Ep.21 Success Multiplied with Franchise Expert Dori Stewart

What do you have to learn...who do you have to become...to go from high school STEM teacher to creating a franchise people are stoked about across 135 countries?  Dori Stewart BLEW ME AWAY with this story.

I can’t wait for y’all to hear about how a volunteer after-school program led Dori to create a curriculum that changed her life and so many others.  Guys, this is one that you don’t want to miss.

You can find all the links and show notes from the show here.

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Transcript

Jamie Stephens: 0:05

Okay, hello, we have got Dory Stewart here on another episode of Breaking up with corporate. And Dory is a franchise consultant and a fellow podcaster. So good morning to you, Dory.

Unknown: 0:18

Hi, Jamie. Thanks for having me.

Jamie Stephens: 0:21

Yeah. So I want I think your story is really, really interesting. If you just want to give us a little background about how you got here. Just kind of the whole story, just start with your, your teaching journey. And we can go from there.

Unknown: 0:36

Sure, sure. So my background is in education. My undergrad degree is an elementary, middle math and science education. And my master's degree is in technology education. And so I started teaching, I was a high school engineering teacher for 11 years. And I always thought that that's all I ever wanted to do was teach and I loved I loved teaching. And it was when my I had my own children. And I was bringing them to the high school all the time, I picked them up from school, take them to the high school, and they were seeing what I was doing with my high school students in engineering. I had this after school club. And, you know, my high school students were competing and all these events. And my own kids wanted to compete, too. And they didn't understand why when they came back to the high school with me why they couldn't do all the cool projects that my high school students were doing.

Jamie Stephens: 1:34

And this, sorry, how old were they then?

Unknown: 1:37

They were five and seven. Oh, how fun. Yeah, so they were kindergarten and second grade at the time. And so this was back in 2008. And back then, stem wasn't a buzzword yet, engineering wasn't taught in the elementary schools at all, unless you were in the Gifted and Talented program. And so I got a flyer home and my kids backpack one day, and the PTA was doing a fundraiser. And they were asking parents if they had a hobby or a business and if they wanted to teach an after school program to help the PTA raise money. And so because my undergrad degree is an elementary middle education, I decided to take a civil engineering program that I taught with my high school students change it up to make it more developmentally appropriate for elementary kids. And I taught a civil engineering after school program. And I thought, well, at least my own kids that a couple of their friends will be in the class. It'll be fun, right? The class filled up. The teachers loved what I was doing. They were pulling me aside asking me questions. The principal asked me to come back. And I had some parents pull me aside and say, what else do you offer? And I was just a mom, volunteer at that point. And so I thought, okay, ha, this could be a really great side hustle for me, teaching after school programs, I can do it with my kids, my kids love, you know, the programs. And then I had someone say, Do you offer summer camps. And so you know, the ideas just blowing, right. And so I spent the next year still teaching and developing my business. And I was offering programs in schools and community centers all around my county, and word got out, and the two counties neighboring my county, their parks and rec recreation departments started contacting me, can you bring this to our county too. And so it really started growing, I started growing the age group. So instead of just elementary added preschool in middle school, and after

Jamie Stephens: 3:44

that, can we stop for just a second?

Unknown: 3:47

I know it's a lot.

Jamie Stephens: 3:49

Preschool? And engineering, tell me what kind of just for an example like what would be something that you would teach? I'm just still stuck on the civil engineering for like elementary, like, what is some of give me an example of like, a lesson or something that you just because I'm just curious.

Unknown: 4:08

Why. Yeah. So with the, with the Civil Engineering Program, think bridges and towers, think think structures. And so I would have the kids build structures, and then we would test it. So we would look at different science principles, you know, tension, things like that. And so with the very young ones, it's more like using balsa strips with gumdrops, building a bridge out of that, and then talking about, okay, what shapes are strong, you know, is a circle going to be strong? Or is a triangle going to be stronger and just kind of going through those basic concepts, but they're building something and they're having fun and they're testing something? And so all of the programs were surrounded by the engineering design process. So they would go through this whole process of a Coming up with an idea asking questions, designing something, testing it and you want them to fail, because you want them to redesign you talk about this is what engineers do. Engineers design things. Engineering is never done. You can always build a better bridge. Right? And so taking them through that process, and making sure they're having a lot of fun in the process, so they fall in love with math and science.

