Podcasts about Dufresne

National Eucharistic Pilgrimage through St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park, Md., on June 10, 2026.

Get all set for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ with Father DufresneSummaryJoin us as we explore the profound significance of the Eucharist, the history of Corpus Christi, and the importance of intentionality in faith and priesthood. Our guest shares insights on Eucharistic miracles, the origins of feast days, and how to deepen our spiritual journey through prayer and perseverance.TakeawaysEucharistic miracles and their significanceHistory and origins of Corpus Christi feastThe importance of intention in prayer and MassDoubts and perseverance in faithThe role of Eucharistic prayers in MassChapters00:00 Introduction to All Set for Sunday Podcast03:03 The Significance of Corpus Christi04:02 Exploring the Readings for Corpus Christi07:43 Understanding the Eucharist and Its Importance10:52 The Origins of Corpus Christi15:14 The Journey of Faith: Peter of Prague20:06 Intentionality in the Mass23:58 The Role of Doubt in Faith27:50 Encouraging Open Conversations About Doubt29:50 Father Dufresne's Second Term and Intentions31:14 Eucharistic Prayers and Their Usage34:12 Casual Conversations and Personal Insights35:35 ASS_Closing Sting.mp4

durée : 00:11:42 - par : Emilie Munera, Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier - Souvent cantonné à la période baroque et considéré disparu après la Révolution française, le clavecin refleurit dès le premier tiers du XXe siècle et inspire des compositions originales. Justin Taylor nous propose un panorama « personnel » du clavecin au XXe siècle. - réalisation : Pauline Boisaubert Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

durée : 00:11:42 - par : Emilie Munera, Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier - Souvent cantonné à la période baroque et considéré disparu après la Révolution française, le clavecin refleurit dès le premier tiers du XXe siècle et inspire des compositions originales. Justin Taylor nous propose un panorama « personnel » du clavecin au XXe siècle. - réalisation : Pauline Boisaubert Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

Join us in Montreal as we speak with François Boutin-Dufresne who, together with Karl Gauvin, is co-founder of the Observatoire des Erreurs – Canada's very own version of the Library of Mistakes. Inspired by a trip to Edinburgh, the Observatoire embraces the same ethos as the Library of Mistakes, and joins other extensions of our activity in Pune (India) and Lausanne (Switzerland). The Observatoire is currently an online community but is hoping to establish a physical presence – and François is a really interesting listen. We also hear from Didasko CEO David Clarke on summer activites in Edinburgh, while our Librarian, Helen Williams, dips into books about the oil industry. Enjoy!Presented by Leila Johnston & Fraser Allen.www.libraryofmistakes.com

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Kyla Dufresne, founder of Foxy Box, a waxing franchise with 24 locations across Canada and a 25th on the way. Kyla shares her journey from starting Foxy Box in the dining room of her home to building a national beauty brand rooted in confidence, community, and customer experience.Kyla also opens up about her teenage years, moving to Vancouver Island for a fresh start, learning through failure, and why mindset has played such a huge role in her success. We also talk about franchising, leadership, choosing the right business partners, and what it really takes to scale a brand without losing the heart behind it.What you'll take away from this episode:How Kyla started Foxy Box from her dining room and turned it into a growing franchise brand across Canada.Why your environment matters so much when it comes to your mindset, confidence, and ability to expand.The importance of getting out into your community and becoming the face of your business.Why not every paying client or franchise partner is the right fit, and how protecting your culture protects your brand.How failure became one of Kyla's greatest teachers in business.Why progress over perfection matters when you're building, scaling, or stepping into something new.The difference between opening more corporate locations and turning your business into a franchise.Kyla's story is such a powerful reminder that you don't need to have it all figured out before you start. You get to learn, pivot, ask for support, and build something incredible along the way. Tune in for an honest, inspiring conversation about resilience, leadership, franchising, and what it really takes to build a business that changes lives.Take our FREE quiz: https://www.myalignedpurpose.com/quiz

