← Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
Is Tanning Safe? Skin Protection Tips You Need GoGlow CEO Melanie Richards' Summer Guide #189
01:04:54
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- [00:00]
Jeff Duden
Welcome to the home front. I'm Jeff Duden. If you spent a decade as a probation officer specializing in domestic violence advocacy and rehabilitation and built a model that was replicated nationwide. If you recognized a need in the safe tanning market and founded go Glo in 2010, revolutionizing the airbrush tanning industry and ultimately expanding through franchising, your name can only be Melanie Richards. Welcome.
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Melanie Richards
Thank you. That's a great intro.
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Jeff Duden
Well, it's yours. You've earned it. You did the whole. The whole banana.
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Melanie Richards
I did. I did.
- [00:39]
Jeff Duden
All right, Melanie, how big of a health risk is traditional tanning, and what does Go Glo do to alleviate some of these risks?
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Melanie Richards
Yeah, I just. Recently, a whole bunch of information has. Has been, you know, coming out about not only UV and the traditional tanning beds, but also the sun. It's. One in four will develop some form of a skin cancer. So there's early detection, which is fabulous. We've done a really good job on, you know, making sure the public is aware of that. But, you know, if you're around my age, I've just celebrated my 50th birthday, and back in my day, we were hitting the tanning beds, and it was no shame in that game. Well, it's kind of. Of coming around full circle and, and right now with, you know, go positioning on skin health and everything, it's. It's a good time to be in this industry, particularly because of the attention that it's getting on the wellness side of it.
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Jeff Duden
Are there risks from sunblock products as well as the sun? And I. Look, we grew up. I grew up in the 70s as well, or I'm older than you, but. So I grew up in the 70s. You grew up in the 80s, probably. But we, we ran. I mean, I have sun damage on my shoulders. I have to go get checked. It's. We just ran out all day with our shirts off, and then all of a sudden, this suntan lotion industry came out, and then everybody is painted white and, and all of that. But, I mean, I can. Any product, anything done to excess has to have negative consequences, especially things applied to our skins. How safe are these products that people use to protect themselves from the sun versus the sun itself? And again, your solution, when you have a spray tan, and we'll get into exactly how you do it and what it is, does that act also as a sunscreen?
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Melanie Richards
Oh, you caught me on this one. Because there's a little known fact that in our solution, there is a sunscreen component to it. I would never say that you're protected because you have a go Glo and to speak on sunscreens. I think that it is a very important conversation. I make sure that my children, if they're out for an extended amount of time, you know, they're very lily white Norwegians, that they, they are protected because I do remember, like, you, you know, being out at the lake and like, I don't know how many times my nose boiled from, you know, peeling in the shoulders. And it was just not a thought about it. I do advocate for a safe son. So sun, you do need vitamin D and you do want to get that sun. It's good for your, you know, your body to receive that. We are not trying to completely, you know, get people out of the sun and douse yourself in all kinds of different products. What it is, is just a, a method to where somebody like myself, who's very fair, I'm not going to get a brown tan. I'm going to burn, I'm going to peel, and then I'm going to be back at pink, you know, So I am a proponent of safe sun. And there is a huge conversation around sunscreens and making sure you're looking at ingredients and what those ingredients are. There's minerals, sunscreens, there's physical, there's chemical. And a lot of people are most more recently, I think it's because of, there's so many different additives and foods, and we can go off on a tangent on that, but a lot of people are getting more sensitive skin and they're getting more sensitive to different ingredients. And so I'm a huge proponent of making sure that you're spinning the bottle around and educating yourself on what ingredients you're putting on your skin.
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Jeff Duden
Do tanning pills work? I've got some friends and they take these. They say, I take these pills and I say, you look really tan. It's. It's winter, you know, how did you get that tan? He says, I take these tanning pills. What's inside of those? And do those work?
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Melanie Richards
Yeah, those are not FDA approved. They have not been by any means. So it is not something that I would advocate for by, by any stretch of the imagination. What it, what it is is it is accelerating your body's natural ability to produce melanin. And melanin. Really what. When you see somebody with a natural sun tan, that is just your body kicking out melanin to protect itself. So a tan on the beach laying out for hours, that's, that's sun damage and it's Your body's response to protect itself.
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Jeff Duden
So today, Melanie, you're an emerging franchisor. I'm not sure exactly how many units you've got out there. I know that you're with a good group that's helping you with the business. I can only assume. And you started your business, but in 2010, I believe. But prior to that, you were a probation officer for 10 years. Walk us through. I'd love to hear just a little bit about how you grew up. You grew up in Minneapolis.
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Melanie Richards
I grew up. Up in Duluth, so even further north.
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Jeff Duden
Okay.
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Melanie Richards
Canadian border.
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Jeff Duden
And then how. What, what was it that attracted you to law enforcement as an early career?
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Melanie Richards
Yeah, I, I was raised. My mother had my sister and I before she left high school. So we are the, the traditional single mother and, and teen mom. I call her like the OG Teen mom before there's cameras in everyone's faces. But, you know, welfare, food stamps, you know, three of us, we made it through. My grandfather who helped raise me. He was a higher patrolman and he was a pilot for them. And he's just really my, my strong role model. And, and that side of my mom's family, we have, you know, state troopers, we have deputies. So law enforcement just kind of ran through my, my veins and was very interested in people and communities. And so when I went to. When I graduated from high school, I went up to college, went down to the cities, went back to college at UMD in Duluth, and I studied criminology, sociology and psychology. And when I graduated that my, my, I don't know what they call them, Their counselor sat me down. I was like, well, you know, honestly, I don't know why I didn't think about this. I'm like, what am I going to do with this? And he's like, well, you can be a police officer or, you know, there's. There's probation. And I was like, right. And I happened to move out to San Diego and my neighbor out there was a juvenile probation officer. And he said, you know, juvenile corrections is hiring in the juvenile hall here. And so I applied and I did my post training there and spent a few years in the juvenile probation. Probation or the juvenile hall in San Diego, working with 10 to 15 year old boys. And I was rocking and rolling. That place is no joke. So a girl from Minnesota out there in the big bad world, I got thrown in pretty quickly. And then, you know, Minnesotans were kind of deeply rooted. I came back home and I started working in the adult field. I was doing investigations through that. I was working on cases for domestic violence. And I was seeing a lot of indicators of basically the system not responding to the safety of women and children. It was more focused on the offender. And, you know, the victims were sort of just left behind. A lot of times we would also get women coming in who have used violence at that time, so then she gets arrested as well. And the way the system is set up for domestic violence, it is. It is tailored to, you know, the. The high percentages is of men against women. And so I developed a caseload for battered women so that we could, you know, more holistically take a look at those needs and for safety. So along those lines, I started working. We developed a domestic abuse service center, which is replicated across the country now. But this was way back and, gosh, I want to say 2000 or so, and it was myself as the probation officer, I worked with a sergeant in the police department and then a prosecutor. And so what we would do is we would take a look at every single case that came through overnight in the city of Minneapolis. And if that offender had fled the scene, we would go ahead and run all the searches we could find. We would try to build the case. I would issue the warrants, and then we would try to bring the victim in and get her some safety and working for orders, protection, all that sort of thing. So long winded.
