The Business Strategy That Beats Advertising

Speaker A: That's what was so um, intriguing about your business. You had like multiple locations, different states and uh, and had a lot of success with that. So to us it made a lot of sense to franchise. When you were thinking about it, like what was that first kind of catalyst in your mind that made you think franchising might be the way to.

Speaker B: Representing franchise secrets?

Speaker A: Eric Von Horn, welcome to the pod.

Speaker B: George, good to see you. Good to be on here.

Speaker A: Dude. I can't wait until our trip. Like you're the, you're the newest Front street brand but like you're, you're the latest and greatest friend. And uh, uh, Jeff was telling me, he's like hey George invited me out to do this really cool thing. You weren't invited to go. And I just realized how I rank on the friend on the friend's friend list there. And so um, I had my friend Jeff, her reach out to you and beg and plead for me to go do something fun with you. So like tell me what we're going to do.

Speaker B: Yeah, so I was telling Jeff, I was like, hey man, you got anybody that wants to do an adventure? This is like a top five adventure in your whole life. And he's like, oh, Eric, Eric will be up for that. Eric's up for that. So, so, so growing up in Vero Beach, Florida, over on the east coast, um, about an hour south of Cape Canaveral. So it was um, real common for fathers to take their kids over to the Bahamas. So we go to the Bahamas by boat. It's uh, pretty much due east of Fort Pierce Inlet, about 110 miles. So it's about a four hour, four hour boat ride. And it's the northernmost Bahamian island that's inhabited and it's called Grand Cay. And so yeah, so we're gonna, we're gonna take you over there, take some other people on the team over there and um, we're gonna do a lot of spear fishing. So we'll do a little bit of line fishing but it's mainly spear ah, fishing. Jump in like, see like some of the most beautiful reefs in the world and shoot fish and make sure the sharks don't get us first. And um, yeah, and um, it's a good time. It's really good.

Speaker A: Dude. I'm, I'm, my wife's afraid of sharks so she, she hasn't really asked me like how deep are you going to dive? Are there going to be sharks there? So what do I tell her? What do I tell her about sharks?

Speaker B: Well you you always. Yeah, yeah, we, we always hunt in, um, in a, in a pair. So you got to hunt in a pair. So we'll start off 10ft, you shoot a couple of fish and then you get out of the water and you go to the next spot. Because when you shoot fish, it's like the dinner bell. You know, they hear you miss and your spear hits a rock or you know, they hear that fish like flailing on the end of your, your line and it just brings the sharks in. So the other guy's there to like fend off, want the shark while you get in the boat and put the fish in the boat. So there, there's definitely some, some team dynamics that are important, so it's all right.

Speaker A: So.

Speaker B: But it's not as, it's not as scary as it sounds.

Speaker A: Well, I'll be the guy. Um, I'm gonna have some, some cameras with me for sure. I got all the new gear. I got really good gear too. My gear's better than your gear, but it is. I like, I need it like the rookie needs better gear to be able to be comfortable and to be more efficient out there. So that was my excuse anyway, but I can't wait. It's going to be so much fun.

Speaker B: Good thing is Jeff doesn't have the good gear. So as long as we swim faster than Jeff, then we're good, you know? Yeah, that's it.

Speaker A: I got, I got 20 foot long fins and I told Jeff he doesn't need fins, but he, and he needs to be on the lookout for sharks. So yeah, it's easy to run faster than the guy when there's a bear and you need to be faster than Jeff. Her when you're in the water and sharks are circling you.

Speaker C: Easy.

Speaker B: That's right. That's right. Any, any, any listeners, like go to YouTube and just search, um, spearfish in Bahamas or spearfish in Grand Cay and you'll get a, you'll get a idea of what we do. And it is a, it's a rush. It's so much fun.

