Brian Belmont: FYZICAL CEO, Planet Fitness & Quiznos Franchisee

“You are only as good as the last unit you open.”

That single statement speaks volumes about Brian Belmont’s powerful belief in franchisor/franchisee relationships. As CEO of FYZICAL Therapy and Balance Centers (with more than 500 locations in 46 states) he draws upon his experiences as a Quiznos and Planet Fitness franchisee “to help other people live the dream I got to live.”

Join Ab and Vini as they welcome Brian to the SoF podcast and hear his takes on private equity’s place in the franchising space, the potential of AI, how ‘Zees fit in the strategic planning process, and the #1 thing people get wrong about franchising.

Transcript

 Hi everyone, welcome and thanks for joining us for Stars of Franchising. Get ready for a roller coaster ride through the world of franchising as we bring you the best stories of inspiration and entrepreneurial grit and turning dreams into franchise realities. That's right Vinnie. From emerging to global brands, we'll chat with the genius minds behind the magic. All brought to you by the Tariq Farid Franchise Institute at Babson College. I'm Ab. And I'm Vinnie. Now buckle up for some serious inspiration.



 Super excited to have Brian Belmont, CEO of Physical Therapy and Balance Centers with us. Brian, welcome and first of all thank you for your visit to campus and your support of our students. It's great to have you here. I'm happy to be here, thanks.



 We love to start with, and your story is great in that you had a lot of different ties into franchising, but tell us a little bit about your why and why you do what you do and your entree into entrepreneurship and franchising specifically.



 My entree was as Quiznos sub-maker, franchisee one. And my younger brother and I scaled that, bought a larger territory and had several units and sold that back to the company.



 While I got into franchising, I was really looking for an alternative to a corporate career track. I knew I spent 10 years in the Marine Corps and I was hungry to find an opportunity to do something on my own that I believe could help better my way of life and help me build some wealth. And franchising became that for me. That was over 20 years ago. And why do it today? It's darn fun, but the most rewarding thing on the franchisor side is I get to help other people live the dream that I got to live. To help franchisees build wealth and create independence in their life. It's an alternative towards that corporate career track. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's different. When I think of growing a franchise business, how do you go from one to two to three to five to a hundred perhaps? Because if you're in a corporate role, you say, how do I go from a director to a senior director to a VP to SVP to an EVP? And neither are wrong. They're just a different way to spend a couple of decades. That's all. Very different. Well, Brian, thank you again. I want to follow that up by asking you to perhaps explain to us what you think people misunderstand the most about franchising. That is easy, Vinny.



 Somebody can pick up a, you know, take down a lease and build a store out and then it's just going to happen overnight. One of our core values at physical is resilience because it takes resiliency to live through the ups and downs. It could be a funding challenge, it could be a hiring challenge, it could be a demand challenge or a supply challenge, whatever that may be.



 You as a franchisee are still affected by that. And one thing I love about franchising, even though it isn't as easy and that's misunderstood, you are in business by yourself or for yourself but not by yourself. And I think that's the coolest thing in franchising. So for instance, I'm also a Planet Fitness franchisee and if I want to get a new insurance contract or something, I can look through the franchisors, approve vendors for insurance. But make no mistake, I'm calling the two or three best franchisees I know and I'm asking them, what are your lessons learned here? Who'd you go with? Why did you go with them? And I get a sincere kind of community partner that their only vested interest is that I find a successful solution. And that's what franchising often is misunderstood as well, that you're not by yourself but you are. So basically if I want to maybe kind of add that, you have a pool of advisory board.



 I mean, people out there who are doing something similar that you can easily reach out to, to help you navigate any situation, so to say. Absolutely. And unless you're the first one, there's always somebody that's done it before you.



 There's a wealth of knowledge there.



 Love it. Well, let's talk a little bit about your experience and maybe some of the things you've taken from being not only a Quiznos franchisee but a current Planet Fitness franchisee to your mindset and creating and shaping the culture at physical and how you run the brand. How important part has being a franchisee impacted that and maybe share in what ways?



