Business Strategy Expert Tra Williams

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Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, and this is going to be an interesting one today on the show, we have author Tra Williams. Welcome, Tra.

Tra Williams: [00:00:41] Hey, there. It’s great to be here, it’s really my pleasure, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, tell us about your writing.

Tra Williams: [00:00:48] So the book came out last week. It is called Boss Brain and it is about unlocking your entrepreneurial instincts. The book is one that I formulated after years within the franchise industry myself, where I saw this inherent battle in aspiring entrepreneurs minds, and it really is the battle between optimism and uncertainty. It’s one that I think most of us lead every day and we still battle. We’ve been battling it for millennia and these days and the western world where we have a tremendous amount of certainty. The book really reveals how so many of us have succumbed to that, and it’s really smothered our entrepreneurial instincts.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] So now talk about your journey and franchising.

Tra Williams: [00:01:32] Oh, I stumbled in the franchising way back in the Ufot era. I’ll date myself with that statement. Most of the folks in the industry will remember previous PhD universe franchise offering circular, and I had no idea what I was doing in 2000 when I first tried to franchise a concept. But I learned some some lessons through the school of hard knocks and was able to successfully franchise a concept was welcomed into the franchise community. As the franchise community always does. It’s an incredibly supportive and and nurturing community. Spent some time at Petrus Brands over a couple of different brands in Atlanta after they had after we had acquired some some brands from raving brands and really helped them bring those into the national spotlight before one of them was sold off to tasty delight. And Jim Amos and the folks over there incorporated it in as a co-brand with them and at that point went out on my own to help emerging franchise owners.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:31] So now have you seen a different type of franchise e post-pandemic or during the pandemic and post-pandemic rather than prior to it when you were getting started?

Tra Williams: [00:02:43] I’m loving right now, is that what I’m seeing are the aspiring entrepreneurs who have had this smoldering inner calling. The word entrepreneur coincidentally means inner calling, and they’ve had this inner calling for some time. And I think the pandemic really revealed the so-called stability of 26 paychecks a year and 14 days of vacation to be a bit of a house of cards. And it really released these these instincts and cause folks to follow this. This inner yearning is inner calling that they’ve had for a long time. So what I’m hearing is a lot of folks saying, you know, I’ve been wanting to do this for decades, and the pandemic really made me realize that there was never going to be a perfect time. And also the pandemic sort of. It changed the market in a way that made this a really unique opportunity in history to seize market share in a variety of ways.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:38] Now do you find that young people are drawn to kind of the phrase or term entrepreneur? I find them to be very. They like the concept of being in control of their own destiny, and they kind of have a negative feeling about business, though. So do you see any of that?

Tra Williams: [00:03:57] Yeah, you know, that’s a bit of an enigma, right? So what’s important to remember is 70 percent of the American workforce has indicated that they want to be self-employed. That’s one hundred million people. So there’s a hundred million people out there who really feel this desire to be an entrepreneur and aren’t converting that feeling into action. The book goes into great detail about why this is happening, and it gives you a framework for for how to get out of it yourself. But what I’m seeing in this younger generation is one of the things that I talked about specifically in the book, which is our inherent optimism ebbs and flows throughout our life in the time in our life when we’re making these decisions about entrepreneurship and careers. Let’s say after college, mid and early 20s is the time in our lives when coincidentally we are least optimistic. And this goes against conventional thinking. Most media would portray the youth as this unappreciative of the hard work that the world requires, and they’re naive and they’re too optimistic. But it’s actually the opposite of that. We’re most optimistic when we’re 55 years old, and we’re least optimistic when we’re in our 20s. So these young folks who do feel that inner calling are really becoming subject to that, that hardwired negativity that is inherent at that age.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:22] Now, is that is that a recent development or historically have the young people been more optimistic than they are today?

