2420 - The Path to Franchisee Success Through Purpose, Balance, and Leadership with Franchise Leadership Center's Steve Whiteside

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0:46Visit podverify.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, it is Dr. Steve Whiteside. Dr. Steve, you are the founder of Franchise Leadership Center. You're found on the web at flc.rocks. Steve, it's great to have you. Thank you. It's great to be here, Josh. Thanks a lot. And congratulations on the launch of your new book. It's called The Happy Franchisee. franchisee. We are going to talk about that, especially like anyone that's been involved in franchise, been as a franchisee. Listen up. You're going to appreciate this content. Subtitle, Lead with Purpose, Live with Balance, and Thrive in Your Franchise Journey.

1:36Steve, before we get into all of that, you always love finding what high-level leaders do for fun when no one's looking, kind of what they're geeking out on. What have you been into lately? Well, I don't usually share it with everyone. I'll let you know, Josh. I love flying remote control airplanes. That's what I do. It's a geeky thing. Just like you said, what do we geek out on? But it's a lot of fun. It's a big part of what I do in my free time. Yeah. And then how many, you have a big collection, right? Huge. Well, huge for what most people think if you're into a hobby. But most of us in the hobby have a lot.

2:12I probably have 40, 50 planes. Oh my gosh. How did you, what are you doing with a collection that big? It's kind of an addiction. You just try to fly as many of them as often as you can. I have little teeny ones from about one foot wide to planes that are two and a half meters long. You know, two and a half meters wide, eight feet wide, seven feet long. And it's just a lot of fun to throw those up in the air and just fly them around and have a good time. Oh, my gosh. And so do you go to a special, like, do you have to go to a special location to fly them? Yeah, I do. In Canada here, I have a couple of places that I go.

2:49And in the United States, I have a couple of places. I spend a lot of time in Nevada. There's some great clubs down in Nevada near Las Vegas and stuff. So I have a hangar of airplanes in Nevada, and I have a hangar of airplanes here in Vancouver. Oh, my goodness. I just love it. You don't think about anything else. You just sit there. You control your plane. You fly around. You're outdoors all day. You get sun. You talk to your friends. You smoke the odd cigar. It's just fantastic. and do you are you able to do they have little cameras on board as well or they do mine uh i i do have cameras but some people have fpv which is where they actually put goggles on and they fly them and they're like in the airplane you know it's just amazing i don't do that i'm not i'm not comfortable enough but i do have i put video on my planes and i take pictures and i have video and i share with my friends and family it's a lot of fun my goodness is is it uh is it kind of a uh a hobby that guys in their middle age get into when they have some budget?

3:46Cause it strikes me as you can spend some money on this one. You can, but I got to tell you, we have guys in our, we have people in our, in our club that are, you know, 17, 18 years old and they're flying very inexpensive planes. And then we have some guys that are retired and stuff. They're flying five,$6 ,000 planes. So, you know, that you can get into the hobby for a couple hundred bucks and you can get into the hobby and spend as much money as you want. I mean, just YouTube RC planes. There's RC planes out there that cost$150 ,000. Wow. Amazing. They have scale planes like 747s that are 20 feet long and 15 feet wide.

4:25Well, to our friend that's listening that might be a franchisee and they are looking to maybe increase their profitability, increase their quality of life, maybe help them afford$150 ,000 RC airplane. Steve, let's talk about your work and who you serve and what you do. Well, I work with franchisees now. My history is with franchising. I want to say that my book is through a lens of a franchise, but it's for any entrepreneur in a small to medium-sized company. But I own franchises for 20 years. I own many colleges, and I started with one 23 years ago, 24 years ago and bought many more as time went on.

5:10Franchising was very good to me. I love this system. I trust the system. And I think it's a really great way to go. Not everybody goes to franchising system. But I think it's if you really want to buy a system already that's in place and something that you can trust, franchising is really a great way to go. So the book's all about what's important in franchising. Yeah. And so, Steve, you know, a lot of franchisors provide really great support. They definitely have the manual. I mean, that's one of the reasons you're investing into the franchise is because they've all figured that out. And you would hope that that includes support and professional development.

