Young Entrepreneur Proves Age Doesn't Matter in Franchising

Speaker A: Most people think franchising is for someone in their 40s or their 50s, someone that's burnout on corporate. Maybe they had a, uh, 401k they can roll over, they're ready for, you know, their second professional chapter. Today's guest is 28 years old. He walked on to the Tennessee football team, got a job for Enterprise Rent a Car right out of college, and now he's a Circle of Excellence award winner as a franchise owner with Express Employment Professionals. So his story is going to challenge the way I think a lot of people think about franchising and who's qualified and ready to own a franchise. Uh, today my guest is Brian Garvey. Brian, welcome, man.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me, sir. I really appreciate your time.

Speaker A: Yeah, hey, you and I had the chance to connect last week and had a good conversation and, you know, kind of a, kind of a side note before we really dive into it, have some stuff in common. Your, your express, um, employment professionals franchise that you own is in Greensboro, North Carolina. I grew up right outside of, of Greensboro and a little town called Pleasant Garden. And we, uh, both worked at Enterprise Rent a Car. Uh, we went, went from college to Enterprise. I think you, you graduated in what, 20, 20?

Speaker B: Yes, sir, May of 2020. Not the best time to graduate.

Speaker A: No. And I, so I graduated college in 2009, you know, right in the middle of the, the Great Recession and the housing market collapse and all that. So, um, for, for any young kids out there listening and you're concerned about what to do after college, if the economy's not good, go. Go get a job with Enterprise Rent a Car.

Speaker B: Amen to that. That'll steer you in the right direction. We can both attach 100.

Speaker A: 100. But, um, appreciate you. You're coming on the podcast. Like I said in the opening, man, I think a lot of people will be inspired by your story. Um, and, and I hope that it opens some people's eyes, especially any younger people listening that, you know, hey, business ownership, certainly franchise ownership does not have to be a, uh, second chapter of your professional career. Um, and I, I'm hearing from a lot more young people on a regular basis that are, you know, thinking, how can I get into business for myself? And, and franchising is at least somewhat on their radar, whereas 10 years ago that, that really wasn't the case. In my experience.

Speaker B: That makes, uh, sense. I feel like our generation wants to kind of the freedom of being on a franchise owner. Right? They want that. Ah, look, I feel like our generation gets a bad stigma for work ethic. But I feel like we are. Work hard, play hard, where we are willing to work if we know the why behind it and if we support the why behind it. And it's about finding what kind of drives you to get out of bed every day. Something that we take a lot into account.

Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And I think it's. I, uh, I like, I would compare it to, you know, like, there's always kids in school that, you know, their, their teachers say they're not going to accomplish anything because they're just not interested in the classroom schoolwork. It doesn't mean they're not smart. Um, when they find something that they are interested in, they. They immerse themselves in it. And so, yeah, I think, I think it is kind of more of a generational thing for some of the younger generations where they're like, I'm not afraid to work hard. Um, I want to be successful. I just much rather do it on my own terms than, you know, work for someone else in a job I don't particularly care for. Um, and. And it's, it's, you know, it's a different time too. There's. There's so many different ways that someone could go about getting into business for themselves. And it's. It. I think it is a lot more kind of common than, than it was 20, 30 years ago.

Speaker B: 100 across the board. I know when we spoke earlier, we both had a lot of mentors that helped us guide, especially when you're becoming an owner. And I remember my mentor who owns a franchise of Express in Nashville, he said that you can either rent your job or own your job. Right. If you own your job, it's the most secure. Yes, you're gonna have ups and downs. A business owner. I've had them. You've had them. I think every owner can say they've had their ups and downs, but if you own your job, it's a lot different than renting it and relying on that things outside of your control. Which is part of the reason I got steered towards ownership in the first place.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's.

Speaker C: It's.

Speaker A: I think, you know, you kind of grow up. The, the societal norm is, you know, it's way riskier to go start a business than it is to get a job. But if you really think about it, it's pretty freaking risky to put your entire livelihood in the hands of an employer, right, that says, yeah, we're going to hire you, we're going to pay you X amount a year, and, you know, Maybe there's some bonus or commission opportunity, but they are under no obligation to, to do that indefinitely. Right. And I mean, the way we got into our first franchise, and my wife is a couple years younger than I am, but she was probably about your age when we started our first franchise. She was like 26 or 27 when we started, but she'd been in pharmaceutical cells and got laid off while she was on maternity leave with our first kid. And it was, you know, it was a, A corporate restructuring, right. Or whatever the terminology was. So it was hr, uh, compliant. But, you know, it was like, there, there's just. There's no guarantee. I mean, most people that have worked in the corporate world for more than 15 or 15 or 20 years have probably experienced a layoff or know someone that has. And so, um, I think sometimes a reframe is, is just healthy where it's like, sure, there are risks associated with starting a business, but there's. There's risk going to work for someone else too.

Speaker B: Couldn't agree more. I used two words out of my mouth on that one.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and, and, and speaking of mentors, this just came up in a, In a conversation I was having with. With a guy I'm working with that's kind of in the final stages of finalizing, um, his first franchise that he's buying. And, you know, we were talking about risk and, you know, fear of failure. All of these are, you know, natural emotions. You know, not even once, once you own your own business, but leading up to it, right? And making that decision to sign on the dotted line and, and kind of go all in. And, And I told him, I said one, uh, of one of my mentors when I first got into franchising, said something that has stuck with me ever since, and he said, you know, Wes, the day you can learn to fear regret more than you fear failure is the day everything becomes a possibility for you, man.

Speaker B: Uh, that's. I'm the type of person where if I give my all at something, I can live with not achieving or failing. If I know I invested everything I had, you know, athletics background. If I want a guy who just was a better athlete, better profit than me, but I trained and I lost. I could live with that. I couldn't live with my foot in the water and one foot out when I like, I always. That creates hesitancy. If you're not committed to what you're doing, you're going to be a little hesitant. And that thing you're hesitant about may be the thing you very need to be successful. So it's like when I joined the emerging entrepreneur program, I was dead set on being a franchisee and I was going to see it through. And if I failed along the way and I didn't get the opportunity, I could have lived with it. Luckily, that wasn't the case. But that's just kind of a mantra. You have to adapt.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally agree. So, so let's. That's kind of a good segue because I won't. I want people to kind of hear, you know, some of your story. I, I touched on a couple of the things in, in the opening, but you, you walked on to. It was Tennessee, right? Tennessee football team.

