From Boiler Room to Business Boss: Chris Mesker's Wild Ride

Steve Doyle (: 00:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to this episode of Blue Collar BS. And if you notice here, I am without my co-host, Brad Herda, who just so happens to be out golfing in the middle of Wisconsin in the winter. For some reason, he really can't get away from Cowpasture Pool. So, you know, I hope, you know, he can find his ball stuck in the snow somewhere. I would really love to see some of those photos. So, but you know, without Brad, we brought on a very special guest today.

Chris Mesker (: 00:19

Great.

Steve Doyle (: 00:30

His name is Chris Mesker. He is a franchise consultant and he specializes in guiding aspiring entrepreneurs and career changers to the perfect franchise opportunity. He's got over 15 years of franchising experience and executive recruiting experience. Chris helps individuals make informed decisions about franchise ownership and he provides a personalized, no cost consulting services to connect you with leading franchise systems and emerging brands.

to ensure a successful transition into business ownership. So welcome to the show today, Chris.

Chris Mesker (: 01:06

Thanks for having me, Steve. I really appreciate it.

Steve Doyle (: 01:08

Yeah, so before I forget, one of the things that I always want to gauge here is which generation do you fit in with?

Chris Mesker (: 01:19

was born in 65, so I've always identified as a baby boomer, I do know that I'm also technically the Gen X generation. So, I'm on the cusp.

Steve Doyle (: 01:27

Yup, yup. Right, I like that. I like that. So that's that's good. So tell us a little bit about your your journey into being a franchise consultant.

Chris Mesker (: 01:40

Oh boy, yeah, I was born and raised in Southern California, Los Angeles area where didn't have the greatest upbringing. I had a great upbringing, had a great mother, but my father left when I was four. By the time I was 16, 17, I was flailing a little bit and went to work at a restaurant, did very well there. I went to work in the film industry, liked that for a little while, but hated it after a little while. And then,

Steve Doyle (: 01:55

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 02:03

Yeah.

Chris Mesker (: 02:07

I never went to college. I did a little JC work. I ended up becoming a financial advisor. Instead of going back to college, I chose to learn financial planning. But before I learned financial planning, my first job was in a boiler room. That's a whole different story that we may not want to get into. But I went to work for a family friend who actually started a boiler room and then worked there.

Steve Doyle (: 02:14

Okay.

Steve Doyle (: 02:19

All right. Yep.

yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 02:29

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 02:35

I have a great experience there. It was very interesting to learn how to smile and dial. But in the end, while I worked there, I was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age. And while I was going through treatments and out of work, the SEC actually raided this boiler room and it turned out I was working for a Ponzi scheme. Now, I want you to know, I had no idea.

Steve Doyle (: 02:44

Wow.

Steve Doyle (: 02:56

WAAA-

Chris Mesker (: 03:00

what a stock of bond or a mutual fund was when I first got this job. I'd come out of the film and restaurant industry. I was young. I just was looking to make money and they were telling me. So short story long, went into remission. After I went into remission, I went to go back to work. Everybody was gone. The place was empty. Ended up trying to find another job in the finance. Similar. It didn't take me long to figure out that this was not an industry I wanted to be in. So

Steve Doyle (: 03:05

Right?

Wow.

Chris Mesker (: 03:29

Los Angeles was not a place I wanted to raise a family in. So after going into remission, I packed my bags and I moved to Northern California and I studied Series 7 in financial planning and started my own work for a benefits company and then started my own firm in 92, 93 and then sold that in 1999 successfully where I took a couple years off of work to help raise my young kids. But that didn't last long. So I had to go back to work.

Steve Doyle (: 03:32

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 03:40

Okay.

Steve Doyle (: 03:45

Okay.

Steve Doyle (: 03:49

Nice.

Steve Doyle (: 03:53

that's cool.

