Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Move it or Die ... - 156

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

So you want to be an entrepreneur huh… Excellent ! The world of entrepreneurship has its perks and glamour. There is still so much that goes unseen by the public eye to truly bring a business to fruition. In today’s episode, Bedros and successful UK entrepreneur Rob Hewitt dive into the depths of their experience in the world of business and share with you the unseen aspects of business that you need to know to succeed.  Here’s what you’ll discover: 8:43 - Why Pivoting is essential to entrepreneurship 13:30 - Bet on yourself , here’s how to block out the doubt internal and external… 16:03 - The Reasons why your team should NOT agree on everything 18:50 -  The X-Factor to your success 25:30 - The reason why hard work alone does not equate success 30:00 - The most important parts of business “An entrepreneur has to be highly adaptable and able to pivot with the circumstances if they want to succeed.” “As a leader your job is to find the problems and solve them.“  “Confidence and Belief in self is the force m

If you consider what the most important part of business is, is it the product, is at the marketplace or the people, I'd make them aware of the people. All three things are essential, but I think people make the success. Hey friends, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show. This is an inside look, and today we have a very special guest, Mr. Rob Hewitt, founder and CEO of I2 Group. And he's got a media company and many other things that we're going to be talking about. entrepreneurship are concerned. Rob, welcome to the show, my friend. Thank you very much for having this bedroom. Yes, sir. So, Rob, you just flew out of the UK, what, a couple days ago? Yeah, I've just come from Vegas. I got to Vegas at the end of last week, so I had the pleasure of being in Vegas for the weekend, which is always good. Gotcha. And for those of you watching and

listening to this right now, we are hot smack in the middle of coronavirus epidemic. And I'm curious, as someone who traveled internationally just a week ago, how were travels different? I just think there's a lot of panic out there. You know, there's a lot of miseducation and there's a lot of worry from people, which, you know, it's genuine. Sure. But, you know, I think if you're cautious and you follow the guidelines and you follow the recommendations from the travel companies and stuff, you know, it's got to be done. You know, we talk about sacrificing businesses and the things you have to do to succeed. Well, maybe things like this on a calculated basis is one of those things.

Sure, this is one of them, isn't it? I mean, we see many people, in fact, next week, two weeks from now, I had a speaking engagement that I was supposed to speak at in San Francisco. They canceled it for fear of the coronavirus. Yet when you look at what the entrepreneur has to do, not necessarily has to. No one made you get on that plane during corona epidemic season, but you are a risk taker. You are a person who's willing to take a calculated risk, which is probably what made you an entrepreneur, amongst many other things that we'll talk about. and you ended up here. So let's talk about your, first let's set the scene.

What is your business? Because you do have a phenomenal magazine called Train Magazine that is really delivered and distributed in a very unique way. This is just one of many kind of avenues of marketing that you do. Why don't you start us here and then kind of dive deep into your companies and what you do? So Train Magazine is a, it's a health and fitness magazine which caters for both male and female audiences. So we go out in bodybuilding.com orders in the UK and the US, and we work with Sportor.com in the Middle East. It's a very unique direct male distribution situation that happens.

But what's also unique about it is, is that the books produced on a flip basis. So that's very much to do with the logistics of the product itself in the orders where we get to cater for both male and female audiences, give them their own specific covers, but essentially have one single thing that goes in the order. Interesting. Now, Rob, first of all, I love that.

the way you did that. I mean, this is very a male-centric cover. Yeah. And you flip it over. It's a very female-centric cover. And, of course, if you flip it over and you read it from this side, it's a very female-oriented, women-oriented content. Yeah. It was just a creative way of being able to cater to both marketplaces. Sure. Because we don't know who's buying what on bodybuilding.com. Well, you don't. And obviously, the audience has grown significantly since this magazine started. So when it first launched, it was literally just trained, and it was catering very much to male demographics is the foremost. There was female content in there and what we found also is that

women and men still obviously digest the same and similar types of content. But as the female audience began to grow year after year and I think even now the audience is getting close to 50-50, obviously the flip book was a creative way of being able to care. Gotcha. So actually that takes me to a really good skill that every entrepreneur needs, which is the pivot. Yes. The ability to pivot. So the magazine started off only catered really to men, or at least a single gender, which women can obviously read and gain a lot out of that as well, etc. But as the market changed in bodybuilding.com, especially because this is a write-along that goes with every product that gets shipped. How far into publishing this did you decide that we're going to make it a flip book?

