1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,740 Welcome to the Thrivewell Journey. We're a new podcast dedicated to empowering 2 00:00:04,740 --> 00:00:10,080 entrepreneurs to uncover and embrace their purpose here on earth. As multi 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:14,960 faceted human beings, we strive to navigate our financial, mental, physical, 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:20,400 and spiritual well-being. And that's what this podcast is all about. We're here to 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,960 inspire, uplift, and equip you with the tools to thrive on your journey to 6 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:29,800 greatness. All we ask in return is your support. One, subscribe to our YouTube 7 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,960 channel or to download the podcast from your favorite platform. Your engagement, 8 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:39,480 it helps us grow and attract incredible guests who will enrich your life with 9 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:44,960 valuable insights and wisdom. Now in turn, we promise to keep bringing you 10 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:50,280 content that enlivens, edifies, and elevates your journey, not just as an 11 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,680 entrepreneur, but as a human being. And with that, I want to thank you for being 12 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:59,840 a part of the Thravo journey. I've seen anyone run for president and in all, I've 13 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:04,360 been, I've been watching the presidency since John F. Kennedy. I never saw 14 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,360 anyone do what they said they were going to do. So they have no commitment to the 15 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:14,760 future. And so I learned honesty is about the past, integrity is about the future. 16 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:21,240 And it's, and the best salespeople, unfortunately, are lying about the future. 17 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:26,400 They, they paint this picture that is that not only is not going to happen, but 18 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:34,360 they have no, no likelihood of, of, or, or commitment to make it. So you have to 19 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:42,640 be driven to achieve, to achieve more than common now, common things, average 20 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:51,320 things and growth and change is uncomfortable. You have to be willing to be 21 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:56,720 uncomfortable. If you're going to win, you have to do things that others don't 22 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:13,400 do and things that are, are difficult for you and your personality. 23 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:22,480 Welcome to another episode of the Thravo journey podcast. We've got an 24 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:27,600 incredible guest today, John Hewitt. If his name rings a bell, it's for good 25 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:33,520 reason. John Hewitt is a renowned American entrepreneur whose innovative ideas 26 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:38,120 and strategic brilliant brilliance have less a left, left a lasting impact on 27 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:42,240 the business world. He's best known for founding two of the largest tech 28 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:47,120 preparation companies in the U S Jackson Hewitt and Liberty Tech Services, both 29 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:51,920 of which rank among the top 100 largest retail organizations in North America. 30 00:02:51,920 --> 00:02:56,640 Now, if you're still wondering why you should tune in, let me give you some 31 00:02:56,640 --> 00:03:01,880 more reasons beyond founding and scaling these two retail giants, Liberty 32 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:06,960 Tech's group operate over 4,000 locations across North America. Meanwhile, 33 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:11,600 Jackson Hewitt earned its place as the second largest tax company in the 34 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:17,520 industry by 92 and was recognized as one of the fastest growing private 35 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,920 companies at the time in the country, which he sold for over 400 million. 36 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:26,800 But John's entrepreneurial journey didn't stop there. After selling his 37 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:31,480 stake in Liberty for nearly 500 million, he launched his latest venture, 38 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:36,920 loyalty brands with loyalty brand brands. John is on a mission to impart 39 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:41,280 entrepreneurs and franchisees to build successful businesses with purpose 40 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:46,320 through mentoring programs and franchise opportunities. Loyalty brands 41 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:52,640 offer a platform for people to become CEOs and build their empires. Now, from 42 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:58,560 2000 to 2012, John was named among the top 100 most influential people and has 43 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:03,680 become a bestselling author with his book, I compete. How my extraordinary 44 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:08,720 strategy for winning can be yours. His career has been a testament to success 45 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:13,120 through grit, strategy and leadership. And today we're fortunate to have him 46 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:18,320 on the Thrive Road journey. And let's give him a warm virtual welcome to John 47 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,640 Hewitt. And like I said before, I do appreciate you being here. So thank you. 48 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:31,280 It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. My producer, Vaughn, when 49 00:04:31,280 --> 00:04:34,560 she found out who you were, she was really, really excited. Like I was excited 50 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,520 to have you here when I found out, but she was really excited because she knows 51 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:43,040 that world of finances and money. And I tell you, taxes make me sweat. I tell 52 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:47,440 you that. So she's really happy. She was really happy to have you here. So 53 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:56,640 you, I mean, you found it two wonderful companies. How was the mindset of principles 54 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:03,920 that one has to have to create not one, but two top franchise companies? 55 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:11,680 It's a never say die attitude. It's, you know, most, I brought in 53 other 56 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:17,200 franchisees in my career and almost all of them get complacent once they get to a 57 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:22,160 certain amount of income or the house they want, the boat they want, the car they 58 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:26,720 want, the education for the children they want. So they tend to get complacent. 59 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:33,120 I've never, I'm, I'm driven. And I, I like him myself in that way to 60 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:40,880 Sam Walton in his book, Made in America. He writes in the forward, he says, 61 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:47,360 people ask me what's different about me than anyone else. And he said, the only thing I can 62 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:55,360 think of is I'm so driven and competitive. And so I'm thus the name of my book I compete. 63 00:05:55,360 --> 00:06:04,480 I'm driven and competitive and are my, I've learned in my 55 year career that the biggest 64 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:11,920 joy is improving lives. And I continue to do that every day. Yeah, I could, I could sense that from 65 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:20,960 listening to your book because I got it on audio. And I try to make the questions chronological 66 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:28,800 as we go from like, in the beginning years to as we get to a luxury brands. You were your 67 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:34,320 athlete growing up. Does that have anything to do with your competitive attitude? Does your 68 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,240 father, does he add to who you are as a competitive person? 69 00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:48,400 Yeah, absolutely. I strive to compete every minute. So if sports is an ideal way to do that. 70 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:55,280 And so I played when I was growing up, I played in every major sport at that time, 71 00:06:55,280 --> 00:07:00,800 which was basketball, baseball, football, not so much soccer, played a little soccer. 72 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:10,080 But yeah, that's the ideal way to compete. Now I compete as simple as playing cards, ping pong, 73 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:20,080 chess, I betting a dollar. I love betting a dollar. It looks like I'm going to lose a dollar in 74 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:27,040 the World Series. But I'm always looking for the next competition. So staying competitive. 75 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:32,000 I wanted to things that you say in your book, or as it reads in your book, 76 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:43,200 it says winners will do what loses unwilling to do. Can you unpack that? I mean, it's really 77 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:49,360 self explanatory, but in your mind, how does that how does that how does that read? One thing I don't 78 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:56,000 think most people think about, but there's no one that I've ever seen on earth that just got to 79 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:02,640 skate through and win and had this greatest life. Every single person faces it personally. 