Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 018. How To Become A High Performing Leader

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

When it comes to entrepreneurship, many traits are vital to your business's success. But there’s one trait that is often misunderstood and overlooked. Leadership. In this latest episode, I explain why no amount of marketing, leads, or sales will ever outperform leadership and how you can start to develop into a high-performing leader.

And when you develop self-leadership, when you are leading yourself and you are congruent to the person that you expect them to be, then they develop a sense of respect for you and want to run through walls for you. Welcome to the Bedros Koolian show. Back when Q was rolling with Lorenzo and a Benzo, I was banging with a gang of instrumental. What's happening, friends? Welcome to the Bedros Kulian show. I'm Bedros Kulian. And today we're going to talk about a topic that I used to suck at. Quite honestly, I'm still a work in progress, but I think I've gotten a lot better at it. You're probably wondering what that thing is and that is leadership.

And the reason we're talking about that today is because, well, everything rises and falls on leadership. In fact, leadership is often the problem and leadership is usually the solution. And quite frankly, I was a horrible leader. Leadership was not factory installed in me. In fact, you know, the question I get often now in my DMs from people is like, hey, You run multiple companies, you're doing multiple things and you seem to be successful and you hire and you staff all the right people. How do you do it? What did you do to become a great leader?

I don't know if there's any one thing I did, but I can tell you that it is a culmination of all the things I'm about to share with you. So here we go. Full disclosure, let me tell you exactly what a bad leader I was when I almost let Fit Body Boot Camp, my big giant company, international fitness franchise, almost let that crash and burn. back in the day. So I launched Fit Body Boot Camp back in 2010. By 2012, we became a franchise, a legit franchise. By 2014, I was so stressed, so overwhelmed, in so much debt, that I was like, you know what, I got to figure out what to do with this business. Otherwise, I'm just going to let it crash and burn. In fact, several times in that 2014 era, I had people not, back,

then I had a small team man. Like today we have a huge team across all the different companies. But back then we were in a tiny little place and we had like six employees. And one time, three of my employees quit on the same day. I was such a bad leader. Three of my employees quit on the same day. Another time, I had an employee who before walking out at 12 noon, she took all of our franchise contracts. At the time, we probably had like maybe a hundred 10, 120 franchise locations worldwide. She took all the Fit Body Boot Camp franchise contracts that people had signed, and she put them in a garbage bag, took the pot of coffee that we had, poured it in the garbage

bag, shook it all up, tied a knot, and walked out. Of course, I didn't know any of this happened until I got back from having lunch with my wife. And I see that her desk is cleared off. And I was like, hey, where did she go? They're like, oh, she just left. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Now then I try and log into my emails like man I can't log into my emails

She had changed all the passwords then I can smell like coffee in the air I'm like what does that smell and I see that like big giant glad hefty bag like what's in here? I tear it open and it's all of our franchise agreements Now you would think that that bitch was crazy and she probably was but the reality was I was a bad leader I hired crazy I made her crazier I was passive aggressive as a leader I wasn't a great communicator. I was indecisive. I never met the deadlines that I would set for them. And understandably, she went off the deep end and did that. It was a great big fuck you to me. Right. And so the hard truth is I was such a bad leader that one time I've had three people quit. And another time I had like on the same day they quit, man. And then another time I had that woman

fuck up our franchise contracts. We had to lay them all out on the carpet and dry them off with with fans. and try and read people's names and phone numbers to contact them. Now, obviously, these days, everything's digital. And these days, I've got an awesome fucking team here at headquarters and around the world. And these days, people, like, are dropping into my DMs looking to work for me. But the difference is that they can tell that I've become the 2.0 version of myself, that I'm no longer a shitty, hypocritical leader. And I'm here to tell you that there's three levels to leadership.

