Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Marie Anderson
Hi Anne Marie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I always knew I wanted to be a journalist but didn’t know exactly in what genre. I grew up the youngest of five children with four big brothers. My family bonded over sports. Some of my earliest and happiest memory center around sports. Me curled up on my Dad’s lap watching the NFL as he rooted for the Chicago Bears and my brothers and I each picked our own team. I was Denver Broncos all the way! My Dad used the throw the football in the back yard to us and everyone would tackle whoever caught the ball … but no one ever tackled me. They tried but my older brothers would fall at my feet saying I was just too fast to catch. Of course I knew my father had forbid them from tackling me but in my mind I was Walter Payton. It just made sense that I would choose sports journalism since that is where my happiest memories lived.
Shortly after graduating from Hofstra University with a major in communications and a minor in speech, I landed a six month temporary job at ESPN working 6 days a week 6pm to 3am. I loved it. I ran the telepromter for the sportscenter anchors. I cut game highlights. I logged games noting where the big plays happened. I did whatever was asked of me and loved the energy and drive of my colleagues. We all pushed each other to be better. After the six months had expired some of my friends and I were asked to stay on as full time employees.
I learned so much in the next ten years climbing from production assistant to assignment editor to feature then field producer. I was promoted to be Los Angeles Bureau producer and relocated to Southern California. It was a dream job traveling to the biggest sports story of the day. The Superbowl, NBA Playoffs, Heavyweight Title Fights, Golf’s Majors, the Olympics …. I felt like Forrest Gump somehow lucky enough to be in the center of the action next to elite performers and watching them prepare and execute their skills.
Eventually I worked up the nerve to move from behind the scenes to in front of the camera. I had been a Division 1 volleyball player and my training as an athlete came in handy as I reevaluated my performances on air and selected areas up on which to focus to improve. There were PLENTY (endless in fact) areas in which I needed to improve but because I was only looking for progress, not perfection, I just kept going.
I became comfortable with discomfort. I learned to ignore criticism from anonymous people whose advice I would never seek. I started taking bold risks like pursuing play by play jobs at a time when very few existed for women. People started asking me “how did you get form here to there?” or “how did you know it would work out?”
When I began to reflect upon my professional path I realized it was the result of consistent risk taking. Audacity is exactly that – the willingness to take bold risks. I got curious about it why I did that and how it became my identity. I decided to push myself into another uncomfortable position and take to the stage as a keynote speaker. Sure I had spoken on television thousands of times but this was without the safety net barrier of a screen between me and the audience.
I talked about Cultivating Audacity and the need to recognize the barriers that keep us from doing “the thing” that we have always wanted to do. Now, while I still call live games on television for ESPN and other networks, I also travel the country speaking to corporate, business and educational leaders about tapping into their own audacity and using it to create a challenging and joyful life.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Of course it wasn’t smooth! It wouldn’t have been growth if it wasn’t. My mother always said “this too shall pass” to which I always add “it might hurt like a kidney stone but it WILL pass eventually”. There was plenty of harassment as a young woman starting out in a very macho and male dominated field. There were also a lot of stellar male colleagues who respected and valued my work. I gravitated toward them and ignored the others. There was – there is – the rejection. Hundreds and hundreds of rejections. I used to have thin skin. I am a crier by nature. It was only when I recalibration my reaction to rejection … to view “no” as “not yet” or “next’ that my career began to take off.
There were a few people along the way that actively tried to waylay my progress. They were spending energy trying to block me instead of forging their own paths and I used to always reassure myself that that meant there were two people putting energy and thought into my career and none into theirs.
Life is full of challenges. If your live isn’t challenging you aren’t dreaming big enough.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think what sets me apart from some others is that I have never made a professional decision based on money. I was offered a college football sideline reporting job at a regional branch of ESPN while I was a producer for SportsCenter (the mothership of ESPN and biggest platform). My boss at the time told me I couldn’t do both and that I needed to choose. Did I want to continue traveling the world covering the Olympic games, NBA, MLB and the biggest sporting events in the world? Or did I want to do 8 regional football games for 1/6th of the salary. I chose the regional football games because I was SCARED to do it. And I thought if I was scared to do it then I should probably try. That is audacity and that is my cultivated identity.
It is worth noting that my boss was so frustrated that I was going to leave my producing job for what he considered a foolhardy pursuit that he let me do both jobs. I produced during the week and was a sideline reporter on the weekends.
It was a similar story when I wanted to move to California and become Los Angeles bureau producer. On paper it made much more financial sense for me to stay in Bristol, Connecticut at the network’s headquarters but I didn’t want to live in the cold and snow anymore. I was 26 years old and wanted my time when I wasn’t working to be more enjoyable. I wanted to play beach volleyball and hang out in the sun when I wasn’t working. I actually gave my notice at ESPN when they told me no … not at all in an angry way … but in a “I need a better quality of life” way apologizing as I left and thanking my supervisors for a fantastic start to my career.
After driving across the country I arrived in Los Angeles to a message from my boss. ESPN wanted to offer me a contract in Los Angeles and by the end of that first year not only was I one of our Los Angeles bureau producers but they had doubled my earnings by being on contract.
All of that in retrospect was incredibly audacious but as I reflect back I never did it for an external reason. I wasn’t hunting for money, accolades or title. I was just looking for a more satisfying life and for me that meant challenging myself by taking on reporting after I was already an accomplished producer and moving to a place where I could have a better quality of life.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love Southern California. Beach. Mountains. Theater. Concerts. Diverse ethnically, politically, spiritually. I have always felt like Los Angeles is a place where each person gets to choose what their passion of the day is and pursue it.
Like least? TAXES darling. Come on now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://annemarieanderson.com/
- Instagram: @Cultivating_Audacity
- Twitter: @AnneMAnderson
- Other: https://annemarieanderson.com/book/ (this one PLEASE to sign up to be notified when the book becomes available for preorders))
