One Way to Honor Women's History Month

As Women’s History Month winds down, I encourage you to find one way to help the next generation.? Even a small effort locally can make a big impact.

Speaking of women’s history, the first-ever girls' softball game in our county’s history was aired Tuesday night on a local 5,000-watt station, WAKM 950, sponsored by a locally owned pizza place called Jets.? A young girl with the last name Lord even started for the home team.? A mom told me, “It was amazing driving in and hearing the game on the radio.? We’ve listened to football games and boys' basketball games on the radio, but I never thought I’d hear girls' sports, live, on the radio!”??

Helping create history starts in little ways, even if it’s connecting teams, radio, and sponsors. You know what talents, stature, and connections you have. How can you use them to help the next generation of girls become the women who lead tomorrow?? Can you or your company donate money?? Better yet, can you donate your time and wisdom?? Be creative.

A great thing I learned from Ron Clark (Disney Teacher of the Year and Founder of The Ron Clark Academy) in his book The Essential 55 encourages you to teach kids how to shake hands. I coached girls' softball for years, and the girls would practice shaking hands with me and our assistant coaches. Then, when the coaches and umpires met up at home plate before each game, the players would get their chance. We’d rotate through two ‘game captains’ every game who would go up to each umpire and the opposing coach, look them in the eye, give a good handshake, and say, “I’m Kaitlyn, it’s nice to meet you.”? My #2 daughter did this for six years and she now has no problem talking to adults on an even keel.? If an elementary or middle school girl can get comfortable going up to a grown man and shaking hands on a softball field, just think how confident she’ll be doing that at her first job or college interview.??

If you’ve got a heart for helping women globally, water is key.? In our Beyond Speaking Podcast interview, Scott Harrison, the founder and CEO of charity: water, talked about how helping communities get clean water gives girls and women freedom.?In many places around the world, women spend several hours a day carrying gallons of water to and from their homes and the source.? Building wells gives them those hours back to go to school, start a business, and make more of their own decisions in life.?

At work, how do you help newer employees?? Recently, we hired an impressive woman as a new agent.? Part of the job is how to sell, but another is how to work successfully with speakers and people in different areas of the company.? Believe it or not, being an agent has a lot of nuance to it, just like I’m sure your job does.? How can you help someone avoid the pitfalls of starting a new job?

The month is almost over, but the effort shouldn’t stop.? Find one way today to encourage and invest in the girls and women in your work, your family, your community, and around the world.

COMICS SECTION

From 2002-2007, I wrote a weekly comic strip that appeared in about 40 small publications in the US, Canada, and Israel. If this is a newsletter, might as well have a comic each week, too!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Lord is the President of?Premiere Speakers Bureau?and the host of the?Beyond Speaking Podcast. A 28-year speaking and entertainment industry veteran who started his first agency in his dorm room, Brian has done everything from running a non-profit and writing a comic strip to coaching youth softball and competing for TeamUSA in the duathlon age group world championships in Romania in 2022. He and his wife Krista enjoy raising their four kids outside of Nashville.