FranServe:

Jeff Walter (00:00)

Hi, I’m Jeff Walter and welcome back to the training podcast where we explore scaling channel performance through training infrastructure.

 

My guest today is Alicia Visconti. is the CEO and chief superhero. That’s a first on this podcast. Chief superhero at Franserv. Alicia, welcome to the podcast.

 

Alesia Visconti (00:18)

Well, thank you so much, Jeff. I appreciate you having me on today.

 

Jeff Walter (00:21)

And Alicia, when I look at your background, you serve on the board at IFA. You’re very involved in the diversity board and other boards. And so I’d love to get into all of that. I always like to start to understand the journey. I think the people’s journeys and how they got, you’re very successful. You’re running for answer. You’re an author.

 

And people tend to look at successful people and go, you were born that way. Right? But usually it’s a much more interesting journey. So if you would just kind of give us some background. You’re sitting on these boards, you’re CEO, you’re an author. So help us understand the journey and how you got to be the Alicia that we all know.

 

Alesia Visconti (01:01)

Well, I appreciate that, Jeff. That’s quite the intro. But I think it’s like everybody else. It’s one day at a time. It’s the little tiny decisions you make every day that brings you on your journey. And you’re right. People look at you and say, you you’re this overnight success. Well, you know, my overnight success took me 10 years, right, to do. So no one sees that. But I think for me, what really

 

you know is my journey with this now franchising is my fifth discipline so I’ve been in other fields I’ve been CEOs and presidents always in a service industry I’ve always had to be in something that leaves people better off right then when I found them that’s that’s ⁓ I think I think that’s in my DNA

 

Jeff Walter (01:38)

Okay.

 

Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, I

 

was going to say that’s a really interesting way. I think a lot of people in the service industry would not characterize it that way of leaving people better off than when you found them. That’s a very giving forward way of looking at it.

 

Alesia Visconti (02:00)

Yeah, I grew up very

 

blue collar. My mom was a housewife, my dad sold appliances, and I was the first person ever went to college and in my family. So, very self-made in terms of who I am and what I decided to be. And a lot of it came from, my dad was great, but my mother was a raging alcoholic.

 

Jeff Walter (02:16)

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (02:27)

For me, it was either you go down that path or you do the dead opposite. I decided to do the dead opposite and I was going to be successful and help others and create good lives for people. That was really kind of the mission that I picked, I think, as a very young adult.

 

Jeff Walter (02:44)

Well, and I think that’s a very important message for especially young folks. It’s a hard journey, but the easiest thing is to be a victim of your circumstances. And the hard thing is to rise above them. And past is not destiny, right? ⁓

 

Alesia Visconti (02:57)

Yeah.

 

Now just the opposite I think it can be a great

 

motivation on pushing you forward.

 

Jeff Walter (03:10)

Exactly, what do you think, what do you think it, well, and the other thing too, and I think that especially for younger folks that you said that I think was really fascinating is there’s almost a kind of a… ⁓

 

belief out there that if you’re successful, had to, your success came at the expense of others. And I really love the way you just said that is you’re able to go out and be successful by giving to others, by serving others. And I think that’s another one of those messages, especially for younger folks. It’s like, no, you, so you could be successful and in service to others. It’s, think, you know.

 

I think it’s.

 

Alesia Visconti (03:48)

I

 

actually think it’s a requirement. I think it’s a prerequisite because if you don’t, I think your success is going to be very A, short lived because no one’s an island and B, I also think you can’t scale or attract others to want to grow with you or do more things, right? Because you’re myopic and you’re about your success and you’re not thinking about others, but that’s not how the world is, right? We’re all connected.

 

And, you know, good deed on my behalf, you know, eventually comes back to me. And I really do believe that and I’ve lived it. So I’ve seen it early, early in my life. I modeled and after that I was a life and career coach. So I’ve kind of seen that you are the sum of all the little decisions and things and how you treat people. It’s just, it’s all cumulative. You just don’t wake up and suddenly

 

you know everything’s a the yellow brick road you have to lay those bricks one by one to get to Oz.

 

Jeff Walter (04:49)

Yeah, I 100 % agree. And it’s refreshing to talk to you about that. Well, because I think like, you know, I came from, you know, my dad was a cop, my mom was a nurse type folks, know, kind of professional blue collar, if you would. ⁓ And, you know, done fairly well in my life by material standards. And, ⁓ but it’s…

 

Alesia Visconti (05:03)

I know.

 

Jeff Walter (05:11)

And when people like asked me like, how did you get so successful? Well, it was a lot of luck, but I found the more I gave the luckier I got. Right? Like, like when we were at the conference, I forgot who the speaker was, but you know, givers get, and it’s like, it, and I’m like, yes, but my little kind of tweak on that is like, I, you know,

 

I can look at all the successes of my life and all the breaks that I was able to take and never, you can look at it you just go as pure luck, right? It was lucky that I happened to be there at that moment in time. It was lucky I happened to, but it’s like what you just said. It’s like, it’s a sum total of all this other stuff that this opportunity got presented in front of me. And I didn’t design it. didn’t plan it. But if I had not done all that other work, it would have never materialized, never.

 

Alesia Visconti (06:00)

I think a lot of the difference in that speaker, by the way, was Mary Kennedy, who’s the CEO of BNI, who say, or get, delightful woman, by the way. So I think the difference is, you know, is what we do when the luck happens, right? Because I think luck happens to a lot of people. Sometimes people see it, sometimes they don’t, or they’re waiting, or they’re trying to, and I think if instinctively, which you could train yourself, believe it or not, to

 

Jeff Walter (06:06)

Okay.

 

Alesia Visconti (06:27)

always think of what’s the best thing I can do with this or what’s the way to expand on this so that other people can share in it. The luck also expands and I could never be where I am if I was singular in my thoughts or even at France or I half joke that I own the company but the team runs it.

 

It’s a matter of, you know, what’s the golden rule is treating people the way you want to be treated. The platinum rule is treating people the way they want to be treated, right? And I keep that in mind because, you know, I’m the Jersey girl and I’ve got a certain way, but not everybody relates to that. So you have to be considerate and kind to others. And I just think that’s why we’re on the planet. I just believe that.

 

Jeff Walter (07:13)

That’s, I, I, I, I, I do too. And I think it’s actually to jump into that a little bit, not where I was anticipating it’s going, but, but, but I also think it’s actually rather divine that when you do the right thing, like, like there’s a touch of divinity in there. It’s like, so let me get this straight. If I treat people well, if I’m in service to them, then good things happen that I couldn’t have planned. I just think that’s really magical.

