I first met Emilie Aries over 3 years ago when I joined her Facebook group. So I was very excited to read Bossed Up. She is an advocate for career growth for women and I enjoyed reading this book. Furthermore, I especially loved the interesting stories from other career women, I highly recommend this book if you are looking to improve your career.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I mostly skimmed this and read parts and pieces. I'm kind of sick of the "get your sh*t together" books that are all the rage right now. I find there are better ways to say the same thing so I think I was turned off before I even started it.

Great help in getting those like me unstuck from a more juvenile mindset and into goal setting and positive thinking.

Great research based book that explains adulting for women! Absolutely came at a perfect time as I am trying to get my sh*t together and accomplish MULTIPLE big goals!

This is a book I will come back to. Emilie Aries provides research, tips and anecdotes on being a modern woman in this world. As someone who has struggled, even now at 40, I found this inspirational and motivating.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for this review.

Emilies Book "Bossed Up: A Grown Womans Guide to Getting Her Sh*t Together" is a breath of fresh air when it comes to women empowerment books. Since the launch of "influencers" and social media gurus, it seems womens self help books have been tailored around clique quotes and one liners from people we cannot connect with. Many telling us things like "follow your bliss!" or "girl boss goals!" with no real help as to what that is or means!
Emilie is someone I have followed for a few years now through her website and podcast and her desire to help women overcome this martyrdom mindset is crucial to women in the workplace. Her advice and writings have real life statistics and theories to support her claims, and she gives you step by step guides to actively start achieving goals you set out to accomplish. She uses her privilege to educate and "lift while she climbs" -- ensuring all women have the tools, knowledge and information to lift themselves up from where they hope to be in their life, while navigating things like burnout, cultivating a boss identity, cultivate communities and so much more.
This book is for any woman that feels they need a little pick me up, who might feel a bit lost, or just wants a fresh take on what it means to be BOSS.
Thank you Emilie for being a trail blazer for strong, boss women everywhere.

This book starts with the author introducing herself and confessing being a "hot mess" in recovery. Emilie (the author) talks about her personal experience trying to excel at what she did, like college assignments and planning events. She then mentions how it quickly became very hard to do once she changed college life to what she chooses to call "real life". She mentions problems about her past relationship and more personal stuff.


Chapter 1 - Combating the Martyr Mindset: Where the author introduces her mother and how she was always on overload. A very charitable nurse that works 12hs shits to this day and uses her free time to provide care for less developed countries. She mentions how her mother loved her job and career, but always overworked herself. 


This chapter continues comparing her mother with numerous women that also overwork themselves. Women that have a full-time job, take care of the household and children and always choose other first. Women that leave them for last. How the modern gender roles are a mix of old fashioned ones, with women still having most of the responsibility for kids and household, but now also working outside or running their own business.


In this section of the book, I found a sentence that really touched me, paraphrasing it says that working hard is one thing, but suffering to get what you want can be a matter of intensity, and to see the difference we should ask ourselves if we are just constantly filling our plates with obligations.


The book also shares "spotlights" with personal stories of different women. These sections are highlighted to separate them from the main book content and appear thru-out the book. If you enjoy reading about personal experiences and stories, you will enjoy these section 

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Then it continues with a section titled "back to basics" the author talks about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Very famous and present and discussed in various psychology books, and continues to talk about the earnings gap compared between genders and also between minorities. Finally featuring the very first statement about what she considers the first step of being "bossed up" which is to make sure not to overwork or overload yourself. The author presents an exercise so you can asses your needs. A very simple exercise that shows the basic needs of shelter, nutrition, meaningful work, rest, relationship, and security/safety inside a circle and you asses your feelings towards these needs.


"Bounce Back from burnout" proposes that you first need to pinpoint the cause for it. Agency, Purpose, Rest, and Community. And follows by recommending that we should replace the Martyr mindset with sustainable success. 


All this is merely the contents of chapter one, and the book contains a total of 6 chapters (also introduction and closing). All of them just as full of information, advice and mainly lots of the author's opinions. 


