1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,640 But this is an hour south of Tampa. 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:04,920 So if you're looking on a map, 3 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:06,840 it's West coast of Florida, 4 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:10,640 Gulf, the Gulf side they call it. 5 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:11,480 Yeah. 6 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:14,920 And I've been here just three years this month, 7 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:17,520 born and raised in New York city. 8 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:18,340 Nice. 9 00:00:18,340 --> 00:00:19,720 They say you moved to Florida 10 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,080 and the sand gets stuck in your shoes. 11 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:22,900 You can't leave. 12 00:00:22,900 --> 00:00:24,160 Yeah. 13 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:25,240 That's true. 14 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:26,080 Yeah. 15 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:28,480 And how long have you been doing franchises for? 16 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,280 So I've been in the franchise industry almost 25 years. 17 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:33,760 I've owned and operated franchises. 18 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:35,560 First one was a great success. 19 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:36,600 You know, we'll talk about that. 20 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:37,440 All right. 21 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:39,800 Welcome in to Vision Pros Live. 22 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:41,880 With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host. 23 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:44,520 We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs 24 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,520 and guest leaders who are building 25 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,040 fantastic visions out there. 26 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:49,040 What's up everybody? 27 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:52,040 And welcome to Vision Pros Live. 28 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:53,040 I'm Jackson Calame. 29 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:54,040 I'm your host. 30 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:55,040 I'm your host. 31 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:56,040 I'm your host. 32 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:57,040 I'm your host. 33 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,120 What's up everybody and welcome into Vision Pros Live. 34 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:01,800 I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, 35 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,360 founder and CEO of First Class Business. 36 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:06,880 And I've got Tom Scarta joining me today. 37 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,120 Tom is a franchise veteran of more than 25 years. 38 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,680 And I'm excited to dive into the modern world 39 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:15,240 of franchising. 40 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:17,520 I love that he, when we were talking just now, 41 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:18,720 he talked about how this is not 42 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:20,720 your grandfather's franchise, right? 43 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,280 The franchise game has changed a lot 44 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,560 over the last several decades. 45 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,080 So understanding what that horizon looks like 46 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:30,920 in the here and now in 2023, super important to me. 47 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:32,800 We might be talking about the economy a little bit. 48 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:35,560 We might be talking about the pros and cons. 49 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:36,480 We'll see where that goes. 50 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:39,080 But before we dive into that, and I bring him on stage, 51 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,400 a quick shout out to a few of our sponsors. 52 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:42,800 We've got ColdClick. 53 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:44,600 ColdClick is a system we use 54 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:46,920 for helping with our LinkedIn automation. 55 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,320 And we've got a great connection rate, 56 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,120 if you're familiar with connection rates. 57 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,320 If you're not, I'll just kind of educate you a little bit. 58 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:57,040 Most people are probably getting between a two 59 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:01,040 and a 12% click through rate or connection rate on LinkedIn. 60 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:02,840 That's not very good. 61 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,480 I've had campaigns that get between that seven 62 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:10,080 and 15% mark when we just don't hit it right. 63 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,240 We're getting a 46% connection rate. 64 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,400 So having the right message to warm people up 65 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,400 and overcome the stranger danger aspect is super important. 66 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:21,680 Also having a team that helps you make sure 67 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:23,720 that you don't get put in LinkedIn jail. 68 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:25,360 That's another reason to be working with somebody 69 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:27,640 who knows the rules and regulations 70 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:29,920 and knows the algorithms to help keep you protected. 71 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:31,560 Simply fast websites. 72 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:33,240 That's another interesting entity. 73 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:34,360 Now we don't use this entity, 74 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:36,800 but that's because we've already established our brand. 75 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:38,680 If you go to firstclassbusiness.io, 76 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,960 you're gonna see a website that costs us thousands of dollars 77 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,680 to create in terms of energy, time, 78 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:46,760 monetary commitment and value to our web developer 79 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:48,240 and designer and beyond. 80 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:50,840 But if I were starting from scratch 81 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,880 and I never built a website before, 82 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:57,480 I personally wouldn't use Squarespace or Wix to do that. 83 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:00,460 I could, but I would rather have some guidance 84 00:03:00,460 --> 00:03:02,760 from somebody who knows what's going on. 85 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:04,840 I would know that in $179, 86 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,540 I'm not gonna get the best website in the world, 87 00:03:07,540 --> 00:03:10,240 but what a fantastic pricing point to start with 88 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:11,480 and get your feet wet with somebody 89 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:13,300 who has a passion for the industry. 90 00:03:13,300 --> 00:03:15,040 So Shane Michael really impressed me 91 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:16,460 and I was like, this is great. 92 00:03:16,460 --> 00:03:19,000 We have all sorts of people out there who need help 93 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,360 with growing their business. 94 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:24,360 I think COVID economics is a thing. 95 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:28,080 I think we're experiencing it as a world 96 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,100 and it just makes that climb for entrepreneurs 97 00:03:31,100 --> 00:03:33,260 that much steeper to make it up. 98 00:03:33,260 --> 00:03:36,000 So it's important to gravitate towards those 99 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:37,640 who are willing to help, who are willing to give, 100 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:38,880 who are willing to make a big difference. 101 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:43,240 So the Water Project, while our problems as business owners, 102 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:46,780 our challenges, our first world, 103 00:03:46,780 --> 00:03:49,320 I also plead that you take a look 104 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:51,680 into what you can do to help out in the third world, 105 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:53,760 specifically these areas of Africa 106 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,560 that don't have access to clean drinking water. 107 00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:58,540 And if you didn't have clean drinking water yourself, 108 00:03:58,540 --> 00:04:01,040 you'd probably drink whatever you could to survive 109 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,200 or use the shower and et cetera. 110 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:05,900 And that can create all sorts of disease and problems. 111 00:04:05,900 --> 00:04:08,740 It also means that instead of your kids being in school, 112 00:04:08,740 --> 00:04:10,440 they're walking for miles at a time 113 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,960 to go get water for their community to help out. 114 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:18,000 And that probably leads to some disgruntled relationships. 115 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,560 It probably leads to stress, fear, anxiety 116 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,680 that we can't relate to with where we live. 117 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,440 So what can we do about that? 118 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,920 Well, we can give a dollar or five or 10,000 119 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:29,880 or whatever we'd like. 120 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:31,400 But what's really cool about that project 121 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,240 is they show you exactly what happens to those communities. 122 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:37,560 So if any of you out there like, dang, Jackson, 123 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,440 you always talk so much about this, get on with it. 124 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:41,640 I'm gonna say no. 125 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,680 Like pull your heart out of your butt and start 126 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:46,960 preparing to contribute and give back. 127 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:48,880 Don't ever forget about the people in this world 128 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:50,360 who suffer more than us, please. 129 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:51,920 That's my plea with you. 130 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,320 So now that I'm done chastising those of you 131 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:56,660 who don't like the whole give back thing, 132 00:04:56,660 --> 00:04:58,780 I'm gonna move on to somebody who does like to give back. 133 00:04:58,780 --> 00:05:00,840 We're gonna bring Tom on screen. 134 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:03,560 So Tom, thank you so much for joining me on Vision Pros, man. 135 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,400 And I look forward to tackling franchise with you. 136 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:08,080 Hey, Jackson, this is an honor. 137 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:09,800 I'm so excited to be on your show. 138 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:10,640 It's so great. 139 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,680 And the sponsors you have, man, spot on. 140 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:14,520 I love it. 141 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,120 The Water Project, we'll talk more about that later. 142 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:18,200 Okay, I'll make it. 143 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:20,040 We'll have to put a pin in that and come back to it. 144 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,960 And it's hard to remember later, but I love that idea. 145 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:24,440 Hold me to it, Tom. 146 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,120 So Tom, let's dive in hot and heavy. 