Live at IFA 2026 with Jack Monson

0:00AI was not used in the creation of this podcast. This is The Social Geek, Radio Network. Hello, Keeks and welcome to The Social Geek Podcast. I'm Jack Motson, your host and marketing host, Celia. We're live in Las Vegas with the International Franchise Association at IFA 2026. The full group of franchise rock stars are here, as well as hiring expert and author Clint Smith and franchise icon Mitch Cohen with a preview of the next big events. All right, today's show is brought to you by Answer Connect, Citron Cooperman and Thunderly.

1:05Are your brand-of marketing, advertising, content marketing and PR teams really working together? Learn how Thunderly's amplified integrated marketing can drive franchise development growth at ThunderlyMarketing.com. All right, here come the rock stars. Well, well, well, look who's here in the podcast Storyteller's Corner, whatever we're calling in here at IFA 2026. It's the franchise rock stars. We have, for the first time ever, live and in person, I have Ali, Derek, Scott, Kristen and Danielle all together in the podcast with us. What's going on, everybody? It's like to be here. No one knows what to say. It's amazing. They're just staring at each other. They're like, they're like, the whole band is here live.

2:08I'm not sure K.P. and Speechless is every really bad thing. Two seconds. So, what are your thoughts so far on IFA 2026? Things you like, maybe things you don't like as much as other years? Have you seen anything cool? Let's go around the room. Anybody got one they want to start with? I mean, the thing that I really respect and enjoy about this particular conference is the theme of a ball. I think that's been like clear through all of the presentations that we've seen as a theme. There have been other conferences where, for me, I think it's been maybe a bit of a stretch. Maybe sometimes it felt like we're in salad. But a ball really seems to be a very clear focus to our own. And I feel like that true one is relevant today. I also love how wide the aisles are. I know that's such a simple thing. But for the first time ever, I don't feel like jammed in my booth. And the center, if you're not here, they call it city center of Main Street, which is really IFA's booth.

3:13And it's this huge, like, networking area and beer garden and bookstore. And it feels like there's a lot more to do than in previous years. It's not just like you're in sessions or you're at the booth. It's like there's always somewhere to meet and there's games on the tables. And there's things to do. And it's just, it's been really easy and seamless, I think, to meet a new person and have a connection and then sit down and talk. And so, I think that's been special to all of us at Ben and Trends. And so, I'm really enjoying it. I think they did a great job. It's clear, like, they really did think about the little things. Like, I was playing hungry, hungry hippos yesterday at the table. And I'm like, they put all these retro games and they've really tried to create a community. And it doesn't, to your point, feel like it's just a tagline. And it does feel very integrated throughout the old conference. So, so far, so good. For me, I liked being able to choose what swag to get rather than just being handed a bag. And I honestly, I didn't realize how much stuff I don't need. But I did take about 10 years' worth of lip balm. So, for me, that was a lot of fun.

4:15There's a robot dog. There was Tetris. I did a claw game. And I have a, there's real dogs too. But there's a robot dog. I want the real. The real ones are good. There's a little, any bitty one that you can put like in your pocket. So, don't run off with it. But that, that's it. I don't know. So far, I like everything that you guys mentioned. I like, I like the little podcast booth here. This is, this is pretty cool. I think it used to this. But I'm going to go back to Derek's point about evolve. I think, I think they got it right this year with these themes. Because there's always a theme to every conference. You know, let's move forward or move up or whatever. I think franchising is evolving. And I think we're seeing that in real time this year. We used to talk about what's franchising going to look like in 10 years. No, I think now we need to worry about what the hell is going to look like in October. And I think the days of franchising being all about those individual owner operators

5:20and mom and pop buying a pizza shop. Like, I think we're evolving passive. Those days may unfortunately be gone. Now we're talking about big deals and private equity and platform brands and companies acquiring other companies. You know, all of the, all of the whispers that we hear in these always. I think that's really what I'm paying attention to this year is not franchising from the, you know, friends I've made over the years. But franchising is a massive business force in this globally economy. So, I don't know. I'm also excited about the number of international brands and people from places outside of the United States that I'm seeing here. I think that's probably a record this year of people from overseas who maybe they took a couple of years off of that travel and now it feels like they're back.