Speaker A: Well, I'm excited about, about that and I love doing business with people that I can just have fun with. And we've known each other for, for a while now. And so I'm just, I'm, I'm excited about this trip. All right, let's dig into, um, let's dig into your story a little bit. Like you've been, um, Tell us just a bit about your company Zynga's today. Like, what is it? And then I Want to, uh, just in a 32nd, 62nd. What is the Zingus franchise?

Speaker B: Yeah, so I started, uh, in the window covering business back in 99, so this is our 27th year. And Zynga's is a shading company. So we started off as just an interior shading company. Blind shades, draperies, plantation shutters, anything to cover your windows. And then probably about five years ago, um, we started offering some outdoor products. So now we're the first, in the first complete home shading company that does indoor, outdoor shading. So the outdoor shading products would be awnings, would be, uh, motorized screen shades or any type of screen shades that people put on porches. You can get them motorized, you can get them cable guided so they don't uh, you know, go back and forth in the wind. We also do pergolas, which are extremely popular. They, the, the roofs close and open. The pergola actually becomes like a three season room. So you put a pergola up, you put screens on all sides and it keeps the uh, heat out, or it can keep the cold out. And you can use it, uh, when it's 32 degrees outside, we put uh, heaters in there. You can put fans, lights, speakers. So it's really a cool, uh, extension of your house. Um, and then in the hurricane areas, those screens, um, are hurricane rated. The pergola itself is hurricane rated. It has to be when we install those. So a lot of people love it and store all their patio furniture in there on the, in the coastal areas. So, so yeah, so we're indoor. Outdoor, yeah.

Speaker A: Shading. What's the difference? Like a shading company and a window covering company. Is it the same thing, just different, different vernacular?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think window coverings is just interior. So shading company is like, we're all about the indoor and the outdoor. So that, that, that would be the difference.

Speaker A: Have you always been that winded? Well, let's wait, let's wait. Uh, before we get into like that kind of specifics, like, tell me a bit about your story. Like, you know, growing up, like your background, your life.

Speaker B: Yeah. How far back we want to go, we'll just go quick. You know, the first 14 years were in Texas. Um, um, so Beaumont, Texas. Um, and my dad was a sales guy with Dupont. Uh, we ended up. His parents passed away. They lived in Vero Beach, Florida. He inherited the house. We moved to Vero Beach, Florida. So I had my, my junior and high school years there. So my real formative years. Met some great guys early on that I Grew up with that. I talked to every other day and you're going to be going, they're going to be going on the boat with us to the Bahamas. Um, and so grew up there. Always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Was always, you know, mowing yards, you know, doing odds and ends. Um, ended up wanting to get out of Florida. Played soccer in college. Wanted to play where it wasn't so hot. Went to Wofford College in Spartanburg and played, uh, soccer there. Started a cleaning business with my fraternity brothers. So I had an idea. I needed some, need some beer money. And, uh, um, and I was on my own. You know, once I went to college, I was on my own. And, um, so I started a cleaning business. Started cleaning, you know, commercial offices, apartments. Got some of my college, uh, fraternity brothers to help out and, uh.

Speaker A: In college.

Speaker B: Yeah, in college, yep. So I was doing that. Playing soccer. Was a biology degree. Wanted to go into healthcare. And um, I just had the entrepreneur spirit to always be trying to, trying to hustle and do something.

Speaker A: So then you went to work for a company?

