Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice: Meet Sara Blackmer

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:01:02

Welcome to Becoming Bridge Builders where we explore the minds behind the technology shaping our future. Today's guest is a powerhouse in both the boardroom and the battlefield.

Sarah Blackmyer is a decorated US Air Force veteran turned tech executive, currently serving as a Managing member and Senior Partner of SOCO Capital and SEO of Fluid Magic.

With a career spanning defense, commercial markets, Sarah brings unmatched expertise and strategic execution, operational excellence and stakeholder engagement across automated systems, energy, cybersecurity and advanced technologies.

She's been recognized by D Business Management Magazine's Powered by Women and Crain's Notable Women in Tech and has served on advisory boards for Intel Indivia, multiple universities and national tech consortiums.

From following high tech impact teams to driving innovation in private equity portfolios, Sarah is a sought after speaker and true force in the tech world. Sarah, welcome to the show. It's an honor to have you.

Sara Blackmer: 00:02:08

Thanks Keith. Super excited to be here.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:02:10

Super excited to have you. So I'm going to ask you my favorite question. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Sara Blackmer: 00:02:18

Yeah, so the story that I tell pretty consistently over my career is when I was very young, I was a second lieutenant at the time at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina and we were at a logistics officer's professional development luncheon and our speaker was Lieutenant Colonel Anne House seal and she ran all of the transportation squadron. And Lieutenant Colonel Halseal was talking about career development and about, you know, what to do.

And she was so great because she's like, you know, somebody's going to tell you that you need to, you know, go to this next step or to check this box or to, you know, have this specific job or do this specific training or education. She goes, all that's BS all their sheep. It didn't say BS and she's like, all that's bs.

She says you do whatever you are inspired and driven to do, but when you do it, do it at like 110%.

She's like, just go kill it, she says, because you being exceptional and whatever it is that you choose to do is going to open doors of opportunity and is going to, you know, attract people to you in a way that's really special, to allow you, you know, to make an impact. And I just, I still, I still referral to Anne Houseeel and this advice that she gave about just killing it and whatever you do.

But don't feel like you're constrained to some sort of prescriptive, prescriptive path to get to success.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:03:57

I love, I Love that because it's so important that you chart your own path in life and you follow the Weber path is led out for you. So, yeah, that's really cool. I love that.

Sara Blackmer: 00:04:07

Yeah.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:04:07

So your journey from Lieutenant Colonel to in the Air Force to tech executive is inspiring. What leadership lessons I love talking about leadership. Did you learn along the way from your military career that you imported into.

Into the business world?

Sara Blackmer: 00:04:22

Well, everything I learned in my military career I have imported into the business world in some way, shape or form. So let me try to narrow it down to a couple of things that I think will be really great takeaways. So.

So I think I'm probably known for, you know, three things, and I'll just talk about those three things, although there's myriad things. And I learned this, you know, being a maintenance officer on the flight line.

I also taught at the officer training school, you know, new officers, how to be officers.

So leadership was a key component of that, both as an instructor myself, leading, you know, these troops through all of the training that they had to do, but then also in terms of teaching them the principles that went along with that. You know, this was at my time, you know, doing test evaluation.

So really a couple of different segments, I guess, that don't all look the same, but the three things I think that I always take away, one is, is servant leadership. It's really this idea of, of how do you serve and that your team is not there to serve you. In contrast, you are there to serve your team.

And so how do you provide resources, clear roadblocks, provide top cover, inspire and motivate, change the toilet paper roll, make sure that somebody's really stressed out because their kids just got injured and they've got to take them and do something with them or they're really getting trouble from the phone company and they're struggling on how they're going to pay that bill or whatever it happens to be something as little or as. Or, you know, a death in the family. People have real lives and people have needs also professionally.

And your job as leader, your number one job as a leader is to take care of those people.

General Jumper said this chief of staff of the Air Force when I came in, also as a second lieutenant, he's like, people are, you know, your number one resource. The rest are just tools. And so take care of your people and they'll take care of the rest of the.

And I've always sort of embraced this mindset of how can I serve? I mean, being drawn to the military. You're Already kind of in a service mindset.

I think it's just sort of part of who we are is this desire to be a part of a mission that's greater than yourself.

But I think when you break that down even into the teams that we're leading or the missions that we're executing, there's this additional idea of not even just a broader service, but a very microservice that's pretty intimate. You know, how can I help this specific human being? How can I make them better? How can I help them achieve what they want?

