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hello everyone welcome to uh female marketing leaders in franchising uh i'm super excited that uh promo republic asked me to moderate this because they're basically all these women are who i want to be when i grow up um and also i'm just going to claim them as my besties so every time we go to a conference we've got friends um so we've got zbart unleash brands i'm with threshold and netsertive massage lux and cam bow wow and we will go ahead and get started um first uh up is myself so uh my name is madeline and i work at netsertive as the director of marketing that sort of digital marketing agency for franchisees and franchisors i'm also a multi-unit multi-brand owner so i own four brands in the greater philadelphia area and we've got about 20 locations and then previous to both of those roles i was the director of marketing at threshold brands which are the locations i now own um and did everything from you know fran dev with hands in employment and consumer so really be able to understand uh from supplier to franchisee to franchisor uh you know what what's going on and be able to cut through some of the bs and tell you guys what you need to know um but moving on to the more important people we've got larissa here from zbart larissa hi i'll let you kind of give your background hey guys larissa olega i'm wesley bart international corporation we're an automotive appearance and protection brand number one in our category we have 400 locations and 1200 processing centers in over 35 countries um in 2024 it'll be our 65th year in business we are one of the founding members um of franchising to be honest with you i always love talking about how when you look at the age of some of the franchise systems of the international franchise association we're number like 87.

So it's pretty cool to be one of the top 100 um and be around we're very prideful of our legacy um i lead marketing for all business verticals of the company and i'm really excited to be on this panel with all of these amazing women i'm very starstruck still so thanks for having me thanks larissa and i think uh larissa is a great contact to know because basically she's probably been in everyone's shoes so if you have an issue she's probably seen it and overcome it with being such a long-standing uh franchise so we're super excited to have her next we got my girl abby who i'm sure you've seen all over linkedin she's with unleashed brands and making some big moves so abby welcome thanks maddie i hope that's a compliment um i'm happy to have everyone here on the webinar thanks for joining us again i'm honored to be alongside these female leaders in franchising i am the vp of marketing and brand relations at unleash brands unleash brands is a youth enrichment platform company serving children and families we are focused on brands that help children learn play and grow we currently have six brands in our portfolio urban air adventure park snapology the little gym premier martial arts xt league and class 101 we are rapidly growing as maddie mentioned um it's a really exciting time to be a part of the brand and we currently have 1300 units um operating or in development thanks abian uh quite a mouthful of brands i know you have to keep remembering to add them so that's super exciting and i'm able to moderate this webinar because my kids are currently at urban air so thank you abby i love it that's awesome um next we've got christy who probably knows everybody in this room's dog's names as well as ours so christy welcome thank you thank you for having me my name is christy barnes and i am the vp of marketing at camp bow wow we are a doggy daycare and boarding franchise we have over 200 locations in the us and canada and all about making sure dogs have an awesome time and are happy and well cared for and i had up the marketing department overseeing all of our consumer and friend dev marketing efforts and i've spent my entire career at camp bow so had a lot of positions there and learned a lot of stuff along the way awesome thank you christy and i think i can speak for all of us if not at least the dog people that christy pretty much has the dream job of working in franchising and with dogs um so that is uh goals that's really great not gonna lie yeah lastly we have kristin from massage luxe i'm sure you guys seen them opening new stores like every day i'm like how do they do it uh and kristen will hopefully be able to tell you so welcome thank you thank you for having me i have been at massage lux for two years now and i'm the chief growth officer so i oversee both our consumer marketing as well as franchise growth which puts me in a little bit of a unique position because i get to play in b2b as well as b2c i love it i've been enfranchising my whole career and i've worked on brands as large as 5 000 locations to as little as five locations so um some really fun projects and brands that i've worked on in the past loving massage lux massage and facials membership model we have 70 locations open and we are aiming for 250 by 2025 so it's gonna be a busy couple of years i look forward to talking with all of you love it well thanks and without further ado we'll just go ahead and get right into it so we'll start you know kind of part one what was your career path you know how did you get into franchising larissa i'm gonna hand it over to you first because i'm sure a lot of people are wondering how do you get to managing one of the largest oldest franchises and managing it all yeah great question thank you i don't really know but here i am well my answer might you know i don't think it's a surprising a lot of people end up taking this path especially in marketing but after i got my degree which is actually in management with a concentration in performing arts i had dreams of owning my own performing arts center i was into dance my whole life and just something that i wanted to do i ended up being the marketing coordinator of one of the largest performing arts centers in michigan for a couple years and realized that i loved the aspect of business of marketing specifically and so um fell into a great position um at one of the largest advertising agencies in michigan campbell ewald at the time spent some time there spent some time at donor the other larger one at the time and got so much great experience on the agency side first of understanding how everything got put together what what makes sense why certain things happen how data transforms things i mean all of those building blocks started there