Member since November 2025
Sally A. Murphy, M.Ed., ACC
Educator • Coach • Speaker • Trainer • Empowerment Advocate
Sally Murphy is an experienced educator, coach, and advocate with over a decade of expertise in teaching and instructional leadership. Driven by a passion for sparking curiosity and empowering others, she has dedicated her career to helping both students and educators realize their full potential. For Sally, education has never been just about academics—it’s about creating access to the tools, resources, and confidence needed to thrive.
She has worked at the University of Central Florida and the UCF Center for Community Schools, where she supported over 50 schools across the state in designing strategic plans, building sustainable systems, and expanding access to student success initiatives. Sally also served in Human Resources as a Training and Development Specialist, focusing on leadership development, change management, and strategic thinking to support organizational growth.
In addition to her education and organizational development work, Sally is an ACC Certified Life Coach through the International Coaching Federation and the founder of It’s A Sally Thing Coaching, a personal empowerment company dedicated to helping individuals break through limiting beliefs and step boldly into their purpose. Her coaching blends mindset work with actionable strategy, equipping clients to reconnect with their voice, their vision, and their power.
Whether she’s leading a workshop, mentoring an educator, or coaching a client through transformation, Sally creates spaces where people feel seen, heard, and valued. She believes that once you fully embrace who you are, everything shifts—and she’s here to help others unlock that shift for themselves.
I’m Sally A. Murphy, M.Ed., ACC — a certified leadership and personal empowerment coach, workshop designer, keynote speaker, and adult education specialist with more than a decade of experience helping adults step into their confidence, clarity, and power.
What truly puts a smile on my face is watching people realize what they’re capable of the moment they stop doubting themselves. I love the spark that happens when someone connects the dots, claims their voice, or finally sees the strength that was there the whole time.
My work is rooted in more than 10 years in education as a teacher, instructional coach, and trainer, paired with experience as a Training & Development Program Manager at the University of Central Florida. I’ve spent my career designing and facilitating high-impact leadership, communication, and coaching programs for adults across industries.
As a coach, I specialize in communication, emotional intelligence, mindset, and personal growth. I’ve developed and delivered statewide institutes, CEU/CLE trainings, community school leadership workshops, and transformational keynotes centered on empowerment, identity, and breaking free from limiting beliefs.
Helping people unlock their light, and watching them glow from the inside out, is what makes this work meaningful, fulfilling, and yes… what puts a smile on my face.
One of the most powerful stories I share from the stage is about a student named Andy — the student who taught me one of the greatest lessons of my career:
Listening is a bridge, not a skill… and relationships are leadership.
When I first met Andy, he carried a reputation. “He’s difficult… he’s defiant… he doesn’t listen.” Other teachers warned me. But I quickly learned that Andy wasn’t difficult — he was disconnected. So instead of correcting him, I sat next to him. Instead of giving him a consequence, I gave him a question. And for the first time, someone asked him, “What do you need to feel safe, secure, and successful in this classroom?"
He looked up — shocked. No one had ever slowed down long enough to hear him.
That moment changed everything. Not because I had the perfect strategy, but because I listened long enough for him to feel safe. Andy transformed, and so did I.
He taught me that:
- People rise when they feel seen.
- Listening is a form of leadership.
- And sometimes the quietest moment is the one that changes everything.
That single experience shaped the coach, facilitator, and leader I am today. It guides my work in communication, emotional intelligence, and empowerment for adults across industries.
It’s the story that reminds audiences:
You don’t have to have the right words; you just need to make room for the right connection.
I always say my story didn’t start when I became a coach; it started long before that, back when I was the kid who struggled in school.
I was that student.
The one who asked too many questions.
The one who didn’t fit the mold.
The one teachers didn’t always know what to do with.
I was smart, but I learned differently.
Curious, but often misunderstood.
Creative, but constantly told to tone it down.
And even though I didn’t know it at the time, that experience would become the foundation of everything I teach today.
Those early school years shaped me.
They taught me what it feels like to be overlooked, unheard, and underestimated, and they planted a quiet promise in me:
If I ever had the chance to work with young people, I would be the adult I needed when I was their age.
So I became a teacher.
Then an instructional coach.
Then, a trainer for educators across the state.
And over those years, I learned something big:
If the adults in the building are okay, our kids will be okay.
If adults feel supported, seen, valued, and empowered, everything changes: the climate, the culture, the outcomes, the relationships.
That realization cracked something open in me.
