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00:00already been tuning in and welcome if this is your first program of the day thank you to everyone for
00:06just stopping by essence's first ever virtual entrepreneur summit we're so excited to have
00:12you guys and i'm marquita harris the senior editor for work and money at essence and i also host an
00:18unboss the unboss podcast um for this next segment um we wanted to have just a bit of a heart to
00:24heart with you guys and this is why it's titled we're all in this together joining us today is
00:29bosma saint john the chief marketing officer of endeavor while bose is not an entrepreneur
00:36she's an intrapreneur with an eye and this woman is a leader and she's a self-starter and i think
00:43many of us can relate to that she's also known to bring her whole authentic self into every workplace
00:50and i just wanted to learn more about how she's adapting to this new normal of working from home
00:56and just kind of you know talk to her about her vision of the future of our work lives bose you
01:02there i am i'm here just hey hey how are you doing thank you for joining us today i'm so excited to
01:12talk to you and i'm like this outfit is just just fantastic i love it i love it um so just to start
01:21can you kind of just talk to me about how your day-to-day work life has been impacted um also
01:28do you have a routine in place for your day-to-day now and what kind of boundaries which is key are
01:34you setting while working from home oh yes okay well so first of all i'm so happy to be here with you
01:42um it's such a great feeling to be in conversation especially on this platform with essence you know my
01:50heart and my spirit my soul everything connects to my black woman-ness and so to be here certainly
01:58feels really good um i'm i'm so glad this community is thriving and that it provides a space for us to
02:05connect and even be better during this time um thank you you know what yes of course um to be honest i
02:13have i have really struggled you know with this time um of isolation in my career i have been going
02:23at i don't know maybe 500 miles per hour uh yeah we know i mean those those of us who lurk on your social
02:32media guilty uh we know um and that's probably been for two decades you know and so to this forced
02:48stillness is uh a very much a change of pace and one that i have i have struggled with um you know
02:57because i am constantly looking for ways to innovate ways to make myself better and greater
03:05it is a constant endeavor for me um and so even in in this moment i've had to switch up you know what
03:13my regular routine is and so to your question you know part of it is that um i have always felt like a
03:20self-starter you know someone who motivates from within you know it's not necessarily the um
03:28requirements of an outside force that make me do what i do you know it's not a boss giving me a
03:34deadline that makes me run faster you know it's my own internal competitiveness that is making me
03:41seek the greater heights and so in this moment i find even more ways to do that you know and so i
03:48did set myself myself on a schedule after day three of like laying down and me like that's what i was
03:55wondering how long how long did it take to get you know on that schedule and get adjusted so that's
04:01kind of that's pretty insightful it took me a little while yeah so what is that what is that now
04:08yeah i i probably took like i took a good solid like two days of like literally laying down in the bed
04:14curled up in a ball like i can't believe you know what i mean
04:20and for real like not showering not brushing my teeth
04:27i mean it's real that first few days when all this happened i mean it was a lot like i definitely
04:34had some moments i had a couple panic attacks at the grocery store i can't lie um and definitely
04:40was walking around the house looking a little ragged so so i understand what happened is that i
04:47felt the you know the need to create my own like i said my own umph you know something to get me going
04:55needed to get my blood moving needed to feel like i was accomplishing something and so crazy as it might
05:02sound i created you know a schedule for myself okay okay allow you to stay on track and i mean the
05:11schedule that even includes when to call friends or no fair yeah you know because there you know what i
05:22mean um and so that means that these days i'm still waking up at 5 45 i'm going on a run usually by 6
05:3130. um i'm saying i run about seven i work out to about 7 30. then you know shower get dressed and
05:39i mean dressed like i'm i'm dressed i see i love it i see it put on the outfit you know move from the
05:47bedroom to the den you know um my meetings uh start at about 8 or 8 30. and so i have back
05:58meetings until about noon or so take lunch um for about an hour get back on work till about four uh
06:07again meetings back to back break for a snack uh then answer emails or use some thinking time
06:14until about six have dinner and then call some friends you know and then i'm excited about that
06:20yeah so the schedule to keep you productive um because otherwise you know you'll get lost the
06:29days will flow into each other and you know you'll feel sort of like you're floating out here with
06:35nothing that centers you or grounds you definitely i get that um and also just that the idea that you
