Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Maiers.
Hi Angela, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am actually a medical school dropout.
I began college believing medicine was going to be my path, but while putting myself through school, I worked four different jobs, all of them in some way connected to children and families. Somewhere in the middle of all that working, studying, and trying to become who I thought I was supposed to become, I discovered something important: this was what made me come alive.
I loved being around children. I loved watching them discover what they were capable of. I loved the relationships with families. I loved the extraordinary privilege of being present when a young person began to see something in themselves they had not seen before.
Once I understood that, there was really no going back. I changed direction and never looked back. I am an educator. I always have been, and I always will be.
But I never lost my passion for science. In fact, it became an essential part of the educator I became. My continued study of neuroscience, human development, and how the brain learns has informed virtually every aspect of my career and my life. It helped me understand that what happens between people is not separate from learning. Relationships, emotion, attention, identity, belonging, and our sense of significance profoundly influence how we learn, grow, take risks, and see what is possible for ourselves.
I started my official teaching career as a kindergarten teacher, and in many ways, everything I believe today began in that classroom. I learned very early that before children can learn from us, they need to know that we see them, that we believe in them, and that their presence matters.
Over the course of my career, I have had the extraordinary privilege of teaching at virtually every level, from kindergarten through college and graduate school. I have worked with students, teachers, school leaders, families, and communities across the country and around the world. Each experience expanded my understanding of education, but the question underneath my work remained remarkably consistent: What happens when people truly know they matter?
That question eventually took me beyond my own classroom. I became an author, speaker, and educational consultant, working with schools and organizations to rethink learning, leadership, engagement, and human potential. I have written eight books, spoken to audiences around the world, and spent more than three decades helping educators create environments where people are not simply expected to perform, but are known, valued, and needed.
That work ultimately led me to found Choose2Matter, a global movement built around a simple but transformative belief: people need to know that they matter, and they need opportunities to show others that they matter, too.
What began as something I instinctively understood as a kindergarten teacher has become the central mission of my life’s work. Today, I work with educators, leaders, organizations, young people, and families to move mattering from an idea or inspirational message into something that can be intentionally created, practiced, measured, and embedded into culture.
I have certainly taken a much bigger journey than I could have imagined when I first walked into that kindergarten classroom, but in many ways, I am still doing exactly what I was doing then: helping people recognize the value they already possess and giving them the courage and opportunity to use it to make a difference.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Has it been a smooth road?
Not even close. I could probably write another book answering this question alone.
I have spent much of my career building things that did not come with a roadmap. I started my own business, launched a nonprofit, wrote books, built a global movement, created programs and partnerships, and took ideas I believed in deeply and tried to bring them into the world. The life of an entrepreneur and founder is not for the faint of heart.
There have been incredible successes, but there have also been failures, financial uncertainty, rejection, ideas that did not work, opportunities that disappeared, and partnerships that taught me some very hard lessons. I have worked with extraordinary people who made me better, and I have trusted people who turned out not to be the partners I believed they were. I have had moments when everything seemed to be working and others when I genuinely wondered what I was going to do next.
When you build something of your own, there is rarely a safety net. You make decisions without knowing whether they will work. You invest your time, money, heart, reputation, and often an unreasonable amount of yourself into something because you believe it matters. And then you discover very quickly that believing deeply in something does not guarantee that the world will immediately understand it, fund it, support it, or even notice it.
That can be incredibly hard.
But every failure, every disappointment, and every struggle has made me stronger. I know that can sound cliché, but I believe it more today than I ever have: it is often the pain that shows us what we are made of.
The difficult seasons have forced me to become more resourceful, more courageous, and much more comfortable with beginning again. They have taught me when to fight harder and when to let go. They have taught me that asking for help is a strength, that changing direction is not the same thing as giving up, and that sometimes the thing you thought was falling apart is actually making room for what comes next.
