Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Sayre.
Kelly, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My journey into the personal safety and security industry started in a pretty unconventional way. I don’t have a law enforcement or military background. I’d never studied martial arts, and despite being physically active my entire life, I’d never even taken a self-defense class.
After becoming a mom to two boys, I decided I needed to learn how to keep myself and my children safe. So, in the fall of 2016, I signed up for my first women’s self-defense class.
We spent four hours learning physical techniques to defend ourselves. At the very end, one of the instructors said something that would ultimately change the direction of my life: “Ladies, predators don’t pick prey they think is going to be physically stronger than them. You need to be more situationally aware and avoid a physical fight if at all possible.”
And then he ended class.
My brain did a full stop.
Wait. We just spent four hours learning skills we’re supposed to AVOID using, and the skill we’re supposed to rely on the vast majority of the time, situational awareness, wasn’t taught at all?
What does it actually mean to be situationally aware? What am I supposed to look for? How do I know I’m looking for the right things? And if I notice something concerning, then what? And then what?
I started asking those questions of experts in the self-defense and personal security industries. The more questions I asked, the more I realized there was a significant gap in how we were teaching women to protect themselves. Most of the experts I spoke with were men who understood the importance of situational awareness, but couldn’t point me toward training that actually taught women how to develop and apply those skills in everyday life.
I thought that was ridiculous. If this was the skill women needed most, why weren’t we teaching it?
So I decided I was going to figure out how to teach it myself.
I began studying training concepts used in law enforcement and the military. What fascinated me was realizing that many of the foundational skills being taught were things I had already been doing throughout my life, particularly in my professional background in hospitality. The difference was the language. These concepts were wrapped in tactical terminology that wasn’t relatable to the average woman.
I started translating those concepts into practical, everyday skills women could understand, practice, and incorporate into their lives. And something interesting happened. The more I shared what I was learning, the more women wanted to learn it, too.
That’s how The Diamond Arrow Group was born, and how it has continued to grow organically.
Along the way, I wrote my bestselling book, Sharp Women, developed the SHARP Women Method, and expanded our educational offerings to include personal safety coaching, practical safety resources, and the first-ever women’s personal safety subscription kits.
As the business evolved, I began recognizing that the same gaps in personal safety education existed in the workplace.
Traditionally, workplace violence prevention training has focused heavily on what employees should do when an incident is already happening. While those response skills are important, I kept coming back to the same question that started my journey in 2016: What are we teaching people to recognize and do BEFORE something happens?
In many workplace incidents, there are concerning behaviors or warning signs that someone noticed earlier. The challenge is that employees don’t always recognize their significance, know how to articulate what they’re observing, or understand where and how to report their concerns.
Today, a major focus of The Diamond Arrow Group is helping organizations close that gap through proactive workplace violence prevention and situational awareness training. We work with employers to help employees and leadership teams recognize concerning behaviors, communicate observations clearly and without bias, and establish a shared understanding of how to elevate concerns before they escalate into a crisis.
We’re also expanding beyond one-time training sessions into ongoing educational programs that help organizations build a culture of awareness, communication, and prevention.
What’s especially rewarding is that the fundamental mission hasn’t changed. Whether I’m teaching a woman how to trust her intuition and establish boundaries or helping an organization strengthen its workplace violence prevention efforts, the goal is the same: Give people the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills to recognize potential threats earlier and make informed decisions.
I never set out to build a security training company. I was a mom who wanted to know how to keep herself and her children safe, and I wasn’t satisfied with the answers I was getting.
Nearly a decade later, I’m still asking questions, challenging conventional approaches, and finding better ways to help people take ownership of their safety.
That’s the heart of The Diamond Arrow Group and the philosophy behind everything we do.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I actually laughed out loud when I read this question! Is starting a business ever a smooth road? And when you’re trying to build a business around changing the way an entire industry thinks about personal safety, that adds a whole different layer of challenges.
