Chief Change Officer - #361 James Hilovsky: From Pro Athlete to Franchise Matchmaker—Part One

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

What happens after the cheering stops?For James Hilovsky, it meant trading his baseball uniform for business ownership—and helping other athletes do the same. In Part One, James shares how his short-lived pro sports career led to 25 years in restaurant franchising, including scaling Pieology from one store to over 100.Now, as a franchise consultant, James works with NFL and NBA players looking to invest wisely, build generational wealth, and transition from the field to the franchise world. He explains how the mindset of elite athletes—structured, coachable, and risk-tolerant—makes them natural fits for franchise success. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to make the leap from sports to business, this episode is your playbook.Key Highlights of Our Interview:From Dugout to Dining Room“My playing career ended fast—but the restaurant world gave me a new team and a new game to master.”Scaling Pieology: A Fast-Casual Success Story“We went from one location to over 100 franchises. That’s where I really learned what franchisees need.”Helping Athletes Avoid Bad Deals“I saw too many players get pitched sketchy investments. I wanted to be a safe, informed resource.”What COVID Taught Us About Franchising“People were stuck at home, rethinking their jobs—and ready to bet on themselves.”Sports Teams and Franchise Systems: More Alike Than You Think“Both have playbooks. Both have coaches. And success comes from following the system.”Why Athletes Thrive in Business“They’re used to risk, coaching, and performance pressure. That’s the foundation of good franchisees.”Case Study: From NFL to Mental Health Franchise“A retired Super Bowl winner found purpose building a clinic network for athletes dealing with post-concussion trauma.”Case Study: A Family Franchise Plan in Atlanta“A former MLB player launched a dog grooming business—with his wife and kids running the first store.”The Top 3 Qualities That Make Athletes Business-Ready“Risk tolerance, coachability, and natural leadership. That’s the winning combo.”_________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: James Hilovsky  --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.17 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>160,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today at our studio, we welcome James Hilovsky from Riverside in South Tent, California. James runs a unique franchise consulting business, primarily serving retired athletes from the NBA and NFL who are starting new chapters in their lives as franchisees. He also helps regular people with their franchise businesses.

James believes that using his expertise in franchising to change lives and livelihoods of families and future generations is a dream come true endeavor. I haven't been a franchisee or franchisor myself, but I do have experience with the franchise business. Many years ago, when my parents immigrated to Canada with zero local experience and connections, they ventured into franchising to make a living. Despite the hardships, using franchising as a means to fulfill the dream of becoming immersed and settled in the community was life-changing.

So I have great respect for franchising as a business model that can positively transform lives. Let's discover how James has used franchising for the greater good, for both athletes and everyday people. Good morning, James. How are you doing today? Good morning. I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on.

James joins us at a very timely moment. As we speak, this is the second week of the Olympic Games. Today, we are talking about sports, especially the lives of athletes. Before we dive into that, I'll let James introduce himself, share his background, his history, and his career path. Then, we'll jump right into our discussion on Alphalix, on business, on franchises and how all these things link together. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much.

So my career history is when I was growing up, I was a baseball player. I actually was in the minor leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies. And unfortunately, my career was very quick, got hurt, and then was done. And I came back and had to do something. So I immediately transitioned into the restaurant business because I had worked in a fine dining restaurant before I had left as well. And I've got it worked up, marked my way up into the restaurant business of using my, just have my athletic kind of background

really fit in the restaurant business, because I really felt like I came back and I had a team in the restaurant. So it was like the, the employees around me, everybody around me were one big team. And we ran it basically like a team. When I got into management would run systems as we're all teammates and that we're all working together to achieve the end goal. So from there, I went into a fast food company and worked for