Sometimes you need to listen to the universe when it is trying to help you. Kyla Dufrense listened and survived. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Handyside Ad] Speaker 6: Told you, Brian. Brian: Told me what? Speaker 6: This is part two of last week’s episode. Brian: Oh yeah, and it was getting good. Speaker 6: If you missed it, go back and listen to part one first. Take it away, fellas. Stephen Semple: It’s funny how often we see this mistake. It’s even interesting. There’s a famous marketer, Al Rice, and Jack Trout wrote a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. And one of the things that they talk about in the book is, don’t extend brand. Look, it’s amazing how many times companies try to just go, “Well, let’s just make it this bigger thing and we’ll talk…” And it almost always never works. You’re much better off multiplying the thing that you do well than trying to add around the edges. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, you got to keep it simple. I will tell you, it is very challenging to train one person to be the best at five different services. Really it is. Stephen Semple: Absolutely. Kyla Dufresne: We know how to train someone to be the best waxer in a five-day program. We can turn someone with the right personality, obviously, but we can turn somebody into a fantastic hair removal expert in five days. To be great at nails and lashes and hair, I mean, God, that takes a really long time. And then you want to go, okay, you have to do all of these things. How do you get one person to be great at all of those things? You’re going to be putting out a mediocre product, maybe, for the convenience of a one-stop shop. Truly, you can’t be the best at all things. Stephen Semple: Well, and I’m going to put it to you another way too, because that’s the operational challenge. I’m even going to look at it from the marketing challenge. So, what we want to be, in anytime we’re marketing a business, we want to be thought of first and we want to be like the best, right? But thought of first for what? Now, if it’s thought of first for being a salon, well, there’s lots of salons, right? Thought of first for waxing, that’s a little bit different, right? And it’s way easier than to lean into that and really be liked about, because even the whole thing, Foxy Box, people like that. Well, now it’s this other name that was a little bit safer and more conservative because we’re in this area. It was also harder to be liked for that. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So this whole strategy had of being thought of first for this thing and liked the most for this, you had to deviate from that. And I’m going to say, even if you got the operations going, I don’t think it would’ve been a success. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, for sure. Stephen Semple: In fact, I think if you got the operations going, it would’ve been a trap because it would’ve worked okay. I actually think the universe gave you a gift of it burning to the ground, and causing you to go, wait a minute, I should just focus. I think the universe was actually looking out for you there. Kyla Dufresne: Oh, for sure. Yeah. It was bringing me back to my roots. And I mean, I learned so many lessons in there. Every experience shapes the leader that we are today. I used to lose so much sleep. I used to cry a lot and now I just don’t. I always say to people, things don’t get easier, we just get better at tackling them. Stephen Semple: Yeah, for sure. Kyla Dufresne: Your business doesn’t get easier. At the top of one mountain, you’re at the bottom of the next. Literally it’s just a constant like, okay, now what’s my next challenge I have to face? But the great thing about that experience is, I lost a lot of sleep. I got a lot of gray hairs, I cried a lot, and now I’m much stronger on the other side. I learned how to be a great leader. I learned how to lead a team, how to build a team. I got clarity on my business structure. It wasn’t all a failure. I think Harvard is probably more expensive than 30,000, so that’s my [inaudible 00:05:03] education. Stephen Semple: So you had one store, went to two stores, you’re back to the one store. What was the next step in the evolution? Kyla Dufresne: My first franchise. Stephen Semple: So what made you decide to franchise? Kyla Dufresne: I knew I wanted to franchise from day one. I said, “I’m going to start a brand. I’m going to call Fox Box. I’m going to franchise and take over the world.” My fire behind that, I had a boss at the bar that I worked at. He’s probably going to hate that I call him out quite a lot on podcasts, because I love him truly. And I learned so much from him on how to develop culture into business. But he said, “You can’t franchise this business, Kyla. People come to you. They’re not going to go, you can’t franchise this.” And I just went, “I use this as my fuel. Watch me.” Stephen Semple: Nice. Nice. Kyla Dufresne: And so I told everybody that would listen that I was going to franchise. I’m a franchise. You can buy a franchise if you want. I had no idea what that meant to Stephen. I didn’t know what franchising was. I didn’t know what that meant for my role, but everyone knew like, “Oh yeah, I’m going to sell franchises.” I didn’t have anything. I had no franchise agreement, no FTD, but I told everybody I was a franchise. So two of my top estheticians came to me and said, “Kyla, we want to be a first franchisees. We’re ready. We want to open in the West Shore in one of the fastest growing communities.” I think it was in Canada at the time. And I went, “All right, great. Let’s do it.” I reached out to my lawyers. I said, “I’ve got two of my technicians. They want to be my first franchisees.” They whipped me up a license agreement because it was much cheaper and faster. And like, this is all you need. Put it in front of them. We all signed on the dotted line and things went south from that moment forward. A few things that went wrong. Number one is that I sold a license agreement instead of our franchise agreement. Stephen Semple: Yeah, very different. Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: When you sell a license agreement, there isn’t this 160-page document called a franchise disclosure document. And in a franchise disclosure document, it outlines everyone’s roles and responsibilities in this marriage that you’re going to enter into. So we went into this blind, like, “I don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.” There was zero expectations. When it came to support, for example, for me, I thought, “Oh, if they need something, I’m going to answer.” If they text or whatever, support to them meant, “Oh, if I’m short-staffed, you come and work in my store.” So when they open their door like, “Hi, I’m short-staffed. They need you to come work.” Well, this is not what I thought I was getting into. So our expectations were just not aligned at all. The other thing that went wrong is that they were incredibly undercapitalized. Because I didn’t understand that you need a lump sum of money to start a business, because I did it organically. Stephen Semple: Because you did it differently. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. I did it differently that I just thought, oh, everyone just figures it out and funds the business. That’s not how it works. These guys had… How much, I think they had $30,000 or something like that to their name and to open the store. 10,000 of that went to me for the license agreement. The remainder was to build out their 1,200 square foot store, market their business, and get up and running. Fortunately, the two of them both were dating general contractors. And so they were, back then too, this was almost 10 years ago, back then you could kind of whip together a space for very little, and they managed to pull off the build out, which was insane. But at the moment they opened their doors, they were strapped for cash and super stressed out. Stephen Semple: Right. Kyla Dufresne: The other thing is that I had nothing systemized. I didn’t understand that. I was in there helping them train their staff. I had no training materials put together. I whipped up an operations manual. My friend owned a franchise, which she since sold a quick service food franchise. She gave me her operations manual. I kind of copied and pasted and changed like, “Here’s your hours.” And the waxing that we do and just general shit. Anyhow, very basic stuff. I had nothing systemized. So when they opened, also I was still in my business waxing full-time. So when they needed stuff, I wasn’t available immediate to lead to them. So we opened and we just had a terrible relationship from the word, go. I realized very quickly that I had no idea what the hell I was doing and I needed help. I found a franchise business coach here in Victoria. Her dad started M&M Meat Shops, which grew to 500 locations. Her name’s Angela Cote. If you don’t know her, she’s awesome. Follow her. Her new business is AC Inc. She teaches field coaching, trains people’s field coaches. But, I reached out to her. I hired her on the spot. I stepped out of my business. We put in a manager at my store so that it could continue running smoothly, systemized everything, built in those proactive support systems, which is, I don’t just wait for you to need something. I’m giving you information to help you make decisions that impact your performance regularly. Weekly, I’m giving you KPIs. We’re meeting monthly to help support you, but we just couldn’t get that relationship back. It was too strained from the beginning. They hated me. And so, we decided to have a mutual termination. I put two offers in front of them. One was, “You guys can keep your store and change your name, or the other is I’ll buy back your store from you and continue to operate.” They chose to keep their location and change their name. Thank God, because back then I went, “I don’t know how the hell I’m going to get money.” Well, you’re in your early days. You have exactly zero. Stephen Semple: Zero. Well, actually often less than zero. Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: Yes, exactly. So they chose the latter, which was a little bit of a relief for me. It was kind of heartbreaking to go like, oh my God, my very first franchise is a failure, but it was the best case scenario. They decided to keep it. They still operate in that market and we’re actually back in that market with one of our fastest growth stores in the system that’s performing very well. But then we went back to market, over prepared at that. We had everything in place like, okay, we’re a buttoned up franchise and now we can go. And I did that. I learned that all from the first location. So it’s a blessing that it was that it was just one that I went, “Okay, I’m out of my league here. I don’t know what I’m doing.” And then- Stephen Semple: How long was it from that coming to its end to then you going out and getting everything together and then getting that real first franchise going? Kyla Dufresne: Probably two years. Stephen Semple: Two years. Yeah. It doesn’t surprise me, because it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of costs, a lot of work, a lot of time. Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: I just want to add in, that that mutual termination, I managed to work through with my franchise business coach with no lawyers. Stephen Semple: Oh, that’s very good. That is very good. Kyla Dufresne: I always kind of lean into, and I know that we’re Canadian as well, and maybe that doesn’t happen everywhere, but I always lean into that relationship piece. We’re all human beings. And so, if you can get in front of someone and try and work it out together, start there. Stephen Semple: Yeah, it’s always way better. Kyla Dufresne: And instead of going like, “Oh shit, I need a lawyer up.” Let’s start with having a conversation and seeing if we can’t agree on something together. Well, [inaudible 00:11:33]- Stephen Semple: The best way to do these things is you come to the agreement and then yeah, I get at the end, it’s got to be put into legalese words. Kyla Dufresne: For sure. Stephen Semple: But if we can do it where, okay, you and I have come to the agreement, okay, now let’s get it put into proper paperwork because you got to kind of do that. That’s always the best way to land on these things. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. Yeah. It started with like a come to Jesus moment, which is like, “Are you happy? Because I’m not happy. I’m not happy. I’m trying here. And so if we can’t get on board, what’s our next steps? And so let’s get on this together.” But that was probably a two-year process, from me stepping out of my business to going back to separating and going back to market. We had to build a lot of infrastructure. Our FA, our ED, all of our training material had to be filmed and put onto Trainual. There was a lot of building blocks, figuring out our KPIs, our chart of accounts, our COGS, all of those things had to be flushed out before we could go, “Okay, we’re ready.” And so, now that was six years ago now is when we started to, we got our first franchise, because now we’ve had three renewals since then that have renewed for their next five-year terms. Stephen Semple: Nice. Kyla Dufresne: And so yeah, that was probably the pause. And to be quite frank, Steve, we’re kind of in that pause again at this size. We’re doing that now, which is, we’ve gotten this far. Okay, now what needs to change and pivot to be able to get to 50 locations and then get to a hundred locations? Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off, and trust me, you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: I see this all the time. I have clients we’ve worked with for a long time. They get to a certain revenue and then they kind of flatten out for a few years. And often it’s because there’s a whole reorganization has to happen. Some changes have to happen to get ready for that next push. You look at businesses, businesses do that. You go back, look, they grow, they flatten out for a little bit. They grow, they flatten out for a little bit. It’s just because what got you there is not what’s going to get you to the next stage. So there’s always this little retooling that has to happen. But one thing I want to just go back and revisit, this whole idea that you talked about of me and people being out in the community, when you were talking about it, made me think of a story that Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon talked about. And in the early days, he would seek out women who were like taking yoga and Pilates and things along that lines to hire as salespeople. Even if they had never done sales, because he’d be like, “You’re in that community, you understand that community, you hang out with people who are part of that community, and that community is who we’re selling to.” He would much rather hire somebody who was from that community, who had never done a sale of their entire life, than a professional salesperson who is from outside of that community. Kyla Dufresne: I always say to all my franchisees, “You should look for bartenders and servers to be your magicians.” Stephen Semple: Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: I’ll tell you why. They’re quick on their feet. They’re great at diffusing situations, they’re great at communication and they can multitask. So I actually kind of stay away from, if you hire an aesthetician, here’s what’s going to happen. The great thing about our business model, it will look different when we go into the US, but I feel like there’s a larger net of estheticians to pull from. The great thing about our industry in Canada is that the hair removal industry is unregulated. So you don’t have to be an esthetician to perform hair removal services. We have our own certification program that we put everybody through to certify them as a waxer. And the great thing is that if you hire on the right personality, and you train them to be a great magician, they’re going to have loyalty to you. They’re going to stay with you forever because our girls make great money. I think on average they’re like 37 bucks or 40 bucks an hour, with their tips and commissions, being a waxer. So to take someone that has no education, train them in this industry and build them up, they’re going to stay with you. When you hire estheticians, a couple of things. Typically, a lot of estheticians like to do facials and spas, so they might not be the right personality for Brazilian waxing. The other thing is that because they’ve invested in their education themselves, they’re going to be real quick to leave you for someone that gives them 50 cents more. Stephen Semple: Sure. Yes. Kyla Dufresne: So really I lean into, yes, it’s expensive to train your staff, but you’re going to have much less turnover if you really invest in the right candidate, and look for that personality type that is going to be warm and inviting and quick. And typically that really aligns parallel to people in the service industry. Stephen Semple: You know what’s interesting about that, one of, super successful client of mine in the heating and air conditioning business in the US, talks about how he does a lot of his recruiting from people who work in bars and restaurants. Kyla Dufresne: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Stephen Semple: For those reasons. And on top of that, like when you talk about being able to be taken away or whatnot, he’ll train them. So he’ll turn you into an AC tech and he looks at it and says, they may make more money, they may not, but here’s what you get, evenings and weekends off. He can actually give them a better life, give them a better path forward. And what he’s found is, all those things. They understand how to talk to people, they understand how to upsell things, they understand how to diffuse the situation when things go wrong and they’re great in teamwork. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Right? Kyla Dufresne: Exactly. All of those. Stephen Semple: And those are the things that are hard to teach. The technical stuff, yeah, we got books and manuals and trainers. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think that’s one of the things when I go back to my boss who said, “You can’t franchise this business.” What I really learned from him is how to create a culture where staff want to stay as well. Stephen Semple: Yes. Kyla Dufresne: Because I could have. And at the end of my bartending career, I did go move to the place where I could make almost double the tips, because it was much higher volume. I used to get… Try to… People used to poach me to come and bartend at their bars all the time. And I say that, Lucky Bar is the name of the venue. It’s still around in Victoria. I was there for four years. I had people that I knew the bartenders made much more, try and poach me all the time, but I stayed at Lucky Bar because he created such a culture of family where I loved going to work. We all jibed. He would take us on these staff retreats all the time. It felt like a family and I really wanted to go and work there, taking that- Stephen Semple: And those are important parts to retention. Kyla Dufresne: It’s not always about that extra money. It’s about, “I’m going to be spending most of my time at work. Where do I want to be?” Stephen Semple: Yeah. And you’ve created a place that’s got some fun and things along that lines. I want to thank you for this time. If there’s a final thought, because the people who listen to this podcast, many are looking at this for ideas to help them with their business and they’ve got a smaller mid-size business. What is a piece of advice that you would give them? Kyla Dufresne: I would say, find a mentorship, really. Reach out to… Never be afraid to ask for help. I think that’s probably been one of my biggest blessings is that I have no ego when it comes to like, “I don’t know this.” You got to put your ego aside and reach out if you don’t know something. I’m constantly looking at people who are where I want to be and reaching out and going, “How do I get there?” If someone’s got a hundred locations, 150 locations, I’m reaching out to go, “When you were at my size, what did you do? What did you change?” Recently, our pause right now is I put together a board of advisors. I’ve got all these beautiful C-suite executives on my outside perspective on my brand to help guide me through, what needs to change or pivot, what suppliers do we need to add on or systems that need to be fleshed out in order to help us get to the next level. I also, on top of that, I mean, I’m an entrepreneur. I have a two-year-old. So on top of that, I have my community of moms as well. When you can connect with other business owners, or there’s also a group of, there’s 12 of us female franchisors, we’re on this text group and we meet once a month. When you can do that, it’s going to normalize some of your fears, your thoughts, your stresses, and your struggles, and it’s going to help you push through, because this is not easy. Opening a business is not easy. Stephen Semple: No, it’s not. Kyla Dufresne: It’s never going to be easy. If it was easy, every single person on the planet would own a business. So if you can surround yourself with people that are going to help push you through those challenging times or provide insight, then do that. On top of that, reach back and help the next person. I’m also a mentor for other people franchising their business. I’m always happy to provide my time and give insight of the guts, especially I love it if they come prepared to a meeting to go, “Here’s my questions.” And I do that with people who are my mentors or I reach out to, I come prepared for that and I go, “Here’s my struggles and this is what I need help with.” So my advice would be don’t just show up and go, “What do I need to know?” Come with what are your challenges right now so that you can get actual tangible advice out of it. Stephen Semple: That’s cool. That’s awesome. And if I was going to say what I think is the most valuable piece of information that people could get from this podcast, and I love how you leaned into it, was in the early days, grass roots, gorilla, face-to-face, whatever terminology we want to put towards it, that’s the biggest thing. And if I could tell you the number of meetings that I’ve had over the years with people wanting to start a business, and the first thing I’ve said to them is, “Okay, in the first year, here’s what you want to do is you want to… And I’ll give you some coaching on how to do that,” and then I never hear from them again. And then what I find out is, “Yeah, but I hired this person who’s putting together this app for me and that’s what’s going to make…” I’m like, “You don’t even understand your customer.” And so I really love the fact that you put that out there and leaned into it, because I think that’s really important in the early days. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. Oh, for sure. Stephen Semple: And pretty much every entrepreneur I know who’s been hugely successful did that in the early days. The early days, there was a lot of precedent of the flesh. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. I think it’s kind of a benefit, Stephen, sometimes if you don’t have that extra capital or money because you- Stephen Semple: Because you have to. Yes. Kyla Dufresne: If you felt like, “Oh, I’ve got access to this big loan or all this money, I’m just going to sit here and put it online.” It’s kind of a benefit. You should always think scrappy, always think scrappy. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: How do I get the most return out of my time? And that is… I mean, yeah, you got to go shake your hands with babies and hold babies, and shake hands like you have to. Stephen Semple: Yeah, you really do in the early days for a whole bunch of reasons. Look, this has been awesome and thank you very, very much for your time. So if somebody wants to learn more about your business, or maybe even potentially franchise, where should they go to learn more? Kyla Dufresne: Foxyboxwaxbar.com is our website. Stephen Semple: Foxyboxwaxbar.com. Kyla Dufresne: We’ve got our franchise information. You can find me on LinkedIn, Kyla Dufresne. I’m super active on there. If you’ve got any questions to even … I’m always happy to give my time to people who are interested in franchising and have some questions. Always feel free to reach out. And follow us on social media because our brand is super fun. We’re FoxyBoxWaxbar on Instagram as well, so check us out. We’re pretty hilarious. Stephen Semple: And it’s for the dudes as well. Kyla Dufresne: It is for everybody. Stephen Semple: All right. Thank you very much. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a big, fat, juicy five star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute Empire Building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

