KETTIA ETIENNE MING
A memoir about achieving the American dream and discovering that a Black woman’s success can become a threat to the systems that were never built for her. This is the story after the deal closes that doesn’t make it into the press release but the one that people deserve to hear.
AUTHOR & ENTREPRENEUR
RUN THE MILE YOU’RE IN
I started a daycare in my basement with a dream and a waiting list. Within a few years, Smarter Toddler had four locations across Manhattan, a reputation that parents trusted, and a business model that worked. Then I sold it in a multimillion-dollar acquisition to Bright Horizons.
That should have been the happy ending.
Instead, the company that bought my business turned around and sued me for $1.5 million. The charge? A non-compete violation. What followed was a legal battle that tested everything I thought I knew about success, about fairness, and about what happens when a Black woman achieves at a level that makes the wrong people uncomfortable.
Run the Mile You’re In is the story of what happens after the American dream delivers on its promise and then sends you the bill. It’s about strategic bankruptcy when the alternative was surrendering. It’s about learning to stay present in the middle of chaos, because the mile you’re in is the only one that matters.
This book covers twenty years of building, losing, fighting, and finding myself through it all. It’s for anyone who’s been counted out and kept going. It’s for the “strong friend” no one thinks to check on. It’s for anyone who needs to hear that presence, not perfection, is what gets you through.
AVAILABLE MAY 5, 2026 | EVERGREEN HOUSE PRESS
In Her Words
People always ask me when I became an entrepreneur. The honest answer? I didn't become one. Entrepreneurship found me. One late night, I picked up my daughter from a home daycare center that was so unsatisfactory I decided right there she was never going back. I had no formal plan to start a business, but if "necessity is the mother of all invention" were a person, that was me in that moment. I somehow talked my husband into starting a childcare center in our apartment, and well, the rest is history.
I started Smarter Toddler fueled by passion and a vision to create something better for my child, but I ended up building something extraordinary that filled a gap no one had yet identified or named. Manhattan parents needed quality childcare. I needed to build something that was mine. Those two things met in a basement of an Upper West Side duplex, and for a while, everything worked exactly the way you hope it will when you're up at 3 a.m. writing a business plan at your kitchen table.
Success can be a double-edged sword, and for me it brought complicated attention. The sale, the lawsuit, the years of fighting a corporation with deeper pockets and longer patience. I tell the whole story in the book because I think people deserve to hear what really happens after the deal closes. The parts nobody puts in the press release.
These days, I'm still building. I lead Black Theatre United as Executive Director, I write about the lessons that I hope will help someone on their own journey, and I'm working on my next book about what happens when a woman who has spent her whole life fighting finally learns to rest.
ABOUT KETTIA
Kettia Etienne Ming is a Haitian immigrant, entrepreneur, writer, and cultural leader based in New York. She founded Smarter Toddler, a Manhattan-based childcare company that grew from a single basement location to four thriving centers before being acquired by Bright Horizons in a multimillion-dollar deal. Her experience navigating the sale, a high-stakes legal battle, and strategic bankruptcy became the foundation for her debut memoir, Run the Mile You’re In: One Founder’s Journey Through Success, Loss, and Reinvention (Evergreen House Press, May 2026).
Kettia currently serves as Executive Director of Black Theatre United, where she works at the intersection of art, activism, and institutional change. She writes the Substack newsletter Run The Mile You’re In, exploring the lessons that emerge when things fall apart and what it takes to rebuild.
She lives in New York.
Read the Story Before Everyone Else
Run the Mile You’re In arrives May 5, 2026. Pre-orders help a debut author in ways that are hard to overstate. They signal to bookstores, media, and the publishing world that people are paying attention. If this story speaks to you, ordering early is one of the most meaningful ways to support it.
In the Press
Kettia Ming has spent two decades building businesses, navigating legal battles, and leading cultural institutions. She brings a rare perspective to conversations about entrepreneurship, race, resilience, and what it actually takes to start over.
Kettia is available for interviews, panels, and speaking engagements on the topics below.
Entrepreneurship and exit strategy
What nobody tells you about selling a business you built from nothing
Non-compete clauses and founder rights
The legal traps waiting for entrepreneurs after acquisition
Black women in business
Succeeding in systems that were never designed for your success
Strategic bankruptcy
Choosing survival over surrender when the odds are stacked against you
Presence as strategy
How staying in the moment becomes the most radical act of resilience
For press inquiries, review copies, or interview requests: email valerie@evergreenhousepress.com
Let’s Connect
Whether it’s a speaking engagement, a media interview, a book club visit, or just a note to say the book meant something to you, I’d love to hear from you.
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Kettia is available for keynotes, panels, book club conversations, and university events. She speaks on entrepreneurship, resilience, the realities of being a Black woman founder, and what it means to rebuild after a public setback.
For speaking inquiries: valerie@evergreenhousepress.com -
For interview requests and press inquiries: valerie@evergreenhousepress.com
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Reading Run the Mile You’re In with your book club? Kettia is available for virtual drop-ins to discuss the book with your group. Reach out to schedule a visit.
For book club visits: valerie@evergreenhousepress.com
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