 

Alesia Visconti (07:25)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (07:42)

like it’s totally magical.

 

Alesia Visconti (07:42)

I totally think that’s what the

 

universe and energy and all that. I mean, you we see that people always say to me, you know, how do you keep your, my team has been with me for 10 years, right? We have no turnover. We grow. We’ve added people to my executive team, but I don’t really have any turnover. And people say to me, why? How do you do that? What’s the secret? And I’m like, I treat them well, like I’m good to them. I respect them. There’s no magic bullet here. There’s no big secret. I treat them well.

 

Jeff Walter (08:10)

But yeah, well, I actually as a business owner myself, I’ve always gotten the most as much as I like serving my clients. I always got the most I always get the most joy out of because we have very low turnover as well. And but it’s all about culture. And and the biggest gratitude I get or the biggest reward I get

 

is creating a work environment that people can earn their daily bread and be treated like human beings and then go home and say the world is good. And then people like they like that. They like to be treated like

 

Alesia Visconti (08:45)

Yes, not rocket science, right? I mean, there’s all

 

these complicated business formulas and this and that and I’m like, you just have to be good to people. You just have to do the next right thing.

 

Jeff Walter (08:56)

So we started down the journey and we got that. But how’d you get into franchising? yeah, ⁓ live coach all this stuff. And then how did we get into franchising?

 

Alesia Visconti (09:01)

Yeah, so I…

 

Yeah,

 

so I was the CEO and president of a company, of a careers company, and I was there for quite some time, had a team of about 200 people, and we were helping executives climb the corporate ladder, right? We had clients over the years, we did executives, we did head hunting, we did interview coaching, salary, like the whole nine yards with them, outplacement, everything. And I loved it. I loved, again, helping people move forward, climb, do better for their family.

 

Jeff Walter (09:16)

Okay.

 

Alesia Visconti (09:31)

don’t know what happened to corporate America, but something did, you know, 12 years, 13, 14 years ago. I just really started seeing the age discrimination coming up for our clients or women coming back from maternity leave or veterans coming back from, like they were invisible. They just didn’t exist. And I just started, it doesn’t, I can’t do that, right? You hear everything about me and then seeing that and watching people get ripped down, I couldn’t do it. So.

 

Now I’d probably go to ChatGPT, but back then I went to Google and I just started putting in some words. Like I don’t know what I put in career and helping and I don’t know what I put in, but eventually this term of franchise consultant came up and I was like, what the heck is that? Because I had never heard of it. I knew nothing about franchising. Zero. Never even worked at one as a kid.

 

And, but it intrigued me. So I started pursuing it, looking at it, joined Franserve as a franchise consultant in 2012. No, I’m sorry, 2014. And our founder, which I didn’t know, was planning on retirement. So two years later, actually 18 months, approached me and said, how’d you like to own my baby?

 

and talk about luck, talk about things happening. It took me like three seconds to say yes and we wrapped that deal up in a month. It was the easiest transaction of business I’d ever done. So, and that’s it. I’ve owned it now for over 10 years. So it was a little boutique franchise consultant. We help people own franchises. We help them figure out that path. And now we are the largest privately held franchise consulting network in the world.

 

Jeff Walter (11:00)

wow.

 

Wow.

 

Holy cow. What a ride over 10 years.

 

Alesia Visconti (11:18)

It’s been fun!

 

It’s amazing. Nobody believes it, right? It sounds like something

 

out of a movie, you know?

 

Jeff Walter (11:26)

Well, so you came into franchising through as a franchise consultant and for our audience, help us understand exactly what a franchise consultant is. you know, they might have heard terms like franchise broker or other stuff. How is a franchise consultant different? What is, who are you consulting?

 

Alesia Visconti (11:45)

Yeah, and so

 

yes, you’ll hear that term interchangeably sometimes, a franchise broker, a franchise consultant. I think the reason why I’ve always gone to a consultant is because, you know, I’m a Jersey girl. It’s just what you see and how it is. And there is, at least for us, there’s no brokering. There’s no contract, no money exchange. No, we are more of an advisor.

 

Jeff Walter (11:49)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (12:07)

We listen to, it’s kind of like my old, a bit of my old life and career counseling, right? So we listen to what you want to do with your life and what success means to you, what kind of hours, what’s important to you for your family. And then we’ll recommend, you know, four or five, six brands for you to start exploring to see if they fit, they feel right, it works. Once you decide you want to pursue, you’re with the brand.

 

Jeff Walter (12:12)

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (12:33)

There’s no charge to us. We get paid by the brands like a recruiter does so for us we become more of a You know a Pal to someone who’s learning about franchising it. We’re not trying to Sell one brand or this is our favorite, you know, we have almost 800 brands So believe me we can find something that works for you, but it’s more like what is right for you?

 

right because you’re going to be with that brand. You’re going leave me as a consultant. You’re going to be with that brand for the next 10 years as a franchisee. So for us to be successful, we need to help you find that right path. And I will tell you when people come in, boy are they confused. Lots of times they love this brand. It’s my favorite restaurant. I want to own one. And then we say, you you’re going to work nights and weekends.

 

Jeff Walter (12:57)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (13:24)

No, I don’t want to do that. You’re to have a big staff. No, I don’t want to do that. So we have to drill down, right? What’s important to you? What does that mean to you? What does it mean owning your own business? So it’s a lot of coaching and I think that’s why I say a consultant because we’re kind of the business matchmaker, if you will. We get you to date a brand and then you figure out if you want to get married.

 

Jeff Walter (13:48)

Yeah, well…

 

Yes. Well, you know, it’s interesting because I’m just listening to your story and I just have to imagine that a lot of those, that consulting, when you were in the career, on the career side of things, I could see how that plays. It’s just a different path, right? But it’s the same type of thing. Like, what do you want out of your career? Right? What do you, what type of life? Well, actually let’s start. What type of life do you want to live?

 

Alesia Visconti (14:09)

work.

 

Jeff Walter (14:19)

you know, how do you want your professional life to interact with your personal life, the demands of each, et cetera. And then based on that, and where do you want to be, you know, financially and how you spend your time, how close you are to your family, whether or not you’re away, know, dot, you know, I’m sure you’ve got to check, you know, you got a million things. And

 

Alesia Visconti (14:39)

Yeah, it combines all of that. And I think

 

that’s why the more I explored it, the more I loved it because again, nothing against corporate America, though of course I have everything against corporate America, ⁓ nothing against corporate America, but to take people who are kind of miserable at their job and help them to own.

