[Music]
[Applause]
I am bodyguard trained for those of you
who are asking questions in their heads
no this isn’t a Leon esque martial arts
workshop that’s about to take place
you’ll be pleased to hear there’s
normally about three responses that I
get the first one is confusion how on
earth did you get into involved with
that
the second is intimidation are you gonna
beat me up
normally in social situations which I
clearly tell them I’m not able to do
that and the third is assumptions so who
are you protecting people’s wives and
children
I find this assumption really
interesting and it’s this assumption I’m
gonna talk to you about today I didn’t
think about that assumption when I did
my training this assumption reminds me
everyday of how I’ve navigated the last
40 years being a woman and a female
trained bodyguard it makes me think
about my own protection or qualities on
a daily basis it reminds me of how I’ve
come to realize that I had these
protective qualities in the first place
I grew up in Sussex I’m one of four
children my parents have been married
was fiercely independent I don’t know
who’s grown up with brothers but that
was the lesson in protection in itself
I learnt a lot from growing up in it you
know what was actually a very protected
childhood but I learned most from
actually the teamwork dynamics of my
parents my mother was what we now call
the CEO of the household my father the
sort of dominant traditional male role
in our household he was the one who was
growing his business he was the one that
was traveling and my mother was the one
who was at home raising nurturing
protecting so far so normal
my father would often very
demonstratively point to my mother and
say without this woman I wouldn’t be
able to do what I do it’s hugely
inspirational growing up I didn’t
realize it at the time but I love you
now dad my younger brother
finally left the University and my
mother thought this was a really good
time to also go to university they
didn’t go to the same University cuz
that would just be issues and freshers
week and yeah she didn’t celebrate that
so my father who was retiring at that
same time he decided that this was a
really good time to learn how to cook
which we were all delighted about so
they switched their roles around but I
didn’t really realize this because the
gender role-reversal wasn’t really the
thing that I was concerned about growing
up we were protected meals were on the
table
my mom’s were always better that my
father’s they passed this baton of the
gender role between them there was a
sort of hunter-gatherer mixture that I
grew up with it didn’t really apply to
either my father or my mother that
either one was more protective to me I
left
home I went to university I studied
French not martial arts at all
I actually started my career as a
personal assistant and it was only
actually fifteen years into my career
that I realized that I actually was
protecting and gatekeeping on a daily
basis for anybody who’s ever had an
experience of being a PA or having a PA
they all know that they are the ones in
charge I worked for some of the world’s
wealthiest most high-profile influential
powerful and increasingly exposed and
at-risk so I worked with a lot of
bodyguard teams during my career one of
the heads of the security that I worked
with said to me and this was seven years
ago
brighty have you thought about doing
your bodyguard training you boss us
around enough you might as well
understand what it is we do so off I
went and did the training I didn’t even
think about it I didn’t even think about
who I was gonna be protecting I just as
a PA was delighted to have been
recognized and given some training quite
frankly I nailed the training even if I
say so myself 160 hours of what was not
actually the sort of hard target combat
training a lot of it was was practical
but a lot of it was theoretical so I
know a lot about data protection laws
and the rights of citizens arrests for
anyone that wants to ask me later the
training I I loved the training I but
what was most important to me was what
was gonna be the reaction of the guys
when I came back took over back on
somewhat into my PA role with this new
training I was very excited what
actually happened was that I didn’t know
how useful I was potentially going to be
within these protective roles but the
guys I worked with did I am a woman I am
blendable despite my heightened obvious
appearance I am a woman and increasingly
I was being asked to help with tasks
where it wasn’t just
strength or force because I’m pretty
strong but that wasn’t what was needed
what was needed was actually to be
invisible what was also needed was my
awesome PA skills that I’d honed over
many many years my knowledge of London
my knowledge of where all the places
where that we needed to go on task I
really helped the team with really
smooth dynamics I loved every minute of
it my career soon developed into what is
now my business providing security for
families male/female clients again
gender is irrelevant what is relevant
and the forefront of my mind every day
is the best and most secure solution
according to the body that governs the
security industry the security industry
Authority I am one of 755 women
currently in the UK that hold this
license so I’m 5.4 percent of all
license holders are women but this
statistic doesn’t really tell the story
of how useful women are and how there’s
been a massive increase in the demand
for this invisible protection for which
women are the perfect candidates I’m
regularly asked to find female
bodyguards for client tasks and there
are simply not enough of them so how can
I spread the word how can I help empower
other women to think of this as a career
choice how can I spread the word about
invisible security I decided to use
those three things I mentioned the
