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Building Culture, Breaking Barriers: Ali Kraus on Leadership in Franchising
7 Plays3 days ago
In this episode of Behind the Build, Curtis Forbes sits down with Ali Kraus, CFE and Chief Marketing Officer at Benetrends Financial, to explore her journey from autism educator to franchise industry leader. Alishares how her passion for people, culture, and community fuels both her marketing career and her nonprofit, Furry Frans, which brings comfort to children in crisis. She opens up about navigating stereotypes, fostering inclusive workplaces across generations, and why scaling culture takes more than HR—it takes energy, empathy, and shared leadership. Whether you’re growing a business or growing as a leader, Ali’s perspective on empowerment and authenticity will leave you inspired.
About Ali:
Ali Kraus, CFE, is the Chief Marketing Officer at Benetrends Financial, where she leads brand strategy, marketing, and growth initiatives for one of the franchise industry’s most trusted funding partners. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the International Franchise Association’s Women’s Franchise Committee, championing empowerment and leadership for women across franchising. Ali is the co-founder of Furry Frans, a nonprofit bringing comfort to children in crisis, and is passionate about building community, creating impact, and helping entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello again, everyone. Welcome back to a new installment of Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. In these episodes, I speak with the people building, backing, and running better workplaces.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm your host, Curtis Forbes. Welcome to today's fireside chat with today's guest, Ali Krauss, CFE. Allie is Chief Marketing Officer at Benetrends Financial, where she leads brand strategy, marketing, and growth initiatives for one of franchise industry's most trusted funding partners.
00:00:37
Speaker
She also serves as vice chair of the International Franchise Association's Women's Franchise Committee, championing empowerment and leadership for women across franchising.
00:00:48
Speaker
Ali's the co-founder of Furry Friends, nonprofit bringing comfort to children in crisis, and is passionate about building community, creating impact, and helping entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality.
Ali Krauss's Professional Achievements
00:01:03
Speaker
Welcome to Voices Behind the Build, Ali. Thank you, Curtis. I love that you added my little CFE onto my title there. It's a very special franchise accreditation I'm very proud of. So so official and important.
00:01:18
Speaker
um I have to hear more about furry friends. We're foster parents and we're really big on um you know creating community.
00:01:28
Speaker
um Tell me a little bit more about what that is. I'm really curious. Yeah, this was the first time I actually got to hear someone introduce me with that because it's brand new. um i too fostered for a long time.
00:01:40
Speaker
But the funny piece of Furry Friends is it's actually referencing stuffed animals, but we called it furry instead of stuffy, as my five year old would say. and Because we wanted to make sure when building the nonprofit that we could expand it maybe into the fostering world or into real animals.
00:01:57
Speaker
ah But for now, it's a brand new officially registered nonprofit, specifically in the franchising space to bring ah comfort to children in crisis. Myself and Chris Stewart, who is over at Bloomin' Blinds franchise, um came together and created this. We both have a really big passion for nonprofits and giving back to communities. And we saw an opportunity to support and do something great in franchising.
00:02:21
Speaker
So we're launching our very first inaugural event, September 6th. in Washington, DC at the IFA's advocacy event. But we have lots of events coming this year. You can find them all furryfrans.com.
00:02:35
Speaker
um But essentially what the nonprofit does is we team up with local events, whether that be large franchise events or smaller WFN, FBN events. And people bring a stuffed animal, new or gently loved, to donate to fire EMS and police stations all across the country ah because frequently those first responders actually have stuffed animals under their seat and they give them to children in moments of crisis.
00:03:01
Speaker
Sounds so cool. Yeah. And it's really easy to participate because it's and that's what love about it is a single person can bring one stuffed animal that they stole from their child or bought at the airport in their suitcase to an event. But companies can also do much larger sponsorships and support the nonprofit from that way. We can ship multiple bundles of them. The wonderful Women's Franchise Committee sent me almost 200 of them vacuum sucked in the mail as a surprise. So Lots of ways to get involved, but it's a brand new thing. And I do it in my free time as if I have any of that. But really special to both Chris and I, and we're excited to bring it to the franchise world. So I appreciate that.
00:03:38
Speaker
That's really neat. Congratulations on doing that. As you describe it, I'm just trying to think if any of my daughters have gently loved any of any of their stuffies.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, gently loved is a funny word we say very slowly because that means it like has a tag and no stains. ah So we probably have to work out the kinks on that one a little because your version of gently loved might be different than mine or the next person.
00:04:03
Speaker
um But I always laugh because I got suckered into bringing a new one home to my daughter from every franchise event I go to. And that was totally not the point when I first asked her if I could travel with one of her stuffies and take photos across the U.S. s with it.
