We had the good fortune of connecting with Bruno Tank Mendes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bruno, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I believe everything in life involve risk. Any action we do has your risk. Small or big. It’s intrinsic to our life. We need to learn how read the risk. What’s risk and what’s lack of responsibilities. That’s the big difference in my opinion. I can say all my life was and is based in play with risk. To the fact to move out my home country to make a living here, to be an entrepreneur and invest and work on things and ideias people is not seeing yet. This define my life and career. I don’t fear risk, I respect it and I build my legacy around my values and work, with some risk.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Soul Fighters is a worldwide brand of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools. We also have our competition team for the sport. We mix the business and world class athletes and professors to bring our vison and services to impact on the best way possible the communities we are settled.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For sure the Dallas Arboretum and Sixth Floor museum and Reunion Tower. Hang out at Highland Park Village Eat at True food Kitchen, CRU food and wine. Also the Landon winery in Mckinney. Also em Mckinney a small and amazing restaurant called Rye.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am thankful for all experiences I had. I learn a lot on my time working with the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu federation, I learn a lot about project management and execution with them. I Always had successful people I seek mentorship as David Reed and Paul Hamme. I cant address enough all the help and also learning I have with the people working with me on daily basis. As my brother, Augusto Tanquinho and my main executives, Amir Boaron, Igor Paiva and Tony Trammell. Also Important people for our organization as Jim and Dylan Whyte, Wayne Knudsen, Anthony Mitchell. I love to read, I read at least 3-4 books a month. I have a couple of books made a impact on my life and work, as Outliers from Malcolm Gladwell, Measure what matters from John Doerr.

Website: www.highlandparkjiujitsu.com
Instagram: @brunotankbjj
Facebook: Soul Fighters Highland Park

Image Credits
ADCC picture credit is Mike Calimbas