In this episode of frankly…
Rachel and Dan sit down with Franco President and COO Tina Benvenuti Sullivan and Senior Mobility Consultant Jim Bianchi to discuss some exciting news: Franco has acquired Bianchi Public Relations.
Tina and Jim reflect on how this acquisition is a full circle moment for both agencies. With Franco’s expertise in integrated communications and Bianchi PR’s deep roots in automotive mobility, they explain how the partnership strengthens the agency’s ability to serve clients in evolving industries. They also discuss how this collaboration positions Franco to lead as the landscape of PR and mobility continues to change.
To learn more about the acquisition and what’s ahead for Franco and Bianchi PR, read the full blog post here.
Let us know what you took away from this week’s conversation, and, as always, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe!
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The transcript below is AI-generated and may contain minor inaccuracies. Tune in to the episode audio to hear the full conversation!
Transcript
Dan
Hello and welcome to frankly.
Rachel
We’re happy you’re here.
Dan
Yeah. So if you haven’t heard. Franco recently acquired Bianchi Public relations and today we are going to talk a little bit about not just that, but about automotive and mobility communications as a whole. With with Franco’s president and COO Tina Sullivan, who you’ve heard on the show before, and Jim Bianchi, who is now senior mobility consultant with Franco. Previously though
Rachel
Former owner of Bianchi PR. Yeah. And and Jim really talks about kind of the path that led him to starting BPR in 1992, but they have specialized like truly specialized in mobility. You know, when it started, automotive media relations, I mean that is their bread and butter. The fit for Franco really makes sense, you know, and and part of. You know in the future and as we go on as how do we, you know, use our integrated communication, expertise and strategy to hopefully bring you know extra value to to the clients we’re bringing on the BPR employees, all of that good stuff. So a lot more to come in the future and a very, you know, just slow meshing of the two.
Dan
Yeah.
Rachel
There’s, there’s a lot of good Nuggets in here. Think Jim’s a very well respected Detroit Automotive PR person he has been in this industry for a very long time, if you. ask a media person, do you know Jim Bianchi? They’ll laugh at you because of course they do.
Dan
Yeah. And it’s it’s kind of a full circle moment in a couple of ways. Jim talks about 1 towards the end, but but really the the bigger one is both. Tina Kozak, our CEO, Tina Sullivan, who you’ll hear in a second both spent time at Bianchi PR in their earlier careers. So it’s it’s kind of funny to talk about.
Tina
Yeah.
Dan
You know where there are, where there is some crossover in the culture and the style and all these things and.
Rachel
Yeah. Hmm.
Dan
We’ll get into that.
Rachel
Tina Kozak interned for Tina Sullivan.
Rachel
That’s the. That’s the funny story that ever they always like to throw out there some.
Dan
Lot of full Circle’s going on here, yeah.
Rachel
Yeah, absolutely. So we will throw it over to them, both Jim and Tina, but welcome to Frankly.
Dan
Alright, Tina, welcome back to Frankly. Jim, welcome. For the first time.
Jim
Thank you.
Dan
Looking forward to catch up with you both here. So I know we’ve we’ve talked to Tina before and and through her career path and and things like that, so we’ll link that past episode down in the description if you want to go back and and hear more there. Jim, let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit about your career path. I know you found it Bianchi PR, obviously few decades ago, but what? What brought you to that and what was kind of the need that you saw in the market at the time that that led you to?
Jim
OK, great. Well, I started the firm in 1992, but the career path started long before that. Of course, I was a journalism graduate from Wayne State, hoping to major in PR, but couldn’t get one of the marketing classes and still graduate in time, so I never really majored in PR. I ended up majoring in journalism, but I really felt like PR was part of my calling as I as I went through the curriculum.
Rachel
Can I ask what year that was?
Jim
I graduated from Wayne State University in the last century. 1976, America’s bicentennial.
Dan
There you go.
Rachel
Oh cool. I just think it’s an interesting to think how PR was at that time, right, like versus how the change has been to put that in perspective, when you say you feel like it’s your calling?
