Joy as a Leadership Strategy with Bose Akadiri
Hey Well Woman!
We throw the word joy around a lot.
In wellness culture, in motivational content, in the kind of advice that sounds beautiful but doesn't always tell you what to do on a Tuesday morning when everything feels heavy and the revenue targets aren't moving.
So when Bose Akadiri, CEO of Goal and Grind LLC, author of The Stay Joyful Method, and self-described Joy Amplifier, came on The Well Woman Show, I wanted to go deeper than the surface.
Because Bose isn't talking about joy as a feeling. She's talking about it as a business strategy. A framework. A decision you make, especially as a woman building something, even when it isn't easy.
The Difference Between Happiness and Joy
Bose said something that stayed with me: happiness and joy are not the same thing.
Happiness is fleeting. It rises and falls with circumstance.
Joy, Bose argues, is something you choose, and more than that, something you can return to even in hard seasons.
She describes it as an operating system rather than a mood: something installed at the foundation of how you work, lead, spend, and build.
"When you're setting your goals from a place of joy and from a place of, oh, I'm excited to be doing this, then you are more likely to succeed in those goals. Because even in the hard times, you understand where they're taking you." - Bose Akadiri
For women in business, that distinction is everything. Because the hard times come regardless. The question is whether you've built on something solid enough to hold you when they do.
Happiness won't.
Joy, the practiced, chosen, intentional kind Bose describes, will.
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Self-trust is how we know and joy is one of the clearest signals self-trust sends. When you learn to distinguish between what looks good on paper and what actually aligns with who you are and what you're building, you stop making business decisions from fear and start making them from knowing. That's the foundation everything else gets built on.
The Two Tools at the Center of the Framework
Bose's work isn't abstract. It's a system, and it lives or dies by whether women actually use it in their real businesses and real careers.
At its core are two tools.
The first is the joy bubble, a practice of identifying and deliberately protecting the environments, relationships, and inputs that fuel your best work. For a woman in business, this means getting honest about not just what you're skilled at, but what you genuinely love doing, and building your offer, your team, and your schedule around the overlap.
The second is the accomplishments journal. Every Friday, Bose spends fifteen minutes with herself and her calendar, documenting what she did that week. She aggregates it monthly, quarterly, annually.
"At the end of the month, I aggregate it, at the end of the quarter, and at the end of the year, I do another aggregate. And I'm always surprised." - Bose Akadiri
When she said that, something clicked for me. Because inside the Well Woman Academy, I teach something very similar called the Impact File.
It's a living document where you collect all the evidence that your work has mattered; the emails from people telling you how you changed something for them, the handwritten notes, the performance reviews, the quiet moments of recognition you filed away and forgot about. Every accolade from every role. Every thank you that landed differently than the others.
Most of us have never been taught to keep something like this. We move from one role to the next, one project to the next, and we leave the evidence behind. And then we sit down to make a major career decision, pitch a new client, or negotiate a raise and we do it from memory, from feeling, from whatever confidence we can summon in the moment.
Bose's accomplishments journal and the Impact File are built on the same belief: that you need a record of what you've already done, so you can trust where you're going next. The evidence doesn't just build confidence. It builds the case for yourself, and for anyone you need to convince.
Together, these two tools answer the questions that quietly derail so many women building businesses: why am I doing this, and am I actually any good at it?
The joy bubble answers the first. The accomplishments journal proves the second.
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Ease is how we lead and these tools create ease not by making business simpler, but by making it clearer. When you know what fuels you and you have evidence of what you're capable of, decisions get easier. Offers get clearer. The work you say yes to stops draining you and starts building something.
The Business Case That Silences the Skeptics
Every time Bose walks into a boardroom or a leadership offsite, she meets some version of the same response: this sounds nice, but we live in the real world.
She's ready for it.
A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study of over 11,000 employees found that when people don’t experience joy at work, the risk of leaving rises sharply. Those who do feel joy are about 49% less likely to consider walking away. This isn’t just quiet disengagement; it’s a signal that people are already halfway out the door.
"This really is a financial and a retention issue when you look at companies. And I'm not talking about short-term; I'm talking about long-term." - Bose Akadiri
For women building teams and organizations, this isn't just a culture conversation. It's a financial one. The cost of replacing an employee consistently outweighs the cost of creating an environment worth staying in.
