Episode 226 – Eddie Rodriguez

(Check out an episode of The HERO Show here for a better idea on how to prep the template for this show https://youtu.be/1ehl-GqI1sE) ​ [00:00:00]

Hello, and welcome back to The Hero Show. My name’s Richard Matthews, and today I have [00:01:00] live on the line. Eddie Rodriguez, Eddie, are you there?

I am. Thank you Richard.

Awesome. Glad to have you here. And you know, I was gonna ask before we got started, where are you calling in from?

I’m calling in from sunny Miami, Florida.

Nice. We’re not that far away. We’re in sunny Sarasota, Florida.

Oh, wonderful. The West coast.

Yeah, we’re just on the other side of the state. So while we’re enjoying our beautiful, wonderful warm weather here in the winter, the rest of the country is suffering in the snow.

I lived in New York for 21 years. I understand that very clearly.

Absolutely. So, what I wanna do before we get too far into our call today is I want to go over a brief introduction for our audience who may know who you are. So, Eddie Rodriguez is a 30 year successful serial entrepreneur and has been Certified Franchise Consultant for over 15 years. He’s the founder and CEO of The Franchise Tailor, a franchise consulting group that helps people find their best next life via franchise ownership. So what I want to do, Eddie, is why don’t we start with what it is that you’re known for.[00:02:00] What’s your business like?

Who do you serve, what do you do for them?

As hokey is the answer’s gonna sound, Richard, I wake up every morning and I’m my whiteboard in my office. I write, try to help one person at least today find their best next life. What we do is listen, listen to people’s frustrations. They might be in career transition, they’re fed up with corporate America and wanna own their own business, but either don’t have the wherewithal or whatever to kind of do a startup on their own.

They’re used to corporate America and having the support of an organization behind them. I help a lot of immigrants, quite honestly, that want to come to this country legally with what’s called E-2, EB-5 or L-1 Visas. And because all franchises are regulated and registered with the Federal Government, Federal Trade Commission, the consulates take kindly.[00:03:00]

When immigrants invest in a franchise to build a business in America because they feel like that person has skin in the game, they’re gonna employ people, they’re gonna pay taxes, et cetera, et cetera. Or even work with private equity groups that want, or people that want to keep their current job, but diversify their portfolio.

You know, a lot of us took a big hit in the stock market last year and perhaps investing in a franchise, which is an established business, already validated, there are other people succeeding in it. Might be a viable risk mitigating option to invest in. I also helped successful business people like yourself.

Local business people that might be based in Sarasota or Atlanta, and often think about how do I scale and grow my business? I wish I had offices all over the country. I wish I could have a bigger reach. Well, I helped turn them into a franchise so they can utilize other [00:04:00] people’s human and financial capital to create satellite offices around the country and therefore become a national brand.

So those are really the two services that I provide. And in one sentence, I really wake up every morning, thinking of how can I help somebody find their best next life today.

That’s awesome. So you work on both sides of the franchise world, either investing in one or helping to develop one.

Yeah. Helping to, you know, turn a local business by developing them into becoming a franchise.

Correct.

Yeah, that’s cool. So I wanna talk then a little bit about your origin story, right? Every good comic book hero has an origin story. It’s the thing that made them into the hero they are today, and we wanna hear that story.

Were you born a hero? Were you a bit by a radioactive spider that made you wanna get into franchising? Or did you start in a job and eventually become an entrepreneur? Basically, where did you come from?

Well, I mean, that’s a funny story. I never regret. I came here with my parents in [00:05:00] 1961. From Cuba when Fidel Castro took power.

And it was obviously, I was too young to be, you know, horrified by it. But my parents were, you know, obviously a big life event for them. Grew up in Miami, Florida. Always had a weird entrepreneurial streak in me, even as a kid. Like I always did things to make money on my own. And I think that stood with me.

Although I worked in corporate America early, early on, after I graduated from the University of Miami, I always felt that tug of, you know, do your own thing. So I literally started my career, not in the franchise industry, but in the apparel industry, the fashion industry. I’m actually an ESTEEM member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

I worked for a couple of major companies in the industry and have created multiple brands. The one that became the biggest [00:06:00] was a menswear brand called Wilkie Rodriguez. Terry Wilkie was my business partner at the time, and obviously I was the Rodriguez of that brand and built that business over 18 years.

It was an exciting time to be in New York, building a fashion business and sold it to a big public company. I became a corporate officer and part of the deal was I had to work at that company. Year one was okay, year two, I wanted to kill myself because I’m just not built to be in corporate America with the politics and the bureaucracy and all of that just mean some people flourish in that environment, not me.

So I had to serve out a non-compete after I resigned. After being there for two years and just kind of walked into the franchise industry. Someone reached out to me, I guess on LinkedIn or somewhere and I started to research the franchise industry cause I had a lot of very high level executive friends with [00:07:00] stellar resumes.

You would pick up a resume and you’d go, oh my God, this person can find an executive job tomorrow. They were CEOs and presidents and really high, high level C level suite. Executives in the apparel industry that literally could not find an executive level job commensurate with their pay grade and their experience.

