Tag: podcast guest

Shana talks about how her love of Sociology and Communication has come together in her role as Chief Marketing Officer at Goldfish Swim School including how she builds team and together they execute on projects and goals. Without giving it away, part of the recipe for her success as a team builder includes Heart and Connection.  

Listen in to Shana Krisan, as she joins Rebecca Monet and Tracy Kawa on this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.  

Meet Shana Krisan 

Shana Krisan is a Certified Franchise Executive and has worked in the franchise space for the bulk of her career. Her knack for building impactful, efficient teams has continuously propelled the companies she works with forward.  

Serving as the Chief Marketing officer for Goldfish Swim School Franchising, Shana has developed a comprehensive marketing plan and internal team. She is a strong believer in a holistic approach to marketing and has accomplished an incredible amount during her time with the brand – masterminding the marketing of The Science of SwimPlay®, Bubbles the mascot, creating Digital Playbooks for franchisees, and building Goldfish Swim School’s internal creative agency, which has a core focus of defining and protecting the brand on all marketing levels. Not only have her efforts increased the brand presence and franchisee support, Shana has been instrumental in setting the business foundation for future growth.   

Shana has recently been recognized as the 2019 Bronze Stevie Award Winner for Woman of the Year in Marketing & Advertising, as well as Franchise Update Media for Best Digital, PR and Hiring Campaigns, and receiving their highest honor in 2020 for Marketing Leadership. Shana also plays an active role on the IFA Marketing and Innovation Committee. 

Learn more about Shana Krisan 

Learn more about Goldfish Swim School 

Carey Gille, CEO and Co-founder of Franchise FastLane defines vision as ‘a clear and compelling picture of a preferred future’. To us it seemed a precise mathematical 1 + 1 equation to a successful future. One must have both: a clear mental picture of what we want along with the values, passion and emotion that causes one to be compelled to bring that picture into existence. Listen in to this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide as serial entrepreneur Carey Gille shares insights into her thinking and building process and offers some advice to other leaders in the franchise space. Meet Carey Gille Carey is a serial entrepreneur having co-founded four different start-ups throughout her career. She also brings extensive franchise experience having franchised with three different concepts on the “zee” side while also leading franchise development for multiple brands on the “zor” side. She co-founded ItsDeductible, which was later acquired by Intuit and is still utilized by TurboTax users today. She then traveled the country as primary spokesperson for ItsDeductible/Intuit and was a featured guest on CNN Headline News, MSNBC, US News and World Report, Wall Street Journal and more. Carey also co-founded Sojern, which is currently the world’s largest boarding pass and travel data advertiser. Ryan and Carey worked together to award over 240 Complete Nutrition locations in less than 18 months gaining the recognition of Entrepreneur Magazine as “Number Two Top New Franchise.” Shortly thereafter, they partnered to found Franchise FastLane. FastLane is a boutique Franchise Sales organization with a mission to “drive extraordinary growth for the chosen few.” FastLane partners with the nation’s best brands to lead their franchise development, accelerate their growth nationwide and inspire business ownership through franchising. FastLane is now the #1 FSO in the country with over 40 employees representing approximately 20 brands, generating over $160M in franchise fees while awarding over 4,200 territories nationwide. FastLane has been ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine as a top five franchise consulting company for four consecutive years and also earned the Inc 5000 ranking of #182 overall and #2 in the state of Nebraska. Carey is married and keeps up with three active boys. She loves to read, write, run & inspire life change through franchising! Learn more about Carey Gille Learn more about Franchise FastLane

Emmanuelle Hardy has been in the franchise industry for over 20 years and held many roles over the years including being a multi-unit franchise owner and working on the franchisor side.  

Originally from France, Emmanuelle came to the US as a student. After a few years in the work force and being let go from a High-Tech company she decided to venture into business ownership. Emmanuelle initially started in finance as a Financial Advisor, when she came across Curves, 30- minute Fitness for Women in 2003, at the time a 10-year franchise system with exponential growth. She decided to take a chance and moved back to France with her family to start it there. In September 2004, she opened the first Curves in France with one of her sisters, reaching 600 members in 12 months.

Enjoying great success, she subsequently owned 4 franchise locations with her family, and she became the Operation Director for the country, helping build the network to 150 clubs, the largest fitness network in the country at the time, and as importantly helping more than 50,000 women get healthier!

Back in the US in 2010 and through 2015, Emmanuelle co- founded and developed a franchise concept in the beauty industry, BodyBrite, a concept originally from Spain. She owned one franchise location in Minneapolis, MN and helped grow the network to 28 locations.