And that environment starts with leadership that is itself rooted in joy because you cannot model alignment you don't have.
When Bose works with leadership teams, her five-step alignment process starts not with goals or metrics, but with a single question: why did you want to do this work in the first place?
She takes teams back to before the friction set in, before the silos formed, and asks them to remember. That's not a soft exercise. That's a strategic reset.
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Impact is how we serve and when a woman builds her business from joy, the ripple goes further than she can see. The team she leads feels it. The clients she serves feel it. The community around her feels it. Joy in business isn't a personal indulgence. It's an act of service.
Joy as a Financial Compass
One of the most unexpected threads in our conversation was joy in finances and what it means specifically for women making business and career decisions.
Bose teaches that joy isn't just a career compass. It's a money compass. And for women who have been socialized to spend according to expectation rather than intention, that reframe is quietly revolutionary.
She shared her own story of moving from Oklahoma City to Chicago with no job and no network, guided entirely by the knowledge of what kind of work she wanted to do and what kind of life she wanted to build.
"I knew the job I wanted and I knew I was going to be spending money more in alignment with what brought me joy. It all worked out. Twelve years, here we are." - Bose Akadiri
She also reflected on what she would tell her younger self: to have been more intentional, more protective of how she spent, less governed by what the world said she should want
"I wish I had been more selfish with how I spent, so that it did align with my joy, instead of what the world was telling me I should do." - Bose Akadiri
For women building businesses, this lands differently. Because financial decisions (what to invest in, what to build, what to walk away from) are business decisions.
And joy, Bose argues, is one of the most reliable filters you have.
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Self-trust is how we know and nowhere is that more countercultural than in how women spend and invest. We are surrounded by messages telling us what success looks like financially. Bose is asking us to tune that out and ask a simpler, braver question: does this align with my joy? Practiced consistently, that question becomes one of the most powerful business tools you have.
What Her Mother Taught Her About Protecting Joy
The moment in our conversation that stayed with me longest came near the end, when Bose talked about her mother.
She described growing up with a mom who never questioned her ideas. Who always responded with curiosity, asking how rather than whether. A mom who, without naming it, was protecting something in her daughter that would take years to fully surface.
"My mom was very intentional about protecting my joy, and then also making sure that I had this understanding that I could do anything, really." - Bose Akadiri
Bose didn't have a name for what her mother was doing until much later. But she carried it. And when she finally named it — joy — she had the foundation for everything she's built since. The business, the framework, the book, the decision to leave corporate on her own terms.
It also raised a question I sat with long after the conversation ended: how many women are building businesses while simultaneously unprotecting their own joy; overriding it, deferring it, treating it as something they'll get back to once things settle down?
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Joy is how we sustain and this story is proof that joy, when it's protected and practiced, becomes the resource that makes everything else possible. It also raises a quiet question for every woman building something: who protected your joy? And are you protecting it now?
The Inner Mentor Every Woman in Business Already Has
We spend a lot of time on this show talking about the Well Woman Framework: ease, joy, impact, and self-trust. And when Bose and I got into the topic of mentorship, something clicked between us.
She believes in multiple mentors: different people for different kinds of wisdom, each relationship built on genuine reciprocity. She comes with specific questions, pays for lunch, and makes sure she's asking what the mentor needs from the relationship too.
But she also spoke to something that sits alongside external mentorship and is, for women in business, just as important: the inner knowing we carry and so often override.
"Your joy can guide you. Don't let anyone tell you any different, because you've had these experiences, you've had these great accomplishments." - Bose Akadiri
In the Well Woman Framework, I call this the inner Well Woman. The part of you that already knows. The part that gets quieter the more external noise fills the space.
For women building businesses, reconnecting to that voice isn't a luxury. It's a leadership practice. Because the decisions you need to make (about direction, about partnerships, about what to build next) often require a kind of knowing that no external mentor can give you.
Bose's accomplishments journal is, in part, a practice for staying connected to it. When you document your wins consistently, you make it harder to dismiss yourself.
You build an evidence base that your own inner knowing can point to when doubt shows up.