00:04:18
Speaker
um But, you know, she sucked me in and I buy a new one at every airport I go to. So I'm going to try to stop doing that and give back to free friends. Yeah. Listen, I mean, it it beats the shot glass, right? Story where that everybody buys at all the airports that they, ah that they, that they're in. So, you know, at least that's an improvement. so um So you have a lot of really interesting and diverse experiences, right? I feel like you're the kind of person who does it all.
00:04:48
Speaker
Today, you're here to talk with me about culture, people, the workplace. How have some of these past experiences that you have had shaped ah you as a
Career Journey and Focus on People and Culture
00:05:00
Speaker
people person?
00:05:00
Speaker
What are some of the lessons about people, about relationships, about you know human relationships okay excuse me that you gained you know during maybe your time is a as an educator or even with the Ravens?
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think going back to being an educator is really the start of it all is that I was an autism teacher before going into marketing and franchising. And at the end of the day, it's it's all about people. And I think the more I've changed my careers, it's less about the day to day of marketing and more about my team and I think I just realized quickly that I love it.
00:05:33
Speaker
Like we have a wonderful HR department at Benetons and, and with the Ravens and the um front offices of other jobs I've been with. But when it comes down to it, I've always found myself very deeply ingrained with the people of not just my team, but my company. And I think it's just because I find joy in it. And I think people with a lot of energy who like to do things, especially in a digital world,
00:05:55
Speaker
is where that stems from. So I find myself just being a person that inserts themselves into supporting with culture and workplace fun, because at the end of the day, I mean, it's such the classic tale of if you don't love what you're doing, why are you doing it? And so um I think more people need to contribute to that, which is partially where the passion comes from, that if I can contribute to positive workplace culture and doing exciting, fun things that keep our team energized and ready to show up in their home offices to work every day, then I'm doing something right because I can also pass it down to the next person that maybe didn't know that they could step in or insert themselves in support in a way that doesn't just mean you're part of an HR organization. So I think at the end of the day, it's just going to be the people with passion that insert themselves to those opportunities to
00:06:44
Speaker
build build everything from networking to engagement to what it is at your company. And that looks very different in an office versus online digitally. So it's just, it's something we're all still navigating five years later after the word I refuse to say on this call.
00:07:00
Speaker
um So that's that's where it is for me. It just goes back to how much I enjoy it. And it's not a made up passion. It's more genuine than I can explain. it um And it's, you know, all of these different stops that you've made, it's not it's not really even reinventing yourself. It's just taking that next step, right, into, you know, a ah new challenge and and growth. And I think that that's super cool, all those different things that you've done. in you You bring all that experience into this role that you have now, right? You're Chief Marketing Officer at Benetrends. And so we have to ask, tell everybody, what Benetrends?
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, so Benetrends has been around for about 43 years now, definitely not new to the franchising space, um Our founder about 43 years ago, his name is Len Fisher, still the chairman of our board, um actually created what's known today as Rollover as Business Startups, also shortened to ROBS.
00:07:53
Speaker
um Len was an ERISA attorney and worked directly with the IRS to create ROBS funding, which is a funding strategy that allows you to take your 401k and roll that over to be able to use that strategy.
00:08:05
Speaker
tax-deferred, penalty-free for your business. So really unique funding strategy that a lot of other companies other than Benetrends can do today, but we very much pride ourselves on um being the first and the largest to do it.
00:08:18
Speaker
And um we fund thousands of brands. We funded more than 40,000 entrepreneurs in the U.S. now. um But we also do plenty of other funding options like SBA lending, business plan writing,
00:08:30
Speaker
um And that sort of thing. But our our bread and butter and our history really goes back to what a Rob's plan is. And so it's a really special and very unique product that we get to share not only with the franchise world, but with the business world as an opportunity to use funds that you maybe didn't even know you had available to you to become an entrepreneur.
00:08:50
Speaker
how How much of the business is really dedicated to franchising and how much is outside of the world of franchising? For us, I would probably say about 90% of what we do is the franchise world.
00:09:03
Speaker
um Maybe 10% not, but we fund some really fascinating businesses. We've seen a lot of RV camps come in. um Trying to think of some other fun ones. Really unique. A lot of restaurant concepts, of course.
00:09:16
Speaker
Sometimes even franchisors are actually looking to get the capital they need to launch their franchise business. So that's something that we could fund as well. um But definitely mostly heavily in the franchise space. That's...
00:09:28
Speaker
where's and chips are This is good. This kind of leads me to that question I have. I'm really curious about here to hear about the kinds of clients that you work with, the kinds of people who might come to Benetrends and why do they come to Benetrends versus you know some alternatives?
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're franchisees for the most part. And most of our relationships lie um not with the end client or the end user here, in which case it is the entrepreneur. um That person becomes a client for the rest of their business life, as we say, once they um enter into our operational team or our pension side.
