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Franchise Podcast, the number 1 podcast in Spanish in the wonderful world of franchises, led by its server, Rafael Alvarez.

We are live from the 85th floor of the 1 World Trade Center from the city of New York.

So get ready, the show is about to begin.

Here we are live, we're live, we're live from the 1 World Trade Center on the 83rd floor in New York City.

Welcome, bienvenidos a El podcast bilingüe numero uno en inglés y en español, in English and Spanish in the nation.

So today we have a very special guest, very, very interesting.

I've been really following him on social media.

And I've seen the tremendous amount of growth that he's having.

He's a real true franchisor, a real true Latino that's really making a huge difference in the franchise industry, providing a lot of great opportunities to so many people nationwide.

He is a 30-year veteran of the franchising industry and has worked for and consulted with large, mid-sized, and small franchise companies in the area of franchising development, marketing, and operations.

Mike is the Chief Business Development Officer of future vault brands and affiliated brands, Windows, Film, the Depot, Impact Security, Cool Vault, Long Vault, and wholesale of Cool Vault Auto Spa, interesting.

Also, Mike is the president of Cool Vault Glass and Surface Solutions, a franchise operation that launched in February of 2022, wow that recent, and has 64 franchise territories and expected to reach 100 plus locations by the end of

Guys, let's give a round of applause to Mike Herrera.

I mean, we've been talking for so long, trying to make this podcast happen.

So I really want to thank you for taking the time.

I know that you've been traveling quite a lot.

I know you have been working very hard building your brand.

I mean, number speak louder than anything else.

And yes, I'm excited to be on your podcast today.

I have been traveling quite a bit and we've got our entire team working very, very hard to grow our brand, but also to work very hard for our franchise partners as well.

I mean I know that you must be getting to connect with a lot of people in the industry showing up on Discovery Day But what I really want to do first of all, I would like to people to get to know who's really Mike Herrera, because people might see you in social media, you're very active on LinkedIn and all those social media platforms, but the reality is that people really get to know, well, I would like to know who's really Mike Herrera also.

Actually, I was born and raised here in Southern California and my parents are originally from San Antonio, Texas.

Grandparents immigrated here both from Mexico, but my parents were both born here in the USA and during the early 60s I should say there were a lot of exciting things going on in California especially in Southern California and so my dad was actually in the sign industry and so he decided to take a look at what was going on in California and came out to Southern Cal and did some research and within about 30 days sent for my mom and my oldest brother and they moved out to Southern California and started a family and it was, you know, never went back to San Antonio.

We visited many times and I continue to visit there because I've got my oldest brother there as well as aunts, uncles and cousins.

But yeah, we stayed here in Southern California.

So, technically, so your parents are from Mexico, your grand grand parents, your heritage?

My, my, my grandparents were migrated from Mexico and also my great grandparents as well.

And, and then of course my parents were born here.

So, you know, we definitely have the Hispanic blood in us.

And both my parents were very fluent in English and Spanish.

And in fact, I was brought up speaking Spanish up until about 4 years old Rafael was speaking Spanish, but what what happened is 1 of my dad's colleagues told him, you know Ross or Rosendo you may Said you know what Ross you better really start focusing on teaching your boys, at that time there were 2 of us, English because at that time, Rafael, in the early 60s, there were no bilingual schools.

And so, of course, my dad did not want to take a chance on us getting left behind and not being educated and things like that.

So, you know, they did what they believe was the best thing to do, which was to start speaking English more to us and really focusing on English.

So, throughout the rest of our lives, growing up through elementary, you know, high school and so forth, we spoke nothing but English.

But we always heard them speaking Spanish But of course as you know, if you don't use it, you know, you're gonna lose it, right?

It's like anything else is like anything else.

It's like you also right if you didn't use it Yeah, I Really understand I believe or not that's really the fabric of this great country in a way.

So many people, I mean, yesterday I was doing a photo with someone that is an Italian background.

I mean, he's now, he's like, what, like, like, also fifth generation of Italian American here in the United States.

So, so obviously things are changing, you kind of lose the language.

But, But no matter what, your roots are your roots, and nobody can change that.

It's in your DNA, my friend, believe it or not, right?

My roots are my roots, and I embrace my roots

And, you know, yes, in hindsight, you know, I wish I was very, you know, very much able to speak, you know, fluent Spanish.

My wife is very fluent in both English and Spanish.

But over time, you do pick up a lot of the words and conversations and so you know I can get through it fairly well but yeah I wish I was a lot more fluent.

So you got educated I guess in California also?

You went to high school, college in California?

Yes I went to high school here in Southern California, in the Orange County area, the city of called Fountain Valley.

I was just not 1 of those kids and students that just was going to move on to college.

And so I did not go to college, but I always was kind of a kid where I was really interested in business or in career and things like that.

