Franchise Freedom
Franchise Freedom is for corporate executives who are tired of the rat race, the politics, and the lack of control inside the corporate monster and are ready to break free. Your host, Giuseppe Grammatico is a successful corporate refugee who has worked on every side of franchising, from owning franchises, to working with franchisors, to helping others use franchising to escape the corporate grind. Get more great insights on franchising and entrepreneurship for people looking at career transition at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com
Franchise Freedom
Scaling, Support & Secrets to Franchise Success with Shannon Roderick
From explosive growth with RestoPros to launching the B. Rugged Brands platform (Scoop Brothers & more!), President Shannon Roderick shares invaluable insights! Learn about multi-brand advantages, real franchisee support, navigating startup anxiety, and crucial advice for corporate execs eyeing franchise ownership.
DISCLAIMER: The information on this podcast is for general information purposes only. Franchising involves risk and careful consideration should be given before making any decisions.
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The Franchise Freedom: Discover Your New Path to Freedom Through Franchise Ownership, Book by Giuseppe Grammatico https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/book or purchase directly on Amazon.
And it has really just taken this brand to, to a different level in the market. We, like I had mentioned, we started out in May of 22 with six locations, and today we proudly are 125 locations across 39 states and over 400 territories. Business ownership does not give you more freedom. You are 24 7. But what it does is that it gives you the flexibility to create your own career path, right?
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:The realities of business ownership are, it's not easy. As you mentioned, you're not getting any time freedom. You're gonna be working your butt off that first year. You're gonna be investing money, working your butt off and trying to. Build that right team.
Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast, where you can escape the corporate trap through franchise ownership. Here's your host, Giuseppe gr, the franchise guide.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom via franchising. Thanks for joining us today. we have an awesome guest for you today. Before we dive in, just wanted to thank you for joining. If you have any questions, if you have any ideas for topics send it to us our way. You can email us directly, gg@ggthefranchiseguide.com You can leave a comment in any of our social posts, YouTube. We really appreciate it. Let us know what you're thinking, topics, questions concerns you have. We would love to make sure we address those concerns and questions on future episodes. We are bringing on my good friend Shannon Roderick on the show. Shannon, welcome to the show.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Thank you. I appreciate it.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:If you could give the audience a little bit of background a little bit about yourself and how you got into franchising.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. It started out as a college athlete and going into, played volleyball in college and had an opportunity to play at a private business school in Michigan. And, it was so amazing to see, and this school now actually has franchising as a degree. And it was called Northwood University in Midland, Michigan. And they were always based around free enterprise, right? Entrepreneurship and really developing. Strong business characters coming out of there and just had a great experience four years there and then fell in love with the automotive industry. Obviously being in Michigan and the big three were a big contributor. To that university. And after that got into the automotive car sales and dealership operations there and had a great opportunity to start with a a brand new company called Sonic Automotive. And Sonic Automotive started with three dealerships and grew, took the company public, and we were really a consolidator. Back in, in the late 1990s. A lot of those first generation owners were getting ready to get rid of their dealerships and Sonic was there to go ahead and either acquire do a merger with the current owners and so on and so forth. And just a great run that I had with them. Just learning processes, efficiencies. And really the expansion, right? A across the country and dealing with different personalities and things like that. that ended right before the fall of the automotive industry actually in 2008. Had two young boys at the time back to back and knew that I couldn't be a stay at home. But I came from a long lineage of family business. And started buying up companies in Charlotte. It was a great time to open up and buy companies because it was in the R word, it was in that recession phase. And a lot of those businesses were valued undervalued. And we just started buying them up. And so a couple of'em, we would think about franchising. But then we really just stayed within the local markets and still have one in business that my, my husband runs to this day in the hospitality industry and sold off the other ones be before before Covid hit. then how I got into franchising, to be honest with you. Through all of those experiences in business, I always say it's COC, it was'cause of Covid. I really wanted to get into a needs based and not so much those businesses that I had before were hospitality and retail. And when you come into something like this, it, it really or gives you a clear vision of what you may not wanna struggle through, if something like that should happen again. And headhunter had reached out knowing that I was back in the market after selling. some businesses and our founder, Alex Blair actually I called him because I knew he had some interactions with a company that wanted me to come work for him. I met Alex for lunch one day and he was telling me about Resta Pros and I. Where he wanted to take it. And that lunch meeting turned into an interview. And I think with my past experience in streamlining, expanding and really being able to put growth in, into a platform for a brand new company was just a great marriage for both of us. And started with Resta Pros in May 22. We had six locations and one thing about Resto Pros is they've always had a great foundation. They knew who they were as a company. We knew what we were going into to a market and to this day we've had enhanced a lot of the processes, a lot of the deliverables, the foundation and relationship building in the market is still one of our main bread and butter. That we have. And it has really just taken this brand to, to a different level in the market. We, like I had mentioned, we started out in May of 22 with six locations, and today we proudly are 125 locations across 39 states and over 400 territories.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Wow, that is a absolutely amazing. I didn't realize, just basically three years ago.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Ago. I know. Just had my anniversary last weekend.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yes. congratulations. Happy Mother's Day. You hit'em all this month. for the audience, not not familiar with Resto Pros, who is Resto Pros, what those resto Pros offer?
