Lawrence Appell

Executive Coach for Senior Executives of Franchise Concepts, or Multi-Unit Franchisees

I’m an Executive Coach for CEO’s and senior executives of franchise concepts, or multi-unit franchisees, to help them on their journey to grow their business and achieve personal meaning and satisfaction. It’s a journey that I have been on for a very long time. (Aren’t we all on this journey?) My journey is closer to the end than the beginning but I would like you to know how I come to my role as an Executive Coach.

When I was nine my father died. I won’t bore you with details but I made it through my teens, graduated college and graduate school with degrees in psychology and marriage counseling but zero knowledge of how the world really works and how I could fit into it since I knew so little about it. (Yes, fathers really shape their kids’ understanding of the world and their place in it.)

So what was my first career move after school? I started a consulting business teaching “interpersonal skills” to corporate managers and working with teams to improve productivity. Since I knew nothing of business or organizations it was a pretty audacious move.

Then came real jobs in the real world that gave me ever increasing levels of responsibility and accountability as measured by customer satisfaction, revenue and profit. Some of those roles were with Fortune 100 companies; some with start-ups and some as an entrepreneur. Most of the time I was either working for a franchisor or being a franchisee working with operations that were either a single unit, a hundred units or even 1,000 units- and those operations were either in the US or Europe or Asia. I managed two brands that did $100+ million in revenue and had thousands of people to direct. I’ve also owned a single smoothie shop; I’ve failed doing a multi-unit restaurant concept I created; and I recently exited a multi-unit franchise venture that sold at the highest price the brand ever saw and made millions for my 14 investor/partners.

So, while I entered the adult world knowing squat about the real world, 50 years later I know a whole lot about how business works and how the world works.

As a coach I integrate some pretty unique skills and experiences……Counselor….Franchisee, Franchisor… Executive…. Entrepreneur… to help my clients gain control of their business and their lives. No surprise, my least favorite state of being is “chaos” and no surprise either that my favorite state of being is, as the expression says, “working on your business, not in your business”.

I bring two tools to help my clients focus like a laser to define and measure the mission critical issues at hand and to problem solve them. The first tool is data, your data. Whether you manage your business with post-it notes or with a sophisticated data platform; actionable data will point you to the solutions your business needs. The second tool is me. I know how to listen, ask hard questions and facilitate consensus to guide clients to grow their business and advance on their journey to achieve personal meaning.

How can I help you on your business and personal journey?