This week we meet Nattie Boss, a brown belt in both jiujitsu and judo and an accomplished competitor out of Philadelphia. She runs her own business, Body by Boss designed to help female jiujitsu athletes succeed.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where do you live, where do you train, how long have you been training?
My name is Natalie, but I go by Nattie Boss and have since high school. Fun fact: I gave myself that nickname as a way to “plant the seed” to manifest my desires of “becoming my own boss” by owning my own business and being completely self-employed 🙂
I was born, raised, and currently live in Philadelphia but planning on moving in the next year or so. I’m a lifelong athlete and martial artist and have been training jiujitsu since 2010 under the same academy: Ribeiro JiuJitsu Philly. I am a brown belt in both judo and BJJ and am an avid competitor.
I’m a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Sports Performance Coach, who specializes in working with female jiujitsu athletes. I own BodyByBoss, LLC and have coached hundreds of women in my performance lifestyle coaching program, The Performance Blueprint, since 2018. I am also a Breathwork facilitator and use breathwork to help athletes improve their mental and physical performance, heal from trauma, and improve their relationship to food.
How did you get into jiujitsu? What did you want to get out of it in the beginning, and what do you want to get out of it now?
I got into jiujitsu by accident, actually. I was a competitive taekwondo athlete, but was looking to add different disciplines to my training. I was initially interested in capoeira, but the academy no longer taught capoeira and encouraged me to try jiujijtsu. I was hooked from my first intro lesson and haven’t stopped since 🙂
In the beginning, I was excited to be a white belt again. At that point I had been an experienced martial artist, was teaching a lot, and felt I needed another challenge. I loved how humbling jiujitsu was — I was getting submitted every class and was in complete awe as to how that was even possible, since I was a life-long athlete afterall. I started competing 3 months into starting BJJ and have been a consistent competitor ever since. Now, being a brown belt, my goals for jiujitsu are still to become a world champion, but I’m not forcing it or putting pressure on myself to do so (which I did a lot in my lower ranking years). My main focus is to constantly evolve my game and have fun. It’s SO important to me that I have fun in every class or I know I am missing the point.
Fear of failure drove so much of my actions in the beginning of this journey (because I am a highly competitive person), but over the years I have toned that down and started redirecting my focus for training and competing. Now, I use jiujitsu as a vessel to become the best version of me mind, body and spirit.
Tell me about what you’ve accomplished in jiujitsu.
I’ve had lots of wins and losses over the years, but my favorite accomplishments were winning the F2W flyweight purple belt title in 2019 and taking gold in a local female-only tournament, where I fought for 90 minutes straight in my finals match. In that match there were so many moments where I wanted to give up, but my resilience and indomitable will ultimately won that day. That match taught me a lot about myself.
How has jiujitsu changed your life?
Jiujitsu has helped me in more ways than I can write, but I will try my best to list the most important ways. For starters, BJJ helped me overcome my perfectionism and fear of failure. I actually never realized how sore a loser I was until jiu jitsu. My ego has been beaten down by bjj time and time again and I am forever grateful. I have learned to pivot and use failure as opportunity and a vehicle for growth. The art of Jiu Jitsu has been an analogy for my life in learning how to flow with energy and life instead of resisting and forcing what is. Jiu jitsu has also helped me strengthen my relationship to my body and to food and has helped me channel my knowledge into a lucrative business that has helped hundreds of female athletes optimize their performance, health and well-being. The most important thing jiu jitsu has brought to me is my amazing husband, coach and father to my baby boy. Jiu Jitsu has led me back to my internal roots and has helped me become the most connected and empowered version of myself. I literally would have nothing without jiu jitsu.
How have you used jiujitsu to change other peoples lives?
I have hosted seminars, workshops and livestreams to share my knowledge in sports performance with women in jiujitsu. I have personally coached hundreds of women in my performance lifestyle coaching program, The Performance Blueprint, since 2018. The root of this program (and my company Body by boss, LLC) is to encourage a holistic approach to healing and optimizing your physical and mental performance using the approaches that I have both learned from experience and that are backed by evidence-based research. The Performance Blueprint is an 8-week immersive lifestyle transformation program that addresses various elements: nutrition, training, self-care, mindset, sleep and recovery. Through this program alone, women have become IBJJF champions, lost sustainable weight, built lean muscle, reduced injuries/pain/soreness, implemented regular recovery routines, learned how to fuel their body without restricting, overcome binge/stress eating, healed past emotional traumas, and literally so much more. I am so proud of the work my team and I do and although we’ve only been in business since 2018, we are just getting started in regard to the impact we are planning to make in this industry. If any female athletes are interested in seeing what the program is about, feel free to email me at nattiebosswellness@gmail.com, complete an application at www.bodybyboss.com or DM on instagram at @nattiebossrd.
If you had one piece of advice to give women in jiujitsu or those wanting to start, what would it be?
Being a coach and mentor to hundreds of women, I give a lot of advice often. But honestly, one of the most important things I could ever say is to learn how to trust yourself. Developing self-trust is so incredibly important for your happiness, health and performance. So much of our behaviors and actions are driven by fear and lack of self-trust and this sends us down a spiral of over-training, self-deprecation, and limiting our performance potential. Self- trust is only developed from within, which is why learning how to deepen the connection to yourself is critical in your success as an athlete. For those interested in starting BJJ, your advice? JUST START. I believe there are no accidents in life. If jiujitsu was brought into your life somehow, someway, it is a sign that you need to embark on that path. Jiujitsu will teach you more about yourself than anything else in the world – I truly believe that. Take action and allow your journey to unfold the way its supposed to.
Find Nattie online:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BodybyBoss
Facebook Group: Women’s Grappling Society
Instagram: @nattiebossrd
Website: www.BodybyBoss.com
Contact us at: contact@womenwhoroll.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WomenWhoRoll
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WomenWhoRollBJJ
Instagram: @WomenWhoRollBJJ