Born and raised in Evanston, Illinois – Sarah takes us through how her love of filmmaking began and how the camera gave her a voice and courage she hadn’t discovered yet. Sarah took her passion to film school, moved out to Los Angeles, and landed her very first job on the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars. And although the job had its perks – 20 million viewers, and a slew of celebrity talent to work with – Sarah felt like something was missing in her career and her life. She set out to pursue her dream of making documentary films that can uplift, inform, and inspire.
Sarah recounts her experience of making her first film – The Empowerment Project – which shines a light on extraordinary women across the US, from a Pilot to a mathematician, athletes, astronaut, four-star admirals, and many more. With humor and authenticity, Sarah shares the stories of these incredible women as well as shares clips from her films to truly immerse the audience in these stories.
Sarah then takes us through the once-in-a-lifetime journey of her second film Losing Sight of Shore which follows the unbelievable true story of four brave women who set out to row across the Pacific Ocean – from America to Australia, over 8,000 miles! She explains how much of a risk she took in the making of the film as well as the extreme dangers the crew faced on the voyage across the sea. Ultimately Sarah’s wildest dream came true – she sold the film to Netflix worldwide and today, the film can be seen in over 190 countries.
With a unique mix of an entrepreneurial spirit and a drive to change the way the world perceives women - Sarah entertains, enlightens, and encourages the crowd to live their best lives.
Partial List of Takeaways:
- We are all extraordinary – we just have to unleash our potential.
- It is so important to share our experiences and our stories – our voices matter.
- You can never cross the ocean without the courage to lose sight of the shore – leaving a comfort zone in pursuit of a better version of yourself.
- We have the power to change our media landscape – with our dollar, with our remote, we are more powerful than we could ever know.
- Everyone will feel inspired and empowered by the end of this talk!
“Nothing but positive feedback for Sarah. She’s really good with communication and clearly puts forward so much of her energy in everything she does. I looked forward to every class I’ve had with her and the time spent in session would go by so quickly for me. Sarah was wonderful when it came to listening to students and allowing space for discussions to happen, as none of them felt forced to me. I can’t imagine teaching courses over Zoom, but Sarah was spectacular at keeping the classes engaging and relevant to our interests. The fact that we had more than one major in this class and—from what I can tell—we ALL felt as though this class was beneficial and great says a lot.”
“Nothing but positive feedback for Sarah. She’s really good with communication and clearly puts forward so much of her energy in everything she does. I looked forward to every class I’ve had with her and the time spent in session would go by so quickly for me. Sarah was wonderful when it came to listening to students and allowing space for discussions to happen, as none of them felt forced to me. I can’t imagine teaching courses over Zoom, but Sarah was spectacular at keeping the classes engaging and relevant to our interests. The fact that we had more than one major in this class and—from what I can tell—we ALL felt as though this class was beneficial and great says a lot.”