Mindy Thomas

Career Chat – Mindy Thomas Interviews Bob Koch, The Franchise Coach

Mindy Thomas interviews Bob Koch, a franchise coach from Entrepreneurs Source on RVNTV about how he reinvented his career after many years of corporate life.

Mindy Thomas:

Hi everybody. Welcome to Career Chat. I’m Mindy Thomas and I am hosting a new show starting tomorrow Tuesday at 8:00 PM and Mondays at 11:30 here at RVN TV. We’re going to be interviewing everyday people that have reinvented themselves. They have literally left their jobs, their careers, their bosses that they could not thrive in that environment anymore and they decided to take a leap. My hope is that you’re inspired by these success stories so that it lights a little fire within you and to help advance your career. My belief is that your career is your business and it’s about time that all of us start acting like we’re the CEO. I am honored and privileged to bring on my first guest today, Bob Koch, the Alternative Career Coach of Entrepreneurs Source. Welcome to the show, Bob.

Bob Koch:

Oh, thank you Mindy. It’s my honor and pleasure to be here as well.

Mindy Thomas:

Fantastic. I remember eight years ago when we met, you were in a completely different industry. I was wondering if we could start with what shifted you into this new place of entrepreneurship? What was going on then? I thought we could just pop into the present day and what you’re doing. Entrepreneur’s source.

Bob Koch:

Well, I had worked for a company for like many years. I got up one day and I was on the road constantly and I got up one day and left at eight 30 got in at nine 30 drove 250 miles and I went, wow, I can’t do this. And I was 58 at the time and I said, I can’t, I can’t do this anymore. And I was very much aligned with what I did. I enjoyed it for the for the longest time. But then what happens is you start to reach some level of boredom and that’s what I, there was no room for growth, there was no room, there was nowhere else for me to do. And I was doing the same thing over and over again. And I loved it. And I said, well, what’s wrong with me? There was nothing wrong. I just reached that level of boredom where I had to move on to something, something else I had to make some kind of change.

Bob Koch:

So it’s a sloppy, awkward process. It is sloppy and awkward because what we have to do is we have to understand that we’re going to try to see something that we don’t quite do and use our imagination to get there. And that’s always a very, very, a challenging situation to try to envision yourself doing that something new and well, what do you do at age 58? What, you know, you don’t go to work for another company because you know, companies don’t, they want a 30 year old, not a 50 something year old person. Well, in some cases that’s true. True.

Mindy Thomas:

I don’t believe you should shut the door if you’re 64.

Mindy Thomas:

In spite of your reinventions, you’ve, you’ve really re-engineered your career several times over your lifespan and you’ve been very, very successful. And that industry you were in was the travel industry, right? You were making a lot of money. You love that work. But at some point you decided, I can’t do this anymore. What then did you pursue after you decided I can’t take this anymore?

Bob Koch:

Well, I started realizing that I needed to do something different. So I started really getting my hands on everything that I could read. And I called a friend in Texas who is a consultant and I said, Hey, tell me about being a consultant. Tell me about what you do. He put me in touch with a woman by the name of Judy who is a coach that helped people find and then fund businesses. But the interesting thing was I started looking businesses that were very unique and very different when I in fact had started a coaching program in the last company and I started coaching the younger salespeople to become better and more proficient.

Bob Koch:

I think sometimes I was getting more out of the program than they were, but I was crafting little experiments. And the way you look at this is is like a jigsaw puzzle. But we don’t have the end piece. We want to have the picture. We have the pieces but not the end picture. So one thing sort of led to another and she started coaching me and then I realized, wow, what I really wanted to do was coach people what I and I needed to get out of sales. I had done it for over 30 some years and I literally burned out of the whole thing, but I still had an altruistic nature. What I wanted to kind of help people, because I saw what sometimes corporations do and between mergers, acquisitions, downsizes and all the shifts that go on out there. And people have tons of skills, but they don’t see how they segue into different businesses.

Mindy Thomas:

So Bob, I remembered that you pursued a master’s in counseling and I know in your heart of hearts you’re really a helper. So when you started to coach within the company, I think what you’re saying is that you didn’t realize that right in front of you stood this opportunity for you to pursue that you are in fact a coach and now you’re going to go into a business coaching other folks. So that brings us to the franchise business, which seems to be a mystery for many of us out here. The questions we ask are how do you get into it? How much does it cost? Do I have to have a hundred thousand dollars to invest in a franchise today? I read recently that a franchise operations or coaching opportunities are really increasing over the years. There’s three quarter of a million franchise opportunities out there in the U S correct.

