The HIDDEN PROBLEM in your home (costing you $$$)

#entrepreneurship #franchisebusiness #koalainsulation #podcast 

On the Built4Profit Podcast, hosts welcome Cory Lyons, Brand President of Koala Insulation, to discuss why franchising works best when franchisors and franchisees operate as aligned partners with proven systems and brand guardrails. 

Cory shares insulation insights, explains common blown-in materials (fiberglass and cellulose from recycled newspapers) and why insulation must stay fluffy to remain effective. He also outlines Koala’s growth from residential retrofit into commercial, industrial, and new builds, its franchisee-first approach, and how peer networks drive franchisee performance and reduce recipe-changing. 

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Get to know Koala Insulation:  https://koalainsulation.com/ 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There's no better business model than franchising. When a franchise or and a franchisee work together, it's a match made in heaven. There's no better business model. And we've chosen that route. We've chosen to support and guide entrepreneurs. Now, what's great about entrepreneurship with franchising is you get the freedoms, you get the satisfaction of owning your own business. You're owning your own business with a proven business model with guardrails, making sure that we're not deviating away from that brand, especially deviation away from the brand that entrepreneurs invested their hard-earned money into.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Welcome to Built for Profit Podcast, where entrepreneurs share real stories and strategies that actually work. We're here to inspire, challenge, and give you the playbook to profit with purpose. Let's get into it. Let's do it. Well, it's not every day that we have a brand president on the show. And talk about comfy brand. Just make me think of comfort and warmth, which I guess is why they're associated with insulation. But we have Corey Lyons with us from Koala Insulation. And he's going to share some different insights on not only the brand, but also what he's seen in franchising, because he's got a lot of experience working in this brand and others. So, Corey, welcome to the Belt for Profit Podcast. Welcome, Corey.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

You know, when people think of energy and cost savings, that's not the first place that they think of is like, let me check my insulation. But I'm sure you can give us a lot of stats on this. Like I read that 30% of your leakage could be caused by the insulation.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, that's accurate. We also know that 90% of homes are underinsulated.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

I needed you and koala insulation at my house in college. I mean, that thing had no insulation, couldn't keep heat in to save its life. It was also like 100 years old. So that leads me to my question, which is how much of that is because of like when they were built? Like, are homes built now in that 10%?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Even in brand new homes, there's under insulation. That's just the reality. There was no code to insulation prior to 1980. That's why oftentimes with really old homes, you'll see newspapers, old beer cans in the wall acting as insulation, because there is no code. And we also know that code just means minimum. This is the minimum amount you can have in order to get a certificate of occupancy. So oftentimes recommended is higher than code.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

And people always think of cold, you know, being from Texas and keeping the air in.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I'm originally from Minnesota all growing up and through my early 40s was got to keep warm, keep the heat in, right? And thought of insulation as cold temperatures outside, keep the heat in. But that's what makes insulation such a great vertical. It's seasonally agnostic. It keeps your expensive conditioned air in the summer inside your home and keeps the hot out. But then in the wintertime, it's vice versa. It keeps the cold out and keeps the expensive conditioned warm air in your home as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Corey, I got I'm gonna ask the hard question. How did you wake up one day and go, this is a great concept? I'm gonna have the ability to partake in this business model.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

As the brand president, I took over from the founder. So I can't take the credit for starting the company by any means. I took over from the founder to really drive our organization to the next step and see what the future holds for our great brand. From my personal experience, I took a look at koala installation and I fell in love right away with our branding. We're a home service organization. Home service organizations oftentimes are very stale. Well, we are a very friendly, approachable brand and utilizing our mascot, that warm, cuddly koala, right? So I said, wow, this is a home service brand that is approachable. Then as I continued to dive in and look at the brand, I fell in love with the brand for multiple different reasons. One reason that I really fell in love with the brand is the upside and the future. We've grown our brand into a very successful national insulation contractor through franchising. Now, our growth historically has been residential and residential retrofit. So what that means is an existing home fixing their existing insulation problems. We've taken the steps into the future, and now we're in commercial, industrial, new residential builds as we expand our business across multiple different verticals in the insulation space. That has driven us to be recognized as the number one insulation franchise in North America, recently beating out a competitor that had a 14-year head start on us. So it's something that we're really proud of.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

What about the insulation that you blow in?