And I want to break it down for you so that you can have the advantage, that I didn't have. So let's dive into it. Thing number one I want to talk to you about leadership is this. Level one of leadership is self-leadership. If you think that you're going to lead an organization, a sports team, a company, a business, if you think you're going to lead your family well,

yet you're going to be a shitty leader, a hypocritical leader, a leader that's an imposter. In other words, you say one thing, but you do another, or a hypocritical leader where you don't even live by your own rules that you set for others, No one's going to respect you, right? In fact, I remember reading a study that said that people have more respect for a felon

who has paid their debt to society than a leader who is hypocritical, who says one thing but does another, expects one thing of people, but has a different set of standards for himself, right? So self-leadership boils down to this. Do you do the things that you expect of others? do you wake up early? Do you get your workouts in? Do you show up on time or early? Because as you may know, when you show up on time, you're late. If you show up late, it's unforgivable. And to show up on time, you must show up early. That's the way it works, right? Because the highest level of leadership is

self-leadership. If you can't lead yourself in your health, in your fitness, in your communication, in your mindset, and your problem solving, in your decisiveness, if you're an indecisive leader, And you can't make a decent decision to save your life. How is anyone going to feel like they respect you and they want to be led by you? If you can't communicate a vision to people, then how are they going to know what to do? If you are a emotionally reckless leader, what level of respect will people have for you? Right. So the highest level of leadership is that first level of leadership, which is self-leadership, self-discipline.

And when you develop self-leadership, when you are leading yourself and you are congruent to the person that you expect them to be, then they develop a sense of respect for you and want to run through walls for you. And the truth is, I had employees and today I have teammates. See, employees don't respect you. Employees clock in a little late. They clock out a little early and they do the bare minimum to main. employment. Teammates and team members, on the other hand, will stay extra. They respect you. They will do the work required and then some. They will exceed the expectations. And they are very clear and bought into the vision and the mission of that company, that organization,

and they will fight to win because they will fight as a team. Now, do you want to have employees like I did? Or do you want to have team members? I would say team members all day long. but that starts with self-discipline and self-leadership. Be the person that you were meant to be for your employees, for your company, for your family, so that they respect you. It is only then you can go to level two of leadership.

Level two of leadership is learning to lead others. So how do we lead others? Well, once we've learned how to lead ourselves and become the congruent, the physical, mental, emotional embodiment of the leader that they need, now we can lead others.

So here's a reality. If you're a level six or seven leader, you're never going to hire level eight, nine, and ten team members. That's it. Eight, nine, or ten team members are not going to be attracted to you if they can sense that you're a level six or seven leader. Right. So your level of success in life and business is literally capped by your level of leadership. So as you can develop into a better leader, you can now hire and work with and attract others. who are not only going to be mission focused,

but are they going to go above and beyond that? So how do you lead others? Level two of leadership is to be able to lead others, to be able to have a very clear vision, a vision that's so clear. And how do you set a clear vision? Well, back in the day when I was a shitty leader, my vision for a fit body boot camp was this.

I want to have a lot of locations as soon as possible. When somebody would ask me, hey, man, what is this franchise, fit body boot camp that you're building? I would say, well, you know, it's a group personal training program. that takes 30 minutes, circuit training in a circle, and boom, you got amazing results,

or we give your money back. And they go, wow, that sounds awesome. How many locations do you want? I want a lot. I want as much as possible. Well, when do you want them by? As soon as possible. What kind of clarity is that, right?

If I were to hire employees, how do you explain I want a lot and as soon as possible? Because to them, a lot might be 20 locations and as soon as possible might be over 30 years. And so when I became a better leader, I very quickly figured out that the leader that's going to lead others has to be very clear in their mind what they want. And they have to be very clear when they want it by.

So once I was able to say I want 2,500 locations worldwide by the year 2026, now we had a definitive number and goal that we could attack. That then took my team and they go, yes, I believe in it. And the team members who didn't believe in that vision, they were like, well, that's too daunting of a goal. I can't do this. They quit or very quickly got fired. But if you don't have clarity of vision, you can't lead a team. Number one, if you're not decisive, if you're an indecisive person, you're not going to be able to lead others either.

The fastest way to lose respect of your team is to be indecisive and then to have double standards. Indecisive means every time you hit a fork in the road, you take too long to make a decision. You're scared. You're him and hine. You're asking 20 people for their opinion and their advice. And you never really pull the trigger until finally a decision is made for you, right? Usually circumstances end up making a decision for you because one of the options is taken away, leaving you the only other option. And most of the time, that's not the best option.

