Dennis Franczak, Founder and Partner of Bright Matter Advisors, is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive advisor with a deep passion for meaningful impact and legacy. With over two decades of experience, Dennis has navigated the complex landscapes of advertising and business strategy, establishing himself as a thought leader in both fields. As the founder and former CEO of a highly successful advertising agency, he possesses extensive knowledge of the latest trends in advertising and brand strategy.
Today, Dennis dedicates his expertise to CEO and executive advisory, helping leaders scale their businesses, optimize sales processes, and determine the right times to buy or sell their enterprises. After experiencing burnout post-COVID and realizing the detrimental effects of maintaining a façade of the "perfect CEO," he took a six-month sabbatical to reconnect with his core values through therapy and self-reflection, gaining unique insights into challenges like loneliness, isolation, and the struggle for authenticity in leadership.
“I'm basically living my legacy because, with Bright Matter Advisors, I'm using my experience, my flaws, and my weaknesses that I have tried to work through, but continue to work on every day, always to help other people so they don’t experience what happened to me. And that’s really what gives me purpose everyday—doing things with impact.”
- Dennis Franczak
Website: https://brightmatteradvisors.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfranczak/
Hello, and welcome everybody to this episode of The Insight Interviews. This is your host, Jason Abell, and I've got a guest today that I'm pretty excited about, especially after our chat prerecording, I got even more excited about the places that we're going to go today. So, our guest today is Dennis Franczak. Listen to this. Dennis is founder and partner of Bright Matter Advisors, which helps executives lead, impact, live happier lives, run better companies and leave a legacy that they're proud of. Dennis, we've got all kinds of places for us to go today, but first, welcome to the show.
Thank you. Jason, very happy to be here. Very excited.
Yeah, well, like I said, we're excited as well. I'm going to ask you a question that we ask every single guest of the Insight Interviews. It's our first question out of the box, which is today, Dennis, as you and I engage one another, who or what are you particularly grateful for?
You know, I think I'm grateful for my struggles, because it's helped me get to where I am now. And I think, of course, I'm grateful for my children and all my friends and family who have supported me.
Thank you for the authenticity of just that answer right there. It makes me think of something that from time to time during Thanksgiving time, we ask around the table is, what are you thankful for now that you weren't thankful for when it was happening? And my take on how you answer that question is kind of exactly that. You know, I know enough about you and some of the prerecording discussions that we had, your real big part of your story is some struggles. And I don't know if we want to dive in the deep end of the pool right away, but maybe we do. What kind of struggles are you thankful for? Like walk us through some of that, if you don't mind, Dennis.
No, absolutely. I think that, you know, we could go in a lot of angles with that, right? But I think I'm thankful for the struggle, even though it came at some cost. I'm thankful that I was able to catch myself before I almost had a Control Alt Delete moment, if you were to put it in computer terms, in terms of burnout, isolation, feeling like I was alone as a CEO or an entrepreneur and a founder. Not being able to, like let people in to know that I was not on top of my game. And I'm also grateful because now I know all the signs that got me to that place, that at the time, I had no idea what was happening, and it's like death by 1000 cuts, but they’re so little you don't even know until you're bleeding out on the floor. I hate to be graphic, but that's the truth.
Yeah. Is there a particular time in your history that you can relay to us that kind of walks us through, kind of the struggle, and then why today you're saying, hey, actually, when you ask me what I'm grateful for, I'm grateful for the struggle?
Yeah, I think it goes back- I want to answer more in a timeline, right? As opposed to a specific example.
Yeah, yeah.
I was adopted at a very young age, and I always tell people, I scared my mom into fertility, because right after they adopted me at three months old, she had four in a row right away.
Oh, no.
