[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everybody and welcome to All Things Considered Franchising podcast. I am your host, Scott Scotty Milos and I've been around the franchising space. Well, seems like a lifetime. So welcome to the show.
Just a little FYI. I help people explore franchise ownership, see if it's the right path for them, and more importantly, provide an educational journey to see how a brand that fit can fit your goals and lifestyle. I also educate my clients on how to validate and make a logical business decision as well as an informed decision.
On this show, you'll hear directly from franchise owners as well as franchisors, leading exciting brands and people within and in the industry of franchising. You can always connect with
[email protected] that is my email address.
Visit the websites at the perfect franchise.com or Scott Milo's franchisecoach.com. you can also text and call me at 413-935-5111. Now let's get into today exciting episode. Hey, hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of All Things Considered Franchising. I am your host, Scott Scotty Milos. I am the founder of All Things Considered Franchising. We are now in our third season, well over 300 episodes. I am also the founder of Scott Milos franchisecoach.com which is a consulting coaching organization helping people research and explore business ownership.
And of course I am affiliated and empowered by the Perfect Franchise, which is the backbone to the educational process that I use to help people research and explore business ownership, primarily in the franchising space.
Today we have, well, two exciting women with us today. And what, what better can I say than a 67 year old guy that likes to hang out with a couple of great women. So our first guest, today's guest is from the Stars program we have the founder Sophia Wassler and VP of development Adamson with us today. Say hi ladies. Welcome to the show.
The Stars program is a children's enrichment program.
When we talk about opportunities in franchising, we talk about the types of businesses that people come into. And when I'm working with my clients, there are a lot of things that we try to fit in. Recession resistant, Amazon proof, AI resistant and how can AI help Now reoccurring revenue models and needs versus wants. And I am going to be the first to tell you that the Stars program and franchises and opportunities in the children's space usually fit all of those bullet points.
And that's the unique thing about the Stars program that it does. And it's a growing brand up to 20 locations.
So, ladies, welcome, and we're excited to talk to you about the STARS program.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Thank you, Scotty.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: So let's talk. It's great to be here. Let's talk. Let's talk with Allie first, because, Ali, you had a franchise development.
You're working with the potential people that are interested in the brand, walking them through the process, getting to know them, they're getting to know you. But you have an interesting background.
Biology was not my one of my favorite subjects. Matter of fact, I looked for an out when it came time to dissecting the frog. So I just want to be perfectly honest with you. It just was not my cup of tea. But you got into health and wellness Pilates.
You recently relocated to the States, originally, I think from Australia. But maybe explain how you and Sophie, Sophia got together, how you kind of got into the children's aspect of franchising. Just kind of give us a little brief history here.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Sure. Thanks for the opportunity to talk. I love this story for many reasons, but I like to say to people that Starz combines my three passions, health and wellness, children and entrepreneurship. And so this was an easy yes for me whenever Sophia and I connected. Originally, as you mentioned earlier, my family and I relocated back to the US after living overseas for 16 years.
And whilst I was in Australia, after pivoting from hospital administration, I started my own consulting business. And as part of that consulting business and helping in the health space, I also was able to help, as you mentioned, with a startup Pilates company.
And so I felt like the value that I was able to give to STARS really not only resonated with my why, but my background as well. And so STARS is an easy talk for me whenever I meet with candidates all over the US and even internationally.
I am a mother myself of three, and my three children are the ages of students that we can teach our stars classes with. And I also was a former Division 1 athlete, and so this is really a passion play for me and I love what I do.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: So, Sophia, your background is education.
If my research probes me. Right. And you took a passion for education and now have built a children's enrichment program business model.
And what's interesting is you've combined not one like sports, but you can find a number of different things. Sports, dance, and many other different things.
Tell us a little bit about the approach in education and what the backbone of STARS program is in the enrichment side of children.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I was a teacher for Virginia Beach City public schools for many years. I think it was almost 10. My mom was a teacher, my aunt was a teacher, lots of teachers, educators in my family.
And you know, it was during that time that I was really just starting to pick up on the need for. I was a middle school health and PE teacher and I was starting to see that students that were engaged in athletics had more confidence, they were doing better academically.
