Meet your coaches

Karen Farthing

Coach · Co-owner

Karen has a bit of the Peter Pan Syndrome. She served over 17 years in the military across two branches — the Army and the Marine Corps — accumulating 7 MOS designators, 2 instructor designators, and a great deal of "other duties as directed" experience. She has been an intelligence analyst, a HAWK missile system operator, a clerk-typist, and a Military Police...person, and normally ended up in a Battalion-or-above staff position in training or analysis. If there was a weird or new job that needed doing, Karen got tasked with it.

Her post-military life ran through social work, outside sales for an industrial distributor, penetration testing, systems administration, and running charitable gaming for a non-profit. She spent about 6 years with The Bulwarks as a firearms instructor and training coordinator — which is where she met Courtney.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications Systems Management with emphases in Forensic Analysis and Systems Security, and currently works for a fiber internet company. She is a wife, mother of five, grandmother of three, and an avid connoisseur of the worst gas station food available.

• KY CCDW Instructor
• NRA Range Safety Officer
• NRA Rifle Instructor
• Rangemaster Certified Firearms Instructor
• Image Based Decisional Drills Certified Instructor (The Complete Combatant)
• Deliberate Coaching (The Complete Combatant)
• OC/Pepper Spray Instructor (Agile Training & Consulting)
• Active Self Protection Instructor Certification
• Gateway Instructor Course (Citizens Safety Academy)
• Emotional Intelligence: Instructor Development Course (Dr. Jimmy Turner)
• FlexCCarry® Certified Instructor (Defense Training International)

Courtney McCarthy Beadnell

Coach · Co-owner

Courtney served 14 years in the Army as both Military Police and Corrections, finishing as a Platoon Sergeant. She then spent 8 years with the Kentucky Department of Corrections as a Probation and Parole Officer, supervising a specialized caseload. While with KyDOC she was a Field Training Officer, a Fentanyl Responder, a Firearms Instructor and a Crisis Negotiator. During that time she was also a firearms instructor and private security agent for The Bulwarks for about 6 years — which is where she met Karen.

Courtney holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Organizational Law Enforcement Leadership, and a Master of Education in Clinical Counseling. She is currently a licensed professional counselor associate, providing mental health services to adults, children and families.

Courtney is a wife, mother of two, and a world traveler.

• KY CCDW Instructor
• Rangemaster Certified Firearms Instructor
• Image Based Decisional Drills Certified Instructor (The Complete Combatant)
• Deliberate Coaching (The Complete Combatant)
• OC/Pepper Spray Instructor (Agile Training & Consulting)
• Gateway Instructor Course (Citizens Safety Academy)
• Emotional Intelligence: Instructor Development Course (Dr. Jimmy Turner)
• FlexCCarry® Certified Instructor (Defense Training International)