Del Taco for about 25 years. Then a company called the Pieology called me and said, Eighth, we really want to grow our system. And would you come over and help run our franchise side, which would be supporting new franchisees and helping them in their restaurants, helping new store openings. And I said, absolutely. So we grew that chain from one store started there and grew it up over to

a hundred franchise restaurants. And we had some corporate stores as well. So I supported the franchise restaurants. And then one of the largest franchisees of, of biology call be in today come work for us and that was owned by two NFL football players that was immediately. And they were right really close to where I live. They were in Corona. So it made a lot of sense to come partner with them and work with them. So we did our biologies

and then we did a franchise called the baked bear, which ice cream franchise did our own coffee shop in our own cookie dough concept and everything was going good. And then one of the brothers, he retired from the NFL and then the other brother, he got hurt, couldn't fulfill the end of his contract. They went into some of them producing NFL and then the other brother, he got hurt, couldn't fulfill the end of his contract. They went into some of them producing movies and then they, their big thing was like, Hey, we're going to go start this tequila company. And you know that, I had nothing against tequila. I just was not my area expertise and something that I really didn't

feel the passionate about. So I then said, okay, I won't be joined on this venture. And then I decided to start my own business and help individuals look at different franchise options that are out there. So I don't really sell anything. What I do is I match people and athletes and professionals to franchise business. I show them what's out there in the franchise world, show many of the different industries that are out there, show them really good franchises and just basically help them make

that decision all the way through, introduce them to the franchise or in the, we just talk about if it's a good system, how to read it, FDD and funding and basically just stay with them during the whole time to make sure it's a good fit. And I really got into that because we really wanted to make athletes part of my focus because with the two athletes that I was with, I did see all the people that would come up to them and offer them some crazy investments that I was like, wow, that is just crazy. And just the people that are always out there just trying to take advantage in some way. So I really wanted to make my niche. And so that's what I've been doing and just thoroughly enjoy helping athletes and people find their dreams.

So when exactly did you start this franchise consulting business? Yeah, so I've been doing this for about a little over four years. I've been doing it and that's when we started and haven't looked back since and it's been great. So around the time COVID started, what was the situation for you in terms of building your business? It sounds like you had gained trust from some athlete and entered their circle, building confidence. But then we faced this lifetime crisis, so much uncertainty. As an entrepreneur, how did you navigate the landscape? And eventually, how

did you get through it and return to normal? So that was very scary being out there in COVID, sorry, because the unknown of what's going to happen, they, because it was the, you know, unknown of what's going to happen. They really, so it was really, no one knew what to do. And it was rather uncertainly, uncertain times out there. But what really happened in the franchise world was home services took off and, and those franchises did really well. And there were people looking to get into them.

So the home service market, fixing up bathroom remodels or window cleaning, anything that had to do with servicing the homes, those were just extremely good franchises to have out there. And then the other thing was really a lot of people had some idle time and it was a time to where you think, should I go back to the office and commute? And this is nice not having this commute or do I make this leap of faith and bet on myself of going into a franchise? So it really turned out to be in that people were stuck at home and were on Zoom and doing that type of

thing that a lot of people had a lot of time to look at different options that were out there to help them as well as a lot of people got laid off and were looking for things to do. And again, why not bet on yourself with COVID? And so it really, really was, it was challenging, but a very interesting time for sure. Yeah, we'll definitely touch upon the idea of regular people getting involved in the franchise business, especially with all the changes in the job market. But before we get into that, in the job market. But before we get into that, let's go back to the sports world and the athletes. I remember you've mentioned before,

both in our conversations and on social media, that there are many parallels between the sports business and franchising in terms of generating revenue streams. Could you explain how that works? How do sports franchises compare to regular franchising? Yeah, definitely. So the parallels are really in the sports franchising and the regular franchising. So when you think of sports franchising and you think of sports as a MBA franchise, you're the Los Angeles Lakers.

That's really, it's a sports franchise. That's a franchise part of the MBA. So they do have bylaws that they have to follow. The MBA sets rules and guidelines of they can only spend so much money. If you spend more money on your players, they're going to get taxed. And so there's definitely rules, regulations, and they have to follow the system that's laid out there. Same way.

If we came in and we set an athlete started a pest control business. There's going to be rules, regulations, and they're obviously going to get given a playbook to follow that system. But there's many systems just like in owning a sports franchise that a regular franchise has to where they're going to say, here's everything that you need to do and here's how you need to do it. And we're going to help you achieve success. So very much so very parallels to being sports owners, but then the sports players,

the athletes can see that and go, yeah, okay. I'm part of this. And then they can, when they start their own franchise, if they look to get into the franchise business, it's much the same of it's worth following these guidelines that the franchise lays out. The franchise has been through all the potholes and the bad things. So they know how to tell us to do the business and they've developed the system so that we can be successful. So it sounds like you are saying that the way franchising is set up and run is similar

to the environment in which athletes are trained, following rules, knowing the rules, and so on. But what about the cost and revenue structure, and all those other business aspects? When you invest in or get involved in a business, you always consider the business model, revenue, costs, hiring, marketing, etc. Do you see similarities or parallels in the business world that apply to the sports world? In other words, does the environment athletes are trained in make it easier for them to transition into the business world?