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Blown in insulation, the traditional is fiberglass. Now, when oftentimes a lot of people think of fiberglass insulation, it's this stuff, right? It's not very itchy anymore, but it's fiberglass. We also have cellulose, which is actually recycled newspapers. And that's oftentimes blown in as well. Those are the by far the two most common types of blown-in insulation into attics and walls.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

I never knew it was a newspaper. Also, I tell my kids don't touch the insulation that's in like above the garage because I'm like, there's glass in there. Not knowing I'm telling them something that's not accurate anymore. You don't want to touch it.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

That's the reality because you know what happens? A little bit of science behind insulation. What is preventing the heat transfer, either out or in, is millions and millions of tiny bubbles in between the fibers. That's what's taking place. And the millions and millions of little tiny bubbles are trapping the air from escaping. If you touch it or if you squeeze it, you're squeezing out millions and millions of little bubbles, right? So it becomes ineffective. You want the insulation to look fluffy, right? And because that's preventing the air transfer. So you don't want to touch it because you could ultimately ruin the integrity of the insulator.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

All right, so let's take this down a different path. I know you said that qual insulation is a franchisee first model, and that is how the business is really focused.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

There's no better business model than franchising. I've been in this industry for 25 years. When a franchise or and a franchisee work together, it's a match made in heaven. There's no better business model. And we've chosen that route. We've chosen to support and guide entrepreneurs. Now, what's great about entrepreneurship with franchising is you get the freedoms, you get the satisfaction of owning your own business. You're owning your own business with a proven business model with guardrails, making sure that we're not deviating away from that brand, especially deviation away from the brand that entrepreneurs invested their hard-earned money into.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, absolutely. Corey, you've seen so many entrepreneurs through the entrepreneurship journey. So, what are some of the characteristics or habits or mindsets that you've seen in the ones that they make it successful?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, oftentimes it's the same between a positive journey or a negative journey. It's just the exact 180. And what I mean by that is again, in franchising, entrepreneurs are requiring a proven system and proven process. It does take a special entrepreneur to be a highly successful franchisee because you want that freedom, but you also want that guidance, right? Now, in my career, participation with a franchise or has been a guiding force for franchisees. And what I mean by that is throughout my career, I've seen franchisees that participate in initiatives that franchisors offer and support systems and meetings, the locations and the entrepreneurs that are participating generally perform at a higher level than the more disengaged franchisees. So it's the yin and the yang. It's the opposite of what success looks like, is we see that in the negative experience for entrepreneurs as well. For any franchisee, I would always recommend do not deviate away from that brand that you're acquiring. There's a reason that brand is highly successful. It's a proven business model. Even a 1% deviation here and a 1% deviation there, you're running a different brand than what you ultimately acquired. I tell potential franchisees all the time that I don't want you running your version of koala installation. I want you operating koala installation. You know, when we're able to have those open discussions and truly look at each other as partners because they're as close to being business partners as possible without actually being business partners. It's a mutually beneficial relationship and that really builds a lot of trust with franchisees as well to know, hey, we've got your back and we want to see nothing but success for you. We have the play, follow it.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, and Corey, you make it such a great point because people go into franchising, you think, is because they don't have to figure it out. They have the recipe. You're gonna give me the winning chocolate chip cookie recipe that works, and the first thing I'm gonna do is go in the Bad Raisin's to it or something. Then they wonder why they're not doing well. But it's interesting to me because I know that happens more than we probably talk about.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yeah, it does because entrepreneurs are free thinkers. That's what makes us fantastic. And we often trust our gut. I like to trust the gut followed by data and trust my data because data and gut will line up. And we know that following the data, following that proven process is the recipe for success. So I don't want to add raisins. I like raisins, but I don't want to add raisins to my cookie.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Like I said, having been in the franchise or side as well, I hate to say, if we do your recipe, you're responsible for the results. Which is mine, which do you prefer? I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

