← Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice
Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
00:41:55
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- [00:00]
Bedros Koulian
What happens is entrepreneurs, baby, they just don't realize it because it happens slowly over time, you know, technology comes, marketing gets more sophisticated, consumers become more educated in the way they buy. And so businesses evolve in terms of transparency. This is Right about Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month, taking the BS out of business for over 6 years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cash and check? Well, it starts right about now, right.
- [00:36]
Ryan Alford
About talking to Bedros Killian, founder and CEO of Fit Body Camp, author of Man up, how to Cut the and Kick Ass in Business and Life. Kill you, my brother. What's up, brother? What's happening?
- [00:48]
Bedros Koulian
I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Ryan, thank you for having me, man. I appreciate the opportunity.
- [00:52]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, man. Pumped to have you. We know a lot of the same people and you know, I've been following you for a while. Admirer from afar. You got me pumped up all the time. Your book's awesome. I think you're a great inspiration for what we need in today's world. Motivation, positivity, but a little kick in the damn ass. You know, it ain't all sunshines and flowers and roses all day.
- [01:16]
Bedros Koulian
That is true.
- [01:18]
Ryan Alford
What's going on in your world these days?
- [01:20]
Bedros Koulian
Well, I gotta tell you, man, I'm just intrigued and watching the downfall of our great country and wondering when the most capable men who can exercise their voice will decide to actually stand up and be men and exercise their voice so that we can win back our country. It is the last free country, thanks to our Constitution and. But it is also being radically eroded away. Pun intended. And so with that in mind, when are the men going to stand up? Because in the. You know, one thing I always say, and you asked this question, it already triggered me, so I'm just going to jump into this real quick, is that if I were to see. I come from a communist country. I escaped the Soviet Union as a kid. My dad was a member of, of the the communist regime and his whole thing was, we're going to go to a country that affords us freedom and opportunity so long as you serve that country. And he said it's backed by this document called the Constitution. Cool. So we escape. In 1980, I was six years old, and we come here and in that time we've seen the slow erosion of the Constitution, of our freedoms, of our liberties, and of course of that First Amendment, the freedom of speech, which is Backed by the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. And we're seeing a constant attack on that. And I share this with you because when our rights are being encroached and people think, well, someone else is going to go and do something about it, I'm sure someone else was working on it. That's what happened when. And during World War II, when Germany killed millions of Jews, everyone else thought that someone else would stop it. And so I'm just here to maybe message to people that we are that someone else.
- [03:06]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, I mean, we're. We. We're just going to get hard and heavy quick and fast. That's what I love about it. So where did this. Where did it all start, man? Where did this erosion begin? I don't know where there's this fine line with me personally where we can't all personally attack every single issue in life. And you can fight me on that, but I just have so many battles that I can fight, and we need to fight some battles and maybe fight some wars. Not too many battles. I don't know where the structure falls. And then there's the common sense that there's this erosion of the things that you're talking about and accepting things that shouldn't be accepted as Americans. I don't know where that started to fall, but I also don't know how many. How many things can we take all on at once? Am I just being, you know, a puss about that? Or like, how do you fight? Which battles do you fight?
- [04:01]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah, well, like, you have kids. I'm sure you got kids.
- [04:04]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, I got four boys.
- [04:06]
Bedros Koulian
There you go. So you got four boys. And so you know this. With your boys, you have to pick and choose your battles.
- [04:10]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [04:10]
Bedros Koulian
If you can't battle everything, like, my son is 17 years old. Two years ago, at 15, he said. He said, hey, Mom, Dad, I think I want to get my ears pierced. And apparently he had been working up to that for two weeks, thinking about how he's going to pitch us, et cetera. Now, I immediately was like, what do you want to get in your ears? He's like, just a couple of studs. I'm like, cool. Done. I knew that wasn't the battle I'm willing to fight now. If he said, hey, mom and dad, I'm 15 and I want to get a back tattoo, that might be a battle I'm willing to fight. So you're absolutely right, bro, in that we can't fight every battle. Just like in business, we need singularity of focus. If we want to accomplish the outcome. And so there's a lot of small battles that are common sense battles. Like, do I. Am I going to fight the battle of people's pronouns right now? Probably not. Like, I can care less. Call yourself a bookshelf if you want, but I will fight the battle of the erosion of the dollar. I will fight the battle of the inflation that's taking place. I will want to fight the battle where we've got a commander in chief who I believe has some cognitive dysfunction, and we've all turned a blind eye to all of that. Those are all battles worth fighting. I will fight the battle of censorship of our First Amendment. It's the First Amendment for a reason. I will fight the battle of the erosion of our Second Amendment. So we do need singularity of focus. And then, you know, given Jocko Willink a shout out for his book Extreme Ownership, he talks about prioritize and execute. So if those were the five or six big battles to fight to be able to save our country, like during the pandemic, man, I run a fitness franchise, Fit Body Boot Camp. You know, we had over 700 locations worldwide. And during the 10 months of 2020, we lost over 200 franchise locations. I had to pick and choose the battles I needed to fight to be able to save locations, to be able to save certain states that were more friendly to letting us run our gyms and, you know, maybe let others die. And you have to prioritize and execute. But it's not impossible. It's just we have to have that conversation as a nation. And until that happens, and I think it will, it just. It's unfortunate that it has to get so bad. Almost like, you know, when someone's like an alcoholic in the family and they're crashing their cars, they're getting arrested, but it reaches a point where the whole family gets together to have that intervention. I feel like we need to have a national intervention. And I feel like we might be coming up to that sooner than later.