Why? Lovely age discrimination had descended upon America. And so if you were in your late 40’s, that’s when it starts. It’s mid 40’s nowadays, and you apply for a high level executive position in corporate America. Good luck. That’s all I’ll say. Good luck. So I found the franchise industry really interesting and compelling because it’s a more comfortable transition for people that have been in corporate America to transition into business ownership.

Why? These brands, these franchise businesses have already been created. They’ve been validated. [00:08:00] There’s other owners that you can talk to. They also come with tremendous support, marketing support, technology support, operation support. So I often like to say that you’re in business for yourself in Sarasota or anywhere else, but not by yourself.

Cause it’s still a corporate entity for you to reach out to for any kind of help with your business. It still is your business. So I thought, wow, all these people that I know in the industry back in the day. This could be a viable option for them instead of either starting something from scratch or they can’t find an executive level job.

And so I got involved in the franchise industry. I checked off all the boxes that I wanted, helping people, learning about other industries. I’d been in the fashion industry for 30 years and it’s been a rewarding and exciting 17 years in this industry, and I truly feel like that’s what I do. I help people really reach in, [00:09:00] reflect, and try to determine what might be a better option for me professionally, lifestyle wise.

Money making wise, how do I build real wealth equity and I want to be the boss. I don’t really wanna report to a boss I don’t like anymore. So that’s it. That’s really kind of a Cliff Notes version of my Journey. That’s what I do today. I’m the owner of TheFranchiseTailor.com.

And every single day I talked to a lot of people recently to a ton of them that got laid off from the tech sector. Lots of layoffs in technology. And these people are, not happy being laid off. You know, companies downsized, they merge. All kinds of things happen. Having nothing to do perhaps with your individual performance and you are out.

So I help a lot of people kind of maybe take charge of their own destiny by owning their own business. That’s what I do, Richard. [00:10:00]

Makes a lot of sense. And it’s quite a journey to go from, you know, immigrant to fashion design company to a franchise consultant. That’s an all over the map kind of story.

I really like the idea with franchise. I’ve always liked franchises myself for the same kind of reason. Right? It’s the metaphor I’ve always used is it’s you’re buying a boat that you already know floats. As opposed to building a boat. And when you put it on the water hoping that it floats.

Right?

Really great analogy. I’m gonna use that, by the way. Very good.

Yeah. Yeah. You’re buying a boat. You already know this boat floats, so when you put it on the water, you’re like, there we go, this is a floating boat, you know, and I’ve got some friends of mine who are working on building a boat right now, and they’re not gonna know until the boat is, you know, almost complete.

And there’s years of effort into it, whether or not the boat floats. I mean, it should, right? If you do all the things, it should float, but you don’t know until you get it there on the water. And a franchise is like skipping all of that. You can just step into a boat that already floats. So, it’s a super interesting business model.

And, you know, I have heard, I don’t know how true [00:11:00] this is, that depending on the company that you’re trying to franchise with, it can be incredibly difficult to get into certain franchises. Like Chick-fil-A for instance, is really, really difficult to get a franchise for. And I assume McDonald’s and some of the other big restaurant changes are the same way.

Are there other industries that are easier to get franchises in?

Yeah, I mean the funny thing is I, you know, my office works with hundreds of people every year and I find it really almost humorous that most people still believe that franchises only exist in food. Like you just brought up two of them yourself.

Yeah, that’s why I brought it up, cause people typically think food and I’m like, there’s probably more, tell us about it.

A hundred percent. They think McDonald’s, Subway, you know Papa John’s pizza, you name it. The truth is that franchises exist in every possible industry you could imagine I’m affiliated with a very large group called IFPG. Our portfolio has over 540 brands in every single [00:12:00] industry you could possibly imagine. People don’t realize when they go out in the morning, and if you don’t have an electric vehicle, you fill up your gas tank, that’s a franchise.

You go to FedEx Kinko’s for whatever service you require there. That’s a franchise. So is the UPS store. There are franchises literally in healthcare wellness, CBD, construction, real estate, fitness. I can go on and on and on, but I don’t wanna bother you or the people that are listening to this, but they truly exist in every industry.

And one of the beauties of exploring franchise opportunities is I place many people and have over the years, enfranchised businesses that have more to do with their life passion than necessarily what their resumes say. Like if you’ve been someone that’s been in banking or whatever industry and you are ready for a change, you are ready for a reinvention and you [00:13:00] truly reflect.

Cause one of the things that I do with my clients is get ’em to look in the mirror, so to speak. And go, listen. I always challenge them and go try to think of closing your eyes at night and what can’t you just wait to get up in the morning to go to do? That’s what your goal should be. You need to find something where you’re that excited.

Whether it’s a job or a franchise or whatever. So the beauty of franchise is it’s not like a job that exists in Sarasota, you have to apply for that job in Sarasota. With franchise as if you’re in Sarasota, but want to move to Los Angeles. We determine which ones might be a right fit for you, depending on lifestyle goals, passion goals, financial goals, you name it, and then we look to see if it’s available.

