Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 092. Do YOU Have What it Takes To Be An Entrepreneur? (What the 1% know)

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

There is always a price to pay to accomplish anything. But few are willing to pay, and that's why true success is hard for many to achieve. In this episode of the Bedros Keuilian Show, I share what price you need to pay to be an entrepreneur. And what it takes to overcome the hardship in your entrepreneurial journey. BEDROS KEUILIAN LIVE 2024 | September 13-14, 2024 in Scottsdale, AZ https://live.bedroskeuilian.com/bk-live-2024 REGISTER FOR THE LEGACY TRIBE Get the Life, Money, Meaning & Impact You Deserve https://bedroskeuilian.com/legacytribe JOIN MY FREE 6-WEEK CHALLENGE: Transform into a Purpose-Driven Man https://bedroskeuilian.com/challenge TruLean Supplements | https://www.trulean.com/pages/bedros Get 50% Off Trulean Subscribe & Save Bundle Use Code: BEDROS Few Will Hunt Apparel | https://fewwillhunt.com/ Get 20% Off Your Entire Order Use Code: BEDROS OPEN A FIT BODY LOCATION A High-Profit, Scalable Gym Franchise Opportunity Driven By Impact https://sales.fbbcfranchise.com/get-started?utm_source=bedros BECOME A MODERN DAY KNIGHT: Join the MDK Project https://www.themdkproject.com/ PODCAST EPISODES: https://bedroskeuilian.com/podcast/ STAY CONNECTED: Website | https://bedroskeuilian.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/bedroskeuilian/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bedroskeuilian Twitter | https://twitter.com/bedroskeuilian

There is a price to pay for success. There's a price to pay for freedom. There's a price to pay to build a brand. There's a price to pay to become a brand. There's a price to pay to become the authority, the celebrity, the person behind that brand. And that price is how much are you willing to eat? Welcome to the Bedroes-Coolyan show. Back when Q was rolling with Lorenzo and a Benzo, I was banging with a gang of instrumental.

Hey friends, welcome to the Bedrose Cooleon show. I'm Bedrose-Cooleon, and today I've got a great episode teed up for you. especially those of you who are entrepreneurs or on your journey to becoming entrepreneurs. So pay close attention because this is all about the entrepreneurial shit test that every business founder and owner must experience. But before we go into this episode, I just want to let you know. Bedrose Coolean Live takes place September 13th and 14th in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. I want you to click the description box link.

If you are watching this on YouTube or on the podcast episodes, you'll find it in the description, click the link in there and join us, September 13th and 14th, beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm bringing a thousand of you together and we're going to focus on giving you the playbook, the blueprint, on making more money, having more meaning, significance, and purpose, and of course self-mastery, becoming the 2.0 self, the highest version of yourself. So with that said, let's jump into this episode. Now, the idea of this episode came to me when I was doing a EOS call with Drew and Joey, the co-founders of Few Will Hunt. Now, as you guys know, I wear the Feud Will Hunt brand because I am not only a fan of the

brand, but I'm also a fan of what it stands for. Feowell Hunt is all about this. Everybody wants to eat, but few will hunt. And when I remember seeing that particular phrase, come across my iPhone on Instagram, I was like, what is this about? And at the time, I thought it was just a community page on Instagram. And so I started following them. then I realized, holy hell, they actually have apparel.

And so I started to buy their apparel and they started to send me apparel. And I was like, dudes, you guys are super awesome. Let's get on a call together and see how I can help you guys out. I just really loved what Joey and Drew in Philadelphia were doing out of Drew's basement, right? The Fuel Hunt shirt brand. And what led to a simple conversation ultimately led to them inviting me to become a business partner with them. And so every week now, I end up on a call. with them every Tuesday. And this call is all about how we can grow the brand and get it in the

hands of more hard workers just like you. It is American made, dirt to shirt, and the messages on every shirt will resonate with you if you're a hard worker, if you're a focused human being, and you don't mind the grind of life. So with that said, we're on a call. And as you might know, any growing business like Fee Will Hunt requires a lot of capital, a lot of money. So while it's making a lot of money, it also is eating a lot of money up in terms of operational costs, in terms of hats and rash guards and shirts and shorts and, you know, sweats and all these cool things that they make. Plus, on top of that, there's all the marketing expenses, right? And so you should already know that when you're starting a business or you're growing a business, that a lot of

