July 8, 2025 • 31 mins
Johnny Franchise on Building Rock-Solid Franchisor-Franchisee Relationships
Episode Summary:In this milestone episode of The Advisory Board Podcast, host Dave Hansen finally ropes in a long-time wishlist guest:
the one and only Johnny Francis—aka Johnny Franchise. A Swiss Army knife of franchising, Johnny brings decades of wisdom, wit, and hard-earned perspective to a conversation that dives deep into the heartbeat of successful franchise brands: strong, interdependent relationships.
Brought to you by our sponsor ClientTether, whose CRM and automation tools help franchisors and franchisees stay connected and thrive together—just like Johnny would recommend.
Dave and Johnny explore what makes a franchise brand actually work beyond just a proven model. Spoiler: it’s not just about systems—it’s about people, trust, and training. Johnny shares why franchisors must obsess over franchisee success, not just ROI, and why continuous training—not just a one-time onboarding—is the unsung hero of brand performance.
They also unpack how to spot breakdowns in the relationship ("blame is the first red flag") and why franchise advisory councils aren’t just a checkbox—they’re a franchisor’s secret weapon. Johnny shares stories of turning struggling FACs into collaborative powerhouses and offers simple signals for when your brand needs one (hint: when you can’t remember everyone’s names).
Other gems include:
How franchisors can foster innovation from franchisees without triggering chaos
The dangers of an "us vs. them" culture
Why private equity can both help and hurt—and what to watch for
The underestimated value of showing vulnerability as a leader
Johnny leaves us with one powerful reminder: franchising only works when everyone wins.
Want to connect with Johnny?You’ll find him at johnnyfranchise.com or on LinkedIn. He’s happy to chat—just don’t be surprised if you get help before you get an invoice.
Huge thanks again to ClientTether for sponsoring this episode. If you’re looking to improve franchisee engagement and performance with less manual follow-up and more automation, check them out.
Episode Summary:In this milestone episode of The Advisory Board Podcast, host Dave Hansen finally ropes in a long-time wishlist guest:
the one and only Johnny Francis—aka Johnny Franchise. A Swiss Army knife of franchising, Johnny brings decades of wisdom, wit, and hard-earned perspective to a conversation that dives deep into the heartbeat of successful franchise brands: strong, interdependent relationships.
Brought to you by our sponsor ClientTether, whose CRM and automation tools help franchisors and franchisees stay connected and thrive together—just like Johnny would recommend.
Dave and Johnny explore what makes a franchise brand actually work beyond just a proven model. Spoiler: it’s not just about systems—it’s about people, trust, and training. Johnny shares why franchisors must obsess over franchisee success, not just ROI, and why continuous training—not just a one-time onboarding—is the unsung hero of brand performance.
They also unpack how to spot breakdowns in the relationship ("blame is the first red flag") and why franchise advisory councils aren’t just a checkbox—they’re a franchisor’s secret weapon. Johnny shares stories of turning struggling FACs into collaborative powerhouses and offers simple signals for when your brand needs one (hint: when you can’t remember everyone’s names).
Other gems include:
How franchisors can foster innovation from franchisees without triggering chaos
The dangers of an "us vs. them" culture
Why private equity can both help and hurt—and what to watch for
The underestimated value of showing vulnerability as a leader
Johnny leaves us with one powerful reminder: franchising only works when everyone wins.
Want to connect with Johnny?You’ll find him at johnnyfranchise.com or on LinkedIn. He’s happy to chat—just don’t be surprised if you get help before you get an invoice.
Huge thanks again to ClientTether for sponsoring this episode. If you’re looking to improve franchisee engagement and performance with less manual follow-up and more automation, check them out.
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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 where we bring in experts in the
franchise community to give you insights and share their experiences
so you can build brands that.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Will last and we'll thrive.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I've got with me Johnny Francis Today or Johnny Franchise
if you know of him that way. Just it's funny
because I think it's like episode one hundred and fifteen. Johnny,
and I've had you on my list for like four years.
I don't know how I've not landed you here. So
thanks for making time, and I'm sure appreciate you being.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Here with us.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, you're welcome, Dave. I appreciate the opportunity, glad to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, well, guys, let me tell you why Johnny's here,
and then Johnny, I'll give you a chance to tell
us little bit more about yourself for those who've been
living under rocks for a while and don't know who
you are. So Johnny's he's kind of a Swiss Army
knife knife enfranchising if you don't know, he wasn't born
into it, but he was raised enfranchising parents started a
barber franchise which grew incredibly so. And he was the
(00:55):
youngest of five, so he's kind of been enfranchising this
whole time growing up and about thirty five years now,
and so he started when he was five.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Just you know, so don't let the white hair build.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But one of the things I love about Johnny guys
is that he is he and he says I love
the way he said. He says he's not a know
it all, but he's a share it all And he
really does have that person. If you meet him at
a conference, if he's got if he's not on his
way to give a presentation, he'll pretty much sit in
the hall and talk to anybody and share and answer
their questions and help them figure it out.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That's Johnny. I love that about you. I've I met.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's one of the very first time I met you.
I recognize that. So I appreciate you being willing to
come here and share some things with us today. But
two other fun things about Johnny, Y oughta know dad.
He's a girl. Dad got two girls, one just graduated college,
ones going in. And also as the founder of if
you haven't heard of it before, you should check it out.
Fathers Eve father is eve dot com. That created a
(01:53):
holiday has helped celebrate dads, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So Johnny, tell us a little bit more about you
before we jump into.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Our Yeah, Well, thank you, Dave. Yeah. I grew up
in a franchise system. I thought everybody owned their own business,
two or three businesses. I thought everything was a franchise,
you know. And I got exposed to a lot early,
and I got the chance to work really hard for
a long time as a teenager in high school, in
(02:22):
college and afterwards. I got to get involved in our
families franchise of hair salons and barbershops, and it was
quite a run. We had a great business for a
long time, and we sold that business. We had a
thousand stores and we sold it in nineteen ninety nine,
so twenty five years ago we sold out. This was
(02:45):
before private equity was a big deal in franchising. That
was a big deal back then, and it would be
a bigger deal even today. But I like to say
that was my first retirement, right. I was thirty two
when we sold a business, and it was a great
outcome for my family and all of our franchise's really everybody.
(03:05):
It was a pretty great deal. My parents are recognized
in the IFA Hall of Fame, which is pretty rare
for a husband and wife to be in there together
because my dad started it and then after he passed away,
my mother doubled it and really created a fantastic business.
