How Rick Mayo Turned His Personal Training Brand into a Nationwide Franchise

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, Rick, thank you so much for joining us on the show.

Rick Mayo:
Jim, pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure, sure. There’s a lot to dive into and a lot to unpack as they say, because I know that you’ve been a franchisee. You’re a franchisor. You got a phenomenal brand that is on wildfire, going like wildfire right now. And certainly there’s not a person out there that as soon as I said, personal fitness, that the ears don’t perk up, right?

Rick Mayo:
Right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Because you’re either in it and crushing it or you really need to be in it. It’s one of those things. I’m not sure which one I fall into, which bucket. I just know that I need to get into the gym more. And so when we saw your opportunity here, an opportunity to bring you in and talk to you about your great company and the fact that it’s headquartered here in Atlanta. You’ve got locations around the Southeast. It’s quickly growing. We said great guest for our audience, so thanks so much.

Rick Mayo:
Yeah, like I said, pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Great. So let’s start in the beginning. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to this point. And then we’ll pick up about the concept and about the franchise.

Rick Mayo:
Sure. I’ve always been in the fitness space. I mean, I’ve but done nothing but be an entrepreneur. So I opened my original location, which by the way, is my corporate office now, right down the street here.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
No kidding.

Rick Mayo:
Maybe a few miles from here, in 1992. So I was a junior in college, just paying my way through school, bouncing around, being a personal trainer. Going to people’s homes, working in various health clubs and thought wouldn’t it be a novel idea to put four walls and a customer experience around this high-end service of personal training? And at the time, there was no internet, which is hard to believe now, but like, I mean-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
We’re dating ourselves right now.

Rick Mayo:
Right. Yeah. We are. I know, I know.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Exactly. This show-

Rick Mayo:
I say ’92. And usually when I’m speaking to fitness crowds, half the crowd is like, “I wasn’t even born in ’92.” I’m like, I understand that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
We don’t like that crowd.

Rick Mayo:
No, we don’t.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
They don’t get it.

Rick Mayo:
So again, we were, hit the market at the right … It’s always good to be first-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Rick Mayo:
We hit the market with a great service at the time, put four walls around it. And it went really, really well. And so by the 2000s or so, we had landed on this really interesting model where we learned how to scale personal training. As you know, it’s a pretty expensive service it. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
It is, right.

Rick Mayo:
And in the early days, it was what the cool kids did. So I was a trainer for Madonna and we had all these R&B stars in Atlanta.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh, very cool.

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. We could probably have a lot of off-air conversations that I probably legally bound not to talk about here today.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
But that’s sort of what personal training was, and it evolved. And it became something where, like you said, everybody needs to exercise. So let me hire someone who can A, tell me how to do it. B, hold me accountable, and make it maybe more fun sure than it is to go on my own. And at its bare essence, that’s what personal training is, right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Rick Mayo:
It’s guidance and accountability.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
And so we had learned how to scale it a bit because it was something that was, it was becoming an industry, we couldn’t charge 80, $90 an hour and really scale it. So let’s make it so that we can put a few people together. We can have a system to get them from the door to the right level of fitness and be able to account for injuries and things like that. And that put us in this really rare air where we were one of the highest revenue per square foot facilities in the country. So that put me on the radar for speaking gigs and consulting.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Everybody wants to know what’s the magic sauce? How do you do it? Right?

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. 100%. And so eventually that led to, “Hey, can we buy your sales system? Can you write our workouts?” You know? Sort of those parts and pieces of what we were doing. And I thought, why don’t we just clean this up, put it on an online platform and we’ll license it? Now that can be an interchangeable term with franchising at times. But think about it as a white label version, and we called it a license. And we would then power another brand white labeled, so their brand was in front. And we were just, we were powered, they were powered by us. And we did that to the tune, Jim, of 2,500 facilities worldwide, we’re and everywhere from India and Cyprus and Dubai. And I mean, we really got a great look at the worldwide market.

