Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guys, I want to welcome to another episode of the
Franchise Advisory Board, where we bring in experts across the
industry to share actionable insights that can help you build
a memorable and thriving brand. And I've got with me
today Michael Morehouse. If you haven't met him before, he's
a pretty awesome guy. Like I've chat with him a
couple of times, but I'm grateful we got him today.
He's the president of Mosquito Shield, which is America's proven
(00:22):
leader in mosquito and tick control. They've been in business
for a long time, since two thousand and eight, he's
been well, actually I don't know how long they've been on.
You've been with Mosquito Shild since two thousand and eight.
How long has Mosquito Shild been around?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, so started in two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Oh wow, twenty four year old company. That's especially in
that industry, that's old. Like you guys are the ogs
probably aren't you any time?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Love that, But you guys didn't start. You guys didn't
start franchising until twenty thirteen. That's still you know, a
twelve year run of franchising built it to four hundred
units or four hundred territories, four hundred territories, right man,
good run, and twenty twenty two, they got acquired by
the five Star Franchising team, So you guys probably know
who they are. And let me tell you just a
(01:05):
little bit more about Michael. I want him to tell
us more about them and the brand, and we'll jump
into our topic today, which is about how do we
refocus franchise owner mindset into a growth mindset. It's a
tricky topic with Michael's got some great insights. But before
we do that, Michael's also a dad. It's got five
kids and loves voting and golfing. Those are kind of
his happy places. Michael, tell us little bit more about you,
(01:27):
tell us about the Mosquito Shield, and then we'll jump
right in. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So surprisingly to me anyway, that this is my seventeenth
season with Mosquito Shield, and I think the surprising part, Dave,
thanks for having me on first and foremost. I think
the surprise part for.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Me is the.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Excitement that I had heading into this year. You know,
it felt like the beginning, and it felt like it
just it did not feel like seventeen years of doing this,
So I think that is an important point to make
about the passion I have for the brand, obviously. But yeah,
So I started in two thousand and eight and the
founder was a franchise e in lawncare. So I started
(02:04):
by helping him on his lawncair business. That was during
the crash in Oaito nine and air was suffering. But
what we saw was this little mosquito business out of
Massachusetts was growing during that period, and when we thought back,
he launched it in two thousand and one, we saw
growth after nine to eleven, we saw growth through O
Wait oh nine, and then in twenty eleven he pulled
(02:24):
me aside and said, you know, great job on the lawncaer.
I'd like you to start considering growing this and turning
it into a franchise. It took us about eighteen months
to get all that stuff together. Didn't really know what
we were doing, and pulled it all together and launched
a Mosquito Shield Franchise Corp. In twenty thirteen, and then
I just started going around hanging my shingle at franchise
(02:45):
and business expos and sort of fast forward to today,
and you know, we went from zero to one hundred
plus owners and four hundred plus territories.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Wow, that's insane. That's fast. That's good growth man. And
one of the things it's interesting about the business you
said seasons, not years, right, because it's like past control
or mosquito abatement or a lot of things. It's it's
truly a seasonal business when people are in their yards.
Tell me a little bit about as we shift into
the topic now, like, because of that, I think you
(03:16):
guys kind of accentuates the mindset challenges that often exist
in franchising. Tell us a little bit about that, like,
what are what are some of the ways that you've
been leading this brand or helping to lead the brand
for so many years, You've experienced a lot of franchise
owner ups and downs. What have you observed there, Like
how how do they shift? How do they lose that fire,
fire and spark, because at first three to six months,
(03:38):
everybody's on fire, right, but it fades and it changes
in the ebbs and flows. Tell us what you've observed
there that there's.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
A lot of challenges there, David. It's a great question,
and it's an interesting topic because home services in general,
a lot of them are subject to weather and then
to seasonality, right, and we certainly are no different. So
people get into this business for that benefit, right, what
they call the off season and when things slow down.
