Atlanta Open For Opportunity Roundtable at Inspire Brands Headquarters

Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Matt Haller, I'm the President and CEO of the International Franchise Association. We are thrilled to be here on another one of our Open for Opportunity stops as part of this roadshow. It's actually our first repeat visit here at Inspire Brands in the great state of Georgia. Open for Opportunity was started to really take the conversation about franchising outside of Washington, DC, specifically designed as a campaign to educate lawmakers and the media about the value of franchising to the economy and to debunk some of the myths that are out there about the franchise business model. This is our 16th Open for Opportunity visit since launching, and we have connected with more than 300 lawmakers across 12 states. As we've expanded the campaign, we are pleased to add a new component to educate the public about how to start their own franchise journey through education, the importance of doing due diligence, and connecting with IFA member brands. One of the things we'll be doing — I want to thank a couple of our brands specifically, Tropical Smoothie Cafe — we're going to be putting these window clings in the front of many franchise locations across the state of Georgia and on trucks and delivery vehicles to help potential franchisees gather the information they need to become new franchise owners. One other bit of news this morning: I want to thank Governor Kemp, who proclaimed today Open for Opportunity Day here in the state of Georgia. Round of applause for the governor. There are over 31,000 franchise businesses in the state of Georgia generating $33 billion in economic output annually, and this initiative, Open for Opportunity, is built to highlight the unique ways that franchising is a proven job-creating mechanism that not only offers opportunities to entrepreneurs but also supports more than 320,000 jobs in Georgia alone. In fact, according to IFA's research, Georgia is the third fastest-growing state for franchise development in the country. So with that, I want to thank Paul Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of Inspire Brands, for hosting us today. Let Paul welcome the group. Thank you, Paul. You have such an amazing team on the government relations side. I appreciate everything that you and your infrastructure does to support the IFA, this campaign, and franchising. I was just saying to some folks on the way up that the culture here at Inspire Brands is what it's really all about — you're investing in people and franchise ownership and great brands, and that's what this industry is really all about. So thank you for hosting us. If you'd like to welcome the group, then we'll go around and open it up.

Well, thank you again so much, Paul, for hosting us. And we have a number of elected officials, franchise leaders, franchisees, and some of our partners that help support the franchising ecosystem as part of this roundtable. Before we get into the conversation, I just want to let everybody say hello, introduce themselves. This is not the U.S. Senate, so this is an opportunity to be brief and concise. We do have a large roundtable and we don't have any Senators here today, so that'll be a good thing. Congressman Bishop, let me start with you.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much for hosting us, Paul, and thank you so much, Matt, for this forum. I am Sanford Bishop. I represent the Second Congressional District of Georgia. I happen to be the dean of the Georgia Congressional Delegation, succeeding John Lewis in that capacity. I represent Mid and Southwest Georgia. I have had the good fortune of serving in the State House 14 years, the State Senate two, and I'm now the senior member of the Georgia delegation. I've been in Congress now for — this is my 32nd year. I ran for Congress because I wanted to use the political process to improve people's lives through jobs, a stronger economy, better education, safe communities, a clean environment, sustainable agriculture, and a strong national defense — all of the ingredients which make for a better quality of life. And there's no way we can have that quality of life without jobs. Of course, franchises and small business are really the backbone of this country in terms of our capitalist system. My job, as I see it, is to through government make an environment, create an environment, or support an environment that makes for that better quality of life so that business flourishes, jobs are created, and all the things that people need are there. That's what I've been trying to do for now almost 50 years, and I look forward to hearing and supporting in any way that I can. I serve on the Appropriations Committee. I've either been the ranking or the chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee of Appropriations. I'm on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee of Appropriations, and Financial Services Subcommittee of Appropriations, and I'm also on the Agriculture Authorizing Committee. With that, I tried to position myself to being in a place where I can help folks. Politics is nothing more, nothing less than who gets what, when, and how — that's what I learned in Political Science 101 at Morehouse College, and it's very true. It's elected officials who sit at tables, whether at the local, state, or federal level, who make those decisions and allocate resources and put policies in place to determine who gets what, when, and how. I wanted to use that to make sure I can help improve everybody's quality of life. Thanks. Look forward to hearing.

Thank you, Congressman. Congressman McCormick.

Welcome to my district. It's good to have you here. I am very honored to have you all here, and I always said if you dropped a pin in Alpharetta and did a 40-mile radius, you'd have one of the wealthiest places in the world. This place has been based on this idea that there's an opportunity here that doesn't exist in other places. Opposite experience to my counterpart that I'm sitting next to right now — he went to Morehouse, I taught at Morehouse. I also went to Morehouse School of Medicine, so we do have that in common. But I was a 20-year military guy, 16 years in the Marine Corps, both as a pilot and airborne, then became an ER physician with the Navy stationed on the Marine Corps base with several tours overseas. Never went to a political meeting, never went to a fundraiser, didn't know a politician until now, and I'm in my first term in Congress. Almost an opposite approach. The one thing I would say that maybe there would be a different approach to the way I look at this: I'm here to get the government out of the way, not to pick winners and losers, not to make sure that somebody's successful or not successful, but to make sure that you have the opportunities that you've always had in America that give you the ability to prosper more than anywhere else in the world. One thing I do know from my experience is I've been to over 50 countries in the world, seen a lot of bad places, a lot of good places, but one thing I know: America is absolutely a unique opportunity because we are the one government that was based on empowering the people and not the government. If we can continue to do that, we'll be all right. Thank you.

We have to forgive my voice, had a little surgery over the last few days. I'm Doc Cohen. I'm the founder of Cookie Associates, which was the very first franchisee of Great American Cookies, which is headquartered right here in Atlanta. I've been a franchisee of a number of brands, including Pretzel Maker, Pretzel Time, Coffee, TCBY, Wing Zone, and there's another one in there somewhere — Marble Slab. I was also past chairman of the IFA. I want to thank Paul for hosting us again today and Matt for inviting me to be here, and I look forward to answering whatever questions I can answer to help anyone in the room.

Hello, my name is Danielle Nunan, formerly Hotkiss. I own two Jimmy John's franchisees north of Atlanta. I appreciate you having me here today, and thank you so much.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Charles Watson. I'm the CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe. We are a healthier quick-casual restaurant chain. We've got 1,450 units in 44 states in the U.S. Paul, thank you for hosting us. Matt, pleasure to be here. Thank you for all of our Representatives showing up as well.

Hey, good morning, everyone. My name is Mike Hannes. I own seven of the Tropical Smoothie Cafes around the country, scattered across the North Atlanta suburbs — Forsyth County, Gwinnett County, North Fulton County. Thanks for hosting us.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Darcel Stewart. I'm a UPS Store franchisee. I own five locations in the Atlanta metro area — Decatur, Douglasville, and Midtown Atlanta. I'm 15 years in, so thank you very much for having me. This is my first roundtable like this, but I am familiar with the IFA and all the great work that's been done, so thank you so much. Look forward to it.

