What's Holding You Back from Franchise Freedom?

Escape the Corporate Trap with this episode featuring two top franchise business coaches! We reveal the shocking investment advisor franchise mistake 75% of people make, why your W2 job is the REAL risk, and the strategies for executive semi−absentee franchise ownership that give you time and financial freedom. Learn how to AI-proof your career and the 4-step process for investing in franchise success. 

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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Transcript

Wes Barefoot: 0:00

The experience that we have as franchisees has been overwhelmingly positive. We've three young kids at this point, so the time freedom, the flexibility that allows for us not having any sort of a W2 job or an employer has been amazing.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:16

You need that why? To remind you why the heck you got into this, to begin with. it's not all sunshines and rainbows. It's definitely worth it and what it can, create for your life and for your family. The perfect time and the time to do it is now if you want to take control because this is not an overnight thing.

Speaker: 0:33

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 Grammatico: 0:42

Okay. We have a very exciting episode for you today. I'm Giuseppe Grammatico of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, and we have,

Wes Barefoot: 0:49

I am Wes Barefoot with the Franchise Unfiltered Podcast.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:53

we are doing a dual podcast today. We've done this before and I wanted to bring my good friend and colleague Wes, to discuss, two franchise consultants and coaches, what we're seeing in the franchise industry andconversations we've been having with individuals looking to make that leap into to business ownership. that'd be great, instead of always hearing it from me, hearing it from Wes and vice versa, and getting a different perspective. Thanks for joining us today. wanted to kick things off. maybe just Wes since you know how we're gonna be publishing the show, if you can give the audience a little bit of background, of who Wes is and, just a little bit of background, how you got into franchising.

Wes Barefoot: 1:27

Yeah, absolutely. And been looking forward to doing this. I think this will be fun and hopefully folks will get some good value from it. But Giuseppe said we're both colleagues, we're both franchise consultants with the FranChoice Network. I've known Giuseppe for at least five years. I'm five and a half years or so into my consulting business with FranChoice. Been in franchising for the better part of 12 years at this point. Worked for a number of different franchisors earlier on in my career. Wore different hats, but did a lot of franchise development, franchise recruiting. For those brands that I worked for. And then that led to my wife and I buying our first franchise business seven and a half years ago now. We still actually own that franchise business. We've owned another franchise as well that we sold a couple of years ago. The experience that we have as franchisees has been overwhelmingly positive. We've three young kids at this point, so the time freedom, the flexibility that kind of allows for us not having any sort of a W2 job or an employer has been amazing. That's probably what I enjoy most about the consulting work is just getting to help other people explore franchising, take a more methodical approach to really understanding it, seeing the full landscape of all the different types of franchises that are out there. It's overwhelming for most people. They don't even know where to start. And I think we'll touch on that a little bit more as we go today. But yeah that's my story. Host a podcast called the Franchise Unfiltered Podcast. if you haven't come across it yet, hopefully you'll go check it out.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 3:08

Great episode. I've firstly checked it out. Lots of great guests and I definitely encourage you. We're gonna put all that in the show notes when we publish the shows, and depending how we, we publish this, I'm Guiseppe Grammatico Franchise Freedom is the name of my show. I got into franchising back in 2007. It was at 18 years ago, and with the FranChoice Network, gonna be seven years this year, I didn't realize I started before you. I for some reason.

Wes Barefoot: 3:32

I I was thinking it was right around the same time. I guess yeah. that, that far apart. I resigned from my last W2 job in February of 2020 and was planning to go to Minneapolis for training in March, and we ended up doing it virtually because COVID was really just emerging on the scene across the US at that point in time. So Fun times.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 3:53

I don't know who had the better timing.'Cause I started at the end of 2018 and then I started ramping things up and I launched the show in January of 2020,

Wes Barefoot: 4:02

Okay.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 4:02

wrote the book in February of 2020, and then March of 2020 was the shutdown. And I'm just like, wait, which actually was a blessing in disguise because I said, well, you can't get, you can't catch COVID doing a podcast interview. So we kind of,

Wes Barefoot: 4:15

Sure.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 4:16

were able to continue networking and talking with people.

