Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - How Social Justice Will Add Value to Your Business - 018

Episode Date: October 25, 2017

We live in an age where millennials are stepping up and bringing a new wave of change into the marketplace – social justice. How businesses get involved with charities and causes is a direct reflection of their values. People are way more likely to buy from a brand who donates a portion of its proceeds to charity over a brand who doesn’t. Why? Because people inherently want to help others. Listen to Bedros Keuilian and Craig Ballantyne talk about the advantages of connecting with charities in order to build your business while giving back.   Here’s what you’ll discover:   :44 - What is social justice, and how does it grow your business? 2:18 - How the Fit Body Boot Camp Million Dollar Toy Drive is giving back while adding additional value to the brand. 4:00 - How to tie in a charity to your business by working donations into your prices. 6:41 - How being involved with a charity will make you more desirable among your competitors. 8:29 - How you can get involved in charities without looking like a publicity vulture. 11:46 - The number one reason you should tie your business in with a charity.

If someone has a choice between your business and another business, and all things are equal, other than the fact that you give money or a hearing aid or water or whatever to families who need it, that will be the tipping point to get that customer to buy from you versus your competitor. Hey, B, do you know the number one thing that the millennials have brought to the business world that has just been really, really fantastic? What's that? Two words. What? Social justice.

You know what I'm saying? I don't. me more. All right. So social justice is how businesses get involved and connected with charities, causes, all that type of stuff so that it's really a win, win, win situation. It's a win for the consumer. It's a win for the charity. And then it's also a win for the business. So, you know, you have some really great examples with FitBody Boot Camp. Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, I don't know if you know who Cole Hatter is, but Cole Hatter, who runs the Thrive Events, was out here at the headquarters, gee, maybe about two, three weeks ago.

And we got to talking, and he does something really amazing. He's got the Thrive Event, which is all about making your money work, as in do good causes, right? And he told me about an earphone company, very similar to Beets, in fact, better than Beats. It's called Liston, L-S-T-N, I believe, is the brand. Got it. And so you can either go buy a brand of Beets, right? Or you can go buy Liston. Now, when you buy Liston brand, for every...

headphones they sell, they give a free hearing aid to a child who needs it. Amazing. Just like Tom Shoes. Tom Shoes, right? That's the same thing. So when you think about this, now, who are you going to do business with? Beats or a product that actually gives back to a very worthwhile cause. And the neat thing about that is it's something that we have been doing inside of my organization for, oh, going on three years now. And it's one of the fastest ways to build my brand and give back to charities and causes that we believe in. Yeah, so what is the big thing?

And this is near and dear to my heart because you're doing something that's benefiting one of the charities that I really support. So tell us about the million-dollar toy drive that you guys are doing and how you're incorporating that with FitBody Boot Camping and building their business at the same time.

So what was like maybe three, four years ago that you and Matt Smith came? This would be our sixth year. Okay, so this is a sixth year. And I remember I was there, so six years ago in Denver, and you guys had read something that the Denver chapter of Toys for Tots

is the most underfunded, right? Well, they were short 30,000 toys. So in Denver alone, every year, they need 90,000 toys, and they're often 30,000 toys short. And this goes on in every major city across America. And so when you look at it that way, you decided that, hey, we're going to do something about it. You and Matt Smith got all your entrepreneur friends together, and it was kind of a last-minute thing. But if I remember correctly, we took a couple of buses to some local Walmarts, and we all spent tens of thousands of dollars, probably what, 60, 70 grand that first year? Exactly. Is that what it was? And we loaded up a U-Haul truck that the Marines then took away and gave to kids who wanted a Christmas gift that morning. Well, that actually

inspired me. That inspired me so much that last year, Fit Body Boot Camp out here, we went to Target nearby, and we spent $20,000, and I was like, all right, this is good, but I know we can do better. How can I tie in the Toys for Todd's program into what we're doing with Fit Body Boot Camp? And so I decided for every single client that we get on board at a Fit Body Boot Camp location worldwide, that we're going to donate part of the proceeds to Toys for Tots. And at the end of the year, our goal is to raise a million dollars. And so this December, we're going to take 10 buses to 10 different targets, and we're going to spend $100,000 per target.

And a lot of our Fit Body Boot Camp owners are flying in, their clients, their staff, and I'm going to have a big party in our parking lot with food trucks out and all this stuff. But the bottom line is this. You can always figure out how to tie in a charity. For example, Tom's Shoes has worked it in to their price. Like when you buy a pair of Tom's shoes, they're going to give a pair to kids or someone who needs shoes. They don't, it doesn't have shoes. Stella, the beer company, right?

