In this week’s episode, Josh is talking to Bryony Soden who was a Finalist in the 2021 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards for Western Australia.
“I’m Bryony I am 21 years old, I live in Waikiki and I am a professional Muay Thai Fighter. I have been doing Muay Thai for a short amount of time 3.5 years and of that 2.5 years of fighting I have achieved 11 fights. I have won gold at the Nationals Muay Thai Australia in 2019, bronze in 2020 and have fought in Thailand. In this short amount of time I have made a massive name for myself in the Muay Thai scene as a up and comer in WA. During this time I volunteered for over a year teaching the kids at my gym, and in the last 6 months began as the head coach for the kids. During this time I’ve been sponsored by Victory Recovery Systems – something I’m very proud of. To fund the training, nutritionists, strength coach’s, boxing coaches, recovery, gear and travelling expenses I have worked at Woolworths whilst studying at Curtin University a Bachelors of Nutrition. To note I have done all this within the past few years having to move homes/slept on couches/questionable living circumstances and dealt with unfortunate drama – which influenced me to fail a few units and develop REDs. However as an athlete during this time I’ve learnt how to deal with this, how to balance life, I invested in a health professional to get my health back and after the first corona locked down and after my first 2 losses in a row I had a massive comeback fight. My latest 2 fights I have demonstrated how much I have learnt from life and fighting by absolutely schooling my opponents and being in the best shape of my life!
At the moment I’m 8 weeks out from my next fight where I will be taking another more experienced opponent up in weight. As well as I have taken a massive step up in my side hustles of running the social media for my gym to take on a more invested role and to grow it as it’s manager. Not only this, this morning I received amazing news that my strength gym has offered me a sponsorship.
In short, I’m very busy 21 year old that works at Woolworths, is a professional fighter, teaches kids Muay Thai, manages a Muay Thai gym, studies Nutrition at university and am a role model for other women in the Muay Thai community.”
In this episode:
- We hear about the dedication that Bryony has to her fitness, nutrition and training to compete at the highest level
- Bryony puts herself forward as a volunteer mentor and is excited to see an increase in young women coming to her gym to train as Muay Thai fighters
- We learn that after her Bachelor of Nutrition, Bryony wants to complete a Master in Dietetics to work in the fighting industry
Links
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Connect with Bryony on Facebook
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Transcript
00:00:05 Unknown :
Welcome to the inspirational Australian’s podcast where we chat to people making a difference in their communities and in the lives of others. And here is your host for today, Geoff Griffin. Welcome to the inspirational Australian’s podcast stories of inspiring achievements and community contribution. Every week we will celebrate an award program category winner or finalist. We hope you’ll be inspired and encouraged to know that Australia is in good hands, together with our corporate partners and not for profit partners, Awards Australia, showcase ordinary people from right across australia. Doing extraordinary things. If you enjoy hearing the stories of our inspirational Australians, please subscribe, rate us and review us. We really appreciate it. My guest today is achieved outstanding success in the sport of Muay Thai. I actually thought it was Muay Thai, but I’m corrected, it’s Muay Thai and it’s starting at Curtin University for a career in nutrition, in recognition of her achievements. And Bryony Soden was chosen as a finalist in the 2021 7News Young Achievers Awards for WA Surge Fitness Sports Award. It’s great to have you on board for the podcast tonight, Bryony. Welcome. Thank you. It’s really exciting to be here. I can’t wait to share about my journey and about Muay Thai in particular, and just bring more awareness to the sport. And what I do, yeah, it’s pretty exciting. I’m really passionate talk about something that maybe not a lot of people know about. This is certainly one of those things I really think and it’s pretty intense, it’s pretty full on. And as we talked before, we started the podcast. Most people know Connor McGregor in terms of Muay Thai fighting. But soon, hopefully Bryony will be a name that comes to everybody’s lips in not too distant future. As a teenager, when he was thinking about what sport you might take up, I’m gathering netball, basketball, football, cricket didn’t come to mind. What on earth took you down the path of Muya Thai fighting? All right, so Muay Thai didn’t become a part of my life at 17, but lucky enough when I was 4 to about 14, I did judo. So I’ve always had that respect for martial arts because it teaches you discipline. But unfortunately I was not able to continue on judo. And then I found myself in high school just going to the gym. I’ve always been very athletic, always been wanting to train. And it wasn’t until I finished high School. I just did a like a carnival, and I had to run laps around the oval and we had to do five laps to, to win this race. And I stopped off two because I was unfit. I had muscles, I looked strong, so I went to the gym, but I was unfit. So in my mind, I want to do something that pushes me. So