 Yeah, well, I always put it down to the simplest things in life are the hardest to figure out. Just a basic rule that's important in the relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee is that you get a call back. Can you imagine you just spent several hundred thousand dollars, maybe a million dollars, you bought the rights of this territory, you opened up and now you're in your support process of opening and you don't know who to call or nobody gives you a call back. So my lens is always what is the journey from sale to open and then post opening and as a franchisor, how do we make sure that no franchisee gets left behind because I've been a franchisee and I felt like, huh, maybe they don't give a darn about me. And it's not because they don't, it's just they don't have the systems and processes and people established early enough to ensure that my pathway to success is as good as it can be. And if I follow that, I've got a very strong chance of being successful. So my lens is always what is a franchisee's view, what are their roles and obligations, what are mine and then we guide each other. We actually have pre-opening tour guides and then we have post opening coaches to ensure that as you're on that pathway towards growth, opening and then growth is that we're supporting you in the appropriate way. And like every brand, it changes every month, every year, it's evolving and growing. So all that continuous change needs to be facilitated by the franchisor. So that's a great segue into my next question. Maybe Brian, if you could lay out to us what, in your opinion, do the best franchisors do? And you flip the coin and tell us what do the best franchisees do well?



 The best franchisors walk the walk and talk the talk. And what I mean by that is they actually believe in plural franchising. They run their own units just as a franchisee would. They sign their leases, they run those P&Ls, they have the same vendor challenges, staffing challenges, consumer challenges. So that I believe 8 to 12% of any franchise mix should be run by the franchisor. It's a place where you test vendors, where you try new things before you put your finger in somebody's chest and say, "Go do this." We actually have done it and we know it works if you execute it correctly. So that would be the first is a good franchisor. The second is a good franchisor is you involve your franchisees in your strategic planning and your tactical decisions.



 That can be through a franchise advisory council, but it needs to be greater than that. There need to be franchise committees for marketing, for vendors, for IT, for new product and innovation. And it's not just, "Hey, they get to listen in on the calls." They actually are part of the system.



 The third would be is because you make them a great partner. It's about a partnership and partners only work when they talk and communicate. So great franchisors have a really good education and communication wheel and put in place. So it's not just a monthly newsletter, it's reoccurring seminars. It's ensuring that we do town halls so that people feel they have a voice. It's utilizing feedback from your franchise advisory council in a reoccurring way and then bundling all together in operational updates that are housed in your education platform and your ways that you can reside that and people come back and reference it. It's making access easy to those seminars and data posts. So recording those videos, chronologically putting them into an educational platform that can be accessed so that it's very inclusive and easy. One of the things that other great franchisors do is they make it easy for a franchisee to share with them the values of the brand and all the things that we're trying to execute. And so that's going to their, in my world, a clinical director or their leads of doctors of therapy that they have access to all that information as well. And all that takes time and resources and educational directors, directors of curriculum, but it's all put in the communication wheel. On the franchisee side, first and foremost is that you run a good business. You meet our operating standards and you believe in them. Second is that you have a passion for what we're doing.



 We're all about a physical being the interpoint to wellness. You have to have an altruistic value set that you really want to care and help people not just correct revenue when you treat them. I think that's important for us culturally or you wouldn't like being here. And finally, it's the same as the franchisor. You need to be a good partner. No franchisor is perfect just as no franchisee is. And when we make mistakes, we work it out together as partners so that it's a positive outcome.



 Sorry, if I may say something a few maybe about five minutes ago when you said there are a lot of things you do today and you do them because you know what it takes on the franchisee side because you've been a franchisee before and that sort of influences your value system, your leadership style or the way you approach your franchisee now.



 Now would you say for everything you know out there in the world of franchising that some of the best franchisors were actually former franchisees? Would you make that statement?



 Not exclusively and the reason I would say that is I'll use Chris Rondo, one of the founders of Planet Fitness. He wasn't a franchisee but he was their first front desk employee. So if you think that guy doesn't know what it takes to run a successful gym, you'd be wrong. And he hasn't been a franchisee but like I said before, he has run a lot of gyms as the head of their operations before he grows to be CEO years ago.



 So not necessarily. I think so long as they have empathy and they care about their brand, you can do it. Does it help? Sure. Sure. Okay. Thank you.



 You covered a lot of it, Brian, with what makes a great franchisor but given if you reflect back to when you and your brother started and even now meeting and evaluating new franchisees, what piece of advice would you give a potential franchisee that either is starting out young, entering franchising or maybe leaving a corporate career or what piece of advice or things would you tell them to focus on as they enter this new world for them?



