Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Michael Gelfgot: The Immigrant Edge - 133

Episode Date: January 21, 2020

On this episode of Inside Look, Bedros sits down with fellow immigrant and entrepreneur, Michael Gelfgot.  Michael tells us about his upbringing in Uzbekistan and how he was able to overcome his poverty and make a killing in the fitness industry! After selling his 21 clubs, he could have easily retired. Listen to find out what he does now!    “I believe that successful people need to have a set of disciplines.” “There is no such thing as I may or may not do this.” “When there is no purpose, you die.” “We all know, inherently, what we need to do.” - Michael Gelfgot   Here’s what you’ll discover: 06:30 - How Michael and Bedros met 19:17 - When Michael decided he wanted to go all in on his business 22:39 - Do you have non negotiables throughout your day? 27:14 - Why Michael didn’t retire 33:29 - Michael’s journey from Uzbekistan to America 38:03 - Get leverage 39:22 - Michael’s morning routine   “You must learn how to ruthlessly manage your people and your profits.” - Bedros Keuilian   --   ► Follow me on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian   ► Connect with Michael by shooting him an email at → [e-mail]   ► Buy Man Up and get Bedros’s High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   ► Listen on iTunes and leave us a review: http://bedrosmedia.com/itunes131   ► Subscribe to My Channel for weekly videos: http://www.youtube.com/bedroskeuilian/?sub_confirmation=1   Youtube: https://youtu.be/pYiXyFtIDNw

The thing is, as long as there's some sort of way that you have for yourself to get back into the swing of things. So for me, it's weekly. For me, it's every single week. I take about 60 minutes and I take a look at what the hell did I do last week. What did I do this week? Am I moving the needle forward? And if I acknowledge and I notice the fact that I'm not moving whatever needle I want to move forward, that's my sense of checks and balances sort of to say, okay, I need to get my butt back on track.

Hey, friends, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show. Oh, I'm Pedro Coolean, and this is an inside look. And today we are looking inside of the life of an entrepreneur who I've known since 2007. That's, golly, over 12 years. And I know he's amazing in sales. He's amazing at human performance where the mind is concerned. He is one of the most optimistic dudes I've ever met. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Mike, Gelfgolf Gelf.

Wait, tell me your laugh. It's all right. It's, it's, it's Gelf. Got. That's good. Gelf got. That's right. Because for years, I've been pronouncing it incorrectly, and I was never corrected.

Gelf got. Mike, welcome aboard. Thanks for having me. And this is the Empire Show. And on the show, we really do a deep dive into someone who has been successful. We, and guys and gals, if you're watching and listening to this, just know that literally every week. In fact, just four days ago, I got another DM from someone asking me, hey, man, how much would it cost for me to get on your show? Because there are some big shows out there who will charge someone to get on the show.

to give them some air time and give them some exposure, and we never do that. So most of the time the Empire show is either just me or just me and Craig. Rarely we'll have a guest like you on board because you actually have value to add and not because you paid us and gave us money. We never take money.

However, if you want to give me money after this, I will gladly take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. So, Mike, you and I met at Fitness Business Summit 2007. No, 19, no, 2007. Correct, the very first one. You got it.

The very first one in 2007. And I think that night of the first or second night, we sat in a conference room, you and me and about five other people, and we ended up filming what ended up being my first information product closed clients. How to close nine out of ten clients. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And we filmed that thing until about 11 o'clock at night. And you had so much value to add. So why don't you kind of tell me how you got in the, not only in the fitness world, but into the world of selling and influence.

Sure. So what's what this I guess to connect the dots to the story right. So you and I had a mutual connection for a guy that, or with a guy that hired me and taught me how to sell personal training. I think you guys did some work. Was that Steve Dow? No, it wasn't Steve Dodd. Dan Fahey. That's exactly who was. Yep. That's right. And so I knew there was that there was that connection. And so in 2007, when I when I got to the fitness business summit, I just, I wanted to introduce. myself, hey, we know this guy, and then you and I started talking, hey, by the way, we're doing this video thing tonight, and if you come, I will help you with your sales presentation. I said, really, free coaching? Fair enough, I'm in. I mean, what else is I started doing on a Friday

night and Orange? Sure. California, right? Yeah. Anyways, I'm glad I went, and of course the tricks were invaluable, and I wrote you a very nice note after that. I started selling fitness when I actually worked for Balli, Total Fitness. This was 2002, I believe. And what's interesting about Valley Total Fitness is you learn what not to do. Sure.

You learn how... Give our audience an example. Not to sell. Well, I mean, listen, I... So, I think anyone that's made it anywhere, it feels like in the fitness business, somehow has ties to either Valley Total Fitness or 24 or Fitness, right? So the point is, when you walk into my club, you're buying a membership. but if I had to make you someone's cousin or boyfriend,

or not boyfriend, you'd have to, you don't have to get discounts. You either need to be a spouse of some sort, right, or a family member. The point is, it was one of those deals where you literally, you walk into the club, I closed the door to the office, it was a glass office, and, you know, you go after it. I mean, that's not proper, that's not, that's not humane, but, boy, you get good real quickly. When I got really frustrated and that, when I really started learning,

is when I would sit down with someone and they didn't buy, from me and then my general manager, his name is Eddie. You know, he's this five foot two meatball, right, walks in and in five minutes, you know, he comes out with a membership agreement. I'm like, how is this possible, right, that he's able to make an impact

