Franchise Leader Spotlight

Brandon Rhoten has been in restaurant marketing for nearly twenty years — CMO at Papa John's, CMO at Potbelly, and the architect of the digital program that put Wendy's back on the cultural map. In this episode, he and Katherine get into the product launch process that most franchise brands are too impatient to build, why cultural relevance is a point of view before it's a tactic, and why franchisees don't care how many impressions your last post got.In this episode:The filtering, ops testing, and market testing process behind a real product launchWhy the product launch calendar has to be built a year in advance — and how to sell that discipline to a C suite that wants to move fastHow Dave's Hot Chicken connects to culture without chasing itBuilding a marketing calendar for brands that don't have constant product newsWhat franchisees actually want to hear from marketing — and it isn't impressionsGuest: Brandon Rhoten, CMO, Dave's Hot Chicken Brandon has spent nearly twenty years in restaurant marketing. He built the digital and social program at Wendy's, served as CMO at Papa John's and Potbelly, and now leads marketing at one of the most culturally visible brands in fast casual. He owns restaurants himself, which means he brings both the brand-side and the franchisee-side lens to this conversation.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Kim Gouch (Retro Fitness) and Will Fraker (The Good Feed Store) join the conversation to talk about what AI is actually doing inside franchise marketing right now — not the buzzword version, but the real decisions their teams are making around creative, websites, data, and channel strategy heading into 2027. If you leave this episode with one thing, it's this: AI is already rewriting the customer journey before your prospects ever land on your website, and most franchise marketers aren't watching.In this episode:How AI is disrupting the customer journey before customers reach your website — and what to do about itThe "go slow to go fast" discipline-first approach to AI adoptionWhere AI belongs in creative production and where it absolutely doesn'tHow to prioritize channels for the AI era — email, paid, website, and beyondWhat franchise marketers need to stop doing with AI right nowGuest: Kim Gouch, Chief Brand Officer, Retro FitnessKim has spent 30+ years in franchising across hotel, hospitality, restaurants, and fitness — including time on both the franchisor and franchisee sides. As the first-ever Chief Brand Officer at Retro Fitness, she's building the AI strategy for a high-value, low-price fitness brand with e-commerce at its core. Her brand-first perspective on guardrails and authenticity is one of the clearest frameworks in this conversation.Guest: Will Fraker, VP of Brand and Performance, The Good Feed StoreWill has been in franchising for over a decade across home services, retail, and specialty. At the Good Feed Store — a 300+ location brand — he oversees brand and performance marketing while also supporting a much smaller early-stage stretch brand. That contrast gives him a uniquely practical lens on what AI looks like at scale versus what it looks like when you're a team of one.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @My Podcast Host on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Local store marketing is one of the most talked-about and least-solved challenges in franchising — and Laura Peever and Marci Kleinsasser are two people who've actually done the work. This episode covers what breaks down between the playbook and the franchisee, how to build activation that compounds, and why the most underrated growth lever isn't a media tactic at all.In this episode:Why the playbook-handoff model fails and what to replace it withSetting franchisee expectations from day one — including in the franchise development processAlternative metrics for community-based marketing that can't show direct attributionThe Budget Blinds daily tip model and what makes it workCustomer experience as a local marketing engine: why your hire and training standards are a marketing decisionGuest: Laura Peever, Head of Marketing, Sportball Laura has spent her career across agency and client roles spanning retail, pharma, research, and brand strategy — and brings a generalist's lens to a franchise-specific challenge. At Sportball, a children's enrichment brand with 35-plus locations across four countries, she's building local activation systems that work from Brooklyn to Singapore.Guest: Marci Kleinsasser, CFE, VP of Marketing, Voxie Marci has 30-plus years in franchise marketing, starting on the agency side and leading franchisee marketing, brand fund strategy, and franchise development marketing for brands across restaurant, retail, and service categories. She now leads marketing at Voxie, a text marketing platform purpose-built for franchise and multi-location brands — and brings that full arc of experience to this conversation.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Franchise Marketing and Growth Advisor | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Google and Meta efficiencies keep declining, and most franchise marketers don't have a real plan for what fills the gap. Chris McGee (Batteries Plus) and Karen Wenning (Suttle Strauss) join Katherine to debate connected mail, cable TV, and the channels worth testing before the 2027 budget cycle locks in.In this episode:Why blanket direct mail without strategy is the channel both guests agreed should go firstHow connected mail programs deliver three to five touches before a mail piece even arrivesThe difference between a return on investment and a return on relationshipWhy Batteries Plus moved from store-level to market-level media poolingWhat "spray and pray" looks like in 2027 — and why both guests say it has to stopGuest: Chris McGee, VP of Marketing, Batteries PlusChris has spent over 20 years across agency, analytics, and client-side marketing roles, with a career-long focus on brand storytelling. At Batteries Plus, he's led the shift from fragmented local media buying to a market-pooled, data-backed strategy that grew reach by 25% this year.Guest: Karen Wenning, Director of Client Partnerships, Suttle StraussKaren has worked in franchise marketing for over 20 years, specializing in connected mail programs that combine direct mail with digital retargeting. She brings a rare vendor-side view of what local activation actually looks like across hundreds of franchisee relationships.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ Katherine LeBlanc on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Digital media costs are up, attribution is murkier, and the default answer — more search, more paid social — isn't working the way it used to. Alex Preddie from Rocket Barn and Christy Johnson (CMO) and Madison Belfour (Director of Marketing) from Tint World sit down to get specific about what franchise marketers should actually be doing differently heading into 2027 budget planning. The one thing every listener will walk away with: a cleaner framework for how to allocate budget to customer moments instead of channel percentages.In this episode:The right question to ask when performance looks like it's declining (it might not be)Why first-party data is now a survival strategy, not a nice-to-haveAI-generated creative and what franchisee engagement data actually says about itHow to activate franchisees as local content creators without losing brand governanceWhere franchise systems are over-investing their digital dollars right nowGuest: Alex Preddie, VP of Sales and Marketing, Rocket BarnSeven years at a franchise-focused growth agency specializing in home services and automotive brands. Alex works directly with franchisees and franchisors on local marketing strategy, and has a front-row seat to what's working and what's bleeding budget across multiple franchise systems simultaneously.Guest: Christy Johnson and Madison Belfour, CMO and Director of Marketing, Tint WorldChristy brings decades of franchise marketing experience across major brands including Papa John's and Yum Brands, now six weeks into the CMO seat at Tint World. Madison has spent five and a half years running franchisee marketing operations at Tint World from the inside. Together they offer both the strategic view and the operational reality of what it actually takes to manage digital media across a franchise network.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Aren Johnstone (Franchise Ramp) and Dan Wheeler (CMO, K9 Resorts) join Katherine for a direct conversation about what franchise marketers are actually measuring and whether it's doing anything useful. This episode centers on the gap between data collection and decision-making — and what it takes to close it inside a real franchise system.In this episode:Why "if it doesn't drive a decision, you don't need it" is the right test for your scorecardCash flowable CAC: a franchisee-friendly framework for understanding marketing payback that goes beyond ROASThe tornado vs. the funnel: how rethinking the customer journey changes what you measureBuilding one source of truth: what it really takes, and why consistent imperfection beats perfect paralysisWhy single-platform dependence is one of the biggest risks in franchise marketing right nowGuest: Aren Johnstone, CEO, Franchise RampAren leads a paid media and creative agency built specifically for franchise brands and franchisees — two of his partners are franchisees themselves. Franchise Ramp works with over 1,300 locations across 25+ brands, and Aren has spent seven years building the internal systems and tech stack to aggregate performance data across hundreds of disparate ad accounts. He knows the franchise data problem from the inside.Guest: Dan Wheeler, CMO, K9 Resorts Luxury Pet HotelDan came to pet care from a career in restaurant and hospitality franchising, and he's bringing the same rigor to K9 Resorts — a brand with 50 open locations and 150 in development. He's currently overseeing the build of a first-party data platform that ties reservation data, franchise-level P&L, and media performance into one place. His frameworks on franchisee communication and demand creation are the kind of thing you don't hear enough at franchise marketing conferences.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge?Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Want to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