Because there is so much content I will limit myself to sharing the snippets that impressed me the most, but know that there is more to the book.


Chapter 2 - Cultivating your Boss identity: The importance of seeing yourself as the boss of your own life and decisions is the main concept discussed in this chapter that struck me the most. As this applies to everyone. You don't need to be a boss at work, to adopt the boss identity, because you can always choose to be the boss of your own life. But you will not be left alone with this process, as the author outlines another exercise to help you in this area. Also, more spotlights appear. 


Chapter 3 - Progress over perfection: The title says everything. More advice, more spotlights, and exercises. The one that I appreciated the most is "Celebrate your efforts over achievements". Although I will still continue to celebrate my achievements, I found this to be fantastic advice, as I tend to oversee my efforts and only celebrate results. But we all know that big achievement doesn't come every day, but we can celebrate how many steps we gave today towards or goals or desired achievements. This is definitely a habit I plan to adopt.


Chapter 4 - Speak it, Be it: Another chapter overloaded with content. But the section I appreciated the most is "tricks of the trade" because is full of strategies and best practices. You might not agree with all of them, but is certainly good info to consider and put into perspective. I wasn't fully appreciative of the section labeled "dear white people" since it talks about certain issues that people of "color" (as she says it) have in life. To be honest, if anyone has issues, they are already aware of it. I am Latina, and I'm not blind to certain issues that seem to be common for us, but I also don't see all "white people" as bad or with privilege, while is true to some extent, absolutes are rarely encountered in this world. The term "of color" used to refer to anyone, not "white" is also a bit bothersome to me, and although this book has sections that I don't agree with, still presents various sections that are rather valuable, so I will just keep what works for me and learn to improve myself. After all, we all have issues in life, some are stereotypical, others are not. The fact is we still have to deal with them.


Chapter 5 - Be a goal digger: The power of vision, breaking down goals to steps, overall planning, and focusing on progress. More spotlights, and using your calendar as a forecasting tool. This chapter is a bit shorter than the other ones but still has great information. 


Chapter 6 - Your community of courage: In this chapter, the author presents her ideas and opinions about working in the community. About how cultivating a community of supportive peers can be beneficial for you and the community itself. More spotlights with personal stories, and steps to work on community building. When referring to the community she talks about networking and other professionals, friends, and finally partners. 


The conclusion is short and sweet. Is like a pep talk that tells you that is going to take some work but it can be done. It reminds you of leaving the martyr mindset and also touches on ideas presented in previous chapters. Is a mix of a good-bye and encouragement to take action.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

Great adulting 101 book for the youth, helps you look at all aspects of building a life while working towards your vision. More holistic than strictly business, tho. A life guide more than a work guide

Short and sweet review for this one.

I LOVED the actionable steps that this book offers for you to take when it comes to personal development, leadership style and beating weaknesses. The title itself, Bossed Up, gives the perfect description of the book: it's about leveling up in life and at work, and being a strong woman in the face of obstacles.

What I didn't love was the constant hawking of the Bossed Up conference, workbook, etc. At times it felt like a very lengthy pitch to be involved with the company, rather than a genuine book meant for guiding entrepreneurs and empowered women through their lives. Nonetheless, the pieces of information it did offer were no doubt helpful and applicable to our daily busy lives.

Yes, this is ultimately just a self-help book with no advice that is groundbreaking or new, but it is exceptionally written -- like a conversation between you and a close (very smart!) friend. I highlighted liberally in Bossed Up, to save the snappy, inspirational way in which Aries phrases her advice . . . that is the true compliment for any book I read!

Bossed Up is Emilie Aries personal guide on how to take control of your career, be your own advocate and live the life you've always wanted. She helps you discover your own self-worth so you can know the kind of career you deserve. It's tough as a woman to ascend in today's job market, but that's no reason to give up. Trust Emilie's tactics and suggestions, she's helped countless others, and wants to help you!

I loved this book, it gave me a ton of tips and suggestions on how to take control of my career. And I think it can help you too!