Tyler Seman shares how he transitioned from the world of finance and private equity-backed consolidator to building a mission-driven senior care business. Joining Dru Carpenito, he looks back on how this path took him through Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA) before ultimately launching a Hallmark Homecare franchise. Tyler also gets candid about why he chose the senior care space, what surprised him most in his first year, and how he navigates the ramp-up phase as a first-time franchise...
Jun 17, 2025•41 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this episode of Franchise Masters, Dru Carpenito chats with a dynamic entrepreneur who owns and operates nine Crumbl franchise locations. Get ready for a deep dive into the rollercoaster journey of scaling a high-growth, fast-paced franchise in the booming cookie industry. Shideler Bennett shares behind-the-scenes stories about the challenges of rapid expansion, from managing supply chain disruptions to building strong teams across multiple locations. You'll hear about the systems and process...
Jan 21, 2025•47 min•Season 4Ep. 2
What does it take to scale a $30M+ home service business? Ron Weatherly shares his journey and lessons learned from scaling his foundation repair and crawlspace encapsulation company and exiting to a private-equity-backed company rolling up operators. This candid conversation delves into the strategies, challenges, and key decisions that fueled Ron’s growth and success. From navigating the complexities of scaling operations to assembling a winning team and leveraging systems like EOS, this episo...
Jan 07, 2025•44 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Connor Groce is a multi-brand, multi-unit franchisee in his twenties running a multimillion-dollar operation and gives us the goods on how he saves $100K+ per year by outsourcing his back office to offshore talent (e.g. HR, AR/AP, bookkeeping, marketing, etc.) We get into why he believes it’s more effective to do it this way (besides saving a ton of money). Connor walks us through his systems, software he uses, checks and balances, etc. Lots of insights in this episode.
May 07, 2024•42 min•Season 3Ep. 2
The dream of franchise ownership is freedom and financial success. But how do you turn a single home service franchise location into an eight-figure powerhouse? It takes strategic planning, operational excellence, and leveraging the power of the franchise system. In this episode, Caleb Brunz shares his story and journey of scaling his Paul Davis Restoration franchise into a monster business. Caleb opens the kimono on what it took to achieve this scale – including his leadership strategy, people ...
Apr 29, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Adam Wasch, Founding Partner of The Franchise Firm, shares insights any emerging franchise company and franchise buyer should hear. Adam has extensive experience advising franchisors and new franchisees on the legal ins and outs to be aware of. He covers a lot in this episode.
Apr 09, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 15
One of the surprising elements of a successful franchise system is the power of the franchisee community. In this episode, Tim Morris shares secrets about tapping into the collective mindshare of franchisees to develop high-performing franchise owners. Tim has spent many years helping franchise brands grow throughout the world. He’s an expert in franchising and a skillful facilitator. Tim offers so many insights in this episode. So, don’t try to miss this opportunity!
Apr 02, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Ryan Muhlbauer got into the pet boom before it was booming. He opened his first Dogtopia in 2017 and has since grown to a second location. Interestingly, he owns the real estate on his second Dogtopia location. Ryan talks with us about how he pulled off owning the dirt and why owning the real estate is an important part of his scaling strategy. He also shares secrets he’s used to scale his multi-unit operation including how implementing EOS was a game-changer....
Mar 25, 2024•33 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Alicia Miller , an author, joins the podcast to walk us through insights about private equity in franchising (at both the franchisor and franchisee level). Alicia has analyzed private equity’s extensive involvement in franchising and offers a candid under-the-hood perspective that hasn’t been very public before. Alicia has deep ties within the private equity and franchising world. She’s also just released a book that covers this very topic called “ Big Money in Franchising: Scaling Your Enterpri...
Mar 12, 2024•50 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Cole Simpson launched his Mighty Dog Roofing franchise and started cranking from day one. His company and team signed close to $1M in revenue during his first three months and planned to do $3M this year (his company’s first full calendar year in business). In the long term, Cole sees a path to build a $10M business. And he’s only five months into his business! We talked through how he’s scaled so fast, lessons learned (it hasn’t been easy), taking calculated risks, the power of building a stron...
