From 4¢ Leads to Millions: Lessons in Social Media Growth | Bedros Keuilian DSH #1787

Summary

Digital Social Hour Episode Summary Title: From 4¢ Leads to Millions: Lessons in Social Media Growth | Bedros Keuilian DSH #1787
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Bedros Keuilian
Release Date: May 29, 2025

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1. Early Adoption of Social Media and Business Growth

Bedros Keuilian shares his foresight in recognizing the transformative power of social media early on. Starting in 2008 on YouTube and moving to Facebook in 2009, he leveraged these platforms to build his coaching business, initially focusing on gym owners.

"I had a feeling that social media was going to change everything. ... I saw how you could speak to the masses very easily that way."
— Bedros Keuilian [00:46]

2. Navigating the Noise and Competition in Social Media

Discussing the current landscape, Bedros acknowledges the overwhelming noise in social media but emphasizes that quality content inevitably stands out. He believes that amidst the vast competition, the best in any category rise to the top.

"Good content always sticks out. ... the best in every category always stand out."
— Bedros Keuilian [01:27]

3. Shifting Focus to Helping Others and Taking Equity

Having built and sold multiple companies, Bedros is now more interested in empowering other businesses by taking equity stakes rather than starting new ventures. This strategic shift allows him to contribute to scaling and selling young companies.

"I'm in a place where I could help, I could serve, I could take equity in companies and young companies."
— Bedros Keuilian [02:41]

4. Midlife Reflections and Changing Priorities

Approaching his 51st birthday, Bedros reflects on the accelerated passage of time and the desire to focus on personal fulfillment over business expansion. He shares insights on how time feels fleeting in one's late 40s and beyond, prompting a reevaluation of life's priorities.

"Right now I could help out other people... I'm doing less masterminds, less coaching clients."
— Bedros Keuilian [02:38]

5. Men's Mental Health and the Influence of Cultural Icons

The conversation delves into the mental health struggles prevalent among men, exacerbated by societal changes and the pandemic. Bedros critiques figures like Andrew Tate, attributing their rise to filling a vacuum for men seeking strength and purpose in an increasingly critical environment.

"Men are considered toxic... when that happens, dudes feel like, 'I'm useless, I'm not needed.'"
— Bedros Keuilian [07:05]

6. Greed, Discipline, and Trust in Business Relationships

Bedros warns of the dangers of greed and undisciplined behavior in business. He differentiates between disciplined individuals, who are predictable and reliable, and undisciplined ones, who can be deceitful and unpredictable.

"Never to trust an undisciplined man. They are the most dangerous men."
— Bedros Keuilian [18:38]

7. Importance of Self-Defense and Confidence Building

Emphasizing self-defense, Bedros discusses how practices like jiu-jitsu not only provide physical protection but also build unmatched confidence and discipline. He relates this to broader personal development goals.

"You learn a high level of confidence... the confidence you develop from it is just unmatched."
— Bedros Keuilian [14:46]

8. Personal Development and Overcoming Vices

The dialogue touches on dependency and addiction, with Bedros advocating for healthier coping mechanisms over vices like alcohol and pornography. He shares his experiences and strategies for maintaining discipline and resilience.

"Vices end up becoming a crutch. And if you're using a vice as a grown ass man to take the edge off, it's probably not the best way to operate."
— Bedros Keuilian [11:00]

9. Upbringing, Tough Love, and Parenting in a Successful Family

Bedros recounts his upbringing, marked by adversity and tough love from his father, a former communist party member. He discusses how this background shaped his parenting style, emphasizing structure, resilience, and the importance of manufacturing adversity for his children.

"I raised them as hard as I could, taught them how to lift and train... My daughter's not, but she's a savage in her own right."
— Bedros Keuilian [43:10]

10. Humility and Lessons Learned During the Pandemic

The pandemic served as a pivotal moment for Bedros, leading to the loss of numerous franchise locations and a humbling realization of his attachment to his business identity. This experience reinforced the need for personal development and detachment from business outcomes.

"If Fit Body Boot Camp fails, then I failed as a human... that fear was alive and real."
— Bedros Keuilian [23:43]

11. Critique of Conformity in Institutions and Fostering Curiosity

Bedros criticizes the role of schools, churches, and media in promoting compliance and suppressing individuality. He advocates for curiosity and skepticism as antidotes to societal conformity, urging individuals to seek paths beyond the average.

"Be curious, be skeptical. ... If you're curious and skeptical, you might just see that if I follow this thing exactly as planned, I might end up exactly like the rest of them."
— Bedros Keuilian [06:10]

12. Entrepreneurship Insights: Mentorship, Execution, and Resilience

Highlighting the importance of mentorship, Bedros credits a personal trainer-turned-mentor for steering him toward entrepreneurship. He underscores the value of listening, executing ideas, and maintaining resilience in the face of setbacks.

"All I did was listen and execute. That's all I did."
— Bedros Keuilian [60:09]

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Notable Quotes:

• “Confidence is just your credit score with yourself.”
  — Bedros Keuilian [15:47]

• “The path to hell is paved with good intentions.”
  — Bedros Keuilian [18:22]

• “Be curious, be skeptical.”
  — Bedros Keuilian [06:10]

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Conclusion

In this insightful episode of Digital Social Hour, Bedros Keuilian offers a deep dive into the intricacies of social media growth, personal development, and the importance of discipline and resilience in both business and personal life. From early success strategies to profound reflections on midlife and societal influences, Bedros provides valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and individuals striving for excellence. His candid discussions on overcoming adversity, fostering meaningful relationships, and maintaining integrity serve as a beacon for those looking to navigate the complexities of modern life and business.

For more insights and upcoming events, listeners can visit bedrosecoolian.com and follow Bedros on Instagram.

Transcript

[Bedros Koulian]

If I want to be a real estate investor, it's always, like, pushing you towards jobs. Right. But maybe that's all they know and that's all they teach. But the point I was making in that video is be curious, be skeptical. Because if you're curious and skeptical, you might just see that if I follow this thing exactly as planned, I might end up exactly like the rest of them.

[Sean]

All right, guys, got Bedros here today. Someone I've been trying to get on for a while now, and you were one of the first shows I watched, so it's a full circle moment for me.

[Bedros Koulian]

Wow, man. Yeah, I appreciate that.

[Sean]

You were one of my early operations. You've been in the social media game for a bit now.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, man. 2008 on YouTube, 2009 on Facebook, and then the rest was history.

[Sean]

That's crazy.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. What.

[Sean]

What compelled you to start so early? I guess you had a hutch.

[Bedros Koulian]

I. I had a feeling that social media was going to change everything. And I knew that it was going to be this massive movement where you could actually start speaking to the masses in a very deep, meaningful way. And I. I saw it with YouTube specifically, not necessarily with all the other platforms, but then when Facebook came out and I was buying, like, leads for, like, literally four cents a lead. Right. For an opt in miss those days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's when I was like, okay, I'm gonna move people to my blog from YouTube and. And Facebook, from my blog into my funnel and sell them coaching on. At the time, I was coaching gym owners. So for me, I just saw how you could speak to the masses very easily that way.

[Sean]

Now there's the opposite issue. There's a lot of noise. There's almost too much. Yeah, right.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

It's hard to navigate, honestly, as a young man especially.

[Bedros Koulian]

It is. But good content always sticks out. Good content will always stick out. I think people have this misconception that, you know, every industries we were talking outside, right, like podcasts, like, there's millions of podcasts out there. There's millions of gyms, there's millions of restaurants, there's millions of content creators, but the best in every category always stands out.

[Sean]

Yeah, that's true. Cream rises to the top is what they say.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sean]

Yeah. And all those guys find each other, too.

