Celebrating Pillars of Franchising Magazine's Anniversary

by Johanna Selmeczy

Recently, I sat down with the original partners of the Pillars of Franchising, LLC to discuss what has happened in the year that Pillars has transitioned from a hobby with two old friends (Fred McMurray and Ray Pillar) to a full-fledged business focused on helping people through the process of buying and succeeding in franchising through the podcast, the magazine, our Million Dollar Mentors, and our investment program.

So there are multiple types of people you’ll find you work with. There are those you’ll never work with no way, no how, no reason. There are those that you will work with for free.

Johanna Selmeczy: How do you guys feel now that it’s already been a year since the beginning of Pillars?

Kristin Selmeczy: I feel like time has flown by. But I’m getting anxious. So, like with any startup, everybody knows that it typically takes a little more than a year. The first year is just figuring everybody out, right? Like, who are the players? Who has what to contribute? How do we put it all together? How do we create this vision? There are so many parts with Pillars, so many “pillars,” right, and so with all of those, it’s creating a leader within each vertical. It’s determining how each vertical generates cash. It’s how you keep people engaged when we all have busy lives and careers outside of Pillars because right now we’re all just volunteering. It’s kind of blood, guts and tears push right now. And there’s nothing except for a vision and everybody’s belief that we will be successful that’s keeping it together.

Fred McMurray: And coffee.

K.S. And more coffee!

J.S. Anything else to add Fred? I mean, you’ve been around for even longer, right? You were the “fearless founder” as it says on the website, so you’ve seen Pillars from the very beginning.

K.S. We call him the mad scientist. Or Evil Skippy, right?

F.M. I like Evil Skippy.

J.S. So you (Fred) founded Pillars on the concept of supporting a friend, right? And now it’s evolved into something that is going (beyond that).

F.M. So it was doing a good deed, as you put it, and helping a friend. Now, it’s about working with friends. Because when you look in your career life, you’re gonna go off and we’ll assume that Pillars won’t be your only job all your life, you’ll go off somewhere else. And you’re gonna find that there are assholes there, and there are people you like and people you’ll get along with and then you’ll forget years down the road, and there’ll be people that you really want to wrap your hands around their throat and choke the living crap out of them but you don’t. So after a certain point in time, you figure out you want to work with people that you know.

The best way I can put it was a way a mentor once put it to me. So there are multiple types of people you’ll find you work with. There are those you’ll never work with no way, no how, no reason. There are those that you will work with for free. Jim Trileven is one of those people. You respect them for what they’re doing, you feel honored to do work with them. There are those you’re going to work with that you will charge the normal price and they’ll pay you. And then there are those that are flaming assholes and you’ll work with them but you’re gonna charge them the asshole price. So you look at all those folks and what you end up deciding is the people you truly want to work with are the ones you want to hang out with. They have a good time with you. You laugh, they laugh, whatever. So it’s gone from doing a favor for a friend to working with friends to make more money and leave something down the road for, in Ray’s case it’s his kids, in my case it’s my grandkids because my daughter will never want to leave teaching because she’s just so busy being a teacher. And you can ask Kristin who it is for her.

K.S. For my kids. Buy I do think that there’s also something to be said that it started by helping a friend and then everyone that’s on the show, everyone involved even, when we talk to them (we ask): “Well, why would you want to work with us? Why would you want to do this? Why would you want to get involved with us?” And the interesting thing was everybody’s answer was exactly the same: “I want to help people.” So we went from a show that was developed to help Ray through a period of time to a show full of people who really just want to help everybody and anybody who wants to get involved in franchising. So I think the cool thing is that it’s really at the core, right? We don’t have anybody that works Pillars who’s here for a paycheck. They’re here because they want to be and they’re here because they share the vision and the desire to help other people be successful.

J.S. Yeah, and I think that’s really important. That authenticity to come through because so much of Pillars is founded on that desire to help and helping others reach the same successes that you guys have and supporting them as they start their journey. You’re going into mentoring and that sort of stuff.

K.S. It’s unfortunate that we can’t be a nonprofit, but we can’t.

F.M. Franchising is actually a cover for a team of superheroes that right now are on vacation as you can tell by the way the world’s going to shit.

J.S. Good to know. I’ll make sure to note that, unless you want me to strike it from the record?

F.M. Do not let people know that we’re superheroes.