And it just got me to think about elementary school PE programs and how there's just so many like running games and there's not a lot of skill building. You don't have a lot of one on one time with these large groups of kids. So I realized we needed to have programs at the early childhood level at a younger preschools starting as young as two children can learn. And so STARS was born. It combines like Ally, it kind of combined all of my passions. I was a ballerina from the time I could walk all through college.
And so it kind of combined the sports and the dance for me and then continued to evolve as we saw needs changing in the community, cheer programs, other, other things. But to get to answer your question, caring is at the heart of everything we do at stars. It's the backbone of who we are as a company.
And we talk about spreading shine all the time. And that's really, that's really the heart of stars. Spreading shine and caring, caring for children.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: So when a parent walks into or is interested in signing their child up or children up in the STARS program, what are some of the things that, or expectations they should have as far as the, the enrichment, the programs that you're offering that are going to make the children potentially better adults, better teenagers? I mean, what are, I mean there are plenty of, you know, mom and pop dance studios. I mean, look, I'm a father, I had two daughters, grew up in dance. I have a granddaughter right now that's, you know, 10 years old dancing with 13 year olds. I mean it's just whatever, but it's not an enrichment program. So what is a parent?
What, what should a parent's expectation be about the difference between going to say A and I don't mean a mom and pop in a negative way, but a dance studio or a baseball camp versus a STARS enrichment program?
[00:08:38] Speaker B: We are educators through and through. So a parent can 100% expect that when their child is in STARS class, every single class, they're going to have more knowledge, skills and understanding than they had before they walked in that door. And that's every single class. And not only are we focused on specific skills, terminology, but we're focused on Whole child development and so really helping the child develop skills, but also process big emotions, learn how to, you know, interact well with their peers.
So it's, it's more than just building confidence. It takes. It takes all of those things to help enrich a child and empower a child and help them to develop into the best, best versions of themselves.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: That's interesting. That's interesting. Ali, any thoughts on that or.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I was just going to add one other thing to it too. Stars.
STARS is not trying to replace these mom and pop businesses. There is opportunity for both. What STARS is trying to do is really bridge that gap and create efficient and convenient opportunities for children where they already are. So our model works whereby we send teachers into these schools, preschools, daycares, Montessori school schools, community centers, church preschools, private schools, you know, anywhere where kids are. We send our teachers on site where they are to help bridge that gap and meet that need for the busy parent so the. The children can have these enrichment opportunities on site that are affordable and accessible for all. That's another big part of the why of stars.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Interesting. So, Sophia, just a. A question for you. And I've always found this question to be kind of very intri. Intriguing in the different people that I've interviewed over the years.
Teacher becoming a business person. Business person. Now leaving teaching, doing a little bit more of what your passion is and building it.
I always like to say that we don't go through education and with the outcome of being a business owner, much less building a franchise.
So how did this all develop?
I mean, I'm sure the audience can picture, you know, hey, teaching to the start of the program, the STARS program.
But to take it to the next level, franchising, build this out. Can you kind of walk us through your mindset, thought process?
And there had to be some scary times. I mean, candidates go through scary times when they invest in a business. So, you know, share some information about that with our audience.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you, Scotty. That's a really good question.
Yeah, teaching was easy for me. I loved being in the classroom. That was so simple.
It was seeing the kids light up just really drove me to want to do more. But it's really simple. I love books and getting from A to Z from being the person doing the work to building a business took a lot of books and I did a lot of reading and on entrepreneurship and one of the great books that I read, I think it was like seven Habits of no, it wasn't. I can't remember right now, but One of them said, if you're going to do something, make it replicable. And that really stuck out to me. And I thought, well, if I'm doing curriculums and I'm doing this planning, why not put things in place so that it could be replicable? And you know, years and years later we did that. And we are just one foot in front of the other, learning as we go, growing together with great people, working with Allie and my corporate team.
We have people on our corporate team that have been with us for over a decade.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: I mean, so it's really, it's not just me, it's these wonderful people that keep coming together to build and grow and evolve. And of course the amazing franchise owners we keep bringing into our system, we learn from them too. And so we keep growing together. And that's what's just been such an exciting journey for me.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Well, that's interesting. Great story.
We are talking to Sophia Wassler, who's the founder of the STARS program and Ali Adamson, who is the vice president of development for the STARS program. But so that's a great segue into the business model.
