Live at IFA 2026 with Omar Simmons, Raynya Simmons, Abby Schmidt, Ben Rush, Jonathan Hill, Jack Monson

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: You're listening to Franchise Voice, the podcast from the International Franchise Association. I'm your host, Jack Munson, with more from our series of interviews with top leaders in franchising recorded at the IFA 2026 convention. Today's show is brought to you by City Lifestyle.

Speaker C: Franchise Voice is back at IFA 2026 in the exhibit hall in Storytellers Corner. Right now, we're chatting with the winners of this year's Ronald E. Harrison Award from the ifa. It's. That's Omar Simmons and Rainia Simmons. Welcome back to the podcast. It's good to see both of you.

Speaker A: It's good to see you as well.

Speaker D: Great to see you too.

Speaker C: And I've got to say, before we get started about the award, um, Rainia, fantastic job today at the annual prayer breakfast. I loved hearing your voice. It really got everybody just sort of excited for IFA and for the day, and I could just. You probably couldn't see it from where you were up there singing, but every face in that room had a smile on it. So you m. You really touched a lot of people.

Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. That warms my heart. That means the world to me. Thank you for saying that.

Speaker C: I just wanted to let you know that it was. It was fantastic. So. So we can plan on you again next year, right? Okay. Thank you.

Speaker D: Woman of many talents.

Speaker A: If I'm invited back to sing, always I feeling you will be yourself.

Speaker C: And your band was good today too, Weren't they awesome? I mean, you know, you had Keith Gerson and the guys, and we had

Speaker A: Todd and his son Max. Amazing.

Speaker D: All from the community. The fr. Impromptu just threw a band together in the franchise community.

Speaker C: And it's not like I'm guessing you are gigging together every week for the last year.

Speaker D: No, actually, just do it together.

Speaker A: Well, we were on the Zoom, and it was funny. When I met Max, I was like, you're super tall. Because I'm a little screw. I had no idea.

Speaker C: He's a big guy, so we didn't

Speaker A: really meet that that much. We just went on faith. But it came together. It was amazing. That's what happens when you work with professionals.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: And when you have some talent, a little talent helps.

Speaker C: They can do an impromptu thing pretty well.

Speaker A: Jack. That the talent was the heart. The heart of God that everyone up Fierce singing had today.

Speaker D: That's right.

Speaker A: I was so honored to be with them.

Speaker C: It was fantastic. So as opposed to last year around this time when we spoke, you two are, uh, the winners this year of the Rom Lee Harrison Award. Tell me about the award and what led up to your involvement in this.

Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, the award was, I guess, a culmination of, uh, uh, a journey that started a couple years ago, uh, after we sold our Planet Fitness portfolio of over 100 units. Renia really, you know, pushed me to say, how can we give back to the community and business model that gave so much to us, which was franchising? And, you know, we had a really unique journey as somebody that didn't grow up around business owners, didn't grow up around a lot of wealth, didn't grow up around, um, you know, professionals. And we found that franchising is a great way to really elevate one's, uh, kind of financial, social position. We said, well, how can we get more people to understand how to take advantage of the franchise model? And Rainey came with the idea of creating this accelerator program. Long story short, we created a franchise fishing initiative with ifa and now we're up to how many graduates, randy?

Speaker A: We had 17 last year. This year, 45.

Speaker C: Wow, that's a big jump from last year.

Speaker D: Yeah, we're supposed to grow 40% next year.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker D: And so the whole point of this is to get people that may not have been a part of the franchise community, people that were from underrepresented groups, people that are from disadvantaged communities, people that may not feel as comfortable as welcome or just didn't know, they didn't know about franchising, and say, these are the do's and don'ts, These are the fundamentals. This is how you can optimize your probability of success. They get mentors, they get a curriculum. And, um, those graduates are now starting to kind of matriculate and get in business. And we're looking for new graduates. And I guess ifa, um, felt led to give Ring and I an award. And while that's humbling and special and we deeply appreciate it, I think it represents the power of this community because this whole community wrapped their arms around me and Rainier's vision around how can we make the tent bigger and include and teach and encourage and kind of launch a group of people into franchising.