Chris Mesker (: 03:58

went back to work, I bought a franchise. That's how I started my franchise journey. So that's the long story of it, but I bought a franchise in 2005 that was a real estate short sale franchise where I actually learned how to negotiate with banks on behalf of people that were losing their homes and then buy the house from the bank at less than what the people owed on it. And that's what I did. And that franchise did very well. I was doing some flipping. was selling some contracts.

Steve Doyle (: 04:02

Okay.

Steve Doyle (: 04:07

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 04:14

OK. Right.

Steve Doyle (: 04:20

Okay.

Steve Doyle (: 04:26

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 04:27

I learned a lot about flipping homes. learned a lot about remodeling homes. And then 2008 hit, the banking crisis. And short sales stopped altogether. that didn't take me out of franchising, but it took me out of that particular franchise. No fault of anybody's. It was a great run. And then I went to work for some healthcare franchises in non-medical care. And then from there, when I was working for a healthcare franchise as a developer, I met

Steve Doyle (: 04:31

Yeah?

yeah.

yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 04:42

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 04:45

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 04:51

Okay.

Chris Mesker (: 04:57

consultant who back in 2008 and he was spot on and I Told him I said I want to do what you do one day I think this is you're doing the Lord's work here helping people create small businesses So, you know not everybody wants to be in business for themselves But they you know, maybe not by themselves everybody pretty much wants to be for themselves So that was my experience and then did that for two or three years and then became a consultant in 2012

Steve Doyle (: 04:58

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 05:18

yeah. yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 05:25

Okay.

Chris Mesker (: 05:25

and have been consulting ever since and have done some partnerships and franchising and things like that with other people since then. But consulting has been my full-time gig. I hope that wasn't too long.

Steve Doyle (: 05:36

no, it's perfect. It gives a good backstory. So people might be wondering, hey, why did we bring a franchise consultant onto the show? you know, being in the blue collar space, we know, you know, in our, in our pre-show that you spend a lot of time working with individuals in the blue collar space. So I was hoping you might be able to share a little bit more about some trends that you're seeing with business ownership.

Chris Mesker (: 06:02

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 06:03

for individuals looking to get out of that corporate rut or bad leadership experience, if you will, and start to own their own business.

Chris Mesker (: 06:16

Yeah, I would say the first thing that I'd want people to know is that franchising isn't McDonald's and Taco Bell. I mean, they're what we all know about. There are more blue collar franchises than any other franchise in the nation. And whether it's, you know, doing Windows or Roofing or HVAC, I mean, there's just about everything that you can do. I mean, there's franchises that you go pick up.

Steve Doyle (: 06:23

Right.

Chris Mesker (: 06:43

people's dog poop. mean, it's crazy, but that's true. So with over 3000 franchise systems in this country, it's tough to narrow down what's out there. And that's where we really come in. And so what I do is actually do a personal profile, get to know people first. We do an interview like this one, a consultation where we just kind of go over their core values, what's important to them, what are their investment and income needs? What would they be hoping to accomplish by going into franchising? This isn't for everybody.

Steve Doyle (: 06:44

Right. Right.

Steve Doyle (: 06:55

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 07:09

Right. Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 07:11

But there's a lot of people who do not want to do it on their own that would like the guidance of a franchisor. And so what I do is I help people look at industries that maybe they wouldn't have thought of. So they might look at a glass company. They might look at an HVAC company, even though they have a background in plumbing or something. Or not plumbing, but in framing or something, but contractor, general. But for the most part,

Steve Doyle (: 07:15

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 07:25

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 07:33

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 07:36

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 07:38

You gotta have an open mind. I'm gonna show you three or four brands in three or four different industries. We talk about the difference between retail and then B2B franchises, business to business and business to consumer, logistics. We get into all that in our consultation. That way I can narrow down the search for them to find out what would be best for them in the long run.

Steve Doyle (: 07:48

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 07:57

Right.

Steve Doyle (: 08:01

Wow, Brad decided to join us and just kind of like wreck every audio sacrilege that we have here. What's going on, Brad? Nice of you to join us.

Brad herda (: 08:07

you

Chris Mesker (: 08:08

That's right.

