Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Right About Now with Ryan AlfordJoin media personality and marketing expert Ryan Alford as he dives into dynamic conversations with top entrepreneurs, marketers, and influencers. "Right About Now" brings you actionable insights on business, marketing, and personal branding, helping you stay ahead in today's fast-paced digital world. Whether it's exploring how character and charisma can make millions or unveiling the strategies behind viral success, Ryan delivers a fresh perspective with every episode. Perfect for anyone looking to elevate their business game and unlock their full potential. Resources:Right About Now NewsletterFree Podcast Monetization CourseJoin The NetworkFollow Us On InstagramSubscribe To Our Youtube ChannelVibe Science MediaSUMMARYIn this episode of Right About Now, host Ryan Alford sits down with Bedros Keuilian—founder and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp and author of Man Up—to discuss his incredible journey from escaping the Soviet Union to building a multimillion-dollar fitness empire. Bedros dives into the erosion of freedoms in America, the critical role of personal responsibility, and the mindset needed to thrive as an entrepreneur. He shares hard-hitting insights on resilience, adaptability, and the lessons learned from navigating crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode is a powerful testament to the opportunities available in America—and a masterclass in hard work, grit, and determination.TAKEAWAYS The erosion of freedoms in America and the importance of standing up for rights. Personal journey of escaping the Soviet Union and its impact on views of freedom and success. The significance of personal responsibility in addressing societal issues. The need for prioritization in tackling multiple societal challenges. The concept of national intervention to address pressing issues facing the country. The strategy of division as a means to weaken collective strength. The evolution of the American Dream and opportunities for hard work and risk-taking. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses, particularly in the fitness industry. The importance of adaptability and resilience in entrepreneurship. Views on immigration policy, including the need for secure borders and vetting processes. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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What happens is entrepreneurs, maybe they just don't realize it because it happens slowly over time. You know, technology comes, marketing gets more sophisticated. Consumers become more educated in the way they buy. And so businesses evolve in terms of transparency. This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cash and checks?

Well, it starts right about now. Talking to Bezos Killian, founder and CEO Fit Body Camp, author of Man Up, How to Cut the Bullshit and Kickass in Business and Life. Kill you, my brother. What's up, brother? What's happening? I'm doing well. I'm doing well, right? Thank you for having me, man. I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, man. Pump to have you. We know a lot of the same people. And, you know, I've been following you for a while. admire her from afar. You got to be pumped up all the time. Your book's awesome. I think you're a great

inspiration for what we need in today's world. Motivation, positivity, but a little kick in the damn ass. You know, it ain't all sunshines and flowers and roses all day. That is true. What's going on your world these days? Well, I've got to tell you, man, I'm just intrigued in watching the downfall of our great country and wondering when the most capable men who can exercise their voice will decide to actually stand up and be men and exercise their voice so that we can win back our country. It is the last free country thanks to our constitution, but it is also being radically eroded away pun intended. And so with that in mind, when are the men going to stand up? because in the, you know, one thing I always say, and you ask this question, it already triggered me.

So I'm just going to jump into this real quick, is that if I were to, see, I come from a communist country. I escaped the Soviet Union as a kid. My dad was a member of the communist regime. And his whole thing was, we're going to go to a country that affords us freedom and opportunity so long as you serve that country. And he said, it's backed by this document called the Constitution. cool so we escape in 1980 i was six years old and we come here and in that time we've seen the slow erosion of the constitution of our freedoms of our liberties uh and of course of that first amendment the freedom of speech which is backed by the second amendment the right to bear arms and we're seeing a constant attack on that and i share this with you because when our rights are being

encroached and people think well someone else is going to go and do something about it i'm sure someone else is working on it. That's what happened when, and during World War II, when Germany killed millions of Jews. Everyone else thought that someone else would stop it. And so I'm just here to maybe message to people that we are that someone else. Yeah. I mean, we're, we're just going to get hard and heavy, quick and fast. I'd swell the love about it. So where did this, where did it all start, man? Where did this erosion begin? I don't know where there's this fine line with me. personally where we can't all personally attack every single issue in life. And you can fight me on that.

But like I just have so many battles that I can fight. And we need to fight some battles and maybe fight some wars, not too many battles. I don't know where the structure falls. And then there's the common sense that there's this erosion of the things that you're talking about and accepting things that shouldn't be accepted as Americans. I don't know where that started to fall, but I also don't know how many things can we take all on at once. Am I just being, you know, a puss about that?

