Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 268 - Bedros Keuilian

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

Bedros Keuilian is an entrepreneur, business consultant, speaker, and mentor. Bedros is the best selling author of “Man Up”, the creator and founder of Fit Body Boot Camp, the leader of the Empire Master Mind, and co-host of the Empire Podcast Show. Bedros went from being a dumpster diving immigrant from Armenia to a multimillion-dollar business owner and entrepreneur Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

So you guys know that I'm moving and like one of the issues with moving was like what the hell to do with a lot of like my supplements. And then like I was really concerned about my meat. I was really concerned about my Pete Monti's meat. And he was like, oh, we'll just bring it all up to the gym. I was like, we can't do that. We can't let everybody have this meat. This meat's too good. And we did bring some of it up here for for some of the uh guys and girls to enjoy but

um i was like man we gotta we gotta you know get it over to the other freezer as quick as possible as quick as we can even if i need to drive my ass over there for it yeah the family's been uh huge fans of the sliders i've been i've been throwing those on the grill and the smoker i tried even taking one apart and like shoving like cheddar cheese in the middle oh it was okay didn't work out fantastically do that with like yeah sometimes they do like cheese they stuff it inside of a burger it's kind of hard to do yeah i learned that i can't figure it out it's like not as simple as like a plus b equals c it's like you have to figure stuff out and i don't know how to do it there's a lot of math

maybe you need to like to melt it put it a syringe, and inject it into the meat. I don't do syringes, bro. You need to carry the one. Maybe that's what you forgot to do. I could never carry the one. I always forget. I never show my work. I just Google it, and then I get in trouble for just getting the answer.

Trying to use a cheat code. I still get it wrong. It happens. I've been enjoying those ribeyes still and enjoying the fillets and Piedmontese has been good to me and hopefully they can be good for you guys. Andrew, how can they get a deal? How can they get hooked up? Well, if they're smart enough, they can carry the one and Piedmontese will be there to help you out. Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com at checkout. Enter promo code PowerProject and that'll get you 25% off your entire order.

And if it's $99 or more, you get free two day shipping. Yeah. A lot of times when people go on a ketogenic diet, a lot of times they feel like crap and they feel like they got no treats in their life. I think it miserable and they get sad. But Perfect Keto has your back. They have really good. They get really good bars. They got really good tasting collagen protein, a really good whey protein that I think all you guys will enjoy. And then on top of that, you know, a lot of times people feel like crap

because they're getting dehydrated, right? Yeah. Those electrolytes are really, really good. I love those because especially, you know, I fast a lot, so I need to be able to have those between, you know, lifting or jujitsu. So those are pretty damn awesome. Simple. How can they get hooked up with some perfect keto products, Andrew? They can head over to perfectketo.com slash power project. Um, when you guys go to that link, you'll see some of our favorites and we've talked about all the time, the perfect keto nootropic. Um, I'm completely out of it because my fiance and I keep killing it every single day. So I got to order up some more of that.

So anyways, head over to perfectketo.com slash powerproject at checkout, enter promo code powerproject and it'll get you 15% off all Perfect Keto products. Because we're moving,

I don't know where anything is at the moment. And so my daughter this morning, she's like, oh my God, I forgot to pack my lunch. She's like, can you help me?

And I'm like, no, I'm trying to get myself organized organized like get out of the house too she just makes this sad face and she's like i'll just bring a bunch of these chips and she grabs a bunch of quest chips and stuffs them in her bag i was like i guess that's gonna be the way it is for today moving is tough yeah i i do feel like there is some aspect of it that's kind of cool or like you're you are almost like camping. Like, I wouldn't normally eat dinner out of like a plastic bowl or whatever. But since we're moving, I can't get out the good dishes and whatnot.

Yeah, you're all confused on where everything is. Luckily, Andy's super organized, so she's been on top of all that. But it's just like this one day. And then this morning, I was trying to find some some socks and she's like, don't look in that. She goes, don't look in that bucket. She's like, that's all mismatched socks. And I was like, I can figure it out. So right now I'm actually wearing one black sock and one green sock because I was like,

I can at least match up the types. It'll be the same. Might be some different colors. Anyway, with my life in some disarray, I'm still able to reach for some Quest bars and some of the other Quest products we have around the house. I've been eating some of that Quest pizza and all that good stuff. So how can they get hooked up with some Quest products, Andrew? You guys can head over to questnutrition.com at checkout. Enter promo code MARKSQU quest for 20% off.

And I highly recommend you do it on the, uh, the quest chips, a listener of the show hit me up and said that they tried the, uh, I think it's like chili lime or something like that. And he's like, dude,

these are insane. Like I told you guys, even though I, I, to be honest, I haven't had that flavor yet, but I'm sure it's amazing because I've had all the other ones. So that's where I would go with that.

20% off code is straight to the chips. He doesn't know it, but if we sure it's amazing because I've had all the other ones. So that's where I would go with that. 20% off code is straight to the chips. He doesn't know it, but we keep his microphone off. Smart, smart. Can't be good looking and that's right. Yeah. And we got to try to knock them down somehow. That'll teach him. You fire me like every week.

So I think that that's the job happened a lot. If you're not getting fired, you're not working hard enough. That's true. You have to be getting fired almost daily. Well, it even gets better to be really easy to kick his ass because he's a purple belt jujitsu oh there you go jujitsu fucked me up recently man yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's why i got all these tears for what happened in jujitsu so get this were you like going for it going too hard well i don't know if you want to say it for the show or maybe the show's already it. It's going, yeah.

Gotcha. Yeah, we're in. So I do these six-week challenges, right? And I started doing them because I felt like I was living a little too comfortable in life. So in 2011, 2010, I was like, fuck this. I'm going to train for six weeks and run a full marathon. Previous to that, I was like, you know,

God's made me into a weightlifter. I'm designed to lift weights. And I put myself in that box, right? I'm a meathead, not designed to run. And how many times do we say that? Oh, I'm not designed to dance. I'm not made for this. I'm not good at that. So I was that guy. I'm like, I'm an entrepreneur and I lift weights. I'm like, you know what? I can do whatever the fuck I want. So I started to challenge myself. Six-week challenges, train for six weeks, hire a coach, run a marathon. Hire a coach, train for six weeks, overcome my fear of rock climbing or heights. Train for six weeks with an MMA fighter at the time.

He was the welterweight king of the cage champion, Aaron Weatherspoon, which that actually came in really handy at week number. So six weeks, and then six weeks we get in the cage together and he just pummeled me, which was useless. But at least I learned how to take a hit. But on week eight, so two weeks after that challenge ended, me, the wife, and the kids are in Maui. A week goes by and i were flying back

all of a sudden about an hour into the flight over the great pacific some motherfuckers having a meltdown up front and the flight attendant's like that guy's a flight risk he's he's threatening to blow this plane up and uh my wife and i look at each other and he's just like you know about five seats in front of us like foaming at the other, and he's just like, you know, about five seats in front of us, like foaming at the mouth, going nuts. Everyone's just completely created a circle around him. No one wants to sit around him. And the flight attendants come down the aisle with zip ties linked together. And I look at the guy sitting behind my wife.

So we're divided by an aisle. It's me and my son Andrew, Diana, and Chloe. And I look at him like, we're going to fuck this motherfucker up, right? Because my kids aren't dying. I travel a lot. When I travel, nothing happens, man. I'm with my wife and kids, and now some motherfucker's going to take down the plane. And I'm thinking, this is post 9-11. We got it. Like the whole plane, we're all going to dogpile him. So the story gets better when I stopped the lady. I like ma'am anything me and this guy can do to help she goes no no by law we have to ask him to put these on did you know that so if you ever go

nuts on an airplane by law they have to ask you to put on the zip the the zip cuffs and if you don't then she panics and starts waving you over and so we get up and we come running over and the dude goes what the fuck are you gonna do and he goes to shove me and i go my mind went right to what aaron would do i just got out of the way and got him in a rear naked choke hold and it worked now i say it worked because when i would do it on aaron i kind of in the back of my mind i'm like this motherfucker's just faking it like okay, okay, you know, he's like making a sound, right? Because I'm paying him to coach me.

This is fake. Like he's getting me in real chokeholds, but I'm probably not getting him in a real chokehold. It fucking worked. And the guy just went down. I just kept talking to him. He's like, hey, man, no one's going to die on this plane today. Like, just be fucking cool. And every time I would loosen up, he would start like a galloping horse, right?

So he just started bucking again, started fucking tightening up again. And he just went limp. We zip-tied him him and we everyone clapped we got free wine and hummus yeah yeah yeah it was but it was only just the two of us like the whole plane not everybody was in on it no man i'm like you motherfuckers like there's other kids there's like old ladies like they don't want to die but anyway i don't know maybe he was i'm sure a bunch of other guys on that plane like had like a war story like i got involved you know i stepped on his head you know i helped him get get him down and everything so me and this dude spent the rest of the flight rotating sitting next to him way in the back away from the and then you guys threw him out of the plane naturally right that's what

50 000 yeah yeah and then lapd came in and did their thing when we landed. But so my most recent challenge was jujitsu. And I hired this guy named Peter Sutton, just an amazing fourth degree black belt. This is what rich people do, by the way. He sits around and is like, what can I do to make my life miserable and hard? Do I want to hunt a rhino or do I want to do jujitsu? These are the problems. I know the rhino is endangered, but I'm rich. That's not me.

So anyway, so training with Peter, two hours at a time, three times a week for six weeks, and at the last session, at six weeks, session number 12, he brings in a blue belt who was a former wrestler turned jujitsu. First of all, I learned what the bicep slicer is, and you being in jujitsu would know. But in the process, and you also know this, that as strong as you can be, a lot of it is leverage and cuffing on the sleeve

and this and that, but when I only have been doing this for six weeks, I am the white belt who's just trying to muscle my way through. And so as he would get me in the key lock or whatever, and the adrenaline's pumping, I'm just trying to muscle my way through and so as he would get me in the key lock or whatever and the adrenaline's pumping I'm just trying to muscle my way out and so I don't feel the pain afterwards is when I felt it so we went three rounds I was able to actually choke the guy out once okay because I was able to do the what's called the sprawl which is effectively a burpee and since I'm a trainer I know what a burpee is and so when coach taught me that the sprawl and i did outweigh this guy by 30 pounds um and being a wrestler he shot at me

i was like oh i see i just burpee on his ass and so i did the sprawl and i got under i did the what do they call it the white belt holder with the white belt hug yeah there's a term that they term against white belts that we just got a little bit like a guillotine maybe? I'm guessing it was kind of like a guillotine since you were on top of him. Yes, I'm on top of him. Then I grabbed one collar and then the other, and off I went. I'm like, I don't know if this is going to work. Again, I'm always doubting myself.

When Coach did it, it worked on me. I was like, right? Then this motherfucker slowly like, and I see he's not fighting, and then he taps. I'm like, holy shit, it worked. Yeah, so anyway. But in the process, I up a pec and and um and rotator so chest workouts and shoulder workouts have been shitty lately yeah yeah it puts a lot of limitations on you once you have something like that have you been able to do like push-ups or anything like that no dude well elbows in

real shitty yeah throw you in a slingshot and see what happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to try this afterwards. Maybe load you up on a bunch of MindBullet too. Yeah, I've still got one more to take. You know, I've heard your story a bunch of different times, told a bunch of different ways, saw some of your speaking engagements, saw you on various podcasts and stuff. And I feel like there's a little blip in time that I would like to talk about maybe a little

bit more and we'll uncover your entire story as well. But there's a period of time where you were a personal trainer and then you talk about getting into owning gyms and then it kind of seems like a boom and then total body fitness comes along and yeah, fit, fit body, fit body bootcamp, fit body, I'm going to start that too comes along and yeah fit body boot camp fit body boot camp yeah i'm gonna start that too fit body fit body boot camp uh comes along and whammo you're

off to the races right so um tell us a little bit about that time as a personal trainer there's a lot of people that listen to this podcast um i've been a personal trainer myself he's been a personal trainer how do you go from personal trainer into owning a gym into owning multiple gyms yeah that's a good question first of all they that whole journey was about a decade it just for most people see no one sees you in the trenches like no one saw when i was a personal trainer at la fitness in lahabra making 11 and 50 cents an hour and a bus boy and fry cook at disneyland and on weekends, a bouncer at a gay bar because the gay bar paid more than the straight bar because skinheads would come to gay bash.

And so you're given like you're given fights every fucking night. And I'm not a fighter. That's the crazy thing. But I was big in commanding. I used a lot of supplements from Mexico back then. And I was big and commanding and so they're like hey you'll make a good bouncer I'm like but I can talk my way out of any fight like at that point in your life where you're maybe more aggressive dude I would you have some fight in you yeah yeah I mean certainly I've gotten into fights I've been in trouble with the law years before but I by this point I was 25 26 I'm like you know what because by the age of 18 I was 25, 26. I'm like, you know what?

Because by the age of 18, I was already getting in helicopter police chases. My friends and I, I'm not proud of this, would do home invasion robberies. I was with the wrong group of guys, but I needed a group to fit in with. And so when I justify that by, I'm not going to the homes, I'm the getaway driver. I'm just waiting outside for my friends who are going to go get something from that house. Like it's weird what you can justify in your mind.