80 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:09,280 God didn't put anyone here to skate. And the difference between winners, the greatest winners 81 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:16,560 never, never say die. They get up every time. The most people are not winners, and they stay down. 82 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:22,560 They get knocked down and stayed up or get beat up and change their direction. But winners just 83 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:29,840 keep on going. They set the goal and they're unstoppable. They're virtually unstoppable. 84 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:36,080 Yeah, that's that's the power in resilience. And I know, like from my personal story, 85 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:42,320 when health was an issue, you know, for almost a decade, I was like, you know, I mean, it happened, 86 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:46,400 right? But I got to get up and start moving and really creating the life that I want. 87 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:55,840 And which I think is really important to do. You have the saying that principles trump policies. 88 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:03,360 Yeah, let me get that. Yeah, the first of all, let me start with a long, a bit of a story about 89 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:09,120 about principles. And that is that I was sitting in church 30 years ago, and 90 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:17,520 the minister said every one of us sins every day. And my first thought was, wow, I get that I do. 91 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:27,760 But he's admitting that he does. It didn't occur to me till months later that we have in my companies, 92 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:34,160 I was with Jackson Ewood at the time, we had just like there were 10 commandments that we had 10 93 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:40,560 principles. And I said, he's done me. I had an epiphany that if we're not going to listen to God's 94 00:09:40,560 --> 00:09:46,160 principles, his commandments, we're not going to listen to John Hewitt's. And so I said, we need, 95 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:56,880 we have a, we have to do a better job of explaining and emphasizing and adhering to our principles. 96 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:03,360 And people set up all these silly policies that are that are just policies and they're made to be 97 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:11,760 broken. One of the biggest, a simple example that I think is clearly understandable is I let my CFO 98 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:20,480 make a rule that our franchisees could only talk to his accounting staff from two to four each day. 99 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:27,920 And a call comes through at 415 and an accounting clerk, accounts payable clerk, 100 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:35,600 says, it's a franchisee. And she goes, Oh, I can't talk to you. It's after four o'clock. 101 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:44,000 And she hangs up the bone on the on the franchisee. And because of the policy, the principle is happy, 102 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:49,840 successful franchisees. And that's who's going to be happy. And who's going to be happy with that 103 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:58,480 policy or that that happening. So we wrote her up. We so we had these mission moments, 104 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:03,680 these paths that listed all the principles on a sheet of paper, and you tear them off and give 105 00:11:03,680 --> 00:11:10,400 them to me. If they adhere to the principle, and then you would give them, give it to them. And 106 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:15,760 if you violate it, you would give it their name and, and people put them up on their walls. It was so 107 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:21,120 you walked around the office and you would see these mission moments up on people's walls. They 108 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:30,320 were the ones that they they did well. They, they were joyful in that. And some of them even put 109 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:37,280 up the negative ones like that in there as a as a learning lesson. But yeah, the you can't let 110 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:43,760 silly policies get in the way of doing the right thing, doing the right thing. And that kind of 111 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:52,000 takes me back to when before you were Jackson Hewitt, you were at H&R Block, right? Correct. 112 00:11:52,560 --> 00:11:58,240 And there was a story where you had there was a CEO that didn't really have integrity. 113 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:04,640 Can you can you share that story? Well, I learned a valuable lesson in 114 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:12,960 from this CEO based on honesty versus integrity. I had never put any thought into it. 115 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:21,440 And then I, and then I saw this CEO greatest salesman ever, almost greatest salesman ever. 116 00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:28,720 And he would, he would paint a picture of the future. This is this rosy future that's going to 117 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:34,800 happen. But he never had any commitment to it. He didn't, he didn't even believe his own words, 118 00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:40,560 sort of like a politician. And I've never seen, I've never seen anyone run for president. And 119 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:46,320 in all, I've been, I've been watching the presidency since John F. Kennedy. I never 120 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:50,960 saw anyone do what they said they were going to do. So they have no commitment to the future. 121 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:58,480 And so I learned honesty is about the past, integrity is about the future. And it's, 122 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:05,520 and the best salespeople, unfortunately, are lying about the future. They, they paint this picture 123 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:14,240 that is that not only is not going to happen, but they have no, no likelihood of, of, or, or 124 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:21,200 commitment to make it happen. Yeah, like integrity is really honoring your word. And if you have 125 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:27,200 a word to create the future that you want, in whatever it may be, it's like, if you don't stick 126 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:34,160 with who you are as your word, then that future will never come to fruition. And 95% of the people 127 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:44,880 I met, do not have integrity. Yeah. And for people who are really trying to start a business or 128 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:50,800 become entrepreneur, that's one of the lessons I believe that, that, that they should know and 129 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:58,000 learn like beyond anything else is be integrity and be honest and honor your word as yourself. 130 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:06,000 Yeah, it used to be back 100 years ago or 50 years ago, used to be able to make handshake 131 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:13,280 deals with people. What you can't do that anymore. Right. It's a whole, it's a whole different world 132 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:22,160 now. You actually, when you started with, in the, just in the tax, tax, tax world, 133 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:28,080 you're talking about people who did taxes on paper, pen, pencil and paper. 134 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:36,560 And you switched the whole game because you created a, you and your father created a, 135 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:43,680 basically a system on the computer. How did that come about? 136 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,520 Yeah, you're not anywhere near old enough to remember a world without computers, but 137 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:55,680 a little bit. I was born in 77. So, okay. Well, that was about the day my dad bought 138 00:14:55,920 --> 00:15:00,960 one of the first sample computers. And there weren't even 500,000 in the country. 139 00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:08,400 And there was no such thing as desktops or, right, the mainframe that ran his, 140 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:14,560 his public company, he was a CFO of a public company was as big as a room. And it literally 141 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:21,680 had bells and whistles. And your, your iPhone today or your phone, whatever kind of phone you have, 142 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:29,840 has a hundred thousand times as much power as that huge machine did in, in 1977. 143 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:33,840 They're laser printers back then were a million dollars. 144 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:39,120 That's very, a million dollars. Today, what are they? $200? 