cherryinterview

Dave and Josie Cherry, owners of Ellie Mental Health, share their story of how they started franchising. They wanted to do something different and build something together as a team. They evaluated different franchises and chose Ellie Mental Health because it was new and had a unique concept. Initially, they were hesitant about franchising but changed their minds after learning about the opportunity. They wanted to create a legacy for their daughters and were intrigued by the idea of working for themselves. They also wanted to have an in-person team and make a meaningful impact in the community. They have a clinic director who handles day-to-day operations while Dave and Josie contribute their expertise in various aspects of the business. Ellie Mental Health headquarters provided support in certain areas like business applications and offered advice on personnel. Perfect. And then I also have editing purposes. So, if you just turn the camera off for a little bit, we'll just keep going. I tried to fix that, but I don't know why my camera software was being weird. So, I've done a different job. Perfect. So, we have this going and the recording is starting. So, we'll go ahead and start now. Awesome. Thank you, Dave and Josie Cherry, for joining me on our podcast today, Dare to Thrive, Eagle Eye Perspective. I'm here today with the owners of Ellie Mental Health in Westerville, Worthington, and soon-to-be-Gahanna, Old Reynoldsburg. Can you guys share your story of how you started franchising, and what it's like, and why you chose Ellie Mental Health? Yeah, sure. I'm Josie Cherry, and I'm one of the franchisees of Ellie Mental Health. And the reason we are here today in this lovely office is because a few years ago, Dave and I thought about doing something different. We've always had corporate jobs, or we've had an independent mental health project, and we thought, we want to build something. We want to be a team, we want to interact with the community in a different way, rather than working for the Department of Corporate Engineering and trying to get a monthly pay check. So, and it was a good time to do that. We got two older kids that are at our college, and we really wanted to get back to where we were working on something together, versus if I was working an independent type of job. So we did do a process of evaluating different franchises, which was interesting and eye-opening, and we never realized how many different teams, when we drive down the road, are actually franchises. We were shocked. Because, like, oh, that's a franchise? That? We know a lot of them. It's like the most, the most expensive agency out there. It is. And this is one that was very new. We heard about it, and we're like, this is amazing, and this is a really important space. It's very new, and it's about to happen, and we were just impressed, and it really went on, and there's some of the things we wanted to try to do. I would say that because this is a brand new one, we wanted to set that from the beginning. We were nervous because it was an established one that's got a lot of existing examples, but, you know, we took a leap of faith, and we really wanted to be working on this thing, and so this is a perfect opportunity. Well, this is one other kind of unexpected thing, because when we started out in the process, we were along completely on the same page, determined not to go to a franchise. I have a friend who is a franchise owner, and I recommended that we take a franchise lease, and he said we'd do it yesterday, or we have a consultant that will show you some options, and, you know, then I thought, okay, that's what they gave approval to listen, but we're not doing this, and then we were on the same page. We listened to the first time on that, and we were in agreement, not for us, okay, we're not doing it. Second time on that, same thing, just like me, third time on that, that's the case here at Belltown's with LLE Mental Health. We talked on our phone, and we said, where do we start on this? The vision of what LLE wanted to do, and how they were changing the global treatment of mental health, and how they make an impact in the community, it is just fascinating. It's an interesting concept we go from here, determined not to be franchise owners, to what we learned about the opportunity and the options that are out there, and where we are two years later. Absolutely, and I want to go back to the point of, Josie, you brought up earlier, you both have worked in the corporate space. Dave, you have an independent consultant agency, so you're very well versed in the corporate America as well as business ownership. Now, you also mentioned just now, you weren't going to be franchise owners. What changed in that standpoint, I guess, and what was your process of thinking of that? I know for a lot of people, family is the first thing that comes to mind, of thinking of starting a legacy for somebody. Was that the process of thought that you guys had? Yeah, actually, that was one of my considerations. We do have two people, two daughters, who are in college, or going to college, and we thought, well, it might be fun to have something that they can participate in and create a legacy for them to get into when they go in a different direction. But it wasn't like anything where we felt like we didn't have to do it on our own. It would be fun to have something go in and settle in. That was definitely on my head. I also really think that, after working so many years for somebody else, that working for yourself was