Scott Wendrych, FYZICAL Chief Development Officer

“The better and more diverse backgrounds of the people in your system, the better your brand’s going to be.”

A must-listen for current ‘zees, ‘zees of tomorrow, and anyone else contemplating a startup business venture. As the guy with the final say on who gets a FYZICAL Therapy & Balance franchise, Scott Wendrych is an undisputed authority on what makes a successful franchisee. (Spoiler: It’s not necessarily the same for established and emerging brands.)

Scott joins Ab and Vini to share why FYZICAL attracts franchisee interest, and how it chooses the best of them. The most underrated (yet most important) aspect of being a successful franchisee. Where “maverick” ‘zees have a place in franchise models, and where they’re better off blazing their own entrepreneurial trails. The probing questions he asks prospective ‘zees that no one else asks. And the thing that franchisors do WORST. 

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.



 We're super excited to have Scott Wendrick here from Physical Therapy and Balance Center. Scott has a long history and experience in franchising and we're happy to have you here. Scott, welcome.



 Hey, thank you guys. Appreciate it and thanks for hosting today. No problem. We're really excited to share some of your gems with our audience. And what we like to do when we start, Scott, with someone like you is find out what your why is and what calls you to do what you do on your journey. So how about we start there?



 Yeah, it's a great question and it's an important question. You know, for me, I've been involved in franchising for about 17 years. But you know, somewhat unique in this industry, believe it or not, is that I actually started as a franchisee. I was a multi-unit franchisee when I got my start. And so, you know, like many people that get into franchising for the first time, you know, my career out of university was, you know, in my curriculum area, I was in operations and manufacturing management for about a decade.



 And you know, myself, my journey took me into franchising, became a multi-unit operator with a brand based in the Colorado market and was a young franchise brand. And shortly after becoming a franchisee, I actually went to go work for the franchisor. You know, my idea at that time, my wife and I were doing this together, by the way, and it was primarily for running the day-to-day operations. But I found myself, frankly, guys, jealous of what she was doing. You know, I was doing my corporate gig and she was having a lot more fun than I was having. And so I just happened to get friendly with the founder of the company. And long story short, went to work for the company. It was a small brand at that point. But what it allowed me to do, and really my plan was to, you know, take what I'd learned as a franchisee and then be able to learn more about, you know, that from the franchisor's perspective, the franchisor side. And so that's, you know, kind of where my journey started in franchising. That's a great story. Can we ask you what brand that was? I think I may have an inkling, but which brand was that you started with as a franchisee with your wife and then joined?



 Yeah, so it was a brand called Fitness Together. It's a very unique brand. It's a personal training and nutritional counseling brand, you know, small footprint, high end, you know, consumer discretionary kind of a brand, but very much appealed to us. And that's kind of how I got my start. And then we went into the massage therapy space and kind of grew from there. Gotcha. So Scott, I'm going to kick off with a question here about maybe if you don't mind share with us what in your opinion do people misunderstand the most about franchising and why?



 Yeah, yeah, Vinny. Well there's a lot.



 I think the thing I would start with is that I think there's just there's basically a general misunderstanding about the roles and responsibilities of the franchise or and the franchisee. So that relationship really kind of across the board. What I typically find is that, you know, although as consumers, as people, especially in this country exposed to franchise brands, you know, every single day, multiple times a day, very familiar with the name or the word franchise. Most people just don't really understand what it is or how it operates. And so I find that people oftentimes think that the franchisor is responsible for or will be doing many of the actual business, you know, pieces, the components of running a business. For example, are you doing my marketing for me? Are you hiring for me? Those are the kinds of questions that we often get.



 And you know, it's I think that's probably the largest and most misunderstood part of franchising. Interesting. Yeah, that it's great you said that because, you know, we're trying to bust some of these myths, so to speak, about franchising and and showcase some of the unique aspects about it. But but you point something out that that leads us to this question, which we sometimes ask later, but always comes up, which is and then usually usually asks it, but I'm stealing it many, which is franchising entrepreneurship. What do they have to do with each other? What's your take? And it says, you're a franchisee using a playbook. You're not really an entrepreneur. I think I know the answer, but shed your light, some light on that.



 Yeah, it's so I think to a certain extent, it depends on the person's time in business and their level of business experience or running businesses. You know, as I think about franchising, franchising is first and foremost, a method of distributing a product or a service, right? There's a lot of ways that can be done, but that's a primary way that I think about franchising. And so, yes, the franchise or if they've done their work, they do have, we'll call it the playbook for lack of a better term and processes, procedures, etc., in place.



