I recently went one on one with Jason Anderson, President of CoWorks.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Jason: There have been several formative experiences throughout my life that led me to where I am today. I joined the Air Force in the summer of 2000 at the age of 17, just 30 days out of high school. By 18, I landed at my first duty station in England. I anticipated a lifetime military career but five months after arriving at my station, the planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. I was deployed less than a week later and had to grow up quick. That experience changed my life plans – I decided to leave the military and was honorably discharged in 2005. 

I moved to Dallas and bought my first house which got me into real estate. I started my own real estate company in 2007 and then, only a few months later, the Great Recession happened. It seemed to be a recurring theme in my life, but I didn’t let it slow me down. By 2011, I had close to 200 agents and thought my company was going to be the next Keller Williams or RE/MAX. What I didn’t understand at the time was how these other companies grew. It wasn’t until I dug deeper that I discovered that all the major competitors were franchises. In fact, franchising dominated the real estate industry. That got me intrigued in franchising and I googled how to franchise your business. It was then that I started franchising and selling my real estate company.

I eventually sold my company and around that time someone from a company called United Franchise Group (UFG) messaged me on LinkedIn about a brand called Transworld Business Advisors. Transworld specializes in the marketing and sales of businesses, mergers and acquisitions, and franchises. I went to meet with Ray Titus, the CEO of UFG, and just a few weeks later became Transworld’s regional vice president for the Southwest. During my time with Transworld, I developed a passion for franchise sales and later, franchise development. I haven’t left the industry since.

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business?

Jason: Tying back to my real estate background, I look at growing and scaling a business the same way I would look at building a house. With that analogy in mind, sure, anyone could build a house, but that’s not usually advised. Most people will go to either an architect or a homebuilder that has blueprints, ensuring certain standards and quality remain consistent across the board.

Franchising has proven to be an exceptional way to grow and scale a business. In the franchising world, the franchisor can be seen as the architect/homebuilder, having a deep understanding of what goes into building a successful franchise. They’ll look at the business model, demand, and how well the brand can be localized while still taking on national growth and expansion. 

Whether your business is a franchise or not, just like a house, it’s important it has a strong foundation and ecosystem because that’s where everything is built from. From there, you should have the right people in place to support your business growth (strategically and tactically), set clear goals/KPIs that can be tracked regularly, and know when to pivot.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Jason: I typically like to start with the not-so-good qualities and go from there. I think a common mindset that many leaders can end up adopting is “do as you’re told” where there is a separation between them and their team, and maybe they haven’t done or don’t have the capacity to do what they’re delegating. This is not the basis of effective leadership in my view. I like to understand each piece of a given process before I delegate it to someone on my team. This isn’t always possible but that’s where listening and learning from the people you’re leading can be super important.

Something I like to do with the people on my team is ask them what they like doing or what they believe their highest value role in the organization would be. I give them the opportunity to create their own job title and develop their own job description. Some people freeze up when asked, which is fine, but about 50-60% of the people I ask actually have the role they created for themselves. I’ve found that this exercise not only gives them the opportunity to have a level of autonomy in their career, but it gives me the opportunity to learn more about them. It also helps me understand the people who are just there for a job and who are there for a longstanding career. You want to be developing leaders in your organization.

Effective leadership is about listening and learning at all levels. If something isn’t working, learn how to fail quickly so you can pivot your strategy. Lead by example – try to learn the ins and outs of each of your team members’ jobs or listen to them to understand. Always strive to accomplish more or be better. 

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Jason: One of the things that has been instrumental to my own growth as a business leader is working with a life coach. I believe personal development is key in taking leadership skills to the next level. In working with a life coach, I learned so much about myself and my strengths. For example, my coach had me take several personality tests during our work together that showed me my top careers: architect, engineer, and franchisor. A common thread these three careers share: creating systems that others maintain. This was extremely validating and eye-opening for me, and it showed me where I can contribute the most value.

As a leader, knowing who you are and what you’re good at (also what you’re not good at) is extremely helpful in honing your inherent skills and understanding where you can use support or should delegate.

I read a lot and must admit that I’m a bit of a certification and seminar junkie. I always take the opportunity to learn more about myself and improve in all areas of my life.  

My advice to anyone looking to do enhance their leadership skills is to:

• Read personal development books – a few of my favorites are “Outliers” and “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.

• Invest in a coach. You would be surprised how many business leaders have never worked with a coach before. Working with a coach can help you learn more about yourself and expand your perspective, making you a better leader.

• Finding and understanding where you have your own strengths and focusing on those.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?

