Create Momentum in Your Franchise with Brooke Budke

There are almost 800,000 franchise units in America. Whether you’re a franchise owner or a Franchise company, what inexpensive inicitives can you implement now to stand out from the crowd.

If you’re looking to elevate your Franchise brand to a national scale, look no further than Brooke Budke’s team!

Whether it’s a complete refresh or a simple tweak of the Franchise brand look, incorporating marketing through all synergistic levers or assisting in Franchise Development strategies, Brooke’s team is second to none. 

Click below for Momentum’s Website

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):

Welcome to another episode of the Franchise Academy. I'm Tom Scarda, and if you've listened in before, I'm a franchise advisor by day and a franchise podcaster by night. And so I want to help people understand the franchise industry. It's been great to me and my family, and I want to bring great guests that can help you understand franchising and also grow your franchise business. That's why today I am bringing on Brooke and it's Budke.

Speaker 2 (00:31):

That's right.

Speaker 1 (00:32):

Alright, I got to write up.

Speaker 2 (00:35):

So

Speaker 1 (00:36):

Brooke is a C M O a chief marketing Officer. Now she has her own company called Momentum Brands. So Brooke has been in the franchise world for a while. She's actually even been a president of a franchise brand. So she knows what's going on in franchising and actually how to move the needle on your brand. So whether you're a franchisee or a franchisor, listen up because this is some great nuggets that are going to be dropped here in the next 20 minutes or so. So buckle in, listen in and get ready for Brooke. Brooke, thanks for coming on the show. Really appreciate having you.

Speaker 2 (01:14):

Likewise, Tom. Thank you so much. I've been in franchising a long time as well, and everything you said resonated with me too. It's been good to my family. Franchising is a big family and the franchisees become that too. So I echo everything you said.

Speaker 1 (01:29):

Well, thank you. It is been awesome. And for people who want to really work and build a business, it's a great way to go. And it's interesting because what I have found, and I think anyone that's in business today will find that their businesses like 20% of their daily activity, 80% is marketing the business. And so that's why I was really excited to have you on and marketing is so many different things from a billboard to the latest, cutting edge, social media, whatever it might be. And so I'm dying to kind of pick your brain and understand exactly what you're feeling these days. And we're sitting here in the beginning of Q four in 2023. You might be listening to this in the future, but what's going on with franchising now? What are franchise companies asking you for going into Q four and this part of the year in 2023?

Speaker 2 (02:36):

It's such a great question and I'll answer it in a couple different ways. First, when you think about selling season for a franchise brand, it's typically in Q one. So Q 1, 20 24 is coming, and a lot of franchise brands, whether they are emerging or established, are really trying to ramp up, understand what they have in place, what their marketing strategy is for reaching new potential franchise candidates. And then after they do that, they say, how do we coach them, teach them, grow them? So they put in place things like a new store opening checklist, a grand opening guide, the metrics they need to hit pre and post opening and their first year rolling right into an always on local store marketing strategy. And really how do they then after that, increase their same store sales year over year? So it's really compounding from helping a franchise brand start to scale and attract new franchise candidates all the way to helping and established franchise brand, teach their existing franchisees how to grow and scale existing units and everywhere in between from grand openings and getting units open quickly, but also successfully to help validation for franchise sales.

(03:51)
So it's all a big cycle and today it's September, like you said, it's almost Q four and this is in our line of work, I would say the hottest time to start engaging with the fractional C M O or any type of additional marketing because people are really, you got to give yourself 90 days that roadmap and that runway if you will, before the new year starts.

Speaker 1 (04:16):

Yeah, no question. So you said the phrase fractional C M O, and I neglected to say that earlier. So you have a franchise, not a franchise, but a marketing company, but you work with multiple franchise companies, is that what you mean by fractional?

