Achieving Financial Independence (And So Much More) Through Franchises With Kim Daly

You're not going to want to miss today's awesome show with Kim Daly. Kim's going to share her secrets on how to choose a franchise, how she uses infinite banking personally and from a business perspective, and her top advice for business owners and how you can bulletproof yourself personally and your business for success. Welcome to the Next level income show where it's our goal to raise your income, your investments and your life to the next level.

Chris.

I'm Chris Larsen. You can get a copy of our free book@nextlevelincome.com just click on the book link. On today's show, we have Kim Daly. Kim has spent the last 20 years helping people achieve financial freedom by enabling them to find the perfect franchise opportunities. Her skill for matching a client's background, interests, skills, finances and life goals to the ideal opportunity has made her one of the top franchise consultants in the country. Today we're here to pick her brain and gain some insight into what can seem like a daunting process. Deciding on the perfect franchise to enable you to gain financial freedom. Kim, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Chris. It's great to be here.

Absolutely. Oh, man, we were chatting before. I'm super excited to have you on today to have this conversation. I don't want to steal your thunder from you, so I'd love you to introduce yourself to the audience, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be this franchise expert.

Okay. Well, it's not like I woke up and said, oh yeah, I can't wait to get into franchise consulting, right? Said no one ever. I kind of fell into franchising. It's kind of a joke in our industry. You know, the question is, how did franchising find you? So I am a franchise consultant. Last 19 years I've been helping people realize their dreams of business ownership through franchising. I am blessed to say that I am one of America's top consultants. Today I've made history in our in my industry, I've become an international best selling author. During this 19 years, I've launched YouTube channel. Just been able to achieve many, many, many of my dreams through franchising. Because the business that I'm in is a franchise and it's a franchise to help other people invest in franchises. And it makes me so passionate about franchising and I want what everyone that I work with, what I have achieved through franchising.

No, I love it. And check out It's Kim Daily TV. Is that right, Kim?

That's it, Chris.

KimDaily TV I love your show, I was watching it, I was like, this is so cool. It's just really impressive, the content you have on there. My uncle and I looked at buying a franchise going back about seven or eight years ago. He's been a small business owner for a lot of years. I got my start using a shovel, digging for him when he had a landscaping business out in Colorado. So I learned a ton from him. But, yeah, when I was a teenager, I'd go out there, I'd stay with him, I'd work for his landscaping business, and then on the summer weekends, we'd go kayak and do river trips. So it was awesome, I guess. Tell us.

Entrepreneurs had role models who were entrepreneurs. That's what I. And I think the legacy. When people come to me and they talk about building a legacy for their kids and they're focusing it on the business, I say, you know what? Instead of business being the legacy, let you, the role model as the business owner, be the legacy. Because believe me, when there is a business in the center of family, it will change everything about your family for the positive. You know, it changes the conversation around the dinner table. It changes the hour sometimes that the family operates, it changes everything. And that legacy is a longer lasting legacy than passing on a fickle business, in some cases to a child.

I think that's fantastic. And I've often told people, when I was a med device rep, and I'd go in the hospital on the weekend, and I'd take my kids with me, and I told them, I'm like, I like to show my kids what we're doing, what we go through to support our lifestyle and do that.

Because you know what? Our kids don't do what we say. They do what we do. Let's be real. When my kids do something, I'm like, ooh, I see myself in that.

It's interesting because I always have that image. When we were younger, there was that image on tv, it was the guy, and he walks in on his son smoking drugs. Smoking. I think it was like, marijuana or whatever it was. And he said, where did you learn this? He goes, I learned from watching you. And it cuts both ways, right? Kids learn positive things, they learn negative things, and you can't fake it. You have to actually do it. So, Kim, who was your role model?