I had that back in my head, and then I went and watched my brother fight. I’ve seen him fight plenty of times before because he’s always done Muay Thai. But it wasn’t, it was this particular fight that I watched. He had this crowd of people cheering for him and he knocked the guy out of the first round and a minute and forty five, I remember that number and I just sat there and I was like, I want to, I want to be like him. I want to do that and the reason why it was that fight in particular because this is the first time him fighting out of this new gym. And this gym was called, it’s my Gym Biomet now it’s called Three Lions Gym and he just was a whole different person and that that in that moment that inspired me. So that following Monday, the day after I went and trained for the first time, I drove myself there just got my license borrowed my mom’s car and I’ve tried every single day since, and it’s four and a half years later. And I’m really grateful that I did that I put myself out of my comfort zone. And when I’m trying, because of what’s happened. Far out, well, I was going to ask you how often you would need to train. You said every day, that’s intense. Yeah. So right now, as a fighter I train to two times a day, six days a week. Wow. Yeah, that’s massive. Well, my wife and I Annette, and then that of course is our podcast producer for inspirational Australian podcast. This podcast, shout out Annette. We went on a holiday weekend and decided to experience a Muay Thai fight night as part of a package and one of those two things. And well, I was really amazed how intense it is and can be pretty brutal. But you can also understand the discipline and the respect that each other has for their opponent. You’ve been competing for less than four years now or thereabouts, but you’ve already had some significant successes. Can you tell us about some of your competition results? Yeah, so after I started pretty much 10 months in I had my first fight which is very short for someone who just starts fighting. And that very next year, I hopped on the plane for my third fight I went in and fought on the Gold Coast. At the nationals and I won gold simply because like I at the time I look back now and I see how much of a natural I was. But at the time I didn’t understand how fighting worked. I just fought and like my coach knew what I was capable of. And he’s always told me that I’m going to be a champion, but that it just, everything just fell into place. And then after that, I had the nationals again a year later. And I did not win gold this time I won bronze. I actually competed against someone I burst four weeks before that. And it made me realize that different states have different rules. So the reason I lost that fight was because of the way I fought. So that’s the thing about Muay Thai, you can fight a certain style or you can fight aggressive. You can fight on the back foot. You can fight walking forward and name. And in Queensland, I prefer the aggressive strong walk forward. And I fought on the back foot and I lost because of that. I’m pretty proud of that fight because I fought for weeks ago and in terms of my, my head, I got better. I fought stronger. I fought more with more IQ. So that was a really good experience for me to be, losses don’t matter. It’s about you listening to your coach. It’s about you just doing what you’re meant to do and I did what I was meant to do, and that’s all that matters. And then I had a month later, I flew out to Thailand, effing every Muay Thai fighter, wants to go over there and fight just to get the experience. And that’s what I wanted to do. eventually i want to go over there and live there and try and fight, but this was just an experience to me. So I checked myself in there, and it was the most pivotal moment of my career so far. So just the different fighting in Australia, like in Australia, you have your coach that you have like you get six weeks training for this one, fight you get to taper off. You have your nutrition, you weight cuts. Perfect. When you walk out, you’ve got a song, you’ve got your crowd cheering you. You’ve got your, your whole team supporting you to coach telling you what to do between rounds. In Thailand, I got there on a crappy little bus, got my hands wrapped straight away, was oiled up just like by people. I didn’t even know. I walked out like you sit there next to your opponent. You look at them, find out who your opponent is on the night and then you walk out there. I walked out there standing across from this part of that. I found out who I’m fighting just 10 kilos heavier than me. That scared, scared me. My corner they spoke spanish, so all they said to me was go crazy, go crazy. Have a corner to tell me what to do, but I got in there. And so in Muay Thai, especially in Thailand they don’t count the first two rounds. They only count the fourth and the third really. So when you fight on the fourth and you go strong and you win, basically one the whole fight. So the fifth is just a player around. So when I was out there, you know, I wasn’t fighting the way I was used to because I didn’t have my teammates around, they didn’t have all that preparation. I had no clue what I was doing. I was only 18, 19 at the time. And only like that was my second professional fight out of the eight fights that have done and I found out in the fourth round, that was her, she had over one hundred fights and she was tired champion at fifty seven kilos. I fight fifty three. So I was out of my waters, but I’m so proud of myself because I used my skill and I didn’t allow