Sam Bakhtiar - The Camp Transformation Center

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Yeah.

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What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. We, we have the one and only Sam Baktiar with us here today. And I'm excited. We're making the most out of today, brother. I was just on your podcast, now we're getting you on mine. And it's, I've been, honestly, I've been following you for a while and obviously we got to, we got the chance to meet out in Los Angeles at the breakthrough event. And it's something where your energy and just the way you carried yourself, I was like, dude, I want to get to know this guy. Like, you're very. When you see you and shake your hand, it's a contagious energy that you give off. And I, number one, want to say I really appreciate you coming on my show and taking the time. And I'm super excited to get into your story. For sure, brother.

It's an honor and privilege to be on your show. Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. So, I mean, first off, I've done a lot of research on you and I know that you fled from the war in Iran and you have this Crazy story that I don't want to spoil yet. But now you are the CEO of 1% Nutrition and the Camp Transformation center. And it's one of those things where fitness is a priority to you. And if you're watching this video, you can see that. And, and I want to first just give people the opportunity to hear the current sam back tr because I think it's something super important. Whenever I'm listening to a show, as well as I'm sure what you do, I want to know who I'm listening to. Right. So give the people some sense of what you spend your time on now. What are you working on? What have you built before we get into the story like you, like we've done before, brother.

First and foremost, you know, I'm a family. You know, I lived for my family. I live to make my children an alike proud, you know. You know, growing up without a father, you know, I never wanted that for my children. And I wanted to be the best provider, the best, not only provider financially, but provider intellectually and emotionally, you know, in every way of life. So first of all, you know, that's my why and everything that I've done and accomplished is because of that. You know what I mean?

Yep.

So right, you know, at this moment, you know, I'm the CEO of the camp Transformation Center. You know, we are an international franchise with 125 locations growing, you know, and I'm also the CEO of 1% Nutrition, which is our supplement company online. I'm also the CEO of myosport Nutrition, which is our supplement company that serves the camps. You know, so this is something that the camp started in year 2010.

Okay.

Year later, 125 more locations. There's been so many ups and downs, so many trials and tribulations, so many times I fell and literally, you know, you know, lost everything. But you know what? We're here now, dude.

That's 125 locations around the world, dude. That's insane. I didn't even know that myself. So I want to start with this, man. So, like thinking on where you are now and the story that you've been through, obviously I want to get into where you come from and how you got to where you are. But from for people listening today, there's a lot of young entrepreneurs, people that are just starting businesses, people like myself that are 18, 19 years old that are hustling, doing their thing. And real quick, before we get into it, I want to give people some like, some reference. So like, at 18 years old. What was Sam doing then? Because I want. I like to start with this question because it gives people a sense of if they're listening and they're 18 and they're going to college or they're thinking about it, or they want to start a business, just what was your life then? And then we'll. We'll bring us to that time.

18. I remember ever since I was a little kid, my mom told me, sam, if you want to be successful in life, you have to go to college. You have to become. What are the three things, you know, doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Because if you're not a doctor, lawyer, engineer, you're nobody. You're not really successful. So in my country, my old country, the old way of thinking is, definition of success is you get up, go to a career, preferably doctor, lower engineer, you wear a suit and tie, you know, getting your BMW and, you know, you made it, you know, that was the definition of success. So I didn't know anything better. You know, I just knew that I loved working out. I fell in love with working out, you know, at a very young age when I was 14 years old.

And.

I knew I wanted to do something in the workout field. So I started college at 18. You know, mom said I for college, you know, and started getting all the requirements for a pre medicine degree and also studying all the stuff that I love, like biochemistry and nutrition and all.

That kind of stuff. Yep. That's insane. And for the people that may have not picked that up, so you have a doctorate and you went to college, you did that route and just smashed it at the highest level. What was, what was that experience for you? Like, moving out of it now, being in the business world, having this massive franchise, like, do you recommend? Not even recommend, but like the college route. If someone's sitting here right now thinking, hey, should I go to college? Should I start my business now? As someone that's been through it at the highest level, which I haven't personally, I didn't go to college. What would be your take on college? Cause I think that's a very valid opinion and I'd love to hear it.

So how you asked that question, here's. You have to understand right now in this space, you know, I remember one of my friends came to sign up with me. We're the best of friends right now. But I didn't know him back then. He came to sign up at my gym and he said. I said, what are you doing? I'm an entrepreneur. I'm like, what the fuck is That I didn't understand what entrepreneur was 15 years ago.

Yeah.

Now every fucking body is an entrepreneur, right? And you have all these. There are true entrepreneurs such as yourself, but there's a bunch of entrepreneurs that want to be entrepreneurs, but they don't have the discipline and the grit to be able to do that. Right. So if you are. To me, here's my short answer to that. If you're somebody who's hungry, who is disciplined, and I mean fucking disciplined, you're able to stay on course and stay on track and follow your dreams and not get distracted by the Shiny Huckins syndrome and be punctual and meet deadlines. You already have those traits in you. Then I think the college might be a waste of time. You know what I mean? Now, if you want to become an entrepreneur and you just can't get out of bed, you want to go to bed late, get up late, you don't have a plan.

You.

You don't have a schedule. You just have a fucking big dream. I want to make $100 million, but you don't come get out of bed. You don't. You're not punctual. Then you get fucking college. Or you need to go to military.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? You gotta have those traits. Is needed for you to be a real entrepreneur. Because. Real entrepreneur. The problem with a real entrepreneur is this. You don't have a fucking boss.

Yeah.

Who's gonna hold you accountable, who's gonna make you do what you said you were gonna do.

Yeah.

