May
31
Sex and the City
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Last night I attended the premiere of Sex and the City with 3 of my girlfriends downtown Denver. First we met at Earl’s on 16th Street for cosmos, and I’ve never seen Denver so hooched out! Seriously, the upscale bar was jam-packed with stilettos and sequins…both items you don’t normally see on a typical night in Denver. My friends and I (Chris, Missy and Liz – see iphone pics) got some food and rushed across the street to catch the 8:30pm showing of the film. Once we got there, the line consisted of a gazillion women, and a few gay guys. I must say, it warmed my girlpower little heart to see such comraderie among women. Well anyways, the movie was awesome. I’ve always been a pretty big SATC fan, but the movie really just blew the show away with a new level of depth and sincerity. Overall, I highly recommend you call up your fave girlfriends and make a date of it. I think in our busy lives post-college, sometimes we forget just how important those girl nights are. Make them a priority.
May
26
Bolder Boulder 10k
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Happy Memorial Day! First I’d just like to say a huge THANK YOU to our troops, serving currently and those who have served before. A prayer goes out to those who have lost their lives in the line of duty, and also for all the people who loved them. Also a big HOLLA to my little brother Andrew and his fellow troops in Iraq today. I couldn’t think of a better way to reflect on all our troops have done for us than doing something big…a personal first. So today I ran my first ever 10k race – the Bolder Boulder. For those of you who don’t speak in kilometers, that comes to 6.2 miles…and I felt all 6.2 of them! (I think I need some serious arch supports…) I ran with one of my fave girlfriends of all time, Lisa Poole. (We met in college, and oddly enough moved to the same town in Colorado without realizing it.) The Bolder Boulder 10k is an annual event that draws 50,000 runners. It’s a seriously competitive race, but also tons of fun. Along the way, there were bands, people partying on their front lawns and little kids running around with bubbles and signs around their necks that said, “You can do this!” It was a really inspirational day, as tired as my wobbly legs feel right now…I can’t believe Lisa and I ran the entire thing! The only downer about today was the craptastic weather. There was a whole lot of rain, and my staff manning our booth at the festival got quite soggy and we had to shut down early today. But it’s all good…GFB loves Boulder.
May
25
Welcome Ashley!
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Today was day two of the Boulder Creek Festival, and I’m so grateful for the non-stop stream of volunteers to help make the GFB booth a huge success. Two special volunteers today included our new intern Ashley, and her pup Copper. Copper was a total hit, drawing people into our fun little tent by the droves! (What a charmer.) Ashley is currently a student at CU Boulder and will be working for GFB on our Marketing and Communications, especially for the upcoming Fall 2008 Tour. So here’s her formal e-welcome to the team…we’re psyched to have you!
May
24
Boulder Creek Festival
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Day one of the Boulder Creek Festival was fantastic! We enjoyed some pretty fantastic weather today, and spoke to hundreds of people in Boulder, CO about our mission: To educate women around the globe about personal safety and self-defense. In addition to selling some fab merchandise and books, we also advertised a series of FREE Girls Fight Back seminars this summer around Colorado. A big thanks to the GFB staff and volunteers who made today a huge success!
May
22
David Meerman Scott
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Yesterday was such an insane day, filled with back-to-back meetings and media interviews. It was a great day actually, since I made a new author friend, David Meerman Scott. He’s a popular speaker, award winning author and former corporate guy turned entrepreneurial internet guru. Forward-thinking businesses who want to use the net as a marketing tool should check out his blog, or buy his book. David interviewed me for his newest book about viral marketing, and some of the crazy ways GFB spreads women’s safety and self-defense info. In particular, when I ask audiences who attend the Girls Fight Back seminar to take out their cell phones and shooting video of the Palm-Knee-Knee combination…only to later be posted on the web (view here). What better way to circulate self-defense info to the masses…for free!
May
21
Creepy Van-o-palooza
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So those of you who have seen me speak, also are aware of my bizarre yet comical fascination with creepy vans. I’m not sure why – I think the hobby started during a boring road trip across Pennsylvania, and I kept getting passed by creepy vans. And I kept wondering, “Seriously, why are you driving a van with tinted windows, rust holes and one wobbly wheel?” I mean, I know everyone has to stick to a budget, but seriously. Or when I was walking in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Waco, TX a few years ago, and saw a creepy van with a full-sized air conditioning wall unit protruding from the 
back window of the van! And the best part – it was held in place by duct tape. So last night when I arrived back at the Denver Airport, I hopped on the shuttle to get to the parking lot. As I approached my car, I saw the grossest van ever. Most people might hurry into the car and speed away. I, on the other hand, took out my camera and took some snapshots. Notice the second picture, how this particular van is protected with maximum security via The Club. Because I’m sure someone was totally gonna steal it. Enjoy.
May
21
Jersey Fabulous
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Yesterday I flew to Newark, NJ for a quick visit to my old stompin’ ground. When I arrived, my darling parents-in-law made me a lobster dinner feast. I was in ecstasy. Hit the sack pretty early, since today I was up early to speak at Watchung Hills Regional High School. What a fab bunch of girls with smarts and sass! I spoke to about 300 young gals, and taught them the palm strike among other things. So it was good, and while going back to NJ was fun, I’m reaffirmed that moving West was the right move for me. It’s a crazy state, just because there are so many demographics of people in places crammed into one fairly small piece of land. I mean, take the website www.njguido.com. Now that’s a culture!
