Beauty Carnival | Bozoma St. John Fireside Chat

Name: Beauty Carnival | Bozoma St. John Fireside Chat
Uploaded: 2026-02-06T21:36:24+00:00
Duration: 23 min 32 s
Channel: Essence Virtual Events

Essence Virtual Events

21 hours ago
#blackgirlmagic

As one of the most renowned Chief Marketing Officers of our
time, Bozoma Saint John has managed to blaze trails in
corporate America as a media & entertainment mogul who is
unapologetic about her #BlackGirlMagic. Join us for a fireside
conversation with the media mogul about career changes,
climbing the corporate ladder, showing up as your best self,
and making a difference with your career.

Category

🛠️

Lifestyle

Transcript

Display full video transcript

00:00Hello, okay are we ready to go, I think so, hello everybody, it's the Black Joy for me

00:16and Lord y'all look amazing, thank you, thank you, thank you for coming to Beauty Carnival,

00:23how are you feeling, you guys are in for each treat, this spicy stuff that is coming up

00:33here is so amazing, she redefines, defines bad archery, if you're not already following

00:46her on social media for your daily dose of inspiration, and I promise you some laughter,

00:53I promise you, you will be after this conversation, Ozoma St. John is a hall of fame inductive

01:00marketing executive, author, entrepreneurial, general badass, and I have to add, an amazing

01:09mom, she has worked for some of the most renowned companies in the tech and media industries,

01:16from Apple to Uber, Uber, Endeavor, and most recently Netflix, not only has she worked

01:24in these companies, but she has been running things, yeah, as a secret executive, she's

01:31often the only Black woman at that stage, and she doesn't just show up, she shows up, oh,

01:39she shows up, oh, Olivia, I am actually gonna stand up, as I bring her on the stage,

01:46Please give my good friend and sister the incomparable Bosoma St. John a warm,

01:56I sense-faceable of Dr. Wanda.

02:01Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

02:09I love this little C-C-C-C-7 bottle walk.

02:14I mean, have you heard of, uh, I don't know if I can listen.

02:20I, I, I actually flipped the shoes on, so I was like, I'm about three feet tall.

02:25She's about to, I know she's got the sling, she was a big man, right, literally, and I don't care what she does to me.

02:32And so, I have a picture I represented for her.

02:35You look beautiful.

02:36Thank you so much, Barbara.

02:37I appreciate you.

02:39I appreciate this moment.

02:40Oh my God, you and I, I, I mean, really, I understand why I'm from an issue.

02:45We should really, I'm getting emotional.

02:48We should really pause on this room.

02:50I want to tell you that this moment, you see, this is sad here.

02:54It really is a testament of what you make you happy.

02:57You are getting to do who you are.

02:59You will connect with people that your spirit deserves to connect with.

03:03And it supports you.

03:04It wants to see you thrive, and it celebrates you, and it's there for you.

03:10You always have to be where everybody can see you, but I promise you, you see the gods, we can really miss each other.

03:16I am so freaking proud of you, always.

03:18I'm proud of you.

03:19I'm proud to be here, and this is so beautiful.

03:22You all did an amazing job, and this is an incredible, and since you, I still hope because of the joy that you bring to us.

03:28So thank you so much, Marie, for having me.

03:31Okay, so we have some things here, like, so if you want to know if it's really important to us, and if we don't know if it's important, then nobody else is going to know that we're important.

03:44Yeah.

03:44So please, if you haven't followed her career, if you haven't followed her career, we'll get it a little bit later.

03:50Um, is going to see the socks because we've got her in purpose, and she's now, like, talked about her, like, she's, aside from all the different kinds of things, she's all fairs.

04:06Yes, oh my gosh.

04:08She has found a huge amount of money.

04:10She has found a huge amount of money.

04:11Oh, good at me.

04:12You know, I probably feel sad, but I'm so excited about this because it makes it take a lot for anybody to write a piece.

04:17Right.

04:17So, um, how did you get here?

04:20I know that's what I was going to do, but I don't like that.

04:22It's not just, you know, this is actually an all vulnerability.

04:25This is a very, I'm terrified, actually, in this moment.

04:28I know I look probably closed, but I am scared out of my mind, um, because for my time, I'm used to being in the boardroom.

04:36I'm used to being in corporate spaces, which are difficult in and of themselves.

04:40But I've been able to navigate it in a way that has a divinity, that has a success, and this whole space can be open about what has brought in grief in my life,

04:52what has been from that in my life, and airing it, not just looking at it the way that you would in therapy,

04:59and it's airing the same things I love, but it's putting them to a cage.

05:03And not only that, then to allow it to live in the world outside, I think, where other people can read it and judge me on it and interpret it on their own.

