She Fixes UFC Fighters’ Minds — Here’s What She Sees Behind the Scenes

What if the thing holding your athletes — and your business — back isn't strategy, talent, or training volume… but their nervous system?

In this episode, Nick Cownie sits down with Briana Bowley, the nervous-system specialist trusted by UFC fighters, world-class athletes, and high-pressure professionals around the world.

Briana reveals how fight, flight, and freeze responses shape performance, sabotage competition results, and even impact how you run your gym. If you've ever wondered why great athletes crumble under pressure — or why you react the way you do in business — this conversation will change how you see yourself and your students.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE

- How Briana became the coach UFC fighters trust

- Fight / Flight / Freeze — how your biology sabotages performance

- The missing link between trauma, competition nerves, and self-sabotage

- Why martial artists break under pressure (and how to fix it)

- The crossover between BJJ training, business stress, and burnout

- How Briana built a global coaching business while travelling

- The "ascension model" she used to scale her work

- The biggest mistakes grappling coaches make with people management

- Why your business results are a reflection of your nervous system

🕒 TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

00:55 Briana's work with fighters & high-pressure performers

02:25 Fight / Flight / Freeze explained

04:30 How Briana discovered nervous system regulation

09:48 Applying nervous system work to martial artists

14:07 Turning Briana's expertise into a business

20:29 Briana's scalable business model

24:10 The biggest mistakes she made early on

28:41 Structure, freedom & performance

31:56 Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai & pattern recognition

36:43 What business owners can learn from martial arts

41:37 Managing people, trauma & gym culture

46:57 Briana's #1 message for grappling business owners

48:06 Who she'd love to spar in history

50:50 How to contact Briana

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👇 CONNECT WITH BRIANA BOWLEY

Briana Bowley is an international speaker, nervous system regulation and performance coach, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt who helps high performers and athletes master pressure with precision.

With over a decade in the high performance and self-development space, she's supported world-class entrepreneurs and combat sports athletes to rewire their stress responses, build resilience, and perform from deep calm.

Through her signature framework, The Bowley Blueprint™, Briana bridges mindset and physiology, teaching people to access flow, lead with intention, and win without burning out.

📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/brianabowley

🌐 Website: https://brianabowley.com

🔗 Free Trainings: https://brianabowley.com/links

⚔️ ABOUT THE SHOW

Most martial artists open a school. The best operators become DOJOCEOs™.

Hosted by Nick Cownie — founder of Enroll 365™, Dojo Toolbox CRM™, The Dojo Map™, and DOJOCEO™ Mastermind — each episode goes "behind the belt" to break down the business, battles, and breakthroughs behind successful martial arts schools.

👉 FOLLOW NICK

📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/dojoceo

All right.

Hello and welcome to the Grappling Map podcast.

On this podcast, I go behind the belt to dig into grappling based businesses or people who work with martial artists to find out what it is that makes their business run and how it is that they've built such awesome businesses.

My guest today is Brianna.

Now Brianna, how do I say your last name?

Bowley.

Bowley.

Bowley.

Sorry, it trips everyone up.

Yeah.

Brianna Boley, who is our awesome guest today and very excited to have you here on the podcast.

What I'd love for you to do is instead of me introducing you, I like it when the guests kind of talk in your own, you know, your own voice, your own words.

Who are you?

What do you do?

Give us the rundown on you and your business.

Yeah, so my work is in nervous system regulation.

So essentially I have the pleasure of traveling the world consulting with business owners and combat sports athletes on how to stay calm under pressure.

So my work is focused purely around your fight, flight, freeze responses.

So our survival or our stress responses, and if we're not kind of like in check and how those responses kind of naturally come in and have us self sabotage if we're not aware of them.

Yeah, they, they have the potential to completely derail our careers or our sporting pursuits.

And so that's the work that I do.

I help athletes and, and entrepreneurs to still thrive and get what they want despite, you know, those natural kind of survival mechanisms.

So I've got a long clinical background as massive therapist, acupuncturist, hypnotherapist, and I find nervous system regulation has become like really popular over the last couple of years.

And when I don't work in clinic anymore, but when I used to, we're going back 15, 20 years now, it wasn't really mentioned.

Right, so what, what, what got you into that as a field?

How did that kind of pop up on your radar?

How'd you get started?

Yeah, well, I guess, you know, as you said, like it's, it's one of them things that it's only really become more widely recognized in recent years.

In a nutshell for me, like I, I come from competitive bodybuilding and so, you know, I have my own experiences dealing with stress and pressure and, you know, everything that comes with being a competitive athlete and trying to run a business alongside that.

And so I really got started looking into, for my own personal gain like hypnotherapy and NLP and, you know, mindset work and all of those sorts of things.

And they worked to a Point.

But I felt like I was consistently kind of having this experience of like hitting, hitting like the upper level, um, or you know, hitting that, that glass ceiling and just not being able to crack through it.

So I sort of started to really just dig around for like, well, what's.

Like there has to be a solution to this glass ceiling that I keep hitting.

And no amount of mindset work is, is shifting it.