intriguing. I've never had that completely entrepreneurial risk-taking DNA in the past. There's always, I think, when I was younger in my career, I needed to be a part of a larger organization as an even more experienced. I was like, no. We've got a lot of field experience of all the different functions, things that we understand, we're taking that risk and also being a little further in your career and having to build up the important financial savings or those types of things. It gives you more of a comfort with taking the risk. I feel like we were definitely in a different mindset than I would have been a little bit earlier in terms of the type of things that went through your process. Yeah, absolutely. I'll give you two other quick thoughts, maybe. One is, you know, in this pandemic, so many of us have been working remotely. I've been doing my own thing for going on 11 years now, so I don't have any colleagues. I've got my clients who I work with. Josie, who I work with remotely, she doesn't have colleagues, but she is easily available to me. So when we looked at Ellie, it was an opportunity for us to create an in-person team. A lot of our team, our clinic directors, are amazing. They're there with us as we move on. And whether it's a little thing such as going out to lunch or a little rebalancing or anything like that, you know, just having a team is a lot of fun. And you mentioned Liberty Magazine, which was a bit interesting. So many years working in retail. The reason we're in Columbus is because I got a job 20 years ago with Women in Brands. And so my kind of retail that I share with people is that I've done a lot over 20 years to help sell a lot of rock-and-roll shoes. And we wanted to do something a little different with rock-and-roll shoes, but what we did want to do is a little more meaningful to make sure that we could have them in the community. Absolutely. And you guys are running this business together, correct? That's a great point. I think that when we go into it, we heard the concept of something as a team. And there are different brand companies that are our model, and I think it's probably a different brand model, that are really as a team or on health or fitness or maybe job and health manager. But it's really there because it kind of depends on you. And we are definitely the kind of people that I like to sit in and truly understand at the business level, but before we can head off. So we are not one individual. We have technically a clinic director who is just running it, but there are a lot of things within the startup that it makes sense for me to be more involved in it. I still have a full-time job that my main focus is, and this is a little bit of a side hustle for me. They've been doing it more times in the last year. It's been the very first time I've ever done anything like that. Understanding it and working on it. And I can see it decreasing over time, and I think things are not stabilized and we still don't stay in one place like that. And then we all have a sort of RGAD data center built in us. So one thing that's different about having a mental health clinic, neither do I have any mental health education and background experience which I think is a really valuable space. So our clinic director runs day-to-day operations, whether it's a client care question, whether it's questions from the therapist and operations. Joe's usually mentioned that her main job, she is a financial profiteer, so she essentially runs everything behind us. The organization, whether that's payroll, doing our courthousing, doing anything with all of us, and I give a lot of breath, so I'm EHR, I'm IT, I'm marketing, social media, I'm community development. Just those tenets align a lot more with my background and my experience and my comfort zone. So between the three of us, we have a nice blending of everything that's built in expertise and how many one another can cover everything and everything that's in our organization. Awesome, and that's great. And to follow up on your semi-absentee is what you guys are operating as this business, how did Ellie Mental Health and their headquarters help you to set that up and help you get the clinic director as well as the mental health facilitators? How did they help you if they did in any sense? Yeah, there are certain ways they can help and other ways that we've visited everyone on our own. A couple of ways that they can help is they are developing the Shredder as a business application facility in certain areas that are very critical for anybody. And so that's where we're going to be told to transition on our second and we of course need to take those services. And so we signed up for that and it wasn't an option. Everybody signed up for that. And I will say that they've been one of the areas that they've been growing at in the past because it's been taking them a while to figure out how do we grow and do it in a way that's sustainable and how do we streamline operations and those things. So that's one way. And then as far as something like personnel, they did not get involved other than maybe giving us some examples of transcription or giving us some advice about here's what you may want to focus on with clinic director and here's not because we'd never hired a clinic director in our lives before or worked with one. So it was very daunting. And we went through several candidates and several people who turned down our offer. And we were every one of those things, every one of those times, our offer was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,