CEO Diaries: Bozoma Saint John on Growing Through Grief & Leading with Purpose

Bozoma Saint John’s story isn’t just about leading the world’s biggest brands - it’s about surviving unimaginable loss, breaking every “career rule,” and redefining what success really means. In today's episode of CEO Diaries, the former Netflix and Apple CMO reveals why she quit chasing work-life balance, why being selfish saved her, and how personal tragedy shaped her path to the top. Visit - ⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/DOAC⁠⁠ Listen to the full episode here - Spotify - ⁠https://g2ul0.app.link/yzrBsXpFsUb Apple - ⁠https://g2ul0.app.link/czJGDAsFsUb Watch The Diary of a CEO Episodes On YouTube - ⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Steven Bartlett?

  In today's Moments episode, we're featuring one of the most iconic brand builders of all time, the former CMO of Netflix and Chief Brand Officer of Uber, Bozoma St. John. Bozoma's perspective on marketing is fresh because it's not just about algorithms or trends, it's about something far more powerful. It's about curiosity. Curiosity about people, why they choose what they choose, what moves them, what scares them, and what makes them say yes. In B2B marketing, just like in life, we're not talking to businesses, we're talking to people. So if you want to understand the real edge behind influential marketing, this is the moment to listen in. Your first sort of real significant career move seemed to be this encounter with Spike Lee's agency. So for people that don't know, who is Spike Lee?

• 0:43Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 0:43Steven Bartlett?

  And how did that happen?

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Spike Lee is blackity, blackity, black, first of all.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  All the blackness. No, but he is a film director, really, at his core, filmmaker, let's call it that, because he certainly produces and does other things and writes. But he has an advertising agency in New York. When I was there, it was on Madison Avenue. So Madison Avenue is like the place for advertising in the world, right? It's the place where the show Mad Men was made from. So DDB is one of the biggest agencies, and Spike had a JV with them.

• 1:24Steven Bartlett?

  What brought you to New York in the first place?

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Curiosity. I graduated from Wesleyan University, which was in Milltown, Connecticut, and it was just time to apply to med school, and I really didn't want to. And New York was right there. It was like an hour and a half from school, and I really didn't have a plan. Yeah, I just, I just went, trying to escape what I thought was my destiny.

• 1:52Speaker 01

  And like many people say, I think sometimes in this business, I kind of fell into this. But I think my destiny actually came to find me. That's what it was. I opened up and allowed for something greater that I didn't even know was possible to find me instead.

• 2:08Steven Bartlett?

  So many people are in that chapter of their life where they're trying to find their destiny or trying to help, trying to figure out a way to let their destiny find them.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:18Steven Bartlett?

  When you look back and connect the dots as to how your career came to be and you think about that first moment where you, you know, you went to New York and then you're on Madison Avenue, you're working for Spike Lee and you find, you find your destiny or it finds you. If your, if your daughter comes to you and says, Mom, what advice have you got for me on finding my destiny? Like, what have I got to do to actively bring it about?

• 2:39Speaker 01

  Have you ever heard that statement like, let go and let God? Have you heard that before?

• 2:44Steven Bartlett?

  No.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  It's a very Christian thing. I feel like in the like black church, there's a lot of that, let go and let God. You know, as if God is just gonna just sprinkle magic dust over you, you know? And I'm like, no, I don't, I don't necessarily believe that just as a plain statement. I think the letting go is an action. You know, it's not surrender. It's not like you just lay down and it's gonna find you. You're not gonna find your destiny sitting on the couch. You know, the letting go for me is like the letting go of preconceived ideas about what it is that you are going to do.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  Letting go of, hmm, sometimes you're like trying to do something and keep hitting a wall. You know, you're just like, oh, if I just hit it one more time, it's gonna break.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Sometimes it's like, you know, that's a cement wall, right? If you just move five feet to the right, it's actually plaster and you're gonna go right through it. You know, it's like, sometimes it's the letting go of this thought that you had, which is like, oh, I'm going to do this thing right here. Is the magic. And I'll tell you this, look, it didn't just happen at that stage in my life. It's happening right now. Where, you know, I'm like, okay, well, I think I am done with my corporate CMO work. I believe I'm finished. So I'm going to let go.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  Let go of it. I'm not going to be actively looking for the next CMO job. I want whatever is coming for me to come. I'm gonna allow space for it. Now, it doesn't mean I'm just sitting around. I'm also, you know, trying to polish other skills. I'm trying to create, you know, because perhaps the next thing that's coming is somewhere more in that space. I can feel it, like in my spirit. And that understanding of like your intuition, and if you're listening to it, it's like a magnet, it's gonna just draw you closer to the thing that you're supposed to do.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  And it has happened every single time, like every time, without fail. Like every job, every move I've made, hasn't been because somebody said, oh, you know what? This makes logical sense. One plus one equals two. Sometimes I'm just like, mm, but it's not math, though. You know, it's physics. It's not, it's not the addition, it's the subtraction. I'm just gonna sit here, and I'm gonna get up, and I'm gonna go talk to this person, and I'm gonna talk to that person, and I'm gonna sit back down again. And I'm gonna write this thing out, and then, like magic, because I don't know how else to describe it, it's like the destiny appears. I'm telling you, every time it has happened, every single time.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Even when people were like, oh, that is never gonna happen. Like, you're wasting your time. I don't know why you'd go over there and do that. I'm like, mm, I don't know, something, something inside, I'm telling you, telling me that this is the way to go. I'm gonna go over there. Every time it's worked.

