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Episodes
198 episodes
The Staff Promotion Mistake Small Business Owners Keep Making (and How to Fix It)
Is your best employee asking for a promotion, and did your stomach just drop?The question isn't "Does John deserve it?" It's "What does the business need?"Spoiler: the right answer might be a promotion, a brand-new hire, or a rete...
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Skills Over Degrees: What to Really Look for in Your Next Hire
Do your employees need a college degree to be successful in your business?It's not "degree or no degree." It's "what skills does this role actually need, and how do you prove someone has them?"Spoiler: an 18-year-old with zero wor...
5 Things to Do When Your Business Is in a Slump
Is your business in a slump right now — and are you hiding it from everyone instead of dealing with it?It's not about hustling harder to push through. It's about diagnosing before you react.Spoiler: the founders who make it throug...
How to Know a Client Is a Good Fit Before You Say Yes
What if the client you're about to sign is the one you'll wish you never had?This episode isn't about learning to spot red flags after they blow up your business. It's not about having better luck, being pickier, or trusting your gut mor...
The First 90 Days: How to Onboard New Hires So They Actually Stay
You just hired your A player. So why is there a good chance they're gone by day 90?Here's the reframe most founders need: it's not that you hired the wrong person — it's that you never built a real onboarding process for the right one. A...
5 Things to Do Before September Ends to Win Your Best Q4
Is your year-end goal starting to feel a little too far away?Here's the thing most business owners get wrong when September hits: they think a great Q4 is about doing more — more hustle, more new ideas, more drastic moves...
The Vanity Metrics Killing 7-Figure Businesses
What if the number you're proudest of in your business is the exact reason you can't tell what's actually happening in it?This week isn't about tracking less data. It's not about a bad number to feel a little worse about. It's abo...
When to Hire a Fractional COO - The Exact Number I Use (Interview on Business Growth Podcast)
When Should You Hire a Fractional COO?Are you googling "how do I know when it's time to bring in a fractional COO" at 11pm because the business feels chaotic again?Here's the thing: it's not about being big enough. I...
The Financial Blind Spot That's Quietly Bleeding Your Business Dry
Have you ever had a record-breaking month and then wondered where all the cash actually went?It's not that you're bad with money, and it's not that your business is failing. Your top line is climbing and you're still watching your bank a...
How to Screen Job Applicants Before You Ever Interview Them (The Process Behind 10,000+ Hires)
Do you keep hiring the wrong person, someone who looked exactly right on paper and in the interview, and then turned out to be someone else entirely once they were on your team?This isn't about getting better at reading people in the int...
What Are You Actually Working Toward? (It's Not Your "Why")
Have you ever spent the quiet minutes of the morning, or the late hours of the night, asking yourself: why am I even doing this?This episode isn't about finding your "why." It's not about your purpose, and it's not about your values. Mel...
Builder vs. Steady State: The Hiring Mistake Costing You Top Talent
Have you hired the same role more than once and watched it still not work out, even with genuinely talented people? If your answer is yes, that's not a talent problem.In this episode of the Opt In Podcast, Melissa Franks tackles one of ...
Are You the Owner, Or Just an Employee in Your Own Business?
56.9% of new business owners say they started a business to be their own boss. 48.8% say they left because they couldn't stomach corporate America anymore. In this episode of the Opt IN Podcast, Melissa Franks breaks down these two ...
The Pricing Conversation You're Avoiding
When did you last raise your prices? If you have to think about it, that's your answer.In this episode of the Opt In Podcast, Melissa Franks tackles one of the most avoided conversations in small business: pricing. Not setting prices for...
Your Dream Team Isn't Working, Here's Why
You hired the experts. You've got a fractional CFO, a fractional CMO, maybe a part-time ops manager and a media buyer. You did everything right, and yet nothing is moving. Decisions are stalled. Responses take days. You're working more...
Fire Yourself First: How to Stop Being the Bottleneck in Your Own Business
What if the biggest thing holding your business back is you?In this episode of the Opt In Podcast, Melissa Franks shares the framework she calls "firing yourself first", a counterintuitive approach to growth that she recently delivered t...
Step Away With Confidence: How I Planned My Business Break (And Secured a Six-Figure Renewal While I Was Gone)
What does it actually take to leave your business for a week, without it falling apart?In this episode of The Opt-in Podcast, Melissa Franks shares the exact six-month plan she built to step away from On Call COO during one of the most p...
The AI Reality Check: What Small Business Owners Need to Know Before Going All In
Everyone is talking about AI, but is the hype matching reality in your small business? This week, Melissa Franks is pulling back the curtain on what AI actually is, where it can genuinely move the needle, and where blind trust in it could cost ...
Stop Working From the Beach: 5 Counterintuitive Tips to Actually Take a Vacation This Summer
Last summer, I watched a business owner sit on a beach in Hawaii with her face buried in her phone at 8pm because her team needed her to approve a $200 refund. That's not a vacation. That's working in a different time zone with a worse Wi-Fi co...
The Hire That Breaks Most Six-Figure Businesses
Your first hire was probably fine. It's hire #2 where founders go off the rails — and it's quietly costing them years of growth. In this episode of the Optin Podcast, Melissa Franks unpacks the most common (and most expensive...
May Is Your Make-or-Break Month: The Mid-Q2 Audit Every Business Owner Needs
If you blinked and somehow it's already May, and you have no idea if you're on track to hit your goals this year, you're not alone, and you're not behind. There's one thing you need to do this week, and you need to do it fast. <...
Why You're Still Stuck in the Weeds (And It's Not Because You Won't Delegate)
If you started your business for freedom and somewhere along the way it started running you instead of you running it, this episode is for you. Melissa walks through why founders really stay stuck in the weeds (it's almost never the re...
Is Your Company Culture Quietly Capping Your Growth? An 8-Step Audit for Founders
What if the culture that makes your company feel like home is the exact thing keeping the right people from ever walking through the door? In this episode, Melissa Franks — founder of On Call COO and 25-year operator — tackle...
Your Best People Aren't Quitting the Job. They're Quitting the Way You Lead Them.
Your best employee is still hitting their numbers. They're polite. They don't complain. And something feels off.Stop reaching for a raise. You don't have a compensation problem, you have a leadership problem. And at $3M+, it's one of the...
Fire Yourself First: My Honest Q1 2026 Business Recap (From $10K Goals to $100K Months)
What does it actually look like to grow a business from a $10K/month survival goal to a $100K month, in real time, with real numbers, and zero sugarcoating?In this episode, Melissa Franks, founder of On Call COO, pulls back the curtain o...