I'm Nishit Patel. I'm a franchisee of Jimmy John's, Dunkin' Donuts, along with UPS Stores, Red Roof Inn, and Motel 6. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. A lot to learn and can answer any questions if anybody has on franchising. Thank you.

My name is Clarissa Bradstock. I'm the CEO of a brand called Any Lab Test Now. We are based just around the corner in Dunwoody. We have 230 locations throughout the country. We have 10 in the state of Georgia, and we provide direct-access testing for clinical and toxicology and DNA testing, where healthcare consumers can come in and order their own lab test and the results go back to them and their physician.

Good morning. My name is Stephanie Fischer, and I am the President and CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association. I am four months into my position, but know the hospitality business very well. It's the only career I've had over the last 30 years. For the Georgia Restaurant Association, we are the voice of Georgia restaurants in advocacy, education, and awareness. Thank you so much for having me here this morning.

Good morning. I'm Katie Kirkpatrick, President and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Thank you for having me. It's nice to see all of the congressmen that are here this morning. The Metro Atlanta Chamber exists to unleash Atlanta's ambition. We are primarily an economic development agency focused on growing economic investment and growth in this region, but we also do policy and marketing. One of the points I'd like to share with you all is that Metro Atlanta has the highest concentration of franchises and franchisors in the country.

Hi, my name is Sean Goldsmith. I'm just excited to be here to get the Dunkin'. I don't know if you knew this, Paul, but Doc Minkoff was actually Bill Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin', so he's pretty excited to be here too. And I got a good mentor in Doc. My name is Sean Goldsmith. I'm the founder and CEO of a company called Markery. We find franchise candidates to own brands. So like the people over here, it's a very hard process, and one of the issues I think we'll be discussing today is actually finding the right ways to vet the right candidates for franchisors. I'm also very involved in franchise education. There's a program called CFE — if you don't have a CFE, it's something you should look into. I'm the chair of the program, and I'm very active in franchise education at my alma mater at Cornell. I think a lot of young people — I came into franchising at 17 — I think it's something that people should know at a younger age.

Slade Strickland. Morning. CEO of Dunk Doctor. We're a franchise war based in Norcross. We also have corporate locations that serve most of Georgia. I would say service franchising is something very different than what people expect of franchising, and thank you for having me.

Good morning. Shams Strania. I'm a franchisee for Dunkin' and Popeyes, and own about 40 locations in Georgia and Alabama. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Mike.

Good morning. My name is Greg Thomas. I'm a franchisee of Great Clips. We have about 60 stores, and we also have a dozen or so Smoothie Kings and a dozen or so other businesses. This is my first — as Darcel said it's her first roundtable, it's mine first too. Anyway, glad to be here. Thanks.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Indie Nandra. I'm currently co-owner of multiple Mathnasiums — math learning centers — going into franchising into education. My son is co-owner; he's sitting right over there. We have our passion of making a difference in children's lives. I drank the franchise Kool-Aid in 1999 when I was the fourth Goddard School owner in Georgia in Norcross, and it's turned into an amazing journey. My passion is franchising. I currently sit on the executive board at the IFA, and I'm also the chair of the Franchisee Forum. It's just creating that wonderful opportunity for people to be in business for themselves. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Daniel Halper with Jackmont Hospitality. We own and operate about 50 restaurants around the country on the street and in airports. Franchising obviously is a singular opportunity for a lot of Americans to move forward. I want to give thanks to the congressmen that are in front of us because at the end of the day, if we can get a few things changed on the policy side — which I firmly believe are nonpartisan — I think we can allow a lot more people to embrace the American dream and own their own business. So thank you for coming.

Good morning. I'm Doug Shipman. I'm the President of the Atlanta City Council. I see my colleague Lana Bakari back there as well. On the local level, franchising is so important, especially to a growing place like Atlanta. As we continue to have people come, new neighborhoods being developed — both as a stepping stone, Atlanta as a place that a lot of people come to to go to college for the first time or to start their family, to start a new business, but also we have so many places in our cities that are growing, not only in Atlanta but in the entire region. People want walkability and they want to be able to go down and get food or get services very close to them. We really see franchising as a key part of our growth agenda as well. I just noticed — and it's so true — franchises are good neighbors when it comes to philanthropy, corporate leadership, nonprofit leadership, participation at the local level. So many of franchise operators and owners are the backbone. We're trying to make good policy at the local level because we know the benefit. It's a real pleasure to be here, Matt and Paul. Thanks for including me.

Good morning. I'm Barry Loudermilk. I represent Georgia's 11th Congressional District, which starts at about Truist Park and I have Marietta, portions of Sandy Springs, up into Kennesaw, then Canton, Woodstock, Cartersville, Calhoun, and all the way up Jasper. It's a broad district with a lot of business, a lot of small business, large business. Prior to being in Congress, I was a small business owner — started an IT services company after I left the Air Force, and we did a lot of work, a lot of services for small businesses, medium businesses, as well as franchise. I can tell you from the experience of working with franchise businesses, it's not cookie cutter as some in Washington want to make it. There are significant differences between a lot of small businesses, medium businesses, versus those that are small businesses that run franchises. I've got a lot of friends that are strong advocates. We have a lot of members of Congress that are franchise owners, so they're a great resource for us. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Congressman Hank Johnson, representing Georgia's Fourth Congressional District for the past 18 years — has gone by so quickly. I want to thank the International Franchise Association, Matt, for bringing us all together, and Paul for offering this fine facility, Inspire Brands, for us to host this event. I'm happy to be before all of you. I see a couple of longtime advisors in the room who I have relied upon for their business acumen when it comes to my decision-making on legislation — Dan Halper and Stacy Key are in the room. I want to thank you all for your counsel over the years. I came to Congress as a criminal defense lawyer having practiced law for 27 years, and I was a little different than my colleagues in graduating from law school. Everyone was looking for a job, looking to get a job, pay off the student loans, and be comfortable, and I was looking at hanging out my own shingle. I just always had that in my mind that I wanted to hang my shingle and start a practice and practice for myself. I was a small business owner for 27 years before going to Congress. I was paying salaries and making sure that my people got paid before I got paid, so I kind of know what it is to be a small businessman. I'll tell you, it would have been easier if I had had a business plan and a brand, if I could have had a franchise, but that opportunity was not available at that time. I feel a certain kinship with franchisees and franchisors. It's a unique American form of doing business, and I think it has served us well. I know that there are challenges that confront this mode of business, but I think we can get through it. Society is in a state of chaos, but out of chaos and confusion comes clarity. I'm looking forward to being a part of that process in government. Government is of, by, and for the people. It is us. We are the government, or at least I feel like I'm still a little guy participating in government. I look at it from the standpoint that everyone should be treated fairly. The rules should be such as to enable everyone to prosper. I stand for that principle. Looking forward to working with my colleagues here to make sure that we have a government that is suitable for the times in which we live. With that, I'll yield my time to my good friend.

