Over the past several months that I have been covering Grapplers Quest I have met a lot of grapplers, and made just as many friends. The one thing that all have in common is the passion for the game.
This passion is very contagious. It effects the fans, reporters, and the other grapplers. But when I had the oppertunity to meet and chat with Brian Cimins I found that he has the same passion that the fighters do.
The following is an interview with Grapplers CEO Brian Cimins. He sheepishly admits to being a CEO, but with all his progressive endeavor's it is clear who is running the show and trying to advance the sport to new levels....
WFR: I am talking to Brian Cimins, President and CEO of Grapplers Quest. Thank You for the interview Brian.
Brian: Your welcome
WFR: Brian I have been hearing alot of things about you... I understand you used to be a competitor and encountered a pretty severe problem?
Brian: I had a major injury back in Dec of 2000, I got slammed from a triangle choke, repeatedly, and the last slam lead to a spiking on my head, crushed two vertebrae in my back, hereniated some discs in my neck and lower back, and put me out of commishion for quite sometime.
WFR: So you were able to come back?
Brian: Yes after a long long time I rehabed. And after a long time of recovery, and physcial rehabilitation itself. And actually fought again in 2001, and 2003. The last time I was Dec 2003, two years to the day that I had been injured. And I was able to come away with the silver Medal in the World Grappling Games
WFR: After your injury? Congratulations.
Brian: Thank You. Yes after the injury and it was in the Advanced Division.
WFR: It that what prompted you top start Grapplers Quest? Because of the injury?
Brian: I was a competitior at heart. I started I think back in 1995 ... I want to say. Then in college when I started my senior strategic Marketing class, it was to build a company, that would produce a profit bearing product. Then to develope a marketing plan and everything around it. Basically a stratigic marketing project for my senior thesis in college. And that was Grapplers Quest. And I also did Public Relations.. and my public relations thesis was on Grapplers Quest as well. Basically I was doing all the work to build a company.
I had been reading in college about all these Entrepreneur's that had started these company's. I was an intrnet start-up kid, and there was a lot of people making millions with these crazy start-up venture capitol deals and dot com. I wasn't a dot com but I wanted to do something like that. You know come out of the gate running, I guess you would say, and it just really took off. And I was ready. I had all the plans built on websites, and E-Commerce, and everything was sort of off the arm. People were just doing it to get pratice for themselves, before going out into the real world, and kinda, Well like I always say Stockton College is one of the main reasons why I do Grapplers Quest.
WFR: Is there anybody you attribute your drive of motivation to?
Brian: Well I will never forget the man himself Gene Labelle. The first tournament in the world .. The first no-gi tournament in the world was hosted by Gene Labelle, and I always like to pay homage to him. You know, it was the first tournament that I fought in, I got Bronze Medal in that tournament. I fought Harouk Terazon, who fights in the UFC and Pride, the guy is amazing. He was a gold course student, so we all went up there.
I saw everybody from New Jersey and Connecticut , and the surrounding states, and really had to hmm...... sit back and think about it. Wondering why all these guys were grappling. That was right around the time I decided to do my college project. It evolved from right there. Now were running our tenth year, our tenth anniversary year so..
WFR: So basically you did what the Google students did? A college project that took off. Congratulations Brian.
Brian: Thank You
WFR: Are you happy wth you are right now with Grapplers Quest?
Brian: I Love it. I have amazing friends that help develope this sport.
It has become my identity in a certain way. I feel like I'm doing good, not only for Grapplers but also the sport. Grapplers Quest is my career, so it obviously my.. theres no discounting it, I do make a living off it, and I have to.
But if people just stop there, then there's a certain selfishness, and if thats all your doing then, just making money off people, then I dont think its worth just that. I think people respect the long term ...... approach to the business.
This year were giving out, I mean next year were giving out Forty Thousand Dollars in cash prizes. We are trying to help people. These Brown belts, Black belts and Purple belts, people who are fighting in super fight divisions, they may be instructors. And were are trying to make it a supplemental income for these people.
Because running a Jiu-Jitsu academy wont make you rich, you know what I mean? At all, and you have to teach a class , and train yourself. Now theres a reason for them to train theirselves, on top of everything else.
WFR: Do you think you have a good rapport with the Grapplers?
Brian: We have real relationships with people, it's not just money, it's real life. Most of the people who fight for me I'm pretty close with. But obviously some people come out for just the money, and we treat them well. We treat them all the same, and try to generate those relationships.
