Joel Kleber is the CMO of Jim’s Group, Australia’s largest franchise network with over 5,700 franchisees across 50+ service divisions. Since 2019, he has driven Jim’s Group franchise growth from 3,600 to 5,700+ franchisees using organic video content, transparency, and zero paid advertising. He was ranked number 1 in the Top 30 Franchise Executives Report in 2024. Jim’s Group founder Jim Penman credited Joel as “the single biggest reason for their growth in recent years.”
In this episode of the Franchise Everything Podcast, hosted by Glenn Walford, Joel shares the full story of how he built the content engine behind Jim’s Group franchise growth, why most franchise brands fail at video marketing, and how his personal background in foster care shaped his approach to transparency and resilience.
How Joel Went from Paralegal to CMO of Jim’s Group
Joel did not plan a career in franchise marketing. He started at Jim’s Group 14 years ago as a part-time paralegal in the legal department. He was studying law and commerce at Deakin University in Warrnambool and needed a job after transferring to Melbourne.
He called Jim’s Group three times before getting through reception. On the third call, he landed a two-day-a-week role doing franchise contracts.
From there, Joel moved into every area the business needed him. He rebuilt the insurance department after 14 staff quit. He took over the documents, legal, and compliance department. Then he moved into marketing, where Jim’s Group had no real online presence at all.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Joel told Glenn. “Massive imposter syndrome. But no one in the business was doing it. And I thought we needed to.”
That willingness to start with zero experience and learn on the job became the foundation for everything Jim’s Group has built online since 2019.
What Is Jim’s Group and How Does It Operate?
Jim’s Mowing is the most recognised brand. But Jim’s Group is the parent company with over 50 divisions covering home services and professional services.
The network operates across 560 individual service codes. A division like Jim’s Mowing covers mowing, landscaping, hazardous material removal, and more. Jim’s Cleaning covers standard cleaning, biohazard clean, and other specialised services.
Jim Penman takes an entrepreneurial approach to new divisions. He receives one to two new divisional proposals every week, often from people who reach out after seeing a TikTok video. He puts his personal email on TikTok content and invites people to pitch ideas.
The old division model cost $300,000 upfront with a 10-year agreement. Many buyers used Jim’s leads to build their existing business, then left. The new model charges six months of fees upfront. If you hit 20 to 30 franchisees within three years, the division becomes yours.
This approach is cheaper than a standard franchise. Jim’s Group wants divisional owners to spend their money on recruitment and support, not on a massive upfront fee.
Jim does not believe in business plans. Out of ten new divisional owners, he knows he cannot predict who will succeed. Building inspections and test-and-tag became two of the biggest divisions. He would never have predicted that. So his strategy is: lower the barrier, give people a chance, and let the results speak.
The Moment Content Became the Growth Engine for Jim’s Group Franchise Growth
The turning point was a Facebook Live called “Ask Jim.”
Joel fired the social media agency that was not delivering results. He set up a webcam and got Jim Penman to answer live questions from the audience. The questions were basic: Is Jim real? Is he alive? What happened to the beard?
30 to 40 people watched live. Facebook was pushing live video at the time, so the algorithm helped. Franchisors loved it because prospects started watching and asking Jim questions directly. Then those prospects came into training and told Jim they had asked him questions on the live stream.
Jim connected the dots. The live Q&A translated directly into franchise sales.
“He’s like, ‘We need to do more of this stuff,'” Joel said. “So I gave him the Gary Vaynerchuk book Crushing It. He came back to me like it was his idea. That’s fine. That’s how bosses operate.”
Jim hired two full-time videographers. He told Joel to create new original video every single day and publish as much as possible.
The team started producing day on the road videos with franchisees. Training numbers went up. New franchisees proactively told Jim they had watched the content before joining. The franchisors supported it because national office was doing something positive for their business for once.
From that point, the content machine never stopped.
Why Most Franchise Brands Refuse to Invest in Video Content
Glenn asked Joel why other franchise brands do not follow the same playbook.
Joel’s answer was blunt: “Decision makers don’t get it.”
He pointed to Mike Andes of Augusta Lawn Care in the United States. Mike spends $1.6 million USD per year on content. He has 12 full-time people on his media team. He runs zero paid ads. He has 150 franchise locations.
If Mike Andes spends $1.6 million on content, Joel argued, and you will not hire a single in-house videographer, you have a problem.
The reasons franchise brands avoid video:
They are too risk averse. They worry about saying the wrong thing. They want everything polished and corporate.
They are not content consumers themselves. CEOs and executives spend their time working, not scrolling TikTok. They assume their audience does the same.