 

Jeff Walter (14:47)

Yeah.

 

Ha

 

Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (15:03)

a business that gives them the freedom and what they really want out of life. That is very emotionally rewarding. Never mind the money that’s involved. mean just, just knowing that. mean to this day, and it’s been long time, to this day I get a Christmas card from one of my very first candidates, one of my first clients who she was, think IBM, it was either IBM or E. She was traveling all the time and she never saw her grandkids. She had 16 grandkids, never saw them.

 

Jeff Walter (15:09)

Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (15:31)

And to this day, she sends me a Christmas card every year, of the kids are very big now, of her with her grandkids. And she always says, I made that possible. And see, even now I get goosebumps because you just can’t explain that feeling when you change somebody’s lives. And it sounds so dramatic. I mean, that’s my favorite hashtag is changing lives. I put that all over social media.

 

Jeff Walter (15:42)

That’s

 

Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (15:58)

much to the chagrin of my marketing department who keeps saying don’t forget hashtag francer. I’m getting better at that after 10 years. But it really is that. It really is that impactful is changing someone’s life through something like business ownership. It sounds crazy but if you’ve been in franchising you hear that story over and over and over again.

 

Jeff Walter (16:02)

Get the brand name in there. ⁓

 

Well, and I really like the approach to, know, and it all makes like, actually, it all makes sense to me now that the, you take the career counseling approach, but you’re just applying it to a different career and especially a career that most folks when they enter have very little experience in, if any at all. You know, they might have worked for a franchise at some point in their youth or younger years, but ⁓

 

Alesia Visconti (16:33)

Correct.

 

Yep.

 

Jeff Walter (16:47)

But in terms of ownership, terms of entrepreneurship, running a business, usually limited, the typical candidate is limited in that capacity. And so you’re helping them through a whole new career and a whole new dimension, which can be really scary.

 

Alesia Visconti (17:03)

it can be scary and it usually is right? It’s exciting and scary concurrently for the candidate and that’s what stops a lot of people. Interestingly, not the financials. There’s a lot of ways to get money for franchise ownership but they get scared on their own. It’s overwhelming. It’s one of the reasons why I love

 

consulting somebody will go and click on something and then there’s there there’s a million franchises and how do you pick that and You know, what what does that all mean and what’s an FDD and I don’t know, you know it and then what happens they get overwhelmed they start like panicking a bit and then they stop and they never pursue that when If they just took one baby step and move forward with some confidence and some help

 

Jeff Walter (17:42)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (17:52)

they could change their lives and that’s really where we come in. That’s the difference between that closed door and taking that first step.

 

Jeff Walter (18:00)

Yeah, well, you know, mean, from a psychological standpoint, it just reminds me like you’re shifting careers into something you know nothing about. And so you’ve just entered into a unmapped foreign land. And wherever we emotionally go there, our anxieties just goes through the roof because everything’s a threat. Right. You don’t know what’s you’re in the unknown. You don’t know what’s friend, what’s foe, what, you know, what, if I take a step forward,

 

Alesia Visconti (18:19)

Right? Yeah, no. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (18:27)

my stepping on landmine and, and that whole approach of, of just coming in more as a career counselor, which is really very cool. and saying, Hey, you know, let me hold your hand and let’s navigate this territory together and see where and get you where you, where you want to be, get you to the promised land. Yeah. I think it’s really cool.

 

Alesia Visconti (18:46)

Yeah, and I think that’s why ⁓

 

our culture is so driven on that. Probably because of my background on that, that I was a consultant. It’s how I earned my living. I walked that walk. So my consultants, my brands, my suppliers have a great deal of trust in me. And I think it’s why we have such a caring culture is because I do bring that background of life and career coaching to this and seeing what it does for candidates.

 

And so that’s why I think the consulting and the coaching and that’s really the heart of what we do. We do teach people about franchising, but that’s more the franchisor, right? They’re gonna go really in depth. We’re going to help them to move forward, to move past that fear, to get their feet wet. And that’s pretty motivating for us.

 

Jeff Walter (19:27)

Right.

 

Well, if somebody listening was thinking of going into franchising, becoming a franchisee, and funny enough, I’ve had a, like I said, we have very low turnover, and one of my favorite alumni actually left to go buy a franchise. He was one of my technical guys, and he ended up with a,

 

Alesia Visconti (19:58)

Cool.

 

Jeff Walter (19:59)

boxing franchise. but anyway, it’s just really interesting. but so if you were like, like, like a show, if you were a like him, and you don’t really have much experience there, you know, you’ve been in the corporate world or, you know, for a while, what would your suggestions be to helping them get a better handle on so that when they engaged brand serve,

 

they had already thought through a number of things. what are the type, like everyone who goes to the money, know, well, I need X dollars to buy this and Y dollars to build out. like you said, you know, money, you get money if the idea is good. But, but beyond that, like what are the kind of self-evaluation things that a potential franchisee or somebody that wants to go down this path, what should they be asking themselves? What should they be thinking?

 

Alesia Visconti (20:45)

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting that you say that because we take them through that journey, right? Because I was a life and career coach, we have our whole we we call it a rise assessment and it works with people to help figure that out. It’s proprietary to us because not everyone is cut out for that. You know, my husband’s the perfect example, right? Big corporate background.

 

Jeff Walter (20:55)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (21:06)

always talks about how you know one day he would own his own business but he’ll never pull the trigger like he would never pull that trigger. It’s just not in him. He is a corporate guy through and through appreciates people who and I’m the opposite man I’d be fired in like seven seconds right so you have to think about you know can you follow a system that’s one of the biggest parts if you want to go in

 

and say hey I want to do everything I don’t want to use this color blue and this isn’t the logo and I think we could add this and you’re gonna run up against conflict and you’re gonna be unhappy. So I think part of it is you know what I love about franchising because I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my life and I’ve started businesses from scratch and sold them and whatever but what’s great about franchising is it’s the perfect in between because you are in business for yourself but not by yourself.

 

Jeff Walter (21:55)

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (21:58)

You have someone who’s looking out for you for marketing, for testing, for research, for technology. When you’re starting up a business, you wear every hat. And it’s a challenge to do all of that and to do it right. So, you know, the great thing about franchising is it’s that kind of in between you have the structure and blueprint of a franchise success, but it is your own business.