Speaker A: We met for an entire year. They gave their time, their talent, and so many people donated money, so many brands. And we're just so grateful that everyone came to together to help others less fortunate than ourselves.

Speaker C: Well, you know, I've seen programs like this in the past that just never really got off the ground. Other people have tried to do similar things, but there is something about this That I think all of those other groups said, this one's gonna go. We want to help these people. We want to be, you know, part of it. So, yeah, there was something kind of magical about this.

Speaker A: Well, guess what, Jack. Right before we came in this booth, we bumped into Clarence, who you actually interviewed last year.

Speaker C: I bumped into him this morning, signed

Speaker A: an LOI for another franchise. So we're so excited. He was one of our graduates last year.

Speaker D: That's.

Speaker C: That's my pizza friend. You know, I was going to mention Clarence that, you know, so many times people go through a program or. Or are part of something, and they're in and they're out, and you might not really see him again.

Speaker A: He's.

Speaker C: He's become part of the ifa. I joked last year that, you know, Future Chair of IFA, 100% he will be. And, um, you know, it's good to see those guys back here this year. Not just, you know, I graduated and now I'm done, and I'm gonna go work on my business. But, you know, he's here looking for who. Who's he gonna help in the next hour?

Speaker D: That's his spirit.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Ah.

Speaker D: And that's. That's the spirit that permeates that entire program. It's here because people, as Randy said, gave their money, their mentoring. There are, uh, suppliers like Profit Soup that gave their business. And, uh, there are so many sponsors, and then the graduates helping each other, and they want to help the next class of graduates. And again, it's really perpetuating. What's unique about franchising? That old saying, you're in business by yourself, but not. I mean, in business for yourself, but not by yourself. I've never. And I've been investor and worked in a lot of industries. I've never seen anything like this. And so I think that's contagious. And getting more people like Clarence into the fold is just. It's good for everybody.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's terrific. And, you know, imagine the number of jobs he's going to create. I want to go back to the, uh, Ascension initiative. I think there are a lot of great programs out there, but one thing that you both spoke about in the past past is there's. There's an emphasis on finding funding capital and sort of helping people navigate that, because, let's face it, money is not getting easier to find these days. So, uh, is that still a big part of this program?

Speaker D: It is, and it's one that's continuing to evolve. I mean, the first step. And look, we're growing and learning. So our first, you know, we're first two, UM cohorts. But the first thing is helping people understand money. Right? Uh, that's the language of business. And so how do you get that sort of financial literacy mastery, um, so that you can go and raise money and make good, sound financial decisions and then know what's out there, what is available. I think there's a lot of capital out there that doesn't always get taken advantage of. So capital wants to find talent, talent wants to find capital. How can we help facilitate that? And as a UM organization, we're working to be a better conduit of that, um, and looking to, uh, you know, kind of bridge those gaps. So I would say it's still, uh, a journey that's in process, but we feel like we're making real good progress.

Speaker C: Excellent. So we talked about last year. What's up next year for the Ascension initiative? What are you looking to do? Um, how are you expanding, growing, changing?

Speaker D: Well, I think the goal is to increase the, uh, number of graduates by about 40%. We think that's a good controlled growth. Um, we continue to get high quality candidates, and, uh, we want to continue to always elevate the bar in that regard. And then I think, um, now that we have 50 graduates, there's going to be a real emphasis on making sure they're successful. So it's not, as you said, about graduating and going. It's about how do we support them, connect them to the right people, opportunities, organizations, so that they can start their entrepreneurial journey. And as you said, there's no way that someone's going to learn all that they need to know about running and growing and building a business in six months. So we're going to continue to kind of support them. And the last thing I would say is, you know, always be in growth mode. Right. How can we get better? Ah, so we're gonna learn from, um, the first two, UM cohorts and enhance the program as we go.