I'm gonna steal that line, but I like it so much. That's a great line. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Corey, we're all in this together. On that, Corey, how do you, from a leadership standpoint, because there's franchise oars who listen to the podcast as well. So for them listening specifically, they're in that leadership role and they see people starting to make their own recipe. Besides just telling them, because people don't really respond that well to like telling them, you gotta be at this seminar, you gotta do this training, you gotta do this. What other things have you seen that just help change the behavior?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

The most underutilized aspect in franchising is a built-in peer network. At koala installation, we have regional peer networks, we have performance-driven peer networks as well. In the event that somebody wants to change the recipe, for example, oftentimes it's gonna be their first time changing the recipe, but it's gonna be our twelfth time seeing somebody want to change that part of the recipe. Let me connect you to this franchisee who went down this path, they changed their behavior and saw a better outcome in their business. Let them tell you versus me telling you that because it's somebody who's in the same shoes. I'm a huge proponent of a peer network and utilizing the peer network from not just franchisee validation, utilizing the peer network cannot stop there. It has to be utilized throughout the journey of any franchisee.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

It's like when someone tells you to do something and it's what your parents have been saying this whole time, but it lands differently.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

All that good stuff. So I'm thinking about this now. You know, your ideal person. So who are the people that go, yes, this is a good match for me? This makes sense for me. Is it people in a construction industry? Is it residential? They layer it on.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Every one of our franchisees throughout the United States and Canada and North America, we've had one franchisee come to us with installation experience. We've had a couple franchisees come to us with construction experience. The vast majority of our franchisees are what we would call a corporate refugee. Somebody who's climbed the ladder in their corporate career and finally have said, enough is enough. I want to control my own destiny. I want to build my own empire versus lining the pockets of somebody else's empire. And oftentimes, those are really strong business entrepreneurs. And what I mean by business entrepreneurs, they know how to manage a team. They know how to manage a PL, they're good at budgeting. Now, what we need to do is we need to just teach them our industry. And that's the most common type of franchisee in today's world is that corporate refugee. But we utilize their strengths. You may not be the best sales estimator, but you'll make one heck of an operations manager, or vice versa, right? And hire for your weaknesses and hire for your blind spots and build that team that you can manage.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Is this a brick and mortar?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

As locations grow and scale, we highly recommend to have a warehouse space, but it's not required. If they have the space to be able to store a couple rigs and have an inventory of installation on hand, they can do that. It can be home-based. But the majority of locations have a warehouse, a flex space with a small office and a warehouse. But the good thing is the location of that flex space doesn't matter. We don't have to be on the corner of Maine and Maine paying extremely high rent because we don't have that storefront realistically utilizing the warehouse as a place to meet and have team meetings as well as store our trucks and rigs, our spray foam chemicals. They can't get too hot or too cool, so they have to be in conditioned spaces.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

That you have a product that obviously everyone needs, it is not seasonal, I would think. You know, people are doing that. But also at the same time, no one drives down the road, sees a billboard, and goes, Oh, yeah, I need some installation.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Again, like I said, it's out of sight, out of mind. A lot of people don't think about installation, but it also means that the vast majority of individuals know nothing about insulation and know nothing about how to install it and such. Installation really is the epitome of a do-it-for-me business. You know, I'm thinking about this from a homeowner's perspective, not my perspective, right? But not knowing a lot about the product, not comfortable enough installing it myself. So I'm going to call koala insulation. We are a full service insulation company. You mentioned, Shay, that you know, you don't really think about driving down the road and seeing a billboard and thinking you need insulation and such. We have annual marketing strategy, right? By the month, we have a great marketing strategy. Lead generation is fantastic, but I'll tell you that we can always really tell when homeowners get their first heating or cooling bill of the season. Because there is that oh my goodness moment when you're opening up that first bill when the AC has been running for a full month nonstop. It's that moment of, wow, something's wrong here. I need to call somebody. And same with when the furnace turns on. So we have great lead generation for our franchisees throughout the year, but we do see spikes. And generally, those spikes are following the first time of getting those bills. But for our franchisees, we focus on that continued marketing effort to continue to drive leads to their business each and every day.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Obviously, that would be important. Yeah. This is your moment, your wisdom. What would you want to share with our listeners? You're going, oh man, I wish I could call my younger self and give myself some advice on something.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