The territory is available in Los Angeles where you might want to move to if it’s yes. Bingo. You have an opportunity that seems like a good fit for you and [00:14:00] you can open it and build it where you wanna live. So those are just some of the benefits of exploring franchise ownership. But to answer your question, they exist in every potential industry you could possibly imagine.

And yes, Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s are tough. Most people don’t realize I get a calls all the time, Hey McDonald’s, everyone knows that. Oh my God. McDonald’s like household name and they don’t realize that the investment required for one McDonald’s is in the 1.4 to 1.7 million range for one story.

Yeah.

Chick-fil-A is a whole other story. It’s the barrier to entry to becoming an owner of Chick-fil-A is broad. They have a lot of prerequisites and they award a very small percentage of licenses to people. But that’s why, you know, certified franchise consultants like me, there are a lot of [00:15:00] very good ones out there bring a valuable service to people because we can navigate the waters and explain.

You know all the details rather than, I mean, if you Google franchising and do it on your own, you will get a migraine headache. It’s a huge industry and you really can’t tell what you’re navigating. It’s very convoluted.

So that’s where we step in and try to help.

Well, that actually makes a good transition for my next question for you, which is about your superpowers that you’ve developed in this industry. Right? Every iconic hero has a superpower, whether that’s a fancy flying suit made by their genius intellect, or the ability to call down thunder from the sky.

In the real world, heroes have what I call a zone of genius, which is either a skill or a set of skills that you’ve developed over the course of your career that allow you to help people slay their villains in their life. Come on top in their journeys. And the way I like to frame it for my guests, if you look at everything you’ve developed over the course of your career, there’s probably a common thread that ties all of your skills together and that common thread is where you find your superpower.

So with that framing, [00:16:00] what do you think your superpower is as a franchise consultant?

Yeah, I’ll give you a funny answer. I think of it as I’m that authentic super dragon from Game of Thrones because I am the real deal. I have been a serial entrepreneur. I have created and built successfully multiple businesses in my lifetime.

So when I listen and speak to clients that I try to help, I come from a place where I’ve been there, I’ve done it. I’ve, you know, created and built businesses. I know what it takes to build a business and how to prepare to build a business. The pitfalls of owning your own business, the joys of owning your own business.

So my superpower is authenticity. And the fact that I really over the years, have gotten to know the portfolio of brands that we represent. So when I do a consultation call with [00:17:00] clients to really go deep, dig deep, deeper than probably even what they’ve thought about, to understand what makes them tick and what might make them happy and make them money.

I know the portfolio of brands so that I can go, you know what? I think these four or five opportunities are the ones that are gonna be a best fit for Richard to consider. And most of the time what I tell candidates that I work with is I promise to present you with opportunities that’ll make sense to you on why I picked them for you.

Whether you pursue them or not, that’s entirely up to you. So I guess my superpower is my vast experience as an entrepreneur. So I bring authenticity to what I do, and then the knowledge that I’ve gained in the franchise industry of understanding how franchise systems truly work. That’s another shocking thing that most people [00:18:00] don’t have a clue how franchise systems work.

And then to educate, I always start with my clients with an educational kind of talk and sometimes when I find out if you or anybody else isn’t really wired for franchise ownership. I’ll let you know. I’ll go, listen, Richard, I’m not sure franchise ownership is right for you and I give you reasons why, but the educational part I think is critical to any entrepreneur to understand what you’re considering.

So that’s my Dragon power.

So you’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and you can connect with people and understand where their best life is essentially, and if franchise ownership fits into that.

Correct, correct. I mean, I’m working, I’ll give you a quickie case study example.

Gentleman right now has a great job, right? And doesn’t wanna leave it, but once the second income stream. Fairly young guy. I mean young. He is in his early 40’s and wants to build his own business while he [00:19:00] stays in his business. But he wants to follow his passion and he loves athletic training.

Like he has a kid that’s a big lacrosse player, and loves being in that culture of seeing the kids practice lacrosse in high level training. Well, guess what? In our portfolio, we have a great franchise brand that does just that. So then beyond the money-making capabilities, then this guy Joseph, can be a part of building a business that he’s passionate about in a culture and a vibe.

I like to say that he will thoroughly enjoy, and I work with a lot of people that do a lot of analytics and, you know, CFO type analysis of businesses. My experience of creating and building multiple businesses, my lifetime has taught me one thing. What matters the most is how excited and passionate you are about the business that you’re gonna build.[00:20:00]

If you’re not, you can do all your metrics and all the analysis, and if you just dread going to work the next day or dread having to work at that new business that you started, most likely it’s not gonna work for you. So I don’t know if that explains my superpowers, but it’s pretty comprehensive, the service that we provide in getting to know people and trying to get them to know themselves before they ever make a mistake or, you know, you’d be surprised at how many people I work with that don’t really think through.

