Episode 122: Escape Corporate: Build a Low-Cost Children's Fitness Franchise with STARZ Program

Looking for a low-overhead franchise that fits your lifestyle? Sophia Wastler and Allie Adamson reveal how The STARZ Program is revolutionizing children's fitness through school partnerships—all while allowing owners to work part-time.

Episode Highlight:
"STARZ is a business that can support your life. It's not a business that's going to take over your life. We want to give our owners opportunities that are financially rewarding, personally fulfilling, and fit in with the life that they want to live."

Key Takeaways:
The Power of Partnerships: Learn how STARZ meets children where they already are—at school—eliminating the need for a physical studio.

Whole Child Focus: Beyond sports skills, the program emphasizes mental toughness, resilience, and social graces.

The "Emerging" Advantage: Why being a "pioneer" franchisee offers more agility, innovation, and a stronger voice than legacy concepts.

Flexible Operations: Owners can manage the business part-time, adjusting their involvement based on their family's needs.

Low Barrier to Entry: Total investment ranges from $40k to $107k, with comprehensive teacher training provided by the franchisor.

#FranchiseInvesting #ChildrensFitness #LifestyleFranchise #SmallBusiness #CorporateExit

Guest Website: The STARZ Program

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Contact me and my team with any questions along the way.  www.calendly.com/franchiseguy
Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

