“Because of the totality of my experience at McDonald’s, I just kept getting more and more involved with Zen and, gosh, I knew it was a great concept.”
— Keith Larson, Zen Massage CEO
Background
• Experience with McDonald’s shaped his career, both in radio and at Zen Massage.
• Larson wants to grow nine-unit Zen, highlighting its no-contract approach.
Reporter Megan Glenn asks what makes emerging brand leaders tick—and presents their edited answers in this column in each issue. To suggest a subject, email mglenn@franchisetimes.com
Reporter Megan Glenn asks what makes emerging brand leaders tick—and presents their edited answers in this column in each issue. To suggest a subject, email mglenn@franchisetimes.com.
Where did you start your career?
Are you sure you want to ask that? Because we don’t get from there to here easily. There are multiple steps and they may seem divergent but they have some real overlap.
I have lived two careers very fully. My dad was an accountant with McDonald’s in Chicago, and I started working in the mail room there when I was in high school. You can really learn everything about a company in their mailroom.
I went to college and got into radio for about 12 years. There came a point where the station changed its format, everybody got fired, and I began looking at advertising agencies. I thought, wait a minute. I know all the advertising people at McDonald’s, so I reached out.
I eventually went back to radio in Charlotte for 16 years and opened my own ad agency, which is when I got in touch with Zen Massage. We came on board in 2014 with a whole new approach. Rebranding, research and all that. Because of the totality of my experience with McDonald’s, I just kept getting more and more involved with Zen and, gosh, I knew it was a great concept. I loved every single thing about it.
How does it feel going from the giant McDonald’s to a company with less than 20 locations?
Everything you learn when you’re part of marketing and franchising with McDonald’s stays with you. You are part of the leading brain trust in the entire franchise and consumer marketing industry. That’s just the truth of it, and it’s incomparable.
Zen Massage is smaller, but the development of a brand, understanding what that brand means to consumers and find out what they gush about. And despite them being very different companies, they’ve gone through some similar times.
When this little franchise actually started in 2006, its first center was hugely successful. Two years later founder Kevin Koon had franchises from Florida to California with I think 20 deals set up. He was the concept guy, the massage guy, but he was not the build-or-scale-a-franchise business guy. The previous CEO, who’s still a minority partner, did a lot of work reshaping the brand and I did the same after COVID. That’s where the McDonald’s experience really pays off. You already know what you need to do to make those kinds of moves. It might be tough, but you make it happen.
You’ve had a pretty big career shift. Was becoming a CEO natural to you, or was the transition challenging?
I wouldn’t go back to radio today. That industry has changed so much. What I do now isn’t that far away, either. I worked with sales people, clients, helping run the business, all that.
That’s why I decided to form the ad agency and bought two centers at Zen Massage. That’s when I closed up my advertising agency and decided to fully dedicate my time to Zen.