In this episode of the RevOps Champions Podcast, host Brendon Dennewill sits down with Robert Thesing, founder of Vertify Partners, a growth advisory firm for franchise brands. With more than 20 years across franchising, real estate, and multi-unit businesses, Robert has worked as a franchisor, a franchisee, and a supplier, and he explains why those seats share far more common goals than most people assume.
Robert and Brendon explore why technology cannot fix misaligned people and processes, and why so many emerging brands stall when every decision runs through the founder. Robert shares the thinking behind the Vertify Operating System, a franchise-specific framework built on shared cadence, clear KPIs, and disciplined goal-setting. He also explains where popular off-the-shelf operating systems fall short once your first customer becomes an independent franchise owner. Stories from Nordstrom, Cody Sanchez, and Tom Brady reinforce a simple lesson: good decisions come from empowered teams. Franchise founders, emerging franchisors, operations leaders, and RevOps professionals will walk away with a clearer blueprint for building a franchise organization ready to scale.
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Robert Thesing | Founder | Vertify Partners
Robert Thesing, CFE, is the founder of Vertify Partners, a growth advisory firm for franchise brands. He has spent more than twenty years inside franchise and multi-unit brands, building the systems that decide who gets awarded a location, how fast it opens, and whether it performs. His work focuses on a problem most operators eventually face: scaling an organization while maintaining alignment on systems, processes, people, and results. Robert also has the rare experience in the franchise industry of being able to sit in all three of the major industry seats; Franchisor, Franchisee, and Supplier. |
Brendon Dennewill: Hello and welcome back. Today I'm excited to welcome Robert Thesing, founder of Vertify Partners, a growth advisory firm for franchise brands. With more than 20 years of experience in franchise and multi-unit businesses, Robert has built systems that influence who gets awarded a location, how fast it opens, and whether it performs. His background spans franchising, real estate, and multi-unit brands, including childcare, restaurants, and multi-brand platforms.
Robert also brings a rare perspective to the franchise industry, having worked in all three major industry seats: franchisor, franchisee, and supplier. This experience has given him a firsthand understanding of the challenges involved in growing organizations while keeping people, processes, and results aligned.
Through Vertify Partners, Robert helps franchise brands strengthen their leadership, operating systems, and growth strategies, providing the structure and accountability needed to support sustainable growth. What makes his experience especially valuable is his understanding of how strategy, people, and process must work together to achieve meaningful results. His perspective offers valuable lessons for leaders navigating growth, improving operational performance, and building businesses that can scale with consistency and direction. Robert, welcome to the RevOps Champions Podcast.
Robert Thesing: Thank you, Brendon. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Brendon Dennewill: It's good to see you. I'm super pleased that we were able to meet at the franchise summit here in Minneapolis not that long ago, and I'm looking forward to learning more about how you help emerging franchise brands.
Robert Thesing: Yes.
Brendon Dennewill: You've had the opportunity to experience the franchise industry from all three perspectives: franchisor, franchisee, and supplier. Over the course of more than twenty years, you've worked across franchise development, real estate, and multi-unit businesses. How have those different experiences shaped the way you think about building and scaling a business?
Robert Thesing: You're right, I've experienced almost every part of the equation here. What's really stood out to me over the last twenty years is that from the outside, or even from a brand that's just getting started, you might see all of these pieces as working in silos, each in its own world. What's interesting, having been in a lot of these different seats, is that they actually have more in common than not when it comes to shared goals. How do we ensure success? What are we working on?
That's the experience and awareness I bring to the table. I help others see the same thing, and then I help them build systems, processes, and a brand that are aligned on those shared goals.
Brendon Dennewill: It's interesting that you talk a lot about people, process, and systems. The four pillars we use when we build revenue systems, which are also the framework for what we call revenue operations, or RevOps, are people, process, data, and technology. I guess you could call the data and technology piece the systems.
