The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders. 

Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, spoke with Dan Csont, the EVP & Chief Marketing Officer at Corpay, about leveraging every opportunity to gain experience in your career, the evolution of U2, the power of understanding people as leaders, and more.

Collaboration is really about hearing everyone's voice. It's about orchestrating how people can effectively work together on a team, emphasizing people’s strengths, and giving them the pieces to succeed.

WATCH + READ THE RECAP BELOW (SCROLL TO THE END FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW)

Q1 | What advice would you share with marketers?

Csont advises to pursue learning and experience. It doesn’t matter who is getting what, it’s about putting points on the board and absorbing as much as you can because that all will contribute to your final goal.

“It's really important for people to view their career in building blocks and try to fill in as many blocks as possible to create a strong foundation. Some people I've noticed over the years, if they get promoted too quickly or they get too single-threaded, then they aren't able to expand, do more things, and you can build a bigger house on a bigger foundation. So, the more jobs you can do at a younger age when it's easier to move around between roles and get experience, whether it's promotion or whether it's lateral, that, I believe, really sets you up for later in your career to do bigger, broader roles.”

Csont believes that a career is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t limit yourself. Take opportunities and see the bigger picture. “You do need to think of it over a period of time, rather than just running after things over and over. I was able to do a lot of different roles early in my career, especially at AT&T, that then set me up to have broader roles and bigger teams later. Try to see as many things as you can, whether it's different companies or different areas within companies, and try to get experience at a corporate level as well as at a business unit level or in the trenches as much as possible, because it pays so many dividends later when you've kind of seen both sides of the equation and it gives you some credibility as you move through your career.”

Q2 | What is your superpower?

Csont’s power is knowing how to work with everyone. “What it's about is really understanding what makes people tick, learning about people, and then understanding how they're going to interact together, rather than going in with, 'Hey, this is my style, and I'm going to do it my way, and everyone's just going to kind of come along for the ride.' I've been a part of many teams that had leaders like that, and I realized that's not me and that's not the environment I want to work in.” He prides himself on creating an environment where different voices are heard and celebrated. 

“Collaboration is really about hearing everyone's voice. It's about orchestrating how people can effectively work together on a team, emphasizing people’s strengths, and giving them the pieces to succeed.”

Q3 | What values are important to you?

1. Trust - Csont listed trust as the most important. “Building trust at every level is critical to getting things done.”

2. Respect - Having and building respect across the organization with people working above and for you is integral to success. 

3. Integrity - Do things the right way. “Integrity is another one of those words - like collaboration - that people view as table stakes, but I view it a little bit differently. It's not just not doing bad things; it's having integrity in the way you approach things and expecting it from the people that work with you and for you. And it really -- it really works with trust.” 

The values all work together to help him become a better leader and form a better team. When working with others, he encourages people to ask, “Do you trust these folks, and do you trust them to make decisions that are going to have integrity?” 

Q4 | What band inspires you?

U2 is one of Csont’s all time favorite bands not only because of their music, but also for their ability to evolve. “They've been around since the mid-'70s. They've evolved their brand and who they are and their music four or five times, and yet they are still U2. There's not many bands that have done that. You've got these bands like The Stones and Eagles that have been around a long time, but they've not evolved through every decade. To be able to do that and reinvent themselves each time, but still have a common sound is inspiring.”

Knowing who you are and still adapting to the world around you is an incredible feat for anyone, especially marketers.

For more marketing leadership advice and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Dan Csont, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.

If you know an impactful marketing leader who would be a good candidate for the #CMOSpotlight series, nominate them here. 

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW TO THE RIGHT.