Speaker B: Yes, sir.

Speaker A: Um, then you went to work for Enterprise. Then you got involved with express employment professionals, which is what you were just referring to. So I want to, I want to, um, have you talk about that a little bit. But first talk a little bit about that experience walking onto the football team. Like, what are some of the lessons you learned? Because you, you ended up earning playing time at some point. But it didn't happen in, in your first year, if I recall, correct?

Speaker B: No, no, not even close. No. I mean it was. I went to a very prestigious known football program in high school where we had multiple kids go to Division 1. And I kind of took a risk on myself of walking on at Tennessee instead of going to play at a smaller college because I wanted the, uh. To be honest, I wanted to play for Tennessee like it was a.

Speaker A: How did you get number? I'm assuming that's your jersey in the back. How the hell did you get number 69?

Speaker B: So that's, uh, even a funnier story. I don't know if it's a funny, sad, uh, I was number 72 in high school, right. As a walk on at Tennessee, I wasn't. I didn't have the option to get the first jersey that I wanted. I didn't get to pick my jersey number. They put my name on a plate and put it above my locker. You walked in, I was like, I'm number 69. And you know, it was exactly all the things that you were thinking. 100%. Yep. All of those was. But I almost wore it like a badge of honor because my freshman year I was scout team. I was going against Derek, uh, Barnett, the all time sack leader at University of Tennessee. I was trying, I was trying. I'm not saying I was blocking. I was trying to block him. Right. Shy Tuttle, Kendall Vickers. There's so many very, very good football players. That it was kind of like a baptism by fire. Um, so answering my experience, what did it teach me? It taught me to do the work behind closed doors. Because what's done in dark comes to light. Right. And showing up like, if you asked, the biggest compliment I hope I could get get would be my teammates trusted me and they trusted me to be at the workouts. They trusted me to not miss a practice. Because as a walk on, spring practice was your showtime. Right. Because the some guys get surgery after the season, they're out for a little bit, they're not fasting in the spring. So. Right. You would get the majority of reps of walk ons or the younger players who are trying to earn their playing time in the fall. And that was where I kind of earned my stripes by just always being reliable and consistent. Uh, the last kind of walk on story I'll tell is after my first spring practice, this was like freshman year spring, uh, we were down to like seven, six offensive linemen and I was the only one that could snap at the time, like play center. And I had to take I think like 30 ish plays in a row. And at the end of the practice, Coach Jones, but at the time tried to take my stripe off of my helmet, but the walk on helmets didn't have stripes because that was like an annoying thing for scholarship players. Get your stripe taken off. Yeah, the walk on helmets didn't have stripes, so he metaphorically took my stripe off after practice one day because I had to do so many reps in a row during team period. Um, but I think about that all the time. I put the work in before I got the reward of earning playing time. Right. And how much does that translate to careers of when you are given an extra task, when you have to go above and beyond without a raise and you have to just take it on and you do. And the reward comes later because, uh, in my experience that's how things have worked out. The hard work has always come first. You don't get the high starting salary, you don't get the high starting pay until you earn it by whatever metrics they're using to hold you accountable with. And for football, that looks a lot different than career, but similar.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, that's why I asked you about it. I think there's so much that translates especially to business ownership. Right. And just, you know, putting in the consistent work, doing it when no one's looking and, and you know, being comfortable with that delayed gratification. Right. The results are not going to come instantly. Uh, but if I'm consistent with putting in the, the effort that compounds over time. And I mean, you know, especially with business owner, man, there's, there's times that you may not be able to pay yourself because you got to hit payroll. Right, or you got other expenses. Um, and you know, hopefully that doesn't go on for too long because that's usually not, not sustainable. But there are those tough decisions that can be very scary when, when you're

Speaker B: staring them down 100%. So practiced play, played in a couple of games. Handful. Um, got to play with some really cool guys that are doing very well now in both athletics and career wise. So that's been exciting to see the growth of like the dude you met in the locker room now being an important person in his career. Just kind of a cool little path of growth for people that you never really expect. But then graduated and knew I didn't have much work experience. My resume consisted of football player and finding the initial job during COVID was tricky. But lucky for me, Enterprise was hiring and I got hired there. And similar to you, kind of learned I could sell a little bit and enjoy my time there. Um, the, the thing I learned about Enterprise was I wanted to sell something I was passionate about. And then that's when express employment professionals got introduced to me.

Speaker A: You're not passionate about roadside assistance and damage waiver?

Speaker B: I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to cut ties, but I'm passionate about the company. They do, they do right by me and I appreciate that. Uh, always will. Right? Right. 100. But yeah, selling roadside assistance is rewarding when you're number one in the matrix, but you don't get to see the effect it has on the people unless they have a roadside incident. They're like, oh, thank God I signed up for that roadside insurance. And that was rewarding, but not the

Speaker A: same way staffing Enterprise is. I always tell people Enterprise was great. I'm glad I did it, I'm glad I'm not still doing it, but learned a ton and, and you know, beyond the cells, like, once you get to a management level, you know, you're largely compensated off of your branch's bottom line. Like, that was my first exposure to a, you know, a P and L and, and understanding what are the different levers that I can pull to, you know, drive a better profit margin and, and, and getting some of that, you know, real world business owner experience where it's like, hey, if we have a crappy month, I'm not getting paid or I'm not getting paid much of anything.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Um, those, those were some, those are some tough lessons, man. And, and when you're that young and, and you know, I wasn't in a great financial spot when I was working there. Like, I didn't have a bunch of money saved up and stuff. So it was like the difference between a good month and a bad month was, you know, the difference between am I eating ramen or, you know, can I go out to eat once or twice this month?