Jim
It’s changed.
Rachel
Yeah, it’s just interesting.
Jim
From there. As I was working in college, I was working with a suburban community, Allen Park, their recreation department doing newsletters and special events and news releases for them, and I really felt like that that was where I wanted to go that I could. I could have some cumulative impact of my work rather than just writing a story that was printed in a newspaper and then the next day somebody was training their puppy on that newspaper. So from there I went to I got a job offer with an ad agency in Grand Rapids, and it was a they did a lot of industrial and agricultural equipment work. This is, you know, some real strong B to B kind of stuff.
Dan
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jim
And worked on my first automotive account, which was automotive aftermarket parts. And really learned a lot at the agency and then was able to after about a year and a half there come back to Detroit and work for Fruhof trailer. Fruhof doesn’t exist anymore, but at the time it was the world’s leading manufacturer of semi-trailers.
Rachel
Yeah, yeah.
Jim
The big rig, the back end of the big. Right. So that’s really that’s really where my mobility. Jones kind of started.
Dan
Where you got the bug.
Jim
Working in in the trucking industry and and before that in the automotive aftermarket.
Rachel
I feel like everybody has a story like that and B to B where you were like, surely I won’t do that. So. And then you have someone weird off and you’re like, wow, that’s what hooked me. We all got here.
Dan
Yep.
Rachel
Right. It’s just funny to think about exactly.
Jim
Yeah, B does B especially. It’s, you know, you never see a recent college graduate or very rarely say, I really want to work in B to B want. I want to help market, you know, agricultural equipment.
Rachel
Never.
Rachel
I will never forget Tina with steel talking about where you’re like. Steel is sexy. We will make it sexy, right? Really. To have that attitude in B to B.
Dan
Yeah.
Jim
So and from Fruhoff I work for Fruhoff for about 6 1/2 years. Then they went through a leveraged takeover. Hostile takeover attempt and then management did a leveraged buyout. I had a great job There was a lot of fun. I was PR manager and out of I don’t know 20,000 employees around the world. I think I was one of only two or three that did PR. So I got to do. News releases, press conferences, annual report, the chairman’s. I mean, it was for a person in their early 20s was a great learning experience. And after about 6 1/2 years there joined one of the one of the old school PR guys in Detroit, Ray Eisbrenner, and helped Ray build his agency after he left PR associates.
Dan
Yeah. OK.
Jim
I had been a client of Ray’s and joined him. And again, he was working in primarily an industrial manufacturing and automotive accounts. So I kind of led those accounts as we we built up his firm and worked with companies like DuPont. Bosch, Rockwell, some of the you know some of the leading suppliers in the industry and really kind of developed supply auto supplier specialty and. At that point, after about 6 1/2 years there, I can kind of see the handwriting on the wall as the owner’s. The founder’s son came into the business graduating college. And also I was being asked to work on accounts that were outside of the the automotive realm, and outside of the B2B realm, which I really wasn’t comfortable. Really, when I thought it would be really great to specialize. Talk to a few people. And saw the need emerging within the auto industry. Because the industry was changing where there were More and more suppliers that we’re dealing had to market themselves. And there were more influences within the automakers on, you know, what suppliers they would go with. And so there was. There was. I talked to 1 old school PR guy with the former Bud Company, which is now part of Tyson. And he said, you know, Jim, you’re exactly what this town needs. A senior specialist in automotive, he. We have a lot of senior people, but they don’t work on accounts. They push the work down to very junior people. That was my whole premise that we were going to provide. Senior attention and specialization in this automotive supplier space. And at first I thought it was just going to be our clientele would be the Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers. And it’s funny because the. We started getting Tier 1 suppliers coming to us looking for the help. And kind of the rest is history.
Dan
Yeah, yeah. So. Tina, you spent several years with the Bianchi PR team before coming over to Franco But what are some of the? What did you see as far as like similarities and in terms of whether? It’s values culture, just a general approach to communications that made these two agencies coming together, such a good fit.