• 5:53Steven Bartlett?

  You worked at Endeavor, big company that owned like the UFC and WWE, etc.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 5:58Steven Bartlett?

  Um, Beats, Uber, Netflix.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Apple.

• 6:04Steven Bartlett?

  Apple.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. All the things.

• 6:09Steven Bartlett?

  It doesn't seem like there was a huge time for pause and for, you know, because you just seem to get right back at it all the time. I mean, that's what it appears when you look at the chronological nature of these events.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:25Steven Bartlett?

  How have all of these personal tragedies fed into your career? And what role has your career continued to play in dealing with these personal tragedies?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I think especially Peter's death

• 6:45Speaker 01

  made me impatient. Impatience is the wrong word, but it kind of feels like impatience with life.

• 6:52Steven Bartlett?

  Urgent?

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Yes, urgent, for sure.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  The urgent life. Because I just have a much better understanding of not wasting my time or my energy.

• 7:09Steven Bartlett?

  Well, I look at your story and I see someone who doesn't hang around if they don't like something.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:14Steven Bartlett?

  You know? And this kind of brings on another point because there's contradictory career advice often we get. It says, you know, you should stay somewhere long enough because if you leave too quickly, then people are going to look at your resume and think, why were you only there for two years? Or why were you only there for a little while? But then if, you know, so like, where do you sit on this? And when to know to quit? And also there's this overarching phrase, which is like quitting is for losers.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, gosh. Well, look, I get criticism of that all the time. Where people are just like, oh, well, she can't handle adversity. And I'm like, me? Are you out of your mind? It's like, if there was a poster child, it would be me. It would be me. You know, no, it's not that I can't handle adversity. I just put myself first.

• 7:57Steven Bartlett?

  Are you selfish?

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Yes, very much so. But that is not a bad thing. I am at the center of my life. No one is above me in my life. No one, not even my kid. And she knows that. And I tried to instill the same in her. No one should be above her in her life. Because the thing is that like, look, the life that you're living is yours. And I cannot be a great contributor to society. And this sounds a little like counterintuitive, but I can't be a great contributor to society. I can't be a good friend. I can't even be a good mom if I am not living the life that I want to live. If I'm not wholly happy in it. So absolutely, I'm selfish.

• 8:41Steven Bartlett?

  When you left U B, you're quoted as saying, you don't need to be the savior. I think when referencing the state of the company, because it was going through a very tumultuous time.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:47Steven Bartlett?

  You can save yourself too.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Yes, and save yourself first is what I should have said. You know, it's like, it's all of the ways in which we think about it now, right? You get on a plane, they're going through the safety demonstration. They tell you to put your mask on first before you help anybody else. Yes, and in your life too. Yes, save yourself first.

• 9:08Steven Bartlett?

  What was the career advice that you wish someone had given you? You know, like that young, spiky receptionist?

• 9:16Speaker 01

  Be selfish in your life, in your career. Think about yourself all of the time.

• 9:21Steven Bartlett?

  What does being selfish mean?

• 9:23Speaker 01

  Meaning that when you're in a situation that doesn't serve you, you think of yourself first. Oftentimes, we're in these situations that aren't serving us and we're thinking about how the other person's going to feel.

• 9:34Steven Bartlett?

  But that means that I have to be, it's the uncertainty that that creates that scares people, right? Like, well, I can, I've got this job and I quit it. Where am I going to go? And like, what am I going to do if I leave this relationship? What am I going to do? Where am I going to go?

• 9:46Speaker 01

  Well, but you should answer that. I'm not saying that you quit without the answer. I'm saying you quit. You know, it's like, if you keep putting it off, if you keep saying, well, I don't know what I'm going to do. So I'm just going to, then you're going to waste your life away. You're going to be so unhappy. You're going to have the Sunday scaries all the time. You're going to feel the ick when you're with that person. You are going to be unsatisfied with your life. And that is the scariest thing. I do not want to be on my deathbed, being unsatisfied with the life that I lived. I could go tomorrow and I would be so satisfied with this life.

• 10:22Steven Bartlett?

  Why?

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Because I've done the things I've wanted to do. Now, look, I have goals. It doesn't mean I don't have ambition. It's not like I don't want to do the next thing. I do want to go to Antarctica at some point. I have not been yet. You know? But if I went now. Oh, I've lived this life on my own terms. Like, there is nothing that I did where I feel like, oh, man. I should have made a different choice.

• 10:46Steven Bartlett?

  What are you good at? Like, when you, when you do the diagnosis of your skill set and what brought you here? Because you've had these incredible, incredible, incredible career.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:54Steven Bartlett?