in time that I'm not? Like, what is happening? That's when I started really listening to a lot of books and that because I was sick and tired of missing people, but my fitness career or sales career, if you will, started with Ballet's World

fitness. I stopped working about total fitness because I wasn't, and I feel like it was making a difference. In fact, I felt like it was taking advantage of people. Sure. Well, which is why Valley's Total Fitness is no longer around. They're not doing what, yeah, they're not. Well, and I think there's some franchise stores, but the actual corporate office, I mean, there's ties to the mafia. It's not a pretty picture. But I learned what not to do. In fact, full disclosure, I got fired from Ballet Total Fitness doing things I shouldn't have never been doing, which is interesting. Now, speed up a little bit when we had our clubs and our staff try to pull a fast one on me, and I'm thinking, gosh, if you really knew what you were doing, you should have done this, this, and this. It's not a, not something to be proud of. But I, you know, you could figure out real quickly how to make paperwork do whatever you needed to do. Anyway, so I got burned out.

I hated the fitness business. And then a buddy in mind gives me a call, and he says, hey, man, you should come an interview for this PT manager position at this chain of clubs called FitWorks. This is in the Cincinnati market. And no, man, I'm done. I want nothing to do it. It's not going back to school. Well, he was very persistent.

And I didn't want to get hired. I came in after my workout, smelled. And anyways, they hired me anyway. because I could sell fitness. But long story short, that's how I met my business partner, and that's how I met Dan Fahey, which speeds me up to 2007. That's when you and I met and filmed the HUD of Clothes 9-10.

Yeah, my first info product closed client. Still, now we're in the third version of that, and it's just crushing it for the personal training industry. They did well, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That product alone has made several million dollars just by itself. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to my check sometime.

Right, right. It's in the mail. You didn't get it yet? Maybe I just update my address. So, Mike, you and I have one other thing in common in addition to the fitness world and Dan Fahey, where we both kind of cut our teeth on selling. We're both immigrants to this country. Correct.

Yeah. So why don't you tell me, like everyone knows who watches and listens to The Empire Show, what my immigrant story is. There is something to be gained from this immigrant edge. And I'd love to hear your story if you could share it with our audience. Yeah, it's a great story. In many ways, I was ashamed of being an immigrant. I came to the States. I was too. Because it was different. I mean, I wore ninja turtle shoes because that's all my parents could afford. I bought them. My grandparents actually got them from me

at Walgreens for $4.99. And the soul and the shoe is, I still remember this like it was yesterday. It hurt to wear it because it was rubber. Like, there was nothing that was preventing your foot to hit the rubber. Right. And they hurt. Anyway. How old were you when you came to the adage? I was 11. 11. 11. That's right. Yeah, it was interesting. So I was born in Uzbekistan, the capital of Uzbekistan is called Tashkent, which is where I'm from. It's a dark place, very, very dark place. Very dark place. I mean, I remember when I was seven, eight years old, I would walk into my grade school,

and there was a life-size, larger-than-life poster of Lenin and Stalin from ceiling to floor. And the doors were just these old massive doors where you open up and literally it's right in front of you, right? And Uzbekistan, just like Armenia at the time, was occupied by the Soviet Union. Correct. Hence Lenin and Stalin. That's right. Until 91, until the rebuilding, the pedestrian, until that pole, which, you know, who we know that it takes years and years in years to actually fully reconstruct the, the socioeconomics of a country. and the whole politics of the country,

just because you go from, once the rebuilding happened, that doesn't mean overnight, all of a sudden it's a democratic, no, in fact, nothing for us changed at all. The mob still controlled everything, right? But I remember this is an interesting story. I remember when I was six years old. So we lived in a small communist talent, and the way that it worked is your food was rationed, right?

They knew there was a certain amount of people that live in that town and your sugar and your flour and your rice, just your basic, it was rationed to you as a family based on how many people live in your family. So I'd remember standing in line every month, you would get a certain amount, or the local store, the government ran store, would get a certain amount of food, and then you would stay in line to get the food. So I'm standing in line, six years old. It is hot, as hot could be. So we should really say Russia light, right? Because it's not like, when people think of Russia, they think of maybe like Moscow. Right, right. It was really southwest. It was actually southwest. It was actually

actually, the environment is quite warm. We would have maybe one or two snow days. That's it, but it wasn't really all that cold. So I'm standing in line for sugar, and it is hot for two and a half hours. The six-year-old stands in line for sugar. Never got it. It's bawling. There's no sugar.

Now you go without sugar for a whole month, right? And then, you know, as I got older, I'm thinking, how's that possible? Like, how do you run out of it? Like, the government gives you a certain amount. Well, what happens is this. The guy that manages this store, he'll tell you that, he ran out of it. When in reality, what he's doing, he's taking that food,

and he's taking to the black market so he can sell it so he can feed his own family. Which is exactly how my father took enough material from the tailoring shop that he worked out or the men's suit fabrication. Sure. Made enough suits to sell in the black market, raised enough rubles to then bribe an official

in the Soviet party to allow us to escape. So that sugar that you never got, somebody sold in the black market to either feed their family better or to escape that environment. Sure. And that happened regularly. And I mean, that's common. Nobody really had it well.

