My Last International Assignments as a Nomad

inspiration leadership multi-unit franchising

I had an amazing time in every country I worked in during my years as a Nomad Franchise Executive. And my last two assignments- Medellín, Colombia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil- were no exception.

My experiences in each of these countries taught me important nuances about franchise business operations and the training process, as well as personal qualities that have helped me throughout my journey, both personally and professionally.

Join me as I go through my last international assignment as a nomad.

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Training Paisas in Medellín

It was the mid-90s, and I was sent first to Colombia to help the Master Franchisee for that country with their supply chain, specifically, to improve the procedures, processes, and standards, so that the consistency of the dough production was better.

That was my primary assignment. But if you have been following this journey with me, you may know that, aside from that, I always looked around for other opportunities where I could help. And for the paisas (as they call people from Medellín), the area I identified was training, as it had been in all the other countries where I had worked.

I think that happened because many of the available materials at the time were in English and US-based. So every time I went to a new country, they needed these materials tropicalized and translated into their local language. Since I already had a lot of those materials translated, I figured I might as well give them these tools to help them be even more successful.

This particular Franchisee had more maturity and growth, and as part of their infrastructure, they had a dedicated, comfortable area in their office where classroom instruction could happen. Seeing this, I realized it was the perfect opportunity to run training workshops for them in between the supply chain support, to give them that little extra help while I was there.

The experience was amazing because the paisas really embraced the knowledge. Whenever we scheduled a workshop—about every couple of weeks—everyone showed up enthusiastic, appreciative, and grateful for the opportunity to have this additional learning. Not only that: they applied what they learned in their stores, and every time I visited a unit, they eagerly showed me how they were putting into practice everything I had taught them.

Let me tell you: Nothing is more motivating and inspiring for a teacher than seeing their students implement the knowledge you provide and see the tangible results of those lessons!

I spent two or three months in Medellín, helping the Master Franchisee with his stores. I truly loved my time there and especially enjoyed getting to know the people—they were wonderful.

Brazil, My Longest Assignment

My very last assignment as a nomad, and my longest as a Training Specialist, was in Brazil, with a Master Franchisee experiencing significant, aggressive growth at the time. His main office was in São Paulo, but I was assigned to a secondary city: Rio de Janeiro, where they had between seven and 10 units and yet no leader to oversee those operations.

Imagine having that many units and no one to supervise them! This experience helped me understand how critical the District Manager role is. You may have amazing managers in your organization, but without a District Manager to supervise them and hold them accountable to the required standards, some people will slack off on those standards.

That was exactly what was happening in Rio, not because they weren't amazing people, but because, when you are busy and trying to keep up, it is hard to remember and go back to the basic brand standards.

So, I stepped in to run operations as District Manager while the new Director of Operations or District Manager was hired. For over six months, I oversaw, supervised, visited, brought the units up to standard, and coached and trained team members. I was also responsible for training the new Multi–Unit Leader on all the brand standards and procedures, and how we ran the District Manager position.

By the way, that’s also part of where the American Franchise Academy’s District Manager Training Program came from.

Once the new District Manager was able to take over operations, I supervised him for a while, and then I eventually left because my position was no longer needed.

Somos Multi Conference in Brazil

On a side note, I want to share something very special: as I’m writing this blog post, I just got back from a recent trip to Brazil. That was my third time in this amazing country. I was there for the Somos Multi Conference in São Paulo, Brazil, which I also attended in 2025.

This conference is dedicated specifically to educating, developing, and sharing best practices and networking for Multi-Unit Franchisees in Brazil.

I was there as a keynote speaker, and I was so happy and honored to be invited by the community organization and Dennis Santini (thank you very much!) I really loved my experience there, and I can't wait to go back next year to bring some of my knowledge and the lessons I’ve learned throughout my journey to that conference.

The Language Barrier

As I’ve shared in previous blog posts, I’m originally from Guatemala, so Spanish is my primary language. English, of course, is my secondary language, even though I think it's flipped now because I'm much more comfortable speaking English than Spanish. Even though I didn’t speak Portuguese, the Franchisor gave me this assignment.

The language barrier was quite challenging. While Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish have some similarities, there aren't many, and without knowing the language, I couldn’t really have a proper, accurate conversation or really teach anything. And remember: this is late 1994, early 1995. There were no TV channels or radio programs in English, and very few people in that country spoke English.

So, I went through what we call “total immersion language training”. Thanks to that, within a couple of months, I could speak not proper Portuguese, but “Portunhol”. So, by month two or three, I was teaching product quality classes in Portunhol in a way that they could, kind of, sort of, understand me.

We also hired a local translator to translate the Spanish tools I had so we could use them as training materials for both the Rio de Janeiro team and the São Paulo team, because I decided to take this other training as the secondary opportunity to develop in this country. This was critical not only to maintain consistent brand standards but also so they could use them as reference materials.

Now that I think about it, I believe that is part of what made my franchise career successful and helped me support Franchisees: anywhere I went, I took that job as if it were my own company.

3 Lessons from my Last Nomad Experience

Brazil was an amazing experience, and we were able to truly improve operations while I was there, even though my own metric of success didn’t happen here, because the Master Franchisee didn’t offer me a job to stay and work with him, as it had happened in all the other countries I’ve worked in.

The one who did offer me a new job was my boss. While I was finishing my assignment, she called me to offer me a promotion as a Regional Director of Operations for Central America and the Caribbean.

That’s a story for my next blog post, but before I go there, let me share a couple of things I learned in this last phase of my nomad career.

The value of a learner’s mindset. We call this the “Shoshin mind.” I can proudly say that I have always had a Shoshin mind; that’s why I know that, even though I've been in this industry for over 35 years, I still have so much more to learn!
To me, having a Shoshin mind, that learner's mind, is key to succeeding in your business and life because it will open your mind to absorb new information, allowing you to keep getting better and better. Otherwise, you're being left behind.
But remember: people cannot be pushed to learn; they have to want to learn, but sadly, not everyone does… At least not until something shakes them up in their life or their career.
The value of structured training. One thing is having an operations manual with standards and procedures, but having a structured process to train people to absorb the standards is critical. However, not every Franchisor provides that. Even Domino’s, at the time, only really gave them the standard operations manual, not the processes to train people.
That's something that, over time and with the accumulated experiences from country to country and test after test, I was able to figure out and used as a base for how we teach management, operations, and leadership in our academic programs at the American Franchise Academy.
The value of tropicalization. During this stage, I understood the importance of documenting those processes to support operations. And, of course, how important it is to have them in your actual language.
That’s why, as we celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2026, we have made translations our next priority for next year. Our programs in English are great for the American market, but we are not limited to the United States.
We are determined to be an international education academy for everyone in the franchise and small business world who wants business, management, and leadership education in a structured way.