Watch “Confessions of an International Smuggler”

A few weeks ago, I received a message from Angela Barrus.  She asked for information about our Free The Egg campaign for an upcoming speech.  We decided to that a phone call would the most efficient way to share information.  And what a phone call it was!  Angela is a gifted speaker, a fantastic conversationalist, and fun…so fun.  My husband now calls her my sister in Washington.  We spoke for a long time and could have spoken for hours more.  It’s not just the chocolate egg, people, this is a kindred spirit!  A Kindered spirit?  😀

So – the speech.  There is an event in Seattle called “Ignite Seattle”.  I love their tag line, “Enlighten us, but make it quick.”  From their site:

Ignite Seattle, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that uses the power of short-form storytelling to grow a thriving community centered on the exchange of diverse stories and challenging ideas. We are almost entirely volunteers and the majority of proceeds from tickets sales and sponsorships go directly into our events and related programming.

Our mission:

Provide a fun and supportive forum for sharing diverse ideas, hearing challenging stories, and building a community of curious and open minded people.

Use the power of storytelling as a tool for entertainment, education and to bring people together.

Teach our speakers and our audience the skills of storytelling and public speaking. All our speakers are offered professional speaker coaching and we teach public workshops open to all.

We are the 2nd largest open submission public speaking event in the Pacific Northwest, and 3 times a year we gather in the Great Hall at Town Hall Seattle, forming one of the livliest and most supportive audiences in the world to hear interesting people tell interesting stories.

The Ignite format: each speaker gets 20 slides, for 15 seconds each (for a total of 5 minutes), to share a story, teach a lesson or share a passion. It’s an evening of curated discovery and our format helps speakers to be concise, focused and engaged.

It’s not easy to make it onto the Ignite stage, but our Angela did it!  She did an excellent job sharing her hilarious story of when she almost smuggled Kinder Eggs into the USA.  Of course she didn’t know it was illegal because any sane person would find banning chocolate eggs to be stupid, insane, and ridiculous.

But don’t take my word for it.  Watch Angela yourself!  And, don’t forget, sign the petition to help #FreeTheEgg!

Confessions of an International Smuggler

Mark your calendar!  Thursday, October 3rd, gather the family around the ol’ computer and watch as my new found kindred (or is it Kinder?) sister, Angela Barrus, shares her incredible – and hilarious! – experience smuggling Kinder Eggs into the US.  She’s such a criminal…

Angela’s 5 minute talk will be a part of “Ignite Seattle” (Ignite Seattle, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that uses the power of short-form storytelling to grow a thriving community centered on the exchange of diverse stories and challenging ideas. We are almost entirely volunteers and the majority of proceeds from tickets sales and sponsorships go directly into our events and related programming.).  

Click on this link to watch!  The talks begin at 7:30.  They saved the absolute best (Angela, of course!) for last!