How can I help them be as successful as possible professionally, but also personally? So servant leadership, I think, would be sort of my military takeaway number one.

And then I think my military takeaway number two is actually also like leadership. Military leadership, you know, takeaway number two is, is always also this idea of service, but in a slightly different way.

So instead of thinking about how am I serving and leading the teams, I think about how am I making an impact for good?

And so one of the things that I drive always with anybody I interact with, but certainly those that I'm leading is how are you leaving things better than you found them? How are you adding something that wouldn't have existed without you?

You know, I sometimes talk about, I know this is a really cheesy analogy, but like the. The stone that goes in the pond and the ripple effect. And so how are you impacting your sphere for good?

And as that ripples out, others will then impact their sphere for good. And there's this huge just impact that, you know, or synergy or exponential growth that happens by doing that.

So that's probably my key takeaway number two is, is how to do more with less. And one of the ways to do that is to always leave things better than you found that because it makes an impact in different that you never even knew.

And probably my third thing that I'm really known for is this idea of relentless positivity. And that's tackling everything.

Not with this, you know, fake cheeriness or not with this reckless enthusiasm that everything's just going to miraculously work out and you have no idea how.

You know, that's things movies are made out of, but the reality of relentlessly pursuing the path to, yes, finding the way to win, finding the way through challenges, you know, using your. Your brain and your team's resources and this combined effort to solve really tough problems with.

With a knowledge that you will get to the other end if you just keep going.

I think it's powerful and you know, General Colin Powell, who was also chief of Staff, who was also, you know, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, excuse me, also our Secretary of State, you know, he had 13 leadership lessons and his last one, number 13, is, you know, positivity is a force multiplier. And I think of not just the idea of being positive, but relentlessly being positive.

So even when you're in the worst places, in the worst, you know, environments, not succumbing to this very selfish thing that's like doom and gloom and doldrums and negativity, but choosing instead to find the way to power forward and power through. So those would be probably my three, you know, key takeaways that I use all the time and everything that I can.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:10:05

Those are awesome.

I'm curious, as you moved from the military to the corporate world, what was the biggest shift or biggest challenge you noticed in terms of leading in that situation versus the military?

Sara Blackmer: 00:10:18

Yeah, so there's two things that the military does that I think drive a lot of success for having a very broad cross section of our citizenry. So if you think of the spectrum of every American, the military doesn't just pull from one small category or one place on the spectrum.

Like, the military is also a subset of, like from all of those different, you know, VEINS in, in U.S. or American, you know, citizenry.

And so the way that you form people together to create high performing teams has to include some shared experience and some driving together to form in these bonds. And you have to do that really fast. And so two things that the military does great well, that the military does differently, I think, than corporate.

One is that we have a command structure. You know, there's command and control and you follow orders and you sign up for that.

And when you come in, you're recognizing that there's going to be somebody telling me what to do and that I'm required to do that unless it's unlawful, but otherwise I'm required to do that. And you give up part of yourself, part of this, this independence to be part of a whole. And that's a very powerful thing.

And corporate doesn't do that. You know, corporate's like, you know what? I don't feel like going to work today. I'm just not going to like, that doesn't happen in the military.

That's called AWOL and you're fired, you know, or you're, you know, held accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Like, it's completely different than, I just don't like feel like going today or you know what, this job sucks.

I'm quitting, know, with no notice and I'm out. Like you just, you don't do. It's just not the same.

And you also have to, you know, lead by influence a little bit more, I think, on the corporate side than you do necessarily on the military side. I think it's more effective on the military side if you lead by influence anyway.

But there's also this added, you know, you're the commander and people have to do what you say.

But the second thing that's different about the military, and I think the military is exceptional at doing this, is this continued professional development. And that starts at the very first airman basic in the Air Force anyway. But this is true across all the services.

The very junior enlisted airman basic that comes in for boot camp on day one and all the way up to your four star general or at least promoting into your four star general, you will have all of these levels of professional training, continuing education, leadership training.

That helps to teach you at the level you are going to be at, what are the kinds of things that you're going to encounter and what's the way through those things.

And so we continue to reinvest in our personnel over and over and over again to help them have the right tools and training, both from a technical competency perspective, but then also from a leadership perspective.