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Sure. Resta Pros is a mitigation company. mitigation, meaning there was damage, it might have been caused by water, fire, mold, smoke, storm damage have been, a bathroom overflow. It is where it just cannot be remediated with just a house fan or a towel. You're soaking up some damage or just removing it. It is really where we have to go in, remove the damaged material, dry out, get the structure, whether it's commercial or residential, into a safe environment. And then some of our locations take that service a little bit further. We always say we have to start out with mitigation, right? We've gotta, we've gotta clear everything out. And some of our locations now have brought on rebuild to, to. Make sure that property can be restored to its original condition.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:With Resto Pros there was I'm not sure of the date, and this is a question I had for you, but B. Rugged brands tell us a little bit about that and maybe any of the other brands that fall into that parent company or that, that umbrella.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Because of the success with Resta Pros and the team behind that success, our founder is a very innovative individual and we really did. You, when you have something really good, you've got the secret sauce. We've got the boilerplate. And more than anything, we had the vision of services and home services we wanted to bring to our markets in the, in surrounding communities. And so Alex de developed a company a parent company. Called B. Rugged Brands, and that is going to house our home ser our different home services brands We're cleaning out damage. We are sometimes in sewer and what we call in this business category three. You would not drink it. You would not wanna sit in it, you would not it's bad. It's contaminated. We, you've gotta clean everything that it has touched. second brand that we have recently launched is called Scoop Brothers. And Scoop Brothers is going to be a pet waste valet service. We are going to be able to service both residential and commercial and along with, pet waste removal, scooping it if you so inclined to, categories like that. We are able to put in the commercial pods, that you see the pet waste pods that go around and we will be able to service those also with installation or maintenance on'em.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Awesome. And with B. Rugged what is the plan, I guess going forward? Is it to, you said. Keep it all, is it gonna be jokingly, you said, the two brands are similarities between the two, but
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:cleanliness.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah, what, what does the future, for the brand look like?
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:We are gonna look at some more home services brand brands that really are more of a, of either a subscription based model that it's reoccurring. And, or. Needs based, we really have a niche in in this emergency services through quality of work, reaction to in response time and just how we deliver things to insurance and to our customers. As far as estimates, quality of work and really it's through documentation we have. Just taken Resta in what we can build onto it to with technology. We've got Matterport where we scan the whole house and the property and. Last time, when's the last time you did inventory of your house? It is just a, it's a leave behind link that I know I haven't just being able, if something ever happened, we have some technology, if we did services at your house, that we would be able scan and be able to store those or send you the link. As a homeowner so that you had it after we were done. But really, when it comes to B. Rugged, it is we really wanna attract brands that are needs based and that we can have multi. Brands into a market and hopefully, potentially some of our owners have, they're adding to their portfolio if they such, if they like it. But I know that even with our current Resta pros owners, they. Trust, liked and respect the team that built Resta Pros behind it. Same team is under B. Rugged. And we're just really proud of it. We're really proud of this, the services and the systems that that we produce in these brands provide.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah, support is big and we're gonna talk about support and feedback here in, in a little bit, but go, going back to B. Rugged. What is the, we've had a couple companies where they essentially were representing, five or more brands underneath their umbrella. What is the advantage to a potential franchise owner? So maybe they start, they're typically starting off with one brand, which is usually what I recommend. Especially most of the people listening here are corporate executives. Maybe they're making that leap for the first time into entrepreneurship. What are some advantages there? Is there any sharing of technology, marketing? You had mentioned teams, but what other advantages? Even from the standpoint of. Being the, maybe the first to see the new brands that are gonna be launched.