The Money Mondays - 7x Mr Olympia Flex Lewis & Bedros Keuilian's TOP MONEY Tips | E8

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

Flex Lewis, born James Lewis, is a professional bodybuilder who grew up with a passion for sports and fitness. He began lifting weights at the age of 15 and quickly developed a love for bodybuilding. Lewis made a name for himself in the bodybuilding world, winning his first competition at age 17. He went pro in 2007 and won the IFBB 212 Mr Olympia title for seven consecutive years, from 2012 to 2018. Lewis is known for his impressive muscularity and symmetry, as well as his dedication and discipline in his training and nutrition. In addition to his success in bodybuilding, Lewis has also ventured into the world of business, launching his own supplement line called "Dragon Nutrition" in 2016. He coaches aspiring bodybuilders, and has served as a judge for various bodybuilding competitions. -- Bedros Keuilian is a highly successful entrepreneur, business coach, and author who is best known for his work in the fitness industry. Born in Armenia and raised in the United States, Keuilian overcame a difficult childhood marked by poverty and bullying to build an empire in the fitness world. Keuilian is the founder and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp and has authored several books, including "Man Up: How to Cut the Bullshit and Kick Ass in Business (and in Life)" and "The Art of Selling Fitness." In addition to his work in the fitness industry, Keuilian is a sought-after business coach and speaker, known for his expertise in marketing and entrepreneurship. He has helped thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs to build successful companies and achieve financial freedom. -- The Money Mondays is a business podcast here to teach you how to make money, invest money, and donate money by showcasing some of the world's most successful people and how they do the same. Hosted by serial entrepreneur Dan Fleyshman, the youngest founder of a publicly traded company in history, this money podcast gives you an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the wealthiest celebrities, entrepreneurs, athletes and influencers make, invest and donate money. If you want to learn more business and investing while you work to improve your financial life, you're in the right place! Subscribe for new weekly episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneymondays?sub_confirmation=1 Dan Fleyshman, The Money Mondays Learn more here: https://themoneymondays.com Watch all the podcast episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k Subscribe for new weekly videos: https://www.youtube.com/@DanFleyshman?sub_confirmation=1 Let’s Connect... Website: https://themoneymondays.com Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-money-mondays/id1663564091 Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneymondays LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-money-mondays/about/ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@themoneymondays FB: https://www.facebook.com/The-Money-Mondays-110233585203220/

Most people would say, well, you're not going to win or get contracts until you're professional. I didn't have that mentality. I was like, I'm here. I have nothing to lose everything to gain. I came here with a glass half full. I came here with an immigrants mentality and truly chast. All these contracts don't. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Money Mondays. I'm here with my co-host, The Real Tars in, and we have a very special guest. They have been waiting to see each other for years. So I'm really excited for this moment to happen. We have seven time champion, Mr. Olympia, one of my favorite humans in the world to listen

to, talk to, watch him as he's built one of the nicest gyms I've ever seen in my life. Mr. Flex Lewis. Thank you guys. And the crowd goes well. Probably as well. People are excited and everything. All right, so here on the money, Monday's, we talk about three main topics.

How do people make money? How do they invest money? How do they give it away to charity? But first, we want to get the quick two-minute bio from Mr. Flex Lewis and we can get straight to the money. Well, firstly, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here. It's been great to watch you guys start this, get some incredible guests on and get some insight also. So, for myself, quick bio, which is going to be hard to do. Flags, Flags Lewis from Wales, United Kingdom, obviously real name Stephen James Lewis, but Nicknamed got picked up a six years old. Nothing to a bodybuilding, I played rugby. Come from a steel town, a mine end town,

father was a steel man, grandfather was a call man, mother was a nurse who was made unfortunately disabled, so I grew up in a very love-in household, I want to preface that, but definitely one that wasn't filled with the extra things that some people obviously have the luxury to have. So money was hard to come by but very well, very hard worked for. For me I got into bodybuilding after seeing a book a 12 years old on Tom Platt's. My My aunt had been a nurse, she'd gone to London, brought this book back, I seen it, opened it up, blew my mind, won it legs like this guy, I was on my path to building legs, which also coincided with my rugby career,

kind of went into a great run. I had the opportunity to play rugby professionally, but from a free gym membership, I decided to do this bodybuilding thing. Not my full-time profession in my head. I ended up doing my first show, winning my first show, getting my free gym membership. And then next thing I know I'm on that play into the United States and this amazing world

of bodybuilding up. So in that period of time, I've invested hard into the brand, invested into the bodybuilding opens up. So in that period of time I've invested hard into the brand, invested into the bodybuilding. I've been able to win and leave the armature ranks undefeated. When it's the professional ranks just retired after doing, oh my gosh, over two decades in the sport. And retired now undefeated as a two-twelfth same-time champion. And in not telling him being able to invest in businesses, scale businesses, sell businesses

while still as a champion and knowing to other realms include in the podcast with you guys. Awesome. I love it. So we are actually sitting in the parking lot, right? The second RV motor home in the back of the Dragon's Lair. This is a really large gym. Tell us the concept behind Dragon's Lair. Why is it so successful? Just tell us the whole thing about dragon's layer.

So the dragon's last started actually in Boca Raton. I've actually trained to get the real townsman to my gym, but he'd rather train in Miami. But it's another story for another time. So how this the dragon's last started was I was actually training in different gyms in Boca Raton. And as the Olympia got closer to the show, there was more and more fans turning up at the gyms obviously to meet myself which is fine and well and gas passes whatever but then they started to capitalize on the fact that I was training at the gym. Come and meet Flaks tomorrow. Flash posts. So I turn up and it's like 50 kids there with school uniform on with their mums and dads clapping when I walked in I'm like what is going on here. So um long story short I ended

up saying to the gym let me just pay. Let me just be a member here and then it eliminates all this. It won't happen again. It happened again. Went to another gym guess what it happened again to me in a different format, but nonetheless I became a Mark Deville sort of element out that gym to bring people in guess whatever and I just sat back one day and I realized like I have a roller index of people I know in the US gym equipment space and I'm just going for it. So for me to just focus on my on my brand on me when in the Olympia I found a warehouse in Bokarator which you know isn't cheap and I kicked it out with handpicked equipment which kind of talk about six to eight weeks to get together and I created this gym. Now we have no name. It was just for me to

get in there, focus, train without distraction and for the other 20 two hours of the day was closed. It was just for me to just focus for two hours. And I've seen that as an investment for film in and everything else and it evolved and evolved. No. I have a role in index of friends that we have mutually have friendships with too, that either film in Florida coming into film or they were shooting or they were wrestling or they were doing whatever they were, they found out about the gym they knew it was closed after the public.

No windows, no doors. They started training and they were doing or they were wrestling or they were doing whatever they were, they found out about the gym, they knew it was closed after the public, knowing there was no doors, they started training in there when they were in town. They started putting pens in the gym location. What can we call it? What's the gym name of the gym? What's the Dragon's Lab? It formed, again, a long story short, into an element of this being a gym that was the gym of VIPs the gym of athletes And really I had no business plan for that other than me winning a defender my total

It took it took on its own form We would have come closer the Olympia Fun sleeping in their cars waiting for athletes to turn up Well, it it became much bigger than I ever imagined so then I started putting more into it So I got out the old equipment arsenal strength, which is a company. I'm a partner in started Obviously growing and growing so then I decided to invest into the gym Even though I was never going to be open to the public, create the showroom in a sense and create this gym

which kind of looks like the gym I have now with Arsenal Stram pieces. And it looked like a fully functioning gym. We would record in there, we would do all our content in there. And I would fly in athletes for my prep. So like Fighters bring in different athletes to sharpen their tools. I had the same mentality for my prep. So like Fighters bring in different athletes to sharpen their tools.