Speaker B: Amen. But going back to doing what, like, needs to be done. You would drop cars off of dealerships and sit at the dealership for a little bit and just kind of sit around and wait for a little bit and doing the hard work before you became a system branch manager. And then, yeah, you had to apply and you had to have the tear and respect of the peer, your peers and the bosses, which is. It's a fine line to walk there. Another reason I got out of the corporate world of, uh. But there were some good lessons I learned there, but mainly it was about just finding something I believed in and I could. Like when I was in playing for Tennessee, my goal was to play as a walk on freshman and sophomore. Like, I always wanted to play in a game. That was my goal and that's what got me out of bed every morning. And with Enterprise, it was, I want to get promoted. And that works. But the bad days hit a little differently if your only goal is to climb a ladder, in my experience, and that's why I was interested in kind of branching out from that point on.

Speaker A: We'll get right back to the episode in just a minute, but if you've

Speaker C: been considering business ownership, if you're already a business owner looking to expand and you're curious about franchising, I'd love to connect with you, answer any initial questions that you have, talk about a specific franchise, and detail the exact process that I use and have taken hundreds of people through to help them understand franchise ownership, find the right franchise for them, and conduct the necessary due diligence. Click the link in the show notes if you'd like to schedule a free no obligation strategy call. I look forward to talking with you. And now back to the episode.

Speaker A: So at any point, was business ownership on your radar? Like, was that ever a goal for you? Um, you know, like, while you were in high school or college or. Um, because I. You told me a little bit of the story of, of how, how you got into Express, and it, it sounds a lot like, you know, how I first got into franchising in the first place, fell backwards into it. It wasn't really something I was, was seeking out.

Speaker B: If you asked high school Brian what career he would be in, I think he would try to convince you he'd be in the NFL. Um, and I like to. It was cute. That's a cute, you know, it's a funny little story of oh yeah, you'll make it to the deal. Sure enough. So not. I saw successful business ownership during my time in high school and I saw growth from watching someone use the difference of selling their house and buying a new house to open their Express franchise and got to see them from that point to reach a height that I knew I wanted to be at. And so I was never really tuning it out. I think everyone talks about starting a business with their friends, you know, and a field they want to be in, but it was never like a tangible goal until the Emerging Entrepreneur program was started.

Speaker A: So first, first give us a kind uh, of a quick 30,000 foot view what is Express Employment Professionals. And then kind of walk us through the Emerging Entrepreneur program. Because this is something that I think every franchisor, once they get to a certain point in terms of being established enough, they should, they would be very smart to have, have something like this. But tell us what is Express? Because, um, some of the people listening don't know what your, what your business.

Speaker B: So Express Employment Professionals is a Franchise Staffing Agency. 30,000 Foot View is we help good people find good jobs and we help good companies find good people. So we staff every type of position you can think of. There's 900 locations across the world, all individually owned and operated. And that's kind of the uh, 30,000 foot view of what Express does. We help people find jobs and we help companies find people.

Speaker A: And let me interject real quick before you go into the emerging entrepreneurship program for those listening. This is one of the brands that I work with and you know, staffing, I get it, it's not the sexiest business. You know, a lot of people probably like, ah, ah, well, you know, staffing, not, not like my dream business. I don't know anything about staffing. This um, business out of. I work with almost 200 brands, has some of the strongest, what we call unit economics out of any brand I work with. Meaning, you know, like the average revenue per location is incredible. Um, you know, the, the amount of money that successful franchisees are, you know, bringing in in terms of profit is it would blow people's mind if they saw the numbers Then on top of that, it's a very established brand. It's been around for a long time. Like you said, would you say 900 locations globally?

Speaker B: I mean, 1983. 1983 folks.

Speaker A: Um, and I'm getting pretty, pretty darn old here. Um, so anyways, I wanted to interject that like this is not some little side hustle, uh, for any of those listeners that kind of rolled their eyes when they heard staffing. This is big business potential and they've got a, they've got a very successful track record. It doesn't mean everyone's going to be successful with it. But this, this is a very solid franchise in my opinion.

Speaker B: And to, um, I saw that, but then I got a taste of it too by getting to do it and I was kind of hooked on it. You know, I, we talked about selling damage waivers, selling roadside, but helping people find jobs, helping people provide income to their families. And I'm genuinely, I take very to heart. It's like a driving factor for me. Makes it kind of easier to put up with the bad days when you know that, hey, at least I helped X amount of people find a job this week makes you feel better. But the emerging entrepreneur program, so Express launched, it was 2021, uh, a system to develop and train franchisees. 95% of owners don't have prior staffing experience when they become franchisees. Express was like, if we can train young successful people to be good franchisees, that's mutually beneficial, we'll fast track their path to ownership and we'll have better franchisees on day one. Kind of made sense there. The program, when I was hired into it, consisted of completing the outside sales fast track, which was a so 26 week period where your goal is to get 16 new clients or $60,000 in new gross margin generated. After that you moved to the inside and did the interview side of it. You built client relationships, you helped got to know the associates some and after that you got to kind of trial run as a manager before you make the final decision to become an owner.

Speaker A: And, and so let me ask you a question. So like that first stage, the outside sales stage, if you didn't hit those targets, were you eliminated for the pro from the program?

Speaker B: Not eliminated per se. Maybe the outside sales position wasn't your skill set, strong suit. Okay. That's what Express has done. A very good job is kind of building the program around the individual persons and not having this set, idealistic version of the people they're trying to hire. More so building the program to Accommodate successful owners, which, okay, uh, as you're a small business owner, I view my job as putting people in positions to be successful. Like with my inside team. My goal is to limit their friction on being able to accomplish the job at hand. If I do that, I'll be a successful leader and that rest will kind of take care of itself. So um, it wasn't like a, if you don't get over this notch, you can't move forward. It was more so of uh, getting you the experience of doing it right. Because this was still July 2021. Our training before we did outside sales was online on the Microsoft Teams for four to six hours and then doing some role playing calls with the uh, established franchisee afterwards. And man, when you finished that, it was three weeks, they said, okay, go out and sell. Good luck. It was kind of a once again baptism by fire. Right, right.

