When Argentina-native Gastón Tourn studied communications at the University of Buenos Aires, he wasn’t planning to have a career in marketing. But he soon realized that his passion for learning languages (evident in the fact that he can speak eight of them), linguistics, creative writing and analytics was the perfect combination for a career in marketing.

Gastón’s career started at Google, where he got to work in Brazil and a few other countries, eventually settling down in the UK. After Google, he took on the role of CMO at dating app Badoo and then a similar position at Emma – The Sleep Company. Currently, Gastón is the CMO at Appear Here, a global marketplace for retail space.

Along the way, Gastón has also studied an MBA in Marketing at Wharton, got his Master’s in Creative Writing at Oxford (in English as a non-native English speaker!) and is currently studying his Master’s in Software Engineering at Harvard. Gastón is a huge believer in education and says it gives you the toolset to look at things differently.

Tune in to today’s interview as Gastón speaks with Kyler Canastra about his multicultural experience and diverse academic and professional background—and how it impacts his work in marketing. He also shares some insights into the cultural differences in dating around the world and the importance of flexibility in modern businesses.

“Don’t study marketing, study anything that you’re passionate about and then bring that passion to marketing.”

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  

• Recommended reading: 
  • On Writing by Ernest Hemingway: “It’s an amazing source of inspiration for a lot of different quotes and pieces of advice that Hemingway gave about writing.”

• Productivity hack: 
  • Send emails to yourself. “The one thing I do is I send myself an email every morning with the things I want to do that day. So I see that my inbox sometimes has more emails to myself than from other people, because I use my inbox as my kind of ‘task manager.’ What I found is that, if you just let other people email you, you’re always doing what other people want you to do, but then you never prioritize your own tasks. So by sending emails to myself, I’ve found that it’s a very effective way to prioritize my own tasks and not just what other people request from me.”

• Source of inspiration: 
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC): “It’s amazing to see new voices in politics, I think we need them. I think we need more people involved in politics who are doing it because they believe in values and they believe in making this world a better place. And I find her being Latin American in the US, not coming from the typical background that most politicians come from in the US, she’s really bringing a very interesting voice to politics. And suddenly I feel hopeful about what we can do and what we can build.”

• Favorite app:
  • LinkedIn: “I’m definitely a very active user on LinkedIn. So go find me and follow me because I tend to post quite a lot of content on LinkedIn. That’s my go-to platform.”

• Learning resources:
  • University of Buenos Aires
  • MBA in marketing at Wharton
  • Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford
  • Harvard Online Master’s Degree in Software Engineering

Connect with Gastón and Kyler on LinkedIn.

For more on the benefits of diverse education and experience in marketing:

• The value of transferable creative skills in the marketing world: 10 inspiring stories
• 6 ways to boost your creativity as a content writer
• Going freelance to pursue your creative aspirations

To read the full transcript, click on page number 2 below.