SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tie Podcast. I am your host, Thomas Helperk. I'm on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success. And you define that success yourself because otherwise you're chasing someone else's dreams. Today is a dream maker, George. Kanoff. No, Hannof. How are you doing, George? Doing well. How are you? I'm good. I always have I'm trying to I always abuse people's names so people hear it. And I did yours so people are like, I can't smell it.

SPEAKER_00: 0:27

I've heard it pronounced so many different ways in my life, and you just go with it. It's like that old uh the what was it, a beer commercial, you can call me Bob or you can call me Steve or you know, whatever, whatever that commercial was. But anyway.

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

In people's houses, they often have a letter for their last name. Right. Right. And it's just sitting around. And a friend of mine, his last name's Nadler, and but with a sound like K, and he has a K. And it's like, all right. Shouldn't you just have an invisible letter? I was like, Do we just not do we just look at that and not say the word K? We just don't say it. George, take a minute. Uh I know you. So everyone, anyone listening, watching, I've known George for a while now. So George, introduce yourself and what it is you do.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12

I help people find their perfect franchise. I help people build empires. I help them create multi-generational wealth. I am a franchise fanatic. I've been in the business for over 30 years now. I see franchising as one of the greatest ways to build wealth in our current business economy for huge masses of people. Not everybody can found Facebook or Google. Um, so for regular folks, I'm I offer those options.

SPEAKER_01: 1:45

You uh you're in a competitive space. Uh and and you guys don't actually be the when people work with I usually realize when you work with a consultant of some sort, you don't pay them. They're paid by if you end up if they match you and they do well. So they're incentivized really to get you the right franchise that you're gonna be successful and happy. Right. Because you know, anyways, that's what you're paid, but uh it's competitive still. So so why do people pick you?

SPEAKER_00: 2:09

So in this space, it's it's become, and this is a little more in recent years. When I started in the business, there weren't a lot of franchise consultants or brokers out there. Um, and I think because over the years we we get paid a little better now than we used to. Um, it's not crazy money. I'm not gonna go buy a yacht if you buy a franchise, but um the the income has has gotten perspectable. Um, and I think the the thing that that's created because there's not a big barrier to entry technically uh to get into the franchise consultant space. Um there's no there's no, it's not like becoming a financial advisor, right? Where you have to take classes and tests and all this other stuff. And so people figured out that this could be made to be a very attractive role. So there are consulting companies out there now that will sell you the opportunity to be a franchise consultant, even if you're coming out of a job running an accounting office, right? No experience in franchising. So we see I kind of relate it to real estate. You've seen opportunities in real estate when the market is booming and houses are selling, where the real estate brokers are advertising for everybody's mother and cousin to become a real estate agent. You know they don't know anything about real estate. But what the broker is hoping, the the real estate broker is hoping, is that your mother's going to get two listings and then she'll give up, right? But he'll take those two listings because it didn't cost him anything, right? And your mother paid for the classes and the licensing and all the other stuff. So our space has become a little bit like that, and that there are a lot of consultants out there that have no ability other than to get in between a lead and a franchise or. That is 100% of their skill set. They don't understand franchising, they've never owned a franchise, they've never run a franchise. I'll get off of my soapbox now, but that's part of our industry that consumers need to know so that when they talk to a franchise consultant or they see an ad and a franchise consultant calls, that they can say, What have you done? Have you owned a franchise? Have you run a franchise? Have you put your ass on the line the same way you're gonna ask me to? And if the answer is no, end the conversation. Because if they haven't done what you're looking to do, what value do they offer you other than just maybe a great conversation about the beach and where to go to dinner, right? But are they gonna teach you much about franchising? Then there's a second level of that, and you let me know if I'm rambling on too long. Because you know, like I think it's important.