145 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:40,160 Yeah. 146 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:46,560 Yeah. Or cheaper. There was no such thing as a desktop. And they were just being, 147 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:53,040 becoming into its system. So he got the idea. He was a visionary. And he got the idea that 148 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:57,040 computers were going to take over. And he saw a future where they would, 149 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:06,240 they would turn on your, your oven, they would turn on your TV there. They would drive your car, 150 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:12,720 they would do everything in life. And he, he was extremely visionary. So he decided that 151 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:20,000 he convinced me. And in 1981, we both quit our jobs and built the first tax software for an Apple 152 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:29,200 computer. That, you guys did that, but there was some things that happened before. So you went from 153 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:38,960 H&R block and then you went to Mel Jackson, correct? What happened is we left in 81, 154 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:46,720 built the software and no one wanted it. So I had just left H&R block. No one wanted it. 155 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:57,280 H&R block was a Fortune 500 company. And in their annual report in 1983, they said, 156 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:03,040 people asked us why we don't computerize. And we say, why should we? We tried it, 157 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:07,360 doesn't save us any money. Our customers don't care. We're never going to computerize. 158 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:15,200 So that's how visionary H&R blocked us. So we took our software and found a look where, 159 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:20,720 where, what we could do with it. We found a company here in Virginia Beach called Mel Jackson Tax 160 00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:28,720 Service and bought that from his widow and merged the computer company with Mel Jackson Tax Service. 161 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:37,920 So we did the, we did the software first. Okay. And then, so you bought Mel Jackson and at some 162 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:45,920 point you were, you, you were leaving Mel Jackson or Jackson, Mel Jackson turned to Jackson Hewitt. 163 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:50,880 What was in that space? How, what was happening there with the software and you transitioning? 164 00:17:51,840 --> 00:18:03,600 Yeah. Well, 15 years later, the, we had grown the company, public company, and we had a horrific, 165 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:09,200 the worst year ever in the history of tax preparation. It would take me half hour to 166 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:17,120 explain it, but the IRS almost destroyed the industry. It was so bad that Tom Block in, 167 00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:24,320 he resigned for the last, the last block, Henry blocks the H, the block is Henry, Henry blocks 168 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:34,480 son, who was CEO resigned on April 9th in 1995. And we almost went bankrupt. And so ended up having 169 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:41,760 a fight with my venture capitalists who wanted to take over the company and leaving. So I ended 170 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:50,400 up leaving and the company was sold for $483 million, public company. So the, he tried to 171 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:59,680 take it over for $20 million. So the next year was sold for $483 million. So the, in looking around 172 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:06,480 for something to do, I had a three or not compete, but it didn't cover Canada because Jackson Hill had 173 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:12,160 never gone to Canada and haven't grown up in Buffalo. I knew Canadian texts. So we opened 174 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:20,400 Liberty tax in Canada. And then when my not competing ended in 2000, brought Liberty tax into the 175 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:30,480 United States. That's, that's pretty interesting. So there was a lot of adversity and resilience 176 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:39,040 that you had to bring about to maneuver through all of that. Yes. Oh, yeah. You know, in my book, 177 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:43,920 that you're that you alluded to, I think there's one thing different. I've been told 178 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:52,640 from readers that I talk about the mistakes that I made and the obstacles I had to overcome. And 179 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:58,960 apparently I didn't realize this when I was writing it that most autobiographies are people 180 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:06,160 talking about just their successes. But I talk about difficulties, problems and how I over how 181 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:12,640 I thought about it and how I overcame them. So yeah, the end, and, you know, mistakes are part 182 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:18,320 of the game. They say they say that people who are the most successful have made the most mistakes. 183 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:23,200 And I've been incredibly successful. I mean, I founded a half a billion dollar public company 184 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:29,280 and a billion dollar public company. And so I've been more mistakes than anyone you've ever met 185 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:38,560 probably. And I've had to face more adversity than virtually every or in quantity than than almost 186 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:48,400 everyone you've met. That's interesting. So going through all those failures, what what words would 187 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:54,800 you give to a beginner entrepreneur who who, you know, they don't know the world, they're trying 188 00:20:54,800 --> 00:21:00,880 to navigate themselves through the world of entrepreneurship or business. What would you 189 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:06,960 say to them? Well, I did a I have a webinar that I do every week of mentoring webinar. And one of 190 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:13,360 the questions I I that was one of the questions I addressed a few a few weeks ago, and it took me 191 00:21:13,360 --> 00:21:20,960 an hour. So I would recommend anyone going to my loyalty brand site and you can download that 192 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:26,400 you get a free copy, my readers can get it or or your listeners and viewers can get a 193 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:32,640 pre copy of my book, you can see that. And I talk about being an entrepreneur. And one thing 194 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:39,120 that that is incredibly important is that two thirds of the public, two thirds of the Americans 195 00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:47,120 want to be an entrepreneur. But in bringing in 5300 of them, I learned that that a third of them 196 00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:54,960 can't be an entrepreneur, they just don't, they don't have the risk taking or the financial acumen 197 00:21:54,960 --> 00:22:02,560 or the get up and go the drive. They don't have and but and they don't have which is the most 198 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:08,240 important thing we talked about earlier. They don't have perseverance. So I talk about things to 199 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:15,920 consider before you make that leap, you burn your bridges and leap into being an entrepreneur, 200 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:21,280 that it's not for everyone. Yes, that is definitely not for everyone. What is how do you how do you 201 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:32,080 how do you connect with over 5300 people as for a franchisees? That's a I'm a very hands on CEO. 202 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:44,640 And you do a lot of you do it by national national communication. So what I learned is that 203 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:51,520 then one of the difficulties of managing being a founder CEO of a huge organization with 4000 204 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:59,920 locations that when I give an instruction, it gets to the next level. And not even all them get it 205 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:05,920 right. And then they have to go to another level. And then another level in the franchisees. It's 206 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:13,840 so distorted by the time it's it's widespread. So you have to have a national message. So not 207 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:21,440 only do we have a national newsletter. So make sure that everyone got it. But we have during the 208 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:31,040 tax season, we had over 50 calls, national calls. And I'm on calls with making sure that that people 209 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:38,240 understand my vision, because I'm the most experienced person ever in this industry. As I said, 210 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:49,600 there hasn't been a block family member with them since 1995. And you know, even that neither Henry 211 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:57,360 block or the father or the son had had even 30 years of experience, I've 55 years. And I have 212 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:04,560 12 years with block 15 years with Jackson Ewitt 20 years with with Liberty and now 213 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:10,800 five years with ATAC. So I'm the most experienced person ever. I want you to know hear it from 214 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:17,520 from the horse's mouth. This is this is the system. And this is what you need to do because 215 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:22,880 my job and our job is to give you the best system in the industry. But it can't be 216 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:31,120 diluted as you pass it down. You know, they people people put their own, their own twist and bias 217 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:40,320 on the policies, the policies that and procedures. So you have to be careful that you have a message 218 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:45,440 that is that is disseminated properly to everyone in the organization. 