her to overwhelm me and I stayed. I stayed in that fight and every single, like the why that’s a pivotal moment for me because what I take away from that fight is that it’s the mental part of this sport that’s going to take someone the top. You know, you can have all the skill size strength in this world. If you’re not mentally in it, you’re not going to, you’re not going to perform and I was not mentally in it. So I did not perform, even though I am proud of what I did. The thing that I tell myself is that I’m never going to let an opponent who’s bigger than me take away what I can do. So since then I have full up and white, my last flight was up and I absolutely dominated her really proud to say that and in eight weeks time, I’m going to take another flight up and away as well. Just so I can prove that to myself, that size doesn’t matter. And I, yeah, it’s like a challenge and there’s not much girls at my white in my state at the moment because of covid. And if I didn’t go up and look up and why I wouldn’t have a fight right now, so I’d rather take a challenge, be scared and get in there and do it, rather than playing life safe. So sorry, if you go out and fight you have to have a different strategy and how are you going to deal with that? And that’s probably keeps you edgy as well in terms of and I wonder i was thinking back, you said your first five, you weren’t experienced, you went in there. And then of course, you went to the nationals and you won gold. And your experience level was quite low, i’m sure compared to most sometimes you can overthink things in any sport, i think. And as you said, you worry, you get opponents bigger, stronger, and maybe more experienced. And you worry more about what might go wrong than what you can do so. So I something like that. So I feel like we’re tired or just fighting in general is really spiritual. And what I’ve taught, i’ve discovered is that if you just let go, if you just relax expectations even in just day to day life and trust that you’re meant to be in this position, you’re meant to be standing across from this person. You’ve done everything right? That you, you are meant to be here and like it just just trust and let go and enjoy the process. Rather than thinking things have to be a certain way than worrying that if this is not right, it’s not going well. I expected it and like fussing about, That’s what I’ve learnt to do, especially when you fight in Thailand and nothing goes, goes the way you want, you have to learn to just be ok and that’s why I love my coach. My, my coach is so chill too, he’s just let right, well you lost the first round that’s in the past now, so we just got to keep going forward. You know what I mean? You focused a lot on learning from round one. round two is tactics important? How you combat, how you deal with an opponent? Definitely. So like in especially the style thought I’m very, very clever when I fight if I lose that one. Cool. But I know every single round i’m going to get better better better because I like to see the weaknesses of my opponents. They said they’re doing the same to me, but I truly trusted my skills. I’m just going to get better each round because you’re diving yourself into deep waters, each round and you’re exploring what you’re capable of what they’re capable of. And at the end of the day, mental side of it, I know I’m capable of more so it just keeps getting like you get better and better as the rounds go. Yeah, I can say is actually a lot in what you’re talking about for life lessons isn’t there for every one of us, particularly our listeners. Today, there are a lot of life lessons you might say. Never giving up, staying in the moment, believing in yourself, constantly learning. So yeah, I think what you’re saying is applicable to everybody doesn’t matter whether it’s sport work by life in general and having said that success generally doesn’t come just by chance. I know you do try and do it every single day, which is pretty extreme, but you also create a lot of success to Three Lions Gym, was that to your original Gym? And we’ll say you’re training with David because he’s still your current trainer? Yeah, so I’ve been with Dave since day one. I’ve been with Three Lions Gym since day one. The reason why I think they are the best is my coach has been in the game for 28 years. He’s produced world champions, state champions, league champions. Yeah, most coaches can do that, but I think what makes him unique is what he brings to the table and he’s got this experience as well as a brilliant IQ. If you watch, like we have 13 year olds at our gym who have IQs at this world, and that’s just a reflection on him, he’s able to spot and see things that most people can’t. Like when I fought, when I know I have him in the corner, i just feel so safe because there’s always going to be an answer for everything. And he’s just out of this world like to be able to achieve the things he has with his son Max McMicol, his son did more since he was five, he is not 20 now and 19. Now he’s had over one hundred and twenty fights, and his dad’s been in the corner and every single one of those and the experience you take from that. He brings to us every single time we fight. And yeah, you just can see it when we fight. We’re just so so smart and that’s how you win Muay Thai, you be smart as well as have heart. Yeah, to me, it’s very intense. The training and the competition takes its toll no doubt, on your mind and your body. What’s your recovery strategy? There must be times when you do get hurt, mentally and physically from Muay Thai