Or like, how do you fight? Which battles do you fight? Yeah, well, like, you have kids. I'm sure you got kids, right? Yeah, I got four boys. There you go. So you got four boys. And so you know this.

With your boys, you have to pick and choose your battles. Yeah. If you can't battle everything. Like my son is 17 years old, two years ago at 15. he said, hey, mom, dad, I think I want to get my ears pierced. And apparently he had been working up to that for two weeks, thinking about how he's going to pitch us, et cetera. Now, I immediately was like, what do you want to get in your ears?

He's like, just a couple of studs. I'm like, cool, done. I knew that wasn't a battle I'm willing to fight. Now, if he said, hey, mom and dad, I'm 15 and I want to get a back tattoo, that might be a battle. I'm willing to fight. So you're absolutely right, bro, and that we can't fight every battle. Just like in business, we need singularity of focus if we want to,

accomplish the outcome. And so there's a lot of small battles that are common sense battles. Like, do I, am I going to fight the battle of people's pronouns right now? Probably not. Like, I can care less. Call yourself a bookshelf if you want. But I will fight the battle of the erosion of the dollar. I will fight the battle of the inflation that's taking place. I will want to fight the battle where we've got a commander in chief who I believe has some cognitive dysfunction. And we've all turned a blind eye to all of that. Those are all battles worth fighting.

I will fight the battle of censorship of our First Amendment. It's the First Amendment for a reason. I will fight the battle of the erosion of our Second Amendment. So we do need singular to be a focus. And then, you know, given Jocco Willink a shout out for his book, Extreme Ownership, he talks about prioritize and execute. So if those were the five or six big battles to fight to be able to save our country, like during the pandemic man I run a fit franchise fit body boot camp you know we had over 700 locations

worldwide and during the 10 months of 2020 we lost over 200 franchise locations I'd had to pick and choose the battles I needed to fight to be able to save locations to be able to save certain states that were more friendly to letting us run our gyms and you know maybe let others die and you have to prioritize and execute but it's not impossible it's just we have to have that conversation as a nation. And until that happens, and I think it will. It just, it's unfortunate that it has to get so bad, almost like, you know, when someone's like an alcoholic in the family and they're crashing their cars, they're getting arrested,

but it reaches a point where the whole family gets together to have that intervention. I feel like we need to have a national intervention. And I feel like we might be coming up to that sooner than later. I think the only way we can get there is if we could somehow figure out that it's not a left and right decision. This is a common sense American discussion. You know, like this isn't about right. This isn't about left. This is about fucking American rights and about the American way of being able to speak our minds, have freedom of speech.

Carry guns. Perhaps what the Second Amendment is, you know. But everything is so fucking left and right. you can't, it's so polarizing and so like you can't just have a fundamental discussion. And that's the shit that just drives me crazy. Yeah. Well, here's the thing on that, though. If you and I decided that we're going to team up and we're going to invade, well, I don't know, let's say we're going to invade Canada.

They're pretty late back and chill. Yeah. We can't get that done. Right. You and I are going to build this massive army and Navy and you and I are going to invade Canada and take over. we're going to call it Ryan and Bedrosland. And now, as you and I are planning over your kitchen table, we're probably not, we're probably going to go,

all right, dude, are we worried about the elderly people of Canada? No, no, we're not. Are we worried about the children of Canada to attack us and fight us back? No, not worried about them. Are we worried about the women? Are we worried about the women? No, no, we're not about the word. We're worried about the capable, able-bodied men.

All right, so then before we go into Canada, what should we do? Well, hey, Ryan, why don't we take the next 15, 20 years, and create an erosion of the fiber of masculinity. Create this dysfunction in men. Weaken them. Make them docile. Make them dependent. Confuse them.

Separate them by class. Separate them by left and right. Separate them by black and white. Separate them by, you know, the jab or no jab. Have so many elements that separate them so that they can't come together as a tribe as an army to stand up against our opposition. And so it kind of seems like, I'm not. Not a tinfoil hat kind of guy, but it kind of seems like they've done a damn good job separating the country from left to right to black and white to all those different things. Because when you do, you don't have unity, which is why we need to become a family again and have that intervention to get old cousin Joe out of that seat.

Yeah. It's, you read the art of war. Yeah. With a better, better, better strategy than what you just described, you know, it almost seems intentional, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. But again, I'm not here to be political and all that stuff, man. I'm a free market capital. Capitalist.