I had the same mentality for bodybuilding. I was flying guys from Brazil, the new up-and-comers, the champions of old, to be in and around me during camp, which no other bodybuilder was doing just so I could win and defend that title and stay sharp. So again, I used that gym for seven years for its successes. And we realized then that we truly have something here. We truly do. During COVID, myself and my wife had a lot of reflection to be like, where are we gonna take this gym next? We know that it's being in demand of a public location.

So we looked at them, Florida, no offense, no offense. And we couldn't find anything. I moved to the door. I know you moved to it. And we couldn't, you know, these places we walked into, it was just not in my heart. I just was like, this is not it. As soon as I drove up to the place, this is not it.

So one of my best friends was back of fourth, here in Vegas, and Florida. And he does all the big screens for a lot of the casinos. He's got a lot of connective business here. And he was like, just come out. Nobody knows nothing. Jump on a plan, his core of their times, me and my wife jumped on a plan.

Of course, masks are not expecting anybody to know me. So we've gone off hay flicks. What are you doing in Vegas? I was like, oh, do me a favor, please don't post this for a month. Nobody knows I'm here. Of course, 15 seconds later, tagged in. So we found, we came out to the first time for Vegas,

found a couple of locations, nothing that I was kind of set in store with. Full circle, we came out again, found this building along with next store. And then we found the place we were gonna live, but we knew, or as soon as we came out here that this was gonna be the next evolution of the Dragon's Land where we were gonna be.

So Tarzan, you get hundreds of millions of views on your social media. People want you to come to their gyms, their retail stores, their supplement companies everywhere. How do you decide what type of a gym or what type of a location that you are willing to put your brand onto? Because when you walk in, just like flex, people are going to be posting about it. Now, your brand association, whether you like it or not, obviously, because people are

not attacking you. It's a good question. I mean, when I first started working out in Florida, it was like, whatever is close to my house, then I had the same problem. I couldn't work out as so many people coming up. So I did the same investment. You did, I just went to the best used gym equipment. Sorry, I bought a whole gym for my whole cell in my house.

I just stopped going to the gym and just worked out at home, which made it all better. So, but after gym is lit, like, the dragon's layer, my man's got dragon scales on every single piece. Like, the details like that, I'll be at that gym, you know? I love stuff like that. I love a quality, passion projects, you know? So, um, any gym that has a real like, real dungeon dragon, you know, no freaking windows is like, it's, I love it.

So I also love bodybuildings well too. So, you know, I'm trying to give that y'all, man. You know, I'm trying to get the other way. I'm trying to lose this muscle now, but you can catch up on dig over for sure. Yeah, sometimes I'm at the airport people like, wait, you're the guy that won the Mr. Limpier, right?

That's where he's going to long sleeve time. I don't want to embarrass him again. Yeah. So let's walk through the money part. sleeve time. I don't want to embarrass him again. All right. So let's walk through the money part. How do you decide what to charge for membership for day passes? Let's walk through the real life stuff if someone wants to open a gym. How do they decide they want to be a high-end gym,

affordable gym? There's $10 a month gyms, there's $3.00 a month gyms. How do you decide price points for a gym? Go question. So when I came to Vegas, I looked at what was here. And obviously there's a demographic, there's a gym. Good question. So when I came to Vegas, I looked at what was here. And obviously there's a demographic, there's a draw. And for us, we're kind of a bulging niche gym. I realized that there's no bodybuilding fitness per se gym here in Las Vegas. They were

targeting our world. Yes, there's a lot of great gyms. There's no question. But for me, I was coming in with this new blank slate, this energy of post-COVID, a lot of people were, you know, just excited to get back to the gym. So I wanted to bring something that was, hey, listen, this is something that was locked in pre-COVID. Yes, there's a price point that comes to it,

but like anything, you know, we're not, we're not on the money podcast here. We're not, you know, trying to be peaked. Yeah, we know that with a $9.99 member, you're going to get a $10 member. You're going to get anything that is incredibly respectful of the gym, or somebody that, if it's not bolted down, would be in their pockets. So we have a price point that the gym that kind of weeds out, I would say the lower dollar people. And it's now come from a different world too. I didn't come from money. I also found it hard at first to get my head respectfully again. I'm still

walking that humble line of charging the price I did originally. But then when I started speaking to people around me that were, listen, this is a price point that will get you everything on more, allow us to do this on more. I kind of got it, you know, because I think sometimes I've still fall into the mentality of, I'm still in wheels, you know, I still got them panties in my pocket. But that being said to what I do in the gym for the members, kind of, far exceeds the price point, what they see and what they get from being around the athletes that come in, the celebrities that come in. I mean, you guys walk us to the gym now,

you see how many heads were turned in, they were like, oh my god, is that? But nobody disrespectfully came up and jumped into middle-level conversations there. They are, you saw used to see and celebrities walking through the gym and that's what they really love here too. So that element is brought to this gym. I've invested a lot into the infrastructure as well as all the small details to the big details that are seen. The big details being the, you know, the massive graffiti drug and this on the wall all the way to the big details that are seen, the big details being the massive graffiti dragon that's on the wall all the way to the smaller details which kind of are big details in some sort of senses. The details are on the pieces as you mentioned where we spray painted dragon scale on every single piece. So great. Yeah. And even with Roger, your videographer was talking about the light in.

We put a lot into the light into, you know, we just didn't turn lights on in that place. We meant you were that there's certain color light in as well as strategic litany areas, five leads to be under. We don't just have bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts here too, we've brought in because of that light-mindedness have C-faiters, boxers, football players, we have a lot of football players that live here in the off season that love bodybuilding workouts and fortunately

cannot do with them when they're in season because they're on camera, you know. So we've done again a lot to make ourselves the niche within a niche, but in that time period, because we focus so much into the smaller details, when I've taken a step back now, we've now become a global brand and recognize globally. To the point now, we're with a number one destination in the entire country, number one day pass in the entire country. And we, if we look at the amount of people that have come here from all over the world, it's humbling. It's incredible. But again, there's never a more than a day pass, there's never a more than a week pass, there's never a more than a membership because we provide, you know, we provide that service along with a membership

that again, there's no other in Las Vegas. So let's say someone's opening a gym or currently has a gym. What are the other ants layer revenues that they can make? Obviously, there's you can have supplements there, you can have clothing there, you can have beverages there, water cooler, you can have mega fit meals. What are the different things that people could do?

I saw you had massage therapy. What are different things that someone that's thinking about investing into a gym or has a gym? What are the other things that could be considered to make their gym make more money? So outside of the things you've already mentioned on just off the top of my head, there's, you know, we have vacant rooms that we created that we've been able to rent out to various different massage therapists, chiropractors. Again, for us, we try to be a gym that is a one-stop shop, where if somebody's coming in, they don't have to go anywhere elsewhere to seek out the best. And that's what we've done. You've noticed, and people will say about our gym is, we have the best, the best all-in-one roof. To the things you've already mentioned,

I'm trying to think of the top of my head. And with everything we have there, we've got the cliche stuff with the store, the supplement side of things. Are those things important to our business? When you have a gym, is it important to have other things for people? Almost definitely.

There's so much secondary sealer comes in, especially if you're looking at it just a tourist perspective. A tourist comes in for our gym. They're so excited. They're walking in this day Disneyland. So where kind of unique in a sense? So if a gym owner was just about to open up a gym, they kind of got a different business model to me.

