Franchise Training Is the Hidden Driver of Franchise Growth

Many franchisors focus heavily on franchise sales and development, but the brands that scale successfully understand a critical truth: growth only happens when franchisees are properly trained, supported, and held accountable.

In a recent episode of The Training Effect podcast, LearningZen CEO Doug Mark sat down with Red Boswell, President of IFPG (International Franchise Professionals Group), to discuss the future of franchising, franchisee support, leadership, and the role training plays in long-term franchise success.

Drawing on decades of experience as a franchisor, franchise consultant, executive leader, and entrepreneur, Boswell shares practical insights on what separates thriving franchise systems from those that struggle to scale.

Everybody’s always asking how do I do more business? How do I get them to show my brand or introduce buyers to me? And it it goes back to they need to know you, they need to like you, they need to trust you. And it’s about relationships. It’s not turn on the faucet, turn it off, pay-per-click, that sort of thing at all.

Welcome to the Training Effect, where we uncover how learning systems and training drive real business success. I’m your host, Doug Mark, and today we’re gonna dive into the current and future state of franchising with none other than Red Boswell. Red is the president of IFPG. Red’s been a force in the franchise world for as long as I can remember, certainly as long as I’ve been in franchising. But whether we’re talking about from franchisee to franchisors to dealing with with brokers and attorneys and PR and marketing.

In fact, he’s one of the best promoters I’ve ever met in my lifetime. So with no further ado, Red, thanks for joining us today. Thanks, Doug. Great to see you, brother. And I was always see on the road, you and your beautiful team, your beautiful wife. I even got to meet your daughter at an expo not too long ago. That’s right. In New York, is that right? Yes. Yeah. I was expecting bright red hair. Right. Yeah. We can normally typically see you in something red today.

You know, you’ve you’ve got a flower on, you’ve got the microphone, and then I gotta ask about this number seven hat. I saw this when you came in. Can you tell me about it? Thank you. Yeah. So we’ve been voted by the franchise or community six years in a row as the number one, we call them referral consultant, but they call us brokers. So the number one broker group in the world voted on by the Zors. Very legit. No fake news there. Well, they just ended year number seven for voting, and so.

We kind of promoted it with let’s go for lucky number seven, except whoop we’re gonna flip it, baby. Back of it says it’s more than luck. ⁓ So not just lucky number seven. We’re going seven years in a row. That’s amazing. Congratulations. Seriously, that’s a massive that that’s a huge achievement. Well, very proud of it. And it is

You know, so often you get awards that you just buy or you advertise, and that one is super legit. We’re so proud of it. The to know that the results we’re getting for the franchise or community are being acknowledged feels good. It it it feels a lot more special when it’s coming from the community and it’s not necessarily a pay to play thing. So seriously, congrats. That’s huge. This is gonna be a fun interview because I I you’ve lived and breathed franchising, I feel like, from every angle. So whether you’re talking about growth for global brands,

Scaling concepts now as president of IFPG. I guess how did your you know journey get going and and lead you to IFPG? And maybe it came from being en franchising before that. I I feel like I should know this, but I don’t. ⁓ Well, I thought we only had four hours. We have you know, I’ve always been very entrepreneurial, really ⁓ adventurous and curious. that’s why I do so many moderating panels. I just curious, I have so many questions. And so also

Every day is gotta be different for me. I can’t just have the same thing. I wake up at a different time every morning, go to sleep at a different time. Just I get bored way easily. And franchising allows for that. And so entrepreneurship also allows for that, you know. And so it gives me a little more structure, thank goodness, as well. So back in, I think in fourth grade, I found an incredible NFL pencil set. It was in a store. My mom took me across town. And, you know, NFL, I mean, I was in Houston, so we had the

Houston Oilers. Thank you. You got it. And so sixth grade back then, fourth grade, you know, we were big. Yeah, everybody was in the NFL back then, especially. And so I found out some NFL pencils. We used pencils, no computers back then. Showed my showed them off. Everybody wanted them. I’m like, hey, money talks. I started selling all my NFL pencils. People in other classes wanted them. Other grades wanted them. So I set up distributorships, if you will. Went and got every pencil I could from them and bought them, sold them, got a little royalty.

the the FTC has not caught up with me on that illegal franchise, but it opened my eyes to the fun of helping others do what I had done. And so fast forward I had started a bunch of businesses and had had very l few successes, but a lot of learnings, shall we say. And in when I turned twenty one, so I’m college, getting frustrated with life, realizing I have to be an adult now. I can’t just sell records and tapes and CDs from my dorm room.