And the kinds of things as a second lieutenant that I needed to do as a flight commander are not the kinds of things as a major or lieutenant colonel that I needed to do as a squadron commander.

And the difference in learning what those things are in the context of experience that you have to have, that takes you from the tactical level to the operational level, to the strategic level. The military does an exceptional job with this continuing training and education.

In contrast, leadership training in corporate is few and far between. I mean, you really have to search for it.

Even when there are internal programs with, you know, fortune, you know, 200 to 500 businesses, they're hit or miss.

Some are pretty good, some are only okay, you know, the choice that people have in terms of how much they invest in that coaching and mentoring is haphazard at best on the corporate side. It's very deterministic on the military side.

So I think those two things were the hardest thing for me to see as an outsider transitioning from military to corporate, that I did not have those tools readily available for me to help me be a better leader because my teams had not had those trainings. And, you know, I had to start from scratch, really, in all the places I've been.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:14:58

So how have you dealt with that in your corporation to kind of provide that support that you saw so valuable in the military?

Sara Blackmer: 00:15:06

Yeah, so I provide leadership training all the time. And sometimes I call it that and sometimes I just do it and don't call it that.

I try to sneak it in like how mom sneaks in, you know, spinach in your shake and you don't know it.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:15:17

That's right.

Sara Blackmer: 00:15:19

Like I just try to sneak it in under the radar that nobody knows knows that it is. But we've got you.

So at Fluid Logic, I'm the CEO here and I have done leadership development with my team of leaders and then with my executive team and then with a broader team. So kind of director level and above. And I'll usually choose a topic and some of them are, you know, fairly simple.

Not simple, but fairly early in leadership training that you would learn like team development.

Like the fact that you take a team from forming to storming to norming and then performing and what those levels mean and how you can identify which level you're in and what things you can do to help draw a team to that next stage of team development to really get to that high performance level. I've trained on situational leadership that not every follower that you have is going to be at the same stage.

And so you as a leader have to adjust your style to accommodate, you know, your team. That's part of that servant leadership versus this is the way I am and you better figure out how to adjust to me.

Like, no, you're the smarter person, right? Like, or not smarter person, but the senior person or the better person or the more capable person because that's why you got this leadership role.

So you have to figure out how to accommodate and bring them with you. You know, so it's been things like that, but it's also just been, you know, I think some more anecdotal things.

So I also do across my entire team, a monthly standup. Sometimes it's an all hands where we sit down, but usually it's a monthly standup and I call it a standup.

I pulled that also obviously from the military.

But it's the idea that you're going to do things that are hard hitting, it's shorter, you know, you're standing so that you can't just kind of drone on and on. But I will always have what I call a core values corner.

And we've got five core values here at Fluid Logic and I choose one of them, or I choose a couple pieces together and I usually share anecdotal stories or quotes or, you know, how to learn from that, or I give them examples of things that have just happened that we've dealt with as a team and how that fits into our values.

And I think that the context of the core values are all really leadership lessons as well, when you're inviting those, you know, additional nuggets of goodness.

And so those have been kind of the two ways that I've tried to accommodate, that is to bring my team along with me, not be frustrated that they don't have the same experience that I've had.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:17:57

I love that. I'm curious, innovation is kind of the new code word in what we do in corporate America and just in life in general.

How do you balance innovation with actual execution? Because you can innovate to death, but if you don't execute those innovations, execute that creativity, it's just a great idea.

So how do you balance those two things?

Sara Blackmer: 00:18:21

Yeah, so I focus, again, one of our core values is spirit of ingenuity. So it's this idea of innovation, but I think of it not as a development of a technology necessarily.

Sometimes when people think about innovation, they get real stuck on this idea of, you know, creating something new. But I think innovation is this continuous desire to improve or to be better or to drive efficiencies.

And I encourage creative problem solving at every level of the organization, in every department of the organization.

So whether that's, you know, financial tools, whether that's, you know, ERP system implementation, you know, whether that's a different manufacturing process, you know, whether that's just how we handle documentation, paperwork, or storing of those things all the way to new product development, I think that innovation can happen in all of those ways.

And one of the things I've asked my team to commit to is to be creative problem solvers and to have this spirit of ingenuity no matter what their job is. Not just if you're the engineering team or the design team, but if you're any of these teams.

