Replay* | McMillions feat. Tarji Carter

Summary

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We Talk Back – Replay: McMillions feat. Tarji Carter (February 5, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode of We Talk Back dives into the world of franchising and building generational wealth, featuring special guest Tarji Carter, the founder and CEO of The Franchise Player. Hosts Tam Bam and AJ Holiday bring their signature humor and candor to discussions about the Black Effect Podcast Festival, Black culture, celebrity news, and, most importantly, breaking down myths and actionable advice around franchise ownership for Black and minority communities.

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Main Discussion Highlights

1. Festival Recap & Pop Culture Update (03:00–19:17)

• Tam Bam and AJ Holiday share stories from their weekend at the Black Effect Podcast Festival in Atlanta, highlighting the community, fun, and behind-the-scenes bonding moments (including a hilarious boba-induced bathroom incident).
  • Quote: “Me and AJ bonded this weekend. In a weird way... AJ got us boba tea... and we had to dookie together. Not in the same stall, but at the same time.” – Tam Bam (04:00)
• Reflections on motherhood, visibility, and women’s continued success in entertainment, celebrating Flo Millie’s new baby and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour with Blue Ivy and Rumi on stage.
  • Quote: “There was a time where motherhood was like the end of a career, but not no more.” – Tam Bam (09:08)
• They discuss ticket prices, celebrity relationships (the ongoing Kevin Gates/Drake/Drika/Brittany Renner saga), and aspirations for self-sufficient, farm-based living.

2. The Power and Pitfalls of Franchising with Tarji Carter (23:35–67:37)

Tarji’s Introduction & Background (23:35–27:52)

• Tarji shares her accidental entry into franchising after working as Tyler Perry’s executive assistant.
  • Quote: “I knew nothing about franchising until I started doing it as a child… No one ever told me I could own a franchise.” – Tarji Carter (25:46)
• Motivation for founding The Franchise Player in 2023: lack of Black representation at franchise ownership levels.

Why Franchise?

• Franchising is presented as a faster, less error-prone path to business ownership, providing established systems for marketing, operations, and support.
  • Quote: “With franchising, you basically hit the ground running…when you get into franchising, you’re really taking advantage of all the mistakes they’ve already made.” – Tarji Carter (29:53)
• Independent business = slow growth and higher risk; franchises offer immediate brand recognition and proven models.

Choosing the Right Franchise (30:17–34:12)

• What makes a GOOD franchise? Healthy brands (expanding, visible), high profit margins (especially in “coffee and chicken”), and adaptability (drive-thrus excelled during the pandemic).
• A BAD franchise lacks brand power, market demand, or survives on slim margins.
  • Quote: “People are always going to eat chicken, people are always going to drink coffee.” – Tarji Carter (32:07)

Myths & Mistakes About Franchising (35:22–38:24)

• Common myths: It’s easy or “get rich quick,” or owners can be completely absentee.
  • Success depends on research, choosing the right management, and being actively involved.
  • Importance of hiring a franchise attorney: “If you pay $2,500 today, it could save you $250,000 down the line.” – Tarji Carter (38:24)
• Lack of information in the Black community and not asking the right questions lead to mistakes.

Tarji’s Unique Approach (38:36–41:20)

• She provides full support: education, vetting, matching clients with brands, helping secure capital, and connecting them with experienced operations partners.
  • Quote: “The value that I bring is getting in front of audiences most brands won’t get in front of. Everything we do is through the lens of how does it affect our community.” – Tarji Carter (40:29)

Capital, Pooling Resources & Success Stories (45:29–48:02)

• Example of a client (retired NFL player Damon Dunn) who scaled from zero to 40 franchise locations with Tarji’s advice.
• For those without big capital: Pool resources with family/friends for joint ownership, combining both finances and skillsets.
  • Quote: “I always suggest we need to do a better job as a community of leaning on each other and pooling our resources.” – Tarji Carter (45:43)
• Buying one small franchise as a group can be an entry to scale further.

Funding & The Lending Landscape (51:50–57:22)

• Banks prefer lending to franchises versus brand-new independent businesses due to proven models and lower risk.
• Franchise fees range from $10–90k; full investment for a storefront might run $300–400k (coffee shop example).
• Most franchise loans are through banks or the SBA, not franchisors themselves.
  • Pro tip: Start talking to your banker early about your goals to prepare for loan applications.

Franchise Game Conference (77:30)

• Tarji plugs her annual conference "The Franchise Game," Aug. 14–15, 2026, Plano, TX, hosted at Yum!’s HQ – an opportunity for networking, resources, and expert panels.

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Lightning Round: Quick Hits with Tarji (57:29–59:48)

• First franchise ever loved? “Auntie Anne’s.” (57:35)
• Favorite business book? “Self Made” by Nely Galán (58:12)
• Morning ritual? “Before I do anything, I pray.” (58:30)
• Dream collaboration? “Shaq—he’s built his own chicken concept and is protective of his brand.” (59:13)
• One word for her journey: “Difficult.” (60:56)

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Real Talk: The Hard Parts (60:56–62:04)

• Navigating franchising as a Black woman is isolating—“I can look across a room of 3,500 people and count, you know, maybe 10 people that look like me.” – Tarji Carter
• Most of her lessons have been learned the hard way, with few mentors or peers.

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“Dumb Bitch Story” Segment (71:34–77:16)

• Tarji shares a personal dating misadventure: She went out with a man she met on a dating app. After a couple great dates, he ghosted her, only to discover he was likely married and in town just temporarily. The hosts and Tarji bond over the relatable pain of being ghosted.
  • Quote: “I felt like a dumb bitch texting myself in the chat…‘Are you okay? I hope you’re okay.’” – Tarji Carter (75:11)

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Memorable Quotes

• “You don’t have to like coffee to make money from coffee!” – AJ Holiday paraphrasing Tarji (33:22)
• “The dough doesn’t discriminate. Everybody’s eating it.” – Tarji Carter (66:06)
• “The only way to survive is to change our tax bracket.” – Tarji Carter (63:55)
• “Eventually you’re not going to be an 80-year-old rapper—you gotta put the money somewhere!” – Tarji Carter (66:10)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 04:00 – TamBam & AJ Holiday’s festival stories & bathroom bonding
• 09:08 – Motherhood & career: Flo Millie, Cardi B, Beyoncé
• 23:35 – Tarji Carter introduction and her path to franchising
• 29:53 – Why franchising is a faster track to business ownership
• 32:07 – Best performing industries: coffee & chicken
• 35:22 – Myths, mistakes, and the importance of research
• 38:36 – How Tarji’s consulting is different: “the plug” for minority entrepreneurs
• 45:43 – Pooling resources for first-time franchisees
• 51:50 – How banks fund franchises (vs independent businesses)
• 57:29 – Lightning Round Q&A with Tarji (favorites, rituals, dream collabs)
• 60:56 – “Difficult”: Navigating franchising as a Black woman
• 71:34 – “Dumb Bitch Story” segment

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Closing & How to Connect

• Tarji invites listeners to her annual “Franchise Game” event (August 14–15 in Plano, TX) and offers ways to connect:
  • LinkedIn: The Franchise Player
  • Instagram: @iamthefranchiseplayer, @iamtarji
  • Website: thefranchiseplayer.com
• Final advice: Don’t wait for “perfect” capital; lean on community, take action, and let expert guidance fill the knowledge gaps.

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For anyone seeking to break into franchise ownership, especially from underrepresented backgrounds, this episode offers inspiration, practical tips, and the importance of finding the right guidance. Tam Bam and AJ keep things real, raw, and fun, while Tarji Carter brings the blueprint for group economics and business elevation.

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Transcript

[Tam Bam]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Tarji Carter]

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[Tam Bam]

We all made resolutions in January, but let's be real. February is usually when a lot of.

[Tarji Carter]

Those dreams start to fade.

[Tam Bam]

We and our friends at Shopify are here to help you not let that happen. Whether you're just starting out or already running a business, Shopify can handle anything you throw its way. I trust Shopify with my personal store and honey sell so can you. Don't let your dream store die with the rest of your 2026 goals. It's time for you to invest in.

[Tarji Carter]

Your own business, not someone else's.

[Tam Bam]

For a change. Head on over to shopify.com Ben that's B E N and see what it feels like to be the one in.

[Tarji Carter]

Control of your future.

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[AJ Holiday]

Back where we encourage you to hustle.

[Tarji Carter]

Hard, laugh louder, and always keep it cute.

[AJ Holiday]

So grab your coffee cocktail and crown.

[Tarji Carter]

Cause it's about to go down.

[Tam Bam]

We're just two unapologetically black women with an opinion who talk back.

[AJ Holiday]

What's up, y'?

[State Farm Announcer]

All?