So as really this is my first gym, I'm not the expert gym guy that is going to give you all the tips and tricks. I can tell you from my perspective, what went right, what went wrong. And as I never went in with this, as a gym, never been wanting to be a gym owner, I've gone in this, what I would love to see if I was designed the perfect gym. So with that said, if I was looking at again, the tortoise aspect of things, the tortoise, tortoise, tortoise comes in whatever is around the world. They're so excited from first point of contact. My staff should be just like Disneyland. Hey, guys, where are you from? It's amazing to see you. And they're coming in with a suitcase,

this fresh of the plane that coming in from there, whatever it would be, they need to have that energy matched. If not, they know a lot of people also coming in a little there, whatever it would be, they need to have that energy matched. If not, then a lot of people also are coming in a little timmer. It's like, oh, I can't believe I'm here. My stuff will get the best out of that. So, the whole experience comes and goes, they've done their work out, they've taken pictures, they've snapped chatted, they've Instagramed, they've done everything, they then will go into the store. And that secondary sale is massive. That small little hole in the wall store for us

is being a massive, lucrative business in itself, just that hole in the wall. All right, so let's go from take off the gym hat and put on the seven-time Mr. Lovie hat. How does a bodybuilder make money? Is it endorsement deals, sponsorships? It's expensive to be a bodybuilder. Obviously you gotta eat a lot, take a lot of supplements,

and there's a lot that goes on to building the perfect physique. Walk us through how does a bodybuilder make money, and what does it cost to be a bodybuilder? This is a champ win. Yeah, I'm sorry, trophy in the R, you know, like financial wise. So again, if there's any funds that are watching this, trying to be a spade and body But I'm gonna tell them right now that if you're trying to be an absolute millionaire in the sport of body man

You're not you have to use your mind and your business tax carefully from the gap or so For me and I'll ticket the little bit back further I had an entrepreneurial mindset from a very young age, going back to what I was saying. I come from humble beginnings. At 12 years old I had my first business. At 15 I was making decimarni for a young kid. I was actually buying and selling boots, breed in, buy in, selling.

I got in from Finches. And you can, I can talk about this. Going from the zebra Finches to then I went into orange beaks right? Yeah, that's right. I was going to make the noise but the sounds of the little club. Then I got into Bengali's finches, I got into parakeets and I'm cutting the long street short here, then I got into cognas and then parrots. And that was a money maker right there for me. Of course, I would buy and start it from the pet shop

and I would sell back to the pet shop. So using that mentality I had from a very young age. I then put it into my other endeavors later on in life. At 18 years old, I started up my first real business, man business, I was called it, and it was one man and a van. And I grew that to 13 employees, one young businessman, the year three times, and a ward of Prince Charles, there was no King Charles, one calf scholarships, and then got into bodybuilding. I had this crossroads of me going into bodybuilding and coming to the United States

and going down this road, I'll pursue in and chasing down three, two, three moves a day, continue playing rugby. And I decided, you know, I'm still young and foolish enough to give this, give this a go if, if shit it the fun, I knew it was never. And I came to the United States with the same business mentality. So as an amateur, I chased these contracts. Now, most people will say, well, you're not going to win or get contracts until you're professional. I didn't have that mentality. I was like, I'm here. I have nothing to lose everything to gain. I came here with a glass half full. I came here with an immigrants mentality and truly chased all these contracts down. I got in the faces of the photographers. I found out, okay,

they're shooting in this gym here. Let me move from from LA to full to from Santa Monica to Fullerton, which as you know is an industrial area. And I slept on a friend's sofa for a year and a half to end up every single day in shape, put myself in front of photographers until I was like, oh, you're on that kid. You got a contract, you got a supplement contract, you got whatever it was, fill in the gaps. And that's how I chased me, my first contract down was making myself available, putting myself as a presentable face in front of these owners. And then I was able to get my first contract as an amateur. I got signed by Weeder Publications, which was massive by Flexmix, E. Muslim Fitness, by by Joe Weed of the founder of Bodybuilding and I started making

my first kind of contracts before I even went pro. So I can continue my adventure. So when I look at professional athletes and looking at endorsement deals, obviously my social media agency we spent around $60 million with influencers for brands products mobile apps. I've never actually broken this down before but this is what an influencer or an athlete should consider of how to figure out what they can monetize. Take a picture of yourself and put it on to a white board or put it up on the wall.

On that picture of yourself start from the top down your hat. You're wearing a monster energy hat. Boom there's a sponsorship. You can wear sunglasses, you can wear headphones, you can do something here, you have a necklace, you can work earring company, like you start to look at whether you're a male or female, from the top down, what brands products could you work with for each category? Are you going to get endorsement deal or make it yourself? Meaning, do you want to make your own hats, do you want to make your own earrings, do you want to make your own headphones, do you want to make your own hats, do you want to make your own earrings, do you want to make your own headphones, do you want to make your own sunglasses? If not,

what companies do you like for headphones, sunglasses, hats, etc. Go down the path of your clothing, your everything that you do in your body, your shoes, your socks, everything that you wear, like or use, do you use makeup, do you like food, does it go into your, like, whatever it is that you're using, that should be what you consider and you're looking at your picture. And then you start to think about what you wear. Do you like watches, do you like bracelets, do you work out, do you take supplements, do you like CBD? What is it that you like?

And that's so you can figure out what type of endorsement deals to go get. Tars in. So sick. It's crazy. Let's have a drink that I have to do the same principle by the way. But don't do like board.

I just learned something new. We're gonna make a picture of Tarzan right now. How do you decide what brands of you work with? Well, going back to the quality thing, you know, I really, really, I used to have actually a martial energy tattoo on my way. Oh my bicep. I love the extreme sports,

mental or brother stuff like that. But I mean, anything that really like resonates with what I like, you know, so it was extreme sports, animals, body building up. If I went over something that really resonates with what I like, you know, so it was extreme sports, animals, body building up, if I went and wrote a song with them, it comes with me. One, it's got a sound cool, you know? Like, I like cool sound, like, there's another one called

animal pack back in the day, or an animal. Universal. Yeah, and I was like, man, never, at the point I was skinny. I was like, I wanna work with that company, you know? I wanna buy that stuff, you know? So, if I wanna buy it, I'm most like, I wanna work with it, you know? So if I wanna buy it, I'm most like I wanna work with it, you know? So when I got to a point, I'll be nibble to be marketable for different products.

It's like, who do I like? What actually tastes good, you know? What's dope? I'm gonna reach out, and then that's where it started at. So, I'm picky, man. I'm so, so the second part of what I was saying about taking the photo and figuring out what it is that you wear, what it is that you you use is actually going inside of your house

Open up your refrigerator. What brands do you buy do you like first form supplements? Do you like skin to the beverage do you like everball assayee? What is it that you eat? What is it that you drink? What is it you snack on you like that snack call that snack company email that snack company direct message That's not company whether you have,000 followers or 4 million followers, most brands wanna work with you, whether they send you free product or actually pay you, that depends on what you are as an influencer. But for the most part, if you just look at your life,

we're like, wow, I go to this gym, I go to this card dealership, I like to use this mobile app, I use Spotify, we start to think about which brands can you reach out to and say, hey, send me your snacks or, hey, let me do a trade for a gym membership like you did. I wanna work with you or I like to eat your stuff, I wanna do a trade with you based on my influencer.

Now, you, again, you might only have 4,000 followers, you'd be shocked, and how many people actually do trades with you based on having a small following? You don't have to have a mega following like these guys do. Okay, we've talked about how to make money. Let's talk about investing. There's two things that we talk about when we talk about investing is investing into businesses, real estate, or investing into yourself.