Yeah, but I looked a lot different, and they told me right away I was adopted. My dad was the mayor of our town, he was a schoolteacher, kind of an authoritative figure and he was busy a lot, but he felt like he was a provider, right? So, he prided himself on that, and we didn't have a lot of money growing up, so I knew that in order to go to college, I had to get an ROTC scholarship. So, I kind of provided for myself. I had to work really hard to get that scholarship to pay for my college, and I carried that provider mentality into my work in the Air Force and beyond, and I was always seeking to do new and different things. And one of the reasons I got out of the military was not because I didn't enjoy the work, it was more because government tends to move slow, and I like to move fast, probably, you know, due to my ADHD, which I'm proud to carry that badge. But so, I always had this feeling of like, nothing I'm doing is good enough. So, I always had that sense of, I gotta keep impressing my dad, right? Then, when I got married, it was like, I gotta impress my wife. And you take that provider role to a level that's unhealthy, but you don't know it, because you're building a company. So, a lot of your audience who are in high performing positions or started companies, or you know, they are at a multinational or whatever, there's so many layers of performance that you need to be at to get to that, that you're slowly losing who you really are as a person. And there were things like, I liked coaching college soccer, which I did as a part time job for years at the division one level. And I gave up DJing, which is something that is really something that is core to me now. I threw myself into my work. I tried to be the best father I could with my kids, take them to events, coach them, do all that kind of stuff, and what happened over time is though, I started to lose connection with important things. Like my wife and I started to have some problems. I was starting to feel immense pressure to grow the company, to get it to the next level. So, we had revenue barriers we need to hit, then we hit them, but it was almost like we grew too fast. And then around 2019, 2020, COVID hit. I had just bought an experiential marketing firm to go with my ad agency, Fuse Ideas, and all the events that I was going to do got canceled, which basically I lost my revenue stream.
Yeah.
So I had to retrain those people, which was the best decision I ever made. But I had to go through the PPP process. I had to do whatever I could to not have anybody get laid off during that time, and we were fortunate that our ad agency had a lot of government contracts that we were able to survive. But it took a toll, and it really kind of hit a wall for me in like 2022 because in 2019, I started a hockey club, which is huge up here in New England, and then I created the first residential hockey academy in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and that crippled my expectations. And so, I was running an ad agency that was doing very well, even though we were navigating through COVID, and the next thing you know, I had a business that was almost the same size, that was more in startup mode, and I'm trying to do two things at once, and I wasn't doing either one of them very well. And also, by that time, my marriage was really starting to go into disrepair, despite efforts that we tried, you know, but all of a sudden, I reached a breaking point in 2022 because of number of things happened. So, one of my players in my residential academy committed suicide, right? So, I had a suicide of a wonderful young man under my watch, even though we had had all the precautions in place and all that. My mentor passed, and there's a story behind that, that we should come back to. And then these businesses were just swirling around and I was working 80 hour weeks to try to keep it all going and I'm losing connection with my family, and I had a breaking point. And I said, If I don't step off this hamster wheel, I will die. There was going to be something crazy, like, I don't know, you don't even know, and I felt like I needed to reset. So that was the moment, like, but all these little things led up to it, that I could have, like, trip wires, like, you know, the circuit breakers?
Yep, yep.
I ignored all the circuit breakers till the main circuit blew out.
Yeah, yeah. So then what? When you had the main circuit blow out, and I don't know. I feel like a lot of our listeners either know what that looks like or have experienced it themselves, or something like it. Like, what then?
So, I made a decision with my chief operating officer, and my wife at the time, to say, I'm gonna I need to go away for a little while. I need to rediscover myself. So, I found a number of programs that included therapy, wellness, spirituality. I threw my phone away, you know, for six months, and then I did some leadership development stuff towards the end. I looked at all parts of my personality. It was almost like going back to school, like Peopling 101, right? And I needed to discover a lot of the things in my childhood and in my work experience and things that had happened to me that caused me to become compromised as layers of complexity with my life and my business started going forward.
Sure.