And it's not just what we did, it's how we
(03:26):
did it. So I really did learn franchising done right
or done well, and that's how I approach everything. That's
what I'm used to. Right. I thought everybody did it
that way. So after we sold, I went on and
did five more brands on my own as a franchise
or as a franchise e, as a developer, and all
kinds of experience. And I guess I'm not much of
(03:48):
a startup guy. It's kind of not my thing. I'm
more of a fix it, grow it, scale it, and
sell it guy. So I'm better at helping take a
good concept and make it a lot better. And I
like to see everybody win, you know, when the franchise
or does their part, the franchisees do their part, and
the suppliers do their part. When everybody's paying attention and
(04:12):
in alignment, man, everybody wins. And that's why I love
franchising so I'm very comfortable on any any part, any size,
any shape, kind of any situation. I just love seeing
franchising done. Well.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, as you should.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It's it is kind of it's like, well, there are
a lot of things when you see athletes or performers
or you know, especially in their teams, and you see
everybody just kind of like lock into the end of step.
It's almost kind of a beautiful business model. I hate
to say that. That came up in another podcast with
a founder, but there's something beautiful about the model and
how it really creates a triple win when and for
(04:51):
when you consider even like the supplier partners that are
involved in it, it can be a real full of
three sixty win.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Man.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I've seen it. I've seen it firsthand, and I love
it and I want to see more of it, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, Well, and that's what we're talking about today, right,
like one of the parts one of the aspects that
can be really difficult about franchising, right, And I talk
to brands all the time. They're like, and I've been
I've been in a franchise brand where where you know,
sometimes the franchise or in the franchise e relationship wasn't
wasn't as calculated and wasn't as deliberate as it should
(05:26):
have been. And you've been through this a ton, Like
can you share with us, John, Let's just start kind
of laying the topic out, Like why is it so
important that franchise ors invest in these these relationships?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
How do they impact the business?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, it's really everything in franchising. It comes down to
people and relationships. You know, the franchise or is dependent
on the franchise e and at the same time, the
franchise e is dependent on the franchise or. So when
that relationship is fully developed or at its peak, it's
(05:59):
what you call interdependent. Right. They really need each other
to be mutually successful, to be a combined success in
the brand. So franchise oors have a unique obligation and
a unique opportunity. They generally get to pick the people
or approve or award the franchise or however you want
to phrase it. It's up to them to really control
(06:21):
the flow and the quality and the degree and the
volume and the type, the kind and all the different
factors of who is in the brand. It's up to
the franchise ease to operate and execute and contribute and
be constructive with their criticism and be aligned and committed
(06:42):
to a mutual success. And the franchisees have to do.
Really the heavy lifting is on the franchise e, but
it wouldn't happen without the franchise or. They have to
go first. And once both sides kind of understand how
important the other one is, I think that that relationship
really evolves to a better higher level of that interdependence.
(07:06):
A lot of people have written about this. I mean,
this is not a secret. It's to me, it's fundamental. Uh,
but a lot of people forget sometimes. And when I
go into a brand and if I start hearing the
US versus them kind of language, You've got to stop
that right away, call it out and and point out
why that is just a dangerous mindset to have. You
(07:27):
really have to have the franchise or and franchisees working
together to be successful together.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, And you talked about the US versus them mindset,
like what are what are some of the things like
let's say I'm I'm a franchise or I'm on the
executive team, how what are what are some signs that
I might have a gap between the this this relationship
or or a shift in that relationship where that isn't positive.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Well, I think it starts with blame, right. People like
to blame other people for what's wrong. The franchise or
likes to blame the franchise e. Well, they're not doing
it right, or they're stupid, or they don't have enough
or whatever. Franchise e likes to blame the franchise or, well,
their system stinks and I don't get the support I
need and I'm going to figure it out for myself.
(08:18):
So that's maybe an easy obvious indicator. But when you
start blaming the other side, you're in trouble because there's
always enough blame to go all the way around. It
has to come all the way around, and it really
has to be well, okay, let's not figure out who's
who caused the problem, how do we solve the problem,
and what can I do to be my part of it?
(08:40):
And what can you do on your side of it?
Both sides have to understand that. So that might be
an obvious thing, but I think a lot of people forget.
So when a franchise or executive team member is saying,
you know that franchise e just doesn't get it. Well,
that may be the case, but let's make sure that's
the case. Let's go talk to that franchise e and
(09:01):
set them down and have a meaningful conversation. You know,
sometimes their frustration or their lack of performance is just
a symptom of a different problem. A lot of times
the cause of that problem is really from the franchise ore,
and the franchise e is simply responding to what's happening
(09:21):
to them or what's happening in that brand, and it's
missing a lot of times it's training. Training and training
are kind of the first three things that usually I
look at and then it's you know, there's more to
it than that. But training solves a lot of problems
in a brand, and it's continuous and ongoing. And I sometimes,
especially these startup emerging brands I get to talk to,
(09:43):
they get all revd up and they launch and they
do an onboarding program and then they turn them loose
and the franchisees are supposed to just go and do it,
but they don't realize that the training and support needs
to be continuous and it needs to evolve and change
as that franchise e is growing up in the brand
need different things at different times, and a lot of
(10:03):
new franchise ors really just don't understand that. They said, oh, yeah,
they went through training, they should be good. They said, well, no,
they went through the first training, that's part of it.
What about the next training? What about you know, what
else can we do for them? So it's support and
training really kind of fundamental, and that's on the franchise
or to provide that, but it's on the franchise e
(10:26):
to adopt and implement and execute. So it really is
that that interdependent relationship.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, and I'm sure you've seen hundreds of examples of this.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
When you're working.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Is the thing that keeps coming through my mind because
my wife and I went franchises is you know, they
were they were fairly new, and I knew that getting
into it, and there was a lot of time where
I was like man, oh man, like I just we
realized like, oh, we didn't really know how to do that.
We just figured it out. We didn't know how to
do that. We figured it out. And that's not meant to.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Be critical at all.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's just the symptom of a new franchise system because
they ran the business model for a while, they didn't
think about all the intricacies. They often the players, the
best players are the worst coaches, and because they don't,
they don't know how they learned the muscle memory to
swing a bat properly right, They just do it. And
often it's the guys that are looking at it from
(11:20):
the outside that are the best coaches, and they're often
not the best players.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So how do you how do you.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Help franchise franchise oors start to recognize the gaps and
fill in the training gaps because that's really a core
part of making.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
A successful business operate in franchising.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think it is. Well, I guess my work.
I do that through questions. I ask a lot of
questions and ask the kind of questions that makes the
franchise or really a little uncomfortable because that's usually where
you learn something news when you realize I don't know,
and then I can point them in the right direction
and help them discover for themselves. But where that gap is?