[AJ Holiday]

It's your girl, AJ Holiday. What's up, tmvm, y'?

[Tam Bam]

All? It's Tam Bam. I love y' all so, so very much.

[AJ Holiday]

Y' all believe that too?

[Tam Bam]

In it.

[AJ Holiday]

A little bit. I'll be believing it a little bit.

[Tam Bam]

Just a little bit. I do. I love them so much. I love you too, girl. You think I love you?

[AJ Holiday]

I know you love me.

[Tam Bam]

Okay.

[AJ Holiday]

But.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

Huh?

[Tam Bam]

Okay. I love it too. I love God, all the guys.

[AJ Holiday]

Everybody loves me.

[Tam Bam]

It's like I love everybody else.

[AJ Holiday]

Except for.

[Tarji Carter]

Who?

[Tam Bam]

George Zimmerman. Ass. Oh. Still mad at him. How was your weekend?

[AJ Holiday]

It was great, y'.

[Tam Bam]

All.

[AJ Holiday]

How was your weekend, y'?

[Tam Bam]

All? Me and AJ bonded this weekend. In a weird way.

[AJ Holiday]

Not no gay. Cause y' all know Tammy B. On some gay.

[Tam Bam]

I'll be gay for real. I just be playing what's a regular Shits, y'. All. AJ got us boba tea on the way back from Atlanta, and she put whole milk in it. Don't tell nobody this because it's embarrassing, but we had the dookie together. Together at the same time in this. In the bathroom. Not in the same stall, but at the same time. No.

[AJ Holiday]

But the worst part, we let it simmer, okay? From. From Atlanta to Thomasville. And that's the exit. Like that busy exit right before Augusta. So, y', all, we was in ATL this weekend for the black. For the third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival, which was wonderful. We'll get to that in a minute. Right after we finish talking about this. So what? That's about an hour and a half, two hour drive. So we let it simmer for a little while because, y', all, I love boba tea. And Tammy be like, you be drinking that with them little balls on the bottom. But I was so excited that this place was still open down the street from the hotel we stayed in, and I forgot to put my little traditional order. And I do not drink whole milk.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay? So.

[AJ Holiday]

Because I already had spent like $8 a piece on these drinks. I'm like, we drinking this whole milk today. When I tell y' all. We had a wiring window down in between farts, man. And not kill each other.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah. It was so bad. And then so we had to use the bathroom at this place, right? And it only had two stalls. And this Hispanic lady came in mid poop, right? And I guess she had to go real bad because she was like. And she was pulling on the doors. And then we started laughing because what you gonna do? We couldn't do.

[AJ Holiday]

Listen, this is how considerate I am. Even in the. In the midst of shit, I'm still considerate. I'm trying to push y'.

[Tam Bam]

All.

[AJ Holiday]

I'm trying to push this shit out, like. Cause I want this lady to use the bathroom. Like, she probably had to pee real bad. And mind you, we chose this bathroom because we were next do door to Loves, which we went in there and got ice and got gas and. But we was like, man, it's a newer bathroom over here. It's a newer gas station. Let's go there to take these shits.

[Tam Bam]

It's cleaner.

[AJ Holiday]

But y' all know love's probably got, like, 12 stalls in that. So we go to someplace that only had two stalls, and we feel so.

[Tam Bam]

Bad for that lady, but I'm not doing that, because I'm not giving myself no hemorrhoid trying to be courteous to someone else.

[AJ Holiday]

I definitely could have got a hemi around.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, not me. And then we heard her husband come into the bathroom. Or a man. She called a man in there, and he was speaking Spanish, and I guess.

[AJ Holiday]

He was saying, like, an argument.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, because he was probably saying, what the you want me to do? Like, I can't make these people come out the stall. So, yeah, we bonded over some ick. So anyway, the Black Effect. Black Effect Podcast Festival, the third annual. It's so much fun. It's like a family reunion, you guys. Y' all really, really need to pull up next year if you did not come this year. We had so much fun. We got to do interviews. Women on the street. So we just talked to people that were in attendance and got their perspective on relationships and things of black culture and things like that. It was so much fun, and the weather was perfect. Wasn't it a good day for that?

[AJ Holiday]

It was a good day. But you know what? Y' all know I don't really like Atlanta like that. I'm looking for Black Effect to take this show on the road. Okay. I would love to see maybe it in Charlotte next year. Some other black ass city. Why not?

[Tam Bam]

I like Atlanta.

[AJ Holiday]

I like.

[Tam Bam]

I mean, I mean, yeah, I like Atlanta. Maybe a different location in Atlanta, perhaps with more like stadium seating kind of situation where they have like rooms for each podcast, like theater rooms for each podcast and like, I don't know, something like that.

[AJ Holiday]

I don't know. I think Atlanta be having too much shit going on on one any given Sunday. So, yeah, it's like people picking and choosing, choosing what they want to do. Like, why not hit up a new city? I would love to see it someplace else. And Charlotte, we talk back. Definitely hitting the stage again. I don't give a who say what.

[Tam Bam]

Right? Yes, y', all, we really had a. Like, we had a meeting today because we are getting our live shows together. I know y' all be in my DMs asking when y' all gonna see us in person. Y' all want us to come to your city. So we'll be coming to a city near you real, real soon. So stay tuned for that in the sins.

[AJ Holiday]

What we got going on this week, man? Did you know Flamily was pregnant?

[Tam Bam]

Yes.

[AJ Holiday]

Why did I not know that? Like, I really, really like her.

[Tam Bam]

Me too.

[AJ Holiday]

I did not know. So she. She welcomed a brand new baby on the 25th.

[Tam Bam]

Her first baby. Congratulations to her.

[AJ Holiday]

A baby boy. I just love you.

[Tam Bam]

I just love how the girlies are not letting motherhood stop them from. Like, there was a time where motherhood was like the end of a career, but not no more.

[AJ Holiday]

Cardi B set off. Cardi B said, I'm having my kid. I remember her being on the Breakfast Club and she was telling Charlemagne her goals and what age she wanted to have her kids by. And she started, no matter what she was performing, pregnant and all that. I would not, I would strongly advise against, like twerking on your knees with the belly baby bump. But hey, whatever. The young girls is doing it. But yeah, you can do both. You can do both because having a child is just a part of women's lives. So why should your life or career stop just because of it?

[Tam Bam]

So congratulations to Flo, Millie. What else happened? Oh, Beyonce started the first leg of her Cowboy Carter tour and Blue Ivy was on stage with her looking like Beyonce circa 2006. She looks so big and grown now.

[AJ Holiday]

I know she looked like both. Her appearance, she like a nice little blend.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah. And then Roomy made her debut on stage. She was so happy. Yes. She been waiting on her moment and she just. That just touched my heart that Beyonce had her own stage as well.

[AJ Holiday]

Were we not just talking about that this weekend? And what was my. I'm like, if, okay, people so mad at Kanye about what Kanye put on social media, right? But people have noticed things, right, about these two other kids we don't see. And if. If it were me, right, that would be an opportunity for me to have, like, some type of advocacy for children with possible autism. I don't want to say they. They have it, but I love to see that she, you know, had her daughter out on stage. Cause there's nothing to hide, you know what I'm saying? Like, the shit is way more prevalent. I don't know if scientists or whoever the doctors are finally just maybe it's just the umbrella term, I believe, right? You just don't know what the fuck is up. Just an umbrella term. But I'm so happy that she's, I don't know, embracing. Not to say she wasn't embracing, but people wanted to know why we don't.

[Tam Bam]

See these other two kids, right?

[AJ Holiday]

And you are a celebrity, so unfortunately, right. You don't get a break with this type of shit.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I was happy to see her. And I. You know what? I wasn't going to, like, try to go to Cowboy Carter because I just finished playing off the last Beyonce tickets. Like, just recently, they got their last bit of my money, so I said I wasn't gonna buy tickets. But after seeing the footage online and. Make you want to go, don't it?

[AJ Holiday]

No, I'm good. I hadn't been to a Beyonce concert since 2008, and my ticket was $150. And I. Damn, they had front row tickets.

[Tam Bam]

Damn. I. Listen, I have floor seats to the last show, and it was a thousand. So $1,000.

[AJ Holiday]

I need $150 tickets because I know in Europe, when they. In these other countries, that's how much them niggas paying. Why is it inflation when it comes to this project called America? I want to pay what they paying.

[Tam Bam]

Me, too, but did you Google that? Because I think their tickets are high, too.

[AJ Holiday]

In Europe.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

I don't know. There's a big Europe, so whichever country they end up in, right. It's not all of them. Ain't gonna be no damn thousand dollars for no damn tickets. They're not. They're not having it. Like we be accepting of all that shit. So they. They price gouge over here. Because people gonna actually find a way to pay it after paying a Beyonce ticket is fucking wild to me.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, that's paid it off.

