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The Path to Franchise Ownership, with Sue and Craig Derene, Franchise Connect Pro

June 11, 2024 by John Ray

Craig and Sue Derene, Franchise Connect Pro

North Fulton Business Radio

The Path to Franchise Ownership, with Sue and Craig Derene, Franchise Connect Pro

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The Path to Franchise Ownership, with Sue and Craig Derene, Franchise Connect Pro (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 777)

On this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray interviews Sue and Craig Derene of Franchise Connect Pro. Sue and Craig discuss how they assist individuals in selecting the right franchise model based on their backgrounds, skills, and financial capabilities. The Derenes emphasize the importance of responsible franchising, including the concepts of transparent business models and sustainable growth. They share success stories of clients who have successfully transitioned from corporate roles to franchise ownership, highlighting the importance of fit and commitment in achieving business success. Sue and Craig also provide insights into their process, from initial consultations to detailed discovery steps and funding assistance.

John Ray is the host of North Fulton Business Radio. The show is recorded and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Sue and Craig Derene, Franchise Connect Pro

Craig and Sue Derene, Franchise Connect Pro

Sue and Craig Derene’s passion for helping people led them to a career guiding individuals toward their dreams of business ownership. Franchising can provide financial security, lifestyle freedom, and legacy building.

Franchise Connect Pro specializes in finding the perfect franchise or business opportunity. Their free consultation process has a proven track record of success, helping to identify and research franchise opportunities that present a true chance for success in specific target markets. With over 3,000 franchise concepts available in the United States alone, searching for the right franchise can be a daunting task.

Additionally, not all franchises are created equally, and even top-rated franchises are not always the best fit for everyone. Their process takes a close look at an individual’s goals, experience, strengths, weaknesses, desired lifestyle, and more to find opportunities that present a realistic chance for long-term success and happiness.

At Franchise Connect Pro, they provide free franchise consulting services to assist in making the best decision when buying a franchise or business opportunity. They represent over 900 of today’s leading franchise opportunities and are affiliated with a strong, dedicated franchising network of professionals and franchise partners.

Their focus is on helping clients navigate through the entire process and matching them with the ideal business.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

00:00 Welcome to North Fulton Business Radio
01:31 Meet Sue and Craig Derene
01:58 Franchise Connect Pro: What They Do
03:30 The Derene’s Journey to Franchise Consulting
04:38 Helping Clients at a Crossroads
10:54 Responsible Franchising
19:08 Matching Skill Sets with the Right Franchise
20:37 Ideal Clients for Franchise Connect Pro
22:54 The Process of Working with Franchise Connect Pro
26:10 The Importance of Transparency and Commitment
31:40 Success Stories and Client Experiences
34:38 How to Connect with Sue and Craig
35:38 Closing Remarks and Additional Information

Renasant Bank and Casa Nuova Italian Restaurant support North Fulton Business Radio

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Casa Nuova is a proud family-owned and operated restaurant, serving classic, authentic and traditional Italian cuisine and top tier hospitality since 1998.

Casa Nuova is a cook-to-order kitchen, serving traditional fare including pasta, chicken, seafood, veal, vegetarian and gluten-free options, plus daily specials. They are a farm-to-table establishment, meaning that in the summertime, they cultivate their own vegetables in their garden, steps away from the restaurant, including tomatoes, corn, peppers, zucchini, sunflowers and more!

Celebrating more than 25 years, Casa Nuova has become a true staple in the Alpharetta area, serving more than three generations of families, including friends old and new, visiting near and far from all over the metro Atlanta area and beyond.

Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

About North Fulton Business Radio and host John Ray

With over 770 shows and having featured over 1,200 guests, North Fulton Business Radio is the longest-running podcast in the North Fulton area, covering business in our community like no one else. We are the undisputed “Voice of Business” in North Fulton!

The show welcomes a wide variety of business, non-profit, and community leaders to get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, their community, and their profession. There’s no discrimination based on company size, and there’s never any “pay to play.” North Fulton Business Radio supports and celebrates business by sharing positive business stories that traditional media ignore. Some media leans left. Some media leans right. We lean business.