(11:59):
So let's ask questions, and really it's understanding the why
you know, the theory of start with why will That's
pretty accurate for a lot of things enfranchising and so
what a franchise e is what we would say misbehaving
or out of compliance. Right, you ask the question why
is that? Well, usually the why is it's it's a
(12:19):
symptom of a deeper problem. The reason they don't do
it right is because they don't know how to do
it right now. The reason they don't know how is
because they weren't trained. And maybe they were trained, but
maybe it was incomplete or inconsistent or too long ago.
That things have changed and they've learned to adapt or
adopt and they're going to figure it out. Well, you
(12:40):
don't want franchisees trying to figure it out. You want
franchisees to implement and execute. It's the franchise or's job
to figure it out and train that franchise z and
provide them the tools and the support and the ongoing
training so the franchise e doesn't have to figure it out,
they just have to implement and execute. Now, when the
French ch iz finds a better way of doing things
(13:02):
or a new idea, a new product, a new service,
a new marketing strategy that really works, the franchise or
should be looking for that and welcoming that those innovations
and new ideas and bring that in and polish it
up and distribute it across the whole brand. Constructive evolution
(13:23):
happens in a brand when things get better. I say,
we reserve the right to get smarter, right, and that
goes on all sides. Right, we can do it better
and they can do it better, but if we work together,
we'll all do it better. So it has to be collaborative,
it has to be aligned. But it takes a lot
of work, and it's a lot of people just don't
(13:46):
understand the commitment they make when they franchise their business
or when they buy a franchise. They don't understand the
commitment that they're making into that brand. And I'll take
it one step further, Dave, and talk about franchisees working
with other friendsanchise ese. I've been the franchise e, the
new guy coming into an existing brand and saying I
want to learn everything I can, So I'll go through
(14:08):
all the training from the franchise or take everything they'll
give me, but then I'll go work with I say,
ask the franchise or who are your top five franchise
e of the year. The last five years, and I'll
go spend a day with each one of them because
they've figured it out. If they're franchise e of the year,
they're probably doing a lot of things right. So you
can learn from other people in the brand, even if
(14:29):
the franchise or doesn't have all the answers all the time,
which is we're human beings, right, we are going to
make mistakes. Another franchise e might have the same information
interpreted into their local business, their market, and you can
adopt and adapt that and bring it to your own market.
So learn from the brand, not just the franchise or.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, I want to go back a second, because you
highlight a couple of really key things and I don't
want the audience to overlook them.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Right. The first one is that that well, if we.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Can build a healthy relationship there where the franchisees and
franchise ors trust each other, there's enough system and process
and training happening the franchisees can be successful. That there
needs to be room in that model for the franchisees
to innovate as well. Right, So, because some of the
best ideas, most of the best ideas once you've launched,
(15:24):
actually come from the daily operators, which shouldn't be the franchise,
or you have a couple of corporate stores.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Test things out.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But often the real super power I always say, the
superpower of franchising isn't the model. It's actually the independent
entrepreneurial people operating within the model and discovering ways to
make it even better.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That's what the superpower franchising in. I think. So, how
do you so, as.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I'm a franchise or I've got franchises, I'm training them,
I'm giving them resources, how do I foster that innovation
without creating a total nightmare of compliance issues?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Right there? There's a fine balance there. What have you
seen work really well?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, lots of communication, certainly active listening, you know, careful
careful communication and advisory council is a tool that can
be used to channel a lot of those innovations and
make sure they get sort of captured and addressed carefully,
because not every idea is a good idea, I agree,
(16:22):
and so you have to have some qualification around it.
I think. Other ways is you know, the in person
conferences is really where the best relationships and the most
connectivity happens. I mean, you can have lots of phone
calls and meetings, and we can do zooms all day long.
But when you're physically together and maybe a small group
or a large group, that's where the best ideas and
(16:44):
the real time collaboration can really happen quickly.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So I think those creating those environments for meaningful communication
and that goes both always not just one way, but
listening and sharing and being open listen to under stand,
not to respond. You know, that's that's a hard thing
for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I think that might that might answer that question.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
No, I think it does.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
As you say that, I'm listening to respond and not
listening to listen, so I got to be careful.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Is it as a host here?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Well great, it's great, great content. Though you mentioned franchise
Advisory councils.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Let's talk about those for a minute because this is
where a lot of magic happens. I've been on one before.
I've worked with many of them before. People in technology.
Often the smart brands I find involved their facs to
uh to bless and and vet and and also test
things out in pilot.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So, so how have you seen brands?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Can we start with a negative example, like how brands
misuse or or underuse their franchise advisory.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Oh yeah, you know, I've helped launch advisory councils and
I've helped fix broken advisory councils. So when they're broken
is when people don't want to go to the meetings.
I mean that is boring, or they meet too often,
too frequently, and there's really nothing to talk about, so
(18:11):
there's just they make things up or they get wound
up on the same thing over and over and over,
repeating topics. That's not effective. So when the advisory councils
don't work is really when they're unstructured. That's a problem.
There's no accountability that's a problem, and there's really unclear expectations.
That's a problem. So when an advisory council is structured
(18:35):
properly and managed properly, it can become very powerful. I
call it a secret weapon of franchising. A franchise advisory
council that's organized and utilized properly is a powerful tool
to help improve the system and really gives the franchise
or the feedback and input and you know, just the
(18:58):
perspective of the franchise e meaningful consistent way, and the
franchise or or the franchise e'se it gives them a
chance to know that there's a structure for this sort
of stuff that bubbles up from time to time. Facs
can sometimes be a grievance outlet when someone's got a
problem or a complaint. Hey, I'm bothering me and I
(19:20):
got an issue. It could be a corporate staff, it
could be a franchise e who's gone off the reservation.
I mean, it could be a lot of things, and
fac can deal with those issues. There's a lot of
growing pains in a franchise system, especially when they're growing fast,
and you know, I get called in sometimes when things
are going wrong and I say, well, do you have
(19:41):
an advisory council? Can we how does that work? Can
we use Can we use that advisory council as a
mechanism to really get to the bottom of the issue
and then communicate and collaborate together with the franchise ese
in a meaningful, consistent way. So an advisory council can
really add value. The best time to have one is
before you wish you had one. So I would say
(20:04):
put it in place when things are calm, right. You
don't start an advisory council when you have a mutiny
on your hands and people are hostile or angry or
violent about some change or some problem or some situation
that you're not addressing. You want to put a franchise
advisory council in when things are relatively calm and people
(20:25):
are okay, and it's like, yeah, now we're growing. I
tell franchise oors the time to do that is typically
around fifty units, maybe more, maybe less. I mean it depends.
