You've been selling franchises yourself — between meetings, on instinct, whenever you have time. But is that actually a process? Katherine and James take a listener's question about building a franchise development function and pull it back to the question most franchisors skip: do you have a franchisable concept in the first place?

They cover the red flags, the real cost of creating demand, what to build first, and why the long-term view is non-negotiable.

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 — 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.

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🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc
📩 katherine@apollocmo.com

You hired people to do marketing. Things are getting posted, flyers are getting made, someone's running social. But sales aren't moving — and you honestly don't know if your team is the problem or if you are.

In this episode, Katherine and James get into what franchisors actually get wrong when they build a junior marketing team without a senior leader in place. Katherine has been in the marketing seat long enough to know how this plays out — and James has been the frustrated operator on the other side of it.

They cover what coordinator-level marketers should actually own, how to measure their work without expecting the wrong things, and what it looks like when you've genuinely outgrown the setup you have.

Also in this episode: approved vendor programs — required list or franchisee's call?

Produced by My Podcast Host — the podcast platform built for franchising. Because the best franchise knowledge shouldn't stay behind closed doors.

New episodes twice a month.

Franchisees are asking about vendor rebates - and you don't have a clean answer. That's the question at the center of this episode, and Katherine and James don't let it off easy.

They talk through what franchisees are really asking when they bring rebates up and how to think about rebate dollars in a way that serves the system - not just the P&L. Plus: why rebate complaints are almost never actually about rebates.

Candid, practical, and a little spicy. Just like the best franchise advice should be.

🎙️ Produced by My Podcast Host - the podcast platform built for franchising.