What We’re Reading: The Memo by Minda Harts

August is Black Business Month in the US, and is a time dedicated to recognizing and supporting Black-owned businesses throughout the country. However, there is a huge disparity when it comes to black people owning businesses and being represented in the C-suite – and more notably, there is a severe lack of black women. That’s why this month we have chosen to read The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table by Minda Harts.

Minda Harts is an entrepreneur, speaker, and career development expert. Founder of The Memo LLC, a career development company for women of color, Minda has also served as an adjunct professor at NYU Wagner. Growing up in a working-class family and later rising through corporate ranks where she often felt isolated, Harts wrote The Memo as the book she wished she’d had, with her lived experiences deeply informing the tone and urgency of the book.

In The Memo, Minda delivers a candid, urgent guide aimed specifically at women of color who are navigating corporate spaces. While much career advice literature assumes a level playing field, Harts dismantles this myth by addressing the additional, often unspoken barriers faced by black and brown women in professional environments. The book blends personal narrative, practical career strategies, and hard truths about workplace dynamics, offering both encouragement and a roadmap.

Structured with clarity and a conversational tone, The Memo walks readers through essential topics like negotiating pay, advocating for oneself, building networks, confronting microaggressions, and overcoming imposter syndrome. Minda is unafraid to call out the systemic inequities that persist in professional spaces and challenges the ‘lean in’ model that assumes white privilege as a norm. Instead, she offers advice rooted in real experience, grounded in the specific cultural, racial, and gendered realities many women of color face.

What makes this book stand out is its refusal to sugarcoat. Minda combines tough love with genuine support, making it feel like a conversation with a no-nonsense mentor who wants to see you win. She incorporates interviews with other women of color, weaving in a broad spectrum of experiences to illustrate the diversity within the demographic. But her central message is clear: you don’t need to conform to an existing system that wasn’t built for you; you deserve to thrive as your authentic self.

Ultimately, The Memo is a much-needed intervention in the business and leadership genre. It equips women of color with tools to navigate biased systems while simultaneously calling for those systems to change. For allies and leaders in positions of power, it’s an eye-opener that challenges them to rethink inclusion beyond token gestures.

If you would like to discuss how we can ensure that all of your staff are gaining equal access to growth opportunities – or to help your company unlock the true power of a diverse and inclusive workforce – please get in touch with us today.

And in the meantime, you can grab a copy of The Memo here in the US, and here in the UK.