Bedros Keuilian - How to Cut the Bull and Kick Ass in Business (And in Life)

Boom, boom, Boom. Boom, boom.

What's up, everybody? You're listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast with your boys Mount Wolf and Joe Fear.

We are back for another amazing episode.

Of the Hustle and Flowchart podcast with your hosts, Matt Wolfe and Joe Fear.

Who's that guy? Kick his ass out of the office. We don't need an announcer.

Oh, kick him in the ass. That was secretly me.

I'll still kick you in the ass. Come here.

Come here.

All right, today, we're not gonna kick anybody's asses. Bedros, he's kicking your ass. He likes me. All right, Pedro.

What are you talking about?

Pedro's coolon.

We usually don't cuss this early.

No, we don't. But, you know, I'm feeling good after this podcast day, okay. And especially this episode. Like we were saying, I feel like the time flew.

Yes.

Speaking of Bedros.

No, this is very.

And that's honestly, like, what the hell? Where'd the time go?

No, it was freaky. So we had 45 minutes with Bedros today, and we kind of kept on glancing over at the clock during this conversation, and this conversation went by so fast to us because we were just so. Just so into the conversation, what Bedros had to say. And he's such an eloquent speaker as well. He's just, you know, you can tell he's talked about this stuff a bit.

So he's also. Here's the thing. So Matt and I were actually having lunch right before recording this episode, and Matt was telling me about this kind of this aha moment you had, and it was like, hey, we all have ripple effects when we are acting at our highest caliber, like our highest vibration, our highest energy, whatever you want to call it, you're doing your best, but you're extending that to the world. Like you said, when you go to Starbucks, it might be like a long line. Everybody's all grumpy early in the morning, but you're up there with a smile to the barista or the cashier, and that smile gets passed on maybe to the next customer behind you that might be pissed off. It's not that bad. But the whole idea is, I feel like Bedros is operating at that high frequency, that freaking energy. And you could hear it in the way he speaks. You can his book. Man up.

He's definitely passionate about the topics.

Shit, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. And, you know, he signed up to live a life of passion for what he does, and it comes out in your voice. And I think that just matters so much. So that's that ripple effect that you had. That's why he. That's why I think the time flew too.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, his story is amazing, and good stories make time go by fast. He's a Armenian immigrant who immigrated here when he was 6 and sort of grew up without much money and, you know, made something of himself. So it's a real sort of rags to riches story, and we love stories like that. Now he's the founder of Fit Body Boot Camp, which has over 800 locations.

All over the United States, getting all these awards for entrepreneur magazines and fitness. It's gnarly, man. He lined them all out.

Yeah. He's one of The Entrepreneur magazine's 500 fastest growing franchises in the world. He was on the Inc. 5000. He's worked with NFL athletes and Navy Seals and celebrities and best selling authors. And this dude knows what he's talking about.

Yeah. Great guy. And shout out to Craig Ballantine, too. He was on the show. They're partners. They have a podcast and also a mastermind together. Both those guys, I mean, if you haven't listened to the Craig Ballantyne episode, you know, they speak differently, they have different stories, but they both come from a similar, you know, fitness space. And they weren't together, but they have a similar message. I would say, yeah, so if, you know, listen to this episode, then I would say, go check out Craig Ballantyne's. It's a great follow up and you're gonna love it. You're gonna feel great. Yeah.

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All righty. We're going to stop now. Let's go over to Bedros and get ready for it. He's going to bring it.

Bedros, welcome to the show. How you doing?

Doing well. Thanks for having me.

Of course, man. Yeah. No, this is great. We're just saying Craig Valentine's the awesome guy that connected us. We had a show with him, too.

And he is the ultimate connector. That dude knows a lot of people.

He is. And what, you guys also have a business together, right? Your partner's in something, I believe.

Exactly. Craig and I run the Empire Mastermind, and we also do the Empire podcast show.

Got it. Okay. Very nice. Yeah. And you do quite a bit of other things, too. Got a lot going on. Yeah. So I appreciate you taking the time, and let's. Let's get into it a little bit, because I know you have a fascinating story.

Kind of rags to riches, immigrant, all that. So, I mean, you've gone through a ton of adversity to get to where you're at now with Fit Body, Boot Camp, and All the other ventures, your books.

Let'S take it back to where it kind of all started for you, and we'll kind of pick around from there.

Yeah. Well, where it all really started was my dad deciding that we're going to escape the communist Soviet Union, Armenia, and come to the United States. The year was 1980, and I was 6 years old. And the reason my dad wanted to make this escape was because my brother, who is 14 years older than me, was about to go into the Soviet Army. And if he went there, well, then he'd have to go fight the war in Afghanistan in the 80s. And being Armenian, my dad was like, look, why are we going to fight the Soviet war just because they're occupying our country? So his only goal, being a communist member and being in a communist country was like, I got to get my family out of here. So he bribed the Soviet government, and we escaped into Italy because they were communist sympathizers, so it was easier to go into Italy. Once we got to Italy, we went to the American consul, and my dad said, hey, look, I'm a member of the Communist Party. I don't. I denounce that. My family and I want to enter the United States. And if there's any information you want to pump out of me, well, I'm willing to give you whatever you want. So the US Was like, hey, great. You tell us whatever information you have about communism and the Communist Party, they're in the Soviet Union, and we will legally let you enter the United States in 1980. June 16th, I was six years old. So that was the beginning of what I would call.

My rise. I was 6 years old up until that point. Truth is, guys, I was just a kid.

Yeah, well, yeah, but that's a kid going through some stuff.