Emmanuelle sold this business in 2016, and looked for a franchise network with a great reputation, solid business concepts, amazing support and values. She eventually found Neighborly Brands. Emmanuelle has been with Neighborly since 2017, currently serving as the Vice-President of Franchise Development for Mr. Handyman and Glass Doctor.

Learn more about Emmanuelle Hardy

Learn more about Neighborly

Kay Miller talks personal branding and uncopiable sales skills on this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion and Purpose Collide.  

When it comes to sales, Kay is all about long-term relationships over one-time transactional deals. It’s this type of thinking that earned Kay the nickname ‘Muffler Mama’ after she was named Sales Person of the Year by Walker Exhaust.   

Listen in to learn about your ideal ‘Moose’, how to think like Sherlock Holmes and outsell and set yourself apart from your competition.  

Bonus: Tracy Kawa and Rebecca Monet point out two people within the franchise space that do a great job with personal branding.  

Meet Kay Miller

Kay Miller is an expert on Uncopyable Sales. As the first woman ever hired for outside sales by Amerock, a division of Anchor Hocking, she built her formidable sales career by emphasizing long-term relationships over one-time deals. Kay was later hired by Walker Exhaust, a division of Tenneco, and the largest automotive muffler manufacturer in the world. While there, she was named Walker’s Salesperson of the Year, an accolade that earned her the nickname “Muffler Mama.”

Kay has been a top sales performer ever since, and now speaks and consults. She’s the author of the new book, Uncopyable Sales Secrets – How to Create an Unfair Advantage and Outsell Your Competition. The book has been called “The most fun sales book you’ve ever read,” and is packed with powerful strategies as well as specific actions you can start using immediately to make more sales.

Kay lives outside Seattle with her husband, Steve, and cat, Sam. Her favorite activities include skiing, hiking, and spending time with their adult daughter, Kelly.

Learn more about Kay Miller

Learn more about Uncopyable Sales Secrets

In her early days in the medical field, Angela Olea worked for a nurse registry. In doing so she was exposed to many different hospitals, nursing homes and situations. Such vast experiences put her on the fast track for learning. It exposed her to environments where she questioned methodologies and outcomes. One of the biggest questions she had was why aging patients had unnecessary hospital readmissions often dealing with the same issues again and again.   

Angela is a true solution-oriented and strategic thinker. Her mind processes the why, what and how more quickly than most. When she sees a problem (often overlooked by others) she quickly begins to ask ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’.   

Why does this problem exist?  

What effect is it having on the client, community or business?  

How can I be the change that solves this problem?   

Listen in to this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast, as Angela shares how answering these 3 vital questions led to her pioneering new industry!  

Meet Angela Olea 

Angela Olea is a highly passionate, innovative and accomplished business leader in the senior care industry. She is a respected authority on senior housing and care options, serving as a guest speaker at state and national aging conferences. Angela is also a visionary, founding the nation’s first senior placement franchise business.   

A registered nurse, Angela initially launched Assisted Living Locators in response to seeing aging patients have unnecessary hospital readmissions and a lack of community support.  In an effort to evoke positive change and ease of care transition for patients, she created a National Readmissions Prevention Specialized Program for community care providers to reduce hospital readmissions.  

Today, as Chief Executive Officer of Assisted Living Locators, she has built the company into a nationally acclaimed premier placement and referral agency, matchmaking seniors with caring providers for over a decade.   

Under her stewardship, Assisted Living Locators is setting the standard for care transition and has received top rankings in Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500®. The company is also included in the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. With 140 franchise office locations in 36 states and the District of Columbia, Assisted Living Locators is one of the largest senior placement and referral businesses in the U.S.  

Passionate senior care advocate, pioneer in providing others an opportunity to join one of the hottest growing industries today and a leader determined to treat the elderly with the dignity they deserve – these are the goals Angela strives to achieve every day. 

Learn more about Angela Olea 

Learn more about Assisted Living Locators 

Meet Lisa (Oak) the ‘Woman Behind the Curtain’ and Chief Development Officer with BIGGBY COFFEE.   

In this interview, Lisa Oak shares her beliefs about leadership and how we tend to ignore the ‘unsung heroes’ who are behind the scenes supporting those out front. Not everyone, according to Lisa, is wired to be a leader in the traditional sense of the word. When we overlook an employee’s real skills, values and desires personally and professionally, it can lead to discontentment, poor performance and loss of a great employee.   

Lisa worked with Subway for 29 years under the leadership of Fred Deluca who proved to be a powerful mentor through his daily example. Even today, Lisa hears the voice of Fred Deluca in her head when assessing situations and making decisions.  