This is expensive. Yes. Building you, building the superhuman is expensive. Walk us through investing into yourself. Let's not talk about investing into businesses right now. How do you invest into building a flex? Well, first things foremost, the food aspect of things is off the charts, you know. So go back a little bit to what you were saying earlier so I can can tell you something. And for me as a brand, I looked at what I was consuming

also, what I was wearing, what I was walking, talking about. And if I didn't, consuming also what I was wearing, what I was walking, talking about. And if I didn't or couldn't make it, I wanted to own it. So me, the brand being that career for all of the above, I had to walk, talk and act correctly at all points in time. You know, that was when I won a show, when I lost a show, which is still rare, but nonetheless, how I reacted in that, your brand is on at all times. People think, oh, this little silly tweet I'm going to make right now won't come back and haunt me. Oh, yes, it will. And trust me, these sponsors will go and search anything back dated to make sure that you align with the brand as much as they align with you. So I've always walked, talked and acted

and respectfully shook everybody's hands, no matter if I'm running to a gate at an airport or if I have a tool which I'm blessed to have a two to three hour line at an export. I will make sure that the first person in line and the last person in line all gets the same attention. So then I make my mark and that 10 years ago, 8 years ago, 7 years ago, I was gone full circle now because some of these people stood in line for me. I'm actually doing business with. They remember the first encounter. They remember the first time that they met. That's awesome, very well. Myself. And I love to make an impression just like the first time you and I met, you know, first time myself and Dan met and went off the TED question and was, I was like, man, look at this guy's kicks. And obviously I knew the name, but then when the name and the person

got put together, I was like, oh, but again, I didn't treat you no differently. I hope not. Anyway, until, you know, when I met, I felt it was just you wouldn't have known different. I think there's a difference between when people meet me for the first time and then they realize, oh you have social media fall and the second time is a different experience. I'm like you just found out I have a big social media fall. I didn't you. Now they're treating people different now and I know that though. So, brand awareness is key on leaning into the things that you love and are passionate about. If I was to lean into something like helicopter and get in my own jet, that's not a language in my brand.

You know, that's just off the hip or no. But I bodybuilding, I'm passionate about people, I'm passionate about animals, I'm passionate about things that I've leaned into over the years. And then I think it's just organic when things start flowing into a business as well, throwing into one another, that's another thing. In terms of sponsors, same thing again, and same thing what you said, hasn't it?

It was the fact that I aligned myself with brands that I was passionate about, brands that were doing great things. I never followed the monetarial thing, and Trust Mayor was offered much bigger contracts, but I took less because I aligned myself more with one brand. For example, I was offered a six-figure contract to go with one brand that didn't last two years, but I know it would have been one athlete of 10.

I decided to go with a company that was with a legend in the sport of bodybuilding, was a gaspine nutrition. I was around for seven years. I started off with $2,500 a month, and that had paid for rent, bodybuilding, cars, all of the above. But the experience I had from that was incredible. I truly felt I had the apprenticeship that nobody else had.

I flew around the world with Rich. I was asked to become part of the company, sit in our meetings. I listened to the lingua that was going around with the supplement deals and I truly feel like this and I had an experience that, nor did I fleet that 20 something years old would have, which no a sagged made me and allowed me to do into, into other endeavors. Additionally to that, obviously, I'm not going to the investment set of things, but there's things that I've, that I've true to form, stayed consistent with, that no one ever can look back on and say, oh, you've always

been talking about this, but no, there's a monetary issue. You flipped now and now you're into this, no, I've been consistent from the first time I was ever on camera to the last. Do you think it answers your question, Don? I'm great to talk to myself on the bed. What does it take? What does it cost to make flexless? Oh my gosh. Well, I'll say this, I'll just... Jim. Yes, the Jim. But I'll say first, and this is kind of a high-light that just happened this week. I just got my citizenship. After 15 years of going down that road, after millions of dollars in taxes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars

spanned in getting the citizenship it was earned, not given. And the same thing I can say about my physique. It's probably cost millions of dollars. I wouldn't even want to know how much in chicken breast I should have had an endorsement chicken deal. If not own the poultry farm. Already the amount of money I've spent in chickens I don't want Peter or after me it was it was a commitment both sides

but yeah it's cost a lot of money millions I would say to get to that brand I would say millions before I even touched my first mr. Olympia title wow yeah wow that's crazy But again, you think about the expensive it takes to eat one solid good meal a day. It's very expensive to eat healthy. It's easy to eat crappy food. It truly is. So to eat healthy is a commitment. It should be the other way around.

The government should help find ways to, yes, healthy eaten, but of course, it doesn't work like that. So when I committed myself to this, this path of becoming the best in the world, I realized that I have chosen a sport that costs more money than anything. I've ever stepped forward in or tried in my life. Rugby was eat whatever you want, perform in the field. Body will end, you are what you eat. And that means to say that if you want, perform in the field. Body will end, you are what you eat. And that means to say that if you cheat,

it will be shown up on stage, no matter if you done it in the darkness of the nights, the locked doors. Yeah, no, you will be seen. It will be seen. So I can tell you, and I look you both in the eyes when I say this periodically, I have never cheated in my life.

I have never missed a cardio session. I have never missed a gym session. I have never missed a meal. I have never deviated from the plan because I know my body better, which a lot of these athletes do to their coaches. I know my body better, coach. I have a coach that has been with me since I was 19 years old. And he's Jonyman. I allow my life to talk to me the way he does, but I need a coach, not a cheerleader. And that element in my life has allowed me to become

a better fill in the gaps. That's a non-compromising my life. I have a coach that truly wants the best version of me every time I step on stage. Does it better him, of course, be both of come up together. But nonetheless, if I'm cheating myself, I'm cheating him and I'm cheating everybody that's believed in me

from a very young age. And that goes from my mother, my friends, and all these people who have come to show is that don't have money to be there. I've never cheated once. So again, I'm mentality I've put into life in general. I don't cheat myself in anything I do in business. I don't try to get a little point extra

if I'm doing a business deal over a friend or whatever else. This is an equal playing field. If you give me something, I'm going to give it that much back. And then we all, what's the saying? A rise in tight, raise all ships. I truly believe in that. If you are performing at a high high altitude with high expectation and high performance and High results then the people around you on the day-to-day will be

Motivated and stimulated to do this him Tarzan you have 85 animals and growing how expensive is it to feed all these different snakes and zebras and horses. You know what I know? How much I spent on rats and chicken breasts and beef and... Mustaches, you pigs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I got to a point, man, where I had a lot of carnivores. Oh man, feeding these carnivores is expensive. You know, so I had to give some of my animals to some of my good friends.

And then I started getting all fruitable and vegetarians. It was like, you want us. And I was just eat fruit with them. I was like, I can't even afford to feed myself at one point because that was just... They want to make... My animals come first, you know? So wait, you, sorry.

Now they dropped you. If you sacrificed eating to put your animals first. Yeah, for sure. I was homeless at a point maybe like eight years ago and I had I had a choice. Yeah feed my dog You know dog with the times like you know 60 bucks a bag I had to feed my dog, you know, so I went homeless and I was hungry for a lot of time Yeah, you can feed him my dog and me even now, you know, everybody eats good, you know

And even you know, you know what what buying these big bags of Perino horse chow, it's expensive man, 75 pounds, 75 dollars per bag, 50 bags of pallets, two pallets, once a month, at least. I guess I'm hungry, I have $3,000 in, hey, every week, every month, it's no joke, man. Sounds like a vacation, I need a tank. You guys anything well over there? I'm sleeping well.

All right, so for the last segment, we always talk about how to make money, how to invest money in this time, we talk about how to invest into yourself and your body. Now we're gonna talk about how to give away money or do charity work. Not all charity takes money. That's a lot of people don't seem to realize.