147 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:28,640 Who should be listening? 148 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,000 Why should they listen to you specifically? 149 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:33,740 And what are they going to get out of today's show? 150 00:05:33,740 --> 00:05:38,280 So anyone who is frustrated with their career, 151 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:40,280 thinking about making a change in their life, 152 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:42,280 someone who might be laid off, 153 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:45,920 or somebody looking to even just diversify investments, 154 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:48,360 there's someone who should listen. 155 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:50,080 The reason maybe they should listen to me, 156 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,000 and I don't know, maybe they shouldn't be listening to me, 157 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,480 but my background goes all the way back 158 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:57,600 to being a New York City subway conductor 159 00:05:57,600 --> 00:05:59,720 working on the trains in New York City. 160 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,400 After 13 years, there was somebody there, 161 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:04,560 a kind of a senior person said, 162 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:06,240 hey, Tom, this is a great job 163 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,640 because you'll always have a shirt on your back. 164 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:10,720 He said, you'll never have a silk shirt, 165 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:12,480 but at least you'll have a shirt. 166 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:13,520 And I was like, wait a second, 167 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,600 that sounds like mediocrity to me. 168 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:19,120 And so I wanted to be a business owner 169 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:20,040 because as I looked around, 170 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,240 my bosses were not wearing silk shirts, 171 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:24,200 but business owners wore. 172 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:27,800 And so I realized that a franchise 173 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:29,360 is a business with training wheels, 174 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,480 and that's what I needed, somebody to hold my hand, 175 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:32,720 take me through the whole process 176 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,280 from learning how to even understand what a franchise is 177 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:37,960 all the way to building the business 178 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:39,360 and being able to sell it. 179 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:42,120 So I bought a franchise back in 2000. 180 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:46,360 In 2005, I sold it and sent me retired at 41 years old. 181 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,200 And then I bought a second franchise 182 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:51,560 just because I was cocky 183 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:53,640 and I thought I could do anything I wanted to. 184 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:56,960 I bought a second franchise and within two years it failed 185 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:59,840 and I lost almost my entire life savings. 186 00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:01,720 That's what made me a franchise expert. 187 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:03,360 And that's why somebody should listen to me. 188 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,400 If they are thinking about buying a franchise 189 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:08,280 or getting into business at all, 190 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:10,960 is I can show you the ropes and how to avoid 191 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:12,520 getting in financial trouble. 192 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:14,520 Oh man, I love that. 193 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:15,360 I really do. 194 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:18,000 And I thank you for utilizing that story. 195 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,040 I mean, we as a society, 196 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:23,640 I think this is just in general human instinct. 197 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,280 We wanna follow the perfect path, right? 198 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:27,720 We wanna follow that person 199 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,360 who never made a mistake along the way. 200 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,040 But we forget that we make mistakes every day 201 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,120 and we're going to make mistakes, right? 202 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:36,200 We're going to have challenges. 203 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:38,640 So, I would much rather, 204 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,960 if I was gonna train to climb Mount Everest, for instance, 205 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:44,760 yes, I wanna train with somebody 206 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:48,320 who's been successful at it, but I would be stupid 207 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,720 to also not look for the advice and the training 208 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:52,760 from the person who did not make it 209 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,040 and find out why didn't they make it. 210 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,320 I mean, we should get multiple opinions, 211 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:01,560 but as we talk about the franchise academy, 212 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,840 we're gonna come back to that particular experience 213 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,840 of the failure probably have been hard in just a little bit. 214 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,800 So, what's your vision for those that you serve 215 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:12,240 in 30 seconds? 216 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,120 My vision is to help people get off their duff 217 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:17,320 and make a change in their life 218 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,560 because the world is waiting for them. 219 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:23,080 Everyone has a gift and I am trying to get it out of them. 220 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:24,600 And it's not just about franchising. 221 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,440 It's about making that change to get out of your own way. 222 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:29,560 Yeah, very good. 223 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:30,640 Okay, and I like this. 224 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:34,240 You've got this stance, you know, 225 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:38,520 this natural repellence to mediocrity. 226 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:39,680 So do I. 227 00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:42,320 We get along on that big time. 228 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:43,160 So what about you? 229 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:48,160 What's your vision for yourself over the next 10, 15 years? 230 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,640 Well, I'd like to play golf as much as I can, 231 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:55,640 but I realized early on I wanted to, you know, 232 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,120 be on a grand stage and try to affect 233 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,880 all these different people in audiences all over the world. 234 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:02,840 And I realized that I could just affect people 235 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:05,960 one person at a time, and that has a butterfly effect 236 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,080 and a ripple effect throughout the world. 237 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:10,080 And so I do that. 238 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,120 I just want to be able to communicate with people 239 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:15,640 and help them, you know, get to levels in their life 240 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:17,320 that they would not have been able to get to 241 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:18,920 if we never met. 242 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:20,600 And so I'm all about, you know, 243 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:22,640 goals and vision for the future. 244 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:26,080 And I use the old Dan Sullivan, you know, 245 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,560 the strategic coach, his question about, you know, 246 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:32,320 if you think about your life three years from now, 247 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:34,680 what would have to happen so you could tell me 248 00:09:34,680 --> 00:09:37,360 that you're happy and satisfied professionally 249 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,640 and also personally. 250 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:42,760 And so when I can understand where somebody wants to be, 251 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,160 then I can help them get there. 252 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:46,040 I like that too. 253 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:48,280 So, okay, so one of the things I really like 254 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:50,880 about your answer, Tom, is most people shy away 255 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:55,040 from any personal ambitions or pleasures 256 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:56,600 when I ask that question. 257 00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:58,280 And you hit a head on. 258 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:00,960 And I think it's okay, like, I hope the world hears that 259 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:05,320 and says, oh, cool, like, he does want to balance. 260 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,120 He's not just giving me the elbow, elbow, hand wave pageant, 261 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:12,440 you know, I want world peace only. 262 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:18,400 I don't want to call it BS, but overcompensation, right? 263 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:21,160 I like golf too, you know? 264 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:23,680 Yeah, I could play a few more rounds of golf in my life. 265 00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:26,000 I like the Spurs and basketball. 266 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,240 I'd love to go to a few more Spurs games in life. 267 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,760 And I like to spend time with my kids, right? 268 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,800 Those are certainly important things. 269 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:38,800 And I also appreciate that you talked about helping the one. 270 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:40,480 You know, your stage opportunities, 271 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:42,440 you know it, they'll come. 272 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:44,320 You know, you keep helping the one. 273 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:46,440 That's going to continue to lead to that. 274 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,840 But rather than just chasing the big ambition, 275 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:52,160 you know, it looks like you're also appreciating 276 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:53,840 the victories along the way. 277 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:58,120 And I think a lot of vision pros can learn from just that. 278 00:10:58,120 --> 00:11:00,840 Do you have anything you want to add regarding that segment 279 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:02,200 before we move on? 280 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:05,240 Well, just that, you know, as I got older, 281 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:07,840 I learned just about myself and my faults. 282 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,680 And my number one fault is my ego. 283 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:11,800 Oh yeah? 284 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:13,120 That's the number one thing. 