Jamie Stephens: 5:24

Yeah, no, that's really cool. Because also, I mean, what a life lesson to, like, You're never done, you're continually improving and growing, you know, to learn that at such a young age, I feel like as an addition to this, the STEM curriculum, I feel like that's really valuable as well, to have that grounding. It's like, okay, if you fail, it's fine. Like, you just do it better next time.

Unknown: 5:46

Like, what to fail, you want to fail, because it's in the failure, that you learn how to improve. And so we teach them, failure is a good thing. You know,

Jamie Stephens: 5:58

I love that. Okay, sorry, I didn't I didn't mean to interrupt. I just was like, so curious about what that looked like. But you know, you're right, because my daughter, she was in gifted and talented. And I remember, it was older, I think she was maybe fourth or fifth grade, somewhere around there. But she was building bridges and that sort of thing, too. So I guess I'd never really tied it to. I don't know why. But I never really tied it to like, engineering, per se. But okay. So you were starting to get information from other counties and stuff that were interested and Okay, so pick it back up from there. Sorry?

Unknown: 6:34

No, yeah. So I took a year to to build, and I quit my teaching job after a year, running the programs, because at that point, I had replaced my income, and I was going to be able to run it full time and grow even more and, and create even more income. And so a couple of years into it, I started getting people from all over the world who were falling upon my website, because they were googling things like engineering programs for kids. And they were finding my website, and they were contacting me asking, Can I buy your curriculum? Or can you bring this to Chicago, or, you know, things like that. And I could have, I could have sold my, my curriculum, but that I felt like I really wanted to grow the program versus just selling curriculum. So I started doing the research into different business models, and found that franchising was the best business model for the business, because you have that owner operator that owns knows their own community best. And so, by the end of 2011, started offering my franchise and the first location began operating in 2012. And over the next 10 years, the business grew to 165 locations in 35 countries reaching over a million students. And

Jamie Stephens: 8:03

it's, that is just so impressed. I mean, that is, I mean, you're franchising within three, four years of, of volunteering, as, you know, to teach this class for I mean, that is just so impressive. Before we move past that, because this is like that couple of years, I want to talk about that piece, because yes, all of the the accolades, and the 165 countries are millions. Super, super impressive. And I know that that doesn't just happen overnight. So tell me kind of what you had to learn in that process to just be able to franchise to be able to quit your job to be I mean, all of those things are just That's a scary stuff.

Unknown: 8:53

Yeah, it is. It was a lot. You know, I, when I first started the business, I was wearing all the hats, and I was working really, really hard. You know, I was getting up before I am so that I had a few hours to work before my kids got out. Because remember, they're pretty young and very active at that point. And so, you know, I wanted to make sure that I was making a smart decision when quitting my teaching job because I had, you know, all the benefits and all of that. So but it's that's very scary. So I waited until I had my income replaced. But a couple of things were happening during that time that gave me the extra push to work hard and not feel just safe in okay, I'm just going to teach them and have this great side hustle and got this extra money and keep the status quo right. Two things were happening. One is I saw this magic in the classroom where I had these five year olds so excited with what they were doing in the parents coming in. So I'm excited, and bragging that their five year old was learning engineering, like thought. And so that's magic, right? You've got kids, you're gonna come back and you've got parents who are like, my kids and engineering programs, you know, there was there was magic there. The other thing that was going on is that I was in a bad marriage. And I had a husband at the time, who made a lot more money than me and made me feel very much less than all the time for not making good money. And it was, it was a miserable relationship. And I felt like in order for me to leave, and take care of me and my kids, I needed to make a lot more money than a teacher makes in order for me to live on my own, you know, and take care of my kid. And so those two things in combination just had me flying out of bed at 4am to work as hard as I could to build the business.

Jamie Stephens: 11:03

Ya know, that? Nothing like a good motivator?

Unknown: 11:08

Yeah.

Jamie Stephens: 11:09

So I'm curious then, with the marriage and stuff, kind of like where it was. I'm assuming you did not have support for your business during that time, like in addition to your teaching, or like, how, how did you navigate kind of doing all that at the same time?

Unknown: 11:30

Yeah, it was really hard. Because also, if you remember, 2008 2009, we were in the middle of a really bad recession. And so my now ex husband said, I was stupid, I was crazy. You know, like, why are you starting a business? We're in the middle of a recession. No one wants to spend money on engineering, and you know, who wants engineering for four years. So there were a lot of, of, you know, negativity surrounding my business. But I knew that it was, it was magic. And I knew that it was my way to a better life for me and my kids. So yeah, that was that was really hard. I didn't have the support. I had to bootstrap everything, which is, you know, why I stayed in my teaching. My teaching job for a year is, you know, I didn't have an investor. You know, I didn't have extra money coming in.