Well, thank you, and thank you for having us here today, Paul, Matt. I really appreciate it. My name is Buddy Carter. I have the honor and privilege of representing the First Congressional District of Georgia, which encompasses the entire coast of Georgia — over 100 miles of pristine coastline. As you can imagine, we're very, very proud of it. It's also my home. It's where I've lived all my life, where I intend to live the rest of my life. It's an honor to serve in Congress. It's a special honor when you represent the area that you grew up in. The First Congressional District of Georgia — we have two major seaports: Port of Savannah, the number three container port in the country, the fastest-growing container port in the country. We have the Port of Brunswick, which is the number two roll-on/roll-off port in the country. We also have a strong military presence with Kings Bay Naval Base, Hunter Army Airfield, and Fort Stewart. We also have a strong forestry presence as well. Recently, the governor announced — and it is under construction now — the single largest economic development project in the history of the state of Georgia in the First District, and that is the Hyundai EV factory — a $5.5 billion investment creating over 8,100 jobs, with probably that much more in investment in ancillary businesses and that many more jobs. We are poised for a lot of growth in our area. Professionally, I'm a pharmacist. For many years, I was the only pharmacist in Congress. We have another pharmacist in Congress now, so I'm just the oldest pharmacist in Congress at this point. I owned my own business for 32 years — Carter Pharmacy. I had three retail pharmacies. I had another business, Carter's Institutional Pharmacy, which serviced nursing homes, personal care homes, and hospices. I was not a franchisee, but I have been a small business owner, and I certainly appreciate and understand the great job that you do in our economy and how important you are to our economy. Thank you for having me here today. I look forward with great anticipation to the discussion that we'll have today. Thank you.

Thank you, Congressman. So let's get into the conversation a little bit. I'm going to start with some of our franchisees, and I want to come to Shams first, actually, if I could — sorry to put you on the spot — but you have such an amazing story, immigrating to America. You were exposed to the franchise model at such an early age, helping run a Popeyes, I understand, in high school, and when you were in college, you worked at a Dunkin' to make extra money but thought you would go into accounting. Could you share how you eventually returned to franchising and your now American dream that you've built?

Yeah, so my parents immigrated from Mumbai, India, in 1999. I was 14 years old and not a very well-behaved teenager, so my dad put me to work at a Popeyes because I used to cut school and go to the mall. He said, listen, go to work, and whatever money you make, you can spend it at the mall. I think that was a fair ask. So I went to work at a Popeyes. Enjoyed franchising, it gave me confidence as an immigrant teenager to interact with people. Had a lot of fun. Graduated from high school, enrolled at Georgia State for an accounting degree because the goal was get an accounting degree, get a job, and that's the American dream. To pay for school, I started working for a Dunkin' franchise in Chamblee, Georgia, and graduated with an accounting degree, went to do an internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and hated it. So I didn't accept the full-time offer. I was at home unemployed, and I didn't know what I was going to do. That's when I got another chance at franchising. Dunkin' called me and asked me to operate two stores on a temporary basis until they could re-franchise them. I think when I went back in operating those two restaurants was when I realized that this is exactly what I want to do. And here I am.

There are so many of those types of stories, particularly people that think they want to go down that corporate path and they sit in that cubicle and it's not for them. Congratulations on all the success that you've had and continue to have. Daniel, I wanted to come to you because Shams' story is of course one of many, and it's really, I think, one of the reasons we wanted to launch this campaign a couple years ago — to explain who is really behind franchising and how the model truly works. As we've learned over the last several years, there are too many in government that don't always understand or appreciate how franchising works. You, as several of the congressmen have noted, have been an adviser to a number of lawmakers and policymakers. How do you best explain franchising to lawmakers who are confused or misinformed about the model?

It's a loaded question — pay the big bucks on the IFA board. I would say first and foremost, franchising is the easiest path to the American dream — to own your own business, to hire people, and to be a mainstay in your community. Whether you're a pharmacist on the coast, whether you've got a law practice in South DeKalb — it's the best way to really realize that American dream. One of the things — I've had the privilege of serving on the IFA board for a couple years and working with some of the gentlemen at the head table — is how do we create more opportunity for more Americans? We're in a space in America today where we're very polarized, and somehow we seem to get polarized politically, maybe it's the easiest way for the media to divide us. But I think economic opportunity — a job for a young person, a business for somebody to own and run on a day-to-day basis — is the easiest way to turn communities around. Look at my good friend Jay Bailey over there — we talk a lot about how do we create more business in some of the underserved communities. If we can really dig in with the five members of Congress at the head table and really ensure that there's access to capital — because I do think through the IFA, through Inspire Brands, other brands that are out here, the gentleman from Cornell at the end of the table who's helping match potential franchisees with franchisors — we really can shape up the economy. I think the easiest way to reduce incarceration rates is to get people in business and get people jobs. Congressman Bishop and Congressman Johnson — I've spent a lot of time talking about these things, and fortunately I've had franchises in both their districts, so it really does matter. To come full circle to your question, Matt, we got to open the doors. We all know that this is a great, great opportunity. There are a lot of great brands out here, and then some of us that started off franchising 30 years ago, we turn around and start creating our own brands that we want to go franchise. We all come full circle. We got to have better dialogue, we got to open up access to capital, the small business committees, and we also have to make sure that as associations we're encouraging more people to become franchisees and helping them get there. Hopefully I answered your question.

Thank you, Daniel. One of the areas where we've seen the most uncertainty in the franchising community is around this issue of joint employment. Recently, Congressman Carter, I'm going to come to you — the National Labor Relations Board issued a rule on what constitutes a joint employer, adding great confusion to the franchise business model. We saw a similar rule in 2015 adopted that cost the industry $33 billion a year, 376,000 lost job opportunities, and a 93% increase in litigation. Congress passed legislation that would have overturned this — unfortunately, President Biden ultimately vetoed that rule, and it was done in a bipartisan way, so that's unfortunate. IFA has challenged this rule in the courts. Congressman Carter, I just wanted to give you an opportunity to talk about why it's so important for Congress to preserve this independence of the franchise business model and the separation between franchise brands and franchisees.

Well, it is very important, but perhaps even more important — this is why you need to be involved. This is why you need to be on Capitol Hill. We're a citizen legislature. You've got a lawyer, you've got a pharmacist — we're not professional politicians, although you could make the argument that some have been up there a long time and they've turned into professional politicians. But my point is that there are people who don't have any experience with this, and when we're voting on things in Congress, that's why we need your input. You need to be there. I've always said, listen — if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. If you're not at the table, you're on the menu. That's why you need to be involved. That's why you need to get to know your congressman, get to know your senator, get to know the staff — they're very important as well. This is a perfect example of why advocacy matters and why you need to be involved. It's obvious that this is something that could have a tremendous impact on franchisees and franchisors. Again, this is why we need to have you in there. And it's probably — how did it originate? Somebody sitting in a building in Washington, DC, who has no clue what franchising means, who has no clue what a franchisor is, and they're promulgating rules like this. In Congress, I'd like to think we do our job, and sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. But it's up to us to catch things like this. Unless you're there, unless you're involved, this is the kind of result that you're going to get.