And so I got recruited into drum roll Amway. And Amway alerted me to, ⁓ my goodness, success principles, tapes, books, functions, associating with good people, positive thinking people. And it changed my life as much as any religion practically. They call it a cult. Well, I didn’t do any business really in Amway, but Amway did business to me and my life and changed my thoughts and how I’ve lived ever since.

And so fast forward a decade, I started one of the businesses in nineteen ninety-eight, was a pooper scooper business. Not too proud to say I was trying anything. I founded that and ultimately fast forward created an industry and franchised it. I I didn’t know how to spell franchise. I mean, what is a franchise, right? All I knew is I wanted to keep growing it, didn’t care to give away all the equity, didn’t want to do a license where I gave away control.

Franchising was a perfect combination and I could really impact lives through business ownership, teaching them what I had learned and helping them to do it. And so I fell in love with franchising hook line and sinker, ultimately awarded a hundred and forty eight franchise territories in twenty eight states in about three and a half years to sixty-four Z. Such a impactful time on in my life. Ultimately s ⁓ exited that enterprise, started helping

Others franchise their business and market it and understand it. And then took over a chief development officer role for North America for a global brand, moved on a few years later to a a global role with an organization, became CEO there, and then transitioned to the one and only IFPG six years ago as president. Best six years of my life. Blast.

I can tell that you really enjoy your job, right? You you you you exude that as you walk around the conferences. You’ve gone as far as bringing your family into the mix, I feel like, as well. So you don’t do that unless you believe in the brand and what you’re doing. Thank you. And I’m so proud of that. You know, I did not try hard at all. No pressure on the kids. I have a twenty two year old, a twenty just turned twenty one, and a almost nineteen. So about two years apart. They’re all in college and they were all in high school at the same time, if you can do that math. So

you always wonder when you I I’ve been in franchising since they were born. Yeah. And I kind of obsess on it. You know, it is my passion. And so they hear me all the time. Like when we go on vacation, they hear me. When we’re in the car, they hear me. Yeah. And I’ve always wondered truly, like, are they gonna be repelled, annoying, or are they gonna be attracted to it and want to do it and like it and see my love of it? And so I’ve tried to incorporate them into.

It’s not just read on these, you know, dad on these annoying phone calls while he’s taking me to school or wherever, but rather I talked to him after the call. Did you understand how that person thought and why they asked the questions they ask? And you’re gonna be in that position one day. And it helps them see themselves in the future. Sometimes that was applicable. Sometimes they just wanted to play Mario Kart. But and then just to go to these expos and get to introduce them to you and maybe your, you know, Cassie or your daughter and see.

the multi-generational aspect and see that, wow, dad, you know, all my friends’ parents hate their jobs and you have fun at your job. Like, that’s fun. How do you have fun at a job? I want to do that. I don’t call it work-life balance. I call it work-life harmony. You’re harmonizing. And ⁓ to r kind of wrap this up, when we’d be on real legit vacations, a lot of times you get a call on a vacation, the s the the wife gives you the stink eye or the spouse gives you that or

The kids like, Dad’s on the phone again. Yeah. But I would always share with them look, this allows us to take vacations and more vacations and show them that now they like it when I get a call because they know it’s helping us stay in Zion National Park an extra day or whatever. And still today, some five or six years later, for my oldest, he is more in it than ever. He graduates school, you university in one month. He is a

Going full-time franchise consultant. He is the youngest certified consultant in history. And he’s looking at maybe acquiring a franchise or three. So pretty proud Papa there. Yeah. That wow, it’s a day of achievements we’re hearing about today. A as we’re talking about this and hearing you, I I I feel the energy in you. And I’m wondering if you’re the kind of dad who’s driving on these trips and

If you see a franchise, do you get excited like when you see certain franchises on the road or brand? Like you’re like, my gosh, I’ve always wanted to try that. Or or are you repelled from these things for different reasons? No, I I really on that aspect I do bite my tongue a bit because they’re just everywhere. Yeah. And so I almost have to block them out. People ask me all the time, hey, what franchise would you buy? I’m like, I do not think like that. It would it would consume me because I’m looking and evaluating and interviewing them every hour practically.