So there's clearly a lot of overlap between how you help franchise brands and how we support them from a systems perspective. But of course, we aren't able to do what we need to do, which is build that revenue system, if the people and process haven't been addressed first.
Robert Thesing: You're right, you need that foundation first. That's where something like RevOps is key, because you can keep building on the revenue side when the underlying pieces are already in place. A lot of times I see brands that have invested a lot of money in complex systems, reporting tools, and dashboards, but haven't addressed the underlying issues in the foundation of their organization.
Brendon Dennewill: I'm so glad you said that, because we see it all the time. With the brands we work with, the ones that are aligned and have their people and process figured out, it's a lot easier for us to build their systems. What we see all too often is brands coming to us hoping that technology will fix their process and people issues, and we all know that couldn't be further from the truth.
Robert Thesing: Absolutely.
Brendon Dennewill: Robert, you founded Vertify Partners to support franchise and multi-unit businesses. What led you to start the company, and what opportunity did you want to address?
Robert Thesing: A pivotal moment for me was the IFA conference earlier this year. What's interesting about a lot of conferences is that if you look at attendance over a couple of days, by the last session of the last day it's slim pickings because everyone has caught their flights home. I try to stick around whenever I can, and I had the opportunity to hear Codie Sanchez give a presentation on the main stage.
What really stood out to me was one of her closing statements: the longer you take to make a decision, the more it's going to cost you. That really resonated with me. That night in my hotel room, before my flight the next morning, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Every time I came back to that phrase and what it meant, I thought about some of the most rewarding times of my 20-year career in franchising.
It really came down to the moments when I was able to help people overcome a tough problem or challenge, or see through a cluttered, dynamic situation to understand what the path forward looks like. That's where I've been most successful in my career. So I took that to heart. It was a tough decision, because I truly loved where I was at the time. I'd been with the company for a little over four years. But what came to me was that I could take this passion and experience of mine and create a platform to help many more people across the franchise industry.
The other part of it is the whole concept of responsible franchising and what it means. At the Faegre conference this summer, where you and I last saw each other, it's always a common theme for them and for a lot of other big players in the franchise industry. I've seen a lot of examples of franchising done really, really well. I've also seen, and had firsthand experience with, examples where it's not done well. So if I can help even one brand understand what responsible franchising means and why it needs to be at the core of everything they do, I'll have made a huge difference.
I think that message needs to keep spreading throughout the franchise industry. Especially when you're just getting started and bootstrapping your franchise, your brand, your systems, and your people, it's often hard to hold true to that when you're making decisions day to day and things might change from one week to the next.
Brendon Dennewill: That's really interesting, because it goes back to what I was alluding to earlier. Sometimes we're lucky enough to work with brands that fit into that responsible franchising category, the ones that are completely aligned on their people and processes. The same is true in the other direction. The ones who come to us hoping a new revenue technology system will fix their processes and misaligned people are often the ones who aren't practicing responsible franchising.
In reality, they're probably still at the stage where they have to be more reactive and less strategic. But it's a real challenge for them to make progress when they're in that reactive mode and just trying to make the best decisions they can at that particular time.
I like the reference, because I was there too when Codie Sanchez spoke at IFA in February. In fact, I was just at an event in Boston where everyone asked why they put Tom Brady right at the end. It's because that's what keeps people from leaving early. Anyway, we were lucky enough to hear Tom Brady. You might wonder what Tom Brady is doing at a technology systems event.
The reason he's still the most successful quarterback to date isn't that he was the most physically gifted quarterback ever. It was all about what he did between his ears. He was incredibly strategic and incredibly motivated. His message was exactly the same as Codie Sanchez's. He told a story he'd recently read about a kid who went to a Hall of Famer and asked, "How does someone become successful like you?" The Hall of Famer said, "Kid, I have two words: good decisions."
The kid said, "Then how do I get to a point where I'm making good decisions?" The Hall of Famer said, "One word: experience." The kid said, "Huh? How do I get experience?" And the Hall of Famer said, "Two words: bad decisions."
