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Meredith Fineman  

Publishing Expert; Executive Coach; Speaker on Professional Development, Women's Empowerment, Leadership & Self-Expression; Bestselling Author of "Brag Better"

Meredith Fineman puts the best words in the best order for a living. She is a bestselling author, speaker, writer, publishing expert, and executive coach working at the intersection of self-advocacy and self-expression.

Fineman is the author of the bestselling book "Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion" (Portfolio Penguin Random House, 2020). "Brag Better" is based on her ten years of building a framework for strategic self-promotion grounded in public relations, communications, and leadership professional development. The book is for The Qualified Quiet — those who have done the work but don’t know how to talk about it. This audience term is one that Fineman owns and created. The book has been published domestically and internationally, focusing on Asian-language audiences, with editions in Taiwan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand.

An expert in the publishing industry, Fineman has written dozens of book proposals for clients, advised them on how to begin the book process, and run public relations campaigns for book releases. Her unique combination of writing and promotion makes her an advocate for book concepts and what it takes to pitch and sell them to leading publishers. She specializes in non-fiction and non-traditional voices entering the big five publishing houses. She also collaborates on select book projects.

Fineman’s Brag Better-related ventures include bootcamps, Masterminds, and webinars around feeling proud of your work and advocating on your own behalf to advance in career. She creates products for companies and individuals. She leads quarterly Brag Better Bootcamps for individuals and custom bootcamp versions for brands, companies, and corporations with specialties in addressing issues around cultivating an environment of healthy pride, a diversity of voices, championing employee work, and bragging on behalf of yourself and others. Fineman’s individual clients range from entrepreneurs to corporate leadership, new workforce members to middle management looking to kickstart careers. Her corporate and brand clients range from Fortune 500 companies to household tech brands.

Fineman is a frequent keynote speaker on domestic and global stages. In the past year, she has spoken to Intel, Capital One, Bloomberg, Meta, Microsoft, Google, and more. She also speaks at conferences like the 3% Conference and at prestigious universities like Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Topics range from her core Brag Better philosophy to visibility for women to corporate culture and a diversity of voices.

Self-expression and voice also lend themselves to physical appearance — Fineman’s is an expert in sustainable fashion by way of secondhand, resale, and vintage. She launched a popular podcast on the subject, "It Never Gets Old," in 2018, with over 1MM downloads. She speaks and writes on the topic, and in 2022, launched Secondhand Society — a platform and hub for all things secondhand and sustainable fashion.

A freelance writer of 19 years, Fineman has held columns and bylines in Harvard Business Review, FastCompany, Forbes, Inc, Elle, Shondaland, Cosmopolitan, and more. She writes about entrepreneurship, business, women’s issues, and fashion. She collaborated on a best-selling book, "Microtrends Squared" (2018). She founded Women Write Washington, an event series celebrating women-identifying authors.

Fineman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, Magna Cum Laude, with a double major in communications and Hispanic studies. She is “lifer” of the Sidwell Friends School. She resides in Los Angeles, California.

Speech Topics

BRAG BETTER: WHAT THE QUALIFIED QUIET NEEDS TO KNOW

Fineman has spent a decade creating a framework for strategic self-promotion. She trains and champions Qualified Quiet — those who have done the work but don’t know how to promote it. It’s a misnomer that your work will speak for itself, and through her tried and true strategies (including the best-selling book with Penguin Randomhouse in June 2020), Fineman will concisely explain why we don’t brag and why we are missing out if we don’t. Your audience will walk away with tangible strategies for effective bragging today, tomorrow, this month, and this year.

WOMEN AND BRAGGING: THE TIGHTROPE OF VISIBILITY

In this talk, Fineman goes into one of her core specialties — underrepresented voices, particularly women, and discusses the history of self-promotion and gender. She delves into strategies for comfort, empowerment, and confidence around sharing key wins using Brag Better tactics. These concrete strategies result in more money, recognition, promotions, and a culture of pride among women. Fineman is a winner among audiences of women (and allies) as she addresses and combats the scrutiny of being a woman who talks confidently about her work.

CREATING A CULTURE OF HEALTHY PRIDE

Fineman knows that the word “brag” might be a bad one. But in her ten years of building a framework for strategic self-promotion, she argues that it’s necessary for companies to create, foster, and endorse a culture of healthy pride and a diversity of voices at the office (even if that office is virtual). In her session, she runs through the importance of encouraging employees to speak about their accomplishments, highlighting those of their colleagues, and elevating the voices of those who need to be heard for a more inclusive work future. She runs through roadblocks that the Qualified Quiet — those who have done the work but don’t know how to tout it — run into at work and how to make sure that leadership listens to and promotes the work that matters.

CUSTOM WORKSKHOPS

These workshops are entirely custom to a company’s goals. Thematic exercises, fireside chats, and a custom keynote allow organizations to target issues like — managing up, and retention of high-level talent (and high-level diverse talent), business development and client interactions, how to run a meeting, performance reviews, and beyond.

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