Thank you. I think it's absolutely the right point to make. One of the areas where we've really stepped up our game is getting both brands and franchisees to help communicate really what the different roles are of brands and franchisees. Charles, I want to come to you because obviously under Tropical Smoothie, you've seen incredible growth. I'd love to have you talk about that for just a moment, but then also — you're with one of your franchisees right next to Mike — talk a little about the joint employer issue that we've been dealing with and how brands support their franchisees but truly operate as separate entities. As we think about members of Congress, they deal with information in five- and ten-minute chunks, and getting the privilege to have six of them with us this morning to hear from a range of stakeholders, I think, is not one that we want to pass up.

Sure, absolutely. A little bit of a paradigm shift from a thinking perspective, and I bet the other franchisor CEOs will say the same thing. I'm sitting between two other CEOs — they're the CEOs of their business. Paul and I might happen to be over a brand or multiple brands, but you're running your own business. The difference between Mike and me is that I'm focused, as a CEO for a brand, on empowering Mike and making sure that we have great brand awareness, that we have great unit-level economics, that they have a bicycle that they can ride and they can have a lot of success with, to empower this American dream that we're talking about that is, I agree, Daniel, incredibly accessible. Quite honestly, if you look at Small Business Association statistics, two-thirds more successful than an independent business. We have a great thing going here that's under threat, and it just sort of doesn't make sense. As Mr. Carter was saying, if you don't know it, you don't really understand it. The different roles — as CEO, Mike is focused on his seven locations. He's focused on service delivery, he's focused on serving the end customer, and he does that through his products, service, and his hospitality. To all the franchisees, I don't have a business without him doing that. At the end of the day, I always say our franchisees sign our paychecks as franchisors. While he focuses on that and I focus on my role, we're partners, we're fellow CEOs who are focused on different areas of the business. What makes Mike successful, and I'm sure other franchisor CEOs would say the same thing, is the ability of the franchisee to unleash the power of the people that work on their crews. All of us would say that's what makes a great franchisee — they develop a culture in their locations that allows them to provide a higher level of service and a higher product, etc. The same as all of our Congress people in their entrepreneurial ventures — you gotta work hard, nothing's easy. It's the grit and determination that these franchisees have to empower and unleash their people, which is a fantastic thing for us. It requires high touch. Danielle and Mike — they have to work and know their managers and know their crew members or their employees in order to get the most out of them. That's empowering. Shams, I started the same way — I started at the dishwasher. My dad used to call it the race car, I guess to make it sound more fun. It was still washing dishes. But it's so important that we both know our roles, and putting them together — now what messes this up, in my opinion, a little bit, when we start talking about joint employment, is it's Charles's job as the CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe to focus on Mike's employment practices. I can understand sitting in a building in Washington, oh, that might make sense, maybe Charles can do a better job with that — that completely defeats the purpose of the entire business model, which is: Mike likes me a lot, we're buddies. He didn't sign up and pay a franchise fee for me to be his boss. He already had one of those — he had one you've heard of, which he'll tell you about. It diminishes the whole focus of what we call the franchise value chain, which is: allow me to focus on the brand and make it a fantastic bicycle that we can ride really fast and make a lot of money and employ a lot of people, to the increased litigation and the increased costs that come with — let's call it what it is — a more deep-pocketed franchisor where you can go extract some value from it. It really is harmful and detrimental. We talk about $33 billion in Georgia, and we're talking about a $900 billion industry in this country. Franchising is the greatest vehicle for individual American entrepreneurialism and wealth creation that this country has ever seen. As Paul said, it's uniquely American. The fact that we're having this debate is almost scary that we've gotten to this point. I'll leave it at that. He's not looking for a boss — he's looking for a partner.

Yeah. Mike, do you want to just comment on that? And then I'm going to come to Congressman Bishop after that, who I know has to leave a little bit early.

Sure. I was asked — or I'm frequently asked the question — why did I get into franchising? What ultimately led me to make a move out of the tech sector and a successful career there for 17 years. I'm not a technologist, I was on the business side. One of the things that I have said is: I know what I know, I know what I don't know. I've had enough success, I've had enough failure in life. As I looked to transition out of the corporate world, kind of in my mid-40s — and so I see the sign behind Paul and Matt over there — we're part of something bigger than ourselves. The appeal of franchising to me was that it allowed me to find a partner, in this case Tropical Smoothie, Charles and his team, that could bring expertise that was focused on developing a brand, focused on developing business processes, procedures, menus, things like that. Had I had to spend my personal energy, time, human capital working on those sorts of things, not only would I have not gotten to the right solution, I certainly wouldn't have gotten to it fast enough. It would have greatly diminished the chances I had of being successful. The fact that the franchise business model exists allowed me ultimately to take what I think I do uniquely well — or at least what my greatest talent is — which is identifying people that can align to a specific vision, lead them, coach them, correct them when needed, and ultimately get them to execute a business model in this case and a playbook that's given to me by my franchisor. The thing that I love additionally about franchising is it allows me to have input into that model, it allows me to have input into that practice, but I am uniquely my own, and my success or failure depends upon my ability and my team's ability to execute the playbook. Ultimately it's handed to us and kind of improve upon it where there are opportunities to do so.

Did you tell them what tech companies you worked for? They were relatively successful. I think you might have heard of them.

They're two of the probably five most well-capitalized or highest-capital-value companies in the world. I worked for Microsoft, and I was an early employee at Facebook. Really what led to me making the move was just a general lifestyle change. I was tired of five-day-a-week travel week in and week out. As my wife said, when we were approaching the birth of our third child a little later in life than what we had originally planned on — proof that God has a sense of humor — she said, I don't care if you work 100 hours a week, you're going to sleep in your own bed every night and you're going to ultimately be able to finally fulfill one of the things that I know is you care about, which is the ability to impact people in your local area, to feel once and for all connected to the local communities. We own seven of these Tropical Smoothie locations. They're all right in our backyards. We serve our friends, we serve our family members, we serve people that we've known for years and years and years. We employ many of our kids' friends. We create opportunities for them, we create opportunities for young people that might not be pursuing the traditional college route and are looking for somebody to pour into them and give them the opportunity to grow, to develop, to learn some professional skills that will set them up for a better future.

Thanks so much, Mike. What a great journey and story, and continues to be. I want to come to Congressman Bishop. Pivot a little bit away from that one policy area where we have some uncertainty to another policy area where there's some uncertainty, and that's taxes. I know you've been very involved in — and thank you for your support of — the recent bipartisan tax bill that the House passed. It is something that is of great interest to most in the franchise community and the broader business community, but it is stuck in the Senate. As we know, if Congress does not act, there are a number of tax cliffs, some that have already gone into effect, that impact our members around areas like bonus depreciation, interest deductibility, and then small business pass-throughs, which are the largest — 80-plus percent of franchise businesses are pass-through entities — which would be a big issue next year if not addressed. I wonder if you could just offer some comments about your work in that area and anything else you'd like to discuss, Congressman.

