New Year's Special: Franchise Goals

AI was not used in the creation of this podcast. This is the Social Geek Radio Network. Happy New Year, geeks. And welcome to the first episode of year 17 of the Social Geek Podcast. I’m Jack Monson, your host and marketing Consigliere. It’s the 2026 New Year’s special with a focus on your business goals. That’s right, I don’t care about predictions or resolutions. I wanna know what you’re going to do this year. We’ve got 26 franchise pros sharing their goals for 26. All right, today’s show is brought to you by AnswerConnect, Citrin Cooperman. And before we get going, a quick note from Thunderly. The brands that will grow in 2026 are the brands with visionary thought leaders whose messages are clear and concise. Let the best storytellers and franchising shine a spotlight on your CEO and executive leadership team. Learn more at thunderlymarketing.com.

Heather McLeod is the Chief Marketing Officer at B&I. Happy New Year, Heather.

Happy New Year. Welcome to 2026.

Yeah, we made it. Not that you had a whole lot going on in 2025.

Yes, yes, lots of new chapters, lots of exciting opportunity, and really glad to say that in 2026, I have a home here at B&I.

Very good. So tell us a bit about B&I and the work you’re doing there. Obviously, you’re in charge of marketing, and that’s an entire global marketing division, right?

It is. Yes, that’s definitely the biggest change for me from previous, is now having the opportunity to work with our master franchisees all over the globe, as well as our corporate owned and run countries, which is really fun and exciting. It’s nice to keep the base in franchising, which I’ve done for so long now, and I know and love. And then get to strengthen some muscle and learn some new skills, as we’re thinking about what it means to be a global brand.

Yeah, you’ve been to a few exciting places so far already, right?

I have. I have. I just last week was on my first international trip with B&I to Warsaw and to Vienna.

Nice. Very good. So I’m sure you’ve got a lot of travel plans for 2026, domestically and internationally. Tell us about some of the other goals that you’ve set for yourself for 2026 already.

Yeah, I think on the personal side, you know, I’m really trying to lean in a little bit on just the fact that this is the first really significant international brand that I’ve worked on. And so I want to just do some education. I want to spend some time with our leaders across the globe to better understand what their needs are market by market. So I want to build a little bit of strength there for myself. But also, as we’re thinking about what we’re doing with the brand, I really want to learn and start telling some stories. You’ve had some experience with B&I working with Mary in the past, and I think you would agree the stories to tell of our members and our franchise owners are really powerful. And I have a little bit of strategizing to do on how to do that at scale. But I’m really excited to get the opportunity to meet more people across the organization and to really start to shine a light on some of those amazing stories.

I think storytelling is a great goal for everybody. You’re in a great position to do that for a lot of people across the globe. So thank you so much for joining us here today on New Year’s Day. And I guess I will see you next in February at the IFA convention.

Yes, we’re all going back to our favorite city, back to Las Vegas. So bring your five-hour energy and get ready. So we’ll be there.

All right. Very good. I’ll see you at Vegas. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Ricky Richardson is the CEO of Eggs Up Grill, and he joins me now on this New Year’s edition of Social Geek. Hey Ricky, what’s going on?

Hey, happy New Year to you, Jack. Fantastic to talk to you. We’re just staying busy here at Eggs Up Grill, a lot of really positive things going on.

Anything new with the brand or expansion that you want to share?

We just opened our 103rd and 104th locations, so we continue to see a lot of new unit growth and growth overall in the business. A lot of encouraging things, new franchise partners coming on board, raising sales, the whole thing. We’ve got some blessed with some fantastic momentum in the business.

That’s great. Growth is always great, but there’s nothing like getting into those triple digits, right? It’s just a good neighborhood to be in.

Absolutely. Yes.

Tell me about 2026. What goals are you guys looking at for this year?

Jack, we are probably like most businesses, it’s a pretty explicit and a longer list of goals, but to synthesize this into three areas of focus. First off is to continue to obsess around franchisee profitability. We’re blessed to have just completed our 20th consecutive quarter, so five straight years worth of same-store sales increases.

Wow.

We’re up just under 30 percent since 2021 on average unit volumes, and the EBITDA cash out of our franchisees restaurants that report to us, somewhere between 17 and 18 percent. So we, as I said earlier, have a ton of positive momentum in the business, wonderful group of franchise partners. We really fascinate here on not only the franchisees’ financial results, but giving them the right tools and resources and capabilities to realize that benefit. More than 75 percent of our franchise partners have never been in the restaurant industry. So a lot of the tools and resources we provide are targeted just at that type of franchise partner. We’re seeing real benefits out of that. A lot of it is that we opened our 103rd and 104th restaurants. We entered the year at 105 in 2025. I think we’re doing 25 plus in 2026. Seventy-five percent of those openings, Jack, are coming from existing franchise partners. So identifies two things. Number one, the brand is doing really well for them, and they’re excited about growing. Also identifies the opportunity for us to attract more franchisees to the exit system.

I was just going to say, if I’m an investor from coming from the outside, that’s like the number one thing I’m looking for right now.

You bet. I think it’s a very hot category, Jack. What we call a bitter breakfast category, some folks call it the daytime cafe. Highly attracted to guests, consumers, which is most important. But we really, really like our positioning in that broader category of daytime cafe. And we have proven to be very successful in that. So we’re excited about attracting new people. Those are very tangible and really important objectives, Jack. But those are built off of our brand promise, which is everything to make you smile. And we think about that not just for our guests. We are obviously in the guest phase in business. But we take our role as a franchise partner incredibly seriously and that is a promise we make to our franchise partners as well. Do we have the right tools? Do we have the right resources? Are we giving them the right capabilities? Are we communicating in an understandable and effective and timely manner? All the different touch points you would want out of a franchise partner to help set you up to deliver and build your own success is what we’re obsessed about in 2026.

That’s a great set of goals, including making more smiles out there. So love to hear that, Ricky. Thank you so much for joining us on Social Geek. Again, Happy New Year and have a great 2026.

Thanks very much, Jack. Look forward to seeing you soon.

Susan Blackbeth is the founder and CEO of Auspicious Owl Group. Happy New Year, Susan.

Happy New Year.

Good to see you. So you’ve got a lot of new things that happened in 2025. Bring us up to speed on Auspicious Owl Group.

Yeah, it was a crazy end to 2025 as I launched Auspicious Owl. Done with the real goal of shedding more knowledge, education in sight around the intersection of the franchise ecosystem and the investments that are being made by private equity and family offices. It’s where I’ve spent the last 30 years of my career, and I’m one of the few folks who’s sat in every seat for lack of a better term. But I do feel like we need to have a broader perspective and understanding about each side objectives and goals. So I launched Auspicious Owl to be that person, and to bring that information to both the branch side and the private equity side.

And sharing a little wisdom from all three of those sides, right?

Oh, wisdom, absolutely. We’re going to have a hoot of a time with Auspicious Owl, and definitely hope that we can all get a little wiser.

All right, great. Well, congratulations on that launch. We look for some big things in 2026. Tell us about your goals for the year.

Yeah, as I think about my professional goals, it’s really around just getting a podcast launched at the Owl’s Edge, and that is really intended to tell some of the stories that come out of franchising. You and I were both so fortunate to get to come up in the early 2000s to 2010 and beyond, where there were just some of the most legendary personalities and leaders in franchising, that I’m afraid our next generation of franchise professionals aren’t going to get the same opportunity to learn from. And so the Owl’s Edge is going to be really focused on some of those stories and that leadership. So that’s one goal, is to get that bad boy launched and start to build its listener, is it listenership?

Yeah, listenership, audience.

Audience is probably a more fair term.

Auspicious audience.

Yeah, are all of those meant for good fortune? And then also just to continue to build the insights that I’m going to share around both the objectives and kind of the goals of franchise systems and the same for private equity groups. So we can all just have a broader understanding. So that’s sort of one big goal. And the other is I have launched a program called the Wing Woman program. And I will be working with 12 different leaders across their systems, primarily on the franchisor side, who have big goals set for 2026, where I’ll be a bit of an accountability partner, a strategist partner, a bit friend counselor, and just wing woman, somebody to fly right beside you as you achieve those big goals. So getting that guy out there is also a big, big part of 2026 for me.

That’s a big goal. And I love that idea of the wing woman. Now, are you the wing woman or will you match them up with other wing women?

No, I am the wing woman in this particular case. I have found that leadership is incredibly lonely, especially when you’re in a PE-backed environment, right? And you’re trying to, as a CEO or COO particularly, you’re trying to balance between your private equity ownership and your franchisee audience. It can be very difficult to balance those two constituents. And so I have been in that environment myself and I have led through that environment a couple of times. And so just to be right beside folks as somebody who truly understands the pressure and the stress that comes in that environment. But also, you know, I had a pretty substantial personal medical situation here four or five years ago and I really understand how much our personal life impacts our professional life. And just having somebody that you can kind of lean on in those moments as well can make a big difference.