 

So you get to hire people that you want, you get to have certain flavors or certain characteristics or certain things that are yours. So it’s a very great way to have business ownership without lots and lots of risk, being able to mitigate the risk rather than I’m just going to start a business from scratch. So I love that, but it comes with the drawbacks of follow the system. You have to maintain the standards of that franchise.

 

Jeff Walter (22:46)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (22:51)

so that it’s the same experience across the country or across the world for that brand. there’s power in that. That’s why veterans make such great franchisees because they love a community, they love an environment, they love systems and following things, and they make outrageously good franchisees.

 

Jeff Walter (23:12)

I could see that, I never connected those dots, but that makes sense. If you’ve thrived in that environment, it is a continual series of systems and processes.

 

Alesia Visconti (23:14)

Mm? Yep.

 

Yeah, it’s support and systems all across the board. And

 

when something goes wrong or you question something or you have a bunch of people who come and support you, right? Other franchisees will try to help you, the franchise world, because it’s you’re lifting the tide. So that all ships because you’re the brand. So it’s very interesting because of course, like anything in business, there’s competition, but there’s a lot of camaraderie.

 

Jeff Walter (23:38)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (23:49)

in the franchise space much more than any place I’ve ever been in corporate or anywhere else. It’s amazing how it comes together for the greater good.

 

Jeff Walter (23:57)

Alright.

 

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. mean, for myself personally, I’ve always been a big free market person, I believe, for so many different reasons, but not the least of which is that freedom and that personal responsibility. And I think we all benefit from that. But when I was at the IFA conference this past February, it was just as, and I’d been done before, but…

 

Alesia Visconti (24:13)

Yep.

 

Jeff Walter (24:22)

you know, years ago, and I’ve only kind of circled around the franchise. There was something about it to just, there was an energy there that just was amazing. It just blew my mind. It was just so cool. It’s such a cool industry.

 

Alesia Visconti (24:36)

It is and you we call it the Fran fam right the franchise family and it sounds so corny right it sounds so ridiculous but you feel it and I I I always like in franchising the reason why I think I’m so drawn to it is because it does attract people who think outside the box right we don’t we don’t we don’t want to be the norm we you know I always say I want to zig where other people’s ag right it we don’t we don’t

 

We like new things and inventing things and coming up with new ideas. So there’s a lot of really creative minds in franchising and yet the responsibility of changing people’s lives or seeing what it does for a family or a neighborhood, a community, because you’re hiring people from that community to work at your franchise and that affects their families and is very great. So because they’re neighborhoods,

 

they’re in communities, it’s very dramatic to see what a single franchise unit can do in an environment. So I think for that energy, right, we’re always aware of that. It’s good that you felt that. That makes me happy. That makes me happy.

 

Jeff Walter (25:42)

Yeah. Yeah, no, you just feel it.

 

And I like how you phrased it, it’s stick within the system because it’s almost the metaphor that popped up in my head is the difference between a blank canvas and a coloring book, right? that when you go out and start a business on your own, congratulations, you have a blank canvas. Now, the nice thing about that is you can create whatever you want on that canvas.

 

Alesia Visconti (25:57)

Yes.

 

Jeff Walter (26:10)

and it might be something really beautiful or might not be. And it might not be something anybody’s interested in, right? But ⁓ the system is the coloring book and you still have artistic freedom within the coloring book. And you you can go outside of lines every now and again, but you’re painting a, or paint by numbers if we want to go paint, you’re painting a certain scene.

 

And so you’re constrained in one respect, but then also opens up creative freedom in another respect. So it’s kind of cool.

 

Alesia Visconti (26:41)

Tremendously, yeah tremendously.

 

To me it’s like the best of both worlds, right? You know for most people because there’s a lot of risk when you do it on your own. Some people, you know, that’s what you have to do and that’s fine. But it just just lessens the risk. There’s always a risk in business every day but it lessens it because you have a history. You’ve seen others. This is how they’ve succeeded. They kind of got that recipe down, right? Where you’re not sitting there with a cup of sugar and wondering it should be two cups, one cup.

 

Jeff Walter (26:56)

Bye.

 

Alesia Visconti (27:09)

You they have the business system down and I think that’s great. Having said that, I would make a terrible, terrible franchisee because I will not follow a system. I just will not. And my brands tease me about that all the time. They’re like, when are you going to get a franchise? I’m like, I have 800. I have plenty, right? So you have to know yourself very well, right? But it doesn’t, know, franchise ownership is not the only way to come into franchising, obviously.

 

Jeff Walter (27:25)

you

 

Yeah.

 

All right.

 

Alesia Visconti (27:36)

So

 

there’s other paths too, but ownership is what most people think of.

 

Jeff Walter (27:40)

Yeah,

 

so other than following a system, what are some of the other major things a potential franchisee should think of in terms of their own behaviors, their own psychology, their own lifestyle?

 

Alesia Visconti (27:53)

Yeah, I think what’s really good for a franchisee, is besides following the system, because you’ll hear that a million times a day, is also to be aware of your community, right? The community is very important and if you don’t enjoy as a franchise owner, like going out and talking to people and making your self-presence, that’s probably not a good fit for you. Most people think if they own a window washing

 

franchise they’re the one who’s going to be washing the windows and nothing could be further from the truth on that franchisees are business owners they hire people to do the tasks they hire people to do the services but they run a business profit and loss margins staffing hours all of that comes into play and that’s where a franchise I would tell you has everyone beat

 

Jeff Walter (28:34)

Thank

 

Alesia Visconti (28:44)

much more than me. had to learn all that like on my own. Yes, thank you business school, but come on, you come out, you don’t know anything. You can’t get wet from the word water. You got to jump in. But franchisors will do that because it’s in their best interest for you to grow and make money because that’s how they grow and make money. So they will work with you on business ownership, but that’s what you really have to think about. You are the business owner, your team.

 

Jeff Walter (29:01)

All right.

 

Alesia Visconti (29:11)

is the one to execute services and products and delivery.

 

Jeff Walter (29:15)

So, and so I think there’s a temptation a lot of times to be the, to jump into the tasks and to work in the business and not on the business. I, I, I, and I think.