Wes Barefoot: 4:18

True enough.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 4:19

yeah, background in franchising as well. I've owned, master franchises. I've owned a restaurant, was downsized by corporate America and made a lot of mistakes, had a lot of great wins, and kind of what, Wes was saying, our role is really to, empower and help individuals make that leap, not a blind leap, right? we wanna educate and help where we can. We all bring different backgrounds and experiences, which is, I think is awesome. I think that there's a huge benefit there. these aren't things we have learned from books. And, really just, you know, help, explain to someone, not what it will take, but hey, you know, I started a business it was February of 2007. It was my first franchise, not my first business. You know, what does it take, three months of no salary or income? You can expect that, but what did you know? How easy was that? And for me, I'm a numbers guy and I was well prepared. That hurt, those 90 days. I just, I was a corporate exec prior to that and was getting my salary, my bonuses, my commissions and all that. And, what does it take and all the planning and everything involved. So, yeah, we bring a lot from an experienced standpoint. I have I'll kick it off with the question if you're cool with it, because this is something, and we were talking about this prior, so we talk about the possibility of a franchise ownership owning. Owning a business, right? So whether you're a corporate exec. looking to leave that job downsize. Maybe you're coming outta the military and you're looking for what's, what's next. So we talk about, and we, we typically dive in, and I can't say it was in every episode, but, you know, we dive into the options and what to consider. But one, one thing that really hit me hard and I didn't realize the stat, is that the, president of the IFA, I was on a podcast, beginning of the year, And he said that of the people they interviewed, 75% of those individuals, said that they had thought about owning a business. So I kind of knew that. I thought maybe the number would be higher, but 75%. But what really hit me was that 75% of that group of people, three quarters of that group, did not move forward with a business because they didn't know where to start. how do you even start? Or what are things to even consider? So I have some thoughts, but I want to cue that to you and just get your kind of perspective and, where do you start? How do you make time for the research? What are the things you should have in place before starting a, an investigation or working with a, with the coach?

Wes Barefoot: 6:40

Yeah that's a pretty powerful stat. But I'm not shocked to hear it. And I think, when you think about where to start most people in this day and age their first inclination is gonna be, go online now we have chat GPT

Giuseppe Grammatico: 6:55

Right.

Wes Barefoot: 6:56

and all those types of tools. And so I think probably the hardest part of starting is sifting through all the noise that's out there, right? Because it's, it is really not that hard to go start Googling best franchise opportunities or best way to get outta my nine to five. But it's what do you do at that point? Because now you're flooded with information and it's so difficult to make heads or tails of any of it. What's legit, what's a scam, what's iffy? There's just, there's so much noise out there. I think it's one of the hardest things in this day and age that any of us deal with is, how to stay focused on things that are gonna move the needle towards the goals that we're working to accomplish. It's just so easy to get distracted and, it's just getting harder by the day to know what's true and what's not. Especially with stuff that you see online. I think the first place, that someone should start before, you start looking at specific businesses or any of that is just, really sit down and, take good old fashioned pen to paper and your goals out. Get really clear on it because, you and I talk with a lot of people, Guiseppe and most of the people we talk to probably are gonna tell us that, they've thought about owning their own business at some point in time. Then we start asking some questions and going through our normal coaching process. And assume this is the case for you. A lot of the people I'm talking to, it's, once you ask one or two kind of clarifying questions, you can tell they haven't put a ton of time or thought into it. And I think part of where we can really help people is, like I said earlier, taking a more methodical approach to this whole process. And when it comes to, what franchises should I be looking at? Don't choose a franchise based on the product or the service. Choose a business based on the type of. that it has the type of lifestyle that it can allow. And does that align with your goals that, that you're working and the goals are financial? Yes, but not entirely financial. So I think that's the starting point is get crystal clear on what you want, because once you have that, then it's a lot easier to go out and find something that's gonna actually be the right type of vehicle to help you go get there. We've seen a lot of people, get into businesses that are probably fine businesses, but they're not the right business for them based

Giuseppe Grammatico: 9:25

Right.

