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OhHello - Bryan Seltzer
75 Plays2 years ago
Episode 29 of the OhHello Inc. 👋 OhHello.io pod/vod - where we feature dynamic, non BS discussions w/ experts in #tech , #marketing , and #advertising that want to give back and feel good about helping others. It's that simple!
I feel very fortunate to showcase this next guest as one of the first mentors to join the OhHello Inc. 👋 OhHello.io community. He’s passionate about career mentorship and so excited to be part of the OhHello.io platform (for those following, we're in our 2nd Beta and should be launching in June!🤞)
This executive is a close friend, a topnotch friendtor (to me + many others) for over a decade, and one of my favorite people both personally and professionally.
This ‘Hello’ has no hidden agenda. He is loyal to “his people” and “his people” appreciate the joy, passion, and humor he brings to every interaction; this includes clients, colleagues, indirect reports, and anyone that he engages with (from the lady behind his local deli counter - I’ve heard their antics many times while on the phone - to CMOs and CEOs across the globe).
A wonderful father and role model to his 3 sons, a great partner to his loving wife, and a brother-like figure to so many people beyond his own kin.
How he describes himself (for which I concur): blunt, direct, and will always find a way to get to the outcome.
After building-out the Eastern US at Lotame, having a profound impact establishing global teams via infusing NYC #culture at TubeMogul, Inc., and overseeing the Americas (yep, plural!) at Adobe, this 'Hello' is now hitting the 1 year mark, as part of the executive leadership team, as EVP of Sales and Services, at Sendoso.
His motto to mentees near and far:
Be curious.
Be coachable.
Be creative.
His mentors:
His grandfather- hardwork is key. "Work hard. Show up. Deliver!"
Andy Monfried- who took a big risk and trusted him
Brett Wilson- who always embodies tenacity, a will to operate, and MSH...no matter the obstacle or challenge
No edits, keeping it raw and real, just like the way my pal would prefer. "Jeremy, just go ahead and make up my bio - I trust you"...
Always grateful to have you in my court, Bryan Seltzer.
Recommended
Transcript
Introductions and Greetings
00:00:00
Speaker
Oh, come on, Charlie Brown. Oh, come on, Charlie Brown. Alright.
Audience Appreciation
00:00:20
Speaker
Oh, hello, Brian. Oh, hello, Jeremy. How are you?
00:00:26
Speaker
doing great. I'm doing great. It feels so nice to have such a close friend, someone who I know quite well.
00:00:35
Speaker
On this pod, I want to thank all of our guests for watching on LinkedIn, on YouTube, and all of our guests that are listening via Spotify, Apple, Google, et cetera, et
Brian's Excitement and Friendship
00:00:47
Speaker
cetera. With that said, I know my ARP card-carrying friend quite, quite well.
00:00:58
Speaker
Can you please tell us who you are for those that are listening that don't know who you are, but those that are watching, many smiles are lighting up right now. Sure. Thanks for that introduction. I am Brian Seltzer, and I am a dear friend of yours. I am really excited about what you're doing here. I know we've had many conversations about it, and I think what you're doing is fantastic, and I think the world needs it, and I'm excited to be a part of it.
Career Journey to Sandoso
00:01:30
Speaker
We've known each other for a long time and we grew up together in the industry. We've known each other for about 15 years.
00:01:41
Speaker
good friends for about a decade and great friends and confidants for quite a long time, for sure. And you're a very special person in my life. So everyone hears that and knows that. So I was saying ingest about being an ARP card carrying member because I wanted to see how you'd react. If it was the truth, it would be the truth. I still throw those in the trash when I get them.
00:02:07
Speaker
I just can't do it. Um, but we, we've been through a lot together. We've mentored each other. We've mentored other people together. Uh, you know, mentoring is a big part of, of my life and what I enjoy doing and why I take the jobs I take, uh, and the roles I take. So just again, really excited about what you're doing. Thank you, Brian. Really appreciate that. Tell us a little bit about your, about your journey. Where are you now? Uh, where have you been? Yeah.
00:02:35
Speaker
I am, so currently I am the EVP of sales and account management at Sandoso. Love that. Sandoso is a direct automation tool, marketing tool that allows gifting and sending as part of outreach, retention, event planning, whatever you might think. It's a passion that I've had my entire sales career, breaking through the clutter, getting through the noise of reaching out to people.
00:03:05
Speaker
And I made a change after 30 some odd years of being in some type of advertising and ad tech and just wanted to change. I could have found myself in a pretty good position at an ad tech company, but just realized, you know what? I've been doing this a long time and I want to get excited and passionate about something else. So I just recently made that change about eight months ago.
00:03:29
Speaker
Well, and you're someone who's so passionate and gets excited and rallies the troops and shows your charisma and you you wear your emotion day in day out. So being passionate about something is for sure one of your best skill sets and traits.
00:03:44
Speaker
What are the areas where others that you how would you take that let me take a step back how do you characterize some of your skill sets outside of being passionate some areas that you bring to the teams that you build the teams that you run the organizations that you run.
Passion and Curiosity at Work
00:04:01
Speaker
Over your your thirty year career.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, listen, I what I what I would tell my teams and the way I like to coach and manage and mentor is that you first of all have to be passionate about what you wake up in the morning to do. And if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you need to rethink your your path. Because we spend a lot of time doing what we do, eight 10 hours a day. And if you're not excited or passionate about doing it, then first of all, the work product is not going to be great.
00:04:30
Speaker
And second of all, you're gonna go and people around you at home, your friends, your family are gonna feel that struggle. And it's just not fair to anyone, including yourself. And additionally, be curious, right? I've always been just very curious, ask a lot of questions, be direct, which I think if you were to describe me, you would describe me as that. Blunt, direct, and get to the outcome, right? Don't be scared to ask the hard questions and get to the outcome.