Speaker 2 (04:33):

Correct, yes. So I had served almost a decade inside of a franchise brand. It was title Boxing Club, started as the director of marketing and continued to build and grow the brand. We had very little in place when I started there in 2013, excuse me. And no marketing manual brand standards, nothing was established like most emerging franchise brands. And it's so common. And I had come from the direct sales industry, so I didn't know how common or rare it was. So I put all of those things in place. We had probably 20 ish units and then by the time I exited in April of 21, we were knocking on 200. So to scale from 20 to 208 years is you step in a lot of potholes, you celebrate a lot of things, you meet a lot of franchisees and candidates, and then you build a really robust team internally.

(05:27)
So as a fractional C M O I take all of that experience and then help emerging franchise brands or mid franchise brands. It doesn't have to be only emerging, bypass the line and get to the front and say, what are the big brands doing? What do we not know that we don't know? Where can we grow? Where can we grow smarter? What tools and resources do we need when and where? And then we get to put those into different brands and not have to be a full-time employee. So a company gets all of the minus the headache of the full-time staffer and the salary that comes with it too. So it's really a win-win for both.

Speaker 1 (06:04):

That's great. And it is so interesting because of this internet thing, everyone thinks that they're a marketer, right? So I'm going to post on social media, I'm going to do it three times a week, I'm going to do it three times a day and nobody knows what to do. So you could step in midstream into somebody's messed up marketing program and fix it for them and straighten it out. Is that right?

Speaker 2 (06:31):

Correct. Yeah. I think one of the best things that we offer is an audit of their existing strategies because sometimes emerging franchise brands have really good things going on, but they're just maybe not in the right order or they have some missing links of internal team members or tools or resources or they're not familiar with how often they need to communicate with the franchise system or the webinar system to the intranet, to all the moving parts of running a brand. There's a franchisor being a franchisor. And then there's also what the consumers and the franchisees experience, and they're two vastly different businesses. So one, we help them set the infrastructure in place on the franchisor side. And then the second is giving them the tools and resources like you mentioned, on cutting through the noise of what works to reach the consumer. And that's different with every type of industry within franchising, but the consumers are very savvy today. And so we help them really understand what works with their specific niche and then how to reach him or her given their audience.

Speaker 1 (07:36):

Let's talk about franchise development for a minute because that is kind of different too these days. And so one thing that some people don't know, I guess, is that there's really two sides of the house. There's supporting your franchise owners and helping them with marketing, but then there's a whole silo of attracting new franchise owners. What are some of the best practices that you've seen or anything that you could share about that stuff?

Speaker 2 (08:05):

Well, two come to mind first. Actually, two of our brands that we're supporting right now, we just took them through these projects on the front end is going through a brand discovery. And this isn't a lengthy year long brand discovery process, but we like to do it in 90 days or less of understanding of your core differentiators, who you are, your positioning, your story, what matters and what sets you out, sets you apart from your competition. And then the second part of that is we build out key personas of each of the buyers that are going to be attracted to your franchise brand. And that's really critical information for an emerging franchise brand to understand because you can sell to anyone or you can sell to an ideal profile, that's going to be really good long-term because a 10 year agreement with someone, it matters on your franchisee and you're a matchmaker of sorts.

(08:57)
And so you want to say, I want somebody who has these qualifications and background and then they're looking for this in the franchisor and you want to marry that. So on my end, what we like to do is go in and identify who those key personas are so they know their core target and it's much easier for them to then identify who's going to win once they become a franchisee. It's not just selling, it's also then the success after of getting them in place. And then the second strategy I would tell you is LinkedIn and understanding how to use LinkedIn for selling franchises. We actually just did a test internally and we did 31 posts and 31 days because we wanted to see and understand more what the machine is. We know a lot about the consumer on Facebook and Instagram and are very familiar with helping a franchise brand put strategies in place there.

(09:50)
But what we did was actually test it on our own page. What would happen to the metrics if you posted 31 days in a row or just posted daily content and it was unbelievable, like 1700% growth in new search results or in page findings or in likes. And then also the content started to reach so many more people. And at the end of the 31 days, what we found was calls and emails and partnership opportunities and the mass exposure of just having daily content for a brand who's selling franchise units, but having it be not just the frequency of the posts, but rich in terms of content from telling the leadership story to identifying your franchisees and giving quotes about what they're doing or your product or the industry that you're in. So really twofold. First would be identifying your core persona and your brand story.

