IAM2395 – Chief Instructor Dedicated to Keeping Women and Children Safe

Patti Stewart is a proud mom, owner, and chief instructor at Defense in Heels, a program dedicated to keeping women and children safe.

Patti is a former model, and an internationally certified self-defense instructor, passionate about educating others, especially women and kids, on self-defense. Her mission is to change crime statistics by empowering individuals to protect themselves.

Patti shares her journey of starting Defense in Heels and her passion for weapons and martial arts. She also offers specialized classes, including realtor safety courses and bodyguard training.

Patti emphasizes that self-defense training is crucial because, in stressful situations, muscle memory often takes over when the brain may freeze.

Patti believes passion drives business owners, helping them push through tough times.

She uses software for appointment reminders, thank-you notes, and follow-up systems, allowing her to focus on what she does best—training and teaching self-defense.

In addition, Patti recommends reading The Gift of Fear, a book that emphasizes trusting your gut instincts in both personal and professional settings.

Website: Defense in Heels

LinkedIn: Patti Stewart

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Patti Stewart Teaser 00:00

The kids programs we teach them everything from bully defense to how to deal with tricky friends and yo-yo friends up to situational awareness and stranger danger.

But then also body awareness and what's okay what's not and teaching them the self-defense they actually need to know at their age and size.

Intro 00:19

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:46

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today, I have Patti Stewart of Defense in Heels. Patti, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Patti Stewart 00:56

Thank you. I'm excited to be here. You've got such a great platform and I love being a part of it.

Gresham Harkless 01:00

Well, definitely. I appreciate you for being a guest on the blog for before and definitely love having you on the show to hear a little bit more about what you're doing.

And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Patti so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

And Patti is the proud mom and is the owner and chief instructor at Defense and Heals, a program dedicated to keeping women and children safe not only is she a former model, this internationally certified self-defense instructor can teach you how to beat up bad guys in six-inch heels.

She is known for her writing, public speaking, volunteering, and chasing her kids around from sport to sport.

Patti's mission is to change the crime stats on one woman, one mindset, one life at a time. Patti, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Patti Stewart 01:45

Yes, I would love to.

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Gresham Harkless 01:47

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Patti Stewart 01:54

Definitely. Well, for me, it was more of I loved weapons growing up. I was a taekwondo black belt and studied all the different kinds of weapons and training and it was more of what can I do with this?

And as a kid, it was absolutely nothing. So then it grew further into a look. Here's a company selling products.

Ooh, I like that. I'll start selling their products. And then with my background of training, it was more of, okay, I'm not going to just sell you this because you need to know how to use it properly.

So then I developed a whole curriculum on how to use things properly. And it just, it helped my sales, but I turned out that I actually like training more than I have ever loved selling anything.

So I developed it from selling really cool pink pepper sprays into let me train you how to use it properly and added a few more degrees and certifications and added even more onto it.

So that I can make sure that I teach these women what they actually need to know and none of the fluff.

Gresham Harkless 02:45

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I think that's really admirable that you're doing that because a lot of times, you get the tools, you hear about how to do things.

No matter if it's weapons or anything in the world, you get the recipe to figure out exactly how to make the cake or whatever that is, but you don't necessarily know how to prepare it.

So you need somebody to train you to help you to do that, just like you're doing as well. So I definitely appreciate you for doing that.

Patti Stewart 03:04

Definitely. It's my passion. It's completely fun. And I absolutely love it. So I'm glad that there's women that understand we need to know how to do this.

And the little kids too. They're so much fun to watch them with all the self-defense stuff.

Gresham Harkless 03:16

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny. I used to do stranger danger with the little kids. I used to go to preschools and teach them, if there's a stranger that pulls you, that you have to be able to scream and pull away and do all those things.

So, it's definitely really, valuable what you're doing. And I know you touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about what you're doing in Defensive Hills.

Patti Stewart 03:34

Definitely. So we have the women's programs, which is all of the basic what they actually need to know.

And then we move into the kids programs. The kids programs, we teach them everything from bully defense, to how to deal with tricky friends and yo-yo friends, up to situational awareness. and stranger danger.

But then also, body awareness and what's okay, what's not, and teaching them the self-defense that they actually need to know at their age and size.