6:20You know, I heard there's an awesome event tonight that like somebody really cool is I'm seeing. Oh, yeah. Well, he couldn't make it so they got me. But yeah, I'm looking forward to the Global Franchise Awards and everybody gets to see my brand new Tuxedo. So, guess what? I was going to get a white tux. But, you know, two things like that's just a bad look and also people would kind of freak out. It's kind of brand-free. Yeah. I remember one time you were wearing a non-black shirt. I think it was at FLDC this year, yeah. And you had to go back and change. I had to go back and change because everybody made me feel weird. So, you were right. I was off brand. Well, for people who are listening, they should know that we can even see right now this outfit or even wearing a black undershirt. I didn't know they made black undershirts, yeah. You haven't special made it and sent in, yeah. So, yeah, it's quite an ordeal.

7:20But, you know, I got to tell you, I'm the easiest person to shop. You never have to guess. Anything else happening this week that maybe you're looking forward to after, of course, the big awards ceremony tonight. Anything else or maybe any people you want to give a shout out to, and Ali, I know the founder of Benatrens received an absolutely phenomenal award this year. I wanted to mention that. Yeah. That Len Fisher is the entrepreneur of the year from IFA. And that was totally well earned. That was fantastic. Yeah, it was really special to see him and his wife here and his family come out to support him. And we've all been kind of on a high about it. It's amazing how many people actually came to our booth and said, oh my gosh, you guys are the ones with the entrepreneur and the year founder. And so it's been a really a big high for all of us. Yeah, I was thinking about it. He signed a book for me yesterday and I was thinking about how many people in this country are wealthy or at least have done well because of the program that Len started to think about.

8:24And don't even know who he is. And he's been able to do it at all, yeah. So, yeah, congratulations Mr. Fisher. Anybody else have anybody you want to give a shout out to or something else happening this week? I do. Okay, so right after this, my one of my friend Chizis is doing a pitch, a business pitch as part of the ascension program, if you've heard of this. And so she's going to be talking about how she, well, she's a physician, how she is now a physician and I'm also a unit owner with massage locks. And I just can't wait to go and listen to her. And I'm so proud of her. It's just here who names Shania, so shout out to Shania. Oh, she. Very good. Anybody else have anything you want to mention before we go? Well, I mean, when I think of, again, I mentioned the evolve theme. And it really got me thinking about what evolution is, is identity over time. There's this kind of obscure thought experiment. It's ancient Greek thought experiment, bear with me.

9:24But it's called the ship of Thesius. And it goes like this. If over the years, every board, nail, and sale is replaced on the ship of Thesius, is it's still the ship of Thesius. And I think that's what franchising is about. It's about consistent identity over time. Operators will come and go, presidents will come and go. The product offering may expand or change, but the brands that figure out how to evolve over time, how to maintain their identity over time. Those are the ones that have real longevity and endurance. You can't control how the market changes. You can't avoid a global pandemic, or political volatility, or AI. You know, the sea is infinite and often cruel. But what you can control is how you manage your ship over time. I am so excited to run that through chat GPT and have it explain what you just said, Derek.

10:24But it sounded beautiful. Why do you look so dapper, Jim? Nobody can see this. But so dapper, you got your velvet jacket. It's all so nice. I actually got to pull out my phone to take a video. But that just was because you really can't explain it to our listeners. When this podcast goes blind, look out for Ali's LinkedIn. Because it will be published. Derek, thank you once again for being the closer. And everyone, thank you for joining me here in the podcast zone at IFA 2026. I appreciate all of you and have a great rest of the week. Love it. Back in a moment after this word from Answer Connect. Running a franchise can be a challenge. Mist calls, unhappy customers. There's a solution for that. Meet Answer Connect, your 24-7 professional answering service. Answer Connect will make sure every call gets answered day or night,

