Episode 1: Welcome to the Infinite Franchisee Show

Welcome to the infinite franchisee show. I am your host April Porter, I am so excited to be here with you today introducing the Infinite Franchisee to you and to the world. Thank you so much for joining us on this very first episode. We are excited and thrilled and honored to have you here. So, today we'll be talking about what the Infinite Franchisee show is all about. We're going to cover what to expect when you tune into this podcast, what you can learn from me and my guests, plus a little bit about me and why I created the Infinite Franchisee show. The first thing you should know about me is that I believe we were put on this earth for a purpose. And that purpose is to individually evolve into the best versions of ourselves possible to become bigger thinkers, bigger doers, and bigger givers. For me, that translates into a thirst for knowledge and an insatiable hunger for continuous improvement. So when I first became a franchisee, I focused on learning everything I possibly could for my franchisor as fast as possible. And I found success very quickly doing that. I also quickly realized that I was learning how to execute business tasks that were specific to the brand. But I wasn't learning a whole lot about business itself. And I was stuck in a version of myself that relied on my natural talents, rather than my expertise in business itself. So I started my personal and professional development journey, by reading books by the experts, I listened to podcasts, attended conferences and talks. And I soaked up as much guidance as I possibly could through those mediums. In doing so, I aligned myself with the bad acids that had been there before me and could show me the path. You know, the people who are making a major impact on the world and leading their lives in a way that was consistent with my values. I want to do the same for everyone who was in the position I was in. That includes franchisees looking for ways to level up independent small business owners that want to learn from a real person who's been in their shoes, franchisors wanting to get a better perspective of the franchisee experience, people contemplating franchise ownership and anyone supporting small businesses or franchises.

I want to provide valuable education strategies, life lessons and advice for free to help anyone who is ready to pour into their communities through business ownership. For those that are wanting to work on themselves and make a bigger impact on the world and those ready to explode their profits while enjoying a mojito on the beach, which is the real goal, right? So one of my goals for each and every time we meet is to not just provide information about new concepts, but to give you actionable steps you can take away and begin implementing. We're talking about how to do things, not just what you should be doing. And that's really what sets this show apart from the rest. I'm not selling you on the franchise industry. I'm here to give you the strategies you need to move you and your business forward regardless of what that business is. 

So we are going to accomplish this in many ways. First, I will be sharing business lessons, strategy discussions and some momentum building motivation with you directly. In addition, we're gonna have special guests join us from many backgrounds, we're talking heavy hitters in the franchising industry, like franchisees who cracked the code and mega success franchisors that have created collaborative ecosystems within their brands and they have thriving franchisees award winning attorneys who are fighting for franchisee rights legislators working to create a better franchise experience, business coaches and experts with tactical advice As in marketing, customer relations, employee development, and a whole lot more. Here, we will be learning from the people that have made mistakes and learn from them so that you can save yourself the headache, and the heartache of making the same mistakes with the goal of giving you the keys to improving your income and quality of life right away. With that mission in mind, this podcast won't be all about business or franchising, we are going to focus on helping you reach the point in your career and your life that you envisioned on the day you signed that franchise agreement. Or for you independent business owners the day you open the door to your business. I want you to close your eyes for a moment. Unless you're driving. Of course, if you're driving, keep your eyes on the road. Let's let's think back, do you remember what that dream looked like? I bet it included being in a position of authority where you could have a major impact on your customers lives in a positive way. Where you could build a workplace where employees felt like family and retreated well, where you could contribute to your community and the world in a big way, and earn the reputation of excellence where your income exceeded anything you could have made by staying in that nine to five grind and where you wouldn't have to work so hard to achieve these things. But instead, you could experience more freedom to spend quality time with your family and do things you love like hobbies and life enriching experiences, and the Infinite Franchisee we call this vision SWAG. It stands for sanity, wealth and gratitude. And that's where this mission is headed.

To reach SWAG, we have to focus on more than just the strategies and actionable steps that lead to the vision. Because the reality is I can hand out all the free strategies in the world plus checklist of the steps to take who to hire, how to price products, all of that. And it wouldn't make a bit of difference if the listener doesn't have the right mindset to receive the information and the fortitude to apply it. The thing that separates the successful business owners from those that are actually living their swag is the habits that they choose to embrace the comfort zones that they release and leave behind and the mindsets that they intentionally maintain in order to elevate themselves into believing in infinite possibilities. So for that reason, we're also going to be talking mindset and inviting guests in to inspire us on topics in alignment with that SWAG lifestyle we are working toward.

So let me tell you who I am and why I am the right person to share this podcast with you. Again, my name is April Porter. And I started off my career as a prosecuting attorney. I prosecuted crimes here in the St. Louis area and I specialized in sexual assaults, child abuse, elder abuse and homicides. So you know, pretty heavy stuff. I did that for about 10 years, and I was really, really good at it. I had been promoted many times. I was a really good trial attorney to the point where I was presenting at National Law Enforcement conferences to federal agencies and Fortune 500 corporations. The reason I was so successful in the courtroom and on the stage is that I understood how to strategize. I also understood what motivates people. That's why you always hear about what was the motive on all the crime shows. As a prosecutor, I had to understand the way people think and what drives their actions. So when I was in the courtroom, I understood how to get a jury to like me and how to select a jury without bias. I had to strategize the order that I would call witnesses in the order I was going to introduce evidence and the objections I would make to the defense how I would overcome objections the defense made on my evidence, I even had to strategize what I would be wearing each day of the trial and how that would coincide with the feeling and the theme that I wanted the jury to to partake in that day. And with all this strategy, I actually had a really good track record of winning, but like most people who turn to business ownership, there came a point in time where I felt like I wasn't making the impact on the world that I wanted to make. I could do more I could have a bigger impact. I also felt like it wasn't really earning the money that I was worth. And I was working way way too many hours.