Mar 04, 2024•53 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Mathis Young left the banking world in 2008 to launch his Aussie Pet Mobile franchise. He had no experience grooming dogs. He didn’t know the financial crisis was about to paralyze the world’s banking system and economy. But he didn’t really care. Perseverance and ambition pushed him forward. Today, he’s scaled his business to 24 mobile grooming vans on the road. He’s built his own training center for groomers and has a management team in place to run the day-to-day. Mathis walks us through his ...
Feb 26, 2024•37 min•Season 2Ep. 10
When Scott Tobin joined one of the early Burn Boot Camp locations as a trainer, he never dreamed that one day he would own 12 locations. Scott joins Dru Carpenito to walk us through his journey and how he has built a fitness empire with over 4,000 members and 200 employees. He also shares how he plans to grow to 20 locations. Through the highs of adding more locations under his belt to the lows brought on by different challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott paints a great picture of what it...
Feb 21, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Connor Groce is a multi-brand multi-unit franchise owner with Smash My Trash and Shine, who is growing through acquisition with plans to roll up franchises. Connor takes us through his journey starting his first franchise while still an undergrad at UNC during COVID, building it to a manager-run level, moving halfway across the country to acquire his first Smash My Trash unit, and how he’s growing through acquisition via roll-up with funding through his hold co....
Jan 02, 2024•39 min•Season 3Ep. 8
The Wolf of Franchises joins Dru Carpenito, and they get real and raw about the realities of what it takes to succeed as both a franchisee and franchisor. What does semi-absentee really mean, and what do prospective franchise owners need to beware of when they hear this word? Why do the minority of franchisors share profitability metrics in their Item 19? Why do only the small majority of franchise systems successfully scale nationally? And more. This is a fun and informative episode....
Dec 18, 2023•49 min•Season 3Ep. 7
If you’re an emerging franchise brand trying to figure out how to find high-quality franchise owners, this episode is for you. Dru is joined by long-time franchise insider, Andrew Horton. Andrew and Dru dive into 20+ years of experience in the emerging franchise development world. They share a number of different approaches emerging franchises have used to find the right franchise owners. From recruiting franchise owner #1 to scaling to 100+ units across the country, this episode covers the enti...
Dec 11, 2023•47 min
Jasmine and Xan Carr got an early look at KidStrong before it skyrocketed and sold 400 units. Interestingly, when they heard about it, the KidStrong business model was being prototyped and hadn’t been franchised yet. They knew it was unique and special. When KidStrong began expanding through franchising, they eagerly joined as Area Developers. They left their W2 jobs, moved their young family to Louisiana, and started building their KidStrong business. Today, Jasmine and Xan have five KidStrong ...
Nov 20, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Masterminds are the rocket fuel for entrepreneurial success. Welcome to an enlightening exploration of the dynamic world of mastermind groups, where we uncover the extraordinary potential they hold for catapulting your entrepreneurial journey to unparalleled heights. In this episode, we are privileged to be joined by Kurt Graves , an accomplished Vistage Chair who presides over a multitude of mastermind groups. Kurt's role revolves around facilitating peer-to-peer learning and collectively addre...
Oct 31, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Success in youth sports isn't just about scoring goals; it's about finding the right team, nurturing passion, and creating champions in life. Join us as Brittany Bennett takes us through her journey of building a multi-unit, multi-brand empire under the Youth Athletes United franchise platform. Brittany shares her and her husband’s story, from their humble beginnings as personal trainers striving to make ends meet to becoming a dynamic force in the youth sports industry. She reveals her strategi...
Oct 02, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 3
When is it time to transition out of the game and focus on being a franchisee or even further your growth as a franchisor? During this episode, we take a deep dive into all things exit strategy with Brian Alas , Managing Director at Boxwood Partners . Boxwood is a mid-market mergers and acquisition firm with a keen focus on franchising. Brian shares sell-side insights and from-the-trenches perspectives, helping multi-unit franchisees and growing franchise systems sell to institutional investors....
Sep 25, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Jay Palmer is a 14-unit franchisee of Floyd’s 99 Barbershop with locations across multiple non-contiguous states. During this episode, Jay takes us through his journey of how a chance encounter on a bike in Colorado led him to become a franchisee in 2006. Right now, he runs a multi-unit-multi-state operation with locations in Colorado and Kentucky managed by 250 employees. He shares some great advice around scaling multi-units, funding his growth, engaging with his growing number of employees th...