the revenue that starts coming in ends up going back to feeding the growth of the business. So there's not a lot of profits left. And so Drew and Joey were talking about, man, We are just enjoying the grind. It's hard, but we never thought it would be this hard. And my job was to be the Jim Franco in their life. Now, you're probably wondering who the fuck is Jim Franco if you knew to the Betterers Cooleon show. Now, those of you that are veterans to the show, let me know in the comments if you

know who Jim Franco is. And what your favorite Jim Franco moment was from the vlog that we did a couple of weeks ago. But Jim Franco, 24 years ago, started off as a personal training client of mine. So I was in my early 20s. I was probably about 24, 25 years old. And Jim Franco was in his mid-60s. And he was a personal training client of mine in LA Fitness. And I would train him three times a week. And he was a very successful entrepreneurs. I owned multiple cars. He owns a successful software company. And he would come and work out with me at the LA Fitness at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. His schedule, even now that he's 81 years. years old, his schedule is 8.30 to 2 p.m. And then he goes to the gym and then his day is done. Like, how cool is that right? So when Jim Franco ultimately became a business partner of mine because he was my personal training client and we ended up hitting it off and making friends and we went

into business together, well, he ended up teaching me some lessons that I want to pass along to you guys and gals who are obviously on your entrepreneurial journey. And it doesn't matter if you're just thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, or if you're already in the trenches and you're trying to build your brand and your business and you're like, oh my God, this is harder than I thought. This is more difficult than I thought. It's costing me more than I thought it would cost. It's taking longer than I thought it would take. And oh, by the way, there's not a lot of profits, even though there's revenue because I keep having to feed this hungry monster through advertising and operational costs and products and et cetera, right? That is the plight of the entrepreneur. And that is

why I talk about the shit test that every entrepreneur must face. And so I reminded Joey and Drew yesterday or a couple days ago on that Zoom. I said, hey, fellas, let me tell you what Jim Franco told me one time. He said that there's this period in your business where you're going to have to face a metaphorical fork in the road. And that metaphorical fork in the road comes when you have spent more money than you thought you were going to spend. You put in more time, energy and effort than you thought you're going to put into this business. You are lost and confused. You have no hope insight.

And you know that you're walking in this dark tunnel and somewhere around the curve, there's going to be a light at the end of that tunnel. But you have yet to see any glimmer of hope or light. And that is when you are at the metaphorical fork in the road. And I remember when Jim Franco gave me that metaphorical fork in the road. See, I started a business with him called High Tech Trainer. I owned 33% of it. Jim Franco owned 33% of it.

And of course, we had a software programmer that owned 33% of high tech trainer as well. This is an important lesson for you guys. So pay close attention. Now, we started the business back in 2001, maybe 2002. And High Tech Trainer at the time was going to be a workouts that you can do on a Palm Pilot, right? This is before the iPhone. all the phones out there were flip phones. There was no app store.

There was none of that stuff where you can do online coaching. There was no Instagram and Facebook and online coaches. And I came up with this idea that since everyone's got this Palm Pilot, like a personal daily assistant, right? I'm like, what if we can have them download workouts to their Palm Pilot? Or they can just go to high tech trainer.com, pay their $49 a month, and they can pick and choose their workouts they want, put them in the order that is going to be best for them based on their goals to burn fat, build muscle, whatever their goals are, how many times a week they want to

work out, it will generate a workout for them. And then they could either print it out or download it to their Palm Pilot, take it to the gym, and then follow along on the program. So I was way ahead of my time with high tech trainer. But because of that, there was no Google ads, Facebook ads. There was really no marketing method there. There was no social media influencers to promote your software or your product. And so we found ourselves constantly borrowing money from Jim Franco. Jim Franco, basically his part of the business involvement in the business was that he would loan me money. Now, one day, I had acquired about $142,000 in debt with Jim Franco. Now, I had agreed to pay him back at 8% interest, but he was acting as the bank, right? So you might be out there looking for someone

to loan you money or you might want to go to the bank to get money so that you can launch your business or maybe you started your business and you realized, holy fuck, I'm at a place where I've completely run out of money because I've done what every other goddamn entrepreneur does. And that is we underestimate how easy it's going to be. We underestimate how much money it's going to take. We underestimate how much time it's going to take, how much effort it's going to take. And then we realize that, holy fuck, I'm behind the eight ball and I see no hope in sight. So imagine this.