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Self-trust is how we know and for women in business, that inner knowing is one of the most underused strategic resources available. External mentors give us perspective. But the inner mentor we carry has context no one else has access to. When we learn to listen to both, we build from a place of fullness rather than fear.
Choosing Joy in the Hardest Seasons
We recorded this conversation during a particularly heavy moment in the world. And I asked Bose directly: how do you stay in your joy, and in your business, when everything around you feels hard?
Her answer was one of the most grounded things I heard in the whole conversation.
"Understanding my joy has given me more choice in how I live. It's given me more choice in how I move. And so during difficult times, I dig deep and I say, okay, if this is what I want to see in the world, what's one or two things that I can do?" - Bose Akadiri
That's what joy as a business strategy ultimately gives you.
Not a guarantee that things will be easy.
Not a shield against difficulty.
But a compass that holds steady when circumstances don't. A way of knowing, even in a hard season, what you're still here to build and why it still matters.
For women doing meaningful work in uncertain times, that's not a soft skill. That's everything.
✨ The Well Woman Principle: Joy is how we sustain. Not because it removes difficulty, but because it gives us something real to return to when difficulty arrives. The women who build things that last aren't the ones who never struggle. They're the ones who know how to find their footing again. Bose's work, at its deepest level, is teaching exactly that.
Below is the full transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
Meet Bose Akadiri: The “Joy Amplifier”
Giovanna Rossi: I'm speaking with Bose Akadiri today. I'm so excited to have you on the show, welcome!
Bose: Thank you, Giovanna! I'm really happy to be here. Appreciate your invitation.
Giovanna Rossi: Awesome. Well, let's get into it. There's so much that we're gonna talk about today, but I'd love to just start with, you sharing with listeners, who are you in the world today?
Bose: Oh, that's a great question. Who is Bose Akadiri in the world today? Well, first off, I'm the joy amplifier. And what I mean by that is I teach people and teams how to leverage joy as the greatest resource in their life. I'm the CEO of a company called Goal and Grind LLC, where we do motivational speaking, corporate training programs, and it's all rooted from a place of joy. I'm also the author of a newly released book called The Stay Joyful Method, and as you have heard, joy, joy, joy. Oh, yes, you have it right there, perfect!
Bose: And so, my big thing is really, I'm building the business case for joy. I have worked at 3 different Fortune 500 companies, and the thread to my success, not only there professionally but also personally, is really being able to tap into my own joy and leverage it as a resource and not just a fluff item. So, I am enjoying life doing research on joy, teaching people how to use it, and that's who I am.
Giovanna Rossi: Oh my gosh, I love it. Okay, we're gonna get into it, but I do love that you say you leverage joy and also that you're building the business case for joy. And so, that really takes it beyond just kind of like, oh, well, we just all want to really feel good all the time and everything, which is also fine and great, but you're taking it to this next level of, like, how can we use that in business and in corporate settings and in organizations? And so, yeah, talk a little bit about that process.
What It Means to Use Joy as a Strategy – the Business Case for Joy
Bose: So, that process really starts with I like to think of it as a decision. Not always an easy decision, because I know a lot of people out there might be skeptical to this idea. But when you think about it, when you equip women, men, anyone with a framework that changes how they perform and not just how they lead, they actually stay longer. So, the work that I'm doing is installing joy as an operating system.
Bose: And so, there's two key foundations to this framework. The first is a joy bubble, and that's what helps people to start to understand and identify and intentionally protect not only themselves, but the environments, the relationships, and the inputs that best fuel their work. So, understanding what type of work do I enjoy, what type of work do I not enjoy, and then coupled with what I call your accomplishments journal. So that creates a practice where you are very intentionally creating an evidence-based record of what have you done, what are those skills that you have?
Bose: So then together, that's when you start to step into your purpose of understanding, okay, this is the work I enjoy, this is the work that I'm skilled at, and how do I find the crossover in that Venn diagram? So, you think of it as the joy bubble reminds you why you're doing the work, and the accomplishments journal reminds you that you are doing the work, and you can build upon that success. So that's what I really mean when I'm building the business case for joy.
How the Joy Framework Evolves with You
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah. But are you mostly talking to people who are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives or are they, like, early career, mid-career, later in transition? Like, who is this for?