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about that because in an athlete, in my opinion, are perfect people to go into business for themselves. And in particular, in a franchise business, why is that? They've been used to following a playbook all their lives. They've been given by a coach or playbook. Here's the playbook. Here's the plays. Here's the playbook, here's the plays, here's the system.

And the parallel with that, much like in the franchise to, to become a franchise owner, the franchise or is going to give you the playbook. Here's the playbook. Here's the set, how to set up the business. Here's the equipment you need to have. Here's the way you're going to set up the equipment. Here's the way you're going to set up the equipment. Here's the way you're going to do the build out. Everything for an athlete is laid out there as a playbook and they're especially good at following the playbook.

So much like the franchise or sets that playbook, they follow it. And in that playbook are going to be the guidelines of here's how many people you're going to need to hire. Here are the type of people that you need to hire. So the franchisor is basically going to the athlete and being that, uh, coach, the head coach or the, the manager that's going to be the franchisor is now that manager, that coach to the athlete. So they get it and say, okay, I need to hire people. Oh, here's the attribute that I need to look for and I need to do that.

And then I need to follow the system they're putting into place to achieve X, Y, and Z on the revenues and the franchise or also during every step of this process, they obviously take a look at how the franchisee, which in this case would be the athlete, how are they doing as far as their regular day-to-day operations? They'll give you that ongoing support and if they're not hitting numbers or marks or systems out there, they're going to tell the franchisee athlete, hey, this is an area we're falling on and we need to improve in this area.

And that's great too, because the athletes used to criticism a lot of the athletes. They're, they're criticized about their play or take that coaching and take it in the right way and to want to improve and knowing that a franchisor is basically just trying to help you run your business. Just like a coach in sports is just trying to coach you and sometimes coaching you hard to help you perform better. So very similar parallels between the two. And like I said, I think athletes are really perfect kit

for a franchise model. Can you share some successful examples of clients you've worked with? You can name names if it's okay, or just tell us about the factors and elements that helped these athletes transition well into their businesses. How did the process unfold? And what was the eventual outcome? Yeah, so I had a, a former NFL player, Super Bowl winner. So he was a very prominent athlete.

He, after his playing days, he had his own wine business and he was doing very good with that, but he was called me up. James, I just, I'm not really that passionate about what I'm doing. I like it, but I want to find something that's passionate. So show me what's out in the franchise world. So we looked at different car franchises. We looked at one that did window tinning and just, he was like, yeah, I like it, but I'm not sure we'd looked at a couple of gym models that were out there. That still wasn't really a great fit.

We went into, and we looked at some different, particularly junk removal franchises and just didn't do it. He was like, I think I'm just going to just stick with my wine business and I'm good. I said, okay, get it. We'll, if something comes up, let me know and we'll figure out another fit. Then two days later, he calls and says, Hey, I got it. I really want a franchise that focuses on mental health of helping people that have addiction issues,

concussion of suffering from the effects of concussion, a franchise that could help with that. I searched and we found one and we went out and we talked with the franchisor. We came out for a discovery day after he had to talk with different franchisees in the system. And he just really loved it. And he wound up going with that. And he said, my whole goal is to put one of these in every NFL city, just to help different former players and people that have issues and that this is his passion.

And that was something that he found. And it was been great. He's already got his one going and in Florida and building his building his empire for sure. I have another one to where there was a former professional athlete baseball player. He was a number one draft pick and he actually, after his playing career, he got into corporate America. And he was like, corporate America is great, but I'm a little bit just not satisfied. And I want to find something that I can transition back into. I have a business of my own.

And my whole goal is I want it to be a family business. So let's look at things to where I could do a family business. I'd like left my family to start the first territory or first unit, no matter what we pick. And then I want to transition to it when we're ready to open up store number two. So we looked at different options. We talked with different franchisors and the best fit was dog grooming business. He loved the dog grooming business, thought there was a great need of it.