I've maxed out my credit cards at this point, right? With high tech trainer. I'm living in a little apartment. I'm in debt to Jim Franco for $142,000. I'm doing everything I can to get high tech trainer to take off and become profitable. But man, it is just not happening. And all of a sudden, Jim Franco calls me and I still had that job as a personal trainer because that personal training kind of income was what kept me financial.

should be afloat. And so Jim Franco calls me and he goes, hey, man, what are you doing? I said, well, I got two more personal training clients and I'm going to focus the rest of the day on high tech trainer again. He goes, well, when you're done with your personal training clients, come on out to my office, stop by my office. I need to talk to you. We need to have a come to Jesus conversation. And I was like, what the fuck is a come to Jesus conversation, right? As I hang up the phone. But sure enough, I finish my sessions with my clients and I drive out to Jim Franco's office and I'm like, hey, Jim, let's have that conversation. He goes, yeah, kid, we have to have a come to Jesus conversation. And I go, all right, what does that mean? He goes,

well, you owe me $142,000 up to this point. He goes, we have not seen any profits from high tech trainer. Because we haven't seen any profits from high tech trainer, the bank of Jim Franco is officially closed and now it is time for you to start paying my money back at 8% interest like we talked about. And I was like, oh shit, right? At this point, I've got both of my credit cards. cards maxed out. One was like at a $12,000 limit. The other one I had a $15,000 limit. And I've got, I owe $142,000 when I say I, meaning the company, it was $142,000 to Jim Franco. But again, I'm like the founder and the CEO. And even though I own one third of it, we all kind of are in this. And Jim Franco is acting as the bank for us. So we have to make good

I'm paying this man back. And so I'm like, all right, Jim, I'll figure out how to pay you back. But I just need a few more weeks to at least come up with another marketing plan because nothing I'm doing seems to work. He goes, well, I've got another idea for you. Hey, guys, quick interruption to the show. Let me tell you all about the Trulene Wellness Shot. If you're like me and you care about your health, hydration and building a strong immune system so you can stay active and you can get after it in life, then you want to try the Truline Wellness Shot. I used to take 11 different supplements in the morning. Things like vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B12, echinacea, ginger, and a whole bunch more.

Now it's all included in the Trulian Wellness Shot. I want to send you a 30-day supply for 50% off. Just go to truleen.com, use the code word bedros. My name to get 50% off. You'll also get free shipping. You get a 30-day unconditional money-back guarantee. And $1 of every order goes to Shriner's Children's Hospital. And when you use the code word bedros and do the subscribe and save,

which is a Trulene Tribe program, every month, you'll get a fresh supply of Trulian Wellness Shots for an additional 20% off and free shipping. and $1 of every monthly order will go to Shriner's Children's Hospital. So go to truille.com, use code word bedros and take advantage of this amazing offer. Now back to the show. I go, what's that? Jim says, well, what if I wipe your debt clean, $142,000 that high tech trainer owes me,

as in Jim Franco, I wipe that debt clean, and I start paying you $10,000 a month salary, and you can be the full-time CEO of high-tech trainer and focus on marketing and growing that instead of doing it on the side because you also have a personal training job where you're making a fraction of the money that you could be making when you are the CEO getting 10 grand a month. Now keep in mind by this point we're in the year 2023, maybe start of 2024. I think we're in the later stages of 2020, not 2023, 2003, right? Like 2003. So over 20 years ago. And like there's no Google ads. There's, I don't even know if there was Google at the time. And there's no marketing strategies. None of that stuff for the internet yet.

I've got a website and an internet business. And I'm like, how the fuck do I market this thing? Right? And so my strategy was to go to gyms and to go to these big box gyms and show people what high tech trainer is. And hey, you could either print it out on paper or if you have a Palm Pilot, you can download it to your Palm Pilot and you could get your workouts in and you don't have to hire a personal trainer.

It's much cheaper. And you still get awesome results and you get the results that you want. So while I'm trying to do this thing, Jim Franco is offering me to wipe my debt clean and to give me $10,000 a month's salary. Now, at this point, you have to understand, I'm only eating one meal a day, not because I'm so broke I can't afford more meals, but I was pretty much that broke anyway. But I couldn't even digest. I was having, I was so stressed out, I was having digestive issues, right?

So I'm having digestive issues. I'm stressing out and freaking out over the credit card debts that I have. and I'm freaking out over the $142,000 that I owe my mentor, Jim Franco, who believed in me, who trusted in me. I feel overwhelmed. I feel, I feel just layers of anxiety. And I feel like, fuck, man, I've beat my head against a wall a million different ways. And I can't figure out how to crack the code and make high tech trainers successful. At that time, we probably had, I don't know, maybe 50 to 60 customers paying $49 a month.