I want to make a ton of money and do a lot of good with it. So I certainly want to keep the conversation positive, but we do need to have these conversations so people do start thinking for themselves and not being told how to think. And I think that's the takeaway, Badros, right there. You know, for everybody listening, you know, we've gone heavy and hard right at it. But you need to hear this because we need to think for yourself and think clearly

and not be leaned or put. pointed towards one direction because of popularity or whatever, you need to be convicted. And I think that's what it's about. Meadors, I do want to give some props and some attention to your background and history. Obviously, you can pick up your book and they can do enough Googling. I don't want to, you know, wear that out. And I think you're such a good storyteller. I think you're just having such an amazing foundation.

I do want to do some justice to that for the audience. I'm talking a little bit about that story, building up one of the, fastest growing franchises in the country. So let's talk a little bit about that background. Sure. So the background of how I can't do that and say it for the background of how I build the franchise. Yeah, let's start. You know, we'll do, let's do justice to both of those.

And I think that's an important story because about what we started down this path of of American way, the American country. I think your history is what matters in that foundational of what sets your mind where it is. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So, so really when you when you just imagine my dad through the sky, he said he's like, he's 89 years old today, alive and well, and in his 40s, he came to the conclusion. Well, Billy enough for that.

But in the 40s, he decided that I'm going to pull the trigger and I'm going to escape the Soviet Union. So we're Armenian. Armenia was under Soviet control, Russian control. My dad was one of the 18% of the population that was actually a member of the Communist Party. So he was a card party member, a communist party member, and people always go, well, my choice, right? Yeah, but if you said no, when they ask you to get party member, you're shipped off to Siberia and never to be heard from again. So long story short, this dude left to a communist passport at home all the time.

Never take it out with them, never exercise his right to be able to question people and to be able to check businesses. All the businesses were run by the system. Everybody worked for the state. And so part of being a communist party member is you can do surprise inspections in the region that you're in. My dad was just like, hey, live with that thing. And he's the guy that wore Georgians, or Rayvans, listened to Elvis. He was full on American. And so he decides that we're going to escape.

So he does a lot of side gigs, collects about 25,000 roubles, which is enough to bribe the people that needed to bribe for allow us to escape. aging Italy, 10 days into Italy. And my dad always the fans that I tell this part of the story exactly as it happened. We went to the American consul in Italy. We said we declared ourselves as political refugees. We said we wanted to legally

enter the United States. And so after 10 days of pumping my dad for information, after all, because he came as a party member, they healed entered us into the United States. My dad chose California of all places because hey, why not? Beams the weather,

great topography, you never have to see snow again. And I love this state. And I will stay in the state, and for the much people shit on it, you'll never find a better state, climate, and geography. I can guarantee you that. I've traveled the entire world. But anyway, that said, the difficulty said,

is this country offers some freedom and opportunity, so long as you serve the people in it. Find a solution to serve people. You could have value. And so I just, being the youngest of the family, believe that wholeheartedly, and decided that's what we're going to do. Now, I got to tell you, we grew up in sectionate housing, which is government-assisted housing.

My dad worked three or four jobs at any given time to be able to make enough money to pay for our strict whole apartments that we lived in. But one of the times I got lice because the apartment that we lived in was so filthy. My mom had to have my dad siphon out gasoline in the park car to wash my hair with gas. And you couldn't even afford Lysstream in. So I didn't speak English. I didn't understand her stamp it culture. All I named is add value in certain humanity. Ad by your serving madness as I grew up, I just took a liking for fitness and decided that I was going to go into the personal training space and I wanted to help people transform their bodies and their minds.

You know this. You're in great shape. When you transform your body, their mind follows, you become more optimistic, more positive, more focus, more disciplined, mental toughness, all those things. Confidence, source, and group. I love seeing my clients do that. So I get to ask myself, how do I scale my personal training business? Thankfully, one of my personal training clients, this older gentleman, Jim Branco,

very crude, because you'll never be able to scale unless you know how to sell. And you're a horrible sale like a kid. And I, he said, Jim, I vetted what I sued you a six-month training program

three times a week. Okay, seven grand that you paid, man. He goes, I came in wanting a six wealth program three times a week. You just took my order. And no one had ever spoken to me that directly before. He goes,

you're an order taker, not the salesperson, and until you can learn to sell, you're never going to grow. And so he really could getters and he could be multi-operer company in the automotive industry. And he brought me at the Zig Zigziger cassette tapes, Brian Tracy books, Wom Hopkins. Like, I was introduced to all these sales people. And I would listen to the cassette tapes. I would read the books. And I started to develop the skill of persuasion and influence sales, overcoming objections.

