Jason Taylor 0:00

Welcome to this edition of the People's Playbook Podcast. Today we have David Drucker, who is the CEO of the UPS Store Canada. He is a person that believes in leaving more on the table than he takes. He's given lots and loads of information and time to this business. He's been with the UPS Store over two decades now, leading that team and leading that company. But more than that, David has played leadership roles in the Canadian Franchise Association, including actually us serving as past chair of the board. Today we're going to get some really cool insights on leadership, culture, and just his take on things and how the current industry and sector is going. And with that, I welcome David to the show. Welcome, David.

David Druker 0:44

Thank you, Jason. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to be here talking about franchising. It's something I really, really love.

Jason Taylor 0:50

Yeah, I know you do. And every time I talk to you, there is an absolute passion about it. And it's never a struggle with a conversation on franchising and just franchisees. You know, we've talked about the UPS store and just how you talk to your franchisees, being direct, being transparent. But most importantly, I've noticed, and from the conversations I've had is your visibility. It's so important, I think, in leadership today. When you, you know, go up and you're leading the whole, the whole team, how can we actually make sure that we're visible, transparent, and or accessible, I guess you could say.

David Druker 1:23

100%. And you know, so I just got back. I was in Atlanta, Canada last week. Literally, we have 16 stores in Atlanta Canada. We did, I think, 4,800 kilometers, touched out, walked into every store. So physical visibility, mental visibility, and actually being there. You know, I tell my franchisees all the time, my email address is not hidden. You can loop me in on anything you want, but be careful because if you do loop me in on whatever you're asking about, you might actually get my real opinion about it. Yeah. And you might find out that, you know, not having done the research was not a great way to loop me in. Sometimes it's warranted. Um, and we're all in this together, and you know, we're all working towards it together, but it's a team effort and uh everyone's got to pull their weight, and that includes sometimes the franchisee looking in the mirror or making sure that you know they're up to date. I was just talking to a franchisee yesterday. Well, I haven't really checked my emails in about seven or twelve days. Well, you know, especially in in our world, uh, as you know, with uh all the tariffs and trade things going on, you can go to sleep one night, wake up the next morning, and the trade world is different. A perfect example of that is we couldn't ship food across the border for almost a year all of a sudden on Thursday afternoon they decided, okay, you can do it again. So there's major things, but you you gotta be on top of your game, and we're there to support you. And we made sure that we got that out to the franchisees Friday morning so that they were aware of it, but you can't make them read it.

Jason Taylor 2:46

Yeah, exactly. We can't open your eyes and make you read it. You have to do it yourself, right? David, you've been you've been in this business over 35 years and specifically in franchising, right? What if, in your opinion, has changed the most about how you lead people from back then to now?

David Druker 3:02

Certainly technology has changed the way that we interact. Being able to get on a Zoom meeting with, you know, 121 franchisees that don't have to drive an hour or plus each to get to some centralized place where we're gonna have you know stale donuts and coffee and pizza to have a conversation. That's been a huge change. So there's not really the excuse anymore of, well, you know, I I couldn't get there or I couldn't do it. And there's not really the excuse for us either to say, well, you know, it's so hard to talk to all the franchisees. So we've got all sorts of different communication tools. We have a weekend update, we have a Monday morning bulletin just from the franchise owners, all sorts of stuff. We do town halls, we do regular trainings. That's probably been the biggest change is how much technology has facilitated that sort of thing. But at the end of the day, franchising is still what it was. It's it's a person-to-person business. It's a very personal thing. Uh, franchising by definition is being in business for yourself, but not by yourself. So it's it's that team effort. So we've got more coaching skills and more coaching tools available today uh than we did 20 years ago. And that goes for both the UPS Store Canada, the Canadian Franchise Association, the International Franchise Association, and everyone that I know in franchising. The world is is is just very different. Computers have done it, and then certainly you know in the last four years, AI has has turned things really on their head. Stuff that you needed to call a person and wait on hold for, there are now AI agents that can give you the answers. Absolutely. You know, you've got to be proactive. People sometimes think franchising is uh, you know, I just have to buy the franchise, and then the franchise was going to make everything happen for me. It doesn't work that way. It's still small business, you still got to be active, you still have to, you know, hone your skills, you still have to be learning new things. I mean, I I go to gatherings, I learn something new every time. Every time I go out into the field to visit stores, I learn something new, something that we didn't realize. You know, we thought out this great launch, and then suddenly someone says to me, Well, you know, this sometimes gives me an issue. I'm like, oh, that's a pretty valid point. Okay, let me let me take that back and you know, we'll get back to you. So honesty and integrity is very important also, admitting that I don't have all the answers. So, you know, you send me an email asking what form you need to use to ship watermelons to Guatemala, I'm not your guy. But I will flip it over to the operations group and that's what they specialize. You want to send me an email and ask, you know, how concerned we are about what the Canada-U.S. relations are and what that's going to do for our business model. That's where I focus. I make sure that the franchisees understand that, yes, things might be um not always perfectly smooth, but we've got a plan. We're still growing, we're still doing very well, and we're on top of it. We saw that, you know, I I I hate to refer to what happened in 2020, but there was certain things that went on. And being part of a franchise meant that there were people there to help guide you through that crisis. You weren't trying to figure it out on your own. And it's the same thing. This is a just a different type of crisis today, what's going on between Canada and the U.S. It will resolve itself. Our business model is still strong. We're still relevant. Yes, there's more paperwork to do, which makes our job harder, but it also makes it harder for someone to sit in their basement and do things by themselves. So you can always look at the negatives, or you could look at what the changes are and try and figure out where you can carve out your benefit. And our benefit has always been full service in a self-service world. And frankly, I think that's true for almost most franchises. You're not dealing with, you know, someone who just cares about their hourly wage that's just walking in. You're dealing with someone that lives in a local community. They're looking to send their child to school, they're looking to do whatever it is that they need to do. They're active and they have a major interest in what's going on.

