Franchise Fuel: Smarter Growth, with Vern NicholsonThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: My Tell-All Experience Working for Two “Premiere” Franchise Marketing Agencies
In this revealing episode, Vern Nicholson pulls back the curtain on what it’s really like to work inside two of the franchise industry’s most celebrated marketing agencies — the ones that dominate “Top Supplier” lists year after year. Through candid storytelling and firsthand experience, Vern shares the highs, lows, and hard lessons learned in environments driven by ego, rapid growth, and private equity pressures. Listeners will get an insider’s look at how agency culture, structure, and technology impact franchise growth — from the burnout of global outsourcing to the breakthroughs of unified collaboration. Vern contrasts those experiences with how Vet-tro Media was intentionally built differently: 95% of the team working in one facility, leveraging curated data and AI-driven insights to fuel smarter, measurable results. Packed with transparency, strategy, and hard truths, this episode is both a tell-all and a blueprint for franchisors ready to demand more — from their agencies, their data, and their results.
Chapter 1
Behind the Curtain of Franchise Marketing Royalty
Vern Nicholson
Welcome to Franchise Fuel: Smarter Growth. I’m Vern Nicholson, Vice President of Vet-tro Media, author, and your host. Every episode, we pull back the curtain on what’s really driving franchise growth — the strategies, the stories, and the lessons that separate strong brands from struggling ones.
Vern Nicholson
First off, thank you for joining me. Whether you’re a franchisor, a marketing leader, or just someone passionate about smarter, more transparent growth — I appreciate you being here. This episode is a little different. It’s personal. It’s my tell-all experience working for two of the so-called “premiere” franchise marketing agencies in the industry.
Vern Nicholson
You’ve probably heard of the two full-service franchise marketing agencies I’m talking about. They’re the ones always topping the charts — “Best Franchise Suppliers,” “Top Agency Partners,” the kind of names you see in Entrepreneur Magazine. But this isn’t about name dropping or finger pointing. It’s about pulling back the curtain on what it’s really like to work inside two of the so-called premier agencies, from the boardroom buzz to the behind-the-scenes burnout.
Vern Nicholson
Both companies had big reputations and even bigger expectations. One specialized in established brands with deep budgets, while the other carved out its niche working with emerging franchises and helping scrappy founders find their first hundred leads.
Vern Nicholson
At some point, both landed private equity backing, and that’s when things really started to shift. Culture changed. After seeing both sides, I realized how rare it is to find an agency that blends scale, innovation, and culture.