285 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,240 I think we all fight that where we want to, you know, 286 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:17,760 if you are like an entrepreneur 287 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,040 and you're trying to get ahead, it's all about, 288 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:21,720 you got to think about what do you want to get ahead? 289 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:24,320 You know, and it's to please your parents, 290 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,800 to please your friends, you know, to show off, you know, why? 291 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:29,040 Why do you want to do this? 292 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,520 Once I did that for myself, I realized, wait a second, 293 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:35,840 I don't need all of, wait, I'm trying to do the wrong thing. 294 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:37,880 I'm coming at it at the wrong angle. 295 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,720 Let's think about, you know, what my mission is. 296 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:42,480 My mission is one person at a time. 297 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:43,920 That's good enough. 298 00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:44,760 That's cool. 299 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,720 And there's a couple of synonyms with that word ego. 300 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:49,920 One of them is New Yorker. 301 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:51,920 One of them is Texan. 302 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:56,440 So we, no, you don't think so? 303 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:57,840 What do you mean by that? 304 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:01,400 I mean, as Texans, as New Yorkers, 305 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:06,400 we both tend to gravitate towards this grand feeling of pride. 306 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,800 And sometimes we overdo it a little bit 307 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,520 with the pride thing. 308 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:13,920 Is that fair? 309 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:16,520 That is very fair and spot on for sure. 310 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:19,760 And no, I see you, 311 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,640 I've seen you already in this conversation exercise 312 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:25,920 a lot more humility than most people 313 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:28,760 who are still working on that ego thing. 314 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,760 So we should probably dive into that 315 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:33,200 when we talk about the powerful lesson 316 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,280 is how do you make that transition 317 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,240 from somebody who's got a high ego or a big ego 318 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,320 and needs to figure out how to recognize that. 319 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:43,240 But before we do that, 320 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:45,400 let's dive deep and heavy into the dark subject 321 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:48,840 of what's your worst business experience ever 322 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:51,800 and whether that's a franchise loss or not. 323 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:56,800 So I think the worst thing was buying a second franchise 324 00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,440 and then failing and the humility of that 325 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,240 and the humbling experience that was, 326 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:06,160 back then I was crying about it, literally. 327 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:10,960 Now, 15, 16 years later, 328 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:13,640 I feel blessed that it actually happened. 329 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:16,080 That was really an important event. 330 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:18,600 So now I could talk to people and say, I've been there. 331 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,560 Because there's a lot of fear when you're making this change, 332 00:13:21,560 --> 00:13:23,840 when you make any kind of changes of fear. 333 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:28,200 And naturally, and I can say, hey, listen, 334 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,320 I'm the guy to help because I've been there 335 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:36,320 and it stunk, but no one died. 336 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:38,080 Let me put it that way. 337 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:39,680 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 338 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:41,880 All right, I wanna ask you about this franchise 339 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:43,520 and what it was too. 340 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:45,560 But I gotta ask you first, 341 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:47,720 do the women in your life often tell you 342 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:51,560 you look like a better looking version than Robert De Niro? 343 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:52,920 Forget about it, of course. 344 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:56,400 You pulled it off, I like that, that's cool. 345 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:57,920 So anybody, anybody who agrees with me, 346 00:13:57,920 --> 00:13:59,920 drop that in the comments too. 347 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:03,000 We have a small social following right now. 348 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:04,960 So you may not see the comment on there, 349 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:06,360 but I know a lot of them are gonna be thinking 350 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,400 that in their hearts, Rob, Tom. 351 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:11,840 So let's talk about this franchise. 352 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:12,760 What was it? 353 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:14,080 What was the deal? 354 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:16,280 Was it an ape shop before vape? 355 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:17,480 Yeah, I wish. 356 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:18,920 I might have survived then, 357 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:21,960 but it was something called Super Suppers, 358 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,000 which was ahead of its time actually. 359 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,960 What it was is a place where you come to our studio, 360 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,120 it was like a Tuscan style kitchen 361 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,080 and you make meals in bulk. 362 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:34,040 You follow our recipes, use our ingredients 363 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:35,920 and take them home and freeze them. 364 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:38,920 On days when you're busy, you throw it in the oven 365 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:42,000 and you have a home cooked meal in like 20 minutes. 366 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,680 So when you think about it, like on paper, 367 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:48,480 what busy mom, what busy parent, mom or dad, 368 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:51,440 would not love that concept? 369 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:53,320 And it started out with a bang. 370 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,600 And we were, and so this is 2006, 371 00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:58,880 we were on literally the front cover 372 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,600 of the Sunday New York Times. 373 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:03,520 Below the fold, so it wasn't the headline, 374 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,040 but it was below the fold at the bottom 375 00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:09,120 and it was an article about us and it said, 376 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,440 we're changing the way America eats, 377 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:14,880 the way Swanson TV dinners and McDonald's 378 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:17,120 did 50 years earlier. 379 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:19,400 And I was like, wow, we're gonna be billionaires, 380 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:21,040 let alone millionaires. 381 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:25,280 And fast forward 2008, a lot of things happened. 382 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,760 I mean, I wrote a book about it called Franchise Savvy, 383 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:30,480 which you could find on Amazon, 384 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:32,400 it's actually a best seller right now. 385 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,320 And so I wrote about my stories, 386 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,240 good and bad, to help people understand. 387 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,000 Like this book is not about the numbers 388 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,120 and you're not gonna find charts and all that, 389 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:51,120 but it's my stories of the experiences I've had. 390 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:55,240 And so I could talk a lot more about why it failed. 391 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,560 Now in retrospect, I understand what happened, 392 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:00,360 but I coach people to not make the mistakes 393 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:02,200 that I made the second time around 394 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:04,200 and do the things I did the first time around 395 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:06,680 when I was able to semi-retire. 396 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:08,200 Ah, interesting. 397 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,800 And I think I would like to talk some about that. 398 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:13,480 So again, powerful lesson stage, 399 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:15,520 I think we'll dive into that. 400 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:17,520 One thing that I will talk on now though, 401 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:18,920 is that it's interesting. 402 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:22,320 You're one of the first people that I've talked to 403 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:27,080 that of the people who went through the economic crisis 404 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,480 in 2008, some of my audience is younger 405 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,040 than having had that experience, but you went through that. 406 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:35,200 I didn't hear you leverage that as the end all be all, 407 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:37,080 only thing to blame. 408 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,160 External factor caused your failure, hint, hint. 409 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:44,040 You actually seem to take accountability 410 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:45,080 for that situation. 411 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,640 So did the economic impact, 412 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:50,640 was it a driver and force as well, the environment, 413 00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:53,480 or was it not as big? 414 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,080 What percent of a factor do you think that was 415 00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:57,480 on the failure of the franchise? 416 00:16:57,480 --> 00:16:59,280 I think it was a mitigating factor. 417 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:01,640 I don't think it was a big factor. 418 00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:04,120 I feel that we were one of the first casualties 419 00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:08,840 that fell back then when the economic climate 420 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:11,680 was just collapsing and you couldn't get money, 421 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,240 you couldn't borrow money. 422 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:17,680 It was tough economically, but we had other problems. 