And a bunch of people right now, oh, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do this. I'm giving you an example. I'm an example. There's a guy, you know, you know, that saw my wife pull into Starbucks, drive through, you know, my wife was driving the Rolls Royce, and, oh, what do you do? You know, my wife was like, yeah, my husband's an entrepreneur. We own some businesses and things like that. And this kid, you know, probably your age. Oh, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur, too. You know what I mean? And so he messaged me on Instagram. And he messaged me on Instagram. I said, he said, hey, man, let me work out with you. I said, all right, Tomorrow we work out at 4am he shows up at 4am this is Nap. And they said, hey, can I work out with you at the end here? 4:00am the next day, he doesn't show up. I need you back from me for a week or two. Then he messaged me, hey, do you know what happened to you Again? I'm like, no, absolutely not. I said, why? Because I said, you said the next day you're gonna be here. You didn't.

Yeah.

To me, that. That's, you know, contradictive. So you have to understand that if you have those traits, by all means, you know, college is not needed.

I love that, man. I love that. And I think we'll get into how you develop those traits. But I wanna. I wanna take it back to really where everything started for you, because I know, like I said, I've read the articles and you've said it here yourself. You come from Iran and there was a massive. You and your family fled here with $500 to your name. And I want to hear that because I think for me, that's something where I know Gary says all the time, like, it's. It's an advantage if you utilize it right. Like, for me, I grew up in Virginia. I've had two parents that, like, great support system, and I'm blessed for that. But I think I'm very genuinely curious in your story and the takeaways that you've had with it and how you got to here in America, what that transition was like, your upbringing, your childhood. And I'd love to, for you to just bring us back to, like, where you were, where you were born and how you got to where you were. We'll get there. But just bring us back to day one, early childhood of Sam.

I was born in Tehran, yuan, you know, and when I was three years old, my mom and my dad split, you know. You know, from what I understand, my dad was, you know, a party alcoholic guy, you know, who, you know, went in and lose paychecks, you know, and, you know, I left us without diapers and food, and my mom had to pawn her ring and pawns and other stuff to be able to provide for me and all that kind of stuff. So that was a chip on my shoulder. I'm saying that for a reason, because that was like a place on my shoulder. And that's why I told you earlier that my wife is my kids, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, growing up, you know, then, you know, I remember one day we were at school, we heard boom, boom. And everybody said, oh, there's covers numbers. We have four. I'm going like, what? I want to know what it was. We were starting, you know, Iran and Iraq. Saddam Hussein started attacking us. And from then till age 11, you know, every freaking night, I heard Sirens that were. That means, you know, when you're under attack at war, when you're under air attack, you know what they do to the city? You don't know because you haven't been there. They black out the city. They shut down all electricity in the city. This way the things don't know where to shoot and where to go. You know what I mean? Based on landmarks. So we had a bowling blackout in the city, sirens out. You know, we would have. We had to go down the bunkers in the basement hoping that the bomb would land on us. We lived a mile away from Ruger Ayatollah. Literally, they were targeting him. So we were living in a lot of fire. I mean, literally two blocks from our house, there was an anti air missile on the top of the roof of the house.

No way.

So literally two blocks up the street, there was an anti air missile at the top of the roof of one of the homes because it was shooting at the air that was trying to shoot on us. So growing up, man. But the thing is, when I look back, I didn't know any different. That was my normal life.

That's wild.

I thought that was normal.

Yeah.

You know, people were like, do you have PTSD from that? I'm like, nothing I know of. I didn't know any different. You know, when you grow up in an environment, you think that's removal. You think that's, that's what it is, you know, and that. So at age 11, you know, at age 12, they were recruiting people to go to the military. They were telling.

And you're still in Iran at the time? Yes, got it.

You know, you know, fundamentalist Muslims, they were telling you, hey man, if you send your kids to war and if he dies, he'll automatically go to heaven. All that kind of, all kind of bullshit. So my mom was like, you know what, I don't like pulling kids. Go to work. Let's get out of here. So we basically left with $500 of luggage. You know, first we went to France. I'm a refugees at work. And from France, we came to America. When we were coming to America, you know, I thought we were going to Beverly Hills because I was watching American shows. You know, they were showing, you know, Casey, YouTube recording shows. But back then, that show's called Dallas Dynasty and the A Team, right? And those were like Kardashians and stuff Today, you know, where you see, like they have these mansions, everybody has this crazy lifestyle. Everybody has Bentleys and Cadillacs and a little bit of tries to Put them in their home. And so I thought I was going to Beverly Hills, but nobody showed me the hood in the pits of the United States.

Yeah.

So we got dropped off at the Pittsburgh airport. My uncle picked us up and took us to a little town we live in called Sheriff Pennsylvania, which is, you know, in 1985, to this day, I think there's like four minorities living here right now.

Okay?

But in 1985, there was no minorities. I was the only minority. It was in the middle of all the steel bills shutting down. The steel industry was struggling, and there was a middle of crack cocaine epidemic. And my uncle had a convenience store in the fucking hood. I'm talking about in the worst area of. I've ever seen in my life to that day. You know, the road wasn't paved. There was signs that said, no laundry or you get arrested. You can't hang out on the street. You know. And it was. It was outside of the store. There was pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers. And I was like, wow. So I didn't speak English very well. So we went to, you know, seventh grade to sign up. I said, I want to learn how to be. I'm going to go to seventh grade. I want to learn how to speak English. I want to play football.

Yeah, yeah.

And they're like, football. I'm like, yeah, football. You know, they're like, yeah, this is it. I'm like, no, no, no, no. My English is not that good. But I know this is the foot and this is the ball. They're like, no, no, no. What you're talking about is soccer. We don't have a soccer team, you know, but we have a football team, baseball team, and a basketball team. Well, to this day, Casey, I have no idea what baseball is all about. I'm a big football fan, Very football fan now. But back then, I didn't know what it was, okay? So I dropped off the basketball team. Cause I had.

I was.

