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Speaker 1
How do you build a business model that stands the test of time? Today we talk about that and start with the wind

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Speaker 1
Welcome to start with a win where we unpack leadership, personal growth and development

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Speaker 1
and how to build a better business. Let's go.

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Speaker 1
coming to you from area 15 ventures and start with a win. Headquarters. It's Adam Contos with start with a win. We're joined by someone who's done just that. Industry heavyweight and great friend Sam Dallas, as the founder and CEO of East Coast Wings and Grill, co-founder of Sammy Sliders and founder of XR ability, Sam's leadership and innovative franchise strategies have earned him a top spot in both the restaurant and franchise space.

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Speaker 1
Building business systems. That's important. Sam builds business systems with over 40 years in the game. He's here to share with you what it takes to build a sustained, successful brand over time. Welcome to the show, Sam.

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Speaker 2
Good to be here, Adam. Good seeing you.

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Speaker 1
Awesome. Hey. I mean, you've been involved in a ton of business over the years, building a lot of systems and processes, exhibiting a lot of leadership. And so everybody knows I'm on the board of the International Franchise Association. Association with Sam. We get to to talk business quite a bit. So this is an honor and a pleasure to see my good friend on here.

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Speaker 1
Sam, can you take us back? How did you start in business? How did we get to where we're at today?

00:01:20:05 - 00:01:42:07
Speaker 2
Well, you know, as far as the franchising space is concerned, I came from a Wall Street background. I ran, some some companies out in New York, in Manhattan, in North Carolina. At the time that franchising hit my doorstep. I was running, North Carolina for Hank Greenberg at AIG. And at the same time, I had a real estate passion.

00:01:42:07 - 00:02:16:04
Speaker 2
Right. So, real estate credentials have been since 1990. And in that passion of real estate, just wanting to buy some assets, etc.. I got invited into a transaction with, a, a wing concept, a single store concept. And, long story short, you know, as everybody's story goes in building, you know, your, your asset base or building your career, I was looking at this venture as maybe, you know, an extra $1,000 a month that maybe would pay the mortgage, right?

00:02:16:04 - 00:02:33:17
Speaker 2
I mean, I was building a family. I've got four kids today and I got grandkids today. So back in that day, it was kind of airy, you know, how do I build a you can bring it to the shop or, you know, help. So to fast forward to that, I'm a Greek immigrant son, so I grew up in the restaurant space.

00:02:33:17 - 00:02:52:04
Speaker 2
My family were restaurant owners. Right. And it's in my bloodline. And I was the first one to go to college. I was the first one to venture into making money without a spatula in his or her hand. So to speak. Right. And it was kind of a wow for the whole family line. And we're a big family.

00:02:52:04 - 00:03:11:15
Speaker 2
So for me, you know, to to look at this opportunity back then, that was just an economic opportunity, not knowing what I was going to do with it was crazy for the family, you know, what are you doing? You know, you're getting kind of like The Godfather three. You get pulled back in again, you know, and I'm like, well, you know, it's just an extra, you know, thousand dollar bill maybe, a month.

00:03:11:15 - 00:03:41:15
Speaker 2
So long story short, or, so to speak, it turned into wow, this is something different, right? I wonder if I can validate and proof this idea out for maybe this kind of growth. My family plan had done the restaurant space by regionalized, you know, a dozen locations or 15 locations to 20 locations. So I opened up the second location in a different market, but within a year, supply chain radius.

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Speaker 2
And so, let's see if I can duplicate it and then open the second location of East Coast Wings. At that point, there was no end grill. It was just a wing concept. Totally. And it did very, very well. So then I got intrigued. So I studied, you know, how do I roll this out differently than I grew up in and sustain an office job environment, so to speak?

00:04:06:03 - 00:04:35:17
Speaker 2
Not being in the grind of the restaurant daily, kind of appeasing that, that legacy play of, hey, we came this country, bro. We built some, some stout of wealth. We we sent you to college. You got educated well in the restaurant business, you know, from an immigrant perspective. And, I decided to, to investigate franchising, modeling and, and really spent 2000, 2001 really studying the model.

00:04:35:17 - 00:04:56:22
Speaker 2
I went to a lot of back that day. Adam, you can probably remember these days where they were doing, you know, hotel rah rah pitches, right? For, for, brands. Yep. I think my first one was Allied Demonic that owned, Dunkin Donuts. And the client in the coffee business. Ice cream. They had ice cream as well.