Bob Koch:

There’s a lot. I mean, you can go onto the internet and see thousands and thousands of business. Some good, some not so good, but think of it this way. It’s like if you were going to go to court, would you represent yourself? Absolutely not. So, so yes, if you fall into that bottomless pit and, and you make assumptions and here’s the mind blowing thing that most people don’t realize is the largest franchisee with McDonald’s is a vegan. Oh my gosh, I did not know that he likes the model. I did not know that. He doesn’t eat the so much enamored with the food. He likes the models. So you know, what you’ve got to do is look at your skills and what is it that you’d be doing that that business would emulate your skills. Because you know, fear and passion, you know, are opposites.

Bob Koch:

So something you’re very passionate about, you can’t be afraid of. And I think that’s, that’s the, that’s the caveat to this whole thing is what are you excited about? You know, and for me it was, it was literally helping people, you know, helping people. I have a virtual office I got off the road because I was getting burned out from it. And when it, when I understood my criteria is like kind of light bulb went off and said, what do I have to lose? And if you were successful in a company, would you have that same type of success in a business? That’s the key, you know? And that’s what I was looking for. What do you think really distinguishes you against all other franchise coaches out there? Cause I can imagine there’s a lot of folks doing what you do, right? The key to the whole thing is to get to a person, to a point of clarity.

Bob Koch:

I don’t want to sell somebody a business. I want to make sure that, you know, you’re finding something that matches up to your income, your lifestyle, your wealth and your equity. All those things that you would like to kind of accumulate in life or build in life. And if I can get you to that point and you could say to me, Mindy, I can see myself doing this. I love this, I want to go ahead with it. Then our work together has been a fortunate and benefit for you. And that’s, that’s the key is getting a person to a point of clarity where they can see themselves doing it. It can take eight weeks, it can take eight months. So are you saying then that your expertise and distinction among all the other franchise coaches is that you have a talent for assessing the skills and the value of individuals?

Bob Koch:

Yes. So my first meeting with a client is I go through their resume and what I say I do is I reframe their career. I look for those little nuances, those little things that they do. So spontaneous, so natural. They may take it for granted, and then I start to download, seeing them doing that same function in a business. And an example I’m working with with the gentlemen down at Dover Air Force base. So he’s got really good management skills, but he’s lived 20 some years in the military, so he can’t quite see how that segues into the, into the, into the, into the private sector. So it’s my job to kind of take those tools and be able to visualize and then I turn that over to him.

Bob Koch:

Then it becomes his movie to run with it. And just for our audience clarification, a C five as an aircraft. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. That’s a big aircraft. Is it not? They move tanks and helicopters and them. It’s, it’s a monster plane. Yeah. Very good. Very good. So who is your typical client? A typical client is, I sort of divide it into two sectors. I do a lot of military work. I go down to Dover air force base, Carlisle war college, and they have a boots to business class and I speak to those veterans who are retiring. St Joe’s has an entrepreneurial jumpstart program. I do a lot of work and speaking there. So that’s one sector in terms of the retiring veteran, the other sector is somebody who’s about in their fifties got caught in a merger and maybe taking a little bit longer to get back into the workforce.

Bob Koch:

I asked them the question, have you ever gone into a business and interviewed the owner? And if they come back to me and say, yes, they’re flirting with this 80% of the public flirts with the concept of doing something on their own. All right, absolutely. But now to make it happen is, is always that sloppy, awkward process to get to that. To that point, what is the youngest person age wise that that has bought into a franchise opportunity? 26 26 and all the way up to what age are you working with then? I’ve just placed a guy 62 years of age. Okay. And what if someone is sitting in our audience saying, I would love to be in business for myself, but I don’t have, I don’t have much money. Can you put someone into a business? Do they need the dough, the cash to jump into this?

Bob Koch:

Well, they need a lot less than they think they do. There’s a lot of funding programs that are backed by the federal government, by the SBA, small business administration that, you know, if you’re going to borrow a hundred thousand, you need a cash injection of 11,000. Okay? All right. Now, once you get that money, if you choose to put that back into your pocket, but that cash injection has to come from you. Okay? So there’s a lot of misperceptions out there. Misperceptions that most of it is food. When it’s not 5% is food, but 95% of the public perceive it. The, and there’s so many other businesses and unique businesses out there that people would have never realized. It’s a business. Somebody came in and fixed something for you and it was a franchise. What would be an example of that? Oh, you’ve got, you’ve got one.

Bob Koch:

My washer and dryer broke what we call mr applier, the guy you called where? Mr. Appliance. Oh, mr appliance. A franchise. The guy comes out, fixes everything. He has a little tablet. I put my credit card in, the tablet goes swipe and he’s out the door. Wow. There’s no receivables. I’m paid. He’s paid on the spot. Their marketing is phenomenal. So you know, people have different skills and you always hire to your weakness. So somebody who’s not really good at marketing, alright, that’s an ideal situation for them. Somebody who’s not a, you know, because they’re going to do the marketing, they’re going to get a good search. The phone is going to ring. All right, the person’s going to answer the phone. Hey, our owner’s going to be in your neighborhood Tuesday or Thursday, what would you like? Boom. Comes out and performs the service.