 Yeah. So to me, it's really about time and money when you're starting off and if you have the time, that means you're probably not making money. And so what I mean by that is a lot of people say, "Okay, how much does it cost to open a physical?" And I'll tell you $150,000 to $300,000. So what I didn't say in that number, that's what's disclosed in our FDD is how do you feed your family and pay your rent as well when you're not working in your normal job that you just left? So I would always say make sure that if you don't have the cash that you're capitalized correctly to get through your ramp period of your first box because the goal for franchising, in my mind, is multi-unit ownership to build wealth.



 The most important one is your next one. So when you're starting on your first, you might need the capital to start and run that business but people forget that they have lives, whether it's themselves or they have family or obligations, then it typically takes more money than you thought it would to do your first one.



 Right. So it sounds like what you're saying and we try to stress this as well, which I love that you're focused on that as funding whatever that time to break even or profitability, six months cash flow, eight months, nine months, and then always think ahead to that next unit if that's your goal to create wealth through multi-unit, right?



 Yep. Yep. And I just always think people forget about their home when they do that.



 If you really looked at why a lot of folks have potentially failed in their early part of franchising, it's just they underestimated the amount of time and capital it might take beyond just what their disclosure docs told them. Got it. Brian, I want to take you back to something you said when you were answering the question about what people misunderstand the most about franchising.



 You hit the nail on the head when you said they think, for instance, it's easy.



 And in parallel to that, they think, okay, it's easy, therefore it's not entrepreneurship. And they said, you cannot put franchising and entrepreneurship in the same bucket. They are two completely different things. How would you respond to that?



 Well, I'd immediately disagree with you completely.



 And the reason I'd say that, we were just talking about cash to start. What entrepreneur doesn't put it all on the line?



 First of all, it takes a lot of effort to find the right franchise concept that you believe and have a pension.



 That's our passion for. That's a lot of work in itself. The second to that, when you sign a lease, you sign a note, you leave your corporate job that has a bunch of security. I don't know what is more entrepreneurial than starting your own small business. You just might happen to be doing it with another brand and concept. But at the end of the day, you're citing that lease. It's your capital. It's your time. It's completely independent. Again, you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself is all I always say. Great. Thank you.



 Brian, I want to talk a little bit about innovation, especially coming out of the pandemic or during the pandemic. Can you talk a little bit about, and you talked about resilience, about what you saw and experienced resiliency wise within the physical system and maybe some innovation that was born out of the pandemic?



 Yeah, you know, it's interesting. Our business is primarily outpatient physical therapy, which converts itself to thinking very manual treatment, hands on. You certainly couldn't do that during the pandemic.



 Telehealth became a thing that we have not done before that we immediately pivoted and adopted to. Because of that, there's a lot of AI technology and visual technology that we're utilizing now for people that perhaps aren't able to get out and come in clinic.



 Especially for postclinical care or that clinical path of treatment beyond your initial eval and treatment, we're able to do a lot more of that in home. That just didn't take place in our business before the pandemic. I would also say, as crazy as it sounds, it's just what we're doing now.



 We utilized technology to talk and communicate with our owners where, you know, before we were on a plane or we're driving a market. So now, for example, if you want to mean to review a site in Westchester, Pennsylvania, I could pull up all the demographics. I could have completely visual of it. In fact, I could drive the streets around it and understand all the traffic patterns. I could understand the penetration of certain demographics from affluency to crime to all of those things from afar. And that was somewhat present before the pandemic, but it's even more relevant and utilized now. And so it helps you be more nimble, quicker. You're getting just as nearly as good a view. I mean, you can make decisions quicker. There's many other examples of that. It could be your space. So you're building a construction site. So now I put cameras in place and I can see if the GC actually did what they said they're going to do here in Florida versus in Westchester, Pennsylvania. And so now, instead of spending money on some of the travel and different things like that, you can do it from afar. Wow. Brian, if you look back at everything you did as a franchisee, which I guess you're still doing and I think you've been doing as a franchiser, what's the biggest thing that you feel if you have to do it again, you would do it differently?



 Yeah.



 And why? That's a really tough question for me because I'm typically, this is going to sound a little counterintuitive so I struggle even saying it, but there were times when I was too aggressive.



