Megan Eddings is one of the contributors for The Sixth Level AND recently was accepted to be a GDA Speaker. Megan’s keynote is called The Pivot to Positivity and is about choosing optimism as a strategy for both personal growth and business success. Megan shares real-life stories of resilience, showing how shifting perspective during setbacks can unlock creativity, stronger leadership, and better team dynamics. The talk inspires audiences to reframe challenges into opportunities, proving that positivity can drive both morale and measurable results.
Megan Eddings’ answers to the 5 Sixth Level Contributor Questions.
1. What was your first job, and what did you learn from it that you still apply today?
Boy oh boy, what a question! I helped my neighbor with his paper route every Sunday morning, having to get up at 3:30am. I was about 10 years old. My older brother had helped with the paper route and I couldn’t wait because I wanted to make money: real money, I think I made a whopping $10 or $20 each week.
I had to be tall enough so he could see me in his rear-view mirror as I would sit on the back of his truck bed (where the hundreds of papers were) and run up and put the paper on the front door step. This was back in the day where you couldn’t just throw the paper in the yard.
I can still picture the smell of inhaling all of the fumes as we would go around the neighborhoods.
Before we even started the actual paper route, we would drive about 15 minutes (which was a LONG way being from Rhode Island) and assemble, fold and stuff these hundreds of newspapers: and then load them all into the bed of the truck.
A few learning lessons from that experience:
- If you want to make money, there is always a way to figure it out.
- It was not about being a boy or a girl, it was about if I could get the job done. I had never seen a female papergirl, yet no one ever once mentioned my gender: my neighbor just cared if I could get the job done.
- Biggest lesson: know your worth and don’t budge. I did NOT know my worth (heck, I was only 10 years old). Years later, I did the basic math and realized he was making hundreds of dollars each Sunday and only paying me $10 or $20. It is always important to understand the big picture and be your own advocate for your worth.
2. What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done outside of work, and how did it change your perspective?
A friend of mine was getting married in Portugal and I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding. I don’t like to fly, but I made a promise to myself in my 20s that I would never let a flight be a hinderance from having a new experience (I am actually leaving today to fly to Thailand by myself, so pounding the keyboard while filling out these questions is relieving some stress..haaha!). As a child, my family could not afford to go on vacation where a plane was involved, so on my first flight, I experienced the value of traveling and new cultures.
Because I don’t like to fly, there was NO WAY I was flying to Portugal and only staying a few days. At 31 years old, I decided to go a week early, by myself, rent a car and explore Portugal. This was back before there were maps on a cell phone. I had my keymap, made a plan before I arrived in Portugal and traveled.
I learned a lot, but the #1 I learned is that we all have WAY more similarities than differences, no matter where we are from.
3. What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve learned from a mentor or colleague?
I will answer this question as it relates to a friend. A dear friend was diagnosed with cancer about 1.5 years ago and her battle was very difficult. She just found out that she is now cancer free and we are all overjoyed. But she taught me something that I will carry with me forever: the choice of perspective.
I cannot imagine what she was going thru, not in a million years. However, she was so incredibly positive and focused on the beauty in everyday things: the warmth of her coffee mug, the sun shining on her face, the leaves moving on the trees.
Did she have her down moments? Sure, but she was filled with gratitude for the smallest things in life and I was always in awe being with her or talking to her on the phone. She was not defined by her cancer diagnosis and at the age of only 20, she possessed more wisdom, empathy, joy and love than anyone I have ever met.
We are not bound by our circumstances, the little things are where life’s beauty shines the brightest.
4. What is the most recent leadership challenge you have faced?
For the past 1.5 years, a potential customer continuously was asking us for a quote, yet we would never win the deal. I am the Chief Strategy Officer for an energy consulting company and I am new to the energy world. I really wanted to understand the process before I took any action. The gift of time, when combined with careful observation, paves the way to success.
Let’s just say, I took action a few weeks ago. The feeling that I was having (story I was telling myself) was that he had to collect 3 quotes to appease his boss, but he always knew he would be choosing a company other than ours. While I completely understand a company having their favorite to work with (we strive to be this for our customers), I did not want to keep putting together quotes, knowing that we would never win the deal.
However, this was the story I was telling myself and the only way to find out the real story was to call the customer, lead with empathy, questions and curiosity and see what he said. Long story short, I think he was taken back by my call, but in a great and respectful way. Very few people actually pick up the phone (or have a meeting in person) and have an honest dialogue with their customers or potential customers. How can we help/move on if we don’t know the truth and just keeping assuming we know all of the answers.
While the call was very productive, he explained why they kept choosing another company. I also found out some of the hesitations he had with the other company and he implied that he would choose us for the next project. When he mentioned his hesitations with the other company, which I found out thru asking questions, I was able to share with him that our services would bring him confidence in the very thing he was having hesitations about.
While I have not received any word about us winning the next project, I am proud of myself for picking up the phone and leading with a tone of maturity , empathy and curiosity. Potentially, this one act could have earned us the business for not just one deal, but future deals as well. Now we wait and see!
- How does The Sixth Level show up in your life?
As I look back at all of my responses and other experiences to date, they all possess sixth level qualities. The Sixth Level is about personal leadership growth, having a deeper self-awareness, with increased emotional intelligence, and alignment. We all have the ability to become better leaders for our business, family and community and the sixth level provides tools, stories and analyses that help accelerate this process.
The Sixth Level emerges from the social psychology of women, especially the theory of “Self-in-Relation”, which sees connections, mutuality, care and relational belonging as essential. Because of my experiences leaning into these core differentiators, I am a more effective leader, more at peace with being a leader and I get to experience the absolute joy in witnessing and experiencing the world around me thru this Sixth Level lens.