Listen in to Lisa Oak’s interview with Deb Evans (former co-host of Social Geek Radio) and Rebecca Monet on this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.  

Meet Lisa Oak   

Lisa joined the BIGGBY COFFEE team in 2019 and she has provided leadership guidance for this team to grow from 300+ stores to 1,000 by 2028! Not only is Lisa passionate about the company’s growth trajectory, she is also dedicated to the company’s mantra to “support YOU in building a life you love.”  All day every day, Lisa gets to support franchise owners and home office team members as they build their own versions of the “American Dream.”     

Lisa earned her law degree at Quinnipiac University School of Law where she is also an Adjunct Professor.  In fact, Lisa’s 30+ year career in franchising started with a summer job during law school.  She was hired to negotiate real estate leases for new franchise locations in the SUBWAY® franchise organization but growth opportunities quickly turned that summer job into a 29-year career where Lisa helped grow the Subway ® brand from 700 to 40,000+ locations in 100+ countries.    

Lisa has resided in New Haven County Connecticut since starting law school and is a proud native New Yorker.    

Learn more about Lisa Oak  

Learn more about BIGGBY COFFEE 

Rick Porter, president of Cinch I.T. Franchise loves fierce competition and facing overwhelming challenges. In fact, he thrives when pushed to the limit mentally and physically. Rick went from serving as an Army Ranger to building a successful managed IT services business targeted to small and medium sized business.  

In this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast, Rick shares his philosophy of personal and professional growth by forcing oneself completely and totally out of the comfort zone. He actively instills this philosophy in the culture at Cinch I.T. Franchise.  

Two years ago Cinch I.T. Franchise created a Charity Challenge to help raise money for families dealing with childhood cancer. The Challenge is a 100 Mile Ruck March (hike with a backpack). This year the Ruck March raised $140,000.  

Meet Rick Porter 

Rick Porter is an entrepreneur, YouTuber, Podcaster and lifelong learner. He is also the President of Cinch I.T. Franchise.   

Rick loves fierce competition and facing overwhelming challenges. He accepts that as an entrepreneur he may never be “satisfied” but that doesn’t mean that he won’t search for it. Sometimes it is the chase, the daily progress and the passion that makes it all worth it.

Cinch I.T.’s mission is to build the most comprehensive network of successful franchise owners recruited from only the best Finance, Sales, Marketing, Project Management professionals to provide outsourced managed IT services targeted to small and medium sized businesses.  

Last year Cinch I.T. created a Charity Challenge to help raise money for an organization called Why Me & Sherry’s House, they provide support for families dealing with childhood cancer. The Challenge is a 100 Mile Ruck March (hike with a backpack). This year Cinch I.T. raised $140,000.   

Learn more about Rick Porter 

Learn more about Cinch I.T.  

Registration for the 100 Mile Ruck March - https://cinchit.com/100-mile-ruck-march/ 

From Success to Significance. That’s the topic of this interview with Shannon Wilburn, CEO and Co-founder of Just Between Friends Franchise Systems, Inc.  

In this episode Shannon reminisces about the journey from ‘just an idea’ two young mothers had for making a little extra cash to growing a franchise system with over 150 franchisees. Shannon has enjoyed the journey, loved her franchisees, served many communities and remains passionate about making a difference.  

Now, after 25 years, she is asking herself: what’s next? This is a question many successful entrepreneurs ask themselves. They ponder who am I without my business? What is my true identity? How can I apply my God-given talents in other ways?  

Shannon knows her true identity is in Christ, and a few of her many talents include business – but the rest remains to be seen as she moves from Success to Significance. 

Listen to this episode on The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide here.  

Meet Shannon Wilburn  

Shannon Wilburn is the co-founder and CEO of Just Between Friends Franchise Systems, Inc., North America’s leading pop-up children’s and maternity consignment sale. Just Between Friends (JBF) has 150+ franchises in 32 states. Each franchise hosts two or more seasonal sales a year in their community where they provide a marketplace for families selling items to earn 60 to 70% on those items sales and families shopping to save 50 to 90% off retail prices.  

A critical part of the JBF culture includes each franchise partnering with a local charity to give back to their community. Since 2003, Just Between Friends franchises and consignors have donated more than $40 million in cash and in-kind donations to charitable organizations throughout the nation—almost $6M of it in 2021 alone. Resources stay within the community, benefitting family-serving organizations locally. This giving focus won JBF the Franchising Gives Back Gold Award in 2019—recognition for what it means to be a part of the franchising industry by giving back to his or her local community. A key long-term goal for JBF is to continue to grow that giving to reach $100M in donations by the year 2030—JBF’s “Vision 2030.”   