I was. I played sports all my life, right? So when I did that, you know, I got cut from the basketball team. I've never played basketball before. You know, I tried out. It was one of the most devastating things in my life. Okay, think about it for a second. Now, having a father and now coming to new country. I got cut from the basketball team. I got devastated. That's two devastations, right?

Yep.

Two devastations. The war, third devastations, you know, and then I came, you know, so I went home crying to my mom. I said, mom, I hate this country. Nobody likes me. I don't have any friends? I don't speak the language, you know, I don't know their sport. I didn't make the team. Everybody's making fun of me. I don't have the same clothes as everyone else. I have cheap shoes. Everybody's making fun of my Payless shoes.

Yeah.

You know, that kind of stuff. And you're from Virginia, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Small town mentality, you know. So then my mom was like, well, that's not, we don't have that choice. The choice is you go after school to the boys club, get better at basketball and tryout next year. So that's what I did. So I started going to the boys club for a month or so, paid basketball, started getting better. But then, you know, as I was walking, I saw these guys that even were going upstairs and coming down from the stairs, this little room upstairs. And it was a, it was, you know, these guys look like Arnold.

Okay.

You know, and Rocky. They have muscles.

Yeah, yeah.

I would have looked like them. I went upstairs one day to see what's going on, man. There was a bunch of old steel workers with like boots and we got boots on and they were just like lifting insane weight, chewing tobacco, spitting, slapping each other, listening to some obscene music and just. It was a man's man's gym.

Yeah, yeah.

Busted weights, craziness, you know. And you know, I was, I was 120 pounds soaking wet. I had the worst genetics. I had small arms, small chest and a big backup. I would wait for them to leave every day and I would go up there and I would start working out next, you know. After a few months I started seeing some differences and I started feeling better about myself. I fell in love with bodybuilding and lifting weights because not only would it make me feel better on the outside, I started looking better and people started noticing me and all that. But all of a sudden my self esteem went up, my self confidence went up. The way I carried myself right there and then I, that that's going to be what I'm going to do the rest of my life. Right. I knew that. But unfortunately or fortunately, you know, my mom always said ever since I was okay, you have to be a doctor of neuro engineer. So as I was graduating college, I'm like, well, I don't want to operate on anyone. I don't want to drill somebody's teeth. This is not what I'm going to do. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to figure out what my doctor has to do with Muscles and bones and all nutrition. And I don't have to do that. I did my research. I saw that chiropractic was the best option.

Yep.

So after I graduated from Penn State with my pre med degree, I went to Los Angeles College, chiropractic, you know, got my doctorate degree this whole time. I started bodybuilding since I was 18, you know, and I grew out throughout the whole time through college, you know, I started bodybuilding, winning bodybuilding shows, going off the ranks and going off the ranks. And once I graduated from, you know, car concert and my doctorate degree, I give my diploma to my mom. My mom. I have a picture of my mom holding my diploma like this, like, you know, the championship.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I told my mom, I said, look, this is your diploma. Go talk to all your. Go drag. You know, brag to all your friends that you signed the doctor. That's what you wanted.

Yep.

Can I borrow $20,000? I have $20,000 saved up for my thing because I want to open up a gym. So I borrowed 20,000 for my mom, put in my 20,000, and I started my first facility right here in chino.

Wow.

In February 15th of 2000.

2000. That's my year. I was born in 2000, so that was okay. I just want to give context to the people listening.

Yeah. You know, so I, you know, I started my first gym, you know, and I didn't know anything about marketing, basically. I didn't know anything about business. I just knew about human body. I knew about, you know, biomechanics.

Okay.

So I just sheer, you know, just loving to help people. I started growing the business, growing the business and growing the business, growing the business. And then once, you know, I started, okay, man, I'm gonna get married here pretty soon. I want to start a family. Maybe I need to take this more seriously. I don't want this to be something that's gonna support my bodybuilding career.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? You know, so for me, I was cool, making up money to do my bodybuilding, have a little something, have a nice car, have a house, but that's it. Now I need you that takes to the next level. That's where I started getting mentors, getting coaching, started learning about marketing, started learning about persuasion, learning about sales tactics, and optimizing everything. And after I started going to seminars and getting mentors, I started blowing it up till I started building up exponentially every year. So in 2007, I was doing $2.4 million gross revenue from a 3,000 square feet facility.

Wow.

But then the recession hit, and nobody told me. I never knew about ups and downs in the economy. I never had a dad. Nobody told me now, because in 2007, you know, my ego got pretty inflated, you know, I was making what I thought was good money, you know, but what I thought, oh, my God. I'm from Cheryl, Pennsylvania.

Yeah.

You know, like you said before, you know, you can make 18, $20,000 a year. Yeah, we make $50,000 a year over there. Thousand dollars?

Yeah. Yeah.

20 grand a month.

Yeah.

So I'm like, you can't tell me nothing.

Yep.

You could do nothing. I made it 20 grand a month. Nobody sharing that 20 grand. You know, I made a whole town, you know. You know, and. And so then, like I said, I started getting careless with my investment. Careless with my spending. You know, I was going out, doing bottle service, acting like p. Nitty.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Doing dumb until, you know, economy hit. And that was enough devastation that just punched me in the mouth. Punched me in the mouth.

Yeah, yeah.

$2.4 million to literally, you know, a year later, I'm doing 600,000. So I lost $1.8 million revenue in one year for the same overhead. Wow. You know, I remember taking my wife to lunch. My wife is pregnant with our first six months pregnant at lunch. I'm crying to her. It's not fucked up. We're negative $314 in our account. Payroll is due in 20 days, and I have nothing. So now all the time that I want to become that super dad and I have to keep being taken away, right?

Yeah. And because your kids are just about. It's six months pregnant. Wow.