5:50And I don't know that that's always the case. Yeah, it's not always the case. Great franchises. And I think the ones that I come across, most of them out there are really good franchisors. They give you a great brand and they give you a great product and they help you open your store and they do so many things that I think is wonderful. It's fantastic. I would have not wanted to open a college without it being a franchise. I can tell you that right now. But they don't give you a lot of training and the things that I find come down to the most important skills for an entrepreneur and a franchisee is an entrepreneur and that is leadership.

6:27And that's really what my book's all about. My book's all about the important things that people don't talk about. It's all about buying your franchise. I tell a story about buying my franchise and sitting in it the first night. So I buy this college. I'm there all day long on August the 1st, 1998. And I'm sitting there and everyone goes home and I'm sitting in the middle of my college. Everyone's gone home and I go, shoot, what the heck do I do next? You know? So you can't just open up the franchise manual and figure that out because it's about you. It's about your strategy. It's about your leadership.

6:59It's about how you show up as a franchisee, as a person. And that's where this book starts. It really starts out, what are the most important things? And I really believe the most important things are your leadership, how you interact with your staff, your customers, how you do your strategy, and how you make people feel when they come in every morning to run your organization, to do the things you need done. And you just, someone else kind of like, wait a minute, what did he say? He bought a college. So your first franchise was, was it Academy of Learning Career College? And that was actually a franchise?

7:39That's a franchise. A lot of people don't realize it, but that's a franchise. And a lot of people don't realize there's a lot of franchises out there that are colleges. You know, a franchise is just a brand or a model. And then you manage it. For instance, people don't realize, Sheridan is a franchise and Hilton's a franchise and Marriott can be a franchise and things like that. So it's a brand. So I worked for a college that we grew quite large before that for 10 years. The owner of the college sold the colleges and I found there wasn't the spot for me that there was when he owned it. So that's when I went out there and looked for my first college and I decided to buy a franchise.

8:14I thought it would be the smartest, safest way to go. And from there, I ended up with seven colleges and it was really wonderful. And I talk a lot in my book about how important it is when you own a franchise to get along with the franchisor, to have a great relationship, because my relationship with the franchisor allowed me to go from one college to seven colleges. And I can tell you that the profitability of one college versus seven is exponential. And, you know, I could go out there and buy more and more things and do more and more. But when I had that relationship with the franchisor, they helped me grow what I helped them grow.

8:53And that's one of the things I talk a lot about. You know, it's very easy to get frustrated in a franchise system and complain about this role and complain about that compliance issue. But you find out that most of those rules and most of those compliance issues are there to protect you and the brand, you know. And when you get a crazy franchisee off that's only 20 miles away from you doing something crazy, you go to your franchisor and say, how can he do that? What about compliance and everything like that? And then when it comes to you, you say, oh, I'm fine. I don't have to comply. So, you know, I try to point out some of those really important things inside of my book to say, make sure you look at things from the right lens and do what's best for you.

9:31And usually what's best for you is to follow the brand perfectly, to have the franchise or franchise relationship work wonderfully. Again, I don't mean to be too geeky, but that's what I did my PhD dissertation on was the franchisee-franchisor relationship. And I learned a lot during my research and talking to different franchises and working with my franchisor. And I really realized that most people don't look at that relationship importantly enough. Yeah. And so with your book, The Happy Franchisee, I mean, obviously hits this head on. Lead with purpose, lead, live with balance. Let's talk about those two things first.

10:09How does, because I think that there's likely a franchisee that's listening, they're like, balance? Yeah. What's that? Well, I tell you, the balance part is probably the purpose is important. I mean, purpose is great. A lot of people get stuck where they buy a franchise. Their job is to get revenue every day. It's to get one more lead is to get one more sale. That's not the purpose. The purpose of your organization is to accomplish a strategy that's going to be multiple years moving forward. I work a lot with strategy with franchisees that do a one, three and five year strategic plan. And you know, everyone thinks of that as large corporations, but every franchisee should have a strategic plan that shows purpose, shows your values, and really shows your culture for that one, three and five year plan.

