Sherry McNeil is the president and CEO of The Canadian Franchise Association. She’s also one of this year’s winners of the Social Geek Franchise Thought Leadership Awards. I wanted to get together and talk a little bit about her leadership content.

Welcome back to the podcast, Sherry.

Hi Jack, it’s so great to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation.

Congratulations on being named one of our thought leaders for this year and ongoing. This is a lifetime achievement. You don’t have to win again next year. So you’re inducted into a class of some really smart leaders. So I was so glad that our listenership voted you in this year. Tell me about your thought leadership content. What’s one of the things that you love speaking about, whether it’s on digital or on a stage or behind any microphone?

Well, Jack, I can talk franchising all day long. As you know, because you and I have the opportunity to connect on a semi-regular basis. Some of the aspects within franchising that I like to talk about are the wow factor. So, and that relationships are key in franchising. So that relationship between franchisor and franchisee, franchisee to their team, franchisee their team to the community, all of those people in partnership with their suppliers. And that’s really where the magic of franchising happens. It happens within those relationships each and every day. And especially the franchisee, their team, to the community. Because franchisees are independent small business owners who live, work and contribute to their local communities. And it makes a difference within that community each and every day. The other piece I like to talk about is the wow factor. So I’m addicted to franchise openings, just so you know. And it comes from when I was…

You’ve cut a lot of ribbons, right?

I have cut a few. And it comes from when I was on the franchisor side of the business. And the franchisor works with that franchisee from that initial call or email all the way up to their store or their unit opening. And I love walking in to that new location of its bricks and mortar. You see the franchisee, you see their family, you see their staff, you see the franchisor colleagues there. And that to me is wow. And it gets me every time. Because the franchisor, the franchisee, the supplier partners, they made that unit a reality. They made that new business actually come to fruition. And it made that franchisee’s dream of owning their own small business a reality. And to me, that’s the wow factor. I could just go to store openings all day long.

I totally get it. I used to think when you’d walk into, oh, there’s a new McDonald’s here. Or there’s a new Starbucks opening on every street corner. Or any big brand, especially those outside of franchising, like Walmart or something like that. It’s like, yeah, somebody just built this. Some corporation built this. But when it’s a franchisee and their brand and their team that are opening that, it’s, you’re right, it’s like this feeling of, you know, six weeks ago, there was a parking lot here. And this group of people came together and they created something. And yeah, that’s pretty special. That is wow.

That is wow. And that’s all about the magic and the wow factor of those relationships.

Yeah. I do like the relationship conversation too, because I think too often we talk about the relationship between the franchisor and franchisee or the supplier or whomever sort of at that level. But you mentioned the relationship that the franchisee and their team have with every community. And that’s something that, you know, Amazon, Starbucks, all of those types of businesses, they’re doing business in every city in North America, but they don’t have a relationship. You know, they’re just selling stuff.

So, that’s right. And it ties back to franchising gives back to the community. So franchisees often support the local community, various fundraisers, maybe the food bank, maybe it’s children’s soccer camp, maybe it’s, you know, Burgers for MS, etc. They’re so entrenched in that community. So they support it and various community initiatives. They hire local people, they pay municipal taxes. It’s all about that relationship. And that’s where the magic happens each and every day, coast to coast to coast around the world, in every city, every community around the world that has a franchise.

Let’s talk more about those communities. I’ve got some other questions for you, but I really am interested in hearing about World Franchise Day. We just had World Franchise Day 2026, which was the second annual World Franchise Day. Tell us what happened and maybe some of the things you’re planning for the next World Franchise Day.

Well, Jack, World Franchise Day number two was amazing. So I have to thank everyone within the franchise industry around the world, including you for supporting the initiative and making a difference. So we saw a huge increase. So we saw over 3,600 social media posts come around the world in the one day. And one day is actually 50 hours long when you look at it from a global.

Right. Right.

Global.

It is.

Yeah.

So in that 50 hours, over 3,600 social media posts, which is up over 64 percent increase from last year, 65,000 likes and interactions this year, which was up 141 percent, 58 million, million with an M, zeros, social media views, which was up 164 percent. And the interesting part, not only with more posts, more interactions, but the increase in engagement per post was up 147 percent. So people were spending longer, they were engaging with them. And that’s just year two. We need everyone’s help to make year three even better. So June 9th, 2027, everyone should start their planning now on how they’re going to celebrate franchising within their communities, with their franchisees, with the franchisees team. So franchisees, as I mentioned, are independent small business owners that live, work and contribute to their communities. It’s all about the magic of those relationships, franchisor, supplier, franchisees, their team, their community. How can we make that even better? Because I would love every community that has a franchise to be celebrating those franchisees and those team members at store level on June 9th, 2027.