So and what you buy is not necessarily a good fit for someone else, because as I’ve realized in this space, like there is a real science to matching up a candidate with a brand, right? And you guys do that kind of thing. I mean, it’s like, hey, ⁓ I I’m gonna be in the housing market. What house should I buy? Dude, I don’t know how many kids you have and what colors you like. You know, it’s a it’s a true personal decision, not a one size fits all, like like my hat. Right. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.

So if if we’re kind of step stepping aside a little bit and saying, hey, let’s take a look at kind of the state of franchising. And if we take this zoomed out vision of it, I think the franchise landscape has definitely shifted, right? And especially in the past few years, we’re dealing with weird things, right? Labor shortages, operational complexity, inflation, tech, AI. It’s a lot. It’s constantly going on. But some brands, right, are just killing it right now. They’re really thriving. And

What do you think is separating those brands that are just killing it and the ones who are struggling along? Yeah. Well, there’s never been a better time to be in franchising. Okay. It is we are on fire. Now I’m not talking just IPG. Franchising is more popular than ever before. And yes, the world’s changing. The big differentiator is who’s going to change with it and take advantage of those changes and capitalize on them. it’s been interesting too in this cool seat that I get to sit in every day.

That talking to Azores, talking to consultants, talking to suppliers, and something that hit me about a year ago. Every single week for six years now, someone says to me, Hey Red, is it dead out there? Man, it’s slow. Wow, we are just we’re it’s ghost town. And then every single week for six years, someone has said to me, God, we’re on fire. It’s going great. my gosh, is everybody else selling like we are? And regardless of the ups and downs and the impact of

Well, nobody’s hiring, or hiring is everywhere, or ⁓ interest rates are higher interest rates are low, or the j you know, job market this and that, or the optimism on the economy, or the negativity of the economy. There are so many yeses and no’s and goods and bads, and so many of them offset each other. They outweigh each other. Like when not many people are hiring, well, that means there’s ⁓ folks that can’t get a job or the job they want, they’re looking to start a business for themselves. Or

At the same time, if nobody’s hiring, then usually interest rates might be lower to get that going. Well, more people are borrowing, or vice versa. They’re higher. And yet, so the hiring and job shortages versus job ⁓ availability tend to ⁓ go the opposite of interest rates in the market. And those are also opposite influencers on franchise growth and development. Yeah. And so we just don’t have a bad time in franchise development.

‘Cause there’s always good and there’s always some bad, but the good outweighs the bad for the folks who want it. This this is really ringing true for me. And I wanna want to kind of test the waters here and get your opinion on this. For the last six years, going on seven now, right, at at IFPG, you’ve been very visible. And right from a from a marketing standpoint, but also from social media and you’re writing articles and blogs, and and we see you a lot. And so I feel like you have really done

an incredible job of getting that IFPG name out there. But I guess what I wanted to say is, was that, you know, a planned targeted activity for you? Or is this just kind of who Red is anyways? It really is who I am. ⁓ but I also what who am I? Yeah. I’m a bit of a chameleon. I do w the what is optimal for that situation. At least I try to and it’s a natural thing for me. So when I was the CEO of

A North American brand that was global in a white collar space, I was a little more conservative. I didn’t have this hat in interviews. It’s okay. But still, me, just a bit different, more conservative version of me. Or when I was in, you know, global development, again, a little bit different. So when Don brought me on, Don’s our founder, and said, Red, you’re going to be the face of this organization. Okay, I’m the face of it. So I need to get out there. There hasn’t been a

Super structured strategic plan. Like I’m not going, tomorrow I’m gonna post on this. No, it just comes very organic. today I put I recorded a video with I’m like, wow, I need to thank everyone for the incredible summit we had earlier this week, virtual summit, and also share about the record setting growth we had in quarter number one. Boom, let’s record a zoom right here. Let’s go. I posted it right there. No editing, nobody even knew I was doing it. So that’s all just on the cuff organic. Every time you see a video at an expo.

