Tammi Leader Fuller
When I walked away from that big career in Hollywood so many dream about, to help women re-examine their lives and get unstuck, I had no idea how hard it was going be to help other women find their place in the world. Because I still hadn’t found mine.
I was a single mom who had spent the last twenty years working round the clock to take good care of, and properly educate, my two daughters, and show them that hard work and a life of integrity that involved paying it forward was the only way to make life truly matter.
When I turned 53, I felt it was time for me to focus on my dream- to use my skills to create and connect other women to experiences and wisdom bearing experts who could help them finally bring their own dreams to fruition.
Because of how much I loved summer camp as a child, I made a bold move: to take a leap (with no net) (access my She Knew She Could power) and exit my 34 year TV News career, to create Campowerment. Summer camp-inspired experiences for grown women, driven by Thought Leaders in dozens of areas of life, who deliver game-changing programming with coaching, wrapped around the power of playtime. I built this space for women with my 80-something, retired college professor mom and my brilliant, advertising strategist/millennial daughter, to help women get the courage to walk away from what no longer serves them, and start doing what they love, to make a difference in this world.
At Campowerment, out in nature, women get the chance to disconnect to reconnect, with themselves and a sisterhood of other like-minded women who too feel stuck. Our novel idea has gotten shout outs from Oprah, More and Parade Magazines, as well as the Today Show and The Hollywood Reporter and dozens of other media outlets, for the trailblazing way it pushes women out of their comfort zones and gives them the courage to finally go after the life their souls desire.
Five years, 21 live events and 5000 happy campers later (as I spend my Saturdays at the laundromat because living your dream sometimes requires great sacrifice!), I believe I’m proving that sometimes you have to take a few steps back in order to move your life forward.
See, I don’t subscribe to the idea that life is short. I think it feels unbelievably long when you’re not living in your power and sharing the gifts you’ve been given.
That’s also why I created Give Her Camp, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity that helps send deserving women to events like Campowerment. I feel very blessed, to expand the opportunities offered to women who need some help, and a push to rise up from the ashes of whatever their challenges, to guide them to propel their lives forward.
Life is a grind sometimes, for so many women trying to find their place in the world and pay forward the gifts we’ve been given.
But once we stop to catch our breath and reflect on the strength and perseverance that has helped us push through the obstacles to get to the other side, we are reminded of who we are and why we are here.
I reminded myself SHE KNEW SHE COULD and never gave up. And even on the days when the sun doesn’t feel like it’s shining brightly, I know everything‘s going to be okay. Because I can count on me to make it OK, no matter what.
There are too many women I know who don’t consider themselves strong. We have earned our strength and I wear mine with pride.