423 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,800 The problem, and this is like, 424 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:22,360 if you're looking for a franchise, 425 00:17:22,360 --> 00:17:25,440 it was a brand new concept that had never been done before. 426 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:27,440 So there was no market to figure out 427 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,400 if this is gonna work. 428 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:34,400 It would have been great if it was during COVID time, 429 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:35,920 because it would have been perfect for COVID. 430 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:36,760 Right. 431 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:40,160 But we were ahead of our time, I think. 432 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:41,840 You were in the blue ocean, 433 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,760 and every article writer loves to write 434 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,040 about the quality of the blue ocean. 435 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,840 And I'm like, nobody's in the blue ocean. 436 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,080 That's the problem with it, is you don't have a market yet. 437 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:52,920 Right, right. 438 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,080 Like I think about the folks that created things 439 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:58,920 like Uber or Airbnb. 440 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:00,720 It's like, you gotta start from zero. 441 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:01,560 There's nothing there. 442 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:05,280 You have no idea if this darn thing is gonna work or not. 443 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,080 That's true entrepreneurship, right? 444 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:11,000 But that's scary as all heck to me. 445 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,640 A franchise, like I said, is a business with training wheels. 446 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:15,640 So it's been done. 447 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:17,320 And so people ask me all the time, 448 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,600 like, what's the hottest franchise and all that, 449 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:24,000 but is there something great that's in the green economy? 450 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,000 And the short answer is no, there's not. 451 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,600 And the reason why is that the green economy right now 452 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,080 is cutting edge, it's brand new. 453 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:36,080 And franchising doesn't do brand new things well. 454 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:40,000 If you think about it, McDonald's did not invent hamburgers. 455 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,880 Amco Transmission did not invent transmissions. 456 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,240 And the fitness gyms did not invent 457 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:48,000 going to the gym and working out. 458 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,680 What they did is they systematized 459 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:52,520 and brought it to market and brought it out 460 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:55,160 to the suburban areas of the country 461 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:57,560 and internationally for those that are listening 462 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:01,760 internationally, that's what franchising is good at. 463 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:06,720 So you wanna get into something that people use every day. 464 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,000 And people say, oh, but this competition, 465 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,680 yeah, this competition because people use it. 466 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:15,160 It's a market, that's the difference. 467 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:17,320 Exactly, and let's take a look at this together 468 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:19,040 to drive your point home. 469 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:20,200 Uber, right? 470 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,280 How much funding did they start with, right? 471 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,840 They started with a funding round of 1.3 million. 472 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:27,280 Now, that's not a lot of money, 473 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:29,280 but that's more than most of you raise. 474 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,920 And if you're in a blue ocean, a new concept, 475 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:34,000 then this is something you need to consider. 476 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:35,360 Let's go down a little bit further though 477 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:38,080 and see the truth behind how much they raised. 478 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:40,760 Uber funding round, Crunchbase, how much? 479 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:45,760 Uber has raised $25.2 billion. 480 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:49,840 Okay, I'm not sure that Crunchbase 481 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:52,200 has this information correct, 482 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:57,200 but I have heard that they've raised over 100 million. 483 00:19:57,520 --> 00:19:58,560 So you'd have to look through this. 484 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:02,000 Whether it's 100 million or 25 billion, 485 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,560 both those numbers are beyond what most people consider 486 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:08,080 when it comes to tackling a market. 487 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:10,920 But if you're gonna tackle a blue ocean market, 488 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,800 oh my goodness, the amount of awareness you have to raise 489 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:15,480 for what's going on, the amount of hoops 490 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:19,040 you have to jump through, politics, et cetera, 491 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:20,880 it's insane. 492 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:23,080 Yeah, go ahead. 493 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:24,800 Sorry, I cut you off. 494 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:25,760 You're good. 495 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:26,600 Okay. 496 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:27,440 I'm all for it. 497 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:28,720 Yes. 498 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:30,720 I was just gonna say, on that note, 499 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:33,920 I hold nothing against the franchise company. 500 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:35,480 I made the choice to buy it. 501 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,240 I could have maybe sued somebody. 502 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:40,640 That never even crossed my mind. 503 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,760 I wanted to really, so the point I wanted to make is 504 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,520 you gotta get into something that is tried and true. 505 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:51,680 And what we learned with Super Suppers is that 506 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:54,880 not only did I do the, I had to do marketing and advertising, 507 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,400 but I had to do educational advertising, 508 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:01,280 which is just, it costs a lot of money. 509 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:03,040 So people would come into the store, 510 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,840 they'd be going to Walgreens or something, 511 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,240 and they would stop in and go, what is this? 512 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:11,040 You would take five minutes, explain it, 513 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:13,280 and they'd be, oh my God, that's brilliant. 514 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:14,600 And hopefully they would come back 515 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:15,800 and make some meals with you. 516 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,680 But that's one of the problems right there, 517 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:21,720 is the amount of educational marketing. 518 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:23,200 You need a lot of time and money, 519 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,720 which also is the main point that I make in the book is 520 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:29,400 we had to change people's habits. 521 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:32,920 And when it comes to food, it's hard to do that. 522 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,040 So it makes a lot of sense to come to our location 523 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:36,240 and make meals, right? 524 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:37,920 You're doing it with your own hands. 525 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:39,840 If you don't like onions, you leave them out. 526 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,640 I mean, it's totally your meal. 527 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,720 And you take them home, freeze them, and it's great. 528 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,040 But what happens is after you run out of those meals, 529 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,840 it's easier just to go to your local supermarket 530 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:55,320 and buy like a rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad 531 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:57,640 and call it dinner and you're done, 532 00:21:57,640 --> 00:21:59,680 instead of making an appointment to come in with us 533 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:01,680 and make your meals in bulk. 534 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:05,360 So that was a big problem is changing people's habits. 535 00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:07,560 Yeah, absolutely. 536 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:09,560 That is not easy to do. 537 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:12,600 I'm also glad that you brought up educational marketing. 538 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:14,040 For most people listening in, 539 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,040 marketing is marketing is marketing is marketing. 540 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:19,640 Like it's all the same, just like sales is all the same 541 00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:21,640 and it's either bad or good, depending on how you look at it. 542 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,200 On the flip side with marketing, there are others 543 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:27,520 more educated along the path that understand 544 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:30,440 that there's branding and there's conversion marketing. 545 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:32,480 And usually when they start to find out about that, 546 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:33,880 they gravitate towards one or the other, 547 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:36,720 make people feel good and believe in the brand long-term 548 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:38,880 or get people to buy and get people to buy 549 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:40,240 as much as you can, as fast as you can. 550 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:42,600 But you talked about one of the gaps in the middle 551 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:44,600 and there are many, that is that 552 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:47,600 educational marketing component. 553 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,360 It's not easy, we're not gonna dive into it right now, 554 00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:52,200 but any of you that are listening, 555 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:53,760 I'm just kind of rehashing these things 556 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:55,680 so that you can take better notes 557 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:58,520 and think about looking this stuff up on YouTube. 558 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,640 I always say go to YouTube and when you have a new subject, 559 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,640 look up the videos that are two to three minutes long, 560 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:08,240 and learn those and let the experts handle the rest, 561 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:10,360 but go after those two to five minute videos 562 00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:11,440 if you don't know a subject 563 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,000 and make sure to bring yourself up to speed with the basics. 