John Ray, Business RadioX - North Fulton, and Owner, Ray Business Advisors — **John Ray, Business RadioX – North Fulton, and Owner, Ray Business Advisors**

John Ray is the host of North Fulton Business Radio. The show is recorded and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.

The studio address is 275 South Main Street, Alpharetta, GA 30009.

John Ray also operates his own business advisory practice. John’s services include advising solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their value, their positioning and business development, and their pricing. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as consultants, coaches, attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.

John is the national bestselling author of The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices.

Altruism and Business Ownership

January 23, 2023 by John Ray

North Fulton Studio

Altruism and Business Ownership

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Altruism and Business Ownership

Entrepreneurs today want a purpose in their business which goes beyond just making money. Reminding clients of that purpose is a vital way we are often called, as advisors, to deliver value to them.

The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®.

TRANSCRIPT

John Ray: [00:00:00] Hello. I’m John Ray on the Price and Value Journey. I recently ran across a quote from the Dalai Lama who said, “Idealistic as it may sound, altruism should be the driving force in business, not just competition and a desire for wealth”. Well, the Dalai Lama was in many ways kind and maybe even cute to some people. But what does he know about business? Quite a lot. I think if this quote attributed to him is accurate.

Let’s think about what altruism means. One definition I found calls altruistic behavior, a desire to benefit someone other than oneself for that person’s sake. Some will read that definition and claim that fulfilling such a desire is impossible in business. Those people would be flat out wrong. They’ve either never run a small business, not spent much time around business owners, or their experience in business is scarred by knowing the worst possible examples of business owners. In the latter case, the ones who are almost sociopathic in their disregard for others.

I work with and regularly talk with a wide variety of small and medium sized business owners. I have that privilege because of the pricing and other business advisory work that I do. And I also regularly interview a wide variety of guests as part of my work in the North Fulton Studio of Business RadioX. Between the guests I’ve interviewed myself and the guests of the shows we produce, we’ve had over 2000 business owners and leaders over the past almost seven years and counting.

So, my sample size is quite large, you might say. And I’m no wide eyed, idealistic novice either. These business owners span a wide variety of demographic categories. Some have always lived a life of entrepreneurship, and others started their businesses later in life after a career in corporate. One thing I have found over the years is that the overwhelming preponderance of business owners I’ve encountered have a purpose for their business, which goes well beyond the profit and loss statement.

There’s a bigger idea in mind. Maybe they’ve got a cause that’s important to them they want to contribute to. They’ve got some difference they want to make in their community. It could be rooted in their faith. Sometimes they want to establish a charitable legacy which lives on after they’re gone. For some, they’re simply motivated to be of service to everyone they meet, and that service just happens to be found in their business. They see themselves as servants to their employees, clients, vendors, and their community.

I was with a client recently and we were heads down together on several pressing issues. At one point, the conversation shifted toward purpose in his business. He restated that purpose. One I’d heard many times before and one that’s larger than himself. And he observed that if that purpose wasn’t the objective, then dealing with the problems we were talking about just wasn’t worth it. In a recent interview that I did with a personal injury attorney, he talked about the practice of law and his fundamental desire to help people. If it’s all about money, he said, you’ll never be satisfied with your business.

I see and hear altruism in small and medium sized business owners all the time. This theme is just part of the world that we live in today. People want purpose in their business or they don’t want to be in that enterprise. Here’s the thing, though. A business doesn’t have to get exceptionally large to start having a complex set of issues. If you’re a solo or small firm professional services provider, you work with a variety of small and medium sized business owners who are dragged down by the day-to-day problems and just the plain old crap that’s involved in running a business. All those issues can obscure the larger goals or make them seem far away.

Sometimes your job is simply to help your clients raise their vision, to remind them of why they’re dealing with all the junk they have on their plate. You don’t necessarily have to deliver brilliant insights or solve all their problems. You just need to bring back that vision of service they had when they got into business. When you reinvigorate their spirit by reminding them of what’s behind today’s clouds in their business, you are offering tremendous value. And that’s an honorable calling that you have as a professional services provider.