219 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:51,600 You they're kind of connects with what you say in the book, which is you talk about communication, 220 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,440 communication, communication, communication, which is essential. And people 221 00:24:55,440 --> 00:25:01,840 here, but not us, not necessarily want to give the knowledge that they have. And this 222 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,480 this is what seems like what you're doing now, because you really don't have to like, you know, 223 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:12,880 be on a podcast and think or even have to work. It seems like why do you continue to do what you 224 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:19,920 do for entrepreneurs or even for yourself? So you sort of ask me two questions. There one is 225 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:25,360 about communication and why the others why I keep going. Yep. So let me talk about communication 226 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:31,920 that that you can't ever solve communication. I mean, no matter what you can, I mean, if you've 227 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:37,360 ever played the telephone game and told someone a story and they told a story and they told us 228 00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:43,840 that I mean, it's so convoluted by the time it ends up gets distorted. Yeah. You can never have 229 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:52,080 great you can never have 100% accurate communication, no matter what. And even if people heard you 230 00:25:52,080 --> 00:26:00,160 clearly, they think maybe there's some innuendo in it or some something I missed or he really meant 231 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:07,920 this. So so it's a constant channel. And so what we're committed is just to improve it. 232 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:13,280 That we we try to get better and better at communication knowing we can never solve it. 233 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,440 As far as what keeps me going. When I was a kid, when I was in high school, I was cocky. 234 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:24,720 And I was poor. I knew I was going to get rich somehow. I didn't know how I didn't. 235 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:30,080 I didn't know what I wanted to be until I took an hr block course when I was in college and 236 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:36,720 fell in love with the tax industry. I didn't know what I how I was going to get there. I thought 237 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:42,320 I just retire. I was naive and immature and I'll just retire. I'll make a few million. I was a retire. 238 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:50,240 And then I realized what would I do? I mean, there's nothing fun. There's nothing fun that that I 239 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:57,040 enjoy better than helping people. And our mission statement is very, very simple. It's having fun 240 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:05,280 improving lives. There's nothing more joyful in this world than improving lives. And I couldn't 241 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:12,000 I couldn't go fishing or golfing or or I mean, I'm a chess player and a bridge player and a 242 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:19,040 play cards or do any there's nothing more rewarding and more fun. The journey is the joy. 243 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:27,360 I'm here to improve lives. Yeah, that's my view of podcasts. That's my view of franchising is 244 00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:33,840 and is to improve lives. What's up Theravu journey listeners and watchers. Look, if you're someone 245 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:39,280 with big dreams of entrepreneurship, but need a flexible way to earn income while building your 246 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:45,680 business, let me tell you about the Orians group. Through our partnership with arise virtual solutions, 247 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:53,360 you can become a customer support professional, aka CSP and start earning from home when your own 248 00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:59,040 terms arise offers a streamlined certification process getting you trained and ready to work 249 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:04,720 with well known brands all across America. You can sit your own hours to the clients you want to 250 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:10,880 work with and create a work life balance that fits your entrepreneurial goals. The best part, 251 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:16,240 you don't have to choose between your side gig and your business dreams. Being a CSP with the 252 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:22,640 Orians group means you can bring an extra income while have the flexibility to focus on growing 253 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:28,880 your own venture, much like I did. Whether you're looking to supplement your income or need a bridge 254 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:36,000 while building your empire. This is the opportunity for you. You interested? If so, head over to 255 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:41,920 www.theroiansgroup.com to learn more about becoming a CSP with the Orians group. Look here, 256 00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:46,880 support your entrepreneurial journey while supporting the Theravu journey podcast at the 257 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:55,440 same time. All right, one more time www.theroiansgroup.com. All right, we're doing the spot. Let's get 258 00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:05,520 back to the podcast and prove lives. There's how do you connect your purpose with being in business? 259 00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:14,080 Yeah, you know, my favorite story in the Bible is the the tale of the story and where 260 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:22,320 without going into the story, it emphasizes that God wants you to use God wants you to use your 261 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:28,320 talents and He gives you all these talents and He wants you to use those talents and we all have 262 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:35,360 different talents. When I first would sit in church for the first 30 years of my life, 263 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:41,920 it almost sounded like they wanted all of us to be preachers and go and preach the gospel. 264 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:48,880 And then I realized that no, we can't all be preachers. We can't all be firefighters or policemen 265 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:56,640 or teachers or we all have a purpose. And God wants you to use your talents to the fullest. 266 00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:05,360 And my and my talents are business. I've I've created, as I said, I brought in 5300 franchisees 267 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:12,080 and created a thousand manors and they had hundreds of thousands of employees and thousands of 268 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:17,600 children and grandchildren. So I've changed hundreds of thousands of people's lives in a 269 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:24,320 in a positive way. Well, that's the overarching theme of this podcast is really about purpose. 270 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:28,560 And you can find your purpose in many different ways, you know, and we talk about the well-being of, 271 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:33,600 you know, your physical well-being, your spiritual well-being, your mental health, well-being, 272 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:40,160 and your financial well-being. And you've created from my research, you've created over 800 millionaires. 273 00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:49,680 Is that correct? In the book, it was 800. But that was that was published 10 years ago. Over a thousand. 274 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:57,520 Over a thousand. Well, it seems like it's good to be connected with you, especially in business. 275 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:06,800 I have thousands of people references. Thousands of references. Well, that's a good thing for, 276 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,880 you know, when you're really when people are trying to create their own empire. 277 00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:19,920 It's really important that you're living your purpose. Because again, like I say that you don't 278 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:24,800 have to, you know, continue to do this. But it's part of this is you fulfilling your purpose. 279 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:32,960 Right? Yeah, I I don't think badly of people that retire or go relax somewhere. 280 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:39,360 But for that's not for me. I could never do that. Yeah. They have to kill me to stop. 281 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:45,920 They got to stop you. They have to kill me to stop. Yeah, you sound like my dad. My dad was he was 282 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:52,000 forever going. He's older now. He's like 85. So he's but he's he's relaxed now. He's good to go. 283 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:58,720 He's moving at his own pace. So, you know, but he had to stop him. So especially at that age. 284 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:08,480 So you went from, you know, h and r block to then it was Mel Jackson to Jackson Hewitt and Liberty 285 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:14,160 tax services. But you moved on to create loyalty brands. Can you talk about that a little bit? 286 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:20,400 And loyalty brands, unlike Jackson Hewitt and Liberty, where I just had one brand, 287 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:24,720 I've eight different brands and we have eight. They're all franchise doors. 