Shannon was awarded the Bonnie LeVine Award in 2021—the highest honor given to women by the International Franchise Association for work done to empower others in Franchising. The Bonnie LeVine award recognizes women who are role models for all, but especially women, by their business and professional accomplishments within franchising and their contributions to the entire society. Bonnie LeVine award winners lead by example, demonstrate purpose, and focus on advancing women in franchising.   

JBF was named to Forbes “Top Ten Franchises in America” for 4 years, has been named in the top franchises for franchisee satisfaction by Franchise Business Review for 14 years. Shannon serves as a task force lead on the Membership Committee for the International Franchise Association as well as serves on her church’s Marketing Advisory Team. JBF has received national attention on Good Morning America, The Today Show, ABC News, CBS the Early Show, and FoxBusiness.com to name a few.   

Learn more about Shannon Wilburn  

Learn more about Just Between Friends 

It’s not too often one gets to sit down with a Super Bowl winner. But that’s exactly what Stan Friedman and Rebecca Monet got to do on this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.  

Meet Ben Utecht, a true Renaissance man. Ben has always chased his dreams, finding his way from small river town in Minnesota to winning Super Bowl XLI as a tight end with the Indianapolis Colts.  

Today Ben is an elite Fortune 500 speaker with his program Believe in Culture™.   

Believe in Culture™, stems from lessons Ben learned in the locker room with Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy and in the huddle with Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. The program illuminates dynamic ways to succeed in business and life.  

In this podcast Ben shares how his life has unfolded post football brain injury. It’s a mesmerizing and inspiring story you will not want to miss. 

Meet Ben Utecht

It is rare to find a true Renaissance man anymore, but that’s just what you get with Ben Utecht. Ben has always chased his dreams, finding his way from a small river town in Minnesota to winning Super Bowl XLI as a tight end with the Indianapolis Colts. He has established himself as an elite Fortune 500 speaker with his speaking program Believe in Culture™, which highlights the topic of believing that culture alignment improves performance and has the power to create high-performing teams — aligned beliefs equal aligned behaviors. His speaking program, Believe in Culture™, stems from lessons he learned in the locker room with Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy and in the huddle with Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. The program illuminates dynamic ways to succeed in business and life.

Ben Utecht has found success in many realms, sitting on the prestigious board of the American Brain Foundation, authoring Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away with Simon and Schuster, creating the music group REBORN with South African Multi-Platinum Artist André Venter and Canadian Grammy Nominated Artist Mark Masri, and becoming a Dove nominated professional singer. As an advocate for athlete brain health, Ben speaks on concussion during The MVP Program™. He has performed with some of the world’s best orchestras and conductors; such as the Cincinnati Pops under Maestro Erich Kunzel, and the New York Pops Maestro Steven Reineke. Ben has also shared the stage with Grammy-winner Sandi Patty, performed for mega-producer and hit songwriter David Foster, and has toured many times with adult contemporary star pianist Jim Brickman. However, without question, Ben would tell you his greatest accomplishment is being a husband to his beautiful wife and a father to their four daughters.

Learn more about Ben Utecht

Learn more about Conquer Ninja Gyms

Brad Wahl and The Learning Experience beautifully demonstrate how passion and purpose collide.  

Brad Wahl, Chief Brand Officer at The Learning Experience, is a believer and advocate for daily mega doses of happiness. In fact, he has been dubbed Sir Brad of Happyville.  

His father instilled in him the belief ‘winning isn’t worth being unhappy’. A lesson that did not diminish Brad’s competitive nature or desire to win but instead to be fully present and happy in whatever he was doing and/or to choose a different activity.   

Brad’s passion is to spark joy and happiness in others at work and through character development activities children learn at The Learning Experience including the importance of philanthropy. The Learning Experience franchisees and their students put into action these lessons by raising money for The Make A Wish Foundation. Just this past year TLE granted the wishes of 300+ children.  Making a lot of children and their families very happy.    

Clearly Brad takes his title ‘Sir Brad of Happyville’ seriously. Listen in to this episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide.  

Meet Brad Wahl 

As Chief Brand Officer of The Learning Experience, Brad Wahl leads a cross-functional marketing team in bringing compelling brand stories to life while developing and implementing strategic actions that inspire and engage with key audiences, amplify the overall image of the brand, increase the awareness and value of the brand, and build a unified culture around the brand.  

Brad has over 30 years of experience in brand marketing across traditional and digital marketing channels. Prior to joining The Learning Experience, he served as Vice President of Marketing for several well-known brands throughout the country, including Cracker Barrel, Kirkland’s, and The Krystal Company.  

Learn more about Brad Wahl  

Learn more about The Learning Experience