Welcome to Level Up Academy Podcasts, where we explore a diverse set of skills that can
be applied across various industries and professions.
Each episode will deep dive into the world of transferable skills, discussing topics
like communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and more.
Join us as we speak with experts in different fields and share stories of individuals who
have successfully transferred their skills from one industry to another.
Whether you are a recent grad, a mid-career professional, or someone looking to make a
career change, this podcast is for you.
So sit back, relax, and let's discover how you can leverage your existing skills to
excel in any industry.
Welcome to Level Up Academy Podcasts.
This is your host, Dr. Leland, a serial educator, an opportunities designer, and a compassionate
leader.
Hello Level Up listeners.
This is your host, Dr. Leland, from Level Up.
Today, I have a very special guest.
Introduce yourself.
Hi, Kary Ann Gulliver, otherwise known as America's Franchise Matchmaker.
Awesome.
Ms. Gulliver, actually, Kary Ann, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Go back, I would say, 10, 20 years ago.
How did you get here today?
Yeah, that's a great question.
My story is unlike any other people's story.
None of it actually was planned.
But I think sometimes best things in life happen unplanned.
And so I would say over 20 years ago, where I was, I worked with a lot of startup companies.
And I really thrived in that environment, was in sales and marketing.
And I love startups because it was obviously a new challenge every day.
We were building something from scratch, and we were nurturing it and taking it out to
the market.
But the problem was, is there was too many stops with the startups, if you know what
I mean.
Because obviously I was not in control and didn't have the authority to make all the
decisions.
And there was always some, yeah, I was there to bring something up, and then there was
a stop, and then there was a start later on, and then another stop.
And so I literally found myself having dinner with friends and family, drinking some fine
wine, eating some great food.
And we were all sitting around having the conversation, what do we want to do when we
grow up?
And I'm sure that's something that's probably very familiar with a lot of people that might
be listening.
That is true.
And then from there on that conversation, you're like, this is what I'm going to do.
How did you stumble upon that?
Yeah, it's kind of interesting.
So my sister and my brother-in-law had just moved back from the East Coast.
My brother-in-law up to that point had been a general manager for some high-end restaurants.
And they are both obviously from Colorado as well, and they wanted to move back and
get married and start a family.
And so they sold everything that they owned except for what would fit in the small little
trailer, and they drove all the way back to Colorado and got married and wanted to start
a family sooner than later.
And obviously being in the restaurant industry, for all you people that are familiar with
that, you know how demanding that industry is.
Nights, evenings, weekends, holidays, 90 plus hours a week.
So my sister was like, honey, you got to find something.
You got to find a new gig because I can't start a family by myself and I'm going to
need your support.
And so he was kind of in a transition.
And my sister had been a teacher her previous life before she decided to move back to Colorado
and really kind of focus on starting a family.
And I had obviously been in one of those stopping phases with the startups.
And so my brother and I said, I know we should start a swamp cooling repair and fix it business.
Now I don't know how many people are familiar with swamp coolers.
They're considered the poor man's air conditioning unit.
They are on the rooftops of buildings.
We love it here in Colorado where we have absolutely no humidity because it with water
creates some moisture in the air for our dry air here.
And he had worked on swamp coolers in various restaurants that he was a general manager
fixing and repairing them.
And their first house that they moved back to Colorado actually had a swamp cooler that
he had to maintain.
And so my first response was, okay, cut him off, he said too much wine to drink.
You know, like, what are you talking about?
He's like, no, seriously, he's like, it's going to be great.
And we're going to call it swamp boy.
And literally we started talking more and more about it.
And following Sunday we put an ad in the paper.
This is back in the late 90s, 1990s, 96, 97, and call swamp boy for your maintenance and
repair for your swamp cooler.
And by golly on Monday morning, the phone started ringing.
No joke.
Wow.
No joke.
And so nothing doing.
My brother in law had to have my sister, you know, embroidery, a name tag swamp boy on
these, you know, I don't know this jumpsuit thing that he wore.
I mean, he's all about, you know, details.
And he's very charismatic personality and so the phone was ringing, scheduling, sending
it and sending him out to these appointments.
And over time, and we were literally, let me tell you, we were literally running this
business out of the basement of our house.
Right.
Because I mean, yeah, no, any different.
So one day he came back to the basement and he said, carry on.
Hi.
I don't know what's going on out there, but nobody can seem to get anybody to show up
to do anything.
I said, what are you talking about?
He's like, well, on my last appointment, you know, this woman wanted me to, she wanted
me to do some corporate trading.