May
16
Tony Blauer
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Many people ask me, “What is the best kind of self-defense training?” Really, there is a lot of good stuff out there, and it’s sad how much of the self-defense industry just hates on each other. I mean, shouldn’t we all be suporting each other? Aren’t we all working towards the same goal to end violence and teach people to fight back? Anyways, the training I most enjoy is the real-world, studied, proven and tested methods of how a real fight or attack goes down. Martial arts is cool and a good work-out, but I’ve always preferred the grittier stuff like Krav Maga or IMPACT courses with the Bullet Man suits. There’s a lot of material out there which looks cool and seems to make sense for use in a violent confrontation. But add in some adrenaline, fear and all the physiological things that happen in a human body in these situations, and you have a whole other ball game. Through my mentor Bob Martin at Gavin de Becker and Associates, I was introduced to my friend Tony Blauer. In my opinion, he’s one of the best minds and fighters in the self-defense industry. He’s having a training camp in Virginia Beach, VA this August and I will be there. Any of my GFB peeps interested in joining me for a weekend o’ whoop-ass? Click here to read about the camp, and click here to read about Tony’s approach and philosophy. Holla at me if you’re interested in learning more.
May
15
A good quote
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I have been very blessed with a business mentor/coach named Greg Walker. Today we met, and discussed all the awesome things happening with this crusade to educate women about personal safety and self-defense. For anyone who knows me, I pretty much live this mission and live this work. As a result of this, I tend to stress out and feel an unnecessary weight on my shoulders. Sometimes I can get a little caught up in the process and to-do lists of how we will achieve the ultimate vision: That every woman on the planet has access to safety & self-defense education. Yesterday Greg said to me, “Set an intention, and you’ll get results. Stop being so hung up on the mechanism to get there.” It kind of reminds me of yoga class, where you set an intention before starting any poses. If you set a real good intention, something that inspires or drives you, this dedication of sorts helps you push through the struggle. What’s your today?
May
14
Birthday in Iraq
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Today is a special day, because it’s my little brother’s birthday. OK, so he’s not so little…he’s 27. But whatev, he’ll always be little to me. Seems like yesterday I was sticking his head in the toilet and giving him a swirly. Now he’s a Marine, serving in Iraq since January. My guess is that he’s kickin’ some arse over there, and doing his job well. So I just wanted to send a public shout-out to Andrew: Thanks for all you’re doing, little brother! Much love comin’ at you from all your supporters in the U.S.
May
13
Sue Simmons
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So yesterday Sue Simmons, anchor of the New York City NBC news, totally dropped the F*bomb live on the air. This was pretty much my worst fear when I was live on the air with my radio show. Most people don’t realize this, but the talent (Sue) and the station (NBC) will likely get crazy fines for this. Not to mention, this is grade-A reason to get canned from live television. Man, she really dropped the bomb like she knew how to use it! I wonder what Chuck Scarborough was doing to make her react like that.
May
12
The Power of Now
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My friend Nancy Colasurdo turned me on to the book A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle a few months ago. I bought it at some airport, and tried to read it without much success. At the time it was too heavy and spiritual – neither of which fit in to my mindset as a tough business traveler, forging her way around 30 cities in less than 3 months. Sorry, but spiritual enlightenment would have to wait. But now that I’m back home and starting to relax a bit, I picked up the book again…and this time it really spoke to me. I finished the book while chillin’ in Atlanta this past weekend, and now I’ve begun Eckhart’s other work called The Power of Now. I’ll be writing more posts about these books in the near future, so I just wanted to warn you. Weed is gettin’ Zen, so watch out.
May
6
Cinco de Mayo
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You know what I love? Unexpected randomness! Yesterday I started getting a taste for a margarita in celebration of Mexican independence, and I made some calls to my fellow degenerates. Next thing I know, the blender is out, tacos are being made and twenty people are at my house rockin’ it out sombrero style. We even made a campfire in the back yard, and for dessert we had something crazy authentic for the occasion: brownies. Who cares? Good people, good times…and we were also celebrating the official end to my Spring ‘08 Tour. A reflection blog to come shortly, but for now I can just say “muy bueno.”
May
5
Eastern Illinois Graduation
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First I want to say thank you to all my peeps, for giving me ideas for the commencement speech I gave on Saturday at Eastern Illinois University. It was a totally wild experience. I flew to Chicago on Friday night, and my parents picked me up at Midway and we drove to Charleston from there. The ceremony was on Saturday at noon, and of course I wrote the speech about an hour prior. It definitely got me out of my element, that’s for sure. First off, the whole aura of graduation is so prim and proper and I had to wear the typical black hat and gown. It was all I could do to refrain from not demonstrating a palm strike on the university president after he introduced me, simply out of habit. Furthermore, this was one of the first speeches I ever gave that did not include the word “ass” in some fashion. (kick ass, bad ass, whoop ass, etc.) When I got up to the podium in front of thousands of people, I immediately learned two things. First, I could only speak to the graduates sitting directly in front and below me. If I lifted my head even slightly to address the crowd in the bleachers, my damn hat would fall off. Second, I had to avoid looking at the jumbotron video screen which was projecting a ginormous image of myself speaking. But anyway, it went very well and it was a really cool and exciting day. It’s always hard to be in Charleston, just because it’s a reminder of some pretty bad times. (mostly the murder trial for Shannon’s killer) but I try very hard to never let the few bad memories outshine the thousands of good ones. I’m going to post a video of my speech shortly…
Click here to read a newspaper article about the speech.
May
2
Commencement Speech
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Hi loves. Well I’m in and out…just got home Wednesday, had meetings all day yesterday and now I’m about to hop a plane to Chicago. Why, you ask? Because I am giving the commencement speech at Eastern Illinois University tomorrow. Yeah, I’m totally going to be the girl in the embellished graduation garb and spewing life wisdom to a bunch of recent grads. It’s exciting and scary, but most of all, I just want to say ONE THING that will help these young people start their post-college existence with a bang. So my question to you, my loyal blog readers, is this: What is the one piece of life advice you wish were told when graduating college?
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