Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Network with Your Industry’s Elite - 057

Episode Date: July 25, 2018

He’s only 43 years old and yet he’s already scaled and sold 3 businesses. In this episode, Randy Garn, one of Bedros Keuilian’s mentors, shares the secrets behind networking with the right people. He also walks you through the process of turning your business ideas into profitable solutions. Watch or listen now to discover why serving others for free can save you tens, and even hundreds, of thousands of dollars in the long run. “Build the goodwill bank account first and the money bank account will grow faster.” - Bedros Keuilian Here’s what you’ll discover: 5:41 - How to bring your business idea to life—and scale it quickly. 12:00 - How to identify the gaps in an industry and create solutions for them. 17:32 - How to build a robust network of business connections. 22:18 - Why you should write out—yes, physically write out—a one-page strategy document. 34:01 - How to build your empire around your principles and not ego or economics. “The more you serve, the less you have to sell” - Randy Garn

Have a good strategy. Know where you're going. Treat people kindly and live that law of reciprocity. Build up your network and you will never go hungry. Hey friends, welcome to another episode of the Empire Podcast Show, an inside look. And today we have a very special guest here. In fact, he's not only a dear friend, but he's a mentor of mine, someone that I look up to and learn from. He's a New York Times bestselling author.

In addition to that, Ernst & Young voted him as one of the top entrepreneurs. is in fact, entrepreneur of the year. And he has built and exited out of not just one, but three different businesses. And on top of that, my man here has also created one of the largest entrepreneurial coaching programs. And I'd like to welcome Randy Garn to the show. Randy, how are you, bud? Bro, I'm doing awesome. It's so good to be here with you, Bejaro.

Hey, listen, man. First off, thank you for being here. I appreciate you being here. And in fact, the reason you're here today is you were kind enough to speak at our FitBody Boot Camp Mastermind. And the stuff that you taught them is obviously going to scale their businesses faster, which is what we want to do. So I appreciate your time there. And here we are in the Empire Podcast Studios. And I wanted to really pick your brain about how you've been able to amass such wealth, build such an empire, and have such tremendous balance in your life.

Because you do something so unique that most entrepreneurs don't. Most of the rest of us are very off balance. First of all, why don't you tell us about the three businesses that you've built and sold, if that's okay? Well, yeah, no, we, I mean, talk about balance. As entrepreneurs, we are crazy, man. We're like grasshoppers. Great on takeoff. You never know where we're going to land.

So I love being here with you. And it's been fun over the years to watch what you're growing and what you've grown. And, I mean, I just feel it a privilege. We've known each other for years. And so I think the key to success for entrepreneurship is really making sure that. yourself is good. You've got that you have to invest in yourself and I think I've never ever paid for a mentor or a coach I've invested in them. And so when you when you think about that, you know really coming from the coaching and mentoring training space what we built up many,

many years is I really got that man if you can have somebody really that's knows the way, goes the way and shows the way then you're going to be way more successful. And so it was fun with your fit body boot camp members but I think you do that really well not just for your franchise business, for what you're doing with your brand, with helping entrepreneurs, even this show, teaching people those little nuggets of gold that can change everything. Sure. So, well, I appreciate that.

And where that's concerned, currently you're building Scipio, which is one of the most awesomeest texting platforms. And you and I talk about this often. While email marketing is great, you always say it's not, or it's an and, right? You do email marketing and texting. Because with texting, the response rate, the fact that you end up right on their screen and they don't have to be, you're not one of many on emails. But right now you're building this texting empire.

If you don't mind, can you give us a little idea of when you started Skipio, how it's growing right now, and then let's backtrack into the other three businesses that you had built and sold as well. Great. Yeah, one of the fun things about Skipio is that I've always loved relationships and communication. So in today's world, as an entrepreneur and a business, owner, you have to be really good at Omni-Channel communications. So it's not just texting. You have to actually literally continue to email, but you have to be really good on social media. But the most intimate way to talk with somebody right now is via text message and mobile marketing. So about two and a half

years ago, it was just amazing when we've seen how powerful texting can be because nobody's answered my emails anymore. I'm like, my gosh, our open rate back in 93, 93, 90, from 97, we're like, man, if we didn't get 70% email open rate, the subject stunk or, you know, the copy was bad. But now it's just like literally, you're on the wrong highway. And so email's important, but now how do you and I communicate? Once you build a relationship with somebody, you are texting them. Hey, how you doing? What's going on?

