Today we’d like to introduce you to Freddy Naidu.
Hi Freddy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have many careers in the insurance world, business startup management, consulting and marketing, healthcare and event management. I am going to focus and speak about my athletic career and the amazing turn it took. After wrestling in college and graduating, I needed something to do. In 2009 I found the sport of bodybuilding and competed in my very first show in here in Texas. I fell in love with the sport and focused on pursuing it more.
In 2014 I competed at the NPC North Americans In Pittsburgh, where I won my class in the men’s physique division and earned the prestigious IFBB Pro League Pro Card. As competitive as I am I wanted to get to the next step, which was winning a pro show. In 2016 I won my first pro show and earned my qualification and competed at the 2016 Mr. Olympia held in Las Vegas. 2016 was a great year for me; it was also the year where I got married to the love of my life, and the year we were offered to become promoters for the NPC. It was this year where we launched our first inaugural NPC BATTLE OF TEXAS, which I co-promote with IFBB PRO league athlete, my co-promoter and work wife Sheilahe Brown. Five years later, we are now one of the biggest shows in Texas and the most spoken about show in the country. We promote two shows under our company BATTLE UP PRODUCTIONS. Our first show this year will be the week of August 13-14, called the IFBB Pro League Texas Pro and NPC Texas Classic. Our second show, which is our flagship show, will be held December 4th called the Battle Of Texas Super-show. Our website is www.battleupproductions.com.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
If it was smooth, it would be easy and everybody would be doing it. Words I’ve learned from few of my mentors, specifically my dad and mom. Promoting was new to us here at BATTLE UP PRODUCTIONS but we learned, we asked the right questions, we learned from some of the biggest and best promoters in the industry. The NPC and IFBB Pro League were also very helpful in providing us with guidelines to follow to make our event successful. We learned that we had areas to improve in and we did just that. Every year we had a vision board to improve the quality of our show, some again not easy to do, especially since we were hit with the pandemic recently last year in 2020.
As you know, we’re big fans of Battle Up Productions. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Our shows are treated like our homes. We welcome everyone as our guests and treat everyone with the best experience and entertainment. Sheilahe and I are also athletes, and our focus was learning what our NPC and IFBB Pro League athletes wanted. This is how we create and produce our shows “for our athletes”. We wanted our athletes to have the best quality of time on stage and, most of all, the best experience when they came to our shows.
Can you talk about how you think about risk?
I am a risk-taker and Sheilahe is the opposite, and that’s why we balance each other out. Putting on two successful events last year in the middle of the pandemic was the biggest risk and level of uncertainty we experienced. At the end of the day, our goal and values around the athlete’s experience helped us overcome any fear of risk. We pivoted and chartered a plan with our operations teams to make sure every athlete was able to compete and at the same time, we were able to ensure safety and social distance precautions were in place.
Contact Info
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.battleupproductions.com
- Instagram: @battleupproductions @freddynaidu @flexxybrown
- Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/iamfreddynaidu/
- Twitter: @freddynaidu
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/iamfreddynaidu
