Maegan Lujan, Director, Solutions & Services at Toshiba
Maegan Lujan is referred to as a thought-influencer in the digital industry. Maegan is a strategist, storyteller, and personal branding expert that offers unique digital products to individuals and customized workshops to corporations looking to create authority, credibility, and trust.
Maegan's journey has taken her from high risk in foster care to high potential in the boardroom of Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.
In 2016 Maegan was recognized as a Young Influencer and 2019 Woman of Influence by The Cannata Report.
Also in 2019, Maegan earned a nomination (Women in Business Award) from the Orange County Business Journal.
You can check more about Maegan's stories visiting maeganlujan.com.
Tell us about your current role and what you like about your career or areas of focus.
I am currently the director of solutions and services at Toshiba America Business Solutions.
Toshiba has given me the absolute best runway a woman could ask for. They have helped me learn from the best minds, as well as lead some of the best minds. Through Toshiba, I have been able to travel all over the world and speak on stages representing the essence of their brand.
Plus, as a result of my work at Toshiba, I have been recognized for some pretty amazing awards and nominations, including Orange County Business Journal Women in Business 2019 nomination, as well as the 2016 Young Influencer and 2019 Woman of Influence by The Cannata Report.
In addition to my day job, I am also passionate about empowering others to do their best in their roles while also exploring how to turn their passions into side hustles.
I have been recognized as a thought-influencer and am an expert on branding. Through my private, corporate workshops and digital products, I am able to apply all I have learned in corporate and beyond to help others also be the CEO of their own brands.
What inspires you, motivates you, helps you make each day count?
As a former foster youth from a broken home, I have not let myself be defined by the stigma surrounding my upbringing. Rather than fall victim to the instability of my surroundings, I took control of my journey and channelled my energy towards positive growth and self-improvement. That journey is what helps me make each day count.
I also have not forgotten that journey—it made me who I am today, which is why I'm passionate about inspiring and encouraging people from all walks of life to feel comfortable in their own skin and pursue their passions.
I love helping people and want to see them succeed while charting their own path. I also want to normalize the definition of success so that others can see how attainable it is by providing customized digital resources and consulting sessions.
Outside of your professional work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Outside of my professional life, I am an avid gardener. For me, it is all about what science cultivates and enjoying the fruits of your labour, literally.
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. It represents daily actions turned into a long-term goal. Also, gardening cultivates an understanding of what it means to feed, nurture, and care for yourself and others.
There are so many parallels that I draw with gardening and the way I grew up. It is my favourite pastime.
When it comes to your chosen career, is there a phrase, quote or saying that you really like?
One of my favourite quotes that relate to my career is, "If you love what you do and do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
I truly love my job and believe that equates to finding balance in your work that satisfies you both emotionally and financially.
Yes, it still works, but it gives me a sense of pride to do it and do it well. I am dedicated to showing people how to find the balance between living your passion while still having your day job.
What are you most proud of in your life?
Overcoming the adversity that I went through. We all face obstacles in our journeys, and we all have the choice of how we respond to them. By taking ownership of our journey and the choices we make, we are free to create a new path forward. I'm a testament to all of this.
My life, success, and reality should have been different, based on where I came from. I grew up without a mother or father, at least not in the traditional sense. My basic needs were not met. I was a foster kid, and I experienced everything that went along with that stigma.
Then, at 14, I was entirely on my own. I did not go to high school. There was not any college. I did, however, fight daily to survive.
Here I am, nearly two decades later, at the top of my game. I am leading a team at a Fortune 500 corporation. I am successful in ways I never dreamed possible, but always had an inclination could be in my future.
My upbringing, or lack thereof, gave me the skills needed to thrive in a professional capacity.
Because of that, I am passionate about helping others learn how to chart their own path and turn their liabilities into the exact things that propel them forward. I hope I can be a beacon of hope to inspire and motivate others.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
There are three main things I wish I would have known:
First, find a company whose values and mission are in alignment with your own. That will help you chase the sunrise every morning to support that vision. If the company's values and your own are not in alignment, it is a recipe for disaster—and a draining lifestyle.
Second, it is going to take more cycles than you think to earn your experience, and that turns into credibility. There is a little bit of patience that is necessary to go along with one's persistence and zeal.
Finally, to never be discouraged - keep getting back up and grow by taking on every project, and coming at every new experience from a place of learning. It is so important to remember that every day is an experience, a new chance to learn and grow.
Who do you admire in business, academic, or creative circles?
Two people I admire are Gary Vaynerchuk and Oprah Winfrey.
With Gary, I appreciate the grit and work he puts in. He is all about making this world a better place by provoking happiness, encouraging people to take ownership, and making it happen.
With Oprah, I love how she brings intentionality into everything that she does. She does not touch anything that is not driven by her values. I find that admirable.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
I‘m biased towards my employer, Toshiba. Toshiba's values are aligned with mine, and I am fortunate that I get to live out those values in my personal and professional life.
This truly creates the space for a work/life integration where we are able to centre ourselves instead of struggle for a work/life balance. It also allows me to show up as my full self and become the best leader out there for my team and business.
Outside of my employer, and from a personal style perspective, I dress head to toe in Ted Baker. They stitch together a harmony of being feminine and formidable in life and career. It’s about never compromising style and comfort, regardless of the boardroom or Zoom call. It is about owning your story, sticking to your values, and literally getting what you want, all while wearing Ted Baker heels.
I also love what Apple has done with security and privacy protection.
I am a fan of Wendy's brand and their digital presence, they brought up the game for their industry in authenticity and approachability by having a clearly defined brand voice and tone.
What is the best advice you ever received?