- [06:40]
Ryan Alford
I think the only way we can get there is if we can somehow figure out that it's not a left and right decision. This is a common sense American discussion, you know, like, this isn't about right. This isn't about left. This is about fucking American rights and about the American way of being able to speak our minds, have freedom of speech, carry guns, perhaps what the Second Amendment is, you know, but everything is so fucking left and right. You can't. It's so polarizing and so like, you can't just have a Fundamental discussion. And that's the shit that just drives me crazy.
- [07:17]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah. Yeah. Well, here's the thing on that, though. If. If you and I decided that we're going to team up and we're going to invade. Oh, I don't know, let's say we're going to invade Canada. They're. They're pretty laid back and chill, you know, they wouldn't.
- [07:27]
Ryan Alford
We like to get that done right.
- [07:29]
Bedros Koulian
We're fine. You and I are gonna build this massive army and navy, and you and I are going to invade Canada and take over and we're going to call it Ryan and Bedros Land. And now, as you and I are planning over your kitchen table, we're probably not. We're probably going to go. All right, dude. Are we worried about the elderly people of Canada? No. No, we're not. Are we worried about the children of Canada to attack us and fight us back? No, not worried about them. Are we worried about the women? Are we worried about the. No, no, we're not about the word to where we were. We're worried about the capable, able bodied men. All right, so then before we go into Canada, what should we do? Well, hey, Ryan, why don't we take the next 15, 20 years and create an erosion of the fiber of masculinity, Create this dysfunction in men. Weaken them, make them docile, make them dependent, Confuse them, separate them by class, separate them by left and right, separate them by black and white, Separate them by, by, you know, the jab or no jab, have so many elements that separate them so that they can't come together as a tribe, as an army to stand up against our opposition. And so it kind of seems like I'm not a tinfoil hat kind of guy, but it kind of seems like they've done a damn good job separating the country from left to right, to black and white to all those different things. Because when you do, you don't have unity, which is why we need to become a family again and have that intervention to get old cousin Joe out of that seat.
- [08:52]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, it's. You read the Art of War.
- [08:56]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah.
- [08:56]
Ryan Alford
You know, with a better bit or better strategy than what you just described. You know, it almost seems intentional, right?
- [09:04]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But. But again, I'm not here to be political and all that stuff, man. I'm a free markets capital capitalist. I want to make a ton of money and do a lot of good with it. So I certainly want to keep the conversation positive. But we do need to have these conversations so people do Start thinking for themselves and not being told how to think.
- [09:21]
Ryan Alford
And I think that's the takeaway Bedros right there. You know, for everybody listening, you know, we've gone heavy and hard right at it, but you need to hear this because we need to think for yourself and think clearly and not be leaned or pointed towards one direction because of popularity or whatever. You need to be convicted. And I think that's what it's about. Readers, I do want to give some props and some attention to your, your background in history. Obviously you can pick up your book and they can do enough Googling. I don't want to, you know, wear that out. But I think, I think you're such a good storyteller. I think you're just having such an amazing foundation. I do want to do some justice to that for the audience talking a little bit about that story, building up one of the fastest growing franchises in the country. So let's, let's talk a little bit about that background.
- [10:10]
Bedros Koulian
Sure. So the background of how I came to United States with the background of how I build the franchise.
- [10:15]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, let's start from the, you know, we'll do, let's do justice to both of those because I think that's an important story because about what we're, we started down this path of American way, the American country. I think your history is what matters in, in that foundational of really what sets your mind where it is.