[AJ Holiday]

So.

[Tam Bam]

I know I end up paying double just to pay it off. All right, so anyway, Terence passes on Marvin Gaye. So Terrence, Terence Howard sat with Bill Mayer for an interview where he revealed that the late Quincy Jones approached him for a movie on the life of Marvin Gaye. Terrence said that he turned down the role after Quincy confirmed rumors that Marvin was gay. So he was gonna have to do some gay scenes and he wasn't with it.

[AJ Holiday]

Why they gotta put that in the movie, though? Why did I wonder if Terrence actually reviewed the script and saw that he would be kissing a man in a movie? Because if that was something that's not going to be in a movie, like, you could go ahead and play.

[Tam Bam]

I think that's what it was. I think he said that is not.

[AJ Holiday]

The biggest part of who Marvin Gaye was. Why is that in the movie?

[Tam Bam]

Not Marvin Gaye was gay the whole time he was telling us, they went. Last name wasn't even gay. He's Marvin Williams the whole time.

[AJ Holiday]

Why would that even be a part of the movie? For real?

[Tam Bam]

Listen, I would love to go see a Marvin Gaye movie. I would love to be in a Marvin Gaye movie. The Toxic King. But Terence Hart, well, he was gonna play Marvin Gaye. I wouldn't want to see him as Marvin Gaye.

[AJ Holiday]

Yeah, like how? That's not a good. It's not a good match. That's not a good casting as far as I'm concerned. Who. Who could play Marvin Gaye?

[Tam Bam]

Oh, you know who I would like to see play Marvin Gaye because he already down for the gay. The gay roles. What's his name? He played on the shy.

[AJ Holiday]

Oh, what is that guy's name? I know exactly who you're talking about. I was thinking Lakeith Stanfield. Like, Lakeith would probably play a Marvin Gaye. No.

[Tam Bam]

Oh, he could play a Marvin Gaye too.

[AJ Holiday]

I'm just thinking about aesthetically, because that's why Terrence Howard to me, wouldn't be a good fit for a Marvin Gaye role.

[Tam Bam]

What's going on, mate? I need to stop. Okay.

[AJ Holiday]

You stupid. Yeah, I don't know that guy's name. I forgot. Anyway, moving on. So this past weekend at the live show, welcome to Black Effect. Also good Mom's bad choices podcast. Okay.

[Tam Bam]

Love y'.

[Nyx Underwear Announcer]

All.

[AJ Holiday]

So they recently relaunched under the Black Effect family brand and they did the live show. So they hit the stage this past weekend. And Drake, which I thought this girl name was Drika the whole time, so we just found out this weekend. Her name is Draca. Okay. Kevin Gates, ex wife, which I thought they were still married. So they asked some, like, really probing questions, you know, during this. This podcast interview this past weekend. And she kind of passed on all the questions. But shortly thereafter, it came out that they actually got a divorce or somebody filed for divorce. I even saw headlines that he was married to Brittney Griner. Now, Renner, Brittany.

[Tarji Carter]

Shit.

[AJ Holiday]

Brittany Reiner. Brittney Renner. Now imagine if he was with Brittney Griner. Yeah, she beating his ass up with them damn long ass arms. Yeah, so it says. Rapper Kevin Gates has discussed his life through his music since he climbed the music charts with his 2013 song Satellites. His artistry resonates with his fans who relate to his past, including time in prison and his future, which has evolved him meeting a few special someones. So. So allegedly he's been with Britney Renner. They started dating in 2022.

[Tam Bam]

Really?

[AJ Holiday]

Yeah, supposedly. Anyway. But it says that Kevin Gates and drika's romance ended November 2024. So just last year. So when did she file for the divorce? I'm confused. Are they divorced? Are they still separated?

[Tam Bam]

What I do know is when she walked her ass on that stage, I was like, damn.

[AJ Holiday]

We was just talking about her ass last week.

[Tam Bam]

She fine. She is beautiful. Stomach flat, booty sitting out, skin pretty, smile beautiful. Real energy. Good energy, like. Yeah. So shout out to Drake. Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

I don't know what Kevin Gates got going on. Anyway, we said he was an Aquarius last week and that. That just says it all.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay.

[AJ Holiday]

Leave them alone. They don't got it all.

[Tam Bam]

I aspire, like, to have her life where I live on my farm, eating fresh fruit that I grew up and.

[AJ Holiday]

A pay for it.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, that part. Don't leave that part out. I want some pigs and chickens and stuff, though, and some cows, but I don't want to tend them. I want to have farm hands.

[AJ Holiday]

No, I think I would want to do it myself.

[Tam Bam]

I would want to turn the garden, but not the chickens and the cows.

[AJ Holiday]

I love the animals. I definitely.

[Tam Bam]

You want to tend the cows?

[AJ Holiday]

Yes, I would be one of those.

[Tam Bam]

Have you been in a cow pasture before?

[AJ Holiday]

I have.

[Tam Bam]

It stinks.

[AJ Holiday]

Real shitty.

[Tam Bam]

Yes.

[AJ Holiday]

Yeah. But I still would want to. I would want. To.

[Tam Bam]

Have you ever milked a cow before?

[AJ Holiday]

I have. Mine wouldn't stink.

[Tam Bam]

Yes, it would.

[AJ Holiday]

No, it wouldn't. I'm gonna keep it. I'm gonna use.

[Tam Bam]

A cow's supposed to smell like a cow. If you do anything to make it smell like Not a cow. It's probably not healthy.

[AJ Holiday]

So washing a cow wouldn't be healthy?

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, washing a cow. But you can't over wash it. You dry it out.

[AJ Holiday]

You trying to wear the cow hide or we just want milk?

[Tam Bam]

We want. No, I' ma cook that.

[AJ Holiday]

See, I'm not trying to eat my animals. Between me and you, you raising them to murder them.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, some of them we gonna eat. Some of them we gonna. They gonna be for milk, and some of them gonna be for food.

[Nyx Underwear Announcer]

No.

[Tam Bam]

But, yeah, I aspire to that lifestyle, honestly. So shout out to Draca Clues. Bombs for Draca. Hey, that. Who said it? Is that Charlemagne? All right, y', all, we got a special guest on this week, and she's gonna drop some jewels about franchising and helping us understand how to get this money on, because we need it. So y' all stay tuned.

[Tarji Carter]

We'll be right back.

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[AJ Holiday]

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[AJ Holiday]

All right y', all, welcome back. Okay, so today we're talking about franchising ownership and building real wealth through business. Our guest, Targi Carter. She's a founder of, founder and CEO of the Franchise Player and a leading voice for minority franchise ownership. She's on a mission to help more entrepreneurs break barriers and owners their future. We'll be covering everything from funding tips to mindset shifts. Okay. Welcome to the show, Targie.

[Tam Bam]

Hey, Targie, girl.

[Tarji Carter]

Hey, Tam Bam. Thank you for having me.

[Tam Bam]

Now, y', all, we was at the podcast festival. If y' all missed it, sorry, y' all wasn't there. It was lit and it was a good place. Yes, period. And it was a good place to meet like minded people. And we saw this bad bitch standing at a table, and then we got to talking to her and found out that she was smart and she had some information that she could because, you know, sometimes they be pretty and stupid, you know, but she's actually pretty and very smart. So she has some information that she could share with us and with y'. All. So thank you, girl, for coming out.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, thank you for that. I was just trying to be cute and low key, but, yeah, you know, there's a little substance there too. But you all were so kind. You're right. It was lit. I had never been. Was my first time there, and so I didn't know what to expect. But a friend of mine brought me as his plus one and he said, do your thing. And so I just went up and talked to everybody for the most part. I had on my franchise player hat, and that opened a lot of doors for me because people really don't. They're not talking about franchising right now. Everything that we hear on a lot of these podcasts and on television and radio is about investing in real estate, the stock market, and crypto, which is all great, but no one's talking about franchising. So I've been working in this space for almost 20 years now, and I've learned a lot. And so just want to take everything that I've learned and bring it to our community so that we can start having the conversations about franchising and then teaching people how to get into it the proper way.

[AJ Holiday]

So what inspired you to get into the world of franchising?

[Tarji Carter]

A fluke. It was a total fluke. I knew nothing about franchising until I started doing it as a child. I know probably just like you all, you would go to McDonald's or Burger King or what have you. And no one ever told me I could own a franchise. I didn't understand the concept until I started working for a company called Carvel Ice Cream, which we're not gonna shout out a bunch of folks, but just wanted to give that name. So I started doing that. And then that was back in, gosh, 2008. And interestingly enough, I had just come off the heels of being the executive assistant to Tyler Perry. So talk about, like, just a crazy shift in career. And I was working at a hotel. The president of the company was staying at my hotel, and we just developed a rapport, and he honestly just offered me a job.

