New York Reaches Deal to Raise Minimum Wage to $15

Mike Reyes has never been interested in dabbling. The founder of NextGen Holdings spent 20 years building his career with Aflac before becoming a multi-unit Orangetheory Fitness franchisee and developing a real estate portfolio. Today, he is applying those lessons to KidStrong , where his organization is rapidly expanding across multiple markets.

• I’ve always been wired to go big or go home,” Reyes said. “I was never a dabbling guy. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it 100%.”

Reyes’ entrepreneurial education began long before KidStrong . At 22, he joined Aflac as a 1099 associate, selling business-to-business and eventually building teams as he moved from district manager to regional manager, state sales coordinator and market director.

• I cut my teeth growing and mentoring and developing people at a young age,” Reyes said. “I always knew that I wanted to work for myself, that I wanted to be in control of my career.”

In 2014, Reyes began looking for another investment vehicle and discovered Orangetheory Fitness. He and a partner initially signed for four units and ultimately opened eight stores in roughly five and a half years. The experience showed Reyes how skills he had developed in insurance, including sales, leadership, hiring and market development, could translate directly to franchising.

• But it also reinforced another lesson: Passion matters. “It’s 90%. It’s your purpose. It’s your story,” Reyes said. “It’s what you’re all about. It’s why you get up in the morning.”

That connection to health and wellness would eventually lead him to KidStrong. Reyes was introduced to KidStrong by another area developer who had also been involved with Orangetheory. At the time, KidStrong had only about 25 to 30 centers open.

Rather than immediately jumping in, Reyes spent roughly three months vetting the opportunity. He reviewed the FDD , spoke with franchisees and spent time with KidStrong leadership .

• I didn’t need to be sold. I just needed the facts,” Reyes said. “The devil’s in the details.”

That process convinced him the underlying model worked when franchisees executed the playbook properly. It also helped that KidStrong’s mission aligned with his own life. Reyes has three sons, coaches youth sports and believes strongly in child development and enrichment.

He initially purchased four licenses on Long Island. Nearly five years later, NextGen has grown to 20 open and operating centers, according to Reyes, with plans to open another 10 next year and continue toward a roughly 50-unit development commitment.

• It starts like every other entrepreneur,” Reyes said. “It starts with one and a vision and a whiteboard, and then you just go to work.”

As NextGen has expanded, that has meant building a leadership team and ensuring KidStrong’s mission remains consistent across locations. For Reyes, that mission is not an afterthought. His team regularly discusses how many children they are serving, how many students are progressing through the program and the feedback families are providing.

• Everything is about team,” he said. “If you don’t have the right people in the right seats and empower them to be a part of the growth strategy, you can’t do it on your own. It just takes a village.”

For Reyes, that disciplined approach has helped turn an initial four-unit KidStrong investment into a much larger growth platform. And despite already reaching 20 operating centers, he believes NextGen is still near the beginning.

• I am hyper-focused and diligent on the growth of the platform and the brand,” Reyes said. “I’m excited to take this awesome brand to communities all over the country.”

Reyes joined 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills on a recent episode of the “Meet the Franchisee” podcast to discuss how he evaluates franchise opportunities, why he believes KidStrong has significant runway ahead and what entrepreneurs need to understand before trying to scale.

Powills: I don’t know if anyone’s given you this label before, Mike, but it seems like you’re the guy who makes safe, smart bets because you’ve done it now multiple times. You can get it right once, but to do it twice, that means there’s some skill set to that, right?

Powills: Go back to the first time you decide to make an investment in a franchise. I assume the first one was Orangetheory, right?

Powills: What was the trigger? That was relatively early stage in the brand. They had a little bit of success at that point, but not to the level of where it ended up. What even got you into franchising? Why did you pick franchising as an investment platform?

Reyes: I’ve always been an entrepreneur my whole life. I started with Aflac at 22 as a 1099 Aflac associate and built insurance agencies as a 1099. It’s the only thing I knew. I cut my teeth growing, mentoring and developing people at a young age. I always knew I wanted to work for myself and that I wanted to be in control of my career. I had a great run for 20 years at Aflac, but along the way, I realized I wanted to diversify and have a couple of other vehicles to invest in. I was always actively investing in the stock market and buying real estate.

I jumped on board. I took my first Orangetheory class here in Fairfield, Connecticut, and fell in love with the concept. I’m a health and wellness guy myself. I like to work out a lot.

But it was still very early. Most people thought we were Orange Therapy or Orange Julius. The brand recognition really wasn’t there yet, especially here in Connecticut.

But building insurance agencies at Aflac was very similar in terms of people, structure, leadership, commissions, how we invest money back into the business, how we grow people, how we grow into markets and how we sell.

There were a lot of parallels between the two. When Aflac had low brand recognition, before the duck campaign hit the market, that eventually exploded. I’ve been a part of three amazing brand stories and growth stories now. That’s how I got started and how I jumped into Orangetheory. It was the best decision I ever made, getting into franchising.

Powills: A few things I want to unpack. One is the comparison to someone who’s at Aflac. The reality is it’s set up where you eat what you kill.

Powills: What that trained you for, at least from a mindset standpoint, is that you’re looking at what you were able to do at Aflac and looking at Orangetheory and saying, “All right, I see the white space. I see where the opportunity is. I know whatever money lands in my pocket is going to be due to the way I approach this from a hustle standpoint.”

Reyes: At 22 years old, I was out of college, got my insurance license, went business-to-business and closed a ton of accounts. I wrote a ton of premium, and I built teams from district manager to regional manager to state sales coordinator and then to market director. In those 20 years, I learned from some of the best people in the business. I had a seat next to Dan Amos, the CEO of Aflac, and I was learning from people along the way.

But I didn’t realize that what I was learning was going to be so applicable to franchising, or really any business. When I became a market director in 2014 and then became a W-2 employee, I rode that out, and that’s when I knew my road was over at Aflac. I wanted to break back into being an owner, being in control and being as entrepreneurial as I could because I like to innovate, create, influence people and build platforms.

Powills: I’m going to make an assumption with this statement, but your passion for insurance is different than your passion for wellness and fitness. If you’re looking at the map of earning potential in your career, you’re maximizing at Aflac, but now you’ve added something where you say, “I’m passionate about taking care of myself and