Well, it was when the demographics and the data from the demographics actually showed itself as well. So that pivot that you talk about was really a planned evolution that was fueled by information. So research, a diagnosis really, which is a fundamental part of marketing, which I think is missed a great deal today. Sure is. So tell us more about your other brands and companies. So we operate as a group of companies. And the company originally started with an overseas property magazine. That was the brainchild of my business partner at the time, who's. family invested a great deal in the properties overseas and that marketplace was booming properties like hotels homes buildings commercial it's homes luxury though it was very much high-end

part of the marketplace so our clients incorporated hamptons night frank fpd savels we were advertising and and doing editorial and content on multi-million pound houses on the the south coast of france south coast of spain juby parts of the u.s as a second homes and investments for wealthy individuals who were looking for that type of investment. But that marketplace changed significantly when obviously the crash came and, you know, it became less of a focus of the business. Fortunately at the time, I'd launched a product called Fighters Only, which was the world's first mixed martial arts magazine, which was my brainchild.

Sure. And part of my love and passion and the thing that I was involved in at the time. I'd seen MMA very much evolved from being an underground sport into a mainstream sport. I was actually the sparring partner of the first UK fighter to fight in the UFC. So I'd been involved not necessarily from the very earliest days, from a very early day. And I had a media company who were producing magazines and I loved the sport and I saw how big it could get and was going to get. And so I invested in that marketplaces and launched fights over me. And what year was that when you kind of saw that MMA, I guess, shooting star, starting to shoot on?

It was 2003, 2004. This is early on. Yeah. The funny story is, and it's known to everybody now, is that when we first launched the magazine, it wasn't called Fighters Only. It was actually called Ultimate Fighter magazine. I contacted the UFC,

who was obviously not in the same position status as what it is today. Right, right. You know, the story is very aware now that at the time, the UFC had significant investments, which were in the red. There was even discussions from, Obviously Dana and the Fetita brothers about trying to find an acquire for the company,

to which they couldn't do. So what I was told is that, you know, Lorenzo went to bed one night, woke up the next day, decided that he was going to go again to commit to this and invest another large amount of money into a concept called the Ultimate Fighter, the TV show, which ultimately sparked the huge growth and success of the UFC. And at the time, I'd launched this magazine. I'd reached out at the UFC to say I'm launching the world's first MMA magazine and I got a very nice letter back from company lawyers asking as if I would consider changing the name. I see. Because they had already committed to that name.

The TV show was about to launch. People weren't aware of it yet, hence the reason why I wasn't aware of it when we had that title. But as soon as I was aware of it, we changed it instantly. One of the things that I've always wanted to do is be somewhat of a leader, not a follower, not just something jumping on the back of anybody else's success or anything else. I've always wanted to try and lead that myself. By his own path. Yeah, and I didn't want to conflict in any way whatsoever because I believed in the UFC

and I believed how big it could be and hope that that would start a strong relationship between a switchrollment at a day. Yeah, and we'll get to that in a moment because you've got something really awesome that you do there. But let's talk about that home, the home magazine. As that started to dwindle down, I'm guessing that no longer exists. No. So yet another pivot. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. I mean, look at how many times guys and gals listening and watching this, an entrepreneur must pivot as the economy changes, technology changes, the market space changes. And already within our first eight and a half minutes, we've talked about three pivots that you've made. Definitely. Yeah. That's fascinating. So let's talk about that relationship with you and the UFC and what that consists of.

Well, it's with us in mixed martial arts. Yeah. You know, we launched the world's first MMA magazine. We launched a website at the time, so this was back in 2004. We've actually had websites since 2003 when the company first started. But back then, it was very hard to understand how they would make money where the benefit was from them other than you had a presence online. We evolved, obviously, the Fight is Only magazine in the UK

into having numerous international editions. So we had a German version of the magazine, a Mexican magazine. South African magazine, and we wholly owned the US version which we launched in 2007. So I've had a facility and offices and business in the US since 2007, which was sparked by the launch of the US edition of Pfizer. Yeah. Now let's talk about that for a moment. I mean, here's an entrepreneur who's UK-based.

