RevOps Champions

In this episode of the RevOps Champions Podcast, host Brendon Dennewill sits down with Matthew Kunz, President and CEO of Fastest Labs, a growing franchise brand in drug, alcohol, and DNA testing services. With nearly three decades in franchising, from his start as a Sylvan Learning franchisee to leadership roles at Mr. Rooter Plumbing and Five Star Painting, Matt brings an engineer's discipline for repeatable systems and a hard-won appreciation for the human side of franchise growth.

Matt shares why franchisee support must balance data with emotion, how a "quality communication" standard creates accountability without eroding trust, and the phases-of-development model that aligns specialized franchise business coaches to each stage of an owner's growth, extending coach tenure from two or three years to five or six. He also explains why franchisee profitability matters more than AUV, the survey question that reveals system health, and the first thing emerging franchisors should evaluate when growth outpaces their processes. Franchise executives, operations leaders, and emerging franchisors will walk away with practical frameworks for scaling support, leading change, and building a system where owners succeed.

What You'll Learn

• Why franchise support must balance data and emotion
• How a coaching model by growth phase reduces FBC burnout
• The franchisee-to-coach ratio that keeps support effective
• Why franchisee profitability outranks AUV as a health signal
• How to lead franchisees through software and system changes
• What to secure first when growth outpaces your processes
• When to use one-to-one versus one-to-many communication

Resources Mentioned

• Franchise Business Review (FBR)
• International Franchise Association (IFA) 
• Franchise Advisory Council (FAC) 
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

In this episode of the RevOps Champions Podcast, host Brendon Dennewill sits down with Robert Thesing, founder of Vertify Partners, a growth advisory firm for franchise brands. With more than 20 years across franchising, real estate, and multi-unit businesses, Robert has worked as a franchisor, a franchisee, and a supplier, and he explains why those seats share far more common goals than most people assume.

Robert and Brendon explore why technology cannot fix misaligned people and processes, and why so many emerging brands stall when every decision runs through the founder. Robert shares the thinking behind the Vertify Operating System, a franchise-specific framework built on shared cadence, clear KPIs, and disciplined goal-setting. He also explains where popular off-the-shelf operating systems fall short once your first customer becomes an independent franchise owner. Stories from Nordstrom, Cody Sanchez, and Tom Brady reinforce a simple lesson: good decisions come from empowered teams. Franchise founders, emerging franchisors, operations leaders, and RevOps professionals will walk away with a clearer blueprint for building a franchise organization ready to scale.

What You'll Learn

• Why people and process must come before revenue technology
• How founder-centered decision-making stalls emerging franchise brands
• A layered, data-first approach to what leaders should monitor
• Why franchise organizations need a franchise-specific operating system
• How to give field teams decision boundaries that speed execution
• Why reviewing how a goal was set matters more than missing it
• The question that reveals every team's most important customer

Resources Mentioned

• Vertify Partners
• International Franchise Association
• Faegre Drinker - Franchise Summit 

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

In this episode of the RevOps Champions Podcast, host Brendon Dennewill sits down with Kristen Kelly, Managing Director and Agency CFO at Parakeeto, to unpack why so many growing service businesses can't translate revenue growth into healthy margins. Kristen introduces the "cycle of insolvency," the pattern where hiring to handle new work quietly erodes profitability and pulls leadership's attention away from sales, and explains why a standard P&L often hides the real cause.

Kristen walks through Parakeeto's Three Immutable Laws of Profitability -  delivery margin, average billable rate, and utilization - using real project examples to show how agency owners routinely misjudge which of their own offerings is actually most profitable. She and Brendon also dig into where AI creates genuine leverage in service delivery, and why structured playbooks, not the tools themselves, are the real long-term asset. RevOps leaders, agency owners, franchise operators, and finance-minded executives will come away with a concrete framework for diagnosing margin problems before they show up on next month's P&L.

What You'll Learn

• Why revenue growth doesn't guarantee healthy margins
• How to diagnose delivery margin using AGI and delivery costs
• The three levers that control service-business profitability
• Why utilization should never be used as a management stick
• How to price by value generated instead of hours billed
• What a business needs in place before deploying AI effectively
• Why backward-looking P&L data isn't enough for real decision-making

Resources Mentioned

• Parakeeto 
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Denamico Franchise Growth Playbook

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

Kris Stuart spent twelve years as a firefighter and paramedic before taking Bloomin' Blinds from a family business to more than 65 franchise locations, and he leads both the same way. In this conversation with Brendon Dennewill, Kris unpacks why "proven systems" are really just a snapshot in time, how a decision-making framework built for high-stakes emergencies now runs his home office, and why he treats every franchisee relationship like a family handing over something irreplaceable. For franchisors navigating real growth, this is a grounded look at leading with obligation instead of control.

