Dear Frannie: Franchise Growth, Leadership and Scaling Advice

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Dear Frannie is the franchise advice column you didn't know you needed. Hosted by Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO, and James Vitrano, Franchise Operator, each episode tackles one real question franchisors are quietly wrestling with - from franchisee adoption and growth friction to leadership blind spots and operational scale. No panels. No keynote speak. No fluff. Just two people who've been inside franchise systems answering the questions brand leaders are afraid to ask out loud. If you're a franchisor navigating the messy middle of scale - this show was made for you. New episodes drop bi-weekly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

  1. 2d ago

    Dear Frannie | Are My Franchisees Profitable?

    Are your franchisees actually profitable? If all you collect is point of sale data, you can't know. Katherine LeBlanc and Daniel Meth, CEO of Ingest (ingest.ai), answer a question franchisors quietly wrestle with: What data should I be accepting and expecting to collect from my franchisees? In this episode: - Why one number in isolation is an incomplete story (the 38% labor example) - Why to collect profit and loss statements from day one, and why asking later feels like a violation - What the Groupon story teaches about top line sales vs. bottom line profit - The metrics that show a location's health: revenue, same store sales, guest count, spend, and frequency - Garbage in, garbage out: why the best AI starts with the best data - Price vs. value, and how brand helps you tell the value story  Katherine LeBlanc is a franchise marketing and growth consultant at Apollo CMO. Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have spent a combined 40+ years in the trenches of franchising — across marketing, operations, legal, and franchise development — working with brands at every stage of growth. They've sat in the rooms where the hard calls get made, and they're not shy about sharing what they've seen work and what they've watched blow up.  Want to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

  2. Oct 21

    Dear Frannie | How Do I Make My Marketing Dollars Work Harder?

    How do I make my marketing dollars work harder? Katherine LeBlanc is joined by Bob McKay, founder and chief executive officer of McKay Advertising and Activation — 21 years in business, the last 15 exclusively in food franchising — to trace exactly where franchise marketing budgets leak, and how to stop it. The leaks, in order: hiring outside help without scoping the job, so the request for proposal gets written by marketing alone and operations finds out later. Failing to manage the relationship, because five agencies is five direct reports and an unmanaged partnership is an underperforming one. Buying reach that's too wide — you compete with 25 to 60 restaurants inside one mile, so a grand opening that reaches six miles out is purchasing visits that will never repeat, which is part of why 75 to 82 percent of first-time customers never come back. And influencer spend nobody measures, which has gotten a free pass on attribution for three years running. Also in this episode: what the ChatGPT and Yelp deal means for restaurant discoverability, why a two-person marketing team cannot cover a 70-unit brand, the lead cost benchmark that tells you whether a market wants your product, and why being discoverable in real life still beats being discoverable online. If you're spending money on marketing and can't tell what it's returning, start here. Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have spent a combined 40+ years in the trenches of franchising — across marketing, operations, legal, and franchise development — working with brands at every stage of growth. They've sat in the rooms where the hard calls get made, and they're not shy about sharing what they've seen work and what they've watched blow up. Want to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

  3. Oct 7

    Dear Frannie | What happens when your brand isn't hot anymore?

    Every brand has a moment. Fewer know what to do when it starts to fade. On this episode of Dear Frannie, Katherine and James break down what actually happens when the category that made you hot starts to cool - the indicators to watch before the dip hits, why a hot streak breeds laziness, and how to reinvest in your brand's identity instead of chasing the next trend. Before they get there, James gets candid about building his own restaurant brand from the ground up - including the marketing mistake he wishes he'd caught sooner. Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have spent a combined 40+ years in the trenches of franchising - across marketing, operations, legal, and franchise development - working with brands at every stage of growth. They've sat in the rooms where the hard calls get made, and they're not shy about sharing what they've seen work and what they've watched blow up. Want to go deeper?  🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

  4. Sep 23

    Dear Frannie | Am I a Joint Employer of My Franchisee's Staff?

    You want every location to feel the same. Your lawyer wants you to stay out of your franchisee's HR file. Where's the line? Franchise attorney Lee Plave of Plave Koch joins Katherine to break down the American Franchise Act (HR 5267) and the question underneath it: when does a franchisor cross from setting brand standards into being a joint employer of their franchisee's staff — and what happens when they do? Lee came out of the Federal Trade Commission and has spent decades representing franchisors at every scale, from IHG, Hilton and 7-Eleven to brands that sold their first unit last month. In this conversation he lays out the rule that keeps franchisors on the right side of the line — standardize the output, not the input — and explains why the most cautious legal advice, "don't train them, don't talk to them," is both self-defeating and, in some businesses, genuinely unsafe. In this episode: What vicarious liability and joint employer status actually mean for a growing brandWhat the American Franchise Act is trying to codify, and why it exists nowThe output-versus-input rule, and how to apply it to your own brand standardsWhy cheap franchise documents are the most expensive purchase you'll makeHow to spot an agreement that came off a document mill or out of an AIWhat to do instead of directing your franchisee's employeesWhy one rogue franchisee damages the other ninety-nine, not just the brandKatherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have spent a combined 40+ years in the trenches of franchising — across marketing, operations, legal, and franchise development — working with brands at every stage of growth. They've sat in the rooms where the hard calls get made, and they're not shy about sharing what they've seen work and what they've watched blow up. Katherine works with franchisors through Apollo CMO, stepping in as the strategic marketing resource brands need when growth gets ahead of the marketing function. If this one hit close to home, reach out. Want to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

  5. Sep 9

    Dear Frannie | My Franchise Pipeline Is Full: How Do I Build Out Without Blowing the Budget?