00:10:04
Speaker
of our business. But for the most part, majority of the actual, what you could call a client that we work with is directly the franchisor and then the franchise consultants and brokers. So most of our business is broker driven. So brokers need to get their candidates funded and they come to Benetrends because of a relationship they have. So from where I stand in marketing and and working alongside Michael Minatelli of our sales team here at Benetrends,
00:10:29
Speaker
Most of our heavy interactions are really broker, franchisor, and that consultant world of business. Got it. Got it. And then for the 401k side, it's with the individuals, i would imagine. Yeah, those would be the entrepreneurs. So once they move their retirement plan over and they're working with Benetrends, Benetrends is doing everything from their tax forms, which is called a form 5500 every year for that business. We're supporting with um any type of audit or questions that you have on your retirement plan.
00:10:56
Speaker
And then we actually help with the termination of your plan as well. So that's when um you get ready to sell your business or retire or move on from the business that you bought into. So those are all services that come along with the relationship as well.
00:11:08
Speaker
Awesome. So back to you. um How did you end up at Benetrends? Or even before that, how did you end up in the world of like franchising, right? You're so passionate and and and knowledgeable about the franchise space.
00:11:21
Speaker
I'm kind of curious about how you ended up here. What's the story? So I used to make the joke that I ended up here by accident, but I recently learned that's not funny because everyone says that.
00:11:32
Speaker
And up until only recently, you couldn't really go to school for franchising or get education in the franchise space. So everybody ended up here by accident, whether it was their family owned a franchise or someone told them about it or LinkedIn came into play because that's how we all get jobs now.
00:11:47
Speaker
um but But really, I was ah working as an autism teacher for a long time. I was in Baltimore County Public Schools. um And i it just it wasn't doing it for me. I loved the kids, but the system was burning me. And I had this passion for growth. And I also learned that I loved to work with the communities and um the education side of things, of involving parents. And i was doing everything from IEP team meetings to talking to lawyers at 21 years old. Lord knows how I figured that out as a young kid in the workplace.
00:12:17
Speaker
ah But I stumbled upon the CEO of um what's called Celebrity School, which is an emerging franchise in the education space. I met the CEO, Richie Huffman, and I showed up in his office one day. I sat at his seat at the board table because I didn't know any better.
00:12:31
Speaker
um And the two of us ended up talking for almost three hours. And born from that conversation, I quit teaching, which was really hard because I absolutely felt like a failure, which is a conversation for another day.
00:12:42
Speaker
that I was switching careers seven years in. um But I couldn't have been more wrong. Richie and I just clicked. We had all these amazing ideas together and I became his director of events and was very fortunate to go through a full company rebrand after he had been in business for 26 years.
00:12:57
Speaker
So I was very deeply immersed in marketing and with the marketing team at the time who got to help support the franchise business, which was launching just about a year after I started. So really learned everything, got my CFE from Celebrity School. And then I ended up at Entrepreneur Magazine for a while and went to the supplier side and got a taste of digital marketing with my good friend, Leanne Caruso. And then I ended up at Benetrends about three and a half years ago and
Transition into Franchising
00:13:24
Speaker
I heard a statistic one time that 80% of women never enter the C-suite because they are financially illiterate.
00:13:32
Speaker
And that rocked me, especially as somebody who was on the Women's Franchise Committee. I thought, where is the gap? Where are we missing the opportunity to to learn financing and grow financing? And for me, i didn't know a whole lot about Benetrends, but I thought, what?
00:13:48
Speaker
this is my next opportunity to do something great in marketing for a company that's been around a really long time. But also I knew that I would learn a lot. And I think that's important in a company is that you're also getting what you're putting in.
00:14:03
Speaker
and And that was a huge opportunity for me. And I am so grateful I did because I still am not an expert in funding. I will not go deeper into Rob's than I already have on this call.
00:14:13
Speaker
um But but like I'm dangerous enough now that um I understand what options are are out there and how we can support franchises um from a funding perspective. I love that you said the, you know, first of all, I love that you said that you found franchising by accident, but that everybody says that. And it's true. I mean,
00:14:33
Speaker
i I often tell people that if I had to do knowing now what I know about franchising and as we've gotten deeper into that space, you know, knowing what I know now, if I had to do it all over again, I probably would start there because it's such, it's an amazing place. It's an amazing community and everybody just uplifts everybody else, right? There's your, your, your swimming in opportunity and you're, you're surrounded by people who will,
00:15:03
Speaker
Speak your name in a crowded room of opportunity. And that is what's so special about the world of franchising to me um that you just don't find in other places.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's so true. And but i think one of the great things that's helped shaping the opportunity to get that lack of education in franchising is everything the IFA is doing with that CFE program. We jumped to the call with me being so proud of my CFE designation, um but they actually require you to go through educational training with some of the universities that support that. So um the Yum Center brand, if if you know, if anyone listening knows Kathy Gosser, um she's incredible. She's at University of Louisville. And I went through this six week program with them to support my CFE and just learned so much about franchising in six weeks that that is how I killed my time during the layoffs.
