AC Inc.:

Jeff Walter (00:00)

Hi, I’m Jeff Walter and welcome back to the podcast. My guest today is Angela Coté. She is the founder and CEO of AC Inc.

 

Angela grew up in a franchise system that scaled to nearly 500 locations. She spent four years in field support, supporting the franchisees and then became a franchisee herself for 18 years. After that, she started AC Inc. with the mission of maximizing the impact of field support across the franchise industry. Angela, welcome to the podcast.

 

AC Inc(00:27)

Thank you. I’m super excited to chat with you, Jeff. I know that we have similar passions about making sure that people have the right coaching and training and learning and development. So thank you for having me.

 

Jeff Walter (00:38)

⁓ you’re welcome. And on the passion side, I’m a true believer in the human potential and education. in its broadest sense, it really it just amazes me at what people are capable of. you have a really interesting background there because you grew up in a franchise system, nearly 500 locations. That’s a lot franchisee for a bit. then and then here. So help us understand the background. How did you

 

get to the point where you decide to start and run AC ink.

 

AC Inc(01:06)

Hmm. You know what? I’m going to, I’m going to tell you a quick funny thing that just popped into my head when you said that is that when I first started, when I had this idea for AC Inc, which I’ll come back to, and I started networking, um, I, I, I, I’m Canadian as maybe people can tell. I don’t know. I didn’t, haven’t said a yet, but you know, I am Canadian. Um, and so when I started going to these networking events in the U S I, people didn’t know the company that my dad founded, which is originally called M and M meat shops.

 

And, but, but at once I started to say this thing about, we grew to almost five hundred location. I didn’t know that it was a big deal. Like I didn’t know that like, it’s so that people be like, wait, what your dad is the founder of a company that grew that tell me more. So that when you just were describing that, when you were in my interest, like kind of flashing back to that feeling of, people saying, well, that’s kind of a big deal. so, okay, grew up in it. So I didn’t know any difference.

 

Jeff Walter (01:42)

Alright.

 

I don’t know.

 

Yeah, well, you know, is a big deal because especially in the franchise industry, know, it’s that like that hundred units is like the golden number that everybody wants to get to and to get nearly 500. I mean, that’s huge. was that brand only in Canada or did it come down into the rest of North America?

 

AC Inc(02:06)

Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah, yeah.

 

Well, it started in 1980, just outside of Toronto, Ontario. And over the years, grew across the country. at one point in 2007, we did all the research and the executive team made all the plans to enter the US and 2008 hit. And so we actually went in with five locations in

 

Jeff Walter (02:21)

Uh-huh.

 

AC Inc(02:45)

Fort Wayne ⁓ and I think it was Madison, Wisconsin, and they were corporate owned and we were trying to then make potentially sell those franchises, but everything just tanked. So we just pulled back out and focused on Canada. So it is only a Canadian brand. My dad did sell the company to private equity about I think 14 years ago. So he’s completely out and living there happy golfing and fishing and, and cottaging and that kind of thing lifestyle. But yeah, so, so you’re kind of asking about

 

How AC Inc was born, I think was your question.

 

Jeff Walter (03:13)

Yeah, well, because you see you grew up in that and then it and then you were a franchisee. Was it was a part of the that brand or was it separate?

 

AC Inc(03:17)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah,

 

yeah. So, okay. So go back. mean, I grew up doing everything from dressing up as Kelly Kebab as a kid at Grand Openings to wave at cars and try to bring people in to working in our company locations. I know you’re still absorbing that, right? We didn’t have smartphones back then, so there’s no like good picture of it, but trust me. And then in the late 90s, I was going to school for business at the time and

 

We had an area developer in Western Canada. And so my dad and his COO all thought, this would be a great idea. Let’s send Ange out to Western Canada to work for the area developer, opening stores and working in the field. So that’s how I ended up going from, you know, kind of the corporate side to going out into the field. And then we were ready to put stores on Vancouver Island, which was one of the last places in Canada.

 

for the chain to expand to. And my dad and the COO ⁓ were, and the leadership team were concerned about the demographic of the market because it was different than what we call typical country. And so they said, hey, why don’t you go do it? Because we’re kind of worried about awarding this to a stranger and it doesn’t go well. And at least if you go do it, you know what you’re doing, it should work. And if it doesn’t, at least it’s not, we’re messing with the strangers.

 

Jeff Walter (04:23)

Okay.

 

AC Inc(04:39)

life and all that. And I thought, oh, okay, yeah, yeah. And so I was like, okay, so I’ll go over there and like open these stores corporately. And no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

 

Jeff Walter (04:41)

That’s just my daughters.

 

Uh-huh.

 

AC Inc(04:52)

and we opened our first store in 2000 and then another one a year later and half a year after that, a third one. So the market was actually kind of ready, which was kind of good. The brand was fairly well known because people retire on the island. So they lived in other places in Canada. But that’s how it was a franchisee of the business now 18 years on that side of the franchise relationship. this is the segues into why AC Inc exists. Not only did I

 

live and breathe in the, on the field side, supporting franchisees with no proper coaching on how to do that or no training on how to, how to get franchisees to listen to me. And then being a franchisee myself and having people come into my stores and try to tell me what to do when I had probably trained them initially in that role. Right. So they didn’t know what to do. So they would revert to compliance or default to compliance and

 

Jeff Walter (05:42)

Hahaha!

 

AC Inc(05:48)

And that wasn’t helping me grow my business. So that’s the origin of why EC Inc exists. I’ll pause there because that was probably a lot.

 

Jeff Walter (05:56)

No, no, it’s interesting because it’s a very rare person that has worked both sides of the aisle as it were. Right? Like I’ve talked to a number people that have, you had, you know, multi-brand franchisees and built their family, you know, half dozen, dozen units and on that, or, and then a number of folks on the franchise or side, but, to actually, I mean, that’s pretty rare to grow up.

 

in a family where, and then to work professionally in a family business on the franchisor side where you’re growing and like I said, 500 units, that’s quite the accomplishment. You everybody that starts a franchise or franchisor is, you know, so trying to get to a hundred and to zoom past that. And to do it all in Canada where it’s, you know, the population is, ⁓ you know, relatively small compared to the US.

 

AC Inc(06:49)

10th. That’s one 10th of what

 

the US is.