Yes. And when most British companies try and come and start a business in the US, as you and I talked about in the green room, Yeah. They typically don't fare so well. Well, obviously, the US is one of the biggest markets in the world, and it's obviously highly attractive and allurent of people who think that they can come here and the riches will be made

and all the success will be attained. Sure. But obviously, when you're dealing with a foreign country, different tax legislations, different cultures to a certain extent, even though it's very close to your line, there is a different culture to the business over here. And when you invest and significantly into such a big, marketplace as well. Obviously you have to have the ability to see a return on

that investment and generate the revenue that you need to be able to survive. And I think traditionally with certain businesses from the UK it's being known as the graveyard of certain British business because the allure of the potential is basically outweighed by the risks of the management of it. So did you go into the US knowing that fact that you know previously most British companies coming into the US end up in a boneyard? Did you go knowing that or did you later find out? No, no, I went in knowing it.

So you assumed the risk? Yeah. But as we mentioned earlier, it's about risk management and it's about mitigating that risk. We had the world's only magazine for MMA and back then, magazines were a very different business model to what they are now. So, you know, it was calculated and it was strategic.

And we were also in various different other countries around the world. And to be honest, a lot of the advertisers from the US were looking for international distribution as well. So we already had a client base with whom we had relationships with and we wanted to expand. And so it was a strategic move for sure. Brilliant. Brilliant. And obviously it turned out well. And that led to what effectively is the Oscars of the MMA world. So yeah, I had a five-year business plan. And you know, I always believed that the fight is only brand. indeed a brand and I wanted to try and develop that brand and so the magazine was a starting point it gave us the authority it gave us the the presence to from which

to sort of have ancillary offsets from the brand sure so we had a clothing partnership with Tapout who at the time were the mega million colossal MMA brand that was out there and our brand had sufficient authority to make Tapout want to work with us and we produced a co-branded range of clothing which was successful for us at the time before the top of brand got sold to another company and then that ended. We had international versions of the magazine. We had a version and website and everything else. But the long-term business plan incorporated an idea I had years ago to launch an award show.

Because I always thought, well, soccer has its own awards, tennis has its own awards, you know, other mainstream sports has its own award show. And notwithstanding the fact that I love the sport, I appreciate and, respect the fighters and everybody else who's part and parcel of it you know the ceremony caters for everybody from from the ring girls to the cup men to the referees to the the industry people you know it was basically to celebrate the sport which i felt deserved celebration sure when you first put on the first one yes were there any i don't want to lead the witness trepidation by you or were there any others, was there anyone in your circle maybe saying,

listen, Rob, this is, this might be the dumbest idea that you've had. You've had some great ideas, Rob, but this might not be one of them. Was there any of that? Oh yeah, without a shadow of doubt. Because it sounds, especially for back then, 2008, right? Economy had crashed here, everywhere. You really haven't, we haven't heard of that. While we saw it in other sports, we hadn't heard of that. Yeah. What did you do with that information when people are giving you doubt? when people are telling you this may not work, that now you're really, you've crossed the line.

I think I've committed everything that I've committed to because I've believed in it wholeheartedly. I believed in the sport. I believed in the potential of the sport. I believed in the people that were within it. And I also believed in my abilities and the people that I was working with. One thing I never pretend to do

or try to be is somebody that I'm not. And I've never held live events in Las Vegas before. So I found the right partners to be able, to help us there. I have an amazing board of directors. My two business partners have been very, very successful in their own media careers. John Josephs, who operates as my company chairman, is an accountant. He was a partner in an accountancy firm, a major accountancy firm in the area of the UK where we live. He was asked by a group of entrepreneurs to acquire, I think was the second or the third commercial radio license ever in the UK.

John was actually took on board as the chief executive of that company, together with my other business partner, Morris, who was a group Sales and Martin director, and together with their colleagues built the Metro Radio Group into one of, if not the biggest radio station of its time. It was sold to EMAP, which is now owned by Bauer in, I think it was 1984. and they then went on to acquire radio licences all around the world which they eventually sold to Rupert Murdoch and Kelvin McKenzie at the time so you know I

have not only the most genuine most ethical people he could ever meet who deeply care for me and I care for them but I have high level people with high level business backgrounds who's always been there to advise us and one of the big things we have as a board is that we should never ever agree on anything If we do, we've got it wrong. Oh, really? Yeah. Explain that philosophy.

