Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - The Traps You Want to Avoid - 037

Episode Date: March 7, 2018

In this episode, Bedros Keuilian and Craig Ballantyne reveal their most embarrassing mistakes in business so that you can avoid losing money, time, and opportunity in your own business. You’ll learn why you must learn to trust your own gut and stand behind your own decisions. You’ll also learn why the most successful people in the world are outcome-driven. Watch or listen to this episode now and make sure you share it with any friends who are entrepreneurs.   “Playing it safe has never built an empire.” - Bedros Keuilian   Here’s what you’ll discover:   2:33 - The greatest challenges Bedros has faced with Fit Body Boot Camp. 5:03 - Why you don’t need “the man on the white horse” to succeed. 8:10 - Why you must stay committed to your outcome above all else. 9:22 - Why you must not fall into “the boss trap” or the “past success trap.” 14:48 - How “exponential learning” can create explosive growth for your empire.  

Those people who say I'm waiting to make things perfect really are saying I'm afraid of criticism. I'm afraid of growth. I'm afraid of the challenges that lie ahead. And I'd rather play it safe. Playing it safe has never built an empire. Hey, and welcome to the most embarrassing episode of the Empire Podcast ever. I'm your host, Craig Valentine. With me is my co-host, Badros Kulian.

Hello, everyone. And we are going to show you some damaging admissions in this episode. That's right, some of our most embarrassing moments from our careers as entrepreneurs. But we're going to do this because we're going to be talking about the traps that you want to avoid. We do not want to fall in through these traps. So, Pedro, I'm going to let you start on this one. Let you share first something that embarrassed you. You know, this is pretty neat because this is conversation really that you and I always have in the car driving around.

Craig and I are very therapeutic with each other and end up kind of admitting our damaging admissions to one another. And then solving the problems we're running through it. Absolutely. But I think it's really neat to be able to share that here for two reasons. One, because if we can share our damaging admissions as entrepreneurs with you, the hope is that they would avoid the pitfalls that we went through the traps. Absolutely. And number two, I think everyone needs to know that, like everyone else, we put our pants on one leg at a time.

Well, I tend to jump right into mind, but outside of that. I don't wear pants. Right, and you don't wear pants, which is why we only shoot from waist high when we're filming these things. But truly, every entrepreneur goes through these challenges. We've had the good fortune to hang out with multimillionaires and billionaires. And being people who have built multimillion dollar companies, we can tell you that what you're about to hear is the norm. And so you will go through it at some point,

but hopefully you'll be able to avoid these traps. So some of the things that, two real big things that come to me, is that as an entrepreneur, there are things that happen that you didn't plan for, all the time. And I kind of named that, and I created this umbrella called the suck factor. And I always talk about embrace. the suck factor. And somebody wants to ask me, what is the suck factor exactly? So, well, the suck

factor is when you planned on, in my case, I'm going to build a franchise, and it's going to be so awesome that everyone's going to join it and open up a franchise in their town called Fit Body Boot Camp, and then they're going to get their clients going to get great results, and I'm going to have 2,500 locations worldwide. Never did I plan in my blueprinting that every now and again we might get an owner or two of a franchise who hires on someone who has got a felony. And, and, and and maybe it was a child molester. Oh, right? Or, oh, yeah, we've had that happen.

Or we've had a Fit Body Boot Camp location owner who was very inappropriate with a client. I didn't plan for that either. And what happens when that ends up on the local newscast in their town, and we have to get involved with that? Or what happens when the Federal Trade Commission decides to audit us 11 times

because we were growing so quickly that it looked like we were doing something hinky. And so every time, the suck factor came up as we were building fit body boot camp it's embarrassing to admit but I had a very poor way of handling stress and anxiety and you and I had the conversation one time you said hey brother you're suffering in silence why are you suffering in silence and I would suffer in silence and I would have these massive anxiety attacks essential tremors not sleep for days in fact because of that I didn't know how to handle the suck factor the stress that comes which is very normal as an

entrepreneur and I would suffer in silence because I didn't want to burden you or burden family or anybody else with my issues and so one it would manifest itself in anxiety and essential tremors poor sleep and then of course damaging health because the only solution there was I would wake up late at night two in the morning and grill up Casadillas and and literally eat my way into a coma right eat my way into a coma which then being someone who's in the fitness space and you're now 40 pounds overweight and trying to hide it, you kind of feel as an imposter.