We've all heard a version of that story, and we've all learned the most from the mistakes we've made. But those mistakes were just decisions we had to make. To Codie's point and Tom Brady's point, you have to make decisions, and they're not all going to work out. As one of my coaches said, make the decision and then make it right afterward, but you have to make the decision. I think that's the overarching message.
Robert Thesing: What I really like about that story is that it comes back to the kid's questions. He listened, but then he asked again, and again, and again. That goes back to one of our principles: asking why five times before you're satisfied with the answer. He asked a question and got an answer. He asked another question and got another answer. I think that's a great example of really getting down to the root of the situation to understand how to take the next step forward.
Brendon Dennewill: Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. The other thing I liked about that story is the psychology built into what the Hall of Famer shared with the kid. It's so much easier to remember the story because the answer to the first question was two words, the answer to the second was one word, and the answer to the third was two words again. That structure helps you remember it, which in itself is a powerful way to make something memorable.
So I thought it was an incredible story on so many levels: the communication, and the lesson itself, which is to go out there, make decisions, do hard things, and when the opportunities arrive, you'll be ready to take advantage of them.
Brendon Dennewill: Okay, moving on. Robert, when a business begins to grow, which operational or leadership challenges should its leaders pay closer attention to?
Robert Thesing: For a growing business, what you pay attention to can change from week to week. So before asking that question, I think it's critical for leaders and teams to understand the data they need to make the decisions they may be up against. It's not quite predicting the future, but a true understanding of your business requires a core understanding of the data that drives it.
Figuring out what that data looks like, what your KPIs are, and what you report on weekly is the first step. That then informs the situations and outcomes you'll be looking for and monitoring. A layered approach is best, in my opinion, because it keeps you from being easily distracted or pulled in a different direction.
A lot of times it's easy for founders, teams, and leaders to be distracted by the shiny new thing. But if your teams are grounded in the underlying data, you can more quickly ask, "How does this tie into what we've already agreed on? Is it something we need to make a decision on that will make a positive impact or change our direction in a meaningful way? Or is it just a distraction? Is it the franchisee who's the squeaky wheel getting the grease?" It helps you take all the information that comes at you on any given day and quickly figure out whether it needs time and attention.
Brendon Dennewill: That's interesting, because I want to dig more into what we see from the people and process perspective. It was a people-related question, but you answered it with data, which of course is the third of our four pillars. That reminds me of another great speaker at the event I was recently at: Mel Robbins. I didn't know she has the third most listened-to podcast in the world, with over eleven million listeners per week. Her content isn't necessarily unique, but she presents it in a new way, and she's figured out how to reach more people and encourage them to think differently and more positively.
One thing she broke down in a work context comes back to your people and process point and brings in the data component: to be successful, you need to know what winning looks like in your role. That's typically some sort of scorecard, metric, or KPI. If employees are lucky, they have one metric or KPI. Others might have two or three, but typically not more than three, because more than that means it isn't very well thought out.
So I'm really glad you answered with data, and I completely agree. You can use sports analogies or any other analogy, but ultimately, if you don't know what the game is and how you're being measured, it's really hard to feel like you're making progress in your role at any level of the organization.
Robert Thesing: When new entrepreneurs and founders, or people just getting started, ask me what it's like running a franchise system or what to expect if they franchise their brand, my response is often that it's a lot like herding cats. I say that to illustrate a point: when you franchise your brand, you're opening the doors to other entrepreneurs. When they sign that franchise agreement, they're getting the rights not only to launch your brand in their community, but also to disagree with you, push back, and ask questions.
They're going to do their best to bring your brand to life in their communities. But if the franchisor side isn't well structured and grounded in data and clear decision-making processes, franchisees can really rip at the fabric of the franchise organization. I don't mean that to be negative or disrespectful in any way. It's just reality.
