July 15, 2025 • 36 mins
Episode Summary:
The Advisory Board Podcast — Featuring Pete First of BrightStar Care
Episode sponsored by ClientTether — big thanks to them for supporting the franchise community.
In this episode, Dave Hansen welcomes Pete First, Chief Development Officer at BrightStar Care, to unpack what it really takes to grow a franchise brand with staying power. With over 25 years in the franchise development world, Pete brings both sharp strategy and a grounded, people-first mindset — two things BrightStar is clearly doing right.
BrightStar stands out in the home care space thanks to a clinical foundation built around registered nurses making care decisions, and a franchise model that prioritizes compassion just as much as profitability. According to Pete, many of their franchisees are drawn to the brand not just for the business opportunity but because of personal experiences with caregiving. That emotional tie-in matters — and they don’t bring in candidates who don’t genuinely care. “Don’t blow your career on one deal,” Pete says, reinforcing that protecting culture starts with who you let in.
Throughout the conversation, Pete and Dave dig into what makes a franchise brand grow the right way — and it’s not a quick-fix formula. It starts with building a brand that’s meaningful and trustworthy, then reinforcing that trust through validation. BrightStar empowers franchisees to vet incoming candidates, keeping cultural alignment tight across the network. And yes — your brand isn’t your logo or your color palette. It’s your people.
Pete also breaks down BrightStar’s approach to marketing and lead nurturing, and it's anything but passive. With a smart mix of targeted pay-per-click, drip campaigns, weekly content, and strategic video — they stay in front of candidates for years. Literally. One owner came back after five years of opening BrightStar emails — and converted. That kind of patience and consistency reflects a team that knows timing is everything.
One of the biggest takeaways from Pete? Long-term growth only works if your operations can support it. BrightStar’s 27-month onboarding program ensures new franchisees don’t just launch — they scale smartly. Weekly coaching, segment-based support teams, and strong communication with franchisees keep things steady even as the system grows.
There’s also a refreshing honesty in how Pete talks about AI’s impact on lead sourcing and content visibility. He acknowledges the landscape is changing fast — search traffic from ChatGPT and other AI platforms is now a meaningful pipeline source — and BrightStar is adjusting accordingly. Video plays a major role too, especially authentic, unscripted content from franchisees themselves.
The bottom line? If you want a franchise brand that lasts, you need heart, hustle, and the infrastructure to support both. BrightStar’s not perfect — no brand is — but they’re doing a lot of things right. And Pete’s transparency makes this episode a must-listen for anyone thinking about franchise growth in 2025 and beyond.
You can reach Pete at pete.first@brightstarcare.com or find him on LinkedIn. And again, huge thanks to ClientTether for sponsoring this episode.
The Advisory Board Podcast — Featuring Pete First of BrightStar Care
Episode sponsored by ClientTether — big thanks to them for supporting the franchise community.
In this episode, Dave Hansen welcomes Pete First, Chief Development Officer at BrightStar Care, to unpack what it really takes to grow a franchise brand with staying power. With over 25 years in the franchise development world, Pete brings both sharp strategy and a grounded, people-first mindset — two things BrightStar is clearly doing right.
BrightStar stands out in the home care space thanks to a clinical foundation built around registered nurses making care decisions, and a franchise model that prioritizes compassion just as much as profitability. According to Pete, many of their franchisees are drawn to the brand not just for the business opportunity but because of personal experiences with caregiving. That emotional tie-in matters — and they don’t bring in candidates who don’t genuinely care. “Don’t blow your career on one deal,” Pete says, reinforcing that protecting culture starts with who you let in.
Throughout the conversation, Pete and Dave dig into what makes a franchise brand grow the right way — and it’s not a quick-fix formula. It starts with building a brand that’s meaningful and trustworthy, then reinforcing that trust through validation. BrightStar empowers franchisees to vet incoming candidates, keeping cultural alignment tight across the network. And yes — your brand isn’t your logo or your color palette. It’s your people.
Pete also breaks down BrightStar’s approach to marketing and lead nurturing, and it's anything but passive. With a smart mix of targeted pay-per-click, drip campaigns, weekly content, and strategic video — they stay in front of candidates for years. Literally. One owner came back after five years of opening BrightStar emails — and converted. That kind of patience and consistency reflects a team that knows timing is everything.
One of the biggest takeaways from Pete? Long-term growth only works if your operations can support it. BrightStar’s 27-month onboarding program ensures new franchisees don’t just launch — they scale smartly. Weekly coaching, segment-based support teams, and strong communication with franchisees keep things steady even as the system grows.
There’s also a refreshing honesty in how Pete talks about AI’s impact on lead sourcing and content visibility. He acknowledges the landscape is changing fast — search traffic from ChatGPT and other AI platforms is now a meaningful pipeline source — and BrightStar is adjusting accordingly. Video plays a major role too, especially authentic, unscripted content from franchisees themselves.
The bottom line? If you want a franchise brand that lasts, you need heart, hustle, and the infrastructure to support both. BrightStar’s not perfect — no brand is — but they’re doing a lot of things right. And Pete’s transparency makes this episode a must-listen for anyone thinking about franchise growth in 2025 and beyond.
You can reach Pete at pete.first@brightstarcare.com or find him on LinkedIn. And again, huge thanks to ClientTether for sponsoring this episode.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guys, I want to welcome you to another episode of
the Advisory Board podcast, where we bring in experts in
the franchise community who can share insights, wisdom, experience to
help you build a memorable and a thriving brand. And
I've got with me Pete first today. And now he's
been around for about twenty five years in the industry,
so a lot of you probably know Pete, especially if
you've been running in circles of franchise development. He's been
(00:22):
doing that his whole career pretty much. And he's the
chief development officer at bright Star Care, which is an
incredible brand. I mean, if you think about it this way.
One thing that makes them a little bit different is
they have our end care own like our ends make
the decisions on care, so they provide the highest level
of care you can. But they also we were joking
about this before, but you know, their franchisees probably sleep
(00:45):
really well at night because they live in their communities.
They take good care of their people, and their whole
role is just to help alleviate strain and give people
dignity and love at the end of life care. So
love what you guys do. Pete. A couple of fun
anecdotes about Pete or he's he grew up in kind
of the Windom system and wind Mark. He's also I
didn't ask you, but are you Twins fans since ripping
(01:07):
Minnesota or who's your team up there?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, yeah, we're Twins fans and we're Minnesota Wild fans.
We have a lot a lot of hockey fans up here.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, I'll bet and Vikings.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And Vikings of course.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, good, yeah, good. Hoping you weren't a Green Bay
fan up there, you might get murdered on this street.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, that's a tough one. Tough one when they cross
that border in the Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, agreed. Hey, So tell me before before we jump
into too the topic. Tell us a little bit more
about you, Pete. Tell us a little bit about bright
Star and what you guys have been doing, and then
we'll jump into our topic guys, which is how do
you create Like what are some some key strategies to
help you create massive growth with your franchise brand this year?
So Pete, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, that's thanks, Dave.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I appreciate being here and looking forward to a great,
great call.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So for me, I've been involved in the franchise development
side since right out of college, so at twenty plus
twenty five plus years. Who knows how many that actually
adds up to be right now, but it's been a while.
So I just love that side of the business. I
love working with entrepreneurs and people that are coming into
the business, and that's really what where I found my
niche and where I just you know, I just tend
(02:12):
to really thrive in that type of environment and you know,
bringing folks in that are looking to make an investment
in their future and then helping them do that.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So I really love that part of the business.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And I've been with bright Start now going on about
seven years, so I have had a good run here
and Bright Star. It's just it's a brand as Dave,
as you mentioned. You know, we're making a difference in
the lives of families, and we make a difference in
the communities that we're in, and from a franchise offering,
there's really a lot for a franchise e to grab
(02:45):
hold of and take advantage of here because there's a
lot of different home care companies out there, but we
go so far beyond that, you know, we can do
the traditional personal care companion care.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
But where we really.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Differentiate is we get into skilled care, so things like
confusions and things that are happening in hospitals that we
can do in the home. We also do medical staffing,
and then we have a really large national accounts platform
that our team internally at the home office works to
develop accounts across the country for our franchisees.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So it's a big differentiator.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
For us, and it's really exciting part of our business
that's really growing and our franchisees are really benefiting from that.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I love it. I love it. And it's a good,
great industry, huge demand of the silver tsunami, right like
all these folks that really need the dignity and the
end of life care, and it's a thriving segment within
franchising specifically, So that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah. All right, so let's talk about this topic. Because
you've seen so much and you guys have had a
great run at Bright Star. I'm glad that you were
able to make some time to share some insights with us.
