Stop Chasing Income, Start Building Ownership with Rich Potter

0:00All right, Vision Pros, I'm doing something different today. I got Rich Potter in the house. This man has the effect. You know, I've never met Rich. We have not talked, but between what I saw in his form was like, man, this guy's got a vision. And between what I saw on his website too, your dream of business ownership becomes a reality here with him. The quality is just there. The essence is just there. So let me read you what he submitted before I bring him on stage and put him on the spot. This is my vision is to help high performing professional stop chasing income and start building ownership. Too many people are successful on paper, but stuck in reality. They have strong resumes. They have stable paychecks. They've got growing responsibilities, but no real control. They want financial independence, flexibility, and impact yet they're caught between risky side hustles, fear of losing stability and the beliefs that they don't have enough capital or experience to start. This man writes like Michael Gerber of the E-Meth, my friends. I believe there is a smarter middle ground through franchise consulting and business ownership

1:00education. My vision is to normalize structured entrepreneurship, not hype, not speculation, not gambling on trends. Oh my gosh, does that happen all over the business world with small investments and people thinking they're chasing they're not chasing the latest shiny object yet there. They think they're not get rich quickers. But what do we see? Obtain wealth fast. Well, it means the same thing. Please stop doing it, my friends. But evaluating proven models, leveraging systems, building businesses intentionally. This is impactful for your audience because many of them are capable of more than their current environment allows. They don't need motivation. They need clarity. They need frameworks to overcome doubt, realistic paths to ownership and examples of people who've built wealth without blowing up their lives in the process. Rich's mission is to help people move from frustrated employee to confident owner, replacing fear with informed decisions, replacing excuses with action, and replacing burnout with businesses

2:02designed to support their life, not consume it. Man, the bromance is strong. Rich has it down. Welcome to Vision Pros by, man. Hey, Jackson, thanks, man. It was quite the intro. I love it. Thanks for having me. Thanks, guys. Thanks, heroes. Not absolutely. I mean, again, you right. That's like a love not a novel to anybody who's ever tried entrepreneurship for more than three to five years and is like, I am so sick of all the time wasting, of all the debt chasing, of all the challenges that come with it. And you're going to be empowering people who are jumping in the game right out of a stable reality. Like, I wish all entrepreneurs would do that. So anyway, I'm in love with your message. Well done. How the heck did you figure all that out, man? Man, a lot of trial and error, right? Like, it's taken some time. I mean, I spent a good amount of time in corporate and, you know, slowly built up a couple of businesses that allowed me to eventually exit. And, you know, over time, I've just kind of figured out a little bit here,

3:03a little bit there with some mentors and with some help. And now, and now I, my mission is to kind of get back through, through my consulting and helping people realize the dream of business ownership, you know, so it's absolutely. And give back as a capitalist to be clear, right? Yeah, absolutely, yep, for real. Because we can do good and we can make money. Oh, man, I'd see that that's what it's about. And I'm okay. I just want to make sure that I didn't actually miss the nonprofit aspect up. No, no, no, for sure, there's definitely a problem there. No, I just love helping people, you know, I business ownership has really provided me a different level of freedom than I ever had working a nine to five. You know, it allows me to be there for my family. It provides time freedom as well as financial freedom. And it doesn't worry you based. So I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. This is the main website you're going through here, the quantum franchise group of the brokerage that I belong to. And I've kind of branded my own little thing through franchise heroes.

4:04So yeah, you've got, you've got the shoulders of giants that you're standing on with this as well. And that's, that's great news. And I'm sure there's some book references in there as well. But did you serve military wise? I did not know. A lot of family representing. Yeah, no, I actually, I was on another podcast earlier today for a veteran veteran podcast. So I thought I'd wrap up, but yeah, no, my brother's serving right now in Seoul, Korea with the army. OK, well, blessings to him and the family and thanks for the family service. Appreciate that. So good. So, OK, so franchises as well. And franchises, I'm a big fan of franchises. Visionaries, I don't talk a lot about it because we've got other things that we have brought up. And we don't usually have a franchise expert on the show. So it is nice to have Rich here. My parents owned a franchise called Twice the Ice. And it worked out really, really well as part of that. They had an 18-wheeler parking lot in Santoni, you know, that they sold successfully and they sold the Twice the Ice machine with it. But it brought in a pretty stable four to $6,000 to $6,000 per month.

