The Growth Coach Franchise Information

The Growth Coach was founded in Cincinnati in 2003 and is the only pure business and sales coaching franchise aimed at driving success while balancing the lives of small business owners, managers, sales people, self-employed professionals and executives through group workshops and individual coaching. Under the Strategic Franchising Systems umbrella, The Growth Coach is seeking passionate entrepreneurs in markets across the country to join its network of franchise owners.

In this executive Q&A, Brad Schneider, president of The Growth Coach and owner of The Growth Coach of Central Ohio North, sat down with 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills to talk about his simultaneous path into franchising, operating and leading, and why behavior change, not information, is what drives results.

A transcript of Scnheider’s interview with Powills has been provided below. It has been edited for brevity, clarity and style.

Nick Powills: Right, Brad — first your story, then we’ll get into The Growth Coach. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What’s your franchise backstory?

Brad Schneider: My franchise backstory is as an owner. I was about to hit my 40th birthday — a little over 10 years ago — and I knew I was done with corporate. I wanted a business related to the work I’d done in HR and development. I went to some of my peers and mentors who had gone out on their own and then gone back inside the corporate labyrinth. I asked, “Why? You’re really talented; you know what you’re doing.” Both independently said it’s a slog — trying to build the product, sell the product and then deliver the product. They both said, “If I were ever going to do anything again, I would try to find somebody who could help me with at least two of those things.”

That got me looking around. I hadn’t thought about franchising, but I ran into The Growth Coach and realized it could help with all three — specifically with having content and processes I could plug in, and help with sales and marketing, which, as a first-time owner, would have been new to me.

In 2015, I opened The Growth Coach of Central Ohio North, and I still own that business. A little over a year ago, they asked if I’d be interested in being president of the brand. I started at the beginning of 2025. I still own the Columbus business — it’s thriving — and now I support our coaches across the globe. It’s been an exciting and unexpected path, but very fulfilling.

Powills: Love it. Your perspective has changed because you’re in business coaching. The version of you today would coach differently than at 40, thinking about a life change.

You fall into Growth Coach. Did you have any knee-jerk reactions — you get to the ledge and think, “I’m going to jump… but maybe I shouldn’t”? How did you battle that without an executive-coaching backdrop?

Schneider: I’d dabbled in coaching. It was more about running the business. I’m the opposite of a lot of our owners — many come with business acumen and want a lifestyle gig they can grow at their own pace while giving back.

Out of training, I was excited: “Here’s the rest of the equation.” The things I didn’t know were documented and laid out. There’s a marketing strategy to drive brand awareness, strategies to convert to sales, and more. For me, that was the easier part.

What we talk about within the brand is: you don’t have to be an expert in any one area. We’ll make you an expert in our process, which lets you work with any type of business.

Powills: When you decided to buy Growth Coach, did you look at other businesses or stay specific to this one?

Schneider: I looked a little at other coaching franchises. But for me, it was: do I do this on my own, or go with a group that can support me? That’s where I landed.

Powills: Look at the infrastructure behind you. I think “royalty” is the wrong term. It feels like a stick hitting you in the back — “I’ve got to make another royalty payment.” But you’re paying a fraction — a very small fraction — of what it would cost to have infrastructure: a website, logo, business coach, training, support, vision from the top. You could list a hundred things. To me, it’s more like a shared-resource fee that builds infrastructure and shows the value of not doing it alone. Thoughts?

Schneider: What comes to mind — and it’s true for me and anyone I’ve coached — is there are only so many hours in the day. We can’t create more time. For me, that royalty is an investment to save time.

I enjoy being with clients — talking to people, figuring out their needs and how we fit. I’m not excited about banging out PowerPoints or programming a CRM to launch drip emails. So I think you’re 100 percent on. It’s about what you want to do. Within The Growth Coach, if you want to connect with people and be impactful in your community, the investment lets you do that safely the first time by using our system. You can put your energy into connections versus figuring out a tool you’ve never used.