Wes Barefoot: 9:25

what it is they're trying to accomplish.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 9:28

That's a good point. just because it worked for your friend or neighbor It doesn't mean it's a good fit for you. So, that you nailed it. One thing I'd add is get your, make sure you get buy-in, family has to know what, why you're doing this. you're married, you have kids. We didn't have kids. We were. Looking to start a family, but if you have kids or you know anyone in the house, letting'em know this is gonna be a busy time, right? There's gonna be investment. There's if, especially if you're keeping a job and running the business or leaving the job or whatever the case may be things are gonna be busy, but this is kind of why I am doing it. Going back to what you said about the why, letting everyone know, getting your finances in order. I can't tell you how many conversations I had where what are we talking investment wise and they're. Throwing numbers and it's like, well, what are you basing it on? And, not knowing liquidity and net worth. And I'm a finance guy, so I do a monthly review and update on my end. Quarterly meeting with the financial advisor, always trying to keep up to date, just in case, any mistakes, opportunity issues whatever the case may be. But getting situated, can, are you in a position to leave the job? To start the business? we talk about having the financial cushionto get up and running. these are things to really prepare for. But the why the why is the why important, if that makes sense. It's number one. It's what's driving you to own this, to your point. It's not the widget or the service, it's the vehicle that'll get you there.

Wes Barefoot: 10:48

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 10:48

But, I'm self-employed full-time, 20, 25 years. If you factor in my side hustles and things like that, and business ownership is a rollercoaster ride. it's cyclical. And you need that constant reminder. So when you're having a rough, and I've had some rough years or rough days, and, you know, 2008 was not an easy year, although it wasn't a surprise. You need that why? To remind you why the heck you got into this, to begin with. So it's not all sunshines and rainbows. It's definitely worth it and what it can, you know, create for your life and for your family. But it's cyclical. You know, there's ups and downs. hopefully it's more ups and downs, that's my 2 cents.

Wes Barefoot: 11:26

It's just like life, there's seasons. There's definitely ups and downs and, at the end of the day, you're never gonna have complete control over what happens and how things go. But I think, for anyone out there that is curious or intrigued by the idea of business ownership and you hear us have this conversation like, oh, it's a rollercoaster. It's ups and downs. It's yeah, but so is life. I was working for the same corporation for 30 years. When you own a business though, even though you'll never be able to control everything, I think you maintain a lot more control over your livelihood, over your time than you do if you're essentially, trading yourself, your time, your work, your effort for a salary of some sort. So

Giuseppe Grammatico: 12:12

Agreed.

Wes Barefoot: 12:12

little bit of a reframe can be necessary. Especially, as you get closer and closer to making a big decision, like starting a business, buying a franchise, you need to come back to that why. And you also need to, reframe'cause everyone immediately jumps to the it's so risky to start a business. Yeah, sure, there's some risk. It's risky to get in the car and drive to the grocery store, but we do it. It's risky to sign a job contract for a set amount of money every year,'cause that company is not obligated to keep you on

Giuseppe Grammatico: 12:47

That's a good point.

Wes Barefoot: 12:48

Right. And it's, look, if you work for a big publicly traded company and even most private companies, they're, they have fiscal responsibilities to shareholders. To investors. So if it comes down to you or the bottom line. chooses the bottom line every time, and it's usually not personal. It's usually business,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 13:07

Right.

Wes Barefoot: 13:08

right? But I think a lot of people lose sight of how risky that actually is to say, yes, I'm gonna trust that you're gonna pay me what you you're gonna pay me for. An indefinite amount of time, that's what's going to keep a roof over my family's head and keep food on the table for my family.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 13:28

Yeah, it's a risk. It's one income stream that can come to an end at any point. Maybe there's some severance or something offered as well. But, happened to a family member not too long ago. We were, we were discussing that and I said, well, what did, what was, what was the plan B? What, how did you prepare? And they said, didn't expect this to happen

Wes Barefoot: 13:46

What franchise were you getting them into?