And one day the home wasn't empty. Some woman was in there, some lady, older lady. And here's how the story goes on that. And I'll go back into this because these two dots are connected. I would work out just to, I loved working out. And my friends come running out like, get the fuck out of here. Let's go.

Let's go. I'm like, what's the rush? You know, we've done this before. Like, why are you empty handed? Right. Is what's running through my mind. Turns out there was a woman that they interrupted in there and we thought the home was empty. running through my mind. Turns out there was a woman that they interrupted in there and we thought the home was empty. So I'm hauling ass and you can only haul ass so much in a 1979 Toyota pickup.

Yeah. And so keep in mind, I'm 18. They've now been seen. I haven't, she hasn't seen my face. So as the police helicopter is chasing us through parts of Anaheim down the 5 freeway. Now I see cops surrounding my car. I'm like, I've got nowhere to go. So I'm like, guys, I'm going to pull into the gas station here off the exit. And everyone run your own way. There was no running, man. You pull in and literally they just come and wipe your door shut.

And they're pulling you out the window in the back of the truck for the guys. And we're all on the ground. They bring the lady in a car, in a squad car. And she points out, him, him, him. And then looks at me and then shakes her head no. Doesn't recognize me because I was the getaway driver. And your boys didn't rat you out? No, no.

And so I was like, this is a sign from above. I'm fucking done. This this is it i love fitness so much i'm gonna go be a personal trainer right i'll just work in the gym like i that was the awakening for me and so of course being a personal trainer eleven dollars and fifty cents an hour didn't know how to sell didn't know how to close so like that's the trenches for our industry man for a personal trainer that's the trenches i had four personal training clients and then working as a bouncer like i said in a fry cook at disneyland and uh one of my personal training clients his name is jim franco he'd always go like dude what what does it matter with you like monday mornings you're just exhausted you're

tired like i love you as a trainer but you gotta you gotta fucking bring the energy i'm like jim don't you understand all weekend long i worked at disneyland during the day and at at night, I'm working as a bouncer. I'm exhausted. I went to bed three hours ago and I'm up here training you. He's like, well, that's because you don't know how to sell. I begged to differ. I sold you six months of personal training. He goes, no, you didn't. You were the order taker. I came in here looking for six months of training. You just wrote my order up like a waitress. He didn't even say waiter, right? Jim at the time was 63 years old. I just did an interview with him on my podcast.

He's 76 now. He came to my HQ. I was literally emotional. Yeah. Like he's like the rich dad, right, compared to my poor dad who brought us here from Soviet Union. And so I go, well, what do you want me to do? He goes, I'm going to teach you how to sell so that you can quit those side jobs. And he literally taught me how to sell by bringing in Brian Tracy, cassette tapes, Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, all the guys. Right. And it was like

this awakening of, oh my gosh, there's, I'm an expert at what I do, but no one's going to know unless I know how to sell them. So all of a sudden I find myself quitting the bouncer job and I found myself in a position where building enough confidence had enough clients where i was now selling clients and then handing them off to other trainers right and i realized i'm like hey jim i think i want to open up my own personal training studio he said great i'll fund it for you i'll be your business partner uh you're gonna pay me back my money eight percent interest and there were still 50 50 business partners now the young man back then did not realize that i was being ripped off the way jim mentored me was just

through harsh words and harsh deeds right and i love him for it till this day um everyone's like wait you paid him back and he he still 50% of the profits every month every fucking month Yes, but I opened the next four gyms on my own with my own money And I was like holy smokes then incomes and this was in North County San Diego and by this point now We're like 2001. How old are you at this point? 29 whoo. Yeah. Yeah, I felt like I was the mayor of North County San Diego cops pull me over like oh Hey, Pedro said my wife trains at your place. Yeah premier results. Yeah, of course, you like I was the mayor of North County, San Diego. Cops pulled me over like, oh, hey, Bedros, my wife trains at your place. Yeah, premier results, yeah, of course.

Judges, lawyers, right? I was connected, right? And I was just getting pulled over for speeding, not like doing anything stupid. No more home invasions. And so this chain of gyms who we've signed a non-disclosure, so I can't say who they are, but they were expanding through Southern California. Hey, we want to buy your five gyms. I'm like, Jim Franco, what do I do? He's like, find out what offer they're going to make you. So anyway, long story short, they make me an offer I couldn't

refuse. Before you know it, by 2002, I've sold my gyms. And now I'm coaching and consulting personal trainers, teaching them how I built out my gyms, how I ran my business, how I got clients, how I paid my trainers. And it's everything that Jim taught me that I'm teaching them. And the internet's starting to pop off now, right? There's really no Google yet. There's no pay-per-click. Well, Google was coming around, but there was no like pay-per-click ads, Facebook, any of that stuff. So it was blogs and email lists. And so I started, you know, I had 1400 trainers on my email list within the first two years. Now it's 2005.

I'm coaching them, consulting them. They're paying me. And so as 2005, 6, 7 come around, a few thousand trainers on my email list, helping them out. Economy crashes in 2008. Now the one-on-one personal trainers that I was coaching and consulting, they're like, dude, I don't have any more clients. And so I can't be your client. I'm like, you can't not do that. You can't do that. I don't want to go live with my wife and kids in my parents' house, right? I just bought a nice home

in Chino Hills, man. Stop that. But sure enough, I'm like, this economy is going to fuck me up. And so I saw these outdoor boot camps happening. And I was like, there's something here. If I can just take this outdoor boot camp, bring it indoors, and make it weatherproof. I mean, how are people in Michigan, Nebraska, doing outdoor boot camps in the winter? They're not. So they have to stop their training. So Southern California, maybe Florida, but everywhere else, you can't do outdoor boot camps around. So long story short, I bring it indoors.

By 2010, I realized this is an actual legit indoor model. Like we've got locations at that point doing 18 to $20,000 of my own. And then we said, well, now we're going to start franchising. By 2012, we franchised. Now we're seeing numbers that are just ridiculous, like single locations doing a million dollars a year. Right. And that's not the standard. Like the average Fit Body Bootcamp will do anywhere from locations doing a million dollars a year. Wow. Right? And that's not the standard. Like the average Fit Body Boot Camp will do anywhere from $25,000 to $35,000 a month. But when you have a location doing $80,000 a month, which is a million a year, it's like, holy smokes that I underestimate this.

And so here we are coming on to 800 locations now. But we franchised in 2012, here around 2019. And it's been a hell of a journey. But everyone, no one sees the bus boy, the freaking bouncer era, the struggling as a personal trainer. They just see the, man, you're an overnight success. It is an overnight success after 15 years. success after 15 years. Yeah. It took a, took a long time. Um, it's, it's all, uh, really just, that's such a cool story. Um, with fit body bootcamp, is it, do you actually have, uh, gyms or are, are they, um, or is it just people, um, are you franchising, um, you know, being, giving personal trainers, I guess, more access to more clients? Good question. So they're actual gyms like brick and mortars with a sign on top. We have, you know, complete design. Yeah. So we build it, we help them build it out, find a lease, sign the lease,

run their marketing for them. Everything that I didn't want to do as a personal trainer, when I had my own gym, back in my day I was putting out lead boxes, right? Yeah, there it is. So back in my day I was putting out lead boxes, right? Yeah, there it is. So back in my day, I was putting out lead boxes to get leads. Now we give away one free week. And then once a client opts in on that website for a free week, they're sold 28 days for $77. And then that gym now has them for 28 days and they can close them on a 12-month program that I teach them how to sell a 12-month program. What's a model look like currently? Like how much space and things like that are you kind of looking for?

Good question. So the average Fit Body Boot Camp right now is 3,000 square feet. And as you see, no mirrors. Why? Because their clients are 80% women. They don't want to see themselves in the mirror. Like that's one of the factors that intimidate them. So I know my demographic better than anyone else does.

And so the only men that come are usually the husbands, the brothers, the coworkers. So we market to women. Someone to encourage. Yeah. We market to women, but welcome men. So if we have 80% women, like I know our women have had at least two kids. They're 35 years or older. Uh, when they do any kind of jumping jacks, burpees or anything impactful, they pee a little bit when they sneeze, they pee a little bit, right? Because of the birthing process, right? Things have loosened up down there. So the point is we know what they like and we train them like athletes on what we call the four station rotation.

As you see in that video, it's a four stations that they rotate through 30 minutes, carpet bonded foam flooring that's antibacterial. And so they can just hit the deck and do a plank and then get right back up to renegade rows on TRX wraps and then go right to the rope station, battle ropes. In 30 minutes, they just turn off their brain. The coach takes them through a workout. Then we also do the nutrition coaching, monthly fitness evaluations, everything that a

personal trainer does, but in a group environment. And where else are you going to get results like this, as we're seeing on the screen there, but for $147 a month? You used to pay a trainer $600 a month to work out four or five days a week. That's $147 a month like you used to pay trainers 600 bucks a month to work out four or five days a week that's 147 a month and you're part of a community i think that uh that's a great way for people anybody listening to this right now is a great way for people to make money is to figure out a way to eliminate yourself you know think about a way to um you know try to optimize something and try to make it you for the masses like this product here. That's a great way of doing it.

What I'm seeing in the video is great because I'm seeing a lot of people that probably wouldn't normally have just weights in their hands. And I think that this is extremely empowering for people when they grab a hold of the 20-pound kettlebell. They're not thinking that they're strong at all. They're like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a lifting person. Like you said earlier, you put yourself in a box, like I'm a stay at home mom. Like I can't pick up that 40 pound kettlebell or whatever. And, uh, here these ladies are, you know, doing it, picking up kettlebells and free weights and, uh, using the battle ropes battle ropes and all those kinds of things. Really cool. We've been really fortunate enough to create an environment for these women where they

build their confidence as they lose fat and build muscle. And other things like the community aspect of it, I think it's like the super powerful part because like, you know, doing jujitsu, there's always a big group of people there every time we go, right? If there's ever a time that I miss it, I'll get some messages the next day and say, where the hell were you, bro? Why aren't you training right now?

Get back in here. So I'm assuming all these women are friends and they're encouraging each other. Dude, you nailed it and I'll tell you why. My wife goes to the 5.30 a.m. session. We don't even call them classes, they're sessions because personal trainers run sessions. Gyms give away free classes.

So people are like, oh, what time are your classes your classes oh we don't have classes we have sessions my wife goes to the 5 30 morning session in chino hills because we have a fit body boot camp out there and um like babe like we own the franchise like you don't have to work you can go to a later one you know she's like no no then me and the ladies go to starbucks afterwards and then we talk and we talk about the lulu lemon and the athletic gear like Starbucks afterwards. And then we talk and we talk about the Lululemon and the athletic. Like it's a whole thing, man. It's a whole thing. And I realize like, you know, like the gyms that we work out in or maybe in jujitsu afterwards,

you hang out and then you shoot the shit. And we are tribal animals as humans. We're tribal. And so they do their tribal thing. And I realize it's so much more powerful than one-on-one personal training because you've got a crew of people holding you accountable saying where were you man we missed you and That's and then and then the competitive factor right when you're in a group environment like that whether it's jiu-jitsu

Or group training you're just gonna push yourself a little bit more than the person to your left and right and that stacked over years Produces tremendous results. Yeah, and I think the other big aspect is you're lowering the barrier of entry like super, super low, making it available to anybody and everybody. And I think that's super important. So I love that aspect. Yeah. One thing that we, as we started to talk to our franchisees, our owners, they said the two things people love is that it's convenient and affordable. And I realized, oh, shoot, you're right.

the two things people love is that it's convenient and affordable. And I realized, oh, shoot, you're right. Because as a one-on-one personal trainer, and I'm guessing all three of us have done that in here, maybe all four of us. Well, if you're training five days a week with me at 5.30 in the morning, that time slot's full. That's it.

You got to either do five or six, right? But now at 5.30 in the morning, we can get 35 people in a session with one coach. Like that is nuts. And the affordability factor is nuts. Now we can get 35 people in a session with one coach. Like that is nuts. And the affordability factor is nuts. Now we can help more people in a community. And so, I don't know, as a coach, like that really turns me on. Because at the end of the day, I just want to impact more lives.

And anyone that's listening to this right now that's been married or married and has children, I'm sure you've gotten this look before. You ever get this like that crazy evil eye from your wife that she's gonna like kill you in your sleep oh yes well that look guys that you're getting from your girlfriend or your wife is a sign that you need to figure out a way to get her some time with her friends yeah and you need to say honey like can you go hang out with your sister or like can I watch the kids so you can go do something? And this kind of tribal thing you're talking about, about them getting together and kind of having this time together is huge. And it's huge for men too. But I've noticed that like with my own wife, she needs to go swimming with her friends.