5:07And you know, it's just buying a business out of a box. You had the procedures, you had the resources, you had the templates, you had the market research, you had the ideas of what to do. You had support that you could call in. They had some ideas for advertising. They weren't the greatest opportunities. But I mean, when you have a product like bags of ice that are kind of, I don't say they're essential in America. They're an essential need in American households. So it was pretty easy to get. You're an adult, man. Yeah, exactly. There you go. I mean, we were in Texas, as that was huge. But you know, we ran some Facebook ads that really bolster the initial launch campaigns and never really needed anything beyond that. It's like, no, market awareness. Everything's good to go. Quality assurance has all been done for years. There's so many advantages to going to franchise route. So Rich, feel free, plug some gaps for me. What else did I miss about that? I love it. Yeah, you're doing great. I love it. So the biggest thing I love about franchising is, is it's already been tested and tried and it works, right? So a lot of times when we do a startup,

6:07we're testing out a new idea or a new concept or a new twist on how to do something. But if we go through the franchise route, you already have an established, very successful location that's already gone through the trial and error, already tested the market and has launched a very successful business. And typically they've been in business for five, 10 years or a lot longer in a lot of cases. And they've built an incredible organization. And then they've systematized it through standard operating procedures. They've hired support staff and now they're just handing you the keys to the kingdom, right? And all you need to do is just follow the game plan. And if you follow the game plan and if you're well capitalized, I mean, nine times out of 10, 99 times out of 10, you're going to be successful, right? It's when you start trying to create outside of the box and you try to, you know, not follow the game plan, not follow their SOPs and stuff like that that you tend to have in trouble, right?

7:09Or if you're not well capitalized, you know, if you come in and you just, you don't have enough money for the marketing and stuff like that, seem, seem people struggle that way too. But if you follow the plan, follow the system, man, it works and it works really well. Some statistics I like to throw out there is like 17% of startup businesses are still around 10 years later. No, no, no, that's not, that's not a true statistic. 96% of businesses fail within 10 years. Startups have a far worse chance of being able to win than just businesses in general. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna take your theory. When I saw the 17% are still around. So we're, yes, the SBA. Yeah, the SBA is the one that has the stat that I'm referring to. You can look up on ink as well, but I'm just, I'm pointing out what Marisha's trying to warn you guys about. I am to my friends like, it's scary. 96% out within 10 years. That means I used to think when I was younger that it was a 4% success rate. No, it's a 4% survival rate.

8:11Out of those 4%, you then have to look at which ones are successful. So it's really, really a bad idea. If you're low tolerance or the risk to go the startup route, I do it all the time. I love Russell Brunson's quote, like you don't wanna be the pioneer that's trailblazing that has the arrows in your back. Like just follow those guys and model what they do. I was the crazy one who heard him say that was like, I do. Don't do that. So we're gonna come back. We're gonna talk to Rich a little bit deeper. I wanna hear more about these stats, Rich, but I wanna give one piece of advice and I'll come back to clarify it after. I would never play poker against Rich. Just so you guys know, he's far more pragmatic. There's other people you can win against, but not this guy. All right, welcome in to Vision Pro's Live. With Jackson Kalam, I'm your show host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic visions out there. All right guys, so I got Rich and we're talking about this concept

9:18of like being intentional and planning and being strategic as you launch brands. I can't emphasize this enough. There's just far too much hype online and it's so easy to fall victim of accidentally falling into this business world thinking that entrepreneurship is easy and it's so far from the truth. This is not easy. It's hard and I've been involved in startup ventures and fortunately, I've had a lot of success along the way with that, but you have to have your battle scars in order to get through that. There are so many goods, ads and uglies about launching visions and Rich has, you know, as a franchise guy, he's probably studied several franchisees and different types of franchise models and I like to pick on the subway one. So I also wanna honor all of us, those who are a little bit more crazy like me and wanna launch startups. When it comes to launching startups, don't worry about the statistics either, my friends. Really, don't worry about it. I'm raised by a single mom of six. So every statistic that ever told me about life that I was never supposed to be successful. And so I had to learn not to be a number.

10:18I had to learn that I can control the various variables in my life and I can dedicate myself on other ways in order to carve out my own success. The same is true for businesses. Don't follow the path of the 96%. Go find the anomalies and find out what the heck did you do to get the results that it is that you have. So I'm gonna go to franchises like Subway for just a second, Rich. For instance, I think Subway is a great business model. I think it's a really crappy sandwich shop, though I used to like it, I don't know why. But one of the crappiest and greatest skilled companies of all time as far as their franchise goes, last I checked, you have to pay $75,000 up front in order to buy that franchise. And as Rich talked about, it's a really good idea to have another budget for marketing and beyond. And the AI a couple of years ago recommended me like, you know, have like $100,000 right at the go to help bolster that. And then within a seven to eight year period, you would have carved out a six figure process for yourself, a six figure game. It would be low six, or you're not going over 125,000 per year said, but you would still have that stability,

11:20you would have that structure that helps you build. And so I don't wanna minimize the value of that reality. In fact, I wanna maximize that's a really good thing. I did have somebody on my show a few months ago, though, that talked about the golden bird cage and feeling trapped in that. And I think sometimes that's what also happens when people just decide to launch a franchise that's out of alignment with their passion, with their purpose. And so now you've got a better lifestyle, but you still don't end up unlocking the impact and the contribution line, the significance. And there's so much to it. And there's probably other franchises that Rich knows about that I don't. It's like, no, no, no, this is a far more sure bit, but I will say one thing about what we do at first class business. For us, we're looking for our clients who are willing to pay $150,000, a marketing operations, the whole budget upfront. That would be the ideal scenario because it's a lot like gardening. If I have a gardener who comes to me and says, what's the least amount of water I can give my garden? They're going to fail.