My dad. He was an entrepreneur. Yeah. I have been blessed, Chris. Along the way, I have always found amazing mentors. And in the last couple of years, I met a gentleman through, actually by being a guest on his podcast. And I was just Curious. I had a, you know, we just sort of had a vibe together. I, you know, we pursued a relationship, a mentorship relationship and he, so he's like personally worth, I don't even know, like $100 million something. And he just, it's not the money that inspires me about, about being near him. And I always say just drop your crumbs behind you so I can pick him up. His mindset, he is the most abundant person physically and but mentally that I've ever met and I can ask him any question and when he answers I'm like yeah, like that's the answer I want. So that's why he's my mentor right now. He's a really good guy to follow. He is create tailwind. He is. I was a guest on his podcast and then I got involved in infinite banking, really learned about infinite banking and now we investments together in crypto and other things. So you just never know where life can take you and who you're going to meet along the way and you know, get back to franchising. You know when people may say yes. I always tell my candidates when you say yes to the dream of owning a business, you can say yes through two month process with me and but you're going to spend the rest of your life growing and developing into that role. That's where the pattern for ownership comes from, right Kris? It's not like financial success. I mean yeah, that's one measure of success. But for me my passion after 19 years of being a consultant and about 24, 25 years of being self employed entrepreneur comes from the constant personal development. It's just, and when I'm stale, when my business feels stale, but itably if I'm willing to look in the mirror, it's because I'm stale. It's because I've stopped growing, I've stopped trying reaching, you know, trying to develop a new lead source or trying to develop my YouTube channel or I've stopped reading books or listening to podcasts and so as I became have become better students of personal development and really thrive on my own personal development. I have watched my businesses grow. The amount of people I'm able to influence and meet and touch grow exponentially.

You said two things that I think are absolute gold there, Kim. You talked about the abundance mindset and I've often said people say hey, what is the most important thing you've learned over the past few years? And for me it's surrounding yourself with people that have a similar mindset, that scarcity mindset it's poison, it's toxic. And when you surround yourself with people that have that. I was just having this conversation yesterday. You just help people, you share knowledge, and it comes back. It's amazing. But then the other thing you said is, I think you know a lot. We're all focused on the destination. Oh, when I get this, I will feel this, I will be happy when I have this much money, this car, this person in my life. You know, I get married, I have a child, and I don't know about you, but what I found is that's not true. I'm happiest when I'm pursuing something and growing and pushing those boundaries. So I love that you. You touched on this.

But I guess let's the going, not the getting.

It's the journey, not the destination. Right. I absolutely love it.

Once you get there, you've expanded yourself and now you gotta again. Right. So it's, you know, there's that momentary victory that you want to stop and celebrate. But like me, I don't know, by the time I get there, I've already dreamed the next dream and I'm ready to, like, keep growing and expanding.

So it's so true now it's almost depressing. I don't know, when you hit. When you hit goals sometimes. Right.

That's what makes us joy. That's for me, that's what creates so much joy in my life. And people are like, you're searching it all the time. It's because I'm always growing, I'm pursuing growth, and then I can give more to others because I'm becoming anymore.

Exactly. No, and I meant, like, it's. Sometimes it's. People don't realize it's depressing to achieve a goal because.

Oh, yeah. Because it's over.

Yeah, it's. And if, you know, if you know that, you know, like you said, if you have that realization, it's so empowering. So. All right, I want to dig in. So let's talk more about the fitness, you know, industry and kind of coming up, you know, as you got into this point.

Okay, sure. So before we talk about brand, I really want to talk about franchising. So, yeah, so I was a nutritional biochemistry major in college with a minor in sports nutrition, headed to medical school. I worked as a personal trainer in college to pay off some of the college debt. And I loved, loved, loved being a personal trainer. And then I got out, I answered a classified ad in the newspaper, which I have to stop and explain to my children. First of all, what A newspaper is what is a classified ad that literally changed my life. It was for a franchise consulting company, not the company I'm part of right now, but it was an eight week summer job that ended up turning to a year long commitment to which my father said, don't do it, you'll never go to medical school. I said, oh dad, my whole life is about medical school. I'm totally going to go. The idea of taking a break, learning something different seemed very refreshing. And so I did it. And of course my dad was right because your dads are always right. I never went to school. I never, I've never regretted it. I got into franchising. I got to learn this amazing industry that's just all about people helping people. But that entrepreneur in me had that little itch like, okay, I'm working for a company but this isn't what I want to do. I want to be the business owner. So I abandoned franchising and became an entrepreneur and I started a bunch of businesses. And the main thing that I ended up doing was really, I became a consultant in the health and fitness industry, really helping gym owners like big franchise gyms like Gold's Gym and World's Gym and people like Denise Austin. And I worked with Dr. Dennis Waitley and then eventually I worked with E Diets which was the largest weight loss company in the world at the time. Time. And just helping at the Internet was just becoming a marketing tool, a tool that we were using in business. And I was forefront of that because I launched one of the first health, the, the first health and fitness marketplace@usatoday.com and so I had, I was surrounded by young technical people who kind of knew and I had this eye for marketing and, and it just blossomed into this amazing, amazing business. I was working with all of these health and nutrition companies and fitness companies and I loved it. But what I didn't love was I was constantly moving. First I was back and forth to Las Vegas and New York and California and Utah and then I ended up with E Diets down in South Florida. All that was great when I was single and you know, I wanted to travel, but I was feeling like I wanted to get home. 911 happened and I wanted to get closer to my family and I wanted something that I could really like sink my teeth into and build with consistency. I always felt like I was sort of flying by feet of my pants, making it up as I went along. I didn't have any support. It was always just me sort of like leading the team. And all of these things dreamed everything that I loved about franchising. Franchising is collaborative. It's being in business for yourself, but not by yourself. Taking a system and making it your own, it's building something of value that's an asset that at some point you can sell. So I turned back to my franchise. I found Franchoice, which is the company that I've been a consultant with for 19 years now. And we're set up just like a franchise. I pay royalties. I'm trained by a corporate office and supported by a corporate office. So I live the life of a franchisee. But I've been able to achieve my dreams and more dreams that I didn't even know I was dreaming about 19 years ago, but that along the way I started to dream and I've made them true. And who knows what the next 19 years will bring, but I know it's going to be something awesome.

