Lunch Bunch: Kelsey's Roadhouse
WA admin: Diane Comstock
Sami Jo Small, 3 time Olympian (2 gold, 1 silver)
Sami Jo has been speaking professionally since she started with the National Team in 1997. When many of her teammates shied away from the microphone, Sami Jo was quick to share stories about the team. She has honed her message about teamwork after more than 25 years in the industry using stories from one of Canada's most successful teams, the Canadian Women's Hockey Team. A team then won 4 straight Olympic Gold medals over 25 years. She delves into the personalities on the team and her thoughts on what makes strong teammates and ultimately success as a team. With her learnings she has shown audiences all over the world that,
"In life, you don't always get to choose the role you play, but you always get to choose how you play it."
Sami Jo has earned the highest designation as a speaking professional, the CSP (Certified Speaking professional) of which there only just over 500 worldwide and only a handful of former athletes. She began her career as a 13 year old winning her local Manitoba French speaking contest, the "Concours D'Art Oratoire" giving a speech on Manon Rhéaume, the first women to play in the NHL. Sami Jo won despite having broken a tooth in half that morning playing sports in the gym. She parlayed that into a role as school president, then class valedictorian, always loving to be at the front of the room.
Her career really began in the industry after earning her degree from Stanford University in the Mechanical Engineer school while focusing on Product Design. Despite an engineering degree in the Silicon Valley in the 90's, Sami choose to move to Toronto to become a full-time hockey player. She supplemented her hockey income (very little) by doing speaking events and the rest is history.
She's been speaking professional for more than 25 years, serving on the board of the Canadian Association of professional speakers and mentoring other Olympic athletes as they transition into the business of speaking.