05:15It's very terrifying, and I haven't talked about this one publicly until this time.

05:19Thank you for allowing us to be the first place to share that, because I'm in advance of someone who actually does feel like you share so much of you already.

05:29I can't often ask you, how do you do that? Because you really do share a lot of me.

05:35I just can't get you. So if you follow up on one of these, I think we'll see these beautiful pictures, but please make sure to read the books.

05:44There are so many gems, and real life lessons that she shares, and real drive, that it must have been very helpful to me to believe you when you say the book goes to you.

05:55Yes, yes. It looks so much different. For me, the reason why I wrote it was because I felt that there was probably a connection to be felt in one sort of trauma.

06:07You know, you don't necessarily have to kind of share the same grief as somebody else for them to learn a lesson from theirs, right?

06:14And, um, there are so few of us who are willing to talk about it out loud, and to put it on one string, so that not only can we find identity in it, but that we can perhaps feel from it too.

06:27And so my hope is that, as I talk about different ways in which I have not just experienced dreams, but have survived it, have thrived in spite of it, sometimes because of it.

06:40Um, he's, uh, he's, uh, I, I, I mean, I haven't even skipped you, so maybe I've heard all the work as something different.

06:46So it's hard to even find the rest now to talk about it.

06:49I, so I'm wondering if I didn't say anything to me earlier, but I wanted you to get into a better bit of interaction.

06:54Yes.

06:55So when you say the name of the book.

06:57Yes.

06:58So people can understand what it means.

07:00Yes.

07:01Right? It's like how you want to hear.

07:02Yes.

07:03And tell us the name of the book.

07:06Yes.

07:07The name of the book, for me, is really powerful.

07:09It is something that I think you do, even when you don't know you're doing it, but when you think you still need to find that information to do it.

07:17So tell us the name of this book.

07:19Well, I came to it, um, it's quite a journey, but my week is called The Urgent Life.

07:25It's my story of love, loss, survival.

07:29And, um, when I decided to write it, this story of the Sim turned on the grief of losing my husband, who had 10 years to cancer.

07:39He died a little over 8 years ago.

07:42And, um, in that process, you know, it was a relatively short battle for the disease.

07:49I don't know if there was any time that he even put on these types of things, but that's amazing.

07:53Um, maybe 6 months between his diagnosis and his death.

07:57And, um, yeah.

07:58And in that time, when we found out that his death could be terminal, the doctors had a few weeks.

08:04We were able to expand at about 3 months.

08:07If you think of a question in life, if you think about what you're doing 3 months through 8 to 7, and perhaps, if you had just a little bit of time, like, what would you do with it?

08:17You know, I think these are all, like, these, you know, quite all the questions that we ask ourselves, but not us living.

08:23And since that is a reality, a part of what you know, it's a form of a way to live life.

08:27You know, to think about imputing that is actually an inspiration exactly the way that we should be living.

08:33Because, why else do we care about it than what I have to do with very fullest?

08:37You know, to not take any moments and make them too small.

08:42You know, to feel like, look, I want to do this.

08:44You know what I'm going to do right now.

08:45I'm not going to wait for 6 months from now.

08:47I'm not going to wait for 2 years from now.

08:49I'm not going to wait until retirement.

08:51Often, even in the kind of the pandemic, you know, people say often, oh, I can't wait until things get back to normal.

08:58And then I will do the thing.

09:01And that is what my story, I hope, is going to be anything, which is that you shouldn't think for that.

09:07I certainly haven't.

09:08Not in my, not in my career since.

09:10It has been, and not in my life since.

09:13I have acted on urgency, meaning that I want to make things with intention.

09:19I want to make them happen right now.

09:21I'm not going to wait for anybody or anything before I act.

09:26I think that's really powerful.

09:27And what I will share that, just as thinking about it, in that short six month period, you are navigating being a mom to the young girl.

09:36Yes.

09:37Like, I mean, like, so for me, what I hope to learn from this book is the parts that sometimes we don't care, just, you know, play out.

09:46It's just amazing and beautiful.

09:47Yes.

09:48And just a silent young woman, you navigating that.

09:52Yes.

09:53Also making sure that something that is also important to you is your career.

09:57Yes.

09:58Right.

09:59You know, your career is very selfless to me.

10:00Like, from a senior, I think you always take the time in for your own platform to make sure you share with us.

10:05Yes.

10:06Um, what does that mean, like, what level of information do those only play and get into living in our children?

10:17Yes, yes.

10:18Yes.

10:19I think that's the point, right?

10:20Because if you compartmentalize our life, right?

10:23You say, okay, I'm a mom over here.

10:25I'm a wife over here.

10:27I'm a friend.

10:28I'm a consecutive.