Tell us a little bit about I mean, one of
the first areas that you mentioned that is critical in
building a rapid success growth engine for a franchise brand
is having a strong brand and really strong validation. Can
(04:00):
you dive into that with this, like how one building
a strong brand? Like a lot of people would say yeah, yeah, yeah, right,
like how do we do that? Right? But how do
you do that?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Like?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
How has bright Star built such a good brand over time?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I think for us, because of the type of business
that we're in, it's been really built on quality and
and focusing on that highest standard of care that we
can provide. So if you're if you're looking at your industry,
how can you provide the highest standard of whatever you're doing?
You know, whether it's depending on what market you happen
to be in, but starting with that as the foundation
(04:35):
where you want to be the absolute best and provide
a level of care that's beyond anything else that's out there.
You know, that's really that's really where it starts. And
to have that mentality and that drive. So that's where
Bright Star when the brand was founded, you know, that's
what that was built on.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
And then what that does.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
For you is that because of that higher standard that
also goes into the franchisees that you're selecting to bring
into the system. You want to have the best people,
and then that in turn goes to them to the
franchise owners, and they're bringing in the best caregivers that
they can are the best employees that they can. So
it really starts with that foundation of you know, core
values that you set and being that higher standard of
(05:16):
in your industry and then growing from there because once
you've got a good foundation like that, now you can
continue to build off of that because you have that
validation process employees, where respective franchisees then can talk to
your owners, they find some real similarities in what they're
doing today with the franchises that you have, and it's
(05:37):
just a great positive way for the brand to grow.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well. Yeah, one thing I love about what you said
brand is one of the first few things you said
included the franchise zoners, right like, it doesn't matter how
good your logo. It's a nice logo, by the way,
on the wall behind you, doesn't matter how good the
logo is. And the colors on the pamphlets and the
web pages, those are all part of brand, right like
how we represent ourselves, how we show up digitally. But
(06:02):
but the thing that's showing up in the local markets
everywhere is your franchise owner, right, that's who's that's who's
representing the brand. You can't get any resonance and magnification
of the value of the brand if the people that
represent the brand aren't the right people. So I'm really
glad you said that because I think that's key in
the segment.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
It really is, because you know, the brand is the
national view, but then all of these franchises and look
franchisees in their locations that's an individual location in that
specific market, and they are the face of the brand
in that market.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So real critical.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, And the franchise or's role is to build the
successful brand and then to protect the brand, right, like
make sure and and who's who's pop quiz for everyone?
Who's the number one person who can protect the brand
better than everybody else? Who's in the best position to
do that? This guy right here, I guess got to
point in the opposite direction, like franchise development. Right, you
(06:58):
guys are the tip of that spear of protecting the
brand by who you bring into the franchise system.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
We need to have like minded people.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And you know, with our business it's financially it's very rewarding,
but one of the first things that we look at
when we're talking with the candidate is what's their motivation.
And what we've found is that I'd say eighty five
to ninety percent of our franchisees have had some experience
with our brand in some way, or maybe not directly
with bright Star, but maybe with home Care.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They've seen it in action.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Maybe with their one of their grandparents, or their their
own parents or another loved one in their family, and
a lot of times what they saw probably wasn't that great,
so they always knew that there was a way to
do this better. And so when we have somebody that
could come in with a business acumen, great at managing teams,
but also has that heart, they have the heart for
this business, it's a home run because that's really what
(07:54):
what we need.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
We need some of that really cares well.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
And so this is a little bit off topic as
a tangent, but I'm curious what happens when you find
somebody in this franchise development process who's financially ready, a
great background, well educated, good at managing people, but they're
kind of a jerk, like they don't really care. They're
in it for the money. Is that a go or
a no go for you guys, Typically.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
It's an no go.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, Core values is a big piece for us. We're
just not we don't want to. Early in my franchise career,
somebody told me, don't don't. Don't blow your career on
one deal, and you know, so, don't bring in a
franchisee that's going to mess up the system just to
get just to get a deal done. And it's the
(08:37):
same way no matter how large your brand is, if
you know, bring in the right people, because you're not
only bringing in somebody that's going to represent that market,
but they'll probably have neighbors and we need to have
them work well together. And one of the things with
our brand in particular, and probably with the most brands,
is the franchisees have a really tight network. You know,
(08:57):
they work well together, they have meetings together, whether it's
you know, statewide or regional, and they are great sounding
boards for each other. So you need to make sure
that that that cultural fit is going to be right
for the brand and for those in the area.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, no, you're you're spot on. I love that. But
this goes back to the point of how do you
build a good brand. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't
happen overnight. But your brand is your people and how
they execute on the strategy. So you talked about validation
just a little bit, but let's go back to it.
So building this good brand, getting the right people, what
impact does that then have on the culture of the
(09:34):
franchise owners and your ability to have strong validation when
you're trying to bring more owners in.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, you know they the franchise is that we have.
They're real good at giving us feedback too. So when
they talk with a perspective owner if they if they
see something or hear something that just doesn't click with them,
they're quick to let us know that, you know, this is.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
What we heard and not sure if this is the
right fit.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So not only are we sort of making that decision
on our end, our franchisees are helping us too as
they talk with prospective owners coming into the system. Validation
is key because every franchise, every franchise that we have today,
was in the same shoes as the one that they're
talking to. They needed to talk to an owner to
get a good idea of what the business was all about.
(10:20):
You know what, Let's get out of the franchise development world.
Let's talk to somebody that's actually operating the business and
get their perspective to make sure that what they're hearing
from the franchise ease and we have them call anybody
they want, you know, they could we give them the
list in the FTD. They can call any owner that
they want to, because we do want them want the
perspective owner to have a good cross sections of a franchise,
(10:41):
the franchisees to talk to all across the country too,
because it's going to get different things. But but you
know that validation piece, it's critical in any brand because
owners want to talk to somebody or franchise ease want
to talk to somebody that's doing it, and we have
as it's an important part of our process us.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yep, No, I agree to that a hundred percent. I
did a lot of validation calls when I was a
franchise owner, and there were many times where I would
I would call the owner, the CEO U of the
brand and say I wouldn't I would move forward like
I actually no joke, had a validation call the guy
once and he was totally hammered at like six thirty
at night, And I was like it is maybe it's
(11:21):
like seven, but I was like, you didn't start ten
minutes ago, bro, Like you've been drinking since what you
clock out? And he's been hit it hard, like and
I was like, look, nice guy, but like if he
on a Tuesday evening, if he's hammered at seven o'clock
at night, like, I don't you want him in your system?
Like what's he going to be? Like if he's at
a networking event with a bunch of schools, you know, like, ah,
I just saw red flags everywhere on that.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
But anyway, Yeah, and then we look at the same way.
It's like, what are you have to kind of envision
Since this person is the face of a brand that's
built around care, how is that going to translate?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, very important?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Agreed? Agreed. Well, so let's let's shift though, talk about organization.
Uh So, so part of the brand is also marketing, right,
So how do you build and organize an effective marketing
plan around growing the brand that has synergy across multiple channels?
Tell me at tellus a little bit about what you
guys have been building and how that helps you to
(12:18):
do this.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, so we have our traditional pay per click programs,
you know, having it. Let's just start with the website
and got to have got have a great website that's interactive,
that and with many calls to action so you can
have the opportunity to talk to somebody so to have
them fill out a form and start that process. As
we've all heard, you know, a lot of the research
(12:41):
is being done before they even actually talk to somebody,
so you know they're doing a lot of especially with
AI and everything else, you can find out so much
about a brand before you even have to talk to
somebody like yourself and franchise development. So we we end
up getting a lot of very educated candidates to come
through because they've done so much research.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
But let's start.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Let's start with the website, having a great website and
then driving people to that website. You know, we have
an organized pay per click program that is very specific
when it comes to markets. So that's the beauty of
pay per click today is that you know, you can
you can target specific markets, you can target parts of cities,
(13:20):
you can really zero in on where you want to grow.