 

Jeff Walter (06:52)

Yeah, one, yeah, one tenth like that’s, that’s pretty, you know, one thing that was interesting, not to go down a rabbit hole, but when you said country versus the island, what did that mean for you guys?

 

AC Inc(07:04)

Yeah, so our demographic,

 

so it was, it’s a retail frozen food chain. It still exists today, but it’s owned by actually a publicly traded company now, but it’s retail frozen food and our demographic, our perfect customer was a family with young kids that are in a bunch of activities and they want to build a freezer with, you know, all their meals for the week. And where, where I am in Victoria, there’s a lot of, a lot of retirees.

 

Jeff Walter (07:22)

Okay.

 

AC Inc(07:31)

and seniors and not as many families and ideal, but it’s growing. in the end, there was enough to support the stores. in fact, at one point, the island had eight stores on it overall. Like Victoria is just one city. It’s the biggest city on the island. But yeah, so they just, the demographic didn’t look quite right, but in the end it worked out. It just took a little extra to get people to understand what this, people that didn’t know us like,

 

We got, when we first opened, were, the people that were applying were like retired butchers who wanted to come back and work. But it’s all pre, it’s pre-packaged frozen food. We didn’t need butchers. And so we had to educate the market and get the market up and running.

 

Jeff Walter (08:07)

Right.

 

Very interesting. now, I said, sorry to go down that sidetrack, but so very interesting both sides of the spectrum because it’s really interesting the way you say to your dad, okay, I’ll go open up some corporate stores. He’s like, no, no, no, no, ⁓ child. I know you go get the financing and you grew that to 18 units, which is amazing. And then that’s really interesting with the

 

AC Inc(08:25)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

or three, three

 

minutes just to clarify, over 18 years. Three, three years. Still it felt like 18 sometimes.

 

Jeff Walter (08:37)

over 18 years, number of units over 18 years. I transposed the numbers of my brain.

 

But, but, then the interesting thing would be to be on the other side of the coin and get the, you know, that field support that, you know, that, that, that, you know, usually that’s the lifeline. The voice of the franchise or is that, that, that area manager, district manager, coach, whatever the

 

AC Inc(08:52)

Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (09:05)

the system is calling it. It’s the person the franchisee calls and talks to, right? It’s the voice of the brand to them. And to kind of know the owner very well and then be a franchisee and then on a professional level work through the field. What did you see that created the genesis for AC?

 

AC Inc(09:09)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Okay.

 

Yeah, well, I often talk about one thing I talk about is the light bulb story. you know, I mentioned that as a franchisee, they would, my field support in our back then when they were called area managers would, our area manager would come in and, and because they didn’t know how they could help me, they would, they were, as I mentioned, default to compliance and tell me my light bulbs out. And, that’s not helping me grow my business. Just because I was maybe,

 

Jeff Walter (09:52)

Mm-hmm.

 

AC Inc(09:54)

in that higher performer category, cause I, you know, I understood the system and knew what needed to be done. Doesn’t mean I didn’t need somebody to help soundboard. Like what is your vision for this? Like what if, what if instead they came in and said, listen, like, I know that, you know, you know, everything about the product and you know, you’ve been there, done that, but, but let’s, let’s kind of figure out how can I bring you value? And this is, I guess we haven’t really exactly said what we do at Async. So maybe I’ll just, just for anybody that’s going, what the heck are they even talking about?

 

What we at Ink is we help those folks that are supporting the franchisees. The franchisor hires us to, well, put them through a certification program that gives them all the coaching and training to deal with everything from bottom performers to struggling middle performers that are disengaged to struggling middle performers that are engaged but just overwhelmed to top performers. So we’re coaching the coaches basically.

 

and coaching and training them to be able to move the needle in their role. And really, instead of being compliance officers, being coaches and really turning them into a profit lever in the franchise company. if we can get them to, if they can get the franchisees motivated, accountable, and on track for better growth, then there’s more royalties for the franchisor. So just to summarize, like that’s in a nutshell,

 

you know, we have education, an education program for those folks. There’s a few other things we do, but that was what, so when someone was coming and telling me my light bulbs out, what if they had come to me and said, more with like a business coach hat on and said, Angela, what are your three things that are holding you back right now from growing? And then I would say something like, well, I’m really struggling with like,

 

where to spend my time, like what should I be focused on? Or, well, I’m struggling with retention of my staff. And then if that were it, they could say, well, we could go down the path of like, what about some kind of leadership coaching that I could have taken as a franchisee? But if they would have helped me identify, like their job is to identify, as a business coach, identify what is the franchisee need to be able to grow their business?

 

Jeff Walter (12:05)

Right.

 

AC Inc(12:05)

All they’re doing is telling me my light bulbs out and that wasn’t it. So yeah, so we’re all about recognizing that that person, whether they’re called a FBC, you know, franchise business coach or area manager, like we talked about, but we’re all about helping franchisors recognize that that is, like I said, that can be your profit lever if you put the right person in that role and give them the right professional development to be able to create the environment that franchisees want to grow.

 

Jeff Walter (12:33)

Yeah. So, you know, if I, if I relate that to your story, you had said the demographics on Victoria Island, very different than, you know, Eminem country, which is more, you know, uh, busy families raising kids want the convenience of the frozen freezer full of food. The, it would sound like the type of thing you would be talking about. was like, rather than telling me the light bulb was out, it would be like, well, Hey, I’m having a challenge trying to figure out how to break into this market. It’s.

 

AC Inc(12:42)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (13:02)

That’s more retirees and empty nesters. And, you know, why do they need a freezer full of frozen food? Right? Like that’s, you know, they’re not, they’re not. Parried. Uh, they’re not trying to just throw a good nutritious meal together easily. They have time to go to the store and get it fresh and they have time to do this. What, do I break into that? Like that would be more of the epic. Right.

 

AC Inc(13:10)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah, that kind of conversation,

 

that kind of thing. More deeper, know, strategic thinking and challenging me. You know, that’s what we teach. Like we teach the coaches how do you challenge a franchisee to think bigger, to be able to answer their own questions at times. Like one thing we see, I see this a lot in, I also run round tables for franchisors.

