Western Life & Style Trailblazers
Western Life & Style Trailblazers
Ep. 10: Breaking Barriers: A Conversation with Sami Jo Smith
The revolution in women's rodeo has a powerful champion, and her name is Sami Jo Smith. As a 2025 Western Life and Style 30 Over 30 winner and the Director of Operations for Women's Rodeo World Championship, Smith brings an infectious passion and strategic vision to transforming women's Western sports.
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Hey, hey, welcome to Western Life and Style Trailblazers podcast. I'm Allie D, along with my co-host and co-founder of Western Life and Style, nicole Nava-James, and today we have a very special guest in the house. We are so excited. She's one of our 2025 30 over 30 winners. She is an incredible impact to the women's community, specifically women's rodeo in our Western life, and we are very excited to invite Sammy Jo Smith onto the podcast. Welcome, hey. Thank you for having me today. I feel like we have become close besties in the past few weeks because we were able to work closely with you and your organization in presenting our 30 over 30 winners by kind of borrowing a little bit of your buckle ceremony for your amazing women. So what I wanted to just kind of talk about first is tell us a little bit about so you're involved with women's rodeo. Tell us about your position and what you've, what you've been working on for the past year or so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have been with WCRA World Champions Rodeo Alliance since they started back in 2018. So, going on over six years that I've been with the company, I've worn several hats or had several different roles within WCRA. The virtual rodeo qualifier is really the heart of all of their businesses. We developed an app that rodeo athletes can use. They go to the events they're already entered in and the events that they've had on their schedule for years, right, but now they can use this virtual rodeo qualifier is what the app is called and they nominate their efforts at those existing events they're going to and earn points on a leaderboard to qualify to WCRA events. So I was a part of the team that sat in all of the development calls, picking the icons to go on each tab and teaching these developers that knew nothing about rodeo, all of the rodeo terminology and how to make the VRQ work for the athletes.
Speaker 2:And something I take such pride in is now, over the past six years, seeing the millions of dollars that WCRA has added to the sport.
Speaker 2:But, more specifically, three years ago, they brought me on as the director of operations and rodeo administration for Women's Rodeo World Championship, and my counterpart is Lindsay Rosser-Sumter, who's the commissioner, and together we've now paid out $4.5 million to women's rodeo athletes.
Speaker 2:We were the first to pay equal money across barrels, breakaway heading and healing, but we also serve a much larger mission which is why I love this relationship with the two of you is to serve the cowgirls that are outside of the arena as well.
Speaker 2:There are incredible athletes and that is 100%. The heart of women's rodeo's business is serving the athletes in the arena, but there is a huge community of cowgirls that serve the industry outside of the arena, and so our mission is to honor and celebrate every type of cowgirl that lives and breathes in this industry and so to. I don't see it as you guys stole our vocal ceremony, but we partnered together and really just had such a fun day at Tannahills honoring the cowgirls that competed inside the arena, but all of these incredible cowgirls that serve the industry outside of the arena too, and it was such a magical day and I was honored to be a part of this year's class and, yeah, every year I just strive to raise the bar in what I'm doing in my career, but also how I'm serving the industry, and I felt like our partnership with Western Life and Style absolutely helped raise the bar of how we're celebrating cowgirls.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love hearing that. That was so awesome, sammy. It was such a magical day. I loved it so much and you're right with the. We kept saying that the entire day and Allie and I, that was like the theme and especially when we were, you know our posts and our reels and I feel like people were drawn to it was cowgirls supporting cowgirls from all over, or Western community supporting the Western community all over. So that was a really cool thing that I mean I saw it going and then I saw a bunch of comments. You know we're like we love seeing this women powerhood, you know, in the Western world. So that was like really, really cool to see.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and, just being a part of this year's class, of course I'm drawn to Alexis Bloomer and Katie Kaufman and Lindsey Branquino. Right, we're all in each other's orbit, but there were some really. I mean just to network with all of the cowgirls that were there too, that I didn't know, that own boutiques and have created these strong businesses with within the media and marketing world, and so just to have that opportunity to expand my orbit and to meet some really, really cool cowgirls was just such a magical day.
