August 4, 2025 • 32 mins
How are you building the enterprise value of your company? What types of marketing and PR are you doing to help create awareness? Our guest today is Zack Fishman, and he shares with us the some of the levers to pull to build your brand’s enterprise value.
TODAY'S WIN-WIN:
The rush to the space to become more "professionalized” is happening across franchising. This is raising the bar for franchising in general.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Schedule your free franchise consultation with Big Sky Franchise Team: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
- You can visit our guest's website at:
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- Connect with our guest on social:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Zack has been involved in the franchise space since he could walk (literally), devoting his life to understanding all facets of the industry. Currently, Zack is the Chief Growth Officer for Fishman PR, the world’s foremost PR firm specializing in franchising and Franchise Elevator, the world’s preeminent emerging brands PR firm.
In his spare time, Zack is also the Co-Founder of Franchise YoungConference, the only conference for Millennial/Gen-Z franchise executives, Host of Modrn Business Podcast, an award-winning podcast focusing on showcasing franchising’s most exciting entrepreneurs and is Partner & COO of Franchise Supplier Network, where he specializes in matching franchisors with best-fit suppliers.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we hopegrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderinghow you are building the
enterprise value of your companyand what types of marketing and
(00:23):
PR are you using to help createthis enterprise value?
Well, our guest today is ZachFishman, and he shares with us
some of the levers to pull tobuild your brand's enterprise
value.
Now, zach has been involved inthe franchise space since he
could walk, literally devotinghis life to understanding all
facets of the industry.
(00:44):
Currently, zach is the ChiefGrowth Officer of Fishman PR,
the world's foremost PR firmspecializing in franchising, and
the franchise elevator, theworld's preeminent emerging
brands PR firm.
In his spare time, zach is alsothe co-founder of the Franchise
Young Conference, which is theonly conference for millennial
and Gen Z franchise executives.
(01:04):
He's the host of ModernBusiness Podcast, an
award-winning podcast focusingon showcasing franchising's most
exciting entrepreneurs, and hispartner and COO of the
Franchise Supplier Network,where he specializes in
matchmaking franchisors whichbest fit suppliers.
Now, zach and I have known oneanother for many years in
(01:24):
franchising, and so I'm sothrilled to be able to share his
knowledge and expertise withyou on this episode.
You're going to love thispodcast interview, so let's go
ahead and jump right into it.
Zack Fishman (01:36):
Hey, tom, thanks for having me on the show.
Really appreciate it.
So my name is Zach Fishman.
I am the, amongst many things,the chief growth officer for
both Fishman PR and FranchiseElevator.
Really excited to be on theshow today.
I'm normally used to doing myown podcast.
Been doing it for a long, longtime.
We're doing a bit of a home andhome, so I'm excited to be on
yours first.
(01:56):
We got a lot to talk abouttoday, so let's get into it, I
suppose.
Tom DuFore (02:01):
That sounds great Well, and really, I think, a big
piece of our conversation.
We're talking pre-show andobviously we've known one
another in franchising for along time.
It's really this idea of PR andunderstanding how to build
value, I guess, fororganizations.
My experience has been with alot of clients, emerging
franchisors and evengrowth-focused franchisors
(02:25):
oftentimes view PR as more of alead generation piece, and
there's so much more to that, soI'd love just to open the
conversation with it there andhave you start filling in some
gaps for us.
Zack Fishman (02:38):
You're giving me a little bit of deja vu because I
feel like that this is aconversation that I have a lot,
but it's an important one.
You know, when I first got intothis business about five and a
half years ago, you know PR wasstarting to make the transition
over from a lead generationactivity into something that's
more education centric.
You know, when the agency thatyou know that my mother founded
(03:00):
in 91 really first got its start, my father, who kind of came in
not long after to really be thefinancial and sales engine of
the agency you know it was leadgen because really it was and
there wasn't really a great wayof tracking it, but that's just
what it was known.
As you know, you would get anarticle somewhere in some
(03:20):
newspaper and somebody wouldcall you right at your corporate
office and that's just how itworked.
You know, and I think that overtime it has just evolved much
more.
The candidate journey hasbecome a lot more complex.
There's more touch points, youknow you hear a lot about.
You know and really like thedawn of digital marketing within
the franchise development space.
You know you heard a lot aboutjust kind of like a new method
(03:43):
of being able to put your nameout there, but there wasn't
really a lot of education andtalk about SEO and what that
really meant for a brand andreally I guess in a more in
layman's terms, it's really, youknow, kind of laying out the
long and illustrious journeythat a franchise prospect can
have and you know the many stopsthat they have along the way.
(04:06):
Rather, that is reading anarticle or listening to a
podcast or seeing an ad or goingto a trade show.
It's just gotten much morecomplex, no matter what type of
brand you are industry or size.
But I think overall that'ssomething that has been an
education piece for me and it'sbeen a lot of time spent on.
(04:27):
My end is really justexplaining to even the most
sophisticated of prospects howPR is looked upon today and how
it's measured.
It's really changed a lot andreally its prominence in the
industry has changed a lot too,just in terms of you know what
it does for a brand, no matterif they're just getting started
and they've never told theirstory before, or if they're a
(04:48):
brand that's been, that's beenowned by three different private
equity firms in the past 10years, right, so it doesn't
really matter, it's just changedfor everybody.
Tom DuFore (04:56):
That's a great point and I'd love for you to talk a
little bit about some of thosemaybe specifics, how things have
changed and what's differentfrom several years back, which
you talked a little bit about,where it was transitioning from
this lead generation idea towhere it is today.
So what are some of those?
Maybe?
Oftentimes marketers right,they're looking for metrics.
(05:18):
So maybe we talk through someof the metrics that maybe have
changed in terms of how yougauge what success might look
like.
Zack Fishman (05:25):
Yeah.
So I think that really in theearly 2000s you saw this massive
rise in online marketing,really quote unquote.
Rather, that was a portal orthat was an ad through Google or
, at the time, aol.
There was a lot of advertisingwith a lot of the print
organizing with a lot of theprint advertising that you were
seeing normally.
(05:46):
They were bringing it onlinelike an entrepreneur in USA
Today that was really the startwas just trying to get people to
be found in more places thanjust the newspaper or on a radio
spot or on a TV, you know, on acommercial or whatever it was.
And I think over time that hasevolved a ton where it's not
(06:06):
just about ad value, which wasoften how a lot of PR was
measured was based off of theyou know the ad value of a hit,
aka you know how valuable thatwas and how much an advertiser
would maybe pay for that.
It's a really old school metricthat is still used a little bit
today.
But now I would say thedifference between digital
(06:27):
marketing and content marketingand PR a lot of that has
collapsed a ton.
You've seen a lot of theindustry consolidate a little
bit.
There's been some acquisitionsbetween my competitors and some
mergers between my competitors,my competitors and in large part
, that is just due to the factthat the industry is kind of
becoming one thing where it'smore important to be an
(06:48):
integrated marketing agency thanto be just, you know, a jacket.