And then maybe afterwards she has coffee and it just makes everything at home a lot easier and a lot smoother. And I get in a lot less trouble. The more they do their tribal stuff, you're right. The better your life gets. Yeah. Yeah. It makes everything a lot smoother. Agreed. You know, growing up with such a tough background and growing up the way that you did and having a family that was really devoted to getting you here to the United States to provide a better opportunity. How, I mean, it must've been, it must've been horrible to end up in these situations

where you were a criminal, where you were robbing people. Um, how like that must've been like, I understand you did something you did and you ran with the wrong crowd, but that must've been really hard to transition from. And that must've like let your dad down and your family down tremendously. Right. That must've broke your heart in some ways that i wasn't so much i remember trying to get away in that 79 toyota pickup and it wasn't like oh man what if i go to jail because now i'm 18 right i'm an adult what if i go to jail it was my dad is going to be so disappointed like he risked his life because he was a member of the communist party and so the story was that we're taking a family vacation to Italy where my mom has a sister which she doesn't because he bribed I like his style already yeah yeah he he bribed the the Soviet

government and said you know so there's a couple officials who were like wink wink they knew we were going to Italy on a vacation so we had to make it look like that so we can't even take any of our stuff from Armenia with us and I was six six years old. My brother was 19, 19, my sister, 22. I was the, I'm the oops baby as it is. My parents recently admitted that too. And they admitted it to my, to my wife. I'm like, Hey honey, look, there's 14 year difference between me and my, my, my closest sibling. They're going to have to cough up the information here. And like every time I would ask like, no, no, no. If we love you, if we love you very much, you know, I'm like, yeah, I know you love me, but was no if we love you if we love you very much you know i'm like yeah i know you love me but was i an accident no we love you very much

right it was like but was i an accident motherfucker and uh and so my wife who's who's american um my mom just loves her to pieces and so one day they're in the kitchen doing the thing and diana asks she's like yeah you know we thought we could not have babies and so one day they're in the kitchen doing the thing and diana asks she's like yeah you know we thought we could not have babies and so the husband let it rip and enough you know oh shit i was an accident you know i knew it you know it's obvious so i have the same conversation with my parents my brother and sister eight and nine years older than me see and so i'm like oh so what happened and then my mom goes don't worry about it you were all accidents i'm like, oh, so what happened? And then my mom goes, don't worry about it. You were all accidents. I'm like, oh, thanks, Mom.

I love that. Yeah, for some reason, I go, if you're all accidents, it makes sense. Yeah, I like that. Somehow that made me feel better. But, dude, my dad was a member of the Communist Party. He bribes the communist government, the two officials in it, to let us escape. And because we're going on vacation to Italy, quote, unquote, we can't even take a lot of our shit with us. So we just like have some two suitcases for a family of five, which makes sense if you're going to come back in a couple of weeks. Well, then we go to the American consulate in Italy and we're like, hey, we're communists.

We're escaping the Soviet Union. My dad's like, I'll give you all the information you need. And of course, this is 1980. I'll give you all the information you need. And of course, this is 1980. And so, you know, there's already the war, the Cold War between U.S. and the Russians. And so they pumped my dad for information for 10 days. And then they legally let us enter the United States.

And my dad, he's alive and kicking these days. So is my mom. They're both in their 80s. My dad always makes sure, he goes, whether you you're on tv you write your book you you he's still a hard core communist mentality by way of like he doesn't ask me he tells me what he goes you always let him know that we enter this country legally and that's important to him because of the risk that he put himself against and he believes that when you enter any country legally that you want to live in by choice you will serve that country better than entering it illegally and i know that always creates waves when i say that i believe that too um this isn't any immigration that i'm talking about it's

just i know from first-hand experience like we love this country many of my friends call me you're like one of the best americans know, and you weren't even born here. I'm like, thank you. Well, things can't be, like, handed to you. They got to be, like, earned. And when you earn it the right way, right, it's a different way of passage than just trying to get here whatever way you can. Exactly.

And you know what? I don't blame anyone that's trying to get here in any way they can. This is such an amazing country, man. This country will give you, people piss on it and they take a knee for the national anthem. The fact that you can take a knee, because where I come from, you get shot.

Does that make sense? You get shot. The fact that you can say impeach Trump, you get killed if you say that about Putin. People don't even realize that. Take a knee, but be grateful for the fact that you're taking a fucking knee. Well, and are you a member of the Communist Party?

Like, you don't really have much of a choice in saying yes. Yeah, exactly. I guess you could say no, but... So they gave him that option, right? And he said it was 1972. And they're like, hey, his name is Grigor. Grigor, congratulations.

We'd like to offer you the opportunity to be a member of the communist party. So only 18% of the country's population at the time was a member of the party. And once you're a communist party member, you get this red, what looks like a passport, but it's red with the CCP, which in Russian is USSR or in English, it's USSR. And, uh, he could go into any store and audit them because everybody, all businesses, are communist businesses, right? So the people working, you don't own the store, you work in the store.

So people would always steal stuff under the table, whether it's bread or meat or clothing, whatever the kind of store was, and he would go in there and audit them. And of course, the audit led to, and the whole thing was corrupt, the audit led to, well, you know, wink, wink, I'm stealing food from here,

taking it back to my family so Here's something for you and they would give my dad a gift and so we ate well, dude I grew up eating caviar every morning I would eat caviar and bread with hot tea as a kid we come to the United States and I'm like crying I'm six years old. I'm crying. I'm like, where's my bread and caviar with the tea, right? My mom's like shut the fuck up. We're living in section 8 housing You're gonna eat that stale banana and piece my bread and caviar with the tea, right? My mom's like, shut the fuck up. We're living in Section 8 housing. You're going to eat that stale banana and piece of bread. And you're like, what?

Yeah, like I didn't know what the hell was going on, right? Like these people outside, they don't even speak my language. I can't communicate. Your dad's going to the grocery store trying to give him the red card. And they're like, fuck off. It's not working. Like, no, we need cash, fella. Yeah, so it was a whole different like real mental shift, man, for that to happen. But I'm just so grateful that they brought us here, the opportunity.

But during that time, I was just like, oh, shit, I'm letting my dad down. But when that woman didn't recognize my face because she didn't see my face, I was like, this is a sign from the powers that be that I need to change my ways. And I just committed to changing my ways. Did you ask for help from anybody else, or you just kind of did a lot of that on your own? We all know what we need to change my ways. And I just committed to changing my ways. Did you ask for help from anybody else or you just kind of did a lot of that on your own? We all know what we need to do, man. Everybody knows what you need to do.

I love that. There's that gnawing in your gut that says, every decision you make, you're like, I should eat that bagel or I shouldn't. I shouldn't, but you eat it anyway, right? That's it. It's that simple. I should or should not rob that house.

I should not rob that house. But you did it. And that's why, hey, Lennon. We called him Lennon Papi, which in Armenian means Grandpa Lennon. Yeah, it was great. Holy shit. I'm getting goosebumps. That's it. That's what my dad had. My brother, who was obviously older, right? So he was 17, 18 years old, would steal my dad's red card, go to a flower shop, get flowers, go to a candy store, get candy, commandeer a taxi. Because with that thing,

you get fucking anything you want for free. Just don't audit me because everyone's stealing from the government. Right? And then he'd go pick up his girlfriend. Here's flowers, here's candy. Then he'd take her out. Here's food, right?

That's some game. And then, so every district had its own communist party member so my dad was the communist dude of our community and so my brother would do a bonehead move and he'd go into someone it's like the mafia like when you went to someone else's town right like hey this this this family is only here he'd go and they'd eat in someone else's town and of course he's showing his red card that person in the restaurant knows like wait a minute the dude that has a red card here is not you it's an older gentleman he calls him up the dude comes beats my brother right on this like gives him a beating right like bloodies him up opens up the thing oh that's your dad okay drags him over to my dad yeah my dad then gives him a beating my brother was like inches away from his life because my dad could have lost it all man

yeah it was nuts the story they tell me about that shit that's crazy i could just look at that you mentioned earlier that you have a tendency to just want to do bad stuff and then uh now you've filled yourself up with so many things that are more positive. Can you expand upon that? Because I found that to be really fascinating. You were telling us about the German shepherd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah. So, all right.

So I've got a lot of, I know this about myself. I've become pretty self-aware. And by the way, I think everyone's that way. I think everyone has that way i think everyone has sure and it's just degrees right like it's for somebody it might be you know their degree of bad might might be cheating on their diet yeah somebody else's degree might be cheating on their wife or whatever you know might be way worse degrees of it right yeah and i believe it has a lot to do with whatever trauma you've experienced in life like i've learned that through the 16

months of therapy that I've gone through. That it wasn't until about four years ago that I openly talked to my wife about having been molested when I was between the ages of four and six in Armenia by two older boys consistently. So when my dad escaped and we came to the United States, he thought he was just freeing us and bringing us to this free country. He freed me from daily, weekly molestation. And so you grow up and you have a chip on your shoulder.

So you might see where the home invasion robberies start to come from. You grow up, you have a chip on your shoulder. You trust no man now, right? These were older boys that, as a young kid, all younger kids look up to older boys and their dads and their brothers as the rite of passage.

That's why knights have squires. And the squire's job is to clean the armor and the fucking horse and learns how to be a man. And that rite of passage, when it's taken advantage of through molestation, through beatings, through whatever it is. And so that happened to me. I just suppressed it, but then had this internal rage. So I always felt like I had fire in my belly, rage in my eyes, and a chip on my shoulder. That's how I always looked at it. Some people will still tell me, I could see the sadness and darkness in you.

I'm like, thank you. That's a superpower now. Before I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? That's a superpower I have now because it gives me so much empathy and compassion. now and um because it gives me so much empathy and compassion so that and then you come to this country and then you get picked on bullied beat up laughed at go back to a fucking country you foreigner um dude i know what black people have like have to experience like i know racism as well as you do and any black person or any foreigner especially in the 80s, it wasn't like we were in a melting pot. You come to Section 8 housing in Santa Ana

where there's black gangs and Mexican gangs. Now, at least, yeah, they hate each other. At least there's more of them, yeah. They speak the same language. Now they're like, hey, look, a fucking foreigner. Now the blacks and the Mexicans are fucking beating me up. We can both beat them up. What the fuck, right?

Yeah. And so that's how bad shit had gotten. But that was, again, another great thing. Where did you guys live? We lived in Santa Ana, California. That's where the Section 8 housing was, government-assisted housing. And then later moved to Anaheim, which wasn't better at the time because Anaheim has some shady parts. But moved to Anaheim where we actually paid our own rent,

which was pretty awesome because the apartments that we lived in were usually bug-infested and stuff, the Section 8 housing. And right now, from what I understand, it's a lot cleaner. There's higher standards for that. But back then, it was what it was. And dude, we're grateful.

The alternative was to what? Maybe live out of some fucking hovel somewhere, right? And so, but one of the apartments in Santa Ana had, it was so infested that I got lice. I was, by this point I was seven years old. I got lice. And here's what foreigner parents do. My mom's like, well, we can't afford lice treatment.

So she has my dad siphon out gasoline from a parked car. And then washes my hair with gasoline you know like apartment complexes especially in the old old school apartments are like on the sides and there's like a little grassy quad area yeah right so she just takes me out into the grassy area has me double over close close my eyes and starts washing me up pouring gasoline on my head and scrubbing my head I just remember seeing like as I'm watching as I'm doubled over I see like little feet all around me I'm'm like, oh, these are all the

neighborhood kids. I realized as an adult they're probably thinking this woman's about to light this motherfucker on fire, right? He did something really bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you do that today and like child protective services show up and they like put my mom in a slammer. Then it was just okay to do. So

it killed the lice. Gasoline killed the lice and that was that. But so you grow up with that kind of chip on your shoulder. You're beat up. i killed the lice gasoline killed the lice and that was that but um so you grew up with that kind of chip on your shoulder you're beat up how much could lice treatment possibly be dude yeah when i think about it maybe a couple bucks yeah yeah it might have been easier just to go buy that yeah yeah but i guess you know my dad working under the table at a pizzeria and right and a gas station and and delivering newspapers at night it was just a shitty upbringing the first few years. There was no Christmas or whatever.

It was a very big culture shock for me. Were your parents still involved with you? No, and that was the other thing, right? They just didn't have time for it? No, they were all working, and that's okay. Again, it was one of those things just, hey, raise yourself. Here's food. Don't eat a lot of it because it's rationed.

Maybe it's also a little bit of a cultural thing are they just not really loving by nature they just literally just were working their faces off and it's cultural too like if you've met anyone from like any kind of baltic country yeah yeah they're usually pretty hardened from what i've noticed hardened and harsh and the way they show love is just different it's just different like i Like I hug and love. Like my son, he's 14 now. He tries to do the cool hug like sideways. I'm like belly button to belly button, buddy. Bring it in. Bring it in.

Right? Like I want that, what I didn't have. I want the belly button to belly button. My wife with my daughter, with my son, with anyone. We fucking hug. We're not doing some fucking bullshit. Like you know Craig Ballantyne? Yeah.

He's a fucking robot. He's my business partner. Love him to death. But he's a fucking robot. A cyborg as Faruja says. So he would do the, like, no, no, bring the fucking in. I'm going to hit the rest. People push their hips back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Show me love. Get those hips closer to me. I want the belly button and the heart to fucking connect. Yeah. Maybe even feel a little penis in there, too. Right, right. It could not be a little penis.