Yeah, I love that accountability factor too. There’s nothing that really drives somebody forward than having that, having that partner along the way, so that’s fantastic. Susan, thanks so much for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you at a franchise event very soon.

Me too. Talk to you soon.

Jania Bailey is the CEO of FranNet and the host of the Just Janna Podcast. Welcome back to Social Geek, Jania.

Well, thank you for having me, Jack. I feel right at home here.

Yeah, I know. I get the pleasure of hearing you and your guests talk about all things franchising on a very regular basis. So it’s nice to hear your voice and actually be able to answer back to you right now. So tell me what’s going on with FranNet. Anything new you guys are working on, maybe here at the end of 2025 or early in 2026, you’re working on?

Well, we’re currently in a gross mode and we’re adding new people around the country. So we’ve got several in the pipeline right now. We’ve added a few already. We’re just taking our time because Jack, as you know, FranNet is all about culture and our views. If someone doesn’t fit that, you know, we say we’re sorry. Yeah. I can’t add them. So we’re really focused on that.

That’s a good way to be. Yeah. There’s nothing like stopping a problem before it starts, right?

Yeah. And the other thing is, you know, and it really hurts my heart, but I’ve talked to so many people who want to join FranNet. They’ve talked to other groups. And when I turn them down, they’re like, you know, well, the other groups didn’t turn me down. And it usually boils down to they don’t have money. And I told them, I said, I will not be responsible for your personal bankruptcy. I’m just not going to do it. And bringing them in, that’s what you’re going to do. Yeah. And they just look at me like I’m crazy.

Well, I love that you’re taking the high road when it comes to growing the business right now. What does 2026 look like as far as growth and goals and all of those things?

Oh, I just love this time of year. Not doing the budgets, we’ve got one more meeting and they’ll be fine once the KPIs and the goals are currently shaping up to support the budget that was being approved. So there’s a lot going on and a whole lot of it is about growth is about continuing this momentum that’s been going on for the last three years. So COVID took quite the hit, I think on just about everybody in franchising. And it’s really taken a while to kind of get your momentum back and get everybody back in the groove. So we’re looking forward to seeing the results of all of our extra training this year come to light next year.

That sounds great to me. Well, I wish you the best in 2026. I hope to see you soon, probably at IFA in February.

Oh, of course.

And we will toast to the new year there. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Jack.

Dr. John Hayes is a speaker, educator, and veteran in the Franchise community, and the host of the Franchise Hot Seat Podcast. Welcome back, Dr. Hayes.

Thank you, Jack. Happy holidays.

Happy holidays. Good to see you again. Good to see you here on this New Year’s morning for 2026. We’re talking to everybody about their goals for this coming year. Anything you’ve written down so far when it comes to goals for the year?

Well, I want to graduate 22 young people, students of Palm Beach Atlantic University. I want to graduate 22 in 26. It’s kind of odd.

There you go.

There’s reason behind it. 22 and 26 with education and franchising, with the opportunity to get into this terrific world of franchising as we know it.

I like that goal and I like that you actually have a hard number that you’re shooting for for the year. So, how do you get to the number of 22?

Where are we at for the past couple of years? I’ve been stuck at 15 to 17. So, we’re going to push it.

That’s a big jump from 15 to 22.

Yeah, well, we can do it. What we’ve been a little higher, but 22, we can do it because there’s been an increase in the interest in franchising and entrepreneurship. We have a new major entrepreneurship and franchising. It’s attracted a record number of students at the university. So, those students won’t be graduating yet, but there are some folks behind them who I think I can hit 22 and 26.

All right, very good. If any of the brands out there want to help, they want to help you get to that 22 number, or maybe there’s some students out there that are interested in exploring this area, where can we send them? Is there a specific website or a way to connect with you where we can where we can send people?

heiduscenter.com and they can connect with me. And we need internships to graduate these people. That could get in my way. We’ve got to have internships for our students. That’s required that they complete a franchise specific internship.

And that could be a franchise brand. It could be a supplier in the industry. It could be anybody, right?

A lot of suppliers are getting involved now in offering these internships, accounting agencies that are one on our advisory board that serves Crumble Cookie and other franchise brands. That’s perfect for our accounting major. So our students get a major accounting, marketing, management, international business, finance. And then they get a concentration in franchising as well. But they’ve got to complete a 90-hour internship in a semester.

All right, very good. And those brands that might want to offer that up, they can reach you at that same website, yes?

haydescenter.com.

All right, perfect. Thank you so much, Dr. Hayes. Have a great 2026 and Happy New Year.

You too, Jack. Thank you.

Chatting now with Kris Stuart. He’s the CEO of Blumen Blinds. What’s going on, Kris?

How you doing, Jack? Good to see you again.

Happy New Year. I’m hopeful that you will have a big year and a big list of things that you want to accomplish in 2026. Before we get there, tell us what’s new with the brand. What’s going on at Blumen Blinds these days?

Let’s just say 25 was a learning year, a rebuilding year, and to use a sports analogy, since we’re in deep in a football season. So we got some new management under new leadership. 25 years in the making, now here is it. But it makes it very easy to come in and singularly focus on the task at hand, which is getting the stores that aren’t performing to expectation, to expectation, and the ones that want to succeed with greatness to get it. Like there is, we’re taking a pause on dev through June. To singularly focus on that, we’ve let go of all the staff and operations here internally that did not singularly support that task as well. So we’ve gotten extremely streamlined and mission focused in our structure and certainly available resources as well. We can redirect some of those to some pretty cool growth opportunities.

So that’s it.

We’re not doing anything that doesn’t directly relate to revenue and profitability.

You sound like Steve Jobs when you’re talking that way about getting rid of the noise and focusing on the signal. I love to hear that. A lot of people are saying that this year, but you really seem to be putting that in motion right here on January 1st.

Yeah, well, I was a maker of a lot of that noise over 24, 25, to be honest. You know, I was caught up in the whirlpool or the swirl, whatever you want to call it, the momentum of what opportunity was on the horizon. And it was not lost on me, the importance of first-mover advantage and the ability to be at the lead. You know, what’s the old analogy? If you’re not the lead dog, the scenery never changes. Yeah. Right. And I may not be able to be in the lead, but I certainly strive to be. And I think that yields a different consistency of results than one-offs. And so now understanding the opportunity, understanding what is noise and what is signal, having gone through it, being able to hyper-focus on eliminating the noise that I’m certainly creating in our environment, just in this home office here and then throughout the brand, and hopefully through our franchising contribute to settling some of that noise and getting back to the basics, which is our theme for this year for the entire brand. It’s just back to the basics. Let’s get back to selling window coverings.

That’s a very admirable goal. And speaking of the rest of the franchise industry, I want to ask you real quick before we go about any goals you have with your other venture, your labor of love, Furry Frans. What’s going on there and what goals do you guys have for 2026?

You know, similarly, I think Furry Frans, it got some pretty explosive growth and adoption, which was really exciting to see. It was almost more than, it was more than I could certainly keep up with and without, you know, the gifted hands of Ali at the wheel. Ali Kraus was doomed to fail, but she absolutely kept it afloat and kept it going. My goal for that is to streamline it, right? To provide the efficiencies to it, to participants that would like to take it home, to bring it to their local FBN or their WFN meeting or their company function. I know there was a couple of opportunities over the last few weeks, just being so busy. I missed being able to support requests such as that. So I want to be able to really, you know, maximize what we can do from an efficiency standpoint to make those resources, you know, the playbooks and the ops guides that anyone would need to be able to do a remote collection function as easy as just a click and a download from a Google Drive. So that’s my immediate goal. And then to just watch the thing continue to multiply and thrive across the country.

Yeah, we’re all watching it grow. And just thank you for the work on that. It’s really a terrific idea and organization and movement. So anything we can do to help there, we certainly will. Kris, thanks so much for joining us here on New Year’s Day. Have a great 2026 and we will see you soon.

Happy New Year’s, Jack. Take care, everybody.

Emily George is a long time friend of this podcast and franchising in general and is now the Director of Strategic Partnerships at KTA Financial Services. Hey, Emily, how are you?

I’m so great, Jack. How about yourself?

I’m doing terrific. Happy New Year. And I got to tell you, I love that title for you. I think if I Googled the term Director of Strategic Partnerships, like your face would come up, right? Like, that is just so perfect for you.

Thank you so much. It has felt like a perfect fit. And I’m so excited to be where I am.

So for the folks who maybe haven’t chatted with you in a couple of months, give us an update on what you’re doing and tell us a little bit about KTA Financial Services.

Yep. So KTA Financial Services is a bookkeeping and accounting firm that specializes in franchising. We only provide our services to franchisers and franchisees. So we help franchisers craft programs that make bookkeeping and accounting simple and feasible for their franchisees. And then we execute that on a daily basis so that those franchisees have the financial clarity that they need to operate at a really high level. So I get to build all of those relationships and talk to all of those people. And it’s a dream come true for me.

