The Most Dangerous Job in America - The Mid-Market VP
Perhaps a glimpse into Darin Leonard and his decision making process for Dream Dinners. The way the bio at the end reads, Darin is a CEO for hire. He is a fixer so to speak. When you realize things are starting to go South you call in someone like him to “drive exceptional revenue growth”.
Despite what people have said, Darin isn’t doing this for free or out of the goodness of his heart. This is his job, to try and save companies and turn them around.
Will Dream Dinners be a monumental feather in the cap or an entry on a resume you don’t talk about?
In our business, we are consistently asked to join organizations that have churned through several executives. The cycle is eerily similar in most companies. They have hired good pedigree, strong resumes and rock star bios. The hire traditionally is a strategic mind and can cast a vision for what they wish to accomplish when you bestow upon them the mantle of leadership in your company. Then sometime after 6 months but almost always before 18, it starts to happen. The grand promise and hope attached to this individual starts to erode. The vision isn’t converting to revenue or share growth. The team is starting to show frustration or you are losing key talent and the reason is right before you, yet, you cannot see it.
Darin Leonard is a Regional Managing Partner at OneAccord, a professional firm that provides interim and permanent executives to mid-market companies to drive exponential revenue growth.
The Most Dangerous Job in America - The Mid-Market VP
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July 2nd, 2008 at 12:51 am
Interesting….very interesting!
I wonder if One Accord Franchise’s?
LMAO
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
So the question is: Is Darin working DD through One Accord? Does HO pay One Accord who in turn pays Darin?
If HO had said Hey we are hiring a fix it man I would have had more respect. However listening to Darin and his I don’t have to be here and I’m not taking pay until you are profitable shit is stomach turning.
Just more lies and misinformation.
Can HO ever tell the truth?
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Just an educated guess I would say that Darin was brought in as the “fix-it” guy.
Sometimes not all the money in the world can fix a fatal problem.
Not all things in business can be fixed -unfortunately, even the greatest business/marketing minds can’t always save a company if the concept is so fatally flawed.
Darin suggested an exit strategy- that may be the most compassionate thing he has said to Dream Dinner owners to date.
I will give Dream Dinners an ata girl for at least trying to salvage the company-although I think it was too little too late for a concept that had no real future in the first place.
Shenanigans from Franchisors in the Meal Prep business is no new story-it’s been happening from the very beginning, starting with a concept that was not fully vetted or developed being sold as a proven concept, lifted from the fertile mind of someone else and passed off as their own. It’s no wonder they couldn’t sustain something that wasn’t theirs to begin with!
Let’s not get our eyes off the ball on that one my friends!
My observation from all I’ve read is that Darin’s Dream Dinners HO is in the CYA stage of things. That is never a good sign.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:17 am
It would seem that Big Brother is watching us all!
July 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
LMSAO-That cartoon is priceless!
There seems to be a certain resemblance through the eyes, I think, don’t you?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:36 am
I know I’m gonna get killed for this but…I have to say a few things. The initiatives (some of them) are helping. Even the Emirel/Martha thing, some people are into it. They are into that more than “nothing” which is what SS owners and MGFK owners are getting. We hear from HO almost every week. Responses from staff, including Darin, are immediate. Well, for the people that are still there. I am still waiting for a response from Cristy Bone…We are behind on royalties and marketing fees and we are still being sent ads and what ever else we need. Is everything perfect? No. Do I wish I had seen this site before we were rushed into signing a franchise agreement and thought twice about it? Yes. But I do think that for a company that is trying everything they can to help us, I really think they are, they get a lot more flack than some of the other Zors that aren’t doing anything or have sold out.
I might be delusional, I know I am BROKE AS A JOKE and my choice to own a franchise is the reason, but I really don’t think DD or Darin is to blame. He was brought in to save a sinking ship-bottom line. At least he is making the effort, I don’t know how much more he can do, whether or not he is working for free.
I know my experience is different form some of the other current and past DD owners. We are of the “second generation” owners. That is what our coach called us when we asked about the fact that every other owner at training with us was in the process of a resell. She said franchises change and so do the owners.
At our “interview” we were not given a presentation by Stephanie. She was on the infamous book tour with Tina. The entire presentation was considerably vague. In retrospect that should have been a sign. But no one promised us anything. All the charts were either blank or populated in front of us with median numbers. I know this is not tru for all…but we got no wink, wink, nudge, nudge from any one but ourselves.
So I guess for those of us still owning and trying to operate stores I will say what I truly feel. Life is tough for us and many of us are not making money. Don’t give up hope and try not to get caught up in the negativity around you. This site is helpful but can definately bring you down and if that is what you keep putting out the universe that is what you are going to get back. Keep trying and keep sharing ideas. Hopefully we will make it through the “chasm” in one peice.
