A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know with the award winning hyphenated Dr. Nsenga Burton. Dr. Burton. What do we need to know?

Good afternoon and welcome to Need to Know with Dr. Nsenga Burton. I am she. I hope that you are having a wonderful day. Just a couple of reminders up front. Today is National Voter Registration Date. So if you have not registered to vote for the upcoming election, I encourage you to go to IWillVote. com. If you live in the state of Georgia where I live, you can go to the Georgia My Voter um, It's a long acronym, but if you Google Georgia, my voter. It'll come up and you put your information and it'll give you your voter registration. You can also go on the Burton Wire for that information as well. So today is National Voter Registration Day. And then the other thing that's really important to us, especially with our producer Adrian, is that he is back from his book tour. So we want to say congratulations on your book. It is an autobiography. About his life and times and his journey. Um, not only as a Boricua, as we celebrate Latino Heritage Month, um, but also, um, as an actor. So I encourage you to pick up Adrian Alvarado's book, um, at your earliest convenience. It's a great read. And then last, my last update, um, is it's National Black Theater Day. That's also important to Adrian. Um, and to me, I serve on the board of the Craft Institute and we are committed to all things equity. Um, as it relates to the black theater. So support your black theaters, your local black theater, um, support your, uh, theater departments in general, black theater departments specifically. Um, especially if you're at HBCUs or you have HBCUs in your town, uh, today's a great day to support them in many ways, buy some tickets, donations, what have you. So anyway, that's my spiel on that. But today what I want to talk about is, Um, is the workplace and I want to talk about, um, making sure that you are taking time to, to ensure that you are well mentally, right? Mental health awareness month, that you are well mentally, um, and that you understand that if you do not Then you must mind your business sometimes, um, such that when you decide to leave, or if you unfortunately leave, uh, because the Lord calls you home or with whomever you, uh, worship or not, even if you don't worship anybody, anything. Any deity, um that you have definitely making made sure that you have spent the appropriate amount of time Um with your family now, of course that depends on who you are how you define family Um, I know we have to work in the united states like crazy because things are so expensive here Um, so there is there is no siesta May we please have a siesta in the united states Um, there is no real time off where it's like, oh, you know, everybody's gone for six weeks because it's the holidays, so nobody's working right now. That does not exist in the United States. And so many times people work, work, work, work, work. And I started thinking about this particularly this week 'cause we've lost so many fantastic people. You know, whether it's Frankie Beverly. Whether it's Tito Jackson, I mean, hell, over the last month, I mean, it's just been a lot of folks, James Earl Jones, Erica Asher, rest in peace, fantastic actress who has gone under reported, whose loss has gone under reported, young woman. And, you know, You know, just it seems like every other day, there's just someone else who was leaving us. And when we think about entertainment, we don't really think about entertainment as a business. And I have taught the business of entertainment for over 20 years. Right? So most recently at Emory University, when I was a professor there, I've since retired as a professor, but that was one of the classes. And I don't think that people understand, um, in entertainment. And I'm sure Adrian can co sign on this. That it is actually a business. It's a bottom line. So when you're outside of the industry, that's why it's called the industry, right? The Hollywood film industry, the music production industry, right? The theater industry, when we think about, um, these things, because they bring so much pleasure to us and they do entertain us. are consumers of it. We don't think about the fact, um, and this is not everyone, of course, but many people don't think about the fact that the bottom line is revenue and that these are actual businesses and functioning businesses that require a lot of This is why we have strikes, right? Um, this is how I have people walking off the job. This is why you have tell alls. This is why we have books like Adrian. They're like, listen, this is what can happen. Um, you know, when we are trying to, um, create these, This content, this art, in many cases, I'm wearing Steve Allen's shirt right now. Um, world known artist. Uh, sometimes we have to work way, way, way past, uh, what is considered reasonable and also which is above what the law, uh, entails. So I just wanted to say today. Particularly because we've lost so many greats who have really sacrificed so much of their lives. They've sacrificed time with their families. They've sacrificed a lot of money in order to entertain us that we should keep in mind and take a lesson from that. When you leave, you obviously want to have a fantastic legacy. They all have amazing legacies, but you also want to have a great legacy with your families, which are friends and with other members of the community. So. Try to strike a balance. I know it's really hard, especially in the U. S. Like, you know, I feel like we just work all the time, but try to strike a balance. It's okay to say, I need a day. It's okay to say, you know, it's a holiday. I'm not going to be working. I'm not going to be reachable. It's okay to say that now people might not like it. Hopefully no one will penalize you because that is illegal. Um, but you know, I just want to say, stand up for yourself. Um, be respectful and kind if you're really good at your job. People will hear you. All right. So when you make up what I would call excuses, or you call out a lot or that kind of stuff when you want to do something, a lot of times, people will shrug you off because, you know, you're the equivalent of the person who cried wolf. Um, but if your, uh, legacy is tight. If you've done everything that you're supposed to do, um, if you are reliable and resourceful and resilient, more than likely, you have that time to take and you should. So that's what I wanted to remind people today, as we try to celebrate all of these other awareness days, which have taken over really the timelines, really think about your boundaries. Think about the workplace. Think about, even if it's not what you do, have respect for what other people do and to. Help people who have a hard time with boundaries, even find them for themselves, even in the workplace. All right. So that's what I have to say. I also need to wish a black executive perspective, podcast, a happy anniversary. Um, you know, shout out to Tony and the crew, everybody, you all have been doing amazing work, uh, and we'll continue to do amazing work to enlighten people about challenges as it relates to race in, uh, The workplace. So without further ado, I wish you a fantastic day. Stay strong, stay focused, stay healthy. So come back and join us next week for the Black Executive Perspective podcast. Thank you for joining us today and have a wonderful day.

A Black Executive Perspective.