Kim Gubera, President & CEO of PIRTEK, stepped into her role in 2019 and did something almost no leader does — she visited every single franchisee before changing anything. In this conversation, she shares how that decision built the cultural foundation that drove a record-breaking 2025, and how PIRTEK maintains a standard of excellence — including through moments that were anything but easy. This is a straight-talking episode about what franchise leadership actually looks like when the values aren't just on the wall.

In this episode:

• How PIRTEK recruits for franchisee-first thinking at every level of the home office
• Why radical transparency — including disclosing an internal integrity issue at their franchise conference — is the only way to build real trust
• What it takes to sustain franchisee support and culture through rapid unit growth

Guest: Kim Gubera, President & CEO, PIRTEK
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. Learn more at apollocmo.com

The Franchise Leader Spotlight Podcast is part of the MyPodcastHost Franchise Podcast Network — bringing franchise brand voices to the audiences that matter.

Brought to you by MyPodcastHost — private internal podcast channels and the Franchise Podcast Network for franchise brands that take franchisee communication seriously. mypodcasthost.com

Steven and Jason Parker have been in the pet care industry since 1999 and franchising K9 Resorts since 2011. In this conversation, they walk Katherine through the disciplined, long-view philosophy that's gotten them to 50 open locations — and what it actually means to award franchises instead of selling them.

In this episode:

• Why they turned down one of their earliest franchise candidates — and how it shaped their development process
• The leadership model they use as co-CEO brothers, and how they built a C-suite that complements rather than replicates
• The pet care industry's next evolution: mental enrichment, smaller group sizes, and what "humanization" looks like in 2026

Guest: Steven and Jason Parker, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, K9 Resorts
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. Learn more at apollocmo.com

The Franchise Leader Spotlight Podcast is part of the MyPodcastHost Franchise Podcast Network — bringing franchise brand voices to the audiences that matter.

Brought to you by MyPodcastHost — private internal podcast channels and the Franchise Podcast Network for franchise brands that take franchisee communication seriously. mypodcasthost.com

Josh Lyon has been building ScentHound as their COO from seven units to 157 - and he's not slowing down. In this conversation, he gets into what it actually takes to scale a franchise brand with operational discipline intact: the team transitions nobody talks about, the franchisee adoption gap that compounds every time you add complexity, and why simplicity isn't a nice-to-have - it's the differentiator that separates the brands that win from the ones that don't.

In this episode:

• Building and rebuilding your team through three inflection points
• Why franchisees need to be treated like owners, not employees — and what changes when you do
• How ScentHound maps the five-stage journey of franchisees, team members, and customers to create simplicity at every level

Guest: Josh Lyon, Chief Operating Officer, ScentHound
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. Learn more at apollocmo.com

The Franchise Leader Spotlight Podcast is part of the My Podcast Host Franchise Podcast Network — bringing franchise brand voices to the audiences that matter.

Brought to you by Franchise Ramp — full-picture growth marketing built specifically for franchise brands. Over 1,300 locations, 25 brands, and a proprietary platform called RampIQ. They get it because they've lived it. FranchiseRamp.com