They partnered with, with water.org, the organization that Matt Damon promotes. And you buy a bottle of Stella or a pint of Stella, then you're really giving water, I think a quart of water or a pint of water to people who need it most. Wow. From what through water.org. So it doesn't even have to be like a one-for-one race. show. We talked about the Liston organization, right, where they have headphones that are just as good as beats, if not better, but for every headphone you buy through them, they're giving a hearing aid

to a child who needs it most. And so we decided with FitBody Boot Camp, we have something called web specials. And as you might know, most of our clients with Fit Body Boot Camp locations worldwide, they find their local Fit Body Boot Camp through the internet. And when they do, they go on that that local Fit Body Boot Camp's website and they'll peruse through, they'll find our web special, which is usually 21 days for $67, right? And so what we decided to do was we're going to do something a little different. We're going to change the 21 day offer from 21 days for $67 to $21 days for $69. So we're raising the price by only $2 for our web special. And this is how our new clients get inside of a Fit Body Boot Camp location. So even though we're raising the price by $2,000,

we're giving away $3 of every web special that we sell to Toys for Tots. We're collecting that money, and at the end of the year, that's going to be over a million dollars, and we're going to use that to buy toys. And so it's not like you have to come out of pocket. Like you can build it into your cost. In our case, we decided that $2 of it will be built into the cost. The other dollar will come out of our pocket, and over the year we'll have raised a million dollars. And we're getting fit by to boot camp owners worldwide to promote that particular page of that web special.

And so when you do this, it really does several things. Today, we live in a socially conscious environment. And so not only is it a good thing to do just because to help out humanity, but it's just a good thing to do for your business as well when you can tie it in with the cause. And so, again, you were the catalyst that helped us tie in Toys for Tots with this. But when you tie a cause, if someone has a choice between your business and another business, and all things are equal other than the fact that you give money, or a hearing aid or water or whatever to kids or to families who need it,

that will be the tipping point to get that customer to buy from you versus your competitor. Now, here's an example of this. So, Pedro, you might not know this, but I really like protein bars. I had no idea. And so when you go to the airport, you know, there's all types of protein bars in these stores. And so at the Nashville airport, I stumbled across this new protein bar. It's called K-I-Z-E. And so all things being equal, there's a Kies bar there, there's a Quest bar there,

but Kise gives some of their money to some charity. I can't remember what it is. And, you know, they're the same sort of tasting thing. So now I buy those bars because, as you said, everything else being equal, most people are going to go and get involved in the one that is giving back to charity, right? Yeah, without a doubt. And by the way, I got to tell you, when Craig comes to town and he's visiting Southern California, he stays at my guest house.

and I don't know this, but I figured this is a good place to confess this thing here. I don't know if you know this or not, but I go up and I rearrange your protein bars, and I always take one and then rearrange it to make the box look like it's still full. Oh, there you go. Because he'll always order boxed water and protein bars in advance. And so they'll come to my house, and of course we take it upstairs to the guest house. And I figured that I've, well, this is a new flavor. I'm curious what it tastes like.

And so I'll just take one, maybe two sometimes, and rearrange things, and you never know. At least if you do know, you haven't called me out on it. Well, there you go. And speaking of boxed water, that company also has a charity bent to it, or at least a social justice bent to it, because I buy boxed water instead of bottle of water for several reasons, but one of them, it's better for the environment as well. So, you know, when you think about all of this stuff

and all of the, you know, causes that we can donate to now, you know, you guys are involved with breast cancer month. You know, there's been a lot of, you know, natural disasters in America that Fit Body Boot Camp has been donating to. you really are able to tie into the community stronger and better. And so how would somebody watching this, listening to this, say, hey, you know what, I own a brick and mortar facility, whether it's a Fit Body Boot Camp or other.

And how can I tie that in where it's done right? Because you can do it in a way where it's like, ah, you know, they're just doing it to... To get publicity or to get some attention, right? How do you do it right? Yeah. So the way you do it right is you have to be authentic and transparent. You know, if you, like someone watching this, whether you own a big international franchise like we do,

you or you have just a local business. You have a local business in your small town. Find the charity that's meaningful to you. It's as simple as that. It's about finding the charity that's meaningful to you. And then saying, how can I get involved with that charity, not to self-aggrandize, but to meaningfully give back to them? And then use that in my advertisements and my social media to say,

look, folks, I know you have a choice between this dry cleaners and my dry cleaners. All things being equal, you're going to get your shirts cleaned and pressed and washed. but I also donate to the local animal shelter, right? And I support, I donate a dollar of every, every customer's purchase to this local animal shelter. And that becomes part of your way of doing business. So it's really about making it a way of doing business and not necessarily looking at it as a promotion or a way to maybe get limited attention for a small amount of time. That's not going to happen. This is the long game.