And I think what we had to do as a
as a company and as a shift I drove about
(04:05):
eighteen months ago was really getting rid of that off
season mentality. So now we're peaking non peak, so we
don't talk about being off at all. Sure, things slow
down and it gives you time to recharge your batteries,
but we really want owners being really mindful of what
happens during you know, say October to March, like you've
got to recap how your season went, what worked and
(04:27):
what didn't, and where were the winds, what can we
do better? And then you know, typically we have an
owner's convention every January, so you gear up for that
and then before you know it springs here and it's
you alluded to it. What we call it three hundred
miles an hour once April hits. And I think the
misconception for a lot of people within, you know, looking
into this industry is that even further down south, there
(04:48):
is still seasonality to it. So it is just and
that mindset shift can't change overnight. Right, you can't take
one hundred owners and have them start thinking differently about
how they're going to run their business, right.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, well and tell tell me about that. So obviously
you guys went through a process, as you identified first,
how did you realize this is a mindset issue. It's
not a systems issue, it's not a tech issue, it's
not a marketing issue. How did you realize this was
truly a mindset issue you needed to tackle?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, I think coming out of twenty twenty three, and
we started looking at our entire roster of owners, and
we looked at, you know, who was really performing, who
was underperforming and why, And we started digging into more
of the why and realizing it was that it was
that group of owners that had that off season mentality,
(05:39):
and we realized that that's where we had to start, right.
So in order to do that, we had to get
our own team aligned, and then we had to build
our team out. Because to be able to be able
to drive a system wid change like that, a real
shift and narrative and mindset, you need you need the
resources to be able to do it. So, I mean,
just Dave in the last twelve well, I guess it's
(06:01):
fourteen months now. We've hired three full time FBCS franchise
business coaches. Oh wow, we've hired a full time launch coach.
So we've got four coaches that are literally with owners,
sometimes on a daily basis, definitely on a weekly basis.
And that's where it was from within, right, So we
(06:21):
aligned everybody internally on our team. We built our team out,
We gave them the tools and resources to be able
to drive value for our owners. And then at the
same time, you know, it's a little bit of that
tough love relationship enfranchising, right, because you know, I tell
everybody the most important thing about Mosquito Shield's history is
that we have one We've been doing this for twenty
plus years, and that's like really important. I want you,
(06:44):
Dave opening up in your market as an independent owner
and operator, but I don't want it being day one
for you. I want this to be year twenty three
for you. Right, you should be embracing all that stuff.
So a lot of that type of stuff was really
held inside our meeting rooms and building it out internally
with the team, get buy in from them, get the
belief from them, and then they could go to the
(07:05):
owners and really have impact and hold them accountable for
this this shift, and it's it's definitely worked where we're
seeing a huge owner adoption. So not just with the
mentality of getting rid of the off season type of
narrative and switching it to to non peak, and but
(07:27):
just even an adopt adoption of programs and initiatives and
things that we roll out. We've just got much better
owner engagement and owner buy in than we ever have.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And you said you kind of walked through a processor.
I want to go back. I want to I want
to have our team, those who are listening in kind
of q in on this particular part of what you've said.
You said, the first thing you had to do was
get everyone aligned in the headquarters office, and then you
had to get everyone to buy in. Now those two
things might they might seem synonymous, right, but but why
(08:02):
do you see that as being different? How did you
get everyone to kind of see it and understand lying
around the fact that there was a mindset issue. But
then how did you get them all to buy into
the fact that the headquarters team that this was actually
a real root cause of a lot of the issues
you were deal with.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, so it's the same. Ultimately, David was the same
information I needed them to bring to the owners, right,
So if I wasn't able to give it to them,
how are they going to bring that to the owners.
And it goes back to a thing I one of
the very first jobs I ever had on the wall
was you know, tell me and I'll forget. Show me,
I may remember, Involve me, I'll understand. So without that
part of it, right, So tell me and I'm gonna
(08:37):
forget it, you know, show me maybe, but involve me
and then I'll own it. So we had to show
our team what we were seeing, right, the data, you know,
the data drives decisions and the details are in the data.
And if we could show that to them and there
they have that aha moment, then they can deliver that
to the owners and they can say, hey, David, like
you are, here's the benefit that's going to come from
(09:02):
you and I taking this journey together.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So it was really with them, And that's the power
and beauty of having a great team of fbcs like
they uh they really build uh trust and credibility with
the owners that are on their roster and that they're
working with, and they become a real uh an incredible,
incredibly valuable resource for them.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So that's how it was.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Really just teaching and showing and guiding the fbcs to
see the why, so then they could bring that to
the owner base.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And it sounds like the why A lot of this
all came from good data. Like you guys use data
to drive to I use data to help the fbcs
understand how how could they see what the issue was?