I would say, when you forget the names of all
your franchisees, when you don't know them all, Like you
get to the point where you can't know all your franchisees,
you better have an advisory council by then. So before
(20:48):
that is when you want to have an advisory council.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, well, let's take a step back, because you mentioned
a couple of great things great insights there. It's like
having an insurance plan or a or or a line
of credit. Like, you don't go get those when you
desperately need them. You get those way beforehand, so you
can you can dictate the terms and have them when
you when you actually need them.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Franchise.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So you talked about grievances right, or or trying trying
to have somebody there to bounce ideas off of and
help grow. I see a barrier a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
And I just want to share this and you you
address this.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Tell me how a brand struggling with this can maybe
can grow out of the mindset. But I see brands
that they don't want because there's this constant angst of well,
I'm paying your royalties, what are those royalties for? I
see that that pressure create almost a wall where franchise
ors executive teams are afraid to expose their soft underbelly
(21:51):
and not have everything all figured out perfectly all the time.
And yet when I see that they've opened up and said, hey,
this is great, we're all operating in this model.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
We don't know to solve this. They show the vulnerability.
Actually that makes it work better typically, But.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
How do you help a franchise bran who's struggling with that,
with infallibility faux pas in their head?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
How do you help them overcome that.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And realize that this can actually be a real asset
to you to help you figure out the problems rather
than trying to figure them out on your own, and
then maybe deploy something that doesn't fit right right.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, that's a really good question, Dave. I would the
first thing that comes to mind is mindset. The franchise
or has to have the mindset of long term, very
long game. They got to play the long game. So
this brand is going to be around for a long time,
ten twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred years long way. You're
(22:47):
not going to have all the answers at every point
of inflection or the growing cycles of a franchise or
they go through cycles just like anything. So first you
got to have the mindset that we're not we don't
have to have all the answers, but we have to
have the commitment to do this in what is a
mutually beneficial approach. If you're trying to squeeze another nickel
(23:11):
out of every franchisee, they're going to sense that and
they're going to resent it and you're going to regret it. Right,
So that's a short term, greed motivated franchise or that's
a problem. If you've got the long game and you're
truly committed to your franchise's success, long term success, you
(23:31):
have to obsess about their performance for their benefit. First,
if the franchisees are profitable and they can see a
path to growth, and you've given them the tools and
the techniques and the systems and the training and training
and training right, Once they understand that you're committed to
their success, they're going to give you grace when you
(23:52):
make a mistake or when things go wrong or you
bump into a problem and hey, we didn't see that,
and now we see it, so now we've got to
deal with it. So you have to be a bit vulnerable,
but really committed, and then you have to be willing
to communicate and listen and share ideas. The franchise or
doesn't give away decision making authority to franchise ese. That's
(24:15):
not what an advisory council does. Advisory council does not vote,
they do not approve. They are there to listen and
share and understand and provide feedback and perspective so the
franchise or can get it right, get it better, get
it faster, and hopefully help those franchisees understand how difficult
(24:35):
it is to be the franchise or. It's hard work
and it's very difficult and You've got a lot of
people relying on the franchise or when you're the founder
or the chief whatever officer, they're counting on you to
get it right. So there's a lot of pressure and
franchisees sometimes forget that right. Oh, he's just there for
(24:55):
the job. He's not really committed. Well, you know, don't
underst assume anything, right, have the conversation, get to know
each other, build that relationship and trust. But when a
franchise e is going off the rails or something's really wrong,
the franchise or has to call it out and address it.
I like to say the franchise or's job number one
(25:17):
is to protect the brand, and sometimes you got to
protect it from itself. Right, if I've got a franchise
e over here who's doing something that's crazy stupid, I
have to get in there and stop that or deal
with that. I owe it to everybody else who's invested
in the brand, and everybody else who's going to invest
in the brand in the future. I'm thinking about franchisees
(25:39):
who are coming in ten years from now. They're not
even here. But if I screw this up now, I'm
going to reduce the opportunity for that franchise e in
ten years, think about that opportunity. So the franchise or
has to be focused on doing the best they can
with what they have at any given moment. They nobody
(25:59):
has all the answers all the time. That's unreasonable and unrealistic.
But they can have an attitude and a mindset of
commitment and mutual success that can stay in place the
entire time. That's what makes a franchise or successful.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah. No, you're right.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And it's funny because so often, especially I think as
private equities coming to franchising, too many people see it
as ooh, I can I can you know in two
or three years, I can you know, walk away and
buy an island, And it changes the way people think
about the brands rather than I'm going to be here
for forty five years until I retire or die, and
my kids.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Are going to probably work in the business.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
And like those types of brands, they have a special
sort of staying power and the culture of the brands
has been built around longevity and built around integrity. And
I'm not trying to dog on any brands right now
at all, So please.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Don't between the word right man, I've seen a lot
and I've worked with a lot of stuff. Private equity
is not all bad and it's all good either. I mean,
there's certainly advantages and disadvantages. But what happens sometimes is
they bring in an attitude of greed, and I think
that is a slippery slope. When people are focused on
(27:14):
just making more money all the time, they lose their
true motivation of mutual success, and it oftentimes changes the
culture in a brand. Oftentimes it changes a lot of
the key players in a brand change. The founder sells
most of the company and they're out the door. You know,
if they can stick around and they can still have
(27:35):
influence and still still drive that culture and values, that's
when franchise private equity really works best. But it's not
all bad. Sometimes I've seen companies that needed to sell
because they needed a turnover at the top, and that
private equity transaction allowed that to happen, so they were
(27:55):
really better off and when everything changed. But that's not
always the case. So it's hard to say that there's
any one right answer. I think there's a lot of
right answers. But yeah, it goes back to the original
concept of long term thinking. And commitment to mutual success. Yeah,
I think that's when franchising really works.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I agree with that one hundred percent, especially from a
guy who's been in it and seen it right from
the inside.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Out both ways.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
And yeah, Johnny, these are great and timeless. I think
points of advice. Thank you, well, you're welcome, Thank you, man.
I could do this all day long. You know.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I love franchising and I love to see people get
it right. And sometimes, you know, the things we're talking
about are big concepts and kind of broad brush, but
when you bring it down into a particular brand or
a particular situation, that's when you really have to understand
more about that particular because they're not all the same.