[AJ Holiday]

Wow.

[Tarji Carter]

And just because I'm the type of person that loves a challenge, I said, yeah, sure. And when I did it, I thought, what did I get myself into? It was a lot to learn, and it was like, learning, like, you know how they say, like, drinking out of a fire hose? It was just like that. Like, everything was coming at me so fast. But, you know, I. I appreciated the challenge. I learned so much. And then from there, just went on to. To go from company to company, learning more and more every time I moved around.

[Tam Bam]

So, wait, when you were working with Tyler Perry, how long ago was this? Was you all Fulton Industrial in them trailers back in the day?

[Tarji Carter]

Oh, it was a while ago. I was off of stupid Northside Drive. So, okay, there was a small building, and then we went to Cross street, and then, you know, there were a few moves after that.

[Tam Bam]

This is after Fulton Industrial, then? Because he was over there where the hoes was at.

[Tarji Carter]

No, no, no, no.

[Tam Bam]

That's when he was really in the church.

[Tarji Carter]

I think I missed that era. That was a while ago.

[AJ Holiday]

You look like somebody from a Tyler Perry movie, though. I ain't gonna lie.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah. All we need is, like, a microphone right here at the top of your head.

[Tarji Carter]

Oh, my gosh.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah.

[Tarji Carter]

He's come a long way with those wigs, for sure.

[Tam Bam]

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

[Tarji Carter]

That's okay.

[Tam Bam]

All right, keep going. So you said you went on.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, so I went on to just learn everything that I could. And. And just throughout my career, I just noticed that at the ownership level, there just weren't a lot of people that looked like us. And. And I thought, you know, every time I would go from company to company, I would talk about, you know, we need to be more diverse. We need to get in front of different audiences. And. And for whatever reason, just was never a priority. So I said, well, I can keep going from company to company complaining, or I can do something myself. So in 2023, I started a company called the Franchise Player, where we basically provide education, opportunities and resources to our community to learn about franchising, the resources to get access to capital, have access to industry professionals, such as like construction, real estate, design, market planning, everything that you're going to need to have access to to be successful in franchise ownership. And then we do events also. So in 2023, I also launched the franchise game. Along with my two co partners, Dalen Goff and Desi Brown Jr. We founded the Franchise Game. And then it's a whole day of a conference, a symposium and trade show where we bring in industry experts so experience existing franchisees that own anywhere from one unit to 100 units. We bring in all the professionals within the industry, some of the best minds and voices in franchising to teach the local community and others that fly in from all over the country about how to do it properly. And then we have a half day version of that that we call the scrimmage that we take around the country. So we had, most recently we had one at the University of North Texas in March. We also did a scrimmage at Morehouse College in October of 2024. So we take those scrimmages around the country and it's kind of like a plug and play. We can take those anywhere. There's a need to learn about franchise ownership.

[Tam Bam]

Okay, so why franchising over starting an independent company? Why would you recommend that?

[Tarji Carter]

That's a great question. I'm so glad you asked that. So with franchising, you basically hit the ground running. So think about it this way. If I open Targie's Donut Shop, it might take me three weeks for someone to walk through the front door.

[Tam Bam]

But if I put you know how to. You don't look like you know how to cook.

[Tarji Carter]

Taji, that's so I'm saying.

[Tam Bam]

Yes.

[Tarji Carter]

Here, be nice. You so pretty.

[Tam Bam]

You look like you don't be in nobody kitchen cooking nothing. Girl, you be. I throw down reservations.

[Tarji Carter]

I throw down and I make a mean reservation. I could do both at the same time. But franchising, it's so. So for example, if I started Target Donut Shop, right, I have to do everything. I have to figure out a recipe, figure out location, right? How do I get people through the door? How do I market, where do I put the stores, how do I negotiate my leases? With franchising, if you, if you invest in the right franchise, they're going to have all that support in place for you. So when you pay your franchise fee, really, that's like your, that's like your entry fee. That's like the cost of entry that you pay at the door. And then you pay additional fees, ongoing fees for the additional support the Ongoing support that you receive as a franchise owner. So for example, they have like an internal database of marketing materials that are already created for you, approved by the brand. So you just take a piece of material, you put your personal information on it, your store, whatever it might be, and then you use it. Right, Versus you having to figure out, well, let me go into Canva and create this flyer. And so there's a marketing department, there's training, there's operations, construction, design. So imagine having to wear all of those hats five years in, $500,000 later, you might not have anything to show for it because you're going to make a lot of mistakes along the way. So when you get into franchising, you're really taking advantage of all the mistakes that they've already made and they've gotten it to the point where it can be replicated. So the way that they grow the brand is they bring qualified franchise candidates in to help them grow the brand using their own money. So the brand pays, you know, they reap the benefits of collecting royalties, but they're also offering a ton of support that you wouldn't get if you had an independent concept.

[Tam Bam]

Now you said, if you pick the right franchise, what's the wrong franchise?

[Tarji Carter]

The wrong franchise, oh my gosh, where do we start? So a lot of things to look for. So is the brand healthy? Do you see like this concept popping up all over the place? Like, are people talking about it? Are they on social media? What are, what are they doing in terms of sales? So are there numbers high enough where it makes sense? Are the profit margins large enough for it to make sense? I will tell you this. I highly recommend coffee and chicken. Right? Profit margins on, on coffee are, are amazing. You can Google it. I can't really make any earnings claims because I do work with a coffee company. But if you Google profit margins on a cup of coffee, you'll see what I mean. And then chicken is the fastest growing protein in the world. So people are always going to eat chicken, people are always going to drink coffee. And I think about brands that did well during the pandemic, during the recession. You know, a lot of brands had locations, but unfortunately, if you didn't have a drive through, you were almost dead in the water.

[Tam Bam]

Right.

[Tarji Carter]

So just thinking about like those types of concepts that did well during the pandemic and the recession is really a way to kind of like gauge when a brand is a good investment or not. And do you go there? Right? You can always trust your own judgment.

[AJ Holiday]

You, your most of those I don't go to most of the places that I would do, like, coffee. Like, I don't eat Starbucks. I don't drink Starbucks. But I understand why having a Starbucks location would definitely be lucrative, though, so I don't have to with it to make money.

[Tarji Carter]

And that's the whole point. Just because you don't. You don't participate. Right. Like, I don't smoke weed, but I would buy into a cannabis business. Right, right.

[Tam Bam]

You should.

[Tarji Carter]

Where the money reside, that's where I want to go. That's. That's the way to think about it. So just because, like, you know, a man might be like, oh, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna invest in a shoe store, women's shoe store, but you know, how many. How much money we spend in the shoe store.

[Tam Bam]

Right, right.

[Tarji Carter]

You have to think about it differently. It's not about what you would do or what you would consume. Because I know a lot of people that own ice cream shops that are lactose intolerant. It don't matter. Like, the money's still green.

[Tam Bam]

So coffee gonna. My stomach up every time. I'm gonna tell you right now, coffee is gonna mess your girl up.

[Tarji Carter]

Oh, well, we don't give you no coffee. What about tea? Right? There's tea. There's like, Boba tea. There's companies that have stuff like that, and they have other. Other drinks. Like, you can have like a. A vanilla bean. Whatever, Whatever. Like, a lot of these brands are understanding that most generations younger than. Younger than me, but most generations are drinking their calories versus actually sitting down eating a sandwich. So when you think about. There's a famous donut concept that changed its name because they were. They were more of a beverage company than they were a pastry company. So they dropped the last word. Kept them.

[Tam Bam]

Duncan.

[Tarji Carter]

There we go. There we go. I'll let y' all pitch it. But they dropped it because, you know, many people eat donuts, but I mean, when they go to. To this. To their restaurants or their stores, they're looking for coffee.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tarji Carter]

Fast and correct.

[Tam Bam]

I didn't even notice that. You're right.

[AJ Holiday]

Like, that's one of those Mandela effect things. Because 20 years from now, people will be like, that was never there. Like, yes, it used to be Dunkin Donuts, and now it's just Dunkin.

[Tarji Carter]

Exactly.

[AJ Holiday]

So doing some. A little research last night, I just saw a lot of negative things about franchising, like how people all, like, end up upside down. Taking on franchise as a business, a startup type situation, you know, you're buying into something else, but you still have to have the business acumen, right, to, to make it successful. So what's some of like the biggest myths about franchising that you often have to correct?