564 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,000 Let's talk about your best experience in business. 565 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:19,040 What does that look like, Tom? 566 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,080 What was your best experience or what is? 567 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,680 You know, a lot of people might say 568 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,800 and my mind sort of went to, 569 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,000 well, when I make a lot of money, you know, 570 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,120 and that was not the best thing. 571 00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:34,560 What the best thing was, believe it or not, 572 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,080 and as you're asking this question, 573 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:38,680 because you didn't prep me with these questions, 574 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:40,400 so this is awesome to talk about. 575 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:42,160 The thing that comes to mind 576 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,040 is providing people with a job, 577 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,360 because the average franchise when you start 578 00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:52,280 will create 20 jobs, 10 directly and 10 indirectly, 579 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:53,880 so 20 altogether. 580 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,480 And there was a couple who met at my business, 581 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:00,840 got married, had kids. 582 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,120 So I think, you know, like the sliding door stuff 583 00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:06,480 where if I never opened that business, 584 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,560 where they have not met and created this family. 585 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:11,800 You created a family. 586 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:16,040 Well, you didn't, but the environment cultivated 587 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:17,160 that experience. 588 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,320 Right, so that's the kind of stuff that gives me chills 589 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,120 and that's what I love about it. 590 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:25,720 And that's why I say I try to get people off of their doff 591 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,400 to do something, because everybody has, 592 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,680 I'm not talking about franchising at all. 593 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:35,480 I'm talking about following your dream to, you know, 594 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:39,360 people have a gift and they just stuff it down 595 00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:42,000 and don't do anything with it. 596 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,360 And you always have a low hum of frustration in your life 597 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:47,960 if you're not doing what you're meant to do, 598 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,000 what God put you here to do. 599 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,400 Yeah, man, so there you were. 600 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:54,440 You were working in the subway. 601 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:59,040 A gentleman, you know, ultimately was excited 602 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:03,040 to help you catch the vision of the blessing you guys had, 603 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:03,880 which he did. 604 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:05,400 You know, hey, you got a shirt on your back. 605 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,000 This is great, right? 606 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,640 And at the same time, you had something calling you. 607 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,440 You had something deeper calling you 608 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,320 and it wasn't necessarily about the silk shirt either. 609 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:15,480 What was going on? 610 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,760 What was driving you back then? 611 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,000 You know, and what were some of those thought processes 612 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,680 that took you from that conversation 613 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,120 that had been nagging at you to get you to think, 614 00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:27,280 I gotta go do something bigger? 615 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:31,680 You know, it's hard to pinpoint it exactly. 616 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:35,320 So, I mean, when I grew up, my parents were civil servants, 617 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,160 my dad was a New York City police officer, 618 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,120 and my mom worked for the New York City Board of Education. 619 00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:42,840 They never told us to go to school, me and my brothers. 620 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,560 They told us, get a job with a pension. 621 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:48,800 That's, get a government job, get a job with a pension, 622 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,840 which is good advice for a lot of people. 623 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:57,320 And for my brothers, for me, I felt like there was more. 624 00:25:57,800 --> 00:25:59,200 I had like a creative itch. 625 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,240 Something was, and I can't pinpoint it to this day, 626 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:04,720 but I wanted to do something more. 627 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:09,080 And then, you know, my wife, we're married 35 years now, 628 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:10,200 but back then- 629 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:11,040 Congratulations. 630 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,320 Me, Tony Robbins' first book, 631 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,720 like when he first came out in 1991, I think it was, 632 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:17,880 I could be wrong with the date, 633 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,000 but early on, nobody knew who this guy was. 634 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,680 And I was like, this is awesome, man. 635 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,280 And I started getting into more and more 636 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:26,160 of that kind of reading. 637 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:28,400 Like you, the listeners probably heard of Rich Dad, 638 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,440 poor dad, if you haven't, buy that book immediately. 639 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:33,280 Bing, bing. 640 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:34,840 You can do that. 641 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:36,480 Right, and there's so many like that. 642 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:37,920 We could probably spend a whole podcast 643 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,720 just talking about business books that changed our lives. 644 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:47,040 But, so I remember very clearly sitting on the train 645 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:49,160 reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. 646 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,680 One of the reasons I'm here today is because of that book. 647 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,920 And so you start getting that kind of, 648 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:58,960 when you start feeding your head that kind of information, 649 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:00,560 it comes out in different ways. 650 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,680 So it came out in me buying a franchise. 651 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,160 And I tried different things prior to that. 652 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,480 I tried multi-level marketing. 653 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,960 I tried to start like a marketing business. 654 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:13,520 I didn't know what I was doing. 655 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:16,520 But that's when I realized, hey, you know, 656 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,680 I went to some seminars and I read books about franchising 657 00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:21,520 and realized that a franchise is a business 658 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,560 with training wheels, as I said earlier. 659 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:25,400 And that's what I needed. 660 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,760 That I needed the systems, I needed the process 661 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,360 because I didn't know what to do. 662 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:32,160 And most business owners don't. 663 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,840 And that's why starting from scratch is very, very difficult. 664 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,080 Even if it's something that's tried and true, 665 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,640 some auto mechanic, it's, you know, 666 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:44,680 the thing that you realize when you get into business 667 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,200 is that the business, they're like fixing cars 668 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,000 is 10% of owning an auto shop. 669 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,040 It's all the other back office stuff, 670 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,440 employees and taxes and marketing and you know, 671 00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,320 you know how it is. 672 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:00,640 Yeah, I do, I love that. 673 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,200 The franchise is a business with training wheels. 674 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,680 I'm gonna pull that up on the screen while we talk. 675 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,080 Just drop it right there. 676 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,280 And let's have in the next question. 677 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:13,560 So, you know, that alone is a massively powerful lesson 678 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:15,920 for those who are ready to hear it. 679 00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,280 You know, for those who aren't, it can feel, 680 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,680 again, that ego can come in and like, 681 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,560 I don't want training wheels. 682 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:27,440 You know, I'm not a baby, I'm not a child, aren't we all. 683 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,400 But going towards that, the next powerful lesson, 684 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:31,960 if there's one powerful lesson you could share 685 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,320 on this podcast, it was your last opportunity 686 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,160 to share a lesson, what would it be? 687 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,000 The lesson I would share is like, 688 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,920 this was the last time anybody was gonna hear from me is, 689 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,640 don't become infatuated with a business concept. 690 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,160 Keep your mind open. 691 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,040 What you think might be the right thing may not be. 692 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,680 So research it, know what you're getting into, 693 00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:58,200 understand every aspect, write a business plan, 694 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,840 write that business plan over and over until you got it. 695 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:03,800 You know, you could kind of recite it 696 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,000 and just don't become infatuated. 697 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:09,520 Okay. 698 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,720 And then back to some of these other powerful lessons 699 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,280 we were talking about. 