Mindy Thomas:

So I imagine that you really interviewed that guy when he came to fix your washer and dryer, right?

Bob Koch:

Yeah. I wanted to know all about how he liked it, how he was performing in it and the whole nine yards.

Mindy Thomas:

Well, very interesting. I was wondering if I wanted to start a franchise and I didn’t really know what kind of franchise opportunity I would be good at. Are you saying that your assessment process would help me decide how to do that?

Bob Koch:

It’s appealing of the onion. Okay. You don’t know what you don’t know. So the first interview, we’re going to kind of peel it down a little bit. I’m going to send you some assessments. I’m gonna send you quick tests to kind of take, we’re building this criteria or I’m building it for you. My third meaning I’m going to come back in and I’m going to say, you like education, Mindy, you like this, you like that. And I’m going to give you a couple of opportunities that are based on a criteria that we’ve formulated in, in, in a couple of meetings together.

Mindy Thomas:

Bob, this is all great stuff. We have to take a break right now. We’re going to come back and revisit this. Very thought. We’ll be right back.

Mindy Thomas:

Welcome back everybody. I’m Mindy Thomas, the host of career chat and today we’re speaking with Bob Koch, the Alternative Career Coach of Entrepreneurs Source. We were just speaking Bob about the assessment process that you do for every individual that contacts you about a possible franchise opportunity.

Mindy Thomas:

And so it seems like in your mind’s eye you take in all the data and then more, is that right? Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s an ongoing process because when you start to peel down the onion, you know, and I give people a couple of opportunities. And the way that you look at it is like in the movie karate kid, you know, he says, wax on, wax off. And every time that you have, I have a contact with one of my referral partners. You not only learn a little bit about the business, but you learn a little bit about yourself and there’s a couple of learning curves that take place. One of them is about the business and you’ll learn a lot about how businesses are structured, but you’ll also learn, you know, what is it that’s important to me?

Bob Koch:

How do I build that criteria. And for me, when I realized I could do this virtually, I have a place in Florida, so I will, I will do it from Florida. I could do it from anywhere. And I like the speaking engagements. So I get out and I get eyeball to eyeball with people cause I enjoy that and I was able to kind of create the painting that I wanted to paint. I was able to be able to kind of kind of do that. Now, not a lot of businesses, Lau Lau you that they’re a little bit more rigid. But this allowed me the autonomy, the creativity. And that’s really kind of what, what made sense for me. So as a person goes through this, what happens is one business starts to align with what they’re, they’re all about as they start to discover it.

Bob Koch:

And one starts to fall apart, fall away. And that’s perfectly normal because contrast helps you to find, I give you vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. Why did you like the chocolate? How’d you like the strawberry? Okay. And then we talk about that. And then there’s different scenarios that seemed to unfold. One of the key points though is when I’m working with people, I say, look, you, you have to have your spouse involved or your significant other emotionally, financially, alright. Or physically, physically, they have to work in the business with you financially, they’re going to be a part of it or they’re going to cheerlead you and be emotionally one of those, two of those, three of those. If not, it’s really going to be hard for you to to go ahead. So if I wanted to have a conversation with you, I need to have my significant other or my spouse with me at some.

Mindy Thomas:

We do that at some point at time. Okay. Yes. I’m curious about the training that’s involved when you buy a franchise, what does that look like? Is that a week? Is that two weeks? Is it a month of training? I mean, how do I know I have an ops background, but I don’t know anything about the recruiting business. How much training is involved? Well, I knew nothing about franchising before I got in. I knew I knew literally zero about it. So what happens is when a person says to me, Hey, I want to go ahead with it, and then they sign the agreement, what happens is they start an onboarding process and that could be about six weeks. All right? There’s lots of work. There could be some audios, it could be some webinars things. So they’re going to start before they go to either a one to two week training on location.

Bob Koch:

And then some franchisees have their business development person literally come into your backyard and work with you hand to hand. I see from there there’s ongoing webinars, there’s ongoing scenarios. Those types of things take place. They have all annual conventions where you get to meet all the other franchisees in the system and see it’s, it’s, it’s the, the high wire act with a safety net because you’re going to have other people to support you. What you don’t know, somebody else in your system knows to educate you. So you’re in business for yourself, but you’re not alone.