 

and one for specifically for the field support teams, those are free. They’re just our way of being able to provide a peer to peer platform. And one thing we continuously see in franchising is that people have, they struggle with boundaries, with franchisees because they think that the franchisee, is because they’re like, well, the franchisee is paying a royalty. I owe it to them to answer their questions in the moment. Well, what happens is the field support teams end up creating a monster.

 

because now the franchisee thinks, well, I know where to get the answer. I’m just going to call Jeff every time. And instead of, if we taught that franchisee to first think, where might that answer be so we could create more independence for those kinds of things and empower them instead of them just constantly coming to their field support person with questions. So we want to spend time.

 

when we’re, want the coaches spending time actually coaching. Like you said, you know, why don’t we try to figure this out? this like market challenge, why don’t we, rather than I’m going to show up and just tell you where the uniform ordering form is, you know, like it’s, it’s interesting how the people we, we, we tend to want to just give answers and we

 

It’s easier, you know, and we felt like, good, I helped them because I gave them answers. But really, did you help them or did you just leave them more dependent on you?

 

Jeff Walter (15:01)

All right.

 

Yeah, well, you know, it’s interesting you say that because it reminds me of the proverb, you know, better to teach a person a fish than to give them a fish. You know, and as you’re doing that, it’s like, yeah, when you provide the answers and, you know, it’s the same with your kids as your kids are growing up, right? Especially as they hit those teenage years. I’m blessed to have some adult children and, you know, if you’re giving them all the answers, when they get out on the world, they don’t know what to do, right? And it’s

 

AC Inc(15:16)

Yes, exactly. Absolutely.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (15:34)

That’s like the same thing you’d want to teach him to fish, right? And to be, and that, so how, I would imagine, well, one, how do you guys do that? And two, what’s been your experience in terms of the type of, the demographic or the type of person that’s generally in that district manager or area manager role? ⁓

 

AC Inc(15:37)

Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Hmm.

 

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (15:59)

Cause the other thing that’s hitting me as you’re talking is, you mentioned compliance a couple of times and you talk about, you know, business coaching. I’m like, like those are very two different, uh, set of skills and two very different, um, personality types. Right. Like, I mean, and, and a lot of times, you know, um, compliance can be, uh, you know, people can look down on it or, you know, say, but it’s important, right? It’s important that the site, you know,

 

AC Inc(16:16)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (16:28)

And, and, and, and, and folks there, you know, tend to be more, detailed oriented, right? Cause it’s like, you, you, you, dotted this, I, you cross this T and that, people do do that. Well, do that. Whereas on a coaching is a very different mindset. It’s not as much, you know, let, and the same thing with the fishing versus teaching the fish, right? It’s the same thing. It’s like, well, if I’m going to catch you a fish, I’ve got to do these 10 steps to get you the fish. If I’m going to teach you the fish, it’s a different mindset. So.

 

AC Inc(16:33)

Thank

 

Yep.

 

Jeff Walter (16:56)

Like how have you over the years seen the difference and if a franchise or brings you in, does it change the hiring profile? Like, well, how do you, I guess, how do you do it, Angela?

 

AC Inc(17:08)

Yeah. I love

 

how your wheels are turning, Jeff. can just see it. Like the wheels are just turning. Okay. I’m going to find a, I’m going to kind of jump around a bit because you touch on some really important points that I know people ask us all the time. So I’m just going to try to respond by answering. I’m going to start with this is that, if you fix the relationship with franchisees and build trust,

 

Jeff Walter (17:13)

I can conk to you.

 

AC Inc(17:32)

and show them that like, use a more of what we call strategic growth coaching approach versus a reactive, you know, firefighting and compliance approach. You’re actually going to organically solve a lot of that compliance problem because the franchisee is going to be way more open because you’ve built the trust. When you say like, when I say I’m to you, Hey Jeff, like,

 

Um, I noticed that you got what’s, what’s up. noticed you’re wearing jeans today. Um, and that maybe you can have a little banter about it, but like Jeff, you know, that’s not part of the uniform program. It’s going to be a lot easier for me to have that conversation with you. If we have a good relationship. Um, I’ll just kind of caveat that if we’re talking restaurants, uh, like quick service and all that often, what, what will end up, what we see and kind of recommend is, is you might still have a separate person for the compliance.

 

⁓ check as maybe, maybe even be an outsourced company, but, but in the average franchise, you start by fixing that. We’re like by, by this better approach to coaching and support and it organically makes it a lot easier. Franchise. These are more loyal to the brand. So they want, they’re more willing to, when they, like, if there’s something they don’t believe in, when they’re not being compliant, they’re more willing to kind of give and take.

 

⁓ Or they might or they might just not realize they’re not being compliant and now again the coach has a good relationship with them and can have that really conversation better. Hey, did you even realize this? know, plus there’s ways you can do some self-evaluate have the franchise you do self-evaluation of their store or Business as well. So that kind of answers that little bit the compliance side ⁓ but in terms of Well, what you said how first of all, how do we do it? Like how do we deliver so that the

 

Jeff Walter (18:52)

Mm-hmm.

 

All right.

 

AC Inc(19:20)

We knew that there was a need for this. We knew there was a need for training and education for folks in the field. Because again, I lived and breathed it. But I launched a, I piloted a field support round table, the one I mentioned. When I first piloted that, should, like the number of people that showed up without any social proof or anything was incredible. think we had like 30 or something people show up on a Zoom call and it was cameras on, like we’re restricted.

 

with our round tables cameras on. This goes back about four or so years. They were starving for peer to peer connection, education, professional development. So we knew they wanted it. So then we launched some courses that were like three sessions over three weeks. And those took off initially.

 

And then, but we also said, if you complete all of our courses, we’re going to call you certified, but you have to also do a test and evaluation and all that. And franchise or is when they heard this, they said, wait a minute, I can, I want all of those right now. Like, I don’t want to wait till you guys put them out because they’re, they’re live on zoom. They’re not recorded because we’re it’s human to human. We, need some human interaction. So they said, we want that right away. So we’ve created this, this accelerator. It’s the certification program that happens in five months.

 

and the field coaches, franchisor hires us or not hires us, but puts their their FBC or the area manager into our program. It can be all different brands in one cohort of 10 or in the bigger brands will have a cohort of 10 all from one brand. And they’re going through fully being taught the techniques to coaching. It’s relationship dynamics.

 

Jeff Walter (20:42)

Mm-hmm.

