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Michael Browning Jr | Franchising & Entrepreneur | Founder & CEO

@michaelbrowningjr

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Founder/CEO @unleashed.brands • $1B+ Annual Revenue, 1,500+ locations,
Teaching franchising @tcu, helping small business owners thrive

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Today, we launched KidHub. And I believe it’s the most important thing Unleashed Brands has ever built.

A few weeks ago, we released “Beyond the Report Card,” a study of more than 1,000 U.S. parents that confirmed what we’d been hearing for years. Parents now prioritize confidence, kindness, and resilience over grades by nearly 2-to-1. That data didn’t just validate our mission. It told us exactly what parents need, and how Unleashed Brands can deliver it.

That’s exactly what drove us to build KidHub.

KidHub is the first app that tracks character, not credentials. It brings our entire portfolio — Urban Air Adventure Parks, The Little Gym International, Sylvan Learning, Snapology, Premier Martial Arts International, Class 101, and Water Wings Swim School — into one connected platform, giving families a single place to discover, book, and manage everything their kids are doing.

It also introduces the ThriveScore, a first-of-its-kind strengths discovery tool developed with our Chief Thriving Officer Dr. Michele Borba. Rooted in decades of child development research, it gives parents personalized insights into their child’s character strengths and a research-backed way to support their growth.

We’re serving 20 million kids across 1,500 locations. KidHub means every single one of those experiences now contributes to something bigger: a longitudinal picture of who that child is becoming.

Parents aren’t asking for more activities. They’re asking for proof that what they’re doing is making a difference. KidHub is that proof.

Download KidHub free on the App Store and Google Play. by @michaelbrowningjr

Every entrepreneur knows how awards come and go, but this one hits different. The Dallas 100 is not a popularity contest. It is a data-driven recognition created by the The SMU Cox Caruth Institute For Entrepreneurship that honors the fastest-growing, most impactful privately held companies fueling the economic engine of North Texas. These companies are selected through rigorous analysis of revenue #growth, #leadership effectiveness, and meaningful contribution to the region.

Landing at #10 is a milestone for our entire Unleashed Brands Platform. It is proof that the mission we fight for every day — helping kids learn, play and grow — is resonating with parents across America.

And none of it happens without our people.

To our #team across all of our brands: your grit, curiosity, and willingness to push beyond the status quo are what make moments like this possible. You believe in the vision, and you pour your heart into the work every day.

To our #franchisees: thank you for betting on this platform, believing in what we are building, and showing up for the families in your communities. You are the ones bringing our mission to life at 1,400+ locations every single day.

To stand on that stage with this incredible group in the photo and accept an award on behalf of all of you is one of the great honors of my career.

We are just getting started.

The climb continues. by @michaelbrowningjr

We started in a garage.

Just like Apple . Just like Google . Just like Disney. Just like so many other great American companies.

Back then, it was less than 10 of us. No fancy offices, no big budgets, no guarantees. What we did have were core values that have stayed with us every step of the way: #grit, #frugality, and an unwavering belief in the #mission.

Grit kept us moving forward when the odds felt stacked against us.

Frugality taught us to do more with less, to get scrappy, and to value every resource.

And together, those values helped us build a foundation strong enough to grow from a garage startup into a company of more than 800 employees today.

When I look at where we are now, I see the same DNA that started in that garage. It is what gives me confidence in where we’re headed.

We are, and always will be, in good company. by @michaelbrowningjr

Soft opening at Urban Air Denton. Jenn, our park launch leader, reached across the front counter and took our franchisee’s hands.

No checklist. No training binder. Just two people holding on through the nerves.

I know those nerves. In 2011, I opened the first Urban Air in Southlake, self-funded, out of a garage office. You wonder if anyone will come. You wonder what you missed. You wonder if you just bet everything on the right idea.

Most people think franchise support is systems: site selection, construction, training, marketing. Those matter. We built them for a reason.

But in opening week, a new owner needs something no playbook can deliver. Someone who has done this before, standing right beside them.

That’s what Jenn does. She doesn’t just launch parks. She launches owners.

If you lead a team, look for the person standing at the edge of something new. Your systems carry the work. Your presence carries the person.

Denton, welcome to the family. The doors are open, and you are not alone. by @michaelbrowningjr

This week I opened Spark Summit in Dallas with four lessons it took me 15 years to learn.

The room was full of franchise owners from across the Empower Brands family, from roofing to outdoor lighting. People who build something real every day. So I kept it practical.

One. Success is neither magical nor mysterious. It is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

Two. People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it.