And when I got back from that journey, I felt like I could now turn my attention towards the future, which is, you know, a new life being a single man, having two adult children and getting my businesses back to where they could be. It included selling a couple of my businesses that were not profitable but were taking time. It included me taking time for myself every day, which includes mind, body, spirit and so I did probably about, I would say, on a conservative side, about 7000 hours of reinventing myself. And I know that's not realistic for most people, so what I've done is, I've been able to take that experience and take parts of all of them and form that into my coaching and my CEO advisory work to help CEOs and entrepreneurs and high performing people start to focus on three things, and that is themselves, because if you're not right, you're not right with your work, which is phase two, right? And then phase three, which is the thing that is really the most important, but nobody ever really thinks about, is, what kind of legacy do you want to leave? And that goes back to the mentor story that we can unpack.
Yeah, yeah, I did write that down. I want to go back to there. So, you pick your adventure, Dennis. Do you want to tell us that story, or do you want to expound on the three phases that you started on there?
Well, I think we'll come back to the three phases, because they'll make sense.
Okay.
I'm going to start with the story about my mentor. Very wonderful man. Very successful businessman. We connected, um, early on in around 2000, when I had started an internet startup in the mid-90s. We were the first like web development company in Boston at the time, and I merged in with a branding firm. So, we were like the first integrated agency, and I learned a very important lesson in that in the entrepreneur world, where you have to make sure that when you merge your company, have good buy sell agreements. My partner sold the company out from underneath me that I wanted to buy. And so, then I found this gentleman who was running a big agency in another city, and he said, we have no digital capabilities, and I'd like you to come work for us and do that. And so, during that time, I took their digital revenue from basically 0% to a significant portion of their earnings. And along the way, he and I formed a relationship where we would spend like, two hours almost every week, and he would just show me the undersides of the business. He would say, this is how you do it, like projections, when you know, knowing when it counts, in jeopardy, things like that. And we'd spent a lot of time together, and eventually I felt the entrepreneur bug again, and I left and started Fuse Ideas, and we didn't talk for a little while. He was sad and angry, and, you know, I respect him for that, but that was a little bit about him as a complicated person. He was very successful. He worked on a number of campaigns. He used to work in politics, and over the years, he started to deteriorate in terms of how he interacted with others. He stood in the office less, you know, you wouldn't hear from him, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, comes all caps emails and things like that. And I witnessed some of that while I was there, but it got worse over the years, and he would tell me about his struggles and whatnot. And when he died, I remember going to his wake, and nobody was there. And this is a man who should have had 1000 people there, and there were less than 20. And I looked at the sign in list, it wasn't very many. And it made me kind of sad, because this is somebody who I respected, who I had a complex relationship with, but always looked up to, and he died with nothing. And when that happened, right around the 2021, 2022 time frame, along with that, those other things, I'm like, what am I doing? I'm not being a good CEO, I am ignoring all the things that are important to me, I'm walling myself off, and this is what's going to end up happening to me. And I'm like, is that the legacy that I want to leave? I'm like, absolutely not, right? I think that was the point where I'm like, this has got to change. I have to.
Yeah.
Again, I could have head down there. And it ties into another story that will explain this really well, right?
Go for it. Yeah.
I was in Miami a few months back with a friend, and he and I were walking on the beach, just talking business and stuff like that. He's an old business colleague, and we're walking along, and when you're in South Beach, it's condo after condo with windows from, you know.
I am familiar with that. I like South Beach.
So, the person asked me, like, you know, tell me about, why you're doing this. And I said, well, imagine you're looking at the window of that building right there. It was like a 15-story condo unit - all windows. I said, look up there and imagine that there's one person in each of those rooms looking straight out of the ocean. I go, close your eyes for about three seconds and open them, and imagine that each of those windows now is different sizes, or in some cases, there's no window at all. And I go, that's what happens to us, as we layer on all this extra stuff and expectations, and we start to feel isolated, and we can't be vulnerable with our weaknesses, and we can't share, and we have so much pressure that our windows close. You can't see reality on the outside world. We're only seeing what we see inside our room, right? Inside our condo. You know, my purpose in life now is to take my experience and work with other executives and help their companies keep the windows open as wide as possible. So, the impact isn't so much on the executive, because I help them get their life right through helping them, their business, and helping them build a legacy, but all the people in their life, their family, their coworkers, the people that report to them, their boards, benefit because that person is refocused and reframed and understands how to keep their windows open at all times.