And then what was the impact of maybe this mindset challenge?
Was you see cliffs and data issues that what were
there any particular metrics you guys used that were clear
(09:56):
clear indicators of this kind of mindset challenge or what
what was stood out in the data to you guys?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, I mean for us, it's pretty straightforward. It's just
customer acquisition. If a location is growing at the rate
they should be in the market share, that's it's really
easy to measure. We don't have a ton of moving
parts to this business. And the other big piece we
have a model day that is really built on amazing results,
(10:22):
so that leads to high retention rates. Eighty five percent
of your customers come back every year. Wow, and then
they refer at a really high rate. So that engine,
those engines start to kick in, the retention rate engine,
the referral engine. So over time, at different thresholds of
how long you've been in the business, you should be
at certain numbers that we can track. And so it's
(10:42):
an easy report card to look at an owner and say, hey,
you're in your third season and you know something's wrong, right,
you're only at a seventy two percent retention rate. Everyone
else is at eighty five. So we can look at
some of those things. And again, having twenty plus years
of this data drives decisions. I mean, it's as simple
as that.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, when you're talking about now normative data, right, So
the beauty of franchise and here's where well, not the
only this is one of the things about franchising that
just makes it a standout in the business world. Do
you know how much money people spend to try to
get the normative data of their industry to find out
how well are other mosquito abatement programs doing how much?
(11:22):
How well are like there's not data out there, and
if it is, it's like twenty five thousand dollars a
year to try to buy industry data. Were enfranchising. You
guys are sitting on it. You've got it and you
can use it to coach. And you were just talking
about variances, right, So you guys have a program where
you can look at the data. You can see variances
of retention rate, renewal rates, customer acquisition rates, and you
(11:44):
can now coach the franchise owners on normative data of
their peers in region. How do you guys do that?
Do you do a time time in system and regionalize
it or how do you guys make sure that that's
a fair representation in the normalized data.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
It's regionalized and then use we use systemized data around
year zero, year one, two and three. You know, we
have to have a year zero in this business because
of the seasonality. Like someone buys right now, they might
get opened by August and then they're only open for
two months.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah you're done.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, right, so that's sort of your year zero. You'll
get until the next August of year zero and then
you're going into your first year. So we normalize it
that way so it's a level playing field. And then
again having the bandwidth of of that many FBC's that
we can now touch every owner much quicker than we
ever could in the past. So when we start to
see somebody going off the rails a little bit, we're
(12:36):
in a position as a company to dial them in
and course correct far quicker than we ever were as
a brand, and certainly from what I can tell, far
quicker than what you know, a lot of a lot
of brands that don't have the bench size that we
do as far as team players, and that makes a
big difference. And you know, I'll admit it, Like the
these are things that we've grown into. Like three years ago,
(12:57):
we were not nearly as strong as we are now.
Like I think we're like we're class leading when it
comes to training and support and ongoing support.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, no, I don't doubt that at all. I mean,
you're investing. So this is the challenge of I think
a lot of smaller brands face, which is they don't
have the budget to go ahead and get these resources,
but they really need them early in this phase. Right,
If you don't have enough people to do the coaching,
and you don't have fbcs that are trained on the data,
they really can't go out there and make the impact
(13:29):
that you guys have on your franchise owners as they're
trying to operate and grow and scale.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, I mean the emerging space is tough, and I
think back and I think we were really fortunate because
in the early days, I was really discerning on who
came in as owners, and thankfully that there are stakeholders.
The first ten owners in our franchise system. Seven out
of the first ten going back to twenty thirteen are
(13:58):
still in the system to have exited, like really wonderful exits.
So that's nine out of the original ten are still
essentially operating locations and they went through all the terrible
growing pains and they helped us shape Mosquito Shield into
what it is today. But emerging brands, yeah, like we
didn't have the resources back then that we have now.
