From then to now.
1st November 2024
In the cold, bleary-eyed moments before my 6:45 a.m. class at London Grapple, I spoke with a gentleman named Zade. He runs several successful businesses, the latest being a gym called The Yard, in Peckham. Most of our discussion revolved around marketing and starting a business, but one point stood out: he wished he had kept a document from when he began. A log of decisions, suppliers, successes, failures—a record of the idea as it grew and evolved.
So here is mine.
The concept of Balance Grappling—and Balance as a brand—has gone through many iterations. When I was 16 or 17, I noticed that meaningful conversations among men, beyond casual pub talk about football, were rare. I found this tragic and envisioned a forum where men could discuss vulnerable topics. My execution, however, was poor. Hosting such discussions in a pub—a setting ill-suited for vulnerable conversation among late-teen to early-20s males—was misguided. I also lacked a marketing plan or resources. I didn’t yet realize that I was essentially imagining a therapy group, akin to an AA meeting.
Still, this was the start of the Balance brand.
The idea of “balance” lingered in my mind until the COVID pandemic. During the lockdowns, like many others, I decided to start a podcast. It was an extension of my teenage idea but broadened to include all types of human conversation. Grappling, my obsession for years, was a natural starting point. Conversations began with grapplers but eventually included politicians, history professors, authors, IT professionals, and charity workers. The podcast was called “All About Balance.”
This was my first experience creating, managing, and marketing content.
It introduced me to video editing, designing digital content of many shapes, sizes and mediums, and using Instagram and Facebook as tools for outreach rather than personal use. I began to think of content as its own entity:
When is the best time to post?
Do clips boost engagement to your base product?
Is there an optimal day to post?
Does my audience expect a consistent schedule?
What do analytics reveal about my audience and content?
Could my brand image better reflect my ideas? If so, how do I create it?
What is my brand?
I hired a graphic designer on Fiverr for logos and YouTube banners, invested in better quality equipment, and explored the technical details of good sound and video. By the 100th episode, the channel included an MMA segment with friends. I had upgraded microphones twice, developed editing and scheduling systems, and learned to clip and post on social media. Each episode required an extra 2–4 hours of post-production, not counting the time to secure and schedule guests. My processes were likely inefficient, and I felt the essence of the podcast slipping away as I became consumed by its administration.
As things naturally do, the podcast began to wind down. Around this time, I was offered a position with Severe MMA, a media outlet, and the All About Balance podcast ended.
The brand, however, remained in my mind, though I wasn’t yet sure how I wanted to present it.
I worked with Severe MMA for about 2.5 years before a mix of overcommitment and changing feelings toward the sport led me to step back. My time was increasingly consumed by my investment in grappling and my goal of becoming a coach and gym owner. Building a substantial personal brand—a key step in that journey—required time and effort. It was obvious something had to give. While I still contribute to Severe MMA, my involvement is now limited to the “Speakers Corner” podcast, which Sean Sheehan and I created and now release monthly or bi-monthly.
I’m deeply grateful to Severe MMA, Sean, and Graeme for giving me an inside view of a well-established brand. They provided a platform to sharpen my podcasting and presentation skills and to explore a sport I loved. From that experience, I learned how much work it takes to build and maintain a household name.
With the time I reallocated, I threw myself fully into the first phase of my journey to becoming a coach—the phase you find me in now. My plan is to grow the Balance Grappling brand as much as possible with the resources I have until I can establish a brick-and-mortar gym to coach from.
I wanted to be sponsored, but then I thought, fuck it why not sponsor myself?
I bought a Canva subscription and started designing the first run of rash guards and shorts, now live in the shop. Adobe Illustrator was too expensive, and entering the “fashion” world felt daunting. Having used Canva during my time with Severe MMA, I decided it was a good starting point.
Designing was no small task. I’m not naturally a creative person, just someone with a burning idea I wanted to bring to life. My wife became a key part of the process, balancing creativity with critique. After ideas survived her review, they went to two loyal friends (thank you, Euan and Hasan) for their opinions. I learned two valuable lessons from this process: you achieve the best results by seeking input from others, but ultimately, you must trust your gut.
Next came the challenge of finding a manufacturer. (You can read more about that process here.) I eventually found one I trusted on Alibaba.
I thought carefully about how to present the brand. I had meaningful conversations with smart people in marketing (thank you, Carl and Sean) and confided in a mentor traveling a similar path (thank you, Aidan). I’ve written a longer post about my initial marketing ideas and the meaning behind the brand here.
To create the advert for the first run of kit—the one you see on the home page—I enlisted two skilled friends (thank you, Hasan and Clara). Together, we designed, white boarded, storyboarded, and had deep discussions. Months of work went into designing an advert that was shot in just a few sessions.
During these discussions, it became obvious that an expansion into leisurewear was needed. It was something I had envisioned as an eventuality but during those discussions it became apparent that it didn’t make sense for the advert to feature scenes where people wore rash guards or shorts that didn’t match the setting. So, I started designing leisurewear.
One of the guiding principles that defines the brand really emerged during this phase: technical excellence. After browsing hundreds of websites for blank apparel, I found Stanley/Stella, a company that combines high-quality products with ethical manufacturing. Their vision aligned neatly with mine. The next task was to sift through the UK distributors, and find one that I wished to work with. I connected with Fifth Column in London, who were instrumental in creating a sample run for the advert.
As of now, I’m finalizing details on the shorts before the first bulk order is manufactured and delivered to the UK. Its important to me that everything that leaves the doors of Balance Grappling meets the standards of the brand. It is important that when our customers spend their hard earned money here, they get something that brings them joy.
When all of that is settled, then, FINALLY the process of launching the brand can begin.
Balance Grappling will always be multifaceted. At its core, it’s about showing the merging of life and grappling—through the products we sell, the experiences we provide, the events we host, and, eventually, the coaching we’ll offer in a gym.