Bedros Keuilian: The Time Freedom Blueprint to Scale Your Business

Most people try and figure out how can I increase sales? How can I drive leads? Forget the how. Elon Musk is not asking how can I bolt on more tires on a Tesla? He's saying who can do this for me? As entrepreneurs, once we figure out who can do this for me instead of how can they do it, that gives you so much time freedom.

Pedro, welcome to the Earn Your Happy podcast. Thank you so much for driving here.

Yes. First off, thank you for the opportunity. And it's great to be here in your beautiful home.

Oh, thank you so much. And we just said we're sitting here. For those of you who can't see or aren't watching on YouTube, we have two giant sheepadoodles who are keeping you company. We have Bananas and Bonkers.

Bananas and Bonkers.

We should have named them Zen and Calm is what we decided, because they're living, they're living into their names. Um, but I'm so excited to have you here today and in person, because you and I, I feel like we've gotten— I feel like I've— how long have we known each other? We met—

well, you spoke at, I think it was Fitness Business Summit 2014, '15.

Oh my God, it was, it was around my book, so it was around that time.

Yeah. Yeah, it's gotta be, if not a decade, close to a decade that we've known each other. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And I've always resonated with you because you are like the extreme of, for me, this is my perception of you. Like, I love that you can be so hardcore, such a badass, like kick our butts back into gear. But also you are one of the most sweet, compassionate, caring, generous people I've ever met.

Thank you.

And I think that just dichotomy is so incredible that you can hold Both of those.

I appreciate that.

Were you always that way?

I think so. As I look back to my life, I realize I was always that way. I'm very— so my personality type is INTJ, right? And the J stands for judicial. So I'm very judicial, very structured. But being introverted and a thinker, I am, right? Introverted thinker, intuitive, judicial, and a thinker. I like I like to think I always put myself in the other person's shoes versus thinking like, you know, they're trying to do me wrong. I always go, why does it feel like I'm being wronged right now?

That's huge.

What is their perspective? And so being able to put myself in other people's shoes has made me empathetic and compassionate. But being judicial and structured, I can get up someone's ass and I get up my own ass. Like I'm my worst critic. Like I can beat myself up. To a pulp, which the older I get— now I'm 50— I've become so much better at showing myself grace. Uh, but anyway, so I've, I've had this good fortune to be able to be very strict and intense and compassionate and empathetic at the same time. And I hear that from a lot of people, and I'm massively grateful for it. By the way, do you know how you, me, and Chris met? Do you remember? I thought it was Lewis. Yes. Okay, at Lewis House's mastermind. It was in Santa Monica, right? And I remember meeting you guys and just like feeling such good energy off you guys. And then it was after that that, that, you know, our relationship and friendship blossomed. And here we are a decade later.

I love that. Oh my God, there's not a— I mean, honestly, I'm such like a— in business too, I really, I resonate a lot with women, obviously, because they're on the same path as me. But something about you came, you came in and you were talking and I was like, I feel so connected to this human. But I also think it's a lot of just learning about you and your background and just a lot of the different ways that you talk about how you've turned kind of your journey and some of the pain and the different things that you've gone through into so much of your purpose that I feel like I think like you in certain ways. So I love hearing how you think.

Yeah.

Just to catch people up, can you share with people a little bit about how you got into starting your business?

Yeah, well, the, the business that I'm in right now is, is kind of broad because I own 7 companies. When I think about all the companies, 6 out of the 7 are all about empowering and building people up, whether it's my supplement company, whether it's our Fit Body Bootcamp franchise with over 500 locations, uh, Fuel Hunt Apparel, which is all, you know, a community of hard workers. But I've always— and I think we both started off as personal trainers. Did you start, right? So I started off as a personal trainer, and that young naive trainer in me was like, because I was a fat kid throughout high school, I lost weight and got fit working out my senior year because one of the football players from my high school, he was in science class with me. And so we made friends, and I'm like, dude, you're fit, you're jacked. How do I get fit and jacked? Because I'm built like a pumpkin, you know, like just fat.

And I'm remembering now why I resonated with you. I was built like a pumpkin.

There you go, there you go. We have, we have that, uh, but our, our shapes are definitely different now. And he, he was kind enough to take me into the school gym, and he was kind enough to teach me how to— I had no idea what macros are and proteins. I just ate whatever my Armenian mom put in front of me, right? Just a lot of ethnic food, especially being an immigrant to this country. Like, you don't, you don't turn your nose away from food. You eat whatever's in front of you. And so I grew up fat. And when I graduated high school, I was like, I don't know what I want to do with my life, but I do know that I want to help more people achieve this transformation that I did. More than the physical thing, I was like, man, I feel more confident. I feel a higher sense of self-worth, right? Anyone that's lost— because I lost like 40 pounds, like that's a substantial amount of weight for a young man. And all of a sudden you're no longer invisible. You go from like the whole school didn't see me to a senior at the end of senior year. Like, you know, girls are noticing me, guys are giving me attention, and it felt good.

Yeah.

And I realized I have higher levels of self-worth, self-esteem, confidence. And I said, I want to be a certified personal trainer. Well, that led to, you know, when you're a personal trainer, in between sets, you're having dialogue with your clients.

Totally.

And the dialogue, you get to learn about their life, their insecurities, their fears, their frustrations, their desires. And in between training them, I would just kind of give them advice. I would get advice from one coaching personal training client who was an entrepreneur and give advice to this personal training client. And I'd pass just information along to each other about life. And I realized more than training them on fitness and nutrition, I enjoy this whole, like, teaching them to become a better version of themselves.

Oh my God, same.

Right. And as months would go by, you know, you would hear the client go, you know, I finally had enough balls to go and ask for that raise. Thank you for motivating me. I'm like, I motivated you to go ask for the raise? Well, yeah. You know, these talks that we've been having. And so I realized I love building people up and helping them transform. And so today all my companies are run by leaders. You know, Bryce, he coached with you guys. He's amazing.

Yes.

My CEO, Jeff. I don't know if you've met Jeff. He runs my supplement company. He's the VP of my supplement company. Joan, Ed's wife, runs my coaching consulting company that does $10 million a year. And so I've got leaders running my companies, which gives me the opportunity to then do podcasts, write books, speak on stages, and then I coach and consult. Other entrepreneurs who are high-performing and who want to get to a place that I have gotten to with less bumps, bruises, scars, scrapes, and financial loss. Mm-hmm. And so I really enjoy coaching and consulting because I get to take the lessons from my life and my business, apply it to someone else's business. And because I work with a breadth of different coaching clients from different industries, what may work in your industry might be completely unseen.

Totally.

And I can take that and teach this guy, and then they'll get a, you know, $200,000, $300,000 a month in recurring revenue because they never thought of that, because that's not something we do in our— in the pool industry, for example, or in the solar industry, right? And so I, I realize more than anything, I love problem solving. So whether the problem is they were too fat, they needed to be fit, they were lacking confidence, or they need to make money Mhm. I've solved all those problems for myself, and now I just go around solving those for others as well and getting paid well for it. Mhm.

So you get so much information from so many people. I remember that from clients. I was like, I am learning so much so fast, and I get to do that for everyone. Okay, so I want to go back to when you had that realization of, wow, I really want to help people solve these problems. What was your kind of face-off moment with yourself? What were you struggling with? Was it like organization? Was it trying to figure things out? Like Can you remember back to the beginning of what those big obstacles felt like?

I can. For me, especially starting my business, the big face-off moments were— it's funny, you can lose weight and get fit and have confidence in your personal life.

Yeah.

But that doesn't always translate to your professional life.

Totally.

Right? And so while I could feel like more confident walking around and talking to people because I don't feel like I'm fat and grotesque and I don't think anyone ever looked at me as grotesque.

You can just feel that way.