Kyla Dufresne built up Foxy Box from the dining room table to 24 locations by creating an experience and culture of comfort and trust. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Wagmore Garage Doors Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it’s Stephen Semple here with the Empire Builders Podcast, and I’m here with Kyla Dufresne instead of David Young, which is always so much fun. So we’ve given Dave a little bit of time off. And so we’re going to be speaking about, instead of one of these big companies and going back in time, instead we’re going to be speaking to an entrepreneur that I met at the Canadian franchise show and we got chatting and I was looking at our business and this is going to be a great story. I’m so excited. And I want you to tell me the name of your business and how you came up with the name. Kyla Dufresne: Oh my gosh, you’re setting me up for big expectations for your listeners, so I better … So I’m Kyla. I’m the founder and CEO of Foxy Box Laser & Wax Bars. We are a hair removal concept that specializes in the art of the Brazilian. And I always say we’re not just a transaction for hair removal. We really are a movement to make people feel powerful and energized in their bodies. We have 24 locations open across four provinces here in Canada with our- Stephen Semple: Yeah, just I want us to think about this for a moment. 24 locations, and I’m going to say it. It’s an idea that if a lot of people were presented with the idea, I think they would go, “Really? Franchises?” And it’s like, “Yeah, really 24 franchises,” which is an awesome number. That’s not an easy number to get to. Kyla Dufresne: It’s not an easy number to get to. I think for us, a lot of it was, a lot of our success was timing as well, Stephen, because when I started this business, the hair removal concept was not a concept really in Canada. The US, they’ve got one big player called European Wax Center. They’ve been around for years and years and years, but this concept was a new thing here in Canada. So truly a big part of our success, one is, I mean, obviously our culture and our brand and the success of our franchisees, but it was also timing because we were one of the first hair removal concepts on the market here in Canada. So we really brought this business model to the market, so I think that was a big part of our growth to get to 25 locations within a five-year time span, truly. Stephen Semple: It’s been pretty quick when you think about … Because you started off with one location that was your location, correct? Kyla Dufresne: You got it. I started off actually, I don’t even know if you could call it a location. A house, that’s where I started it. In the dining room of my house where I had four roommates, there was a dining room area off of my kitchen. I set up a table there and a curtain and got to work building Foxy Box. I joked on when I was speaking with someone not long ago on their podcast that when I built Foxy Box, I always said, “Oh, come see me.” I always was Foxy Box. And so I would give my business cards, but it was my cell phone number on it and then Foxy Box was inside this little weird room in my house. And so I’d have people showing up thinking that they had just showed up at Fight Club and not Foxy Box. Like, “Where in the hell [inaudible 00:04:39].” Stephen Semple: Am I in some strange room in Amsterdam? What the heck’s going on here? Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: They were like, “What is this place?” But truly, those early days was what shaped and formed the culture that we have today because when I reflect back, that experience that I was giving to customers, I had to make people feel confident and comfortable enough to take their pants off in the dining room of my shared house to get a Brazilian wax. And how I did that was I incorporated humor. I would usually make a joke as soon as they got there about showing up at Fight Club and not Foxy Box or something to diffuse their energy of like, “Where the hell am I in this weird place?” I would connect with them, really build a relationship with them. So it wasn’t just like coming here and let’s remove your hair. It was building a connection with them. And not only did I never have anyone turn around and run out or say, “No, thank you,” I would have them leave and call five of their friends and go, “Oh my God, I just had the most amazing experience in this weird room and you got to go see Kyla.” And so it was those experiences that kind of helped shape the culture that we have today. And so I preached to my franchisees, “If I could build something successful in that weird room, you all have the most insanely cool four full walls of a branded space, deliver that customer experience inside those walls, you’re going to be wildly successful.” Stephen Semple: There’s a lot of power to being able to say to somebody, and power’s maybe the wrong word, but influence, empowering maybe more, to be able to say to somebody, “Look, I know this is going to work because I was able to make this work in this situation, and let’s face it, we can all agree that situation has distinct disadvantages to it.” So I know this is going to work because I’ve done this before. It’s interesting, I’m working with another entrepreneur and they’re struggling a little bit on some of their sales processes. And I was saying to them, I said, “You’ve got to go back on the phone, make those telephone calls, let’s get recordings of them, and let’s show people how you do it because what you do is successful. Let’s replicate.” I want to come back to your early days. What city was this in where you started? Kyla Dufresne: Victoria, BC is where Foxy Box came to fruition. Stephen Semple: Okay, so you’re in Victoria BC and you’re doing this out of this weird room in your house. How long was it until you were doing enough business that you set up a physical location? Kyla Dufresne: Stephen, my roommate- Stephen Semple: A separate physical location. Kyla Dufresne: Probably bringing maybe five strangers a week to the house before my roommates went, “Ky, you got to stop bringing strangers to the house. You got to think get out of here.” I found a little 10 by 10 room in the back of a jewelry store Downtown Johnson Street, which was like a shop- Stephen Semple: Hold on a second. Kyla Dufresne: Yes. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Not at the back of a nail salon or the back of a hair salon, the back of a jewelry store? Kyla Dufresne: That’s it. Yeah. And keep in mind though, Stephen, back then when you’re thinking about what my competitors were or where the market was, waxing, you could only find in the back of nail salons, which maybe didn’t have the most hygienic standards, or you were going to go to a high end spa and spend over $100 in a dimly lit room with someone who probably didn’t want to be in there with you. So that was the gap in the market that I was trying to fill, which we did fill. And so the room that I found was inside of a jewelry store, but the jewelry store was on Lower Johnson, which had the most foot traffic. I mean, it’s since seen a decline because there’s online shopping now, and this was 14 years ago that I found this space, so there was a ton of foot traffic. So it made sense for me. People were coming in and out of that store shopping and I had a sandwich board out front and I got … They were like, “Waxing. Oh my God, do you waxing here?” I got organically busy just by being in that location, which had all that foot traffic. Stephen Semple: So even though you’re at the back of the jewelry store, you were still able to have some sort of signage out where the foot traffic was. Kyla Dufresne: You got it. I had a sandwich- Stephen Semple: A sandwich board. Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: … board out on either side. And honestly, Stephen, I was there for maybe three or four months. Truly, I wasn’t there for very long before I knew I needed a space of my own. I started getting very busy. The jewelry store didn’t have the most accessible hours. They were like 10 to 6 and I was like probably 12 hour shifts or really more accessible. And so I needed things like a waiting room. I needed a place for my customers to go that I wasn’t have to like, “Oh, let me come unlock the front door for you.” And so from there, I found a second level space a few blocks over, closer to more where there was a lot of professional office workers around us. And I built out a two room space with a waiting room, and that’s where I really got to bring my brand and my vision to life, which looks nothing like how our brand looks today. My whole waiting room was red walls all around. I had a Nintendo console with an old TV so that, a lot of my customers were moms and so I’d encourage them like, “Bring your babies in and your kids and they can play Nintendo while I wax you and it’s safe up here. We’re second level and close the door or whatever.” But since incorporated that into our business model as well, we always position ourselves and pitch ourselves as, “We’re babysitters, we’re fur sitters.” We know that life is busy and so we want to be as accommodating as possible to our customers. So we allow them to bring their kids, bring their babies. Our receptionists double as babysitters. If you have a puppy that you’re like, “I can’t leave it in the car.” It’s a hot day, bring it in. Dogs can’t come into the treatment rooms, but we’ll hold them behind a desk for you. And we’ve got treats and snacks for them. And we really made a point of making sure that we’re accessible to people. Stephen Semple: Wow. That’s a very, very different positioning than frankly a lot of businesses would take. That’s really, really amazing. So you got that second level space and I’ve got a couple questions for you on that. One is, so now you’ve got a second level space, so it’s not the same foot traffic going by, but you’ve built some clientele, you’ve built a little bit of word of mouth. What did you do to promote that space? Kyla Dufresne: I love talking about this, grassroots marketing because back then- Stephen Semple: Perfect. Kyla Dufresne: … I had zero dollars for online spend. And I honestly didn’t even really see the benefit of online spend because I organically got so busy, but I was just so good at grassroots marketing. There’s a combination of things that helped me get busy. One is I was a bartender at the time and the bars that I worked at were very busy and so I used that as my marketing platform. Every single customer that came in, I’d give them a Foxy Box card as well so that they would wake up the next day with a business card in their pocket. I really leaned into my staff’s strengths and I encourage my franchise partners to do this or anyone that I’m mentoring is really when you can lean in and leverage your staff’s strengths, you’re doing two things. One, you’re getting them to market for you, and three, you’re building a community and a sense of family that they feel like they’re a part of something and they’re helping you build something. For me, one of my very first hires, she was a burlesque dancer and she worked at a spa that was a few blocks away from Foxy Box that I asked her if she wanted to pick up some shifts at my store. And one of the things that was really kind of brought her down was that the owner of that spa that she worked with really hated that she was a burlesque dancer. She went like, “Don’t talk about it in the store. It doesn’t align with us as a spa.” She wasn’t supportive of that. I leaned into that, Stephen. Stephen Semple: Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Kyla Dufresne: I was like, “Ooh, I have a [inaudible 00:12:29] burlesque dancer. This is what I want you to do. I want you to get your group together. I want flash Mobs,” were I think back then, do you remember that? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: People would put a song on and then there’d be a group of people break out into a dance. I went, “Listen, let’s do a flash mob with your burlesque dancers.” They all got together. They came up with a dance to the tune of Foxy Lady. “Ooh, Foxy Lady,” or you know that one? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: And [inaudible 00:12:52] the nightclubs, because I had connections at all the nightclubs, I went, “Hey, listen, can I send this group in? Can the DJ play this song? And then I’ve got a team that’s going to clear the floor and do a dance.” And they went, “Absolutely.” So I would send her to the nightclubs, they’d go, DJ would play Foxy Lady. Her and her group would do this dance and then they would hand out Foxy Box coupons and merch. I’d have hats and coupons and things like that. And so that was like my grassroots marketing was getting out into the community with my team. Stephen Semple: Brilliant. Brilliant. Kyla Dufresne: One of the things that I did, I think naivety is bliss when you’re starting a business. The more you know, the more you can be hesitant or reserved to do initiatives. For me, I didn’t know that to go to universities, you’re supposed to buy a table there and I didn’t know that. And so I would literally, student week, September when all the students would come back, I would load up my car with all of my magicians. I would head to the university and we would give out pens and coupons, things that have our brand on it that they’re going to be using at their desk as well as your first free wax coupons. And we would just like every student that was there, we’d just, “Oh, here, come check us out. Here, come check us out.” Later, years later, I learned that you’re supposed to buy a table. [inaudible 00:14:03] $1,000 and you’re supposed to have a setup, but nobody caught us or a slap our hand, so that was great. But those were some of the early day marketing initiatives that we did. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off and trust me you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: So I want to make a couple of comments about the early day marketing initiatives because I think this is really important. And it’s funny because right on my website, I say, “I don’t work with startups.” I won’t do marketing for startups. Now it’s not true. I have done marketing for a couple of startups, but the reason why I don’t is the biggest battle I have with startups is stop sitting at your desk behind your damn computer using ChatGPT to try to figure out what your market wants. And then you’re going to do some BS online thing and you never want to get out into the community and talk to people. Stop. Most business is one-on-one person to person. And even if you go out there and it fails, you’re going to learn what it is that they like and they don’t like. Do that initially. Do grassroots first. Start there. Because then the other thing is when you get that working and then you go to do more mass media approach, guess what you already know? You really and truly do know your customer. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. I think I’ve heard this from so many big speakers is, people buy from people, period. Stephen Semple: They do. Kyla Dufresne: So absolutely. I coach franchisees on this as well is the importance of getting out into your community. My most successful, fastest profitability franchisees, two months before they opened, they were at every single networking event that they could be at with business cards and coupons before they even opened. Getting out into their community, getting into the hospital unions, the student unions, all of those places to get their name in front of people. Once you have that and you can get your face in front of your community, pair that with online ads and then when they need that service, they’re going to go, “Oh yeah, oh my God. Yeah, I’m going to support that business.” Stephen Semple: Yes. It’s now how you extend that. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. Stephen Semple: It’s really interesting, I did a podcast on a company called HexClad. So they make cookware. The guy actually came from a cookware background. He worked for a different cookware company and basically he was like one of those carnival barkers who like when you’re going through Costco was selling stuff, right? And when he created his new product, the first thing he did is he said, “I’m going to go out and I’m going to sell this the way I used to sell stuff.” And the first thing he learned was his first pitch that he thought was going to work failed. And so they used that and then they finally found, “Oh, this is the way people connect with this product. This is actually the things they like about it. Okay, we can now market it.” Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, for sure. Stephen Semple: It’s that whole person to person thing that you really need to do in startup. But the other part that I really like that you did that I want to highlight here, use of entertainment. Entertainment is how we get the attention. It’s how we buy the time and the attention of a busy and distracted consumer. They don’t care about you. They don’t care about your product. They don’t care about any of that. You start to wrap it a little bit of entertainment, you now have their attention and you leaned into that. Kyla Dufresne: And times have changed. And so we’ve kind of pivoted with that as well. That entertainment, we do see a lot online, which is be active on your social media. You have to be. If you’re not, you’re going nowhere these days, truly. So being on TikTok, that’s been huge for us. One of our franchisees found us just from TikTok. We’re funny. We put content in front of people constantly. So we’ve kind of pivoted from that entertainment piece, we want to entertain our customers, but you’re absolutely right. You’ve got to be active on social media. Another thing, especially in my early days too, Stephen, I speak on this a lot, which is ensuring that you’re taking care of your community. That’s a huge piece of grassroots marketing. Early on, we used to do this thing called Friday features, and I would tag other business owners and give them a shout-out like, “Hey, my friend at this clothing store, here’s a little bio about her. We see you.” And then we would tag her Instagram. So then she’s sharing that and that helps build your social media as well. And it’s giving shout out to other local entrepreneurs. So that was a big piece that we wove into our early days of marketing. The other thing is that I inherently would just give back to my community, and I didn’t realize that that was creating brand buy-in or marketing, truly. One of my customers had a giant vet bill that she was like, “I have no idea how the I’m going to pay for this vet bill.” And I went, “Let me do a wax fundraiser for you. I’ll give five bucks from every Brazilian that I do on Saturday and you can have that to your vet bill just because I was like, that’s the right thing to do. Take care of this customer support team.” I just always did that. And now on a bigger scale, what we did is I created an event called Foxy Fest. I was inspired by Lilith Fair, this little music festival put on by all female performers, Sarah McLachlan and Jewel and what have you. And they would do a big charitable fundraiser. And I thought, “How freaking cool would that be if I could do something like Lilith Fair and give back to local charities?” So I launched an initiative called Foxy Fest six years ago now, I want to say. I reached out to a whole lineup of female singers, dancers, spoken word poets and asked them to volunteer their time on International Women’s Day to hold an event that would give back to a local charity. They all volunteered their time. The venue donated the venue to us. It was a nightclub, but also I had great connections, but they’re always happy to do that. And all of the ticket proceeds from that event, and we did a raffle and a fifty fifty, went to a local charity. So that was the birth of Foxy Fest. And now to this day six years later, we hold that event on International Women’s Day in 24 locations. Stephen Semple: Nice. Kyla Dufresne: It’s a lot of work. It’s a heavy lift to put on a live event, even though they’re the coolest and the most palpable and a great way, especially for smaller communities, to build that brand in the community by bringing everybody together in one room, it’s a lot of heavy work to put on an event. So some of the stores, if they’re in their early days or they don’t have the capacity to do that at the moment, they’ll do an in store raffle basket that raises money for local charities. But the point is we’re giving back to the communities that serve us. Stephen Semple: Nice. And you’re doing it in this really interesting way. But a couple of things I want to go in The Wayback Machine on because the other part that’s about entertainment is even the name of your business, Foxy Box. How’d you come up with the name Foxy Box? Because that’s a bold name. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, I don’t even remember truly. I think I had five names written down, one with a beaver, one with … And I asked everybody, “Which one resonates with you?” And obviously Foxy Box was the obvious choice. Stephen Semple: But what I like, and I’m often telling customers about this is, look, you leaned into it. You leaned into what it is you do. You didn’t try to go, “Well, let’s talk about it in this mysterious way,” in which case no one fricking understands. It’s a bold name, it’s an entertaining name, it’s awesome. And I commend you for doing that. And even on the entertainment side, I’m going to go so far as to say, and I know you’re advertising and social media and things, but even if you were … Take this thought away. In future, if you were even to look to go into other media, entertainment is still the key to all of it. Whether it’s radio ad, whether it’s television ad, whether it’s billboard, entertainment is always the key, but you understand that. So you’ve got your store opened. What happened in the first year? You’ve got now that store, a second level, there’s the Nintendo, all those other things there. How’d the first year work out for you? Kyla Dufresne: First year was great. I mean, it was a lot of hard work. I always think that if I started the business now, I don’t know if I’d have the energy for it. I was [inaudible 00:23:13] with Foxy Box and- Stephen Semple: What age were you? Kyla Dufresne: [inaudible 00:23:15] when I started Foxy. Stephen Semple: Twenty … Okay. Kyla Dufresne: And no banks would give me a loan. So I used my bartending tips to fund my business until it was self-sustainable. And then I used those profits to build and expand into my next space. Stephen Semple: How long did that take before you were into your next space? Kyla Dufresne: I was probably up there for, I want to say maybe two years. Stephen Semple: Two years. Okay. Kyla Dufresne: Well, it feels like it was so long ago. Oh my God, maybe … Victoria Gordon Street has been there for, I want to say eight years and I started … Oh my God, you’re making me do some math here. So maybe I was up there … I might have been up at the second level for about four years, which would make sense because I did pivot. I opened up a second location, tried to expand and do all full services, and I burned that one down after about a year, not literally, but figuratively. So yeah, they were moving and shaking. Stephen Semple: So you had the location, then you opened up a second location. So you had two locations and that second location didn’t work out really well. Why did that second location not work out for you? Kyla Dufresne: Okay, here’s my Harvard education. Stephen Semple: Yep. Kyla Dufresne: When I started Foxy Box, I always had this other idea in the back of my head, I just came out the womb an entrepreneur and I’m a classic founder who has 10 billion creative ideas, but I always wanted to open a store called the Diva Den, which you can see I love alliteration and branding, but I wanted to have a full service salon, nails, lashes, hair, waxing, have everything. And so once Foxy Box was going so well, I had two people come and knock on my door, friends of mine from the beauty industry. They went, “Ky, we’re not happy where we’re at. We want to do nails somewhere else. Would you ever consider opening a nail salon because we love your brand?” And then I had a hairstylist friend come and say the same thing to me. I went, “You know what? Sure. Why don’t I open a whole service salon?” I found a space in Oak Bay, which is a very affluent community, a little bit of an older demographic, but a very affluent community here in Victoria. I found a space and then I thought in my head, Foxy Box is going to be way too bold for this community, so I pivoted and I rebranded, but I wanted to keep it because Foxy Box was so successful, I kind of wanted to piggyback on the success of it. So I was like, “How do I intertwine these?” So I called it Foxy Lady. I changed the color from a bold red to a nice teal. I kept the logo, but changed the name. And so it was Foxy Lady Beauty Bar instead of Foxy Box Wax Bar. What that did is created a whole lot of confusion. I had my signs up outside on the building and I had people texting me like, “Ky, there’s someone in Oak Bay using your logo.” And, “Oh, that’s me. Come and check us out. It’s a new brand concept. We’re offering all of these services.” We opened our doors, within four months, all of my nail techs went, “We’re going to go open our own business.” They all left. They took all their customers with them, and then I was stuck with a nail salon that I had no clue how to do. I’m self-proclaimed the best waxer in the world. I filmed our curriculum. I know how to train that, I know waxing inside and out. Nails, I don’t know nails. I don’t know hair. I don’t know. So anyhow, shortly after that, my hairstylist went, “I’m going to go open my own hair salon.” Okay, cool, now I’m stuck with a salon that I know nothing about. And so I hired nail technicians. They were putting out a poor product. I had no idea how to correct it. Thankfully, I was able to get out of my lease after a year, lost a bunch of money on that. Not a bunch. I’d say maybe 30,000, which was a shit ton for me back then. Stephen Semple: Yeah, for sure. Kyla Dufresne: I lost 30 grand in that venture, but I was able to get out of my lease, walked away from that, burned that idea to the ground. I went, “We do one thing and that’s hair removal because that’s what I know, and we just stuck to our model.” Stephen Semple: Oh, no, no. Dave Young: What? Stephen Semple: I was enjoying this episode. Dave Young: Don’t worry. Part two’s coming next week. Stephen Semple: It better. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a big fat, juicy five star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