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Sure we do have a lot of, we've got a lot of shared services just with our marketing, we have a great digital marketing partner out of Atlanta that has really taken all four brands B. Rugged. We've got Resta Pros, we've got Scoop Brothers. We have a new brand out there called, crawlspace guardian. And that is gonna focus on the encapsulation and crawlspace needs for homes. Which is so important'cause we know that if we're taking care of that underneath, that you wanna take care of the foundation of your home and what it sits on or that can, we're not taking care of that base. It can start causing more problems. And what I think is important about B. Rugged is that, having the shared vendors, having the shared services, They all know our mission. They all know where we're going. And I think more importantly, it's just the standardization that we know what kind of quality that we're getting in, into a partner and I think that's really. Something that you have to hang your hat on because we, we do we did a lot of research. We made sure they could scale with us. But like we do in Resta pros like we do with all of our customers, I. Business starts with a relationship and, having those strong vendor relations that where each brand is heading and can satisfy it and be there for our owners, I think is really important. I think the second thing about the shared services, we've got. Our vehicles, right? There's a different vehicle for each of these brands. And there's some, cost expense control, with that. And we've got some benefits that, that will also, as we use one for one brand, we can use it in another. We should see some of those savings across the the whole company.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:I like that. Yeah, because some, sometimes people will ask, is it better to stick with one brand, add a complimentary brand? And there's pros and cons, there's differences. I don't even like to say pros and cons. I like to say there's differences and I. Sometimes the options may not be there. Maybe an instance where the territory was sold around you and now you're looking at a complimentary brand. So it's good to have those options because I always encourage everyone to think out what do the next five or 10 years look like? Are you looking for a quicker exit or you're looking to create a legacy for your family? So these are all things I have them. Maybe not necessarily deciding on day one, but just thinking about as they, you expand their business. That's a big one. In, in our last conversation, one thing that really attracted me to Resto Pros and we've helped quite a few people move forward specifically with Resto Pros, is the support. And not only support, you're, the lines of communication are completely open. Checking in with franchisees and things like that, which I think is a major differentiator, we. We speak with, numerous brands and the level of support is definitely on the high end knowing what's going on with each franchisee. What their thoughts, where their needs are, what maybe what their struggles are. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Because, you hear, and it's been, I believe in a way, overused, responsible franchising. What is that? And I've seen it take all these different directions, but it really boils down to, to support and communication. So can you expand a little bit on. Or elaborate a little bit on, what, you know how you work with your franchisees.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah, absolutely. And I have to tell you our level of support almost came by default I probably, a little bit of a unicorn because I had zero franchise experience. Alls I knew is that there was an owner, they invested money and we needed to support'em.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Right.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:told me that, oh, we could suggest some things. Nobody said, Hey, I came from. A business where we owned these properties. We owned these entities and it was, over a hundred locations across the us And so if something didn't work out, you went to that location, you supported the team that was there, you put action plans in place. And, we just said, Hey, we're gonna follow up with you and we're gonna right the ship and we're gonna keep moving. in franchising, I said we're just, we're gonna go support'em. We're gonna put people in, in the market, we're gonna put people in the field. We're gonna have meaningful conversations with our owners because they just didn't buy this franchise to let it sit on the shelf. They didn't let it, just fall, but. What we really recognized in the very beginning is a ton of our owners came from being responsible for somebody else's assets and liabilities, and now they're responsible for their own. What we did realize very quickly getting into this is we needed to help them. Set up their business, run their business, learn a new industry, and we really we dumbed it down. It Do you know how to do this? Yes, I know how to put my name in here. Okay, Do you know that you need this general liability? Do you know how to go down and get a business license? And so when you give that level of support. It automatically builds comradery within your company and a culture. that is one thing that we really do mean. What we say is when you become part of B. Rugged or you become an owner in Resta Pros or Scoop Brothers, is just not a gimmick. It's just not a one-liner. You are part of this family because I take responsibility for and so does the rest of our team. invested your hard-earned money into a brand and we need to deliver on that. And so I think really having the level of support and growing at the same time is always listening to your franchise owners. seeing, you hear one thing? Yep. We're gonna address it and say you hear two or three things. Okay. Let's talk to the team and see if anybody else has heard it. You hear four, five, and six. We need to put a process in place to either correct it, either celebr celebrate it, correct it, or why does it keep coming up?