Love the analogy. So yeah, I'm picturing myself on the beach in South Beach, looking up at one of those buildings, and yeah, I get exactly what you're saying. So that is a really good segue, Dennis. I mean, how do you go about doing that? I mean, I'm imagining some of our listeners going, man, that's me. I am where Dennis was in 2020, or 2021, whenever that was. So, you know, I know you can't, we don't have the time or space or the environment to go literally, step by step, but what's, uh, you gave an overview of kind of what you do with someone that's either there or maybe they are on one of the first trip wires, where they want to avoid being there. What type of process do you take these people through?
Yeah, so first, it just starts with a phone call. They reach out to me and say, Dennis, thank you so much for doing this. I'm struggling. Could you take a call? I don't even charge for the first call, right? I just listen. And what I do there is, in that first session, I basically just work on trust building. So, we create this commonality between us, of their story and my experience and a connection point in there, and what we start to do from there is we start to break down fear. Fear is the number one reason that people don't call because they're afraid to say, I'm not feeling right. I’m a little off kilter. Things are starting to go sideways, but if I tell anybody about it, they're going to think that I can't do anything anymore. So, me having sat in a CEO chair for 20 years and been through that experience, I create a safe space for them to start to talk a little bit. And then from there, we start to get a handle on, really how much emphasis is going to start with the you, because there's a lot of work that has to be done there. Then we once, we start getting that, and there's a whole series of exercises and things that we do that are going to help them to start to get a framework of who they are truly as a person and as a high performing executive. We then map that to their relationship with their business, right? How they, as people, interact with their work, because we spend so much time in our work, and it's part of who we are, and a lot of times, people don't have that right mix. And then what I do, because of my experience, growing companies, operating them, you know, getting them sold, buying , I then start to say, all right, what are the things that we can do in your business that aligns with you, that are going to make you most impactful? And what are the problems that we need to solve? And then once we kind of do that and they get a good sense of and it happens in like, it's not like step one and step two, it kind of just evolves into it.
Sure.
And then step three, what I try to do, once I get to know them and their work and what they're doing, I start to really get an understanding of who they are as people, we can say, how about now figuring out leading with impact. Not just leading because you're running a company. Not because you know you need to be beholden to your shareholders. Like, how about doing something that has a positive effect on others, and starting to think about when it's time to go, what are people going to remember about you, right? What are the things you want to be known for? And of course, it's tied to your work, and it's tied to things, but it's a very, very layered conversation, right? So, my example, I'm basically living my legacy, because with Bright Matter Advisors, I'm using my experience and my flaws and my weaknesses that I have tried to work through, but I'm continuing to work every day on that, always, to help other people so they don't have what happened to me happen, and that's really what that gives me purpose every day is I doing things with impact. And all my companies, Jason, go through that lens. So, Fuse Ideas, we've now put it all through the lens of, is the work that we're doing going to make a positive impact for that client? We're not just selling product; we're trying to create impact. The reason I created DJs For a Cause was basically to have a nonprofit that helps other organizations do things with impact that are going to matter to their constituents. And it's the same with my sports and hockey programs, right? Like, my job there is to help kids get into college, get an education, become doctors and CEOs. If you're a professional, if you have professional things that are more important to you, then you're not going to be in our program, because you have different goals. So, I take the developer of the athletes and the hockey players, but everything leads to the end, because without understanding where you want to go, you're just going to be wandering around in the ocean, and eventually your boat's going to capsize.
Yep, yep, yep, yep. I remember my friend and mentor Zig Ziglar said, you're either going to go through life as a wandering generality or a meaningful specific, and you get to choose which one that is.
You do.
And so, it sounds like with the three phases that you take people through, it's all heading towards this meaningful specific.
Right.
And most people, at least by my observation, kind of are floating around, like you said, and just kind of going with the wind, and that doesn't always lead to places that you want it to lead.