Transcript

0:42

Joining us in the huddle today are Sophia Wassler and Allie Adamson with the STARS program. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. you guys here. So Sophia, you are the founder and chief shine officer at the stars program. You have a background in performing arts and education. Tell us a bit about your journey and how it led to founding the stars program. Yeah, so my mom had me in dance from the time I could walk. so movement was always a big part of my growth and development. I even ended up going to a performing arts high school. So I studied academics part-time and then I spent the other time dancing and loved that. When it came time for college, I went and studied health and physical education, wellness. And so after college, I became a teacher. I taught for the city of Virginia Beach. And it was there that I realized that there was a real need for children's programming to reach children at a younger age and kind of provide these foundational skills. And so STARS is really just a combination of all of my passions, dance, movement, health, sports, wellness, teaching, and children. Wow, that's awesome. Thank you for the context. And before we jump into the STARS program, um I'd like to introduce Ali. So Ali, you're an expert in the health and wellness space. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved with Sophia and STARS. Thanks so much, Mike, for the opportunity to be on the show. uh We moved from, I was born and raised in South Carolina, but have spent the last 16 years overseas, actually, in Australia. And it was really in Australia where I completed my postgraduate uh studies in healthcare management that I really got to deep dive into the health and wellness space. um Fast forward. 12 years of working in a hospital system and I started my own consulting business where I now provide consulting services to health and wellness brands in Australia and the US. But STARS really resonates with me on a personal level because I had the privilege of being a former Division I athlete. I was uh a cross-country and track runner myself. And before that, danced for 15 years as well. And I have three children under the age of eight. so combining sports, health, wellness, and kids is just right up my alley. So STARS is a no-brainer, and I love being on this team. Yeah, it sounds like a really great match. And it's uh I'm the father of track and field athlete. My son is on the field side. So he is a thrower. So he does shot put and discus. And in fact, we had our first meet yesterday. So it was really fun. But those are long meets. We're out there all the time. And it's like a swim meet. They just keep going and going. uh Yeah, but it's a lot of fun. uh So Sophia, for a listener who isn't familiar with stars, can you tell us what it's all about? Yeah, so STARS is a children's fitness enrichment program and we basically partner with schools and bring specialized classes and curriculums programs to schools, offering things like dance, cheerleading, sports, where we do a new sport every month, fitness, different programs that the school wants. When we make this partnership, parents enroll their children into these programs. And so we're meeting children exactly where they already are at school during non-instructional time, which is great because, you know, parents, they're working and they don't want to do all this running around in the evenings or on the weekends so that they know that their child is getting these extracurriculars right at school during the school day. Yeah, and it seems like with everything happening on the apps and with access to content, it's great to get kids active, right? So like this is a really good time for your concept. So what are you seeing right now in the active lifestyle space? Why are these brands like stars growing so quickly? Yeah, well, I kind of see that as a twofold because active lifestyle to me means two things. One, we see a lot of our franchise owners that are looking for a brand or an opportunity to support their active lifestyle. So they want to still have a life, be a mom, or some of them even work a job and also run a business. So I kind of see stars in that regard, but as far as parents go, they are just wanting to combat that sedentary lifestyle for their children. And so I think that's why. these brands are growing so quickly because parents want these opportunities for their children to stay active. And one of the things that also is unique to STARS is that although we are very focused on physical skill development, we also have a strong focus on whole child development. So our brand is really supporting emotional development, social skills. mental toughness. And so it's a really great brand that's really making a big impact in the lives of children. Yeah, and I'm sure that not every one of your franchise owners, you know, are parents. Maybe a lot of them are. But I can see how there's, you know, something really good and it's a purpose driven business, not just being transactional. mean, clearly you have to make money if you're running a business. But can you talk a little bit about the purpose driven side of stars? Yeah, I think that's really where we stand out because we at STARS are really focused on spreading shine. That's what we do. that's shine to us means uplifting, encouraging, supporting. And so everyone on the team, our teachers, our owners, our leadership is just. aligned in that regard. And I think that's what really makes the difference from a brand to be good to really a brand to be great is when everyone's kind of aligned behind that purpose. And that's really what I see that more and more throughout our team. Very cool. So Ali, let's shift over to you. Like on the franchise development side, uh this is an emerging concept, right? So what are some of the advantages that a franchise owner might have when you enter kind of an emerging brand that's kind of, you know, getting out of its infancy and it's growing versus like a legacy concept that maybe has hundreds or thousands of owners? Yeah, no, that's a really great question. And I think there's definitely space for both in the market. But I love working with an emerging brand, with an emerging brand like STARS for many reasons. Probably what comes to mind is the agility that STARS has to be adaptive and agile in the current market with and work with our owners in terms of their strengths that they have. I also love seeing the passion that a lot of our owners have for one another. And so for a lot of our owners, this is the first time that they've ever decided to become an entrepreneur or a business owner. And we like to say it stars that we shine together. And