Jason Taylor 6:56

Yeah, absolutely. You you spoke a couple of times, and a couple things you said, you know, you said about entrepreneurship and then being entrepreneurs, right? How is it to lead a bunch of really entrepreneurs as opposed to the traditional employee? You're right when you said that. They said they've basically said, hey, here's here's some money that I want to start my own business. And you're right, it is person to person. It's it's human contact. But that being said, it's different when they're your employee, direct employee that has is paid by you. Or if, hey, it's it's their show. How do you how do you change your leadership style with that?

David Druker 7:30

There's a lot that goes with that. You know, first off, someone that comes in and buys a franchise, they they go to a franchise show and they say, Oh, I love the fact that this is a system and then it comes with an owner's manual and operations guide, and I love that you guys are gonna coach me. That's what I'm in for. And then some of them you're in it for three, four months, are like, stop telling me what to do. Well, let's let's let's look at that for a second. You know, that's what you got in for. You got in for a coaching game. We are here to hone your skills, to make sure that you're above average. You know, again, they ask, you know, what are the sales like? Well, the average sales are X. You know, do you expect to be average or are you targeting to be above average? Because I'm sure you're not expecting getting into this business to be below average, but sometimes things happen and we have to have those conversations. Yeah. So it is, it is difficult. They are entrepreneurs. Sometimes there's a misconception that franchisees are just glorified employees that they do whatever we tell them to do. It's not like that. They are their own business chiefs. They are in charge. They're they're each one is the CEO of their own store. Absolutely. However, they work within a team, there are ripples that affect others depending on what you do. And, you know, we've been around for 40 plus years. We've learned the lesson. So when we tell you not to, you know, keep do lottery or do different things that have an abundance of cash sitting in the store overnight, it's because if you're receiving a package and your package is supposed to be in a secure facility, you don't really want something that's going to attract someone to break in. So that's why we don't do lottery as an example. Some franchisees say, well, that's that's silly. I'll take it home with me. Well, that's that's not really what it is. Franchises have gotten to where they are by figuring out a business model that makes sense. It doesn't mean that you should be looking like if you've if the franchise has truly exhausted all the verticals that they work in, which ours has not, you know, we do shipping, we do printing, we do shredding, we're Canada's largest network of print and coffee centers, small business centers. There's so much opportunity still. We don't need to start having the UPS store brewed coffee as an option in our stores. It's just it's not necessary. Focus on what needs to be done. So we try to focus on those deals, but sometimes it it becomes difficult. Sometimes people, for whatever reason, and it it certainly does happen, a franchisee gets involved, whether it's our franchise or a restaurant or whatever it may be, they get in and it's just not what they expected it to be. Either they didn't do their research well enough or whatever it is. And it's our job to have an honest conversation with them. I mean, that's really where the leadership comes in. Listen, this obviously isn't what you expected. Based on the results, I'm sure you're not happy. We've got two choices. Either we can put together a real like heavy duty program to try and get you back up to where your peers are at, or we should really have a conversation about you turning over the asset before it's not an asset any longer.