When I first started this journey, I was working full-time, my two boys were just 5 and 4 years old, and my then-husband was also working full-time in law enforcement. I was trying to research an entirely new field, educate myself, and figure out how to turn an idea into a business, all while juggling the responsibilities of being a working mom.
About five months after that initial women’s self-defense class, I unexpectedly lost my full-time job after discovering unethical business practices. It was a major turning point. I was fortunate to have a mentor who hired me as a contractor, allowing me to begin working in an entirely new field while formally establishing and registering The Diamond Arrow Group.
I worked alongside my mentor for about two years before finally feeling ready to take the leap and focus on my company full-time in the summer of 2019. And we all know what happened next. Six months later, the world shut down.
The pandemic brought my business plans to a screeching halt. Like so many families, we were suddenly navigating an entirely new reality. I put much of my business on hold to focus on homeschooling my young boys and supporting my family through an incredibly uncertain time.
But I’ve always believed that challenges can create opportunities if we’re willing to look for them. During that time at home, I wrote and published my book, Sharp Women, turning years of research and education into a resource that could reach women far beyond my training sessions.
The pandemic also brought another important issue into sharper focus. For people experiencing domestic violence, stay-at-home orders meant being confined in potentially dangerous environments with fewer opportunities to seek help or escape. As employers shifted to remote work, many began recognizing that domestic violence wasn’t simply a “personal problem” that existed outside their responsibility or concern. An employee’s safety at home could directly affect their well-being, productivity, and ability to work.
That realization reinforced something I’d believed from the beginning: Personal safety doesn’t exist in separate compartments of our lives. What happens at home can affect us at work, and what happens at work can follow us home. It also helped shape the evolution of The Diamond Arrow Group. My work was no longer just about helping individual women develop situational awareness skills. It was increasingly relevant to organizations trying to understand and prevent workplace violence.
Today, one of my biggest challenges is helping corporate security leaders and other decision-makers recognize the value of what I bring to the table. Security professionals are trained to assess threats and respond to concerning behaviors. But the vast majority of employees don’t have a tactical or security background, nor should they need one to contribute to a safer workplace.
That’s the gap I’m working to close.
I help translate complex security concepts into practical, relatable skills that everyday employees can understand and use. When employees know how to recognize potential early warning signs, articulate their observations clearly and without bias, and communicate concerns to the appropriate people, they become an important part of an organization’s overall prevention strategy.
The challenge is helping organizations understand that effective workplace violence prevention isn’t just about having the right security professionals and response plans in place. It’s also about empowering the people who are often in the best position to notice when something isn’t right.
Looking back, there have been plenty of detours, setbacks, and moments when things didn’t go according to plan. But those experiences have also forced me to adapt, think differently, and find opportunities I might never have considered otherwise.
The road certainly hasn’t been smooth, but I didn’t start this company because I thought it would be easy. I started it because I believed something needed to change. And I still do.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Diamond Arrow Group. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The Diamond Arrow Group is a woman-owned company specializing in proactive workplace violence prevention, situational awareness, and personal safety education. Our mission is simple: Empower people with the knowledge and confidence to recognize potential threats early, make informed decisions, and take ownership of their personal safety.
Our philosophy is captured in four words: Know more. Fear less.
What sets us apart is how we approach personal safety education. The traditional security industry has largely focused on identifying threats, responding to incidents, and teaching people what to do when something dangerous happens. Those are important skills, but we believe there’s an equally important piece of the conversation that has been overlooked: What can we teach people to recognize and do before a situation becomes dangerous?
That’s where we specialize. We take concepts traditionally taught in law enforcement, military, and professional security environments and translate them into practical, relatable skills that people without those backgrounds can understand and apply in everyday life.
We don’t teach people to be paranoid, suspicious of everyone, or constantly scanning their surroundings for danger. Quite the opposite. We teach them how to become more observant, recognize patterns of behavior, trust their intuition as a cue to pay closer attention, establish boundaries, and make decisions based on what they’re noticing.