- [10:34]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah, yeah, I agree. So, so, so really when you, when you just imagine my dad through this guy. So he's like, he's 89 years old today, alive and well, and in his 40s, he came to the conclusion, well, building up to that, but in his 40s, he decided that I'm going to pull the trigger and I'm going to escape the Soviet Union. So we're Armenian. Armenia was under Soviet control, Russian control. My dad was one of the 18% of the population that was actually a member of the Communist party. So he was a card carrying party member. Communist Party member. And people always go, well, my choice, right? Yeah. But if you said no when they ask you to be a party member, you're shipped off to Siberia and never to be heard from again. So long story short, this dude left his ominous passport at home all the time. Never take it out with him. Never exercise his right to be able to question people and to be able to check businesses. All the businesses were run by the system. Everybody worked for the state. And so part of being a Communist party member is you can do surprise inspections in the region that you're in. My dad was just like, hey, live in that thing. And he's the guy that wore Jordan Ash, wore Ray Bans, listened to Elvis. He was full on American guys. And. And so he decides that we're going to escape. So he does a lot of side gigs, collects about 25,000 rubles, which is enough to bribe the people that needed to bribe to allow us to escape into Italy. Ten days into Italy. And my dad always demands that I tell this part of the story exactly as it happened. We went to the American consul in Italy. We said, we declared ourselves as political refugees. We said we wanted to legally enter the United States. And so after 10 days of pumping my dad for information, after all, Communist party member, they entered us into the United States. My dad chose California, of all places, because, hey, why not? Beautiful weather, great topography, you never have to see snow again. And I love this state and I will stay in the state for as much as people on it. You'll never find a better state and climate and geography. I can guarantee you that. I've traveled the entire world. But anyway, that said, legitimately said, is this country offers you freedom and opportunity so long as you serve the people in it. Find a solution to serve people, add value. And so I just, being the youngest of the family, believe that wholeheartedly and decided that's what we're gonna do. Now, I gotta tell you, we grew up in Section 8 housing, which is government assisted housing. My dad worked three or four jobs at any given time to be able to make enough money to pay for our ship apartments that we lived in. One of the times I got lice because the apartment that we lived in was so filthy. My, my mom had to have my dad siphon out gasoline from a park car to wash my hair with gasoline. Couldn't even afford live stream it. So I didn't speak English, I didn't understand the culture. All I did was add value, serve humanity, add value, serve humanities. As I grew up, I just took a liking for fitness and decided that I was going to go into the personal training space. And I wanted to help people transform their bodies and their minds. You know this, you're in great shape. When you transform your body, your mind follows. You become more optimistic, more positive, more focused, more disciplined. Mental toughness, all those things, confidence soars through the roof. And I love seeing my clients do that. So I kept asking myself, how do I scale my personal training business? Thankfully, one of my personal training clients, this older gentleman, Jim Franco, very crude. He goes, you will never be able to scale unless you know how to sell and you're a horrible sales kid. And I, he said, jim, I vetted what I sold you a six month training program three times a week, seven grand that you paid, man. He goes, I came in wanting a six month program three times a week. You just took my order. And no one had ever spoken to me that directly before because during order taker, not a salesperson. And until you can learn to sell, you're never going to grow. And so really cook matters. I mean he was a multimillionaire software company in the automotive industry. And he brought me Zig Ziglar cassette tapes, Brian Tracy books, Tom Hopkins. Like I was introduced to all these salespeople and I would listen to the cassette tapes, I would read the books and I started to develop the skill of persuasion and influence sales overcoming objections. And before I knew it, there was four or five, six trainers working 100. Before I knew that, he loaned money, 8% interest to open up my own little studio. That led to four more, that led to coaching and consulting GM owners, that led to starting this giant empire, Body care. So as the housing market crashed back in 2008, I knew that one on one personal training was not going to be a thing anymore at that point. And so I had learned from Jim Franco that anytime there's a disaster, there's people capitalizing on a disaster. Like when the stock market crashes, housing market crash, anytime there's a disaster, not everyone loses their money. He taught me that money doesn't just go away, it exchanges hands. And the example he gave me was he goes, even at the worst of economy, you can see people driving Mercedes Land Rovers, rolls Royces, Bentley's, etc. And so he goes, you just have to find who's got the money and end up adding value to their life. With that in mind, housing market crash in 2008, I knew people weren't going to be able to afford one on one expensive personal training. So I said, if we can take that outdoor boot camp, the personal trainers do outside group training, bring it indoors with equipment, a system and legitimize it. I can create a franchise system where it's one trainer, many clients and bring down the cost of personal training because it'll be a group environment, group personal training. That's how fitbody boot camp was born. Like within the first two years we had hit 100 locations and you know, as, as we grew to 200, 300, 400, 500 locations worldwide and beyond. We were hitting the Inc 5000 list entrepreneur, 