RevOps Champions

Every franchise brand hits a point where the playbook that got them to 100 locations quietly stops working, and most leaders don't see it coming. Kristin Dennewill of Denamico joins Brendon to unpack the four hidden stall points (visibility, attribution, intelligence, and development) that quietly cap franchise growth, and why the fix isn't another tool, but a rebuilt revenue operating system. She shares real numbers from clients running 800+ locations, and what changes when franchise data finally lives in one place.

What You'll Learn

• Why growth playbooks expire at scale
• The four hidden franchise stall points
• Leading vs. lagging indicators, explained
• What "franchise performance intelligence" really means
• Why RevOps is a system, not a project
• Where CEOs, CMOs, and COOs feel the gap differently
• Real hour-savings from a single source of truth
• How AI will predict franchisee success

Resources Mentioned

• Denamico Franchise Growth Playbook
• HubSpot
• RevOps Champions Podcast

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!

Bryan Byler, revenue operations leader at 4CAST GTM and former CRO/COO at Aptitude 8, joins Brendon to unpack why misalignment, not missing technology, is what quietly stalls revenue teams as they scale. Comparing notes across the franchise and healthcare industries, they dig into why "people before process" still beats every CRM decision, and how AI is reshaping buyer confidence in implementation partners. Expect a candid take on quotas, compelling events, and the real reason specialization now wins deals over platform expertise alone.

What You'll Learn

• Why alignment beats a perfect strategy
• The real trigger for a CRM upgrade
• How to build process without bureaucracy
• Setting quotas your team can actually hit
• Why industry specialization now wins deals
• What AI means for implementation risk
• The "but why" test for adoption
• When Excel finally becomes a liability

Resources Mentioned

• HubSpot 
• Salesforce 
• Clay 
• Zoho 
• Monday.com 
• Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini  
• Excel / Google Sheets  
• 4CAST GTM 
• Aptitude 8  

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!

Alison "Ali" McElroy, Founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope Growth Advisors, has spent nearly two decades helping franchise brands scale across global markets, and she's seen exactly where growth quietly turns into fragility. In this conversation, she breaks down why unit-level economics, not sales momentum, determine whether a brand survives its next stage, and why "slow to go fast" beats scaling on optimism alone. If you're leading growth through a complexity ceiling, this episode reframes what actually needs to be solid before you push further.

What You'll Learn

• Why growth and scale aren't the same thing
• The real cost of skipping foundational homework
• How unit economics predict long-term survival
• What "royalty self-sufficiency" actually protects
• Why culture cracks first at scale
• The mindset shared by founders who break through
• Where AI should. and shouldn't, enter your ops
• A framework for balancing agility with structure

Resources Mentioned

• Kaleidoscope Growth Advisors  
• Certified Franchise Executive (CFE)  
• Global Franchise Magazine's 100 Influential Women in Franchising 
• FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document)  
• Royalty Self-Sufficiency 
• Green in the Grain  

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!

Chantel Soumis, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Franchise Empire, joins host Brendon Dennewill to challenge how brands are approaching AI, customer engagement, and content strategy in 2026. With two decades of experience as a fractional CMO and franchise marketing leader, Chantel makes the case for human-first marketing, a structured listening tour approach, and a deliberate "anti-AI policy" that protects brand trust. If you lead marketing, revenue, or operations in a franchise or multi-location brand, this episode will reshape how you think about consistency, differentiation, and the real cost of getting it wrong.

What You'll Learn

• Why your customers are your brand
• The case for an anti-AI policy
• What the EOS framework reveals about marketing gaps
• How listening tours shape content strategy
• The hidden cost of AI-generated brand damage
• Working Genius and right-seat leadership
• CAC and LTV as the marketing "holy grail"

Resources Mentioned

• EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)
• The Six Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni 
• Who Not How by Dan Sullivan 
• HubSpot 
• Culver's Frozen Custard 
• Franchise Business Review (FBR) Survey 
• Vistage 

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!

Sally Facinelli, growth strategist and franchise advisor with nearly 30 years in the industry, joins Brendon Dennewill to challenge the instinct to scale fast and instead make the case for intentional, systems-driven growth. From leadership transitions and organizational clarity to real-time data visibility and the accelerating impact of AI on franchise operations, Sally brings a practitioner's lens to the questions most brands avoid until it's too late. If your franchise is hitting a ceiling and you can't figure out why, this conversation will tell you exactly where to look.

What You'll Learn

• Why pausing momentum actually protects it
• The leadership change most growing brands delay too long
• Growth exposes problems, it doesn't create them
• Brand consistency requires more than standards documents
• Data without adoption is just expensive noise
• Why franchisee success is the real FranDev strategy
• AI as an efficiency multiplier, not a headcount replacement
• Proactive vs. reactive brands: the COVID test case

Resources

• Franchise Business Coaches (FBCs) 
• IFA (International Franchise Association)  
• Sally Facinelli's upcoming book – In progress, focused on franchise leadership and sustainable growth (watch for release)

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!

Brian Schnell, Partner and Chair of the Franchise Practice at Faegre Drinker, brings nearly four decades of franchise law, operations, and executive leadership to one of franchising's most persistent tensions: the breakdown between franchisors and franchisees. In this conversation with host Brendon Dennewill, Brian challenges the command-and-control model still used by too many brands and makes the case for a collaborative leadership philosophy rooted in trust, franchisee voice, and unit-level profitability. If you lead or advise a franchise system and want to understand what separates sustainable brands from those that stagnate, this episode is required listening.

