By Stacey Gill, New York, NY —June 4, 2026— Women’s Media Group recently hosted a thought-provoking conversation with Elaine Meryl Brown and Rhonda Joy McLean, authors of The Next Little Black Book of Success, the follow-up to the bestselling Little Black Book of Success. The evening brought together women at all stages of their careers for an intimate discussion about leadership, resilience, and the unwritten rules of corporate life.

Held at Penguin Random House, the panel also included Tiffany Dufu, president of the Tory Burch Foundation, and Porscha Burke, associate publisher of Storehouse Books. All four panelists dispensed hard-won wisdom about leadership and their own careers.

When Elaine Meryl Brown, Marsha Haygood, and Rhonda Joy McLean wrote the first Success book, they were filling a gap. Brown explained that they had written “the book we wish we had when we were first starting out in our career. A lot of us didn’t grow up in this environment. We didn’t have this knowledge. There was no one in my family who had worked in corporate America.”

Despite that, Brown went on to become a Daytime Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and novelist. Joining Brown for the discussion was co-author McLean, who herself is a highly accomplished professional. McLean was the first Black woman attorney hired by Time Inc. Following her career at Time, she founded her own company and is now the President and CEO of a leadership consulting and career advancement business in addition to being an author. McLean, too, learned some lessons the hard way.

As an attorney at Time, McLean felt pressure to prove herself and maintain a stellar reputation. She often worked until long after everyone else had left the office. “I never went home,” she admitted. But she soon realized the pace was not sustainable, and she needed to be more strategic. 

“What I learned is if no one sees you doing this stuff, you didn’t do it. It doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter that you were in the office until midnight.”

Like the first book, the authors gathered these lessons and advice to share with the women coming up behind them. Brown said the trio’s goal is “to uplift women.”

Ten years later, the new addition picks up where the first book left off, tackling new challenges in an ever-changing workplace that’s still struggling to find its footing in the aftermath of Covid. The book is broken down into 40 chapters addressing 40 skill sets and includes advice on how to be an effective leader, how women can ensure they’re visible in a hybrid or remote environment, how to navigate unconscious biases and microaggressions, and how to manage a global workforce.

The evening ended with an opportunity to pick up a copy and a reminder from McLean. “We are expansive people,” she said. “No one outside of us should limit us to only certain interests, and we should not be limiting ourselves.”

Pictured above, from left to right: Elaine Meryl Brown, Tiffany Dufu, Rhonda Joy McLean, and Yona Deshommes.