Introducing the Franchise Marketer Newsletter

Welcome to the Franchise Marketer Newsletter!

Rather than naming this after myself, I wanted to call my newsletter ‘franchise marketer’ because that’s what I do all day, either recruiting or generating leads for franchisees.

I am also building a franchisee and franchisor intranet with numerous tutorials on AI, social media, and other marketing strategies.

The plan is to make this weekly (I hope) and provide short, helpful information that is actually relevant to franchising.

I am also planning to start a podcast of the same name, which features what I think are really useful and unique interviews with experts worldwide.

If you want to be a guest on the show, please respond to this email.

Let me know if there is anything you want to see or feature in these editions.

I'm happy to take feedback on how to make this useful for the franchise community.

In today’s edition:

• 2024 Recap: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

• Handling a PR Crisis: Lessons from Jim’s Group

• Personal Branding for Franchisors

• #1 in the Top 30 Franchise Executives

• Birth of My Daughter

• 2025 Growth Milestone

• Favourite Franchise Content Finds

• Marketing Advice: Introducing AI to Franchisees

• AI Tool Spotlight: Opus Clip & DeepSeek

2024 - The Good, Bad and The Ugly!

A lot happened at Jim’s Group in 2024; we hit 5,500 franchisees for the first time and also had a major negative PR crisis for the first time in a very long time.

Over the last six years, we have had an unbelievably good run with the media, including multiple major TV networks, prints, and podcasts. This was until our Jim’s Dog Wash and Grooming division had all of its issues come to light.

I am confident that if this hadn’t happened, we would have reached 6,000 franchisees last year, as it really affected the numbers in our training for about five months.

It makes sense for them as the big bad franchisor screws the little franchisee, which is that narrative they always push despite not taking any other information into account.

A photo and a strong headline are all that people will read when it comes to these types of stories.

We had one journalist, in particular, release six stories on us in less than 2 weeks in news.com.au, which was for multiple divisions, which you can find online very easily.

I was really annoyed by this whole saga, as for the last 6 years, I believe our video content is the most transparent in franchising, not only in Australia but in the world.

Don’t believe me? Check out our TikTok profile.

However, I do think that our library of video content and podcasts helped us determine whether the storm, as people interested, would still consume our content if they were legitimately interested in joining Jim’s family.

How did we address this?

Rather than hide from it, I took the news stories, sat our CEO, Jim Penman, down and interviewed him for our podcast on two occasions.

We covered these stories in detail and we instructed our salespeople that if anyone asked about it, send them the podcasts. (Check it out below)

Not only did we respond with genuine, authentic videos tackling all the issues in the open, but I also wanted to show how this journalist twisted Jim’s words.

To do this, I posted her full email on our website, along with Jim’s full response and attachments, as a blog post for people to make up their own minds. 

I also did this to inform her that she must print what was provided to her in full, or we will continue doing this.

As the stories developed, you saw how she used Jim’s full information, so I believe our responding publicly and transparently had some effect.

You don’t need expensive PR for a crisis.

PR firms can do very little, so I think all you can do is respond openly and transparently using a UNSCRIPTED video or podcast and discuss the media story at length.

Due to negative press, many people may be off your brand or franchise offering for life; however, some will appreciate your having the courage to discuss it openly.

Franchising will always be an easy target, especially for a brand as big and well-known as Jim’s. Silence in response to a bad franchise story says much more than authentically responding to it.

Personal Branding for Franchisors and Franchisees

Personal branding might get a bad rap, but it’s absolutely crucial for franchisors and franchisees.

People want to see a real person behind the brand, which instantly boosts trust and sets them apart in a crowded market.

Let’s face it: franchising is competitive, and a personal brand is what makes you memorable—people buy from people they like.

How to start?

Pick one platform only and post daily about what you do.

It’s as simple as that, for example, check out Michael Black from Success Tutoring, who is doing exactly this online.

itsmichaelblack

View more on Instagram

#1 in the Annual Top 30 Franchise Executives Report

If you follow Jim or me online, you would have seen this.

However, I was named number 1 in the Annual Top 30 Franchise Executives Report 2024.

It was quite funny as I submitted my entry, not thinking of any of it, and I would have been happy with 30 or just a spot at all.

It was more of a test to see if anyone noticed what I was doing with the Jim’s brand and Jim himself.

To my surprise, I received an email informing me that I was among the top five and to head to Sydney; then, to my further surprise, I was named number 1.

For the last six years, I have also wondered if anyone in franchising noticed what I did outside of Jim’s bubble.

It was great to hear confirmation of that from people in the wider franchise world. I am really committed to becoming an authority in this area over the next couple of years, as I love it.

In saying that, it’s been a bloody tough 6 years as well!