And then being on top of the of the vendor
that is handling that.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Program is really important. To. You know, we're real aggressive.
We want to try new things.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So we're constantly pushing our vendor, who's great, but constantly
pushing them to you know, if you if if you
hear of somebody that's doing something to let us give
that a try to.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
You know, or we'll or we'll try this and you know,
see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
But being open to those changes because with pay per click,
Google changes things all the time, uh, and so making
sure that you're on top of that and making those
changes along with it is key.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So now you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Know, now we've got the pay per click piece of it,
but then today content is key.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I mean, we we have.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You know, we have content that goes out on a
weekly basis from just from franchise development, but then you know,
our consumer side also has content that they're pushing out
and and so there's there's multiple different areas that we're
getting the name.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Bright Star out there.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We do a lot of franchise e features, a lot
of grand opening features. LinkedIn is big for us on that,
so we're we're continuously putting that out. But then what
we do is once we have a blog that we
created and have it on LinkedIn, then that goes back
out to all of our cold leads, you know, so
we're constantly continuing to fill that drip campaign funnel. And
(14:50):
we've had situations where a franchise e has come to us,
they first inquired about the brand five years ago, and
now they're back because they we can go through our
CRM and see how many else they opened, and they
opened one hundred and fifty emails and we just kept
in front of them, and then.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
The timing was better they came in and now they're
on board.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So you know, having those different channels to make sure
that you're staying in front of people.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting and I've seen the statistic
kind of play out across lots of industries that have
consulted in and worked in. But two to three percent
of the addressable market is ready to buy and now right,
but you don't know which two to three percent, And
so I love that you guys. Are you have effective
nurturing campaigns that are ongoing with good valid caught like conversation,
(15:38):
starting value driving information. That's really key. I see people
who send out these chest thumping newsletters that all they
do is say we're the best, We're the best. We're
the best. We're the best, and no one reads that crap.
But if you have somebody opening one hundred and fifty emails,
like you guys are sending out value, value and enticing
content that's getting people to open up, and that's key,
(15:59):
so you can just do it. You also need to
do it right. It sounds like you guys are really
doing the email content very well.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, it's you know, and there's there's key things that
are wayte of you know, we're in healthcare, so that
that's a different animal that also changes all the time too,
so you know, we're able to put out different content
for that. But we also utilize any kind of pr.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
That we get.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So if we're getting if let's say our chief marketing
officer is does an article in home you know, homecare news,
home health News, we'll take that and we'll utilize that
an FD and push that out to our to all
of our all of our leads.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
So anything that we can get that's that's of value
and it's.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Educational like that it and it doesn't really talk about
you know, contacting us again about the franchise.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
It's just here. We just continue to provide them with
more and more content and more and more.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Almost like an educational process all the way through and
then it and then ultimately, you know, they realize and
understand where the value is and how we make this
work for them.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, that's excellent. Well, content is king. It's shifting though,
right eight. It's uh, your content your I'm sure a
lot of the content's going on the web page. You're
developing a lot of on page and also blog content
things like that that are driving local SEO and also
national SEO value. But there's also like the AI search engines.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Now that we've got eight what is AIO they call it.
It's alphabet soup now, but we've got to make sure
that you're writing content that the AIS are going to
recognize and then synthesize quickly and then they can pull
into their results because I betch you. I use Perplexity
to search for things probably fifteen percent of the time
(17:45):
over Google, you know, and Google uses Gemini and their
search engine now, so you're the first thing you see
in every search is the AI summary of whatever you're
looking for. So I know you guys are working on that.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I just want to throw a plug in there so
people understand the landscape is shifting fast in that way
that even consumers, a lot of people use chat, get, perplexity,
cloud whatever to Google, not to Google. I just use
that as a verb to search for things now where
it used to be only be Google, and even Google's
using AI. That's why what a year and a half ago,
everybody's se O N like dipped as it may have
(18:19):
last year actually because all these AI algorithms got rolled
out in Google Search. So now they're not going to
your websites, they're reading the summaries in the browser, which
is kind of different.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
That's a great point because we just had our monthly
overview with our company. Those pay per click on our website,
and we always look at the entrances to see where
they're coming from. And every month the entrances from AI
continued to pop up and they grow. So chat Chat
GPT right now for us is the number one source
(18:51):
or number one lead source from AI. But just in
this last round, I think there were four other AI
or AI platforms that we're sending leads our way. So
it's continuing to grow, and you're right developing the content
that fits that is going to be critical going forward.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, Yeah, even you and I saying this is is
ninety days old, right like people should have been shift
actually probably a year ago, but people didn't really know
what that that was going to change that much a
year ago, I don't think. But we see it now,
so time to adjust, right, always adjust. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
The one thing we that I didn't mention that we
do a lot of too is video. So lots of
video content.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You know, also watch a thirty five second or a
minute and a half video versus read a whole bunch
of content. So we do we do a lot of
things on video. We utilize our franchisees. You know, we
do some high quality that we're just going to roll
out now, you know, real production level type of content
(19:57):
of video content.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But then we also do less formal things.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
With our with our owners, you know, kind of a
mini webinar and Q and A and that really hits
well with perspective candidate perspective franchise.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. It's funny
you say it because I usually preach about video, So
glad you covered that SoundBite for me. But video is king,
it is king, and it's short short form video. Now
it's uh, you know the thirty minute recorded webinar. I mean,
if you want to use that as a friction point
in your sales process to filter out people that aren't
that serious, I mean, go for it, but be cautious
(20:34):
because people's attention spans are three to.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Five, you know, Max, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Awesome, Glad you guys are using video well and tell
us are you infusing that into your email campaigns? Just
using it on the website, using it in social where
you guys plugging video into all that?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, really a lot of it into our into our
drip campaigns, so tons of it there in coorporating it
onto our website. So on one thing with awesome, we
don't do much on Facebook and we just haven't found
that that works for our particular brand. I know it
works really well as a lead generator for others, but
(21:10):
from a social aspect, we're doing most of ours on
LinkedIn and that that's been a good driver for us.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yep, yeah you're saying. I mean, if you ever follow
my feed, you'll see it's almost all video stuff, you know.
I find just a personal anecdote, since we're talking about video,
what I find works the best, what performs the best,
or when I have something that's that's abnormal or maybe
a slightly more personal like Fourth of July post, like
when I show I haven't even put that out yet,
but we do a two hundred foot slipping slide in
(21:38):
the backyard, and all my kids are pretty much adults now,
so all their friends and even you know, the kids
of my friends are coming over. Like, but if you
have like a real value tie in, like a life
lesson about that that ties into business. But you're showing
something like that blending. When I hybridize it, people love that.
They love it personally. So the videos just advice about
(22:01):
that for people listening. If you're going to share videos
about your brand, share videos about from your franchisease talking
about your brand, not the CEO beating a chest in
a boardroom kind of a video like that. That doesn't
work very well anymore. That's like an eighties nineties style video.
But now people want to see real people doing real
things and saying words that are authentic and not scripted.
(22:23):
That's the most powerful video content that I've seen. What's
your opinion on that.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Pete, No, I think I think that's great.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, I think that that anytime that we can have
our franchisees talking and.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Sharing their experiences.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And and it's a testimonial, but it's really not, because
it's just they're they're just talking and being a part
of the being a part of the discussion, and it's
authentic and and that resonates so well with with people
that are considering joining your brand.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, I totally agree. Well, and that's just the truism
across any type of marketing and sales anywhere, right, that
the voice that they want to hear is their voice
coming from someone else that's just like them, from their peer,
so that that story is way more powerful than my
story or your story as we're trying to help people
make a buying decision.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Right, absolutely, So let's talk about a.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Shift because one of the things that that bright Start
does very well as we talk about growth. So these
are good elements to growth, right, proper marketing, have a
good validation, a strong brand. How do you get that
strong brand? But then there's this foundation that has to
be in place if you're going to grow fast. You
need to have a really strong operational component that can
(23:37):
support the growth. Otherwise, well we know what happens. I
won't name any brands but you guys, we all know
four or five brands off the top of our tongue,
top of our head. They're like, they grew too fast,
they blew up, right, So how do you prevent that
by having a strong operational group? What does Bright Star
do tell us about you guys?