Mindy Thomas:

So that’s a big difference between launching your own private business where there’s no support and then launching a franchise where there’s a tremendous amount of support. And that sounds fantastic. Sounds like a wonderful, wonderful network because you’re not alone. I mean you’re, you’re, you’re a solopreneur Bob, but you have support. I’m a solo preneur with no support making it out here. So it’s been a wonderful journey for me being a solopreneur. And I’ve enjoyed speaking to you about this. I’m curious about the Clint Eastwood syndrome that we spoke about when you chatted last week about you coming on the show. Can you tell our audience what that’s about?

Bob Koch:

The Clint Eastwood syndrome is what happens in companies. You sign on, you’re an it guy or a chain supply guy. You know, you’re in marketing and what happens is you evolve out of that role. But when I say Clint Eastwood, you know, you think of two character roles, correct? Correct. You think of cowboy or cop, and that’s where we get locked in and companies, but our psychic and our career development, we move out beyond that. But companies don’t, don’t see that. And that becomes very frustrating because that’s like driving a car down the road and your wheels aren’t aligned and that the car is shimming. And that’s what happens with people’s career. So when you’re aligned with something, all right, it’s I think it’s where you’re going to perform the best and you’re going to be the happiest. And that’s, and it’s not about the money, it’s about doing something that makes sense and, and values to you. So that’s what I call the cause of the clinics with syndrome. It’s just how companies freeze us in those roles when we literally have outgrown.

Mindy Thomas:

What’s interesting is when I Googled the number of percentage of happily employed people in the U S guess what number came up? Do you believe that 85% of the American public is happily employed? I know they’re employed, but are they happily employed? Do you believe that?

Bob Koch:

I do. Yeah. Because companies change, management change, people get stuck in, in private companies where there’s no chance for growth. Misbalance okay. They’re in and out of airports staying at Hampton Inns and holiday Inns and they don’t get to see their kids. They don’t get to see their family. Well, this, I don’t know if this is fake news, but it was 85% are happily employed, not unhappily employed. And so when I’m thinking about your coaching practice and the numbers of people that you speak to who are those people? They’re unhappily employed. Yes. Well, what does that look like in terms of the profile, why are they looking at franchise opportunities? Because there’s some people have for, for years have had a burning desire and they always keep saying, I want to do something on my own.

Bob Koch:

I want to do something on my own. But they don’t know how to start. That’s the million dollar question. That’s the place to start. So, so they have this, this burning itch, but Oh my God, there’s no course in high school that teaches entrepreneurship. There’s no class out there that sort of guides them on that foot path, you know? And then somehow they connect with me or I connect with them and I invite them to work with me. Okay. Because you can’t be like the 10 year old kid walking out the door and mom says, to do your, do your homework, you have to voluntarily come with an interest to figure out what else could I do? What should that look like? What should that feel like? You know, what gets you out of bed in the morning? You know, what, what gets you excited to do something new and different now, if you can catch that wave of doing something new and exciting, I think that’s what you need to put.

Mindy Thomas:

That’s the intuitive hunch you pay attention to. You follow those kind of clues. When you look over the tenure of your career, I’m very curious whether you’ve been happily employed for most of your work life, most of your career. The reinventions that you engineered yourself. Do you feel like you were happily employed for 20 years in the travel business or 30 years in the travel business then as a franchise coast? Have you experienced job satisfaction over your life?

Bob Koch:

They are big differences. I left the job because the firm wasn’t, it wasn’t ethical and I moved to another firm only to get merged and laid off. I moved towards something because it made sense. So there’s a big difference. People say, Hey, I’m not in a good job and they take the next job just to get away. Yes, that’s wrong. That’s not, that may not have a favorable outcome because you’re moving away. You’ve got to be pulled toward what’s attracting you, what’s, what’s the gravitational pull toward whatever it is you’re looking to do. That’s a clue. Bob. You have a lot of courage and there’s a lot of grit. Are you a former military guy? I don’t know, but you have a fire in your belly and it’s so inspiring. Thank you. I really am enjoying this interview with you and I think it does take a lot of grit to make these moves.

Mindy Thomas:

What can you tell our audience if they should contact you and they’re listening on the edge and they’re not sure they have the courage to pull the trigger and go into business for themselves. There’s no obligation. If they contact you. In fact, his coaching is free. I mean, who can beat that? But you know that it takes a lot to do this. So can you say to our audience? Well I want to thank everyone for watching career chat today and thank my special guest. Bob has been fantastic to reconnect with you and learn more about your alternative career coaching. Please tell our audience how they can contact you if they’re interested. Sure. You can reach me. On my cell phone at six 10, two nine nine 33 10 that’s six 10 to nine nine 33 10. You can find me on LinkedIn if you just typed in Bob Koch jr. I’ll show right up on LinkedIn as your first entry there, or B, K O C H at [inaudible] dot E source coach.com and you can find me that way and if you’d like, we’ll go to a 30 minute interview and figuring out if we should work together or not. And there’s no obligation.