In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Sérgio Brodsky, an internationally experienced marketing and innovation strategist. Brodsky shares his personal story of pivoting from a career in intellectual property law to studying cognitive science and moving into marketing, describing the challenges of relocating to a new continent without language skills. He emphasizes the distinction between leadership and management, advocating for embracing ambiguity, taking risks, and leading rather than merely managing. Brodsky highlights trust as the foundational business principle and stresses the importance of healthy relationships for personal happiness, especially given his nomadic lifestyle. He discusses the book Spent by evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, noting its insights into human emotions and how they can inform brand communication. His favorite quote, from General Hannibal—"If there isn’t a way, we’ll make one"—illustrates his belief in creating solutions when faced with obstacles. The episode concludes with practical advice to his younger self (continue taking risks) and information on how listeners can connect with him online, primarily via LinkedIn and his marketing magazine column.
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All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner, and today's sponsor is Flipboard. Flipboard curates the world's stories so you can be smarter in your work, life, and play. Choose from thousands of topics to personalize Flipboard and get the latest stories from the best publishers and experts delivered to you 24/7. So You can get started now at flipboard.com. And now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Sergio Brodsky with us. He is an internationally experienced marketing and innovation strategist. A columnist at Marketing Magazine, and chairman of prestigious The Marketing Academy Alumni. He is passionate about cities, culture, and the role of brands in society. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be there. Of course.
Pleasure to have you on. So, Sergio, the first question we ask on this show is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
That's a good one. I think the best story was when I completely pivoted my career and decided to do what I really love. There's nothing like combining your passions to something that you can identify that you're good at, as opposed to taking a very safe route without too many risks. So yeah, having changed my careers was the best story, and that happened when I still was my I'm a lawyer. I specialize in IP law and completely changed from an opportunity that I had to go and study cognitive science. And then I moved into a new continent to a place that I didn't know the language. I didn't know anyone and starting something completely new. That was almost like landing on Mars and trying to find my way.
And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I would say it's about leadership. There's a very different type of behavior between a manager and a leader. And leading orders and leading teams and leading people is something that can take you to places where you haven't been before. When you're managing, you're always dealing with known factors. When you're leading, you're dealing with unknown factors. You're being brave enough to embrace ambiguity. And that's something that I've learned a lot, especially in these days of innovation and disruption. When you don't know what's coming next, just give it a go, take a shot, be risky, be a risk taker and lead the way. Don't just manage what you know.
And then what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
The best overall piece of advice is trust. Those who are working with you. Give them the trust to earn the trust back. There's no other way.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Continue taking risks. Don't be afraid.
And then kind of going down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Relationships. Nothing beats that. Having healthy relationships, it's something extremely valuable, especially for someone like me who's been living all over the world for the last 15 years or so, it's kind of hard to live this uprooted life, especially when every 2 years you're in a different place. So keeping those relationships healthy and constant is really what keeps you going in a good way.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I think the best book I read was, it's called Spent from this evolutionary psychologist called Geoffrey Miller. And he pretty much dissected all of the emotions that make up the human mind as well. And try— in understanding that you're able to connect people's preferences with who they are, not something that is quite hard to match. And for someone like me working with brands and communication, being able to build those emotional connections is super important. Otherwise, you just get lost in the sea of choices that we have nowadays.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
That's from General Hannibal, and he once said, "If there isn't a way, we'll make one." And why do I like that? Because that's life. Life is unpredictable, is unplanned, and even when you have a plan, it will always change. So if you find yourself stuck, in some dead-end alleyway, make your way, jump the wall, dig a hole, find something different to continue growing and never give up.
Yes, man. Well, dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you before we let you go is where can our audience best find you online?
I would say LinkedIn. I'm quite active. I also have my column on a marketing magazine. That's a good place, but come to LinkedIn. Let's chat.