So like, what's the missing piece?

And you know, I was trained as a massage therapist myself, so I guess I just started to, you know, notice these little links between things that were going on physically in my body and thought processes, you know, that and kind of these mental patterns that were coming up for me.

So it was kind of a slow process of just sort of noticing the links and then seeing similar things play out with clients.

And so I realized pretty quickly, like, okay, there's something, there's something here around like the mind body connection, the physical body, you know, our biology, you know, the structure of our body and how it mirrors itself in our mindset.

And so really it was just a lot of research, a lot of trial and error.

And then I found polyvagal theory, which is your fight flight freeze.

You know, all of, all of the theory around that, and that was kind of the missing piece.

That was the thing that, you know, started getting me mammoth results and having the same kind of results with my clients.

Yeah, that's amazing.

I.

Something that I find really interesting when I get to talk to someone who does something even in the ballpark of what you do is I find there's.

This may not be the case for you.

Right.

But if not, we'll go down a different track.

But was there like one big or small, I suppose, experience where you went, this is absolutely phenomenal.

And I'm going down that rabbit hole.

And the reason I asked that question is as I mentioned, I used to be, I'm still technically an NLP trainer and a hypnotherapy trainer.

And I've taught that all over the world.

But when, how I got into that is the day before I turned 21, I was held up at gunpoint and I had PTSD for about five years and I tried all kinds of things for five years and couldn't, could not shift this.

Almost dropped out of uni, almost lost my relationship, had all kinds of problems.

And then I went to like a one day intro to NLP seminar and they asked for a volunteer for a trauma clearing technique and it took 10 minutes and the PTSD was gone.

And I remember being up on stage in front of 100 or 200 people and I couldn't find a trace of this in my system anymore.

And I was absolutely blown away.

And I made a decision on the spot.

I'm going down this rabbit hole.

Right.

This is absolutely fascinating.

Do you have an experience like that or was it more of like a slow burn?

Multiple things building up where you said, this is what I'm going to dedicate my life to.

Yeah, I get asked that question a lot.

And it's kind of both, you know, like for me, I look back on my life and I, you know, I feel like I've lived a lot of different lives.

In my one life, you know, I've been, been through quite a bit.

I had a bit of, you know, I guess a challenging upbringing, have struggled through, you know, eating disorders, all sorts of stuff, you know.

And so I kind of look back and I'm like, there was no way I wouldn't have landed here.

You know, there was so much trauma in my history that I think it all did just, it was just all setting me up to kind of lead me here, you know.

I guess, of course there are some bigger things that have happened, some key points that I certainly do look at.

And probably, probably the key one that really shifted me from more of the like, mindset based work into more of the body based work was coming out of my fitness modeling comp, you know, competition, and really struggling with like adrenal fatigue, you know, couldn't get out of bed in the morning, I'd set 10 alarms and sleep through all of them, you know, and, and struggling with like severe body dysmorphia, disordered eating patterns, you know, and it was, it was kind of one of those moments where I was like, I can't live the rest of my life like this.

Like, this is like I'm at a fork in the road here.

And it's either like, I don't want to be here anymore or something's got to give.

And, you know, I consider myself a pretty gritty human.

So I guess it always just came down to like, there has to be more and I want more for myself, so whatever it's going to take.

And in terms of polyvagal theory, is it interchangeable the terms polyvagal theory, nervous system regulation, or is polyvagal like a subcategory of nervous system regulation overall?

Yeah, I mean, they're interchangeable.

Polyvagal theory is specifically looking at like your fight, flight, freeze.

Nervous system regulation is, is, I guess you could say, looking a little bit more at, like, it's the tools and the frameworks and that.

That we use to shift your fight flight freeze response.

Okay.

And so let's bring this on to the topic of martial arts.

Right, so you.

Are you still training.

You train bjj, right?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, awesome.

How long you been.

How long you been training for?

I say four years.

Four years consistently.

Yep, fair enough.

And where are you based?

In Australia at the moment?

I'm in Adelaide now.

Adelaide, but you were on the Gold coast previously, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Because I remember seeing.

We've never met in person, obviously, as far as I remember, like, it's.

But we trained at the same place.

Right?

You trained at Southside with Vicente Cavalcante.

Right.

So that's where I got my blue belt way back.

I can't remember.

2019, perhaps.

I think I trained there for a few years.

Awesome.

Cruise Southside, bjj.

And so we.

We connected online on Instagram, of all places, and it was.

I started seeing your content coming up around working with jiu jitsu athletes.

I think you've worked with some UFC fighters as well, right?

From memory.

So how.

How is it that what you do translates across to martial artists?

How do you actually use it practically in your business when working with martial artists?

Yeah, well, I mean, when we're dealing with something like combat sports, we're going to inevitably have our fight flight freeze responses come up.

Like, we're dealing with either getting punched in the face or someone trying to snap a limb or choke us out.

Um, and so, you know, we're.

We're literally fighting against our human instinct to stay cool, calm, collected, to be able to process the information coming at us and still perform well, to not go into, you know, freeze or.

Or, you know, overdrive.

