Franchise Spotlight with Katherine LeBlanc

Conversations with the leaders who are actually building franchising - from the executive suite to the field. Each season explores what success looks like right now, what franchise leaders should be paying attention to, and how the best brands are delivering real returns for their franchisees. Because at the end of the day, franchisee profitability isn't just a metric; it's the whole point. Your host, Katherine LeBlanc, brings 13 years inside franchise systems, having led marketing across six brands spanning food, wellness, beauty, and experience. She's been in the room where these decisions get made. These conversations reflect that: direct, practitioner-level, and built for franchise leaders who don't have time for surface-level takes.

Franchise Spotlight with Katherine LeBlanc is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 19 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Franchise Spotlight with Katherine LeBlanc, a business show with 19 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #6

  What's Changing in Franchise Media Spend

  Aug 31, 202639 minS2

  Google and Meta efficiencies keep declining, and most franchise marketers don't have a real plan for what fills the gap. Chris McGee (Batteries Plus) and Karen Wenning (Suttle Strauss) join Katherine to debate connected mail, cable TV, and the channels worth testing before the 2027 budget cycle locks in. In this episode: Why blanket direct mail without strategy is the channel both guests agreed should go first How connected mail programs deliver three to five touches before a mail piece even arrives The difference between a return on investment and a return on relationship Why Batteries Plus moved from store-level to market-level media pooling What "spray and pray" looks like in 2027 — and why both guests say it has to stop Guest: Chris McGee, VP of Marketing, Batteries Plus Chris has spent over 20 years across agency, analytics, and client-side marketing roles, with a career-long focus on brand storytelling. At Batteries Plus, he's led the shift from fragmented local media buying to a market-pooled, data-backed strategy that grew reach by 25% this year. Guest: Karen Wenning, Director of Client Partnerships, Suttle Strauss Karen has worked in franchise marketing for over 20 years, specializing in connected mail programs that combine direct mail with digital retargeting. She brings a rare vendor-side view of what local activation actually looks like across hundreds of franchisee relationships. Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO Want to go deeper? apollocmo.com ▶️ Katherine LeBlanc on YouTube linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc katherine@apollocmo.com

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  Episode #4

  The Digital Media Reframe for Franchising in 2027

  Aug 24, 202642 minS2

  Digital media costs are up, attribution is murkier, and the default answer — more search, more paid social — isn't working the way it used to. Alex Preddie from Rocket Barn and Christy Johnson (CMO) and Madison Belfour (Director of Marketing) from Tint World sit down to get specific about what franchise marketers should actually be doing differently heading into 2027 budget planning. The one thing every listener will walk away with: a cleaner framework for how to allocate budget to customer moments instead of channel percentages. In this episode: The right question to ask when performance looks like it's declining (it might not be) Why first-party data is now a survival strategy, not a nice-to-have AI-generated creative and what franchisee engagement data actually says about it How to activate franchisees as local content creators without losing brand governance Where franchise systems are over-investing their digital dollars right now Guest: Alex Preddie, VP of Sales and Marketing, Rocket Barn Seven years at a franchise-focused growth agency specializing in home services and automotive brands. Alex works directly with franchisees and franchisors on local marketing strategy, and has a front-row seat to what's working and what's bleeding budget across multiple franchise systems simultaneously. Guest: Christy Johnson and Madison Belfour, CMO and Director of Marketing, Tint World Christy brings decades of franchise marketing experience across major brands including Papa John's and Yum Brands, now six weeks into the CMO seat at Tint World. Madison has spent five and a half years running franchisee marketing operations at Tint World from the inside. Together they offer both the strategic view and the operational reality of what it actually takes to manage digital media across a franchise network. Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO Want to go deeper? apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc katherine@apollocmo.com

