On Monday, I walked into my office to find it filled, and I do mean filled to head height, with balloons.  Check out the video of us frolicking in my balloon office.

Wait, what? Who would do such a thing?

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Last year I purposefully and deliberately got punched in the face, multiple times. Let me explain.

I had been looking for inspirations in my workouts, and a friend of mine David Mandell convinced me to sign up for a charity boxing match called Founder Fights. It was designed for tech founders who had never boxed before. “C’mon” he beckoned, “It’s for charity, and no one will know what they’re doing. Worse case, you spend 3 months getting yourself in shape and learn something new”. I’m not a violent person, and have no real interest in boxing. However, I painted a picture in my head of goofy, silly boxing, with oversized gloves and lots of laughing.

I agreed, making the mistake of committing publicly on Twitter.

My first trip to the Corner Boxing Club, I panicked. No, this was not going to be goofy or silly. This was serious business. These are real boxers! They’re tough as hell! I”M GOING TO DIE!!! WHAT THE HELL DID I GET MYSELF INTO?!?! I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!! But I had committed publicly, everyone knew I signed up for this, so I’d look like such a quitter if I backed out. Clearly my ego is stronger than my sense of self-preservation. So instead of quitting, I threw myself into it. I figured the only way to make this work was to WIN. Game on.

Turns out that a boxing workout doesn’t actually consist of boxing – it mostly consists of boxing conditioning. You punch things. Not people. In order to punch a person, you have to spar. So the workouts weren’t as scary as I had imagined. Also turns out that the workouts are absurdly hard. Spoken from someone who’s used to doing triathlons, road biking up steep hills, and hiking 14000 ft mountains in Colorado, a boxing workout will kick your ass. Go ahead and try to punch a pillow with a pound on each hand as hard as you can for 1 straight minute. Boxing uses every single muscle in your body. Your arms, your shoulders, your core, your legs… I’ve never gotten so winded so quickly in my life. Often at the end of the workouts, everyone would be laying down on the floor drenched in sweat and exhaustion, with that blissful, light feeling you get after a great workout. No part of your body goes un-touched.

Here’s the catch though, when competing in biking or running or hiking or swimming or basketball or tennis or whatever your chosen sport is, if you get tired, you simply slow down. You’ll lose, but you just slow down. In a boxing match, if you get tired and you slow down, YOU GET PUNCHED IN THE F’ING FACE! This is a huge motivating factor in a boxing workout. Huge. Whenever you get tired in a boxing workout, you push yourself harder. Do not slow down.

This is reason 1 of why I discovered I love boxing. It’s one of the best workouts on the planet.

In addition to a killer workout, sparing is also mental strategy. It’s not just about punching, it’s about not getting punched. There are moves, and countermoves. Offense, and defense. Often at the same time. You have to read your opponent and decide how you’re going respond, in a split second. They drop their left? You throw a right hook. They throw their right? You dodge LEFT. Do you let them throw and get tired? Or do you attack? Are their arms longer than yours? Then you have to play a short game. You’re constantly thinking, and that can be hard when you’re used to an individual sport like biking when you clear your mind and just go blank. Boxing keeps you present, conscious, and focused like a laser. And Coach Carrie has great sayings, like “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” – a saying I use to this day in non-boxing situations.

This is the 2nd reason why I love boxing. You’re practicing strategy under pressure.

However, the real reason that boxing stands apart from any sport is that you’re getting a great body workout, a great mind workout, WHILE YOU’RE SCARED SHITLESS. Honestly, when sparing and fighting, I’ve never been so scared in my whole life. Climbing glacier-riddled mountains? Not that scared. Scaling the 3rd pitch of a gnarly exposed climb in Leavenworth? Not that scared. Swimming with sharks? Not that scared. But with sparring, I WAS SCARED TO DEATH. Even when I wasn’t working out or sparring, I was thinking about it. But here’s the catch – the likelihood of getting hurt is really low, and you’d be surprised how little it hurts getting punched in the face. Really, it doesn’t hurt that bad. It more shocks you than anything. You’re wearing a head guard, so the fear of getting punched in the face is much worse than actually getting punched. I wonder why I was so scared when the repercussions are low, but I was. My heart was in my throat, I often felt like I was going to vomit. Every cell in my body was telling me to run. But yet, I still got in the ring. This is an incredibly empowering experience. When your body is telling you one thing, and your mind decides to override it, you realize that you are truly in charge of your behaviors and actions.