288 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:34,640 And they're they all have a niche. One is in tax and accounting. One is in construction led by our 289 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:42,160 roofing division. And then the fastest growing is pets led by our mobile, our mobile grooming 290 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:48,000 service called zoom and grooming. So we have three different focuses and eight different companies 291 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:57,280 that are in each of those ditches. Now, let's talk about franchising a little bit. How would 292 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,440 somebody Okay, let's let's kind of be real here. There's people that want to be franchise or 293 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:10,000 in or entrepreneurs, right? They don't have the money to get into franchising or be a 294 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:16,320 you'll be a franchisee. What is one circum circum navigate that we're not even that circum 295 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:22,000 navigate, but really start to create a real possibility for themselves to become someone 296 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:29,680 who is interested in entrepreneurship and be a franchisee. Yeah, I as I said, I have a 297 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:37,280 hour on whether you should be self employed period. But I also did another hour on 298 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:44,480 whether you should be a franchisee or the 30 reasons you should be a franchisee versus 299 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:51,520 a mom and pop. And so that's available to my website. So that's an hour presentation. 300 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:59,280 But let me say that it's cheaper to get into a franchise often than it is to get into in terms 301 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:07,520 of cash. Because with franchisee or is you get not only do you get better financing, the because 302 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:15,200 most times it's it's not possible get financing until from a bank until you've been in business 303 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:22,320 two years. Well, with the franchisee or if you join us, then you can get franchising, 304 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:27,840 you can get financing from day one, not only from the banks or the small business administration, 305 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:35,920 but sometimes we will lend you money ourselves. What I found is that in to be successful in 306 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:42,560 business, you need two things. You need you need a management entrepreneurial skill, 307 00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:50,240 and you need money. And it's a lot easier for me to find money than it is to find people, 308 00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:57,520 the great people. So what would I in our system, if even if you've never been in the industry before, 309 00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:04,240 then you come and work for us. And if you prove yourself, we'll find it 200%. You can get into 310 00:35:04,240 --> 00:35:10,160 this for nothing. But you have but nothing but time and time is way, way more valuable than 311 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:20,800 money. Right. It's the only it's the only asset that is that's that's non retrievable. You can 312 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:27,840 retrieve money and you can retrieve diamonds and gold and but but your time is lost forever. 313 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:34,880 So it's irreplaceable. So you have to give your time. But we'll figure if you're the right person, 314 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,640 we'll figure a way to get to the bottom. Well, I say a question because there 315 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:44,160 there are tons of people that, you know, didn't go to college and didn't have the business. 316 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:50,480 They didn't go to business school or but they may have a business acumen. And there's there's a 317 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:55,760 difference there, the learning the theory in school, but actually having the experience 318 00:35:55,760 --> 00:36:02,720 in the world to to really drive a business and be an entrepreneur. And you offer that. 319 00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,120 Exactly. And and there's no school in this country 320 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:16,400 that teaches you to be an entrepreneur that teaches you to be a CEO. So all of my experience and 321 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:24,400 success in being a CEO came from the school of hard knocks. The beauty is that's the training we 322 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:31,040 give you as a franchisee. We teach you to be entrepreneurial if you haven't experienced it. 323 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:39,040 And we also teach you to be CEO of your business. And there an MBA or a business degree does not 324 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:46,960 teach you how to how to win in the arena, how to win in the in the real life. So we teach you that 325 00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:52,320 we give you the ins and outs of that. What are some of those tools that can you drop a couple 326 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:58,000 tools that someone would need in order to be successful in that in that world? 327 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:06,720 Well, you have to have attitude. Attitude is critical. You know, Tom Watson senior, the 328 00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:14,160 founder of IBM said, give me 100 people with great attitude or 100 great engineers. I'll take the 329 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:20,560 I'll take the people with attitude because you can teach engineer. You can't teach attitude. 330 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:32,160 So attitude is is critical. You have to have a ability to delegate. And delegation is so common. 331 00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:41,040 It's a disease that that even most even today there are 30, there are 35 million businesses in 332 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:48,400 the country. And probably 30 of them are poor delegates. So you can learn, although you can 333 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:54,320 learn delegation, you can't learn after you have the attitude comes from within. So attitude, 334 00:37:54,320 --> 00:38:03,120 delegation drive drive in part of drive is setting big Harry Audacious goals. When I started 335 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:09,600 Jackson Hewitt, we bought Mel Jackson, they had they had six locations. Each of our block had 336 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:16,400 9000. And from day one, I said, we're going to have 9001 locations. That's our goal. Now, 337 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:25,760 do you agree that that's crazy and and unrealistic that that you're going to add 8995 338 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:31,280 offices? You have to be total almost totally crazy to believe that. Well, we didn't get to we didn't 339 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:38,320 get to 9000. But we got to 6000 and a billion dollar company. So I'd rather I'd rather set my 340 00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:46,720 goal at 9000 and get to 6000 than set it at 200 and get to 250. Right. So you have to be driven 341 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:55,520 to achieve to achieve more than common now common things, average things. And 342 00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:05,280 growth and change is uncomfortable. You have to be willing to be uncomfortable. If you're going to 343 00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:13,680 win, you have to do things that others don't and things that are are difficult for you and your 344 00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:20,240 personality to put up with. So you have so those are some of the things that you need. 345 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:30,320 Being Audacious is a trace, I believe, being an entrepreneur. And one of the things that you say 346 00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:36,720 is if you do what you're always done, you'll get what you always got. All right. So in the world of 347 00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:43,680 uncomfortability, you know, you have to continue to move forward to become a great entrepreneur. 348 00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:52,480 Yeah, that the my obsession is to win to win. I have to have the best system and have the best 349 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:59,040 system and has to be improved. So you can't if you're not one of the greatest things I've ever 350 00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:05,280 heard is if you're not improving, your competitor is catching you. So you always have to be committed. 