Sarah Johnson is an educator, podcaster, author, and professional speaker who left a position she loved as a high school principal to seek to teach masses and expand her reach. Her primary areas of focus center on the core values of balance, resilience, and faith, and she works with districts and organizations to assist their crews to live with more intentionality in their full lives. Sarah is co-author of Balance Like a Pirate: Going Beyond Work-Life Balance to Ignite Passion and Thrive as an Educator with DBC Inc Publishing and her first solo book will be out this November with Courageous Heart Press. Sarah hosts the In AWE Podcast where her mission is to amplify women and empower a community. She has two young daughters and a husband who is a teacher and football coach. Sarah has her own sense of personal mental wellness through a running streak she has maintained since July 11, 2014. She keeps ties to schools as an adjunct professor for Viterbo University in their Educational Leadership Department, supervising student teachers, and subbing for local principals, where she loves singing happy birthday over the announcements.
Before she began co-writing her first book, Sarah was facing many challenges and wasn't living up to her vision of an intentional life. One of her main life quotes is, “Live the way you want to be remembered,” and there was an incongruence between her mission and her reality. The first book came about because of Jessica Johnson, not related to her, who had come into her life when she needed it most, Then, Jessica Cabeen came into her life, and the three embarked on co-writing Balance Like a Pirate. After sharing important insights and supporting each other, the trio realized that, “There are things that we are doing to build back our full lives that could really help other people.” This book was published over a year ago and helped give Sarah the insights and permission to write the next book on her own.
Her forthcoming publication is called Lead with F.A.I.T.H. Faith is an acronym for Free to be really you, Affirmed in purpose, Immersed in life and intentionality, Transcending titles, leading with Heart and emotional intelligence. “It’s this wonderful gift of a text that kind of came out of me in this last year being away from titled leadership but really seeing how I could help others see themselves more clearly when they are in those leadership roles, as well.”
Sarah hosts the In Awe Podcast, and I was honoured to be among her guests. While I was challenged to embrace the “trailblazer” title of the theme, through a wonderful conversation with Sarah, I was better able to enjoy that descriptor. Sarah’s style and clear sense of purpose really invites the interviewee and the audience into each guest, and she is both a great listener and conversationalist. I felt honoured to hear that her listeners were empowered by my story, but Sarah’s approach makes it easy to feel empowered. Here’s a link to that episode of her show. One of her greatest passions is her weekly podcast.
Sarah is a self proclaimed “human jukebox”, so I expected her to say that preparing for her P3 was easy. She made the point that when you love a lot of music, it’s difficult to narrow it down to just 3 songs. Her reflection on the experience was that, “The selection overall was really fun. I love this project. I love the roots of why you do it with your podcast and how it started with your students...The whole process was reflective, and I have to get real with myself in terms of what I want people to know about me it terms of these three areas.” For Sarah, this was also an experience in brevity, having to choose only three songs to tell her story.
Sarah’s nostalgic song is almost ironic from a person growing up in a big family. She was the youngest of seven with parents who were born in the 40’s. “Music was always playing or chiming from the lips of my loved ones.” Because of that, she was exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, and she gained an eclectic love for it. When she was 9, her parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, and her older siblings and extended family threw them a silver anniversary party. It was one of Sarah’s earliest public performances, and she sang this heartfelt song for her parents and their hundreds of guests. “This one always brings me back to the love for family, my quirky obsession with Elvis Presley as a kid growing up in the 90’s, and a seed planted for a life of public performance. While she laughed that she should have sung Love Me Tender, she is amazed that she so easily performed publicly that first time. She enjoys performing, and she leads worship in her church and has even been a wedding singer, though “not the Adam Sandler kind”. Here is Are You Lonesome Tonight by Elvis Presley:
Sarah’s identity song is about a positive sense of self. “The fact that this song has crossed over into mainstream radio speaks volumes to it’s impact, and though I could have selected many, it fits so well with my current state.” Sarah took a significant leap of faith by quitting her job and resisting the “idol of that title” as a principal. In this gap, she has had to search for her identity, having spent more time in the title of mom and principal than in any other area of her life. This song reminds her of coming back to her faith, to find balance and to reaffirm her role as a wife. “ This song reminds me that I don’t have to be sorted and selected... to listen to the loving, calming, soothing voice not the slicing whisper of condemnations…” It is very powerful in her life, and it helps her to shut out the negativity, looking to the guidance and love of a higher power. Sarah ran two marathons even though she committed to it long before her body was ready, “The mind is a powerful thing...My mental state was truly what got me over the finish line for both of those 26.2’s.” You have to shut out those cruel voices that tell you you aren’t enough. We connected this back to the classroom, and Sarah added, “We need to be able to be the voices for our students and those around us to help one another to feel empowered…we can do that for [those] in our purview.” Here is You Say by Lauren Daigle:
Sarah’s pick me up song is one she loves to drum on the dashboard. She describes riding in the car with her sisters in “these beater vehicles” listening to all the songs by this band. Her young daughters have also been known to jam to this song repeatedly with her in the kitchen and car. “It comes on and they get super pumped up.” Sarah once lip synced and air guitared her way solo through this song, even though she had asked her staff to join her as an attempt to create joy in their school and model taking risks for students. Although she asked them to join her, nobody did. “Until later that year. And then the following year, and the next.” On the last day of school, when she had resigned, Sarah sang Pink’s Who Knew on stage in a pink wig for my students and staff on the last day of school, a veteran staff member had remembered her risk with this song.” He said she had them flipped! For Sarah, this song “...never gets old, know matter how old I get.” Here is Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) by Journey:
Connect with Sarah at www.sarahsajohnson.com, www.inawetorise.com, and on Twitter, Voxer, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook all at @sarahsajohnson. Listen to her podcast and all her wonderful guests, and keep an eye out for her new book, Lead with F.A.I.T.H.