And I've seen and done a lot of different things,
(28:56):
but every time I get into another brand, another situation,
I need to understand the specifics. How did you get here,
and who are the people and what were their expectations
and how did that go wrong? And then what are
the possibilities to fix it. I can usually find more
than one way to fix the problem, but it's it's
(29:17):
you've got to take all the variables to find the
best way to solve that problem.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, no, you do, Johnny. I know that our time
was a little short today.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
We should probably get together another time soon, and I
do print a few more topics together. If somebody wanted
to reach out to you, what's the best way for
them to reach out and say, Hey, Johnny, I got
an issue with an advisory counselor I need to need
some help with my zorsy, relationship building or anything else
related to what we talked about. How should they.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Reach out to you?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Well, thanks, Dave. My name is John Francis. My nickname
is Johnny Franchise. So that's my website, Johnny Franchise. I'm
not hard to find. I'm on all the social media.
I've got a contractor that makes me look good online.
I show up at conferences. I don't do them all anymore.
I do a lot of them, but I'm not hard
(30:05):
to find. Johnny Francis, Johnny Franchise. I ask anybody. I
think most you know. I've been around it for so long.
I feel like I'm the old guy now, and which
is great. I don't mind, you know. I'm happy to share,
and I say people just give me a call. If
you hit my website, there's links and buttons and schedulers
and all that. But my phone number is there and
(30:27):
you can call. If I'm not talking to someone, I'll
answer the phone right if I'm not already talking to
someone else. So I don't mind. I love talking to
folks and trying to help. And then I like to say,
I'll send you an invoice if you deserve it, right,
But that's it. You know. I don't mind sharing ideas
and just just getting familiar, and you know, I'd love
(30:49):
to be a resource my website. I've been writing a
monthly blog for like ten years. There's a ton of
stuff in there and people I forget sometimes what's in there,
but it's searchable. It made searchable, so that's kind of cool.
I love being a resource to anyone. Enfranchising.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, well, we appreciate you being a resource to us today, Johnny.
Thanks again for your time and hopefully I'll see you soon.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, thank you, Dave, You're welcome. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Guys, I want to welcome you to another episode of
the Advisory Board where we bring in experts in the
franchise community to give you insights and share their experiences
so you can build brands that.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Will last and we'll thrive.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I've got with me Johnny Francis Today or Johnny Franchise
if you know of him that way. Just it's funny
because I think it's like episode one hundred and fifteen. Johnny,
and I've had you on my list for like four years.
I don't know how I've not landed you here. So
thanks for making time, and I'm sure appreciate you being.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Here with us.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, you're welcome, Dave. I appreciate the opportunity, glad to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, well, guys, let me tell you why Johnny's here,
and then Johnny, I'll give you a chance to tell
us little bit more about yourself for those who've been
living under rocks for a while and don't know who
you are. So Johnny's he's kind of a Swiss Army
knife knife enfranchising if you don't know, he wasn't born
into it, but he was raised enfranchising parents started a
barber franchise which grew incredibly so. And he was the
(00:55):
youngest of five, so he's kind of been enfranchising this
whole time growing up and about thirty five years now,
and so he started when he was five.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Just you know, so don't let the white hair build.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But one of the things I love about Johnny guys
is that he is he and he says I love
the way he said. He says he's not a know
it all, but he's a share it all And he
really does have that person. If you meet him at
a conference, if he's got if he's not on his
way to give a presentation, he'll pretty much sit in
the hall and talk to anybody and share and answer
their questions and help them figure it out.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That's Johnny. I love that about you. I've I met.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's one of the very first time I met you.
I recognize that. So I appreciate you being willing to
come here and share some things with us today. But
two other fun things about Johnny, Y oughta know dad.
He's a girl. Dad got two girls, one just graduated college,
ones going in. And also as the founder of if
you haven't heard of it before, you should check it out.
Fathers Eve father is eve dot com. That created a
(01:53):
holiday has helped celebrate dads, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So Johnny, tell us a little bit more about you
before we jump into.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Our Yeah, Well, thank you, Dave. Yeah. I grew up
in a franchise system. I thought everybody owned their own business,
two or three businesses. I thought everything was a franchise,
you know. And I got exposed to a lot early,
and I got the chance to work really hard for
a long time as a teenager in high school, in
(02:22):
college and afterwards. I got to get involved in our
families franchise of hair salons and barbershops, and it was
quite a run. We had a great business for a
long time, and we sold that business. We had a
thousand stores and we sold it in nineteen ninety nine,
so twenty five years ago we sold out. This was
(02:45):
before private equity was a big deal in franchising. That
was a big deal back then, and it would be
a bigger deal even today. But I like to say
that was my first retirement, right. I was thirty two
when we sold a business, and it was a great
outcome for my family and all of our franchise's really everybody.
(03:05):
It was a pretty great deal. My parents are recognized
in the IFA Hall of Fame, which is pretty rare
for a husband and wife to be in there together
because my dad started it and then after he passed away,
my mother doubled it and really created a fantastic business.
And it's not just what we did, it's how we
(03:26):
did it. So I really did learn franchising done right
or done well, and that's how I approach everything. That's
what I'm used to. Right. I thought everybody did it
that way. So after we sold, I went on and
did five more brands on my own as a franchise
or as a franchise e, as a developer, and all
kinds of experience. And I guess I'm not much of
(03:48):
a startup guy. It's kind of not my thing. I'm
more of a fix it, grow it, scale it, and
sell it guy. So I'm better at helping take a
good concept and make it a lot better. And I
like to see everybody win, you know, when the franchise
or does their part, the franchisees do their part, and
the suppliers do their part. When everybody's paying attention and
(04:12):
in alignment, man, everybody wins. And that's why I love
franchising so I'm very comfortable on any any part, any size,
any shape, kind of any situation. I just love seeing
franchising done. Well.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, as you should.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It's it is kind of it's like, well, there are
a lot of things when you see athletes or performers
or you know, especially in their teams, and you see
everybody just kind of like lock into the end of step.
It's almost kind of a beautiful business model. I hate
to say that. That came up in another podcast with
a founder, but there's something beautiful about the model and
how it really creates a triple win when and for
(04:51):
when you consider even like the supplier partners that are
involved in it, it can be a real full of
three sixty win.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Man.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I've seen it. I've seen it firsthand, and I love
it and I want to see more of it, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, Well, and that's what we're talking about today, right,
like one of the parts one of the aspects that
can be really difficult about franchising, right, And I talk
to brands all the time. They're like, and I've been
I've been in a franchise brand where where you know,
sometimes the franchise or in the franchise e relationship wasn't
wasn't as calculated and wasn't as deliberate as it should
(05:26):
have been. And you've been through this a ton, Like
can you share with us, John, Let's just start kind
of laying the topic out, Like why is it so
important that franchise ors invest in these these relationships?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
How do they impact the business?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, it's really everything in franchising. It comes down to
people and relationships. You know, the franchise or is dependent
on the franchise e and at the same time, the
franchise e is dependent on the franchise or. So when
that relationship is fully developed or at its peak, it's
(05:59):
what you call interdependent. Right. They really need each other
to be mutually successful, to be a combined success in
the brand. So franchise oors have a unique obligation and
a unique opportunity. They generally get to pick the people
or approve or award the franchise or however you want
to phrase it. It's up to them to really control
(06:21):
the flow and the quality and the degree and the
volume and the type, the kind and all the different
factors of who is in the brand. It's up to
the franchise ease to operate and execute and contribute and
be constructive with their criticism and be aligned and committed
(06:42):
to a mutual success. And the franchisees have to do.
