Bruno Nicoletti, MMA fighter and CEO of Hummingbird, chatted with #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos about his latest endeavors.
Muhammad Ali once said: “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.” This quote applies to Bruno Nicoletti.
A CEO, entrepreneur, husband, father, and record-breaking MMA fighter, he has built his career around ambition, discipline, and the willingness to pursue dreams that may seem impossible to others. Yet, despite everything he has accomplished, Bruno believes his journey is only getting started. He was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but resides in Colorado.
“It feels good,” Bruno said when reflecting on becoming a record-breaking MMA fighter. “It’s kind of a new world for me.”
For Bruno, MMA is not a completely new pursuit. Training has been part of his life for as long as he can remember. “I’ve been just training for this literally my whole life. I never really stopped training,” he said.
At the same time, Bruno has established himself as an entrepreneur and CEO of Hummingbird. Building his company has allowed him to surround himself with a strong team and create more freedom in his day-to-day life. That freedom has given him an opportunity to pursue another lifelong passion.
“I’m following my dream in a sense,” Bruno explained, reflecting on his decision to see how far he can take his MMA abilities.
His ambitions are deeply connected to his faith. Bruno believes the skills people are given are gifts and that part of life’s purpose is discovering how those gifts can be used.
“I feel like we’re all kind of anointed in some way,” he said. “We’ve all been given natural gifts.”
For Bruno, the goal is to discover why those gifts were given and ultimately share them with the world. “So it’s been fun. It’s been a blast,” he said.
Finding balance in the digital age
Like many entrepreneurs and athletes, Bruno has embraced the digital age, but he is also aware of its potential distractions. “I feel like it could be helpful, but it could also be distracting,” he said.
Although he maintains an active social media presence, Bruno isn’t someone who spends hours scrolling through his phone. His approach is much more straightforward: post, connect, and move on. “I’ll jump on Instagram, I’ll post, and then I’m off,” he admitted.
Professionally, however, social media has become an important tool. Bruno said his business runs on LinkedIn, which he considers a major connector and a place where he has developed meaningful friendships.
For him, technology is most valuable when it creates genuine connections rather than becoming a distraction.
Family comes first
Balancing entrepreneurship, MMA, marriage, and fatherhood requires plenty of support, and Bruno is quick to credit his wife.
“She does so much,” he said. “She kind of supports me in my crazy dreams.”
Bruno knows that his ambitions can sometimes sound extreme. When he first got into MMA, he wasn’t thinking about simply competing, but he immediately wanted to reach the highest level. “I want to be UFC champ,” he recalled thinking. “I want to do it at the highest level.”
That kind of ambition can be difficult for others to understand, but Bruno’s wife has continued to believe in him while helping with their family.
Bruno also recognizes something about himself: he performs best when he is busy. “I just operate better when my plate is full and I’m going from one thing to the next,” he said.
Rather than seeing a packed schedule as overwhelming, he sees it as something that keeps him focused and moving forward.
When it comes to his children, Bruno is equally intentional. He wants them to see that it is possible to pursue multiple passions while still being present for the people who matter most.
“The biggest thing is just showing my kids that they can do big things,” he said. “You can juggle it all.”
That includes being a CEO, an athlete, a father to three children, and a husband.
Bruno is ‘Getting Wise’
If Bruno had to give his current chapter a title, he would call it “Getting Wise.”
The idea of the “Sophomore Chapter” also resonated with him, particularly because he feels as though he knows enough to move in the right direction while recognizing just how much he still has to learn. “I feel like I know enough to go in the right direction, but I don’t know much,” he said.
Now entering his 30s, Bruno sees the decade as a period of greater perspective. In his 20s, he reflected, you can feel like you know everything, only to realize later that you know very little. The 30s bring a different kind of awareness.
“I feel like I’m getting the hang of this,” he said. “Yet I still know nothing.”
That humility seems to be an important part of how Bruno approaches both his career and his life.
Taking the Leap of Faith
One of the most defining moments in Bruno’s professional journey came before Hummingbird.
He had been a financial advisor and reached the Million Dollar Round Table, placing him among the top 2% in the world for financial planning. By conventional standards, he was succeeding, but Bruno Bruno wanted something different.
When he decided to build Hummingbird, many people around him questioned the decision. “I think everybody thought I was crazy when I wanted to start this company,” he recalled.