Tina
Yeah. So I was really there in my early early part of my career, but it just became very much who I was. I spent a lot of time learning from Jim. Learning how the team is really the heart of what the work is, and I say that now all the time with our our clients. You know that our team here is what we give them. Don’t make anything right. We just provide time and really, really good people. So I think that has rung true to me from when I worked for Jim many years ago. I’ve taken that. I’ve taken really that strong belief in a work ethic and really what’s important to make something work. And I think hath translated that to the work we do here. I do. Very much very much similar.
Rachel
What was your first B to B story that made you fall in love with it, since I feel like we got Jim’s, I feel like we gotta ask you that question.
Tina
Let’s see. I think it was at the time I worked on Freudenberg, which is still a client working on ceiling products. I often thought God, this is this is it. And then I I really liked it and it was kind of fun. That’s it.
Rachel
I love it. I love.
Dan
Yep, Yep.
Rachel
I love that story. Well, so Jim, you talked about being, you know the need for that specialized attention senior attention specifically in you know automotive which really now has grown. Into mobility in general. And the way that we talk about it. How have? Seen since 1992, when you started Bianchi PR. To know in the mobility industry what’s changed?
Jim
What hasn’t changed, right?
Rachel
Yeah. What stayed the same is probably the shorter answer.
Jim
Yeah. It’s it’s changed a lot, you know there. There were a number of publications that we dealt with media relations back then in 92, clients when they said they wanted PR, they really 90% of what they wanted was media relations.
Rachel
Mm.
Jim
And that was really our strong suit. We spent a lot of time developing media relationships and attending events and you know, figuring out in our kind of our meaty relations secret sauce was always, you know, around what are the trends and issues. Are important to to our clients and to our clients customers. And so over the years, the things that have changed, I mean obviously the Internet has changed everything. But you know when you talk about you know how it started, when I started, when I started PR, we used typewriters, I mean. There were, you know, when I was at Fruhoft, they were just introducing word processors and that was. I don’t know 86, I think. But but the communications department was the last department to get word processors. I used an IBM Selectric tool. So I would type up a release, hand it to a secretary to retype because I had marked it all up. Then she would pass it back to. I would pass it back to her to make corrections after I marked it up again. I mean it was a very inefficient process. A lot of the technology has speeded things up.
Rachel
And now we’re using AI to do all of those things. Like if you think about it, I.
Dan
Yeah.
Rachel
It’s crazy.
Jim
I mean, we fax things.
Jim
We mail. This. Yeah. Talk to my daughter who’s 35 and. And is in the PR business in another agency. But she she tells everybody she started doing PR when she was 5. She used. She used to fold the press releases and stuff the envelopes. Me at home. At.
Rachel
Between that and the scissors and. Paste right the glue.
Jim
Yeah, the. Tina Kozak can tell you the story about the clips.
Dan
Yeah, it was great for.
Rachel
With her left hand scissors, I mean, I’ve heard that story many times so.
Dan
Great for crafts.
Jim
So but but what’s changed? Especially probably in the last 10 or 15 years is is the Internet has changed a lot. A lot of the publications that used to cover the auto industry with great depth no longer do so. Many of them have gone away. Some of them have gone. But I mean, I can remember in the days when Wards Auto had, you know 15/20/25 editorial staff for their various. Now it’s it’s down to a handful.
Rachel
And a lot of freelance.
Jim
A lot of freelance and and I think generally. We’ve seen that across all aspects of journalism, right daily, newspapers, radio stations, whatever.
Dan
Yeah, yeah, we’re not unique here.
Jim
Also, because of that, you know you have these new tools now. And of course you guys are masters in the integrated communications in the peso formula. Know where where most much of my career was focused on the earned media. That is the media relations.
Rachel
Mm.
Jim
You know you have all these other tools because earned media has become there are fewer places for it harder to do now. It’s still very important and and still has great value because of the credibility that. Those media outlets carry but, but you also can add these other components now of the supporting that that they can all work together with some synergy. With the paid and the shared and the owned and so. You know, as PR people, we were always developing content we just didn’t call it that, called it writing. Right. And of course, now you know, almost everybody can can be a designer because of AI and because of the the tool. So there are a lot more tools in the toolbox. It’s a really exciting time in PR. Because of that, yeah, yeah.