Sure. And so one of the biggest things for me was how I handled stress and coped with stress versus compared to what I did before. So these days, I talk about it with friends. I know it's coming. I've created morning rituals where stress does not mean eat until you're going to pass out and said, hey, if I'm stressed, I tell you something, I'll work out two, three times in a day.

Yeah. Right? I've replaced working out with eating my way because both. You replaced eating with working out. I'm sorry, yes. Yes. I've replaced eating with working out because both things release the endorphins and the dopamines.

I might as well do the thing that's better for me, which is working out. So that was thing number one. Thing number two was I didn't have the confidence as an entrepreneur that I knew the answers, to trust my own gut. And this is what I would love to impart on everyone who's, watching and listening to this and I was the king of hiring consultants and experts what you and I call the man on the white horse Yeah, and the thought was that the man on the white horse is going to gallop in and save the day Unfortunately when the man on the white horse would gallop in it was more like a

A crippled man on a donkey You know who showed up and it wasn't a knight in shining armor and 99% of the time I knew the right answer But I paid consultants who were ill-equipped now you and it's funny that I say that because you and I are business coaches and mentors and but we refuse to take on clients who we know we can't help because we don't understand their industry or we don't want to dive deep into their own personal lives and issues. But I was guilty of not having the confidence that I needed, and so I figured I'll bring on a business partner that was unnecessary. I'll bring on consultants that are unnecessary

and wasted so much time, money, energy, and effort when really I had the answers. I just didn't have the confidence to move forward with them. Yeah, and you know what? You got off lucky because nobody stole any. your money. I mean, I know some people bring on the man and the white horse and not only they pay them outrageous amounts of money for nothing, sometimes there's, you know, those people are really bad people and actually take part of the business along with them. So what's the advice that you give to people? You know, go back to that first issue. You mentioned replace something

bad with good. Is there anything else in that first one, you know, the embracing the suck factor, overcoming the suffering in silence? And then what can you do in terms of instead of trying to rely on somebody is a man in the white horse, I guess it's becoming a better leader, right? It really is. It's about becoming a better leader and then making the decisions and seeing if they actually work. I was afraid to make the shots, to make the calls, right? And so I felt like, well, I needed a business partner to bounce something off of, or I needed a consultant to bounce something off of, and then when they would say, okay, let's do that, then I would do that. Why can't I make that decision on my own, see if it works, if it does run with it, if it doesn't,

course correct. Right. And so I was afraid of making. decisions and of course decisiveness we know is one of the key branches of the leadership tree. And so it's no surprise that as I fixed my leadership, my inability to be a leader and became an effective leader, all of a sudden I'm more decisive and all of a sudden, gee, I don't need consultants. I have coaches and mentors, right? We have a speaking coach, Joel Weldon. We're in Joe Polish, a 25K mastermind coaching program, but those are people that I rely on,

trust and I know they understand my business and my goals. Of course, where the stress is concerned, I communicate now. I don't feel like I'm wasting your time by talking to you about my stresses. I feel like, listen, you've got outside eyes. You understand my path, my vision, and I'm going to tell you what's keeping me awake at night. And hopefully with your outside eyes, you can go, hey, B, you know, you think you only have option A and B, but as it turns out, you have an option C and D. Have you considered these? And so one, it's having a friend who you trust to, give you the outside eyes. And two, asking myself, what is the outcome that I want to produce? I want to build a fitness franchise. Well, are you being authentic to your fitness franchise? You're

40 pounds overweight, right? And so, well, then what are you doing? You're stress eating. Okay. Why are you stress eating? See, we don't consciously think about what we're doing? We just do it. So I stopped to think, okay, so that's the outcome that I want, but I'm stress eating and stress eating is doing what? Well, it's releasing dopamine and makes me feel good at a time when I'm not feeling good about myself. Well, what? What else can make me feel good and actually keep me aligned with my goal in the fitness industry? I got it working out. Right.

But I've already worked out once today. Who cares? I'd rather go back in the gym two more times, three more times, and work out until my joints are sore and my tendons are falling apart than to put on the fat and not look like I'm authentic in the fitness industry and increased blood pressure and the chances of diabetes and heart disease. So someone's like, well, hey, you're going to out-train yourself. I don't care. I'd rather out train and be sore than be fat out of shape and ready to die. Awesome. Awesome.