Brad herda (: 08:12

try my best. I apologize. Thank you for your patience. Had an awesome client team meeting for their annual meeting and a great conversation with the client afterwards. So I appreciate your patience.

Steve Doyle (: 08:16

you

Steve Doyle (: 08:24

Yeah, well, thanks for joining us. yeah, glad to see golf was good in the winter. So, so Chris, now that Brad is joining us, and we're not gonna go back through the backstory, he can listen when he you know, when the show comes out. But what trends are you seeing with people, I would say trends from

Chris Mesker (: 08:26

Yeah, thanks, Brad!

Brad herda (: 08:31

Yeah, yeah, there's eight inches of snow on the ground dude, so.

Steve Doyle (: 08:51

generational trends are you seeing with people that want to get into blue collar franchises?

Chris Mesker (: 09:01

Well, I would say since COVID, we've seen more blue collar franchises thrive than at any time in history. Veterans love the trend of blue collar franchises. They're great at following systems. come out of the military. They've got what it takes, you know, to follow a process and a good franchise system is going to bring a process in play that is successful. And so just to plug them in to say, look, we're going to teach you how to be an insulation company.

Steve Doyle (: 09:09

huh.

Brad herda (: 09:12

Thank

Steve Doyle (: 09:25

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 09:31

It doesn't matter what their background is. They just know that they'll get taught all the systems, everything in place to take them to the next level. So we've seen a big trend in home services, whether it's holiday lighting, whether it's irrigation. Unfortunately, what happened with COVID was a lot of small business owners really got crushed and a lot of people had to turn to franchising. they're created this huge opportunity for a lot of blue collar franchises to thrive. And there were a lot of them before that.

Brad herda (: 09:33

Thank you.

Steve Doyle (: 09:44

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 09:50

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 10:01

But even more so now than ever, we see a lot more, and like I say, every space from picking up dog do to roofing to everything in between. there's nothing we don't have in franchising. The problem is there's 3,000 franchises and we tried, like I represent 190 different brands. These are people that I've seen their trend over the years. I know the CEOs, they come to our conference every six months. People I've placed I could follow up with, see how they're doing. We keep in touch.

Steve Doyle (: 10:20

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 10:31

There's 60, 70 other consultants that we share ideas with and success stories. So what I'm hoping to do is eliminate some of the mud and get to the clear water before they make a decision. It's a huge decision for anybody to go into business. Franchising's no different. In fact, you're getting married in a franchise. But yes, we've seen a tremendous trend towards home services, especially. There's a franchise that just...

Steve Doyle (: 10:41

Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 10:50

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 11:01

The Superdome was covered in mold and they do power washing and they have a drone system and they went up and they did the whole, they got the contract to do the whole thing. It was a franchise. They got the contract and they cleaned the whole Superdome before the Super Bowl. And just an example of what, what that's B2B there. And then the glass industry is changing. AI is changing a lot of industries, but with blue collar, you still need people. And that's what's beautiful about it.

Steve Doyle (: 11:04

Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 11:21

Right?

Steve Doyle (: 11:26

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 11:31

Right.

Chris Mesker (: 11:31

I like to tell people if it's Amazon proof and a category disruptor, we kind of like to stick to those.

Steve Doyle (: 11:40

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 11:40

those types of businesses.

Brad herda (: 11:43

Hey Chris, are you seeing more PE firms involved in being the master franchisors versus the proprietor that may have started the system, started the thing, and now he's just trying, he or she's just trying to license or do it on their own? Are you seeing a trend there?

Chris Mesker (: 12:01

seeing a lot of private equity has come in in the last six years. I know a lot of CEOs that have exited through private equity and gone and started something else after their non-competes are up. Yeah, that's what they're doing. They're picking up BS too, right?

Brad herda (: 12:13

They're picking up dog shit now, that's what they're doing.

Because they don't, because they don't, doesn't matter anymore to them. They got paid.