Jason Taylor 10:25

Yeah.

David Druker 10:25

And those aren't easy conversations, but that's our responsibility. You know, 400 plus people have invested what's usually represents the the aid basket of their family into this concept. We have a responsibility to point out to them. And and you know, we go above and beyond, especially where a sophisticated franchise were larger than most in Canada that are not in restaurant. We do profiles. We really do the due diligence. But sometimes it happens. Either some might have a life event that's changed to where their focus is or whatever it is. But honesty and integrity is the most important value in franchise. It's not a popularity contest. I said this a lot of times. Leadership is not a popularity contest. It's telling them what they need to know, not what they want to know, not what they want to hear. Yes. And when you tell it to them, they might not even appreciate it at the time. But as long as you know that you're doing the right things for the right reasons, that it's not to our benefit and their detriment. It's really what it is, which is the honest accumulation of the experience we've had with the franchisees, the knowledge we have in the industry. You know, I'm very active in the industry. As you know, I was chair of the Canadian Franchise Association. I'm active with the International Franchise Association. I'm uh chair of the Government Relations Committee for the Canadian Franchise Association. I'm part of uh the World Franchise Council and World Franchise Day, and we interact with parties around the world. And franchising really is the same basic concept worldwide. It's the greatest small business model that gives you the opportunity to be in business for yourself, but not by yourself, with support and coaching. But not everyone likes to be coached.

Jason Taylor 12:08

Yeah.

David Druker 12:09

So our job is to provide the coach, you know, and be the coach, tell them the truth, and then they've got to make a decision at some point in time.

Jason Taylor 12:18

You were a franchisee at one point as well. Before you were actually an area franchisee as well, and then you moved to corporate. What was the biggest change in leadership for that? And what was your biggest aha moment where you just said, either I'm surprised it's done this way, or what was your biggest kind of wow, I'm not a franchisee anymore. Now I'm leading the corporation. How did all that work out for you?

David Druker 12:40

As you said, I've I've been in franchising really since my late teens. I was involved with cell phones when they launched when they were the size of suitcases.

Jason Taylor 12:49

Yeah.

David Druker 12:49

I saw some good, I saw some bad. Uh, I've tried to learn along the way. For me, it's always been about relationships, it's always been about full service. The cell phone business got to a point where it wasn't that. I had been in it, as I said, I was an early in. I was also an early out. People thought I was crazy when I was leaving because I said, you know, the the business is changing, it's not what it is, there's no value to individualism. It turns out I was right, but that's a totally different story. I fluked upon the UPS store. I actually needed to get a contract done, and I walked into a UPS store in in Florida, and I thought, wow, I could do this. I had literally I made an application for a franchise. They called me and said, Well, you're approved for a franchise, but by the way, we see you live in Montreal. Do you are you bilingual? Do you speak French? I said, yes. They said, We're looking for someone to also, you know, look after the franchisees in that province because we haven't really been able to make any inroads. I think there were six or seven franchises in Quebec at the time. So I started there, and then within a couple of years, my predecessor decided that he was looking to sell and the opportunity was there. If you had asked me at 17 if I was going to be the president CEO of an organization with 400 plus locations, doing hundreds of million dollars, I no, it was not at all what I expect. I'm very happy to do it. But going back to where your real question is, I believe there was an aha moment. The aha moment was now that I've you know been doing this for two plus decades, learn from the stuff that you liked, learn from the stuff that you didn't like, which was how you were treated, and try and make sure that you do a better job. So I think it helped season me to understand both sides of the table.

Jason Taylor 14:29

Yeah.

David Druker 14:29

Understand why a franchisee does what listen, no franchisee is is intentionally looking to devalue their investment. They're frustrated. How do you deal with that frustration? You have to do it from a human aspect. You have to make sure that there's an integrity and a relationship there that even if they don't like what you're saying, they trust that you're saying it for the right reasons. And maybe they don't trust it when you say it to them, but when they go home and sleep on it, and I tell everyone, go home and sleep on this, and let's talk again in a day or two after you've thought it through. And I think that you'll understand that you know what I'm saying is reasonable and it's probably the the best solution long term because it doesn't seem like you're enjoying doing this anymore. And if you dread getting out of bed every morning to do what you're doing, then you shouldn't be doing it anymore, regardless of what it is.