Giuseppe Grammatico: 13:48

What's that? What which franchise? We did talk about that and with this family member, I, I said definitely need to get family buy-in before we, we start talking brands because obviously everyone's gotta be on the same page. So it was a recent conversation and yeah, that's to be continued. That's, that'll be a future future episode. But that's the big part of it. It's, it's being prepared what I talk about is franchising as a safety net. Not knowing if this job job loss will happen, massive layoffs. So why not have something as a backup? Maybe something where you keep the job and you run it part-time. Now, I will say not every, it won't work with every brand. And that's not something you could just pick and choose, and that's part of the value we bring to the table. But the idea of a safety net in the event, you're collecting. So the way I look at it is you're collecting income, you're building this entity. So that number one, if you do get laid off or when you get laid off, I should almost re rephrase that. You'll have something to go to, but also you are now, as you mentioned, in control so that, you know what, I'm sick of commuting. I don't need maybe this W2 income. The businesses maybe got me to cover my bills, my expenses. I'm now ready to dive in full-time. So I guess what's your thoughts on a safety net? Because to me it, it sounds like a no-brainer when having conversations. There's still risk, there's still an investment, and you're gonna be, you're gonna be putting in a lot of time after work. What are your thoughts on a safety net or another way to looking at franchising as to really safeguard your job.

Wes Barefoot: 15:21

Yeah, there's two ways people typically get into franchising. It's either more of what you just described, which I think for the right person. To your point, it has to be the right type of franchise. No one's gonna sit here and argue with you that investing in real estate is a dumb idea, right? No one's gonna be like, oh no, that's stupid. Who invest in real estate? It's understanding. Yeah, if you can invest in real estate. Go invest in real estate. It's a smart thing to do. There's so many similarities to, investing in the right type of franchise as a safety net. The way that you describe it, if done it's gonna be a cash flowing asset, Checks the same boxes as real estate, although chances are it's gonna cash flow a lot more. And, over a year long period than a piece of real estate is it's gonna be an appreciating asset. As long as you're continuing to grow and build a profitable business. People buy and sell franchises all the time, just like people buy and sell real estate. I think there's a lot more head trash involved in a lot of cases for people when it comes to, I'm gonna buy this, real estate and all I've gotta do is rent it out and make sure, the HVAC gets fixed if it breaks, whereas I think where people get tripped up in something a franchise is, there's a lot bigger risk of failure. In their eyes. I'm not even saying there's actually all that more risk, you have to show up and execute. Think about it we all know people that have spent. A million dollars plus on their primary residence, which is not a cash flowing asset. Hopefully it's an appreciating asset that'll go up in value over time, but there's no guarantee on that. But it's taking money outta your pocket every month. You buy a million dollar home and you what? Go look at it maybe once, twice with a real estate agent. You have someone else go do, it. And you're just okay, sign off. Most people are not having an attorney review the mortgage documents from the bank, which when you read those, it's pretty fricking one-sided With a franchise there's a lot of franchises out there, great franchises that are gonna require far less than a million dollars, to get up and running. People put themselves through hell, making this decision. And it's always Been something thatI've scratched my head about. And I thinkwhat it does boil down to is you buy a primary residence, all you gotta do is move in and live there. When you buy a business, you have to show up and you have to execute and we're all, afraid of failing. So I think that's where some of it is. But anyways, to get back to your original point, the right type of franchise as a safety net, as a way to diversify, as a way to lay the groundwork for yourself to exit corporate, hopefully more on your terms than on their termsmakes a lot of sense. It can make a lot of sense too for someone that's been laid off or just totally burned out on working for someone else to just make that complete pivot. That's the other way that people get into franchising. And my wife had been laid off we bought our first franchise not too long after she had been laid off. And, we'd also had our first kid, she was actually, this is funny now, she was on maternity leave when her position was eliminated.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:39

While she was on maternity leave?

Wes Barefoot: 18:40

While she was on maternity leave

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:41

Not funny then.

Wes Barefoot: 18:43

It wasn't funny then,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:44

No.

Wes Barefoot: 18:44

now.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:44

Wow.

