Lori Mayer

I attribute my success to never giving up and just faking it till I make it, and I'm making it. I've always had that hustle and that drive - you can't really teach that to somebody. Being an empath is such an amazing characteristic in sales because you really get to feel and see people, and it's such a benefit, especially with sales now when most people are already 70% to 85% bought before they even talk to you. They've done all their research, they just need somebody to close the deal, and it's how you represent yourself. I've struggled with my mental health, having had depression multiple times in my life and anxiety paired with ADHD, and I am a part of the LGBTQ community. As a single mom who bought my own house in San Diego without my immediate family for support, there's a lot of pressure and I don't have time to lose because I've got to keep going. I've always known that I belong, and I've always known that I'm not going to be the smartest one in the room, but I'm also going to be able to work the room. I lean in on my superpowers, which is leading with authenticity and my human component of connection. I'm able to build connection and trust, and we're able to talk about ugly, gory things real fast and get to things quicker because of it. I also attribute my success to asking for checks and balances along the way, having sponsorship in those rooms that I'm not in yet, and not being afraid to ask. Egos get in the way so often, and I think that is where I've attributed my successes - being confident in myself that I'm gonna be able to do it, finding my resources to do it, but then also asking for help.

The best advice I’ve received is to show up fully, even when I don’t feel ready, and to treat rejection as training rather than a reflection of my worth. Real growth comes from action, not waiting for permission or perfect conditions.

Find your people, find your tribe. It doesn't have to be at the current company, it could be people outside. Stretch yourself and get comfortable being uncomfortable. Find your sponsors and champions inside and outside. Act like you belong too. I think the hard part for women is typically there's only one other woman in the room and you don't see somebody that looks like you, and then all the men think that you're the secretary or you're taking notes, and you're like, no, I'm the boss. That seat at the table's gotta be at the top or on either end. You gotta have a little humor in there too, because the job that we have is fielding that kind of treatment.

I think pay parity and opportunity parity for women and people of color is a huge challenge in my field right now. The evolution with technology has been rocky and not steady over the last probably 5 years, with companies folding, the economy, and political influence. You have a lot of these companies that will do massive layoffs, and then AI is coming and it's gonna replace everybody, like Salesforce wanted to do, and then all of a sudden they've got to hire double the amount of people back because they made an error. It's been delicate with companies doing layoffs and the uncertainty around who is gonna do the right thing with AI and ensuring you don't have bad actors out there. We want to ensure that especially with the current administration not having a pulse on DEI and not highlighting that, when you've got creators who are going out there to create new technologies, are they thinking about everybody? You want to have policy and procedure and policing to ensure that you don't have one person that can control all that. But there are also great things coming with AI - the advancement, leveling playing fields in certain industries, and advancing others. We're in Industry 4.0, and this isn't the first time we've had to transform. It's about where the new jobs are and what new trades are working. With data centers going up, there's going to be a lot more trade skill workers needed, so jobs are just shifting from one bucket to another.

Integrity is most important to me, and that's an umbrella of a bunch of things - honesty, trustworthy, transparency, and dedication. I would say probably two other ones are gratitude and abundance. And then empathy and transparency. Empathy is something that's so essential to be able to be an effective employee and employer. Authenticity is also critical to me.