Situational awareness isn’t about living in fear. It’s about having the confidence that comes from knowing what to look for and understanding your options.
Today, a significant part of our work focuses on helping organizations strengthen their workplace violence prevention efforts. We offer corporate training programs ranging from individual presentations and interactive workshops to comprehensive, ongoing education programs designed to build awareness across an entire organization.
One of the biggest challenges employers face is that their employees are often the first to notice concerning behaviors, but they don’t necessarily recognize what they’re seeing or know how to communicate their concerns effectively.
We help close that gap by teaching employees how to identify potential early warning signs, describe observations objectively and without bias, and understand how to report concerns through the appropriate channels. When employees and leadership teams share a common language around concerning behaviors, organizations are better positioned to recognize potential threats and intervene before situations escalate.
An important distinction is that we’re not trying to turn employees into security professionals. We’re helping them become more confident, capable participants in their organization’s existing safety and security efforts. Our training is designed to complement the work of security teams, human resources, leadership, and behavioral threat assessment professionals, creating stronger connections between the people who notice concerning behaviors and those responsible for assessing and managing potential threats.
On the personal safety side, our work continues to focus heavily on empowering women. Through my bestselling book, Sharp Women, the SHARP Women Method, individual coaching, and our SHARP Women Collective community, we’re helping women build situational awareness skills that support their confidence and independence.
We’ve also developed the SHARP Women Subscription Kit, a quarterly personal safety subscription kit designed to make safety education tangible and accessible. Each kit brings together practical tools, educational resources, and everyday habit-building exercises that encourage women to keep developing their skills long after a training session ends.
One of the things I’m most proud of is that we’ve been able to make a traditionally intimidating subject feel approachable and empowering. Personal safety education can easily become fear-based, especially when the conversation focuses exclusively on worst-case scenarios. I don’t believe fear is an effective long-term strategy for building confidence. People need practical knowledge, opportunities to practice, and permission to trust themselves.
I’m also proud that we’ve built a brand that challenges the idea that someone needs a tactical background, physical strength, or specialized training to develop meaningful personal safety skills. Situational awareness is something everyone can learn and improve, regardless of age, gender, profession, or physical ability.
At its core, The Diamond Arrow Group is about changing the way people think about prevention. We want employers to recognize that workplace violence prevention begins long before an incident occurs, and we want individuals to understand that personal safety is a skill they can develop throughout their lives.
If there’s one thing I want readers to remember about our brand, it’s this:
You don’t have to live in fear to take your safety seriously. And you don’t have to be a security expert to recognize when something isn’t right. You just need the knowledge, skills, and confidence to know what to do next. That’s what we’re here to teach.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Some of my favorite childhood memories are from camping trips in northern Minnesota with my family. My parents had a pickup camper, and we’d spend a week or two at a time at campgrounds with no running water or electrical hookups. Just the great outdoors and a whole lot of freedom!
My parents always tried to reserve a lakeside campsite, and from the moment breakfast was over until the sun went down, we were in the water. We’d only come out to eat or use the bathroom, then it was right back to swimming and playing.
We didn’t have a boat or any fancy recreational toys, but we did have my aunt’s old windsurfer. We’d take the sail off and use the board to paddle around the lake. I laugh about it now because apparently I was paddleboarding long before paddleboarding was a thing!
Looking back, what I loved most was the simplicity of it all. No schedules, no distractions, no elaborate plans. Just endless summer days spent outside, using our imaginations, exploring, and having fun until we were completely exhausted.
There’s something pretty special about growing up with that kind of freedom. Those carefree days of playing outside from sunrise to sunset are memories I’ll always treasure.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thediamondarrowgroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thediamondarrowgroup
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDiamondArrowGroup
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellysayre
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thediamondarrowgroup
- Other: https://substack.com/@thediamondarrowgroup