You feel that way. And I'm being very direct and honest with you. Like, it's— and if someone's watching this or listening to this and they're like, I could relate. Yeah, you, you will feel fat and grotesque even though others won't feel that way towards you. But because you will feel that way, you will do things, you'll find evidence in the world to justify how you feel. Right. And so I would constantly justify how I felt like, see that person, you know, just they kind of look my way. Well, they kind of look my way for a million reasons, but in my mind they look my way because they think I'm grotesque as well. So anyways, the confidence did not translate to the business life when I wanted to start my own personal training gym. I just wanted to start one personal training studio, like 2,500 square feet. Thankfully, I had a personal training client named Jim Franco, 62 years old at the time, and I didn't know anything about sales. I didn't know anything about lead generation or marketing. I didn't know anything about communication in terms of like how to communicate a message. And so for me, those were all sticking points. And when you think about being an entrepreneur, you've got to drive leads. Yeah, you've got to convert those leads into paying clients. And as you build a team and as you build a customer or client base, you have to communicate things to them. The 3 key things, and the 4th one being leadership, I'd never been a leader in any sense of the word, because in the Armenian culture and my dad being a former communist, you know, your audience needs to know that we escaped the Soviet Union, came to the United States. I was 6 years old. My dad was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. And when you've got a communist father, he's not like how I am with my kids and I was with my kids, where like, oh, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, son or daughter, right? He was like, you're just supposed to be seen and not heard. That is it. And his solution to most problems were what he called the Five Brothers, which was a backhand across my face. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I love my dad to pieces. He's 91 years old. I take great care of him. He's got an awesome caretaker. My mom passed away a year and a half ago. But, you know, people go, oh my God, your dad was an abuser. Everyone from the Communist Bloc was abusers. That's, that's just how it was. When I came to America and I made some American friends as a kid, I knocked on a friend's door. His name was Scott. And I said, hey, can you come out and play? He goes, I can't. How come? He goes, I'm on restriction. I was like, dude, what is restriction? I'd never heard of the word restriction. He goes, you know, I can't watch television. I can't come out and play with you guys because I got in trouble. And I said, can't your mom or dad, like, hit you a few times and then you can come out and play? For me, I thought his punishment of being on restriction—

worse—

was worse. Because for 2 weeks he can't come out and play with us. Whereas with me, my dad gives me a good beating and then I'm off to playing with my friends again.

So like, I learned these lessons fast.

Yeah, right. Exactly. Time collapsed. Exactly. So long story short, when your dad, you know, comes from a communist country and thinks the communist way and he's the dictator, there is no let's collaborate. And so leadership, communication, sales, and marketing were not my thing. Those were all weak points. But I also realized, and you know this as a personal trainer, most of your clients are well-to-do, especially if you're one-on-one personal training.

Yeah.

You know, charging them $400, $600, $800 a month. Of course, I wasn't making that money. The gym was because I worked at an LA Fitness. They were— the gym was paying me $14.25 an hour.

I was at an LA Fitness too.

Were you really?

They broke it to a 30-minute session and paid me $6 per session. Same.

Okay.

Right.

So my $14.25 broke down. That's an hour, but it's 7 and change. Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah. What LA Fitness did you work at?

In New Brighton, Wisconsin.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I was in beautiful La Habra, California.

Minnesota. Sorry. New Brighton, Minnesota.

Minnesota.

Where was I at the time?

Dude, that's funny. Yeah, we were under the same regime.

Totally.

And I remember thinking like, the gym is making a ton of money off this training that I'm delivering. Same. Yeah. So long story short, but what I did realize very quickly is I've got built-in mentors. Every one of my clients, probably with the exception of a couple of the the wives who were stay-at-home wives of rich entrepreneurs, I had built-in coaching clients. And so Jim Franco, who I told you was one of my personal training clients, brought Dan Kennedy's book. He brought a book from Jay Abraham. He brought me a book from Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar. And he's like, these books will teach you how to lead, drive, and market. These books will teach you how to sell. Because he owned a massive software company. And so he comes from sales and marketing. And so once I realized I had built-in mentors, what were my weaknesses soon became my strengths because I had mentors who were coaching me, mentoring me, giving me audio cassettes because I come from the audio cassette world, and it completely transformed my mind. I had no idea that there's this other world. I thought, you know, if I'm in good shape, you're going to pay me because you see that I'm in good shape and you're not. So you're going to pay me. It doesn't work that way.

Yeah.

People need to be convinced and sold and we need to agitate the the buying buttons, which is why are you here? What have you tried? What's your biggest frustration? What keeps you awake at night? You peel the onion, you get to the big why, and then you go, what happens if you can't get the results? Like, what is the chasm that you want to cross? And what happens if you can't cross that chasm? And I would hear Mrs. Jones— I always called my prospective clients at my gym Mrs. Jones— and they would say, you know, I've heard women saying this, breaks my heart, I'm afraid my husband's going to leave me. I'm afraid my husband's going to cheat on me. I'm afraid that I'm no longer attractive to my spouse. And then I would hear the same thing from husbands, by the way. I'm afraid that my wife's going to cheat on me. And so when— if you can't agitate that fear and the pain in them, pain leads people to action. Mm-hmm. And so once I learned that, once I learned how to overcome the objections during my sales presentation, instead of waiting to handle those objections after. Like, it was eye-opening. Now it was just a matter of, here's the 4 programs that we have for you. And then I would always give them an option of 1 or 2. So I would say, I think the 2 or the 3 time a week is going to work best for you. Which of these 2 can we get you started on? And that was a line I got from Zig Ziglar, uh, which Jim Franco gave me that book. He said, instead of telling them, do you want to start or not, which is a yes or a no answer, do you want option A or B? Because either way they're going to pick an option and you win, you make the sale, they win, they get the outcome and the results. So for me, sales, marketing, leadership, and communication, yeah, and it wasn't an overnight fix. Those were my struggles. And but I am very OCD and I'm very intense and passionate. And so I dove in and within 2 years, I dare say I had mastery in all of those areas, leadership being the last area that I developed mastery in.

So were you, were you practicing those frequently? Like, was it because you were constantly talking? And LA Fitness is a grind too, by the way. You are like, you are talking to people every day and trying to sell people. Like, pretty much every day I worked, I felt like I trained, but I also, they made us do, you know, sales, trying to sell clients, right? For somebody who wants to get better at that, because you're like, in 2 to 3 years you said you feel like you kind of mastered that. How many, like, what did the reps look like?

I would literally say probably over 2,000 reps of actual humans. And this is the beautiful thing about being in an LA Fitness or any big box gym, right? And if someone's like, well, I'm not in a big box gym, go knock on doors. Yeah, go knock. Find the affluent neighborhood that you think has your ideal prospect and go knock on doors. If I come here to your house and I knock on your door and I'm like, hey, I'm gonna sell you solar, right? And I give you the best pitch I can and you go, go away, I don't want it. I can go to your neighbor and have a clean slate, knock on their door, give them my best pitch, and maybe they buy solar, maybe they don't. Now, when you're in a big box gym, you go to a treadmill and you know this, around 5:30, 6 PM at night, all the treadmills are packed. And what are they, 8 inches away from each other? So I walk up to a treadmill because you know this, if someone doesn't show up to your 30-minute workout session, they want you out on the floor prospecting. Cool. I get it. And so using those skills that Jim Franco had taught me, I would go to someone on a treadmill. Hey, my name is Pedro. You doing cardio right now? Have you done your resistance training yet? Uh, no, I haven't. Great, can I take you on the floor and do some resistance training? And then you should do cardio because you're going to burn more fat that way because we're going to burn off the glycogen, and you're going to go right into more fat burn. And they would say, no, not interested, thank you. And then you go, fuck, I gotta hit the ellipticals next, and then I gotta hit the recumbent bikes after that. But when you get that many repetitions in and when you walk up to people who are working out on the floor and you go, hey, it looks like you're training back, but I think there's a better way to do it. Can I help you? And they go, sure. You put them through a free workout and I would take them right into the office. And my, my, my hook was, you know, all the goals you want are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. In the gym, we break down muscles, but the recovery is important and what you eat. And so It's not what you do for an hour here. It's what you do for the other 23 hours. They go, okay, got it. I go, let's go and talk about nutrition. And the whole idea was I would segue the nutrition conversation into a sales conversation and then ask for the sale. So imagine doing in a 2-year period, probably 800 to 1,200 repetitions. Like I developed mastery so quick that I felt super confident that I could open up my own gym Now I needed to raise money, which is a whole other thing, right? But the repetitions, like when you learn a skill— and by the way, at the time I had a girlfriend. I was, I was doing so many sales presentations on my girlfriend, her parents, my parents. I would tell my dad, just give me objections in Armenian. Don't buy when I lay out the prices at the end. Don't buy. Give me objections. And I would literally do the sales presentation in Armenian to my dad because it also involved like drawing diagrams on 3 sheets of paper. And I didn't want anyone to buy off the bat. I was like, give me objections, give me the hardest objections. And I got so many reps in that I developed mastery quickly. And I believe anyone can. The whole, you know, 10,000-hour rule can be, can be hacked if you are willing to face rejection one after another after another, like a Jehovah's Witness would.