So now I know what to do. Because now I'm like, okay, I'm gonna be just like the looper that I had. I'm not gonna be able to do anything. I'm not gonna be able to do anything. I'll be a dick. Be that sad, you know, all this negative thoughts. So what I did was I went and I just was like, I do what I do best after work. I started working 19, 20 hour days trying to turn things around. Nothing's happened. Turn things around. Nothing's happening. Nothing happening. Till, you know, in 2010, you know. You know, Alex was Alejandro fun, my business partner now approached me and said, sam, let's open up a boot camp. I'm like, boot camp? Those are, you know, aerobics classes. And I'm like, I'm not interested. She goes, no, come on, Sam. So I'm like, you know what? Let me get rid of this chick real quick. And you got like a list of shit to do.

List.

I'm like, I'm gonna lose her, right? And when I give her a list of stuff to do, the next day, she came and got it done. I said, you know what? I want you to do more stuff. She got it done. Now I'm stuck.

I gotta.

I gotta follow through with my word.

Yep.

Right?

Yeah.

You know, so $11,000, she was out of it. I said, okay, you go do her thing. So she started the camp. We literally had no flooring, concrete floors, just every wax a cd. And we started just like, we started it with nothing.

Yeah, right.

Next thing you know, the camper started going up and going up and going up and going up and going up. Next thing you know, we're now having two locations, three locations, four locations, five locations. Next thing you know, we have other people that are interested in opening up their own camps. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You know, and it's getting, you know, it's getting crazy now. And now we're international franchise. 125 locations.

You said 40 million. Wow, man, that is. I don't even have to say to that, man. It blows my mind too. So I want to. I want to pinpoint this. So you're having so much success, and then everything falls. You're negative $300 in your account. Like, want you to tell the people listening, like, what's going through your mind in that moment. Because, like, that's. That's something that stood out to me of, like, someone's listening and maybe they haven't had the success, but maybe they're. They're passed on their bills. But it's you guys, you. You've had this massive success. You've tasted it, then you lost it all. And I think that's. That's something that you only get through experience. Right? So, like, during that moment of full uncertainty, like, what was the motivation that, like, brought you back into gear, that you have a kid coming soon and you have negative $300 payrolls. Up next, like, you're at, like, you just said, the. The worst of the worst when you, You. Your whole goal was to be this dream dad. And I think for me, that was. That was definitely one of the highlights throughout that story. What you just said was like, I'm sure that was one of the hardest moments of everything. And I think I'd want to. I want to touch on that and go more in depth on that, because I think it's. There's A lesson to be learned. Whether someone has had success or they're just in that negative situation now and haven't had success, there's a mentality that you need to have or create to go from where you are now to where you want to be. And I'd love to get your point of view on that.

So I'm sitting there, you know, like I said, my bank account is overdrawn by $315. I have $20,000 due in literally two weeks and I don't know what to do. So at this point, at this time, you know, what is going through my mind is like this, Sam, you know, you're not going to be like your father. You're not going to be another guy who's going to have kids and not be able to provide the best life. You're just not going to do that. I didn't have a game plan. I didn't know what to do. But I just knew that I will not allow that. It's absolutely a no no in my world, you know, my whole reason, my whole existence, my whole identity is to be the best provider for my family. That's not who I didn't.

Yep.

You know, if you take that away from me, you took my whole heart. Yep. You know, you know, I live to provide for my wife, my children, like I said, in every way possible, you know. And so I went to work and all I did was work 20 hours, 21 hours, 22 hours sleep was an option, you know, and I went and tried to do whatever I can to turn this around. And for those people who are listening to this, look, you have to understand that in life you are going to get knocked down, you are going to get punched straight in the fucking face. You know, you are going to be against the ropes. That's going to happen. This is how you deal with it. You can't just sit down and just be, you know, have a self pity, you know, for too long. Hey look, do I have my bitch moments? Yes, I have my bitch moments. I have my self pity moments just like anybody else. I'm not the rah rah guy 24 7, 365. I still have doubts. I still have things that I deal with that my wives, I can't lose. I'm not, I need to come here with all across the oceans to lose. I'm not going to do that. So if I have a bad day, I have a really bad day. You know what I'll do worse that's going to happen. I just have A I have some pizza, a fun go to sleep, you know what I mean? Tomorrow I get up, there's a whole new day, I'm ready to take it on. I approach it that, okay, if I need to be here and I'm here now, what the fuck do I need to do every single day to check at it? And that's where it work. Here's the problem. If you thought that was devastating, something a lot more devastating happened after.

Okay, what was that?

And so a tool to my identity, right?

Yep.

I didn't to be a husband, to be a father, to be a business provider. So when I was down, all I did was go to work, go to work, go to work, go to work, try to figure out a different program, try to figure out a different thing, trying to figure out a different funnel, trying to, you know, just try everything out there. Just trying to make things meet. Right. So that was a period of between 2009 and 2014.

Okay.

I would come home after working 1820 hour days and I was sitting on the couch, my ex wife was trying to talk to me and I wouldn't even hear her because I was just, it was almost like ptsd, right? Like I was just in the zone trying to figure what I'm going to do. Right. And I remember we got in a fight, an argument. I'm at work, I'm starting to see Casey, I'm starting to see the money coming back. I'm starting to get back on my feet. Start, you know, at that, at that time, my house was being foreclosed. I was late two years on my payment on the house. I'm starting to get back on my feet. It started to look better. And next thing you know, I got work. Sir, we got papers for you to sign. And I was like, what? I looked, there were divorce papers.

Wow.

And now I'm going like what? I'm going like what? And then she's like, what? I want you to move out the house. This is over and I'm home like, What? So I'm 40 years old. My house was being foreclosed on for two, for two years. Because I was two years in on my payment. I was broke as a joke from 2009 to 2014. I'm talking about broke as a joke, you know, just being able to, you know, feed the family and keep. I'm nothing out of luxury, right. And then all of a sudden when I started seeing a little comeback, bam, get hit with that. So I go stay in a hotel room, you know, have you ever been To Chino Hills Hotel, room 71.