You know to be doing one thingreally well.
We've done that throughpartnerships and not through
actually formal mergers, buteverybody in some semblance has
really done that, and I thinkthat's in large part due to the
fact that it's really hard totrack PR without actually
understanding and owning orbeing in partnership with the
(07:11):
person who is running yourdigital experience, especially
on the franchise developmentside.
It's just, it's a very nuancedworld and it's very, very tough
to do it without it, and so alot of the reporting metrics we
look to are through SEOreporting that a lot of these
digital marketing agencies arespending a lot of time spinning
up for you.
It's about how long you'reactually spending on the website
(07:33):
versus before.
You were actually.
You know working through PR,how you know it could be
anything.
Even you know around, you knoweffectiveness of the ads and
potentially utilizing some ofthe things that we're securing,
you know, for some of ourclients and how often those are
actually being clicked through.
It's about, you know number.
It can be, in some cases,actually all about you know just
(07:57):
deal velocity and the averagedeal length and how long that's
taking and is that decreasing?
Because if your candidate isgoing to be more, is going to be
more.
You know understanding of whatyour brand is all about.
Generally speaking, that meansthat they're spending less time
in the sales process becausethey have more of an
understanding and education asto who you are as a brand.
(08:18):
And I would say, subjectivelyspeaking, it's always, always,
always very helpful to be ableto answer objections as well
with brands and so, if you feellike that people are asking you
less questions in the salesprocess because maybe they're
being answered through PR,that's a really, really helpful
metric to be able to track to,you know, and there are some
(08:40):
things and over the years that alot of people have worked very
hard to you know, bring somequantitative to my industry and
I would say, most importantly,it's really competitive analysis
through the media.
So what they do is you take kindof like a score and you take a
score of what the actualplacement has garnered through
you know, seo reporting andGoogle analytics and all of that
(09:03):
stuff and then you're actuallyattributing a score to that and
they're measuring that score.
You know that combined scorewith your competitors.
So, for instance, if you're apizza concept Marco's Pizza and
you're looking to compareagainst Domino's and Papa John's
and Pizza Hut, then you'retaking a lot of media that you
have that is business centricand you're really comparing that
(09:23):
combined score against them toreally figure out who is
actually owning the medialandscape for that particular
category.
So there's a lot of things thathave advanced a ton, but I'll
say it is still a little bitmurky.
But when you are working withan agency, a we have a couple of
(09:43):
really amazing partners.
You know across all different.
You know investment levels.
You know, I would say, the morethat you're investing to
generally, the more data thatyou have as, as things go.
Tom DuFore (09:55):
Thinking of it from the perspective of there's the
franchisor that kind of has twopieces oftentimes that they're
looking for maybe even three,but one for many, especially for
growth-oriented franchisesystems With new franchisees.
You have your franchisedevelopment or recruitment focus
.
You have the focus of justpromoting the brand at large in
(10:20):
terms of just getting word outabout your company or the
general services that yourfranchise network provides.
And then I think of it from thelocal franchisees perspective.
Your local franchisees arelooking to grow their local
business and their localpresence.
So how does all of that andthere may be other dynamics I'm
not even mentioning here, but Ithink of those big three at
(10:42):
least that pop into my mind howdo you help fit all of that into
what you're describing andtalking about here?
Zack Fishman (10:49):
Yes, I think it really depends on the industry
within franchising that you'rein.
You know the first and foremost, a lot of brands.
Really, the lifeblood of whatthey do is two things it's
making sure your franchisees aresuccessful and it's making sure
that you're growing as a brandright.
You're growing your footprintacross the country or in the
world in some cases, and so it'spartially informed off of that.
(11:10):
And where I always start is thefranchise development side, so
understanding what type ofcandidate they're looking for.
That really informs how theyplay with each other.
So for brands that are lookingfor that multi-unit, multi-brand
operator, more often than nottheir customer is going to be a
very, very, very differentperson than the person that
they're looking to get as acandidate.
(11:31):
And so the consumer side aka onthe local, when a location is
opening, or on an ongoing basison behalf of the franchisees, or
just from a national brandperspective, you're really often
finding in those cases thatthat strategy is quite different
.
You know you are looking to ina lot of ways brands like that
(11:53):
often don't utilize PR quite asmuch or quite as heavy on an
ongoing basis.
It's either A they utilize itvery little, or B they are
utilizing it super heavily witha lot of different campaigns,
and they have a really robustcalendar.
Food and beverage is the bestexample of that.
That you find is that food andbeverage always has something
(12:14):
going on, always has an LTOgoing on.
But you often find that in manyinstances, people who have a
bigger investment level and arelooking for a more sophisticated
franchisee it's either you knowthey have a really
sophisticated department andthey have a really really full
consumer calendar or they donext to nothing at all because
they're really focusing on thegrowth side.
(12:35):
For brands that it's a littlebit more.
You know the candidate isactually your, is actually the
candidate that you would have asa franchisee, is your customer.
It's a lot more.
It's a lot.
I would say it's a lot more ofa gray area.
You're often finding thatbrands are doing that together.
Those are the brands that youknow.
In a lot of ways that's whatFishman PR was built on in many
(12:58):
senses, and same with ouremerging brands agency Franchise
Elevator.
Many of those brands are inpersonal care.
They're reliant ondiscretionary spending.
We're going to see how thosebrands do in the next year-ish
or so, but overall a lot ofthose candidates often end up at
times being their customer, andso you're finding that those
(13:18):
calendars, in terms of what weare putting out there and what
we are thinking through in termsof strategy, and what we're
reaching out to the media oftenblends together a little bit
more, no matter if it's anational or a regional effort.
It's a great question to ask,but I would say the one thing
that is becoming more du jourover the years is that there's
been instances in which it'sbeen really really hard to hire
(13:41):
specialized talent especially,but talent just in general.
So a lot of people are doingalmost employee relations or
employee recruitment, publicrelations as well, and it's
almost looked at as a completelydifferent avenue for them to
really present themselves notonly as a great brand to invest
in as a franchisee, not only agreat brand to invest your
(14:02):
discretionary income into, butit's a great brand to work for
too, and so that's just anotheradded facet that we find.
But overall, I would say itdepends on the actual prospect
itself and what the brand isthinking through and what their
goals are.
Tom DuFore (14:17):
One of the things that I'm curious to get your
opinion on and it's somethingyou brought to my attention
which is this concept ofenterprise value for a business,
an organization and, in ourworld, a franchise organization.
How does what you do and thisbroad concept of PR and
publicity, how does this impactthe value there, the enterprise
(14:38):
value of an organization?
Zack Fishman (14:40):
Yeah, so in much the same way that you're trying
to present yourself in the mostpositive light for a potential
customer or a potentialcandidate, you're doing the same
for investors as well in manycases, and so a lot of the work
that we've been spending a lotof time on and especially in the
past 10 years or so, as thespace has become more
professionalized is just to lookfor ways to be able to create,
(15:03):
you know, positive velocity froman investor standpoint too, and
so there's a couple of waysthat we've done that.