00:15:54
Speaker
Again, during the word I yeah on this call. um So there's a lot of educational resources out there that probably wouldn't have been when I originally went into the workforce at 21 years old. So very, very grateful ah with all the work the IFA is doing with Titus Center, of Franchising University of Louisville and so on that is just supporting people from all all realms of franchising now.
00:16:15
Speaker
So as a CMO, what does your role look like, particularly when it comes to people dynamics, right? You have to lead, collaborate ah
Maintaining Workplace Culture Remotely
00:16:26
Speaker
with and and build relationships with a lot of people in your organization.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah, totally. And I think I started to touch on this a little bit ago that but we have a wonderful HR team here at Benetrends. But um ever since I came here, I think it was Benetrends was historically an in-person job before the pandemic hit. And it was for many, many years, a very tight knit group of people in a small little area called Lansdale Park.
00:16:52
Speaker
Lansdale, Pennsylvania. um And so everybody had this fantastic workplace culture where they did barbecue days and ice cream days and potlucks. And and they had a whole fun crew internally where they had a lot of opportunities to build. And um in very, very early 2020, Benetrends moved to a much larger office that ah could accommodate about 120 cubicles and offices. And nobody to this day has moved in.
00:17:19
Speaker
Wow. So it sits there. There's a couple of people that go in here and there. we utilize it for events and meetings, but um we have moved to a fully hybrid office.
00:17:30
Speaker
And we have people all across the country and a couple outside of the continental U.S. now as well. um So making that shift, I think there was always this thought of, well, one day we'll go back. Well, one day we'll go back.
00:17:42
Speaker
Well, it's okay if we hired 20 people outside. One day we'll go back. um But that's really just not the nature of of where we are in the world. and And the the full remote opportunity is working well for us. and And we have a lot of new people who have come in that have been remote their whole lives.
00:17:58
Speaker
And so... I think just now where it's taken a long time that really just this year in 2025, our team has been like, okay, this is for good.
00:18:09
Speaker
What are we going to do? Because everyone did a fantastic job in the early beginning days of let's make martinis on a Friday together and get this cocktail kit and let's take cooking classes and do this.
00:18:20
Speaker
But it In my opinion, at least in my experience, that shot up and then rocketed to the floor. And so it takes somebody with, in my opinion, again, the energy and the drive and the willingness to be able to bring a team together and facilitate the necessary things you have to do because culture looks very different.
00:18:41
Speaker
um from a remote to in-office to hybrid workspace. And so um it's just recently something that we've begun to kick off here at Benetrends. And we're having a lot of fun doing it because at the end of the day, it takes a lot of manpower to continue keeping that energy up from from a digital perspective, at least.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's it's not easy. And it's also crazy for me to think sometimes that there are people in the workforce that that this is literally all they know. and And maybe that sort of ages me a little bit, but. Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker
yeah New people coming in. It's funny that, that I was like, wait, but didn't you have an office before it all happened? and And they didn't, at times are changing. And I think we're going to see that more and more and more. So we have to get past the conversation of, well, we don't know what we're doing. And we were in person and I missed the ice cream days. Yeah. Okay. But the ice cream days are not coming back.
00:19:33
Speaker
So where are we going from here and how, and it's either going to work for you or not. yeah but We have employees leaving too because they want to go work in person and they need that human interaction.
00:19:45
Speaker
um But for the most part, we we have a little over 100 employees and it's working fantastic for us. And we just need little little fun holiday events and culture opportunities and ways to meet each other, especially when we're bringing in new people and growing so often.
00:19:59
Speaker
um it's it's hard to remember that there's these new people that have never had those interactions. yeah That's the biggest gap right now is the ones that have never had interactions versus the one who remember the old days. so Who remember the old days. Yeah. Well, so let's talk about this. Thinking of of your own team, how do you help build that culture, support those employees from, let's say, different backgrounds and locations and creating this inclusion and belonging with everybody? You know, help your team members feel better you know heard, seen. um i'm ki Do you have specific examples of things that you've done and how those have worked out?
00:20:37
Speaker
have a really small team here. There's only four of us. We're a small but mighty marketing team. so There's only four of us total. and so when i When I think of how do we build culture and talk about backgrounds, i for me, I picture bigger opportunities than just the day-to-day conversations. It's when you have small team is it's not as easy to be like, let's get us all on a call. Like it's just kind of not necessary.
