Scaling a Global People-First Business with Bob Funk Jr.

0:00Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcomed entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level the all in one sales and marketing platform and today we'll be breaking down scaling a global people first business to drop these vibe bonds. I brought Bob funk Jr. into eo fire studios Bob serves as president of express employment international promoted to the role in March of 2025 after decades with the company he began his career with express employment professionals at the franchise level in 96 in joint express international 2013 and today we'll talk about scaling service businesses culture driven leadership workforce shifts into so much more and a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Bob and ours sponsors. Sleep impacts everything your energy focus and performance fit nexus saw me pods three are ultra comfortable sleep air bugs that block distractions track your sleep and deliver personalized insights to help you rest and recover if better sleep is a priority for you visit fitnexa.com and use code eo fire 10 to save $10 on some new pods three today.

1:02If you are building a real business you need real infrastructure high level gives you website hosting funnels email marketing automation counterbooking payments and course hosting all on one platform plus award winning 24 seven supports get a 30 day free trial in my full bonus act that includes a 50 minute private call with me and much more at high level fire dot com high level fire dot com. Say what's up to fire nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with all right well first of all thank you for the opportunity I appreciate it. Yes so it's a hello to all and you know that's an such an interesting question and I've thought a lot about it and I think there are any number of of things about being successful it really dive into leadership but one of the things that really if a settled on was I think the notion that you always have to believe in yourself as a prerequisite for success

2:07I think it's I think there is a little bit of luck that goes into anybody being successful actually I think it's a lot I think but very much the the axiom of where opportunity and preparedness meet there's a there's a lot of luck in that and when one of those opportunities comes along but I think when I think you have to be in order to be successful you have to have some some really definite leadership qualities and I think the ability to always assess you know where you're at as an individual and as a leader and I don't think anybody can can be successful without the support of a team around them and I think in some respect so in some respects you don't you can't always just always believe in yourself and rely on that I think you you have to have confidence in your abilities but you always have to be able to

3:11do a have some self awareness some introspection because that's the only way you get better at being a leader at improving process or being able to innovate in and around anything that you do and so I think that the the fundamental notion you know here at time and time again is like you just have to believe in yourself you just have to believe in yourself I don't think that's always true I think you had there has to be a quality of humility in this where you're constantly trying to get better and be sharper and you can't do that without questioning yourself in a lot of respects so that's that's kind of my answer to that question well Farneesh we're talking about scaling a global people first business which of course is easier said than done so I want to talk about just that and how entrepreneurs successfully build and scale service-based businesses in today's market which you and I both know Bob is highly competitive it's all about differentiation even in a franchise business where you're essentially

4:14buying a process or especially on a service-based business you're buying a process you're buying you know a process plus support plus a brand and you know we tell our franchisees follow the system all the time well I think 80% and 90% of the time that's true I say I would say you follow the system you're going to be successful what I think really puts you over the top and makes you very successful in a service-based business especially when you've got competition is how you tweak that system to be different for you on behalf of your clients and the community that you serve and any given framework so I think that that differentiation is important it's what can really make you more attractive than your competitors in that market and it's I mean it can be any it can be a small thing it can be one large thing or a collective a collection of small things but make yourself different and and that helps you get I think that should be successful and can help you scale so let's talk about culture-driven leadership because I mean the leadership lessons that

5:22we learned in you specifically from growing a global organization this rooted in people performance and culture I mean that's deep that's meaningful that's powerful can you pass that learning those that knowledge along to fire nation how you develop your culture especially as you grow as you're scaling is incredibly important now I I will say I have the benefit of stepping into a position are both of our founders you know passed within the within the last year they created a culture around people teamwork integrity and built alas those are our core values people's first for a reason if we are in the people business and we must always consider people first whether it's the associates that we're employing you know the 427,000 we employ on a yearly basis the 11 million people we put to work and over 40 years of being in business we have to always consider people first and it's part of our it's part of our culture and that's what makes

6:24us different and we've been able to stay anchored in that in those in these core values and it's given us the ability to continue to evolve our business but it is you have to be incredibly disciplined to maintain that and it what it's what's made us different it's what's made us successful and it is it is kind of a I would say the the fundamentals of who we are and how we and how we choose franchisees we have a pretty good process that allows us to see those who are going to be have a commitment to our culture we treat we treat our franchisees like family because people come first and that translates into real practical decisions when they deal with their clients and the service level of how they deal with their clients but also makes us more attractive to our associates that we employ on a day-to-day basis because they know that they're

