Join us in this bonus episode as we further discuss JuJitsu, architecture, getting sponsors, body confidence and minimalism with the 3-time national gold medalist and architect Nabila Birjis!
Listen to Part 1 where we discuss On How To Be Aggressive On-Demand, Survive The Mat, Being Really Fearless and MORE on this SironaStar Special series.
About Nabila Birjis:
Nabila(29), an architect is a Jujitsu fighter hailing from the city of palaces, Namma Mysuru. She is a three-time gold winner in the National Ju-jitsu fights.
She is raised by a fiercely independent single mother in a joint family. Growing up, she enjoyed sports and adventure. She climbed the Himalayas at the age of fourteen and took a bullet ride to Gujarat at the age of twenty-two. Her love for traveling took her to as many as twelve countries.
The young-curious woman stumbled upon Jiu-jitsu at the age of twenty-five during the phase we all mutually go through “Let me get fit and stay healthy”. She began training and fell in love with the sport. Being an architect in a reputed firm, she managed to hustle her way up becoming the fighter she is today.
Nabila joined the Indian Combat Sports Academy, Bengaluru, India, to a team of fighters. She trained really hard and found herself an opportunity to compete in her first Ju-jitsu fight. Her dedication and love towards Ju-jitsu showed no agony on her face or in her career.
She fought her first national fight in 2017, and, without a doubt, she came home winning gold against an experienced grappler. Her confidence increased and she decided to compete in forthcoming fights. She quit her job to focus on full-time training in Ju-Jitsu and building her own architecture and design studio. Bio Credits: SmartStorey
Connect to Nabila Birjis:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nabila-Birjis-2127899620554508/
LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/nabila-birjis-a5672655
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sponsor, projects, minimalism, big, business, pee, jujitsu, aggression, clients, training, women, architecture, injuries, aggressive, sport, technique, listening, office, pitch, road trips
SPEAKERS
Sirona, Nabila, Puneeth
Puneeth 00:00
This is part two of the conversation. The link to Part one is in the show description. I would recommend you to listen to it first. Hey, it's Puneeth Suraana and this is the bonus series of the Galata podcast, we had this interaction in the early hours at Central pergola of the serene campus of I am Bangalore. So this is in the midst of nature, and you will hear the calling of many birds and squirrels that were creating some Galatia and of course, the Bangalore bees will get to it in a second. But first, here's a message from our presenting sponsor. Hey girl,
Sirona 00:43
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Puneeth 01:39
This is the part one off the conversation what are the stereotypes around jujitsu let's break them up for somebody who wants to get out
Nabila 01:45
your muscles up my hot hands become all that and will I have scars all over my face? Will I break my nose? These are the kind of questions I get but no I guess also like a major part about practising jujitsu is you just don't go violent and don't hurt others and yourself you know you have to have that control on your body and although you're aggressive you're doing your technique hundred per cent It doesn't mean you're violent you still yes yes so that's why the calmer You are the lesser the injuries you know you are responsible for whatever injuries you do and there are some people in my gym who are aggressive and I'm very careful with them even though I get tapped out it's fine I'm very careful I don't have an ego and I'm fine so that's why I have least amount of injury. Another thing I'd like to mention I was quite bothered about how big I am as a woman as an Indian how big and tall wide big explain your metrics.
02:50
Your back
Nabila 02:52
I'm five-seven quite huge for the standard Indian who might waist height wise and also I'm quite broad you know like women are all slender and God glass that had been bothering me for the longest time like Oh, why am I so big? Why am I not like tiny and fit into any shoes? It's very difficult for me to get a pair of the chapel also because size 4110 nine eight doesn't have my Yeah, I end up picking from the main section most of the time. So yeah, so not been very happy about that. I've always wondered why am I not like a small monkey you know, but after I've joined to do the what? How I made really it has helped me so much. And also I'm so much more positive. Yes. How did you end up appreciating your own body image afterwards? That's because I don't know if I'm blessed with the strength or the kind of body fire whatever muscle fibres or whatever it works perfectly in jujitsu. I'm able to like go neck to neck with guys.
Puneeth 04:04
Probably could be the reason that you've been training with guys. Yeah,
Nabila 04:06
maybe. Yeah. And also the size also because I'm white big makes me easier to take down big men because when the same size and same strength technique is what comes into so the better technique you have. So
Puneeth 04:23
that's the become the differential became
Nabila 04:24
the differentiating factor to have your business. How's it been humming along? Oh, it's been great. Actually, for a start. I have about five to six projects. It's some really interesting ones. I'm doing a museum in Bihar. It's for the government behind the government. It's a Science City. It's about four lakh square feet. Other than that, I'm doing some offices, some resorts and also have done some pitches for the Taj group. I hope which I'm hoping for that to happen. So yeah, I'm a business-wise I'm 100% satisfied, obviously, I'm pushing through aggressive, getting aggressive, more and more aggressive day by day. But where I am now, I'm very thankful that my business has been wonderful. One thing I love about
Puneeth 05:12
this synergy between businesses, a lot of startup business may end up putting that aggression on their employees, and the district is down in their families and the kids, but in this case of yours, I can see that aggression generated and vented out on the mat. And after that you much more common Yeah, and you're in a better place to deal with delays, setbacks, and even if for that matter, failures, yes. back to business. How big is the team give us an insight into it? I know, it's just started just humming along. Okay, so
Nabila 05:41
I have set up my form and VDM code stage, and I have about three employees plus me. So just it's been about four months, it's done up my office and started off like a fully-fledged business rather than before this, it was just about freelancing and working from home. And now I have a dedicated office space, and I'm working on projects, Pan India, so anywhere in the country actually have more projects outside than you. You like a lot of sustainable material I, I would go with minimalism. minimalism is something I try to apply in all my projects because there are so many times that we do things that are not necessary, you know, the focus should be on what is actually required than what you can do with that I help the clients focus on that on what actually is needed. For example, yeah, for example, in a bedroom. So maybe there are four things you require, but you end up doing eight things. I focus on that on cutting it down. And minimum furniture means you have more space to move around and doing minimum interiors or actually going for minimum interiors, minimal furniture minimal, it may not mean minimum cost. No, no, it may not mean that yes, that doesn't mean that at times it means more cost than Yes. But it's comfort, I think minimum things maximum comfort, but how do you sell this to customers, because you're suggesting minimalism, and somebody who's let's say building an office or a house is usually looking to like pack get as much as possible out of this. So I would say with minimalism, you always get more minimalism. What I mean by this is like, for instance, My office is also the interiors, the way of working out is also based on so have like a large table, that can be a conference table when requires to be or it could be like an office table where five of us can sit and work. So it's very much it is a multiple also because in that entire large case is only one table. So did you so much more flexibility, I would say flexibility, minimalism slash flexibility slash Multi-Purpose spaces. Obviously, the requirements come from the client, we have to cater to what they want to have, but also show them the right direction, I would say direction. So the principles I follow for direction for the right direction are minimalism like I told you multipurpose spaces, furniture, or again, low cost vernacular. So anything you do it locally is going to be so much cheaper for you. And the budget is something that most of the clients are very strict about. So we try to fit in everything that's possible, you know, within that budget and give them the best.
Puneeth 08:31
How do you handle the big firms are established firms? Because it's still again, a fight? Yeah. How do you stand upon, for example, there will be other connector firms, there will be other independent organizations or individuals who are much watching
Nabila 08:46
for a project like that. That's again, fight aggression.
08:52
Aggressive,
Puneeth 08:54
sorry, okay, so what do you do? So
Nabila 08:55
you keep, sort of, maybe try and work a little more than what you expect others to do your work harder than that show more work. Maybe that's one way to do it. But also, I don't see myself competing with the big boys, I would say, because there's only so much I can do, and I don't want to burn out doing projects for the big boys because how it works is in our industry, most of the work gets done for free. I can't afford to do it. Most of the work as in the pitch part at least nobody pays you for it, you know, like big which is you do it and whether it might get approved might not get approved the client might like it might not make it. So I am quite selective about the projects I pick up. I do not want to put my head in something. Sure. So yes. So mostly I go in for projects. I do not Go for competition projects. As of now, I haven't because it's been just a year and a half. I have a limited team. So it's hard for me to go in and pitch for the projects or competitions because you don't know if it'll come to you. Right? It's a chance you're taking. So right now I go in for clients, that initial short project. So because I've done a few projects, there are references, you can come back to me like the work I've done, like the principles or whatever the way I work, so they come back to me. So right now it's, I've been handling projects with all the known cases. Sure. References Yes.
10:45
Let's go back quickly and definitively. What has
Nabila 10:51
what have you bought from architecture, lessons, understandings, whatever, brought back, never thought that it's always boring things from jujitsu to architecture, but it's level really either way? Nothing, nothing of anything that I've taken from architecture to jujitsu because I think he would have probably analyzed techniques like structures or tool or manuals or some so much different. thing, actually, I mean, discipline is because of course, that's what I'm saying. It's for one day.
11:30
It isn't 100%.
Nabila 11:35
At least, not yet or not.
11:39
Interesting. Nobody's you don't have to do it.
11:54
Let's talk about sponsorship.