351 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:11,440 You have to be committed to improve it. And unfortunately, or fortunately, 352 00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:17,920 improvement requires change. And again, unfortunately, for most people, that's uncomfortable. People 353 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:24,240 don't like to change. Everyone I know tells me they want to improve. But everyone I know virtually 354 00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:29,920 says, Oh, but I don't don't ask me to change anything. Don't ask me to get up an hour earlier or 355 00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:36,800 or do this or do that. I mean, everyone wants to says they want to improve. But no one wants to 356 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:44,640 go through the pain of change. There's a there's a true, like internal struggle and pain when it 357 00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:53,440 when it comes to going from one level to the next. We're we as people, as human beings, we're 358 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:58,880 comfortable in one space. But we want to get to that next place where maybe we see a millionaire 359 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:04,560 a multimillionaire billionaire. They're they're at, but we're not willing to do the work we see it. 360 00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:12,800 But to do the work means change. And with change comes uncomfortable, comfortable, just 361 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:19,760 uncomfortability within yourself. And it's really being able to conquer that in from moment to moment. 362 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:27,920 Right? Yeah, there there are. There are times where you're not going to be able to go golfing or 363 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:37,040 or go out and have a two week vacation or things that would be fun that you're watching others do 364 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:44,800 it. But in order to meet your goals and to win, you have to you have to outwork the competitor. 365 00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:52,160 You know, the greatest superstars, the Michael Jordan's of the world, they outworked everyone. 366 00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:59,680 They didn't they didn't just get lucky. They worked tens of thousands of hours in their lives, 367 00:42:00,240 --> 00:42:09,200 perfecting their their their career. And it's hard work that wins the and preparation, not the 368 00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:16,880 actual event. It's the preparation for the event for that. Yeah, I totally agree with that. 369 00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:25,440 The experiences that you've that you've had throughout throughout your time. 370 00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:31,760 What has that what has those experience taught you and what could you share about those experiences 371 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:40,400 right now? Well, it's taught me everything. So I would I could go on for for days and days about 372 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:47,840 I know about that. So but but one of the lessons I learned is is that 373 00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:57,040 that a couple things about you, you as a successful, if you're going to be wildly successful. 374 00:42:57,040 --> 00:43:02,800 And I think you have to agree with I've been incredibly blessed with success. 375 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:10,080 And it didn't it starts with God given talent, God given opportunity and talent. And then you 376 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:17,600 have to seize that. And one thing to be careful of is that in your life, everyone will try to 377 00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:23,200 bring you back to normal. They'll try to bring you back to their level. No one likes I mean, 378 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:30,240 in a way they like to see you succeed in a way, but they're jealous and that makes them look 379 00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:38,000 bad. So if someone in a factory is outperforming everyone else, he's hated by everyone else 380 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:43,280 because that makes them all look bad. So they say, man, you're doing you're working to our 381 00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:47,840 art, you're doing this or doing that. And you got to take it easy. Everyone in your life will try 382 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:56,720 to make you normal and average and fit in with our so it takes a you have to be a maverick to be great. 383 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:05,040 You have to be an uncomfortable and you you you never try to please everyone. My favorite 384 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:12,080 Shakespeare is this above all to thine own self be true. You have to do with best. You're going to 385 00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:18,800 never never make everyone happy. And that is a curse trying to make everyone happy. You can't 386 00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:25,680 you could never come up with something that would make everyone happy. So the example I use is when 387 00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:33,360 I had 2000 franchisees at my peak existing franchisees at Liberty. If I said, well, I'm going 388 00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:39,360 to send you all $10,000. Now, how would you think how could anyone complain about that? Well, what 389 00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:46,000 would happen is the guy that's the biggest franchisee that's doing $20 million of revenue and paying 390 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:52,960 royalties of two and a half million to the company. He says, you know, you got new people that are 391 00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:59,840 only paying royalties of $5,000. I'm paying you two and a half million. Yeah, you give them $10,000. 392 00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:06,080 You should be paying giving me 10 million. And so he'd combine. And then you have the people that 393 00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:12,000 only paying $5,000 that aren't making money yet or they're breaking even or they're only making 394 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:18,800 this guy's make 20 million. He's making $6 million profit a year, putting $6 million in the bank. 395 00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:25,040 They're making 60 cents a year. And they say, he doesn't need the money. You should give me more 396 00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:33,040 part of his $10,000. So you can never do anything to make everyone happy. That and you have to stay 397 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:44,560 away from listening to the masses. You know, Rich Dad Portad, he said that 90% of people in life 398 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:53,440 will give you advice. He said, but only 5% are wealthy. So why are you listening? Right. That 399 00:45:54,800 --> 00:46:00,800 is pretty great to be said because there are people, well, first of all, as you're 400 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:06,880 raising in the ranks of your life or whatever, whatever that looks like, you have to be surrounding 401 00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:13,920 yourself with people who are doing the things that you're doing or even greater because that circle 402 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:21,760 will inform you of who you're being. Right. And as you're growing, like there's certain people 403 00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:32,640 that you have to kind of let go. And that's that attitude of growth. Absolutely. I have 404 00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:43,680 three friends that I've had for over 50 years, but only three. And so I don't have anyone from 405 00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:49,600 high school that I met them all in college. But I don't have friends that I've known for 48 years 406 00:46:49,600 --> 00:47:00,480 or 45 or 35. I mean, yes. And my belief is you only get a handful of truly great friends in your 407 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:06,160 life. I've never seen anyone with, I mean, you get a lot of acquaintances and a lot of people 408 00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:14,480 that claim to be your friend. But when times get tough, you know, there's, rubber meets the road. 409 00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:21,360 They're not there. So you only have, we're only given about five people in our lives that you can 410 00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:30,720 depend on. And so you have to put them out of pedestal. Yeah. Take care of those around you 411 00:47:30,720 --> 00:47:38,560 that take care of you. Exactly. Yeah. As far as the advice, right, that you get advice from all 412 00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:43,680 these other people that are trying to give you advice, but they're not doing the same thing. 413 00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:49,440 What would you, what would you say to those people? Well, first of all, I kind of laugh when people 414 00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:56,560 try to give me advice, especially my own people that when I've been doing something for 55 years, 415 00:47:56,560 --> 00:48:03,840 and I hire a new person and they come in and they try to give me advice. Oh, really? It's odd. And I, 416 00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:14,320 I had one person that was trying to give me advice on franchise development, selling, 417 00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:20,160 bringing in new franchises. And the person that never brought in a franchise in their life. 418 00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:27,760 And I, she was, she got really annoyed with me. She said, I felt you were demeaning me when I said, 419 00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:33,520 how many franchises have you sold in your life? I brought in 300. How can you come in without 420 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:41,600 any facts, without any experience and tell me, and I'm in, and throughout that period, in, for 421 00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:49,440 example, at Liberty, out of 4,000 franchisors for 10 straight years, 4,000, we're in the top 10, 422 00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:56,880 not 10%, top 10 every year out of 4,000. I'm the best of the best, right? You can't get any better 423 00:48:56,880 --> 00:49:04,320 than that. And this person's coming in with no experience and has a theory. Well, save your 424 00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:13,200 theory. I mean, I mean, I'm, I, and so it's, it's, can be aggravating when I get advice 425 00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:21,600 from people that are, that have, don't have the experience I am. And yes, I can, I will say this, 426 00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:25,840 there are, there are lots of stuff I'm not good at, and lots of stuff that you've been 427 00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:35,120 criticized. And, but if, if we're, if we're bringing in 250 new franchises a year, which is like 428 00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:40,560 incredible numbers, most people, the average franchisor brings in five, we bring in 250. 