Balancing Career and Personal Life: Insights with Dr. Nsenga Burton

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A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton.

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What do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good afternoon

and welcome to Need to Know with Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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I am she.

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I hope that you are

having a wonderful day.

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Just a couple of reminders up front.

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Today is National Voter Registration Date.

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So if you have not registered to

vote for the upcoming election, I

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encourage you to go to IWillVote.

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com.

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If you live in the state of Georgia

where I live, you can go to the Georgia

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My Voter um, It's a long acronym,

but if you Google Georgia, my voter.

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It'll come up and you put your

information and it'll give

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you your voter registration.

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You can also go on the Burton

Wire for that information as well.

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So today is National

Voter Registration Day.

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And then the other thing that's

really important to us, especially

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with our producer Adrian, is that

he is back from his book tour.

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So we want to say

congratulations on your book.

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It is an autobiography.

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About his life and times and his journey.

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Um, not only as a Boricua, as we

celebrate Latino Heritage Month,

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um, but also, um, as an actor.

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So I encourage you to pick up

Adrian Alvarado's book, um,

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at your earliest convenience.

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It's a great read.

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And then last, my last update, um,

is it's National Black Theater Day.

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That's also important to Adrian.

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Um, and to me, I serve on the board

of the Craft Institute and we are

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committed to all things equity.

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Um, as it relates to the black theater.

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So support your black theaters, your

local black theater, um, support your,

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uh, theater departments in general,

black theater departments specifically.

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Um, especially if you're at HBCUs

or you have HBCUs in your town,

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uh, today's a great day to support

them in many ways, buy some

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tickets, donations, what have you.

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So anyway, that's my spiel on that.

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But today what I want to talk about

is, Um, is the workplace and I want

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to talk about, um, making sure that

you are taking time to, to ensure

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that you are well mentally, right?

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Mental health awareness month, that

you are well mentally, um, and that

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you understand that if you do not Then

you must mind your business sometimes,

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um, such that when you decide to leave,

or if you unfortunately leave, uh,

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because the Lord calls you home or with

whomever you, uh, worship or not, even

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if you don't worship anybody, anything.

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Any deity, um that you have definitely

making made sure that you have spent the

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appropriate amount of time Um with your

family now, of course that depends on who

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you are how you define family Um, I know

we have to work in the united states like

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crazy because things are so expensive

here Um, so there is there is no siesta

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May we please have a siesta in the united

states Um, there is no real time off

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where it's like, oh, you know, everybody's

gone for six weeks because it's the

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holidays, so nobody's working right now.

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That does not exist in the United States.

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And so many times people

work, work, work, work, work.

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And I started thinking about this

particularly this week 'cause we've

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lost so many fantastic people.

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You know, whether it's Frankie Beverly.

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Whether it's Tito Jackson, I mean, hell,

over the last month, I mean, it's just

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been a lot of folks, James Earl Jones,

Erica Asher, rest in peace, fantastic

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actress who has gone under reported, whose

loss has gone under reported, young woman.

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And, you know, You know, just it

seems like every other day, there's

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just someone else who was leaving us.

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And when we think about entertainment,

we don't really think about

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entertainment as a business.

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And I have taught the business of

entertainment for over 20 years.

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Right?

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So most recently at Emory University,

when I was a professor there,

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I've since retired as a professor,

but that was one of the classes.

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And I don't think that people

understand, um, in entertainment.

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And I'm sure Adrian can co sign on this.

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That it is actually a business.

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It's a bottom line.

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So when you're outside of

the industry, that's why it's

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called the industry, right?

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The Hollywood film industry, the

music production industry, right?

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The theater industry, when we

think about, um, these things,

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because they bring so much pleasure

to us and they do entertain us.

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are consumers of it.

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We don't think about the fact, um, and

this is not everyone, of course, but

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many people don't think about the fact

that the bottom line is revenue and

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that these are actual businesses and

functioning businesses that require a lot

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of This is why we have strikes, right?

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Um, this is how I have

people walking off the job.

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This is why you have tell alls.

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This is why we have books like Adrian.

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They're like, listen,

this is what can happen.

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Um, you know, when we are trying

to, um, create these, This content,

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this art, in many cases, I'm wearing

Steve Allen's shirt right now.

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Um, world known artist.

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Uh, sometimes we have to work

way, way, way past, uh, what is

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considered reasonable and also which

is above what the law, uh, entails.

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So I just wanted to say today.

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Particularly because we've lost

so many greats who have really

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sacrificed so much of their lives.

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They've sacrificed time

with their families.

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They've sacrificed a lot of money in

order to entertain us that we should

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keep in mind and take a lesson from that.

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When you leave, you obviously

want to have a fantastic legacy.

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They all have amazing legacies, but you

also want to have a great legacy with

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your families, which are friends and

with other members of the community.

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So.

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Try to strike a balance.

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I know it's really hard,

especially in the U.

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S.

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Like, you know, I feel like we just work

all the time, but try to strike a balance.

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It's okay to say, I need a day.

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It's okay to say, you

know, it's a holiday.

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I'm not going to be working.

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I'm not going to be reachable.

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It's okay to say that now

people might not like it.

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Hopefully no one will penalize

you because that is illegal.

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Um, but you know, I just want

to say, stand up for yourself.

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Um, be respectful and kind if

you're really good at your job.

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People will hear you.

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All right.

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So when you make up what I would

call excuses, or you call out a lot

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or that kind of stuff when you want

to do something, a lot of times,

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people will shrug you off because,

you know, you're the equivalent

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of the person who cried wolf.

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Um, but if your, uh, legacy is tight.

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If you've done everything that

you're supposed to do, um, if you

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are reliable and resourceful and

resilient, more than likely, you have

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that time to take and you should.

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So that's what I wanted to remind

people today, as we try to celebrate

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all of these other awareness days, which

have taken over really the timelines,

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really think about your boundaries.

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Think about the workplace.

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Think about, even if it's not

what you do, have respect for

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what other people do and to.

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Help people who have a hard time

with boundaries, even find them for

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themselves, even in the workplace.

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All right.

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So that's what I have to say.

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I also need to wish a black executive

perspective, podcast, a happy anniversary.

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Um, you know, shout out to Tony and

the crew, everybody, you all have

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been doing amazing work, uh, and

we'll continue to do amazing work to

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enlighten people about challenges as it

relates to race in, uh, The workplace.

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So without further ado, I

wish you a fantastic day.

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Stay strong, stay focused, stay healthy.

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So come back and join us next week for

the Black Executive Perspective podcast.

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Thank you for joining us today

and have a wonderful day.

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BEP Narrator: A Black

Executive Perspective.