“Push yourself out of your comfort zone,” Brandis DeZon from Initiative

Meet Brandis DeZon. As a Global Managing Partner at Initiative, Brandis’ 20 years of experience across entertainment, B2B, retail, tech, CPG, finance, and alcohol/spirits help her to oversee all aspects of client business and success. She leads a global team of over 200 people in comprehensive media planning and strategy, utilizing her expertise across branding, B2B, performance, local, multicultural, and PR strategies. 

Brandis recently sat down with Jocelyn Hudak, Senior Director, Content and Digital Marketing at SiriusXM Media, in our Pass the Mic booth at CES. Together, they discussed why pushing yourself past your normal limits matters and how, if you want to develop connections that make an impact, it’s crucial to be transparent and real.

Interested in what she had to say? Check out the full interview below, and then listen to some highlights from the conversation. 

Start a conversation.

Highlight: “I think it really is all about connection. Remember that everyone is human—starting a conversation might feel awkward or out of place, but everyone's probably feeling the exact same way. The connections can happen anywhere. Push yourself out of your comfort zone.” - Brandis DeZon

Build your personal board of directors.

Highlight: “Just as any company would have a board of directors, create that team for yourself: an advocate, a mentor, a challenger, and a friend.” - Brandis DeZon

Tailor your connections.

Highlight: “How you connect with [one person] is very different than how you connect with another person. So I think it's about tailoring that approach… Being able to read people and see what they're really trying to say or ask for, as opposed to maybe what they are able to verbalize—that’s been really helpful as far as building connections.” - Brandis DeZon

Be transparent.

Highlight: “I think some days are better than others, to be honest. But I think showing up as myself authentically and not apologizing for when I'm not the best version of myself or maybe when I don't have all the answers; just trying to be transparent and available.” - Brandis DeZon

Find connections in person.

Highlight: “Finding people who are in your geographic proximity that you can have a face-to-face relationship with, it does go a long way. It's not impossible to have a relationship with somebody that you're remote with. But I do think when you're thinking about a personal board of directors, having people that you can have that sit down in person with, it does go a long way.” - Brandis DeZon

Learn from your mistakes.

Highlight: “Learn from your mistakes. We're all human, we all make mistakes. But try not to keep making the same mistakes over and over again. I constantly learn and I think I'm pretty reflective about it and say, ‘Hey, we missed the mark with this and that's on me. Let's try it a different way.’” - Brandis DeZon

Don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith and push your own boundaries. You never know what could come next. For more inspirational content like this, check out the Pass the Mic page.

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