That's such a great question, Shay. And this is the second time this topic has come up for me today. But I will tell you, it wasn't me for the topic, but I heard this and it just rang so true to me. Is build your network faster. That's what I would have said. If I could call it myself 10 years ago, I would give myself that advice. You cannot build your professional network fast enough, especially as an entrepreneur, and surround yourself with like-minded individuals as well as individuals who are already in your industry. Create those mutually beneficial relationships. That I would look back and say, man, how much quicker could I have accelerated? And as a new franchisee, you cannot build your network fast enough. You cannot build referral partners fast enough. You cannot join too many groups like the Chamber of Commerce or BI. You cannot build your network fast enough because every single person you add to your network will directly or indirectly benefit you personally and professionally.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

I often say to our franchisees that I will gladly buy you a new pair of shoes because you wore them out, hitting the pavement, shaking hands, and kissing babies.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I like nice shoes too. You know, and I like the abundance mindset as well. I will leave this person unnamed as we talked about. But very early in my career, the financial services industry, it was very much like this. You know, there he'd go, hey, why don't you go welcome him? Why would I want to talk to him? He's my competition. And I'm like, well, we can all learn from each other. We get better together. And I like that mindset of we live in abundance.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

And Shay, I'm not afraid of competition by any means. I'm a very competitive person. But during the diligence process, when franchisees are looking at the brand, I always recommend reach out to who your competitors are going to be. Have them come to your home. Learn what you're going to be up against. I can tell you right now, there's not a single organization out there that will do it the way we do it. Nobody else can say that they do it the koala way. We're the only ones who can say that from everything from how we greet our customers to a handwritten thank you letter following the job and everything in between. Nobody else can do that. So I always encourage find out exactly what your competitor's sales process is going to look like. What are they good at? Where's their areas of opportunity? I love shopping competitors, and I know competitors shop me often as well. You have to learn from your competition, directly or indirectly.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

That's right. Instead of shying away from that competitive aspect, lean into it.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yep. Cream rises to the top every single time.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

And on that note. Corey, thank you so much. I have learned a lot about installation.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

I appreciate the two of you having me on your podcast, and I'm open anytime to rejoin you.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Absolutely. When people want to learn more information, look at the show notes links and get more information about koala installation. Awesome. Thank you. We are proud that today's episode was brought to us by Imperial Design and Display. You know, Elizabeth, when you walk into a retail store and you see all the products, the merchandise, the racks, all that good stuff. Yes, everything that distracts me. There you go. That's what Imperial Design and Display does. They were a U.S. manufacturing company, which is big for me, all right, made in the USA. They do everything from design, installation to program management. They get it done. Yeah. And the caliber of brands that they work with is very impressive. Not trying to be a name dropper. Drop some names. Here we go. We're talking GameStop, William Sonoma, Best Buy, Home Depot, Caribou Coffee. I mean some high caliber brands. Right. And not only do they make it look good, it's functional and they're cost conscious. Which we love. So we are proud to have them as one of our sponsors for the Built for Profit podcast. That is Imperial Design and Display. And Elizabeth, I have to give a little shout out. I love a good tagline. They have a good tagline. Let's move at the speed of retail together. So Imperiald Design Display.com and click on the link to get more information about Imperial Design Display. We'll see you in the next episode.