In this candid monologue, Bernadette Boas recounts a pivotal emotional moment in 2009 during a lunch in Las Vegas with Cassie Parks, where her tears and confession about being a "nasty" corporate persona sparked the idea for a book. She describes her upbringing in a large, seemingly non‑dysfunctional family, the personal transformation that led her to shed the "corporate bitch" identity, and the subsequent writing and publication of her memoir Shedding the Corporate Bitch (2011). Boas explains how the book resonated with audiences because it reframes the "bitches" we encounter as internal fears, insecurities, and negative belief systems rather than external people. The memoir’s message, combined with her public speaking, radio, and media appearances, attracted interest in adapting the story for film, likening its potential tone to movies such as The Devil Wears Prada and Mean Girls but with a focus on understanding the witch‑like protagonist from the inside.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Bernadette Boas. If you had asked me 5 years ago, would I ever consider writing a book or a screenplay, let alone both, I would have thought you were absolutely nuts. Back in 2009, sitting at a lunch in Vegas, I was talking with a lovely young lady, Cassie Parks. She looked over, noticed that I had tears in my eyes, and said, you know, Bernadette, what are you getting so emotional about? I I literally grabbed my chest and basically said, "Cassie, there's something I need to say and I just don't know what it is or how I'm supposed to say it." And she said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well, for so many years I was such a nasty person and then since then I was able to shed the corporate bitch that I was and I'm such a happier person now and I need to apologize for that. I need to explain." blame myself for being that person. And she looked over at me and she said, "That's a book." And I was like, "Excuse me?" She said, "That's a book." And so flash forward, and all of a sudden I'm writing this book about my family, my life, my transformation from this family of 14, daughter of a you know, a great man and a woman who had been married for 50+ years, you know, beautiful, beautiful family, 6 brothers, 5 sisters, had the most non-dysfunctional, as I call it, you know, upbringing. And yet, as I transformed into and transitioned to like early 20s, I all of a sudden became, you know, such a nasty person. And so I decided that I needed to explain that and to understand it myself, quite honestly. So I went on and wrote Shedding the Corporate Bitch, my first book. Since then, I published it in 2011, and then as it was getting out and it was messaging and I was public speaking and doing radio shows and media gigs, people started really resonating to the story, resonating to the fact that we all have junk that we have to deal with, inner junk, things that really cause us to lash out on other people. And even through that process, I realized that the bitches that I was talking about weren't people. They were the inner fears, insecurities, doubts, negativities, and ugly belief systems that we have of ourselves that cause us to lash out on other people. And the story began to resonate, the message began to resonate, even the, you know, the tips and the advice and the tough love that I started you know, providing, resonated with so many people. And all through that time, people were saying, this would make a great story for the movies, very much like a Devil Wears Prada, Mean Girls, all the other bitch type of movies. And yet this one would look at the witch herself and really try to get in and get under her skin to understand why she's the type of person that she is.