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, so we've got kind of it's we've got.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
A sort of a segmented training process once they come
once a new franchise owner comes on board, so we
actually have it like a twenty seven month program of
onboarding for new franchises, so you've got your three months
before you open, and then they're with a specific group
of coaches that only are working with new owners to
(24:16):
help them get develop and grow. So having having that that,
having them get out of the gate strong just helps
with your future growth. So as a new franchise, he's
not talking to so as a candidate that's considering coming in,
they're like, yeah, we've had had our you know, we
were walking hand in hand all the way through until
that two year point.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Then we're ready for our regular coach.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And you know, the business got off the great start,
and so that's that's what we want to hear. But
you've got to have a team that can do that.
So you know, we've been adding as we had you know,
really good growth over the last few years and continuing
into twenty twenty five, and we added to that to
that support team at the front end to make sure
that that all of the new owners coming in had
(24:58):
a real good solid at foundational growth to get their
business out of the gates fast. So, you know, it's
it's just so key. So you know you kind of
think about, well, now, once, how do you support the
system globally when you've got you know, across the country
with your coaches or field operations people.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
But you've got to get them.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Through those first couple of years first to ensure that
they're going to come out of the gates strong. So
we really emphasized that initial training and onboarding piece to
make sure that that was all funned up.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Well, I just want to be sure everybody heard what
you said. The first couple of years. They need the
guidance and the coaching. Now the first couple of months,
and that's most platforms, most programs that I'm aware of,
they have a couple of month launch and training program
and then they go into big regular field coaches let's
touch base once a month. Let's let's touch base casually.
(25:53):
That that's a recipe for flower growth, lower AUV weaker validation.
We bring like, that's kind of the standard playbook enfranchising.
But I didn't realize when I asked this question you
were going to drop something like that on. It was
like twenty seven months of structured training and then then
but they're how often are these guys meeting with their coaches?
(26:14):
Is it weekly?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So weekly, They've got you know, the beauty of everything
is we do it virtually, you know, for the most part.
But but it's a yeah, I mean, it's critical because
there are so many things. If you put that franchisee
out into the system after a few months and now
they're grouped up with others that have been in five years,
ten years, but maybe they land and they probably land
(26:36):
in a region, you know, so that that regional coach
or that regional field person handles.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
That that group.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, they've got franchises in that group that have been
in the system ten years, twenty years, totally different experience
level than somebody that's brand new who's is just experiencing
all this together. So when we have our group of
new owners there. They stay together all the way through
because they're experiencing things at the same time, and the
coaches that we have are specifically addressing them where they're at,
(27:04):
so they're they're not getting trained on something that they're
going to need five years from now. They're going to
train on something that they're going to need next week
or today, or you know, in the next six months.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So it allows them to.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Ramp up at a steady pace where they're getting the
information at the right time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah. Perfect. Well, it's funny how how revolutionary that idea
can be in this space. And I've talked to several
brands about it. In fact, I worked with a brand
who was working through that moment or that transition where
they were like, everybody's got a coach, and then they're like, ooh, nope,
we're only going to have coaches. This coach is excellent
at the first six months the launch getting started. This
(27:42):
coach is the is the expert at six months to
two years, this one's the expert at building like a
business enterprise. So they've got more experience on they can
run and read a P and L better than anybody.
They can coach them on their finances and their metrics,
like those are all different skills then, which means they
usually need to be within different humans. And you know,
(28:04):
emerging brands don't have to worry because everybody's launching, right,
But eventually they have to grow up and add people
and they can read a P and L properly do
business business coaching.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, and the needs of the franchisees change as they
get more mature. So yeah, it's and it's fun to
watch it. You know, it's great because we've got franchises
who've been in the system, you know, with Brice Star
fifteen plus years, and you know they're looking at things
and bringing things to us, and it's it's just fun
when you get to that level where you've got you've
(28:35):
got some really smart, very smart franchise owners that make
it make it great for us too.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, I totally agree. Well, and you said something key,
which is as you're going through this coaching process, you
also have to listen, right. I remind people, Hey, God
gave us two ears one mouth, not just because it
would look weird if we had two mouths, but because
we're supposed to listen more than we talk. And yeah,
I'm glad you guys are doing that. That's the superpower
of brands that really thrive, I've found.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Absolutely, So tell me.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So let's go back for a second. All these things
that you're talking about, this requires an investment, right, an
investment in the operational expenses of the company, which can
hurt the bottom line of the franchise or which means
a lot of franchise ors are like, oh no, like
they're afraid of making the investment. How many people are
on your field coaching? Do you mind sharing? Like? How
(29:23):
many coaches do you guys have? Now?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, I think our corporate team internally is about one
hundred and twenty. I think overall overall, you know, with
all of our departments and then the coaches, I would
say there's ten or twelve at that at this point now,
So it's not huge a huge number. We've we've got,
you know, four hundred and seventeen locations open today. But
(29:47):
they so they do handle regions, but they handle they
handle regions based they handle segments. I shouldn't say, so
you've got your based upon the revenue level that our
franchises are at. They handle that that grew, So it's
sort of I call you explained with your brand that
you just just mentioned that, you know, having different experience
(30:08):
levels for different levels of franchise, that's what that's similar
to the way we're structured to But yeah, you've got
to have you've got to have the team in place
in place to do that so your so your coaches
aren't stretched too far because they they'll need and as
as what we've you've probably seen this too is franchises
get more experienced that they need less support, but but
(30:32):
they still we still stay close obviously because there's so
many things that when the franchise reaches that level that
are exciting that we can work with them and with
others on to get them to that point.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And now we didn't talk about this beforehand, but how
do you guys engage? Do you guys have an f
a C. How do you how do you engage and
solicit insights and guide the franchise community? How do you
do that?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, we we do have an f a C. And
so the that it's a Yeah, it's a great group
of owners from all across the country, so we've got
a good cross section there in different different regions.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
We're also really.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Active with having franchises involved in various committees, and I
think that that's where they can make it more, you know,
a real direct impact. So like with the marketing committee,
we're going to roll out a new marketing campaign, we
have franchises involved with that. Technology is a big part
for us, So we have franchises that are involved with
our Tech committee to help make those decisions because what
(31:34):
they can do is they can bring in things and
needs that we're hearing from the field and bring those
into a smaller group setting where we can really start
to address that.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
So our franchise involvement is very high.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Love it, Yeah, as it should be. As it should
because they know the market better than you do, right
as a franchise or do they have to Yeah? Yeah,
Well the last thing I want to wrap up on
this because we were talking about the a FDR, the
Annual Franchise Development Report, and how it's kind of more
damning than than than than insightful sometimes in the industry. Uh.
(32:09):
But but when we talked about that, you mentioned, no, no,
we in the franchise development process. If you want to
have hypergrowth, you also you've got great marketing, all these things,
but you have to do something unique with the leads
you got to follow up effectively. Do you mind sharing
a little bit about what are you guys doing to
make sure as you guys are generating leads that aren't cheap,
that you and your team make sure that those leads
are get you're getting the most juice out of the squeeze.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, so immediate follow up and speed the lead. That's
a real thing.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
It sounds like a tagline, but it really does matter
because you know, especially depending on where the leads coming from,
they may be getting you know, if it's coming from
a portal, five brands may have gotten it or more.
You know, so being the first person to make contact
with what that lead is important. We're utilizing AI and
texting to make sure that we're getting the immediate response
(32:58):
to the candidate and then ensuring that follow up all
the way along. You know, when you mentioned that that report,
it's just it amazes me how many leads are not
responded to. It just blows my mind, you know, because
that's they've taken the time to request information and have
to have a conversation.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
So it's so.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Much money, so much money burned, right, that's what kills me.