It could be a big penis. For me, it would be a little penis. Some penis. Yeah. So, yeah, for some people, it might be some penis. But for me, it would be a big penis for me it would be a little some penis yeah so yeah for some people it might be some penis but for me it'd be a little penis having said that uh now i'm going down this very dark place in my head uh having been molested you really have a dark sense of humor one time i was at a restaurant and the wife and i were on a date and the lady comes and like you guys ready

i'm like oh no no another minute because i'm like in a heated conversation with my wife about something cool and exciting. And my wife was ready to order at this point because I was yakking it up. And she was just like, found what she wanted. The lady comes again. Are you ready? No, no, no. I'm so sorry. I was molested as a kid.

So I take longer to read menus. And I could just hear my wife's butthole slap shut. The waitress's butthole slap shut. And I'm just like giggling to myself like, what? Okay, right? Because now that I can talk about it since the last since the last four years ago i can openly talk about it um again more therapy like to me it's just i'm okay with it but i realize it's probably not good humor because maybe she who knows right yeah yeah yeah but anyway so again this is well because also maybe

she just thinks you're kidding around yeah throwing. Throwing that around as a fun joke at the expense of people that have been. That have been. Maybe not knowing your history that you have been. Right. And it's not like I have some card that can show like, hey, no, look, I really was. Right. Yeah. That's what my dad's red card, but it would be like a molest card.

Anyways, now we go to that rabbit hole again. So all this to say that chip on the shoulder, fire in the belly, rage in my eyes, dealt with a lot of shit growing up as a kid, a lot of from bigotry to just not understanding the culture, just the culture, the American culture. Parents dressing you up, giving you a weird haircut, and people laughing at you. So as I grew up, I got into that trouble. And one thing that saved me, actually, in L.A., there's a radio station called KFI AM 640. And Dr. Laura Schlesinger, you guys.

I would listen to that as a kid all the time. Like, it's a school because my mom loved her. Really? Yeah, my mom loves Dr. Laura. Dude, okay, get this. I'm getting goosebumps right now talking about it. Because for some reason, while it was all, like like punk, thug, gangstered out, when my friends weren't in the car,

I was listening to Dr. Laura. I don't even know how I stumbled upon her show. That's great. And she would always, you know, she would just coach people who would call in, right? And I remember one time she would talk about like your circumstances, like what happened to you isn't the definition of who you are, right?

And I was like, oh shit, all right. Because I would be like, yeah, in my head, this happened to me as a kid, so now I gotta fuck people up. This happened to me as a kid, so now I gotta fucking seek out revenge. Why? And then I remember thinking,

and then going back to the parents thing, all right, well, my parents aren't as loving, they're not as this, and I remember Dr. Laura talking to one lady one day and who was complaining about her childhood, my parents never said I love you to me, blah, well, my parents aren't as loving. They're not as this. And I remember Dr. Laura talking to one lady one day who was complaining about her childhood. My parents never said, I love you to me, blah, blah, blah. She goes, well, guess what? Do you have kids? She goes, well, I'm actually pregnant right now

with my first child. She goes, great. So in life, everyone has two chances at a parent-child relationship. Once when you're the child, once when you're the parent. I was like, holy shit. So the verbal affirmation, like my parents love me, man. The gasoline on the hair. I was like, holy shit. So the verbal affirmation, like my parents love me, man.

The gasoline on the hair, that was out of love. Like, you know that. Like escaping to this country. My dad was 45 at the time. Who gives a fuck? He had a red card. He lived better than everyone else there.

He just didn't want me or my brother to go into the communist army because at the time they were fighting Afghanistan like we are now. And fucking Russian soldiers were coming back with their legs and shit blown off and my brother was one year away from going to the Red Army and then I was

probably what a dozen years away so all that's like my dad risked his shit right so that that's how he showed love and like slapping me around is how he showed love it was just that's how it is and like I recognized that now and so I was like shit all right but I have a second chance at the parent-child relationship. And so I knew that when I have kids, it's just going to be deep love. I love you. As soon as they were born, I created Gmail accounts for Andrew and Chloe. And, you know, because we have iPhones, right?

We take videos and pictures. I'm on airplanes all the time. So I'm always writing them love letters and stuff. And like, fuck the scrapbook. Like, i don't know you guys have kids like go create a fucking gmail account and then start fucking pumping that shit out to them because now they have the login to it i gave you last year the passwords like holy fuck dad i remember that and here's what i was thinking right right i was like oh shit okay

that's cool to see that yeah that's great but anyway so all that changed man i i i'm just really grateful like dr laura changed my Like Dr. Laura changed my life. Court-ordered therapy changed my life. And then voluntary therapy four years later, four years ago, changed my life. And I'm becoming more self-aware. And I know that I have this addiction. I know that I can go OCD. And as Kevin, my therapist, said, are you going to go OCD and addictive on being a bad human and accumulating karmic debt?

Or can you just shift that into something better? Which is what I've chosen to do through fitness. Fitness changed my life. I was a fat kid throughout high school. I wanted to lose weight so I can ask Nakia to the prom. I did lose weight and started working out, but I never asked Nakia to the prom. Where's Nakia now? Everybody asks. I have no idea. I'm not about she's probably still hot wherever she is if you have an IG stalker he could probably find her

yeah I hope my wife doesn't listen to this show she's like who in the fuck is Nakia I'm sure Nakia's fat and ugly honey yeah yeah balding probably yeah yeah yeah tooth missing in the front

so you could see it but anyway all that to say that like I know that I am addictive I do have rage in my eyes fire my belly chip on my shoulder i'm going to use all that for good and all the shit that's happened to me this is a little cliche but it happened for me because of being molested bullied

picked on beat up i know what it is to feel like a pariah, an outcast, a loner, feeling broken, unloved, hated, damaged. And I can sense, I can feel people's pain. I'm an empath, and I can feel people's pain better than anyone. So I know who my clients are. I know what they're suffering from. I don't have to be a woman to know because I can listen to them and I pay attention. don't have to be a woman to know because I can listen to them and I pay attention. Friends will call me who haven't talked to me for a decade and will just have a heart to heart because they know I will listen. It doesn't matter who I am now. I'll still listen. And I'm grateful

for that. Yeah. I think, you know, go going through all those different things have, have helped create what you have going on now. You mentioned that you were, like, you had 16 months of therapy, and you mentioned that this was something that you had to do. It was like a court order. Is that what you said? Yes, sir. Do you think that, like, basically everyone should get some sort of therapy? Like they need help that way.

Maybe that's why years later it was forced upon you, but it sounded like it was life altering for you. Absolutely. Because what got you here isn't going to get you out of here. Right. And all you know is what you know. So in my case, mom and dad,

here's what I've learned to our first 20 years, you have zero control of things. Maybe in the later of the 20 years, you have more control. But you're born, and they go, all right, here's how much we're going to feed you. So if you end up being a chunky kid, it wasn't your choice. And they're going to put you in red or blue or black or green, and that's going to become his favorite color. Who said?

Who said? We're going to put hats on. I don't want to wear fucking hats, right? We're going to put little booties on. I don't want fucking booties. But have no choice right hey don't reach for that watch out for that don't open that door slow down don't put your finger in there everyone's fucking telling you what to do oh you're just big boned you're just big elephants have big bones i was fat bro elephants have big bones i was fat but they're like you're big bones it's just in our

genetics no we fucking eat a lot of fried Armenian food. That's what it is. That's what it is, right? And so you realize that, well, okay, we're foreigners. Oh, we're blue collar. Like all these definitions are put on you from the choice of colors that you're going to wear to, well, mom and dad. And these are the people that you trust. Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, school teachers. And they all go off the filters that they've experienced.

Meaning if they've experienced the Great Depression and your shoes are a little scuffed it's like well why'd you get new shoes boy like this is my parent why'd you get new shoes i'm like well you're scuffed now in armenia we would wear shoes our fucking toes pointed out out of it right and same with the great depression people here in the states right yeah but it's not the fucking great depression anymore i want my fucking adidas to look clean i'm not trying to live your life yeah that's it so you see it a lot you see it like it's really uh it's you see it very clearly with sports yes you know like the dad loves uh baseball and the son loves baseball and it's like the son really like the son really dig baseball like that's cool if he does but does he really dig baseball does he or now does he feel

like he's letting dad down if he doesn't? So now he's building resentment behind dad. And then all of a sudden he turns fucking 25 years old and he decides he's going to wear a fucking My Little Pony hoodie and a little tail. Do you know what those are called? They're called fucking bronies. Bronies. Bronies. The tail?

Yeah, yeah. The dudes, grown men who wear the whole My Little Pony outfits. Oh. And they, yeah, they congregate. I'm not saying like if you hate baseball. Where have you been hanging out? Well, my son is a speed cuber, a Rubikony outfits. Oh, oh. And they, yeah, they congregate. I'm not saying, like, if you hate baseball. Where have you been hanging out? Well, my son is a speed cuber, a Rubik's Cube. Oh, sick.

Yeah, he can solve the three-by-three in under 11 seconds. Wow. Oh, man. And so we were in Baltimore at the national speed cubing competitions. And brownies! Bam, baby! Look at that. Hey, now.

Yeah. Wow, that's a thing. I've heard of furries, but. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is the offshoot of that okay so one side of the baltimore convention center was all rugas cubers the other side were grown men walking around like that oh my god and i'm a very protective dad because shit's happened to me right so i'm like wife what the fuck's going on we're like we're getting out of here

i'm like what'd you bring us to like already i'm thinking i'm thinking baltimore i'm thinking the wire right like fucking omar is going to come around the corner with a fucking gat and kappas and all that so i got my head on a swivel and ironically by the way baltimore was beautiful amazing food like i'm sure the wire exists and that part the bad part of town exists but baltimore uh downtown was amazing so anyway the other side of fucking the baltimore convention center was this and my so much shit's happened to me like my molestation radar was fucking going off i got a great gaydar and i've got a great molester fucking radar right like if you're a fucking predator i got you and if you're fucking gay and you don't know it i'll let you

know because i've worked in a gay club and disneyland and my fucking shit styled in like i don't need a realignment in either of those what about if someone's stealing from me do you know that uh i just assume everyone's fucking bad yeah i come in with a realignment in either of those. What about if someone's stealing from me? Do you know that? Yeah, I just assume everyone's fucking bad. Yeah, I come in with a plan to like either run or kill. Yeah Yeah with this motherfucker here. I'm gonna run But but having having said all that dude the other side of the convention center That's where these cats right like thousands of that is insanity So my wife's like alright, you're not gonna relax until we talk to security person Right, I'm like right talk to security person like bad bad bad

We find them in hallways having sex with each other that I'm like, oh shit boy solve your Rubik's Cube We're getting the fuck out And that's how fast we were man Would you solve your shit and we're getting the fuck out of here because I'm gonna fuck one of these fuckers up Having said that not all bronies. I'm sure do do that so don't fucking ping me all over social media calling me a weirdo uh you know you mentioned you mentioned how like you know from your childhood a lot of the stuff that happened there seeped its way into like your adulthood and you just recently started well not recently but 16 months yeah you started getting

therapy but before all the therapy you were already really successful. Like by the definition, you were extremely successful. So then, I mean, how did that affect your business? Like what were the wrong things that were going on? Because you were doing well. Yeah, financially I was doing really well. And I talk about it in my book, Man Up, where mentally I was taking, well, not mentally. Physically I was taking Vicodin and NyQuil every night to go to sleep. Then I would take Adderall, pre-workout and coffee in the mornings

to get out of my foggy-headedness from that. The relationship with the wife was on the rocks. My kids were walking on eggshells, literally, were walking on eggshells around me because I could fucking snap for no reason. And so I felt like I was white-knuckling through life. And I got a fucking man up right which is why i titled the book man up but it's really human up so people like well you should have woman up i can't woman you can't even women can man up because you human up to your highest

potential listen dogs can fucking like live and they'll lick the ground they'll they'll fucking smell stick their nose in another dog shit like they are dogs animals That said we're like the highest on the totem pole, right? We shouldn't live like them Like if I go look inside your car There's fucking empty Starbucks containers and fucking shirts that have been sweaty four weeks ago And they're now about to crawl away on their own Food wrapper like if that's your car how you do anything is how you do everything the mess is here, too The mess is in your finances

And so I had gotten to that place where I was the guy like, hey, honey, I'm going to go work out. Then I'd go find a shady spot in the parking lot and sleep. So I was so stressed out about work and my business. So financially I was doing well, but in every other way I was white knuckling. And so from the outside, like, man, he's doing all right. Inside, it's all about to fucking collapse until it did, until it did. Found out one of my employees had put me six hundred forty thousand dollars in debt because she wasn't charging our franchisees their franchise payments and this is when we first launched the franchise i wasn't about to go to them and go hey man you haven't paid for months you haven't paid for years pay up it was my fault

so i ate that my wife's like see you're a fuck up again you're not meant to be an entrepreneur and she didn't mean it any other way other than like, we're always in the red, dude. Just go get a job. You're a great salesman. And go have a steady business. You're stressing yourself out. Yeah. Stressing the family out.