SPEAKER_01: 5:06

People got to know the space because you're about to go big, potentially the biggest financial commitment you've ever made. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

So there's there's another level of that that is partly my skill and background, but also our company's skill and background that we've been watching the franchise industry. We've had a radar screen on the franchise industry for 20 plus years. We're actually celebrating our 25th year this year. So we've been watching the entire industry and looking for best performers, best opportunities, best places to plug in. On top of that, we don't just track franchise companies, we track franchise executives, a very select pool of 200 plus franchise executives, because when they go to a new company, we know what's gonna happen next at that company. Right? So if one in particular goes to be the CEO, we know they're gonna lift up the standards of that company. If a training director moves companies to a new company, they're gonna rebuild their training program, right? And so we can we can watch and track the movement of franchise executives and predict what will happen next for those brands, right? And then the next layer of benefit that we offer are my relationships and my Rolodex, you know, my Rolodex is deep. So if one of our candidates is going through the process working with a franchise or and we need clarification or we need something taken care of, or we can get them a better deal. And I'll tell you about one before we hop off of this. But if we can benefit our candidate in some way, I'm not picking up the phone and calling some 22-year-old frontline sales genius. I pick up the phone and call a CEO or founder. Okay, those are my contacts, those are my relationships. I went to um, I think you and I talked about it. I went to the uh International Franchise Association World Expo in Miami last month. And it used to be that I would go to franchise shows to go visit all my friends. They were at the booths at the franchise shows, right? And I would just walk around the room and catch up with everybody. Now, my people are old, right? My people are running the companies, they don't go do franchise shows anymore. So I had to go give a keynote speech for the International Franchise Association. It was a blast, it was a great time. Scared the hell out of me because I haven't done a keynote speech in a while, but it it came off great. And I start walking around the room, I caught up with one guy, and I'm like, Matt, why are you still in a booth? Right. And so it's my world has changed from the guys in the booze and women in the booths to the people running the companies. And so when my candidates come in, they have significant advantages that they're not going to have with the quasi-real estate agent that's become a franchise broker who doesn't know anything about the companies they're referring to. They just know who's paying the most in terms of commissions right now. Right? My goal isn't to help somebody find one franchise. I want to work with you for the next 10 years and I want to help you build an empire, multi-brand, multi-territory empire, one that can create multi-generational wealth or exit to a private equity fund that creates life-changing benefit for families. One of my past clients, we helped build from 30 locations to over 850. He sold a number of those locations a couple of years ago. And that was a life-changing event for him. He never has to work again. His kids never have to work again. He's building for his grandkids now. His children are still in elementary school. Okay. So he's building for generations that won't be born for another 15 years. Right? And that's that's the kind of thing you can do in this business if you if you keep your focus, if you find great brands, if you continue to scale, if you fully realize you are not limited to one location. This is not a job. Right? The day you move into this space, your obligation to build somebody else's empire is over. And your obligation to build your own has started.

SPEAKER_01: 9:32

That's uh listen, and I usually take these shows a little on your journey and the ties you've cut. I I want to had it, I wanted to have a different conversation with you because you have so much wealth in building a business, and we have people listening that are want to be entrepreneurs, they are, are struggling. What do you think in someone's journey is like the number one obstacle, metaphoric tie that they're going to need to do to become business owners?

SPEAKER_00: 9:55

Honestly, for most people, it's not outward, it's inward. Right? It's it's the perceptions and expectations that we have been handed and trained on and have held for life, right? You you do well in school, you'll get a good job. If you work hard in your job, put long hours into it and really sacrifice for the job that you'll have a good retirement. It'll be there for you. And then it's actually my my um uh newsletter for this month. Then when you get to your 65th year or 70th year, whenever you're gonna call retirement, which by the way, business owners are bad at retiring. But as an employee, you're gonna you're gonna work your butt off your whole career. You're not gonna be there for your family all the time. You're not gonna be there for yourself all the time. You're not gonna pursue your passions all the time, because if you work your ass off, you've got those golden years. Well, but what happens in those golden years, right? Yes, health is getting better, wellness is getting better, uh, you know, we're better at all sorts of things. I'm in my 50s. My freaking knees hurt every day, my back hurts every day. I wake up with a new something that's sore. I wake up tired, right?

SPEAKER_01: 11:15

I'm starting to begin now.

