Every Franchise Leader Starts Here - The Question Is What You Do Next

There's a moment at the start of almost every leadership journey in franchising. Before the strategy gets built, before the priorities get set, before anyone touches the org chart - there's a listening tour. A literal one. You get in the car, you get on planes, and you go sit with your franchisees. You find out what's working, what's holding them back, and what they've been waiting for someone to finally hear.

Kim Gubera, President & CEO of PIRTEK, did exactly that when she stepped into her role in 2019. She visited every single franchisee - in person. And when I asked her what it gave her, she didn't say data or insights or a prioritized problem list. She said it was life-changing. Because it gave her their history. It built credibility. And it showed her exactly what the culture needed.

That listening tour becomes the blueprint. What you hear in those first months shapes your entire tenure - what you fix first, what you protect, what you build next.

But here's where it gets complicated. And Kim put it better than I ever have: "There would be the opportunity to have a gap there if you're not careful." Because as your network grows, the listening tour becomes impossible to repeat at scale. The one-on-one that informed everything at the start is the first thing that erodes. And if you don't build the infrastructure to replace it - the gap opens quietly, then loudly.

That gap - the one between what a franchisor knows and what franchisees actually hear, understand, and act on - is the problem I built My Podcast Host to solve. Because franchisees don't read emails the same way they used to, if they ever did. They're in vans. They're on job sites. They're between calls. They consume information the way all of us do now: through audio, on their schedule, in their own time.

The Internal Franchise Podcast is a private podcast channel, built for your network. It's how your franchisees hear your voice - your actual voice - sharing best practices, walking through new tools, building the culture that Kim talks about living every day. Not a Zoom recording they'll never watch. Not an email they'll scan for two seconds. A podcast they subscribe to because it respects how they actually work.

And if you want your brand's leadership voice in a bigger room - the Franchise Podcast Network is where that happens. It's the public-facing side of what we're building, and it's where conversations like the one I had with Kim live.

Kim told me something else that hit hard. Her franchise system boasts a franchisee that has been with PIRTEK for 28 years. Twenty-eight years. That's not a retention metric. That's a relationship. And relationships like that don't happen by accident. They're built through consistent, honest, human communication - the kind you can't outsource to a newsletter.

If you're growing fast and you feel that gap starting to open, don't wait until it's a problem. Build the channel now.

This post was inspired by a conversation with Kim Gubera, President & CEO, PIRTEK, recorded for the Franchise Leader Spotlight Podcast in April 2026.

Guest: Kim Gubera, President & CEO, PIRTEK Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO