{"id":2050771,"date":"2025-09-26T03:23:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T03:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2050771"},"modified":"2025-09-26T03:23:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T03:23:03","slug":"gabrielle-union-embraces-the-power-of-the-pivot-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/gabrielle-union-embraces-the-power-of-the-pivot-in-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabrielle Union Embraces the ‘Power of the Pivot’ in Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tGabrielle Union<\/a> has a multi-faceted career as an actress, producer, author and entrepreneur. In business, she has learned to roll with the ups and downs and embrace change.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s the power of the pivot,\u201d Union said Thursday at the Variety<\/em> Entertainment and Technology Summit in West Hollywood. \u201cWhen it\u2019s not working or it doesn\u2019t sit right in my soul, I\u2019m losing sleep. It\u2019s wrong. I have to pivot, and there\u2019s no shame in my game. I didn\u2019t like it; it did not work for me. I\u2019m going to try again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnion was honored at the event with Variety\u2019s <\/em>inaugural Entrepreneur Impact Award, presented by Wells Fargo. The kudo celebrates an individual in entertainment whose impact and achievements demonstrate their success in connecting with audiences through entrepreneurship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tUnion was selected as this year\u2019s recipient for co-founding Proudly, a sustainable baby care brand with products designed for infants of color. She founded the company with her husband and former NBA star Dwyane Wade. Union is also the co-founder of the haircare product line Flawless and the children\u2019s healthy snack brand Bitsy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile accepting the award, Union reflected on how her unwavering desire to serve disadvantaged communities laid the groundwork for business ventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll I wanted to do was to help and ensure I covered the most vulnerable while centering the needs, wants, desires and fears of folks who have been historically marginalized,\u201d Union said. \u201cWhen I do that in my arts and entrepreneurship, my soul sings. That\u2019s what it all boils down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the award presentation, Union sat down for candid Q&A with Angelique Jackson, Variety <\/em>senior entertainment writer, to discuss how she leverages her career success to make an impact.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnion is best known for her roles in \u201c10 Things I Hate About You, \u201d \u201cBring It On,\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s All That\u201d and \u201cBeing Mary Jane.\u201d Most recently, she produced the Amazon film \u201cThe Idea of You\u201d and the BET+ docuseries \u201cMy Journey to 50.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tUnion said she realized the power she wielded to make an impact when she took part in her first major press tour, for the 2003 film \u201cBad Boys II.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the film, Union played the love interest for Will Smith\u2019s character, Detective Mike Lowrey. She recalled headlines fixating on her comments about their kissing scenes as a pivotal moment where she understood her influence and how she could use it to help others.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile I had that microphone in my hand, I knew I could speak truth to power and make real change,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was the first time I was like, \u2018Wow, people are listening to me, they\u2019re printing what I\u2019m saying and it\u2019s traveling around the world. So I should say something of substance that helps more than just me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs she discussed her journey with using her entertainment background to build a line of branded consumer products, Union credited her success to remaining consistent and transparent with the audience she\u2019s cultivated since her career began in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never betrayed that trust, and that allows me to tell different kinds of stories and create companies that center the most vulnerable,\u201d she said.\u201d If those people can trust that I have their best interests at heart and I\u2019m gonna do right by them, I can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a businesswoman, Union also spoke from experience in creating new ventures. Three years after launching her Flawless haircare line, she relaunched it in 2020 with a new product line after reviewing issues of accessibility, ingredients and other business factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe conversation also touched on the 25th anniversary of Union\u2019s 2000 hit film \u201cBring It On.\u201d And she reflected on the arc of her career and what it took to discover her voice in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you never have access to look behind the curtain to see how the sausage is made, you think what they show you is all that there is,\u201d Union said. \u201cThe second I peeked behind the curtain, I said, \u2018Oh hell no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe was inspired to expand her work beyond acting. \u201cThere\u2019s more to this,\u201d Union said. \u201cI wanted to be a part of making that happen. I wanted to be a part of how the sausage is made and not just eat whatever they handed me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabrielle Union has a multi-faceted career as an actress, producer, author and entrepreneur. In business, she has learned to roll with the ups and downs and embrace change. \u201cIt\u2019s the power of the pivot,\u201d Union said Thursday at the Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit in West Hollywood. \u201cWhen it\u2019s not working or it doesn\u2019t sit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2050772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[28525,380692],"class_list":["post-2050771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-gabrielle-union","tag-variety-entertainment-and-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Gabrielle-Union-Embraces-the-Power-of-the-Pivot-in-Business.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2050771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2050772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2050771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2050771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2050771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}