 And that sounds nuts. And what it results in is you get a little overextended. So if I see a great site and I'm not capitalized yet, I'll go sign that lease. Oh, I'll get the capital. Yeah. I'll figure it out. And that's good once you get the scale. But if it's early in your business cycle and you've only got three to five units and you can't get that loan, you've got to react and you might have to do some short-term decision things, refinance debt, bring in silent partners, things that you might have not done if you've just been a little bit more patient. And so now, I didn't know all those things at the time. I just thought, "Die by omission, not commission." I'm an old football player at heart. I'm going to hit the hole. But at the end of the day, being a bit more strategic early on would have helped me because I think the outcome probably would have been the same, but I would have probably been in a healthier balance sheet coming out of it at times. Thank you. Well, talking about balance sheets and partnership, I'd love to hear your perspective on we're seeing it. You've seen it within the planet system, the role of private equity investors and interest



 in franchisees as well as franchisors. Can you shed some light for our listeners in terms of expectations and what you've learned and what makes that partnership with private equity work or not work from your perspective?



 Yeah. Every brand I've been with, at some point in time, whether it's with the founder of me as the CEO, I've been involved with private equity. Part of the reason is it gives the founding group ability to take some chips off the table, bring in a partner that perhaps either minority or majority, and they get to monetize all that they've built. So that's positive. But at the same time, more importantly, I believe it helps you put the capital in the business in order to scale and grow it. So as an example, at Physical, I mean, we have almost tripled in just under five years that our equity group has owned us. And the only way I did that is because of massive cash infusion.



 We have over 500 employees today. When I got here, there were about 100, and there were really about 10 in any support roles. Our corporate office is 45, 50 people. We've got fully built out departments with senior execs that really know how to help and grow this business. Without that capital support from my equity group, that would never happen. At the same time, it provides a pathway towards a potential exit for other people. So equity typically is at least the mid-markets that I work in, is a three to five year investment. And their real goal is to make sure that their limited partners can exceed what's going on in the stock market. And they're looking for growth, call it above 12%. And they're looking for a two and a half, three times their money.



 They're going to love physical, and they love franchising specifically because we can accelerate growth in such a scalable way. Yeah.



 Brian, is there any trend, any current trend you think will shape the future of franchising?



 Well, you know, I was talking with Scott, who you're going to talk with later. I had a development, and like, what is that? You know, at the end of the day, I think the future trends are something you haven't seen yet. So one of the tenets of franchising I've talked to Ab about is that, you know, it's what's that next niche. So make it up. You know, you might not hear of a quiz, and those are half our listeners might not even know what it is today. But back when it started, that was the best toasted sandwich you could ever have. No doubt. Nobody had ever seen it. Like, it didn't exist in the marketplace in that way.



 For physical, no one treats balance and fall prevention the way we do. It's not scalable. So I think it's the next niche thing that's disruptive to any market segment. Franchising is typically not always, it's not like we're a big tech company, I'm going to come up with the next best AI thing that's going to change the world. We are consumer facing typically, we're providing a service, we're providing a product, and it's all started in food, but it's evolved into many other areas. We're the real first in true healthcare. There are no other franchises in healthcare. So I think it's the next segment that hasn't benefited from what franchising can do in any given segment. Wow. You know, you covered part of it. I was going to ask you, you know, given your background as a franchisee with Planet, a very strong brand and established, what drew you and brought you to take the reins and lead the growth for physical and presumably part of it maybe was what you just described on its innovative approach. But can you talk a little bit about where the company was when you joined, what drew you there? But also for our listeners who are either contemplating, maybe there are 20 unit or 10 unit franchisor or more, or want to be a franchisor, some guidance on scaling and growth and building ahead of the curve, or just what advice would you give to folks that are trying to do what you did and scale like you did at physical?



 Yeah. So the first part why I came here, I did hit it already, it's to be the entry point to wellness. And in today's lens, that is fall prevention and vestibular wellness, which isn't pervasive in the market at all, and how to scale that and do that well. Now we're moving into other verticals, could be pelvic health, it could be pain management, and a lot of other things that we could be the best in the world at as well. But our whole goal is to be the entry point to wellness, it's not just outpatient physical therapy. That could be so many, many things. Imagine if I have 1500, 2000 owner operator physical therapies out there, what we could do. I think the way we could change community health is pervasive. And it's all the reasons why healthcare needs to improve in the US. So that's my passion there. To become a franchisor, it's all about proof of concept. So I have this thing in franchising, I call it how rugged is the four walls of the box you're building? So can an average Joe Schmo like me, who's probably not the guy you want to take in your ACT coming out of college, how did I do it?