Perfect. And I got to tell you, I love, not to go too far down the branding rabbit hole right now, but I love the idea of, because I’m in the same boat, of being focused 100% on franchising. Because I talked to so many suppliers out there who are like, well, we do, you know, whatever services for franchising. We also do, you know, legal, automotive, a little bit of health care, and, you know, maybe some consumer product goods. And it’s like, no, no, no. Most of the people we work with every day, they want to know that you are 100% in on franchising. So I love that for you guys.

Well, and so often I think you hear suppliers who say like, hey, we started doing this thing, and then we realized it was so good for franchising. Yeah. No shade on that. Like that’s a phenomenal way to like realize a vertical. We were exactly the opposite. KTA was born from like, wait, this needs to be a thing, and it was created just for the franchise space. Yeah.

Nice. That is refreshing too. So tell me about 2026. Tell me about some of the goals you guys have for this year.

Man, 2026, like our goal is always, we want to do more of the things we love with the people we love doing it with. So that’s our guiding principle into 2026. How do we help more brands and more franchisees get the financial clarity they need to operate their business? So we’re just looking to do more good bookkeeping and tax work for franchisees.

That’s good to hear too, because I think there’s so many people in franchising, again, not to knock anybody, but there are a lot of people who have great ideas on a recipe or how to run a kitchen or how to run a business or how to run a home services company. But when it comes to the financial side, myself included, I definitely could use some help. So I think that’s your you guys are in a great place for that. Terrific.

Yeah, we hear a lot of people who are like operating based on their checking account, having money in it, which ultimately like isn’t a great way to operate a business. And we make all of that so much simpler so that you can actually have the daily bookkeeping you should have to have great rigor in your business. And I think that’s going to be like a big defining thing in 2026. People have been hanging out in limbo.

Yeah, the uncertainty.

We have been banking on uncertainty. And I think in 2026 people are going to put a foot down and say, OK, like uncertainty be damned. We have to operate business as well.

Right, whether it’s the first of the month or the 15th or the 29th, right? We need to operate this business like it’s a business.

Right, and that requires rigor around bookkeeping, around supplier relationships, around all of the elements of whatever your widget is in franchising. I think we’re going to see in 2026 people putting real accountability and real rigor around every piece of their business.

All right, that’s a lofty goal for all of us, but I think we can get there. Emily, thank you so much for joining me here on New Year’s Day. I look forward to seeing you very soon, and we will ring in 2026.

Thanks, Jack.

New Year’s Day morning would not be the same without a chat with my old friend, Paul Segreto. What’s going on, man?

I would like to say nothing much, but it’s like everything under the sun. I mean, it’s been an exciting year and a challenging one, both the same.

And the next year is going to be probably even more exciting and dare I say even more challenging, right?

I think you’re 100% right.

So tell me what’s going on these days with Accelerate Success and everything else you have going on.

Oh my god. So as you know, as we’ve discussed, we recently rebranded to Accelerate Success America. And that’s where everything is focused on. My primary goal is really simple, but it’s very intentional to accelerate the American dream whenever and wherever possible. I always feel entrepreneurship has always been the vehicle for that dream. And basically, that’s where my focus remains, franchising, restaurants, hospitality, small business, especially local small business because these businesses don’t just create income, they anchor communities across the country, Main Street, USA to big cities. But what makes 2026 especially meaningful in this is the timing. It’s America’s 250th birthday. Yeah. It’s a powerful reminder that entrepreneurship has been part of our DNA from the very beginning. It reinforces my belief that ownership, opportunity, local enterprise still matter. It also, and it’s interesting how this came about because obviously we weren’t aligned accordingly. And what I’m talking about is the International Franchise Association’s Franchise Means Local Initiative. I think it’s great and underscores the reality that even national and global brands succeed because of local owners serving the local markets. One area I think that continues to evolve, and it’s going to be stronger than ever in 2026, is the performance-driven component to what we do at Accelerate Success America. As our reach now expands across five different continents, and with that, I have to give special thanks to my partner, Eric Premont, and his linguistic talents of seven languages and cultures and everything out. But to that end, we formally expanded our services to include both business brokerage and franchise brokerage through our alignment with Voyage Acquisitions which we just recently announced, Andy Erskine, old-time franchise professional. And I have had a lot of meetings and we’re in perfect alignment. And then, of course, Nick and Pete and Neonaka said franchise consulting company. I’m back involved with them. A matter of fact, I’m personally committed to both organizations and the work we do together. These services are essential to me because entrepreneurs are not just asking how to start something new. They’re asking how to buy smart, how to scale responsibly, and how to exit with intention. To me, brokerage, although I’m not hanging out our shingles, so to speak, and saying we’re brokers, it completes the entrepreneurial lifecycle that we’ve been supporting for years.

You’ve got a good foundation there with these partnerships and the new directions that you’ve taken over the past year. What does 2026 look like as far as some actual goals? Like what do you really want to accomplish when you and I speak one year from today?

Oh, wow. I think it’s all going to work around elevating the role of small business in local communities. In a rapidly changing environment, one that’s more intertwined with family life, work, society as we know it. Entrepreneurship remains one of the most powerful tools people have to adapt, create stability and move forward. On a personal level, an important goal for me in the New Year is staying healthy. I have to put that in there for facing health issues and a serious scare. I’m better now. I’ve lost weight, value good health more thanks to my great daughter Jennifer, who herself has lost 100 pounds. It’s been a great inspiration. But that perspective matters because it allows me to show up with more clarity, energy and purpose as I continue to work towards making a difference in people’s lives and so many things tie together. I look at it from a standpoint, let’s say from a content and thought leadership standpoint. I’m seriously considering, yes again, another podcast in 2026.

Go for it.

I’ve tried to work four different times and gotten five or six episodes in and said, what am I doing? But I’m seriously considering because I’m confident in the direction of Accelerate Success America. It feels like the right time to create another platform for deeper conversations around entrepreneurship, franchising, leadership. But at the same time, I plan to continue taking on a select franchise or a fractional leadership position or two, because I think staying involved in daily franchise where life keeps me grounded and aware of what operators and leaders are facing in this change, the changing environment. I mean, to me, that big chasm now between private equity and emerging brands.

Yeah, you’ve got to be a practitioner in order to stay ahead of the game so you can consult with others.

I absolutely agree with that.

It’s also the year I put a book out into the world, possibly more than one. I’ve written more than 3,000 articles across multiple platforms. I think it’s time to bring that body work together.

Yeah, absolutely. So, we will look forward to that in 2026. Paul, if somebody wants to follow along, I know you’re publishing stuff every day on several places. Where’s the best place for us to find you these days?

Two things, LinkedIn and Substack.

Substack.

Substack is entrepreneurial insight and perspective. And of course, LinkedIn is LinkedIn. But, you know, I look at it and I said to, in an earlier interview this week, if you can’t find me on social media, you’re not looking.

Right. Your Google is broken if you can’t find Paul Segreto.

That’s for sure.

All right, my friend.

Thank you so much for joining me this morning. Have a great 2026 and we will see you soon.

You too, Jack. Thank you.

Next on the Social Geek New Year Special, we’re joined by Lauren Fernandez, founder at Full Course and also a recovering lawyer. How are you doing, Lauren?

I’m doing well. Happy New Year, Jack.

Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us this morning on this New Year’s Day special. What’s going on with you and the brand these days? Anything new you want to share that you’ve worked on maybe in 2025 or you’re literally working on here on the first day of 2026?

Yeah, we’re excited to roll some deals out. I think that the economy has really given us a stutter stop a little bit on investment and flow of dollars, and we’re excited to see money start moving around and deals start to happen in 2026. I think we have really doubled down on our focus on exceptional founders and great brands that have trajectory, that just need a little bit extra of a boost. We’re really excited to unveil some of those partnerships in 2026. And I’m ready, man. This is the most boring year for me. Just, I mean, I think most of us who are in deals professionally are just like enough already. We’re ready to see some action.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love the fact that you’re doubling down on exceptional founders and great brands. Nothing can go wrong, right? So tell me about 2026. What goals have you laid out or have you laid out your goals yet? Yeah.

So I do these in January. I think that’s a little bit unconventional, but I usually spend the last couple of weeks of the year, really, we close our business the last week of the year as just a regular course. And I use that time to really think about things that didn’t go well, that I want to leave behind, things that I need to revisit and reinvent for 2026 and personal stretch goals. I put it into kind of those three buckets. So before I rolled into this year, I burned literally on pieces of paper, anything that I needed to leave behind and mentally just left it in 2025. And then what gets carried forward is usually things that I want to work on and focus on reinventing and repositioning for 2026, whether those are personal, about my relationships, about my family, about my home, about my work, about the future of the company, et cetera. And then there’s always some stretch goals in there too, right? And I think it falls into all of those buckets. And so the thing that my husband and I have done for the last couple of years, which works really well, is we actually do an annual planning trip together. And we take that trip together and we work on these topics together separately. And then we come together and it’s like having an accountability partner, but also someone who’s always had my back. We’ll have my back on following through on those goals for the rest of the year. And that really makes a huge difference.

