Why Franchise Buyers Trust Video

Welcome to the Franchise Marketer Newsletter Edition 4!

⏳ Read time: ~4 minutes

Welcome back! This week, we’re breaking down the franchise buyer journey based on conversations with some of the 150 new franchisees who joined training in February. Plus, an AI tool spotlight on Excalidraw, a must-have for visual thinkers.

Here’s what you’ll learn today:

✅ Franchise buyer journey based on fundamental franchisee interactions.

✅ How to create flowcharts with AI.

✅ CMO marketing prompt ‘copy-paste’.

✅ Video examples and an important reminder.

The Franchise Buyer Journey: Why Video Content Matters

In February, we had around 150 new people join our franchisee training.

After speaking with a few of them, a clear pattern emerged in how they made their decision.

Most people don’t just wake up and decide to buy a franchise.

It’s a journey—one filled with research, skepticism, and ultimately, confidence in their choice.

One thing stood out: video content played a massive role in that process.

To help you visually understand these discussions, I created the below with a new AI tool called Excalidraw.

Step 1: The Research Phase

Someone wants to start a business, so they begin researching franchise options online. They’re comparing different brands, looking at costs and reviews, and trying to figure out if franchising is right for them.

Step 2: Finding Jim’s Content

At some point, they come across Jim’s podcasts and YouTube channel. They watch videos, listen to real franchisees, and start to understand the business from the inside. Instead of feeling like they’re being sold to, they take in content at their own pace.

Step 3: Reaching Out

By the time they enquire and speak with a franchisor, they already know a lot. They’ve heard directly from franchisees, so what they’re told on the call aligns with what they’ve already seen in videos—which builds trust.

Step 4: Seeking Validation

They send videos and interviews to their family and friends for feedback. But this is often where they hit resistance—people in their lives try to talk them out of it. That’s just how most people react to risk, even when it’s a calculated one.

Step 5: Seeing it Firsthand

They attend an observation day to experience the business up close, but even then, they’re still consuming content—watching more videos, reading about other franchisees, and making sure this is the right move.

Step 6: Committing to Training

Once convinced, they book into training, attend, and meet the trainers and Jim himself. By now, they’ve seen enough content to feel comfortable with their decision.

Step 7: Confidence in the Decision

At this point, they’ve fully bought in—not because someone convinced them but because the content did the work in answering their doubts along the way.

They start their journey as Jim’s franchisees, confident in their choice.

Why This Matters

From these conversations, one thing was obvious: video content made all the difference. The franchisees who had spent the most time consuming content before enquiring were the ones who felt most prepared.

• Videos helped them trust the process before even making a call.

• Seeing real franchisees removed a lot of skepticism.

• By the time they enquired, they weren’t asking if the business worked—they were asking how they could make it work for them.

If you’re recruiting franchisees and not using video, you’re making it harder than it needs to be. The best buyers aren’t the ones who need to be convinced—they’re the ones who have already convinced themselves.

And that starts with great content.

🛠 AI Tool Spotlight: Excalidraw

If you’re a visual thinker, Excalidraw is one of the best tools out there for quick sketching, brainstorming, and process mapping.

The flow chart in the above section was made with their text-to-visual AI tool, and it’s pretty incredible.

What is Excalidraw?

Excalidraw is a free, open-source whiteboarding tool that lets you create hand-drawn-style diagrams and flowcharts in seconds.

It’s great for franchise processes, marketing funnels, and team brainstorming sessions.

Text to Draw AI

This is the best feature that you can use for free. Simply give it your idea, and it will give you a visual flowchart like the one below.

Why You Should Try It

• Simple & Fast – No learning curve; you can start sketching right away.

• Collaborative – Share live links with your team for real-time editing.

• Hand-Drawn Feel – Looks natural and easy to understand.

• No Sign-Up Required – Use it instantly with no barriers.

Whether you’re mapping out franchisee onboarding, planning content, or sketching out new ideas, Excalidraw makes it easy.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

AI Prompt

Do my job and this CMO prompt. Will give you some good ideas.

Video Examples

We create a lot of video content each week, and this is a recent one that I did showing our training experience that is sent to our prospects further along the journey.

It’s casual, however, and lets people feel more comfortable knowing the facility they are going to be staying at over 3 days.

Example 1

Example 2

If you know me, you will know what #ASKJIM is and its purpose.

However, if you don’t, we do a monthly Facebook live stream with our new franchisees as the live audience, which we then re-purpose into multiple shorts.

We have been doing this for nearly 6 years now, and we haven’t missed an episode.

I have been thinking about applying to the Guinness Book of World Records for the record of ‘Longest-running franchise show live stream. ’

A Reminder

Every day, I try to post some helpful franchise marketing content, and this is from one of my posts last week.

Your content should be a bridge—helping people move from where they are to where they want to be.

But too many brands make one big mistake:

➜ They talk about themselves instead of showing the path forward for their audience.

In franchise recruitment, this is everything.

➜ Someone is stuck in a job they hate
➜ They want freedom, more income, and control over their time
➜ If our content doesn’t show them the bridge, they scroll past

And here’s the key—it has to feel real.
Not polished scripts. Not perfect takes. Real people. Real franchisees.

That’s why FGC (Franchise-Generated Content) is so powerful.
A franchisee with their own YouTube channel documenting their journey will always be more effective than our corporate messaging.

Why?
Because people trust people who look and sound like them.

Your content is the bridge.

Are you showing people the way—or just standing on one side, shouting?

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