Yeah. It was a known thing, but you're not going to do anything about it because that's how it's, that's how it is. Yeah. I mean, so we, we grew up, like, you know, think of poor, but like less than poor. Like, if there was such a thing, right? I mean, we would have, you know, sugar here and there if I actually got it. My mom had three jobs and hardly ever saw her. She was a conductor

throughout the day. She would do nails and hair after she got off work from there. And then overnight she would bake cookies and pastries for a local restaurant. She would sleep in the kitchen. She would close the door to the kitchen. Because if she didn't close the door,

my brother and I, because we were hungry, we would steal the cookies. And it was worth it was worth taking that. Yeah, that's right. Because the worst thing that could happen is I would get hurt, and my mom would be the one that would, you know, beat me silly. Yeah, so you got a beating from your mom, but at least you have a full stomach for once. Full belly.

That's right. That's right. It's probably hard for people watching and listening to this to understand this. And I'll give me another example of this where, and again, we talk about it so fondly now because we live in this amazing country in the United States, and we serve the people. And, of course, by a way of serving others, you create wealth for yourself. Right. But so I was six years old when we escaped. When I was five, it was when I was one.

I went and got in line for bread and butter with my mom. Yep. Very similar situation. Of course. In Armenia, very cold in the wintertime. And so everyone, you remember the big giant fur coats. Oh yeah. Men and women would wear all the way to the, so imagine these big bucks and women wearing fur coats and you're in line and you're smashed between your mom who's got a fur coat and then the person behind you who's got a fur coat.

And the lines, as you remember, were really tight. You don't want anyone to squeeze in. Oh, that's right. just squished by fur for hours at a time only to get to the end of the line and to be told, sorry, we're out, your ration's not there. And so you do have to buy things on the black market, which means that you have to steal something from somewhere to be able to generate that money. Correct. That's exactly it. Can you imagine if that's how life was here?

Oh, man. I mean, I think, and it's like when we, when we would run and manage our business, right, there's a few things that I had a hard time, and it's not the right way to deal with it. know, whatever way I will have our shortcomings, mine was dealing with entitlement. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think, I'd like to frequently, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I'd like to have to you, right? And it's, and it's, and I think our, are, a lot of people have a hard time understanding. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Well, your whole life, you went earning things. There was no one for you to ask. For sure. And if you did ask, you'd either get backhanded or worse. Right. And so to think that someone would ask that of you, yeah, I could see how you. And your parents, right, they'd do the best with what they got. My mom divorced my father when I was two and a half.

I haven't seen him, you know, since since. And so my mom did the best with what she had, raising my brother and I in a very turbulent times in Uzbekistan, maybe we would steal food and most of the time you don't even get away with it. Most of the time I would get my butt handed to me with people, you know, your size

because I know all I wanted to do was to eat food. There's a guy by the name of, I don't know if you've heard of this guy, but his name is Norm Borlaug. So I don't know, I was reading something and it was an article written that Bill Gates looks up to

this guy. I'm like, oh my gosh, like Bill Gates is fond of someone. Who's this guy? Never heard of this guy before. So have you heard of him? I have not. No? No. So he's like one of those guys that won the Congressional Medal of Honor, right? He's the same caliber as Mother Teresa, right? And Mohatma Gandhi, right? And so, okay, never heard of this guy. Who's this guy? Right? So I started reading about him. And essentially, he is credited for crossbreeding crops to get rid of a bacteria. called the arrest, I believe, that was essentially killing crops in the 1930s, right? And so he went to school in Minnesota and he looked at all these hungry people,

says, someone's got to end this, right? And so anyway, so he, that said him on this journey. Long story short, he talks about something interesting in his book, and he says this. He says, if you don't know what hunger feels like, right, then how does it, if you don't know what hunger feels like, then you have a lot. no idea what it's like to be hungry. If you don't know what hunger feels like, right, then you don't know what hunger. When I read that, I had to put the book down like, man, that ain't that spot on, right? Because he's talking about how in the 1960s, 1970s,

he partnered up with Monsanto, right, to help them come up with these super crops. And then, you know, not everyone, not everyone's a big fan of Monsanto and what they've done. I get it. But, but, but, you know, he talks about these people would rather die on a full belly and maybe live a short life because there's something in the crop. But at least, right, they had a full belly. I'm like, man, I get it. Yeah, yeah. It's easy for someone like you and I to understand that because of where we come from.

Yeah. So clearly you've dealt with a lot of adversity in your time. Clearly, you've had to show a lot of resiliency and even resourcefulness to be able to steal food, know that you might get an ass-wobin for that food you're about to steal. But to you and I, it was worth it because the alternative is to have hunger pain. And truly, folks, if you've never experienced hunger, now I'm not talking to kind of hunger where you know it's 12 o'clock is lunchtime, but it's like 1.30 and you're still working and you're just hungry and a little lightheaded. Like, oh, my blood sugar's low.

I'm talking about hungry where your stomach is eating your intestines. Right. And you are just angry. Like the word hangary came from the communist bloc countries, like where we came from. And I share that with you because perspective is everything. When you had, by the way, let me explain to you the kind of hunger where you can't just go to a restaurant, a drive-thrues, or to your fridge, and find the solution. The kind of hunger where, fuck, I'm weak, I'm tired. it hurts.

Now I got to go find or steal food. You know, and there's, like Tony Robbins talks about this, the difference between being resourceful and having resources, right? And so, like, people have all the resources in the world for them to earn whatever the kind of dollars that they want to earn, right, or lose weight or gain, whatever you want to do,

there are resources. The question is, will you be resourceful enough? Right. To get it done. And I think you've talked about this quite a bit. So would you, yeah, well, Like when you're truly physically hungry, boy, you get resourceful, right, real quick. John Barardi says something interesting about hunger.