 

AC Inc(20:58)

What does a coaching session look like? Like what’s on an agenda? How do you deal with the franchisee that shows up and just starts crying and venting and yelling at you because they invested $400,000 and it’s not working? ⁓ So all those challenging situations, leadership, and really proactive coaching. that is all what’s happening in the certification over five months.

 

Jeff Walter (21:11)

Mm-hmm.

 

AC Inc(21:22)

And that person comes out on the other end certified and people are saying things like, like we knew that they needed it, but they’re saying, now I’m walking tall. for people that are just listening and not watching my shoulders are back. Like now I’m walking in and I feel confident. And one of the biggest things these field team members struggle with, a lot of them struggle with is credibility. This is somehow magically giving them credibility because they’re coming in there. They’ve got the skills now.

 

Jeff Walter (21:34)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

AC Inc(21:50)

And they know how to say to the franchisee that says, how could you possibly understand you’ve never run this business? I don’t know how to respond to that, which is going to be along the lines of, right. I have never run this business, but I’m here to be your liaison and I want to help you. And let’s talk about, you know, what are your challenges? And of course I can’t answer this all in one time, but there’s a way to deal with that franchisee that they’ve now learned. So that’s the, like, that’s how we deliver, kind of for, for the purposes of this podcast and what we’re talking about that that’s that.

 

Jeff Walter (21:56)

Right.

 

AC Inc(22:19)

I will touch on the DNA of those people, but do want me to pause there first on any of them? Okay, can you tell my past about this? But you asked a really great question about the skill set and of the difference between somebody who’s like in the coaching world versus compliance. What we see is the best coaches have, they do have a level of empathy.

 

Jeff Walter (22:24)

No, keep going. Just go.

 

AC Inc(22:44)

there’s a difference between, like a salesperson is usually going to be more like, they’re kind of more like into that sort of excitement. The coach is a little bit more methodical we find and there there’s empathy there, but what we find the three, like we call it the three legged stool. So when you look at where, what sort of attributes should a coach have to be successful? And I don’t, I say a coach, I’m specifically talking like franchise business coaches.

 

Jeff Walter (22:51)

Alright.

 

Yeah.

 

Yep.

 

Yep.

 

AC Inc(23:10)

very interesting

 

what we keep saying. It’s, need to love like really, or not to love, sorry. They have to understand the business model and kind of like really get it and probably love the brand. know, that’s the first of the legs. Second one is some business acumen. So, and they can be trained and coached on, or like they can learn the brand. They can learn business acumen.

 

Jeff Walter (23:26)

Mm-hmm.

 

AC Inc(23:34)

The third one they can also learn, I’m going to spoiler alert, it’s the coaching skills, the emotional and social intelligence to do what needs to happen. All three can be taught, but what we uncovered is that nobody was deeply like hands-on teaching and training to the extent of a certification program on this third leg of the stool. Most people could probably teach a little bit about business acumen.

 

What is the KPI? Why does it matter? Which ones do we focus on? In terms of the operations of the brand, here’s how you do the restoration business. Here’s how you flip the burger. Here’s how you clean the carpets, whatever. But this coaching, people aren’t focusing on this third one that we need to make sure that we’re working. So they have to start with some good empathy, like some empathy and certain traits. Openness to coaching, being open themselves to learning.

 

self-reflection ability to like self-awareness. If those traits are there, we can coach and teach them on like develop the emotional and social intelligence skills. So think there were three questions there.

 

Jeff Walter (24:40)

Yeah, but

 

I did kind of rapid fire. Like said, my mind goes like that. I like, think of this and I think of this and I think of that. But yeah, but I mean, ⁓ but it was interesting because, as you were, as you were talking about the coaching, yeah, I spent most of my professional career in consulting and, and I, I remember, when I was in my twenties,

 

AC Inc(24:47)

We’ll real real soon.

 

Jeff Walter (25:04)

⁓ consulting folks on how to do project management and stuff like that. People that were 10, 15 years older than me, you know, with a lot more experience, right? And it was

 

AC Inc(25:10)

⁓ So you knew

 

right away when I said the credibility thing, I bet you, had PTSD.

 

Jeff Walter (25:15)

Well, a hundred percent. And, and, and it was really interesting because I have, I had an interest in it. and there, and and there was a, there was a couple of things. but one of them was, and it goes to what you’re talking about, the coaching skill, you have to have an interest in the subject and, and, and, and kind of the technical operational aspects. And I don’t mean technical, like IT technical. mean,

 

AC Inc(25:32)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (25:42)

how it all works, how everything does this and comes together. But the other thing that I always found out, I would imagine your coaches who are excellent at this, I wonder if it is, you’re right, I’ve never managed that. I’ve never managed a franchisee, I’ve never managed a project, but I’ve got pattern recognition, because I’ve talked to dozens and dozens of people like you, and I haven’t done it, but.

 

AC Inc(25:45)

Yep.

 

Jeff Walter (26:07)

I’ve got this, I’ve seen this pattern and this is what I, that was for me personally was like, you’re right. I haven’t done that, but I’ve seen these really well executed projects and they look like this. And I’ve seen these ones that didn’t work out so well and they look like this. Exactly.

 

AC Inc(26:10)

Yeah.

 

And this is how they got to looking like this. Like you can

 

say, well, here’s what I saw. Like, and that’s exactly it. Like we could, um, you know, for the coach, when I was in a franchisee, if they would have come to me and said, um, I see this challenge. And if you want, I can tell you like these other 10 franchisees that dealt with this, I mean, let’s walk through what I saw there, what I saw working and, you know, bring me value that way. And now your credibility starts to go up because you brought me some value. So yeah, I love that you get it. That’s cool.

 

Jeff Walter (26:49)

Yeah. Yeah. Well,

 

and I, but I think it ties into those coaching skills that you’re talking about because in order for that coach to internalize the pattern recognition, you have to realize you have to be humble and realize, well, you don’t know everything and you’re learning and, be open to, and every situation is a little different. Like if we go back to Vancouver Island, it’s like,

 

AC Inc(27:05)

Yeah. exactly.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (27:16)

It’s a little different. The demographics here are a little different. So it’s not plug and play. It’s like, it’s, it’s adapt, right? And, uh, it’s, it’s fascinating. And so you, so you came up with this, uh, certification program. so, so when a franchise or shifting gears a little, when a franchise or is engaging you guys, what, what is, what is it? Is there a specific business objective they’re trying to accomplish or what, why, why are they engaging you?

