Melissa Franks is a seasoned business strategist, Fractional COO, podcast host and speaker, and transformation leader with a track record of scaling businesses and driving operational excellence with a people-first approach that mobilizes teams for unprecedented results. A former Fortune 500 executive and OnCon Icon "Top 100 COO" Winner (2022-2024), she has led billion-dollar IT transformations, M&A initiatives, and revenue growth strategies, blending corporate expertise with small business agility. 

As the founder of On Call COO, she empowers female entrepreneurs by optimizing operations and increasing profitability with her knack for helping business owners break through growth plateaus, implement scalable strategies, and build profitable, sustainable companies. Passionate about women in leadership and business innovation, Melissa is also an advocate for high-performing women, helping them design lives they love while achieving balance and success. She is a strong voice for domestic violence awareness and family court reform. When not strategizing, she enjoys running, traveling, and cheering on her three sons at their sporting events. 

In this episode, Melissa shares her journey from 25 years in corporate to entrepreneurship after a major life setback. She reveals how to maximize limited mentorship time, align career goals with personal priorities, and why the best mentors may be outside your organization. Plus, practical strategies for managing financial uncertainty and pivoting after setbacks.

 

What you will learn from this episode:

• Discover how to maximize limited mentorship opportunities by being prepared with clear asks, specific examples, and alignment between professional and personal goals.
• Learn strategies for pivoting after major setbacks, including managing financial uncertainty and making decisions without panic.
• Understand why mentorship can come from outside your organization and how to seek experts who can help you develop specific skills you need to reach your goals.

 

"Mentorship doesn't always need to come from your chain of command or inside of your business. Often the skills that you need to acquire and the modalities of thinking that you might need to develop in order to reach your goals can be taught and learned and coached outside of the four walls of the business that you work in." 

– Melissa Franks

 

Valuable Free Resource:

• Connect with Melissa at melissafranks.com for support in scaling your business and breaking through growth plateaus.

 

Topics Covered:

02:35 – What is a fractional COO: part-time executive support for seven and eight-figure businesses

03:50 – Becoming an accidental entrepreneur: pivoting after a domestic violence incident and job loss

05:00 – Shifting priorities: learning to say no after decades of saying yes to everything

08:50 – Building a business through intention: the first nine months of firefighting and steady growth

11:00 – Corporate career journey: from the Gap to financial services and climbing to global executive

12:00 – Learning without mentors: navigating a male-dominated environment through trial and error

14:00 – Dealing with failures: seeking education when hitting friction points

16:00 – How to take advantage of senior female executives: being prepared with clear asks and specific examples

19:00 – Aligning professional goals with personal life: understanding what your life really needs

21:00 – Managing financial uncertainty: worst-case scenario planning and avoiding panic decisions

23:00 – Having humility: taking advantage of available benefits and not keeping struggles secret

26:00 – Empowering female entrepreneurs: helping women build businesses that enable the lives they want

28:00 – Mentorship beyond the workplace: seeking experts outside your organization for specific skills

 

Key Takeaways:

"Every woman in corporate America that is at a very senior executive level wants to help as many women as possible, which means that she is dividing a piece of pizza, not the pie, but the actual piece, across as many hungry mouths as possible. So you may just get a bite." – Melissa Franks

"If you're looking for advice, come in with an actual example. Be specific. Have an ask, have an example if you're looking for advice." – Melissa Franks

"Make sure that you're really clear on what your personal life really needs, how it needs to be structured, what your boundaries are. So that when you come forward and say, is this the next right step, you have additional context." – Melissa Franks

 

Ways to Connect with Melissa Franks:

• Website: https://melissafranks.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissa_franks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissafranks 

 

Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown:

• Website: https://www.sarahebrown.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSarahEBrown 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahebrownphd 
• To speak with her: bookachatwithsarahebrown.com