(10:42)
And then the second would be reaching them in ways that you might not need to spend a lot of money on. This is a content strategy on LinkedIn isn't a $10,000 ad per month out there in Google or Facebook. So there are some low hanging fruit things that will also help emerging brands put in place because they don't have large budgets and they also want to reach more people. So partly too, it's just an organic content strategy today still works really, really well. Those would be two things that I would start with for franchise sales.

Speaker 1 (11:15):

I love that. And I think the organic thing tends to be more authentic, which people looking for. I mean, in my world of trying to help people find a franchise, there's all different types of personalities as you're saying. And so when I match somebody to a franchise, I'm matching them based on their skills, their personality, their goals, and the top performing profile of the current franchise owners. So that's what you're doing. You're kind of backing that data, here's our top 10%, what do they all have in common? They background and that background. And so that begins your persona and your perfect kind of avatar or client's for that brand. And then once I know that as a consultant, and I'm trying to sift through all these people's like are they good for this one? Are they good for that one? And a lot of people feel like, oh, I just got the money and I love donuts, so let me just buy a donut franchise. It's like, no,

Speaker 2 (12:20):

Not

Speaker 1 (12:20):

The way to do this.

Speaker 2 (12:22):

Yeah. One example in that I was in fitness for a long time and it's similar industry to the MedSpa space or to anything with high community oriented franchises. And one of the things we found after eight years was that high intellect, high strategist, high analytics don't thrive with those types of franchises because it's a high community, high people, high outgoing, high people oriented brand. And so that's a great example of they might be really good for another franchise brand, but maybe not for one that's super high and building the community and talking to people or hugging others or shaking hands every single day. So like you said, your client. And then also too, having a franchise brand that understands who's going to be best in attracting to them and successful within their franchise base. It has to be a blend of both. It's a great point,

Speaker 1 (13:19):

And I love franchise company that kind of raise their hand and hire you as an example because saying, Hey, we know what we don't know and we need help. We're humble enough to do that. And so that helps somebody like me and also somebody buying a franchise say, all right, we're going to do this the right way as opposed to just spray and whoever we could get if they could write a check the clears. And so I'm always looking for brands like that that are hiring fractional CMOs and all that stuff. So I love that and I love that you could provide that. I didn't even realize that that kind of thing was available years ago, so I'm so glad that you're doing that. So if I'm a franchise owner, and I'm listening to this right now, and this is, I'm hitting you cold on this, so I apologize, but it just came to my mind, so I'm like, I'm doing okay. I think I know marketing, but I really don't. What's one thing that I could do or one thing that I should be doing that's just easy, inexpensive and just could move the needle a point or two

Speaker 2 (14:36):

If you're the franchisor,

Speaker 1 (14:38):

The franchisee.

Speaker 2 (14:39):

If you're the franchisee, okay, so if you're a franchisee, the ground game works every single time. No matter what the concept is, being in the community and really owning your local store marketing efforts wins the day every single day because today what's happening is the competitive landscape in digital and social and pay-per-click, you do not have enough money and enough manpower to go out there and search all of the ss e o and all of the pay-per-click and the social media strategies. You could spend thousands of dollars to get okay leads that you still then have to go in and qualify and you have to have qualified team members that have to call them and get those leads in the front door. Versus if you go out with passion or you have your store manager or a street team and you are in the marketplace at the five Ks at the business to business relationships, working with apartments or working with having your signs and neighborhoods or draw hangers today, being in the community matters.