There.

There's a Chino Hills Hotel in Chino Hills.

Okay.

You know, and I said, all right, I'm stay here for a month, see what happens, you know, and one month, turn two months, two months to three months, three months to four months we're not getting back of. And I remember me in that hotel room, you know, 40 years old, just got out of Bean Grove, and now I lost my family, you know, and that was the most devastating. That's. That's where I became the beast.

Okay?

Because at that point I said, sam, okay, you lost your family, now you live in a hotel. What are you going to do? Yeah, what are you going to do now? My natural instinct, let's go back to what I was doing when I was single. Watching the club, start drinking, chase women, go to strip club, make it rain or be a dumbass. You know what I mean? You know what? I don't want to do that. So what are my top priorities? I sat down and said, you know, my top priority is number one, number be with my children. But I can't be with my children because now we have joint custody. I see them on Wednesdays and on the weekends. So if I'm not with my children, what I'm going to do? If I'm not going to be with my children, then I'm going to provide for my children. So I recommitted myself, going back in the gym, and every second that I wasn't with the kids, I was working, literally working. And that's when we started building up the camp. If you look at the camp, we only had like 10 locations in 2014. And from 2014 to now, we added like 115 locations. Yeah, because I went all in to work. I went all in. I had nothing better to do. I said, if I'm. If I'm not gonna, you know, get the kids, I might as well just fucking work and build up.

Wow.

Again. Let's, let's. I want to go back and I want to make thoughts.

Yeah, yeah.

If you look at the war, if it wasn't because of war, I would have came to the United States. If it wasn't because of that deadbeat dad, I wouldn't be a super dad that I am now. I'm really that dad that once I overcompensate for it, you know what I mean? If it wasn't because of the economy, you know, you know, getting forward pros, I wouldn't learn about the finances that I do now. I Wouldn't make the decisions that I make now. And I sure as hell, you know what a state in a marriage act that I was not have yet just for the sake of state.

Yeah.

That I have now, which is my love, my everything.

Yep.

Going back. If you, if you guys are listening to this, every time there's a devastation in your life, every time that you think you're going through some shit. And you know what Les Brown says in life, you're either in. In a problem, left the problem, or headed toward. But this is life. Just get used to it. You get used to it. I don't care if you're a billionaire. I don't care if you're a millionaire. I don't care if you're a book. This is just life, right?

Yep.

Understand that God is not going to bless you until you pass a test. And if God gives you a test, puts you through trials and tribulations and you just want to fucking quit, then God's not going to bless you. You're not worthy of his blessing.

Yeah.

If you're persistent, you know, if you have grit, if you persevere, there's blessing always waiting for you on the. You just have to show that you're working.

No, that's. That's insane, my man. I want to kind of break this down because I think hearing, like, going from the 125 locations, $40 million in revenue, to being in a war and going from Iran to America, like you've lived multiple lives, it seems like. Right. Like so many different identities and so much success, but also you've had the worst of the worst. And I think for people listening, like, when you say working and hustling, and even when it comes to just running a business, like, where do you think you had the edge, for example? Is it that you've had the right business partners? Is it because you've. You. Is it the product itself? Was that the thing that you were able to sell relentlessly? Like, for you, when it comes to scaling from 5, 10 locations to then now having 125, what is it from, like, a core business philosophy that you believe has allowed you to scale. Scale, maybe? Is it. Is it the. The relentless to face your fears and scale beyond measures when you didn't know what it was?

Willing to take? Risk.

Okay.

And it's always been, I'm willing to risk.

Okay.

You know, you know, you know, I'm always the only one that's. That's willing to try anything. I'm not like, okay, what's the Worst that can happen.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, I'm not saying that. Oh, my God. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. You know, and so I would say the willingness to take risks.

Okay.

And fail is what has made me who I am.

I got. And do you think. I'm just thinking because in terms of, like, the scalability of the business, was social media like a valuable resource to scale or how has social media played a role?

Absolutely. I mean. I mean, look, Casey, back in the day, when I was your age.

Yep.

You know, back in. When I was your age, you know, if we wanted to scale that big, the only way we could scale that big is through television.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then I was competing with Coca Colas and Pepsi Colas and Chevrolet and companies who had billions of dollars. So a little guy like me couldn't compete.

Yeah.

There's no way I could compete with the big boys on national television. I couldn't do that. Right now you can go in, you know, put a video up. You can shoot the video yourself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you can target it with laser precision. Who wants to see it? What interest do you have where they want to live? Never in the world, never in the history of the world has been so easy to make money that it is today.

Yeah.

So if you stand out there and you're fucking broke, it's because you have a choice to be broke. You don't want it bad enough. All you have to do is solve that problem and find out how to target people which are on social media. Yeah, social media, man.

Yep. 100%. 100%. So. So when did you start building? I know we talked about this on your show as well. Personal brand. Obviously you have a massive audience personally now, and obviously you're running your companies. When did you start building you as an individual on social media, getting your story out there? Because obviously it's such a. An amazing story that it's impacted hundreds, if not millions of people. When did that. I would say decision take place to say, hey, I need to tell my story online.

I'm so glad you say that, man. So glad you say that, because I didn't even get into it until later stages.

Okay.

I didn't even get into later stages. You know, I was always, you know, I was always the kind of person, well, you know, my story. Who cares about my story? You know? You know, and for you, somebody's watching this right now, and you're like, well, My story is not that interesting. I bet you something interesting.

Yeah.

So somebody out there, they can recognize you, and they can. And you're relatable to that.

You know what I mean?

Just because you don't think it's interesting. It is interesting. Some people, and I guarantee that. And a personal brand. Was talking to Dan Fleischman, you know, you're good friends with them, and Dan says, whether you like it or not, you have a personal brand.