Let me just say that what we do in terms of policy — taxes — has a tremendous impact. Many times, those of us — as Congressman Carter pointed out — we come from all different walks of life. Members of Congress have all kinds of backgrounds. I was an attorney, I had a small business practice in law for 20 years before I went to Congress. It depends upon our getting input and information from the people that we represent so that we can understand what it is about a policy that impacts you well or adversely and why. The rubber meets the road, and it's important for us to be able to listen. As an attorney, I did not have all of the expertise on every issue that came before me that walked into the office, but I had to bring in expert witnesses, I had to do the research in order to find out. That armed me with the information with which I could be an advocate. As an advocate for my constituents who are small business people, who are franchises, I need to know what it is that's pinching you, what it is that's impeding your capacity to do what you have to do. Of course, it's the squeaking wheel that gets the grease, and it's the crying baby that gets the milk in the political process. So we have to hear from you. I always have an open door, have always had, because that is how I can best be an advocate. When we were going through the pandemic, I could hear the impact that it was having and the policies that Congress was enacting were having on Daniel and his businesses. Daniel picked the phone and called and said, look, this is what we're going through, nobody seems to be listening. That's the role that we have to play. If you don't tell us, we don't know. Most members don't have that independent knowledge about your specific issues, so when you bring it to us, it arms us, and we want to help you. We want to create that environment that makes you successful. So engage us, let us hear from you, and we will work with you to try to make sure that we create that atmosphere, that environment, so that we can all succeed.

Wonderful. Well, Doc, I wanted to maybe come to you because of anybody at this table — this is not a comment about age — but you've been engaged in coming to Washington probably the longest on behalf of the IFA. Talk a little bit about what franchising has meant to you and some of the ways that you've leaned in to educate and build relationships with lawmakers on some of these issues.

Well, it's interesting listening to everybody around the table because I started off in a different career as well. Went to the University of Georgia pharmacy school. I lived in Savannah — well, I didn't grow up, but I got older there. I've never grown up and don't want to. I graduated from pharmacy school. I was too young to get a license — you had to be 21 and I was only 20 — so I went back to law school. So now I've got things in common with a number of our members of Congress. We started a drugstore chain in Savannah. I helped the two brothers who owned it grow it to about 50 units, and then they sold it. I moved out to California with them and bought another drugstore chain where I had a posh office in the C-suite, which was exciting to me. We were really thinking we were doing well until I found out that our CFO had five-drawer file cabinets full of unopened mail, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars I was investing in overnight paper every day were disappearing faster than we could put them back in. I had to eliminate the entire middle management of the company. I was a very early victim of corporate downsizing, but back then we just called it getting fired, and I had to fire myself. I didn't have a car — they took away my company car. I had a house, a mortgage, and a dog. I had to find a way to make a living. My sister, who lived in Atlanta, saw this startup company called Great American Cookies. I said to her, do you know how many cookies you have to sell to pay the rent in one of those malls? I don't want to use the word, but four letters come to mind — it was a truckload, and I replaced the word truck with something else. Ultimately, I did become the first franchisee at Great American and the largest. I started developing in a place called Lafayette, Louisiana, a place I'd never heard of. I always thought that Louisiana was a suburb of New Orleans, but I learned pretty quickly that Louisiana was a great place to start a business. I ended up opening over...

30 stores in seven states. I did learn early on, and one thing I'd like to point out because of the relationship between franchises and franchisors, which I think is critical. When I joined the company, the two friends who opened it had no retail business experience, and I did — I had 30 years of retail experience, and I was able to help them grow the business. They had a great concept but were lacking in the business part of it, and as a franchisee it was amazing that they let me help them develop the business side. As my mentor Bill Rosenberg, who Sean pointed out was the founder of Dunkin' Donuts, taught everybody: you can't have successful franchisees without successful franchisors, and you can't have successful franchisors without successful franchises. I've always believed that both parties have to make a profit, but not at each other's expense. The best franchisors out there are making their franchisees profitable — that's the top-line responsibility of a franchisor, to help unit economics and help their franchises become profitable. It's also important for me as a franchisee to have my franchisor protect the brand, because that's what I bought into and that's why I pay franchise fees — to get the support from the franchisor. We have a book, and why was I successful? Because I followed the book. Somebody proved that this is how it works. If you want to open a McDonald's but you think your customers don't like a sesame seed bun and you want a plain bun, then go open Doc Hamburgers. But you can't be a franchisee of McDonald's. In terms of legislative support, IFA has provided me with the opportunity to come to Washington, and I've been there at every event we've ever had up on the Hill. The opportunity to meet with legislators who agree and legislators who don't — it's more important to me to go to the legislators who don't, because I want to show them why I believe what I believe and try to convince them they're on the wrong track. It's nice to have members of Congress who are small business supporters and have been in small business themselves because they understand it. But when you meet with a legislator who doesn't understand franchising, that gives me the opportunity to say: I'm employing my neighbors, friends, their kids. I'm the first level of employment. It's up to me to help these young high school kids learn about ethics and work ethic and responsibility. And when they go to the beach and call in sick, it's my job to teach them why that was wrong. It's really important for all of us — franchisee, franchisor, independent, or looking at becoming one — to get to know your members of Congress and your Senate representatives, because that's where legislation takes place, that's where things important to running my business are decided. I had an opportunity to meet President Bush one day in pretty close quarters — I got to spend about 20 minutes with him alone before he went out to speak at an IFA event. At the end of the conversation, as they were calling him to go up on stage, he said, 'Doc, what do you think I should talk about up there?' I said, 'Mr. President, talk about how I can get the government out of my business.' And Congressman, you mentioned that earlier — that's what's important. Let me run my business. Well said, Doc, thank you.

Congressman McCormick, I want to come back to you and officially thank you for your service. As you may know, 14% of franchises are owned by veterans, which is nearly double the rate of small business veteran ownership. We have a program in our foundation called VetFran that reduces barriers to entry for vets to open franchises. I just wanted to ask you how you see Congress in any way supporting franchising generally, but also specifically for our nation's vets.

First of all, you talked about 14% — less than 1% of the American population served in the military, so that's a great representation. I'm glad that's a new statistic I'll add to my mental Rolodex. One of my favorite presidents of all time is Calvin Coolidge, who famously said, 'The business of America is business.' Without business we don't have anything. We don't have this massive economy that supports the rest of the world, that drives the economic train, that depresses the unemployment rate, that creates opportunities — you guys know better than anybody. We know exactly what the problem is. It's funny when somebody sitting next to me says, 'Oh, just tell me what I need to know so I can help you.' I know what the problem is — the government's the problem. If you think about the second leading cost to your business, it's healthcare. We required you to give healthcare, that's fine, but we also drove healthcare prices up because we go against anti-competitive problems. Another really huge one is regulation and taxation — the more regulation and taxation, the less competitive you are. That's a government problem. When we say you have to hire or fire somebody or make a decision that you know is best for your business, that's a problem. You notice there's one central theme — we keep turning back to the government to solve the problems that the government created. As a military guy, the thing I think we fought and died for is the opportunity to succeed or fail on our own without the government picking winners and losers, without the government getting in your way — which I say all the time. At best, we're a necessary evil. We're not here to pick winners and losers. You guys will win. The fact that you're sitting at these tables right now — you guys will win if we stay out of your way. Everything I campaign on comes down to that one basic principle: that all government should be as local as possible, because you get the best representation. If we stay out of your way, you'll be really successful. That's what made America different — not because the government was meant to be in power, but because the people were meant to be in power, and we serve the people. Whenever we reverse that, we get in the way. The government philosophy from the conservative movement is: get the government the freak out of the way and you will be successful. That's what we're here for. It's ironic — somebody asked me once, 'So you mean to tell me you went to Congress to become less powerful?' Yep, that's right. To get us out of your way, because I do believe in you. You're successful because you put your heart and time into this, and if we can get out of your way, you'll be more successful, and we can get back to the glory days of America and continue leading this world the way we're supposed to.

