Franchise Friday - Episode 206 with Albert Hermans of Floor Coverings International

In this episode, Melissa speaks with Albert Hermans of Floor Coverings International

https://futureoffranchising.com/

I’m an upbeat personality and I pride myself on facing opportunities head-on. My experience in creating multiple brands has taught me many life and professional lessons. Through these experiences, I’ve been extremely fortunate to learn about myself and create personal self-awareness around my strengths and areas of improvement. I know I can be counted upon as an outstanding relationship builder, client provider, systems creator, and leader. I have zero doubts my ability, however, I’m always looking for an opportunity to grow as an individual.

My goals in life and professionally are to always be looking ahead; to be continuously improving on my strengths and weaknesses; to help others; and to always work at exceeding expectations. I know if I keep my eyesight on those four goals, positive outcomes will always follow diligent work.

We are North America’s leading in-home designer floor coverings brand. Our company is carefully crafted on creating a discernable difference from any other floor coverings company. We specialize in residential, personalized flooring, selection, design and installation.

Floor Coverings International flooring franchise disrupts the floor industry by revolutionizing how homeowners buy new floors

Floor Coverings International flooring franchise disrupts the $48 billion residential flooring* industry for good. While the rest of the industry still makes consumers leave their homes to visit a big box store to make a personal and important decision for their homes, Floor Coverings International brings the flooring store directly to our customers’ kitchen tables. Our revolutionary model of ease and convenience has been rewarded with the highest NET Promoter Score in our industry. In today’s world, where homeowners are focused on safety and convenience for their home improvement projects, Floor Coverings International stands out as a brand that has brought a new way of servicing customers to the flooring industry.

As a franchise opportunity, Floor Coverings International also stands out. Ours is a business built on relationships to provide our customers with the very best in-home flooring experience in North America! Our proven business model has also helped hundreds of entrepreneurs thrive – in a business that is simple-to-run and easy to scale.

More... https://futureoffranchising.com/podcast/franchise-friday-podcast-ep-206-with-albert-hermans-of-floor-coverings-international/

Franchise Friday, where you can watch or listen as we explore franchising, entrepreneurship, and small business ownership, speaking with the franchise industry thought leaders and subject matter experts that shape the Future Of Franchising. #FranchiseFriday – For more about our podcast, visit our website: https://futureoffranchising.com/ Produced by Franchise Source Brands International and The Entrepreneur’s Source.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:14

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of franchise Friday. Glad to have you. And I'm excited because I'm here with Elbert Herman's of floorcoverings. International. So hey, Albert, welcome to the old podcast. I couldn't be happier to be on the podcast, this is fun franchise Friday, it's like the best, the absolute best thank, you know, I am in complete agreement with you. We're on the same page about that. So all right, I always love chatting with you. So I'm looking forward to our conversation, who knows where it's gonna go. But before we get into some of the topics for today, let the people know where you came from how you got to where you are today, a little bit of your background. My goodness, sure. And yeah, who the heck knows where this is gonna go because I can I can get off on a tangent. But I'll do my best to just keep my background succinct. So I have been with floor coverings International. I'll start here like where I'm at presently southern was floor coverings international for the last eight years. And at the moment, I'm in charge of our franchise development team. So I leave franchise development, we've got the best team in franchise development, we've got four franchise developers, plus our great back office team, that makes sure that everything that needs to get done to properly bring folks into the organization get it done. I'm also an equity partner here. But my entire career has been accidentally entrepreneurship. So when I was in college, I started my first small business. And actually, this is the first little sound bite that you know, you just you just rolled with things for I committed fraud. By starting my first small business, I took out a Sallie Mae loan, which is supposed to be used for education. And I started a business with it. And I never thought I'd be an entrepreneur. It just was my my friend. And I had an idea he wanted to become my business partner, we had an idea to take all of the menus that you get slipped under your dorm room door and put them on a website. And then from that idea, we said, Well, shouldn't people be able to order food from this website too. And back when I was in college, I'm not that old. But I'm old enough to remember when I was in college, we didn't have any cell phones. And it was like the It wasn't even BlackBerry is the flip phone. And then like the laptops that sounded like a jet engine with the fan underneath. So