This conversation contains occasional adult language and may not be suitable for all audiences. Scaling culture is one of the most overlooked challenges in business growth. Expansion often gets measured in locations, revenue, and visibility, but the real test of sustainable success happens behind the scenes. As organizations grow, leaders must create systems that preserve identity, strengthen decision-making, and support people without losing what made the business work in the first place. That is where Kyla Dufresne has built her leadership advantage. As Founder and CEO of The Foxy Box Wax Bar, Kyla has transformed a bold idea into one of Canada's most recognizable franchise concepts in the beauty space. What began as a business launched from determination and limited resources has grown into a multi-location franchise brand known for its distinctive voice, strong customer loyalty, and clear operational identity. Her path reflects something many founders experience but few openly discuss: growth becomes far more complex once systems, people, and expectations begin multiplying. Early entrepreneurial success often depends on instinct and personal drive. Long-term growth requires a very different mindset. Scaling culture means shifting from doing everything personally to building frameworks that help others succeed consistently. That transition is especially important in franchising, where every new location depends on more than brand recognition. Franchisees need support, clarity, and systems that help them make strong decisions locally while staying aligned with the larger brand. Without that structure, even strong concepts can lose momentum. Kyla's leadership approach has increasingly centered on that reality. As The Foxy Box Wax Bar expanded, operational discipline became just as important as creativity. Clear communication, stronger internal systems, and more intentional support structures all became necessary to help the business move forward without compromising brand identity. Scaling culture also requires leaders to understand when growth should slow down in order to strengthen what already exists. Many entrepreneurs assume speed always equals progress, but sustainable brands often grow strongest when leaders pause long enough to evaluate systems, refine priorities, and prepare for the next stage intentionally. That principle is especially relevant in franchising, where rapid expansion can expose weaknesses that are not visible during early success. Strong franchise systems are not simply about opening more units. They are about building consistency across leadership, operations, marketing, and support so that growth becomes repeatable rather than reactive. Ford Saeks has long emphasized this same idea across business growth strategy: what gets a company started rarely supports the next level without refinement. Systems must evolve as leadership evolves. Growth creates new pressures, and those pressures often reveal where stronger infrastructure is needed. Kyla's willingness to seek outside expertise reflects a leadership maturity that many growing founders eventually need to develop. Advisory support, strategic coaching, and experienced perspective can help identify blind spots before they become larger obstacles. For leaders scaling brands, outside insight often accelerates internal clarity. Another reason scaling culture matters is because culture influences decisions long before it appears in metrics. Hiring, messaging, customer experience, franchise support, and leadership expectations all flow from the culture a company builds. If that culture is unclear, inconsistency follows quickly. For The Foxy Box Wax Bar, maintaining a distinct identity has remained central to growth. Brand personality, community connection, and a bold customer-facing experience all contribute to differentiation in a competitive market. But behind that visible identity is the less visible work of building stronger franchise systems that can support long-term expansion. Scaling culture also means protecting what makes a company unique while still allowing leadership to evolve. Founders often face the challenge of staying true to their original vision while recognizing that growth demands different tools, different people, and different structures than the early stages required. That balance is what separates brands that expand successfully from those that stall under their own momentum. For founders, franchise leaders, and business owners, the larger lesson is clear: growth is not just about adding more. It is about strengthening what supports the next level. Scaling culture requires intention, humility, and the discipline to build systems that serve both people and performance. Kyla Dufresne's work continues to demonstrate that strong brands are not built by avoiding challenges. They are built by learning through them, refining systems, and staying committed to growth that remains aligned with purpose. Watch the full episode on YouTube. Join Fordify LIVE every Wednesday at 11 a.m. Central on your favorite social platforms and catch The Business Growth Show Podcast every Thursday for a weekly dose of business growth wisdom. About Kyla Dufresne Kyla Dufresne is the Founder and CEO of The Foxy Box Wax Bar, a franchise brand recognized for its bold identity, strong culture, and community-centered growth. What began as a single concept has expanded into a growing multi-location business built on leadership, operational systems, and a commitment to helping others succeed through franchising. Under her leadership, The Foxy Box Wax Bar continues to grow while maintaining a distinctive voice and clear brand purpose. Learn more at FoxyBoxWaxBar.com. About Ford Saeks Ford Saeks is a Business Growth Accelerator with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations generate scalable, profitable growth. He has driven over one billion dollars in sales worldwide for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 brands by helping leaders align strategy, systems, and execution. As President and CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc., Ford works with business owners and executives to attract loyal customers, strengthen brand positioning, and ignite innovation. He has founded more than ten companies, authored five books, earned three U.S. patents, and received numerous industry awards for marketing and business excellence. Ford is widely recognized for his expertise in modern growth strategies, including AI-driven marketing, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. He hosts Fordify LIVE and The Business Growth Show Podcast, where he shares insights and conversations designed to help leaders think differently, act strategically, and grow with intention. Learn more at ProfitRichResults.com and watch his show at Fordify.tv.