They think certain platforms are irrelevant. “People don’t think people buy franchises off TikTok,” Joel said. “It’s still totally a thing.” A Jim’s Group TikTok video reached over 200,000 views with 12% of viewers aged 55+.
When new franchisees tell Joel they found Jim’s Group through a TikTok, he pulls out his phone and records them saying it. He keeps a bank of those recordings as proof for anyone who still doubts the channel.
How Transparency Filters for Better Franchise Prospects
Jim’s Group publishes everything about how the system works. Fee structures, earnings expectations, exit terms. Joel puts it all online.
In the early days, this approach worried some franchisors. Telling people they could pay $5,000 and walk away with no restraint of trade seemed risky.
The opposite happened. Radical transparency attracted better-quality prospects. People who consumed thousands of hours of Jim’s Group content before training arrived fully informed and committed.
“One guy literally said to me, ‘I’ve watched everything that Jim’s done,'” Joel said. “He was trying the AI chatbot, asking targeted questions. He knows everything about the ethos. He’s a far better prospect than he would have been without all that content.”
Content filters out people who are not a fit. It brings in people who align with the founder’s values. By the time prospects reach franchise training, they already trust the brand. That trust translates into higher conversion rates and lower dropout.
How Joel Gets Shy Franchisees on Camera
Not every franchisee wants to be filmed. Joel adapts the format to each person.
For nervous people, he does Zoom interviews instead of in-person. He starts recording without telling them, has a natural conversation, then lets them know afterwards. They relax because they do not feel the pressure of a formal interview.
For introverts like Jim Penman, Joel found a format that works. Jim will answer any question asked of him. He will not interview someone else. He will not sit on a panel. So Joel asks the questions and lets Jim answer. Simple.
“You got to find the style that works with that person,” Joel said. “If someone’s ultra nervous, you’re not going to record straight away. You’re going to have a chat with them for 15 minutes. Get them comfortable.”
The key insight: do not force people into a content format. Find the format that suits them. Some people work best on Zoom. Others need a 15-minute warm-up. Others are fine on a phone recording in their van.
The result is authentic content that performs better than scripted corporate videos because the audience sees real people, not actors.
From Foster Care to CMO: How Joel’s Background Shaped His Career
Joel grew up with a mother who had bipolar 1 disorder. His father worked as an electronics communications engineer in Saudi Arabia for Siemens, 51 weeks a year. He came home for one week annually.
When Joel’s mother had manic episodes, there was no family support nearby. She lived in Perth. All her family was in Warrnambool, Victoria. They did not know the extent of what was happening because Joel’s mother was too embarrassed to tell them.
When she became unwell, police would come to the house. Joel and his younger sister would be placed into foster care as wards of the state. No one explained what was happening. No one explained what bipolar disorder was.
“You go to school one day, you have no idea,” Joel said. “Next thing you know, you’re in the back of a DHS van going to a human services office and your mum’s in a psychiatric ward.”
This cycle repeated for years. His mother would recover, feel good for a year, stop taking lithium, and the cycle would start again.
When Joel was around 13, his grandmother in Victoria found out what was going on. His uncle flew to Perth. They packed everything they could fit in the car, put the rest in a skip bin, and drove across the Nullarbor.
Moving to Victoria was the turning point. Joel was heading down a bad path with no guidance. Extended family in Victoria put him on a different trajectory.
How Adversity Built the Mindset Behind Jim’s Group Franchise Growth
Joel spent years in a victim mindset. He expected the world to reward him for what he went through. That approach got him nowhere.
Around age 25 or 26, he made a switch. He stopped using his background as a crutch and started using it as fuel.
“When I started getting out of that victim mindset and being proactive, saying I’m going to use this as a strength, things started happening,” Joel said.
The resilience he built through foster care, uncertainty, and constant change gave him an advantage in business. Nothing at Jim’s Group compares to what he experienced growing up. That perspective helps him process bad news and keep moving forward.
Joel sees Jim Penman as a mentor and father figure. Jim backed him, gave him opportunities, and trusted him with the entire content strategy. That trust created loyalty that goes beyond financial incentives.
“I’m financially better off as a franchisee or franchisor,” Joel admitted. “I’ve done the world’s largest discovery period on a franchise. I know how much they make. But it’s not all about that.”
Mental Health Advocacy Beyond Awareness
Joel created The Lived Experience Podcast to cover mental health topics that mainstream podcasts ignore. Bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia. Young carers. Children who grow up with parents in psychiatric care.
Most mental health podcasts focus on depression and anxiety. Joel’s podcast goes deeper into the conditions that affect family units, not individuals alone.