What You'll Learn

• Why franchisee voice matters more than franchisee vote
• The first habit of highly successful franchise systems
• When command and control actually destroys brand equity
• How leadership gaps compound as systems scale
• What most franchise disputes actually start as
• The role private equity is beginning to play in franchising's future
• Why data without the human element still leads to bad decisions

Resources Mentioned

• 2026 Franchise Summit
• Faegre Drinker 
• "The Five Habits of the Highly Successful Franchise System"  framework developed by Brian Schnell and Bill Killian
• "The AI-Driven Leader" by Geoff Woods 
• HubSpot CRM 
• IFA (International Franchise Association)

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!

Casey Cease, Founder of scalingbusiness.ai, joins host Brendon Dennewill to challenge the most common mistake leaders make when scaling with AI: reaching for tactics before they have a strategy. Drawing on decades of experience across branding, publishing, franchising, and emerging technology, Casey breaks down why operational complexity, people systems, and decision-making clarity must come before any tool deployment. If your team is drowning in subscriptions they don't use, or your franchisees are calling the same repetitive questions, this episode will reframe how you think about AI, automation, and what it actually means to scale.

What You'll Learn

• Why strategy always comes before tools
• The three components of every AI agent
• Systems that protect people, not just processes
• When to trust AI with a decision (and when not to)
• The hidden reason leaders resist necessary change
• What separates high performers in an AI-enabled team
• Franchising's "rule of threes and tens" explained
• AI as rocket fuel, not a replacement

Resources Mentioned

• scalingbusiness.ai
• Planify Agency
• Lucid Books
• Strategic Coach  
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber  
• Scaling Up / Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish 
• Predictable Success by Les McKeown  
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni  
• The AI-Driven Leader by Geoff Woods  
• Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni  
• Zapier / Make / n8n  
• ClickUp / TeamGantt  

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!

Michael Iannuzzi, Partner and Franchise Practice Leader at Citrin Cooperman, joins host Brendon Dennewill to unpack the financial and operational fault lines that quietly derail growing franchise systems. From the tension between top-line and bottom-line incentives to the infamous "100-unit ceiling," Michael brings a practitioner's lens to unit economics, royalty self-sufficiency, and the decisions leaders delay until it's too late. If you're scaling a franchise brand and wondering when to rebuild your systems, hire your next leader, or fire yourself from your current role, this episode delivers the framework.

• Why franchisors and franchisees have competing financial interests
• The metric that signals when real growth begins
• What the "100-unit ceiling" looks like in practice
• When to fire yourself as a founder
• How to build a tech stack from day one
• What private equity actually looks for in a franchise system
• The rule of threes and tens in franchise growth

• IFA (International Franchise Association)
• Restaurant Leadership Conference  
• Franchise and Fitness Conference (Chicago) 
• Citrin Cooperman Franchise Practice 
• QuickBooks / XERO  
• FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) 
• Franchisee Advisory Council (FAC) 
• The Rule of Threes and Tens - Growth framework referenced by CEO of Rakuten 

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!

Kary Oberbrunner, Founder of Instant IP and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, joins Brendon Dennewill to challenge everything founders think they know about intellectual property. As AI accelerates IP theft across every industry, from musicians to franchise brands to solo entrepreneurs, Kary makes the case that protecting your ideas isn't a legal formality, it's a revenue strategy. If you've ever said "I don't mind if people steal my ideas," this episode will change how you run your business.

What You'll Learn:

• Why thinking "I'm not an IP company" makes you a commodity
• The shift from 17% to 90% intangible asset value in the S&P 500
• The offensive vs. defensive sides of IP strategy
• Why using "TM" may actually invite theft
• How AI is creating a new category of IP risk
• The "publish, protect, promote" flywheel
• 12 steps to becoming an IP company

Resources Mentioned:

• Instant IP 
• IP Toolbox
• "You Are an IP Company" by Kary Oberbrunner and Katie Robino
• USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) 
• Story Brand by Donald Miller  
• Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni  
• Strategic Coach by Dan Sullivan  
• Suno  
• Plaud AI
• Meta Glasses 

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!

Charles Chang, Founder of Unified Technologies Group (UTG), joins Brendon Dennewill to challenge the way most organizations think about growth, arguing that the real bottleneck is never technology, it's the absence of documented processes, operational leadership, and a culture of prevention. Drawing on his experience in healthcare IT and multi-company ownership, Charles shares how his team is already deploying AI agents to replace repetitive workflows, using a "sandbox-first" rollout approach to avoid costly mistakes. If you're a RevOps leader trying to figure out where AI actually fits in your organization, and how to move fast without creating chaos, this conversation delivers a practical, security-conscious roadmap.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Why technology always comes last in the scaling order
• The hiring decision that separates scaling companies from stagnant ones
• What a "bookkeeper agent" looks like in a real business
• How to use Delegate and Elevate to identify AI opportunities
• The sandbox-first rule for rolling out AI safely
• When SMBs are actually outpacing enterprise on AI adoption
• Why visionaries need operational leaders to survive growth

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) 
• Delegate and Elevate (EOS Tool) 
• Kolbe A Index
• EOS Rocks / Quarterly Meeting Cadence
• AI Sandbox Testing
• LLMs (Large Language Models)

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!