 

Alesia Visconti (29:28)

Yeah, but you can’t

 

scale. I write articles for Ink Magazine every month and I’ve done a lot on how to let go of control, how to scale. Biggest challenge to CEOs is to let go and step back, right? It’s very difficult, but once you do it, man, you will never go back the other way because you see what the results are. And usually at the beginning, that’s a good thing. The franchise or…

 

Jeff Walter (29:38)

All

 

Alesia Visconti (29:53)

is gonna want you to know about that you could you know train people and you know higher people so you have to know but you know goes back almost to what we said at the beginning Jeffery no person is an island you can’t you can’t be this roaring success just on your own it you or you can but it’s short-lived and and it’s a small and most people coming into franchising you know you have multiple units now people who want another one or another one and another one and you know

 

Jeff Walter (29:57)

All right.

 

Alesia Visconti (30:20)

You can do generational wealth when you do that, right? You build an empire. But you’ve got to learn to let go. And I do think that franchising helps you with that. Many times they will say, okay, you’re growing enough, now you’re going to put on another truck, another employee, another like, we’re going to help you to know when to grow. like that real life business education is beautiful. Beautiful.

 

Jeff Walter (30:44)

But, well, so along those lines, I like what you said a while back. It’s a matchmaking, so that you end up at the altar.

 

if we think of it in terms of a marriage, you’ve had the opportunity to see lots of marriages, know, lots of successful marriages. How would you characterize what you’ve seen as, you know, the more…

 

Are there any common characteristics of the more long-term successful marriages of a franchise, know, brand and franchisee coming together? Are there any, you know, things that you’ve noticed that are characteristic of a good long-term relationship?

 

Alesia Visconti (31:23)

Yeah,

 

I think it’s like any relationship and probably communication is number one, right? Between the franchisee and the franchisor. I think that’s critical and when I look at brands who have been successful and go on for years and years and franchisees who renew way after their terms, right? They come back and then their kids come in and all of that.

 

It has to do with that. has to be building the relationship because in business and life and real marriages and friendships and everything, there’s always a snag. mean, something always happens at one point or another, right? So what does happen when that challenge appears? Are you working together to resolve it or do you see it as us against them? And that’s key.

 

because real marriages want to work through and then go back to Nirvana, right, work through that problem and then go back to homeostasis so that everything is nice and calm. And that’s what a franchisee and a franchisor wants, right? A franchisor always panics out when they’re going to bring a new CRM or some new technology because they know they’re going to get pushback from their franchisees, right? Some out of fear, some out of like, we don’t need this or maybe it’s an extra expense or whatever or no, you know, we’ve been good enough.

 

Jeff Walter (32:14)

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (32:37)

So what do they do? Do they come out? Do they teach? Do they make forums for people to talk about the issue? Or do you just cram it down their throat? So that’s the difference because franchising really is, I mean I know it sounds corny, but it really is all about the relationship and about people. I mean if you think about it, the business is just the tool to get that relationship where it

 

Jeff Walter (32:46)

Alright.

 

Alesia Visconti (33:01)

where it should be for the community, for families, the franchisee, for the franchisor, for the client who’s using that service. So it’s a tool, right, to bring us all together. So what happens when there’s friction? That’s what defines a good relationship to me. When the franchisor has to say something like, you know, in our agreement, you know, in the contract, you know, that relationship’s already gone. When you have to pull that out as your, you know, way of commu…

 

Jeff Walter (33:23)

Hahaha!

 

you

 

Alesia Visconti (33:30)

⁓

 

relationship’s already gone.

 

Jeff Walter (33:32)

So the key to a long-term marriage there, franchise or enfranchisee, is ongoing, deep and meaningful communication. And I think as you’re looking at brands, would want to get telltales of that. Is this a brand that’s going to be communicative with me to have a successful relationship?

 

Alesia Visconti (33:49)

Well, I’ll be honest, because

 

I was a franchise consultant, see, I look at everything through that lens that comes through the door, right? I was never a franchisee, I was never a franchisor. So if I’m a consultant and I’m working with the brand and they’re taking some time to get back to me or I have a question, you know, I’m not going to be that anxious to show that brand to one of my candidates, to one of my clients because if they’re treating me like that, that’s

 

Jeff Walter (33:54)

Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (34:15)

an indication that they’re going to be slow on communication. they’re jumping and saying, yeah, I got your email, let’s, you know, yes, we can work on that zip code for your candidate or whatever it may be. I know they’re responsive. I know they’re jumping at it. So you see, you do get to look under the hood a little bit when you’re a franchise consultant, right?

 

Jeff Walter (34:33)

Yeah, and so kind of shifting gears, you said something earlier that was interesting is, again, usually when we think of the industry, we think of the franchisees, we think of the franchisors, and you had mentioned that, well, those aren’t the only ways to get involved in this industry, and then in your own self, like, I think you said I’d be a terrible franchisee.

 

running the system. But yet you’re extremely successful with jumping into a new industry and then within a few years having the owner of a good brand in that industry say, would you like the keys to the kingdom? And then you take that and turn it into an empire in 10 short years and you’re an overnight success.

 

20, 10 years in the making, right? So for folks that are, as we’re looking at the franchise development system, as we’re looking at, those are the two main players. We talked about consultants. Where else is there room for people to play, engage, serve? Some of your other thoughts there.

 

Alesia Visconti (35:31)

Yeah, I think Wall Road’s lead to franchising. I really do. I’ll tell you why I think that one of the things that I love, love about franchising is it’s a great equalizer. Like franchising doesn’t care about if you have a college degree, if you have your masters, it doesn’t care what race you are, it doesn’t care what sex you are, it doesn’t care what color you are. It rewards you on success, on real success.

 

Jeff Walter (35:34)

Hahaha

 

Uh-huh.

 

Alesia Visconti (36:00)

In corporate, we don’t really see that. We have all these weird ceilings and levels and elevators don’t always work and I don’t understand it, right? To me, you you perform and you get rewarded. And franchising just has that mentality. So to me, it really does. It really is all paths lead to franchising. And what I try to encourage people is to have a little bit of an open mind. For example, I have people who have been teachers who just get burned out.

 

Teaching is a difficult process than it was when I was back in school and it’s not as rewarding and fun. They could be trainers for a brand. They could go into educating on either they could be a franchise consultant on the education. They could be going into training on the franchise brand. again taking those teaching skills, this is my old hat, taking those skills and building a bridge.

 

Jeff Walter (36:31)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (36:53)

to something that is going to be more rewarding, more enjoyable, it’s going to be more fun or give them more joy of what they’re doing. I believe we should have bliss in our lives. So that’s one. Or for people who like to do sales, right? Rather than selling XYZ, come over and talk to sales development, help people in the brand or as a supplier, right?

