The Franchise Marketer Podcast

The Franchise Trust Engine: my DMA 2026 keynote

Recorded live at Digital Marketers Australia 2026, this is Joel Kleber's keynote on the Franchise Trust Engine, the content system behind Jim's Group's growth from a 10-year plateau to 8,400 new franchisees in 6 years. Joel walks the room through the 10-part framework he built at Jim's Group, now Australia's largest franchise network at 5,800+ franchisees across 50+ service divisions. He covers founder personal branding with Jim Penman, the live Ask Jim Q&As that lifted franchisee training numbers within weeks, the in-house media team that became the highest-ROI hire in the business, why YouTube is now Jim's Group's number one recruiter, and how franchisees generated over 1 billion organic views in 12 months. You'll hear why transparency outperforms targeting in franchise recruitment, the real buyer journey behind every franchise inquiry (YouTube, Reddit, Facebook groups, podcasts, ChatGPT), and the AI tools sitting inside the Jim's Group recruitment stack including Claude Code, Opus Clip, and Delphi.ai [https://Delphi.ai]. The full audience Q&A is included at the end. 0:00 Introduction at DMA 2026 1:30 The 2019 plateau 3:00 Jim's Group by the numbers 5:00 The Franchise Trust Engine framework 8:15 Founder personal brand and Ask Jim 13:00 Transparent franchise content 16:30 The real franchise buyer journey 19:00 Building an in-house media team 22:30 Why YouTube became the number one recruiter 25:00 Franchisee-generated content and 1 billion views 29:00 Training franchisees on social media and AI 32:00 Why trust beats lead quality 35:00 AI use cases inside the stack 40:00 Audience Q&A Newsletter - https://www.franchisemarketer.co/ [https://www.franchisemarketer.co/]

Why agencies are lying about AEO and franchise SEO is BS | Madeleine Zook, Catalyst

Organic search traffic is collapsing across every franchise category and most agencies pitching AEO and GEO packages do not understand what they are selling. Madeleine Zook calls it exactly as she sees it. In this episode, Joel Kleber sits down with Madeleine Zook, co-founder of Catalyst, former CMO across 11 franchise brands, and a current franchisee herself. Maddie has worked with 20+ franchise brands and thousands of franchisees over the past two years, and her view on what is actually working in franchise marketing is sharper than most. Joel and Maddie cover why organic form leads are dropping 30 to 60 percent year-over-year, how zero-click behaviour is changing the buyer journey, and why most agencies selling SEO and AEO packages to franchisees are running the same playbook with a new name. Maddie explains the 12 to 15 impression rule every franchisor needs to know, how to properly audit your marketing vendors, why optimising for trust beats optimising for cost per lead, and where AI is going to cut real fat in franchise operations. You will also hear her take on why Gemini will quietly win the AI search race, why the US franchise broker model has become the Wild West, and the two ways early franchisors get franchising completely wrong. If you run marketing for a franchise brand, this one is a must-listen. TOPICS COVERED The 40 percent drop in organic search traffic and what it means Why AEO and GEO agency pitches are mostly BS How to set vendor guardrails and audit suppliers properly The 12 to 15 impression rule for franchise buyers Optimising for trust over cost per lead The reality of AI in franchise operations Why websites will be obsolete in five years Hosted by Joel Kleber, CMO of Jim's Group.

Bryan Shankman, founder of Lead Truffle - AI Speed-to-Lead for home service businesses

I enjoy talking to founders. I have massive respect for people who have an idea and go out there and create it. That's exactly what Bryan Shankman did with Lead Truffle. This is a video episode if you want to see it action, check out the YouTube channel. Learn more about it here - https://www.leadtruffle.co/ [https://www.leadtruffle.co/]

The Trust Engine: 8,863 franchise sales and how we did it at Jim's

99% of Jim's Group franchise buyers say video influenced their decision. This is the system that made that possible. This solo episode breaks down the Trust Engine method, the six-step content framework built at Jim's Group since 2019. Since implementing it, the network has grown from around 3,700 to 5,800-plus franchisees, sold more than 8,863 franchises, and accumulated more than 15,000 pieces of unique video content across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and podcast. The episode covers why franchising starts from a position of low trust in Australia, why stranger opinions on Reddit and Whirlpool forums genuinely shape buying decisions, and what to do about it. Each of the six steps gets a full breakdown: setting up the right platforms, building a content arm, using the founder's personal brand, running a franchisee podcast, hiring a dedicated video person, and empowering franchisees to create their own content. There is also a frank discussion on franchisee-generated content, how it produced an estimated 1.5 billion organic views at a local level, and why strict brand control is the thing most franchisors get wrong. If you run marketing for a franchise brand, this is the framework worth writing down. Subscribe to www.franchisemarketer.co [http://www.franchisemarketer.co%20] TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction1:00 Why franchising has a trust problem2:00 The numbers behind the method3:30 How it started with Ask Jim live streams4:30 Step 1: Setting up your platforms5:00 Step 2: Building a content arm6:30 Internal vs external videographer8:00 Step 3: Founder's personal brand10:00 Step 4: The franchisee podcast12:00 Step 5: Hire a videographer14:00 Step 6: Franchisee-generated content16:00 1.5 billion views from franchisees18:00 Brand control vs content freedom19:30 Jim's Group content numbers

Rhianna Clavering: running a 7-figure fund across 150 franchises

Rhianna Clavering manages a seven-figure national marketing fund across 150 franchise offices, and she breaks down exactly how it works. Rhianna is the National Marketing Manager at Caremark, a UK home care franchise and BFA Franchise of the Year. She joined eight months into the fund's launch and has spent the time since refining the strategy, improving conversion, and building the systems to make national marketing work at a local level. In this episode, Joel and Rhianna cover the 60/40 awareness-to-activation budget split, the five-channel and seven-touchpoint framework Caremark uses across TV, radio, Google, Meta, and door drops, and why the local fifth channel is what makes the whole fund actually deliver. They get into how to explain ROI to franchise owners who do not trust impression numbers, how Rihanna built an email nurture funnel that drove 300% growth in referral traffic, and what authentic video actually means when your CEO's lawyers are in the room. Joel also shares how he grew Jim Penman's LinkedIn from 3,000 to 45,000 followers in three months using podcast content and AI. If you run marketing for a franchise network, this one is worth a full listen. Join the newsletter via www.franchisemarketer.co [http://www.franchisemarketer.co] TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 1:35 How Rihanna got into franchising 3:21 Caremark and the BFA award 4:11 The 7-figure national marketing fund 5:48 The fifth channel: local area marketing 9:14 Customer lifetime value and the ROI case 11:45 Quality over quantity strategy 15:13 The 60/40 awareness split explained 16:29 5 channels and 7 touchpoints 17:50 TV and radio vs digital debate 20:13 Managing franchise owner opinions 21:22 Consultative group approves strategy 27:37 BrightEdge SEO and AI overview prep 33:42 Franchise recruitment marketing 36:01 Email nurture funnel for prospects 40:29 What authentic video really means 42:48 Ghostwriting CEO LinkedIn content 51:41 Young people and franchising careers