Anne Marie Anderson on Cultivating Audacity and Going for Our Big Dreams

When you think of the word “audacity,” what comes to mind? Honestly, for most of us, it’s probably a negative connotation — as in, how do they have the audacity to do that? In her new book Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win, Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster Anne Marie Anderson is looking to reframe the word “audacity” into a positive, and something we all should be doing: being audacious enough to go for the big dream, the big goal, the big life. As she writes in Cultivating Audacity, which came out on January 1, “When the pain of staying the same is greater than the fear of change, it’s time to cultivate audacity.” In this book and in this conversation, Anne Marie teaches us about decision making, and how to take calculated risks — not reckless risks — to get to the life we want. Inspired by the sudden passing of a colleague at just 37 years old — and right before her eyes — Anne Marie teaches us that we have no idea how much time we have left, and how imperative it is to just go for it — whatever “it” is to you. I know this is true in my own life, and I guarantee it is for you, too — there is something you want to do in your life, be it in your personal life or your professional life, that is gnawing at you. A calling that just won’t go away. This book will get you over the line and encourage you to follow that calling and to take bold risks. In today’s episode, Anne Marie talks us through four questions that will help us start focusing our intentions; introduces us to four big barriers to doing this work and how to overcome them; teaches us about the contemplations Cs and how they can help us; and, I think these are two of the most fascinating concepts she talks about, introduces us to “ikigai” and what it means to have a “front row” in your life — and how important that is. This conversation left me fired up to go and live the life I was meant to. Here to walk us through it all is Anne Marie Anderson, a three-time Emmy Award winning sports broadcaster, keynote speaker, and author. Anne Marie has spent more than three decades in sports television both behind and in front of the camera and has covered six Olympic Games, NBA and MLB playoffs, the Super Bowl, heavyweight title fights, golf majors, and countless other events. Anne Marie has lived out Cultivating Audacity in her own life, giving up a producer role for ESPN’s SportsCenter at their headquarters in Connecticut and moving across the country to California; ESPN ultimately offered her a contract after that move that ended up more than doubling her salary. Soon she began to examine other areas of her life she wanted to change and challenge the status quo, and Cultivating Audacity was born. Anne Marie is one of the most experienced play-by-play announcers in the business, calling plays for ESPN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and TBS, and doing so in a very male-dominated business. Who said audacity had to have a negative connotation, anyway?

Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win by Anne Marie Anderson