I have also learned not to confuse success with the absence of struggle. You can write books, speak on stages around the world, build a movement, and experience extraordinary professional opportunities while still facing uncertainty behind the scenes. Success stories are rarely straight lines. Mine certainly hasn’t been.
And perhaps the most important lesson has been learning not to let an outcome determine my worth. Businesses change. Projects fail. Partnerships end. Doors close. Life can change without asking our permission. None of those things changes our inherent value.
That is one reason mattering has become so much more than my professional work. It is something I have had to learn and relearn throughout my own life.
I would not choose every painful experience again. But I would never give back the person those experiences required me to become.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about C Corp?
Maiers Educational Services, Inc. is the company through which I have spent more than three decades working with schools, organizations, leaders, educators, young people, and families around the world. My work includes keynote speaking, consulting, professional learning, leadership development, and long-term partnerships designed to help organizations create cultures where people can learn, contribute, and thrive.
At the heart of that work is Choose2Matter, the global movement I founded around a simple but powerful belief: every person needs to know that they matter, and every person needs opportunities to show others that they matter, too.
What began as a message to students has grown into a much larger body of work around the science and practice of mattering. Today, I help organizations move mattering beyond inspiration and into implementation. That means examining how people are welcomed, led, taught, communicated with, listened to, and given meaningful opportunities to contribute. My work focuses on creating cultures where people know they are seen, heard, valued, and needed, not simply because those things feel good, but because they profoundly affect how people learn, lead, perform, persist, and participate.
What I believe sets my work apart is the intersection of research, practice, and humanity. I have spent my entire career as an educator and practitioner, while continuing to study neuroscience, human development, learning, and the growing body of research around mattering. I take those ideas and translate them into practices that people can actually use in classrooms, organizations, leadership teams, families, and communities.
I am particularly proud that Choose2Matter has never been about building a brand around me. It has always been about building a belief in other people. The goal is not for someone to leave one of my keynotes saying, “Angela inspired me.” The goal is for them to leave looking at the people around them differently and asking, “Who needs to know they matter, and what am I going to do about it?”
That is ultimately what connects everything I do, whether I am speaking to thousands of people, working alongside a leadership team, helping educators transform a school culture, writing a book, or sitting with a group of young people.
I don’t simply want people to understand mattering. I want them to know how to create it for someone else.
What matters most to you?
This may be my favorite question in the world. In fact, it is one of the questions I lead with most often: What matters most to you, and why?
We don’t ask it nearly enough of ourselves or of one another. Yet I believe the answer reveals so much about who we are, what gives our lives meaning, what we are willing to fight for, and where we choose to invest our most precious resources: our time, attention, energy, and love.
For me, the answer is simple: people matter most.
That belief has become the throughline of my life and my work. Every human being needs to know that they are seen, heard, valued, and needed. Not occasionally. Not only when they achieve something. Not because of a title, a grade, a position, or what they can produce for someone else. Simply because they are here.
That is why mattering matters so deeply to me.
I believe our sense of mattering sits at the heart of our aliveness, our resilience, and our capacity to make an impact. When people know they matter, they show up differently. They take risks. They contribute. They recover from setbacks. They begin to recognize that their presence has significance and that they have something the world needs.
But there is another half of mattering that is equally important to me. It is not enough to know that we matter. We need to know that we can matter to someone else.
That is where agency lives.
Every one of us has the capacity to notice another human being, listen deeply, believe in someone, invite their contribution, speak possibility into them, or simply remind them that their presence makes a difference. We do not need a title, money, permission, or extraordinary circumstances to do that.
Perhaps that is why I keep returning to this question. What matters most to you? is not simply asking us what we care about. It asks us to examine whether the way we are living reflects what we say matters.
Because ultimately, what matters most should shape how we spend our lives.
And I have chosen to spend mine helping people know that they matter and recognize their power to make sure someone else knows it, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://angelamaiers.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angela.maiers
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelamaiers/
- Twitter: https://x.com/AngelaMaiers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AngelaMaiers
- Other: Choose2Matter.org. MisforMattering.com