Speaker 3:It really was was it turned into like a cool networking day after I noticed people like didn't want to leave, Like yeah, it's like wanting to hang out. Still, we're like OK.
Speaker 2:It was. It really was so fun. And then also to look back, like I remember when I was inducted I went and looked back at who all has been in the classes before us, classes before us, and to feel a part of this incredible sisterhood of women. It's just such an honor and I hope that years to come we can all have these reunions and just continue to network and expand our, yeah, our orbit of women.
Speaker 1:Yes, I would love to know a little bit more about how you got started in this world. Did you grow up in rodeo? Has this always been a passion, or was this just kind of something that fell in your lap after college? Or how did you get involved in this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I am a first generation cowgirl. I'm actually a Lutheran minister's daughter and I was born in North Dakota, lived in Calgary, alberta, canada, for five years. But my parents spent 23 years in Cheyenne, wyoming. And when we went to Cheyenne Frontier Days for the first time I was five years old and I saw Miss Frontier ride by and I looked at my mom and was like how the heck do I do that mom? Like that is where I'm meant to be and truly like it sounds cliche, but that's where the flame of the love of rodeo and Western sports ignited inside little Sammy Jo. And so with Frontier Days and several members of our church that had horses, I started riding, got very involved in 4-H and FFA. But I actually in 4-H and FFA, but I actually my senior year of FFA.
Speaker 2:I did a speech on rodeo, made it to nationals and prepared public speaking. But Karen and Harry Vold invited me to their ranch one weekend and that's really where God started placing the right people in my life. And so the entire Vold family has been a huge inspiration and has really put me under their wing and helped me get the right jobs. But my very first job in rodeo was an intern at the college national finals rodeo and Susan Canode and I became very close. I actually was her only intern that year and she still praises that. I did the job of four interns running around handling the media and that was when videos were just starting and I edited videos every year which you look back now and cringe, but at the time it was so cool. But then I went on and I worked at the NFR for three years with David Glott and Maria Prekages and I worked in the TV truck and logged all of the times that different people rode during the NFR and met some really cool people.
Speaker 2:Then at that point I graduated college and I worked for RFD TV and I was actually the first person to create a full athlete schedule and plan with communication and text messages for four years with RFD TV's, the American, and then from there I just started helping plan rodeos and handling athlete initiatives and again, just have always kept my head down but studied the sport, really just have had some of the best mentors between Randy Bernard, tommy, joe, lucia Of course my current boss is Bobby Moat and Scott Davis, and people have just always been so kind in trusting me and things that I don't know, giving me the knowledge, and I always feel like a sponge in this sport. There's just more and more to learn. But I also have that spirit, and or the selfless spirit where I want to help people. I think that's because I'm a pastor's kid, probably, and so you're so helpful, sammy.
Speaker 3:Honestly, you you can feel your aura when you meet you as well, like you are so helpful to everyone and like I saw you walking around through the whole event, through the whole week, and you were you're just so helpful.
Speaker 2:No, I really appreciate that and so, yeah, I think that, um, I'm again just grateful for all the opportunities I've been given and now that I'm, you know, maturing in my career, I'm realizing more and more that you got to speak up and stand up for what you believe, and sometimes our sport does fall into the. Well, this is the way it's always been done. We're not going to change it, and I just feel blessed to work with the right people that aren't afraid to make those changes and to push the envelope. And truly, our dream at Women's Rodeo is to get it on the same level as professional women's sports. So this is the first year we had an organization together.
Speaker 2:It's like you spell together, but the last E in the word is actually an X, and they are. Their dream is to become ESPN for women's sports. So they have over 450,000 followers on Instagram. They were founded by some amazing women like Sue Bird and Alex Morgan, and they came to the finals this year. I'm sure you guys saw our signs of everyone watches women's sports and I think all the right people are starting to fall in place to help that mission happen. And my daughter's almost four, and I hope that when she turns 18, she's got a salary and is competing as a professional athlete. If that's what she wants to do, and we're headed in the right direction to make that happen what?