Like the charts right before. They're like, this is how
much money they spend to get a lead, And I'm like, no,
wonder we're spending so much money on leads on average
because you're not freaking calling them, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
It's Yeah, So having having that follow up and then
having we meant we talked about drift campaigns too, so
if somebody is not ready to enter that process, just
having a you know, a consistent follow up that way
as well as that's that's where unders cross.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, and we we always talk internally. I mean I
love that. You're like, he's like preaching my doctor right now,
you speed the lead. Nobody every lead should be being
nurtured at any time, just a certain time, except for
the DNC. So someone's like, don't call me ever, Like
obviously respect all that, right, but but who hasn't told
you that they're not interested or replied, stop to texting
(34:10):
or whatever. Like you should be nurturing them forever until
they say stop or they become part of the fold,
and most of them never do either, right on average. So,
but you're also building goodwill communicating value, like all around
the world with all these different contacts, even if they're
not buying. They might be the one that says, hey,
(34:30):
you know, at a dinner dinner party, you want to
buy a franchise. I've been getting these emails from this
bright Frand group. You might want to look at them.
I think you'd be a good fit there because now
they're educated about culture and value props. I mean, it's nurturing.
The ripple effect of proper nurturing is incredible if you
think about it.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, and it's really easy for them to opt out.
So if they don't opt out, then we're going to
We'll keep We'll keep providing content and information because they're
everything is about timing too, So the time you might
just not have been right at that moment, but two
years from now and now their kids are out of
school and they're ready to really make something happen, and
(35:11):
we want to be there to do that.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Yeah, d or when they're getting into that age, or
they might want to buy a franchise. Mom or dad
might get sick, right and or they need to help
aunt and or uncle, and then all of a sudden,
they've been exposed to the world that your brand's are
part of. It's yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. I talk
to people all the time. I talked to a guy
once who had a guy he'd been nurturing for eleven
years that just called him. He's like, all right, Carl,
(35:33):
I'm ready ready to get started. What should I buy?
And and he's like, whoa you freear who they are?
If people reach out to me like Dave, thanks for
being so patient, and like, I don't know who you are,
Like you hadn't been my CRM. But then I look
at it like, oh no, no, we talked to this event.
I remember who is. But I don't be callous about it.
But nurturing campaigns are effective. They really, especially if they're
value driven, so which I know we talked about before
(35:55):
years certainly.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Are Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Pete, so fantastic. Thanks for sharing all these insights with us.
Great just like a base level understanding of what a
great brand needs to do to continue to drive growth
in twenty twenty five, if somebody wanted to reach out
to you to say, hey, Pete, I loved your concept's
what's a good way for them to find you? Should
they look on LinkedIn? What's the best approach?
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Link link LinkedIn is great? So you can find me
on LinkedIn or directly Pete dot first at Brightstar care
dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, rock on, Pete, thanks again for making time today.
I sure appreciate you sharing those insights
Speaker 3 (36:29):
With us my pleasure, appreciate it in Thanks
Guys, I want to welcome you to another episode of
the Advisory Board podcast, where we bring in experts in
the franchise community who can share insights, wisdom, experience to
help you build a memorable and a thriving brand. And
I've got with me Pete first today. And now he's
been around for about twenty five years in the industry,
so a lot of you probably know Pete, especially if
you've been running in circles of franchise development. He's been
(00:22):
doing that his whole career pretty much. And he's the
chief development officer at bright Star Care, which is an
incredible brand. I mean, if you think about it this way.
One thing that makes them a little bit different is
they have our end care own like our ends make
the decisions on care, so they provide the highest level
of care you can. But they also we were joking
about this before, but you know, their franchisees probably sleep
(00:45):
really well at night because they live in their communities.
They take good care of their people, and their whole
role is just to help alleviate strain and give people
dignity and love at the end of life care. So
love what you guys do. Pete. A couple of fun
anecdotes about Pete or he's he grew up in kind
of the Windom system and wind Mark. He's also I
didn't ask you, but are you Twins fans since ripping
(01:07):
Minnesota or who's your team up there?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, yeah, we're Twins fans and we're Minnesota Wild fans.
We have a lot a lot of hockey fans up here.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, I'll bet and Vikings.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And Vikings of course.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, good, yeah, good. Hoping you weren't a Green Bay
fan up there, you might get murdered on this street.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, that's a tough one. Tough one when they cross
that border in the Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, agreed. Hey, So tell me before before we jump
into too the topic. Tell us a little bit more
about you, Pete. Tell us a little bit about bright
Star and what you guys have been doing, and then
we'll jump into our topic guys, which is how do
you create Like what are some some key strategies to
help you create massive growth with your franchise brand this year?
So Pete, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, that's thanks, Dave.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I appreciate being here and looking forward to a great,
great call.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So for me, I've been involved in the franchise development
side since right out of college, so at twenty plus
twenty five plus years. Who knows how many that actually
adds up to be right now, but it's been a while.
So I just love that side of the business. I
love working with entrepreneurs and people that are coming into
the business, and that's really what where I found my
niche and where I just you know, I just tend
(02:12):
to really thrive in that type of environment and you know,
bringing folks in that are looking to make an investment
in their future and then helping them do that.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So I really love that part of the business.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And I've been with bright Start now going on about
seven years, so I have had a good run here
and Bright Star. It's just it's a brand as Dave,
as you mentioned. You know, we're making a difference in
the lives of families, and we make a difference in
the communities that we're in, and from a franchise offering,
there's really a lot for a franchise e to grab
(02:45):
hold of and take advantage of here because there's a
lot of different home care companies out there, but we
go so far beyond that, you know, we can do
the traditional personal care companion care.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
But where we really.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Differentiate is we get into skilled care, so things like
confusions and things that are happening in hospitals that we
can do in the home. We also do medical staffing,
and then we have a really large national accounts platform
that our team internally at the home office works to
develop accounts across the country for our franchisees.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So it's a big differentiator.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
For us, and it's really exciting part of our business
that's really growing and our franchisees are really benefiting from that.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I love it. I love it. And it's a good,
great industry, huge demand of the silver tsunami, right like
all these folks that really need the dignity and the
end of life care, and it's a thriving segment within
franchising specifically, So that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah. All right, so let's talk about this topic. Because
you've seen so much and you guys have had a
great run at Bright Star. I'm glad that you were
able to make some time to share some insights with us.
Tell us a little bit about I mean, one of
the first areas that you mentioned that is critical in
building a rapid success growth engine for a franchise brand
is having a strong brand and really strong validation. Can
(04:00):
you dive into that with this, like how one building
a strong brand? Like a lot of people would say yeah, yeah, yeah, right,
like how do we do that? Right? But how do
you do that?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Like?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
How has bright Star built such a good brand over time?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I think for us, because of the type of business
that we're in, it's been really built on quality and
and focusing on that highest standard of care that we
can provide. So if you're if you're looking at your industry,
how can you provide the highest standard of whatever you're doing?
You know, whether it's depending on what market you happen
to be in, but starting with that as the foundation
(04:35):
where you want to be the absolute best and provide
a level of care that's beyond anything else that's out there.
You know, that's really that's really where it starts. And
to have that mentality and that drive. So that's where
Bright Star when the brand was founded, you know, that's
what that was built on.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
And then what that does.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
For you is that because of that higher standard that
also goes into the franchisees that you're selecting to bring
into the system. You want to have the best people,
and then that in turn goes to them to the
franchise owners, and they're bringing in the best caregivers that
they can are the best employees that they can. So
it really starts with that foundation of you know, core
values that you set and being that higher standard of
(05:16):
in your industry and then growing from there because once
you've got a good foundation like that, now you can
continue to build off of that because you have that
validation process employees, where respective franchisees then can talk to
your owners, they find some real similarities in what they're
doing today with the franchises that you have, and it's
(05:37):
just a great positive way for the brand to grow.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well. Yeah, one thing I love about what you said
brand is one of the first few things you said
included the franchise zoners, right like, it doesn't matter how
good your logo. It's a nice logo, by the way,
on the wall behind you, doesn't matter how good the
logo is. And the colors on the pamphlets and the
web pages, those are all part of brand, right like
how we represent ourselves, how we show up digitally. But
(06:02):
but the thing that's showing up in the local markets
everywhere is your franchise owner, right, that's who's that's who's
representing the brand. You can't get any resonance and magnification
of the value of the brand if the people that
represent the brand aren't the right people. So I'm really
glad you said that because I think that's key in
the segment.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
It really is, because you know, the brand is the
national view, but then all of these franchises and look
franchisees in their locations that's an individual location in that
specific market, and they are the face of the brand
in that market.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So real critical.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, And the franchise or's role is to build the
successful brand and then to protect the brand, right, like
make sure and and who's who's pop quiz for everyone?
