Your brand guidelines cost you a billion views

⏳ Read time: ~5 minutes

Heaps in this week’s edition as I have been away the last few weeks speaking at some conferences.

However, below you will find a 36-minute video outlining the full 10 parts of the Franchise Trust Engine that helps sell franchises and how you can use it.

Also, the new FranFeast podcast has launched, which I am very excited about.

Plus a recap of the great FCA and FANZ events.

The two parts of the Trust Engine nobody copies, and the numbers behind them.

I put the full Franchise Trust Engine in one video for the first time.

Six years of work at Jim's Group, growing from 3,600 to 5,800 franchisees, condensed into a 10-part framework. Now live on my YouTube channel.

A few weeks ago I shared the thinking behind the system. This week I am naming every part. Then I am going deep on the two parts almost nobody copies.

Parts 1 to 4 get airtime at every franchise conference now. I have presented this at a couple of FCA events now.

It’s something that agencies and other people are starting to mention a bit more online, I see.

Parts 5 and 10 are the ones I never see other brands run or even know about.

Our franchisees in aggregate have generated MORE THAN A BILLION organic views.

Head office had nothing to do with most of them. We have one videographer. One studio. One posting schedule. A billion views was never coming from us.

One of our franchisees, Jabmo, posted a day in the life video.

More than 300,000 views.

He messaged me: I am getting flat out with questions about being a franchisee.

Recruitment was never his intention. The video did the work anyway.

We have a franchisee/Franchisor with 240,000 followers on TikTok.

Another with 100,000 plus on YouTube.

Some of their videos pull tens of millions of views.

Here is why most networks will never see numbers like these.

A junior marketing manager decides what is ON BRAND.

Every franchisee post needs approval. The franchisee gives up after the second knockback and posts nothing.

The network loses the views, the work leads and the recruitment proof.

Our brand guidelines for franchisees fit in three lines:

Stay compliant with OHS.
Keep the work quality high.
Wear the uniform.

No approvals. No sign off. Go for it.

Run a network of 20 franchisees and one of them takes this up.

One franchisee pulling 5 million views hands you 5 million views for free.

Their videos show up countrywide, not only in their territory.

Type your brand name plus the word franchise into Reddit.

What comes up decides whether prospects enquire. The ones who walk away never tell you why.

When I search Jim's franchise in Google, Reddit threads and Facebook groups sit third on the page.

And in May, Google announced its AI answers now quote forums, social posts and Reddit directly, with the poster's name attached.

The discussion about your brand is now inside the answer box.

I respond in those threads under Joel from Jim's account. I get smashed in there. The comment stays visible anyway, and prospects see a brand willing to front up.

One prospect told me in training: the Reddit reviews about Jim's were bad, so I went to the YouTube channel and spoke to franchisees directly.

The threads were wrong. He joined.

The trust assets drowned out the noise. Without them, Reddit gets the last word.

Our franchisees have generated more than 1,000,000,000 organic views in aggregate.

Head office accounts were never going to produce a number like this.

Permission produced it.

Paid ads now cost us $7 to $8 per recruitment lead on Meta, down from $30 to $40, because the organic content feeds the ad creative.

Andromena is a beast! It’s hungry for creative, for most brands image posts are best still, however, if you have a heap of video, use that.

Prospects tell me in training that they listened to 200 and 300 podcast episodes before enquiring.

Our 3,200-video YouTube library still educates prospects with videos filmed six years ago.

The full breakdown of all 10 parts is in the video.

Watch here - https://youtu.be/ivBXuTvHCvI?si=hJqQyZHCQyoVDSSe

Monday: Type your brand name plus franchise into Reddit and Google. Read every thread on page one. Reply to the top three under your real name.

Wednesday: Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity what buying a franchise in your system involves. Note which sources they cite. Those sources are your next content targets.

Friday: Pick one franchisee who already posts on social media. Tell them the approval process is gone, hand them the three-line guideline, and offer a cash prize for the best video this quarter. We ran "Show Your Best" at Jim's Mowing, and the winning content now runs in our paid ads.

If a stranger asked Reddit about your brand tonight, who would answer?