Congressman Johnson, I wanted to turn to you and talk a little about how IFA is helping get more people from underrepresented communities into franchising. We have a number of minority franchise owners around the table today, and we just last month announced the launch of a new program called the Ascension Initiative, which is a six-month private-sector-backed accelerator program that will take people from underrepresented groups and economically disadvantaged communities to launch a career in franchise ownership. What we've seen in some of our research is that Black-owned franchises tend to do 2.2 times as much in sales compared to independently owned businesses. I wanted to give you an opportunity to comment on that program or ways either with Congress or just to encourage small business ownership and open people's eyes to the opportunities that so many folks around this table have seen through franchise ownership — either as immigrants or minorities. Of course, I do want to thank Inspire Brands as one of our many companies that helped support that program with some capital support.

Well, thank you. I want to commend the IFA for its outreach programs to reach underserved and unserved populations wherever they are, in terms of entrepreneurs who locate businesses in areas that are not as vibrant as, say, this community. There's a lot of opportunity in minority communities across the country, and what I find is often those folks who live in those areas are wealthy enough to patronize the businesses that you all own, but yet in many respects they have to leave the areas where they live to spend their money with you in another location. In those locations it's hard for those consumers to get their children over there to have the jobs and to develop the culture of entrepreneurship and doing business. I think IFA is to be commended for its outreach to create greater opportunities for us all, and that's being done — that's not a government-run program, that's a private industry-sponsored program. But that's not to say there isn't a role for government in producing an environment that enhances business opportunity. One of the ways government does that is by providing for the common defense, and it also does that by promoting the general welfare — these are ideals embedded in our Constitution. Government is a force for good just as the business community is, and what I like to see is government and business working together. I can't take my mind off the old Andy Griffith show, where you had the banker and the pharmacist and the sheriff who represented the government working together — the old Chamber of Commerce model of working together with government to make things better for the people. I think we need to get back to that. That's a common-sense ideal and it works. I also want to affirm what I've heard several times in this conversation: it's important that members of the business community develop alliances with their representatives regardless of which side of the aisle those representatives sit on. We all come to the table with our beliefs and experiences but also hopefully open minds willing to learn about new things. Business is new to a lot of people, and when you come to Congress and present your concerns directly to the representatives, I think it's really important. Roundtables like this that bring us together are so important. I want to thank you once again for sponsoring this very meaningful dialogue.

Congressman Johnson, Congressman Loudermilk, I wanted to come to you now and thank you for your support on the joint employer issue, which we touched on earlier. I would guess one of the areas where government support to some degree is important in the franchise model is with regard to the Small Business Administration, particularly as it relates to getting veterans and new people into the franchise model from other traditionally underrepresented groups. I want to offer you an opportunity to comment on any of the issues we've already talked about — on the labor front, the tax front, or the capital access area.

Well, thanks Matt. The issue we have — and Rich McCormick touched on this earlier and used the term 'necessary evil' — originates from Thomas Paine, who said that government in its best state is a necessary evil, in its worst state it's an intolerable one. Our founders were looking at creating a system of government that would support a free market system, to give the ability of an individual to achieve their dream, to leave government at the lowest level. They developed a template for government designed on the idea of a necessary evil, but we've been transitioning toward an intolerable one, as you have learned with the recent rulemaking we have seen. I serve on the Financial Services Committee — I'm Vice Chair of Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy. Most of what we're working on is trying to rein in the government from their obsessive rules and regulations. The founders put in this idea of a Congress whose job was to think and an executive branch whose job was to act upon what Congress had thought. The problem is Congress quit thinking and started feeling a while back. The idea was it was supposed to be very, very difficult to get legislation through because they understood we tend to have knee-jerk reactions — we can overregulate, we can over-legislate. A system was put in place where it's very difficult to get your best idea through. I've come up with ideas I knew were perfect, and the first committee hearing people shot holes in my legislation — because what worked for my district was devastating for someone else's. In the last decade or two we've seen a transition where a lot of legislative power has been taken by the executive branch, across multiple presidents. If Congress didn't think the way the executive wanted, they would act by doing what is a legislative role through rules and regulations. The Supreme Court ruled — I think it's going to be something very successful for the business community — dealing with the administrative state legislating through regulatory agencies. They are trying to reinstitute the template that says Congress is responsible for making law. If a rule or regulation has the impact of law, denying you of property or liberty, then it has to go through Congress. It was targeted at the EPA but set a standard. We've seen even through this labor rule where the administration is totally ignoring the will of Congress. It's going to take a bipartisan effort to rein back in a government where the template is restored. Almost full-time on the Financial Services Committee we're trying to rein in agencies and regulators who are not only overregulating in their own industries but crossing over into other areas of jurisdiction — it's almost like a complete power grab. We've got agencies trying to delve into personal finances, looking at everything every one of your customers are doing. It's like a foot race with agencies to dig deeper into your pocketbooks as well as the consumer's pocketbooks. A lot of smaller banks used to partner with the FDIC — if they had a question about capitalization, they'd call their FDIC inspector who would sit down and go through it. You talk to small banks today, they're scared to death of the FDIC because they're coming in with a gotcha attitude. I talked to a small home builder who was getting $117,000 in fines from OSHA for building a single home. I asked if an employee filed a complaint — he said no. I asked the inspector how he found out, and he said he was driving down the road, saw a truck loaded with trusses, followed it to the job site. This is not what the agencies were designed to do — they were designed to work in partnership, but it's become adversarial. When I was first running for Congress, I had a business advisory committee and asked franchise owners what the number one issue was — taxes or regulation. Every person said: if you're going to tax me, just tell me how much and I can adjust. I cannot operate with ever-changing and contradictory regulations. Fix the regulatory state and we can figure out how to be profitable. I've got one business in our district that cannot be in compliance because three regulatory agencies — the EPA, Homeland Security, and OSHA — have different standards. We're seeing jurisdictional boundary issues with the SEC, which is supposed to regulate stock and commodities exchanges but is now getting into banking regulation and crypto regulation even after the Supreme Court said it cannot. This is going to be on our backs as members of Congress — we have to do this in a bipartisan way regardless of who is president. Senator Mike Lee and I started what we called the Article I Project my first year in Congress, looking at how we reinstate separation of powers. We were passing stuff out of the House, the Senate was taking it up, but when Trump got elected it all stopped because it was like, 'Our guy's in there now, we want him to have all this power.' My point was: that's exactly when we should get this done. What these agencies are doing is not only an affront to businesses — it's an affront to Congress, to our Article I branch. In the state legislature, Buddy and I would see this — when the Governor did something that was an affront to the legislative body, Republicans and Democrats would hold together to defend our institution. We have to get back to that. The other side of the coin I tell businesses is: when I first got to Congress, businesses were interested in regulation, taxes, trade — things significant to business — and that's where we find bipartisan buy-in. When businesses started getting into social areas and promoting different social aspects, that's when the division and partisanship began. There is a lot we can agree on by focusing on those business aspects. Hank and I can agree on a lot of things — he commended me on being a common-sense conservative. We just have to take it from an institutional standpoint to get back to that template our founders originated for a free market system to work.