Jason Taylor 15:18

I love that. And I I agree with you wholeheartedly. I'm a big believer in better work, better world, meaning meaning I actually like what I do. So it doesn't feel like work. And guess what? The dates go by faster. Everything, you know, seems a lot easier when you actually like what you do for a living, right?

David Druker 15:34

And for the most I I feel good for the decisions that we made. You know, when we converted to computer systems, uh, what do we need that for? We have cash registers. Ten years ago when information security started being important. Oh, what do we need those stupid boxes in the back for? Why do I have to spend an extra $2,000? It's it's wasted money. Well, it's like an insurance policy. It's only wasted until you need it, and hopefully you'll never need it. So I feel very good with the decisions that I've made. I feel very good about what I've done for our franchise network, the growth report. When I came in, there was 250 stores or now over 400. We've doubled the the average sales. Are all franchisees absolutely in love with me? No. But I do believe that over 90% of them respect that I'm doing the right things for the right reasons. Whether they agree with them or not is a completely different story.

Jason Taylor 16:23

Yeah, they know they know you you're doing it for the right.

David Druker 16:25

Yeah, the integrity is there, the transparency is there. And listen, let's be clear about transparency. Sometimes there's things that you can't always share. There's things that UPS tells me that I'm under a non-disclosure and I can't tell them about. They've got to believe, hopefully, based on the 85% of my actions, that they're aware of the why, that the other 15% maybe it could buy me some credibility. It's the same thing. It's it's it's an incredible industry. Everyone is really looking out for the common best interest. It's not, you know, there are some businesses where for me to succeed, you have to fail. I've got to beat you up so badly that I've got all the gold and you've got nothing left. Franchising is not based on that whatsoever. And that's why I love it. My closest friends at this point in my life, with the exception of one that I've known for almost ever, have all come out of franchising. People that are in the U.S., people that are involved in the IFA, people that are involved with the CFA, it's an incredible community. It's an industry, but it's a community, and it's a community that supports one another. And that's the incredible thing about franchising. If if you if you're looking to get into small business, you're looking to do something for your family, why wouldn't you look at something that has some support? Why wouldn't you look at a model that has some guidelines where someone else has taken the cuts and bruises before you? But but you've got to be of that personality. Some people don't want to listen to other people. And that's why we do profiling before we do it. And, you know, you've got to be careful too. There's some franchises that, you know, launch early and too fast and they don't have the support structure. But if you go, the Canadian Franchise Association is not the Canadian Franchisor Association. It's the Canadian Franchise Association. It's franchising in Canada. Franchisees, franchise, it's looking after the goodwill, growth, support, and everything involved with the industry as a whole, with the community as a whole of franchising. And the IFA is the same for the U.S. It's truly an incredible business model where, as they say, the the tide races all the boats together. Well, that's franchising. It's good for you, it's good for me, it's good for everybody.

Jason Taylor 18:30

David, what do you um lots of times people, you know, they buy a franchise, they're excited to get in there. And one of the um watch outs is that franchisee operates the location, but doesn't lead the location, if you know what I mean. Yeah. Right. So how's your coaching with that? Because sometimes people just say, hey, I'm here, I'm gonna be the person behind the counter, I'm gonna run it. But usually we have employees as well. So how do you get that operator to say, hey, let's lead a little bit? And leading could be going out in the community, leading can be making contact with your neighbors, et cetera. Right. So what are your thoughts on that? How do you get them to be that leader?

