RevOps Champions

Dave Sanderson, the last passenger off US Airways Flight 1549, known as the Miracle on the Hudson, brings 37 years of sales leadership and hard-earned crisis experience to a conversation with Brendon Dennewill about what it actually takes to build resilient teams and make decisions under pressure. From the ASSESS Framework and the A-to-I Affinity Model to the VCR leadership structure developed with Chad Jenkins, Dave unpacks the systems that separate leaders who hold the line from those who collapse when pressure compounds. If your organization is navigating uncertainty, low trust, or execution breakdown, this episode is the blueprint you didn't know you needed.

What You'll Learn

• Why trust outranks competence in high-stakes hiring
• The three levers for managing your mental state under pressure
• Captain Sullenberger's unique ability, and what it means for your team
• The VCR Framework: Vision, Capability, Reach
• How the ASSESS Framework works in real-time crisis decisions
• The A-to-I model: Access to Influence to Affinity
• Why "proximity is power" is your fastest path to growth

Resources Mentioned

• Resilience Partners Group
• "Moments Matter" by Dave Sanderson 
• "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss 
• "Selling in a Post-Trust World" by Larry Levine 
• Tom Hopkins
• "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni  
• ASSESS 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!

Marcus Sheridan, author of They Ask You Answer, a partner at IMPACT and the co-founder of several forward-thinking tech and consulting companies, including PriceGuide, AI Trust Signals, and Question First Group, joins Brendon Dennewill to challenge why B2B companies still refuse to talk about pricing, even when the data is overwhelming. Marcus breaks down how AI-powered agents are about to reshape the buyer journey entirely, and why brands that withhold pricing information will be algorithmically penalized within 18 months. If your franchise, dealership network, or multi-location brand is watching leads slow down and ad spend climb, this episode is a direct explanation of why, and what to do about it.

What You'll Learn

• Why $35M came from one 45-minute article
• The AI agent behavior reshaping how buyers search
• What Google's 'Have AI Check Prices' feature signals
• How pricing estimators 3x organic leads instantly
• When franchisors must stop asking for buy-in
• Why sunk cost fallacy is killing franchise brands
• The 3% sales habit that builds immediate trust

Resources Mentioned

• They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan
• Endless Customers by Marcus Sheridan 
• PriceGuide.ai
• AI Trust Signals
• Question First Group
• MarcusSheridan.com 

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!

Aicha Bascaro, CEO and Founder of the American Franchise Academy, joins host Brendon Dennewill to challenge the assumption that a successful single-unit operator is ready to scale. Drawing on 35+ years across Domino's, Popeyes, and Olive Garden, Aicha breaks down the four business systems every franchisee must build before adding a second location, and why skipping them creates what she calls "the hell zone." From unit economics and P&L literacy to the pod-based growth model and the CRM gap in service-based franchises, this conversation is a masterclass in operational architecture for anyone building a multi-unit enterprise.

What You’ll Learn

• Transition from operator "doer" to visionary "leader" skills.
• Navigate the "Hell Zone" of multi-unit scaling successfully.
• Master the four critical buckets of business systems.
• Understand joint employer liability’s impact on franchise training.
• Optimize unit economics through rigorous weekly KPI dashboards.
• Leverage AI agents to enhance 24/7 lead management.

Resources Mentioned

• The Franchise Fix by Aicha Bascaro
• American Franchise Academy (AFA) 
• International Franchise Association (IFA) 
• HubSpot CRM

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!

Ingrid Schneider, Founder and CEO of Stay In Your Lane and Train In Your Lane, joins Brendon Dennewill to challenge how franchise brands approach AI adoption, brand identity, and scaling past the critical 30-unit ceiling. Drawing from years of fractional C-suite work across franchise and multi-location systems, Ingrid unpacks why companies that skip education and jump straight to implementation almost always fail, and what a smarter, more human path to AI transformation actually looks like. If your franchise brand is stalled, scaling, or just starting to explore AI, this conversation reframes the entire conversation.

What You'll Learn

• The franchise growth wall at 30 units
• Marketing problem vs. identity problem
• The education-first framework for AI adoption
• AI intuition as a core team skill
• Cult brand philosophy at the local level
• Writing AI policies that feel like permission slips

 Resources Mentioned

• Train In Your Lane
• Stay In Your Lane 
• HubSpot  
• AI ROI Calculator
• Figma
• International Franchise Association (IFA) 

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!

Brady Carlsen didn't set out to build one of the fastest-growing franchise brands in the country, he walked in as a customer and spotted what insiders couldn't see. As Co-Founder and COO of The Back Nine Golf, Brady shares how a deliberate "less is more" philosophy, no food, no staff, no complexity, became the engine behind 160+ locations and 300 in the pipeline. For franchise operators and RevOps leaders managing distributed networks, this episode is a masterclass in building revenue systems that scale without you in the room.

What You'll Learn

• Why eliminating staffing costs, not adding revenue streams, was the key unlock to Back Nine Golf's franchise model
• How building proprietary software from day one gave The Back Nine Golf the automation and vendor flexibility that off-the-shelf tools couldn't
• The "Rule of 3 and 10", what breaks at each growth stage and how to anticipate it before it spreads across your network
• Why marketing asset delivery (not the product itself) became the first major operational bottleneck at scale
• How The Back Nine Golf's Brand Development Council keeps 160+ franchisees aligned without top-down mandates
• The one thing Brady would build earlier: a disciplined marketing system, and why it matters more than the product at scale

Resources Mentioned

• The Back Nine Golf  
• IFA (International Franchise Association)
• Franchise Operations Manual

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!