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Jeff Duden
This was. This was all domestic in home domestic abuse situations?
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Melanie Richards
Yes, yes. And so, you know, I. I was working in very. Every single day was life or death. Every single day was really traumatic, you know, and so it got to be very heavy. I had a case where I had issued a warrant, and it became a situation where he was stalking her. We're basically stalking him to try to get to him. And he got to her and her family first. And. And I woke up on a Sunday morning to a headline of a triple homicide. And. Yeah, and he had killed her, her mother, and her grandfather. And at that moment, I knew I couldn't fight any longer in this. In this system that really is up against, you know, people like me who, who want to enact change. You're not going to get too far.
- [09:43]
Jeff Duden
And sadly, I'm interested to your perspective on this because now that you've been away from it for a number of years, there is a lot of gnashing of thought around reform right now in our governmental agencies, in our prisons, in our probation system. Everything is. It seems like everything is opened up, everything is being looked at with a fresh set of eyes. AI technology certainly helps us Think better, faster, do things differently. Looking back at the probation system or the areas that you operated in, if you were going to say this is the reform that's needed there, what would one or two things be that you think would. Would help?
- [10:30]
Melanie Richards
Honest, Honestly, the entire system really needs to be from top to bottom, bottom to top. What I was up against wasn't just, I mean, honestly, the criminals, they are who they are. It was truly the people sitting in the chairs did, or was it, you know, just their career that they're sitting in at that moment? And so I think the recruitment around who is in that system, who are the probation officers, who are the judges, Are the judges being held accountable for these decisions that they're making are truly dangerous at times. You know, I think that was the most disheartening part of the career, is not seeing the same amount of care for humanity. It sounds very huge, but at the same time, the responses I would get when I knew that a woman was literally life or death getting into a, you know, a situation and, and it was just passed off, it was sitting on somebody's desk or something like that, you know, it's. A lot of work has gone into domestic violence, and a lot of it has been, you know, with vawa, the Violence Against Women Act. There's a lot of federal money, you know, being poured into. And I do have a lot of hope for it. You know, a lot of people are so passionate in that, in that realm. But at the same time, I do feel concern for people who don't understand the criminal system and by horrible chance they become a victim and then they, they are thrown into something and they're like, wait a minute. I have supported, you know, that there was a criminal justice system. But true, to be honest, the only real justice is for the criminals at this point.
- [12:22]
Jeff Duden
Unfortunately, so many things come down to economics, come down to budget, and then people just get worn down. I'm thinking about the foster care system and the ins. There's incentives in the foster care system that I, that, that keep kids in suboptimal situations because of how the money flows, what's available. And you get good people that get in the system and they work at the bottom best they can, but they're kind of tied up in a web of red tape and the way it's always been done. And I just wonder as a society, when we, when we look at areas that have gotten so bureaucratic and, and then there's, and then there's political motivations that are going to keep things from Being changed as a, you know, everybody, nobody wants to stick their neck out for, for change. And, and then, and then inside of that, you know, where's the education for people early on? Where's the early intervention and domestic violence? Where. How are the warning signals seen? And you know, you see things happening in schools and you see all these situations. There's almost always some. Somebody saw it. Somebody always saw it coming. And it's just a matter of, you know, anything left to itself will always go from bad to worse. I've learned that in business. That's my failed business lesson right there. Anything ignored and left to itself will always go from bad to worse. But it's marriages, personal situations, any relationship. And it's interesting to see how we evolve as a country. I think it's probably, I mean, if you look at the statistics, the world's safer than it's ever been. There's less people starving than there's ever been, but there's still too much.
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Melanie Richards
Right, Right. And I, and I, you know, there are a lot of, you know, you, you hit on so many different of things that are just clicking in my head because.
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Jeff Duden
Tell me, tell me in another way that I just asked a bad question.
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Melanie Richards
No, because you open up as can and you're just like, yes. And this, and this. Because I have, I have seen, you know, the, the, the foster care system, the child protection system, the pay to play, the. Just the. Truly a disturbing nature of, of how, of how many years this has gone by with, with people covering things up and, and our children are caught in it. And it is, it is a cycle of violence. It's a cycle of drugs. It's, it's, you know, it's government. It's, it's politics, unfortunately, you know, and so, yeah, it put a quarter in me and I got things to say.
- [15:05]
Jeff Duden
I had a mentor that shared with me one time. Something I've never forgot is that everybody always will work to their comp plan. So how. However, however somebody's getting paid, however somebody's getting incentivized if they want to protect their salary. And it just takes following the plan and looking the other way and, and, you know, doing the minimum, then people will do that. And people unfortunately upsetting the apple cart kind of upsets the whole system. So.
- [15:32]
Melanie Richards
And that speaks to what I was, you know, saying. I didn't say it as well as you did, but, you know, truly, the, the people working in, in that field, you're only going to get the best of what they choose to do. And so that you hit it right on that.
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Jeff Duden
Speaking of mentors and coaches, I read in your story that you joined something called the Evita or Avida Institute and Aveda, and was that tell. Can you tell us what that is?
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Melanie Richards
Yeah. So Aveda is world known. I mean, worldwide. It's a arbic, more natural, holistic horse run. Rockenbach, I'm not going to say his name right, but he founded it and he found it in Minneapolis. And so we're sort of the base of Aveda, but now beta is across, you know, all. And they have a school and they do hair and they do theology, but it's more of a natural study of, of, of how to basically go through cosmetology and this study of skin and ingredients. And so I really found a good place there.