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Okay.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:I think having that impact of being hands-on and not when should we launch it? Not waiting. When should we change it? We heard you. We need to help. We're gonna change it now and we're gonna keep the ball moving. And I think that has a lot to do with our success is that we listen, we listen to the system.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah, and that's it, right? You may think you had it figured out, but. The people that are running their businesses every single day they're coming across there. There's gonna be some issues, maybe, I don't know, something needs to be a change that needs to be changed, whether it be the pricing, maybe the marketing, maybe the target, who you're going after. I think that's huge. And when I check in with people we've helped over the years sometimes they'll say I feel bad. Asking about this or they may think they're the only person experiencing that issue. And I said, that may be the case, but it probably isn't, and you should really check in. With the franchisor, usually there's a coach assigned, you speak directly with the franchisees. That's not the case for every brand. So I always say reach out if you're having issues, bring it up. If the financials aren't aligning, bring it up. Maybe some, maybe you're accounting for something incorrectly. Maybe there's just a mistake in the chart of accounts. Whatever it is, go back to the franchisor. And it's amazing how many people say, you know what? I should have done that. Not sure why I didn't. And on the flip side, you may think every, everything is going well and there's no, no complaints. System's growing and some of the franchisees may be struggling. So I always encourage them, bring it up. And it's not to complain, but just to say, Hey, maybe this isn't working. I, there needs to be a better way, or maybe we need some retraining. And we need some additional support. So I think that's. That boils down to, would you say culture or, we call it support, but I all kind of blends together. Support culture feedback. I think that's that's a big part. And you'll get to hear that when you're talking to franchise companies and speaking with the franchisees on those validation calls, you'll get to hear directly from franchisees if the franchisor has that open door policy, if they're supportive, if they're. Acknowledging, of any issues and trying to, work with you and help you. Anything I'm missing there?'cause I think that's a big piece and I, it's a, it's an area I see a lot of people not asking about.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah, I, you hit the nail on the head I think. I think it is. I think it is, being able to. To be accessible right in, in letting your owners, I hate keep saying, franchisees, they are they're owners and they help us build this brand every day. But knowing that they have that accessibility to, to the team and that they have the. have the freedom right to say what's on their mind because they are part of a family. What family discussion have you had, with within your own, and it's always been, positive or great. And one thing is that I truly believe that everything has a solution. And if we know about it, then we can help solve it. If we don't know about it that we can't do anything about it. So we always really try to, end every conversation we tell our team, let me know if there's anything we can do. Please. Don't be, whether it's carrier pigeon, email, text message, or phones are always open. Our doors are always open, but we to become a better brand. We need to hear from our owners wrong or indifferent. And as long as you can accept openness and not know that, you're the master of all the answers, I think you're just, your brand can continue to grow in a positive manner, and then it leads, really to some ownership on our owners, right? It, for example, something came up and did you let anybody know? No. Why not? I didn't know if it would really affect anybody. Actually let's put it out there. You bring a problem to me. I'm gonna ask our franchise performance directors. A lot of people in this world call'em coaches but they are responsible be. For, between, 30 and 35 locations per FPD in our organization. And they are there to just focus on those locations and being able to help. So I think the more that we can communicate to them, Hey, put this out to your division or your region, see if they're having these same things, then it's easier to move that needle to correct anything that, that we need to address.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Love it. Yeah, it sounds so basic and so simple, but you guys do a really good job and even prior to that, it's just. This is the anxiety levels are really high. You don't know what you don't know. I know when I started over 20 years close to 20 years ago in franchising, there was all these things on my mind. Who do I hire? Who do I get for payroll? When do I set up my legal entity? What about all the other legal documents? Do I need a franchise attorney? There's so many moving parts and we help. Or we can, but I like that you have that checklist, putting yourself, putting yourself in their shoes basically. The many of them have never owned the business before. So really giving'em kind of step by step, as you mentioned, these are the things you have to do. And maybe not throwing'em all, throwing it all on their plate, but just saying maybe the, these are the first five things you need to do. And break it down because it does become. Overwhelming if you've never done it before. And some people may be still transitioning out of a job or, maybe they just left their job, but they, they got, they're prioritizing everything. When do I order the truck? When do I start hiring employees? So that roadmap, that, that guide, I think is, is crucial and it definitely helps with the nerves and, helping them make better decisions in that, we have a plan and this, the, these are the five items we have to tackle this week. That's a big part. And those are some of the questions and that I get concerns like where the heck do I even start? And I go that the franchisor will assist you in, in that process. What else, stands out to you from a support standpoint? With Resto Pro we'll call it B. Rugged because you have multiple brands that, that really go over and beyond. Supporting franchise owners. They're, a lot of these owners are first time owners. So what else from a support standpoint are you offering to a system?