What You'll Learn

• Why "proven systems" are just a snapshot in time
• A decision-making framework borrowed from emergency response
• What actually changes between 10, 30, and 65 units
• Why obligation matters more than ownership
• The hidden advantage of single-unit franchisees
• A firefighter's filter for prioritizing decisions
• The leadership philosophy behind "go-giver" thinking
• Why growing too fast needs an e-brake

Resources Mentioned

• International Franchise Association
• "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann
• Franchise Summit 

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

In this episode of RevOps Champions, host Brendon Dennewill explores the breaking points that emerge as franchise brands move from early growth into true scale.

After asking nearly every guest over the past 18 months where franchise systems begin to buckle, Brendon uncovers a striking pattern: growth itself isn't the problem, the failure to evolve alongside growth is.

From emerging brands struggling in the 30 to 40 unit range to the much larger challenge of reaching 100+ open locations, franchise leaders and industry experts share what actually breaks first, and what successful brands do differently.

Ultimately, the episode delivers one powerful takeaway: the brands that survive scale are the ones that take people, process, and data as seriously as they take growth. Technology can accelerate that foundation, but sustainable franchise growth requires the right systems, the right leadership, and a strong partnership with franchisees.

What You'll Learn

• The exact unit count where systems start to break
• Why "what got you here" won't get you further
• The most valuable asset franchisors consistently undervalue
• The hidden expense buried in every P&L line
• Why AI can't fix a process that was never AI's problem
• The two board-level questions every AI spend should answer
• What "growing fat before tall" actually means

Resources Mentioned

• What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith 
• FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) 
• Franchisee/FBC Support Ratios 
• Brand Development Council model 
• Royalty Self-Sufficiency Benchmark

Featured Guests:

• John Francis, Franchise Expert, Next Level Franchise Inc
• Brady Carlsen, COO, The Back Nine Golf
• April Porter, Founder @ Secretsos™ 
• Scott Thompson, CEO, Your Future Franchise
• Brian Schnell, Partner and Chair of Franchise Practice, Faegre Drinker 
• Aicha Bascaro, Founder & CEO, American Franchise Academy 
• Michael Iannuzzi, Partner - Franchise Practice Leader, Citrin Cooperman 
• Ingrid Schneider, Founder, Stay in Your Lane + Train in Your Lane 
• Max Emma, CEO & Chief Bookkeeping Officer, BooXkeeping Corp.
• Keith Gerson , President & CEO, Gerson Advisory Services
• Nick Powills, CEO & Managing Partner, Mainland
• Doug Imholte, Franchise Programs Group-Practice Leader, Marsh McLennan Agency
• Luke Carlson, CEO, Discover Strength 

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

In this episode of the RevOps Champions Podcast, host Brendon Dennewill talks with Brittany Anderson, entrepreneur, business strategist, and co-founder of AlignPS, about why growth stalls are rarely a technology problem. Brittany helped scale a financial planning firm through years of expansion before its 2024 acquisition, and she argues that companies hit "ceilings of complexity" when leadership, communication, and structure stop keeping pace with the business itself, a theme she now helps founders and leadership teams work through every day.

Brittany shares the early warning signs of a misaligned team, the risk of leaders who stay in a role too long, and why matching people to their true strengths matters more than promoting whoever performed best last quarter. She also connects these ideas to today's biggest leadership test: adopting AI with intention and empathy instead of fear. RevOps leaders, founders, executives, and franchise leadership teams navigating a growth transition will find a practical lens here for diagnosing whether their next bottleneck is really about people, not process or platform.

What You'll Learn

• Why growth stalls even with great products and strong demand
• The "ceilings of complexity" that trip up every fast-growing business
• How to spot early warning signs of leadership misalignment
• Why staying in a role too long turns leaders into bottlenecks
• How to match people to their true strengths, not just their titles
• What "Who Not How" looks like inside a scaling organization
• Why leading through AI adoption starts with intention, not fear

Resources Mentioned

• AlignPS
• The TrailblazeHers 
• "Who Not How" by Dan Sullivan
• Strategic Coach: Business Coaching For Entrepreneurs
• Genius Network® | Joe Polish's Elite Entrepreneur Network

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

Peter Caputa, CEO of Databox and the architect behind HubSpot's legendary partner ecosystem, returns to unpack why having more data has not made decision-making any easier, and what it actually takes to close that gap. 

