But what is going on today? Have you been able to put your finger on what the glitches are?

It's...

I, I think it's different for different companies, but, uh, I think there's a, there's a substantial amount of commonality, um, among various companies.

The economy is not, in, in 2026 heading into 2027, is not even.

Uh, there are places where it's, it's teetering, it's faltering.

It's almost as if it's a, a wide receiver who caught the ball about, uh, a foot away from the, uh, the sideline and is keeping his balance as he runs down the field, but you never know whether he's gonna kind of regain his balance and move into the, into the, uh, clear zone, or he's gonna potentially, uh, you know, fall off the, uh, o- off the field and into the, uh, out of bounds zone.

There are companies that did great in the pandemic, and then afterwards, they just ended up finding that something went wrong, and whether it was their business or whether it was really the consumer demand that changed over the course of time, that has been the case for some companies.

Uh, who do you think causes more unnecessary franchise problems? Are franchisors doing it to themselves, franchisees doing it to themselves, or what about their lawyers? Do some of them create more problems [chuckles] than they provide solutions?