And before I knew it, there was four of buyers. five, six trainers were to water one hundredly before I knew that. He loaned money at 8% interest to open a pile of little studio. That led to four more. That led for coaching and consulting gym owners. That led for starting this giant empire, third body, who care. So as the housing market crashed back in 2008, I knew that one-on-one personal training was not going to be a thing anymore at that point.

And so I had learned from Jim Franco that any time there's a disaster, there's people capitalizing on a disaster. like when the stock market crashes, housing market crash, anytime there's a disaster, not everyone loses their money. He taught me that money doesn't just go away, it exchanges hands. And the example he gave me was, he goes, even at the worst of economy, you can see people drive in Mercedes, Land Rovers, Rolls Royces, Bentleys, etc. And so he goes, you just have to find who's got the money and end up adding value to their

life. With that in mind, housing market crashed in 2008. I knew people weren't going to be able to afford one-on-one expensive personal training. So I said, if we can take that outdoor boot camp that personal trainers do outside group training, bring it indoors with equipment, a system, and legitimize it, I can create a franchise system where it's one trainer, many clients, and bring down the cost of personal training because it'll be a group environment, group personal training. That's how Fit Body Bootcamp was born.

Like within the first two years, we had hit 100 locations. And, you know, as we grew to 200, 300, 300, 400, 500, 500, 500, 500. locations worldwide and beyond, we were hitting the Inc. 5,000 list, entrepreneur 200 fastest-sporned franchise lists. And what I had realized at that point is whenever there is a disaster, you can become a solution and therefore create a new product to serve humanity. And so that's how Fit Body Boot Camp grew. And through there, as we grew beyond 500 FitBody Boot Camp locations and the average location has 300 to 500 paying clients, you know, they'll pay about $249 a month, I realized, all right, what else do our clients need? So here's another great

opportunity for entrepreneurs. Like, all right, if you're serving people who are trying to get fit, lose weight, what else do they need? Well, they probably need supplements. They need protein. They need hydration supplements. They need something to help them with their immune system and inflammation. So I said, well, why not create a supplement line as well? So we created truly a supplement company that serves our clients throughout Fit Body, Blue Camp, locations worldwide. And here's the crazy thing about that. You fast forward all these years in 2020 when the pandemic took place and nobody was buying a gym franchise from me because everyone thought that gyms were, well, gyms were struggling. Jims and restaurants took it in the

shorts. You know that. And so it actually surprised me that in 2020, we actually sold six new franchise locations. And I was like, every time someone would buy one. And like, are you sure you're buying a franchise location for me right now? They go, you know, I'm not going to give you a refund. That was very transparent. At that point, I'm doing sales because we had, we had, you know, we didn't have much, you have a thin skeleton staff. Yeah. And I said, listen, I know things will turn around with the economy and when they do, you're going to be in a good opportunity. But just to give you some contrast, we would normally, before the pandemic, we would sell six to eight new franchise locations per month. And now all of 2020 sold six locations.

And so I was just grateful for those six because, you know, in that time, we also lost over two franchise locations. But here's a beautiful thing about it is when the pandemic happened and gyms had to shut down, our supplement company started to hockey stick. And our immune system product, because everybody was really into building their immune system, trying to fight off the virus, that thing went on Amazon and just started blowing up. So there's so much to be said about creating multiple income streams because when one stream dries up, you've got another stream that might hockey stick and really keep you a flow out. And so I've had the good, fortune, obviously, over the years to build many income streams by investing in companies,

apparel companies, software, et cetera. But my two core companies, FitBody Boot Camp, the international franchise, and Trulene, thankfully continue to thrive. And they're in an industry where I love serving people, making them better, building their immune system, building their health and confidence. And so that's always the industries that I like to play in. Yep. Bejro, there's a lot to impact there and really appreciate you going backwards from the beginning. I mean, the biggest, you know, There's about 12 takeaways. Let me start with the first one. We talk about the American dream and we talk about the opportunities as Americans.