Tra Williams: [00:05:29] I think it’s just a sort of misperception when we’re looking at youth and we we think of those in their 20s as as being overly optimistic in the media has always portrayed it that way. But if you read Tali Chirac’s book Optimism Bias, you’ll see that in that time frame is actually when we’re least optimistic and it’s such a it’s such a tough thing because it’s at that very moment when we are making those crucial decisions. And what ends up happening is we choose predictable adequacy. We choose 26 paychecks a year. We choose a job over our college.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:08] Now, do you find that folks who. I don’t know, I’m just the world that I’m seeing doesn’t align exactly that way. I’m seeing a lot of folks, especially young folks, who aspire to maybe a life of things that I don’t even want to call it entrepreneurship, but like a series of projects or gigs or activities that pay them enough to live the lifestyle they want. They want their flexibility and they don’t want necessarily a a job that that that’s not kind of mission oriented or rewarding. I’m just that’s what

Tra Williams: [00:06:48] I see what you’re saying that certainly the gig economy is something that those who are 21 years old were born into. Everyone knows that the traditional work day of eight to five o’clock and et cetera, et cetera, is a relic of the industrial revolution. At a time when when America needed workers and we need them to be safe and healthy and not burned out, and we started measuring and maintaining the amount of time people spent on their job. So, yeah, and a lot of ways I can see that had that gig economy been in place when I was born, I would have felt the exact same way about traditional work environments and corporate structure in the workday. No doubt about it, but that’s simply the world that they were born in to be, albeit an antiquated.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:30] But that kind of world is whether they call it that or not, to me, that is being an entrepreneur because you it is an eat what? You kill a lifestyle.

Tra Williams: [00:07:38] I couldn’t agree more. Yeah, I agree with you completely. But despite all the hype of the gig economy, 93 percent of Americans still work for the other seven percent, and the percentage of people in America that are self-employed is at an all time low.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:56] So the people that are in the gig economy, you’re finding they have a job somewhere that’s providing maybe some of the stability and structure and maybe benefits that they they desire

Tra Williams: [00:08:08] Hustle, right? A lot of side hustle, a lot of multiple jobs at the same time. And certainly, the pandemic created opportunities for underemployment where people needed to have that supplementary income. And then maybe they found that to be a lifestyle that was attractive to them. But the the what’s not happening is there isn’t enough of the younger generation converting their their entrepreneurial desire into action to reverse this downward trend of entrepreneurship in America. It’s been falling since the mid-1940s.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:42] So is it falling just because that’s the evolution of entrepreneurship? And maybe this is too hard of a path and it’s it’s going to kind of just go away at some point.

Tra Williams: [00:08:54] Well, it’s too part of a path. Relatively speaking, what’s happening is we’re becoming victims of our own success in America. Your safety is, is is always much higher than in other places in the world. We have a grocery store right around the corner. The media excuse me to the poverty level in the United States, about $12000 a year is 20 percent more than the median income on the planet, which means the poorest people in America make 20 percent more than half the globe. So in America, we get a lot of certainty. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have opportunities to bring people up out of poverty and expand the middle class. But what it does mean is this certainty has really undermined our entrepreneurial spirit. And what you can see is a one to one expansion as as the middle class expands starting in the nineteen forties in the post-World War Two Baby Boom era. Till now, a direct, excuse me, an indirect proportional relationship with entrepreneurship as the middle class rises in quality of life becomes better, entrepreneurship declines.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:03] And then so. I’m seeing a lot of people in franchising that are those second act entrepreneurs that after maybe they have that nest egg, then they’re willing to take the risk after they see, like kind of no way to replicate that salary when they get laid off or they retire. Sure, that it kind of forces their hand almost to be an entrepreneur and buy something. And even in that case, I mean, you can make a case that they’re picking a safer route in terms of picking a franchise rather than kind of building their own thing.