 

you forget about the supply side, that’s all of the businesses that support franchising like yours, right? Like when you think about advertising or marketing or technology, those are all, you know, are in corporate. So how about you take those skills and walk them over and see what’s going on in the franchise world because it’s typically more exciting. It advances so much quicker. mean, corporate just…

 

Jeff Walter (37:24)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (37:47)

corporate still trying to figure out if they should work from home or go back to the office. And I’m like, okay, COVID was six years ago. Like, well, what are you doing? But everything moves so much faster. So it’s exciting and fun. And so that’s why I say, what is it that your skillset is? I guarantee you there is a space in franchising that can use those skillset and that expertise. It’s a matter of people not knowing that. People always think food. I’ve got to be a cook. I’ve got to, you

 

There’s like, I don’t know, 85 industries in franchising and then sub-industries. Like almost everything that you’re going to in your neighborhood is a franchise. Pet grooming and kids and dry cleaning and all of that. So think about educating, training, development, operations, support. Someone’s got to go out and support those franchisees. all of those careers have their traces and skill sets which are transferable.

 

Jeff Walter (38:42)

Mm-hmm.

 

You know, it’s interesting as you’re comparing and contrasting, say corporate and franchising, my brain was just kind of.

 

Alesia Visconti (38:55)

Not that

 

I have anything against corporate, just everything, but that’s okay.

 

Jeff Walter (38:58)

Well,

 

you know, well, it’s interesting because there are two different beasts trying to do two different things, right? And, ⁓ you know, to get oil out of the ground and turn it into gasoline requires the coordinated efforts of tens of thousands of people. And, you know, putting that onto one roof makes sense. And, and, and, ⁓ but, but the interesting thing is when you put that onto one roof, the individual

 

Alesia Visconti (39:04)

Yes. Yes.

 

Jeff Walter (39:23)

There’s something you said that just triggered this. When you’re in that large environment, everyone’s trying to do a good job and they’re trying to be successful, but it’s harder to see the impact that a particular individual is having. And therefore, easier for other factors to affect decisions in terms of hiring, promotions, responsibilities, raises, bonuses, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

 

because you’re this big 10,000, 100,000 company person company and your individual efforts are hard to tease out. The impact you’re having is hard to tease out from the impact other people are having. even if we look at school districts and stuff like that, we know what a good teacher is, but sometimes it’s hard to tease out stuff. So, but especially in a large corporate environment.

 

And the interesting thing is, as I was listening to you describe these other elements of franchising, is I think one of the really interesting thing, because it’s a network, not a hierarchy, you know, the corporate is basically a big old hierarchy of 10,000, 100,000 people.

 

it’s by its nature, it’s a network. It every node of the network has to, it’s part of the network, but it has to stand alone. And so, so it has to demonstrate its value where it’s easier in a corporate environment to, it’s harder to tease out the value of the person’s creating. So it’s also easier to hide and not create any value, right?

 

Alesia Visconti (40:40)

Correct.

 

Jeff Walter (40:57)

And I never thought about it like that. That was really interesting when you were talking about that, because it’s like, well, you’re part of this node of a network and the network will go around you unless you’re adding value, which is great for the people that like to achieve things, right? Not so good for the people that just want to kind of ride the tide. that’s what it is. When you were saying franchise and doesn’t care about your gender, the color of your skin, your religion, your age,

 

Alesia Visconti (41:11)

Yes.

 

Jeff Walter (41:22)

what credentials, academic credentials you have, et cetera, et It’s like, that’s what triggered it in my head. was like, right, what it cares about is even if you’re a supplier like us or like you.

 

You got to perform and if you’re not adding value, right? Well, cause, cause the, the, the beautiful and annoying thing about networks is if your node is not adding value or your node is dead, the network just rewires around you, right? Like they just bypass you. Whereas in a hierarchy, it’s like, well, I can’t get over to over to R and D or I can’t get the operations people to do X.

 

Alesia Visconti (41:37)

Yep. The book stops here, you know, kind of thing.

 

Jeff Walter (42:04)

because the person that’s running that department is a blocker and they won’t let anything, well, and I can’t go around them because they’re the only ones in this thing that does that thing, right?

 

Alesia Visconti (42:08)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

And I think

 

you hit it right on the head because I think the reality is if you look at like franchisees or you look at like us, like suppliers, franchisees, franchisors, if we do not all like call each other out, so to speak, and work towards each other, it hurts the brand. If you are in corporate and you want to just kind of ease back because you you don’t want to make waves or get fired or whatever, you can do that and no one’s really going to see it. But franchising brings that lens because

 

Jeff Walter (42:26)

Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (42:46)

your individuality matters a great deal in franchising. We’re a corporate, you can just put on the t-shirt, you know, the corporate t-shirt and kind of go with it. And that’s, you know, I guess that’s okay. I would die. I just would die. I would be so miserable. I think that you hit that a lot on the head. And I’ll be honest, as a woman, right, that meets a lot of challenges in corporate or

 

Jeff Walter (42:54)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (43:12)

women coming back from maternity leave that are never considered like a value, right? They’re just so dismissed. Franchising is a fabulous way to just tell them how wrong they are, right? So I think that’s also, and I see it with people of color and people who are marginalized, because I’m on all the diversity and like I’m on everything in the international franchise associations. And I just see it. I see the opportunities.

 

Jeff Walter (43:23)

What? Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (43:37)

that franchising gives that they would never get a corporate. They just wouldn’t.

 

Jeff Walter (43:41)

Well,

 

and like in your book, which I want to talk to you a little bit about, but Pink Tsunami, for those that are listening, you talk a lot about that, but it wasn’t until what you just, but part of the thing was in my head was like, well, why, why, why? And then all of a sudden, what you just said earlier about it doesn’t care, it doesn’t care, it doesn’t care, it’s like, it only cares that you’re adding value.

 

Alesia Visconti (44:05)

Yes.

 

Yes.

 

Jeff Walter (44:07)

because you as an individual, either as an employee, franchise employee or a franchise consultant or a vendor like ours or franchisee or franchisor, you’re very close to the point of ⁓ value. So your individual efforts have a huge effect on the value of the entity. And therefore, yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (44:22)

Correct. That’s it. Yes.

 

That’s it. very close. You’re right. You’re

 

very close to that point of the nucleus. You’re not way out on the perimeter.

 

Jeff Walter (44:34)

Yeah.