and then i was ready for a new opportunity and i wanted to go just like every marketer on the client side so i started looking at some opportunities and the bart came about so from a franchising standpoint i was fortunate that on my agency side and experience i did work with some franchise brands um one of them worldwide specifically some of them are still some of my greatest friends too but um just kind of fell into franchising some people have that same you know experience too so and i just absolutely love it every day is a different um challenge and there's just so much opportunity so that's a little bit of the story of how i got here i love that because i talk with so many people and it's always my first question on my podcast and it's so different from so like some people are like oh i was born into it other people were like hey i was gonna own a dance studio and here i am franchising dance when uh threshold brands first started as made pro and when i got recruited do their marketing um i got like a linkedin from their co and i was like my first response was i don't want to be a maid what is this i'm not cleaning houses but you know 10 years later and here we are um abby i want to talk and hear from you on this question too because you started more single brand and now you're overseeing many many brands and it's continuing to grow so what is that process like especially you know how it differs in franchising sure thanks maddie um so i joined the franchise industry in 2015 very much like marissa kind of fell into it had no idea what franchising was or what i was signing up for um when i joined that company my role there actually started with half franchise development half marketing and then later moved into the marketing director role so um got got very um familiar with the fcv renewal process and things like that on the franchise side which actually helped me learn so much about franchising starting in the franchise development um department and then going full into marketing my degree is in marketing i worked at a marketing agency before coming into franchising in 2015 but um yeah i was working for a youth enrichment company and i loved it um loved promoting the singular brand to book consumer marketing franchise development marketing and then help support franchisees grow their businesses from there i actually joined the franchise broker industry for a little bit and worked at friend at um doing corporate marketing and supporting their consultants with their marketing efforts and then join unleash brands in december of 2001 which has has been amazing um we are experiencing a lot of growth adding new brands we just added two new brands to our portfolio in april of this year and so it has been you know a change going from marketing for singular brand to working for a platform company especially one that's rapidly growing so part of my role is also marketing um you know the platform company unleash brands as a whole and building that brand awareness building that you know authority for our brand out there building that trust with the consumer my role now specifically overseas franchise development marketing so working with our recruiters to ensure that we're bringing quality leads and quality candidates we're actually right now in the midst of a combined discovery day in our office in bedford texas so we've got candidates here from urban air adventure park as well as the little gym and so overseeing those franchise development efforts for all the brands their content plans and things like that and then also an interesting part of my role is i also help with the mergers and acquisition side of things so i spent a lot of time talking with founders um and team members of franchise companies in the youth enrichment space learning their stories their goals for their brands telling them about unleash and so um i think part of what we'll talk about today is how how people got where they are and it might not always be a linear journey and for me it certainly hasn't you know been one nicely neat um career to the other and so that's also been super interesting and fulfilling for me as well i love that and i always want to call out that you know a lot of times people are like oh i work on friend dev or i work with consumer well they both are they work hand in hand especially if you're on the brand side and you know going down that while you're selling new candidates they're all going to want to know how your franchisees are doing so i always say if you want to know marketing talk to a franchise marketer because as i'm sure many people also on this call understand within 10 minutes of a meeting we can go from employment marketing for waco texas all the way to hey how do we sell this umbrella brand in europe so i think that there's a lot of uh you know tools and knowledge that comes around franchise marketing that you know relates to a lot of different parts of marketing um yeah we'll go into our next question and um christy i want to lead with you is you know what does it mean to be a leader in the workplace and you know how do you become one because you're managing this very quickly growing brand you're in such a great industry uh an industry that i'm sure many people aspire to be in so you know what are your thoughts around that i think you don't have to necessarily be a people leader to be a leader and i think that's something that i've learned over my career and i started out as an intern at camp bow wow worked my way up through the organization slowly getting um you know direct reports and then building up the full structure of my team but you know you can take on leadership opportunities without managing people ever or you know if that's something that you want in the future of your career then you can take steps towards that by managing a project or managing a committee or something like that i think it really all just comes down to the qualities that you bring to work every day being trustworthy having integrity caring about other people making sure that others needs are met that they're happy that they um you know have everything that they um are looking for in their position or with franchising you know making sure franchise owners have what they need to be successful so it's really more about the mindset and those values that you exhibit on a day-to-day basis versus actually managing the people i like that because i'm like a super type a and i would be a nightmare to work for because i'm just all over the place like so task oriented that i'd be like they'd be like oh my god i gotta get