As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Friday, March 22, 2019

Empowered Women... Friday, March 22

Tonight I stood in front of 200+ people and the positive vibes were through the roof.  And as I finished my speech and finished their "Fast Talk" question and answer period, they asked me, "what is the one regret you have?"

I paused.

I paused and then looked at Skittles, looked at The Captain, bit my tongue and then said "being somewhat relieved in the car ride here that we were so late for this."  It's true.  I thought we might have missed the event and that my speech would be canceled and for a moment I was relieved.  I had worked myself up so much about tonight's speech, about getting up in front a massive crowd of people and sharing my story, some of which is sensitive and still untold to friends and family. 

My speech wasn't canceled though.  It was just pushed back. 

As it turns out, the company that I was speaking to tonight was a call center so they work on night hours.  They start work around 8pm and go till early morning.  So the event time, which was suppose to start at 8:30pm but didn't have me up and presenting till about 10pm, really wasn't an issue.  They had only just started their work day.  

There was a bus fire on the highway that had traffic held at a standstill and when I arrived at the speech location, I was greeted at the front entrance and shown right in.  And, as I entered into the room, the host at the front instantly introduced me and up I went.  I shook his hand and then took off my jacket and there I went, giving my speech with no time whatsoever to second guess myself or sit down beforehand to juggle my nerves and let them get the best of me.  It actually worked out for the best, for my best that is because I do struggle with anxiety a lot. 

In my speech, I talked about my life story, the struggles I experienced as a woman and what I'm doing now, and the approach I took to talk about it all was to walk them through the different job titles I worn since being a university student.

To tell you the truth, it was pretty cool to have both Skittles and The Captain there to see and hear my speech.  That meant a lot to me especially considering The Captain is simply visiting and so I'm sure one day he'll run into my father again and tell him about it.  Actually, before coming to visit me here in the Philippines, The Captain had actually visited my father to tell him that he's coming to surprise me.  He took a short video of my dad leaving a message for me.  I still can't bring myself to view it though.

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