00:20:59
Speaker
And I think for me, I've got three gals on my team who all are very similar to me in the sense of they're very organized. They're very type a They we have very close relationships with each other. But for me, I think the biggest game changer is that even though we all have similarities, we have huge differences.
00:21:15
Speaker
And so I know on a Monday morning which of those girls I can call and get straight to work on. Hey, I sent you something on Saturday. Sorry it was the weekend, blah, blah, blah.
00:21:26
Speaker
The rest, it's like, tell me about the dog. How was the weather in your state on Saturday? And it takes a lot more time to to engage in that. And I think as leaders, we can do probably a better job at knowing how our people like to be approached because that can be the biggest game changer in how your conversations and how you're set up for the whole week. So Mondays are a very important time to reset every week on expectations and how we interact and how we check in on each other and what photos we share and how personal we get. Because some people that couldn't that couldn't matter at all. And in fact, they don't want to tell you nothing about their personal life.
00:22:03
Speaker
And the other side, they almost can't function until they have it. So I think knowing your team members on a personal level is is all you need at the end of the day. is We speak differently to everybody the same way you want to be approached differently by people.
00:22:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that's insightful. and I think that, you know you have the luxury probably of doing that with a smaller team, you know, but zooming out a bit, you know, with with a distributed team in a lot of places, with an organization that has, you know, 100 people, and you may need to interact with a lot more than than them on on some particular days, right? There's a lot of employers, I think, that find...
00:22:38
Speaker
you know, culture, this sort of inclusivity and belonging community, they're they're big challenges for for them. um You know, organization-wide, have you seen that? is Is that a challenge? Is that something you've seen at Benetrends or even with some of the other organizations that you've worked for or even collaborated with just based on their size or or the distribution of their team members?
Building an Inclusive Culture
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think you have to be willing to ask. And for us, again, i was the person that was like, let's have this Zoom call every quarter and do a trivia game and we'll give out Amazon gift cards.
00:23:09
Speaker
But also had to get to a point where after a couple of years of doing that, I personally was starting to get burnout. And then I noticed for two quarters, I didn't book one. And I had to be like, wait a minute, that's not fair to A, myself who created this and B, to the rest of the company who...
00:23:25
Speaker
We had 50 people show up on these trivia games or these activities that we were doing virtually. um So I had to I had to also put aside that I can be a little controlling and that can be a detriment because I wanted to be able to do these, but was lacking the time to do them.
00:23:42
Speaker
And so just recently we put out a survey. do you want to be involved with what we're calling our vibe squad? And not only do you want to be involved, but we also asked how much you want to be involved because we found through our survey, which is really fantastic. um A lovely woman who runs our IT team here named Danielle and I put this out. Danielle was one of the OGs from the company that ran the in-person group. So Danielle and I created our vibe squad and we asked very specific questions.
00:24:09
Speaker
So We didn't want to deter somebody who was like, whoa, I can't do what Allie does. I can't do quarterly events that I am sending graphics and emails and surveys and PowerPoints and hosting and prizes.
00:24:21
Speaker
That is a lot for one person and my energy level. And like I can do that quicker than the than the normal person, probably because I'm just like insane. But I think what what we had to do is we had to get very granular.
00:24:34
Speaker
If you want to be involved, how much does that mean? And not necessarily how much does that mean on a minute basis per month, but do you want to be somebody that doesn't even get on the call? You just want to be what we call a rallier.
00:24:46
Speaker
Do you want to rally your department or your friends or your people? to participate? Do you want to be an organizer? That person is maybe not the host, but somebody that contributed to the planning of it.
00:24:59
Speaker
And then that honestly, we spread that out to like six to eight, I think different options for people. And it's amazing because of the 16 people from our company who signed up to be part of the Vibe Squad, we had exactly two people in each of those categories.
00:25:15
Speaker
And I think that's a really stark reminder to ask people and give them the opportunity to know how much they can physically, mentally, and emotionally contribute to supporting culture and staff and inclusion in a company. And so I just think with this distributed team you asked about, there are plenty of challenges. But if you give people the opportunity to be very specific in not only what they want, but how they want it, you're going to get way better results than just raising hands and saying yes and no.
00:25:45
Speaker
i love that you've named all of these, all of these things. I love the vibe squad. um i love the the names for, you know, all the different responsibilities in there, which is almost makes it more, it just makes it more meaningful, more more tangible. um So we talked a little bit about this sort of multi-generational, what we'll call it a gap. We talked briefly about it because there's a lot of young folks who don't know a different world than one that's hybrid, right? Or remote. And there's a world of folks that only knew that until recently.