So the work that I do is basically figuring out, like, what's someone's predominant survival response?

You know, everyone has one that they kind of lean more towards, and this can vary in different situations.

But, you know, with combat sports, someone might be more kind of predispositioned to go into that, like, fight response, where it's overdrive, it's high adrenaline, they're not thinking clearly.

You know, they're.

They're just not able to kind of bring the same, like, logic that they'd have in the gym to the competition experience itself.

So, yeah, it's figuring out what they're kind of predominant state is in these stress responses, you know, when.

When they're under stress, when they're under pressure, and then setting them up with tools to first of all kind of train them out of it so that it's no longer their instinctual reaction.

Then they can have more space to kind of, you know, process, process the information coming at them.

The fight slows down, they're more present, you know.

And so, yeah, we do this across, you know, a myriad of different ways.

And forgive me, because I'm going to kind of be a little bit vague here just because it's such a big rabbit hole, but some of it is, you know, as a practitioner, I really believe that how we do anything is how we do everything.

So if we have these patterns playing out in combat sports, we're going to have these patterns playing out in our business or in our relationships or in, you know, other areas of our life.

So.

So a lot of the work that I do is actually like seeing where the pattern exists in all areas of our lives so that then we can shift it, you know, and essentially set ourselves up to.

To not only perform well in competition, but also like just have a better qual quality of life across the board.

I don't know if that answers your question or not, but I think it does.

I mean, it makes perfect sense that it's a very deep rabbit hole that we can't go crazy down into.

And what I'm particularly interested in is the actual business that you run.

Right.

So I understand what you do now.

You're an active martial artist yourself.

You've been training for years.

You work.

And you don't just work with martial artists.

Right.

Like you also work with people outside of this particular industry.

Yeah, yeah.

Who, like, is there a particular type of client that you find you get more of?

I would say anyone that's under high pressure, you know, like, I have a lot of like first responders, veterans, you know, single moms, you know, anyone that's in like a really high pressure.

Role.

That, you know, they've got to be able to stay cool, calm, collected.

But, you know, they've got a lot of stimulus coming at them.

They've got a lot of things that they have to, you know, manage.

Yeah.

So I would say probably my main niche is kind of your.

Your high performer.

Yeah.

Okay.

So high performers and people who are kind of under stress.

It makes perfect sense.

Right.

And when we're going to switch gears a little to the more, I'll say, technical side of business.

Right.

How did you turn this into a business from.

This is something that I've learned I'm doing this.

And because I understand you've got quite a successful business from what I see online.

Right.

Everyone can always, you know, we all.

We all want more, bigger, better, more.

Right.

But it looks like you're doing really well.

How did you go from where you were to what your business looks like now?

Yeah, I think a lot of it was network, you know, like, I'm.

I'm someone who.

I think one of my.

My zones of genius is that I connect with people really well, you know, and I. I kind of have this ability to connect with people from all different walks of life.

So really, for me, it was a matter of.

I. I guess I sort of.

I was practicing these, you know, these tools and whatnot with myself.

And then, of course, being around a lot of athletes, people started asking questions, and I sort of started noticing patterns with my.

Amongst my peers, and I. Oh, I'm getting a little bit of an echo.

And so I.

Sorry, that's very distracting.

That's totally throwing me off.

Still going on?

No, I think it's gone now.

Yeah.

All right, cool.

We'll keep.

We'll keep it on the screen then.

Yeah, cool.

Yeah.

So, you know, I started seeing amongst my.

Amongst my peers these different kind of patterns and kind of giving them tips and pointers, and they were having these big successes.

So all of a sudden, you know, I kind of fell into it.

People started asking, you know, can I.

Can I pay you to do this work with me?

And so, you know, I immediately kind of realized, well, there's.

There's is an income source here.

And so I really.

It was just a matter of kind of leveraging the connections that I had.

You know, a lot of travel, I've always been a traveler, so traveling, meeting new people, having the courage.

That was the big one.

Having the courage to actually be like, hey, I'm doing this thing.

Are you interested?

And, you know, I started this about 14 years ago.

So back then, it was a pretty foreign concept.

So, you know, a lot of.

I think it required a lot of willingness to be kind of judged and misunderstood and to have people who had been in the industry longer so they thought their way was the way.

And that me as a, you know, then early 20s, you know, female, with very little combat sports experience, you know, to have them kind of look me in the eye and say, you don't know what you're talking about.

And to still keep believing in myself and knowing that, well, I've got.

I've had these results.

So, yeah, I think it was really, you know, to answer your question, it was really a matter of just leveraging network and again having the courage to just name these tools that I had and trial and error, figure it out.

You know what I love about that story is you've reminded me of something that I teach my kids.

So right now I have a 12 year old son and a 15 year old daughter.

My son wants to be a pilot, my daughter wants to be, she's a musician, she wants to be a singer, songwriter and that's fantastic, right?

And every now and then like most teens, preteens, they doubt themselves and having me as their dad is probably a bit of a weird experience because I used to be a big motivational speaker and I wrote a book and this mindset guy before I got into what I'm doing now.

