Bozoma Saint John says she’s successful in her career because she ignored

Bozoma Saint John doesn’t shrink away from the spotlight.

Saint John, 48, was Netflix’s first Black C-level executive as their chief marketing officer. She became Uber’s first chief branding officer tasked with rehabbing the rideshare company’s image. And she made headlines in 2016 when she shook up the stage at Apple’s annual conference despite not looking like a typical “Apple fan boy,” she says.

Saint John’s career moves are as as bold as her personal style. And she has what she considers some well-meaning but misguided advice to thank for that.

“An early manager told me never to wear red lipstick or red nail polish,” Saint John tells CNBC Make It when asked about the best career advice she’s ever gotten.

“She did it with good intention, like, ‘You walk into a room and you don’t want to be too bold. You don’t want people to make opinions of you before you even open your mouth,'” Saint John says.

But “that made me question my appearance in rooms. Being a Black woman who’s quite tall and bold in her wardrobe, I found that it really shrank me.”

Saint John says she decided to ignore that advice and flip it on its head to “be the most colorful, the boldest, the sharpest, the wittiest in a room, and feel very confident in it.”

“I’ve been able to be successful because I didn’t take that advice,” she says.

Saint John continues to go after big changes in her career, becoming a first-time CEO for her own hair and beauty brand, Eve by Boz, and most recently adding “reality TV star” to her resume a cast member of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and as co-host of NBC’s “On Brand with Jimmy Fallon.”

And she wants you to go after your big career swings, too.

With people approaching a new year with new work goals, Saint John says it’s a good time as any to go after what you really want in your career. “That the pivot can happen any moment,” she says.

Here, Saint John draws on her own career and experience managing thousands to share the signs it’s time to quit a job, how to shape your professional brand, a major red flag when interviewing with companies, and more.