John Francis, "Johnny Franchise", has seen franchising from every angle: franchisee, franchisor, multi-unit owner, and now strategic advisor to over 50 brands. In this conversation with Brendon Dennewill, John cuts through the AI excitement with two questions every franchisor board should be asking, and most aren't. What you'll hear isn't just about technology. It's about what actually drives performance at scale: clear leadership, franchisee trust, and the discipline to focus on what really matters. If you're building a franchise system, or helping one grow, this one's worth your time.

What You'll Learn

• The two AI questions every board should be asking, and why most leadership teams can't answer them yet
• Why growing and scaling aren't the same thing, and what breaks when you confuse the two
• How franchisee due diligence failures keep showing up as the root cause of underperformance across entire systems
• Why structured communication, not good intentions, is what keeps franchisors and franchisees aligned during rapid growth
• How accountability, not strategy, is the real differentiator between high-performing and stagnant franchise organizations
• Why the best AI opportunity in franchising right now is repackaging what's already working, not building something new

Resources Mentioned

• IFA (International Franchise Association)
• Multi-Unit Franchising Conference 
• Franchise Advisory Councils
• Franchise Mastermind 
• Advisory Board Consulting

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!

Rob Wormley, Founder of WG and Groundcrew Partners, joins Brendon Dennewill to expose the gap most companies never talk about, the distance between a polished positioning strategy and actual revenue execution. Whether you're running a SaaS startup or a home services franchise, the problem is the same: great frameworks gathering dust in Google Drive while pipeline stalls. Rob shares how he helps leadership teams cut through the noise, pick the right 90-day plays, and build messaging that creates urgency, not just awareness.

 What You'll Learn

• Why positioning is an operational imperative, not a marketing problem, and who should actually own it
• How the strategy-to-activation gap silently kills revenue in both tech startups and franchise businesses
• The inverted funnel framework Rob uses to move from brand identity → market strategy → 90-day tactical execution
• Why AI-generated messaging creates a "same data, same output" commoditization trap, and the human layer that fixes it
• How home service franchises can use AI phone assistants to capture revenue they're currently leaving on the table
• The messaging audit every leadership team should run this quarter before spending another dollar on campaigns

Resources Mentioned

• WG 
• Groundcrew Partners
• ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini 
• Google Business Profile
• Zappos

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!

Ryan Gunn, Founder & Chief Education Officer of Attribution Academy, joins host Brendon Dennewill to unpack why most companies are still getting attribution wrong, and what to do about it.

They cover the real roots of sales and marketing misalignment, why chasing MQLs can work against your goals, and how to build an attribution system that drives better decisions instead of interdepartmental conflict. Ryan also shares how AI-powered call transcripts are one of the most underutilized tools in a modern RevOps stack.

If you're a founder, revenue leader, or marketing ops pro ready to build trust in your data and get your go-to-market teams aligned, this one's for you.

What You’ll Learn

• Why attribution should create clarity, not competition between teams
• The shift from vanity metrics to revenue-based thinking
• How incentives quietly shape (or sabotage) alignment
• The role leadership plays in unifying go-to-market teams
• Why simple attribution often outperforms complex models
• How AI and clean data are reshaping revenue decision-making

Resources Mentioned

• Attribution Academy
• Attribution Mastery Certification 
• Hubsessed.io 
• Partner Playbook Podcast  
• HubSpot Breeze 
• Ask Elephant 
• Fathom

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!

Steve Maule, Vice President of Global Sales at Acclaro, joins host Brendon Dennewill to explore what happens to revenue teams when growth accelerates, and why clarity and communication are the difference between scaling successfully and exposing misalignment. With over 14 years in the localization and language services industry and a track record that includes onboarding brands like Spotify, IKEA, Nvidia, and Disney, Steve brings a uniquely global lens to challenges every RevOps leader faces.

From defining what "qualified pipeline" actually means to knowing when to add structure without killing agility, Steve shares hard-won lessons on building aligned go-to-market teams. The conversation also dives into AI's role in reshaping sales and marketing, and why the localization industry offers a compelling preview of how people's roles evolve rather than disappear. 

This episode is essential listening for RevOps professionals, sales leaders, and executives navigating growth at scale.

What You'll Learn

• The two essential levers leaders must use to maintain team alignment and clarity as growth accelerates.
• How to design a structured 'go/no-go' framework for sales qualification that ensures cross-functional alignment across go-to-market teams.
• Recognizing and avoiding the risks of fundamentally misaligned Sales and Operations KPIs.
• The necessary building blocks for an organization to successfully move from simply tracking data to fully operating with it.
• Localization as a growth engine: understanding the difference between simple translation and driving global scale through cultural nuance.
• Why new technology like AI becomes 'table stakes' quickly, and where the real people's competitive advantage will lie in the near future.

Resources Mentioned

• Acclaro 
• LinkedIn Sales Tools 

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, Strategic Coach partner Shannon Waller shares deep insights into alignment, growth, and long-term team success. She explains why values and vision are the make-or-break factors for scaling, the difference between entrepreneurial and corporate mindsets, and how leaders can foster growth and unique ability. The conversation covers growth mindset, AI in the results economy, and her framework for self-awareness, team awareness, and business awareness. 

This is essential listening for founders and RevOps professionals aiming to build aligned, self-managing teams.

What You’ll Learn

• Why alignment on values and vision determines whether a company scales or stalls
• The critical difference between corporate and entrepreneurial mindsets
• How to spot and prevent misalignment during hiring
• Why reflection, not experience alone, drives real growth
• Shannon’s three-part framework: self-awareness, team awareness, and business awareness
• A simple 5-minute communication tool to improve team alignment immediately

Resources Mentioned

• The Team Success Handbook
• Multiplication by Subtraction 
• Who Not How
• Mindset 
• No Ego 
• Working Genius 
• Kolbe Index
• Entrepreneurial Operating System
• YourTeamSuccess.com 
• Strategic Coach

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!