Brendon and Pete dig into the four pillars of revenue operations, why franchise systems are uniquely positioned to win with AI, and how the most forward-thinking organizations are moving from dashboards to autonomous, self-correcting business systems. 

If you're a RevOps leader, franchise executive, or operator trying to turn data into a competitive advantage, this episode reframes what's now possible.

What You'll Learn

• Why more data doesn't automatically mean better decisions
• The four pillars of RevOps: people, process, data, technology
• What anomaly detection can do for multi-location brands
• How to daisy-chain processes into a scalable system
• The franchise visibility gap and how to close it
• Writing down processes before automating them
• Why AI makes this a bigger shift than the internet

Resources Mentioned

• Databox
• "The Cold Start Problem" — Andrew Chen 

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

April Porter, attorney-turned-multi-unit franchise owner and Founder of Secret Sauce and FranchiseVault.ai, reveals why most franchise systems don't have a technology problem, they have a leadership problem. She unpacks the psychological programming that keeps 81% of franchisees stuck at a single unit, the ethics gap she's calling out inside franchisor advisory councils, and why rushing AI adoption before fixing people and processes only accelerates the chaos already in your business.

What You'll Learn

• Why 81% of franchisees never scale past one unit
• The psychological programming blocking business owner mindset
• What "franchise intelligence gap" really means
• Why AI adoption without process just amplifies chaos
• The vacation test that reveals if you're AI-ready
• Why founders' egos quietly kill franchise brands
• How to spot misaligned incentives in franchise sales
• The one thing franchisors should admit they don't provide

Resources Mentioned

• Secretsos™ 
• FranchiseVault.ai 
• IFA (International Franchise Association) 
• FAC (Franchise Advisory Council) 
• FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document)
• Ask April Porter 
• Chick-fil-A's operator model  

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

Keith Gerson, CFE, Founder and CEO of Gerson Advisory Services and former President of FranConnect, has advised over 1,500 franchise brands across 50+ years. He joins Brendon Dennewill to unpack why royalty architecture, franchisee coaching, and FDD analysis matter more than dashboards, and why the most profitable franchisees are often the most frustrated ones. A candid look at what actually separates franchise systems that scale from those that stall.

 What You'll Learn

• Why unit-level profitability predicts franchise success
• The FDD's hidden competitive intelligence goldmine
• Royalty structures that reward growth, not punish it
• Why your best franchisees may be the unhappiest
• The real difference between coaching and inspecting
• Inflection points every scaling franchise system hits
• Where AI actually earns its keep in franchising
• Why dashboards rarely change franchisee behavior

 Resources Mentioned

• Gerson Advisory Services 
• FranConnect  
• Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) 
• Competitive Analysis & Strategy Reports 
• Franchise Sales Index Report  
• Mrs. Fields Cookies "Singing, Selling, and Sampling" hiring framework  

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

Doug Imholte, Franchise Programs Practice Leader at Marsh McLennan Agency and a former franchisee turned trusted advisor, unpacks why so many franchise brands stall between 30 and 40 units, and it's rarely the concept that's broken. From misaligned franchisor-franchisee KPIs to the overlooked link between risk management and growth, Doug reveals what separates brands that scale responsibly from those that just scale fast. If you're building revenue systems for a franchise network, this conversation on unit economics, brand standards, and total cost of risk will change how you think about your next growth stage.

What You'll Learn

• Why growth alone isn't the answer
• The real reason brands stall at 40 units
• How franchisor and franchisee KPIs conflict
• What "total cost of risk" actually means
• Why cheap insurance costs more later
• The four pillars behind scalable systems
• How to keep culture intact through growth
• Why brand standards make or break trust

Resources Mentioned

• Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) 
• Franchisors Errors & Omissions Coverage 
• Total Cost of Risk (TCOR)  
• Ready, Fire, Aim Leadership Philosophy  
• HubSpot 
• Royalty Self-Sufficiency Benchmark 
• Franchise Update Media 
• IFA Franchise Summit 

Is your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you’ll see: 

• Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations
• A clear view of your operational maturity 
• Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it’s not)

Let's Connect

• Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Explore the show at revopschampions.com. 

Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!