12:22Their garden is going that you cannot give it just the least amount. You've always got to give it a little bit more. And so my point with that is when we're building scope of works for businesses, for us, we want to create profitability sustainably within 45 to 180 days, not seven years. 45 to 180, and that's not get rich quick. That's, let's work our freaking tail off. Let's pay the dues. Let's put the right systems in place. Let's understand the value of advertising rather than hide from it as most businesses do. And let's create something that's truly scalable. So there are both sides. I want to again, move back over to Rich Potter here though and say Rich, let's unlock some franchise secrets, man. What else do you know, what can you share with us? Yeah, I love your example of Subway. It's one that I think is past its time though, right? Like if you would have got in maybe 10 years ago, it was a good opportunity to make it. 10 years ago, we were still eating fresh at Subway. I don't know what the heck happened with that. Exactly, yes. It's a $5 full-on way. Yes, I know. I've killed it. I was like, no, I'm not paying $6 bucks for that thing.

13:22No. But it's one, like if you dive in deep now, like I think the investment's a little too high, it's the returns not quite there. You can get a lot better franchises. And when you look through the franchise disclosure document, you can see that Subway reserves the right to open one like right across the street from you, right? So like there's some red flags in there now where before when they were growing in their hyper growth mode, like it was a huge opportunity. And if you would have gotten in earlier, it's great. Today, I would highly, highly recommend against it, you know? And I even recommend against like stuff like McDonald's right now too. I mean, $2 million to buy McDonald's in the average location is netting under $100,000. Right? A huge investment for very little return and you're gonna be married to the thing, right? Like you're gonna be in there 80 hours a week. And if you're not a franchisee right now, anyways, it's like a 10, five to 10 year wait.

14:22So it currently just not existing franchisees. So it is, it's a more about like following a vision versus like following a brand, right? So like we really, and then my part of the process before we ever even start talking brands, we figure out like who you are at your core, your strengths, your personality type. What type of person are you gonna be when it comes to business ownership? Are you an achiever that really cares about numbers and profitability? And that's kind of where your alignment is or are you a societal that needs a business that makes impact on the world, right? Knowing those things is really gonna, it's vastly gonna change the franchises that we look at together, you know? Are you an emulator where ego plays a role into like what you do? Like do you need a franchisee that you're gonna be proud of,

15:23you know, to tell your friends about if so, like I can't show you the poop scooping business. Like even though net margins are 50% plus, you're not gonna be proud of something like that, right? A huge part of finding the right franchise is really figuring out your vision, figuring out the lifestyle you wanna create before you ever chase brands. You know, don't go after the crumble of today where like, you know, crumble is one of the, was not anymore, last two years was like one of the fastest growing franchises out there, you know? But it didn't align with a lot of people, you know? Some don't want that brick and mortar, they don't want that retail front. So it's really from an alignment first before brand. I love that. Well, it's hard for me. I mean, I haven't been in business for 15 plus years, I'm not longer than that, but the franchise guys I've found, I can only name three in that long. And don't get me wrong. If I looked up on AI or on Google like,

16:24hey, where are the franchise people? Like I could have found it, but the people who are out there doing the work to understand what franchise opportunities there are, how the agreements work, what, how you get in it, how do you get out of it, how do you transition, like you talked about, you talked about some things I haven't heard franchise people talk about before, which is purpose and passion and the fulfillment aspect. And so I love that you look at the lifestyle first because it is, it's not, I don't think it's, I think a lot of people in America are tired of the golden handcuffs. And it's like, why swap one set of golden handcuffs for another, let's find something that truly brings impact to your life. So I would personally love to bring you back rich for a 40 to 60 minute session where we dive even deeper. And we look at perhaps even the quiz that you have and really open people's eyes to what's possible with those visionaries. We're not talking about abandoning our visions. We're talking about making sure that we do the right things to fund and move our visions forward purposefully and recognize that every chapter along the way

17:25can help us with the process of moving forward. I'll use a random example on this, Eric Spolstra. He's a coach of the Miami Heat. And this guy started studying film in the back rooms of the Miami Heat. He was probably decent basketball player in his day, whether he played in middle school, or I don't know, but he became one of the best coaches of all time. And it took him decades of pain, deuce, and putting in the work to get to where he got to that level and he got to the absolute maximum level. And got the coach of Ron James in the way to Chris Bosch and their championship level basketball team under Pat Riley, like the legendary mentor. So these opportunities, they might be springboards and heck, you might become a franchise guru just like Rich. You never know. You know, you meet people along your way, things happen. So definitely go look up what Rich is doing. And you can find him on LinkedIn. You can find him on Google and AI and go to franchiseheroes.co as well learn more about his sort of Rich. Will you come back on the show with me?

18:25Absolutely, I'd love to. Okay, fantastic guys. We'll see you guys in the next episode and make sure to turn it in. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pro's Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well when bike people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.