And it's interesting how collaborative that makes everyone because they feel empowered to provide comments and feedback and suggestions in areas that are not necessarily the ones that they own, but then really empower to improve, you know, their space at every level. And I think it just encourages really just a next level execution.

You know, to your point about the difference there, now I will also say that on the development of things, really not just the development of things, back to this kind of creative problem solving, I'm a big believer in fail fast and fail often. And I've got experiences where we have failed slow, and it's pretty painful. But I think that, you know, sometimes.

Sometimes you need to really spend a lot of time designing what it is that you want to do, whether it's a new process or, you know, a new manufacturing technique or a new product or a new marketing plan or, you know, pick a thing.

But sometimes you're like, I've just got this really big gut, and I've done enough due diligence that I know that this is gonn really feel confident it's gonna be a thing. Let's try it and just go. And I want my team to also feel very empowered to do that. You know, they're experts for a reason.

I'm not the person who's an expert in any of these different lanes, and that's not my job. My job is to find and bring really talented people together and give them space to be exceptional in what it is that they do.

If we were relying on me to be amazing in all the ways, we would have failed, like, long, long time ago. I'm not the smartest guy in the room, and if I am, I'm in the wrong room, and I don't spend many times in there.

So I. I think this, this failing, the flexibility and I guess just allowance to try things and fail. My ask always, though, is like, just do it fast. Like, realize pretty quickly, is this working or is it not working?

And before you try something, what are the criteria that this is successful or that this is not working out? And if you know what those criteria are when you're going in, then you can pretty easily devise is this working or not working?

And then cut bait and move on. Like, I learned about sunk costs from a university professor when I was in college talking about football tickets to the game.

And I went to the University of Michigan.

It's cold, especially in November, so you've got season tickets, and then you go to a November Saturday and it's snowing and the wind is super blowing and it's way overcast, and you're like, hudd settling in there. And is that really what you want to do? Or is it better just to watch that one on tv and you're like, no, but I bought the tickets.

Professor's like, that sunk cost. And so I always try to think about that too.

Like, you don't have to continue charging down, you know, this path that you've devised just because of what you have previously Invested, you need to think about, you know, what is that, you know, future investment going to be and is it worth doing that or not?

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:22:52

I love that.

Sara Blackmer: 00:22:52

So fail fast, fail often. I think it's my innovation plan and empowerment across every place to really drive creative prop selling.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:23:01

Amazing blue. I love that.

Sara Blackmer: 00:23:04

Yeah, go blue.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:23:05

I should give you a Michigan joke on my podcast so I can offend all the Ohio State fans, but I probably shouldn't.

Sara Blackmer: 00:23:11

Well, I would be okay with that. Go blue. But don't tell the Ohio State universalize that.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:23:21

I'm curious, as you look at the landscape of what you're working on now, what do you see as innovations that you see coming down the pike or even in cybersecurity that really excites you right now? Because I know cybersecurity is something that so many of us. I have a blog and every time I look around somebody from Singapore is on my blog.

I'm like, they're not really on my blog. They're trying to hack my account, I'm guessing. So I'm just kind of curious, what are you seeing in those areas that excite you?

Sara Blackmer: 00:23:47

Yeah, so I think two, two things, you know, the first. So I've been in the autonomous systems robotics space for almost all of my career.

So when I was a student at university, the whole reason why I chose my degree program, which is naval architecture, marine engineering, is because they sold me on this underwater robotics exploratory systems. And I'm like, oh my goodness, I have to be a part of that. That's amazing.

I did none, but it was super exciting and that's why I chose that as my degree.

And then right after I left the active duty Air Force, you know, and I was working as a defense contractor, you know, my advanced technology that I was involved in was alternative energy and robotics, ground vehicle robotics. And so I, I made my way back to robotics, but not underwater. They were just ground vehicle.

But gosh, that was, you know, 20ish years ago now, you know, 18 years ago now. So like I was at the pretty beginning of this idea of ground vehicle autonomous systems.

Not drones necessarily, that's predates, it's a little bit further, further back, but for ground vehicle systems anyway.

And I think the, the most exciting thing that I can think about that that is happening right now is the combination of autonomous systems in lots of different applications. There's underwater, there's air, there's ground, there's service bots.

There are things that are really good for efficiency and driving productivity, business wise. But then there's also personal aid, things that are really helping to, you know, make things easier and better.