J.S. Who was the first guest on the Pillars podcast? Maybe Fred, you could speak to that, if you remember.

F.M. The first two guests were Michele Rempel, she was the first one, my partner, and Meg Roberts was the second one. She was why when we had the panel discussion recently with the other big person at the lash lounge, I said: “This does not get Meg off coming on the show again.” There’s very few people we have like that, actually this week’s guest, this will be his third time (on the show).

J.S. And what would you say, when you first started out with Pillars, what was the original purpose other than, you know, helping Ray? Or was that really what it was focused on?

F.M. So the whole reason I started it was because I went through PTSD flashbacks when I left dinner with him two weeks after Martha died. And given that I’d gone through (losing a partner) myself, I was really having flashbacks. And I decided in my own Fred way I have to do something about his pain. I know. Stupid. That was kind of the input I got from everybody else: What are you going to do? At which point the first phrase I thought of was, well, I’ll see if he wants to do a podcast. He’s got extra time. So that was the genesis. That said, I did not believe people would watch it. A show called Fred helping Ray over his grief just didn’t have a punchy title. So it was about broadcasting the secrets of success in franchising. We still broadcast it, but we tend to offer a wider spectrum of how to help people be successful in franchising. So it’s always been about the success in franchising, whether you’re a franchisee, franchisor, franchise professional, franchise wannabe–it’s always been about that. At least, that’s the stated tagline of the shop.

K.S. I think this past year, though, has been about defining more clearly our goals or vision, the direction and taking it from simply a podcast to being a full service consulting firm. I mean, having the digital magazine is huge, right? And we could have just done a podcast and a magazine. But nope, we can’t do that. Well, now we’ve got to help people in franchising. Oh, well we can’t just do that. Now, we’ve got to mentor them too. Well, no, we can’t just do that. And the problem is, I think between Fred and I we both have a touch of ADHD. We’re like “Oh, what about this? Oh, yeah, that looks good. Okay, yeah, people want that. Okay, oh wait, what about this? Oh yeah, yeah, let’s do that.” And so it’s kind of been kind of taking the LLC now and it was like a year ago when the LLC was formed, and I feel like that’s when Fred and I decided “Okay, this is not a game anymore. This isn’t just franchise therapy. Like, let’s get real with this. Let’s really do something, there’s potential here for us to change people’s lives and make things better for all of us. Why would we not do that if we have a platform, right?” And in all those years that (Fred) worked with Ray directly and individually, I think that helped us build a platform and helped us get people at least saying “Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of that.” It is funny because it used to be kind of a quirky show. And now it’s still fun but I do think (listeners) are getting a bit more now. So that’s a challenge for us to keep the show entertaining and informational and not to go too far one way or the other. And to make sure that you know now one of our goals is to get the investors so that we can start the mergers and acquisition piece right. So, anything that we do right now and moving forward to me is where we have to make sure that it’s very balanced. Fun, but educational. Interesting, but, I’m going to use the word meaty, that’s not the word you want to use.

F.M. Edutainment.

K.S. There you go.

F.M. I always look for educational and entertaining. You ever take a calculus class?

J.S. Yeah, two years ago.

F.M. Did you fall asleep in it?

J.S. Nearly.

F.M. So I’ve asked this question for probably the last 30, 35, 40 years and everyone who I’ve ever asked “Have you ever taken a calculus class?” and they said yes, they have. I took seven semesters when I signed up in college. I fell asleep in a bunch of them. I was good at it. It was highly educational. No one gives a crap. That said, if it’s all entertainment, and you’re not imparting lasting informational value on people, then they think “Oh, that show was really great. We laughed a lot.” Well, okay, it’s a joke thing, then we can’t make any profit. Whereas if it’s educational and entertaining, it sticks in people’s heads. They have a good time. And it’s a basis of ongoing discussion.

This philosophy is what drives Pillars and what has attracted guests like former NFL player Doug Plank, former WNBA player Jackie Stiles and the Blindside’s Leigh Anne Tuohy. It has what has brought us experienced franchising guests and contributors who want to share their knowledge and experience like John Cohen, RJ Grimshaw, Matt Wampler, Meg Roberts, Carolyn Thurston, Laura Spaulding and more.

Each and every Pillars partner believes the dream truly does start here.

If you would like more information on how the team can help you find success in franchising, please email us at yourdream@ pillarsoffranchising.com or visit www.pillarsoffranchising.com.