06:43also schedule which i think is important just time to talk to friends so i think that's so important
06:49just for your own health and just to feel you know like you're still connecting with people because
06:53you bring that energy into work too so um so i have to ask your mom your mama so how like how is it
07:02balancing this new work from home life um with the role of being a parent is have there been a lot of
07:09changes changes or tell me about those how old is your daughter again also my daughter's 10. um
07:19and single parenthood in this time i thought it was hard before this is this is tough yeah this is
07:26like phd level you know because um you know again because i'm moving around so much i really do utilize my
07:36community you know i've been very dependent on my network to help me do everything that i do
07:43um and that even that was even a um a point of inflection for me six years ago when my husband
07:50passed away uh because up until then i hadn't been used to depending on anyone really you know to help me
07:57do what i do um but when he passed away i then took the sort of vulnerable space of asking for help you
08:05know asking friends to step in asking my mom to step in you know like anybody everybody for for
08:12things you know to help me get through um and now that is all gone you know because we're isolated and
08:20so i am back to having to depend on myself and so there is a now a renewed way of asking for help
08:30of having the community come together um you know fifth grade math is kicking my ass you know what i mean
08:35life listen i don't envy i don't envy you listen i know i'm smart okay i i have
08:47in corporate america you know i have battled with the smartest engineers at apple i have created huge
08:55productions that cater audiences of hundreds of thousands of people and i can't get like no contest
09:05no no no console that i yeah the vulnerability of having to ask for help um so that i can concentrate
09:15you know so that means and again this is going to sound real crazy but it works i've had to
09:20schedule time you know with friends um with my daughter's cousin with um a tutor with i mean any
09:32anybody anybody and so even though first i was sort of flailing um and lost i have the luxury of having
09:40wi-fi and the luxury of having an ipad that she can sit in front of and operate and so that also means
09:48she has the ability then to connect with um people who can also help her right because just the two of
09:55us probably driving each other insane yeah the blindly the blind for fifth grade math yeah yeah but having
10:04and that is that is really really really important because um you know again in this time of isolation
10:11when the world has stopped and slowed down we are not allowed to also slow down you know that coming
10:18out of this period um we need to be better and you know i do fight against this idea that like you know
10:25if you don't come out with a new skill or you didn't build a new business or somehow you failed i don't
10:32i don't subscribe to that um however specifically for me and i believe for a lot of black women who are
10:40trying to create and we are constantly on the verge of figuring out our own destinies that we have to
10:47be better and if you have kids in the house or you are trying to find the space to think you cannot do
10:54it we're we're doing all of the jobs you know and so how can you find to think and the time to rest
11:01and the time to rejuvenate unless you are asking for help from your community still you know and so for
11:07me it's been scheduling you know these play dates and work dates and school dates for my daughter yes
11:17i have i have the time to also do my work yeah it sounds like you're kind of taking those you know
11:23those skills i think so many of us learn working in offices and corporate jobs and kind of applying
11:29those skills to like everyday life keeping things organized and also you know out being when you can't
11:35outsource getting that tutor and you know um using that ipad and all that um so buzz we're in the
11:43midst of it's such a surreal time and you kind of got into it a little bit earlier it's a surreal time
11:50and i think it's safe to say that the impact of coven 19 is i i mean it's it's going to be with us for a
11:57very very long time um but i want to know what's your perspective on i guess like what the future of
12:05work is what our work lives may be looking like in the future um and even to a more um minor point
12:13are there any you know trends that you're seeing right now even in your at your at endeavor uh that
12:19you think may persist yeah yeah well like i said this is a time of innovation you know the true
12:27innovators are the ones we're going to win at this time and winning and innovating doesn't mean
12:32that you are necessarily creating things from scratch you know it is the it is the evolution of
12:39our current world um that we have to think about so some things require brand new thinking
12:45um but other things are really just small pivots and that means even in our own world
12:51you know in our own being and so what is the pivot within you that is going to accelerate your ability
12:58once we're out again once we're out in the world again um you know there are lessons that i'm learning
13:04right now even about myself and my own productivity uh that i'm going to take into the future uh once we
13:11are allowed back outside you know yes because the the truth of matter is that i don't like i said i