Really the heavy lifting is on the franchise e, but
it wouldn't happen without the franchise or. They have to
go first. And once both sides kind of understand how
important the other one is, I think that that relationship
really evolves to a better higher level of that interdependence.
(07:06):
A lot of people have written about this. I mean,
this is not a secret. It's to me, it's fundamental. Uh,
but a lot of people forget sometimes. And when I
go into a brand and if I start hearing the
US versus them kind of language, You've got to stop
that right away, call it out and and point out
why that is just a dangerous mindset to have. You
(07:27):
really have to have the franchise or and franchisees working
together to be successful together.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, And you talked about the US versus them mindset,
like what are what are some of the things like
let's say I'm I'm a franchise or I'm on the
executive team, how what are what are some signs that
I might have a gap between the this this relationship
or or a shift in that relationship where that isn't positive.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Well, I think it starts with blame, right. People like
to blame other people for what's wrong. The franchise or
likes to blame the franchise e. Well, they're not doing
it right, or they're stupid, or they don't have enough
or whatever. Franchise e likes to blame the franchise or, well,
their system stinks and I don't get the support I
need and I'm going to figure it out for myself.
(08:18):
So that's maybe an easy obvious indicator. But when you
start blaming the other side, you're in trouble because there's
always enough blame to go all the way around. It
has to come all the way around, and it really
has to be well, okay, let's not figure out who's
who caused the problem, how do we solve the problem,
and what can I do to be my part of it?
(08:40):
And what can you do on your side of it?
Both sides have to understand that. So that might be
an obvious thing, but I think a lot of people forget.
So when a franchise or executive team member is saying,
you know that franchise e just doesn't get it. Well,
that may be the case, but let's make sure that's
the case. Let's go talk to that franchise e and
(09:01):
set them down and have a meaningful conversation. You know,
sometimes their frustration or their lack of performance is just
a symptom of a different problem. A lot of times
the cause of that problem is really from the franchise ore,
and the franchise e is simply responding to what's happening
(09:21):
to them or what's happening in that brand, and it's
missing a lot of times it's training. Training and training
are kind of the first three things that usually I
look at and then it's you know, there's more to
it than that. But training solves a lot of problems
in a brand, and it's continuous and ongoing. And I sometimes,
especially these startup emerging brands I get to talk to,
(09:43):
they get all revd up and they launch and they
do an onboarding program and then they turn them loose
and the franchisees are supposed to just go and do it,
but they don't realize that the training and support needs
to be continuous and it needs to evolve and change
as that franchise e is growing up in the brand
need different things at different times, and a lot of
(10:03):
new franchise ors really just don't understand that. They said, oh, yeah,
they went through training, they should be good. They said, well, no,
they went through the first training, that's part of it.
What about the next training? What about you know, what
else can we do for them? So it's support and
training really kind of fundamental, and that's on the franchise
or to provide that, but it's on the franchise e
(10:26):
to adopt and implement and execute. So it really is
that that interdependent relationship.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, and I'm sure you've seen hundreds of examples of this.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
When you're working.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Is the thing that keeps coming through my mind because
my wife and I went franchises is you know, they
were they were fairly new, and I knew that getting
into it, and there was a lot of time where
I was like man, oh man, like I just we
realized like, oh, we didn't really know how to do that.
We just figured it out. We didn't know how to
do that. We figured it out. And that's not meant to.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Be critical at all.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's just the symptom of a new franchise system because
they ran the business model for a while, they didn't
think about all the intricacies. They often the players, the
best players are the worst coaches, and because they don't,
they don't know how they learned the muscle memory to
swing a bat properly right, They just do it. And
often it's the guys that are looking at it from
(11:20):
the outside that are the best coaches, and they're often
not the best players.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So how do you how do you.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Help franchise franchise oors start to recognize the gaps and
fill in the training gaps because that's really a core
part of making.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
A successful business operate in franchising.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think it is. Well, I guess my work.
I do that through questions. I ask a lot of
questions and ask the kind of questions that makes the
franchise or really a little uncomfortable because that's usually where
you learn something news when you realize I don't know,
and then I can point them in the right direction
and help them discover for themselves. But where that gap is?
(11:59):
So let's ask questions, and really it's understanding the why
you know, the theory of start with why will That's
pretty accurate for a lot of things enfranchising and so
what a franchise e is what we would say misbehaving
or out of compliance. Right, you ask the question why
is that? Well, usually the why is it's it's a
(12:19):
symptom of a deeper problem. The reason they don't do
it right is because they don't know how to do
it right now. The reason they don't know how is
because they weren't trained. And maybe they were trained, but
maybe it was incomplete or inconsistent or too long ago.
That things have changed and they've learned to adapt or
adopt and they're going to figure it out. Well, you
(12:40):
don't want franchisees trying to figure it out. You want
franchisees to implement and execute. It's the franchise or's job
to figure it out and train that franchise z and
provide them the tools and the support and the ongoing
training so the franchise e doesn't have to figure it out,
they just have to implement and execute. Now, when the
French ch iz finds a better way of doing things
(13:02):
or a new idea, a new product, a new service,
a new marketing strategy that really works, the franchise or
should be looking for that and welcoming that those innovations
and new ideas and bring that in and polish it
up and distribute it across the whole brand. Constructive evolution
(13:23):
happens in a brand when things get better. I say,
we reserve the right to get smarter, right, and that
goes on all sides. Right, we can do it better
and they can do it better, but if we work together,
we'll all do it better. So it has to be collaborative,
it has to be aligned. But it takes a lot
of work, and it's a lot of people just don't
(13:46):
understand the commitment they make when they franchise their business
or when they buy a franchise. They don't understand the
commitment that they're making into that brand. And I'll take
it one step further, Dave, and talk about franchisees working
with other friendsanchise ese. I've been the franchise e, the
new guy coming into an existing brand and saying I
want to learn everything I can, So I'll go through
(14:08):
all the training from the franchise or take everything they'll
give me, but then I'll go work with I say,
ask the franchise or who are your top five franchise
e of the year. The last five years, and I'll
go spend a day with each one of them because
they've figured it out. If they're franchise e of the year,
they're probably doing a lot of things right. So you
can learn from other people in the brand, even if
(14:29):
the franchise or doesn't have all the answers all the time,
which is we're human beings, right, we are going to
make mistakes. Another franchise e might have the same information
interpreted into their local business, their market, and you can
adopt and adapt that and bring it to your own market.
