Iâm a winner, she said. Iâm a champion. Winners do not make excuses. Winners find a way. I adjust but I do not change. I live on purpose. I live intentionally.
Iâm called, assigned and commissioned.
Nicole Durio, Founder of Madison Brothers Consulting Group, is a tough leader of money and finance, who decided to merge her love and knowledge of economics to her ministry. As a result, Nicole has mentored over 250 women to six-figure income status and she is on track to propel 25 women to seven-figure incomes in the next five years.
Listen in to this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.
Meet Nicole Durio
Nicole Michelle Durio, CPA, has more than 25 years of experience in accounting, financial reporting, advisory services, business consulting, CFO services and internal and external auditing.
When Nicole was laid off from her job as an Executive Director with an international, public accounting firm, earning a multiple six-figure income, she did a great deal of soul searching.
A tough leader of money and finance, she decided to merge her love and knowledge of economics to her ministry.
As a result, Nicole has mentored over 250 women to six-figure income status and she is on track to propel 25 women to seven-figure incomes in the next five years.
From financial tips on amnesty for student loans to breaking down the importance of affiliations, Nicole offers clients tailor-made advice to fit their financial situations.
Whether Nicole advises a debt free strategy or helps individuals to craft a financial vision board, financial freedom is achievable and a dream realized for the lives she has touched.
She believes no one is born a winner or a loser, but we are all born choosers.
Madeleine (Park) Zookâs theme in life is simple:
Getter done because and in spite of!
Try that on for a while and see how your life changes! Because ⌠and in spite of. Thatâs a no excuses mentality if I ever heard of one.
Who is Madeleine? Sheâs a multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee, podcast host of The Art of Franchise Marketing, the Director of Marketing at Netsertive and the owner and founder of a 501(c) 3 nonprofit.
Listen to this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.
Meet Madeleine Zook
Madeleine Zook is a Marketing & Branding Professional who works with franchise and consumer businesses to help build their brand, increase awareness, drive sales, and expand across the globe.
Madeleine has landed coverage in print, digital, and broadcast outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fortune. In addition to her extensive PR and marketing experience, Madeleine is the owner and founder of a 501(c)3 nonprofit, Together She Can, which strives to help homeless communities with hygiene care.
Madeleine was featured as Bostonâs Women of The Week and has spoken at prestigious universities and franchise firms across the U.S.
Adriann Dalton, COO of Honest Abe Roofing, talks about adaptability, impact and team on this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.
Adriann comes to Honest Abe Roofing with more than 25 years sales, customer engagement and operations experience working at companies like DentalPlans.com and Neighborly.
What Tracy Kawa and Rebecca Monet were particularly amazed at is Adriannâs ability to take risks when she sees that she can have a direct, long-term positive impact.
Listen in here.
Meet Adriann Dalton
Adriann Dalton has more than 25 years of operational experience across a variety of industries. She served as Vice President of Sales and Operations at DentalPlans.com, where she was responsible for leading sales, member care, retention, and operations functions. She also previously worked as Vice President of Customer Engagement & Operations at Neighborly, where she took the lead in strategic planning, improved customer experiences, and identified gaps in training procedures. In these roles, Adriann successfully drove revenue growth and improved both customer and employee satisfaction.
As COO of Honest Abe Roofing, Dalton is focused on identifying new markets for the brand to continue to grow, utilizing and finding ways to further develop Honest Abeâs CRM to enhance customer experiences, and ensuring solid training and communication is available to the brands franchisees.
Shelly Sun, CEO and founder of BrightStar Franchising, on this weekâs episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.
There is much to admire about Shelly, her ability to see the future and plan accordingly, her love of her franchisees and business partners, her generous heart and her steadfast, maternal nature when raising her boys (now college age).
We discussed much as you might expect. Two things stood out:
Her âin-YOUR-shoesâ leadership style whether that be the elderly parent and his/her family, the franchisee as they grow their territory or the care provider whose difficult job is so vitally needed.
Her desire to be a bridge for the next generation of business owners through her generous contribution in creating a franchise program at her alma mater the University of Tennessee.
Listen in to this episode and be inspired.