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Speaker 2
So I went to one of those in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I collected, I think, in two, two and a half years, maybe 2 or 3 dozen of if the these which then they were called UFO cases. And so I studied and I decided that, you know, this might be something I could do differentiating that would make, you know, the family and happy that I didn't waste the college education.

00:05:19:15 - 00:05:38:06
Speaker 2
Which is never waste in the education is good education. But from that immigrant perspective, it was kind of like, you know, get out of the grind of the restaurant space and do something smaller than us. In the meantime, all these guys were getting very wealthy in the restaurant. Right. I'm thinking that this is something that you're telling me to get out, but you're all driving Mercedes and you all have nice houses.

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Speaker 2
I mean, what's up with this? What's the situation? Right. That's kind of how I got into it. And, you know, just started grinding. I still, still have the spots on my hand back in that day, but that's how it started.

00:05:50:00 - 00:06:10:02
Speaker 1
There you go. Well, as the, as somebody from a Greek lineage, also, I appreciate it. And I think my family was into the restaurant space also. So, it's it's really interesting. You have a lot of Greek immigrants that really, get deep into restaurants here, but it's Sam said a couple of interesting things and what he was talking about here.

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Speaker 1
I want everybody to notice this. Sam went from horizontal scale of, let's say you have a restaurant, then you open another restaurant, you open another restaurant, you're in this horizontal scale at that point. And what Sam looked at is, okay, if we get into franchising, you're in this vertical scale. So, right. You start doing, you know, maybe instead of building multiple restaurants, you build systems that build restaurants and you have restaurants, the restaurant owners within your system that you don't own the restaurant, but somebody else does, but you're still making money out of it.

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Speaker 1
So it's it's fascinating how, you know, when you compare vertical and horizontal scaling within franchising, how you can start building more wealth. And Sam noticed that he he took out of that real quick, you know, with a wealth of business knowledge also, and that entrepreneurial spirit which we love so much, you you pioneered multiple innovative franchise strategies, Sam.

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Speaker 1
So you went from the, the wings, and grill to, you know, you got Sammy sliders and you have another business that actually helps with the building of franchises. Take us into your, your concept of, you know, can you franchise this was your ability. What what started that?

00:07:25:08 - 00:07:47:22
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it was a to basically, you know, the ability started with the the desire to help emerging brands or help chain style brands who want to enter the franchise model in what we feel like and I feel like is the correct way to enter in what you just described as perfect, right? So I think a founder of a brand has to have a horizontal play, right?

00:07:47:22 - 00:08:18:14
Speaker 2
You've got to to open one, open to open three, validate, validate, validate, prove, prove, prove. And then before you start going vertical, how do you in the restaurant space how you develop the correct supply chain. What does that look like logistically. So for me it was really critical that I went horizontal because I came from a background that at the, you know, the Christmas table or the or the holiday table, if you didn't have a 35, 40%, you know, in LA, you had to go sit with the kids right now.

00:08:18:14 - 00:09:01:11
Speaker 2
The restaurant space today has completely changed that. That's almost unattainable at that. Have, of of an ally but saw ability for me was a brainchild of mine back in 2016 when I started recognizing that I had started kind of the wave of of putting EBITDA in print, little old East Coast Wings and Grill Regionalize in the southeast, you know, 14 years ago, and I am 19, and all of a sudden that everybody's putting, you know, percentages and dollar amounts in print as far as earning claims, we I believe, were maybe the first brand to ever stick a dollar in print and say, hey, this is what my people earned last year on an average

00:09:01:11 - 00:09:25:19
Speaker 2
of the entire system. So as I started getting people asking me for advice or, hey, can I pick your brain about this culture you've built? And I've got a 200 locations or 140 locations. I'm having a hard time. I start realizing, man, there's just so many people that take the horizontal direction initially, but then get pulled into that vertical too fast.

00:09:25:21 - 00:09:47:17
Speaker 2
Who are ready for that? And, the ability for me was a brainchild on the plane flying back from, the finance and development. The restaurant shown in Las Vegas and thinking, now, how do I develop something that I can have a legacy play? And it paid back, you know, to the franchise model to help these emerging brands or reemerge and brands.

