Meet The Disruptors: Frank Toral Of ‘Neighborhood Kids Schools’ On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Teamwork– You cannot achieve your dreams by yourself. Bring others along for the journey. When you help them succeed, then you will succeed.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Toral.
Frank Toral is an attorney, pastor, Founder and President of Neighborhood Kids Franchise Solutions and its affiliates. Prior to founding our franchise organization, Mr. Toral was CEO of Toral Law in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from 1995–2016. From 2016 through 2020, Mr. Toral was the Pastor of Promise Life Chapel, a non-denominational church in Wellington, Florida.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My journey to owning and operating early education centers was improbable at best. Since I was 7 years old my only dream was to become an attorney. That too was unlikely given that I am a first generation Cuban American whose family never made it past high school and my own abysmal high school academic record. But I believed in myself and persevered. 7 years later I was holding my law degree. Within 3 years I would found Toral Law, a statewide boutique law firm that had a 20 year successful run. However, my heart began to change.
I wanted to devote my life to a greater purpose. Consequently, I became involved at a local church and eventually served on the Executive Leadership Team. A few years later our family would leave everything behind, move to an unfamiliar place and start a church. What I didn’t anticipate is that the church would be unable to cover our living expenses. Therefore, we took our retirement savings and invested them into purchasing two Wellington, Fl based preschools. That became the investment of a lifetime! After improving operations at every level, the schools quickly took off. We would open 3 more in the ensuing 2 years. Later, a providential meeting at an educational conference led to a new dream: franchising Neighborhood Kids Schools in neighborhoods across the US. Today, our mission is to give future franchise owners the same opportunity that was given to us of building a business that provides a better life for them and blesses their community.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Neighborhood Kids is the first Faith-based Early Education Franchise in the US. We are a values-based Early Education School that emphasizes a biblical foundation and provides exceptional early education in a safe, fun and learning environment.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I somehow thought that a school with a good reputation would market itself without any need for a marketing strategy. For a while it appeared to be true. Until Covid hit. Within a month, we went from 250 students to 13 students. The lesson? You must advertise to be seen and heard. We did that counterintuitively during the pandemic and it worked. Amazingly well.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My former Pastor, Troy Gramling from Potential Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fl taught me that we all have God-given potential. That it is our responsibility to discover, pursue and develop that potential with a sense of humility, honor and passion.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting an industry can be positive when you add transformative value to the ecosystem. For example, by adding faith to an early education system in America you help transform the lives of little children by instilling faith, hope and love which are enduring values that remain with a person for a lifetime.
Disrupting an industry can have adverse consequences. For example, if you are selling a service cheaper than everyone else such as childcare you can damage the reputation and consumer confidence in the childcare industry. The early education industry is heavily reliant on qualified and caring educators. They are difficult to attract and retain with low tuition rates which would have an adverse consequence on the quality of early education.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
1.Perseverance- It takes commitment and a consistent belief that what you are doing will succeed.
2.Faith- It will take faith in God and yourself to achieve your God-given potential.
3.Vision- you must see a future that does not exist and move toward that every day.
4.Teamwork– You cannot achieve your dreams by yourself. Bring others along for the journey. When you help them succeed, then you will succeed.
5. Leadership– devote yourself to continuous improvement.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
By partnering with franchise owners that want to change the world. There is a lot of work still to be done. Let’s Go!
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
My favorite bible verse is: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” — Philippians 4:13
I relate to this verse because I would not have the opportunity, I have today were it not for God guiding me every step of the way.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Favorite Quote:” Your attitude determines your altitude” This is relevant because I have discovered that a positive “can do “attitude can help you overcome almost any adversity in life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
To instill in children and young families in Neighborhood Kids Schools across America that ‘God loves you and has a purpose and plan for your life’.
How can our readers follow you online?
www.neighborhoodkids.com or on LinkedIn : Frank Toral
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Frank Toral Of ‘Neighborhood Kids Schools’ On The Five Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