00:05:02
Speaker
You're blunt, you're direct, you get to the outcome, but you also care behind all of that. So I think having being true to yourself, true to your team, true to your family is really important as well.
Mentorship Philosophy
00:05:15
Speaker
When you think through all of the different people that you've mentored throughout your life, throughout your career, what excites you the most about mentorship? What would you tell your, you have three sons. What do you tell your three boys? What do you tell your teams?
00:05:32
Speaker
across your experiences, when you look back in what you know now versus what you knew then, what are some words of wisdom that you would give people? So I have three C's. It's be curious, be coachable, and be creative, is the way I like to lead in mentorship. And I certainly have a son in college. I certainly have told him those things. And I think the other thing is, and I kind of got this at a very young age from my grandfather who was
00:06:02
Speaker
a jeweler who just drove thousands and thousands of miles. He was on the road all the time. And he would show up at jewelry stores and sell jewelry. And by the time he was done with his career, his hands were stuck like this from driving so much. They didn't have the surgeries that we have now to help him fix that. So pardon their interruption, Brian. But for those who are listening, it was a white knuckle kind of grip around a steering wheel. Exactly. Exactly.
00:06:31
Speaker
So the hard work, he had six kids and he was on the road all the time. And hard work is key. And whether that hard work means putting in the hours or showing up and just delivering and being present, you got to work hard. And it's not always the case. But if you are brought up with that around you and that understanding in your mind that you just have to get in and deliver, hashtag deliver for those in the box.
00:07:00
Speaker
You will win and you will grow in your career just through that because you're going to outwork the person sitting next to you. I love that. You got to show up. You have to be passionate. You got to deliver. You got to just roll up your sleeves. You have to be charismatic. You have to be curious. You have to ask the questions. Thank you for sharing the three C's. Those are really insightful. Besides your grandfather, who are a couple other mentors that have made a profound impact on you?
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, so we can talk about to so and these are professional mentors. You gave you gave one personal and by the way, I appreciate so much the the co mentorship of partnership with you of what you and I we were ham and egg peanut butter and jelly for so long where it is the absolute feeling where wonderful feeling where you and I would ping pong every single day mutual mentorship. So I appreciate you saying that the feeling is 100%. Absolutely.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah. So professionally, Andy Monfried, who is the founder of Low to Me and gave me my start and took a risk on me in digital media or digital, I would say ed tech because we were a DMP also. So, and, you know, he helped me, you know, put in, entrusted in me and opening up the New York office with him and building that team and that company. And, you know, from that point forward, all the things I learned from him and his management style.
00:08:30
Speaker
are ingrained in me and the opportunity to then go work with Brett Wilson, who's my next mentor and continues to be my mentor today at Tube Mogul, the things that I've learned from him, his tenacity, his will to operate
00:08:49
Speaker
and not just be the founder that kind of stands at the top and watches everything happen. Definitely not Brett. Get in the weeds and as we say, make shit happen. So yeah, between Brett and Andy, a lot of what I do and the way I manage and the way I grow companies today comes from what I've learned from them.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, love that you mentioned both of them. I know that Andy had a profound impact on starting your career in the tech industry. And you and I both really developed working with Brett, just such a fantastic mentor to both of us and such an even better person. So love that you called them both out. Thank you for doing that.
Supporting St. Jude's Charity
00:09:32
Speaker
As a hello, you know that you're going to be able to choose amongst 40-something different charities to donate to after each of the sessions that you do as an expert, as a mentor, as a hello. What are some charities or a charity that's near and dear to your heart, Brian? I would have to go with St. Jude's. I had the opportunity a few years ago as they were a client of mine to go out and visit and take a tour of the hospital and
00:10:01
Speaker
First of all, if you have the opportunity to do that, I would recommend it to everybody. It is amazing what they've built there, the families that they help, the children that they provide for. And I left there with just a feeling of just, it was unreal.
00:10:19
Speaker
you know, they fly people in, they let the families live there while their kids are going through what they're going through. And all of this is through donations. So I support and we'll continue to support that. And yeah, if
00:10:32
Speaker
there's no other I need it's one with one charity at St. Jude. That's amazing. Yep, they were a wonderful client of yours of ours. And I remember after you toured it just how impactful it was for you. So appreciate you calling that out. Any other parting words of wisdom or advice guidance that you'd give to all those listening to those watching and most importantly, to the mentees that are going to be selecting you Brian Salter as a mentor within the Oh, hello.io platform.
Startup vs. Corporate Roles
00:11:03
Speaker
Yes, I will say the biggest thing for me when mentoring people in their careers and when they're starting their careers is really understand who you are and what kind of role you want to be in and what kind of company you want to be in. Do you want to be a startup or do you want to be a corporate? There's a vast difference between the two and you and I know that, right? Because we came up in the startup world. We entered into the Adobe world after our acquisition.
00:11:30
Speaker
And we realize we got a flavor for what it's like to be in a corporate, in a corporation, a large corporation. And a lot of people I talk to today don't understand the grit and the risk that you take when being in a startup, but also don't realize the fun and excitement that happens every single day. So I will.
00:11:51
Speaker
I'm not going to suggest one or the other, but I will suggest that you dig deep internally and figure out, do you want to be showing up, having everything set up for you, ready to go? Or do you want to show up and have to build everything you need to get your day done? And to me, building is what drives me, and it's exciting. And I'm at a startup right now again, and I just love it. I just love it.
00:12:15
Speaker
Well, you're a fantastic builder, a wonderful friend, a great dad, and just such a good person. So thank you, Brian. We appreciate you being part of this. I appreciate you dearly. Thank you very much, my friend. Bye, everybody. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Brian.