Powills: Sometimes it’s hard to take your own advice; you need someone else. You jump into this with an HR backdrop; now you’re a business owner. Did you have scary moments where you knew what to do — stay the course, build systems and customers — but it was hard to listen to your own advice early on?

Schneider: Absolutely — even today, 10-plus years in. When I’m facilitating a group session, I’m almost coaching myself. We’ll be talking about listening more in the sales process. I know my weaknesses — I’m a bit of a gabber. You’re facilitating, watching people make discoveries, and inside you’re thinking, “Why aren’t you doing that more?” I’ll jot a note: “Refocus.”

A common theme with business owners and leaders is they think they’re the only ones messing up — the only ones who got by the skin of their teeth. Our programs help people get past that and see they’re not alone. You’re an expert, and there are times you’re not following your own advice, right?

It’s powerful to bring people together for that self-discovery. I tell them: I’m good at coaching this because every mistake we’ll talk about, I’ve probably made seven to 10 times, probably this year. The trick is: how do you minimize it, get back up, be resilient and bounce back when the fires burn? I could give you eight examples this week where I should “eat my own dog food” — am I following the practices I preach?

It’s easy to fall off the map, but that’s why people need coaches. That’s why I have a coach. It’s about driving behavior change so the habits come. That’s what we specialize in.

Powills: And using a coach to solidify accountability. Philosophical question on the future of franchising and coaching: I think this category will be needed more and more. The way my 10- and 13-year-old consume information, and the global picture on mental health and workplace stability, will create entrepreneurial moments where a 9-to-5 won’t fit. People need something that pays the bills and, if they have ambitions for wealth, gives them the opportunity to create it. I see tremendous need in the next 10 years. How has the category transformed in the last 10 years, and where do you see it going in the next 10?

Schneider: One of the biggest changes is the availability of content. When I started in 2015, you could Google some stuff — you didn’t have ChatGPT. But for eons we’ve had books on sales, leadership, time management. The books still get written and are still needed. The reason: behavior change drives growth, not knowledge.

We’ve always had knowledge and content. Our sweet spot is helping someone break the fear of asking for business or raising standards with employees. As the world changes and multiple generations work together, how do I address and engage them at the level they need? Where can I be adaptable with my model and where can’t I — and be confident as a leader to say that?

There is no book on what we’re doing today — we’re writing it as we go. If a magic book existed, we’d have read it and followed it. It doesn’t. You have to understand you control your business, your team, yourself. That’s our sweet spot.

We’ve embraced AI in coaching — especially around behavior data — so we can be more surgical in team dynamics by processing behavior data across a team versus guessing. We can help clients pinpoint actions. But they still have to take those actions and apply them in their context. Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction — how do you adapt?

Our Strategic Mindset® Process is built for that. It’s what it has done for more than 20 years at The Growth Coach; now we’re putting a modern spin on it.

Powills: Before you were president, franchisees have a voice but not decision power. Now you have decision power and a franchisee lens. You’ll protect fellow franchisees because you have to protect your own business. It’s rare for the head of a company — especially a nonfounder — to also be a franchisee in leadership. Is that part of the magic? If you make a wrong decision, your personal business goes down too.

Schneider: Yes. I live with those decisions. One advantage: we have great operations, marketing and sales staff, but they haven’t lived as franchisees. I can say, “That’s a great idea, but here’s how we have to market it internally and drive communication.” Here’s the real day-to-day: owners aren’t sitting at their inbox waiting for a campaign. The day a campaign drops, they may have 10 things going on. If they didn’t react, it’s not disinterest — they’re running their business.

Those insights help us get traction. It also helps me with owners because I can explain what we were trying to do: “Here’s where we need you to plug in; here’s how you can support.” Or, “We swung and missed, but here’s the thought process and how it aligned with where we’re going.” It works both ways. It’s rewarding yet scary to know the decisions I help make — good, bad or ugly — I have to live with in my business. It’s a huge advantage for our organization.

