Television has always played a monumental role in Pearlena Igbokwe’s life.
When she was 6 years old, her family emigrated to New Jersey from Nigeria, where a civil war was raging. It was in America where Igbokwe first fell in love with television and storytelling. Flash forward to today, and Igbokwe is chairman of Universal Studio Group, which is responsible for 109 current series across 27 platforms across the globe.
Igbokwe, now 56, recounted to Know Your Value’s Mika Brzezinski that as a child she was obsessed with “all the worlds you could escape to” through television, adding it was her “introduction to America.”
Her career path, however, wasn’t exactly linear. While she worked summers at NBC in research, sales and news as a Yale undergrad, her first job after college was in the financial services industry. That led her to business school at Columbia University.
Later, she landed entry-level jobs at HBO and Showtime, the latter at which she would spend the next 20 years as a creative executive
In 2012, she was hired at NBC and helped develop hit shows including “This is Us” and “The Blacklist.” And in 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, she was promoted to chairman of Universal Studio Group, making her one of the most powerful women in TV and the first Black woman to head a major studio.
Brzezinski chatted with Igbokwe about what it’s been like leading her 450 plus employees amid a global pandemic, the importance of taking control of your own narrative, the best career advice she has ever received, why women over 50 are an asset in the workforce and more.
Below is their conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Brzezinski: With your incredible life story, what do the words "know your value" mean to you?
Igbokwe: …It wasn’t until I had a producer I worked with who was also a mentor of mine, Sara Colleton. I worked with her on “Dexter” and Sara was one of the studio executives in the 80s when it was not easy for women in this business…
…I remember one day [about 13 years ago], I had to give a speech to accept an award, and I just called her to run some things by her and practice my speech. And she heard me, and I said, “let me tell you a little bit of my background and what I've been through.” She goes, "That's an incredible story … You have to know how to tell your own narrative. You have to be the one to tell your story, and you have to not be shy or afraid about telling your story… You have to figure out how to tell this story about what you've done so that people understand the steps you've taken.
That was the moment where I really understood that in a business environment, people aren't running around trying to figure out other people's value and tell other people's narratives. You have to take control of it.
… I also think sometimes we get in corporate environments where it's not necessarily in the corporation's best interests to always remind you how valuable you are, because if they did, you might decide, "Oh, this isn't for me, I can go someplace else." So, I think we all have to constantly remind ourselves of "this is what I am capable of. This is what I've done …”
Brzezinski: I think women have an easier time when they can articulate their value and weave it into their narrative or their story … For you to not really know your value up until just over a decade ago is surprising to me. It's very similar to my story. It took us a long time to know our value.
Igbokwe: I think women are used to just getting up every day, doing what they have to do. I watched my mom, a single woman who came to this country with two young children, who didn't know the country, and she did what she had to do to work and get her children educated.
As women, you don't necessarily sit back and go one day, "Wow. I did a lot. I did a lot of stuff." …You’re very busy just trying to either survive or get ahead … There's no other option but to get up and work really hard every single day.
Brzezinski: There’s something interesting we have in common for different reasons. You have shared that you fell in love with American TV at a pretty young age after moving from Nigeria. I was also obsessed with TV. My parents were immigrants from Poland and Czechoslovakia and they thought TV was the devil. I mean, we weren't allowed to watch it. I couldn't get enough of it. Tell me about your childhood obsession with it, and did it play a role in your future?
Igbokwe: Oh my God. I watched everything. Again, I was a child of a single mom and I was the oldest. So, you come home, and TV was the babysitter. But it was the best babysitter because of all the worlds that you could escape to. And I watched every prime-time show, daytime television, old black and white movies. I mean, if it was on, I absorbed it. One of the best days would be, "Oh my God, the new TV Guide is out on the newsstand.” That was my introduction to America.
TV is an amazing thing. It’s in your home, so it’s personal and so accessible…The fact that this box was in your home, and every day these people would come into my home. I felt like I knew them, they were like friends. That's where I learned the power of television,
Brzezinski: I have found that during this pandemic, a lot of people have drawn on parts of their talents they didn't know they had. What has it been like doing this job, leading during a pandemic? What have you discovered about yourself? What was hard? What's new?
Igbokwe: It's all been hard working from home, and we have four times as much to do because every single show now takes more planning and more work.
I have learned about the incredible people that I work with and how dedicated they are. People have been working like 24 hours a day, we're in production and doing everything we can to make people as safe as possible.
…What I also learned is there's a difference between being a boss and being a leader. A boss is someone who tells you what to do. I learned how to be a leader. As a leader, you have to inspire people, but I’m not physically with them and we're all separated in all of our homes. Figuring out how to inspire people is harder than ever. And that to me is what leadership is …
Brzezinski: At Know Your Value, we're partnering with Forbes and highlighting women over 50 and their leadership skills. These women don’t get recognized as much as they should. From your experience and from knowing other women over 50 and what they've been through, what do you think about focusing on this group?
Igbokwe: I spent 20 years at one company at Showtime, and I did because I loved it. I loved what I did at a time when a lot of people my age were jumping from company to company and getting big promotions.
…I had to sort of look at myself and say, "OK, is that what I want to do?" And I kept telling myself, "You know what? I'm happy doing what I'm doing.”
One of the things I really appreciate about having the job that I have at the age I am ― and I'm sure you can appreciate this ― You get to a point where what you think about yourself is the most important thing. When I was younger, what other people thought took up way too much room in my head.
…So to me, it's one of the best times in my life to be doing what I'm doing. There are colleagues who got to the top of the business 20 years earlier. It's all great for those people. But I sometimes just say to people, everyone's got their own road, everyone's got their own timeline.
Brzezinski: I think women used to feel like, "Oh my God, I can only do stuff when I'm young." I think we are now realizing there's no rush.
Igbokwe: There's no rush. And I think we see examples of women in their 40s and 50s who are coming into their own at that time and doing incredible things with competence and confidence…
Brzezinski: Let me ask you, finally, what's the best advice you've been given or the worst advice you've been given? Or what's the best advice you have to give for women to want to be successful in their careers? I mean, were you ever given horrible advice or just something amazing?
Igbokwe: [A mentor once told me], "it's not always the people who keep their heads down, who do the work that succeed in corporate America. You have to do that, but you also have to wake up everyday and think, “How do I make the life of the person I work for a little easier that day?" So, it's working hard, and it’s working smart. That’s something I've always remembered … You have to be out there telling your narrative and trumpeting yourself a little bit…
Also, when people come to me, I do tell them specifically, "Your life is long, and your career can be long too. So don't be in a rush to get to something." I think you can have a long-term plan, but it doesn't all have to happen overnight…