Thank you so much, Congressman. We certainly agree on the challenge of the seesawing of regulations back and forth, and would love anything Congress can do, particularly in a bipartisan way, to re-exercise their role as those that make the laws and leave it to the agencies to enforce them. I wanted to swing back to the franchisee side of the conversation and go to Darcel. I'd love to hear a little bit about your journey into franchising and maybe a reflection on how you continue to grow even in the wake of all this uncertainty, and how the franchise model and your partnership with The UPS Store and others have helped support your growth.

All right. Just a little bit about my journey — I've heard my colleague Mike sitting next to me, very similar in the sense that I had a long corporate career. I came from Corporate America. Shams, I actually am a retired CPA — I stuck out the accounting role. I started out in accounting, went and got an MBA in finance, and did 25 years in Corporate America with good companies — particularly in their heyday — Motorola, Boeing, and worked my way up the corporate ladder. About halfway through, I started thinking about my future career beyond where I was at that time. A couple of things drove me into franchising. First, I'm a finance and accounting person — very good at following rules, following regulations, following a cookbook, so to speak. Not very big on creative, not a salesperson, not a marketing type. I looked at that and said, what type of business will complement my strengths and weaknesses? Being that I'm not creative and not a marketing or salesperson, franchising attracted me because you get a brand with a franchise, and that would complement my weaker side of business acumen. I'll talk about the three criteria I used to select the particular brand, but one was a strong brand — one that would bring recognition and complement my rule-regulated type of education and background. The other thing is I just wanted more control over my life, more control over my destiny. I was in Corporate America — I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly with respect to career trajectories. I wanted more control over my career, particularly later in my career. There were some particular incidents when I was younger that I saw happen to people that I didn't like. I also looked at colleagues who preceded me in my business schools — a lot of them were the masters or captains of their own ships, having their own businesses. I looked at all those things and said franchising is the way for me. For about 15 years I did research — I'd go to seminars, workshops, webinars, talk to franchisees, talk to franchisors, go on site visits. A lot of people around this room I may have visited or researched. I wound up with The UPS Store because of my three criteria: a strong brand, something sustainable that was going to be around for a while — not a fad — and a profitable business. I decided I was going to purchase an existing business so I'd have historical data and P&Ls to look at. I will say a lot of people say some of it's luck, and I will say the UPS Store brand kind of fell into my lap. I had moved here from Chicago — I was a VP of Finance at CNN, that's how I came to Atlanta 17 years ago. UPS was headquartered nearby, and I stumbled upon franchise ownership with The UPS Stores. I said, hm — great brand, I'm going to check the profitability, and I think it's sustainable. And I'm right — 15 years in, UPS is still going strong. I got lucky — the stars and the moon lined up. Not that I didn't do my research — I certainly did my P&L analysis. My first two stores were within five miles of my house, very profitable. The particular owners were selling because they were retiring. Everything just looked right, and even though it was earlier than I planned to come out of Corporate America, the opportunity presented itself. I purchased those two stores — those are my first two, 15 years ago in Dunwoody. Then I got two more in Douglasville and one in Midtown Atlanta. Five stores, 15 years in, looking to grow even more. It's been a great journey along the way.

That's amazing — really a prototype of what we encourage in terms of due diligence at the IFA. So many of the brands represented around this table and our membership, at a time where too many are often trying to find the next big thing too quickly, it's really important in terms of franchising responsibly — finding the right brand to partner with, the right franchisee in the right community to set them up for success. I wanted to go to Danielle next and let you share a little bit about your family business and your journey from employee to owner, which is something so amazing but not particularly unique to you — there are so many of those examples across not just Inspire but across so many of our member companies.

Thank you again for having me here. This is such a cool experience that I never really thought I'd be a part of — talking to congressmen, my mind's a little blown. But here we go. I have two stores north of Atlanta. I started with Jimmy John's about 12 years ago working in another franchisee's store in Tallahassee, Florida. My dad was retiring from the Air Force, so he was interested in franchising. We teamed up together — I was operations partner for one store that we bought here in North Atlanta. The goal was long-term that I would be able to buy him out. That was an eight-year goal — that's how long it took me to finish buying out his partnership. Shortly after that, I acquired another location right before COVID. About a year ago, my husband — he's here in the audience — left the corporate world and now he is here, and we run both of our stores together. We have an 11-month-old, his name is Charles also, and I'm sure when he's old enough he'll be in there making sandwiches, and maybe even one day he'll take it over. It's really cool to hear everyone's stories — it sounds like no one started as a politician. I'm learning a lot today about franchising in general, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds.

Of course. Too many people in franchising don't really set out to become franchise owners — it finds them somewhere in their journey. We think there is some of that in Congress as well — not setting out to become a career politician. Nishit, I wanted to come to you and let you share because you're in so many brands, not just in the restaurant industry. Talk a little about your pathway and maybe reflect on some of what you've heard from the lawmakers up here this morning.