So I don't really let them get away with self doubt too much.

You look into neuroscience and there's unbelievable evidence that delusional self confidence is a prerequisite for success.

So if you're going to go into something, you might as well go into it with the absolute unwavering certainty that it's going to be a phenomenal success.

Right.

And so that's the kind of thing that I teach my kids.

And I see a corollary in the story you just told where it's like you've got these experienced, you know, martial, we'll just say martial artists.

Who are you?

You've got no combat experience, when have you been in the ring or whatever it happens to be.

And you're like no, I'm here, I'm showing up, I'm doing the thing.

And as long there's a, just a big lesson in that for people which is you don't have to listen to anybody else's limitations, right.

They typically, they're just projecting their own limitations onto someone else so that you'll hopefully mirror that back to them and go, yeah, you know, really, I do have these limitations too and it makes them feel better about their, their self selected mediocrity.

Right.

And I love that you didn't go down that rabbit hole because it's just the path to a miserable life.

Right.

If you were to describe your business model in a couple of sentences, what does your business look like now?

Like what are the moving pieces?

What are the main ways you deliver services or products online, offline courses, coaching, consulting, how's that all fit together for you?

Yeah, so I'm a little bit of a variety junkie so I like to, things are simple but they're a little bit complex.

So I do a mixture of online and in person.

So I have kind of my.

At the top, I have my lead magnets.

So that's predominantly like speaking engagements.

So these can be, you know, workshops, festivals, working with fight teams, or alternatively like online masterclasses and you know, things like the podcasts, those sorts of things.

You know, that's my way of getting people's eyes on me.

I have kind of these, you know, these.

What's the word?

Like low, low investment, kind of, you know, buy in options.

So I have my 2 week muscle builder program which I'm about to rebrand.

And that one's just, you know, your entry level kind of opportunity to, you know, experience a little bit like a snapshot of, you know, the work that I do and the impact that it can have from there.

I have my signature program, which is Rewire the Nervous System.

And again, that's, you know, that this is all online and that's kind of like the bigger, you know, the one that most people kind of choose if they're wanting to really dive in.

And then I have my one on one kind of, you know, VIP work which is for the people who are like, you know, all in, like, let's go, let's, you know, I guess I've got, they've got this really clear vision of where they need the work to take them.

And so we can play a little bit more in, you know, individualizing it and, you know, really honing in and drilling into what they're specifically needing.

Awesome.

So your experience comes across there, right?

I've done business coaching for 20 years.

That's a very clear ascension model.

You've got the lead magnets, you've got the entry level programs.

A lot of this stuff sounds automated online, doesn't require a lot of ongoing time or energy investment from you.

You didn't talk too much about whether that, you know, they're hybrid and if there is some online program, online coaching or whatever involved.

But it's a very, very clear, progressive model.

Something that I love to ask people when it's clear like that is if you had to scrap everything except for one thing and you could only focus on that one thing and then double down on that for like the next year, what would you do?

I'd say it would be my signature, signature program, Rewire the Nervous System.

And my reason for that is that it's very scalable, it's a low enough price point that you know, it's accessible, it's a high enough Price point that I don't have to do heaps to make, you know, good scalable income.

And it's, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's got enough variety to it that I think I would, you know, I'd want to stay in the game.

I wouldn't get burnt out.

Yeah.

And it's, you know, it's one to many.

It's the kind of thing where, you know, to scale my income with that program specifically, I can, you know, just have more people come in or, you know, it's not requiring more of my time.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And that's a very strategic answer, right?

A one to many scalable program that doesn't require a lot of your time.

Part of the reason that I launched this podcast to begin with is, is I do a lot of work with martial arts school owners and everyone has blinders on thinking that the only way that they can make money is to try and put more students on the mats.

And that's a roller coaster, often a pretty stressful one.

So I'm sure they could all use your help staying calm under fire.

But the reason that I launched this to begin with is there are so many other ways to monetize any type of knowledge and specifically martial arts knowledge, you know, and it doesn't just have to be teaching classes and then what's the obvious upsell.

Right.

Private lessons.

Yeah.

And it's just like more of the same.

Your feet are on the mats and you're standing there delivering and the clock ticks over and then a new group of students or another one on one shows up.

And there are so many other leveraged ways that, that like your, your model, right?

Very, very leveraged.

And you've got higher level programs where people can buy access to you and actually access your time in a more involved way is how I've understood that.

And I find that just a lot of schools just don't really understand this kind of thing is possible.

So what, what, in the process of building this business, what were like some of the big, I mean, it's going on YouTube, but we, you know, we're all grown ups.

What were some of the big fuck ups?

Like what, what were the big mistakes that you made?

Looking back, obviously you know that you win all you learn.

So it's probably lessons and they got you to where you are now.

But at the time, what was what, what kind of what, what problems showed up?

What were the big mistakes you made that you probably would do differently if you could go back?

Yeah, I Think for me it was, you know, as I said earlier, like, I'm very variety driven.

I'm the kind of person where, like, Groundhog Day for me is.

It's my worst nightmare.

And so I've.