fights but how do you recover? So personally, there’s four pillars. So you’re going to have your stress, your sleep, and your hydration in check. And as an athlete, that’s your responsibility. You always have them in check. Great. But then you find yourself, you still like exhausted and tired sometimes or you don’t know how to to heal your body. Like I know I have really tight calves. I get really tight hips regardless if I had done everything right, as well as nutrition as well. So I’ve been really lucky for the past two years. I’ve had Victory Recovery Systems sponsor me. They. They were there to watch my first professional fight, which is my seventh, and they ee my potential and just to have them provide the equipment for free, which is very expensive. It helps so much. I don’t earn much money, I work at wWolworth’s. So that means the world to me and had the support that like another two people in this world who believe in me as much as I believe in myself means a lot. So they’re a beautiful company. They do what they do is to help everyday people who want to do combat sports and live a busy life. So I’m happy to be like a partner of their values and what they represent to. So shout out to victory recovery systems. They play an important role in your success. So given your victory recovery systems and we’re all for a shout out to our sponsor, we know only too well how tough it is to find sponsors in this current climate. Do you have any other sponsors you’d like to give a shout out to? Oh, this one’s exciting. So literally, yesterday I got a new sponsor. So Smith, Fitness their gym is in Port Kennedy, and I’ve been training at the gym for months for my strength and conditioning. I absolutely love the gym because it’s a, it’s like a athlete hub. Everyone there is welcome to do that weird wacky stuff that you can’t do in a commercial gym as well as they represent pushing yourself. Because that’s your epic. Everyone has their own version of epic and just get in there and get it done because it’s what you enjoy and to, to be around that environment like outside of Muay Thai to experience. That is absolutely motivating. And I love being part of that gym and I know that too AJ, the owner has sponsored me so I get free training and that’s a huge help in my journey. Because once again, it’s very expensive to do what I do, really grateful to have the support in that way, Fantastic! To learn and grow and be successful. We’ve got to come face to face with failure. I think. So what lessons have you learned along the journey that helped you grow? I feel like as a, as a person I’ve learned more in as being a Muay Thai fighter. So I’ve learned not to rush not to rush the process. So right now, I know that I deserve to be a WA state champion, like I know I am, but I don’t have the opportunity in front of me and I’m not going to rush it. I’m just going to take my time and do what I should be doing. And that’s what’s in front of me. So focusing on the next fight, not focusing on something that doesn’t exist yet. Just making your heart know it’s in the right place and not for the future that makes sense of being present being in the now is a really powerful thing because then you miss out on the opportunities that are in front of you. Especially in this covid climate. You can’t be upset that you fight to get it canceled the day before because of lockdown’s, you just got to keep going and that’s the stuff that’s going to produce the champion. Covid beens pretty mean to a lot of people, whether it’s business sport or general social life. It’s been very, very tough and I can understand and believe how would have had such an impact on your career. Taking the whole past year or so away from you in terms of travel and ability to, to support those that you would like to fight across the country. And now I know you’re really passionate about training, which are also really passionate role model and teacher of young people up in Coomers in Muay Thai, can you tell us a bit about how you started with kids and what’s going on now? So basically volunteered to teach my kids to learn how to teach the kids how the sun was going to leave to Thailand. And I thought, why not check myself in there and be part of the community even more. And honestly, these kids have taught me more than i’ve taught them that they’ve taught me to be confident. Like at uni, i am able to do these presentations and speak in front of crowds and I’ve come back after and I’m like thank you guys for allowing me to yell at you because I smashed my uni presentation yesterday because it used it’s also like so inspiring to see a kid walk through your doors shy, getting bullied at school, very scrawny and small to a year later that got gotten strong that they’re confident that disciplines they’re not getting bullied at school anymore and for their parents just to say thank you to me for that and those, every single kid that walks through that door says the same thing. And the reason why that happens is because what I’m doing for them is exactly what my coach does for me. Every single person that walks in our Muay Thai gym, grows and reinvents themselves. So I love it and it started as a volunteer coaching you did that quite some time and I believe your head coach of the kids now. Yeah, yeah, it’s really good for them to see a female as the leader. So I have some younger boys to help me assist, but for them to listen to a female voice. And a female leader actually is something rare. I don’t know what gym nearby has, that there’s not much female Muay Thai coaches or an all female