We're sending videos. We're sending links. So there's just so much more that you can do, and it's a lot more personal. But you have to be really good at being able to communicate with all levels of communication tools. Well, you've got this amazing gift, and this gift is kind of seeing what's next and then taking that thing and then building an empire out of it. And that's what you did with Skipio. When did you start Skipio? Yeah, it was back about two and a half years ago is when we started that. So, you know, May 2016 is when we started it. And it's just been, it's been a blast.

And, I mean, we're growing like crazy. We're continuing to innovate and ideate. You have to keep up with the space. You have to be the very best in your field. And then you have scale and you have growth. And so we're going to continue to invest in it. You've got to listen to your customers and what they want. But we're building out tools. It's not just a texting platform. It's a communications platform for you to keep deep, meaningful relationships with people.

Now, I got to stop you there, though. How did you know that, okay, social media, we've got Facebook and Instagram is the big animals here. And we've got, we're marketing is concerned. Most entrepreneurs go, okay, I'm going to build my social media followings, but then I'm going to extract the email addresses and communicate. two and a half years ago you go you know what I think texting is going to be the next thing to market with to sell with to influence to persuade what gave you that idea and then how did you take that idea and scale skipio so fast you know back in I actually remember the day it was

during during Christmas it was Christmas Eve and I was sitting there and I was fat fingering all my friends hey hope you have an awesome Christmas with your family actually shot a little fun video with my boys and stuff and I was just shooting out text and I literally was texting out people that I really love and I care about. I really do. I love people. They are so freaking awesome like everybody no matter how well we've done. So I'm sitting there. I'm texting and I'm like, dude, I'm not spending time with the ones I love most. There's got to be a better solution to this because they're not going to see my email. I don't ever check Facebook Messenger. And so I'm like, man, this is where customers are at. So you have to look at when you're building

something, what is the solution you are able to, what is the solution you're able to create? You know, what is a big need? And the biggest thing for marketing sales, for retention, for everything is how are we communicating with the customers to drive a meaningful experience with them? Personally, that's what customers want. Eighty-seven percent of customers want to receive a text or to be able to communicate with you via text. So when I was sitting there, I was like, there's got to be a better way. And then we were able to create that technology in such a way that you can do one to many. So you're not doing mass texting. You're literally, you're doing one text and you can send that out to thousands of people at one time, but it's a one-on-one text, and then you can

reply individually. Just because I'm sending out to a lot doesn't mean that it's not authentic or impersonal. It just means I'm able to do it now. I love that. One thing Gary Vaynerchuk talks about all the time is when, you know, we're in the business of getting people's attention. Yeah. And there's no better way to get someone's attention than through texting and then continue that conversation to build a relationship and then make the sale and then of course maintain that relationship over and over again. So, okay, I get how you thought of, you thought of Skipio and I see the tremendous value because we use it here at our corporate office, our FitBody Blue Camp owners, use Skipio and of course many of my coaching clients do. What about your other

businesses? Why don't you tell me about your, the biggest entrepreneurial coaching program that you had created and how you came up with that idea? Yeah, back in, I'd say it was 97. 1997, 98, we were going to college. I was going to college and trying to make ends meet. And trying to figure out, man, how am I'm married and need to figure out a solution. We'd actually just had a really fun growth model with another company. But we actually were starting, we had a guy call us and say, I need your help. And they were doing all of these huge seminars all over with Joe Montana and Zig Ziglar and Dennis Waitley would come and speak.

And so they were filling these stadiums. Madison Square Garden, you know, the Delta Center, you know, the Staples Center. And so that one, we would go and we would help them organize all these events. And then we started doing some of the lead generation for these events, started getting people in the shows. So we were one of the original email marketers. And I think that also got me to Skipio. It was like, hey, email was so freaking awesome. I watched it from the very beginning. And now able to text people, it's just so powerful but but what we saw was everybody was buying these programs and the end these this information and they would come back to us and they'd be like I want help is there anybody that could help me implement

this I love the content but I need actually I want to pay a little bit more to learn more how to do this and minimize my time so we actually created a coaching company it was one of the largest in the nation and we did we were like the intel inside so a lot of people didn't know we exist for like Ken Blanchard and Zig Zigler and Nightingale Cohnit and all those, they'd buy the program, and we actually did all the training. I think like doing that, I mean, we were training some of the best thought leaders of that time. It really helped me, like, get my mind right too. So we begin to, we continue to do that, work with events all over the place, and it just started to swell.