Yeah, but I mean, up to the point where we moved to the United States, I was oblivious to any hardships because, believe it or not, my dad did pretty well for himself in Armenia, in the Soviet Union, because he was a member of the Communist Party. So financially, we did well over there. I remember eating caviar on a daily basis. Wake up. And my mom would make hot tea and all this stuff. So we lived well. But the regime that ran the country there, my dad disagreed with, and, of course, his son going into the Soviet Army. So we come to the United States, and very quickly, I go from being this oblivious kid enjoying life to now I'm the foreigner who doesn't speak English. I don't understand the culture. We don't have caviar. And food available to us anymore. We're dumpster diving at the back of grocery stores, taking food out of the dumpsters that are expired but haven't necessarily gone bad yet. And all of a sudden my paradigm has changed. So now at six years old, I start thinking about survival. I start thinking about my dad has to push me up into the dumpsters and I need to pick out the bread, the eggs, the cheese, the milk that hasn't expired or hasn't gone so bad that we can't eat it. And very quickly I grew up. And you add to that the bullying that you go through in school when you're a foreigner. You don't speak the language, you don't understand the culture, you can't assimilate well. And it was a pretty painful upbringing. But then you, of course, Fast forward some 20 years from there and you realize, holy smokes, that adversity, that struggle, the challenges living in Section 8 housing, the bullying, all of that grew me, helped me, built my mental toughness and emotional resilience so much that I was almost destined to become a successful entrepreneur.

Interesting. Yeah. And I would imagine that was a. So, you know, yes, you have your own story. But then your dad just going from what he had there, you know, with the caviar and the lifestyle and all that, to hear dumpster diving, I'm sure that was a profound effect. And how that, you know, with his attitude and his perception, how did that look like? It sounded like he was a very supportive dad. If he's, if you came out, you know, like very strong mentally and fighting through it all, how was he as a good support through that?

Well, I'll tell you what I heard. You know, when you're living, when you're living in section 8 housing and you have like a one bedroom apartment and there's five of you living in there, it's my older brother, older sister, mom and dad and myself. There's not a lot of places to go hide and have a private conversation. So I would hear my mom and dad having these conversations about how are we going to pay what little bills we have, how are we going to be able to make it till next month, how we're going to be able to pay for water or gas because we can't pay for both. And so I would hear this, and then I would hear my brother and my sister crying because they're much older than me. One's 14 years older, one 16 years older. I was the oops baby. Which is why there's such a big gap and, you know, I would hear them crying about how hard it is trying to go to school. Like they were, you know, trying to go to. My brother was trying to go to college, like. Like junior college and taking some free classes to learn the language while working at a gas station and a pizzeria at the same time. And you could imagine the level of bullying and harassment that both he and my sister would get. So I would hear all this, and I would feel the tension, I would feel the anxiety, but I wouldn't. I was six years old, man. I can't do anything about it. So my dad really carried the brunt of all this. He would talk to my sister and like, hey, everything's gonna be okay. We just need to make it in a couple more months. Then he'd sit my brother down. Everything's gonna be okay. And then he'd sit me down and reassure me, like, hey, I know you hear us crying. I know you hear us fighting, but everything's going to be fine. We're in a great country. This country is going to take care of us, and we're going to take care of it. We're going to become Americans. We're going to become citizens. And I don't know if he knew that in his heart or he was just saying that because a dad has to protect his family, but, man, I could only imagine. Like, I tell my wife these days, I'm like, imagine taking Andrew and Chloe. My kids are 12 and 14 and moving to. And today we've got Google Translate and all these things. But. So, you know, I used to say, imagine going to Japan, but now that doesn't even matter. Imagine going to Mars.

Yeah, that's more like it.

And we see all these Martians who have different culture, very different communication skills and abilities, and we are strangers. Like, I'm like, man, but I was the man over there in Southern California. Like, I had this franchise, and I was like, all over the media and now in Mars. Well, I'm going to give my kids a better life. Like, this is scary. Like, that's what it was like for my dad. And I just. I, like, beside myself at the risks that he took. Not only risking his life to escape there, but then the risks he took out here to put a roof over our head and food on the table.

Yeah.

Do you think seeing some of that risk growing up is what instilled the sort of entrepreneurial risk in you? Because, I mean, I would imagine not having a lot when you moved to the US You've sort of experienced It. You know what it feels like to not have a lot. So.

Are you more likely to take big risks, just kind of knowing, okay, I've been there. I've experienced that. And going for it and taking these risks is not that bad.

Dude, you nailed it, Matt. You nailed it. Because that's exactly it. It's the risks that I take today are the risks that I saw my dad take, just on a different level, different capacity. So when all that you're used to, it's like environmental exposure. Right. If all you see in your environment, like kids who come from, like, the Middle east, where all they hear is bombing and bombing and bombing, they come here and they experience an economic crash and an economic downturn, and they're like, why is everyone all pissed off? So what? There's an unemployment rate at least. No one's dropping bombs on us. Like, look at what their reality is. So for me, when all you're used to is having to see your father and your mother trying to figure it out, take risks, all of a sudden you grow up and it's like, oh, entrepreneurism involves figuring things out, solving problems and taking risks. Well, I got that covered.

Yeah, no kidding. It's like, what's the harm in that, man? I'm going to survive. I'll just downgrade my lifestyle if everything goes south or something. Yeah. So how did that look like after you got assimilated a little bit more in America? Got, you know, you grew up, of course, you had to grow up through, I'm sure, some really tough times for a while. What did that look like in terms of you becoming a man for yourself and. And, you know, going to the workplace and all that?

