Daniel Lattanzio: Every great business is built on skill, knowledge, and the right support system. No matter your background, stepping into something new means learning how to navigate challenges, refine your approach, and grow with confidence. At WSI, we don't just hand you a playbook and send you on your merry way — we walk you through every step of the journey through structured training and hands-on coaching.
And a very collaborative network that's invested in your success. And as the industry evolves, so do you. In fact, we help you with ongoing education, expert guidance, and the tools to keep your business moving forward.
To share more on how WSI equips its franchisees for long-term success, I want to introduce you to Mike Monaghan, our Vice President of Field Operations, and Mr. Riley Butcher, Head of Coaching and Training. From our Virtual Discovery Day, here's Mike and Riley explaining how WSI’s training, coaching, and continuous learning set our franchisees up for success and growth. Let's get started.
Michael Monaghan: Welcome, everybody. I'm Mike Monaghan, Vice President of Field Operations here, and we've got Riley Butcher, who leads up our coaching and training team.
We’re the team that really gets the opportunity to work closely with our franchisees. Our franchisees come from various backgrounds, and so we have a robust onboarding process where we really get to understand a bit more about the individuals coming in. You’ll see on the next slide where we start franchisees — really in our onboarding process.
That initial onboarding is where we learn more about you. Again, this helps us to customise the learning journey a little, depending on your background, your strengths, and so forth. You then start into what we call our Foundations Course — a four-to-six-week online course where you’ll learn a number of different things about the business: setting up your business, understanding our core products and services, our Lifecycle methodology, and how we go to market with customers.
That’s followed by one week of in-person training in Toronto. It’s very hands-on, conducted Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. There are lots of role plays, hands-on learning, and special guests who cover various elements of the business. It really builds on your Foundations training knowledge.
Following that, you enter what we call our Quick Start Program — a six-month program with weekly calls. We not only build on your knowledge of our business, products, and services, but we also review sales opportunities and the best ways of going to market.
This is also when you begin your coaching program. We have coaches who work one-to-one with you, and we also host group coaching calls to help build on that knowledge and help you plug into everything here at WSI.
This goes into what Cheryl mentioned — how do you plug into all the marketing resources? How do you get those first deals under your belt? Our team works very closely with you on that.
In our Foundations Course, as I mentioned, we cover everything from setting up your business, choosing a business name, sorting your accounting and materials, to promoting your business. You'll get hands-on with WSI tools, understand our Lifecycle methodology, and we’ll also introduce you to AI.
WSI has made significant progress in AI. We're using it in our own business, and we help you learn how to leverage AI in your operations. We also introduce our Business Strategy Framework. Kan will talk more about that later. There are also core offerings, Google certifications, and more.
We have coaches who work directly with you, and now I’ll turn it over to Riley to talk more about our coaching.
Riley Butcher: Thanks, Mike. I want to go high-level and explain how we impact your success as a new agency within the WSI network — and not just new, but ongoing as well.
Our active coaching program consists of one-to-one tailored coaching calls tied to your business plan. No matter your goals or your reason for joining WSI or pursuing entrepreneurship, we’re here to support you in reaching those goals.
There’s a specific methodology behind this. One key benefit our consultants — both new and tenured (5, 10, even 15 years in the business) — appreciate is accountability. Having someone to check in with helps drive results and performance.
We also provide sales and account management support. As you dive into this new process and business model, we’re able to support you live — often on Zoom — whether it’s a sales call where we help you close the deal, or later, helping with account management to retain the client for years.
Another critical part is understanding where you want to be in the short and long term. You and your coach will build a development plan: the skills you need, the types of clients you want, how many leads you need — all tied into building a solid business plan.
One of the tools we use is the GSNR process. This is the structure of your one-to-one coaching calls, which happen weekly or biweekly. We check in, look at what worked (drivers) and what didn’t (restrainers), then set clear goals. These are reverse-engineered from your long-term goals down to weekly actions. It includes KPIs, task prioritisation, and performance validation.
As Mike mentioned, we also have the Quick Start Program (QSP). It’s really unique because it doesn’t feel like you’re going through this alone. Even though WSI has hundreds of consultants, you’ll be part of a smaller cohort. You’ll join group Zoom calls (90 minutes), do role plays, breakouts, case studies, and more.
We also bring in special guests — vendors, partners, top-performing consultants — to speak on various topics and share best practices. These sessions are highly interactive and impactful, especially in that six-month period.
Before I wrap up, I want to mention one more exciting development. We’ve begun integrating AI feedback models into our sales training. Imagine you’ve just had a discovery or proposal meeting — now, you can upload that recording and get instant feedback. The system will analyse the call and tell you what went well and what to improve. You still have access to your coach, but now you get real-time guidance as well — helping you improve faster.
Mike, I’ll hand it back to you to talk about field events.
Michael Monaghan: Thanks, Riley. So, everything we’ve talked about so far is the initial training, but at WSI, we like to say: welcome to a life of learning. Training doesn’t stop — it’s continuous.
We offer advanced training programs, including our Digital Blueprint Certification, Business Strategy Certification, AI Workshop Training, and AI Certification. These are designed to skill you up in different areas of the business.
We also host field events. These are regional events held around the world. They’re usually two-day sessions that bring together consultants from different areas. These events include presentations, certifications, and peer-to-peer learning — all great for collaboration.
Our biggest event is the Global Convention, which we just returned from a couple of weeks ago. These are multi-day training events with tracks, sponsor sessions, product releases, and networking. A lot of valuable learning happens not only in sessions but also through casual conversations — by the pool, over coffee, or in one-to-ones with fellow consultants. The power of WSI lies in the network and collaboration, and convention is a prime example of that.
We also have mastermind groups — eight to nine people meeting monthly to discuss key business topics. There’s our Top Guns program for high performers, our Doers group for consultants growing agencies with staff, and other niche groups we’ve created for staff to plug into. Plus, we have pilot programs — testing new lead generation strategies or services — and opportunities to join those as well.
And finally, with so much knowledge across WSI, we’ve made it easier to access it. Our AI Assistant helps you search across resources — whether you're looking for a sales deck, a vendor, a new product guide, or marketing materials. It makes finding what you need fast and easy, and we're excited about this new platform.