Send us Fan MailWe are just back from Pizza Expo, where the staff of Pizza Today welcomed the industry for the inaugural Pizza Today Village. We recorded episodes of The Hot Slice live on the show floor and will be rolling them out over the next several weeks. Our first guest? None other than Wylie Dufresne, the keynote speaker at Pizza Expo. Dufresne made a name for himself in New York City's fine dining scene by letting curiosity take the wheel. Whether it was a deconstructed eggs benedict or smoke salmon bagel with cream cheese, dishes were about more than meets the eye at Michelin-starred eatery wd-50.Today, Dufresne brings that same curiosity to Stretch Pizza, his New York-based pizzeria that marries old-school nostalgia with best-in-class Caesar salads, mozzarella sticks and meatball sliders. Find out how Dufresne's devotion to a life of learning informs his journey forward in the pizza world – and how you can take inspiration from the process yourself.Show Notes:Stretch Pizza: stretchpizzanyc.com Pizza Expo: pizzaexpo.pizzatoday.comWylie Dufresne's Recommended ReadingThe Joy of Pizza: thejoyofpizzabook.com The Pursuit of Pizza: tonygemignani.com/books Pizza Czar: piz.za.com/cookbook 

Between 45 and 50% of your daily actions are habitual, says today's guest, Dr. Ron Dufresne.Dr. Dufresne is a Professor of Management and Director of the Leadership, Ethics and Organizational Sustainability Program at St. Joseph's University. He focuses on leadership and ethics with a particular emphasis on the role of character in leadership.Daniel and Peter welcome Ron to discuss habits and their role in leadership. Ron suggests that habits aren't all bad. They “take away a lot of the need for that deliberative, very cognitively taxing work that we need to do as leaders,” he says, and allow us to “focus our attention on the things that really matter.”But habits may not always serve who we want to be as leaders–or as humans.Tune in to learn:How to know when it's time to change a habitHow to break a habit loop and start a new oneTwo essential leadership habits to start cultivating for long-term successAristotle suggested that habits are practices of character, says Dr. Dufresne. “We are what we habitually do.” When we approach our habits with intentionality and self-reflection, we can become the leaders we want to be.Questions, or comments? E-mail us at podcast@stewartleadership.com—Sign up for Stewart Leadership's newsletter: https://stewartleadership.com/newsletter/—Resources and LinksDr. Ron Dufresne LinkedIn ProfileDr. Ron Dufresne St. Joseph's University page“Psychology of Habit,” Wendy Wood and Dennis Rünger, Reviews in Advance, Sept. 1, 2015.Stewart Leadership Insights and Resources:https://stewartleadership.com/character-driven-leadership/https://stewartleadership.com/decision-making-impacts-executive-presence/https://stewartleadership.com/the-power-of-habits-what-leaders-can-learn-from-tom-brady/https://stewartleadership.com/4-ways-to-create-personal-change/https://stewartleadership.com/your-brain-at-work-four-strategies-to-maximize-your-most-powerful-asset/https://stewartleadership.com/6-ways-to-help-regulate-your-emotions-for-leadership-effectiveness/—#leadership #podcast #leadershippodcast #leadershipdevelopment #StewartLeadership #LeadershipGrowthPodcastIf you liked this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague, or, better yet, leave a review to help other listeners find our show, and remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For more great content or to learn about how Stewart Leadership can help you grow your ability to lead effectively, please visit stewartleadership.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Daphne Dufresne is the Founder and Managing Partner of Awani Capital. She leads the firm's strategic direction, investment decisions, and value creation initiatives across the portfolio. With over 25 years of private equity experience, Daphne has a long-standing track record of building scalable businesses in the business and industrial services sectors. She plays an active role in all phases of the investment process—from deal sourcing and thesis development to portfolio company growth and exit strategy.   Before founding Awani, Daphne was a Managing Partner at GenNx360, a $2.2 billion middle-market private equity firm based in New York. She served on the investment, valuation, and exit committees, and led direct investments in GenServe, Precision Aviation Group, Aero 3, and Whitsons Culinary Group, completing 31 add-on acquisitions across these platforms.   Daphne was also a founding Managing Director at RLJ Equity Partners. Earlier in her career, she also held senior roles at Parish Capital Advisors, Weston Presidio, and the Bank of Scotland's Structured Finance group, and began her career at Accenture.   Daphne is on the board of directors of NYSE (UNFI) where she chairs the Compensation Committee. Daphne earned a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Get all set for the Fourth Sunday of Lent with Father DufresneSummaryThis podcast features a lively discussion on Lent, the significance of Psalm 23, the sacraments, and the role of sponsors and catechumens in the Catholic Church. Hosted by Scott Williams and Father DeFrain, it offers deep insights into faith, sacraments, and spiritual growth.TakeawaysLent and its significancePsalm 23 and its biblical imagerySacraments of initiation and catechumenateRole of sponsors and Godparents in the ChurchChapters02:47 Lent and Parish Life05:16 Scripture Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent10:25 Reflections on Psalm 2315:27 The Sacraments of Initiation18:05 Understanding the Scrutinies22:57 Minor Exorcisms and Their Significance27:18 The Role of Sponsors and Godparents29:46 Tattoo Discussions and Body Stewardship

Dans cet épisode, Élisabeth partage avec transparence son parcours vers la maternité, en abordant sa période de préconception, son suivi de grossesse, les symptômes et défis rencontrés en chemin, ainsi que la manière dont elle se prépare à la naissance de son enfant. À travers ce récit intime, elle ouvre une fenêtre sur les réalités physiques, émotionnelles et réflexives qui accompagnent cette grande transition. Traumavertissement: Fausse-couche, vomissement LES RÉFÉRENCESProgrammes en ligne mentionné:✺ Préparation à l'accouchement avec la Méthode OPALEO.✺  Préparation au postnatal avec la Méthode OPALEO.✺ Complete Guide to Freebirth par Free Birth Society✺ Préparation à la naissance par Quantik Mama✺ Préparation à la naissance par Méthode BonapaceATELIERS GRATUITS OPALÉO✺ «Accoucher avec assurance: du doute à la confiance»✺ «Guide gratuit sur la gestion de la douleur»✺ «Les super-pouvoirs de ton bébé»Podcast✺ Enfanter l'évolution✺ Enfanter librement sans se faire accoucher (Opaléo)✺ Naître en lumière✺ Free Birth Society ✺ Sages-femmes pionnièresLivres✺ Le bébé est un mammifère par Michel Odent✺ Unassisted Childbirth par Laura Shanley✺ Petit traité de la naissance libre: Parce que les femmes savent enfanter par Cynthia Durand______Préparez les générations futures à une vie épanouissante, libérées de la nécessité perpétuelle de guérir leur enfance. Rejoignez Élisabeth Dufresne (Éducation Autrement), éducatrice à l'enfance, dans son nouveau podcast qui explore sans détour les fondamentaux de l'éducation des enfants : la théorie de l'attachement et le jeu libre. Depuis sa chambre nichée dans les Cantons-de-l'Est, Élisabeth vous libère du nouveau passage obligé des nombreux livres sur la parentalité bienveillante et vous accompagne à devenir des guides assumés, lucides et instinctifs. _Suivez Élisabeth Dufresne sur Instagram : ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/elisabeth.dufresne/⁠⁠Facebook : ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/educationautrementbalado⁠⁠Youtube : ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxpVH1Wg3BIEdcRnYM_3k7g⁠⁠Réalisation : Élisabeth DufresneThème musical : Les Émergents par ⁠⁠Étienne Dufresne⁠⁠Illustration: ⁠⁠Florence Rivest⁠⁠_Pour commanditer un épisode, contactez-nous! info@elisabethdufresne.com

Lecture par l'auteur & Hortense Girard Entretien mené par Marie-Madeleine Rigopoulos « Elizabeth va très bien. » Quatre mots inscrits sur un cahier par un infirmier. Quelques heures plus tard, Elizabeth est retrouvée morte dans son salon. Lorsque son fils apprend la nouvelle et revient sur les lieux maternels, des éléments inquiétants surgissent : des documents médicaux, une plainte pour harcèlement, des appels à l'aide. Qu'est-il arrivé à Elizabeth ? Écrire le livre d'une mère, qu'on ne voit plus depuis tant d'années, après sa mort dans des circonstances troublantes, c'est le défi littéraire de Julien Dufresne-Lamy dans ce livre bouleversant qui révèle aussi le regard d'un fils qui n'a pas su, pas pu voir la violence subie par cette femme, abimée et effacée comme tant d'autres. À lire – Julien Dufresne-Lamy, Elizabeth va très bien, éd. J.C. Lattès, 2026

This is a special SHOT Show 2026 edition of the Iron Sights Podcast, recorded on the floor in collaboration with Good Dude Concepts.I'm joined by Chris Kuras (Good Dude Concepts), Bruno Fallon (Born Primitive), Jon Dufresne (Connecticut's Consulting / See The Night), Blake Cook, and Jack Lewis (Black Tiger International). We talk about what brought us to SHOT, what stood out, and then let the conversation go where it needed to go — firearms training, health and fitness, leadership, culture, and the realities behind the industry.No scripts. No marketing pitches. Just honest conversations, new connections, and perspectives from people doing real work.If you've somehow missed Good Dude Concepts, they make the BRB breacher bar for real-world entry work—grab yours at good-dude.com and save on shipping with code IRON SIGHTS.Timestamps:00:00 Intro04:06 SHOT Show  05:44 Night Ops Summit  12:50 Community Ties  26:25 Sobriety Journey  30:43 Good Dude Concepts  40:58 Mentorship  45:19 LE Training  55:28 Standards  01:12:16 Close Call  01:17:55 High Standards  01:31:07 Leadership  01:39:48 Positive Energy  01:41:48 Culture Shift  01:51:44 Final Thoughts  02:08:56 Closing  Red Dot Fitness Training Programs:rdfprograms.comOnline Membership (Full Access To All Programs & Virtual Coaching):https://www.reddotfitness.net/online-membershipVirtual Coaching:https://www.reddotfitness.net/virtual-coachingSelf-Guided Programs:https://www.reddotfitness.net/Self-Guided-Programs1Connect With Us:Website - https://ironsightspodcast.com/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ironsightspodcast/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/