Well, that's really helpful for everybody that's listening, and thank you for sharing your struggles and traps there. So here are a couple that I struggle with, which is actually the opposite of the man on the white horse thing. I thought I was the know-it-all. So I had suffered from what I called the boss trap, which is going and just telling other people what to do, thinking everything that I was saying was perfect. But it wasn't.

It wasn't. It actually falls in or is combined with another trap that I often found myself in, which was the ego trap. I had a big ego and I wasn't asking for help. I wasn't hiring coaches. You know, back in the day, I didn't hire my first coach until years after I could have afforded one, but I held on and held on and did it all myself the hard way because I had too much of an ego. So that's something that I see a lot of people doing. They're not reaching out to a coach. Yeah, they read books and they get lots of information, but it's not the same as how. having somebody who's been there, done that, who's levels above you, that you're able to finally go and get great results.

And so that's why, you know, I joined one of your mastermind groups all the way back in 2009. That's how we first met in person. And I started to break free from that. But it still wasn't fully released from that until years after. So that boss trap, I mean, first of all, it made me a bunch of money at the start. But once you want to grow, 10x become an empire builder. It can really hold you back. So that was the first trap that I fell in.

And then the second one also related is what I call the past success trap. And that's where you look, you know, you have success in one industry. And sometimes it might be a little bit of luck. It's timing. You know, I was one of the first people to build an online fitness business. There wasn't a lot of competition. I mean, pretty much anyone could have thrown something against the wall and been successful. And I thought, oh, I'm a genius.

And that made my big ego even bigger and stopped me from getting some of the help that I needed. So a lot of people, whether they're growing a gym or whether they're growing a online business or whether they are writing a book, they think, hey, I've done it once and it was successful, it's easy for me. I'm some genius. And that is actually, if you think you're a genius, if you think you're the smartest person in the room, that's when the trouble comes along, right? Exactly right. Absolutely. So here are some other traps that I see other people fall into. And I call this one the martyr trap where people are doing it all themselves. You must see this a lot. gym owners. Yeah, I do see it a lot as gym owners because as gym owners, remember, we start off as personal trainers and there's so many other industries that start off this way, where you're a

one-man show or one-woman show, accountants are very much the same way, chiropractors are very much the same way. And soon you realize that I need a team, but you are too cheap to invest in a team. Yeah. Or scared? Scared. Scared to invest in a team. Maybe you just believe that you're not who's going to want to work for me anyway, right? It goes back to self-esteem, self-confidence. But at the end of the day, if you're trying to do it all yourself, you're putting yourself in a trap of neutering your business where it's not going to grow to its fullest potential ever

because you can only handle so much as a one person show. Yeah, absolutely. And so if you are out there and you are just stressed beyond belief and you're overworked and you're overwhelmed, it's got to stop. It's not going to get any better if you're already stressed out. So you have to step back. You have to get the coaching, you have to set your ego aside, and you have to start finding people who are better than you at many of the things that you need help with. And the great thing is, there's lots of great people out there who want to do work for you.

There's lots of great people who are going to do this at a good price, whether you go to Upwork or Elance or what are the other some of the other sites that people can find. Odesk is another one. There's so many freelance sites. I mean, you've just Googled freelance workers, right? Internet workers, whatever. even even virtual assistance like we have some of our coaching clients have three four five virtual assistants one of my company's fitness marketer we have five virtual assistants in the Philippines who are making funnels for us and our clients

all day long and this is why we're able to keep the cost of our services so low so the reality is that you don't always necessarily have to hire someone local you can hire someone on a part-time basis on a barter basis or offshore where you're going to effectively be able to pay them good wages depending on where they live, but it's still going to save you a lot of money compared to where you live. Yeah, and so being too cheap is another trap that a lot of people fall into. You can't be too cheap with your education. You can't be too cheap with the quality of your products, quality of your services.

You have to deliver an amazing experience. You can't cut corners there, and you can't be too cheap when you're building your team because you can't be a great leader and then have been so cheap with investing in your team, it's not going to lead you to empire results, right? Is there anything else that I'm missing? Well, people who think are always worried about the cheapness of things. Yeah. It's because they are conditioned to look at things as an expense.