so one owner that may have a background in IT and tech and another one with an engineering background and another one with an exercise science background, when they come together and support each other, we win as a team. And so I love the agility that we have within our team, but also the support that we give to each other being an emerging brand that I doubt would exist in more of a legacy concept. Yeah, no, that makes a ton of sense. And I think, you know, the franchise owners that collaborate with their peers are the ones that learn quicker and they can build their business, you know, in a better manner than those that are kind of in silos. So to that end, like, do you see an advantage for an emerging brand when you have like a closer relationship with the franchisee? So the franchise or franchisee relationship is a little more tight knit than it might be in a you know, this big maybe multi branded corporation that doesn't ever get to see eye to eye with their owners. I wanted to add to that. One of the reasons, one of the things that I was told by one of our franchise owners is that she knew at Starz she was going to have a voice versus going to a legacy brand where it was like, no, this is the way we do things. Boop, boop, boop, boop. Whereas with our brand, because we are new and emerging and I like that Ali said agile we're we are listening we are we are collaborating we are working together and I think that that's a big difference too we do have that tight-knit relationship Mike that you were alluding to. Yeah, no, I think that's awesome. And it's something that, you know, new owners really have to think through. Do they want to be part of a legacy brand where there might be more currency with the brand name or something where it's like, I'm going to have a really, I'm going to be like franchisee number 10 when I show up at convention in five years. And that matters to a lot of people that are considering ownership. So, was just going to add one other point that I think there becomes more space for innovation in an emerging brand as well, which is kind of a buzzword at the moment. And with all of our owners, innovation becomes a shared effort. And so I love that ideas move faster and problems get solved quicker. And so it allows us to evolve as a system and not just as a brand at the top. And then what about like the relationship between the franchise owner and being part of the community? Does that matter? Like when a franchisee joins stars, does it matter that they're connected? 100%. So when we're looking for our ideal owner, we think about somebody that's community minded. It's a people person. And so becoming a true community leader as a STARS owner doesn't mean that you're just out there running classes. They're becoming a known and trusted presence in the communities in which they serve. And so many of our owners will choose to participate in community activities and school events. They make a real effort to build relationships with directors and teachers at the schools that they partner with. And that makes them, you know, the go-to for kids movement and enrichment in their area because that level of trust has been established within their community. I've had a lot of candidates that come to me looking for exactly that. They're like, you know, my kids don't have anything to do immediately after school, or they don't feel like the curriculum of the school kind of provides some of the stuff that you guys do. So I can see how there's probably a lot of demand for that. in terms of like operators in the market, because the franchise owner, you know, I tell candidates when they ask me, what's the best franchise? like, well, the franchise or doesn't make your business great, right? You do. Like it's the owner makes the owner's business great. The franchisor provides a lot, but at the end of the day, it's up to the owner. So how do you, in your opinion, strong local operators kind of shape the strength of your brand? That's a really good question. would say, you know, not only does having a strong local operator elevate the brand experience, but that creates a sense of trust amongst potential owners as well. And so when we have strong local operators that provide a strong validation to someone that's thinking about buying stars, it makes us, you know, back to my point earlier, it makes it, it adds to the strength of our overall brand. I don't know, Sophia, did you want to add anything to that? Yeah, I mean, that was a great I'm glad you share that with your clients, Mike, that it's really them. They are the ones that are going to make their business great. And they are the local leadership. I mean, they're the ones leading teams hiring. They're putting the teachers in the classrooms. That's the face of the stars, the teachers. And so we it is absolutely critical to have strong owners and leaders in in place. And that's why we're pretty selective on allowing franchise owners into our system because we want to protect the brand. We want to have stars represented really well in the communities that we're serving. And that all comes down to the owner, the local leadership. Right. Very cool. So Sophia, how are today's busy families influencing the need for trusted, consistent programs? Like they're out there looking for something to kind of enrich their child's like experience and, you know, how, do you guys kind of fit that need? Yeah, I think really first it takes a village. mean, parents are looking for support and they're busy. And so I think they're looking for trusted people, programs for their children to participate in. And I love that STARS started out with physical skill development, know, focusing on foundational skills, building those physical skills. But I love that we've evolved into more of whole child development where we're helping children process big emotions or helping them understand social graces and social skills, oh giving them kind of that mental toughness of understanding resilience, teamwork, kindness, all of these things that are important. And I also think that parents really value convenience and reliability. And so those are some of our... things that are really important, our values, some of our important values. Yeah, and what's cool about your brand is like you can make money, but you're also like making good human beings. Like you're really helping not only the families, but also the children become better at where like tackle their problems and gain confidence, get more athletic, you know, all of this stuff is all good stuff. So if a candidate is kind of evaluating the model, what makes this so attractive? I could see that you don't need this like brick and mortar space. You