Speaker B: Yeah, so then I went. I wanted to, um, go to physical therapy school. So got a biology degree. Love science, love healthcare. Didn't want to be a doctor because doctors, you work too hard. I wanted to be a family man. Right. I didn't know entrepreneurs work a lot more hours than doctors, but so I got, sometimes, yeah, so I got in, got into physical therapy school. Just did that for like a year. And I'm like, man, this is sort of boring. And I went and got a master's in health administration. I wanted to run the hospital. And so I worked under a CEO at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Did a residency under him for a year and then went out into long term care. I love old people. I love being around old people. So I went and managed, um, nursing homes. So that's what I did. And then I got, uh, a promotion to Indiana from Charleston, S.C. didn't know where it was. Had to look on the map like, all right, honey, we're, we're moving. We had one little kid at the time. Made it out to Indianapolis and worked, uh, that job for about six months. And then, uh, Medicare changed how they reimbursed nursing homes. They cut the reimbursement in half like overnight. And so I was like, man, I got, I gotta start something on my own. I, I mean, I just, this isn't gonna work. And so there was so many homes being built around me. All these new subdivisions, like it still is in, in A lot, uh, of, you know, places in America. And I just did a lot of research and found that, you know what, window coverings is a good option. There's not like some big, large business that owns the window covering market. I can go out there and hustle. There's some things that I can do. I can build some relationships with builders and interior designers and other people. And so I just saw that opportunity started, started m working it and I feel like God created me to do it. I mean it was like, man, I love this. And I got, I was good at it pretty quick. And so that's how I got into it.

Speaker C: So.

Speaker A: Okay, so now let's fast forward. You went from healthcare running, running like medical nurse. Was it a medical nursing home?

Speaker B: Was it nursing homes?

Speaker A: Yeah, medical with there or just non medical?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, no, no, all, all medical. Like we're, yeah, career path, full medical. They do, yeah. I was trying to get into the nursing home industry like big time. And it just.

Speaker A: Were you wanting to be an entrepreneur in. Were you wanting to be an entrepreneur in, in that like having your own nursing homes at some point? Is that why you're doing it or were you doing it for like as a career to make money, to kind of do side hustles?

Speaker B: No, it, it, it was, it was my career to do it. But then I learned quickly that there was these entrepreneurial nursing home companies. So that was, that was where I wanted to go is to like hopefully start my own system or work with people and developing nursing homes, long term care facilities, assisted living. That, that was the track I was trying to get to. And then with the government change in reimbursement, I had to pivot.

Speaker A: Did that whole, looking back, did that whole industry change? Cause I know a lot of, there's some, some folks out in my area that made a killing in that building. Did that change the industry forever or is that a threat or something that had a little dent on the industry?

Speaker B: Uh, oh, it changed it for a bit. I mean it slowed it down. I was 27 at the time when it happened, so it's not like I had any capital to go do something on my own. Um, so it recovered. It recovered nice.

Speaker A: But it was a threat, like a real threat. And so that wasn't something that like you knew window coverings and things like that. That's not going to be impacted by government. And that's kind of my takeaway in that one of uh, the, you know, there's a reason you didn't continue to do that because of that Threat.

Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't, I didn't have control right as starting my own thing, I had control over that. When you're relying on the government or insurance and they, they can change their reimbursement. You're exactly right. Like I, I couldn't, I couldn't hang around and wait until that industry recovered. I had to go do something on my own and be in control.

Speaker A: That's a, you know, that's something that's important to us. Well, me, over the years in franchising, I learned it from the first franchise I was involved with and then at Front Street. Those are some of the things that we look at now. Will we go into an industry that has some threat of government regulation? I'm sure we will, but that is one of the considerations that we look at because I learned early on in the tax, well, not early on, the later years in the tax business, after about six plus years into it, you could start to see government changes in that, in the, in the kind of tax prep industry that we were in, government changes were on the horizon and you could see profit margins changing, regulation going up. And some of it was good and some of it was probably overreach, but we just saw the threat of the government stepping in and changing things. Everyone always thought in that industry, what if the government does a flat tax? And that was never a real fear. But seeing the government change and tweak how money was made, that was the real threat. And not everybody, that people were asking the wrong question, the wrong threat question when they were evaluating that opportunity. So ever, ever since that point, it's one of the things I've looked at when evaluating franchises as a franchisee or a franchisor, what kind of threats are there in the, in the industry? So, um, so I just wanted to, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah, and you bring up a good point. One of the threats was like 2008, nine, the housing crisis. Right. So that, that is a threat. The government somewhat controlled that. And during those years, that's when my business really started taking off, is when the housing market crashed. Um, it started taking off for me because the way that I built the business was through relationships. So when other, uh, competitors were advertising back then, Yellow Pages and just advertising, they weren't getting new customers. Well, my strategy was I'm building relationships with builders, interior designers, architects, people that would refer me, people that they needed a team member that could do window coverings and I would get on their team and create a relationship with them. And they felt comfortable referring me to their homeowners so when something corrects in the market, there's going to be a percentage of people that have money and still are going to build new homes, still going to upgrade their homes. And that's where, you know, I saw that as a, uh, um, uh, ability to reduce the threat and have those referral sources that are always referring me. Even when times slow down.