Dan
And I think that’s like, you know. You’re. And that AI kind of lowers the barrier to entry to a lot of the stuff. I think there’s still this, I don’t know. I I still think it’s important from like especially a creative perspective, you know, you’ll see AI generated images with, you know 6 fingers or whatnot, you know.
Jim
And they they look like.
Dan
There’s.
Jim
Can you can spot them a mile away?
Dan
There’s still a difference between good design and.
Rachel
You can.
Dan
Workable design in a lot of cases.
Jim
Yeah. And you can and you can find AI written copy.
Dan
Yeah, sure.
Jim
You can spot it pretty well. Yeah, the the skills, the analytical skills and the problem solving and all that are still going to be very important in the understanding of the trends and the issues. Your client.
Dan
And where it all comes together.
Jim
Know and the. I mean, it’s a relationship business. All business is based on relationships, but especially ours because there is so much trust required. Between us, between our clients and us, between us and the media people that we deal with on a regular basis. And you know you you develop trust slowly and face to face.
Rachel
Yeah.
Jim
You know, I always tell the interns when they come. You know, you know you cannot create relationships online when you do. What do you? You get the TV show catfish, right?
Rachel
Mm.
Jim
You can maintain relationships online, but you create them in person, so it’s really important. You know, to get out there and interact with people and be genuine and be authentic and and make yourself trustworthy.
Rachel
So that’s what’s remained the same. Yeah. If you think about it right, you talk about all that change.That is what has remained the same.
Jim
One of the things that’s really changed, too is that the trade shows there were a couple of key shows that all suppliers focused on the SAE World Congress, which is now called WCX, that used to be a sold out show at Cobo, now Huntington Place. And there was 100 people on the 100 companies on the waiting list to. Exhibit it’s a much smaller show now, but that was kind of that was kind of like Mardi Gras week, Detroit’s version of Mardi Gras week, I say mean all the big parties, the press events. It was insane.
Rachel
It’s the suppliers auto show in a sense, right?
Jim
Yeah. And then there was the auto. There were several suppliers that, you know, moved from SAE to the auto show and then later to CES. But but I think COVID kind of accelerated the trend of moving away from these super shows into smaller, more focused shows. They’re still important, but they’re not kind of the huge events they used to be.
Dan
Yeah, it’s, it’s and we we talked about this a little bit right after the the auto show this year. Just it’s it’s not the same spectacle that you would have seen. Somebody crashing through windows or there’s no.
Jim
Which again makes those other tools to pay the share and own. More important may mean as A and as an earned media person. Those events are great for us because those events forced us to create communications around those events, whether it was for a press event, for an exhibit, or whatever. I mean, I used to work SAE and I would stand in the aisle. Between two of our clients, Bosch and DuPont, and do conduct conduct interviews. Mean we would do 4 solid days of interviews.
Speaker
Yeah.
Jim
Back-to-back to. It was insane, but there were 303 hundred 400 media that. Right. And which for a trick for an automotive trade show, trade show that was pretty good.
Rachel
Yeah.
Jim
It’s a lot different now.
Rachel
Yeah. Tina to to that. So, you know, acquiring Bianchi, going through this whole thing, leading Franco, the industry’s changing, but what does that mean for communicators or you know, owners of companies that are looking? To communicate change. How do you do? How do you work through that? Know things are changing rapidly. We’re kind of the ones that have to communicate it. Does that look like what have you learned?
Tina
So as we went through the process of the owner owner buyout with Dan Ponder, you know last year and then with Bianchi this year, I think what was really important for us was having a really good plan. Having a plan that followed at the model that we sell. The peso model really important, but starting with the basics, getting our messaging in a good spot and then communicating with our team, absolutely critical in making sure you do everything in the right time in the right way.
Rachel
Yeah.