7:27going to be treated like a person not treated like a commodity and that we have their best interest and who we are putting which client we are putting them to work with that it's going to be an effective match and we have hundreds of thousands of success stories around this where we've been able to really make an impact in people's lives through employment and so I would say that when you're when you're establishing your culture you know I always will tell everybody that your people have to come first your process all the processes can change as you evolve and to be better but really it's about the team you build the culture you promote and it's all about the people that you bring on board and how you treat them. So let's move into work force shifts what do today's labor and deployment trends mean for founders and business owners who are trying to both grow and retain talent. We are looking at the most interesting moment

8:31in the world economy today especially in the developed and the overall largely developed nations sophisticated economies and that you're facing now facing labor shortages. We've been past the the birth rate replacement for a number of years we are already at a deficit of probably about a million and a half workers in the United States today and that problem is only going to be exacerbated over a period of time. So what that means for labor force shortages is the number of people that have the ability to go to work but also the quality of those individuals has begun to decline and so in order to be successful in order to grow your business you have to be as attractive as possible as an employer. Whether that's through your culture you're offering through your benefits all of those all the things come into play and you are really going to have to focus

9:33on how attractive you are to potential employees and so it will be all about the people barring being able to figure out some other economic solution around immigration automation or otherwise in the near term that I would say is what people are really going to have to focus on is what is your offering what makes you better than other employers in your market and in order to attract the best talent. We counsel our clients on this all the time. We're a workforce consultant more so than just a staffing provider and we can accurately assess any organization from top to bottom as to how they treat their employees and give them advice on here's what you can do to be more attractive in those in that individual market and so I think in the near term that's what we're going to without some some radical solutions politically I think that's the problem that we're going to

10:35face is that labor scarcity over time. Fire Nation we're going to talk about resilience indisruption we're going to talk about the franchise growth model and building high performance teams when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Okay Fire Nation let's talk about something every business owner should care about making your cash work harder. High yield savings accounts exist for a reason your emergency fund shouldn't just sit there losing purchasing power to inflation when it could be earning interest. The problem is most businesses don't have an easy way to earn their cash so huge amounts sit idle and checking accounts earning little to nothing. Waldo changes that it gives small business owners startups nonprofits and enterprises a way to put idle cash to work through a high yield treasury accounts with Waldo you can invest in pre-built portfolios of treasury bills investment grade bonds and more with yields up to 5% same day liquidity and extended SIPC insurance coverage up to 75 million there's no minimum deposit and you don't have to change banks opening of the count takes less than five minutes visit Waldo.ai or use the link in the show notes

11:39to start putting your cash to work like big companies do use code eo fire when you sign up to receive a 1% deposit match up to a thousand dollars see full terms and conditions at Waldo.ai one thing I've been dialing in for over a decade now is sleep not only in my bed every night by 9 p.m but I've really perfected my sleep environments and one thing this helped me do that is fitnexa fitnexa is a pair of comfortable sleep earbuds designed specifically for a great nights rest they're built to minimize pressure on your ears even if you're a size sleeper like me and their active noise cancellation helps block out the distractions that can keep you from falling or staying asleep what really takes fitnexa to the next level is everything built in you can listen to calming ocean waves rain sounds and more completely offline with no streaming apps or subscriptions required fitnexa also traction movement and sleep patterns overnight then gives you personalized recommendations to help improve not just how long you sleep but how well you sleep you can even set a private alarm that wakes you without disturbing your partner which my wife loves if better sleep is a priority

12:41for you fitnexa helps you create the environment and routine to make it happen visit fitnexa.com and use code eo fire 10 to save $10 on sobnipods 3 today fire nation if you are building a real business you need real infrastructure that is why high level is entrepreneur on fires featured partner high level gives you a website builder and hosting funnels and landing pages email marketing appointment scheduling payment processing course and membership hosting and so much more everything you need to succeed all under one roof no duct tape no juggling five platforms just one clean system for your business and their award winning 24 seven support has your back when you need it most when you sign up at high level fire dot com you also get my exclusive bonus stack a 30 day free trial a private 15 minute call with me jail D access to my weekly live office hours a digital copy of my book the common path to uncomm a success my 50 days to something execution roadmap and more visit high level fire dot com and start building your something today bob were back and I want

