Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Poynton.
Hi Robert, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up without parents in the foster care system in Southern California. At 9 years old I lost my mother and my father was sentenced to death row. My brother and I were taken in by our aunt and uncle in South Pasadena.
My senior year of high school I was sleeping on their couch with my clothes in a trash bag. Every morning at 4am I got on a beat up bicycle and rode 3 miles in the dark to make 5am water polo practice. My high school counselor told me I’d never go to college. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA as a Division I athlete at Long Beach State.
After college I pursued a professional water polo career across three countries — Hungary, Spain, and Brazil. I came back to the US with nothing and rebuilt again. I built a career, a family, and a life in Long Beach.
In early 2025 I was laid off from a 5 year career in finance recruiting. Rather than panic I decided to finally bet fully on myself. I launched Robert Poynton Media LLC — a coaching and media company built around three pillars: water polo goalkeeper development, personal rebuild coaching for former athletes and anyone starting over, and DreamSpace, a nonprofit providing micro-grants to former foster youth pursuing dreams in athletics, arts, science, and business.
Everything I’m building is public. Because someone needs to see that the story doesn’t end where it starts.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has never been smooth — and I wouldn’t change that.
The earliest obstacle was circumstance itself. Losing both parents before the age of 10, navigating aging out, and entering adulthood with no financial safety net, no family connections, and no blueprint.
Building an athletic career without resources or guidance meant figuring everything out through trial and error. I was rejected, overlooked, and told I didn’t have what it took — including by a high school counselor who told me I’d never go to college.
Pursuing professional water polo abroad meant leaving everything familiar with very little money and no guarantee of success. I came back from that chapter homeless and had to rebuild from scratch again.
The most recent obstacle was a layoff in my mid 30s — married with two children and no backup plan. But by that point I had rebuilt enough times to know that starting over wasn’t a setback. It was a reset.
The pattern I’ve noticed is that every obstacle eventually became the foundation for the next chapter. The struggle isn’t the enemy of the story. It is the story
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Robert Poynton Media LLC is a coaching and media company built around one central belief — that structure saves lives, and that anyone can rebuild at any stage.
We operate across three interconnected pillars:
The first is water polo goalkeeper development. I am a former Division I and professional goalkeeper who played in Hungary, Spain, and Brazil. I offer private lessons, virtual film reviews, and the Complete Goalkeeper Development System — a 35+ page curriculum covering footwork, shot reads, mental protocols, and out of water training. It is built for individual goalies, coaches, and clubs serious about developing elite keepers.
The second is Rebuild — a personal coaching program designed for former athletes and anyone who has drifted from their physical and mental foundation and wants to find their way back. The system was built while I was employed in a corporate job, sitting in a cubicle slowly losing my athletic identity and no longer recognizing myself. The Rebuild PDF is a daily structure system available for $37. Rebuild Guided is a 1:1 coaching program at $300 per month with a money back guarantee. The long term vision for Rebuild is a national franchise — a social impact gym model that directly funds DreamSpace grants for foster youth.
The third is DreamSpace — a nonprofit providing micro-grants to former foster youth pursuing dreams in athletics, arts, science, and business. No bureaucratic maze. Just a first investment for kids who never had one.
I am also writing a memoir titled An Impractical Guide to Aging Out — structured around the couches I slept on after aging out of foster care. It is part memoir, part love letter to foster youth. Each chapter uses a specific couch as the backdrop for a moment in the journey — the instability, the restarts, the lessons that only come from having nothing. The target for publisher queries is December 2026.
What sets Robert Poynton Media LLC apart is the story behind it. Every product and program is built from lived experience — not theory. The goalkeeper system was assembled across 4 different countries. The rebuild coaching was built in the margins of a life that had drifted too far from its foundation. DreamSpace exists because I was the kid who needed it.
The brand is Built Daily. The mission is proof that the hard way works
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is one of the last clear ones I have of my mother. I was 8 or 9 years old and she told me I could do anything I set my mind to. I didn’t fully understand the weight of that at the time. I do now. Everything I have built — the athletic career, the coaching business, the nonprofit in motion, the family — has been in service of proving her right. She didn’t get to see it. But she started it
Contact Info:
- Instagram: robbiepolo
