Professional Speaker, Humorist & Published Author

Sally Baskey is a humorist and motivational speaker whose message is how to use humor to get through life. Her book, "Laughter, My Drug of Choice", shares her philosophy of using a sense of humor to deal with change. Her trademark character, Ida Mae Fudpucker, uses humor to spoof management and the numerous corporate reorganizations that are inevitable, but troubling to employees. She provides the comic relief often needed at your company meetings, training sessions, and conferences.

Both enteraining and thought-provoking, Sally Baskey will make your audience smile, but more importantly, Sally will make your audience think. You can be sure that Sally will make your meeting memorable.

Sally Baskey has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and taught at the Actors Workshop in Dallas before starting a 25-year career with a major oil company where she made an impact on marketing, customer service, human resources, telecommunications, public relations, and employee communications.

With a strength in managing technical areas as a non-technical person, Sally Baskey keeps it simple! Her presentations entertain, educate, and influence audiences by showing how humor can help diffuse difficult situations within an organization as well as in life.

Sally's Most Popular Topics

Ida Mae Fudpucker
Ida Mae Fudpucker is Sally's original hilariously outspoken character who is not afraid to speak her mind. Her humorous approach in communicating changes and upcoming events to employees and key audiences will be a unique addition to your next program.

Sally uses creative scripting in a presentation that is specifically customized to your audience's needs, including memorizing up to 200 names. A short, pre-event briefing is all that Sally needs in order to gear Ida Mae's message to you corporate objectives. Sally can also attend your conference as an observer and then bring Ida Mae "in" to summarize the main points of the event in a humorous, yet memorable, fashion. Sally takes the initiative and delivers an entertaining program that will still communicate how to deal with difficult situations.

Corporations have repeatedly utilized Ida Mae to defuse awkward issues as well as to introduce change within their organizations. You can count on Ida Mae to make your event memorable..
and informative as well.

Laughter, My Drug of Choice
Life is full of experiences that make us sad, frustrated, mad or those that sometimes put us "over the edge." This highly entertaining and motivational program is based up on Sally's book of the same name. Sally delivers her message of how to deal with change by finding the humor in life's difficult situations. Her entertaining, yet thought-provoking and motivational presentation will leave your audience with a truly pain-relieving prescription for dealing with the challenges of everyday life.

Self-Medicate with Humor
Although audiences will smile and laugh during Sally's entertaining programs, they will also be inspired to find humor in the everyday challenges of life once they leave your event! Attendees will want to implement the many interpersonal skills that Sally presents, an management will discover how, while most productive employees take their jobs seriously, they take themselves lightly. Sally motivates audiences to examine their own communication styles while remaining focused and energized in order to achieve their personal and professional goals.

What People Are Saying

"You had the audience sitting on the edge of their seats attending to your speech at one moment and then holding their sides and catching their breath from laughter at the next."
-- Jamie Van Dycke, President-Elect, Oklahoma Federation of the Council for Exceptional Children

"You have a great approach that gets across that change should be expected and not feared. The auditors are still marveling at the information recall you demonstrated in mentioning surprise details about all 70 at the meeting."
-- Doug Guerro, Director, Corporate Audit, EDS

"Her involvement was the best investment I have made with my sales team in 10 years. She not only re-capped every aspect of a very long three-day conference, but also discretely “roasted” the top leadership, sending us off with enthusiasm, renewed vision and warm hearts toward one another."
-- David Beavers, National Marketing Director, National Safety Associates

"Sally has a rare talent to dig quickly and deeply into the soul of a company, then incorporate her findings into meaningful insights that enlighten and entertain. We called Sally when we needed to deliver critical information regarding our company reorganization; our employees left feeling good about themselves and the company."
-- Joanie Schultz, Director, Human Resources, Fujitsu Technology Solutions

"The homework you did to customize your program to our needs was impressive. Your ability to take information about our staff and incorporate them into “Ida Mae” brought a personal touch to the program, and everyone is still wondering how you knew so much about the individual, and even more so, how you remembered all the small details."
-- Stan Ivie, Deputy Director, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