I just always was intrigued with business ownerships and building things too.

I was always kind of a maverick type of individual growing up.

So what was your first job when you were young, after you grew up?

I mean, you just started from the bottom?

I mean, what was your, I'm just trying to connect work experience to what you're actually doing right now, which is very important.

Well, I did work in, during high school, I did work at a few fast food places as we all probably remember, Subway, We all remember Subway, right?

And that was actually, I think my first, my very, very first job was working at Subway during high school, part-time.

But getting through high school and moving through high school and I think in 1 of the stories I always tell people about you know the 1 thing that I think that really shifted a lot for me in my life was something my mother did for me and as as we know there are many gifts your parents can give you in life, right?

Of course the gift of life is 1, which is a beautiful thing, but secondly there are lessons that they give you.

I always go back and say there was 1 other gift that my mother gave me that was really, really impactful.

I think it set the tone quite honestly for my entire journey in my business and career in franchising.

Graduating from high school, the summer of high school, about a week or so into high school, she found me in my bedroom, you know, just watching TV, relaxing and that kind of thing.

And she pointed like asked me, you know, you know, Michael, what are your plans?

And I just looked at it, said, Mom, I don't I don't really know.

And th goes, well, that's not an you're either going to go college and enroll option you're going to get a job at during that time, of c our parents and we honor there was no argument the are my 2 options.

or option 2, you're And you know, during t we respected our parents

and you know, there was n those, those are my 2

But I w to find a job and I work manufacturer down in New And I think that was the on

find for a sailboat manufactur in California.

And I thin really of me understandin franchising because it wa dealer relationship.

We w boats for dealers that we affiliated and associated a little bit about franch was a manufacturing deale were manufactured boats f across the country affilia with this this company in I started to learn how th work.

We made something w they then sold it to their clients around the country.

And I started kind of understanding all those inner workings.

And so, you know, that was kind of, I think, a little bit of the taste of a little bit of that I guess franchising or business ownership and dealership type of opportunities

So from there, then you went changing jobs What what specifically do you do right now?

Where how do you connect it with your current, what do you tell us, what is your current position?

Know your current position, what do you do?

Well, my current position now is I'm the president of Coolview, franchise model.

And My job really is to manage the entire team and staff that we have to really set the vision for the company and the values for our company.

Work very closely from time to time with our franchisees and their support staff as well to make sure the franchise partners are getting what they need in regards to support, to be looking at other things as far as innovative products or tools and resources that we can bring in to create more value to the franchise partners that we have.

So that's really kind of my day to day activity.

But before you were at Prestia, were you already, I mean, was you into your position at the company?

Well, I started, you know, I started years ago after, of course, leaving that particular job in the sailboat manufacturing business.

I spent some time going into some little on-end businesses here and there and some other on-end jobs.

And then finally, I got into an opportunity to get into a franchise opportunity.

It was a food franchise, along with myself and another partner.

Be honest with you, I think it was a little bit of ahead of its time, but it was a very unique business model.

I learned a lot about franchising in that model.

I understood the relationship between franchisor and franchisee.

And that really also was intriguing to me.

But along the way, Raphael, I met people in the franchising industry as well.

I developed some friendships at the franchisor level of that company And we had some very good, you know, relationships and friendships there.

And so after we left the franchise, you know, How many locations?

Yes, here in Southern California and I moved on and was going to be looking at other opportunities and I had again had developed a friendship with somebody at the company and He had then simultaneously he left as well and was getting involved in another franchise company in the actual Home inspection industry you

got involving with which company in particular

The the actual home inspection company was called inspect tech out of Northern California Okay.

And my friend that with was the VP of develo reached out to me 1 day are your plans?

I don't know y of think this through and I want to do next He goes, well, why don't you think about getting into the franchise development because you've got the right personality You've been in franchising you understand the relationship between the franchise or franchisee.

You understand the value of the systems and all of those things that go with franchising.

I'd like to I'd like to get you involved in what I'm doing.

So I said, let me give some thought, you know, so about, I don't know, 30 days went by and I reached back out to him and he flew me up to Northern California.

I learned more deeper about the other side of the business, which is the franchisor side of the business.

And 1 thing led to another and I decided to come on board.

He was really my mentor And he developed me in the franchise development side of the business and I was there for about, I think 3 and a half years.

He retired and I was working out of the Southern California office for that company Inspect Tech.

And I happened to be in a building where I ran into somebody in an elevator who happened to be a family friend of ours, who was more of a friend of my parents.

His son played baseball with my youngest brother.

I ran into him and he goes, what are you doing here?

And so I told him what I did and he goes, wow.

He goes, I work for a small company called Janneking International.

I said, no kidding, which we all know it's not a small company.

He goes, you know, I'm looking for a franchise development guy.

And so 1 thing led to another and we met and I moved from that inspect tech company.