11:26creating delightful experiences for your customers. With Answer Connect, you're not just answering calls, you're building relationships. Answer Connect, your business answered. Call 800-584-0234. That's 800-584-0234. Citrin Cooperman is proud to be the home of one of the leading franchising practices in the country. With over 40 years of franchise experience, Citrin Cooperman provides a full range of services to a vast number of franchise concepts. They work with the owners, operators, controllers, and CFOs of a wide range of franchisors and multi-unit franchisees to help them establish their brands and grow their businesses to the next level. The Citrin Cooperman franchise practice is comprised of experienced CFE accredited professionals providing franchisors and multi-unit franchisees that guidance and insight they need to minimize uncertainty, meet compliance and contractual obligations, and stay focused on building their businesses.

12:28For more information, please contact Michael Ionuzzi at Citrin Cooperman.com. . Social geek back on the air. We are live once again at IFA-2020-6 in the Storytellers Corner. Joining me now is the CEO of Career Plug Clint Smith. What's going on, man? Jack, thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Been a pretty big week for you. You look pretty busy over there in the exhibit hall with your new book signing. Tell us about the book, first of all. Yeah, it's called The Franchise People Playbook. And it's really just designed to get franchisees a system to follow to be able to build winning teams. Nice. So you've been doing this in franchising for a number of years. What was your first IFA show that you made? My first IFA show was in 2013. And I wasn't involved in franchising at all. I had a guy that I was talking to as a VP of operations.

13:28And he said, hey, are you going to be at IFA? And I was like, yeah, I'll be there. So I got in the plane. I didn't even buy the full membership pass, because it was a little earlier in our start-up days by bought the exhibit hall pass and met it's on a people. And I knew that franchising was where we wanted to be. Yeah, what was the first year you guys exhibited here? I think it was probably the next year, you know, the 2014, 2015. Yeah, it was right after. We really got things rolling pretty quickly. There was a big need that we were able to fill. Tell me what career plug does and how it applies to all of these franchise people that we're sitting in front of here today. You know, when franchisees purchase a franchise, they get this playbook, right? It's like, this is what you need to do to run the business. But the chapter in the playbook for people, which you could argue is the most important chapter and the whole thing, is somewhat limited, right? And say, here's, we can't tell you exactly what to do here. And that's what career plug really tries to do is bridge that gap. We can provide those resources.

14:29We can take the recommendations that a franchise or has their best practices, put it into our software so that franchisees right out of the box can have a system they can use to hire and retain the right people. It sounds like you're actually creating the process, the people process for a franchise brand that may be, you know, they've got the process down when it comes to their menu or their food or their marketing or their operations or something. But they probably haven't figured that out with people. That's exactly right. And in the book, I talk about that where there's this idea of the 5th P. So if you think about the four P's of marketing product price, place, and promotion, right, that's to me kind of like what you get when you buy a franchise. But the 5th P people is really the most important one and I think it's the biggest determinant of success for a franchisee. Yeah, so often we hear people finally getting it right where they're talking about you got to have the right butts and the right seats, right? That's it. And if you ask around and say, okay,

15:30what's, if you look at your top performing locations in a brand and your bottom performing locations, what's the biggest difference? I've asked that question consistently. And I've gotten the same answer every time. It's their team. It's the people. Very good. What do you see happening the rest of 2026 and maybe even into next year when it comes to your end of franchising? Lots of changes and you know, we're looking at the American Franchise Act and everything. Where is this all going to go do you think? I think the American Franchise Act is going to be huge. And it's going to really allow franchisors to give franchisees the support they need when it comes to helping them build a winning team. It's like you said earlier, when it comes to delivering their product or service, at Franchise support teams, ops teams have that totally dialed. It's not as established when it comes to supporting them with their people. And it's because there's been a lot of uncertainties to join an employer or whatever else. And people don't know what it is. And a lot of people will say, we're not doing anything. Other people will say, no, we are doing something.

