The Sound of Courage
Saying “Yes” to Discomfort and the Unknown
Summer 2020
Written By: Ashley Brown | Images: Deborah DeKoff
Terry Sidford moves with elegance through many roles: wife, mother, life coach, speaker, TV host, author. And these are just a few of the titles she wears. Her drive to help people realize their dreams and live up to their full potential is the thread that weaves all of Terry’s varied roles into a rich tapestry.
In her own life, having the courage to embrace scary and uncomfortable situations has been a reoccurring theme; her most significant accomplishments have come from times when she stepped into the unknown and embraced intimidating possibilities.
On this lifelong quest to live her own life to the fullest and support others who want to do the same, Terry often asks herself, “How can I make the biggest impact using my knowledge or skills?”
A life coach since 1998, Terry has decades of experience guiding people to believe in themselves. She uses tools like The Passion Test, which she explains as “a quick, simple, and powerful tool to help people find their top five passions” and HeartMath, which helps people shift their thinking to reduce stress and anxiety.
While coaching, she realized that many brave and courageous women didn’t see themselves as brave or courageous. The question motivated her to survey 100 women, and their stories filled her with deep inspiration. As she reflected on how to make the most meaningful impact on people’s lives, the answer was clear: She used the 100 stories of courage as the foundation and inspiration for her book One Hundred Hearts: Inspiring Stories from the Women Who Lived Them.
Writing a book marked a giant leap into the unknown and would eventually propel Terry into several new roles — author, speaker, and TV host. Just authoring the book felt terrifying. “It took so much courage to write the book. I struggled with writing and spelling growing up,” she remembers.
Terry’s next bout with fear came during her book tour. A woman in the audience at Barnes & Noble asked Terry a question that forever changed her perspective. The woman asked Terry about her own courage, and left Terry speechless. She marvels, “I wrote a book about it, I coach women about it, and I couldn’t answer her.” That question initiated another journey for Terry: trying to understand herself.
“I realized in that moment I was just like the women in the surveys,” she says. Before that day at Barnes & Noble, Terry had always been ashamed of certain hardships in her past. As an advocate of “practice what you preach,” the question opened the door for her to dive into the uncomfortable unknown — again.
She applied to tell her story on the TEDx stage in Twin Falls, Idaho and was astonished when TEDx invited her to speak. It was on the TEDx stage in 2017 that Terry found the courage to share her story for the first time.
The talk — and the preparation for it — led to countless opportunities. When she asked the Park City Library if she could rent a conference room to practice her TEDx speech, they offered her the Jim Santy Auditorium. And with that, Park City Speaker Series, an event where Parkites take the stage to share their stories in front of a live audience, was born. At the first event, there were four speakers and 100 attendees — today, the series is still running strong under the direction of Park City Toastmasters Club.
She smiles and says, “I see the opportunity and say yes.”
The next chapter in Terry’s life came unexpectedly. In 2019, she started co-hosting “Park City Pulse” on PCTV alongside Karla Olson. Terry laughs as she recalls her surprise, “How did I get here?”
These opportunities and occasions for growth, continue to pop up in Terry’s life. The release of One Hundred Hearts landed her an invitation to write a chapter in Voices of the 21st Century: Bold, Brave, and Brilliant Women Who Make a Difference, which is now a No. 1 international bestseller.
Terry claims it’s all thanks to her life’s mantra: “Say yes, then figure out how to do it.” She explains that “I have learned to say ‘yes’ to the uncomfortable; it is the best thing I have ever done in my life.”
By facing her own fear and discomfort, Terry hopes to inspire others to step away from comfort and into their most extraordinary dreams. She is still taking new coaching clients and is always looking for speaking opportunities.
“I’ve done things I never thought I could do. You don’t know unless you try,” she says. “The gift of doing things you never thought you could, is that all of the sudden you will find your passion… There is a reason for us to go for it and follow our path and full potential. It can make our world a much better place.”
In short: Live life with courage, the Terry Sidford way.