I've now learned how to have that be a strength.

But in the past, I've had it be the thing that sabotages me.

And so, you know, I spent a lot of years.

Excuse me, I spent a lot of years kind of bouncing around with my niche, you know, like, sort of I'd be here and then I'd get bored of them.

So I'd slightly like, redirect, you know, who I'd.

Who I was speaking to.

So I think that really slowed down my, you know, my growth and confused my audience a lot.

But I think the other thing as well was because of that kind of drive for variety, I overcomplicated a lot of things, you know, and it was.

It was this.

And it's quite funny actually, because it's largely the work that I teach.

It was really about a lot of my business to begin with was.

Was being busy for busy sake.

You know, it was being busy to show that I'm a hard worker and that, you know, it was this concept that if I just work hard enough, I'll make more money.

And I realized that, you know, I was doing.

I was trying to juggle 20 different things, and, you know, all 20 of them were only making me, like, the tiniest little bit of money, but requiring a lot from me.

And so I think the.

The real sticking point for me was when I figured out that, like, well, what if I just do one thing really well and then when I've mastered that, you know, maybe add another thing that feeds into that or that is, you know, an upsell from that, but doesn't require me to take on a whole lot more work.

So, yeah, I guess the, the complexity was.

Was really my.

My up just having.

Yeah.

So much up in the air just in the name of, you know, proving that I was willing to put in the work.

So what compared to then, like, let's say five years ago, what's.

What does your weekly schedule.

And I'm sure you're in the variety, right?

So maybe there's no.

I've got this optimized morning routine and then I do this.

That's probably not going to be the answer on like an average week, if that even exists for you, or an average month, maybe.

What's.

Like, what's your schedule like now compared to, say, five years ago?

Oh, Let me think.

To be honest, it probably hasn't changed that much.

I think, you know, maybe if I compared it to 10 years ago, 10 years ago, like I really, I just, I never knew really where I was going.

Like I always felt like 10 years ago I'd sort of wake up and be like, well, what do I do today?

You know, and it's, it sounds really silly actually to admit out loud, but it was, it was really like I didn't, I never felt like I had a strong sense of direction and I feel like I was actually very much in reaction to life know.

I didn't have a clear strategy, I didn't have clear goals, I didn't have, yeah like a, like a road map, so to speak.

Whereas now it's very much, you know, like I, I don't have, I guess a structured day to day or a structured week.

But I do have, here's what I need to get done this week and I'll fit that in, you know, wherever I can kind of thing.

So it's really having.

I know where I'm going, I know what it's going to take to get there.

I know what the steps are, you know, so, so I wake up in the morning and you know, I mean some days, some days I have a sleep in.

A lot of days I have a sleep in.

But I know that, okay, as long as I get these three things done today, I'm sweet.

And then you know, I can, I can have the day off or I can go adventuring or I can go training or whatever it may be.

But it's, it's the structure, it's the structure that actually creates the, the, the freedom and the space for the variety.

Yeah, that's awesome.

My life's pretty similar, I'd say.

And the something that I want to touch on that you mentioned there is that concept of like if I get these three things done, then I've won the day.

Right.

It took me decades to grab hold of that concept and accept it and not.

And again, this is probably coming from a dysregulated place in the past, right?

Get those three things done, win and then go, that's not enough.

I'm not enough.

I've got to keep pushing, I've got to keep hustling and you just end up in this never ending quest for productivity.

Right?

How can I get more done in less time so that I can get more done in the time that I've just saved from getting more done in less time?

And it's like all that ends up happening is you end up doing more and more and more and more and stay on that hamster wheel.

So there's a lot of wisdom in being, like knowing, let's put it in martial arts terms, right?

Like knowing when to tap.

Yeah.

If you, if you don't tap at the right time, your elbow's fucked.

Right.

Or whatever it happens to be, or you're going for a nap.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, I think there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of wisdom to that.

What, so you mentioned.

I know where I'm going, you know, I know what I'm moving towards.

What's the, what's your long term vision for your business?

Yeah, for now it's, it's scaling, you know, Like I really, my vision is that I want, I want this work to be my, my gateway to being able to travel the world, you know, and that, that's largely already, already a reality for me.

But I, I further.

So really it's, it's, it's ultimately more of the same, just across different corners of the world.

Beautiful.

Yeah, it's very fun.

I ran a coaching program for a long time where we, twice a year we'd take all of our clients somewhere in the world and I'd teach a work, you know, business focused workshop.

Here's how to run a sales webinar or here's, you know, we'd practice high ticket sales on, on zoom calls or something.

We do that for two or three days and then we'd spend two or three days doing some fun, usually jiu jitsu related activity, which was awesome.

And it's just such a great way to live your life.

Right.

And I, I see some, that we've got some people who are going to be coming on the podcast that run grappling retreats, right.

Just bringing it back to the, you know, martial arts industry here.

And that's, that's another area I think anyone could probably do that.

Anyone who runs a school and understands how to structure a class, how to run a class, you know, what's the difference between doing it say in Adelaide or on the Gold coast or I'm in Canberra and doing it in Costa Rica or Bali or Thailand.