Yeah, so it's funny you say that. So growing up, we moved around a lot because, you know, the state says, hey, now you're going to be in this section 8 housing. Now you're going to be in that one. Which is fine, you know, the first three or four years. So. But I went to three elementary schools within that first three or four years that we lived in the United States, in Southern California. And so every time I would make friends, I was torn away. And then I'm sent to a new school, where, once again, I'm the foreigner at this point. I have an accent, but I could speak English, but I'm just a strange foreign kid coming in. Here's what I didn't know is every time I go to a new school, I knew that sooner or later I'm going to get pulled out again, ripped away from these New friends I'm making. So I work my butt off as quickly as I could to build rapport and build friends. Ironically, as you guys know this, as an entrepreneur, one of the best things you have to be good at is communication and rapport building if you want to sell your product, service or idea, right? And so unbeknownst to me, moving around so much, going to different apartment complexes that we lived in three elementary schools, two junior highs, two high schools, I had to build rapport and make friends so quickly for a multitude of reasons. One, I don't want you to beat me up and bully me because if you like me, you're not going to beat me up. Two, if you like me, you might be my friend. And so I had a lot of reasons to learn to build rapport very quickly. While it was frustrating then, oh my gosh, man, it was such a great superpower because I learned to really influence people early on to get them to like me. And so once again, you look at Robert Cialdini's book, the book Influence and it talks about the six weapons of influence and how they're used in sales and marketing, persuasion. So as I entered the workforce though, for me it was a little different. I was a fat kid throughout high school. I wanted to lose weight so I can go to prom. So I asked a one of the football players who was in my science class, he was my science lab partner. And I said, hey Dave, dude, you're jacked. I'm not. You know, prom's coming up next year. I want to ask this girl Nakaya out to the prom. Any chance you can teach me to work out so I can get in better shape so I can ask her out to the prom next year? It's like, yeah, sure. So he takes me to the school gym, guys, and man, it was the most intimidating environment I had ever been to. Like these dudes who are jacked and they're clanging and banging the weights and they're like grunting and like, oh man, I don't belong here.

It's the grunting is, is the intimidating part, right?

The slamming of the weights. I'm like, are they pissed? He's like, no, no, no, they're just working out. I'm like, are you sure? Because they seem pissed. And so he puts me under the bench press. There's like no weights on the bar. It's a 45 pound bar. And when you don't have that, you know, proprioception and balance, it's like, I'm just like that bar is everywhere. And I'm just embarrassed. I'm like, Dave, take me out of here. I don't want to be here. But I stuck with it. And over the next few months, point out I'm getting stronger, I'm getting leaner and he's teaching me to eat healthier. So while the next year, senior year, I never asked out Nakaya to the prom and I never went to the prom. I was just too shy to ask her out, dude. My whole trajectory in life changed because I decided I'm going to become a personal trainer. And so I got certified as a personal trainer. I saw a little ad in a muscle magazine that said, you know, earn $100 an hour as a personal trainer. I'm like, shit, I could do the math. Six clients a day at $100, that's 600 bucks a day. I'm going to be a millionaire, right?

Not realizing again how much marketing and sales and persuasion is involved. So as I was a personal trainer at the LA Fitness in La Habra back then, young, 20 something year old, early 20s. I also had a job at Disneyland as a fry cook. And then I also had a job as a bouncer at a, at a gay bar. The gay bar paid more than the street bar.

Nice.

And it's the running joke is. Then I go, and that's how I met Craig.

I would say that at our, at our mastermind and he just cringes, but.

He knows it's coming.

Like 12 years now. The same joke for 12 years never gets old. And so, and so thankfully, and here, dude, it's so funny, man. When you.

I don't know if it's serendipitous. I don't know if it's one of those things that once you set your intentions because I'm not the most woo woo person, like, oh man, law of attraction. Set my intentions and good things will happen. But I was like, I want to be my own person. I don't want to have a job. I didn't like my manager at Disneyland. I didn't like getting in fights at the bar. Just because I was a big guy didn't mean I like to fight. I was hoping people would just drink and have a good time, not get in the fight. Right. And then the third and final thing was working at LA Fitness as a personal trainer. Dude, you make 12 bucks an hour while they're charging the client $65 for that hour.

Doing the math again.

You're like, hey, that's not how that ad worked. You know the ads that I make 100 bucks an hour. Well, that's if you work for yourself and if you're really good. So thankfully, you know, I set my intentions like, I want to be my own boss. I don't want to have these multiple jobs. I want to be have my own gym. And lo and behold, one of my personal training clients, his name is James Franco, not the actor.

Stinks of it maybe.

So Jim for short, he's like, listen, you don't know how to sell, and this is why you have those two side jobs. And I said, jim, I beg to differ. I do know how to sell. I sold you on a six month training program. He goes, no, you didn't. You're an order taker. I knew I wanted to work out for six months. I knew I wanted to be in here three days a week. And you fulfilled my order. And I was like, oh, my God, he's absolutely right. I'm just an order taker. I'm letting actual people walk away who I should be selling and converting into paying clients, which is why I have two side jobs. And once I had that epiphany. So I said, well, Jim, then what do I do? And I. And I said it almost condescendingly, like, you know, like I didn't expect an answer. He goes, well, I'm going to bring you cassette tape and you're going to listen to it, dummy. And he was a very firm, older gentleman. So just to give you guys an idea, talk about how serendipitous this was, this was happening 25 years ago or 22 years ago now. And just two months ago, I had Jim Franco come back to my office here and give him a tour of my office. And the guy was a millionaire back then, and he still has his company and doing well and in his 80s now. So he was in his 60s when I was in my 20s, and he's in his 80s now. And I put him on my podcast, the Empire show, and it was one of our most popular podcasts. I talk about Jim in my book. I talk about him on these podcasts. And now, you know, Jim's right there live in our studio, but he brought me a Tom Hopkins sales tape. And Tom Hopkins was teaching real estate sales. And he said, look, every time he says real estate, I want you to hear fitness and personal training. And that led to Brian Tracy, and that led to Zig Ziglar. Before you know it, Jim Franco's bringing me all these cassette tapes and all of his sales resources and just mentoring me, mentoring me for no reason. He's the one paying me to train him, but he stays after his workouts to mentor me. Well, fast forward about six months. I go, jim, I'm so pumped. I'm closing people left and right. I don't have my side jobs anymore. I'm full time personal trainer here. I think I want to open up my own personal training studio. He goes, great, I'm going to loan you the money, and you're going to. I'm going to be your business partner. So he was my business partner in my first studio. After that, I opened up four more on my own. And really, the path was just all I want to do is serve people through fitness. Because once Dave in high school helped me get fit. Yeah, my body transformed, and that was great. I got leaner, stronger, more muscular, more athletic. But the biggest thing I got, guys, was confidence. I was starting to look people in the eye. My senior year of high school. I was more social. I was looking people in the eye. I felt more confident. I walked with more confidence. I had the sense of credibility about myself that, like.