out of here but you know other ways to lead which i think is a good a good uh thing to call out and then how do you think that translates into your franchise being a leader in this space is it um individuals that make the brand or is it bringing in individuals that brand it's probably a combination of the two you know when you first start as a franchise brand you know you're really looking for anybody and everybody anybody who you know has the desire and the means in order to join the business but as you grow you can get a little bit more specific on who's going to be you know the best representative of your brand uh we're dealing with people's furry children people are very very passionate about their pets we want to make sure that we're only you know bringing on the best of the best people who are gonna take care of those pets as if they were their own um so it's really you know starting with the team starting with your processes your procedures all of that to make sure that you have a really great product or service that you're bringing to the market and people recognize that and that and you're going to be recognized for that ultimately i love that and kristen i want to hear from you on this because especially you are in such a people-oriented business especially with you know the health and wellness you know what is it what does this kind of question mean to you guys yeah christie mentioned something that actually is kind of like my internal motto um which is that mindset is everything the difference between a successful franchisee and an unsuccessful franchisee according to me mindset the difference between a leader and a follower mindset and i think we've all struggled as leaders or just people in their jobs um with a project or a decision or something that's come across our desk in which we're like am i really qualified to make this decision am i really qualified to take this job do i really know the answer here and for so long i was stressed about not knowing and now i'm like no you know what even if you don't know you try you never go into a football game expecting to lose you always go into a football game expecting to win and that's really how i believe i've had success in leadership is just always expecting that no matter what things are going to work out and that my mindset's in the right place and that it's okay if i stood up a strategy that doesn't work or if i made a decision that backfires because my intent and my mindset was in the right place and if it doesn't work out perfectly that's okay we're gonna learn from it and we're gonna move on i think the thing that we often forget is that there's no perfect how-to guide especially in marketing on how to be successful there's no perfect how-to guide in franchising everybody's situation and perception is different and it's okay that you don't have all of the answers as long as you're using data and insight in order to form your decisions you're going to be okay and that's how a leader flourishes it's the people who can take the chances in business that end up in those leadership roles and i think that's such a good point too that there's no perfect plan because i think for franchisees they come in or the current franchisees and they're thinking the franchisor has it all figured out this is why i signed on and the franchisor is like no work with me to figure it out um especially those that might not have a ton of corporate stores you know we're relying on the franchisees so remembering that while a franchise is you know a great uh stepping stone for business it's more of a community rather than just you know a road map so you know remembering that and keeping you know the hierarchy kind of lateral because i've seen it uh you know very vertical and i think the more that people can collaborate and be leaders within a community and to chrissy's point whether it's with people whether it's with systems and processes um that's how the success comes you know from the people not from you know what's written on a piece of paper so this is uh outstanding and i'm just gonna keep on going so how to build and scale high performance marketing team for a franchise brand larissa take it away my friend how do you continue making your empire work and evolve um without losing the essence of your brand and also you know keeping um up with the demand that your franchise has i think this is one of the most harder questions to answer especially given the culture that we're currently in um yes but i will do my best to answer it i think um when i think when i stepped into this position um actually when i started at the company i started as a field marketing manager and it was me and a graphic designer and a marketing leader so fast forward 13 years in july and our team is 10.

um that happened over that time period and a lot of that planning had to do with going back to the objectives and the goals of the company and then specifically drilling it down to the goals of marketing we went through a brand relaunch about five years ago and part of that relaunch was developing um you know a very solid customer journey and after that was developed i really began to build the marketing team after that and i built it based on the needs of the journey and where our company was and our brand was so there's not like we keep saying there's not a one size fits all for everybody but whether i think you're an emerging brand you know having those basics of what you need and that really is based on your brand too you know are you outsourcing or insourcing certain roles within your department is creative important for you to have that at your brand is what's your support look like for the number of units you have from a field marketing standpoint and then how does digital play a role in that too and who's leading that so there really is no one-size-fits-all but i will say that whether you're emerging or whether you're going to be 65 in 2024 it really just depends it goes back to the goals of your business and the goals of what marketing needs to do to achieve those goals i love that because i think especially for you know emerging brands or midsize uh the question is always well how big is your team and i really hate that question because you could have team members that can produce tenfold and then you could have a team of 30 that's producing the same amount and you know also with you know bringing on suppliers or you know there's going to be differences in you know what your franchise needs at the time so what once was in-house might be outsourcing and vice versa so