Speaker A: It's, I mean it's so smart though because it's, it's, you know, one of the biggest challenges that, that any franchise organization has is that that learning curve, right. That the new owner has when they come in. And vast majority of franchises out there I think are very similar to express in the sense that they're not looking for people that have, you know, uh, in specific industry experience. They're looking for people that have more general characteristics, skills and, and you know, um, an entrepreneurial mindset. But it is still a learning curve. Right. And, and so yeah, if you can essentially, I don't know if I should say the word groom on a podcast. Um, but if you can mold, let's

Speaker B: say, let's go mold.

Speaker A: If you can mold a, uh, a new franchise owner ahead of time, give them exposure to all the different facets of the business so that, I mean they're coming in eyes wide open, there, there should be no surprises. Once you go through all that, it still doesn't mean that there won't be challenges and you know, curveballs that you have to deal with and all that. But eyes wide open in terms of like, you know, what the business is. Um, um, I think that's one of the, the hardest parts with you know, people looking at franchises. I coach people through this process all the time. I try to be very transparent with them. Um, good franchise companies try to be very transparent with them in terms of, hey, this is not going to be easy. There's challenges, this is kind of what you need to be prepared for. But you don't, you, you just can't fully understand and appreciate that until you're in it and until you're living it and, and this is a way to fast track that.

Speaker B: And for me I, I learned from my mistakes. So I make a million mistakes. My only thing is I don't want to repeat them. So I got to take these learning mistakes without having the business owner responsibility of paying for it at the time. Like I would over promise and underdeliver like most young salespeople do. Right. And I would learn those, you know, you learn in my case through errors. And I had a mentor there every step of the way that would correct me and hopefully develop me into who I needed to become to be a successful franchisee. Because it's not just take the trainings and you're going to knock it out of the park. They have a system in place that's been studied, fine tuned and it is as simple as following the processes that Express lays out for you. But my thing was always I wanted to make it my own. So like if this activity is what's required to be successful, perfect. What ways can I structure my office in order to hit that may look a little different office to office, but as long as those metrics are hit you the math works out to be successful.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's, that's a good point that you bring up. I think sometimes people, people imagine owning a franchise to be a lot more cookie cutter than it than it actually is in the sense that you know, if it's a good franchise, yes, there's going to be a play playbook to follow, there's going to be systems and, and all of that should be benefits. But I think sometimes people worry that it's just like, you know, um, am, um m. I do I even really own a business if I own a franchise and you know, it will vary from one like if you own a McDonald's. Okay. There's only so many ways to run your McDonald's. You can still as the owner put your own style when it comes to, you know, how you interact with your team and the culture that you build and things like that. But something like express, something like the, the franchises my wife and I own that are in the the service category, we have a lot of leeway. Like you talk to any of the successful franchisees and our franchises, we all do things pretty differently from each other in certain areas of the business. And so you can be creative and kind of put your own style on how you run your business.

Speaker B: I make a better boss than I do employee just because I push back. I like to be like uh, things to be proven so Like I play devil's advocate. If you tell me to do something, we may argue. I'm not trying to be antagonist, I'm just trying to understand why I should do it that way. I remember when I started with Express, one thing that always stood out to me is they're franchise funded, they rely on individual owners for their revenue. Why would they be telling me to do something that want to be successful? That makes no sense if they didn't truly believe in their metrics that they used to tell you, hey, you need to hit this number and this number to be successful. Why would they give me that information if it wasn't going to benefit me if they're relying on me to be successful? That's why I kind of bought into that so easily. If, uh, it just made sense to me.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's fun. Fundamentally, you know why franchising works when it's done right, is there's mutual incentive, there's alignment, there's um. So talk to me a little bit about that process, transitioning from the emerging entrepreneur program to actually becoming a franchise owner. Now if I understand correctly, they didn't just give you a franchise, right? You, you still had to put real skin in the game, right?

Speaker B: I had to take out a, essentially a loan to buy the business. Like it was a legitimate, like it wasn't. I was handed to me it was, hey, you've done well so far. Now you get to play with the big kids, now you get to put skin in the game. As my mentor would say of if you fail, you're going to feel the repercussion of it. And man, I, I remember I was talking to my uh, developer and Express, uh, people that don't know Express has developers that are assigned to regions and they're kind of like a business coach that's sponsored by headquarters. And I'm very close with mine, Latoya Miller. She's been huge for me. But when I was about to make this decision, I remember talking to her and saying, I know I'm not like who I need to be yet, but I trust myself that I'm going to rise to the challenge. Because it was like there's this phrase I kind of say to myself of, um, be who you are but try to build who you're becoming. And I knew I wasn't who I needed to be to be a successful franchisee. I was 25 at the time and about to take on a, uh, lot of financial risk. But I wasn't scared because I just trusted in myself and expressed to give me the tools to be successful, that I would just rise to the challenge. And when I didn't know something, I leaned on those who did. Like, there have been so many people that helped me throughout this process. I could. I could literally give, like, a full football roster of names that I will call. And if you give me your cell phone number, first time I meet you or that version of Brian, I'm calling it. If I. If I experience something for the first time, I'm calling you and saying, what would you do? And I'd ask multiple people and kind of, once again, then make it my own. Okay. That's what I need to do to be within bounds. Great. Now I get to kind of put my own little personality, and you can kind of see that in the way around the business.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, this is one of the biggest things I, like, missed opportunities I see when people get into a franchise is they don't network themselves really well with the other owners and. And actually, you know, have these conversations with people on a regular basis and ask questions, learn. Um, obviously, the more experience you get in the business, you're now in a position where you can contribute and. And help other people. I mean, for. For my wife and I, the. The first franchise that we got into, uh, we just hit eight years with it. So, you know, we're pretty established and we don't need a ton of help from, you know, the. The franchisor in terms of, like, how to run the business. Um, we get a ton of value, though, from the. The community of other franchisees. And my wife, who really runs that business for us, uh, I mean, she's got a handful of franchisees that she talks to every single week. You know, one of them, they. They probably talk just about every single day.

Speaker C: And.