00:26:26
Speaker
um So when we talk about a lot of this culture or or diversity in the workplace, you know, there are things like race, ah you know, gender, sexual orientation, all these things.
00:26:38
Speaker
The multigenerational workplace workforce is a big part of that puzzle, in my opinion, as much as all those other things. I'm just curious if having like, you know.
00:26:52
Speaker
all of these different generations right now at present, does does it present some sort of unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to your culture specifically? So when you sent out that survey and you asked a whole bunch of people if they wanted to participate and do some of these things, did you find you were getting different answers based on some things like that? And I mean, if you're open to sharing, you know, has it presented any challenges or opportunities, I guess, for you Meditrance?
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think I have two thoughts on it. The first is very similar to what I was just sharing. as I think the more you understand a multi-generational workforce, the more you also understand the how of how people want to contribute and be involved. And so I think that was really important to us here when trying to come up with a way to build opportunities for all.
00:27:41
Speaker
Here's another great example. um I don't even know what bucket this falls into, but we're having a steps challenge right now. And that's just how many steps are you taking a day? And you record it every Monday.
00:27:53
Speaker
Today was our first day recording it. and you have to send a picture of your steps, either from your watch, your Fitbit, your phone, or what have you. um And in that, knowing that there is a wide array of age gaps and abilities on our team, before we launched that, we wanted to be so sensitive of everyone.
00:28:15
Speaker
Now, first of all... and You don't have to sign up for it. So there's your first out of, if you don't want to be part of this, don't be part of it. But that's never going to stop the complainers and the problems of, well, I want to do it, but you didn't take me into consideration.
00:28:30
Speaker
So I think by offering... The opportunity to be in it is step one, but also the opportunity to win different prizes, not just for the most stepped person. Because I'll be honest, we submitted our our steps today and someone on the team took like 150,000 last And I was at like 19.
00:28:51
Speaker
So like I had a horrible week. Wow. But here's the thing about it. We are giving a prize to the most steps. That person will likely win because I cannot touch him.
00:29:03
Speaker
And I do not. He must be walking on a treadmill. all eight hours of the day. Like I don't understand it. And I am still having fun with this. Okay. But we also evaluated and work together on what other kinds of awards we can give.
00:29:17
Speaker
Can we give a personal award for having the most growth? Did week four look better than your week one? Yes. It doesn't matter what age you are. It doesn't matter how fit you are. It doesn't matter if you're taking a hundred steps a day and you improve to 110 You're still recognized for change, for a healthy lifestyle, for participating. And so I think sometimes it's so simple like that is think about think about the others. And we don't all always do that. We my CEO says to me all the time, not everyone's alley.
00:29:46
Speaker
Not everyone's Allie, Allie. Remember that. Not everyone's Allie. And Rocco is wonderful, a very big name in franchising, and he's a very wise man. And so I think about it all the time because I think as humans, we we do that naturally in most places of our life. We think, well, I i took it this way, so didn't you?
00:30:03
Speaker
And that comes across and in conversations, and interactives in in interactions, in sports, in the way we talk to each other at work, the way we type in email.
00:30:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Not everyone is Ali. And reflect on that yourself. Not everyone is Curtis. Not everyone is Ali. And as humans, we're going to take things and be presented with challenges differently. So I think the more open minded that we can give with some of those multigenerational pieces of the puzzle, the more opportunity you have for people to feel included and like they were heard.
00:30:36
Speaker
And then if we didn't do it right on this steps challenge, guess what? We're going to another one next month and we're going it better. and we're going to give more prizes and we're going to include more people. And we're going to energize the heck out of it because the 27 of us that did sign up for it on this first month are having a lot of fun together.
00:30:52
Speaker
And it's been really cool to see that I'm not judging my 19,000 steps last week compared to someone's 2019, right? And so I think it's been a really good eye-opening glance at our first activity is working because we took the time before launching it to try our very best to meet everybody's needs.
00:31:15
Speaker
I have to tell you, like you i feel i I get a lot of energy from talking with you, and I feel like I'm about ready to run through a brick wall. I i like it. I like it. i'm i'm i'm i know i was going ready I'm ready to break the huddle and go run for a touchdown right now.
00:31:31
Speaker
um but um But you know you've you you've kind of answered, I feel like, one of... One of the follow-ups that I like to to you know approach after this and is really kind of getting into some nitty gritty of things that can be done to bridge this generational gap, culture gap. I mean, all the the gap of there's there's all of these things, right?
00:31:57
Speaker
you know you talk about asking questions and just creating that dialogue, right? And finding different ways for folks to be included so that we can all participate in ways that make sense for for us, where whatever life stage that that we're in. And I think that that's incredibly important. and You also bring up another um another topic actually that I talk a lot about, and that's this recognition blind spot.