coaches around. So I think that’s another reason why the parents like me teaching them because one, they’re learning to hear a different voice and two, they’re learning to respect women. And I’ve actually had troubles with few of kids who don’t respect women who train. But they’re changing that stigma and I have actually gotten girls trying to and it’s been four years that girls and now I have girls now. And it’s so cool to have giggling in the class as well. But yeah, and just the girls to be like, wow, mom I want to be as muscly as her when I grow up, I want to be as strong as her and it’s just like so cute to hear and I think, yeah, that means the world to me. There’s some inspiration there because you don’t actually necessarily think about that. So as an inspiration for other teenage and older young women or women to get in and coach a male predominant sports. Yeah. cause you’re 100 percent right. It’s so important to teach these boys, respect for women. That in itself is massive. When I know judge is very highly on the volunteer capacity or you take with young people kids and how important that is. In addition, of course, to absolute successes at Muay Thai and studies too, the awards are about community as well as success in a chosen field. So I think what you said about that is really, really important. Just educating and being a role model. And as you said, is such a discipline in sport such as Muay Thai. So what are your future plans for Muay Thai time and generally, I know we’ll get to your studies and your, your other career shortly. But in Muay Thai, what are your plans and goals for the future? So for Muay Thai currently it’s just to look at what the next opportunity is ahead. Because that’s the smartest way to be. But overall, like I’m 21 years old. You can be in the sport to about 35 if you, if you really want to. If you want to push it and right now I invested my strength . I invested my tuition. So I, I avoid, i’m going to try and avoid as much injuries as possible. So I want to be in here for a long time. I want to have longevity in the sport. So for me, I have my own models, role models. I look at girls who are in the Muay Thai scene right now who are competing at the top level. And I know I can be like them. I know I can be my own version of them, and I actually have my vision board in my room, the word unbeatable, because because that’s what it takes to be on the top. And that’s what it takes to be on the top for a long time. And that’s what I want to do, I want to compete at the highest level and I want to be able to do it for, for at least three or four years. And everything that will come in terms of goals in terms of belts in terms of recognition will come along with that. And knowing deep in my heart that I am capable of that and I want, I want to push myself to that point because it scares me and I love doing what scares me. So you’re certainly a passionate young lady and full of desire. I’m sure there are many ups and downs that you go through, both in Muay Thai and career and personally, how do you stay motivated to stay strong and bounce back from those low moments? Honestly, I think it’s realizing that other people are watching. I’m very out there on my social media because of that reason, like I will put a quote up or a video of me talking about something that’s so simple and something that just slides past my mind and I know it’s making an impact for someone else for example, say I’ve got no fights coming up, but I still show up at the gym every night because I’m impacting someone else’s journey. I’m helping someone else become a better version of themselves just by being there just by allowing them to have someone else who’s sharing that same passion. Yeah, just knowing that everything I do is going to be someone who’s younger than me or even in the same age can go look, I can do that to and even better. And we’re just going to keep on breaking the limits expectations at that that can be done like those things out there that I know I can achieve that haven’t been achieved before. And that excites me and motivates me as well as I’m very reflective. I’m a very reflective person, so I do journal a lot. I like to ground myself and find time to find the small things that I’m grateful for. And every single day always comes back to. I’m so grateful for my family. I’m so grateful for the community that I have, and it’s those people that are so close to you that believe in you more than you believe in yourself that I would pull you for you. So I was always thank my parents and my training partners, the people that sponsor me, it’s the people that see you for who you really are that I’m really thankful for. And I think being thankful is so important. appreciating the learning and learning that we do know that you’re a very humble person, but at the same time, very passionate, you’re very confident and you have belief in yourself. And I think all those things come together to make success. So all power to you, I know you’re going to be hugely successful and continue to grow in your successes in future years. And hopefully in the not too distant future, you’ll be able to get back to Thailand and so on again. From your training your traditional strengths such as boxing coaches, your recovery gear, and your traveling expenses. You mentioned earlier that you work with, and I just happened to also be one of our award sponsored partners of the 7News Young Achiever Awards, are you happy to give a shout out to Woolworths? Yes, I work at Woolworths Rockingham, pretty much all my customers and