Yep.

You really like it or not. And it's so true.

But here's the.

When I really got serious about getting my message out there and growing my personal brand about who I am, what I stand for, what I've been through was literally about a year ago.

That's so wild.

That's why I became hip. I'm starting to do that a year ago. I started it about six, seven months ago is when I actually decided to hire the crew.

Yeah.

Because I don't know all this camera. I don't know that.

Yeah.

Smart people, like, you know, I work with me. I got Arturo work me. You know, I have, you know, Ken work me out. You know, Alexander worked for me. So these guys are people, you know, that come in, are a lot smarter to help me, you know, get my message out. But honestly, if I know what I know now. And that's why when he told me about, you know, that new app.

Yeah, Tik Tok.

Yeah, he told me about Tik Tok. You know, I'm like this. I'm like, you know, the only thing I wish is if I would have got into the Instagram game way before I did, I really got into. A year ago.

That's crazy.

Over a year ago.

Wow. You know what I mean?

And wait a second. If I would have gotten to enjoy when you got in it, you know, I've been so much more ahead. I would have done so much better. But now when somebody like you tells me this, I think I'll take it for granted for sure.

Okay. Now that's a year ago, too. So I'd like to say this. So when it comes to the correlation between your personal brand in your business, what has been the significant. Is there. Has there been an advantage. Has. Do you think it's helped your company overall? Or how has having a personal brand allowed your company to grow? Or what's been the repercussion of it? Because I think I talk on it a lot, and I want people to understand how it's worked for someone at your scale.

And all the listeners of your podcast, you Know your company is never gonna outgrow you. Okay. Yep. So by you and also, let me give you another nugget. People want to do business with people, not with companies. Okay? So, yes, I sell a franchise called the Camp Transformation Center. Yes. You know, I have a supplement company, but they're not buying the Camp because they can. They're buying a Camp because of my personal brand, because my business partner's personal brand, and because of whom we stand and what we want. There's a billion other franchises out there. There's a billion other supplemental companies out there. You know, you buy first form, not invest in first form. Him buying first one because my name is Priscilla. And what he stands behind it, what he does and me and what he represents. Bottom line, man. And if you're not getting into building your personal brand, you're not doing that every day. You're leaving a lot of money down on the stable. And if he. I don't even care if you have a product right now or you don't have a product right now. You have none. Since you at all time need to be building your personal brand at all times.

I love it. I love it. And I want people to understand that because obviously, as you know, that's. That's been what's given me the opportunities to talk to people like yourself and to be in these different circles of successful people is having a brand. And I want to take a step back too, in terms of the business. What would you say in terms of, like, getting to a hundred franchises? What was the mentality or the daily habits that had to change to scale? Whether you have 10 locations and then 100? I'm sure there's, there's different time management, there's different habits, there's different things that you need to do on a daily basis. There's different ways you need to think. So, like for you today, like, what has been the growth of daily habits and how do you operate day to day? Because I think that's always even my question of, like, how do you get from where you are today and what do you have to do or who do you have to become to get to where you want to be? And you've, you've been through that process, so I'd love for you to break that down to us.

So for me, it's always been reverse engineering goal.

Yep.

To. To the smallest time amount that you can possibly do. You know what I mean? You know, so let's just say somebody wants to lose £100. I don't owe somebody or somebody who wants to make X amount of money. Okay, what do you need to do every single day to get towards it? You reverse engineer it to a year, reverse engineer to a month, six months to a month, then to a week, then to a day, then to an hour, then to a minute. You know what needs to be done every single day. And that's where the problem with a lot of people not hitting the goal is. They don't have an exact plan. An exact plan is a daily ritual. Daily ritual that's going to get you towards, chip away towards your goal and get towards it. And it has changed. You know, we realized that when we started scaling. Realized that we're no longer in the gym business.

Yeah. Okay.

We're in the franchise business. We had to realize that we're just, we need to now support our franchisees, not worry about opening up our own board ships and our own thing. Yeah, that was a huge shift. Now that kind of like took us a whole different direction. And in business, you have to understand that you either evolve or you perish.

Yep. 100. That makes sense. So, so when you're thinking at it from a franchise model now, like, for example, I walk through the process if someone wants to become a franchisee, like, what is, what is the process? Because I think if people don't understand that business model, I want to give them some like, tactical information. Maybe they want to get into the fitness space. Or maybe they just want to know more about like, hey, if I was to start a franchise one day, like, how does that work? I'd love to get some insight on that.

So, so you have two choices to go when you want to, when you want to do business. Right. You, you, you know, there's really three choices. Just say you want to be in a fitness business. You can go work for somebody that has a fitness business and don't become an employee.

Yeah.

Because we don't want, as an entrepreneurship.

Right.

Or two, you know, Google, put up your location. Go put up your location. Call it Casey. You know, Casey's Gym.

Yep.

You know, and, and, and then go through all the trials and tribulations of kind of learning things on your own and, and, and, and, and failing on your own. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. Or you're like, you know what? You know, I want a proven system. Yep, I want a proven system. I want to have something that has a standard operating procedures. I don't want to figure this shit by myself. You know, if somebody's already doing it and successful. I want to be able to get that system and emulate it and have it. And that's where the franchising comes. That's why people buy McDonald's. That's why people buy, you know, the cam or any franchise out there, because they have a proven business model. And so we are. Like I said, we already made all the sense. We already have done. We come in, we give you everything from A to Z so you can enjoy what you're doing, you know, and if somebody wants to say, for example, you're interested, anybody's interested, they go. They apply online, you know, they have a flat application. Then obviously we got to figure out what locations are interested in and that territory is available. That territory is available. You know, we do a background check, you know, we do a financial check, we do an interview. And if it's the right fit, then we'll sell the territory. Then the whole cleaning process starts.