Speaker A: And it's just constantly. They're. They're helping each other out. Sometimes it's good to just have someone that you can, you know, kind of vent to that.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Fully understands what you're dealing with. Um, so that. That's a huge upside with. With a franchise. You know, I wanted to kind of zoom in on. On one of the things you said where, um. Because I thought it was really well said, but you're like, I know I'm not the person that I need to be yet, but I'm confident I'll rise to the occasion. M. That's. That's something people need to really listen to and understand because we just got through talking about how, you know, you got this incredible opportunity to essentially learn how to run this business on the company's dime, then you were given the opportunity to actually buy in. But with all of that experience, you still realize like, hey, I don't know everything, like there is so much I'm still going to have to learn and improve in order to be successful owning this business.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: So for the majority of people getting into a franchise, they don't get that upfront experience where they kind of get to try it before they buy it. Right, Right. And, and that's by far one of the biggest things that holds people back is they feel like they don't know enough to get started. And so the, the point I really want people to, to get under, under their, their uh, mind here is you're, you're never gonna know enough. You're never gonna feel like you know it all before you start. Even if you get to work for the, the company for a year or however long it was before you start, like you still didn't feel prepared, but you were willing to bet on yourself. And, and that's what people need to get comfortable with is, is you're betting on yourself.

Speaker B: Right. And it's like, where does your confidence stem from? Like, mine stems from honestly failures that I've accepted and acknowledged and know that, okay, I'm not who I need to be yet, uh, I'm not good enough. But the emerging entrepreneur program did such a good job of training me for the express side that I was confident in my ability to grow the office. I thought that I could do a really good sales call, I thought I could do a really good interview. I thought I was good at building rapport with these client companies I work with. I didn't have any business ownership experience. That was the part that was the biggest risk and the biggest concern of, oh, uh, what do you mean? What do you mean? Instead of an LLC and then figuring that out and then doing it, and that's now giving me the confidence to be a little more bold. Because if you interviewed a 25 year old Brian, you'd be getting a lot more different answers in this one that probably wants to hide a lot of the shortcomings of it and not just fully embrace it and be like, hey, I am who I am now, but I'm trying to build who I want to become. And that's just, yeah, the, uh, I'd be curious to know people in your experience, if they've gone in thinking that this franchise they're going to purchase is going to be a knockout slam dunk, successful from day one. They know everything. Like how do those people typically work out if they're not willing to be coached, Trained and learned?

Speaker A: It's a great question. And, and I can tell you, generally speaking, it doesn't go well or at least doesn't go as, as well as they would have expected it to. So there's, there's kind of two, two sides to that that I see. Right. One side is people don't people get into a franchise? And this is usually not people that, that I work with or that are, are looking at really good franchises. Because like I said earlier, like, you know, part of my job is I'm not selling anything to anyone. Like, my job is just to help people take a methodical, thorough approach to this whole process. Um, and, and part of that is making sure or doing my best to make sure they have realistic expectations. Like, hey, just because it's a franchise, it's still, it's still business ownership. We're not talking about passive investments here. Like, you're still going to have to put in the time and the energy and the effort. It's just that, you know, you're doing it with a partner instead of being completely on your own on an island. Good franchise brands are, are exactly the same mentality when it comes to, you know, trying their best to be transparent with people. So. But, you know, I've certainly seen and talked to people that got into a franchise and, you know, maybe it was just like a, uh, an aggressive salesperson for them, and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, will handle everything for you. Just not realistic expectations at all. And so that's why they struggle. Um, I think more of. Probably what you're referring to is, yeah, I've seen plenty of people. Blows my mind to this day. I, I've been in franchising for 12 or 13 years at this point. Blows my mind when someone buys a franchise and then they have too much of an ego and think they have a better way to do it right out of the gate.

Speaker B: Oh, no, yeah, right.

Speaker A: Like, I, I've, I've seen so many people, man, they'll, they'll buy into a franchise and they'll take like 70% of what the franchise has. Like, they'll, they'll pretty well follow it. And then 30%, they're like, nah, nah, I'm gonna just, I'll figure that part. I've got a better way to do that, that part of the business.

Speaker B: And maybe that's why my inexperience almost helped me, because I was aware that I didn't know what to do. And that made me rely on my franchisor and that was something that I was grateful that I had such a good support network that I could call them at any time and get a question answered or issue or processes. Because there's so many different ways to do a sales call. Right. There's so many different ways of different personalities all mesh. But figuring out how to lead and how to make safe, sound decisions consistently is not an easy thing to do in any franchise. Probably across that you work with.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's. I think you're right in that, um, you know, you're, you just being younger, um, probably helped you in that way. Like you hadn't had, not that you hadn't had success, but you hadn't had like 25 years in some sort of a corporate role.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Where that ego could really kind of develop like on the business side of things. Right. Um, I also, and this is why I love the emerging entrepreneur program so much that Express is doing and I wish more franchises would do it. Um, not only are you young and, and have less experience, therefore you're probably going to be more coachable. You're also going to be hungry as hell. Right?

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: 25 years old, taking out a loan. You know, you don't have to give specifics, but I imagine this loan is in the six figures. Like that's, that's not a, ah, hey, I hope this works out. This is a, this is gonna have to work out. Like, I don't. Failure is not an option.

Speaker B: Failure is not an option. I, that's such a simple phrase, but I really like it because that should be your mentality of, uh, whatever it takes. Like no matter what I need to do, no matter what is required of me. Because as a business owner, you know, if your phone rings late, you're answering it. If you get an email at 7:30 on a Tuesday and you just left the gym, you're going to respond to it. It's not like you feel like you're going to get yelled at if you don't, but you do it because it has to be done. And that's one thing that I really, I Sometimes I feel like being a business owner, being a franchise owner so young takes the want to out of the job. You know, oh, I don't want to go into work today. I don't want to do these things because you have to. There is no want anymore. If you don't do it, you, uh, you're not just going to fail. Your family's not a lot of people will be impacted. Like, I have a team right now of five other people if I don't make it the right decision. That doesn't just affect Brian Garvey. That affects all, all of my team. And that's a responsibility and a burden too.