Jamie Stephens: 12:23

Yeah, no, that's, that's a that's a lot going on all at the same time. So that is makes everything else even more impressive with all the students with the franchising. And so how did you as you were exploring kind of the different business models and stuff, the owner operator to where they knew their communities best? That's, that's kind of how you landed on franchising? And how did you learn how to do that? Like, did you set that up and build like, do your own franchise? Or do you go to somebody? Or how does all that work? Yeah,

Unknown: 12:55

so that is such a good question. So there are franchise consultants out there, and we can talk later because that's what I do now, because I couldn't find someone that would help me. franchise, the franchising industry is oddly male dominated. There are only about 10% Female franchisors and even franchisees, it's about 30%. And I want to franchise consultants, and I had people tell me that I didn't have a good business idea that my business was successful in my local town because of me, and that it couldn't be replicated in other areas. And then it wasn't a good idea to franchise. And so it was hard. I I read every book I could find on franchising, I went to every conference I could find on franchising, and ultimately got my certified Franchise Executive credentials. But what really helped me is I went to a conference, and, you know, I'm talking to everybody who will, who will talk to me and just like, you know, learning as much as I can, and I met a franchise attorney. And she was so kind, she was the first industry expert that didn't make me feel stupid. She was patient, and she helped me get all of my, my documents together, because there's a huge legal component to all of this. It's heavily regulated by the FTC. And so she helped me. And so I credit a lot of, you know, having that supportive, at least I know, I'm doing everything legally correct. But I also started looking and studying other franchise companies, and there are other franchise companies in the education space. And so, for example, there's, there's an art franchise, it's been around a long time called Africa doodle. I started looking at their business model, okay. They're offering programs to kids, okay? They have franchises. This is how they have set it up and kind of looked at other industries. There's now other STEM education franchises, but at the time, there wasn't anything like I get, you know, so I didn't really have an exact business model to follow. But I looked at other business models that were kind of in the same space, and really studied what they were doing,

Jamie Stephens: 15:11

get the framework down, and then kind of fill in the details. No, I like that. I'm just curious, was the attorney that you met? Was that the first female within the within the franchising space that, like you had really connected with? Or? And? Yeah,

Unknown: 15:28

yeah, yeah, all the franchise consultants I met were online. And they didn't understand. They didn't, they didn't understand why people would want to teach kids engineering. They didn't

Jamie Stephens: 15:42

get it. Well, and there's a whole other component to like, anytime there's parents involved, if you can get the, the parents and the kids like, excited about the same thing. I mean, that's just golden. So I, I love that, despite what everybody told you, despite what, you know, kind of the pressures you were under in your home, it's just like, No, I've, I'm onto something and you just kept going and kept going and kept going. Was it still your marriage or bad marriage that was driving you at that point? Or was it just that you knew that you were on to something that you just couldn't let go?

Unknown: 16:24

It kind of both, you know, I did, I did eventually leave that marriage. And then, you know, at that point, it's, you know, I'm taking care of me and my kids. But then once I started getting once I started selling franchises, there's a whole new level of responsibility and motivation, because it's not just me and my kids that my business is supporting, I'm now everything I do affects all of these franchisees and they have employees, and they have families and their employees have families in there are, you know, they have, they have students, and so I had this, you know, giant responsibility to make sure that I kept going, and that I had, you know, continue to build curriculum and continue to build, you know, a strong, you know, system for them to implement. And so, it just the responsibilities kind of evolved, I guess, as you know, next 10 years went along.

Jamie Stephens: 17:22

Now, that's really, I'm just trying to wrap my head around that because that's like going from teaching. Do you would you say that, like your teaching career, like for high school, like helped you with the franchise ease, like, as, I mean, just kind of that model of teaching and kind of a little bit of hand holding? And I mean, I'm just kind of curious how, where that skill set comes in, because you've got like, the stem, and it's like, okay, this is my area of expertise. I'm good at all of this. And then you've got this new thing with like franchise, but then it's like, how many franchisees? did? Did you have 100 and 165? Like, that's just a whole other level? I mean, did you have to? What were you doing to, like, prepare for that? I mean, to execute at that level, I'm just, I mean, that's a lot of like, self growth, and learning and trial and error and all of that. So can you tell me about that period? Just kind of scaling up?

