Chief Change Officer
#196 James Hilovsky: Why Athletes Are Built for Business (And How Franchising is Their Secret Weapon) – Part One
Sun, 23 Feb 2025
Part One. James Hilovsky traded his cleats for contracts, moving from professional sports to a thriving career in franchising. He knows firsthand how skills like teamwork, leadership, and risk-taking make athletes natural business owners. In this episode, James breaks down how following a coach’s playbook isn’t so different from running a franchise—and how he’s helping others transition from the game to the business world without dropping the ball.Key Highlights of Our Interview:From Baseball to Business“My baseball career was short-lived due to injury, but transitioning to the restaurant industry felt natural. It was another kind of team—working together toward a shared goal.”Systems That Lead to Success“Franchises, like sports leagues, refine their systems to avoid pitfalls. They hand franchisees a proven playbook to help them stay on course and achieve their goals.”Athletes and Franchising: A Natural Fit“Athletes already understand the value of following systems and being part of a team. That mindset translates seamlessly into running a successful franchise.”From Coach to Franchisor“In the franchise world, the franchisor acts like a head coach—laying out the strategies, providing guidance, and ensuring the business operates at peak performance.”_________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: James Hilovsky______________________--**Chief Change Officer**--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs,Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts.6 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is James Hilovsky and what is his background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today at our studio, we welcome James Helofsky from Riverside in Southern California.
James runs a unique franchise consulting business, primarily serving retired athletes from the NBA and NFL who are starting new chapters in their lives as franchisees. He also helps regular people with their franchise businesses. James believes that using his expertise in franchising to change lives and livelihoods of families and future generations is a dream come true endeavor.
I haven't been a franchisee or franchisor myself, But I do have experience with the franchise business. Many years ago, when my parents immigrated to Canada with zero local experience and connections, they ventured into franchising to make a living. Despite the hardships, using franchising as a means to fulfill the dream of becoming immersed and settled in the community was life-changing.
So, I have great respect for franchising as a business model that can positively transform lives. Let's discover how James has used franchising for the greater good for both athletes and everyday people. Good morning, James. How are you doing today?
Good morning. I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on.
James joins us in a very timely moment. As we speak, this is the second week of the Olympic Games. Today, we are talking about sports, especially the lives of athletes. Before we dive into that, I'll let James introduce himself, share his background, his history, and his career path.
Then we'll jump right into our discussion on athletes, on business, on franchises, and how all these things link together.
Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much. So my career history is when I was growing up, I was a baseball player. I actually was in the minor leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies. And unfortunately my career was very quick, got hurt and then was done. And I came back and had to do something.
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Chapter 2: How did James transition from sports to franchising?
So I immediately transitioned into the restaurant business because I had worked in a fine dining restaurant before I had left as well. And I've worked my way up into the restaurant business of using my, just have my athletic kind of background really fit in the restaurant business because I really felt like I came back and I had a team in the restaurant.
So it was like the employees around me, everybody around me were one big team. And we ran it basically like a team when I got into management. We'd run systems as we're all teammates and that we're all working together to achieve the end goal. So from there, I went into a fast food company and worked for Del Taco for about 25 years.
Then a company called Pyology called me and said, hey, we really want to grow our system. And would you come over and help run our franchise side?
which would be supporting new franchisees and helping them in their restaurants helping new store openings and i said absolutely so we grew that chain from one store started there and grew it up over to 100 franchise restaurants and we had some corporate stores as well so i supported the franchise restaurants and then one of the largest franchisees of
of Pyology called me and said, Hey, come work for us. And that was owned by two NFL football players. That was immediately, and they were right, really close to where I live. They were in Corona. So it made a lot of sense to come partner with them and work with them.
So we did our Pyologies and then we did a franchise called The Baked Bear, which ice cream franchise, did our own coffee shop and our own cookie dough concept. And everything was going good. And then one of the brothers, he retired from the NFL. And then the other brother, he got hurt, couldn't fulfill the end of his contract. They went into some of them producing movies.
And then they, their big thing was like, Hey, we're going to go start this tequila company.
and you know that not nothing against tequila i just was not my area expertise and something that i really didn't feel the passionate about so i then uh said okay i will be joined on this venture and then i decided to start my own business and help individuals look at different franchise options that are out there So I don't really sell anything.
What I do is I match people and athletes and professionals to franchise business. I show them what's out there in the franchise world, show many of the different industries that are out there, show them really good franchises and Just basically help them make that decision all the way through, introduce them to the franchisor.
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Chapter 3: What role do athletes play in the franchising business?
