Lauren Sisler: ESPN & SEC Network Reporter - Work In Sports Podcast

Hi everyone, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning with WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…

We all have a public persona, the one we let the world see.

Our work personality, our behavior at parties, our disposition in challenging moments, our temperament when dealing with others.

These are all part of how we are seen by others.

But we are all much more than that. Every one of us is composed of formative experiences that build our character…but aren’t as apparent or evident to the people around us.

While you may think your friends are an open book – sharing with you their dreams, loves and fears – chances are there is more to their story that they are unable or unwilling to share. They may not even realize how formative certain experiences have been.

We are all much more than our public persona.

We are all forged through our unique experiences and even deeper, our individual interpretation of those experiences  

As John Milton in Paradise Lost wrote:

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

Perspective matters.

To one person an experience makes them stronger and more resolute, to another going through the same thing…it may break them.

I just watched A Star In Born with my almost teenage daughter, and for those of you who have seen it, it’s a sad sad movie, I won’t ruin the ending for you. But I asked her afterward what she thought, and she said “you don’t always know someone by what you see on the outside”

She made me cry just a little. 

Today’s guest Lauren Sisler is an award-winning sports reporter for the SEC Network. 2-time Alabama Sportscaster of the Year. Emmy award winner. 2-time Alabama Associated press Best sports anchor.

She is a Rockstar in the sports media.

But she, like you, is much more than that. She is an amalgamation of events and experience and interpretation.

Remember earlier when I said the same experience can break one person, and make another stronger? Lauren Sisler is the embodiment of that. She dealt with unspeakable tragedy early in life that could have, and maybe should have, broken her. But it didn’t.

She found a way through it all…and not just through it, beyond it, to a heralded life on the other side.

This story is about much more than just being a high-profile sports reporter… yes, we will talk about that, and yes, Lauren will share incredible career advice…but it’s also about the person inside all of us.   

The unification of events that creates us… and then, what we do choose to do with the experience. We aren’t just the standardized results of our experiences, we have a choice in all of it.

At some moment, maybe she can pinpoint it, or maybe not, Lauren Sisler decided that she wasn’t going to be defeated by her experiences. She would persevere, and she would thrive.  

Let’s let her tell it… here’s Lauren Sisler…