It goes back to what I said earlier: at the heart of a great franchise organization, everybody has shared goals. Everybody wants to be successful, and the best brands truly believe their success comes from their franchisees' success. But that culture can also put a lot of stress on an organization. The brands that turn it into good stress are the ones that always bring it back to the data and the process. They're open to listening and to rapid, iterative changes and testing, but it's all grounded in the systems, the process, and the data. I believe you can't have one without really understanding what the ground level looks like.
Brendon Dennewill: Another interesting point for people who aren't as familiar with franchising is that the franchisee is really the franchisor's first customer. Ultimately, to your point, everyone is solving for the end customer in each market, but every franchisee is the franchisor's primary customer.
Something else came to mind as you were saying that. At the franchise summit in Minneapolis, where you and I sat together for one of the sessions, some of the most respected franchise leaders, mostly franchisors in this case, said that brands that get it right realize innovation actually happens at the franchisee level. I hadn't heard that spoken about so openly before. I've always heard that franchisors are the innovators and franchisees run the playbook. But the good franchise brands allow innovation to happen at the franchisee, local, and regional level, which I thought was very cool and very true. Is that something you've seen in your experience too?
Robert Thesing: I've seen it both ways. That's why I think it's really important for a brand to understand at its core who it is and how it does what it does. This is also where field consultants and compliance experts come into play. Having a strong foundation there is really important, because then they can quickly tell whether something is truly an innovation the brand should partner on and track, potentially all the way to full-scale implementation with that franchisee or franchise group.
You're right that, especially in large organizations, some of the best innovations come from there. But there's another side to it. If you don't have a conduit for monitoring, collecting that information, and feeding it back into the core of the system, it can quickly get out of control and actually have a negative impact, because all of a sudden you have inconsistent experiences across the brand.
So I can see it going either direction. Ultimately, I do believe in the concept that innovation happens at the franchisee level. That's why I think it's also important to have cross-collaboration and strong communication with franchisees, so you can quickly identify an innovation, package it, and work it out with them to bring it to life for other franchisees.
Brendon Dennewill: Which brings me to where we're going next: process. Brands that are far enough along should have a process for where innovation happens, so it's clear to everybody, whether a new franchisee, an existing franchisee, or anyone in the corporate office. "This is how we believe innovation will happen in our brand, and these are the processes, guidelines, and playbook we use."
Moving on to process, a major part of business growth involves creating and continuously evolving processes that can be repeated and improved. How do you help an organization develop operating systems that support consistent execution?
Robert Thesing: With Vertify Partners and our Vertify Operating System, it comes down to this: to identify those opportunities, you first need a shared cadence and way of operating across the organization. The framework lays out everything from how you run weekly meetings, to what data you're tracking, to what problems you're solving, to what you're doing in the next twelve weeks, the next fifty-two weeks, and the next one to three years. That planning and forecasting needs to happen at the core of the organization.
That creates the framework for everything else you're talking about, whether it's innovation, driving revenue, sales, marketing, franchise development, or compliance. All of it operates on that platform. It's essentially the rhythm everybody follows through the day, the week, the quarter, the year, and so on. It provides the guidance, the roadmap for what we're trying to accomplish, and the discipline around it.
When other opportunities come up, whether it's innovation, learnings from the field, or feedback from franchisees, someone might look at that structure and say, "That's too rigid. We need to be flexible as an organization." I'd argue the opposite: that internal structure helps you tie in those other pieces. If some new innovation comes out of the blue, you can tie it back: "We found out this is what Brendon in Minneapolis is doing, and it ties into our goal of driving revenue or improving the customer experience. So we're going to plug it into our operating system and dedicate time and resources to rolling it out to the rest of our franchise system."
It also provides a framework for something I've seen happen countless times, and I'll be the first to raise my hand and admit I'm guilty of it. You see that shiny new object, and next thing you know, you're devoting a lot of time to it when you really should be focusing on something else. Or you want to pursue something but can't quite tell what people and resources you'd need to bring it to life at full scale. The operating system helps you put all those pieces together so you can make those decisions faster.
