ABOUT YOU FIRST

Before we dive into Nick Hughes Coaching, let’s talk about you.

If you're like most of my clients, you're successful — but not satisfied. You’re ambitious, driven, and smart enough to know that even top performers don’t go it alone. The best athletes, leaders, and entrepreneurs all have coaches — and maybe it’s time you did, too.

You might be feeling stuck, frustrated, or simply unsure how to level up — whether that means:

Achieving a bold goal
Gaining clarity on your next move
Losing weight or quitting smoking
Or breaking through whatever’s been holding you back

If you’ve been asking yourself, “Why am I not further along by now?”— you’re in the right place.

If you love personal growth, but want real results — not just more motivation — you’re in the right place.

If you’re ready to achieve your maximum potential — you’re exactly where you need to be.

ABOUT ME

Personal Development

I was first exposed to personal development in the late seventies when Jim Rohn (Tony Robbins’ coach) came to Australia.

My older brother, a sole proprietor and bricklayer, attended the seminar. Four years later, he was running a seven-figure company.

I listened to the tapes in his car while we drove around. Not much of it applied to me then because I was teaching karate and working security, but the seed had been planted.

Nick Hughes during his bodyguard years picking up a female client from her private jet standing near the door of the armored Mercedes while she descends from the plane.

I started reading personal development books (the first one was “The Magic Of Thinking Big” by David Schwarz and something clicked. Soon after I launched my own karate school and security company.

That path led me to Europe, where I joined the French Foreign Legion as a recon diver and commando to gain the credentials I needed to work for the Tier One protection agencies. That led to a career providing close protection to the world's elite, and I also wrote a best-selling book, “How To Be Your Own Bodyguard.”

The Bodyguard Years

When I began working with the rich and famous, I saw firsthand what real success could offer: the freedom to go anywhere, at any time, with anyone. The best medical care. World-class legal advice. Doors that open only for the few.

Eventually, I took a break from that world, got married, moved to the U.S., and started a small business. But after 9/11, the phone rang constantly. People wanted me back in the game, offering security services. Being newly married, I chose to stay put and return to teaching self-defense instead.

Over time, I realized that many of my students weren’t just there to learn how to fight. Some had survived sexual assault. Some had been abused as children. Others had been bullied and carried deep, confidence wounds.

I became fascinated with helping them shift, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. I began blending the mindset techniques I’d learned in the Legion’s special forces with the insights I’d absorbed from hundreds of personal development books.

That was the beginning of something bigger.

Coaching

That’s when I began training in NLP with the likes of Marcus Wynne and hypnosis and integrating exercises from karate to build internal fortitude. I blended those tools with my personal development background and started working more intentionally with students, and the results were remarkable.

At the same time, I took Jim Rohn’s wisdom — and the strategies I’d seen firsthand from the rich and famous — and applied them to my own small businesses. They thrived.

That success naturally led to clients asking me for help: how to launch, grow, and optimize their own businesses. Before long, I was advising entrepreneurs on everything from mindset to marketing — and loving every second of it.

While I was happy to use all that training as an adjunct to my self-defense instruction, I recently reached a crossroads. Do I continue teaching self-defense, which is becoming increasingly challenging due to a growing catalog of injuries accumulated over the years? Or do I take a more cerebral approach and dive fully into coaching?

I think I’m going to choose the latter.