So as a board, if we agree unanimously on something, that we've got it wrong, explain the mindset behind that. Because there's always got to be an area of cynicism. There's always got to be an area of debate. Obviously, you've got to assess the risks, and you've got to assess the challenges, because if you go into something blindly thinking it's just going to work and succeed,

there's a chance that it might not. You've got to have, we believe, different appearance, opinions, conjecture, disagreements. You know, we quite often have disagreements, which are never eventualized in fallout or problems between our relationships, more so in the knowledge that we know that we're doing our job as directors

to debate as thoroughly as possible the potential outcomes of an idea. Sure. Because ultimately your job as leaders is to look under every rock and see what potential problems might happen as a byproduct of taking this step. Yeah, and, you know, for someone like myself

who's very ambitious and always has been and is somewhat gun whore and hardy and believes that can do everything and achieve everything, all of those types of things, you have to have people behind you, which will analyze that and maybe sometimes pull the reins a little bit. But the award show was something we all agreed on and committed, but we've debated over the years as to, you know,

Not so much a majority, there is a majority for it, but there was always somebody who had to be, you know, reserved and somewhat cynical. But one thing I can tell you is that that cynicism no longer exists. Okay. Because the award show is very successful. It's in its 12th year this year. We've always aimed to make it bigger and better every year,

which we have plans to be able to do that. It's the only one of it's sought in the sport, and it's appreciated by everybody that attends it, appreciated by the industry as a whole, and it's developed into something which quite rightly sits in the history of this sport and has prominence. So I'm very, very proud of that. Wow, that's fantastic.

Congratulations to you for being such a forward to thinking on that. So I have to have an education moment here for our audience. We heard this from actually two people, Tom Bill Yu, co-founder of Quest Nutrition, and also Ed Milette, about confidence or belief in self. And I said, I asked you, I said, the economy had crashed in 2008.

Clearly, you had some success under your belt, and you knew that combat sports were taking off, but all of a sudden you're launching this award show for the industry. There were doubters, they were, there were naysayers, there were probably people who thought you had lost your marbles. I said, why did you take that step anyway? And you said two very important things

that we heard, echoed from Tom Bill Yu, And Ed Milet, which is confidence or belief. You said, I believe in myself. And you said, I believe in the people that I work with. And I believed in the sport and the people within the sport as well. Sure. That's huge. Belief in self or confidence is, I believe, the force multiplier of success,

single-handedly, the force multiplier. You know, sure, there's action, there's positive self-talk, there's all of that. But confidence, belief in self is the force multiplier, I believe, of success. in entrepreneurship, probably in anything, in any sport, that I will win or I will get off the field on a stretcher with that mindset. Well, it is the mindset. And there's numerous different books out there, and there's numerous different theories about stuff.

And there's one which brings to mind automatically. It's called Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. And he talks about the success, which has been achieved by, and you mentioned sports people specifically because of the mindset that they'll get themselves in. And positivity is something which resonates completely. And we've all heard about believe, achieve, and all that type of thing. But there's a lot of merit in that.

And the science backs that up. The science does back that up. And the other thing that really caught my interest in something we talk about here, there's three R's that we talk about. Resourcefulness, being resilient and being relentless at any task you take on. And that's exactly what you did. You said, look, I'd never launched an event here in the States. I wasn't about to take that task on myself.

You chose to get resourceful and you and your partners hired an organization that has done this before. Well, we actually got into partnership with an individual who had done that before as well. And that partnership and relationships being developed over the last 12 years now. Sure. And, you know, the trust and to be able to do that is another key aspect as well, you know. So it's just onwards and upwards with that, really. Good for you. That ability to be resourceful, to look for a partner.

when you may not have one, or you don't have the skill or the knowledge on how to run an event out here to look for someone, that resource. So many people stop when they lack their resources. The resource could be time, money, education, knowledge, technology, people. But to be resourceful is a core trait of that entrepreneur. And I see that so much in you. Oh, thank you. So let's kind of keep talking about partnerships for a moment.

You have two business partners? Yes. Right now. I imagine all your business partnerships have worked out well and dandy and everything's fine. Not always. No. And obviously guys and guys were leading the witness here because you all know that I'm anti-partners unless you have a unicorn partner. And I'm sure you've got a story to share here.

Well, when I first start the bit, so just to give a little bit of insight, you know, I'm actually a civil engineer. I studied and worked in civil engineer. And I started off in architecture when I first left school. and then didn't like being restricted to the office and wanted to be outside. So I bridged in my qualifications and skill set into civil engineering. And you were pretty young when you became an engineer.

Yeah. So in the UK we have A levels. I had an opportunity to join an architect's practice to be able to learn experience in a role in an industry which I greatly wanted to work in. My father was in the construction industry. My father's my hero. I always wanted to follow in his footstead.

or, you know, that was something which I always wanted to get into. And an opportunity came around. And I grabbed that opportunity and I worked hard and I studied and I did all the things that you had to do. But there was a transition point where I bridged into civil engineering which I loved. I mean, which boy or young man doesn't like, you know, messing about in the mud and messing about with big machines

and being in that sort of manly environment, which, you know, the crack, the humor, the camaraderie and also the confrontation was just, something I loved and thrived. Let's talk about that for a moment, because there was confrontation. I mean, you were a young civil engineer, what, 19, 20 years old? Well, yeah. You younger?