We get it. You know, we, we've established children enrichment different ways, sports, dance, the mission of the what you're trying to accomplish, what parents expectation. But now we have the business person, someone who is interested in education, enrichment programs.
And what type of business owner franchisee are you looking for to bring into the system?
I am a firm believer that franchising is all about relationships.
It's building that relationship with that potential business owner who wants to invest in a stars, getting to know them. I always joke with my clients that the relationship between a franchisor, the brand and the prospect or franchisee, it's almost like a marriage. It's a relationship. You're not going to agree all the time, but you got to be able to work it out, you know. So I always tell my clients, hey, look, focus in on the culture of the business and make sure you're comfortable with it. And then everything else matters because if the culture doesn't fit, it doesn't matter what the analytics or the data says because it's just never going to work.
So when we talk about that five star franchisee that you're looking for, maybe Ali, you want to start us out? What are we looking for?
Who are we trying to bring on board?
[00:14:57] Speaker C: Sure, yeah, I'm sure Sophia and I can give you a lot of examples. But what's coming to mind if I were to bullet point who we are looking for just as a starting place is a people person. So our owners do not necessarily have to have backgrounds in education or be, you know, athletically trained. We want people that are. Is a people person, they're community minded, they're connected within their communities, they are driven to build a business and they align with our mission and our why they want to make a difference in their communities.
Another big piece of the puzzle with STARS is that your success is dependent upon the relationships that you have. Going back to talking about relationships, relationships that you have with all of these industry opportunities in your community. Schools, preschools, daycares, community centers. And so our owners have to be motivated to not only build those relationships, but lean into the network that they already have and in and around where they live.
Now, we do provide training for all of our owners and that's something that we've put a lot of time and effort into and that we're very proud of. And so if someone comes to us and says, I don't mind, I don't mind the sales aspect of Stars, but I feel like I may need a little bit of help with marketing. We certainly bridge that gap as a corporate team to meet those upskilling requirements that are. That our potential owners may have. But it's more about the person, the personality, the drive, versus actually having the.
An education and a fitness background. Because remember, the business owners are hiring teachers to go into these locations and the classes, not, not necessarily them. What else would you add, Sophia?
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I love what, I love what you said, Allie, but I really love too, Scotty, what you were saying.
I think the culture is really important and aligning with the, the culture in stars and that's our principles. Caring, passionate, dependable. The why, why we're doing what we're doing.
Enriching children's lives, spreading shine. And the rest is, the rest is, you know, like it's pretty simple because the potential, the entrepreneurs that are looking to get into franchising or stars, they don't, like Ali said, they don't have to have a fitness background and they're not really selling anything to the schools.
They're simply making partnerships. It goes all, it boils all down to that relationship building and those candidates just wanting to be involved in making connections and relationships within their communities.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: What kind of backgrounds are we seeing from people that are interested to people who are actually franchise owners? I mean, you know, immediately comes to mind teachers or retired teachers or people who, much like you, Sophia, had a passion for education. Now they're looking to be their own Business owner and looking at franchising and enrichment programs like a STARS program. So what are some of the backgrounds that we're seeing? That of people that are kind of knocking on the door conversations. And of course, the existing franchise base, franchisee base.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: I can speak to the existing owners. They really have a wide variety of backgrounds. Corporate America, high level corporate executives that eventually want to exit their corporate positions.
We have some people from the tech industry, education, technology stay at home moms that are reentering the workforce.
Education backgrounds, like you mentioned.
But more recently, I feel like we're seeing a lot of couple preneurs. Have you heard that term?
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Yep, yes. That's. It's interesting you put yes. Yep.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Yeah, they just husbands and wives that want to work together. And maybe the husband's kind of like the finance savvy person and then the wife is, you know, wants to be the operator, going out into the community, has a network with the PTA and that sort of thing.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Okay, so Ali, let me ask you this question.
The big buzzword today in franchising, and I use that word loosely because I think a lot of there's a lot of misunderstanding to it, is semi absentee, not passive semi absentee.
You know, I always kind of joke with my clients, you know, you're not going to go into, if you ask somebody to marry them and you're going to marry somebody, you're not going to go into a marriage semi absentee. And in some regards, you don't want to go into a business semi absentee.