PR, email, and social — and what's actually worth your budget going into 2027. Katherine LeBlanc sits down with Ashley Mitchell of East Coast Wings and Girl and Zack Fishman of Fishman PR for a peer conversation on where each channel stands, what's changing, and what a franchise marketing team should actually be doing with their owned and earned media right now.In this episode:Why GEO has rescued PR measurement — and how to make the case for it internallyLocal-first social strategy: why franchisee content outperforms corporate brand content and how to build the infrastructure to support itThe reality of brand-level social: entertainment vs. education, and what that means for your investmentEmail personalization in practice — rebuilding from scratch vs. patching an old programEmail as a paid media channel: an underexplored model for franchise brandsThe one thing both guests tell franchise marketing teams to stop doing right nowGuest: Ashley Mitchell, VP of Marketing, East Coast Wings and Grill Ashley has spent her career in franchise marketing communications — from a six-year stint at the Walt Disney Company into franchising across consumer marketing, franchise development, M&A, and fractional CMO roles. She brings a practitioner's lens to the owned media conversation: what's working at the unit level, where the social ROI math stops adding up, and why she's rebuilding her email program from the ground up.Guest: Zack Fishman, Partner, Fishman PR and Franchise Supplier Network Zack grew up in the franchise industry — his mother founded Fishman PR, the largest franchise-specific PR firm in the space — and he's built his own career at the intersection of earned media strategy and owned channel technology. He advises brands on consumer and franchise development PR, and his work at Franchise Supplier Network focuses on the tools and systems that make local social, texting, and review management scalable for franchise systems.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Brand fund budgeting is where franchise marketing strategy gets real — fixed dollars, franchisee expectations, and a landscape that keeps changing underneath you. In this episode Katherine LeBlanc talks with Adam Terranova from Authority Brands and Brooke Janousek, Fractional CMO for IV Nutrition, about the frameworks they actually use to build budgets that hold up and that franchisees trust. If you're heading into fall budget season, this is the conversation to have first.In this episode:Why calling it a brand fund instead of an ad fund changes franchisee expectations from day oneThe PESO model as a framework for both allocating budget and explaining it to franchiseesThe 60/30/10 split — how to build flexibility and contingency into a fixed budget before the year startsWhat franchisees are really asking for when they push for more SEO spendHow to show up in LLMs across multiple owned platforms without adding significant budgetGuest: Adam Terranova, Senior Director of Marketing, Authority Brands Adam has been in franchising since 2013 and oversees marketing across five home service trades brands at Authority Brands — One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Mr. Sparky, Dry Medic, and Stop Restoration. He has built and managed brand funds at startup brands and at scale, and has been presenting the PESO framework to franchise marketers since he first learned it over a decade ago.Guest: Brooke Janousek, Fractional CMO, IV Nutrition Brooke brings ten years of franchise marketing experience across home services and health and wellness, including time at Garage Experts and Hello Garage before her current role at IV Nutrition, a 47-location IV therapy brand. She has built brand funds from zero, managed them through rapid growth, and navigated some of the most disruptive years in digital marketing as a fractional CMO.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]

