Bedros Keuilian is known as the “hidden genius” behind some of the fitness industry’s most successful movers and shakers.

In addition to serving as the founder and CEO of the international fitness franchise Fit Body Boot Camp, he teaches entrepreneurs how to attract massive amounts of leads, how to close leads on long-term, high-priced services, and how to scale to six, seven, even eight figures.

We sat down with Bedros to pick his brain about business and what it takes to run your own entrepreneurial empire.

Q: In your book Man Up, you talk about how most entrepreneurs are held back by the excuses they make. How do you condition yourself to stop making excuses without getting too down on yourself?

Bedros: You have to realize that you’re in control. See, we like to hand the pen over to everyone else and let them write our story for us. Think about it. When something bad happens to you, what’s the first thought that comes to your mind? It’s might be something like, “Oh, well I don’t have the knowledge to make money,” or,  “I’m just not meant to be in this industry.” You have to cut the negativity out. You don’t have the knowledge? Hire a coach, go buy an online course and learn. Can’t market? Go find the best marketers and study what they do. We have so many free resources available to us today; there’s no room for saying “I can’t do it.”

Man up and realize that you’re the one in control, not everyone else, and especially not the doubts that pop up in your head.

I used to make excuses for myself. I’d tell myself, “I’m just a college dropout foreigner who wasn’t meant for money.” Then I realized that what I was using as an excuse was actually my edge, that I had faced so much resistance that I was forced to grow as a person. So I stopped making excuses for myself and thought,

“How can I take back control of my own life?”

Q: You talk about how entrepreneurs need to adhere to “The 5% Rule.” What does that mean, and why do so many entrepreneurs struggle to stick to their 5%?

Bedros: Because most entrepreneurs want to do everything. Let’s go back to that first question. As the leader of your business, 95% of the stuff that needs to get done can be done by others. In other words, you’re probably not the one at your office cleaning toilets, right? You could just pay someone to do it. Yet there’s 5% of the work that you, and only you, can do. That’s what you need to focus on. For me, my 5% is to delegate, motivate, and sell. Anything that falls outside of that—writing blogs, editing videos, handling customer service, etc—is done by someone on my team.

The problem with most entrepreneurs, especially new entrepreneurs, is that they try to do everything themselves.

That only lasts until your growth exceeds how much you can do, and the last thing you want is to shut down because you can’t keep up with your business’s success.

I used to take sales calls, even though I was the CEO of my own company and had hired a sales team. Now every time we get a new sales team member, they watch a video of me teaching the sales process and learn how to sell like I would. I used to write the blogs, but now I train our in-house copywriters how to write in my voice—what I would and wouldn’t say. Through teaching, I free myself up to focus on my own 5%.

Q: Ok, so you talk about how people have “crabs” in their lives that they need to get rid of. What does that mean?

Bedros: So let me tell you a little story here. I was on a cruise with my wife years ago. Her parents were nice enough to treat us to this cruise, even though I had no money at the time. Anyways, we’re in Alaska, and I’m walking by the water. All of the sudden, I see this guy pulling a net filled with crabs out of the water. He then puts these crabs in this bucket that was next to him.

So I look into the bucket and see one of the crabs—this ambitious crab—crawling over the rest of the crabs in the bucket and aiming for the brim. He was trying to escape. I had to say something, so I tell the guy, “Hey man, that crab is going to escape from your bucket.” He looks at me and says, “Watch what happens next.”

Almost instantly the other crabs began to pull the ambitious crab back down, right as he was about to escape to freedom. They pulled him down and returned him back to where he started—right at the bottom of the bucket with the rest of the group.

See, negative people are like the crabs in this story. The people who doubt you when you tell them your dreams. The ones that suck the life right out of you because they’re critical and cynical.

You want to protect your dreams from these people, because they’ll pull you down if you don’t—just like crabs tried to pull that one crab down when he was just trying to escape his fate. I’ve had family members question me when I’d tell them my dreams. I had an 11th grade teacher tell me I was gonna be a failure unless I went to the army. But I tuned those people out. I choose to surround myself with uplifters, with visionaries, with fellow entrepreneurs who know what it’s like to pursue something you dream about. As an entrepreneur, you are the sum of the 5 people you hang around most. Make sure those five people are positive and for your vision.

Q: You say that everyone has a purpose. How do you know that you’ve found your purpose in business?

Bedros: Most people think you’re born with a purpose, when really you can develop your purpose over time. Look, I started out as a young high school kid who was interested in fitness because I wanted to ask this one girl out to prom. I turned that passion into beginning my personal training career and eventually founding of one of the top fitness franchises in the world. Then, I started to develop a passion for mentoring other fitness entrepreneurs who had no idea what to do in business. Again, I pivoted to focus my energy on coaching and consulting them. So really you develop your purpose around your passions, and you need to. When shit hits the fan, and it will, you need to have a strong reason behind why you do what you do. When you can overcome that adversity and move forward, that’s when you know you’ve found your purpose.

Q: How exactly do people man up and dominate in business and in life?

Bedros: Ha! You’ll have to read the book to find out. But I’ll give you a little sneak peek. In business, you need to cut the bullshit and stop putting stuff off. Go fire that business partner that’s weighing down your business. Go have that tough conversation with that team member that needs to step things up. Stop following your emotions and start doing what makes sense for your business. In life, it’s the same thing. You don’t have to compromise your values for anyone.

Man up and stand for what you believe in.

Stop avoiding fear—embrace it and grow through that resistance.

> > > Live well.