I've done this in Thailand.

Absolutely phenomenal.

Actually.

I've attended retreats all over the world.

Right.

The classes are the same, the instructors are the same.

Or maybe you get a big name in or something like that.

Or you know, the bring you've probably traveled and done this, right?

You show up to One of these events you can attend, you train, you roll, but then you also run your session.

It's just a phenomenal kind of life.

Yeah.

And I love that once someone gets a taste of this, it, it those blinkers I was talking about before, it just kind of expands the possibilities in their world.

And I'm excited to see where you go with that.

It's pretty cool when, when you think about Jiu Jitsu and have.

Do you have other martial arts experience or is it just bjj?

Yeah, so I, I came from Muay Thai originally.

Muay Thai and like a tiny bit of wrestling and an even tinier bit of judo.

Okay, cool.

So you don't pick a fight with you.

Pretty well rounded.

Nice.

And you're a purple belt at the moment, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, me too.

Represent, Warm up.

Skippers unite.

So purple in bjj.

And you've done some other stuff.

What, what do you find, like the crossovers between Jiu Jitsu or martial arts training in general and business, or how you run your business?

Like, what are the, what are the benefits?

How does it impact your life?

How does it improve your business?

Yeah, I think that's a tough one to answer because I think there's so many crossovers, you know, and I.

One of the things I say to my clients all the time is how we do anything is how we do everything.

You know, there's no aspect of our life that's an island.

Our patterns repeat themselves in all facets of life.

But I think for me, like, to give you a more kind of honed in answer, I find a lot of the time the things that I'm challenged by in Jiu Jitsu are often the things that I'm challenged by in business and vice versa.

And sometimes you can't see them in one arena, but you can see them in the other.

And so it's interesting for me, if business has slowed or I'm going through a sticky spot or something like that within the business, often I'll go to Jiu Jitsu and I'll go, okay, let Jiu Jitsu be my access point to the answers I'm seeking in business.

And I'll have this, this kind of like, interesting experience of, you know, noticing frustrations or challenges that come up in Jiu Jitsu.

And I go, oh, there it is.

Like, I'm freezing up when, you know, I'm under pressure, or I'm freezing up when I feel like I'm stuck on the bottom or, you know, whatever it may be.

And so there's this real kind of crossover of what, again, what my stress responses are from one to the other.

And so I really, I very intentionally use the two to show me my blind spots.

Because again, how you do anything's how you do everything.

Yeah, I completely agree.

That's.

That's such a key concept in life.

Right.

And it's like you get pushed.

I don't know if you ever experienced this, but you get pushback on that sometimes from people who don't want to believe the truth of that saying.

But once you really have experienced it, it's cross contextually true.

Yeah.

I find my way of wording this would be a little bit different than what you've described.

Then I find if I'm going through a lot of stress in my business and then I go to jiu jitsu, especially if there's some hard rounds.

Right.

Get your ass kicked by a brown belt or something for a few rounds, which is.

Or a white belt, let's be real.

You go to training and just kind of, you know, some, as a saying, go, some days you're the hammer, some days you're the nail.

So you just turn up and just get absolutely smashed, you know, for half an hour.

The next day when I'm back at the computer, it's like I'm on fire again.

It's just, it's that it can be that pressure release valve that just kind of gets me out of my head and back into my body.

Yeah.

And now I don't know much about polyvagal theory and nervous system regulation, but I'm, I would assume, and just, you know, digitally smack me if I'm wrong here, that part of it is getting people out of their head and kind of back in and connecting with their body.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

This is a fun concept.

Right?

So we know bjj, white, blue, purple, brown, black.

Right.

Very clear, very simple ranking system.

If you were to take a step back and look at yourself in your business right now, and then you had to present yourself with belt, which colored belt would you be tying around your waist as a business person?

Oh, I think as a coach, black belt for sure.

Like, I think I'm phenomenal as a consultant, I would say as a entrepreneur and.

Or a business mind, probably purple.

Cool.

Why is that?

I think business isn't my natural zone of genius.

It's been the thing like the coaching and the models that I've created.

That's my zone of genius.

The business stuff is, it's enjoyable to me, but it's not the Thing, you know, it's the thing that's of value to the thing.

So I think for a long time I avoided actually really becoming, you know, quite skilled within business because I thought I could just, you know, just being good at the thing was enough, you know.

I see, I'm sure you see it as well with athletes, phenomenal jiu jitsu athlete athletes or combat sports athletes who have no idea about how to market themselves.

But they think that just being, you know, a multiple time world champion is going to be the thing that makes the money and you know, all of those sorts of things and get some sponsorships and a big following and all of those things.

Yeah.

So I just kind of, I, yeah, I let the business side of things fall behind thinking that just being a really good coach was enough.

And after many years of struggle, I realized, oh no, they go hand in hand.

So we're catching up.

Awesome.

They really do.

In an attempt to try and make this as simple as possible for grappling business owners, I took the model that I use in building and growing businesses and my wife and I have built multiple businesses.