They hear the word charity, they think, oh, I got to donate $1,000 or $5,500 or whatever, does not always take money. It takes your passion, social media power, and really your energy and effort to rally the troops together. Every year we throw a Thanksgiving food drive, doesn't cost you money to throw a Thanksgiving food drive. You can say, hey, everybody come to the Dragon's Layer parking lot. Let's all meet up in the parking lot. And everybody in the community brings food. Flex doesn't have to pay to throw things in food drive you can say hey everybody come to the dragons layer parking lot let's all meet up in the parking lot

and everybody in the community brings food so I just have to pay for the things to food drive he wants to buy stuff that's nice but really it's rallying the community we do it back to school day in a report card day we have 300 to 400 kids it's called Trinidad's kids foundation three to 400 kids have been coming for the last nine years and the community comes over and brings back packs and supplies and gives the kids haircuts and foods and van sneakers. That doesn't take money from us. We happen to buy stuff too, but it's not really necessary. It's about the community.

My goal in talking about charity so often is for people to replicate. And picking shoes, what types of charities that they like. Do they like that we do a Thanksgiving food drive? Do they like the report card day? Do they like the toy drives that we do? We just broke the Guinness Pro World Records for the largest toy driving history. Crazy man. Nine years ago, it was me and four friends sitting on the floor wrapping toys for hundreds of kids

to show up until three in the morning. Then the next year, there was 12 of us, then there was 22 of us. Nine years later, we're renting out stadiums, so-fi stadiums of due toy drives. It just takes time and energy and effort, doesn't take money. So I asked that, someone asked both of you the same question,

what charity related things are you passionate about and how can people do more charity? Do you go first? You go first. Oh, thank you. For, so first you mentioned the key word, that community. So I came to Las Vegas, didn't know really anybody in the community.

First thing we've done was linking with a local police authority and the community police. We wanted to see what they would do in for charity drives and whatnot. That first Christmas, we aligned ourselves with the, I think it's the Christmas angel charity and we were able to raise 48,000. We had I think 40 bikes that were donated to the community We've done the same thing this past year and Again, we were able to raise not just as much, but still High and up there in in the low forties, I believe Same thing with the bike same thing for ties. We had a massive tie give away here Tight sort of collection you heard the at the gym and I'm very involved with every community I've ever lived in

and been a part of, even from the very young age. I've aligned myself with a lot of disabled charities. Me as a young kid, I was very fortunate to grow up with a teacher that was down the street to me that brought in kids due to some of the holidays for respites. That them kids had everything from Asperger's to Down syndrome to various different disabilities. And if you ask them, that's not a disability.

It's their life. And this is what they are now living and striving to do with something that they don't class as a disability. So for me, I'm very fortunate to align myself with a school in Wales, called Hailgoffa, I'm going to give them a shout out to them. I've done some stuff with them in the past and I will continue to do some things with them in the future. That school is predominantly with kids with, you know, as I said, disabilities. And I went in there just to say a quick little story. I brought it on my trophies in.

The kids loved it. They thought it was the world's strongest man, you know. And some of these kids wanted me to pick them up, not gonna like you, I attempted. They were stronger than me and picked me up after. But there was one kid that was in a wheelchair and he had two carers. And you know me, I'm not that guy,

you're never in the tank top. I'm never, you know, I mean shots in the T-shirts, that's the me. But that type of that day, I thought, you know, non-judgment's on you, I'm gonna go in and the tank top and I hit some bodybuilding shots. And this kid in the front row was going, you know, he's very stimulated.

And I look at the carers and the crayon. I don't know what the heck's going on, do they have fans on me? I was like, I'm so sorry, he's like, no. I'm like, what the heck's going on? Did I have friends? I was like, I'm so sorry. He's just like, no. This is a most reaction he's had in New Year's, like a goosebumps.

Because I guess he loves wrestling and that was kind of a stimulus to him. So I leaned into that and I really truly seen a future of my brand and the stuff that I tacked went on. There's also a few things that I respectfully don't want to mention. I think that on my deathbed, I want things to be told about me. And I'm working hard, and not just as much as I'm working on the vocal stuff, too. I've got a lot of respect for a lot of the celebrities, like that people find out about things that they've aligned themselves to, and nobody knew they were working on these projects. And I've taken a little bit of a

leaf from that and I'm working on a few silent things. Probably people watching this podcast are like, okay, Flex, there's nothing going on. That's a flex. Yeah. And then there's other things that we've done here at the gym where the homeless we do blanket drives. One thing I don't do, and I don't know if this is something you might stop me on, but I find it weird that, you know, with these tie drives and blanket drives and homeless, you know, support stuff,

I don't bring a camera out. I don't mind showcasing we've done it. Where, hey guys, I'm gonna go in today, we're gonna go in support, we're gonna go in and we're gonna do this, this and this. But I don't do the whole, hey, here's me giving a meal to a person who has nothing, I give him something to something, I'm not personally gonna be like, thank you very much,

I have nothing, don't do that, I don't like this. So I walk you through that right in a second, because this is a very important topic to me. So we don't showcase the actual homeless person or the children are optional. The children like it because it's fun for them. They're different. Here's why I am so vocal about charity and why I make videos about it and why I'm obsessively talking about it.

There's a stigma that is rude to showcase charity. Like the feeling that you have is you're like, I don't want to showcase the charity, I don't want to showcase me feeding the person because that's self gratification, that's why. Some people think you're giving the food because you're getting on the back. I post about charity and why I want so many other people to post about charity

is because I want people to replicate charity. So during COVID, we did what's called a $100 tipping club. We made videos of us going to restaurants because waiters and waitresses were broke, they weren't making any money because people weren't at the restaurants. Hundred dollar tipping club, we started making videos and photos of like,

here's us giving $1,800 to the waiter at waitress. She starts crying. Here's us giving $2,400 to the waiter waitress. Here's to you, starts crying. Way more important than that is hundreds of tipping clubs started around the planet. that I know of there's probably more I get tagged every single week two and a half years later after COVID I still get tagged over and over and over and we did people are doing thousand other tipping clubs giving out 12 grand

20 grand changing people's lives Same thing applies to our toy drives You know how we never ask people to do into our toy drive I make videos like one of my toy drives so you can do a toy drive and fill it up. You and Boca Raton and Alabama were the fact that you want. We did it too. Thanks to you.

And so the concept of it is, if you're doing it for self-gradification, of course, that is rude. If you're doing it to showcase what other people can do for charity. And the fact that you're doing charity, that we flip the script, the whole point of the money in Mondays is literally make it not rude to talk about money. Because we all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. We feel like it's rude to talk about us giving out to charity.

If we don't talk about it, people won't do it. If we don't talk about giving out to charity, bless people are gonna do it. If we showcase you feeding the homeless and you helping save the animals and me giving out toys, all of a sudden, people are gonna replicate us all over the country country and all over the world whether we know about it or not. The butterfly effect of us showcasing charity is it changes people's lives that we don't

even know about. Last question, flex. So as people are considering to make themselves into a better person and they think that they're going to go out there and compete in whatever sport they're in. You're competing in one of the most difficult, highly sought after slots of Mr. Olympia. You're up against legends, like household name guys with big followings, big small tall, every version of the body, and you beat them over and over and over. And it's nothing to take away from them because there's some freaking amazing people that we're mutual friends with, which you won seven times. In any sport, you think about that, there's the Tom Brady's, the world, the micro Jordan, the world.

There's very few humans that can do it, a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh time. Five, six, and seven, I mean, there's like six people I can name besides Tiger Woods and Brady. What do you think from a mentality perspective, because I don't think it's the body part, no offense. And I mean, there's like six people like a name besides Tiger Woods and you know, Brady. What do you think from a mentality perspective? Because I don't think it's the body part. No offense.