She wanted me, you know, to fix this and fix that.
And this just kept happening over and over and over.
So we literally, and again, back in the late 90s, there was no such thing as a no call
list.
Yeah.
You literally got the phone book.
Yeah.
The page was so tough, you know, because those were, remember when they used to just, yeah,
bribe by and throw in your driveway?
Yeah.
Big thick book.
Yeah.
There you go.
There's your world, right?
Because there were very limited internet events, I think.
And so we literally called 300 and I don't know how many people in the white pages,
like, hey, you know, ringing, do you want to have a handyman service?
You know, what are the types of things that you would want them to do?
How much would you be willing to pay?
Because time and time again, people, our community, we were listening.
Our community was telling us, we can't get anyone to show up to do these things.
And you're here.
Can you please do them?
So that, so our swamp cooling repair and fix it business literally morphed into a full
blown handyman business because we wanted to provide a solution to the problem that
our community was telling us they were having, right?
That's what every good business does.
So then we needed more people to go out to the home.
So we were interviewing trades people.
So in the basement, we had this bathroom, which really encompasses pretty much everything
you need for a handyman, right?
Right.
So we go in there and break something or break a couple of things.
And then if they couldn't fix it, we knew we shouldn't be interviewing them.
Yeah.
You're like, bye.
Yeah.
So we would do that.
We ran background checks.
We kept hiring more people.
Some of the, some of the people from the restaurants that my brother in law left, we're calling
going, what do you, what do you got going on?
We're getting burned out.
We're like, you know, we want to try what you're doing.
We're like, okay.
So we carve out a territory for them in North Colorado or South Colorado or East Colorado
and we'd be like, okay, we're going to send you all the materials and everything we did.
Now go start hiring some craftsmen, call us if you have any issues.
And we just kept duplicating and duplicating it.
Someone came to us and said, you guys, I don't think about franchising your business.
And we were like, what, what is that about?
Right.
So we learned about franchising and we got super excited because we were like, wow, we
could literally duplicate our business, help other people happily escape corporate America
and become business owners and create an asset they own, right?
Be in charge of making all the decisions, make the majority of the margin because they're
going to stop renting their time and talent to work for the man and they're going to start
building wealth for themselves and maybe create a legacy for their children down the road.
And why not?
So in the latter part of 2001, we franchised our business and we were the top rated national
handyman franchise for two decades.
Wow.
Crazy.
Swamp boy.
It started it.
Okay.
Like that is so amazing.
We have people call us.
We had, I had this couple call.
Well, they, they sent an email and inquired and then they called from Ireland.
Wow.
Yeah.
And they're like, we're in Ireland and we're coming to Colorado for our vacation because
they take the whole summer off, right?
They do it right.
They don't just, yeah.
Two weeks.
Yeah.
And then like, we're going to come to Colorado and we want to meet you and we're like, fascinating.
And sure enough, they came.
They stayed for two weeks.
They nearly drunk us all under the table.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
We were all having to take turns in the office.
I cannot go out again.
Somebody else has to go with Julia and Owen.
This is ridiculous, right?
And they were just lovely people, young.
Yeah.
And they were like, we want to open up our, your handyman business in Ireland.
And we were like, that's really far away.
Yeah.
We're going to be able to support you.
So we're like, we really think you need X more dollars of working capital and really
kind of think more about this and, okay, goodbye.
Right.
Like, and, and we wave goodbye and let me just tell you a couple months later, Owen called
and he said, I've got the extra working capital on Monday to go.
It was crazy.
Then the fight in the office was who gets to go to Ireland to open them up.
Right.
And let me tell you, they had, I think three or four kids being owners, built their family,
built a great business in Ireland.
It was just amazing.
It was amazing.
So three years ago, this last September, our franchise was acquired.
It was acquired by Ace Hardware.
Wow.
Yeah.
Ace Hardware.
So before then, I'll, you know, rewind the tape a little bit.
In 2006, being on the franchise or site with our handyman business, I realized, gosh, there
are so many people out there that are intrigued by the idea of being a business owner and
see that a franchise is a business in a box.
The operations, the marketing, the technology, the training support, it's already done for
you.
You don't have to have this vision, create something from scratch.
It's already done for you.
But they leave it up to Google and friends and family to tell them which franchise to
buy, which rarely yields in a good choice.
And they, way too many people do not understand how to conduct proper due diligence on a franchise,
right?
Because it's an investment.
It's like buying a house or a boat or a car.
I mean, it's a big, big, huge decision.