I’m John Ray on the Price and Value Journey. If you’d like to know about this series and some of the work that I do, you can go to pricevaluejourney.com. You’ll find there a link back to the show archive of this series. And if you’re not already subscriber on your favorite podcast app, I’d be honored if you would do that. You can find the series on all the major podcast apps. When you go to pricevaluejourney.com, you can find a link where you can sign up to receive more information on my upcoming book, which is called The Price and Value Journey, Raise Your Confidence, Your Value and Your Prices to Grow Your Business Using the Generosity Mindset. If you’d like to email me directly, you can do so at John@johnray.co. Thank you for joining me.

About The Price and Value Journey

The title of this show describes the journey all professional services providers are on: building a services practice by seeking to convince the world of the value we offer, helping clients achieve the outcomes they desire, and trying to do all that at pricing which reflects the value we deliver.

If you feel like you’re working too hard for too little money in your solo or small firm practice, this show is for you. Even if you’re reasonably happy with your practice, you’ll hear ways to improve both your bottom line as well as the mindset you bring to your business.

The show is produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® and can be found on all the major podcast apps. The complete show archive is here.

John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey

John Ray The Price and Value Journey — **John Ray, Host of “The Price and Value Journey”**

John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.

John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include advising solopreneur and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their “grey matter,” such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.

In his other business, John is a Studio Owner, Producer, and Show Host with Business RadioX®, and works with business owners who want to do their own podcast. As a veteran B2B services provider, John’s special sauce is coaching B2B professionals to use a podcast to build relationships in a non-salesy way which translate into revenue.

John is the host of North Fulton Business Radio, Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Radio, Alpharetta Tech Talk, and Business Leaders Radio. house shows which feature a wide range of business leaders and companies. John has hosted and/or produced over 1,700 podcast episodes.

Coming in 2023: A New Book!

John’s working on a book that will be released in 2023: The Price and Value Journey: Raise Your Confidence, Your Value, and Your Prices to Grow Your Business Using The Generosity Mindset. The book covers topics like value and adopting a mindset of value, pricing your services more effectively, proposals, and essential elements of growing your business. For more information, contact John below.

Connect with John Ray:

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter

Business RadioX®: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

How to Live with Purpose with Laurel Elders and Kelly Lorenzen E14

September 30, 2021 by Karen

E14-How-to-Live-With-Purpose-With-Laurel-Elders-and-Kelly-Lorenzen-feature1

Phoenix Business Radio

How to Live with Purpose with Laurel Elders and Kelly Lorenzen E14

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How to Live With Purpose With Laurel Elders and Kelly Lorenzen E14

In this month’s show, we hosted Kelly Lorenzen and Laurel Elders. Purpose is a lifelong pursuit and both Laurel and Kelly are experts in walking alongside others on that path. Tune in to this month’s show to learn how to take the first step in the thousand-mile journey in finding your true north.

You’ll want to listen to this show if you are worn out, feel like you’ve lost your direction in life, or want to home in on your true north. You are made for more. Uncover the essence of who you are and the essential ways to live the rest of your life on purpose.

KLM Consulting is a business development firm with over 18 years of award-winning business savvy. Their purpose is to foster the growth and prosperity of small businesses in our community.

Everything KLM does is to help small businesses build, grow, and sustain. They enable owners to get back to doing what they love about their business and bring them happiness.

By offering business development strategy sessions, concierge services, consulting, marketing, project management, and social media training, KLM’s clients can continue to do what they love while having the support they need when they need it.

Kelly Lorenzen, CEO of KLM Consulting, is an award-winning entrepreneur with over 18 years of business ownership experience. Kelly’s passion is helping fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners succeed. She has joined forces with other local experts to provide a multi-faceted team to help clients with all of their business development needs.

Along with being a CEO, Kelly is a mentor, mother, and philanthropist. Kelly’s Core Values are Fairness, Integrity, Family, Inclusion, Happiness, and Accomplishment.

Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn and follow KLM Consulting on Facebook and Instagram.

We are here to elevate human potential. We, the Institute for Integrative Intelligence team, feel called to be a part of a much bigger movement towards integrative thinking and sustainability that is heart-centered, inspiring and empowering so that freedom, health and joy may be shared for generations to come.

