Bedros Keuilian
Appearances
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
What happens is entrepreneurs, maybe they don't still 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
As we grew beyond 500 fit body bootcamp locations and the average location has 300 to 500 paying clients, they'll pay about $249 a month. I realized, all right, what else do our clients need? So here's another great opportunity for entrepreneurs. It's like, all right, if you're serving people who are trying to get fit, lose weight, what else do they need? Well, they probably need supplements.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 Trulene, a supplement company that serves our clients throughout Fit Body Bootcamp locations worldwide. And here's the crazy thing about that.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
You fast forward all these years in 2020 when the pandemic took place and nobody was buying a gym franchise from me because everyone thought that gyms were, well, gyms were struggling. Gyms and restaurants took them in the shorts. You know that. And so... It actually surprised me that in 2020, we actually sold six new franchise locations.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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, yeah. You know, I'm not going to give you a refund. That was very transparent. At that point, I'm doing sales because we had, you know, we didn't have much. We have a thin skeleton staff. And I said, listen.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so with that in mind, when are the men going to stand up? Because in the, 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 the communist regime, and...
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I know things will turn around with the economy and when they do, you're going to be in a good opportunity. But just to give you some contrast, we would normally, before the pandemic, we would sell six to eight new franchise locations per month. And now all of 2020 sold six locations.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so I've had the good fortune, obviously, over the years to build many income streams by investing in companies, apparel companies, software, et cetera. But my two core companies, Fit Body Bootcamp, the international franchise, and Trulene, thankfully continue to thrive.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
When you've eaten out of dumpsters, when you've 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 2 a.m.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 we were going to make. But... So I got to see a contrast, right?
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And I really believe that if every American, when they turn like 18 years old, have to go and either go into the military to see the world and what real racism is, what real criminals other countries' governments are, they would come back and they would love and defend this great country of ours so much because they wouldn't want it to change and erode.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
But if you grew up in a great country like this, where you could literally have your face in your phone, walking down a parking lot at 10 o'clock at night, feeling safe that you're not going to get mugged. Like, come on, that doesn't happen. You go to Armenia, bro, you have your face in the phone. Someone's clubbing you over the head right now today and taking your shit.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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. So if I was broke, if I was broke when I had some value, okay.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I can use my goofy little iPhone to create how-to videos and put them on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and Facebook. And 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I've got a platform. I can do that. course and sell it or have a coaching program or maybe leverage some money from somebody and say, look, I'll do the sweat and you give me $30,000. I'm going to create a supplement line and we're going to sell it. 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
What is happening though is we've been conditioned
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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's stopped at a red light and you're just wondering where your burrito is motherfucker get out and buy your burrito go out 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
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
how-to video people have just gotten so lazy they expect money to roll in but many years ago 20 robin said something i was sharing the stage with him at joe polish's event at uh 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?
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Like we could all do great when the economy is 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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, never mind that.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 rides are being encroached and people think, well, someone else is going to go and do something about it. I'm sure someone else is working on it. That's what happened when...
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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,
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 uh more drugs or some kind of child abduction like what is going to happen because we're not betting who's coming in all i'm saying is let's bet who comes in you would never let open your doors and just let strangers come into your party would you
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
You'd have an invitation. Right. It's the same thing. Let's just vet people out. That's all.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
So in 2020, the term pivot was just like overplayed, right? You saw it on Fox, you see it, and everybody was talking about pivoting. And people think that it was exclusive to 2020, 2021.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so what happens is most people pivot. Entrepreneurs pivot. They just don't realize it because it happens slowly over time. Technology comes, marketing gets more sophisticated, consumers become more educated in the way they buy. And so businesses evolve in terms of transparency. Edmunds.com was created back in the day, and now you could see what the sticker price of a car is.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so there's more sophisticated buyers. And so dealerships have these little window stickers and said, hey, this is our best price we're going to offer you. We don't haggle, no slimy sales guys, just buy it or not, right? So things do slowly change. That is a pivot. It just happens slowly over time. And in 2020, I developed this little term here at our headquarters.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I was like, guys, we either pivot or we perish. Like everything was pivot or perish. And because when changes happen quickly, like on March 16th, 2020, I announced to all of our franchise locations. I said, guys, close down your locations for two weeks. We're all going to flatten the curve because all we knew at that time, Ryan, was that this is some kind of a death virus.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
That means I have to fire all my employees. You might have to fire your employees. That's sad, man. So sure as shit, we went well beyond the two weeks. And so by week number four, we
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
They end up dying, which is good for the rest of us because we take on more market share.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
So if you had asked me this 10 years ago, I would have been like, bro, shut up. You know, like, shut up. I come from the Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert, direct response world.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Yeah. Yeah. And so for me, and especially you're into direct response if you are broke because you go, I got $1, I got to turn this into $2. I can't put up a billboard like Coca-Cola or Gatorade and the bus bench and they go, well, it's branding and one of those billboards or bus benches are going to get me a client. I got to hold every dollar accountable.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
So I grew up locked on to direct response and that was my Bible. But up until about five years ago, When I started watching what The Rock does, I'm also very observant. And I think, you know, going back to what you said, nature and nurture, I am factory installed by nature, very observant. I learn more by watching than by being taught. And so I was like, dude, I like The Rock. I watch WWF.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I'm a hillbilly somewhat of a, you know, I grew up very blue collar. And so how did this wrestler... become an actor and not even a great actor, but then create a personal brand. Like, what the fuck does he know about tequila? What does he know about shoes? What does he know about water? What does he know about ice cream? What does he know about movies?