Hunger is not an emergency. I love that. It's not. Hunger is not an emergency until you get to a point where you get super resourceful. I know what it's like. You know what it's like. So I think when you take that mentality in general and the mentality is there's always a way. Like there's no such thing as something that you cannot do something.

No, no, there's always a way. you will find a way simply because you were... That lesson in adversity of hunger translates into every part of your life, including relationships, to not take advantage of your relationships, to not take them for granted, because you need to be fed through love and relationships, which obviously you're married, you have kids, right? I have one, yeah. Yeah, and translates into business.

And you and John started one hell of a business together. You guys, at one point, before you started to sell them off, had how many anytime fitness locations? But 21 up until last year. We actually sold old 21 in one package to a guy, yeah. Yeah, 21 until last year. So someone might ask, well, wait a minute, I can't, and this isn't about, obviously you guys know that I'm the founder and CEO, Fit Body Boot Camp. So why am I sitting here talking about Anytime Fitness?

Because the bottom line is, no matter what the business model is, there's always a solution at the end of building, scaling, and selling. Right. And so that's what you did. And let's kind of dive into that just for a moment. Sure. So what made you decide when Anytime Fitness was? was really hot and on fire, that, hey, this is the brand that I want to go with.

What did you look for as indicators? Yeah, that's a good question. So I was 21. Yeah. I was looking for a job. Let's just start there. Sure. My business partner, whom I met working for a company back then called Body of Change,

which was contracted by FitWorks to help them get their PT off the ground, essentially. John was their general manager. I was the PT guy. we met a year later that's something that he wanted to do and a year later we opened up our club but you know he came up to me and I said hey man

you want to do this I'm like yeah that sounds really good Pedro sure I mean I didn't know what I wanted to do right I needed a job and I like my buddy and it was always his dream I'm like sure sounds good let's do it well now let me stop you there because John

obviously had a lot of options of people he can go to correct why does he choose to you why don't you explain that Yeah, well, he tells a really good story, actually, and he says, you know what, because he works a lot, right? He'll go get in at, you know, 8 o'clock in the morning. He'll stay until 8 o'clock at night, you know, Monday through Friday, right? And so, but every time he was there, I was already there. And I stayed after 8 o'clock, right?

I would frequently get to the gym between, you know, 5 and 6. I would stay until 8 or 9, sometimes 10 o'clock most days the week, and I would work until about 6 on Saturdays and half a day Sunday. So, so you're such a modest guy. before you breeze over that. Guys, let's stop again. All of you probably follow the rock, and he always talks about being the hardest worker in the room. And here's a big reason why,

because if you're the hardest worker in the room, you get recognized by someone who's willing to give an opportunity. Correct. And if you ever wonder, like, why someone, co-worker, a friend, someone else got the opportunity that belonged to you, know that they were probably the hardest worker in the room while you thought you were the hardest worker in the room. And so you showed up before John.

You left after John when John had an opportunity to give out, which was, you want to partner up in this new brand that's emerging, he came to you because he saw a workhorse and someone that can help him move the needle just like he could. That's right. That's right. Because he knew he had the membership part of it figured out, and he's done really well there. And he didn't really, he understood how the PT business is supposed to work. Well, let me take it back.

He understood how the PT business is supposed to work, but he didn't know how to go about selling it, right? Yeah. And so, but for a year or so, that's all I've been doing. I've been selling BT, and plus, you know, we were, I was working just as many hours, if not more, that he was doing, hey, man, you want to do this thing together. He's such a kind guy. He says this, hey, Mike. So if we do this thing together, he says to me, I will give you 50% of a business that doesn't exist. What's 50% of zero, right?

And he says, but if you stick with me for 12 months, right, I will give you 5% ownership of this anytime. and you don't have to put any actual money, right? It's totally through pure sweat equity, correct? Sweat equity. You know, if he speeded up, we're practically. He's always owned more than I did as he should because he leveraged his whole life and his savings. But he gave me an opportunity.

Yet another lesson. How often do we see where two people partner up together and one person put in more risk, put in more money, and the other person's job was to put an effort and sweat? But at some point we see the person who put in effort and sweat go, you know what, I think here we are eight years in, I deserve more. It's like, let's not forget who put in the financial, who tapped out their 401k, sold their house, did whatever they had to do to buy into that.

Look at the level of gratitude you show up with. He said, and understandably so, John owned more. Correct, as you should. And this is why you had a healthy and strong partnership until this day. For sure, for sure. And I think that's actually critical. Like, if you're going to have a strong partnership, you have to know your role. Right, there can't be two cocks, sort of say, right?

There has to be a leader and there has to be a bow. I usually say chef, but cocks work. You know what I'm talking about, right? I usually say two chefs in the kitchen. But in Uzbekistan, we say there can't be two cocks in the kitchen. Goats, how are you what I put it? Goats. No, no, I like two cocks in the kitchen, yeah.

But that's critical, right? Although we have a lot of similarities. We have a lot of differences. And he plays a certain role. I play a certain role. you know, and he can question me. I question it, but at the end of the day, we need to make a decision.

And, you know, both my other business partner, we say we let John make the call. And I think that's critical. I was actually told him last month how grateful I was that he actually took an opportunity, right, to, on me, right? And to total risk. And none of this was going to, you know, pan out.

And this was a good moment. Both got emotion. That's awesome, man. That's great. So obviously, there you guys built 21 Anytime Fitnesses and just last year, you guys, you know, package them up in a nice, bow on them and sold them to someone else.