 

What are they trying to get out of it?

 

AC Inc(27:47)

Yeah, well, I think I should probably throw in a little bit about the other side of what we do, which it’s all connected. So what if I go a step further back? OK, so the certification I talk a lot about because it’s just easy for people to understand. ⁓ yeah. OK, education or professional development for folks in the field. It’s all based on something we created called this called the strategic growth.

 

Jeff Walter (27:59)

Yeah.

 

AC Inc(28:11)

coaching framework. And where that comes from is when I first started networking around and as I mentioned at the beginning, you know, I’m going to go networking because all I’d done is grown up in this one brand and that this goes now 10 years when I started to kind of put myself out there. you know, I remember getting off the airplane in Philadelphia by myself, you know, female. I’d never been to this big American city.

 

And I actually got in the car that I thought was an Uber because we didn’t have Uber on Vancouver Island back then. I, some guy drove me, fortunately I got to my hotel. like that was my first part of networking side story. But when I saw it, no, I didn’t tell my family until about like eight years later. He just, he just, he just was like 20 bucks. And it was like, like, after I’m like, was I in Mexico or like, that’s what you do in like Mexico. Right.

 

Jeff Walter (28:46)

It was not an uber.

 

it’s.

 

AC Inc(29:00)

negotiate. anyway, yeah, so just giving that for like context, because I was, you know, I was in this this world of M &M. I’m in my family business in the franchisee. And then I started networking out there. But I didn’t know what exactly like I knew. I’m here today.

 

Jeff Walter (29:17)

I used to live in Philly, so when he said Philly, I’m like, I’ve been to that airport.

 

AC Inc(29:20)

Yeah, you can. Yeah, I

 

still can’t even believe it was at night to I’ve grown up since then. But um, so when I said to me, no, like I knew that when I go back that far, so like I knew that people would say they needed what we have now. Like this, this was totally from scratch. Because I just knew all I knew is people said,

 

Jeff Walter (29:25)

Yeah.

 

AC Inc(29:49)

Well, wait a minute. Your dad is the founder of a company that grew to this and you were a franchisee in that business for 18 years, multi-unit. You must know something. And I was like, I don’t know. What do I even know? Like, I don’t know. So I had to go out there and find out. what I kept hearing when I started asking, well, what are you doing for franchisee support? Cause I knew one thing my dad really understood. My dad really understood. And I talk all about this now at AC Inc, the human element of the…

 

Jeff Walter (30:07)

All right.

 

AC Inc(30:15)

of the franchisee franchise or relationship that these people invested their like $400,000 or more in a lot of restaurant cases to, you know, to be supported by you. And it’s not, it’s not about hand holding. is, there’s an accountability there, but it’s, you know, we have to take that seriously. And so franchise ors were saying, well, I would say, what does your support look like? And they’d say, well, we, do everything for them.

 

And I was like, well, what do mean by everything? And this happens to this day when I asked franchisers, what do you mean by everything? Oh, we have a really good, our onboarding checklist, like we get them onboarded. We’ve great initial training. We have a really good LMS that we use. We have, we’ve got, we’ve found a great POS, point of sale system. We give them marketing assets. We hold conferences. Oh,

 

and they can call us any time. And I’m like, well, if you’re doing all that, you’re doing, quote unquote, everything. Why are so many franchisees disengaged and not profitable and not performing in all these brands? And so that’s so it was it was going over and recognizing there’s something missing. And now I even forget exactly what you asked me. what are people looking for? Well, they’re looking for, you know what the number one thing I think they’re looking for? Well, they want their franchisees to step up.

 

and take ownership of their success. want their franchisees to be successful. Like they do. Most, especially if they’re still founder owned, my gosh, those founders lose sleep every night because there’s so much weight on their shoulders. But even if it’s a PE backed brand and it’s really all about ROI on the surface or whatever, they want their franchisees to be making money. And so they’re usually disengaged if they’re not making, like…

 

And how do we get them engaged? So they’re coming to us because they know something’s not right with their support because they’re like, we’re doing everything and it’s not working. And their franchisees are not showing up to our group calls and their coaching calls. And they’re not getting out into their communities and being the face of the brand and building business. They’re stuck working in their business. Those are all the things they’re seeing. And they’re like, how can we fix this? And we’re like, well, let’s start with that person.

 

Jeff Walter (32:16)

Right.

 

AC Inc(32:34)

that’s supporting them in the field that has no training right now. usually or not usually, often that person comes up from a corporate location like I did. And then they just threw me in the field and it was like, yeah, I knew the brand inside out. Like I could organize the freezer and serve customers and all that all day long. But nobody taught me how to be a business owner. And nobody taught me how to be a coach. I’m kind of mixing the two, but.

 

Jeff Walter (32:43)

Right.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

AC Inc(33:00)

That’s what they’re trying to fix is they’re trying to get the franchisees to be more like business owners, but we’re, we’re showing them. We’re like, it’s the person in the field that needs help, not in this head office. Like we could teach the CEOs and the executives all day long, but it’s, need, we need to get to that person that’s on the front line with the franchisee.

 

Jeff Walter (33:11)

Right.

 

Yeah. Well, that’s where that, that is the franchise or to the franchisee is that, is that, is that area manager that that’s they’re not picking up the phone and calling the CEO and CFO and saying, right. Yeah. Well, you know, I’d going, Hey, you know, I’ve got this accounting issue. What do I do? Or, know, how, you know, how, you know, they’re, they’re right. Yeah. They’re, they’re, they’re like, they’re, they’re contacting their.

 

AC Inc(33:27)

Right. Yeah.

 

Unless I really am.

 

Yeah.

 

Where’s the uniform ordering form?

 

Jeff Walter (33:51)

area manager, district manager, franchise business consultant, you know, whatever the, the, the field sup, I think of it as field support, right? Like, you know, yeah, yeah, they’re, supporting the, the, the, network, the network support. and, and it’s interesting cause you know, I was talking earlier, you know, I’ve spent a lot of time in the automotive industry and they, have huge, you know, dealer support networks, actually.

