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Episodes
184 episodes
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...
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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...
The 5 Differences Between a $1M and $10M Business (And Why Most Founders Get Stuck)
Most people think the difference between a $1M business and a $10M business is more leads, better marketing, or a bigger audience. It's not — not even close.The real gap between a 7-figure and an 8-figure business isn't effort. It's stru...
Strategy vs. Execution: Why Most Businesses Are Solving the Wrong Problem
“I think we need a new strategy.”If your business feels stuck, this is probably the sentence you’ve said, or thought, recently.Maybe your revenue isn’t where you want it to be, the team feels busy but progress is inconsistent, you...
Why Your Business Feels Harder Than It Should (And How Smart Operators Fix It)
Are you working harder in your business, but seeing worse results?Many founders right now are experiencing slower sales cycles, unpredictable revenue, exhausted teams, and strategies that suddenly aren’t working the way they used to. If ...
Your Team Isn’t Slow. Your Decision Bottleneck Is the Problem
Many founders believe their team simply moves slower than they would.They say things like:“Everything takes longer than it should.”“My team needs too much direction.”“In the end I just do it myself.”
Give to Gain: Why the Real Power Move in Leadership Is Multiplication
What if the fastest way to grow your income, influence, and impact is to stop focusing on yourself?In this International Women’s Day special episode of The Opt-In Podcast, executive leader and Fractional COO Melissa Franks share...
Letting Managers Manage: How to Cascade Feedback Without Losing Control
As your business grows, your role changes.When it was just you, giving feedback directly was fast and effective. Once managers are in place, skip-level feedback creates confusion, erodes trust, and slows execution, even when your intenti...
You Don’t Need More Discipline — You Need Better Systems in Your Business
Most business owners don’t lack discipline. They’re drowning in responsibility.In this episode, Melissa Franks challenges the idea that success comes from more hustle, grit, or motivation. If your business only moves forward when you’re ...
The Hidden Cost of Revenue-Only Goals
Most business owners set revenue goals every year, very few define how their business will actually support them.In this episode of The Opt-In Podcast, Melissa Franks explains why revenue-only goals are one of the most common wa...
Managing Up: The Skill Every Growing Team Must Learn
As teams grow, the way work gets done has to change.What worked in a small, scrappy business starts to break once multiple layers, managers, and priorities appear. Employees feel overwhelmed, managers lose visibility, and execution slows...
Do Politics Belong in Business? Why Values Can’t Stay Private
Do politics belong in business or is that the wrong question entirely?In this episode of The Opt-In Podcast, Melissa Franks reframes the conversation away from parties, candidates, and debate, and toward what actually matters: v...
New Year, New Distractions: Why Reinvention Is Killing Execution
January has a way of convincing business owners that something is wrong.You come back from a break, look at your business with fresh eyes, and suddenly everything feels off. The offers feel stale. The strategy feels tired. The urge to ch...
Your Business Isn’t Failing — It’s Growing Up (Why Instability Is a Signal, Not a Problem)
If your business feels harder right now, even though nothing is technically “wrong”, this episode is for you.In this week’s episode of The Opt-In Podcast, Melissa breaks down why instability is often a sign of growth, not fai...
Why Q1 Falls Apart (Even With a Good Plan)
If January already feels heavier than you expected, it’s not because you didn’t plan well, it’s because most plans break once execution begins.Every year, founders enter January with clear goals, only to find themselves back in the weeds...
How to Break a Business Plateau in 2026: A 30-Day Reset for Real Growth
If your business hit a plateau in 2025, you’re not failing, your business just outgrew its systems. In this New Year episode, Melissa breaks down why plateaus happen, how to diagnose them, and the exact steps to reset your business for growth i...