Yeah. And she's just a mama bird, man. Just mama bird and wants to make sure the babies are good. And like, are we going to have the home this month? Because I was like, okay, well, I'm going to juggle this so we can make the home payment, right? The mortgage payment. And so outwardly, yes, I was financially successful.

Inwardly, I wasn't. And so is that the definition of success then? No, no. Today, yeah, I make more money and I can help donate to causes that I believe in. Shriners, Toys for Tots, Compassion International. We have 97 kids adopted through Compassion International. I think we're the number four donator to Shriners Children's Hospital, which, by the way, who's that kid? It's fantastic.

There's a singer who is the number one donator, Justin Timberlake. And my goal is to beat him in the next 10 years and be the number one donator at Shriners. But my point is, like, that to me is success because I had a bad childhood, right, as a kid. People are like, why kid charities? Because I didn't have Christmas and Toys for Tots,

like, make sure kids who didn't have Christmas and a Christmas gift has one. Medical services, I didn't have shit. My mom was washing my hair with gasoline. My dad would take me to some guy's house to have my tooth extracted. Imagine the fear I have about dentists. Never mind about the medical treatment that I had to get from some guy who escaped Armenia, lived in another cluster of Section 8 housing, and he was my doctor the first few years, right?

And so Shriners Children's Hospital and then Compassion International because they help kids with education etc and so those are like this is real success the fact that me and my son do jiu-jitsu together the fact that I built out my own private gym and my wife and my two kids we work out together every night well not tonight because I'm here but we work out together barefoot in my gym just beautiful gym like yours like that success that didn't happen before man and going back to your story about the german shepherd i was that german shepherd uh because we got this beautiful dog her name is cookie she's half german shepherd half american mastiff so she wants to shepherd something and serve us right that's just in her dna and the previous to her before we rescued her we had a couple of small dogs uh chihuahuas. And they're yappy. They're always

on edge. They don't know if you're going to love them or kill them. They just, they don't know. They don't know. And that's okay. But they were cute. And so we, we rescued Cookie from San Francisco and I drive back with her and I'm like, all right, we've got a big dog. She seems pretty cool, but the little dogs don't like her. So we're going to get rid of the little dogs, give, give the small dogs to my parents. So we hired this woman who knows how to work with big dogs to help us learn how to handle her she goes like the number one thing you know is this dog has driven a shepherd in her she needs to serve she needs to shepherd she needs a routine and if she doesn't have one here's what's going to happen this beautiful backyard that you have yeah she's going to start digging holes everywhere

i'm like that that's fucking weird. Why would she do that? She goes, in the absence of having purpose, she will give herself purpose and start digging holes everywhere. I was like, holy fuck, that's what I did in my life. Right? In the absence of having purpose, I was digging holes in my life.

Just whether it's through stress, because yeah, okay, I'm making money, but I wasn't donating to causes and charities I believed in. Because it was like, well, I don't know if we're gonna have enough money because there was a pattern of me gaining and losing, gaining and losing. There's Cookie right there. And I had an oil painting of her done above our couch. Got the same pose going. Yeah. She's such an awesome dog. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for pulling that up, man. I love that dog. for pulling that up, man. I love that dog. Um, so anyway, that's, that's, that's beautiful cookie. And, and so just like the German shepherd, man, if we don't have a purpose in life, we will start digging holes. And so while now fit body bootcamp is, is one of my purposes, these three charities are my purpose. My wife and kids are my purpose doing shows like this, where I can get this

message out so that someone who's a, who can do this a decade before me, I started getting my shit together in my 30s. What if someone can get their shit together in their 20s? Could you imagine the impact they would have when they're 45 like I am? Far greater. Or even just to have hope at 15. Or hope at 15. That whoever wrote your story in the first 20 years, after that point, you can take the pen back and you decide how the story goes. And I decided I am going to run a marathon. I am going to learn jujitsu. I am gonna learn MMA. I'm gonna overcome my fear of the water So I learned how to surf and I love surfing, dude. I lived in Southern, California I never went into the water

I go to the beach But I never went to the water because my dad had a older brother in Armenia who drowned and guess what? His filters were the water is bad. So son don't't go to the beach. Go and don't go to. Yeah. Right. I'm a pretty good fucking longboarder. I never would have known it if I didn't decide I'm going to take the pen out of their hands and start writing the story on all these blank pages that are left in my life.

And that's the fucking message I want to get across. Did you always have hope as a kid or were you a dreamer? Because how did you how did you hang on to some of these thoughts by someone like Dr. Laura and then later be accepting of these cassette tapes and stuff? Because a lot of people think that shit's phony and they think like, oh, you know, there's no good and bad. It's just the way that you perceive it. And some people are like, that's bullshit.

There's plenty of good and bad. This is where I believe ignorance is bliss. I'm not a smart guy. I will on to anything i'm i'm obsessive and once i trust you like if i'm like dude i want to do a six-week powerlifting challenge right and if i hire you as a coach if you're like dude go eat that that time clock i will just figure out a way to chop it into pieces and eat it because you said so i'm not not. So Jim Franco, I trust it. He's an entrepreneur. I would see him. He'd pull up. Oh, is he driving a Mercedes or the sports car? Or are you driving the SUV? I didn't have three cars, so I wanted to be like him. And he would work out with me anytime he wanted. He didn't have a schedule, right? Yet

he was an entrepreneur. I wanted to be like him. So where that was concerned, I followed him. It was real simple. Once I believed in someone, and so I believe for me, the ignorance, like I never overthought anything. And I've always felt there's something special about me, but I didn't know what it was, but I just felt like, okay, you're unique, you're special. People don't understand you. Maybe just because I really was like, I felt like a pariah, an outcast. I was like, maybe it's because you're unique and special and there's something different about you. But then when I find the right people in my life

that I would trust them, like Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Like, I don't know, she just, I felt like she's trustworthy. It's like, all right, she's given me all the advice that my mom and dad should have given me. I better pay attention to her. Like, she's got no agenda. She doesn't know who I am.

Some guy sitting in a 79 Toyota pickup in fucking Anaheim listening to her, right? And so once I would put my trust in someone in some category of life, that was it. So that's how jujitsu and all that worked out for me. But I, you know, Coach Pete's like, hey, I'm going to choke you out. So you feel like what it's like to what a blood choke is versus the air choke. OK. Because he came from a trusted friend, Troy McClain, who's got fucking Donald Trump on

speed dial because Troy McClain was on The Apprentice and they're buddies now. And Troy and Coach Pete are buddies. And so if Coach Pete says do a handstand because that's part of jujitsu, guess what? I'm doing a fucking handstand. It's my ignorance, my naivete that I will trust anyone who I believe knows something better than I do. You mentioned that everybody has a purpose and like, I know so many people, so many people in my life and individuals that just like mentioned this, that don't feel and can't find that. Like they don't know, they don't

know what they love to do or what they can see doing with the next few years of their life. So they just have a job and that's what they do so if everybody has a purpose how do you think they should find it if i know it sounds so cliche that's a good question that's a good question you nailed it he's got a good answer for it i've heard this before yeah because it's not lost so they're never going to find it it's not lost you only find things that are lost if i put this under his his folder here then it's lost i I can find it. You develop your purpose. And so if you're working at a Starbucks, you're like, I know this is not my purpose to serve up coffee at fucking four in the morning

to angry people, right? Who are going to sit in traffic. But if you could just be the best barista possible, memorize everyone's order, memorize their name, memorize something about them, upsell them on a fucking croissant sandwich or whatever. Be the best you can can make sure the coffee tastes Consistently good every single time

Something will happen where someone will take notice and go hey have you considered this so now you may not like being a barista But you became so good you might own the next chain of coffee shops, or you might end up being Some kind of open up some certain concierge service because you're so good at something like you'll do. People just need to be good, be really good at whatever you're doing now, exceed everyone else's expectation. As my friend Tom Bilyeu says, co-founder of Quest Bar, because there's always room at the top for the best. And so if you if if podcasting is your thing right now, if you could just say, fuck it, I'm going to be the best podcaster on the planet. I'm going to out podcast Lewis House. I'm gonna be the best podcaster on the planet, I'm gonna out-podcast Lewis House,

I'm gonna out-podcast fucking Tim Ferriss, something will happen where all of a sudden someone's like, hey, we'd love to have you on our show, and we want to give you your own show. Like, this is my purpose, not to just narrow on a podcast, but go wide and impact the world, right? So you develop your purpose by being good at whatever it is you're doing at the time.

I was a personal trainer because I lost fat. I just wanted to help one more person accomplish that. And then two more, then three more, and then four more. And then what if I opened up a studio? What if I opened up five? And then I developed my purpose. Turns out I'm supposed to be a franchisor and a coach. I still coach, but now I coach the headspace instead of the body. And the head leads the body anyway. We all know this, right? And so I've developed my purpose and that changes, by the way, with phases and seasons of life because I'm pretty sure at 60, I'm 45 now at 60 or 65, I won't be the CEO of Fit Body Bootcamp. I will probably be on the board of directors of Fit Body Bootcamp and our supplement company and the software company I'm starting. And I'll probably be an investor in a few other companies and I'll be mentoring somebody else. So my next

level of purpose will change, but it's always developing it and not finding it. Okay. When you were working, you know, I don't know how many different jobs, like you were just going nonstop doing, uh, you know, Disneyland and then all that extra stuff. Yeah. Three jobs, three jobs. So I don't want to say you were you because you weren't spinning your wheels but you were working your ass off how do you convert hard work into profit like how do you convert that into like a uh on like a high paying salary is that does that make sense like uh you know because you're not i'll say you're killing yourself but you're you're not giving yourself enough time to really develop anywhere else.

You're making enough money right now. You're going from one spot to the next spot to the next spot. So how do you convert all that hard work into a profitable, you know what I mean? Like a big bank account, basically. Yeah, yeah. Well, I wasn't living then. I was surviving. Right.

All I wanted to do was train people if I had it my way. But I only had four personal training clients because everyone else would say, no, let me go think about it. No, let me talk to my spouse. I need to go look at my schedule, right? It's like, wait a minute. You just said you can work out three days a week. Now you got to look at your schedule. You said your husband supports you. Now you got to go talk to your... Objections are part of selling. And I was selling personal training. And so I was such a bad seller closer that I ended up with multiple side jobs. So I was surviving, just barely making rent, paying my car payment, et cetera. It wasn't until Jim Franco said, we're going to take one of your skills, not bouncing,

not being a fry cook and bus boy, but personal training, but the selling of personal training. Because remember what you said in that other room, you're like, hey, the slingshot and all this stuff, this is great, but I realized this whole side of the building needs to be a studio because I need to be the marketer of my products. And soon as he taught me how to be the seller and marketer of my products, I became so good that my personal training schedule was full.

I quit the two side jobs. I was now handing clients to other trainers in the gym and making commissions. I'd never even made commissions before. All of a sudden the wealth started to come in. Wealth in your 20s is different. Like we actually, I actually have $500 surplus in my bank account. That was wealth then, right? Different than now where it's assets and buildings and properties and all that shit. So you really have to do one thing and get really good at it because when you develop that purpose, wealth also comes with it. The money always follows the purpose, not the other way around.

People are, I was chasing money because I need it. We all need money. Guess what? In this life, you need money because you have a lifestyle. This building probably has a mortgage or rent or whatever. So you need that money. Electricity has to be on to run the show. But if you can just develop a purpose, you will then find the wealth.

It's just I was spread out so thin because I needed money. Yeah, and a lot of times we think about hard work. Think about someone that's working hard that has two or three jobs in comparison. Oh, he's throwing in another mine port. two or three jobs in comparison. Oh, he's throwing in another mine port. To really think about somebody that, let's say they work 20 hours a week. We would think that person's not a hard worker versus someone that works 80 hours a week and they have three jobs. But who potentially is making more money? You don't really know until you take a look under the hood and see like, what is this time devoted towards? So what are you doing? Maybe you're a material expert

at something and maybe you're 20, maybe you're a doctor and you do, you do 20 hours a week worth of surgery. And obviously there'd be other hours devoted to some other things, but you kind of get the idea like hard work is, is only like a piece of the pie. And I think from everybody I've met, it kind of always starts with hard work, but then kind of morphs because you need to have that. Otherwise, you're done. Have you met anyone that's high level that is not a material expert in something specific? I have my own experience with meeting people that are executing on a high level. It just seems like they, like you said, develop your purpose. I feel like a lot of the people that I know have scaled because they really learned or investigated and knew a lot about one particular thing. Yeah, SMEs, they become subject matter experts. And you have to become a subject matter expert. Like I know all about franchising now.

After almost a decade, I know more about franchising than most people would learn from a university course or going to the International Franchise Association's certification programs, et cetera, because I've been in the trenches. I've dealt with franchisees. I know what it's like when franchisees revolt against you. I know what it's like when they're on board

with your vision, mission, and values. And so I've become a subject matter expert. I decided seven years ago that every month I'm going to study two franchises, one that's just skyrocketing in any space. Could be Subway Sandwiches, could be 7-Eleven, could be Jiffy Lube, way outside of the fitness industry. Why is one skyrocketing? Then I want to study one that's crashing and burning.

