A Gristle King product
Real World Stress Inoculation
Most 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.
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.
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 sessionHalf 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 assessment45 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 eventShort 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.
Live daily · Nov 16 to Dec 16 · waitlist
First in the Master Thyself series. Master holiday stress with live weekday sessions at 6am Pacific. Waitlist gets first access and the $199 founding price. Regular $299.
Join the waitlistPDF 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 coursepublic comments on IG
“10 hours in. Found many alligators. this technique is working for me. Thanks”
“I listened to this so many times. I took this: you don’t control the storm. You control how you stand in it. Powerful.”
“The way he breaks ‘overwhelming stress’ down into one small, visible action is powerful.”
Measured doses. Progressively harder.
Rock 'n roll.