Tina
Because one throwing one thing off can really throw off the whole plan. The importance of sharing the messages internally, making sure they’re understood and communicated is really of utmost importance. And I think really what helped us do this and do it well.
Rachel
I think it’s important to know that like whatever your change is, right, it doesn’t have to be a buyout in ownership transition, whatever that change is for company following that model is is kind of what leads to success.
Tina
I think, yeah, all thinking through all the pieces up front is super important. You know, just yeah, you can do it. Can do it quickly and not really having thought through it, but you will. Will see things fall apart potentially.
Dan
Yeah. And I think I think that’s something like even just the the minor changes like like you said, you might not think about some of these things, but even you know if you think about suppliers over the past 5-10 years, you know whatever. Thinking about them shifting from more like manufacturing companies to technology companies, I think that’s only accelerating right now and even something like that, you might not necessarily see it from a day-to-day change. But when you look at one of these companies from 2012 to 2025 and where the the focus has changed. I think that even that kind of you know slower institutional change is something that’s so important to focus on, like the why focus on sharing with your team, things like that.
Tina
Yeah, yeah, the Y is always important. Are we doing this right?
Dan
Yeah.
Tina
We do that with our. You know, we always go back to why did they hire us? Do they?
Dan
Yeah.
Tina
What’s the? What’s the ROI for them and what are they trying to get to their business goals? So absolutely.
Dan
So I I know you talked a little bit about, you know kind of the the past how things have changed to date now, but let’s talk a little bit I guess about the future. What is exciting about? The mobility industry, as we look ahead to the next, you know 5-10 years and and communications around that.
Jim
Sure. You know there’s more change going on in the automotive mobility industry in this decade than there was in the previous 100 years. It’s a really exciting time and I’ll change can be tough, but it can also be. There’s a lot of opportunity for firms like Franco now. Because of this change, I mean, we’re seeing a lot of technology coming into the auto industry and the mobility industry from software Lidar, you know we have software defined vehicles and have autonomous vehicles on all these are high tech companies that are coming into the kind of the Detroit environment, the automotive industry, which is a works on a different clock speed and has a totally different mindset. You know people that produce software are used to, well, we’ll fix it in the next iteration. Automakers don’t want. They want your product to be perfect and they’re going to test it for three years before they ever put it on their car.
Rachel
Well, consumers kind of demanding.
Jim
Yeah, yeah.
Rachel
Think about it.
Jim
So it’s. It’s, you know, it’s those new players and there’s a lot of new players coming in for the EVs battery technology and foreign players as well. You have got new automakers coming in. You got all these suppliers coming in that need to navigate these automotive seas that they really don’t understand. They need a guide, like a Franco, to help them communicate that understands the industry but also understands. Their technology and how that technology will have an impact in the industry. So it’s it’s an exciting time in that in that respect.
Dan
Yeah, I think you know, going back to something that you said way back at the beginning of the interview here was like. It almost feels like a similar issue to what you mentioned in in starting Bianchi. Know there was more competition coming in for. They had to share their, you know, their value, their benefit. Why? Why choose them right? And now it’s just, you know, the supply competition is still there, but it’s also kind of compounded with this tech competition. Like you said, international companies with with all these different kind of variants as new technologies come in and. Think like finding that balance between speed and call it safety checks for the auto industry is going to be important too.
Jim
Yeah, I think if you, I think if you look back at history, you know the auto industry has always been exciting. Crane has always said. You know, this is the most exciting industry in the world. And there’s a lot of change. I mean, you think about it in the early days in the infancy of the auto industry, there were 30/40/50 or a hundred different people making cars and you know, a few survived. Now you know, we’re seeing that again now with with electric vehicles. All these new entrants coming in that don’t that don’t have legacy costs and legacy equipment and legacy designs that are kind of an anchor around their neck. That can move quicker and do things in a different way and are starting with a clean sheet approach. Where the legacy automakers maybe don’t, and even the legacy suppliers don’t. Have that same situation or that same advantage.