Sep 18, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Have you wondered what it takes to scale a non-food franchise and exit the business successfully? Today’s guest, JT Singh , a CPA, M&A expert, and multi-unit franchise owner, joins the podcast to drop tons of nuggets from his unique experience and perspective on franchising in this episode. JT is currently the CFO for FranWorth and talks about his strategies for scaling a non-food franchise. He also shares his tips on what franchise owners should look for to identify if an emerging brand has...
Aug 23, 2023•49 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Can you run a business where you have no background on it? How do you scale that business? In this episode, Jon Smith shares his journey of how one entrepreneur is scaling a multi-unit Club Pilates Empire with zero background in Pilates. The large demographic that Club Pilates serve is a huge factor in their growth. The more people with experience you get involved in your business can be your determiner in success. Jon mentions for general managers to be successful, they must have the sales arm ...
Mar 13, 2023•28 min•Ep. 27
As emerging business owners, what are the things we need to learn to grow our business? In this episode, Kevin Wilson, Chairman and CEO of Buzz Franchise Brands, join us for a fascinating conversation about growing and scaling multiple franchise brands using many of the principles he learned in private equity. Kevin started his career with a prestigious consulting firm, Bain & Company, but had the entrepreneurial itch to build his own successful business and stumbled across franchising. From...
Feb 13, 2023•34 min•Ep. 26
Jim Donnelly, founder of Restore Hyper Wellness, shares his entrepreneurial journey and the story behind creating and leading one of the fastest-growing franchises in the country. If you want to feel better, go visit a Restore near you!
Feb 06, 2023•28 min•Ep. 25
Entrepreneurs who want to expand their business rapidly should start thinking about franchising. Letting other people use your brand poses both risks and opportunities, and therefore you must know the right franchisor practices to follow. In this episode, Dru Carpenito is joined by Jeff Dudan , Author of Discernment: The Business Athlete's Regimen for a Great Life through Better Decisions . He is a seasoned franchise entrepreneur who founded and exited one franchise company. Jeff takes us deep i...
Dec 20, 2022•36 min•Ep. 23
Navigating through the site selection process to find the right location and negotiating with landlords to get the best lease terms for a franchise is critical in setting your business up for success. In this episode, the expert on retail real estate shares his trade tips. Joe Dougherty has spent over a decade helping retailers and franchise owners find the right location for their business. He is a partner in one of the largest retail commercial real estate firms in the Mid-Atlantic and has a f...
Dec 12, 2022•39 min•Ep. 23
Kelsey Stuart and his two brothers are carrying on their mother’s legacy by expanding their family-run Bloomin’ Blinds business via franchising. By focusing closely on systems, culture, franchisee profitability, and partnering with the right franchise owners, Bloomin’ Blinds is hitting its stride as they rapidly expand across the county. In this episode, Kelsey shares his and his family’s franchise journey including how their mother going dumpster diving played a key role in the company's genesi...
Dec 05, 2022•42 min•Ep. 22
Nick Lopez , founder and CEO of Lime Painting , joins us to share his journey of expanding Lime into a national company via franchising by paying particularly close attention to the values and culture of the company. Nick’s journey in the franchise world started when he founded a painting company in college and built a unique business model by applying many of the things he was learning in classes. Fast forward a few years, and Nick has built Lime Painting into a national company with 80 locatio...
Nov 29, 2022•42 min•Ep. 21
Bret Chevrier owns a franchise business that most people underestimate. It’s one of the biggest low-investment sleeper franchises out there because it can scale in a big way. The franchise is ShelfGenie, and Bret is a top-performing franchise owner. Bret takes us through his journey from banking to franchise ownership and reveals the simple secrets he’s used to achieving a mountain of success. Do you want to know how to become a high-performing franchise owner? Tune in to this episode and learn ...
Nov 21, 2022•27 min•Ep. 20
Ben Crawford's journey is one for the ages. Ben built a wildly successful real estate and construction company – and was recognized as Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of The Year and featured on Inc.'s 500 fastest growing companies – and then it all changed when The Great Recession arrived. That's when Ben's franchise journey began. Soon after the crash, Ben pushed all his chips in to bet on himself and a young emerging franchise that no one had heard about: The Joint Chiropractic . Even with no ...
Nov 14, 2022•32 min•Ep. 19