Spotlighting the leadershipteam, that they're folks that
they can actually trust, is areally big piece of what we do.
You know, discussing some ofthe franchisees that have
actually made the brand who theyare is a really big impact, is
a really big thing that we wantto discuss.
You know, really showcasing thetechnological sides of the
(15:26):
brand and discussing how theyare nimble as it relates to
what's happening in the world oftechnology is a really big
piece.
Brands rather, they build theirown or they're buying things
off the shelf spend a lot oftime doing, because private
equity loves the idea of a brandthat has the ability to be
nimble and change on a dime,especially when they're the ones
(15:47):
telling you to do that.
That's a really big deal, and Iwould say the two others have
to do with what's going on inthe world, right?
So you know how pertinent orhow relevant is your brand.
That speaks to the totaladdressable market that a brand
could have.
And you know a lot of investorsare really trying to measure a
brand based off of A you knowhow long can it capture the
(16:08):
fever of the US and B you know,does it even capture it at all
in the first place?
Right?
So they don't really want fad,exposed brands.
They want brands that havestaying power and so being able
to speak to what's happening inthe news and you know the demand
differentiation for a brand isa really big piece of that and
in some ways, a lot of investorsspend a lot of time thinking
(16:29):
through you know how connected abrand is to the community
overall, and so that communityaspect for some investors I'm
not saying all, but some means alot to them.
So showcasing what they do andensuring that they are ingrained
in the local communities asmuch as possible and showcasing
stories behind that that a brandcan do.
Of course, there's certainthings that you can't mention
(16:51):
when it comes to numbers.
But you know, reallyhighlighting, really
highlighting again the successof a brand and the ways that one
can, either through themouthpiece of a franchisee or
whatever it might be, is areally great way for us to
(17:12):
showcase, you know, what a brandcan actually do and that it
would be a good investment for aPE firm or a strategic platform
or a family office to getinvolved in.
Tom DuFore (17:22):
How could someone reach out to you and find out
about what you're doing?
Zack Fishman (17:25):
Yeah.
So there's a couple ways.
I would say the best way isprobably to email me just at
zfish, z-f-i-s-h, atfishmanprcom.
I am really prolificallyposting on LinkedIn, so
definitely feel free to reachout to me there and I'd be happy
to you know, engage with youfurther and, you know, really
through my LinkedIn.
The number one thing that youknow I've been spending a lot of
(17:47):
time on over the years is thatmy business partner and I have a
heavy newsletter that we hadbeen running for quite a while
that has a lot of my musings inthere as well as his in terms of
my outlook, and it's often lotof my musings in there as well
as his in terms of my outlook,and it's often intertwined with
my personal life as well.
You know I'm not really thatgreat at getting out and kind of
doing an elevator pitch,because I find it to be a bit
(18:09):
inauthentic.
So this is a bit of a differentmuscle for me.
But I would say that you know Ireally like to infuse my
personal life as much aspossible into what I do.
You know I live and breathe afamily business every day.
So franchising is my family andfamily is franchising to me,
and they often have quite ablurry line there.
So those are really the placesyou can reach out to learn more
(18:32):
about me and what I do on a dayto day.
Tom DuFore (18:34):
Well, Zach, this is a great time in the show and we
make a transition.
We ask every guest the samefour questions before they go,
and the first question we ask ishave you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from?
Zack Fishman (18:46):
it?
Yeah, definitely job.
I really looked around at mycolleagues and felt like what
their behavior was was somethingthat I, you know, should
obviously adopt.
(19:06):
I was a 22 year old kid.
I didn't really know what Ididn't know.
And I had all this intellectual, I had all this institutional
knowledge on franchising becauseI grew up in it, but I didn't
really know how to be aprofessional, and so what I
teach my people is that there isno reason for you to look
around and just do whateverybody else is doing.
(19:26):
You need to set your own pathand chart your own path and be
your own person and, you know,set a standard for yourself and
not allow others to set it foryou.
You know I have a notoriouslycrazy work ethic, but it wasn't
really always that way.
I was somebody who, you know,was honestly a little bit lazy
in my first job you know, Iwon't lie and I think that that
(19:49):
was partially because I feltlike it was okay, because a lot
of other people around me werethat way.
There was a lot of transitionsin a company and you know I felt
like, you know, this isn't myproblem, this is just the world
kind of telling me that I canjust kind of kick back and, you
know, let things come to me.
But in the reality, you know,and I'm which I would quickly
learn, which I'll get into inyour next question, you know, I,
(20:11):
I learned very quickly that Ineeded to take the world.
I needed to take the world bythe collar and try my best to
put my own imprint on it.
Tom DuFore (20:21):
Well, the next question is the flip side of
that right Taking a look at amake or a highlight you'd like
to share.
Zack Fishman (20:28):
Yeah, so going into that.
I think that in my next gig,which is really where I met you
for the first time, I spent alot of time looking at the
mirror and trying to think ofwhat I really wanted to be when
I grew up.
I was a 24 turning 25 year oldkid when I first got started
with that, with my next role,and I thought to myself I wanted
(20:50):
to find something I was alittle bit more passionate about
.
I think that was A but B.
The biggest thing was is Iwanted to find something that
was going to be hard.
I wanted to build.
I wanted to learn what it waslike to put blood, sweat and
tears into something and toreally see success.
I hadn't really felt like I hadhad success quite yet.
I had closed two deals up untilthat point at my old job, which
(21:12):
was a way, way bigger sales,way larger sales cycle, but it
just didn't feel fulfilling tome, and so I went to the
basically the best way to dothat, which was a technology
that basically had absolutely nocustomers up until that point,
and I for lack of better wordworked my ass off and really
learned how to do customersegmenting, how to actually
(21:35):
speak to somebody on the phoneand in the real way and actually
understand, you know how tosell properly.
I went through a lot of salesschool and with a lot of
franchising's most wonderfulresources there was all these
things.
I put a lot of work into myselfto really understand who I
wanted to be today, and I thinkthat experience, as I like to
say, was my MBA.
You know I didn't get a properMBA, but that was really the way
(21:59):
that I learned you know what Iwanted to be when I grew up,
what type of salesperson I wasgoing to be, what type of
executive I was going to be.
It was really informative forme and was the most wonderful
learning experience, and so youknow that was a major win and
really prepared me to play nicein the sandbox with everybody,
no matter if I'm related to themor not.
Oh, that's great.
(22:34):
Well, let's talk about amultiplier that you've used to
multiply yourself personally,professionally or organizations
you've run.
My fiancee often makes fun ofme that every single time that
somebody in her life is lookingfor something, she just sends
them to me, because I'm alwaysgoing to be prepared to give
somebody my opinion or an answer.
I think that that I would saythat my multiplier is that those
(23:01):
lists allow me to be theultimate connector.
I'm always prepared forwhatever is coming my way,
especially in franchising.
Always prepared for whatever iscoming my way, especially in
franchising.