Got it? That's interesting. And I want to switch it up real quick too. So, like, as. As successful. And you've became so just a whole different person than where you're originally from. So, like, what does your family or your peers or the people that you grew up with, maybe that's your mom or whoever it is, like, when they look at what you've been able to build today, like, how does that make them feel going back to the main point of family? And I know we spoke about this as well, in terms of, like, seeing someone take the chance, go for it. Maybe people believe in you, maybe they didn't. Like, how was. How has your family been affected and how do they think on what you do? Like, is it just something where they're like, what the heck happened? Like, what would you say that's been like in your life in terms of, like, the seeing what's you've been able to build? What's been the.

Right now says Sam, you know, I knew you were made. I knew you were made.

Yeah.

But I'm not sure if that's the truth, you know. Yeah, there was time that my mom was like, you know, you need to borrow money again? Jesus Christ, you know, you know, all that kind of stuff, you know, you know, and like I said, we don't come from an entrepreneurial family. We don't come from that. So I was the one. I was always the black sheep of the family. I'm the Persian guy who shakes his arms and shakes his body. Yeah, I thought I was gay. Shave your arms with something like that, you know, and, and, and, and and not. We come from a very, very, very close minded, ignorant thinking.

Okay.

You know, you know, we, you know, that's just our family. Everything has to be a certain way.

Yep.

And, and, and, and, and, and when they see me, you know, you know, don't eat the same food as they do because I want to, I want to look a certain way or I don't, you know, I don't want to sit down and watch TV all day or I don't want to play politics.

Yeah, yeah. That's insane. So I want you to, I want you to answer this. So like nowadays when it comes to your network and the people that you're around, obviously we met an event, we spoke at the event together at. And you, you have quality people in your life, whether that's people like Andy for seller or people like we've talked about Joel, Marion, and just this network of people in this industry, in this space. Space. How, how did you build this world class network of people, whether that's mentors or just associates? Because for me that's been the biggest difference. And I think a lot of young people listening, they want that, they want to change their influence because maybe they're around people that are partying every day and doing drugs and not. They don't have goals or it doesn't match their future and their plan. So for you, like, number one, like, how have you built your network? And number two, what would you say to someone young that's looking to get out there and expand their horizons and meet new people, but truly build a support system in a circle of influence that can propel them forward?

You know, I've soon learned that if I'm the biggest fish in the pond, I'm not inspired. I'm not inspired. You know, I would like to be inspired. I want to live an inspired life.

Yep.

I don't, I don't want to have the best house in the neighborhood. You know, I don't want to have, you know, you know, I want to be the richest man on the block. I want to look and be like, God, I wonder what this guy.

Yeah.

God. So I've never been that. So for me, you know, all my life, Casey, I was going to the wrong associations. Mostly. I'm from Sharon, Pennsylvania, you know, where we from.

Yeah, yeah.

That mentality, people standing on the porch, sitting on the couch on the porch, drinking and talking shit. Everybody.

Yeah, right.

So I'm, I want to take my mindset to the next level. I have to change my association. I have to go around people who inspire me, you know, around people who are doing better than me are people that are where I want to be.

Yep, yeah, 100%. So what was the first step in that direction that allowed you to do that?

Going to events, going to seminars, going to go around like minded people. Think out. Yeah, look, you know, if you, I mean I'm gonna give you an example. I don't know if it's a right example or wrong example, but I'm, you know, let's just say that you're looking for a wife.

Uh huh.

Right. You know, you know, that's what you want to do. You know, where do you go, do you go to after hours in Hollywood to look for a wife? I don't think that's the right idea. You might find a wife, but they're not right for the right wife. You know what I mean? You know, do you go, you know, or do you go, you know, in a place where, you know, I don't know, go to a healthy grocery store or go to church or go to somewhere so you have to put yourself in a favorable environment. It's so hard. This is something I learned, I learned from one of my mentors. I want people to learn this and write this down. Listen right now, you know that it's so hard to do the right thing in the wrong market.

That's deep. That's so true. I have a couple more questions as well and I want to say this in terms of looking back at some of the, your failures and if someone's listening today and, and they just not even, they don't feel stuck but they're like, wow, like they're playing this game of comparison. I think I, I spend a lot of time with young people and people that are my age and like they see, maybe they see it and they believe they can do it. But looking back, what would you tell that 18 year old that's confused, that's lost, that has no skin in the game in any sort of business venture or just getting on social media? This is like you said on your show, of someone's just completely unaware of the opportunities today. Where do they start with you seeing the environment of what it is today with social media and the people to follow. Like what would you say to someone that's 18, 19, about to maybe go to college or they graduated high school? Someone that's been through anything from having a doctorate to losing and having negative in your bank account to having 125 franchises to being in a war zone like you've got you've seen so many different environments and you've stood the test of time to understand the mentality that it takes. And so looking back and that, that 18 year old that they don't know what to do next. What do you tell somebody is step one to move in the right direction.

The first thing first is this. You got to do what makes your soul happy. Because whether it's, you know, you can't just do things because I'll make money, I make money. At the end of the day, you have to love what you do.

Yep.

Now find what you love to do and become the best at it. And when you do that, the money is going to follow with it.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? I knew that I wanted to become a bodybuilder. I want to help people lose weight, you know, get in shape, you know, build muscle. That's all I wanted to do. And I became the best athlete. I bought every book, I went to every seminar. If you come to my library, there's half of women's personal development books and half of nutrition workout books.

Yeah.

I became the master of that. When you starting out, understand this, you are going to fail. And there's nothing wrong with failing. One thing that Grant Cardone said a few months ago, and I remember it was on his video that was like, you know what, Grant, I don't agree with everything you say.

I.

But this is pretty cool, right? He said in baseball you get three strikes in the round. In life, you get a limited swims.