Wes Barefoot: 18:45

it's a good reminder for us that things tend to happen for a reason, even if you can't necessarily see it in the moment.'Cause she was having some guilt about, once maternity leave was over, going back to work full-time, her daughter would've been in daycare full-time. It absolutely worked out for the best. And we used that opportunity. We'd already been, talking about ways we could start our own business and, she could work and produce, but do it in a more flexible manner. And that's how we got into franchise. It was a complete pivot for her, out of a corporate job. for the right person with the right type of franchise I the way you describe it as a safety net, I would encourage people zoom out a little bit about a franchise in the same context. You would think about investing in real estate or, other. Smart, savvy investments that most people would tell you. Yeah. That's probably something worth educating and learning more about.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 19:38

I that approach and it seems to eliminate some of the fears because you still got the income coming in and the writing's on the wall, if you're gonna be losing your job, you have some sense as to Yeah. what's going on. Sometimes we're completely surprised, but, I've gone through that and it's not fun, I don't wish that on anyone. we're in the same boat, right? We're working with individuals daily. Everyone's situations are different. what what are you hearing? What are you saying to individuals? Are there consistent themes? maybe some advice that you, you'd to share with the audience?

Wes Barefoot: 20:08

Yeah. in terms of consistent themes that I'm hearing regularly, I think it's finally set in with a lot of people that this whole AI thing we've been hearing so much about over the last couple years is real and it's

Giuseppe Grammatico: 20:22

Yeah.

Wes Barefoot: 20:22

moving faster than I think many of us realized. And it will, have an impact. And it's not entirely clear yet, what exactly that impact is gonna be on every single industry out there, or the extent of that impact but I think it's got some people concerned and probably rightfully so I think there are more people out there starting to think about, hey what's my plan B or How can I hedge my bets or give myself a safety net of some sorts? Getting a lot of people asking about, it was first recession proof, years ago. Then it was pandemic proof after COVID, so now I'm hearing a lot of people ask about AI proof businesses and the good news is they're out there. I don't know that. Everything will be AI proof forever, but there's a lot of franchises out there that you and I work with that are not in a position right now where AI is gonna be able to come in and massively disrupt their industry. In fact, a lot of these franchises can really use AI in smart ways to enhance their business and, make it a better experience for the customers. Make things like marketing and advertising easier, streamline day-to-day operations for their franchisees. Even though we're talking about jobs being eliminated here, AI can, result in you as the franchise owner needing fewer employees, which is probably gonna help your bottomline.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 21:45

Right.

Wes Barefoot: 21:46

I would say that's a very positive aspect of AI is and we are constantly getting updates from brands that we work with about smart, clever ways they're implementing AI into the business. And it's not, a lot of times it's from companies you wouldn't really think of as being tech forward

Giuseppe Grammatico: 22:05

Mm-hmm.

Wes Barefoot: 22:05

Window coverings companies, flooring companies painting companies like, we work with a window washing concept that's using drones with AI software to clean windows on high rises. You don't have to have employees on ladders or scaffolding. It's pretty cool. So anyways, a common theme that I've been hearing a lot of is people, I think recognizing that, okay, this AI thing is real.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 22:30

That's real.

Wes Barefoot: 22:31

it's not going anywhere. And if I were to go the route of owning my own business, are some of the best options to look at that are gonna be at least somewhat insulated from ai?

Giuseppe Grammatico: 22:41

Yeah. I, I agree. Yeah. I mean, certain, certain businesses like home services, it's gonna be hard for ai. they're implementing it and I think, We're at the point at this stage, and yes, it's kind of really grown. I never thought it would, be growing this rapidly or we'd be talking about it so much. But to your point talking and interviewing founders and different brands and different franchise companies, you're hearing things yeah, we're, we're embracing it. we're actually gonna use the, the transcript from this podcast, and we're gonna put that into our platform because the AI learns, the AI speaks in your voice, the AI. there's a, a painting concept that we work with and the ai, they created their own, chat GPT version and the ai, you ask it questions and it's specific for that brand. We'll respond, we'll send videos. And if, if they can't find the solution, it actually goes to a group of franchisees. that they're all, the technicians are all kind of interacting with one another.

Wes Barefoot: 23:34

Yep.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 23:34

the brands are investing, they're owning the platforms. They're not using the free stuff. They're actually investing in their own ai to really take advantage of the technology to make, as you mentioned, the franchisees much more, efficient. It's definitely a buzzword. we've been talking about it quite a bit, but you've seen huge changes to your point. being able to cut back on headcount and helping the franchisee be a little bit more competitive or a lot more competitive and profitable, with staff. Andyet Owning that business, you get to tap into these huge investments that the franchisors are making because that's being equally distributed. All the franchisees obviously have access to this technology and you have that buying power that it would be really difficult to do on your own. I implement AI and there's only so much I can do, but you hear these national brands, spending the money so that everyone can really take advantage and be as efficient as possible.