You're giving me PTSD about that. We would have to go and talk to everyone on the treadmills during the busiest time. You just brought me back. Forgot about that piece. Like, I completely blacked out and blocked it out for a reason. But that was one of the most powerful things I've done. And then obviously being a Jehovah's Witness was one of the most powerful things I've done.

Wait, you were a Jehovah's Witness?

Oh, I thought you were saying that.

Oh my God, no, I had no idea. Get out of here.

Yes, my whole, my whole life, until I was 18 and I moved out.

Are you serious?

Yes, I was about to tell you. I'm like, oh well, I got rejected my entire life going door to door. So for me, even though Even though that gave me a lot of anxiety, I was like, oh, this is familiar anxiety, right?

Look, I'm so glad you brought that up. In life, you're going to have anxiety no matter what, all the time. Only one type of person has no anxiety. Can you guess what type of person?

A psychotic person.

Dead people.

Dead people.

Dead people are constantly feeling the same. The rest of us, we're going to have anxiety, we're going to have bliss, we're going to have gratitude, we're going to have anger, we're going to have rage, we're going to have depression, we're going to have joy. Dead people feel nothing.

Honestly, I love even when you tell me you're an introvert because Like, even doing things I love. Like, when you first walked in, I have anxiety. You're a friend. Like, I feel comfortable around you.

We're like little kindred spirits.

Sometimes in the middle of a podcast, I'm like, I'll get a wave of anxiety. I'm like, why is this here right now? I don't want this to be here. Like, I do so much in my life, so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable. But Pedro's— and I know that you can feel this— like I am so much more uncomfortable not living into that person that I want to be. Like, that pain of like having that vision of who I know I can be and what I know I can do and who I can help and all the things, like having that right here in front of me and not being able to get there or feel it or something is blocking it is like so much more painful.

Huge.

What— tell me about that version. Like, I know that, that, you know, how have you let that drive you and explain that feeling that you get with that to me.

Well, here's what I know. And for me, I use two things that drive me really well in that area. Number one, our mutual friend Ed Mylett. Ed Mylett tells this great story when he had me on his podcast several years ago. He went on a little tangent. He goes, Pedro, you know what I'm most afraid of? Because he asked me, like, what are you most afraid of? And I told him. And then he goes, you know what I'm most afraid of? I go, no, tell me. He goes, well, He goes, you know, I believe in Christ. I believe in Christianity. I believe Jesus died for my salvation. I go, okay, I'm tracking. He goes, imagine if I go to the pearly gates of heaven and Saint Peter's there and he's like, Ed Mylett, I want you to meet the potential of what Ed Mylett could become. Right? And he goes, I'm afraid of looking at that guy and not recognizing him. Oh, gosh. I was like, holy crap, Ed. He goes, I want to go up there and I want to see that guy like I'm looking in a mirror. He goes, I want to be twinsies with that guy. Right? He didn't use that word. That's what I thought about it. Ed say 20 seconds. Yeah, I would love to have Ed say that. So, so one, listen, wherever we end up, we go to our creator, we go to the universe, you go to God, and there is a potential that your creator has put within you. Every single one of us have a greater potential. And by the way, anxiety, that's the gnawing of greatness that you feel. And when we feel a sense of anxiety, it's because our consciousness and our conscience doesn't know how to grab you by the shoulders and go, hey, Lori, get back on path. It uses anxiety and depression. Like our creator uses anxiety and depression to go, hey, what you're doing right now is out of your comfort zone. I know everything about you is like red flag, red flag, go back to comfort. But I'm telling you right now, keep pushing through this anxiety and depression. On the other side of it is the better version of Lori, is the better version of Bedros. And so if I want to ultimately pass away and be twinsies with that guy at the pearly gates, number one. And number two, for me, I've got two kids, Andrew and Chloe. Chloe's 17 now. Andrew's 19. I've always, ever since, you know, once they got into junior high, we gave them a phone, an iPhone. The day I gave them the iPhone, I always imagined that there is some kind of a drone flying over me. Well, before drones, I— my— this is going to date me because I'm 50 years old. I was like, I pictured Andrew and Chloe were getting a live reality feed of a camera crew that's following me, and they're recording all the audio and video, and it's just going right to their phones. So I was like, if Andrew and Chloe saw that I had an opportunity to do something great but out of my comfort zone that gave me anxiety, that made me depressed, that made my palms sweaty, that made my butthole pucker. And then they're like, Dad zigged instead of zagging. Oh my God, what kind of a poor example of humanity would I be to them, right? So everything I do, I assume today now with drones, I assume there's always a drone flying on top over me. And what is Dad doing? Did he miss that last and final set 'cause he didn't sleep well last night in the gym? 'Cause in my head, Andrew and Chloe are seeing it. In fact, I was in St. Louis. I have some amazing coaching clients out there, the Sansone brothers. They run an industrial construction company, so they make all these big industrial buildings, like giant warehouses that semi-trucks can go into, and they're refrigerated warehouses. Their dad started the company many years ago, like in the, in the '60s. Uh, Nick, Doug, and Jim, now the three principals, they run it. They're in their late 40s all the way to early 60s. Uh, they're my coaching clients. The company does $1.3 $1 billion with a B a year. They invited me out to speak to their leadership team because I coached them privately, but they also said, hey, can you come out and speak to our leadership team? I said, I'd be more than happy to. So I'm speaking to their leadership team, 15 people who collectively run 300 of their employees. It was a Saturday, and then Jim, Doug, and Nick were there. So 15, 16, 17, 18, plus me, 19 people. Giant office structure. And we took a break and I went to use the men's room and the urinal. There was two urinals. They were taken. So I went into one of the two stalls and I noticed that some guy had obviously lost all control of his penis and his stream. And it looked like— I swear he had probably put his hands behind his head and was dancing the Macarena while going pee because it was everywhere.

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Yeah, on the back of the toilet seat, all over the toilet seat. And at first I shrugged it off. I'm like, well, I'm going to go pee. I'm going to use my foot to flush this thing. I'm going to wash my hands and go back to the meeting. But then I'm like, Andrew and Chloe are watching me right now. Like they are watching me and they're going, what would Dad do right now in this toilet stall when no one is watching? And I got toilet paper and I cleaned it all up and wiped it all off. And then I went pee and then I closed the lid and I flushed it. And then I went out. And then when the meeting started, I let them have it and I said, how dare you guys? You guys run a team that collectively makes $1.3 billion, yet you don't have the decency to flush the toilet of these people who pay you so well, give you benefits, 401(k)s, Unlimited PTO, by the way. Those guys give them unlimited paid time off. And obviously whoever did it didn't identify themselves. Yeah, but I'm sure they never did that again because ultimately how you do anything is how you do everything. And so to me, I've got to measure up with the version of myself that my creator has instilled in my heart, the potential. And then I've got to measure to the standard that I have set for Chloe and Andrew to live their life by. And those two things keep me on track. And when I don't feel like doing something, I'm gonna do it anyway, because plenty of times I don't feel like doing something. Maybe I didn't sleep well, maybe, uh, you know, we are too busy with the growth of the franchise, or maybe I got a— I got a cold or a flu. And you know what? I make a lot of money, I can take the day off, but I got stuff to do, and so I do it. Now, does that mean that I don't take time off if I'm sick? No, I'll take time off, but I don't skirt my responsibilities, is the point I'm making. And that when we skirt our responsibilities, we begin to ruin the reputation that we have with ourselves. Reputation with self is confidence. If people go, how do I build confidence? You build confidence by keeping the promises that you make to yourself, stacking little wins, and that is how you grow your reputation. It's like a credit score with yourself. And so when people don't keep their promises to themselves and break those promises because it's too easy, too comfortable, it's too late, it's too cold, I don't want to, you begin to feel like a hypocrite or an imposter. And of course you're not gonna be able to lead an organization. You can't even lead yourself. You know what I mean?

Oh yeah. I think so much of that is where confidence is made. And I think about, I do a lot of little things like that. I think I learned it from my dad. Just like if you're in a space and you see something, it should be better after you left it.

Right.

And like, I still have moments where I'm like, why do I do this? Like I'll be in a bathroom picking up other people's paper towels. But it makes me more confident about who I am.

Yes.

Like, I have so much respect for the type of person that I am.

Yeah.

And it's those little quiet moments that build that where in the past, like, I think I had some self-confidence growing up, but not much. There was just a lot, you know, there was a lot with how I grew up that made me not very self-confident, just being overweight and then being a Jehovah's Witness and getting bullied and all of those different things that I had to build self-confidence along the way. And I did it a lot through fitness and I did it through my habits and I did it through discipline. And that has made such a huge difference. What do you think for somebody who feels not very confident right now, like they are— they're feeling like they feel like they can't even take swings at things, like maybe they're in that place.