Speaker A: Yeah, well said. Yeah, it's, it's true. I, I've definitely seen people that, you know, had already had quite a bit of success financially. They were, they were in a great position. Their motivation to get into a franchise was not necessarily because they needed, you know, the, the extra income and, and needed it, uh, you know, from a financial standpoint, it was, you know, an interest. They wanted some to try something new, to challenge themselves. But then, you know, because it wasn't like a burn the boats type of situation, when things get hard and things get uncomfortable, they can, they can kind of just you know, back off or, or they just never gave it 100% because they didn't have that, you know, this failure is not an option mentality. Um, so, yeah, I think there's a lot of, um, you know, benefit to that when you're young and, and again, I, I, I wish any franchisors listening to this figure out what Express is doing and, and roll something out like this. It's, it's incredible.

Speaker B: I mean, it was life changing. It was legitimately life changing of going from making a solid salary at the Enterprise to becoming a franchise owner in the span of less than two years.

Speaker A: Well, yeah, and, and, and you know, you're building, you're making good money. I assume on top of that you're, you're building an asset that you can sell one day at some point.

Speaker B: Um, I'm owning my job, not renting it anymore.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker C: We'll get right back to the episode, but I wanted to quickly share a free resource with you if you're curious about franchise ownership and want to learn more about how countless people, including myself, have, uh, leveraged franchising as a way to create more freedom for themselves and to take control of their livelihood to. I've put together an ebook. It's called Franchise Wealth Creation and it's the perfect starting point for anyone that's just curious to learn more about this whole franchise thing and how I've helped hundreds of other people navigate all the steps involved in understanding and researching franchising. So click the link in the show notes, fill out a short form, I'll send you the ebook. I think it's a great starting point. If you're curious at all about learning More about franchising. All right, let's get back to the episode.

Speaker A: Um, so look, you've. So. So when did you officially become a franchise owner with Express?

Speaker B: The third week of January, 2023. That was the transition. So I went from. I trained in Morristown, Tennessee, under Sarah Bowman, who is. She was also a very young franchisee, and she knew what it took from day one. Had me hustling and bustling and hitting the activity was never a option. Like, failure wasn't an option. If I didn't hit that activity, I was going to get. Not just yelled at, probably a shoe thrown at me or something. I was going to hit my sales calls per day because that's what it took to be successful. And she made that known to me from day one. And I appreciate that. So trained in Morristown for a year. Then the Greensboro territory sold, and they divided it into two. They put me in the south and put another EE in the north, and we were sharing employees, brick and mortar. I got to do that for about four months. And after probably a month, I mean, the first office, the first week I ever built in that office was 700 hours. That's kind of an Express way of how many hours our associates, people we place at jobs. Work is kind of a good benchmark for us. We built 700, and by the time I bought, we were already, I think, around 1500, so almost doubled.

Speaker A: So how would 7. How would 700 hours stack up to, like, you know, say, top performing Express?

Speaker B: Not good. Not good. I mean, not, uh. It was. It was new. It was a new. It was a new territory, a new office, new structures. It was a very new thing. That one. The merchant entrepreneur program was new. It was the first time they installed managers into these offices. So it was all kind of a new canary in the coal mine type of deal where they're gonna say, let's. Let's see how it goes. And, yeah, after about two months, I kind of realized I 100 wanted to be an owner. So then it was just about earning my stripes, because even though I went through the EE program, there was still an interview process I had to go through to become a franchisee. I still had to go to headquarters and convince a very smart group of people that I'm a worthy investment. I'm not. I'm a safe risk investment. That's kind of what I was doing during my time with the program. Um, December, signed the papers and then gave up a salary, gave up commission, gave up benefits, all of that to become a franchisee.

Speaker A: What what was that like going from the security of a, uh, of a salary to, hey, it's all, it's all on me. There's nothing guaranteed.

Speaker B: I think I was too inexperienced to be scared. Um, I really believed, I really believed in my mentors too. I did not think that Express would like. I mean, of course they would allow me to fail if I wasn't doing the right things. But I truly believed if I followed the model they established and if I didn't know something reached out to the person that did, I would be successful. So it was definitely terrifying. But once again, being able to work in the office before gave me some confidence of leading, managing, hiring, all of those things. And they gave me the tools I needed to be successful. So I really feel like I wasn't as scared as I should have been. Um, but I mean, because by end of the first year we were kind of rolling. I had my sales rep, I had a team of a total of three people, which is, um, well, four, including me, but three employees. And man, we hit the ground running. It was fun. It was new, right? It was exciting. You never had to. I never had to want to work any yet more because it became a necessity.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool, man. And, and yeah, it's, it's a scary thing to go from that, you know, what we perceive as certainty with a salary and stuff. We've already kind of talked through that. You know, it's not usually as certain as, as we tend to think it is to, to that uncertainty. Right. Where it's like, hey, I, I do understand the upside, but there's no guarantee. I gotta go bust it and, and make it happen. But you've been successful, right? So did you say that was 2020?

Speaker B: 2023. What I call 2020 since I bought third week of January. Kind of glad that I waited till the third week of January because that way I can say my first full year was 2024. Right. It kind of. This is.

Speaker A: Yeah. And that's, that's a little girl math.

Speaker B: But, uh, it works the math. I double checked it, but. And then my first full year, keep in mind, we, uh, had circle of excellence, which was something that not many first year offices do. Uh, my sales rep, Zoe Johnson, hit, uh, Raptor Club, meaning that she was in the top 50 sales reps across the company. Because.

Speaker A: Incredible.

Speaker B: We've talked about our mentors. I want to be that for my team. Like I have Zoe Johnson, who's been with me since the third month of me hiring her. So she bought into a 25 year old who kind of knew what he was doing a little bit.

Speaker A: Is she older than you?

Speaker B: No, she's uh, I think two years younger than me, maybe three. And so I was 25, she was 22. And she was like, all right, this guy might be crazy or he might work out. Let's see what happens.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Then, I mean she, it was her first office job and she took it running. Because the way I was trained by Sarah Bowman, saying hit your activity is how I did her. And sure enough, I've never had to once ever coach her on the work ethic. It's always been like fine tuning the way you do a sales call or how you mention it or what you can offer. It's never once been me. You're not doing enough. If anything, I'm like, hey, slow down. Take, it's 98 degrees outside. We've been going out every single day for the past two weeks. I'm making you stay in the office, I'm making you take a day off. And. But what that does is it builds loyalty. It builds loyalty is a two way street. And I feel like companies and employers and I'm included in this. Um, forget that I have to give loyalty if I want it back. I have to show that I have to accommodate when life happens. Right. Life should never take. Work should never take priority over a, uh, thing in your life happening. I want you to have that freedom. As a small business owner, I maybe can't offer the best salary available, but I can offer flexibility and understanding and getting it when things happen that you need some time a little bit away.