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:I do think I think what's, what sets us apart and what allows us to support is. The comradery in and the care. I am not just here to take a royalty. I, we have always said that we want to, we want these brands to change people's lives, right? They were doing what they were doing, they invested their money in something and we wanna give them the roadmap to, to be able to be successful. And I think. A listening b being innovative. I always tell people, they're like, wow, the training for when we started as an early adopter, zero to 30 looks completely different now at 1 0 5 and one 10 and things like that. And I said, because. Everybody's human, right? And when we get these questions and presentations or in training in our new owner training and we come across to somebody, I think it is always really important to, to have an open mind and being able to make the system better and to ask questions. We have discovery days and probably about three months ago. We had about 15 people in this discovery day. And I looked at one of my coworkers that we were presenting with, and I said, we have a problem. She's I thought that Discovery Day went really great. And I said, no, the discovery day went great, but we've made the presentation where nobody had any questions And that makes me nervous. And she was like that means we. We've made the presentation great after everyone. And I said but we need some interaction. We need to be able to challenge some of these owners to to get better with our presentation. Is it that we should be diving into more digital marketing and what our plan is for that? Should we be diving into what look like you, what you wanna look for in recruiting, you know where that additional is. I think if you have an open mind to keep challenging the system and yourself to become better, I think that support just falls in in line of what we're providing our owners. I. If you stay stagnant, your owners are gonna stay stagnant. And I don't think that's a good way to, to stay in, in market. I don't think that is a good way to build a brand, but more importantly you gotta be up with the times and know and have the flexibility to make some positive changes to retain more market share.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:I love that. That was great. I completely agree. People listening in, they, we have, we, we mix up the topics of the shows and, but one thing I always like to ask is, if you can share some advice, so a lot of people are make are looking to make that first leap. So they've never owned a business, maybe they had an Airbnb that's been a common business theme. But what advice would you give to someone that is. Maybe sick of the corporate grind. They don't wanna work for their employer anymore. They've explored business ownership but are struggling making that decision or taking that leap, what advice would you give to that corporate person in that specific situation that is really scared to make the leap and leave that job?
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Sure. think and that's where that's where I'm unique too because, I didn't get into this position by coming up through, through the ranks. And so a lot of the advice, a lot of the talks that that I get to have with Is about making that leap. I was in corporate America, in the automotive industry. Something happened where I said, man, I really love business. My family was in business for over 160 years multi-generation. Yes, I, sisters and I broke my father's heart when we left Michigan and came down south and didn't take it over. We were the last generation to kill it, but. One of the things that I would always say is do your research This is till I, I say this to every probably some of your candidates that came, that you brought to Resta Pros is don't rely on somebody else to tell you about the research in your market. you are looking for a brand, if you are looking go out. And I did that as a business owner. When I was looking at a restaurant or I was looking at a retail space, I would go when they first opened up, I would go during the slow times. I would go during a high peak time. is somebody, if they're operation only stayed open until six, what did operation, what did business traffic look like at seven?