to your point you know analyzing what is the most important uh to you and your team and your franchisees at that time and then scaling that way um christy i'd love to hear from you because now you're leading the team that you were once an intern for so what did that process look like over time and has the team grown is it the same size um and clearly you guys have been promoting from within so is that something that is is common for camp bow wow yeah so when i started um i was the intern and there were two other people on the marketing team and we were under the tech team um so we didn't even have our own like vertical in the company um you know we were lumped into tech and then we were moved over to operations and finally you know we became our own individual department and grew from there and started to build out the team and now there are seven of us on the team so definitely have have grown and tried to balance you know the internal versus external um you know support and making sure you have the right vendor partners in place and and we do try to you know promote from within wherever is wherever we can getting people um you know the skills the experience that they need to grow in their career i've had two people on my team who've been able to be promoted just in the past year into leadership roles within the team so that's been really exciting so definitely you know you want to find the right people and ensure that you are helping them achieve success and helping them achieve that growth that they're looking for because if they don't find it with you they're going to go elsewhere i think that's yeah that's a great um point too where i think naturally as good leaders and good organizations you want to give your employees the room to grow but i think with the franchise it's also important to note that that's what we want our franchisees to do for their employees so i have a home services and people start out as maids or pros but we want to give them the opportunity to go into management and you know potentially other higher education and stuff like that so being able to do that at the the top level is a great place to have it trickle down um i know larissa sees it uh uh tenfold in her her um her industry as well so that's super important and then um abby real quick i want to get to you because i've been in your shoes and you went from you know a couple brands to now it's gonna be a gajillion brands you know how are you managing that because each brand needs its own marketing team and but it's also on on you for fran def so what does unleash do to make sure you're not burning out your employees but also providing the support that all of these brands need yeah and gazillion is definitely the definitive goal for us just so everyone knows that that was very accurate so that is the goal for unleashed brands is the gazillion brands and our portfolio so i love that um yeah it's really interesting our team is growing rapidly to keep up with the growth of bringing new brands on and so there are several different departments here that are growing we have a department dedicated to brand integration i know we're talking marketing here specifically but as we bring on those new brands we might need new departments to support those brands and so building out our brand integration team has been great building our our marketing team has been great as well and so um you know we've been looking at as far as keeping things in-house and you know outsourcing things and as you bring on these new brands supporting all those new brands is a different challenge to figure out what you do outsource and what you keep in-house and so part of our strategy at unleash branch is we have shared services that we take on for the brands franchise development is one of them franchise development legal hr um several other areas that we support with them as far as technology but there are things that still live inside the individual brand marketing is one that kind of is in both as far as they still have their vps of marketing that's running a lot of the day-to-day overseeing their you know field marketing staff but then rolling up to our cmo who oversees the you know strategy as a whole for the platform and those brands and our portfolios so um the shared services we're always looking to you know build out and build our teams there to make sure that we are supporting the brands in our portfolio um you know to the best of our ability but then there are things that still stay with that individual brand that they know best um you know specifically as far as operations curriculum and training that still stays with them but um we are building out you know both marketing teams we're building what i would call a kind of in-house agency on the consumer side to support all of those brands which are rapidly growing and then from the franchise development standpoint you know we're constantly bringing on new recruiters and adding to our marketing team as well to to support those those brands that we have i love that and just a a big call out to i know umbrella brands are uh very popular nowadays and there is that fine line between you know let's use the resources we have because we're in hyper growth mode but also understanding the needs of your team because i've had it both ways where i've just been completely burnt out and then the other side where i'm like oh there's all this help and now i don't know who any of these people are so really you know keeping a pulse on your team and the needs um as they grow and building that into the budget you know you really just can't expect your same team to manage multiple brands with the same results um over time so you know keeping that realistic as well and you know kristin bring up bring us on home what do you guys do to build this great marketing team because i think that you're the way you have set up your marketing if you look at massage lux their franchisees for the most part all follow the model they all have the same branding you know what's happening it's the same promotions i think they do a great job so how did you build a team that can not only do that but also coach to it yeah so i think for everybody here i mean you've got to find your unicorns especially in emerging brands those utility players who can do a lot of different things right so it's easy for us to say well i want a social media person but what if you could find a social media person that could also write long-form content and also maybe take pictures or some video or put together together some quick graphics you gotta be