Yeah.

What would you say are little builders? Like, how do they start actually taking action? What reps would you build?

Oh, great question. Great question. Because most people— and I think social media is very guilty for this— We see something inspirational, motivational. We get all hyped up and gassed up and go, tomorrow morning I'm taking that big swing, right? I got an idea, tough guy. Don't take any big swings. Just— we're not trying to get any home runs here. Let's just hold the bat for a minute. Yeah, let's just get on base. Let's get a base hit. And what does that look like for the average person? If you're drinking soda, just cut out soda this week. If you're not drinking water when you wake up, drink your 20 to 30 ounces of water first thing in the morning when you wake up. If you're going right to your phone and screen sucking, just tell yourself, I'm not going to screen suck. Instead, I'm going to listen to an audiobook for 10 minutes instead of scrolling for 10 minutes, right? Pick simple, tiny wins that you could achieve and accomplish. Because in a perfect world, it'd be awesome if we can go from eating chicken wings and pizza and pasta and ice cream for dessert because we feel like it. To tomorrow morning I'm eating salad and fish 4 times a day starting tomorrow morning. Like, that would be great, but we're not a robot. We have thoughts, feelings, emotions, right? Willpower. I mean, think about the willpower factor. You know, you see a jar of peanut butter on your counter first thing in the morning, you're like, not today, big boy. Evening time, you've battled. As an entrepreneur, you battle.

You, you break into something for that peanut butter.

Oh yeah, yeah. You get gritty, you get rejected, you, you You, you thought a sale was going to come through and it didn't. By the end of the day, you've been ground down and your willpower is nothing. And then you see that peanut butter on the counter, you're going— you're head diving into that fucking jar. And so what do we do? We do the simple things. We throw that jar of peanut butter away. We hide it in— there's studies that show if something's not within eyesight, there's a 3x factor that you're not going to eat it. If it's not in, in your house there's like a 100x factor that you're not going to eat unless you, you know, order it to get delivered. So the point of this is start stacking little wins. And just for the next 30 days, I'm going to cut out Coke. I'm going to replace it with water. I'm going to— I'm going to just, you know, instead of social scrolling in the morning, I'm listening to 10 minutes of audiobook or music that inspires me and makes me happy. For me, it's Jack Johnson. I'll wake up, drink 30 ounces of water, listen to Jack Johnson while I'm taking a shower, get out of my shower, and then just send a gratitude text message to 3 people in my life, 3 random people who I feel like have added value to my life over the years, believed in me when I didn't believe in myself, showed me the path when I didn't know where the path was. And what that guarantees me is sometime throughout the day, these 3 people that I've sent a gratitude text message to, they're going to end up sending me a text message back. 9 out of 10 times, Lori Harder, they go, man, thank you for sending that. I needed that. It was a rough day. So not only are you making someone else's day better, But if your whole day went to shit, you had the most perfect day planned and your whole day went to shit, you're guaranteed to get a thank you from 3 different individuals that you sent a gratitude text message to. I'm not saying do sound bowls and do interpretive dance and then go do the hot thing and then the cold thing. Like, people stack their morning routines as a way of, I believe, procrastination and avoiding the work. Just drink water, listen to an audiobook or some music, send out 3 gratitude text messages. And then sit your ass down and get to work. Get to work on your GSD list. GSD— I use GSD, get shit done list. What are the things that you need to do to make money and have meaning? Notice I said money first, meaning second, because again, you could put up an inspirational post to give you meaning, but you can't take those likes to the fucking bank. So you need money and do the things that make money. Drive leads, make sales, and then do the things that give you meaning. Then delegate, delegate, delegate everything else. But where confidence is concerned, it starts with a simple morning routine. You do that for 30 days and you go, okay, this stuck. Add a few more things to it. Because look, if you've been out of practice in terms of structure and discipline and morning routine for years, sometimes a decade or more, what's, what's 6 months of your life restructuring yourself? It's nothing. You know, we always see that post that says disappear for 6 months and come back and you'll be unrecognizable. Well, disappear and do the right things for 6 months and come back and you will be unrecognizable. But if you constantly have the state of FOMO where you're missing out on social media and what did they post and what are they doing and what's the event and should I go to it and fuck, enough, enough. Just dial it in, hit that get shit done list, go work out, get some sunlight. When you're tired, an energy drink is not the answer. Go to bed. Go to bed before 10:00 PM. Wake up before the sun comes up at, you know, 5:00 in the morning and attack the day again. And you do this, you stack these days and confidence is built and then momentum sets in. And once we have momentum, we become unstoppable, right? That's why, like, we go on vacation and you just get out of routine for like 7 days on vacation and you come back like, oh, I'm tired. I think I'm going to sleep in for a little bit. No, you got out of routine. I go on vacation and I stick to my routine. I still have a great time, but I stick to my routine so that when I come back, I'm a high-performing entrepreneur. I'm going to attack my life. And if you attack your goals, you attack your life, you'll get the outcome that you want.

Momentum is so hard to get back into.

Right.

That's what I always think. I'm like, why get out?

Why get out?

Let's just stay in it. Yeah, that's for Chris and I. We feel like it's easier. It is easier on vacation or when we travel. I'm like, I'd rather just take some calls. I'd rather just stay in routine. I'd rather just because it feels better than actually the big break. A lot of times I do think big breaks are important once in a while, but like that just, yeah, it slows the thing that's hardest to get.

Yeah.

And so for an entrepreneur right now who's maybe they have a plateaued business, let's say if they come to you for coaching and they're like, Pedro, I just need to like make some more money quickly. What are some of the things that you start talking to them about? Is it their lifestyle first, or are you like, let's dive into the business, or what does that kind of look like?

When an entrepreneur usually hires me, it's a, it's $100 grand for a year of coaching with me. So I never attack the lifestyle first. However, I do also know that it's the businessman and the business plan, or in many cases, the businesswoman and the business plan. Those two are connected, right? It's— we can't say it's not. Yeah, but when they say my business is stuck, I need to make more money, here's $100 grand, right? During their first half-day session with me, We literally go to where are your highest profit margins coming from in your business? Because typically most entrepreneurs have 3, maybe 4 streams of income in their business, but the highest profit margins probably come— the 80/20 rule, the Pareto principle, right? So we identify where's the highest profit margins coming from? Okay, got it. From this source. Check. Who has your future customers or clients for that source? Oftentimes we always think like, how can I drive more leads? And so let me run ads, let me tap into my own social media, my email list. Well, that's great, but can you identify who else has your leads? Oh, Lori does. Oh, Bedros does. Oh, so now how can I add value to Lori's life to be able to get on her platform and talk about the things that I'm good at solving so that her audience might go, you know what, I think I like this person, right? Most people think the more income streams I have, the better, which is true. But first, let's figure out the one income stream that is the most profitable that we can scale. I start there. Once we've done that, the second step is what are you doing that can be delegated to others? I believe in DMS— delegate, motivate, and sell. So you've got to delegate as many things off your plate as possible. So I delegate to Bryce, my CEO. I delegate to Joan, uh, my VP of my coaching business. I delegate to Jeff, the VP of TruLean Supplements. I delegate as many things as I can because Joan, Bryce, or Jeff cannot come here and sit on this podcast and interview on my behalf. But they can hire copywriters to write an email. They can put up social media posts on my social media platform. They can— like Ed, who's behind the camera, he's capturing footage, he's going to edit, he's going to chop it up into pieces. We're going to share it on social media. We're going to tag you. But I'm not editing. I'm not using the platform, the videos. I didn't even put this mic on. Like, I don't even know how. And I, and I share that because the more you can delegate, that opens up room for you to do what's in your zone of genius. Like, we all, as entrepreneurs, as leaders, you have a very limited zone of genius. And if you could do what is in your zone of genius 8 hours a day, whereas I'm trying to do everything in that same 8 hours a day, you're doing the zone of genius stuff for 8 hours a day, I'm doing some zone of genius stuff and then some regular stuff— paying taxes, payroll, cleaning the toilets, editing videos— who's going to get ahead in a month? You are. Yeah, right. So first of all, we figure out where the highest profits come from, and then we figure out who has my customers and how do I penetrate their platforms. I call it OPP, other people's platforms. Secondly, who can we delegate to? Delegate and then motivate those people. DMS. And then sell. Delegate, motivate, sell. That is your job as a leader. Once you've done that, Then let's start creating systems. Because if you break down the word system, my head, I'm a very simple person. To me, system breaks down to save yourself time, effort, and money. That's what system stands for. If you're doing something over and over again, someone DMs you, hey, how much is the cost of your fill in the blank, your coaching business? Oh, my coaching business is— this is what the cost is. It ranges from this to this. Here's the link. Go read it. Watch the testimonials. Fill out the application. We'll get on the phone together or you'll get on the phone with one of my you know, expert closers or whatever you might say, right? Can you automate that process so you don't keep having to write, or can you delegate it to some 15-year-old kid who could just be in your DMs answering that as you, because you show them a process, a system? Because all business breaks down to product, people, and processes. If you have a great product, check, move on to the next thing. People— do you have great people who understand what the mission is? Like, the mission is to win. And what is the script? What is the process? What is the thing they're going to do? Great. And then do those people know how to run the processes? Are there systems and processes to run? The answer is yes. Then, then we are winning. So profits, delegation through great leadership, motivation and selling. Right. And because I'm selling here, I'm selling a message, a concept of how I've built my 9-figure empire. And then, of course, systems and processes, because you don't run your business You run the processes, the processes run the business. And God forbid if on the drive back to Chino Hills we get into a car wreck and I pass away, all my companies continue on because they're not dependent on me pulling the levers. They're not. They're dependent on my team running the processes and the processes run the business. And if we do that, we can scale a business. If we don't, then we end up, you know, finding ourselves in a position where it's like, man, I could literally go get a job somewhere else, clock out at 5 o'clock, have benefits, have vacation pay, have a 401k. Like, I could be making more money and have probably a better quality of life working for someone else. So unless you're in business to scale and then to sell— because that's the other thing, what are businesses built for? To scale and sell, because no business is going to last forever. I remember telling my son and daughter, Andrew and Chloe, when they were smaller, like, wow, you guys are going to take over Fit Body Bootcamp and you guys are going to shepherd it to an even— because, you know, I've got it all throughout the US and Canada and you guys can take it to UK and Australia. And Andrew's like, nope, I'm going into the music industry. And Chloe's like, what? Yeah. He goes, I don't want to run Fit Body Bootcamp. I was like, oh shit, I never thought of that. Oh, thank God I was also building it to sell at some point. You know, every business has to be built to sell. You may not sell today, but you're going to sell at some point because your next of kin aren't always going to want to run it for you. Mm-hmm.