And you, when you're an entrepreneur and you figure out your economic engine and your model, it just gets fun. And then you start to be able to scale that in such a way that you're changing people's lives and doing some pretty fun things. So we worked with some of the best thought leaders, and it just exploded. Was that company Prosper? Yeah, that was Prosper.

That was Prosper. And, of course, that was one of the ones that you built and sold, right? And good for you. I mean, as entrepreneurs, our job is not to just build and hold. Right. Oftentimes, we're either going to build and pass along to family, right, to our kids, the next generation, et cetera,

or it's going to be built and sold. And really, for most, that's the ultimate play. Right. And you've done this three times. Tell me about hero partners. What was hero partners? So hero partners, from that we were dealing a lot with consumers. And I've always been fascinated with, you know, it's like the kingmakers because you're a multiplier.

You know, in our lives there's multipliers and there's diminishes. And if you're a really good CEO, you actually know how to build other leaders and build other teams. So from the coaching, I've always been fascinated with leadership. I've always been fascinated with coaching. and I met some amazing partners that we built hero partners together. We have a private fly fishing resort up in Star Valley, Wyoming. We have a private golf course as well, but we would take CEOs up there and get them away

and train them on innovation, ideation, strategy and execution, marketing, how to raise money, how to raise, you know, and so we literally those things, and then how to hire and fire. So those were a core thing. So we had a group of CEOs that would pay, X amount a year to be a part of our CEOs club. And that was hero partners. And we worked with some amazing, amazing people.

Like one of our chairmen sold his business for $24.3 billion. Yo. He was the master. Billion, by the way, not million. Yeah. And then built four other companies and had a massive exit on those. And so those are some of the people that we were learning from. And it was just a ton of fun.

So we did that for around four years and then ended up selling that company a few years ago. So you've got this unique ability that I've seen in you. in the years that we've been friends, and I want you to kind of explain how you have this skill. Here's the skill I'm talking about. You have this unique skill or ability, or maybe it's a gift, although I have a feeling it's probably something you've developed,

where you could see the vacuum or the gap in an industry. For example, you guys are creating courses for thought leaders, and then you see that, hey, you know what, we can actually offer ongoing coaching for them and do some kind of a revenue share, and you build that up and sold it. Same with hero partners. Gee, okay, I'm in business.

I can share what I do in my business with other CEOs. And in fact, I can probably learn from them. You really created one of the first entrepreneurial masterminds. Yeah. You think about it. Masterminds and mentoring is really big now, but you're one of the OGs of this, right? And if I remember, you had over 300 people. Oh, yeah.

Like CEOs of this thing? Right? I mean, that was a huge mastermind program. So how is it? What do you do? What's your, you have a checklist you go through? How do you find the gap or the vacuum in an industry? and then dive in and then create a solution?

That's a really good question. I think that what I've been able to really find is what I enjoy. Because I love working with entrepreneurs. And I love the coaching space. So I wouldn't be a really good engineer. But some people love that. And so where I've actually found success

is thinking about what are my biggest strengths. What do I enjoy doing? When am I in the flow? One of my challenges high in my skill sets, and I continue to raise my skill sets. If I get bored or if I have anxiety about it, then I need to increase my challenges or increase my skill sets. And so I think what I've found is seeing where the need is, but do I love it too? Because if you don't love what you're doing and it's not bringing you money, it's not sustainable over long periods of time. So that's where I've been able to really find success is doing things that I love and surrounding myself with people that I love, love being with.

me just reiterate that because that's a lesson that I've learned the hard way. I would see the need, but it wasn't something that I necessarily loved, but I saw money opportunity and I would jump on it. Soon, stress, anxiety, overwhelm sets in, and if you don't love it, you're not willing to push through. And what I've learned over time, and it's probably through just environmental exposure to you and others like you, is that that intersection where the need, seeing a need, and something that you love where those two things intersect, like that's the happy point of success, right? Yeah. And that's the balance.

Remember you asking me about balance? Like when I get home, I love it because I actually work with my friends. And you've got to really think about who you partner with because you've got to love it. And if you're the master in the art of living, and I love this quote, the master in the art of living, you can't decide whether he's working or playing. To him, he's always doing both. So I try to live my life around that. Yeah.