- [16:38]
Jeff Duden
And was that fundamental to you thinking about natural, the, the tanning that you, that you do with Go Glow? Now I want to get into that story of. I read a story that you, you got a spray tan, you went to Mexico and you loved it so much, and you said, I'm, you know, hey, they can barely tell I'm from Minnesota down here. And, you know, you had this great tan. And you said, I can. And was it at that same time you were looking to make a career change and get into something else? Talk to us about that time in your life. Because I have this supposition about entrepreneurs that many entrepreneurs, first of all, your background with how you grew up is perfect for an entrepreneur. Right? That's how all we were. All we all had challenges. And, you know, so our level of risk and the way we view downside, if you grow up in a safe place, you have a certain relationship with risk, is that you've never really had to take any and you get fearful of it. But if you grow up a little less structured and a little less supported, then it's like, well, if this all blows up, I can just start over again because I've done it before. You know, you can't get any lower than where I started. I mean, I know that like, if I, if everything went away and I was broke again today, that it would take me no time at all to build it back. So, you know, when you, when you get that fear out of it. But. And then I also believe many entrepreneurs are kind of screwed into existence by circumstances. They, you know, there's more month at the end of their money, they can't work in a situation, so they end up starting some sort of a business. Stacy Madison, who founded Stacy's Pita Chips was one of our early podcast guests. And she had to. She was in Boston, and she started a food cart, and she was. She was doing pitas, and she was just working on the corner and rented a pita cart, and they had all this leftover bread. So she went home and in her oven, in her apartment, made the leftover pitas into pita chips and put seasoning on them and started selling them. And then people would come by, say, you have any more of those chips? And then she rented a commercial space, and she. She just started making the pita chips. And that ended up being a $250 million deal for her.
- [18:50]
Melanie Richards
Yep. That. That's. Yeah. You know, I. Out of. Out of. I don't know, the switch of. I wasn't looking for a new career. I knew I was absolutely burned, you know, on the career I was in. And I honestly just wanted something completely different. Right. Cause I'm dealing with. With a. With a whole set of, you know, society, shall we say, and there wasn't a lot of positivity around it. There wasn't much happiness. You know, it's very tough to go. And, you know, when I chose to go to Aveda, it was. It was more of like, I want to be around people who are more creative. I want to be around people who are happier, who are just, in general, more curious about things that aren't criminals and, you know, in violence and where I was currently operating. And. And so I did find, you know, I. I was interested in makeup. I was interested in, you know, that art form. And the. The. To be able to go to Aveda was. Was great, of course, but it didn't. It didn't lead to spray tanning. That was honestly me just wanting to look good. So that's what happened. You know, I got. I was celebrating my graduation from. From Aveda, and I got a spray tan. And, you know, at the time, it was. It was. It was kind of the mystic tan boost where they lock you in and you can't breathe. And I'm too fair to have that kind of solution fired at me. And so it's a lot of trauma around that. And that's why I was just. I found a makeup artist, and she was. She applied it by really small brush, an airbrush. But at the end of it, you know, I was. I had the tinge of brown, not orange, and I was feeling good. I got into Mexico. I could wear my cute swimsuit. I could wear my, you know, dress undresses. And I didn't, you know, stand out like a glaring, you know, snow globe. And I was just like, wait a minute, this feels too good. I know so many people that want this, you know, that. Why wouldn't, why wouldn't I give this a try? And, you know, at that time, I maxed my credit card in, and my credit card max was $5,000. Like, let's be real. So I was like, no, I'm going for it. I maxed out my credit card, I bought this really heavy air compressor, weighed like 70 pounds, found some solutions online. And I just, you know, I, I trained myself and, and my sister, my friends. It started to be this thing where it's like, hey, Mel, I need money now. I need one now. And so I thought to myself, well, you know, the quickest way to get to anybody is to get mobile. And so I, after work, I would just throw my machine in my truck and I'd pop up in people's homes and I had the best conversations with people and it was just so rewarding. And it, honestly, it just, it kept going and I don't know how to stop.
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Jeff Duden
You started as a mobile service, at what point did you move into a physical location?
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Melanie Richards
So I started, it was about four years in. I had scaled the mobile business to four vehicles. I had about eight employees. And with Minnesota, we have road construction, we have blizzards, you know, all this. So it's really hard to start getting to people and maintaining that demand. And so in 2014, I went into a solo salon. And at that time it was hair, you know, predominantly. And, But I just thought to myself, I said, well, if I can pop into people's houses, why wouldn't I be able to do this in a salon suite? And we did. And within a few months, know, solo was like, you know, this, this probably isn't going to work out because our hallways are crowded, you're doing 20 minute appointments. You know, I'm just rolling chicks in and out. It was so fun. But at the same time it was, you know, we couldn't keep up with demand. And so I, I, I. Within the year, I did my first storefront and that had three rooms. I thought, we're going to triple this, it'd be great. And within that year, it was six rooms. I'm blowing out walls. And, and so it's, it's, it really took off, I want to say, in.
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Jeff Duden
2015 or so, was it always branded Go Glow?
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Melanie Richards
It was Glow Mobile at the beginning. Yeah. You know, I look back and, you know, honestly, I absolutely love it. The website was, you know www.go goglo.co. it's always been that. But Glow Mobile, you know, naming yourself Glow, anything in the spray tan industry is very. You're not going to stand out very far. And so right on 2017, I was going to open up in river north in Chicago. And so I went through a rebrand. I was starting to make, you know, some really good money. And so I was started looking at my skincare line. I developed my own skincare line, my own equipment and everything. And so I was like, no, we need to do a full rebrand. And that's when I started to really put my mind around having a national brand.
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Jeff Duden
What is the customer experience today when somebody walks into a location?
