The Franchise Rookie

To put it simply, what Express does is we help people find jobs. Like if someone asked me what I do, Oh, I own an employment firm. What's an employment firm? Oh? We help people find jobs and we help companies fawn people. It really is that easy.

Welcome to on the job. I'm your host, Avery Thompson, and today we're talking with one of Express Employment Professional's youngest franchise owners.

My name is Brian Garvey. I am the franchise owner of Express Employment Professionals located in Greensboro, South North Carolina.

So let's get into it to learn how this young whipper snapper has already found himself at the helm. Brian Garvey became the owner of his own Express franchise at only twenty four years old, an age when most Americans are still living with their parents and paying for their car in monthly installments. But before you go thinking that Brian is just one of those people that come out of the womb ready to conquer the world, I'll let him dispel that.

When I first joined the program, I genuinely felt like I wasn't ready to become an owner, and I wasn't at all, Dear Lord, I was not ready.

But that feeling of not being ready wasn't new for Brian Garvey. In fact, you might even say Brian's whole life has been a series of challenges, each forcing him to step up his game a little bit more so.

I grew up in a town called Fairview, Tennessee. It's about forty five minutes southwest of Nashville. I think we lived on five acres, had some farm animals, you know, waking up early, tending to everything.

Well, Brian began as a farm boy, he didn't stay that way. As a recipient of a scholarship. He was sent off to a fancy academy over in an affluent town.

So I got to hang out with a rural very nice people and got the sh see their way of life. And then I got to go to private school and see the Brentwood, Tennessee style of living. And then I also got to see the other kids that were on financial Leiter scholarship that were Atperod Academy. So I got a healthy mix of a little bit of everything.

That exposure to kids from all walks of life would come to serve Brian throughout his life, particularly in his current role with Express.

I feel like it made me uniquely qualified for this industry because I can always relate to someone coming into my office.

But there's still a fair bit of years between Brian's childhood and his present day at Express, and a good chunk of those years were spent playing sports.

So I played football, basketball, baseball since I could basically walk.

Eventually, Brian committed himself to football, which he excelled at, going so far as to play for the University of Tennessee. And I have to admit I never really had much sympathy for college athletes until I heard Brian explain what it was actually like.

You are waking up at five, You have a lift at six, takes about an hour and a half. Typically, you've classed from eight to twelve. After your class at twelve, you have to walk over the facility and eat lunch because if you don't eat, you're gonna pass out during practice. So now it's one o'clock. You just finished eating. You have meetings at two thirty. You're watching film for the next two hours. Now it's four thirty. You're on the field at five. You get off the field at eight.

Saturday intense, right, But as grueling as those days were, they instilled in Brian a relentless work ethic that benefits him to this day.

If you ask any of my teammates about Brian Garby as a football player, I want them to say I was tough and consistent. I was there every single practice and they knew they could count on me, and I gave them the same effort every day. And I think that's a mentality translates to the business world so well, because there are some days you do not want to make that shales call, but you do. And the first business that Brian got to apply that gridiron grit to

I love the image of this three hundred and fifteen pound offensive lineman bussing tables at the cheesecake factory. But I wondered if Brian founded a blow to his ego to go from playing Division one football to scraping half eaten food off plates, and he said not in the least.

I was happy for an opportunity. I take pride in my work, regardless of the work. Someone has to tick the trash out of my office, someone needs a sweet mop. I have no problem doing that. I feel like as soon as you think you are above a task, you'll have a root awakening in some way coming around the corner.

Instead of feeling like the job was beneath him, Brian applied the same dedication of bettering himself that he developed as an athlete.

I take pride in learning new things. It's something that I feel like everyone needs to be able to do. So. When I was working at cheesecake factory learning from a single mother, or I was learning from someone who had only done serving for fifteen years, I bet they are a better served than I am. Let me learn from them.

When we think of coaches, we think of them as these archetypal figures with a clipboard in hand and whistle around their neck. But Brian knows that coaches come in all forms.

One compliment that I've been given is I'm resourceful. I know who to go to with each type of question.

So when we come back from the break, Brian seeks out some new coaches. In the world of business.

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We're back with Brian Garvey, who, after playing football for the University of Tennessee and a stint bussing tables at the cheesecake factory, was preparing to go out into the professional world with his college degree in hand.

So I was studying sociology because I was always interested in how people think in our society kind of functions.

But as luck would have it, Brian graduated at the height of the COVID nineteen pandemic not exactly the best time to be cast out into the workforce.

So the first job I took out of college was cutting down trees in Oak Island, North Carolina. I drove a bucket truck, I ran a saw, I was in bucket sometimes and we were cleaning up hercane damage.

