A Southern California native who now lives
in Reston, Sam majored in recreation
administration at Sacramento State and
managed sports clubs, including the former
Regency Racquet Club in McLean. In 1978, she
began working in administration at the Open
University of Washington, which by
athletes who cited concentration as a
critical element in their performance, Sam
designed and taught a class on the subject,
based on discussions with athletes,
executives and entrepreneurs. "I don't read
other people's books," she says. "I
interview people."
In 1981, Sam moved with her then-husband to
Hawaii, where she taught continuing
education classes on concentration and
confidence and added courses on how to
communicate with difficult people (which she
called using "Tongue Fu"). In 1984, she
started speaking to companies such as the
Bank of Hawaii and Kaiser Permanente, and at
business conferences, "and that was what
really started my speaking career," she
says. In the early '90s, when her two sons
were young, she began writing so she could
be home more, and she has published books on
concentration, "Tongue Fu," confidence and
bullying.
Sam, 56, divorced and moved to Fairfax
County in 2000 with her sons, who are now
college graduates. But she remained involved
in the annual Maui Writers Conference. In
fact, she found the inspiration for her
latest book in the authors she met there,
who had worked years on manuscripts but
didn't know how to pitch them. "The agents'
and editors' eyes would glaze over, and they
would talk themselves out of a deal," Sam
recalls. She decided she could create a
system for coming up with a pitch, title or
tag line without "spending a lot of money,
having an MBA or sitting around and hoping
creative lightning will strike."
The result, in 2006, was "POP!," which
stands for Purposeful, Original and Pithy,
and was published in paperback this year. In
it, Sam shares her expertise in "listening,
noting and then packaging [a book or
company] in a sound bite that will get
people's attention."
One approach Sam details is to focus on
catchphrases, as she advised a career-change
expert who titled her book "I Don't Know
What I Want, But I Know It's Not This" -- a
sentiment she had often heard from her
clients. Other strategies, and examples Sam
cites, are to list core words and run them
through the alphabet to find something
catchy (thus happy hour for dog lovers
becomes Yappy Hour), to play off cliches
("Squeeze the Day," a book title) and to use
alliteration (Bed, Bath and Beyond).
Sam continues to travel all across the
country to speak and consult on various
topics; closer to home, she has appeared
before organizations such as NASA, the
National Association of Counties and Capital
One Bank. "I feel incredibly fortunate.
Every day, I get to work with people who
thrill me and help them crystallize what
they have to offer."
