For most 16-year-olds, a first job is a temporary gig, a way to earn some extra cash. But for Julianna Blackhurst, a part-time job in high school became the foundation of her career, a unique journey that we explore.
In this episode of The Pre-Shift Podcast, we sat down with the Senior Director of Franchise Operations at Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, to talk about two types of growth: career growth and franchise growth.
Listen to the episode
Julianna’s path: A high school gig turned career opportunity
Julianna is who you would call a ‘lifer’ in the restaurant industry. What started out as a high school gig at 16 turned into an over-decade-long career opportunity for the now Senior Director of Franchise Operations at Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.
Julianna witnessed (and contributed) to the company’s growth from three corporate-owned locations in Florida to 22 stores. Then, Jeremiah switched to a franchise model, expanding to 11 states, including Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas. Today, there are 160 locations of Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.
Julianna explains her journey: “I was serving in the store. I have experience from the very level of taking customers, repairing our ice, cleaning the location, and then was able to work my way up over the following years after that. It really started when we started expanding locations. I was working with new store openings. At the time, we had basic training material, but nobody had really sat down and written down all of our training that fell within our culture. I had that opportunity.”
She did this by curating a ‘textbook’ as more locations opened during her undergrad at UCF. As Jeremiah’s started to expand into the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Central Florida markets, she became the Director of Training, overseeing new store openings and the training program. In 2019, when the business looked into franchising, she continued to grow the brand by putting strong processes in place with the team.
She explains, “ We rolled out new processes that were going to help us grow. It was going to make us an approachable franchise brand for operators to really jump into the system. That’s kind of where my career grew around that time. Right when I got into operations was when I went back to school again.” Her decision to attend Rollins for an MBA came from wanting to subsidize the educational gap at work as she grew up at the company.
FROGMA: Putting Jeremiah’s core values into practice
At Jeremiah’s, FROGMA (taken from dogma) refers to the business’s core values: cool, bold, genuine, generous, vibrant, and strategic. And as for any business, core values shouldn’t just exist on paper—they need to actually be put into practice.
Julianna explains how Jeremiah’s does so from the top, saying, “They all roll back into decision-making. So between myself and our leaders, if we have a decision to make, how can we lean on our core values and make sure that our possible solutions or that decision truly is a reflection of what the brand has stood for? And if we all can do that every single time, then we’ll be true to ourselves. We’ll be true to our brand.”
There’s a FROGMA board in every Jeremiah’s store, and team members are asked to sign it on the first day of business. The brand’s training material is also designed to reflect FROGMA throughout, with frog puns to help brighten team members’ days.
Training at Jeremiah’s focuses specifically on young trainees as the brand hires many minors (and first-time employees). Julianna says, “Not only are you teaching team members how to build our famous gelati, but you’re also teaching team members how to maybe clean, mop the floors, the difference between a hand sink, a mop sink, a three-compartment sink. You’re starting from the bare basics, and what we’re doing is we’re equipping our franchise owners to do that in a really cool, fun, and positive way.” The training videos are filmed in a TikTok fashion to ensure team members feel engaged while reflecting the brand’s culture.
Going from corporate to franchise
In 2019, with 22 locations under its belt, Jeremiah’s made a significant shift from a corporate-owned model to a franchise model. Julianna shares the strategic decisions and the passion behind this transition in this episode.
“Our brand has seen multiple different trends throughout the economy. We’ve been able to live through the hard times. We’ve been able to find successes during the great times, and it’s just really a testament to the brand and its foundations. But then, absolutely, we had over thousands of inquiries over that time asking if we were franchising so that people could bring the brands.”
She explains that the franchise model allows you to have community ties in locations a founder wouldn’t otherwise have a connection with. For instance, franchise owners may have children who go to nearby schools, or they may be involved with the local church. “ [Owners] are able to really use those ties of their love for the brand and be able to prosper in the growing market. So franchising really just made sense at that point.”
The search for new franchisees
When evaluating prospective franchisees, Julianna also looks beyond passion. She cites thoughtfulness as a top factor—if a candidate doesn’t have previous experience in franchising, they can still be thoughtful about how their qualifications can tie in with the brand.
Julianna also explains that it’s important to be extremely intentional about how to operate a store because brand recognition matters: “ I think any franchisee will tell you your biggest positive, but also your hardship, can be your neighboring franchisee, and if they’re upholding the brand standards, if they’re upholding the brand consistency. So we’re looking for people who are bought into that. Training someone to make a gelato we do every day—that’s the easy part. It’s really about someone that can bring that culture, as well with a little bit of food experience to the table.”
Expanding from region to region
Julianna also talks about Jeremiah’s journey to becoming a multi-state brand, moving beyond its Florida roots. When the business started expanding via franchises, the Italian ice was made in a commissary. An ice truck would then drive the product to all the different locations.
