Laura Okmin is a Hall of Fame sports reporter who has had a very long and successful career not just in the sports world but also in her extensive work empowering other women in the sports industry. Okmin says that for the first 20 years of her career she did not have the right mindset for herself. She was too focused on telling other people’s stories and as a result she was not focusing on her own life. This all changed when she had a near death experience when a plane she was flying on nearly crashed. After this Okmin says she made a vow to start living a life that would make her care about life. She says her goal was to make her life bigger than herself, and start helping people with the lessons she has learned in her career. Okmin started GALVANIZE, an organization dedicated to helping women in sports find their confidence in themselves and their work in order to help them be successful. She states that she hopes that after she is gone people do not remember the things she did for herself, but the things she did to help and empower other people. Okmin talks more with Pro Mindset® Podcast host Craig Domann about the importance of confidence in the sports world, as well as how her mindset has evolved over the course of her life.
“What I hope the legacy is isn’t what I did but what I did for other people and made their lives and their careers better because of it.”
Laura Okmin has had a very impressive career. It is very difficult for women to find long term success in the sports world, and Okmin has had to prove herself more than her male colleagues at every step of her career. However, she has also expanded her impact on more than just her career. Through her work with GALVANIZE she has managed to help thousands of women gain the knowledge and confidence necessary to succeed in such a competitive and male dominated industry.
“Everyone would ask ‘what’s your plan B?’ I would always just say my plan B is just to figure out how to get plan A to work”
This quote from Okmin does a great job of highlighting one of the most important aspects of the Pro Mindset, which is passion. From her first sports journalism course, in which she was the only woman, Okmin knew that her path to success would not be easy. During her entire career she was consistently looked down upon, with people telling her that this industry was not for her and that she would never succeed. Despite all of this, because of her immense passion and desire to work in the industry, Okmin was able to find great success. She knew what she wanted and would not settle for anything less. This is a perfect example of why passion is so important not just for athletes, but for anyone who has a dream they want to achieve. It would have been easy for Okmin to listen to the criticism and give up on her dream, but she refused to do so and has now found incredible success in sports journalism as well as in her work to empower others. Okmin joins Pro Mindset® Podcast host, Craig Domann, to talk more about her work in sports and in motivating others to reach their greatest potential
To hear more of Laura Okmin’s interview, how she managed to make her life ‘bigger’ than herself, and how to build a Pro Mindset, listen to the podcast here.