scrappy in a franchise organization because let's face it we don't have hundreds of marketers who are all very specialized additionally one thing that i'll caution on is for emerging brands they want to you know their first marketing hire typically is a leader in marketing like a vp of marketing you got to be a little bit careful about hiring someone who is so entrenched in strategy and has done so much with their career that they're not used to rolling up those sleeves you have to find leaders who can set the strategy but then in many cases push some of that strategy through and actually do the work and i think that that's most often what i see as a issue in staffing marketing departments today is you get all these high-level leaders who haven't done the ground work um in a while right they've five years removed from actually putting together a creative brief or talking to a franchisee and they find themselves with this great divide between the leaders and the workers and so make sure that when you're staffing your marketing team you're doing so with that eye and that you need people to actually dig in and get in the weeds along with the team in small organizations i'm lucky at massage lux because we've got a lot of those people on our marketing team that can can play in multiple areas and aren't afraid to go outside of the confines of their job descriptions to get the job done i love that and i think that especially with franchising where it's so it's such an old school industry and to be honest not much has changed except with like the way that we can market you know it's pretty much the same with the difference of you know the people now have to be more agile so while for the franchise there is an essence of do what we did last year because it's working we've got proven processes but also not getting stuck in only doing what we did last year i think that that's a very fine line that you know franchising definitely has to keep a pulse on because uh as everyone knows if you're not growing you're shrinking so um love love love all of that advice and we'll go on to this next question that i'm gonna hear from everyone and kristen i'll just let you flow right into this what advice would you give to women starting their franchising journey and i should say you know anyone if you want to speak to women too but i think yeah this question goes to men as well yeah we're lucky enfranchising because we always say like oh my franchise fam but it is a fam it's a family exactly and so it's okay that you don't know exactly the right path as i spoke to earlier it's okay if you get stuck at a crossroads because not only can you guess with what you have and go forward but you can shop that idea that problem that solution among all the people on this webinar today what's great about franchising is even if it's your first time tackling something chances are your franchise fam has already hit that roadblock and is willing to help you and that doesn't exist in every industry so my advice to people who are looking to jump into leadership and franchising is use the people around you to help you with that they want to see you succeed you give and you take in this industry in a way that's not the same as other industries and because of that we all get better together and i'm positive that if you ask for help two years down the line that person you ask for help will be knocking on your door asking you for that help back so it's a little bit of give and take in this and i'm so thankful for everybody that has kind of helped me right and and vice versa and so um yeah it's a great industry to be a part of utilize it i agree and i remember starting off in uh my maid pro days our ceo i think our friend of leeds were down a couple months and he was like well is this happening to everyone why don't you call molly maid and ask them if it's happening and i was like you want me to call our direct competitor and be like hey how are your leads like not realizing that no you you can and they're going to be like yeah this is what we're seeing um so yeah these panels these webinars the dinners that we have um anytime you can network i would say is is super valuable i mean we had even neighborly was on one of my round tables the other day and they're like hey we're having uh a dip in conversion who can help me and authority brands stepped in and which would technically be some of their competitors they're like hey why don't you try this um so you know not being afraid to ask for help because the franchise fam we are we are incestual we are we are ready to share um abby you next as a powerhouse woman you know how what would your advice be to people starting out yeah first of all great advice from kristin totally agree with that um i would say you know you all of you are kind of doing what you should already be doing if you're on this webinar going to events going to webinars putting yourself out there um making connections i've been to you know events where i didn't know anyone um be that person that goes up and introduces yourself tell them about your brand tell about what you're doing your goals for that conference and so you really have to put yourself out there um and and network intentionally to meet people you'll find some awesome people along the way in franchising and as we've mentioned um you know it is crazy how willing people are to share in this industry which is one of the best parts about it whether you are a competitor you're a supplier you work for a franchisor everyone is so willing to share and so you have a question asked for if you need an introduction to someone or if you want it if you're looking for something ask for it and so always you know be focused on continually to grow yourself and i would also say in the terms of growing especially professionally don't rely on your employer to grow you professionally that is your job they're not going to you know they might provide professional opportunities for you which is amazing but also seek that out for yourself if you're a project manager you want to get your project manager certification go forward find your cfp go for it um so i would say also you know you are in charge of growing yourself professionally and marketing too so much is changing and you can go so many different ways with marketing whether you want to be a generalist or a specialist or you know either side of the round there and so um you know continually to grow yourself i'm on i think like every single franchising newsletter list and i'm constantly reading articles seeing what people are putting