Business Exit, a Fortune 500 Lawsuit, and Building Resilience Through Hard Times | Kettia Ming

In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Kettia Ming entrepreneur, author, business strategist, and nonprofit executive whose work explores resilience, reinvention, and the realities of building a meaningful life and business. Kettia founded and scaled a childcare company in New York City before selling it in a multimillion-dollar acquisition, and now serves as executive director of Black Theatre United, where she leads programs and partnerships designed to expand access and opportunity across the Broadway industry. She's also the founder of The Childcare Collective and Evergreen House Press, and the author of Run the Mile You're In: One Founder's Journey Through Success, Loss & Reinvention. A lifelong runner who has completed 13 marathons, including Boston, she brings the lessons of endurance, identity, and starting again into everything she does and the medals on her wall are less about the finish line than the journey it took to get there. In this conversation, Kettia challenges one of the most reflexive beliefs in business: that success always means growth. Early on, she assumed a successful business meant more locations, more revenue, more employees just more, because that's what the internet tells you. But growth brings complexity, and in a business built on leases and the licensed care of small humans, more can quietly become unsustainable. The better questions, she found, weren't about scale at all: What am I building? Why? And what will it require of me to sustain it? A turning point in Kettia's story arrived the day after the Boston Marathon, on the Amtrak home, when she finally opened a string of emails she'd been ignoring. A Fortune 500 buyer claimed her new center violated a non-compete by 100 feet. She had measured the distance carefully, the way you walk, drive, and run it; they measured it "as the crow flies," a term she'd never encountered, calculated by a surveyor she didn't know existed. With her family's future, home, and the proceeds of her sale all sunk into the new startup, she moved through denial, anger, and fear — then did the opposite of panic. She went completely still, went inward, and focused on one question: how do I get through this in one piece, with my family intact? The episode closes on the tools that keep her steady: walking away from a problem to let the solution surface (wisdom from her late father, who believed every problem already contains its answer if you get quiet enough), and treating imposter syndrome the way she treats the voice of doubt — acknowledge it, refuse to fight it, and don't give it a vote. This episode explores: Why "always grow" is the wrong default — and the better questions to ask Building for sustainability instead of scale for its own sake How owners become employees of their own business — and how to stop Moving forward before you feel confident, because the answers come as you move The 100-feet "as the crow flies" lawsuit and what she couldn't have known Letting go of "I should have known" when you did everything right Going still under pressure instead of spinning out Throwing out the belief that a leader must have all the answers Why psychological safety has to start at the top Leading a multigenerational, multicultural team with a real sense of belonging Walking away from a problem to let the solution find you Asking your subconscious the question before you sleep Working with imposter syndrome instead of against it Kettia's perspective is a powerful reminder that resilience isn't loud sometimes it's the stillness you find when everything's in jeopardy, and the refusal to beat yourself up for what you couldn't have known. Her journey from a basement childcare startup to a Fortune 500 legal fight to a thriving nonprofit shows that you don't have to run all 26 miles at once. You just have to run the mile you're in. If you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or anyone facing something hard right now, this conversation offers practical wisdom, hard-won honesty about doubt and imposter syndrome, and a refreshing case that surviving the worst can leave you stronger than before. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Kettia Ming entrepreneur, author, business strategist, and executive director of Black Theatre United; founder of The Childcare Collective and Evergreen House Press Book: Run the Mile You're In: One Founder's Journey Through Success, Loss & Reinvention Website: https://www.kettiaming.com Find Kettia online: Website: https://www.kettiaming.com Newsletter — Run the Mile You're In on Substack Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kettia/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kettiaming Speaking, podcast, and partnership inquiries: [email protected] — invite Kettia to speak, join your podcast, lead a conversation, or work with your organization around resilience, reinvention, entrepreneurship, leadership, and the business of childcare Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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