18, 19, and then obviously progressing through management in an early age as well. Yeah. And on those construction sites, as we were talking about in the green room, I mean, you're dealing with men in their 30s and 40s, and there was some confrontation. Oh, yeah. Did that help you kind of, I don't know, grow up quicker, kind of build your confidence faster? what happened in those confrontations? Well, mainly it was either nose to nose

or sort of threats or various of the different things that happened, which I wasn't opposed to. In fact, I quite enjoyed to a certain extent. Because you had to combat sports background. Boxing. I'd train in boxing and then obviously I'd train mixed martial arts

in my late teens, early 20s and stuff, but it was never about wanting to have a fight. It was, like you say, it was that ability to be not take any rubbish from anybody, especially if someone was trying to impose themselves physically on us. Obviously there's lines of seniority or management or so on and so forth and I had the job to do and as a result, you know, I wasn't going to be bullied in that manner to do a decision anywhere else. But like I say, that's what

made it part of the fun really, but I think my biggest challenge from moving from an environment where you were dealing with men in a very manly environment was moving from construction industry into media where you're dealing with a very different staff skill set from creatives, from potentially women in the office, which, you know, there wasn't many women at that time working on construction sites and not having a break up a word with a swear word in the middle of it to communicate somebody on that level to being a little bit more mild-mannered, less-tempered and everything else. So yeah, that was a big challenge moving from that to the Gotcha. Fascinating move. And by the way, I love your story. Tell us you were getting an appraisal, which in our, here in the States, we call it, you were getting a review, an employee review. And there was a shift, something happened that you said, I don't think I want to be an employee anymore. I might need to start my own venture. Tell us how that went.

Well, so I loved the job that I did. I loved the environment I was in and everything else. But I've always had this fire to try and, develop myself and succeed and when I worked in construction I wanted to be the youngest senior agent the youngest project manager and really fast-track my way through my career and I think the naivity that I had back then was if I took on board all the challenges which nobody else really wanted to do if I took on board all the hardest jobs if I took on all the complications and if I worked harder or spent more time at work to try and develop that that would have been seen accepted and I would have achieved that. But in essence, that was very naive

because the success and the development actually came from the financial benefit that you actually brought back to that company as opposed to your effort. So in some respect, it might have hindered us a little bit more than anything else. Don't get us wrong, I did well and I had success. And for my age, I was in a very good position.

But I went for an appraisal, having completed a highly difficult job, making some money on it. you know, doing lots of things which other people possibly didn't want to do, sacrifices made and everything else, to try and win that next level, only to be told that I was too young for that next level, that I needed more experience, but here's a nice peer-rise, he is a brand new BMW company car, he has all these lovely gifts and rewards for working so hard,

but didn't quench that fire. So I took a holiday, something I never used to do. You know, I would forsake holidays thinking that was the right thing to do, to work harder to actually get on, again, naive. And whilst I was aware decided that I was going to try and find something of my own when I returned back to the UK. And did you think that it would be easy to start your own venture? I didn't think it was easy, but I was just, I was completely appealed by the ability

to be my own boss, the ability to try and, you know, put my name and my stamp on something which was mine, to basically try and get that better life, earn that more money, to be able to provide a better life for everybody else. And that really, really inspired me. Sure. What, how do I, how do I, what was your self-talk in that first, let's say, six or 12 months as an entrepreneur? I can tell you for me, the self-talk was, like, I knew I was unemployable, that having a job, a career working for someone else wasn't for me. I knew that. But the self-talk in that first six to 12 months was,

holy crap, what did I get myself into? Like, I'm making decisions that I don't know if I'm qualified or capable. Sure. Did you have any of that? Maybe I just didn't have the confidence that I needed. No, no, I'm sure I did. As I mentioned before, I was very gung-ho.

And I would do exceptional things to try and succeed. I would never want to fail. I would always do whatever it took to try and achieve the end results. But yeah, there was numerous times when you thought, hang on, what do I do here? Or who can I speak to here? I didn't have the support network that I do have now with my business partners and the board of director that I had.

