Marketing guru Bozoma Saint John has made her mark, made money for several companies — PepsiCo, Beats, Apple, Uber — and is currently CMO at global media conglomerate Endeavor.
She tried briefly to help Papa John’s revamp its tarnished image after its CEO made a racial slur. She’s become somewhat of a corporate star whose personal brand exceeds her. Now she will host and produce a new documentary series about her life for Starz entitled “Bozoma: Being Badass.”
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Alex Lowry, producer of “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” will executive-produce with Saint John.
The new show will be a cross between “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” “Mister Rogers,” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” according to Saint John.
The series will bring a sense of “purposefulness” to a range of subjects meaningful to her — from her love of fashion to being a single working mother to being a widow, she told Fast Company It will follow her personal and professional life, and she’ll also interview others based on the theme for each episode.
“For instance, after discussing the ‘life-altering’ experience of losing her husband (he lost his battle with cancer five years ago), she’ll talk to others who have been through a similar experience…” Fast Company reported.
The show’s message will be to encourage viewers “to show up wholly as ourselves,” said Saint John. “Especially for anyone who feels ‘other-ed’ and that you don’t have the allowance to be fully yourself. I’ve had a lot of great feedback from different types of people who have said they appreciate that I’m able to be exactly who I am in all these spaces, even if I’m the one and only.”
Saint John said her own otherness comes from being “the multi-hyphenate that I am. Being Black, being the child of immigrants (her parents came to the U.S. from Ghana), being a widow, a mother. All of those things that make up who I am. That’s what’s so beautiful about the human experience. None of us are one-dimensional.”
But there’s more to the show. Saint John plans to explore topics she finds interesting, including flying vehicles, which she first encountered during her stint at Uber, professional bull-riding (Endeavor owns the Professional Bull Riders league), and fashion.
“I love fashion, I can’t lie about that,” Saint John said. “Interestingly enough, it has been a really big conversation as part of my corporate journey, too. The fact that I’m able to show up in sequins on Tuesday – people have a lot of questions about that. I want to explore the non-boundaries of what it means to look like a corporate executive in a way that is not traditional. How do other people do it? In other spaces, other industries? How do you express the fullness of yourself unapologetically through fashion?”
Chris Albrecht, president and CEO of Starz, said, “There is so much more to Bozoma than what you have read in the headlines. Boz is an incredibly dynamic woman with an undeniable spirit that she infuses into every aspect of her life. She brings a wholly new perspective to television.”
“Bozoma: Being Badass” is slated to begin filming in early 2019.
🥰😫😱🤯😁… and all the feels! YES!! Thank you!! https://t.co/E69Azlp092
— Bozoma Saint John (@badassboz) December 18, 2018