 And so, you know, as a franchisee, you're really not you shouldn't be concerned with creating all these new things, right? And sometimes where I see people get bogged down is they want to create all these different processes and forms and all these things that really it's already been created for you. There's no reason to recreate that wheel. Some people probably are just are too entrepreneurial to be a franchisee. They're the Mavericks. They're the ones that love the creation. They love the implementation. They want to own everything soup to nuts. A franchisee or a multi-net operator is somebody who's looking for a way to scale a particular type of operation and business.



 That's really what franchising is about. Now, that said, I will say that franchisees are not robots. And as a franchisor, I will tell you that one thing I've learned that has always stuck with me for a very long time is that the best ideas, the best things that a franchisor will ever learn come from the franchisees. The operators running these businesses every single day. And the franchisor's responsibility and obligation is then to take that through a communication cascade, build processes and programs around those things and then redistribute that into the field so that it can be executed by others. So there is an interesting dynamic there in that it's not something where we expect people to go out and create these things. It's our role, but we definitely are learning from them. Oh, this is interesting. It's called, what I hear you say is that when we use the word entrepreneurship, it should not be limited to the actual act of creation, innovating something. But it's also taking something that already exists, taking a playbook, a process and make it bigger. Scale it.



 Yeah. Make it bigger, scale it, Vinny, for sure, but also to help refine it. So as an example, if a franchisor has a certain way of doing something and franchisees find a better way, as inevitably they often do, the franchisor should be looking at that closely and not trying to tamp down on that and say, no, absolutely not. You can't do it that way. What can I learn from them and how can I refine them to make it better? Great. So Scott, you've been on both sides of the equation.



 Can you tell us what the best franchisees do and then tell us what the best franchises do?



 Yeah, sure. So we'll start with the franchisees.



 There's kind of like, I think, three main things. And the first thing I would say is that the franchisees themselves, they should really especially in their early stages, they should be focusing on following the operational and marketing playbooks, as we've been referring to them.



 That's something that I think oftentimes it sounds so simple, guys, but truly people sometimes they almost outsmart themselves, right? They want to be too entrepreneurial. But these processes and systems have been put in place for reason because they work. So follow those. Follow the guidance of the franchise or that is probably the first thing that I would say from a franchisee's perspective.



 I think the second thing is for sure is to pay attention to the metrics and the numbers behind your business. Sometimes people can get so wrapped up in all of the things that are happening in their business. They lose focus on their business plan. They lose focus on the metrics and the numbers around their business, which ultimately lead to success. And they lose track of that. And so you have to keep them focused on those numbers because ultimately that's how they're going to build that business for themselves.



 And I think the last thing I would say, and this is highly underrated in franchising, is be an engaged franchisee. The best franchisees in any system are engaged. And what that means to me is that they're participating in training that the franchisee or is providing. They're going to national conference and regional conferences. They're networking with their other franchisees. They're forming marketing cooperatives. They're an engaged franchisee. And that, again, that's probably one of the things that's the most underrated, but I think it's probably one of the most important things.



 On the franchisor side, as far as what should a franchisor be doing and focusing on?



 And this is probably going to sound a little strange, but focusing on the success of the franchisees as your first priority.



 It is very easy in a franchise system to, again, it's just a different side of that coin, right? You get wrapped up in all the operations of running a franchise system and you're not focusing on what's going to make those franchisees successful, right? So focusing on the couple of big things every year that we can work on to make them successful.



 The second thing I would say is to really have and build robust training systems.



 It's a lot of work to do this. I will tell you that at physical, I believe we have a world-class training system and resources through our work management system. So focusing on that so that that can be distributed not to just the franchisees, but to also to their teams, right? So focusing on that robust training system. And then the last thing I kind of mentioned it earlier, well, I did mention it earlier, is having a formal way to listen to your franchisees, to hear from them on a regular basis because here's the thing.



 Franchisors are world famous for distributing information, sending out newsletters, sending out emails, sending out all this communication. But what they're often not very good at is listening to feedback. So having, for example, a franchise advisory committee and things like that where you're getting regular consistent feedback from the field. Very important.



 Very interesting and some common themes around that respect and empathy for the franchisees, which clearly is part of the culture there at physical. It's great to hear. Love to explore a little bit, Scott, for our listeners, scaling, right? And your situation or in a brand situation, scaling in many ways is about attracting and growing your franchisees base as well as opening new units, whatever they may be,



 which means you have to be good at what you do in selection. Can you talk a little bit and shed some light on the process there at physical and then based on your experience, how to maximize the best partnership and selection, especially if you're a growth brand that you have a lot of interest in and you have to be selective?