You're up against other people that have amazing bodies too. The mentality part is what I believe is what makes you stand out. What is it that makes you go up against other people that are legends also to win over and over and over? Well, as I was in a weight class and I was capped out of the weight class, I had to really struggle to make that weight class every single year. So I had to recreate my weight every year. And every title has a way.

The first was winning. The second was chasing it to defend. So there was no question. The first was a fluke. The third was the 50th year which is a big prestigious year and I wanted to be in the mix every type of celebrity was that the limpia I wanted to be then and I want to be in the mix the third was we found on my wife's pregnant the fourth the fourth was the the fifth was

having this image which I have on my my phone right now, on my, I know, on a little phone, but sorry. I want to move to a point that I've seen an iconic shark years ago of surgery, very surgery, very junior on stage holding a baby. And that has been installed in my hand from the moment I stepped on stage. It's like, if I have a heart, I want to do that. I was able to do it. And number six was truly going to be my last one. I didn't say anything. I wanted to

kind of progress on promote emphasis into my businesses, Austin, all strength and other things I invested into. But during our process, three weeks out, my training partner passed away. Wow. So I truly had to find every way possible to stay zoned in. I have incredible people around me that were able to kind of just get me to the show. And that was probably most difficult prep for me because I have again an incredible line two or three hours long. And from front to back, everybody was crying,

and I was there outlet. And I just had to be focused the day before my show and hug everybody, and be as emotional as I could to show them that I was upset, but not let that deteriorate my physique, because this is such a powerful tool in what this looks like. So I was able to go through that and that truly taught me so much that the mind is such a powerful tool and although I was on autopilot, I didn't really get in hit hard and have the time to process the death until months later. And then months later, the season starts again, the fans are like, hey, are you doing a number seven? I'm doing a number seven and that was the best look I ever had. I wanted to end on top. I told the world I was going to end

and again there's been many ups and downs but I truly say that this this journey of mine in body building was ruined not given and there's not been one easy path you know like I said I came to this country new one person dreamed about being the best was able to achieve that when a defender recreate my way and end on top with the best look I've ever had on stage within number seven. Ladies and gentlemen you've been watching the money Mondays we have a couple requests please talk about money more often share this podcast podcast with your friends, family, staff, people around you on social media. We want the conversation to be about money.

It is rude to not talk about money. We grew up thinking it was rude to talk about money. I'm here with my co-host, The Real Tars End. Make sure to follow Flex Lewis on all social media accounts. And we will see you guys soon. What's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what 700 locations being opened all over the country, maybe international, we'll ask them that in a moment. On the money, Mondays, we talk about three things. How do you make money? How do you invest money?

And how do you give it away? People pay him $25,000, $50,000. Some people pay him $100,000 for coaching. So who better to ask about money than Beto's cooling on. Thank you for the opportunity, guys, appreciate it. So Beto's give us the quick two minute bio so we can get right to the money. Yeah, man, I'm the immigrant edge and the American dream. It's the fastest way to say it, which is I'm an immigrant to this

country from the Soviet Union. Came here when I was six and understood that as long as we serve humanity and give value, we can exchange that for money. And so through a good series of mentors and people who cared for me, I was able to understand how business works and I've built FitBody Bootcamp and Trouline and multiple brands and businesses and today I invest not only with you but with others and different brands from software to apparel to the cauliflower crust and here we are. Now I get to live the American dream and pay it forward to others. All right, so we're going to go through all three topics. The first topic is how do you make money?

How does majors cool on make money? I believe in money that is recurring. So the seven companies that I own, six of them make money on a recurring basis. Think subscription, right? Netflix is the easiest description. So FitBody Bootcamp, people pay $49,600 to buy a FitBody Bootcamp franchise,

and then they pay $997 a month in royalties or 6% whichever is greater. So I like the idea of pay once and then keep adding value, and as long as I'm adding value, you're paying over and over again, same with my coaching business, same with my supplement business. In fact, we are now actively going away from one-off transactions. We created the Trueline Tribe and we say, hey, buy the first bundle for half off, which we actually lose money on the first order. If you like the product,

great stand-boarding at 25% off and we drop ship to your house, and we've got over 2,000 people in the last six months to sign up to the trueling tribe. With the average lifetime value right now at five and a half months with the average order value at $179. And so we are going away from transactional because it is unpredictable. I like recurring income and exchange for a recurring value that I add. And then same with the businesses that I invest in. If I can get recurring cash flow, awesome. If not, I might reconsider. There are a lot of gym options out there.

There are a lot of franchise options out there. Why has there been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of franchises come to you with FitBuddy Bootcamp? I think it's really simple. The numbers, the mathematical numbers, work out with FitBuddy Bootcamp. The traditional model used to be that you open up a gym and you charge people $49, $29 a month, like plan a fitness, and you hope that you can get volumes of people in there. The reality is, those people are gonna stay for 90 days,

maybe six months if you're lucky, and you're always churning and burning through people. We realized a reason people will pay 169 a month at a Fitbody Bootcamp is, we give them the value of personal training, but in a group environment. So instead of paying 500 to $1,000 a month to get the personal training experience, you are getting fitness, coaching, nutrition, coaching, accountability, and support

offer 169 a month. And we train 30 clients, one coach. And so it's personal training made affordable and convenient for the general population. And as long as they're getting results, they pay, stay and refer, which makes it a beautiful business model for our franchisees. So guy like Tarzan, hundreds of millions of views on social media,

his building, his entrepreneurial career. Why does someone like Tarzan come to you and pay you $50,000, $100,000? Why does someone want to hire a coach of your caliber? Yeah, I think you and I both know that coaches, especially the right coaches, not all coaches, but the right coaches who one have a track record themselves, I was asked myself, what I want to trade places

with that coach in life. If the answer is yes, I'm willing to give them money. If I don't want to trade places, then I'm not going to take advice, right? Because the only thing worse than no advice is bad advice, because it will put you back in life or in business. And so let's say Tarzan's like, hey man, I've got millions of views.

Here's how I make my money. Here's how many subscribers I have. And all Tarzan's sees is what's in his view lens, right? A good coach says, look, I've got experience 22 years in my case across seven different businesses and then hundreds of businesses that I coach across software, supplements, you name it, Shopify stores to brick and mortars. Well, I've got outside eyes. So he might be seeing trees everywhere and I'm saying, bro, it's because you're in a forest And there's a path between those trees that will get you a faster outcome. So a coach is going to do one thing.

They're going to give you outside eyes. They're going to expose you to new ways of making money with the same followers that you have. And the third thing they're going to do is they're going to time collapse. They're going to help you create the outcome with less friction, frustration, and time wasted, which is what a good coach should do.

Why did you invest into the clothing brand few will hunt? Good question. You talk about this all the time. You say if you buy the product, you use the product, you believe in the product, you might want to consider investing it. And to me, it was a no-brainer. They, I didn't even know they start off in 2017,

but by 2018, I saw them on social media. I was like, wow, everybody wants to eat, but few will hunt. Like, I love that message, right? Love it. Everybody wants to be a gangster and tell us time to do gangster shit. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur unless you can tell us time to grind. And so that spoke to me and I started buying the clothes. I started buying the shirts and hats and wearing it and apparently each time I would wear it on my podcast, their sales would go up each time I would wear it on stage, their sales would go up. So they reached out to me and said, hey, instead of buying it, can we just send you stuff? And my brain goes, wait a minute.

Wait, there's more. Can we get on the phone? Yeah, right? Can we get on the phone? And I got on the phone with them. Drew and Joey, great guys, two cousins in Philadelphia, grittiest fuck. And I love their work ethic, same work ethic as we have in here. And they're doing it out of this guy's basement.