So learn from the brand, not just the franchise or.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, I want to go back a second, because you
highlight a couple of really key things and I don't
want the audience to overlook them.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Right. The first one is that that well, if we.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Can build a healthy relationship there where the franchisees and
franchise ors trust each other, there's enough system and process
and training happening the franchisees can be successful. That there
needs to be room in that model for the franchisees
to innovate as well. Right, So, because some of the
best ideas, most of the best ideas once you've launched,
(15:24):
actually come from the daily operators, which shouldn't be the franchise,
or you have a couple of corporate stores.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Test things out.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But often the real super power I always say, the
superpower of franchising isn't the model. It's actually the independent
entrepreneurial people operating within the model and discovering ways to
make it even better.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That's what the superpower franchising in. I think. So, how
do you so, as.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I'm a franchise or I've got franchises, I'm training them,
I'm giving them resources, how do I foster that innovation
without creating a total nightmare of compliance issues?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Right there? There's a fine balance there. What have you
seen work really well?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, lots of communication, certainly active listening, you know, careful
careful communication and advisory council is a tool that can
be used to channel a lot of those innovations and
make sure they get sort of captured and addressed carefully,
because not every idea is a good idea, I agree,
(16:22):
and so you have to have some qualification around it.
I think. Other ways is you know, the in person
conferences is really where the best relationships and the most
connectivity happens. I mean, you can have lots of phone
calls and meetings, and we can do zooms all day long.
But when you're physically together and maybe a small group
or a large group, that's where the best ideas and
(16:44):
the real time collaboration can really happen quickly.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So I think those creating those environments for meaningful communication
and that goes both always not just one way, but
listening and sharing and being open listen to under stand,
not to respond. You know, that's that's a hard thing
for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I think that might that might answer that question.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
No, I think it does.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
As you say that, I'm listening to respond and not
listening to listen, so I got to be careful.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Is it as a host here?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Well great, it's great, great content. Though you mentioned franchise
Advisory councils.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Let's talk about those for a minute because this is
where a lot of magic happens. I've been on one before.
I've worked with many of them before. People in technology.
Often the smart brands I find involved their facs to
uh to bless and and vet and and also test
things out in pilot.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So, so how have you seen brands?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Can we start with a negative example, like how brands
misuse or or underuse their franchise advisory.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Oh yeah, you know, I've helped launch advisory councils and
I've helped fix broken advisory councils. So when they're broken
is when people don't want to go to the meetings.
I mean that is boring, or they meet too often,
too frequently, and there's really nothing to talk about, so
(18:11):
there's just they make things up or they get wound
up on the same thing over and over and over,
repeating topics. That's not effective. So when the advisory councils
don't work is really when they're unstructured. That's a problem.
There's no accountability that's a problem, and there's really unclear expectations.
That's a problem. So when an advisory council is structured
(18:35):
properly and managed properly, it can become very powerful. I
call it a secret weapon of franchising. A franchise advisory
council that's organized and utilized properly is a powerful tool
to help improve the system and really gives the franchise
or the feedback and input and you know, just the
(18:58):
perspective of the franchise e meaningful consistent way, and the
franchise or or the franchise e'se it gives them a
chance to know that there's a structure for this sort
of stuff that bubbles up from time to time. Facs
can sometimes be a grievance outlet when someone's got a
problem or a complaint. Hey, I'm bothering me and I
(19:20):
got an issue. It could be a corporate staff, it
could be a franchise e who's gone off the reservation.
I mean, it could be a lot of things, and
fac can deal with those issues. There's a lot of
growing pains in a franchise system, especially when they're growing fast,
and you know, I get called in sometimes when things
are going wrong and I say, well, do you have
(19:41):
an advisory council? Can we how does that work? Can
we use Can we use that advisory council as a
mechanism to really get to the bottom of the issue
and then communicate and collaborate together with the franchise ese
in a meaningful, consistent way. So an advisory council can
really add value. The best time to have one is
before you wish you had one. So I would say
(20:04):
put it in place when things are calm, right. You
don't start an advisory council when you have a mutiny
on your hands and people are hostile or angry or
violent about some change or some problem or some situation
that you're not addressing. You want to put a franchise
advisory council in when things are relatively calm and people
(20:25):
are okay, and it's like, yeah, now we're growing. I
tell franchise oors the time to do that is typically
around fifty units, maybe more, maybe less. I mean it depends.
I would say, when you forget the names of all
your franchisees, when you don't know them all, Like you
get to the point where you can't know all your franchisees,
you better have an advisory council by then. So before
(20:48):
that is when you want to have an advisory council.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, well, let's take a step back, because you mentioned
a couple of great things great insights there. It's like
having an insurance plan or a or or a line
of credit. Like, you don't go get those when you
desperately need them. You get those way beforehand, so you
can you can dictate the terms and have them when
you when you actually need them.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Franchise.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So you talked about grievances right, or or trying trying
to have somebody there to bounce ideas off of and
help grow. I see a barrier a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
And I just want to share this and you you
address this.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Tell me how a brand struggling with this can maybe
can grow out of the mindset. But I see brands
that they don't want because there's this constant angst of well,
I'm paying your royalties, what are those royalties for? I
see that that pressure create almost a wall where franchise
ors executive teams are afraid to expose their soft underbelly
(21:51):
and not have everything all figured out perfectly all the time.
And yet when I see that they've opened up and said, hey,
this is great, we're all operating in this model.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
We don't know to solve this. They show the vulnerability.