or at any event, I’m walking through with no plan. So it’s it’s authentic to the core while a little bit of I have a I understand my role and that of it’s not the stuffy role that perhaps I could play and would be comfortable playing a little more stuffy. But ⁓ yeah, I I I love the freedom this one has to get out there and be a little bit on the edge sometimes. Yeah. Well I I appreciate that. I I think in I’ve worked in a lot of different

industries before, right? But I think it was not until I got to franchising that I realized how much authenticity matters. And and I see that in you and I see that in other people in our our franchising world. ⁓ and I’m quite envious of it, right? Because I think what you’re doing is you’re unplanned but intentional is what I what I sort of see it as. And I’ve realized that when we do things with intention

we get better results from them, or at least from the learning send side of things, I’ve noticed this. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. People want re real. And you know, it it goes with the trend to your point of things are changing. Well, people want authenticity. They want short snippets. Yeah. They they want to know you, believe in you. And it goes back to also what we do a lot of, which is help people ⁓ acquire franchises and our almost 700 consultants out there, they the Zors

And the consultants work hand in hand constantly, as do the suppliers from every sector. And everybody’s always asking, How do I do more business? How do I get them to show my brand or introduce buyers to me? And it it goes back to they need to know you, they need to like you, they need to trust you. And it’s about relationships. It’s not turn on the faucet, turn it off, pa paper click, that sort of thing at all. Yeah, I I think the the relationship building and the trust factor are

Just gigantic in the franchising world and building that relationship and establishing that trust is something that you’ve done extremely well. And I think a lot of other people can kind of learn from that and take some pieces of that as they, you know, continue to grow their own business. I know there’s a put pieces of me, you know, I I I think I’ve told you this before that I saw you shooting a video. I think you were in Zion, and you gotta, you know, you you’ve got a gimbal, like you’re holding a gimbal and you’re walking through a riverbed that’s full of rocks, somehow not falling at all.

And you give like a f you just kind of talk for five minutes and you don’t miss a step. And and I was just like I was like, Look, if Red can do this while he’s climbing through a river, I think I can sit in front of my laptop and shoot some videos. Thank you. Thank you. So what are you seeing right now is the biggest operational, you know, challenges ⁓ that franchisers are facing? Is it is it growth or something else? Wow, operational, big topic. Yeah. ⁓

So emerging brands, let’s kind of look at it from that aspect. Emerging brands tend to not have a clue how much support they need to ultimately give their new Z. They just oftentimes come in, there’s no carte blanche answer to that, but oftentimes they’ll come into the industry thinking, My baby’s the most beautiful baby on earth. Everybody’s gonna wanna buy my franchise and you know it’s the best thing to slice bread, as they say. And yet, well, nobody’s buying my franchise. or

Every this I made this mistake all day long. My new Zs when I was a franchise or back in the day, my new Z are gonna work as hard as I am. They’re as ambitious and hardworking as I am. Never did that happen. Not once. I was a fanatic. So operations. ⁓ they don’t ⁓ many of the tends to be smaller Zores because they don’t make it to the big side if they don’t do this right. Support the Z operations focus, giving them ongoing training in the field, accountabilities, metrics.

supporting them in every way beyond just you bought my franchise, here’s an ops manual that’s ⁓ an attorney or somebody made, and call me if you need help, pay me royalties for the next 10 years. You know, it’s a lot more support required than that. And it’s gonna take the Z a lot longer, generally, than you as that ⁓ fire in the belly ambitious founder took. I I love that answer and I’m gonna I’m gonna follow it up with a training question.

⁓ which is are you seeing any brands that you feel like are getting training right? And and what makes them kind of stand out? Part of the the first part of the answer and this part is franchise people. We are a different type of breed. Do they know what a Z is? Do they know what a Zor is? Do they know what frickin’ frack is? Do they live our world, understand our language and the mentality of the Z, both from the culture standpoint of the Zor and the culture of franchising in general?

You got to have support team, not just a friend dev team. You got to have team of operations folks that get it and then infuse the culture in them as well. So they it bleeds over into the Z. And it’s part of that, and a big part of it in the training aspect is I love the technology that’s come on the scene with when Azure has a great idea or has a new rule or a new process, whatever that may be, that he need he or she needs to infuse into.