00:09:47:19 - 00:10:09:03
Speaker 2
And on the plane, I just thought, you know, franchisors is yours, you know, and that's really, you know, do you have the ability to be coach. Do you have the ability to, you know, can your brand be franchised as a vertical? And quite frankly, can you as a founder be franchise both as a vertical? Right. And I think there's two distinctions in that has to be really tackled.

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Speaker 2
And so I put XLR and capital A with the ability and creates or ability on the 3 hour or 55 minute flight, you know, in the air and then I invite some people that had talents there. I know that that restaurant space and built in these were exclusive to the restaurant space. And we have helped some non restaurant brand with just Ali and and and you know EBITDA and panel culture build etc..

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Speaker 2
You know love economics type of build. But for me it's kind of the legacy play right now is ability has brought other opportunities on where you have emerging brands that says, hey, I've gone horizontal, we've gone vertical and I'm imploding. You know, something's not right with my vertical. Well, you went vertical too fast. You didn't get your supply chain ready.

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Speaker 2
Your, you know, your two people and your eight franchise owners and your, you know, 12 locations with your corporate stores, and you can't be all the hats forever, right? What does that look like? Well, just capitalism that look like. So, for measurability was kind of, you know, when I decide to retire one day, which is a franchise in space usually is never right, because even when you, you get out of, the race of building concepts and building models, you're there consulting or coaching or speaking or whatever.

00:11:34:06 - 00:11:57:09
Speaker 2
You know, what do I want people to say about my journey? And Sam Balas new to the space. I don't want to be just East Coast wings and Grill and, consistent drumbeat of, you know, love economics, using that as a barometer of brand unit growth, which we do laser like focus and very disciplined. And that's why I'm a regionalized lifestyle brand with that concept.

00:11:57:11 - 00:12:05:12
Speaker 2
And durability is kind of my my selfish way of developing that legacy play and giving back to the model.

00:12:05:14 - 00:12:41:07
Speaker 1
I love that, and you, you hit something here that I think is really important, these two components that really have to function together but actually function separately. And that's the founder piece. And essentially the unit level economics piece. Or you know, the, the same store profitable. So when, when you take a look at, you know, and I want to address the founder piece secondarily, but, you know, a lot of people think that, okay, I've got something that's making money here or that shows profitability on the bottom line here.

00:12:41:13 - 00:12:53:09
Speaker 1
So it must be franchise able. Do you? I mean that that seems like a big fallacy to me because there are lots of balls being juggled in the air at this time, and there's no system around it.

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Speaker 2
That's right. It's it's a huge it's a huge mistake. Right. Because the franchise owners profitability comes from systems in place, comes from the very definition of franchising where the founder or founders have gone through all of the weeding of the concept and have identified all the problems. Right. And and in franchising the definition, you're supposed to have the optimal opportunity for success non-guaranteed because you can't guaranteed on operators going to operate once they're on the ground.

00:13:26:14 - 00:14:03:03
Speaker 2
Right. And the the arms are in their hands and they're attracted to the field. It's a different mentality than conversating about it, going through the everyday process and creating a relationship and launching, you know, a new location. But people need to understand that as founders, the middle of the panel is where it makes and breaks you and and you can't just take 2 or 3 stores that you're able to make 25 points on, or 30 points on or 19 points on and instantly say, man, this is the moneymaker because there's then operating cost to the franchise owner.

00:14:03:03 - 00:14:24:01
Speaker 2
You've got to retract. In order for you to fund the support, you have to give them. So you have to understand immediately there's A67 percent reduction of that in a life or that individual. Then you've got taken the account, the debt servicing. Right. What is your ratio of development calls? There's so much more involved before you just launch and go.

00:14:24:01 - 00:14:43:23
Speaker 2
And I tell you, it is astonishing how many brands call us, ones that we decide to work with, ones that we decide not to work with, that have taken that track. Right. I've got two locations and I'm doing 35 points, 37 points, and I think I can make this go to I can be the next force.

00:14:43:23 - 00:15:05:15
Speaker 2
Watching $1 billion public evaluation. Right. And I'm thinking, stop the press. You know, you've got to have supply chain. You've got to have support mechanism. You got to and then you got to have enough. And you're not going to have the revenue to support that in the first 20, 25, 30 locations. Right. So we teach your ability that you've got to have some pillars.

00:15:05:15 - 00:15:27:01
Speaker 2
Right. You got to have, you know, love economics as a culture. Understood. Not just in place. What does that mean. What are you measuring. How are you trying to move the needle? And is those processes and procedures transferable? Make me I, Adam, can embrace it and have a trust with it and roll with it. Right. Can they execute that huge pillar?