Rather, it's somebody who'slooking for a job in the
franchise development space butthey only want to be using
brokers as their primary leadgeneration source.
I have it all segmented outbased off of that.
If a private equity firm islooking for a very particular
(23:22):
type of brand and they'relooking to get some subjective
due diligence from somebodyabout the brand and what the
executives are like within avery particular industry call it
infrared sauna I know all fourof the brands that are there are
organized in a littlespreadsheet and I know exactly
who to speak to and I have allthe information on that.
(23:42):
If it's a piece of technologythat somebody's looking for,
like a real estate mappingtechnology, and they want to
know the differences between allof those things, I have it all
very neatly organized.
But all my entire life is reallyaround the idea of being the
most prepared that one humanlycan and I spend a lot of time on
that and it's a lot of updatingand making sure that everything
(24:04):
is organized in the way that isboth digestible to me, but also
I always pretend that what Ihave in terms of my list can be
understood by anybody.
If they have no context indefranchising, they can just
pick it up and they'll knowexactly what it's all about.
So there's no you know,shorthand in there that only I
would understand.
It's all something that anybodycan use, and so that's my
(24:28):
biggest multiplier, I think, isjust really being organized and
having things segmented out asmuch as humanly possible, and
that's the hard part, right,it's very hard to do that in the
moment, but I always take thetime to make sure that
everything is updated andeverything is in tip-top shape.
For even you know my grandma ifshe decided to look at it, she
would kind of have an idea ofwhat it was all about.
Tom DuFore (24:51):
I did not know that about you.
I know you're the connected guy, right, I know you're connected
and know lots of folks as ago-to, but that just reinforces
when in doubt reach out to Zach,he probably knows somebody.
So I love it.
Well, the final question we askevery guest is what does
success mean to you?
Zack Fishman (25:09):
I think about this question a lot because I think
that as I'm moving and changingin my in, in, in, you know, I'm
really turning a chapter in mylife very, very soon here, as by
by the time this comes out, Iprobably will have done so
already.
But I think that you look atthe world a little bit
differently and I often used tolook at success, you know, when
I was younger, as just making alot of money.
(25:32):
And I think that now I look atsuccess as being able to find
the perfect balance betweenspending time with the people I
love most and being able tosupport them in the way that
they deserve to be supported.
So I think that that answer hasjust changed a ton to me.
I don't really have a lot ofinterest or care all that much
(25:53):
about being first on the list asit relates to hosting the
events I host or being theperson that people know when it
comes to X, Y and Z, aspreviously discussed in the last
question.
The entire reason I do all ofthose things is to make sure
that you know I'm able to buildup the enterprise value for
(26:14):
myself, and I'm able, and thatin turn, if I get to a certain
point, will allow me to be ableto, you know, improve and spend
more time on the relationshipsthat matter most to me, right,
and people in franchising domatter a lot to me, right.
There are people that not onlyare colleagues and not only
people I work with and clients,but they're, you know, lifelong
(26:36):
friends in a lot of ways.
Looked at as another, you know,really, brothers and sisters
that just happened to be born todifferent mothers and mothers
and fathers, right, and I thinkthat that just goes to show how
important franchising is to me,and I don't look at it as black
and white, where I turn off mypersonal brain and I turn on my
professional brain every day.
It's very much.
(26:57):
It's very much, you know,combined.
I have one cell phone with thesame number for every person.
But that's really what successlooks like to me in the long
term is being able to, you know,be a successful person but also
, at the same time, successfulenough that will allow me to be
able to spend the time with myfamily that I want indeed.
Tom DuFore (27:18):
Wonderful.
And as we bring this to a close, Zach, is there anything you
were hoping to share or getacross that you haven't had a
chance to yet?
Zack Fishman (27:24):
I would say nothing in particular.
I think that the one thing thatI didn't talk about quite
enough that would be probablypretty important to discuss is
that I think that the rushtowards the space becoming more
professionalized has forced alot of people to look at what
they do every day and figure outhow they're actually helping to
(27:46):
raise the bar for the brandsthat are in our industry of
franchising.
And I think that PR is notreally the only place where this
is happening.
It's happening and you know itcould be.
You know the types of peoplethat you're hiring.
It could be the types oftechnology you're putting into
place.
It could be anything right.
It could be.
It could be the events thatyou're attending.
(28:06):
There's all sorts of lenses thatyou can put.
You know that you can putthrough this idea of enterprise
value.
So I encourage everybody toreally think through.
You know what they do every day.
Rather, it's if you're a brandand you're looking to build,
find ways to build up yourenterprise value.
Look at the entire picture andnot just at your tech stack, at
the people, but it's about theservice providers that you have
(28:30):
and the places that you spendyour time and things like that.
Like everything should be underthe lens of that in my
perspective, and so that'sreally the.
That's really what the 2020shas been all about is just the
idea of looking to you know.
What I view as happiness formyself personally is what a lot
of people should view theirbusinesses through.
As it relates to a lens is thatyou know how can I make my
business so successful that Ihave the ability to spend all
(28:54):
the time in the world that Icould humanly want you know,
with the people that I careabout most, right?
So I think that matters forbusiness owners and for on a
personal level too.
Tom DuFore (29:04):
Zach, thank you so much for a fantastic interview
and let's go ahead and jump intotoday's three key takeaways.
So takeaway number one is whenZach talked about how PR has
changed and is changing, and Ireally liked how he said digital
marketing and content marketingand PR are all consolidating
(29:26):
into one type of new form ofmarketing and it's creating
strategic relationships,acquisitions and other
opportunities.
So I really liked how he talkedabout this kind of converging
kind of almost like three riversconverging into one where
they're all blending together,converging into one where
they're all blending together.
Takeaway number two is when hetalked about the enterprise
(29:47):
value for an organization andhow you can help support that
through PR, and he said, in theway in which you present
yourself to potential franchisebuyers or potential franchisees,
you're also presenting yourselfin that way to potential
investors or potential suitorsthat might invest in your
(30:07):
franchise company or buy yourfranchise company years down the
line, and so he said that theirfirm does this by highlighting
management teams, communityinvolvement and other avenues he
discussed.
Takeaway number three is whenhe shared his multiplier and I
loved it.
It was so simple and yet soprofound at his multiplier and I
loved it.
(30:27):
It was so simple and yet soprofound.
He talked about that he is alist maker and has lists for
everything in his lifeChecklists, sorting lists,
contact lists.
It sounds great, so, and itsounds like he might be the most
connected guy in franchising,which is a pretty great position
to be in, so he might besomeone to reach out to if you
need a contact.
Now it's time for today'swin-win.
(30:50):
So today's win-win comes fromthe end of the episode when Zach
talked about the rush infranchising to become more quote
, professionalized, unquote, andhe said this is happening
across franchising and this rushto become professionalized is
raising the bar for franchisingin general.
(31:11):
So I think it's just a greatlittle nugget and takeaway,
because it's going to be a winfor you as the franchisor if you
begin professionalizing soonerrather than later.
