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.

What should you actually expect your franchisees to own — and what's yours to carry?

In this episode, Katherine and James dig into the expectation gap that creates more friction in franchise systems than almost anything else. They start with a live observation from IFE — the International Franchise Expo — and a question Katherine's been sitting with: when does a hyper-niche concept become too simple to sustain? And how do you build a moat around an offering before the fad fades?

Then the Dear Frannie question: What should I expect my franchisees to own?

They break down:

• Why franchisors hesitate to tell franchisees "this is your business — run it"
• The "you own the business, we own the brand" framework and what it actually means in practice
• The difference between passion-play buyers and hard-industry operators — and why expectations have to be set differently
• What franchisee complaints about marketing are usually really about
• How to define your role in their profitability so both sides know where the line is

Katherine LeBlanc and James Vitrano have a combined 40+ years across franchise marketing, operations, legal, and development. They've been in the room where hard decisions get made — and they're not shy about sharing what they've seen.

📩 Got a question you're wrestling with? Submit it at apollocmo.com or reach Katherine directly at katherine@apollocmo.com

🌐 apollocmo.com | 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc | ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube

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.

Want to go deeper?

🌐 apollocmo.com
▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube
🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc
📩 katherine@apollocmo.com