And we're blessed to be under the platform of five
(14:18):
Star Franchising because one the founders are just powerhouses and
franchising Scott Abbott, Chad Jones and the shared service resources
that they provide and having other brands underneath the platform
that I can pick up the phone and call any
one of the other brand presidents at any point and
just lean on them is so that's another layer that
(14:44):
Mosquito Shield has since twenty twenty two when we were
acquired by five Star is I wouldn't have been able
to build this team that I have when I've had
the resources to do it.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, and you need resources. The brands that I know
that have grown very quickly even through the emerging phase,
they raised capital or had cash on hand, and they
invested in those resources before they needed them. And there's
so I feel like it's not like this is a secret,
Like we talked about this a lot in the industry,
and yet they wanted to just re emphasize it for
everyone that as you're growing, doesn't matter the stage you're in,
(15:16):
you have to almost buy the resource before you need
the resource. Reuti, you'll never get to the point where
the hit you're helping your franchise owners hit a real stride.
But how did you guys know, Like, so you added
three people as a heavy investment in op X, How
did you guys know that that's how many people you needed?
Have you guys built kind of a formula around that
or kind of a gun chat.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Some industry data around you know, thirty to forty owners
per FBC is sort of like and what we did
was I sold the idea that we should go deeper,
and so we wanted to be about twenty owners per
coach and not closer to forty. So I wanted to
(15:57):
cut that number in half. I wanted to have more. Again,
We'll go back to seasonality for a minute, Dave like,
we have a short amount of time to make a
change and have impact for this year. And for a
lot of parkers that are starting out, they're in year
one or two, this year is everything to them. So
if they're getting a call once every six weeks because
I only have two full time fbcs and not four enough, no,
(16:21):
So so that was really where And then the other
thing was we realized we've got some very long standing
legacy owners that have different pain points and needs then
somebody new, and that's why we brought in the launch coach.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
The launch coach is working exclusively with brand new owners
for the first twelve months. They don't leave the nest
for the first twelve months, and it's weekly, sometimes daily
phone calls with our brand new owners. It's a completely
different set of things that they need to know and
that they're working on right and then they make sure
out of that and then they're on with their full
(16:56):
time FBC.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
That's perfect. I've met with a couple of brand owners
or brand presidents or founders that have really got that
figured out. And I'm glad you went there because it's
something I wanted to ask you about. So you're stratifying
your fbcs according to skill sets and according to like
tenure and needs within the franchise owner journey. It sounds like,
(17:18):
so launch coach perfect. Do you have that same sort
of specialization as people get into those you know, let's
say they've renewed now they've been here for ten years,
those guys are looking at building empires or maybe even
transitioning ownership for their next generation. Have you, guys, how
long have you guys tried to stratify the specialization across fbcs? Now?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yes, So what we did was with those owners, which
are really they're an exclusive group, right, they've been there, stakeholders,
They've grown amazing, really meaningful businesses. So I off backstage,
we talked about, like I brought in a VP of
OPS that has just been amazing, and he's the one
that's brought in these FBC's and he's got twenty years
(17:59):
of of coaching and he's taken the he's taken that
top quartile. So he's a he's a he's our VP
of ops at the brand, but he's also he's working
exclusively with those top performers. And then and then he's
got you know, the two other FBC's and the launch
coach underneath him. So that's how that's how we addressed
(18:21):
because being around as long as we have been franchising
since twenty thirteen and still having some of our original
owners here that are doing you know that they've got
thousands of customers, we still want them to grow right
and they still have a path yea too, but they
still need the same level excuse me, of being held
accountable as everybody else. In fact, in a lot of instances, Dave,
(18:43):
they they've gotten set in their ways. They say, oh,
I used to do that. It doesn't work anymore. To
shift their mindset has you know, takes somebody skilled, like
like my VP that is handling them. And I think
that's what's led to just an amazing year that we're
having in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
That's a real challenge for especially for aged franchise owners
that have done well. They often kind of plateau and
then they're content like fighting contentment and it's a challenge, right,
because we should strive for contentment and what we do.
But in business like, it doesn't do a franchise owner
any good if his number is platony backslides when he
(19:23):
then says, hey, I want to plan for an exit.
Now he's put himself in a pickle because he was
content but more complacent than content, right, and complacency really
messes up a lot of franchise owners' success when it
comes to exiting.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
They're franchise, well, it does, it can almost add. It
could add as long as two or three years to
that exit if you've done that, because you certainly want
to get the most reward and the most ROI on
the blood, sweat and tears that you put into the business.