It made me see that my purpose wasn’t just teaching curriculum…
It was teaching confidence.
Teaching communication.
Teaching self-leadership.
Teaching people, of all ages, how to show up for themselves so they can show up for others.
And somewhere in that journey, something funny kept happening.
People would say it all the time:
“There goes Sally… doing her Sally thing again.”
“Only Sally would come up with that.”
“That’s just such a Sally thing.”
At first, I didn’t know how to take it.
Was it a compliment?
Was it a sideways comment?
Was I too much? Too creative? Too different?
But eventually, I decided to own it.
If being “a Sally thing” meant being authentic…
If it meant showing up differently…
If it meant refusing to shrink to fit a broken system…
If it meant helping people see themselves more clearly…
Then yes, it is a Sally thing.
And that’s how my brand was born:
It’s a Sally Thing, a movement that helps people reach their truest potential by owning exactly who they are.
Today, whether I’m coaching leaders, speaking on a stage, leading a workshop, or empowering women and youth, everything I do comes back to the same truth:
- When you stop trying to fit, you finally start to shine.
- When you own your story, you own your power.
- And when you show up as you- fully, unapologetically; you give others permission to do the same.
This is my origin.
This is my mission.
This is my Sally thing.
One of the most powerful stories I share from the stage is about a student named Andy — the student who taught me one of the greatest lessons of my career:
Listening is a bridge, not a skill… and relationships are leadership.
When I first met Andy, he carried a reputation. “He’s difficult… he’s defiant… he doesn’t listen.” Other teachers warned me. But I quickly learned that Andy wasn’t difficult — he was disconnected. So instead of correcting him, I sat next to him. Instead of giving him a consequence, I gave him a question. And for the first time, someone asked him, “What do you need to feel safe, secure, and successful in this classroom?"
He looked up — shocked. No one had ever slowed down long enough to hear him.
That moment changed everything. Not because I had the perfect strategy, but because I listened long enough for him to feel safe. Andy transformed, and so did I.
He taught me that:
- People rise when they feel seen.
- Listening is a form of leadership.
- And sometimes the quietest moment is the one that changes everything.
That single experience shaped the coach, facilitator, and leader I am today. It guides my work in communication, emotional intelligence, and empowerment for adults across industries.
It’s the story that reminds audiences:
You don’t have to have the right words; you just need to make room for the right connection.
I always say my story didn’t start when I became a coach; it started long before that, back when I was the kid who struggled in school.
I was that student.
The one who asked too many questions.
The one who didn’t fit the mold.
The one teachers didn’t always know what to do with.
I was smart, but I learned differently.
Curious, but often misunderstood.
Creative, but constantly told to tone it down.
And even though I didn’t know it at the time, that experience would become the foundation of everything I teach today.
Those early school years shaped me.
They taught me what it feels like to be overlooked, unheard, and underestimated, and they planted a quiet promise in me:
If I ever had the chance to work with young people, I would be the adult I needed when I was their age.
So I became a teacher.
Then an instructional coach.
Then, a trainer for educators across the state.
And over those years, I learned something big:
If the adults in the building are okay, our kids will be okay.
If adults feel supported, seen, valued, and empowered, everything changes: the climate, the culture, the outcomes, the relationships.
That realization cracked something open in me.
It made me see that my purpose wasn’t just teaching curriculum…
It was teaching confidence.
Teaching communication.
Teaching self-leadership.
Teaching people, of all ages, how to show up for themselves so they can show up for others.
And somewhere in that journey, something funny kept happening.
People would say it all the time:
“There goes Sally… doing her Sally thing again.”
“Only Sally would come up with that.”
“That’s just such a Sally thing.”
At first, I didn’t know how to take it.
Was it a compliment?
Was it a sideways comment?
Was I too much? Too creative? Too different?
But eventually, I decided to own it.
If being “a Sally thing” meant being authentic…
If it meant showing up differently…
If it meant refusing to shrink to fit a broken system…
If it meant helping people see themselves more clearly…
Then yes, it is a Sally thing.
And that’s how my brand was born:
It’s a Sally Thing, a movement that helps people reach their truest potential by owning exactly who they are.
Today, whether I’m coaching leaders, speaking on a stage, leading a workshop, or empowering women and youth, everything I do comes back to the same truth:
- When you stop trying to fit, you finally start to shine.
- When you own your story, you own your power.
- And when you show up as you- fully, unapologetically; you give others permission to do the same.
This is my origin.
This is my mission.
This is my Sally thing.
