When Carlos Cantu first stepped into the job market, Twitter didn’t even exist. Fast forward a few decades, and he now heads the company’s EMEA business marketing team from their Dublin office.

As the Director of Business Marketing for the EMEA region, Carlos is responsible for conveying the value of marketing on Twitter to marketers and agencies, and for taking a leading role in creating the company’s business marketing strategies across the region.

In today’s episode Shaheen Samavati sits down with Carlos to discuss his transition from traditional advertising to B2B marketing, the importance of listening to your audience, and why he believes prioritizing the future—not the present—is key to making career choices.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, and listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify.

Rapid-fire recs  

• Useful book: Grit by Angela Duckworth. “It convinced me that character and perseverance are just as, or even more, important than your skills and intelligence.” 

• Productivity hack: 10-minute brainstorming sessions. “If you do it correctly that’s a lot, and it gives you time to come up with a lot of ideas.”

• Learning resources:  
  • The psychology podcast You Are Not So Smart. “Every time I listen to a new episode, I get inspiration and come up with ideas I can use in my campaigns.”
  • Cannes Lions. “They regularly update their content and showcase some of the world’s best ad campaigns.”

“First, sit down and listen. Tune into what people are talking about, what they care about, what they want to know, and then start building your content strategy.”

Connect with Carlos and Shaheen on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Helen Hadley.

For more insights into marketing on Twitter:

Leveraging social media data to make marketing decisions

Building a social marketing career on a passion for sailing

Leveraging social media data to make marketing decisions

To see the full interview, click on page number 2 below.