Tra Williams: [00:10:36] One hundred percent. I mean, I’m a huge franchise advocate for that reason. And more businesses were started in 2020 than have been started in any year for the past 15 years. So, yeah, the pandemic really released that and sort of unchained all of those aspiring entrepreneurs who had not reached the point of comfort level to make that decision on their own and the pandemic made that decision for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:01] So what’s your kind of prognosis looking into your crystal ball in the future? What’s going to happen?

Tra Williams: [00:11:09] I’m a I’m a recovering optimist and

Lee Kantor: [00:11:13] That means you’re over fifty five.

Tra Williams: [00:11:14] So well, what it means is I’m I would never bet against America or American entrepreneurs. I think every time entrepreneurs have been called on, they’ve risen to the challenge. Whether it was converting soup factories into ammunition manufacturers during the World War Two or converting automobile assembly lines into ventilator assembly during the pandemic. I think you can. We should never bet against the American entrepreneur. And really, my mission is to bring awareness of this decline because on the current trajectory by the mid 20 40’s, ninety nine percent of Americans are going to work for the other one percent, and I do not want to allow that to happen.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:57] Now I’m seeing and I’ve done work with some universities that they’re trying to build as part of their curriculum and entrepreneur. Kind of element, whether it’s a entrepreneurship classes available to anybody in any major or majors or minors in entrepreneurship. Do you think that that’s something that’s going to help stem the tide and at least open up young people’s mind to this as an option rather than I have to work for somebody else?

Tra Williams: [00:12:29] I hope so. Lee But here’s the sad truth. There are about 5000 colleges in America, and among them less than 300 of them have entrepreneurship or small businesses, a major about four or five percent of the universities. So the message that they’re sending is resoundingly clear, and that is, we are training you to be an employee and there is an expectation of assimilation. So I’m proud that there are colleges and universities out there who are who are supporting these entrepreneurship programs and recognizing the importance of it, if for no other reason. Because capitalism works best when there is competition and in order to have that competition, we need a flourishing small business environment that can hold corporate monoliths accountable through innovation and through their agility that the larger companies don’t have. So without those small businesses, capitalism doesn’t function as well as it normally would.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:27] So now do you think that there has to be some sort of intervention when it comes to these corporations, these mega corporations just kind of sucking all the oxygen out of the room and and that they’re almost. I don’t I really don’t want companies that are too big to fail. But some of these companies are trying to play both sides of an equation. You know, they’re building a platform, then they’re selling stuff on the platform and then they’re, you know, learning from the people, using the platform to create their own things within the platform, like it becomes very incestuous and I think it becomes it opens up the possibility of corruption and not a true market.

Tra Williams: [00:14:07] Yeah. To answer your question directly is, I think that intervention and regulation is what caused this disparity. I think that government intervention has always been lopsided towards bigger businesses and still is lopsided toward bigger businesses. If I’ll give you a shining example of this throughout the pandemic, your locally owned ace hardware could not be open, but Home Depot never closed. Right? Your local farmer’s market office could not be open, but every large grocery store chain of Walmart was was open. So that message is resoundingly clear, and I don’t want to intervene more than we’ve already intervened. What I want is the government to get out of the way and allow the free market to work the way it’s supposed to, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:14:48] But don’t you think that that right? But those government choices typically stem from the larger corporations that are lobbying to create that kind of squashing of the small folks?

Tra Williams: [00:15:02] Yes, I don’t I don’t want more intervention on their side. If we’re going to intervene, we need to intervene as a consolidated effort of the people to support small business and the importance of propping up entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:15] So, so what’s the answer then? Like, what are you going to? What’s going to be the impetus to get any change, especially among these mega-corporations?