200 fastest growing franchise lists. And what I had realized at that point is whenever there is a disaster, you can become a solution and therefore create a new product to serve humanity. And so that's how FitBody Boot Camp grew. And through there, as we grew beyond 500 fit body boot Camp locations, and the average location has 300 to 500 paying clients, you know, they'll pay about 200, $149 a month. I realized, all right, what else do our clients need? So here's another great opportunity for entrepreneurs. They are. If you're serving people who are trying to get fit, lose weight, what else do they need? Well, they probably need supplements. They need protein, they need hydration supplements. They need something to help them with their immune system and inflammation. So I said, well, why not create a supplement line as well? So we created truly a supplement company that serves our clients throughout Fit Body Boot Camp locations worldwide. And here's the crazy thing about that. You fast forward all these years in 2020, when the pandemic took place and nobody was buying a gym franchise from me because everyone thought the gyms were, well, gyms were struggling. Gyms and restaurants took it in the shorts, you know that. And so it actually surprised me that in 2020, we actually sold six new franchise locations. And I was like, every time someone would buy one and like, are you sure you're buying a franchise location for me right now, they go, nah. I go know, I'm not going to give you a refund. That was very transparent. At that point. I'm doing sales because we had, we had, you know, we didn't have much. We have a thin skeleton staff. Yeah. And I said, listen, I know things will turn around with the economy, and when they do, you're going to be in a good opportunity. But just to give you some contrast, we would normally, before the pandemic, we would sell six to eight new franchise locations per month. And now all of 20 sold six locations. And so I was just grateful for those six because, you know, in that time, we also lost over 200 franchise locations. But here's a beautiful thing about it is when the pandemic happened and gyms had to shut down, our supplement company started to hockey stick and our immune system product, because everybody was really into building their immune system, trying to fight off the virus. That thing went on Amazon and just started blowing up. So there's so much to be said about creating multiple income streams, because when one stream dries up, you've got another stream that might Hockey stick and really keep you afloat. And so I've had the good fortune, obviously, over the years to build many income streams by investing in companies, apparel companies, software, etc. But my two core companies, Fit Body, Boot Camp, the International Franchise, and Truling, thankfully continue to thrive. And they're in an industry where I love serving people, making them better, building their immune system, building their health and confidence. And so that's always the industries that I like to play in.
- [19:11]
Ryan Alford
Yep. Pedro is a lot to unpack there and really appreciate you going backwards from the beginning. I mean, the. The biggest, you know, there's about 12 takeaways. Let me start with the first one. We talk about the American dream and we talk about the opportunities as Americans. Then, you know, I see a lot of people, they talk all the time about, like, how blessed you are, like, to wake up if you're born in America and the opportunities that are at your feet, no matter, like, how bad it is. But, you know, you're an immigrant. You were not born in America, but came over, had the opportunity, but saw the American dream and how you took it by the balls and, you know, like, have become what everybody wants to. Like, what. Where is that? I don't know that it's been lost, but where did that. Is it just Hutzfah? Is it nature or nurture? Like, I hear, I hear guys like you badros that I just want to like, you know, like, man hug and like, high five, you know, like in the best possible way, you know, But I'm like, but where does that come from? Is it nature or nurture? Like, is it just because you wanted it more? I don't know.
- [20:22]
Bedros Koulian
When you, when you, when you've eaten out of dumpsters, when you lived in Section 8 housing, had your hair washed with gasoline, when you've seen people yelling at your parents and telling them to go back to your own fucking country, you're taking our great American jobs, which, by the way, my dad had a. When we first came, the first two years, he had a newspaper route at 2am I don't think anybody wanted that job. And he was a busboy at a pizzeria, and then he pumped gas at an ARCO in the middle of the night. So that wasn't necessarily the great American dream that he was living, but he knew that the sacrifices were going to make. But so I got to see a contrast, right? And I really believe that if every American, when they turn like 18 years old, have to go and either go into the military to see the world and what real racism is, what real, what real criminals other countries, governments are, they would come back and they would love and defend this great country of ours so much because they wouldn't want it to change any road. And if it's not the military, then at least we should be made to go out and serve another country. Build a well, build a school, build homes, build something in third world countries so that you can have a contrast when you come back. You can appreciate it. But if you grew up in a great country like this where you could literally have your face in your phone walking down a parking lot at 10 o'clock at night feeling safe that you're not going to get mugged, like, come on, that doesn't happen. You go, you go to Armenia, bro, you have your face in the phone. So I was clubbing you over the head right now, today and taking your shit. And so I share that with you because I don't know if it's nature or nurture. I think it's just a contrast because the American dream is not dead. It's completely changed. I think it's actually the barrier to the American dream and I think you'd agree with me is lower because today you've got, you've got the Internet.