(15:36)
And especially because the consumer understands they're getting served ads all day long on social media, and that's disruptive marketing. They're actually not searching for the brand on social media. They're looking for friends or for fashion or for tips or for dogs, and then they're being served these ads. And so it's somewhat of an annoyance to the customer versus when you meet someone and you shake their hand at a five K and you say, this is what we're doing, come meet us. We're right down the road, we're new to the community. They know your face, they understand and they trust you. Then when they see your digital marketing, it performs better. So your content strategy on social is free, having really good content, low hanging fruit, easy but difficult for a franchisee to do because they're also running their business every single day. So having a young specialist who, it doesn't have to be young, but somebody that is on trend with social media today that can help them and support them in that would be an easy, very cost-effective strategy for building an audience.

(16:36)
I would say to build organic content on social media and then to be in the community is virtually free. You might have to get some really good photos and videos for your social, and you may have to invest in your franchise approved marketing to hand out the flyers or a tent or a booth setup. But I would every single day on the grand opening strategies and the local store strategies we're writing, it is still ground game and community marketing because being the mayor of your community on behalf of your location will matter more than an ad. And that still is true even in a digital landscape because now there's AI and there's chat G B T, and then there's hey Siri, and there's all of these things that are taking over the digital landscape. And so being in the community still, in my opinion, and the brands that we support is still the most effective.

Speaker 1 (17:29):

I love that. Wow. And you're passionate about it, I can tell.

Speaker 2 (17:33):

Yeah,

Speaker 1 (17:36):

And the thing that you said basically sums up no trust, but the thing that we struggle with in franchising is letting the community know that I'm just a guy in the neighborhood that happens to own this franchise. This franchise is not a conglomerate, but it's a small business in the community, and I think the average American doesn't understand that. They think like, oh, it's a big conglomerate and we hate big conglomerates, and it's not. It's for the most part, it's somebody that's local. It's your neighbor that owns the subway, that owns the title boxing that owns you name it. And so that strategy works for that as well. That's just the added benefit. And it's like

Speaker 2 (18:25):

It's because especially telling the locally owned and locally operated story on behalf of for the franchisee to be in the community. The other thing is I always stress on is being a walking advertisement for your location and always wearing the name of the company that you're representing to the grocery store, to the carpool line, to the baseball games for your kids, to wherever you're going. Farmer's market, if you have on your brand name and you are always walking around in your community, you are a walking billboard for it. And then if you have some scripting notes that you can say off the back of your hand, anybody that you meet, the 32nd version, the one minute version, the three minute version of what you do, that is the way to win a local audience today. And it was the way that a title boxing club was founded.

(19:14)
It was based in the Midwest in 2008 when group fitness was just barely coming onto the scene and everybody just wanted to go where their friend owned a location. And then it just kept growing that way. And then it's still today the people that we advise. Social media strategy is very important. And also so is being in the community, I think you hit the nail on the head. You have to have both, but you also have to, as a franchisor, it's your responsibility to train them on what to say and where to go and what to bring and what to wear and who should be standing there because that also represents the brand. So you definitely don't want to send out somebody that's not scripted either into the marketplace.

Speaker 1 (19:54):

That's true. That's so true. Same thing I say to my candidates when they're like, oh, I love title boxing as an example, so I'm going to go to my local title boxing location, and I'm going to talk to the owner. And I'm like, well, they're going to, I'm going to talk to this landlord because an open spot and I want to put a title boxing there. It's like, well, they're going to chew you up and spit you out because you don't know what to say and then you're going to get disappointed and you're going to walk away and you're not going to buy the franchise probably. And so it's the same kind of thing is you got to know what to say. And that's the great thing about a franchise. As I always say, it's a business with training wheels, so they're going to train you and it's a symbiotic relationship. The more money you make, the more money they make, the more franchises they can sell if you're successful. And so they want you to do well. And so I love that whole idea.

Speaker 2 (20:51):

And I think just to play off of that, that's one of the most important parts about an emerging franchise brand at Momentum Brands that we help with because usually they're founded on a really good concept. They have one or two locations where it's founder led and everyone knows that founder and that's why they're successful. And then when you take that and duplicate it in new cities, you have to also teach them those success plans. But the why of the brand on the back of your wall, you have remember your why, and that's something that every franchisor has to have that then they teach the franchisees and their franchisees have to know their personal why of why they're associated with the brand and then how they continue to be the branches of the tree and out into the community. But it all has to represent the same core values.