We are here to serve people who also feel the call to support a shift towards sustainable, collaborative practices in business, management, leadership and personal evolution. We are here to provide the framework for global and economic empowerment and to inspire groups into ethical and viable professional practices.

We are here to help those on a mission to leave a positive legacy with their life’s footprint and to reach farther to create a much larger positive impact on people’s lives, both locally and globally.

We are here to see you graduate from our training with a solid foundation to successfully lead from your calling.

Laurel Elders is the Founder, CEO and a Lead Senior Faculty of the ICF Accredited, Institute for Integrative Intelligence, headquartered in Tucson, AZ.

She began her career as a coach in 2005 after noticing that we are living in pivotal times; corporations often place profit above people, individuals are feeling lost in the “rat race” and corporate drive is leaving the largest scale impact on the future of sustainability.

Laurel observed how coaching is powerfully tapping into the next phase of human potential in ways never before experienced and is contributing to powerful solutions.

Laurel invested in bringing the highest levels of coach training and mentoring, into a world that needs people’s gifts, talents, purpose and heart, now more than ever.

Her clients and students are torch holders for positive impact, locally and globally, in service to the success of generations to come.

Connect with Laurel on LinkedIn.

About Our People and Profit Co-Hosts

Sarah McCraren is an Arizona native with a strong sense of community. Sarah spent many years in the corporate finance world specializing in the operational analysis, measurement and accountability systems, project management and software implementations. However, Sarah wanted to do work which was meaningful and would positively impact her community.

She found that saving lives and reducing injuries through comprehensive safety programs fit that bill. Sarah currently leads the McCraren Compliance team by keeping everyone focused on their primary purpose, creating workplaces where we all watch out for each other, and balancing the needs of all their stakeholders.

Sarah serves on the Boards for Conscious Capitalism Arizona and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Tucson Chapter, and is also active with the Arizona Builders Alliance, Arizona Rock Products Association , Arizona Transportation Builders and Women in Mining Az.

Sarah McCraren
Part of an Awesome Team
www.McCrarenCompliance.com
Creating Workplaces Where We All Watch Out for Each Other

No arm twisting is required to get Jeremy Neis, a CC Arizona leadership team member, to engage in conversation with impassioned business minds on the topic of leveraging enterprise to create long lasting advancements for humanity.

His two plus decades of entrepreneurial experience, leading strategic initiatives and tailoring solutions for organizations, families and individuals has led to a strong appreciation of the profound impact business wields over the people it serves and relies upon.

It is his delight to explore with inspiration, show guests their experiences, observations and approaches to doing business in a people centered manner.

About Our Sponsor – Conscious Capitalism Arizona

Business has the potential to be a powerful force for good.

Free enterprise capitalism has served to lift more people out of poverty than any other socio-economic system ever conceived – empowering social cooperation, human progress, and elevating humanity.

Good business is the answer to many of the global issues that humankind is facing. This is what we will dive into on the show.

We are working to change the capitalism narrative by shining a bright light on good business – telling the stories of conscious Arizona companies and encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.

E79 The Benefits of Diversity in the Project Management Community with Alana Hill

May 27, 2021 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

E79 The Benefits of Diversity in the Project Management Community with Alana Hill

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E79 The Benefits of Diversity in the Project Management Community with Alana Hill

In this episode of Project Management Office Hours, Alana Hill shares her story with us and we learn that although there has been some progress we still have a way to go with gender and racial diversity within the project management community. Alana and PMO Joe discuss the benefits of diversity within our industry and within your own career. What does your contact list look like? If they all are the same, how do they challenge you, but also allow for creative thinking? Alana shared, “The more we are aware of building relationships outside of our identity, the more we advance the cause of everyone.”

Alana shares the back-story for her book, What’s Your Catalyst, The Power of Managed Change. We learn the importance of a balance between IQ and EQ to improve team performance. We also learn the influence of coaches and role models on her life and the origin of her nickname, “Georgia.

