Run the Mile You’re In: One Founder’s Journey Through Success, Loss, and Reinvention by Kettia Etienne Ming
She built a childcare empire without asking permission. She survived a Fortune 500 lawsuit without backing down. Now she has told her own story, on her own terms, without waiting for anyone to decide it was worth telling.
Evergreen House Press | On Sale Now | Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and Books-A-Million
NEW YORK, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —
Early Praise for RUN THE MILE YOU’RE IN:
“Emotionally forceful without being tidy, unusually specific, and carried by scenes vivid enough to withstand the repetitions. Ming’s prose moves like someone taking an emergency call while still trying to tell the truth.” — NetGalley Reviewer (4 Stars)
“The book begins with a child’s silence as alarm. It ends with a woman’s silence as restoration. Not defeat. Not vacancy. The first room in years where no one is waiting with a need, and no one has to be saved before she sits down.” — NetGalley Reviewer
New York City entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, and debut author Kettia Etienne Ming releases her memoir, RUN THE MILE YOU’RE IN: One Founder’s Journey Through Success, Loss, and Reinvention (Evergreen House Press; 979-8-9946392-0-7; Paperback; $24.99, today, May 5, 2026. The book is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and Books-A-Million.
Independent publishing is having a cultural reckoning. Authors across the country are stepping outside the traditional gatekeeping system, refusing to wait for someone else to decide whether their story deserves to exist. Kettia Ming is one of them. But her reasons run deeper than the current moment.
Ming has spent twenty years as an independent operator. She built Smarter Toddler, a boutique childcare company, from her Manhattan apartment into two thriving locations serving over 160 families. When Bright Horizons Family Solutions came calling, she negotiated the sale herself, walked away with $7.2 million, and then watched the same company sue her for $1.5 million over 100 feet of disputed distance. She fought back. She lost the ruling. She negotiated the settlement. She kept going.
Starting her own imprint to publish her memoir was not a detour from that story. It was the next chapter of it.
“I have never been afraid to be a small independent operator,” Ming says. “Why should publishing my own story be any different? I was not going to wait for someone else to decide whether my story had an audience. I already knew it did.”
That instinct is at the heart of Run the Mile You’re In, a book that traces her journey from a midnight idea on the couch with her husband to a $7.2 million acquisition, a $1.5 million lawsuit, bankruptcy, and the long quiet work of rebuilding. The title comes from a running mantra she carried through 13 marathons and then through the hardest years of her life: stop living two miles ahead of yourself or two years behind. Just run the mile you’re in.
The book arrives at a moment when the childcare industry remains one of the most under-resourced and overlooked sectors in the American economy. Ming’s story puts a human face on what happens to independent childcare operators when they try to compete, grow, and survive in a market increasingly dominated by large corporate providers. She built something families loved. She sold it. She tried to build again. And a Fortune 500 company used a contract clause, measured in crow-flight feet, to try to stop her.
She is still here. The book is proof.
Ming is celebrating the release with a private launch event at Ludlow House in New York City, surrounded by the community that has supported her throughout this journey.
About the Author: Kettia Etienne Ming is a New York City entrepreneur, nonprofit executive, and debut author. A first-generation Haitian-American, she spent twelve years building Smarter Toddler, a Manhattan childcare business she grew from the ground up, before selling it to Bright Horizons Family Solutions in 2014 for $7.2 million. She is currently the Executive Director of Black Theatre United, where she leads advocacy and visibility efforts for Black theater artists and institutions across the country. A marathoner who has completed 13 races including the Boston Marathon, she lives in New York City.
Run the Mile You’re In: One Founder’s Journey Through Success, Loss, and Reinvention by Kettia Etienne Ming
On Sale: May 5, 2026
Publisher: Evergreen House Press
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9946392-0-7 | Hardcover ISBN: 979-8-9946392-1-4 | Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9946392-2-1
Price: $24.99
Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Books-A-Million
More Information: www.kettiaming.com
Press Contact: Valeria@evergreenhousepress.com
Advance Copies: Available upon request
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SOURCE Evergreen House Press
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