And so in 2006, I started my franchise consulting business because I felt as an entrepreneur,
it is my responsibility to be seen and to be heard and to help guide people into becoming
more educated prospective buyers on this type of investment decision, right, for their future.
And so I started my consulting business in 2006.
Our handyman business got acquired three years ago.
And so I have separated and I've just been doing my consulting business full time.
So I've been operating that since 2006.
Sister and brother-in-law love them tons, but now they work for ACE.
Wow.
So they're the ACE handyman division.
But here's what I can tell all the listeners.
When you find success being a business owner, whether it's planned or not, whether it's
with the franchise or just starting something from scratch, it's like the golden handcuffs
when you find success.
And I could never have another boss ever in my entire life, right?
Because I'll work 15, 17 hours, but I'm doing it out of the love that I have in my soul.
And I literally feel like I'm changing people's lives every day because business ownership,
franchise ownership is not a bit for everyone.
And through my journey of exploration that I take people through, it's their journey.
I'm just simply their guide.
They make all the decisions on this journey.
But let me just tell you, when they make that decision, this is not the right path for me.
I'm like, hallelujah, amen.
This is a victory.
And they're like, what?
We thought you'd be mad.
No, I'm so happy because now you know what you really need.
And now you can find a different path that is going to fulfill you in franchising or
business ownership, isn't it?
So I feel like I can really help people navigate the franchise waters and connect them to some
of the fastest growing, most successful franchises here in America and really help them understand
who they are and what they need, their dreams, their wants, their needs, their wishes, what
they hope to accomplish, their spend tolerance.
So I am America's franchise matchmaker, right?
So then my people that I work with go on some blind dates with some franchise matches and
they have some courtship and they may not get to the altar at the end of the day because
it really is meant to be a profitable business marriage.
Yeah.
And so that's really kind of how I ended up in franchising is from the basement days.
I love it.
More people get to the franchise and then getting acquired and being on the franchise
or site realizing, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's way too many misguided people
out there.
You know, because a lot of people don't understand, there's a lot more to franchising than french
fries.
There is.
Or coffee.
Yeah.
Or coffee.
Yeah, there are amazing opportunities out there for people to either escape corporate
America and start a new career or have a side hustle with the franchise and keep their
day job, keep their paycheck.
There's lots of options out there, but it's all about taking back control and building
additional wealth for their future.
That's so cool.
And my next question is, what do you think is a trait?
Like the skills and trait that you feel are the most important when you want to be a franchise
owner versus like just getting your job or getting your own business from scratch.
What do you think is the most important skills?
Yeah, that's a great question.
I would say most of the people that I work with have managed other people.
Okay.
So even if they've had a small staff, they have management skillsets, right?
They know how to lead.
They're a natural leader and they can manage people because what they're going to be doing
is when you buy a franchise business, you're going to be eliminating yourself from the
specialty or the expert to the boss.
You're going to be the boss now, right?
And then you're going to build a team underneath you.
And so you have to be able to lead and manage.
You have to be able to encourage people, right?
So good management skills, good leadership skills, a basic understanding of financials,
right?
Know how to read a P&L, know how to put together a performer or a budget, right?
Anybody should know that if they're going to go into business, right?
Because you got to know what's going on with the numbers, right?
Those are really the basics.
That's pretty cool.
I teach that class right now and I tell my students, pay attention, right?
They want to open up a business.
They're like, I hate accounting.
I'm like, I'm not even giving you debits and credits.
I'm giving you just the overview because if you hire people, you need to know if you
can't afford them.
You know what I mean?
If you want to not hire people, why not?
It all comes down to the dollars and cents, right?
It does.
Now, has the recent COVID-19 pandemic changed your approach to people when it comes to like
giving your consultation or has that even increased because of COVID-19?
Well, one thing that I might have failed to mention to you is that all of my services,
all of my coaching, all my connections to funding organizations to help them fund their
franchise of their dreams and the franchise companies, it's completely free.
I don't charge a penny for any of my services to anyone that works with me because of all
my success and my track record and franchising.
Franchise companies like to use me as a recruiter to help identify people that have the right
skill sets and can afford their franchise in the areas that they're looking to develop.
So if I do the matchmaking correctly and the franchisor approves the person and the person
said, yes, I want to buy this franchise, then the franchise company is going to pay me
a finder's fee very similar to a real estate agent.
Yeah.
Or a recruiter, really.
Some of them get...
Or a recruiter, okay.
Yeah.
So with that being said, since the pandemic, let's just say, 2022 banner year.
