Franchise strategy from inside the market.
Modrn Business is a franchise-industry conversation show built around franchise business leaders, suppliers, and brand operators. It favors current-market judgment over generic inspiration, moving from conference chatter to real estate, private equity, franchisee support, and emerging-brand growth.
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Modrn Business is a conversational franchise-industry show with its head in the market and its feet on the trade-show floor. It is not a broad business podcast with franchising as an occasional topic. Franchising is the whole operating system here. Recent episodes move through Springboard previews, Q1 2025 market signals, enterprise value, IFA Convention takeaways, real estate technology, children’s music education, and early-stage brand development. The show likes people who can speak from inside the work. Adam Contos brings perspective on QSR, real estate, and franchise expansion. Eve Wiseman and Alicia Miller from FranData help turn subjective market noise into a more data-aware conversation. Ali McElroy talks through operations, replicability, financing, and the timing risks of franchising too early. Ryan Hicks and Zack Fishman also use headline episodes to compare notes on what they are seeing in meetings, newsletters, LinkedIn chatter, and conference hallways. That informal texture matters. The questions can be long, but they usually have a point: what does this mean for operators, franchisors, franchisees, and suppliers right now? The show often returns to a few practical tensions. Growth is good, but growing slowly can also be smart. Technology can make field support more nimble, but some business models still need face-to-face work. Private equity is active, but not every part of the ecosystem is equally asset-light. Emerging brands need excitement, but they also need replicability, capital discipline, and enough operating proof to survive expansion. Supplier Wire episodes widen the lens with guests like Jonathan Hill from Morrow Hill and Dean Hatsy-Theodosio from Franchise Supplier Network, especially around real estate and technology. The tone stays casual and insider-facing. It assumes the audience knows terms like QSR, FBC, item 19, territory awards, and unit economics, then keeps talking like people comparing notes after a panel. For franchise entrepreneurs and industry operators, that is the appeal. Modrn Business makes franchising feel specific, current, and usefully debatable.
Made for: For franchise entrepreneurs, operators, suppliers, consultants, and investors who want current category context from people close to the work. It is especially useful for listeners tracking emerging brands, franchise growth strategy, and conference-floor market sentiment.
What sets it apart: The show blends interview access with informal industry readouts, so strategy talk stays tied to real estate, field support, private equity, suppliers, and actual operator decisions. Its best episodes feel less like polished thought leadership and more like franchising professionals testing the market in public.
Co-hosted by the dynamic duo Ryan Hicks & Zack Fishman, Modrn Business is an award-winning, interview-style podcast that spotlights franchising's brightest executives. Follow along each week as we uncover franchising's top technology trends, the hottest franchise industries to invest in, ways to improve your own franchise business and how to potentially become a franchisee.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Modrn Business adds no music coverage; its value lies in making franchise operations, market conditions, and growth decisions legible through practitioner conversation.
Modrn Business turns franchise management into an ongoing conversation between Ryan Hicks, Zack Fishman, and guests with direct experience of the decisions under discussion.
Like joining a franchise-conference table where item 19 and unit economics beat the cocktail chatter.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded franchise conversation where real estate, brand loyalty, and a pre-flight sandwich all shape the growth case.
Adam Contos and the host find a clean way into franchising by treating real estate as a read on operator confidence. The conversation links his QSR perspective, Port of Subs' push into less familiar markets, and the broader question of how a brand earns room for national and…
A practical look at field support, technology, and the trust franchisors risk losing on screen.
Modern Business considers how much further franchisors can push an asset-light model as field support becomes more technology-led. With Eve Wiseman and Alicia Miller from FranData, the episode keeps its focus on a practical friction point: some support can move online, but trust…
A grounded reminder that one strong unit is not the same as a franchise-ready business.
The episode frames franchising as something a business should earn, not simply announce. Allie McElroy ties a second profitable unit to a wider test of repeatability across markets, teams, and day-to-day management.
A grounded franchise-growth discussion about patience, timing, and the pressure to scale.
Franchise news can sound like a race for the next big announcement, but this episode is more interested in the pause before it. Ryan Hicks and Zachary Fishman talk through the quarter with the easy rhythm of business partners comparing notes, weighing the demand for rapid…
A conversational franchise roundup where IFA encounters lead to practical lessons about disclosure, operators, and unit-level economics.
Modern Business uses its February 2025 franchise chatter as a practical, lightly structured look at how people in the industry gather signal through the IFA convention, LinkedIn, and in-person advice.
A practical franchise staffing discussion that connects visa mechanics to the realities of building home-care labor.
Modern Business turns a franchise staffing problem into an immigration discussion, with Ryan Hicks, Zach Fishman, and Patrick Fandaro looking at ways understaffed operators can bring workers into the country.
A practical look at music lessons as a franchise owner's later act.
Children's music education is viewed through the franchise market, with Bach to Rock presented as an enrichment brand that can appeal to people drawn to music, children, or both.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
SaaS operators on scaling, pricing and AI, metrics included.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Zach Fishman interviews Brian Gross, President and CEO of Bach to Rock, a children's music education franchise.
Hosts Ryan Hicks and Zach Fishman interview Patrick Findaro, CEO of Vetted Biz and Visa Franchise, on franchising trends.
An interview with a real estate technology expert discussing how their services can help franchise businesses.
This episode discusses franchising resources and introduces a guest expert in the franchise industry.
Hosts discuss franchising trends, focusing on food and beverage brands entering new markets and educating American palates.
Hosts Ryan Hicks and Zach Fishman introduce a discussion on franchising trends with a guest who helps brands franchise for the first time.
Adam Contos traces his path from the Marines and undercover narcotics work to CEO of RE/MAX, then to partner at Area 15 Ventures and franchise investing.
["On Modern Business, Zach Fishman and Ryan Hicks talk with FranData president Edith Wiseman and managing director Alicia Miller about Q1 2025 franchise trends and the firm's new partnership.", "Wiseman says some otherwise healthy brands are showing 10% to 12% transfer rates, which she links to buyers thinking in five- to ten-year horizons instead of 30-year ownership.", "Miller says that shorter timeline forces franchisors to improve cash-on-cash return, speed to profitability, resale support, and field support before capital partners will back them.", "The conversation ends on FranData's credit-risk work, including the claim that about 60% of SBA franchise loans go through lenders using its fund credit score and that weak scores can increase borrowing costs."]
Ryan Hicks opens by saying this may be his last recording before he gets married, then frames the talk around enterprise value, a still-restrained 2025 deal market, and Franchise Young Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Ryan Hicks and Zach Fishman use the April 2025 Modern Business "Franchise Trends and Headlines" episode to move through conference takeaways, franchise M&A, PR, and technology.
["Zach Fishman says franchise bankers are juggling more than 100 active mandates and that private equity is back in the hallways at the IFA convention in Las Vegas.", "Ryan Hicks, Jamie Adams, and Ryan Comby spend much of the episode on build-versus-buy decisions, arguing that most franchisors should not build core software unless they can keep funding it forever.", "Hicks says health insurance is the biggest barrier to entrepreneurship and suggests the IFA should help members access coverage the way the National Board of Realtors does.", "The roundtable also covers packed Google AI sessions, a 2025 outlook that projects 851,000 franchise establishments and more than $900 billion in output, and policy uncertainty around trade wars."]