No, and one, you don't know where you're going. And two, you don't know where you're going to end up. And the odds of you ending up capsized in the ocean are a lot greater than finding an island which is going to be a safe space for you.
Right on. Right on.
Right?
Well, Dennis is as we start to round third here, using my baseball analogy, since it's baseball season right now, any particular project that you're particularly excited about, or is there anything that you're working on that you'd like to let our listeners in on?
Yeah, I am starting to do a new podcast called Leaders and Legacy, where I'm going to talk to other leaders, other people, and talk about their stories as well, and how you know what kind of legacy they want to leave. So that's exciting, because I'm going to be publishing a lot of content. I'm getting my online courses going, I'm doing a lot of paid speaking engagements now, which really to me, is the best way, because I can meet so many new people.
Sure, yeah.
And then I'm really excited about this DJs For a Cause, because DJing was a hobby for me that I gave up because life, marriage, kids, all that, and when I needed a transition in my life, I found that to be very good grounding activity for me. And one of the things that I noticed about it as I got back into it is like how happy the crowd gets when you when you're having a great performance.
Right on. Yeah.
And I also have immersed myself in the in the DJ community, right? Especially around New England, and I'm expanding into New York, Miami, and I've talked to DJs on a global level that are like, I love that you want to think about how our music can help others through the power of performance or awareness or whatever. And they're uniting around this idea of legacy for themselves, right? So, they're like, yeah, I've always been performing, I'm traveling from city to city, or I'm just grinding in a nightclub, or doing wedding DJing, or I'm a radio DJ, and I'm just grinding. Nothing to make me feel better about myself in terms of the work that I do, or let people see that my music makes a difference. So, basically, I've started to create what I call it the brotherhood and sisterhood, right? Because there's so many good DJs, male, female out there that it's like, we're all inclusive. And I'm very passionate about that, and it ties right back to my brand, right? Can I help others do something with impact? And that is a project that is gaining traction. I'm getting ready to hire an executive director there to run that full time. It's just really taking off, and it gives me purpose.
Well, Dennis, I can tell by just the manner in which you're speaking, the questions that I've asked, I can really just feel the passion around some of your answers and the way that you've turned some struggles into high impact, legacy building type of activities, not that you need me to commend you, but golly, I commend you on that. That is phenomenal. It seems like the world needs a lot more Dennis’s and so, yeah, I thank you for your time. Thank you for your authenticity, just with your stories, even from childhood on up. I feel like I know you at a deeper level, and to know that some of those struggles have made you into who you are, and then trying to impact people in a really good way as a result of that. I have a feeling people are going to want to reach out to you if they're listening to this. And so, what's the best way for people to find you?
Yeah, I think Bright Matter Advisors is a great place. Plus, you can kind of see a little bit about our program. LinkedIn is always a great place and I'm on all the socials. I am SimplyDennis on Instagram, or DennisAtBrightMatter on Instagram, and I'm just very excited to hear from people. And if you're feeling kind of lost or you just need to pick up the phone and have a conversation, don't hesitate to call, because I would hate for you to go through what I had to.
Dennis, thank you so much, my friend. The excitement that I had a half an hour ago was matched and exceeded, and so, thank you for that. Thank you for tangible, real-life stories, and I think you've impacted people with this conversation today. So, thank you so much, my friend.
Thank you for your time, and God bless. I'm so grateful to have met you.
Wow, so many insights from Dennis Franczak. I really appreciated the transparency and authenticity that he told the story of some of his struggles, starting all the way from childhood being adopted and going into ROTC and the Air Force. Then, gosh, I wrote down he was a D1 soccer coach, a DJ, a dad, a CEO, created hockey leagues, and now he's using all of those experiences, struggles along the way, specifically the ones that he mentioned that includes death and not great things to then help others so that they can maybe avoid some of the complete breakdown meltdowns, moments that he had, and then really reform, reformulate that to create a legacy moving forward. So, those were the main insights that I had, but as we end every episode of The Insight Interviews, it doesn't much matter what my insights were as the interviewer, as the host, but more importantly, what insights did you have?
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