Speaker A: In those first five years of being in the business, the window shading, window covering business, like, was there, like, what were some of the most challenging times? Like, what? You look back, you're like, you know, was it employees? Was it, you know, just growing too fast, growing too slow? What were some of the major challenges those first five years? Those things that you kind of had to overcome?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think this might be a little unique. One of the things for me that I had to overcome was just my mindset. And what I mean by that is, you know, here I came out of school, had a decent education, master's degree, and I'm like, I'm going through new neighborhoods and knocking on doors and, like, trying to talk to people and, and I'm, um, and. And asking them if I could partner with them and be on their team. So I had, I had a tough time, you know, thinking that, oh, I'm educated and things should just be easy and. And I had to shift my mindset, you know, and so, uh, that was a challenge. But once I realized, like, man, I really do offer a value, like, I offer a great value. Because still today, I think most customers that are getting, you know, interior exterior shading, they. A lot of them try to do it on their own or they go to Home Depot or Lowe's, and they realize after they've tried that one time, there's not a lot. There's not a lot of great value in them. And so working with someone like me, um, really offers an extreme amount of value. Plus, our pricing is competitive with all those companies anyhow. Um, but I'd say that was the number one challenge, is just not getting in my way, realizing I had value and going and letting other people know, like, I can be a valuable team member. When you're building a house or you're putting together the interior design, uh, are doing something like, you need somebody like me on the team that's going to help put the finishing touches on the

Speaker A: house so early on. Give me. So you've been in this, in this industry for, like, 25 years, you know, and, and, and by the way, like, you know, the FTD is, is. Is out and, you know, like, everything that we do at Front street, we just put a ton of time into that item 19 that shows, you know, revenue, which was, you know, for. For all the locations it was. They get very specific from. From there on out in the. In the FTD and the item 19, uh, at the time of this recording. So, um, so as you've been building this thing, how did you go, like, early on, were you just like, the sales guy, the relationship guy? And then. And then how did you morph into more of the, you know, the founder, CEO of where you sit today? Cause I see you as a. As a great leader in the company, and you've had people with you for a long time. And it's clear there's an, um, There's. There's a very good culture with your, you know, with your large, already corporate team. But, like, give us a sense of how you went from the early days and morphed into where you are today. And I know there's multiple locations that came along the way as well. So let's go through that. That growth.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So. So I'm. I'm plugging along, um, you know, by myself, working out of the house. I'm fine doing everything. I tried a few employees, and it's like, man, they. They just didn't. They didn't work out real well. I, um, wasn't a great manager at the time, and so I was fine just doing everything on my own and at the same time, had three kids. Three kids in three years. I was a coach. Loved coaching them. And this. This job, like, gave me, like, the best work life balance. Like, I was able to work hard out of my house and coach my kids, be around my kids all the time. And I was plugging away, and I was realized, like, I'm. I'm working, like, 80 hours, right? And all of a sudden, I had a little heart issue. And I was like, oh, man, I. I can't keep this. This rate of work up. And so I, uh, didn't want to hire employees. And, uh, we finally, my wife and I, we prayed about it, like, all right, I either got to tell people when they call me and want to give me a check, like, I can't. I can't come see you. Like, that was so hard to, like, think about someone calling me and not going, helping them out, because I know there's like, an 80% chance I'm going to get a check. So finally we're like, okay, I think we need to hire somebody. So we hired, um, a lady from our Church to help me with the marketing. So I was doing marketing sales, a little bit of install, had a guy help me with that. So I hired this marketing lady to go around and call on those relationships, nurture them for me. And I continued to do the sales. Um, and then it just, it kept growing even more, like, oh, my gosh, now I need an administrator to help me with all the admin part. Um, and then it kept growing, and this is2010 now. And I had to hire another salesperson and had a friend of mine, he was looking for a job, so hired him. And this is all in Indianapolis. And then it just kept growing like that, that plan of relationship building just kept working. Um, and eventually, um, we just had to have hire more salespeople. So we had like five salespeople in Indy, and it was just plugging along. And then finally a friend of mine down in Tampa, he was a, he was a minister of an urban church and didn't make much money. And we would go down there and, you know, help him out with his community and his church. And then one day he told me, he's like, george, I'm not making enough for my family. And I said, you know what, let me teach you the window covering business and you can supplement your income with that. And he's like, great, good personality, hardworking guy. So went down to Tampa, trained him, set him up, and he's working it, doing well. And then his church, you know, had some issues and fell apart. Uh, and so he's full time window covering, and he's growing it. It's like, well, this is pretty cool. And so, and then it just sort of organically like, all right, hey, man, we need to hire another salesperson down there. You know, we need to hire another marketing person. We need a, we need a warehouse down there. So it grew out of Tampa, and then we just went to, you know, up and down that, that gulf, uh, coast to Sarasota, you know, Port Charlotte, Fort Myers. So now we have three warehouses over there. And. And then at the same time, you know, after he was in Tampa, we had another sales guy that worked for me in Indy, had some family in Nashville. Him, his wife wanted to go to Nashville, and I was like, nashville, that's a hot. Yeah, let's go to Nashville. You want to keep working for me? So he's like, yeah, I love what I do.