10:54And then that balance part is so important because there's no way you and your staff are going to be able to fulfill your purpose and your strategy without having balance in your life. And I tell people, if you're working 12 hours a day, and if you're doing most of the important work, and if you think you're the most important person in the organization. You're not balanced and you're doing something wrong. And it was hard for me to learn that. But once I learned that and I started trusting the people around me and started delegating to the people around me, my life changed. Not only did I have balance back in my life, but guess what?

11:25They did a better job than I did. Because I had one person that was in charge of the books. I had one person that was in charge of the management of the school. I could go out there and do the important things, which was signing government contracts and getting huge corporate contracts, the things that I'm best at, which is building those relationships. So that balance is so important. And you have to give the balance to your employees. You can't expect your employees to work 24 hours a day for you either. So you build that balance, everybody's on track and, and really things happen so much better that way.

11:57Yeah. And then Steve, tell me about the work that you do. So obviously I think you do, You provide support systems. You provide services. Obviously, you speak on this event. You're a college professor as well. I am, yes. I teach in a master's program at University Canada West. It's something I just enjoy doing. I love connecting with students and things like that. I also have done administration work and business development for University Canada West. But I really enjoy being a professor and just connecting with the students. And I kind of do that. That's what I enjoy doing. I love the connection of what I do.

12:34I'm an executive coach for franchisees, and I really enjoy doing that coaching work. I could probably leverage my money a lot more without doing it, but I don't think I'd get as much enjoyment from it. So I love working one-on-one with franchisees. I love doing what I call coaching, not consulting. Consulting, you go in and you give a bunch of ideas and no one does it. Coaching, you go in and you share ideas and they do it. you know? Do the franchisors bring you in to kind of maybe help with some of their relationship with their franchisees? They have. They have, definitely. And I think as time goes on, franchisors see a lot more about what I'm all about and how I can come in and help.

13:15And when I first started doing what I do, franchisors were a little bit standoffish because you see, franchisees are quick to blame the franchisor. And so I try to go in there and say the blame doesn't help at all. It's how are we going to solve the problem? How are we going to work together? And as I've worked with more franchisors over the last, I would say, seven, eight years, I've had more relationships with franchisors and not just with franchisees. And, you know, the trick really is this. If you ask a franchisor what their biggest problem is, they're going to tell you it's the franchisee.

13:44If you ask a franchisee what their biggest problem is, they're going to tell you it's the franchisor. But it's a symbiotic relationship. They cannot live without without each other. So this was a big part of my research. Why do we blame the one other partner that is there to help us to make us work? I mean, it's just a crazy. I think it's a crazy thing that our culture does. It's not a franchisee franchise or relationship. It's our culture and business. It's the blame game. It's I'm perfect and I can do no wrong. So I find that when we start working together, we accomplish so much more. And I've got to tell you, there's franchisors out there that do a great job of this, like 1-800-GOT-JUNK, for instance.

14:24They have a great relationship between their franchisor and their franchisees. It has a lot to do from the top down with Brian Scudamore starting that company and really believing in his franchisees. And his franchisees love the franchisor, and it goes really, really well. And then you have other franchises that do a very good job, too. So I work with all kinds of franchises. I've worked with 1-800-GOT-JUNK and other franchises. You don't have to be broken to work with me, but whatever place you're at, I'll meet you where you're at, and we'll try to find where you want to be, and we'll move from there.

14:58I don't know if you have any examples. What is something that 1-800-GOT-JUNK? What's something that they do that you think really puts them head and shoulders above other franchisors, franchisees in that dynamic of that relationship? Like, what are some of those things that they commit to that has paid dividends in that relationship? Well, with with 1-800-GOT-JUNK, I think probably the number one thing and I talk about it in my book, it's that they communicate, they listen, they communicate with their franchisees. You know, if they want to do something different, they've made some major changes within their organizations many times because they've grown exponentially.

15:35They've got to be one of the biggest franchises in North America. And if you can find an open franchise territory, good luck. Because usually if you want to buy one now, you're buying a franchise territory already from a franchisee. But I find that they listen. Brian has always listened to his franchisees. And, you know, he has a huge company. But yet he's always there to speak to people. And the people who go out into the field that work for 1-800-GOD-JUNK, they speak to the franchisees. They listen. They try to find out what's going on. And they communicate back and forth. And I think sometimes what happens is franchisees don't feel heard.