 

Yeah,

 

exactly. Like I remember there was this organizational theory. It was a, for hierarchical organizations, they called it the power access. It’s the thing that company does. And like, if you’re on the power access, you get access, even though you’re at an entry level, you’re, you know, you’re, you know, ⁓ so you’re, you’re just really close to that point of value where the value is really being created, no matter where you are, cause it’s the network, not a hierarchy. And then therefore, yeah, thank you.

 

Alesia Visconti (44:52)

Feel it.

 

Yeah, you are.

 

Correct. That’s a great point, Jeff. That’s really a great

 

point too. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (45:08)

Yeah,

 

and that’s why it creates the opportunity for folks that might be marginalized or might be, well, not rewarded for what their potential or what the value that they’re bringing to the table is for whatever reason, right? But it gives them an opportunity to be in a system where the value is much easier to see.

 

Alesia Visconti (45:19)

Correct.

 

Jeff Walter (45:30)

And then therefore, I mean, at the the day, nobody really cares. they want their windows washed at a high quality at a reasonable price, right? They want to go into that, you the consumer wants to go into that restaurant and get a good meal at a reasonable price. Nobody cares about any of the other stuff other than the performance. ⁓ But when you get in these large hierarchies,

 

Alesia Visconti (45:48)

Right?

 

Jeff Walter (45:52)

The value, you get kind of separated from the value. And so you can coast, like you said, but then all of a sudden, because you’re not that close, other prejudices or other types of in-group preferences that people might have can further sway their opinions or decision-making on how things are allocated or not. But that’s interesting.

 

Alesia Visconti (46:14)

Yeah, and I think that’s why

 

as you talked about when you were at the convention about feeling it and the culture and the excitement and the family because and you just summed it up beautifully. mean, I know I haven’t even thought of it like that, but you just summed it up beautiful. They say, right, the sun is greater than the parts, right? So there you go. But you did, you summed it up. And I think that is why it’s exciting to me also, because having been at others

 

Jeff Walter (46:20)

Yeah.

 

I didn’t, I didn’t realize until I just talked to you! Yeah, ⁓ exactly! You know? You know? No, thank you.

 

Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (46:43)

other industries and others. I feel it way different here. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (46:47)

Yeah, well, and let’s shift a little. have a few minutes left if you’ve got a minute. Just let’s talk about Pink Tsunami for a second. So, yeah, I recently published a book. It takes a little bit of effort. ⁓ You have to have a passion and an interest because it takes a lot of energy. What was the driver behind that and what’s the message and what do people learn from it?

 

Alesia Visconti (46:54)

For sure.

 

does.

 

You know, this sounds crazy. Everything in my life sounds crazy at times, but the day before, honestly, I had no intentions of writing a book. I wasn’t thinking about it at all. The day that I started writing the book, I woke up, told my husband I was going to write a book, told him I knew the title and what it was going to be about. And I started writing the book. So, that’s how that started.

 

Jeff Walter (47:22)

Okay.

 

Alesia Visconti (47:33)

The Pink Tsunami is the women’s rise in franchising and I started working on that and it just fell together and what I did with that first book, I’m writing my second book now, but what I did with that first book is I went out to the franchise community and men and women had them talk about how women could be involved in franchising. The book is really about how anyone could be involved in franchising but

 

I did it more for women because women are underrepresented in franchising. Franchising has typically been men. More women coming into it. Still not unequal when you look at, know, the world is 50-50. I franchising should be. But it’s also one of the greatest growths of franchising is women-owned businesses and women coming into franchising. So I was like, well, there’s a zillion books on

 

how to own a franchise, to sell a franchise, how to get private equity to look like. But there’s nothing about how to really come into franchising and certainly nothing for women. So that’s really what made me start or I guess have that mindset and the pink tsunami, was just that was that. And I will say I don’t think I have ever owned more pink clothing in my life than I do now.

 

Jeff Walter (48:26)

Right.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (48:52)

⁓ lots of pink, but…

 

Jeff Walter (48:55)

I’m hoping you were a lover of pink beforehand because you did. Yeah.

 

Alesia Visconti (48:58)

I sure am now. mean, it’s

 

amazing, but everybody wants to give me a pick. But I do find it what’s really interesting because I speak obviously at schools and things and women’s groups. But a lot of men, it resonates with them because it’s the same message, right? It’s the same you can transfer your life by transferring your skills. But I think for women, business, money,

 

Jeff Walter (49:15)

All

 

Alesia Visconti (49:24)

finances, loans, not something that they just readily jump into conversations the way that men have. And I feel like the book gives them permission, if you will, to take that into their own lives and make changes. And so yeah, the Pink Tsunami, and now this one is called, that I’m working on is called The Pink, I have to look it up because I don’t remember, it’s called The Pink Rebellion, where women rise faster, lead bigger, and break every rule.

 

Jeff Walter (49:35)

Mm-hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (49:53)

So obviously more paint coming into my life and there you go.

 

Jeff Walter (49:55)

⁓

 

Well, when you saying that, so why do you think that is? I think you said when it came to loans and things like that, less comfortable, think was the word you used. So why do you think that is? I have two adult daughters, so I’m always interested. Why do you think that’s the case with women versus men?

 

Alesia Visconti (50:07)

Yeah.

 

Yeah,

 

I think it’s a lot of culture that’s been molded. know, women are kinder, we’re soft spoken, we don’t create as much noise, we’re the gatherers, we’re the family, we keep peace, right? Men tend to be more the disruptors, the hunters, the political, you see it all on that. I think things…

 

are changing very slowly for me, but better than it was. Because I think human beings, you we all bleed under the skin, you know what I mean? I mean, some days I feel like I think like a man and some days I feel like I think like a woman and I think the same thing with men. They think sometimes like a man and sometimes like a woman because you guess what? We’re human, right? We all have emotions, we all have wanna like, I mean, come on, you know, we don’t think like dogs, we think like other humans. So.

 

Jeff Walter (51:04)

That’s it.

 

Right.

 

Alesia Visconti (51:12)

I think that the whole separation on the sex, especially when it comes to something like business or numbers and cents or franchises and why it evens it out for me, there’s no reason why women have to be less educated about how to get a loan or how to start a business or how to grow or how to scale than men.

 

Jeff Walter (51:30)

Hmm.

 

Alesia Visconti (51:37)

so excited about it. I see younger adults now being exposed. I’m on the advisory board for West Palm Beach University, right? The Titus Center is bringing young adults through college with a concentration in franchising. So I’m part of that. I go down, I have mentees. We bring on interns. So that’s so exciting to me. And that’s for, you know, men and women, right? Young men, young women.

 

Jeff Walter (51:45)

Yeah.