Rick Mayo:
And we were building lots of different things, class based concepts. We powered CrossFit facilities. We powered Anytime Fitness. We powered Gold’s Gym. I mean, you name it. Right. All these brands. Then that led to some big contracts with some of the brands I just mentioned, put me on the advisory board. So we got a really nice peak under the covers at franchising. And at the end of 2019, we decided like, hey instead of powering everyone, else’s franchise let’s make a run at our own. So we pivoted to full on franchising in 2020. Great year for franchises.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, right.

Rick Mayo:
I’m sure we’ll talk about that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Ouch, yeah. My next question.

Rick Mayo:
Yeah, exactly. So we’re up to 50 locations all over the U.S. Everywhere from Utah, Montana.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
50 locations in the last two years?

Rick Mayo:
Actually, just in the … we really kind of shut it down and focused on servicing our licensed clubs during COVID just to get them through that, because we knew that fitness wasn’t a relevant investment option, especially in states where it was like not even allowed to operate.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
So we really got started probably mid-2021 as when we kicked it back up.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So a year ago basically.

Rick Mayo:
About a year ago.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That year, full on.

Rick Mayo:
Full on. So 50 locations in the last year, which is a lot.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. It’s one a week.

Rick Mayo:
Right? I know. And so, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down, which is great. I’ve done nothing else about this since I was 22 years old. It’s certainly been an evolution, not only in the business model, but in my skillset. I mean, I’m an exercise gym guy who had to learn business who had to learn franchising and licensing and everything else. And it’s only taken 30 years. A 30 year overnight success. What can I say?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s and it is a whole different business. Isn’t it? When you decide to become a franchisor and say, okay, I’ve got a system and now we’re going to franchise it. It doesn’t mean that a buddy of yours says, “Hey, I want to do this someplace else. Sell me a franchise.” It’s like, oh no, no, no. That’s nice. But there’s a hell of a lot that goes into this from an accounting standpoint, from a legal standpoint. And then that changes state to state and what those requirements are, right. The FTC kicks in and goes, you got to have your proper disclosure. We have to know everything. You’ve got to give people the ample time. And a lot of people underestimate that. Don’t they? That say, “Oh, I can bake a great cookie. I want to franchise this.”

Rick Mayo:
I’ve got Billy’s burgers. My burgers are amazing. There’s a line out the door. I’m going to franchise. I don’t think that’s the right way to approach franchising. We had a distinct advantage of learning on other people’s dime essentially-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s a good point.

Rick Mayo:
… in this worldwide market, 15 years. Where are there gaps in the market? What does scale? Right. Because I think people underestimate how difficult it is to teach someone to run a … even to become an entrepreneur.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
You’ve worked in corporate, and you’ve got a legal team and a marketing team and you’re like, “This needs to be done. Send it to marketing.” I’m like, yeah. When you’re an entrepreneur of a small business-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Nothing is right.

Rick Mayo:
… there is no market. You are the marketing department.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Hell no. That’s exactly right.

Rick Mayo:
And the amount of emotional toil that takes and the resolve that you have to build, I love it. I think the emotional return on investment for becoming an entrepreneur is even greater than the financial return.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I agree.

Rick Mayo:
I mean, you have to be a different person to do well. And I think that growth is key and I think it’s probably under discussed.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Describe the perfect franchisee for you? Who would that be? Is it male? Is it female? What’s the age? What’s their background?

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. I mean, listen, I think it’s … Interestingly enough, it fits the same avatar as our customer. Because we’re personal training, even though it’s a great value for that service, it trends more expensive than other things. So our average member spends $300 a month. That’s not chump change. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
No.

Rick Mayo:
By default-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s funny. We’re talking about somebody’s body and their future, and their fitness. And we think nothing about sitting down at a dinner and dropping 300 bucks with a bottle of wine and a dinner. And at the end of that 90 minutes, the 300 is gone. You’ve done nothing for your body, for your health, for your fitness, for longevity. And so I agree with you. It sounds like oh, $300, but there’s nobody that’s out there that’s listening to this conversation that doesn’t agree with me that you throw away $300 a month on so many other things that isn’t even good for your fitness or your health or your longevity. And here somebody can come in with 300 bucks a month and have a comprehensive health program. Right?

