A franchisor espouses the virtues of peer-to-peer collaboration – and how it’s helping him improve his own organization.
Yup! That’s right! Franchising can be easy. I bet you don’t believe me, right? Well, I don’t blame you. Inherently, franchising can be seen as something that is difficult and requires a lot of moving parts that, seemingly, are treacherous on the resilience of a franchisor. But that is only the case if you franchise like everyone else does – don’t do that!
There is a way to make things much clearer and, through endless searching, I’ve managed to discover this methodology, just like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom. Things don’t become rainbows and gumdrops, but let me assure you that your world becomes way more alluring.
To be clear: this article isn’t about coaching or mentoring. However, I’m going to talk a little bit about that to set the stage for my secret potion to franchising. I’m a firm believer in the fact that each individual person should have a series of mentors. In fact, everyone should have three types of mentors. The first type is one that is very much “unreachable”. Someone who is like a celebrity. Many people use Warren Buffett or the Dali Lama to help guide them. This type of mentor has been through the wringer and has “made it”. The second type is someone who is “reachable” but much further along than you are. Maybe this is superior at your workplace, or a relative, or maybe even someone you met through a networking group. Finally, the third type of mentor is someone who is exactly at the same spot in their journey as you are. This is someone with who you can brainstorm. Okay? Understood? Great, now let’s move on.
“My franchise has changed how we do things as a result, for the better”
Pull out your Google machine – AKA your cell phone – and search the interwebs for ‘Tiger Woods’. The dude is a rockstar at golf. Arguably the best. Do you think he has a coach? Of course, he does. How about Oprah Winfrey? Her coach is Martha Beck. What about the world-famous metal band Metallica? Yes, they are coached by Phil Towle. Coaching is hyper-focused, long-term, and has built-in accountability, all while remaining flexible. If you’re still part of the old school mindset where coaching is all hocus pocus, you’re living in the past, my friend. I could write for days about this, but alas, I have a limited word count for this article, so let’s move on to the secret sauce.
Searching for the right forum
I frequent a lot of different franchise events and conferences. I listen to the panels and the keynotes, and I attend the educational sessions. But somehow I’m always left feeling lonely as a franchisor and needing something more. I have mentors and coaches, and they definitely help. However, at the end of the day, I’ve gotta pull up my socks (NOTE: yes, I have a sock subscription box membership) and deal with the common franchising frustrations on my own.
I take classes and read books and articles but it just seems like I’m absorbing and always trying to figure out how to deploy. I joined some roundtables, which are awesome but very fluid in the attendance and therefore fluid in the education. And still, I take what I learn and have to deploy it on my own. I joined a mastermind group and found it to be similar to a roundtable but with less fluidity. Better, but I’m still yearning for something at this point. Yeah, I know, it sounds like I’m a giant baby – not satisfied with anything and always complaining about how I have to do things on my own. Let me assure you, I’ve got enough grit and moxie to deal with this stuff, but it got me thinking about the giant shortcoming that I keep seeing which could lead to the solution and could potentially make things way easier. Guess what; it did!
What if I took the nature of how fruitful a coaching relationship is and combined it with the third level of mentorship described above. What if I combined people who are actually really in the trenches along with me and applied the mechanisms of keeping each other accountable, developing trust and friendship, and the hustle of business ownership. Boom! It worked!
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
My franchise coach, Angela Coté, launched something called the Play Bigger Performance Groups and I was all over it like white on rice! This was exactly what I was looking for. It’s like a peer-to-peer group but better. We’ve got all the benefits of conference materials, educational sessions, academic resources, roundtables and masterminds, and coaches and mentors rolled into one while solving the shortcomings that each of the above have individually. You know what they say: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
My franchise has changed how we do things as a result, for the better. How we meet, how we support franchisees, how we grow, how we tackle hardships like COVID-19, and what the next steps are, are all examples that I’ve been able to leverage by drawing on the collective wisdom and empathy. All because I’ve got a dedicated group of people, who are now friends, that are smart and collaborative, but also are going through the same struggles as I am (NOTE: these struggles aren’t always defined by the stage of business that we are at).
I know that if I’ve got to face a decision like deploying a new software, marketing program, or training sessions, I don’t have to go through endless amounts of analysis – they’ve got my back. And, I’ve got their back. I’ve basically just brought on a team of business partners to join myself and my current partners with a wealth of knowledge and experience. What!? How cool is that? Things are now easier, I’m happier, and my company is thriving. So much so that I could probably launch another franchise without developing any more grey hair.
Go find yourself a group like this. You won’t regret it. I promise!
THE AUTHOR
Robert Bruski is the CFO and co-founder of Ctrl V Virtual – Reality Arcade, North America’s first, and the world’s largest system of VR arcades.