Chris Mesker (: 12:22

Yeah, you know, in some cases that's true. But what I would say is there's also what we call franchise development companies. And these are firms that actually go out and find someone with, let's say, three or four vans that's running a good business in blue collar. And they'll contact them and say, look, you're doing a great job. You're scaling at a smaller level. How would you like to own equity in a thousand vans instead of four vans? And let us partner and show you how to franchise this concept.

And these development companies who we have a lot, our company has a lot of relationships with, they will actually teach people from A to Z how to run a successful franchise system. They're not partnering with them to sell them down the road. They're partnering with them to get the, to build the equity together. So we're seeing a lot of that with people who were smart in franchise and saw that PE would come in. In some cases, they didn't care about anything but the numbers and that hurts the franchisees in some cases. So.

Steve Doyle (: 12:55

Mm-hmm.

Brad herda (: 12:56

Thank

Brad herda (: 13:04

you

Steve Doyle (: 13:06

Right.

Brad herda (: 13:11

you

Chris Mesker (: 13:17

Someone like a consultant myself can stay ahead of that for people and talk about, know when private equity, what equity firms out there are doing the right thing. And we also know the development companies that are doing the right thing. And we also could tell great stories about some that have been hurt because of being bought out by private equity. It's certainly a two-edged sword. So the more people you can have helping you with that stuff, think the better decision an individual can make on whether to move forward.

Steve Doyle (: 13:31

Right.

Steve Doyle (: 13:46

Right. So go ahead, Brad.

Brad herda (: 13:51

Yeah, so we had a gentleman, he's up in Minneapolis, Kira Holmes, he's out doing his thing. I think he's like episode 33 or 34, might be worth a check out for you to make a connection with and if you need some support, we're more happy to connect you to him too.

Chris Mesker (: 14:07

awesome. Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 14:08

Yep. Yeah, he's he's done quite well in the in franchising his business. So it's done really well. Yeah. So one of the questions that I that I'm wondering about right now is from an age demographic standpoint, have you noticed if younger people or those you know, mid age individuals are gravitating towards franchises?

Chris Mesker (: 14:14

Good. Yeah, I'll look at that episode. I might know who it is.

Chris Mesker (: 14:38

Absolutely.

There's a term in our industry called semi absentee that gets thrown around way too loosely, where they'll find individuals that are in corporate America in their early thirties, know, late thirties and tell them that, Hey, you can buy a franchise and keep your day job and scale this thing huge. And my experience has been that your first year or two is such a grind that it is possible. The question is, is it probable? And so, you know, I,

Steve Doyle (: 14:52

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 15:02

Yep.

Right.

Brad herda (: 15:08

Why you laughing, Steve?

Steve Doyle (: 15:11

Why am I laughing? Oh, we're going to go down that road? I know you are.

Brad herda (: 15:16

I'm laughing with you, it's okay.

Chris Mesker (: 15:19

Yeah, I think I get the joke guys. But no, and so yeah, we see, I see a lot of people that will be in corporate America five, 10 years, they'll be fiscally responsible. And that's one thing I want to talk about is that the people that come to me that have been in corporate America five, 10 years that are in those thirties, the younger generation, they've been fiscally responsible. Maybe they got lucky with some stock options, but they didn't go crazy, but they realize they don't like corporate America anymore.

Steve Doyle (: 15:21

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 15:31

you

Steve Doyle (: 15:44

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 15:48

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 15:48

And so what they'll do is they'll come to me and be like, I'll do anything to get out of this. I don't know how to be in business by myself, but if you could show me a company that I can partner with, then we're onto something. And so that's why I bring three or four different businesses to the table after doing all my research and doing the consultation with them. And then tell them to go interview them side by side, one by one. And then I'll circle back with them on a regular basis and they'll provide me feedback. I don't get involved in that other side of it.

And so it gives them a perspective and look, one of four people that really get serious about looking at a franchise will move forward. The other three timing isn't right or fear just kicks in. It's a scary thing to write that fat check.