Okay. So they get that in place.

Yeah.

Entrepreneurs get that in place. What are, what are you finding when you work with them? That is, what are some of the main things that are their challenges that you just see over and over again?

One is limiting beliefs. They have their own limiting beliefs, these stories that they've told themselves and that they've bought into. So the story of, uh, I'm not that smart, I don't— it takes me longer to do things. I don't know how to write copy. Great. So, you know, we tell ourselves stories, or maybe when we were kids, our parents told us, you're clumsy, you're fat, you're not that smart, you always did bad in school. And so then you take that identity on and then you start believing it, and then you look for evidence in the world to reinforce that identity, right? So it's limiting beliefs is number one. It's almost like Gay Hendricks in his book The Big Leap. Calls it the glass ceiling. Mm-hmm. Limiting beliefs create a glass ceiling and you're like, man, I'm pressed up against this glass ceiling. I don't know what it is. It's your limiting belief, buddy. Take your limiting beliefs, shatter those, that glass ceiling, and the world is your oyster. So that's thing number 1. Thing number 2 is most people try and figure out how can I increase sales? How can I drive leads? How? Forget the how. Elon Musk is not asking how can I bolt on more tires on a Tesla? He's saying, who can do this for me? So it's not how do I do it? It's who can do it for me? I want to lead my people. The coach on a football team— and I know nothing about American football, but a coach, I know this much— he's not on the field. He's on the sidelines. And he tells the team captain, which is your second in command. Usually the team captain, I believe, is the quarterback. Tells the team captain, this is the play. The team captain tells the team and then they go and execute the play. The coach on the sidelines has outside eyes. He's watching and he's seeing what moves can we make? What am I seeing from outside that they're not seeing on the field? Right. If the coach was a step on the field now, he doesn't have outside eyes. He's now too far deep into the weeds. So as entrepreneurs, once we figure out who can do this for me instead of how can I do it? That gives you so much time freedom. Oftentimes, though, as my dear friend Brian Underhill, who introduced me to the book Traction by Gino Wickman, he says most entrepreneurs are afraid to let go of the vine. This is my baby. I created this. No one can do it as good as me. I'm here to tell you right now, and you know Bryce, my CEO, because you guys coached him for a while. Bryce is a better CEO a better leader and a better manager of our headquarters and the team and the brand than I ever was. As a founder, I'm very intense and impatient. I'm a great visionary. I know where Fit Body is going in the next 3 to 5 years. He is in the weeds with the team running the plays on a day-to-day basis, and he is more patient with them. He's more understanding with them. He is more compassionate with them. I can be too, but when I have so much on my plate, I tend to start getting overwhelmed. And when I get overwhelmed, I get pretty short. I get pretty intense. Right. Which goes back to that dichotomy. I can be empathetic and compassionate, but I could also, like, leave scorched earth behind. So here I thought for the longest time that no one can run Fit Body Bootcamp like I can. I mean, I grew this thing to an Inc. 500 business. We became one of the fastest growing franchises on the planet in 2014, '15, and '16. We hit the Inc. 500 list. And then we— Entrepreneur Magazine's top 200 franchises in the world out of 175,000 franchise brands. And so I did all that, right? And the ego says no one else can do it. And then guess what? When I realized I do need a second in command and I want to hire a VP or a head of operations, I found some guy and ended up firing him within 6 months. Then I found another guy, ended up firing him within a year. Then I found another guy and he realized he was so bad he quit within 2 months. So then those 3 guys reinforced what I already believed, which was no one can do it as good as me until I found Bryce. And the guy is better than me as a leader, as a manager, and as a CEO of the brand. I'm a great visionary, and most people listening to this, if you started the brand, you're going to take it to a certain level, but then there's someone else who is not as emotionally attached who will treat that thing as though it's theirs will take it to the next level better than you can. So it's not how do I do this? It's who can do it for me. And if you can let go of that vine, as my friend Brian Underhill says, man, sky's the limit. So as a leader, you're supposed to look up and out and not down and in.

Did you lose any confidence when the 3 people before— the 3 people that you hired were not working out? Because what I find a lot, even with myself, is sometimes I'll be like, God, am I even a good leader? Because I can't seem to find the right people. Like, that can really shake you a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good— and see, that, that is how we are as Type A people, right? We take extreme responsibility. You begin to question yourself. You don't go, well, that was a bait and switch. They told me they can multitask, they told me they can be disciplined and focused, they time block, they, they have a great relationship, they don't have no addictions, and This guy was like, his relationship was a mess and he was addicted to alcohol and they can't time block and he gets overwhelmed easily. We never point to them and go, they bait and switched us. We always go, maybe I'm not a great leader. I should have seen that this person was a disaster. So it is okay to be hard on yourself. It is not okay to keep beating the shit out of yourself like you're a baby seal, right? Like where you're clubbing yourself like a baby seal. And so be hard on yourself, but understand that there is the next best person out there. They're out there. So did it shake my confidence? Absolutely. Did it shake my bank account? Absolutely. It's also those 3 people over the period of time that they were with me, you know, you put someone in a leadership position, you begin to give them some, some leeway and trust, they make decisions. Some of the financial decisions they made did not pan out well. And so you're like, see, no one can run this thing better than me. They actually sucked. Not only does it shake my confidence, it financially burdened me. But you have to realize that if I'm meant to do what I'm meant to do in this life, have greater impact, greater influence over humanity, I got to find someone who can do it for me. So the search continues.

When do you know it's right for someone to be looking for a coach? Like, if someone's hearing this right now, and they're like, oh, am I, you know, is coaching something I need? Like, how do I even start to find that? Like, what, when do you suggest people get a coach in their business?