Speaker A: I'll.

Speaker B: I'll start one in Nashville. Like, all right, let's start it up. So we, we started up Nashville and, And, um, same thing happened and um, and then we started one a few years ago in Dallas. My, one of my best friends, his son moved to Dallas, needed a job, talked to him. Great young man, sales background. I'm like, all right, let's start one in Dallas. So it's all been real organic how we've gone into these other markets. Um, and then we're on the east coast of Florida too, because that's, that's where I grew up. And um, and so it's just been organic and the growth and that's where we got to, you know, up until a year ago. And I decided to start looking at other ways to grow and, and just, you know, been researching the franchise model and it makes a lot of sense for us to grow through franchising.

Speaker A: Yeah, let's dig into, let's dig into that a little bit because I talk to people all the time that are interested in franchising and people are thinking about expansion. Uh, some people are like, well, I want to continue to grow my business and then maybe exit my small business to private equity. And, and maybe private equity is doing a roll up in a certain industry or some. I know now some of my friends are, you know, in different trade industries and they are thinking, I want to start acquiring a number of these different mom and pop businesses and then roll all of those up to uh, uh, a private equity company that is rolling them up. So start one, buy one, roll it up, or do multiple and then roll it up all in, in, in roll, rolling it up. Others just want to continue to grow in a region and um, and then others are like, I've got something really cool. I'm thinking about just franchising this and growing enterprise value. Instead of selling to private equity, grow something very large and um, and then maybe keep it and maybe sell it. But franchising is on their radar. What we found interesting about yours is how you had multiple locations in different markets and that's ideal. Does it always happen when someone turns something into a franchise, a business into a franchise? No, it, most of the time doesn't happen like that. That's what was so intriguing about your business. You had like multiple locations, different states, and uh, and had a lot of success with that. So to us it made a lot of sense to franchise. When you were thinking about it, like, what was that first kind of catalyst in your mind that made you think franchising might be the way to go?