everyone i work with knows that I fight, I kept a secret for like three years. But then I showed up with a black eye and everyone just knows now. Yeah. And that they always allowed me to work my hours out when I train and when I have a fight. So that’s pretty, that’s very nice of them. And just like them understanding that not to bend me out because when you work in retail, you want your employees to work all the time because that’s what they do. But that they allow me to work when I want, how many hours that I want. And I really appreciate that, so I able to balance my life and earn the money that I need to survive. So I’m in good hands at Woolworths Rockingham, they are legends. And we’re very thankful to Woolworth and who is the marketing manager and a team. And I are involved in the woods because I want to give back, I want to be a part of the communities that they are involved with and are very keen to support . So what you’re saying rings true with me to share that woolworths and Surge fitness. They are a huge gym franchise, but they are very passionate about supporting young people like yourself, that’s why they sponsor 7News Young Achievers Awards as well. Well, we don’t always think about how much people have to give up an issue for success. So congratulations for that persistence that I just mentioned, your perseverance, but also get thinking the way you go about things you think think, think through very strategic about your approach to support. And I think I’ll add up to your successes. Well, in addition to Muay Thai, you’re also studying nutrition at Curtin University. You mentioned nutrition is really important to hydration, sleep and stress, stress management. So nutrition is a very important part of that. You’re at Curtin university. They happen to be one of our Community Achievement Award partners as well. So are you the perfect podcast guest to mention that a lot of people that you’re involved with that we’re involved with too. So where are you up to with your studies and where would you like to work and what type of nutrition? It’s crazy because I chose to do nutrition before I even found Muay Thai. So it’s crazy like I hadn’t had some in my last year of my bachelor’s. I want to do my masters at dietetics because I want to work with fighters, and I want to work with athletes. I already have a pool of people that want to they work with me right now. I just work with family and friends because it’s kind of illegal for me to do what I wanted to do without being qualified. So I get that experience just like for my family, but yeah, I can’t Wait. I look at people like a dietician and to be able to help fight do what I like I’m doing now. hands on experience. I know what it takes to fight under the level of stress on the body. I know what your body needs to be able to like, I feel like because I do fighting when I study the degree that I do, I always look further. So I always look into the latest written articles and research, and I always try to discuss with my kids and like, because I’m passionate at both, it’s making me more smart as a student. If that makes sense, like what I get taught at uni is nothing compared to how I have to apply it to my own nutrition and training, which is what I’ve learnt over time. So in the first lock down of code, I obviously was studying nutrition at the time, but I had no idea what I was doing and I absolutely butt myself out. I wasn’t eating enough. I developed breads which is relative energy dependence syndrome. And it’s when your body you as a female, you lose your overtrained, you lose your period and your body becomes used to eating. Not much. So I have to give my life experience and what I’m learning at uni now and putting myself out there and network to other nutritionists to learn more about the body. And I’ve seen the effects of poor nutrition on first hand on myself. So full career wise, I cannot wait to give back. Once again, I’m not rushing the process, i’m going to be patient as possible, focus on just being a student right now and not being in practice, which is what I can’t wait to do. Yeah, just the next three or four years, finish my, my masters of dietetics and just educate myself further because nutrition is a field that is constantly changing. You’re constantly learning new stuff all the time and to be honest with nutrition, most of us it’s a guessing game. Hopefully during that time field gets more research done and by the time I graduate it’s a bit more less guesswork. But yeah, it’s exciting to be part of it. I see what the experts do, and I just can’t wait to join them and be a name in that community as well as Muay Thai. Yeah, it’s exciting to know that you’re going to be very successful when anybody gets the privilege of working with you will be very, very fortunate, Indeed. Do you have any other interests or hobbies and I sound pretty flat out ready. I have already I actually have like, I love to take photos. I love to take videos. I love to post things on social media and be creative. So I’m kind of taking that altogether right now by promoting my gym. So my gym is very small, very old school. But I want to take it to that next level. I’m at uni right now, so I have the time, like on my breaks, i want to be able to bring more people to experience the magic that I experience every day. So to learn how to, I guess the entrepreneurial side of things, that’s what excites me in my spare time. So I edit edit photos, i create post. I’m trying to teach myself how to build a website. All those things that I want to do when I have my career dietetics