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Melanie Richards
Yeah, so when somebody walks into a Go Glo, we our salons are bright, crisp white. That's a complete opposite of what the industry has seen for the past 50 years. What you generally are going to experience in a state spray tan salon is going to be in either a brown room, dark room, because they're hiding sort of all of the solution that's getting everywhere. You can talk, you know, the equipment that I got. But. And so it's a bright white. And so immediately when people walk in, they're like. Because it's just a statement of clean beauty and clean everything, everything is black and white. And they meet with our spray technicians and get greeted. And then we walk them back and we have a good conversation about how do they prepare for their gold glow. You know, with a spray tan, you have to make sure that your skin is prepared. And so we go through a lot of, you know, what products they're using. And in that, in that time, we get a chance to educate people on different products that they're using and how it may not be actually beneficial for their skin. We apply the, the Go gloss solution and we, you know, make sure that they're powdered and dried and feeling good, and then they are good to go.
- [24:43]
Jeff Duden
How long would something like that last typically?
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Melanie Richards
Typically it's five to seven days. If it's. If you're just, you know, getting any old spray tan on and you're not going to care for it, you're not going care for your skin. You're not going to, you know, it is something that you have to care for it, you'll probably get five days out of it.
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Jeff Duden
Okay.
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Melanie Richards
With the Go Glow, we definitely push it to between 7, 10, 12 days.
- [25:07]
Jeff Duden
Okay. I guess you have to be let it set up for what does it set up immediately or do you have to not shower for 12 hours or something like that.
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Melanie Richards
Yeah. So they, the. The. The active ingredient in a spray tan is dihydroxy acetone, which is dha, which is. Sounds really technical and chemical, but what it is is just a molecule that's taken out of a sugar beet and that reacts with amino acids that are already on your skin and the proteins and that oxidizes. So like you cut an apple and it browns. It's that same process. So it's a natural process happening on your skin and so that the DHA will work on your skin for up to 24 hours. So depending on the percentage of DHA. And that is where we customize for each individual skin tone of how much that their skin should be able to process that.
- [25:54]
Jeff Duden
Who's a typical customer? Is this a. I don't know what the price point is, but is this available to everybody or do you have a avatar that you service more than others?
- [26:06]
Melanie Richards
I mean, predominantly women because we do figure quicker than men. I'm just kidding. Predominantly women right now if I do guys are catching up. I, I do like to see it, but it's predominantly women. It. It liter think that right now our, our center mass of. Of the most age of people would be between 25 and 50. So it, it ranges all across. It. It is, it is you know, not a service that just for the wealthy or for. It's. It's truly for everybody. I mean during prom season we are. Oh yeah, the walls, you know, and that's a very good thing to see for that. For young people who are very into skin care right now because of TikTok, I like to see it. They are taking care of their skin and they're looking at ingredients and everything. So, you know, Go Glow is. Is honestly it's kind of crossing all the barriers.
- [27:03]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. So I built some businesses in fitness, also in the infrared sauna space. And one thing to do that we looked at was how do we get different shares of wallet, whether that be supplements or personal training or other packages or things like that. How do you create more opportunities for your franchisees to monetize their clientele?
- [27:27]
Melanie Richards
Yeah, with Go Glo, we are a service industry. Obviously we perform a service of an airbrushed hand. But we're also a skincare business. And so percent of the revenue is going to come from your skin care sales. And so we have a product line that is very specific to Go Glow. And I keep very core and core products. I don't want like 100 SKUs of anything. It's not just a huge money grab. It's, it's basically, you know, with some core products that we really encourage and educate our client base on so that they can not only just have a great go glow that their skin is healthy regardless.
- [28:01]
Jeff Duden
When did you first start franchising?
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Melanie Richards
July of 2023.
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Jeff Duden
July. Okay, so this is fresh.
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Melanie Richards
Yes, very fresh, yes.
- [28:12]
Jeff Duden
First impressions.
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Melanie Richards
It's.
- [28:17]
Jeff Duden
Be honest. It's. No one's ever going to listen to this.
- [28:21]
Melanie Richards
It's, it's, it is, it is, it has, it has been difficult. I, you know, I, you take somebody who's an entrepreneur and kind of doing their own thing in their own way, in their own everything for, you know, as many years as I have it and then to then become basically you, you have to, you have to change a lot of things about yourself. I think I'll ever learn a lot of patience. A lot of, you know, really there's, there's, there's a lot of. Franchising attracts a lot of different people and being able to play the same thing, same sandbox is very important and you know, growing this, this fast. We have, I want to say 90 sold already and so we're ripping pretty quickly.
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Jeff Duden
But now is that units or is that owners?
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Melanie Richards
That's units. Yeah, we have, I want to say 30. So the. Generally they'll do like a three pack. Yeah. And so, you know, I have, it's, it, I'm, I'm not going to lie. It's been probably you know, two of the, the most difficult years of my life and I've been through some. It's, it's hard for, for I would say a founder who is incredibly, and I think a lot of us are right, we do this out of love and passion and, and, and to switch that into a different corporate model is, is very, it's, it's taxing on, on your soul.
- [29:50]
Jeff Duden
Yeah, it, it is. Well, I, I just encourage you not to get discouraged. It's a steep learning curve in franchising. You can never anticipate, you would never expect to have to have the conversations that you're going to have to get this deeply into franchise owners lives to deal with so many different levels of commitment, so many different levels of skill. And you know, there's, you can't, you can't, you can't manufacture those things out of the process. It's just, I mean it's, there's some tried and true numbers in franchising and you know, people just have to be up for it and you have to be like Every day it's like, you know, it's, it's, there's going to be some aspect of every day that's going to be conflict. And generally 90% of the people, if not 95% of the people are well intentioned, they want to do well, they're looking for guidance. They have to come to terms with the fact that they can't just make this business, this go glow business into some variation of the career that they came from. So there's this change management, but you also can't hit them over the head with it because they have to come to it themselves. So it's very nuanced. This is a, this is a leadership level that has so many facets to it. And then if you're going fast like you are, then it's, it's coming at you fast. People are hitting things at different points in time and it's, it's, it's a real challenge. If there's somebody that was going to start franchising in 2026, what lessons learned? What would be some of the lessons learned that you might, you might impart upon them some wisdom that you've picked up to this point?