Leaving behind something that was already working, and making money, was a significant leap of faith.
The decision ultimately gave Bruno something even more valuable than the success of the company: confidence in himself.
“The fact that it’s worked out, it’s just given me more confidence in just my intuition,” he said.
The experience also taught him to trust his own judgment. “I’ve learned to trust myself more and trust the opinions of others less,” Bruno said.
Looking in the Rearview Mirror
When Bruno looks back over the past five years, he doesn’t simply see professional accomplishments. He sees personal growth.
He is now a father and husband, while also growing deeper in his faith. “I’ve been able to be a lot more present and just kind of understand my relationship with God and everything that he’s doing for me,” he said.
That relationship has changed the way he views himself. Bruno explained that he once felt as though he needed to be worthy of blessings. Through his faith, he came to understand that he was already worthy.
That realization has also affected his approach to athletics. “It’s just like so freeing and liberating,” he said.
Rather than feeling that everything rests solely on his shoulders, Bruno has found freedom in giving glory to God and allowing himself to enjoy the process. “Before, I used to just try to do things on my own,” he said.
While he acknowledges that he was capable of accomplishing a lot independently, he believes his relationship with God has opened the door to something much greater. “You could just do so much more when you have that relationship with God,” he said.
A Proud Big Brother to actor Brayan Nicoletti
Bruno also spoke with tremendous affection about his younger brother, actor Brayan Nicoletti, who plays RJ Forrester on the hit CBS daytime drama “The Bold and The Beautiful,” which is the most popular soap opera in the world.
“It’s so cool,” he said. “Man, I love that he’s just living out his dream.”
The brothers have different personalities and have followed different paths. Bruno describes himself as a numbers guy and a math person, someone who naturally looks at things in terms of formulas and solutions. Brayan, meanwhile, is more artistic yet Bruno admires his brother’s ability to know exactly who he wants to be and what he wants to accomplish.
“Brayan always knew exactly what he wanted to be and what he wanted to achieve,” Bruno said.
He believes audiences will see much more from Brayan in the future.
“I think this is just the first of many things that you’ll see from Brayan,” he said.
Watching his brother’s work is especially meaningful because Bruno sometimes finds himself momentarily forgetting that the person on screen is his own brother. “It is just the coolest feeling to see my brother on TV,” he said.
For Bruno, there is something particularly special about watching his little brother live out his dreams. “It’s just so sweet,” he said. “I am really happy for him!”
Bruno defines success
Success, in Bruno’s eyes, is not necessarily defined by a particular trophy, financial milestone, or career accomplishment.
He believes accomplishments can provide validation and confidence, but he views life as a marathon rather than a race toward one specific finish line.
“If you achieve something, that just builds that confidence,” he explained.
Ultimately, his definition of success is much simpler. “Success, to me, is really just happiness,” Bruno said. “I’m most happy when I’m pursuing something.”
That mindset helps explain why Bruno continues to challenge himself across so many different areas of life.
A Message to his fans and supporters
Bruno’s gratitude toward his supporters is perhaps best summed up in three words: “It takes a village.”
Bruno remains thankful to the people who have taken time out of their lives to support him, whether they have attended his fights in person or watched from home.
He recalled looking out at a crowd of approximately 200 people at his last fight and realizing that all of those people had stopped their day to watch him compete.
“I was like, ‘Wow, everybody stopped their day to come watch me fight’,” he said.
His message extends beyond gratitude. Bruno wants people to understand that the individuals they admire are not fundamentally different from them.
“Anybody that somebody looks up to is no different than you,” he said.
He encourages people to believe in their own potential, pursue their ideas, and resist the temptation to seek validation from everyone around them. “No idea is too big,” he said. “You could do it all.”
For Bruno, that philosophy is not simply something he tells others. It is the life he is trying to demonstrate through his own example.
He wants his children to see it. He wants his supporters to see it. And he wants to continue proving it to himself.
“We are just getting started,” he said.
Looking ahead 10 years, Bruno wonders what he will see when he looks back at this period of his life but he isn’t overly concerned with predicting the distant future.
For now, he is focused on the present, and on making the next chapter something he can be proud of. “I can’t wait for the future,” he exclaimed.
To learn more about Bruno Nicoletti, follow him on Instagram and visit his Linktree page.