Bose: That's a good question. And it's really honestly, Giovanna, you might be one of the first people that's asked me this, so I really like it. It grows with you because we change as humans. And so, this framework also gives you the permission to grow and to reflect. And so, it's not something that you do once and, oh, I'm all set. Because the things that we are enjoying and the things that we have knowledge of, change as we grow.
Bose: So, the early career folks, it helps them more with shaping where they want their career to go, shaping how they're going to network. And then, as you get into mid-career and C-suite level, it really helps with being that leader that can lead by example, and help shape organizations into the type of organization where people want to stay. And we can get into some of the data on joy in the workplace a little later.
When Joy Feels Unrealistic: Responding to the Skeptics
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, I would love to do that. Okay, so, I'm very intrigued with this because I want to ask you, for those people who are listening who are like, that just sounds too Pollyanna, like I just don't see being happy all the time? Like, isn't this just kind of faking it? What do you say to that? How do you address the skeptics.
Bose: Well, I would say first off, happiness and joy, I think are two separate things. Happiness is more of that feeling and it's fleeting. Joy is something that you want to be choosing. And so, think of it this way, when you're setting your goals from a place of joy and from a place of, oh, I'm excited to be doing this, then you are more likely to succeed in those goals. Because even in the hard times, you understand where they're taking you. Rather than having goals that are not based in anything that you're excited about, that you understand its impact on those around you and the community impact that you can have, you're really more rooted and foundational. The other thing I would say is, let's talk about data.
Bose: The other thing I would say is, let's talk about data. Right? Let's not talk about the how. Let's switch the conversation to the data. So, for any skeptics I definitely suggest looking for example, BCG had a study where they studied, I think it was over 11,000 people in the workforce, and they found that 49% of people who were not finding joy at work were actively looking for outside of employment. And so, this really is a financial and a retention issue when you look at companies. And I'm not talking about short-term; I'm talking about long-term. Because when you start to have retention issues, you're looking at long-term spending.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, absolutely, yes. In some of my other work, I work a lot with companies and employers and how they can recruit and retain, you know, great people and the retention is really the hard part, and it costs companies a lot of money if they can't retain those employees. So, when you work with folks, do you work mostly with the employee or do you work with employers?
How to Align Your Teams Through Joy
Bose: I work with mainly employers. So, folks will bring me in to do, like, their offsides, to do fireside chats, things like that. But specifically, the leadership alignment workshop that I have, it's really great because oftentimes you'll see teams that are fragmented and they might be saying, this is what our team does, somebody else might be saying a completely different thing, and it's important for the teams to be aligned. And so, when I come in to do that, I do it in 5 steps. Essentially, the first step, of course, is rooted in joy. And I don't just walk in and say, let's have joy!
Bose: But the exercises that we do make space for people to remember, why did I want to do this work in the first place? It takes you back to that time when you were interviewing. So, if you think about it as a leader, when you are in that management position and you're interviewing folks. I know there were times when I interviewed folks for a role, and I thought to myself, it feels like I'm pulling teeth. They do not want to be in this interview. They do not want this job, but somebody told them that they should apply for it.
Bose: Whereas, on the other hand, when you're interviewing people, and you can tell not only do they have the skills, but they're excited about the role, that's the type of person you want in the seat. It's better for them, it's better for the team, and it's better for the broader organization. So, the first thing that I do when we go into these off-sites is really coming back to the core of the work. What is it doing for the community? What is it doing for the organization? What is it doing for the individual? And remembering that why. And then going from there and taking a step further and validating the team's history.
Bose: It's so easy for us to focus on the negative, and to say, we had a to-do list of 10 things, and there was one thing that didn't get done, and everybody's talking about that one thing. I take us back to the accomplishments, and let's talk about what we did get done, let's talk about the future opportunities, and what we can do. So that's the foundation for setting the team-level goals, setting the team-level vision, and being able, as a leader, to align the team on those things.
Reclaiming Joy During Difficult Times
Giovanna Rossi: Oh, I love it. I love it. Alright, and so, if you know anything, and for listeners who know the Well Woman Framework, we talk a lot about ease and joy, and so this is part of why I wanted to talk to you because it was so aligned in a lot of ways. And just sort of what you were saying, but also adding in the ease part, and it's not to say things have to be easy, it's not easy, but it's ease, right? You're in flow. You feel like you can breathe. It's not all, like, tense.