Banner year for me, highest placements I've ever done since 2006.
Wow.
2019, just a smidge under this year's placements.
And I really think, again, people who are forced to look inward and do a self-discovery
and say, am I truly happy doing what I'm doing every day or do I want to take this time to
find a new path to bring me happiness?
And maybe people are happy.
Maybe people were happy with their job, but they said, there's a void that I want to fill.
I want to give back to my community.
I want to provide a positive impact.
I want to help lead others because I personally gain satisfaction by helping others be successful.
Whatever it was, whatever their why was, that motivated them enough to be able to take the
leap and at least explore the opportunity of doing something different.
So it's definitely increased significantly.
Wow.
That's pretty amazing, actually, because I could see that happening when there's the
mass quitting of teachers.
We're getting paid like $2 an hour.
It's a joke, but it is true.
It is a joke.
Yeah.
It is very much so.
And a lot of people are doing quiet quitting, right?
It's because it's not worth it anymore.
Now, if someone were to like, this is so exciting, tell me more.
Where should they even start when it comes to franchising?
Should they start like, I want to franchise a Starbucks or a McDonald's?
Oh, no, that's probably half a million dollars.
But where do they start?
How do you even get there?
Because a lot of people are saying, you know, franchise, you don't have control over anything,
right?
They are telling you exactly to the T and just multiply what they're doing.
You're not really the boss of you.
You're just kind of making money, but it's not.
You are definitely getting you.
You are absolutely in charge.
One, how to say you're in charge of your customers, you're in charge of your staff, you're in
charge of your books, you're in charge of executing the proven plan.
The franchise is always not going to do that for you, but they are going to give you the
playbook and they're going to tell you exactly what to do, when to do it, why you're doing
what you're doing, and they're going to help you every day.
Make sure you get to the World Series because they are responsible for you being successful.
So it is a myth to say, I'm not in control of anything when I own a franchise business
because you are making all the decisions.
And you are in control of that.
You're in control of your pricing, everything, right?
So you have a playbook and you have decisions that have fluidity and flexibility to it.
But yes, if you go to McDonald's and they don't have a Big Mac on the menu, you're going
to be like, what the heck?
Because they're Big Mac on the menu, right?
So there's certain boundaries, rules, and parameters that have to be set word that that's
what creates the branding and the value proposition with franchising.
So whether you go to the McDonald's in Wisconsin or the McDonald's in Barrow Beach, Florida,
or the McDonald's in Colorado Springs, Colorado, you can be assured there's going to be a Big
Mac on the menu, right?
So those things add value and increase the valuation of the business overall.
They're not, I mean, not all the rules are bad, right?
So but here's the thing, people don't know where to begin.
It's very overwhelming.
I do all the heavy lifting, right?
I'm an expert.
I have a pulse on the industry.
Not every franchise organization is created equal.
You can bet your boots on that, right?
And I can confidently say that because I was a franchisor.
So I saw how all the other franchise companies operate it.
So we vet these franchise companies.
We look at their training and their marketing and their support and how many store closures
they have.
Do they have any lawsuits?
What's going on?
Call franchise owners.
Are you happy?
Are you making money?
How does the franchise over support you?
How long does it take them to get back to you when you have an issue?
So we do all heavy lifting.
And we have a special inventory that we work with.
And again, I am proud to say that I work with some of the fastest growing, most successful
franchises in America for a reason.
Why?
Because number one is my reputation on the line.
Number two, I want them to come back and buy their second, third, fourth franchise from
me, right?
Because we got a home run the first one.
And I want referrals because what is that saying birds of the feather flock together?
And so they are going to be surrounded by like people who also say, hey, I want to be
a business owner like you.
How did you find that franchise?
Well, I worked with America's franchise matchmaker, Carrie Ann, let me connect you.
I honestly can tell you I'm very blessed.
A very large percentage of my business is 100% referral.
Even when people don't buy a franchise, they send me probably more referrals than the people
that buy franchises.
Because they're just like, this was an amazing experience.
I learned a lot about myself and I didn't leave them de-handed even though I'm not going
to move forward with the business, right?
So the steps they need to take is they need to be prepared to do a self-discovery.
What are their dreams once?
Is it even possible, right?
Financially, can they even afford a franchise, right?
You have to have at least liquidity, some sort of liquidity of at least $100,000 and
you've got to have a net worth of at least $350,000 to buy anything that's going to bring
any kind of revenue in the door, right?
So they need to take an inventory of their financials.
They need to think of what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, right?
