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Ep. 23 Building a franchise empire, killer personal brand and vibrant team culture with Tina Tower

Glen Carlson

Cofounder, Dent

My guest in this episode of The Dent Podcast is the unstoppable Tina Tower. From reading Tina's bio, you'd be forgiven for thinking that she was a lot older than 32. She invested in her first property at the age of 18, started her first business aged 20, and by the time she was 30 had built and sold two businesses, had two kids, and set up a national franchise network. In 2014, Tina was named the Telstra Australian Young Businesswoman of the Year and in 2016 was named one of ten Australian entrepreneurs to watch.

One of Tina's greatest successes has been launching and overseeing the amazing growth of Begin Bright – a company of school readiness and primary tutoring centres that pride themselves on creating happy, smart and confident children. Tina founded Begin Bright in 2008 and when she began franchising the business in 2011 she became Australia's youngest female franchisor. There are now 30 franchises across Australia.

Tina's journey is one of learning curves, overcoming adversity and figuring out how to balance family life with business. She's amassed plenty of wisdom along the way and in this episode really opens up about some of her greatest highs and lows. It's a great conversation and is incredibly useful for anyone interested in the inner-mechanics of franchising, how to build a strong personal brand and approaching team culture.

In this episode we talk about:

  • How Tina went about building her brand in the early days of her business

  • Tina's method for breaking every day into 15 minute increments to save time and improve efficiency

  • How Tina devises her five year plans

  • Why building a personal brand is the cheapest way to build a business

  • How Tina evolved her business model early on to meet the needs of her clients

  • Promoting a business by writing articles

  • How Tina targeted certain markets

  • Going about curating your company values

  • How Tina developed her own unique leadership style

  • Tina's complex and rigorous screening process for hiring and looking for franchisees

  • How to scale your business through franchising

  • Thoughts on team culture in recruiting and performance

  • How Tina balances her family life and business

  • Taking her business from zero to $3 million in less than five years

  • How to handle having a strong media personality

  • The importance of profile when selling a product or service

  • The moment Tina realised she wasn't the best person to take the business forward

  • Tina's work with The Hunger Project and Room to Read

Relevant Links:

faq's

Your Questions Answered

You can also find out more detail on our Methodology on our next webinar.

Book A Free Strategy Call*

Book A Free Strategy Call*

Benchmark your influence

Benchmark your influence

How long does it take to complete KPI?

The programme is built around a 12-month foundation year. This is the time it takes to build your full authority ecosystem. From there, many clients continue to compound their results year on year. Within 24 hours of joining, you'll get full access to the KPI platform. In your first week, you'll attend a group onboarding session where you'll learn how to navigate the platform, access your resources, subscribe to our event calendars, and book into your first Value Canvas Kickoff.

How long has Dent been doing this?

Over 5,500 businesses across 60+ industries in EMEA, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific have gone through our accelerators.

What is your mission?

Our mission is to produce Key People of Influence who stand out, scale up, and make an impact in the world.

What makes this different from programmes?

The biggest difference is that KPI is a production environment, not a course. You don't watch videos and hope something sticks. You build 15-17 real assets of influence — your book, your scorecard, your productised offer, your lead generation system — in structured 10-day sprints with live coaching. Every asset goes to market as you build it. Real feedback, real results, real revenue impact. And you're doing it alongside 5,500+ founders who've been through the same methodology.

Is Daniel Priestley involved in the programme?

Yes! Daniel is our CEO and Cofounder. He is one of the key minds behind every aspect of the KPI Accelerator. He occasionally runs workshops himself.

faq's

Your Questions Answered

You can also find out more detail on our Methodology on our next webinar.

Book A Free Strategy Call*

Book A Free Strategy Call*

Benchmark your influence

Benchmark your influence

How long does it take to complete KPI?

The programme is built around a 12-month foundation year. This is the time it takes to build your full authority ecosystem. From there, many clients continue to compound their results year on year. Within 24 hours of joining, you'll get full access to the KPI platform. In your first week, you'll attend a group onboarding session where you'll learn how to navigate the platform, access your resources, subscribe to our event calendars, and book into your first Value Canvas Kickoff.

How long has Dent been doing this?

Over 5,500 businesses across 60+ industries in EMEA, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific have gone through our accelerators.

What is your mission?

Our mission is to produce Key People of Influence who stand out, scale up, and make an impact in the world.

What makes this different from programmes?

The biggest difference is that KPI is a production environment, not a course. You don't watch videos and hope something sticks. You build 15-17 real assets of influence — your book, your scorecard, your productised offer, your lead generation system — in structured 10-day sprints with live coaching. Every asset goes to market as you build it. Real feedback, real results, real revenue impact. And you're doing it alongside 5,500+ founders who've been through the same methodology.

Is Daniel Priestley involved in the programme?

Yes! Daniel is our CEO and Cofounder. He is one of the key minds behind every aspect of the KPI Accelerator. He occasionally runs workshops himself.

faq's

Your Questions Answered

You can also find out more detail on our Methodology on our next webinar.

Book A Free Strategy Call*

Book A Free Strategy Call*

Benchmark your influence

Benchmark your influence

How long does it take to complete KPI?

The programme is built around a 12-month foundation year. This is the time it takes to build your full authority ecosystem. From there, many clients continue to compound their results year on year. Within 24 hours of joining, you'll get full access to the KPI platform. In your first week, you'll attend a group onboarding session where you'll learn how to navigate the platform, access your resources, subscribe to our event calendars, and book into your first Value Canvas Kickoff.

How long has Dent been doing this?

Over 5,500 businesses across 60+ industries in EMEA, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific have gone through our accelerators.

What is your mission?

Our mission is to produce Key People of Influence who stand out, scale up, and make an impact in the world.

What makes this different from programmes?

The biggest difference is that KPI is a production environment, not a course. You don't watch videos and hope something sticks. You build 15-17 real assets of influence — your book, your scorecard, your productised offer, your lead generation system — in structured 10-day sprints with live coaching. Every asset goes to market as you build it. Real feedback, real results, real revenue impact. And you're doing it alongside 5,500+ founders who've been through the same methodology.

Is Daniel Priestley involved in the programme?

Yes! Daniel is our CEO and Cofounder. He is one of the key minds behind every aspect of the KPI Accelerator. He occasionally runs workshops himself.