In typical Brian Garvey fashion, he applied himself fully to the task at hand, whatever needed doing, who was more than happy to jump in. And it was a federally contract job, so we would work seven to seven, nine ten days in a row, then get two days off and repeat, repeat, repeat. And while he enjoyed the physicality of the work and the relief that provided to the communities in need, he knew that it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life.

Once I finished that, I knew I wanted to get into business and enterprise. The car Rental Company really had good feedback on their management training program, so I applied there and got accepted.

And it was in that training program that Brian starts to develop his business skills.

I started there in November of twenty twenty one and quickly learned that.

I knew I could sell with his ability to chat up anyone and everyone, Brian flourished at Enterprise.

If I tried to get number one of the leader boards, typically I could purely I'll take every single ticket I could.

But despite that early success, he came to the conclusion that selling car liability and satellite radios wasn't the contribution he wanted to make to the world. What he wanted to do was use his sales abilities to help others, and he figured the best way he could do that was in the staffing field.

But I wanted to sell something that I believed in because it made me more authentic and it made me a better shelgep if I actually spoke from who I am as a person. And the more I learned about staffing, the more I felt called to do it. I could help people that maybe wanted to get an opportunity through directly to the company, because I could call on their behalf. I could get them a dollar extra and pay And for a company, a dollar extra means forty dollars a

So Brian starts casting the nets out, seeing where he might be able to get his foot in the staffing door.

And that's when Jason Patrick, the head of the Emerging Entrepreneur program, called me and he said, hey, Express is launching a new program.

And the more Brian listened to what Express was offering, the more he liked what he heard.

Essentially, we want to train you for eighteen months and we want to fast check your path to ownership.

But rarely does an opportunity to come without its set of challenges.

The one caveat was Jason said, Hey, we're going to place you with the franchise e that we think is best for you, which involves relocation.

So stepping up would mean Brian would have to move. But hey, one of the many benefits of youth is that you typically don't have a lot holding you down.

So I signed up for it. I moved to Morristown, Tennessee, where I was trained by Sarah Bowman, Celia Smith, LaToya Miller, who is still my developer to this day, and just got surrounded by very successful people.

And after that initial training period, Brian had the opportunity to become a franchise owner, which was a thrilling prospect. But the whole new level of responsibility, and that's when it hit him.

The most shocking part. I guess you could say to me, becoming an owner is understanding that I wasn't ready.

But if Brian's football career taught him one thing, it was that you don't have to face adversity alone. When in doubt, you reach out to your coaches and your teammates.

My lease in my office space was like fifty four pages, and the leases I was used to were like a page and a half from the apartments I had lived in. So I was reading through it and I didn't understand most of the words. I reached out to Jason Patrick, LaToya Miller and Express HQ asking for guidance on it, and sure enough, they all agreed to hop on a

Well, he occasionally still reaches out to his fellow franchise owners for guidance. Brian is getting more comfortable with his responsibilities, and like any good athlete, he's not above a little friendly competition to keep things interesting.

I talk a little smack to other owners, and sometimes they like it. Other times they try to beat me back, which is something I want because once again, iron sharpens iron. If we're all competing with ourselves and the only way to win is to help more people find jobs, it sounds like an every one wins type of deal to me at least.

Though Brian claims he's fueled by conflict, it's obvious from talking to him that he's also driven by something much deeper than competition, something he refers to as his why.

One of my wives is I want to provide a better workplace than my internal employees can find elsewhere, and I wanted that burden on.

Me, and beyond being there for his entire employees, Brian remains committed to his ultimate responsibility, which is getting people out into the workforce.

I also wanted to ensure that we were going to put our associates first, because I truly believe if you put the associates first, everything else will fall into place.

Brian understands just how nerve racking that first day can be, because it wasn't that long ago that he was in their same shoes.

I would say that when I first joined cheesecake Factory. I was nervous, But being nervous is something I don't take for granted because if you're nervous, it means you're doing something important and being able to suppress that feeling of like the anxiety that comes with the nervousness and just use the extra energy and boost it gives you as beneficial.

Despite that belief that a few butterflies in the stomach can be a good thing on his associates first day, Brian makes sure to be there.

I meet them at the front door, introduce them, and that way they feel better and more bought in to express because we put that extra effort in.

So, Brian, you've benefited from lots of coaching throughout your life. Now that you're coming into your own or the tables turning, is the player becoming the coach.

Man? That's a really good question. So I have had a lot of coaches, and I apply a lot of my leadership to my athletics and explain the why behind what we do. We're not doing this to all become millionaires. We're doing this because we're helping people. We are helping people find jobs. So is the role reversing I hope so, and I hope I am as right as often as the coaches that will mentoring me my entire life.

From the job. I'm Avery Thompson.

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