- [22:05]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [22:05]
Bedros Koulian
So if I was broke, if I was broke when I had some value, use my goofy little iPhone to create how to videos and put them on Instagram, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and Facebook and that would, the algorithm would help me build an audience and then I would go get a free WordPress site and I'd make a sales page, a website. I'd use PayPal, which is free and I could take payments. And all of a sudden I've got now PayPal, I've got a list social media, I've got a platform, I can course and sell it like, or have a coaching program or maybe leverage some money, somebody and say, look, I'll do the sweating and you give me $30,000, I'm going to create a supplement line and we're going to sell it. Like the barrier is so much lower because you've got access to social media, you've got access to a free website. You can take money for free. What is happening though is we've been conditioned to be comfortable. We are too. Everything is too convenient. You can order on GrubHub or DoorDash your burrito and watch it come down your neighborhood streets and people get huffy and puffy when it stopped at a red light and you're just Wondering where your burritos, motherfucker, get out and buy your burrito. Go out and build a burrito. Make a burrito. When you get so complacent and comfortable doing all this shit, then why would you want to even make a free website, make a how to video? People have just gotten so lazy, they expect money to roll in. But many years ago, Tony Robbins said something. I was sharing the stage with him at Joe Polish's event, at the Genius Network event, this was 2016. And he was clapping his big giant hands, and I was getting mic'd up to speak next, and I was very intimidated by Tony Robbins. Like, how do you follow that giant of a man? And he's clapping his big giant hands on stage and he goes, winter is coming. Prepare for winter. Anybody can thrive in summer and spring, but winter is coming. You should be built for winter. And I was like, that motherfucker's right. Like, we could all do great when the economy's thriving, but sometime the economy is going to shift. Whether it's an act of war on our country, like in 2001, whether it's a pandemic, whether it's a stock market crash, housing market crash, winter will always come. And what's happening now, winter has come and it's getting colder. And you're seeing people die, literally and metaphorically, financially, emotionally, mentally. But it's going to be a thinning of the herd. And those of us that have what it takes are going to thrive out of this.
- [24:32]
Ryan Alford
I'm going to ask you a question, and it's not. It has nothing to do with anything. I thought I was going to ask you, but based on what you just answered, the next thing I'm going to ask is your ability to pivot. And I think people don't appreciate exactly what that means or the power of that which you have as true strength in. I'm going to come back to that, but I'm going to seed that with you right now as an immigrant and as being someone believes in American dreams, sees all that. How do you. Where do you fall in the open borders situation? Like, is that a. Is that a 9? Is that a tough one for you or an easy one for you?
- [25:09]
Bedros Koulian
No, that's an easy one for me, man. Lock down the borders, period. Yeah, I came in legally. I entered the country legally. We did the paperwork that was necessary. We entered legally. And when you come to a country legally and you pay your dues and you're going to be paying taxes and putting into Social Security, you are going to value the place more. And. No, no, never mind that. And it's not to say that anyone comes in illegally isn't going to value it. Obviously, people are risking their lives to cross the Rio Grande. They're risking their lives to go over those walls, walk through the desert. I get it. But also amongst those people are really bad dudes that are bringing in fentanyl, really bad dudes that might be bringing in dirty bombs. Because I also have dear friends like Tim Kennedy and others who are great Americans, great patriots, connected to the military, and have a lot of access to information. And when I get to hear from them what they're catching at the border, I wonder what's not being caught that's coming in, that's going to be a dirty bomb, more drugs, or some kind of child abduction? Like, what is going to happen? Because we're not vetting who's coming in. All I'm saying is, let's bet who comes in. You would never let open your doors and just let strangers come into your party, would you? You'd have an invitation. Yeah, right. It's the same thing. Let's just vet people out. That's all.
- [26:24]
Ryan Alford
Ding, ding, ding. Listen, folks, you know, you have to have a system and process in place to know who's coming in your front door or your back door. And look, if there's not a condition for it to happen, then there needs to be, because you got to be able to appreciate. You got to understand our ways and cultures and values, you know, so, boom, there it is for people that don't understand why there has to be some. Some protections there. Now let's talk about some business pivoting. You know, you talked for, I don't know, 15 minutes. Who knows how long it was? Doesn't matter. And there, you know, all I heard, this knows how to pivot. He knows. And it is a skill, because everybody gets so locked in.
- [27:02]
Bedros Koulian
This is my baby.