Brendon Dennewill: I've said this a number of times on the show, but maybe not quite this clearly: my name is Brendon, and I struggle with shiny object syndrome. I completely get it, and that may be part of the reason I've dedicated a large part of my life to helping business leaders avoid the same mistake.
One thing we think and talk about a lot is that change is inevitable. In fact, that was probably the overarching message Tom Brady shared with us recently. Change is inevitable, so it's up to you to embrace it and do what you need to do to become a bigger, better version of yourself. At the same time, most of the things that make us successful stay the same. You don't have to change everything, just the things that need to change. But that's probably a topic for a different day.
Brendon Dennewill: Let's keep moving. Robert, what role do leadership structure and accountability play in helping a growing business execute its strategy?
Robert Thesing: I think one of the biggest roles leadership structure plays isn't about understanding which decisions leaders need to make. It's about how leaders guide decisions and help their own teams, whether departments or field staff, make decisions that support the organization's goals in real time.
A number of brands I talk to are in a stalled phase because most of the decision-making rests on the founder or a very small number of people. That might be one, two, or three people in a 15- to 25-person organization, but any time something needs to happen, it gets stuck in analysis paralysis and stalled processes, and ultimately everyone waits for something to happen. That's when people get frustrated, things fall through the cracks, and franchisees feel left out of what's going on at corporate.
What we help do is bring alignment and share the decision-making process across the organization. That doesn't mean a field person makes a decision that changes the brand's course. It means they understand how their decisions and authority affect the overall goals, and they have boundaries that let them move quickly and report back to the rest of the organization within their roles.
Bringing it back to your question, in my opinion it's really about whether you're the coach and the mentor. It's not about holding all the power. It's about how you empower your team to act quickly and make the right decisions for the organization.
One of my favorite stories is from Nordstrom, the department store company. I can't confirm whether this is still the case, but I was really close with one of their HR people back in the day. She said that most companies' onboarding goes through policies and handbooks. You get a 300-page manual you're expected to sign off on in ten minutes and somehow understand.
The practice she shared with me was that on your first day at Nordstrom, you got a business card, and on that card it said, "Make good decisions." Everything else flowed from there. So as a leader, how do you make sure your team is able to make those good decisions? I think that's really the key for brands and organizations that grow quickly. They have that understanding, and they develop their teams to be able to do it.
Brendon Dennewill: We've heard that a lot on this show, specifically about franchise organizations. Emerging brands go from 10 units to 30, then eventually to 50 or 75, reach royalty self-sufficiency, maybe get to 100, and then the question is where they go from there. At each stage things break, and they break within the same framework you and I use.
It first breaks in the people department, typically starting with the founder or leader. At what point do they start delegating the responsibilities that got them from one unit to ten, twenty, or thirty but won't scale from 30 to 100? That's typically where you bring in field consultants, or FBCs, or whatever you call them in your organization.
We've also seen the opposite, working with brands that have 800, 900, or a thousand units, where field staff are each handling between eighty and a hundred and thirty franchise owners. It's really hard for them to do a good job at that scale, so the easier you make it for them, the better. I like the Nordstrom business card example because it comes back to giving them one metric, or no more than two or three, that reminds them what they need to do to be successful.
It's really hard for them to give equal attention to all 80 to 130 units, and not every unit needs the same level of support. But if units don't get the support they need, things start breaking across the whole system. These things are all connected.
I like that this confirms what you do and what we do, using a simple framework: get your people aligned first, then get your processes aligned second. The way you do that is with the data, metrics, or KPIs that show your people at each level how they're succeeding and what they need to do to get to the next level. We haven't gotten into the technology piece, but even though building revenue systems is ultimately what we do for our clients, we can't build a CRM or a revenue system if those first three things aren't in place.