Co-hosted by Glenn Walford (Founder, franchise buyer) and me, FranFeast is Australia's most exciting new multi-guest franchise podcast — think Tonight Show meets news talk show, packed with insights, expert opinions and real conversations from across the franchise sector.

In Episode 1, we cover everything from franchise headlines and the future of franchising in Australia to payday super changes, AI tools, brand spotlights and what's coming up in the sector.

GUESTS IN THIS EPISODE:

Jay Westbury — CEO, Franchise Council of Australia (FCA)
Darren McAuliffe — CEO, FRANData
Tom Elliott — Group Strategy & Performance Mgr, RFG
Damien Gooden — CEO, HR Central
Karen Geloven — Group Executive Network Growth, Kip McGrath

Big thanks to Glenn and his team for putting it together.

Check it out, there is something for everyone.

My personal content output has been very slow and lacking over the last couple of months due to being away for a few events.

I enjoy public speaking; however, the actual slides take me a lot of time.

Even though I use Claude Design, it can still take me 6-8 hours per presentation.

The first event was the Minke Franchise Forum put on by the FCA, where I did a short TEDx-style talk on 'the ‘Franchise Trust Engine’ for 15 minutes and then was on the marketing panel hosted by Marcel Lal, who did a cracking job. Great guy as well.

Big thanks to Lisa Saville, Jay Westbury and Callum McKay for their support and for asking me to do these types of events.

The FIA awards were a cracker as well, and well done to all the winners.

FANZ CONFERENCE, WELLINGTON

Katrina King, the CEO of FANZ, asked me to give a keynote in Wellington.

My first one.

I nearly said no. Speaking to 200 or 300 people who have no idea who you are is nothing like a podcast studio in your own building. I got up there, did it, and loved it. Thank you to everyone who came up for a chat during the event.

Here is the part that stuck with me. People kept telling me they follow my LinkedIn posts. No likes. No comments. No messages.

Silent followers for two years, then a handshake in Wellington.

Post daily and assume nobody watches. They watch.

THE GUITAR

Greg Nathan forced me to bring my guitar across the Tasman. I fought him on it the whole way.

We played a couple of songs with the FANZ and Friends band. Sascha and Tony held it together, Katrina has a serious voice, and Greg was great up there too.

I play in my room every week. I had not played in front of anyone since I was 18.

I have been most nervous on the whole trip, and the highlight of it.

JIM'S BUILDING INSPECTIONS CONFERENCE

I presented to our franchisees on the phone in their pocket, as their marketing department. Google Business Profile, social media, the lot.

The division sits at 200 franchisees now, the largest of its kind in Australia.

Paul Commerford and Sam Robertson built it into what it is. The culture in the room backs it up.

THE Franchise Executives’ TOP 30 REPORT

I was named number one in the Franchise Executives Annual Top 30 Report, the second time holding the top spot.

I will not enter again. From here, the only direction is down. I didn’t learn my lesson after 2024. Standing at the event and seeing who else made the list was humbling.

You work inside Jim's every day and assume nobody outside notices what you do. People notice.

Getting the acknowledgement from the industry meant more than I expected.

Thank you to the judges and everyone who said hello on the night.

I still have another 4 conferences to do this year; however, you can expect these weekly moving forward.

HOW THIS STUFF HAPPENS

People ask how the speaking gigs and awards come about. No brilliance involved.

I am a battling employee like everyone else. Four habits did the work.

Recognition runs about five years behind the work. Results matter too; posting alone gets you nowhere without them.

You need none of this to validate your career or what you do. The point stands anyway: post online, give value, stay consistent, put yourself out there. Good things follow.

Wellington proved the point. People followed my LinkedIn for two years with zero likes, comments or messages. Then they introduced themselves at the event. They watch.

If you have any questions or topics you want me to cover in an edition, please reply to this email, and I will happily do so.

Each week, I interview marketing experts or share insights from the strategies I have used to help grow Jim’s by 2,000+ franchisees.

Listen on Spotify and iTunes.

If you would like to be a guest or would like me to cover a specific subject in an episode, please reply to this email.

If you want help with:

We can cover it in a 1:1 consultation.

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