Rick Mayo:
100%. That’s a mic drop moment right there, Jim. We could just leave it at that. I think that would be great.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
No, but I think it’s funny because you mentioned it’s 300 bucks a month and that’s not cheap.

Rick Mayo:
Well, listen-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
At the end of the day, when you compare it to your health, you know what I mean? And it’s like my, my father used to say, think about the guy that they bring him in. He’s having a heart attack. They lay him on the on the operating table and he says, “Quick, get me the cheapest cardiologist you can find.” It’s like when it comes to health, you don’t think in terms of dollars and cents.

Rick Mayo:
Right. There’s so many acronym, like the sick man only has one wish.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s exactly right.

Rick Mayo:
Just health. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
And so there’s so many ways to spin it and all of them are correct, but you’re right. But there is a spectrum. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
There is.

Rick Mayo:
In fitness, you can go to a $10 a month gym if you’re so self-motivated and you’ll go. On the other end of the spectrum is boutique fitness and where we are, and we’re personal training. Now for that service it’s inexpensive. But to get back to the original question, our buyer, our ideal franchisee just so happens to fit the same avatar as our ideal customer in the brick and mortar. So think 45 to 65 years old with money, financially stable. As it turns out, even through the pandemic, that’s a really good crowd to be chasing right now. They hold 70% of the nation’s disposable income. That gap probably got wider if you owned property or stocks during the pandemic.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s very true.

Rick Mayo:
You did really well. And so our customer avatar didn’t seem to suffer as much maybe economically as some of the others. So yeah. It’s all good. So I think our customer avatar for the franchise is very similar to the customer avatar for the brick and mortars.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Makes it even that much more appealing.

Rick Mayo:
It does.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
You’re in among your peers.

Rick Mayo:
People see it and they go, like you and I were having a talk prerecording, and it’s like, oh, that makes total sense. That’s me. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
So we always use that term, people like us, because it is. It’s not hard for them to understand that there’s a gap in the market because they are the person that’s sitting in that gap.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So if I’m interested in an Alloy franchise, do I need to have a fitness background?

Rick Mayo:
No.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
At all?

Rick Mayo:
You do not.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
All right.

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. That would be tough to scale. And we work so much in the fitness space and we work with everything from the trainers that are putting it into play, to investments, owners. And I think if you want to scale a franchise, to make it scalable, you need to make it so that you can recruit talent that’s not wildly difficult to find. Which would be a lot of letters behind your name in addition to being a team player and a nice person and good emotional intelligence. That’s a bit of a unicorn. You don’t have to be a fitness expert to own it. And we control all the programming so don’t even have to be a straight up expert to work in the business either.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay, great. Or even if you might even want to work on the business and not even in the business per se. Is that possible where I could own maybe 10 of your Alloy franchises, and handle the payroll and handle paying the bills and the rent and everything else and the marketing that goes into it. But I don’t necessarily need to step inside the gyms to work with clients. Right?

Rick Mayo:
That’s 90% of our owners you just described.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh, it is?

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. We would call that an investor. And listen, at the end of the day, you use these terms like absentee owner.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Rick Mayo:
You’ve own businesses. There’s no such thing as a full on absentee owner.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
There isn’t.