[Bedros Koulian]

They do, they do. It's really small, you know, this is like really small at the top. As soon as we sat down, we're like, oh, we have all these people in common that we connect with. Right. I think it's most Competitive at the bottom of the hill where everyone is just trying to make it to the top. I think once you get past that 50, 50% mark of that hill, there's less traffic, less confusion. You've kind of got sets and reps under your belt and so it's easier to get to the top. When you get to the top, it's all like minded people who want to help you come up. Right. Like immediately you're like, hey, I think I'm going to do this. I'm like, oh, connect with B.J. baldwin about this and connect with this. People at the top want to help. People at the bottom are very competitive and they feel like there's not enough to go around so they get very selfish. Right. If, if you take it, then there's not enough for me. I don't think that's how it is, man.

[Sean]

Scarcity mindset.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Are you at that stage now where you're looking to really help out other people?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah. My companies have, have grown. I've all the companies. In fact, we're in the process of selling my third company now. And so I'm in a place where I could, I could help, I could serve, I could take equity in companies and young companies. Someone asked me, do you plan on starting more companies? I'm like, dude, I'm done. Companies, I'll take equity in companies, help them scale and sell. Yeah.

[Sean]

You think you're actually going to semi retire?

[Bedros Koulian]

Semi? I will never fully retire. But yeah, I'm, I'm slowing it down. I'm doing less masterminds, less coaching clients. And the reason is I realized I'm 50 now. I turned 51 this summer. Right around 48, dude, something weird happens. And you're 28, right? Yeah. I told my son this. My son's 19 route around 48. And I've talked to other people. Speaking of a mutual friend. Ray Kerr. Yeah, Ray Cash Care is a year older than me and you know, we've been working together for five years. He's been, great story about Ray Cash Care. He was working for the CIA overseas in Afghanistan. And I was like, ray, I've got this thing I want to run called the Project. He goes, should I quit? I go, no, don't quit because I don't know if it's going to work. But tell me when you're not deployed and we'll run it when you're stateside. We ran it and after that we started working together for the last six, seven years. But Ray, Ray even told me this too. Right around 47, 48, something happens to, To. To people. I don't know if it's same with women, but for men, I feel like every year that goes by feels like eight or nine months. Hmm. And then as I turned 50, like my 50th year, felt like six months. Damn. Yeah. And so you realize, like, shoot, I think I have less time on this planet, which obviously common sense, but on the latter years, I'm beginning to believe that time moves faster. And so if I'm going to do more of the things that I enjoy, connect with more of the people that I want, you know, go to my son's concert because he's getting into music and whatever, then I need to have less clients, less things than I'm doing. Which, thankfully I was smart enough to automate and delegate, you know, a decade ago.

[Sean]

Yeah, that is interesting. But it makes me wonder because you hear about midlife crisis all the time and people that are young can't relate, but it, it makes sense. The way you're describing it, I think.

[Bedros Koulian]

That'S what a midlife crisis is. It's funny you bring that up. I think dudes or. Yeah, it's mostly guys, right? That have them. It's mostly dudes. And I think it's because a woman will have a kid and that kid will grow up, be 18, 19, 20, and that kid will launch into life, and she feels like, man.

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[Bedros Koulian]

I did something, I put something out into the world like, that could live beyond me. And as men, I suppose, yeah, that kid's ours too, but not really. We have to kind of find our own purpose. And so when men have reached that age of like mid-40s, early-50s, and they haven't done meaningful work, created companies, developed teams, you know, written a book, just left their fingerprint on this planet, they feel like this sense of urgency. And I think that's where that crisis kicks in.

[Sean]

Yeah. And you're seeing a lot of that with men these days too, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Big time. Yep.

[Sean]

Especially 20s, 30s, like all people my age, they are so lost. It's crazy.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah, that's for sure.

[Sean]

Like mental health issues at an all time high. And I think that's why people like Tate took off, because it appealed to a lot of guys. Right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, he, he was, he was, all he did was speak, speak words and a message that everyone else was thinking, but no one had the balls to say it. Right. And he said it in a way because he's a great marketer to get attention. And I think that's where people had, you know, a lot of indigestion with how he was saying things. But that's why Tate took off. He filled in a vacuum that already existed. And I think the pandemic accelerated that vacuum. It created, created so much separation amongst people. We were no longer tribal. And before you know it, men are considered toxic. And you know, like everything that is innately in factory installed in a man like, like Sean wants to acquire, Sean wants to build, Sean wants to leave a legacy. You want to be competitive. Right. All those things now are considered toxic. And so when that happens and dudes are like, man, I guess I'm useless, I'm not needed. I, I'm, I'm, I'm archaic. And then you start thinking to yourself, what's the path, then I don't have a path. And then a voice like, you know, Tate comes around. You're like, you know what? He's speaking directly to me. And I think we needed that. But. And I also see the tides turning. Like there's, it's always an ebb and flow.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

That's life, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, that's life.

[Sean]

Yeah. I love competition. Personally. That's what fuels me. I love that podcasts are ranked on the charts because I want to be.

[Bedros Koulian]

Number one one day.

[Sean]

Yeah, that's what drives me.

[Bedros Koulian]

Oh yeah.

[Sean]

You know, you know, and they made that, they made competition. Like, I don't know, like, kind of like you said, they put it in a bad light.

[Bedros Koulian]

And I think they, they, they did that because if I'm not that much of a tinfoil hat guy, but if I was big government and I wanted to get control and compliance of humanity, all humans, I'm not worried about the women and children. I'm not worried about the elderly. I'm worried about the able bodied men. Like you are the greatest threat because you are competitive. You want to acquire, you want to grow, you want to amass things. And oh, by the way, I'm guessing, you know, with all the sponsorship money and all this money that you're making from, you're also giving back. You're, you have charities or a church or something that you're giving back to. So it's not like you're just acquiring, amassing and competitive and hoarding it all. You're giving back. But if we can control you, if we can make you feel, make you feel dumb, dependent, get you fat, separate you from your desires to, to excel in life and to reach your highest potential, you become more controllable. And that's what big government wants. Controlling compliance over the people who are going to be the biggest threats. And that's, you know, men, not necessarily women or children or, or the elderly.

[Sean]

That's why it's important to be aware of that. That's why I pretty much cut alcohol porn on the vices, because I want to be as resilient as possible.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yep, that's exactly it.

[Sean]

But a lot of young guys fall to those substances or drugs.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. And the argument is, well, well, they're legal. What's wrong with it? With occasion, I'm not addicted.

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[Bedros Koulian]

You're not addicted, but you're dependent on it. Right now, dependence is just one step away from addiction. Yeah, yeah.

[Sean]

That's why even with coffee, I'm not trying to drink it daily.

[Bedros Koulian]

Really?

[Sean]

I don't want to be dependent on anything for you, you know.

[Bedros Koulian]

That's awesome.

[Sean]

So I'll cycle it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

I like that. You're like, people are cycling trend. You're cycling coffee. I love that.

[Sean]

I learned that one from hormones.

[Bedros Koulian]

Gangster.

[Sean]

Yeah, because I don't want feel like I'm relying on anything, you know? Yeah, yeah, because then you're, you're kind of like a victim, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Well, that's exactly it Again. As soon as there's a dependence, you begin to rely on something, you get, depend on it. Soon there's an addiction. I need my coffee or I need my fix, whatever the fix is. I need porn. I, I know so many dudes that have come through the project and porn or alcohol have been their thing to take the edge off. Like, bro, you're a grown ass man. You can't like go and do some box breathing, maybe go and go on a hike. Stay away from social media for a couple hours, regulate your emotions, come back and then have a, have a reasonable conversation with your wife instead of putting your fist through the wall. Like, most dudes that end up coming to the project are dudes that, you know, somehow got unhinged and did something stupid in their life to ruin their life. And then they come to the project with me and Ray, we retired that program. But I'd say about 50% of the guys that came through, the other 50% that came through were dudes who were just like looking to unlock that next level in them. Because when you got someone like Ray beating the out of you for 75 hours and then with me and the other instructors teaching mindset, business development, personal growth, etc, it's an awesome experience. But. But that's exactly it, dude. Vices end up becoming a crutch. And if you're using a vice as a grown ass man to take the edge off, it's probably not the best way to operate.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Ray. Hardest three push ups I ever did in my life. Because he makes you hold it. Yeah, that dude's a beast.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, he can be an that way. I love that.