And, and I think with the advent combination of AI that those are going to explode. And so I'm, I'm pretty excited by, I'm just pretty excited by what's happening there across the board.

And I think about it, I liken it to, you know, when the smartphones came out and nobody needed a smartphone, nobody. What the heck is this? Like I don't, you know, I'm, I'm, me and my flip phone are friends. Like we're good to go. Cell phones were.

And then now literally everybody has a smartphone and feel like they can't live without it. And in fact we're talking about are we over dependent and is it ruining our lives?

And can we no longer be social now because of what we do with smartphones and not just slam on smartphones but just how much of an integration to our life that it's been. We can't even fathom what it would be like to not have it. Well, I think autonomy is going to be very similar in a lot of different ways.

Like we'll never, we'll be to the point where we're like, why was I ever driving? Like, no, all my cars should be driving for me.

And, and we'll look back and we'll laugh and it'll be like, you know, when you tell your grandkids or in my case just my kids, ah, you know, I went to school in the snow, uphill both ways, like, you've got it so good. Look back and say, you're so old, mom. And I think, I think that one's really cool. And AI I think is really exciting and interesting.

I think that if you're not doing anything with it, you should probably figure out how to do something with it because I think we're going to have an inflection point where everything has some sort of an AI component to it. And if you're unaware or unfamiliar, I think it's going to take you by surprise and you're really going to struggle.

And I think that's both personally and professionally actually. So there are a lot of AI tools that already exists that are in the public space that people can just tinker with.

And I just would highly encourage people to do some tinkering.

And corporately I would highly encourage people to think about not just how do I do AI for AI, but to explore the space a little bit about what are the productivity tools that exist.

You know, are those things that I can implement, are they going to help me solve a problem or be more efficient and do a little bit of evaluation, you know, from an AI strategy perspective. But Keith, to go back to your cybersecurity, because I think that's where you kind of spent a bit of time.

I'm less excited about cybersecurity and more afraid and would highly encourage everybody to get their crap together with respect to cybersecurity in all kinds of ways. I can remember being on a show floor. This was in Michigan when the, you know, defense ground vehicle community is.

Is kind of headquartered there just outside of Detroit. And they were talking about vehicle hacks.

So, like, not just cyber criminals who are hacking into just, you know, IT systems or trying to get into, you know, whatever platform you have, but literally hacking into a military vehicle that's, you know, digitally now enabled and basically taking over. And so you're like, oh, my goodness, like, this is the fodder for sci fi fiction books. But there is a reality to that now.

That threat that I think we need to be super cognizant of now, that's an extreme example, obviously, but if, I mean, there's just pick up any news outlet on any given day and about the airlines that just got hacked again and what that meant in terms of, you know, timelines and delays for that system, and you think about global travel and what the impact of that could do. You know, you think about all of your data that's already stolen from the hacks that came from.

You know, pick one of the credit bureaus, you know, that got hacked into, or probably your bank. You know, most banks have had some sort of a security breach as well.

You know, the ransomware that now comes along with this is what I'm going to do with your information. Unless you're, you know, paying for this in this way.

I think about our national grid from an electricity perspective, a power perspective, and that being hacked into and taken over and what kind of impact that could have. So I. I am more frightened than excited by what's happening, you know, in the cyberspace because it moves very, very, very fast.

It just moves very fast.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:30:08

So I. Robot could be real.

Sara Blackmer: 00:30:12

I think there's a lot of things that I wouldn't say, everybody, watch out for the Terminator. But I would definitely say there are some things and be ready and just be ready.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:30:23

Oh, my. So I'm curious, what advice do you have for women who are trying to kind of get to the space and the place you are?

I mean, we always hear about the challenges that are there. But what kind of words of wisdom would you have for women and seeking to do what you do?

Sara Blackmer: 00:30:39

Yeah, so I think my advice for women would be my same advice for everybody, but I'll just say it for women, you know, because that's how you catch the question. And because I am a woman, you know, I do recognize that I am in a fairly unique space. Unfortunately, you know, that, that there is not this.

Women in tech is less by a lot, you know, from a, from a gender line perspective.

And I think, you know, women in the startup entrepreneurship community also very, very small, you know, so, so being in the military, being an engineer, you know, in tech development, leading technology companies, you know, being a CEO of a startup. So I'm, I'm not a founder, I'm a hired CEO replacing a founder.