Quite the opposite, in fact. I started the business with a couple of people who I had friendships and relationships with. And, you know, I always remained loyal and honorable and ethical to them. And notwithstanding the breakdown of one relationship because they probably got involved with the business for different reasons that I did. And when it got tough and you had to make those sacrifices and you had to put those hours in, it didn't meet with the original idea they had that being their own boss was going to be, you know,

easier and earn more money and everything else. You know, there was a real realistic cycle which they didn't take on the board and that went away. but I'll never forget one day of leaving the accountant's office in the very earliest days, being told that, you know, my then partners had no more money to put into the business. It was too stressful for them and just basically walked away from it. Wow. So that's it. I mean, let's go looking back now.

You're in your mid-40s. Yeah. Looking back 20 years. Yes. There's a young Rob standing in front of you. Yeah. Mid-20s. What?

if you were to see him just one time, what business advice would you tell him, or what piece of advice in general would you give, not just business, to maybe do better in the next 20 years? Do better. Either do better or watch out for, or here's what I suggest. What is a piece of advice or two that you would give young Robb if you can go back, knowing what you know now? I would probably say that if you consider what the most important part of

businesses, is it the product, is it the marketplace or the people? I'd make them aware of the people. I think all three things are essential, but I think people make the success, whether it's your partners, whether it's your support network, whether it's building the best team around you that can help support you. It's worth having that faith, but also having a little bit of cynicism to probably see the other side of people. I think, I think be aware of people. Gotcha. Now, were you always good with people? It seems like you have a very easy to communicate with and connect with personality. Well, I try to. So, I mean, that comes from my upbringing. You know, I have a very close family who have always been very supportive and we've always been a unit. I'm Catholic. So, you know,

I go to church every weekend. I believe my faith has helped me tremendously through the heart of times but also has taught us to treat people in a certain way and have a certain way of dealing with. with people and always being ethical and always being honest. You know, like I say, I think the way I am now is the way I've always been. And despite the problems and the challenges and the way that you can sometimes be let down and, you know, the things you have to go through on a day-to-day basis, I've always had a mentality that I would never let it change me or the way that I want to treat other people because, you know, I do believe in karma.

I also believe in being who you are and believing in who you are. And I always try to treat people with the greatest respect because I would hope that they would treat me the same way back. Sure. So to that point, let's talk about leadership. Obviously, as you grow into your own company, you begin to take on a sense of leadership with, as you get partners, as you have a board, as you have employees and develop a team.

and now your team is effectively international. Yeah. Right. And, you know, leadership, some people can look at it as, well, hey, I'm the CEO, therefore I'm the leader. That might be a title. Leadership is much more than just the title. What was your experience like as you developed into a leader? Was it a difficult thing for you to take on?

Was it easy? Very much so. It was very difficult. Was it why? I would say it was arguably my biggest weakness in the early days. because, you know, I probably took too much on myself rather than delegating it and expecting others to be as committed and working hard as what I could be. You know, that's something which I've had to really develop and learn, and that's where my

business partners helped me specifically. You know, trust and development of people is key. And in the early days, that's something which I really, really struggled with. So you took more of the load on to your plate? Yeah. You figured I'll do most of it. Is it because you didn't trust, let's say, your partners or your team, your employees, or was it that you felt you could do it better?

There wasn't that I felt that I would do it better. I just think, you know, in the earliest days, there had to be an exceptional amount of commitment. And people who aren't owners or founders or financially invested in that regard can't always put that level of commitment. You know, one thing I will say is that. and something I would probably say to young Robb as well, is be aware of the sacrifice that you're going to have to make. You know, I've made tremendous personal sacrifices

trying to build my business and trying to make it succeed. You know, we're not a huge company. We punch very much above our weight, but that's down to, obviously, the sacrifices and the hard work that's been made to try and establish that and get us there. Sure. Good for you. Good for you. So speaking of those sacrifices, you and I talked about

one sacrifice that you made while running your event in Las Vegas, maybe if you could share that because I don't think people realize the magnitude of sacrifice we have to make, but when your team member, in this case, your wife is on board with it, it really wasn't so bad. Well, it wasn't so bad from her point of view. The date of last year's award show was my wife's 40th birthday. Obviously, it was a milestone birthday. people quite often celebrated in very special and specific ways, but I've been away for the days prior and the days after. And, you know, I don't think we've ever done anything special and