 

wow.

 

Alesia Visconti (52:02)

But it’s so exciting, rather than just go to corporate America, get your, you know, gold watch at the end and die. I mean, this is so exciting that you have opportunities. So I do think younger generations will see franchising as a wonderful tool and creator. And I think they will challenge the status quo. think women will be more of a powerhouse. Not better, not worse, just the same as men.

 

Jeff Walter (52:09)

Alright.

 

Yeah.

 

Like, you know,

 

You just reminded me of a study. I’m kind of a, I’m not an economist, but I play one on TV type of thing. I’m kind of an amateur economist type of thing. And I remember reading a ⁓ study a while ago. It was really interesting. And it kind of goes right to what you’re saying, which is as a society thing, there is a high correlation.

 

between the wealth of a society and the degree to which women have been integrated into the economic system. the things that you’re talking about in terms of all the different dimensions and the higher participation and the higher, the more integrated women are into the economy at all different levels, the wealthier the society.

 

And it’s almost like this, I mean nothing’s a perfect correlation, but it’s so highly correlated. And so I look at things that like what you’re doing and it’s like, well it’s beautiful because I have two daughters and they’re very talented and they’re out there doing their thing and they’re doing their thing. But also, just as a citizen, I get to take advantage of the next franchise that’s created.

 

the next invention that’s created because we’re tapping into all this human potential instead of half the human potential. It’s really amazing. So I commend you on that, just it’s amazing.

 

Alesia Visconti (53:47)

Also, you know

 

that’s awesome, I’m going to look more into that because I find that fascinating. I’m sure I’ll be able to use some of those stats. also, when you think about it too, right, and I’m doing the extreme stereotype here, right, but women were the spenders, right, men were the earners. But in anybody, when you start giving them some financial responsibility and making them accountable,

 

Jeff Walter (53:55)

Yeah, it’s really interesting.

 

Alesia Visconti (54:14)

their perception changes. as you teach women about business, their perception changes. They respect money, they respect their own wealth. And that is, like you said, for across the board in terms of our culture, period.

 

Jeff Walter (54:15)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, like 100%. But also, and then also just in general, you know, we’re not hunter gatherers anymore. The assets are not out in the field. We’re a monetized society where money is the core commodity, the common commodity that turns into everything. And so, oh, well, I’m sorry.

 

Alesia Visconti (54:50)

I think time is, but I’ll go with money for this argument.

 

Jeff Walter (54:54)

I’m sorry,

 

the core medium of exchange, the commodity that you can exchange. Yes, time is the most precious thing. You can’t sell it and you can’t buy it. So I agree a whole hundred percent with you. But it goes to that whole also that financial literacy and exchange and everything we’re talking about in terms of just planning your life and how you live and what standard of living and retirement and financial independence.

 

Alesia Visconti (54:57)

There you

 

Yeah,

 

Jeff Walter (55:23)

Yeah, it’s so, like one of the things I made sure with our daughters when we raising them was like, you know, to be financially, like not just be talented and pursue a career in which they’re doing, and they’re doing wonderfully, but also the financial literacy and how you plan these things and how you take care of yourself. you know, cause it’s, you know, it’s not like dialing way back and go, well, if something happened, you know, I can go.

 

Alesia Visconti (55:44)

Absolutely.

 

Jeff Walter (55:50)

hunt the tiger or pick the berries or whatever it is, it’s like, no, it’s money. So anyway, not to go down that stream, but I think it’s wonderful.

 

Alesia Visconti (55:58)

I know, I’m just saying,

 

you what, I’ll just say that, you know, I think that, you know, money doesn’t bring you happiness, but I do believe it brings you choices. And that is powerful. Having the choice of how you want to live your life or what’s important to you or how you want to spend it versus being told how you have to spend it.

 

Jeff Walter (56:08)

Yes, yes.

 

Well,

 

100%. I wasn’t saying that that, because I agree with you, it does not bring you happiness. And actually the study show, does, yeah, and study show, but it does give you choices and understanding it and having a theory of it is where I was going, was I trying to say, and I think that’s really important. And then, like I said, the study show, yeah, they say, if I recall, they almost grouped into like three types of societies. There’s a,

 

Alesia Visconti (56:24)

No, we know that, But it does give you choices. Yeah.

 

100%.

 

I believe it. It makes

 

total sense.

 

Jeff Walter (56:46)

Yeah, the fully integrated are the richest societies on the planet. And then you have more male dominated societies from an economic standpoint. And they’re like the next tier down. And then the family dominated ones where it’s all, ⁓ there’s no trust beyond the family. And those are the poorest societies. Yeah, and what do you think about it? It’s like, yeah, it makes sense. You’re not tapping into all the brain power.

 

Alesia Visconti (56:56)

Right.

 

Right. That was the worst. Yeah, that makes sense.

 

Right?

 

Jeff Walter (57:14)

in your society

 

and all that talent, you brain power, physical power, creativity, everything. It’s really cool. So that’s really cool. And what was that? The book you’re working on ⁓ now again, yeah, Pink Rebellion. Any idea when that’s going to be available?

 

Alesia Visconti (57:20)

Yeah.

 

This one’s called the pink rebellion. ⁓

 

This one will go faster. just started doing it, writing it. This one goes faster because I’m gonna write it myself. The first one I did I had quotes from everyone. know, lots of people so I had to wait for that. This one I’m writing myself so that one will probably be out by the end of the year.

 

Jeff Walter (57:39)

Yeah.

 

All right.

 

⁓ fantastic. I look forward to seeing that. We’ll make sure we get the… And the Pink Tsunami is available on Amazon, I assume. All right. So we’ll make sure we get a link to that. Hey, ⁓ I see we’re coming up on time here. Is there anything that we haven’t covered that you’d love to just share with the audience?

 

Alesia Visconti (57:52)

It is indeed, my friend.

 

Thank you.

 

No, I will just tell the audience that if you have any doubts, take a baby step because life can be frantastic.

 

Jeff Walter (58:10)

And with that, Alicia, thank you so much for being and joining me. I learned so much, so thank you. I appreciate it. That’s why I love doing this. The day job is a lot of fun, but this is so much more fun. I get to talk to folks like you. get to learn stuff. And thank you. I appreciate that. And so that’s it, everybody. Thanks again, and Alicia, thank you.

 

Alesia Visconti (58:19)

I a branch, Jeff. I learned from you too. Isn’t that what it’s about, right?

 

Yeah.

 

And you’re good at it.

 

Thank you.