this was pure laptop base before anything was mobile. And I was 22. When I learned the power of entrepreneurship, I didn't really understand it when I was started this business. Because I was 22 I graduated college, I still had my little online ordering platform website thing. And the company that wound up becoming Grub Hub reached out to me and said, Hey, we want to buy it. And I'm believing I'm no tech millionaire by any means. But to be 22 years old, and really understand the value of i wish i was the value of equity, being able to kind of reflect and say I, I drove that thing, I created that thing. I had autonomy. In my hours, I worked as hard or as little as I wanted to around my college schedule. Like those two things clicked for me at a young age. And there's so many people that we work with Melissa all the time. They're leaving their careers by the time they realize what entrepreneurship can do for them. So I was lucky enough to be dumb enough or dumb enough to be lucky enough to start a business at a really young age and committed fraud in order to do it. But no, Sallie Mae, I think would encourage it, they should encourage more entrepreneurship opportunities, sorry Sallie Mae, if you're listening, but and then I that's how I got started to the franchising world. So instead of me then getting a quote unquote, corporate job, which a lot of people that live where I live in New Jersey, get on a bus or a train to go into Manhattan every day. And that just wasn't appealing to me. So having learned this lesson about what entrepreneurship could do for me, I started my second small business, which was a group led fitness business. And we grew that so well, from the first location that we said we should franchise this thing. And we didn't know the first thing my partner about about franchising. We read all the books, went all the conferences, and we took this one location and built it to roughly 65. So that's how I got started in the world of franchising prior to floor coverings International. So it all kind of just happened. But certainly grateful that it happened the way it did, because I love what I do. I did not know that about you. So I am again, I just like love these conversations because it's like, okay, you would never know that. That's how you got into franchising and to your point. I feel like people allowed him to just fall into franchising because it's not something that's talked about in school or in like kind of general conversation, especially around career and like your future. Which is something else we can get into like, you know, the young or population in the younger generation? How can they start getting into franchising earlier? Because to your point, so many the people that we work with, they're later in their career, it's like their 2.0 is they're like, they've already had this whole career in corporate and now they're finding out about business ownership. So, I love so you're like the original, you're the GrubHub. Guy. That's what I wish. I really is. But you know, the thing is, is that it's, if you're lucky enough to learn what entrepreneurship could do for you at any point in your life. I think it's almost like a bug. Because then you know, as you're right, a lot of people don't know about our industry, or, you know, for the most part, people get into franchises that they're in that career. 2.0 I like that that phrase you use, but there's really no reason why it can't be a 1.0. Like the first thing you get done your career. It's just a matter of education. So I think the more that we can talk about small business ownership, the more people that can hopefully get bit by the bug, because again, I was lucky to get bit by the bug pretty early. And you don't leave once you're in, you really don't, you really don't. And there's a reason for it. Because I feel, you know, at the entrepreneurs, we talked so much about income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity. Those are just like the four pillars that our coaches talk about with their clients. And then as the franchisor, you're introducing those concepts or tying in those concepts to the candidates, you speak to what you experienced that from a young age, you obviously didn't put a name to it, but income, lifestyle, wealth and equity, you started building those. So how do you work that in to your conversations, like how does that impact now what you're doing in franchising, and why is that so important? Oh, man, I mean, I think that there's so many reasons why it's so important. I think for for starters, it really the four things that you just mentioned, every particular brand, or every particular opportunity has all of those things, but to varying degrees, right, some opportunities, there is really high income potential, but maybe there's less around the equity potential, or there's more demands around lifestyle than others in particular businesses. So those four things, the way I think of them is that every particular business has its own gauge, you know, the earning potential here on one brand, but or one opportunity, but maybe it's not as high on the other, but maybe the lifestyle is better or worse. And another so the, I love to talk about all four of those things when I'm working with a potential franchise match at floorcoverings International, because it gives you that litmus test in the beginning, because we know where our gauges are, our bars are as it relates to what can be gotten out of our business. And so to have the conversations upfront around the