00:15:27:01 - 00:15:52:02
Speaker 2
You got to figure out. Then you've got to figure out, you know, after a few franchised locations, maybe 3 or 4, you got to stop the press and make sure you're massage those those owners for maybe a year, even though you're itching to go 20 more. Don't write. Spend a year with 3 or 4 operator operators so you they can feel the reality of what they're willing to do or not do, or what they can and can't do.

00:15:52:04 - 00:16:16:17
Speaker 2
So you can identify how to shift your systems and make them more understandable, more embraceable. Right for execution. So your franchisee validation is critical as a pillar. And I think you can't do that if you jump out of the chute with 3 or 4 corporate founding locations and sell 30 in 1 year and open up 20, you're going to be too busy trying to figure it out of how just to function.

00:16:16:17 - 00:16:39:06
Speaker 2
And you're going to miss a lot of critical components that you need to understand to make your system more sound. And the third huge pillar, and when I tell this to brands, even at 100 locations strong that call us to like, well, how do you do that? You've got to have a strategy to be rewarded. Sufficient. Now, how fast can you get to and what does that timeline look like?

00:16:39:08 - 00:17:01:11
Speaker 2
And what does that unit count look like? In order for you not to do a deal and get a license fee and to pay your support expenses as a brand, right? As a corporate model, as a service center model. So that to me is a strategy. You know, how many units based on your EVs and how you drive the middle of the panel?

00:17:01:13 - 00:17:25:11
Speaker 2
And what do you have systems in place for those franchise owners? For me, it was 21 locations, right? I passed 21 locations. I didn't have to do another deal, and I had enough revenue coming in to to suffice paying for that support mechanism the franchise owners expect in that agreement they signed a franchise agreement they've signed. So it is critical and there's so many components.

00:17:25:11 - 00:17:53:21
Speaker 2
And my biggest advice to a listener is if you've got, you know, a half a dozen, ten, three, two locations don't come with one location, it's not going to do it right. You have to have 2 or 3 different market locations to validate your product lines and your service lines go into franchising smartly when you start your vertical, but maybe no more than six locations open for the restaurant space and stop your press.

00:17:53:23 - 00:18:14:05
Speaker 2
Have enough funding ready so you can do that for a year so you can retract the data you need from the franchise owners who are going to tell you in the front lines what's going on, so you can tweak your system to be more sound helping them. But then that next round of six that come in are going to have a better experience, then you stop it again.

00:18:14:07 - 00:18:39:05
Speaker 2
Tweak that the second year, the next round six come in even a better experience when you think you have it clad where then your intellectual capital gets outgrown by the growth which is going to happen. I call it a boss is right David. Bar ism. It's going to happen that the systems are easily transferable. The next talent that comes in ride to keep your system moving.

00:18:39:10 - 00:19:03:16
Speaker 2
So it is a historical process. And I tell our XR ability clients and we have them that are from the ground up, we have them that have started that vertical and, and and realized, you know, ten locations later, oh, nobody's making money. What happened? Well, you shouldn't have gone vertical. You know, the previous advisors getting maybe a little flawed, maybe too aggressive.

00:19:04:05 - 00:19:20:01
Speaker 2
But we make them stop franchising and we call the attorneys stop the FTD. We got to fix this because now you have franchise owners livelihoods online, and you're experimenting with their livelihoods. And I think that's just bad franchise. And you shouldn't be doing that.

00:19:20:03 - 00:19:38:22
Speaker 1
Well, it's interesting because, you know, there's constant evolution going on in here, especially in the early days. And it's also capital intensive, as Sam has said. So you've and I just see so many people come into franchising with just enough money to run one location and they're like, I'm going to franchise. I'm like, it's going cost you a lot more than that.

00:19:39:00 - 00:20:16:18
Speaker 1
Yeah. So I mean, it's, you know, you talked about the staying power of the capital and being able to fund this thing. But I want to I want to switch over now to the founder piece because I think this is really important. And something always pops up and I call it founder's syndrome, and that is that they get so enamored in, in their particular thought or process or, you know, I've got this amazing way of cutting hair or washing houses or, you know, making a sandwich or whatever it is that they get lost in that instead of understanding that, you know, you have to be adaptability in order to make, you know, supply chain and

00:20:16:18 - 00:20:44:23
Speaker 1
customer desires and the franchise location, you know, like you talk about the middle of the PNL work that founders can't see that sometimes. So, how do we how do we find that key aspect, or what do we look for in founders where they have the humility to say, I wasn't quite right on that, or I have to adjust my recipe, or I have to adjust my process in order to make this profitable, because I've seen it a bunch of times in franchises.