- [27:03]
Ryan Alford
This is my business. It's going nowhere. No, you got to pivot that shit, and that's what you are brilliant at. I see it, I hear it. You've done it in a million ways. We even talked about some of your coaching stuff. But talk to me about, is it just smart how I just get at this? Nature versus nurture when I talk to guys that I like that are successful. But tell me about pivoting, because that's what you did, you know, like understanding and the nuance of what's happening.
- [27:29]
Bedros Koulian
So. So in 2020, the. The term pivot was just, like, overplayed. Right? You saw on a Fox News, cnn, everybody was talking about pivoting. And. And people think that it was exclusive to 2020, 2021, where you had to.
- [27:39]
Ryan Alford
Pivot when you pivoted, right? You're the master pivoter. Group fitness. You. You said literally yourself, you were talking about it. And I. I don't know, I'm like, did it score group fitness? Because that is a. Essentially what happened when personal training took a dive. It was group fitness that became the word pivot in fitness. But that was it.
- [28:00]
Bedros Koulian
And so, so what happens is most people pivot. They just don't. Entrepreneurs pivot. They just don't realize it because it happens slowly over time, like the one, you know, technology comes, marketing gets more sophisticated, consumers become more educated in the way they buy. And so businesses evolve in terms of transparency. Like Edmunds.com was created back in the day, and now you could see what the sticker price of a car is. And so there's more sophisticated buyers. And so dealerships had these little window stickers that said, hey, this is our best price. We're going to offer you. We don't haggle. No slimy sales guys, just buy it or not, right? So things do slowly change. That is a pivot. It just happens slowly over time. And in 2020, I developed this little term here at our headquarters. I was like, guys, we either pivot or we perish. Like, everything was pivot or perish. And because when changes happen Quickly, like on March 16, 2020, I announced to all of our franchise locations, I said, guys, close down your locations for two weeks. We're all going to flatten the curve. Because all we knew at that time, Ryan, was that this is some kind of a death virus, right? And so they said two weeks. But I come from a communist country, and I've been taught to never trust big government. So while I said we're going to shut down for two weeks, I also, when the video turned off, I turned to the CEO of my company, Bryce, and I said, bryce, prepare to be shut down for a few months. And so let's start building online coaching models, workouts, videos, Facebook pages, YouTube, Facebook groups, et cetera, for all of our franchise locations. So that if this goes beyond two weeks, we can move all the clients online. Because I knew one thing we were not going to do, we were not going to shut down our franchise brand like Orange Theory did and say, well, sorry, figure it out. We're not going to charge you a franchise royalty. That means I have to fire all my employees. You might have to fire your employees. And sad, man. So sure as sure as shit, we went well beyond the two weeks. And so we. By week number four, we pivoted to online coaching. And all of those clients kept paying our franchise locations, our franchise locations kept paying their royalties to us, so we were able to support them. And we just continued to pivot as we went, creating different coaching programs and models. And if you don't pivot, you will perish. Sometimes pivots happen slowly over time and sophistication. Other times, a dramatic life event will force you to pivot. And if you don't, if all these motherfuckers take the wait and see approach, they end up dying, which is good for the rest of us because we take on more market share.
- [30:21]
Ryan Alford
Boom. Love it. What. What's the bedroom's personal brand? When you hear that word, do you cringe when you hear personal brand, like, it's become, like, a bad word, you know, like, it's overplayed. And look, as a marketer and as a writer, like, and I written, you know, can you hear me now? Like, you know, coming up with some. Some creative lines. In my history, I struggle with what to call paid personal branding. That's not personal brand because it's gotten such a bad rap. But when I hear the bedroom, like, you know, that's a personal brand. Like, but what's your feeling on that?
- [30:53]
Bedros Koulian
So if you. If you had asked me this 10 years ago, I would have been like, bro, shut up. You know, like, shut up. I. I come from the Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert direct response world, right?
- [31:03]
Ryan Alford
And, like, you know that you say those names. I know exactly what that means.