We are also this year getting with Leverage dot TV is our newest sponser, who is putting up the Fourty-Thousand Dollars in sponsership plus then some. They will be giving out at the end of the year for Grapplings Ratings dot com, the rating system that were part of. They will be giving all the Champions, the kids get an award the top three I believe will be getting a Savings Bond towards college.
WFR: Grapplers Ratings dot com thats what works into rating your fighters? Your Grapplers Ratings for Grapplers Quest?
Brian: Grappling Ratings dot com. It's rated, thats called rated. And that is basically the official ratings system of the sport of Grappling. All the major tournaments are involved in it, the World Grappling Games, the Gracie Tournaments, and a lot of the major tournaments through out the nation, not just ours!
This differentiate's us from a lot of other organizations who are trying to build their own .. uhh.. self-proprietary, a system of you know, rate their own competitor's, which I don't agree with.
WFR: This year for the first time, you hosted Abu Dhabi. Correct?
Brian: Yes this is the first year I co-promoted Abu Dhabi. They wanted to bring it to America, and they want to hire a person who had the strongest grasp on the American grappling scene.
WFR: Which would be you!
Brian: Well ummmm hah I, well
WFR: You may not have strived for that, but you seem to have been thrust into it!
Brian: Well they wanted to have somebody who had respect in the community, there is you know , ahh people who like to boycott things all the time you know, and its weird. They just do it, to do it. They do it because of political reasons, they do it because of what ever reasons they want.
We did it pretty strong, we helped it out alot. I was walking around and almost every single person, I mean there was about two thousand people there. And I knew almost every single person there, or had seen them before at our tournaments and that made me feel good, that we were a part of something.
We made it one of the biggest tournaments ever. I still recall that we hosted Gracie vs Lamona, our tournaments still had more spectators though. Thats one exciting feat that I'm stuck on now. We had thirty-two hundred people there. It was a nice day.
WFR: Now that you have the experience of a tournament like Abu Dhabi, have you thought about taking Grapplers International?
Brian: Grapplers Quest I believe right now, for the next year Grapplers Quest will stay right here in America. And what we are going to do is.. I'm going to start traveling Internationally. I have a connection in Japan, and I have a movie connection in England, and I have many connections in Brazil. And we are going to develope the World Grapplers Quest League. We will go out and shoot a closed door event, or free to spectate, I havent figured that out yet, but I'd rather have a crowd there because it makes it more exciting. And then build the national teams for that country.
Once we do that then we will bring it all together in the World Championships at the end of the year, and have a team battle, which will be a pro tournament in the United States.
WFR: In what state do you think the sport of grappling will in the future?
Brian: Wrestling and grappling has been around for hundreds, and thousands of years. It can be traced back to the Greeks. So say 50yrs 30yrs, or 20yrs from now, hopefully when I'm getting a little bit older I'll be 50 years old. By the time I'm fifty I'm really hoping that this major sport. But I hope it happens quicker than that. There are company's like Leverage and Biz the laundry detergent company, they both put up money for the sport and these are big companies with a passion for it. They aren't looking for the quick buck, they dont need to come and sell their laundry detergent, or just say buy it, you know? For five extra dollars you can ..... You Know what I mean? They dont push there product. They just want to be associated with this grass roots marketing, which I believe is one of the strongest forms. That how I built my company. I never paid for advertising in my entire life, and thats astounding to me. But I have put a lot of effort in, and done a lot of trade deals. But our biggest thing right now, that was tough is only having one every other month, it's tough, but then it would be too tough to have an event every month. Financially speaking and time wise, for everybody, including the athletes and my volunteers. Volunteers are hard to come by and they are great people, the ones who do help.
WFR: So with the state of Grapplers right now, where do feel you stand, looking back? Are you further ahead than you thought?
Brian: Absoulutely. This year was a break out year
WFR: Could it be your passion for the sport that is your biggest asset? Because I have found that the passion for the sport by all is the biggest difference compared to other events, like Karate?