lifestyle, wealth, equity income, that automatically starts the process of us trying to figure out if we have a match with the prospective client. And then on the flip side, you know, for me, the way that I like to weave in my story is just to hopefully make myself relatable. I feel like a lot of times when you were working with a client that the entrepreneur stores puts in front of floor coverings International. by no fault of anybody's, it's just the nature of our business, the client comes to us, and there's immediately this kind of a guard up because they met a TDS. Coach, they developed a great relationship with a TDS coach, and the T S coach says, Trust me, I've done my research, here are a handful of brands that I think might fit some of the characteristics you're looking for. Right? Then they come to us. And I'm the stranger. So by me getting an opportunity to talk a little bit about what I've experienced as it relates to small business ownership, which I know are the things that they might be looking for, I think it automatically puts us on a kind of an even level where we can speak to each other in more of a relatable way. And that way, at the beginning, we could start to you know, break down that invisible, invisible barrier that exists just because there are two strangers sitting across from a zoom screen. Yeah, so much to take from that where and I think you kind of mentioned it being like, wow, there's actually so much around those kinds of four pieces of income, lifestyle, wealth and equity, even referred to as like someone's why in a way and just kind of breaks it down a bit more into what someone's y could look like. But it kind of permeates really everything like to be able to connect to someone's income, lifestyle, wealth and equity goals is how you're going to be able to like yes, they might love what it is that your brand does, which we can get into what is floor coverings international little bit, but for sure at the end of the day, they truly are going to connect their goals to how your brand floor coverings international can help them achieve those goals. So it's like that kind of must have be at the foundation and then build on that and you kind of put in the details as needed. But that's like the base of it. And so you can speak to that if you You want and then also just fill us in a little bit on floor coverings International, some of your brand differentiators. What resonates with candidates when they do speak with you about your brand? Sure, well, I'll start just to make a comment on what you just said, I think I love the analogy that my job when I'm speaking to a prospective franchise owner is to be the front porch of the franchise organization. And by what I mean by that, or like the bouncer on the front porch, right, because it's not that we don't want we want to be exclusive and not, you know, not let anybody in in that fashion. But if we let somebody into our club, or our house, if you will be, it's going to be because they're the right fit. And not every brand is the right fit for not every individual because every individual is different, and every brand is different. And so from the get go, I believe, personally, a good entrepreneur source, but franchisor, whether it's floor coverings International, or any franchise or relationship starts with the franchisor, the guy in my position standing or gal standing on the front porch, being really clear about what it is that the brand can offer a prospective candidate and communicating it to the coaches, but then with the clients as well coming to get to communicating it to them as well. Because if it does come to a point where we let them in, or they want to come into the house, into the club, and be part of the franchise organization, it's done so in a way that there's mutual alignment. And the franchisor says, Here are our values, here are the things that we're able to offer for all the four factors that we've been talking about. And then the candidate says, Yep, I identify with them. And it winds up being a great relationship. So I just, I love that the entrepreneur source sets that up from the beginning, and really starts to dig into the why of the client and of the candidate. Because then when they get to that first conversation with somebody in my position, there were already we have a leg up in our discussions, because a lot of that discovery has already happened about why we're speaking in the first place, which is just awesome. But um, you had asked about floor coverings International. And so I'll tell you something, listen, you know, it's interesting, give a little bit of my background floorcoverings International was my first job. Having ever, you know, started my own businesses like my first real job job. And I knew I wanted a job when I before I came here. And the reason why was because when you're an entrepreneur, and I consider myself to be an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, meaning come up with an idea, go build it and execute it. In that sense. It's pretty lonely. That's one of the reasons why I like franchising is because it's not lonely at all. You're an entrepreneur, you have content, entire curl, control and direction. But you've got a network of many, many others that are running the business alongside of you, plus the corporate support as well. Love franchising for that. I had a different experience in the sense that I had started first, my first two businesses, and it was just constantly iterating figuring out iterating figuring out, you