[Sean]

Do you think every man should learn self defense these days?

[Bedros Koulian]

Absolutely, absolutely. And by the way, I think the greatest self defense is the gift of gab to talk your way out of it. Like, I shoot, I know how to use a knife. I have situational awareness. I've been striking for 10 years, grappling the last two and a half years. The last thing I want to do is use any of that. I want to talk my way out of a fight. Like, I can talk my way out of any fight, but if I can't and I need to protect myself or the people with me, then I want to know that I have the capacity, number one, number two in self defense, whether it's jiu jitsu, mma, boxing, whatever you go to learn, right, you meet some of the greatest humans because it's the most humbling thing. Like some dude's gonna take your back and choke you, right? And the first time that happened to me, someone took my back and started choking me, bro. It's embarrassing to say they didn't even lock in a Rear Naked Choke yet. I barely felt their forearm across one side of my throat. And I tapped. And he goes, bedros, are you okay? Fine. And I go, well, you were choking me, coach. He goes, no, no. I was like, far from locking it in like now. And they call that a virgin neck, right? Like, I learned the terminology now. It's like, when I roll, I could be getting choked and I'll just be looking at, like, whatever's on the wall if I'm at someone's jiu jitsu school or if I'm rolling at my gym with the fellows that I roll with, like, at my gym that people have signed the wall and kind of put little motivational quotes. I literally find myself reading motivational quotes as I'm trying to fight my way out of getting choked. And that's a really cool, confident place to be. So you learn a high level of confidence, right? If you learn combatives self defense. You meet some awesome dudes who are very humble, soft spoken, but absolutely deadly savages working out. Talk about burning calories. Like you're burning calories big time. And the older you get, the harder it is to burn calories. I used to be able to just lift weights and I could out train a bad diet. These days I keep my diet locked in. I'm lifting weights and I'm doing jiu jitsu and you're sweating so much, like it's, it's all upside. You got mobility from it. You build a good tribe of people from it. Like I, I don't see any drawback to it. And then the confidence that you develop from it is just unmatched.

[Sean]

Yeah. And I've seen you talk about confidence. You believe confidence has to be earned, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah, it is. It is just a byproduct of stacking small wins day in and day out. There is no. When people go, what is the one thing I gotta do to build confidence? I don't know what the one thing is, but I do know what the. Like, don't hit the snooze button in the morning. And then if you say you're gonna drink 30 ounces of water, drink your 30 ounces of water. And then if you're gonna say you're gonna, you know, not do social media for the first three hours of the day, you're going to focus on your work, do that. Those little things stacked over days, weeks, months and years. You have an undeniable level of confidence. And confidence is just your credit score with yourself. Right? That's all it is. It's your reputation with yourself. And if you could build confidence, then you feel the ability, the conf you have, you build confidence. You now have the competency to go do whatever the heck you want.

[Sean]

Right.

[Bedros Koulian]

But people who don't have confidence, they go, one day I'm going to start a business, one day I'm going to get fit. One day I'm going to start a podcast. But you've lied to yourself so much, your credit score is so low with yourself, you have no competency to start that.

[Sean]

Great. I also think confidence is really hard to fake.

[Bedros Koulian]

Correct.

[Sean]

I could sense it in people.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yes, you especially, you've done in two years, you did 1600 podcasts. Like, you have one of the greatest social experiments. I hope you realize one thing I was wanting to tell you is you've time collapsed. So much exposure to different people. Like, I bet you can put humans who have sat right here where I Am in categories. Right. The phonies, the fakes, the confident ones, the doers, the talkers, the people who have just heard things and then they're just regurgitating it. And it's. It's impossible to fake someone who has been around long enough, either through your 28 year young, but through exposure like this, or 50 like myself, and just over time been exposed to a lot of people. You can smell confidence or the lack thereof.

[Sean]

Yeah, you probably been screwed over when you were younger, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Oh, bro, bro. Still, I still get.

[Sean]

It's inevitable in business.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. Yeah. Especially in business. It's inevitable because people come to you with the. Everyone puts their best foot forward. No one's like, hey, I'm going to try and take advantage of you. Right. And I even believe, like, people aren't, like, necessarily going into a relationship to take advantage. I still have hope that most people go into a relationship with the best of intentions. But we have these little greed glands. You won't find it in any anatomy book, but the greed glands exist, bro. And so imagine if, like, you and I hit it off. We hit it off. I'm like, you know what? He's out here in Vegas. I'm just a couple hours drive away. I bet I can talk to Sean and we can start doing this thing and I can start tapping into his revenue just to add value. I just want to add value. But at the end of the day, soon, the slippery slope of the greed glands begin. I'm like, what value am I adding to Sean's world if I'm not adding value to your world? And I'm just being a leech and extracting. And soon we can. What do they say? The path to hell is paved with good intentions. Right, Right. And so I may come with the best of intentions, but if I don't keep my greed glands in check, it's very easy to begin to take someone for granted, take advantage of them, and then soon, that's how you end up screwing people over.

[Sean]

Yeah. I've seen money ruin a lot of friendships, you know?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yep.

[Sean]

Got to be careful working with friends.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yep.

[Sean]

Once the money starts getting up there, people change.

[Bedros Koulian]

Operating agreement. That's when everyone's like, oh, me and my friend started this. I'm like, that is fantastic. You guys are broke right now. And so you guys are like, we're going to fucking bleed for this. Right. Soon as you make your first hundred thousand, half a million, three million, you got to. You're going to wish you had that operating agreement because now it's like, well, what do you mean you're spending the money on this? Well, we didn't decide who's going to spend money on what and how it's going to get spent and who. Who's operating in what lane. Operating agreement is the best thing ever. That's. You only learn that when you've been screwed enough times.

[Sean]

Absolutely. You also said this. It really stuck with me. You said never to trust an undisciplined men.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. They are the most dangerous men. The most dangerous men are not the ones that have guns and knives and jiu jitsu, because those men are predictable, because they're disciplined and they know, like. Do you know who Tim Kennedy is?

[Sean]

I do. He's been on the show.

[Bedros Koulian]

All right. Tim Kennedy, probably one of the most dangerous dudes on the planet. He's also one of our instructors for operation Black Site. Great guy and. But super disciplined, but super deadly. You can literally, like, go and poke at him and he's gonna just like, ah, I'll knock it off. He's gonna hit you with his big bear paws and, you know, like, have a good time. Right. But an undisciplined man, that's a guy who's conniving. That's a guy who's sneaky. That's a guy who has no emotional regulation. And when you've got a man who's got no emotional regulation and who's sneaky and who feels like because he doesn't have strength, he doesn't have honor, he doesn't have courage, those are the three things we need to develop. Discipline, strength, honor, courage. And if we don't have that, then we start doing the sneaky stuff. And when we start getting sneaky like that, a man becomes unpredictable. And I don't trust men that have. Don't have discipline because they're very unpredictable in the way they carry themselves.

[Sean]

Yeah. Men that cheat on their wives, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Correct. Correct.

[Sean]

That's a red flag to me in business.

[Bedros Koulian]

Big red flag there. Dudes that, like, start a little side business behind the backs of their business partners.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

And it's not quite the same, but it's similar. And it's like, bro, like, again, if there was an operating agreement that belongs here, that belongs here. But it's just like, well, no, no, this is a separate business because, again, the greed glands, dishonesty, lack of discipline lead to that kind of stuff.