 Yeah, for sure.



 Well I can tell you from a franchise development perspective, right? So business development perspective, you're right. I mean a big part of how any franchise brand grows is by attracting people to the brand



 so that they can potentially become new franchisees and open locations, etc.



 It's really important to try to understand who the best type of a franchisee for your system is going to be because there's 4,000 plus franchise brands in this country and



 the brand that is maybe more of a blue collar type of a brand where it's providing say a home services type of a thing, that is not necessarily the type of brand that somebody who's interested in physical would be interested in. So here's the thing, I know as an example that the large majority of our franchisees, even the ones that are not physical therapists, they're attracted to this brand because they really love the idea of giving back to their community. They like the idea of helping people. It's not just about money for them. So how you position the brand and how you talk about the brand is incredibly relevant.



 Building a process, we call it our discovery process, right? So from the first outreach a potential franchisee has with us, you know, first communication, whether it's through our website or some other marketing channel, to our first communication with them all the way throughout their process of learning, which for us generally takes about 80 to 90 days before they're ready to make a decision or ready to make a decision on them, is having a very structured process whereby you're peeling back the layers of the onion, exposing them to the industry, the culture, a day in the life, what it's like to be an operator, owner, et cetera, because ultimately you will weed people out through that process and that's what you want.



 You can't have everybody as your franchisee and you don't want everybody as your franchisee. You have to find those people that are a good cultural fit, truly believe in what you're doing or, you know, have the finances to be able to do it and really have the right mindset and business skills and acumen to do it the right way. So I think that's the most important part about this is having that process whereby you uncover that throughout that process. That lets everybody make a good decision for them and ultimately make sure that you're bringing the best people to the table. Right. Vinny Mag, may I have a follow up here? Okay. On that, so we have a lot of listeners and Vinny, I talked to a lot of potential franchisees interested in buying a franchisee, partnering, various levels of what that's like. Can you just give some advice to some future franchisees that are about to embark on this process or in it from someone in your seat on how to best maximize and makes that selection correct and find the right partner advice that you would give them and things for them to look out for based on your experience, Scott?



 Yeah, I think the first thing that I would recommend to anybody who's thinking about business ownership, whether it's through franchising or not, is to really do a self-assessment. You know, most of us have been employees our entire lives. Most people have never owned a business for themselves. So I think you really have to truly assess whether you want to be a business owner. It's very different in that, you know, if you've been in a corporate role as an example, like I have and you guys have and many of us have, it's very different in that, you know, the decisions ultimately, the success of that enterprise are truly up to you. And you're going to leave that to get it done the right way. So I think you have to truly understand and assess whether you really want to be a business owner or is it something that you're just frustrated at your job, you don't like your boss, whatever the case might be and you think, well, I'm going to strike out on my own, I'll show them kind of a thing. So I think you have to really take that to heart and make sure that that's what you want to do. The second thing I would say for anybody who is considering franchising is I think you really have to break it down into what do you want to accomplish out of this? Ultimately it's beyond just owning a business. That's not enough. You have to truly think five years down the road, 10 years down the road, what do I really want to achieve from this? And here's the thing, many of the people that I talk to, it's not even about the money guys, that's almost table stakes, right? I have to be able to make money off of this thing. It's more about a lifestyle factor. I want to achieve a certain level of independence or autonomy. But beyond that, where do I want to have this, where do I want to be with this business five and 10 years down the road? For example, do I want to leave a legacy? Many people go into franchising or business because they want to build something that they can leave as a legacy to their family. So I think you have to think about what you want to achieve because that will help you understand what types of businesses you should be looking at. Sometimes a business is attractive because you see dollar signs. But when you really get into it, people don't like the business. They just flat out don't like the business. And so it's a huge mistake for them. They've wasted time and energy. So I think doing that bit of self-assessment up front will save people time. And then the last thing to close that out, I would say, is this.



 You've got to do your homework. Yes, go through the process the franchisor is taking you through, what I call our discovery process. You've got to not just take that information in, but you've got to ask intelligent questions. You should be doing research on that industry, right? There's no excuse not to do research these days. There's a lot of information out there. So research in the industry, talking to franchisees, talking to a host of other franchise brands so you can kind of compare and contrast, if you will, talking to younger franchise brands, older franchise brands that are more established.