And so that's nothing substantial in terms of revenue. So we're still like burning more money than we're making, right? And now the bank of Jim Franco tells me, sorry, the bank's closed. You need to start paying me back and figure out how you're going to do that. Or take this offer of getting paid $10,000 a month salary. Plus, I will wipe your debt clean, but you become my full-time employee and I own your 33%. So now Jim Franco would own 66%. I would own 0% of high tech trainer, and then our programmer would own the other 33%.

And I thought about it for a couple of days. That was my shit test. And the shit test is this. It is, how much shit are you willing to eat and to keep going in terms of this vision and this goal and this dream that you have, right? I mean, I'm eating top ramen at the time. I'm eating fucking cans of tuna fish. I'm living in a fucking shitty little hovel of an apartment.

I'm trying to make it work, but nothing seems to be. working. Now this man trusted me with his money. He gave me 5,000 and then 10,000 and a 15,000, 20,000 and ultimately it capped out at $142,000 when he realized this fucking business is not making any profits. So if he owns more of it, he can start making those decisions and then having me execute on those decisions as the CEO and employee. But I remember thinking, I don't want to be a fucking employee. I remember thinking I want to be an entrepreneur where I can chart my own path in life and make my own money and have financial freedom and work the schedule that I want to work because that's what I thought being an entrepreneur worked. Plus, I took my pen and paper and I came up with

the fucking business plan. And according to my business plan, in about 18 months, high tech trainer was supposed to be successful and profitable. And guess what? There we are more than 24 months in and no success, no profits. And in fact, I'm in debt, stressed out, digestive issues, freaking out and can't sleep at night. And I'm thinking like, you know what, if I can't this opportunity that he's given me, 10 grand a month. I mean, that's like pretty much fucking 100 grand a month at that point, right? It was the equivalent of that. It was like game-changing money for me.

But I also realized this is a shit test. Maybe Jim Franco is trying to see if I really have the desire to be successful. Maybe it's God trying to see if I'm really deserving of success. Maybe it's the universe trying to see is this motherfucker deserving of the success that he's going to have if he continues down this path? Or is it going to be a little fucking bitch and turn in his resignation, give his 33% to Jim Franco, and take a salary and be a good little employee? So after thinking about it for two days, I went to Jim Franco and I said, Jim, I think I am not going to be your employee. I will figure out how to pay you the money.

And I promise you, I will pay you that money back. I may not be starting that payment back to you next week. It might take a month or two. but I promise you, I will pay you the $142,000 back plus to 8% interest that we talked about. So with that in mind, another year later, as it so turns out, Sprint, Sprint Cellular, if you all remember, before Apple ever came out with the iPhone and the App Store, because that was in 2007, 2008, that the iPhone came out. And subsequently after that, the App Store and all these cool little workout apps,

Well, guess what? Turns out one of the people, one of the 60 people that were paying high tech trainer $49 a month was an executive at Sprint Cellular. And Sprint Cellular had a app store, but they called it the jukebox, right? And it was, you know, they had those razor flip phones. And on those razor flip phones, you could download fucking little cute videos, you can download workouts, you can download workouts, you can download whatever. And as it so turns out, this executive comes to us, reaches out to us and says, hey, how would you guys like to expose high tech trainer to like a hundred thousand people who have the ability to download from the Sprint Cellular Jukebox at $2.50 and 50 cents a month and we'll do a 50-50 revenue share with you. I was like, wait, what? They go, yeah, if you just recode your software and you make it work on our phones, then they can download these little workouts that show the before and after pictures, right?

Short little video clips. And they could basically do what they were doing on their Palm pilots on their sprint phones. And therefore, we charge them $2.50 for anyone who wants to do that. And then we give you half of that revenue. So all of a sudden, boom, I hit my big breakthrough. But guess what? That was four years into a $16. or 18 month plan. And so I'm here to tell you, man, things will always take longer, cost more,

and the universe or God or your subconscious mind or someone will give you that shit test. And just like Jim Franco told me years later, he said, hey, kid, you made the right move by not selling me or giving me your equity and by not taking that $10,000 a month's salary. You made the right move. You have the chops. You have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. That was one of the greatest moments of my life. And all the things. the suffering and all the stress and all the digestive issues and all the fucking if you want to know the truth there was times during that era that I would sit on the toilet to go number two and then I would see blood in the toilet because I had ulcers in my gut like that's how stressful