Like I love fly fishing. I love being outdoors. And so I'm like, okay, that first mastermind group we did, let's create something where they love it too. And they come and have an experience. And they're just like, my gosh, I just came away having the greatest time in my life. I learned a ton of stuff that I'm going to execute and implement in my business. And I'm better for it. Like that was the experience economy.

There's a really good book from Joseph Fine called the experience economy. If you haven't read it, you've got to read it. It's like where we're at now is going to now people are paying more money for experiences. Because you can just deliver a service, but then if you deliver an experience, they're going to pay more for that, and you're going to have more of a transformation in their life. Brilliant. I love that. So, you know, when you think about everything you've accomplished, Erston Young, you know, giving you the entrepreneur of the year award,

New York Times bestselling author, built and sold three companies and now building another one. And I was able to come to the Skipio corporate offices and was just blown away. you guys took a massive 30,000 square foot flour mill. Yeah. Right? Like baking flour. 1888 flour mill. 1888 flour mill, the whole building.

And you left so much of the equipment in there and built your offices, your enterprise, around that. You've accomplished so much. You've helped so many people. You are probably one of the most connected people I know you and Joe Polish. I figure between you and Joe Polish, if I know you two, I know everybody. I'm like one degree, maybe two degrees removed from anybody. And so what most people don't realize is how young you are.

Can I ask you to share your age? Yeah, I'm actually a ripled age of 43 years old. 43, right? I'm 43 and I'm building my first big company. You're 43 and you've sold, built and sold three already. Like, bro, I look up to you as a mentor and I'm like, how do I do what he does? And how do I stay as balanced and happy as this guy, right? And so let's shift gears for a moment and talk about this network that you've created.

Drew Manning's in the other room. Yeah. I met Drew Manning through you. Drew Manning, for those of you who don't know, he's the personal trainer who gained 80 pounds of fat so that he can experience what his clients go through and then lost the 80 pounds. And in the process of gaining and losing that weight, he ended up on the Tonight Show, wrote a New York Times bestselling book. There's, of course, the TV show called Fit to Fat to Fit, all about his program.

I met Drew Manning through you. I've met the darnest people through you, Troy McLean, right? Special Forces guys. How are you so well connected? What do you do to build such a network? Because I see how it impacts your net worth. And let me give another example. I was out at the Skippy O HQ.

Yeah. We were hanging out. We went to lunch. you knew the beauty queen in town. I forget her name now, right? And we end up shooting the shit with her. And then we're talking about, you know, gee, what does it take to connect with the M&A firm? And you go, hey, there's a guy right there.

I want you to meet Pedro's. You know, he helps run an M&A firm. You should meet him and let me make the connection. Like, how do you know so many people both in your town and around the world? I do think that, I don't know, first off, I really. I've learned this actually, it is a learned thing, but I really do want to help other people succeed. I think the more that I succeed,

the more I want to help others succeed, but the more I help others succeed, I succeed. It's a real true law of reciprocity. A lot of people talk about it. I'm trying to live it. I'm trying to do the best I can. And I learned a lot from, I've been on the advisory board, Harvey McKay for years,

swim with the sharks. He's written tons of New York Times bestsellers. But one of the things he said is do as much as you can for as many people as you can as often as you can without expecting anything in return Do they get do as much as you can for as many people as you can as often as you can without expecting anything in return And now in my life like I even think about the other businesses that I've started it was because of relationships Of other because of other things that I'd helped them with like I started prosper with a guy that ran against me Ethan Willis, who was a stud because we ran against each other for student body president at the private college we went to.

Holy smokes. And I said, dude, he wanted to be president. Dude, come join me and be part of my, be a vice president with me. And I did that with the eight other guys. And three of them still work with me, and we all still work together. So do as much as you can, as often as you can, for as many people as you can as often as possible. And watch what the world does for you. I literally try to do five handwritten notes every morning.