But people are always asking, can I do this? Semi absentee. I think, Sophie, you just mentioned a potential franchisee that you have in the system. A franchisee that you have in the system that you know was in corporate. So is this something that somebody can start out on a semi absentee or are you looking for somebody really? Hey, look, you got to leave that corporate position and devote full time to this.
[00:20:24] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that's a really good question. I was wondering where you were going to go with that. Which buzzword is he actually going to choose here?
There's a lot of buzzwords.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: There are, there are semi absentee. Yes. I would say we have 50 of our owners, I would say are owner, operator, 50% semi absentee. But the really great thing about Stars, which kind of changes this whole conversation, is that even our owner operators work part time from home.
So a STARS owner commitment, typical weekly commitment may be five to 20 hours. And that's if you're doing everything yourself and not hiring A manager to do some of those recurring administrative tasks. Now I will say which, which is huge. And that really changes the conversation for me when I have initial conversations with prospective owners that say I want to keep my full time job, but I really like the idea of what you guys are doing. Can I do both? And the answer is yes. If people want to retain their full time corporate positions, they absolutely can be stars owners.
However, the big key piece here is if you're staying a full time employee of another corporation, you must have flexibility in your day to be responsive to your teachers, to schools, to jump on emails as required. You know, you can't schedule a meeting with a school principal at 5pm, 6pm because the school is closed.
But for our owners, and we have many successful owners that still work a full time job, this is doable within that part time workload.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Are you seeing most of those, are you seeing those, most of those people who are employed in a corporate position full time, working remotely versus going to an office? Because that's where the flexibility comes, you know, to be able to run out for a half hour, have a meeting, get back to the office.
You know, I'm going to be a little devilish here and say before somebody finds out that you actually left your remote office, I'm not trying to get anybody in trouble, but I'm just saying that. Is that usually the case, people are working remotely?
[00:22:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I would, I mean, there's no, I mean it can obviously be doable if you do have a physical that you have to travel to, but obviously the more flexibility you have either to set your own schedule or duck out for a meeting or you know, even working from home or I believe the more successful you'll be as a stars owner. Yeah.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Sophia, you're the brains behind all this. This is something that you've kind of, you've built from scratch. I mean, from passions to fits the things that you like to do.
Let's flash forward a little bit. What's. What could some, what should a potential business owner look for as the organization grows? What are, you know, what are some of the things we're looking to accomplish in the next five years, three years, you know, what's going to be new?
I mean, we talked about or mentioned AI.
AI is bringing a lot of new ideas to people, helping them create them. But how are you visioning stars, you know, five years from now?
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow, that's a great question.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: It's hard. It's hard. I know, but it's, you know, it's, it's always a question that people, at least prospects ask people who are interested.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: Really such a game changer, isn't it? I mean, it is just helping streamline processes and training and just everything.
It's incredible.
You know, I would say just my initial reaction. I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for, but when you said where, where are we going to be in five years? I really see Stars being nationwide.
We are, I think we're in eight or nine states now.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Wow, great.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Yeah. By the end of this month, we'll probably be in 10.
And I. It's kind of like getting in when the housing market, when it's low, before the bubble. I feel like we're just this emerging brand right now. And I think in the next five years we're going to be a much bigger brand. And I'm so excited because like I said, with everybody, each new owner, we just continue to get stronger and learn more and evolve together. And so who knows, with the growth of the, with new owners coming in and AI, who knows what's going to happen in five years.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: It's interesting you mentioned that, you know, a lot of potential franchisees, people who are, you know, hesitant about franchising in general. One of the main reasons they're hesitant is that they don't feel that they have a say or can control how they want to run their business.
So when you look at your franchisee base and as you grow, how important is it whether you, you know, you're talking to a franchisee that makes a suggestion or somebody calls you up and says, hey, we really should be doing this, or I want to try that. How important as the franchisor is that between that relationship between you and your franchisees for suggestions, growing and implementing new ideas, it's huge.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: I mean, we, we are, we are a collaborative community. And that's every leadership meeting. Every month, we come together with our franchise partners, we have a partnership meeting and we listen, we learn from one another.
It's very important to me. And as a matter of fact, one of our owners that.
That came on, she. She purchased an area and then she went on to purchase three. Three other areas after that. But she said that was the diff. That was the deciding factor for her, Scotty, between the Stars program and another franchise that she was looking at, she said, sophia, they gave me years and years of data, but at the end of the day, I knew I was not going to have a voice there.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: And she said, and I knew that with Stars, I was going to have A voice. And that's important to people?