specific to do that. But, I mean, that's, it's somewhat inconsequential, because again, it's just a birthday. And, you know, she is so supportive of me. Sure. We're doing it for the great good, which is the provision for our families as the development of a better life. And also So the fact that we have people that count on me and therefore count on her to be able to make this a success. But the travel and the time away from home is without doubt a sacrifice, especially if you're a family man. And I greatly respect anybody who takes huge steps to leave home, to leave the wife and

kids, to put themselves in that position where they're out of the comfort to succeed. That's a very important message I want our audience to get. because we have two very different audiences. We have those who are already building their empire. They're already on their way, seven figures, eight figure, nine figure businesses. And then we have those that are kind of young, and they're in the dreamer stage, they're in the idea stage, they're in the launch phase. And I always like to bring out, because it's so easy on social media, Rob, to see the success side of it.

Gosh, you know, look at how many franchises we have. We have 800 locations worldwide and, you know, the lifestyle. And I've got my private gym, and we've got this building. But there's also the sacrifices, almost like the, the, iceberg, that's so much bigger underwater than the tip that we see. And one thing I want a message to everybody really watching and listening to this is that your key partner who chose you and that you chose her or him for that matter, that person must be on board with the plan, with the greater good.

If they're not, I mean, it is an uphill battle, isn't it? Like, my wife is my business partner here. Yeah. And if she was not on board with the plan of my track. schedule my my schedule my speaking schedule my I have to work till 1 a.m. schedule yeah and I'm not going to bed yet schedule this would not all work out do you feel the same way without a shadow of a doubt and again it comes back to people yeah you know it's that support network you know and to use your phrase

bedross about pivot you know when when I first got married to my wife you know I don't believe my travel schedule was as hectic it was what it is now. And obviously we have three kids now and we didn't back then. You know, it was easier to do these sort of things when you had as lesser responsibilities. But when those pivots happen, you've got to evolve and you've got to move with it as well, you know. So she has our own pivots as well as the business. Well said. Well said. And we were talking about a phrase used in boxing, which was what? Move or die. Move or die. I don't know who said it. It might have been off a movie or something like that. But it's relevant, I think.

It's so relevant to entrepreneurship. It's so relevant to life. Everything evolves. Technology evolves. People's buying behavior evolves. There used to be a time. I remember, you know, when I would go, if I'd want to go buy a new car, you walk onto the dealership and you never know what they paid for.

They pull out their list prices, but you don't know if those are true. Today, you can do your research online. There's cars.com, edmonds.com, and literally exactly figure out what their cost is and how much they've marked up the car. Like buyers and their sophistication and the buying habits have changed and we have to evolve with that and if we don't, we perish.

It really is move or die. You do, but I also don't think that people have evolved. I think people are the same. I think their mentalities are the same. Their needs are the same. Their desires are the same. It's just the way that they are met

and how you can communicate with them or deal with them which are different. Yeah. But communication is still one facet of it. And arguably, it's somewhat of a minor one because when we're talking about business or marketing or everything else,

you know, I think what gets missed a lot nowadays is one, the diagnosis, two is the strategy and then comes the tactics after that of which communication only takes actually 25% of that last phase. But you mentioned social media, You mentioned how people can put out there how successful it is.

There's a low cost of entry to be able to display that message as well. And I think it's risky. I think there's a lot of bluff and bravado and less substance to what people might think. So, you know, those two elements of the campaign have to be highly thought about rather than just the communication side. Let's talk about that and, in fact, finish off with that for a moment. I come from the direct response world, and it was over the last, Rob, I have to be honest, it was probably over the last six years that I began to embrace branding. Because in the direct response world, it's really about for every dollar I put out.

I want to make sure I get a dollar back. I'm going to run campaigns where I can track and measure the return on investment. And branding, as we launched our franchise Fit Body Boot Camp, it's like, gosh, okay, there's something that I might need to not just think direct response, in addition to direct response, I might need to focus on brand. And all of a sudden, I found myself learning something brand new. And as we were talking again in the green room, branding is kind of what you're all about or what you heavily understand.