Speaker C: Attention franchisors and franchisees. There are two really important resources that I want to share with you that will Help you avoid costly mistakes and increase your enterprise value. Uh, the first is our free Facebook group. It's a community that has over 4,000 franchisees and and franchisors in it. When somebody asks a question they get honest and authentic answers from multiple perspectives. You can join the group for free over@ Franchisesecrets.com Facebook. The second resource I want to share with you is if you're a franchisee and you want to be around a community of successful Z's and other brands and in other industries. This is why I created the franchisee mastermind. If you want access to the best single and multi unit owners to know what they're doing, or if you want to be around other multi brand owners, then you want to check out my franchisee mastermind. The reason why people join is they want access to my Rolodex, my connections to each other. They want a shortcut success, both short term and long term. Links will be in the show notes or@ scalable franchise.com.

Speaker B: well to, what you alluded to is, you know, I did go through the progression of all right, do I want to keep growing and continuing to grow on my own was is hard, right? So every new location that I would uh, bring on, I mean there's more stress related to that, right? And I was like man, there's, there's got to be another way. And, and I started looking at um, buying mom and pops and, and rolling those up. And what I found out about our industry is our mom and pops are like true mom and pops. Like they don't even, they don't even keep accounting barely, right? I mean you try to get them to produce something and they'll produce a, A uh, P l off of QuickBooks and then you ask them to like verify their P L or can you sign that form where I can get your taxes, um, back from the government just to make sure everything lines up. And they're like oh yeah, we hadn't filed taxes in a while. Oh, okay, well I can't, I can't, I can't look at your P L like you know like so I went through probably 5 or 6 of companies looking to buy and I just couldn't get any good data. So then just started researching, you know, you uh, know the franchise growth opportunity and how to grow that. And it just made so much sense because something that really will make uh, the franchisee successful at Zynga's is if they're willing to go and network and build relationships with people in their community that's I mean that, that's it. I mean, if you can do that really, really well and you like talking to people, you want to be part of their team, you want to add value, and you like creating, you know, solving problems for people when it comes to shading, then, um, you can make a good business for yourself. And so that's why franchising makes sense. And it'll allow us to scale even more, um, so that, um, yeah, the brand will get out there and then we're just going to have more economies of scale.

Speaker A: You mentioned team a couple times and I've had the opportunity to do many calls and we've had face to face with your team. And my team at Front Street's had many more face to faces and calls. And like, we've had hundreds of hours in, into this with you, with you all. When you think about, uh, who you are today, the team you have versus maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, like, how have you changed as a person to have the type of team, the type of culture that you have today?

Speaker B: Yeah, so I think we've really got a, uh, great culture. It's something that I've worked on from the beginning. And I think it starts with when we first started hiring people. I told you that this business was great for my, for me and my family. Blessed. My family allowed me to coach, be around my kids all the time, create my own schedule. And then I wasn't sure about wanting to hire people. Right. And I've made a couple of comments. I'm a man of faith. You know, uh, my relationship with Christ is really big with me and our culture. But I, I got convicted. Um, and I was reading the parable of the talents and I wanted to hold on to this business for myself. Right. I didn't, I didn't want to take any risk. It was very comfortable in a lot of ways for me. And one day I, I just got convicted that, you know what, this isn't really my business. You know, God gave me this business and my goal in my life, uh, I love to coach, I love to help people. I was in healthcare because I love helping people. And I, ah, was like, man, I've got to grow this business, not for me, but so I can help, uh, impact more people around me. My friends, my family, my community, my charities that I like to support that are meaningful to me. And so that's really like, what motivated me is I finally understood, like, the gifts that I have are not just for me. You know, my gifts are for other people. And so I was also, through that parable of the talents, called to, like, you got to risk everything. Like, those guys risked the three talents and the five talents, and then they doubled them. And the master came back and said, hey, well done, good and faithful servant. I'm like, that's me. I want to be that guy. I don't want to be the guy that buried the talent and get scolded for it. I want to be the guy that realizes, like, I can risk everything and try to help as many people as I can. And so that's that, that in me is what inspired me to hire people. It's like, look, I want to help you. Like, I want to bless you. I want to help you. We're going to do this together. We're going to be stronger together than we are individually. And, and that mentality, I think, has attracted a lot of people. So all of my, um, executives, um, they have been with me for over 10 years. Like, we've been together over 10 years running this together. Um, and they, I give everybody the ability to make decisions. I mean, I, I try to empower people as much as possible because that's where the true growth comes from. That's where the entrepreneurial comes from, is, is I try to unlock what these people don't know they have in them so that they can help us grow. And so, um, so that's our culture. And so we're constantly, like, looking for people. I call them achievers. Like, you gotta be achievers, right? Don't come in here and be mediocre, but be an achiever. We're looking for thoroughbreds. You know, we don't want donkeys in the stable. We want thoroughbreds that want to run, that want to grow. And so that's really attracted the right people and held us together.