- [31:08]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah. And so, like, for me, and especially you're into direct response. If you are, you know, broke because you go, I got $1. I got to turn this up to $2. Like, I can't put up a billboard like Coca Cola or Gatorade and the bus bench, and they go, well, you know, it's branding. And one of those billboards or bus benches are going to get me a client. I got to know. I got to hold every dollar accountable. So I grew up, like, locked on to direct response, and that was my bible. But up until about five years ago when I started watching what the rock does, I'm also very observant. And I think, you know, going back to what you said, nature and nurture, I am factory installed by nature, very observant. I. I learned more by watching than by being taught. And so I was like, dude, I like to Rock. I watch wwf. I'm a hillbilly, somewhat of a. You know, I grew up very blue collar. And so how did this wrestler become an actor? And not even a great actor, but then create a personal brand? Like, what the does he know about tequila? What does he know about shoes? What does he know about water? Does he know about ice cream? What does he know about movies? What does he know about football? That he just bought the xfl? When he became a personal brand, people knew him, liked him, trusted him, connected with him, saw him as the everyday guy. They very quickly began to buy everything he sold. And I said, this motherfucker's onto something. He's not the best actor. He's not the best athlete. Like, if you read his story, like, he didn't even make it in the Canadian Football League, bro. Right? And I love the Rock. Like, and I love him. In fact, I think six months ago, he started following me. And I texted a mutual friend, and I said, hey, I think the Rock accidentally followed me. You might want to tell him to unfollow me. Just being facetious. Phil Heath, seventh time Mr. Olympia. And. And. And Phil's like, no, man. He doesn't actually follow anyone.
- [32:56]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [32:57]
Bedros Koulian
So, you know, But I realized very quickly, he knows how to connect, which is what you do as a marketer. Which is what I do as a marketer. I connect with people, and that is a personal brand. So I think when you develop a personal brand where people know you like, you trust, you see the dark and the light side of you, get to meet your family, your dog, what your lifestyle is, you show transparency. They have such a deep connection that if I started promoting fucking, I don't know, cough drops, I could start selling cough drops. And so because of that, I started wearing Fuel Hunt shirts. Just because I like the brand. I like the brand. I was a customer. They reached out to me and said, hey, every time you wear our shirts on your. On your podcast and on stage, you move the money needle. I said, well, can we jump on the phone? They thought, we're gonna jump on the phone so they can start sending me free clothes and I could wear it. I'm like, hey, how much can I Invest to take 20 of the company? I made an investment of the company because I'm a brand, and when the brand wears it, the money needle moves.
- [33:57]
Ryan Alford
I love that.
- [33:58]
Bedros Koulian
Right?
- [33:58]
Ryan Alford
Yes.
- [33:59]
Bedros Koulian
Right?
- [33:59]
Ryan Alford
So.
- [33:59]
Bedros Koulian
So there you go, man. I may. I may convert to personal branding, even though I hate that term myself.
- [34:05]
Ryan Alford
I do, too. I. I hate it. And I. But I use it, because people know what it is. But Bedros is definitely a personal brand. That's why you're sitting here on the radcast. But it's just amazing. I just don't understand why people don't get it. It's like it took, it took me a while to get over the cringe worthiness, but I don't know what the block is, you know, like what's that roadblock? Is it just, you said just I am worried about other people's, what they think about me. Like, I mean, is that just what it is?
- [34:35]
Bedros Koulian
You know, I do wonder that because social media has done it where people have become so worried about how many people like and share and engage.
- [34:43]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [34:43]
Bedros Koulian
Like people have become hyper, hypersensitive to that. And so you know me, I can give two shits. I'll post a piece of content and I'm like, wow, this was going to pop off. I'm like, oh, that did nothing. Oh well, maybe tomorrow's will pop off. I never know what episode on my podcast or what social media post is going to pop up. I just listen to my gut, my radiance. Whatever the source tells me to write, I write or I, I orate. And then if it pops off, I'm like, well look at that. They wanted to learn, you know, the seven things that men do to, to ruin their lives. Here I thought they wanted to make a, build a 200 million dollar empire. Like I did the 200 million dollar empire show, like flopped. The seven things men do to ruin their lives popped off. If you had asked me to bet on that, I would have lost a lot of money.
- [35:27]
Ryan Alford
Well, yeah, it, you just never know. You gotta, it's educate and entertain and entertain a lot or just be human, man. People just got, people want humanity. You gotta be human. You know, people say, what's your shtick? It's not B2B. It's not B2C. It's B to H. This is a human, like we're all human beings. We relate to one another, you know, like stop being. Yeah, you know, that's the, that's the formula right there. So what's, what's our biggest threat today? What's like we talked. I think we, we may have started at the beginning. We, we end at the beginning with literally, you know, but maybe from a business standpoint, you know, you got AI, got GPT. Everybody gets scared about shit. I'm just like, that's a tool, man. But what's, what do you see is what's the what Are the gray clouds and the. And the blue sky. Like, what for. For Bedros.
- [36:24]
Bedros Koulian
Yeah. So I'll start. I'll. I'll hit you with three categories. Our biggest threat to our country right now is the debt that our country is in and the. In China and who we're in debt to.
