Former New York Jets cornerback now a Smoothie King franchisee

If founders, chefs and other creatives are the beating heart of the restaurant industry, then franchisees are the veins delivering their ideas to all corners of the globe. Franchising is critical to the success of the industry, allowing brands to quickly scale their big ideas using other people’s capital. And whether it’s a mom-and-pop restaurant owner with one or two franchised restaurants or a seasoned veteran whose influence in the industry is well-known, franchisees — with all their individual attributes, styles and personalities — make a huge impact on the success of a business.

In this week’s installment of Franchisee Spotlight, we spoke with Ray Mickens, who was a cornerback for 10 years with the NFL, spending most of his career with the New York Jets. Mickens has spent much of his post-retirement career in restaurant franchising, with a specialty in opening foodservice franchises in airports. He and his brother own M2 Concepts, a foodservice franchising business with 40 locations.

Related: How Pokeworks’ first employee became a multi-unit franchisee for the brand

We spoke with Mickens about the recent opening of his first Smoothie King location in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, why he gravitates toward airports for restaurant ownership, and his goals for the future.

Store count: 40 franchised or licensed restaurants, mostly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with brands including Chick-fil-A, Qdoba, and Starbucks

Related: How Killer Burger’s youngest franchisee has found success at age 27

From football to franchising

I would say I fell into it, but I also have a background in accounting, so I've always been interested in doing business after I finished playing football. I've always been taught that physical talents will go away, but mental talents will keep you going for life. I invested in a small food and beverage operation in Philadelphia, back when I was playing in New York with the Jets, and that's where it all started. It was in 1999, and my uncle opened a pretzel and popcorn stand at the airport. I invested $15,000 into that, and I started learning the food and beverage business and the airport business. On my days off from playing, I would drive down to Philadelphia, learn about the business, meet with airport officials at different meetings.

Then, I had an opportunity to open a pizza concept, so I was able to open that first. Then in 2004 or 2005, I got the opportunity at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to operate some newsstands and a Starbucks, and then a Qdoba, and it started to snowball from there.

Why franchising

I think football and franchising go hand-in-hand, and not just from a self-discipline standpoint. You need to understand teamwork, even if you're the quarterback, you still need somebody to throw the ball to. So, I understand that philosophy, and I just try to hire the best people around and I think that that's what makes us successful.

I think that’s why athletes want to go into franchising because you get to develop your own team. I enjoy working with these different personalities and trying to build the best championship team that I can. You have to have discipline, be consistent, and be able to handle adversity. You celebrate your wins, but you quickly move on to for the next challenge. I think that’s a trait that us former athletes have.

Airport opportunities

We’re currently operating in nine airports; it's a captive audience. That's one thing that was intriguing to me…. The industry has evolved over the years. TSA changed things, like you weren't able to bring water in. So, the first thing that started to spike in price was the bottled water sales in the airport. Then, people started to move away from sit-down restaurants. They get more into the grab-and-go stuff, the coffee, the smoothies — things that travel well and you can get on a plane with.

Investing in healthier options

Being an athlete, I try to live a healthy lifestyle, so smoothies have always been intriguing to me. With surveys that [airports] send out, consumers are saying they want more healthy options, but every healthy option they put into the airport doesn’t perform well. When I saw Smoothie King moved their headquarters to Dallas, a lightbulb went off, and I thought, ‘this is a great product, and one of the best smoothie brands in the world. DFW is one of the most trafficked airports in the world, so I thought it was a perfect match. So, I reached out to Smoothie King, and had dinner with [CEO] Wan Kim, and I thought it was a perfect match. Now that we’re open, the location is exceeding expectations, so I think you’re going to start seeing a lot more healthier options in airports across the country.

Long-term goals

My goal is to not only promote and open Smoothie Kings in airports, but also expand it across the country. I think that this brand is missing in the airport space. I think it would do great numbers for the health food category. I think I’m one of the first to market when it comes to bringing smoothies to the airport, so I want to be ahead of the curve and open more.