[Sean]

How have you kept your greed glands in check? Or is that kind of ego you're talking about?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah. Greed glands are just Ego?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

I think a lot of people struggle with that, especially once they start making money or having success, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yep, yep. And what ends up happening is you end up getting humbled. I think one of the best ways to keep your Greek glands in check or your ego in check is you end up getting humbled. In a perfect world, we would all just be like, you know what? I gotta just. Because there is a place for ego. I mean, we can't deny that there's a place for ego, because ego is what makes us become competitive. Ego is what makes us want to go. What's around the corner? You know, I made 10 million. What's around the corner? Can I make 20? I turn those 20 to 50. So we do need a sense of ego, but unchecked, it can get very reckless. But when we are humbled over time, like, one of the most recent humbling experiences I had was the pandemic. Like, dude, I'm the founder of Fit Body Bootcamp. Like, hundreds of, you know, gyms, franchise gyms. Between us and Canada, we had 612 gyms on March 16, 2020, right? And then the pandemic comes, and on March 16, I announced to all of our franchisees, hey, guys, we're going to flatten the curve for two weeks, right? That's what we had heard. Now, I come from a communist country, so I also don't trust the government. So I told the CEO of my company, Bryce, I'm like, bryce, I don't believe this is going to last two weeks. It might last longer. So figure out what, what we need to do to take all of our clients from all the Fit Body Boot Camp locations and move them online into private Facebook groups so that those locations can do online workouts. Right. In case people need to train at home. And sure enough, as you know, you know, two weeks ended up being a year and a half. But in those, in that year and a half period, we lost 218 franchise locations.

[Sean]

Dang.

[Bedros Koulian]

Like, millions of dollars a month we were losing, right? And people go, didn't you have a franchise agreement with your franchisees? Yeah, but when they're like, hey, the pandemic is putting me out of business, am I going to be like, sorry, you got to keep paying your royalties, you got to keep paying your monthly fees? No, I'm going to be a decent human. Maybe the old version of me would have done that, but the humbled and more mature version of me is like, hey, I get it. You're a small business. You're a fit Body Boot Camp location. Your state doesn't want you to keep your doors open, right? Now, I get it. We're going to let you out of your franchise agreement. So that was a very humbling experience to go from 600 to. To 390 some odd locations, right? And to tap literally into. I sold all my real estate holdings, all the residential buildings I owned, residential and commercial. I sold all my residential holdings because the PPP money that we got and all this, the EDIO loans, all those things we were burning through. A franchise like that big is so expensive to operate. And so. But I share this with you because there's like levels to humility as well. Like, I realized like, man, I was a great leader and doing this, I'm making hundreds of millions a year and then 2020 comes and it was one of the most humbling experiences where I was like, man, I questioned my leadership. I questioned whether I was making the right decisions every day. Because I don't know about you, but there's a fucking playbook for how to deal with the pandemic, right? There's literally no playbook. And we were onboarding six to eight new locations per month. Not only did we not sell any new locations for that entire period of time, we lost 218 locations, bro. And so when I say humbling. And I realized in that moment, I thought I had disconnected from my businesses because oftentimes your identity will be tied to your business. Especially when. When we're younger, right? Our identity will be tied to our business a hundred percent, right? And so I thought like, hey, here I am in my mid-40s. I've disconnected from all my businesses on my own, man. My business is their own thing. But I was like, holy. If Fit Body Boot Camp fails, then I failed as a human. Even though the pandemic was crushing restaurants and gyms more than any other businesses, I was like, if Fit Body fails, I failed. I was being so hard on myself and I realized that I hadn't completely disconnected my identity, which means my ego was still alive and well. And I was like, I don't want all my homies that I hang out with and I speak on stage from and I sit in green rooms with to be like, well, guys, Pandemic put Fit Body Bootcamp out of business. And so there goes my big hundred million dollar company. And so that fear was alive and real. And it humbled me to the point where I realized I still have personal development work to do. Because you have to be able to separate yourself from your business. It's not your identity. Because if another pandemic comes, it puts us out of business. That doesn't mean I need to go jump off a bridge. I just need to regroup and restart.

[Sean]

Wow, thanks for being so open about that, man. That's insane. Because at the level you were at, you probably thought you'd never have a downswing that heavy ever again in your life, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

No. You think you've gone over the hump. You're connected to all these people. You can raise capital like no one's business, bro. I reached out to people like private equity and, and, and like that I know, like, who are like, friends. I'm like, I could use some capital right now. They're like, dude, we wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole. I'm like, I don't blame you. I don't blame you. They don't know how long the franchise or the, how long the pandemic's gonna go. They don't know how many more franchise locations we're gonna lose. I got nothing to back it up with. Right. Like, I've got. I sold all my real estate holdings in 2020. All I had is my two commercial buildings that I'm operating my franchise headquarters out of. And so they're like, dude, we wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole. Like, that's a very humbling experience when you realize, shoot, this could be like starting from zero again. Geez. Yeah.

[Sean]

Do you think you'll ever get back into real estate?

[Bedros Koulian]

Oh, yeah, I already got back into.

[Sean]

Oh, you did?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean]

Wow, that was quick.

[Bedros Koulian]

You know this. You have to operate quick.

[Sean]

Yeah. You a lot of uncertainty with politics in the market right now. You pay any attention to that or you kind of just do your own thing.

[Bedros Koulian]

I kind of do my own thing, man. Like, I, I don't really listen to politics. Like, I was, I was winning when Biden was president. I'm winning when Trump is president and whoever becomes president next, I'm gonna win. That's not like, oh, because Pedros is a badass now. Were we working harder, maybe three to five times harder to win at the same level when Biden was president? Yeah, yeah. Where we having to get crafty. Yeah, but that's okay. There's no rule book for this. Right. Like, if you realize that, man, if I do eight more episodes a day, I can make X amount of more money as long as those episodes are quality. And guess what? You're have to change the rules of how you operate. Your sleep pattern, your workout Pattern, your eating pattern, your life patterns will have to change to accommodate eight more episodes a day so that you can make the money that you want to make. The rules are always changing. And imagine If Spotify or YouTube are like, you can only upload so many videos, then you're going to go and create another channel so that you can accommodate, you know, your desired outcome. So the rules might change, but the athlete always finds a way to win. Winners always win. I think I heard Vaynerchuk say that, so I can't take credit for it. Winners always win. And I believe, like, if you've got that winning mindset, you, you'll figure it out. You'll bend the rules sometimes you might break them. I've broken plenty of rules. But winners always win.

[Sean]

There's always a workaround.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And I like how you, you don't make excuses. No matter what's going on, you've got.

[Bedros Koulian]

I don't know, I guess at my age, here's what's great. If I lost it all during the pandemic, I would almost have an unfair advantage in gaining it all back. So when you're like, would you ever get back into real estate? I'm like, already been back into it. When you have all of that confidence that you've stacked for decades, when you lose it all, you don't lose the confidence, you lose the money, you lose the assets. Hell, you might even lose your network because now some people in your network might be like, hey, Bedros doesn't have any more money. He doesn't have any more access to things. I don't need to hang out with him anymore. Damn. But what I don't lose is the experience that I've built and the confidence that I've gained. And so the bounce back is like tiny fraction of what it was to build it. Yeah, yeah. And that's like, that is irreplaceable.