I love it. I absolutely love it.

Always going to be in franchising. Chris, let me say this. So prior to 2020, I would tell people, you know, I'm. I love to say that I'm completely unemployable. You know, my dad would tell you that I probably been unemployable my entire life because I've always wanted to be the boss of me. But I'm completely unemployable because my freedom has no. Before 2020, I flirt with ideas of starting a gym again or starting a business that's kind of my. My sweet spot, my passion. And. But after 2020, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt the value proposition of a franchise is where it's at. Because how mom and pop businesses got into the fetal position when their doors were physically closed and couldn't figure out how to get open a lot. And I'm not joking. It was a really.

I saw two of our tenants shut down. Yeah, it was terrible.

But like, none of my franchisor partners shut down forever and couldn't figure out how to reopen. And in many cases, I've interviewed them on my Kim Daily tv. You can listen to the interviews of adaptation, not just survival, but thriving fitness businesses figuring out how to thrive in a pandemic. And that's because collectively we really are stronger.

I love that. Okay, so Franchoice, let's talk a little bit more about what you do. Kim. So if somebody's interested in like my uncle and I, right, we're looking at businesses and we're saying, okay, let's look at this. We did our own Research. We went out and we looked at all these. And I wish I knew about a franchise consultant when I was looking at this. So let's say somebody like myself says, oh, this sounds interesting. I'm looking for a business. Maybe I'm looking to exit the career world. Maybe I'm looking for something to do during retirement. Who do you help and how do they get in touch and what do you do for them?

Yep. So it's such a great, great question, Chris. So first, let me say that my services are free, always free for my candidates. Paid like a recruiter.

Okay.

To help grow franchise businesses. So if I end up matching, like, so I do all of that for free. I'm paid by the franchisors to help maximize their time with the highest caliber people that are suited to be in their business, that they have a territory that's viable and open and that are financially qualified for their opportunity. So what I do when candidates find me, I work with investors. I work with corporate refugees. I work with people who.

Corporate refugees. I love that.

Everybody, anybody who has the dream, but who doesn't understand franchising, or. I feel bad when I hear people say, like you, that you look at franchising on your own and you didn't do it. Right, right, right.

Not yet.

This is why I have a business, because it's really hard on your own. Exploring franchising is a daunting task. How do you know? How do you know? I mean, when you invest in a franchise, the number one thing you're investing in is a relationship. You're buying people. So how do you know who the right people are to be in business with if you have no relationship coming to the whole conversation? Well, that's the number one reason people use a consultant, in my opinion. Now, the other thing is people often, when they're looking at companies on their own, they tend to think about things that they know. They personally like their hobbies. And I say, look, leave your hobby, your hobby and your business, your business. I lead people to businesses they know nothing about, they never would have found or even thought about. But when we outline what they're really trying to achieve through the business. So personally, professionally, and financially, what are your goals? Where are you trying to go and in what time frame? And then I look at my job as. So it's my job to then go find the best vehicles to get you from here to there in the most time. And so once I've identified, like the top three to five companies, matching to what you want to wake up and do as a business owner kind of people you want to lead as a boss, the kind of customers you want to serve as a business owner. Those characteristics more than. Kim loves the gym, so I can only show her fitness franchises. Kim loves an abundant environment, an environment where people are thriving, they're becoming better, where she can build a personal relationship with them that feels enriching on both ends. So that's why I thrive in my franchise business. It's exactly like being a personal trainer.

How about that?

Which was the best job I ever had before I this gig. But it's the exact same thing, only we're talking about investing in a business and changing your life by saying yes to a business rather than changing your life by getting in. You see the correlation?

Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah.