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  Episode #3

  The Franchise Marketer's Guide to Signal Over Noise

  Aug 17, 202643 minS2

  Aren Johnstone (Franchise Ramp) and Dan Wheeler (CMO, K9 Resorts) join Katherine for a direct conversation about what franchise marketers are actually measuring and whether it's doing anything useful. This episode centers on the gap between data collection and decision-making — and what it takes to close it inside a real franchise system. In this episode: Why "if it doesn't drive a decision, you don't need it" is the right test for your scorecard Cash flowable CAC: a franchisee-friendly framework for understanding marketing payback that goes beyond ROAS The tornado vs. the funnel: how rethinking the customer journey changes what you measure Building one source of truth: what it really takes, and why consistent imperfection beats perfect paralysis Why single-platform dependence is one of the biggest risks in franchise marketing right now Guest: Aren Johnstone, CEO, Franchise Ramp Aren leads a paid media and creative agency built specifically for franchise brands and franchisees — two of his partners are franchisees themselves. Franchise Ramp works with over 1,300 locations across 25+ brands, and Aren has spent seven years building the internal systems and tech stack to aggregate performance data across hundreds of disparate ad accounts. He knows the franchise data problem from the inside. Guest: Dan Wheeler, CMO, K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel Dan came to pet care from a career in restaurant and hospitality franchising, and he's bringing the same rigor to K9 Resorts — a brand with 50 open locations and 150 in development. He's currently overseeing the build of a first-party data platform that ties reservation data, franchise-level P&L, and media performance into one place. His frameworks on franchisee communication and demand creation are the kind of thing you don't hear enough at franchise marketing conferences. Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO Are you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge? Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO. Want to go deeper? apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc katherine@apollocmo.com

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  Episode #2

  What to Rethink About PR, Email, and Social Before 2027

  Aug 10, 202639 minS2

  PR, email, and social — and what's actually worth your budget going into 2027. Katherine LeBlanc sits down with Ashley Mitchell of East Coast Wings and Girl and Zack Fishman of Fishman PR for a peer conversation on where each channel stands, what's changing, and what a franchise marketing team should actually be doing with their owned and earned media right now. In this episode: Why GEO has rescued PR measurement — and how to make the case for it internally Local-first social strategy: why franchisee content outperforms corporate brand content and how to build the infrastructure to support it The reality of brand-level social: entertainment vs. education, and what that means for your investment Email personalization in practice — rebuilding from scratch vs. patching an old program Email as a paid media channel: an underexplored model for franchise brands The one thing both guests tell franchise marketing teams to stop doing right now Guest: Ashley Mitchell, VP of Marketing, East Coast Wings and Grill Ashley has spent her career in franchise marketing communications — from a six-year stint at the Walt Disney Company into franchising across consumer marketing, franchise development, M&A, and fractional CMO roles. She brings a practitioner's lens to the owned media conversation: what's working at the unit level, where the social ROI math stops adding up, and why she's rebuilding her email program from the ground up. Guest: Zack Fishman, Partner, Fishman PR and Franchise Supplier Network Zack grew up in the franchise industry — his mother founded Fishman PR, the largest franchise-specific PR firm in the space — and he's built his own career at the intersection of earned media strategy and owned channel technology. He advises brands on consumer and franchise development PR, and his work at Franchise Supplier Network focuses on the tools and systems that make local social, texting, and review management scalable for franchise systems. Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO Want to go deeper? apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc katherine@apollocmo.com

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  Episode #1

  The Brand Fund Frameworks Worth Stealing

  Aug 3, 202646 minS2

  Brand fund budgeting is where franchise marketing strategy gets real — fixed dollars, franchisee expectations, and a landscape that keeps changing underneath you. In this episode Katherine LeBlanc talks with Adam Terranova from Authority Brands and Brooke Janousek, Fractional CMO for IV Nutrition, about the frameworks they actually use to build budgets that hold up and that franchisees trust. If you're heading into fall budget season, this is the conversation to have first. In this episode: Why calling it a brand fund instead of an ad fund changes franchisee expectations from day one The PESO model as a framework for both allocating budget and explaining it to franchisees The 60/30/10 split — how to build flexibility and contingency into a fixed budget before the year starts What franchisees are really asking for when they push for more SEO spend How to show up in LLMs across multiple owned platforms without adding significant budget Guest: Adam Terranova, Senior Director of Marketing, Authority Brands Adam has been in franchising since 2013 and oversees marketing across five home service trades brands at Authority Brands — One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Mr. Sparky, Dry Medic, and Stop Restoration. He has built and managed brand funds at startup brands and at scale, and has been presenting the PESO framework to franchise marketers since he first learned it over a decade ago. Guest: Brooke Janousek, Fractional CMO, IV Nutrition Brooke brings ten years of franchise marketing experience across home services and health and wellness, including time at Garage Experts and Hello Garage before her current role at IV Nutrition, a 47-location IV therapy brand. She has built brand funds from zero, managed them through rapid growth, and navigated some of the most disruptive years in digital marketing as a fractional CMO. Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO Want to go deeper? apollocmo.com ▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc katherine@apollocmo.com

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