never felt like you really knew what you were doing as much success or not success, your habit having entrepreneurs in general that aren't part of franchise organizations, they have no real way of knowing knowing if it's good or not good because it's really hard to benchmark your performance. Anyway. So before I came here, I was looking for two things. For my next stop. I was looking for an opportunity to learn from some people that had been there and done that. I explained why a second ago, but the other thing I was looking for was just this hockey stick growth opportunity. You know, being younger, I know that I'm younger, and I wanted to play so I can continue to grow and sometimes those two things we have a really experienced team. You might not find a brand that is younger, if you will, right. I was lucky enough to find floor coverings International. I never would have thought that I'd be in the home improvement or flooring industry. I don't think anybody wakes up and says they want to be in the flooring industry. But when I learned about this, it's like firefighter professional athlete at least for boys, right? That's what we want to do. And not a flooring business owner. But when I'm when I learned about the team here, so floor coverings International, owned by a publicly traded entity, a company called first service that started the very largest painting franchise in North America, which is CertaPro Painters owns California closets which created an industry that they were the first ones. Paul Davis restoration, Florida post home inspectors. They bought floor coverings International in 2005. So Tom Wood is our CEO is a co founder at CertaPro painter. So I was like okay, there are some really smart people that have built some amazing brands here. Number one is there. Then number two with floor coverings international being the youngest brand in the portfolio, and we are truly growing it just following the gameplan of the other brands that the team has built. I said this is just something that's too good for me to pass up on and so on Those were the things that I was looking for. And then when I still had this little bit of a, okay, I've got a really experienced, awesome team that I can learn from. And I've got a great growth opportunity. But I still had this little bit of hesitation to say it's a flooring, flooring really. But then once you start to peel back the layers of the onion, it's just super interesting what this brand does and what we the position we have in the marketplace. So the flooring industry is the largest interior remodeling industry that there is. So more people spend money on their floors, and they do anything else. And there's this misnomer that you know, the flooring business is like the dusty old carpet salesman with ripped jeans. But I don't know about you, the last time I put carpet in my house was I don't even know Probably never. Because right now when you redo the floors in your house, it's these nice big long plank hardwoods. And when you get flooring done in your home, it's more like HGTV than it is dusty carpet sales. So that was one thing that really impressed me. And then the other thing that really impressed so huge industry really fragmented, there isn't a dominant player. People say, Well, how do you compete with Home Depot? Home Depot only makes up 4% of the marketplace. So we don't have to compete with Home Depot because they're not really that big of a player. Because nobody wants to DIY their floors. Right? So. So there's no big player. And then the last thing that I found, there's just a click with me, which is going to lead to how we're really different in the industry is that the flooring industry is female dominated. I think it logically makes sense. Right? Like, like, if we're going to do the floors, my house, my wife got it. I'm not No, you're right, you're not? No. No, clearly, I could barely dress myself in the morning. So that it's a female dominant industry, but like the look that you just had on your face where like it took a second to register, because initially this perception of construction flooring, ripping things up putting new things in how the industry is male dominated. But there's a female consumer. So first service is known the parent company is known for dissecting who the customer is, and then building the core differentiators around it. And so we do a couple of really unique things in the male dominated industry to cater to the model more to who's the female homeowner. So specifically, number one, the flooring industry traditionally is retail, like you have to go back and forth to a store the fluorescent lighting, we take our mobile flooring showroom with over 3000 product SK use to create a shop at home experience for this really large purchase. Because for me, as a male, I go, Okay, that looks fine, put it down. But I know my wife is gonna look at it. And she's gonna say, Okay, does that match with the color of the walls, the drapes, that was furniture, this will go will not go like she's got much more of an opinion. And for her to be able to shop in the lighting of her own home, next to her furniture, next to the wall colorings and then be able to talk to somebody in her home because, you know, she doesn't want to listen to me when it comes to that stuff. Right? Till it talks to me she could trust a true consultant in the process is a huge differentiator, number one. Number two, the next huge differentiator that I find my favorite part of this brand, the thing I'm most proud