  But, you know, we're, we're all bad at loads of stuff. And I think typically people are good at like a couple of things.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:00Steven Bartlett?

  But that's enough.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:01Steven Bartlett?

  What are you good at?

• 11:03Speaker 01

  I'm good at seeing the forest.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  The whole picture.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  And sometimes in a forest, you know that, like, oh, you have to clear this area in order to make space for the little village.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Because then those villagers can take care of the rest of this part of the forest that is, like, burning. You know what I'm saying? But sometimes people are only down at the trees and then they can't see the burning part. And they can't see that they should clear over there so that those people can get to the fire. I can see the forest. I can, I can see the whole thing. And I can see, like, okay, this needs to move there. It's helped me so much in my career, for sure. It's like the change maker.

• 11:43Steven Bartlett?

  And what, how, how does that make you a great marketer?

• 11:46Speaker 01

  Hmm. Because I never look at a problem just as the problem. You know, it's like, when I got to Uber, the problem was that there was a huge campaign that was like Delete Uber, right? People are like, oh, they're mad at the company because of lack of diversity in the C-suite and they treat women horribly and they're not paying the drivers and, oh, it's unsafe even to get in the car. And I went in and it's like, if I had just tried to, like, go after one thing, it would have been whack-a-mole.

• 12:13Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  You know, everywhere I do, okay, you pop this one down and this one pops up. You hit that one and that one pops up. But I can see the forest. I can say, ah, this is not an issue about whether or not Travis Kalanick hates women or hates black people. This is not about whether or not your driver's going to kidnap you. This is about trust. Do you trust the CEO of the company? Do you trust the driver when you get in the car?

• 12:40Speaker 01

  Do you trust anything about this whole situation? Self-driving cars, you trust any of it? If you don't trust it, nothing I do is going to make you like the company. I could fix the issue of like, hell, make half of the C-suite people of color and women. And you would still be like, yeah, but they're gonna kidnap me.

• 12:58Steven Bartlett?

  But the best people you've encountered in marketing, what do they have in common?

• 13:02Speaker 01

  They're great storytellers. They can make you believe anything. Those are great marketers. The ones who make you believe that you put on a pair of Nikes and somehow you're now LeBron James.

• 13:15Steven Bartlett?

  And how do they, what constitutes, what makes a great story?

• 13:20Speaker 01

  It's close enough to the truth.

• 13:23Steven Bartlett?

  For you to believe it?

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 13:24Steven Bartlett?

  Well, when I put on any pair of shoes, I'm no LeBron James.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  But you probably walk more confidently.

• 13:30Steven Bartlett?

  It's true.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  So maybe you weren't LeBron, but you're a better version of yourself.

• 13:37Steven Bartlett?

  If I, if I want to be a great marketer and I'm currently not, what would you, you know, if Leal comes to you and she goes, Mama, I want to work in marketing. What's the best, what do I need to do to become a great marketer? What would you say to Leal?

• 13:49Speaker 01

  Be more curious about people. Ask a lot of questions about people. Why do they do the things they do? Why they like the things? And ask, keep asking the questions. Like, you've got to be really curious about people in order to be a great marketer. Because you can't just rely on what you know and your experiences, even though I do say that you should be a focus group of one. It's like, if you like the thing, maybe somebody else will like the thing. If it makes you laugh, maybe somebody else will laugh. If it makes you scared, somebody else is gonna get scared. If somebody inspires, somebody else will be inspired. I believe that. But you also have to like, be really curious about why people choose the things that they choose. Why they like the things that they like. If you're not curious about people, you're gonna suck at this job.

• 14:27Steven Bartlett?

  What's the most important thing we've not talked about? And I really want to focus this a little bit more. There's gonna be so many young people, not so young people, that are listening to this conversation now. They look at your career and they go, I want to walk that path. You know, I want to get to, I want to be the CMO of the biggest companies in the world. CEO of this company. What's your parting words to those people?

• 14:48Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh, that's such a hard one. Because the thing is that there is no, there is no path. You know, if somebody tells you like, do these steps in order to get to where I've got, they're lying to you. You're not gonna get there based on the things I've done. The only way you're gonna get there is by listening to yourself, is by following your intuition, is by doing the things that you're really good at. And leave the rest of that stuff that you're not good at, that other people are trying to advise you, leave that alone. So there's any advice, get to know yourself better. That's it.

• 15:22Steven Bartlett?

  We often confuse aspiration with admiration. We can admire someone without aspiring to walk their path. And I think, I think, yeah, I remember reading a poem one day about like, the only great person you can be is the greatest version of yourself. It's super cliched, but it's so unbelievably true. Because I could not be Steve Jobs or Thomas Edison or Martin Luther King. It's not my greatness.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  No, exactly. Don't try to be me. Ever.

• 15:46Steven Bartlett?

  If this conversation today has challenged your assumptions in any way, that's probably a good thing, because that's where growth begins. And if you're ready to start reaching people in a way that actually connects, our sponsor LinkedIn is offering you a $100 ad credit. Head over to LinkedIn.com/diary to get started. That's LinkedIn.com/diary.