SummaryIn this episode of All Set for Sunday, hosts Scott Williams and Jeff Traylor, along with Father Drew Ferrin, explore the significance of the Holy Family and the role of family in the Catholic faith. They discuss the importance of honoring parents, the Christian dress code for family life, and the challenges fathers face in leading their families. The conversation also touches on the controversial aspects of scripture regarding submission in marriage, emphasizing mutual respect and the beauty of family life. The episode concludes with lighthearted moments and reflections on the joys and challenges of family life during the Christmas season.TakeawaysHonor your parents all the time, not just when convenient.Holiness is lived out in our families, not just in churches.Joseph's role in the Holy Family is a model for fathers.Obeying parents is a way to practice being like Jesus.Fathers are called to lead and guide their families.Submission in marriage is a mutual gift, not a power struggle.Every family has a role to play in God's plan.The beauty of family life is revealed in scripture.Understanding context is key to interpreting controversial scripture.Family life is a journey of love, respect, and growth.Chapters02:51 The Importance of Family Honor04:01 Living Out Christian Values06:02 The Role of Joseph in the Holy Family10:00 Understanding Family Dynamics13:35 The Call to Holiness in Family Life17:08 The Role of Fathers21:24 Submission and Mutual Respect in Marriage25:53 The Holiness of Family Life28:14 Fun and Lighthearted Moments

La nouvelle publicité d'Intermarché, le «conte de Noël» a fait un carton. Dans « La Story », le podcast d'actualité des « Echos », Pierrick Fay échange avec Théophile Dufresne, cofondateur d'Illogic Studios d'où est né le loup mal-aimé du spot publicitaire.« La Story » est un podcast des « Echos » présenté par Pierrick Fay. Cet épisode a été enregistré en novembre 2025. Rédaction en chef : Clémence Lemaistre. Invité : Théophile Dufresne (co-fondateur du studio Illogic). Réalisation : Willy Ganne. Chargée de production et d'édition : Clara Grouzis. Musique : Théo Boulenger. Identité graphique : Upian. Photo : AP/SIPA. Sons : Romance Agency, Creapills, RTL, extraits du film «Maestro», FranceInfo.Retrouvez l'essentiel de l'actualité économique grâce à notre offre d'abonnement Access : abonnement.lesechos.fr/lastory Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Avec : Théophile Dufresne, co-fondateur d'Illogic Studios. - Tous les matins à 7h40, l'invité qui fait l'actualité. Un acteur incontournable, un expert renseigné... 10 minutes d'interview sans concession avec Apolline de Malherbe et les témoignages des auditeurs de RMC au 3216.

What does it really take to scale your business without becoming the bottleneck or burning out your team? For that and more, follow us here and subscribe to our YouTube channel!In this episode of Built Online, we sat down with Danielle Dufresne, founder of The Auxiliary Co, a fractional production operations partner for agencies and in-house creative teams. Danielle explains the scaling phase most founders get wrong, when to bring in systems and support, how her team helped launch YouTube Shorts with native-feeling content, and why delegation, clear roles, and creative constraints are key to growing without losing your edge. ------------DANIELLE DUFRESNE:- Website: https://www.theauxiliaryco.com- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theauxiliaryco/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danidufresne/ ------------

Is your smaller agency well-positioned to take bold creative risks, pitch innovative ideas, and form collaborative partnerships? The traditional full-service agency model is crumbling under the weight of overhead, fragmented expertise, and a lack of collaboration.In this episode of The Agency Blueprint podcast, I'm joined by Danielle Dufresne to discuss the changing landscape of creative agencies and how agencies can break free from outdated overhead-heavy structures. Dani is an Emmy Award–winning executive producer and The Aux Co founder. She has over 20 years of experience producing high-stakes campaigns for global brands like Nike and Hulu. She launched the Aux Co in 2017 to champion a new agency model, helping small and midsize shops grow smaller, collaborate better, and deliver bold, creative work without the overhead and burnout of the old huge conglomerate agency system. Listen in to learn why the future of agencies lies in specialization, honesty, and early collaboration with production and strategy teams. You will also learn how agencies can thrive together, access bigger opportunities, and create lasting client relationships by embracing community over competition.Key Questions:(05:23) Why do smaller agencies feel pressured to fake expertise, and what's the smarter alternative?(08:06) Do you see other agencies as competitors or potential collaborators in your network?(14:00) If you can only deliver part of a client's RFP, do you white-label partnerships or present them openly?[17:14] How can agencies leverage community and collaboration as a competitive advantage?What You'll Discover:(01:37) How low overhead enables small agencies to launch big ideas at a fraction of the cost of legacy holding companies.(03:47) The shift from the Mad Men era of limited media to today's fragmented landscape of thousands of channels.(06:01) How small agencies can win bigger projects without faking expertise by being transparent and collaborative.(08:55) Why most agencies overestimate competition, when in fact collaboration can unlock greater opportunities.(09:54) Why agencies should stop competing for the same pie and instead lean into their unique strengths.(12:03) Why agencies should specialize instead of pretending to be experts in everything.(14:42) Dani on when to white-label partnerships versus openly presenting them as part of a network.(17:36) How bringing production into creative development earlier leads to stronger campaigns across every medium.[21:42] The power of community and collaboration as a competitive advantage in agency growth.[24:40] The importance of setting aside ego and instead focusing on making sure both clients and creatives are satisfied.[27:30] Why curiosity-driven questioning is essential for innovation, while “just get it to yes” feedback adds little value.Connect with Danielle:WebsiteLinkedIn

Dani Dufresne is an Emmy-winning producer and founder of The Aux Co, bringing over a decade of experience cleaning up creative disasters for major brands. In this episode, we explore why beautiful, expensive productions often deliver empty results and how production expertise at the beginning—not the end—of creative development changes everything.Dani's journey from film school to becoming a fractional executive producer reveals a fundamental flaw in how agencies and brands approach creative: they develop the idea first, then figure out how to produce it. This backwards process leads to blown budgets, compromised creative, and campaigns that look stunning but deliver nothing.The Movie Poster Test: If you can't explain your brand message in one sentence, your creative has already failedWhy agencies fail: The fatal flaw of developing creative without production expertise in the roomAI's brutal exposure: How artificial intelligence revealed $25 million in wasted programmatic ad spend from Q2 aloneCommunity vs influencers: Why borrowing audiences through influencer marketing is dying, and authentic community building is the futureThe burnout trap: How being the "problem solver" trains clients to only call you when things breakCinematic storytelling trends: The rise of MOS (music-only) filmmaking and why vintage/Y2K aesthetics signal authenticityFractional production model: How The Aux Co embeds expertise into agency teams without the overheadSimplicity wins: Why attention spans demand one-sentence messaging, not 50-page decksTimestamps:00:00 – Film school journey & production company origins02:47 – Transition from film editing to production work03:32 – Discovering producer role through problem-solving06:24 – Film development to advertising pivot07:36 – Agency vs production company dynamics08:36 – Founding The Aux Co as fractional production team10:50 – Building trust through small wins approach11:32 – Early involvement prevents costly mistakes13:11 – Results-focused creative evaluation14:40 – Longer-form branded entertainment opportunity15:54 – Community building over influencer borrowing17:52 – AI enabling real human connection work18:24 – Programmatic ad waste analysis ($25M Q2)19:28 – Vintage/Y2K aesthetic as authenticity signal21:01 – AI for rapid ideation & creative iteration22:43 – Cinematic storytelling & MOS filmmaking trend26:28 – Simplicity as ultimate creative power29:41 – Attention span decline requiring simple messaging31:33 – Evolution of director vs agency creative roles34:22 – Fractional executive producer model breakdown37:12 – Managing burnout & client selectivity38:23 – Letting go of problem-only clients40:56 – Partner dynamics & production software ventureWe explore the dramatic shift from influencer marketing to community building, the role AI plays in exposing waste and enabling genuine human connection, and why the most powerful creative ideas pass the "movie poster test"—explainable in a single sentence.If your brand message takes more than one sentence to explain, you don't have a creative problem—you have a clarity problem. The best ideas are simple enough to fit on a movie poster, powerful enough to drive results, and honest enough to build real community. Stop developing creative in a vacuum and bring production expertise to the table from day one.Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Drop The Mic and leave a review! New episodes drop weekly with insights from marketing leaders, agency owners, and creative experts transforming how brands connect in the AI era.