of? We're the number one rated flooring company in North America by customer service standards. And that's not just because I say so it's measured by net promoter score, which I'm sure you're familiar with. And so it's scientifically we are the very best flooring company in North America. You might think, Okay, well, what's that? That's a big deal. Huge deal, right? Like, we're the best like real, we are the Ritz Carlton of the flooring industry, like the best of the best. And there's a couple of different reasons why I'm going to tell you that it starts with just the fundamentals of us being a decentralized franchise model, we've got local ownership for all of our outlets that are going to bump into their customers at the supermarket. So that's kind of like the first like just just by virtue of us being a franchise organization. But more than that, our franchise owners we bring into the organization identify with the idea that the bar is set so low in the home remodeling industry. People have terrible connotations and thoughts when it comes to a contractor coming to their house. Like in general, it's cringe worthy. But it's not hard to be not cringe worthy. So what I mean is just by showing up dressed professionally, answering your phone saying yes, no, please thank you treating somebody else's home with respect, active communication, active listening, following up on the project or the project progress as the installation goes throughout. Finishing the project with a, you know, a thank you a handshake and a folder or maybe a gift. Like, these are all things that high customer service businesses do. But in the home services industry, it is completely unexpected. And so we identify with franchise owners, we bring franchise owners into this business that identify that, hey, by us bringing soft skills to a dirty industry, we can really stand out. And so that's how we become the best flooring company in North America. And then the last thing I'll just mention that's pretty unique about the brand is a we buy our materials directly from the manufacturers. So, you know, everybody's concerned when they get into businesses, okay, well, I be competitive in my marketplace. And for whatever reason, I think people think that doing business with a franchise is more expensive. But because of the strategic relationships we have with product vendors, our franchise owners, thanks to these relationships, purchase their materials in the same level and buying tear as Home Depot and Lowe's. So it's this combination of of the buying experience at the front end, the delivery, and delivering and following through on promises, and tying together that buying to the installation, plus the strategic relationships we have with all of the major flooring manufacturers in North America. At the moment, we're the fastest growing flooring company in North America. So yeah, hopefully, well, hopefully, I just took what maybe sounded not sexy, the flooring company and made it kind of exciting, I hope. Yeah, I'm like, All right, Where's where's my floor coverings international here? Because no, I love all those different things. Because exactly to your point, like, as you're talking, I'm thinking, Alright, these what you're talking about, there's like myths and misconceptions around them, whether it's just the industry, but also franchising in general, like when you're able to break it down into, okay, the customer service piece, the thought that goes into the just setting up the whole process and the thought and like, the systems in place and the structure that's there, you would never know that and also the fact where you're like, Okay, people think franchising is like more franchises are more expensive to work with and things like that. These are all just misconceptions and myths that I'm sure like your candidates have not just your consumers and your customers, but also your candidates. And so just and this is where I get really excited, because I'm like, you get to talk to people who have these misconceptions would never have thought I should go into a flooring business. This is something I really want to do. But then once they actually get to talk to you, and listen and hear what it is that you guys do. All of a sudden, their whole mindset shifts, and they're like, whoa, whoa, like, I am so excited to do this. Like, what's the next step? How do I get there? And like, that's key and I don't think a lot of franchisors, No, I shouldn't say I don't think a lot of franchisors, but I think sometimes maybe that's the missing piece where people get so explicit caught up on like the features and benefits, like this is the type of our flooring. And this is the brands that we use, people don't actually care about that they want to connect to that whole customer service, I want to be part of my community. I love like giving back, that kind of thing. Like that's what people connect to. And I think sometimes that gets lost or people just don't like franchisors don't educate about that. They're maybe focused on some of the wrong, not the wrong things. But the things that maybe don't matter so much to the candidate. I think this goes exactly back to the conversation, we had to start where we were talking about the four factors that you know, people determine what a good franchise matches for them. At the end of the day, use the word why it boils down to the why. So for us to be really good at this matchmaking process, we've got to really strongly understand the why of our candidate or our client. But then I