Kim Gubera, President & CEO of PIRTEK, stepped into her role in 2019 and did something almost no leader does — she visited every single franchisee before changing anything. In this conversation, she shares how that decision built the cultural foundation that drove a record-breaking 2025, and how PIRTEK maintains a standard of excellence — including through moments that were anything but easy. This is a straight-talking episode about what franchise leadership actually looks like when the values aren't just on the wall.In this episode:How PIRTEK recruits for franchisee-first thinking at every level of the home officeWhy radical transparency — including disclosing an internal integrity issue at their franchise conference — is the only way to build real trustWhat it takes to sustain franchisee support and culture through rapid unit growthGuest: Kim Gubera, President & CEO, PIRTEK Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Learn more at apollocmo.com

Steven and Jason Parker have been in the pet care industry since 1999 and franchising K9 Resorts since 2011. In this conversation, they walk Katherine through the disciplined, long-view philosophy that's gotten them to 50 open locations — and what it actually means to award franchises instead of selling them.In this episode:Why they turned down one of their earliest franchise candidates — and how it shaped their development processThe leadership model they use as co-CEO brothers, and how they built a C-suite that complements rather than replicatesThe pet care industry's next evolution: mental enrichment, smaller group sizes, and what "humanization" looks like in 2026Guest: Steven and Jason Parker, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, K9 Resorts Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Learn more at apollocmo.com

Josh Lyon has been building ScentHound as their COO from seven units to 157 - and he's not slowing down. In this conversation, he gets into what it actually takes to scale a franchise brand with operational discipline intact: the team transitions nobody talks about, the franchisee adoption gap that compounds every time you add complexity, and why simplicity isn't a nice-to-have - it's the differentiator that separates the brands that win from the ones that don't.In this episode:Building and rebuilding your team through three inflection pointsWhy franchisees need to be treated like owners, not employees — and what changes when you doHow ScentHound maps the five-stage journey of franchisees, team members, and customers to create simplicity at every levelGuest: Josh Lyon, Chief Operating Officer, ScentHound Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Learn more at apollocmo.com