 Those are things I think are very important. And I think sometimes folks just-- they go through the process. They're checking boxes. They're checking boxes, but they're not critically thinking about, is this the right industry, the right brand, the right company?



 And do they truly have what it's going to take to support me as an owner? Great stuff. Scott, if you don't mind, I'm going to do a little digression here, giving you a background in sales and then giving you the role you currently occupy in physical.



 So when it comes to selling a product or service, you go knock on doors. You pound the pavement. You get rejection. You get objections. But in your case, from what you were saying a few minutes ago, it's basically-- it's the person trying to be the franchisee that gets rejected, for instance. When you go through maybe their profile and everything, you say, we don't think they say feature.



 So what is unique when it comes to sales in selling-- when you are scaling franchisee units?



 And what can we learn from that? Because it's a different type of sale. It's not the classical say that most people know.



 Yeah. I think what probably makes it the most unique, Vinny, is that it is a very emotional thing for people.



 It's not like selling a product or service to a business. To a business, it's a business decision. This is a very emotional decision for people.



 Most of the time, at least in my experience, you're dealing with people that have had fantastic careers. They've made great money.



 There's something else driving them. There's something emotional driving them. And so for them, it's not just about the dollars they're going to put into that business. It's about what do they want to achieve out of that. So it's a very emotional-- it's an emotional sale. You have to truly understand what is driving that. At a certain point in our process, as an example, I'm not directly speaking to franchise candidates until the very end of our process. But at that time, when I do speak to them, after we've essentially cold out folks that really aren't a good fit or are not serious about this, when I talk to these people, I always ask that question. What is driving you to want to own your own business? And why now? Why now? Why is it important to you? Why didn't you do it 10 years ago?



 So you have to realize and approach it from the standpoint of that it's a tougher sale in a lot of ways because it's not a business decision. It's not something--



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 Great. So you were saying something, at least we lost you, when you asked them the questions. Why now? Why now? What's driving you to want to be a franchise owner? And then why now? Why not 10 years ago?



 Yeah, so I'll reiterate or just recap that for you Vinny so what I was saying is that a certain point in our process our discovery process I talked to every franchise candidate and that's towards the end of our process and there's there's a couple of questions that I asked Them on every call one of them is Why do you want to be a business owner? What's driving you to want to know your own business? The second question is why now why didn't you do it 10 years ago? Why not 10 years from now? I really want to truly understand their motivations and what's driving them and For me that's important because I can often uncover



 Hesitancy with them right there's there's something about it that doesn't it's probably not something that they're truly serious about and They may end up being a very good franchisee, but I think I don't think anybody's asked on that question before I just don't think that's come up And I want to understand that because I want them to be able to verbally you know verbalize that and think through that Interesting



 That's great insights. God. Thank you. You know love to hear



 You know based on your experience both as a franchisee and a franchise or



 Working for a franchise or you know can you share one or two or the biggest lessons you've learned from your career in Franchising and entrepreneurship for our audience



 Yeah, sure so on the franchise or side So I'm speaking as you know somebody who's been on the franchise or side for a number of years now I Think that



 Really truly having empathy for your franchisees is so important I can tell you that a former brand I was with



 It wasn't that people dislike the franchisees But it was almost there was almost an us versus them mentality and I think that's extremely common sometimes in franchising and and the reason for that is because



 Oftentimes when people are calling the franchise or reaching out to the franchise or you know there's an issue There's a problem okay And they're looking for the franchise or to help them or they just flat out want the franchise or to solve their problem for them so there can almost become a bit of an us versus them mentality and what a franchise or always has to Remember is that those franchisees are the ones that are driving the growth of that brand? They're truly responsible for that so you have to and also



 These are people that have invested in many cases their life savings or a significant portion of their life savings into this so Always keeping that perspective and that empathy for what those people are going through. I think franchising is unique in that



 Many French many people on the franchise or side have often been business owners They were franchisees so they kind of naturally have that empathy and understanding Which is not super common out in the rest of the world. I think so That's the first thing I would tell you love it because that's great advice not only for for emerging franchise or brands But for franchisees to look out for that in their partner You know and asking the franchisees in the system how that relationship is love it. Thank you Scott So Scott I'm going to again do another digression here. Let's go back to the dressing that I like Let's go back to sales a bit Now what you explained earlier?