(21:39)
And so as a franchise brand, we help them establish the core values, they're positioning who they are, who they're not, the line in the sand. So then they have that established and can communicate that with the franchisee because most of the time what I have found in business is the franchisees want to play the game. They want to do what's expected of them. They also just need really good material and really good training. And so we help the franchisees or franchisor, excuse me, provide that to the franchisees. And partly it's just helping them get a little bit more established and professional early on in the days so that they can infuse that training

Speaker 1 (22:16):

And that's the way it should be done. I think that the franchise owners get in their own way. A lot of times as I talk to people, they're like, oh, I'm going to buy this. I'm just using title boxing since you were there for so long, but I'm going to open up the title of boxing and when I open this, I want put in a smoothie bar and I want to put in an infrared light sauna and I want to put, it's like that's not the brand. So you have to follow the brand, the mission.

Speaker 2 (22:50):

Yeah. So again, what I have found to be true is that 80% of small business owners will fail in America and in franchising, that number is reversed where only 20% of franchisees will fail because 80% of the time, if you follow the success blueprint, the franchisor outlines, then you become a successful franchisee on behalf of that brand because you're representing the marks, the logo, the identity that has already been established and the brand awareness that comes with it. But then that 20% tends to fall off if they're not engaging with the franchise brand and they're not adopting what the franchisor is rolling out. And so what we always like to measure and help franchise brands measure is a franchise like the franchise systems engagement and adoption overall, because I could tell you, I could rank them on a scale of one to 10 who's going to be the most successful if they're engaging with their franchise business consultant with the marketing team, with the webinars or whoever. And then if they're adopting and rolling out the information that is provided and the tools and resources like you said, but they do have to row the boat in the same direction. It is very important what you described as being an entrepreneur. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you can own your own business, but entrepreneurship and franchising are very different.

Speaker 1 (24:09):

Very different. I'm so glad that you said that. And also the numbers that you quoted are spot on. Those are the same numbers that I quote that I got from the small business administration that most people, like most entrepreneurs will fail in the first year 50% and then the remaining 30% will go out over the next five years in franchising. According to a recent article in an industry magazine, 86% of people that started a franchise five years ago are still the same owners of that franchise. And that's what makes it a good thing. But I think you'll like this little thing that I share with everybody. I've been saying it for years, if you're the kind of person that joins a gym and thinks that you're going to get in shape just because you joined the gym, don't buy a franchise. You actually have to show up and do the work.

Speaker 2 (25:02):

Sure, sure. Yeah. Actually during the Discovery Day process when I was inside of the franchise brand, my favorite part about the marketing presentation was before I would leave, I would ask them if they had any questions that would prevent them from moving forward in terms of marketing. Because the number one question franchise candidates always have is where do I get the people and how do they come in the door? And the way that I always answered it is the number of people is always dependent on how hard you work. And so if you are in the place where you are not prepared to work really hard, please do not then join our brand specifically, right? Because we need people who are going to work really hard at the highest level and then you will reap the benefits of a high prospect count and a great prospect acquisition strategy and be able to handle that and build a brand.

(25:54)
So yeah, it has to be, franchising actually is in my opinion, the hardest work anybody will ever do because it's your own company, it's something you own. A lot of people work really hard for other people, but then when it's your own, you will work all day, all night and do it with great passion because you're your money and your neck and your family's investment is on the line. So yeah, it's not a place that you come to relax. That is definitely true, and nor is it inside of a franchise brand. The franchisor works around the clock and it really its job is to support the franchisees with the strategy and the roadmap and the marketing and the operations, training, sales playbook, real estate construction. The list is vast for the franchisor.