And just in the past, just in the past twelve months,
we've seen what that can be. We've had some of
our oldest owners have these really meaningful, life changing exits.
(19:58):
The biggest It is so rewarding to be a part
of it and to see it happen and to remember,
like the very first phone call I had with them
eleven and twelve years ago, to the one congratulating them on,
you know, walking off into the sunset. But if you
become complacent, and I think that's a much better word
than content, You're right. I think if you become complacent,
you're not going to get that exit that you deserve,
(20:20):
because you know, anyone looking at that business is going
to say, well, wait a minute, what's happened over the
last couple of years, Like this business is stagnant or so.
I think it's again the ability for us to be
able to have these important conversations. Sometimes it's tough love
that you're having with owners, but to be able to
have it back by data, backed by experience and set
(20:42):
them on the right path has made all the difference.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, I'm with you. Well, let's I think it comes
down to trust though, as we're like the franchise owners,
they have to feel like you're somebody they can trust
that's going to help them grow their business. And I
think sometimes that's why in some systems franchise owners that
are more mature sometimes they build kind of a natural
distrust where they feel like I know better than you.
What can you possibly add the value to me? How
(21:08):
have you guys continue to kindle that sense of trust
and partnership with your franchise owners, even as they become
successful and might feel like, well, I don't I don't
necessarily need my franchise or as help anymore. They still do, though, like,
how have you been able to do that? That's a
tough that's a tough balance.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
It is I don't. I don't know that we were
always great at that, and I don't think any brand
is when you go through those growth curves we had.
You know, we had a couple of periods of time
with massive, like historic fran dev growth, so all of
a sudden, everybody's just focused on all the new people
coming in. You kind of forget about.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Their whole timers.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah yeah, but you're also your they're your producers, right,
and you end up spending so much energy on the
non I don't say non producers, but the people that
need your time, and they just keep doing their thing
and they almost, you know, they almost don't need you
in a lot of ways the way they did early on.
But it's it is again going back to being able
to have these like accountability sessions with them on this
(22:03):
is where we're at, this is where you're at, and
how do how do we continue to grow your business?
And what resources do you need? What can we bring in?
I think a lot of it is full transparency as well,
like we operate you know, we run under us. We
operate in an open, honest environment, and it's asking them
like what could we be doing better for you because
(22:23):
it's like, you know, you've got to build that structure
when somebody goes from having like we could, we could
we could help owners that have five hundred customers, Like
with our eyes closed, you get up to two thousand
customers and it's a whole different business. We have a
location with over four thousand customers.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
I was in that office last week for a visit
and I mean it's mind blowing dab that's crazy. They
have a bit of whiteboards all over the place and
they got a whiteboard with the people have that have
to park down the street that week and walk two
blocks because there's no room to put They have eighteen
technicians going out every day. So it's like just the
(23:02):
I was talking to an owner that has four hundred
customers right and this owner in Philadelphia is ten X
and I said, you get a you get a flat tire.
Today they're getting ten, Like it's literally that like you have,
you have one of your texts doesn't show up today,
eight or ten of theirs are calling it like, it's
(23:22):
just it's it's a whole different business. So how do
you help them. You've got to know what their business is.
You gotta you've got to be there. You've got to
go buy the office, you've got to visit, you've got
to really understand like, oh wow, yeah, they're having a
whole different set of issues than what everybody else is having.
And then you've got to put systems in place. They're
still paying you, they're still paying royalties, they're still paying
brand fund. You've got to still provide services to them.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Value, right, we talked about that earlier, Like value is
super important.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, it really comes down to the value, right, what
is the value that you can bring as the franchise
or or And it has to change. It has to
change because you're right, that same value you brought two
three four years ago when they were growing, they had
four or five hundred counts, totally different value proposition that
you have to bring today, which I mean they I
love the accountability session concept you just brought up. I
did a podcast a couple of weeks ago with Fiona
(24:10):
with Oh my goodness, Matro Canada. But they have they
have accountability. Every year. They've got annual reviews where they
dig into the performance, look at the numbers and say,
have you grown it, you shrunk? How you doing, how's
your p and L is your marching up? You're marching down.