- [31:45]
Melanie Richards
You have to, you have to really have a good sense of self because you'll be questioned, you'll be dragged, you'll be, you know, it's, it's, it is, it is very difficult emotionally, it is very difficult emotionally to, to share something like this with people that come from all walks of life and they're investing a lot of money and the stakes are very high and you can never, you can never predict completely. You know, when people come to confirmation day and you really, you don't, you don't know at the end of the day who is going to be the one that's going to go off the rails. I mean, I, I, I wish we could. And you don't know the ones who are, you can, you can really. I think I can see and I, and I'm really starting to hone in more closely around the ones that I believe the process. And when you have an emerging brand, you are, you are almost more susceptible to people coming in and thinking that maybe they know more than you. And because they got in at the ground, they're going to tell you how things are going to be done. And if it's not done that way, well, then we're all going to hear about it type of thing, you know. And so it's very difficult in the beginning. I mean, an emerging brand is, wow, it is It'll rip your soul out. Honestly, it is, it is very, very difficult if you don't have people around you that have been in franchising for a long time. I, I do not recommend going at it alone. You, you have to have people for who know the industry inside and out because there are sharks everywhere.
- [33:26]
Jeff Duden
I think that is a good lesson learned right there. You know, it took me really 15 years to get my first, first brand to market. It took me from the time that I hired a franchise attorney to the. We refranchised in 2006, 7 and 8. We sold our company stores under a franchise model in three states and then we launched in 2009 and then I sold the business 1-1-2019. We had 240 restoration type franchise. We were in the service industry and then we've built so many companies. I can accomplish now in 15 months what it used to take me 15 years just because of knowing like you know what to you're. And the thing is, what you can never lose is you have to love them all. I mean like, you have to love them like you have to find a way to show up to that conversation even though like this person's. And you're going to have antagonists, that nothing's ever right, nothing's ever good enough. Then you're going to have a handful of people that no matter what you give them, they're going to make lemonade out of it and they're going to be your biggest cheerleaders. And then you're going to have this huge group in the middle of people that are looking one way or the other. They're looking at the leaders, at the sled dogs or they're looking at the antagonists and they're trying to figure out who they are and what happens. And then over time, as you have leaders, you know, at some point, if you can survive it, people will stop questioning the model. It does happen. I mean, if you like. Katherine Monson with Fast Signs, I think is one of the greatest CEOs in our industry. She writes handwritten notes to every. They have 1100 franchisees every birthday, every anniversary, over nine years. She says we, we stood up and we said we want to increase. They were about 11% profit and they said we want to increase our profit by 15% or 50%. And it took them nine years working together as a group of franchisees to get their profit to maybe the 18, 19% it is right now. But it's, there's the. I'm stealing this, but there's the top line, there's the bottom line, and then there's the front line. And one thing I do, we have about 250 franchise owners at home, front brands. We, by the way, we had 20 in March of 23.
- [35:58]
Melanie Richards
Wow, that's amazing.
- [35:59]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. And I'm still live. Look, I'm still alive somehow, so. Well, but no, but I mean, I was on a call with somebody this morning that moved over from another country and started the business. And, you know, so when somebody moves from one town to a new state they've never been in before and they start a business, what they underestimate is the fact that they don't have a network and, you know, they don't. They don't have friends and family that are going to try it. They don't have a church, they don't have a Lions Club that they can go to and they can get the word spread out. They don't know anybody. And it's very difficult, especially if you're in the service industry, to start a business, to move to a new town and start a business. Well, these people moved over from Germany and there's a language barrier and they don't know, you know, they may or may not really understand how business even works here. So they've had a slow start. Is that surprise. Should we have placed them? I'm not sure. You know, I think we just turned somebody down that was moving, that just moved here from South Africa, you know, and it's just like. And they're like, we don't even know how business works here. And I'm just like, well, maybe you should come back in a year and try something else for a little bit and whatever it is. But at the end of the day, getting on the. As long as you show up in their life and as long as they can look you in the eyeball and talk to you, you can never abdicate the personal connection that you've got to have. So now I've got five to seven calls every week, picked at random, just cycling through. And it takes me a year to get through everybody, but, like, at the end of the day, I never want them to say they haven't talked to me for a certain amount of time. And then there's regional meetings and there's homecoming and then there's, you know, advisory committees and all of that stuff where, where you show up. But, but it's. It is a game of, of. It's a. It's a real game of, of advanced leadership. It's adult learning. It's influence, it's politics. Keep that as low as you can. But at the end of the day, it's, it's a real leadership challenge to build a brand. And then especially when you're growing fast like you are, and you have proof of concept, so your stores. Right, I imagine your stores, you have proof of concept, but it's still, you've got to get people that started from ground zero and had the kind of success that you've been able to experience and you'll get there. You know, it's. At the end of the day, is there any particular things that you've learned from a leadership style or, or certain tactics that, that you've learned that work particularly well for you in connecting with your owners?
- [38:39]
Melanie Richards
Yeah, I think, you know, right now because again, we are so new and building, we're literally building a structure at the same time. So the, the people that come in now are so critical. And you know, I've, I've talked to, to, to many people in franchising and you know, the, like you, like you were speaking on, you have the, the, the top, the middle and the bottom, you have antagonists. And I, and right now, I mean, our conversation, when we have a conversation in a couple of years is going to be completely different of what kind of a leader I am. And, and you know where I found my spot, I'm still growing in this as well. And as you know, you look at any sort of big brand out there, they were in my position at one point too. And you know, the, the lessons learned and the, the battles, you know, that I thought wouldn't be here, you know, they get, they got here real quick, you know, so, you know, I, I am most focused on making sure that I'm building a rockstar team that can support. Because there's places in this business that, you know, just like anybody in a startup, you're kind of wearing all the hats, but that, that's not sustainable. It's not. Nobody needs Mel in that in the accounting department, you know, nobody needs that. But. So right now it's, it's to build the team so that I can be in my, in my lane of, of, of a founder of. Speaking on the things that I want to be, you know, working on for the brand and, and being able to have that time with owners. Right now. It's, it's just we're a very small team and all hands are on deck on every single topic, which is, you know, I, I do live and thrive in these environments, but at the same time, I do look forward to having a, you know, A. A larger structure that get that. It gives me that moment of being a founder and a visionary and more into product development. And all of these things that I do find are my gifts and, and working with people. I made a complete career out of, you know, working with people in their lives and, and transitioning and, and, and. And, you know, becoming better. But right now, I'm, I, I'm on the grind right now, so.