Speaker 1:is one of the big initiatives that you feel like you're pushing now. That is kind of like Ooh, this is a little bit different than what we're used to. I don't know if we want to do this. And specifically in rodeo, where do you feel like, ooh, this is something we're we're we're getting a little, you know, a little sassy here with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that when you think of little girls wanting to be involved in rodeo, think of little girls wanting to be involved in rodeo. The big dream that they have is to compete at the NFR right and right now. That's barrel racing only. There is a national finals breakaway but it's at the South Point. It doesn't pay nearly. What the barrels does that's a big heated topic in rodeo right now is will the breakaway ever be in the thomas and mac and will it pay what it does to be a barrel racer?
Speaker 2:I hope for the sport that it gets there, but honestly, women's rodeo is trying to fly right by that and create a huge stage, which I mean at&t stadium is humongous.
Speaker 2:We pay 750 000. We pay $750,000 right now, but we definitely are aspiring to make a tour where all year long these girls can compete for big money and then have the largest, biggest world finals event. That isn't anything compared to the NFR and I think that, yeah, in rodeo it's kind of been this monopoly of PRCA and WPRA and I think that there's a place for something much greater and much grander than that and I hope that, like I said for my daughter, she wakes up and she dreams of being a professional women's rodeo athlete that's competing for millions of dollars at one event multiple times a year, versus what the current dream is of hoping and praying that they put Breakaway in the Thomas and Mac. So, yeah, I'd say that that's probably creating the most buzz and stir in the industry right now and I really hope that, with the right support and the right money, we can keep pushing it that way. I have so many questions Like I really hope that, with the right support and the right money, we can keep pushing it that way.
Speaker 1:I have so many questions Like I literally I'm just like everything you're saying. I'm like, oh, I want to ask about that. Okay, do you have? Do you feel like there's been any correlation to the uptick in women's rodeo, seeing like, for example, the WNBA and the popularity that that has? Do you feel like that's had an influence on like? Do you kind of see the bubbling of the water, so to speak?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We call it the Caitlin Clark effect, right, and it is amazing how, even just going to like the Dallas Wings game when we were in Dallas last week and feeling the energy and the excitement and the ticket sales, I mean, everybody's stirring about how much it's going to cost to watch the Fever play the Dallas Wings this year with Kaitlyn Clark and Paige Bukers.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I do think that something in the sports world is shifting right now. Right now there is a really great documentary about Hope Solo and USA Soccer and how they iced her out when she was pushing for equal money in professional soccer for women and men. And so with more of those documentaries, more conversations, it really comes down to whoever's leading those organizations has to be willing to say we're going to make a change and we're going to fix this. And I think that the stronger these athletes get and the more the money and the sponsorship and the people backing these organizations say enough's enough. Something is going to change and I've heard it just in the conversations we had in Arlington. There's a lot of big sponsors that have never been given the approval to put money behind women's sports and we've had four phone calls already after from those exact sponsors that said I got the call, they're in on women's rodeo, let's do this. So I'm super like I got chills just saying that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. When I wanted to talk a little bit more about Arlington and, you know, cowboy Stadium and that event, the PBR finals I was watching with my husband at home, which he is a retired professional bull rider. He rode in the PBR for many, many years with my husband at home, which he is a retired professional bull rider. He rode in the PBR for many, many years and when women's rodeo came on, it's like the whole vibe just shifted to this, like it's. It just felt like and I even said this to him I was like, honestly, this is kind of the best part of the whole night because it's like to see women out there on such a big stage, so incredible, at their sport, like holy cow. I have chills right now. And again I said to my husband this is such a turning point Because again I've been thinking the same thing that you mentioned.
