About Yes Please!

YES PLEASE! 7 WAYS TO SAY I’M ENTITLED TO THE C-SUITE: SECRETS WOMEN OF COLOR NEED TO KNOW NOW TO FIND THEIR HAPPY AND WIN IN AN EXCLUSIVE CORPORATE CULTURE is a leadership book that provides seven positive affirmations and reveals seven secrets for Black women to thrive and move into senior executive leadership in the modern-day workplace while harnessing the power of positive emotion to secure happiness.

The book is grounded in positive psychology and neuroscience and explores the importance of how Black women securing their own happiness is paramount to finding success, a seat in the C-Suite. The author, L. Michelle Smith, is an award-winning author, sought-after keynote speaker, and certified executive and personal coach to Fortune 100 executive women leaders. She conducted a survey of 100 high-performing professional Black Women that revealed 90% of Black women were everything but happy, pointing to their gender and race as the primary obstacle to their success in a corporate environment where they are not centered.

Black women are in dire need of a mindset shift to clear the challenges on their way to senior executive leadership. They also require a firm understanding of how accessing positive emotions, silencing their inner critic, and unleashing their inner sage can put them on an express train to their happy place and therefore their success in their leadership aspirations to get to the C-Suite. Smith shares insights, storytelling, proven and actionable tips and advice, and professional coaching grounded in tenets of applied positive psychology.

The book is set within the current cultural context of the pandemic and the aftermath of rebuke on anti-Blackness as a result of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and more. The author reveals the unwritten rules that Black women in the C-Suite today discovered along the way and are still uncovering as they blaze a path to the highest levels in business. At the book’s core, however, is a simple principle—solve for the double-disadvantaged and everyone benefits.

Black women are not imagining the struggles they face in the workplace, which include resistance to promotions, professional development, and growth opportunities. Several studies have shown that these challenges are unique to Black women and have reaching impacts on earning potential, leadership opportunities, productivity, and professional morale. YES PLEASE! shows Black Women that they need to be and can be happy so that they can succeed, despite the obstacles.

The book will be available for pre-sale in May 2023 and released the following June. Get the sale sheet here.