Unknown: 18:24

Yeah. So you know, it's each each level creates new challenges. And, you know, I was still teaching just in a different way. You know, I'm not teaching high school students, but I'm teaching other business owners how to implement my business model. And so that kind of never went away. But it was interesting. The first, I'd say 10 franchises in the business model looked very different than when there was 100 franchises, because the first 10 I was extremely hands on, you know, I had, I think I had maybe three staff members helping me out at that point, but I was still very much wearing all the hats, or at least, you know, had my hands heavy in all areas of the business. And the franchisees had direct access to me. They had my cell phone number. I mean, if they had an issue, they would, you know, call me up or had a question or needed, needed support with something. And then as the business grew, it no longer became feasible for that many franchisees to have direct access to me and my staff grew and so, you know, there there's definitely growing pains with every business as you scale. And so I kind of talk about the franchisee journey, kind of like, a lifespan. So, when they first you know, open their business, they're like toddlers, you know, they they need you to hold their hand. They need a ton of support. And then they Get after a couple years, they're comfortable with their business. And now they're in their teenage years, they are comfortable with the business, they kind of start thinking, why do we need you? Why are we still paying royalty fees, I can do this on my own, and they kind of rebel a little bit. And then they mature. And then at that point, they're, they're successful, they've gone through all their growing pains. And now they're part of your team. Now they're looking at the big picture, and they're looking at ways to grow the entire brand, they're no longer thinking about just their location, they're thinking about what decisions can be made to grow the brand as a whole. And that's just such a glorious period, because then you really are partners in growing the business together. And that's the magic of franchising and why that business model is so amazing is because, you know, I wasn't just growing the business by myself, I had, you know, partners in it, who had a vested interest in making really good decisions and in growing the business.

Jamie Stephens: 20:59

That's really cool. And so at this time, was everybody still finding you like, via your website? Or what kind of how were you getting the message out that you were franchising these, this business model.

Unknown: 21:14

So that that changed a lot from the beginning. And you know, up until we were more established in the beginning, it's harder to get the word out, because no one knows who you are. And so there's lead generation websites where you people will, it's kind of like a, an ecommerce store, if you will. And it's got lists of franchise companies. And if someone reaches out, then you have to pay for the lead. And it's, it's, it's not the best way to get get the word out, but it works for beginning franchises. And then there's franchise brokers where there are people who work kind of as a real estate agent, and they match people with franchise companies. And that's a great way. But once we got established and word got out, and especially since we were created, we had created a brand new category of STEM education, and when stem started becoming a buzzword, and it was probably around 2011 2012, where stem started to gain some traction, I started getting a lot of media appearances. And so I had a great opportunity to be on Fox Business to two separate times, I was on CNN Money, I had a full page article was written about me and Kip Lunger, Forbes, all those are, you know, articles and media appearances were huge. Every time an article came out, we got tons of leads, you know, asking about the franchise, and then also with each opening, so we opened a location in Chicago, and we ended up opening pretty quickly three more locations in the counties next to that territory. And so when, you know, a business goes into a new market, you know, people notice, and they're hey, I want that in my my, you know, Nate in the neighboring county.

Jamie Stephens: 23:06

Yeah. So were you traveling to all of these locations for openings? Or is that just like the franchisees responsibility for the opening and stuff.

Unknown: 23:16

So we, I did travel to a lot of locations, I had staff go and open some of them, I went to some of them, which, you know, was amazing, I got to go to India and go to their opening and get to go to Costa Rica for their opening. And so it was it was wonderful being able to do that. But then there were a couple of times where I kind of went on a tour. And it wasn't an opening, but just to go and visit the locations. But then I would have staff go and do opening because at that point, you're really, you know, you're hiring teachers and things like that. That's awesome.

Jamie Stephens: 23:51

Okay, so I know that you have sold that business. Tell me a bit like how that whole thing happened in that process.

Unknown: 23:59

Yeah, so private equity, loves franchising, and I would say about 90% of all franchise companies are owned by private equity. I was one of the few that wasn't okay, can you can you

Jamie Stephens: 24:12

break that down what that means? Because I'm not sure I? Sure.