Giovanna Rossi: And then adding the joy, and those are two really important parts of this framework that I work with. And so, I'd love to know from you, like, what does some of the other data say on joy? You talked about that one study, but what other research have you found that really shows that we should be paying attention to this?
Bose: So, there's a lot of other research out there and I would say the biggest thing that stood out to me is that it's not linear. It's not like, I have to have joy every day, I have to have joy every moment. But there's actual research that's found that you can reclaim your joy. And that will support you in future endeavors, not only with the community that you're building, but also with your own personal satisfaction.
Bose: And I think that's a really important thing to remember, because we're all going to have ups, downs, you know, all the way around, but to remember that at any moment, you can reclaim that joy. And so, one of the ways that I focus on that is that joy bubble tool, because it's literally about journaling what brings you joy. So, when you have those difficult times, you can go back to that and take something out of that joy bubble and do it for yourself, rather than staying in the rut. So that's how joy becomes a tool, also individually.
Joy Across Work, Life, and Money
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, and so, when you lead people through this in a team, like at work, are you connecting them to the joy they have at work, or does it also get personal? Like, what in your personal life brings you joy?
Bose: Both. So, it depends on what the teams brought me in for, of course. I want to focus and honor what their greatest need is, but I do have a module that is really focused on goal setting from a place of joy. And that we look at four key areas of life. Personal, professional, health, and financial. And people are always very skeptical, like, how can you have joy in your financial life? And that looks like spending your money according to your joy.
Bose: You know, oftentimes, people think finance and professional is the same, but you might have certain money goals, but then be moving differently in your career, but they need to align. So, it is both professional and outside of work, but outside of work, it's not one bucket. It's how are you taking care of and supporting your health. It's how are you paying attention to your finances from a point of using joy as your decision maker. You know, for example with me, I moved from Oklahoma City to Chicago. I had no job and no network, but I knew the job I wanted and I knew I was going to be spending money more in alignment with what brought me joy. It all worked out. 12 years, here we are.
Giovanna Rossi: Oh, wow, you've been there for 12 years. And when did you start your business doing this?
From Corporate Life to Entrepreneurship
Bose: So, I started my business 6 years ago, and I ran it alongside my corporate career until about a year ago.
Giovanna Rossi: Oh wow.
Bose: Yes, yes, so it's exciting. I, what do you call it, retired, if you will, from corporate America in 2025, and the big thing about my business is, just like myself, I believe in continual growth. And from the beginning, I have always surveyed every single client, whether it was an individual or a group, in order to understand where are we growing, how can I make improvements. So, one great example is I have a module on networking from a place of joy, and I recently spoke on it at a SHRM conference, and I got the feedback that someone wanted to know how could we incorporate AI into our networking?
Bose: So, I went back and I thought about my own practices, and then the next month, I was speaking at another global conference at ATD, Association for Talent Development, and I incorporated that. So those folks got an up-leveled version. Thanks to someone's generous time in actually filling out the survey and telling me what they wanted to learn more of.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, that's good. So, you're learning the whole time and growing. And so, you started your business, you retired from corporate, and you're doing your business full-time now for a year. And, I think that's great, and for listeners, you know, to just think about what are you doing in your life and how would you like to make that big shift? Because, that's what you've done here, and I want to ask sort of, how that happened, how were you able to manage that? But also, where did you come from? Like, what was your corporate background?
Bose: Oh, okay, yes. So, I worked at Boeing Salesforce, and then JP Morgan. And at all places, I did corporate social responsibility, which is essentially the corporate philanthropy arm.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah.
Bose: I loved that role. That's the other thing that I think is important for people to start to understand. You can have more than one role that you really love. And they can support each other. So, whenever I left JP Morgan last year, I was very fortunate. I got to leave from a place of, I've done work that I really enjoyed and it was very strategic work, it was very integrated with different business units, which gave me an opportunity to learn from different areas of each company that I worked at, and I know that those shape also how I do my work now.
Bose: But how it happened was, I kept learning and growing and essentially, when I first started my business, it was because people kept saying, how did this girl from Oklahoma show up and end up at all these companies?