And he signed a free store deal in Atlanta and he, his wife and kids are going to run the first one he's going to transition out in store number two. So it's all about every individual and every athlete is going to have a different story behind why they want to transition out. A lot of athletes are, hey, the cheering stopped. I'm really struggling right now. I probably should have done a little bit better in college or some didn't go to college if it's in baseball and they're like, my skill is I just have my athletic

background, which is a great skill, but it doesn't really translate to going to Wall Street, but I do have that passion. So help me figure out what that is. And so when we talk about that, we look at different things that the athletes would be interested in. A lot of them are in the fitness area. Health and wellness is a great area of to be in and look in a franchise of different mental health issues or just muscle recovery studios and chiro therapy. All those are different franchises. A lot of them gravitate to.

So what we do with the athlete is we just show them what's out there in the industries, and then they can pick and choose what industries they're interested in. And then we figure out what's behind that. What is the end game and end goal? I know that's a long answer. I'll share another real quick story too. There's a NFL football player right now that's looking at franchising and his old goals. I've had a really good career in the league.

I've been in the league for six years. I feel like I had three more years left. Pretty established player is when I get done with playing, I want to walk into a business that's netting me half a million dollars a year. That's that revenue that I'm looking at. So I want to find a business that I can build up in those three years. And with half a million dollars of revenue, it's probably going to be a multi-unit play and he had a really great passion for this fitness brand that not only was a gym,

but they gave, did a six week weight loss challenge to where they're transforming people's lives. And he was really very interested in that. And so he is looking at doing a three unit deal and doing one, one unit every year, so that'll give him three and three years. And then when he's done playing, he's going to really have the potential to meet his goal of having a million dollars revenue profit of when he's done playing. When you look back at these examples where you did as the advisor and matchmaker,

where you acted as the advisor and matchmaker, helping them figure out the plans and goals. What are the three qualities that stand out in these successful individuals? These qualities could be skill, mindsets, psychological traits, or something related to the sports they play. Can you name some key qualities that are common and contraband to success in franchising for these athletes? I would say the one and most important quality that athletes bring to the table when it comes to franchising is they are able to take a risk. And what I mean by that, when you get into business for yourself, you're taking a risk and you're betting on yourself. A lot of people have a problem with, Hey, I'm going to step out of the box, do something different and it's going to be risky and the athletes are very good at

being able to take that risk because at the end of the day, their whole life is going to be full of risks and they're going to being able to take that risk because at the end of the day, their whole lives, they've bet on themselves. They've used their training and all the skills that they've done ever since they were a child. And it's all been about, hey, I'm good. I can do this. I'm going to bet on myself, much like jumping into business. It's betting on yourself and taking that risk. I'm good. I can do this. I'm going to bet on myself, much like jumping into business. It's betting on yourself and taking that risk. And most every athlete has the ability to go out and

say, yeah, I have the confidence and I'm going to bet on myself. So I would say that is the number one out there. Number two, the other one that is really good for a franchise system is an athlete is usually really receptive to coaching. So in business, when you're going to get into any business, you're going to have to take coaching and be able to apply that. So again, anything that in this case, the franchisor will tell an athlete. They will take that to heart and they will try a hundred percent to implement, implicate, implement what the, what the franchisor has told the athlete to do. Much like when they were playing, like the coach says, you need to run a five

hour out and turn near and they work on that. So it's being able to take that, take that risk, take that coaching and apply it. And then really another thing that athletes are really good at and not just business, but they're really able to go out and be leaders. So some athletes lead by example, and naturally in the field and other athletes are vocal leaders, but they all have some sort of leadership kind of

quality, even though they're a part of a team, they have that leadership quality. And so they are able to, they're able to take that risk. They're able to take that coaching, but then they're also able to lead their team or their employees or whatever the case may be into the franchise system that they're able to facilitate and go, okay, it's all on my shoulders. I've got the coaching. I know how to set up the business. And now I'm going to be able to lead and I'm going to be able to put my right players in the position they need to be in

to be successful in the business. So those are just really just three that really just come off the top of my mind that athletes are exceptional about. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe to our show, leave us top-rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.