Who's the number one person who can protect the brand
better than everybody else? Who's in the best position to
do that? This guy right here, I guess got to
point in the opposite direction, like franchise development. Right, you
(06:58):
guys are the tip of that spear of protecting the
brand by who you bring into the franchise system.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
We need to have like minded people.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And you know, with our business it's financially it's very rewarding,
but one of the first things that we look at
when we're talking with the candidate is what's their motivation.
And what we've found is that I'd say eighty five
to ninety percent of our franchisees have had some experience
with our brand in some way, or maybe not directly
with bright Star, but maybe with home Care.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They've seen it in action.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Maybe with their one of their grandparents, or their their
own parents or another loved one in their family, and
a lot of times what they saw probably wasn't that great,
so they always knew that there was a way to
do this better. And so when we have somebody that
could come in with a business acumen, great at managing teams,
but also has that heart, they have the heart for
this business, it's a home run because that's really what
(07:54):
what we need.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
We need some of that really cares well.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
And so this is a little bit off topic as
a tangent, but I'm curious what happens when you find
somebody in this franchise development process who's financially ready, a
great background, well educated, good at managing people, but they're
kind of a jerk, like they don't really care. They're
in it for the money. Is that a go or
a no go for you guys, Typically.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
It's an no go.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, Core values is a big piece for us. We're
just not we don't want to. Early in my franchise career,
somebody told me, don't don't. Don't blow your career on
one deal, and you know, so, don't bring in a
franchisee that's going to mess up the system just to
get just to get a deal done. And it's the
(08:37):
same way no matter how large your brand is, if
you know, bring in the right people, because you're not
only bringing in somebody that's going to represent that market,
but they'll probably have neighbors and we need to have
them work well together. And one of the things with
our brand in particular, and probably with the most brands,
is the franchisees have a really tight network. You know,
(08:57):
they work well together, they have meetings together, whether it's
you know, statewide or regional, and they are great sounding
boards for each other. So you need to make sure
that that that cultural fit is going to be right
for the brand and for those in the area.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, no, you're you're spot on. I love that. But
this goes back to the point of how do you
build a good brand. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't
happen overnight. But your brand is your people and how
they execute on the strategy. So you talked about validation
just a little bit, but let's go back to it.
So building this good brand, getting the right people, what
impact does that then have on the culture of the
(09:34):
franchise owners and your ability to have strong validation when
you're trying to bring more owners in.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, you know they the franchise is that we have.
They're real good at giving us feedback too. So when
they talk with a perspective owner if they if they
see something or hear something that just doesn't click with them,
they're quick to let us know that, you know, this is.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
What we heard and not sure if this is the
right fit.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So not only are we sort of making that decision
on our end, our franchisees are helping us too as
they talk with prospective owners coming into the system. Validation
is key because every franchise, every franchise that we have today,
was in the same shoes as the one that they're
talking to. They needed to talk to an owner to
get a good idea of what the business was all about.
(10:20):
You know what, Let's get out of the franchise development world.
Let's talk to somebody that's actually operating the business and
get their perspective to make sure that what they're hearing
from the franchise ease and we have them call anybody
they want, you know, they could we give them the
list in the FTD. They can call any owner that
they want to, because we do want them want the
perspective owner to have a good cross sections of a franchise,
(10:41):
the franchisees to talk to all across the country too,
because it's going to get different things. But but you
know that validation piece, it's critical in any brand because
owners want to talk to somebody or franchise ease want
to talk to somebody that's doing it, and we have
as it's an important part of our process us.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yep, No, I agree to that a hundred percent. I
did a lot of validation calls when I was a
franchise owner, and there were many times where I would
I would call the owner, the CEO U of the
brand and say I wouldn't I would move forward like
I actually no joke, had a validation call the guy
once and he was totally hammered at like six thirty
at night, And I was like it is maybe it's
(11:21):
like seven, but I was like, you didn't start ten
minutes ago, bro, Like you've been drinking since what you
clock out? And he's been hit it hard, like and
I was like, look, nice guy, but like if he
on a Tuesday evening, if he's hammered at seven o'clock
at night, like, I don't you want him in your system?
Like what's he going to be? Like if he's at
a networking event with a bunch of schools, you know, like, ah,
I just saw red flags everywhere on that.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
But anyway, Yeah, and then we look at the same way.
It's like, what are you have to kind of envision
Since this person is the face of a brand that's
built around care, how is that going to translate?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, very important?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Agreed? Agreed. Well, so let's let's shift though, talk about organization.
Uh So, so part of the brand is also marketing, right,
So how do you build and organize an effective marketing
plan around growing the brand that has synergy across multiple channels?
Tell me at tellus a little bit about what you
guys have been building and how that helps you to
(12:18):
do this.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, so we have our traditional pay per click programs,
you know, having it. Let's just start with the website
and got to have got have a great website that's interactive,
that and with many calls to action so you can
have the opportunity to talk to somebody so to have
them fill out a form and start that process. As
we've all heard, you know, a lot of the research
(12:41):
is being done before they even actually talk to somebody,
so you know they're doing a lot of especially with
AI and everything else, you can find out so much
about a brand before you even have to talk to
somebody like yourself and franchise development. So we we end
up getting a lot of very educated candidates to come
through because they've done so much research.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
But let's start.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Let's start with the website, having a great website and
then driving people to that website. You know, we have
an organized pay per click program that is very specific
when it comes to markets. So that's the beauty of
pay per click today is that you know, you can
you can target specific markets, you can target parts of cities,
(13:20):
you can really zero in on where you want to grow.
And then being on top of the of the vendor
that is handling that.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Program is really important. To. You know, we're real aggressive.
We want to try new things.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So we're constantly pushing our vendor, who's great, but constantly
pushing them to you know, if you if if you
hear of somebody that's doing something to let us give
that a try to.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
You know, or we'll or we'll try this and you know,
see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
But being open to those changes because with pay per click,
Google changes things all the time, uh, and so making
sure that you're on top of that and making those
changes along with it is key.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So now you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Know, now we've got the pay per click piece of it,
but then today content is key.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I mean, we we have.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You know, we have content that goes out on a
weekly basis from just from franchise development, but then you know,
our consumer side also has content that they're pushing out
and and so there's there's multiple different areas that we're
getting the name.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Bright Star out there.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We do a lot of franchise e features, a lot
of grand opening features. LinkedIn is big for us on that,
so we're we're continuously putting that out. But then what
we do is once we have a blog that we
created and have it on LinkedIn, then that goes back
out to all of our cold leads, you know, so
we're constantly continuing to fill that drip campaign funnel. And
(14:50):
we've had situations where a franchise e has come to us,
they first inquired about the brand five years ago, and
now they're back because they we can go through our
CRM and see how many else they opened, and they
opened one hundred and fifty emails and we just kept
in front of them, and then.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
The timing was better they came in and now they're
on board.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So you know, having those different channels to make sure
that you're staying in front of people.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting and I've seen the statistic
kind of play out across lots of industries that have
consulted in and worked in. But two to three percent
of the addressable market is ready to buy and now right,
but you don't know which two to three percent, And
so I love that you guys. Are you have effective
nurturing campaigns that are ongoing with good valid caught like conversation,
(15:38):
starting value driving information. That's really key. I see people
who send out these chest thumping newsletters that all they
do is say we're the best, We're the best. We're
the best. We're the best, and no one reads that crap.