Then, you know, I see a lot of people they talk all the time about, like, how blessed you are. Like, to wake up, if you're born in America and the opportunities that are at your feet, no matter like how bad it is. But, you know, you're an immigrant. You were not born in America, but came over, had the opportunity, but saw the American dream. and how you took it by the balls and, you know, like, have become what everybody wants to. Like, what, where is that, I don't know that it's been lost, but where did that, is it just hoods, is it nature or nurture? Like, I hear, I hear guys like you, Badros that I just want to, like, you know, like,

man hug and, like, high five, you know, like, in the best possible way, you know, and I'm like, but where does that come from? Is it nature or nurture? Like, is it just because you wanted it more? I don't know. When you've eaten out of dumpsters, when you lived in Section 8 housing, had your hair washed with gasoline, when you've seen people yelling at your parents and telling him to go back to your own fucking country, you're taking our great American jobs, which, by the way,

my dad had a, when we first came, the first two years, he had a newspaper route at 2 a.m. I don't think anybody wanted that job. And he was a busboy at a pizzeria. And then he pumped gas at an ARCO in the middle of the night. So that wasn't necessarily the great American dream that. he was living, but he knew that the sacrifices were going to make. So I got to see a contrast, right? And I really believe that if every American, when they turn like 18 years old, have to go

and either go into the military to see the world and what real racism is, what real criminals, other countries' governments are, they would come back and they would love and defend this great country of ours so much because they wouldn't want it to change and erode. And if it's not the military, then at least we should be made to go out and serve another country, build a well, build a school, build homes, build something in third world countries so that you can have a contrast when you come back, you can appreciate it. But if you grew up in a great country like this where you could literally have your face in your phone walking down a parking lot at 10 o'clock at night, feeling safe that you're not

going to get mugged, like, come on, that doesn't happen. You go to Armenia, bro, you have your face in the phone, so I was clubbing you over the head right now today and taking your shit. And so I share that with you because I don't know if it's nature or nurture. I think it's just a contrast because the American dream is not dead. It's completely changed. I think it's actually the barrier to the American dream. And I think you'd agree with me is lower because today you've got the internet.

Yeah. So if I was broke, if I was broke when I had some back. Okay. I can use my goofy little iPhone to create how to videos and put them on Instagram, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and, and Facebook, and that would, the algorithm would help me build an audience. And then I would go get a free WordPress site and I'd make a sales page, a website. I'd use PayPal, which is free, and I could take payments. And all of a sudden I've got now PayPal, I've got a list, social media, I've got a platform, I can that course and sell it, like, or have a coaching program, or maybe leverage some money

somebody and say look i'll do the sweaty and you give me 30 000 i'm going to create a supplement liner we're going to sell it like the barrier is so much lower because you've got access to social media you've got access to a free website you can take money for free what is happening though is we've been conditioned to be comfortable we are too everything is too convenient you can order on grubhub or door dash your burrito and watch it come down your neighborhood streets and people get huffy and puffy when it stopped at a red light and you're just wondering where your burritos. Motherfucker, get out and buy your burrito. Go out and build a burrito.

Make a burrito. When you get so complacent and comfortable of doing all this shit, then why would you want to even make a free website, make a how-to video? People have just gotten so lazy. They expect money to roll in. But any years ago, 20 Robbins said something. I was sharing the stage with him at Joe Polish's event at the Genius Network event. This was 2016.

And he was clapping his big, giant. hands and I was getting miced up to speak next and I was very intimidated by Tony Robbins like how do you follow that giant of the man and he's clapping his big giant hands on stage and he goes winter is coming prepare for winter anybody can thrive in in summer and spring but winter is coming you should be built for winter and I was like that motherfucker's right like we could all do great when the economy's thriving but sometime the economy's going to ship whether it's an act of war on our country like in 2001 whether it's a pandemic, whether it's a stock market crash, housing market crash, winter will always come. And what's happening now, winter has come, and it's getting colder, and you're

seeing people die literally and metaphorically, financially, emotionally, mentally, but it's going to be a thinning of the herd. And those of us that have what it takes are going to thrive out of this. I'm going to ask you a question. And it's not, it has nothing to do with anything I thought I was going ask you, but based on what you just answered, so the next thing I'm going to ask is your ability to pivot. And I think people don't appreciate exactly what that means or the power of that, which you have a true strength in. I'm going to come back to that, but I'm going to cede that with you right now. As an immigrant and as being someone believes in American dream, sees all that, how do you, where do you, where do you fall in the open borders situation?

Like, is that a, is that a, is that a tough one for you or an easy one for you? no that's an easy one for me man lock down the borders period yeah i came in legally i entered the country legally we did the paperwork that was necessary we entered legally and when you come to a country legally and you paid your dues and you're going to be paying taxes and putting into social security you are going to value the place more and no no never mind that and it's not to say that anyone comes in illegally isn't going to value it obviously people are risking their lives to cross the rio grande the risk in their lives to go over those walls, walk through the desert. I get it.

