A restaurant – A teen waitress struck up conversations with a regular couple, Terry and Karen, who ran The Entrepreneur’s Source and connected aspiring owners with franchise opportunities. What began as an internship in marketing and administration grew into a decades-long c
In her first job, she didn’t know she was stepping into a business story that would last decades.
As a teenager waitressing at a restaurant, Marissa Frois formed a connection with Terry and Karen, a couple who came in regularly. They talked to her about their company, The Entrepreneur’s Source, which helps connect potential business owners with franchise opportunities.
Fois admits she knew almost nothing about franchising at the time. Like many teens, she thought franchises were basically fast-food joints. But she kept listening—especially to Terry. who she says spoke to her the same way whether he was explaining the CEO view or treating her like a 16-year-old waitress. In a small-town setting. their conversations felt less like sales pitches and more like a window into how business ownership could change a future.
That rhythm of dialogue turned into a move that, at the time, seemed modest: a summer internship.
While she was in college, Frois kept coming home every other weekend to work at the restaurant and continue the conversations she’d started as a waitress. When she graduated, Terry offered her an internship in marketing and administrative work.
She planned to build her résumé over the summer while working alongside someone she “had come to really care about and appreciate.” She never imagined the arrangement would stretch into a life’s work—still tied to Terry 17 years later.
By the time the internship became a job, Frois says she fell for what the company was actually doing. Clients weren’t just being shown options; they were learning about possibilities they didn’t even know existed. For many people. business ownership through franchising was portrayed as a path toward the American dream. and Frois felt drawn into that mission. even in the small way she could at first.
Her interest in families wasn’t abstract. Growing up, Frois’ mother had her own struggles—sometimes stable, sometimes not. Her aunt became a steady presence, and eventually her aunt and uncle adopted her.
That history shaped how she viewed the work once she saw it up close. She especially enjoyed watching how franchising could affect families: business owners were building a lifestyle and wealth that benefited their children. She liked knowing that the company could play a part in changing her clients’ futures, not just their balance sheets.
As responsibilities multiplied, she kept taking on more—and she kept finding ways to merge her interests. Her internship turned into a marketing role. Over time. she realized she could use psychology—the subject she had majored in—to better relate to coaches and clients. She didn’t feel she had to choose between business and psychology.
Her work expanded further. She became director of the marketing department, then took on a stint in sales and operations. Terry served as her mentor “through and through.”
Still, when Terry asked her to become CEO four years ago, the moment landed with more weight than she expected. She was 34 at the time, and she had two young kids. She worried she wouldn’t be as good a leader as Terry had been.
Terry, even in that high-stakes conversation, turned to a question that Frois still remembers. He asked. “Have you failed at anything yet?” She had trusted him on decisions before. and she felt she had to trust him again. The result was a career shift that her teenage self would never have believed was possible.
Looking back, Frois frames her journey as proof that talent can be found anywhere—and that people should be treated with respect from the first conversation. One of the most important lessons she says she learned from Terry is that “everyone is worth talking to, even the young waitress.”
After so many years in the same orbit—through internships, marketing leadership, sales and operations, and finally the CEO role—she believes the payoff is collective. When that kind of talent recognition happens inside an organization, everyone benefits.
The Entrepreneur's Source franchising CEO marketing internship small business leadership psychology entrepreneur mentoring
So basically she got lucky with some couple? Cool story.
I mean I thought “franchises” were just like McDonald’s and stuff lol. But this says it’s more than that. Still, 17 years later?? That sounds like it turned into a whole life plan.
Wait so her CEO journey started at a restaurant table? That feels kinda like nepotism but not really… Terry and Karen were just regulars right? I’m confused how an internship turns into CEO though, like did she just keep getting promoted automatically?
This is one of those stories where the “regular couple” is the key, but the article barely says what her job actually was day to day. Also franchises still sound sketchy to me, like people get trapped paying fees. Still, if she fell into it and it worked out, good for her I guess. Kinda wild she was waitress-ing and talking business like that, most people would just ask for refills.