Get all set for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time with Father DufresneSummaryIn this episode of 'All Set for Sunday', hosts Scott Williams and Jeff Traylor, along with Father DeFrain, discuss the significance of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, reflections on All Souls Day, and the importance of building a spiritual community. They explore the readings for the upcoming Sunday Mass, emphasizing the need for participation in parish life and the challenges faced by churches post-COVID. The conversation highlights the importance of vision, prayer, and creating a welcoming environment for parishioners.TakeawaysIt's more fun when we have you guys here.God's presence is a life-giving stream that helps us flourish.We are not just renting space in God's world; we are His building project.Each of us has God's temple as sacred, and we must treat it as such.The dedication of a church reminds us of our connection to the Holy Father.We are called to build on the foundation of Christ's teachings.Participation in the life of the church is essential for spiritual growth.Post-COVID, we need to redefine our parish identity and mission.Creating a welcoming environment is crucial for attracting new parishioners.Prayer is central to transforming parish life.Chapters03:30 Reflections on All Souls Day and the Lateran Basilica06:15 The Gospel Reading and Its Significance10:01 The Importance of Vision in Building the Church15:02 The Dedication of St. John Lateran and Its Meaning18:28 Building a Parish Community: Vision and Participation23:01 The Role of Prayer in Parish Life27:54 Creating a Welcoming Church Environment31:24 Conclusion and Reflections on the Journey

If your business feels lost in the noise and tired of the "same old" marketing advice, this episode is for you. Dani Dufresne explains why authenticity and community storytelling are the keys to 2025 marketing. Learn what's really working for lean brands, what you must stop doing, and how to stand out even with a slim budget. To learn more about Dani, go to http://aux.co/Connect with Diane at https://zenchange.com/ or on LinkedIn If you found this helpful, please share it with your friends. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more informative content on marketing and leadership.

durée : 00:58:41 - Le Cours de l'histoire - par : Xavier Mauduit - Dans "Remember Fessenheim", David Dufresne raconte l'activisme combatif et joyeux de sa grand-mère, Françoise d'Eaubonne. Entre mémoires familiales, archives policières et militantes, il dessine des filiations politiques et redécouvre cette figure écoféministe, décoloniale et antinucléaire. - réalisation : Laurence Millet, Jeanne Delecroix, Jeanne Coppey, Raphaël Laloum, Chloé Rouillon, Solène Roy, Maïwenn Guiziou - invités : David Dufresne Journaliste, essayiste et romancier Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

durée : 00:58:41 - Le Cours de l'histoire - par : Xavier Mauduit, Maïwenn Guiziou - Dans "Remember Fessenheim", David Dufresne raconte l'activisme combatif et joyeux de sa grand-mère, Françoise d'Eaubonne. Entre mémoires familiales, archives policières et militantes, il dessine des filiations politiques et redécouvre cette figure écoféministe, décoloniale et antinucléaire. - réalisation : Laurence Millet - invités : David Dufresne Journaliste, essayiste et romancier

durée : 01:59:14 - Les Matins du samedi - par : Nicolas Herbeaux - Au programme des Matins du samedi : Bien dormir peut-il aider à prévenir la maladie d'Alzheimer ? Quels sont les enjeux de la politique locale à l'approche des municipales en 2026 ? Et en dernière partie, l'écrivain et journaliste David Dufresne raconte sa grand-mère, Françoise d'Eaubonne. - réalisation : Jean-Christophe Francis - invités : Géraldine Rauchs Directrice de recherche à l'Inserm; Marinette Valiergue Experte associée à la Fondation Jean-Jaurès au sein de l'Observatoire de la vie politique; Kévin Vacher Sociologue, directeur scientifique du collectif "Démocratiser la politique"; David Dufresne Journaliste, essayiste et romancier

SummaryIn this engaging conversation, the hosts and Father Dufresne explore the significance of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, reflecting on scriptural readings and the paradox of exalting an instrument of death. They discuss the importance of community in faith, the challenges of church attendance, and the need for authentic connections with Christ. The conversation emphasizes embracing grief and change within the church, while also addressing the decline in attendance and the role of the church beyond its physical buildings. The hosts conclude with light-hearted 'dumb questions' that add a humorous touch to the serious themes discussed.TakeawaysThe Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a significant feast in the church.Scriptural readings highlight the importance of looking to God for healing.The cross symbolizes both death and the promise of new life.Community plays a crucial role in maintaining faith and support.Church buildings can sometimes become idols, overshadowing their true purpose.Authentic faith requires confronting difficult truths and embracing change.Declining church attendance reflects deeper issues within the community.Exalting the cross invites us to embrace our grief and move towards renewal.The church is fundamentally about the people, not just the buildings.We must actively work to connect others with Christ. Chapters00:00 Get all set for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time with Fr. Dufresne03:05 The Exaltation of the Holy Cross06:24 Reflections on Parish History and Community09:04 The Paradox of the Cross12:23 Embracing Death for New Life15:13 The Role of the Church in Modern Times18:09 Addressing the Loss of Community21:01 The Importance of Church Buildings23:50 The Future of the Church26:44 Engaging the Next Generation29:58 Conclusion and Lighthearted Questions

This week's guest is A Line shopper Carole Dufresne. Karmen and Carole sit down for an engaging conversation that spans personal growth, resilience, and creativity. Carole opens up about her journey through marriage, divorce, and the challenges of raising six children, sharing how she found empowerment and built a successful spa business against the odds. Together, they delve into the power of fashion the importance of self-compassion, and the transformative impact of embracing one's true self. Tune in for an uplifting conversation that reminds us all of the strength within!Connect with Karmen and A Line:aline-online.comIG: @alinestoriespodcast@alineboutique@karmenberentsenYouTube: A Line BoutiqueTikTok: @a_line_boutiqueCheck out Karmen's memoir Learning to Fly, here.https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Fly-Memoir-Karmen-Berentsen/dp/1735235008

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Dani Dufresne is an Emmy Award-winning executive producer and the Founder of The Auxiliary Co, which provides executive production, consulting, and creative project management for top agencies and brands. With over two decades of experience spanning broadcast, digital, experiential, and branded content, she has led high-impact campaigns for major brands, including Nike, Apple, Google, and Sephora. Dani also serves as an agency leadership consultant, helping creative agencies navigate growth, sales, and operations.  In this episode… Many brands struggle to create content that truly connects, let alone converts. In a fragmented digital landscape dominated by short-term thinking and data overload, creative work is often diluted, reactive, and forgettable. How can marketers craft branded content that captures attention, earns trust, and builds a lasting community? Emmy Award-winning executive producer Dani Dufresne urges brands to stop chasing trends and start building deeper relationships through clear, bold, and emotionally resonant storytelling. Integrating media strategy earlier in the process and investing in long-term thinking can dramatically improve creative outcomes. Dani emphasizes thoughtful execution, creative bravery, and audience empathy as the keys to developing a sustainable, long-term creative strategy.  In this week's episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris chats with Dani Dufresne, Founder and Executive Producer of The Auxiliary Co, about how to produce branded content that converts. Dani shares how misaligned incentives break creative, why building slow beats burning fast, and what brands can learn from influencers and legacy agencies.

Ever see those really awesome marketing campaigns that brands do that seem so out of the box and must have taken millions of dollars to pull off or some creative genius?Those are because of people like Dani Durfesne with The Aux Co.Dani has a history in film production and pulls off some pretty awesome stuff for brands at pretty low budgets (we're talking only a few thousand dollars). She's the person agencies go to when they get a crazy idea but have no idea how to execute it for their client.She finds the venues, gets the people, gathers the talent, and organizes the production of that crazy idea.And she does it all incognito. Clients never know she exists. All of her work is credited to the agency.We dive into what exactly her business model is, why on earth she doesn't want any credit, and what actually all goes into these productions.----------------------------------Our recommended agency tools:everbrospodcast.com/recommended-tools/----------------------------------⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐As always, if you enjoyed this episode or this podcast in general and want to leave us a review or rating, head over to Apple and let us know what you like! It helps us get found and motivates us to keep producing this free content.----------------------------------Want to connect with us? Reach out to us on the everbrospodcast.com website, subscribe to us on YouTube, or connect with us on socials:YouTube: @agencygrowthpodcastTwitter/X: @theagency_uLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/agencyuFacebook: facebook.com/theagencyuInstagram: @theagencyuReddit: r/agency & u/JakeHundleyTikTok: @agency.u

Get all set for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles with Fr. Dufresne!

Most brands are creating too much content and saying nothing.In this episode of Mastering eCommerce Marketing, host Eitan Koter sits down with Dani Dufresne, an Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer and founder of The Auxiliary Co., to talk about what actually works when it comes to video and content strategy.Dani has spent over 20 years producing for film, TV, digital, and experiential projects. She's worked with major brands like Nike, Apple, Google, YouTube, and Sephora. Her company helps brands and agencies bring big ideas to life without the red tape of traditional production models.Instead of bloated teams and outdated processes, Dani focuses on lean, high-impact production. The goal is to build content that connects, not just content that fills a feed.She and Eitan talk about the shift away from quantity and toward meaningful storytelling. They explore why audiences are getting overwhelmed, how brands can stop adding to the noise, and why planning for video should start with a clear strategy, not just a creative brief.You'll also hear why bringing media and creative teams together early makes a huge difference, how to get more from your budget, and why it's okay to focus on fewer platforms if it means showing up with purpose.If you're tired of chasing trends and want to build content that actually supports your brand, this episode is for you.Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/mastering-ecommerce-marketing/ Talk to us on Social:Eitan Koter's LinkedIn | Vimmi LinkedIn | YouTube Guest: Dani Dufresne, Founder / Executive Producer at The AuxiliaryDani Dufresne's LinkedIn | The AuxiliaryTakeaways:Video is essential in today's marketing landscape.Storytelling is crucial for brand...

Join us on Spaghetti on the Wall episode #245 as we welcome Dani Dufresne, Emmy Award–winning Executive Producer and founder of The Aux Co. Dani is the industry's go-to when creative stakes are sky-high. With over two decades of experience, she's helping agencies scale production, lead with clarity, and thrive in the new era of creative work.From global brands like Google and Nike to cutting-edge creative shops, Dani empowers bold ideas with seamless execution—and she's here to pull back the curtain on how it all gets done.

In this episode, we sit down with Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer Dani Dufresne to explore what it really takes to lead high-stakes creative campaigns across broadcast, digital, experiential, and branded content.With over 20 years of experience and a reputation as the behind-the-scenes powerhouse that agencies call when the pressure's on, Dani shares how she's redefining production through her company, The Aux Co. From scaling teams fast to executing premium work on lean budgets, Dani offers candid insight into creative problem-solving, agile production, and how to thrive in an ever-evolving industry.You can learn more about Dani and The Aux Co on her website. Be sure to follow her on Instagram to stay updated on her new projects!THE HIGH-EARNING WOMEN PODCASTThis podcast empowers high-earning women to make informed financial decisions and thrive.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showIf you would like to get involved with Focus On Women, you can review sponsorship and contribution options here, as well as become a member here.Remember to stay safe and keep your creative juices flowing!---Tech/Project Management Tools (*these are affiliate links)Buzzsprout*Airtable*17hats*ZoomPodcast Mic*