Megan Preston Meyer - Author, Speaker, and Corporate Communications Consultant
Megan Preston Meyer
Megan Preston Meyer is an ex-Insights & Analytics Manager with an MBA (and 0.25 of a Ph.D.) in Operations Management. She has a decade-long track-record of using data – big and small – to generate insights. Over the course of her career, she made thousands of data-driven decisions that unlocked millions of dollars of value for billions of companies in trillions of ways.
One fateful day, after staring at a SQL query that was good, but a little clunky; a Tableau dashboard that was pretty, but a little slow; and a PowerPoint of her findings that was hilarious and amazing, she decided to leave the techie stuff to the techies and concentrate on communication. She quit her job soon after, and now focuses on the stories that data doesn’t tell.
In addition to collecting jargon, examining corporate absurdity logically, and spending way too much time on Canva choosing duotone filters, Megan also helps companies tell their stories (see Work) and writes picture books that teach kids about operations and supply chain management principles (see Books – and PS, if you email her, she’ll probably give you a promo code for 20% off of Fifo Saves the Day).
I’m excited for you to connect with Megan, check out her work, and follow along as she continues to teach kids business and entrepreneurship early in life in a fun and entertaining way.
I'd love it if you'd introduce yourself, what you do, and what you're working on.
Absolutely! I’m Megan Preston Meyer, an author, speaker, and corporate communications consultant.
Right now, I’m most excited about theAdventures of Supply Jane & Fifo, a series of picture books I’ve created to teach kids about supply chain and operations management.
How did you get started?
I spent more than a decade in the corporate world, working in supply chain and analytics roles. I did everything from figuring out how to reduce grain loss in inbound agricultural supply chains in Africa to optimizing the use by-products from beer brewing to demand forecasting and purchasing for super-perishable fresh food.
I was always really interested in digging through data to see what stories it could tell, but then I realized that that was never thewholestory – so now I focus on the stories that datadoesn’ttell… including stories about supply chain management for kids.
What Inspired the work you’re doing?
I’d love to be able to say that the Adventures of Supply Jane & Fifo came from a place of incredible conviction about inspiring children and nobly leading the next generation toward rewarding careers in the field of supply chain management, but they actually started with a pun.
My husband and I were hiking one day and talking about just-in-time delivery (you know, normal wilderness conversation), and we decided that “Justin Time” would make a great super hero name. We traded a couple more supply chain jokes, and then I came up with Supply Jane – which is an even better pun – and her canine companion Fifo. From there, it was just a matter of figuring out the adventures that they would go on.
In all seriousness, though, I do think it’s important to expose kids to supply chain and operations and logistics – both the concepts and the career paths. There are a ton of books that inspire kids to be a fireman or a doctor or an astronaut, but not so many about being a digital supply chain analyst or a procurement manager. Astronaut books are great – shoot for the moon and all that – but it’s also nice to show kids something that’s a little more down-to-earth.
What is your biggest passion? Do you feel like you're living your passion and purpose?
I don’t know. I don’t know what my biggest passion is. I know lots of things that aren’t my passion, like maintaining sales revenue dashboards, and I’m glad that I’m not doing them anymore.
I’m also sort of glad that I haven’t found my one huge, life-defining passion. Maybe that means it’s still out there. I do know, however, that there are lots of little things that light me up – and lots of little things that I can do to light up others – and that’s just as exciting. Having lots of little passions seems like a more robust system, plus much less stressful. If I had only one single, all-encompassing passion, I’d live in constant fear of messing it up.
What is your joy blueprint? What lights you up, brings you joy, and makes you feel the most alive?
Writing – finding exactly the right words to express an idea, while being funny and clever and entertaining – brings me joy. Talking to other people – mutually beneficial, enjoyable conversations – lights me up. Hiking – standing on the side of an eternal, steadfast, immovable mountain and realizing that I am incredibly small but also incredibly powerful – makes me feel alive.
How do you live intentionally? Are there tools/resources/practices that you rely on to help you stay mindful and grounded?
A few years ago, my husband and I wrote down a set of principles that we try to live by – a list of things like “Be truthful,” “Be open-minded,” and “Become anti-fragile.” We review the list each week, discussing ways that we lived up to (or missed the mark) on each principle, and revisiting the list itself. We’ve added a few, revised a few, and watched a couple morph in meaning over time. Our principles grow with us and keep us focused on the things that matter.
What would your younger self think about what you're doing now?
Probably what my current self thinks. I can’t really conceive of a younger, markedly different self with a completely different viewpoint…I know I’ve changed over the years, but the change has been so gradual that I can’t point to a clear before and after.
Actually, there is one thing my younger self might wonder about. When I was 16, I had a terrible experience on a language exchange trip to France; when I came home, I announced that I was never leaving the United States of America again. Fast forward, and I’ve now lived in Switzerland for almost ten years. Life has a way of giggling at your absolutes.
Do you have a go-to mantra or affirmation?
I have a couple of go -tos. First of all, I’m pretty bought-in to the idea of affirmations. I’m one of those people who says their daily affirmations each morning while taking a cold shower…not in an Instagram, Look-At-Me-10Xing-My-Life-type way, but because I’ve found that they really work. We also have a Preston Meyer family motto: Deo crede sed a scopulis remiga (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks).
What is your biggest dream?
My biggest dream is to help people find common sense, critical thinking, & agency. Those are the most important values that we can be instilling – in kids, certainly, but even in adults.
One of the main reasons I’m excited about the Adventures of Supply Jane & Fifo is because they expose kids to some of the simple but powerful logic that makes the world around us work. My hope is that, once they realize that they are capable of understanding how things work, they can start thinking critically about whether things are working as well as they possibly can…and will recognize their own agency and ability to do something about it if they’re not.
Whether you’re four or you’re forty, you have the right – and the responsibility – to call a fraud a fraud. It’s like the Emperor’s New Clothes… when we see something that’s obviously wrong, but everyone else is ignoring it, we tend to assume thatwe’rethe ones with the false perception. Sometimes we need to be that lonely voice in the crowd that starts the chant that gets the emperor to put on some pants… and we need common sense, critical thinking, and agency to do it.
To connect with Megan and learn more visit her website https://megan.preston-meyer.com and on Instagram @mprestonmeyer Twitter @mprestonmeyer LinkedIn here and you can find The Adventures of Supply Jane & Fifo: www.supply-jane.com
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