But also amongst those people are really bad dudes that are bringing in fentanyl, really bad dudes that might be bringing in dirty bombs because I also have dear friends like Tim Kennedy and others who are great Americans, great patriots, connected to the military and have a lot of access to information. And when I get to hear from them what they're catching at the border, I wonder what's not being caught that's coming in that's going to be a dirty bomb, more drugs. drugs or some kind of child abduction? Like, what is going to happen? Because we're not betting who's coming in. All I'm saying is let's bet who comes in. You would never let open your doors and just

like strangers come into your party, would you? You'd have an imitation. Right. So same thing. Let's just bet people out. That's all. Ding, ding, ding. Listen, folks, you know, you have to have a system and process in place to know who's coming in your front door or your back door. And look, if there's not a condition for it to happen, then there needs to be. to be because you got to be able to appreciate you got to understand our ways and cultures and values you know so boom there it is for people that don't understand why there has to be some some protections there now let's talk about some business pivoting uh you know you talked for i don't know 15 minutes who knows how long it was it doesn't matter and there you know all i heard this fucker knows how to pivot

he knows and it is a skill because everybody gets so locked in this is my baby this is my business it's going nowhere no you got to pivot that shit and that's what you're going to pivot that shit and that's what you are brilliant at. I see it. I hear it. You've done it in a million ways. We even talked about some of your coaching stuff. But talk to me about, is it just smart? I'm sorry, I just get back this nature versus nurture when I've talked to guys that I like that are successful. But tell me about pivoting, because that's what you did, you know, like understanding and the nuance of what's happening. So in 2020, the term pivot was just like overplayed, right? You saw on a Fox and you're CNN. And everybody was talking about pivoting. And people think that it was exclusive to

2020, 2021. I'm talking about 2008 when you pivoted. Right. You're the master pivoter. Group fitness. You said literally yourself, you were talking about it. And I don't know. I'm like, did it hit Scott Coin Group Fitness?

Because that is essentially what happened when personal training took a dive. It was Group Fitness. That became the word pivot and fitness. But that was it. And so what happens is most people pivot, they just start entrepreneurs pivot. They just don't realize it because it happens slowly over time. Like the one, you know, technology comes, marketing gets more sophisticated, consumers become more educated in the way they buy.

And so businesses evolve in terms of transparency. Like Edmonds.com was created back in the day. And now you could see what the sticker price of a car is. And so there's more sophisticated buyers. And so dealerships had these little window stickers and said, hey, this is our best price. We're going to offer you. We don't haggle. No slimy sales guys.

Just buy it or not, right? So things do slowly change. That is a pivot. It just happens slowly over time. And in 2020, I developed this little term here at our headquarters. I was like, guys, we either pivot or we perish. Like, everything was pivot or perish. And because when changes happen quickly, like on March 16th, 2020, I announced to all

of our franchise locations. I said, guys, close down your locations for two weeks. We're all going to flatten the curve. Because all we knew at that time, Ryan, was that this is some kind of a death virus, right? And so they said two weeks. But I come from a communist country, and I've been taught to never trust big government. So while I said, we're going to shut down for two weeks.

I also, when the video turned off, I turned to the CEO of my company, Bryce, and I said, Bryce, prepare to be shut down for a few months. And so let's start building online coaching models, workouts, videos, Facebook pages, YouTube, Facebook groups, et cetera, for all of our franchise locations so that if this goes beyond two weeks, we can move all the clients online. Because I knew one thing we were not going to do, we were not going to shut down our franchise brand like Orange Theory did and say, well, sorry, figure it out. We're not going to charge you a franchise royalty. That means I have to fire all my employees. You might have to fire your employees. And sad, man. So sure is, sure as shit,

we went well beyond the two weeks. And so we, by week number four, we pivoted to online coaching and all of those clients kept paying our franchise locations. Our franchise locations kept paying their royalties to us. So we were able to support them. And we just continued to pivot as we went, creating different coaching programs and models. And if you don't pivot, you will perish. Sometimes pivots happen slowly over time and sophistication. Other times, a dramatic life event will force you to pivot. And if you don't, if all these motherfuckers take the wait and see approach, they end up dying, which is good for the rest of us because we take on more market share.

Boom. Love it. What? What's the Baydra's personal brand? When you hear that word, do you cringe when you hear personal brand? Like, it's become like a bad word, you know? like it's overplayed and look as a marketer and as a writer like and i've written you know can you hear me now like you know coming up with some some creative lines in my history i struggle with

what to call paid personal branding that's not personal brand because it's gotten such a bad rap but when i hear the bay dress name like you know that's a personal brand like but what's your feeling on that so if you if you had asked me this 10 years ago i would have been like bro shut up you know like shut up i come from the dan kennedy gary halberd direct response world right and like You know that world. Oh, I know, I know exactly. Shit, do you say those names? I know exactly what that means.