for people that either come to my mind or people that I met with before. If somebody needs something, I will do that introduction. I will do a video introduction or a text introduction for you with whoever you need. I don't need anything back, but I know when that time comes and you have success,

you're going to be like, Randy, thanks a bunch. But it doesn't matter. You may or may not, because some people don't remember the genealogy of where stuff came from, but it doesn't matter. Help as many people as you can

and watch what it does for your life and your own happiness. The more you serve, the less you have to sell. The more you do for others, the more success you're going to have in your life all around. The more you serve, the less you have to sell. And so many people are allergic to the idea of selling. One thing Craig and I always talk about on the Empire podcast show is the value of selling and closing. Well, those that are so afraid to sell or maybe intimidated by the idea of selling, just serve, right? The more you serve, the less you have to sell. I love that. Thank you for teaching me that. And this is an interesting thing here for me because I'm thinking about the text message that you sent me yesterday,

which was during Fitness Business Summit in March, let me go back in time here. I just want to prove the value of networking connections. Prove the value of networking connections. You sent me a text, you asked me at Fitness Business Summit because you were there in March, Hey, Beidros, have you met so-and-so from Entrepreneur Magazine? He could write a few articles for you and really get you an entrepreneur magazine. And you get a text introduction.

Now, of course, it was Fitness Business Summit weekend. Going nice. And I said hi to him via text, but then the conversation stopped and life took over and I got busy. I think it was last night or maybe this morning you sent me a text. Hey, Bezos, have you connected with him yet? Like, you have, there's literally there's no reason for you to do this.

It's not like if I'm connected to this guy at Entrepreneur Magazine that somehow you magically make money. But what I see you doing is you reminded me. And I go, no, Randy, I haven't. And you go, okay, I'll reconnect you guys and get the conversation going. You truly come with a giving hand. And what this reminds me of is years ago,

our mutual friend, Frank Kern, talked about, hey, it's cool to build the bank account. But if you really want to build the bank account, build the goodwill bank account. Yes. Right? The reciprocity bank account. Like, come with the giving hand.

build the Goodwill bank account first, and the money bank account will grow faster. You've mastered this. So where business advice is concerned, we have young entrepreneurs listening to our show. We've also got entrepreneurs that are seasoned and do half a million, a million, two million, and want to scale to three, five, ten, 15, 20 million.

What are some of the big tips you can give for entrepreneurs who want to scale their businesses? I think you have to, one, you have to invest in yourself, get mentors, read books, but one of the things that's most important for, like, if I could go back and teach my younger self, is to know this, that if you don't have your own goals, somebody else will use you for theirs. So if you don't have your own goals, somebody else will use you for theirs. You have to work with your team and work with yourself, create a one-page strategy document. You can call it a vision board. You can call it whatever you want to call it. But, dude, you better have your strategy down. on one page. What does yours look like?

I mean, it's the next three years. I've gotten the next three years mapped out as what I try to do. On one page. On one page of exactly what I want to accomplish. And I think about all the things that I have done and a lot of it has come true because I said, you know what? I want to be a New York Times with Sailing Author. We did it.

You know, I want to, when I was young, I would listen to Dennis Waitley and, you know, I would listen to Zig Ziglar. And then I said, do it. One day I want to coach. I'm at 14 years old in the pickup truck with my dad. my dad and I'm saying one day I want to train and coach on this stuff. We did it. So make sure that you're actually manifesting stuff just not in your mind but you're actually

writing it down. I actually think that's really, really important for people to know. The other thing is that's important is you've got to say no, no, no, no until your tongue bleeds. If it's not in your strategy document, you have to learn how to say no. So that you can say yes to the things that matters. So that you can say yes to the things that matters and that you have time for the things that matter.

And so the other thing is, is don't get caught up in yourself. Don't get arrogant. I love it. I mean, you and I both know guys, their lips are so chapped from kissing the mirror so much. Right? I mean, you have to stay humble and stay grounded and treat everybody kind. Because the minute you become a punk and a freaking arrogant business owner, you're going to, you may make a lot of money, but you're not going to be happy inside. So you've got to learn, I mean, those are some of the things is have a good strategy.

know where you're going, treat people kindly, and live that law of reciprocity, build up your network, and you will never go hungry. I mean, it's way more valuable than any amount of money. Drop me off on an island anywhere, take away everything, my cars, my keys everywhere, but don't take away my friends because I will rebuild a kingdom all day long with the right relationships.

And you've done that and you've proven that, and it's funny because we hear that so often, but I think people have become cynical, like, yeah, right, is that really it? Like, if I'm just good to people and serve for no reason and come with the giving hand without any expectation back, that's going to build my business? Come on, man, it's a cutthroat industry. Yet, I've seen firsthand through environmental exposure to you over years. It's not like we just met over years that you continue. I mean, you are the most consistent guy. We know each other. We've been in the Genius Network Mastermind for years together.