confusion the intimidation and the
assumption factor that most people have
when they first talk to me about what I
do once the questions are over I decided
to turn it on its head and use those
unedited react
that most people have when I say what I
do that aren’t in the industry for most
people who aren’t in the industry this
is the first time they may have come
across a woman in this role they may not
be used to the very mere fact that
bodyguards operate exist and work with
clients all over London and the world on
a daily basis I now start to use this
reaction as a barometer and try to put
people at ease try to explain what it is
that the role is what you actually do
and I also try to gain trust and this is
most important for me in my daily work
it reminds me of an example of a family
that I worked with mine first started my
business they’d come to me a wealthy
international couple their children were
just at leaves of drinking age for
anyone with children around that sort of
age terrifying they were terrified of
their children going out there were
certain risks associated to their
profile which meant they wanted some
solutions as to how to deal with this so
we were there to provide these solutions
when I went to talk to the parents I sat
down before I even started talking the
father said she must be very very strong
so which we then started talking about
martial arts training the mother then
said gosh I’m not think I’m strong
enough to do what you do the paternal
strength of maternal instinctive
reaction and at that moment I’d realize
the enormity of my task and my work in
protecting their most important and most
important people in their lives big
responsibility I set about creating a
task and I explained to them I was going
to use male and female operatives for
this task we delivered this solution to
the parents and we delivered the
projects and it went very successfully
the children still never know by the way
that this happened that they were being
protected without their knowledge
god help if my parents had done that for
me when I was younger I can only say
thank you that they didn’t the invisible
protection there we see it it’s best so
for me the solution in my daily work is
to deconflict to show protection less as
brute strength and force and more in
terms of intelligence preparation and
invisibility this helps me change the
perception of the industry and the work
in those that I meet I want to share
with you some of the other examples that
I use also to deconflict to get people
into my trust and anecdotally
particularly when I’m out so
conservative
young people and particularly young
women about what I do firstly is the
example of the lioness 90% of lionesses
are the true hunters they go out they
hunt they bring back the bacon as it
were and the men are left to protect the
pride and the young again I used the
example in contrast to my upbringing
where this interchangeable the gender
roles being interchangeable was totally
normal to me it reminded me of my
parents teamwork dynamics the teamwork
dynamics that I use every day in my work
I also use the example of invisible
protection through time I’m fascinated
by World War two history and
particularly the role of women within it
those women in the Special Operations
Executive 55 of them to be precise who
were used to parachute in behind enemy
lines to extract information from the
enemy to blend in to hide weaponry in
their dresses and skirts because no one
would think to check them right
one such agent Violette Szabo hugely
inspires me and I use her as an example
every day here we have a picture of
violets four year old daughter accepting
the George Cross on violets behalf
violet and actually perished in one of
the concentration camps for me a
brilliantly inspiring image I urge any
of you to look at the the other stories
the other 54 women they’re incredible
she was only five foot three diminutive
in height yet hugely powerful with what
she could achieve I then like to bring
examples from my own industry because
again a lot of people have never seen
particularly female operatives in action
I like using current examples here we
have one of our ambassadors the Duchess
of Cornwall she uses a lot of female
operatives and I’m hugely inspired by
this operative you see here who were
cool sp this highlights the role of
invisibility quite well I think
interestingly and as a special prize if
someone can find an image of women on
the Internet
it’s it’s really hard to find any high
profile people with women lurking in the
background a special prize if anyone
finds one to send to me which shows
their invisibility finally
I also used this image I was in the
Middle East recently and I was preparing
for a talk to some Emirati women about
protection and one of them is a great
friend of mine and I showed her my
presentation before I I started talking
I was really excited and I said look I’m
using this image isn’t this empowering
and she said this is totally normal
what are you talking about so after a
quick rewrite and and edit of course
women have long been using a protective
role in the Middle East for me this
image I always still use because three
of them have actually conquered Mount
Everest which is something that I
personally think is quite inspiring so
in conclusion I use these examples
because I want to become a mouthpiece
for my industry I want to every day help
turn the confusion into some sort of
clarity by answering anybody’s questions
about the industry I want to help to
change that intimidation turn into
empowerment and most of all I want to
challenge the assumptions change
mindsets help them grow in the future
let us look at invisible security an
invisible protection as something that
can always help us to learn and grow
thank you
you [Music]
[Applause]