Speaker C: Very Good.

Speaker A: I agree 100%.

Speaker C: Well, again, congratulations on winning this year's Ronald E. Harrison award. That's a fantastic accomplishment. There's a. There's a very small list of people who've won this award, and they're all people that we all admire. And several are both them are my friends. So I, I'm, uh, I'm so glad for you guys. I think it's recognition well deserved. It's very humbling if, if anyone would like to connect with you and maybe they've got some Questions about some of the things you're working on. Where do you like to talk to People? Is that LinkedIn website? Where. Where do you want to connect?

Speaker D: Yeah, I am on LinkedIn, so that's always an easy way. Uh, our website is exalter capital.com, and, uh, those are probably the two best ways.

Speaker A: Same with me. I'm on LinkedIn as well. But they have to message me and really say, hey, I met you here. I'm interested. Because I get so many people that want to connect, I kind of skip.

Speaker D: She's a popular woman. Gotta keep an eye on this one, Jack.

Speaker A: But I'm all about community and connections, so please reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you. Please.

Speaker C: All right, very good. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of IFA 2026 and we'll see you again next year.

Speaker A: Thank you, Jack. Take care. Good seeing you.

Speaker B: Back in a moment after a word from Citi Lifestyle. Are you looking to start a franchise without a fortune to invest or years to wait for profitability? City Lifestyle owners launch in as little as one month, reach senior level income replacement within the first year, and build the kind of earnings most people only dream about with no ceiling. If you're connected in your community and comfortable networking, Citi Lifestyle is your path to financial and scheduling freedom. Over 1000 markets are open in all 50 states. Visit citylifestyle.com to claim yours today.

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker C: In the big podcast booth for franchise voice chatting now with Ben Rush and Abby Schmidt from Paychex.

Speaker B: Hey, friends, how are you?

Speaker E: We're doing great. Thanks for having us, Jack.

Speaker C: Abby, how's your week here at IFA So far?

Speaker F: Very busy as usual, but it's been fantastic.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Love, love seeing you guys here and, um, love that you're part of this preferred vendor program with the ifa. I would assume many of our listeners are familiar with Paychex, but, Ben, could you give us a little overview of all of the things that Paychex does, especially with franchise brands?

Speaker E: You got it. Well, again, thanks for having me. My name, as you mentioned, is Ben Rush. Uh, really excited to be here at Paychex. We work with hundreds of thousands of small businesses and really a broad range of franchise system so we get a real time view of what operators are facing. The headline right now, by the way, is, um, around the economy, which I think is a good thing. We've got lots of data to talk about. Um, is actually really stability and momentum, even though we sometimes feel a little unstable depending on the press release. You Know, the macroeconomic trends are actually very positive. Small business employment is really steady. Wage growth is controlled. We're coming off a really strong year for gdp. And that com. That combination really gives franchise owners something they haven't had in a while, which is predictability.

Speaker C: Yeah. Do you feel like, um, we've gone through a couple of years of just so much uncertainty and maybe now we're finally stabilizing a bit and people are more likely to maybe hire some more or buy more services or spend some capital?

Speaker E: Yeah, I think all those things are true and I think there's still real challenges. And you mentioned people. Finding qualified people continues to be one of the top line issues that all companies have, I think, particularly small business owners. It's a particular challenge, I think holding the line on healthcare costs, figuring out how to adopt AI without enterprise infrastructure, all those things are the challenges people are having. But I do think, you know, GDP is stable. You know, inflation appears to be somewhat under control, depending on the outcome of tariffs, could hopefully put some money maybe back in all of our pockets.

Speaker C: Depending upon what day you're listening to this podcast, we'll see what happens.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker E: But I think all of those things really have stability for all of us, which is, I think, really good for small business and great for franchises.

Speaker C: Yeah, uh, very good. Abby, you've been with, with the IFA for a number of years now, it feels like. How long have you been coming to the ifa?

