Captain Sandy Yawn is entrusted to steer her crew in the right direction on Bravo’s “Below Deck.”
She’s now sharing those leadership skills in her new book “Be the Calm or Be the Storm: Leadership Lessons from a Woman at the Helm.”
“This book was the hardest thing I ever did in my life,” she explained to KTLA 5’s Sam Rubin. “One thing that’s the constant in here is to remain teachable even at the top. We don’t have all the answers.”
“If you remain teachable, learn that art of self-leadership, to take care of yourself first. Check yourself, check your ego at the door, walk in to have a common goal to accomplish what you set out to do.”
Yawn revealed that she herself learned a valuable lesson from a deckhand.
“I’ll never forget, he walked off the boat into a crowd and put his hand out and said, ‘Hi, I’m Rob and I’m from motor yacht Pure Bliss, I’m new here.’ I thought, ‘I’m going to do that!’ I learned from him,” she said.
Yawn credited Bravo for shining a spotlight on jobs in the maritime industry and explained that they are hiring.
For those interested, it’s important to note you’ll be at sea for most of the year.
“It’s the Mediterranean in the summer, the Caribbean in the winter and you just rotate. We take a month off and gear back up,” she explained. “We hit the Cannes Film Festival, Monaco Grand Prix and then we start our season.”
“Be the Calm or Be the Storm: Leadership Lessons from a Woman at the Helm” is available now wherever books are sold.
New episodes of “Below Deck” air Monday nights at 8 p.m. on Bravo.