ABOUT
Who We Are
Momba Promotions LLC is a Virginia SWaM-Certified, Women-Owned & Military-Owned Small Business providing professional readiness, situational awareness, and resilience training for individuals, organizations, and communities operating under pressure.
We design and deliver evidence-informed, real-world training that goes beyond theory — focusing on decision-making under stress, personal safety, adaptive resilience, and practical skill development. Our work bridges physical readiness, mental resilience, and situational awareness in environments where clarity and preparation matter.
Momba Promotions partners with public agencies, nonprofits, educational institutions, professional groups, and private organizations like SYWO Security Academy, Manifesting Wellness, the Veterans Affairs Office and others, seeking grounded, trauma-aware approaches to safety, readiness, and performance.
Current offerings include customized workshops, educational programming, and applied training in safety and situational awareness for client-facing and high-responsibility professions. Momba Promotions is also a DPOR-approved Virginia real estate school, delivering the Realtor Safety & Situational Awareness Continuing Education (CE) course (Course #0214031425, 2 elective hours) — the Commonwealth's only live, hands-on Realtor safety CE, designed to support professional readiness, risk awareness, and real-world decision-making.
Founded and led by Carmen "The Momba" Gulliksen — professional boxer, 30+ year martial arts instructor, and health researcher — Momba Promotions serves professionals, women, and organizations across Virginia, with expansion underway.
Carmen Gulliksen (The MOMBA)
Carmen "The Momba" Gulliksen is a professional boxer, health researcher, martial arts master, and safety educator whose life is a blueprint for resilience and reinvention. With 30+ years of martial arts training and multiple black belts across disciplines, she has spent her life breaking barriers and building others up. At 47, she made the extraordinary leap into professional boxing — proving strength has no expiration date. Now 6-2 in the ring, her fighting spirit is backed by a lifetime of leadership, including recognition as Shihan and instructor certifications spanning karate, hapkido, tae kwon do, and law enforcement training. She is a 2025 RVA Female Athlete of the Year runner-up, a Division I collegiate athlete, and a mentor to women and girls learning to fight — physically and mentally — for their rightful place in the world.
Outside the ropes, Carmen holds an MBA, an MSIS, and a postgraduate diploma in health research (with merit), with academic work focused on psychiatric disabilities including PTSD and ADHD. She is a published author, an active health researcher, and — as founder of Momba Promotions LLC — a DPOR-approved real estate school owner and CE instructor. She channels her expertise into evidence-informed programming that builds professional readiness, situational awareness, and resilience for real estate professionals, women, first responders, and organizations operating under pressure. Her work has been published in Real Estate Agent Magazine and featured across industry podcasts.
A German-born immigrant, Carmen spent 17 years navigating the U.S. citizenship process while balancing a full-time IT career, parenting, homeschooling, and rebuilding after personal loss. A homeschooling mother of three and wife to a disabled Army veteran, she leads a Virginia SWaM-certified, women-owned, military-owned business — and continues to prove that fighting for your future, at any age or circumstance, is a cause worth dedicating your life to.
"Safety isn't the absence of risk. It's the presence of options."
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Real Estate Agent Magazine
The Anxiety Tax: How Agent Safety Is Quietly Hitting Your Closings
Carmen "The Momba" Gulliksen reframes agent safety as a brokerage performance issue, not a footnote in a safety memo.
Using peer-reviewed neuroscience (McEwen, Arnsten, Lupien, van der Kolk), she explains what happens in the brain when a showing feels "off": the threat response floods the body with stress hormones and takes the decision-making prefrontal cortex offline — precisely when an agent needs it to read a client and close. The cumulative cost — what she calls the Anxiety Tax — shows up as missed cues, thinner margins, higher turnover, and greater liability.
Her solution is a structured readiness framework — Predict, Prevail, Persist — built around how the brain actually functions under pressure. Her closing line: "A ready agent is a high-performing agent. They are the exact same person."
MOMBA the Author
"Personal Safety and Self-Defense in Volatile Post Election Times
Hello! The MOMBA here! Let me tell you about this book I wrote:
This is a no-nonsense playbook filled with practical, family-focused advice you can implement today. Take meaningful steps toward feeling safer and more empowered in today's world!
A few (not all!) of the topics I touch on in this book:
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Building Awareness: My First Line of Defense
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Creating a Family Safety Plan
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Learning Self-Defense Techniques
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Building Mental Resilience
Grab a copy of my book and start your journey toward personal growth!
Investor Fuel, Real Estate Pros Show
Why Realtors Need Self-Defense & Situational Awareness Training
Carmen "The Momba" Gulliksen joins host Dylan Silver to unpack why situational awareness and professional readiness are becoming essential skills in real estate. Drawing on 30+ years in martial arts and her health-research background, she breaks down the "anxiety tax" — how stress and unpreparedness quietly erode an agent's confidence, decision-making, and productivity — and what training does to reverse it. The conversation moves past fear and into strategy: readiness that protects personal safety, performance, and the bottom line for agents and brokerages alike.
ASKITA
Episode 177
Carmen "The Momba"
In this episode of A Swift Kick in the Ass, Carmen “The Momba” Gulliksen joins host John to discuss her path from collegiate athlete to professional boxer and resilience educator. The conversation explores the physical and psychological dimensions of martial arts training, the role of self-defense in personal growth, and Carmen’s work building training programs and communities focused on confidence, safety, and resilience—particularly for women and underrepresented groups.
Our Family Invests
Episode 013
Gary + Carmen Gulliksen
In this powerful episode of Our Family Invests, professional boxer and business leader Carmen, alongside her husband Gary, unpack their journey of building discipline, resilience, and purpose—both in the ring and at home. From navigating career pivots and parenting challenges to investing in health, mindset, and community, this conversation is a masterclass in turning life’s chaos into generational momentum.