00:20:45:01 - 00:20:48:21
Speaker 1
Right? Is that is that a key thing that we need to talk about early is.

00:20:48:22 - 00:21:19:12
Speaker 2
Well, you first is critical, right? Because I do believe that the product lines and the brand and what you've developed regards what you're doing. You could be, you know, power washing. You can be cutting hair, you can be selling sandwiches, you can be selling wings. Whatever your process is that you've had success with. Right. That has to be validated two, three locations strong 2 or 3 years and process and, you know, etc. that that really is the easier part of the two.

00:21:19:14 - 00:21:40:07
Speaker 2
The founders got to be franchisees and, you know, our very first client and I won't put no names on this. My very first client, at zero ability happened to land in us right as Covid hit, right as pandemic hit. And I was on a plane in airports, you know, with the National Guard and guns, you know, at the airports, making sure you had your green, you know, checkmark to go through.

00:21:40:07 - 00:22:15:14
Speaker 2
But, this individual all successful in what he did in two locations, soon to be three, although very meticulous at what he did on sourcing product, making sure that it was top quality, the consumer good sales, good in a franchise, bought number projections. We basically put our executive summary and we do a discovery with our clients. You know, we we have a pardon system to help emerging brands make this affordable.

00:22:15:16 - 00:22:36:05
Speaker 2
They can't come in and sign on to a $100,000 deal to get you consulted or coached into a franchise model. So we charge a small fee and do what we call a discovery. Well, we basically take your numbers apart, we take your system apart, and and then we we rebuild that as a scalable interstate model. Does it work?

00:22:36:05 - 00:23:03:16
Speaker 2
Can we source the same products across state lines? You can't send a franchise owner to the docks to source tuna for a pokey bowl concept, because the founder had that much passion, right? So we found our very first case that we had to tell the brand, your brand has differentiation, your brand has good logistics, your brand has some numbers that we think have some legs, but unfortunately we don't think you should franchise.

00:23:03:16 - 00:23:24:14
Speaker 2
We think you should open up store 4 or 5 and six, maybe expand to these two different territories that we've done some homework for you on and just live life large. And he called and said, Sam, what happened? I said, you know, to this individual. I said, with all due respect, you're not franchise. What do you mean you will not let us re restack your your recipe cards.

00:23:24:14 - 00:23:47:09
Speaker 2
You will not let us resource processing. You are not willing to do sourcing through a broad line or for certain product lines, and that is franchising. How do you interstate that if you're not willing to to make that bend? And in one case, I had to take a founder and I said, tell me, who's your best B player in the restaurant?

00:23:47:10 - 00:24:15:11
Speaker 2
And they identified somebody and I invited them over. And I said to this person, hey, you know, Mary, meet Adam, your own or your boss, okay. What's going on here? Adam, give Mary your checkbook, give Mary your livelihood, and I want you to walk out that door, not come back for 60 days, and everybody's like a standstill. And he says, Mary, you can go back to work.

00:24:15:11 - 00:24:37:08
Speaker 2
Sam, what's going on? I'm like, that's what you're telling the franchise owner to do. You turn a franchise owner to walk away when you're recruiting the right talent from what they're doing in a livelihood, and have faith in your system and process based on what you're disclosing and you're telling them to basically, you know, have some faith and trust that this will work.

00:24:37:08 - 00:25:01:13
Speaker 2
If you operate it to the guidelines, your checkbook will be full, you can pay your bills, etc., etc., etc. you didn't hesitate one iota to send her away. Instead of saying great chatbooks in the top drawer, I'll see you in 60 days. And that's what a franchise founder has to do. You've got to have that confidence level in what you're developing, where you can hand that checkbook to your big player.

00:25:01:15 - 00:25:07:03
Speaker 2
I didn't ask for your A stud or status. That's even a word. There.

00:25:07:04 - 00:25:07:14
Speaker 1
Now it is.