In the words of a little blue fish with a short memory (if you have kids under the age of ten you can hum the tune of this) “just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”
July 10th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Hopeful, you will not get in trouble, at least not here..do you have the sanction of the HQ for posting or was your’s approved before you posted it-just curious…
But honestly, I would be mad as hell if I were you that I got suckered into buying an already failed store BY Dream Dinners, they were nto unaware that the store you owned was a non-performer-you are just another wagon on their gravy train.
I understand you need to be hopeful, and postitive, but there is NO fixing this concept…did you read the article posted about the Meal Prep allthingsculinary? It was repelete with lies and misinformation, not to mention the fact not ONE of the psuedo expert bozos quoted had anything new to say, just more crap. The industry is in flux and needs a flux capacitator to fix it, which AIN”T gonna happen cause it doesn’t exist. A large central freezer to store people’s food in is the bright idea that the intellectual giant Meal Assembly wonks came up with, they are “developing” a model franchisees will want?
Stephanie is sitting in delusion central thinking people will flock to her Dream Dinner stores for fun and frivolity and they can’t figure out whether they can afford a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk…
I wish you all the best, but this is a ticking time bomb…
July 10th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I am not going to sing the praises of SS by any means, but Still Hopeful, you need to know that our service and expectations are much lower and should be. My minimum royalty payment is $300 a month (4%) and my marketing fee is 1%. SS does not financially rape me every month like DD does their owners, plus, as far as I know SS has never tried to hold any closed owners to those payments and I know other Zors, including DD have. SS has not done “nothing.” But as a DD owner, I would expect a LOT more than what we get since you pay a LOT more. Just FYI, Lisa
July 10th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I did not get my post approved by anyone…just me. I am not some kind of mole or anything. I have posted intermitantly on this site for months. I visit because even though I own a store this site finds out DD info before I do.
Also, we did not buy a resell-our store is new. Sorry if I represented myself otherwise. I am not trying to speak for HQ I am trying to speak to owners. I just hope that I can stay “hopeful.” If I let myself sink to where I know I actually am I don’t know if I will get ever climb out. I am sure I am not the only one who feels that way
July 11th, 2008 at 6:10 am
Hopeful, I’m sorry if you got the impression that I thought you were a mole…, I for one don’t mind “moles” this is a public site and anyone can read it or post here, that’s the beautiful thing about freedom of speech, if we censor on person, we censor everyone. Everyone has a place at the table.
This is just my opinion, but for what it’s worth…
I commend you for trying to stay hopeful, but there comes a time that “hopeful” doesn’t cut it when the truth of the situation is much more “helpful”. What Dream Dinners HQ is doing by limiting store owners ability to assemble here and speak without the threat of retribution is fear mongering. It’s a threatening, passive-agressive behavior that is NOT in the best interest of store owners.
They are treating you all like 5 year-olds threatening you as they are.
That is in fact creating a abusive work-place. IF you/ oryour store were not performing based upon your responsibilities laid out in the UFOC or IF you were out of Compliance based upon your responsibilitites in the UFOC, then they should rescind your franchise NOT impinge upon your ability to speak freely on a forum.
This NOT Nazi Germany or some communist gulag. They have remedies for their problems with anyone who is non-compliance, they CANNOT arbitrarily demand that you all sit down and shut up, or tell you where you can or cannot exercise your freedom of speech.
IF they have the information they say they have from this site, they got it illegally through a hacker, OR they lied about having the information in the first place.
This is supposed to be a Christ based company. They are VERY clear about that in their mission statement. This is not something I would expect from a company who says to God be the Glory unless the “god” they speak of is money.
Can they subpeona your info for a law suit-I guess they could, but I also would guess that the other side can subpeona their stuff as well, and MY guess is that their stuff is much more damaging to their side than owners are to their cause.
This is serious stuff here and it’s not as simple as a Corporation telling you who and who not you can talk to, this is about their responsibility to you and your responsibility to them.
If you have followed your UFOC to the letter and they have not who is in non-compliance, who has a greater claim against the other?
This is also about your inherent FREEDOM to speak your mind where ever you feel it is necessary.
This is a business not an autocracy. They do not have all the power you all are starting to remind me of trained Elephants- the most powerful animals ON THE PLANET can be tricked into believing they are chained and will stay in one place because they have been trained to believe they are held in place, when in reality they could go where ever they pleased BECAUSE their chain is not connected to anything, it just hangs loosely around their neck-Remind you of anything??