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Right.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:potential for me to expand? And I would say a, do the research about the market in the brand that you're looking at. remember and this is something that people always, I always pause when I hear, why do you wanna become a business owner? And they immediately say, I want more freedom. I will tell you now, folks. Business ownership does not give you more freedom. You are 24 7. But what it does is that it gives you the flexibility to create your own career path, right? And it for your family, for you for any legacy. It gives you that flexibility. Because like we always say, you are gonna do it one way because you were investing the money in it. Somebody else you're is gonna work for you. But the biggest thing that I always tell people is do self-evaluation. And self-evaluation is going to be, that's the last key to it. Do your research, make sure that you understand your why and lastly, self-evaluation. Are you somebody that can be disciplined to follow a process? you someone that can hold and articulate expectations? And then lastly, are you able to hold people accountable to your expectations And be disciplined again? It's a full circle. It comes around, it's not bad if you don't like to stay within some guardrails, it's not bad. It's just, I think each business owner needs to know their strengths and their weaknesses and be able to build a team around all of those different qualities.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah I love that you don't, it's franchise ownership. It's. You don't need experience necessarily in the industry the franchisor can teach you. But ultimately what do you bring to the table? What's your role? What's that transferable skillset? Coming from Wall Street and you're getting into the restoration business. Sure. If you're an extrovert, if you're great at networking and can manage teams franchise ownership, that added layer, I always say you have to make sure you can follow. Systems. We're not buying the McDonald's of the worlds to change their menu. But if you're open and honest and what do you want? What are you looking to create? What do you bring to the table? There, there are no right or wrongs. Sometimes it's it, more importantly than anything else, it's, I wanna make a lot of money, but I do want the flexibility to, for me, become a soccer coach and, coach the kids' games and I've. I don't think I've missed a game ever and since my son was four years old or my daughter's Girl Scout events and music and things like that. Jot those things down. There's no right or wrong. Not the I always get the what ifs. It depends. At the end of the day, what do you anticipate or what do you envision your ideal business being from the role to the people you're doing business with, to the people even you employ? Are you okay? Do you want the system, I always say built for you? Or do you want to build it from scratch? These are also questions to help you figure out if a franchise could be a good fit. But these are all valid things. There's not, you don't have to do research. You really have to look inward and figure out, do I, am I okay with this? The realities of business ownership are, it's not easy. As you mentioned, you're not getting any time freedom. You're gonna be working your butt off that first year. You're gonna be investing money, working your butt off and trying to. Build that right team. I think being honest and setting the expectation and some of the people will filter themselves out and say, you know what? The timing isn't right, or I'm not willing to take the risk. And it's then you gotta go back to that. Why? If the why is strong enough, then you have to figure out will my current job get me to this? Why? And that why is, not missing the games and the family event. That y has to be very strong because there's gonna be ups and downs. It's, business ownership is cyclical. I always stress that, and people just wanna dive in and talk about brands, and I'm like, we're gonna get into all that. And I know they get super excited, what do you got? Show me what you got and, what are they, restaurants, non restaurants. You wanna get clear on that Once you have the foundation, we can figure out, I think finding the brands is actually easier than people think. The hard part is getting them get, getting people to open up and being honest with themselves as to what this vehicle they're, what they're looking for this, what they're looking to get from this vehicle, I guess is what I was trying to say. I get really excited about that because, people wanna dive into the brands on the first call and I'm like, I know nothing about you, let alone, even if I did we would still have to see what's available in your market. Did I miss anything there?'cause this is such a crucial part of this whole process that people just glance over and just, dive in. And I call it they settle, let's I don't wanna work nights and weekends, but I'm gonna buy a restaurant because I love the sandwiches at this franchise or the burgers here. And they don't realize okay, you're open seven days a week, holidays, weekends, you got a lot more employees. You have a lot more turnover. I feel like I, I don't know. I talk about it all the time and then I'll get on that first call and people want to dive in and talk about the brands available in the market.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:take such a great and a lot of even, your counterparts I, you take such pride in really, I. research that you do in brands and you wanna be able to guide those folks. I remember you saying, listen, I only give people a couple of brands'cause I don't wanna get'em overwhelmed. I,
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:All right.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:out their why. I find out their likes because if you don't like what you're do, and I can't give you a, a brand that you're not gonna or an industry that you're not gonna
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Right.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:You wake up every day and you know you don't like dirt and you. You a landscaping company, this isn't, that's not gonna be a good fit. I love that aspect of, you're also doing the research on that individual and trying to make sure that you can present brands that, that makes sense and be able to give them the full scope. I think if you give somebody 20 brands and it's all over the board.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:That's a lot.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:not gonna, not gonna be able to move. So I, I would say that another thing that, that I would say too about franchising and going from working for somebody else to working for yourself is the why is important, but it's also, what are you. What are you looking to get out of it? And I think that's what makes B. Rugged really really special because we know not one size fits all. It just doesn't, there are so many different people and there's so many different behaviors and personalities and things like that we really do. We start out owner operator, we have an option for semi involved. then we have the executive model and we have something for every single brand, in one of those three options. And we go through that from the very beginning with our prospects. We'll say, Hey, what, we know you don't know everything about this brand, but right now, today, if we were to award you something, what would you do? How would your business be structured?
