Advertising CEO Brian Danzis sees leadership as a platform to express the power of optimism and the transformative impact of joy at work. Discover his further insights on fostering accountability, crafting authentic connections, and inspiring teams to achieve greatness in today’s business landscape.

This is To Lead Is Human — listen to learn how you can uplevel your leadership and shape cultures of accountability, respect, and candor.

“Joy is very different than happiness. Happiness can be fleeting. Happiness can be just very simply having fun, where joy is more eternal and more everlasting.”

— Brian Danzis

Brian Danzis is the President, North America for Seedtag, the global leader in contextual advertising. His responsibilities include revenue, publisher partnerships, and management of all on-the-ground operations.

Prior to joining Seedtag, Brian served as EVP, Agency Solutions for VideoAmp where he was responsible for managing the national sales team. Previously, he was Global Head of Video & Live Event Sales at Spotify, in which he was charged with developing and aligning strategies across Spotify’s 70+ markets. Under his leadership, Spotify’s video ads business grew to represent more than one-third of the free business unit’s revenue.

Before Spotify, he served as Global CRO for the programmatic video platform Virool. At Virool he helped expand the self-service platform, originally built for musicians and SMBs, to deliver earned media solutions for Fortune 100 brands.

Before Virool, he was Head of Sales & Sales Strategy for Videology in the Americas. As the company’s first sales person hired in 2008, he spent the next 6 years building a multi-faceted sales organization that pivoted three times: first, from destination site to video network, then from video network to platform, and again to a multi-channel SaaS focusing on addressable video convergence.

Earlier in his career, Brian was VP of National Sales for the MCN Ripe Entertainment; East Coast Director for the launch of the first professionally produced video platform Joost (later acquired by Adconion); and the first sales person hired at in-game advertising company Massive, Inc. (acquired by MSFT during his tenure). Previous to his digital media career, Brian spent five years in various sales roles at Comcast and CNN.

For more than 30 years, Sharon Richmond has partnered with C-level executives from mid-size and small, fast-growing companies who want to up-level their leadership and build companies they are proud of. Clients accelerate their leadership by embracing mindset and behavior changes, building self-awareness and self-management skills, and focusing on the three things all leaders must ensure: focus, energy and delivery.

Sharon’s purpose as an executive coach is to help leaders 10X their impact by leveraging the power afforded by their roles to build organizations that are forces for good, both economically and socially. She also advises CEOs on shaping organization culture and leading change.

Sharon has taught leadership at Stanford GSB, where she now helps leaders increase influence, manage conflict, and prepare to build high-performing teams.

To see a list of Sharon’s clients, please visit LeadingLarge.com.

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:
Mirasee
Sharon’s website: LeadingLarge.com
Brian’s website: Seedtag.com
Brian’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdanzis/

Credits:
Host: Sharon Richmond
Producer: Andrew Chapman
Audio Editor: Marvin del Rosario
Executive Producer: Danny Iny
Music Soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely
Making our hosts sound great: Home Brew Audio

Music credits:
Track Title: Escaping Light
Artist: Aaron Sprinkle
Writer: Aaron Sprinkle
Publisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Track Title: Bright Future
Artist: Be Still The Earth
Writer: Marshall Usinger
Publisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Special effects credits:
24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.

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Episode transcript: Unlock Leadership Joy: Embrace Vulnerability and Optimism (Brian Danzis).