Heroes in Business - Chris Dull CEO Global Franchise Group

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Chris Dull CEO Global Franchise Group is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes radio show. They talk about the GFG craveable indulgence brands the company has, and its standards of impeccable customer service. Dull also discusses how the company supports its franchisors and his favorite indulgence brand.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Now, back to our super host, David Kogan, founder of Alliances. Yep, it's your super host, David Kogan, and what a morning it's been. We started off the show with the CEO of PETA Jungle. We just had on the President of the United Nations General Assembly. We'll be ending the show with the son of Senator Ted Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. But let's get started with our next hero, who is the president and CEO of Global Franchise Group. That's globalfranchise.com, Chris Dahl.

You'll know their brands. You ever been to a mall? They're in tons of malls. Marble Slab Ice Creamery, Hot Dog on a stick great american cookies maggie moose ice cream and treat treatery and pretzel makers all of which i could eat right now chris with so many brands which do you personally frequent most as a customer oh you had to ask me that. You know that. Well, I would say that probably my most frequent would be Great American Cookies. Mmm, cookie fan, love it. Now, it must be surreal going to the mall and seeing so many of your franchises there. Have you ever done one of the,

personally, you, the secret shopper routine, kind of the undercover boss by going in as a customer and ordering? I actually do that all the time. Ah, great. So what surprised you the most? You know, for me, it's about customer service. So when you're in a business where you're serving a cravable indulgence to a consumer, they have a lot of choices. so with our brands it's really important that we put forward a very very good front in the form of customer service and so for me I'm always always pleasantly surprised by by how friendly and accommodating our staffs are at our locations. Now again you're the CEO global Global Franchise Group, having very, very well-recognized brands. How does one know the journey to become the CEO of so many recognized brands?

In other words, how did you do it? That's a good question. Sometimes I ask myself the same thing. I never envisioned, and I started out in franchising 20 years ago, and my vision was that someday I would be a franchisee. And I began at Marble Slab Creamery, which at the time was a very small business, only about 30 or 40 stores open and operating. And I began as a ice cream store manager working for the corporate offices. And so that's how it all started.

And we sold Marble Slab Creamery to a publicly traded company in 2006, and I was asked to move with the business to the public company and eventually found myself running the division, which was the franchise division, and we sold the franchise division to a private equity firm years later. And the private equity firm asked me to stay on and be the CEO. And I've been doing that for Global Franchise Group for a little over six years. Incredible. Growing up, though, what were some maybe of the other jobs? Maybe you could take me back a little bit earlier before even the ice cream store manager that you did. And more importantly too is,

what did you learn from them that carried over to help you be so successful? Sure. Well, I grew up in a relatively entrepreneurial family. My father was in the real estate business and also owned some hotels and motels around the state of Texas. And so as a small child, I spent a lot of time traveling around the state with my dad and seeing what he did on a day-to-day basis. So I always had a love for business, even when I was a small child. But I've worked in everything from lawn care to, oh, cardboard manufacturing facilities to Sherwin-Williams paint distribution centers. I've had a lot of jobs, and at every single job I ever worked in, it became very clear to me that

in order for you to rise, in order for you to be recognized, you had to work hard. So hard work was, in my life, something that always seemed to put you in the crosshairs of success. And we have Chris Dull. Again, many of the brands. He's the president of Global Franchise Group. You can reach him at globalfranchise.com. Many of the brands, Marble Slab, American Cookie Company, Hot Dog on a Stick, so much more. You're listening to Alliance's Heroes.

Be a hero. With David Kogan, go to where entrepreneurs align. Be part of the community. Alliances.com, that's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Now, Chris, your company operates more than 1,100 franchises globally. I mean, how do you track and manage and keep everything in order with so many? Well, I'll tell you, technology definitely makes things easier today than they were just five years ago. So we have a system in-house that gives us the ability to communicate with our

franchisees regardless of location at the touch of a button. So not only can we communicate, but we also have all of our records compiled in one simple place where we can go and see exactly how the store is doing in sales, how the store has been performing from an audit perspective. And, you know, we also take notes personally on how our franchisees are doing and what's going on in their life. So technology has definitely helped us keep track of all the many stores that we have. Now, I think franchising really is an incredible concept by giving the opportunity for people to have their own business, but really not be alone

in business. I just love the concept. What are the specific qualities, those skills that you see really of your top performing franchise units? Because I believe really it doesn't matter what they're in. It's just something that they have. What do you see that being? Well, I think vision is very important. So the two things that I see that help a franchisee kind of go from being a one-store operator, someone who's bought themselves a business that serves as a job, to a business owner of multiple locations is, one, they're very entrepreneurial. They like to be scrappy. They like to move fast, and they're creative. And secondly, they have a vision that's bigger than just owning a single store. And so those

franchisees for us are the ones that tend to come in, dig into a unit, get to understand the business very well, and then they have a vision for where they want to be, and they execute to that vision, and they go out and they make it happen for themselves. So those two things create, well, three things, creativity, entrepreneurial mindset, and a vision for something bigger. Now, Chris, I've got a couple kids, and they love cookies. And if they said to me, you know, I want to go ahead and open up an American cookie company, what should I be maybe instilling in them now that will help them later, once they grow up,

to be able to perhaps have the opportunity and be a franchisee owner, or maybe even create their own franchise? Yeah, well, I would start, start again with hard work. Nothing in life comes easy. And so any youngster out there that's learning early that you have to work hard to get where you want to be in life, I think that's an invaluable lesson. You know, specifically around being a franchisee, I think you have to be creative and entrepreneurial, but at the same time, you have to understand the system and be willing to follow guidelines that are set and a path that has already been cut. So, you know, individuals who are so creative and so entrepreneurial that they want to do it all their way are probably going to have a miserable time in the franchising

business. So you need discipline and you need a lot of hard work. And so if you could teach your children to be disciplined and hardworking, I think that's a good start. So can we share this secret? I got a secret. This Candy Crush app is just so popular. I mean, my kids play it everywhere I go. People are playing it and stuff like that. But what does that have to do with Global Franchise Group, GlobalFranchise.com?

Sure. Well, Candy Crush is a lot of fun, and our brands are a lot of fun. And so, you know, today we're in a world where people are constantly paying attention to their handheld, whether it be a tablet or an iPad or an iPhone or whatever it is. And, you know, gaming and burning some time with games has become something that people really enjoy doing. And so we align ourselves with something that's fun and top of mind. And at the same time, you know, candy crush, marble slab creamery,

you can go in and create an ice cream that has as many candies as you can possibly think of folded into your ice cream product. So we thought that was a natural fit for us. I love it. That's awesome. Well, I'll tell you what, Chris, you and I, we're going to go ahead after this interview, get some milk and some cookies at Great American Cookies. If you can create a successful blueprint for others to follow, to be in business for themselves, but not by themselves, though, that's a hero. That's the CEO of Global Franchise Group.

Got to start as an ice cream store manager. Go to globalfranchise.com thank you again david cogan with the alliances and when we return the son of senator ten kennedy and nephew of president john f kennedy patrick kennedy