Sure. First of all, thank you for the opportunity I got from Inspire Brands and from the Jimmy John's stream — and the Dunkin' too, because I've been part of Dunkin' also, which I love. Thank you for this opportunity to be at the table, meeting Mr. Brown, Mr. Haller, and the congressmen, getting introductions and communications, and getting the opportunity to learn from the experts in order to grow in the future. I started my journey in 1997 from India — from Bombay I came as an student over here. Bare minimum, didn't have anything, slept on the carpet. That was our journey, and I had a dream of owning a business. I worked in Corporate America. My partner Shams, we are partnering in a few Dunkin's also, and I'm an accountant — I had my bachelor's degree in accounting, numbers, great. I guess the number guys are working with what the bottom can bring us on the table. I started with Jimmy John's because I was looking for so many opportunities, so many businesses. I did my analysis — got rejected because of my financials or other reasons by Subway or Quiznos. Quiznos approved me but I didn't move forward because I didn't like the model. Finally I landed with Jimmy John's, because I used to work in corporate in Midtown Atlanta in the Biltmore building, part of DirecTV, and I used to order Jimmy John's all the time. The delivery concept was great — Jimmy John's was the only one who delivers during lunch time, so you don't have to leave your desk. I loved the sub concept, the bread quality was amazing, the freshness. I said let me try this brand, studied more, applied, and got approved. Luckily I'm right next to the neighbor of Inspire Brands — one store is in Roswell, one in Driwood. I started the journey with my partners, and we applied for Dunkin' and became part of growing in the hospitality business. Our last name means a lot — Patel stands out. We're always in the business community as Patels, that family helps each other out to grow and supports, and we learn from each other. We try to grow our family members along with our community and our employees. Right now I focus not only on growing myself but on taking my managers and growing them — teaching them how to be part of the franchise business and making a difference in their life. That's where I started everything and grown into the hospitality business. I always like challenges — I can't stand in one place. I can't just sell sandwiches. I started the first store and established the second store within a year and a half. From there, in 10 years: 12 to 13 Dunkin's, two Jimmy John's, two Red Roofs, one Moe's, and last year I opened a UPS store. Plus we are in the construction business — we develop standalone buildings with retail plazas. I love the construction and the opportunity to learn in every aspect of the business. The hospitality industry is great — learning from customers, employees, training, how the brand supports. People always complain about the franchisor, and sometimes the operations staff and managers complain when new changes come. One thing about me — I'm not here because of what I like or don't like. I'm here to get the job done based on the rules, regulations, and procedures given to me. If I follow that, I can be successful. If I don't like what Dunkin' or Jimmy John's is doing, I need to be part of the change or look at something else. If you adopt the change, you'll be better off. Take the negativism out and start adapting the new culture, new changes. When Inspire Brands took over Dunkin' and Jimmy John's, I was in both processes — new sandwiches coming, everything is coming. People don't like the change. I explained to my operations managers, my family members, my wife who runs one store — change is always better if you take it early enough and start learning from it. That can change the whole mentality and bring positivity to your business. The franchisor has put enough research and development into how everything will work — they have better numbers, better data, and that can make the changes into the profitability of the business if you adopt them. The franchisor is there to support and guide you, but you have to do your own homework too — your fixed costs, variable costs, whether the location will work. That combined data helps you make a successful operation. It's not easy. I've failed a couple of times — business went down, business came back up. But you believe in yourself and work hard, the business will make you profitable at the end of the day. With the congressmen saying the government supports us, sometimes it's not easy to see the changes happening. Recently I'm feeling the challenges with the SBA because you can't get loans right now because of the EIDL loan you received. You try to apply for another loan, the tax returns aren't up to date, even though you submitted everything to the IRS. The IRS can't give everything to the SBA right now — there's a backlog. The banks can't lend the money. Those are the challenges, but as long as your numbers are together, your books are up to date, your tax return has been filed, everything can work out in your favor.

Thank you. I know we are running a bit over, so if folks do need to depart, we encourage that. We'll continue the conversation for just a few more minutes. Indie, I wanted to come to you as the chair of the IFA Franchisee Forum and somebody who's now running a multigenerational franchise business. Let you talk a little about your journey and also reflect on some of the work of the Franchisee Forum and the role the Forum plays in representing the voice of franchisees within the IFA, and how important that is.

Thank you, Matt. This has been a great experience. There is a lot of conversation going on about educating and understanding what the franchise model is, what the franchisor role is, and what the franchisee role is, and of course our supplier partners as well. The big piece of my work with the IFA Franchisee Forum is to bring all parts of the franchise business model together and help each other understand what role everyone plays. It's not rocket science — I drank that Kool-Aid many years ago. We've had a lot of conversations about brands growing and how franchisees grow. The way we look at it, if a brand is going to grow, it grows in two parts: franchise development and unit-level economics. Unit-level economics is the responsibility and buy-in of a franchisee, but it ripples up to the franchisor. Bringing it back to Matt's question about my family and generational wealth — I look at it as generational growth. My story started back — I grew up in French Canada. I was three years old when we moved there. My father was a machinist who had his own business. He swore never to hire an employee because he would literally just fire them — that's why he went into business for himself. This really makes me realize the situation we're in today. I moved to the US in 1998 and opened the Goddard Schools. Opened a second one in 2008 during the market drop. Lucky for me, I was able to break even within six months — still don't know how I did it, but actually I do know: I followed the model. It's all about following the model, and I was smart enough eight years later not to stray, which is another story in itself. That led me to about 2016 when I sold both locations but held on to the real estate, creating another vertical by holding on to and managing real estate. Then my son, who's sitting in the audience, decided to go to college but dropped out. I said you cannot drop out — that was your granddad's hard-earned money. But if you do come home with a plan. Of course he grew up in franchising and saw the ups and downs, the pros and cons, the successes and failures. He said, 'Mom, I want to go into franchising.' I said child care is not what we're going to do, but let's do Mathnasium. Our passion is children — our passion is making a difference in our community, and franchising allows you to do that. It's not the franchise brand that's going to grow up at corporate and be able to open locations in communities — it's franchisees like us that live in our communities and know what our communities need. We're bringing these brands, services, and products to our people — the people that we all represent. That's really something to remember as we talk about unit-level economics. We are now in three locations — Alpharetta, West Marietta, and Woodstock. We have a second location opening in Marietta and a second in Milton. When we talk about unit-level economics, I say to myself: I bought into a franchise business model, and when I say franchise business model, it takes with it the operational model — it's not just a business model. Within that is the operations, the finance, the marketing, and the brand has looked at what the success factors are. When we talk about what's going on in Congress today about joint employer — anything that would topple over that model will put us out of business. If we're out of business, we can't grow in our communities, and that really concerns me. I'll share one example that just happened in our operations last week — we had to let go of a center manager. Can you imagine if this was — like Charles said — if this decision to let someone go because they were not the right person was the responsibility of the franchisor? What would it take? We have 1,000 Mathnasium locations. If I had to pick up the phone and say to corporate I have to let somebody go, and now how do I fill that position — that's joint employer. I cannot let that control go into their hands. They don't know my community. To wrap up, I know we're running out of time. I'm going to put all of you guys on my favorites list and take the opportunity to have these conversations and share more examples of what we need and how we can be successful.

Thank you so much, Indie. I think that's a great capstone to talk about the impact the joint employer issue has. Beyond just the policy impact, the importance of what we're talking about — we're talking about protecting the franchise business model because it's just very unique and very powerful. What the model does in these communities — not just for you all as business owners but for the people and the cultures that each of your organizations builds. The outcomes, as we've seen in the data from the IFA and Oxford Economics, employees fare far better in the franchise sector in terms of wages, benefits, and upward mobility, with some of the stories we've heard about today. The data does not lie — the franchise model is the greatest way to create upward mobility that exists. We appreciate the members of Congress around the table for helping us protect and promote it. We appreciate each and every one of you. I apologize — this is the largest roundtable we've ever had at one of these, and I did not get to everybody to make a comment, but I think we'll continue the conversation. I know we've got some video crews around where we want to capture some content for our website and advertising campaigns. I want to thank Paul and his team for hosting us. I believe there's an opportunity for a tour of the facility here, which our good buddy Mike Baki over there is going to lead. Thank you, Mike, for that. And to each and every one of you, thank you for your support of IFA and franchising. Paul, if you wanted to offer any closing remarks, I would greatly appreciate it.