Yeah.

So line of thought, you stop swinging.

Yeah.

You keep swinging, you keep swinging, you keep swinging, you keep swinging, you keep swinging. And I guarantee you sooner or later you're going to hit it out of the park.

Yep. You're going to get.

It's not just a matter of when.

Yeah.

Yes. If you don't swim after a couple times, you fail. And you go, you go back to your little corner, find a little. Oh, my God, you know, you know I'm a failure.

Yep.

You know, understand that failure is part of success, man. I have fail. I tell people this, man. You go on my website, I have nothing to, you know, I have nothing to hide. I've been divorced, I've been arrested, I've been bankrupt. You know, you know, I've been. My house has been foreclosed on.

Yeah.

You know, you know, I've taken drugs, I've been, I've been the worst of the worst. And, and I didn't even become a real man. So I was 32. I didn't even I don't think I even read my first personal Development. So I was 30.

Yeah.

You know, and so if you're like, you're 25, 29, I don't give a fuck. I'm 54. I remember, I remember going to, you know, one of my. One of my clients couldn't pay her rent in one of her gyms, okay. And I told, you know, and I told her, I'll go to talk to a landlord with her. So we went to the landlord, and the landlord was a Jewish guy in Beverly Hills. You know, they own blocks, blocks of land in Beverly Hill, you know, And I remember, you know, sitting in the waiting room and I remember this older gentleman come out and we were both on our phones and he smiled and he goes, wow, looks like nobody communicates anymore, you know, you guys are just on your phone. He had a great aura about it.

Yeah.

Then later on, another young, little younger man comes out. I come to find out the younger, the older man was the younger man's dad.

Okay?

He was the member. And as I was telling him, I said, look, you know, I forgot his name. I said, Mr. So and so. Look, we're not trying to jif you my client right now. You know, this rent doesn't make sense for her. You know, this one is way over, what the business needs to be and all that kind of stuff. And he said, you know, Sam, I understand. Thank you so much for coming and telling me, for being transparent about it. He goes, let me tell you something. Because My dad was 50 years old. My dad was 50 years old, and we got a knock on our door and get evicted from the building. He said, I looked at my dad, I said, dad, aren't you worried? And he looked at his son, said, you know what, son? I made it before. I know how to make it back again. That was 50. Now these guys own streets in Beverly Hills. Yeah, I'm talking about a half a billion dollars. Half a million billion dollars. Half a billion dollars in building in Beverly Hills and the guy who's 50 years old being evicted. So, wow. I don't want to hear about someone's self pity or oh, I'm too old, or I'm doing this. As long as you have a dying desire, as long as you have the will, the grit, and are willing to go through the pain, are willing to fail, are willing to do whatever the fuck it takes for you to be going to where you want to go, then I don't want to hear, just keep going.

Yeah, 100, 100. I have I have one more question before we wrap it up, and that is from a, from a day to day basis. I know that you said earlier, when it comes to the time you wake up to the, the information you have in your mind, I'd love to get, like, from your perspective, what is some content or things you do remember. Maybe it's a podcast you listen to or a book that you would recommend as like the top thing that if someone reads this, it'll sharpen their mind. I'd love to get to some of the, the content or information that you listen to that you, that you'd recommend as like, if someone say, hey, Sam, recommended this to me and it could make my life better, what would that one book or one podcast be?

Okay, so I love, I love Ed Milet and Priscilla's podcast.

Yep.

You know, you know, I mean, I love, you know, me. And he's a little more entertaining because Andy just, you know, cusses all the time. I like that.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, it keeps me on my toes. Right. So. So having that I listen to Tony Robbins everything. Matter of fact, I got Tony Robbins CDs from back in the day. Bunch of CDs. I literally just bought a Walkman.

A.

A CD Walkman.

Let's go.

So when I go take the dog for a walk every. Going for two miles and listening to Tony Robbins CDs, and it's reinforcing everything. But let me tell you, man, I mean, if I'm gonna recommend a book to your audience because your audience is a little younger, I will recommend the one thing.

The one thing. Yep.

Because I think that the problem with the younger generation right now is that they're trying to do everything. They're trying to be everything to everybody. Trying to do a few different things. And you don't need to do that. You need to be the best at one thing. It's called a 10,000 hour rules.

Yep.

You know, put in 10,000 hours in one thing and be the best at it, and you make a lot of money. Don't put a thousand hours in here. Thousand hours here and a thousand hours here. Oh, this doesn't work. We do here. Don't half ass a bunch of. Bunch of things. Go all in and become the best in one day. And I see so many people get caught up in the shiny object syndrome.

Yep.

You know, and. Oh, let me check this out. Let me check this out. Let me check this out. Don't do that. Do what you love to do. Become obsessed. That one thing that you want to Do I love it.

I love it. So. So, Sam, for the people that are listening, that want to, obviously, I know that you have a podcast and you have, you put out a lot of content on social media. Like you said, you've been doing it for a year now and you've built a massive brand where, where can people follow you and get more engaged with what you're doing?

Cool, man. Thank you so much for that. You know, obviously I have Instagram, you know, Ambaktiar spelled B A K H T I A R. You know my website www.sambaktr.com or just google my name Sam Baktr. And I just like you. Do I answer all my DMs?

Yep.

I'm pretty. I love it. I love to be social. I love to. And yeah, reach out to me and.

I'll make sure to link everything down below, man. But Sam, I just want to say again, thank you so much. And it's something where since the day we met and when we finally got connected in Los Angeles, man, I definitely look forward to building and growing with you and I know my audience. I'm super glad that we got to collaborate and have you on the show because I've been following your content for a while and definitely means the world to me, man. So thank you so much for coming on. Thanks so much, Sam.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters An Apple original series. The world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me, the most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

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Monarch Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.

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