And then they need to contact me and we can have a discussion and then we can move to
eventually a consultation where we can put together their dream wish list because nobody
has time to waste, right?
So we're laser focused and we make sure that we're in the strongest position to identify
and match them up to multiple businesses so they can compare and contrast and stack these
up against each other, it should never be a one-and-one scenario.
Yeah, should be having like comparative analysis between these competitors and C. I'm glad
you said that.
So that was my next question.
I'm like, if someone was thinking of having a franchise, like how much does, you know,
do they need and you answer that literally because other people want it, but if they
don't have the means to do it, it's not impossible, obviously, but it is impossible right now
if you don't have the asset, right?
Yeah, and really in today's climate, I tell everyone like, my goal is to spend as little
of your own money as possible.
Why?
Because smart business people use OPM, other people's money.
That's why they got money.
That's what smart business people do.
So worst case scenario in today's climate, you're going to have to make a down payment
of 30% just like you would for a car or a house.
And then the delta can be covered by a small business loan, a home equity line and credit,
a lot of people don't know that they can actually roll over for some of their retirement
dollars to themselves, tax-free and penalty free to start their own franchise.
There's a conversation that most people don't know and they are actually already have 401
K anyway, right?
401 K or IRAs, 401.
So let's say that, you know, they were transitioned out of their last company, their last company,
let them go and said, we don't need you.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.
Okay, well, I got this 401 K sitting here.
Well, you can take that compounding effect and you can borrow a portion of that to yourself,
tax-free and penalty free to start your own franchise business or any other business.
It doesn't have to be a franchise.
You can't go on an even market shopping spree.
You can't go to Northstrom.
You can't buy a bow.
It has to be business, right?
Otherwise you'll end up in the pokey, right?
We don't want to give it bad advice out there.
So how do you get those dollars?
For the business.
For a business.
But how cool is that?
That is pretty cool actually.
Not a lot of people, not even me.
I didn't even know you can do that with tax-free because everyone's so scared like 40% is going
to be taken out.
You know, like it's just a lot of money that you have.
It's like, feels like double taxation really at the end too.
Yeah.
So it's a phenomenal product.
It's called the ROBS program, Rollover for Business Startup.
It's a real deal.
It's legal.
It's been out there for decades and millions of people use it.
Some people take a combination of maybe some savings.
But again, we want you to get educated, become an educated prospective buyer before you make
any decisions or spend any money.
Yeah.
Even like a hay, this is your lifetime goal and you're like, I don't even have 20,000
in my bank or maybe even like 80,000.
But someday soon I'm going to get that, talk to Carrie Ann and see where you're heading.
And then from there, that's your main intentions and goal.
Two years from now you might get, you know, half a million and like, Carrie Ann, I'm ready.
Let's go.
You never know, right?
Yeah.
I mean, nothing happens by accident.
That's what I know for sure.
Yeah.
My last question is, if you were to inspire someone right now listening, saying, hey,
I really want to connect.
I really want to know what my options are in terms of making my own business through
franchise.
Where do I start?
Yeah.
So you can go to my website.
It's franchise-logic.com.
That's the little dash, right?
And my calendar is right there on the front page.
You can book an initial 15 minute discussion with me.
I've been franchising business ownership for over 24 years.
I'm sure there is not a question someone could ask me that I wouldn't be able to answer.
And we can just have, you know, some dialogue and talk about why does this make sense for
you or why does it not make sense for you.
And then if it does make sense for us to work together, then we're going to start the journey.
It's typically a 90-day journey from beginning to end.
You have to get approved by the franchise or not everyone gets approved.
But we're going to put you to the front of the line and shine you in the brightest light.
And you know, we won't know if franchising is going to be right for you or not until
we get going.
It's like buying a house.
You have that dream of getting that certain house.
You put down the negotiation.
You're like, counter-offer me.
I can't do this.
That's amazing.
Thank you so much.
I learned quite a bit actually in this conversation.
So now I'm like, oh, I know people who can help you.
I pride myself of knowing a lot of people that are helping other people either through
business, through learning, to whatever.
So this is amazing.
I'll put you on that list for sure.
Thank you so much for your time today.
Oh my gosh.
Thank you.
It was all my pleasure.
It was just wonderful to share my story.
Thank you for listening to my podcast today.
If you have any questions, email me at luah at levelupbydocklelin.com.
Luah L-U-A-B-Y-D-O-C-L-E-Y-L-A-N-D.com.
It's open for consultations and courses will be offered soon.
I will see you in my next episode.
Stay connected, informed, and inspired.
Until next time.