Steve Doyle (: 16:27

Mm-hmm.

Brad herda (: 16:30

100 % correct.

Steve Doyle (: 16:32

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 16:33

Yeah, yeah, so, you know, most people don't know what they don't know. I guess I'll say this with caution. guess franchise consulting is similar in some ways to a lot of businesses like stockbroking, being a real estate agent, like being a mortgage broker, being an insurance agent. You know, the top 20 percenters do their job well and they take care of, they really try and educate their...

Steve Doyle (: 16:54

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 17:01

clients on what possible, they don't have commission breadth. And then there's a whole group of them out there that are just looking to make some money. So same thing is in insurance, same things in all these other. So anytime you're in an industry where once a transfer is made of money is made, I get paid, people gotta question my motive. So I always tell people, to know me, get to know us. If it's not a good fit, it's no problem.

Steve Doyle (: 17:09

Right.

Steve Doyle (: 17:25

Yep.

Brad herda (: 17:25

So I want go back to something Chris you made a great statement on the commission breath right and and many particularly I would think that might be a difficult conversation for a younger person getting in that there is no guaranteed revenue there is no anything there is the fallback positions whatever capital you have in your bank it's whatever is left from the lifestyle etc

How are you seeing that difference maybe between generations of that willingness to go out and sell and make things happen versus relying on the franchise to be the sales and lead generation machine?

Steve Doyle (: 17:51

So, thank

Chris Mesker (: 18:07

Yeah, so I would never rely on a franchise that says they have national accounts. Although national accounts are great, that's part of the process when people are going through, they're like, hey, they got national accounts. I'm going to get leads right out of the gate, right? Most good franchises are really good at driving leads into your inbox, but that's good franchises. you know, here's what I know. I work with somebody from anywhere from six weeks to four months with them.

by the actions they take in that timeframe, I can pretty much tell the go-getters from the ones that are looking for someone else to do it for them. And so it's like anything else, right? Action talks, BS walks, is like we like to say. I see the trends. I've been doing this long enough to where I'll talk to, I can just tell that when they're gonna be good business owners, I will never tell them they should buy a franchise, because that's not my role. But I might say, you know,

Steve Doyle (: 18:52

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 19:06

You guys are pretty dynamic, especially husband and wife teams. Like, this could really work for you. If you do the footwork properly and get educated on what's possible, I think that the younger generation, those that get that, that right now is the best opportunity for them than ever in the history of this country. Like, it is right now because so few people are willing to do the footwork. They're looking elsewhere for someone to give them answers. They're looking for solutions. If you give a veteran...

Steve Doyle (: 19:29

Right.

Chris Mesker (: 19:36

a system and say, go follow this process. If you're in a good franchise with someone who could follow process, I'm telling you, they're going to win most of the time, not all the time, but they're going to be successful most of the time. But that's why you have to interview multiple different businesses before you choose a franchise. can't pick a subway because your uncle owns six and thinks it's going to be the greatest investment ever. There's too many different things going on in owning a business, as you guys well know, right?

Steve Doyle (: 19:45

Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 19:53

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 20:04

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Brad herda (: 20:05

It's kind of funny you talk about that because I'm working with two gentlemen right now. They're trying to buy a sandwich shop franchise. They had to go through the whole vetting process, different things. And right now we're working just through some valuation things and they're smart individuals, but it's very different working that corporate job and trying to create a franchise for mailbox money. And you still have to be responsible for operations and everything else. And it's just a...

It's just a different world, right? And you either got to be in or out, in my opinion, but that's just my opinion.

Chris Mesker (: 20:38

Yeah, well, and you know, someone like that, they should be looking at something outside of food that possibly could do the same thing for them, like a salon suite. Low employees, you know, I mean, it's an expensive build out, but so is food. But you have low employees, you're basically a landlord, and you're creating mailbox money. So it's a different way to look at it. And that's a perspective I want to bring to the table is, hey, look, Subway may be the right thing for you, right? This may be the perfect.