You’re doing a literal offsite with your husband to work on goals. That’s fantastic. Yeah, I also like the fact that you’re really working on your goals in January, because I think so many times people are thinking about goals in December, but all of the other stuff creeps in the holidays, family stuff, right? Reminiscing about something from 20 years ago, right? Like all of that creeps into your mindset in December. So I think doing this in January is very refreshing.

In December, I am baking cookies. I am closing a fiscal year end. I am prepping our taxes. I am doing deal flow. Like I am doing things as working mom, Lauren. Yeah. And that last week of the year is designed to be a shut off from all of it. All the gifts are done. You know, we’re still enjoying the tree and the decor and everything. And we just we cozy up. Like I don’t get out of my jammies for a week and I just sit there and I get creative. I walk around with a clean journal. I rip out the things that need to burn down, right? Like I really try to clean the slate rolling into Jan one. And then I use January for planning. And these are no no one made a rule. Who’s making the rules that you have to have those intentions set by New Year’s Eve? I don’t subscribe to that. New Year’s Eve means something totally different to me. And I’m just I’m grateful for another year on the planet. And I look at it like, how can I maximize that? How can I be the best wife, partner, CEO, sister, daughter, all the versions of Lauren that need to show up? How can that look like the best version of me next year based on what I’ve learned this year? And I think you have to have that moment of reflection before you just go charging forward. And that week for me is that week of reflection. So I’m excited to go off and plan into the future, but nothing’s on paper yet on purpose.

Well, I love your mindset, and I think that’s a great process. I would expect nothing less from you. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. Happy New Year, and we will see you soon in 2026.

See you soon.

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I am doing great. How about yourself?

I’m doing great. Great to see you on a New Year’s morning. Hope everyone is doing well there. Tell us what’s going on with Sport Clips. You’ve been there for how long now?

Well, I’ve been here a whole seven months now.

You’ve got it all figured out, right?

Of course, of course.

What’s new with the brand? Anything you guys are working on that you wanted to share today?

You know, it’s kind of, and it might sound like a boring message, but it’s kind of same old, same old with Sport Clips. We’re a privately held company and lean heavy into our culture and our values and finding the right team leaders that align with the values of our brand. So that may not be the exciting answer, but it’s really true to the core of who we are and making sure that we’re growing in a sustainable way.

When things are going well and you’ve got a great culture and a great company and great leadership, same old, same old is a very good thing. So, yeah, keep on moving forward with that. Tell us about 2026. What do your goals look like? What would you like to share about your goals?

You know, and I think one of the benefits of being with a privately held company is we’re not having to listen to a board of directors that dictate what our goals look like. So, you know, we certainly have goals, internal goals that help drive us and help push us to make ourselves great. But frankly, we’re not driven by any specific numbers. And I know a lot of brands will throw out growth numbers out there and they’ll be holding to those numbers. And they’ll get to those numbers. Whatever it takes to get there, they’ll get there. And sometimes that means compromising on what has made the brand successful, to include maybe even selecting the wrong franchisees. And that’s not something that we’ll do as a brand. If it means less deals every year, then so be it. We’re going to end the year with great new franchisees who are gonna help grow the brand in a very positive direction.

Bringing on the best franchisees is probably the best goal you can have regardless of what that number is, right?

Agreed 100 percent.

All right, very good. Brent, thank you so much for joining us here on the New Year’s special. Have a great 2026 and we will see you soon.

Thank you, Jack.

Joining us now in the Social Geek New Year’s Day Special, it’s Edith Wiseman, President of Fran Data. Hey Edith, happy new year.

Happy new year to you.

So what’s new at Fran Data? Anything you guys are working on, maybe at the end of last year and here in the opening hours of 2026?

Well, yes. So as we call ourselves franchisee and franchisor investigators, we are doubling down on the amount of data items that we consider core. So for instance, we just data based about 4000 brands worth of tech info. So trying to be able to build out the full tech stack of brands. So that’s what’s new and exciting over here. As well as looking at franchisees. They’re so complicated. I just came across a few franchisees that are managed services. They basically are franchisees that have operating partners where they’re like a management company. So restructuring our database to be able to deal with every single type of franchisee structure which is so fascinating.

Oh yeah, I can imagine in years past, most of the franchisees data was like, you know, it’s Jane Smith or maybe it’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith or something like that. But now it’s really the Smith Family Corporation or something probably larger.

Yeah, I just posted something on LinkedIn that shows just a little bit of complication. So there’s one couple that owns a Primrose school. That couple also owns a Duck Donuts with another couple. Then the couple that owns the Duck Donuts owns Helmark Home Care franchise. So you have basically two different couples owning three different businesses, some together, some separate. And the webs are very intricate.

Yeah, that is the definition of multi-unit, multi-brand. Maybe we need to add multi-family to that mix for 2026. Tell us more about the new year. What do you have planned as far as goals for yourself, for your team, for the brand? What are you guys working on?

So, last year, we made a point to what I’ll say, build culture from the ground up. So, in this day and age, everything is so very tech heavy, and people are at different ages and different experiences. And at Friend Data, we realized we basically had a culture of two types. Those who have been there forever had really deep relationships, and younger people, and so we did go back to the office, but we started bringing in speakers from the outside. So, every month, we’d have a franchisee or franchisor or banker who’s financing franchisees come into our office. And this year, we’re gonna continue emphasizing, it’s actually a KPI, how many people are in the office, how many events we do together, because I realized, I came across a Brewster’s franchisee here in the DC market. They own like six locations, and they’re a retired couple. And what they said really resonated to me. We were at the Fourth of July parade in Fairfax, and she said, I find it my job now as a retired person owning a franchise to train the next generation, to make them better people. And I feel this theme, and I feel like that people need more human contact. And so that is a very big focus of ours. And then as a result, we have all this information sharing. And I wish I was wearing my shirt. We are a day in the life of Franchise Brainiac. We just got t-shirts. It’s handed out to everybody, and it’s gonna be our theme this year. But the life of Franchise Brainiac. We’ve got mumbos, mumbos rock. You know, so, you know, the more we’re together, the more we’re sharing. And I saw that I brought my whole sales team in, and we all stayed in one Airbnb together. Oh, wow. And it was beautiful. We had a cooking, a cook-off, two teams cooking off with a bunch of ingredients. It was like grab ingredients and go. And everybody said, Oh my gosh, Edith, can we do this every year? It was phenomenal. So that’s aside from the other really important goals around, you know, hitting numbers and what we want to database and all that stuff. That is really critical to our goals in 2026.

I love that you made improving culture or growing the culture an actual goal because so many people running an organization, just sort of throw that in as an afterthought, right? The goals are the numbers and the growth and the revenue and the profitability. And, you know, we’ll deal with the culture along the way, but making that an actual goal, that’s something you’re going to be watching.

That’s right. Every week we report on that as a KPI.

And the face-to-face time, think about this too, the story you just told about the franchisee that you talked to at, what was it, a 4th of July parade? If you hadn’t gone to that parade, you would not have had that interaction in a million years. Would you have talked to that person online somehow? No, right? So actually having that interaction is something that influenced you for the rest of the year and into 2026. So that’s a great story. I love that.

Yeah. Well, thank you. It’s, I love people and I want people to still love people. I just fear, you know, with these, with the way the world is moving is that we, we won’t get the same type of joy or we just won’t prioritize it. So.

Very well said. Well, Edith, thank you so much for joining us here on New Year’s morning. Have a terrific 2026 and I will see you at a franchise event very soon.

Can’t wait. Thanks, Jack.

Jerry Akers is a multi-unit, multi-brand owner and the founder and CEO of Z Dynamics. Jerry, what’s going on? Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to you too, brother. It’s always good to talk to you, Jack. You know, in the world of franchising, there’s always something new going on. And you know, when you’re supposed to be retired and you find new things to do every day like I do, it really stays interesting.

So you’re not going to tell me that your goal for 2026 is to retire once again, are you?

No, I’m not sure retirement is ever really in my outlook, to be very honest with you.

Yeah, that’s what we say when we’re moving into something else that we don’t want to announce yet, right?

Yeah, exactly.

So tell me what’s going on with your brand, brands and team and work and all of that stuff.

What’s new? Well, you know, the big thing that started this year, and I’m going to really push it for next year, I guess, is there’s a lot more with Z Dynamics, there’s a lot more interest in mentoring and masterminding of franchisees. You know, with the struggles that have gone on economically, that all these businesses have faced, they’re looking for opportunities to continue to polish and grow. And so that’s really, really taken off in the last few months.

That’s awesome. Are you hitting the circuit, the franchise shows, and doing some keynote speaking and all of that stuff in early 2026?

Yeah, I’ve got two or three freebies, like we do for IFA and things like that, that are lined up. So I’ll be doing those. And I’ve got a couple of paid keynotes. Starting a six-month mastermind, virtual mastermind plus class that kicks off right after the first of the year with a group. And yeah, you know, you got to stay out and stay active.

