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

Jun 25, 2025 17m 4s 11 insights
This episode features Bosma St. John, former CMO of Netflix and Chief Brand Officer of Uber, discussing how curiosity about people is key to influential marketing. She also shares profound insights on finding one's destiny, prioritizing self, and navigating career paths by trusting intuition.
Actionable Insights

1. Prioritize Yourself Ruthlessly

Put yourself at the center of your life, as you cannot be a great contributor to society or a good friend/parent if you are not wholly happy and living the life you want.

2. Save Yourself First

In any challenging situation, prioritize your own well-being and needs, similar to putting on your oxygen mask before helping others.

3. Act on Unserving Situations

If a situation doesn’t serve you, don’t delay leaving it by waiting for a perfect answer; staying in unhappiness is the scariest outcome.

4. Release Preconceived Notions

Let go of fixed ideas about what you’re supposed to do or how things should happen, as this creates space for new possibilities to emerge.

5. Trust Intuition, Create Space

Listen to your intuition as it acts like a magnet, drawing you towards your purpose, and actively create space by polishing other skills for what’s coming next.

6. Live with Urgency

Embrace an urgent approach to life, understanding the value of time and energy to avoid wasting them on things that don’t serve you.

7. Know Your Strengths, Follow Intuition

Understand what you’re truly good at, follow your intuition, and focus on developing those strengths, rather than trying to emulate others’ paths.

8. See the Whole Picture

Develop the ability to see the ‘forest’ instead of just the ’trees’ to identify overarching issues and strategic solutions, like addressing trust instead of individual complaints.

9. Cultivate Curiosity About People

Be deeply curious about why people do and like what they do, asking many questions to understand human behavior beyond your own experiences.

10. Be a Focus Group of One

Use your own reactions and preferences as a gauge; if something makes you laugh, scared, or inspired, it’s likely to evoke similar responses in others.

11. Be a Great Storyteller

Master the art of storytelling by crafting narratives that are ‘close enough to the truth’ to make people believe and feel more confident.