700 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,840 So, I mean, feel free to hit whichever one 701 00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:17,760 comes back to your mind, 702 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:19,760 whether it's you wanna circle back to the water project 703 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,200 or you wanna circle back to, you know, 704 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:23,160 one of these other elements, 705 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,640 or you wanna dive into franchise and what should we look for? 706 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:26,640 I know the audience is probably like 707 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,160 on the edge of their seat, like, 708 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:30,880 what are we supposed to do with franchises now? 709 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,560 So feel free to go in any of those directions. 710 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,160 Well, you know, we have limited time 711 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:36,640 and I wanna talk about everything, 712 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,200 but the one thing is like the water project. 713 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:41,040 I've heard of it. 714 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:43,280 I had no idea that you were involved. 715 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:46,240 I'm involved in a small way. 716 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,960 I'm a contributor like everybody else that contributes. 717 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:49,800 No, I hear you. 718 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,480 I mean, even cold click, 719 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:54,520 I wanna learn more about myself. 720 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,200 I mean, your sponsors are great. 721 00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:58,280 Like for me, I have a little podcast 722 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:02,400 called the Franchise Academy and I don't have sponsors, 723 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:03,760 but when people come on the show, 724 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,720 I ask them to contribute to some humanitarian causes, 725 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,600 whether it's Make-A-Wish Foundation. 726 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,040 I have three or four right on my website. 727 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:14,600 They click through, money goes straight to them. 728 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:15,880 I don't touch it at all. 729 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,880 And that's, so my point is, like with the water project, 730 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:25,040 you're here, you're trying to like do stuff 731 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:29,200 and make business happen and customers 732 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:31,160 and marketing and blah, blah, blah. 733 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,120 And why are you really doing this? 734 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:39,040 And what you're doing is you're building a base 735 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,440 so you can help less fortunate people. 736 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:47,320 I can make a lot of money and buy a Ferrari. 737 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,280 That's not gonna do squat for me personally. 738 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,640 I mean, I'll be happy with it for like a day or two. 739 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,040 After a while, it's like, all right, I got a Ferrari. 740 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:59,320 But when you are helping less fortunate people, 741 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,680 whatever's ever on your heart, whatever's important to you, 742 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,240 that's what makes you get up in the morning. 743 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:07,840 And that's why you gotta know your why, 744 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,040 which is the sign I have behind me. 745 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:11,960 You gotta remember why you're doing it. 746 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,680 Otherwise, it just is gonna become stale. 747 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,320 Your customers will feel that it's stale coming from you. 748 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:22,560 So you gotta know your why and act on it on a daily basis. 749 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,480 Remember it, meditate on it, pray on it, whatever it is. 750 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:31,480 And that's kind of, I know it's esoteric 751 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:33,200 and a lot of people are like, oh, 752 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,560 it's not what I wanna hear on a business podcast. 753 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,680 But that's gonna drive you, man, I'm telling you. 754 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,360 That's gonna be the key. 755 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:41,560 It's huge. 756 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:42,800 And people may not wanna hear it, 757 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,840 but I hope they, again, pull their earmuffs off 758 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:48,800 and take the opportunity. 759 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,160 I think we do have, one, there are lots of people 760 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,240 who appreciate that, who are older in life. 761 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,160 We also have learned a lot. 762 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:57,800 If you look at Forbes and Inc. 763 00:31:57,800 --> 00:31:59,800 and some of the studies out there, 764 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,800 the younger employees, they tend to appreciate 765 00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,400 more of the experience, the aspect of belonging. 766 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,800 They wanna make a difference in what they do. 767 00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:12,080 Certainly, they wanna create wealth, 768 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,480 but Tim Ferriss ultimately led the charge 769 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,160 for creating the NR, the new rich, right? 770 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:20,760 Which is experience rich, doing things with your time. 771 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,280 So I think there's a, the nice thing is 772 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,800 that's no longer a blue ocean. 773 00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:29,480 That is the primary ocean that people go to. 774 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:30,640 They're looking for just that. 775 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,560 So words well said. 776 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:35,880 And to put some, but yeah, 777 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:38,040 to put some practicality behind it as well. 778 00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:42,280 And I would ask a franchise, 2023, 779 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,240 what should we be looking at? 780 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,200 What can we expect from the franchise academy too? 781 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,720 Because let me give a couple of examples. 782 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,280 I do have a little bit of background in franchises. 783 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:54,000 One, I eat at them often, right? 784 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:59,000 So there's a McDonald's near my youngest daughter's house. 785 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:03,640 We go three McDonald's away in our case 786 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:08,040 because the experience is one, they're playing on shutdown. 787 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,280 But the one that's two McDonald's away, 788 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:11,920 the experience is awful. 789 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:13,760 It is horrific these days. 790 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,400 And so we specifically go three days, three down. 791 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,160 I don't know if it's different franchise owner or not, 792 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,640 but one of the challenges you face as a franchise owner 793 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,080 is taking for granted, you know, 794 00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,600 that you have a responsibility to maintain that franchise 795 00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:32,600 and try to be the best out of those franchises 796 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:33,440 if you want to really win. 797 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,960 Now flip side, my parents owned a twice the ice machine 798 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:38,920 that they sold with one of their businesses. 799 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,400 That's a pretty popular franchise right now. 800 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:43,320 They did pretty well with it. 801 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,440 They didn't do as well as they wanted to, 802 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,720 says every entrepreneur in every venture. 803 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:50,000 So they did really well 804 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,520 with that little franchise ice box machine. 805 00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:55,200 What franchises though, 806 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,980 you've had your eye on the market as a franchise leader, 807 00:33:57,980 --> 00:33:59,080 what should we be looking for? 808 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,880 What principles, what red flags, 809 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:04,160 how do you choose which one you want out of, 810 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,200 I don't know, is there a million franchise concepts 811 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,320 these days or a hundred thousand? 812 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:09,640 Well, great question. 813 00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:11,160 And thank you for this question. 814 00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,280 This is kind of my forte, right? 815 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:16,400 So there's 4,000 franchise concepts 816 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,400 that span 90 different industries. 817 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,200 89 industries have nothing to do with fast food, 818 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:23,600 which is always top of mind 819 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:25,680 because of the likes of McDonald's. 820 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,960 So almost anything that you, 821 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:31,840 any kind of skillset that you have, 822 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:35,080 you could probably employ it in a franchise. 823 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:36,120 So that's important. 824 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,520 Like I said, you may not, 825 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,040 so in my opinion, 826 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:45,000 a franchise is not the be all and end all 827 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,080 for your professional career. 828 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:50,200 A franchise or really any business 829 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,920 is a vehicle to get you what you want in life. 830 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,120 Or your job will do the same thing. 831 00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:58,800 However, your job is limited 832 00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,120 and you're trading your time for money. 