I learned a tremendous amount of about franchising at Janneking as well.

I then was there about probably 5 years or so and he retired as well and I felt I didn't have too much of a loyalty there any longer after he left.

So I had an opportunity, I was recruited actually to another company in the shipping and mailing industry.

That was kind of an up and coming company.

And that was called, I think, AIM Mail Centers out of Southern California.

And then I got also then recruited by another company, a small company called Budget Blinds.

And I was at Budget Blinds from about, I think about 2000 to about 2007, just before the whole collapse that we had in the real estate industry.

When did you became a certified franchise executive CFE?

I think it was back when I was at Janneke International when I became a CFE back then.

And I can see all the great experience that you were able to acquire throughout all of those years, you know, in all of those companies.

So, yeah, I mean, for you it was kind of natural to become a certified franchise executive, which you are, right?

No, it was really this whole journey has been a great journey.

I mean, learning a lot from every company I went to, learning from people, my peers that I had as well from them, being able to learn from some of the other, you know, the presidents or the founders of those companies was a great experience.

And I learned, I took every experience as a learning opportunity.

So from there, you know, I moved on to some other companies.

I did some consulting with some companies as well.

I did some work also and worked with H&R Block, which is another large company in the tax industry.

Well, there, I actually, they had started a program to really grow the franchise side.

As you well know, they have a model where it's company owned operations as well as some franchise models, right, Franchisees.

And they had brought in a new CEO and the new CEO was a lot more pro-franchise and they really wanted to grow that side of the business and so they had brought in a few folks, executives to help spearhead growth around the country with building out some sales and development teams.

I was picked to head up the sales and development team on the west coast, brought in a few extra development people.

We started getting involved in doing acquisitions, going to independent tax preparation companies and acquiring them and converting them to pool.

means that you met my friend, what's his name?

Alvarez, Jose Alvarez from San Francisco.

He was also in the acquisition department.

he used to live in LA, but I know that he was working in San Francisco when I went to meet him once there.

So, all of these were happening, I'm assuming, before the pandemic and then suddenly the pandemic hit.

What happened to you during the pandemic?

Well, you know, during that time, are you talking about during the pandemic?

During the pandemic, actually, I was already involved with Coolview.

When you joined it, when you took and how you connected with them?

Yeah, I connected with Coolview because during my time with with Budget Blinds, which is about 7 years or so, 6 or 7 years with Budget Blinds, I happened to have met the founder and CEO, Jeff Franson, of Future View Brands, which is our parent company.

He had been working with Budget Blinds to implement a window film installation program with them.

It was not really going to be a core offering of theirs, but it was going to be kind of a supplemental offering their franchisees could offer.

And so that was the whole idea behind it.

And so there was a relationship there and I had met him a number of times when he came to the office.

We stayed connected through social media.

We connected on the phone periodically and then probably like I guess about 3 and a half, almost 4 years ago, he reached out to me by phone and said, hey Mike, I've got this idea and this product and this brand that I think could be a great, great opportunity.

And I'm looking for someone like like you.

And We took the product that he had been wanting to bring to market, which was a transitional window film, which was very unique.

Most film today, or back then and even now, is a static film.

Window film for glass that you would put on your home or your or your business or the window right behind you.

So, yeah, but this particular technology of film is a transitional film that goes from light to dark, right?

And so we were gonna take that to market.

We were gonna really kind of just see how the marketplace not only accepted that product and we were gonna distribute it through independent window film tinters across the country.

The industry itself really accepted well the actual Coolview brand name.

And all of that was really with the idea of someday looking at getting this into the franchise industry because there is not really anybody in what we call the space for window film tinting.

So you guys are the only 1 in your space?

the flat glass space, we would say that you know there are just a few of, there are only really 2 of us in the black glass space.

Most of the others are more in the automotive window tinting.

We don't do any automotive window tinting.

What we do is residential, retail, and commercial window tinting.

But, you know, solar window tinting is just 1 part of it.

There's a lot of other subcategories in the window film space as well.

What's the meaning behind the name CoolVU?

So the listeners, people that are watching this, the name is CoolVU.

Yeah, well, you know, Geoff Ransom was the person that created and developed it.

As you can see, how cool is your view, right?

So instead of just writing out view, we just use VU, cool view.

So yeah, he had this brand for a number of years and, you know, didn't quite know what he was going to do with it years and years ago, but he knew that someday it was going to be a very valuable brand.

So bringing on some unique products in the space.

And of course, looking at being able to create a franchise model around that brand made a lot of sense.

Coming to market with a whole portfolio of product lines made a lot of sense.

We really kind of, you know, it's interesting.

1 of our regional support directors calls Jeff and I to kind of a dynamic duel, you know, because of the fact that he's got-

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EP. 39: Mike Herrera, President of CoolVu Glass & Surface Solutions Franchise