Bogdan Rosu

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:20] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone, to the Tron podcast. This is your host, Rashad Woods. Today I have a very special guest who's been fortunate enough to me to carve out some time on his busy schedule. He's an entrepreneur, author, leadership coach, and one of my personal favorites. On top of all those accomplishments, martial artist Mr. Bogdan Rasu. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. [00:00:38] Speaker A: Appreciate you for having me. And definitely nice to meet you, Rashad. [00:00:44] Speaker B: So it's, it's been an honor that you reached out. So, you know, your bio reads like a nice, you know, like, Hollywood script story where you're a leadership and high performance coach and authority. And so you, you, you work with entrepreneurs to reach the better version of themselves, remove blockages, and to be able to ultimately not cap themselves at where they are and to take risk, calculated risk, with the information that you provide for them. Can you give me some backup, please? [00:01:09] Speaker A: 100%. Yeah. I'm, I'm excited to share more about. Because people are like, okay, martial arts and leadership, how. How does that work? Well, maybe we can dive into how to use Bruce Lee's philosophy to win in life and in business. So that's definitely something we can dive into. And it ties with my background because I fell in love with martial arts when I was 13. My cousin was a black belt in karate and Shotokan, and I really looked up to him. When I started this journey, I had absolutely no talent at martial arts. Like, for sure, zero, zero. And slowly but surely I became better because I was passionate about it. But then in college, personal development, so I fell in love with that. And when I finally opened up a school in Romania, I was lucky to hire a mentor who pointed that out. I walked him through what we were doing in the training sessions, and he's like, look, dude, you don't have a martial arts school. You have a personal development through martial arts program. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Wow. [00:02:14] Speaker A: And when he said that clicked. And because the martial arts style that I was teaching was actually Bruce Lee's first martial arts style, Wing Chun. [00:02:24] Speaker B: Yes, yes, Right. [00:02:26] Speaker A: Exactly right. The. The system he learned in Hong Kong, and then he went on later to develop Jeet Kune Do. And the principles fit so well because that's what's unique about Wing Chun. We rarely talk about technique. It's all about principle. And the principle, you can do it with your hand, you can do it with a stick, you can apply it in your business, you can apply it in life. It is universal. So that's kind of how my, my coaching journey started, because people were signing up for the program, they were becoming a lot more confident and that led to them attracting better relationships in their lives, getting promoted at work, starting their own businesses. So that was a lot of fun. And then later I started my coaching. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Journey, I think the crazy part. So I'm a martial artist as well too. So immediately that clicked. So I took, I started taekwondo when I was about 7, 8 years old. Did that till about 11 then. It's really tough to keep people in martial arts, particularly between that eighth grade to senior year, because it's a lonely sport. Right. It's not a school sport. I don't know how it is in Romania, but it's not really at school in the United States at all. Right. So you have to go to your school, you have to go to ymca. So it's something. And it's not basketball where it's immediately available with, with your coaches at your school. So I have a black belt and Tung Soo do, I have a brown belt in Taekwondo. And I've taken different styles too as well with Pontotin, which is Filipino boxing, and then I've taken Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai as well too. So nice. That's right up my alley of that, of that dialogue. [00:03:54] Speaker A: And so I, I've recently, I recently started BJJ as well. [00:04:00] Speaker B: Oh yeah, it's eye opener. [00:04:03] Speaker A: It's a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. [00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:04:07] Speaker A: And the other day I, I had coffee with this guy who's visiting Romania. He's traveling the whole world with his family and he's a MU instructor in San Diego. So that was a fun conversation as well. Yeah, yeah. Muay Thai is beautiful as well. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Wonderful sport, wonderful style. It's, you know, it's really brutal. Like, those leg kicks are, gosh, man, it's tough. [00:04:27] Speaker A: The elbows. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Yes, yes. Very, very intense. And so I think for anybody before, because we go down the Mormon hall of Martial Arts all day, anybody who practices is such a great dialogue because people who understand and can talk about it, it applies, like you said, directly to business. You may not get immediate gratification. You're more than likely going to get your butt kicked for quite some time and very, in a small percentage stick it out to get their ultimate goal right, which is how, I would imagine how you get to be, you know, you know, your, your coaching and your career, if you're willing to get, if you're looking to get immediate satisfaction in martial arts, don't even go like, do not even, you know, if you have A big ego. That's even more the reason you're going to get it deflated when you walk in there. Right. So I'm sure you apply a lot of those principles to your coach, you. [00:05:11] Speaker A: Know, Definitely, definitely some. You know, one of the principles I talk about in the book is the power of, like the book is, Is divided into. Right. So there's the yin section and then the young section. The yin section is all about the internal shifts. And the yang section are the top leadership and business principles of the top leaders. I spent almost 20 years studying the most successful people on the planet, learning how they think, how they feel, how they act. Right. And how they structured their businesses. So that's in the second part of the book. Now, in the first part, the yang, we have the mind, the body, and the soul. And within the. The body section, I talk about the importance of where you actually place your body. Meaning I did the first martial art study was this combination of Tangsu do, karate, taekwondo, jiu jitsu, ninjutsu. [00:06:05] Speaker B: Kudos. [00:06:06] Speaker A: I think all of the. Here's the funny part. All of these were taught by the same guy. [00:06:11] Speaker B: Okay. I guess, you know, hey, listen. Yeah. Depending on the style, I don't know the level of the person that was training you, so I'm not gonna. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that was the flyer, right? I. I think the guy just put all the martial arts words he knew on. On the thing, right? So he was, he was, he was skilled. But the rest of us, like, his students were just like drunken Jean Claude Van Dammes trying to do. Trying to film a movie. [00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:06:35] Speaker A: So that was my first experience with martial arts. I did that for three years. Then my, My cousin kind of bitch slapped some sense into me and said, look, your, your legs have no, you have no stability, you have no power, nothing. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Right? [00:06:47] Speaker A: But that was the only school in town, right? [00:06:49] Speaker B: You know, that's all you know. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Exactly. Right. So then I started karate because a school opened, a karate school opened right when I was close to. To quitting that first thing, because I applied these principles of putting myself in the right position, meaning I spent a lot of time with the best students or kids who started way before me. I spent a lot of time with them, training with them, asking questions. Right, right. And that allowed me to have, like, extremely fast progress in this school in about a year, year and a half. I was at par in terms of skill with these kids who started way before me for sure. I did the same when I started wing chun. Right. Spent a lot of time with the top People asking questions and getting better and better and better. And I had very, very rapid progress. It's the same idea in business, right? You want to spend time with high level people as much as possible. What you're doing right now, interviewing people and picking their brains. That's exactly it. You're placing your body exactly where it needs to be. [00:07:49] Speaker B: For sure. Thank you. [00:07:50] Speaker A: However, here's the caveat. You want to look at the people at the highest level, but you do not want to compete with them because you can't. Your only target is to compete with the belt who is in front of you to be better than the belt. That person who is one level above you. That gives you peace of mind. It kills the comparison trap. Oh, this person has making so much more money or having this so many. [00:08:14] Speaker B: More, without question, followers. [00:08:17] Speaker A: Exactly. Because you're just looking at the person in front of you. Right. So I give the analogy of the complacency bear. You know that story where the bear is chasing you, you and somebody else, you don't have to outrun the bear because you can't. You just need to outrun the other person. So it's, it's the same in business. People will fall into the complacency trap and you will just run right past them. But the trick is while the bear is eating. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes, yes. So you have that pace and that energy for the. When it continues back again. Yes. You know what's funny too is like, so every time I've trained in martial arts or in class, right? And I was referring back to martial arts, you know, especially people who know what they're talking about. Martial arts. Like when you talk to people who kind of don't, like, maybe the principles don't apply. But since obviously you're, well, adverse. I always say to people when I'm in class training, I say, hey, listen, you know, I don't have to worry about ever like quote unquote, defending myself against somebody in here because, you know, it could get really, really deep and you know what you're doing, because then I just got to defend myself against somebody who's out of shape. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, so when you, you know, and that's realistic. So like when you put yourself in that position, like you're in shape, you're giving me trouble. Or this could be a long, drawn out situation. Like, not, yeah, that's, that's not what I want to do. But to your point, like, hey, somebody's out of shape, has no clue how to throw a punch or defend themselves, etc. I, I can get least, at the very least, de escalate a situation because I'm confident that my training and my natural reaction can kick in and at least protect myself. I'm not going to say I'm going to, I'm no world beater, but I can say with confidence I feel like I'll be okay under a given scenario. [00:09:51] Speaker A: And you know what? I feel like that's a, that's an excellent analogy for sales because if we're going to take that to the sales department, you might feel like you need to be competing with or, you know, you default to your training, to your base training whenever you're stressed. [00:10:04] Speaker B: Yes. [00:10:05] Speaker A: All of the fancy moves go out the window and you're going to default to the thing that you've put in the most reps for. [00:10:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:10:14] Speaker A: When you're selling, the more you can sell, the more you understand, the more you, let's say, raise your foundation and you repeat the quality procedures, the things that actually get results. When you're dealing with a very difficult prospective clients or an even bigger client that really intimidates you and