Bose: And the truth of the matter was, I was following my joy. I knew exactly what type of work I did, and I never sought out a specific company. I sought out the type of team I wanted to be on. I sought out the type of work I wanted to be doing. And to be transparent, I also needed to make sure that they had the right finances in place to be able to bring me there. So, my work in corporate was very intentional and when I had the opportunity to start sharing how I let joy lead my life and be my decision-making compass, it was a natural progression. I always knew I wanted to have my own business, but this helped shape what that business would look like.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, did you have a mentor? We're just about to air a show all about mentorship, so it's on my mind. Did you have a mentor? And also, parallel question, how did you have that confidence to just say, I'm gonna be really intentional about this, I'm seeking out what I want, I'm not just gonna say yes to the first offer?
Leading Your Career with Joy and Intention
Bose: Yeah, so that's really a hard thing to do, and I want to say that before I say anything else, because I have said those no's before. So, one no that I said no to, when I was at Boeing, someone had approached me and said, you know, I want to recommend you for this role, and I did two interviews, and I thought, I really respect this person. I respect their team, but I'm not right for this. This is not where I see my career going. So, I just called them and I had a really open, honest conversation, and said, look, I would love to come on your team, but I don't think it's the right fit, and I don't want to do that to you and your team. And I actually, I gave her a recommendation of somebody else, and she ended up interviewing them and it was a great situation. But I think you need to, not I think, I know, you need to know yourself well enough to be steering your career. No one else is going to steer your career but you. So now, on to mentors. You asked about mentors. Yes.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah.
Mentorship and Reciprocal Growth
Bose: I believe in having multiple mentors, for a couple of reasons. First off, people have different expertise. And then the other reason is you don't want to burn your mentors out. And as you're having conversations with them, you need to be able to decipher who you go to for what. Everyone works differently. They have different points of view. So, for instance, I have a mentor who, he is not at all in the same industry as me. However, he is an amazing businessman.
Bose: And I remember when we first met, we connected on LinkedIn, and I could see his business acumen. And so, I just sent him a message and I said, look, we met, like, 6 months ago, I've seen what you're doing, I am in business for myself, and I still have my corporate job. Can I take you to lunch and pick your brain?
Bose: And I'm also a big believer in reciprocal relationships. So, I've always, I pay for lunch with my mentors and I make sure that I'm asking them what they need from the relationship. I'm honoring their time by coming with very specific questions. And yeah, I build that relationship. I want to contribute to them as much as I am grateful for them contributing to my success. You know.
The Inner Mentor: Building Self-Trust Through Joyful Reflection
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, okay, and then while we're on this topic, so mentors that we're talking about are sort of external, right? They're actual, real people that we, like, go and talk to. But there's also, in my framework, in my work, there's this idea that, like, we have this inner mentor, and actually, Tara Mohr has talked a lot about this in her book, Playing Big, but for the Well Woman framework, I talk about the inner well woman, right? That inner knowing that you have, that inner confidence and tapping into that. And I work with a lot of women leaders who are very disconnected from that part of themselves. And so, we reconnect to that, and I find that I'm more encouraging women and supporting women to talk to that part of themselves more. I mean, not that you don't need those other mentors, because of course you do. You need the knowledge and the skill and the information, the resources, but a lot of those questions you can answer yourself.
Bose: Exactly. And I love that you said your inner mentor, because we often forget everything we know. We've had so many experiences and it's easy to forget. One thing that I really like to help jog the memory, as we were talking about earlier, is that accomplishments journal, and taking that practice. So, the way that I do it is every Friday, I have a 15-minute appointment with myself and my calendar.
Bose: And that's my time to sit and reflect. And be my own cheerleader. And remember, what have I done this week? And I'm always surprised. At the end of the month, I aggregate it, at the end of the quarter, and at the end of the year, I do another aggregate. And I'm like, well, I'll just tell you, in my book, I say, you need to be able to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say, you go, girl! Like, you need to give yourself a couple you-go girls every morning! But it becomes easier, like you said, that practice, especially us as women, we're not always taught to be our own mentor. And I appreciate you bringing that up. I love that. I'm so glad we're having this conversation.