They kind of do an annual review and then they say,
this is what your business is worth today because of
the effort you put into it. And and they as
(24:30):
they get further down the road, the brand that these
these these owners are actually more and more interested in
having that meaning because nobody buys a franchise because they
want to operate a forepper. They buy it because they
want to own a business. They can exit that business
and then, like you said, right off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, So we had we do a weekly all hands
call because I've got guys and gals all over the country.
So the internal team home office, we call it. Every Monday,
we do an all hands call. And this being July,
it's the half halfway point of the year. And I
reminded them that we did an off site all team
meeting last September and My message was value and accountability
(25:06):
for twenty twenty five, and I just kept saying it
week after week, month after month, every meeting, every l ten,
every quarterly planning. We have to drive value to our
owners and then anything we do, we need to be
able to hold them in ourselves accountable. So accountability on
both parts, but driving value to them. And I really
just on Monday on the all hands just congratulated the
team because they delivered all year. We've been driving value
(25:30):
all year. We've been able to hold them and ourselves accountable,
and we're seeing it in the results.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I celebrated them the halfway point of the year and
where we are as a company and the results we've seen,
and just thanked them, thank them for buying in and
thanked them for providing that to our owner base, for
bringing that value and accountability is a payoff, like holding
people accountable is super important.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, well holding yourself accountable too. You mentioned both sides
of that. A lot of a lot of franchise brands,
they are shapbooks on holding the franchisees accountable. They might
be overlooking the fact that he'll.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Lp me a two way street. That's the look in
the mirror thing, right, Like, we can't continue to ask
and ask and ask, and uh, you know, we ask
a lot of our owners, but I think at the
same time, we've got to be we got to put
ourselves in their shoes. We just, for the first time ever,
Book Story did what we call the National Callback Night.
It was it was on Monday night at six o'clock
(26:29):
and we had it was opened to anyone, so we
had like thirty one owners join in at six o'clock
on Monday night. We had a couple of owners speak
to how they get on the phone and call leads
and win backs and oh cool, okay, and everyone just
went on mute. But then we did breakout rooms and
I challenged my team. I'm like, all right, which owner
(26:51):
wants help call? And I'll take the bottom of the list,
you take the top. And a couple of people raise
their hand. I'm like, all right, Joe, I'm coming into
your room. And I went in one of my owner's
rooms and then I kind of put the pressure on
my team. So a couple of my you know, people
on my team started calling for our owners and everyone
was just calling together making sales that night, and it
was it was It was an amazing event to watch
(27:13):
online and see it happen of franchise or and franchisee
literally coming together and for a common common cause.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Well, and what a better common cause than to do
the one thing that everybody hates to do, which is
about calling right setting appointments.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
It was a point we wanted to prove, right, like, yeah,
there's that, there's there's dollars dialing for dollars right there.
There there's money waiting for you, and wept. We built
a leader board and you can tell why the body
language it'd be like, I think Dave's got one. Dave's
got one, He's got one, and then they would be like,
you know, it was great, It was great, and uh
it got competitive. So we did a survey at the end,
(27:50):
and we're holding another one on July twenty eight, next
Monday night. Two Mondays from now, we're holding another one.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
That's a fantastic idea, a callback. I know, I know
only one of the brand that does something not that
it's like, well, actually two when they launch, but they
only do it on launch where they're like, all right,
come in, I'm gonna sit down next to you, that
our team's gonna make phone calls. We're gonna set appointments
for you. So when you start, you know, running in
about about thirty days, you're gonna have a whole bunch
of stuff lined up. What a message, though, right, it's
(28:19):
not so the appointments are great, that's great, But what
are you telling the franchise owner, Hey, the dirty work,
the crappy stuff that you don't want to do. We
don't want to do it either. We're doing it with
you because this is so important. And then it eliminates
that barrier that you often build of well, that's your job. No,
you guys take care of that. Now we'll do this stuff.