Brian: I hope so. I project that I am always walking around, and listen things happen all the time you know. And your attitude, the attitude that I reflect is very important. And I think that the positive vibe that I try to project, I try to project that organization wide, paying referee's, trying to keep them happy, because they have a very tough job, which spills over to the competitors directly. My front end people, that help me out they are positive people, and if there's a problem we give the people the benefit of doubt. Its all together you know, theres air conditioning these little tiny things, having food, good food these little tiny details. People go Awh man Im thirsty, and I dont have any water, man you mean I cant get a water? They would buy it if it was five dollars, but if you dont have it, you cant sell it for that! I have said, and I never pictured myself as a CEO. I look at it like Smith Corona the word processers? Remember them? They could have been the biggest company in the world if they had a CEO with vision and direction, and they just missed the ball. Companies like Dell and Hewlett Packard ran away with the CPU market.
WFR: You mean like Hewlett Packard?
Brian: Exactlly! thats what I kinda trying to do.Present that, for the first time in my life, this year I'm trying to build that corporate culture inside. i want to create a positive tournament enviroment for everybody
WFR: So in college you learn to structure and run a business, as well Public Relation. But the promotion aspect of you sport is sort of uncharted waters.
In boxing its always the same few fighters. In Karate they are taking care of by the individual associations.
Who has been your biggest influence in running your tournaments. I have been to a few tournaments that have had a lot of problems. What or who has been you biggest help?
Brian: Truthfully I listen to the people that work for me, my referee's included. I probably have seen more matchs than anyone on the planet. Im always watching and reviewing tournaments, and running my own.
This is my 67th Tournament, today. Yesterday was my 66th. So you learn from experience, you learn from problems. If someone comes to me ans says they have a problem, I never let anyone leave the tournament thats sad. I will walk outside to their car, and try to make them happy. I'm very customer orientated, and that I did learn in college. People come here and alot of times what happens is if someone feels ripped off, then what I will do is pass their registration to thye next event. I'll give him some free shirts ad a couple dvds. I wnat everybody to be happy, because Im here for the long term, and business wise... Dale Carnegy, Ted Kennedy, you these famous writers. Lloyd Irvin has helped me alot, Mr. Yamasaki has helped me alot, John Simmons from Team Odyssy, these are people who are helping me learn. This is a learning experience
WFR: What about the prospect of Grapplers turning into lets say a Nascar like event. Where you have other tournaments joining the Grapplers Quest , lets call it circuit. Where others would try to incorporate with you?
Brian: Rated and Grapplers are interconnected, we seem to be the marque event, but we do share competitors with other events. But right now no joke! There are about one hundred competitors that tour around the country to our events.I like to think of every event as a qualifier for the Olympics, and at the end of the year, were hosting the Olympics.
I love grappling, and thats what i like to think of it as. And to say in a tribute that when Abu Dhabi came to Americaand did the North American trials, 27 of the 40 competitors were Grapplers Quest Champions. Then think that they are fighting for fifty, sixty thousand dollars and thats big bucks. And thats an honor.
WFR: The Kids. They are always great.They are so emotional and sometimes puddle up. This causes other to get emotional and crazy. Lets say like coachs. What can you do when they get out of control? Have you ever had to eject a coach?
Brian: I can say without feeling overconfident saying this, that I'm an expert in deescalating a hot situation. I think it's not only because I know how to talk to people, but I know, I really want to hear their side, and feel their anguish, and I really try to respect it and understand it. I never want anybody to leave upset. If they are then they can run right out onto the internet and bash Grapplers Quest. We will always have detractors, you will always people who are against it, because of preconceptions. I try to stay in the white uniform, and keep everybody calm, and unbiased, and try to be as fair as possible.
WFR: Thank You for your time Brian and good luck in the future.
Brian: Thank You Levi
I would like to Thank Brian Cimins for his time and maybe in a future interview I can ask some of the concerns that you folks have expressed. But irregardless it seems as if Brian is heading Grapplers in the right direction. And I also think he has BJJ heading the right direction, that could take this sport to the Olympics.
Without wide spread concern this will never become an Olympic event. But the plan Grapplers has to bring Country Teams onboard will only increase the fan base of BJJ through out the world and that is nothing but an upside for the sport.
With the regular events provided by Grapplers it can only help the sport, the Fans and above all the Athlete's who get the most enjoyment. Where else can you go to try to compete against another school on such a large scale for compared to some other tournaments, a very reasonably price.
It also gives the more serious athlete the avenue to hone and advance his talent as far as it will take him or her..
I think we all owe Brian Cimins CEO and Founder of Grapplers Quest a rousing round of applause for putting on a show that always have drama, fairplay, and tons of emotion.