833 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:05,280 In a business, you're building a lifestyle 834 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:06,920 and you can actually buy time. 835 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,960 It's the only, they say time is the most valuable commodity 836 00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:11,960 and it's true. 837 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,600 But with the right business, 838 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,200 with systems in place 839 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,040 and great employees that are working and doing, 840 00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:20,400 you could buy time. 841 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,680 Meaning like, if I don't want to do task A, 842 00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:25,440 I hire somebody to do it. 843 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:27,000 And that could be in your business 844 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,280 and it also could be back at home. 845 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,480 I don't like to go to the dry cleaners 846 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,400 and I don't like to get my car washed. 847 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:35,360 I pay somebody to do that. 848 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:36,200 I don't personally, 849 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:40,320 I'm saying you could if you're building wealth. 850 00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:41,160 And by doing that, 851 00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:45,200 you're also providing somebody jobs to help you. 852 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:49,120 And so it's a symbiotic relationship with your employees. 853 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:50,720 In the franchise world, 854 00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:54,360 in a lot of cases, there's no barrier to entry, 855 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:56,920 but there's a barrier to scalability. 856 00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:58,800 And that's what the franchise will help you with 857 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,600 is to scale it and get it really big. 858 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:03,160 Like a lot of people will buy, 859 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,000 start up a store or buy a store and that's it. 860 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,960 They got one, they chase their tail, 861 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,600 trying to keep it alive, employee turnover, 862 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:13,120 the whole thing. 863 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:16,240 But in a franchise, they teach you how to avoid 864 00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:21,080 a lot of those potholes that people would run into. 865 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:22,200 So that's important. 866 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,680 The last thing I wanted to say is the title of, 867 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:27,640 this podcast we're talking about, 868 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:29,160 it's not your grandfather's franchise. 869 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:30,720 What I mean by that, 870 00:36:30,720 --> 00:36:32,400 because we didn't touch on it yet, 871 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,360 is the fact that right now, 872 00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,040 there's an enormous amount of money being poured 873 00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:39,480 into franchises all over the country, 874 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:40,720 private equity money, 875 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,280 because they know that franchises are successful 876 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:46,720 for the most part. 877 00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:50,560 And so we have, you buy a franchise, 878 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,360 it could be a simple house painting franchise. 879 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,080 I mean, you can't really get more simple than that. 880 00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:59,160 Painting houses, like why would I need a franchise? 881 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:00,400 I could just go to Home Depot, 882 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:02,800 buy some brushes and go to work. 883 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:04,440 Well, yeah, you could. 884 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,520 But what the franchise provides is, as an example, 885 00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:09,400 a customer-facing app. 886 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:10,800 So when I get a customer, 887 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,320 they can see my employee, see their background, 888 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:14,880 how long they've been painting for, 889 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,960 and they see them on a map driving to their house. 890 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:19,120 They see their background, 891 00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:21,720 oh, they got a dog, they have a wife, they have a kid. 892 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:26,240 And so that kind of stuff is what makes a franchise 893 00:37:26,240 --> 00:37:29,240 just kind of blast out in the market 894 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:33,520 and really kind of blot out the sun. 895 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:34,360 It's huge. 896 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:37,960 It's a laser beam of marketing. 897 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:39,960 It's a marketing machine for you. 898 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:41,120 And in addition to that, 899 00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,280 let's look at the worst case scenario in these situations. 900 00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,080 So I go get a bucket of paint, right? 901 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:46,400 And I go to paint a house. 902 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:48,680 When I get there, I paint the house, 903 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,120 and the homeowner hates the color, 904 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:53,760 even though it's exactly what they asked for, right? 905 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:54,720 And now I've got to figure out, 906 00:37:54,720 --> 00:37:56,720 how do I handle this argument 907 00:37:56,720 --> 00:37:58,480 with somebody who wanted this done? 908 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,960 And whoops, we spilled the paint bucket. 909 00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:04,280 And the paint bucket ends up causing problems. 910 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,600 So now we've got to cover the costs and expenses of that too, 911 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,720 but we forgot about business insurance. 912 00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:12,040 So we didn't get business insurance. 913 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:15,320 And so now we've got a lawsuit on our hands 914 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,560 and thousands of dollars in repairs. 915 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:22,280 And on the way home from that paint experience, 916 00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:25,800 I had bought a magnet on VistaPrint for my car 917 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:27,640 to showcase my brand name. 918 00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,480 And bam, I get hit by another car. 919 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:35,720 But because I have my logo on that car, 920 00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:39,640 I am now liable, my company is now liable for that wreck, 921 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:41,240 because I also didn't have insurance 922 00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:44,160 that covered the experience that occurs 923 00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,560 as I'm traveling to and from those jobs. 924 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,080 And I've got all these problems. 925 00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:50,320 And then you got taxes to pay and figure out. 926 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:53,720 You've got so, like you said, there's so many things 927 00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:58,280 that as entrepreneurs we take for granted. 928 00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:00,920 We don't realize, like, oh, we'll just figure that out. 929 00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:02,280 And you can. 930 00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,200 And you don't always go through, very rarely 931 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,040 do you go through all of those scenarios. 932 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,080 But there are so many scenarios like that 933 00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,280 that you have to learn to overcome as a business owner. 934 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,440 And the franchise is there as the ultimate series 935 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:21,160 of mentors and I would say companions 936 00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:22,200 that you can learn from. 937 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:24,280 You've got a built-in mastermind of people 938 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:25,760 trying to do the same thing, going 939 00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:27,720 through the same problems and challenges. 940 00:39:27,720 --> 00:39:30,200 I, as a business owner who's done it the hard way many, 941 00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,160 many, many times, understand completely 942 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:36,040 the value of a franchise. 943 00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:37,280 So well said. 944 00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:38,000 Well said, Tom. 945 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,160 Thanks for getting me on my tangent for that. 946 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:41,560 Yeah, no, that's great. 947 00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:46,640 And the other thing that I think, 948 00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,680 there was something else that you left out 949 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:51,480 which would have made it a little bit even more or less 950 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:53,280 desirable to have your own business. 951 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:55,280 And it escaped me at the moment. 952 00:39:55,280 --> 00:40:00,800 But the thing is, when you go back to the painting business, 953 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,160 you show up and there's competitors. 954 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:06,440 Look in, I'll say, the Yellow Pages or Google 955 00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:07,720 Painters in your neighborhood. 956 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:09,000 There's a million of them. 957 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:09,520 Yes, sir. 958 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:10,840 When they come to your house, they're 959 00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:14,720 coming in a broken down pickup or a broken down van. 960 00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:17,640 They might have a baseball cap that says their brand name 961 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:18,760 on it. 962 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,560 And then they do their estimate. 963 00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:22,840 They have a tape measure and then 964 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:28,040 they're doing it on this paper that they got from Staples. 965 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:31,440 When the franchise comes, it's a branded truck. 966 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,520 It's wrapped in the colors and the logo. 967 00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:36,200 They're wearing the shirt, the uniform, the whole nine yards. 968 00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:43,200 They have an iPad with a laser measuring thing on it. 969 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,160 And so they could measure your house. 970 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:48,920 They know the difference between how much paint it will take 971 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:54,200 to paint a six panel door as opposed to a one panel door. 972 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,920 And when they came to paint my house, 973 00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,760 the first thing they said to me was, 974 00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:04,440 what's one thing that we can do that will have you never 975 00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,400 recommend us? 976 00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:08,560 Great question. 977 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,240 It's like, leave the side gate open and let my dog out. 978 00:41:11,240 --> 00:41:13,440 You will never be allowed on this block again, 979 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,080 let alone get a referral. 