[Sean]

Agreed, Agreed. Do you still have the same drive you did when you were my age?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, but I don't have as much piss and vinegar. Yeah, yeah. Like there, there was a psych. I actually took pride in saying that I have a chip on my shoulder, fire in my belly and rage in my eyes. Like, I still remember that quote. Like I would say that in my early 20s, early 30s. Chip on my shoulder, fire in my belly, rage in my eyes. All of that kind of went away intentionally because I felt I had a point to prove. So now my drive is, where can I get to? Like, where can the 50 year old version of me take this Company, like, I took equity and Fuel Hunt, this apparel company, about three years ago, and they were doing like $1200 a month or $1200 a day in sales. Within six months, they were doing $900 a day in sales. Within another six months, they were doing 22,000 a day in sales. And it's because I opened up my network and I reached out to all my friends that have big followings and that are into American made apparel. And I was like, hey, could you wear this and tag these guys? And it would mean a lot to me because I've helped them out. I've helped them start businesses. I've coached them without charging them. I've done all those things. So, you know, you've got that. You've got that goodwill bank account that you can tap into, right? And. And so it. To me, it's been. It's been really cool to be able to utilize my network and my friends to be able to do things. But people always ask me, hey, would you ever start more businesses on your own, from scratch? I'm. I'm beyond that. I wouldn't. But today I'm competing against the version that I could be. I heard Ed Mylett say this once. He said, bedros, when I die and I go to the pearly gates of heaven, he goes, I believe St. Peter's gonna be standing at the gate with this guy next to him. And if I did my job right on earth here, I'm gonna be like twinsies with that guy. Like, he's gonna say, this is what we built Ed Mylett to look like. Like, this is the highest potential achievement of Ed Mylett. He goes, I don't wanna go to heaven and be like, I don't recognize that guy. And so it's no longer the piss and vinegar and, you know, acquisition of money and assets and whatever, because I have that, and I'm very grateful for it, and I don't want to lose it. When I lost it in 2020, a lot of the real estate, I gained it back. Hell, I emptied it out like retirement funds. And damn. Yeah, yeah, I. I went all in because I was not about to sell. Here's why. Orange Theory sold 60% of their franchise brand to private equity. 24 Hour Fitness sold 75% of their. Of their equity to private equity, of their company to private equity. And so the private equity vultures were. Were circling all fitness franchise brands because everyone knew that the pandemic's going to end at some point and the world's gonna go Back to normal. And this franchise is going to go up again.

[Sean]

They were buying at a discount.

[Bedros Koulian]

They're trying to buy it at a discount. And so I was like, the hell you guys are gonna buy at a discount. So I've always been self funded and debt free. And so I was like, we're gonna stay this way through the pandemic. But bro, it hurt because again, no one's telling you like, oh, this is going to be a 12 month pandemic or a 14 month pandemic where you can now kind of, you know, balance your budget and go, okay, this is how we're going to go about it every month. You think it's going to end and it's not. You keep going. And so I share that with you because it's like, I'll have to empty out retirement accounts, I'll have to empty out crypto accounts, I'll have to empty out real estate deals. But I'm glad I did that because now the valuation of my franchise is like through the roof. And it's still 100 mine. It's not like, you know, private equity owns 30, 40, 50, 60% of it. And. And so I'm glad I did that. But these days I don't so much have a point to prove. I just want to reach the highest version of myself, whatever, that it's become a sport. Yeah. And I feel like I'm an athlete and I was never into sports. I don't know, were you in basketball? You're like, I play.

[Sean]

Yeah, I got a game tonight.

[Bedros Koulian]

All right, so there you go. Like, I've never been athletic really. So my sport, I guess Jiu jitsu is, if it's a sport. It's like the last couple years that I got into jiu jitsu, but short of that, I've never been athletic. So I've always looked at entrepreneurship as my sport. And so in that way, I want to win and I want to see how good I can get at it.

[Sean]

It is a sport. I mean, Mark Cuban says it's 24 7, not stop. Yeah, it's the biggest sport in the world.

[Bedros Koulian]

The biggest sport of the world. You're always on, you're always in preparation and you don't know what the competition is going to bring to the court tomorrow.

[Sean]

You hear this term, like, nice guys finish last. Do you agree with that? In a business sense, like, do you think you could be a leader and be really nice but still get to your level?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yes. With an asterisk. Nice guys don't always finish Last, if they. You need to have a shark in you. Like, there's a mode that I can click into. I think I'm a pretty decent human being. Think I'm a good guy. People might say Bedros is a nice guy. I'm reluctant to use the word nice guy because there's a great book out there called no more Mr. Nice Guy by Robert Glover. Have you read that book?

[Sean]

No, I haven't.

[Bedros Koulian]

Great book, great book. But nice guys are in a negative connotation there. But I understand the connotation. You're mean, but the nice kind. Good dudes can finish first if they have this switch that they can flip to go savage when they need to. There is, there is a place for savagery and being a shark in entrepreneurship. In other words, to strike. I'll give you a great example. You know who Tim Grover is?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

All right. Do you know, like, has he on the show or do you know?

[Sean]

I've seen him like speak though.

[Bedros Koulian]

He's a really good dude. Yeah, one would say he's a nice guy. Like a foreigner to this country. Like me. Like bled. Bled to become successful, became Michael Jordan's personal trainer, then Kobe Bryant's personal trainer. Then you name the pro athlete. Like, he's an amazing New York Times best selling books, great inspirational motivational speaker. We had a. One of my competitors in Fit Body Boot Camp. I won't mention the franchise brand, let's call it Bob's fitness Franchise. During the pandemic, that guy died. The founder of that franchise brand, Tim Grover, knew him just like Tim Grover knows me. Tim and I are friends. He and Tim were friends. Tim reaches out to me that afternoon, like soon as the word got out, like, he died that morning. That afternoon. Tim Grover reaches out to me and he goes, hey, you heard that Sam died? I go, yeah. He goes, now's your time to make an offer. Because his business partner doesn't know what she's doing, Now's your time to make an offer and take all his locations rebranded as Fit Body Boot Camp locations. I was like, roger that. It's exactly what I was thinking. That's a pretty savage move. Wow. His body was probably still warm and.

[Sean]

He was friends with the guy.

[Bedros Koulian]

Wow.

[Sean]

Cutthroat, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

But he ain't coming back, and it's a good business decision for me. Tim saw it, I saw it, others saw it. So I made a fair offer. Fair for the circumstances desirable for me.

[Sean]

Did they take it?

[Bedros Koulian]

Nah, nah.

[Sean]

What ended up happening to them?

[Bedros Koulian]

They ended up taking on private equity and then ended up losing. They only had 75 locations. They didn't have that many, but 75 locations. Let's say 2/3 of them converted to Fit Body locations and the other third died. Right. Because when you're buying out your competitor, you're not converting all of them. Right? Right. So let's say 2/3 convert, 1 third die. Or, or you defranchise, move on. That still would have been a big win for us. But the offer I made was competitive for me, it was desirable for me, and it would have been great for them. They would have gotten a nice little chunk of change and so they took on private equity. Private equity didn't know what to do to help them scale. So after three more years, end up doing dilling away. Last I heard, they got like four corporate owned stores. Cheese.

[Sean]

Yeah, you hear that all the time with private equity acquisitions, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean]

Because you're like the, the soul of the business.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, you. You are the soul of the business. And when they come in and they start cutting costs and, and increasing franchise royalty fees and nickel and diming everything, that all looks great on paper, on a spreadsheet. Yeah, but bro, like, you're fucking with the soul of a company, you know, and so you got to be careful when you bring on private equity.

[Sean]

Yeah. Because you have personal relationships with these franchisees.

[Bedros Koulian]

Right.

[Sean]

Like you're friends with some of them, you know, that goes away.

[Bedros Koulian]

And then if you're a public figure, like, you know, I have my own podcast. I put myself out there. Like, like for example, if I said, who's the CEO of Dodge? Do you know Dodge?

[Sean]

No.

[Bedros Koulian]

No one knows. But who's the CEO of Tesla?

[Sean]

Elon.

