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 with a background in IT infrastructure and a pivotal 2010 shift to marketing, finance, and analytics after studying English in the United States. He describes key roles at Universal Music (market intelligence and iTunes launch in Brazil), Nextel (e‑commerce setup), and a contract stint at LinkedIn Brazil, highlighting his immersion in big‑data tools, MOOCs (edX, Coursera, MIT), and a Kaggle competition. Renato explains his consulting philosophy: blending quantitative and qualitative analysis, aggregating open‑source, social, and internal data to diagnose C‑level business pain and generate actionable insights. The conversation then moves to personal reflections—Renato’s view on happiness emphasizes curiosity, inspiration, solitude, and helping others, alongside a spiritual mindset. He mentions his habit of writing articles and sharing knowledge. When asked about favorite reading, he cites "The Art of War" and works by Benjamin Franklin and Albrecht Dürer, reflecting his interest in strategy and consumer behavior. Finally, Renato shares how listeners can connect with him: an active LinkedIn presence (30k connections), a Portuguese‑to‑English article series, contributions to Data Science Central, and Medium. The episode ends with a brief promotional close.
Chapters
All right, here we go. We got it recording there, then we'll record it here. Awesome. All right, um, so, uh, everyone, welcome to the Business Blast podcast. Uh, Tyler Wagner here, your host, and today I have Mr. Renato with us. 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. Welcome to the show, man.
Thank you, Tyler Wagner. I'm very glad to be 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?
Uh, I think it's my career path. Uh, I, during many years, I worked in infrastructure computing, routers, servers, and the IT departments. But in 2010, 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 June, 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 Rick Becktons, you know, the Well, some years ago you had the— we 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 almost 2 years, and this time I thought the digital marketing is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. And I started studying analytics. So Google Analytics, uh, automated with ads, uh, Facebook. After that, I started working for Nextel in Brazil is a telecom company, so I was responsible at the time for setting up the e-commerce of them here. I had a little experience also in LinkedIn office 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 many courses, edX.org, Coursera. I did one course at the time at MIT, and I was my first Kaggle competition. You know Kaggle? So about 3,000 people in the world with R I was kind of 2000-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 we did this using analytics. But just to make it in 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 here in Brazil when I do my consulting. I try to understand what's 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 like— when not the kind of the data engineering, I would be more the business project. Gotcha. The project, the big data project person.
Gotcha, yeah, so you kind of answered a lot of the questions that I was gonna ask next, so I'm gonna skip a few, 'cause you told us a lot about you, about your industry, so my next one for you, 'cause I'm gonna skip some of the business-related ones, 'cause you kind of covered it, is in your opinion, and this kind of feels like a curveball now, because it's so different, in your opinion, what's the key to happiness? So give us, 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'm 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 explosion.
Yeah, me too.
I like a lot to write articles, I like to share knowledge. I become a machine of writing articles, like my job sometimes. But in order to do that, I need to be in a peaceful place, I need to be alone sometimes. For sure. I like to to think just myself. Is it today one of the big challenges of humanity is to be smart enough? But I think you have to be okay to yourself. You have to— one of the secrets of happiness, I think, is you 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, "So, this is cool, I want to know about this person, what 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, in Paulista Avenue. I think it's one of the points.
Yeah.
I know a lot of Miami. The Collins Avenue, the Lincoln Avenue.
You gotta come visit, man.
Yeah, yeah, I have a cousin also.
Oh.
One other day. So I said two homes in Miami, my beach.
Yeah, dude, I love Miami.
What happens in Miami stays in Miami.
Absolutely. So my whole life stays.
Yes. I know.
So I have 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 something— the Art of War. Maybe. It's very difficult. I like to study very everything related with consumer behavior, branding.
Got it.
I think— suit is no art of war. I like a lot of Benjamin Franklin and Dürer.
Got it, okay. So, yeah, really, man, the next one I got for you is where can our audience best find and connect with you online? I'm assuming it's LinkedIn. So where can they connect with you?
Yeah, yeah, I'm very active at LinkedIn. And each month I post something. 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.
Medium. Gotcha.
But I'm very open, I'm very reachable. Anyone can send me a message. Perfect. I already have 30,000 connections.
Nice, dude, that's amazing. I'm at 20,000, so yeah.
When a person sends me a message, usually I try to be the more responsible in the less time possible.
Absolutely, man. Well, so you all heard it. If you want to connect with Mr. Renato, do it through LinkedIn. And I appreciate you coming on again, man.
Thank you very much, Tyler.
Thank you.
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