I can set my mind to something and get it done. Because I had set my mind to losing 30 pounds, and I'd done it that summer. And so, you know, now Jim Franco believes in me like this millionaire believes in me, which was like the first time I'd ever even met a millionaire and becomes my business partner. And the rest was history. All I wanted to do is help more people build confidence, change their bodies, live healthier lives, and, you know, you Fast forward another 20 years from there, and here we are, you know, Fit Body Boot camp with nearly 800 locations worldwide. And, you know, I wrote my book, man up, which became a Wall street journal bestseller. 20,000 books sold in the first six months. And it's like, I'm the Cinderella man right now. But when I think about it, the moral of the story is mentors. I had Dave Sanborn, who was the high school football star. He wasn't even a star. He was the center of the football team. So it's not like he was a quarterback. He just mentored me in the gym. And then Jim Franco mentored me in entrepreneurship. And since then, I've had great friends and mentors like Frank Kern and Dan Kennedy and Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan, Craig Ballantyne. All these names that I'm mentioning are not only friends, but also mentors who I've actually paid all those names. My business partner, Craig Valentine. I paid him to mentor me. He paid me to mentor him. Years later, as my business took off and I got better at selling high ticket prices. So the point of this is, without mentors, you're not getting anywhere, man.

Right? Yeah. And that's what I was thinking when you were talking about the story of lifting weights. And then you did not ask the girl to prom. You didn't even go to prom because you were nervous and all that. Immediately, I was thinking, I was like, oh, shit, okay. He had to battle through some self confidence issues and things that were deep seated in there. It wasn't just lifting the weights and getting in the gym. But obviously you had something that attracted these mentors to you, that allowed them to trust you and stick with you. What do you think that was that got their trust?

You know, in that moment, you can't tell, right? Because I remember actually thinking to myself, like, I don't want to waste Dave's time in the gym, because, look, I'm one of those guys that I care about not wasting your time. So I remember thinking to myself, I don't want to waste Dave's time in the gym. I don't want to waste Jim Franco's time. Like, why is he investing in me? Like, what does he see in me that I don't? I later realized, because hindsight's always 20 20, I had this drive, I just had this hunger. Like, they saw the hunger. But if you can take a hungry person who's like, man, I'm ready to run 100 miles, like, I've got the ability, I've got the desire. I'm hungry. I will run 100 miles or I will die. Coach. The only problem is I don't know which way to run and where the point of destination is. And you're like, well, shit, that's easy. You're going to run that way. And you'll know you're there when you see a red cone. Oh, my God, Great. Put me in. Put me in, right? And that's what these guys did. They saw the hunger and the drive, which, you know, I. I didn't see that in myself. Sometimes we're blind to our own talents, to our own abilities. And so now today, I mentor so many young kids, and they're like, man, you know, why do you. Why do you mentor me? I'm like, well, your mom was one of my personal training clients. And now you're 21 years old, and you were 10 years old on a skateboard when your mom would bring you to my gym and you would ride the skateboard. Like, there's a guy named Leighton, a little African American kid, he's 21 years old now, and he's got this amazing talent of, like.

Design of clothing. He designs clothes and tries to sell them to, like, Men's Warehouse, Etc. 21 years old, he has yet to make his big sale. But he was 10 years old on a skateboard in front of my gym when I was training his mom years ago. She was a nurse and, you know, she reached out to me and goes, hey, you know, Leighton wants to be an entrepreneur in the design and merchandising field. I'm like, send him on over to my office. So he comes once a month in my office. We right at five o' clock, when the office closes, we hang out for an hour. I give him some guidance and the young man's producing things. And just like he asked me, he goes, what do you see in me? I go, well, one, I feel like if you've got the same drive that your mom did or about her fitness, like, you're going to succeed. Number two, if I can help you avoid the mistakes that most people make, because I'm going to guide you along, dude, you're going to time collapse. You're going to get results in your 20s, when I got it in my 30s as an entrepreneur. So it's such a good feeling.

Yeah, yeah. In that drive, I mean, do you think that's something? Obviously there's a lot of that in people inherently, but is there something that maybe an outside influence or something you've been able to nail down? You're like, okay, that's. That's really kind of the ticket when it comes to having the right drive and then, of course, attracting someone that can give you the process because the process is key. Like you were saying, it's kind of the in between now and that cone at, you know, 100 miles away.