We've sold a couple, we've done really well.

And I looked at like at the most basic level, what is required to build a successful business.

There's a few things that fall outside of this model, but I call it storm, like dojo storm, you know, and people would go and challenge another school to a fight.

Right.

It's a cool concept and it's strategy, tactics, operations or your delivery model.

Right.

Revenue or sales and marketing.

Right.

So the strategy is like, what's the overall big picture?

Where am I going?

Your vision, what are we doing there?

The tactics is within these three areas, specifically of operations, revenue and marketing.

There are a multitude of options.

Some work better than others tactically.

Which ones are we going to employ as a test for X amount of time and see how that goes?

Right.

So operations, all about your delivery model.

Like you've got your model, you would select just this one if you had to for 12 months.

Obviously you don't have to.

Right.

Revenue is how do you convert lookers into buyers.

Right.

Or trial student into paying member.

If we're talking in terms of a BJJ school, there's loads of different ways to do that as well.

Some work better than others.

Marketing, you know, how do you get eyeballs on your thing and go from like that, that pro athlete you might have talked about a moment ago, they've got the wins, but they don't, they don't have the, the profile and they don't have a way of getting more people interested.

Right.

When you think of how you've marketed your business and what's worked well and what hasn't, I understand you've said, you know, networking, you're kind of a natural connector.

You, you obviously, you're not a wallflower.

You're not just going to sit in the back of the room at a networking event or something.

I could see you walking up and introducing these people, having a, having a.

The ability to actually do that.

What other things have you tried with marketing that have either worked or just haven't worked at all?

And you've kind of scrapped.

Obviously, lead magnets, you know, doing a lot of like, yeah, value ads that get people on your, you know, marketing list, that sort of thing.

To be honest, it's difficult to answer because I haven't had a lot of what I've done has worked.

You know, like, I was kind of really lucky in the sense of like a lot of my, my marketing was through word of mouth.

I landed quite a high profile UFC client in the early days and she kind of, you know, when she sung my praise, that was like an easy kind of in.

So when it comes to working with businesses, right, whether it's any type of business, grappling business or otherwise, what are some of the things that people come to you for the most?

Like whether that's the most stressful things or the most common kind of repeating patterns that you see.

So that if someone's watching this and they're thinking, I really like what I'm hearing here, but I don't know if what I'm dealing with would be appropriate to talk to Brianna about what are like, maybe even the top three things, if you can identify those.

So someone could be listening and say, yeah, actually that's me, I should reach out and talk to you.

Yeah.

I think the main things for grappling businesses is people management.

You know, a lot of the time, like we're dealing with, you know, so many different kind of personalities on the mats and there's clashes, you know, and there's like, you're, especially now, there's, I mean, dare I say it, I'm kind of going to generalize and stereotype a little bit here, but there's a lot more women coming into grappling gyms and a lot of the time women coming into grappling gyms are coming in because I've had something happen.

And so there's trauma on the mats, you know, and there's like Male and female dynamics and all of these sorts of things.

So it becomes a lot more complex to manage.

So that would be the main one, I think.

Grappling businesses, you know, they, yeah, they come to me with like, okay, like, how do we people manage?

How do we deal with the traumas that are coming up, you know, with, with our athletes.

Yeah.

And then I think probably the other one is just, you know, like, we've.

We've got these, you know, we've got an athlete who is a phenomenal athlete, but they crumble under pressure or they freeze up or, you know, they're.

They're, yeah, a great athlete, but they have no idea how to market themselves or they tend to hide or, you know, they're great in the training room, but you put them on the competition mats and they're like a deer in the headlights.

How do we shift that?

So, yeah, they would be the main two.

That makes perfect sense that.

That point you raised about, you know, there's a lot more women getting into jiu jitsu now.

And they come for a range of reasons, but obviously having.

I've met so many women over the years through jiu jitsu, her have the exact circumstances you described.

You know, you get to know them a little.

What got you into training?

And they say, well, I had XYZ experience either two weeks ago or two years ago, whatever it happens to be.

And I decided it's time to learn, you know, how to defend myself or how to be comfortable or how to overcome the fear of this or whatever it happens to be.

And it's been very.

I personally don't have any issues with that because I've got a large clinical background.

I've been trained professionally at university and how to deal with all this kind of stuff.

Like, I'm, I'm, I'm good.

I think if everyone came with my experience, there wouldn't be any issues.

But I've seen a lot of very poorly managed incidents, I'll say, that could have been handled very, very differently from the straight up, you know, flirting on the mats or the, or the good old thanks for the role DM afterwards.

That bit of a stereotype.

Right.

I won't ask if you've ever experienced that, but it's, it's pretty common.

And seeing the way that some coaches are really great when there is a mixed class, which is most classes really before, you know, partnering people up or just allowing rolling, how they frame and present that as a, as a concept, I've seen some people just shy away from it.

And others just kind of cross their fingers and hope that no one does anything stupid for the next half an hour.

Right.

And others address it directly in a way that's like, very, very respectful and clever without making anyone uncomfortable.

Yeah.

So it's very, very interesting.