- [36:35]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [36:36]
Bedros Koulian
And we need a great deal. So our greatest threat is that we're, as a country, we're in. We're in too much debt. We're in debt to China, and China has become a very large superpower, and we have a very weak leader in power. So that is the threat to our country in terms of threat to businesses. It's not chat, GPT or AI. I think just like the Internet. People that were, like, in the beginning, back in 2000 or 1998, 99, man, the Internet. The Internet's the whole thing. And then when they had that whole bubble burst in 2000, people were like, oh, man, the Internet's just a fad. It's going to go away. There were headlines, New York Times, L.A. times. Internet's a fad. No, we just figured out how to use it to become more efficient AI. While it sounds scary, when you hear headlines like, oh, my God, two computers started to talk to each other and what if. And one of them said they want to come alive and feel emotions. Listen, do I. Do I just water my mind as I'm going shifting from one meeting to another? Like, what would happen if chat, GPT and that Boston Dynamics robot ended up, like, connecting? You know, I do wonder, like, what would happen? What would happen? Then I go, oh, we just need to make sure that can't plug himself in. And as soon as the battery dies, we're good.
- [37:45]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [37:45]
Bedros Koulian
But then I move on. Because humanity typically leans towards pessimism. We go, it's going to be bad for us. When in reality, AI is making shitty copywriters better copywriters. It's really helping people understand and search for things better. There's always a benefit to it. Gary Vaynerchuk, many years ago, a couple five years ago, posted a black and white photo from New York. People were in subways back in the 50s. Everyone's got a newspaper open and they're facing the newspaper. And the modern version of that is people are on buses and subways, on their iPhones. So, you know, when people go, well, the good old days, people would talk like, there was a picture from the 1950s where the entire subway was packed full of people with their face in their information. Information is king. And that Person who can give information, disseminate information, feed information with humor, with entertainment in a way that's easily digestible will always win. So I'm not threatened by AI. I think we just need to figure out how to use it in our favor. And over time, we figure things out. And then finally, what's the biggest threat to humans, to individuals? While we all worry about, hey, who's our president, you know, AI and all that stuff, the biggest thing you got to worry about is the conversation that takes place right between your ears, man. The inner self talk that is it. The story that people tell themselves that I was broke, I was molested. Look, I was molested as a kid. I'm a foreigner. I came to this country. If I list off all the things why I should be drunk and hopped up on drugs and suicidal, bro, there's a million reasons why I should. But if I don't tell my story to myself and feel sorry to myself, instead go. All those things made me more resilient, more resourceful, and therefore I'm more compassionate towards humanity. And I'm just going to keep creating solutions to problems people have. And I'm going to charge money for it and, and be able to put that money to good use. The story that we tell ourselves, the conversation that we have, the biggest threat to an individual. And if they can control that narrative between their ears, they will control their life.
- [39:46]
Ryan Alford
Boom. There it is. It is. Our egos are the biggest liar that ever existed.
- [39:52]
Bedros Koulian
Amen.
- [39:53]
Ryan Alford
And if you with adult know that, you need to know it. Bedros, I'm going to ask a favor. I'm going to ask favor. I will. We're going to do. Can we do this again in like three to six months? We need a part two, bro. I would be honored with Bedros because I want. There's so many things, ladies, I want to get in, but I value your time and I really. Our people, our audience likes to snack on these things. And you know, we're going to give them a few snacks of Bedros because I feel like there's. You got so much knowledge to tell. You got so much. And look, I consider you like one of those, one of our real modern leaders right now. And. And I think people need to understand your perspective and growing men and some of the stuff you're doing behind the scenes with that. And I really want to go down those channels with you if you'll do me that honor in the next few.
- [40:36]
Bedros Koulian
Months, brother, I would be honored to do that and I would again, thank you for that opportunity. Yeah.
- [40:42]
Ryan Alford
Bedros, the BK podcast author of Man up, how to Cut the Bullshit and Kick Ass in Business. How can everybody keep up with you, brother?
- [40:50]
Bedros Koulian
Best way to find me is on YouTube and Instagram at Bedrose Coolian.
- [40:56]
Ryan Alford
I tell you what, guys, if it's radical, we cover it. Bedros is radical, and you need to go buy his book, you need to listen to his show, and you need to follow him on Instagram, all his content and whatever what he says, what the algorithm says. I don't give a what the algorithm says. It's good. Bedros, Appreciate you, brother, for coming on today.
- [41:15]
Bedros Koulian
Thank you, man. I appreciate you, Ryan.
- [41:17]
Ryan Alford
Hey, guys, you're gonna find us. Ryan is right Dot com. You'll find all the highlight clips from today, all the info and links to this platform. Hey, a lot of ways to make money. We're just here to help you learn all those different avenues. We'll see you next time on Right about now.
- [41:37]
Bedros Koulian
This has been Right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.