"We expect a professional speaker to plan and execute a speech flawlessly. It’s quite another thing to discover that Sally has mastered the art of ad-libbing after listening to the speakers for the first time that day, successfully fooling participants about who she was, and leaving the audience roaring as they listened to her recap of the day and friendly spoofs of prior speakers."
-- Paula Roman, Executive Director, Collin County Community College District Foundation

"You did a great job presenting our theme on customer service and helping us accomplish our objectives. I’m not sure how you capture an audience at 7:30am but we are still smiling."
-- Linda Broome, Human Resource Manager, Business Interiors

"Our staff sent me thank you notes describing your session as one of the best or THE best staff development sessions they have ever attended. I honestly have never attended a better session on the topic."
-- Sue Sherbet, Director, University of Texas at Dallas Career Center

"'Ida Mae' was the highest evaluated presentor of our entire National Swim School Spring Conference. Most comments were “I have never laughed so hard.” We are proposing to our Board to hire you for our annual conference. Our jobs are too stressful not to do therapy with Ida Mae again."
-- Jan Emler, Chairperson, NSSA Spring Conference

"Warm, funny and thought provoking, Sally has our diverse group of employees’ undivided attention from the very beginning. In addition to making us laugh out loud, Sally also made us think of the importance of using humor for our health and well-being."
-- Katherine Bowling, Executive Secretary to the City Manager

"I strongly suggest theatrical performing as your next career; such a talent should not be wasted in an office environment."
-- Michael Wiley, President & CEO, Atlantic Richfield

"Our employees are still wondering how you could remember all 50 of their names and something unique about each one of them."
-- H. G. Leffler, President & CEO, Arlington National Bank

"Everyone was finishing their dinner when Ida Mae came barging in the door and did she take over. I sat in wonderment as she called everyone’s name along with an interesting story of something they had done. I had an unbelievable time enjoying great humor that was as wholesome as the day is long."
-- Bob Jeffus, Regional Vice President, A Major Insurance Company

"You have such a gift of relating to everyday people in everyday situations and we were all touched in one way or another. I believe all 500 attendees left the meeting feeling a bit lighter with regard to various circumstances they might be facing in their lives. As the meeting planner, I also want to say thanks for making my meeting stress free! I don't recall other speakers being so self sufficient in taking care of themselves from beginning to end. I hope to have you back as Ida Mae in the future."
-- Sheryl Camp, Meetings Director, Atlanta Apartment Association

"Your presentation was listed as one of the Convention's educational highlights by many attendees. Your contribution to our goal of providing high quality education to the long term care profession is greatly appreciated."
-- H.Allison Dew, Director of Education and Membership Services, North Carolina Health Care Facilities Associationk

Clients

Alcon
ARCO
Arlington National Bank
Atlanta Apartment Managers
BHPBilliton
Blockbuster
Brinker International
British Petroleum
Brookshires Grocery
Builders FirstSource
Business Interiors
City of Coppell
City of North Richland Hills
Clemson University
Collin County Community College
Comstock Resources Inc.
Common Cares Inc.
Copper and Brass Services Association
Corps Of Civil Engineers
Cottey College
Dallas County Automobile Dealers Association
East Central University
EDS
Fannie Mae
FDIC
Federal Bureau of Prisons

Federal Medical Center Carswell
Federal Reserve Bank
Fujitsu
Howard Middle School
Independent Insurance Agents of Houston
Juice Plus
Landmark Graphics
Leadership Plano
LVN Convention
Mansfield High School
Mary Kay
MiEscuelita
Munsch Hardt Kopf and Harr
North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association
North Central Texas College
NSSA
Oklahoma Federation Council for Exceptional Children (OFCEC)
PDMS
Powr-Lift
Premier Communities
Risk and Insurance Management Society
Shriners
Summit High School
TCCD Tarrant County Community College District
Tarrant County College
Tarrant County Department of Human Services
Texas A&M - Commerce
Texas Instruments
Texas Lathing and Plastering Contractors Association
Texas Network of Youth Services
Texas Public Relations Association
Texas Society of Professional Surveyors
TXDoT
UCPTC
Universal Health Services
UTD University of Texas Dallas
Wylie High School
Youth Leadership