 

AC Inc(33:58)

Yeah, whether they’re out in the field or over Zoom, but yeah, exactly.

 

Exactly. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (34:18)

multiple networks for the three different aspects of dealership, the sales, the service and the parts. Most folks don’t realize that dealerships are also part wholesalers to local shops. And so there’s actually three businesses going on under the one roof and they’ve got three, the automotive OEMs, they actually have three groups of independent sales, mean, field support, district managers.

 

AC Inc(34:28)

Yeah.

 

Mm.

 

Jeff Walter (34:45)

sales district manager, parts district manager, service district manager. And, ⁓ and it’s interesting because I, I’ve been involved in, you know, what was really interesting and the reason I want to talk to you so much, was I’ve been in that for 20 years and very little discussion has been around how do we optimize, how do we train the field people? It’s kind of like what you said. Well, it came.

 

AC Inc(34:47)

Right.

 

Jeff Walter (35:10)

They either got hired in, they’ve got a real interest. You know, I loved your, your, your three set left side of stool is like, they have a real interest in the brand or in the business that we’re in. Right. What, it’s selling, servicing, you know, um, and they’ll learn the systems, you know, that, know, but how do you be that management consultant? Cause that’s what you’re really talking about is that coach to that business owner. Yeah.

 

AC Inc(35:14)

for another week.

 

Yeah. Well, it’s the human. It’s, I’m going to say it’s the human.

 

How do you be the coach that’s still a human? That how do you show that you care without hand holding and letting boundaries go also like sometimes it, well, usually it swings too far the other way. It’s either they’re either authoritative.

 

or they’re so empathetic that they are getting walked all over, you know, the coach themselves, right.

 

Jeff Walter (36:01)

Yeah.

 

Well, and I love the term coaching instead of consultant or area manager or stuff like that, because the franchisees are not being managed like an employee.

 

AC Inc(36:11)

Exactly.

 

just nailed it. I do that all the time. Like, let’s not call them a consultant. Right.

 

Jeff Walter (36:14)

You know.

 

Yeah. And they’re not consulting that it’s the re one of the reasons I like coaching. And I, I forget where I heard this, but it’s, it’s like a coach can’t play the game for you. Right. So they can’t get out there and hit the ball. They can’t go

 

out there and score the goal. They, they can help the player do that, but they can’t do it for you. And like some of the stuff you were talking about before,

 

AC Inc(36:40)

Yeah. That is so

 

true. Like it’s the owning your own success. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (36:47)

Exactly like now they can help that person optimize their abilities, but they

 

can’t actually do it for you. can’t fish for you. They can teach you to fish, right?

 

AC Inc(36:58)

Exactly.

 

You know, I feel like I have to jump in with, I don’t know if you and I talked about this when we first met or not, but it sounds like we’re super aligned on what you’re saying. We talk all the time about the difference between consulting and coaching. Consulting, we say, is I’m the expert and I’m going to come and tell you what to do. And you can see in franchising why

 

on the surface, you’d think that might work because it’s, we’ve to make sure they follow the brand standards and all that. So I’m going to come in and I’m going to, and also because franchisees become franchisees because they want to be told what to do. But once they get in there, it doesn’t usually work. They don’t want to be told because they start to think, well, wait a minute, this, know more than you because I’m here in this business. So a consultant is, is, is I’m going to come in and tell you how to run your business. I’m going to tell you what you’re doing wrong, tell you what you should do differently. And

 

Jeff Walter (37:28)

Right.

 

AC Inc(37:51)

When you have a problem, you’re going to love me because I’m going to give you the answer and I’m going to feel good. When I leave here, I’m going to have helped you and I’m going to feel like the hero and you’re going to be happy in the moment because your problems got solved. But what happens when you can’t get me when you need me? And what happens when you start to think that you know more than me and I’m not the expert? Now you don’t need me and now you’re disengaged from me and now we don’t have a relationship.

 

That’s why consulting is dangerous in franchising.

 

Jeff Walter (38:22)

Yeah.

 

Well, yeah. You know, another thing I, I like the way you’re differentiating the two having been a consultant for many decades. well, because, well, because I think the thing that goes to what you’re saying is it again, as a lifelong consultant is the consultant comes in, they solve a problem and they leave because problem solved, but a coach doesn’t solve a problem and leave. ⁓

 

AC Inc(38:37)

Mm-hmm. Great.

 

Jeff Walter (38:51)

coach doesn’t solve a problem. The coach is there to help you be the best you can be. And that’s an ongoing thing. And it’s, it’s.

 

AC Inc(38:53)

Right. Yeah. Yeah. And empower the

 

franchisee. And we’re not saying you’d never do consulting. Like was an FBC franchise business coach, whatever you, sometimes you have to just tell them what to do and they want that. Like that’s okay. But it’s just, like there’s, and there’s training, training is different from coaching, right? You would probably be able to school me on that one, but definitely.

 

Jeff Walter (39:16)

Yeah.

 

maybe not.

 

AC Inc(39:21)

But training is, I’m going to teach you something, right? Whereas coping is your like, and we need all of them. And so sometimes, you know, we get it. you got to just default to consulting because you just do, but like.

 

Jeff Walter (39:25)

Right.

 

That’s…

 

Well, sometimes

 

I never thought about it like the way you’re framing it. It’s really interesting because it really kind of clarifies a bunch of things in my mind, which is like, and especially when you throw training in there, it’s like consulting is a defined, you’re going into solve a defined problem. once the problem is solved, you’re done. And then on the training side, it’s usually

 

AC Inc(39:52)

Yeah, and what if you have a problem?

 

Jeff Walter (40:02)

You’re going in to, um, to share some knowledge, to convey knowledge, right? Like, like, uh, I know that if I do this and this and this, other thing occurs, right? Or, you know, or, know, this mountain is 15,000 feet high piece of knowledge, right? Um, or, you know, this product comes in blue and green.

 

AC Inc(40:08)

Yeah.

 

or this is how these are the steps if your POS goes down. Follow these, I’m gonna train you on that.

 

Jeff Walter (40:30)

Right. I’m going to

 

train you on, something it’s, it’s, and it’s knowledge acquisition or knowledge transmission. And then it’s interesting. Cause I, again, I haven’t thought about from this perspective, but skill development and the skill can be running a business, fixing a vehicle, baking a cake.