For example, hiring anorganization like mine, like Big
Sky Franchise Team, to help youprofessionalize your operation
when you get into franchising,instead of trying to quote,
figure it out on your own,unquote, or working with other
(31:35):
professionals in the space tohelp accelerate that
professionalization.
It's not to say that you won'tget there, but working with
other consultants and so on canhelp you get there a little more
quickly.
And so that's the episode today.
Folks, please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review and remember ifyou or anyone you know might be
ready to franchise theirbusiness or take their franchise
(31:56):
company to the next level.
Please connect with us atBigSkyFranchiseTeamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we hopegrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderinghow you are building the
enterprise value of your companyand what types of marketing and
(00:23):
PR are you using to help createthis enterprise value?
Well, our guest today is ZachFishman, and he shares with us
some of the levers to pull tobuild your brand's enterprise
value.
Now, zach has been involved inthe franchise space since he
could walk, literally devotinghis life to understanding all
facets of the industry.
(00:44):
Currently, zach is the ChiefGrowth Officer of Fishman PR,
the world's foremost PR firmspecializing in franchising, and
the franchise elevator, theworld's preeminent emerging
brands PR firm.
In his spare time, zach is alsothe co-founder of the Franchise
Young Conference, which is theonly conference for millennial
and Gen Z franchise executives.
(01:04):
He's the host of ModernBusiness Podcast, an
award-winning podcast focusingon showcasing franchising's most
exciting entrepreneurs, and hispartner and COO of the
Franchise Supplier Network,where he specializes in
matchmaking franchisors whichbest fit suppliers.
Now, zach and I have known oneanother for many years in
(01:24):
franchising, and so I'm sothrilled to be able to share his
knowledge and expertise withyou on this episode.
You're going to love thispodcast interview, so let's go
ahead and jump right into it.
Zack Fishman (01:36):
Hey, tom, thanks for having me on the show.
Really appreciate it.
So my name is Zach Fishman.
I am the, amongst many things,the chief growth officer for
both Fishman PR and FranchiseElevator.
Really excited to be on theshow today.
I'm normally used to doing myown podcast.
Been doing it for a long, longtime.
We're doing a bit of a home andhome, so I'm excited to be on
yours first.
(01:56):
We got a lot to talk abouttoday, so let's get into it, I
suppose.
Tom DuFore (02:01):
That sounds great Well, and really, I think, a big
piece of our conversation.
We're talking pre-show andobviously we've known one
another in franchising for along time.
It's really this idea of PR andunderstanding how to build
value, I guess, fororganizations.
My experience has been with alot of clients, emerging
franchisors and evengrowth-focused franchisors
(02:25):
oftentimes view PR as more of alead generation piece, and
there's so much more to that, soI'd love just to open the
conversation with it there andhave you start filling in some
gaps for us.
Zack Fishman (02:38):
You're giving me a little bit of deja vu because I
feel like that this is aconversation that I have a lot,
but it's an important one.
You know, when I first got intothis business about five and a
half years ago, you know PR wasstarting to make the transition
over from a lead generationactivity into something that's
more education centric.
You know, when the agency thatyou know that my mother founded
(03:00):
in 91 really first got its start, my father, who kind of came in
not long after to really be thefinancial and sales engine of
the agency you know it was leadgen because really it was and
there wasn't really a great wayof tracking it, but that's just
what it was known.
As you know, you would get anarticle somewhere in some
(03:20):
newspaper and somebody wouldcall you right at your corporate
office and that's just how itworked.
You know, and I think that overtime it has just evolved much
more.
The candidate journey hasbecome a lot more complex.
There's more touch points, youknow you hear a lot about.
You know and really like thedawn of digital marketing within
the franchise development space.
You know you heard a lot aboutjust kind of like a new method
(03:43):
of being able to put your nameout there, but there wasn't
really a lot of education andtalk about SEO and what that
really meant for a brand andreally I guess in a more in
layman's terms, it's really, youknow, kind of laying out the
long and illustrious journeythat a franchise prospect can
have and you know the many stopsthat they have along the way.
(04:06):
Rather, that is reading anarticle or listening to a
podcast or seeing an ad or goingto a trade show.
It's just gotten much morecomplex, no matter what type of
brand you are industry or size.
But I think overall that'ssomething that has been an
education piece for me and it'sbeen a lot of time spent on.
(04:27):
My end is really justexplaining to even the most
sophisticated of prospects howPR is looked upon today and how
it's measured.
It's really changed a lot andreally its prominence in the
industry has changed a lot too,just in terms of you know what
it does for a brand, no matterif they're just getting started
and they've never told theirstory before, or if they're a
(04:48):
brand that's been, that's beenowned by three different private
equity firms in the past 10years, right, so it doesn't
really matter, it's just changedfor everybody.
Tom DuFore (04:56):
That's a great point and I'd love for you to talk a
little bit about some of thosemaybe specifics, how things have
changed and what's differentfrom several years back, which
you talked a little bit about,where it was transitioning from
this lead generation idea towhere it is today.
So what are some of those?
Maybe?
Oftentimes marketers right,they're looking for metrics.
(05:18):
So maybe we talk through someof the metrics that maybe have
changed in terms of how yougauge what success might look
like.
Zack Fishman (05:25):
Yeah.
So I think that really in theearly 2000s you saw this massive
rise in online marketing,really quote unquote.
Rather, that was a portal orthat was an ad through Google or
, at the time, aol.
There was a lot of advertisingwith a lot of the print
organizing with a lot of theprint advertising that you were
seeing normally.
(05:46):
They were bringing it onlinelike an entrepreneur in USA
Today that was really the startwas just trying to get people to
be found in more places thanjust the newspaper or on a radio
spot or on a TV, you know, on acommercial or whatever it was.
And I think over time that hasevolved a ton where it's not
(06:06):
just about ad value, which wasoften how a lot of PR was
measured was based off of theyou know the ad value of a hit,
aka you know how valuable thatwas and how much an advertiser
would maybe pay for that.
It's a really old school metricthat is still used a little bit
today.
But now I would say thedifference between digital
(06:27):
marketing and content marketingand PR a lot of that has
collapsed a ton.
You've seen a lot of theindustry consolidate a little
bit.
There's been some acquisitionsbetween my competitors and some
mergers between my competitors,my competitors and in large part
, that is just due to the factthat the industry is kind of
becoming one thing where it'smore important to be an
(06:48):
integrated marketing agency thanto be just, you know, a jacket.
You know to be doing one thingreally well.
We've done that throughpartnerships and not through
actually formal mergers, buteverybody in some semblance has
really done that, and I thinkthat's in large part due to the
fact that it's really hard totrack PR without actually
understanding and owning orbeing in partnership with the
(07:11):
person who is running yourdigital experience, especially
on the franchise developmentside.
It's just, it's a very nuancedworld and it's very, very tough
to do it without it, and so alot of the reporting metrics we
look to are through SEOreporting that a lot of these
digital marketing agencies arespending a lot of time spinning
up for you.