Powills: You’re at a business-networking cocktail party and someone says, “Tell me about you.” Do you swing more toward franchisee or being employed at the franchisor?

Schneider: It depends on the party and what I was doing that day. I can swing between both. It’s 10:18 a.m. as we’re recording this; I was “franchisor” for the first two hours. After this, I’ll be “franchisee” for three or four hours, then “franchisor” again before day’s end. It’s part and parcel for me. I connect with the audience. I’ll play whichever side interests them, because I’m happy to talk about both.

Powills: Sounds like a great identity crisis. I’ve wondered what I’d do if I went in and led a company today. I lead a company now, but I’m 100 percent. I could say, “I’m going to paint the walls orange tomorrow,” and I don’t have to do anything. I’ve seen many franchisors rule with an iron fist, and that’s not why people get into business. I was doing a persona project with a client — a new private equity fund had just bought them — and the franchisees were cautiously optimistic. One franchisee said, “I left corporate America to not be in corporate environments.” Right before the equity group came in, she felt like she was back in corporate politics.

It’s interesting to hear the franchisee perspective because they’re buying for collaboration. That’s part of your magic: you have that perspective — maybe not in the first two hours of the day, but the next three — and it’s a great asset as a leader.

Schneider: I would agree.

Powills: For someone intrigued by the business, give me the elevator speech and the state of the union. How’s the business going?

Schneider: With prospective owners, I dig into what they want to do with the rest of their life. We tend to attract mid- to late-career, experienced people. Some are on the upward curve, but most have business experience and want to see what coaching is like.

First, you need a servant’s heart. It can be lucrative, but the people who succeed are genuine and vulnerable, and people feel that relationship. If that’s you, and you’ve got knowledge you want to contribute back, we’re a great fit.

Second, you can make this business what you want it to be. Two big lifestyle advantages: margins are strong — you don’t need much overhead, office space is optional, you don’t really need employees, and virtual assistants work — so you can keep more of your money than in many retail or service franchises. And you can build your lifestyle around what you want, especially mid- or end-of-career.

I have four kids. Back then, the oldest was an eighth grader and the youngest a kindergartner. I loved coaching baseball and softball and watching them play. Owning a Growth Coach let me go on college baseball spring-break trips, coach in the morning, work from the hotel, then watch my son play in the afternoon. I can’t tell you how many coaching calls I’ve taken from the car outside a college game.

One coach — a new grandfather — realized he really likes grandfathering. Fridays are grandkids-and-fly-fishing days. He works hard two or three days a week, and on Fridays he’s off. One of our longest-standing franchisees has long taken two to two and a half months off each year to travel with his wife. You can make money, have an impact and contribute to your community — that’s who we are — while creating the lifestyle you want once you decide to get out of the corporate rigmarole.

Powills: How many locations do you have now? What’s the vision for the next 12 months?

Schneider: As of now, we have 43 territories operating, mostly in the U.S., with a couple international on the way. Our message has resonated over the last year and sales are up about 100 percent year over year. We’ve improved our sales team’s ability to tell the lifestyle story. We’re driving toward 50 coaches operating in about 70 territories. Those are the next mileposts.

Powills: I think awesome things are going on. I love the category; the upside is tremendous. And it’s awesome that you went from franchisee to franchisor and remain a franchisee — that’s rare and provides a great lens. If I’m looking at the buying process, it starts with the vision of the leader, then product and cost to get in, how much it can make, validation, where you’re growing. That vision, because of your lens, adds uniqueness to the opportunity. If someone is looking at this, it’s worth a conversation.

Brad, I’m grateful you shared your story. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Schneider: Thanks for doing this, Nick. I appreciate the time and the chance to talk about The Growth Coach. Happy to do it anytime.

Powills: I love it. For Brad, I’m Nick. This was another episode of “Meet the Franchise.”

Watch the original interview here.

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/thegrowthcoach.