 We make I mean I get it when you're talking of a brand a franchise brand that is well known and people knocking on your door They want to be a franchise owner now Let's go the other way the other extreme a brand that is not known Okay, it's imagined and then so the role of the business developer the director for business development is now Is it like trying to get people to get interested? You know, so what type of sales it gets do you? Typically go on in that in that space Yeah Yeah, well, you know look there's a lot of very you know There's every large brand starts out as a small brand right and so I think that Brands that have stick sticking power or staying power They have to really understand and carve out their niche and it and look nothing's new, right? They're everybody everything's already been done, but it's how you approach it So if you're a small brand and let's say you're in an industry that's relatively already crowded You have to find a way to have an additional service an additional product You have to have something else that you're going to bring to the table Could you be mildly successful if you don't do that? Yeah, you could probably attract some people but you have to find a way to have a unique differentiator in that market you have to carve that out because That's what's gonna get you noticed frankly and it starts getting noticed You probably as a young brand don't have enough money to run a bazillion ads So you have to find another way to get out there and get noticed the second thing I would tell you is that you should Leverage that unique differentiation because here's the thing if you're a young brand recognize this that The people you're going to attract and there's enough of these people out there the people you're going to attract are going to be the Mavericks they're going to be the people that the idea of being part of a large franchise system is not appealing to them they Want to be part of building a system they want to be part of of the early phase growth You know and so you'll as a young franchise brand you will attract those people and as you grow Those people won't be attracted to you anymore And that's okay because those are the people that are going to help you truly refine what you're all about They're gonna push you they're gonna challenge you they're gonna make you better



 So you have to be able to leverage that and lean into that and I think that a lot of young brands don't recognize that So they need to because that helps their messaging and helps their sales process that helps everything right awesome You almost have you know you have on your spectrum of entrepreneurial zeal and attributes it to what you talked about Before that in a brand's lifecycle they may want more of that than the established brand and vice versa Which can be really powerful? You know I love that And those types of people will will you know that be attracted to those types of brands from what you say? That's right stuff. You know I want to shift a little bit You know we've been talking a lot with folks around and seeing a lot of intersection



 between community social impact DEI and franchising franchising being one of the ultimate networks and and you know community-based Endeavors with small business and owners and growth companies can you talk a little bit about that? I mean you alluded to the type of franchisee you want, but what is franchising and social impact? How are they related and and how can it be powerful from your perspective?



 Yeah, it's it's definitely a topic. That's gotten a lot of attention in the last several years. I think that



 Well, let me start with this I think that franchising



 Is probably a lot more diverse than other industries It tends to attract people from a broad spectrum of backgrounds Nationalities you know what not And I think that's because no matter who you are where you're from you you the Likelihood of you having an entrepreneurial spirit is fairly high for people so I think franchising generally does that as a brand I will say at physical



 We attract a lot of different people from a lot of different places there are some brands That just by the nature of what they do service They provide they will naturally attract a certain type sex Whatever a person In our particular industry. I think it's more about people that have a drive to do good Yeah, and those are people that come from all kinds of backgrounds. So we don't have to you know we're like



 Physically go out and attract people from a specific area of expertise or anything like that We attract those people by nature of who they are how they're wired as individuals. I Think that franchise brands absolutely Need to be cognizant of the fact of no matter what kind of a brand they are



 the The more the better and more diverse Backgrounds of people that you have in your system as franchisees as franchise support people as C-suites But the better your brand is going to be because those backgrounds just they add so much color and expertise that you can't get if you're just one type of person so We're fortunate because of how how we you know our particular brand and the service and they'll and what we offer as a company in terms of our product line and service line But other brands probably do need to take more care to look at yourself. Yeah. Well, it's interesting real quick Vinnie if I may that you know, what's fascinating about how you describe You know doing good and the type of people who want to make an impact through your brand it's it's it's fascinating because Maybe people don't realize I could be a franchisee and be in Franchising and create economic and social value and they build that into their selection criteria, you know We like to say, you know franchising is entrepreneurship with some guardrails Maybe or some you know a little more protection sometimes in the with the right brands But what a powerful tool for all those folks out there looking to do both There are some brands that may be better fitted and allow you the opportunity to do that Super it's got you've done a lot. I mean on both sides of the equation again If you look back this last 17 18 years Is what's that big thing that you think if you have this? Another chance to do it if you had to do it again, you would do it differently and why?