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 is onto something. He's not the best actor. He's not the best athlete.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Like, if you read his story, like, he didn't even make it in the Canadian fucking football league, bro. Right? And I love The Rock. Like, and... I love him. In fact, I think six months ago he started following me and I texted a mutual friend and I said, hey, I think The Rock accidentally followed me. You might want to tell him to unfollow me. Just being facetious.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Phil Heath, seven time Mr. Olivia. And Phil's like, no, man, he doesn't actually follow anyone. 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 uh get to meet your family your dog what your lifestyle is uh 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 um just because i like the brand i like the brand i was a customer
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
They reached out to me and said, hey, every time you wear our shirts on your podcast and on stage, you move the money needle. I said, well, can we jump on the phone? They thought we're going to jump on the phone so they can start sending me free clothes and I could wear it. I'm like, hey, how much can I invest to take 20% of the company?
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I made an investment to take 20% of the company because I'm a brand. And when the brand wears it, the money needle moves. I love that.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
All right, so there you go, man. I may convert to personal branding, even though I hate that term myself.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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. Like people have become hyper, hyper sensitive to that. And so. You know, me, I can give two shits. I'll post a piece of content and I'm like, wow, this was going to pop off. I'm like, oh, that did nothing. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow's will pop off.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I never know what episode on my podcast or what social media post is going to pop off. I just listen to my gut, my radiance, whatever the source tells me to write. I write or I orate. And then if it pops off, I'm like, well, look at that. They wanted to learn, you know, the seven things that men do to ruin their lives.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Yeah, so I'll hit you with three categories. Our biggest threat to our country right now is the debt that our country is in and China and who we're in debt to. And we need a great leader. So our greatest threat is that. As a country, we're in too much debt. We're in debt to China and China has become a very large superpower and we have a very weak leader in power.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
So that is the threat to our country. In terms of threat to businesses, It's not chat GPT or AI. I think just like the Internet, people that were like in the beginning back in 1998, 99, man, the Internet, 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Yeah, well, like, you have kids. I'm sure you got kids, right? Yeah, I got four boys. There you go. So you got four boys. And so you know this. With your boys, you have to pick and choose your battles.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Thank you very much.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
If you can't battle everything. Like, my son is 17 years old. Two years ago, at 15, he said, hey, Mom, Dad, I think I want to get my ears pierced. And apparently, he had been working up to that for two weeks, thinking about how he's going to pitch us, et cetera. Now, I immediately was like... What do you want to get in your ears? He's like, just a couple of studs. I'm like, cool, done.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I knew that wasn't a battle I'm willing to fight. Now, if he said, hey, mom and dad, I'm 15 and I want to get a back tattoo, that might be a battle I'm willing to fight. So you're absolutely right, bro, 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 issues.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 to be a focus. And then.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
you know giving jocko willink a shout out for his book extreme ownership he talks about prioritize and execute so if those are the five or six big battles to fight to be able to save our country uh like during the pandemic man i run a fit franchise fit body boot camp uh you know we had over 700 locations worldwide and during the 10 months of 2020 we lost over 200 franchise locations.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And until that happens, and I think it will, 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 or getting arrested. But it reaches a point where the whole family gets together. They have that intervention. I feel like we need to have a national intervention.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And I feel like we might be coming up to that sooner than later.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Yeah. Well, here's the thing on that, though. If you and I decided that we're going to team up and we're going to invade... Oh, I don't know. Let's say we're going to invade Canada. They're pretty laid back and chill. We might get that done. Right. We're fine.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
You and I are going to 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 going to go, all right, dude, are we worried about the elderly people of Canada? No, no, we're not.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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 women. 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...
