brian grossman — Bio

BIO

Brian Grossman is a brand marketer, general manager, and leader with a track record of leveraging content to grow audiences and revenue. 

Hailing from a consumer packaged goods background (running the iconic Wheaties brand at General Mills), he has since held leadership positions at XM Radio, as VP, Content Marketing, and as SVP, Marketing New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, where he oversaw marketing (brand & creative, content/digital, game presentation, experiential marketing, individual ticket sales, and community relations) for one of the world's great sports brands. More recently, he was co-founder and CEO of Artistory, a new mobile gaming platform for music fans.

Brian is an honors graduate of Harvard University and received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

about my portfolio +

This website showcases work product that I have created as solutions to business challenges. The Portfolio + sets forth the diverse stops in my journey – from community economic development, to brand marketing in consumer packaged goods, to senior marketing roles at XM Radio and MSG, to brand marketing and strategy consulting and entrepreneurship. 

I focus on the broader skill sets that have been central to all of my roles – storytelling, branding, innovation, and the ability to take strategies I’ve created and implement them as lean operational plans.

However, what is not captured in my Portfolio + is arguably more significant than my work product. That is who I am as a leader, a teammate, and most importantly, a person. 

who i am

Colleagues would say that I am a team-oriented, high-energy, optimistic, resilient, analytical, and relentless partner. I get the most satisfaction from building and cultivating diverse, high-performing, close-knit teams that trust, challenge AND love each other. As such, these teams innovate and accomplish more, execute better, and provide greater fulfillment and growth for everyone who is a part of them.

Before I delve more into who I am, let me share a bit about my background that will provide some context. I was fortunate to be raised in an economically, racially and politically diverse community on the outskirts of Washington, DC. Even as a kid, I was intrigued to hear different perspectives and most fascinated by those ideas that motivated people to action and brought them together. Likewise, the people who had the greatest contribution to my development were those who took the time to understand my perspective and expand it by engaging me with new ideas and alternative viewpoints.

My leadership style reflects this background. Prioritizing people and expanding their skillset is at the top of my pyramid – success flows from having team members who know that their best interests are being prioritized because they feel safe to openly share their thoughts and take chances. Next, I value voices and thinkers from all perspectives and have recruited diverse teams – in both background and thought. Finally, I recognize that the most junior members on the team, who typically have the most direct interaction with consumers, also often possess the deepest insights.

My philosophy on team-building comes from my life-long passion for sports. I was naturally drawn to play team sports because they not only required individual sacrifice, commitment and execution but also collaboration. In sports, the best teams are not always the most physically talented, but they are almost universally the most cohesive and complementary. I discovered this is equally true in business. Thus, to create a winning team requires purpose, common values, and culture.

Purpose is incredibly important as money and job security are poor everyday motivators. Purpose requires crafting and communicating a vision that deeply resonates with each team member personally, provides meaning, elevates the company, and adds value to the world.  

Common values are invaluable to foster team trust and cohesiveness. Specifically, the team-centric values I emphasize are authenticity, transparency, honesty, respect, and kindness. These values should guide actions both within the team and interactions outside the team and company. 

These values engender an atmosphere of openness — safety to share, to lean on, and even disagree with team members. This is where the magic happens — when a team embraces the messy process of knowledge exchange and gathering. When it wrestles, debates and weighs different options and ideas, the team’s collective expertise finds the best path.

Culture is closely connected to common values. Over the long-term, on great teams the work cannot be all-consuming. There needs to be room to breathe on every team. Every member has lives and relationships that go beyond work, and it is the role of the team leader to provide the space and flexibility for everyone to tend to them.

The final, key ingredient of culture also begins with the team leader. The work must be fun and rewarding. That doesn’t mean the work isn’t challenging or even that every component is enjoyable. Nonetheless, to get the most out of, and retain team members, happiness, laughter, love, and positive energy must be ubiquitous.