Rick Mayo:
But I would say that you don’t have to be in your facility servicing revenue. You hire the right people, and we have all the mechanisms in place to help you with that. But yeah. You can be an investor and you offer moral support, leadership. You handle the back office functions that are easy to scale. Especially through the economies of scale, if you have multiple locations. Yeah, 100%.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So there’s a couple of things that come to mind when you think of franchise, and we’ve done so many shows on franchising here on both sides. How to become a franchisor, what to look for in a good franchise, if you’re going to become a franchisee and such. And we’ve explored all of them. And one of the, or I should say a few of the factors that keep coming up is the support offered by the franchisor after you sign on the dotted line. And then also what the processes are with inside that so that you can succeed under the processes that the franchisor has already laid down.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And then what the potential is for growth in that. Can I buy two? Can I buy 10? Can I buy 20? If this thing is really successful, what’s the availability of them? What’s the longevity and the background of the franchisor? You just said that you’ve been a business in this industry for 30 years. And you’re not going anywhere it sounds like. But us in the same office, I should say, but what are some of the things that a franchisee can expect to see from, from Alloy? Is it one of those deals where you hold their hand through the entire process as a new franchisee?

Rick Mayo:
We really do. And as I mentioned before, I think we entered franchising with a bit of a cheat sheet. Meaning we worked in big franchise structure, so we really could understand what it took to really deploy something and operationalize it within that structure.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And also the things not to do for franchise.

Rick Mayo:
100%.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Let’s not make those mistakes. Right?

Rick Mayo:
100%. I mean, first of all, it needs to be dead on simple. Right? Which makes it scalable by default. But there are certain key triggers and things that you need to touch on and that are going to need coaching. And we’ve got those things. So far so good. It’s early innings, but it’s going really well. We’ve got those things nailed. So here’s a couple metrics that your listers might find interesting. The typical franchisee to franchise business coach ratio. So how many coaches are coaching franchisees? In my industry, it’s one to 80 on average. So we’re committed to go one to 30 just because I understand the level of coaching that it’s going to take to help these folks be super successful.

Rick Mayo:
Things like we have a very healthy presale. So the great thing about personal training is you don’t need as many members at that high price threshold to be successful. So at 130 to 150 members, you’re sitting on a very healthy model. We can get you there during your presale. So I mean, opening with a completely full facility is possible.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So the whole notion that you got to give it a year or two before you get any traction or what have you is just out the window.

Rick Mayo:
You know franchising have to say, “Well, you may, but if got it right. It’s no guarantee.” But if you run the play right, you could open with a gym that’s full of members, which would be amazing. And so understanding how important that time period is to return on investment and the emotional return on investment as we talked about for the owner. We’re doing things like we have shared dashboards and we’re coaching to those dashboards every single week. If we see some red, I mean, we can, we can listen to the sales phone calls that are going out. We can coach to those. We can look at the text messaging and I mean, we can coach down to the granular club itself and what the operators in that club are doing well or not.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow. That’s more than handholding. That’s a full partner in that deal.

Rick Mayo:
Well, and it is a fractionalized partnership, and that’s the way we look at it. And you could say, well, listen, it’s their business. They have to run it. But I think as much support as you can possibly offer, it’s a win-win. I mean we’re-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I would assume much like other franchises, you get a percentage of their monthly take.

Rick Mayo:
Yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So which is, you want that in a franchisor because you don’t want them to your point cut the boat loose and go, “Yeah. Okay. You’re done. You’re on your own. We gave you everything. Here’s your operation manual. Go.” You want to be able to have that partner along with you, even though it’s a little bit of a fee, not much. But certainly worth having that accessibility to pick up the phone or text somebody and say, “Hey, this just came up. What do you recommend?”

Rick Mayo:
100%. And that’s the best alignment. I mean-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Of course.

Rick Mayo:
There are franchises that go with a flat fee, but to your point, the only way for them to grow would be just to sell more units, which-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
And I’m not saying that this is the case, but you could argue then that where’s the real alignment? For me, you have to be financially successful, which makes me successful. I like that alignment best.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And early on for the people that are listening to us have this conversation. If you feel by now that this is a franchise that fits well for you, I will tell you this. It has been my experience that the people that get in on a ground floor opportunity like this, because you said you have 50 franchises, not 5,000, right?