[Bedros Koulian]

Elon, Right. He's a public figure. And so, you know, you may not no one knows a CEO of 24 Hour Fitness or F45, but they know the CEO of Fit Body Bootcamp. Because I'm a public figure, I put out content every day. I love writing books, I love doing podcast episodes. I love serving humanity through the free content I put out. And so to some degree, I've got a relationship with the clients that go to Fit Body Bootcamp locations. They're leaving comments on my shit. Right, Right. And so to shaft them by saying, oh, this private equity is going to give me an extra $8 million, so I'm going to sell to them. But I know immediately they're going to raise prices, cut session times, and, you know, cut pay at corporate office. Bro, I would never do that. Like, maybe the younger, stupider greedier version of me would have done that, but the version of me now would never do anything like that because, one, the business is going to collapse on itself, and there goes your brand that you work so hard to build. And two, I think there's some kind of karmic debt that I would have to pay, and I've paid my share of karmic debt. So I do know karma is real.

[Sean]

I know karma's real, too. A hundred percent.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

No, I think you're right, though. That's why you see big companies even noticing this. You got Mark Zuckerberg going on a podcast tour. Rebranding.

[Bedros Koulian]

Right, Exactly. You can rebrand so quickly these days. In fact, I think we could all agree. Well, not that Trump needed podcast to win, but it certainly helped. I think there was a few key podcasts, Joe Rogan's being one of them. Because you could have this instead of just a sound bite from Fox News or CNBC or cnn. You got two and a half hours of like, what is this guy all about? All right? He might be rough and tumble, but you know what? I kind of like what he stands for where this country's concerned.

[Sean]

Yeah. Because you could fake a CNN segment, you can't fake a two hour podcast.

[Bedros Koulian]

No, exactly. And I think that, by the way, was Kamala's downfall. She should have said yes to the Joe Rogan show and just come and wrapped with him just like a regular human. Yeah, we said, like, two dudes. Or in that case would be a dude and a chick sitting at a bar having a beer cocktail, just shooting this.

[Sean]

Absolutely.

[Bedros Koulian]

She might have had a running chance.

[Sean]

Yeah, she. She didn't do any podcasts or. She did, like, a couple, but they were, like, manufactured. Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

At best.

[Sean]

Call her daddy or whatever.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bro, I'm curious. What are these?

[Sean]

So do you believe in emf? Like, oh, it's harmful to people.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean]

So these are like, anti emf. They're a sponsor of the show, Ares Tech. I got one on my phone, too. So I know most people are skeptical, but we did a brain scan with me.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And then we tested this. Like, me on the phone like this.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

This phone is damaging to your brain, man.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, no doubt about it.

[Sean]

When you put it right next to your head.

[Bedros Koulian]

I still use the tethered earbuds.

[Sean]

Yeah, Those are better than the AirPods.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Yeah. But EMF is no joke, dude.

[Bedros Koulian]

Got it.

[Sean]

My HRV was lowered 40 points when I was on the phone.

[Bedros Koulian]

No way.

[Sean]

40 points.

[Bedros Koulian]

I'm guessing you're probably on the phone a lot with, obviously with.

[Sean]

We just did a five minute call for the test.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean]

But some people are on the phone for hours. It's like, dude, you're frying yourself.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

I don't know, there's all these health things, but I just focus on what I can control.

[Bedros Koulian]

I'm curious in like 50 years, like, what we're going to see with, like, humans, we're going to have, like, hunches on our backs for, like, looking at phones all day long. Like, bro, like, the old version of me was an, like, I'm talking about the young version. Not like 20s and 30s where I was a young entrepreneur. I'm talking like late teens, early 20s. I used to get in trouble with the law, et cetera. And these days when I, when I see people walking around town with their face in their phone or sitting in a parking lot, dark parking lot on their iPhone, I'm like, this is the fastest, like, robbery, kidnapping.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

And, and car theft ever. Like, I'm gonna get a trifecta on this one. Like, it's, it's just nuts how people are so unaware. And it's all because it was, I.

[Sean]

Mean, I saw a viral video yesterday. This guy was just fake kidnapping, like a kid. And seeing how people would react. Yeah. Everyone was on their phone.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Only one person stopped out of the 10 people he did the test with to help the kid out. Isn't that crazy?

[Bedros Koulian]

That is sad, bro, because we're just.

[Sean]

Walking on our phones.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. Yeah. And there's this new mindset. Like, I don't want to get involved. I don't want to get involved. I, I, I, I don't know. It's like, bro, it's not like a screen where you're spectating. Like, you could actually change the outcome of whatever's happening right now.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

People are just weird.

[Sean]

How do you approach phones with your kids? Like, you give them free reign.

[Bedros Koulian]

Now, Andrew's 19, Chloe's 17. But when they got phones at 13 years old, they had complete rules and regulations and standards and what they can. In fact, I hope Andrew doesn't listen to you because he hates when I talk about this, but he was 14, he started a Instagram account and his profile image was the middle finger. Right. I'm like, son, like, I come from Thugville.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

I was a foreigner. I lived in Santa Ana. I got in gang fights with those guys. You live in beautiful Chino Hills on a one acre estate that's manicured. You got a, you know We've got a chauffeur and you've got, you've got Marlon the housekeeper. Like what are you, what is the middle finger for, number one? Number two, I thought you told you you can't have a social media account. Right. But yeah, they, they were raised with so much structure that they know how to use their phones to access information and not so much to live on it on a daily basis. Yeah.

[Sean]

Was teaching toughness to your kids hard. Cuz you had all the, the wealth and success.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. Because you have to manufacture adversity versus having it. Right. Like, you know, growing up with SEC in Section 8 housing in Santa Ana, California, you're, you see your dad, My dad had this Armenian saying, he said we're always running out of money before we run out of month. And so he would have to make a decision whether we're paying the electric bill or the gas bill. Damn. They always ran the water because obviously humans need water. So if you don't pay your water bill, you still have water, but electric or gas. And so sometimes we had no electricity in the apartment and we. That was Section 8 housing where the government paid for a large amount of our rent. Right. But you know, he's got a paper route. He's a 45 year old man who's got a paper route and works at an ARCO gas station. Like how the is he gonna make it happen? And so like I lived through real adversity and hardship, which is funny at the time you don't realize it because you're just having a good time because you're a kid, in hindsight, you look back, you're like, holy.

[Sean]

Yeah. That was before social media where you were comparing yourself to other kids.

[Bedros Koulian]

You had nothing. Exactly. You had nothing to compare against. Right. And all the other kids in a. So in, in a, in a, in a community like that where it's, you know, they're getting government assisted. They're just like you. So you're like, we're all the same. You now with social media, you're like, oh, that kid's got a Lambo. That kid's got a bling, know, whatever. And so with my kids, like how do you. What, what do you. You, I, we. You buy them the plunge and like, hey, do the ice bath cold plunge. Yeah. And so that's what we did. Like, hey son, here's a plunge. Do the plunge. Hey daughter, do the punch. But I raised them as hard as I could, taught them how to lift and train. My son's in Jiu Jitsu my daughter's not. My daughter plays flag football. She's a savage in her own right there. As hard as can be considering whose kids they are. Yeah, I do. Well, they went to private school. They had a great life. They're as hard as can be.

[Sean]

Love it.

[Bedros Koulian]

And I don't want them to live the life that I had either. Like, that's. I would never want that. Yeah, yeah. So you manufacture adversity.

[Sean]

Do you believe in tough love? Because I've seen it like hit or miss. Like, for me it worked. My mom was pretty tough on me, but I've seen it the opposite way as well.

[Bedros Koulian]

My dad was really tough on me. He was very physical with me. I think it worked with me. The first time I whacked Andrew in the ass. Andrew's older. He was always like the test subject. Chloe was one, Andrew was. No, Chloe was two, Andrew was four. And he did something and I whacked him in the ass a couple times. And he looked at me and just these big crocodile tears started coming down, bro. I felt so awful. I realized I cannot be physical with my kids. I apologized to him. I was like, this will never happen again. At four years old, he was like, okay, whatever, Right? He's just like, fuck, man, you just spanked me in the ass. But I don't know, I think showing him and her that I'm disappointed in them and that I know they could do better was tougher love than the physical.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I meant more mentally, but yeah, back in your day, physical was normal.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. So when you said tough love, I went right to physical.