David Druker 19:09

It depends on what they've done and what they've gotten into and why they're in it. As you said, leadership takes on many different roles. Maybe they're not the person to go visit their neighbors, but then they should hire somebody that that that is. Leadership is about building a team. So maybe they're that introverted person that really wants to be in the back office crunching numbers. That's not who we look for for our franchisees for the record, but some people are of that nature. But it it's leadership is at least about being honest enough to look at the person you see coming back in the mirror. You know, there's there's that old saying, you know, when you do this, there's one finger pointing out, but there's three fingers pointing back. So it's it's account. So leadership is accountability. Some franchisees, oh, I uh you know, it's not working. You told me that it would do this. But we're very transparent. We tell franchisees that they need to plan to spend, on average, 500 hours a year working on the business, not in the business. Whether it's a BNI, whether it's a Chamber of Commerce, whether it's sponsoring a hockey tournament, a soccer tournament, a church, whatever it is. This is not a passive, you know, and I'm not looking to throw shade or do anything else, but there are certain food type franchises where it's a drive-thru. You don't really have to do much. You just got to make sure that the drive-thru is accessible. It's not a hook uh any secret. The company says that at 59 minutes, any coffee that's left in the pot, you throw it out. You make sure that the coffee's never more than an hour old, so it's always fresh. You need to make sure that the little round donut holes are, you know, nice and fresh. And you don't have to be a people person. But the whole reason I'm in our business is because of people person. I can compete with anyone. I tell our franchisees every day compete on a relationship and you can create something unique. Compete on pennies, the next person down the street can just undercut you with nothing. So our business is based on being full service in a self-service world. It's all about relationships. And frankly, most franchises are about relationships. Most franchisees know the people that are walking through their doors, know the people in their community. That's leadership. Leadership doesn't have to be cold calling, leadership doesn't have to be multi-level marketing. In our case, you know, as it's it's a it's no secret. Amazon is huge. People do online shopping, people buy four items and return three. We have natural borne traffic that walks through our stores that most people would kill for. But you've got to smile at them, you've got to greet them, you've got to hand them a bounce back coupon. There's certain basics of retail functioning that they're requiring. But here's the thing if you as the franchisee don't do it, then your staff isn't gonna do it. So lead by example is is the most important thing you can do in in any business. And I believe very strongly in that. That's why. I go out and I make sure that, you know, I literally walk into a third to a half of the locations in Canada every single year to make sure that I'm hearing from our franchisees what's going on, what's working, hey, this, that, the other, whatever it is. That's leadership for me. That's being active, that's being with our team to make sure that we're able to deliver in local communities across Canada. Their responsibility is to make sure that clients want to come back. They've bought a franchise, you know, the UPS Shield, it's 119 years, as I'm sure you saw on LinkedIn, they're celebrating right now. It's well established. People don't have any doubt whether UPS stands for reliable, professional, all the rest of it. They will come in already assuming that that's what they're going to get. Now all you have to do is actually live up to that and encourage them to come back. So our business is different than some, but it doesn't make a difference. Customers need to feel welcome. A customer that's comfortable will generally spend more money. So it's good for you, it's good for them, it's good for everybody. Making sure that the environment is inviting, that's what leadership is. The leadership, you know, it it's it's the beating of the drum to make sure that the tone and the atmosphere inside your location is not like walking into, and I'm sorry to say this, like a funeral home or whatever else it may be. You know, it's all supposed to be gloom. It's supposed to be, hi, how's it going today? It doesn't matter if you got in a fight with your wife or your husband this morning. It doesn't matter if you didn't make a full stop on the way to work and you got a $111 ticket. The customer that's walking through your door doesn't care. That's not his problem. Your job is to get up on stage, the same as if you were going to see Hamilton tonight. If the actor that was, you know, the starring role had a lousy night's sleep, it's not an excuse for his performance to be crap. Well, it's not the it's not an excuse for our performance to be crap either. Customers have the expectation to get a good, fair service every day with ideally a smile or at least not a frame. How's that?

Jason Taylor 24:04

Yeah, absolutely. You know, you said something there, but you know, your Hamilton reference. I often say to people, I go, as a leader, you're always on stage. Somebody's always watching. Yeah. Right? They're watching if you're shrugging your shoulders, if you're rolling your eyes, they're seeing how you react to something that somebody said in the room. And as leaders, we have to be aware of that. I'm always on stage as a leader. And how am I actually performing right now? Hopefully it's genuine. Hopefully it's authentic. Hopefully, it's transparent. We're allowed to have bad days, but we're not allowed to become a cancer.

David Druker 24:33

Yeah. And you can't drag it in.

Jason Taylor 24:35

Yeah, you can't drag it in. Can't drag it in. You said something earlier, and I just want to I want to go a little deeper on that. So, you know, you have grown the network to over 400 stores. So when you started, I believe you said when you started there were 250.

David Druker 24:48

Approximately 240, 250, yeah.

Jason Taylor 24:50

Yeah. So when you've actually grown to that many stores, what is the one leadership principle that needs to stay consistent based on just so many people coming in? Right. So as you get vast and as you get more volume coming into your locations, it's hard to protect that culture. It's hard to protect your standards, your, your, your values. How do you do it with all these people coming in? And I'm sure if I know you, you're not stopping at over 400 stores. You're, you're, you're still gonna go.

