Pain to Power, 7 Day Reset
PDF course + workbook · $49
Seven days, one small task a day. Name your alligator, chop it up, build a self talk regimen, and leave with a play by play book. 41 pages, instant download, 30 day refund.
See the courseMost people put on a raincoat when it's raining. I'll teach you to run in the storm.
I'm Nik Hawks, stress inoculation master consultant. I make a safe place feel like trench warfare, then bring you back before lunch. I've spent thirty years working in applied stress, and my goal is to help you become better at preparing for and managing it, wherever you find it.
- Navy
- SEAL, Navy Pentathlon athlete. BUD/S instructor. I made the open water test harder and raised the pass rate about 20% at the same time.
- Red Bull
- Invited to speak at the High Performance Center in 2016. That turned into years of stress inoculation camps for their surfers, skiers, skaters, sky divers and fencers.
- Everyone else
- Eight year olds at summer camp, D1 soccer players, run club buddies in their late 50s. The principles are simple. Applying them takes experience.
Work with me
Give me a few people, a couple of buckets, some tennis balls and a willingness to learn, and in four hours I can teach you more about managing yourself than most people ever learn.
Three ways in. One to one is pay and book, today. Teams and stages start with a short assessment so I know what I'm walking into.
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One to one
60 minutes · Google Meet · $1,000
Bring the thing that's beating you. We map it, pick the tools, and you leave with drills to run this week. Pay up front, pick an open slot, homework arrives before we meet.
Book a session -
Teams and trainers
Half day to a season · In person or remote · Scoped per group
Six to twenty people is the sweet spot. I run your athletes or staff through applied stress, then teach the coaches how to weave it into the practices they already run.
Start with the assessment -
Keynotes and workshops
45 to 90 minutes · Conferences, teams, camps · Scoped per event
Not a talk about grit. Your room does the drills. Then we name what just happened and how to train it on purpose.
Tell me about the event
Press and podcasts
Short version: Nik Hawks is a former Navy SEAL and BUD/S instructor who built stress inoculation camps for Red Bull's High Performance athletes. He teaches people to perform under pressure using measured doses of stress, progressively harder, with very little physical risk.
I joined the Navy at 17, became a SEAL, deployed once and got out. Then I went off adventuring, seeking more experience. I sailed a 22 foot boat from San Diego through the Panama Canal to Florida, paddled a 12 foot board across the Catalina Channel, took three tries to finish the Leadville 100, and flew paragliders until I'd crashed enough to stop.
In 2007 I went back to the Navy as an instructor. That's where I learned to use stress to both break and build people. In 2016 Red Bull asked me to speak at their High Performance Center, which turned into years of camps with their world class athletes. Along the way I started a few businesses. Most failed, and going bankrupt taught me more about stress than any instructor ever did.
I live in San Diego and run Gristle King Inc. In 2026 I started sharing this work on Instagram as @nikhawks and it moved faster than I expected.
Not ready for one to one? Start here.
Free
- The Drill Sheet five drills, one page
- The Attack List one sheet for the day you're dreading
- 4-4 for 4 box breathing timer
- Self talk track press play, pocket the phone
What people say
public comments on IG
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“10 hours in. Found many alligators. this technique is working for me. Thanks”
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“I listened to this so many times. I took this: you don’t control the storm. You control how you stand in it. Powerful.”
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“The way he breaks ‘overwhelming stress’ down into one small, visible action is powerful.”
Measured doses. Progressively harder.
Rock 'n roll.