And there hasn't been a time that I haven't, that I've seen you that you've, you know, turned away or your attitude was off or, ooh, Randy's in a mood. It's just, you're the happy go lucky, let me introduce it to someone you need to know, Bedros guy. And it's not like you just do that for me. Like I see you make those connections everywhere. And I like what you said. Put me on an island. Take everything away from me, but my friends, but my network.

And I will rebuild my net worth. That's super powerful. And I got to tell you, just another great example of that. Because the message behind building empires truly and the way you've done this over and over again is through a network of people who you go and to. to business with, start relationships with, and impact industries with, you know Joel Marion? Oh, yeah. Biotrust.

Amazing. Right? Amazing. I mean, they built a nine-figure supplement company. And, of course, here at Fit Body Boot Camp, we're starting to build our Fit Body Boot Camp supplement line to sell in our, you know, hundreds of Fit Body Boot Camp locations. Now, arguably, I don't know much about supplements. I know all about fitness businesses.

And so with one text, I just, hey, Joel, because we've been friends for years, I've helped him, He's helped me. Hey, Joel, I'm thinking of either egg white protein powder or weigh protein powder, which is more sellable and which has got the better margins for not only us, but for our franchisees to retail. And he goes, I think it's way, but hold on, give me a second. Let me come back to you with actual numbers from millions of biotrust sales. Like, holy crap, to have access to a guy like that is simply because, I'm a

I've spent time building my network, right? It's exactly right. You know, because you start thinking, gee, I got to buy thousands of containers of weight protein, of all these different supplements. How do I know if I'm being gouged? How do I know if it's the right ingredients? And then you've got an expert in that industry

that you've known for years, and I can call in a favor, and I don't feel awkward about it. He doesn't feel like who's better was to ask, and it's simply because he is one of those, just like you, a go-giver and a connect. A go-giver and a connector. So was there ever a time, Randy, where you weren't a go-giver connector or is there something

you learned from dad? Like, how did you become so well-connected at such a young age? I mean, yeah, I mean, I grew up in a small farm town. I mean, there was less than, I mean, a thousand people in the city I grew up in. And so I actually think that growing up in a small town helped me understand the power of relationships. Because if you're a bad person in a small town, what happens? Everybody, dude, don't talk to the Joneses because, I mean, dude, he shot Billy the other day and he's going to get ticked off. I mean, don't go.

You know what I'm saying? It's actually really interesting because we've actually taken that, think about this as a business owner. You've now taken social media to a level where now we're actually monitoring our own actions and everything. And so we're actually building communities that a large group could say, that's not a good person or that's not a good actor. And so reputation is everything. It's not who you know. It's who knows you and what they think about you. And so how much do you think that would have cost you to do the research on way or egg on your own?

Oh, not only in time, but also in money, probably thousands of dollars. Thousands of not, I mean, hundreds of thousands probably. Sure. I mean, that relationship was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's exactly right. In time? Because then you would have been six months behind trying to do their research. So that's what I'm saying.

That's a perfect example of you have to think about those things as a business owner. You never know who the treasure map to the treasure is. So that's why you treat everybody, whether it's the mailman or whether it's the FedEx guy, he may be, his uncle may be some billionaire that you need to get in contact with and you have a relationship with them. That's literally, I mean, Rudy Rudiger is a good friend of mine. Sure. The movie Rudy was a 10-year battle to get made.

It got made because he was sitting in a point. that got left out and he's sitting at the thing and the mailman comes and Rudy said hello to him and he says you know did you have a bad day what's going on and Rudy's like yeah I missed an appointment well who are you supposed to meet with this guy I actually know where he lives whoa the mailman the mailman of course the mailman and they build a relationship quickly and the guy said I'm not supposed to do this but he drove him up to the filmmaker's house the guy that produced Rudy and that's how the movie was made you never know who the

treasure map to the treasure is so treat everybody really good and it will come back to you I promise you try it you know it's funny right because so many people think the building an empire means you got to be cutthroat you got to do sneaky stuff you've you've got to do things that you're not necessarily going to be proud of if it gets out as I built the Fit Body Boot Camp and as I built my coaching businesses and I find like holy smokes there is no magic formula I don't have to be a jerk or an asshole I don't have to be a cutthroat it's literally leaning on friends standing on the shoulders of giants coming with the

giving hand and then letting reciprocity play its thing and then being so kind that even coming down the staircase today to meet to meet with you and Drew I texted Troy McLean who I was introduced through introduced by you Troy McLean he was for those of you they don't know he was on it was the first episode he was on the first episode of the Apprentice right with Donald Trump yeah with Donald Trump before he was president yeah before he was president and so I I texted Troy McLean and one of my clients, because I remember one of my clients saying, hey, you know what, I've got money and I want to open up an indoor shooting range, but I wanted to be way different than a regular indoor shooting range.