Wes Barefoot: 24:25

these learning models work is the more information you feed it, the faster it learns, if you've got one small local business, teaching its AI that's gonna learn and grow. But if you've gota franchise organization with a hundred plus franchisees across the country, all feeding it information, it's gonna learn much faster and become a much more efficient tool

Giuseppe Grammatico: 24:50

Agree.

Wes Barefoot: 24:51

Much quicker. And then there's the buying power and all of that. I feel for local mom and pop companies out there thateither don't even see it coming fully yet, everything that's happening with AI. They're aware of it and they don't know where to even start. It's so hard to get educated on, everything that's out there from an AI standpoint and, different ways you can implement some of these tools And it's changing literally by the day. being a part of an organization where they probably have people on their team who it's their sole focus or a primary responsibility of theirs to be learning AI, helping to implement it. Gonna give people a huge leg up going forward.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 25:32

What other other kind of piece of advice, things you're hearing for someone that is, you know, exploring the idea of, uh, owning a business? What other advice would you give to someone that, or topics or anything relevant.

Wes Barefoot: 25:45

I think just, look, educate yourself, right? The way I coach anyone that I start working with, I'm sure it's very similar to how you do at Giuseppe is. This is a learning process, it's an educational process. Obviously there's other ways to get into business for yourself other than franchising, right? You and I could sit here for the next three plus hours and talk about some of the many advantages of going the franchise route. But, the fact of the matter is there's pros and cons to any pathway that you may take to getting into business for yourself. If it's something you're thinking about, if it's something you're curious about. You owe it to yourself to take the time to do some real research and to really educate yourself on franchising. We could probably pull up the exact number or get pretty close to it, but there are thousands upon thousands of franchise owners throughout the us that's not an accident, right? The overall model of franchising works when it's done well. Not all franchises are created equally. So that's a big part of where Giuseppe and I can add value to the people that we work with. We spend huge amounts of our time. We have other people around us that spend huge amounts of their time researching, vetting different franchise brands. But it's a great to do it. And there's gonna be risk at the end of the day, if you go into business for yourself, like we talked about earlier, there's risk, working for someone else, even though people don't tend to look at it that way as but there is. If done right, getting into a good franchise that's a good fit for you based on your experience and your skills is a way that you can pretty dramatically de-risk. That step of going into business for yourself, there's ways you can do it as more of a safety net where you can do it alongside of your corporate job. The point is just, educate yourself and that's that goes so far beyond just. Listening to some podcast or, doing some research online. Plug in with someone like Giuseppe, someone like myself, there's other great coaches and consultants out there that have real world experience, right? Have done this, have made mistakes, have learned from those mistakes, have helped other people make the same transition in their life. Look at it as just another way that you can educate yourself, invest in yourself, and you may be surprised that there, some amazing opportunities out there that are not even on your radar today.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 28:10

