My business was growing too slow – I was still new to Texas and struggling to get a grasp on my new environment. I knew I needed to get some serious guidance to grow my business, and I kept hearing about this guy named Bedros who was supposedly a fitness business guru. So, I bought a ticket to Fitness Business Summit (FBS) where I could see the guy up close and figure out if he was the real deal.

While I was there, I hounded Bedros with questions to get as much free info as possible.

But the real eye-opening moment was when I saw Sonya Gonzales, one of Bedros’s clients, get on stage and tell her story.

With Bedros’s help, she had gone from struggling to make ends meet to thriving in business and taking 8 vacations a year. I went to talk to Bedros again, and he explained that if I dropped my 1-on-1 personal training business and opened a bootcamp / group training business, I could triple my business within 90 days.

I agreed, and it worked. That was how I came to trust Bedros – he seemed like a real dude and his advice just kept working.

After a year of operating Boot Camp, I hit another plateau. This time, I knew what the problem was: my head was full of all kinds of good ideas, but I struggled to sit down and focus on any single one of them.

At that year’s FBS, I approached Bedros again and asked how I could get organized and grow my business faster. That’s when Bedros invited me to his high-end coaching, and I accepted.

Now, I own three Boot Camps, and even though my rapid growth can feel like a challenge at times, I am more confident than ever before that I’m working the right business for me and that I’m set on a path to greatness.

The way I see it, whatever problems I have now are good problems to have.

The lesson I most want to teach young trainers, which took me years to figure out personally, is that successful people aren’t prideful – they ask for help and let others coach them.

I was happy and doing pretty well in my business, but I knew I wanted more. I wanted to give my clients a bigger, better environment for working out. That’s when found Bedros on YouTube – I was searching online for how to grow my profits, establish systems, and dominate my day. His videos had exactly the advice I needed, and I got hooked.

I knew I needed to see his work up close, so I attended Fitness Business Summit. It completely blew my mind! I went in just expecting to find more info, but there was so much energy and momentum in the room that it lit a fire in me. I suddenly felt a level of ambition I didn’t know I had.

Seeing him up close, I was so impressed with Bedros. Passion rang through in everything he did, and I could tell that FBS was not a “look at me” show, it was a “how can I help you?” show. Seeing his passion, expertise, and integrity with my own eyes, I decided to sign up for his high-end coaching right on the spot.

I am absolutely thrilled and humbled by the progress I’ve made since then. I got my new location open and profitable in only 5 months, and rapidly growing, connected community that I’m very proud of.

Best of all, I have a strong stream of referrals coming in, which is both my most powerful asset in business and the hugest compliment I could ask for.

My advice to any fitness professional thinking of opening their own business or taking their business to the next level: just pull the trigger and start moving. You’ll learn more than you ever thought in the process and you’ll get to help so many people.

I was getting a steady trickle of clients, but after a certain point I realized that my client-getting process mostly just came down to good luck. I wanted to be more proactive about getting clients, so I went searching online and discovered Bedros’s blogs and videos. The advice made sense, so I started implementing it immediately and saw huge results.

For a few years, I kept attending Fitness Business Summit and filling out the application for private coaching without ever turning it in. Then one year I had a moment of clarity. I realized that if Bedros could make me even consider the initial investment, he had to be doing something right.

So I hired him for coaching, and since then my business has blown up. Now, I’m on track to gross over $2 million in this year alone, and I’m looking to have my 7th location open by the end of the year.

I am grateful for the huge variety of things I’m learning in the mastermind. I never know which technique or insight is going to give me my next big leap, but I know at least one of them will every time.

Most importantly, I have to thank Bedros for helping me find the deep WHY behind my career – the reason why my work matters and deserves my maximum effort. That, more than anything else, has allowed me to accelerate my personal and professional growth to astounding new heights.

After 10 years of working as a personal trainer in a big box gym, I was ready for a change. I loved training as much as I ever had, but I was getting tired of the politics of the corporate world. I just wanted to serve my clients.