Giovanna Rossi: Me too! I really love it. I love it. Yeah, I mean, we're socialized as women to not trust ourselves, to not trust our own thinking, our own knowledge, and so, it's really important to have these spaces where we can have these conversations and reinforce that, you know, we do know. We have a lot of wisdom, and we carry that through generations, too, and we can tap into that.
Bose: Right, and like you were saying, the ease of it. When you tap into that, you have more ease. And so that's a lot of the work that I do with women leaders, is your joy can guide you. Don't let anyone tell you any different, because you've had these experiences, you've had these great accomplishments. And like you said, let's go with ease and not friction.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, I'm speaking with Bose Akadiri on the Well Woman Show, and we're gonna take a quick break, and we'll be right back.
Superpowers for Success
Giovanna Rossi: We're back on the Well Woman Show with Bose Akadiri, and we're going into the segment called Superpowers for Success, where we get to ask you a quick round of questions where listeners can get to know you a little better. And hopefully glean some more information and wisdom from you. So, Bose, I want to ask you, what does success in life mean for you?
Bose: Success in life means to me that I'm living in a way that I can be proud, my future self will be proud.
Giovanna Rossi: Do you connect with your future selves a lot?
Bose: I do! So, I journal a lot and just like I was talking about journaling about joy, and journaling about my accomplishments, and then I go back and I read it. And I can see where I came from versus where I am now. And I can honestly say I'm feeling really proud. It brings me a great amount of joy and pride, and being proud of myself means being proud of my community, because goal crushing is a team sport, and I can see where so many people along the way are the reason I'm where I'm at right now.
Giovanna Rossi: I love that. And when did you know you were really good at what you do?
Bose: I knew it because, Giovanna, there's many things coming to my brain right now. How did I know? You know, I wish I could sit here and tell you that my inner mentor told me, but it was really… there were folks saying. When I would talk about things, and it would seem very simple to me, or it would seem like knowledge everybody had, and I would see the look on people's faces like an aha moment.
Bose: Those are the times that I knew. And that's why, in my book, I interviewed and I did case studies from former clients. And my big question to them was, where were you before we worked together? What was the aha moment, and where are you now?
And when I heard those aha moments, that's part of what started making my decision to do this full-time, because it's not even about me, it's about creating more opportunities for those aha moments for others.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, love that. And can you describe a personal habit that contributes to your well-being so that you can do everything you do in the world?
Bose: Oh, I'm a runner! So, I'm like a 5.30, 6 a.m. runner, but recently, I missed my morning run, and I actually did a sunset run, and that was very relaxing, and I was ready for bed. I'm really into all of my fitness and woo-woo, like, I love acupuncture, it's very helpful to kind of, like, calm the nervous system, and it's also one of the best naps you'll ever have. I don't know if you've done acupuncture.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, I have, yeah.
Bose: It's like, whoa, oh my goodness! And so, acupuncture, running, I do a lot of yoga, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say I love my ginger shots.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah.
Bose: Yes, ginger.
Giovanna Rossi: And I do a ginger and turmeric and, like, a tea, so yeah, I'm right there with you.
Bose: Night.
Giovanna Rossi: So, what superpower did you discover you had only to realize it was there all the time?
Bose: The superpower I discovered, it was really the joy factor, because it came from my mom. And it's something I realized was the energy that surrounds me, and it was the reason people were starting to kind of, like, gravitate towards me and look to me for different advice, and I never really understood it until I talked more about it. And so, the superpower was a joy, but then the amplifier for it was me being comfortable with it.
Giovanna Rossi: Oh, I love that. So, wait, why were you not comfortable with it before?
Bose: I think I just had no idea. I thought everybody was living like that. And so, I guess it was more the comfort in naming it, because I thought, everybody's living like this. But I now realize, as a child, my mom was very intentional about protecting my joy, and then also making sure that I had this understanding that I could do anything, really. Like, she never questioned ideas that I had. She was just very, like, oh, that's interesting, like, how are you gonna do it? And I know because you do some coaching, you know, essentially she was a natural coach. She would always ask, how? How will you do that? What will it take to get there?
Bose: And so, I just had this curiosity that was cultivated within from a young age, and that's that superpower that I am so grateful for it.