Rachel
Well, it reminds me of the discussion we had with Janelle from Michigan Central. Right when you look at New Lab and all of those startups that are in there that are not necessarily are all automotive, but they startups move at the speed of light because they have to, right? Have to innovate. They have to get people on. They have to be the only ones doing it or get to the, you know, their customer the fastest to to get in, right? So it’ll be very interesting, I think, to see which ones. Hold on. Continue to innovate can get the funding. There’s so many startups buying for smaller amounts of funding it feels like. Yeah, the next. Five to 10 years in automotive I think are going to be a very, very interesting time. I obviously haven’t lived the past, but it feels it feels different. I don’t know, the timing feels different with a lot of crossroads. There’s a lot of. In the road.
Tina
You know, it’s funny. I, as you were saying that I was thinking of myself. And in being in different events over ,y past 28 year career and hearing that very same thing and not that it’s not valuable or what you’re saying isn’t true because it is.
Rachel
I’m sure.
Tina
But it’s always kind of been that mindset that there’s still so much HUD and there is.
Rachel
Are we ever going to actually get to something?
Tina
No, I don’t. Know and I think if we did, we would say this is boring.
Dan
Yeah. What now?
Tina
What now? So I think there’s. But it’s been true for so many years.
Rachel
So what excites you?
Tina
In in the world of communications in here or automotive, yeah.
Rachel
Or the combination of the two.
Tina
So that’s where it’s at. You know, as we talk about the combination and and I’ll reference the two agencies coming together. We have seen so much value in media relations over the years in the past couple there was a huge uprising in digital, right and all of the work on the social end and we’re starting to see the tide go back now and really focus again heavily on media relations. So I feel like together Franco and Bianchi are really at the starting line together with strong, strong expertise and mobility and B2B and automotive and beyond. Because we have a lot of other areas of focus, right? But we really have seen it full circle and I think we’re just going to kill it moving forward with a lot of value for our clients.
Rachel
Yeah, it brings up an interesting. And Jim, back to what you said about PR and really media relations being about relationships. With fewer media out there, they can’t have relationships with one person at every company. You almost need the specialists and the agencies that hold those relationships. For them to work through that, it’s a lot easier for media to have one contact person for a few different companies. Versus getting the attention from one person at one company. The numbers just don’t work out anymore.
Rachel
You simply couldn’t.
Jim
Yeah, the corporate people don’t have time.
Rachel
No, you know.
Jim
In meetings. They don’t have time to spend on those relationships, and when you’re in an agency and you have the time to develop those relationships and then you can leverage those relationships over multiple clients and that that may that makes you know having a a practice where you have a number you know. And now I think Franco’s automotive mobility practice rank in the top ten in the country among independent PR firms based on Billings, I’m pretty sure. So I mean, there is a lot of nuclear throw weight there and a lot of expertise and experience that can be you know that can be used applied to to a number of clients and it gets you get very the agency efficient, which is always helpful for clients.
Jim
If I might jump back to one thing about that excites me and the combination excites me. First of all to to be back working with Tina Kozak and and Tina Sullivan and the great things they’ve put together here at Franco. And I know they’ve talked about being kind of a full circle having having started out at at BPR, but this is a kind of a near miss full circle for me Back in 1997, 1977, I interviewed with Franco for a for an entry level.
Dan
Yeah.
Jim
County Executive job and I waited for them to call me back for the writing test. They never did. So I guess now with this acquisition had the world’s longest written test.
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
Dan
Looked over all the all of the content you put out and you know finally come back together.
Rachel
That’s really funny. I love that story.
Jim
That’s. But you know that the people focus that you have is so important. Because that’s what clients hire, hire people. They don’t hire cases. They don’t hire your list of clients. They hire people. And the people are what makes it work. And I mean, you know, one of the hallmarks of our agency and I think Franco is developing this as well, BPR now part of Franco, but Franco is developing this as well is the long term relationships. I mean, Tina mentioned Freudenberg that she worked on it back in. When 1998, when she was with us, they’ve been a client for 32 years. You know the average client relationship is three years. And so we had a lot of relationships like that Johnson Controls. Audiant TRW was with us for 24 years until they were acquired by ZF. So a lot of long term relationships and that. That’s because of the people.