Rick Mayo:
Correct.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Lot of attention that you and your staff are going to pay to that first generation of 100, 200 franchisees, because you don’t want anybody failing right now. It’s the last thing you-

Rick Mayo:
Can’t have any stinkers. That’s what we always say.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Can’t can’t have any stinkers. You want everybody to succeed. If I came to you and you said, “Well, we have 3,000 franchises.” All right. And a couple die off or what have … You don’t really focus too much on that. When you got 50, everybody needs to be successful. So it has been my experience that team, that management team, that leadership team of that franchisor is all about helping you succeed as a franchisee. Right? Especially in these formative years.

Rick Mayo:
100%. The first phase as it’s typically described, is to get 20 open successful. So we are just 100% focused on making sure that our first 20, A, that they’re the right partners. B, that they’re going to be successful. Because if they’re not, you’re not validating and you’re not going anywhere. And I mean, why are we doing this? Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
So at the end of the day, those first 20 are key. So we’ve chosen really good partners, and we’re fighting like heck to make sure they’re successful. And again, it’s early innings, but we’ll be at the 20 open by year’s end. And so far so good.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow. That’s fantastic.

Rick Mayo:
Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Are you requiring your franchise, your prospects for franchises, do they have to commit to more than one? Many franchises as you know, do that. They’ll say you can’t buy one, you got to commit to 10 over the next five years or something like that.

Rick Mayo:
We don’t require it. But our typical owner is somewhere between three and 10. That’s a good number for us. Listen, I mean, there are franchise groups in Atlanta that we’ve had discussions with that owned four, 500 of one type of brand and six, 700 of another. And they scale quickly. And I think that’s certainly a viable strategy long term. But I think this is advice to anybody who might be thinking about franchising their business as well. Go slow enough to do it with integrity. It sounds great. And there’s going to be some big money, and we’ve had these opportunities already. And we’ve had to say no to a lot of them, but it was the right decision. It really was, because you need to grow. You need to grow with integrity. You need to nail the process. Make sure you’re picking the right partners carefully. And then once you’ve got that, then you can pour gas on the fire, but not yet.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Right. What advice would you give to other people that are thinking about opening up or I should say franchising their business, since you’ve already been through it. You’ve been around it for 30 years. What are some of the key things that you that jump out at you if somebody says, “Hey, I want to go sell franchises around the country to this very successful company that I’ve got.”

Rick Mayo:
I would say scale it beyond one location and in different markets. If you’re in a city center somewhere and it’s working well, are you going to put one in the suburbs? Right. Where is your perfect real estate, if you will. And you need to know that. And the only way to know is to market test it. Right? So get three to four locations open, prove those out, good unity economics. I would say start there. You’re going to need a pretty good runway. I mean, depending on the type of franchise, you’re probably going to need a couple million bucks in runway from … It’s very litigious business, so to start you’re going to build all these documents and the marketing materials, and you might have to do some branding touch-ups and those type of things. So I would just say to be safe, plan on at least a couple million bucks as far as a runway, because you see these numbers and when you don’t know, you’re thinking, wow there’s a $50,000 franchise fee as an example. What’s the cost of doing business?

Rick Mayo:
There’s not a lot of margin in that, and every franchise overlaps. It’s like until you can get what they call royalty sufficient, which means you’re … In my instance, our clubs are successful, and their royalties are covering. That’s a pretty long runway.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Of course, it is.

Rick Mayo:
Think about getting and most units or most brands are 40 to 100 open to cover that. So just don’t underestimate the budget that you’re going to need. And if you don’t have it and you think you have a great concept, go get an investor. There’s plenty of people that’ll saddle up to you early on. You may have to give away a little bit more to get that money early on.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
But if you think you’re onto something, give yourself some cash cushion for sure.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. Because it’s not just as easy as going, “Yeah. My buddy wants to buy a franchise and he is going to hang my logo over his cookie store, and and it’s going to grow from there.”

