My research on Bozoma St John allowed me to arrive at the conclusion that she was the definition of unapologetic. As a former Women’s Issues editor, I was fully aware of her bold career moves from being Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix, Chief Brand Officer at Uber, Head of Global Marketing for Beats by Dre, Apple Music and iTunes, Head of Music and Entertainment Marketing at Pepsi, Billboard’s Female Executive of the Year and if you are gagging at these accolades you will arrive at complete asphyxiation to learn Bozoma St. John —a beautiful brown-skinned babygirl born in Middletown, Connecticut that moved to Africa at 6 months old and lived in Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya until age 12 yrs old then moved back to the states via Colorado Springs, Colorado — was inducted into the American Marketing Hall of Fame.
Bozoma’s career trajectory reveals a woman thoroughly convinced of her own value in comparison with the companies vying to hire her. She accepted their offers, applied her magic and then made moves based on her personal and professional goals as opposed to feeling grateful for the opportunity to hold such an esteemed position in someone else’s company. While many corporate executives dream of just getting to the top of the glass ceiling, Bozoma was breaking ceilings and eagerly anticipating “next”.
I marveled over this pattern as I accepted the invite to attend her ‘Badass Workshop’ Atlanta stop. As an editor In a city muddled with social media hype, my inbox is inundated with invitations to workshops, seminars and conferences. In 2025, anyone with an IG moniker feels entitled to speak with authority without qualifications or credentials and feel entitled to charge others to listen. Even knowing Bozoma’s background, my cynical nature prepared for the regurgitation of empty affirmations and fear driven warnings curated to incite an emotional response to purchase something being sold ad naseum. I hoped against but assumed I was in for the all too familiar song and dance, but for the first time in a long time I was pleasantly surprised.
With Bozoma being a newly inducted card carrying member of the Bravo universe, I assumed a few Atlanta housewives or other Bravo reality stars would be in the building to show solidarity. Instead of reality stars, I was greeted by a large group of professional women. Most of them were clad in their slacks, skirts and heels an obvious sign that they came directly from work. Many carried notepads and laptop bags leaving an even larger impression that they were in line hoping for virtual mentorship. I entered the room and Bozoma was getting mic’d for our interview. She greeted me with a warm smile and I immediately complimented her rockstar outfit. Her modelesque frame was clad in a gauzy halter minidress complete with a pair of white boots encircled in feathers. Her hair was her most eccentric accessory teased into a voluminous kinky Afro. Absolutely. Unapologetically. Black.
“You look amazing. We should’ve known you were going to bring it,” I said shaking her hand and attempting to make an amicable joke. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” She questioned humored by my basic compliment. I laughed and reminded myself of her unapologetic nature. As we transferred from the private interview into the hotel ballroom for the workshop, I noticed the room was full of millennials and Gen Zers. Bozoma entered with a burst of electricity, dancing down the aisle high, fiving the room of corporate baddies to the tune of one of Atlanta’s signature anthems, DJ Unk’s Walk it Out’. She embraced the crowd, and then shocked the ladies by redefining their understanding of what it truly means to be unapologetic. For women often encouraged to think of others before themselves and to play nice when given an opportunity, Bozoma encouraged us to normalize being selfish. “You – a lot of ppl think they are unapologetic but they aren’t. If you don’t put yourself first in your life, then you are in essence apologizing for being in your life. In my life – I am first. My sisters and mother know it. My daughter knows it. And I hope it inspires her to put herself first in her life. Alot of us are walking around the consequence of someone’s unfulfilled life. It’s not easy to put yourself first, but if you don’t you risk not reaching your destiny,” Bozoma delivered matter-of-factly.
In all my years attending female empowerment workshops and self help seminars I’ve never heard a woman co-sign women prioritizing their dreams and well being. Women are never encouraged to be selfish. Contrarily most women consider the word “selfish” to be a negative characteristic. For the Badass Workshop, Bozoma challenged us to consider being selfish when necessary.
“Because I am the most important person in my life, I am the only council I seek,” she insisted.
She warned against comparing oneself to another in any circumstances. “I don’t ask anyone for their opinion on anything in my life. The people that love you the most are going to give you the worst advice. They are usually giving you advice based on their fear. That means the people that love you are usually going to give you the worst advice,” she finished matter-of-factly.
For an audience filled with mostly millennial African American women this sentiment was not difficult to digest but for a Gen Zer alpha female like myself, this philosophy was foreign. I was raised to go above and beyond for everyone else but not to expect the same in return. As an entrepreneur of 20 years, I can admit Bozoma’s unorthodox methods could’ve saved me numerous sleepless nights, money spent on Excedrin for migraines, my edges and the coins I spent on Miracle drops to regrow them numerous times over.
Another tip Bozoma dropped was empowering women to trust their intuition above all else. “Logic is not your best friend, intuition is your best friend,” she warned her captive audience. For working women who are often criticized for not thinking logically to learn that their intuition is their super power was met with shock and relief.
A room filled with hard-working corporate women is not an environment one would imagine for a reality star. Bozoma is not only a former corporate big wig, but she is currently a principal character on a reality show titled ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’. The worlds of white superficial stepford wives and wealthy overachieving Black girl magic rarely if ever collide, so why would our heroine sign up to go on TV and potentially fight with wealthy white women? “Because why not?” she laughed, addressing the fabulously dressed elephant in the room. “Maybe they need some more corporate baddies on the Real Housewives,” she mused.
Bozoma ended her high energy workshop with a champagne toast uniting the ladies in sisterhood with a goal of personal success. Copied of her book, ‘The Urgent Life: My story of Love, Loss and Survival’ sold out although she didn’t make one plea for sales or patronage. Bozoma’s real time example doing the work she was encouraging others to do, connected with every woman in the room. Immediately after leaving the workshop I called my daughter and friends eager to share the nuggets gleaned from Bozoma’s speech. The Badass workshop is an annual movement Bozoma takes globally uniting women across the country in a united pursuit of personal satisfaction. It’s my hope that women watching Bozoma on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ will tap in for more than her fabulous wardrobe and eye-catching hair extensions from her company Eve by Boz. I hope women will follow her story and find the closest badass workshop near them and drag their sisters, friends, aunts and even mothers to an opportunity to un-learn what often keeps women stagnant in their careers and their lives. Bozoma has had a legendary career but I believe her biggest accomplishment could be birthing a nation of unapologetic women who refuse to shrink or submit to anything that doesn’t serve them. I envision it being like Wonder woman’s mythical land of Themyscira, home of the Amazon’s, the female warriors. I pray Bozoma continues building a nation of badass women.
Photography: DaeRae Media / Badass Workshop