13:47to talk about resilience in disruption so how how can business owners stay resilient and adaptable through these economic cycles and these ongoing work for workforce disruptions that seem to be happening over and over again when you're you're talking about resilience I think there's a there's an interesting opportunity I think for anybody who's in a especially in a service based business is trying to diversify your portfolio as much as you can give yourself the best opportunity to be successful by the numbers and types of clients that you are able to service in your in your portfolio I think you diversify your business it it provides a better cushion because what we see out in the marketplace we you know we deal with a wide diversity of clients on the staffing side is that even in a down economy there are certain segments of the economy that are that can be successful and that we will see that our that will hire even in a down economy actually they'll do better in a

14:50down economy and so we try and diversify our interests as much as possible in order to cushion ourselves for those times when there are when are there are those disruptions it's the best thing about being a franchise business is is that for us and what we do from a entrepreneurship standpoint is we give our franchisees the tools to be successful we provide a lot of back back in support of for payroll and benefits and other things for our associates that takes the weight off of the franchise in and that's where this is key from a from a resilience standpoint and being adaptable is that so when those disruptions come it frees up the entrepreneur our franchise owner to go out and look for better opportunities inside their market or new opportunities somewhere maybe they haven't thought of of an opportunity to pursuing we had

15:51we've had franchisees that have provided in like a down economy substitute teachers because it was a good opportunity for a short time a short framework or a short time framework to help supplement their business during a time when when they were when we saw a lot of layoffs out in the community and we were able to absorb some of those layoffs and put them to work in the educational system for a time and so those opportunities exist even no matter what business are owning are and it's just simply a matter of being able to be as flexible and adaptable as possible and I think the only way you can do that is being able to diversify your business as much as possible. I want to move into the franchise growth model because I think a lot of people listening are like okay well what does that actually look like on the ground so Bob how to franchise systems create repeatable growth models that will allow the the local owners that people that are actually there in person in the brick and mortars to scale without losing operational consistency.

16:56This is an area we've learned a lot of lessons over time on this that has over our 40 years really honing the way our model works and it's been through a lot of trial and error and repetition. The more you can you can we've discovered that the more that you can create a as a franchise or can take on some of the back end responsibilities things that are repeatable every day and we're working we're even we're working with a lot of artificial intelligence initiatives now to take on even more of those responsibilities for the franchisees. The more you can do that and take off a franchisees plate and make that repeatable that to me is the fundamental component of your brand consistency. As I said before when it comes to our adaptation and what you want to what you want to promote in the individual market giving

17:59taking the that operational those operational consistency and taking those those activities off their plate gives them the ability to be as creative as they can in terms of driving new business and there's some rules to that there are some rules for us and that this it's a word sales driven culture so it's all about sales for us that means you got to be out talking to your clients you got to be out trying to solve their problems and talking to new clients on a pretty pretty much regular cadence so we try and take as much off of that supply as much process on behalf of our franchisees in order to guarantee the the brand consistency so that they can be out solving our franchisees problems and I think that's the for any for any business that you want to take the scale whether it's our franchisees or the individual entrepreneur I think that the same lesson exists you really need to if you can get your internal processes down into a almost a not a fully automated cadence but a cadence that is consistent and repeatable over time that makes that makes your life so much easier

19:06as the entrepreneur to go to go bring in new clients bring new business and provide more opportunity for you to succeed in front of a client because you have that flexibility you know and have the consistency that you know whoever's back in the office is taking care of take care of your deliverables and so that every promise you make to a to a client can be fulfilled and I think that that's all to me that's all about your brain consistency. Okay let's end with a bang and that's all about building high performance teams because Bob in a tight labor markets what strategies are actually working right now to identify to develop and to retain who high performing teams. I'll go back to what we talked about before in terms of your culture your culture is what it will attract high performing individuals. I think there's some there's some very simple rules around this I think you have to do you have to have transparency in communication throughout the organization the other organization needs to be clear on the

