Reading: #141: Tammi Leader Fuller (Sometimes You Have To Make Sacrifices To Start A New Dream)

At 53, Tammi Leader Fuller left her big-time producer’s job in television news to go back to her “childhood happy place”–camp! Well, back to a grown-up version called Campowerment, a place for “women to learn, connect, and grow.” Says Fuller, who was in the news business for 34 years: “I was Tammi from Miami. I covered riots, the boat lift, drug dealing…I’m a storyteller at heart.” Ten years ago, Fuller moved to Los Angeles and while continuing in the entertainment field, wrote a book “about how having it all is not having it all.” In 2013, she decided it was time to produce something else: “I wanted to bring women back to the time of their life when they were carefree.” Fuller says her summers loving camp in the Poconos and invented Campowerment to bring back that sense of joy. “We take over empty shells of camps…go in 24 hours with a team and jeuge it up and make it suitable for women to live in cabins,” she says. “ [We like to] let them be a bit uncomfortable to grow.” And yes, there are color wars and campfire songs, even a snoring cabin! “It’s heavily programmed. But in the off time people connect.” Fuller sold her home to finance her business. “I sacrificed my life to make it happen… Now it’s eight years later.”