[Tarji Carter]

Well, first of all, they didn't reach out to me, so that's probably why they went wrong, period. Right. But honestly, like it's the research, right? There's not a lot of information in our community about this. So when I, when I started to do this, I looked around me and there really weren't many people that look like me getting into Morehouse College or getting on. We talk back like looking for ways to get this information in front of our community. So it starts with that a lot of brands, you know, they have certain conferences they go to every year. There's a list of conferences that every brand goes to for the most part. And that's where they go so that the value that I think I bring is getting in front of audiences that most brands won't get in front of and for whatever reason. And so the information just isn't reaching our community. And so people hear about franchising, they think it's, you know, get rich quick and there's nothing further from the truth. Or, you know, they think that the brand is supposed to build the store. We'll say store in this case since we're using restaurants as an example. The brand is supposed to build the store and make them successful or they want to be absentee. So being absentee means basically I'm going to build, let's say, a restaurant for $250,000 and I'm going to put it in the hands of a 17 year old high school student, it doesn't make much sense. And so when you have that mindset that I'm going to build this and not have anything to do with it, you might as well just make the check out to me because it's a waste of money and it's a waste of time. So I think, you know, I.

[AJ Holiday]

They don't put the right management in place is what you're saying.

[Tarji Carter]

You have to put them, you have to have the right management, but you have to understand before you even get into it, like understanding what it is and what it isn't and having a realistic understanding of what, what you can potentially receive from being a franchise owner in that business, you have to know to ask the right questions because you know, if you don't ask the question and you don't get the answer, you know, nine times out of 10, someone can come back and say, well, you never asked that. Or if you're given the information to read, and you don't bring in a franchise attorney to read your disclosure document, you might be signing your life away. You don't know what's in there until you either you review it yourself and you understand the language, or you have a franchise attorney take a look at it. Because again, that's what they're focused on, franchise law. That's what they do day in and day out. So, you know, if you have a sister or cousin or a friend who's an attorney, but they're not a franchise attorney, they might be able to help you out, but they're not going to be able to help you in the same way that a franchise attorney is. And some people say, well, how would I waste the money on a franchise attorney? Well, if you pay, I don't know, $2,500 today, it could save you $250,000 down the line.

[AJ Holiday]

Right.

[Tam Bam]

So I noticed you said like, well, their first mistake was they didn't come to me. Now what, what, how is your approach different from traditional franchise consultants?

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, so because I've worked inside of these companies for so long, I know what the brands are looking for, what they're not looking for. I know a lot of the, the language that's, that's spoken that the average person isn't going to understand. But the way that my company works, we work with folks who want to get into franchising, may not know where to start, may have never even heard of franchising before. So we take them through a full education process, a vetting process. We do discovery, discovery calls, discovery days to help them understand what it is, and then we help them find the right brand. So we start with a list of 10, narrow it down to three, then to the one. And so we help them get access to capital, put together their infrastructure. So brands are looking for a certain formula when it comes to a candidate or candidate group. So we help them put all that together. Plus, I have access to a database of over 250 potential operating partners. So say, for example, you know, LeBron James doesn't need my help, so we'll use him as an example. LeBron James wants to get into Duncan, but he's, you know, he's still playing ball. So he needs somebody that's going to run the operation on a day to day basis. I have over 250 people who have worked in franchising 10, 15, 20 years that are looking for an opportunity like that. To set the business up so that when LeBron is ready to retire or forced to retire, he has something to walk into the next day. So I help with the entire infrastructure. And then my commitment to the brand is I'm never going to bring them a cold lead. So when I bring someone to them, they know I'm serious. Like, it's coming to them with a nice, neat bow. They meet the qualifications, they have access to capital, and they're ready to now go. Go through with the internal process with the brand. Most other consultants will say, oh, hey, I met Tam Bam at the. The conference on Saturday. Here's her name and number. Call her.

[Tam Bam]

But you send. You bring them in a bowl, like, everything ready to go by the time they get to the okay.

[Tarji Carter]

And the reason for that is because I've been in their shoes on the brand side, and I know that a cold lead is going to waste six months of my time. So I don't want to. I want to serve as a bridge to not just the brand, but also to my clients in helping them almost guarantee an approval by their brand of choice. Because, again, I know what they're looking for. I know the holes they're looking for. I know some brands are looking to get to a no. And some brands are like, how can we get to a yes? And so I do the research, and my team, we do the research to make sure that the brand is a good fit. So someone might say, hey, I want X brand. But we might do a little bit of digging and say, okay, did you know this? Did you know that? Did you see this in the news? Like, that sort of thing. So we're. Everything that we do is through the lens of how does it affect our community and how does it make us better.

[AJ Holiday]

So you basically, you the plug, she's like the liaison. So you're. So aside from. So the franchise player also does, like, education, right, to the public and to. But you guys also, like, are the liaison between the franchisor and the franchisee also.

[Tarji Carter]

So we're that. We're that bridge. So when we do our franchise game conference, we have brands that come and exhibit. So last year we had about 20, and we do it at Yum Brands headquarters in Dallas, Texas. So they own like, Pizza Hut, kfc, Taco Bell, Habit, Burger Grill, not a plug. But to say, like, they believe in what we're doing enough so that they. They brought us in and they're a partner with us to make sure that we have a great space to do it, and they just really Believe in what we're doing and why we do it.

[AJ Holiday]

So who's some of your client? Like can you tell us anyway? Like can you share a successful client story?

[Tam Bam]

Like some people that made you like very proud?

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah. So I had this one client, he's a Stanford grad. Can I say his name?

[AJ Holiday]

Yeah, I think that's ok.

[Tarji Carter]

So Damon Dunn. He is retired NFL player, went to Stanford. Smart. He's married. Yeah, he's married. I know, right?

[Tam Bam]

Big story.

[Tarji Carter]

But he came to me when I worked at a brand and he, he was gonna buy a network of stores and. Super smart. I mean, probably one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life. And he knew, he knew the business side, like the numbers and all of that, but he didn't know operations. He had never worked in a Duncan. I mean, for God's sakes, he was, you know, with his, his background, like he never worked in a Duncan or anything like that. So I said to him, I said, well, let's just do me a favor, I see that you can do it, but do me a favor and just go spend some time in operation and, and come back to me and let me know what you think after that. Because the business plan he presented to me had nothing about operations in it. And I know the brand and I knew that if he didn't have that operations experience, he probably wasn't going to get approved. So he went down, he spent a whole week with the, the, the current owner and he came back and he said, man, I was about to fall on my face. I said, yeah, you know, but he went and he learned so much. He worked from open to closed for like a week or two. Can't remember exactly because it's been a while. But he came back and he rewrote his business plan. Next thing you know, he bought a network of five stores, ends up closing two, and then just recently sold his network. And he had about 40 locations. So in a very short period of time, because he went in and did the work to understand the operations side of the business, he was able to scale. And then he ended up being the keynote speaker and for our first franchise game in 2023, my, my keynote caught Covid and Damon was coming to speak on a panel. And I'm like, I'm gonna cry. You know, I don't know what to do. He said, he just jumped and he said, what do you need me to do? I said, I need you to be my keynote. And he did it. He walked in the room, he flew over from Seattle that morning into Dallas.

[Tam Bam]

And became the keynote speaker out of.

[Tarji Carter]

Keynote, went in the corner with his notes. And I say that to say, like, not to toot my own horn, but my reputation in franchising is pretty clean, right? Like, I can pick up the phone and call pretty much anybody because they know if I call, I'm not calling with anything foolish. I'm calling because there's an opportunity that can be mutually beneficial, and I probably need a favor. So I have a lot of folks that are willing to help me out as I'm continuing to grow this. I even had a boss of mine not too long ago say to me, every time I. Every time I open LinkedIn, I see you. He said, I'm so proud of what you built from nothing. And to me, that was like the ultimate compliment, because he knows when I first started, I didn't know anything about franchising. Right.

[AJ Holiday]

And the thing about this, even, like, when you're. When you are ready to retire, right from the franchise player, you literally would be able to have something you can sell his whole whole book of network in contacts. Contacts, like, that's a whole business you can sell to somebody else.

[Tarji Carter]

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, so you.

[AJ Holiday]

I see the future.

[Tam Bam]

Your success story. You said he was a former athlete, which means he had the capital. What about people who might not necessarily have the capital? What would you suggest would be a good route for them to go to get into franchising?

[Tarji Carter]

Well, I'm going to back up just a sec.

[Tam Bam]

He.