- [40:54]
Jeff Duden
Oh, yeah. Where do you get your mentorship leadership inspiration from? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you have people that you talk to? Have you, have you joined any groups? What's working for you?
- [41:06]
Melanie Richards
Yeah, I, I have a really strong support team around me. Front Street Equity Partners are my strategic advisors in France, and they're also doing the Friend Dove. And, you know, I have Jeff, her who, who is. I don't know if you've ever had a chance to meet Jeff. Yeah, he's very. He. He is one of those people that at any time I can call, and he does understand sort of every single feelings and frustrations and, and he, he is my sort of light to go to and just sort of be able to. To bounce things off of. He is incredibly honest and raw with me, and he's like, mel, you know, you're maybe at the third ring of hell, but we're coming out of it. You know, it's like he's. He speaks. He speaks the founder's language. And so, honestly, I have. I've been blessed in that nature with, with Jeff and, you know, the rest of the team with Jim and then Eric Van Horn, of course, is. Yeah. So, you know, they. They have a belief in me, and I have a belief in them, and we have this very core understanding that we are all on the same boat, and we all, you know, work extremely hard. I don't think that you have any other partnerships like I do in this sense, where every single day they are working with Go Glow. You know, that's just sort of a unique, you know, partnership in franchising that I've found as far as Fran Dev, and I'm super lucky to have that. So, you know, I have a good team around me.
- [42:42]
Jeff Duden
Have you met other founders through the ifa or do you attend the ifa? What. How are you building your network inside of franchising?
- [42:50]
Melanie Richards
Yeah, so I, I have. I. In the past, I want to say two to three months, you know, I have really. Well, I've always been involved with, create, and cultivate, and that is really a Female leadership group and I have worked with Ali Webb and, and her. What do you call his mind. Whatever groups and I, I have not gotten, I've gotten to every single, you know, franchise and those sort of things but that's, that's more of a sales thing and you know, I don't find too much, you know, founders that we can connect that way. I do look forward to being able to because I, I be a founder is, is, you know, just a different bird. You know, we've kind of been through, we're pretty war torn but at the same time very visionary and, and the growth and having goals that, that are just probably astronomical. And so it's hard to sometimes have conversations with people and I really try to kind of hold myself back in that way because I, I don't, you know, you look at like what do you think you're trying to do here? You know, so I've really kept to myself and you know, I think it is just because of the phase of the business that we're in right now for franchising, but I do look for forward to being able to step into that role and step into being able to be in the small groups of, of people who have been through it. And, and I think that every single time that I talk to anyone that has, has walked this walk that I'm kind of in the, in the path of. It makes me feel stronger, it makes me feel more settled and more validated in some of these things that you know, I'm, I'm going through that. You know, I didn't, I didn't see coming but yet I'm pushing through and I think I am, you know, doing it well. However, being able to have those conversations is, is paramount to really speaking to the, the soul of, of me and, and how hard this really is.
- [44:54]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. Will you be going to franchise in July?
- [44:58]
Melanie Richards
I will happen to be. We are involved in create and cultivate and so we're in a breakout brand and it's exact same time as Grand Choice. I know. So it'll be the first one that I've missed since 2023. So I'm kind of bummed out but.
- [45:12]
Jeff Duden
Our cup of coffee will have to wait then to some other time. I was going to offer, I was going to hope hopefully to get a cup of coffee with you. But we'll, we'll see you at the next one.
- [45:20]
Melanie Richards
Yes, for sure.
- [45:21]
Jeff Duden
We'll see you at the next one. Yeah, I, I'd like to explore this topic. I. So I was involved in Beam it's an infrared sauna brand. We grew it 300 locations. We got 44 open and we moved it on to sequel recently, a platform that just popped up. So it's one of the four or five brands over there. There was always a conversation around, is this a woman centric brand? And I look at that from a couple perspectives. The client base I think largely was more women than men. It definitely had an elevated look and feel and smell. Like if you go walk into a beam. It was, it was really well put together from the perspective of like, it smelled good when you walked in. It sounded good, it was clean. It was everything that you described with Go Glow. It was, it was an elevated experience. It wasn't like going into a, a gym with, you know, small baseboards that were dusty and, and commercial carpet. And you know, I've been into some, some competitors. That, that's, that's what it felt like. It felt like they turned a classroom school into, and they just put saunas in there. And it was, in it. It wasn't a, the same experience. And then we, we did have many owners that were women. Do you position this as a women centric type brand because of the clientele and have, what have you found with your cohort of franchise owners? Have there been more women interested in owning and operating a Go Glow than men?
- [47:03]
Melanie Richards
Interestingly, I did think that my avatar was, was women. You know, I want women owners, I want women. And then what we're finding more of is that the, because the numbers seem to attract the men more. So, so you have females who are like, oh my gosh, I love this, I want to own one. And then the men are like, oh my gosh, look at those numbers. You know, it' between the them we get some really power couples. And so I've, I've abandoned that. You know, this is just a female. It is, it is absolutely not in the industry itself. You know, I think that, you know, speaking on the, the infrared and all the, the wellness industry. Yeah, it's, it's driven by women right now because women are actually given permission to take care of themselves. Men just seem to have, society is less, less gracious around men.
- [47:52]
Jeff Duden
We're like, we're like bears with furniture.
- [47:55]
Melanie Richards
Right. And, and honestly, and, and you didn't.
- [47:57]
Jeff Duden
Have to, you didn't have to agree so quickly, but yeah, but honestly, you.
- [48:02]
Melanie Richards
Know, like, I mean, my very first appointment that I ever took mobile, it was, you know, just a book online and it was a husband and wife and he was be. He was, he was clear he was doing it for his wife, you know, because he was being deployed as a Marine, and. And at the end of it, we couldn't get him out of the mirror. It was fascinating, and that's how it always was. And it's like, wait, we need to start giving men her mission to look good, to feel good, and to actually care for themselves. And it's a societal conversation. And, you know, again, I go back to, like, my. My roots, my schooling, but, like, the study of people and societies and. And kind of what's been happening with. With men in these past 10 years of, you know, they're just getting beat over the head over, like, for a lot of things. And, you know, it's. It's more of, okay, what. Why. Why are we not giving them permission to care for themselves to get this treatments and not, you know, ostracizing them or being like, you got a spray T? Yeah, because I don't want skin cancer. What are we doing?