I'm like, dude, I don't need free clothes. How about I take equity, put in money, because one of them had a job still and one of them didn't. The company was only making enough to support one guy. I go, tell me what your salary is. He goes 65,000 years. Great. I'm going to buy in for 65,000. Here's the equity that I want. Now I'm gonna wear it, and I'm gonna have all my friends wear it. Right. Because I already, and my rule for investing is, do I use the product? Yes.

Do I have the audience to promote the product? Yes. Do I like the people I'm about to go into business with? And immediately, I flew them out, had dinner with them, fell in love with them. I was like, I'm in, here's your money, took equity, and just skyrocketed the brand. That's awesome.

So I was in, you're in the room with the coach, that's hyper focused on growing businesses. What is it that you wanna ask? Man, like I saw a few of hunt, what did I say yesterday when I saw you? Oh, you're like, how do I get this? And I'm like, give me your size. It's in the mail already.

You know, and that's going back, like you're a person about a brand like that. Yeah. A person about your gym. You have to have 120 gyms. Were you working out before you had a gym, you had a perfect training before that changed your mind like, man, I wonder how I can fix this. Tell us about that.

Yeah. So in fact, I was a fat kid throughout high school and fitness changed my life. I wanted to ask this girl Nakaya to the prom. So I was like, man, if I can lose weight, put on some muscle, I'm going to ask in the kaya to the prom senior year. I never had the balls to ask in the kaya to the prom. So I never made it to the prom. But when I lost like 35 pounds the summer of senior year, I came back and people treated me different. It was like all of a sudden I went from being invisible to visible to everybody. Everyone was like, dude, you're different. You look different. I felt different. My confidence

was my self esteem. Yeah, right. And so I was like, never mind you're different, you look different. I felt different, my confidence, my self-esteem, yeah, right? And so I was like, never mind the physical change. When I graduate high school, I want to be a certified personal trainer and help people achieve this. And so people I was asked me, like, how do I know what my purpose is? I mean, I go find what you would do for free and then be so good at it that people will pay you for it. And so for me, I would do personal training for free back then. And so I was training clients for free. I had a couple

clients to repay me maybe 17 to $20 an hour, which is nothing, you know, that even back in the late 90s. However, I had a job at Disneyland. I was a bouncer at a bar just so I can have that career as a personal trainer. And then as I got better and better and better and better and better and learned and understood sales and marketing, I got so good that people were starting to pay me an obscene amount of money to coach them and trainer. I was never the best trainer. I knew how to get a client to come back. My philosophy was, they're a female client. I'm going to be like your like the boyfriend that you've always wanted. You're going to want to come back your next session because you're just like going to be one of you with your boyfriend. If you're a guy, I'm the best friend that you've never had and you're going to want to come back to your next session because you're just like gonna be want to be with your boyfriend.

If you're a guy on the best friend that you've never had and you're gonna want to come to the gym to hang out with your best friend while I train you. And that philosophy and all the other trainers would be like, bro, that's bad form for that client, that's bad, I go, my clients keep coming back and they keep getting results. When the economy crashed in 2008,

I knew that one-on-one training wasn't gonna happen anymore. People aren't gonna pay $600 to $800 a month. So I go, all right, how do we take that outdoor bootcamp, bring it indoors, add equipment, and now go one-on-many, lower the price, make it more affordable and convenient, and that's how FitBody Bootcamp was born. So whenever there's a negative thing that happens with economic downturn, while everyone else is panicking folks like us are going how can we turn this into an opportunity so FitBody Bootcamp was born during the economic crash and it continues to thrive. Yeah, amazing. Why do you think that fitness and health helps people make more money? I think it's pretty simple once I explain it this way. If you work out so

that you can be lean, fit, and athletic, one, that tells me that you love and respect yourself, right? Let's face it, if I told you I'm only going to give you one car for the rest of your life, I'm going to pay for it, you have to take care of it, it's the only car you could ever have the rest of your life, you would maintain it, You would wash it. You would change the oils and fluids and everything. There's a dent in it. You'd get it fixed. This is the only vehicle we have. And a person who respects their body takes care of their body. Well, to take care of your body, you got to eat right. You got to go to the gym. One good workout's not going to do it. You guys know this one week of good workouts isn't going to do it. One month of good

workouts. It's months of good workouts months of great eating And what does that take well it takes focus it takes consistency it takes delayed gratification it takes discipline all of those things The traits that I just described you also need to have launched a successful business Everybody thinks that they can make millions of dollars within the first year. And they underestimate how much they can make in the next five years, right? And so if they take that focus, commitment, discipline, delayed gratification, that they used in the gym to maintain their health and fitness,

and apply it at the same traits to the business, they will hockey stick it. But I've never seen a fat, out-of- of shape person maintain a successful business for the long run. I haven't. So we talked about different ways about making money. Now let's talk about the investing side. Outside of your own investments, why do you think it's important that people and entrepreneurs as they start making money in their careers,

why should they be considering investing into things? To me, the way I see it is, money in the bank is useless. And you talked about this yesterday with our group. If you have money in the bank, right now, it's eroding at about 9% every single month. And so, like I said, you put a million dollars in the bank next year, it's worth $910,000. Well, how about if I take that money?

And I go, you know what, I like Tarzan, he's got work ethic. I see he's got a big following, and I've got a following that would love what he does. And so what if I invest into his business, and now I'm helping someone I like, I get to create value for humanity, and then oh, by the way, I get cash flow

from the business that he has. So I'm not only diversifying because, okay, I've got a fitness franchise. I've got a supplement company. I've got an apparel line. I've got software, but I also want to get into the wild animal business. And who better than Tarzan, right?

Wild jungle. Right. Wild jungle. And so it just makes sense that I invest in people and services that I like, that I would use anyway that I could promote. And the way I look at it is if you could do this with everyone needs a place to live, right?

People, I can't afford to invest in an apartment complex. All right, can you get into syndicate that invest in apartment complexes? Exactly. Right, the syndicate, maybe you can start with $30,000. You don't have to have $2.5 million to put a down payment. Can you start with just one condo that you can buy

and then put a 10 and 10? When you start investing, you now are putting your money to work for you instead of parking your money in the bank account where it feels good, you have peace of mind at night going, I have money in the bank, but the bankers are using your money to do exactly what I just described. They're investing in things that create cash flow for them and you ought to be doing that yourself. So let's say I'm a high level CEO.

My name is the real Tarzan. I did $8 million last year. Why should I invest in myself? I'll say I'm Tarzan. Why should I invest into himself on a personal level to become better through coaches development masterminds? Why is it important to level up with other people? Yeah, I think no matter how much money you make we all sense that we have greater purpose in meaning like the person who's connected with source God the higher power You know that and I think Ed my let says this he goes when I die that we have greater purpose in meaning. Like the person who's connected with source, God, the higher power, you know that, and I think Ed Mylet says this, he goes,

when I die, I don't want to go to heaven. And then God says, hey, here's what, the fully potential Ed Mylet would look like, and he goes, man, I don't recognize that guy. When I heard him say that, I was like, oh shoot, I got to be like twinsies with that guy when I go to heaven, right? Well, with that in mind then, if we if we know that man I'm making eight million

But I've got the potential to make 80 million which means I can serve more of humanity I could do more for charity I can give more to my church I can help more of the causes that I believe in then I believe you've got a duty and an obligation To go who and what are the people that can help me time collapse coaches mentors masterminds because if you don't You're always going to feel the knowing of masterminds, because if you don't, you're always gonna feel the nying of regret in the future. And if you do it, then what you're doing is you're putting your money to work,

you're making connections. Like look at the connections and the deals that took place this weekend as we're running Operation Black Site. Like business deals we're gonna come about from this place. Opportunities are gonna be created. So masterminds, mentorships, coaching

programs, seminars, that is literally investing in yourself and your future self so that you can break the seal because everybody has an upper limit and how much money you can make, you think you can make, how much love you can accept, how valuable you think you are. Coaches, mentors, therapists, all those people help you break through those seals through the glass ceiling and get to that next level because you can't see the road, but they can. Wow. So we talked about making money. We talked about investing money. We talked about investing into yourself.