is what I’m doing for my gym at the moment. I tell my coach, this is the beta version of what I want to do one day. So let me see what I can just for experience and we could stay the same size that we are now or we could grow. It doesn’t really matter because everyone at this gym is going to be successful, no matter what. But if I’m able to give back to my gym in terms of what I do in my spare time, with my interests and hobbies, I can. Other than that, I’m always finding a way to grind or learn more. I can’t stop learning. I love to go to the beach and listen to podcasts and learn some more while exploring. I love doing that and yeah, just getting out and it grounds you a lot. So I love doing that to makes me realize that were just a small little speck on this planet. And I like chillin sometimes too hard to believe. If I could jump in, they know him and see if other than me physically, but you’re jumping bean so passionate, so enthusiastic about. I love it, I think you could succeed in whatever you did because of your enthusiasm and passion, which is awesome. And a great thinker as well. What a great combination, passion, persistence, enthusiasm, and thinking through a great lesson for all of us in whatever it is we do is such, such a champ, literally and figuratively as well, in a different direction slightly. You made the finals of course, for the search for this Young Achiever category. How did you feel when, when you had heard that you’ve made the finalist? I feel like it, it was like such a surreal moment to be like to be surrounded by other people that are, that are like me, that is passionate and just doing things for the sake of like, I want to try this. I want to see what I can do. People who are selfless and meant a lot to me like being around that room. I want to cry right now because I was so grateful to be there. And just knowing that what I’m doing is where I’m meant to be, you know, growing up. I always questions like I should be doing this should be doing that, but you don’t compare your journey to everyone else’s. You just be grateful for it and you learn from what others can give you and just yeah, it just, it was a very peaceful moment to be part of it. Yeah, it slowed a slow me down just to take a step back and look around and see the scenery rather than being chugging forward all the time. So the energy of the room at the awards night was cool. And yeah, I love it. It’s always such a thrill for me and all of our team to witness, to experience, to meet amazing people like yourself and me also as I walk around the room to hear people say, wow, these young people are amazing to me. WA south australia, New South Wales, wherever it is, we’re in such good hands. We have so many amazing young people. And the privilege of the awards is to acknowledge people like yourself. It might not otherwise get the same opportunity at that point in time to be acknowledged for the good work you do, but also to promote what you do. So we try to promote your achievements, the successes and how hard you’ve worked for all of the young people, hundreds of farmers across the country being acknowledged and becoming role models and further exemplifying what it means to be successful, but to give back why the people like yourself, there is such a privilege. And of course, people can nominate, listeners can nominate someone who is a Community Achievement, is on right now across the country and the Young Achievement award would start again quite soon. So please head to awardsaustralia.com, ifyou can think of someone that you would like to nominate someone like Bryony, who is simply amazing, who deserves recognition because it will certainly give validation and credibility to what they’re doing and give confidence as well, which are all really important. Now Bryony, on another side note as well, what something that we might not know about you? Well, I’m not too sure I make, I guess I’m actually someone who’s very shy. Like when I walk in a room, it takes me for a while to be able to express myself. So when you do first meet me, I’m nothing like I am. When you find out about me, that makes sense. So yeah, I just, it takes me a while to feel safe in a place and yeah, I can, I can come across as shy, so I don’t want everyone to think that of a big confident bubble because I’m, because I’m not, sometimes. It’s interesting that you say it takes a while for you to feel safe in a room. I’m sure you you’re meaning mentally because I think we’d all be pretty afraid to be on the same ring with you. But it’s surprising out there how many people are the same exactly the same. I feel really uncomfortable in an environment that I don’t know with people. I don’t know. And people see me walking around the room for the awards, or as you would have experienced, giving a briefing to the farmers and sponsors before the event and so on. Probably wouldn’t believe that, but it’s a really important thing for people to understand is we must understand that people don’t necessarily think the same as us. And we need to be cautious of how we treat people that might be nervous and have had a bad day. They might have had an argument with someone or something’s happened that results in them being who they are for that moment, or having a look that they have. And we shouldn’t judge people for a moment. It can be something that we interpret that could be entirely wrong. That’s why I speak to every person, I say, I embarrass all of our team and anybody I’m with constantly because whenever I go into an elevator i always face people talk to them. Every single