You do the dirty I mean, it gets rid of
all the whole The.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Whole tone of the night changed. It wasn't playing, it
wasn't scripted, but it was like, I've been doing this
my whole life. I'll dial right, give me, give me
a list, I'll start calling. And then I've got a
young or launch coach is a younger guy but super talented,
and I was like, Kyle, put your money where your
mouth is, get on the phone, pick an owner.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And so it was.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
We had a great time.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
You know, I asked you a little while ago, like,
how are you establishing and building trust with your franchise
owners so that they feel like they can trust you
at the different stage. I think you've answered that with
this great example of well we put our money where
our mouth is and you mentioned going out. How often
does your team get out in the field. Is that
something you can do during the busy season or they're
too busy for the owners for you guys to show
(29:21):
up and be on site.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
No, So it's really important for me that our team.
So for me personally, I do it's a ton of travel.
I'm still involved in FRANDEV so I'm at conferences all
the time, and then with five Star we're doing events
and and off site meetings. And so anytime I travel,
if it's in a city town or in close proximity
to an owner, I come in a night earlier, stay
(29:45):
a night later, and have dinner with ye the owner
or owners that are in that market, and just and
it doesn't matter the size of that location or the
and Frankly, Dave like the relationship I have with them.
Some of them are more strained than others, but it's
like it's important to me that we get outside of
the business, break bread together and just like find common
(30:09):
ground and just reconnect and then so we try to
do it. It's tough with time, it's tough with the
seasonality of our business. It's tough on budgets. Like if
you if you look at it from just dollars and
cents standpoint, you can't, yeah, flying around and wining and
dining people all the time. But it's really important that
we we make a point to do that well.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And you don't have to take them at the Flemings
every time you go out to dinner either, right, like
you guys can go to a good local place, right
and you can you can treat them. But also sometimes
I think it's it would be I'd be nervous as
a franchise owner if you fly into flying to my
town and you're like, let's go to let's go to
Carvers or Flemings. I'm gonna go spend four hundred dollars
on a dinner for you and your wife. I'd be like,
is that what you use to my franchise piece pay? Yeah,
(30:53):
I know, well I'm paying for the No, no, so exactly.
But but there's a way to do it. I mean,
you don't have to. You don't have to do that,
but you can spend time with them. It's about time,
you know. It's I heard once so very wise man
once said people spell spell love t I M right, yeah,
I love that. And you're a dad of five adult kids.
(31:14):
It's still like you, right, I got four adult Well,
two of our babies are seventeen, so they're not quite there.
They think they're there, but they're not there.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
She's still my best friend. I was just on FaceTime
before I got on with you and so. But yeah,
so yeah, they hang around with me, but no, I
love that. Time is love.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah. Yeah, but it's the same with the kids as
it is with the franchise owners. Right. If you're not
giving them your.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Time, there is that connection or that correlation to you know,
if you've got one hundred owners, you've got a hundred
more kids, right, And there is just different personalities and
you got to learn how to work with all of them.
And they all they all need you at one point
or another. It's like when they move into college for
that first time, that's when they start talking again. They
needed to help them move.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah. Now I've got my VP of franchise Growth is
helping an adult move right now from into the Carolinas.
So yeah, but it's harder like being a dad of
kids that are home and under the age of eighteen,
Like you're the boss, they kind of have to do
what you have to say. But franchise owners are kind
of like adult kids. And I find that I'm like, man,
how do I influence you and coach you and help you?
(32:16):
But yet you got to make your own decisions to
grow And that's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah, But at the end of the day, I always
make sure that I don't lose sight of the fact
and I do not let my team lose sight of
the fact that these people easy to work with, hardwood
to work with, favorable personalities, difficult personalities. They made a
huge investment in us, right, so whatever comes of that
like that, we can't ever lose sight of the fact
(32:43):
that we were their decision. Whatever journey they took. However
many options they looked at, if any, you know, some
look at a bunch, some just land on one. They
picked us, right, and we own that and we owe
the responsibility to drive them value and hold them accountable
(33:04):
and be their form.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, you're spot on. I mean, it's it's like you're
in a team meeting with me, like we would be
on the software of the supplier side. Somebody invests in
our so our solutions like we owe it to them
to make sure we do everything possible. Yeah, it's how
you truly partner with people, right, you have to. But
love that you're saying that, tell me about results. Let's
(33:26):
shift here, So such great insights. I really appreciate all
that you've shared. So for Michael, But now that you guys,
are you focused on the mindset shift? You invested in resources,
you guys have done some really cool out of the
box thinking like these callback nights. What is the result
been with you guys focusing on value and accountability for
the last the last you know, almost twelve months. Now,
what have the results been like this season?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, we're so twenty twenty four was our best year ever.