And so that's what I've been doing and just thoroughly enjoy helping athletes and people find their dreams.
So when exactly did you start this franchise consulting business?
Yeah. So I've been doing this for about a little over four years. I've been doing it and that's when we started and haven't looked back since and it's been great.
So around the time COVID started, what was the situation for you in terms of building your business? It sounds like you had gained trust from some athlete and entered their circle, building confidence. But then we faced this lifetime crisis, so much uncertainty. As an entrepreneur, how did you navigate the landscape? And eventually, how did you get through it and return to normal?
So that was very scary being out there in COVID. Sorry, because it was the unknown of what's going to happen. So it was really, no one knew what to do. And it was rather uncertain times out there. But what really happened in the franchise world was home services took off and those franchises did really well and there were people looking to get into them.
So the home service market, fixing up bathroom remodels or window cleaning, anything that had to do with servicing the homes, those were just extremely good franchises to have out there. And then the other thing was Really, a lot of people had some idle time, and it was a time to where you think, should I go back to the office and commute? This is nice not having this commute.
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Chapter 4: How did COVID-19 impact the franchise industry?
Or do I make this leap of faith and bet on myself of going into a franchise? So it really turned out, being that people were stuck at home and were on Zoom and doing that type of thing, that a lot of people had a lot of time to look at different options. that were out there to help them, as well as a lot of people got laid off and were looking for things to do.
And again, why not bet on yourself with COVID? And so it really, really was, it was challenging, but a very interesting time for sure.
Yeah, we'll definitely touch upon the idea of regular people getting involved in the franchise business, especially with all the changes in the job market. But before we get into that, let's go back to the sports world and the athletes.
I remember you've mentioned before, both in our conversations and on social media, that there are many parallels between the sports business and franchising in terms of generating revenue streams. Could you explain how that works? How do sports franchises compare to regular franchising?
Yeah, definitely. So the parallels really in the sports franchising and the regular franchising. So when you think of sports franchising and you think of sports as a NBA franchise, you're the Los Angeles Lakers. That's really, it's a sports franchise. That's a franchise part of the NBA franchise. So they do have bylaws that they have to follow.
The NBA sets rules and guidelines of they can only spend so much money. If you spend more money on your players, you're going to get taxed. So there's definitely rules, regulations, and they have to follow the system that's laid out there.
Same way if we came in and an athlete started a pest control business, there's going to be rules, regulations, and they're obviously going to get given a playbook to follow that system. But there's many systems just like in owning a sports franchise that a regular franchise has too, where they're going to say, here's everything that you need to do and here's how you need to do it.
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Chapter 5: What are the parallels between sports franchises and business franchises?
And we're going to help you achieve success. very much so very parallels to being sports owners, but then the sports players, the athletes can see that and go, yeah, okay, I'm part of this. And then they can, when they start their own franchise, if they look to get into the franchise business, it's much the same of it's we're following these guidelines that the franchise lays out.
The franchise has been through all the potholes and the bad things. So they know how to tell us to do the business and, and, and they've developed the system so that we can be successful.
So it sounds like you are saying that the way franchising is set up and run is similar to the environment in which athletes are trained, following rules, knowing the rules, and so on. But what about the cost and revenue structure and all those other business aspects?
When you invest in or get involved in a business, you always consider the business model, revenue, costs, hiring, marketing, et cetera. Do you see similarities or parallels in the business world that apply to the sports world? In other words, does the environment athletes are trained in make it easier for them to transition into the business world?
Yeah, let's talk a little bit about that because in an athlete, in my opinion, are perfect people to go into business for themselves. And in particular, in a franchise business. Why is that? They've been used to following a playbook all their lives. They've been given by a coach or playbook. Here's the playbook. Here's the plays. Here's the system.
And the parallel to that, much like in the franchise to become a franchise owner, the franchisor is going to give you the playbook. Here's the playbook. Here's how to set up the business. Here's the equipment you need to have. Here's the way you're going to set up the equipment. Here's the way you're going to do the build out. Everything for an athlete is laid out there as a playbook.
And they're especially good at following the playbook.
so much like the franchisor sets that playbook they follow it and in that playbook are going to be the guidelines of here's how many people you're going to need to hire here are the type of people that you need to hire so the franchisor is basically going to the athlete and being that coach the head coach or the the manager that's going to be the franchisor is now that manager that coach
to the athlete so they get it and say, okay, I need to hire people. Oh, here's the attributes that I need to look for and I need to do that. And then I need to follow the system they're putting into place to achieve X, Y, and Z on the revenues.
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