I am bodyguard trained for those of you
who are asking questions in their heads
no this isn’t a Leon esque martial arts
workshop that’s about to take place
you’ll be pleased to hear there’s
normally about three responses that I
get the first one is confusion how on
earth did you get into involved with
that
the second is intimidation are you gonna
beat me up
normally in social situations which I
clearly tell them I’m not able to do
that and the third is assumptions so who
are you protecting people’s wives and
children
I find this assumption really
interesting and it’s this assumption I’m
gonna talk to you about today I didn’t
think about that assumption when I did
my training this assumption reminds me
everyday of how I’ve navigated the last
40 years being a woman and a female
trained bodyguard it makes me think
about my own protection or qualities on
a daily basis it reminds me of how I’ve
come to realize that I had these
protective qualities in the first place
I grew up in Sussex I’m one of four
children my parents have been married
was fiercely independent I don’t know
who’s grown up with brothers but that
was the lesson in protection in itself
I learnt a lot from growing up in it you
know what was actually a very protected
childhood but I learned most from
actually the teamwork dynamics of my
parents my mother was what we now call
the CEO of the household my father the
sort of dominant traditional male role
in our household he was the one who was
growing his business he was the one that
was traveling and my mother was the one
who was at home raising nurturing
protecting so far so normal
my father would often very
demonstratively point to my mother and
say without this woman I wouldn’t be
able to do what I do it’s hugely
inspirational growing up I didn’t
realize it at the time but I love you
now dad my younger brother
finally left the University and my
mother thought this was a really good
time to also go to university they
didn’t go to the same University cuz
that would just be issues and freshers
week and yeah she didn’t celebrate that
so my father who was retiring at that
same time he decided that this was a
really good time to learn how to cook
which we were all delighted about so
they switched their roles around but I
didn’t really realize this because the
gender role-reversal wasn’t really the
thing that I was concerned about growing
up we were protected meals were on the
table
my mom’s were always better that my
father’s they passed this baton of the
gender role between them there was a
sort of hunter-gatherer mixture that I
grew up with it didn’t really apply to
either my father or my mother that
either one was more protective to me I
left
home I went to university I studied
French not martial arts at all
I actually started my career as a
personal assistant and it was only
actually fifteen years into my career
that I realized that I actually was
protecting and gatekeeping on a daily
basis for anybody who’s ever had an
experience of being a PA or having a PA
they all know that they are the ones in
charge I worked for some of the world’s
wealthiest most high-profile influential
powerful and increasingly exposed and
at-risk so I worked with a lot of
bodyguard teams during my career one of
the heads of the security that I worked
with said to me and this was seven years
ago
brighty have you thought about doing
your bodyguard training you boss us
around enough you might as well
understand what it is we do so off I
went and did the training I didn’t even
think about it I didn’t even think about
who I was gonna be protecting I just as
a PA was delighted to have been
recognized and given some training quite
frankly I nailed the training even if I
say so myself 160 hours of what was not
actually the sort of hard target combat
training a lot of it was was practical
but a lot of it was theoretical so I
know a lot about data protection laws
and the rights of citizens arrests for
anyone that wants to ask me later the
training I I loved the training I but
what was most important to me was what
was gonna be the reaction of the guys
when I came back took over back on
somewhat into my PA role with this new
training I was very excited what
actually happened was that I didn’t know
how useful I was potentially going to be
within these protective roles but the
guys I worked with did I am a woman I am
blendable despite my heightened obvious
appearance I am a woman and increasingly
I was being asked to help with tasks
where it wasn’t just
strength or force because I’m pretty
strong but that wasn’t what was needed
what was needed was actually to be
invisible what was also needed was my
awesome PA skills that I’d honed over
many many years my knowledge of London
my knowledge of where all the places
where that we needed to go on task I
really helped the team with really
smooth dynamics I loved every minute of
it my career soon developed into what is
now my business providing security for
families male/female clients again
gender is irrelevant what is relevant
and the forefront of my mind every day
is the best and most secure solution
according to the body that governs the
security industry the security industry
Authority I am one of 755 women
currently in the UK that hold this
license so I’m 5.4 percent of all
license holders are women but this
statistic doesn’t really tell the story
of how useful women are and how there’s
been a massive increase in the demand
for this invisible protection for which
women are the perfect candidates I’m
regularly asked to find female
bodyguards for client tasks and there
are simply not enough of them so how can
I spread the word how can I help empower
other women to think of this as a career
choice how can I spread the word about
invisible security I decided to use
those three things I mentioned the
confusion the intimidation and the