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Right.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:I'm in this job. I need the business to get up here. Okay, now we know your goals instead of you need to be in the market seven, seven days a week from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon. We're gonna have to help you build a team to fill that role because you're not gonna be able to do it if you're semi involved. And I think it's important to, to be able to listen. our owners and one thing that I will tell you I've learned is to be absolutely transparent in your business we have such a long relationship with these owners that is the best, team building, brand building. That you can do because the message doesn't change. They come through and you're there to be really guiding them. But that is what I mean when we say Resta Pros Foundation. We've never changed the foundation. We want you to go out and build relationships that starts from our vendors to our customers. And. And that model, I think is just in important to, to be transparent. When they get into the system, they're gonna, they're gonna find out if you weren't anyway.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Yeah you're exactly, this is what, 10 year agreement, right? Usually. This is a marriage, is this is something long term. You need to be really clear and you guys do a great job. Who is our ideal, who's our franchise avatar? If some brands need you to be full-time and you're like I'm keeping my job the first year. That's great. This is just, maybe this isn't gonna work unless you have the opportunity to really leave that job. But that role has to match who, that, that franchise avatar is. Sometimes I've seen brands struggle with that. I. Semi involved, not semi involved. They kind, they're not very clear. So being very clear on that end. That way it's, Hey, maybe Resto Pros isn't the best fit for you, but Scoop Brothers may be the better fit or vice versa. And that's another advantage of working with a, a parent company that has multiple brands. So I think that's a, it's a major advantage. With that being said, I always like to end the shows with a fun fact. So I don't know if you remember what you put on the forum, but fun, fun fact. Yeah. And what is that? I,'cause I this one I like and I have an add-on to yours, but I'll let you go first.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:I do. It is a fun fact is I ha enjoy skiing, water and snow. But a fun fact in my younger days literally slalom course every day
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Wow.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:beating the streets, and now my boys who are now 18 and 19, they're like. Oh my gosh. You can still do it. So that is my one thing that I do as we all continue to get older every year. I still continue to do the thing that I've done since I, I've learned how to ski when I was four years old water ski when I was four years old. And still do it every summer. Every opportunity.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:That's awesome. Yeah, skiing, I've always I'll throw a fun fact at you and a reason you'll probably never ever invite me skiing is that I went skiing I'll be 47 this year. I went skiing two years ago for the first time in Vermont with a good friend of mine, and I was on my. Probably my back or my butt the whole time. I could not, I've ne I don't give up very easily, but I gave up on skiing that first day, so maybe one of these days may maybe I just needed some extra guidance or coaching. But I literally had kids skiing around me as I'm on the kitty slope on my butt half the time or pretty much the whole time. So that's my little fun fact to skiing. But I've always envied people like, wow, this is. Absolutely unbelievable. My, my son who was 15 at the time picked it up immediately. He's an athlete and I've never been so frustrated before. Ended up drinking coffee the entire day, watching them to go down the slope. So if you have any tips definitely send our way. But I think I'm gonna give it one more shot and then that may go I.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:it'll be, I, And I think it's so funny because grow, growing up in Michigan, all of our snowhill up, up north we're. Built around golf courses, right? When the golf courses weren't used in Michigan, we would, bump out some hills and things like that on the fairways. And that became, our ski hills.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:All right.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:then moving down to North Carolina, we have a mountain that is about two hours away and it's 55 0 6, right? It's. Elevation 55 0 6. It's a little bit higher than what we would see in Michigan, and then we ventured out west. I have never skied in North Carolina again because I think just learning out there and continuing it is just, it was a game changer for us and our family. So I give a, give it another shot.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:One more shot. Okay.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:I've.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:You have faith? Okay, you haven't seen the video. I wish someone took video.'cause after the video you probably say, you know what, maybe not. But we'll we're gonna give it one more shot. I promised my son we'd we'd go out one more time. But I do appreciate you coming on the show. This was, it was really fun. I jokingly said, wish we recorded the first conversation. We were covering quite a few topics, but looking forward to you bringing back on and keeping us with updates. Right on, on B. Rugged. Additional brands that, that are coming to market. Looking forward to that and looking forward to seeing you soon in Cincinnati.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Absolutely. Thank you so much
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Thanks, Jen.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:I appreciate it.
giuseppe_1_05-13-2025_140832:Thanks. It was great. Take care.
shannon-roderick_1_05-13-2025_140832:Bye-bye.
Thanks for tuning in if you want to learn how to make the transition from corporate to owning your franchise. Join Giuseppe on the next episode. You can also follow on all social media platforms and achieve financial and time freedom today.