429 00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:46,720 Right? So maybe you could get me to go to, maybe let's say you came up with a piece of advice 430 00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:53,600 that could get me to go from 250 to 254. I mean, that's an only 1% improvement, right? That's, 431 00:49:53,600 --> 00:50:02,240 that's, but learn, learn the basics first, experience it before you criticize. 432 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:10,320 Yeah. You talk about that in your books, you like be, get the fundamentals right, become a master 433 00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:14,800 of the fundamentals. And I think a lot of people, the team that went through World Series, 434 00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:20,000 unfortunately, it's not going to be the Yankees. And they're just batting better and pitching 435 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:25,840 better and catching better. And you know, the Yankees lost the first game probably because 436 00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:32,640 a guy didn't back up second base and it allowed the, the, the tying run to go in next training 437 00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:38,400 to get to third and then score in a sacrifice line. Now, I mean, backing up second base, 438 00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:44,640 I mean, where's the first baseman and the catcher and where's the people that are, what were they 439 00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:52,400 doing? And this is, I mean, it's basics and the team that wins a Super Bowl and I'm a Bill's fan, 440 00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:56,720 because I grew up in Buffalo. Hopefully it's a Buffalo Bill's, but they're just going to block 441 00:50:56,720 --> 00:51:02,880 best and tackle best and catch best and run best. There's not going to be a, there isn't a Super Bowl 442 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:08,560 won by a trick point. It's run by, it's won by blocking and tackling and catching and passing 443 00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:15,600 and running without, without getting tired. Yeah. What's the saying that they used to say, 444 00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:24,400 offense wins games, defensive wins championships. I love that. That's great. You know, I mean, you've 445 00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:32,160 encountered so much through, through your years. And we're now in a really, talk about our compete. 446 00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:39,040 We talk, we're in a competitive digital age. What do you think about that with franchising 447 00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:46,160 just in the, in the, in the era that we're in right now? Yeah, I have a whole nother hour on that too. 448 00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:55,120 Okay. It's very important because most people that have never been in franchise, think of it as a 449 00:51:55,120 --> 00:52:05,360 successful style of business. And it is, it can be when you get a, a Jackson Hewitt, when you get a 450 00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:11,360 zoom in Grumman, when you get a subway or McDonald's, it can be incredibly successful, 451 00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:17,760 but 80% of franchises are fail. And we're really didn't know that. Yeah. So most people don't know 452 00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:24,240 that they think, Oh, it's automatic. It's easy. But 80% of the ones that have started in the 21st 453 00:52:24,240 --> 00:52:30,080 century have failed. And that's a long story. It takes me an hour to go through it. But so you 454 00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:36,400 got to be really careful. And it, it comes down to one simple thing that you would think is automatic 455 00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:44,160 and every franchisor would know and strive for. It comes down to having, creating happy, a system 456 00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:52,160 with happy, successful franchises. And they don't do that. They, they want a happy, successful 457 00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:58,160 franchisor. They want the headquarters to be happy. And they don't understand that if the 458 00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:04,000 franchises are happy and successful, you can't stop growing. You're going to grow like Wauper. 459 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:10,400 If they're not, you can't win. And so they set up these system to make sure the franchise 460 00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:18,000 has to pay all this money, follow all these rules. And it just chokes them into, into non 461 00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:27,200 success and causes the franchise sort of. So this is what I thought on franchise. Be very 462 00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:33,760 careful. Check to make sure that they are happy, successful franchises. Yeah. And you, that's one 463 00:53:33,760 --> 00:53:41,120 of the things that you seem to live by, which is you can have all this, you know, the business and 464 00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:48,560 then, you can possibly grow and make you financially successful. But are you happy? And I think 465 00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:55,520 what you talk about is being a happy, happy, successful person. What makes the difference? 466 00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:59,120 What makes the difference? I mean, how do you, how do you create that or how do you, 467 00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:03,520 how do you have that happy world if, you know, in the world of entrepreneurship? 468 00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:11,520 It's a, somewhere, it's a cross between family and team. You treat, you treat your franchisee 469 00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:19,520 there as, as a customer, as a partner, as a family member, as a team member. It's a, 470 00:54:19,520 --> 00:54:26,080 it's a convoluted relationship because they're not employees. And most people that haven't, 471 00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:35,680 haven't been a operator, a CEO or a leader in a franchise organization don't understand. It's 472 00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:43,440 not like managing employees because employees, you have, you have some more control over and 473 00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:50,080 they have to do what you say. Franchisees don't. And so, and by definition, entrepreneurs are 474 00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:56,560 more maverick than employees and more independent. And they, they will talk back to you and they 475 00:54:56,560 --> 00:55:01,680 will present you and they will do everything you can imagine. It's, it takes a special skill 476 00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:08,720 to be able to get the respect of fellow entrepreneurs versus, versus employees. And so, 477 00:55:08,720 --> 00:55:14,000 again, that's why they, they fail. They don't realize that it's a different skill set than just 478 00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:22,000 being a CEO or a vice president or some other kind of executive in a normal employee type 479 00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:32,000 relationship. I understand that. I understand that. That's, that's good. There is, there's a, 480 00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:38,720 again, with the, the, the, what's happening now in the world as far as, you know, election and 481 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:46,880 election and things like that. Where do you see business in the, in this, this new era, 2024? 482 00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:54,640 I, I've been disappointed by business in the United States for 60 years, 50 years. 483 00:55:56,080 --> 00:56:02,880 It's, we've gotten so far away from, from great service. I mean, I mean, 484 00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:07,200 can you answer this question for me? No one's been able to answer this question for 485 00:56:07,200 --> 00:56:15,680 a while. I went into a restaurant yesterday and we had a reservation for six and I went in and 486 00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:19,280 asked to go to the table. No, we can't seat you until three people are here. 487 00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:23,360 So, I mean, why do people, why do restaurants do that? 488 00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:35,840 I've had that experience myself and it doesn't make sense. Then I, if you, if you 489 00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:41,840 have a table of six waiting because you've reserved the table of six, it doesn't make sense for 490 00:56:42,560 --> 00:56:48,480 half the party being, or not having the, having the party there because it's already reserved. 