Speaker 1 (26:42):

What I'm of a lot of times I like to share with people is that when you have an emerging franchise, and it may be like the coolest concept you've ever seen in your life, it doesn't mean that it's a good franchise. Just because they're a franchise doesn't mean that it's a good business and they may not have all this stuff dialed in. So when you're interviewing the franchise company say, so let me talk to your marketing person, and is it someone that's just out of school or is it somebody that knows they've been around the block? And I think that's another important thing to think about. And also for the franchisor to hire really good people because I think prospective franchisees are going to make judgements and then decisions based on the people that are in the organization. Like this is the person that's going to help me. They're a marketing person, but they've never been in marketing before.

Speaker 2 (27:38):

Sure, sure. Yeah. And early on I was taught that the essence of positioning is sacrifice. And that as a great brand, you must be willing to sacrifice not being all things to all people in order to be great. And I believe that as a franchise brand, if I were to go and select one, I would select a very simple business model, and they know who they are and they're not deviating from who they are, and they're not trying to be all things to all people because when they do, then their product suffers and they're inconsistent and they're not really great at one thing. And if you're really, really great at one thing, then you can create a revenue stream that is recurring perhaps with a membership model or a slightly bit more predictable recurring revenue and helping a potential franchisee invest in a brand that has a very simple business model, really strong leaders and leaders that have been in franchising before and an industry that is up and coming.

(28:39)
So we help right now, we have clients in the pet landscape, we have 'em in the med spa space. We have home services is always a need. But after Covid, people started wanting to clean their houses again and get people back inside during Covid. Let's talk about pets for a second. The pet sector exploded and it's going to triple in the next three years because everyone bought dogs. And so the lack of groomers and good food and good available appointments for people that own dogs now is slim. So the pet sector is exploding. I also think the wellness space is getting ready to, I would say explode, but I just said that about pets getting ready to take off even higher from red light therapy to sauna, to the cold plunging to the compression sleeves. People now are waking up to taking care of their body and longevity of life. And so there are some categories separate from leadership and the business model that I would look at and invest in that. Those are the brands that we love working with too, because it's not just about the business model, it's also about what the consumer getting ahead of what the consumer wants and needs. So those are some examples of real life categories that I would jump all over.

Speaker 1 (29:59):

Yes, I'm all about the pet category for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:03):

And everyone loves, I mean, if you love dogs

Speaker 1 (30:06):

And you don't even have to love dogs, I mean, one of my favorite phrases is you could be a vegetarian and own a McDonald's because if you're a real franchise owner, you're the C E O, the C F O, you're not flipping burgers, grooming dogs, whatever it is, you're not teaching classes at the gym. And people need to understand that too. You're not buying yourself a job or you shouldn't be. In some cases that's okay, and there's franchises for that. But for the most part, you got to think about it as you're building a business and you're going to have people that are doing the stuff and you're running the organization.

Speaker 2 (30:47):

I do think it is important to be passionate about the industry. I think it's very important for the franchisee and the general managers running the locations to be a product of the product. If you are obsessed with the med spa space, it would be a great thing to own. If you love pets, you are not going to care when you're covered in dog hair or when a pet has an accident in your franchise. If you think about the worst parts of the job and you're still obsessed with it, I do think that those franchisees eat, live, breathe, sleep, the product naturally are going to win the fastest and the easiest because they already have that advantage also.

Speaker 1 (31:27):

Yeah, I agree with that to an extent. And so what I mean by that is my first franchise was Maui Smoothies. I really never really, I don't think I drank a smoothie before that, but I looked at the business model and I looked at the trend that was happening, and so I jumped on board. I was never somebody who buys a smoothie franchise, they love smoothies, and then all of a sudden realize that they have to work weekends and nights and that kind of thing that could get in the way. Sure, sure. So I like to bring that up for people as well. But no, you're right. I'm not saying you're incorrect about that, but some people get confused because we know the phrase, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. That's true. When you're working a job, a business is not a job.