This is the long haul. Go all in on a cause, on a charity, tie it in with your business. has to be something that you're really passionate about because if you're not passionate about it, you're not connected to it. People are going to be able to tell. Like for me, it's about Shriner's Children's Hospital. It's about Toys for Tots. It's about, you know, Hurricane Harvey just hit Texas, right? And in Houston specifically, we have eight Fit Body Boot Camp locations, and each of those locations have hundreds of clients who got affected. So we decided that we're going to change the links in all of our social media, the, you know, the free content that I put on Instagram and

and Facebook and YouTube, and we're going to drive revenue for a donation cause to Harvey. And now we're doing the same thing for Hurricane Irma with Florida, right? We've got a lot of Fit Body Boot Camp owners out there. And so I make sure that our Fit Body Boot Camp owners know. We call them our Fit Body family for a reason. Well, what does family do for each other during times of crisis? They step up. Come together.

They come together. And so I look at it as I have to be the one to lead that drive. And so we did this for Hurricane Harvey. We did it for Hurricane Irma. I've got a near and dear spot in my heart for children's causes like Toys for Tots and Shriner's Children's Hospitals. And so that's what we've tied all of our events to. Like we're going on to the 12th year for Fitness Business Summit. And every year, as you know, when people are late to their seats during the three days of fitness business summits, we charge them $20.

You have to pay, put $20 in the pot. And at the end of the weekend, I double whatever money we collected and we donated to Shriners. Well, over the years, it's been hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? So it's not something that's front and center on all my websites, but it's something that we talk about during interviews like this, during podcasts and magazine articles. And those are the causes that people go, you know what, all things being equal, if I'm going to do business with some other company or this guy's company, I'm going to choose his because he's got a cause that I believe in. Yeah. The Shriner's connection that you've had has always inspired me to go out and do stuff. But you know what?

We still haven't talked about the number one reason to tie your business in with a charity. Which is your team. Your team. How is your team come together when they know that they are doing something for Toys for Tots, when they know that they're doing something for Shriners? It actually, you know, in my business, for Toys for Tots, it's everybody in the company's favorite day of the year to go out and do this. And it really brings them together because they're working for more than just a job or

a paycheck. They're working to make a difference. And that ties back to the millennials and the social justice that they bring into the business world. And your team has a lot of people in that age group. And so let's hear about how it has impacted them. So 85% of our team members are millennials, right? And so when you really think of it that way, the reality is, and I'm not quite sure,

everyone kind of puts us on millennials, like millennials want to be cause-focused, millennials want to be part of something bigger, they want to do something meaningful and significant. Well, doesn't all of humanity, like I'm a Gen Xer and I want to do something meaningful and I want significance, you know, baby boomers, they want to do something meaningful. And they did. Today, because of what they did, the war that they fought and their meaning and significant, was to save this country from the hands of Nazi Germany, right? Like that was a meaningful fight.

So one might say that was a big cause to get behind. But we found that the millennials that we have here on our team get very excited when we have a cause that we can support that's above and beyond just let's run a business and make money. And since I come from that era of let's do something bigger and better and not for just the sake of building a business and making money, but actually helping humanity, it was a perfect symbiotic relationship between myself and my team. And when I said, hey, guys, you know, last year we raised $20,000 locally here for Fit Body Boot Camp. And I know we contributed that to what you guys do. And that was part of a, I think, almost a quarter million. No, there was 167,000 last year.

So it's our best ever. Yeah, best ever, best ever. But I'm thinking like, man, toys for Todd still needs more toys. And so guys like you and me, we have a responsibility to say, how can I 10x this? How can I go all in? And so when I said, what do you guys think about doing a, Toys for Tots driver, we raise a million dollars and we really make a big impact through Toys for Tots. The whole team not only got behind it, they're leading the charge. They're connecting with Toys for Tots. They're branding and media people with Target. They're branding and media people. Organizing the entire thing. Even the actual sales funnel, because remember, we're going to have 600 Fit Body Boot Camps promoting this one promotion, 21 days for $69 instead of 67.

And so I don't have to do any of the heavy lifting. And they get to get the pat on. the back and I think that goes back to also good leadership a good leader kind of recognizes what does my team want as a source of motivation and it's not always money most of the time once you've solved the money problem for people it's recognition and significance and so if you can give recognition and if you can create a reason of significance your team will go out and move mountains for you and they've done that and they've been the backbone of my empire and i every opportunity i get i talk about that for that reason yeah amazing so listen it doesn't matter what you generation you're from, you can go out and make this a win, win, win situation for everybody

where you help the cause, where you help the community, and where you help your team and bring it all together, right? Yes, sir. Absolutely. Thanks for listening to the Empire Podcast Show. Remember to subscribe on iTunes, share it with your friends, and give us a rating. We'd really appreciate that. And make sure to go to Empire Podcast Show.com to watch the videos as they come out.