Meet Shelly Sun
Shelly Sun is the Founder and CEO of BrightStar Group Holdings, Inc., the parent company of BrightStar CareÂŽ, BrightStarÂŽ Senior Living, and BrightStarÂŽ Care Homes. BrightStar Care provides medical and non-medical home health care and medical staffing services through a national network. BrightStar Senior Living and BrightStar Care Homes provide assisted living and memory care in a senior living community setting. Shelly founded BrightStar Care in 2002 in the Chicagoland area after facing a challenging personal experience seeking home care services for her grandmother and not finding the breadth of services â both medical and non-medical that her grandmother so desperately needed. Shelly realized there wasnât a high-quality, dependable care provider that she felt would care for her family the way she wanted. From there, she launched BrightStar Care, a home care and medical staffing agency. In 2005 to diversify and localize BrightStar Careâs operations, Shelly opened her business to franchising; the rest is history. Over the last 20 years, BrightStar Care has grown to more than 365 franchised and company-owned locations nationwide, employing 15,000 caregivers and 5,700 registered nurses who oversee the care and safety of each individual client.
From day one, Shellyâs mission for BrightStar Care has been to provide seniors, families, and those needing home care services with the full continuum of care. Shelly has positioned BrightStar Care as the premium home care provider, committed to delivering a higher standard of care, evidenced by network-wide nurse-led care and Joint Commission accreditation â the gold standard within the healthcare industry. Shelly is also passionate about empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs and established a Franchise Certification Program at her alma mater, the University of Tennessee. Shelly’s franchise program offers scholarship opportunities for women, underserved communities, and students within the LGBTQIA+ community providing them with support and training on the many facets of franchising.
Under Shellyâs Leadership BrightStar Care has consistently ranked among the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America by Inc. Magazine and has made Entrepreneur Magazineâs Franchise 500 list for the last thirteen years. BrightStar Care has also continuously ranked on Franchise Business Reviewâs Top Franchise list, the Franchise Times Top 400 list, and was named a top Women-Centric business by Global Franchise Magazine. On the clinical side, BrightStar Care is the only national home care franchise to receive The Joint Commissionâs Enterprise Champion for Quality award every year since the awardâs inception. Shelly was also named one of the top 25 highest-rated CEOs during the COVID-19 crisis by Glassdoor.
Megan Rosen, Chief Development Officer, joins Rebecca Monet and Tracy Kawa on this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion and Purpose Collide.
Megan talks about feeling âembarrassedâ that her family provided her so much opportunity when others may not have that same luxury. These feelings sent her on a self-discovery process. Listen in as she shares her journey, the mentors and education along the way and her now clear sense of identity and purpose.
Meet Megan Rosen
Megan Rosen is the Chief Development Officer for Next Brands, a family-owned strategic manager and growth accelerator of impactful food franchise brands. Next Brands aims to bring impact-focused food brands to more local communities with a seasoned leadership team comprised of individuals with decades of experience in construction, business development, franchise development, franchise operations, and design.
Megan is helping lead the charge in the newest initiative for Next Brands with the planned expansion throughout North Michigan with two of its brands through its new innovative modular container location concept. The multi-brand franchise is creating an inventive approach to spearhead rapid franchise expansion by using low-cost shipping containers to help quickly open a complete, fully operating restaurant locations and cutting development time by half.
With the new cutting-edge location concept, the multi-brand franchise can strategically grow at a faster rate, and franchisees can purchase their new locations for an all-in price of $200,000 and reduce the labor needed to only three to four employees. With the strategic design, the service time is reduced to 3½ to 5 minutes and helps with the processing time of preparing and keeping every ingredient fresh for guests.
Faith, family and FOS is what I think of when I think of Gerry Henley, founder of Launch to Growth. Our conversation with Gerry on The Franchise Woman podcast revealed a tender heart wrapped in a getter done mindset. But not in a run fast, stir up some dust, and do a bunch of things way. But instead in an organized, global to specific, FOS (Franchise Operating Systems) way.
Listen in to learn more about Gerry Henley, and his motto âScale to Get Better before You Scale to Get Biggerâ.
Meet Gerry Henley
Gerry Henley is passionate about establishing and helping franchisor leadership teams achieve operational excellence through effective coaching and mentoring. Gerry is the founder of Launch to Growth, FOS â Franchise Operating System and he is a ZorForum Moderator.
Launch to Growth and FOS help Franchisors build scalable franchise systems focusing on unit level performance. Gerry has more than 30 yearsâ experience as a strategic, results-driven business development and leadership executive with more than 15 years with franchise systems.
âScale to Get Better before You Scale to Get Bigger.â
Nora Farhat does not reinvent the wheel instead she embraces, leverages and scales. Nora Farhat has built a multi-brand, multi-million dollar enterprise. Franchise brands included in her portfolio include British Swim School, Mathnasium, Pool Scouts, Grand Illuminations, Code Learning and Real Property Management.