Unknown: 24:16

So what happens is you'll get a group of investors who are looking to grow their portfolio. So what they do is they go and they buy franchise companies, they pump a lot of money into it. They grow it buy a whole bunch of new locations. And after a five year period after they've grown it, they sell it to someone else and they pay their investors all the money that they made. It's kind of like flipping houses, flipping companies. And so every time my company was listed in entrepreneur magazine's franchise 500 list, I would get 20 calls from private equity groups asking if I was interested in selling my business So much so that I had to hire, mergers and acquisitions consultant to handle all the calls for me. And I kind of I knew that that was always going to be my exit plan, just because that's the nature of the industry. But I didn't know when. And the offers that I was receiving was not something that I wanted, I didn't want my business to be flipped. You know, I wanted my, if I was going to sell to a private equity group, I wanted to sell to a company that wanted to keep it and grow it. And, you know, really, like, be all in it. And not just flip it.

Jamie Stephens: 25:40

Yeah. Further your vision, not just in it for the money.

Unknown: 25:44

Exactly. Yeah. So in 2019, I was contacted by a an ed tech firm in based out of Canada, and they have four other education franchise companies under their belt. And they were looking to add a STEM education company to their group. And so they flew to Virginia, and we met over several days, and they took a deep dive into my business, and there was a lot of synergy there. And at the end of 2019, it was, you know, I was on the fence of, you know, thinking, is it the right time do I want to sell I'm, it's a great offer, but am I ready, you know, all those all those things, because, you know, it's it, it's been 10 years, and then COVID happened. And when COVID happened, I knew that because one of their brands was already virtual, that it would be in the best interest of my franchisees to go ahead and sell so that we could get all of our programs online, quicker than I would be able to on my own. And so it was a good offer. The timing was right, because of COVID. I don't know if I would have sold If COVID hadn't happened, because I was so on the fence about it. But it ended up being the right the right decision based on the circumstances.

Jamie Stephens: 27:09

I love that. So if you had 100, and I'm just trying, I'm, I'm not going to ask you details. I'm sure you can't tell me, or nor would you. But I'm just curious if you had that many locations, and that is like monthly income coming in from all of those, like royalties and stuff like that. I mean, I'm assuming that that had to be a very substantial offer. Because do you get rid of all of your rights? Or do you still have a little bit or how does that work? Or you're just you're totally done.

Unknown: 27:45

I completely sold, okay. And it was, it was a good offer. I stayed on for six months for a transition period, just to make sure that, you know, my franchisees felt comfortable and you know, I mean, it's, it's a big business, so there's a lot for the new company to learn. And, you know, my hands was more in everything. So there was it was a lot that needed to be done. And so six months was an appropriate time for me to stay on. And, and transition. But, but ya know, there's a lot of value in in franchising, because yeah, it's each franchise had in the US and Canada, all the franchise agreements were seven year agreements. So there's a lot of value and a seven year contract with a location where you're getting royalties every month, and then the international franchise agreements were 10 year agreements, but they were sub franchise master franchise agreements with sub franchise, right. So what that means is, I'll give China for example, when I sold China, I got a franchise fee up front, and in anticipation of 100 new locations. And so that master franchise then had the rights to sell 100 locations, and we received a percentage of the sale of each of their sub franchises and all of their sub franchise rights. So it counted as you know, one location for me, but it actually was another 100 locations.

Jamie Stephens: 29:16

Wow. That's, that's like big money. That's interesting. No, I mean, that's, I'm just so impressed with this whole with the whole journey. And, excuse me, what would you say was like your biggest either challenge and all of that either in the cell of the company or the building of the company? Like overall? What would you say? Like if you had to pinpoint a moment like were you considered like throwing in the towel because it was just too much. Did you have any of those or where maybe you couldn't but you wanted to?

Unknown: 29:58

I mean, with every Every entrepreneur will say it's a giant roller coaster, you know, there's high highs and low lows, you know, and, you know, the high highs for me was always the, the thought that I may have just changed a child's life because they otherwise did not know that engineering was a great career for them. And now they are an engineer, and, you know, they're changing lives by, you know, all the great achievements. So, so those, you know, are the highs is, you know, the and, and the highs of, you know, the franchise owners, you know, saying thank you so much for creating this company, because I'm able to do these amazing things in my community. So those are the high highs, the low lows are, you know, when you have 165, franchisees, and half of them are in that teenage stage, there's there, there's, there's always going to be friction, you're always going to have someone who doesn't agree with your decisions, and it's hard. Being the CEO of a company that large, I'm making decisions that affects a lot of people. And it's easy to take care of the squeaky wheel, the hard thing is to make decisions that are good for the entire brand that may piss off one really squeaky wheel. That's the low lows. And so you can't make everybody happy. And some people are, you know, can be loud about it. And that's hard. That's really hard. You know, so there were times where I had to fly out to a location and sit down with an owner and say, let's, let's talk this out, like, let's have a heart to heart face to face, we got to work this out. Because, you know, we've got to do what's best for the system. And, you know, you think that this is what should happen, because it benefits your business, but it doesn't benefit the company as a whole. So those would be that would be the hardest part of being a franchise owner.