16:32We don't know exactly where this is, but there's a cost of staying on the sidelines. And we're not going to do that either. But once it passes, I think there'll be a clear line of saying, here, this is okay. This is not okay. And the way that the act is written, it's the bills written. It's very clear about what that is. And that's going to allow, it's going to remove the uncertainty and allow people to say, all right, well, if this is what we can work with, here's what we'll focus on supporting. If you see this passing, do you see a big woman hiring in this industry? I think what'll happen is, I think there's going to be a big demand from Franchise Operations teams to say, okay, well, how are we going to do this? What's the best way to support Franchise? Is that the actual hiring piece? I think there will be more of that, too, because I think more Franchisees will get coached on the financial impact of having the right staff. And I think some Franchiseors are reluctant to have that conversation right now. Yeah. They don't want to get tied into anything in case this thing doesn't pass, right?

17:34And like, they want to, but ultimately what they should be doing is saying, hey, if you want to go from $700,000 in revenue to $2 million in revenue, this is what that takes, this is the team you have to have, and we want to provide the support for you to be able to get there. Not the support of like hire this person, don't hire this person, but giving you the overall resources to do it. Is there anything on your plate for the rest of this year that you wanted to talk about with career plug? Anything new you're working on or a new direction you're taking anything? Yeah, it's actually a perfect segue, Jack. We're working on this Franchise People Operating System. And what that is, it's really our solution to the Franchise Industry for how we can help Franchiseors support Franchisees with their people. Got it. So, have people operating systems, that's interesting, tell me more about it? It's really designed to basically create a rhythm for Franchise ops teams to talk with their Franchisees about people stuff, right?

18:36It's like, if they have a site visit, let's say quarterly kind of check in. The whole time is not going to be spent on people, but I'd like for them to be able to say, hey, let's spend 30 minutes on this. There's a way for the Franchise order to be able to log into career plug. See, big picture, hey, this is what the Franchise E wants to accomplish from a revenue perspective. Here's the team that they're going to need. This is what the org chart looks like today. This is what it needs to look like in the future to get there. We can actually start looking at some other things. Let's look at some data and some benchmarking on how you're doing right now. It could be like, how quickly are you getting back to applicants? What percentage of your applicants are turning into interviews or hires? Recruiting is very similar to sales, Jack. It's amazing you just said that because I was just putting it into the sales, especially with the Franch Dev Sales process, and you're saying all of the same things. It's a pipeline. You've got to get from, you know, high up on the pipeline to closing the deal

19:36or in this case, closing with that person and bringing them on board. That's exactly right. If you want predictable results, you've got to put a predictable process in place to be able to manage it. You have to look at the pipeline. And put resources in certain places. Absolutely. And then say, hey, okay, well, where are we lacking right? It looks like there's a gap here between when they apply and the ones that are actually getting through to interview. Let's use our autopilot scheduling. The career plugs autopilot scheduling tool to be able to improve that, for example. And yeah, that's just, I think being able to get into that rhythm of having that and then maybe having some action items, logging the meeting, having some action items and getting to a regular rhythm, I'm using a robot as sort of the visual aspect for the operating system. Okay. I think that's what Franch Dev sales do. They're trying to get everyone to row in the same direction. I think if you get into a habit of doing this, then that momentum is really going to come on. And you'll see the performance. You'll see that bottom to middle of the pack start to catch up and really reach your potential.

20:38Yeah, I love that analogy because, too, it's like, if you bring someone on and they're not growing in the same direction or at the same pace as you. Yes. It's actually worse than if you just didn't bring anyone on. Absolutely. Working against you, yeah. Because it hurts the brand and it just, it creates challenges. And there's going to be a disproportionate amount of support that's going to have to be given to that person to just really try to manage the situation. Very cool. Anything else you guys are working on or anything where you want to say about the people operating system? I would say, actually, what we're using for Franchesies, people know us primarily for hiring. We're putting a lot of energy into retention right now and that's starting first and foremost with onboarding. That is, like, the most important thing right now is if you've got somebody good, how do you keep them? How do you keep them? The first place to start is with onboarding. And I'm not talking about the first day forms. I'm talking about that because a lot of people say, oh, yeah, we do onboarding with our payroll provider.