That’s right. That’s right. What else you got planned for 2026? What are some goals?

Yeah, man, I’ll tell you, with our Great Clips brand, we’re going to, we’re in the middle of, you know, 32 units being remodeled, refreshed, as most groups have to go through. We’re about halfway done with that. So we’ll finish that up in this year. So that’s one of our biggest goals, because that’s every seven to 10 years, and it’s a big expense. So we’re trying to get that behind us and move forward economically. We’ll add one or two new locations with great clips this year, unless some other opportunities come along, but that’s what we’re aiming at. And then with the joint, as I might have mentioned earlier, we’ve got a new partnership that wants to build some. So we’re looking at maybe opening two or three, and there’s an acquisition that might come into play. So that’s all a goal. And then, this is going to sound funny, Jack, when you first say it, but for Z Dynamics, really my goal is to, I’m going to do a lot more speaking and coaching and mentoring, but I want to impact 6,000 to 8,000 franchisees this year through my efforts. Because franchising still is some struggles for some people, and frankly, a lot of them don’t need to struggle. If they just say, hey, can you coach me? Can you guide me? Can you give me a little support? Man, their lives could be so much easier. So that’s what I’m going to try and do. That’s my goal is 6,000 to 8,000 franchisees this year.

I love having a goal that is actually about impacting and helping other people, right? That’s the best goal you could possibly have. So thank you for that. Good luck hitting that goal. Have a great 2026 and I will see you soon at another franchise show.

Sounds great. Good seeing you, Jack.

Robert Mitchell is the Chief AI Officer at WSI. I call him the Franchise AI Sherpa. Welcome back to the podcast, man.

What’s going on, Jack? Thanks for that intro. Excited to talk with you about 2026.

Yeah, it’s been a while. What’s new in your life, and what are you doing in this new year? What do you got going on?

Well, I would like to say that I’ve conquered AI, and we’ve come to a new era, but every freaking week, it’s another thing we’ve got to grab a hold of, and it’s like we’re trying to wrangle a tidal wave.

I think that’s job security for an AI Sherpa, though, right?

You would think so, but holy crap, it’s hard. It’s hard to keep up with everything. Models are fighting for market share and visibility, and you as a user, you have to be agnostic. And so you have to use them all because you don’t want to choose one that ends up being the wrong model to get in bed with. And some are doing that. So, yeah.

You gotta hedge your bets a little bit. You gotta be where everybody’s going to be. And I think one of the things that you’ve always been really good about sharing with me and our audience here is not the stuff that is sort of blatantly obvious in the things that we need to know right now, but it’s the thing out there that’s unknown that I think you’re really good at spotting and bringing us all up to speed on. So with that said, tell us about 2026. What do you see happening? What are your goals? What are you working on for the new year?

And like I was saying, this is hard market right now. It used to be you could predict what the year’s gonna have. You could skate to where the puck was going. It’s really hard to do that now. And so you have to be, you have to think of the box that you’re thinking outside of. And then that box that you’re thinking outside of, thinking outside of, thinking outside that box. Like you have to go double outside boxes. That’s a weird metaphor. But my point is that you really have to think about where do you see the industry going and you don’t want to be there. You want to be where nobody sees the industry going. And so I’m talking about franchising in general, but also AI adoption and franchising. So we were, for the last year, as you know, the year before last, we were pushing franchisers to really look hard at their systems, their processes, their unit economics of a business model. How is AI going to make them irrelevant? These are conversations we were having two, three years ago. Now, I think the people got wind and they realized that, oh, my model is about to be disrupted. I need to change some things. Okay, that’s fine. Some people didn’t and they’re suffering now, but let’s forget those because they were hard pressed to adopt Excel, whatever, or basic Internet, for that matter. Now, what I’m working with is those forward-thinking organizations. So, 2026 is going to be that year where you truly see a P&L disruption in a good way. Because right now, a lot of companies, as you know, in the enterprise level, they’re complaining, oh, this AI adoption is not hitting my bottom line. All this investment I’m doing, well, stay tuned. It’s slowly going to creem to the top. And for those who are really investing, now, I say investing, I’m not talking about the AI tool, the chat bot for the website. I’m talking about people. Change management, restructuring how you problem solve, how you come about problems. Once we’ve elevated all the psyche, all the AI intuition of every employee, things start to shift. And everybody starts to really have, Einstein’s in their pockets.

Yeah. I like that idea of shifting, not because of AI, but maybe AI is helping you shift into places where maybe you should have shifted already, especially when it comes to being more efficient and selling more and wasting less and things like that. So if we really look at it like a tool to help us get there, not something that’s just going to replace everything.

Of course. That’s the argument that a lot of people were saying about job losses and I don’t even want to get into that topic because it’s just kind of been over talked about. But where we’re finding the biggest insights is those people who are trained and then they continue to be trained. It’s not a one-time training. That’s the acme of foolishness, as I like to say, is to think that once you’ve learned something, it’s like you went to college, right? And you, I’ve learned everything. I got my degree. No, no, no. We go into the workforce, you realize there’s a lot more to learn about whatever degree you just got. That’s how AI is.

The learning just starts.

Yeah, exactly. The learning just starts. What training and AI should do is open up your eyes to the capabilities and then you need to delve into it yourself. It takes people who are interested in learning, interested in growing and expanding. And so, I know we’re talking in philosophical terms, but organizations need help with that and I hate to sell myself, but this is where people that work in the AI consulting space really find value, where organizations find value in their help, because they can basically be that sharp up, be that holding of the hands of the organization and teaching a man to fish. It’s not that I go into organizations and tell them how to do everything. I tell them how to manage their teams better and set goals and do hackathons and then really open the eyes of how to use the tools better. And then we can build special tools for each organization. That comes later. It’s really about the change management, honestly.

All right. Perfect. Well said. And thank you for that. And we look forward to having you help us guide, help guide us through the waters of AI into 2026. Robert, thanks so much for joining us again today. Have a great year. Thank you so much, Jack. Martha Tomas Flynn is the Professor of Franchising and the Director of the Titus Center for Franchising at Palm Beach Atlantic University. And she joins us for the first time on Social Geek. Hey, Martha, how are you? Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to you too.

It was great to see you a few weeks ago at the Titus Center in West Palm Beach. And I understand you’ve got a lot of new things happening and a new role for you as well. Why don’t you tell us about that?

Yeah, going into spring now, our spring semester kicking off. My first spring is the director of the Titus Center. On the heels of John Hayes, who’s been running the Titus Center for about eight years now. Really excited to spend spring here with our students. We have a robust community of students who are focused on their concentration in franchising and or a large scattering of students who have now adopted the new degree major in entrepreneurship and franchising. So we’ve got students with concentrations in franchising and students that are majoring in franchising and entrepreneurship for the first time. Very exciting times here at PBA.

And the majoring, is that brand new? Has that been around for a while or is that something you’re doing this year?

The major was introduced last year and this is the first year where we’re really kicking up enrollment in that major. We have approximately 50 students currently registered under that major within the Rinker College of Business.

Very good. And if I can put in a quick plug, if any brands out there are looking for interns for the spring semester or later, please be in touch. Yeah. I got to tell you, every student I’ve spoken with at the Titus Center is someone who it’s like, wow, we could use some help here, right? I mean, they’re all just so impressive and such go-getters. I mean, I guess that’s why they’re majoring in entrepreneurship and franchising to begin with.

It’s really exciting to have accounting and finance majors who are seeking concentrations in franchising side by side with music majors and even nursing majors who are seeking concentrations in franchising. So we’ve got people that are really business minded, seeking to learn more about franchising and then people that have other skill sets and other interests that want to learn about how to apply that in a business context. It’s a really unique paradigm.

Yeah, it sounds like it. So tell me about the spring and even into the fall of 2026. What are some of the goals that you’ve laid out for yourself and your team?

Awesome. Thanks. So spring is going to be huge around these parts. Under construction for the last two years is the new Rinker College of Business Hall, a six-story building that’s gone up in campus. It is just about to debut. We’ll be moving into that building during spring break. Actually, when we come back from spring break, we’ll be in the new building. Within the new building, we have quite a few special spaces for franchise. First and foremost, there is a second-floor Centers of Excellence that will house the Titus Center for Franchising, side-by-side with three other centers that have been formed here at PBA, Financial Literacy, the Rainey Center for Free Enterprise, as well as a Center for Global Leadership. Clearly, Titus is the largest of our centers, and we’re excited to be moving into that second-floor location, together with a brand-new business auditorium, also named after the Titus family. The Titus Auditorium will debut in the new building and new franchising classroom space. We’ve got quite a bit going on there. That will be in March of 2026. Also in the spring, we are looking for more internships for our students. With the growth of interest in franchising and franchising degrees, we’ve got a lot of students and a lot of students that need internships both for the summer and for the fall. So one of our big goals for the first half of the year is to recruit about 20 more companies to provide internship opportunities for both our franchising concentration and our entrepreneur and franchising major juniors and seniors. So some great opportunities there for companies that need interns that actually know something about franchising and can bring something to the table, whether it’s a franchisor or a franchisee or a supplier. We hear great things about our students from our internship partners and looking to expand that circle.