For example, Quiznos arguably had a better sub, didn't they? Yeah, they were good. Better ingredients. They didn't have yoga material in their bread like Subway did. Did you guys hear that one? What? Yeah. Yeah.

So you've heard of that one, right? I haven't. You haven't? Yoga? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So you know what yoga mats are made of? That little rubbery thingamajig?

So the, I don't know if it's the FDA, the USDA says that you can have whatever, 0.09% of that rubbery material in food, which is also what the McRib is made of. Because how does it have that perfect shape? You ever wonder that, right? And so how does that beautiful bread hold its shape? And so springy and fluffy yoga material.

And so there's a, there's a blog called the food babe. And she exposed that. So Quiznos is like, Hey, look, we have actual real bread. There's no, no fucking yoga mats in our bread. Right. The, the, the meat is, doesn't have nitrate. It's not processed meat. Our cheese is all natural, blah, blah, blah.

So Quiznos. And then when you eat the sandwich, you're like, this is a better fucking sandwich and they toast that oh my god but quiznos is no longer around and if there is one around right now there's i think there's a total of 60 left on the planet wow the federal trade commission who sees all over all franchises says hey quiznos your failure rate has been so high of locations that you're not allowed to sell anymore. Every year we get audited by the Federal Trade Commission, all franchises, and if you have a high failure rate, over like 26% or something,

then you're not allowed to sell in more franchises. Quiznos is at 42%, Cold Stone Creamery is at 48%. Cold Stone Creamery. Cold Stone? Yeah, Baskin Robbins. Good ice cream, Cold Stone. Amazing ice cream, because they'll custom make the fucking thing and then you want more of that and you want more of that.

Right? Yeah. Sorry. Wow. Yeah. Because that, so what Quiznos was doing was taxing their franchisees an extra 9%. So you have to buy all your shit from us at a 9% markup. And the franchisees are like, dude, so we can't compete price-wise with Subway.

And now that Subway added a toaster, they're crushing us, right, with their yoga mats. And Cold Stone Creamery, I forget what their deal was, but they did something where, again, the franchisees revolted and were starting to shut down. And so you've got to show that on what's known as an FDD, Franchise Disclosure Document, every year. How many locations opened, how many closed. And Federal Trade Commission's like, hey, neither of you can open up more locations. Now, here's the ironic part. 2017, Subway closed more stores than opened. That was the first time in Subway history.

So every year or every month I'm studying one franchise that's successful, one that's failing, and I want to know the whys behind it. If I have to call the CEOs or do research on them or listen to podcasts that they've been on, and because of that, I've become a subject matter expert on franchising. This is the fat foreign kid that came from communist country. English is a second language for me. Learned personal training, worked as a bouncer at a gay bar, Disneyland, and a personal trainer, and now I know more about franchising, so much that people pay me $90,000 to speak at franchising expos. What? And all I did was go

narrow and deep on one subject. That one subject a decade now might change because my passion will change, but I'll always be serving. I know that I'm meant to be a servant because if I'm not serving, I will start self-destructing. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people listening, hopefully they can take that and put it into whatever they want to do. You know, study two people or two things, study it for a few weeks, a few months, maybe

it's two books, whatever it is. But you can apply that to anything. Maybe you're not interested. Maybe you don't dig franchises. Maybe you don't care about that. But find something that you can study for a little while. I think taking on two things is not too overwhelming for anyone.

Not at all. And look, man, if someone's like, I want to be a strong motherfucker, there's probably a handful of dudes, yourself included, that I'm going to study. There's not a lot of dudes. Like, you find the best at the top. There's not a lot. Like, in that case, I want to go looking for the powerlifters who have torn quads

and hamstrings and fucking rotator cuffs and all that shit, because you're not looking for a failure and a winner in that category, like I am. I want to know how not to fail, so I'm looking for failures in franchising as well to go what not to do. But there really isn't much to becoming the best.

Not a lot of effort. And I'll share this with you real quick. Water boils at 211 degrees. Cool. Throw a raw egg in it. You can make hard-boiled eggs and eat it. One more degree of change. One more degree of change, it turns into steam. And you can power a locomotive,

and that locomotive can bring goods in and out of towns, right? Steam versus boiling water. One more degree of, I'm going to commit to studying this guy an hour longer than he is, that hour multiplied by a year per day, per week, per month, will make me substantially better than you. That is why I'm better than him. That's it.

That's one reason. That's one of the reasons. Substantially better looking, too. See? You're very handsome. Both of you are. You know, I think that's a great... I'm going to need a clip of that. I think you were You know, I think that's a great, can I just, I'm going to need a clip of that. You're going to have to save that. I think you were in the restroom earlier. I'm like, dude, just be honest with me.

Like, we're not, I don't think we're recording at this point. I'm like, just be honest, man. You wake up every morning and you're just like, God damn, I'm a fucking handsome dude, right? Like I'm a good looking man. I'm like, just, how does it feel? Just tell me how it feels. I just want to know.

Yeah. And he took the modest route. He's like, no, no, no, that doesn't happen. But to get that compliment from you. Come on, man. You know to know. Yeah. And he took a modest route. He's like, no, no, no. That doesn't happen. But to get that compliment from you, thank you. Come on, man. You know he does. He does, right? He gives himself a little wink on his way out.

Yeah. You look awesome. It was like a little twinkle. Yeah. You look awesome, big guy. And he goes about his day. I like that. Big guy.

Oh, my God. Put that little extra on there. You know what I mean? I will say, I think Cold Stone isn't as good as baskin robbins though oh no it's so much better what are you talking about robbins is really good dude i've they do have a good chocolate peanut butter ice cream so i take my daughter there i mean every so often and there's like 85 teenagers running around and nobody's helping anybody but for some reason they're all like making ice cream cold stone yeah yeah but

the thing is it's it's all the same base and then they just add flavor to it whereas if you go to like baskin robbins you get like uh i don't know like a mint chip it's actually like mint chip ice cream it's already legit thrown together yeah i don't know what's which there's like head shaking in here like this is serious business cold stone versus baskin robbins it's because nobody agrees with them no that's fine you're wrong we need to try this out i mean we need to have a challenge you've been wrong six weeks challenge six weeks yeah hey i'm a fat fuck again i really want to know about this real quick though you know because you mentioned how um your mentor his name was jim collins jim franco jim franco my bad jim collins wrote a great book called good to

great yeah he did and i just messed those two names up. But Jim Franco, he got you on the route of like learning sales and getting into a lot of self-development. And obviously, you know, in your thirties, you you've probably done a lot of stuff, but what does that, what did that look like in your thirties? Um, in terms of your own self-development for yourself, what kind of habits did you build through that period of time that were good? Because obviously, you know, a lot of bad too, but what were you doing that you think other people should be taking the time

to do to develop themselves? Fantastic question. So the one thing that I did, and this is, again, as he gave me, you know, cassette tapes like Dan Kennedy and Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, those naturally led to because those guys started talking about some dude named tony robbins i'm like what who's tony robbins oh

my god he's a giant right and i couldn't afford to buy his dvds let alone to go to a live event so on ebay i found someone who had uh like dubbed his dvds and like for five bucks i got his um awaken the giant within and i still feel bad. So actually, it's funny. A couple years ago, I shared the stage with him. And I was like, hey, just so you know, I've paid it forward. I've bought your shit. So I have the dubbed version still.

And I have the legit just because I felt so guilty about it. And I wanted to pay the karmic debt. And so we all got a good laugh on that. But I learned very quickly that the power, these two things, the power of thought and your surroundings are huge. So the way he says it is the people that you surround yourself with and the thoughts that occupy your mind determine a lot of your outcome. Well, if we know that to be true, then I better start looking at who I'm surrounding myself with. And maybe my brother is not a good fit to hang out

with based on how he lives his life at the moment. Like I had to start taking a hard look at family, friends from high school. Saying you're off the team. Right, exactly. That's it's simple. It's that. It's that because if I want to go here but they're operating there then there's no way I'm going to get here. I need to surround myself with more people that are going this way. And so there was literally family members that I had to edit. Maybe you're not going to cut out family members, but you can edit them, right? You don't necessarily see them as often. And when you do, you keep the conversation very shallow,

and you don't talk about the live event you're going to have where you're giving away a car. I've had 11 fitness business summits. car. I've had 11 fitness business summits. And at number seven, I started giving a Land Rover away to an audience member, right? Like who had produced the most growth in their business. A thousand gym owners would show up. One on a Range Rover. Yeah. I'm guessing that's some kind of inside joke. No, no. I'm just saying. Oh. And so.

And so. Range Rover is more expensive. That's all. Yeah. Oh. And so. And so. Range Rover's more expensive, that's all. Yeah. I was trying to mess with you. You got me there. You do realize, though, I'm a car fanatic. I was reading stats on Land Rovers, whether they're Range Rovers or the Range Rover Sports or all the other wacky, the new Defender that just came out.

Historically, they're just always breaking down. But because the cars look so fucking beautiful, people just look past that. People don't care. They're still buying it. And I realize I'm one of those people. My wife, every two years, got a new Range Rover. And it's always fucking,

she's always got a loaner Range Rover. There's always something going on. Yeah, but anyway, so that said, because it looks great. And why did I decide to give that away because it looks great it looks great on video right it looks great on on sitting on the side of the stage so at year number seven of fitness business summit i said i'm going to give one away uh because financially we're in a place where we can do that and we raise the price of tickets blah blah whatever we can afford to

i share it with my brother he's like why are you going to do that what if you cannot sell all the tickets now you're stuck with cut i'm like what man? Right. So for like two or three years, I was just like, what the fuck? How come these guys are like, for years I've sold this place out. Why do you think all of a sudden I'm not going to be pumped for you? Yeah. Yeah. Then I realized, what does Tony Robbins say? Like you have to edit yourself or you have to edit them if they're not on the same bandwagon that you are. And so now I just talked to him about his dogs, about his real estate business, about what he does. And I keep it very shallow friends from high school. I've had to literally eliminate because they look forward to weekends. I look forward to Mondays now. Like I need to serve on weekends is when I can get in the most amount of

trouble for myself. They look forward to weekends to be couch potatoes. Dude, if I, if I catch potato Saturday and Sunday, I'm catch because I'm fucking ocd on everything i go all in i'm catch potatoing like monday and tuesday as well right so i fucking work on weekends like not necessarily work on work but i might work on work for two hours and then i go and train my son in the gym and then we do roll around on because now we have our own jiu-jitsu mats in our gym and so we roll around and do the best we can with that uh my point is i've got shit planned out, right? And so I very quickly realized the thoughts that occupy your mind, the people you surround yourself are the biggest elements of success or failure.

Most people are not willing to take that scary step of cutting out friends, spouses, family members out of their life or editing them. I am. I'll do whatever the fuck it takes for me to become the next version of myself. And people aren't willing to like go to bed at eight o'clock at night. And that's the other thing. Not willing to wake up or willing to get into a routine, get into a rhythm, something that suits, uh, you know, their life. Right. That's exactly right. And so going back to another habit was in addition to the thoughts that occupy your mind and people

you surround yourself with is my morning routine. once i developed a morning routine that was something that i learned through tony robbins and then it got more fine-tuned through craig ballantyne who wrote the perfect day formula and again before he ever wrote his book perfect day formula because we're friends and business partners i was just like dude how do you wake up at 3 a.m like how do you wake up at 3 a.m if you go to bed at one 1? He goes, I don't go to bed at 1. I'm like, see, I just assumed, because I do, that he does. Because, I mean, you're not binge-watching Netflix? What kind of idiot are you, Craig? You're a fucking cyborg, obviously, right?

So I realized very quickly, he wakes up at 3, and he explained to me this way. He goes, look, I have something called magic time. I go, what the fuck is magic time? He goes, the way I look at it is this. There's only so much, like, universal, like, consciousness energy out there. And when everybody wakes up, they start tapping into that. So if I could wake up hours before them,

I can have a large supply of the universal consciousness serving me in my bed. And then I was like, oh shit. Now I don't know if that's true or not, but guess what? I love Craig. I trust Craig.

I'm like, goddammit, that makes sense. So I don't wake up at 3 a.m. because I'm not retarded like he is. I do wake up. That's the witching hour, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little dangerous to wake up that early. I do wake up. That's the witching hour, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little dangerous to wake up that early. I do wake up at 5 a.m.,

and that gives me a whole two and a half hours of morning routine, and I don't do the whole kumbaya. I just send out three gratitude text messages of three people that I'm grateful for and why I'm grateful for them, and that's the most self-serving thing you can do, by the way, because throughout the day,

they're going to respond back and go, man, thank you so much. That means so much. I really appreciate you. So you're guaranteed every day. I'm guaranteed three people are going to send me an appreciation text message because they'll send you back something nice. Yeah. No one's going to be like, you're a fucking asshole for telling me I'm a good person. Right. So one, I'm already guaranteed that. Number two, I created a list on my iPhone the night before the three to five things I'm going to do. I just call it my GSD list, get shit done list. And I wake up and I just get those three to five things done.