Speaker 1:You know, the Caitlin Clark effect women's sports just continuing to grow and get you know more visible and sponsors jumping on. Because at the end of the day, that's sports just continuing to grow and and get you know more visible and sponsors jumping on, cause at the end of the day, that's so important. We need the sponsors to jump on and support women and just seeing them at their highest level. What was the feeling of the athletes that were competing there at the PBR finals? Like, were they just as excited? Or to them, is it like we can do this anywhere, we don't care? Like, what was the vibe of them?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's another thing that sets women's rodeo apart is when you go to the NFR it's the top 15 girls that have pounded the pavement all year long, have the sponsors backing them financially to get there. For us we have three classifications professionals, challengers, which are kind of in that middle. They're, you know, maybe college rodeo athletes or the up and comers, but they're not full time professional athletes yet. And this is the first year women's rodeo created a limited classification. And limited is truly those women that are either the young youth, you know, 13 to 15 years old, just kind of getting started, or the 50 year olds that got their careers, became moms, took some time off, whatever it may be, but have decided to leg up their horses and start competing again.
Speaker 2:And we had a limited barrel racer this year Charmaine Holdren was her name. That came. She won the limited barrel race. So she competed in one round in Cowtown Coliseum, was the overall fastest time, showed up in Arlington and competed against three pros, three challengers, and she was the only limited. She took second place out of seven total barrel racers. And this is a lady that has taken the past 15 years off. She tried to get her horse going and she got sick so took a little more time off, but finally her and her horse are synced up. She shows up and wins $25,000 from one run on Saturday at AT&T Stadium. And so we give. We truly are an inclusive environment for every level of athlete to come and compete and to show up at AT&T in front of almost 30,000 people to see. And then we had two challenger team ropers win one, $60,000 each as challengers. They're not professional rodeoing either, and so it's just so cool.
Speaker 2:You're right, allie, like the vibe between we're bull riding and now all of a sudden women's rodeo come out. I think that PBR has done a great job celebrating that. The first couple years it was kind of like wait, this is the PBR World Finals, right, why are we women's rodeoing? But they've started to push it, honor it, celebrate it, and so the fans are into it. It also helps that Friday night's the Kid Rock Rockin' Rodeo. So it's just a great transition into the PBR World Finals and us.
Speaker 2:But all boats rise on a high tide and for every part of our industry to support each other and push each other, we're all going to rise, the sport's going to grow, we're going to create new eyeballs watching this sport and I think that's the best bridge PBR is building between bull riding and women's rodeo right now. And who doesn't love watching women kick ass and be these badass cowgirls? Excuse my language, but seriously, like it's just, the vibe is so amazing. And Silvano Alves we're chatting and his daughter tried to qualify this year, barely missed the cut, but she's going to try to come back next year and compete with us. So there's a lot of bull riders who want whose wives and daughters compete with us and it's just a great, you know, harmony between the two organizations.
Speaker 3:That's so awesome. I'm already. I'm like so hyped up right now, how does somebody get involved?
Speaker 1:if they're out there and they're just kind of getting into the sport, they feel so intimidated because they're like I don't even know what I'm doing. How do they get involved in the first place? Because you do have so many options available.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the best thing to do is on our website. We have qualifier series. Events is what they're called. For example, today Future Stars Breakaway Roping is going on in Glen Rose, texas. Chris Neal Productions is a big partner of ours. This is the first year. He's doing a limited breakaway, a challenger breakaway and the Open, so those girls that go to Chris's events can rope within their classification, which is really really neat. Nbha is a new partner of ours this year where they're offering those side pot opportunities for Limited, challenger and Open.
Speaker 2:But really, like I said, the VRQ is designed for any event that we can find. Publicly verified results can be nominated. So you have to be 13 years old or up to participate with us. You download the Women's Rodeo app and then honestly call our team. We have an amazing team of support people that can pretty much give anybody the simplified here's how to get started and here's how to qualify and compete with us. Simplified here's how to get started and here's how to qualify and compete with us.
Speaker 2:We, you know the world finals we run in the April to April calendar year, so our world finals is always in May. But something that we're really pushing this year is to have annual opportunities where girls can go. They can participate in those classifications at our producer partnered events, and then the ultimate dream right is to get enough points to come to our world finals in May. But there are a ton of opportunities throughout the year to participate. So, step one, download the Women's Rodeo app. And then, step two, reach out to our team and we'll step you through how to get started.
