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The first lesson I learned from John Kinch was that franchise entrepreneurs expect the impossible. Since I would eventually work with more than 100 such entrepreneurs, mostly the founders and CEOs of franchise companies, it was the best first lesson to learn.
But I gotta admit, at first I thought Kinch was just impossible. And some days I didn’t want to work with him. No one did!
Kinch’s Great Idea
To wit: I was invited to the TriMark Franchise Convention, Marco Island, Florida. I was there to speak to the franchisees about marketing their businesses. . .but then Kinch came up with a “great” idea! As I eventually learned, he was famous for “great” ideas.
TriMark (based near Wilmington, Delaware) was a cooperative direct mail franchise opportunity (it no longer exists). There’s a great story about how Kinch got the idea to turn what was essentially a bankrupt printing company into a franchise business, but I’ll save that for another time. TriMark’s #1 competitor was Valpak, which just so happened to be headquartered in Florida.
Kinch woke up one morning during the convention and decided that TriMark would challenge Valpak to a charity softball game on Marco Island–48 hours later! Of course, no one had told Valpak. But Kinch decided that the game was on whether Valpak knew it or not, and he wanted me to invite the media who would be interested because the game would benefit needy children on Marco Island. Did I mention that the convention occurred the first week of December–so at least we had the timing working in our favor.
But that was about it.
My Marching Orders
Kinch called me to a meeting in his suite and told me what I had to do:
- Find a softball field not too far from the hotel
- Get some bats, balls, gloves
- Get T-shirts for both TriMark and Valpak
- Write a press release and deliver it to local media
- Organize the TriMark team, find out which franchisees would want to play
- Get a crowd of spectators to the field to cheer and watch the game
- And, oh yea, call Valpak and challenge them to the game!
One other detail: There was no budget for this event. Kinch said that since we’d be playing for charity, I should be able to get the field, the shirts, the gloves, balls, bats, all donated by local merchants.
Impossible?
Not to Kinch.
Consequently, since he was my client, not to me.
Getting Work
I got to work. Easiest task: the field. Called the city and they gave us free use of a field near the hotel.
Called Valpak and they said: We’ll think about it and get back to you.
Wrote the press release, hopped in my rental car and delivered it to local newspaper, TV and radio stations.
Went shopping for shirts, bats, balls, gloves, but no merchant was interested in donating anything. Got the best discounts I could and paid with my credit card–I later asked the players (franchisees and executives) to pony up some cash and they did.
Held off getting the T-shirts printed until I knew if Valpak would accept the challenge.
Yet another Great Idea!
As it turned out, Valpak said no, and while that dashed Kinch’s enthusiasm for about 10 seconds, he had another great idea: It would be TriMark East vs. TriMark West.
Game on!
Franchisees from the East coast competed against franchisees from the West coast and each team invited a couple of TriMark executives to play on their side. I was appointed a coach for one of the teams.
Less than two days after the idea was conceptualized, TriMark played ball for needy kids on Marco Island. The newspaper sent a photographer to snap a photo of TriMark executives and franchisees donating bats, softballs and gloves to a local charity, just in time for Christmas!
Yes, it was an impossible challenge, but during the 10 years that I worked with Kinch he threw at least a dozen impossible challenges my way. I can’t honestly say that I ever looked forward to any of them, but I cherish accomplishing each of them. Kinch got me prepared for the impossible . . . and that made me more valuable to my clients.
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