Speaker A: Yeah. And if you, and if you got those people on your team that are, that are loyal to you, they're hard charging. Um, um, I mean we, dude, my wife and I have learned this lesson so many times in our businesses. Like we know now we would much rather have the person that's inexperienced, but they're hungry and they're coachable than the person that's coming in with, you know, a better resume for the position and has some experience. But you know, either they're not hungry or they have an ego. They're not going to be coachable. They're already going to have their own way of wanting to do things. Um, so yeah, you, when you get those purse, those types of people on your team, man, and they're, they're willing to bust it for you, like, yeah, you gotta remember these are, these are human beings, not just an asset on my team. And so, uh, you know, if, if I'M gonna continue to have their loyalty. I need to reciprocate that. I need to, um, you know, do whatever I can to help them have an uh, the type of life that they want.

Speaker B: Exactly. Going back to what I said earlier, my job as a leader is put them in positions to be successful. Right? If I do that, I will be successful because if they're good at their jobs, that will generate more revenue. Uh, the same way that Express Headquarters relies on their individual franchisees to be successful. I rely on my team to be successful because I can't do everything. I uh, can't even do half of the things right all the time. But it goes back to 2023. I was still in that learning phase and I got to look on to learn how to be a boss alongside Zoe, got to be a sales rep. Then I hired one of Zoe's good friends, Naomi, who came in and, same kind of thing. Never had to question the work ethic, if anything. And it is difficult because she is similar to me where she pushes back a lot that I feel like as soon as I, uh, as a boss leader, stop listening to feedback from the people that are in the trenches, sometimes doing it, I, I've missed the mark on that. I should always listen to your team's feedback. Maybe not the best idea. Maybe other times. I have room for improvement too, because I'm still building who I'm becoming, by the way. I, I, I, the house is still under construction figured out. No, the house is still under construction. But the uh, man, when they pitched

Speaker A: you as a guest, they were like this 28 year old has the world figured out and, and he's underpay tell

Speaker B: you everything you need to know over promised, under delivering. That's why I'm here.

Speaker A: No, man, but I'll tell you this like, and trust me, I, I don't have it all figured out either. Not even close. But you know, the, the things that you're sitting here talking about are the things that I think take a lot of people, you know, decades and decades to learn, you know, when it comes to leadership. So, um, it's, it's awesome to hear. What are some of the other things that you would attribute to the success that, you know, your franchise has had? I know when, when you and I were chatting before recording, you touched on a couple of things. Um, you know, walk us through and, and you know, maybe not too in the weeds of like the express business specifically, but just kind of like what, what are things you've done? Whether that's with Your team or how you approach the business that has allowed you guys to be successful so early on?

Speaker B: That's a, that's such a good question. I, I, I think the biggest thing I've done is just believe in others. Like I really invest in my inside team, I talk to them, I want to train them, I want to develop them as express employees. Sure. But as people, if I have some knowledge about a certain circumstance they're going through, I'm not going to hold that in and you know, I want to relay it. The mentors that help me, as I've mentioned thousand times, are, uh, the reason I've been successful. I don't attribute it to myself as much as I attribute to great advice and finding the right people to listen to. Because a lot of people wanted to give me advice or tell me how to do something, but figuring out who had my best interest and who just like the sound of their own voice took me some time to kind of learn the difference between the two. Um, yeah. So I listened to the right people and I followed the express system. I know I'm going to keep saying express system, but it really is a lot of the number, the money they've invested in to be successful or to teach the activity that's needed to be successful is key. But uh, in staffing, can I get in the weeds on staffing? Is that okay? Just a little bit?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I, the number one thing I want, I wanted to do was increase my average pay rate across the board. I wanted to be a someone, um, in the community that the people trusted, wasn't trying to screw them over, take an extra dollar in margin where I could. I'd rather give that to them because going back to loyalty being a two way street. Yeah, it's, if I do that for you, all of a sudden Brian is trying to help others, not just try to, um, help himself. Because that's a fine line to walk as a business owner too, which I'm sure you know.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's, so that's one of the takeaways I had from, from our conversation the other week was you talking about increasing pay rates, which essentially is, is taking some money out of your pocket. Right. Um, making your margin a little bit smaller. But it's better for the people that you're placing in the jobs. Right. It's probably gonna lead to better retention rates with the companies that are coming to you with the staffing needs. So do right by your customers.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: Is, is the takeaway, even if it kind of comes back to delayed gratification Right. Even if in the short term it hurts a little bit, long term, that's far better for the business, for you as the business owner to, to do those things. So, again, man, like, uh, I've never. Good insight for, for, you know, uh, someone in their 20s with their first business, because the temptation is like, squeeze every penny out of every dollar that you possibly can for profit.

Speaker B: If you worry about a dollar, you'll never make enough. But if you try to help people, you'll never worry about a dollar. I try to live by that and show it because it's like, it's. Every time I've given that extra dollar and taken a hit on my margin, I've never regretted it. Every time I've tried to squeeze, I've regretted it. It's either led to bad things happening because I put myself and my want, desires in front of the ways of others. And that's just something I tried not to be like, because no one likes someone who's like. I was talking to, uh, one of my employees about this. You know, when you're growing up and you'd invite a friend to a party and they'd ask you who's all going to be there before they said yes or no, if they're coming, it's like, you don't want to be that person. You, you want to be the kind of person says, oh, you're inviting me, I'll be there. Because that, that shows that you're just there for them and therefore not for what they can bring you or what they can provide to you. Yeah, I feel like that's a little important.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well said, man. This, you dropping bombs left and right. I love it.

Speaker B: Um, I'm not, I'm not quoting people, by the way, so, you know, that, that's a.

Speaker A: Well, let, Let me know when, when your book, uh, of inspirational quotes is coming out and we'll, uh, we'll buy a copy of it.

Speaker B: It'll be a podcast because I'm. I can't type that fast.