Jason: Another good book I’ve read is “How Google Works,” where it says that your default mode should be to share everything, i.e. transparency. Now of course there are things that shouldn’t be shared, such as someone’s personal life, etc., but generally speaking this idea of “default to open” is how I build, lead, and manage my team.

What I mean is everyone on your team should know and understand your organization’s goals, what position they’re playing on the team, and how their role is going to play a part in achieving those goals. Getting everybody on the same page is key in ensuring that 1) you have their investment and 2) they understand how their position/role is integral in your organization’s success.

Typically, I’ll set 3-5 (no more than five) goals/KPIs for the year. For Office Evolution, we recently held our annual convention where I shared with our franchise owners what our three goals for 2023 would be: increasing revenue, driving leads, and boosting occupancy. 

People can sense when you’re withholding information or not being transparent, so level the playing field with transparency and get everyone involved in achieving your organization’s goals. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?

Jason:

• Focus on your strengths; outsource your weaknesses. Once you know your strengths, sharpen that axe and focus on that skillset.

• Set clear, identifiable goals and don’t be afraid to shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll still land amongst the stars.

• Celebrate the short-term wins along the way. Don’t downplay what you and your team have achieved. Celebrating the “small” wins gives recognition to how far you’ve come and boosts morale amongst your team in the process.

Adam: What are your best tips for franchisors and for franchisees?

Jason: What I’ve found in creating strategic alliances between different brands and United Franchise Group over the years is that if you’re the original owner of a company, you’re typically passionate about the business but not about franchising. In a franchise company, you need to put people in place who are passionate about franchising. It’s important to surround yourself with a good franchise team in addition to subject matter experts for whatever niche your brand falls in. 

I’ve seen many brands make the mistake of only hiring people who specialize in their niche – whether it be restaurants, retail, real estate or something else – and not franchise experts who understand the ins and outs of the franchise business model and can make the brand profitable. 

In addition to having a designated franchising expert team, you must have a solid plan laid out for your business and an understanding of the financials – how to make money and survive and thrive as a franchisor.

Finally, regarding KPIs, you must be clear on what they are and have credibility in the tracking of them. If your internal employees don’t have goals that are aligned with your franchise owners, you’re going to fail; it is a very difficult uphill battle to course-correct. And you must be able to accurately report how your organization performed against the KPIs that were set – nobody likes fluffed numbers.

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding?

Jason: Knowing there’s a difference between those three things and that they should be treated as separate entities. A common mistake that many companies make is trying to consolidate sales, marketing, and branding into one department. Each component is important to the long-term success of a company, and they should be properly prioritized and supported. 

The first step is clearly defining the role that each piece plays in your company. For example, sales generate revenue; marketing develops the leads, programs, people to be passed on to your salespeople; branding establishes authority and credibility and maintains relationships with your key audiences.

From there, you’ll want to determine which component is most priority to invest in. In my opinion, sales is always first because companies need revenue to survive as well as fund the two other components. Marketing should be second to continue driving sales and generating revenue for your company. Then finally, once you have sales and marketing in a good place, you can invest more into branding.  

You should also be tracking where you put your money and analyzing performance at all levels – from internal employees and systems to third-party vendors. Many companies can end up wasting millions of dollars continuing to put money towards people, partners and systems that aren’t producing an ROI. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Jason: “Perfection is the Enemy of Progress” - Winston Churchill. Given the dire nature of Great Britain during WW2, it was vital that decisions were made promptly using all the available information and data that could be compiled. There was not time to prolong/procrastinate life and death decisions. You had to make quick and decisive decisions to make progress, and understand that there is no perfect answer to the problem. You have to quickly weigh the pros and cons knowing that the pros need to outweigh the potential cons. But owning the fact that there is and will be cons associated with that decision. In franchising, that scenario is a common occurrence, even though it is not a life-or-death situation. With working with dozens and hundreds of franchisees you learn that nearly no decision will be unanimously approved or applauded. You have to take in all the data, make a decision in the best interest of the brand, and move on to the next battle very quickly. You have to be able to take all the input quickly from franchisees, customers, corporate staff and act in the name of progress. 

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Jason: Often, I’m shocked by how little the general public knows about franchising given how large the industry is and its success rate for scaling and growing businesses. In my eyes, 95% of mom-and-pop, independent businesses have no logical path of expansion and growth. The beauty of franchising is that you don’t have to be the next McDonald’s or Subway if you don’t want to; micro-franchising gives small businesses the infrastructure to successfully generate more revenue and grow even if they only want to open five more units. And the rewards go beyond strictly financial; through franchising at any scale, you’re promoting entrepreneurship, stimulating local economy, and creating more jobs in your community. There are currently only about 3,000-4,000 franchisors; in my opinion, there should be 100,000.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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