The answer to when is a good time for someone to get a coach in their business is as soon as possible. Here's why. Most people, they'll get to a place that we're in a deficit. So in other words, I tried marketing on Facebook and I lost $20,000, then I tried LinkedIn marketing and I lost $30,000, and then I tried hiring influencers and I lost $50,000. Okay, so now you're over, you know, $130,000 in a financial deficit. You've kind of lost hope in what you feel are the 3 main marketing avenues out there. Little do you know there's a coach out there who's not only done it himself or herself across several businesses, but they coach and consult people in many different industries. So they have ideas and they've been exposed to strategies and tactics and people who can help you get there. Because you know this, running a Meta ad, a Facebook ad, it's market message media. So maybe you— all right, market being the audience, message being what is the offer, and the media being is it a video, is it pictures, is it carousel, is it written text? All right. Well, if you got one of those three wrong, that campaign didn't work. You lost $20 grand. A coach can be like, oh my God, you had the market right, you had the message right. But the media was horrible. You know, you didn't have a scroll stopper in that video. It was just a boring video. And so if you had the scroll stopper, people would have stopped scrolling and actually watched the video and leads would have come in. Oh my God. So the sooner the better. Like, now obviously I get it, you're starting a business, and it always blew me away when I used to coach gym owners and they would sign a lease for a 3,000, 4,000 square foot location, build it out, you know, for $20,000, $30,000, get another $15,000, $20,000 of equipment in there, right? Hire a graphics designer for a fancy logo of like this fit body coming out of this phoenix fire, right? That was like in and translucent colors.

That's why people sign up.

Yeah, right. And then of course they thought, I will build it and they will come. And so now they're almost $100 grand in and they built it. No one came. So you got to build a better mousetrap and market the shit out of it. So I say in the process of your build out, dedicate X amount of dollars to some kind of a coach, consultant, expert course. There's someone in that industry, even, even if it's going to someone who's already doing what you're doing. So if it's a local business, it's easy. I'm not going to find someone in Southern California if I'm trying to open up a bakery, and I love baking but I've never opened up a bakery. I'm not going to find someone here in Newport Beach to teach me how to— how they run their bakery because they know I'm their competition. But I might reach out to someone, oh, I don't know, in San Diego. And look, you're a great bakery, you're busy, your Yelp reviews are crushing it. I'm all the way in Newport Beach, I'm over 100 miles away, we are not competitors. Is there any chance I can come and just watch what you do? Ask some questions, even give you a few hundred bucks. Most people are willing to help, right? So, hey, you ain't got $100 grand to give me. You don't have— there's someone out there that's written the book on it. For $22, you can get 20 years of their life experience on marketing, on sales, on selling a product or a service. So there's books, courses, coaches. The earlier, the better. If I can go back to the 20 4-year-old version of me, I would have done two things differently. I would have hired coaches, consultants, and experts who, by the way, are vetted, meaning they use the shovel and they know how to sell the shovel. Most people have never used a shovel and they're out there trying to sell a shovel, right? Because now with social media, you can get the blue checkmark, buy 20,000 fake audience members, and, you know, have some kid in Bangladesh edit your videos all cool and sexy, and now you're an expert. And then you toggle that little switch on your bio that says public figure or entrepreneur or coach or mentor, and now you're a badass. So you got to vet people out. Like, hey, when they come to me, like, hey, Bedros, who do you work with? Go to my website and you see all the testimonials from doctors and scientists and, and big entrepreneurs and contractors, etc. But I share this with you because the sooner you can find a coach, the less likely you are to be in a deficit. I hate getting coaching clients that I have to dig out of a deficit or have to change their bad habits and behaviors and belief systems. I'd rather get an entrepreneur who's dedicated X amount of dollars for mentorship and they go, hey, I'm building a business. And I also understand that you've coached people just like me. I'd rather come out the gate guns blazing. And by the way, it's okay to cost. I still, after 20 years as an entrepreneur today, I have a speaking coach. Joel Weldon is a speaking coach. I still have coaches and mentors that I pay every year. I spend at least another $100 grand on my own personal growth, either through courses, coaches. I take improv class because I want to be able to articulate better. Because if I can paint a word picture on camera in front of this microphone, remember, English is a second language for me. So now that I know how to market, sell, lead, influence, I have to learn to communicate better. I have to be able to passionately paint a word picture where people go, "God damn it, if this foreigner can do it, then I can do it." Right? And that means learning how to use my hands. That means knowing how to use inflection in my voice. That means knowing how to storytell, how to weave, and then come back to the point that you asked me. That's not factory installed in me, by the way. That's not— I learned that through improv classes and speaking coaches and learning the art of storytelling. So if you think that you're done coaching, then you're done growing. And then if you're not growing, then you're perishing.

My favorite mentors, I can always tell that they're coaching 'cause they're always learning something new that I get to learn new. And when I feel stagnant and boring, it's because I am stagnant and boring and I'm not learning something. I'm like, I'm boring 'cause I'm not doing things, I'm not learning things. And if I don't like my content, it's typically because I've stopped learning and I've stopped doing cool things. So I'm like, dang it, you're trapped in this cycle 'cause you have to be. And it's so good. Like I can't imagine, you know, not learning. Okay, I have like 3 things I want to touch on, so we're going to do a bit of like some speed rounds.

Sure.

So first thing though, because I think this is going to be so helpful for so many people, tell me your flavor of introvert. Like, how does it appear for you? Like, what does it actually feel like so that people know that they're normal?

My flavor of introvert is this: I could be by myself for hours, if not days. I could literally like Oh, my driver Hugo drove us here. Ed and I were sitting in the back. Ed, did we— maybe we said 5 words to each other in the 45-minute drive. I'd rather just sit there because I'm an introvert. There's beautiful conversations and thoughts happening in my head. We both do jiu-jitsu, so we talked about jiu-jitsu for about 3 minutes, and then I went back to just the thoughts in my head that are beautiful and colorful and solving my own life's problems and pondering things and asking my, my, the theater of my mind, you know, as Maxwell Maltz in his book, asking my theater of mind a question and letting that question sit there. And tomorrow, next day, it'll give me the answer. So that's what being an introvert is like. Also being an introvert, after this, I have nothing else on my schedule because I poured out a lot of information. I'm doing something very extroverted. And then after this, Hugo drives us back. I get in my truck, I go home and I chill in my backyard for an hour or so. And then me and my son will go work out and we'll do jiu-jitsu, or Chloe and I will, you know, hopefully I can drag her to the gym with me. But I need to decompress as an introvert. Like extroverted stuff makes me want to decompress. Now, how do I bring out my extrovert?

I've started so many different businesses, and I have to tell you that every single time I've started one, I have been terrified. It didn't get easier because each business was so different. You're always wondering, is anyone gonna buy this? Are these events gonna fill? Is anybody even gonna like this product? And now I know that it was absolutely the right thing to believe in myself and launch my businesses, launch my podcast, despite all of the fears and hesitations that I had. It also helps when you have a partner like Shopify on your side, like I did. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the US. From household names like Glossier to brands just getting started. Get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready-to-use templates. Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store and matches your brand style. Accelerate your efficiency, whether you're uploading new products or trying to improve existing ones. Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography. It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com/happy. Go to shopify.com/happy. That's shopify.com/happy. I've been in situations where I have needed a new employee, a new help in my business immediately. And the last thing that you wanna do is waste time on people who don't actually understand what you do. I want somebody who can come in and understand the workflow. They can contribute right away. They can help us move forward. They can help us scale. And that's why I'd use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When you need the right person, not just another CV, this is a job for Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, this is a job for Sponsored Jobs. Indeed Sponsored Jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. Match with quality candidates with Indeed's sponsored jobs. Get matched with and hire quality candidates who can drive the results that you need right now. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed.

I think that's a great question to ask because I read that Beyoncé is an introvert. Mm-hmm. I'm like, no way. But she created this alter ego called Sasha Fierce. Are you familiar with that? I didn't know this. And so I Googled it and then Wikipedia came up. That's her alter ego. And Sasha Fierce is exactly that. She's fierce, she's powerful, she's extroverted, and she does things that the, you know, Beyoncé, who comes from a Christian little town in Houston, Texas, would never do. And so I know how to flip the switch and turn extroverted because, again, I taught myself. But afterwards I need to decompress, recharge by myself, and then I can give myself to the world again. And it's okay to be an introvert. It's totally okay.

I remember thinking, I'm like, I'm never going to make it in this industry when I first started doing fitness competitions because I don't know if you remember, but they kind of originated on the East Coast. Like they were a lot more popular on the East Coast. And so little Midwest girl goes to the East Coast to learn how to do it. And these Boston girls were just talking. They were loud, they were talking over me, they were getting what they wanted, they were asking for what they wanted, they were going for it. And I was just like quiet. And it's like, I went back to my husband, I was like, I'm never gonna make it because you have to be really introverted and loud. Like, that's what I thought.