But if you have somebody opening one hundred and fifty emails,
like you guys are sending out value, value and enticing
content that's getting people to open up, and that's key,
(15:59):
so you can just do it. You also need to
do it right. It sounds like you guys are really
doing the email content very well.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, it's you know, and there's there's key things that
are wayte of you know, we're in healthcare, so that
that's a different animal that also changes all the time too,
so you know, we're able to put out different content
for that. But we also utilize any kind of pr.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
That we get.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So if we're getting if let's say our chief marketing
officer is does an article in home you know, homecare news,
home health News, we'll take that and we'll utilize that
an FD and push that out to our to all
of our all of our leads.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
So anything that we can get that's that's of value
and it's.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Educational like that it and it doesn't really talk about
you know, contacting us again about the franchise.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
It's just here. We just continue to provide them with
more and more content and more and more.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Almost like an educational process all the way through and
then it and then ultimately, you know, they realize and
understand where the value is and how we make this
work for them.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, that's excellent. Well, content is king. It's shifting though,
right eight. It's uh, your content your I'm sure a
lot of the content's going on the web page. You're
developing a lot of on page and also blog content
things like that that are driving local SEO and also
national SEO value. But there's also like the AI search engines.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Now that we've got eight what is AIO they call it.
It's alphabet soup now, but we've got to make sure
that you're writing content that the AIS are going to
recognize and then synthesize quickly and then they can pull
into their results because I betch you. I use Perplexity
to search for things probably fifteen percent of the time
(17:45):
over Google, you know, and Google uses Gemini and their
search engine now, so you're the first thing you see
in every search is the AI summary of whatever you're
looking for. So I know you guys are working on that.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I just want to throw a plug in there so
people understand the landscape is shifting fast in that way
that even consumers, a lot of people use chat, get, perplexity,
cloud whatever to Google, not to Google. I just use
that as a verb to search for things now where
it used to be only be Google, and even Google's
using AI. That's why what a year and a half ago,
everybody's se O N like dipped as it may have
(18:19):
last year actually because all these AI algorithms got rolled
out in Google Search. So now they're not going to
your websites, they're reading the summaries in the browser, which
is kind of different.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
That's a great point because we just had our monthly
overview with our company. Those pay per click on our website,
and we always look at the entrances to see where
they're coming from. And every month the entrances from AI
continued to pop up and they grow. So chat Chat
GPT right now for us is the number one source
(18:51):
or number one lead source from AI. But just in
this last round, I think there were four other AI
or AI platforms that we're sending leads our way. So
it's continuing to grow, and you're right developing the content
that fits that is going to be critical going forward.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, Yeah, even you and I saying this is is
ninety days old, right like people should have been shift
actually probably a year ago, but people didn't really know
what that that was going to change that much a
year ago, I don't think. But we see it now,
so time to adjust, right, always adjust. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
The one thing we that I didn't mention that we
do a lot of too is video. So lots of
video content.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You know, also watch a thirty five second or a
minute and a half video versus read a whole bunch
of content. So we do we do a lot of
things on video. We utilize our franchisees. You know, we
do some high quality that we're just going to roll
out now, you know, real production level type of content
(19:57):
of video content.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But then we also do less formal things.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
With our with our owners, you know, kind of a
mini webinar and Q and A and that really hits
well with perspective candidate perspective franchise.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. It's funny
you say it because I usually preach about video, So
glad you covered that SoundBite for me. But video is king,
it is king, and it's short short form video. Now
it's uh, you know the thirty minute recorded webinar. I mean,
if you want to use that as a friction point
in your sales process to filter out people that aren't
that serious, I mean, go for it, but be cautious
(20:34):
because people's attention spans are three to.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Five, you know, Max, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Awesome, Glad you guys are using video well and tell
us are you infusing that into your email campaigns? Just
using it on the website, using it in social where
you guys plugging video into all that?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, really a lot of it into our into our
drip campaigns, so tons of it there in coorporating it
onto our website. So on one thing with awesome, we
don't do much on Facebook and we just haven't found
that that works for our particular brand. I know it
works really well as a lead generator for others, but
(21:10):
from a social aspect, we're doing most of ours on
LinkedIn and that that's been a good driver for us.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yep, yeah you're saying. I mean, if you ever follow
my feed, you'll see it's almost all video stuff, you know.
I find just a personal anecdote, since we're talking about video,
what I find works the best, what performs the best,
or when I have something that's that's abnormal or maybe
a slightly more personal like Fourth of July post, like
when I show I haven't even put that out yet,
but we do a two hundred foot slipping slide in
(21:38):
the backyard, and all my kids are pretty much adults now,
so all their friends and even you know, the kids
of my friends are coming over. Like, but if you
have like a real value tie in, like a life
lesson about that that ties into business. But you're showing
something like that blending. When I hybridize it, people love that.
They love it personally. So the videos just advice about
(22:01):
that for people listening. If you're going to share videos
about your brand, share videos about from your franchisease talking
about your brand, not the CEO beating a chest in
a boardroom kind of a video like that. That doesn't
work very well anymore. That's like an eighties nineties style video.
But now people want to see real people doing real
things and saying words that are authentic and not scripted.
(22:23):
That's the most powerful video content that I've seen. What's
your opinion on that.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Pete, No, I think I think that's great.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, I think that that anytime that we can have
our franchisees talking and.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Sharing their experiences.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And and it's a testimonial, but it's really not, because
it's just they're they're just talking and being a part
of the being a part of the discussion, and it's
authentic and and that resonates so well with with people
that are considering joining your brand.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, I totally agree. Well, and that's just the truism
across any type of marketing and sales anywhere, right, that
the voice that they want to hear is their voice
coming from someone else that's just like them, from their peer,
so that that story is way more powerful than my
story or your story as we're trying to help people
make a buying decision.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Right, absolutely, So let's talk about a.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Shift because one of the things that that bright Start
does very well as we talk about growth. So these
are good elements to growth, right, proper marketing, have a
good validation, a strong brand. How do you get that
strong brand? But then there's this foundation that has to
be in place if you're going to grow fast. You
need to have a really strong operational component that can
(23:37):
support the growth. Otherwise, well we know what happens. I
won't name any brands but you guys, we all know
four or five brands off the top of our tongue,
top of our head. They're like, they grew too fast,
they blew up, right, So how do you prevent that
by having a strong operational group? What does Bright Star
do tell us about you guys?
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, so we've got kind of it's we've got.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
A sort of a segmented training process once they come
once a new franchise owner comes on board, so we
actually have it like a twenty seven month program of
onboarding for new franchises, so you've got your three months
before you open, and then they're with a specific group
of coaches that only are working with new owners to
(24:16):
help them get develop and grow. So having having that that,
having them get out of the gate strong just helps
with your future growth. So as a new franchise, he's
not talking to so as a candidate that's considering coming in,
they're like, yeah, we've had had our you know, we
were walking hand in hand all the way through until
that two year point.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Then we're ready for our regular coach.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And you know, the business got off the great start,
and so that's that's what we want to hear. But
you've got to have a team that can do that.
So you know, we've been adding as we had you know,
really good growth over the last few years and continuing
into twenty twenty five, and we added to that to
that support team at the front end to make sure
that that all of the new owners coming in had
(24:58):
a real good solid at foundational growth to get their
business out of the gates fast. So, you know, it's
it's just so key. So you know you kind of
think about, well, now, once, how do you support the
system globally when you've got you know, across the country
with your coaches or field operations people.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
But you've got to get them.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Through those first couple of years first to ensure that
they're going to come out of the gates strong. So
we really emphasized that initial training and onboarding piece to
make sure that that was all funned up.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Well, I just want to be sure everybody heard what
you said. The first couple of years. They need the
guidance and the coaching. Now the first couple of months,
and that's most platforms, most programs that I'm aware of,
they have a couple of month launch and training program
and then they go into big regular field coaches let's
touch base once a month. Let's let's touch base casually.
(25:53):
That that's a recipe for flower growth, lower AUV weaker validation.
We bring like, that's kind of the standard playbook enfranchising.
But I didn't realize when I asked this question you
were going to drop something like that on. It was
like twenty seven months of structured training and then then
but they're how often are these guys meeting with their coaches?
(26:14):
Is it weekly?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So weekly, They've got you know, the beauty of everything
is we do it virtually, you know, for the most part.