Then, the business found an easier (and more cost-effective) way, bringing all the fulfillment in-house. What’s unique about Jeremiah’s is that there aren’t designated front-of-house or back-of-house roles. Instead, all team members—servers, leads, supervisors, and store managers—learn every facet of the business.
Julianna explains how this is an asset: “ It really makes us flexible in how we can operate our location on the day-to-day. Now all of that ice-making actually happens back-of-house house in our stores, so it really is made fresh daily. It’s truly just a really nice fresh product that we’re able to give.” This was a huge win on the financial side as well, as the brand was able to lower the cost of goods sold.
Along with that, Julianna adds that the simple products of Italian ice, soft ice cream, and gelati make it easy to fit almost anywhere. “ We take on a lot of second-generation spaces when we’re talking about new construction. We can even carve out a piece of something that was existing—maybe a seating area or all of the square footage wasn’t being used previously—especially with different times after COVID. So we are pretty malleable in that sense where we’ve been able to enter different markets and be flexible to get our foot in the door when we’re opening there for the first time.”
But it’s also important to consider regional markets with different purchasing habits (based on different climates). Julianna mentions Arizona as a prime example—it gets so hot there that residents won’t even leave their homes. To adapt, Julianna says, “ How can we bring convenience to them? Whether that be with drive-thrus or misters or indoor queue areas, there were different things to take into consideration based on the regional markets.” And the same goes for cooler climates. While Julianna believes it’s never too cold for ice cream, she also shares a few strategies to keep customers coming in:
- Indoor seating
- Drive-thrus
- New products (Jeremiah’s is introducing gelati cakes as birthdays are year-round)
- Innovative products (Jeremiah’s is introducing a hot chocolate gelati)
Legacy careers: Julianna’s leadership approach
When it comes to Julianna’s career, she explains that the biggest transition was going from being a peer to then managing her peers: “That was definitely a different experience. Growing up in the store, then working as a supervisor in the store, a general manager in a store, and working alongside people who had now become friends. And now they’re looking up to you to lead them and decisions and to make sure if something goes, wrong, that you’re there to help them. Honestly, I think it was a great opportunity to be able to do that.”
Julianna explains how this taught her to be a fair leader while bringing positivity and keeping the culture alive. She is aware of what other team members are going through because she was a team member herself, which gives her the ability to understand all the day-to-day hardships. “I think any good leader would tell you [to] get out in the field [and] work alongside your team members. It’s only going to make your team have a mutual respect for everyone that’s working together.”
This also translates into her role in leading the franchise system. She recommends getting out in the field to hear from the franchise owners themselves and what they’re going through––be it with operations, finances, or marketing. She sums up her advice, saying, “I think it all comes back to making sure that we’re really aware of our day-to-day operations and how that’s affecting our owners.”
Building out lifelong careers at Jeremiah’s
But with such high turnover rates in the restaurant industry, what made Julianna choose to grow with Jeremiah’s for such a long time? And she’s not alone. She explains that there have been members who have been with Jeremiah’s for almost 28 years––and the brand’s only 29 years old. For Julianna, the answer is simple: the people and the growth opportunities.
She shares, “Truly, it’s been the people and the experience that I’ve had to be able to work alongside these people, moving from our company system to our franchise system and all of the different hurdles along the way, but also really awesome successes and different learnings that we’ve been able to do. I wouldn’t want to do that with a different team.”
Julianna also shares how she has been able to grow alongside the brand, especially when the company-owned system was moved to the franchise system. “All of the different processes we had to put in place were an opportunity to really broaden my horizon on a different business structure. And that’s been an awesome opportunity as we continue to grow and enter new states. There’s always more to be done.”
Advice for young professionals in hospitality
Julianna emphasizes the value of transferable skills when it comes to younger employees in the industry. For instance, those who plan to pursue nursing in the future can still benefit from hospitality skills like scheduling and operations.
She adds, “I hope that when people put Jeremiah’s on their resume, somebody that’s reviewing that can read that and say, this person knows labor, this person knows COGS, this person understands what it means to work in a team, and to have great work ethic, and to get along with others.”
And she encourages those who do have a passion for the industry to continue growing with the brand, as she did herself. About 50% of Julianna’s team members are internal promotions. Julianna explains that this is only possible because the brand continues to grow: “As we open more states, the opportunities continue to come, which means our people can continue to grow, and then we can hold on to those superstars.”
Closing remarks & resources
To close off, Julianna shares her go-to menu item from Jeremiah’s: the classic cookies and cream gelati. She also recommends the Oreo mud pie flavor and the rotating horchata flavor, stating, “I could eat it every day.”
Jessica Ho, Content Marketing Specialist
Jessica Ho
Content Marketing Specialist
Hi, I'm Jessica, Content Marketing Specialist at 7shifts! I'm writing about all things related to the restaurant industry.