Yeah.

And then I was like, okay, I'm gonna give it another chance, like, just to see how could I possibly make this, you know, how could I make this industry work for me. Um, but I remember thinking, how, how am I gonna make it? Did you ever have that thought?

Like I did. And I realized very quickly that my work can speak even louder for me. And so when people are like, man, I just don't know how to be loud and obnoxious and extroverted. I don't either. Like, there's certain things that I just refuse to do that are like, I can— now that my kids are 17 and 19, I don't talk about them as much on my podcast because I respect their privacy. I respect— they don't want me to talk about the fact that they were 12 and 13 and how I disciplined them because now they're friends love my show. And so last thing they want to do is hear me tell a story about them when they were 12 and 13 and have their friends be like, "Your dad heard when you were, you know, you pooped your pants or something," right? Whatever. Which for the record, neither one of them pooped their pants until after the age of 1. But so there's a lot of things I refuse to do to get attention, to get likes, to get whatever. But my work, my work always speaks louder. So when I'm on stage, I was at stage speaking to a 5,000-person audience last April at the Maverick Center, Keaton and Dan's event. And I was like, look, here's what you do in business, here's what you do in personal life. And oh, by the way, how you do anything is how you do everything. And so, you know, you guys all should be lean and athletic. And, you know, if you're under the age of 40 years old, you should have abs. I go, I'm 50 years old and I've got abs. And someone way up there goes, show us. And I lifted up my shirt. And I showed them my abs. And so that's a very extroverted thing to do. But the work did the talk. I didn't yell and whatever about it. I showed them. When my franchise hit the Inc. 5000 list, I got attention. It hit the Inc. 500 list, I got more attention. Top 200 fastest growing franchise, I got a lot of attention. And so if you're introverted, let your work speak for you. It will. Or also learn to bring out your Sasha Fierce if you can. Flip that switch and go extroverted and passionately talk about the things you're excited about. Because I'm not faking this, but I do realize that how I deliver a message determines how it's absorbed and accepted. Right. And so if I sit here like Eeyore and just barely talk and, you know, not— no motivation, inspiration, and excitement, enthusiasm in my voice, people are going to be like, this guy doesn't believe his own hype. Right. But I do believe in my own shit and I got back it up with proof. And so find a way to either flip the switch or have your work do the talking for you.

Okay. So you have a program that I love.

Yes.

We've gotten to chat about that just is like one of the most moving things on planet Earth. Thank you. Can you talk about your Squire program?

Yeah. The Squire program is probably going to be my legacy work of all the companies that I've created and sold and will continue to create and sell. The Squire program is a 12-hour experience that fathers and sons go through together. As long as the sons are between 13 and 17 years old, fathers and sons come together for 12 hours. And we have 6— we're in 6 different states now that we run the Squire program. And it's a rite of passage for these young boys because today more than ever, masculinity is under attack. Everything that is factory installed in a young man is considered toxic, abusive, and aggressive. Literally factory installed. In fact, my dear friend Father Michael Butler says masculinity is a gift from God. I believe that. And so the ability to be aggressive, competitive, want to acquire things, to be a protector, to open doors for people. And there's been plenty of times I've opened door for a lady and she goes, I could do it myself. Sure, no problem. Here's the door for you. Right. No worries at all. But I'll continue to be a savage servant. And so savage because God forbid if there's a loud bang right now and I know that you ladies are very capable. It would be me and Ed running out there, making sure whatever that loud bang was doesn't end up in here.

I would let you.

Right. Thank you. Thank you. And that is so like, oh my God. And because you said that, I'm like, now I can't let her down, right? Like in my head immediately, the thought that came is like, God forbid something happens. Now I can't let Lori down. She's my friend. And oh my God, could you imagine Chris coming home and going, B, you were here and something happened and you didn't protect my wife? Oh, shit, right? And so like, I have that in me. Every young man has that in them. Today, media, big government, all the oppressors who I call the opposition, has declawed and defanged young men. And they do that many ways— through social media, through television, through, through media, through celebrities and actors and athletes that they look up to— by calling men toxic. You know what is toxic? A weak man is toxic. A nice guy is toxic. A good man is not toxic. A nice guy who will tell you what you want to hear to your face and then backstab you, that is toxic. A man who will punch the wall and put a hole in the wall in front of his wife or girlfriend because he can outpower her and now instills fear in her and trauma that she can't come back from. That's a scar left on her that she can't come back from. A good man knows that he, he wants to punch the wall, But he also knows that I have a duty and a responsibility to protect this woman, and I'm not going to go punch the wall. Instead, I'm going to go and take a walk outside. I may be gone for 3 hours because it'll take me 3 hours because I take a long time to cool off, but I'll be gone working out or walking or running or doing something that's not going to create rift between us that's further and more scarring and damaging. Young men today have been conditioned because they've been de-caught and defanged. Masculinity has been called toxic. That they've been conditioned to be nice guys. And here's what I think. If I wanted to take over a country, instead of firing missiles and guns and bullets, I might try and mentally demoralize the men who I would consider my opposition. Because, no offense, but I'm not really threatened by women. I'm not threatened by the elderly. I'm not really threatened by children. It's the able-bodied men that I would feel would try and stop me from taking over the country. But if I can spend a decade or more using all sorts of media, school, churches to decon, defang them, take away their masculinity, their desire to want to protect, where men now have to question whether should I do something or should I not. Dude, my wife and I, we were coming back with our kids from Maui. We go to Maui every year. This was about, I don't know, about 8, 9 years ago. And we're sitting in the back of first class. Some dude up front starts going berserk. I mean, crazy, making a gun gesture, threatening to blow up the airplane. Flight attendants panic. I see them coming down the aisle with two zip cuffs in hand. I stopped the lady. I'm like, "Ma'am, is there anything I can do to help?" She goes, "We need to zip cuff that guy. He's a flight risk." I go, "Great. How can I help?" She goes, "Well, we have to ask him to put this on." I was like, "That crazy man who's foaming at the mouth? He's not going to do that." In that moment, the guy sitting behind my wife— my wife was sitting across the aisle— the guy sitting behind my wife, he and I made eye contact and that was it. No words were spoken. I don't even know this guy. I figured this is post-9/11. Mm-hmm. We're all going to attack this guy. My biggest problem is I'm going to be the first one on him. I'm going to suffocate with all these people on top of us. Yeah. When he obviously denied putting on the zip cuffs and started— stood up and started yelling at the flight attendant, and the lady goes, "Help!" and, you know, screamed for me. It was just me and that guy who attacked this guy. I got him in a rear naked chokehold. We put the zip cuffs on, and then my family and his family got all the free hummus and chips that they can have in first class while me and the guy sat in peasant class in the back, sitting security with this guy until we landed at LAX. But I have a duty and a responsibility. I don't care if a video was made and it's taken out of context that the founder and CEO of Fit Body Bootcamp just attacked a man and choked him out. Like the truth will come out. But if that guy's got a bomb, it ain't going to blow up right now while I'm on this flight. Yeah, but so when we begin to decon, defame young men, to soften up minds and hearts and make men question who they are, I've decided that I've got a responsibility to make men strong again, to make them confident, to make them competent, to teach them how to be providers and protectors, savage and a servant. All I want to do is serve you. All I want to do is serve him. I want to serve the people around me. But God forbid something's going to go bang or boom. Now we're fighting. And so the Squire program is what I've developed for fathers and sons to take— for fathers to kind of usher their sons through this rite of passage where you're no longer a boy, you are now a man, son. And you went through this 12-hour experience of, you know, ice bath and truck pull and crawling in mud and, you know, carrying logs. And you are now a young man and you've won a seat at the table for me to groom you into a competent, capable, confident man who, when I'm gone, can protect, provide, and preside. We don't have that anymore. There were cultures that had this. In New Guinea, the fathers would take 14-year-olds to the edge, their sons, their 14-year-old sons, to the edge of the forest at night they'd cut their arm with a knife, hand them the knife. They would draw blood and say, go into the forest. Myself and these older men will wait for you right here. When the sun comes up, you come out. And when you do, that's a rite of passage. You now have won a seat at the table for us to groom you into a competent, confident tribe member, a protector, a provider. That rite of passage no longer exists. And every culture used to have that, by the way. We no longer have that. And even where fathers are not absent. Fathers haven't been taught that, so they don't know how to teach something they haven't been taught. So when we run the Squire program, we also are teaching fathers how to guide these young men over the next decade. Hey, he's 14, 15 now. Over the next decade, how do you groom him to be a good man and not just a nice guy? In fact, there's a great book out there that if you feel that you have a man who's toxic, have them read the book No More Mr. Nice Guy by, I believe, by Robert Glover. Amazing book. And immediately they will have this awakening and realize, I'm not meant to be a nice guy. I'm meant to be a savage servant, good man. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Okay. So in that program, you also had mentioned when we were chatting before at dinner, about 4 of us had gotten together for dinner. It was just a beautiful dinner where you really went into it to talking about about how a lot of these boys don't even— they don't have the presence of a father in their life.