This is the third reason I discovered I love boxing – the physical, the mental, AND the emotional, all simultaneously. No other non-fighting sport will give that to you. Imagine for a moment that you’re in the ring – you can’t catch your breath, you have to THINK about what you’re doing, and you’re scared shitless, all at the same time. Boxing was powerful for me because it had the combination of 3 key factors that I haven’t experienced simultaneously before.

I spent 3 months training at the Corner Boxing Club. The owners Carrie and Kirsten created a gym unlike other boxing gyms because it’s less of a gym and more of a community. In those 3 months, I did get into great shape. I sparred maybe 8-10 times before getting into the ring for my official match. The night of the match was a great one. Almost everyone I knew and loved in Boulder was there. This was an official USA Boxing sanctioned event, complete with ring-side doctors, referees, the whole works. The crowd was rowdy, loud, energized and added to the adrenaline of the evening. The girl I fought is taller than me, but just as new to boxing. We both wanted to win – I could see it in her eyes. I respected her fighting, as we both trained at the same gym.

When I got into the ring, it felt like I was going to have a heart attack, and every instinct was telling me to RUN!!! But when the bell rung, I didn’t hear anything else except for the sound of my breathing as I repeated to myself “storm of punches” and “breathe”. We fought 3 rounds, 1 minute each, and each minute was an eternity. (I’ve never been so happy to be in the masters level!). I remember almost nothing of the fight. I just remember it being over – and – I lost. When the fight ended, I hugged my opponent in the biggest bear hug I could muster. However, I I didn’t really lose, because went all the way through with it. I got into the ring. I stood up against my fear and did it. And I got into great shape over it.

Fighting in a boxing match was the last place I thought I’d find inspiration, confidence, and power. And yet, I did. It was transformational. It wasn’t my opponent that I fought. It was myself. And I won.

Huge thanks to David Mandell for getting me there in the first place, and to Carrie and Kirsten who own the gym – you’ve created one of the most special communities I’ve experienced in a while. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and for boxing.

If you’re interested in having a similar experience, the next Founders Fights is being planned for May of 2017. Start training now with The Corner Boxing Club for an experience that will define who you are.

If you’re going to be at SXSW and you read my blog, you’re in luck.  We have just a few spots left for the Techstars Party on Saturday night, and I wanted to give you the chance to join in the fun.

RSVP here, and pssst – don’t share it.  It’s for you only!

 

 

I’ve been working with a startup called Kangu.org – its a site to help crowdfund the prenatal care of mamas in third world countries.  Those mamas are at astronomically high risk rates of death in pregnancy or childbirth, but that risk is radically reduced by simple prenatal care.  Care that costs less than $250.  Because I’m a mom of two, I cannot fathom losing my baby or losing my life in the process.  It’s something I’m clearly passionate about.  And the founder is an amazing entrepreneur out of Kiva.org.  She’s working her butt off to save lives of babies and mamas around the world, and I applaud her efforts.

Recently, Brad & Amy Feld donated $1K to Kangu.org in my name because I spent 2 hours out of a morning to help them with a small conference.  Because I took 2 hours out of my day, Amy & Brad made a huge impact at Kangu.org and specifically for this mama, Aspara.  Its another example how a little giving first ends up impacting the community an order of magnitude more.  So thank you Amy & Brad, thank you Kangu.org.

Given how amazing their last music video was, I’m ecstatic for the Foundry Group’s next one to come out.  Here’s a teaser for The Worst of Times

 

I’m enjoyingmy first afternoon tea experience, here in London. Felt like an appropriate place to get familiar with the custom.

It’s white glove service, down to the server putting my white linen napkin on my lap for me. There’s a harpist playing behind me, the Thames is flowing lazily at my feet, I’m surrounded by sophisticated ladies in hats with feathers and veils, and I’ve just experienced what a scone is supposed to taste like. They’re delicious! I’m doing my best to look like I belong here.

Sadly, I also dropped the raspberry merengue in my lap, so now my black skirt is smeared with white merengue mush. To add insult to injury, I attempted to rescue the dessert as it was still falling and managed to splash most of my peach-white-tea (picked only 2 nights a year off a special bush in china and flown in within 24 hrs of harvest) on my cream colored top. It made quite the commotion (all that fine bone china clanking around in my clumsiness) and the whole restaurant turned to see the source of the noise. The distraction even caused the harpist to miss a string or two (I think, or maybe that was my heart pounding from embarrassment over her beautiful melodies).

So if you happen to spot me somewhere, and I look sophisticated, I promise you I’m faking it.

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