21:39We send them a kit with a t-shirt. Yeah. It's that or they send them in front of a bunch of screen to watch videos for you. But a lot of people really think of onboard, especially people in HR sometimes think about onboarding as just my i9, my W4, the compliance forms. But what we think about it is it's a 90-day process of connection. It's connecting the new hire with the organization, connecting them with their team and connecting with their manager, which is critical. And the goal is at the end of the 90 days, they're thriving in the role and they're still there. Because a lot of people, they lose people before 90 days. And that's the first area to impact. No one takes a job saying, hey, you know what? I think I'm going to do this for a month or two. Yeah. Yeah. They want to cross that off their list and keep going doing something else. And again, you're kind of making the comparison between hiring and sales when we're talking about onboarding that new person. It's just like onboarding a new client. It's the same thing.

22:39You wouldn't set them a drift because you know you need to interact with them. You invest in them up front, set them up for success, and then you can set them free. And they'll do really well. Awesome. So if people would like to have a conversation with you and your team, or maybe they would just like to get a copy of your book. Yeah. You can go to our website, careerplug.com. And there's a way to download an electronic version. Or just email me at careerplug.com and I'll manage to get you an actual physical copy. If you're actually here at IFA, I hope you've come by to pick one up. But for some reason, you missed our booth. Let me know and I'll get you a copy. Are you going to be at some other events throughout the rest of this year? We will. A lot of our events are going to be mostly franchise or brand events like that we're supporting our franchise awards. Yeah. As far as industry events, we'll definitely be going to franchise business review in October. That's a great event for us. We really enjoy working with them.

23:40And I imagine there are some other ones on our list as well. I think we're going to the National Restaurant Show to kind of hit some of the restaurant franchises a little more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of great events coming up. I hope to see you down the road in a few places. And like I said, everybody, go to the website, get a copy of the book, have a conversation with the careerplug folks. And we will have a link to that site in today's show notes so people can visit you. Clint, thanks so much for joining me here at IFA 2026. Thanks for having me on. We're back on social geek live at IFA 2026 in the Storytellers Corner podcast booth. And in the background, I think you can hear the greatest dance hits of the 90s going on as it has been here all week. Joining me now is Mitch Cohen. Mitch, welcome to the podcast. Jack, thank you for having me. So give me a brief overview on all of the stuff you're doing before we start talking about multi-unit franchise and conference. Tell me about the brands you're working on and some of the other things you're doing these days.

24:42I'm sure happy to do that. So currently I'm Jersey Mike's franchise of nine units, a long island, and also a company called Solace Lot Studios. We have four of those open. I'm also advising on two different brands, Leaf Brands, which is a search firm. And a new franchise called Fran Real. So I'm helping advise on that, which is a real estate broker, which was founded by Ty Grooster. That's our buddy Ty. That's great to hear. So I'm helping out there. And then of course I'm chairing the multi-unit and I sit on the board of the IFA as well. And what days of the week are you taking off right now? Not too many at some. Nothing that ends in why. Got it. Got it. Definitely not today and definitely not tomorrow either. Well, it's fantastic that you're the chair of this year's multi-unit and franchise conference. Let's talk about that show in particular. It's probably the most unique conference in the industry. It's not like anything else. It's also, I got to tell you, it's my favorite show in the year.

25:44The content's just always top notch. That's where all my friends are. And you're probably the same way. So exactly, you know, I started going there about 15 years ago and I found that, although we get educated in every conference we go to, I get the best nuggets at a multi-unit. Talking to friends, we talk about friends. Most of my friends I call them, you know, the family from franchising. It is a family and the sharing of knowledge is amazing. What's competitors with new brands that are coming, new franchises that are coming in, that are multi-unit operators looking to expand their business. It's the best investment I've made in myself in my business since I started going to these conferences. Yeah, I work with about 70 brands right now and there's franchise brands. And there's not a single one of them that I haven't said you really need to consider this. Unless you are going to, you know, stay flat-mind.