[Sean]

Yeah, no, that's what happened with my dad. He got the beat out of him growing up on a farm. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's tough. That's just how it was back then.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah, that's just how it was. I mean, dude, when we came to America, I was 6 years old. By the time I was 9 or 10 years old in one of the Section 8 housings, we lived in Shade Tree Apartments. I had a friend named Scott and I go knock on his door like we. He had like GI Joe action figures and we'd play with that, right? And so I always played with my friend's because I never had of my own. And I knock on his door, I'm like, hey, Scott, like, can you come out and play? What the. It's a weekend, right? I'm like 9 years old, 10 years old, and he's like, I can't come out. I'm on restriction. I was like, what's restriction? He goes, you know, like, I can't watch tv, I can't come out and play with you guys. I can't go swim in the. In the pool. How long? He goes, two weeks. I'm like, oh, my God, what happened? Right? Like, bro, I've never heard the term. Imagine, like, what happened to you. Like, this is bad. He goes, I got in trouble. I go, your mom can't just, like, slap you a couple times and you can come out and play? He goes, that's called abuse. My dad slaps me around all the time, and then I come out and play with you guys. Like, to me, my dad beating me and then I can go back to resuming being a kid was a lot more reasonable than fucking two weeks of restriction. But that's just how I was programmed because I didn't know anything different. Interesting. Yeah.

[Sean]

You were just so normalized to it.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Did you, I guess, come to terms when you got older with him and make amends? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

He's 91. He just turned 91 years old yesterday. Yeah, yeah. As former communists get older, they soften up. Someone said this about some dictator, I think Fidel Castro, before. Fidel Castro died like a decade or so before somebody went and interviewed him, but he had interviewed him maybe like 20 years earlier. And they're like, man, the Fidel Castro from 20 years earlier was just a savage, ruthless, cutthroat guy. This is a softer, more gentle Fidel Castro. And I think time does wear out, smooth out the edges.

[Sean]

Time heals, right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Time heals the heart. And then on someone who's rough and tumble. And again, my dad had a rough childhood too. Like, I can understand that. It doesn't give him permission to go beating the shit out of me and my siblings. But my point is, he's so gentle now, and I understand where he came from. And in his own way, we've made men's. Like, he hasn't apologized, but in his own way he has. I love that. Yeah.

[Sean]

I think it's important also just not to hold anger and resentment. It could affect your own health, Right?

[Bedros Koulian]

Absolutely, absolutely. I think when you're holding resentment, when you're holding guilt, when you're holding shame, all those things can just kind of start eating away at you from the inside. And I saw that. There's that. We've all seen it. I'm sure you do Google search for the vibrational frequency scale of humans. Like shame, guilt, regret, those are the very bottom low frequency. Right. Acceptance is in the Middle. So it's like if, okay, accept the fact that you up, you're feeling guilty about something or you regret doing something, just accept the fact that you screwed that up. And acceptance has a higher vibrational frequency. Wow. Now at least accept it and go, I'll never do this again. If I, if I took advantage of you and I feel guilt and shame and regret, I could either live in that low frequency or I could accept it and then go, I'm going to come and apologize to you. I'm going to say, homie, how can I make this right? And then hopefully you give me the opportunity to make it right. Now I have acceptance. I can start working my way up higher to like joy and bliss and happiness with higher frequency. I love that.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah, we'll throw up that image on the screen. One of your recent videos was titled How Churches and Schools Destroy Dreams. Yeah, I want to learn more about that.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, I, I do believe that churches, schools, universities, they want congruency in people again. I, I get it. Like, think about the road. There's lanes and it's just that paint that's keeping traffic on this side of the road and then traffic on that side of the road. Like, if we decided to ignore that paint and just become unruly, those lanes mean nothing to us. We're just going to smash into each other. Right. And like, you know, 3,000 pound vehicles. And so I do realize humanity needs like some level of control and congruency. I get it. And we have to comply to, you know, stoplights and all that. But it's also easy enough to go, well, we could do that if we can just draw lines on the ground, arbitrary lines, and people will stay in them. If I want to create workers and cubicles or factories or whatever, then maybe what I'm going to teach at schools are things that are going to dim the light of curiosity, dim the light of. I think I'm going to go and explore and see what's out there and instead say, you know, what do you want to be? You know, do you want to be a firefighter, a police officer, an accountant, a chef or whatever? Like, in other words, go work for someone. Churches do the same thing. Like, if you want to be a good religious, you know, good believer of Jesus or Allah or Buddha, like there, there's a path that's very specific that you have to walk and if you deviate from it, you know, hellfire and brimstone. And so there's a sense of control and compliance. Congruency that has gotten from schools and churches. I think it. It takes. It takes curious and adventurous minds, and it declaws and defanges us. I don't know if it's intel, if it's intelligently designed that way, or if it's, hey, we have to teach kids math, we have to teach them English, we have to teach them pronouns, we have to teach them verbs. And then we have to like, okay, we're going to read scripture. And so we can't just haphazardly open up the Bible to some random page. We have to have structure. So I get structured and all that. But I think if you don't question school, why am I learning this? Why are you asking, like, what if I want to go open up a restaurant? Who didn't that. Why didn't anyone ask me if I want to be an entrepreneur, if I want to be a real estate investor? It's always like pushing you towards jobs, right? But maybe that's all they know and that's all they teach. But the point I was making in that video is be curious, be skeptical. Because if you're curious and skeptical, you might just see that if I follow this thing exactly as planned, I might end up exactly like the rest of them. And do I want to be average like the rest of them? One thing, I shared the project with these men that Ray Cash and I ran for five years. I was like, dude, if you guys have kids, you would never say, I want my kid to have average health, to be of average height, of have average intelligence, make average income, live in an average house, marry an average person. You want the best for them, right? You want the best for them. Yet we kind of through schools and churches because those. And. And I guess if there was a third thing, it would probably be media, and that's going to be social media, television, movies, music, like all sorts of media. It does get people to comply. Now, you remember back in the 70s, 80s, there was like music that was just like, hey, bucking the system. Like, how do we buck the system? How do we think outside of the norm? But I think a lot of things right now get people to stay homogenized. And if you're just curious and skeptical enough, you might realize that I don't want to be average in the path that they're sending me down in this university or the school or this church is the path of being average. And I don't want that.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. When did you start having that mindset? Was it when you were in college or in your 20s?

[Bedros Koulian]

Dude? Because my dad always told me, never trust the government because we come from a communist country. And he was a communist party member. He said I always be skeptical. Like, I think that's one of the greatest gifts he gave me. Like, he probably told me, like, at 10, 11 years old. Damn.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. So I didn't trust teachers. Like, I would literally run away from school. I was like, I don't like this class. I'm out. I go out the door. Right.

[Sean]

At 10 years old.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was definitely a renegade in that way. A renegade in that way. And it served me well. I do not have an average life. There's nothing average about me in any way.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

And. And to some degree, you know, the. The. The lion that's caged up in the zoo tends to live longer because four times a day, throw. They throw raw meat in there, and he eats it. The lion that's on the wild Serengeti, that's knocking out 1600 episodes in almost two years. And hunting and trying to figure out how to monetize and create live events and get sponsors. Like, you're hunting.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

You're hunting every day. You may not have a long life, but God damn it, it's fulfilling. Agree. Like, that's what I love. That's what I love. I made it to 50. Maybe at 51, I pass out. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I get to 100. My goal is to live to 100 and die, especially after a good leg workout. That's how I see it. I'm trying to manifest. I'm gonna have a really awesome leg workout, get to my truck, and then die. Yeah. At, like, about 100 years old. Whatever. A good leg workout means that during that time.