I'm like, don't make a move. I'm going to introduce you to my friend Troy. Well, what I think about it, look at the ripple effect you've made through the network that you've created. You introduced me to Troy. I, of course, introduced Troy to this coaching client of mine. By the time I walked in here, I saw them already talking on the text message that I joint texted them on. And I have no doubt that both of them have a sense of.

reciprocity towards me now, greater sense of reciprocity, which means that when the time comes, if I do need to call in a favor to Troy or to my coaching client, I'll be able to, or when they know what's going on in my life like you do, you know, I'm growing fit body boot camp, I'm building this thing. You go, hey, let me introduce it to the right people. Like, they'll think of me because I thought of them. And that's truly the formula to building an empire. There is no shortcut. There is no cutthroat.

There is no, let me go screw people. because at the end of the day, that's the karmic justice always comes back 10x. Yeah. Right. Well, and I think to Vedros is that you need to be careful of those people that are cutthroat and shrewd like that and align yourself with partners that you're really aligned with. And you got to, you know, you, A, C, understand, agree, and commit. Too many times we commit to people that we don't fully understand or agree what their, you know,

what their intentions are. So, and you know, you know how it is. I always, I always have a formula. And actually, one of my partners when we were just, you know, who and hero partners came with this formula, it's make sure that their P is over their E squared, making sure that their principles are higher, are above their ego or economic interest,

that they have higher principles than they're not going to. If their E is over their P, I don't even do business with them anymore. I've lost too much money. How many times have been like, dude, I can't figure this guy out, but dude, the business model looks great, we're gonna do good things together. You end up getting burned every time. your P, the principles have to be higher than their ego or economic gain before I'll do anything with people.

What a great lesson. I'm not a big mathematician, but I can tell you that that is an equation that I will take to heart and I will run with. So let me, as we get closer towards the end here, let me ask you this question. You've hit so many home runs in life. And you're, I mean, most recently, another home run, if you don't mind me sharing, is you write a road bike. Uh-huh. And you got hit by a, by an SUV, so much so where your road bike broke in half. The SUV ran over your legs and you're unscathed, no broken bones, nothing. Like that's a home run to me.

That's a blessing. That's a someone's watching over you. And even when I look at the history and the like no one's, no one's got a bad thing to say about you. When I go, hey, you know, Randy, oh my God, salt to the earth guy, great guy, great connector, network, et cetera. Surely you've had some strikeouts with maybe business partners or businesses that you went into and there were failures. Without mentioning any names, hindsight being 2020, what can we teach our audience to look out for, either for toxic business partners or for bad business ideas, that we can give them some cautionary tales?

You know, that's actually really interesting. Most people get involved with it because they emotionally get involved with it. And one of the things that will really help, a lot of these entrepreneurs that are listening today is something that Reagan said to Gorbachev was Prova and I, no Dovanai. It's trust but verified. And I do, you have to write things down. You have to get things written, but you also have to, it has to feel good. If it doesn't feel good, I mean, I always, I listen to my heart.

Every time I haven't done that, it ends up not being as like what I want it to be. And then I've just wasted a couple years in my life. Do we don't have a lot more time, but these young guys, I mean, if there's people that are near 20s or your 30s, dude, that is your building years. I mean, that is years where, dude, you just be fearless. Like, I really think we grew prosper because we didn't know any better. We were blazing new trails. We didn't know any better. We were just like, okay, well, this is how it is.

Yeah, no, just hire on more people. Yeah, the economics are working. And so I think you have to also, you know, make sure that you're doing that. The other thing that I was going to say is that, just like you talk about, like, I was ran over by a car. And I have no scratches. I had bruises, but I wasn't broken. And we should let our audience know, this was three weeks ago, and here you are at the Empire Podcast Studios.