Robert Thesing: Those pillars transcend the size or stage of the organization in many cases. But to your point, the organization's needs change depending on its growth stage. That's where the pillars are even more crucial, because if your team isn't looking at the organization through the lens of its current stage, it can have a huge impact on the decisions they make and how they help the organization get from stage one to stage two and beyond. The needs will change a bit as the organization keeps growing, and that's where having those core pillars really helps you see what's needed to get through each growth stage.
Brendon Dennewill: I'd totally agree. And it typically starts with the founder or CEO. They're the first ones who need to realize what has to change at each stage.
Robert Thesing: In every brand I've had the opportunity to be part of, the biggest difference between the ones that moved quickly through early-stage development and the ones that didn't was the founder or CEO. The fast movers understood the need for a system to drive the organization.
Other founders thought, "I created the brand, I created the business, I know all about it, I know what's best, and I'm going to lead the way I feel is best." They weren't necessarily wrong, but that approach often led to more growing pains than it did for founders who adopted systems, processes, and tools.
Brendon Dennewill: Because I grew up in Africa, I feel comfortable using this example, and I've mentioned it many times on the show. There's an African proverb that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We see that every week in our work. Founders are entrepreneurial people who want to go fast, but I think they all reach a point where they realize the only way to really go the distance is to bring a team along with them.
Robert Thesing: Absolutely.
Brendon Dennewill: Which brings me to my next question. Robert, businesses often have ambitious growth plans. What can leaders do to make sure those plans are supported by the people, processes, and resources needed to execute them?
Robert Thesing: I see a few situations when people come to me for help digging into the weeds. Sometimes things aren't going the way they thought, or they feel they could be performing better, or there's a variety of other issues. Other times they haven't reached that point yet and want to make sure their goals aren't overly ambitious.
It really comes down to continuing to ask why. Why did we pick this goal? What were we aiming for? What did we have in place that made us believe it was achievable? Not many people spend time on this after they've accomplished a great goal. They don't say, "Let's spend the next month digging into how we did that." Instead they say, "We accomplished that, so how do we keep repeating it?" It's usually forward-looking.
A lot of time gets spent when you miss a goal, but the mistake is just moving on to the next one: "We didn't hit that. Now what do we need to do differently?" Instead, have the discipline to pause and say, "We know what caused us to miss this goal, but how did we decide on the goal to begin with?"
I've seen two very different approaches here. One is almost disciplinarian. You look at the team and say, "Why didn't you do your job? Why didn't you hit this goal? We had the best plan. It was a great goal. You all said you could do it." The other approach is to look at how you arrived at the goal. Did we all agree on it? Did we all feel it was realistic? Was there buy-in? If it was a quarterly goal, was it actually aligned with our annual plan or our three-year forecast? How did we get to the point where we said we could do this but ultimately weren't able to?
I think it takes a lot of discipline to look at it through that lens. But when you compare organizations that stall with those that overcome these challenges, the difference is a slightly different thought process and methodology for looking at the opportunities right in front of them. If you ask why five times and realign, making sure your goals match your long-term planning and the team is bought in, chances are you'll have a much higher success rate.
With the Vertify Operating System, we guide brands through all of that, and we also look at how accurate they are when they set goals. Often, the first time around, you're not accurate at all, and that's okay because it's your first time. It's the first time we're asking a brand, founder, or team to go through this process.
As the quarters go on, our underlying goal is to help brands get more accurate with their forecasting, build alignment and buy-in, and make sure the data, the three KPIs, and everything else that indicates whether we'll be successful are lined up and accurate enough that we can actually achieve our outcomes.
Once that's in place, it's also much easier to look at external factors. Things can change on a dime, whether it's recessions, pandemics, or anything else. Those are obviously worst-case scenarios, but even when small dynamics shift within an industry, having that system in place makes it easier to identify external threats that could affect your overall goals.