All right, very good. If someone would like to take you up on that and have a conversation about internships, where can we send them?

You should send them directly to me.

Awesome.

Send them directly to me. Also, you can visit us at titusfranchising.com on our TitusFranchising website. But the best thing to do is to reach out to me directly at Martha underscore Flynn at pba.edu. And we will line you up with some great candidates for internships depending on what your specific needs are.

All right, sounds like a plan. We’ll have links to all of those places in today’s podcast show notes as well. Martha, thank you so much for joining us today here on New Year’s Day. Have a great 2026 and we’ll see you soon.

Thanks, Jack.

Next on the Social Geek New Year Special, we’re joined by Gabby Wong, CEO of FranConnect. Happy New Year, Gabby.

Hey, Jack, how are you doing?

I’m doing great. Can’t wait to hear what’s going on with FranConnect these days. Anything new going on with your team and the brand and the organization?

There’s always new stuff going on at FranConnect, that is for sure. We are most excited about some of our upcoming benchmark studies. I think most of you saw a preview of that in a publication over the summer, but we’ve really advanced how we’re thinking about the data that we can provide to the market, about activity that is being performed in our system, and comparing that with other industry benchmark data, so that we can help drive the industry forward. We’re super excited about that. You’re going to see a bunch of new stuff on data and benchmarking using all of our AI technology.

I can’t wait to see it. I am just such a geek for any kind of data in franchising. So please let us know when that’s available and we will share it all over the geek sphere here. Tell me about your plans for 2026. Tell me about your goals.

Well, I look at this in three different ways. I look at it in what are my goals as a leader for my company. The second sort of vector I look at are what are the goals for my connections, my family, my friends, and then last, what do I want for myself? What do I need to do for myself? Starting from the top, I think we have brought on some fantastic new executive leaders on board for Frank Connect. One of the things I recognize that I need to do for myself as a leader is I need to create the structures and space of the organization for all these fantastic people that we’ve hired to make an outsized impact as we continue to grow within the franchising space. I’m super excited about that and we’re doing a lot of work for creating the right infrastructure. Mentally, I’m also thinking about how do I do less myself so that I can create space for others to really succeed.

I love that goal because we all want to go out and find the best talent in the industry and bring on those A players and those superstars. But if they don’t have the right place in the lineup or a place to take their shot and all of those other sports analogies, they’re not going to succeed at the level that you’re expecting them to. So I love that idea about creating the space.

Absolutely. And it’s a recognition that I need to leverage the strength of others. And my job is less about doing it all myself, but creating the mechanisms and the organizations for others to jump in and really help propel us forward. So I’m super excited and we have some great people we brought to the table.

It’s good to recognize that I see way too many CEOs out there who are still in that I’m rolling up my sleeves mode and it’s like hold on maybe you need to have some other people rolling up their sleeves as well. So that’s awesome. Tell me about your goals for your connections.

Well I think personally I think the most important thing to do especially when you’ve got hard goals is you just have to show up. The most important thing in life is to show up every day. And in 2026 I want to make sure that I’m showing up not only for my company but for my friends, my connections, my family. Growth and change is hard and even though the obstacles may seem like they’re insurmountable, you can’t do anything unless you show up 100%. You give 100% of your mind share every day and that’s the first step. And that’s the only thing that we can control. And I want to make sure that I keep that front and center every day in 2026. I’m going to show up every day for my company, my colleagues, my friends, and most importantly, my family.

Love that. Okay, now let’s get to the good stuff. Let’s get to the personal goals.

Well, I think I’ll just tell you this, that I think it’s important to carve out time for yourself. And many, obviously, we all talk about, you know, you’ve got to have a healthy life, you’ve got to work out. All those things are important. I think for 2026, for me, I know and I recognize I need to carve out more time for thinking and for writing. I think it’s going to help me hone my voice. It’s going to help me hone my point of view. And it’s going to allow me the space to think about the future and not only what’s right in front of me. So I think a big goal for me for 2026 personally is to try to write a little bit every day and to carve out that thinking time so that I can really hone my point of view, not only on FranConnect, but for what I want for the future for myself.

Oh, that’s really interesting. Where are you going to write? Are you putting it all in a notebook? Are you doing it electronically? What’s sort of your mode of choice?

I physically have to write. For me, it’s the connection between the pen and the paper. Unless I put it on pen and paper, I have to have that tactile point of view, if you will, in order for it to stick. So for me, it’s pen and paper and a notebook.

Yeah, I’m the same way. It’s so funny. We have so many devices all connected, and you can transfer all of your thoughts from one to another and through the cloud and everything. But I’ll tell you what, at the end of the day, right here in my notebook, that’s where I’m living, right?

I have the same.

I have the same. And I have my pens and special pens and special markers, and it’s very, very, very helpful.

I think too, if you’re way deep in the page, you’re not going to, you know, quick jump over and start scrolling through something else, because it’s available, right? I think.

And it’s funny, often people can’t read my handwriting or I can’t read my own handwriting, but the fact that I put pen to paper, I remember exactly what I said, even though I can’t actually read my own handwriting.

Oh yeah, well, bad handwriting like mine, that’s actually a security device. So you’re glad to read my notebook, but you won’t be able to make heads or tails out of it. So very good. Well, Gabby Wong, thank you so much for joining us today. Again, happy new year. We look forward to seeing you soon at a franchise event and have a great 2026. Thanks, Jack, you too. Next on the Social Geek New Year’s Day Special, we’re joined by Richie Huffman, founder and CEO of Celebrity School and Huffman Family Brands. Richie, happy new year.

Happy new year, Jack.

It’s good to see you here on New Year’s morning. What are you working on today? And what are your brands been up to for the past few weeks?

Growing, growing, growing. Love it. We’re having fun, my friend.

That’s awesome. So tell me about 2026. I assume there’s a lot of growth in those goals. What are we looking at goal-wise?

You know, Jack, we’ve been in franchising for heading into our six years. And this journey has absolutely been amazing. And I’m super proud. You know, here last year, 2025, we won I think one of the most prestigious awards that the IFA gives away, which is how potential franchisees are treated from the time they inquire all the way through the journey. And we won that award this year in 2025. So I’ve been watching that award for many, many, many years and thinking that that was really such a great award to win, in which we accomplished that this year. But, you know, as I mentioned, we’re going into our sixth year and we are still growing. We’re still learning. We’re listening to our franchisees. This year, we put our committee together to hear directly from our franchisees and we’re having fun, man. We had a really good year this year. We opened 16 new locations and awarded 18 new families. So continue on that growth path.

Love that. What’s 2026 look like? Do you have a place you want to get to by 365 days from now?

We are locked and loaded, my friend. So goal number one is to award 30 new franchisees for next year. That’s goal one. Goal two is open schools on time, on budget and on brand. We know that time kills deals and costs dollars. So we want to make sure that we’re helping our franchisees open on time, on budget and on brand. And goal three is to make sure that these schools are ramping up accordingly and making sure these programs are filling on the timeframe that we have forecasted. That’s goal three. And lastly, goal four is to create fans, fans of the Celebrity brand. And that’s across not only existing franchisees, but vendors and also our parents. So we got four really, really good, very clear goals that were locked and loaded for 2026.

I love all of those goals, but I got to tell you, my favorite is creating fans. Because that’s a goal for this year, but that’s a strategy for the next decade, right?

For a lifetime, right? Yeah. And that’s what the brand is, right? By focusing on it, that’s what creates the brand.

Very good. Well, thank you so much for sharing those. Good luck in everything that you guys are doing in 2026. And I will see you very soon.

Happy New Year, Jack.

Next on Social Geek’s New Year’s Special, we’re joined by Jennifer Durham, the Senior Vice President of Franchising and Development at Potbelly Sandwich Works. Happy New Year, Jen.

Happy New Year, Jack.

Thanks so much. I’m so excited to be a New Year’s guest.

Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun putting this together, talking to a lot of great people this morning. You’ve had a really big change in the second half of 2025. Tell us about that. What’s new with you and what’s new with your brand?

Yeah, so I’m so excited to be leading the development efforts at Potbelly Sandwich Works. A really fun, iconic brand. I grew up in Chicago, so Potbelly, to me, has always been part of the fiber of who I am. But there’s been so much change at Potbelly as well. This has been a huge year for the brand. As a public company, starting the year, we end the year as a private company. We were acquired by Racetrack, and that deal closed at the end of October. I really couldn’t be more excited about what that change will mean for the brand and for our franchise owners. Initially, I scratched my head wondering what that was going to be all about. Thinking, are they going to put a Potbelly in every single Racetrack location? I came to very quickly learn that for the Racetrack brand, it was about diversification and expanding their business and really continuing the great work that had been done by the leadership team up to that point and growing the brand. The CEO, Natalie Morehouse, is an avid Potbelly fan like I am. It really was her foray into creating a legacy for what is her family business at Racetrack. She left a very powerful, impactful quote with our franchise owners we met with last week at our Franchise Advisory Council. She said when she makes a decision, any big decision, she really thinks about it. Not from the standpoint of whether it’s good for the business that year or the following year, but is this a really good decision for my kids’ kids? She is the granddaughter of the founder. And so I love the way she thinks about that in that way. And I think that’s the way franchise owners think about their business too. So really exciting, great momentum for the brand going into 2026.

