College campuses, parking ramps, gas stations, homes– in recent years, headlines have taught us that assault, be it physical or sexual, can happen anywhere and at anytime. For upcoming 1 Million Cups speaker Beth Warford, it could have happened at a hockey arena.
It was a Saturday in March 2013, and she was attending a game with her two daughters. When she went to the concession stand to purchase a bag of chips for one of the girls, she noticed a man staring at her.
“I could just feel his evil,” she said.
Without waiting to be handed the chips, Warford ran back to the game– and her sister told her that a man in the stands “couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.” When Warford turned around, it was the same man.
After the game, Warford was standing outside of the locker rooms with her family. She was surrounded by people, and thought she was safe– until she saw the man standing just feet away from her, shaking. Luckily, her brother joined the group and the man disappeared.
“I froze,” Warford said. “I actually froze. I just put my head down and held my daughter’s hand… That really changed me quite a bit.”
After that day, Warford dedicated her time to researching criminals and the reasons they target the people they do. She took up Krav Maga, a self-defense system that combines techniques from aikido, judo, boxing and wrestling. Then, she decided to get the word out.
Pretty Loaded
In September of 2013, just six months after the incident in the hockey arena, Warford founded Bismarck company Pretty Loaded. Pretty Loaded is an innovative self-defense and situational awareness company built upon a gap that Warford found in the self-defense industry; an industry where martial arts and handguns are discussed regularly, but little is said about preventing an incident in the first place.
“Our intent is really to focus on how to not be a target,” she said. “We think that the best fight is the one you’re never in.”
Warford has a “huge background” with guns, mostly thanks to her husband, and serves as an NRA pistol instructor and the first female NRA home security trainer in North Dakota. But with Pretty Loaded, she emphasizes guns as only a last-ditch effort in self-defense situations.
“Obviously, I stand for the second amendment,” she said. “But my focus is really to not have to use your gun on somebody.”
Pretty Loaded, which consists of Warford and two other women, has created a variety of resources to teach people how to avoid, and escape, attacks. They give live presentations to businesses and corporations, which cover topics from safe business travel to the predator mindset. These live presentations grew so popular that Pretty Loaded decided to make their training sessions available for purchase online and in DVD format. They are YouTube partners, and get paid by Google to make educational videos– several of which have gone viral, and one which has earned more than five million views.
Beth also blogs on Pretty Loaded’s website. When she began, her posts would reach maybe thirty or forty people. Now, she reaches millions within a week.
The program’s popularity has been “kind of unexpected and exciting,” Warford said. But views on YouTube and dollars made off of videos and DVDs are not Warford’s goal; what matters most is that those millions of views may equate to millions of lives saved.
Hear from Beth Warford at 1 Million Cups Fargo, June 22nd at the Stage at Island Park. Feature photo courtesy of Beth Warford.