Well, you know, what's funny is you really make a good point there. That drive is only there for certain things, because if you're like, hey, Bedros, I want you to be driven for, oh, I don't know, working at a department store or, hell, even owning a department store. Like, ah, guys, I don't want. Or how about pizza? I love eating pizza, but I don't want to own a pizza shop. But man, I had drive for that one thing, which was fitness. Like, I knew that fitness was going to change my life. When I was a fat kid, I knew fitness would change my life. I don't know how I knew that, but I knew, like, if I could just get in better Shape, shape. I'll feel better about myself. Maybe that's a little self awareness or something, but. So most of us are driven. Like, I believe every single person on this planet is driven. It's just when you put yourself in the wrong lane and you're chasing the wrong thing and you're not excited about it, you're not driven for it. But I happen to find what drives me early on, which was fitness, specifically helping people get fit, work on their bodies, their mindset, their nutrition, because I knew it would impact then their mental toughness, emotional resilience, and their ability to do more, be more, get more. I really help people. Not intentionally, but I've had wives come to me and go, you know, I've been working with you for two years. And what you don't realize is you saved my marriage. Or a gentleman said, hey, you know what? After I got in better shape, I took my business more serious, started making more money. You saved my business from going bankrupt. I'm like, I did. I'm just a freaking personal. I did. I'm just a trainer, man. But I realized in that point that when you change, your body is a representation of what's going on in your brain and your mindset. That's it, your physicality, your body. Like, if I told you, dude, you can only pick one car the rest of your lives, like one car the rest of your life, you would be like, all right, man, I'm going to pick that car. I'm going to take such good care of it, wash it, oil, change it, change the tires, maintain it. This has got to last me the rest of my life. Well, we know that about our body. This is the only vehicle we have for the next hundred years or so that we're going to be on this planet. So if you're willing to abuse it, let your blood pressure go up and diabetes and cancer and this, that and the other, and you're not eating right, you're taking all these stimulants and alcohol, whatever. It's not because you're poorly disciplined or whatever. There's probably something going on in your life that is causing you to abuse your body. Because you simply wouldn't. It's the only vehicle you have. And so I found that when we start working on our fitness and we go, can I push one more rep? No, I don't think I can. I think you can, coach. All right, go for it. You do. Holy crap, I did that. Maybe I can address that conversation with my spouse. Maybe I can go into work and make Two more cold calls. Maybe I can give up alcohol. Maybe I can give up pornography. And I've seen so many people's lives change in different capacities in marriage and money and mindset just by wanting to change their body.

Yeah, it's so interesting. Joe and I were actually just having a conversation over lunch a few minutes ago about this sort of ripple effect that happens that most people don't even realize is happening. And just little things that you do have much bigger consequences, negative or positive, that you don't even realize. And what you were just saying there about how you help somebody get in better shape and that had this sort of ripple effect that went to their business and their relationships and everything else in your mind, you're probably just thinking, all right, I'm going to help this person, person get in better health. But that ripple effect that you created for that person changed their life in so many other ways. And I think that's. That's something that, that entrepreneurs have the power to do, but I don't think they realize it enough or they don't lean into it enough.

You're right. They don't lean into it enough. And, you know, as Craig and I, we have that empire mastermind, and people come to the mastermind and you know, well, hey, I want. I want to. I want to get more leads. I want to convert those leads into more, More paying clients or patients. Some of them are dentists and doctors, chiropractors, et cetera. It's like, okay, great, fantastic. So what do you say we work out after this, this mastermind session, and then we'll go to dinner. Wait, work out? Yeah, work out. Told you to bring workout clothes. But wait, why? This is a mastermind about business development. Sure is. But let's just work out, and you're going to understand why. And we get to see the changes happen very quickly. Because when you're willing to invest in your body, build your confidence, push yourself through adversity. Hey, that burns. I'm sweating. It's uncomfortable. It's intimidating being in the gym. And if you're willing to do all those things, well, guess what? In business, it burns. It's uncomfortable. It's intimidating sometimes. But when you push through it, just like you did in the gym in a controlled environment, you all of a sudden begin to see the success. And it's so funny that I'm probably one of the rare business coaches, consultants, myself and Craig, because he comes from the fitness world, too.

Where.

Because we come from the fitness world. It's such a very Large piece of what we do. You look at Jocko Willink, right? He lives right out there in San Diego with you guys. And, well, Jocko's all about discipline and structure and leadership. I didn't hear anything about fitness, but you look at 90% of his posts, and it's about the workout that he did at a hotel, the workout that he did in his garage. Because if you can win that battle and get a W there, you're going to get more W's throughout the day, man. And that discipline carries on, because how you do anything is how you do everything.

Yeah. No, it's so true. And, you know, I do. I work out at home. I have a whole home gym, but I get programming from a coach remotely. But he's a buddy of mine. He always checks in. I've noticed since doing that and sticking with that, you know, that consistent schedule, it definitely has ripple effects everywhere. Just, you know, the procedural. Just a routine. And like you said, it's a W on the day. And I, like, even, you know, like, what Jocko's doing is even a step further is like, hey, some accountability. It's like, throw it out there on Instagram. If. If, you know, if he stops posting that, I'm sure people would start questioning Jocko a little bit, bro.

Exactly. Think about that. So many of us are like, wow, look how disciplined he is. But I bet he's getting the greatest value from. In fact, not. I bet. I know for a fact, because I know him, and he spoke at an event of ours recently.

Yeah.

And I'm like, hey, you do realize you're getting the most out of that, right? Every time you post your watch at 4:06 or 4:30 or whatever, he's like, yep. Like, I know that I'm being held accountable by whatever, hundreds of thousands of people.

Yeah.

And that's the bottom line. Because when you set your intentions and then you say, hey, people, hold me accountable. And that's what a mastermind is. This is why people are like, why does the mastermind coaching program work so well? Because if we're going to see each other every hundred days, guys, you're not going to take your marching orders and then go and do nothing. Because you know we're going to see each other in 100 days. You don't want to be the person that comes back and go, hey, boss, I did nothing.

Yeah.