It's about how long you'reactually spending on the website
(07:33):
versus before.
You were actually.
You know working through PR,how you know it could be
anything.
Even you know around, you knoweffectiveness of the ads and
potentially utilizing some ofthe things that we're securing,
you know, for some of ourclients and how often those are
actually being clicked through.
It's about, you know number.
It can be, in some cases,actually all about you know just
(07:57):
deal velocity and the averagedeal length and how long that's
taking and is that decreasing?
Because if your candidate isgoing to be more, is going to be
more.
You know understanding of whatyour brand is all about.
Generally speaking, that meansthat they're spending less time
in the sales process becausethey have more of an
understanding and education asto who you are as a brand.
(08:18):
And I would say, subjectivelyspeaking, it's always, always,
always very helpful to be ableto answer objections as well
with brands and so, if you feellike that people are asking you
less questions in the salesprocess because maybe they're
being answered through PR,that's a really, really helpful
metric to be able to track to,you know, and there are some
(08:40):
things and over the years that alot of people have worked very
hard to you know, bring somequantitative to my industry and
I would say, most importantly,it's really competitive analysis
through the media.
So what they do is you take kindof like a score and you take a
score of what the actualplacement has garnered through
you know, seo reporting andGoogle analytics and all of that
(09:03):
stuff and then you're actuallyattributing a score to that and
they're measuring that score.
You know that combined scorewith your competitors.
So, for instance, if you're apizza concept Marco's Pizza and
you're looking to compareagainst Domino's and Papa John's
and Pizza Hut, then you'retaking a lot of media that you
have that is business centricand you're really comparing that
(09:23):
combined score against them toreally figure out who is
actually owning the medialandscape for that particular
category.
So there's a lot of things thathave advanced a ton, but I'll
say it is still a little bitmurky.
But when you are working withan agency, a we have a couple of
(09:43):
really amazing partners.
You know across all different.
You know investment levels.
You know, I would say, the morethat you're investing to
generally, the more data thatyou have as, as things go.
Tom DuFore (09:55):
Thinking of it from the perspective of there's the
franchisor that kind of has twopieces oftentimes that they're
looking for maybe even three,but one for many, especially for
growth-oriented franchisesystems With new franchisees.
You have your franchisedevelopment or recruitment focus
.
You have the focus of justpromoting the brand at large in
(10:20):
terms of just getting word outabout your company or the
general services that yourfranchise network provides.
And then I think of it from thelocal franchisees perspective.
Your local franchisees arelooking to grow their local
business and their localpresence.
So how does all of that andthere may be other dynamics I'm
not even mentioning here, but Ithink of those big three at
(10:42):
least that pop into my mind howdo you help fit all of that into
what you're describing andtalking about here?
Zack Fishman (10:49):
Yes, I think it really depends on the industry
within franchising that you'rein.
You know the first and foremost, a lot of brands.
Really, the lifeblood of whatthey do is two things it's
making sure your franchisees aresuccessful and it's making sure
that you're growing as a brandright.
You're growing your footprintacross the country or in the
world in some cases, and so it'spartially informed off of that.
(11:10):
And where I always start is thefranchise development side, so
understanding what type ofcandidate they're looking for.
That really informs how theyplay with each other.
So for brands that are lookingfor that multi-unit, multi-brand
operator, more often than nottheir customer is going to be a
very, very, very differentperson than the person that
they're looking to get as acandidate.
(11:31):
And so the consumer side aka onthe local, when a location is
opening, or on an ongoing basison behalf of the franchisees, or
just from a national brandperspective, you're really often
finding in those cases thatthat strategy is quite different
.
You know you are looking to ina lot of ways brands like that
(11:53):
often don't utilize PR quite asmuch or quite as heavy on an
ongoing basis.
It's either A they utilize itvery little, or B they are
utilizing it super heavily witha lot of different campaigns,
and they have a really robustcalendar.
Food and beverage is the bestexample of that.
That you find is that food andbeverage always has something
(12:14):
going on, always has an LTOgoing on.
But you often find that in manyinstances, people who have a
bigger investment level and arelooking for a more sophisticated
franchisee it's either you knowthey have a really
sophisticated department andthey have a really really full
consumer calendar or they donext to nothing at all because
they're really focusing on thegrowth side.
(12:35):
For brands that it's a littlebit more.
You know the candidate isactually your, is actually the
candidate that you would have asa franchisee, is your customer.
It's a lot more.
It's a lot.
I would say it's a lot more ofa gray area.
You're often finding thatbrands are doing that together.
Those are the brands that youknow.
In a lot of ways that's whatFishman PR was built on in many
(12:58):
senses, and same with ouremerging brands agency Franchise
Elevator.
Many of those brands are inpersonal care.
They're reliant ondiscretionary spending.
We're going to see how thosebrands do in the next year-ish
or so, but overall a lot ofthose candidates often end up at
times being their customer, andso you're finding that those
(13:18):
calendars, in terms of what weare putting out there and what
we are thinking through in termsof strategy, and what we're
reaching out to the media oftenblends together a little bit
more, no matter if it's anational or a regional effort.
It's a great question to ask,but I would say the one thing
that is becoming more du jourover the years is that there's
been instances in which it'sbeen really really hard to hire
(13:41):
specialized talent especially,but talent just in general.
So a lot of people are doingalmost employee relations or
employee recruitment, publicrelations as well, and it's
almost looked at as a completelydifferent avenue for them to
really present themselves notonly as a great brand to invest
in as a franchisee, not only agreat brand to invest your
(14:02):
discretionary income into, butit's a great brand to work for
too, and so that's just anotheradded facet that we find.
But overall, I would say itdepends on the actual prospect
itself and what the brand isthinking through and what their
goals are.
Tom DuFore (14:17):
One of the things that I'm curious to get your
opinion on and it's somethingyou brought to my attention
which is this concept ofenterprise value for a business,
an organization and, in ourworld, a franchise organization.
How does what you do and thisbroad concept of PR and
publicity, how does this impactthe value there, the enterprise
(14:38):
value of an organization?
Zack Fishman (14:40):
Yeah, so in much the same way that you're trying
to present yourself in the mostpositive light for a potential
customer or a potentialcandidate, you're doing the same
for investors as well in manycases, and so a lot of the work
that we've been spending a lotof time on and especially in the
past 10 years or so, as thespace has become more
professionalized is just to lookfor ways to be able to create,
(15:03):
you know, positive velocity froman investor standpoint too, and
so there's a couple of waysthat we've done that.
Spotlighting the leadershipteam, that they're folks that
they can actually trust, is areally big piece of what we do.
You know, discussing some ofthe franchisees that have
actually made the brand who theyare is a really big impact, is
a really big thing that we wantto discuss.
You know, really showcasing thetechnological sides of the
(15:26):
brand and discussing how theyare nimble as it relates to
what's happening in the world oftechnology is a really big
piece.
Brands rather, they build theirown or they're buying things
off the shelf spend a lot oftime doing, because private
equity loves the idea of a brandthat has the ability to be
nimble and change on a dime,especially when they're the ones
(15:47):
telling you to do that.