And that, you know, the amount of women, I think it's less than a fraction of a percent that are in that particular space. You know, women founders. I don't remember exactly what the statistic is, but it's certainly less than 5%, if I'm remembering right.

So I know that it's, it's not as seen as maybe it should be. So I guess my advice would be Lt. Col. House SEAL's advice, which is figure out what it is that you want to do and just go kill it.

And I think that the being inspired by your work is as important as, you know, being good at what you do. I don't think that you can replace one with the other, but I think that when you put both of them together, you become very, very powerful.

And so I would first suggest that to just be inspired by what you're doing, but be really good at what you're doing, too. That 110% effort. You know, I always hearken back to Tom Brady. I love Tom Brady. Everybody loves Tom Brady. You know, he's the goat, right?

Greatest of all time.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:32:39

Except the six teams he beat, they don't like him, but.

Sara Blackmer: 00:32:43

Well, yeah, so. But I will tell you that I went to university with Tom Brady. This is in the wayback machine at University of Michigan.

Tom Brady was not our starting quarterback.

Tom Brady had to fight, you know, with Drew Henson about, I'm going to start one day, and Drew's going to start one day and I'm going to start one day. Tom Brady was like eighth, ninth round draft. I mean, he was not. Tom Brady said, this is what I want and I'm going to work really hard for it.

And he was relentless that way about finding the path to yes, for him. And I am so impressed with that.

So whether you love him or hate him, whether, you know, you, you, you have to, whether he's a great commentator or not, you know, whether he's moved on, like, whatever you want to say about Tom Brady, like, his ability to do that is very, very impressive. I have a ton of respect for that.

And I think, however, you can emulate this idea of it doesn't have to be, you know, that I had all of these great gifts that I was given has to be, what is it that I'm inspired by, what do I want to do and deliver? How do I want to give back? And then how hard am I willing to work for that?

And I think that when you can find that for yourself, you're going to be pretty unstoppable. So I would say that first, the second I would say is that I don't think you can overemphasize the importance of a good network.

And I would encourage everyone to always be thinking about bridge building and never thinking about how do I segregate or separate or, you know, no. Or that person's not worth my time. Like, that's a very narrow, limiting kind of a view, I think.

Always thinking about who can I meet, you know, what can I learn and really try to make genuine connections. You know, not thinking about transactional here, you know, but, but how are we connected or how can we be connected?

And, you know, why is that important and what relationship can build there?

Because leveraging relationships, I think, is really how you get to the next stages of opportunity, because people who have seen you in action or know you or have some kinship connection with you are more apt to want to champion you in some way. And so I would suggest, yeah, like, building a very deliberate network is a pretty powerful thing to do. Is.

And then I guess the last thing I would say, and this is probably to women who, who have, you know, found themselves, you know, kind of on the upper ends of things, is give back. You know, just give back. And.

But I would suggest that to every human, I really think our responsibility as humans is to make the world a better place in whatever way that you can. And always asking these questions. In fact, I just talked with my board about this the other day.

Earlier this week, we had a board meeting about are you helping or are you hindering?

And if you think of everything that you're doing, am I helping humanity or am I hindering, you know, am me making this post on social media, is that going to be helping or is that Hindering, like, just, I think if you're always thinking about, how am I giving back? And helping you stop being so focused internally in really what ends up being a fairly selfish fashion.

You, you're so much happier the more you give, the more you get back. That's so very, very true. So I would just really encourage people to think about, even as they're on their way, how am I giving?

Because you'll be amazed by how much you end up giving back from doing that or getting back from doing that.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:36:17

It's a perfect segue to my next question, which is, what do you want your legacy to be?

Sara Blackmer: 00:36:23

My legacy. I want my children to be Christian men and women who love God. That's pretty much it.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:36:42

That's good.

Sara Blackmer: 00:36:42

But if I had to think, like, how do I want people to, to remember me? You know, I, I, I, I want to be a force of good. I don't, I, I, I always want people to, you know, authenticity is part of my personal brand.

I try really hard that the same me that's talking to you right now is the same me that I talk to my board about. It's the same me that I'm talking to my teams about. It's the same me I'm talking to my kids about.

Same me who's like, the volunteer treasurer for the boosters club. Like, it's always the same.

Like, authenticity is a big thing for me, and so I think I would just want to be known as genuinely caring and wanting to make a difference. I think I have been given so many gifts.