Speaker F: This is my eighth year. It's actually Paychex's eighth year. We became the first preferred provider, or, pardon me, the first preferred vendor of the IFA in 2018. And that's how long I've been working within.

Speaker C: Very good. So let me ask you about what, what makes Pay Chex different? Um, we're all looking for that key differentiator for our brands. Right. Uh, it kind of depends on what area you're in. But every brand needs to have sort of that thing that makes you rise above the crowd and above the noise. Tell me about Paychex. What do you guys really see as your differentiator?

Speaker F: I would say, first of all, the ability to provide franchisors with consistency across their system. Standard onboarding, payroll and benefits that we offer to the franchisees really make a difference. Our ability to provide compliance across all 50 states, but then also integrations and helping franchises grow faster. That speed to open operational efficiency and

Speaker C: workforce stability and keeping things. Things consistent. I mean, that really is the definition of franchising.

Speaker F: Absolutely.

Speaker C: Having a program, everybody's following it. It's it's the same from, from one location to the next. So yeah, that makes a, that makes a whole lot of sense. Ben, anything to add to that?

Speaker E: Uh, yeah, I think there's three things that I really look at our, our secret sauce, which is really scale and experience with franchises. AI powered tools backed by really advisors and that's really critical for us these days. And multi state compliance that scales with growth. We see over and over and over again small businesses, hey, I'm gonna buy, you know, another location and it's across the state line. What do I do? How do I do that? So you know, really that, that compliance layer that we've been known for for so many years, um, is really helpful for our customers. We work with over 8, 800,000 businesses now.

Speaker C: Wow.

Speaker E: And really we're the top providers specifically in the small business space, which is really where most franchisees sit.

Speaker C: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all, they're all local. Um, so go back to the uh, what you're saying about A.I. like everyone, I'm, I'm sure it's, it's changed your business model drastically over the past couple of years. Tell me sort of where you're going with AI tools and efficiencies.

Speaker E: Yeah, it's a great question. We're using AI in a lot of ways. One, providing more efficient and more effective service to our customers. Really training all of our service providers to give the right answers to the right questions. That's really important. So that's internally really helpful. All the AI tools, uh, we're providing to our customers as well so they can better understand what's happening is important. And then we recently, recently acquired a company called 650 that actually is here today at IFA. They presented earlier.

Speaker C: Oh cool.

Speaker E: And they really are bringing AI tools around HR compliance. So as an example, every business needs a handbook. The problem with the handbook is as soon as you release it, it's out of date because the state regulation may change or otherwise. So we actually have an AI powered handbook system that 650 created. So anytime there's a state change, federal change, local change, it automatically updates your handbook and then it pushes it back to the employer so they can alert all their employees that a handbook has changed. So it's like literally real time always in compliance. That's just one of the many things we're doing around AI and it's just, it's good for everybody.

Speaker C: That sounds great. Um, anything you guys are working on for maybe the second half of 2020 that you wanted to share any new programs or projects or big events coming up, anything like that.

Speaker E: We've always got lots of things in the works. We're at a lot of events. I think in terms of the second half of the year, really our new fiscal year starts in June, so we're always planning for the future. We see huge growth opportunity in our business in the franchise space. So when we look at all the channels that we work with, um, the franchise space is our top business opportunity as a company in, uh, the second half of this calendar year. So we're really bullish, particularly all the things we talked about, the predictability and stability in the franchise, you know, industry, uh, we want to be a big part of that and help, you know, small businesses. Small businesses. Excuse me. Succeed.

Speaker C: Very good, Abby. Speaking of the franchise space, I want to ask you about your role with the Supplier Forum. So, uh, tell me, tell me what's up there and what kinds of things are you guys working on?