don't have this big construction project in your view. Like what makes this really interesting for us? potential franchise franchisee. Yeah, well, we love and I'm sure Ali could talk a lot about this, but I'm going to jump in. mean, we love that it's part time. We love that it's flexible. We love that it's a feel good. You just you hit the nail on the head, Mike. It's uh we're doing good. And Ali can keep going. What am I missing? It's scalable. Yeah, it's all those things. It provides a really strong work-life balance for people that are looking for a change. know, we're seeing, I may be getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, but we're seeing at the moment a big exodus from the corporate world and people looking for meaning outside of corporate and wanting, you know, often when I have introductory calls with potential owners, say, well, what is it that you're actually looking for? And I will say, eight times out of 10, people will say, I'm just looking to get out of the corporate world and do something for myself that resonates with me. And stars is one of those things. Stars is that is the feel good brand. It's the community impact. It's the it's the doing good. It's you know, we're helping to create better human beings at the end of the day. And so I think we're seeing a shift in why people choose to invest in franchising because people now want to work, you know, I did it myself, choosing to become a consultant. People are choosing to work smarter and not harder. They think, does this fit my life? Does this align with my values? Will this energize me and not just pay me? I think stars can do all of that for the right person who is seeking, who is seeking. an investment opportunity to make a positive community impact. Yeah. And to your point, like about the lifestyle, you know, there becomes a life work balance with intentionally life in front because you get to create your own schedule. You get to like really decide how much time do I want to put in this business. And there's a balance between like the wealth you can create and the time you invest in the business. But you can also schedule around like coaching your kid in Little League and stuff like that. So I think the flexibility is got to be really fulfilling for your owners. Sophia, what does lifestyle franchising really mean to you? I think it means that you can adjust your business based on your lifestyle. Mike, you were just talking about like coaching little league. if, you know, being off at the times that you want to be off and throttling your business up or down, depending on where you are in, in, your life. we have owners that maybe had a second child and they want to, do less. and they're happy at a certain income level. Then we have some that are. really wanting to throttle up. You know, with children being off during the summer, some parents, some owners want to have more time in the summer to do family vacations and spend time with their kids at home, where some owners might say that summertime's a great time to offer summer camps and really dial up the business. So I think the lifestyle, STARS really accommodates lifestyle. because where you're at in your lifestyle, you can adjust the business to kind of support that. Hmm. no, that's a really unique and interesting advantage because like you said, you can ramp it up or ramp it down. So I know there's probably different ownership styles. There's probably owners that are like, you know, the owner operator, they're in the field, they may be running the classes, maybe not. And then you have more executive types that are putting a team in place. But what does a day in the life look like for a stars owner? Yeah, we're seeing more of the latter where the executives are hiring and putting teachers in place and they're taking more of a management role. We're seeing even some of them transition once the business is established to getting a manager in place and having more of a semi-absentee role. But your question was, a day in the life. So really a day in the life of an owner is hiring, managing their team. connecting with schools in the community to create partnerships, running their billing program, which drafts tuition every month. It's really just a simple scalable model. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, for someone that's like getting in and they're nervous about like taking that leap into the unknown, what kind of like early stage support systems do you feel are critical to kind of help new owners kind of get over that hump? Well, support is critical at every stage of business ownership. And I also want to add before we jump into this topic that our owners are working part-time. I don't know if we've mentioned that or not, but STARS is a very part-time. So the day in the life, they could spend two hours a week on marketing. They could spend an hour a week on billing. very works with your schedule and it's very part-time. so we get them started right away with training modules. We have a whole system in place where they watch videos, they're supporting documents, but more importantly, they're with our leadership team and meeting regularly one-on-one with our leadership team as they're going through their modules to just make sure everything's crystal clear. And like I said, support is just critical at every stage. So beyond that initial support, We, somebody on the leadership team is connecting with owners every single month, one-on-one. In addition to that, we have monthly meetings where our owners come together, they collaborate. There's just a lot of support. We are training their teachers, so that burden is not on the owner, so they can focus on building their business instead of training their teachers on curriculum. we, STARS, we offer a lot of support. Yeah, very cool. So who are you looking for? Like what makes an ideal stars owner? I mean, you guys come to the table with unique skill sets, education, athletics is, is that part of, you know, the fabric of an owner who we looking for? Yeah, so an owner does not have to have a background in any of those things, not education, not health, wellness, dance, sports, none of that. They just need to be responsive. They want that we want. We're looking for candidates that are responsive, they're community minded. They want to manage a team. They want to connect with schools in their community. Yeah. Okay. And then Ali for you, like, how do you balance finding the right owner versus growing quickly? Right? It's always there's the shiny object you want to like grow, but you also have to be responsible about that. So how do you strike that balance? That's such a good question. And Sophia and I probably talk