Yep. And today, you help people in a very different way. I'd be curious to know how you help them at what value you add to businesses today. Because, you know, you guys probably got a nice chunk of change when you're selling 21 successful businesses at the same time. One might ask, well, listen, let me ask you this. Why didn't you just consider retiring? Like, what does that even mean?

What does that mean? You know, what's funny is that so when we, when we, when we do that, you know, we do that. did sell. So for 15 years, like I'm doing the same thing. It's a very rigid pattern. It's a very rigid routine. I get up a certain time. I go to a better at a certain time. There's things that I've did. 15 years. Right. Man, I know people who won't do that for 15 minutes today. They go for 15 minutes. I try to grow my Instagram account so I can get leads and it didn't work. I quit. You did it for 15 years. Yeah. You know, I mean, you have to. I mean, you get it. I totally understand what you're saying. And, you know, but whoever, whoever says, it's kind of like being a routine to me is the same thing as

working out, it's the same thing as time management. Like sometimes you're just better in time management than other times. Sometimes you're just better in sticking with it. Sometimes you're just better in staying disciplined. And sometimes you're not. And that's okay. The thing is, as long as there's some sort of way that you have for yourself to get back into the swing of things. So for me, it's weekly. For me, it's every single week. I take about 60 minutes and I take a look at what the hell did I do last week. What did I do this week? Am I moving the needle forward? And if I acknowledge and I noticed the fact the fact that I'm not moving whatever needle I want to move forward. That's my sense of checks and balances sort of to say, okay, I need to get my

my butt back on track. Sure. When do you do that on the weekend or do the coming Monday? Sunday morning. Sunday morning. Sunday morning. I mean, I get up pretty early. You know, thrown four, four 30 probably before anyone else gets up. Do you believe successful people need to get up early? I believe successful people need to have a, need to have a set of disciplines. Like a specific methodical, and in a consistent way of doing things. What time you do it, I don't necessarily think that that matter. Like my business partner, John, for example, he's not a morning guy, right? I am, like, I'd rather get to bed at 7.30, 8 o'clock and be up at 3.3.30 in the morning.

Yeah. I feel like I get more things done, but that's not him. Sure. But I think what's more important is to have a set of disciplines that you adhere to no matter what happens throughout the day. I think that's more about both. Correct. Like there is no such thing. as, well, I may or may not do this.

No, no, no. There are, like, Jim Collins talks about this in his book. Great. Well, great by choice. Okay. He talks about the smack recipe, specific, methodical, and the consistent recipe, or a set of disciplines that you adhere to no matter. He applies it also to these different companies like Progressive Insurance and Southwest Airlines,

like what makes those companies so, so successive that no matter what happens throughout the day, they have these set of rules, a set of disciplines that they adhere to no matter what. So we had a very specific smack recipe for our business. And then ever since I read that book, I'm like, man, I should really, I should really have a, and I didn't realize I already did, but the book really gave it more context. Sure. Give it more teeth. Sure. So obviously, you chose not to retire because you said, hey, well, what does retirement mean?

Anyway, I want to, I'm guessing the reason you chose not to retire is what all successful people already know, it is the fastest way to die. Yeah, that's a good point. That's exactly it, right? when you're on every category. When there's no purpose per se for sure, you die. What's his name? Victor Frankel, right? Talks about it is in man's search for meaning.

Yeah, for 15 years, we've been doing the same thing over and over again. And when we sold our business, I'm like, what do I do now? So I found something to do. What is that you do now? So, you know, I didn't realize when we sold our clubs, I mean, we have a pretty decorated resume, at least within the anytime world. So I didn't realize just the amount of calls that I would get, which, very blessed, very grateful for that.

So I'm doing quite a bit of helping local franchisees. Like so anytime fitness right there, they're transitioning their business from convenience to convenience plus coaching. And, you know, some are doing a really good job. Some franchisees are doing such a good job. They just need some help, right? Yeah. And so you're the facilitator of that. Correct.

Yeah. So we help them transition essentially from convenience to convenience plus coaching, much like we did with, you know, with our 21 club. Yeah. So let me ask you this. What is it about certain people? And it doesn't matter if they're a franchise or non-franchise. It could be that they ran business a certain way. Then two, three airplanes hit the World Trade Center towers and, you know, the Pentagon.

And all of a sudden the economy has changed, yet they refuse to pivot and change. So what have you noticed when you see these business owners, some are willing to pivot and change to the new model? And some are resistant. And you said, you know, you use some kind words. And some are having some resistance and some they're having a hard time. What is it about the two sets of people? Yeah, I would say probably, um, probably, um, probably remove all filters and be, yeah, I would probably say two things.

One, I think it's the natural human fear, which is fear of failure, right? If I change, I might fail. Correct. And I think the other part of it is that they're not leveraged enough. As sad as that may sound. So, you know, we had 21 locations. my name was on 17 leases, you know, do that math times 12 months, times five years. Right?

Like, there is just no question on is this or is this not, that's not even a thing. Like that you don't, because if this wasn't going to work out, for example, I am F'd for a long, long time and I wasn't going to put my family through something like that. And quite frankly, you know, I, John and I are in business together and I told him all forever be in debt. to him because he took me out as his partner. And like, I wasn't going to allow that to happen. Are you kidding me?