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
15, 20 years and create an erosion of the fiber of masculinity, uh, 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so, uh, 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. Yeah.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Yeah. Exactly. But again, I'm not here to be political and all that stuff, man. I'm a free Marcus capital, a 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Sure. So the background of how I came to that, it's it for the background of how I build the franchise.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Yeah, I agree. So really, when you just imagine, my dad, 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
communist party member and people always go well my choice right yeah but if you said no when they ask you to get party member you're shipped off to siberia and never to be heard from again so long story short this dude left to uh communist passport at home all the time never take it out with them never exercise his right to be able to question people and to be able to check businesses all the businesses were run by the system everybody worked for the state and
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so part of being a Communist Party member is you can do surprise inspections in the region that you're in. My dad was just like, hey, live with that thing. And he's the guy that wore Jordan Ash, wore Ray-Bans, listened to Elvis. He was full-on Americanized. And so he decides that we're going to escape. So he does a lot of side gigs.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
collect about 25,000 rubles, which is enough to bribe the people that needed to bribe to allow us to escape into Italy, 10 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 consulate in Italy. We said, we declared ourselves as political refugees. We said we wanted to legally enter the United States.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so after 10 days of pumping my dad for information, after all, this party member, they... He entered us into the United States. My dad chose California, of all places, because, hey, why not? Beautiful weather, great photography, and you never have to see snow again. And I love this state, and I will stay in the state.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And for as much as people shit 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... The tip he said is this country offers you freedom and opportunity so long as you serve the people in it. Find a solution to serve people. Have value.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And so I just, being the youngest of the family, believed that wholeheartedly and decided that's what we're going to do. Now, I've got to 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 shithole apartments that we lived in.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
But one of the times I got lice because the apartment that we lived in was so filthy, my mom had to have my dad siphon out gasoline from the parked car to wash my hair with gasoline. He couldn't even afford lice treatment. So I didn't speak English. I didn't understand agriculture. All I knew was add value and serve humanity. Add value and serve humanity.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Well, I've got to tell you, man, I'm just intrigued in watching the downfall of our Greek 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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
Confidence soars through. 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'll never be able to scale unless you know how to sell. You're a horrible salesman, kid. And I said, Jim, I vetted with Bryce.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
It will be 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. He just took my word. And no one had ever spoken to me that directly before. He goes, you're an order taker, not a salesperson. And until you can learn to sell, you're never going to grow. And so he really took me under his wing.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
He was a multimedia software company in the automotive industry. And he brought me Zig Ziglar cassette tapes, Brian Tracy books, Hopkins books. Like I was introduced to all these sales people and I would listen to the cassette tapes. I would read the books and I started to develop the skill of persuasion and influence sales, overcoming objections.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
And before I knew it, there was four or five, six trainers working with me 100ly. Before I knew that, he loaned me money, 8% interest to open up my own little studio. That led to four more. That led to coaching and consulting gym owners. That led to starting this business. giant empire.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
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, Bentleys, et cetera. And so he goes, you just have to find who's got the money and end up adding value to their life. With that in mind, housing market crashed in 2008.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I knew people weren't going to be able to afford one-on-one expensive personal training. So I said, we can take that outdoor bootcamp that personal trainers do outside group training, bring it indoors with equipment, a system, and legitimize it.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
I can create a franchise system where it's one trainer, many clients, and bring down the cost of personal training because it'll be a group environment, group personal training. That's how Fit Body Bootcamp was born. Within the first two years, we had hit 100 locations and And as we grew to 200, 300, 400, 500 locations worldwide and beyond, we were hitting the Inc.
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Pivoting in Business: How to Thrive Amidst Challenges Like a Pro with Bedros Keuilian
5000 list, Entrepreneur 200 fastest growing franchise list. And what I had realized at that point is whenever there is a disaster, you can become a solution and therefore create a new product to serve humanity. And so that's how Fit Body Bootcamp grew. And through there,