Speaker A: Who have you seen? Like, who have you empowered? Give me a story of somebody on your team that you empowered, and you saw them m excel. You saw, you gave them something, you empowered them somehow. You let them do this thing and they did it. And maybe they even surprised themselves. Maybe they even surprised you. I have no idea. But you have an example of, of anyone that comes to mind? Maybe someone that's with you now, or maybe they were, they were with you early on, that you were just like, man, I'm so proud of this person for doing this thing, man.

Speaker B: I, I, I, I'm gonna. There's a lot, Eric. There's a lot, I mean, a lot of really, really cool stories. Um, there really is, I, I guess, I mean, I'LL just give one right now. Um, the one that comes to mind the most is, is Morgan, who's the VP of installation. So he started with me when he was 20 years old. Okay. Taught, uh, him how to sell. Um, and then he's been with me 10 years now. And he started off just as a sales guy, young guy, never sold anything. Went to college a couple years. Um, but then he turned, he turned into my son in law, you know, a couple years after I hired him. And he's a good guy, you know, and, but he was, he was sort of average at first, but hardworking, special.

Speaker A: I mean, let's be clear.

Speaker C: He's nothing special.

Speaker A: Was nothing special.

Speaker B: He's nothing special. I mean, he was special enough that I'm going to give him permission to marry my daughter. So he was, you know, very high integrity, hard work.

Speaker A: Don't tell him I ever said that, though. Make sure he never, never knows I said that.

Speaker B: He's a little bit athletic. Um, but man, he, like, he was just became the best salesperson, super coachable. And then about a year and a half ago, he just really. He, he loves stats in sports. He's one of those stats guys, just knows all kinds of stats, especially basketball. And he would come back and he would just start giving me these stats on our sales team. Hey, let me give you some stats. Like, check this out. Look at this closing rate. Look at this, look at this. He's starting to look at all these things and, like, think like a business owner. I'm like, man, you're like, looking at things, you know, more detailed than I am in some areas. And so eventually it made sense to make him the VP of sales. And I would say, I mean, it's amazing what he's done. Amazing. He's got 14 salespeople. They've all been with us a long time. His culture's really good and he gets the. He challenges people and gets the most out of them. It's so good what he's doing. It's just amazing. So that's, that's one story. I've got six or seven others. You know, will he be able.

Speaker A: He's go. Is he going on the. To the Bahamas with us?

Speaker B: Yeah. Yep.

Speaker A: All right. Will he be able to protect me better or worse than Jeff against a shark?

Speaker B: Worse. You don't want. You don't want Morgan. You're going to want another backup. Don't have Morgan as your backup. We don't want.

Speaker A: If we see Morgan and Jeff down together. Yeah, it's danger. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They.

Speaker B: But they are good. He's. He's a good. He's a good helping hand on the boat, and he cooks really good, too.

Speaker A: Him and Jeff will be the cooks.

Speaker B: Him and Jeff will be cooking.

Speaker A: Yeah, we should. We should make sure that they do the cooking and cleaning. That's one job. We'll. We'll worry about that later, because I don't see that as two jobs. You broke them down and, like, the cooking, the clean. Cooking one job, cleaning another. It's cooking and cleaning for those two. They got to do both.