Like, in the whole flipping way, that is the ultimate leverage card for me, which is silly, even probably greater than my own family, knowing the fact that I have this guy that took a risk on me. There's no way in heck that his life is going to be messed up. Right, because you're going to let him down and dig your heels in and say, we don't need to make this change. I'm afraid of this change.

What if it's the wrong change? Yeah. So to me, I guess those would be the two things. I guess the bigger one would be, they may not be, which is crazy, because when you think, about the day when I say they may not be leveraged enough would be the the biggest one like a lot of these people have leveraged their home right they're leveraged everything that they have but that's not good enough because if it was they would

have done it right I mean Tony Robbins Tony Robbins talks a lot about this right in his book creating lasting change is he walks you through how do you how do you create a lasting change step one get leverage and so gosh if somebody isn't changing they're not leveraged enough yeah when you have a lot to risk you're to adapt to change faster. It's like, what do you value more, right, than yourself to get through this change, whatever this change may be? And a lot of these club owners, I'm sure you see the same thing with Fat Body Boot Campers.

It's a should. It's not a must. It's negotiating as opposed to like, no, this is the way forward and this is the way that it is. So I think one, because they're not leveraged enough, right? And I think two, yeah, they fear failure. right and I guess the third one would be man they don't grow man they don't like it's just stale up here like it's a they're not growth minded no like fixed mindset that's exactly a total fixed mindset right ironic how we haven't seen each other for years that we keep spitting out the same words and the same

phrases because success leaves clues ladies and gentlemen and you could see that we're breeding from the same books from the same authors from the same strategies even though we haven't seen each other for years right and that's important for people to understand that when we bring guests onto the Empire Show and you hear the same thing over and over again. It's not that, you know, him and Tom Billiou and Ed Milet and all these people have colluded and said, this is what we're going to talk about on the Empire Show. It's because there is a formula, a recipe to success. And that recipe includes being growth-minded and being open to change and pivoting quickly when you must. So that said, when you guys left Uzbekistan with a lot of money and came to the United

States with a ton of money. Correct. Yeah, it was in fact the Holtz. street was plated in gold. Right, right. So it obviously wasn't because any time you're leaving a communist country or a communist or country that, well, you left when it was still. 93 is when we left. So 91 was. So communism had fallen. Correct. Supposedly. Yeah, supposedly. And again, guys with Armenia took well over a decade for the corruption to go away after communism fell. So I imagine it's the same there. You weren't allowed to leave with much. And it's not like you guys had much anyway. So I'm curious, let's go full circle and talk about how do you, what was your escape into the United States.

Like ours was, you know, telling the Soviet government that we're just going to go visit my mom's sister in Italy, because, you know, Italy was communist sympathizers. We left during the communist regime. Of course, we... What year was that? We left in 1980. I was six years old. And so, my mom didn't even have a sister

in Italy. Like, my dad just... But that's what you said. That's what we said. And of course, we go to the American consul. We say that we're political refugees. My dad is part of the Communist Party, and he doesn't want to be. And that we want to go to the United States and become citizens of the country and serve this country, which we do. And that's how we got here. So what was your avenue? Because people need to hear a story of like how well you have it if

you're born here. Right. And that's interesting story because you can't just say I want to come to the United States, right? And so at least in 1988 is when we filed the paperwork. So my grandfather, my mom's father, had, he divorced a lady and then he married a different lady, right? And this different lady. Much younger, hotter? Correct, always, right? And then this different lady had a daughter that lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. So now that my grandfather was married to this lady who had a daughter in Cincinnati, Ohio, they, so this daughter called on her mom, who was married to my grandfather, right, to come to U.S. Yeah, because they can sponsor you. Correct. You can't, like, you have to have immediate blood family. You can't just say, I'd like to go U.S., right?

And then once my grandfather got to Cincinnati, Ohio, and he got situated, then he called on my mother. That whole process took five years. There was all sorts of paperwork back and forth, back and forth that had to happen. But before we could even leave, my mom divorced my father when I was two and a half. So we left when I was 11, so no communication with the guy for eight and a half years. Can't leave the country without his approval. Interesting, right? So we had to meet him and he had to sign off for us to leave.

But interesting story. So we are on our way from Uzbekistan to Moscow. And then from Moscow, you go to Cincinnati, Ohio. We, because you don't, you don't have a car. There's no airplane. You take a train. Train. That's the only way to get there, right?

Suitcases. And by the way, the suitcases have no wheels. No, they're not functional. You carry it. The train smells, right? Because there's animals there and there's just people. people, a lot of people. And so we got on the train, and there was a three-day train ride from Uzbekistan through

some of the other stands. One of the stands happened to be Afghanistan into Moscow. So as we were taking this train through Afghanistan, the train was shot at multiple times. Thankfully, the train didn't stop. But that was interesting, right? You're on the floor covering yourself while the train is being shot at them. When we came to the States, oh, I'm sorry, when we came to Moscow, it's the first time I had a banana. I was 10 years old.

You and I have so much in common. Do you know that? So you had yours here in the States. I had my first banana. Well, in Moscow. Oh, I'm sorry, you had yours in Moscow. Yes. Okay, I had my first banana in Italy.

So it's funny, we both remember our first banana. Yeah, I love it. I love bananas. Yeah. What about peanut butter? Do you feel the same way about peanut butter? Yes, I like crunchy peanut butter. Yes, it's very, very good.