Nora knows exactly what her skill sets are ⌠and are not. She has learned to channel her strengths when building her businesses. Listen to this great interview right here on The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.
Meet Nora Farhat
Eight years ago, after a successful career as a corporate executive, Nora decided to pursue her lifelong dream of owning her own business. Today, she’s built that business into a multi-brand, multi-million dollar enterprise. Her brands include British Swim School, Mathnasium, Pool Scouts, Grand Illuminations, Code Learning and Real Property Management.  Nora is also the host of Upside Down Entrepreneurship, a show that she is sharing her knowledge, stories and helpful shortcuts. Nora understands the challenges of starting your own business and she’s passionate about helping aspiring entrepreneurs achieve their goals.
Tamara Loring, Chief of Brand Ideology for The Entrepreneurâs Source, joined us on this weekâs episode of The Franchise Woman podcast. If I were to describe Tamara in one word, that word would be Genuine. Itâs not often in this fast-paced and competitive world of business that you find someone without a single reason or desire to cover up or puff up. She is unabashedly real; fully and only Tamara.
Tamaraâs passion for helping individuals navigate a career transition is on clear display in this interview. Listen in on The Franchise Woman podcast.
Meet Tamara Loring
Serving as Chief of Brand Ideology for The Entrepreneurâs Source, Tamara has worked with entrepreneurs and business owners for over 20 years. Tamara has worked in a variety of roles, including trainer, a franchise business coach, manager and overseen a host of responsibilities. She is uniquely qualified to speak on, Your Career Revolution â Reimagine and Reclaim the Life of Your Dreams because sheâs been an integral part in helping TES launch and ramp up their businesses and to equip them with the tools and resources they need to coach those who have a strong to very strong desire to be self-sufficient. Sheâs been referred to as the âcoachâs coachâ for the relationships sheâs been able to establish with TESâs career coaches and knowledge of re-claiming oneâs career ownership spirit.
The Entrepreneurâs Source is about providing education, creating awareness and helping people discover whatâs possible. With almost 40 years of experience, The Entrepreneurâs Source has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals explore self-sufficiency and reach a point of clarity about their professional future.
Who doesnât love gourmet ice cream? We had a chance to chat with Lauren Townsend, the Co-Founder of Millieâs Homemade Ice Cream. She and her husband, Chad, started the company in their home kitchen in 2014 and have since expanded to multiple brick-and-mortar scoop shops, seasonal kiosks and food trucks in Western Pennsylvania. Her story is one of love, partnership and all things sweet. You are going to want to listen in to this episode of The Franchise Woman Podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.
Meet Lauren Townsend
Lauren Townsend is the co-founder of Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, an emerging franchisor, retailer, and wholesaler of super premium ice cream, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Chad, started the company in their home kitchen in 2014 and have since expanded to multiple brick-and-mortar scoop shops, seasonal kiosks, and food trucks in Western Pennsylvania, many owned and operated by franchise partners. From sourcing high-quality PA dairy, to finding local purveyors of sustainably sourced ingredients, to collaborating with like-minded regional organizations â Millieâs strives to craft every scoop and every moment to make your day.
Prior to starting Millie’s, Lauren worked in the mergers & acquisitions industry. When she’s not dreaming about Millie’s, Lauren enjoys spending time with her husband, two children, and their beloved Old English Sheepdog. She holds a B.S. in International Affairs from Georgetown University.
Brian Cook founder and president of StretchMed joins us today on The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide. StretchMed, is a 1-On-1 stretching franchise model, founded in November 2019 and currently has over 20 locations in 5 states. It aims to eliminate chronic pain, increase mobility, rejuvenate, and help you move well.
If you want to hear how a true entrepreneur thinks and takes action then this podcast is a must listen.
Meet Brian Cook
Brian Cook is a serial entrepreneur with over 28 years of experience opening almost 200 locations across multiple boutique fitness brands. He has a B.S. degree in exercise physiology from Northeastern University and an M.B.A. from Babson College. His most recent company is StretchMed, a 1-On-1 stretching franchise model, which he founded in November 2019 and currently has over 20 locations in 5 states. It aims to eliminate chronic pain, increase mobility, rejuvenate, and help you move well.
Brian is a former hockey player who splits time between Boston and Puerto Rico and loves boating.