I'm so thankful to my maker for the gifts that he's given me, and I feel a responsibility to do something with those gifts and impact for good. It's important to me that people see a light shining, I think. So if I had to be pretty selfish about a legacy, that's what I would want.

If I have to be less selfish about a legacy, I really want, you know, my, my, my children and their children, you know, to have this opportunity to also be really good human beings and, and, and to love God.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:38:09

I love that. So in season six of the podcast, we have a surprise question. Pick a number between 1 and 5 for your surprise question.

Sara Blackmer: 00:38:18

Well, my favorite number is 6, but because she didn't give me that choice, I'll say two.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:38:26

All right. What's something I would never guess about you?

Sara Blackmer: 00:38:32

My middle name is Cinnamon.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:38:33

Oh, my word. How cool.

Sara Blackmer: 00:38:35

Oh, my word is the right answer. What were my parents thinking?

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:38:41

They were thinking how you would be sweet. I guess all Right.

Sara Blackmer: 00:38:45

Well, I'll tell you that there is a funny story about it. You know, my parents were struggling, so they share, you know, that they were struggling to really agree on a name.

And they were bouncing back and forth a bunch of names and nothing ever stuck. And they were watching.

I don't know, people won't remember this because we're too old, but in the Wayback Machine, there was a television series, Mission Impossible. Not just, you know, the movies, the Tom Cruise movies.

And so the television series Mission Impossible, one of the actresses had in her stage name Cinnamon. And my parents joke about, oh, we could always say Cinnamon. And. And apparently my.

My mom was more joking, my dad was more serious, because when the birth certificate came back, you know, daddy said, Sarah Cinnamon. And. And so then that, you know, that was that. And it's so funny because people will get my driver's license and they'll say, oh, my goodness.

And I'm like, y.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:39:44

It's.

Sara Blackmer: 00:39:45

That's it. That's the one. Or they'll look at me like at the airport, you know, in security, they're like, Cinnamon, I've never seen them for.

And I was like, nope, you probably haven't. You know, and in high school, they abuse you for all kinds of things, right?

So that Cinnamon was, was one of the things I can remember my third grade teacher, you know how you get little name tags on your desk and you got to write your name and I have Sarah on my name. Well, I flipped my name tag over and I wrote Sandy on it because I really wanted to be called a sand Sandy.

That was like right when Grease was out and our dog's name was Sandy. And I was like, I want to be Sandy.

And my third grade teacher says to me at one point, she's like, hey, Sarah, you know, can you tell me your full name? I'm doing some paperwork and I says, yes, it's Sarah Cinnamon Legler. That was my maiden name. She says, no, no, no, not your pretend made up names.

Like, what's your real name? I was like, it's Sarah Cinnamon Leckler. And I sat like with my nose in a corner for lying for like the rest of that class period.

She calls my folks later and my dad just rips into her. I feel so bad at this point about that's really her name. But, yeah, why my parents decided that was a good idea, I don't know.

And I have gotten abused for it over time. But I will say that it's a funny story and it does bring me joy.

My last call sign that I had in the Air Force was scary, which was short for scary spice because of, you know, the cinnamon. And if you knew me, then you knew that there was this other side.

But if you only saw me from the outside, what you saw was, you know, pretty confident and, you know, pushing with things and you know, an order giver and, you know, whatever. Like you might not the scary part fit more than the spice part fit, but if you knew who I was, then you knew that on the side.

So, yeah, scary, scary spice.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:41:35

Well, thanks so much for sharing that story. That's a neat story. We also struggle with our daughter's name. So her first name is Sarah Grace because we couldn't agree on Sarah or Grace.

So we just smushed it together and she's Sarah Grace Smushing together.

Sara Blackmer: 00:41:46

Yep. That's good.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:41:48

Well, Sarah, thank you so much for sharing your incredible journey with us. Your insights, your vision for the future of tech and leadership.

Your story is a powerful example of how disciplined strategy, innovation can drive meaningful impact across industries.

For our listeners, we'll include links to connect with Sarah, learn more about her Flow logic, Fluid Logic, and explore organizations she's helped to shape. Until next time, keep leading with purpose and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. This is Reverend Dr. Keith Haney.

We've been listening to Becoming Bridge Builders. Stay bold and stay curious.

Sara Blackmer: 00:42:26

Awesome. Thanks so much, Keith.