00:25:07:15 - 00:25:37:13
Speaker 2
Sam have as much right. You know, with SNL. But you know, the reality is is is I've had till and I don't do that. And every occasion, you know, they just freeze and I'm like, you have to be able to take coaching and look at it from a different lens because now you're going in, you're recruiting. What you feel like is like the necessary talent, but you can't guarantee yourself or even them when they open that location.

00:25:37:13 - 00:25:56:21
Speaker 2
How will they perform? Will they freeze on a really busy $14,000 day of opening, which we've had in East Coast Wings and Grill and our new franchises owners just freeze in the kitchen like, okay, I'm lost. What do I do? Do you have the ability to navigate that? Do you have the ability when you don't have any sales?

00:25:56:22 - 00:26:22:01
Speaker 2
You know you're doing an average of four and you did 1200 bucks that first day and everybody's panicking. Day one how do you navigate that process? You have to have complete confidence in your system that you can support that. And some founders can't make that term. They just can't. You know, they they look at the bottom line numbers of the expectation and in some cases get a little overwhelmed with the big fat check.

00:26:22:01 - 00:26:38:17
Speaker 2
Maybe one day on the exit and they just they get blinded. They can't see the forces by the tree. So some owners need to be chill. Founders need to be told you just shouldn't franchise. And we've done that. Probably 25% of our cases in general ability.

00:26:38:19 - 00:26:57:14
Speaker 1
Interesting. Yeah. I mean a lot of, a lot of things to think about in franchising, both as a franchisee and as a franchise or, you know, it's there's no guarantee in any of this. And the fact that you want a franchise doesn't mean that you can, which I get that. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's interesting. Sam, there's so much to learn here.

00:26:57:14 - 00:27:03:10
Speaker 1
And there's a lot more than what we can fit into this podcast. Where can people find you and or ability online?

00:27:03:12 - 00:27:14:08
Speaker 2
Or they can go to S Bally's at ZR ability.com and link me there. Or they can call the office at (336) 760-4985.

00:27:14:10 - 00:27:38:12
Speaker 1
Wow. Okay. And there's got to be a piece of advice, you know, that you've given franchisees and franchise owners that you you lean on quite a bit. And yeah, maybe it forms your life and how you run your business. But what is a key piece of advice you would give to one of these people that are interested in maybe they're already in franchising, or maybe they want to get in franchising, but give us a good piece of business advice here.

00:27:38:14 - 00:28:12:13
Speaker 2
So in franchising the franchise or owes and is responsible for the franchise owners optimal and and and success as far as the system. So my advice is drive your system growth from the from the franchise owners perspective in don't outgrow out your ability just to service the franchise and or drive an ugly and drive in net operating income.

00:28:12:13 - 00:28:37:06
Speaker 2
So if you'll build your brand with the franchise owner foremost, the most important part you know, most important things in franchising franchise owners and franchise owners. Profitability. If you'll build your system that way, you'll find a slower building process because it's a lot of work to do it that way. But you'll find higher quality results and easy validation as you grow your business.

00:28:37:08 - 00:28:57:07
Speaker 1
Gotcha. Great. And Sam, I have a question. I ask all of the amazing leaders. Start with a win and I'm sure you have a fun answer. A you're a just a blast of a guy. It's a lot of a good time to see you at these different events. How do you start your day with a win?

00:28:57:09 - 00:29:18:07
Speaker 2
Well, it's funny, I, I get a cup of coffee every morning, and I take my dog outside, and I get my phone in the other hand. And while my dog's taking care of nature's business, I'm looking at my reports that I get every afternoon for my leaves on what happened yesterday on, a specific benchmark and KPI analysis that I look at.

00:29:18:09 - 00:29:30:09
Speaker 2
And then that tells me when I go into the office, if there's anything that I feel like I should jump into to help steer something a little more aggressive than what the team's doing, and I do that religiously every morning.

00:29:30:11 - 00:29:49:00
Speaker 1
Wow, I love it. You know, know your numbers and stick to the the plan there. So and take care of your dog at the same time. I mean I know that's that's a great plan there Sam. You've done so much in franchising and business growth. We appreciate all that you do. And it's great to call you friend.

00:29:49:02 - 00:29:50:08
Speaker 1
It's great to be on the board with.

00:29:50:08 - 00:29:51:02
Speaker 2
You here at.

00:29:51:03 - 00:29:55:09
Speaker 1
Franchise Association. And thank you for starting with a win.

00:29:55:11 - 00:29:56:13
Speaker 2
Absolutely.