Yeah. And so, like, for me, and especially, you're into direct response if you were, you know, broke because you go, I got $1. I got to turn this up to $2. Like, I can't put up a billboard like Coca-Cola or Gatorade and the bus bench. And they go, well, you know, it's branding. And one of those billboards or bus benches are going to get me a client. I got to know, I got to hold every dollar accountable.

So I grew up, like, locked on to direct response. And that was my Bible. But up until about. five years ago when I started watching what the rock does. I'm also very observant. And I think, you know, going back to what you said, nature and nurture, I am factory installed by nature, very observant. I learn more by watching than by being taught. And so I was like, dude, I like The Rock. I watch WWF. I'm a hillbilly somewhat of a, you know, I grew up very blue collar. And so how did this wrestler become an actor and not even a great actor, but then create a personal brand?

Like, what the fuck does he know about tequila? What does he know about shoes? What does he know about water? What does he know about ice cream? What does he know about movies? What does he know about football that he just bought the XFL? When he became a personal brand, people knew him, liked him, trusted him, connected with him, saw him as the everyday guy.

They very quickly began to buy everything. sold. And I said, this motherfucker's onto something. He's not the best actor. He's not the best athlete. Like, if you read his story, like, he didn't even make him the Canadian fucking football league, bro. Right? And I love The Rock. Like, and I love him. In fact, I think six months ago, he started following me. And I texted a mutual friend. And I said, hey, I think the Rock accidentally followed me. You might want to tell him to unfollow me, just being facetious, Phil Heath, seven time, Mr. Olivia. And, and feels like, no, man, he doesn't actually follow anyone. Yeah. So, you know, but.

I realized very quickly, he knows how to connect, which is what you do as a marketer, which is what I do as a marketer. I connect with people, and that is a personal brand. So I think when you develop a personal brand where people know you like, you trust, you see the dark and the light side of you, get to meet your family, your dog, what your lifestyle is, you show transparency. They have such a deep connection that if I started promoting fucking, I don't know, cough drops, I could start selling cough drops.

And so because of that, I started wearing fuel hunt shirts. just because I like the brand. I liked the brand. I was a customer. They reached out to me and said, hey, every time you wear our shirts on your podcast and on stage, you move the money needle. I said, well, can we jump on the phone?

They thought we're going to jump on the phone so they can start sending me free clothes and I could wear it. I'm like, hey, how much can I invest to take 20% of the company? I made an investment to 20% of the company because I'm a brand, and when the brand wears it, the money needle moves. I think that was the day.

I love that. Right? Right. Right. So there you go, man. I may convert to personal branding, even though I hate that term myself. I do, too. I hate it. But I use it because people know what it is.

But Bezos is definitely a personal brand. It's while you're sitting here on the Radcast. But it's just amazing. I just don't understand why people don't get it. It's like it took me a while to get over the cringe worthiness, but I don't know what the block is. You know, like what's that roadblock? Is it just, is it just, I am worried about other people's what they think about me. Like, I mean, is that just what it is?

You know, I do wonder that because social media has done it where people have become so worried about how many people like and share and engage. Yeah. Like people have become hyper, hyper sensitive to that. And so, you know, me, I can give two shits. I'll post a piece of content and I'm like, wow, this was going to pop off. I'm like, oh, that did nothing. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow's will pop off. I never know what episode on my podcast or what social media post is going to pop up.

I just listen to my gut, my radiance. Whatever the source tells me to write, I write, or write, I orate. And then if it pops off, I'm like, well, look at that. They wanted to learn, you know, the seven things that men do to ruin their lives. Here I thought they wanted to make a build a $200 million empire like I did. The $200 million dollar empire show, like flopped. The seven things men do to ruin their lives popped off. If you had asked me to bet on that, I would have lost a lot of money.

it. Well, yeah. You just never know. You got to, it's, uh, educate and entertain and entertain a lot. Or just be human, man. People that's got to be more humanity. You got to be human. You know, people say, what's your schick? It's not B to B. It's not B to C. It's B to H. This is a human. Like, we're all human beings. We relate to one another. You know, like stop beating. Yeah. You know, that's the, that's the formula right there. So, uh, what's, uh, what's, uh, what's our biggest threat today? What's like we talked, I think we may have started at the beginning.