What they should be considering and how to put it all into perspective of their life and their passion and where they want to be. I mean, it used to be that we used to have like 10 year plans. I don’t think that’s the way people are wired nowadays. I think life has changed a great deal, but I do think that you have to have goals.

I think, you know, whether it’s lifestyle goals or, you know, I work with a lot of people and tell me I’m tired of 60 to [00:21:00] 80 hour work week, Eddie. I really don’t want that. I want, do you have semi absentee where I can be the owner and devote maybe 10 to 20 hours a week on the business, but not necessarily into business.

So I wanna oversee the business, and that’s a lifestyle goal. That’s someone that just wants to play golf on Friday afternoons instead of go to work or go to their kids’, you know, soccer practices.

Yeah.

So, you know, much like in the movie, I like to say the movie Forrest Gump, where he sits on the bench and turns to someone and go, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. I feel the same way about my clients. When I work with people, I assume nothing, and my job is to listen carefully to what they want out of their lives, and then I hopefully will bring some magic to their lives.

Yeah, it sounds like it’s as much a coaching relationship as it is a consulting relationship with your clients cause you’re helping them really get, you know, discover what they want and how they can do that and, you know, moves into [00:22:00] the consulting when you start getting into, okay, now we know what you want. Let’s start talking about.

Yeah, I’m a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and a lot of what I do is coaching a lot, really a lot of what I do even before I present brands to people, is almost a little psychotherapy where you try to get the person to really dig deep, not on the surface, but dig deep and understand what they want their life to look like.

You know, next year, three years from now, you know, I even ask people to tell me they have three kids. You know, would you like to build a business that might be a legacy business? Is one of your kids, somebody that might, you know, be interested in continuing the business and oftentimes I go, oh yeah, I’d love that.

I said, have you thought about it? No, not really. So good consultants in the work that I do are ones that spend a lot of time with clients evaluating and asking a lot of questions. A lot of questions to get [00:23:00] to know who they’re talking to, because then when you present opportunities, they should at the very least, make sense to who you’re talking to.

Yeah, absolutely. So I wanna talk about the flip side, right? So if your superpower is your authenticity and your ability to do that coaching and consulting sort of blended and really help people get their best life. The flip side of your superpower is always the fatal flaw. Just like Superman had his kryptonite or wonder woman can’t remove her bracelets of victory without going mad, you probably had a flaw in your business that’s held you back something you struggled with.

For me, it was a couple of things. I struggled with perfectionism for a long time, so I never wanted to ship product. I also struggled with lack of boundaries, so I didn’t have good you know, boundaries with my time or boundaries with my clients and, you know, let things walk all over me.

But how have you worked to, I think, more important than what the actual flaw is, how have you worked to overcome it so you could continue to grow and continue to succeed in your business? And hopefully, you know, sharing a little will help our audience learn a little bit from your experience.

Yeah, it’s a funny question and I [00:24:00] often think about it cause it just happened to me again this morning before our call today. I get very frustrated. My flaw is I get extremely frustrated with people that not only waste my time, but waste their time. You know, I call them the tire kickers people that are just.

Ah, let me monopolize Eddie’s time for all this time when in fact they had absolutely no intention of seriously exploring the opportunities that we represent. They just wanna show me what you got, kind of people, let’s see what you got. And I don’t, maybe they have a lot of time on their hands.

And so my serious flaw is, I suffer no fools, I guess. I lived in New York City for 21 years and I oftentimes might be a little rough with people that do that and just tell them, listen, I take your time very, very seriously. I’ve devoted quite a bit of my time to try to help you, and [00:25:00] it’s really uncool that you now later in the game have told me.

What you’re telling me now. And so my flaw is I can lose my cookies with people, that just I forget, wasting my time. I don’t understand people that waste their own time. It’s okay when I talk to somebody and they go, no, I have no interest in entrepreneurship. Okay, that’s perfectly fine, or listen, I hit a rough patch over the last two years with the pandemic and other things in my personal life, and I really don’t have any money to invest in a franchise opportunity. Great, no problem.

Or any other reason right now I’m taking some time off. I really want to think about what I want to do next. I guess it’s the professional courtesy of being honest and upfront and transparent and some people are just not that way.

So I’m no longer 25. I’m, you know, 66 years young. Refuse to say [00:26:00] I’m 66 years old, but I often like to tell people I don’t really have the time to waste mine. I don’t waste yours. Why have you chosen to waste mine. So, that’s my fatal flaw I get very frustrated with wasting time.

Yeah, I understand that. I don’t even know that I would consider that a flaw that’s like, that’s just professional courtesy, right? Be honest about what you want, what you’re getting out of it and what you’re looking for. So I appreciate that.

And I do the same thing. When people tell you they wanna do something and then they show up differently than the way that they told you they were gonna show up. It’s bothersome too. I would imagine most entrepreneurs and I guess the question I always ask myself is, what am I doing at the beginning?