Loads of stories I will reveal in further editions with a lot of my mistakes as well.

Awards like this, though, are a team effort. I have a great wife, franchisees, franchisors, and Jim, who support me and allow me to do what I do.

Birth of my Daughter

Avangeline Kleber was born in September 2024.

Her name is a combination of my late mother’s name, Anne, and also my wife's, Evangeline.

We wanted a name with some meaning, so we decided on that however, she is known as Ava.

2025 - A new Jim’s Record

I was really worried about our numbers going into our first training session this year. We were so used to averaging around 100 people in each of our new franchisee training sessions, which happens every month.

Our lecture theatre has only 120 seats, so we had to bring in multiple chairs to accommodate everyone.

While that’s not ideal for the experience, it’s a nice problem.

The amazing thing about a group this size is just how many people have listened to our podcasts or watched multiple videos before coming to training.

We are not talking about them watching one scripted testimonial, some people have listened to 3 years of podcast episodes (one trainee told me), which was around 150 episodes!

Believe me, if someone is half switched on and does their research properly, they all watch Jim’s video content and more often than not, it’s one of the main reasons for getting them to training. 

How do I know that? Well, they tell me during the training week when I am doing (you guessed it) multiple training interviews.

In the coming weeks, I will talk in more detail about this and my strategies when it comes to franchise content marketing.

My Favourite Franchise Content Finds 

I will share my favourite franchise content from various online sources in each edition. Did you find something cool? Send it to me!

Jim’s Group - YouTube Channel

We now have over 100k subscribers on YouTube and more than 2,700 videos. 

We upload long-form and short-form videos daily.

The intention of these videos is to be as transparent as possible about Jim’s and make people's decisions a lot easier when choosing to invest with us.

Glenn Walford - Franchise Buyer

Glenn is well-known in the Australian franchising space. He has a great YouTube channel with excellent content that demonstrates what franchises should do. 

We basically do what Glenn does for franchise brands in regard to video, as I have that internal capacity; however, if you ever want to have something similar for your franchise, it’s worth getting on Glenn, who can do some great video content packs for you on a regular basis.

If I was going to ever use an agency, it would be Glenn and his team.

Mike Andes - YouTube Channel

Mike Andes, hands down, has the best YouTube channel for his personal brand online, which he then funnels people into his Augusta Lawn Care franchise.

This is a great video testimonial he produced recently and something franchisors should take note of, myself included!

I have interviewed Mike for our podcast, and his media team consists of 4 full-time people.

Plus, he is literally a genius as well; look him up, a super smart guy!

Tariq Johnson - YouTube Channel

Tariq has some really interesting franchise content on his channel, which is a lead-gen channel for his multiple ventures.

However, if you’re a franchisor or a franchise founder, his channel should serve as a great inspiration for how YouTube should be done.

Marketing Advice

It might sound obvious, but start teaching franchisees or staff how to use AI now!

Don’t assume that because you use Chat GPT, your franchisees or staff do.

This is evident to me as I teach social media and AI as a session in our new franchisee training, and I ask people in the room, “Hands up if you have tried Chat GPT or an equivalent”, and you only get 30% of the room put their hand up.

I also recommend you don’t fall for any of those training gurus who offer AI training programs.

Everything in this space moves so quickly, so any courses or training will be literally redundant in 3-6 months.

You can learn everything you need with what is happening via a few AI influencer YouTube channels that basically use a tool like https://feedly.com/ to source all the relevant AI news online and bash out weekly YouTube videos with various tutorials.

In saying this, I do think there are some basics when it comes to prompting and creating prompts that won’t change much over the coming months.

Making a ‘prompt’ pack relevant to your organisation could be a very good start and reduce the barrier for staff or franchisees not confident to use AI.

If you want to see the example prompts I show to franchisees in our training, just REPLY to this email.

AI Software To Try (Opus Clip)

For each edition, I will share with you an AI tool or multiple that you will find very useful.

First up is Opus Clip.

This tool will use AI to re-purpose any video you like by simply dropping a YouTube link or the video file itself.

While it’s not as good as a video editor, it still does a bloody good job!

I use this for my podcasts and some of the Jim Penman short-form clips, with even a couple being picked up by the Daily Mail for an article.

The clip the journalist used was from a viral TikTok that took me 20 seconds to create with this tool.

A great high-value backlink, which, dollar-wise alone, would be worth $1000!

Deepseek

You know how sometimes something comes out of nowhere and surprises everyone? That’s DeepSeek.

This new AI player has quickly emerged as a serious contender in the space, challenging the likes of ChatGPT with its innovative approach to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).

What’s even better?

It’s completely free to use. Whether you’re a franchisee looking for smarter marketing tools or just curious about AI, DeepSeek is worth checking out.

See what the hype is about at deepseek.com