And I'm here to tell you that when your team sees that you're an indecisive leader, that you panic when it's time to make those big decisions, they begin to wonder, why am I working for this person? like they don't deserve to have me, right? And make no mistake about it, you think as a leader you can fire people and you can, you may not realize this, but your employees can fire you. By leaving you and going somewhere else where they respect the other person more,

where they respect the work that's done, where they have a better team that doesn't just work in silos and has shitty communication, but actually collaborates and has great communication and has a unified vision that they all have bought into. Right. So if you don't want to lose your best employees like I did way back in the day,

one of the best things you can do is not only lead yourself to greatness, but learn to be decisive, communicate clearly, cast a great vision, and only attract high performers. But only attracting high performers happens when you become a high performer. The third level of leadership is when you can teach your leaders to, to build leaders. And finally, after a decade, I've been able to get there where Bryce and Jeff, so Bryce is the CEO Fit Body Boot Camp and Jeff is the VP of my supplement company, Trulene. Both of them now are building leaders. Joan is the VP of my coaching company. Joan, Bryce and Jeff are all building other leaders. They are empowering others. But I had to be a better

leader and lead myself in my fitness and my mindset and my personal discipline and my productivity and my life structure to be able to attract those awesome people and then I had to have great communication be able to cast a great vision be able to be decisive and have emotional discipline to be able to lead those high performers level two and then finally by constantly pouring into them coaching them mentoring them I've empowered them to go and build other leaders throughout our organization. So our organization continues to grow and compound. I'm convinced that the reason this show, the Bedros Koolin show is growing is because our leaders have empowered the team that's in here right now. There's three people

in this room right now who are filming, who are taking notes, who are making videos, and we brainstorm and we collaborate. And there's like two other people behind the scenes still. And all these people are leaders who once came in as employees, but they're developing leadership and they will one day lead others in this organization or they'll go on to start their own companies or go to different organizations and lead. And that is okay too. As a leader, it is your job to lead yourself to health, fitness, mental, like high mental acuity, right? And then it is to lead others after you're able to lead yourself. And then it is to help others become better leaders so that they can lead others.

And then if they end up leaving, that's okay too. Because they may have a vision for themselves. And you help build a leader. And you might have helped someone who is impacting millions of lives and they're going to come back and shout you out. It's funny that two of my former employees in recent years, in the last six years, grew up, developed their skills, helped my companies grow, ended up resigning. starting their own companies came back around and hired me as a business coach to mentor them and if I wanted to I could have asked them for equity in their company one of them in fact offered me equity and I chose to not take it because my plate is full right now but I share this with you because what a great opportunity to be able to help someone develop skills become a great leader then they realize they want to do their own thing and they come back around and hire you as a mentor and a coach and they're paying you for it right like what a great

symbiotic relationship that is. So make no mistake about it. Not every single one of us are born as factory-installed leaders. Like, there might be one or two generals in the history of time that had this like factory-installed ability to be a great leader. The rest of us, we have to develop our leadership muscles. You have to understand that leadership is the problem. Leadership is the solution in most cases. You have to realize that being a hypocrite leader is the worst type of leader to be. Expecting one thing of them, but not delivering the same thing from yourself is the most hypocritical thing you can do. You understand that the second level of leadership is to be able to lead others to success by casting a great vision, communicating, being decisive, being emotionally disciplined, and sharing the collaborative vision with them so that they can go execute. And then if you did your job right and you poured into your leaders, you've now built leaders who are now going to go out there and build other leaders.

they're going to help their teams grow. And now when you want to start that second company, third company, people go, dude, you have seven companies, how? And it's because every one of my leaders went on to develop new leaders. And as they developed new leaders, as they pour into others, I have more resources available to me.

Because think about it, if you want to start a company, if I want to start a company, my rule is this. One, do I have the followers on social media and on my email list and et cetera to promote this product or service that I'm thinking of? If the answer is yes, the next question is, do I have a leader who can who I can build that company around? If I have that leader, then I'm willing to drop a few million dollars and build a team and a

company around that leader. But if I don't have the leader, then I'm stuck, right? So there's your lesson there for you for friends. First, go and build your own leadership. Lead yourself first through self-discipline, self-enlightenment, health, fitness, mindset. Second, lead others through great communication and of course decisiveness, casting a clear vision. Thirdly, ensure and make sure that your leaders are able to build other leaders so that you can multiply the impact that you're having on this world. You can multiply your income and you can have a lot more influence in life.

Listen, thank you so much for listening and watching this episode. I massively appreciate you guys for the comments that you guys leave for the shares, for the subscriptions. Like, you guys have blown me away big time. And I just want to leave you with this last thing, which is average is the enemy. success is your responsibility and your life can absolutely change for the better when you decide to flip the switch See you guys next time What's the difference between me and you back when Q was rolling with Lorenzo and a benzo I was banging with a gang of instrumental