[00:26:46] Speaker A: I mean, yes, it's very important. Yes.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. It's interesting because when I talk to my clients, we sometimes talk about, are you interested in embryonic brands? But I also know that when I start to talk to people initially and they're immediately going into analytics and data, embryonic brands are really not going to be something for them. I always joke with people that being part of a brand like Stars, you're going to have access to the corporate office, but be able to go through the back door and everybody's going to know your name. You know, if you're a franchisee in Subway or McDonald's or some of the other larger brands, it's not that they're not going to support you, but you're not going in through the back door. And the chances of somebody knowing who you really are when you walk in is probably slim to none. So there are advantages. And I just spoke on this to a group about being with an embryonic brand and growing.
But it's the validation part that people have to kind of get comfortable with, that you're not going to have as much if somebody has a thousand units or a thousand franchisees or a hundred or whatever it is.
As we get ready to close this out, is there anything else about the business model you'd like to share with the audience?
[00:28:10] Speaker C: I.
The only thing that's coming to mind right now, and you've just put me on the spot, is that I was listening just before this podcast recording, I was actually involved in a webinar, and the webinar was talking about franchise sales in 2026, and they were pointing out and showing us some data that brand alignment tends to be more important to potential owners in today's day and age than it did 20 years ago. And so I think that as Stars, being an emerging brand, but being so mission and community oriented, we can use, really use that alignment piece to our advantage when more people are thinking emotionally and wanting to invest into something that they know is going to make a difference in our community. Stars is that where, you know you will have a direct impact on children, families, and your community as a whole. So I loved hearing that, that data point and thinking about how that really does apply to Stars. And so that's. That's probably what's coming to mind for me just as we close.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah, no, Al, that's a great point. And a lot of that is based on today's AI technology, because there's so much information that somebody can Find out now before they pick up the phone and say, hey, Ali, I'm interested in learning more. Or Sophia, I'm interested in learning more about the opportunity. Because now they probably have a general idea based on what they've learned through AI, what the brand is about. But now it's a cultural fit. I always joke with my clients that when you go to a Discovery Day, you're there because you're saying yes, and the only reason you're saying no if you leave is you found out they're part of a cult that you didn't want to belong to because there's so much information. You can find out today. It's the culture, it's getting along with the people, understanding. And, Sophia, that's why I asked you about the future. You know, what's the future going to be like? Because people want to know about that. It's, you know. But, Sophia, anything last?
You know?
[00:30:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I would just go back. Circle back to what you started out with. Scotty, you said, like, in today's market, potential buyers are looking for the following things. And you talked about recession, resilience. You talked about recurring revenue. I would circle back to those. Those items that you. You. You mentioned. Because Stars does check all of those boxes.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Yep. And especially in today's busy life for parents, young parents.
I'm at the grandfather stage. Grandmother. You know, my wife and I, we have 11 grandkids. So it's between busy schedules and working, and it's. It's. Parents need help. I mean, they need to know that their kids are being taken care of, being educated, being taught right from wrong. So.
Well, this has been great, ladies.
We've been talking to Allie Adamson and Sophia Wassler of the Stars program.
I would encourage anybody who is interested in learning more about the STARS program. You can look them both up in on LinkedIn. You can go to the STARS program website. Ali, if you want to mention the website domain that people can go to to find out more information.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Either starsprogram.com or starsfranchise.com great, great.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Stars. Stars with a Z.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: S, T. A Z. Yep, the Stars.
That's interesting. Thank you.
But I want to thank the audience for joining us today.
I am your host, Scott. Scotty Milas. I am the founder of All Things Considered Franchising. You can listen to this recording and all of the recordings on all of most of the popular podcast channels. We have over 300 episodes. We're just finishing up our third year.
If anybody's interested in learning more about business ownership through franchising. You can reach me at 413-935-5111. You can go to scottmylasfranchisecoach.com or the perfect franchise.com. ladies, if it's great. I'd love to invite you guys a year from now just to see where you're at.
This has been a great conversation, great brand, and I look forward to showing it to my clients as we continue to move forward with you.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Thank you for having us, Scotty. We had a great time. Thank you.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: Thank you. And this is Scotty saying, so long ago. Till next time.
