Cole Parker, COO, teaching

If you haven’t heard, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was reinstated and signed into law on March 7^th, just in time for International Women’s Day.  To find out more about the significance of this law, please click here.

So in celebration, we’d like to introduce you to a wonderful organization called Divas In Defense Inc., The company teaches a self-defense system to women and girls across the nation in order to empower them. Divas in Defense is unique in its own right however, because two of its main officers who started the program are actually men! A pair of brothers named Christopher Britto, the President and CEO of the company and Cole Parker, the Vice President and COO, decided to create this inspiring organization three years ago after a female pastor asked Britto to set up some self-defense classes for women enlisted in her church. After discussing the idea with his brother, Britto decided to take the idea a little further.

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Gretchen Cawthon

Throughout history and even today, women are told by men what they can and can’t do. Fortunately, the human spirit allows us the free will to decide for ourselves what we can do. We just have to tap into our inner confidence.

In 2005, when Gretchen Cawthon was told by a man that “women just don’t do web design,” something snapped inside her and she set out to prove him wrong.

“I was actually co-owner of a drum company … it was kind of a start up and we began working on a marketing plan and I was pretty much the fulltime marketing director. When it came down to the website, our business partner told my husband,  ‘I’ll handle the website, women just don’t do web design,’” said Gretchen.

She left the drum business shortly after that. Because she already had a great deal of experience teaching computers on a professional level, she decided to begin researching web design and learning how to build one herself.

“I was brought up with a computer in the house my entire life. So I just picked it up on my own. I knew a lot about computer programs and applications and so I taught people,” said Gretchen. “I went to the library and checked out every possible book I could on web design. In about 2 weeks, I put together the website the way I wanted it,” she said.

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Do you want more swagger in your life?  Here is tip #3 in our series on How To Get Swagger, this one from Donna Daniell, psychotherapist with Balance your Life and swagger wise woman

How to get swagger?  Stay balanced and feel your full self —-how do you feel that in yourself each day?   What are the tools that you use to feel that true essence of your authentic self?

What are the activities that you do that bring you to your best “swagger”?    I can name some of the ones that work for me:   Walking my dog and breathing in the morning air, my favorite yoga class,  singing, dancing, getting a new client, feeling totally alive after a huge workout or hike or bike ride, feeling emotionally and spiritually connected to someone who really gets you and you get them,  riding my mountain bike — that’s really when I feel swagger.   I teach all about this in my groups…..especially my Innerwork group/community of women.

What do you do that allows you to feel your true essence and find your confidence?  How can you bring more swagger into every day? Have a comment?  Join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GirlsGuideToSwagger.

The summer between middle school and high school, my best friend and I  committed to attending a 3-day football clinic for youth. I was  terrified at the thought of being the only girls at the camp, but I  pushed all fears aside and showed up with friend in tow, on a hot July  morning to play football. On the first day of camp, only an hour in, my  best friend hurt her shoulder and I was left on a field full of guys  staring at me awkwardly. My low-self esteem siezed hold of me and I  tried to be invisible to my teammates as the day dragged on. By the end  of the day, I was incredibly embarrassed and had made up my mind not to  return to camp the next day.