So I'm leading people to those characteristics and we don't worry about what the widget is because widgets don't keep doors open. Widgets didn't keep doors open or reopen doors. In 2020, what did? Leadership always comes back to finding people that inspire you, who have a proven toolbox that you feel you can learn, get trained on, and work with. And then ultimately the rest of the success of your life as a business owner, it's on you. So I've identified the companies I then coach people on. How do you do due diligence? What is the franchise disclosure document, and how do you use it to your advantage? And how do you fund a franchise business? I'm the resource for saying yes, and I work with people for about one to two months it takes to get people to a place where they can say yes.

Yeah, that's awesome. So I want to dive back into what you learned during the pandemic and talking about leadership there. But for most people, and I know there's a wide range of commitments, but if somebody's listening like, well, I'm interested in this, but I don't have the money or I don't have the resources. What's it typically take from a financial perspective to start a business? What range are you looking at typically?

So on Kim Daily tv, I have a couple of really amazing videos with the best franchise lending sources in the country talking about the level of investment. The best answer I can give Chris is it depends because there. There are.

I love that answer.

It sucks. I know. But like, there are businesses that are $50,000 investments and there are franchises that are $5 million. So there are franchises that cost 150 or thousand all in, but the net worth requirement is 750. And then there are businesses that cost a million dollars, and there's no net worth requirements. So the best thing to do, really, is when I meet a candidate, we have an introductory call to kind of figure out, why are you here and what is your vision? And, you know, do I think I can help you? And are you ready to get started? After that, the next conversation we have is, I teach people what their money buys. So I'm going to teach everybody I work with exactly, like what every franchise business costs and why. So one thing I figured out years ago is every sales process only has so many objections, right? The number one objection in my process is money.

Money.

So I figured years ago, if I could help people understand with clarity what their money and their time buys them, then those people that figure out they didn't want to afford it or couldn't afford it would fall out faster. And that's a benefit to them, and it's a benefit to me. Frees up my time to spend with more people who can afford it or want to afford it. But it means you don't have to spend two months doing work to then go, oh, wait a minute. I can't afford to do this. You're going to figure it out in about 30 minutes of working with Kim Daly. So that's why I tell people when I, you know, when I do live events, I say, don't discount yourself because you. You can't afford this. If you're inspired, you owe it to yourself to reach out to me. I will not waste your time. And it's free. So get to the heart of the matter. But you're gonna. If you leave here saying, I can't afford it or I don't want to afford it, you're gonna leave armed with the knowledge of what your money buys so you can go away and save money and know when to call me back. And that's infinitely more like a better conversation and more inspiring than just feeling deflated, like, oh, yeah, I can't afford it.

No, it's fantastic. And that's why we started Next Level Income, the website, because I started working with investors before that. And people would reach out and say, well, I can't afford to invest in this. I don't have the capital, but how do I get there? And it's like, well, what do you do for those people? So it's wonderful that you give them the whole process and do that. You mentioned that leadership was the big thing that you saw being the driver of success. Last year during the pandemic you know, for people that are. That are listening and, you know, maybe they're. They're having to restart their businesses. What other advice can you give, you know, for them as they look for tips that coming out of the pandemic, as they try to bulletproof their businesses themselves for success in the future?

Yeah, I mean, I think it was a call to creativity and adaptability. Right. Sometimes we get stuck in our ways, and our ways can become limiting. What worked for us yesterday may not work for us today. I experienced that in many different ways in my franchise business in the 19 years that I've been doing this through different economies, through different president, through different tax codes, through different stock market results, because a lot of people use a, you know, stock portfolio, 401k to fund their franchise dreams. And so you just have to. You can't rest on your laurels, you know, and that doesn't mean that you can't relax and enjoy what you're doing. It means that as a business owner, you know, one of the best things you can do for yourself is remain adaptable and understand that things are always changing. And if you're not changing and growing, you're dying. You're either growing and changing and moving forward, or you're dying. You're not staying the same because nothing in life ever does. You know, Just exactly how we started the conversation.

I love it. Yeah. Coming back around.

Yeah. Become the leader of your own life and constantly grow, and you'll find that. I find I don't have to necessarily go seeking. I just find that the doors start open and the changes I need start to appear right as I need them, because my mindset is always kind of growing and looking forward.

That's so important. And that's why I've always had a coach. That's why. Let me rephrase that. That's why I now always have a coach. And I think what you do is so valuable, and that's why I started coaching people. So, real quick, before we let the audience know how best to get in touch with you, aside from Kim Daily tv, I rewrote my book and I added a chapter called you'd Opportunity Fund, Chapter three. And it talks all about using the infinite banking concept to really supercharge investments. And you brought that up at the beginning of our conversation, Kim. How do you use that either in your personal life or in your business as a tool? What have you found of value with that concept?