But if you don't look at a Skyzone and a solar salon next to them, you're not doing yourself any justice. You're just thinking that you know what's best when you don't know what you don't know. And some of these franchise systems are incredible. Some of them suck.

Steve Doyle (: 21:20

Yep, they do.

Chris Mesker (: 21:25

Yeah. So, you know, all I can say is that those people I see that follow process and really put the footwork in ahead of time, they can make decisions quick, good, bad, different. You fail fast, as we like to say in business, right? They make decisions quick and they know their margins. I mean, those are the two things. And then you got the culture amongst your employees.

Steve Doyle (: 21:27

Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 21:41

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 21:54

You got these other cultures you got to worry about and then being a community leader and there's so many different things involved in this depending on the brand. And whether it's a guy starting his own, you know, framing company or whether it's somebody that's looking to buy a bunch of salons. mean, everybody's different and that's the beauty of my role is that I see everybody from all walks of life and every situation is different. So when somebody comes to me and say, what's the best franchise? I just say, can't help you. I can't, I don't know what the best one is for you. I don't even know you.

Steve Doyle (: 21:59

yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 22:24

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 22:25

How can I help you if I don't know you?

Brad herda (: 22:26

Alright Steve, is the what's the second call step it back is that what you want to call this? Bite your tongue, okay. So, so Chris, so can you walk us through a scenario where maybe you decided to have a conversation or you made this made the statement that maybe you shouldn't have and kind of how did it turn out and what would you have done differently in that situation?

Steve Doyle (: 22:33

know it was a bite your tongue. Yep, called bite your tongue.

Chris Mesker (: 22:35

Okay.

Chris Mesker (: 22:52

Are we talking about a conversation with somebody looking to buy a franchise?

Brad herda (: 22:56

You pick. You pick. Could be a spouse, could be a cop kid, could be a former boss. You pick.

Steve Doyle (: 22:57

You pick.

Steve Doyle (: 23:03

You

Chris Mesker (: 23:05

Well, everybody's always curious about business ownership. think we can all agree that I think it's the status like 86 % of the people in this country want to own a business, but only 4 % of them do. So when someone comes to me and they say, Hey, I want to, I want to be a business owner. The first thing I ask is why. And if they say, because I want to be rich, I basically tell them it's got to be better than that. I mean, we can all.

Steve Doyle (: 23:10

Okay.

Chris Mesker (: 23:35

getting rich is great, it's fun, it's nice having a little cash, it's nice doing what we do. But you gotta have a why, you wanna create a legacy, whatever it is you wanna do. If their background is blue collar, I love to sit down with them and talk about what have they done fiscally in their life? Like.

I I can be, no matter what our, it's not what you make, what you keep. So people that have financial discipline, that's the first thing I wanna know is if you wanna be a business owner, the number one reason small businesses fail, one of the number one reasons is lack of working capital. People go in cheap and they just think that they can cheap their way through and they look at the lowest budget and they think that they're gonna be successful at that. It's like when somebody buys a franchise, everybody thinks they're gonna be a top 20 % or an income earners. That's impossible, you can't be.

Only 20 % can be top 20 %ers. So I want to have that conversation. I want to have the why conversation. And then I want to talk to them about the fear of failure. We all have it. So I mean, there's so many different people I work with. I I talked to a lady today. And she was insistent that she wanted nothing but resales. She wanted no build out. And it had to be in food. And I just told her, I'm sorry. I'm not for you.

Steve Doyle (: 24:28

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 24:41

room.

Chris Mesker (: 24:57

I need people with an open mind. need people that want to think outside the box. For 14 years now that I've been doing this, 8 out of 10 people that buy a franchise buy something they never would have looked at on their own, based on what I learned about it.

Brad herda (: 25:11

You're two for two right here.

Steve Doyle (: 25:13

Yeah, two for two.

