“Titles are rented. The thing that will be my love letter to life will be the impact I had,” said Laysha Ward, author of Lead Like You Mean It and a distinguished C-suite executive.
During Destined for Greatness: The Purpose-Driven Life, a conversation held on the Authors Stage at the 2025 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, Ward and fellow author Alexis Barber reflected on defining success, preventing burnout, and maintaining a sense of joy as you accomplish your goals. Drawing from personal experience, both women offered practical strategies for staying grounded in purpose.
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Barber, who attended a top university and rose quickly in her career, helped launch YouTube Shorts during her time at Google. But despite those achievements, she felt unfulfilled. “I’m supposed to be happy by these things,” Barber said. “I was recognizing that getting the accolades wasn’t fulfilling me, but I was so lost at where to look for fulfillment otherwise.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Barber turned to journaling as a tool for reflection, healing, and rediscovering her purpose. That process eventually led her to lifestyle content creation—sharing her journey toward a more intentional and purpose-driven life. Her book, I’m Too Smart for This: A Journal to Build Self-Trust and Stop Settling for Less Than You Deserve, was born out of that experience.
In her own book, Lead Like You Mean It, Ward draws on her 32 years of leadership at a Fortune 300 company to explore how people can align purpose across both life and career. After the murder of George Floyd—while based in Minneapolis—Ward said the weight of leadership as a Black woman at a large, public-facing company took a heavy toll.
She made it a point to check in with employees, asking questions like: How are you doing today? How are you feeling? It’s okay not to be okay.
“I would practice asking myself those same questions,” Ward said. “And at times I was fine, ready to take on the world, and other days I would literally bawl and just try to hold myself together.”
Ward, like many Black women, had to confront the difficulty of giving herself permission to be human—and to ask for help. Her journey included dismantling the “strong Black woman” trope, which often leaves Black women burdened by others’ expectations and their own silence.
“I need to give myself permission to take care of my pain or it’s gonna take care of me,” she said, recalling a business call that brought her to tears after someone simply asked how she was doing. “So just recognizing that and giving yourself permission to step away and ask for what you need, take the time that you need.”
Both authors shared ways they’ve built burnout prevention into their routines. While pursuing her MBA at Wharton, managing a wellness company, and working with brands as a content creator, Barber said it was a call from her younger sibling that stopped her in her tracks—they hadn’t spoken in months. That realization prompted her to reprioritize her mental health and education, taking a step back from other responsibilities.
Ward, meanwhile, applied the tools of her business background, creating a Long-Range Plan (LRP) and an Annual Plan for Intent (API). “One of mine was by the time I was 50 or 55, I wanted to retire from my corporate gig while I was young enough and healthy enough to have other opportunities that were of interest to me,” she explained. Creating such plans, she added, helps you set boundaries and eliminate anything that doesn’t align.
Both women chose to bet on themselves—stepping away from society’s definition of success and stepping into purpose through faith and community.
For those who feel stuck between where they are and where they want to be, Barber suggested asking the hard questions to get to the root of the issue. Ward added that it all starts with self-belief.
“Who better to bet on and believe in than you?” said Ward. “Remember that you are worthy. When you remember you’re worthy, it sets the pace for others to believe and know that you are worthy as well.”