[Tarji Carter]

He was a retired NFL player, but he also had a company that he worked for that backed him, that helped him to get into the franchising space. But for folks that don't have that access, I always suggest we need to do a better job as a community of leaning on each other and pooling our resources. I've seen it so many times with every brand that I work for. Different ethnic groups come together and they pool their resources. One time, I had a group of 12 people on the documents. It was a family, and they wanted everybody to have a piece of the pie. You know, whether it was 1%, 3%, some people only had, you know, minimum, you know, dollars in the bank. But they wanted them in on the deal so they can learn the business, and then from there they can grow, either collectively buy more, or they can break off into smaller groups and buy. So I would say, you know, look around your. Your sphere of influence. Who are your friends, who are your family members that you trust, who are fiscally responsible, who might be interested in making an investment, but don't want to do it all by themselves. So now you know, say the franchise fee is $40,000 and the build out is 500. Well, 400. Right. So now, now you're, you're each putting in $10,000 versus one person doing 40,000. Right. And so net, you're not just one pulling your liquid cash, but even your net worth. So if you own a home and you own a business, right now you're pulling all of that, strengthening your case to become approved by your brand of choice. And then you also are pooling your human capital. So maybe someone's good with real estate and somebody else is good with human resources and maybe somebody else has an accounting background. Now you're bringing this whole team together versus one person trying to meet all of the qualifications that the brand is looking for. So that would be my recommendation to just think about who is in your, in your circle, that the partner. Yeah. And again, you can, you can buy one, right? There are some brands that will let you start with one. You buy one a year in you evaluate it. Hey, what are we doing here? Do we like this? Do we not? You can either continue to grow from there if the brand has room for growth, or you can say, you know what, I'm tapped out, let's sell it. And you have the right to do that.

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Your life Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures there's.

[Lenovo Pro Announcer]

No championship league for small business owners, but if there was, you'd be at the top of the standings. Because going pro with Lenovo Pro means you've got the winning formation. One on one advice. IT solutions and customized hardware powered by Intel Core Ultra processors help you stay ahead of the competition. Business goes probably with Lenovo Pro. Sign up for [e-mail] pro.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay.

[AJ Holiday]

So like when somebody starts their own business now, you could, they can put together a pretty good business plan and go to a bank and possibly get a business loan. Do banks traditionally give business loans for franchising?

[Tarji Carter]

Do you know banks prefer to offer loans for a franchise, an established business, Right? Yeah, it's a proven business model. It's really hard to get loans for restaurants specifically. And so, you know, there's a list of approved brands that the banks look at to make sure that they're, you know, that they're, they're healthy. Right? That the brand is healthy, it's growing, it's profitable. No bank is going to loan, lend to anyone if that particular franchise isn't profitable. So a lot of startups, you know, you might have a challenge with a startup, and by startup, I mean any like less than 20 units currently open and having been open for a length of time, at least five years. So the bank look at, looks at all of that. So they, they're going to have you put together a business plan. The brand is going to have you put together a business plan as well. But the business plan for the brand is more so about the operations. How do you plan to operate, how do you plan to market against your competitor? Like, how do you know the local market, all those sorts of things. There is a section for financials, but the bank is really more so focused on the financial piece. How do you plan to pay this back? The brand that you pick is really going to help to either get you a loan with the lending institution or sba, or it's going to be something that's going to, you know, unfortunately lead you down the path of, of just kind of not being able to get access to capital. So that's why it's really important to choose the right brand.

[Tam Bam]

All right, so are you ready for our lightning round?

[AJ Holiday]

Okay, let me ask one more thing. Right? Just, just an example. So me and Tammy, we only got $20,000, right?

[Tam Bam]

But.

[AJ Holiday]

Obviously we got M's in the bank. Okay, Right. So, but if we, if we had a small investment amount, Right. Right now, what is one of. I know you said coffee ice cream or you said coffee and chicken.

[Nyx Underwear Announcer]

Sorry.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

What would one of the best franchise be like if somebody wanted to try and do something like that this year with minimal investment?

[Tarji Carter]

Okay, I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to back up for just a second. So the franchise fee is, is the small upfront fee that you pay. That's the only upfront fee that you pay. So would it be that you only have it for. That's your total investment that you have, or is that just what you have right now?

[AJ Holiday]

To put it, what would be a minimum for you? Like, what would a minimum investment franchise be? Like, maybe it's not 20,000. So if the smallest investment is a hundred thousand dollars, what is a. What is usually a franchise fee.

[Tarji Carter]

So a franchise fee can range anywhere from $10,000. It can go as high as $90,000.

[AJ Holiday]

Got it. Okay.

[Tarji Carter]

So there's a coffee company that I work with right now. Their franchise fee is just $20,000. So that's the only upfront fee that you pay. Then you have to qualify to get the loan unless you have the money to pay for it. So there are some service companies out there that don't require brick and mortar. So there's no equipment, there's no signage. There's, you know, so it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking to do coffee, Right. There's obviously no home based coffee business in most companies before you start a food truck, because some people say, well, can I just do a food truck? Usually you need at least one brick and mortar to have a food truck because you have. Or commissary.

[AJ Holiday]

Commissary.

[Tarji Carter]

Depends on the brand. But I would say that $20,000 is doable from a upfront franchise fee perspective. I don't know a lot of franchises that you could do for that amount. Right. So for example, Coffee Company, 1500 square foot space is probably going to cost you somewhere between 300 and $400,000 to build out. And that includes your equipment, fixtures, furniture, your point of sale system. You have to go to training, so you have to have your cost.

[AJ Holiday]

This loan comes from the franchise?

[Tarji Carter]

Nope, it comes from the bank.

[Tam Bam]

Bank, bank.

[Tarji Carter]

Or the Small Business association. Sba.

[AJ Holiday]

Okay, got it.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah. Most franchise brands don't offer financing. They usually have these third party lenders with whom they have relationships. So they can say, hey, this bank knows what we're looking for. We, you know, we have 20, 40, 50 franchisees that have used them in the past. You can go that route or you can say, listen, I have my own bank, you know, I'm gonna use.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, because they're like, we're giving you everything else. We ain't giving you no money.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, because it, there's, there's some laws that really like govern all of that. The Federal Trade Commission has this thing called joint employer. And I won't get into all that because I'm not a franchise attorney, but it kind of. It kind of lends itself to that. So the brand. There's only certain things that the brand can do based on what the Federal Trade Commission allows them to do. But that's all technical. That's not the fun stuff. But as far as, like, just getting the loan, you can, you know, my. My suggestion is to always start talking to your bank as early as possible to say, hey, listen, this is what I'm thinking about doing. What do I need to do in preparation to get approved for a loan? Right? So maybe it's six months from now, it could be next year, but at least you start having those conversations, and your banker knows that, you know, these are some of the goals that you have lined up for yourself.

[Tam Bam]

Okay. Yeah, that's something. This is some good tea.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah.

[Tam Bam]

I want to get into the lightning round. All right. This is real quick.

[Tarji Carter]

All right.

[Tam Bam]

Your first franchise you ever loved.

[Tarji Carter]

Auntie Anne's.

[Tam Bam]

That's the. Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

Pretzels. I love that goddamn sweet walnut pretzel.

[Tarji Carter]

Everything they make, I've been waiting 10.

[AJ Holiday]

Minutes for that thing. They never have them ready like always.

[Tam Bam]

That the one that got the hot dog in it?

[Tarji Carter]

They do have a hot dog version. Yep. They wrap the pretzel around the hot dog.

[Tam Bam]

I like that.

[Tarji Carter]

It's a tie between them and Cinnabon.

[Tam Bam]

Oh, yeah. For you as a. The franchise you love or the. The flavor of the.

[Tarji Carter]

The brand.

[Tam Bam]

Okay.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah.

[Tam Bam]

All right. Your favorite business book.

[Tarji Carter]

Self Made by Nelly Galan.

[Tam Bam]

Self Made. I've never read that one.

[AJ Holiday]

No, I gotta put that on my list.

[Tarji Carter]

He's the former president of Telemundo level. It's very interesting. I met her in person. It changed my life.

[Tam Bam]

Okay. Adding that to the queue.

[AJ Holiday]

So if you want to be successful, you got to have them daily rituals, right? So what's one thing you must do every morning?

[Tarji Carter]

Every morning before I do anything, I pray.

[Tam Bam]

Amen.

[Tarji Carter]

That's the first thing I do. Yes.

[Tam Bam]

Can I tell y' all what I do?

[Tarji Carter]

What do you do?

[Tam Bam]

I like to go in the mirror and I say to myself 10 times, I love you. I love you. I love you. And I just point at myself and I look myself in the eyes and I tell myself 10 times that I love myself every morning.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, that's pretty cool. I'm about to try that tomorrow morning.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah. At it.

[AJ Holiday]

Were you trying not to forget or something?

[Tam Bam]

No, I just want to be very loving to myself first before the rest.

[AJ Holiday]

We forget sometimes. All right, so what's a dream Collaboration it could be a brand or a person.

[Tarji Carter]

That's interesting.

[AJ Holiday]

Shaq, Shaquille o' Neal got all these franchises. Wouldn't you be, wouldn't you want to be up in his business?

