There's nothing ordinary about Taco Bell CEO Sean Tresvant

Brand awareness is one thing. Brand nostalgia is quite another. That warm feeling you get when you see a logo you remember as a kid, maybe when your folks got you that special treat meal. Maybe someone references a tag line that entered the lexicon eons ago. Maybe you hear that familiar jingle that, now, you just can't get out of your head.

Creating that brand is hard enough. Maintaining it may be even more difficult. For founders, the brand is a favorite child. For a founder's successors — the adoptive parents — it can be something that they have to guard like a museum piece or a weight around their necks that keeps them from innovating.

But for Sean Tresvant , the brand-new CEO of Taco Bell , the legacy is an opportunity for remixing and springboarding. "We have a DNA of feeding curiosity for the unconventional," Tresvant told me for the latest edition of This is Working . "We believe that's what Glenn Bell was trying to do 60, 62 years ago when he kind of introduced tacos to the mainstream of the U.S. And we try to carry that DNA for 62 years and 62 years beyond that."

"You have to have the nostalgia that you can bring back, but also the future is really important, too, and making sure we push forward to the future for that, for that next generation of nostalgia."

That idea of creating future nostalgia — of planning things that people will “back in my day…” to their kids —?is an intriguing idea and one that doesn’t just happen by accident. At Taco Bell, Sean borrowed a page from the brand world — his old stomping ground — and focused the company on one kind of customer in mind: the one who is likely to adopt a new, different idea and run with it.

"We came up with a consumer called the 'cultural rebel.' Cultural rebel is somebody who is changing the game, somebody who wants to push culture forward,” he told me. “And so when we started focusing on them. Our food was designed for them, our content was designed for them.

"And that's when I believe we started to break through, and you saw stuff on TV like, Oh, that's a Taco Bell commercial. Oh, that food is for the cultural rebel. And it appeals to everybody, but I truly believe the best bands speak to somebody."

Tresvant brings plenty to the table. In over 15 years at Nike, he worked his way up from Director of Marketing for the Americas to Chief Marketing Officer for the precious and iconic Jordan Brand. He also spent time at Sports Illustrated and PepsiCo.?

Just three months into his tenure as CEO, Taco Bell graced the cover of Fast Company’s 2024 World’s Most Innovative Companies list. The brand also secured a spot as one of TIME100’s Most Influential Companies, was recognized as Nation’s Restaurant News’ 2023 Brand Icon, and ranked #1 on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 list for the fourth year in a row. And this year Tresvant was recognized as an ADCOLOR Legend and was named a CEO Visionary by L.A. Times B2B Publishing.

When I transitioned from being the chief brand officer to the CEO, some great advice I got was: 'Don't try to be a black belt in everything.'

But the leap from anywhere in the C-Suite to the corner office is never assured, and maybe never what even a veteran executive is completely prepared for. Tresvant got a pretty important — and counter-intuitive — tip from a mentor as he eased into the role. "When I transitioned from being the chief brand officer to the CEO, some great advice I got was: 'Don't try to be a black belt in everything,'" he said.?

"I try to be a leader who understands what I'm good at," he said, "but also understands what other people are good at — and make sure I'm giving them the space to be great at what they're good at."

Watch the interview here .

This is Working, the podcast, is another great way to experience these interviews. You can find it anywhere you listen to podcast.

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On LinkedIn’s video series, This is Working , I sit down with top figures from the world of business and beyond to surface what they've learned about solving difficult problems. See more from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon , Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole , INSEAD dean Francisco Veloso , Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel , Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole , Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian , AI leader Fei-Fei Li, former US President Barack Obama , filmmaker Spike Lee , Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson , IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva , cosmetics legend Bobbi Brown , F1’sToto Wolff , and many more.