Yeah.

So you've also— I mean, and that was a big part of this, if I remember you talking about that. And then also, if they don't have a father, they can still go. So mothers can still bring them in. There's— tell me how that program works.

Yeah. So when I, when I ran the first class of the Squire program, and I was naive, right, because I was and I am present in my kids' lives, I just figured this is gonna be a father and son thing. I was naive. Because I obviously know that there's a 50% divorce rate. And that doesn't mean that if moms and dads are divorced, the dad's not active.

Right.

But there's a higher probability the dad is not as active. And depending when that divorce happened, if it's pretty early on in that young man's relationship, you know, maybe that dad was not as active, or that young man never met his dad in the first place, right? There's many unplanned pregnancies, and this woman is now trying to grow and raise a young man. And so after the first squire class, I got a lot of messages. And, you know, we put a teaser video like, hey, here's a squire class, and 42 young men and their fathers went to this class and, you know, they had the rite of passage. I got about half a dozen messages from women saying, that's something awesome that you did, but my son is not— he doesn't know his dad, or the dad's actively like disengaged and disconnected. What do I do? And I was like, oh shit. Well, thankfully, over the years, I also coach a lot of special operations guys. So when they come out of Marine Raiders and Army Rangers and Navy SEALs and they want to be entrepreneurs, I coach them for free. I just— it's my way of giving back to our country, especially being an immigrant to this country. It's done a lot of good for me, so I want to help our veterans that way. And so I built a big network of military guys who I know are good dudes, good men. And so I was like, hey, Can you bring your son to the next class? And if so, I can assign him a mentor. Mm. And so they were all, yeah, absolutely. And the moms were like, well, I can't afford the $1,900. No worries. Can you just get him here? Like, I'll pay for the whole thing, right? And if you can't get him here, I'll pay for your flight and his flight and the hotel. And this, by the way, going back to entrepreneurship, this is why money is so important to stack money. Money is a weapon. I use my money as a weapon to fight the opposition who is trying to demoralize and decon, defame young men. Because if a mom is like, hey, there is no older brother, there is no grandpa, there is no dad. What do I do to help this young man that I have become a competent, capable man in the future? Lady, fly him out to me. I'll assign him a mentor. He'll go through the Squire program, and then that mentor will just stay in contact with him forever because we built a bond. Men want bonds. And so I have no problem. So one-third of our classes now are usually classes that they either come with the older brother, an uncle, a coach, or someone that I've assigned them, and they go through that experience, the Squire program, and then they end up maintaining that relationship with them moving forward. And it's cool now. We've been doing this for so long, for 6 years now, where young men who were 15 and 16 that went through it are now young adults Wow. And they're coming back and mentoring other young men who don't have dads going through it, which is just beautiful for me to see.

What are some of those— well, they're not kids anymore, but what are some of those guys now saying who have gone through the program? What's been—

every single one. Oh, man, that's such a good question. Every single one with that question are like, I knew all these things to be true, that I needed to be this way, but I felt like it was wrong or it's looked down upon for me to have a voice or for me to want to acquire, for me to want to be competitive, for me to want to be violent. There's nothing wrong with violence when justified or when on the mats, when we do jiu-jitsu or we get in the ring and we're boxing and sparring. Like, it's all good. But violence under control is a beautiful thing. Violence out of control— now we've got a man who's emotionally reckless. I heard someone explain this once, maybe it was Andrew Tate. And he said, he said, when, when a woman gets emotional and, you know, he's polarizing. So hear me out on this. He says, when a woman gets emotional, what does she do? And whoever was interviewing him goes, well, you know, when my wife gets emotional, she typically cries. And, and, you know, that's that. He goes, what does a man do when he gets emotional and he can't control his emotions? And the guy started thinking, because I know what he was thinking. And Andrew goes, let me tell you what you're thinking. We want to kill people. We just see bloody murderous rage. Which is absolutely true. And so I do not have the privilege of being emotional. I must maintain emotional discipline. So we teach these young men, you might be emotional now because the punishment is not severe. You show these emotions as an adult, you're locked up for life. You lose all respect by other men. You are no longer welcome in our tribe. And so they realize that all the things that were missing— it's almost like they— I had one young man, Malachi, tell me, he goes, I feel like like there was empty puzzle pieces in me that the Squire program found and put those pieces back in, and I feel whole. And I thought that was such a beautiful way of him saying it, because we essentially give young men permission to be men— healthy, confident, masculine men.

How's that shown up in their life? Like, have they been— have they felt more confidence? Has it seemed like they've been able to, like, create a better path for themselves?

Yeah, in every capacity. Now, obviously, the dad's mentoring them, right? It's not like you go through the squire program and you're now a man, go conquer the world. It's literally, this was your rite of passage. You've just won a seat at the table for them to like, to first acknowledge you as a man. So now you must carry yourself as a man. Like, your reputation matters. That's your credit score with us other men. You know, I told my son, I said, son, you know, you went to the— I put him through his own personal squire program. There's a great book out there called Raising a Modern-Day Knight, and it talks about putting your young man through a rite of passage when he's 13, 14, 15 years old. And I said, son, moving forward, like, you stand up when you see another man, you stand up to shake hands and you make eye contact. When you're walking with a lady, you walk on the street side of the sidewalk. When you need to open the door, you open that door. When you're on an escalator with a woman, you're behind her. And I had to explain why. He goes, why do I need to be behind her? Because if she falls, you're going to catch her. And if the escalator is going down, you're in front of her. Because if she falls, you're going to catch her. All this to say that these young men realize that there's a, there's a playbook for being a man. This is what knights did, by the way, when knights had squires. The reason it's called the Squire Program is knights knew how to be savages, right? They're fierce warriors, but they were also gentlemen. They were— they represented the kingdom so that they carry themselves accordingly. Knights had squires and it was their job. The squire's job was to clean the blood off the sword and the armor. Armor and, you know, take care of the— feed the horse and clean the horse. And but it was the knight's job to teach that young squire how to be a chivalrous, confident, capable, savage young man and go on into and hopefully be a knight one day. And so that process has stopped. So when it shows up and when, like, you know, Malachi and not Andrew, my son, but this other young man, Andrew, hey, Coach B, I've got a girlfriend now. And I'm opening doors and I open doors for her mom. And I stood up and shook hands with the dad and he told me like, hey, make sure that she's home by 10. I got her home by 9:30 because one of the things I teach is like, if you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, it's unforgivable, right? That's, that's just how it is for men. That's why here we show up early.

He was early, guys. I wasn't totally ready. And I should have known you were early. You're always early.

That's just it. That's, that's my rule. And we're going to live by it. And And so I share that with you because these young men need that mentorship and it just warms my heart. So imagine that father who trusts this young man with his daughter, like, wow, you could have brought this young lady home at 10, maybe even 10:05, and you brought her home at 9:30, 9:45. I really appreciate that. Now that dad's going to be like, hey, honey, you know, that's a good man that you got versus, hey, I don't trust that young man. What did you guys do? You guys were parked in the driveway for long. Came in 10 minutes late. Right. And so I've got a daughter. I would feel that way.

Yeah.

And so I would want a young man to respect my daughter, and I want my young son, 19-year-old, to respect the daughters that, you know, the young lady that he's dating and to respect her parents. That's just how it has to be. And one can call this old-fashioned, it can call this traditional. But I also realize traditions are there because that's what keeps society glued together.

I appreciate you so much because I always know I'm going to get the truth from you, and I love that.

Thank you.

Because it's a lot of what people are thinking and a lot of what people are talking about behind closed doors, but I really appreciate that you are willing to put yourself out there to say exactly what you want to fight for and what you believe, because I feel like that's really, you know, it's, it's, it's easy to get lost right now. So I appreciate you standing up for, for what you believe in, for coming on the podcast and for sharing so beautifully. So thank you so much for coming on. And you guys, I'll make sure to link that all up. And if you wanna work with Bedros in any way, I'm putting all 3 different things that we talked about in this podcast. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye everyone.