980 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:22,000 So it's that level of professionalism. 981 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:23,960 So the guy who's just a regular painter, 982 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:27,360 he's going to ask you for a 50% down payment. 983 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:30,440 The franchise company won't. 984 00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:36,960 And the reason the non-franchise guy asks you for the down 50% 985 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,400 is because he can't afford to go to Charlemand Williams 986 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,040 and buy the paint. 987 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:42,880 So he needs that money so he can buy your paint 988 00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:45,040 to paint your house because they're chasing their tail 989 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:46,920 because they don't know how to run a business. 990 00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:48,800 They know how to paint the house beautifully, 991 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:50,520 but they don't know how to run a business. 992 00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:51,320 Right. 993 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,200 And with that, they might know how to, 994 00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:56,160 but they've also got to attract subcontractors. 995 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:58,200 You do in both scenarios. 996 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:03,960 And which company is going to attract the higher quality 997 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:05,760 worker, the Sherman Williams that 998 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:08,800 has a brand name benefits package, 999 00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:12,720 infrastructure for hiring in HR, or the guy 1000 00:42:12,720 --> 00:42:14,920 who's trying to figure it out on his own 1001 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,440 and can't provide you a whole lot of security about why 1002 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:18,520 you should work with him. 1003 00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:20,760 Maybe he can kind of promise partnership 1004 00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:24,360 or some type of flexibility that you can't get elsewhere. 1005 00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,800 So if you hire workers who want flexibility, 1006 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:31,560 another word for flexibility is inconsistency. 1007 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,440 And so it's important to realize that there's 1008 00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:39,120 virtues and vices that often go hand in hand with each other. 1009 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,880 And think about it from a restaurant standpoint. 1010 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:43,720 If you were going to get a job at a restaurant 1011 00:42:43,720 --> 00:42:46,920 and you had the option between a hole in the wall where 1012 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,760 you don't know the owner, you don't know the brand, 1013 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:52,480 you don't know the culture, you don't know what to expect, 1014 00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:55,880 or Chick-fil-A. And at Chick-fil-A, 1015 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:57,680 you got, again, all the benefits. 1016 00:42:57,680 --> 00:42:58,600 You get a great salary. 1017 00:42:58,600 --> 00:42:59,600 You get great training. 1018 00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:01,200 It's nice and clean. 1019 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:02,560 They treat people with respect. 1020 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:04,400 There's everywhere you go. 1021 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,520 Chick-fil-A is almost the exact same in terms of their service, 1022 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,160 bright flowers and the tables. 1023 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:14,120 Which one is going to be more attractive in general? 1024 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,160 I think it's an easy answer for all of us listening in. 1025 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:19,520 And so whether they're franchise or not, 1026 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:23,560 the core concept of having a model that is well followed 1027 00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:28,120 and well executed is just an amazing inspiration to me 1028 00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,400 and what I try to build at first class business the hard way. 1029 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,400 I'll tell you, Jackson, a surprise to the listeners 1030 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:39,880 will be that McDonald's does not sell hamburgers and fries. 1031 00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:44,120 And Chick-fil-A does not sell chicken and tater tots. 1032 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:48,520 What they both sell is dependability and reliability. 1033 00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:49,520 Yeah. 1034 00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:50,880 Well said. 1035 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:51,600 They do. 1036 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,200 Dependability and reliability. 1037 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,640 And we would do well as business owners, as visionaries, 1038 00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:59,480 to prepare for answering basic questions. 1039 00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,720 Not am I reliable or am I dependable, 1040 00:44:02,720 --> 00:44:05,600 but how can I be more reliable? 1041 00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:08,440 How can I improve my dependability for others? 1042 00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,120 We're constantly looking to improve that. 1043 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,080 We've probably got a life well lived 1044 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:15,520 to look forward to, to play a little bit with the past 1045 00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:16,840 and future tense. 1046 00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,000 So Tom, this was an absolute pleasure. 1047 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,040 I do look forward to staying in touch. 1048 00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:25,080 We will definitely be recommending the Franchise 1049 00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:26,040 Academy. 1050 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:30,280 Well, I've pretty much done that throughout the show. 1051 00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:31,880 I can't highlight enough for those 1052 00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:37,000 who are starting a business the importance 1053 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:41,560 it is to take the extra few hours to look into it. 1054 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:43,360 If you don't have another franchise wizard 1055 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:46,640 in your corner, somebody to help you evaluate that, 1056 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:48,000 then give Tom a call. 1057 00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:49,040 Look at what he's doing. 1058 00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:50,600 Listen to his podcasts. 1059 00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:53,640 See if that could be an opportunity for you. 1060 00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:55,720 Because going the entrepreneur, there's 1061 00:44:55,720 --> 00:45:03,000 a reason why I don't promote my business to new entrepreneurs. 1062 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,160 I tell them, listen, I want to work with entrepreneurs 1063 00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:10,600 that have three to five years of experience minimum. 1064 00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:12,680 Because you're a massive liability 1065 00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:14,640 when you're trying to figure it out from scratch 1066 00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:16,840 and you haven't done this before and you haven't had 1067 00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:18,600 the training of a franchise. 1068 00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:21,280 And it's a dangerous game to play with. 1069 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,840 So I hope somebody in this audience hears that today 1070 00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:27,360 and says, oh, man, I should do my research on this stuff. 1071 00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:29,600 If so, I feel like we've done our job well. 1072 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:31,560 And Tom, anything you want to add here at the end? 1073 00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:33,160 Where can people connect with you? 1074 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,560 Yeah, so thefranchiseacademy.com. 1075 00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:38,920 I have the franchise-savvy book. 1076 00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,400 If anybody's interested, because they're listeners of yours, 1077 00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,840 I'd be happy to send them a free copy. 1078 00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:45,340 Awesome. 1079 00:45:45,340 --> 00:45:48,520 My first book is called The Magic of Choosing Uncertainty. 1080 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:51,200 This is really my pride and joy. 1081 00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:55,480 This book is about making changes. 1082 00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:57,200 It doesn't have to be, it doesn't mention the word 1083 00:45:57,200 --> 00:45:59,800 franchise once in the whole book. 1084 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,320 Again, if anybody wants any of these books, 1085 00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:03,640 you could email me. 1086 00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,840 You could go through Jackson to get to me. 1087 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,000 But it's just, I'm available at thefranchiseacademy.com, 1088 00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,960 and my email is there and all that good stuff. 1089 00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:13,840 I love that. 1090 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:16,160 And The Magic of Choosing Uncertainty, 1091 00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:18,000 what a powerful title. 1092 00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:20,000 So definitely look forward to the books, Tom. 1093 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:21,620 Thanks for offering that to the audience. 1094 00:46:21,620 --> 00:46:22,520 You heard him. 1095 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:23,760 Feel free to sign up on that. 1096 00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:25,440 Let us know in the comments or send us 1097 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:28,320 private messages on the social media channel of your choice. 1098 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:29,860 And we will get back to you, of course. 1099 00:46:29,860 --> 00:46:32,160 And we'll let Tom know that you're reaching out as well. 1100 00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,120 Everybody have a fantastic day. 1101 00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:35,600 Thanks for joining us on Vision Pros, 1102 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:37,400 and we will see you on the next show. 1103 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:37,760 Thank you. 1104 00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:39,200 Thank you for being here today. 1105 00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:41,600 I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 1106 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,280 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 1107 00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:46,480 as these episodes continue to move forward. 1108 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:48,200 This is going to get more and more fun. 1109 00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:50,040 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 1110 00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:52,160 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 1111 00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:54,520 And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 1112 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,240 Have an excellent time building out your vision 1113 00:46:57,240 --> 00:46:59,200 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself. 1114 00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:00,040 I'll talk to you soon. 1115 00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:02,400 Bye bye.