about this on a weekly basis. We are provided the opportunity to have conversations with a lot of people that are interested in stars. But at the end of the day, what our leadership team really cares about are finding people that are in alignment with our brand more than looking for a quick sell, if that makes sense. so often we get feedback from potential owners that are going through this process with several brands as you do your due diligence and they say, you guys are like the only brand that actually wants to know about me personally and my family and my background and why I'm interested in franchising. But to us that feels that feels really normal because we want our owners to feel like they not only become part of the stars family, but that they're in alignment with. what we stand for and what we stand for is children's development. We stand for health and movement. We stand for positive impact. We stand for communities. And so we take the time and we don't make decisions lightly in choosing uh who to award a franchise to. So I hope that makes sense, but we... We love getting to know the people that stand for stars. Sophia, I know you would agree, but is there anything else you would add to that? I would only add that we even take the time to check references. Not that just because we want to hear when somebody provides on their franchise application references, we want to hear from those people that they've listed to get more insight as to who we might be bringing into the stars family. So it's really important to us to sell to award franchises to the right people. Really smart like that foundation you built in the beginning is so critical to your success when you become kind of a mid-market brand and when you make your way to maturity. But this is the fun time, right? When you get to pick like the pioneering franchisees that help take what you've built and kind of scale it. So as stars expands, like how do you anticipate like maintaining the quality and the consistency in your core mission? I know that's what a lot of people fear when they're contemplating becoming a franchisor, right? It's like, well, we know how we do it here. What's it going to be like when it's there's another degree of separation? How do you guys think you'll maintain that quality, consistency and mission as you grow? Yeah, well, we're definitely leading from the front. We are our leadership team. We're at our desks every day. We're here working. And I think we're maintaining consistency by providing the training to the teachers, by ensuring that every class is at our standards and meeting our requirements. I'll jump in and say that I don't know if we mentioned this at the start, but even though we're considered an emerging brand, Stars has been operating for over 20 years. So Sophia founded Stars in 2005. So there can be an assumption of risk for being a part of an emerging brand. There's also incredible benefits, but even though we are an emerging brand, we also have over 20 years of proven systems, data, teamwork. We have some of our team members that have been in leadership for over a decade. And so it's really a beautiful combination, marrying the benefits of being a part of an emerging brand with 20 years of backed systems and processes. And that adds strength to onboarding new owners. And they feel confident joining us, knowing that we have that history. Yeah, it's really cool that you have the history and kind of track record coupled with an opportunity that has, you know, a good deal of white space to kind of open new stars, uh, opportunities around the country. So for anyone listening that's interested in becoming an owner, like what's the startup cost range and item seven to kind of launch the business. Yeah, I think we are pretty affordable option. range is 40,000 to 107,000, but most of the franchise fee is 39,000. And for a single territory, which is a generous size territory, we go by population and zip code. Some people choose to purchase two territories at once. There is a discount if they purchase a second territory. Yeah, so it's a pretty affordable investment. really affordable. Like we talked about before, you don't have that construction project and that onerous lease where you're going to, you know, commit to a 50 grand a year, 10 year lease, you know, half a million dollar liability on the books. Um, so that's really great. mean, and especially if you're going to use financing, you can get into stars for a lot less, which is really compelling to a lot of people that want to take like a step into ownership without like diving all in and making sure they like. being an owner and they like building teams and they like, you know, what it's like not having the safety net of a W-2. So that that's really compelling. How about item 19? Does your FDD have earnings guidance in there? We do, and we kind of break down by monthly averages. What's a low average? What's a high average? So a potential candidate could take a look and see their earning uh potential on item 19. Yeah, and it's important for them to understand that in your model, like you said, you have part-time owners, you have full-time owners, so the item 19 is going to differ depending on what kind of business that they choose to operate within the system. This has been really great, guys. I appreciate it. Anything else that you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? Yeah, I'll just jump in and say, just to summarize, feel like STARS is definitely a business that can support your life. It's not a business that's going to take over your life. And that's our goal. We want to give our owners opportunities that are financially rewarding, they're personally fulfilling, and they fit in with the life that they want to live. And so that's why we do what we do. we would welcome, Sophie and I would both welcome anybody that's interested to learn. Super. Sophia, any parting thoughts? every new owner brings something new. It just kind of brings a new energy. And I think it's really it's been a really great process evolving and growing together. And, you know, we're now in six states. And a lot of our owners end up purchasing additional territories because they're seeing the rewards and they want to keep scaling and growing. And I'm just excited to spread shine across the US. Woo! Sounds like you're on your way and you're off to a fast start. So if anyone listening would like to connect with Sophia and Ali to learn more about becoming a franchise owner with stars, contact me at franchiseqb.com and I'll get you connected. Thank you so much, Ali and Sophia for getting in the huddle with us today. Thank you, Mike. It has been fun. It has been. Thanks so much.