I love the idea of all of these people in those communities seeing some small business post about World Franchise Day. And the reaction is, oh, I didn’t even know that that was a franchise. You know, and I think, I think that’s a goal. I think, I think having all of those people out there, not knowing that, you know, their favorite doughnut shop or their favorite, you know, place where they go to get a massage or whatever, that’s actually part of this franchise business model. And to have those millions of views that you’re talking about, people talking about franchising in a positive light, you know, those are millions of views where we’re not talking about, you know, some bad actor or, you know, some lawsuit or, you know, some horrible thing happening with some really big concept somewhere. But, you know, millions of views of people reading something positive happening in all of these communities. I think that’s tremendous. You should be commended for, you know, taking the initiative with this entire project. And, you know, just in the first two years, you’ve grown it from kind of this idea in the middle of the night to something that millions of people are looking at. So, yeah, nice work there.

Well, thank you so much. And it really comes down to one thing. It’s powered by people, right? So, I’ve talked about the relationships, I’ve talked about the magic, but when you really take it, take it up to the bird’s eye view, and then you take it up another level to the airplane view, it’s really powered by people. And that, to me, is key. And celebrating all those franchisees, their team members, and it happens around the world. 65 countries this year celebrated World Franchise Day. And franchise businesses within those countries. So, how can we continue to celebrate franchising that is powered by people?

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Tell me some more about the CFA. Is there anything about the Canadian Franchise Association that maybe people aren’t aware of or something you would like everyone to know about the CFA?

Oh, Jack, that’s a good question. So a couple of things. One, franchising in Canada is bigger than many people think it is. So franchising is actually the 12th largest industry in this country. And Canadians are very franchise friendly. They interact on average three to five franchises each and every day. It’s really part of how they live their lives each and every day. Which is amazing. I think the one thing that many people would not realize is the CFA is also powered by people. And we have 33 different committees. They’re all run by volunteers. Over 450 volunteers who give their time each and every week, each and every month, each and every quarter to making a difference in this industry in Canada all the time. And that to me is key and how working with them and I learn from them each and every day, whether I want to or not, and on how we continue to grow this industry and make it more impactful. And because my goal is I want to get into the top 10 and I want more than 450 volunteers. I want a thousand volunteers, everybody rowing in the same direction, growing this industry, and then all boats will rise, to use your quote that you gave me a couple of weeks ago. All boats will rise.

And it feels like we’re on our way there. You’ve got a pretty big anniversary coming up with the CFA as well, right?

So we do have a very big anniversary. Thank you for that, Jack, for remembering. And it’s, the CFA will be celebrating their 60th anniversary in 2027. So we want to bring the community together to celebrate at our national convention in April of 2027. So I know you’ll be joining us, Jack, because I will be there. I have twisted your arm to be our MC again this year. And interestingly, the theme for the 60th anniversary, part of the theme is powered by people built to last. And that’s going to be the theme throughout the three days. So I’m glad you’re going to be able to join us.

I can’t wait to be there. We will be in what city this year? Is that Niagara Falls?

It’s Niagara Falls. Yeah.

Nice.

Nice.

Yeah. 60 years is impressive. Franchising has been around for well over 100 years. Some people argue about when it actually started. But 60 years just in Canada for the Association, the majority of our members and people who will be joining us weren’t born when this started. I mean, you were nowhere near being born yet. And I mean, CFA is almost as old as the Beatles. Think about that, right? So 60 years, that’s a pretty impressive number. I can’t wait to be there. We will see everybody there in Niagara Falls in the spring of 2027. Anything else you’re working on with the CFA or anything else in general in Franchising that you’re seeing that you really think will make a big impact on the second half of this year or maybe early 2027?

Oh, well, we have a strategic plan, which is four strategic pillars, which is community education, advocacy and brand awareness. So what we’re working on always is filtered through those four key pillars. Some of the things that I’m working on that you might not be aware of, one, World Franchise Day 2027, but I already…

Of course.

And I’m working with the Mexican Franchise Association as well as the International Franchise Association to sign a tri-party agreement on how we are going to work together in North America to grow franchising the three associations together. So I’m actually leaving for Mexico City shortly and we’ll be there all week. We’ll be signing that agreement and look forward to working with my colleagues of the Mexican Franchise Association as well as the IFA on how we can work together, collaborate to grow franchising in this country.