you're like, oh my God, I really hope I get the sale because if I do, it's going to be amazing. Because of that level of stress, you're going to default to your lowest standard. So make sure you're drilling in high, high standards and high reflex. [00:10:44] Speaker B: That's a very good, accurate thing, you know. And when you talk about comparisons. Right. So over in the States, the very first fast food chain in America is White Castle. So I don't know if you've ever heard the name. I'm not sure how familiar you are with White Castle. Right. So they've never, yeah, they've never reached the stratosphere of a bird, of a McDonald's or even a Burger King or even a Wendy's. But they're still around. And the reason why I watched a documentary on them, they stayed in their respective lane. They're all owned by the company. They stay private. [00:11:12] Speaker A: They. [00:11:12] Speaker B: Right. They haven't franchised. And more importantly, they're like, we scaled at our own pace and we stayed in our own niche. So while other companies had to close stores and pull back and then get bought, went from public to private equity to sometimes back to public, they were like, listen, we know exactly where our lane is, so to speak, and we are fine with where we are at. And to your point, sometimes people can comparison to scale when in reality you have a niche market that you've mastered. And that's okay to be in that lane. [00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah. It's really about not playing the other person's game. [00:11:47] Speaker B: Yes. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Like, you know this as a martial artist, but for people watching this and not being very familiar, Wing chun, the martial arts style that I taught, is exceptional when your hands are free, right. Because you can grab, you can redirect energy. There's a lot, there's so much, you have so much dexterity and so much feeling, instinct, let's say when you're using your, your hands. Now if I put on boxing gloves, all of that skill that I worked a lifetime is gone. Gone. Yes. So now I'm playing this other person's game who spent a lifetime mastering that. It's basically chess versus checkers. If you're really good at checkers, put yourself in an environment where you can excel at checkers. Don't try to play chess. [00:12:33] Speaker B: Unquestionably, you know, and just my quick caveat to that point about martial arts, and I know there's lots more to you than that. I remember when I was in college and I was doing taekwondo and I said, you know, my last semester I was like, let me do judo because I'd never, I never wrestled. So I said, let me try a different style of art. Well, I found out about one day that everything I learned meant nothing in that style. Like, there's a guy, small, like Peter Parker, like Spider man, and I got tossed from post a pillar, like, because I couldn't use what I was normally able to use to my capacity. I can't use my hands, I can't use my legs, my knees. You know, none of that applied. But I think to your point, when you enter in a different environment, it's the martial artist that's willing to learn and understand and put themselves out there. I think every martial artist is trainable when they do a different style because at least you have the mentality of always being a student in life. And I'm sure you apply that to business with your principles. [00:13:27] Speaker A: True, true. And at the same time, it's very tempting to do many different things, to feel like. Because there's a thing, you know, like fear of missing out. You start in something very specific or you have something that's very unique to you. Like, like, for example, you know, the book, like Greatness and Mastery, Leadership plus Martial arts Principles. It's not for everyone. Like we're, you know, we're in the distribution phase of. I wrote this book. It's going to be out soon. Do you want it? And People, there's rarely an in between, like, oh, so nice or whatever. It's either hell yes or I don't care. Leave me alone, get lost. [00:14:05] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:14:06] Speaker A: That is a superpower, especially in marketing and in business. You. You want to have that. You want to have this. I absolutely love it. Like, you know, the conversation we're having right now, for sure. Or I hate it. I want nothing to do with. That's a superpower. In time, people like your people will stick with you because you mean something to them. Same with White Castle. Right. If they're starting at, I don't know, Greek gyros, you're going to. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. Totally turn off your. Your customer base. Totally turn off your customer base. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [00:14:39] Speaker B: Right, right. And so, you know, what I found fascinating was even when you had. We'll pivot to your coaching career, when you had elite clients, I mean, people who, what I've read, thought they, you know, had made it and are the pinnacle of success, they still had doubts and disbeliefs in themselves and were. Had uncertainty. So how does that come on the outside looking in, you say you've. You've reached everything you possibly could. But then you read one of your. Had one of your clients who's a multimillion dollar business owner, and then he was reluctant, he was concerned. You know, should he scale, should he do this? So how did you proceed with the conversation? [00:15:12] Speaker A: Okay, so a quick, quick distinction, right? Or to be. To be a lot more precise, you have the world champion fighting. Or actually, let's take the Rocky movie, right? You have Apollo Creed fighting Rocky. [00:15:24] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Who. Who has more to lose? [00:15:26] Speaker B: Oh, no question, the champion. Without question, the champion. Easy. [00:15:30] Speaker A: And the pressure is going to be so much higher the higher you go. [00:15:34] Speaker B: Yes, that is true. That is true. [00:15:36] Speaker A: The only question is, at that point, do you identify