out there as far as trends what's happening what's working and so um you know being in tune to those educational resources is great and then i'll put one other plug which i don't know larissa i don't want to steal this from you if you were going to say it but if you are a women in franchising please look for your local women's franchise network um a few of us here are on the women's franchise committee for the ifa and that is a really great resource for you to network with other women in your area as far as virtual events local and personal events um and then there's some regional roundtables and things like that so happy to drop a link in here but look for your local women's franchise network it's a great resource for you to begin networking and go to events and there's also a linkedin page that you can you know be a prize of those events as well but yeah i would just say be willing to put yourself out there um and always be open to new opportunities and growth i love that and we'll go right into larissa who is the head chick in charge but now the president so super excited about that um let us just just feed us with your knowledge larissa lay it on us i'm actually not the head in charge i am the vice chair of the women's franchise committee i'm robin gagnon who's like such a superstar she's the she is the head gal in charge but i love supporting her and i'm still completely um surprised and so grateful for the opportunity to help lead that group um abby's a member on our committee too and it's such a strong group of women that are as everyone has said here before just willing to share um willing to bridge the gap and willing to really challenge what's happening out there right now and take on the hard conversations and that's what i just love about that group is it's i mean rock stars on steroids i don't know how to put it it's just an amazing group of people so thank you abby for for bringing it up that was definitely one of my pieces of advice too was to um from the women's aspect get involved in the women's franchise committee there's so many opportunities you can go visit more information about the committee on ifa's website um but taking it a step further back just as we talk about you know advice for really anybody the two the two things that i always try to strive for from a leadership standpoint one is to be a servant leader i think that that starts um every which way possible that you lead is if you have that mindset like kristen said that you're there to serve um things will fall into place right from there and things that you do from a servant standpoint through education of your team to your own leadership team to innovation communication and collaboration i think all of those things bridge up into being a servant leader but putting ever putting your brand your franchise owners your employees and everybody at the heart of what you do just makes life more interesting and fun and usually provides better results the other thing that i will say specifically for just anyone in general find a mentor pay attention to leaders that you have or have had in the past of things you like and things you don't like and be honest with yourself about the type of leader that you want to be and stay true to that study the best in franchising clearly many of them are on this call today but there's so many more out there too and everyone's just so willing to you know hold your hand and walk with you find those people and study them and become the leader that you want to be and obviously connection and growth are key too but the one real quick thing if i can share back to specifically women because i know we were asking this question with regards to that i i don't know if everybody's old enough on this call i mean i think everybody is but um david letterman used to do in his shows his like top 10 list right so a couple years ago i authored my own top 10 letter women's tips for being a hashtag boss ladies so you don't mind i'd like to just share them here really quickly please do many of them sum up a lot of what we talked about too but and i have to do it like him right so okay number ten become self-aware of learned bias understand what you know and what you don't know and continue to educate yourself on the things that you don't to become a better leader aim for assertive not aggressive i think as women unfortunately sometimes we get labeled that way and we're really just trying to be passionate about something that we're striving for and moving forward for the betterment of our brand our team and the world in general so just think about sometimes your balance of you know being assertive versus aggressive number eight stop saying sorry why are you sorry you're trying to move the business forward you're trying to help your franchise owners you're you know trying to be a part of a team there's no reason to apologize you're here for a reason you're respected cut it with the sorry number seven learn to say no i can give advice really well but i'll be honest with you sometimes i don't know how to do that yet either so learn to say no when something isn't right for you as a leader for your company and if people don't agree with you be able to give data and results and back your your reasoning up as to why you said no number six cultivate your emotional iq continue to understand how empathy um now in our culture more than ever really makes that connection with your team with your entire brand with your franchise owners understand what makes somebody tick and drive forward from there number five contribute through competence and caring to earn status so again using that emotional iq using what you know that's going to get you farther than anything else will number four lead with logic i think we've all talked about on here before we're very passionate about our brands and about our businesses and i think utilizing that thought process will drive you forward too number three find your people you've said that and how to do that number two educate for change and mentor up and coming rock stars we all got here through somebody else you know helping us and forging us forward and opening the elevator door so it's time for you to take that same elevator and bring people up as well and number one hashtag just own it just own being you and do it the way like we said on this call there's no wrong or right way but if you're passionate about what you're doing and you believe it within your heart everybody else will see it too so thank you i love that i am going to get that in an email and put it in my office and