Leadership and Open-mindedness Across Generations
00:32:26
Speaker
you know And whether it's recognition or just communication blind spot, it's this concept that we tend to mirror our our own tastes, preferences, behaviors, et cetera, with other people, right? The idea that you know not everybody's Allie, not everybody's Curtis.
00:32:43
Speaker
And so making sure that while I might be comfortable going and walking X number of steps, the next person might not be ready, willing, or able to do that kind of thing. So setting that expectation might be unfair, right? Organization wide. And I think that that's a blind spot that a lot of leaders tend to have. And I think, I think that's improving, right? I think things like that are getting a lot better, but it exists.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that completely. um Do you feel Tell me what your feelings are on a lot of the leaders that you are that you you work with, that you encounter, that you do business with. Do you feel like a lot of today's leaders understand a lot of these special challenges, whether it's multi-generational or a variety of different things to include people from all different you know backgrounds? And do you think the understanding of this issue is possibly itself a generational challenge?
00:33:42
Speaker
I do think it's a generational challenge. However, i think it's getting better because i think the generations coming in are not as much about the stereotypes of the past.
00:33:55
Speaker
yeah And so I think that I myself have struggled with feeling part of ah stereotype, whether that be, and I don't always open up about this, Curtis, because it's very personal, but I'm challenging myself to do so because i I'm not so much young anymore because I just entered my late 30s, but I was somebody young in the workforce, moving through franchising.
00:34:20
Speaker
i I am blonde. And that's a stereotype. I am a former cheerleader, unfortunately for the sport. That's a stereotype. And so it's challenging to overcome and not succumb to stereotypes or the norms or the assumptions about who you are based on how you look, how you act, how old you are, what your past is. And so I think that the new generation is recognizing that stereotypes are not everything anymore. and And they used to be a lot more difficult. Like we look around the room with the Women's Franchise Committee at how many women are in the room now at franchise events.
00:35:02
Speaker
And for me, it feels very normal now to have women and wonderful women in leadership all around me at events. But If you flashback 10, 20 years ago, there was maybe one woman in the room.
00:35:15
Speaker
And I hear this all the time from the founders of the WFC. And it is hard to picture a time like that because at the generation I'm in right now, I see women. Can it be better? better Absolutely. We are always supporting and creating initiatives to amplify women's voices in franchising.
00:35:36
Speaker
um But I can't even relate to the way it used to be because I wasn't around. I wasn't around when there was no women in the world in the world. And so that's just that's one example of how I think bringing in younger generations are helping support culture and leaders are starting to recognize that.
00:35:53
Speaker
um That there are differences. And while there are challenges, having really tough conversations about stereotypes and being willing to hear somebody, in my opinion, is one of the hardest hurdles to overcome because you can get somebody like me who doesn't want to share that I was a cheerleader because I'm I'm too afraid of what somebody might think of me.
00:36:13
Speaker
But now I'm at a place where I can talk about cheerleading as a sport and give statistics on the NFL and and talk about how many men are now cheering in the NFL and how times have changed and the level of athleticism that is coming through not only the NFL, but collegiate palm and cheer teams and dance teams now. And so this passion, though, took a long time for me to get to. And it was about something I love.
00:36:36
Speaker
So if it's also something about who we are, the family or the culture we were born into, you can't control that. So overcoming so many of those personal thoughts and and opinions about it is can be very difficult for someone. So I think as leaders, it's our job to be comfy and find opportunities to, to praise and find value and find energy and love in the differences across our teams, because in the end it makes our companies better.
Empowering Leaders for Scalable Culture
00:37:03
Speaker
It's bringing different perspectives and different experiences. And so, um, it's very difficult, but I think it's getting a lot better because I think open-mindedness is so much more valued, um, personally in our culture, but also professionally now.
00:37:18
Speaker
I would agree with that and kind of leads me into this next question of, okay, so, you know, I think that we can agree, right. Boils down to meeting people where they're at, right. Understanding that everybody's unique, right. We all have a particular set of wants, needs, motivators, et cetera.
00:37:38
Speaker
um I know that that can make a lot of business leaders nervous, um a lot embrace it, but you feel there's a way to do this in a way that's scalable and manageable. What does that look like when the when the organization grows to an enormous size? How do we scale that kind of culture?
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah, I've never worked for an enormous organization. However, I think that the biggest change I've seen at Benetrends lately is putting more trust and opportunity into those beneath you too.
00:38:09
Speaker
I think that it's it's not just your C-suite, it's your next level leaders. It's the next level leaders below that. And I think there's this older view of the org chart and it's just the people up top. But we if we're If we're doing that, we are limiting the number of of brains we have to go into the needed attention that workplace culture has. And it's not just the responsibility of your HR team.