Like, am I setting expectations incorrectly? Am I filtering people incorrectly? Like, I always try to turn that back to myself and see cause I can’t control their response. So I’m trying to look at where can I make changes? And sometimes you can’t. Sometimes people are just gonna be the way they are and you’re gonna end up with that stuff. But I always try to use those as opportunities to see if I can find ways to improve my [00:27:00] processes or improve my filtering.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I find it very disrespectful when people don’t respect your time. You know, I get people that sometimes go on my Calendly and schedule a call with me and they’ll tell me why, and then they don’t show up, nor do they have the professional courtesy and decency to go, Hey, Eddie, by the way, we’re gonna have to reschedule this. Or I’ve, you know, changed my mind.

That’s fine. Not showing up. I’ve now carved out time to speak with you, and that’s time that I’m not doing something else. Right? So people that do that really get on my flawed bad side.

The Latino temper comes out a little bit and because it’s just it’s not only unprofessional, but there’s just a lack of professional courtesy and responsibility. Like if you can’t make the call that you’ve scheduled, a simple text will do. [00:28:00] Sorry, Eddie can’t make it tomorrow at nine.

You don’t even need to have to give me an excuse. Just tell me you can’t make it. Let’s reschedule for another time. But it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating, but there are people that just. Behave in certain ways, right, Richard?

Absolutely. So I wanna to shift gears and talk about something. Something different, which is your common enemy.

And, you know, every superhero has what I call an arch nemesis, right? And it’s a thing that they constantly have to fight against in their world. In the world of business, it takes on a lot of forms. But generally speaking, I like to put it in the context of your clients, the people that are hiring you to get something done and it’s a mindset or it’s a flaw that you’re constantly having to fight to overcome so that you can actually get them the result they came to you for.

So in the world of franchising and people wanting to come and become franchise owners, what is one of those arch nemesis that, well, that’s a hard to say, arch nemesis that came for to fight against in that world to help people actually get [00:29:00] the result that they come to you for?

I can give you a one word answer, fear. People get extremely fearful about exploring business ownership, especially people that have never owned their own business. People that have lived in corporate America, you know, all their lives, but are fed up with it for a million reasons. Start exploring, you know, franchise ownership with me and my office, and undoubtedly at some stage of the service that we provide, that word, you know, comes up fear.

They start to get scared. I always use the analogy of the groom or the bride, you know, about to walk down the aisle and say, I do forever. And they’re like, oh my God, this is forever. Holy crap. I’ve got a, like, this is a big commitment, whatever.

So in the work that I, and the service that I provide, that happens a lot. Fear. So, [00:30:00] my job as a coach is to understand why? What are they afraid of? And to listen. What is it that you’re afraid of? So most will say, I’m afraid of failing. Right? That’s, you know, the common answer that I get.

So what I do is try to get them to understand. Listen, there are 120 other franchisees in this system around the country. A number of them are top performers, making money. Right? What makes you think that you can’t be another one of those people? I understand you’re investing your hard-earned money, so I understand that, that’s something that is a big decision, but if you’re fearful of it, you know, I’m working with these tech clients right now that thought they’d never get fired from Google or Meta or Microsoft, and well, guess what?

They did get fired. A nice simple email as they walked in to work one morning and one sentence gone. [00:31:00] See ya. Bye-bye. So did you fear that? Well, no, of course not. I didn’t fear that, but it happened. The difference in the fear factor here is when you own your own business, you are in charge of your own destiny.

You can make things happen and nobody can fire you. So it becomes a coaching, a patient coaching process of getting people. I draw them out to explain what are you fearful of? What is it that you really are afraid of? And, you know, some are afraid of, you know, I get the funny answer. My spouse will kill me if I don’t succeed.

Right? Or, you know, just fear of failure, you know, and, oh, a cousin of mine invested in a franchise years ago, and it didn’t work out well. Some businesses work out, other businesses don’t work out. Maybe your cousin wasn’t really good at what they do, who knows the reason, but. [00:32:00] So the answer to your question is that word Richard, Fear.

One of the biggest things that I have to overcome in the work that I do is drawing people out so that they tell me what they’re afraid of and me coaching them to understand how to overcome that fear.

Yeah, makes a lot of sense. And the, especially with if you’re moving from the corporate world into the entrepreneurial world, that’s a big shift.

And so, I’m curious if you deal with the same thing with people who are, you know, they’re experienced entrepreneurs when they move into, if they shift their entrepreneurial work into franchise ownership. If you deal with the same kind of fear for those kind of folks as opposed to people coming from corporate admin moving in.

There’s generally less fear from people that have been business owners because they’ve, you know, they’ve done it. They know what it takes. They understand that there are gonna be pitfalls.

But as I’ve explained to people in corporate America, has your job, a question that I [00:33:00] always ask, has your job always been rosy? Has it always been great? No, no, no. Not at all. Okay. Well, there are some times where at work things are going great and other times not so great.

Correct? Right? Business is the same. No different than a job. There are times where your business is rocking, you’re having fun, you’re making money. Everything seems to be on autopilot, and sometimes that’s not gonna work that way.

Yeah.