Yeah, I agree. I'm a big fan of the book,'Who Not How.' Finding the professional, finding someone that is the insider, but not just as an insider with information, but has own franchise, has own other businesses that has experienced thisthe franchise coach that I work with changed my life. Really opened me up to the world of franchising. fast food. I thought you had to be rich. I thought you had to have experience, that wasn't the case. It's really setting. Okay. These are some opinions. I have preconceived notions, whatever you wanna call it. But really saying, okay, this is where I'm at. Let me do a self-assessment. What's working, what's not working? Do I want to own a business? What am I trying to accomplish here? Where am I atin life? for me, I was starting a family. I'm kids won't remember that first year, that first two years. the timing is, when they say when's the right timing? It's never a perfect time. The perfect time and the time to do it is now if you want to take control because this is not an overnight thing. What I will say to add on is it was time freedom. That was the biggest thing I wanted to make money, growing up in a restaurant, a lot of hours, weekends, holidays, so it was time freedom. I became a soccer coach when my son turned four. He is now gonna be 18 in November, which is crazy. We're looking at colleges, so I've never missed a game. So that's what my vehicle, that's what my business has created for me. But what I will say, and this is where I think is missed, this is not created overnight. There is, there was no time freedom. My first year yes, I controlled my calendar, but it's a lot of work. But look at what that investment. Now, as I mentioned, I never miss my daughter's events. I've never missed a birthday party. I'm always around. I get to work from home, but there was a building up financial freedom. That's also great. Is that created the first year? Maybe not exactly where you wanna be, but it's this building phase I look at it, the way I viewed it was the first year was the building year. I'm gonna reinvest the profits. I'm gonna find my team, I'm gonna get educated, I had to replace someone that first year, but I got trained in a new business. Use that as a building year. So when you change your perspective a little to set the expectation and say, okay, this is gonna be my builder year, and then I will grow exponentially from there. That's what truly helped me. it wasn't a smooth ride. It took some reminders and things But looking back, when I launched my other businesses, it was the exact same thing. you build it up and then you find that team, you find the staff, you round up the staff, your employees, the lifeblood of that business that are more talented than you. You're not supposed to be the best at marketing and the best at sales. You're gonna hire this team to really help you run that business, following the systems of the franchise. That's the stuff where when I finally grasp it and found those right people, business just exploded from there. it just took me a little while to really understand it, and I admit that I was young 25, 26 years old, and it took me a little while to get it. But once it started clicking, it was a complete game changer.

Wes Barefoot: 30:54

I think, yeah, don't overthink it.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 30:57

agreed.

Wes Barefoot: 30:57

it's not a big decision, but we make arguably bigger are gonna have, bigger financial impact on you. We make those decisions without putting nearly as much thought

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:09

Right.

Wes Barefoot: 31:10

Overthinking as with something like investing in a franchise or investing in real estate. We will take a corporate job and just immediately put 10% into the 401k and you don't know who the hell's directing where that money's going or what's you have zero control over it. We don't think twice about it,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:28

No control all. Yeah.

Wes Barefoot: 31:29

something else it's investing in yourself. And I'm not saying you should not put thought and do your due diligence, but don't overthink it at the same time. That's where, you and I both see a lot of people get stuck

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:44

Yep.

Wes Barefoot: 31:44

they overthink and they overthink

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:46

Get unstuck.

Wes Barefoot: 31:47

Like you talk about financial freedom. It's a good point, with the time freedom. It's not gonna happen overnight. You're gonna have to go through a building season to get there. With financial freedom look at the wealthiest people in the world. People that have real financial freedom in most cases it doesn't come from one place,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 32:05

Correct.

Wes Barefoot: 32:05

it comes through multiple income streams. that's another thing I see people get stuck on is they feel like they've gotta hit a grand Slam with their first franchise. There's nothing wrong with your first franchise getting to a point where, you make 200 grand a year from it, but you have more time freedom. You've learned some stuff and you can take that and go apply it to, business number two or, use that as a stepping stone to the next level. Like it doesn't have to be this type of thing where you can see, that, hey, this is gonna help me accomplish every single one of my goals by itself. It's a piece of the puzzle in most cases.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 32:41

I love that. That makes complete sense. This was fun. I'm sure we could be talking for hours on this, but I appreciate this whole group format.

Wes Barefoot: 32:47

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 32:47

it's not just me. And I'm like, you know what? It's good to get different perspectives, even just how it's kind of approached. So I appreciate this dual show. We'll, maybe we'll do this again.

Wes Barefoot: 32:55

Yeah,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 32:56

Really soon. And, yeah, looking forward to it. And we'll touch base. So if anyone has any questions, put'em in the comments. Send us a message, reach out to any one of us. I'll put all our, our contact information in there. But, yeah, if there was something that we didn't discuss or you wanna cover on a future episode for the both of us, we're always looking for topics to discuss or guest. Send it our way, I'll share with Wes and vice versa and, looking forward to it and, till we speak again. Thanks again, Wes. It was fun. And we'll, we'll talk soon.

Wes Barefoot: 33:22

I enjoyed it. This was a lot of fun. Thanks for listening everyone.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 33:25

Thanks again, everyone. Take care.

Speaker 2: 33:27

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.