The Z and then the Z field staff, which is a big ask and a hard thing to do. Old school, it’s like, well, I put it on a my podcast or my my once a week call before we even recorded on back in the day. And I emailed it out to the Z and then they’re supposed to get it out, but then they got the manager and the team and team and it doesn’t happen. And so there’s better and better technology of which no doubt you’re much more knowledgeable than I am, that

Allows the Zor to not get in trouble with the joint employee birds type stuff. So they’re not controlling and telling the local frontline how to do things. They’re allowing the Z to still do it, but they’re also communicating to the Z in the way that the Z once it needs to be communicated to. And there’s biggest part of it, accountabilities involved that tell the Zor, the Z got it, tell the Zor and the Z that the frontline staff got it, and then

Runs it back up the totem pole with questions and confirmations and accountabilities on every aspect. Love it. I I really love how we’re seeing more and more brands kind of leveraging. Hey, are there ways that we could ensure that training is taking place? And then also remembering that it’s not just training the franchisee, it’s empowering the franchisee to train their own staff. Because they come from all walks of life, right? Do you think personally, Red, that

This is a we this is an interesting question. It actually stems a little bit from a conversation I had with Faizo and Kamal earlier today, which was simply do you think most franchisees, you know, first-time franchisees, understand how hard they’re gonna have to work for the first couple of years? Because I always feel like everybody thinks they’re buying a franchise because they get to be an absentee owner. Well, that’s a dovetail. I got an I a new hat, brother. You gotta be gritty. Hey, did that work out perfectly or what? So

Grit ⁓ is such an important aspect of entrepreneurship. Well, franchising, we don’t a great Z is not an extreme entrepreneur because they think they know it all and they don’t want to list anybody else. So that’s not a good Z. But a good Z does have an aspect of entrepreneurship within them. Cause ultimately, if it is to be, it is up to me. And that applies to both the entrepreneur and the Z aspect, the entrepreneur aspect of the Z. So yes, they’d gotta be gritty and a lot of Zs.

Do enter it thinking they’re gonna get get rich quick aspect of it. And that falls partially and oftentimes more than partially on the friend dev rep. And if they’re using a franchise consultant, that consultant is their trusted advisor to guide them, to educate them, and to match them appropriately with the right opportunities that’s gonna meet.

Their exit strategy down the road, meet their lifestyle goals now, meet their income straight goals at a reasonable time frame if they follow the system. So there’s a lot of components to that. And the biggest two influent three influencers are the consultant helping guide and match and educate, the friend dev rep that’s getting them across the line and taking them through the steps before that. But ultimately, it’s that Z asking those questions and having a full clarity of the opportunity and knowing thyself, knowing themselves.

And ultimately what’s gonna be fulfilling for them. That was awesome. Red, you’re unique in the sense that you’re surrounded by franchisors sort of every day. Do you have a training success story that maybe stayed with you? You know, I was Azore. That’s how I got into franchising, founder back in the day, wanted to take my business national, decided how you know which way to go. And so when I decided to franchise, brought in folks and

Boy, people learn differently. You have to adapt. Some are more verbal, audio, you know, visual. some like to read it. Some wanted a ton of homework beforehand so they could be more prepared. Others more on the fly. Let’s learn while I’m there. Didn’t read a thing I sent on beforehand. So start starting realizing they’re not like me, you know. And so I had to prepare myself and get a lot more documentation and check marks and homework and accountability and

You’re not coming if you haven’t done these things, and then afterwards you’re not getting to actual go public until you’ve done these things. it was fascinating to learn about the differences and nuances of people because again, I c I approached it thinking everybody’s like me and they are not at all. Awesome stuff. I love this. I think you you’ve you’ve been successful many different times. It’s sort of one thing to succeed once. I think it takes a

Sort of a it’s another thing to really scale that success, right? I think it takes some structure and and systems and things like that. In your personal experience, what does it actually take to scale without losing maybe quality? Well, I’ve failed more than I’ve succeeded, brother. So thank you for saying I’ve succeeded a lot because there’s been many failures. You just don’t make them so public if you don’t have to. And some of them are so painful you don’t even like to talk about right? ⁓ so what helps a brand scale? Goodness gracious, good people.

Is certainly a big part of it. We have been so blessed at IPG. I’m blown away because I am a s a cog in that wheel. And our leadership and the team that surrounds us is so good at finding great people. But those great people still need systems. They need training. They need support. They need expectations, accountability, metrics. You know, what you measure and monitor get is what matters, or let’s say it a different way. What matters is measured and monitored. And so all those things matter, but then you got to scale it.