Send out the three text messages, get my workout in and I'm at our headquarters by 11 a.m. And I can do all that without feeling that morning routine has my clockwork. Drink 30 ounces of water in the morning. Why? Because Shawn Stevenson said so. I trust him. Where sleep is concerned, he says sleep this way, I will fucking sleep that way. And again, it goes back to being either naive or just a little bit like ignorant. I think people who are too smart for themselves are like, I'm going to find out why Mark wants me to deadlift that way.

I don't give a fuck why you want me to deadlift that way, Mark. You said deadlift this way. I will deadlift this way. And the people who's like, I'm skeptical. I think there's a better way. Shut the fuck up. You can't even lift the bar right now this guy can fucking deadlift the house and you're wondering if we could you could shut the fuck up and dead right people just need to be a little bit more ignorant and just find the expert and trust the process and do it i've built some amazing habits and in that time i've also shed my shitty habits which is a great experience

and you probably i mean you being a material expert yourself you know then then when people And in that time, I've also shed my shitty habits, which is a great experience. And you probably, I mean, you being a material expert yourself, you know, then when people are asking about franchising, you're expecting them to have respect and to listen because you've been doing it for so long. What do you think is, we talk a lot about franchises and like In-N-Out Burger and stuff like that. In-N-Out is privately owned. Yeah. Okay. What are some of your favorites that you've been following that you really love the execution of how i'm always fascinated by starbucks like because it's been around for so long yeah and they continue to switch and like sometimes you're like what the fuck are they doing like they have new shit going

on all the time but they're they're not they're not scared they're not scared to try new things exactly so great franchise currently like in the food space is Jersey Mike's. They take care of their franchisees, and they're always on the cutting edge, meaning they're willing to pivot any time. And I think the sign of a great franchise is that they put the franchisees first, and they're willing to change with the times. As soon as Grubhub came out, they were first on it. Like Subway and other fast food, like sandwich categories, sandwich categories were like oh we don't know about this thing just get on

board with it like everyone thought that about uber like if i told you 10 years ago like dude some dude's going to pick you up in their own car and take you to your destination from there you've never met him before you're like that might rape me kill me and dump me out by the river today you'd rather go in an u an Uber than rent your own car or get a cab that fucking stinks. And the dude just is unprofessional because you can't rape the cab driver. So it's funny how things change. I'm like, hey, man, look, you're just going to go stay at someone's house across the country that you've never met. You're like, say what?

Airbnb. So when Grubhub came out, like Jersey Mike's is a great one so where that's concerned. I believe in where fitness is concerned, I may be biased, but Fit Body Bootcamp. Like we literally went to, like hey, everyone's doing one hour training sessions. Well, guess what?

We realized social media, life gets faster, people want, you know, both husband and wife are working in the family, which tells us what? People are running out of time. 30 minute fat burning workouts, right? So we went to 30 minute workouts. We're like, you know, you can't get a workout in 30 minutes. I was like, hey, when I was a trainer doing one hour sessions, there was a lot of fucking lip service going back and forth, a lot of gabbing. We're going to take the fucking talking out of this. We're going to do compound movements,

four station rotation, something that I call active rest, which means if the three of us here are doing renegade rows on the TRX. These two are doing planks, right? They're doing planks. So no one's ever really resting. You're doing a plank, a wall sit, a fucking high plank, a side plank. That's your rest. And then you move on to the next position. No one's ever resting.

So in 30 minutes, yeah, you are going to get an awesome workout. Now, are you going to end up looking like him? No, right? But for what they want, they're going to get in 30 minutes. And so we're always willing to pivot. We realized very quickly that you know franchises teach their franchisees what to do like you know what okay teach them what to do or do it for them I bet they'll pay me more if I do it for them fuck it I'm gonna

start doing it for them driving leads for them not just telling them how to drive leads like I always knew that there's a better way to do things cuz I was always willing to pivot and so we did so in the fitness world I think we're the ones to follow. In fact, I know we are because we keep hitting the ink and entrepreneur fastest growing lists. Jersey Mike's in the sandwich space. Jiffy Lube in the automotive space is a great one. There's a tax company. Oh man, they're putting they're putting H&R Block out of business. Dudes will come with the fucking tablet to your house now. You don't go to H&R. You don't need to go to them anymore. They'll come with the fucking tablet to your house now you don't go to H&R you don't need to go to them anymore they'll come with the

tablet to your house they're professional and the software on the tablet is designed to help find every little category where you can save a few more dollars or a few more cents in taxes what's this company called I'm trying to think of it dude it's on the tip of my tongue. Something tax. Tax event? If you just look up like the fastest growing whatever. Tax practice? Yeah.

No, it's not this one. And they're a franchise. I know that. The founder is like an Italian dude. I'm going to have to check these dudes out. Yeah, man. They're so good at what they do. They basically do what? They make it painless. Everything's electronic. There is no more paper. You don't have to check these dudes out. Yeah, man, they're so good at what they do. They basically do what? They make it painless.

Everything's electronic. There is no more paper. You don't have to go and wait in line. It's such a great thing. And right now there's a company trying to make medical services, doctor services, like franchising where they come to you. Like I have a doctor come to me to my office now because I just don't have the time.

And so they're trying to make that into a franchise, but being in the medical world, it's a little hairy. But dude, there are some great franchises out there right now to follow those. Jiffy Lube, like I said, in the automotive space, where it's like Firestone is a, Goodyear is a franchise, Firestone is a franchise, but they're just sucking ass because they just like, we do tires. Stop doing tires. America's tire company does tires and they do it better than anyone else. They're the McDonald's of fucking tires. So Jiffy Lube went to oil. Most people don't realize they started off doing tires. They went to Jiffy Lube. It was like Jiffy Tires. They went to Jiffy Lube. And then now they do

brakes and all the other stuff, transmission fluids and all that, because they realize, once you're here, we're just going to inspect the fuck out of everything. And go, do you want it all done? Yeah, just sit there for 20 more minutes. And those are the differences between the companies that grow and the companies that go, well, this is how we've always done business. Subway should not have said this is how we always done business. They should go, you know what? People want their sandwich in a bowl.

Make a sandwich in a bowl like Jersey Mike's does. Yeah. Like that. Yeah, they give you a keto. And charge you more for it. Take the bread away. Yeah, exactly. Take the bread away and charge you more for it.

Like what a brilliant concept, right? Hey, you want a keto burger? Yeah, I'm going to take the bun away and charge you two bucks more. Wait, what? How about bring the fucking bun? I'll take the bun away myself, right? And I'll still make it a keto burger. But that's the thing, man.

People need to pivot. They need to understand times are changing, that it's the Uber and it's the convenience economy, convenience and service economy. And if you can do that with your franchise, you could do that with your gym. You could do that with your podcast. Now we're switching our Empire podcast to where beyond show notes, there's going to be like, this is what you should have taken away. Because if you listened and you listened with whatever filters mom and dad have given you, you heard all the wrong things. How many times have you read a book and I've read a book and

we've got two different things out of it. So now if you listen to this episode, this is what you should have taken away. It's like, oh shit. All right. Thank you for that. Because now we're just going to do it for you. Tell you what you should have taken away instead of hoping that you took away what we wanted you to take away. The service economy is where we're in. What's potentially wrong with the CrossFit model? Because it seems like CrossFit is maybe not as in favor as it used to be.

Yeah. They actually for the last two years have closed more locations than they've opened. In their defense, they're not a franchise. They're an affiliate, so like a licensing model, which simply means, well, you've seen this. They can put a CrossFit across the street from each other. Right, right. Or the walls could be touching.

And it's like, all right, duke it out. Survival of the fittest. But their downfall started when, in the beginning, it was one of those things where, hey, I'm a cop. You're a firefighter. You're a paramedic. Great. We're all in the service industry and we all like to work out like savages. Let's pitch in together and open up a CrossFit. So now they have their real job, then together they have this thing. And they think if I open it, they will come. CrossFit

just wants you to pump people out into the CrossFit games, which is awesome. That's really good advertisement. But if you can't get local humans who live in your town to come and work out there who don't want to go to the CrossFit Games, now you're a cop that has this fucking redheaded stepchild that you're sharing with two other dudes who you think it should be run this way, you think it should be run, and I think it should be run this way.

So now we were friends, but now we're duking it out. That's the environment that was created. So CrossFit, even though they were a licensing program, should have said, hey, we're still going to give you guys protected territories. It could be far enough away where you're allies and not enemies, number one. Number two, here's how to drive leads. Here's how to turn those leads into paying clients.

If some of those clients want to go to CrossFit games, here's the path they take. Because if most people who open up a CrossFit were like, I like to work out like a savage, and then we're going to take people to the CrossFit games. There's not enough people in your town looking to go to CrossFit games to make you profitable. There just simply isn't. And unfortunately, it caught up to them. Now they're closing more stores than they were opening in the last two years. And it's an unfortunate thing.

They can certainly survive out of it, but they've got to change. As a trainer and someone in the fitness industry, what's your general thoughts on CrossFit? And it came in kind of blazing about 10 years ago. Yeah. My general thoughts on CrossFit as far as where the workouts are concerned, I don't think they're for the majority. I think they're for the gifted. Like real actual CrossFit, you better have some strong connective tissue. Like, bro, I've torn biceps and stuff.

Not even doing CrossFit. It's just I wasn't breastfed. I always tell my wife, I wasn't breastfed as a child because my mom was in the hospital after giving birth to me. Long story. They gave me literally,

by the way, they called it rice milk. I was like, what's rice milk, Dad? He goes, oh, we boil the water with the rice and then your sister spoon feed you the milk, the rice milk. I was like, first of all, rice don't have nipples, so there is no fucking rice milk. You're giving me rice milk. So literally, it wasn't even formula, bro. It's rice water. Yeah, it was rice milk. I was like, first of all, rice don't have nipples. So there's no fucking rice milk. You're giving me rice. So literally like, you know, it wasn't even formula, bro.

It's rice water. Yeah, it was rice water, right? It was fucking rice water. So I'm like, if I catch a cold, I got that thing for a long time. So which is why I just try and keep my immune system strong. So I don't catch a cold. And number one, number two, like I can sneeze and I'll fucking snap a tendon. That's just, it's a given. CrossFit is not for me. But someone who's got thick tendons, fucking full muscle bellies, they had the right set of mom and dads, which I don't, where that's concerned, right? It's not for me and it's not for the majority. But for the minority who wants to go nuts that way, it is for them.

But when people are like, oh man, my buddy does CrossFit and he's a fucking gangster and he's going to the fucking locals and he's gonna go national so i'm gonna go do it too and then snap there goes the fucking l4 l5 or there goes a fucking hamstring and now it's like you know what man i tried working out but i got injured so i'm fucking done and we don't need to give people more excuses to not work out guys like there's all my our competition is not like i'm not looking at crossfit as competition or orange Theory, F45. People are like, well, who's your competition? Fucking McDonald's and Taco Bell and Coca-Cola and Doritos. Doritos has three scientists.

One of them I met. I met. I'm like, wait, you're a scientist? You work for Doritos? Tell me more. What do you do? Because I'm thinking like maybe packaging. Yeah, make sure you keep eating it.

Exactly. His job is to make sure that fucking chip breaks down just right on your taste buds so you grab another. is to make sure that fucking chip breaks down just right on your taste buds so you grab another. Now, we're in Fit Body Boot Camp or Orange Theory or Barry's Boot Camp or fucking F45 or any of these fucking brands. Do we have a scientist figuring out how you're going to come one more time this week? We don't. Fucking McDonald's. They know how the food breaks down in your mouth.

They know what offers to show your kids on TV. Happy meal, daddy. Fucking take me to happy. Right? Like, they are fucking scientific about what they do. They are our competition. So if I hurt someone at a fit body bootcamp, then that person was like, well, you know, I tried working out, but I got hurt. And you know what people do now because they need attention. They then take your iPhone and they tell the

world, yep, I worked out and I got hurt. Very bad folks. Be careful. They mean well, but I think they also want a little attention, but they mean well now it's not just word of mouth anymore. It's world of mouth and it spreads very quickly. And Oh, CrossFit hurt me. Oh, fit body bootcamp hurt me. Oh, we don't need more of that. Let's take care of these fucking people. Let's take care of these people so they can actually say, Hey, I lost weight. I got great results. I might refer a friend. That's my position. I think that, um, when like we're talking about all of this. Right. And obviously you're a CEO of a massive company at this point. There are a lot of younger individuals because like I came up like Nigerian. I'm a Nigerian first generation here. It's all academic here. You know, if you want to be successful, you get a degree.

You know, you get a job after that. You move forward. If you want to be successful, you get a degree, you, you know, you get a job after that, you move forward. Now, if someone's, you know, they maybe they don't even want to be an entrepreneur, but they want to be successful in some way. What is your take on education and how they should navigate that towards success coming from someone who's done all the things that you've done? Where do you think they should put their focus in terms of their education and their development? Very good question. So I'm going to say this, and this always gets people all tightly wound up. I don't believe college is for the majority.

