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hi everybody Welcome Back to Life on
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cour and this installment of Aging like
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a fine wine we highlight extraordinary
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and ordinary people doing incredibly
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wonderful things in the next stage of
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their life and today we have the
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fabulous test cator she is an
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award-winning director filmmaker
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best-selling author and CEO and founder
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at Gwen Global Tess welcome thank you as
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as you can call me Tess you can call me
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Gwen but don't call me late for wine30
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oh I will never call you late for wine
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even though we're drinking water today
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yeah yeah cheers cheers cheers to you so
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Gwen tell us a little bit about your
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story how did you end up where you are
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now and and tell us a little about the
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there wow I know this is a a short time
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so I'll try to truncate it as much as
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possible because I have a book out that
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I'm actually reworking for version two
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Called Homeless to the White House which
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tells the entire crazy journey of my
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life that ranges from uh being at
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gunpoint in Congo to uh servicing
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humanitarian projects around the world I
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have I'm the hybrid humanitarian hybrid
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I guess of a nonprofit organization and
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a production company and I ride those
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two waves as best as I can through the
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surface of life because I have a very
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big proponent and passion for
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humanitarian projects and bringing clean
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water and serving homeless and dealing
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with the healing of trauma with regard
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to trafficking people um and all kinds
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of domestic violence and all that so I'm
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a production company and a nonprofit
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organization all rolled into making
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social impact and making the world a
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better place and your film you recently
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had some some pretty major Awards in toe
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with this film can you talk about that a
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bit yeah that was an absolute accidental
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Divine manifestation of sorts it was a
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short film called the rescue and it
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didn't start out to be a short film and
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it started out to be something that was
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a promo for the hotel industry to be
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able to utilize to continue educating
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their employee base to learn how to
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navigate the waters if they notice that
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there's something strange in their
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hotels like someone that looks like
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they're traffic so I shot this promo
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video and it turned into a short film I
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threw it out to the universe and 21
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Awards came back and uh they ranged from
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Best Director to best score to best
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short best super short you know all
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kinds of things um Can World Film
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Festival um Toronto Berlin The
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Whistleblower was one of my favorites
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and that was out of Washington DC which
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is going to help me continue the work of
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advocacy for trafficking and uh helping
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to change laws I have to ask you
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mentioned being held up at gunpoint in
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the Congo yes I wasn't held up I I had a
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gun pointed at me I was filming for a
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documentary of a man who was running for
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president of Congo another story another
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long day a long story another day back
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yes um but basically I was filming the
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presidential monument in the main town
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of uh K in kinasa and a military person
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turned around and noticed I was filming
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and they came walking towards my car
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which I had driver and a translator and
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he had a rifle pointed right at my head
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and and I said oh my God and so the
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translator told the driver I think the
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word was vend vend which is drive drive
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so we didn't get shot at but it was
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enough of a a shock to the nervous
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system to have this rifle very close to
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my car I was there because I was on a
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journey to advocate for the plight of
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the girls and women and children that
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are raped on a day daily basis because
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of a mineral called Colton and if you
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look that up it's the mineral that
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actually is the conductivity of our
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computers and our telephones so con
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Colton is very much a part of you and I
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speaking today so not many people know
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that that's how intricate these markets
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and international markets are where
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there are people brutally attacked on
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the opposite end of this because it's a
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very valuable mineral so I was very
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passionate about that and I went into
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cono by myself and came out to tell a
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my God passion drives you clearly yes a
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little bit of an adrenaline junkie yeah
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but but to an end of you know not just
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like climbing mountains or or skydiving
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to to really affect change and help and
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give voice to those who don't have one
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and absolutely I commend you I mean it's
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it's inspiring and I I can't help but
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ask you given the the road that you've
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chosen and the work that you do what
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inspires you to keep going and putting
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yourself in these positions what drives
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about making my life matter which is so
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important in our world right now to be
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able to whether from experience or not
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but to be able to be there and to help
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where and when we can and it's changing
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lives every day you're I hope so I do
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hear that and that makes me very happy
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and makes me inspired to keep going you
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know I'm I'm doing some fun things too
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I'm going down to bise um this coming
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month and we're going to be filming a
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very big adventure of a Mayan culture
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that hadn't been exposed or adventured
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into for the last 200 plus years so will
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that be in film available yes we're
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we're going to be filming it so it's
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going to go through an educational
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portal that we're launching that goes
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into 880,000 plus schools and then it
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will be a documentary series as well
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that will be on a platform yet to be
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determined but we're really excited
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because we're going to use light our
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technology and all kinds of really cool
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Technologies and we're going down with
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this small I'm going to be one of the
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camera people and directing and um I'm
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very excited about that so it' be a
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different kind of Adventure going
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through adventuring through caves ra
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rather than the bush in Africa right and
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did I hear that you just finished a
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children's book I did so uh Bella wishes
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is a very dear character that I created
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back in 2004 and I know I I released
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back then version one but very soon