Brendon Dennewill: I like the way you framed that, because that's actually where our name came from. You said "as dynamics shift," and those are typically external shifts that we, as leaders, then have to respond or react to. We actually started the business in Spain and moved to the US afterward. Denamico is a play on the Spanish or Italian word for dynamic.
The strategist who helped us through the naming process kept asking, "How are you going to help your clients?" We said, "We're going to help them adapt." As things change, primarily technology, and because of technology, how customers contact and communicate with you and how you communicate with them, that's a major shift you have to keep working on and improving. So thanks for bringing that up.
Brendon Dennewill: I have two questions left before we wrap up, Robert. In my experience, I'd guess ninety to ninety-nine percent of an operating system for a franchise brand is the same as for a business outside the franchise space. What would you say are the differences between operating a franchise brand and operating a single-location business?
Robert Thesing: I think you're right that the systems themselves can be very similar. What's interesting, and part of the reason I started Vertify Partners, is that there are some very well-known operating systems out there, including one with a three-letter acronym that I'm sure a lot of your viewers can think of.
Brendon Dennewill: Yeah, it's the one we use too.
Robert Thesing: I think they're great. But what I've seen inside franchise organizations that use those systems is that they're a one-size-fits-all approach. They're great underlying tools for organizations. However, if you're running a franchise system, the key difference is that your customer is an independent owner. Your end customer depends on the brand, products, and services you provide, but as a franchisor, your number one customer is your franchisee.
That's what makes it such a great industry, but it's also what makes it uniquely different from a one-location business, or even a 500-location business that isn't a franchise. The fundamentals of the business change just enough.
I've heard other franchisors say, "We use this system, but not really, because we're a franchise and we have to change it a little bit. We can't use it off the shelf or as intended." I kept hearing that over many years. Even the company I was at used that system, and we ran into similar things. I feel like we did a really good job of holding to its tenets and principles, but at the end of the day, a franchise organization is different enough that it can break that model, or at least put a few cracks in the foundation.
That's part of why I built Vertify Partners: to give franchisors an operating system they can run their entire organization on, and then layer great products on top of it, like RevOps, your CRM, your CMS, and all the other tools and systems. At the core is a strong foundation with guiding principles that everyone across the organization, including franchisees, can use to stay aligned.
Brendon Dennewill: Very cool. That makes a lot of sense. What I'm hearing you say is the same thing I hear outside the franchise space: an operating system is table stakes, but then you have to figure out which one makes the most sense for your type of business. And the franchise model is clearly unique.
Brendon Dennewill: So Robert, as we close, and you did mention this word in your last response, what is one principle you believe business owners and leaders should keep in mind when building an organization that's prepared for sustainable growth?
Robert Thesing: To me, the principle is that the people in the organization are the ones who create the results. So understand how those people fit into your organization, and ask yourself this question: who is my most important customer?
That really helps teams think it through, because when I ask that question, people often jump right to the consumer: the person who clicks on the ad, shows up at the storefront, or buys the products and services. But if you take a step back and ask again and again who your most important customer is, you'll find it's someone different.
For leaders, your most important customer is often your team. For franchise consultants, it's often your franchisees. For franchisees, it's the staff in their locations. Everybody has a slightly different customer within the organization. All too often organizations skip that question, because it's easy to say, "We're a people organization and we're great with our people." But the people don't understand who they're serving and how to serve them best. That's one of the principles I try to instill in the brands I work with.
Brendon Dennewill: The people create the results. I love that. Robert, is there anything you'd like to share before we wrap?
Robert Thesing: I'm just very grateful for this opportunity. It's really great to talk to you. It feels like just yesterday it was summertime here in Minneapolis. I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon, and I'm glad we got to chat.
Brendon Dennewill: Awesome. Robert, thanks so much for being here. I look forward to chatting again soon.
Robert Thesing: Likewise. Take care.
Brendon Dennewill: Take care.