That accountability, public accountability does hold our feet to the fire.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that. Now I want to talk about the Fit Body Bootcamp for a Minute is, is Fit Body Bootcamp, Is it essentially just what you were doing back when you started your own personal training gym? Is this just kind of the evolution and consistent optimization of that and, you know, figuring out how to essentially scale that was. Is that how Fit Body Boot Count came to be?

Yeah, that's a good question. I wish I was smart enough to run a program like Fit Body Boot Camp when I was first starting out. Think about this kind of old school, right? Old school personal training model was this. You pay for five sessions to a personal trainer. Each session is one hour long and each session is one on one. You know, so it's Joe and Bedros working out in the gym, one on one. And then when you're out of those five sessions, Bedros puts on a sales hat again and goes, hey, Joe, you want to buy some more sessions? And you're like, ah, think about it, whatever objections. And then I get passive aggressive. I'm like, are you sure? So it's like, that's not a reliable way to make money for a trainer. So I quickly, over time, with Jim Franco as my mentor, he's like. And he always called me kid. He goes, hey, kid, why are we doing selling five and 10 sessions at a time? I'm like, well, Jim, that's, that's how the industry works. He goes, well, my gym membership, I pay on a monthly basis. They just take it on my credit card every month. And I was so, I was so insulted. I'm like, Jim, that's $40 a month. One on one. Personal training is like five, six, seven hundred dollars a month, depending on how many times you work with that trainer. No one could afford that. He goes, I could. And all of your other clients could. They're all well to do. I'm like, so I was projecting because I couldn't afford it. I was projecting that well, no one else could. Well, guess what? Today I'm in a place where I can't afford that. And as it turns out, there's millions of other people just like you and me that can afford that kind of money. So very quickly we started putting our clients on what's known as eft, Electronic fund transfer. And when we did that in my gyms, because ultimately I built it out to five gyms throughout San Diego. It was all in North County, San Marcos, Vista, Escondido, et cetera, small personal training studios.

Dude, that was a saving grace because this other brand of gyms that was growing came through and bought me out. Not because of our name Premier results, not because of any other thing other than we had clients committed to 12 month contracts. In other words, they're gonna pay 3, 4, 5, 6, $800 a month. So one, think about that. Like Jim Franco taught me one lesson to go from selling handfuls of sessions to reoccurring sessions. And now I was able to sell my business for multiples of what it was making. Number one. Number two, he goes, challenge me again. Why are we doing 60 minute sessions when you just have trained me really fast and get it done in 30 minutes. I'm like, shit, you're right. Why aren't we doing 30 minute workouts so ironically today? And of course, the third challenge he put me against was, this is boring. Can we do it in a group environment? Wouldn't it be cheaper? The economy has just crashed. So when the economy crashed in 2007, as you can imagine, lots of people who could afford one on one training could no longer afford it. So what do you do? You have to then train them in a group environment so that you as a trainer can make the same amount of money. But instead of one on one, maybe it's one on five, one on 10, one in 30. And so that's when I said, like, look, there's these outdoor boot camps happening. What if I move the outdoor boot camps into work? It's, you know, we can train 20 to 30 people at a time. One coach, 20, 30 clients. Now we can charge 150 bucks a month. You can come five, six days a week. That's indoor. So it's weatherproof. We could have it across the country. And we can make 30 minute workouts. Call it, you know, high intensity interval training. Because we knew what that was about back then. We just didn't think that clients could do it. We thought, Mrs. Jones, you know, we always call Mrs. Jones in the industry. Well, athletes can do high intensity interval training, hit training, but Mrs. Jones can't guess what she can. So they're now 30 minute sessions, 150amonth group training, and they're paying on monthly basis with EFT electronic fund transfer. And when we brought that outdoor boot camp Indoors, guys, in 2010, because I tested the model for two years myself, opened up some locations throughout coastal Costa Mesa in south Orange county. Like, holy crap, this works. So then we officially became a franchise in 2012 and made fit Body Boot Camp the new face of personal training. So we don't call them classes still, we call them sessions because the class is free. You can go to your big box gym and get a Free class.

Yeah. So you're making, you're separating yourself from, from the other competitors out there. More or less.

Exactly. Big point of differentiation. Massive point of differentiation. We do everything that a personal trainer does, but on a group level. So if you're, if you don't show up to your workout, we're going to follow up and call you just like I would as a one on one personal trainer.

Yep.

If you miss your nutrition plan is off track, we're going to have what's known as nag meetings, nutrition and accountability meetings. We have that built in.

I like it.

Right. Because we know that 80% of your results come from nutrition. So the class doesn't do that. So we call them sessions, we treat them like personal training. But it's done on a mass level, one on many instead of one on one. And it becomes more convenient and affordable. And all of a sudden Fit Body Bootcamp just takes off. And all of a sudden from 2012 to 2019, we grew to 800 locations. We hit the Inc. 5000 list three times in a row. We just hit Entrepreneur magazine's list for the third year in a row. Entrepreneur 500 fast growing franchises out of 175,000 franchise brands out there. And we're talking, you know, under a decade in doing that. And it's because we've got a product that works, it's affordable, it's convenient and it's weatherproof. It's not outdoors anymore. We brought it indoors and their storefronts.

I love it. Yeah. I actually had a, a stint where I was a member of Fit Body Boot Camp. I didn't know you were the person behind Fit Body Boot Camp at the time. I've actually heard your name going way back. I, I studied Joe Polish's stuff back in like 2009 and I think Joe Polish was, was mentioning you and some of his materials way back then. And I never actually made the connection until just recently that Fit Body Bootcamp and Bedros were connected, but I was actually a member for a little bit.

That's awesome, man. What a small world, huh?