Doug Flaig, CEO of Stratus Clean, is in the middle of one of the harder things a franchise leader can navigate - a full brand transformation - and he's doing it with a three-tier franchisee network watching every move. In this conversation, Doug gets into why answering the "why" before the "what" is the only change management that actually works, how he uses EOS and tier-based communication groups to keep a diverse franchisee base aligned, and what a career that ran through 7-Eleven, Burger King, and Dunkin Donuts before landing at a smaller company taught him about what it means to really lead. One takeaway that lands hard: nature abhors a vacuum - and if you're not filling it with communication, your franchisees are filling it with speculation.In this episode:Tier-based franchisee communication and why one message doesn't fit every operatorUnit economics as the north star — and what happens to brands that lose sight of itServant leadership, the hedgehog principle, and what it actually means to lead through changeGuest: Doug Flaig, CEO, Stratus Building Solutions Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Learn more at apollocmo.com

Alex and Myriam Guerrero didn't plan on becoming franchise owners — Alex stumbled into it at a USO transition event when a franchise broker showed up and offered a presentation. Four years later, they're running a Tint World location in El Paso, scaling to three stores, and building the kind of franchisee-franchisor trust that most brands spend years trying to manufacture. This conversation gets into what it really takes to build a business with your spouse, what the franchising industry is still getting wrong with veterans, and why legacy franchisees don't need another broadcast — they need a direct conversation.In this episode:What Alex learned about veterans and the franchising knowledge gap — and what he's doing about itHow he and Myriam built a grow-from-within culture they can protect as they scaleWhy their relationship with their franchisor works — and what it would take to replicate that across a networkGuest: Alex and Myriam Guerrero, Franchisees, Tint World Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Learn more at apollocmo.com

Alex Pericchi has spent 12 years as VP of Marketing at PuroClean watching what actually drives franchisee adoption — and what quietly kills it. His answer this year is radical simplification: fewer activities, clearer direction, and a message repeated from every corner of the organization until it lands. If you've ever wondered why franchisees aren't executing on your marketing programs, this conversation will reframe the question entirely.In this episode:Why PuroClean is doing less marketing this year — on purposeThe 80/20 framework Alex uses to cut noise and drive real adoptionHow asking franchisees about their exit plan on day one changes everythingGuest: Alex Pericchi, VP of Marketing, PuroClean Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOAre you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Learn more at apollocmo.com

Jon Sica, President of Batteries Plus, joins Katherine LeBlanc at IFA 2026 for one of the most practical episodes of Franchise Leader Spotlight yet. Jon breaks down why the brand standards conversation lands completely differently when you lead with exit strategy — and how Batteries Plus has been building that into their franchise development process for five years through their Full Circuit program. They also get into the AI infrastructure Batteries Plus is building right now, what raising net worth requirements actually did to their candidate pipeline, and why trust is the only thing that makes any of the tactics work.If you run a franchise brand or support franchisee development, this one is worth the full listen.

Kathy George, President of Spherion Staffing and Recruiting, joins Katherine LeBlanc at IFA to talk about the leadership framework that helped an 80-year-old staffing franchise outpace its competitors and its parent company in a year the industry was forecasted to contract.Kathy walks through the 20 Mile March - the collective two-year goal structure she set the night before getting on stage at national convention - and the weekly, monthly, and quarterly communication stack that turned a shared goal into franchisee-to-franchisee accountability. She also gets candid about radical transparency as a real operating principle, the succession challenge building inside multi-generational franchise systems, and why she's had to say no to protect the brand she stewards.If you lead a franchise brand and the gap between what HQ knows and what franchisees feel is wider than you'd like - this one is for you.