(32:20)
And so you're building a lifestyle and you're building something that's going to be big enough to actually allow you to buy time, which is, I always say, you can't buy time, and it's the most important commodity in life with a business, you buy time and the way you do that is having a great business that employs people and then you make money. If you have money and time, that's success in my opinion. And so that's what a franchise could do for you if you follow the system and do the work. Prior to my business ownership experience, I worked in a New York City subway and I opened and closed doors in the subway. I worked there for 13 years. And it was a government job. It was a kind of job where if you just show up, you get paid. It was not hard work. It was not hard.

(33:11)
And then I got into this business and there was some days I worked really hot and people would say to me, you're crazy. You gave up your pension and the whole thing to do this Maui wowie. Like what? And I'm like, it's my baby. I love this thing. I would not even now, years later, I wouldn't give it up for a minute compassionate about the role of the owner. And that's a big part of it, being passionate about the product or service. It's great to love it, but again, you could be a vegetarian and own a food franchise, a burger franchise. So my last question for you, and I have to let you go, I know you're busy, but I always like to end the interview with a myth that you can bust. So is there something that comes to mind about busting a myth about marketing or even franchising in general,

Speaker 2 (34:11):

Busting a myth? Well, I think I shared a really good one about LinkedIn today. The LinkedIn game busting the myth of posting once every once in a while does not work. And so just knowing that, like you talked about hard work on behalf of the franchisee, I would say as a franchisor, the biggest thing is having tools and resources that you can deploy on a regular basis. Emerging brands just don't know what they need and they don't understand the depth and they don't understand the funding and the leadership that is necessary to really take their brand off the ground. And so I think busting the myth really of how do you grow and ramp quickly is getting people make the difference. And you don't always have to have them on your team outright working with us as an example, but even working with a really great LinkedIn strategist or social media, et cetera, there is a lot of low cost effective strategies that both the franchise work can do today and especially the franchisees.

(35:17)
So yes, investing and always having marketing dollars in the landscape is important, but also understanding how to help stretch a franchisees dollar further by doing things that are, let's say untraditional if you will, like the grassroots or the direct mail or QR codes came back really hot after Covid. So helping a franchisee also do things that they don't have to spend $5,000 a month in digital to be successful. That is a myth I love busting. And also too for franchise sales, you don't have to be spending $10,000 a month to attract candidates. There are some other things you can do and deploy and have more better targeted messaging that can really help move the needle for both inside the franchise brand and the franchisees. So I think part of it just is getting more creative on strategy. And then the last is at Momentum. We help franchise leaders, CEOs and presidents work on their business while running inside of their business.

(36:20)
And most of the time the number one thing and the biggest hardship emerging franchise brands are experiencing is more higher need for a small staff. And so busting the myth of that understanding how you can grow quicker was actually why we created Momentum Brands. I wanted to help people skip the line and take the knowledge of the big brands and say, the little guys can win too, and they don't have to be last. The nice guys don't have to finish last in franchising either. And that's in the emerging category. And really good content strategy works all the time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:59):

Wow. So many nuggets here. Brooke, really appreciate this, all this information. What could people reach you if they want to learn more about Momentum Brands?

Speaker 2 (37:11):

Great question. The Momentum Brands with an S on the end, the momentum brands.com is our website, and then they could follow me on LinkedIn or Instagram. And my handle there is Brooke Budke, B U D K E, and there's an E on Brooke, and I'll be speaking at the Springboard conference about marketing. So I'd love to meet, I'll see you there, Tom, and anybody else if they're listening to this real time when it comes out. And I'll see you on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1 (37:41):

Sure. This is great. And yeah, you're an accomplished speaker too, and just a marketing expert, and it was just an honor to have you on the show. This is really great stuff. So the website for the momentum brands.com will be on the franchise academy.com. So if you're jogging right now and you didn't write that down, just go to the franchise academy.com. All of Brooks information will be there. You could contact her directly, get involved with marketing, learn ways to get your business, moving the needle and making it happen, and get your message out there. So again, thanks Brooke.

Speaker 2 (38:19):

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (38:21):

Have a great day.

Speaker 2 (38:22):

You too.