Tra Williams: [00:15:25] So I’d like to think that you’re seeing this happened in the pandemic released this already. I don’t know if you saw in the news, but in August, four point three million people quit their job. That’s the highest number in a single month in American history. And they weren’t fired. They weren’t downsized. What happened was the pandemic exposed that there is a quality of life that may be existed differently than the corporate world that they lived within. And when they went back to work, they hated it, and four point three million people quit their jobs in August. So you’re asking me what the answer is? I think the answer has been revealed to us. And when you have that many millions of people leaving on their own either to seek better employment or start their own gig, you know, this is a revolution that that I want to be part of.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:13] But when they’re leaving, are they just going to a different, you know, kind of entity? Like you said, a handful of corporations are running the show. So are they leaving one just to go to another, you know?

Tra Williams: [00:16:25] I don’t. I don’t think that folks are quitting large corporate monoliths to go to another large corporate monolith. I think that COVID has really revealed the importance of us working together on a hyper localized basis in a lot of the businesses that you see flourishing right now are flourishing within their hyper local community precisely because the pandemic revealed the importance of us working together as a community, but also because corporate monoliths are struggling with logistics right now. It’s all over the news, and they can’t get products and services to these smaller mid-tier and small markets. So what an incredible opportunity that is for entrepreneurs to take market share away from these massive organizations right now, when when they were pandered to early in the pandemic, but are now crippled by logistical challenges.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:13] So then this requires the individual to step up and seize the day.

Tra Williams: [00:17:19] Right? I can tell you, I couldn’t said it better. That was a perfect way to say it. Absolutely. There’s never a perfect time, but I have to say that so many of the market indicators are in place right now, from real estate availability to consumer demand and shifts and evolutions in how services and products are being provided to actually have whitespace for the first time in America, and some time to have a new landscape of business environment to be able to step into without having to step into one that is mature and well formulated. Where you have a lot of steep competition, you can literally be the tip of the spear right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:56] So what would be some practical tactical action someone could take right now?

Tra Williams: [00:18:02] And I will tell you two different ways, so my my standard answer to this is belief is reverse engineered for those who don’t necessarily believe they can be successful, you never will believe and still you until you start taking action and then you start seeing yourself as the kind of person who could be successful in that area. And my other answer to this is to latch hold of the incredible amount of service industry opportunities that are being provided. The real estate market is a prime example of this. I live in Florida. A thousand people a day are moving to Florida. That’s a real number, and those people are either buying homes or renting homes. So there’s this enormous opportunity for appraisers and remodelers and skilled labor force and HVAC companies and all of these amazing service, industry related or real estate related services that I know a guy who’s a home inspector and he’s booked for the next eight weeks. You can’t get a home inspection right now in the state of Florida. It’s really difficult. So for those franchises that do home inspection, I’m sure they are trying to find new franchisees and what an incredible opportunity to join an industry that’s in such incredible demand, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:19:14] So now in your practice, do you spend most of your time speaking or you consulting?

Tra Williams: [00:19:20] I did most of my time speaking, and I also consult with chambers of commerce and municipal entities. I recognize that I’m never going to be able to rescue one million entrepreneurs from traditional employment the way I would like to. By doing it, one entrepreneur at a time, I know that we’re going to have to effect change at a policy level. So I consult with a lot of chambers of commerce and municipal economic development councils on how to set up the infrastructure and the the attractiveness to allure those entrepreneurs into those markets, or to be able to have those that already are in their markets finally take that leap.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:57] And if somebody wants to get a hold of you or get a hold of your book, what’s the website?

Tra Williams: [00:20:02] I’m really easy. You can go to Trey Williams. I’m Trey Williams. The book is called Bus Brain. It’s on Amazon. You can. I was proud to see I made number nine on the new releases and the startups category this last week on Amazon, and I really was humbled by the support and the outpouring of support for this. I think a lot of people recognize the importance of entrepreneurship as as as an American really fundamental and the importance of keeping capitalism working at its finest by always having great competition. So anyone who like to pick up the book and contact me to have those discussions, I’m always happy to talk to entrepreneurs.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:40] Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Tra Williams: [00:20:45] It’s my pleasure. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:47] All right, this Lee Kantor will sail next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.