    You're staring at a full pipeline and want to be intentional about build-out — what should you actually be prepared for? Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano sit down with Charlie Guzzetta, founding partner of Depot and former President & Chief Development Officer of BurgerFi (9 to 135 locations and public on the NASDAQ). Charlie now builds and designs kitchens for some of the hottest restaurant brands around, and he lays out how to scale without blowing your budget or your brand: why you should design a business instead of a restaurant, the three Ps of build-out (pre-planning, prototypes, post-mortem), how a "family of prototypes" keeps you flexible, and where restaurant tech is finally getting affordable for emerging brands. A practical playbook for any franchisor heading into a growth phase. About the hosts: Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have a combined 40+ years in franchising — across marketing, operations, legal, and franchise development. Katherine is the founder of Apollo CMO, helping franchise brands grow. Go deeper: 🌐 apollocmo.com | ▶️ @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube | 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc | 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

  6. Aug 26

    Dear Frannie | I'm Ready to Grow Franchise Sales — Where Do I Actually Start?

    You're ready to grow your franchise — so where do you actually start? In this episode of Dear Frannie, Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano tackle the question every emerging franchisor is asking: where do I start my franchise development process, especially when budgets are tight? Their answer is the one most brands skip: start inside your own four walls. Before you spend a dollar on external lead generation, your fans, employees, and customers are your warmest and most likely franchisees. Katherine and James unpack why "marketing is momentum," why cheap external leads are often the most expensive path, why passive income is a dangerous sales pitch, and why growing slow is a feature, not a failure. Whether you're an emerging brand launching franchising or a seasoned operator over-indexed on external spend, this episode will change where you put your next dollar. Katherine LeBlanc is a franchise growth and marketing advisor and founder of Apollo CMO, helping brands build franchise sales programs that convert. Reach her at katherine@apollocmo.com. About the hosts: Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have spent a combined 40+ years in the trenches of franchising — across marketing, operations, legal, and franchise development. They've sat in the rooms where the hard calls get made, and they share what they've seen work and what they've watched blow up. 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

  7. Aug 12

    Dear Frannie | My Franchisees Could Scale - So Why Won't They?

    Even the most experienced franchise leaders get stuck on this one: you have owners who could scale — they have the territory, the model, the support — and they still won't move. In this episode, Katherine and James sit down with Sean Fitzgerald, President of TruBlue Home Service Ally, to dig into exactly that problem. Sean joined TruBlue when they had 20 locations. They're now at 120+ territories. He's not guessing about the messy middle — he's in it. They cover franchisee selection (hint: passion and team-building matter more than financials), the owner-operator ceiling that quietly kills growth, and what TruBlue built to address it: a dedicated scaling coach, a prescriptive revenue roadmap, and a required BDR role baked into the system. The networking vs. LSM debate is also one for the books — and worth your full attention whether you're a franchisor or a franchisee. Got a question you're wrestling with? We want to hear it. 📩 katherine@apollocmo.com 🌐 apollocmo.com 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc ▶️ Watch on YouTube: @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise

  8. Jul 29

    Dear Frannie | How Do I Drive a Successful Grand Opening

    In this episode, Katherine LeBlanc sits down with Madelaine Reis, Head of Marketing at Biscuit Belly, to unpack what a repeatable grand opening playbook looks like in practice. Biscuit Belly's last two openings both crossed $50,000 in revenue in week one — and Madelaine built their entire program from a blank PowerPoint starting at store number four. They talk through the full funnel: PR, paid media, influencers, food drops, friends-and-family events, and loyalty program onboarding. They cover how to sequence it all when your opening date keeps moving, why you should never open cold, and what it costs franchisors when ops waits too long to loop in marketing. Whether you're opening your next location or building a grand opening program for the first time, this episode gives you a real-world look at what actually moves the needle. Have a question you're wrestling with? Submit it at apollocmo.com or reach us at katherine@apollocmo.com. Find Dear Frannie on YouTube @KatherineLeBlanc_Franchise and connect with Katherine at linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc.

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Dear Frannie is the franchise advice column you didn't know you needed. Hosted by Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO, and James Vitrano, Franchise Operator, each episode tackles one real question franchisors are quietly wrestling with - from franchisee adoption and growth friction to leadership blind spots and operational scale. No panels. No keynote speak. No fluff. Just two people who've been inside franchise systems answering the questions brand leaders are afraid to ask out loud. If you're a franchisor navigating the messy middle of scale - this show was made for you. New episodes drop bi-weekly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

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