Jamie Stephens: 32:10

Yeah, I imagine there's probably just by design, that there would be some friction within that business model, just because you've got a lot of people with a lot of ideas and who want to be business owners and her going down that path. And then you've got someone who's more experienced, who's already seen all the bumps and divots in the road, and you know, roadblocks and all these things that you're trying to teach people, but people don't really learn from you telling them, you know, it's like, no, just me, I'm telling you, this is the way we need to do it. But there's a lot of like, alpha personalities there, I would imagine.

Unknown: 32:49

Yeah, it's a very complex relationship between the franchisor and franchisee

Jamie Stephens: 32:54

Yeah. Did you have people within that time period? Like after the contract was up? Did a lot of people continue? Or did a lot of people like what happens after that seven year contract? Do they renew? Or? Do they own it outright? Or like, how does that work?

Unknown: 33:14

So they have the option to renew. So it's up to them, and up to up to, you know, the franchisor as well. So, you know, in all scenarios happened, you know, people maybe are at a stage in their life where they want to retire, or maybe they're at a stage in their life where they want to keep going and they renew, or maybe they weren't a very good franchisee. And there were issues and, you know, I had to make the tough decision of saying, I'm sorry, but we're not gonna renew you. Now, that is a very, like, small exception to the renewal process. You know, that's not something that a friend, it's not in the best interest for a franchisor to do that very often, because it sends a very bad signal to the rest of the system. But if you have a franchisee who maybe, you know, isn't following the franchise agreement, maybe they're not, you know, doing things that are upholding the brand standards, maybe they're not paying their fees on time, you know, things like that, then, you know, usually it's a mutual decision to just call it a day.

Jamie Stephens: 34:25

Yeah, no, I get that. So tell me about like your personal growth during that time, going from married and then divorced and then multi figure business owner, CEO, I mean, what were you doing, personally, to kind of stay on top of all of the rollercoaster of emotions that you were going through?

Unknown: 34:53

Yeah, it was a lot. Something that I found that was very helpful. I had mentioned before that there's a small number of female founder franchisors, I found those people. There's not very many, like 10 of us. But we would spend four days, twice a year, get an Airbnb and just relax, network, help each other problem solve, you know, really, you know, dive into each other's, you know, businesses, and what are the biggest problems. And then when you have 10, people who are in your shoes who understand franchising, because it can be lonely, you know, if you don't have other franchisors to network with, that's a very lonely road, you know, your employees don't understand, you know, other business owners don't understand, because it's a completely different business model. And so that, for me was huge is having a network of women who understand your unique challenges.

Jamie Stephens: 36:04

So when did you find that group? Was it fairly early on?

Unknown: 36:08

Not early enough?

Jamie Stephens: 36:11

I mean, it's so critical. I mean, just finding your people and having somebody else just just to bounce ideas off of I mean, just to have that sounding board, even if it's, you know, ultimately, still all your stuff. But it's just like, I just need to get this out of my brain with somebody who knows what the hell I'm talking about.

Unknown: 36:30

Yeah, no, I didn't find them. Soon enough. I found them several years into it, I was at a franchise conference. And I met someone who she had asked if she could pick my brain, because she was going to hire a consultant that I had worked with, I started a foundation throughout the whole process to you know, to give back and give the franchisees a way to give back. And she was looking at starting a foundation. And she asked, was asking my opinion on this specific consultant that I had worked with. And it was through those conversations with her. And she was the leader of it. And she decided, you know, what, this is what we need, we need, you know, a network so that we can share our experiences. And so that was just such a magical thing that she created, and I was very lucky to be a part

Jamie Stephens: 37:20

of it. That's awesome. Do you still keep in touch with those women today?

Unknown: 37:23

I do. I call them friends. You know, I still keep in touch with them.