SPEAKER_00: 11:17

I I get to write my own schedule, right? I take a handful of phone calls every day. I can't imagine the people that have to go to a corporate office, put on a suit, sit in the cubicle, take the meetings all day, or even worse, the road warriors. Right? How do they how do they do that after they're 35 years old? Right. And so now at 65, you're gonna pack your bags and hop on a plane and travel the world and go see the grandkids, whatever. No, no, there's a there's a picture I love every time it pops up. It's one of the gondolas in Venice. Yeah, I'm sure you've seen the picture. Gondola in Venice is coming out from under one of the bridges, and the gondolier is sitting in the back, just smiling and just letting it float along the river because the senior citizen couple in the gondola has fallen asleep. And they waited their whole life to go see it. Yeah, they waited their whole lives, and they're asleep in the boat as life is passing them by. They should have been in that boat at 40 years old. They should have been touring Greece at 45, they should have been in London at 50, right? This is the stuff people miss. And as they're doing it in their young younger years, take your kids with you. My friend that cashed out of his business, his kids travel the world, right? And so there is a it's not just the benefit for you in experiencing your dreams and passions, it's the world you can open up for your kids because having lived in Italy when I was in high school wasn't my choice. But having lived in Italy and traveled Europe when I was in high school, I had perspective that my friends back at home didn't have. And it was an unfair advantage in everything I did in life. And some of them traveled later in life and they started to catch up, right? Because until you meet other people, until you see how they live, until you see the the places and things that people talk about, where the history came from, and so forth, you don't have the perspective.

SPEAKER_01: 13:29

That's right. Right? But my kids, uh my daughter, youngest the other day, said she's been to more countries than states. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm like, wow, that's a that's a key. Listen, keep that for uh, you know, your your first day on the jum, like interesting facts in the more countries I see. Well, I agree with you on that. You have to get out there and in the introspective of becoming is letting go of what you thought you should be, or what someone else, or even that's kind of like the theme of our thing here is like, have you really defined what you thought success would be? And you know, one of our prior guests said it's not even a place you arrive, it's just the direction you go. So, you know, you're you're going towards sun or whatever else, you're never gonna actually get there. Because if you do, you realize it's you're there's a lot, there's oh, there's we we can keep going.

SPEAKER_00: 14:11

Um yeah, but but to your to your note though, back to to what holds people back, it's it's fear, right? If you think of that traveling and exploring and doing different things from a young age, when I when I was a freshman in high school, went on a school trip that I I hopped on a bus outside of Rome, took that into the train station in downtown Rome. A group of us hopped on a train, and then at the at the end of that line, we hopped on a bus, we went to the small mountain town, and then we all went in different directions. And it was, you know, the the teacher with us said, be back in the town square at five. Okay. And we just took off, right? And and if you think of how many people, how many adults would be nervous making it up as they go in a foreign country where they don't speak the language. We all want everything catered to us. We wanted it pre-formed and and chopped and ready to go. And I think there are times that that's a benefit, but there are also times where you can practice the skill of overcoming fear, right? And that's one of the biggest challenges with making the change that you talk about, with making the change that I talk about, is people don't realize fear is a physiological reaction to help you make better decisions to make change, right? Unless you feel fear, you won't know to go through the process, whatever the process is for whatever you're looking at, and make sure that you're making good decisions, gathering good information, and are ready to make that decision when the time comes. Those decisions can all be made, right? And a lot of people think that business owners are excited to run and jump off a cliff and take a big risk. They're not. Business owners want to eliminate as much risk as possible. And the way you do that is by gathering information and making decisions. There will be some unknowns. There's going to be some unknowns in everything in life. Let's eliminate what we can and then go make a decision. Let's go. Right? Because staying in your job is not helping you or your family get to where you need to be.

SPEAKER_01: 16:30

What's the uh sorry I ramble on? I did a little different kind of show today because I like because your expertise in uh and because you're in a you're in a different position of you know, not so much about how you got there. I it's more about all the people you're helping. So dispel a myth. Uh, what's one of the biggest myths around owning a franchise that uh that you that that that literally they don't even take the first step because of it?