491 00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:56,480 And that kind of messes up the, the emotion of, you know, getting ready to go sit down and eat 492 00:56:56,480 --> 00:57:04,080 and enjoy each other. So I don't know why that. Is it better for the customer or is it better for 493 00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:08,800 the restaurant? It's better for the restaurant. Exactly. So they, they're not concerned with 494 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:14,880 happy successful customers. They're concerned with happy successful restaurant, but they don't 495 00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:19,920 understand at the end of the day without happy successful customer, then they're not going to 496 00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:26,320 have a happy successful restaurant. So one time, I mean, I'm going to have this problem that I 497 00:57:26,320 --> 00:57:32,720 meet people all the time wherever I go. I go, I travel out every, every, every month or every week 498 00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:39,360 and next, next week I'll be in, in Baltimore and on Thursday and I have three different groups 499 00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:45,680 coming in and me and there's eight people and someone might become in Baltimore, DC and Columbia. 500 00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:51,840 And now everyone has, let's say that too many of them are laid and they get caught in traffic. 501 00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:59,120 And so the rest of us were sitting around uncomfortable because I just don't, I just don't, 502 00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:05,200 I don't, that, that's the kind of thinking that makes franchisee worth a film that puts themselves 503 00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:14,880 first versus the customer and, and a franchisee is a customer and a partner. And again, a family 504 00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:20,080 member, team member, I think of my, I think of my franchisees as my children. Okay. 505 00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:27,600 So that's, that's, that's definitely family. If you think of them that way. 506 00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:34,320 So that eludes to the fact that you really take care of them just as if you were, if it was, 507 00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:41,280 they were your actual blood family. Yes. Now, in, in just like with my blood family, 508 00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:48,160 I have part of my family. I don't want. I don't know how big your family is, but, but I have, 509 00:58:48,160 --> 00:58:53,840 I have, you, I have to love my family, but I don't have to like them. You don't have to like them. 510 00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:59,200 Yeah. So I love them, but I don't always like them. Yeah, I understand that. 511 00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:13,040 I just had a big time. That's, that's funny. As, as a weapon up here, you know, I definitely 512 00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:19,440 believe that your heart is, is really for people who are becoming entrepreneurs and really want 513 00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:26,720 to take their life to another level and, you know, continue your, your growth as, as a French 514 00:59:26,720 --> 00:59:35,120 Rizor and the owner of loyalty brand company. And I really think that people that can get connected 515 00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:41,920 with you really, they really, they, they really thrive in, in their lives. I can introduce you 516 00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:51,760 to the thousands of them. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can't. Where do you see the future going with, 517 00:59:51,760 --> 01:00:00,000 with loyalty? We're good in each of our brands. Each are eight different companies. Our goals 518 01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:06,400 to be number one. Now we're not going to make it, but we're going to set big, hairy, audacious goals. 519 01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:13,280 We're going to have the best system in each of our industries and we're going to improve. 520 01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:19,600 Okay. You say you're, you're, you're sitting on your to become number one, but you're not 521 01:00:19,600 --> 01:00:24,080 going to make it. What's the, what's the difference there? We're not going to make it in each, every 522 01:00:24,080 --> 01:00:30,880 one. We've already made it, for example, in, we're already number one in, in mobile pet room. 523 01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:36,080 So there are some industries where I'll be able to make number one, but I've been competing with 524 01:00:36,080 --> 01:00:45,520 H&R Block for 42 years and they have 9,000 offices. I got Jackson, who got to 6,000 and Liberty got 525 01:00:45,520 --> 01:00:50,960 to 4,000. Between the two of them, I got more than 9,000, but neither one of them got to number one. 526 01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:56,720 So it's unlikely and, and it's all dependent on people. It's all dependent on ourselves. 527 01:00:57,440 --> 01:01:02,960 And even John Hewitt, his CEO, couldn't get bigger than H&R Block yet. So I have eight 528 01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:09,360 different CEOs that are, so we're going to, we're going to continue to improve. We're going to drive 529 01:01:09,360 --> 01:01:15,200 to be number one. And in some of the industries, at least a few of them, we're going to be number 530 01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:22,560 one in category. We're going to have the number one, there's no brand name in roofing, national 531 01:01:22,560 --> 01:01:28,400 roofing companies. So we're going to, we're going to drive and be number one in, within about three 532 01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:34,080 years in, in roofing. And just like it took three years to get number one in mobile grooming, there's, 533 01:01:34,080 --> 01:01:40,720 there was no national name. Within five years, there'll be 3,000 Zoom and grooming bands around 534 01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:44,640 the country. And it'll be a household name just like Jackson knew it or Liberty. 535 01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:51,200 So being audacious, there's space and possibility in those different areas to actually become number 536 01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:58,560 one. Exactly. Got it. And I'm just not going to live long enough to be number one in every category. 537 01:01:58,560 --> 01:02:06,320 But there in leaves your legacy, you have a legacy that people can attach with. What is the legacy 538 01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:16,480 that you want to leave? I want to pay it forward. That take, take what you've, that you've learned 539 01:02:16,480 --> 01:02:23,920 from me and benefit from me and pay it forward. And part of that is part of that paying it forward 540 01:02:23,920 --> 01:02:30,640 is we've learned to give back that that's one of our principles is you need to give back. So I am, 541 01:02:30,640 --> 01:02:36,320 I am making the world a better place. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, that's pretty good. 542 01:02:38,160 --> 01:02:45,200 One of the things I like to end with is you, we, you said all this wonderful stuff that people 543 01:02:45,200 --> 01:02:49,840 can go back and listen to. But for if this is the last thing you want to say to somebody, 544 01:02:51,040 --> 01:02:57,120 what would you say? It could be a story, whatever it is, what would be your, what are your last 545 01:02:57,120 --> 01:03:02,720 words in this, in this moment? Well, I think I can affect the most people by saying this that. 546 01:03:04,160 --> 01:03:10,720 And, and I had a great dinner the other night with a woman in Orlando, who's an attorney, 547 01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:18,880 makes good money. 50, she just turned 50. And she's unhappy. She's, and, but yes, she's afraid, 548 01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:25,200 afraid to do something different. And she was looking at zoom and grooming, but she's, 549 01:03:25,200 --> 01:03:30,240 and the beauty of zoom and grooming is you can, you can do that and keep your day job. 550 01:03:31,120 --> 01:03:37,760 Because we don't, our owners are groomers, they hire groomers. So most people that joined us 551 01:03:37,760 --> 01:03:43,040 at zoom and grooming have kept their day job. So, but she was timid. She was, she was scared 552 01:03:43,680 --> 01:03:52,320 to step out and boy, life is so short and you know, that it's just so short. And I understand that 553 01:03:52,320 --> 01:03:59,200 most Americans go to work and don't look forward to. And therefore, most Americans believe in the 554 01:03:59,200 --> 01:04:06,480 phrase, thank God it's Friday. Well, I invented thank God it's Monday. And what I would say to all of 555 01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:14,480 you is a Monday morning, if you're pulling out of your driveway and, and driving to work or, 556 01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:19,520 or taking a train or a subway or Uber, if you're not looking forward to where you're going, you're 557 01:04:19,520 --> 01:04:24,640 going to a wrong place. So find something you love to do. Life is way too short. 558 01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:29,600 Think just if a live a life of thank God it's Monday. 559 01:04:29,600 --> 01:04:38,560 Live a life to say thank God it's Monday. And one of the things I always talk about within purposes, 560 01:04:38,560 --> 01:04:43,680 purpose drops you, it gets you up in the morning and ready to start the day. And 561 01:04:44,640 --> 01:04:50,320 John, I appreciate you being here. For anybody that want to be a franchise, franchisee, 562 01:04:50,320 --> 01:04:52,240 where they, where can they connect with you? 563 01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:53,360 www.willardtbrands.com 564 01:04:53,360 --> 01:04:59,200 www.willardtbrands.com I appreciate you being here, sharing your wisdom, your insight, 565 01:04:59,760 --> 01:05:05,920 the resilience that you've, that you've had throughout the years. And just to be here, 566 01:05:05,920 --> 01:05:08,960 especially on this podcast, I really, truly appreciate you. 567 01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:12,080 Thank you. Have a wonderful day. It's my, my pleasure. 568 01:05:12,080 --> 01:05:19,440 It's my pleasure. And for everyone else, I want you to go to Facebook or Instagram. 569 01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:23,600 Look us up the Thriveau journey where you can get more of this conversation 570 01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:31,600 or snippets from this conversation. And as I always say, make thriving your new normal. Take care. 571 01:05:31,600 --> 01:05:49,760 Thank you.