So it’s very analogous, you know, and people sometimes, or I get people go, well, the same time that I’m exploring what you’re presenting to me with franchise ownership, I’m also, you know, applying for jobs.

So what I have to do as a coach is go great. Terrific. Go for it. You do know that it’s apples and oranges, right?

Yeah.

It’s apples and oranges. It’s not the same thing. It’s like, are you renting the apartment or are you buying the apartment? Apples and oranges. You have an apartment to live [00:34:00] in, but you either own it or you’re renting it.

Same thing if you really want to own something. If you’re considering a job at the same time, you really are looking at two very different things. So, but a lot of that comes from fear as well, you know, people, and I get it. I have a guy that I’m working with right now from Texas, if he’s listening and he knows what I’m talking about, that just surprised me today by saying, you know, I just started to interview again after at the consultation call, he told me I’m fed up with corporate America.

Absolutely fed up. So then you go, wow, you told me you were fed up and you never wanted to work for anybody again, but you’re interviewing for a job.

So it’s easier to go with the pain you know, than to choose you don’t.

Yeah, yeah, it is, and it’s funny cause a lot of those same people got let go for no reason. Of their own, you know, the company merged was sold, [00:35:00] you know, whatever happened and they got let go.

So I’ve never understood, and again, I’m guilty, I’m a serial entrepreneur, I hate working for anybody. But when I think through like, wow, you just lost your job. Maybe for the second or third time you told me you fed up with corporate America, but you’re interviewing again.

To me it’s almost like the definition of insanity. Like, you keep doing the same thing and you’re expecting maybe a different result. It’s like, so I bring that up because I do try to enlighten the people that I talk to that it’s great you can interview for another job. Just keep in mind apples and oranges, you’re looking at two very different opportunities to consider.

Yeah, absolutely. So, Fear is the common enemy. The flip side, of course, of your common enemy is your driving force, right? If your common enemy is what you fight against. Your driving force is what you fight for. So just like Spider-Man fights to save New York, or Batman fights to save [00:36:00] Gotham, or you know, Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information.

What is it that you fight for at the Franchise Tailor, what’s your mission?

You know, honestly, the most important mission, Richard, is what I have up on my whiteboard, which is my mission really is to help people find their best next life that they haven’t even thought about. My mission is to try to determine what makes somebody tick. They’re telling me what their goals are and what they want to achieve.

How can I help them achieve that? And as hokey as it may sound at this stage of my career, I’ve been blessed with a beautiful family. I’ve been successful in the fashion industry, successful in what I do now. I get a great deal of joy when I get handwritten notes and no one does that anymore, but I have them in my office from people that I’ve placed in new opportunities, that they’re loving their life, they love their business, everything’s [00:37:00] going great, and they send me a little, thank you, Eddie.

Thank you so much. I’m so happy building this business. And that’s a big payoff for me. It’s a really big payoff to have that kind of impact. On somebody’s life or helping. I’ve become an expert at helping those Visa candidates, immigrants that want to bring their families here to escape persecution or whatever they’re escaping and they want a better life in America.

And to help them find a vehicle for them to apply for their Visa. And then they get here and they build their new business while they’re building their new life. And they’re very grateful. Well, that’s, really gratifying as well. So from a mission point of view, both are the same.

I’m helping people, you know? I helped two people recently in the Miami area that have very successful businesses here that want to scale, and I’ve helped them become a franchise and they’re very happy. So that’s my mission really, to help people and [00:38:00] find their best next life. That’s it.

I love it. I love the idea that you can use business like the product is business as a way to help people, cause generally speaking, most of the people we’re talking to generally are founders of a business and this is the product or service they’re using to is gonna help people. But you’re actually using the product is business.

You’re using business to help people, which is kind of a cool way to think about what you do.

Exactly, exactly. I mean, I literally had a gentleman recently that really doesn’t need to work anymore. Big, big executive, millions of dollars net worth. But, you know wants to be in the wellness, like mental health, and you know, so wanted to do something good in his community and we found him an opportunity that does that.

So what I do when it works well is joyful because, I win cause I just helped place somebody in a new opportunity. The franchise company’s happy cause I brought them somebody good to be in their system. And then [00:39:00] the person is ecstatic because they just found a great new, you know, professional life to build. So win, win, win.

Absolutely. So I’m gonna shift gears and talk a little bit about something very practical. I call this the hero’s tool belt. And just like every superhero has their tool belt filled with awesome gadgets, like batarangs, and you know, web slingers and laser eyes, or their magical hammer, I wanna talk about the top one or two tools that you couldn’t live without in your business.

Could be anything from your notepad to your calendar, to something you use for your marketing, or something that you use to actually deliver your service to your clients. Something that you think is essential to getting your job done on a day-to-day basis. What’s the top one? Maybe tool thing, two things that you, you couldn’t live without to do what you do.

