A Life of IMPACT

A Life of IMPACT introduces us to Lisa Gaeta, the leading authority in Women's Self-Defense and her company Impact Personal Safety. Gaeta shares her expertise and her life within these pages.

Lisa Gaeta, the leading authority in Women's Self-Defense, shares her life and the evolution of the number one self-defense company in the United States, Impact Personal Safety within these pages.

Lisa Gaeta, the leading authority in Women's Self-Defense, shares the inception of her company Impact Personal Safety to today's creation of Impact Global.

This book leads us into the mind and expertise of Lisa Gaeta, the leading authority in Self-defense training in the United States and now the world with the creation of Impact Global.

In, A Life of IMPACT, we/you learn how setting boundaries, clear communication, a wide gaze and when all else fails a sharp strike keep us safe.

Lisa Gaeta's "A Life of IMPACT," a hybrid memoir/women's studies is an exploration of the power of teaching girls to set boundaries - emotional, verbal and physical. Gaeta takes the context of daughters vs sons into a whole different realm. How to raise a confident person, how to raise a child to be comfortable in their own skin. Although the "How-to" part of this memoir is present in the form of success stories with Gaeta herself as the subject, there are also stories of how students of IMPACT were able to take their 'on the mat' learning out into the world. That world may very well be in the office or on the streets.

There's no physics or rocket science in having people understand that they have the right to set boundaries, or make the "rules" of how best to get along. In fact, what Gaeta shares time and time again is that once a person (in this instance) women and girls learns the tools of personal self-defense, she can translate those skills into being more empowered to impact her society. In one story, Gaeta literally dis-keys a potential drunk driver, thereby saving lives before they were in jeopardy.

At this point, I am running on adrenaline (heart pounding, breathing elevated, senses on alert) and exuding "I'm the boss" attitude. I walked up to the car, opened the driver's side door, put out my hand, and said, "turn off the car, get out, and give me the keys". He did exactly what I told him to do with no hesitation. I had no authority over this young man, but he did not question me at all. He was clearly inebriated, as I could smell alcohol and the skunky odor of recently-smoked pot.

I then said to the group of young visitors, "now, you have a choice: one of you who is not drunk can drive, and the young man will sit in the backseat. Or we can just call the police and let them handle it. You choose." They stuffed him in the back seat, and one of the others drove.