David Druker 25:22

We've still got plenty of room to grow. And you know, to be fair, I didn't I didn't do it by myself. I've got an amazing team, you know, much in the same way that the store has to have a good team. We have a great team at the home office. We have people that truly care. We have franchise business consultants, we have marketing people. So making sure that the culture remains the same as the quantities grow, I guess it's a rate, it's a ratio of a relationship. It's making sure that the fundamentals of fairness and honesty haven't changed. Those should never change. It doesn't matter if we're 400 stores or 4,000 stores. I still believe that I will always be accessible through email or whatever else it may be. And again, if you ask my opinion, you're gonna get my opinion. Now, people say to me, you know, I'm I'm a very transparent individual. If there's something that I have a problem with, you'll know I have a problem. If there's something that I think you're doing great, I will tell you that there's something I think you're doing great. And I ask my team to do the same thing. And one of the things that's important in building a team, whether it be in the stores or for us, people learn by making mistakes. We have like 60 plus people, they've made mistakes. Sometimes human beings make mistakes. That's how we learn. All I ask is please don't make it nuclear. Please don't do something that is so large, but you've got to learn it. And sometimes it doesn't work. I've certainly hired franchise business consultants or coaches where the empathy wasn't there. And we've replaced that. You have to be honest. You have to, you have to have a you can't lose perspective, as I said to you earlier, about the other side of the team. There is no franchise in the world that got into business with the intent of losing money.

Jason Taylor 26:56

Nobody gets up and says they want to be average today.

David Druker 26:59

Exactly. They would love to do more. They're either scared, they don't know how, or they're just there's something else going on. So you need to be able to have those conversations. You need to be able to get to that level of trust. And let's be completely transparent. Some of them you will never help. A third of the network gets it, they want to do more, they're working as hard as they can. There's a third of the network that would love to be with that upper third. But there's a third of the network that for whatever reason, they've been in it 22 years, they're old, they're tired. Unfortunately, a spouse or a sibling has died, there's been some type of a life event, and this is no longer what they want to do. You have to respect that. No problem. I understand. Let's figure out what your exit strategy is. Let's try to maximize your value and let's do it sooner than later because it's obvious that you don't enjoy what you're doing anymore, and it's having an effect on the environment in your store. It's having the integrity to do that, and it's not always easy. Yeah. And it's the same thing with Canadian Franchise Association. We sometimes get calls, you know, I've got this great idea. My mom knows how to make this dumpling that is so incredible, and it's a great business. All my friends love it, and I'm going to turn it into a franchise. And I think I've got the first one sold because there's a guy I know at the gas station, and I want to be a franchiser. And it's like, whoa, hang on a second. There's there's a lot more to it. It's got to be systematic, it's got to be repeatable, there's got to be measurables. Like, you've got to have the integrity and the transparency to be honest. Leadership is about telling people, when someone asks you a question, you need to answer them to the best of your ability in the truest form. I'm not saying you should be malicious, I'm not saying you should be mean. Obviously, sometimes you have to sugarcoat it a little bit. But if someone asks your opinion because they they're seeking you out as being a qualified or expert in something, then you should be giving them your expert opinion. Because that's really what they're asking for. Whether they want to hear it or not, but they really came to you because they thought for some reason that you could provide insight that they weren't having. And sometimes they're not always going to like that insight on the first day. But it's your job. You know, I I wake up every morning, I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing, and I feel that I'm making a positive difference. As if I walk through the, you know, Rose Garden every single day. No, there's days that are frustrating. There's days, you know, you wake up some mornings and you go, Oh my God, it must have been a full moon last night because my inbox is full of the most ridiculous things in the world. But you take a deep breath and work through it. My wife comes downstairs, she looks at me, she says, Oh, it must be Monday. I'm like, yeah, but it'll be okay by the afternoon. But overall, yeah, we're making franchising is helping so many Canadians and in fact so many families around the world create a better life for their families, create a better life for themselves, create better value. We're we're the targeting to, you know, we're we're in that uh Sherry's gonna kill me, but I think it's the 11th largest industry in Canada right now. We're we're striving to break that top 10 and we're gonna do it because it really is the best model that exists. I've gone to Europe and you walk into a franchise. I can have a conversation with a franchisee in Europe or a franchisee in the US or the because it's fundamentally the same thing. Franchising is fundamentally a business model that's designed to be a win-win. Franchising is best when it's a win-win. It's not always easy.

