Instructors

Mr. Grossmann has been involved in the franchise industry since 1994.  He franchised his first company and grew to 49 franchised locations in 19 states during the mid to late 90’s.  He served as the CEO and primary trainer focusing on franchisee relations and creating tools and technologies to increase franchisee success.  Rick franchised his second company in 2003.  He served as the company's CEO and Marketing Director.  He developed the high tech/high touch franchise marketing and sales system selling over hundreds of franchises in North America capturing ranking in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 500 franchises in less than three years.  During this period Mr. Grossmann also served as a business and marketing consultant to small companies and multimillion dollar enterprises. He also consulted Franchisees and prospective Franchisees, Franchisors, and companies seeking to become Franchisors.

Rick had the honor of working with his mentor, Erwin Keup as a Contributing Author for the 7th edition of Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise Bible published by Entrepreneur Press.  Mr. Grossmann has been chosen as the new Author of Franchise Bible and is currently working with multiple brands around the world.

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Michael  is a published author, lecturer, and teacher. Michael is a senior partner at Corporon & Katz, a law firm specializing in franchise, business and real estate law located in Centennial, Colorado.
Michael’s firm serves clients across the United States, Canada, and Australia. The firm delivers expertise and excellence with over 34 years of legal experience. The firm’s centralized location and low overhead enables Corporon & Katz to provide a high-level, sophisticated service at reasonable rates.

Mr. Katz is the Co-Author of the 8th edition of Franchise Bible published by Entrepreneur Press.

Jack Pearce is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) with an MBA in Finance and Organizational Development and has over 35 years of executive management and consulting experience.

Previously Mr. Pearce was employed as Executive Director of Franchise Relations at Annex Brands, Inc., a 950+ unit franchise comprised of eight unique brands within the mail and parcel, logistics and printing industries. Mr. Pearce played an integral role in the successful acquisition and integration of these multiple brand concepts into a single franchise support organization. Well known for his expertise in developing strong franchise relations and a collaborative culture, Mr. Pearce has been responsible for leading a variety of rebranding, emerging concept, vertical market transition and acquisition growth strategies.

He was formerly a Chief Operations and Financial Officer at another national franchise and serves on two national IFA committees, Franchise Relations and Information Technology. Mr. Pearce is a frequently published author in Franchising World magazine, as well as author of the IFA Handbook, Effective Development of a Franchise Support Organization.

Cheryl Chiasson is a certified commercial loan broker, certified franchise broker, and business owner of Instant Imprints, along with her husband Gregg. Owning three distinct businesses gives Cheryl a unique perspective in assisting clients with their financing needs.

She is the National Engagement Director of Extreme Relationships Management, and has received recognition for her relationship and networking efforts, including Ambassador of the Year 2014, Highlands Ranch Chamber of Commerce; and Visionary of the Year 2014, Franchise Brokers Association. Cheryl currently serves as a Guest Instructor for the Franchise Training Institute.

Carolyn Miller is a national expert with decades of experience developing concepts, infrastructure, and processes for franchise concepts. Over the years, Carolyn has worked on both the corporate and the franchise side with companies such as McDonald’s, Chipotle, Red Robin, CiCi’s Pizza, and Carl’s Jr/Hardees, and spent more than a decade consulting with franchised and independent companies about how to implement processes and procedures to strategically grow their businesses. From real estate, design, architecture, construction, and staffing to hiring, staff development, management, budgeting, legal, and marketing—she has first-hand, hands-on expertise in all areas of franchising.

Together with a team of experts that includes licensed attorneys, CPA's, licensed real estate professionals, lending and insurance professionals, licensed architects, licensed general contractors, and additional experts in franchising and brick and mortar development, the National Franchise Institute is a well-rounded organization that helps franchise professionals and even independent entrepreneurs succeed in growing, value-engineering, and operating winning locations

For over 27 years, Suzanne has passionately served clients by helping them identify and define their internal brand blueprint, create a unique position within their marketplace, and build competitive advantage by aligning their leadership & employees to live the brand authentically.

As author of The 6 Myths of Small Business Branding, and author of Brand DNA; Uncover Your Organization’s Genetic Code for Competitive Advantage, she now facilitates engaging brand strategy training for clients across the U.S. using her turn-key methodology. She is also pioneer of the “Ignite Your Personal Brand Presence” program, helping solo-professionals leverage their expertise, personality, and authenticity to live their full potential.

Wayne Kocina, a seasoned industry veteran more than 20 years of experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) founded GeoWize in January of 2003. Wayne has provided GIS site prospecting, customer targeting, lead generation, and consumer market potential analysis services and consulted for such companies as Target, Big O Tires and Floyd’s Barber Shop Franchising.

A long-time veteran of television, film and online video, Kevin Campbell loves to write and produce visual stories. He started his career as a TV reporter, then commercial TV producer, corporate video producer, and eventually wrote and directed his first feature film which was distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment in 2002.

He jumped into online video back in 1996 and has since created hundreds of web marketing campaigns. He's also an adjunct video instructor at the Art Institute of Colorado and has two courses on video marketing on Curious.com