Three. Get on a relentless pursuit of perfection. Not perfectionism at all costs, but a refusal to accept mediocrity or make excuses for why something can't be improved.

Four. Enjoy the journey. Nelson Mandela said it best: after climbing a great hill, one only finds there are many more hills to climb.

None of these are new. That's the point. The fundamentals don't change, whether you sell adventure parks or new roofs. Your discipline to live them does.

Thank you to Empower Brands and Scorpion for having me. Keep climbing. by @michaelbrowningjr

For over a year, my son asked me to be a WATCHDOG dad at his school. Last Friday, I finally made it the priority.

I read The 13 Nights of Halloween. I played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and Yeti in My Spaghetti. Then I was all-time quarterback for three hours of recess, across three different grades.

At one point, I hid in the bathroom for 20 minutes just to catch my breath.

I run a company built to serve kids. I thought I knew what that kind of energy costs. I didn’t. Teachers spend it every single day, on a full room of kids who each need something different. Then they come back the next morning and do it again.

Here is what stayed with me. These kids are smart. They are talented. And there is so much hope in their eyes about what’s ahead.

I walked out exhausted. I walked back into work reminded exactly who we build for.

To every teacher stewarding the next generation: THANK YOU! by @michaelbrowningjr

Most businesses open their doors and hope families show up. In Frisco, 330 families signed up to be founding members before the doors even opened.

Saturday our team celebrated the grand opening of Water Wings Swim School in Frisco, Texas, with the franchisee and their crew. Balloons, a dolphin cutout, confetti over the front doors. Today, the first kids get in the pool.

Here is what that number actually means. Those families did not buy a class. They bought a promise: that this team would keep their kid safe in the water and help them fall in love with it.

That trust was not built in Frisco. It was built over twenty years of Water Wings families, one nervous swimmer at a time, long before a franchisee ever picked up the keys. Our job now is to make sure every new pool keeps that promise on day one.

So proud of this team. The hard part is not opening the doors. It is earning the families who walk through them.

Every lap starts with one brave kid. by @michaelbrowningjr

Last week I had the privilege to speak at the “ICON” series at Springboard Conference. Asked to pose with a GOAT. Fifteen years ago, the words people used to describe me were not ICON or GOAT, more like crazy, misfit, rebel, troublemaker. They were probably right too.

I shared three things at the Franchise Icon Insider Series that I wish someone had told the kid with one location.

Know your why. Products change, customers change, the economy changes. Your why is what carries you through it.

Get better at doing hard things. The problems don’t disappear, they get bigger with scale. Stop wishing them gone and get better at crossing them.

Enjoy the journey. Be where your feet are planted. The people building with you, and the people supporting you while you build, won’t stay in this season forever.

Thank you to Sherri, Brad, and Lane (true GOATs) for having me. by @michaelbrowningjr

Every Sunday evening, I stop prepping for my week at work, for a gym full of freshmen.

It's a small group for Keller High School, and it's been part of my week for a while now. No agenda, no slides. Just chairs in a circle and fourteen-year-olds figuring out who they are.

Most people think mentorship is a program you fund. I've learned it's a person you show up for, on a schedule, even when nothing dramatic is happening that week.

Unleashed Brands runs on one idea: every kid has a name. Every name is already writing a story, whether or not an adult is paying attention. For 1.5 hours every Sunday, I get to help write a page of that story instead of just watching it happen from a distance.

I don't remember most of my own freshman year. I doubt these kids will remember most of this year either. But some of them will remember that an adult showed up on purpose, week after week, just to listen.

That's the whole job. Show up. Listen. Repeat. by @michaelbrowningjr

Thirty-five thousand feet up, I unwrapped another Biscoff cookie and did the math.

One million miles on American Airlines. Alone. Not counting Southwest, Delta, or whatever carrier got me to a franchise site in a town I had to Google first.

If Biscoff cookies were currency, I would be a wealthy man. Every gate, every delay, every 6 a.m. flight: another little red wrapper, another coffee I did not need but drank anyway.

Here is what nobody tells you about the road. It is not glamorous. It is a middle seat, rereading a deck for the fourth time, a stranger's elbow on the armrest. The mileage does not build itself.

Most people see a frequent flyer and think someone has arrived. I see someone who has not stopped moving. The miles are not the destination. They are proof of the reps.

Next time you unwrap a Biscoff cookie on a flight, let it be a cheers. To every founder, every franchisee, every road warrior grinding toward something bigger than the seat they are sitting in. by @michaelbrowningjr