Yeah, no, it is. And I just love what you've done in a space that's obviously highly competitive. You know, you have the CrossFit gyms of the world and all these other variations of that. And I know a lot of people who've been owners of CrossFit gyms and it's not the easiest business to run. It's very difficult for, you know, people kind of doing it themselves. But with a model like yours, you're hitting all of these points, and I love that you keep challenging yourself or Jim, you know, challenges you. But I'm sure that you're challenging yourself as well all the time. I'm curious, like, what are some challenges that you instill in yourself to this day? Like, are there new challenges that you're always, I guess, a couple that you're working through that you know, for some breakthroughs that you want to get well?

So it's funny you say that, right? Because I never want to settle. So it's. I've got this little kind of mantra that goes, never peak. The best is yet to come. And I really believe in that. And here's where I came up with that. I was watching the Sopranos, I don't know, about six, seven years ago, I rewatched the season or the whole thing. And it's funny, just like a book, when you reread a book a second or third time, you catch new information. And I was watching the Sopranos, and there was this particular episode. Tony Soprano says he's having a conversation with someone and he goes, hey, you know, just so you know, remember when is the lowest form of conversation that any two people can have. And the guy goes, really? What do you mean? He goes, you know, remember when. Like, remember when I was the best quarterback? Remember when I had hair? Remember when I was leaner and more muscular? And I realized in that moment, so many of us kind of peak too early on in life, and we start looking at our heydays as behind us as, remember when I was in better shape and, you know, made more money and better health, et cetera? And I was like, you know what? I'm going to live a life where I never peak. My whole goal is going to be to never peak. The best of me is yet to come. And if I do it right, right around the age of 100, I'm going to have learned one more language, and then I'm going to take my last breath and die. And so I was like, all right, I'm going to never peak. The best is yet to come. And that's. That mantra is actually written in my current gym that I have. I have my own private gym called BK sp, about three miles from my office here. Me and the staff here go work out. And it's, you know, giant, you know, lettering across the walls, because I really believe that you got to always challenge yourself. So here's how I challenge myself physically. Because, look, I don't have a tough life anymore. The reality is I'm not an immigrant. I mean, I'm an immigrant, but I don't live an immigrant life. I, I'm either taking charter to someplace or I'm first class. My family and I travel the world together. I have a great business, a great life, my own chauffeur. So what do I do to stay hard in a life that's pretty easy? I put myself through these six week challenges about three times a year. So most recently I just finished a six week jujitsu challenge. And having never been choked out by someone in my life, imagine getting choked out six weeks straight. Pretty much when you're you and a black belt in my private gym three times a week for two hours at a time. And it is the most uncomfortable thing. So I've done train for six weeks, run a marathon train for six weeks, get in the cage with an MMA fighter. And while it's scary, it's uncomfortable. I'm challenging myself. And yeah, all these challenges are definitely physical challenges. I've done a Rubik's coupe challenge. My son is a Speed Cooper and so he, you know, six weeks speed Cuber.

That's awesome.

It's an actual thing. Believe it or not, they have competition, man. Yeah, like 19 seconds. He can solve the rubies, Cube.

Oh, crazy.

You can go down a rabbit, Hol.

We'll stop there.

I know we're short of that.

I'm curious, but so I was like, all right, I'm going to keep putting myself through adversity because my life growing up had a lot of adversity and it made me mentally, physically, emotionally stronger. Well, how do I do that? To stay hard and not soft, I have to put myself through adversity. So I do. Now, on the business side of it, I realized, okay, well, I don't want my business to be like the CrossFit F45 orange theory. So what do I need to do to make it different? Well, we know that when a client works out at my gym, they get all the attention, the accountability, the support. But what happens when they're gone the other 23 and a half hours of the of the day? Because they only work out at a fit body boot camp. They're 30 minute sessions. So we're creating artificial intelligence now where, you know they're going to have an app where arty, which is the first four letters of artificial intelligence, and arty stands for advanced results through intelligence. And arty is with you everywhere. So when you download about two years from now, here's we're working on this, you download The Fit Body app. And Arty, it's just literally like a little character that's with you all the time. You go to the grocery store, it knows where you are because it can geo track, and it says, hey, look, this is what's on your food list. Why don't you go buy it? I can see you're in a grocery store. Hey, look, I see you're at Mastro Steakhouse. All right, here's the foods we look at their menu. Here's the foods on their menu that you should eat. Here's the foods you want to avoid.

Wow.

When you leave Mastros, it can tell, right? Just because we can tell where you are, we can geotrack you. So, hey, you left. Did you follow the nutrition program? And you go, no, I didn't. I had a couple glasses of wine, and then, you know, it all went. Went hell in the hand basket. And I ate all the bread, and I had all the fried chicken. Whatever. All right, no worries. We're gonna let your Fit Body boot camp coaches know to adjust your workouts and your nutrition over the next few days to counterbalance that. And no one is doing that. Not one on one. Personal trainers. Because I was a real good personal trainer. I should be hanging out with you all day long and saying, don't eat that, guys. Okay, now eat that. Okay, now you got to drink more water. And so Artie's job is to do that. So I'm constantly pushing the envelope in my business, in our industry and saying, what else? Like Mrs. Jones, we tell her to meal prep. Is she really going to meal prep? Because I found that in business, there's do it yourself, and there's done for you. When I teach you to do it yourself, you may. You may not, because you might use the excuse of, well, I don't have time. I didn't get a chance. I didn't sleep well last night. All right, how about done for you? So we started. We partnered up with Icon Meals. Icon Meals is the largest meal prep company in the world. Flash freezes food, dry ices it, and then sends it to you based on your macros. So all you have to do is literally put it in the microwave and then take a little plastic wrap off and eat it.

Yep.

