The Mingle: Openness to Experience Interviews, the Newbies

The Mingle: Openness to Experience Interviews, the Newbies

As I mentioned in part one of this series, "The Mingle: Openness to Experience Interviews, the Alumni," I am a second time attendee of this fantastic event. Put on by Shelley Hill of The Complete Combatant, The Mingle gives women in the firearms industry the opportunity to attend three training sessions and mingle with others. In part two of this series, I find out why Pip Tegtmeyer and Tricia Gout decided to head to Georgia and experience The Mingle. 

Pre-Mingle Questions

1. What made you decide to attend this event?

Pip Tegtmeyer: In life, I strive to be the best that I can be. To accomplish this goal, it requires training and practice with many qualified experts in the field. For many years, Brian and Shelley kept coming up in discussions as outstanding trainers in the gun community. It’s been an awesome year so far training with Brian, and I’m very excited to be invited to The Mingle. It will be a great experience with high-level trainers and highly qualified attendees. What an excellent opportunity to expand my horizons and experiences in the firearms community.

Tricia Gout: I heard about this event from a fellow instructor. I am a chapter leader for an Armed Women of America chapter, and I attended the National Conference in Branson. It was a wonderful experience to be in a fun learning environment with women who are like minded and feel strongly about learning to enhance their skills. So, when I saw that The Mingle seemed to be the same thing, I was very excited to attend.

2. What are you hoping to get out of the event?

Pip Tegtmeyer: It will be wonderful to work with and mingle with so many other top ladies and trainers in the gun community. Every little nugget of information improves my skills and allows me to pass this amazing information on to others to grow their skill set in a safe environment.

Tricia Gout: I am always looking to improve my skills and enhance my own teaching practices. I hope to learn many new things that I can bring back for both myself and my students. I am hoping to have fun, make some connections to other women in the field and expand my knowledge of training skills.

After the Mingle

1. Now that The Mingle is over, what would you say to someone who has never attended?

Pip Tegtmeyer: The Mingle was an amazing experience. It ran like a well-oiled machine. Shelley and her crew of volunteers were so helpful and kind. I was so impressed by their willingness to do whatever it took to make us feel so welcome.

As I looked around and “mingled” with many of the ladies, it became clear that an underlying theme was that so many have overcome so much to continue to make shooting sports a major part of their everyday lives. They were all willing to try something new and do things that were outside their comfort zone. When they successfully completed a new skill, they were ecstatic, just like the ladies they were shooting with. Everyone “showed up" and really supported each other.

Tricia Gout: If someone has never attended The Mingle, I would tell them they NEED to go. It is a terrific weekend of training and getting to meet people you’ve known online, in person. You get a chance to be around like-minded women and share ideas that help you grow, both as a person and as an instructor.

2. What is one nugget of information (of the probably many) that you are going to incorporate into your training/lifestyle?

Pip Tegtmeyer: My calendar is always pretty full with training classes and competitions. I want to continue to do events and training that I haven’t done before and embrace working outside of my comfort zone. It is a great honor and privilege to work with excellent instructors and vendors. It’s also amazing to get the opportunity to get to know so many new ladies who share the same interests.

Tricia Gout: There are so many nuggets of information to take away from this weekend. It is hard to choose just one. However, I am going to go with a nugget from Brian Hill. He started our training session with shooting strong-hand only, support-hand only and then mirror-hand, before going back to our regular grip. He said that any day he starts shooting and things feel a bit off, he goes back to this drill, and then once back to his regular grip, things fall into place. I think that is a great drill to pass on to my students. Not only does it give them practice shooting off-hand, but also, it can be a good reset to starting their training day.

3. Is there anything you would like to add?

Pip Tegtmeyer: As you know, it was quite the thrill to take home a beautiful "Top Shot" award.  It was a moment in time that I will always cherish. There were so many very talented ladies there who brought their "A" games.

Tricia Gout: As a first time attendee of The Mingle, I was so impressed with the way Shelly had this down to a science. She makes the weekend look easy. There is so much work, time and effort that goes into an event like this, and it is, in actuality, very far from easy.  She is a genius!

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Source: The Mingle: Openness to Experience Interviews, the Newbies