But but it's a yeah, I mean, it's critical because
there are so many things. If you put that franchisee
out into the system after a few months and now
they're grouped up with others that have been in five years,
ten years, but maybe they land and they probably land
(26:36):
in a region, you know, so that that regional coach
or that regional field person handles.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
That that group.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, they've got franchises in that group that have been
in the system ten years, twenty years, totally different experience
level than somebody that's brand new who's is just experiencing
all this together. So when we have our group of
new owners there. They stay together all the way through
because they're experiencing things at the same time, and the
coaches that we have are specifically addressing them where they're at,
(27:04):
so they're they're not getting trained on something that they're
going to need five years from now. They're going to
train on something that they're going to need next week
or today, or you know, in the next six months.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So it allows them to.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Ramp up at a steady pace where they're getting the
information at the right time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah. Perfect. Well, it's funny how how revolutionary that idea
can be in this space. And I've talked to several
brands about it. In fact, I worked with a brand
who was working through that moment or that transition where
they were like, everybody's got a coach, and then they're like, ooh, nope,
we're only going to have coaches. This coach is excellent
at the first six months the launch getting started. This
(27:42):
coach is the is the expert at six months to
two years, this one's the expert at building like a
business enterprise. So they've got more experience on they can
run and read a P and L better than anybody.
They can coach them on their finances and their metrics,
like those are all different skills then, which means they
usually need to be within different humans. And you know,
(28:04):
emerging brands don't have to worry because everybody's launching, right,
But eventually they have to grow up and add people
and they can read a P and L properly do
business business coaching.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, and the needs of the franchisees change as they
get more mature. So yeah, it's and it's fun to
watch it. You know, it's great because we've got franchises
who've been in the system, you know, with Brice Star
fifteen plus years, and you know they're looking at things
and bringing things to us, and it's it's just fun
when you get to that level where you've got you've
(28:35):
got some really smart, very smart franchise owners that make
it make it great for us too.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, I totally agree. Well, and you said something key,
which is as you're going through this coaching process, you
also have to listen, right. I remind people, Hey, God
gave us two ears one mouth, not just because it
would look weird if we had two mouths, but because
we're supposed to listen more than we talk. And yeah,
I'm glad you guys are doing that. That's the superpower
of brands that really thrive, I've found.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Absolutely, So tell me.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So let's go back for a second. All these things
that you're talking about, this requires an investment, right, an
investment in the operational expenses of the company, which can
hurt the bottom line of the franchise or which means
a lot of franchise ors are like, oh no, like
they're afraid of making the investment. How many people are
on your field coaching? Do you mind sharing? Like? How
(29:23):
many coaches do you guys have? Now?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, I think our corporate team internally is about one
hundred and twenty. I think overall overall, you know, with
all of our departments and then the coaches, I would
say there's ten or twelve at that at this point now,
So it's not huge a huge number. We've we've got,
you know, four hundred and seventeen locations open today. But
(29:47):
they so they do handle regions, but they handle they
handle regions based they handle segments. I shouldn't say, so
you've got your based upon the revenue level that our
franchises are at. They handle that that grew, So it's
sort of I call you explained with your brand that
you just just mentioned that, you know, having different experience
(30:08):
levels for different levels of franchise, that's what that's similar
to the way we're structured to But yeah, you've got
to have you've got to have the team in place
in place to do that so your so your coaches
aren't stretched too far because they they'll need and as
as what we've you've probably seen this too is franchises
get more experienced that they need less support, but but
(30:32):
they still we still stay close obviously because there's so
many things that when the franchise reaches that level that
are exciting that we can work with them and with
others on to get them to that point.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And now we didn't talk about this beforehand, but how
do you guys engage? Do you guys have an f
a C. How do you how do you engage and
solicit insights and guide the franchise community? How do you
do that?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, we we do have an f a C. And
so the that it's a Yeah, it's a great group
of owners from all across the country, so we've got
a good cross section there in different different regions.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
We're also really.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Active with having franchises involved in various committees, and I
think that that's where they can make it more, you know,
a real direct impact. So like with the marketing committee,
we're going to roll out a new marketing campaign, we
have franchises involved with that. Technology is a big part
for us, So we have franchises that are involved with
our Tech committee to help make those decisions because what
(31:34):
they can do is they can bring in things and
needs that we're hearing from the field and bring those
into a smaller group setting where we can really start
to address that.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
So our franchise involvement is very high.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Love it, Yeah, as it should be. As it should
because they know the market better than you do, right
as a franchise or do they have to Yeah? Yeah,
Well the last thing I want to wrap up on
this because we were talking about the a FDR, the
Annual Franchise Development Report, and how it's kind of more
damning than than than than insightful sometimes in the industry. Uh.
(32:09):
But but when we talked about that, you mentioned, no, no,
we in the franchise development process. If you want to
have hypergrowth, you also you've got great marketing, all these things,
but you have to do something unique with the leads
you got to follow up effectively. Do you mind sharing
a little bit about what are you guys doing to
make sure as you guys are generating leads that aren't cheap,
that you and your team make sure that those leads
are get you're getting the most juice out of the squeeze.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, so immediate follow up and speed the lead. That's
a real thing.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
It sounds like a tagline, but it really does matter
because you know, especially depending on where the leads coming from,
they may be getting you know, if it's coming from
a portal, five brands may have gotten it or more.
You know, so being the first person to make contact
with what that lead is important. We're utilizing AI and
texting to make sure that we're getting the immediate response
(32:58):
to the candidate and then ensuring that follow up all
the way along. You know, when you mentioned that that report,
it's just it amazes me how many leads are not
responded to. It just blows my mind, you know, because
that's they've taken the time to request information and have
to have a conversation.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
So it's so.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Much money, so much money burned, right, that's what kills me.
Like the charts right before. They're like, this is how
much money they spend to get a lead, And I'm like, no,
wonder we're spending so much money on leads on average
because you're not freaking calling them, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
It's Yeah, So having having that follow up and then
having we meant we talked about drift campaigns too, so
if somebody is not ready to enter that process, just
having a you know, a consistent follow up that way
as well as that's that's where unders cross.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, and we we always talk internally. I mean I
love that. You're like, he's like preaching my doctor right now,
you speed the lead. Nobody every lead should be being
nurtured at any time, just a certain time, except for
the DNC. So someone's like, don't call me ever, Like
obviously respect all that, right, but but who hasn't told
you that they're not interested or replied, stop to texting
(34:10):
or whatever. Like you should be nurturing them forever until
they say stop or they become part of the fold,
and most of them never do either, right on average. So,
but you're also building goodwill communicating value, like all around
the world with all these different contacts, even if they're
not buying. They might be the one that says, hey,
(34:30):
you know, at a dinner dinner party, you want to
buy a franchise. I've been getting these emails from this
bright Frand group. You might want to look at them.
I think you'd be a good fit there because now
they're educated about culture and value props. I mean, it's nurturing.
The ripple effect of proper nurturing is incredible if you
think about it.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, and it's really easy for them to opt out.
So if they don't opt out, then we're going to
We'll keep We'll keep providing content and information because they're
everything is about timing too, So the time you might
just not have been right at that moment, but two
years from now and now their kids are out of
school and they're ready to really make something happen, and
(35:11):
we want to be there to do that.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Yeah, d or when they're getting into that age, or
they might want to buy a franchise. Mom or dad
might get sick, right and or they need to help
aunt and or uncle, and then all of a sudden,
they've been exposed to the world that your brand's are
part of. It's yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. I talk
to people all the time. I talked to a guy
once who had a guy he'd been nurturing for eleven
years that just called him. He's like, all right, Carl,
(35:33):
I'm ready ready to get started. What should I buy?
And and he's like, whoa you freear who they are?
If people reach out to me like Dave, thanks for
being so patient, and like, I don't know who you are,
Like you hadn't been my CRM. But then I look
at it like, oh no, no, we talked to this event.
I remember who is. But I don't be callous about it.
But nurturing campaigns are effective. They really, especially if they're
value driven, so which I know we talked about before
(35:55):
years certainly.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Are Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Pete, so fantastic. Thanks for sharing all these insights with us.
Great just like a base level understanding of what a
great brand needs to do to continue to drive growth
in twenty twenty five, if somebody wanted to reach out
to you to say, hey, Pete, I loved your concept's
what's a good way for them to find you? Should
they look on LinkedIn? What's the best approach?
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Link link LinkedIn is great? So you can find me
on LinkedIn or directly Pete dot first at Brightstar care
dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, rock on, Pete, thanks again for making time today.
I sure appreciate you sharing those insights
Speaker 3 (36:29):
With us my pleasure, appreciate it in Thanks
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