Jennifer Durham has scaled franchise brands across restaurants, hospitality, and wellness - from Checkers & Rally's to Cooper's Hawk, Hand & Stone, and now Potbelly, where she's leading the brand's push from 467 shops to 2,000 locations. She's also a CPA, which means when she talks about unit economics, she means it.In this conversation at IFA 2026, Jennifer makes the case that franchising has been measuring and marketing to the wrong number. New unit count looks great on a banner. But it doesn't tell a prospect how long it takes to get open, how long it takes to get profitable, or how the existing network is actually performing. Those are the questions serious candidates are starting to ask - and the brands that can answer them honestly will win the development race.We also get into Potbelly's approach to preserving struggling locations rather than closing them, why the scarcity mindset that drives a franchise sale can damage the franchisee relationship post-close, and what Jennifer thinks franchising needs more of and less of right now.What we cover:Why new unit count may be the wrong development headlineThe metrics that actually tell the franchise story: time to open, ramp to profitability, same-store sales growthHow Potbelly gets creative to keep struggling shops aliveThe scarcity mindset problem in franchise developmentJennifer's take on Item 19 standardizationA leadership lesson about leading through other people's expertiseThe future of franchising — and what Jennifer is optimistic aboutGuest: Jennifer Durham, SVP Franchise & Development, PotbellyHost: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Founder, Apollo CMO & MyPodcastHost Recorded: IFA Annual Convention 2026The Franchise Leader Spotlight Podcast is part of the ⁠My Podcast Host ⁠Franchise Podcast Network.

Kevin King didn't become President and CEO of Donatos Pizza by staying in his lane. In this conversation, Katherine LeBlanc sits down with Kevin at IFA to talk about what it actually takes to build a franchise brand that scales and what separates the leaders who get there from the ones who don't.They get into how Donatos is using automation and AI not to replace people, but to free them up for the moments that matter. Why understanding how the business makes money is the career skill nobody teaches. And the leadership lesson Kevin brought back from a visit to Chick-fil-A that reframed how he thinks about every title, every role, and every person on his team.If you're running a franchise brand or building toward a leadership seat, this one's worth your full attention.

Leads are up at Go Mini's. Revenue didn't keep pace. Chris Walls, President & CEO, knows exactly why - and he's not blaming the marketing.In this episode of the Franchise Leader Spotlight, Chris sits down with host Katherine LeBlanc to talk about the conversion-first mindset Go Mini's is building across its franchise network in 2026. From closing rate as a core KPI to franchisee adoption of new tools, from a B2B pivot into restoration companies to the slow, deliberate work of building trust with franchisees - this is a candid look at what it actually takes to lead a franchise brand through rapid change.Chris also reflects on his journey from trial lawyer to franchise CEO, what he learned about leadership the hard way, and why AI is both the most exciting and most anxiety-inducing thing heading toward franchising right now.If you're a franchise brand leader thinking about how to get more out of what you already have - this one's for you.The Franchise Leader Spotlight Podcast is hosted by Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO.

What does it look like to grow a franchise brand without compromising your values?In this episode of Franchise Leader Spotlight, Katherine LeBlanc sits down with Paul Pickett of Wild Birds Unlimited to explore how sustainable growth is built through care, discipline, and long-term thinking.Paul shares why protecting brand integrity sometimes means saying no to the wrong franchisee fit, how leadership shapes culture across a system, and why care isn’t soft - it’s strategic. In a franchising environment often focused on speed, this conversation centers on building the right way and creating a legacy that lasts.

In this episode of Franchise Leader Spotlight, Katherine LeBlanc sits down with Quinn Newhall, Chief Operating Officer of Clean Eatz, to discuss what it means to lead with a franchisee-first mindset.As a former operator turned executive, Quinn shares how his experience in the field shapes his leadership approach, why local store marketing is the backbone of sustainable growth, and what franchisees need most from brand leadership in today’s competitive restaurant environment.This conversation is equal parts practical and encouraging - a steady perspective for operators focused on long-term success.This episode is brought to you by ⁠My Podcast Host⁠, helping franchise systems bring their most important messages to life through internal podcasting.

What does it really take to become a successful multi-unit, multi-brand operator?In this episode of Franchise Leadership Spotlight, Mitch Cohen shares his journey from entering franchising to building the infrastructure required to scale across multiple brands and locations.We discuss:How he evaluates franchise opportunitiesThe systems and leadership structure required to grow beyond a single unitWhat franchisors often misunderstand about attracting serious multi-unit operatorsThe mindset shift required to move from operator to empire-builderThis is a must-listen for franchisors looking to attract high-quality MUMBOs — and for franchisees who aspire to scale beyond one location.Real experience. Practical insight. A candid look at what growth actually requires.Produced by My Podcast Host. Subscribe to stay connected to the leaders shaping the future of franchising.