are not student athletes, find friends who are in really interesting clubs because those become your lifelines when you don't have time to network with every single group. They become, oh, just come meet my friend so-and-so. His dad does this, and that's been a like a saving grace for me.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

So, what what are some of the like like you kind of talked about lessons? So, what what would you do different in your college career, like as you navigated those those years in your undergrad?

SPEAKER_02 16:39

I would have uh I would have networked more.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

I mean, I hate to say this, and and you can edit this out. C's get degrees. Nope. C's get degrees. Um, and I think I went into school, you know, in to college thinking I have to get all A's, I have to be this like person. College is a different beast, right? Um, yes, perform, yes, show up, but the real value of college isn't just what you're learning in the classroom. You're gonna forget 70% of that. The real value are the people you meet and the connections you make because no matter what you choose to do, that converts into like a lifeline for where you want to go. Whether it is staying in athletics, whether it's becoming a coach like you did, those networks are invaluable. And I spent a lot of time the first two years especially being upset about what was going on athletically, okay, right? I spent a lot of time um, you know, hiding away, trying to get the best grades possible, which I think, yeah, study hard, but I think I look at some of my really good friends who have become those lifelines, and the only reason I have some of the networks I do is because it's through them. Um, and I think if I would have spent more time doing that, that would have been helpful. And then just asking for help super early. Like when I was struggling with things, I would wait until the last minute because I thought I needed to do it all by myself. I now ask for help for like as soon as I realize, and I and I do a few a few searches and I can't figure it out, I'm asking for help like this. Because one, it saves time, and two, they can just get you so much more than you can get yourself sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, well, and just share perspective, I think, too, because sometimes we get so close to things that we don't really see the big picture, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:22

There's no other way to do it, and you're like, no, there's 15 other ways to do this.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

So, all right, so for college now, going into your professional life, um, what are you up to now? Because when I look at it, it's like you're doing a million different things.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

But like I I know I remember when you were here, we're doing our training, we're doing some stuff, and you're about to head off to Oxford.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

No, I didn't go to Oxford, I went to Loftburg University. I was trying to avoid uh going to overseas, you went far. I went overseas, I was in England.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

All right, so what was that? What was that journey like?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah, well, first during um how I got there, right? How I even thought about like going abroad. I knew I wanted to do a master's, did not know where, was looking at schools here in the States. During what we call an act an action meeting, it's like when the people come in and talk to the athletes um about like career opportunities, whatever, because they know not everybody's gonna be a professional athlete. Um, a woman came and she discussed the fact that she started a business to help people do their master's abroad, especially if they're athletes, because you can get a scholarship and you can, you know, even run professionally or do whatever you're doing professionally. Um, and the education is cheaper, but still really amazing. I was like, oh, that's interesting. And I looked apples to apples and I wanted a master's in business or marketing. I end up with the master's in marketing, and my degree from Lofra, including me being able to live and travel because you couldn't work, was $50,000 all in, everything. Like that was the tuition, that was me having my own apartment, that was me having a stipend to like buy groceries and live and travel to like 15 different countries. Um John Hopkins, which is where I was considering, was $60,000 tuition alone. Just tuition, just tuition, and I was like, save some money. Like I got one day school. And then every time you tell somebody you got your master's or whatever from abroad, they don't even have to know their school. They're already, I mean, they're already impressed. Um, which it was impressive, it was a good experience. You learn a lot, but that's the first thing I would offer that's the advice I'd probably really give somebody is like, if you're thinking about a second degree, explore your international options for sure. You can save some money, you can get a lot of cool stuff done. Wow. Um, but professionally, to ask your question, to answer your question, what do I do? So I own a social impact focused marketing agency. It does look like I do a ton of things, but I think about it like building Disneyland. Um, I work primarily with accelerators, so uh high-net worth individuals, professional athletes, celebrities who have foundations that specifically want to give back to small businesses. Um, and I also work with uh small businesses directly through something called the Amplify project. So accelerator work basically I help tell amazing stories about what the accelerators were doing. I help them um get more applicants, get more business, then tell those grantee stories. Um and then I work with brands to do community activations, basically saying, like, hey, we are I'm gonna make up a Falcon's popsicles, um, and we want to show how much how we're involved within the city, they'll come to me because I do really good community work and I can also activate with hundreds of businesses. Um, and then the Amplify project, just the time I've spent with small business owners, it's I'm a small business owner, it's really hard to get everything done. You're wearing a million hats and you don't have the money to take off some of them hats. So the Amplify project works with some small businesses, it's an application process, but we do marketing up front for a revenue share on the back end. Um it's kind of like flipping it's kind of like flipping V venture capital on its head, um, except for instead of taking equity, they can walk away, you know, at any time and we grow when they grow. Um so that's what I do in a like a really pretty long-winded nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

No, that's um that because that takes me a lot of different places because like thinking about like the entrepreneur concept, because now I mean you know this when we're going through college, saying you're an entrepreneur was just code for unemployed, right? Like and now sometimes it still is. But but now it actually has like yeah, for sure. And I'm I'm noticing people are almost coming to