it was so I'm here to tell you that there is a price to pay there is a price to pay for success there's a price to pay for freedom there's a price to pay to build a brand there's a price to pay to become a brand. There's a price to pay to become the authority, the celebrity, the person behind that brand. And that price is how much shit are you willing to eat? That is the entrepreneurial shit test. And I told that story to Joey and Drew, not because they are ready to quit, but to remind them that they are exactly where they need to be on the journey of growing fuel hunt into a worldwide brand. You know, when I got on board with fuel hunt, the mission was to to take these shirts that are being made in Pakistan and Bangladesh and eventually bring the production

to the United States. And every other shirt company out there, even shirt companies that are all about 1776 or 1976 or fucking Second Amendment and constitutional rights and the U.S. flag all printed on shirts that are from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China, which to me is a little hypocritical, isn't it? And so I was like, guys, if we're truly going to be an American brand, what if we had the shirts, the hats, the rash guards, the shorts, the sweatshirts, all of it, dirt to shirt U.S. made? And they were like, you know what? That might prices out of the market space. I go, or it might not if we find the right companies to work with who can produce the shirts that we want, still high quality, well designed, but all of it.

from the shirt to the making of it, to the graphics, to labeling it, U.S. made. Not printed in the U.S., not some kind of bullshit, you know, word smithing, like assembled in the U.S., but literally dirt to shirt made in the USA. That's what Fuel Hunt is about. And a year and a half ago, the guys took that idea and ran with it. And the entire line of Fuel Hunt is all USA made. Now, think how much money it takes to all of a sudden, over and a sudden, over and night flipped the switch, pun intended, flipped a switch and say, all right, we're not going to sell

these old shirts that have our existing logos and designs. We are going all American made. And so it took a lot of money. It took a lot of financial lift. And it was me reminding them that if you believe in your vision, if you believe in your dream, if you believe in the cause so much that you are a brand that is built in Philadelphia out of Drew's basement. And now they've got a big corporate office and they've got family working for them and now they've got some of the greatest athletes across jujitsu and all these different disciplines and sports and thought leaders and influencers wearing the fuel hunt brand because they're so proud of the american made material and the american made message behind it but there's a price that joey and drew had to pay

and now i became their jim franco because i had to be the guy that tells them that they're making the right moves right now that they're going to have to suffer they're going to have to tighten the belt, that they're going to have to figure out how to take some money from elsewhere in their life because they need to reinvest all the money coming into fuel hunt right now, this very moment, to continue to grow the brand into what it is going to be over the next 12 to 24 months. And I'm telling you the same thing, my friends, if you believe in your product or service, if you believe in the vision, just because it didn't meet the timeline that you set out, just because it didn't meet the financial expectations that you set out,

does not mean that it's not going to come to fruition. It will, but you will have to pay your dues. You will have to eat the shit. You will come to those crossroads, the metaphorical crossroads of give up and be an employee, or you will have to decide that I will keep staying in the fight, and no matter how dark this fucking funnel is, I will continue to push forward because there will be light at the end of the funnel. I'm telling you right now,

There is that metaphorical crossroads that takes place in every entrepreneur's life. It is when you are down on your luck. It is when you've run out of money. It is when people are telling you quit and become an employee. It is when they say, hey, you made a formidable effort, but it's just not going to work out. It's taking you too much time. You have to refinance your house. You have to max out your credit cards.

You have to borrow money. You have to start living out of your pickup or you have to downsize your living situation. All these things have happened to the greats. the greats because it is the price that we have to pay as visionaries, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, as innovators. If we want to launch this business, this idea that we feel is better than what's out there right now, if we want to launch it, you have to eat more shit than you anticipated. You have to pay your dues.

And when you do, God or the universe or whoever the higher power is is going to reward you. But I'm telling you, before the reward, there's always a shit test. And if you can resonate with this message, then you're probably right there on the crossroads. I'm encouraging you. I'm asking you to stay in the fight. Keep pushing. Keep pivoting. Keep innovating.

Keep trying to figure it out because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And if you haven't gotten to that crossroads yet and you're like, man, I'm so glad I heard this message, the time will come. my friend, the time will come where your business will hit that metaphorical crossroads and you will be facing the shit test. Just remember these words and I hope they ring true that you could either give up and be an employee or you can see it as temporary defeat and know that this is the cost and the price that we pay for the dreams that we have, that the other people will never have the quality of life that we will ultimately have when our vision comes to fruition and we're making

millions of dollars and we are transforming lives and we are building a legacy. So I'm rooting for you. I want you to win and I hope I see you at Bedros-Coolean Live, September 13th and 14th in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. And finally, my friends, remember this, that average is the enemy, that success is your responsibility and change will take place in an instant if you are willing to flip the switch. I'll see you next time. Anzo and a Benzo I was banging with a gang of instrumental.