yourself with the body where the body stores all of the fear, all of the negative emotions is found in the physical mind. Or do you identify yourself with the soul that is infinite? Because if the champ sees themselves as a soul having an experience, they know that there's no way they can lose, there's no way they can die. There's no way something, quote unquote, bad will happen because it's just a video game. In a sense. That's the mindset. That's the idea. So to answer your question, what I did with my client, he forgot who he was. Coming back, circling back to knowing who you are, right. Sticking to your superpower, to your strengths. [00:16:19] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:20] Speaker A: He had. He had to take over his company. When he was in his 20s because his father passed away. [00:16:25] Speaker B: Oh, wow, somebody was already. [00:16:29] Speaker A: Right. I can't even imagine what that felt like. And because he was so young, people not taking him seriously. The weight of the company was pretty high because the company was already doing well, and he didn't want to disappoint his father. He didn't just not squander what he got, he built it up. So that's what I reminded him of. Like, here's who you are. Here's who you've always been. I get it. You're scared right now because you feel like life is good and you're afraid to lose it. But the biggest obstacle to great is good, right? So I showed him what he's actually capable of, reminded him of that, and that boosted his confidence, and he realized, wait a second. Yeah, even if I make a mistake, I learn from it and grow. But there's always a yin and yang approach to effective coaching. That was the yin, the softness. Right. The inner shift. What was needed also was the yang, the strategy behind it. So I said what I suggested was this, hey, let's create a 10% experimentation, research development fund. 10% out of revenue or out of profits. It was, we're going to use that money to hire new people, experiment with new products, new services, test out ideas, and then double down on the winners. How does that feel? So that allowed his physical mind to soften and say, hey, we have a plan now. That's great. And the, okay, now I know who I am. I remember who I am. That was the heart. [00:17:58] Speaker B: I always find it fascinating when people who do see coaching because, like, you know, whether it's physical fitness, whether it's martial arts, whether it's business or in life, because I always equate it, it's my fallback de facto is I'm a terrible cook, right? So. But I think what I eat is really well, because I enjoy what I eat, right? So to your point, when it comes to success, you know, you can be biased about the products or services that you're offering because you like it, because you're. You're not wondering, well, why wouldn't people like this? You know, I know it sounds cliche, but I like it, and I think this is effective. And then somebody can take five seconds and either put in a test group, like you said when you took that 10% of profit and you said, let's test this out from an. I'm not you. I'm going to tell you, if this works and you can go through the proper channels to see if this is going to be successful for launching and scaling. So I think making sure that you're aware of your own biases, of your own product, service or even likes is a very good thing. Or even your dislikes. Because people what you dislike could be successful too. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Yes, it is extremely hard to do. It's the reason why they're called blind spots and the reason why any company is limited by the growth of the main leader and why so many CEOs are actually the bottlenecks in the company. Because they just get. It's not necessarily because of their ego. Sometimes it is. It's not necessarily for mal intent. It's usually because they just cannot see the blind spot. [00:19:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:26] Speaker A: But as humans, right, you have your nose close to your mouth, but you can't tell when your breast stinks. So you need somebody else, you know, like. [00:19:35] Speaker B: And that's why I always chew gum, man. So I mean like, because that way I could just disarm that entire conversation. I really do. You know, I just keep that. That's so funny. So tell us about the book a little bit more. How can it become available? You know, what inspired you to write that? And it took obviously it's 20 years, you said, of experiences and you wanted to share this with the world. So how can people get the book and ultimately unlock their mind and potential? [00:20:01] Speaker A: The book is free. It's going to be free always. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:06] Speaker A: And you can get it through my website for the time being. It's going to be on Amazon probably in a few more weeks. I'm gathering a few more leaders to kind of support the book. We have right now we have Thomas Ellsworth from the PBD podcast from valuetainment, who I've interviewed for the book. We have Jeff Chan. You probably know Jeff Chan. [00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker B: So wow, that's awesome. [00:20:32] Speaker A: When. When want to have 10 people to kind of also pick their brains, get a few more insights in terms of their leadership methods, their leadership insights to. To create this exclusive bonus content. That's when it's going to be on Amazon. However, the book itself, you can read it, you can start using it to make leaps and bounds towards becoming a top leader yourself or just improving your own mindset, your own leadership capabilities. If you're a parent, very powerful, you can get it through my website immediately and start making progress. [00:21:04] Speaker B: That's fantastic. You know, and so where are your clients based? Like do you do online coaching? Is it in person? You know, do you go to businesses and try to find blind Spots, weaknesses. I mean, just how does that, how does the process work with you? [00:21:18] Speaker A: Mostly online. If somebody asked me to do