person ask them how they go. What are you doing today, et et cetera, embarrass the heck out of everybody. That’s not to think it’s really important to to be the best person that you can be for people. Because you never know when someone might need to start small or word of encouragement. You’ve got a lot of passion to drive and keep passions that make you tick to think. I think it was born in me and I honestly, ever since I had a camera, I used to feel myself talking about inspirational stuff and you know, the meaning of life and, and life, you meant to experience things. But I’ve always spoken about learning from others, like I find it so fascinating hearing about other people’s journey and hearing about what makes other people take it. I think to go far to go where you want to be or to to be settled where you are now. It’s to stop and listen to other people and, and embrace what makes us truly human. Because life’s not always about you. So yeah, just being able to experience life for other people, if that makes sense, is what I feel like drives me and I don’t know how that relates to fighting or whatever I do. But community defines most of it and I feel like if you have that in life, you’re unstoppable. Now that’s very inspiring words. And I think it sounds to me like you want to be inspired and you like to inspire and you thrive on both of those things. Learning and giving. Yeah, that’s very cool. Do you have any other words of wisdom that that pretty inspiring and pretty, pretty filled with wisdom, but have anything else that you feel would inspire our listeners, because you are very inspiring. So I feel like being willing to make mistakes, like looking like an idiot, just chucking yourself in the deep end. But everything in life, you have a little voice in the back of your head. That’s like, don’t do this. This is going to happen. Now it’s not just to check yourself in like get rid of all these beliefs that at you because you never know what you can take from it. Never know what you can learn, like I would never be here in this very spot. If I just didn’t have that one Muay Thai lesson, I wouldn’t be in this spot if I just just didn’t try and be willing to, to fail. Because you can achieve anything in life. The moment you realize that nothing really matters. It’s just your choices that you do at this very moment and that’s what matters. So if you fail, it’s in the past, just keep going forward or just kept going where you want to be. If that makes sense, I think I think your audience and words of wisdom come to my mind and listening to what I just said, and that is that when we pass this world, the things we do for ourself will not be remembered. Those things that we for others will be and I think that’s in line with what you are saying. You’re a very wise head on young shoulders. I just find it fascinating and really inspiring and I’m so pleased to have been able to spend time with you today. And I hope our listeners enjoy it too because you are extraordinary. And if people want to connect with you, what’s the best way to do that online? Best place to find me is Instagram. I put myself out there all the time. Very inspirational in there. So that is at bryony.soden, i’ll spell it out for the listeners. b-r-y-o-n-y dot s-o-d-e-n and if you want to go ahead and like my Facebook page as well. It’s just bryony soden-muaythai. I’ll post the same stuff, but Instagram, you got to follow me on instagram. I highly recommend you do so, to follow with Bryony’s words of wisdom and of course career. It really has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast, Bryony, you’re an absolute legend. Thank you so much for sharing some of your story with us, inspiring us today. Thank you. It’s been, it’s been cool. I hope I got across, but I wanted to get across and I hope everyone enjoys listening. And yeah, it’s just, this is going to be a little small snapshot in my journey and I can’t wait for you guys to hear back from me in the future. Keep following Bryony on Instagram mainly and also Facebook . We’re going to hear a lot more of you in the future, and we’ll be lining up at Rockingham Woolworths to get your autograph, the to find it anywhere else, but thanks so much, I hope everybody’s been inspired by Bryony story as much as I have today. And you can rate and review us. You can also see the show notes for Bryony if you want to get more information. So you can have a look if you the handles for connecting with Bryony as well. Take care of Bryony, take care everybody. And remember, together we make a difference. I hope you enjoyed today’s interview as much as I had. Did you know that Awards Australia is a family owned business that proudly makes a difference in the lives of those who make a difference for others. And we thank our corporate not for profit partners to making award programs possible. Did you know someone that’s making a difference or maybe your business might like to sponsor an award. Contact us throughout instagram page, inspirational.Australians will head to our website. awardsaustralia.com, it Would be great if you could share this site with your network because who doesn’t like a good news story, and please rate and review us. We would really love to hear your thoughts until next week, stay safe and remember, together we make a difference. Thanks for joining us today from the inspirational Australian’s podcast. We hope you enjoyed listening and have been inspired by ordinary Australians achieving extraordinary things. So it’s goodbye for another week. Remember, together we make a difference.