26:44If you want to grow in 2026, 2027, this is a show you need to be. Yeah, and the beauty of the show is it's built by franchisees. So the advisory board is all franchisees, the agenda, the speakers, everything's franchisees. It's what's real today. And it's also about talking about mistakes that were made in the past, right? So we don't duplicate those mistakes again. So, you know, the information that you get, the sessions are great. There's fun in between. There's a lot of network and that goes on. You know, the pre-franchise only event that's going to take place in carmines is amazing place to network. Every year I meet new friends and they last forever. There's not a short term. Well, I'm not a franchisee, but is there any way you could sneak me into carmines? I mean, come on, it's carmines. If not, I'll get your doggy bag. Yeah, just drop it off outside. That'd be great. I do want to mention great speaker lineup. I just noticed a couple of things, you know, besides yourself. We also have Greg Flynn speaking, Darryl Johnson from FranData.

27:44Some guy named Matt Haller, I think, is going to drop by in every stage. So, and also, I didn't realize this until I started following him on Instagram a few weeks ago. You've got Jim Craig from the 1980 gold medal U.S. hockey team. Yes, we do. Time is everything, right? Hi. And so you planned it out that we were going to win gold this week, right? I'm afraid we were. So, you know, it's funny because I'm actually friendly with Jim. And when his name came up, or when I was thinking of speakers and motivational people, I've seen him speak before and he came to me right away and he's so giving in every industry and for different. Businesses they speak to. But I remember exactly where I was. I do too. For that game against Russia, 46 years ago. And then I was on the plane now when we just won. And I'll never forget that either. But I was literally texting him and I said, hey Jim, just so you know, you know, great game.

28:48Happy anniversary. And now really, you guys don't mean that much anymore because this is a new thing, right? So, you know, when you gave me an emoji thumbs up, so. But we're looking forward to him. He'll be a great speaker and he'll, I think he's going to hang around a little bit. Oh, good. You have a chance. Yeah, I would love the chance to meet him as well. I've been following him for a while, especially since I found out he's been doing some of these speaking gigs for a while. And it's like, what a better speaker to have, especially there in the spring of 2026. So that's fantastic. If anyone would like to register for the MUFC 26, I want to throw in a quick note that it's the 24th through the 27th at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. And you can register today at multi-unit franchisingconference.com and all the speakers are there and all of that stuff too. So please, and we'll have a link to that in today's show notes. Anything else you would like to throw out there as far as why this is a great event for brands to be involved in and for franchisees to attend?

29:56So when I'm looking at from a brand perspective, you have the best of the best in franchisees that are coming to this event. I'm there trying to better themselves. So if you're looking to get great franchisees inside your brand, this is the place to go from a franchisees perspective. The top brands are there. The top vendors are there. Like I said, I've always taken away great nuggets from it. And the friendships that you're going to make there are going to be long lasting. And you know, from myself, I've brought my partners who don't go to conferences. That is the only conference they go every year. Yeah, I haven't missed it. Yeah. So one of the things that we are looking at is record attendance. We are above the record attendance from last year. Wow. And we're continuing to grow. There's still plenty of space available for vendors for franchisees to sign up. And I think it's really important. So I'm the 26th chair and my goal and my task is to make sure I break all the records for attendance.

30:57So please come help me out. I didn't know that this had turned into a competition. It is now. Yeah. All right. Very good. Well, congratulations on the record attendance already. And let's see if we load those numbers up a little bit more. Again, if anyone would like to register, it's multi-unit franchising conference dot com. Mitch, thanks so much for joining us here at IFA 2026. And we will see you again in just a couple of weeks in Las Vegas. Yeah. And thanks for having me, Jack. I'm really appreciate it. Thanks to all of today's guests, Allie Kraus, Derek Abelman, Kristen Pajek, Daniel Wright, Scott Greenberg, Clint Smith, and Mitch Cohen. Thanks also to the IFA for posting us in franchise Main Street and to our sponsors,

31:58Answer Connect, Citron Cooperman, and Thunderly. And thanks to you for listening, telling a friend about us and staying connected on the social geek. Radio Network.