Yeah, I thought, I mean, imagine my friend, he's screaming, he's watching me get ran over, and for that, I will tell you that even all of us, I really do think we have angels watching over us. Like you, me, I totally believe that as business owners, and if we'll actually listen closely, like we'll be guided by a higher power to accomplish great things. It's when you start listening to just,

just the greed and the money and the fame and the notoriety and you stop serving people and you talk growing it for that, then those angels aren't going to be there to protect us. And it doesn't mean you're going to be wildly, wealthy, or whatever, but you're going to be at peace and you're going to be successful. That's what I think about. And in the end, that's what we're looking for, success and peace, peace of mind and success and level of legacy. I've got a good friend.

He's a therapist. His name is Kevin. And he says, you know, man on this planet is just simply looking for meaning, then money. Yeah. Right? And most people, when you put the money ahead of the meaning is when we get a, Gary Hobart used to say this, you know, your greed glands begin to see creed. Right.

And of course, Ryan Holliday, a great author and helped me, well, help me ghost write my book, Man Up. His book is, Ego is the enemy. When ego sets in and all of a sudden I'll take the fame and the money, we start getting jaded and we'll go into business with someone who's got maybe lesser principles. maybe misguided morals. And ultimately it does backfire. It's happened to me before in business. And like you said, it's a couple years wasted.

Yeah. You know, and stress and anxiety in your life. And you can't just leave that stuff at work either. When that happened to me, I was bringing that home to my wife and kids. Yeah. And so we have that duty and obligation to really keep that the compass, the principal compass dialed in where principles always above everything else. So, Randy, for those who want to learn more about you, where do they go to learn about you to connect with you to get influenced by you?

There's a couple ways to do that is, I mean, for everybody watching as well, one of the companies that we're growing is Skipio. And it's that, it's a mobile marketing, texting and voice broadcasting solution that is amazing for you to keep and maintain relationships. And so you can go to bedros.skipio.com and check it out there. I mean, I know we're working with you on some really fun stuff with that, but you can go check out bedros.scipio.com or if they want to text in BK, 801, 758, 7797, just text BK. And I'll know that you listen to this show and you came from this show and you'll get a response from me. So it's 801-758-7797. Just text BK to that. And you'll get a nice message from me and all will be well. Randy, what is the final message you want to leave on this planet? I mean, you hit a point where you're just like,

F it, I'm going for it, and you don't give a rip what anybody else thinks. And you freaking live your strategy, and you live what you were put on this earth to live. That's what I want everybody to do. Let me ask you, how did you get to that point? Because so many people do care about what everyone else thinks. And because of that, they neuter their voice. They hand the pen of life to someone else to write.

you know, their story. At what point did you say, I'm not giving a rip and I'm going all in? Dude, when we went public in 2001 and we gave up the reins to our company, to some other guys, came in and took charge of that. And from that moment, I remember Ethan and I look at each other and we said, dude, if we're waiting for all the smart people to show up, we're actually here. And that was the day where I'm like, I'm never putting my, I'm never going to put, my life in the hands of somebody else.

And that was the day where I just like, screw it, I'm doing this. I'm going to live the life I want to live and treat the people that I want to do. And I'm creating my own life. That was the day. Amen. Randy Garn, you have given us so much knowledge,

so much wisdom, and through your experience and building and selling three companies and becoming a New York Times bestseller and entrepreneur of the year and being so generous in sharing your number for our audience to text you. Guys, please don't blow him up.

But be sure to text them, BK. Who knows? He might even give you a free trial or a discounted trial of Scipio. For sure. Right? Thank you so much for being on the show, man. I really appreciate your friendship and mentorship. Thanks, Pedro. Thank you so much for joining us for another amazing episode of the Empire podcast.

Now, the greatest compliment that you can give to us is liking, loving, and sharing this episode with all of your friends. So please go to iTunes and give us a five-star rating and then share it online and social media with everyone that you know. And make sure to tag us because we love hearing from Empire listeners. And if you own a business that's doing half a million dollars or more in annual revenues and you know it's got massive potential and you like myself and Craig Ballantine to help you scale it by 5x, 10x, and 20x in the shortest amount of time possible, then you might be a great candidate for the Empire Mastermind Program that we have. To learn more about the Empire Mastermind Program, go to bedroskulian.com forward slash empire.