- [49:03]
Jeff Duden
What you do makes us less white.
- [49:08]
Melanie Richards
And then you say that.
- [49:10]
Jeff Duden
So there you go. We appreciate that. Oh, man. All right. You know, we don't do many edits, but that might be one. I don't know. We'll see. You know, we don't. We don't. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't need to edit that out. We are where we are.
- [49:30]
Melanie Richards
Yeah.
- [49:31]
Jeff Duden
So, okay. And I did, you know, to your point, in our beam brand, lots of power couples, you know, the. I think maybe the woman would get interested and would. Would see the. And then the man would be, oh, okay, this is a. You know, this is a business opportunity. I'm interested. And then it'll be something that they felt they could do together. And are you experiencing that in your brand?
- [49:56]
Melanie Richards
Very, very much so. And those are the ones that are actually the most successful are the ones where they are like, this is my lane and this is my genius, and I'm the support side of it. And she's like, okay, great, I'm gonna support this side of it. And they really work on a partnership, you know, it's. It's the ones that, you know, if. If the couple comes in and the man's like, oh, enjoy your new go glow, and he's just off doing his golfing. That. That is never is pathwork.
- [50:22]
Jeff Duden
Right. You. We had people in Advanticlean was the name of my. My previous brand, and we had couples that would come in and we lost deals because the. The woman would say, I'm not. I just don't Want to go to my friend group or go to my country club and tell them that we clean up sewage losses? You know, it's just not. It just, you know, I see the business, I see the economics, I see the demand. It's got all the fundamentals of a business we can grow, but I just. It's just not something that I want to talk about. And, and that would. That would kill it if it was a. If it was a couple's deal, so. Well, awesome. This has been great. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you would like to. Because we've talked about a lot of things and we haven't really talked a ton about your brand, but, you know, that's not really the intent. You know, we're rebranding. We're considering rebranding this podcast to unemployable. A little more edgy, maybe a little bit more focused on the entrepreneur. But I don't think we'll change any of the format. But it's really more about entrepreneurship, people taking chances. What, you know, what, What. What made them do it? What have they learned? And if you look across our guests, and we've had incredible. I think we're about 175 shows now, but, you know, they all had some sort of a. Some. Some sort of a challenge, some sort of a story, and, you know, something interesting to say. You've certainly been no exception to that. Is there anything that you would care to talk about that we haven't covered around or anything else?
- [51:52]
Melanie Richards
Yeah, no, I, I actually love this conversation. And, And I do. I. I do appreciate it a whole lot more because a lot of times the podcasts are just about the brand and about the offering, but at the same time, there's. There's such a huge conversation and that. That sometimes gets missed and, And. And franchisors and founders get villainized and, you know, in the franchise industry and, and to really put a human voice and a human life behind why somebody would franchise their brand and what their story is and why. You know, I just simply wanted to share something that I'm very. I found a lot of success in. Right. And I wanted to share that with somebody, and I want to share that with you. I want. I just wanted to share. Right. And so I. There, you know, there. There is the. The hard part of franchising, and it's very hard on franchisor, who actually does, you know, give a. And who does care about their people and who does care about the clients and the process and the brand. This isn't a money play for me. If it was, I wouldn't be like, this isn't it? You know, so I, I love the conversation because I think it is, is so important for the, the narrative around, you know, franchisors being, you know, big bad bears and they're just here for the money. That's, you know, I love to be able to speak on certain brands that like Go Glow and myself is. This is a labor of love. This is my passion, this is my heart, this is my soul. This is everything I've poured and sacrificed for, for the past 15 years. And I don't share it lightly. And so, yeah, when you come into Go Glow right now, we're, we're emerging, but we're a scrappy bunch. And, you know, it's, it's not something where somebody that comes in in five years where that's a nationally recognized person brand, they're going to have a different experience than the person coming in right now. And so to pay homage to that and to really understand, you're catching somebody who's who, like I said earlier, like, I'm, I'm kind of in the pits right now of, of really just grinding it out and building something amazing. And I'm so happy about it. I couldn't. It's going very well. But, you know, to anyone out there thinking about doing this, it is hard. It's going to, it's going to really rip at your life for, for a couple of years.
- [54:08]
Jeff Duden
It is hard. And you have to have that North Star of franchisee empathy, franchisee care, and franchisee outcomes. Like, there's. What I've learned is that there's this perfect balance in franchising. And if you look at brands that have really survived and thrived over decades, they have this balance between the right fees and the right activities. Meaning who does what. What does the franchisee need to do? You can't give them a jet airplane, by the way, because many franchisees are nontrepreneurs, right? They wrote a check, they've been able to cobble together some money and they've been able to qualify for a loan to be able to be in there. But that doesn't make somebody an entrepreneur. So, you know, they, the, they. You can't make it too difficult for them. Anything that can be centralized reasonably should be. But then again, you don't want to permanently, permanently impair the ability for the franchisor to operate because of the financial model. So there's this like, real little sweet spot. And observationally, And I've seen it because there's been a lot of flags of profitability and outcomes waving in the franchise industry. So a lot of people getting into, a lot of people building, doing accelerated franchise development and you know, changing the, ignoring some of these lessons that have been learned over the last 30 or 40 or 50 years in putting their model together, whether that be, you know, not getting the fees that are going to allow the four wall economics of the franchisee, because at the end of the day, its system wide revenue, its economic performance in the unit, in the four walls of the unit, and its franchisee satisfaction, are they satisfied that the time, energy and money for them was worth it? At the end of the day, if you want to attract high net worth, sophisticated, reasonable people that resolve conflicts in a healthy manner and are going to be contributors to your system, not detractors to your system, then it's got to be worth, you have to have an offering that's worth it for them at the end of the day. And, and you know, so, you know, when all of those conditions are satisfied, you still have to go through it all. So, I mean, I walked back into this, I mean, I've been involved in, I don't know, 2020 franchise concepts over my career and you know, we walked into Homefront Brands. I mean, I walked in, I knew exactly what I was signing up for. I mean, I knew exactly. And by the way, just because you have a resume, that doesn't mean that changes anything for that individual franchise owner that signed on the dotted