So, starting in our garage, my business partner and I started our own spin and weight training studio. Soon enough we had steady growth, and I generated the money to open my dream studio…

I finally got that studio in Long Beach – a huge warehouse that I decked out with AstroTurf, TRX, boot camps, and a bunch of other goodies. For revenue, I let a bunch of independent trainers rent the space and train their clients there.

Business was booming for a while, until I realized that I really only had one source of income: those independent trainers. Before I knew it, I had several trainers not paying rent on time, or quitting because they couldn't make it at running their own businesses. I also had to cease business with a few because they didn't follow company policies. With the exit of so many trainers my business took a HUGE loss of revenue.

Which would’ve been bad enough…if I didn’t have a pair of newborn twin boys to take care of.

With my business collapsing all around me, and with so much at stake personally, I fell into a deep depression. I looked around at the chaos and wished I could’ve had systems and my own training programs in place to keep my business safe from it all. I resolved to avoid that same mistake next time, if I could get a next time.

My first ray of hope was a quote from Dan Hardy that I read in Success Magazine – “The fastest way to success is to hire mentors.”

With that in mind, I searched online until I came across one of Bedros’s videos. At first I thought he was just some shady bald guy, but since his advice made sense I joined Fitness Business Ignition and started implementing what I learned. Since that seemed to be working, I decided to attend Fitness Business Summit (FBS) as well.

Finally seeing Bedros in person put me at peace. He seemed like an honest guy who knew what he was talking about. Plus, he was actually quite humble and had a great sense of humor. So, when he got on stage and talked about his high-end coaching program, I really wanted to join.

The tough part was that I was almost completely broke. My partner has just gotten laid off, my business was still finding its footing, and we had the twins to look after.

The thought of investing the tiny bit of money we had in coaching scared me half to death…but my gut was screaming at me to just do it, and to invest in my future success. I knew if I did do it, I’d have to wait weeks before telling my partner.

So I did join…and it completely changed my life.

Since signing up with Bedros, I have doubled my income. Last year alone I made close to half a million dollars! My business is doing so well that I’ve decided to expand to a second location, too. This time, I have systems in place to protect my business.

Plus, after winning the Land Rover give-away at FBS, I was able to use the prize money to buy my family a home (something I never would have imagined before).

And most importantly, I have my life back now. I’ve escaped the fear that used to torment me, and I’ve found a deep inner joy and peace building the business of my dreams while still having time for my family.

My advice to young fitness professionals is this: do your research, but when push comes to shove follow your gut.

I had a strong business operating out of a rented space, with $40-50k coming in every month, when I first heard about Bedros. One of my trainers gave me a copy of his DVD. I never actually watched the DVD, but I was curious enough to attend Fitness Business Summit and meet him in person.

Little did I know at the time that I would soon desperately need his advice.

It was 2009, and Bedros was first launching Fit Body Boot Camp, so I stopped to ask Bedros if his new model would be a good fit for me. I gave him the details of my current business and he said honestly that I should stick with my already successful business. It struck me that he didn’t try to sell me on FBBC when he didn’t genuinely think it was the best choice for me. I appreciated his honesty and knew right then I wanted to work with him in the future.

Ironically…while I was away at FBS, the owners of my rented space cut me out of my own business. That was a rude awakening. It made me realize that I needed to have more control over my own destiny as a business owner.

Over the next 2 years, I kept up with Bedros’s content and slowly built up a new business. Come 2011, I was back at FBS again with my future wife as a guest. She was actually the one who encouraged me to sign up for his coaching. I told her we didn’t have the money for it, but she said we’d figure it out.

I can’t thank her enough for supporting me and encouraging me to take the leap. Now, my business is doing so well that I’m investing in a second location.

What I’ve struggled to learn and hope to pass on to other entrepreneurs is this: you don’t have to know everything. In fact, it’s extremely important that you do reach out for help and accept the coaching of others. I owe so much of my current success to doing that.