Meredith Fineman

She is a best-selling author, speaker, writer, publishing expert, and executive coach working at the intersection of self-advocacy and self-expression.

Fineman is the author of the best-selling book Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion (Portfolio Penguin Random House, 2020). Brag Better is based on her ten years of building a framework for strategic self-promotion grounded in public relations, communications, and leadership professional development. The book is for The Qualified Quiet — those who have done the work but don’t know how to talk about  it. This audience term is one that Fineman owns and created. The book has been published domestically and internationally, focusing on Asian-language audiences, with editions in Taiwan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand.

An expert in the publishing industry, Fineman has written dozens of book proposals for clients, advised them on how to begin the book process, and run public relations campaigns for book releases.

Her unique combination of writing and promotion makes her an advocate for book concepts and what it takes to pitch and sell them to leading publishers. She specializes in non-fiction and non-traditional voices entering the big five publishing houses. She also collaborates on select book projects.

Fineman’s Brag Better-related ventures include bootcamps, Masterminds, and webinars around feeling proud of your work and advocating on your own behalf to advance in career. She creates products for companies and individuals. She leads quarterly Brag Better Bootcamps for individuals and custom bootcamp versions for brands, companies, and corporations with specialties in addressing issues around cultivating an environment of healthy pride, a diversity of voices, championing employee work, and bragging on behalf of yourself and others. Fineman’s individual clients range from entrepreneurs to corporate leadership, new workforce members to middle management looking to kickstart careers. Her corporate and brand clients range from Fortune 500 companies to household tech brands.

Fineman is a frequent keynote speaker on domestic and global stages. In the past year, she has spoken to Intel, Capital One, Bloomberg, Meta, Microsoft, Google, and more. She also speaks at conferences like the 3% Conference and at prestigious universities like Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Topics range from her core Brag Better philosophy to visibility for women to corporate culture and a diversity of voices.

Self-expression and voice also lend themselves to physical appearance — Fineman’s is an expert in sustainable fashion by way of secondhand, resale, and vintage. She launched a popular podcast on the subject, It Never Gets Old, in 2018, with over 1MM downloads. She speaks and writes on the topic, and in 2022, launched Secondhand Society — a platform and hub for all things secondhand and sustainable fashion.

A freelance writer of 19 years, Fineman has held columns and bylines in Harvard Business Review, FastCompany, Forbes, Inc, Elle, Shondaland, Cosmopolitan, and more. She writes about entrepreneurship, business, women’s issues, and fashion. She collaborated on a best-selling book, Microtrends Squared (2018). She founded Women Write Washington, an event series celebrating women-identifying authors.

Fineman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, Magna Cum Laude, with a double major in communications and Hispanic studies. She is “lifer” of the Sidwell Friends School. Fineman resides in Los Angeles, California. If you’ve read this far, email me for a prize.