[Sean]

Yeah. At least you did everything you could in that time.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. That's all, man. I just don't want to get declawed and defanged. I made sure that my kids aren't declawed and defanged. And to that. To that. Look, they went to a private school, and my son wanted to have long hair, but, you know, the private school was like, hey, the long hair. He could have long hair, but it can't touch the collar. Right. Okay, cool. So I made sure it was just right there, like a half a millimeter from the top of the collar. Right. And so one day, like, the. One of his. My son's teachers was like, hey, you can't have long hair. We're gonna send you to the principal, and they're gonna tell your parents Whatever. And I raised hell. I'm like, it's not touching the collar. Well, but Mrs. Whoever thinks that it's not appropriate. It doesn't matter what she thinks. She's trying to declaw and defang. My mission is to have these kids not declawed and defamed, so that ain't happening. And, oh, by the way, if you want that giant canopy that I paid $90,000 for that's being built on the playground, and that's the only time I've ever have flexed my money like that. Giant. Because it gets pretty hot in Chino Hills.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Bedros Koulian]

What? That giant canopy, like, my kid's hair is not changing because it's not touching his collar. And they're like, no worries. And then they put up a giant banner that said, thank you, Fit Body Boot Camp. Because I paid it with Fit Body Boot Camps right off.

[Sean]

Smart. I love that you stand your ground for what you believe, bro.

[Bedros Koulian]

You have to. You have to. Because humanity wants to move you along the path. They want you to drift down the path that they've already predestined for you. I. I don't want that. I don't want that. That's. That's. That's such a. Again, they do with the best of intentions. My dad was a tailor, so he's like, I'm gonna give you my tailor shop. And then he came to America, opened up a little tailor shop. After five years of working his nuts off as a paper boy and working at a gas station, he bought a little tailor shop. And then when I turned 16, and I know. I know how to sew really well, actually. And he's like, you know, one day you're gonna have this tailor shop. I was like, no, I don't want this. He's like, but I built this for you. Look, it bought us a house. I have a little rental property. I'm like, good for you. It's not for me. He goes, well, what's your path? I don't know, but it's not this tailor shop, right? And. And so like to say that to your communist dad who took risk his life and brought you to the United States. And then it's like, hey, I'm gonna hand you a business. That's pretty scary, right? And then I didn't have an answer when he's like, well, what's your path then? No clue, dad. But it ain't this. I know that it ain't, because I'll just. I know I'll be dead inside because I just thought for A moment sitting right there at his sewing machine. And he would get so tired, bro. After, like, 12 hours, he would literally put his head. He'd make two fists, and he'd put his forehead on his fit on his top fist. And he would sleep for a little bit with his tape measure hanging. Hanging. I would see him like that. I was like, I don't want that. I don't want that. I don't want that. I'll go hungry, but I don't want that. That's all I knew. And so, once again, like, he was handing me a cage with meat thrown in it every day, four times a day. And I was like, no, thank you. I just want to see if I can go hunt. And in the process of hunting, I've got my battle scars and my bumps and bruises and my losses. And those losses have ranged from hundreds of hundreds of thousands to a few million at a time. But I wouldn't change it in any other way. I love fucking experience, man.

[Sean]

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Did it take off right away when you made that decision? Did it take years or what was that process?

[Bedros Koulian]

About a decade?

[Sean]

That must have been rough for your relationship.

[Bedros Koulian]

It was. It was. I. Very quickly, at around 17, I moved out of the house. Wow. Because he was like, I'm handing you something, and you don't want it. Now you're out here causing trouble. So I would. Me and my friends would carjack dudes, steal their car. We wanted nothing with them. We just wanted to steal their car and our justice. See, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. It's like, other cars are insured, and Honda Civics back then in the 90s, you know, you can get a lot of money for car parts for Honda Civic. And so we would do that kind of stuff. And then eventually, I got caught in a police helicopter chase.

[Sean]

Damn.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. Yeah, that was. That was a whole issue. I was driving a 79 Toyota pickup, trying to get away from the Anaheim Police Department, and they've got a helicopter. There's. You're not getting away in a 79 Toyota pickup, bro. Not. Not at all. And so that was a big. But my. Imagine how disappointed my dad was. I've got a business I want to hand you, and here you are doing stupid shit with your friends, and I brought you to this country from a communist. He risked his life, like, he denounced communism. We went to Italy on vacation from Armenia. Right. Which was under Soviet communist rule. And then, of course, we weren't really on vacation. We were escaping. And then we Go to the American consult. And my dad's like, hey, I'm a communist party member, I denounce communism and we want to defect to the United States. They pumped him for information for 10, 10 or 11 days and then they allowed us to come into the United States. So he like risked his life, brings us to the United States and then he's like, opens up a tailor shop that has done well for him. A lot of cash transactions, especially back then, so not paying a lot of taxes. And he's handing this to me and instead what am I doing? I'm stripping cards down and I'm like getting in a police helicopter chase. But I just knew my path was different. I just had to find it. But it took about a decade. I started off as a personal trainer. I love training people. Fitness changed my life. I was a fat kid when I got leaner, more athletic, built more confidence, build more competency. All those things that we talked about earlier, then I wanted to help people achieve that. But then I realized as a one on one personal trainer, I can't achieve that, especially in a big box gym. One of my personal training clients, his name is Jim Franco, awesome fucking human being. And Jim's like, you need to have your own personal training studio. I'm like, well, I don't know how to do it. It was, first of all, you got to learn how to sell. He goes, you're just taking orders right now. Someone says they want 20 sessions from you, you just sell them what they want, you're an order taker. No one had ever spoken that much truth to me. Like, think about this, the guy's paying the gym for me to train him and I'm getting paid 12, 50 an hour. And he, I got a millionaire coaching me. And I didn't even realize it. And when it clicked, he teaches me how to sell, he teaches me how to market, he gives me, helps me develop self belief that I can open up a boutique gym. And then he loans me money and I successfully opened that up and the rest was history from there. Like I realized, okay, one on one, I'm never going to become financially free. But if I have a personal training studio and I have 10 or 15 personal trainers working in there, now they're trading their time for dollars and I'm getting a portion of that now if I can multiply that gym to five personal training gyms, now I'm really like scaling this thing. Yeah, right. And then I ended up selling those to Crunch Fitness back in the day. So that was my first Sale at the age of 28. I sell like five gyms, right? I made a few hundred thousand dollars, like take home for me. And I was like, holy. Entrepreneurship is my thing. And from there I just went all in on it.

[Sean]

I love it. That's the power of a good mentor right there, bro. Change your life.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah, I. And all I was, all I did was just believe him. Even though I doubted myself, I believed him because he had, again, undeniable proof. I would look out the doors of LA Fitness and there's Jim Franco pulling up in a champagne colored Cadillac Escalade. The next day there's Jim Franco pulling up in a 1964 Shelby Cobra. Like, and one day I'm like, jim, how many cars do you have? He goes, several. Like, dude, I've got this like old beat up truck. He goes, well, you know, the more value you add to humanity, the more money you make and you can buy as many cars as you want. Like, that blew my mind.

[Sean]

Great advice.

[Bedros Koulian]

Yeah. So anyways, just to open up your ears and listen, you don't always have to pay mentors. Like today we've got this episode, right? Look at all the episodes you're pumping out. You got shit ton of stuff on YouTube, on Spotify, on itunes. If people would just listen and execute. That's all I did is listen and execute. Like, you only got to be that smart. Just listen and execute. You know, most of things will work out. Some things won't. You just keep moving forward and before you know it, you've amassed some wealth. Absolutely, yeah.

[Sean]

Dangerous. Where can people find your show and your events coming up, man?

[Bedros Koulian]

My show can be found at Spotify itunes. The Bedroom Coolian show. They can follow me on Instagram and if they go to bedrosecoolian.com they could find my event for May 31st.

[Sean]

Awesome. Thanks for coming on, man.

[Bedros Koulian]

Thank you, bro.

[Sponsor]

Check them out, guys.

[Sean]

See you next time.