think what I was just explained to you was the why of our brands, like the what is the flooring like the what is that we're a franchise, but the why we exist to be the very best in customer service inside of this dirty industry. And then we also existed I mentioned this other thing, we exist to build scaled large franchise businesses so that our individual franchise owners can build the lifestyle freedom equity that comes with having a large scale business as opposed to more of a solopreneur type business which there's nothing wrong with sometimes that business is right for certain individuals, right. So that's our y ry ry is to build large scale businesses and be the very best in customer service. And so when a brand in general is really clear about why they exist, and then they could really help a candidate identify or dig into their why it makes that matchmaking process like so easy like I'll tell you for the most part Melissa. In the by the second conversation I have with a candidate you It's very apparent to me whether we've got an opportunity to make the relationship happen or not. And it's just because at least the first two conversations, there's somewhat involved. But the first conversation is mostly around the wire the candidate, and the second conversation is mostly around the why of the brand. And then after that second call, it's like, okay, we know if we've got some magic here if we don't, and if we don't have magic, it's okay. It's better off for both parties. Right? Well, that's one of the say two. And I actually love that where you're like, Okay, you talk about the clients want the candidates, why, then you talk about the brands, why? And at that point, you should see, you know, is there something here, but if you're only leading with, if you never get to the why of either side, or you're getting to it, like too late, or just like never comes up, then it's gonna be really difficult to find like the right people that you want to work with. I guess at the end of the day, you might find some great people, but they might not be that right. The right fit for your brand. At the end? Yeah, for any round. Right. I yeah, I think that that's not only just advice I need to remind myself of because we all fall into patterns of behavior, like, oh, I need to I need to do a better job of digging into this individuals. Why are explaining what we do? I think just in general, myself, and everybody who does what we do. What's really the motivating factor behind the individual? The Why, what's really the motivating factor behind the brand? Why does the brand exist? And then those other pieces like you said, they'll either they'll figure themselves out, yeah. And I like to where you're like, Hey, it's okay. If it's not the right, it's okay. If it's not the right fit, you know, that's going to happen. And that's totally fine. Like, and I know to like when I work with the coaches, we do so much about education, which is why I love working with you and the team and floor coverings because it's very much about the education piece. And that whole discovery for the candidate, like they're learning about what floor coverings does, and the why and how it fits in with their why and all that great stuff. Yeah, add a comment because this is just so like, I love what we're talking about. Because at the end of the day, like you brought up, it's okay, that's sometimes part ways or it's okay that the y's don't align. It's so true, because I think, in my position, where I'm, you know, recruiting individuals into a franchise organization, anybody who does what I do, and then anybody who does what a coach does, in developing rapport, helping an individual discover their strengths, their wise, exposing them to the benefits of business ownership, and then helping them match with prospective franchise brands. We both and this actually, I'm not going to take credit for this. This is a Charlie Chase was the president of the IFA, or the chair of the IFA, he, he's the president of our parent company. And he recently said, I love the fact that you just work, we both have a fiduciary relationship, which a fiduciary if you Google it, or you want to know what the definition of involving trusts, especially with regard to the relationship between the trustee and the beneficiary, that was my Google definition, there wasn't a top my head. I know, I don't have that memorized. But I know what fiduciary means I just wanted the textbook for our conversation. But anyhow, we both need to act on the best interest of the candidate. And sometimes the best interest is to not pursue a particular brand. Or maybe business ownership isn't right for them now, wherever. And if that's in their best interest, we're all going to be able to sleep at night, and we're all going to be able to see success in the people that wind up jumping into a particular franchise. I'm like, let's just take a moment of silence and let that sink in. Because, again, when you look at franchising, sometimes it gets into maybe a bit of like a frantic mindset where you're like, Okay, I need to grow, I need more franchisees even on the coach side, you know, okay, I need to get my client into a business I'm, I need them to, like, be awarded this territory and like, you kind of get into this. And I guess it's maybe like a bit of a scarcity mindset, but almost kind of panics, like frantic. And that's not the place that you want to come from. Exactly. To your point, maybe business ownership is not right for that person. Now, maybe not ever, but