Speaker B: That's right. That's right. We'll. We'll clean the boat. Me and you'll clean the boat.

Speaker A: All right, well, I'm gonna. We're gonna wrap this up. I, uh, just wanted to have you on the podcast because I've gotten to know you over, over time, and I wanted the audience to get to know you because you're going to be on the podcast more. Next episode we record. We are going to dive into the model. Why we at Front street love the model. Why how you've built it, why it's different, all the amazing things about it, and how, like, you're truly doing. Doing things different, all the different revenue streams and whatnot. We will save that for another show. It may be after we get back, maybe we'll have some stories. Maybe I'll have some shark attack stories that we escaped and Jeff might have lost a leg, but we saved him. I don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker B: You throw up some pictures on this, can't you? Can you throw up a picture on this?

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. So we'll.

Speaker C: We'll.

Speaker A: We'll have some pictures. So, uh, well, George, anything. Anything you want to leave the audience with about your. You, about the company, about your team, about the culture. Any last, uh, any last bits that you want to, uh, share with the folks before I let you go?

Speaker B: Yeah. I would just say I'm super excited about the opportunity that we bring to people that want to step into a relationship with Zyngas. I love to coach. I kept saying it, but I love to coach you in life. Right. I want to. If you're open to it. I want to help you have a better marriage. Right. I want to help you look at your finances. Like, so me and my wife, we would teach marriage classes. We did the day we taught Dave Ramsey classes. Like, I want to help people, like, get the most out of life so that they can have the best relationships with their kids, their neighbors, their community. Like, that that's what's profitable. I mean it's good to have money and that helps. But when you have all those other things that society maybe doesn't say that are as important, you can live a very blessed life and create this legacy that um, is remarkable and then you're helping other people around you. So I think that's what we bring, that's what I bring, that's what my team brings. That we're going to make you successful in a lot of different ways other than just making your bank account bigger.

Speaker A: Well I, I'll say that I love, I've been around some uh, part of some great business, uh, coaches, coaches that have been on this podcast, coaches that have, have like amazing programs where they're making, you know, tens of millions of dollars of, of, of profit coaching people. And behind the scenes, what I've seen in them, there's the business coaching on the front end and they've done an amazing job at that on the back end. The stories that I get to hear in the back end is like their marriage, like they help people with their marriages. Like their marriage is better because they had a, some way to talk to their finances are better because we dug into this thing and it's because they wanted to, not because they had to. So there's opportunity anytime, like you can go get this from anybody that is good at this type of thing. But like when I hear you say that and we didn't prep for this, when I hear you say that, it made me think of some of these friends of mine that are, that are amazing business, um, owners and have large amazing uh, coaching companies. And that's a common theme that I hear. And one of them had Dave Ramsey at his thing. Even though he's not living the Dave Ramsey, you know, the debt free thing. There's a lot to appreciate about what, what Dave Ramsey brings and what he's built as, as a, as a business guy. So um, I love that. I think anybody going into franchising or into business in general, you need to seek out people like a uh, George, whether you're part of a uh, franchisor with a franchisor like George is the leader or just in life in general. Seek out the people that are modeling what you want, whether it's a strong marriage, it's a strong relationship with their kids, whether they have the lifestyle you want. Meaning, are they working eight hours a week? Is that what you want? Are they working X amount of hours a week and having amazing experiences with their family like seek those people out, because I've certainly done that. I have those relationships in my life, and those have been a game changer for me, and I am that for other people, as are you, George. So, um, good podcast man.

Speaker B: We didn't get here by ourself. We got here because all those other influences, like, helped us. So we got to pay it back.

Speaker A: Yeah, 100%.

Speaker C: Thanks for listening to the Franchise Secrets podcast. Links to everything can be found over at franchiseecrets. Com. And if you want my help with anything from starting your own franchise to growing your current franchise business, please visit scalablefranchise.

Speaker A: Com.