Now let's talk about a really emotional topic and giving it away. Why is charity important to entrepreneurs? Why should they consider adding charity to their personal life and to their business careers? Okay. That's a good question. Why should they consider adding charity to their personal life and to their business careers? Okay, that's a good question. I love giving credit to quotes that I've heard. I don't know who said this if you guys know it, please tell me But I read somewhere and it said if you don't believe Money can make you happy then you haven't given enough of it away And I thought that was was so powerful. And I wish I knew who said that quote, so we can give them credit.

But that is so powerful. Money can make you happy if you learn to give a lot of it away. In my case, and I'll be very open and honest with you guys, you guys are like family to me. I escaped the Soviet Union, came to the United States, had to learn the language, lived in section 8 housing, had my hair washed with gasoline,

because we couldn't afford life treatment. And so my mom had my dad, Siphon,on out of gasoline because that's all we could do to kill the lice. I was molested by two older boys when we lived in Armenia for two years straight. And so coming here saved me from that. Like I've got a lot of trauma that I dealt with, right? And I've completely rewritten my story. I'm not looking for any sympathy or compassion. However, you look the charities that I invest in and donate to Shrine or Children's Hospital, Toys for Tots, 97 kids adopted through Compassion International,

and one, that is very healing for me to see that these kids whose families can't afford medical services, get those services through Shrine or every Christmas, thousands, hundreds of thousands of kids who won't get a Christmas gift, we make sure we shut down the target in Chino Hills Saturday morning, three Christmas, a three weeks before Christmas, and we spent a quarter million dollars and buy toys and take it to the local toys for tots, barracks where the Marines will walk in these kids and let them pick a

toy that they want. The parents went outside because parents always want you to pick the most expensive toy. The kid gets whatever the fuck he wants. And to me, I didn't have a Christmas at first three years coming to this country, right? And so it's healing. Number one, number two, it makes you happy. The more money you give away, the more generous you are with it. And finally, to not do it, I believe is the most selfish thing on the planet. And if you don't want to be selfish, you want to be selfless, then you want to serve with your money it, I believe is the most selfish thing on the planet. And if you don't want to be selfish, you want to be selfless, then you want to serve with your money. And I believe it's a great vehicle to serve. So Tarzan, on the charity front, why do you like to promote animal related charities?

It's the same thing. It's emotional for me, you know. I feel animals save my life in a sense, you know, growing up. I lost my father a long time ago, and animals brought me back from that, the edge, you know. So after a while, I was like, man, I owe my father a long time ago, and animals brought me back from that edge. So after a while, I was like, man, I owe them my life. So any like animals, natural disasters, anti-poaching, and we talk about all the podcast, but man, I live and die for animals.

And more important lives, I can also give back. One of my dreams, before I pass away, 100 years from now, we'll have like an animal army, you know, where it's like a militant group to protect different countries and different borders. I want to protect different jungles and different species, you know, like shoot first, ask questions later. Don't touch the zebra. Don't touch these camels. Don't touch these elephants, but there's not many left, you know, so going back on that emotional standpoint, yeah, man, there's a healing component. Yeah, doubt about it. Right?

Be good. Good. Right. It makes you feel good. And people go, man, what you do is so selfless, Badros. And I'm like, you know, what it's actually kind of the most selfish thing I do, giving to those charities that help children because I can't go back and be a child, but I see those kids being helped with my money. And there's a sense that little baby Badros in me gets healed. And that, and that young tarzan in you gets healed. And those little healing moments are necessary if we aspire to become or hire yourself. Last question.

What do you think most business owners and entrepreneurs are doing wrong with their money? They probably the biggest thing most entrepreneurs, business owners are doing wrong with their money is they are constantly focused on the one way that they make money and they don't think about how they can add a reoccurring income stream. They don't think of how they can add a second tier, like the Rolls Royce level, the Cadillac level. They don't think about how they can add a lower tier service and get more mass amount of people paying. So I believe every business,

like anyone business, should have a higher tier program, should have a lower tier program, and should have a continuity program, a recurring program built in. And if you're not using your money to hire coaches, experts who can help you set that up, you're literally crippling your business.

I think so many founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners have such high overheads. That's what crushes them. Agreed. They go get a 5,000 square foot office when they've got 16 employees. They've got to get the fanciest couches and the fanciest tables when you do meetings in that room once a week at best. And nobody cares. Literally nobody, by the way, when I say nobody, I mean nobody cares.

And they go by $7,000 desk and then they wonder why they can't make payroll. That's about $7,000 coming up next week. And I've seen it over and over and over and over of these companies and just people. They go rent, they're 23 years old, and they go gotta get a four-better-m house. You live by yourself.

You don't need a four-better-m house. You don't really even need a two-better-m, but let's say you get a two-better. People don't realize the extra $1,200 a month you're spending on that cool house, with that cool apartment or that cool task or table. That's $1,200 times 12 months. That's 15 grand a year. What could your business do with 15 grand a year? And then next year, and then next year, next year, all of a sudden, five years, like, you wasted $100,000 on a bedroom you've never been been in or a table that you never cared about. Just a flex, just a flex.

And you're flexing on people that don't care. We don't care. I don't care they have a four bedroom. I'm probably not coming to your house, bro. And I don't care if you have a fancy table because we're going to sit there for 45 minutes. Anyways, all right, what should entrepreneurs be thinking about in 2023 amongst all the chaos, all the media,

all the craziness going on? What should entrepreneurs be focused on to get them through 2023? Good question. So I'm gonna reframe that by saying here's what they should not be thinking about. Entrepreneurs should not be thinking about the talking heads on CNN or Fox.

Entrepreneurs should not be thinking about who our president is now and who our next president is gonna be because they can affect their personal economy more than whoever the next president is going to be, because they can affect their personal economy more than whoever the next president is going to be in whatever tax brackets they're going to put them in. Whether it's Trump or Biden, it doesn't really matter. You have greater control over your own economy,

your own thoughts, your own peace of mind, your own personal security. I think entrepreneurs need to stop listening to the outside noise, because the outside noise is telling them, sell your businesses, sell your homes, expect for a great financial disaster. And if I keep hearing that over and over again, guess what? I am going to manifest and look for evidence to produce that.

But if I'm constantly around people like us who are telling me like, opportunity, you and I are talking about buying the ranch across the street, buying the ranch on the right, and everyone's like, how's the recession going to affect you? What recession? I don't see a recession. I see land and I see opportunity on that land, and I see fun things we're gonna do with that land to monetize it, grow it and impact lives.

And so it's like, literally, there's a folklore, a story that goes like this, a dude goes into a, he's a shoe salesman. They send him to some remote island in the boondocks, and he goes there, he's like holy crap. No one wears shoes These are all like savages. They don't wear shoes. He finds a telephone. He says hey fly me back No one here has shoes. They go fair enough the same shoe company sends another salesperson there He lands in the same remote jungle in this island and he's like holy crap send every shoe you guys have

No one's wearing shoes here. I'm gonna make a killing So your lens that you listen and hear things through matter, right? And as long as I'm filtering what goes in here, the outcome is gonna be positive. Ladies and gentlemen, you've just listened to the Money Monday's podcast with Beggius Cullion and my guest host, The Real Tarzan.

Now, we do have one favorite ask of you. Share this content with your friends because Tarzan and I think it's rude to not talk about money.