Yeah, nice long play there. And I totally agree. I think we need to spread out and get some more Chicago style sandwiches across the country, right? Desperately in need in some parts of this country. So with all of that in mind, what are your goals for this year? What do you have written down right in front of you that we’re looking on today?

Thanks, Jack. I think that there’s a couple very obvious potbelly goals. First of all, our plan is to open 50 new shop locations in 2026. We’ve got a great pipeline to do that. With over 450 shops today, that will put us at our 500 mark, which will be the high water mark, the high point in the brand’s history to hit 500 shops. Yeah.

500 is a good number too. That’s just an important milestone.

A really nice round number. But I always say and reiterate that with every, you only get to 500 one at a time. So let’s make sure that every shop opens as good as it possibly can. And the Potbelly support team is incredible at making sure that that happens and supporting franchise owners with that. We have large area developers that are really creating the momentum to get us to that 500, 600, 700 mark. The brand’s stated goal is to get to 2,000 shops in the next 10 years. So we’ll inch our way there 50 next year, and it will continue to grow from there. And the way we’ll do that, the other big goal for 2026 would be continuing to bring new owners into the brand and having our existing owners continue to re-up on their development as well. 70% of the existing franchise owners are growing and have made a development commitment. But in speaking, I’ve been with the brand for 43 days as of today, and I will tell you the franchise owners are really excited about growth and the success that they’re seeing. The brand’s AUV continues to climb. The profitability continues to grow. So really, we are a bit countercyclical to what’s happening in the fast casual space in terms of growing sales and traffic. So we want to continue to that momentum and make sure we don’t lose any ground in 2026.

That’s a good sign when your owners want to keep growing with you. That’s a pretty good number, so we love to see that.

Yeah, and company growth too, Jack. Of the 450 shops, we have 350-plus that are company-owned and operated and a pipeline that is continuing to grow as well. So it’s not just do as we say, it’s very much do as we do because we’ll open. Our target is 18 shops in 2026. So the company is very much putting their money where their mouth is.

All right, very good. Well, thank you so much for joining us here on New Year’s Day. Appreciate you taking the time this morning and sharing your goals. And I guess I will see you next at the IFA in February.

Absolutely. Wouldn’t miss it.

All right. Happy New Year, Jen.

Happy New Year. Take care, everybody.

Back on Social Geek for the big New Year’s Day podcast with Marci Kleinsasser of Home Franchise Concepts. Welcome back to the podcast, Marci. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, Jack. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, thanks for being here on New Year’s Morning. What are you guys working on these days? Maybe toward the end of 2025 or here on the first day of 2026, what’s new with the brand or brands?

Wow, well, at Home Franchise Concepts, we have a lot going on in 2026. We’re getting ready for our International Convention in Las Vegas in February, right before the IFA. And yeah, we have lofty goals for 2026. From a business perspective, it’s going to be a big year. We have one brand that’s going to go through an exciting rebrand. Several others will be relaunched. So we’re going to be sharpening our positioning and modernizing the experience and making sure our brands continue to stand out in a very competitive market.

A brand rebranding and a few brands relaunching, that means a busy marketing department, right?

Busy marketing department and a lot of collaboration with our brand teams. And yes, we will be extremely busy, but we like it that way.

That’s good. So what’s your timeline for all of these relaunches? Is that all happening early in the year or is it spread out throughout the year?

So I would say probably Q2 is going to be a very busy year, but we’re ramping up in Q1. So, yeah, you’re going to hear a lot of exciting things from Home Franchise Concepts early and mid-year.

Very good. Well, thanks so much for sharing. Good luck with the rebrand and the relaunches and everything else in 2026. And we will see you soon in February at the IFA.

Awesome. Thanks for having me, Jack, and Happy New Year to you.

Next up on the Social Geek New Year’s Day Special, we’re joined by Emma Dickison. She’s the CEO and President at Home Helpers Home Care. Happy New Year, Emma.

Happy New Year, Jack. It’s so good to be here with you.

Thanks for joining us on New Year’s Day morning. What’s going on with Home Helpers these days? Anything new with you or the brand or your team?

Wow. 2025, where do you even start? It was really an incredible year for us. First of all, at the company level, we ended the year with double-digit growth.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean, it was another good record-breaking year. We’ve had 28 years of record-breaking growth here at Home Helpers.

There’s a lot of brands that would like to have 28 months of record-breaking months. So congratulations on that. That’s fantastic.

Thank you. We awarded 40 new franchisees. So we have 40 new franchisees that are joining us, and many of them are open. Some are going to come into 2026. We’ve had some of our existing franchisees that really were able to expand their reach and expand into more territory. But one of the things that I really took a look at as we were going into the end of the year, was our public relations efforts. We were recognized by so many this year. It was just an amazing year for us. We had over 2.6 billion impressions with our public relations in 2025. And that’s just unheard of for us. And we really credit a lot of the work that’s been going on within our franchise community. We know that these initiatives and those public relations efforts are really about having the tools and resources for our franchisees to be successful. And we know that none of it really happens without a great National Support Center staff and certainly a terrific network of franchisees who really embrace innovation and they keep delivering exceptional care all across our community, all across our network. And so we really are really poised in 2026 as well. But a few things that we did in 2025, we piloted a new marketing CRM, which is exciting for us. We rolled out a new franchise development website, and we introduced ProfitKeeper, which is a financial benchmarking platform. And so we’ve done a lot. We continue to have some great talent that’s joining us. We rolled out a new impact selling curriculum. We had a terrific national conference in Nashville, as you know.

Yeah, that was fantastic. That was a really good time and a lot of great content there for the franchisees.

It was, and record-breaking attendance for us there. And we also uniquely did another territory reoptimization of our white space of markets that we continue to have good growth opportunity in. And we used this advanced data modeling to really align to market potential, so that we could make sure that we’re setting up future growth in a way that is just great as well. And so we’ve had a great year, and I’m really proud of all of those efforts.

Those are all great efforts for 2025, but I think, and again, I’m the eternal optimist, but I think even more importantly, doing great PR and having so many great earned media hits and placements and having a new website with new copy and new stories to tell, all of that stuff is going to help you not just in 2026, but in 2027 and 28 and down the road as the large language models love all of that new content. So doing the work in 2025 is, I think is going to pay off for many years to come. So congratulations on that. Now, let’s talk about 2026. What’s on your calendar for 2026 as far as goals? What would you like to achieve this year?

Well, 2026 is going to be another great year. We are poised for continued success. We have a plan in place to be up double digits again. And we intend to open about 40 new offices again this year.

Nice.

Which is just terrific. I say as we think about 2026, we really want to build on our previous successes and move from success to significance. And my mantra for the last several years has been imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. It has to be educated action. It has to be data-driven and pay attention to the science, but there’s also the art. And so we really are going to continue with a strong spirit of innovation to remain on the cutting edge of our industry. And that’s really where we’re focused in 2026. Professionally, we have a lot of things that we are working on to deliver that. We’re relaunching our Cared For program, which is a state-of-the-art, best-in-class program for clients that are receiving services from us. We’re going to continue to enhance our tech stack. We’re going to continue to work on, I mentioned, 40 new franchises. We’re going to continue to attract great franchisees that can deliver exceptional in-home care in communities that we currently don’t have that ability to do. And all of that to just continue to drive growth across our entire network.

You know, you’re a great story for people who think franchisers just sit back and collect checks, right?

Oh, goodness, no.

You have so many things going on that are going to be good, not just for the brand, but for all of the franchisees. That’s so impressive, Emma.

Thank you. As you well know, Jack, franchising is about relationships. And this only works when there are win-win programs and solutions and tools and resources. And the minute that any brand sits back and thinks that they can just be satisfied, you know, they’re going to get run over because there are always brands that are developing, that are growing, and that will happily take your place if you’re not going to have a spirit of innovation.

Yeah, we’ve seen that a few times, right? That’s look out, guys.

Absolutely. I tell staff a lot, you can’t just sit in the road because if you’re sitting in the road, somebody’s going to run over you.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Emma. Thanks for sharing your goals. We look forward to seeing you very soon down the road, maybe at IFA 2026. And we wish you the best of luck in the year 26.

Thank you, Jack. Happy New Year.

Larisa Walega is the Chief Growth Officer at ZBART International, and she joins us once again on Social Geek. What’s going on, Larisa? Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, Jack.

It’s gonna be a great one.

Yeah, it’s going to be a big year. I think I’m optimistic, probably more optimistic about franchising than I have been in the last few years. Tell me about your plans at ZBART for 2026. What are your goals?