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after that I started recreating her with
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my illustrator um Bella wishes is about
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a belly wish belly dancing hippopotamus
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it shows really fun and movement and
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dance for young people to get in tune
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with their bodies and to know that that
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they can make right decisions about
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nutrition and healthy living and dancing
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and having fun and being you know a part
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of having self-empowerment but also
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learning how to play in teams so um we
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re-released I we released that just this
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past month and became a bestseller on
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four different platforms of Amazon books
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and we're really excited about
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announcing the next layer of her
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becoming 3D animated character and
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dancing and singing of all these songs
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that I created back in the day so it's
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very early learning reading so your your
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baby's only a month old so maybe a
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little too early but I have a two and a
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half-year old granddaughter as well oh
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Grand oh she'll love Bella yes yes I'll
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have to send you a book you're a film
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producer you're a writer how do you want
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remembered I think how it all
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encapsulates is I'm a
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Storyteller I love the story I love
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finding deep down into the core of
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people that I interview or I talk to or
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I do stories on what makes them tick
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what's their story how do they reveal
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the heel so anything I can find a story
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and anything so when I write music it's
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a story when I do a short film it's a
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story when I write a poem it's a story
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anything that I do on that creative film
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I think the core of it is the
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storytelling and how we can all have the
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bravery and courage to tell our
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stories and you do encourage you are an
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incredibly nurturing woman to to all of
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us who know you and oh thank you I think
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when you have that kind of support
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system behind you especially the the
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people that whose lives you're touching
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who have so many challenges when with
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you at the helm they truly have
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compassion and and that resonates
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throughout all that you do a thank you
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well on a much lighter note what's your
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wine so I'm a foodie I love to cook you
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and I've talked about this before so my
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favorite Chardonnay would be the rich
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buttery oi and you know you and I talked
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about that as well um I love um the full
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bodies the Old Vine zendel and the
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Cabernet that have to go into that world
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of red sauces and stews and things like
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that in the cold winter months
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um it depends on the time of day and
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what I'm doing you know I love I love
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the culture of wine and tasting and
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smelling and absorbing and and the
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bubbles of prco um and I've I've gotten
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into a new little thing that you might
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like lavender syrup you can get it on
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Amazon and La syrup lavender syrup so we
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served at our Gwen luminary Awards this
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past week past month um we served a
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lavender infused prco and had a
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beautiful sprig of lavender on top of it
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it was really beautiful and it tastes
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really good yeah and then I've also
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infused lavender inside of a tequila and
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lemon I lemonade with tequila or vodka
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not together separate day separate
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cocktail um and when I say infused you
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just put a you know like a little cap
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full into it and then shake it in a
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martini shaker and then pour it out into
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your glass okay so it's a refreshing
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cocktail and then the wine uh and the
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prco the lavender infused there and the
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lavender with prco sounds
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absolutely like maybe maybe trouble
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ahead it's a little troubling I'm
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teasing you but it's really delicious
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just because my new my new found uh
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little cocktail infuser or prco
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infuser well that sounds awesome what's
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you well I'm going to be doing some more
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social media and bringing Bella more to
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life because there's music involved with
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that I'm going to bise on May 1st for
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nine days to shoot the um the beginning
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adventure of the Mayes and I am doing
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the homeless to the White House rewrite
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and in the parallel universe I'm writing
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another book that kind of is the
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extension of homeless to the White House
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and just all kinds of wonderful things
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we're doing a lot of work at the
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Hollywood Women's Club
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um events tell us about the Hol so I'm
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really excited about during a summer
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camp there the last two weeks of June
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and it's going to be ages 9 to 17 and
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it's going to be a mashup creative Camp
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so it's going to be fun where people are
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going to be able to explore their
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different creative sides whether it's
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through Rhythm or music or dance or
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spoken word and so um I'm just finishing
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the touches on it and we're going to
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start promoting it next week so I'm
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really excited about that that sound
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that is exciting that sounds fabulous
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yeah I love being engaged with that um
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youthful energy and the brains and the
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creativity and being able to let them
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explore and heal because there's a lot
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of a lot of healing that needs to go on
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in the world and so I'm really excited
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to get this Camp off the ground you have
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so much on your plate and I look forward
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we all look forward to sharing with you
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as you head out on this journey of yours
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and I know you'll keep this posted and
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in turn we will keep you all posted out
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there um with Tessa's developments and
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definitely when the new book book comes
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out let us know absolutely yeah I am so
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glad you came on today thank you so I'm
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so grateful I know we've been trying to
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get this date together for quite a while
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but you're just just a you are as well
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and I'm I'm I'm praying that you enjoy
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your beautiful horses this afternoon and
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then end with a nice glass of wine and
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I'll be toasting you at happy hour this
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evening I'm actually gonna be on a call
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with a bunch of women that we developed
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this group during Co so I'll tell about
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today and and tell them about your
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beautiful podcast and all the things you
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and Karen are doing thank you so much I
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appreciate that and thank you all for
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being out there and listening and
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following us on our little journey of
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Life on court until next time I'm Mel