We end at the beginning with literally, you know, but maybe from a business standpoint, you know, you got AI, you got GPT, everybody gets scared about shit. I'm just like, that's a tool, man. But what do you see is, what's the, what are the gray clouds and the blue sky? Like what, for, for Bejros? Yeah, so I'll start out.

I'll hit you with three categories. Our biggest threat to our country right now is the debt that our country is in and China and who we're in debt too. Yeah. And we need a great need. Our greatest threat is that. We're in a country. We're in too much debt.

We're in debt to China. And China has become a very large superpower. And we have a very weak leader in power. So that is the threat to our country. In terms of threat to businesses, it's not chat, GPT or AI. I think just like the internet, people that were like in the beginning back in 1998, 99, man, the internet is the whole thing. And then when they had that whole bubble burst in 2000, people were like, oh, man, the internet's just a fat. It's going to go away.

There were headlines, New York Times, L.A. Times, Internet's a fat. No, we just figured out how to use it to become more efficient. AI, while it sounds scary when you hear headlines like, oh, my God, two computers started to talk to each other. And what if, and one of them said they want to come alive and feel emotions. listen, do I just wonder my mind as I'm going shifting from one meeting to another, like what would happen of chat GPT and that Boston Dynamics robot ended up like connecting? You know, I do wonder like what would happen? What would happen?

Then I go, oh, we just need to make sure that motherfucker can't plug himself in. And then as soon as the battery dies were going. But then I move on because humanity typically leans towards pessimism. We go, it's going to be bad for us. when in reality AI is making shitty copywriters, better copywriters. It's really helping people understand and search for things better. There's always a benefit to it. Gary Vaynerchuk, many years ago, five years ago,

posted a black and white photo from New York. People were in Subways back in the 50s. Everyone's got a newspaper open and they're facing the newspaper. And the modern version of that is people are on buses and subways on their iPhones. So, you know, when people go, well, the good old days, people would talk. Like, there was a picture from the 1950s where the entire subway was packed full of people with their face and their information. Information is king. And that person who can give information, disseminate information, feed information, with humor, with entertainment, in a way that's easily digestible will always win.

So I'm not threatened by AI. I think we just need to figure out how to use it in our favor. And over time, we figure things out. And then finally, what's the biggest threat to humans, to individuals, while we all worry about, hey, who's our president, you know, AI and all that stuff. The biggest thing you got to worry about is the conversation that takes place right between your ears, man. The inner self-talk, that is it, the story that people tell themselves, that I was broke, I was molested. Look, I was molested as a kid. I'm a foreigner.

I came to this country. If I list off all the things why I should be drunk and hopped up on drugs and suicidal, bro, there's a million reasons why I should. But if I don't tell my story to myself and feel sorry to myself, instead go, all those things made me more resilient, more resourceful, and therefore, and more compassionate towards humanity, and I'm just going to keep creating solutions to problems people have, and I'm going to charge money for it and be able to put that money to good use, the story that we tell ourselves, the conversation that we have, the biggest threat to an individual. And if they can control that narrative between their ears, they will control their life. boom there it is it is our egos are the biggest liar that ever existed amen if you with adults know that you need to know it bedros i'm going to ask a favor i'm going to ask a favor i'm going to ask favor i want we're going to do this again in like three to six months we need a part two bro i would be with bedros because i want there's so many things of lays i want to get in but i value your time

and i really our people our audience likes to to snack on these things and you you know, we're going to give them a few snacks of Badros because I feel like you got so much knowledge to tell you. You got so much. And look, I consider you like one of those, one of our real modern leaders right now. And I think people need to understand your perspective and growing men and some of the stuff you're doing behind the scenes with that. And I really want to go down those channels with you if you'll do me that honor in the next few months. Brother, I would be honored to do that. And I would have gotten, thank you for that opportunity. Yeah.

Beidros, the BK podcast, author of Man Up, How to Cut the Bullshit and Kickass in Business. How can everybody keep help with you, brother? Best way to find me is on YouTube and Instagram at Bedros Kulian. Beidroskulian. I tell you what, guys, if it's radical, we cover it. Beidros is fucking radical, and you need to go buy his book. You need to listen to his show, and you need to follow him on Instagram,

all his content, and whatever he says, what the algorithm says. I don't give a fuck what the algorithm says. It's good shit. it. Bairos, appreciate your brother for coming on today. Thank you, man. I appreciate you, Ryan. Hey, guys, you're going to find us. Ryan is right.com. You find all the highlight clips from today.

All the info and links to this platform. Hey, a lot of ways to make money. We're just here to help you. Learn all those different avenues. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.