Chris Mesker (: 25:15

Yeah. Well, I don't know if you work with a consultant, but that's okay. And I don't know what kind of consultant you work with, so that's a whole other conversation. But I know for myself, I just don't think this is for everybody. I think there's very few people. But the people that can come in and plug and play, get one unit up, get three vans running, get them successful.

Steve Doyle (: 25:19

You

Steve Doyle (: 25:34

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 25:43

Now they've figured out the formula to plug and play. Those are the ones who can scale. But I get people come to me and are like, hey, I want to own five locations and I want to open two right away. And I just say, no, don't do that. Like open a location first, get it successful, start making some money. Your first franchise may not be your best, but if you get a good taste in your mouth, there's people who own multiple systems out there. You know, so.

Steve Doyle (: 26:06

Right.

Chris Mesker (: 26:08

Everybody's just different. That's the beauty of what I do and why. So I am a believer in the American dream. I lived the American dream. So for me, anytime someone comes to me and is like, look, I see this goal out here of making money. How do I get there? I tell them my way may not be the best, but if you don't get educated on what's possible, you'll never know. And that's all I ask. The best defense against a mistake and most things is education.

Steve Doyle (: 26:31

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 26:37

And in this case, I don't think it's any different. And it's their decision. If they follow the process, it's their decision, not mine.

Steve Doyle (: 26:43

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 26:46

I hope that answers your question.

Brad herda (: 26:50

Sort of. Where's it? Sort of. So how many of those conversations do you have that maybe, well, I'm going to rephrase this. My guess is that you don't have any regrets from those types of conversations of protecting franchise ease to become part of organizations when it's not a good fit. But do you have any regretful conversations where, yeah, I probably should have done it differently?

Steve Doyle (: 26:51

Yeah.

Chris Mesker (: 26:51

Yeah.

Chris Mesker (: 27:11

Sure. Sure. Absolutely. In fact, just had something happen to me. It's only happened three times in my career last week. A couple I've been working with for six months, looking at multiple brands.

They went to a Discovery Day with a brand that I know and trust. And the CEO called me up and he said, got bad news. We're not going to accept these two. And I was a little bad because she was, the wife was dynamic. The husband was a little overbearing, a little too technical. But I understood and I said, good, I don't want them to come there if you don't want them. Like that's the last thing I want. So I called up the candidate and I started talking to him and he says, oh, we already moved forward with another franchise.

And I said, who is it? And he told me, and it was somebody I'd never worked with, somebody I'd never heard of, was in the same industry that they were looking at that they got turned down in. And I said, well, you know, there's a little bit of a red flag there for you guys. I'm happy for you. I'm glad you made a decision. I wish I would have known you were talking to somebody behind my back. Maybe I could have given you a little guidance. Maybe I couldn't have. Did they make a mistake? I don't know. I won't know for...

Like I tell everybody when I start something new, I'll tell you in two years. But I just felt like in that case, they got denied. There was a reason they got denied. I was okay with the reason they got denied, but they were so held down on buying a business that they just went out on their own. And I wish them the best of success. I hope they make it. And I didn't get paid a thing, darn it.

Steve Doyle (: 28:32

Mm-hmm.

Chris Mesker (: 28:56

But that's just part of what we do. mean, that doesn't happen very often for me because if I find out they're deep with a brand or something, I tell them just to finish the process with the brand and if it doesn't work, back to me.

Steve Doyle (: 28:56

That's how it works sometimes. Right.

Steve Doyle (: 29:09

Yep, so before we before we close this session here, what advice would you have to somebody like one piece of solid advice for somebody that is really looking at leaving that corporate and buying a business?

Chris Mesker (: 29:28

Cool.

Brad herda (: 29:30

And there's only one. There's only one.

Chris Mesker (: 29:31

Get educated. One piece of advice.

Steve Doyle (: 29:35

Yep.