line, put themselves out there and they're not trying to operate this business. So there's no real shortcuts to it. But I will tell you that like finding a way to leave it, you, you do have to find a way to leave it at the office. And, and then when you show up, like, you know, three words, I give you three, three little words that have helped me in French. It's actually the three words that got my wife to agree to marry me actually. Same word. Yeah. Lower your standards. No, that wasn't it. No, sorry. These three words. Oh, but okay. Rush to conflict. Rush the conflict. And again, it's just you, like I used to be very, you know, I'm a nice guy, I care about people. People. Maybe I'm a little bit conflict averse, but the reality of it is, is like the moment that you recognize that an action needs to be taken or that a decision's been made, anything that any time between that moment and the moment something happens is called latency. And our Job as leaders is to get, is to manufacture all the latency out of our business. And the way that we can occur inside of that is making sure that we're touching base to the front lines without it being a problem. One thing that you're going to, you're going to realize is you're going to people. If people complain, that's when they get on the call with you. So now what have you done? You've just trained them that if they want your time that to complain. Right? So you have to actually, for every call you make to deal with, to help a franchise owner with an issue, you got to make another call to one that's doing well and just stay in touch with them. So, you know, it's, it's. And there's really no shortcut to it. And, and then, and then rushing to conflict. I mean, in the service industry, look, we, we, we can see it in the numbers. Something's. Somebody's hiding revenue. Somebody's doing something that's they're not supposed to be doing. And the first time around, I would kind of let it go. You know, I'd be like, you know, I can't see it from my porch. You know, it may, it may be happening, it may not be happening, but, but those types of things, they grow inside of your. They become the norm. Somebody says, well, I feel stupid paying all my royalties because they're not, they're standing at the front desk of Go Glow, taking a Venmo, you know, and, and it's. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, and that's just one thing. That's just an example. It's, you know, it's not endemic or anything, but. And I don't know what endemic means, so it sounded like the right word. I'll look. Can we look that up? All right, we'll look that up. But, you know, you, you, you know, if you. It's just the, the other side of it is, anything left to itself always goes from bad to worse. I always show up with positive intention and I show up and I'm, I'm ask assertive instead of tell assertive. And I, I'm. And, and then you listen. And you can take the worst situ. Because the other side of it is, is those owners are under the same stress that you were under when you started in that mobile business. And you were, you were, you cashed out five grand. It's so funny you did that, because when I started Advantaclean, I had paid off a truck and I had a banking relationship and the buy in to Advanticlean was five grand. So I went and I mortgaged my truck. I got the 5,000, I gave the truck, I gave the payment book to my younger brother and I said, here's a truck. When you pay it off, you can have it. And I took the five grand and I put it down on the table to start with. That was my buy in. That was, we were all putting in $5,000 to start that business back in 1994. And these owners are right back where you were. I mean they're, they're, maybe they're not fully maxed out, but like it's more than they're comfortable having on the line. There's a time frame that they are up against to make something happen and they're counting on you to that the, that the, the guardrails are such that and are executable enough that, that they can make it work. And I don't think that ever changes. I, I guess if you get to where you've got a thousand locations open and it's just like clockwork, but at that point you've got, you know what it is, you don't have a lot of new owners. You have, you have successful owners opening additional units and they already know how to do it. So there you go. That's the clear future for you. You'll be there. You'll be, you know, it'll be Melanie Richards, Jimmy John's all, you know, just right up on the, right up on the, the Mount Rushmore of location based franchising one day. That's right. That's right. I just hope we all live long enough to do it right. It's, you know, we, we did, we didn't lose. We just ran out of time. All right, I've got for you, if you'll play along. I've got a curveball and then I got a fastball. It's going to come right down the middle of the plate. That's going to be a layup for you. But, but before that, why don't you tell people if they wanted to get in touch with you, the best way.
- [61:53]
Melanie Richards
To do it, best way to get in touch with me is obviously email Meloglo Co. Our website is goglo co not.com and you know, slide into our DMS. We're always on Instagram or you know, reach out.
- [62:08]
Jeff Duden
All right, Outstanding. Melanie, knowing what you know about business and where your view of the world and what's happening right now, Gun to your head. Do you have a, do you Have a. Do you have a dog?
- [62:23]
Melanie Richards
I do. He's getting groomed right now.
- [62:25]
Jeff Duden
Okay. That's right. That you mentioned that. Okay. Somebody going to steal your dog. If you have to start a business in 30 days and it has to be something that you're not currently active in, where's the opportunity that you see in the market to start a business?
- [62:42]
Melanie Richards
Youth sport.
- [62:44]
Jeff Duden
Youth sports. Okay. Why?
- [62:49]
Melanie Richards
I. Well, in Minnesota, we are hockey obsessed, my two boys. And the disconnect, I believe around, I'll just say, like youth hockey, for example, because that's. That's what I'm most familiar with. But there's. There's. There's. There's a real disconnect and there's a lot of people pulling in different directions of, you know, where. Where your kid should do this or where your kids should do that. There's obviously a large, larger conversation of should you be specializing your kids, all of that. But at the same time, I think that there is a very large opportunity for somebody to take a look holistically at how youth are moving through sports and take a step back, because I think it is hitting a level of fever with parents, and we're pushing our kids a little bit too hard. But I think that there is a opportunity to. To. To have some sort of. Of a. Of a. Because you've got your. You've got community, you've got private groups. There's. There's something there that needs to gel all of that together in. In more of an advisory or a clinical or something like that. That's what I would say right now.
- [64:05]
Jeff Duden
Awesome.
- [64:06]
Melanie Richards
I mean, it's. I seem to take huge hard turns in my life, so if you're going from probation, beauty. I think I'm gonna head to sports next. I don't know.
- [64:16]
Jeff Duden
You might as well. Kids and pets, people will spend anything, anything at all. All right here. Fastball right down the middle. If you had one sentence to make an impact in somebody's life, what would that be?
- [64:31]
Melanie Richards
Don't stop. Make it happen, and trust yourself.
- [64:36]
Jeff Duden
Perfectly said. Thank you so much for being on today.
- [64:41]
Melanie Richards
Thank you. This was fantastic. I loved it.
- [64:43]
Jeff Duden
Awesome. I'm Jeff Duden. We have been here with Melanie Richards, who is destined to do great things, and we have been on the home front. Thanks for listening.