Well, the platform of franchise brands that I represent, I wouldn’t be in business without it. So that’s bullet number one, two, and three in the holster. And without that portfolio of brands, it would be very hard for me to help people explore the right fit business for them. [00:40:00]

So that’s by far the best tool. They also provide us with, you know, I’m affiliated with a group that provides me with tremendous technology support so that I can provide you with the information that you require to evaluate those brands. The other tool is probably the relationships that I’ve built in the industry that nourish my knowledge of how to help people, how to think about certain industries that are trending in certain market areas.

You know, you and I live in Florida. There are businesses that are, you know, our state business-wise is doing very well. But there are certain sectors that do very well and certain sectors that don’t. But that doesn’t necessarily apply the same way in Ohio or in other parts of the country.

So I also have a lot of bullets in my holster in terms of information that provide me with if someone lives in Houston, Texas, what kind of sectors, businesses are [00:41:00] trending well, in Houston, you know, maybe it’s. I don’t know, just hypothetically, Houston has a lot of weather like we do here, Richard. Right?

They get storms and hurricanes and rain and all that stuff. Well, maybe a a mitigation franchise that repairs, you know, fire or flood, mitigates flood damages. And I’m just throwing ideas out. So we, I’m blessed to have a wide swath of industry experts, and especially in my executive action team, where we share best practices and knowledge to understand different market needs. And then I have this portfolio of bullets in my holster with all these brands and opportunities. So those are my superhero bullets.

I love that, particularly the one that really speaks to me there is the relationships. I know that every major like meteoric shift I’ve made in my business over the last [00:42:00] 15 years has all been a result of a relationship of some sort.

And I think entrepreneurs a lot of times forget how potent relationships can be in making big shifts in profitability or operations or understanding of the market, knowing the right person or knowing that someone that’s in your space, has your back can make all the difference in the world.

Yeah, I mean, I always tell people that try to learn something new every single day. You know, reach out to your peers. We hold weekly, you know, Zoom meetings with other top level consultants in the industry and we share best practices. We share lots of ideas cause we’re all trying to help people. Like I’ve illustrated to you.

And I just think in life or in business, you can’t be insulated or think that you know it all or think you can get all your information by Googling it. I think having that. [00:43:00] I don’t know, inner circle of people and peers that you can reach out to or they can reach out to you is invaluable. That’s a big, you know tool in my holster.

Yeah, absolutely.

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So I’m gonna move on to a story that you actually told me a little bit before we started recording, and I call this your own personal heroes, and every hero has their mentors. You [00:45:00] know, Frodo had Gandalf, Like had Obi-Wan, Robert Kiyosaki had his rich dad, even Spider-Man had his Uncle Ben.

Who were your heroes? Were they real life mentors, speakers, authors, peers who were a couple years ahead of you? How important were they to what you’ve accomplished so far?

It’s funny. It’s gonna sound very cliche, but as I told you, it’s my dad who passed away two years ago. The reason being is the older I get, the more I appreciate what he did. My father was an original immigrant from Cuba in 1960 when Castro took power, he had to figure out ways to escape the island with my mother and I was only six years old at the time, and he had to leave everything behind. Family, business, home, you name it.

So I often like to say, even to my wife, imagine having to just pack up, and leave with what you have on and maybe a one piece of luggage to go to a country where you don’t know anybody. You don’t know the language, you don’t know the culture. You really don’t know [00:46:00] anything to start your new life from scratch. You have no idea what you’re gonna do or what’s gonna happen. I can’t think of a bigger hero, you know, than anyone that has the gumption, the wherewithal to go, you know what?

I’m gonna do this because it’s the right thing to do for my family and for me. And yes, we’re gonna struggle a little bit, but we’re gonna make it happen. And so my father is my hero. He came to this country, learned English became the biggest flag, waving America, loving immigrant you’ve ever imagined.

Like he would love your flag. He didn’t wanna frame it and put it, you know, in his home if he was still with us. And he built a nice life for my mom and me, and he started his little auto parts store and he was, when I was 16, you have to vote. And he was such a civically minded person that always appreciated what America [00:47:00] had been able to offer us freedom and opportunity.

And he worked his tail off to build a nice life. He wasn’t a billionaire or anything, but he was an amazing father, an amazing husband, and built an amazing life in America. So the older I get, he becomes a bigger hero to me. I mean, it’s amazing to think, and I also told you that I get a little nuts when I hear a lot of immigrant bashing that’s going on in our country right now because I’m often reminded of my father.

Who all he did was work his tail off, honestly paid his taxes and adored America. While he was an immigrant and he employed people and he paid taxes, and all he did was bring us here to build a better life. And thank God we all have, including my brother. And so he’s my big hero.

Yeah, I love that story and I’m glad you shared it. There’s a reason I have an American flag as my backdrop and on my podcast and that’s part of it. So I appreciate that story and I appreciate that he is a [00:48:00] hero of yours. So I always love asking that question and hearing people’s answers to who inspired them to be who they are today.

And you know, it reminds me that I have the same responsibility somewhere or someone, maybe it’s my children, maybe it’s people I work with, they look up to me and think, He’s a hero. And I always wonder to myself, am I living up to that? So it’s a good reminder for me, so I appreciate it.