Speaker F: Oh, thank you, Jack. This year, I am the chair of the Supplier Forum Advisory Board. And our theme for this year is the supplier journey and helping new suppliers navigate the ecosystem of the franchise world. It's a big world, but we also know that it takes all three legs of the stool, franchisors, franchisees and suppliers. So the Supplier Board is really focused, um, on helping new suppliers understand what's available to them. And then as they get their feet under them, how can we help shepherd them through their first year, third year, fifth year? But then also we can't forget those that came before us. And, um, existing suppliers, tenured suppliers. Like you, my friend, we won't say old suppliers tenured.

Speaker C: I love that chart. That's fantastic. I'm well seasoned.

Speaker F: You are a little salty sometimes. So also making sure that we keep our tenured suppliers close by and listen to their changing needs as well.

Speaker C: Very good. I wish this program had been in place, um, when I joined IFA as a brand new supplier all of those years ago.

Speaker F: It can be daunting.

Speaker C: Congratulations on that. Keep up the good work with the Supplier Forum Advisory Board. Ben, as we close out the show today, if someone would like to learn a little bit more about what you and your team can do to help their franchise brand. Where can we send them?

Speaker E: That's great. I'll give you a, uh, URL a couple of times. So if you go to go.paychecks.com forward/ifa-pod again, go.paychecks.com forward slash IFA pod, uh, we have a customer URL Just for the uh, franchise space for IFA or if you just want to look more broadly, paychex.com is a great place for information and you know, we're really proud of our association with the ifa. I uh, had a great conversation with Matt about all the things that we're doing to partner with IFA specifically around, you know, data and insights and analytics into the future. And we think the future is bright for our partnership and certainly bright for the franchise organization.

Speaker C: Very well said. And we, we will have links to all of those places in today's show.

Speaker B: Notes.

Speaker A: Great.

Speaker C: Ben and Abby, thank you so much for joining us here on Franchise Voice. We will see you both soon.

Speaker E: Thanks Jeff.

Speaker F: Thank you.

Speaker C: Back at IFA 2026 in the franchise Voice booth right in the middle of Franchise Main Street. It's a little loud, it's getting a little crowded in here, but I like seeing the crowd coming in. Chatting now with my good friend Jonathan Hill. He's the co founder of Morrow Hill. What's going on?

Speaker G: Uh, Jack, I'm happy to talk to you here.

Speaker H: Thanks for inviting me.

Speaker C: Yeah. How's your week been at IFA so far?

Speaker H: It's been great. We've been here since uh, Saturday and um, uh, got a large team here uh, for all of our various uh, products and services. So um, there's been a lot of

Speaker G: buzz around our booth area associated with

Speaker H: everything we do and I'm always excited

Speaker G: to come to IFA to see all my franchise family.

Speaker C: Tell me more about that, about what you guys do. Give me an overview.

Speaker H: Yeah.

Speaker G: So Morrill Hill is a tech enabled real estate consulting organization. M. We're known for a couple things. We're known for transparency, um, in the real estate process, meaning we have a philosophy of um, um, working with brands through what we call a dedicated client team model.

Speaker H: Um, and that means that we wrap

Speaker G: our people, our process and our technology around the brands that we serve. We scale and grow with them. Um, we are not master brokers. We don't take transactions and then sub them out to people. And we have dedicated client teams that serve them. And those dedicated client teams are from um, data analytics and mapping technology to plotting white space and uh, creating territories for franchise development professionals to um, um, real estate professionals that uh, are transaction managers and account managers that guide franchisees through the journey and present the value proposition of that franchise brand to the local markets. Um, and then also we have a whole team of design build managed professionals that do things like site evaluations and regulatory assessments and space planning and Project management. So really the lifespan in which we live is from when someone comes to a meet the team day or Discovery Day confirmation day at a brand to the time that they have their grand openings. The life in, um, which we serve.

Speaker C: Do you have a specific sector inside franchising that you really love working with, like restaurant industry, qsr or, or is it kind of all across the board?