13:19don't necessarily prescribe to the theory that you have to come out with all brand new skills during this
13:24time learn a new language or whatnot in order to feel successful um but i do think that in our own
13:29worlds that um using this time to pivot and to um evolve is absolutely necessary the thought that we're
13:38going to go back to normal doesn't exist you know if you're thinking that thinking you know there's no
13:44way that it goes back to normal even if you're just allowed to you know go back to the office or um you
13:51have to be a different office um your customer your audience is different that you're dealing with
14:00different emotions you know and whether you are working in a corporate office or you have your own
14:04business i mean we're still talking to the same people and so and those people like i i always
14:11say like you know use yourself as a focus group of one what do you need what do you want you know and
14:17and think about that because right now we're working in very high emotional states you know in which
14:24people are afraid they're anxious um they are concerned about their money um they are trying to
14:33figure out ways to bring comfort to their lives their person they want peace of mind you know these
14:40are not the traits of like you know if you're selling uh soda that you know you're trying to
14:48just tell somebody to hydrate that's not that's not gonna work no no no no no no no we need a little
14:55more you need the emotional state and drawing that emotional state in order to have your customer connect
15:00to you better and so as a marketer my sole job is to figure out how to evolve our emotional state to
15:09connect the products that we are working with to connect to our consumer you know so you draw those
15:14lines um and so again it's about understanding what the emotional state is of your customer and then
15:20working with that in order to make your brand um your brand live in the life of that person you know
15:30there's um we've been talking a lot at endeavor about what the brands that that we provide how
15:37they are going to behave now in the world so at endeavor our companies are wme which represent actors
15:44actresses musicians etc everybody from you know denzel washington to janelle mona and a big one
15:51yeah yeah img which uh you know creates a lot of events um i run the img fashion events group which is
16:03responsible for all the fashion weeks across the world yeah uh and then you know the miss universe
16:10there's just a bunch of companies our our umbrella but also we represent a lot of brands like you know
16:17marriott and visa and abmbev you know which which is responsible for people and there's so many
16:25different brands underneath the umbrella that you know we have to rethink the way that we are connecting
16:30to our customers and for me the center of the strategy moving forward is going to be how to make
16:40your brand a companion to our audience not the service so i also love like i mean to me that kind
16:51of taps back into what you said a moment ago about using yourself as a focus group really and kind of
16:59using that as i guess a way to kind of you know address what's going on in the world and what other
17:04people are going to need um so i do have to ask you because i want to keep you on here for about 50
17:11more minutes but i know you don't have time and they're going to kick us off i gotta ask um when you
17:19get up in the morning and you ask yourself what do i need for the day where do you start and how do you
17:26bring that into you know your every day well every day really is different i mean although we're doing
17:32the same thing again and again my emotional state varies you know sometimes i do feel high anxiety
17:39um other times i'm concerned about my mother's health you know or my parents health i'm worried
17:46about money you know there's there's all kinds of concerns and so um i really do try i mean we we all
17:53know to do this but rarely do we put into practice of having the attitude of gratitude you know thinking
17:59about the things i am most thankful for in the day um and i also put intention into what i want to get
18:06out of the day you know do i want to stay feeling happy do i want to feel the day feeling productive
18:14do i want to end the day feeling you know just joyful do i want to feel do i want to end the day
18:21feeling sexy as hell you know what i mean like what is what you're giving me you're giving me all of
18:26all of the things right now you're giving me all the joy and it was about yes feeling my full african
18:34woman-ness i am still feeling it i'm feeling it i'm like i'm very angry that i decided to wake up
18:42it's rainy and i'm wearing black i should have put on my orange for you and i can can we wait hold on
18:52you know what i mean match that behind you change it up i love it i love it it's a little color
19:00well both thank you so much thank you so much um i really i wish we could have you know we could
19:07talk for another hour but i really do appreciate energy um i think you're such an inspire like
19:14inspiration and um i love your point of view so thank you for keeping it 100 and please i'll help you and
19:21your family stay healthy and safe and yeah i wish you guys the best i appreciate you thank you marfira
19:32okay thank you both bye
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