We're currently twelve percent up over those numbers and climbing.
So we are just week over week on new customer acquisition,
which is what we measure, like how many new customers
are you're bringing in as an owner. We're fifteen out
of seventeen weeks up. There was just those two at
(34:09):
the end of heading into Memorial Day, the last two
weeks of May, super cold and wet around the country.
Whether it acts our business big time, but I think
it's like going back to the second week of March
until last week or through last week. Other than those
two in May, we have been up for a week
system wide. So the owners started seeing that traction in
early April and they're like, oh, like these calls are
(34:32):
helping and they can. So if I'm calling you, I'm like, Dave,
did you get out three hundred yard signs?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
No?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Well, we have our call next week. I expect that
when you're only going to want to say no to
your coach a couple of times, and you're gonna be like,
should I gotta get these signs out?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Right? Like asking me?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
He's telling me, And I see that around like I
see on these town halls that like it's working, I
better start doing it, And like, Dave, did you join
the two chambers we talked about like stuff like that, right,
So the owners started seeing the payoff of it and
then they're like, give me more, tell me more, what
else can I do? And then that just feeds more
adoption With programs we're putting out are the audience or
(35:12):
attendance that we've had on our monthly town halls is
where we've got seventy sometimes seventy five eighty percent of
our owners are joining the monthly town hall. A year
ago we were we were half that great town halls
and delivering great info. But we just have such When
you start having growth and you're having success, it just
(35:33):
fuels all these positive things, and owners don't. It's the
fear of missing out right. They don't want to what's
going to be on the next town hall, what new
things are there going to be? I don't want to.
I don't want to just out on that, and and
that just makes this starts to make this fun, right,
Like I know, I know, like industries that are flat
right now and sort of be up at all is great.
(35:54):
To be up double digits is even better. But it's
also more than that. For me, David, it's the excitement
that we're seeing the owner base, yeah, and the engagement
that they're having and you know, we're seeing in really
improved FBR results and just stuff like that, like stuff
you can actually measure and you can see year over
year on the charts of like Wow, massive growth in
(36:15):
these areas. It's just it's been really rewarding.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah. Well, and you know what that makes you. You
mentioned early on you've been doing this seventeen years and
you wake up excited still like this year, you were
excited about this year, this season, Like this is why
you're investing in the right places and you're seeing the results.
And these are people, I mean, you've been involved in
this brand for so long now, since the beginning of franchising,
Like you know every single one of these people, and
(36:40):
like you said, they bet on you. They gave you
their trust and their money, and they wanted a result.
And to see that. You guys are investing so much
to hell make sure that you deliver on that. You
deserve every kudos and accolades you're getting and every success.
I'm really proud of what you guys have done. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah. So, Michael, if somebody, let's say, somebody wanted to
reach out to you and say, Okay, I'm struggling, I've
got I'd love to pick your brain. How what's the
best way for someone to find you and reach out
to you.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, So it's literally my favorite thing to do. Whether
it's this brand or any other brand, or just thinking
about getting into ownership. I also love working with emerging
franchise ors because I learned so much the hard way
that I've been able to talk with new, newer, younger brands,
and so two things I love to do is helping
emerging franchise oors and then I love encouraging people to
(37:30):
get into business ownership.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
So literally, Michael M. I C. H A. E.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
L at moshield dot com is my email and email
me directly. I'm on LinkedIn, great way to connect on
there as well, but yes, I'd love to I would
welcome any say, any any email outreach and be happy
to engage with somebody.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, well that's a generous offer. Thanks for that, but
also thanks for sharing so many insights today, and again
it's really awesome to hear you break down the way
you guys thought about the business, working on mindsets and
then implementing a plan that actually helped focus the owners
on shifting their mindset from that offseason into a peak
and non peak season mentality, let's work on the business
(38:10):
when we've got time to take a breath and rather
than go take a bunch of time off it's just
you guys have built something cool and a lot of
brands I think can learn from this. Love it. Yeah,
well thanks for joining us, Michael, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Dave, thank you so much, of course,