Speaker A: Um, well, man, what. What else would you say, like, has. Has attributed to your success and, and maybe even better than that, like, what. What are. Talk us through and, and we'll. We'll wrap this up here in just a minute. But I think it's good for people to hear that, you know, it's not all wins and successes and, and so, like, what's, what's a big mistake or failure that you've made since you took over ownership? And, and then kind of what were you able to do to get back

Speaker B: from that man, that's so many. The one that comes to mind about a mistake that I wish I could have done differently is trying to, instead of trying to sign up a new client, trying to focus more so on the relationship side, trying to, not to get them, um, like immediately started and done, but instead to understand what their business goal is. What, what are, what are you trying to achieve with your company? Because I'm going to aid in that effort, right? My. If I'm doing my job well, I am helping companies grow, I'm helping them build a good staff, I'm helping them do all these things. And at first I was very hesitant to give advice or because I was young, I didn't want to be the young buck running in here telling you how to run your business better. Right. And I feel like even though I had some good experience in that field, I wasn't confident enough in my own ability to do that. So sometimes I would let, I would play by other people's rules when I knew that I could have a better way of improving or processes it from my genuine own experience. And I just kind of kept that and bad consequences happened. And I would always think if I would have told them, if I would have said it then and now that I'm three and a half years in, you know, a seasoned veteran, you could say I am seasoned. Starting to get more and more confident of, uh, not just playing by everyone else's rules, but starting to have my own opinions and putting that forward and being more vocal with it. Yeah. Uh, going back to. That's incredible.

Speaker A: And that's, that's how it should go. Right. Like we talked earlier about, you know, people coming in and not following the system, but you will get to a, a point where, okay, you know, the business, you know, what works and why it works, and you will have ideas for, hey, um, what if we do this a little bit? Like every big franchise out there, a lot of the innovations that they've had have come from franchisees. Right? Like, there's so many cool stories and examples out there of, you know, franchisees that had an idea and now it's like a staple with, within the entire franchise system. So you want to be able to innovate. It's just maybe not day one, like, learn the business well enough to know where there really is, you know, opportunity to improve or optimize. But, um, what's, what's, what's your 10 year. I mean, you're so young, man. What's your 10 year vision from now you won't even be 40.

Speaker B: I. My 10 year goal is to provide a good life in my current and future family and by any means necessary. That's kind of because one thing about my experience so far is like I said, I graduated college during COVID So much was up in the air that if I had a plan when I was a junior, it probably would have not worked out because of the circumstances, out of my control. So when people ask me my 10 year plan, I hope I put my family in a position where we're okay, we're good and by any means necessary. So I don't think I could ever go back to having a boss. Don't know if I have that in. Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, you're unemployable.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I would be way too sassy and give way too much.

Speaker A: You're too far gone. Yeah.

Speaker B: Right. I think my confidence is, you know, I'd get knocked down a peg or two. So I'm going to continue. I hope to be a, a voice for express franchisees they feel comfortable asking questions to. I hope I can become a voice of uh, like mentorship for other future franchisees because it is a lot when you're taking it on as you help people buy franchises. You know very well. I hope I can be that for people of uh, just a resource for them to help them be successful. Because if one of us eat, we all eat.

Speaker A: There you go. That's the right mentality. And, and it's one of the great things about franchising. You're not competing against the other franchisees so you know, someone else doing well is not. And this is really the case in life, right? I mean an abundance mentality. Like just because someone else is winning doesn't mean now all of a sudden the pie is smaller for you and there's less opportunity. But, but you know, within a franchise, like you're, you're not competing against the other franchise owners, so there's, there's no incentive to, to um, you know, root against them.

Speaker B: If I'm, if I'm being honest, I was the type where for the first two years I'd print off the weekly rankings, highlight where I was at and like, because I was competing. But iron sharpens iron, right? That's athletics. I. You're competing with your teammates. I want to beat you next to me. But once we're standing against an enemy, then we're together.

Speaker A: Enterprise very much has that culture when, I mean, when I mean competing. I mean you're, you're not technically going after the same customers.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: You're not stepping on their heads to get high hired. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker A: But, yeah, I think good, healthy competition within the franchises is a good thing.

Speaker B: Like 100.

Speaker A: Um, you know, my. My wife, her. One of her most proud things with our franchises. For the last, I think, three years in a row, we've had the highest revenue per territory.

Speaker B: There you go.

Speaker A: In the whole system. You know, not the highest revenue, necessarily, because we own two territories and, you know, there's people out there with seven, eight, ten territories. Um, but there's one other guy that. That is always kind of. We're always kind of right there, neck and neck, you know, for that metric. And they. They compete, uh, pretty fiercely, um, on. On that. And I think that's good. They push each other. Um, but no, I mean, you know, technically, you're not in the marketplace competing against each other.

Speaker B: We're not undercutting each other's margins and all that good stuff.

Speaker A: That's right. Yeah.

Speaker B: And I do feel like our region has a good team, so I really appreciate your time, sir.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's been great. It's been great.

Speaker B: Thank you. Um, hopefully we get to do it again, son.

Speaker A: Where, um, where could people connect with you? If. If they want to hear more, if. If they want to learn more about express? Like, where. What do you. What do you have going on? Uh, where could people find you?

Speaker B: My. My cell phone is in my LinkedIn description. If you have a question, text me. Can't promise I'll respond immediately, but I. I try to be an open book, and I hope that the Brian Garvey you met during this conversation and the one previous is the one that the next person will meet. And it's the same consistently. Right. I try to just be authentic in myself, so if you want to reach me, LinkedIn's probably the best way. Um, you can stop by the office and say, hey, and I'll probably talk to you for an hour, but I'm open book, man.

Speaker A: That's what's up. I'll, um, I'll make sure we get your LinkedIn profile in the show notes. But, man, congrats on your success. And, um, no, no doubt the future is bright. So, um, we st. We'll stay in touch for sure. And I. I have no doubt that this conversation, um, you know, educated and inspired anyone out there that's going to listen to it, so keep up the good work.

Speaker B: Thank you, sir. Really appreciate your time.

Speaker A: Y.

Speaker B: Sam.