Yeah, I love it. first peanut. So I had my first banana in Italy, and I had my first taste of peanut butter in the United States. And I got to tell you, it was like, oh, there's my other half. Like, now that's, now I understand what they say about kindred spirits. My kindred spirit comes in a jar of creamy. You know, what's interesting, so when I came to the States when I was 11 first, I've never seen that amount of food before. Right. And remember, I was always hungry. So my grandparents, we had to get a lot of this, right? So we had to the grocery store. I mean, there's just aisles. I'm like, oh my gosh, look at all this. Right. So. And I really, I really, I really.

think that my fitness journey personally started when I was 13 because I gained like 50 pounds. The first time I had McDonald's when I was 11, right? And I ate, and I think the last time I had McDonald's when I was 13. When I ate McDonald's like two, three, four days a week, as many, as often as my grandparents could take me there, right? And yeah, I gained 50 flipping pounds. And so, you know, then I became a teenager. I started liking girls. They didn't really like me for many different reasons. I thought it was because I couldn't keep up with him in gym class. It's nothing to do with that. So, but that's when I started, really started changing sort of, right?

And like, well, this doesn't cut it anymore. But like, you know, we all know what we got to do. Like you take a person who's, you know, who's overweight and you take them grocery shopping, ask, hey, apple or apple pie, which one's better, right? Like grilled or fried, like we all know inherently what we need to do, but apparently we have no idea. All of a sudden we get unresourcedful, what you think? So at 13 years old, I had the basics of what to do.

I always knew that home-cooked meals are just better, right? I asked my mom, hey, do you not put as much oil in here? And I started researching some things, started working out. And I really think my fitness journey, per se, started when I was 13 years old, right? Poor confidence, poor self-esteem. I like girls. They didn't like me. I'm like, well, something's got to change.

Right, yeah, that is a great motivator. Again, leverage, right? That's a lot of leverage. I don't want to not have sex the rest of my life. Because when you're a teenager, you go, I like girls. They don't like me. this may mean a lifelong term of not having sex. I better start doing something to make.

Alone, right? I mean, like, I was just so different. I was wearing Ninja Turtle shoes, pink socks. I would have found that attractive. You know, right. That's right. We would have gotten along if that was the case. You know what's interesting.

So I'm sure you remember this. So when I was growing up, you only wore white socks when it was some sort of a festivity, like a birthday of some sort, right? Or a something special. the rest of the time you just wore whatever kind of socks that you could but only wear white socks when it was a special occasion. Maybe it wasn't like that in me,

but that's the way it was like in Uzbekistan. So that's right. So when I came to the U.S., everybody wears white socks all the time. Well, I never had any white socks, right? And so anyway, so whatever, Walgreens provided us with some white socks. It was an interesting.

Really, I can weigh white socks. I would love to wear white socks. It probably made you feel special, right? Yes. Yeah. Like every day there's something special happening that's right. white socks. That's exactly it. I was always conditioned that way. I'm curious, are your socks

white today? They're gray. They're close. Yeah. Yeah. The semi-party. This is a business podcast after all. All right, so I'm curious, what does your morning routine look like? During the week, what does your morning routine look like? I can tell you over last 12 months, my morning routine is a bit laxed as I'm, as I haven't had to stay. But I can tell you, the morning routine is still very disciplined, not as disciplines I would like for it to be, but it's still discipline. get up between 4 and 5 a.m. And it's typically, you know, first thing I do is I pray, right, and who's it that I'm grateful for and what am I grateful for? It's very, very important. And the second thing I do is, this is going to sound real silly, but the second thing I do is I read

six pages every day. Why six? Why not five? It takes me 15 minutes. Okay, so you've time to your reading speed, six pages, there you go. It takes me 15 minutes. Yeah. With that pace, I can get through about, you know, six to eight books, actual reading books. It was four pages. I bumped it up to five. And this year, I got real ballsy. I said, you know what? I'm going to bump it up to six.

The point is that if you have no time to read, it's such bullshit, is what I'm saying. Right. What are you typically reading? Give us the example of the last three books you read. Yeah, so, I mean, the last 12 months, like I didn't realize how much time. Is it Harry Potter? It's not Harry Potter. No.

I didn't think that. Actually, I never really got into Harry Potter. Nor did I. You know why? Because I got into making money and helping people. Yeah. You know what? I like making a difference in many ways making money.

making money is one of those things, right? Because I'm able to give back. And that's actually one of the things that really motivates me, whatever is that we do next, is to have the ability to give back significantly. But like the last 12 months, I've changed what I'm reading. I didn't realize how much in the business I was actually thinking. I thought I was working on the business.

I haven't had to think about operations in the last 12 months. Because one of our regional managers, he stayed with us. And so now he's our eco partner in the one club that we have left. So, like, I don't talk to him about, hey, how many appointments are we set up to it? Like, we have higher quality conversations, right? Because he knows what he's got to do, and he's done a really, really good job. So over the last 12 months, I've been doing a lot of reading on marketing, a lot of reading on lead generation, right? And so, you know, when we had, gosh, knowing what I know now, if we, I would have managed our whole marketing part of our 21 clubs completely differently, knowing what I know now.

In many ways, we didn't do as good of a job as we should have. But, you know, I've read Dan Kennedy as the guy that I've been reading when it comes to lead generation, no BS guy, to social media market. Actually, right now I'm reading his book, The Magnetic Marketing. Magnetic marketing. Great stuff. I read two or three books, and it's like, hey, let's give it a whirl. And, you know, we generated about 180,000 bucks in the last 12 months through some of the things that I've read about.