Dan
Yeah.
Jim
That’s because our people treated the clients the way they wanted to be treated. You have. You have that culture in spades here. Really. Do.
Rachel
But if I may, I think. On the other side of that, it’s not. Just with clients, but. Your staff has been with you.
Jim
Yes.
Rachel
For a very, very long time. That says something not just about the clients and their relationships you have on that side, but about you and your company and cultures. When you talk about culture fit and just long standing relationships, I mean that speaks volumes about the company that’s you know coming into Franco too.
Jim
Yeah, I’ve been blessed with with a great staff and the, you know, the current team that’s been brought over to to, to now is part of Franco and the mobility practice is I think the newest employees got 14 years of experience.
Rachel
Yeah, I mean, that’s insane.
Dan
Yeah, I think I mean. I mean, I think that’s one area where where I see a lot of similarity also is like there is. I don’t know the stat on. Like an average agency’s 10 year is, but I know that.
Rachel
Tenure well under 13.
Dan
Certainly a BPR, that’s you know, well above the well, well above the average. And I know like if Franco, if we look around the office it’s it’s kind of a similar situation here. You know as we come through the years.
Rachel
Yes.
Tina
Yes it is.
Jim
Clients appreciate. They appreciate the stability and and that they’re, you know, a lot of the big, you know, the global agencies.You know the. Push down to junior level. Junior level people work on an account and then they move to another accounting account so that the client feels like they’re constantly training their account executive. And that’s not that’s not real efficient, no.
Tina
Not for the agency. I mean really investing in your team, investing in your people is the most critical.
Dan
Right.
Tina
They’ll stay loyal to you as long as you’re loyal to them as well. So it is. It’s really everything in our world.
Rachel
As a final closeout, Tina, we’ve asked you this question, but Jim, I would love to know from you what’s one piece of advice having lived all of the years and all of your career that you would give your 21 year old self?
Jim
OK, I have to boil it down to two pieces of advice.
Rachel
That’s, you know what? Fair enough. Fair enough.
Jim
One is fear is the enemy. You know, quit worrying about what’s what could go wrong and get excited about what could go right. I think that’s a Tony Robbins kind of a quote, but.
Speaker
Mm.
Jim
That’s that’s something there are a lot of chances that I didn’t take that I should have because I was afraid. And the other thing is build your network. Again, it’s a relationship business meet. Be out there, meet people, develop relationships with them. It pays off in the end.
Rachel
Yeah, and maintain them. I think in their relationship too, right? You want to build that. With a good basis, not just making relationships for the sake of making relationships. And you can do that online now, so you know what?
Jim
Yeah, that’s right. There’s a lot that you can do online that you couldn’t do back in the days when I.
Dan
Yeah, yeah.
Jim
I mean, clients would call and say, you know I need the statistics for how many vehicles were built three years ago, I mean. You couldn’t go online and search. You had to know where to find that information. It was a lot different back then, but now.
Rachel
You have to be worried about where you’re getting the information. You know what I mean?
Tina
Isn’t true. Isn’t that?
Rachel
New challenges every time.
Jim
How credible is a source?
Rachel
Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you both so much for your time and, you know, excited to bring in Jim’s team and the BPR team over to Franco. Been a good fit already.
Dan
Yeah. Exciting times. Thank you.
Jim
We’re excited too.
Dan
Thank you.
Rachel
Alright, great knowledge dropped by both of them. No surprise there.
Dan
Yeah.
Rachel
Really excited for for what the future Franco is and and having all four employees and then plus gym. But Franco grew by grew by 5 with four people, 4 count people joining us and they’ve been a pleasure to work with so far.
Dan
Yeah, awesome.
Rachel
Yeah. So we’re happy. Happy, happy to have them over here. And I just can’t wait to see how. Things grow and change in the future with this, I’m going to call it it’s a partnership, but like the meshing in the partnership of these two companies all coming together, so stay tuned.
Dan
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all coming together. You know, stay tuned actually comes.