And the fact that what you do can help with that is totally awesome.

I think that's amazing.

So this is a fun question.

If everyone who runs any kind of grappling business, like in the world, and this is my goal, right.

Were listening to this podcast or watching this podcast right now, what's something that you would want to be able to tell every single one of them?

Oh, can you ask me that again?

Yeah, let me reword it slightly.

If every grappling business owner on earth watched this video, what's one.

One big takeaway that you'd like them to leave with?

Oh, that's a good question.

Okay.

It would be something along the lines of that your business and your performance.

So be that on the mats or if you're the business owner is reflective of you, like your nervous system capacity sets the scene for whether your career or your performance succeeds or fails.

And as you said, a lot of people choose to shy away from it.

And, you know, if you're suppressing in one area, it inevitably is going to have that ripple effect.

So it's very cliche.

But the challenge is the way, like the thing that it's popping up that feels like that pressure point, that's where you get to play because that's where, you know, the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

Absolutely.

Or as Yoda says, you know, named your fear must be before face it you can.

Or something along those lines.

Right?

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

And I think that's something that.

That's a message.

You know, what do they say in.

In the ted, TED Talks, an idea worth spreading.

Right.

That makes a lot of sense that it.

There's no.

There's no such thing really as a business.

Right.

It's an imaginary legal construct.

There are only people offering products and services to other people.

And because we're all humans, we're all subject to our humanity.

Absolutely amazing.

Super fun question to kind of round this off is this is probably going to stump you as well.

Some people can answer this off top of their head and others are like, I have no idea.

But if you could.

If you could.

And.

And we'll open this up because you've done some Muay Thai as well.

Right.

If you could fight or spa or roll with anyone in History, alive or dead, who would you love to go a few rounds with?

Mmm.

I think I feel like people are going to cringe at this answer, but it would have to be Conor McGregor.

And the reason I really.

My favorite people to work with are the people who have, like, a lot of.

How do I word this?

Their.

Their internal world is amplified.

So I'm a big believer that fame, recognition, success, money, you know, intimacy, all of it just amplifies who we are.

And so, you know, you look at someone like Conor McGregor, that guy, you know, he's.

He's very much been an innovator in the industry.

You know, one of the most.

Well, I think he has been the most, you know, highest paid UFC fighter in history.

Like, there's a lot of.

He's a wealthy guy, a lot of attention on him for a myriad of different reasons, good and bad.

He's just.

He's just.

Just everything about him is amplified through his.

His world and his, you know, successes and achievements.

And so I think it would be really interesting to have a role with him, to see how he moves and how he processes things, you know, because that.

That would tell me a lot about kind of the person behind all of that and, like, who he is at his core underneath it.

What I love about that answer is what you said right at the end there.

And I'm sure you've probably seen the movie Fight Club, right?

There's a line in Fight Club that inspired that question, which is when Brad Pitt's character, you know, Tyler Durden says to.

I can't remember Edward Norton's character, but he says to him, how much can you really know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?

And it's just such an interesting line, and I agree with you.

It's like, if you really.

If you want to get to know what someone's like, right, do a few rounds with them.

You'll see.

Do they crumble under pressure?

Are they cool, calm and collected?

Are they lovely to your face?

But they're, you know, grinding their fist into your trachea to try and get the tap?

Are they an asshole when it counts?

Right?

It's like.

It's that.

That old, you know, razor concept of don't look at how someone treats you.

Look at how they treat the wait staff, right, when you go out to dinner and things like that.

But this is just kind of amplified because it's, you know, combat, right?

So absolutely fascinating.

So let's have a look at, you know, if people want to get in touch with you.

Talk us through the best ways for people.

We've got it on the screen here.

But the best ways for people to kind of reach out and get in touch with you if they, if they found value here and they want to potentially explore working with you or just check it out online.

Yeah, for sure.

So you can just shoot me a message on Instagram or Facebook and then, yeah, that my, my website's there.

I have a bunch.

If we, if we add a slash links to the end of that Brianna boley.com it will take you through to a bunch of free trainings.

You can check out a little bit more about my offerings.

But yeah, Brianna Boley on any, any platform and I'm super active online.

So just reach out and shoot me a message and let me know your takeaways from this fantastic.

And if you've enjoyed this podcast and you want to, you know, follow more, you want to support us on all the different platforms.

Platforms as well.

Why not?

It's basically grappling map or grappling map pretty much Everywhere except for LinkedIn where I still like to pretend that I am a professional in some capacity.

So that's it for us today.

Thanks so much, Brianna, for your time.

I've love this conversation.

Learned a lot of interesting stuff and I think that people are really going to get a lot of benefit from this.

And if there's anything that you want to wrap up with or you know, give people one final takeaway, feel free.

Otherwise we can just virtual fist bump and we are done.

Yeah, I think I just want to hit home once again.

Like your business, your performance, it's all a reflection of you.

It's just your, your inner world being reflected in your outer world in a way that you can experience it.

So do the work, everything shifts.

Absolutely do the work.

Everything shifts.

And we're going to leave it right there.

Thank you very much.