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah. So Shaq, that's actually a good one because you know, Shaq started his, his, his new concept, it's a chicken concept and I would love to work with them one day. I think, you know, he has a really good understanding of business. He's been very protective of his brand. So I think he would be a great person to collaborate with. I mean, RIP to Junior Bridgman, he would have been another one that I would have wanted to collaborate with because he was really a giant in the franchising space. But yeah, Shaq would be a good one.

[AJ Holiday]

So like just right quick, so Shaq, do you really think Shaq is handling the day to day of these franchises he's involved with or he like right now he's just representing the brand. So is it that the more money you have, you really don't have to be that hands on with a franchise. You just put people in place to do the things?

[Tarji Carter]

That's a great question. So I think in the very beginning he was very instrumental in like creating the brand, but he's brought in a team of folks who handle the day to day business. So from my understanding, and I can't, I don't want to speak out of turn, but my understanding is that he invested in it and was really involved in creating the menu and just the overall model itself. And so now, I mean he has so much going on. I think he was to able even on a sat on a board for another franchise organization for a while. So he has his hands on a lot of things. So I don't think he has the time to do all of that and be on television, but I think he's still very close to the business to make sure that it's healthy and it's doing well financially.

[Tam Bam]

All right, one word that describes your franchise journey. One word.

[Tarji Carter]

Difficult.

[Tam Bam]

Difficult.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, it was, it was.

[AJ Holiday]

Franchising is not easy or building the franchise player is difficult?

[Tarji Carter]

Well, I think just me going through all the working for all the different brands and all the things I had to go through as just a black woman in franchising. It's. There's not a lot of us there. So I can look across a room of 3,500 people and count, you know, maybe 10 people that look like me. So that's a little bit challenging when you're working in an Environment where culturally you don't see any reflection of yourself. So that was really difficult for me. And then, you know, sometimes, you know, I was, I was very lucky along the way to meet a few people that offered to just, you know, give me some assistance when I, when things got difficult. But, you know, I didn't really have like a mentor. A lot of what I learned has been through trial and error, which, you know, looking back on it, I guess it makes sense, right? That's, that's how you remember things is sometimes when, when you, you learn the hard way. But yeah, it was difficult. But I will say that I, I'm, I wouldn't change a thing. Looking back on it, I wouldn't change one thing because it, it made me who I am today.

[Tam Bam]

So let me ask you this. If someone was interested in like getting involved with the franchise player, how much is that? Like, would they have, Would y' all own a percentage of their business? Like, how, what do you, what, you know, what y' all want out here doing it for free?

[Tarji Carter]

So the way that my business model works is, you know, there are levels, right? So entry level. We do have a, an online course. It's actually on sale right now for tax season. So if you, if you want to learn like what, what franchising is or isn't, like this is a seven week course, you can buy it and go at your own pace. Go at your own pace, which is stretched out over seven weeks. Or if you're really serious about it and you want to dedicate like a couple hours a day, you can get through it in seven days. It's just really teaching you the fundamentals. So imagine spending 14 hours with me just yapping, you know, you can do that or you can, you can hire me and say, hey, listen, I want you to help me from soup to nuts. And, and we can do that as well. Or we can figure out, you know, if you say, listen, I, I can do it on my own. I just want to figure out what the right brand is. We have a solution for that as well.

[Tam Bam]

Okay, so y' all get your coins together because if you want to go from soup to nuts with Target, you got to have some money.

[Tarji Carter]

But if you go soup to nuts and you sign, you buy a franchise within 90 days, you get a portion of that back.

[AJ Holiday]

Okay, so what do you, what do you say about getting into France like today, right now, today, getting into franchising, knowing what we know, know about these, the tariffs and all the things that are happening right now? I mean, because I feel like they're going to affect, like, you know, retail stores first, grocery stores, you know, the franchises have to get their products in.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

So is this a good time right now to start a. Start a franchise?

[Tarji Carter]

It's the best time. And I say that because, you know, if you look back at the recession, you know, that was a great time to buy real estate, right? When you just gotta. You gotta follow a bouncing dollar, right? So figure out where, where does the dollar lead in all of this? So it's a lot of noise, a lot of distraction, you know, when you think about as a community, like, how do we survive all of this? The only way to survive is to change our tax bracket. And so the Federal Trade Commission, as mentioned earlier. Right. Period, they have laws in place that protect franchisees and franchisors. These same laws don't protect independent business owners, and they also don't protect employees at corporations. Right. So get your friends together. Let's buy a little something and let's work it to make sure it's successful. The tariffs, you know, I think there's a lot going on right now. I don't know if you looked at the headlines today, but, you know, there's a lot of this going on. The dust is going to settle, right? Because it's above us at this point, Right. It's the billionaires, right, Making a lot of these decisions. And eventually the dust is going to settle. Cash is going to be king. And so when you think about franchise ownership, I'm going to leave you with this. I don't know if we're done or not, but I'm going to leave you with this. So when you own a franchise, you can then buy the real estate, right? Buy the real estate, commercial real estate. You put the franchise in it. So now you own the real estate and you own the franchise. And then if they're publicly traded on the stock market, of course you're going to buy stock, Right? So now you're hitting it from three different angles.

[AJ Holiday]

So it's not just McDonald's, for example, McDonald's biggest industry is real estate. It's not even the burgers anymore at this point.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, they're a real estate.

[AJ Holiday]

They own a lot of real estate.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah. So, I mean, the real estate, the stock, the actual business itself, and then even if you decide to sell the business, Right. You still own the real estate. And whoever goes in there is going to pay you. So just depends on how much you have to invest and ultimately what your goal is. Right. Are you looking to exit Your current career, Are you looking to just have an additional revenue stream? Are you looking to buy a business for your kids? It really just depends on what you're looking to do. But my thing is when it comes to athletes and celebrities, eventually you're not going to be an 80 year old rapper, right? Eventually you got to put the money.

[AJ Holiday]

Some of these niggas be pushing it.

[Tarji Carter]

To the limit if they decide they don't want to, right. You can have this business like if you, if they started something this year, right. And they decided to retire in four years. This business has been working for four years creating revenue, right? And so you're looking at a lot of these companies, these chicken companies, they're, they're bringing in revenue wise. Some, some are close to $2 million, if not more, right. Some are doing even more than that. For someone looking to get started, you know, in, into franchising, that's green, that really doesn't really know where to start. I always recommend getting into like a snack concept because when times are good, people eat junk food. When times are bad, people eat junk food. And it's not just our community. Like people you go to, go to one of those restaurants, the Cinnabon or Auntie is right. The dough doesn't discriminate. Everybody's. Everybody's eating it, right? So start with something small. Start with a menu that is less complex. And that's how you get to understand what a franchise business is, how it operates. And you get to start small, small investment. Start with 1. Figure out if something you. If it's something you want to grow. And if you do, then continue to grow with that brand or bring in other brands. And if not, like I said earlier, you can, you have the options.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah. Oh my girl. This was so good. This is such good information. Listen, we are going to take a commercial break and then when we come back, you got to give us a.

[AJ Holiday]

Dumb bitch story, Tarji, because we stole Childish.

[Tarji Carter]

Oh my God. Okay, I got to know that.

[Tam Bam]

Educational and informational. We still got to get a dumb bitch story from you.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay, I got you.

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[Public Investing Announcer]

Life Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI it all starts with your pro prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures there's.

[Lenovo Pro Announcer]

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[AJ Holiday]

Dumb Bitch Stories that's so dumb.

[Tam Bam]

Because we've all been a dumb bitch at least once or twice. All right, so let me explain to you what dumb story is.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay.

[Tam Bam]

All right. So basically it's a segment on our show. We talk about relationships a lot so you have to share a time. You got played by the opposite sex or same.

[AJ Holiday]

We know people.

[Tam Bam]

Oh yeah. Or thing depending on what you into. Yeah. So.

[Tarji Carter]

Oh yeah, I know I live in Atlanta, but no.

[AJ Holiday]

80S baby.

[Tam Bam]

Okay. All right.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay. I got so many I'm trying to figure out which one to.

[AJ Holiday]

Are you married?

[Tarji Carter]

No, I'm not married. Never been married.

[Tam Bam]

So you got the stories, girl. Welcome to the team. Ain't none of us got on the.

[Tarji Carter]

Ring two years old. I got all the stories. Okay, how old? 52.

[AJ Holiday]

Girl, shut up.

[Tam Bam]

You look good girl.

[Tarji Carter]

Look, yellow don't crack either.

[Tam Bam]

Period. Period.

[AJ Holiday]

Hold on, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. These 50 year old is too fine out here. I would have never thought you were 52. Yeah, I do get offended when people.