 How was I able to figure out that all these different mouse traps and be successful? It's because the concepts I picked had proof of concept, meaning they were rugged enough that above average or an average person, as long as they have the right work ethic and tenacity can execute them, you're going to be successful.



 Because the harder the trap is, the harder it is to operate. The more levers there are that can go wrong. And so when you think of different franchises, physical is incredibly complicated actually because it's the business of medicine. So we're specific about who we partner with because we want to be open about that. If I go to Vinnie and I say Vinnie, you don't know anything about medicine and if you don't have to get a doctor of therapy to run a box, I would be lying to him because you do, you don't do medicine. So you're going to need a doctor of therapy. So I think it's beyond just proof of concept, it's being honest about how you are going to go to market. Like what's it going to really take?



 And the franchisors that do that right versus just selling and fogging up a mirror are more successful. These are said than done, but you have to be honest with yourself if you're going to franchise. Got it. Well, Vrain, what is it that franchising has taught you that you think every person should try to learn at some point in their life?



 You're only as good as your last unit you opened.



 Every new one is different, it has a new flavor. You can't take any of it for granted. You always got to kind of have your hand on the stick and be moving forward because if you stop, the market will get up and around you and consume you.



 It's just not the way it works. You have to always be growing. You can't be complacent.



 Exactly, do not. Right.



 Hey, Brian, one of the things that we've talked to people about and it's this intersection and your brand, I think represents it's the intersection of franchising and community and social impact, you know, DEI and an opportunity to make an impact in the community. Can you talk a little bit about that with respect to franchising and franchisees? You know, a lot of people don't realize that those franchisees are local people in their markets running them, you know, creating jobs and trying to impact their community. Can you talk a little bit about what that means to you?



 Yeah, well, certainly being a small business owner in any community provides jobs and value to a community as well. I mean, you're paying taxes, you're doing all the things that are important to help a community, but you're also for physical, we're providing a service that you potentially couldn't get in the community if we weren't there. And so beyond just the fall prevention and vestibular wellness, there's a lot of other treatments we provide that being that entry point to wellness, I believe we're a valued add to that community. A way that we express that is we're a national partner of Meals on Wheels. And for those not familiar with Meals on Wheels, it's something that potentially is a shut in. It's a community that's able to get out and it's an organization that's in nearly every community in the US where they provide meals for folks that aren't able to get out. Well, what better tie in for me to add value to our community with our franchisees, thousands of them, where that's we can help those people gain mobility. One of our other attributes is to gain independence, which is if you don't have mobility, you don't have independence. So partnering with folks like that, we can impact that in the national as well as a local level. That's one base example of what might elude itself to care-based marketing. But we're not doing it for the press. We're doing it because it's the right thing to do in that community and it makes our team live the values that we all share. Wow.



 Wow. This is amazing.



 Well, Brian, thank you so much. We try to shed light on franchising and entrepreneurship and opportunity. But you clearly represent, which I think is great for our listeners, if you're evaluating a franchisor and a brand and a leadership team, what you should look out for, it's that empathy you talk about and recognition that the franchisees have to make money and be impactful. So I think that's great. We really appreciate your time today, but most importantly, your partnership and support of our students here at Babson. And we can't express our gratitude and we look forward to doing more together. Brian, before I say thank you again, but before you leave, it's something, a question I was hoping to ask you, and that's I would like to know what keeps you awake at night in regards to being a franchisor and a franchisee at the same time.



 You know, honestly, well, there's a bunch of stuff, Vinny, but the thing that bothers me the most, I guess you might say, is it's kind of after that. If a franchisee isn't successful and perhaps they need to sell or close, that's what keeps me up. You're as good as your franchisee, because that's somebody's livelihood. That's their life. So if something that bothers me the most is that if we have failed a franchisee and not done what we signed up to do for them, it really does. People have life changes. And so how we handle that and work out. And at the end of the day, if it was on us and we failed there, that's what keeps me up. Well, Brian, thank you so much. Thanks a lot. It was awesome. Yeah, thank you all. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it, guys. All right.



 Thanks for joining us on this episode of Stars of Franchising.



 Stars of Franchising was produced at Babson College, engineered by Travis Gray. Karen Soway is our guest coordinator and music by Ralph Taylor. If you like Stars of Franchising, be sure to review us wherever you get your podcasts. And swear the word and share these stories any way you can.