That's a really big deal, and Iwould say the two others have
to do with what's going on inthe world, right?
So you know how pertinent orhow relevant is your brand.
That speaks to the totaladdressable market that a brand
could have.
And you know a lot of investorsare really trying to measure a
brand based off of A you knowhow long can it capture the
(16:08):
fever of the US and B you know,does it even capture it at all
in the first place?
Right?
So they don't really want fad,exposed brands.
They want brands that havestaying power and so being able
to speak to what's happening inthe news and you know the demand
differentiation for a brand isa really big piece of that and
in some ways, a lot of investorsspend a lot of time thinking
(16:29):
through you know how connected abrand is to the community
overall, and so that communityaspect for some investors I'm
not saying all, but some means alot to them.
So showcasing what they do andensuring that they are ingrained
in the local communities asmuch as possible and showcasing
stories behind that that a brandcan do.
Of course, there's certainthings that you can't mention
(16:51):
when it comes to numbers.
But you know, reallyhighlighting, really
highlighting again the successof a brand and the ways that one
can, either through themouthpiece of a franchisee or
whatever it might be, is areally great way for us to
(17:12):
showcase, you know, what a brandcan actually do and that it
would be a good investment for aPE firm or a strategic platform
or a family office to getinvolved in.
Tom DuFore (17:22):
How could someone reach out to you and find out
about what you're doing?
Zack Fishman (17:25):
Yeah.
So there's a couple ways.
I would say the best way isprobably to email me just at
zfish, z-f-i-s-h, atfishmanprcom.
I am really prolificallyposting on LinkedIn, so
definitely feel free to reachout to me there and I'd be happy
to you know, engage with youfurther and, you know, really
through my LinkedIn.
The number one thing that youknow I've been spending a lot of
(17:47):
time on over the years is thatmy business partner and I have a
heavy newsletter that we hadbeen running for quite a while
that has a lot of my musings inthere as well as his in terms of
my outlook, and it's often lotof my musings in there as well
as his in terms of my outlook,and it's often intertwined with
my personal life as well.
You know I'm not really thatgreat at getting out and kind of
doing an elevator pitch,because I find it to be a bit
(18:09):
inauthentic.
So this is a bit of a differentmuscle for me.
But I would say that you know Ireally like to infuse my
personal life as much aspossible into what I do.
You know I live and breathe afamily business every day.
So franchising is my family andfamily is franchising to me,
and they often have quite ablurry line there.
So those are really the placesyou can reach out to learn more
(18:32):
about me and what I do on a dayto day.
Tom DuFore (18:34):
Well, Zach, this is a great time in the show and we
make a transition.
We ask every guest the samefour questions before they go,
and the first question we ask ishave you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from?
Zack Fishman (18:46):
it?
Yeah, definitely job.
I really looked around at mycolleagues and felt like what
their behavior was was somethingthat I, you know, should
obviously adopt.
(19:06):
I was a 22 year old kid.
I didn't really know what Ididn't know.
And I had all this intellectual, I had all this institutional
knowledge on franchising becauseI grew up in it, but I didn't
really know how to be aprofessional, and so what I
teach my people is that there isno reason for you to look
around and just do whateverybody else is doing.
(19:26):
You need to set your own pathand chart your own path and be
your own person and, you know,set a standard for yourself and
not allow others to set it foryou.
You know I have a notoriouslycrazy work ethic, but it wasn't
really always that way.
I was somebody who, you know,was honestly a little bit lazy
in my first job you know, Iwon't lie and I think that that
(19:49):
was partially because I feltlike it was okay, because a lot
of other people around me werethat way.
There was a lot of transitionsin a company and you know I felt
like, you know, this isn't myproblem, this is just the world
kind of telling me that I canjust kind of kick back and, you
know, let things come to me.
But in the reality, you know,and I'm which I would quickly
learn, which I'll get into inyour next question, you know, I,
(20:11):
I learned very quickly that Ineeded to take the world.
I needed to take the world bythe collar and try my best to
put my own imprint on it.
Tom DuFore (20:21):
Well, the next question is the flip side of
that right Taking a look at amake or a highlight you'd like
to share.
Zack Fishman (20:28):
Yeah, so going into that.
I think that in my next gig,which is really where I met you
for the first time, I spent alot of time looking at the
mirror and trying to think ofwhat I really wanted to be when
I grew up.
I was a 24 turning 25 year oldkid when I first got started
with that, with my next role,and I thought to myself I wanted
(20:50):
to find something I was alittle bit more passionate about
.
I think that was A but B.
The biggest thing was is Iwanted to find something that
was going to be hard.
I wanted to build.
I wanted to learn what it waslike to put blood, sweat and
tears into something and toreally see success.
I hadn't really felt like I hadhad success quite yet.
I had closed two deals up untilthat point at my old job, which
(21:12):
was a way, way bigger sales,way larger sales cycle, but it
just didn't feel fulfilling tome, and so I went to the
basically the best way to dothat, which was a technology
that basically had absolutely nocustomers up until that point,
and I for lack of better wordworked my ass off and really
learned how to do customersegmenting, how to actually
(21:35):
speak to somebody on the phoneand in the real way and actually
understand, you know how tosell properly.
I went through a lot of salesschool and with a lot of
franchising's most wonderfulresources there was all these
things.
I put a lot of work into myselfto really understand who I
wanted to be today, and I thinkthat experience, as I like to
say, was my MBA.
You know I didn't get a properMBA, but that was really the way
(21:59):
that I learned you know what Iwanted to be when I grew up,
what type of salesperson I wasgoing to be, what type of
executive I was going to be.
It was really informative forme and was the most wonderful
learning experience, and so youknow that was a major win and
really prepared me to play nicein the sandbox with everybody,
no matter if I'm related to themor not.
Oh, that's great.
(22:34):
Well, let's talk about amultiplier that you've used to
multiply yourself personally,professionally or organizations
you've run.
My fiancee often makes fun ofme that every single time that
somebody in her life is lookingfor something, she just sends
them to me, because I'm alwaysgoing to be prepared to give
somebody my opinion or an answer.
I think that that I would saythat my multiplier is that those
(23:01):
lists allow me to be theultimate connector.
I'm always prepared forwhatever is coming my way,
especially in franchising.
Always prepared for whatever iscoming my way, especially in
franchising.
Rather, it's somebody who'slooking for a job in the
franchise development space butthey only want to be using
brokers as their primary leadgeneration source.
I have it all segmented outbased off of that.
If a private equity firm islooking for a very particular
(23:22):
type of brand and they'relooking to get some subjective
due diligence from somebodyabout the brand and what the
executives are like within avery particular industry call it
infrared sauna I know all fourof the brands that are there are
organized in a littlespreadsheet and I know exactly
who to speak to and I have allthe information on that.
(23:42):
If it's a piece of technologythat somebody's looking for,
like a real estate mappingtechnology, and they want to
know the differences between allof those things, I have it all
very neatly organized.