16:11And when franchisees don't feel heard, the problem grows so fast. And by the way, they might be heard. The franchisor might be listening, but they're not showing what they need to show to the franchisee that they are listening. So if a franchisee goes to a franchisor and says, this is a problem and I don't like this, the franchisor might have listened and taken it very seriously. But they didn't do things like say, OK, I hear you. We're going to work on this. This is what I'm hearing from you. am I right? Maybe we should get five franchisees together or 10 franchisees together and talk about it.

16:43Maybe we need to hire a company to go out and do a survey of our customers. You know, they're not letting the franchisee know because they're so busy. I got to tell you, Josh, franchisors are so busy. And I'm telling you, 80 % of their time they spend is for the franchisee. It's to help the franchisees do better. It's to help better marketing. It's to help a better brand. It's to help better mark. No, it's really to work on making the organization stronger, but they don't communicate that very well to their franchisees. So a lot of times when I talk to a franchisor, I try to say, you're doing a great job, but nobody knows it.

17:16Let your franchisees know, and then your franchisees will let the customers know, and then your customers will keep coming back. And it's just a loop. It's just a circle. Everyone communicates with each other, but everybody in this new day and age of computers and AI and and get this done quick and get that campaign done quick. The communication just keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And without that communication, you don't have connection. And without connection, you don't have a viable business. You don't have a viable product. Well, Steve Whiteside, Dr. Steve Whiteside, you are a keynote speaker, college professor, coach.

17:53You are on the web at flc.rocks, where you can click on the Happy Franchisee, because that's your new book, Steve. And it's available on Amazon. It's available in audiobook, Kindle. So, again, you can get that all by going to flc.rocks. And one thing you've got, can I ask you about this before we leave here? You have something that's called the Franchise Health Indicator. What is that? Yeah. The two things I think are really important to mention are the Franchise Health Indicator. And that's a, you can go and take a survey on our website and you'll get about a 20 page report sent back to you. I did this about a year and a half ago and it's worked really well.

18:32You never have to call me again. There's no cost to it, but it really gives you some good information on things like leadership, how you're communicating with your staff, some issues around revenue flow, cash flow and profits. So it goes over five areas. So I would highly suggest go to the website, click on the Franchise Health Indicator. It's free. It doesn't cost anything. And then you'll get our newsletter later. You can push a button called Opt Out if you don't want our newsletter or something like that. But it's a free service. And I've been told by a lot of people it's very, very helpful.

19:07The one other thing I want to mention, too, is we have the Franchisee Only Forms. And these are the forms that we've started. And they're the first Franchisee Only Forms in the world, much less North America. and it's very similar to EO or WPO if you've heard of this. They're form groups, but they're for franchisees and we're really excited. This really is what I'm hoping will be the legacy part of my company in five or 10 years where we leave 30, 40, 150 franchisee forms around North America that just have franchisees coming together and helping each other because I sure can't help every single franchisee out there, but they can help themselves.

19:41And so that's something that I'd really like people to take a look at and get more information on are the franchisee-only forms that we have. And I also do workshops for franchisors too. So right around the frameworks on the book, we have this great book. And there's a lot of frameworks in there that I do workshops around too. So I'm happy to help out with that. Well, that's kind of a nice thing too, to be able to have a peer group that is just other franchisees where you can get together, swap war stories, help each other out. Josh, I'll tell you, it's the number one thing that helped my success when I owned my colleges.

20:16There was no franchisee only forms, unfortunately. So I joined an organization called EO. You know them. I know you do. I'm sure many of your clients are in EO. And it was the most rewarding and helpful thing for me to grow my business. I was in EO for 13 years. That's an entrepreneurial organization for people who don't know. And 13 years. And it was really a success for me. And so this is why I want to give back to the franchise community. Steve Whiteside, congratulations on the new book, The Happy Franchisee. It is all found on the web at flc.rocks. Thanks for joining us, Steve. Josh, I really appreciate it.

20:50Thank you. It's always great to talk to you.

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22:10We'll be right back.