Confidence coach, author, and keynote speaker Deondriea Cantrice has announced the release of Overqualified, Overworked, Overlooked: How to Win Without Losing Yourself, a candid, practical guide for the growing population of professionals who have done everything right, the degrees, the credentials, the relentless work ethic, and still feel invisible, undervalued, and depleted.
Arriving at a moment when workplace burnout and disengagement are at record highs, the book speaks directly to high achievers, and especially to first-generation professional women, who are quietly paying the price of a culture that rewards overwork and overlooks the people driving it. Its message matters now because the professionals holding organizations together are more qualified than ever, yet increasingly running on empty.
Deondriea comments, “I wrote this book for the woman who has the degrees, the title, and the résumé, and still feels invisible. My hope is that she closes the last page and finally understands she was never the problem. Somewhere along the way, she was taught that her worth had to be earned through exhaustion. This book gives her permission to stop performing and start being seen, on her own terms, without losing the person underneath all the achievements.”
The Newsworthy Angle: The Hidden Cost of Overworking
For years, overwork has been sold as the price of ambition. Overqualified, Overworked, Overlooked names what that bargain actually costs: the exhaustion, the shrinking sense of self, and the quiet erosion of confidence that happens when recognition never arrives. The book reframes burnout not as a personal failing to be pushed through, but as a predictable result of workplaces that extract more than they return. In doing so, it moves the conversation past self-care clichés and toward a harder, more useful question: how do capable people keep winning without handing over their well-being as the entry fee?
Why This Book Matters
Professionals today are more educated and more accomplished than any generation before them, yet millions still feel unseen. They outperform, overdeliver, and absorb the emotional labor of their teams, only to watch opportunities and acknowledgment pass them by. Deondriea argues that this is not a story of individual shortcomings but of a structural mismatch between what these professionals give and what they receive. The book gives readers language for that experience and a path out of it, so that competence stops quietly costing them their health, their identity, and their joy.
About the Book
Overqualified, Overworked, Overlooked: How to Win Without Losing Yourself is a guide for redefining success on the reader's own terms. Rather than prescribing more hustle, it teaches professionals how to be recognized for their value, protect their well-being, and reclaim a sense of self that achievement alone was never going to deliver.
What readers will learn:
• Why doing everything right can still leave you overlooked, and what actually drives recognition at work.
• How to spot the hidden costs of overworking before burnout forces the issue.
• Practical strategies for setting boundaries without sacrificing ambition or credibility.
• How to redefine success in a way that includes, rather than sacrifices, mental health and identity.
Key takeaways: You were never the problem. Exhaustion is not a badge of worth. And winning and wholeness are not a trade; they can be built together.
Intended audience: High-achieving professionals experiencing burnout or feeling undervalued, with particular resonance for first-generation professional women navigating careers without a roadmap, as well as leaders and organizations invested in retaining their most capable people. Available formats: Print, eBook, and Audiobook.
Where to buy: Available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Audible, with more information at Deondriea.com
Supporting Statistics
• Disengagement is a global epidemic. Only 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work in 2025, and disengagement drained more than $10 trillion from the global economy in lost productivity, roughly 9% of global GDP. (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace, 2026.)
• The leadership gap starts early, and hits women hardest. For every 100 men promoted to their first management role, only 93 women advance, and just 74 women of color, a “broken rung” that stalls careers before they ever reach the ceiling. (McKinsey & LeanIn.Org, Women in the Workplace, 2025.)
About the Author
Deondriea Cantrice is an author, confidence coach, keynote speaker, and anti-trafficking activist whose work helps high achievers reclaim their confidence, their voice, and their sense of self. She is the founder of the professional development practice MeEvolv and of the nonprofit Unmute the Silence, and she serves in support of New Friends New Life. Through her books, coaching, and keynotes, including her signature talk “Refuse to Disappear,” she equips professionals, and particularly women, to be recognized for their full value without sacrificing their well-being. She is based in Prosper, Texas.
Media Interview Opportunities
Deondriea is available for interviews, features, podcasts, and speaking engagements. Suggested topics include:
• Workplace burnout and the hidden cost of overworking
• Career reinvention and navigating professional setbacks
• Professional resilience and preventing high-achiever burnout
• Women in business and leadership
• Corporate culture and employee engagement
• Winning without sacrificing mental health
For review copies, interview requests, or press assets, contact press@deondriea.com