I’m what you might refer to as a casual football fan – I didn’t even go to a college with a football team and it’s honestly never going to ruin my day if my team loses. But I do enjoy going to games and watching them at home (even though after all these years my husband still has to explain things from me from time to time, haha!). I remember watching when Sarah Thomas joined the NFL and thinking – wow she’s the only woman on an entire field of men, you go girl! So when Sarah was scheduled to speak at the Memphis advertising association I had to go – even though I’m not a member.
The lunch was actually held in the media box overlooking the field at The Liberty Bowl and I must admit it was a pretty nice view. Maybe if I blog about football more I can score a media pass – kidding sort of ,UofM call me! When we (I went with a female leader at my company) walked in Sarah was right there mingling and came up to say hello. Honestly I didn’t realize it was her at first because I didn’t expect her to just be mingling but also y’all – she’s tall (she looks so short on tv but it makes since you know football players can be big guys). After everyone went through the buffet and settled in Sarah started her presentation.
I don’t want to share Sarah’s entire story here -not because it wasn’t super interesting – because I hope if you have the opportunity to hear her speak you will do so. But, I will share the more motivational speaker aspects of her presentation which was titled Simple Math. Sarah started out by sharing what she calls quotes to live by:
Be Yourself because everyone else is already taken
Don’t let people drive you crazy when you know it’s walking distance
A successful person is someone who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her – David Brinkley
Sarah shared her story and how these quotes applied to challenges she faced. She also shared some of her own “Sarahisms:
Don’t do it to prove anyone wrong, that list will never end
Do it because you love it, not for the recognition – the recognition will come
The way you carry yourself will dictate the way you are treated
Being first means nothing – be inspiring
Don’t Do it for the recognition
The title of the talk was simple math because at the end Sarah went over something I’m sure a lot of you have seen before how if you apply a number to every word of the alphabet you can get some values to various words and see that being LAZY (64) will get you a failing grade, being CONFIDENT (78) is better but still not enough, EXCUSSES (96) can get you close to the top but not quite there, LEADERSHIP (97) and HARDWORK (98) will also get you pretty close but it is ATTITUDE (100) that will get you to the top. Also – being MOTIVATED (129) and DETERMINATION (147) will get you further.
Honestly. I’ve just been a point in my life lately where I’ve been discouraged and just needed to hear these things so this talk really spoke to me. Afterwards I was able to get a photo with Sarah and thank her for the fabulous talk. I’m so glad I went to the lunch and I’m looking forward to seeing Sarah continue to succeed with the NFL – Sarah did mention that there are several women in the NFL’s training program now so I’m looking forward to seeing more women on the field breaking through the ceiling she shattered.