Puneeth 11:57
How hard is it? For you to get sponsorships? for the sport, or is it still being funded by you and the company are you
Nabila 12:06
running? Initially, it was quite hard, because nobody's heard of this. And so they don't want to really sponsor something of sport so small,
Puneeth 12:16
as to like, maintain a sport like this in your life. So the ladies listen to the men listening to it, get an idea of
Nabila 12:24
so my training is entirely sponsored by Indian combat sports Academy, where I trained to, I don't have to this has been really Yeah, he's been really generous to this fighting, none of us. Wow, the whole fight team. That is I think about 12 of us don't have to, we don't have to expect wherever you are listening to this. So really more like you. Yeah. So he knows how hard it is for athletes, and you're already trying to balance. So he doesn't, so he doesn't charge us anything. So that's that. And other than that, so you have your nutrition, protein powders and the right kind of nutrition, it has to be cooked then and had, then you know, that's the point you can't like to keep it for long or buy it and eat it. So it's a lot of effort. I would say more than money, obviously, there's money, but also there's loads of effort, you have to eat on time, and then you have to prepare your meals. It's the best you can't buy a meal because there's no healthy meal that you buy. So you have to prepare your meal according to your requirement. Each person has a different requirement. each athlete has a different requirement. So you prepare a meal according to that. So it's time-consuming, I would say more than costing us because your training Tobia training is sponsored but for my lifting part. So I go to another gym then I obviously that's a big thing. So cost me 20 to 30,000 yeah 20,000 And plus, as the gear it's very simple for us. We don't have shoes, nothing fancy anything at all because of no equipment. Your body Yeah, the body is you use your body. So no equipment at all. This Subash God, he should have compassion.
14:21
Compassion.
Nabila 14:25
Absolutely. And um, oh God, yeah. But injuries are something that can set you back like it can put you like five months behind what you are because once you have a major injury like a joint. Then it's like, five months, four months, you lose that and then when you come back you find it really hard to get back to form. That's it. That's it all sports. Where did you get it for a sponsor? How do you feel? Yeah, man. The first sponsor didn't even want his name to be revealed. Yeah. So I wanted to go to the UK to train. I wanted to see how it is outside. So I did. So I planned like a five-week training in London. It wasn't. So the flight tickets were sponsored by Rajesh.
Puneeth 15:27
Thank you for my exposure.
Nabila 15:31
Is his full name is Rajesh already. He's from Hyderabad. He's a builder. Yeah. And he's a friend. Sure.
Puneeth 15:45
Go ahead.
Nabila 15:48
Ah, yeah. He's my first sponsor, and he didn't even want to be able to come up. Okay, like most of the sponsors, like the commercial sponsors. I mean, that's also fine, because we're helping. Son pure has sponsored me. And yeah. competitions cost us because we have to travel. Let's see, Indonesia. All that travel cost and all of that good nutrition, that will be taken care of. By Sunday. Oh, yeah, basic expenses. And then the smart story has another company. It's a project management company. They have again, from architecture. I've met them too. Yeah. And they sponsored my last event. So your sponsor for this? How does that
Puneeth 16:46
help you just totally chill with it. He loves the way that I have conversations with people. And he just he stood up, I don't even mention him on the episode or his brand, which is fantastic. And I love that I, I said no to like three other people who want to sponsor because I didn't connect with what I was doing. But his products I totally connect with has all these women issues, based products, period panties that decrease the pain naturally, using either there is the pee buddy that I told you about. There are so many other interesting things that he's going to do with women right now. And hygiene. I love that. And that's why I'm like, Yeah, let's do this.
Nabila 17:26
Testing.
Puneeth 17:28
I like what you do. This is the only place I'm going to mention the sponsor. But how is it you actually you go to these
17:38
three new companies and individuals? Are they just Yes.
Nabila 17:43
They came to me with the award. I think one of my friends suggested My name for this award. And then they had to like check. Sure. So was Yeah, so it was introduced. But the other companies, yes, I had to. But it's okay. I just had to talk to them. They will more than happy to sponsor
Puneeth 18:05
what I was doing. I think I think that's something very important for sportspersons listening to this show. I think you just have to ask, you really have and if even if you're a startup person, you could ask, given its for orders for funding a project.
Nabila 18:24
So I'm doing what I'm doing. Because if it is, I think somebody understands a better way or it's inspiring somebody to pick up. Sort of, that's the impact it can make on people happy but I'm doing this because I totally love it. Yeah, like
18:52
this has been a
Puneeth 18:53
very refreshing conversation, because we have spoken about the concept of digital. Your life is really especially the part where I hope you get the learning of building that emotional strength, which will take you through a lot of thank you so much Nabila. And yes, the rest of you go make some