We have some pretty lofty, attainable and exciting goals. We, from a franchise development standpoint, we anticipate it to be our biggest year, not only in terms of new agreements and bringing on new franchise owners to our system, but we are at this incredible juncture as a legacy brand with over now, when we record this now, it will be 67 years of experience, one of the oldest franchise systems in the world. But we are at this great opportunity where our franchise owners are ready to, some of them are ready to retire. We’ve had owners who have been with our system for over 40 years. So it was really important to us this year to stand up a very strong resale program, making sure that they get the best return that they can from their investment as a ZBARC franchise owner. So not only with that opportunity of bringing on new owners, just with new agreements, new opportunities from a target market standpoint, we see ZBARC’s largest growth opportunity, honestly, still it sounds old, but east of the Mississippi, there’s so much opportunity still for our products and services. So we’re excited for that. But we’re really excited to make sure that our franchise owner community is strong through return on investment of resales and also them bringing in new owners from that too.

Very good. Well, congratulations on a big 2025 and good luck in 2026. Looking forward to seeing you soon at an IFA event.

Thank you.

You too. Back with the Social Geek Rockstars for January 1st, 2026. Joining me once again, Danielle Wright, Scott Greenberg, Derrick Ableman, Kristen Pechacek and Ali Kraus. Welcome everyone. I wanna hear what you’re planning in 2026. Kristen, we’re gonna go to you first.

Oh, 2026 is gonna be amazing. I am manifesting it. And I am also manifesting huge growth, but less chaos. And so my 2026 is all about clarity, doing fewer things better, and making sure that the growth that we have is strategic and planful and not reactionary. Outside of that, I’m going to stop rolling up my sleeves as much as I do. And I’m really gonna try to focus on where we wanna go as a brand and a business. Sometimes I can get too far into the weeds, guilty as charged. And I take my eye off the prize. So we’re going to make sure that that prize is front and center. It’s not chaotic and it’s able to be reached.

That is a fantastic goal. And I’m sure right now, your entire team is listening to that saying, yay, right? Like, like, like.

Get out of my stuff, Kristen.

But that’s also like a huge boost to them that if I don’t have to roll up my sleeves, that means I have confidence in you. So I think, I think that’s sort of a double great goal. All right, Danielle, let’s go to you. What do you got for 2026?

Figures you would jump to me and say that. Hey, Danielle, what’s 2026? I said, Kristen, I think we did not talk before this call. So I’m not like we did not align on purpose. But for me is to be more focused as we had talked about on a previous episode, just take the moment to breathe, be in where I am, follow things through to their end results, and not try to do 15 different things at one time. I think that’s not helping our organization to grow in a thoughtful way. And so I think that for 2026, I just want to be more thoughtful with my time and be as detailed as I possibly can, because I think that’s what’s going to lend itself to a successful year.

That is a fantastic goal. I think so many of us are aligned here. Ali, tell us about your goals for yourself or Benetrens or one of the other six other things you’ve got going on in 2026. What are you working on first and what’s sort of top of the list?

Oh, I can’t tell if that was judgy or not, friend.

This is the no judgment zone.

OK, I’ll start with Benetrens, because that’s obviously where my my biggest heart is. We’re doing some really fun things in marketing next year. I’m excited we’re going to if you’ve heard me talking, I did it at the SMB conference, but we’re starting to advertise on Reddit. If you want to know how it goes, call me on quarter two when I decide to can it or keep going. We also this is hard to say out loud, but we are cutting back on events. And OK, yeah, we were going to like 60 and it was a lot. So we’ve totally kind of tightened up on that a little bit. And some of the groups that have like multiple, we just maybe did one or two. And so we tightened it up to be a little more purposeful in our events this year, because we were just throwing people everywhere. And so that in itself is its whole own strategy. But that’s a big deal for us here.

Very good. All right. Tell us about some goals for some of the other things you’re involved in, including the Women’s Franchise Committee. Any any big goals set for that so far?

Well, so this year I’m actually rolling in as the chair at convention, which also gives me a seat on the IFA board. So I’m really excited that at convention this year, it’ll be my first time sitting in on a board meeting. It’s a non-voting seat, but we’re really gracious that the IFA has given the Women’s Franchise Committee’s chair a voice in that room. So I’m super excited for that and the summer board meeting, where the same thing will happen this year. So that’ll be new for me. And then I’m looking forward to bringing in a new co-chair and like 12 new members this year. And we’re shaking up ALC and doing a lot of different things at ALC this year. So just a lot that I’m like questioning if I could do it.

I think you can. My money’s on you. Last one I was going to ask you about, one of the biggest sensations in franchising in 2025 was the creation of something called Furry Frans. And you guys really sort of like kicked it off nice and loud last year. What are your goals for 2026 with Furry Frans?

Yeah, so if you haven’t heard of Furry Frans, I co-founded it with Kris Stuart, the CEO over at Bloom and Blinds. And we started in May, got a logo. It was a heart project. We do it on the side. And the two of us never even met each other in real life. And then we came together at the IFA’s advocacy event in DC in September and collected 300 stuffed animals for the DC Fire and EMS for Children in Crisis. And then after that, we hosted five more events this year. And we have collected, I’m sorry, it was six events total. And we’ve collected 800 stuffed animals in six different states for the fire and EMS. So we think next year is gonna be even bigger. It moves fast. We brought Karen Wenning on to our board as our first board seat. Subtle Strauss has been wonderful. They’re actually setting up a whole online store that if you’re hosting an event, you can go on, get your flyers, get extra stuffies, signs, t-shirts for volunteers and everything in between. And so if you’re listening and you’re a brand or you’re a broker that has a convention that wants to offer this for local communities, reach out at furryfans.com because that’s the whole point. We’re operating like a franchise system. We are your corporate support and you run the show in your towns.

Scott, what about you?

Yeah, this is the year where I really want to go higher and deeper. Higher in that I really want to up my game with everything that I do. I really want my presentations to be significantly better, but deeper in that I want my relationships, my clients to be maybe a little less transactional and more long term. So whether that’s being on an advisory board or consulting, but to go beyond just like giving a keynote or break out that kind of thing, I really want longer, deeper relationships to really help these companies. So I’m looking forward to that. This could be the year of my next book. So I’m not promising, I’m not committing, but I’m kind of psyched. I’ve got an idea, franchise related, and this could be the year, so stay tuned.

All right, we will be looking for that. And also I love that you’re looking to maybe get more involved in like being on a board or something like that. I think you would be fantastic at that for about a dozen companies I know right now that could really use some help. So I think that’s a fantastic goal. I’m going to jump in here. Derrick, we’re going to save you for last once again. My goal for the year, we talked about it off air a few minutes ago, but we were talking about, Derrick, I think you mentioned this about the ratio of signal to noise. And I was rewatching an old Steve Jobs video about that. It had to be from, I don’t know, 25 years ago. And it still really hit me that I am so easily distracted by noise. And I think I’m getting worse at that. So that’s my goal for the year, is anything that doesn’t have to be done in the next 18 hours, forget it, right? You’re not getting an ounce of my time or thought. I need to focus on the things that have to be done in the next day and a half. And that is my signal. I need, my goal is to increase that signal, decrease the noise. And I’m sure that’s going to piss a few people off along the way. But guess what? Sorry, my goal is to help out the people who I need to help out, not so much the noisemakers out there. So that’s my goal. All right, Derrick.

Well, thanks, Jack. And I would say that, you know, from a business perspective, my goal is to get really zoned in on our client experience and refine every little touch point, you know, the things that seem little from a thousand foot view, everything from the design of our invoices to the style of tape we use on our shipping boxes. I’m going to get it all up in all of that this year. Because ultimately, I want our clients to feel like we think about them way more than they think about us. That’s what I’m going for here. We should be an important and admittedly decisive point of their business opening or being refreshed, but that should pass. You should say thank you and get on running your business. Godspeed, love the signs, have a great day. So I want them to feel that in every little detail. From a personal perspective, my personal goal this year, I want to be bored. That’s what I want to do. I ended last year with an anecdote about my daughter, and I will bookend it with another one, kick this year off with it. My daughter recently complained to me that she was bored, and my reply was, you’re welcome. Because it is a rare relief to just sit and have nothing to do or shove in your eyes or shove in your ears, and to just sit or drive or do nothing. And I’m not even advocating for like meditation or mindfulness. I think that that stuff is actually hard work disguised as sitting still. I just want to shut up for a minute. Really, I want to let the world turn, and I want to make space for it to turn. I don’t want any more stimulation, no engagement, no clicks, no views, no comments, nothing. So come on, 2026. I beg you, I challenge you, I dare you, 2026. Please. Peace, boar me.

Thanks to all of our guests for joining us on the New Year’s Day Special for 2026. Thanks to our sponsors, Citrin Cooperman, AnswerConnect and Thunderly. And thanks to you for listening, telling a friend about us, and staying connected on the Social Geek Radio Network.