Jamie Stephens: 37:27

Yeah, that's really cool. So tell me, I was listening to your podcast. And you said that you had tried other things before, like other businesses and that sort of thing. So tell me about some of the other businesses that you had tried before you found this one, and it really just took off?

Unknown: 37:46

Yeah, so when I was pretty much right out of college, and I first started teaching, I decided that I wanted to be a decorator. And so I started a decorating business. And, you know, I was doing that for a while. And that was before I started my stem company. And, you know, I ultimately shut it down. It was very challenging for me, you know, driving around going into people's homes and keeping up with inventory and all of that it didn't lend itself to my lifestyle, especially with very young kids. And so I ended up, I ended up shutting that down. And then you know, other things is when I, after I sold my business, I told you, I stayed on for six months. But there was a period where I was kind of lost, you know, I'm 48 years old, I'm too young to retire. And you know, this, like, what am I going to do? You know, I went through this strange period. And, you know, thinking about, okay, where's my expertise will stem you know, I was an engineering teacher for 11 years. And so I wrote a children's book, it's out on Amazon, and that was a lot of fun. But is that my path? Am I gonna write children's books? You know, that didn't really light me up. It was fun. And it's great. And I'm glad I did it. But you know, that I don't think that that's my path. And so that was, you know, kind of frustrating, not, you know, knowing what I wanted to do. And then I thought, well, maybe, maybe I want to start a stem subscription box, you know, maybe, maybe that's, maybe that's it, and I kind of went down that path for a little while. And then that just didn't light me up. It just didn't feel right. It was and then I was looking at my bio, and I was I was reading that and all of the things that have been written about me in the press or, you know, my, my big accomplishments all had to do with franchising. And, you know, really like kind of doing that self reflection. I realized, like, that's my expertise, like, that's where I can provide other people value. And in thinking okay, I wish I had me, when I started my business, I wish I had me to say, you can do this, I believe in your business. Let me show you how to franchise your company. That's, that's where I can really get passionate about. And when I started going down down that road, I started feeling that like, lit up again.

Jamie Stephens: 40:18

Yeah, and I can even just see it, like, whenever you're talking, you're just like getting all excited. I mean, it's, it's really, it's awesome whenever you find your thing, and you can just go go full, full steam ahead. Yeah. But if there is, there's like a whole new identity that you have to take on with each new kind of role that you have. And there's almost like a, in my experience, almost like a grieving process of the former identity. Because I think as like high achieving women, you just tend to wrap up everything into that, instead of having a more balanced approach. You know, I'm working on that. But you know, I get that for sure. Yeah. So you found your niche with the franchising, just kind of looking and being like, Oh, this is it. This is what lights me up. So once you found that kind of, what was that next phase? Like? I'm assuming that's where we're at now?

Unknown: 41:20

Yeah, yeah, that's where we're at now. So I do, I do two things. I help people who have a small business and who want to scale their business. I mean, franchising, it changed my life, I mean, the amount of growth that can happen with the franchising business model, I so believe in it. And so I help people who have a small business who want to franchise their company. So I love doing that. And then I also help people find the right franchise fit. So it's kind of like a real estate agent. But for business, I have a franchise listing, just like an MLS with real estate, because there's 1000s of franchises out there. And so, I have seen a lot of people. And even when I was a franchisor, there were people who came to me to buy my franchise who weren't the right fit, you know. And so it's confusing out there with 1000s of companies, and wading through all of that, you know, there's different types of businesses for everyone. You know, there's businesses, there's franchise companies that are emerging brands. And if you're the type of person who wants to buy a franchise, because you want a tried and true model that's been around for a long time, you don't want to get on the ground floor of an emerging brand, right. But if you're more entrepreneurial, and you like that excitement, you want to be part of building something, then you're going to be bored in a business that's been around for 30 years, and the systems haven't changed. And, you know, so there's a lot of different things at play that people don't realize.

Jamie Stephens: 42:56

Yeah. Okay. So now, as a consultant, that's what that's what you do is really just kind of talk to people about everything franchise related and then help match them with either the business to buy or how to get it set up. Is that correct?

Unknown: 43:15

That's exactly it. Yes. Okay. Okay.

Jamie Stephens: 43:18

And then also you have a podcast. I do. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Unknown: 43:24

I would love to so my podcast is called she turned entrepreneur. And I named it that because there were a few times I there was an article that they dubbed me, the teacher turned entrepreneur. So I named it she turned entrepreneur because it's really all about this the transformational stories of women who have gone from a nine to five to now opening a business. And with that podcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I feature founders and entrepreneurs and then on Fridays, I introduced my audience to a different franchise brand.