These kids are not old enough, cognitively, most of their brains haven't completely formed yet.

So they don't completely understand why we're teaching them the things we do.

And so I make it cute. We're going to do the slippery worm or the wiggly mermaid, those kinds of things where it gets the kids excited and fun.

But in reality, we're teaching them how to get out of those scary situations. And then I have tons of different training programs here in Vegas as well.

Realtor classes where I can give them credits for their license and bodyguard classes and work all that kind of craziness.

We build it all into that defense and heels and making sure women and children feel safe.

Gresham Harkless 04:32

Yeah, absolutely. And correct me if I'm wrong. Do you find that, like you mentioned with the kids, because you're doing it over and over and over again.

When they're in that situation, it just becomes like a reactionary thing. It's not something they have to think about, because they've been so much.

Patti Stewart 04:46

Yes, we train them. I always tell them they need to come to me at least twice a year and parents need to practice with them all the time.

Because what happens is in fight, fight, or freeze, our body shuts down, but that muscle memory kicks in.

And so that's what we're teaching the children as well as the women is, yes, your brain may stop working.

However, your body and everything I've taught you will continue to work even though you feel like you don't know what you're doing.

Gresham Harkless 05:10

Yeah, that's absolutely huge. And especially like what you kind of spoke on when you were providing kind of like the weapons and tools and everything at one point.

But if somebody is in that fight or flight mode, and they're shaking, and they're afraid if they don't have that training and that practicing, it doesn't really matter as much.

Patti Stewart 05:25

Exactly. And that was what I was seeing before is that they didn't have that confidence that they needed.

And most importantly, you need that education and know how to be able to get out of those crazy situations and get out of them effectively as well.

Gresham Harkless 05:38

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you for doing that. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce.

And this could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Patti Stewart 05:48

It's definitely the passion. If you don't have passion in your business, you're going to wonder why you're working 80 hours a week to not have to have a 40 hour a week job.

You have to find it and keep it. I've seen people and I've even gone through my spells where I have so much passion and it pushes me through burnout.

It pushes me through working and then you get to the end of the day or the end of your cycle that you're currently working on and you're just drained and empty.

But that passion will keep you going and getting the right people in place to help you and the right tools and systems in place to make sure that your passion continues within the business also keeps continuing as well.

Gresham Harkless 06:23

Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes I find and I don't know if you find the same thing with it. When you are passionate about something.

Even though you might be tired, even though you might be going through a down spell or whatever that is, sometimes if you find that you wouldn't want to do anything else.

Sometimes that just keeps you going because that's really like what you're put on this earth to do, so to speak.

Patti Stewart 06:41

100% and you can see that in business owners. If they truly have that passion, when times are tough, they're still going to keep going.

Because they know what they're doing is driven from a higher power and that they are here for something.

And you can just see that fire in their eyes when they talk about that initial plan all the way up to the large concession that they have now.

Gresham Harkless 07:01

Absolutely. Absolutely. So what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

And this might be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Patti Stewart 07:12

Definitely. I'm a systems person. So everything that you can do, make a system out of it. And it's not necessarily that you have to do the system.

A perfect example is I have a software that will call all of my clients for me to remind them about their appointment coming up.

That saves me anywhere from 10 minutes to three hours, depending on the class. I have a system that will mail out the reminders and mail out the thank yous.

But it's the email and paper because we love getting thank you cards these days in the mail, as opposed to yet another freaking email.

So I have systems for that. I have follow-up systems. I have even at home, I lay it all out and I have a home office and a work office.

And there's a system for everything to get everything done because it makes it so it's mindless. You don't have to think about it.

But more importantly, the things that you're not good at doing, you can task out to someone else.

So personal assistants or virtual assistants are great for that as well. And focusing on what you're good at and doing that.

Stop doing the accounting if you're good at teaching, those kinds of things. So I have a system for all of those.

And you just need to figure out what system works best for your business and what you're trying to move forward with.

Gresham Harkless 08:20

Yeah, absolutely. And just like you kind of touched on, I feel like when you do have those systems in place, sometimes you feel like you have to do it yourself or you have to do it in your specific way.

But a lot of times when you take those kind of systematized tasks off your plate or they're so easy to do, you're not really thinking about them.