[Tarji Carter]

Like oh you look good for 40.

[AJ Holiday]

Like what was I supposed to look like? I feel like you might she. You probably are what a 50 year old is supposed to look like. But you know, people just be living hard lives.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, I know. When my mom was 50 she looked 50 to me.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, but when you, when you, when you kids and you think of 50, you think like 50 is old. But then now that you 40, 50 don't sound old.

[Tarji Carter]

And it don't look.

[Tam Bam]

And it don't look old to me no more like this new 50 is not.

[AJ Holiday]

Oh wait, you said you got two grandkids so you do have kids.

[Tarji Carter]

I have one son. Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

Okay.

[Tarji Carter]

Children.

[AJ Holiday]

Oh I just.

[Tam Bam]

All right, so what's your story Girl.

[AJ Holiday]

Give me that 50 year old dumb story.

[Tam Bam]

You can share from anytime. Except for high school. Don't tell us no high school.

[Tarji Carter]

Played by a dude, right? Okay, I got one. So I went on this website, like this dating app. And I met this guy, was really nice, nice looking guy. And we went out on two really good days. The first day we went to a paint and sip class. We took. He took me to a nice steakhouse. And then the next time we went to like a cooking class, which was real nice. And so I'm like checking for him, checking for him. Next thing you know, this dude like ghosted me. Like I would be talking to myself in the, in the text. Like, hello, are you there?

[Tam Bam]

Are you there?

[Tarji Carter]

Are you there?

[Tam Bam]

Never said that.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, so it turns out he was in town for like working on a project, a work project or whatever. And he was only here temporarily and he was just trying to line up some coochie while he was in town, so.

[Tam Bam]

Oh, he was married and he ain't.

[AJ Holiday]

Get to coochie after that second date. I gotta go home.

[Tarji Carter]

Yes, I figured it out eventually. But yeah, that was like a. That was kind of.

[Tam Bam]

That was light though. That was light work. That might be dead. We don't know.

[AJ Holiday]

That thing is definitely married. And was trying to get some food while he was in town.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah, there's something.

[AJ Holiday]

He'd be hopping on the apps. Hopping on the apps while they in town.

[State Farm Announcer]

Right quick.

[Tarji Carter]

Yeah.

[AJ Holiday]

And I was like, so you liked him. You wanted that third date. You wanted to give him some cool coochie.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, it's okay.

[Tarji Carter]

Disappeared, maybe.

[AJ Holiday]

Wait, or did you give him the coochie and he disappeared?

[Tam Bam]

No, I did not.

[Tarji Carter]

I did not. But clearly from the second day. And I don't know what's happening in these dating streams, but you know, it didn't. It wasn't for me, but I felt like a dumb texting myself in the group or in the chat.

[AJ Holiday]

How many, how many, how many text messages you sent him? Like a lot.

[Tam Bam]

Are you okay?

[Tarji Carter]

Is everything okay? Like, I hope you're okay, you know, all of that.

[Tam Bam]

Like you were worried.

[Tarji Carter]

I was initially. And I was like, oh, I got ghosted. Like, I don't get ghosted often, but.

[Tam Bam]

Did you Google obituary to make sure that wasn't there for real?

[Tarji Carter]

I told you, I don't even remember this guy's name. So I have. If he's dead, that's all I got for him. But yeah, up that is.

[Tam Bam]

Up, that is.

[AJ Holiday]

You thought she thought she had one right quick. Like you Know you and have a couple good dates. Like, yeah, man, this might be my husband.

[Tarji Carter]

Oh, he was cute, all the things. And that was it.

[Tam Bam]

I got ghosted like that too. I've been there. Yeah, but we went on a lot of dates. I ain't give up no ass either, though, girl. So we on the same page.

[Tarji Carter]

Okay, well, yes.

[AJ Holiday]

That's not really ghosted then, you know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like, did you lose anything? You got some good little time, little. Some low food. Like, you ain't lose nothing if you ain't get that coochie up.

[Tarji Carter]

You can.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, but it's still.

[Tarji Carter]

I'll take.

[Tam Bam]

And that's why for dear life, as.

[AJ Holiday]

Long as possible to the real show up. You gotta hold that coochie until the real show up, ladies.

[Tarji Carter]

And see the difference with me, I got. I have like six brothers. So I. I put stuff to together real fast. I'd be like this, this isn't adding up. And I. I believe I'm a leaver, so I'll leave real quick. But this time I didn't leave.

[Tam Bam]

See, that's why men don't be liking us when we don't leaving, you know, too much. They don't be wanting to talk to you.

[Tarji Carter]

Exactly, exactly. Like, you know, you pick up on mannerisms, all that kind of stuff. They're like, oh, she's smart. Yeah, yeah, so. And they try all these different things, but I'm like. I'm like, oh, I'm very observant. But this time I didn't pick up on it. I was just like, oh, I wonder what kind of ring I'm gonna get. No, just kidding.

[Tam Bam]

Yeah, I've been there too. Picking out the rings. All right, tell everybody where they can find you, where they can connect with the franchise player.

[Tarji Carter]

All right, so I'm on LinkedIn, the franchise player. Also on Instagram, at I am the franchise player and at I Amtarji. And then also a website, the franchiseplayer.com.

[Tam Bam]

Are there any programs or webinars or events that you want to promote real quick?

[Tarji Carter]

Yes. So we have the franchise game. It's August 14th and 15th in Plano, Texas, and would love to have folks from everywhere come and check it out. It's a great way to learn about franchising, meet some of the best folks in the industry, and walk away with a lot of resources and some really good connections. So, yeah, August 14th and 15th at Yum's headquarters in Plano, Texas.

[AJ Holiday]

Oh, find that. Yeah, I told her, like, when they could find that on the player on.

[Tarji Carter]

The franchise player website.

[AJ Holiday]

Right? Okay, got it.

[Tam Bam]

It's all I'm gonna come and give me a husband out there. That's what I'm gonna come get. I don't even care what y' all talk about. Is there some husbands out here?

[Tarji Carter]

There's a lot of husbands.

[AJ Holiday]

Franchise.

[Tarji Carter]

I don't know if there's somebody else.

[Tam Bam]

But, you know, not. Not nobody else.

[Tarji Carter]

There's gonna be a lot of husbands in there. A lot of smart guys, a lot of guys with, you know, good head on their shoulders. So it's definitely worth coming through.

[Tam Bam]

No, I. I'm joking. I will come for the information as well. Not just getting a ring, but y'.

[Tarji Carter]

All pull up to my personal guests if you decide you want to come. You're on my list.

[Tam Bam]

All right.

[Tarji Carter]

All right.

[AJ Holiday]

This is wonderful.

[Tam Bam]

Thank you for coming on. This was great information. Also fun at the same time.

[AJ Holiday]

Absolutely.

[Tam Bam]

All right, y'. All.

[AJ Holiday]

So if y' all enjoyed this episode, y' all tune in every Thursday on the black effect iHeartradio app or wherever the fuck you get your podcast at. This is AJ Holiday 2.0 on Instagrams. Kick a tam, y'.

[Tam Bam]

All. It's official Tam bam on Instagram. Y' all continue to send us your resumes. We are still looking for interns. We got a couple, but we could use a couple more. So if y' all want to join us, send your in your resumes to we talkback ent gmail dot com. We love to hear from you. Remember. Oh, I love y'. All. I didn't say it yet. And I want to remind y' all that y' all are loved by me so, so very much. Remember, Speak now.

[AJ Holiday]

I don't know.

[Tam Bam]

Never, never hold your capital so you could get a franchise.

[AJ Holiday]

Millions Deuce.

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[AJ Holiday]

Lenovo Lenovo at CVS. It matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night. And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and, yeah, healthy snack. At cvs we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So Visit [e-mail] or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location.

[Tarji Carter]

Janice Torres here and I'm Austin Hankiewicz.

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We host the podcast Mind the Small.

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Business Success Stories produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Intuit QuickBooks.

[Tarji Carter]

We're back for season four to talk to some incredible small business owners. The big thing about working at tech.

[Tam Bam]

Is that it's ever evolving, ever changing. Everyone's a rookie. That's how fast the industry is changing.

[Tarji Carter]

So what I'm really excited about is.

[Public Investing Announcer]

To be part of that change.

[Tarji Carter]

So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple.

[Public Investing Announcer]

Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tarji Carter]

Well, the holidays have come and gone once again.

[AJ Holiday]

But if you've forgotten to get that.

[Tarji Carter]

Special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday.

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Offer of half off unlimited wireless.

[AJ Holiday]

So here's the idea.

[Tarji Carter]

You get it now, you call it an early present for next year.

[AJ Holiday]

What do you have to lose? Give it a [e-mail] Switch limited time.

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[Tam Bam]

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.