Well, it's what I believe in as well. You know, I think branding is ever more important. Sure, and I agree with you. Explain to us why, and maybe you can give us an example like you gave me in the green room there. Because I think, you know, a lot of marketing, that happens nowadays is basically just done by people with communication skill sets. I don't think there's as many campaigns, what they should be. That means, I don't think there's enough strategy that's put into the things that's being done,

which essentially is a lack of diagnosis because, you know, I want to say that, you know, the media world as it's perceived now, is very much one where you're basically just speaking to a lot. lot of people in whichever form you want to do it and that that element that you mentioned about wanting to invest the dollar to see that return straight away although I'm not saying it's wrong I just think it's short-termism I believe in in short-term and long-term brand and business growth because I think it's the only way to actually see growth and develop sales because churn's inevitable competition's inevitable you know you're always going to have somebody that's wanting what you've

got. And if you're thinking on a short-term perspective all the time, you lose the opportunity to not only build your brand, but also to create risk. You know, if it's short-term thinking constantly, as I say, when this churn hits, whatever new developments and whatever new investments or things that you do to actually generate more revenue, it's just going to be backfill. If you can acquire that base sale, that base audience, look after it, nurture it, protect it, while doing obviously the long-term stuff as well, you're going to see growth. And that's just something that I always put into the feelings that I have,

not only with my own business, but the things that we do for our clients as well. Sure, sure. So where branding is concerned, the example you gave me was if someone goes on Google and does a search for weight protein. Well, yeah, if you talk about the sports nutrition marketplace, not just that one,

other marketplaces where there's fragmentation and so much choice. choice, that, you know, there's so much white noise out there because everybody's doing the exact same thing. And obviously, there's power to search, tremendous power to search. But I just think that if people were searching for something specific, i.e. something that they were looking for specifically, as opposed to putting in generic terms, that it could be a lot more effective and a lot more powerful. And that obviously comes from trust, a desire to purchase, which comes from Brondon? Sure. And really, branding is, like the example you used in that term was

personal branding, that if I created a protein line, let's say, a protein line where I said, let's say it's grass-fed, grass-finished way and no antibiotics and no GMO and, et cetera, and I keep talking about it on social media because I've branded myself. Now, if someone searches Way protein on Google, they're probably going to find a brand that has been years ahead of me in optimizing on the search engines, and they're going to rank higher than me. But if they search Beidros's protein powder, right, or Baydros's protein or weight protein with my name,

because they believe in my brand, that's a category of one that's going to pop up. For sure, but obviously the branding might not just come from, obviously, the amount of money that you invest in on a long-term perspective. It might come from, as I mentioned before, the strategy, which I think there's a lacking in today's marketplace. If your strategy involves what your brand proposition is, what you stand for, what service you actually provide and build it on that basis as well, in an integrated synergistic campaign,

it's going to have far more effect than if you're just communicating with people constantly saying buy bedross as protein. Sure. So, you know, I think... Sure. Can you give me an example of maybe a campaign that you guys have done? and had a really strong strategy that you can explain clearly to us.

Well, we've done one recently for a sportsbook client. We represent a client called Five Dimes. They have obviously a plethora of different sports, which people can bet online with. We've worked with them for numerous years. And there's been various different parts of marketing and work that we've done for them. But the last two years, we've worked together

on a specific strategy, which was a camp campaign based off trying to educate people, one, on the sport, two, on how much more fun you can have watching the sport with your friends or being in an environment whereby if you had a little bit of knowledge about the betting side of things, you can incorporate that into the fun and enjoyment. And we've developed that over a dozen different sports, which obviously the key sports that represent. We've got expert insight into the content, which obviously not only educates people, but

paints a picture of the fund that can be achieved by creating that environment. And environments are so important because I think that's what marketing's about. I think marketing is creating an environment where a sale can be made. Well, I like that. Marketing is creating an environment where a sale can be made. Yeah. So we've created this environment across different integrated platforms. Obviously, we've used our magazines, we've used our social, we've used our email databases, we've used our digital reach. But we've also, we've also, also developed a series of e-books. We've developed an app, which obviously the e-book can go on,

and we've built sales funnels which cannot really create the awareness within our print media, which, you know, our print media has got data at the show the key sports, which our audience are into and like, but we've extrapolated that and amplified that across all the other different forms of media on this same campaign message of enjoy the sport, learn about the sport, and have even more fun by placing a bet with your friends while you're there. Brilliant. That was actually a very good example. So if our audience wants to find you, connect with you, reach out to you, what's the best way for our audience to reach you? Would probably be through my LinkedIn page. Okay.

Obviously, just to search Rob Hewitt, iTunes Media Group. Yeah. Great. Well, Rob, thank you so much for spending time on the show with us. Great. Thank you. Thank you, guys and gals. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, watching this episode on YouTube. And as always, if you enjoy this episode, remember, give us a five-star review. view on iTunes, Stitcher, and all the different platforms, we would greatly appreciate it. And above all, take a screenshot and share it on social media. Thank you so much.

Take care.