It allows you to kind of work on other bigger projects or more impactful projects sometimes.

Patti Stewart 08:41

Definitely. And I mean, it can be as simple as the accounting example again. If you're not great at accounting, it'll take you hours to figure out one little teeny tiny thing.

However, you can hire a bookkeeper for 10 bucks an hour, three days a week, three hours a week and save you that much time that you can focus in on what you're good at doing and what's actually making your business money.

Gresham Harkless 09:01

Absolutely, absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice.

If you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Patti Stewart 09:12

If you're not learning, you're dying. It's an old school quote I heard years and years ago. I'm a firm believer and I love education and degrees and certificates and I have way more than I'll ever need.

However, staying on the cutting edge of different things will help your business grow further, but also learning your clients, learning your demographics for people, learning your demographics of where you're going to market to.

That's all learning and educating yourself, your business so that you can grow further and farther, but if you just continue with the same old tried and true method that you used 10 years ago, it won't work anymore.

Even 10 months ago, let's look at the Facebook algorithms. They changed their algorithm again a month and a half ago.

You have an update in the last month and a half, you're not going anywhere. You're just wasting money.

So staying on top of education in all aspects of business and development and personal development as well is definitely the biggest thing for me.

Gresham Harkless 10:06

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny, I was talking with somebody the other day, and they said that something that really resonated with me was that person development, reading taking classes, training, doing things like that is a form of self love.

So to love yourself is really to develop yourself so that you are getting better, you and your organization, your business, learning about your clients, whatever that is, you're definitely getting better.

Patti Stewart 10:26

Exactly. And if you don't focus on yourself, then you're not going to be able to put out the best version of yourself for your clients.

Gresham Harkless 10:32

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's a great reminder. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO.

And we're hoping to have different quot-unquote CEOs on the show. So Patti, I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Patti Stewart 10:44

Being a CEO is taking what you're passionate about and developing it into something that your clients need or want and being able to live your life through that passion.

Gresham Harkless 10:56

Nice. I absolutely love that. And it's right in alignment with everything that you've talked about, about being passionate about what you're doing when you're working the 80 hours a week you have and have developed it to that point where you do love doing it so much.

And it's not just for yourself, but it's for other people as well too. So you're providing yourself, you're providing those services for other people.

Patti Stewart 11:14

Exactly. If you don't love it, then you won't be able to do it for 100 years. You'll burn yourself out in six months.

Gresham Harkless 11:20

Exactly, exactly. That's all about thinking long term. So, Patti, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out.

What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know.

And then, of course, how they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're doing.

Patti Stewart 11:34

Definitely. My biggest thing is self-awareness, paying attention to what's going on situationally, but also business-wise.

So situation, it's paying attention to the people that are around you, not doing the zombie apocalypse, which is walking and texting on your phone.

You can prevent most attacks. by paying attention to things. 90% of self-defense is awareness, so pay attention.

And then you can also bring that into your business, paying attention to your clients' wants and needs, paying attention to your employees, if you're big enough for employees, just paying attention to your desires too.

Sometimes you'll feel you need to go in one direction, but go in another because that's the right thing to do.

However, you need to follow what you feel is right. A gut instinct is proven to be correct. If you have not read The Gift of Fear, definitely read that book because it talks about how your instinct is correct and to follow it all the time.

And then of course, if you guys have any questions or anything, you can follow me anytime. Defense in Heels is my tag everywhere.

Any social media, you can find me on there. And of course, check out my website, defenseinheels.com.

Gresham Harkless 12:36

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. You're based out of?

Patti Stewart 12:38

I'm in Las Vegas.

Gresham Harkless 12:39

Las Vegas. Okay, but anybody can reach out to you anytime, anyplace, correct?

Patti Stewart 12:43

Exactly. I do travel a lot. I'm just based here.

Gresham Harkless 12:46

Okay, perfect, perfect, perfect. So we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up with you.

But I truly appreciate everything that you're doing and all the goodness that you're spreading and people to be more self aware.

And to be able to protect themselves and feel confident in those situations as well, too.

So I appreciate you for all those awesome things. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Patti Stewart 13:03

Definitely. Thank you so much. I love being here.

Outro 13:06

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at CBNation.co.

Also, check out our I AM CEO Facebook group. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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