More on the Awards breakfast later but just wanted to post on Sheila Johnson’s great speech “From Hoops to Hospitality: One Woman’s Free Enterprise Success Story.” We were worried about traffic for a bit, but right on time Johnson took the state to rousing applause. She noted the “Dream Big” theme which reminder her of an old saying “Dreams are Free, so we should all free our dreams.”

And sometimes dreams come from the most unlikely sources.  The business plan for BET was originally pitched by another group as a network for the elderly. When it was rejected, Johnson and her team pulled it from the trash, asked if they could borrow it, replaced “senior citizen” with “African-American” and BET was born.  As Johnson noted it took them ten years to be “an overnight success.”

Johnson talked about the difficulty in launching a new business in the current economy, but in the end it all comes down to perseverance.  When you are wearing 5 hats and working 7 days a week you have to have a passion for what you do.  Quoting entertainer, and savvy businesswomen, Dolly Parton, Johnson reminded everyone that “If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.”

Johnson also gave the eager crowd some sound advice:

During tough times consumers are not only looking at price but also at value.  If you focus on the basics and provide great customers service you will be positioned to succeed when the economy has fully recovered.

Let your daughters engage in sports. They will learn teamwork, they will learn how to communicate, they will learn how to negotiate, and they will learn how to succeed.

To reinvent the Mystics she wanted to establish a culture of accountability, a culture of long-term commitment and a commitment to not only doing the right things, but doing things the right way.

There is a huge opportunity being missed to market to women.  It drives her nuts that sponsors ignore this opportunity. Small businesses need to embrace the power of the female economy, need to market to women, earn their trust and their loyalty.

To look ahead, you need to look around.  We can all be mentors, we can all be role-models, and we can all help someone else succeed. There are many women who want to be entrepreneurs but face barriers to getting access and credit. Investment in women creates great benefit for society as a whole – we need more and Johnson closed by urging everyone to get in the game.