So the Zor needs to know how to scale it. And guess what? The Zor knows their business. They’re not before they’re a Zor, they just know their business. They don’t know how to be a great franchise or I keep saying Zor in case somebody’s wondering what that means. And so working with experts in franchising, finding the right suppliers, the vendors to the franchise industry can make or break great people who don’t know how to be a great Zor because those suppliers are going to provide them with you know, maybe it’s the friend dev aspect.

maybe it’s the operations and the training aspects, the accounting and auditing aspects, outsourcing a lot of that with folks who speak the franchise or language and bleed franchise blood. That’s a bad analogy, but they’re real franchise people, right? I think it can make a huge difference. And a lot of people, a lot of folks brand new the industry, they don’t know who to trust or who to go to. Where do I find these awesome franchise suppliers and folks in the industry that know?

How to do it right. Yeah. Big question. Yeah, there there’s some conferences I could recommend along the way, ⁓ as could Red. Red, how do top performing franchises embed training into their DNA? And do franchise consultants play a role in helping brands get that right? They interesting. Do franchise answer the first the second part. Do franchise consultants play a role in helping a brand get their training right? Wow. A lot of folks would say, of course not.

But I would I would disagree. So ⁓ I I encourage our members, the Zors, to understand that the consultant is just not a awesome lead provider, although they are indeed that, but they are the ears and influence on that candidate to educate them on everything about franchising as a general here’s what it is and isn’t, because a lot of confusion and misunderstandings. And then

Of course, matching them and helping them know themselves, answering asking all the right questions, giving them insights on questions to ask during validation of each step, holding their hand, being the wingman and wingwoman, getting them funding set up, all those different pieces. But once they’ve fallen in love and they’re engaged and ready to get married to that awesome Zor and set on a new chart in their life, yes, they got a lot of supplier needs. A lot of those Zores

Don’t have every supplier lined up in every market in every category at every stage of the process, right? And so those consultants, having been in it and having been trained with IFPG and having spoken with our network of 1,500 different suppliers and consultants, they probably got some pretty epic contacts for the Z and for the Zor. And so we encourage them strongly to, as they’re talking to Zors on a daily basis, you know, hey Jeff, who do you have for?

XYZ training. Do you have it? Are you hurting for XYZ AI training or for pay-per-click, this and that? And they that consultant can often make those recommendations. And guess what? The Zor, the answer is always yes when a consultant asks if they would if they can do anything for them. The consultant, the the Zor is begging the consultant to love them. Yeah, they’re chasing consultants all day long. So consultant says, Can I introduce you to my insurance guy? He’s great with franchise Zors.

Yeah, I mean a and it happens. And so that’s a great bird dog or door opener for the suppliers to get really quality introductions to folks they may not have a clue about. I never thought of it that way, and I really like it. And I was I at first I thought maybe the answer was just gonna be no. ⁓ but I loved how it was yes, but the story behind it, and I think that really will resonate with our audience. You know, Doug, I’ll I’ll I’ll I apologize for interrupting. One more piece of that answer too is

The Zor has access not just to 700-ish consultants that could be a great resource to introduce, but we encourage, you know, in the world, going back to what we talked about earlier, who do you trust? Where do you find great suppliers? And so IFPG is best known as the world’s most trusted, largest franchise broker or consulting group, but we want to be so much more. And I believe we have ⁓ this year we’ve seen an astronomical increase on our supplier outreaches suppliers coming to us.

Understanding that we connect franchise professionals. That’s our tagline. We connect franchise professionals. We don’t say we do broker deals. We connect franchise professionals. And so we have real estate, we have the again insurance, and of course, all the attorneys and funding sources on and on and on. Anybody that is doing deals and franchising of any aspect, we’re helping connect them with those Zores. And so we have actually begun rolling out a GPO, a group purchasing organization. I didn’t even, you didn’t even know this.

No, it’s it’s not been real public yet. We’re in sort of beta, but getting getting group purchasing, getting gr ⁓ marketing that out because Zores need it. They want to know where to go. They can’t just, well, once a year I go to the IFA convention and walk around for eight hours and hope I run into somebody good. No, let’s get a more educated, thorough, year-round way of getting the greatest suppliers and having ⁓ reviews on them and having buying power initiatives that everybody saves.

And having training on a more ⁓ globalized way. So some pretty cool things coming down the pipe. It’s called ⁓ I think our our our name now, we’re we were testing different names, franchise supplier hub. So yeah, see more of that. Thank you. Thank you. We’re we’re getting some great reviews on it. We’re excited to make it a lot bigger. You’ll see a whole lot more about it at retreat when you’re when we get together there. Nice.

