Available to book
Marissa Pei
Empower your audience to claim their right to happiness with Dr. Marissa Pei, organizational psychologist and talk show host. Marissa works with Fortune 500 clients across the US and globally, delivering keynotes on happiness, workplace wellbeing, and change management, with clients including Google, Johnson and Johnson, and Wells Fargo.
Dr. Marissa Pei has spent more than 25 years making the case that happiness is not a soft topic. With a PhD in Organizational Psychology and a client list that spans Johnson and Johnson, Google, Toyota, Cedars-Sinai, Wells Fargo, and Mattel, she brings rigorous organizational science to the question of why people thrive, or don't, at work and in life.
Beyond the stage, Marissa is the host and producer of Take My Advice, I'm Not Using It: Get Balanced with Dr. Marissa, a talk radio and TV show that has run for more than 13 years and 700 consecutive weeks on NBC News Radio station KCAA. It has over 4.2 million impressions and 500,000 downloads. Known for interviewing film and TV icons, Grammy winners, New York Times bestselling authors, and humanitarians, she has built one of the most consistent platforms in the wellness broadcasting space. The show earned a Top 10 Podcast of the Year Award in Health in 2016 and the COVR Visionary Award in 2019.
Marissa's central premise is that pain in life is mandatory, but suffering is optional. Drawing on that conviction, she developed the 8 Ways to Happiness framework, which forms the backbone of her keynotes, workshops, and coaching programs. Her book of the same name hit eight bestseller lists, including a number one spot on Amazon, and received endorsements from Neale Donald Walsch, Michael Bernard Beckwith, and Laila Ali.
On stage, Marissa customizes every talk to its audience, weaving together organizational psychology, humor, and audience interaction. Her corporate work spans change management, leadership effectiveness, valuing diversity, and interpersonal dynamics, always anchored in the conviction that more joy and less stress at work are achievable.
Topics, sessions and talks
Stress, burnout, and disengagement have become default settings for too many people at work, and the data behind that trend is hard to ignore. Dr. Marissa Pei draws on her PhD in Organizational Psychology and the framework from her number one bestselling book 8 Ways to Happiness to address why happiness is not a personality trait but a practice. Audiences leave with a set of evidence-based tools for shifting their baseline, managing the emotional weight of high-pressure environments, and choosing a different response to the unavoidable difficulties of working life.
Overload is not a time management problem; it is a meaning problem. Dr. Marissa Pei takes audiences through the gap between working harder and living better, showing how individuals caught in cycles of busyness and burnout can reclaim a sense of purpose and control. Drawing on her work as an organizational psychologist with major corporations on both coasts of the US, she offers a practical reframe of work-life balance that replaces the guilt of doing less with the clarity of choosing well.
Change initiatives fail not because of poor strategy but because of the human reaction to uncertainty. Dr. Marissa Pei brings 25-plus years of organizational development experience to the challenge of getting people to move, from apathy to engagement and from resistance to commitment. Using tools drawn from her 8 Ways to Happiness framework, this talk helps leaders and teams find the meaning in disruption, reduce the friction of transition, and rebuild a culture where change is seen as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Most workplace conflict is not about the work. It is about the deeply human tendencies that follow people through every organization they join. Dr. Marissa Pei draws on her background as one of the first diversity consultants in the US, having designed organization-wide initiatives for companies including Mattel and the County of Los Angeles, to decode what creates friction between people and what resolves it. Audiences walk away with practical tools for moving from conflict to cooperation and building teams that actually function.
Dr. Marissa Pei is a strong fit for events where the happiness conversation needs to land with real credibility. With a PhD in Organizational Psychology and 13 years hosting a nationally syndicated radio and TV show, she brings a media profile and content depth that position her well for keynotes, panels, and conference emceeing alike.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Marissa Pei, email dr.marissa.pei@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Dr. Marissa's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Marissa Pei structures her talks around the 8 Ways to Happiness framework, drawn from her number one bestselling book of the same name, applying it as a practical tool set for diagnosing and shifting workplace behaviour rooted in organisational psychology research.
Dr Marissa Pei's sessions address workplace happiness and stress, work-life balance and burnout, and change management and organisational resilience. She holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology, has consulted for clients including Johnson & Johnson, Google and Toyota across more than 25 years, and her book 8 Ways to Happiness reached number one on Amazon.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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