In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Renato Sant Anna, a Brazilian digital transformation and insights consultant. Renato recounts his career journey, beginning in IT infrastructure before pivoting in 2010 to marketing and analytics after studying abroad and completing an MBA. He describes his roles at Universal Music—working on ringback tones and launching iTunes in Brazil—followed by a stint at telecom Nextel setting up e‑commerce, and his immersion in big‑data tools through courses and a Kaggle competition. Renato explains his consulting approach: understanding C‑level challenges, gathering open and social media data, and crafting business scenarios to generate actionable insights, positioning himself as a project‑oriented big‑data specialist rather than a pure data engineer. The conversation shifts to personal topics where Renato shares his view on happiness—emphasizing curiosity, spirituality, solitude, and helping others—and mentions his favorite reading material, including "Sontes do Arte do Pôr do Ar" and a Benjamin Franklin biography. He concludes by highlighting his active online presence on LinkedIn (30,000 connections), Medium, and Data Science Central, inviting listeners to connect.
Chapters
Here. Awesome. All right. So everyone, welcome to the Business Blast podcast. Tyler Wagner here, your host, and today I have Mr. Renato with us. And before we dive in, I'll give you a little introduction about Mr. Renato. He is a digital transformation and insights consultant who worked during many years for different international companies and digital agencies in Brazil. With a focus on generating actionable insights about consumer behavior on digital channels. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you, Tyler Wagner. I'm very glad to be in your, in your podcast.
Absolutely, man. We're glad to have you on. So, um, the first question, man, that we ask on this show, and I'm excited for your answer on this one because you have a lot of experience, um, so the first one is, is, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I think it's my career path. I, during many years, I worked in infrastructure computing, routers, servers, and the IT departments. But in 2010, I have— I decided to change my career, so I changed to When I finished my graduation in computer engineering, I went to United States, to LA, Miami, and Boston to study English. During this time, I started studying finance, marketing, and I came back to Brazil in the middle of 2010. I started studying an MBA in marketing here in Brazil. Long after, I worked for Universal Music. So for almost 2 years, I had the experience to work with ringback tones, you know, the— some years ago you had the— when you call someone, you have the ringtones. Yeah. I used to study the sales data and generate market intelligence reports. After that, I happened with the introduction of iTunes in Brazil. Because I was kind of responsible in the project to set up all the portfolio for the Universal Music for the iTunes in Brazil. I stayed there for almost 2 years, and after this time I thought the digital marketing is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. And I started studying analytics. So Google Analytics, uh, uh, all related with ads, uh, Facebook. After that, I started working for, uh, Nextel here in Brazil. It's a telecom company, and so I was responsible at the time for setting up the e-commerce of them here. I had a little experience also in LinkedIn, obviously in Brazil, was a contractor. So it was kind of a market research project at the time.
Gotcha.
But during this period, I become in contact with big data. So I started doing many courses, edX.org, Coursera. I did one course at the time at MIT. And I was, my first Kaggle competition. Kaggle. So about 3,000 people in the world with R. I was kind of 2,000-something in the place. So we had a New York Times competition. So you had to predict what article was the type, what kind of the category of the article of New York Times. So it is using analytics. It's a very interesting thing. But just to make a context, I like to work with data analysis, but I'm a very qualitative and quantitative person. So I try to do— we call this a polymath, a person that kind of can deal with many different things. And I try to put all in context. So I work with business scenarios. When here in Brazil, when I do my consulting, I try to understand what's the, the C-level, the pain, what the customer pain, what's the problem that the company, the challenge the company is facing. So I try to contextualize, I do some research, many different data, open data, social media data. I try to understand all the things related with the business problem, and I try to make scenarios in order to generate business insights to my clients.
Got it. So you're the data man. That's right. You're the data man. Yeah.
I kind of— I like— I'm not the kind of the data engineering. I would be more the business project, the project, the big data project person.
Gotcha. Yeah, so, um, you kind of answered a lot of the questions that I was going to ask next, so I'm going to skip a few. Um, you told us a lot about you, about your industry. So my next one, um, for you, because I'm going to skip some of the, the business-related ones because you kind of covered it. Is in your opinion, and it kind of feels like a curveball now because it's so different, in your opinion, what's the key to happiness? So give us some life advice now that you've given us.
I'm a very curious person. So you can see many books here behind me.
Yes.
I like to understand what happens in the world. I like to understand the customer. I like to study what is related with decision-making. In my case, I'm happy when I am helping someone. But in order to help someone, I need to be— it's very important for me to be inspired. I like to inspire others. But I need to be in a state of mind. It's very important. I don't know, it's a kind of mindset. For me, I'm very espiritual, spiritual. So—
Me too.
I like a lot to write articles. I like to share knowledge. I become a machine of writing articles. I do it sometimes. But in order to do that, I need to be in a peaceful place. I need to be alone sometimes. I like to think just myself. Today, one of the big challenges of humanity is to be in small amounts. But I think you have to be okay to yourself. You have to— one of the secrets of happiness, I think, is you'll be okay with yourself. Okay, it's okay to be alone. Okay, but when you are good with you, you can share with others and others can connect with you. So the people say, "Oh, so this is cool. I want to know about this person. What did this person do? I can identify myself." So many people get to me about my articles. They Google about transformation, they Google something about what I write about innovation, and the people get to me, hey, we can go to the next Starbucks here in São Paulo, Paulista Avenue. I think it's one of the points. Yeah, I know a lot of Miami, the Collins Avenue, The Lincoln Avenue, the Sotheby's.
You gotta come visit, man.
Yeah, yeah, I have a closing also near Fort Lauderdale. So I stay at two homes in Miami, Miami Beach.
Yeah, dude, I love Miami.
What happens in Miami stays in Miami.
Absolutely, so my whole life stays.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
So I have a— my next question for you, what's your favorite book that you've read? Do you have one favorite?
The audio is kind of— the audio was good. What's my favorite? What? Sorry.
Yeah, no, is that what Oscar Wilde did you say?
I didn't understand the question, sorry.
Oh, what's your favorite book that you've read?
My brands. I think I like a lot Apple, Microsoft.
Oh no, favorite book.
Ah, book, book?
Yeah, your favorite book, the best book.
I would say "Sontes do Arte do Pôr do Ar", maybe. It's very difficult. I like to study very everything related with consumer behavior, branding, but I think "Sontes do Arte do Pôr do Ar". I like a lot of Benjamin Franklin biography.
Got it. Okay. So, um, so yeah, really, man, the next one I got for you is where, where can our audience best, uh, find and connect with you online? I'm assuming it's LinkedIn. So where can they connect?
I'm very active at LinkedIn. Uh, each month I post something. Uh, I also have a page, a part of myself where I put my Portuguese articles. I'm starting translating my, my, my Portuguese articles to English.
Okay.
Recently I put an article about this AI strategy in Data Science Central. Also in Medium, I have my some articles in English at Medium. Gotcha. But I'm very open, I'm very reachable. Anyone can send me a message. I already have 30,000 connections, but—
Nice, dude, that's amazing. I'm at 5,000, so—
Many persons sent me a message Usually I, I, uh, I try to be the more responsible, the less time possible.
Absolutely, man. Well, so you all heard it. Um, if you want to, uh, connect with Mr. Renato, do it through LinkedIn. And I appreciate you coming on again, man.