assumption factor that most people have
when they first talk to me about what I
do once the questions are over I decided
to turn it on its head and use those
unedited react
that most people have when I say what I
do that aren’t in the industry for most
people who aren’t in the industry this
is the first time they may have come
across a woman in this role they may not
be used to the very mere fact that
bodyguards operate exist and work with
clients all over London and the world on
a daily basis I now start to use this
reaction as a barometer and try to put
people at ease try to explain what it is
that the role is what you actually do
and I also try to gain trust and this is
most important for me in my daily work
it reminds me of an example of a family
that I worked with mine first started my
business they’d come to me a wealthy
international couple their children were
just at leaves of drinking age for
anyone with children around that sort of
age terrifying they were terrified of
their children going out there were
certain risks associated to their
profile which meant they wanted some
solutions as to how to deal with this so
we were there to provide these solutions
when I went to talk to the parents I sat
down before I even started talking the
father said she must be very very strong
so which we then started talking about
martial arts training the mother then
said gosh I’m not think I’m strong
enough to do what you do the paternal
strength of maternal instinctive
reaction and at that moment I’d realize
the enormity of my task and my work in
protecting their most important and most
important people in their lives big
responsibility I set about creating a
task and I explained to them I was going
to use male and female operatives for
this task we delivered this solution to
the parents and we delivered the
projects and it went very successfully
the children still never know by the way
that this happened that they were being
protected without their knowledge
god help if my parents had done that for
me when I was younger I can only say
thank you that they didn’t the invisible
protection there we see it it’s best so
for me the solution in my daily work is
to deconflict to show protection less as
brute strength and force and more in
terms of intelligence preparation and
invisibility this helps me change the
perception of the industry and the work
in those that I meet I want to share
with you some of the other examples that
I use also to deconflict to get people
into my trust and anecdotally
particularly when I’m out so
conservative
young people and particularly young
women about what I do firstly is the
example of the lioness 90% of lionesses
are the true hunters they go out they
hunt they bring back the bacon as it
were and the men are left to protect the
pride and the young again I used the
example in contrast to my upbringing
where this interchangeable the gender
roles being interchangeable was totally
normal to me it reminded me of my
parents teamwork dynamics the teamwork
dynamics that I use every day in my work
I also use the example of invisible
protection through time I’m fascinated
by World War two history and
particularly the role of women within it
those women in the Special Operations
Executive 55 of them to be precise who
were used to parachute in behind enemy
lines to extract information from the
enemy to blend in to hide weaponry in
their dresses and skirts because no one
would think to check them right
one such agent Violette Szabo hugely
inspires me and I use her as an example
every day here we have a picture of
violets four year old daughter accepting
the George Cross on violets behalf
violet and actually perished in one of
the concentration camps for me a
brilliantly inspiring image I urge any
of you to look at the the other stories
the other 54 women they’re incredible
she was only five foot three diminutive
in height yet hugely powerful with what
she could achieve I then like to bring
examples from my own industry because
again a lot of people have never seen
particularly female operatives in action
I like using current examples here we
have one of our ambassadors the Duchess
of Cornwall she uses a lot of female
operatives and I’m hugely inspired by
this operative you see here who were
cool sp this highlights the role of
invisibility quite well I think
interestingly and as a special prize if
someone can find an image of women on
the Internet
it’s it’s really hard to find any high
profile people with women lurking in the
background a special prize if anyone
finds one to send to me which shows
their invisibility finally
I also used this image I was in the
Middle East recently and I was preparing
for a talk to some Emirati women about
protection and one of them is a great
friend of mine and I showed her my
presentation before I I started talking
I was really excited and I said look I’m
using this image isn’t this empowering
and she said this is totally normal
what are you talking about so after a
quick rewrite and and edit of course
women have long been using a protective
role in the Middle East for me this
image I always still use because three
of them have actually conquered Mount
Everest which is something that I
personally think is quite inspiring so
in conclusion I use these examples
because I want to become a mouthpiece
for my industry I want to every day help
turn the confusion into some sort of
clarity by answering anybody’s questions
about the industry I want to help to
change that intimidation turn into
empowerment and most of all I want to
challenge the assumptions change
mindsets help them grow in the future
let us look at invisible security an
invisible protection as something that
can always help us to learn and grow
thank you
you [Music]
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