also hashtag just own it i feel like that should be the ifa's next hashtag like own a franchise own your position there you go love it love it and christy i apologize that you have to follow that um so start with your 100 100 list just out um i love that list i also want that printed and posted everywhere um i'll just say a few things i think these ladies covered you know most of the things that i would have said as well i couldn't agree more with um all the suggestions and comments and everything um i think kristen alluded to this a little bit um you know earlier in the session but imposter syndrome is something that we've all probably felt at one point in our careers maybe you know multiple points um i know i certainly have and probably something that as women we experience more frequently um and so you know just making sure that you recognize it for what it is when you're feeling it and not letting that stop you because um you know you have a reason that you're in the room or that you are invited to you know be a part of an organization or a panel or on a committee or in the position that you're in so you deserve it you earned it yourself um and so it's important that you just you know recognize that what you're feeling is imposter syndrome we've all felt it we've all been there and you can definitely overcome it and just go for it too i think another thing that we tend to do as women is take opportunities that we're confident that we can be successful in whereas men are maybe more likely to stretch and take on a position or a project that they're like i don't know what i'm doing but i give it a try but we can you know take that same uh that confidence and try something so say yes to opportunities say yes to things that scare you because that's where the growth happens and that's where you can find yourself you know in a position that you never dreamed possible um so i would say that is what um you know i've had to um contend with over the years of you know getting outside of my comfort zone i'm still doing it uh to this day and and still trying to help others do the same thing i love that and clearly all of these women are much more professional and well-spoken than me i just say i'm gonna fake it to make it if i fail then i told you so but if i do well then it's you know i faked it well so um i absolutely love that i think it's it's very true i mean saying yes when you can say no when you should um and surrounding yourself with you know people that are continuously gonna push you forward um i know this question wasn't on the uh the slide deck but i am gonna ask you guys on the fly and i think larissa and christy you've already answered these in my podcast but um these are i think important for our attendees to hear from you so kristin we'll start with you if you could give one piece of advice to a franchisor what would it be and if you could give one piece of advice to a franchisee what would that be franchisor is gonna be don't grow too quick for sure don't grow too quick you need to make sure that your franchisees are happy and profitable and that's really hard to make sure of if you keep collecting checks over here to grow your franchise and there's things happening over here that are impacting your franchisees happiness and profitability eventually it's going to catch up to you and what's going to happen is you're going to have a whole slew of people who are pretty mad at you and because of that you're not going to be able to sell more franchises happy franchisees sell more franchises put those franchises in your system first for incoming franchisees again it's all about mindset if you believe that you can do it if you believe you're gonna get into the game and know that you're gonna win that game it means you will do everything in your power to win that game so you need to make sure as a franchisor when you are evaluating whether a franchisee should join your family or not you need to make sure that their heads in the right place and that they truly believe that they can be successful because if they believe it they'll make it happen love that short and to the point and please listen to that because it's true happy franchisees are going to make your life and everyone else's life much easier abby what about you those were great i loved it um for franchisees coming in obviously in franchising we have processes for a reason proven business models for a reason so when you come in follow those processes that the headquarters team have outlined for you they're thoughtful they're designed to you know help you grow in a very you know cognizant way um also the resources that you know that that zora is spending on those processes and the people to support those processes is so important and going outside of those is you know wasting time money and resources um obviously those processes might change over time and you'll have to adapt with them as well uh but so important that you know you bought into a franchise for a reason and it's to follow that proven business model and you know things will change over time but coming in you know knowing that you can follow those systems and processes and you'll you know having the right mindset as christian as christian mentioned to do that um will set you up for success for franchisors i know we just talked about happy franchisees which is obviously the goal but also franchisors have to get comfortable not pleasing everyone and so you're never going to be able to make every single franchisee happy and you've got to get comfortable with that change is uncomfortable we go through a lot of change here at unleash brands it's thoughtful it's designed for a reason it's to make the business models better it's to strengthen the system it's to help you know grow their avs whatever it might be but you have to get comfortable not pleasing everyone and making a decision and sticking to it and and going forward with your strategy obviously you know you can adjust along the way too but um you know you got to get comfortable living in that zone of not pleasing everyone um while trying to you know make your franchisees happy but having a really thoughtful plan um to grow and to you know adopt new things for them but knowing that along the way you're gonna have an unhappy franchisee that hopefully you can turn around and make a happy franchisee um with results and and team and things like that but um that would be my advice for franchisors i love that and yeah being comfortable with people with being uncomfortable you know i'm a people pleaser so when someone's not happy