 Wow, okay, that's a tough one Are you talking about me personally? What would I do differently? Yeah. Yeah, maybe in owning a franchisee or being a franchise Oh, you know beyond the under side um



 So I think the thing that I would do differently is I would get involved in in business ownership I would have gotten involved with it earlier So, you know my my dad when I was a kid growing up My dad owned a variety of kinds of businesses some franchise some non And when my wife and I were considering business ownership, we didn't start with the idea of franchising out of the gates We just have this idea this vague notion of owning a business, right? Like many people do and as I talked with my dad about this He said, you know, the thing that I would recommend to you is for your first business I would recommend that you find a good franchise partner that you can that you can team with and and leverage that because you're going to Learn so much in a relatively short period of time and you're not creating everything yourself A lot of the systems and processes are created. So for me, it was a bit natural I wish that I had gotten involved in franchising earlier



 Or business ownership earlier, I guess just in general. That's the one thing I would Now since you know having been a franchisee My wife and I have owned other businesses. We've got in fact We currently own a business in Colorado that she owns and operates remotely from Sarasota where we live today But it kind of gets in your blood Vinnie once you've been a business owner And I think I wish I would have done that sooner. Okay. Thank you Scott And then so if you again, let's go back to the pandemic era was there something like a big innovation that took place during the pandemic or that franchisees and franchisees learned with the pandemic that sort of Reshaped the way things were things are done from your perspective. What would you say that? That thing is that innovation is?



 Yeah, so two things come to mind with that specific to physical was the pivot to telehealth You know, it wasn't that telehealth was not something that we were involved with but you know When the pandemic hit obviously that that that switch and the pivot to that had to happen very quickly and we did specific to franchising You know, it's interesting when you think about how as a company a brand an industry you can get stuck in your ways, right? This is the way we've always done things. So two things come to mind as as a franchise or one is Look, there's really no reason that we need to get on a plane and go out of you every piece of real estate That a franchise is looking at You know back in the day. Yeah, you kind of had to do that It was the smart thing to do but you don't need to do that anymore, right? There's Google Earth Google Maps Street View, you know that in a robot's like package turn in from a franchisee You know pictures site package information and things like that You can you and then just the amount of data, you know, that's out there being able to pull customer profiles traffic counts It just speeds up the process of site selection So that's the first thing the second thing I would say is the actual franchise, you know sales process fitting is that



 What's very common in franchising and has been forever is the concept or idea of you know what's called sometimes a discovery day, right so franchise candidate gets towards the end of their discovery process or investigative process if you will and You know towards the end they're gonna go out for this big visit with the franchise or in person at the you know Company headquarters and meet with everybody and do the whole thing Nothing wrong with that But I will tell you that You just don't have to do that anymore, you know by if you have a good process set up You know using forums like this being able to have your team interact with that franchisee Multiple time so it's not just you know one day for an hour at a time It's multiple times over the course of multiple meetings with multiple team members You really get a sense of who these people are and how they conduct themselves and what kind of a partner they might be It's truly in my opinion a better way to do it and it makes the process Easier and you're not you know, that person's not having to spend a thousand dollars or two thousand dollars to travel Wow



 Well, I think you'll loot a little bit to it, but we always like to ask our guests, you know what future trend



 You know might shape the future of franchising whether it's technology AI You know any thoughts on that and I mean you you mentioned a little bit but anything else out there you want to talk about Yeah. Yeah, I think the last thing that I would say is is we've started, you know, this has started to this idea of specialization



 Has you know has been out there for a number of years, but you truly see it now especially with things for example like self-care or health care or all the space concepts Specialized concept, you know massage therapy concepts and then you've got Cryo concepts and you've got lash concepts and waxing concepts. So this idea of specialization Whereby in the you know in the past you may have had more as an example a day spot that did all these various Services now you've got this very specialized niches that brands can start to fill same thing in the home services Category and a lot of other categories I think that you will continue to see that take place over the years and the better brands Will then start to expand into other things so almost going the reverse, right? So we started with this one thing our one specialization and as we gained our customers appreciation and trust and Love of the brand we started to then expand and do other kinds of services to where we can capture More of their revenue more of their dollars That kind of a thing. So I think we're starting to see that now you went through this hyper specialization I think you're now starting to see certain brands branch out on that and become more things Builder more services to their customers. Well, she's awesome Scott. This is this is amazing. This is great Thank you so much. Scott. We really appreciate all the Insights and lessons what a treat for our audience and once again grateful for your support and all the great things physicals doing with its Franchises in our communities and and we're looking forward to our continued partnership together



 Yeah, thank you guys very much. Appreciate the time. It's been a pleasure Thanks for joining us on this episode of stars of franchisee stars of franchising was produced at Babson College Engineered by Travis Gray Karen. So 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 Anyway, you can