You’re welcome. Thank you.

Yeah. So last question for you is your guiding principles. One of the things that makes heroes heroic is that they live by a code. For instance, Batman never kills his enemies, he only ever puts them in Arkham Asylum. So as we wrap up the interview and talk about the top one, maybe two principles that you live your life by, maybe something you wish you had known when you first started out as an entrepreneur.

I’ll bring up my father again. He always used the word integrity a lot. He says, Eddie, the one thing that you can never let go of is your integrity. You know, live your life with tons of integrity. You know, at the end of the day, people might not like you. They might not [00:49:00] whatever, but make sure that they respect you and understand that you live by a certain code.

You’re honest, you’re forthright. You live with a lot of integrity. That’s the way I lived my life as a father, as a husband, as a franchise consultant, as a friend, as a brother. And again, my hero always taught me that, you know, and he would hate seeing people that lied or did under handed things, and he often worked much harder to do things the right way.

You know, but that’s what he taught me. And that’s my underlying kind of life light that guides me live my life with integrity.

Integrity is potent. And to me it is one of my favorite things about running this show is I ask that question to every single person I’ve had on, we’ve had over 200 people on the show and probably 90, 95% of the time the answer is integrity.

And it’s part of the reasons why I [00:50:00] love doing this story is that we have this strange false understanding that somehow entrepreneurship, that somehow business ownership we’re often portrayed in media and in stories as the villains. And people have negative associations with things like building profit and providing value into your community.

And I’ve always hated that because it’s wrong and it’s not actually the way, it’s not a reflection of reality. And, you know, you could pick out 999 out of a thousand business owners on the planet. And you ask them what their guiding principle is, they’ll tell you it’s integrity.

Yeah. I mean, business owners provide the backbone of the engine that builds the country. And I think oftentimes people think of business owners as Fortune 100 behemoth companies and they’re not. My wife and I, during the pandemic only supported. Small family style businesses, and we would do whatever, even if it cost us a little bit more money to either buy a meal or, you know, whatever, to [00:51:00] support that.

Because those are the people that employ people and serve the community. And you’re right, business ownership is essential in the system that we live in anyway. So yeah.

Absolutely. I think that is a fantastic point to end our interview on. But I do finish every interview with a simple challenge. I call it the Hero’s Challenge.

And I do this to help get access to stories I might not otherwise find on my own, because not everyone else is doing the podcast rounds like you or I might do. So the question is simple. Do you have someone in your life or in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they?

First names are fine. And why do you think they should come share their story with us here on the Hero Show? First person that comes to mind for you.

Oh my British dear friend, Keanan Duffty.

And why should he come share his story with us?

Keanan is a modern day renaissance man, and he’s a dean of a fashion school, but he’s also a musician, an artist and he abides by [00:52:00] his own rules and codes of how to live his life.

And I find him to be a very interesting wonderful, loving human being. And but he’s like a master of so many different things, you know, and the fact that he’s been a fashion designer a musician that’s worked with some of the biggest musicians in the world, including David Bowie.

And is now a dean of a school. He loves to help kids better themselves. He’s a cool guy and if you were lucky enough to get him on your podcast, he’s also a very interesting person. So yeah.

Well, will reach out afterwards, see if we can get connected. Maybe we’ll get a yes. We don’t always, but when we do, they end up being really cool stories, so I appreciate that.

But in comic books, there’s always the crowd of people at the end who are cheering and clapping for the acts of heroism. So, our analogous to that as we close is where can people find you if they want your help? Where can they light up the bat signal, so [00:53:00] to speak and say, Hey Eddie, I would like to get your help with a franchise.

And more importantly, who are the right types of people to do that? Who are the right types of people to light up the bat signal and ask for your help?

Yeah, it’s Eddie, E-D-D-I-E at The Franchise Tailor. Tailor from my previous fashion experience. If you’re gonna tailor your coat, so Eddie@TheFranchiseTailor.com.

The website is www.TheFranchiseTailor.com. All my contact info is in there. A typical person that I work with is somebody that’s in transition, life transition. What do I do next? What do I want? Do I want to build a business as a second income stream? Do I want to change course? Do I want to really do something totally different and build a different life professionally and personally?

That’s it. That’s who I try to help.

That’s awesome. So if you are in that space of transition and you’re looking at potentially getting into franchise ownership definitely takes time to reach out to Eddie. You’ve got a chance to hear him today. You [00:54:00] know this stuff and you can really help people make a good choice for them.

So I, again, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your story with us today, Eddie, do you have any final words of wisdom for my audience before hit this stop record button?

No, other than the talent, you were awesome. I’ve done quite a few of these and I’ve loved, you know, speaking to you and your audience today.

And I love that you talk about heroes because I really believe that all of us should aspire to our heroes. And hopefully they’re all of the ones from the people that are listening today, were as good as my dad. So thank you, Richard. I’ve enjoyed it.

Thank you, Eddie.

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