CEO Lessons from Rihanna’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show

This year’s Super Bowl had something to teach us as entrepreneurs. Now, maybe you’re not into sports and didn’t even watch the game. But in this case, it’s not the game itself that deserves the spotlight.

Super Bowl LVII’s half-time show performer Rihanna served up a masterclass for entrepreneurs. (I’m not talking about the quick moment she plugged her beauty business brand on-stage, either). And while that show is old news now, what she demonstrated is definitely worth diving into.

In this episode of Pleasurable Profits, I reveal what you should take away from Rihanna’s performance and why those hidden gems are so important for you to embrace as a CEO.

2:23 - What I noticed behind-the-scenes as Rihanna walked offstage

4:21 - One way we all can relate to Rihanna

7:06 - The bigger leadership lesson Rihanna can teach us

9:09 - Ever felt like this in your business? It’s applause-worthy

11:09 - What always happens when you commit to your vision

Find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email me at hello@lesliedlyons.com.

As Mentioned In CEO Lessons from Rihanna’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show

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Transcript for CEO Lessons from Rihanna’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show

Hey boss, I am Leslie Lyons, your embodied leadership and sales coach, and this is Pleasurable Profits. This podcast is ideal for owners and leaders of tattoo shops, permanent makeup studios, cannabis businesses, movement studios, sex toy shops, and other industries that are too often left out of the leadership conversation. If you’re looking for a woo meets strategy approach to defining your strengths and values, designing a business that supports you, and creating a soul-driven, and of course, pleasurable plan for profitability, then let’s get started.

Hey, party people. It’s Leslie, your embodied sales and leadership coach. How are y'all doing out there? I am doing amazing. Thank you for asking. By the time this airs, this is going to be old news, but you know what, the sentiment will last beyond the event.

So, yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. The first thing I want you to do is I should clap for myself like I should put a clapping emoji sound that I'm this far ahead in my content that you're just getting this in March. You're getting this in March, but I'm doing it in February. Your girl has really gotten on [inaudible]. You all should clap with me.

But yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. First and foremost, let me start off by saying I don't watch the Super Bowl. I don't know anything about the Super Bowl. I didn't even realize the Super Bowl was Sunday. I'm just so not in the know when it comes to sports at all.

However, I did know that Rihanna was going to be performing at the halftime show. I don't know why I can't talk today. Like get it together Leslie. But this is real life and I do these podcasts in one take. I don't film 5000 times and edit 5000 things. But anywho, I knew Rihanna was going to be performing at halftime.

However, I'm not a huge Rihanna fan. I know, don't come for me, don't start throwing Fenty lipstick at me and try to take my eye out with foundation, don't do it, y’all, please don't. I like Rihanna songs and I like some of them but I just don't stan for Rihanna, like superfan for Rihanna.

But I was like, “I'm definitely going to check it out. After the game is over, I'll go on YouTube. See if someone's put it up there,” that sort of thing. I watched the 13, 14 minutes of her performance and I was like, “Oh, this is cool.” It's a Super Bowl performance, I didn't think anything else about it until they showed behind the scene footage.

They showed her walking off the Super Bowl platform stage, whatever you want to call it back into the dressing room area, the halls under the bleachers, that sort of thing. She was so radiant. She was so lit up. She was so excited by her performance. That made me look at it a little bit differently because, in my mind, I thought, “Wow, she hasn't performed in almost seven years. She's pregnant now. She has a nine-month-old so sis basically got Irish twins, back-to-back births.

She just sang her heart out. I'm like, “Wow, this was impressive and so good for her.” Seeing a woman in her joy, seeing a woman being proud of herself, I'm like, “Absolutely. Absolutely.” Single woman in her joy, that is always super juicy and I'm excited to see so that's what I thought about it.

Well, the next morning, I got up and I go to the interwebs and I see people criticizing her performance basically saying it was lackluster. They expected more. Even before this performance, she had come out with the single for the Wakanda Forever franchise, the Wakanda franchise and I remember the feedback being like people could take it or leave it. That was their disposition about the single. It didn't really rock the world after waiting for six or seven years, I wish it was six or seven months, six or seven years for music, people had a lot to say.

For a moment, I put myself in Rihanna's shoes, like I've been there before where I was celebrating something that was big to me, celebrating a win, celebrating something that I had overcome, celebrating something that I was really proud of myself about and then find out that it was met with criticism and how devastating that can be, how painful that can be.