Chris Mesker (: 29:37

I would say, are you walking into businesses and observing things that most of the public doesn't? When you walk into a restaurant and the bathroom's dirty, do you eat there anyway? When you walk into a store and you don't get treated properly, if you're looking at doing an ordinary business, you have to do extraordinary things regardless of the brand you are. And the key to owning a business is being an ordinary business.

owner that does extraordinary things. So if you're not observing the small things when people are dealing with you in your regular life and you're paying money to do things, I would highly question whether you should be in business. And that's just because it's all the little things that add up to what makes you successful, whether it's a clean construction site at the end of the day. I did HVAC. My brother-in-law owned the company. was 18 years old when I went to work for him.

Boy, if the site wasn't clean with all of our stuff at the end of the day, he would come unglued on us. And I didn't get it, because I didn't observe those things. But as a business owner, those are the things that are obsessed. So if you're already thinking that way before you even look at spending your own money to buy a business or taking out an SBA loan, you might be the type of person to be a good business owner. But if you don't think that way, I would question your motives.

Steve Doyle (: 30:37

Mm-hmm.

Brad herda (: 30:55

Love that.

Steve Doyle (: 30:56

Yeah, absolutely love that. Chris, thank you very much for joining us today. How can people get a hold of you if they're interested in franchising or just getting more information from you?

Chris Mesker (: 31:09

Well, if they Google my name, I'm going to be the first thing that comes up, Chris Mesker. chrisknowsfranchising.com is my website. you can find me. Yeah, if you Google my name or my contact information, I'm sure they'll be able to find through you guys, Yeah. So feel free to call me. I am open to anybody that wants to have a conversation about this ahead of time. Tell me a little bit about where you're

Steve Doyle (: 31:26

Yep. Yep.

Brad herda (: 31:27

Correct.

Chris Mesker (: 31:38

you know, why are you thinking this way? I'll be realistic on investment costs, like in a franchise versus small business on your own. The pros and cons of both, there's a lot of them. So if it's a good fit, we'll talk about the next steps. And if it's not, I'll just be a resource for them and hope they'll give me referrals one day.

Steve Doyle (: 31:45

Mm-hmm.

Brad herda (: 31:55

hahahaha

Steve Doyle (: 31:55

All right. Well, thank you very much, Chris, for joining us on this episode of Blue Collar BS. We definitely appreciate you being here.

Chris Mesker (: 32:04

Well I appreciate you guys having me. I hope that we all get to go golfing soon.

Steve Doyle (: 32:10

you

Brad herda (: 32:11

So do I. So do I as the snow continues to come.

Chris Mesker (: 32:13

Well, I'm in Florida, so I'm playing tomorrow.

Steve Doyle (: 32:16

Ha!

Brad herda (: 32:17

Yeah, I'm not. Thank you. See you.

Steve Doyle (: 32:18

All right. Thanks, guys.

Chris Mesker (: 32:22

Thank you very much. See you.

Steve Doyle (: 32:28

Boop.

Brad herda (: 32:31

Did you hit the button Steve?

Chris Mesker (: 32:33

He hit the button. Nice to meet you, Brad.

Brad herda (: 32:37

You as well sir, thank you again for your patience and my tardiness.

Chris Mesker (: 32:41

I'm going to assume you both bought a franchise. Well, I know Steve bought a franchise.

Brad herda (: 32:45

We're in the same franchise.

Chris Mesker (: 32:47

you're both in focal point? Okay, got it.

Brad herda (: 32:49

Yeah.

met in San Diego December of: 2016

Chris Mesker (: 32:55

Got it. Do you know John Shandon? Minnesota RD for Focal Point?

Brad herda (: 33:03

No, I do not.

Chris Mesker (: 33:05

I worked with him in 2012. He's still there.

It's not for everybody. That's a hard by the way business coaching stuff. I know you do it now I was looking at I was looking at your video. I love you some of the stuff you do is pretty cool

Brad herda (: 33:19

Um, yeah, what I do now is not what I did then when I first started in 2016. It is, it is, is a journey and it is not right for everybody. And the, the amount of churn we've had in Wisconsin has been, um, it's, it's, it's like, okay, great, but you got to

Steve Doyle (: 33:35

Hold on.