00:38:34
Speaker
Similarly, it's not just the responsibility of your C-suite. so I think utilizing people below you and and encouraging growth among your own teams allows other people to feel valued and like they have a voice. And it's the only way to scale, whether you have thousands at your company or 50. It's the same way I learned like I can't host trivia every quarter on my own. It's a silly example of there are 15 other people from different teams from my team.
00:39:02
Speaker
who are taking leadership and feeling important with something that at the end of the day doesn't affect your business in that sense. like We have to recognize that too. You might have people on teams that aren't the right fit for the next leader position when it comes from...
00:39:18
Speaker
and to the point of a new job title or a promotion. But if you can include people on something fun, like activities and culture building opportunities, then that's still leadership. And it's still cultivating this team feeling of growth.
00:39:34
Speaker
And everybody wants to feel like they are growing and contributing to something. and And at the end of the day, it's how you scale it because there's so many more people you can tap into to support whatever initiatives you're you're focusing on.
00:39:50
Speaker
um So I know we have a couple of minutes left here and i I'm going to squeeze a whole bunch of questions here in in one with a quick ah shameless ah
The Role of Technology in Engagement
00:40:00
Speaker
ah plug. You know, Mustard Hub is is a solution for engagement and and personalization, you know, of this culture building, right?
00:40:08
Speaker
Aside from Mustard Hub and solutions like ours, you know, I'm just kind of curious, what what tools... Um, what technological tools, you know, do you do you guys use, or would you want to use when it comes to building community and supporting those people? And then I would kind of follow that up because I'm curious if you see a role for AI and, and technology playing, um you know, if see it playing a role in the future of work overall.
00:40:35
Speaker
Yeah, um we're doing nothing like Mustard Hub does in plainest terms. I mean, I'm literally still thinking of like the sticker tablet I'm giving my daughter for having good days at kindergarten this year and trying to figure out the technological answer to that with our teams and encouraging teams. And obviously sales teams have have bonuses and sales quotas and that sort of thing. But at the end of the day, the only thing we use is our chat and a ton of GIFs.
00:41:03
Speaker
So I think there's a huge opportunity for both AI and technology to contribute to something that's still lacking for online companies that ah don't have rewards charts like my daughter's kindergarten classroom and and don't have the old school whiteboard of watching growth. And I had a CEO once that used to use a Sharpie marker on all the glass windows of the office. And you always knew where everyone was because you'd write it on your glass window. And so there's there's a huge, huge opportunity, Curtis. And I know that us here myself and And others at Benetrons are so excited for what you're building, what Mustard Hub is doing, because there's a massive gap.
00:41:39
Speaker
Awesome. um Before I let you go, what advice, just quickly, what advice would you have for any up and coming leaders?
Advice for New Leaders
00:41:46
Speaker
You know, what would be the single most important thing you could tell them about what they could do better as a leader when it comes to the people that they work with, right? You're in an elevator, you're almost at the top floor before they walk right out the door. What do you tell them?
00:41:57
Speaker
So in my experience, flashing back to when I was a teacher, anyone who has children knows that there's a ton of professional development days where there are three hour early dismissals and day off for teachers. Those days, teachers are forced to be professionally developed in whatever way their school, county, state requires them to be.
00:42:17
Speaker
So when I went into the world of franchising, I had this whoa moment of why is nobody telling me what to learn? and And I think it's very sad that outside of being a teacher, nobody is there to support your own personal growth as a leader. So my advice, knowing both sides of that now, is that you have to do that on your own.
00:42:39
Speaker
You have to be logging on to webinars and listening to podcasts. I personally am not a big reader, but webinars and podcasts and opportunities to learn and be credentialed in new ways technologies and get all of the little certification stamps on my LinkedIn.
00:42:56
Speaker
Those are those are empowering and exciting to me because there are opportunities to learn and no one's going to do it for me. So while I have to do it for myself, I find every opportunity online for my marketing team and I send them and I don't even care if they do them.
00:43:14
Speaker
I just want to help give them the opportunity because it is wildly difficult to find ways to get better as leaders. with nobody telling you.
00:43:25
Speaker
That's, I mean, that it's 100% true. I mean, this was a really wonderful, really insightful conversation, Allie. Thank you so much for joining me today. Really appreciate you being here. Yeah, go jump through that brick wall now. Let's go.
00:43:37
Speaker
Big thanks to all of you tuning to Mustard Hub Voices behind the build. Please like and share this episode. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Visit mustardhub.com to learn how we can help companies become destinations for workplace happiness and turn culture into a competitive edge. And while you're there, be sure to sign up and get started with Mustard Hub for free.
00:44:00
Speaker
Thanks, everyone. Thank you.