Rick Mayo:
I think a lot of people listening have seen the founder. And the biggest mistake that McDonald’s or that Ray Kroc made was he sold it to people in the restaurant business.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
So they would say like, “Well, kids like spaghetti. We’re going to do spaghetti on Sundays.” He’s like, “No, we do burgers.” And they’re like, “No, no spa kids like spaghetti. We’re doing that.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
Wait a minute. I think it’s a little bit more difficult than it looks. I mean, it’s a great. Listen, I’m not going to say don’t do it, but I just would like you to be prepared. And the percentage of people that get to that 100 open and right and 700 sold is some big exit to a private equity company. It’s very small. So I’m not saying don’t take your shot, but just be prepared.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Just know going in.

Rick Mayo:
Be prepared.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. I got to believe that your business is one of those businesses out there that is going to flourish in this post-COVID world that we live in because everyone came out of COVID going, “My gosh, I could die tomorrow because of this terrible pandemic. I got to be fit. I got to really be ready to go.” And then there’s also those people that sat, like I did, sat on the couch and ate for two years and submerged in Netflix, my wife and I. Not really. I mean, we didn’t get … But nevertheless, there’s that crowd out there. This is okay. Enough of that. I got to get on with my life and I got to get a fitness program going. So I’m sure your market is wide open, right?

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. Honestly, once the sort of COVID fog is lifted, it’s just been gangbusters. So it’s been amazing. And we actually did okay during COVID. We opened a franchise in 2020 in North Carolina, which was a somewhat restrictive state, certainly for the southeast. And they opened at nearly capacity and have done well and have not seen much churn since. I think part of it is it’s again, I mention it’s a low number, and that just drives inherent trust higher. And trust is a real currency these days with like, whether it be media government or all the things that are going on. It’s a low supply.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Totally. That’s right.

Rick Mayo:
If you can build trust in your company, you’re really cooking with oil.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. No question. If we’re having this conversation five years from now, I should say when we do, I’d love to have you back, not in five years, but sooner than that. But if we were sitting here five years from now, what is Alloy Fitness look like?

Rick Mayo:
We’re in 500 locations in the U.S. We’re just about to launch an international project, which is a little early to talk about. But we’ll have that going so I could see we’ve got good contacts for master franchises internationally. So a couple other countries going by that time, and yeah, changing a lot of lives. That’s a lot of communities touched by what we do. And ultimately, your lives are important, you know that. I mean, there’s a lot of ways to make money. So I think if you can do it in a way that you can tangibly understand what you’re putting into market changes lives, it will overcome a lot of days when you want to sleep in and not get up and hustle.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
This is one of those franchises too. I’ve got a son that’s graduating college. Thank God. And he’s into fitness and he goes to the gym all the time, what have you. Perfect franchise for him. Right?

Rick Mayo:
Yeah. 100%.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I mean, if I put up the money and he runs it.

Rick Mayo:
Yeah, I’ll have a call later today for that exact scenario where a kid’s graduated with exercise science degree. His dad’s a smart businessman, an entrepreneur. And he is like, “Hey, if we buy this, can my son run it?” And I’ve had a couple calls with his son. He’s a sharp kid. Have no problems awarding him a franchise. So yeah, you’re right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s great. And you’ve already set the process, which I love about franchising. I think everybody that knows me and watches this show knows how committed I am to telling you every time, if you’re about to go into a business, look for the franchise first that serves that industry. Because I’m telling you oftentimes it’s the best way to go. You might think, “No, I don’t need a franchise in this case. I’m a great fitness instructor. I’m a pro, I’m an expert. Everybody loves me, and what have you.” But at the end of the day, this is the way to go. Go with a franchise. I’m telling you that information will serve you well, and certainly the reason that we really wanted to talk to you, Rick was because you’ve got such a great personality first for this industry and then also a great reputation out there.

Rick Mayo:
Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So this is the kind of franchise programs that we want to be bringing to our viewers. Check it out online. It’s pretty cool. And so thank you so much for joining us on the show.

Rick Mayo:
Thanks for having me. It was my honor.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Appreciate it. Thanks.