Jamie Stephens: 43:57

Okay. Okay, so what was your franchise brand from last Friday? Just curious.

Unknown: 44:03

Last Friday was Tutor Doctor. Okay. And so that's a tutoring company, which is great for people who have been in the education industry and are looking at starting a tutoring company, but it does. It's not necessarily just for people who have been in education. Anyone who has good management skills would be a great tutor, Dr. franchisee, because they're not going to be the ones actually doing the tutoring. They're going to hire that out.

Jamie Stephens: 44:28

Yeah. And so whenever you offer those on your podcasts on Friday, is that just kind of like a little peek at your list that you've got like your? Is it like a brokerage list? Is that what kind of what it's called or okay, it sounds really interesting. So that's like a win win. You're like, Hey, by the way,

Unknown: 44:50

such there's a lot of misconceptions around franchising. A lot of people think of franchising and they think of McDonald's or think of these big, huge expensive, it investments in there's so many options in franchising, there's over 75 categories, pretty much any business you can think of has been franchise. And they're not all crazy, expensive investments. And so part of you know why I do that is, you know, the franchise Friday is to just kind of show the variety and introduce people to brands that I love. This coming Friday is awesome conversation with a professional ballet dancer turned entrepreneur, her business is called to to school. It's a boutique ballet studio, it's the cutest thing I've ever played. So it's just so much fun to introduce people to these franchise brands that they had no idea existed or our franchises.

Jamie Stephens: 45:47

Yeah, that's awesome. So out of everything that you're doing now, what would you say? Is your favorite? As far as? Is it the podcast? Or bringing people together? Or like if you've had to choose just one is there? I know I'm putting you on the spot.

Unknown: 46:06

I know. That's hard. I think what has been the coolest thing is, and I know you can relate to this, by being a podcast host. I get to meet the coolest people and create relationships that have already and I've only been doing this since December have already grown into other opportunities that I didn't expect. That wasn't the reason why I did it. And that's just such a really cool, extra surprise. So I'm loving that.

Jamie Stephens: 46:39

Yeah, yeah, that is for sure. I mean, like, I'm just like, pinch me. I mean, my job is to sit here and, like, get to find out the stories and like highlight women doing really cool shit in the world. I mean, it's like, what could be better than that. And then you have all these new relationships and connections with people. And I just can't even imagine, like two years from now, the number of people within my network and like, really, really high quality relationships and the connections that you make. So I love that. For sure. Yeah. So Dory, as we kind of wrap up here, if you had to give your younger self advice, what or someone in your position, you know, where you were teaching kind of in a bad spot, relationship wise, all of this stuff? Is there one piece of advice or like a mantra that got you through that you could share with someone your younger self?

Unknown: 47:40

Yeah, both with my younger self and people going through is is to believe in yourself. I think that if I had listened to the experts advice, I wouldn't have grown, what I was able to grow, and I wouldn't have been able to impact as many people. And so it was believing in myself and believing in my business idea that changed my life. You know, I easily could have just said, oh, yeah, you know, you're right, it probably wouldn't work and just, you know, kept doing what I was doing my life would be completely different.

Jamie Stephens: 48:16

Not wild to think about just kind of were like that one decision towards like, No, I'm betting on me and a story, and how that just changes the whole trajectory. That just gave me goosebumps. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much. Do you want to tell people where they can find you? And if you have anything, coming up any workshops or anything like that, then feel free to mention them?

Unknown: 48:40

Yeah, so everything can be found from my website, it's Dory. stewart.com. And from the website, you can schedule a free call with me my services for people who are looking to find a franchise, my services are free. So let me guide you through the process and make sure you make the right decisions. And then if you're looking at franchising your business, you can set up a call with me. The initial discovery call is free as well.

Jamie Stephens: 49:10

That's awesome. And then your podcasts she turned entrepreneur, on all of the stuff all of the podcasts locations. Yeah, exactly. Okay. And I will link all of those in the show notes as well. So thank you so much for just giving us all of this information. And I mean, it's what a ride. It's it sucks. Exciting.

Unknown: 49:32

Thank you so much for having me. This has been fun. Yeah,

Jamie Stephens: 49:35

let me quit recording here.