And. And so my buddy Todd, who runs Icon, I'm like, hey, Todd, like, you're gonna need to send this all over the country. He goes, I got you. So now we have Fit Body supplements. We have Icon Meals that's going to be powered powering Fit Body Meals. We're going to have Artie, that's going to be your personal trainer with you 24, 7, 365. And, like, that's where fit by to boot camp is headed. Like, I don't give a crap about Uber. Tracking your heart rate. Like, all those goofy little Fitbit. They're just great to get your attention for a moment. I know that if I give you results, you will stay. Because that's what I do with my coaching clients when I give them results. You pay me 50 grand a year, you pay me and Craig 50 grand a year, and then we turn that 50 grand into half a million or a million or whatever for you, because you're doing the work based on our marching orders. You stay around, our coaching clients stay around for a long time. Well, great. We're going to do that in the gym as well. We're going to give you your results and not just access to a facility. And you will stick around, you will pay, stay and refer. And that's how our business grows.

Wow. Wow. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. And that's just awesome. You're covering the other 23 and a half hours of the day and just imagine how much more trust, results and all that can come of it. So awesome, man.

I can't wait to see it, by the way. And no matter the industry, it doesn't matter if it's fitness or nutrition or, you know, traffic buying the industry dentists, like, what are you doing that's so massively different? Like, radically different. Not just kind of different. Oh, well, you know, we also give you a mouthpiece when you leave our dental practice and so you don't grind your teeth. Like, fuck that shit. That's stupid.

Here's a free toothbrush.

Way better than that. It's way better than that. Like, differentiate yourself so much that you can't be helped, but love.

That's a good way to end it right there.

So we're out of time here, but before we jump off, I want to make sure people know where they can go and learn more about you and what you're doing. Obviously you've got Fit Body Boot Camp, but where else can people go learn more about you?

Yeah, so the best place to go learn more about me is my book title, manup.com or to just follow me on Instagram.

Awesome, man. And can you do like a quick, like 30 second about your book? Because man up. I mean, this thing, it just seems like it's. It's wrapped around everything you've been talking about. Just give me A short little synopsis so people can go grab that too.

Yeah, absolutely. So I believe people on this planet are broken down two categories. Crop dusters and fighter jets. Crop dusters are people who hit the snooze button, who say they're going to wake up and work out or make the phone calls or eat the. Eat perfect that day, or open the door for their wives, whatever it is. They're. They basically, they're promise breakers. And they are okay with just being average and mediocrity. And it's not because they're not meant to be fighter jets. It's because they were declawed and defamed by their parents, grandparents, the school system, who just sets the bar to mediocrity. And then fighter jets are people who are organically hungry, starving, or maybe they're raised by parents who are just type A, driven, motivated. Like, hey, if you hit the snooze button, you're a loser. Like, I do not hit the snooze button. I teach my kids not to hit the snooze button. They are not allowed to do that because that's the first promise you're breaking to yourself. That means you're going to have. That's the first L instead of the first W that you get. Right? So I said, all right, well, then I'm going to create the. Write this book called man up. Man up to your highest potential. It's man up, Woman up, Human up. That's where the man up comes from. Human up to your highest potential. And there's six pillars of peak performance and leadership. And so in the book, I talk about the six pillars of peak performance and leadership where anyone who's a fighter jet can become a better version of a fighter jet. And anyone who's a crop duster but feels that gnawing desire to. I know I have greater potential. I'm meant for more. Well, then you follow these six pillars and you will become the fighter jet you're meant to be.

Bam. Amazing. Everybody go check out Man Up. Thank you so much, Bedros. You've been very generous with your time. I know we've already kind of gone a couple minutes over here, so thanks so much again. We really, really appreciate it.

You rock, man. Thank you.

Appreciate it, guys. Thank you so much, fellas.

Yeah, man. Have a good one.

You too. Bye bye.

Hey, hey, hey. Thank you for listening to that episode. This is Joe Fear. I'm sure you probably already knew that. And Matt is not here right now, but I. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the episode just as much as you and I did, because, you know, he went into the production of kind of making that thing right along with me. So thank you very much. And I want to give a quick shout out to our buddies over at Easy Webinar. These guys have been supporting us for a while, a long time. And Casey Zieman is just a super good guy all around. He's actually been on the show before. He's the founder of EZ Webinar. So if you look up Casey Zeman and on any podcast platform you're listening to, go check him out. Go check out his backstory, what he's all about. You can learn a lot about webinars as well. And right now, Easy Webinar, these guys are actually hooking you up with a great trial. It's a completely free trial to test out their software, Soup to nuts. Check it all out and see if it's a good fit for you. If you go to easywebinar.com hustle, that's H, U S T L E. If you didn't know how to spell hustle, there you go. So if you go to EasyWebinar.com hustle, you can go grab a free trial. And EZ webinar literally lives up to its name. It's super simple. I mean, super easy. And it does all the stuff that you're looking for in any kind of thing with webinars, I mean, they literally cover every single type of webinar you possibly can do. So from live to automated to scheduled at specific times, and all these crazy features in between, I can't even list them all out. I'll be here way too long. They give you a ton of advanced analytics. What's working, what's not. During your webinar. Based off all these actions, you'll see who attended, how long they stayed, if they clicked the offer or if they didn't, Basically, you're gonna make more money and you're gonna work less with this thing and you're gonna create better relationships with the folks that are listening because it's a good experience. You wanna give that good experience along with some great content about. Of course. And a killer offer if that's what you got for them. So go try it out yourself. Go check out easywebinar.com hustle. That's easywebinar.com hustole. Alrighty. So that is the end of this episode. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, enjoying it. Hopefully you did. I'm pretty sure you did. If you lasted this long and go check out Easy Webinar when you get the chance and we will talk to you next time. Bye Bye.

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