Megan Mayer
Speaker, Trainer, Owner at Network for Impact
Leadership
Education: UCLA - UCLA School of Law
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, USA
Biography
Polite Argument? Yes, it’s a thing, and it will help your team succeed! Retired attorney Megan Mayer is founder and Chair of Network for Impact and speaks to leaders (including parents, an important class of leaders!) on her three specialties that improve where you work, learn, and live. Her tactical approach to soft skills makes them easy for your teams to learn and implement.
1. POLITE ARGUMENT. How to master the art of Polite Argument and build it into your organization's culture. Megan’s research-based system increases team satisfaction with their workplace and peers, improving productivity and talent retention. She speaks, trains, and runs workshops on what Polite Argument is and how to incorporate it into your workplace, classroom, and home for greater success. These talks are appropriate for companies, non-profits, and educational groups, including parent organizations.
GRATITUDE BUMP. Megan’s research-based system for creating the Gratitude Bump will equip your leaders, teams, and even teens to enjoy increased success in EVERY area of their lives. She speaks, trains, and runs workshops on what the Gratitude Bump is and how to create it for yourself and your teams (and teens) to maximize success. Learn how these four simple steps will improve your workplace to increase productivity and talent retention. These talks are appropriate for companies, non-profits, and educational groups, including parent organizations.
NETWORK FOR IMPACT. Megan leads workshops on building connection, first impressions, creating/maintaining/closing conversation, nailing the close, and successful ways to follow up. Her topics serve newly hired or launching teams as well as groups ready to interview, including university classes. These talks are appropriate for companies, non-profits, and educational groups (and are especially popular with classes of graduating students or students promoting to field training).
Megan’s upcoming books Polite Argument: Four Skillsets Leaders Use to Develop Teams and Teens and Gratitude Bump: Four Simple Steps to a Successful Life, share how these methods improve where you earn, learn, and live. She speaks to corporate, nonprofit, community, and education audiences online and in person, and is featured in Insider, The Orange County Register, The UCLA Journal of Gender and Law, Medical Board of California Newsletter, Monterey Herald Health Matters Magazine, and The Carmel Pinecone.
Megan tactical approach to success draws from her experience as an economist, attorney, and president & director of various holding companies in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, as well as leading her family through her husband’s brain injury to inspire and equip audiences for success. She uses humor and intelligence to motivate teams and team leaders to argue respectfully and effectively, focusing on empathy and a growth mindset.
Passion
My passion is to enlighten a room to see new possibilities, to see previously hidden solutions, and to find a path for productive and effective relationships. Equipping teams to communicate effectively, build connection, and grow their success, is my goal. I am told I am "Everyone's Mom" and have a unique approach of "Tactical Parenting." I cannot argue against those claims. Former Editor in Chief of the UCLA Journal of Gender and Law, equipping women and mothers for success in these skills is an extra pleasure for me.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
Topics
Best Story
When speaking about the power of connection and listening, audiences love the lighthearted and humorous story about that one lunch interview when I was 22. I was sure I blew the interview because I was so hungry. I had the metabolism of a mouse (oh, those were the days!), and was wrapping up a morning of interviews. By lunch, I grew faint with hunger and knew I could not spend the lunch answering more questions; I had to eat. What to do? I focused on my interviewer. In fact, I became the interviewer. I got my interviewer, who was twice my age, to talk about himself - his experience at the company, how it has changed over his tenure, where he sees its future – while I silently communicated with the waiter (“bread & water – now, please”) so that the interviewer would continue his story. By the end of the lunch, my blood sugar was back to normal. Two wonderful benefits came from that experience of listening well, as I learned soon after getting the offer. Contact me for the moral of the story!
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My favorite stories are those demonstrating the similarities of leading teams and organizations to parenting; humor helps reveal these precious morals.
Origin Story
“We will train them to discuss books now, so that they can discuss politics as adults.”
This was my focus launching the first book club for our daughter, 20 years ago.
My feminist attorney & corporate backgrounds sparked “Polite Argument” leadership training. The core principles of building connection, developing trust, and communicating effectively builds team success in every organization, and would equip my children to overcome life’s obstacles to succeed.
The unique challenge of raising a family with my husband’s brain injury caused me to be exceptionally deliberate. Every skill our children learned had to be purposefully taught, not absorbed through osmosis. With attorney-drive, I researched the essential skills for success and how to deliver them. Through book clubs and a cotillion startup, I designed a leadership program to train students in the art of “Polite Argument,” networking, and creating the "Gratitude Bump." Upon building a website for the youth program, I was overrun with Silicon Valley professionals, companies, and universities requesting training. I pivoted to adult teams and individuals, and demand went global during covid.
Now I deliver unique, humorous, empowering talks and workshops on how to improve communication and connection throughout your organization, and am finishing two books on the same. My experience taught me that inspiring an audience is most impactful when you equip them to act on that inspiration. I love to inspire and equip audiences for success.