in person today, I would just say, hey, just meet me on Zoom. I don't want to. [00:21:26] Speaker B: For sure. Yeah, I just had to ask. I didn't know if you had local clients or anything like that that you work with. [00:21:31] Speaker A: Yeah, online. Mostly online. We do group coaching. We have a monthly event that we do that's called Freedom Forge for Leaders that's also free. So if people want to tune in, just message me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to send you the registration link for. But yeah, we do group coaching one on one. But I think the book is a great starting point, I gotta tell you. [00:21:50] Speaker B: You know, I know that's a lot to digest this in a very small window. And I'm sure you're obviously your story and your background is not encompassed, just a 25, 30 minute interview, but being able to reach out to you and your success in the things that you've accomplished and will continue to accomplish. I appreciate you reaching out to me. And I gotta be honest with you, I love talking to people about martial arts. Right. Because it is such a niche conversation to have with people. Because the general public has become Bruce Lee and Van Damme. And that's not a bad thing. [00:22:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:17] Speaker B: Not everybody can do that. Right. So. Or even a Scott Atkins. Right. So the regular accountant, marketing guy, entrepreneur, such as yourself has a martial arts background. And what's cool about it, just briefly, is somewhere in that lineage of martial arts, even if you're not in the book, you can say, I did that no matter where you step in on the globe. [00:22:39] Speaker A: You know what, let's. Before we wrap up, if we have time, I'd love to deliver on the promise I made in the beginning. Maybe we can talk a bit about Bruce Lee's be water, my friend. [00:22:52] Speaker B: Of course. [00:22:53] Speaker A: To use that in life and in business. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Right, of course. [00:22:56] Speaker A: So you actually have five elements. Water is one of the five. You have water, wood, fire, earth and metal. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Yes. [00:23:04] Speaker A: You have access to all five, but knowing when to use each is extremely powerful. So the idea of being water is adapting to a specific situation. Let's say you're having a rough conversation with the person in front of you. Being water in many ways is connecting to the consciousness, to a higher consciousness. So in that conversation, a lot of people want to be reactive, but when you step into being water, you adapt to what the other person is saying. So and you redirect like Aikido has a lot of water. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Beautiful art. Beautiful art. Yeah. We had a black belt, Nikido in our Tang Soo do school. [00:23:37] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. So let's say somebody says, hey, you know, you did this thing that really pissed me off. Right? Or they bring you fire, right? They come at you with fire. Our natural reaction is to respond back with the same element with fire, but you want to use water instead. And when they say, hey, you really made this. You did this thing that really. That's wrong. You want to take it in and say, I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I do that. I did that. [00:24:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:24:01] Speaker A: What do you think could have been improved? Yes. And you circle it back, because water is not a circle, but a spiral. That's one example of using water. [00:24:12] Speaker B: And it can also be very destructive, too. You know what I mean? So. [00:24:15] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Right. So what you're doing, when you're redirecting that water, you're actually taking the other person. You're in your current, in your own flow for sure, and all of a sudden, they're on your side. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Yes, yes. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. And it's a hard trait to master, too. It's a very hard trait to master. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Yes. But again, the difference is, like, if you're identifying yourself with that emotion, if you're saying, I am anger right now or I am Bogdan or whatever, if you're identifying yourself with that situation, yes, you are in the movie, but what you want to do is disassociate yourself from that situation. Take a step back mentally and be the observer, be the director, and then you can choose which element is relevant for that specific situation. Takes a fraction of a second, because your heart will tell you in that moment. You will intuitively feel into it. [00:25:11] Speaker B: And I'll just leave with this. That's a very good martial arts analogy, because the guy or the woman, it reacts very calmly to your anger. If you're trying to go to that escalation level, more than likely knows what they're doing and are trying to give you an out, so to speak. Right? So when you train in martial arts, anybody who's listening, there's a lot of talented people, once you actually start training, right? And you find out, like, wow, I didn't know that this person that, you know, has cargo jeans and a backwards hat is a black jitsu, right? And you're like, ooh. So to your point, they're calm because they've trained. You know, when they're training, they can't below their load in 30 seconds. So to speak when they're starting to spar, they have to remain calm. They have great breath control. So all of those principles apply to business and in life and in martial arts as well, too. And like I said, I could pick your brain on that for hours. So I appreciate you. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Appreciate you, too. [00:26:00] Speaker B: It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. And like I said, thank you for being on the Tron podcast. And I know you're going to be successful as you always have been, and I look forward to reading your book. Thank you, Sam.