"Learn the business from the ground up." If you want to succeed, you have to know the ins and outs—plus all the inner workings—of what you're doing.
You are going to burn the midnight oil and put in long hours to do so, but you are going to make better decisions and feel a unique sense of personal gratification if you do so. Especially in the beginning.
You will need to learn every aspect of the business, even if it means scrubbing the floors if that is what is needed. Being successful in business is not always as glamorous as it seems. You have to put in hard work.
What drives or motivates you each day in a work environment?
Nothing motivates me more each day than to solve a problem and create a solution.
There is a moment of impact and improvement in that result that feels like you are conquering the world, which is the reason why I have developed personal brand solutions to share with people globally.
What are your thoughts on the future of social media?
A change with pushing content down as friends and individuals, to individuals curating their content and pulling it in. That is all due to the dose of intentionality that we have all received over the last year with the various impacts of COVID-19.
People are going to consume the type of content that they want when they want it.
We are going to take more responsibility for curating what we want to see ourselves versus waiting for someone else to bring it to us. Which will result in demographics gravitating to social media platforms and sharing content with people in different generations based off of their needs or desires. This then leads itself to a pollination effect with thought leader influencers.
Diversification in a social media platform's availability is going to need to be taken back at the individual level. For this reason, you will start to see more micro niche social platforms being built up.
What is your favourite social platform, and why?
The social media platform that speaks to me most is LinkedIn. With LinkedIn, it is all about the intentional digital culture that is cultivated through your connections.
You are getting to know them over a long period of time in a more intimate and accessible way than some of the other profile social media applications.
I am also able to articulate my experience with personal branding and Toshiba to help and support others that are seeking guidance online.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever been a mentor to anyone?
For a little over a year, I have been participating in a mentoring program, Executive Leaders Tomorrow (ELT) with Toshiba.
I was selected as the protégé and mentee to our CEO, Scott Maccabe, and have been developing my skills in corporate and executive leadership.
I have also been working with my executive coach, which has navigated me through various assessments and programs on results-driven leadership development.
This program has shaped me into a digital leader, able to assess strategic business needs, develop strategy and design new, innovative solutions that address the challenges of today.
How do you network? What is your preferred way to network?
My career keeps me busy and when we are not in a pandemic, I am always on the go with business-related travel. So, I prefer to network through LinkedIn. I am very particular in my content curation and the mindshare that I provide on that platform.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work?
The advice I would give someone looking to get into the same area of work as me is, to "date" your curiosities and passions in the workplace. Find out what makes you tick in the things that you are willing to just dig deep and understand and dive in. It is along the way that you will find out whether or not this is something that you are particularly interested in or not.
It is easier to see whether or not you are okay to move on to the next thing in order to follow your vision and mission in life. But, always remember to end the relationship in a respectful way. Those colleagues that you come in contact with at the beginning of your career could end up being key parts to your success decades later. Or even your boss.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Failing and giving up are actually two very different things to me.
Although failure is painful, everyone at some point has failed. But a lot of us have then embraced that failure only to turn it into one of our biggest successes. From great innovators to artists to public figures, who used failure as a driving force on their way to achieving greatness. It is one of the reasons why I actually embrace failing.
Giving up to me feels like a choice. One chooses to "give up" on things. Which, in turn, can be very healthy, and that needs to be normalized. If something does not serve you or help you become the best version of yourself, then I think one should give oneself grace paired with the situational awareness to "give up." Or, in translation, to "stop trying."
You are allowed to choose what serves you and what meshes with your vision and mission in life. As humans, we are supposed to grow and become better versions of ourselves. Even if that means taking different paths to try to find out what you like or do not like.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience?
I want to change what the definition of success is for everyone out there. This is the fuel that keeps me going and wanting to continue to make an impact.
Success is about how to chart your own path forward. My upbringing, or lack thereof, gave me the skills needed to thrive in a professional capacity. Because of that, I am called to help others learn how to chart their own path and turn their liabilities into the exact things that propel them forward. It was clear very early on that the typical definition of success was not enough to motivate me to do my best work or feel fulfilled.
I have realized I want to spend more meaningful use of my time impacting other people's lives through helping them tell their stories and highlight their unique gifts. I want to travel the world and go on an unlimited amount of adventures while cultivating a strong and positive mindset. That is a success!
What skills do you feel have helped you to become successful?
Communication. You have to make sure you spend extra time crafting your voice and tone to establish the credibility of your vision, purpose, and positioning through communication. If you want to be successful, you can not be communicating.
Second, having a well-rounded resume, one where I started from the bottom and worked my way up, has been crucial to my success. I took any job possible in order to make ends meet and survive. Then, I followed my curiosity by starting as a temporary scanner operator and later moved into a position selling software. With each role, I have developed critical skills that served as stepping stones to the next opportunity.
In my quest to understand how products were developed, I landed at another software company. It was this constant thirst for understanding the product lifecycle and go-to-market strategy that led me into portfolio management—and my director role—with Toshiba. Being able to see this industry from every aspect has been a game-changer for me.
Is there anything new that you are working on or involved in that you would like to share?
As someone with experience showing up digitally and navigating, telling my journey while simultaneously having a corporate brand, I have learned quite a few lessons about building a personal brand the right way, which is why I am excited to debut my book, A Million Little Clicks, this fall.
It is not only a book, but a digital workbook full of exercises to take you from 0 to brand built by the end, and it fully includes all of the steps I have learned to be successful through my own personal brand.
I am sharing the best practices I used to help businesses and professionals do the same in this book and its accompanying workbook. More information can be found by visiting maeganlujan.com.