That’s fantastic. And when you guys get that figured out, please let all three governments know how that works. And maybe you could help out a little bit there too. But I think it’s interesting that we’re looking at this as a North American solution because when it comes to some of these businesses, that border is really just sort of a made up thing that we put our own hurdles in place sometimes with these things. There are so many great brands that are doing well on both sides of the border, and so many great brands that should be expanding across these nations. So I’m really interested to seeing how that works out over the next couple of years.

If we can do it, it will be the first one ever in the history of franchising that we’re aware of. And then it would be nice to use that as a template that maybe we can create relationships and MOUs with other associations in other parts of the world. So this is really our test to see how does it work? What does success look like? How do we measure it and then grow the relationships between those associations as well as the brands and the supplier members? Great. So can I also talk about something, Jack? So also working on fraud. So, and don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not creating fraud.

You’re rooting it out.

Fraud is a growing challenge, an issue within the franchise industry. So it has become more and more prevalent, which it’s bad actors, to use your term, who are pretending to be franchisors, who then are collecting money from potential franchisees, but they’re actually not a franchisor.

Oh no.

So they’re using AI to create FDDs, franchise disclosure documents, circulars, et cetera. The prospective franchisee believes they’re a franchisor, they’re paying them money, and then that bad actor disappears. Also, it’s happening with people pretending to be franchise brokers, so also being bad actors, which then has a ripple effect for the entire franchise community, because then the banks and companies who lend money have the experience of, oh my goodness, we’ve had this experience of fraud with some of our clients who are prospective franchisees. Then that slows down the ability of the banks to lend money, because they have to go through more checks, more balances, risk assessment needs are much higher. So we need everybody’s assistance to keep their eyes open for fraud, make sure they are talking to their existing franchisees in case their franchisees want to open another brand of another concept. But also as people are coming through their pipeline, what does fraud look like? Even if that candidate never becomes a franchisee of that system, they have done a great service to the franchise industry by helping educate those various candidates coming from the general public on what fraud could look like, that actually they might lose their money, they might be defrauding the bank, etc., don’t sign anything, make sure they’re a reputable company, reputable broker. And that education process for that candidate pipeline, I think is the key to actually helping reduce fraud within the industry.

That is such a great thing to focus on because I think we have no idea how bad this problem could be. It could be even worse than you think. And the first thing I thought of is not only are people losing money, banks are losing money, it creates hurdles for opportunities for other people. But imagine those people who were taken in by this fraud. They could have been a great small business owner someday. And now they’re probably so turned off of the entire idea that we just lost a good potential business owner in whatever community. So there’s so many things that could go wrong that, you know, maybe 10 years ago, the technology didn’t exist to commit this level of fraud. But unfortunately, now we live with it every day.

On the human level, it’s heartbreaking.

Yeah.

When I think about it, like it’s heartbreaking. And I talked about the wow factor earlier. That wow factor can never happen now for that human or that family, because they might have lost everything they had due to fraud or a big gov their savings due to fraud. So that’s heartbreaking. If we take it up a couple levels, the government always tries to protect the consumer. And consumer protection springboards into franchise law, which then makes franchise disclosure, circulars, et cetera, longer, more complicated, because the government’s always working to protect the consumer, which is the absolutely right thing to do. And I think we, as people within the franchise industry, we have the ability to help reduce fraud. If we’re just all focused on it, we’re all focused on educating our pipeline as they come in. And we’re just talking about it. And how do we prevent fraud and save those humans from that heartbreak and reduce the chance of additional franchise legislation?

And I’d really rather have you and some other smart people in the industry working on this than to just leave it all up to our governments, because that’s a long and expensive process when we get the government involved in this. So thank you for your work on that. I want to follow along and please keep us updated on where you and the CFA are going with all of this look into fraud and franchising. I think that’s a fascinating topic that we should catch up on again within the next few weeks. As we wrap up the show today, if people are interested in that topic or any of the other topics that you mentioned, where’s the best place for them to follow along and really take in all of the things that you’re talking about lately?

Well, they can follow us on LinkedIn, so The Canadian Franchise Association. They can go on our website, www.cfa.ca. They can send me a note on LinkedIn, and it sometimes takes me a few days to respond, but I always do respond to all the messages. So happy to have conversations about franchising all day long.

All right, very good. Be safe in your upcoming travels, and we will see you again very soon, my friend.

Thanks so much, Jack.

Thanks to today’s guest, Sherry McNeil, of The Canadian Franchise Association, for joining me today. Thanks also to our sponsors, Pilot, AnswerConnect, Thunderly, and the IFA World Franchise Show. And thanks to you for listening, telling a friend about us, and staying connected. On the Social Geek Radio Network.