All right, I’m gonna go with a couple of rapid fire ones. The funny thing is the setup to this rapid fire question is gonna be longer than the answer probably. But if you could instantly implement one thing in every franchise system today, what would it be? It would be they need to work with consultants because that’s the lowest financial risk and the highest quality candidates. It’s self serving, sorry. Love it. but I do sh certainly believe that. ⁓ item nineteen, if there’s any way humanly possible to have any kind of item nineteen in

massively impactful and very authentic, very transparent. ⁓ also a CFE program where they get trained in the world of franchising, make that a much more expected. I don’t know that I would I’m very libertarian. I don’t like extreme rules on cracking the whip on folks, but to make the CFE program even more prevalent out there, I think would be very impactful for so many Zors who aren’t taking advantage of it.

So there’s three that’s right off the top of my head. Love it. Cassie and I graduated with our CFEs this year and ⁓ it was it felt long overdue to be honest with you. So like I I I probably didn’t even announce it as met as much as other people did because I was like, man, I feel like I should have done this a long time ago. I got mine in 2011 and I felt embarrassed that I hadn’t gotten it before then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is a really fun question. Two more rapid fire questions. Okay. Red. What’s your favorite book?

Or resource on leadership. I love you know, one that was real impactful to was Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. It makes so much sense. Read it a dozen times, just understanding that it’s not all about you. And ⁓ I just love that book so much. You know, the Napoleon Hills of the world and the Dale Carnegie’s, those classic I and I’m a fanatic on ⁓ so many of the just mindset books, Laws of Leadership 21.

Something laws of leadership, John Maxwell. Anything John Maxwell is fantastic. Sorry to interrupt you, but I had to throw John Maxwell in there too. Incredible ⁓ writer. Love it. Okay, this is a fun one, and you probably are gonna wish you prepped for it, but what is a franchise you’d start today if you had to leave IFPG and start over and be like, I’m gonna start a franchise? What kind of business would it be? Does it have to make money? No, definitely not. It would be a combination of

Of ⁓ jet skis on the lake and electric off-road skateboards. And my insurance costs would be astronomical and I would probably lose a million a year, but I would have a blast doing it. Those are my two fun most fun hobbies. I love just jet skis or sea-dus the water. And then believe it or not, a very odd one is that electric off-road skateboard. Big old 10-inch tires. ⁓ my knees are a little bit more wobbly than I used to be, but man, it is fun uh-uh.

And are you sliding your feet into like like you would like a water ski almost? Or no? You’re not I’m not all. This is 72 pound electric skateboard and you don’t want tied into it. Now you fly off of it, you could die. Okay. Wrapping strapping it in is ⁓ a scary thought. Yeah. I do have a a one-wheel, that’s a fun one too, but I’m a much bigger fan of the electric

Where you throttle it and you can lean into it in a different way than the one wheel in case you’ve done both. I’m not a fan of the one wheel, frankly. Yeah, I I’ve done the one wheel. I have not done the off-road electric skateboard thing, but I see them they buzz around DC all the time where I live, and I’m always like, you guys are insane. Wild. Red, this has been amazing. For folks who want to connect with you and learn more about IFPG, where should they go? Well, any Zor that’s looking to you know award more franchises to better candidates, certainly IFPG.org.

interested in becoming a consultant. You know, we’re basically like realtors, except you don’t have to dress up, you don’t have to leave your house, you don’t have to work nights and weekends, and you get don’t have to have a printer, a paper, or a pen or pencil. You’re just helping people identify the best franchises and walking them through that process. And we get you set up to do that. And suppliers. So membership at IPG.org, again membership at IFPG.org gets you more information.

Never any pressure. Your time frame is ours, but we’d love to talk to folks who are interested in doing more together in franchising and perhaps IFPG might be that place for you. Love it. Love you. Love this organization. IFPG is wonderful to work with. Red, this has been an awesome conversation. ⁓ if you want to learn more about yeah, exactly. Go to IFPG.org, connect with him on LinkedIn, whatever. If you find the episode valuable, please be sure to subscribe to the training effect. Leave us a review. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.

Thanks everybody.

Expert Perspective

According to Red Boswell, President of IFPG, successful franchise systems are built on more than franchise sales. Long-term growth depends on ongoing training, operational support, accountability, and strong relationships between franchisors and franchisees. Brands that invest in these areas are better positioned to scale while maintaining consistency and quality across locations.