Jason Taylor 30:22

And what's crazy is the general public don't know how many franchisees there are out there. So I absolutely detest, detest when I hear, oh, don't support the franchisee, support local. Well, that franchisee is local. And oh, by the way, it's not just, you know, it's not just food that's franchising, it's everything. It's, you know, it's the UPS store, it's it's restaurants, it's dry cleaners, it's pet stores, it's grooming places, it's everything. So when people say that big statement, oh, you know what, I like to support local, I always say, well, then support local. Support, support who's running that business in your in your neighborhood, right? That's supporting local. It doesn't matter what the name of the door is.

David Druker 31:04

Franchising is local. I mean, that's that's one of the biggest messages that we're working on right now. CFA, IFA, World Franchise Council, is that franchising is local small businesses in your local community. Yes, the brand might be global, but over 90% of whatever's being generated in that space is staying in that community. It's that franchisee that's paying their mortgage, paying their taxes, God bless, paying the Canadian government and whatever provincial government and whatever else, it's about as local as you can get. They've just decided that they don't want to take it on the chin and run everything by themselves.

Jason Taylor 31:38

Yeah, I love that. If you were looking at a younger David Drucker right now and you said, Hey, I want to give you a piece of advice, being in the place you are now to when you were starting out as a leader, what would that one piece of advice be?

David Druker 31:51

Stay true to your convictions. If you've done the research and you're good at what you're doing, you know, like I said, when I remember when I was getting out of the wireless business, I was one of the first ones in. I was the one of the first ones. People said to me, You're nuts. The business still has so much credit. I said, I I don't see it. Oh, you're crazy or you're you're overreacting. Uh I was actually in in my early 30s, I was called the dinosaur in the industry. You've been around so long, you're seeing ghosts in the corners. Yeah. I said, okay, well, maybe it is, but in in in the end, I turned out to be 100% right. So if you've done their work and you've done the research and you've put in the hours, and your gut is telling you that this is what you should be doing, then you need to learn to follow that. The biggest difference between successful entrepreneurs and medium entrepreneurs are someone trying to do what everyone else is doing. Sometimes you gotta just be ready to grow. You've got to, you gotta keep growing. You gotta keep honing your skills. Like I said, I go to the IFA, I go to the CFA, I got all sorts of different events. I learn something new every day. I'm gonna be 60 next year. I still learn something new. When I stop learning, it's time to get out. You have to be open to the fact, you have to have conversations, you have to have peers. I think I'm incredibly fortunate. Uh, I've got some great people in the industry that I can speak to. Uh I mentor some, and I have mentors that mentor me. And that's probably the most important thing. And there's that old expression if you're the smartest person at the table, change tables.

Jason Taylor 33:22

Get in another room. Yeah, get another table.

David Druker 33:24

Exactly. And there's an incredible amount of experience and knowledge uh that exists in the franchising industry. And for the most part, everyone's ready to share because we all succeed together. As a business model, the success of franchising overall is a result of everyone in the community working to make the community stronger and better.

Jason Taylor 33:45

I love that. David, I um you've been amazing and generous with your time today. I have one more question to leave you with, and uh I'm very interested in getting your your take on this. So if you were actually going to build your own leadership playbook today from scratch, what principle would go on page one? Integrity. Integrity. I thought you were gonna say that because you oo integrity and you oo consistency, and you ooze, you know, let's have a direct, polite conversation. We're allowed to have direct conversations, sometimes as long as we're respectful. But man, what you say is what you do. And uh I I am very fortunate to have met you and uh have really appreciated our our chats along the way. And I know there's gonna be many chats to come.

David Druker 34:29

I hope so, because uh I think it's the same as you. It's uh it's critical. It's uh integrity is is a big word, it covers a lot of things, but I I think that that's the key to really good leadership.

Jason Taylor 34:40

I agree. With that, David, um, thank you for your time today. Thank you for uh leading. People remember the best leaders, they remember the worst leaders. So I often tell people, hey, be one of those great leaders because you make a difference in people's lives. And uh thank you for your style, thank you for your openness, thank you for not holding back, for sharing, for giving. And like I said earlier in the conversation, you know, leaving more on the table than we take, which is which is really nice of you. Thank you for that. Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it greatly, Jason. Look forward to more conversations in the future. Yeah, for sure. If you love that session and that conversation as much as I did, would love to have you join our People Playbook community in the link below.