Giovanna Rossi: I love it, and what came to mind when you were talking, I don't know how this is super related, but, just being able to connect to that joy in these really difficult times that we're living in, for people listening, we're in the United States of America, like, you might be in a different country, or a different culture. But things are pretty tense here, and I think it can be really hard for people to stay in their joy. And the fact that your mom protected that, that's what… I think that's what got me. It was like, your mom protected that for you.
Bose: She really did, and you know, it's one of those things, and you're right, I had to just… It gave me a chuckle when you said the United States, because we are! We're struggling. We're struggling as a nation. Or at least that's my thoughts on things. And it can be very hard, and so for me, it's been so important to know there's this struggle, and I can also be a part of it, but I can choose how I'm a part of it.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah.
Bose: Right, and I think that understanding my joy has given me more choice in how I live. It's given me more choice in how I move, and so during difficult times. I dig deep and I say, okay, if this is what I want to see in the world, what's one or two things that I can do? Yeah, I mean, I'm hurting, too.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, yeah, and that's just so intentional and proactive and admirable, because, the other way to do it is to get totally overwhelmed, have a kind of a breakdown, right? Which a lot of people are doing as well. So, I like that you're providing this other way and these tools that are so important.
And so, last couple questions for you. What advice would you give your younger self, younger Bose, like, early career? I don't know how old you are, but like, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago.
Bose: So, I'm in my 40s, so, you know, 10, 15 years ago, I think I would have told myself to go for it sooner. I left Oklahoma just before my 40th birthday. But if I'm being honest, I wanted to leave long before that. I just didn't know what to do, right? And understanding that joy in finances is the biggest piece that helped me. So, I would have had my younger self understand that I get to choose how I spend money, and do it according to joy, right? I don't know about you, but I was in a sorority, so when I graduated, there was a lot of money being spent on sorority sisters' weddings and all of this when I could have been spending money on my joy.
Giovanna Rossi: Hmm…
Bose: I think that, as a younger person, I wish I knew, the word selfish is what I use sometimes. I wish I had been more selfish with how I spent, so that it did align with my joy, instead of what the world was telling me I should do.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah. Oh, you're speaking my language. I have a whole thing on being selfish. Oh, really!
Bose: Really? See, this is why we were meant to have this conversation. It's like, everything sparks something, and I'm like, can we just keep talking?
Giovanna Rossi: I know, I don't want it to end. And actually, when your folks reached out to me, I get so many, this is kind of a tangent, but I get so many pitches that I can't actually even read them all, but yours stood out, and we're figuring out why, because we were meant to talk to each other. So, okay, last couple questions. Do you identify as a feminist?
Bose: I do!
Giovanna Rossi: What does that mean for you and your life and your work.
Bose: So, what that means for me is I want women to have what men have just treat me exactly like you would a man, and it's all good.
Giovanna Rossi: It seems so simple, right?
Bose: It seems simple! And, you know, that's all I want.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, yep, I hear that. And then last question for you, Bose, what are you reading right now? What's on your nightstand?
Bose: Oh, okay, so this takes me back, but I'm rereading. I read a lot, so I'm technically reading, like, 3 things right now. But I'm reading this book about the Disney principles. Because it teaches a lot about hospitality and being welcoming, and I had read this at a job that I had in Oklahoma City. I actually worked at my church in Oklahoma City, and I was the director of welcoming Ministries. And my pastor was big on creating a welcoming environment. And so, as I'm growing my business, I'm actually going back to the roots of business that I learned from working at a church, which seems like an oxymoron, but my church was very fiscally responsible, so I learned a lot about finances there. I learned a lot about being imaginative there, and being creative, and taking feedback. So, I'm going back to that book. I've also gone back to the Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz.
Giovanna Rossi: I have that on my nightstand.
Bose: I read it at least once a year, I can't get enough of it. And then, I'm reading a fictional book by a Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi, yes, and it's all about her life, and for me, as half-first-generation Nigerian, I love reading from my culture.
Giovanna Rossi: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, we'll put links to those books in the show notes, because listeners always love to know what our guests are reading. And so, we'll do that, and Bose, it's been such a pleasure having you on the show today.
Bose: This was wonderful, Giovanna. Thank you so much for reading what my folks sent over and inviting me to be on the show with you.
Giovanna Rossi: Aww, I've loved it. Thank you so much.
