Social Geek presents a mini-episode today getting ready for World Franchise Day!
Join Sherry McNeil, CEO of the Canadian Franchise Association and the creative mind behind World Franchise Day, along with host Jack Monson.
They’ll chat about the background for WFD and what franchise pros across the globe can do to celebrate and spread the word about Franchising!
Thanks to The Canadian Franchise Association, World Franchise Council, and Thunderly.
Transcript
AI was not used in the creation of this podcast. This is the Social Geek Radio Network.
I want to be the first person to tell Sherry McNeil of the Canadian Franchise Association, Happy World Franchise Day, Sherry.
Thank you so much, Jack, and happy World Franchise Day to you too.
So we’re officially doing this on World Franchise Day Eve, which could be maybe another holiday that we celebrate someday. But I wanted to sort of jump in before World Franchise Day with you and get a little background on World Franchise Day and let all of our franchise friends from across the globe know how they could participate and celebrate this amazing day. How did this all come about? This is only about a year old or so, is that right?
That is correct. So the inaugural World Franchise Day was June of 2025. And we were going to measure success if we got 13 countries from around the globe to participate. So we actually were more successful than we originally anticipated with 65 countries Wow. across continents. So it was very interesting to watch it come around the world in the 24-hour cycle of World Franchise Day. So please watch social media, and like, share, reshare, comment on anything that you see coming around the world in the next 24 hours.
And how can we generate some of that ourselves? How do we create something? I think we want people to do some video, but what’s involved in that? What should they be doing?
So great question. So the inaugural World Franchise, First Franchise Day, actually, I had the idea in the middle of the night, and then took me to…
Like all good ideas in franchising, right?
All good ideas in franchising come at 321 in the morning. I took it to some trusted advisors, including our partners, Reshift Media, as well as some of our board members. We created a subcommittee. We then took, I took the idea to an organization called World Franchise Council, which is franchise associations from around the world. They adopted the initiative and spread it to their members, and their government, etc. That’s how we got such great participation in 2025. But that’s not the question that you asked me. The question that you asked me was, how can we participate this year? If you see social media posts, you can like, share, comment. If you would like to create a video, please do so. Hashtag World Franchise Day, hashtag Canadian Franchise Association, please. Because we’re going to be monitoring what we see happen on social media over the 24-hour period that the various associations and their members and non-members are celebrating around the world.
Cool. What should people say in the videos? Are we just talking about what we love about franchising? Are we just sort of introducing ourselves to the world and saying where we’re from and what our brands are, and maybe what country we’re from? What would you like to see?
Well, I’d like to see yes, yes, and yes.
Okay.
The main message about World Franchise Day is that franchisees are independent small business owners who live, work, and contribute to their communities, which drives the economy, drives the fabric of our culture within our respective countries, et cetera. However, you can say something just as simple as Happy World Franchise Day, or this is who I am, this is my brand, this is what we do, Happy World Franchise Day. So there is no right or no wrong. It’s all about raising the profile of franchising. It’s all about one day, one celebration, one global movement, celebrating this business model and appreciating our franchisees and their staff that work each and every day within their respective communities. Yeah, yeah.
I think that’s the big thing that I like from some of the videos I saw last year in some of the social posts. People were really talking about their community. So while it’s a global effort, it’s really kind of boiled down to your neighborhood or your small town or your part of town too. So I think that’s something about this that I really love. It’s global, but it’s really, really local.
Right. It’s that whole profile. You’re right. From global right down to local. And we were so fortunate last year, we had a variety of franchisees actually post on social media with videos, telling their story, why they bought a franchise, where their location is, how long they’ve been in business, if they’re partners with their brother or their spouse, et cetera. So really bringing it down to that individual human that’s making a difference each and every day within their community.
All right. I could not love this more. Sherry McNeil, thank you so much for joining me today. Again, happy World Franchise Day. And I look forward to seeing all of the videos on social media throughout the day.
Happy World Franchise Day, Jack.