20:12mission the vision of what you're what you're trying to accomplish for us it's putting a million people to work that is what we promote inside and outside the company that's our primary goal a million people to work annually and we're you know as I stated before we put 427,000 people to work last year so we're not there yet but that is our primary goal but you have to have that committed consistency to transparency and communication of your your goal inside the the organization and what your aspirations are after that I think it follows you have to you have to do what you say you're going to do your actions must meet your words and they and that is at a very granular level of everything you do every day I think those organizations that where you can see you can see what they're trying to account that they're following through with what they say their goals are that in the in the beginning attracts the individuals and then you know the the rest of

21:18its blocking blocking and tackling making sure you're competitive in the labor market you're delivering you know an attractive package to your different employees but more than anything what I find as your reputation will proceed or precedes itself and so and when whether it's the owner or whether it's a leadership team when they know I think in the marketplace what you stand for and that you follow through on those things it makes you very very attractive as an employer there are so many we've interviewed probably five different leaders over the last six to eight months and I've asked every one of them the question what before we hire you what attracted you to us in the first place and their consistent answer back has been you have an outstanding reputation in the stabbing industry everybody talks about how how express lives its values and the culture here everybody I've

22:21talked to that that that has worked for you has has been super complimentary about how you treat the business and how you treat people and and that's the reason we want to we want to come to work here so I think that is probably key and foremost in this and then I think from our standpoint how we encourage that internally and we retain those individuals is not only living by living by living by those words but the way I see this from a leadership standpoint is it's not the lit the and I quote Jamie Diamond in this it's not the leaders responsibility to make this make the decision it's leaders it's a leader's responsibility to make sure the right decision gets made and you can only really the way I see doing that you can only really do that by having the right people around their in the room around the table to make the decisions and so we have a really disciplined collaborative leadership model that we we abide by and that takes constant

23:22communication on a on a pretty much a daily basis within our leadership teams and we have we are modeling that internally and and over time that is that has trickled down through the organization and provided a leadership framework and a teamwork framework that gives us I think a competitive edge because the entire organization is clear about its mission clear about its objectives clear about all the the decisions that are being made and why they're being made and are really moving all in the same direction you don't have the traditional silos under this under this type of collaborative model and it is really provided a massive benefit internally for us and and has led to a lot of retention where people have said some of the some leaders that have come back and said you know I I bought into what express was because of what I heard about express but it really is true on so many levels and even more so than I then I realized when when you onboarded me and really

24:28how special a place expresses to work so I think for any other entrepreneur I think you build that from the from the into your culture from the ground up it you just by you know an interesting pull or kind of that you become a magnet for good people because they want that's where they want to be they want to be where they they feel like they're valued that they're contributing and that they're grown as leaders and as individuals inside the company and that's what we're trying to provide I mean that's what I call a mini masterclass on building high performance teams so Bob if fire nation they're just in love with this content and they want to learn more they want to connect with you what is your directive for our listeners today reach out to any one of our franchisees we have nine over 900 locations I mean if you want to connect with express and get to know who we are and get to know me as the organization you can reach out to us and express any at any

25:31level express pros.com or in any local markets we have we have franchises all over the United States so if there's a there's an opportunity you're looking for express and for an opportunity from the staffing standpoint we're always here to help and we want to help grow your business. Fire Nation you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with you've been hanging out with bf and jld today so keep up the heat and till next everything we talked about visit eofire.com type bob bob in the search bar and the show this page will pop right up Bob thank you for sharing your truth your knowledge your value for fire nation today for that we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey fire nation a huge thank you to our sponsors and Bob for sponsoring today's episode and fire nation are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world if yes we're now accepting applications for eofire so to learn more about becoming a guest visit eofire.com slash guest and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Sleep impacts everything your energy focus and performance fit nexus saw me pods

26:36three are ultra comfortable sleep air bugs that block distractions track your sleep and deliver personalized insights to help you rest and recover if better sleep is a priority for you visit fitnexus.com and use code eofire 10 to save $10 on somnipods 3 today if you are building a real business you need real infrastructure high level gives you website hosting funnels email marketing automation counterbooking payments and course hosting all on one platform plus award winning 24 seven supports get a 30 day free trial in my full bonus act that includes a 50 minute private call with me and much more at high level fire dot com high level fire dot com