Actually that makes it work better typically, But.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
How do you help a franchise bran who's struggling with that,
with infallibility faux pas in their head?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
How do you help them overcome that.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And realize that this can actually be a real asset
to you to help you figure out the problems rather
than trying to figure them out on your own, and
then maybe deploy something that doesn't fit right right.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, that's a really good question, Dave. I would the
first thing that comes to mind is mindset. The franchise
or has to have the mindset of long term, very
long game. They got to play the long game. So
this brand is going to be around for a long time,
ten twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred years long way. You're
(22:47):
not going to have all the answers at every point
of inflection or the growing cycles of a franchise or
they go through cycles just like anything. So first you
got to have the mindset that we're not we don't
have to have all the answers, but we have to
have the commitment to do this in what is a
mutually beneficial approach. If you're trying to squeeze another nickel
(23:11):
out of every franchisee, they're going to sense that and
they're going to resent it and you're going to regret it. Right,
So that's a short term, greed motivated franchise or that's
a problem. If you've got the long game and you're
truly committed to your franchise's success, long term success, you
(23:31):
have to obsess about their performance for their benefit. First,
if the franchisees are profitable and they can see a
path to growth, and you've given them the tools and
the techniques and the systems and the training and training
and training right, Once they understand that you're committed to
their success, they're going to give you grace when you
(23:52):
make a mistake or when things go wrong or you
bump into a problem and hey, we didn't see that,
and now we see it, so now we've got to
deal with it. So you have to be a bit vulnerable,
but really committed, and then you have to be willing
to communicate and listen and share ideas. The franchise or
doesn't give away decision making authority to franchise ese. That's
(24:15):
not what an advisory council does. Advisory council does not vote,
they do not approve. They are there to listen and
share and understand and provide feedback and perspective so the
franchise or can get it right, get it better, get
it faster, and hopefully help those franchisees understand how difficult
(24:35):
it is to be the franchise or. It's hard work
and it's very difficult and You've got a lot of
people relying on the franchise or when you're the founder
or the chief whatever officer, they're counting on you to
get it right. So there's a lot of pressure and
franchisees sometimes forget that right. Oh, he's just there for
(24:55):
the job. He's not really committed. Well, you know, don't
underst assume anything, right, have the conversation, get to know
each other, build that relationship and trust. But when a
franchise e is going off the rails or something's really wrong,
the franchise or has to call it out and address it.
I like to say the franchise or's job number one
(25:17):
is to protect the brand, and sometimes you got to
protect it from itself. Right, if I've got a franchise
e over here who's doing something that's crazy stupid, I
have to get in there and stop that or deal
with that. I owe it to everybody else who's invested
in the brand, and everybody else who's going to invest
in the brand in the future. I'm thinking about franchisees
(25:39):
who are coming in ten years from now. They're not
even here. But if I screw this up now, I'm
going to reduce the opportunity for that franchise e in
ten years, think about that opportunity. So the franchise or
has to be focused on doing the best they can
with what they have at any given moment. They nobody
(25:59):
has all the answers all the time. That's unreasonable and unrealistic.
But they can have an attitude and a mindset of
commitment and mutual success that can stay in place the
entire time. That's what makes a franchise or successful.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah. No, you're right.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And it's funny because so often, especially I think as
private equities coming to franchising, too many people see it
as ooh, I can I can you know in two
or three years, I can you know, walk away and
buy an island, And it changes the way people think
about the brands rather than I'm going to be here
for forty five years until I retire or die, and
my kids.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Are going to probably work in the business.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
And like those types of brands, they have a special
sort of staying power and the culture of the brands
has been built around longevity and built around integrity. And
I'm not trying to dog on any brands right now
at all, So please.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Don't between the word right man, I've seen a lot
and I've worked with a lot of stuff. Private equity
is not all bad and it's all good either. I mean,
there's certainly advantages and disadvantages. But what happens sometimes is
they bring in an attitude of greed, and I think
that is a slippery slope. When people are focused on
(27:14):
just making more money all the time, they lose their
true motivation of mutual success, and it oftentimes changes the
culture in a brand. Oftentimes it changes a lot of
the key players in a brand change. The founder sells
most of the company and they're out the door. You know,
if they can stick around and they can still have
(27:35):
influence and still still drive that culture and values, that's
when franchise private equity really works best. But it's not
all bad. Sometimes I've seen companies that needed to sell
because they needed a turnover at the top, and that
private equity transaction allowed that to happen, so they were
(27:55):
really better off and when everything changed. But that's not
always the case. So it's hard to say that there's
any one right answer. I think there's a lot of
right answers. But yeah, it goes back to the original
concept of long term thinking. And commitment to mutual success. Yeah,
I think that's when franchising really works.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I agree with that one hundred percent, especially from a
guy who's been in it and seen it right from
the inside.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Out both ways.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
And yeah, Johnny, these are great and timeless. I think
points of advice. Thank you, well, you're welcome, Thank you, man.
I could do this all day long. You know.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I love franchising and I love to see people get
it right. And sometimes, you know, the things we're talking
about are big concepts and kind of broad brush, but
when you bring it down into a particular brand or
a particular situation, that's when you really have to understand
more about that particular because they're not all the same.
And I've seen and done a lot of different things,
(28:56):
but every time I get into another brand, another situation,
I need to understand the specifics. How did you get here,
and who are the people and what were their expectations
and how did that go wrong? And then what are
the possibilities to fix it. I can usually find more
than one way to fix the problem, but it's it's
(29:17):
you've got to take all the variables to find the
best way to solve that problem.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, no, you do, Johnny. I know that our time
was a little short today.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
We should probably get together another time soon, and I
do print a few more topics together. If somebody wanted
to reach out to you, what's the best way for
them to reach out and say, Hey, Johnny, I got
an issue with an advisory counselor I need to need
some help with my zorsy, relationship building or anything else
related to what we talked about. How should they.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Reach out to you?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Well, thanks, Dave. My name is John Francis. My nickname
is Johnny Franchise. So that's my website, Johnny Franchise. I'm
not hard to find. I'm on all the social media.
I've got a contractor that makes me look good online.
I show up at conferences. I don't do them all anymore.
I do a lot of them, but I'm not hard
(30:05):
to find. Johnny Francis, Johnny Franchise. I ask anybody. I
think most you know. I've been around it for so long.
I feel like I'm the old guy now, and which
is great. I don't mind, you know. I'm happy to share,
and I say people just give me a call. If
you hit my website, there's links and buttons and schedulers
and all that. But my phone number is there and
(30:27):
you can call. If I'm not talking to someone, I'll
answer the phone right if I'm not already talking to
someone else. So I don't mind. I love talking to
folks and trying to help. And then I like to say,
I'll send you an invoice if you deserve it, right,
But that's it. You know. I don't mind sharing ideas
and just just getting familiar, and you know, I'd love
(30:49):
to be a resource my website. I've been writing a
monthly blog for like ten years. There's a ton of
stuff in there and people I forget sometimes what's in there,
but it's searchable. It made searchable, so that's kind of cool.
I love being a resource to anyone. Enfranchising.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, well, we appreciate you being a resource to us today, Johnny.
Thanks again for your time and hopefully I'll see you soon.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, thank you, Dave, You're welcome. Thanks, I appreciate it.
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