 

AC Inc(40:37)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (40:50)

skills never get solved. Like you’re never a good enough batter. You’re like, you’re batting average is never good enough. You can always want to get better. Skills can always be improved and the way you improve school, it’s not by acquiring more knowledge and it’s not by solving a problem, although that can be part of it. It’s the coaching is about the skill development. And in this case, the skill of running a business.

 

AC Inc(40:57)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (41:14)

which is definitely a set of skills, but it’s, interesting. I never thought about it like that. Try number them there. That’s really interesting.

 

AC Inc(41:21)

Yeah, that’s

 

cool. I love hearing your reflection on that. And the idea is that if we teach the franchisee, like teach Amanda Fish, as you said, that we’re empowering them and then they can then use just keep using that skill and same with the coaches. If we teach the coach and we teach and coach them, I mean, the program is more teaching when we certify them, but

 

Jeff Walter (41:46)

Yeah.

 

AC Inc(41:47)

But we do have ways that we continuously can coach them after they’ve taken it. But if the coach has a skill for handling difficult conversations, they just have to keep tapping into that skill and probably need some, like I said, ongoing coaching to keep developing it. But that’s the difference between having a skill versus, like you said, just solving a problem, like the one-off.

 

Jeff Walter (42:08)

Yeah. Well, the, the interesting thing when you said like coach the coach, it’s like, well, to certainly say the certification program that you have, you’re coming in, you’re doing the training in the co, you know, but you’re training a coach, which means you got to coach the coach, but it is still in that kind of, let me give you a set of tools and knowledges and, and, and, and teach you how to hit the ball. And, and, and I’ll coach you through that and let’s do a bunch of practices, but

 

AC Inc(42:18)

Yep.

 

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Exactly.

 

That’s where the coaching

 

comes in because we threw out the program. They’re doing it over five months. They’re going in there using the skills and trying it and then coming back and reporting on what happened and what’s working and you know.

 

Jeff Walter (42:41)

Right.

 

Exactly. there’s, there’s a little, there’s the teaching and then there’s the coaching at the program ends. But now the coach to the franchisee, it, it’s not a five month program. And that’s another thing that’s been really interesting in the franchise space is a lot of it. It’s really interesting how much energy is put into the initial, ⁓ onboarding and how little energy is put into the ongoing. Right.

 

AC Inc(42:51)

Yeah.

 

Yes. And then.

 

Yeah, on

 

training. Yeah, there should be ongoing training as well, by the way, like franchisees should have the opportunity to be to have some ongoing training and their business coach, like their business coaches for things like what’s your strategic plan and what’s your vision and how are we like, let’s reverse engineer the steps and hold you accountable to those steps because they’re your goals. but then there’s also like, you could still do host ongoing training sessions where we reach retrain on.

 

Jeff Walter (43:18)

Yeah.

 

AC Inc(43:40)

⁓ like retrain things or train the new initiatives that are coming out. So all of that was one of things my dad always used to say when he was, you know, in the thick of things is, know, you train, you train, and then he trains some more. It’s like, you know, just it’s, it doesn’t end. you said, like they put so much emphasis on the beginning of that, but it needs to be ongoing.

 

Jeff Walter (43:52)

Hahaha!

 

So switching gears, when a franchise or goes through the program, they come on, either they take the whole program or part of the program. What do they tend to see as a result of that? What’s changed, the before and the after? Help me understand the contrast.

 

AC Inc(44:18)

Yeah. Well,

 

yeah, great question. And I started to talk a little bit earlier about the strategic growth coaching framework we created because people were saying, does coaching and training actually look like? So the framework is, and I’m going to answer this question with this, the framework, if a brand wants to really level up and get serious about franchisee success, then they hire us to come in and

 

put the framework and work with them on using tools and resources we’ve created for coaches, but customizing it for their brand. So the certification is kind of like a do it yourself. You you could send one of your FBCs, you can put all of them if you’ve got a bunch of them. If you’re brand new and you only have that one person, just put that person in and then they can come back and try to implement some of it into the system.

 

Jeff Walter (44:52)

Right.

 

AC Inc(45:10)

Or at least just the way they’re behaving, they’re using the tools and skills as they go. the results vary from, they’re just kind of acting different to they might come back and put these, like they do get these tools and resources in the certification and they can go implement. But where we see the most success is when they bring us in to help them implement instead of the do it yourself. We’re coming in and we’re saying, well, what are you doing about this? Let’s modify that. Let’s set you up to be.

 

fully strategic growth coaching. And we’ve worked with a number of platform, we’ve worked with some platform brands, larger brands, startup brands that are scaling quickly to put this framework in place. And so the results that we’re seeing, if we start with the certification itself, we have first and foremost people, the CEOs of the companies are saying that person now is confident, knows how to run a coaching session.

 

they’re holding franchisees more accountable, franchisee relationships are better, more franchisees are showing up to like engaged to calls. We’ve heard different sort of anecdotal stats out there of franchisees’ sale revenues up 20 % with that code, things like that. With the framework overall, I mean, it all takes time because there’s so many moving parts.

 

Jeff Walter (46:19)

Mm-hmm. All right.

 

AC Inc(46:27)

⁓ but it’s just that amplified. It’s it’s our coaches are more aligned. ⁓ now we’re all working from the same song sheet. Like right now you got franchise. They always have, if they have four and whatever FBCs, those people are, we’re we’re just banking on whatever they’re doing. They may share resources with each other, but one might be using these benchmarks. That one’s using that. Like when we come in to do the strategic growth coaching framework, we’re going to check, are your benchmarks? Is everybody connecting on those?

 

Jeff Walter (46:48)

Hmm.

 

AC Inc(46:56)

What strategies are people using? So it’s getting people aligned, which is streamlining things. I think people, I know people, it’s helping culture because they’re more connected. So those are some of the things we’re seeing.

 

Jeff Walter (47:09)

Yeah. Well, and you mentioned it briefly, but even though it’s anecdotal, think things like what you said, know, a 20 % increase in revenue from the same FBC, you know, that’s, that is the, type of thing is huge. It’s huge. what, yeah. Yeah.

 

AC Inc(47:22)

Yeah.