He argues that Australia has mental health awareness without mental health action. Awareness campaigns are everywhere. Acute inpatient beds are not. Support for families of people with serious mental illness is minimal.
Joel shared a personal example. At age 32, he spent Christmas Eve in an emergency room with his mother in full-blown mania. They sat there for six hours. The system asked the same intake questions despite years of documented history.
“People get up and walk out,” Joel said. “Then they become a risk to themselves.”
Within Jim’s Group, Joel championed a partnership with TIACS (This Is A Conversation Starter). TIACS provides up to eight free one-hour counselling sessions without a GP referral. This matters because most other services like Beyond Blue are referral services. They have the conversation, then refer you elsewhere.
Jim’s Group franchisees have used TIACS and reported positive outcomes. Joel also integrated the Trademark shirts (TIACS social enterprise) into the Jim’s Group uniform pack. Franchisees who share their mental health stories on the podcast create content that helps others in similar situations feel comfortable joining the network.
What Joel Sees for the Future of Jim’s Group
Joel’s goal for the next five years: keep getting better at content, keep growing training numbers, and eliminate the misconceptions about Jim’s Group.
“I want to get to a point where everyone knows how our model works,” Joel said. “Everyone still thinks Jim’s takes 30%. We take a flat fee. Until that stops in the Facebook and TikTok comments, I’ll keep going.”
He also sees AI impacting professional jobs significantly. Mobile service trades remain protected from automation. A robot will not mow a lawn well, clean a house, or install an antenna anytime soon.
Joel wants Jim’s Group positioned as the first option for people looking to reinvent their careers, with enough content online that they feel comfortable making the leap.
Related reading on joelkleber.com:
- Glenn Walford on Franchise Content Marketing: Why Surge Content Fails and What Works
- How I Doubled Australia’s Largest Franchise Network Using Content Marketing
- The Franchise Podcast Strategy That Recruited 2,000+ Franchisees
- Jim’s Group and TIACS: Supporting Franchisee Mental Health
- Day on the Road: How Franchise Video Content Drives Recruitment
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Jim’s Group grow from 3,600 to 5,700 franchisees?
Jim’s Group grew through organic video content, radical transparency, and consistent publishing since 2019. Joel Kleber fired the social media agency, hired two full-time videographers, and published daily content showing real franchisees, live Q&As with founder Jim Penman, and behind-the-scenes footage. Zero paid advertising was used.
What is the Jim’s Group franchise model?
Jim’s Group operates a flat-fee franchise model across 50+ service divisions and 560 service codes. Franchisees pay a flat weekly fee, not a percentage of revenue. New divisional owners pay six months of fees upfront and earn ownership of the division by reaching 20 to 30 franchisees within three years.
How much does Mike Andes spend on franchise content marketing?
Mike Andes of Augusta Lawn Care spends $1.6 million USD per year on content marketing with a 12-person media team. He runs zero paid ads and has grown to 150 franchise locations using content alone.
What is TIACS and how does Jim’s Group support mental health?
TIACS (This Is A Conversation Starter) is a social enterprise that provides up to eight free one-hour mental health counselling sessions without a GP referral. Jim’s Group supports TIACS through its franchise network, and franchisees wear the Trademark shirts as part of their uniform options.
What content format works best for shy franchise partners?
Joel Kleber adapts the content format to each person. For nervous people, he uses Zoom interviews instead of in-person filming. He starts with a casual conversation before recording. For introverts, he finds the question-and-answer style works best rather than panel discussions or scripted videos.
What podcasts does Joel Kleber host?
Joel Kleber hosts three podcasts: The Jim’s Group Podcast (300+ episodes featuring real franchisee stories), The Jim’s Mowing Podcast (focused on one of Australia’s most recognised service brands), and The Franchise Marketer Podcast (conversations on franchising, trust, and modern marketing).
How did growing up in foster care influence Joel Kleber’s leadership?
Growing up in foster care and experiencing family mental health challenges shaped Joel’s resilience, empathy, and commitment to transparency. He brings these values directly to his leadership and marketing work, believing that leaders who share their real stories create cultures of psychological safety — which in turn drives better performance and trust across an organisation.
About Joel Kleber
Joel Kleber is the Chief Marketing Officer at Jim’s Group, Australia’s largest franchise network. Named Australia’s #1 Franchise Executive in 2024, Joel has spent 15+ years building the content and marketing systems behind Jim’s Group’s sustained growth — influencing more than $60M in franchise sales through content-led strategies. He hosts The Jim’s Group Podcast, The Jim’s Mowing Podcast, and The Franchise Marketer Podcast. Read Joel’s full story →