There's always somebody sitting around ready to piss on your cheerios, somebody's ready to piss on your cornflakes, shoot your balloon out of the sky. It seems like there’s always somebody sitting around, trying to take away your joy. But as is everything, I am always on the lookout for sales and leadership lessons. There was definitely one in this situation.

I brought up the criticism about her single because homegirl had already been dealing with criticism. I also think it's a reason why she probably kept her pregnancy a secret. It seems like she was controlling the narrative around how she wanted to show up and that in and of itself, write this down, is a hell of a power move.

Anytime a woman looks to control the narrative around her, her body, her agency, her sovereignty, we can expect for there to be opposition because people hate turned on women. They hate when women assert themselves like there's a cadre of humankind that that's really intimidating to. Hats off to her for that.

Second of all, though, I think the bigger leadership lesson for me is at the heart of my work is helping you find your values and define your principles that guide your business and also your life.

Another thing that made me tip my hat to Rihanna is for seven years, her fans, her superfans, which I'm not one of but I've observed people asking, “When are you going to come out with more music? When are you coming back? We're waiting on another album. What's happening?” while she's out building a billion-dollar brand in Fenty with the lingerie and with the makeup, it was almost like if Zero Fucks Given was a person, it would be Rihanna.

That is sticking to your values, that is sticking to your truth, that is sticking to your principles. That is so hard for women to do. I had to stop and come back because I'm hearing dings from phones. I swear to y'all, don't know about it, this is why I record podcasts late at night. It’s almost nine o'clock, because I'm like, “Okay, the house is asleep. My men are asleep. My husband [inaudible] they're asleep. There should be no one dinging and pinging me. It's nine o'clock at night.” It's like they know that I'm recording this podcast because squirrel. Anyway, I'm back. Don't y'all hate that too? Let me know how you hate that.

But if Zero Fucks Given was a person, Rihanna would exemplify that. I really wish more female small business owners could grab some of that energy of “I'm moving. I'm doing something different. I'm growing. I'm expanding. While I have a gift for this thing, I may not have passion for it anymore.”

Has anybody ever felt like that in your business? Come on. It's just you and me here talking to each other. You can be honest. This is a brave space, where you were really good at something but you had outgrown that thing and your fans, being your customers, your clients, your dedicated clients wanted you to continue on the path that you were on because it served them.

Rihanna made a choice about what served her. That is applause-worthy. So many of us are swayed by the opinions of other people, people who appreciate us, people who love us, people who appreciate our gifts, appreciate the way we serve them, love us, and what we've done and they agree with who we were. But when you start to change, some of those people don't see the direction so you've got to see the direction for yourself.

That takes a tremendous amount of courage, bravery, moxie, the ability to stand 10 toes, and that's what I saw in Rihanna. While other people are discussing “Is her music quality there? Is her voice quality there? Is she really a performer?” What I saw was a leader. What I saw was a successful woman who was staying true to her values, her principles, and the road that she's on. She's committed to her trajectory. She's committed to her growth.

Guess what? When you commit to your vision, when you live a principled life, there's always going to be somebody sitting back and judging you. But here's the thing: if you conform to what they want, guess what, come really close to the, I was going to say to the radio, come really close to the speaker, they’re going to criticize you either way.

How about you stop betraying yourself? How about you stay true to the things that matter to you? Because this entrepreneurship thing is not for punks. It requires a tremendous amount of emotional capacity. So many of us run out of steam because we've been given our emotional capacity to things that don't matter. You've been giving your attention to critics, you've been giving your attention to your competitors. You've been giving your attention to disgruntled employees. You've been giving your attention to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.

In 2023, can we take a page out of Rihanna’s book and say that sh*t must stop? That's all I got for y'all this week. Look around you and it can feel like you're leading along but there are a lot of women out here that are leading loud and it was great to witness that in Rihanna.

Alright, my loves, I got something cooking in the background. I've got a couple of one-on-one spots that are designed to help you step into your authority. If you are a small business owner, who has been drowning in work because you can't step away from the day-to-day, because every time you go, try, and step away from the day-to-day, it seems like sh*t collapses, I want to work with you this year.

I want you to know that freedom is possible. I want you to know that you can build a business that is in alignment with your principles and your values, that gives you tremendous freedom and space. If you are ready to step away and learn to empower your people so that you can clone your heart, so that you can trust your team, you need to hit me up. DM me, I’m begging you.

If this resonated with you, share it. If this resonated with you, comment and let your girl know, rate this five stars. Share it with the business owner who needs to hear this. If you need some support, you need to hit me up on IG @lesliedlyons. Until next time, you know the drill, grace and peace.