SPEAKER_00: 16:57

It's not an it's not an uncommon belief that that everybody wants to own a business, right? People want to control their destiny, but they don't think that they have the abilities, right? And if you're talking about an independent business, that might be a bigger consideration. But in a franchise business, you're looking at a proven brand, proven company with proven systems, with training, with support, with infrastructure, with technology, and it's all put together for you. What you need to bring is some combination of management skills, sales ability, marketing ability, or even just one of those, right? And then it's my job to go find the businesses that you can plug into where they're bringing all the stuff that you know how to run. So a lot of people coming in think that they need to bring this special business owner skill. They don't. They think that they need not to feel fearful, fearful. They will, and we have to work through that. They come in thinking that, well, maybe if I can keep my job and start the business, and there are some some franchises where you can be semi-absentee, but largely you're gonna go run your business, right? This is this is your asset. See, it's it's a difference between go back to the job part of it, it's a difference between owning your home and renting your home. Right? Everybody wants to own their home. And if you ask them why, they're gonna say, because I'm building an asset. But then they rent the income that pays the mortgage. Right? And so it's not until you become that business owner that you own the asset your house, and you own the asset your income. Right. And so you have to you have to work through these steps. I have the skill set, my apprenticeship in corporate America is over. I can work through the fear, I can gather the information that I need. I will have the right advisors and partners to go through this process, and I'm gonna run my business, and I'm gonna run my business because I want to build a portfolio that eventually private equity will want to buy. And that's my lottery ticket. That's the work hard to get the payoff that corporate America always promised, but will never deliver. But owning my own business, I can get there on my own.

SPEAKER_01: 19:21

Yeah, I think it's a that's a big one. And and you're right about the risk piece, by the way, because it's because it's overcoming the fear of risk and like you know, and and people are stuck in that spot. Like it's and you start adding things like ageism and things like this, where you're like, I make great money, and then oh shit, I I've kind of overspent relative to thinking that's gonna last forever. And then you're in the and so you're all these things come together, and then they're like, Do I risk you know all a good chunk of my savings potentially to go do something? And so I think uh if you're gonna go zero to hero, I don't recommend it. Where like I did this where I kind of started my own brand and did my own thing. That's right, really difficult. And I would say I had the personality and and probably naiveness and enough ADHD to make that happen. I would say that is not the best path. I and if you have that, by all means go do it because you'll be the worst franchiser on the planet. Um, because you won't fall through. If you can't follow somebody else's system, no, that's that's an absolute just just take that off the table, go do your own thing and go learn. Now that I've gone through it, I'm like, hey, for the right system, I probably would go into it and do it. Um but you have to be able to fully focus on that. And I think that's one of the things, um, at least in the people that I've interacted with, you you do need to be committed to it. I there's I think there's very few that you can build without giving all your time to. Um and then once it's up and going, maybe you can become a little more passive or a little bit of time in.

SPEAKER_00: 20:40

That's the actual goal, right? Go in and spend a little time, spend a couple of years, build the business, get your team in place, and then let them run it, and then you go start the next one. Right? You're it's not that you're not gonna work, it's that you're gonna invest time in both lifestyle, doing the stuff you want to do, and in in continuing to build your empire, right? Um, so it's you know, I think I think for folks that are on the fence, get off of the fence, come in and join us. Water's water's nice, right?

SPEAKER_01: 21:13

Um, and uh just conscious of time too, just I mean your wealth of knowledge. Anybody who wants to kind of get a hold of you, how do they do that?

SPEAKER_00: 21:21

So you can go to my website at myperfectfranchise.com. You can find me on LinkedIn. If you Google my name, I'm easy to find. There are not a lot of George Knoffs out there. Um, and however you contact me, whether it's DM or phone, you're welcome. Um, I don't put you on contract, I don't send you a bill. Uh, it's good conversation. If now's the time, we move forward. If it's not the time, we figure out when we should talk again.

SPEAKER_01: 21:47

Awesome. Thanks for coming on, George. I appreciate it. My pleasure. All right. And take care of everyone who got here today. Thanks for listening. If it was the first time, you know, I hope it's the first of many, and you've been here before. Thank you for coming back. Get out there, go cut a tie to something holding you back, or check out franchising. Give George a call. Thanks for listening.