So that's when I began to look for my next step in my career. And I've always had an entrepreneurial, spirit always been doing something on the side, you know, teaching fitness, small little like hobby businesses. But this time I took the leap, and I bought into a fitness franchise. And I actually did not just commit to a single location, but I committed to three - to opening three locations right out of the gate, because my thought was, you know, hey, go big or go home, right? - and the franchisor is going to teach me everything I need to know. So when I got into my first location, I mastered the model in three months and became profitable right away. And I did that using everything the franchisor had taught me, but also all of those strategic skills that I had brought with me from my time in the courtroom. And that understanding I have of people and the psychology behind why they do things, I applied that to my marketing, just just kind of as a natural application. I didn't really know what I was doing. But that really helped us grow very, very quickly. And we went on to open not just three locations, but four locations in less than three years. So at that point in time, we were growing so fast, it was right around between my third and fourth location where I was to the outside world looking extremely successful. And I was I was feeling successful.

But I was still working way too many hours, I was working nights and weekends, I was on my phone, checking Facebook messages and emails and all these different things. Mentally, I was always tuned into the business. And I was not really enjoying that life of SWAG that I had envisioned by taking this leap into business ownership. And that's when I knew something had to change, because I couldn't be in, you know, four places at once. And I couldn't keep up this pace indefinitely. And that wasn't my dream. So that's when I really began working on my professional development. I started working with my business coach, and everything just shifted immediately. It wasn't that I wasn't capable of doing it on my own, I just didn't know what I didn't know. And that's where I think so many business owners get stuck is we keep trying to identify problems without having the full picture. And we try to grasp on to solutions and in our business that are going to help it grow. But we only have a limited piece of the equation that we're looking at, because we just don't know what we don't know.

So as soon as I cracked that egg open, man, my life changed. And that's when I was able to start reducing my hours in the business, ultimately to the point where I only worked five hours a week on my fitness franchise business. Other than that, I had built a team of 25 people that not only could I rely on, but that were driven to grow the business just as much as I was. So they were doubling our revenue. While I was leading them and strategizing on how to do it, they were executing the strategy. Now of course, as this started to happen, everyone wanted to know what I was doing. It was noticeable here in the St. Louis community and throughout my franchise network that we were doing something special. I mean, we won. We were named one of St. Louis's top 50 fastest growing companies three years in a row, I won the national Trailblazer Award from the American Association of franchisees and dealers. And so as people continued to ask me, you know, what are you doing? Can you help me? That's when I began private coaching. In addition, I was also the president of our independent Franchise Association and elected to the franchise Advisory Council where I was working with the home office on lots of strategies to help people particularly through the pandemic. So through all of that I've mentored hundreds of franchisees. So when I sold all of my locations in September 2020, I realized that I was leaving the franchising industry, but that the franchisees still needed me or someone like me, so I founded ask April Porter, an online company dedicated to teaching franchisees how to duplicate my success and go beyond because in my time as a franchisee, it became very clear that franchisees need the professional development support, to really elevate themselves past being an employee in their business. And they need that from someone who's been there before, who understands what they face as a general business owner, but also the constraints of a franchise agreement and following brand standards. So what I learned is that there's a lot of things out there for the franchising industry, but not a whole lot out there for franchisees.

Franchisees pour their life savings and sometimes their whole retirement into investing in their dream of owning a business. But they're not always given the tools to succeed. So I began searching for business development in the franchise space and found that there's lots of resources for franchisors and franchising in general. But none for franchisees. I mean, there were no Facebook groups, no LinkedIn groups, no podcasts. Until now, right. So I created my company to give franchisees a place to go to collaborate with people just like them, to learn from someone who has been in their shoes, and to give them the attention and support that they deserve. So now you can find us everywhere. We're here with the podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, clubhouse, Instagram, even Tik Tok. And we're at every location with free business building content specifically for franchisees, which brings me to my last point, I want to hear from you. I want to know what questions you have, what it is you need to be successful, what guests would you like to hear from, and I especially want to hear what is going really well for you, we want to celebrate your wins. When you share your thoughts and ideas, your opinions, your experiences with me. It helps me tailor the content to speak directly to you. So connect with us here or on any of our other platforms. And please please please weigh in. I'm here to serve you. And I hope that you are as passionate about participating as I am in providing this opportunity to you and that you will subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review. And don't forget to please join us here every week as we work on building your SWAG as an Infinite Franchisee.

Do you love the Infinite Franchisee show? I'd love to hear from you. Take 60 seconds and leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen. It is such a small thing that can help so many other franchisees and entrepreneurs find us and then they can discover infinite possibilities to thanks for tuning in today. Until next time, remember, there are infinite opportunities to grow your business and reach the Saturday wealth and gratitude you deserve. So don't ever settle for anything less than infinite success.