Right. I want you to reframe it and start looking at things as an investment. And so Alan Cosgrove has a really good saying. He goes, look, I'll buy any info product that even remotely promises me a benefit that I'm looking for. Because there's not a single info product out there or book or a course or a seminar where I can't extract at least one nugget, one gem from it that I can go. then deploy and at least make my money back. Yeah. And so if you look at it that way, everything is an investment.

But when you're used to looking, when you grew up or when your parents or teachers or whoever, someone around you kept telling you that everything is an expense. And anytime you put money out, you look at it as an expense. Soon, you're looking to cut corners. And what you're really doing again is cutting the growth of your business short. Yeah, absolutely. Another Alan Cosgrove story. This is turning the Alan Cosgrove show today.

But Alan, I mean, we're way back in 2006. He and I were speaking at an event. And he said, you know what? He said, Krieg, in the way that he says my name, he says, Craig, go outside and look at the people with the nice cars. And you'll see, and now I'm Irish, you'll see that the people with the nicest cars are the people that have bought the most products at this event. They've bought the most educational resources because they are out there.

He used this phrase, exponential learning. You're learning from somebody who is out there learning. That's exponential learning. And that's what helps build somebody's empire. So well said, yeah. And another thing yet is the perfectionist mindset, right? I mean, we see the perfectionist mindset. I speak to entrepreneurs, really entrepreneurs starting out, and they go, you know, the reason

I haven't launched my product or my business or my service is because I'm a perfectionist, and they say it like it's a badge of honor. And I go, you know, my friend Craig Ballantyne says that when you don't launch your product and you know you can, there's so many people crying themselves to sleep at night because they want your fat loss solution, fitness solution, dental solution, chiropractic solution, money-making solution. Think of all the people crying themselves asleep. They go, yeah, but I'm a perfectionist. I said, well, when exactly is it going to be perfect? Well, as soon as I do this, I go, by the time you do this, the economy is going to change or the platform of Facebook,

Instagram, social media is going to change, marketing is going to change, which then you have to perfect your marketing, don't you? By the time when you're trying to perfect your marketing, now your product has gotten old again. So really, the best empire builders that I know are the kings and queens of taking imperfect action. And those people who say, I'm waiting to things perfect, really are saying, I'm afraid of criticism, I'm afraid of growth, I'm afraid of the challenges that lie ahead, and I'd rather play it safe. Playing it safe has never built an empire. Right, exactly. I mean, no iPhone that has come out has been perfect. There's always flaws in it, but it's highly valuable and it's helped them build an empire. So again, don't, you know,

protect yourself at the expense of others. And that's what you're doing when you're being a perfectionist. So what about being in thinking too, small. That is a trap that a lot of people get into. There's a short answer I'm going to give you to this. The time is going to go by no matter what, right? Whether it's two years, five years, ten years are going to go by no matter what. If you think small and you set small goals, God bless you, you probably will hit those small goals. But the ten years are going to go by and you're going to wonder, had I set much bigger goals, 10x goals, could I have at least achieved six to eight X? Right? And so this is

something that both you and I have fallen into. We're not here preaching to people saying, hey, we set 10x goals from the get-go. I was maybe setting 0.5x goals, 1-X goals. And I was so proud of myself when I was actually hitting those goals. I realized about eight years ago that, wait a minute, I need to shoot for the stars. And if I hit the moon, score. I don't need a shoot for the moon. And when I hit it, get excited.

I'd rather shoot for the stars and get over the moon. And that's really what it's about. So we can't think so small. The time's going to go by anyway, and you're going to be stuck with a lot of regret. Yeah, absolutely. And so this is a really great place to end up today's show. We talked about helping you overcome a lot of these traps. And the reason why we can tell you how to overcome them is because we've been there. We've been there. It's okay to be there, but it's not okay to stay there, right? Amen, brother. All right. And so listen, if you need help overcoming any of the traps that you're in, make sure to check out more of our Empire podcast. But also, if you're ready to really elevate your business, check out our Empire Mastermind Group. We have a little application form for you to check out. So once you've done that and once you're done listening to this great show, make sure you go to the iTunes, rate it, like it, love it, share it,

and we'll see you on another episode soon.