you have a person who's talked to you, they know about your brand, and if they have this great experience with you, they'll be a raving fan, whether they become a franchisee or not. And it just like, pays itself forward and builds momentum. And I think that's the place that you want to come from, as opposed to like, Oh, I just this May this isn't like the perfect match. But you know what, I got a quota. So gotta go. You know, at the end of the day, it hurts the brand and it hurts the individual. Right? I mean, again, like that word fiduciary relationship, you know, we have a fiduciary responsibility, because for most of the folks that we work with, again, the T s co Just in the people in franchise development, we're leading individuals to take sometimes all or, or a good portion of their life savings and invest it. And if we do so under the wrong pretenses that's a that's not good. Let's put it that way. I could say a lot of things. I'm just gonna leave it with. That's not good. Like a caveman might say that not good. Not good. Exactly, exactly. And, and franchising can be so empowering. I know, it's a very overused word, but franchising, get elite changes people's lives, you know, it changed your life, it's changed my life. And it changes the lives of these franchisees who. And it's so funny because we talk about it all the time. But it's actually true. Like, these aren't just words that I say a lot, you actually hear stories of, and you can share some of these as well. And your side, I'm sure where you have franchisees who came in, you know, coaches told me the client was like, wildly frustrated, or they were just done. They're like, Okay, I'm almost at the end of my career, there's not a lot left, I've lost the spark, I like don't have joy in this anymore. They figure out what franchising can do for them, they fall in love with the brand. And it like, completely changed the trajectory of their course of life. It changes their family, like the next generation. It's wild. And that's what I love about franchising. So thanks for coming to my TED Talk. And on that note, so you can kind of comment on that however you want. And then as we wrap up here, I would love to get your thoughts on. I mean, you and I could talk for hours. So we'll continue the conversation, but you can comment on what I just talked about. And then also, just to wrap up, I would love to get your thoughts on future franchising. So whether that relates to your brand floorcoverings international franchising in general, what you see from your perspective, like, what do you see happening in the industry, all that good stuff? Well, I think, just just, you know, talking about franchising, being a life changer, I think that one of the one of my favorite success stories is franchise owner that we have here. floorcoverings international actually have two great success stories. But I'll start with the franchise that we have here at floorcoverings International, who was looking for ways to leave Venezuela didn't know what a franchise was. Gentlemen, just didn't just need to get his family out of an oppressive situation in an oppressive country and stumbled upon the opportunity for an E two visa, then stumbled upon a franchise coach. And today, he's got his family living in the United States. He runs a multimillion dollar business, his daughters are growing up in a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood. Whereas, rewind seven or eight years, this particular gentleman was scared to drive to the grocery store. And it's the kind of the thing that gives you goosebumps. I remember I was eating lunch with him. And he said something weird just happened. He looked at me it was something weird just happened. What do you mean? He's like, I just realized that we've been here at this restaurant for like, an hour. Like, yeah, he's like, I haven't felt nervous the whole time. Like it would you like it. Like when I I'll never forget that right? Because the guy was so conditioned. He couldn't even be in public without having fear for his life in the country that he left. And then he took a months and months to finally adjust to the fact that living here in the United States. You could sit at a restaurant and feel comfortable. Like, it's like, it's insane. It's absolutely insane. So, yes, franchising absolutely changes lives. And without this, this particular franchise owner, you know, would not have ever known the ins and outs of opening a business in this. So he, he theoretically could have started a business but he would have never known the ins and outs of opening a business marketing to consumers. I mean, all that stuff that a franchise or coaches and all because of the franchisor franchisee relationship, you know, his kids are living in an environment that they can grow up and be safe. That's just, that's just my absolute favorite thing in the world. i It's only there's almost no words because, first of all, like from, you know, I can barely imagine like, it's very hard to imagine even coming from a place like that. And then through through franchising, how you know, the steps that how that got there? Yeah, he is living a completely different life and the life that he came from before he was like, scared for his life. Like that's just crazy. That Merida is just wild. Yes. It completely, completely insane. So I think, Melissa, the future of franchising is that it's everything we've been talking about. I think that I'm a believer in that the the good intent people will always prevail, even