it will like ruin my whole day but working towards like that's that's gonna happen sometimes and i think also you know a good thing to know and i've talked to my husband a lot about this because he's in the top tier of our franchises where you know make sure that whoever you're giving the home office or your your attention to is someone that is going to produce i think that all of us know about that bottom 10 you know noisy squeaky wheel people um and you're just spending so many so much money and resources trying to make them work trying to make them happy and while they do deserve some of that support um let's not you know over extend on our resources for the people that are are doing successful and and should be rewarded with support and and you know stuff that way i think is is also important larissa what are your top two pieces of advice um my first one from a franchisor standpoint would be to make sure that in addition to working on your business especially at this level you go back and work in your business too it's really easy to start thinking about strategy and changes and then not really think about how it impacts whether you have freestanding retail locations or your service base whatever the case may be but make sure that you're working on and in to make sure that you make the best decisions um from a z standpoint i really couldn't agree with everybody else more um you know you purchase a franchise to um understand and purchase part of those processes and proven business models so anything that you know your zora is there because they want to see you succeed and i think there's definitely the other thing to remember from a z standpoint is that they also are small business owners and they do want to help to be a part of the innovation so don't be afraid to give great ideas to your zor as well you just have to be able to balance it with priorities and prioritization too and that's what the zor has to do so patience is a virtue on both sides i love that i love that also that should be like tip number eleven remember to patient right that one in my kids rooms all right chrissy what are your two top pieces a lot of awesome stuff has been said already so i'll try to you know poor christy two times pictures with the body thunder for franchisors i would say something that we've had to kind of correct over the years is we've you know started off when we were merging we were young providing a lot of exceptions to you know the standard or kind of letting the franchise owners drive um you know what they wanted to do when we allowed things that were potentially a deviation from you know what our ideal was or that made it difficult to create you know a marketing strategy or an operational program or something that you know could be applied evenly across all locations so i would say you know try to rein in exceptions um in order to make it easier for yourself and as you grow it's just gonna help you scale more quickly and efficiently if you don't have to come up with five different versions of something because people do things a little bit different everywhere um and then for franchisees i would say you know remember that we're all on the same team we all want um to be successful your success leads to success at the corporate office so when we're putting out a new requirement or a new program or process or switching up your tools or resources you know we're doing it not to punish you but to help you in the long term and help you be successful i love that and before we move on to kind of our final slide and next steps and how you can connect i will say a very quick and free way uh to connect franchisors and franchisees when i was on the franchisor side uh i just didn't get a good vibe from the community i think we had introduced some new processes and i said okay sent an email communitywide said please tell me you know some of your funniest stories that have come from being a franchisee we're in maid cleaning so i'm saying turtles in the tub there is some questionable decor that is triple x rated that we cannot discuss on this call so and then you know kind of shared that out in the community and that always brought a smile to people's faces so just to chrissy's point remembering everyone's on the same team um from dogs to cars to kids all the way to i'm sure you've seen some stuff kristen in your industry um remember that you know we're all human we're all in this together and that's you know a fun way to bring some people back um into the community so moving forward promo republic their next uh webinar will be highlights and key learnings from the franchise consumer conference that is happening at the end of june uh i believe larissa and i will be there kristin are you going to be there i have a discovery day oh my gosh is out here selling i'm pretty sure abby is a discovery day are you going or someone from your team going yeah our cmo jessica carrera will be there representing on these brands but i will not be there and nancy bigley from the little gym will be there as well gotta love nancy she's she's huge in the space and then chrissy will can't bow i'll be there i will not be but a couple of members from operations and marketing will be there perfect so yeah seek us out um we'll probably be the ones talking the most and definitely tune in uh to learn from you know don't have to pay for the conference you can just learn about what we learned for free so you can sign up right there and then lastly now is the chance any q a um can come in right through the chat and then also here where you can take a picture on your phone and connect with all of us on linkedin um i know uh absolutely every one of us is is active on here and we'd love to connect with you um so feel free to do that i'll leave this screen up for a hot second and again uh thank you for all of the uh comments in the chat we appreciate it we appreciate everyone being on um and of course if you have a question later or you want an intro or you want to learn more about the women's franchise network reach out to us via email or linkedin or a friend of a friend um we are always available literally always i'll be like hey larissa i'm going to need you to moderate a webinar tomorrow and you're like oh maddie okay abby how about some wine on friday she's like in yes awesome all right well thank you everyone we don't have any questions so we must have done a good job um and i'm sure we will see everyone again uh shortly thanks again guys thank you so much thank you bye thank you

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