Speaker H: It's all across the board. So children's education, fast casual, restaurants, health and beauty, fitness for children, you name it. Kind of 1500 to 2000ft on the low end and we have full scale family entertainment facilities that are 75,000ft all over the board.

Speaker C: Yeah. Nice. Um, let's take a bigger overview of franchising in general with you and your team. What is it about franchising that you love? Working man?

Speaker H: There's a lot I like about franchising, but one highlight is, um, uh, and I don't know if you got to see the video that we put out at the ifa. Um, that was, uh, uh, a lot of AI went into that video. But really what I wanted to do is I wanted to highlight kind of the why and who we all serve. I think a lot of people lose kind of insight of that and it is, uh, that single mother or that person that is stuck in the rat race doesn't get to go to little Billy's soccer name. Um, and I hope that that video resonated with people and they could see that they didn't just get from that idea all the way to opening. There was a lot of professionals, uh, that played a role in that happening. So getting back to your question, um, I love franchising because I get to see people live out their dreams that were, want to preneurs, become entrepreneurs. Um, and um, we get to see that on repeat all the time, thousands of times a year. And that's fun.

Speaker C: Yeah. So speaking of that video, you put out a pretty good amount of content about the work that you guys are doing and franchising in general. You've got a podcast as well, is that right?

Speaker H: Yes. On brand, slightly off topic. Shameless Plug.

Speaker C: Okay, where can we find that? Is it in all of the usual places?

Speaker H: Yeah, it's in all the usual places. So Apple and Spotify and Amazon.

Speaker C: Okay, what kinds of things do you talk about about there?

Speaker H: Um, most of the guests have been franchisors, so we talk about their, um, you know, founders and talk about their journey and that, you know, um, why their, their widget or whatever it is that they have is incredible. But kind of understanding their path and what brought them there. We've um, had some um, you know, really profound multi unit franchisees on there that had an incredible story uh, and life story that we wanted to spotlight and you know on show we like to say we get lost and hopefully we find our way back and get down some roads. But um, yeah that's really. It's been a, it's been pretty fun and uh, no real agenda other than just talking to great uh folks in franchising.

Speaker C: Do you have anything coming uh, up over the next couple of months that you want to tell us about? Any new projects, any, any big plans with clients? Anything, anything new you're rolling out maybe even later this year?

Speaker H: Yeah, we're uh, we're in the lab um, on um technology. Um um.

Speaker C: You're always in that lab.

Speaker D: Yeah, we are.

Speaker H: And so um, vision. So uh, Quick Plug, Vision Map and Vision Track um had a baby with each other. So Vision Track is our workflow solution that zors have a dashboard and a platform that they can actively see what's happening with all their franchisees. But Vision Map is our territory plotting tool and they now uh live in one seamless area. Um design build is a full scale uh, has full scale functionality of uh, uh managing budgets and timelines associated with the build that now lives inside of Vision Track. And um, we're looking at some API calls to some other uh uh notable uh I'll leave their names out for now uh in franchising, some notable tools to tether to them to make uh the um, uh experience even more butterysoft for franchisors. Uh so there's a whole list of things we're working on with technology uh really just to uh, offer a better user experience for ourzores.

Speaker C: Awesome. Sounds great. We will be following along as the year progresses to see where the technology takes us all if people would like to follow along or maybe they want to have a conversation with you about working with you and your team. Where should we send them?

Speaker H: Moralhill.com uh, you can find me on uh, on LinkedIn. It shouldn't be too hard to find Jonathan Hill. And then um, on Instagram, jhill, uh cre J H I L L C R E and um, that's uh. Those are probably the best places to find me.

Speaker C: All right, very good. Well thank you so much for stopping by today and uh, have a great rest of the show and, and a great rest of 2026.

Speaker H: Thanks for uh, having me in your uh, beautiful office here right on the floor. Thanks so much.

Speaker C: Thanks.

Speaker H: Yes,

Speaker B: thank you for listening to Franchise Voice from the International Franchise Association. For more information from the IFA, please visit franchise.org.