Infinite banking is where it's at. I drained stock portfolio the minute that I learned about Infinite banking and being your own banker. Because listen, when you build a franchise business, I've been sitting here all these years preaching to people. This is about ownership. It's about investing in yourself. It's about building an asset that you own and control and that equity that you can sell at the end. And then we go, and then I go and I'm investing my money in the stock market where I ultimately have no control over the return. Then I learned about infinite banking and I'm like, this is like this brings everything together. So I have two, I am, I have two banks of daily right now. One super funded and one, my first one was a little bit smaller and money deployed and just excited about and it's enabled me to have other assets. So what I do in my day to day business is consulting. I'm the center of influence. So I really can never get away from it. But that's okay because I love it. But isn't it nice to have these assets that are generating income for me that I don't have to wake up and create and drive that activity for every day? Right. So more semi absent or passive investments. And that's what my infinite banking is allowing me to do is invest in other people's businesses with that money. A crypto business, actually. Syndication, real estate and also a nursing home, the assisted living facilities. So just like different things that I've learned, actually I've met these people by being again on their podcasts.

No, it's fantastic. And for our listeners, they know I'm a huge fan of all that with respect to it. So I love that totally separately you're talking about that.

So Kim, you gotta walk your talk, Chris. Right?

You do. And that's. Yeah, absolutely. I always put, I always tell people, I said, look, other people to go.

Do anything I'm not doing. You know, like I want to own every aspect of my life and if it doesn't work, I gotta own it. And when it does work, believe me, I'm owning it.

Absolutely. No, and that's, I mean that's the idea, right? And that's why it's so important to have a coach, have mentors that can help you shortcut and learn from their mistakes. So I think it's awesome what you're doing, Kim. I love your attitude, love your energy. What's the best way for people to get ahold of you? If they check out, Kim, Daily tv, they like what they see. How can they reach you?

Yep. So you can go to my website as well. The daily coach that's my last name. D A L y the Daily Coach.com and I have hundreds of testimonials, a link to Kim Daily TV there. I have newsletters, blogs, all kinds of resources, great books. I'm an avid reader, so I love, you know, sharing what I'm learning about in books. So that's on my website, but also a contact form. So do you want to reach out to me if you're interested in learning about what different businesses cost or do you qualify or you're looking at a franchise and you didn't know that a consultant could help you, you know, vet it out anywhere you are in the process of thinking about owning a franchise. I'll meet you right there. If I can help you. I would love the opportunity.

Awesome. We'll make sure we link all that in the show notes for the audience. Before we let you go today, Kim, I always ask our audience members if you can go back to your 25 year old self, which is probably just a few years ago, and give you a piece of advice, what would it be?

The best advice I would give to Kim Daly to chill out. So I broke my leg skiing in 2020 of 2018. And it sounds funny when I say this, but I'm going to write a book, I've already outlined it called Lessons from a Broken Leg. There's life the broken leg and then there's life after the broken leg. And the main thing I learned, Chris, during that 14 weeks of winter when my family was out skiing every weekend and I was literally making bone, I learned to meditate. I learned the art of meditation and it literally changed life and helped me to stop striving so much and wasting so much energy pushing and instead to relax and allow the opportunities to come to me, like, to trust that it is all right there if you just relax. And that doesn't mean I don't have my foot on the gas pedal. Believe me, I always am going to have my foot on the gas pedal. But hopefully I have added like 20 years to my life in the last two years by just learning to change. Chill out.

Oh, so important. Breathe. Relax. Yeah. Let your mind be open.

I went to a really, I went to a physical therapist and she goes, she gets me in. Cat, cow. And she goes, just breathe. And I'm like, breathe. She goes, wait a second. How many times a day do you stop and just breathe? I'm like, like never.

Yeah.

So she goes, this is no lie. The first week of therapy, I had like this chronic for like two years. She sends me home and she goes, every time your back starts to ache, I want you to literally get in your cat cow and do 10 slow, deep breaths. Chris, I never had a moment of back pain after that.

Amazing.

It was all like stress and not breathing. Just taking shallow breaths from being not chilling out.

Yeah. That is so good. So, I mean, Kim, you've given us so many great pieces of advice today. I want to end on that. So if you're listening today, check out Kim's information. But stop after this is over. Take a breath or a few breaths, chill out and then go give us a five star review and share this with your friends. Kim, thank you so much for being on the show today.

You're awesome. What a great interview. Thank you so much. God bless you. It.