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Joshua Emison
I help people find the right franchise for them. We have vetted hundreds of franchises and will only introduce you to the very best ones.
Professional Background
Joshua Emison is an accomplished professional currently serving as the Director of Franchise Development at Franchise Fastlane. His extensive career has been a blend of military service and entrepreneurial ventures, showcasing a commitment to leadership and innovative problem-solving in the franchise and real estate sectors. Joshua's journey began in the United States Marine Corps, where he honed critical leadership skills that would later influence his approach in the business world. As a platoon commander and company executive officer, he developed logistical and operational strategies during his deployments in various regions, including Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Jordan.
After transitioning from military service, Joshua turned his attention to empowering entrepreneurs. His passion for supporting fellow veterans and everyday Americans led him to co-found Sansbank and eventually establish Tracer Consulting, a firm dedicated to franchise recruiting. Through these ventures, he has identified niche markets for wealth generation, specifically focusing on property markets, thereby galvanizing individuals to pursue financial independence and entrepreneurial success. Joshua’s ability to understand client challenges and implement creative solutions has positioned him as a distinguished leader in franchise development.
Education and Achievements
Joshua Emison’s educational background is as impressive as his professional track record. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Political Science and Government from the United States Naval Academy. His education provided a solid foundation for his analytical and strategic thinking skills, both crucial for his roles in the military and in business. To expand his cultural and linguistic capabilities, Joshua furthered his studies at The Chinese Language Institute (CLI), showcasing his dedication to continuous learning and adaptability in a globalized business environment.
In addition to his formal education, Joshua has been featured as a guest on several notable podcasts, including the Veteran Founder Podcast, the Expert(ish) Podcast, the Service Academy Business Mastermind Podcast, and the Network Knights Podcast. These platforms allowed him to share insights from his unique experiences, bridging military service and entrepreneurship, thus inspiring a new generation of leaders.
Achievements
Joshua Emison's journey is marked by numerous accomplishments, which reflect his commitment to leadership, mentorship, and innovation. Having previously served as the Co-Owner of Tippi Toes Lakewood-Boulder, he demonstrated his entrepreneurial spirit early in his career. His role as Director of Franchise Development at Franchise Fastlane has allowed him to leverage his expertise in sales and business development, helping numerous franchises scale effectively in competitive markets.
As a founder and operations officer in the Marine Corps, Joshua has developed extraordinary teamwork and problem-solving skills that are essential not only in military operations but also in business strategy and execution. His emphasis on servant leadership is a core tenet of his approach; he remains dedicated to mentoring veterans during their transitions into civilian life, providing resources and guidance to help them navigate the challenges of re-establishing themselves post-service. Joshua is known for his strategic thinking and has a talent for identifying opportunities for growth, both for his clients and his business ventures.
In a nutshell, Joshua Emison is more than a franchise development director; he is a catalyst for change within the entrepreneurial community, dedicated to fostering growth and innovation while empowering individuals to pursue their business aspirations and creating wealth opportunities for many. His multifaceted background and unwavering commitment make him a distinctive figure in the intersection of military leadership and business entrepreneurship.
Highlights
The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) is one reason many people choose franchising over buying a business.
This legal document provides essential information about the franchisor, franchise organization, and terms of the franchise agreement. It also shows the balance sheet of the franchisor and the historic financial performance of franchisees. And possibly most importantly, it shows the number of locations that have failed in the last 3 years.
By law, franchisors must provide the FDD at least 14 days before any agreement is signed, giving you ample time to review and make an informed decision.
When someone without business experience is looking to buy a non-franchise business, you are given no such document. No one understands that business better than the owner and the owner will do everything in their power to make the business look as appealing as possible.
If you don’t have business experience how will you know if they are being totally honest?
How much are you willing to invest in attorney fees and consulting fees to have professionals help you understand and evaluate all the businesses you are evaluating? How many businesses will you have to go through until you find one that you feel is being transparent?
Search funds backed by private equity often pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over multiple years before they find a business attractive to them. And that doesn’t include the capital used to actually buy the business.
Alternatively, you can have a legal document handed to you, for free, that you can validate with multiple owners to ensure it is true. Of course, you may want to have it reviewed by a franchise attorney but that is a one-time fee because you have already chosen the franchise you like best. Unless there are major red flags (which probably would have been uncovered whilst speaking with franchisees) you won’t need that attorney’s services again.
Which way seems faster and less expensive to you?
Peter Theil has $5B in his Roth IRA because he self-directed his initial investment into a startup business.
Your franchise may not be worth $5B but you can buy shares of your own company with your IRA then put earnings back into the retirement account. This way you can use it to shelter your earnings from taxes.
This type of investment is called a RollOver for Business Startup or ROBS program and more and more people are choosing to go this route to fund their franchise.
I am not an accountant or financial advisor and I would recommend speaking to an expert before choosing to go this route.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.