10:29I'm a sister.

10:31I'm a daughter.

10:33You come on, any of the facts, any of the things that we describe for ourselves, any compartmentalize the same thing, it's something that we do today, and that's what we use tomorrow, and that's what we do tomorrow.

10:43And that's what we mix those two things.

10:44What happens if something happens in your life, which makes you have to breathe without a whole moving stint?

10:50Mm-hmm.

10:51And then one of them takes prominence over another.

10:54What happens then?

10:55Because he ends up in three months, which means he hears final diagnosis and his death.

11:00to have them. The part of my life had to be about the scriptures of who I am. I was a

11:07wife who was once a couple of people. I was a mother who was once a single mother. Those

11:15titles were not in my vocabulary at the time that I didn't think they would ever be. And

11:21so having to reevaluate what their needs and having to have a new identity creates also

11:28that our attention creates for free. Because the advice that I had given, I didn't think

11:33how you could go with it. And so what happens then when your life is changing? And by the way,

11:39the community doesn't mean that all of us have to go through that same experience or to reevaluate

11:44what our titles came. You know, you need a boss of a job. All of a sudden you have this title

11:49and then you don't. Right? Or you have this friend, something happens and then you don't

11:54think. There is grief in all of those moments. And so the acknowledgement to it and understanding

12:00what happens to us in our relationships between those titles and how to meet them, sometimes

12:05holding past it, it has to look at least for success.

12:08So here's what it's really interesting. If you're speaking, I'm like, okay, you know, you, you,

12:13you're both again redefining my life. So even if you're speaking, what I'm hearing, um, and

12:18it's really speaking to me is in those moments as you were navigating grief, you were actively

12:25really defining your different activities. And when we don't do, we don't even say don't say

12:31anything to me at all. What did you do? Like what was that goal? Like what did you do?

12:37Yeah. To not lose you, what did you do? You know, to give her a hand on pleasure. What did

12:43you do? I hope you didn't order for us to not have a life. And I hope you didn't look good.

12:49Like how you navigated. I think the border, because that's what makes you so special. What did

12:52you do? You know, that's the, that's the whole question. You know, what do you do? By the way,

12:58that question is something that, um, you ask yourself at different points. You know, there's a

13:04common one time, I've asked myself at a question, but I've asked myself a long

13:10while he has a stroke. What did he do? And he asked myself, I go, you, you go to the

13:15doctor. Those are our general factors, and I've got to figure out what that is. And then

13:18they say, what's the answer? What do you do? Okay. The rest of the day, you find it.

13:23When I need to attach, it's not a system of treatment, it's not a medication,

13:27no, no, no, no. Then, it's terminal. What do you do? Is it okay? I've got to give

13:35it well to you. I've got to make sure everybody else taking care of it. I've got to make sure

13:39that all of our old dreams and aspirations and things that we can resolve now are done.

13:44Because we'll have more time. And then the point is then, what do I do? And for me, the answer

13:51is probably multiple my days. You know, some of it is in my career. And it's in the fact

13:56that I don't want to speak now for anybody. And for the big years, there's no fear. And

14:03it's the most empowering thing about grief. You know, you have a choice. There are choices

14:07you make. Sometimes it's that you have to sit down and grab a corner, which I did many, many

14:13times. And it is the most painful after people stop bringing the bags from the consumer, have

14:18to mix up one and a check-in, have to mix up the same thing I used to do. But you have

14:23to be better than you are in life. And for me, part of it was trying to find my identity

14:28in new ways. And finally, part of the most terrifying thing is my kind of scares later when I decided

14:37that I no longer wanted to be in my distance in my own. And then having to find a new way to

14:44find myself in new ways. I love that. I love that. I love that. So if you tell them

14:49that you're saying, you know what, I'm going to stop doing this to myself. Yeah. Yeah.

14:54Like, when the fear in the summer room was too heavy. I remember, um, talking to a pregnant

15:02body at the time, and I was coming up on as an anniversary. And I was feeling so heavy. I'd always

15:11feel like I just want to take it home. You know, she said, well, why don't I just want you to see

15:25the art? And I was like, well, how am I going to do that? And it's how I've been fine. It's how the

15:29world knows me now. She said, I think this is enough to be right. And so sometimes even, for us, the

15:35best is that the identities that we have assumed, even if they are real because of our own

15:42experiences, don't need to be made. Don't love to carry them. It's what you have. That's right.

15:48And then assume an entitlement. That's a new way. And it is a choice. And so yes, every day, I

15:54I choose joy. I love them. Isn't that intentional? Intentional joy. Intentional joy. Yes. That's

16:01like a intentional joy. Yes. Intentional joy. That's so important. I have a question. So,

16:07it's just, every month, honestly, these are very different. I mean, it's dramatic. People, you know,

16:13you, you, you went through it and you went through it and then you found your whole business.