I believe it used to be in the Industrial Revolution era when we were pumping out employees, pre-fucking apps and iPhones and all that stuff, right? We needed a machine that pumped out employees to count the fucking beans and to bolt on the things and the whatever. If you're going to be an engineer, a doctor, an attorney, go to college. That's the only way I'll let you fucking represent me in court or cut me open, right? Or help me build my house or a bridge. But if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to get an MBA. You're going to learn stuff from someone who professes. That's what a professor is. They profess, but they don't practice. You get an MBA from me, dude. You get an MBA from

me. My body's covered with entrepreneurial scars. And I will tell you what's working now today, not what worked three decades ago. The coders, well, I'm going to be a software programmer. Great. They have these fucking coding weekends at these universities where on the weekends universities are shut down, and these nerdy coders will fill the place up, and they'll teach the most cutting-edge coding in one fucking weekend while they're still teaching C++ and fucking old-school programming that doesn't even work on this stuff, right?

And so then you come out, well, I've got a degree in coding, and then, well, what do you know, C++. Okay, we don't use C++ anymore. We're like past Java now. We're fucking mobile responsive to so many fucking levels. We'll have to pay for you to go to one of these coding universities on a weekend. So you're not even worth it, dude. I want a hacker.

I want some kid who learned from YouTube. So most people should take the time and money they're going to invest in college, unless they're going to be in that, those little category that I talked about, architect, accountant, like those degrees, doctor, attorney, judge, right? They, they need degrees. Otherwise, if you are going to be someone who's going to be a programmer, a personal trainer, a fucking entrepreneur, a chef, you don't need to go get a cooking, food science degree, exercise kinesiology degree for what like maybe if you're gonna be a chiropractor a physical therapist okay I can get that but if you're gonna go down the road of like being a great coach just go get coached by a great coach

right go get coached by a great coach use that time and money because the internet now has information like what's working out today. So you can find the right mentors and pay for them. You can time collapse. Instead of four years, it becomes like four months. It'll cost you less.

It'll be more relevant information and you will have a head start on life because you won't be in debt with four years of time behind you from college. Now people go, yeah, but what about the experience? What about learning? Like, well, you got a degree that shows that you put one foot in front of the other.

Go fucking work out and build muscles. If you can always, which I know you have, so let me point at me. If I can have all my six pack, not just the top two, if all of it come out, right? That just showed I can put one foot in front of the other. And then I can do that in probably eight weeks. And that showed I can put, I don't need you to get a degree, go fucking $300,000 in debt because you showed me that you can follow directions and put one foot in front of the other. And I can do that in probably eight weeks. And that's what I can put. I don't need you to get a degree, go fucking $300,000 in debt because you showed me that you can follow directions and put one front of the other. I don't want people to follow directions.

I want you to FIO, figure shit out. Right? So I want you to figure it out. And if you have the ability to figure it out, problem solve, and never stop, I will hire you and teach you the skill. I've got Navy SEALs who came from combat who I work with and work for me because it's like, well, they know how to kill people and bring, break down doors. They just don't stop. So they also know how, and I got one guy's a sniper, a former sniper

who now works for me. He's one of our best business coaches ever. He never, ever was in business. He just killed people from far away yet Because we put him inside of a fit body bootcamp and because he was just like relentlessly I'm gonna I'm gonna learn more about this guy's fit body bootcamp than he knows Then he learned how to sell in there. He learned how to coach He learned how to be the admin and called and dialed for dollars. He wasn't afraid of rejection He doesn't get fucked about rejection. He survived battle

Some of our best team members are just people who know how to problem-solve in the, figure it out. And if you can figure it out, I will teach you a skill. It's as simple as that. So I don't, college is a waste of time and it's the biggest fucking scam on the planet. I need to take this whole section and cut it up and send it to a bunch of my relatives and cousins because man, yeah. They'll still ask you, are you going to school in SEMA? I get that question all the time. Yeah. Oh, kind lines um we we tell people all the time like you learn almost anything on youtube but very much like if you start training somebody for free you know they're like oh i'll follow you right now or whatever they'll show up you know every so often they won't take it as serious whereas you say okay it's gonna cost to cost, you know, you said it's like $140 a month. It's like, okay, they're putting something in and now they're going to take it serious.

So like once somebody is like kind of like over the YouTube hump, you know, like what do you think is like the next step that somebody can take where they're actually going to start investing in themselves? Then the next thing becomes go find someone who's doing it and work for them. Like they're going to get paid to learn. And I'll give you a great example. So, I got four, we call them the media team, four video picture, just like you guys have, right? My highest paid guy, his name is Ed, no college degree, yet they have videography and photo degrees. He has no music experience, yet he's one of the most sought after DJs on the weekends in Southern California. He learned photography and to DJ.

I go, Ed, where'd you learn all this from? YouTube, B. Because he's got the immigrant edge just like I do. He's an escapee from the Philippines, came out here as a kid, and he's not going to go to college and get a music degree or photography degree. He just was like, I want to do photography and I want a DJ and So he's literally like shot Dr. Dre P. Diddy you name it can't work for complex magazine until they downsized and then we're like, hey, dude We got a we got a part ways with you and then I scooped him up

I pay him an obscene amount of money most the time he travels with me He's just not here today because he's actually filming at a fit body boot camp on the other side of the country The dudes of badass my other two guys have cinematography degrees Most of the time he travels with me. He's just not here today because he's actually filming at a Fit Body Boot Camp on the other side of the country. The dude's a badass. My other two guys have cinematography degrees, right? And I love them. But they just want to storyboard shit. Ed goes in there quick and dirty like a fucking Navy SEAL. Like a little Filipino Navy SEAL.

And like... I'll be going through TSA and he's fucking, by the time they're like, hey, put that away. He's taking fucking 30 shots. The other guys would want to literally get the LAX to fucking give us a permit to shoot and like, fuck that shit. Like Ed will, I will always overpay Ed. I hope the other guys will.

Oh, fuck him. Ash Primo, here's a shout out to you guys. Ed, big shout out to you, bro. But like those guys are amazing. And, big shout out to you, bro. But those guys are amazing. And we use them for other projects, right? They have their own scope, their own zone of genius. But dude, YouTube is where he learned.

And then he went and worked for Complex Magazine and he learned from a professional until he got better than that professional. And then when he got let go during the downsizing era, I scooped him up. I mean, that's the next step. That's the next step. And, and he's like, dude, I can go be an entrepreneur and do my own thing, but I just love being part of this tribe that you've built. So let's do this. And anything I do, I got this thing called the project. He'll, he'll be awake 75 hours with us when we do the project. Cause it's a 75 hour experience. He'll be awake, fucking popping out or all like we do a fucking shooting shit, drones all over fucking chino hills the chino state prison like you should you cannot have a

fucking drone over the chino state prison ed doesn't give a fuck drones are flying over chino state prison because that's the footage we need and that's what i love about that guy a lot of times educated people um have an ability to point out the problem so you'll say hey like we need to shoot this thing and and they're like well the problem with that you'll say, hey, we need to shoot this thing. And then they're like, well, the problem with that is, and you're like, well, I don't care about it. I realize there's problems in everything, right? Didn't need you to highlight that. Let's just figure out a way to get done.

Yeah, yeah, we will ask for forgiveness, not permission. That's it. How many of your friends that are performing at a high level are willing to share themselves and share the information? Like everything you're just blurting out to us right here, right now. We know each other from today. I mean, we kind of know of each other, but we know each other from today. And here you are sharing all this information.

Maybe there's somebody in your area that you know that's a distant relative or a friend of a friend or whatever. They want to take you to lunch and they want to learn about franchising or they have this cool idea. How often does stuff like that happen? My time's pretty limited these days, as you saw trying to book this. And I was more than excited to come out here,

but it's just so limited. But given the opportunity, I always do that because Jim Franco didn't have to give me his time. He didn't have to give me his time. He was paying me. Well, he was paying the gym. The gym was paying me $11 and 50 cents an hour to train him. But he would, if he was like my last client of that morning, he would literally hang out for an extra 20,

30 minutes and just teach me things. Like he gave me, he mentored me without me ever paying him. So what a fool I would be to, to spit on that by not doing that for someone else, right? And I think a lot more people need to own humility. We start drinking our own fucking Kool-Aid. We start believing our own hype and we start fucking flying on private jets. You better know that you better show some humility for that because that shit can get taken away very quickly. One fucking slap from the Federal Trade Commission, from the IRS, from the fucking wife with the divorce, from the whatever, it's over. Another set of airplanes hitting some fucking World Trade Center towers, and it's fucking over.

You better have an ally of people who believe in you, who support you, and who will lift you up when you fall, because right now I'm just in a winning phase. There's a losing phase coming, and for you, and for you, and for her, and him, and him. Just happen to be in a winning phase right now. Thanks, bro. It's a losing phase coming and for you and for you and for her and him and him. Just happened to be in a winning phase right now. Thanks, bro. It's coming. This is the worst podcast we've ever done. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. It's a sad ending. But you know what I mean, right? You need that losing phase because that builds that you need that adversity because

when you lift weights, do you always lift the same weight or do you eventually go heavier? Yeah. You're going to lift different things on different days. Yeah. Right. Well, I need adversity to build my mental muscles, my emotional muscles, my entrepreneurial muscles. So I need the losing days to add the resistance that I need. If I want to look like him, I must use more resistance. If I want to squat and deadlift like you, I must use more resistance.

Well, why do we think in life that doesn't apply in every other category? Like I can't wait for winter to come. Tony Robbins says prepare for winter, be built for winter. I'm fucking built for winter. All of us are. But we forget we have that warrior spirit in us. Does that mean we need to fatten up? God knows.

Give me some bagels and I can fatten up, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you you gotta be tough enough to be able to get get through those tough times the tough times are coming man come out the other end stronger anything else over there andrew no ma'am this was awesome i do want to know about this unless yeah go so you you mentioned like the immigrant edge the immigrant experience like you had a hard life what about individuals that like are listening they're like

it's been kind of easy for me up until this point. Like I haven't had much adversity. How could they build that grit that you have naturally to just work hard if they don't feel like they're a hard worker? Good question. And listen, as much as I had the immigrant edge and was fucking tough as nails and all this, I started getting feeling soft. And that's when I started doing those challenges, like to build grit. Because let me tell you, when you tell everyone, your coaching clients, your business partners, that, hey, in six weeks, I'm running the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon,

and you hire a coach who happens to be your client, right? Her name is Jill Brewer, runwithjill.com. And so I'm like, Jill, I taught you how to create, become a running coach. Now I need, in six weeks, I need to run the marathon. She goes, oh, half marathon. Yeah, we could do that. It's pushing it.

But I'm in a full marathon, 26.2 miles. She goes, no, you can't do that. You're going to have like bone fractures and fucking hairline fractures in your ankle. You're just too big. You can't, it's not going to happen. Like, Jill, I'm paying you and I need you to help me. And so when at week number four,

the program says run eight miles, not walk, not drive, run eight miles. I'm like, fuck. Last week I was doing six and I was just out of breath. And I was doing it late at night because I tuck my kids to bed, hang out with the wife for an hour. Then 11 o'clock comes, she goes to bed. Then I would put on my Brooks and I would, cause I pronate. Brooks is like for heavy pronators. Yeah. They're like old man shoes, but it's like, that's what I needed. And so I would put on the Brooks and I'd go running it from like 11 to 1am. Right. I didn't

want to do that. And I wanted to just stop at mile number five and then lie and say that I went 26 or eight miles that day. And I even remember one time fabricating a story in my head like, all right, I'll just I'll just go and hang out outside for a few hours. Come back in that in case the wife hears. And then a marathon day about 10 miles in fake an injury. These are the fucking talks i had

with myself everyone battles and negotiates with the inner bitch and the beast right and the inner bitch was like just cut it short just fake an injury just so if you want to get tough enough again put your i'm happy that you were raised in america i'm happy that you weren't fucking molested and raped and beaten and abused i'm happy for you but you need to toughen up so up. So put yourself through challenges, go do the project, go do a rucksack thing. And then after that, go do another fucking rock rucksack thing. And then hire someone to become, you never power lifted because you're weak. Go fucking learn to power lift in six weeks. Do those things that will cause you to want to not come. I, there was days I drive to my gym because we would do the jujitsu in my gym. We bought mats and I knew coach Pete was there and

he drove an hour to go there from Temecula to Chino Hills. Yet I was like, okay, I'm just going to text him and say, hey, man, busy day, da, da, da. You know why? Because it's fucking uncomfortable, dude. It fucking hurts. I'm not too bendy and flexible. And as you know, you've got to be bendy and flexible for jujitsu.

And I was still in pain from the last session. And so I wanted to, I was like, don't be a fucking bitch. Don't let the bitch win. Show up. And those are the things that built grit. Those are my secret powers that helped me succeed in business and coach people and just have this fucking savage mindset. So even if you were born in a fucking bed of roses and flowers in summertime, you could

go look for the winter and put yourself through it. Not enough people do. They just want to stay bubble wrapped. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Where can people find you? Instagram. I love hanging out on Instagram. It's probably the best place to find me at Bedros Kulian. It's been awesome to have you on the show. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you all later.