though in the short term, sometimes they feel like, maybe they're not at times. So like, I'll give you an example. You know, in my approach that I take was trying to find a match sometimes, or people that aren't a match. And so I might lose out on an opportunity to bring somebody into the organization. But I know long term, I'm going to bring in great fits to the organization and they're going to perform really well. I think in franchising our industry, in general, what we're going to start to see happen is that the brands that bring people in under the right pretenses and that actually invest to help support their franchise owners launch their business and identify success within the model. Those are going to be the brands that are the identified or identifiable franchise brands long term. And if you're looking at, just look at any of the brands that are franchising, that are household names, McDonald's subway, those are easy AMCO that's, that's a household name, you drive by them all the time and that but just think about the brands that are household names and franchising. The ones that become household names are rooted in the franchisee success, and the franchisee success is, thanks to the fifth finding what we do, and thanks to the support. So ultimately, I think it's inevitable that the future of franchising is that the people who have the the proper intentions are the ones that will succeed. And that's, I mean, I don't think that's not a prediction, I just think that that's a fact that's just an ultimately what will happen. Now, I love that it's take care, like, take the time to set it up properly, right from the start. And we talked about this too, like yet look long term, if you're just looking short term, that's, you know, not the recipe for success and for becoming a household name, and for being this long lasting brand with great franchisees. So it's the at the end of the day to that's it's not just about the brand and the brand name, it's like, these are individuals that you are gonna changing their lives, and they're gonna stay with you for years. And like, that's, that's what you want to see. So and that's when I, you know, we'd love to any emerging brands, any new franchises who are like coming into the space looking to grow just starting like that, exactly what you just said is what I would want them to hear, you know, do it right, find the right people, it's okay to say no, if it's not the right fit, it's like, you will be fine if you do it the right way. And the really cool thing that happens outside of everything that we just mentioned, like the brand builds and people perform well. Most people when they get into a franchise business don't realize this particular benefit, but the particular benefit I'm about to label doesn't exist unless you do everything right up front. And that's the franchisee to franchisee camaraderie and culture and support. I think a lot of times when somebody is searching for a franchise brand, they're like, What is the franchisor do for me? What systems do they have? What training do they have? What marketing do they provide? Which that's all the responsibility of a good franchisor? Don't get me wrong here. But one of the blind spots people have in searching for franchising or franchise opportunities is what's the culture of the organization? Like what's my neighboring franchisee going to do to help me? Or is he going to be an adversary or not. And that culture is developed by starting with identifying the right people, and then showing them success. And a good franchise organization will have this also amazing peer to peer culture. And I'll argue that that is way more valuable to a potential franchise owner than even the support that the corporate office gives. So that's the again, that's the hidden thing that develops over time. That's probably the thing I'm most proud of about floor coverings International, is our franchise owners peer to peer are like family to each other. And because of that we see businesses grow faster and learn faster, because instead of them just relying on what the corporate people say, they also get an opportunity to have somebody in their corner that's doing what they do cheer them on, or, you know, giving them the healthy nudge to say Come on, you know, you shouldn't be doing that or you know what the right way to do things come on. And again, that to me, that's the that is the hidden thing that most people don't look for, or identify with in franchise brands. But it's probably the most powerful See that? Thank you for bringing that up because I don't think we like we didn't really even touch on that. And that's a massive part of it. Again, little thing about franchising, not a little thing, but something about franchising that probably people don't even think about are the misconceptions. It's all about, oh, it's like this big, you know, the big brother franchisor, whatever it is, and you don't even think about, okay, what's the actual community like, not just the culture of the head office, and then that but like, the people that I get to be with for the next, you know, 10 years more, whatever it is. That's an excellent point. So thank you, elver Herman's for joining us. This is not a fun right. Well, thank you very much. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I did to Melissa anytime you need a sound bite, I'm here for you. So you got me perfect. And now we know you've committed fraud It's okay. The loans paid back at this point. I think it's past it's it's opportunity