I'm like, well, what do you know? Yeah. One of my favorite books of Dan Kennedy, and guys and gals listening and watching this, it is the ruthless management of people and profits. I love how we speak so openly and honestly, ruthless management of people and profits by Dan Kennedy. Great book. And really awesome for anyone who's going into the entrepreneurial world, because when you go into the entrepreneurial world, you go with the aspirations that,

well, everyone's going to work as hard as me, everyone's going to be as motivated and driven and as passionate. And the reality is no one is. Correct. And you must learn how to ruthlessly manage your people. and your profits. Yeah. So it's a great great thing there. You asked me an interesting question. Like how many, like up until the year, up until last year, so I would get through three or four books a month on audio. On top of that, I would finish a book roughly every six to eight weeks. It's a lot of content I would go through. Tremendous amount of content. It's like ridiculous.

For the last 12 months, I haven't necessarily read a whole lot of new books other than some Dan I've reread a few books that I found to be very impactful for me, especially now due to the nature of the work I'm doing with some of the franchisees and one of those books is four disciplines of execution. Love that book. I wish I would have read the book five, six, seven years ago. The other book is creating lasting change by Tony Robbins. Like if there was a book on selling that gets me sharp, the book has nothing to do with selling, by the way. The book has everything to do with influencing people's behavior, which is really what you're doing at a point of selling. That's right.

And so he doesn't necessarily discover, well, this is a great script or this is a smooth way to talk through objections. He doesn't talk about that. He just talks about here's what makes humans sick, you know, and here are the steps in how to do it. So those are the two books that I've reread over and over. again and then no BS guy to social media marketing. There's actually a book by Alex Hermosy. I'm sure you've heard of him, right? He got his book out, so he's got some interesting content in there.

Took some of those nuggets of wisdom that he puts out and implement in our system and, you know, it's magic. So that said, where family is concerned, this is, and we'll kind of end on this note, because I think it's important for people to understand that you can be successful in business and still be married and have a family. what is the is there balance in your life or do you call it a work life mix do you just ignore your family and is everything just falling apart around you whoever tells you that um that work life can exist i think in my opinion has never worked a day in their life um like i think everything great ever happens always happens outside of balance yeah in chaos right um the problem is you can't

live right in that in that state of being and for 15 years we did which is actually one of the main reasons why we decided to say you know what maybe it's time to you know put our sells and her families first and put everything else second. Yeah. Like we have, personally, I have two speeds where I to go fast and I go faster and it just doesn't always work when it comes to family. But now that we've sold our clubs, I still need to do a better job in spending more time with my family, right?

So when you grew up in Uzbekistan, so my wife had, oh, my wife, my mother had a different effect. So my mother never had a darn thing in her whole life. She comes to you else, I want everything. I want this, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want this, right? me on the other hand, because I never had anything in my life, I had the opposite effect. I'm going to save, and I'm going to be so smart

and smarter than my mom ever was about money. So I have the opposite effect. I want to save and I want to preserve, and I don't want to spend money unless we absolutely have to end. We think about this. Is this spontaneous or not? So as a result of that, my mindset needs to evolve, and it hasn't quite evolved yet.

I recognize it, and I'm talking about it, which I think is a positive thing. But to go back to your original question, you know, is, am I spending more time with my family now? I absolutely 100%. We just got back from vacation. I need to do better, right? But I recognize that. Dude, how cool that, you know, you got very easily just sold to some bullshit and said, hey, look, things are great. Things are fantastic. My wife thinks that I'm the king of the house and that's that. But the reality is, you're like, look, there is no real work-life mix or work-life balance. It is some level of mix. You're either fast or faster, which is what you are. And most type A entrepreneurs are cut of that cloth. And every day we have to make a business. effort towards getting better with our families because the reality is we are programmed,

coded, hard-coded, hardwired to just go, go, go, go, go, to produce, especially when you come from lack, like when you haven't had, and now you have the opportunity to have, and you see all that's available. And it's that's that gets me in trouble. Like, I just don't let it go away. Yeah, you don't let it pass. I just, like, if there is one, we got to, why don't we? Why wouldn't we?

Right. And of the last 12 months, like, that's the part where I've lost a little bit of an edge on. Right? But, you know, I need. And part of that is, I don't know, at least for me, I can't speak for you, but it's for me, as I gain some wisdom by way of age, I begin, the rough edges begin to smoothen out. And I become, I think, a better father, a better husband, a better leader just through wisdom and realizing that, hey, it's okay to let some opportunities pass in exchange for experiences that will live a lifetime. And that's where personally mentally wise, I need to continue to work towards.

My wife and my business partner, John, I mean, they do a really good job with that to remind me to have fun. Sure. And once I am reminded to have fun, boy, I'm a great time. Mike Gelkopf, man, listen, you have provided so much information, Mike, and you have provided so much value. I'm curious, if anyone wants to connect with you, learn from you, catch up with you, where do they go? Yeah, listen, shoot me an email. would be, I don't have a brand much like Beidreau does, but I do, we should be an email. It's a mike.

gelfcott at gilfgott at gmail.com. And gelfgat is spelled G-E-L-F-G-O-T. There it is. Mike Gelfcott. Thank you so much for spending time on The Empire Show. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for watching and listening to this episode of The Empire Show. If you've got a lot of value from this, and I know you did, do me a favor. Take a screenshot.

Share it on social media. Be sure to tag me. and if Mike has a social media account, be sure to tag him as well. And, of course, leave us a five-star review, leave us comments. And as always, don't forget to tell your mama. We'll see you later.