But all my entire life is reallyaround the idea of being the
most prepared that one humanlycan and I spend a lot of time on
that and it's a lot of updatingand making sure that everything
(24:04):
is organized in the way that isboth digestible to me, but also
I always pretend that what Ihave in terms of my list can be
understood by anybody.
If they have no context indefranchising, they can just
pick it up and they'll knowexactly what it's all about.
So there's no you know,shorthand in there that only I
would understand.
It's all something that anybodycan use, and so that's my
(24:28):
biggest multiplier, I think, isjust really being organized and
having things segmented out asmuch as humanly possible, and
that's the hard part, right,it's very hard to do that in the
moment, but I always take thetime to make sure that
everything is updated andeverything is in tip-top shape.
For even you know my grandma ifshe decided to look at it, she
would kind of have an idea ofwhat it was all about.
Tom DuFore (24:51):
I did not know that about you.
I know you're the connected guy, right, I know you're connected
and know lots of folks as ago-to, but that just reinforces
when in doubt reach out to Zach,he probably knows somebody.
So I love it.
Well, the final question we askevery guest is what does
success mean to you?
Zack Fishman (25:09):
I think about this question a lot because I think
that as I'm moving and changingin my in, in, in, you know, I'm
really turning a chapter in mylife very, very soon here, as by
by the time this comes out, Iprobably will have done so
already.
But I think that you look atthe world a little bit
differently and I often used tolook at success, you know, when
I was younger, as just making alot of money.
(25:32):
And I think that now I look atsuccess as being able to find
the perfect balance betweenspending time with the people I
love most and being able tosupport them in the way that
they deserve to be supported.
So I think that that answer hasjust changed a ton to me.
I don't really have a lot ofinterest or care all that much
(25:53):
about being first on the list asit relates to hosting the
events I host or being theperson that people know when it
comes to X, Y and Z, aspreviously discussed in the last
question.
The entire reason I do all ofthose things is to make sure
that you know I'm able to buildup the enterprise value for
(26:14):
myself, and I'm able, and thatin turn, if I get to a certain
point, will allow me to be ableto, you know, improve and spend
more time on the relationshipsthat matter most to me, right,
and people in franchising domatter a lot to me, right.
There are people that not onlyare colleagues and not only
people I work with and clients,but they're, you know, lifelong
(26:36):
friends in a lot of ways.
Looked at as another, you know,really, brothers and sisters
that just happened to be born todifferent mothers and mothers
and fathers, right, and I thinkthat that just goes to show how
important franchising is to me,and I don't look at it as black
and white, where I turn off mypersonal brain and I turn on my
professional brain every day.
It's very much.
(26:57):
It's very much, you know,combined.
I have one cell phone with thesame number for every person.
But that's really what successlooks like to me in the long
term is being able to, you know,be a successful person but also
, at the same time, successfulenough that will allow me to be
able to spend the time with myfamily that I want indeed.
Tom DuFore (27:18):
Wonderful.
And as we bring this to a close, Zach, is there anything you
were hoping to share or getacross that you haven't had a
chance to yet?
Zack Fishman (27:24):
I would say nothing in particular.
I think that the one thing thatI didn't talk about quite
enough that would be probablypretty important to discuss is
that I think that the rushtowards the space becoming more
professionalized has forced alot of people to look at what
they do every day and figure outhow they're actually helping to
(27:46):
raise the bar for the brandsthat are in our industry of
franchising.
And I think that PR is notreally the only place where this
is happening.
It's happening and you know itcould be.
You know the types of peoplethat you're hiring.
It could be the types oftechnology you're putting into
place.
It could be anything right.
It could be.
It could be the events thatyou're attending.
(28:06):
There's all sorts of lenses thatyou can put.
You know that you can putthrough this idea of enterprise
value.
So I encourage everybody toreally think through.
You know what they do every day.
Rather, it's if you're a brandand you're looking to build,
find ways to build up yourenterprise value.
Look at the entire picture andnot just at your tech stack, at
the people, but it's about theservice providers that you have
(28:30):
and the places that you spendyour time and things like that.
Like everything should be underthe lens of that in my
perspective, and so that'sreally the.
That's really what the 2020shas been all about is just the
idea of looking to you know.
What I view as happiness formyself personally is what a lot
of people should view theirbusinesses through.
As it relates to a lens is thatyou know how can I make my
business so successful that Ihave the ability to spend all
(28:54):
the time in the world that Icould humanly want you know,
with the people that I careabout most, right?
So I think that matters forbusiness owners and for on a
personal level too.
Tom DuFore (29:04):
Zach, thank you so much for a fantastic interview
and let's go ahead and jump intotoday's three key takeaways.
So takeaway number one is whenZach talked about how PR has
changed and is changing, and Ireally liked how he said digital
marketing and content marketingand PR are all consolidating
(29:26):
into one type of new form ofmarketing and it's creating
strategic relationships,acquisitions and other
opportunities.
So I really liked how he talkedabout this kind of converging
kind of almost like three riversconverging into one where
they're all blending together,converging into one where
they're all blending together.
Takeaway number two is when hetalked about the enterprise
(29:47):
value for an organization andhow you can help support that
through PR, and he said, in theway in which you present
yourself to potential franchisebuyers or potential franchisees,
you're also presenting yourselfin that way to potential
investors or potential suitorsthat might invest in your
(30:07):
franchise company or buy yourfranchise company years down the
line, and so he said that theirfirm does this by highlighting
management teams, communityinvolvement and other avenues he
discussed.
Takeaway number three is whenhe shared his multiplier and I
loved it.
It was so simple and yet soprofound at his multiplier and I
loved it.
(30:27):
It was so simple and yet soprofound.
He talked about that he is alist maker and has lists for
everything in his lifeChecklists, sorting lists,
contact lists.
It sounds great, so, and itsounds like he might be the most
connected guy in franchising,which is a pretty great position
to be in, so he might besomeone to reach out to if you
need a contact.
Now it's time for today'swin-win.
(30:50):
So today's win-win comes fromthe end of the episode when Zach
talked about the rush infranchising to become more quote
, professionalized, unquote, andhe said this is happening
across franchising and this rushto become professionalized is
raising the bar for franchisingin general.
(31:11):
So I think it's just a greatlittle nugget and takeaway,
because it's going to be a winfor you as the franchisor if you
begin professionalizing soonerrather than later.
For example, hiring anorganization like mine, like Big
Sky Franchise Team, to help youprofessionalize your operation
when you get into franchising,instead of trying to quote,
figure it out on your own,unquote, or working with other
(31:35):
professionals in the space tohelp accelerate that
professionalization.
It's not to say that you won'tget there, but working with
other consultants and so on canhelp you get there a little more
quickly.
And so that's the episode today.
Folks, please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review and remember ifyou or anyone you know might be
ready to franchise theirbusiness or take their franchise
(31:56):
company to the next level.
Please connect with us atBigSkyFranchiseTeamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
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