To hear what Alana is working on next, listen to the full episode and subscribe to the podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/project-management-office-hours/id1398533604

“Lead change the Mrs. Engineer Way” and connect with Alana on LinkedIn and Ms. Engineer Way

Lastly, we want to thank THE PMO SQUAD and The PMO Leader for sponsoring this show.
Learn more about The PMO Squad www.thepmosquad.com
Learn more about The PMO Leader www.thepmoleader.com

2Hill Consulting was founded in 2006 by the firm’s principal consultant, Alana M. Hill, PMP, with one goal: to maximize the potential of people to succeed. Alana was motivated to bring her real-world, Fortune 100 talent development and change management experience to organizations of all sizes. Her affinity for processes and solutions has led to the success of numerous international projects helping people and organizations innovate for maximum productivity.

2Hill is dedicated to developing Change Leaders through the delivery of world-class training and coaching. Effectiveness boils down to people and processes. Combining Project Management expertise, DISC personality assessments, and Change Management methodologies, they help people and teams lead themselves from surviving to thriving.

Alana Hill is an international change leadership expert, inspiring professionals to lead change in their lives and their organizations. She is a passionate energy industry veteran who has paved the way for women leaders, with a focus on women of color.

Her experience as an engineer and certified Project Management Professional (PMP) in talent development provides real‐world insight into how people and teams can excel, even in the face of adversity. Throughout her career, Alana has led diverse teams and delivered high-impact workshops all over the world!

She is an engaging and dynamic keynote speaker and facilitator, appealing to audiences of various types and sizes. Alana makes a lasting impact at conferences, corporations, colleges, and churches, delivering high-energy, principle-based content.

Her programs will move you to overcome adversity, build resilience, and convey empathy. She is the author of What’s Your Catalyst? The Power of Managed Change where she guides her readers to discover how purpose and passion can drive strategic change at home and at work.

With over 20 years of cross-functional leadership and training expertise, Alana helps individuals and organizations accomplish their goals by utilizing sharp analysis, strategic planning, and interpersonal skills development. She helps leaders balance cognitive ability (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) to improve team dynamics and performance.

Alana provides her clients with a combination of critical thinking and compassionate leadership, which she labels “Leading Change the Ms. Engineer Way®”. She has proudly served global Fortune 500 corporations, small technology companies, and non-profits. Her authenticity and adaptability make her an asset across the professional spectrum.

Connect with Alana on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE HOURS SERIES

Project Management Office Hours is intended to provide Project Management professionals a place to drop in and discuss Success Stories, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned. Project Management Consultant Joy Gumz has shared with us, “Operations keep the lights on, strategy provides the light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.”

Each of us has a unique story to tell, but collectively we share a message that organizations who embrace Project Management Best Practices perform better than those which don’t. Organizations which align Projects to Strategy perform better. Organizations with Engage Executive Sponsors deliver better results. Organizations which measure Project Management performance outperform those which don’t.

During our Project Management Office Hours, we hear directly from Industry leaders how to make an impact in our profession. How we, collectively, will Advance Project Management Best Practices, One Listener at a time!

ABOUT YOUR HOST

Joe Pusz started THE PMO SQUAD to bring real world PMO Leadership experience to the consulting space and to advocate for Project Management through his blog PMOJOE.com. The old saying is “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Following this mindset Joe left Corporate America in 2013 to start THE PMO SQUAD and work with fellow Natural Born Project Managers to advance Project Management Best Practices.

ABOUT OUR SPONSOR

THE PMO SQUAD focuses exclusively on PMO and Project Management consulting. Corporate America is full of Accidental Project Managers running projects who haven’t been trained to be PMs. To help solve this problem THE PMO SQUAD is on the Leading Edge with PMO As a Service. PMO As a Service allows our clients to focus on their respective core competencies while THE PMO SQUAD delivers Project Management expertise. Contact Joe at 678-591-7868. Follow The PMO Squad on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Where do PMO Leaders go for Information, Learning, Networking and Services? The PMO Leader community has “Everything You Need to Become a Great PMO Leader”. One PMO World, One Community! Learn more about The PMO Leader – www.thepmoleader.com