 

⁓ It’s royalties right there. Like that’s your ROI. ⁓

 

You know, as of the time we’re recording this podcast, the program is 4,250, five months. And so if you go do some math and figure out if your franchisees went up 20%, I’m not, there’s no guarantee on this. I’m going to get in trouble. But you know, if even if they went up 15 % or whatever, how much more royalty dollars is that?

 

for you for the lifetime of that franchisee or the next year or the next six months or whatever, you know.

 

Jeff Walter (47:56)

Yeah.

 

Well, it’s interesting. of the things, know, it’s as an industry, as a learning development industry, training industry, it’s, uh, so I come, like I said, I come from a consulting background and I was, it was drilled into my head at an early age. I remember asking one of my mentors, why does anybody hire a consultant when they can just hire people like me cheaper? And he’s like, Oh, silly Jeff, they’re not paying the ridiculous rates we charge you for you per hour because of you. It’s because we, as we can do something that they can’t do on their own.

 

They can do it on their own. would have done it. but he goes, they got a, they got a half, they got a million dollar problem. We have a half million dollar solution that they can’t figure out on their own. And it’s all about ROI. So I, ROI was drilled into my head at an early, and then I get into the training industry, 20 years ago and people like knowledge is good. And I’m like, yeah, where’s the ROI. And, and, but where I was going with this is one client, a large automotive OEM.

 

AC Inc(48:34)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah, that’s good.

 

Jeff Walter (48:50)

And the, the person, one of the folks in there was a senior in the training program, dealer training. He had done the math and it was amazing how viral this was. He served in the math at the time was a certified, salesperson sells twice as many vehicles as an uncertified salesperson and a certified service tech has a 20 point higher fixed first, right. Fixed right first time score than an uncertified.

 

AC Inc(49:10)

There you go.

 

Jeff Walter (49:19)

guy and you’re doing and you’re paying, you’re the guys paying for the warranty work. So having 20 % of the, 20 % of the time, the thing being fixed, right. Higher. That’s, know, and the point is, is like those, those simple metrics, like, like, know, anecdotally, what we see 20, you can’t bank that this person, if they go through training, we’ll have 20 % or 30 % or even 2%. But what I’ve noticed in that organization,

 

was that type of thing was viral because to your point, everybody knew what that meant. Everybody in that company up to the CEO level knew what selling twice as many vehicles per salesperson meant. could put, they could just in their head, put a dollar figure on it without anybody saying anything. And same thing on the, on, on, fixing it right the first time they knew how much money that was being saved. And therefore it’s like, we had to spend X dollars to train the person or why, you know, it’s like,

 

AC Inc(50:02)

Right.

 

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (50:18)

Doesn’t matter. We just saved half a million.

 

AC Inc(50:19)

usually for

 

a small fraction of the L of the RL.

 

Jeff Walter (50:22)

Exactly. And,

 

it was really interesting because it went viral and, and, ⁓ in the organization, remember just people just, you know, just, they, was just common knowledge, right? And, ⁓ so, you know, like it’s, that’s really cool that you’re seeing that type of, improvement. Cause that’s huge, huge.

 

AC Inc(50:32)

No.

 

Yeah,

 

I mean, everybody wants direct, obvious ROI or revenue increases. And I think we’ll get there over time, but it does take time. So right now we’re measuring things, like I said, franchisee engagement. Are the calls more focused on the vision of the franchisee or are they more just answering questions? There’s things we’re measuring right now. it’ll be fine. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (50:49)

No. No.

 

Well, those are the leading indicators, right? The more

 

engagement, the nature of the questions and all that. Those are the leading and the trailing indicator is higher sales, but that’s an after the fact, right? So that’s really cool. That’s very, very cool. Angela, is there anything else you want to share with everyone?

 

AC Inc(51:10)

Your comment.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah, I got one more thing that if what I love to do is I love that when people are around me for them to leave with sort of inspired to go take action on something and actually go do it. So I got a challenge for people that are listening ⁓ and this doesn’t just apply to FBCs or franchise if you’re just training and develop anything. is if you’re if you’ve got teenagers, you mentioned it earlier, if you’ve got someone that seems to be

 

depending on you to give them answers and you want them to be more independent and maybe empower them. When they come to you with a question, hold yourself firm and instead of feeding the monster, try flipping it around. So that’s something people could go do right away. Even if you’re a manager of other team members and they come to you with a question, instead of just giving them the answer, what if you said, well, what would you do if I were in Mexico, or not Mexico, if I were in Africa without Wi-Fi and

 

for a month, what would you do? And see what they say. Because often they have the answer in them. So that’s the coaching approach versus the consulting.

 

Jeff Walter (52:22)

That’s very cool. Thank you. And Angela, if folks want to get a hold of you, how would they get a hold of you?

 

AC Inc(52:28)

Yeah, I love for people to connect. course, LinkedIn is where I’m most active. So they can find me, Angela Cote on their C-O-T-E. Our website is fieldcoachexperts.com and or they can email solutions at fieldcoachexperts.com. But we are always open to just brainstorming and soundboarding calls and you know, whatever problem people have, we were never into hard selling. So if people just want to get some

 

support and things like that or come to our free round tables as long as they’re on a franchise or team. Yeah, happy to talk to people about all of that.

 

Jeff Walter (53:00)

Okay. And we will make sure to include a link to your website in the description of the podcast.

 

AC Inc(53:03)

Thank you. And before

 

we say anything else, thank you, Jeff, for having me. This was a real treat. It’s always so fun as an entrepreneur or founder to be able to talk about our businesses.

 

Jeff Walter (53:14)

I tell you, I learned a lot out of it and it’s really interesting. And one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you was that whole idea of supporting the FBC or the area manager and providing them with training and coaching. I think it’s one of the under-focused areas and yet that is the face of the brand to the franchisees.

 

AC Inc(53:34)

Hmm.

 

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (53:40)

Right. That

 

is the human they’re talking to. And, and so I think it’s a really important area. And I think it’s the type of thing where you can, as a brand, see significant uptick if you can have a really well-developed, support network out there for your partners. so, so thank you for sharing that with everybody. really appreciate it. Thank you. And, that’s

 

AC Inc(54:01)

No, thank you.

 

Jeff Walter (54:05)

And so thank you, Angela. And to everybody out there, thank you for listening. I greatly appreciate it.

 

AC Inc(54:06)

Yeah, thank you.