Speaker 1:Well, I think there's just again. There's so much to be excited about when it comes to thinking about where the sport is going and you and your team just lifting up literally like an entire movement. Do you ever feel like it's just such a big, you know, goal? How are we going to do this? Or what is the team doing on a daily basis to actually, you know, put this into work and make this happen?
Speaker 3:on a daily basis to actually, you know, put this into work, make this happen. Also, this is like kind of new too. Like you said, what 2018? Yeah, this was our sixth year. Like that's still new. Like you guys, that's still a new program and you guys have already made this much of a ruckus. Like that's amazing in itself. You know, you guys are here here now. Everybody knows who you are. That's so great it is amazing.
Speaker 2:This is the first year I've felt a huge shift since completing our finals. Our phones are ringing off the hook. The emails are coming in how do I get started, how do I participate? Or even from producers how do I partner with you guys and offer these opportunities, partner with you guys and offer these opportunities? And so I'll be honest again, like day after the finals I was answering phone calls. We're already focused on our business plan for this next year, creating as many opportunities all year long for the girls to participate and play with us.
Speaker 2:Cowboy Channel was our exclusive media partner this year and I know that Deirdre at Teton Ridge and their entire team has big, big goals to continue lifting up women's rodeo. So I mean, the biggest thing, of course, is to give our athletes the most earning potential and I think rodeo for a long time it's been well. It has to be funded by the athletes. If they pay the fees, we'll pay out the money, but our biggest goal is to fund and support these bigger ventures, not by relying on the athletes for it to come out of their pocket, and I think because we are co-owned by the PBR and their business model is much like that, where they don't want it to completely come out of the bull riders pockets. I'm really excited to see how we can continue to push that envelope and help make it richer without the girls having to pay more. And then you know, other than that, like things happen magically when they're supposed to happen Right, and the phone calls we're getting and the opportunities that are going to continue to expand for women's rodeo, I just can't wait to see what happens. But I will just tease that for 2026 finals, um, it is our goal to invite every cowgirl that wants to be celebrated, whether inside or outside of the arena, to mark their calendars because we are going to plan some big things happening around women's rodeo and cowgirls, again, like I said, inside and outside of the arena.
Speaker 1:Well, we would love to be a part of whatever this surprise is so, nicole, you and Sammy get on the horn and figure this out.
Speaker 2:No, you guys are already. You're in my orbit now we're making this happen, and I do.
Speaker 2:Just circling back to Western Life and Style and the 30 Over 30 program, I'm very honored again that I was nominated and selected and I just encourage everyone to nominate your cowgirl friends. Sometimes you get that I don't like the word imposter syndrome, but you're like man. Am I really deserving of this to stand alongside JJ Hampton and Judy Wagner and all these incredible cowgirls? But something I've really learned is we're all magical in our own right and we've all put in the work, and our industry wouldn't be what it was without every type of cowgirl that's just hustling every day to make the sport better and make the industry better. So definitely nominate your friends, tell your friends to nominate you, because it's it's worth it, it's worth the try and even just the nomination is an honor in itself.
Speaker 3:So I love that. And then you get out with Allie Sammy and me on next year.
Speaker 1:Exactly Well, sammy. Joe, this has been such a pleasure getting to chat with you. I feel like I could honestly talk to you for hours about women's sports and what's going on and everything that. Whatever way we can, we're here to support you all and we are just again. Congratulations on the 30 over 30 win. It is so well-deserved Just hearing your story here on this podcast today, how you continue again to not only impact current cowgirls but the ones like your daughter. They're four, they're five, they're thinking about it, they want to do it and just to create a place where they're going to have truly all their dreams come true. It's chills again. It's a really big deal. So congratulations, and we have loved having you thank you so much, sammy.
Speaker 3:Huge congratulations and I won't forget. I know it's only been a couple of days, but you just had a birthday, so happy birthday. Oh, thank you all right.
Speaker 1:Thanks again for joining us on the Western Life and Style Trailblazers podcast. We'll catch you next time.