16:17The whole business. How do you deal with people? You know, how do you deal with people? How do you

16:29develop them? How do you deal with people? Right. Or what it is the purpose. And, with my

16:34internet, you do remember what you did around those times with your daughter and Peter. Yeah.

16:39What do you do in those moments where you bring them to you? How it works. Well, so this story's not in the

16:45What I'm going to tell you, um, the father's name, after Jesus' death, was the dude moving to the whole country and the other's head.

16:55We were coming up to, you know, as, you know, not looking forward to it, and they almost, uh, she had just run by.

17:02And so I was trying to figure out how to explain to her, and we were still dealing sometimes with her asking, well, where is he from?

17:09You know, I mean, I'm still trying to figure out how to explain, because, of course, at school they were doing all those little paintings and, you know, those all kinds of things that you're using to memory father's name.

17:23And on, uh, I think I had to figure it out for his father's name, he was, I'm playing his name, and my uncle, Sam, ran into me with him, and my guest, she's like, I didn't paint her daddy.

17:36Now, slide, okay, here we are, this is the human, okay?

17:43And so, you know, I get up, sit up, I sit down, and see, I try to see, and I look, uh, daddy's right here.

17:51And so, there is no big thing that we can get in here, and then I was holding back to yours, trying to remain silent.

18:01And then, okay, she didn't even listen to the text, but she was like, I love him, and I was like, okay.

18:09She's like, but I wanted anything that reminds me of him before today.

18:15And he was supposed to be a horrible thing, like, and, and, and then you want to watch me, because I don't hold it anymore, right?

18:21Because what's happening at all that reason, I had a five-year-old who transformed even my understanding of how to suck a brain in your brain.

18:31And so, yeah, we got up, we got shit on, we put on two clothes, we went to the store, we picked that again, and she wanted for my dad, and now that it's in front of me, and she's in front of me here, and she gets to think of something every time I'm talking.

18:44And that is now our new age, seventh grade, and it's in front of me here.

19:14As far as it was, yes, okay.

19:16Well, I think first, it's the understanding that any one of us planned for grief.

19:23That it is not something that happens to you because it's something you did, and you feel like you wanted to understand that.

19:30And grief and problems in our body are not created because we did something wrong.

19:37These things happen to us, and happen to us, and sometimes they happen even for the better.

19:43And then once you understand that I knew that I need to really transform it into something more positive in your life, I'm not saying it's easy.

19:51If I had to move over, if I was standing at the front room with God, and he said,

19:55Hey, look, which lies to me for these things that we swear to say no?

20:00I'm saying no, thank you, and I'm glad to choose the other life, the one that has not looked at us, okay?

20:04But that's one, which is that trauma and grief is not based on something that we have done.

20:11Sometimes it happens to us, and then it's our decision, and on what to do with it.

20:15The second one, we just have to add, just choose a point.

20:18These tasks are not necessarily allowed to look at our Susan or his daughter.

20:22It's love.

20:24It's peace.

20:24You know, you lay down to support.

20:28You can go through life by aim and being fearful and having that even type thing.

20:34And in the last, and certainly not a case thing, is that for us to really live in our gym life, we have to be vulnerable enough to take risks.

20:42Even when you are not sure how the thing is going to be, or the thing is going to happen, but we've already faced terrible things.

20:52And so, why not just go for it? You know that that is what dispatch work means, even though I broke the move.

20:58I am also still learning many of the lessons that I have, so thank you for that.

21:04I think it ended up when I didn't mention the world, the word quality, but I was going to actually say, you know, I think what's so special about what this book to me is going to do for you,

21:14because it's necessarily important to love with women of your caliber, your accomplished music, you know, and then black women who have succeeded,

21:24they show us the other side of the direction of the group of the different ways, right?

21:29But understanding that you can kind of get into it, still stand up, still thrive, confused, that it creates, to help you choose to win in this moment.

21:40I think that's something really powerful about C.

21:42And thank you for sharing your vulnerability with us.

21:46I hope you can get to those on the previous workshop, which says, if you want to continue to do so, that's exactly.

21:55If you want to thrive in your career, keep you on to the new journey, the personal journey, and as much as you want to understand that life is still always happy.

22:05I hope to those moments where you can redefine your bad ass rate and get the urgent need.

22:11Thank you so much.

22:12Sister, how are you doing this book?

22:14Yes.

22:15Well, let's go on a pre-order now.

22:16Yes.

22:17Yes.

22:18And then you can buy them.

22:19And a pre-order is important.

22:21Let's not forget that.

22:22Yeah.

22:23Okay.