Ready to advance your career?

Name: ONLINE EVENT: Transition Café Monthly Executive Networking Meeting
Start: 2025-05-14T15:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-05-14T16:30:00-04:00
Location: Online Event

Our meetings provide meaningful connections & Content for career transition

How can we help your career transition?

Our meetings focus solely on helping you improve your networking and job search skills and increase your contacts. In these productive working sessions, you will also receive feedback and suggestions to enhance your presentations and career search activities.

Get connected

Meet some of the brightest and most accomplished executives and professionals in Michigan and beyond. Our meetings make it easy for you to grow and nurture your professional network!

easy access

Our meetings are held online, eliminating travel time and expense, and allowing you to log on from anywhere!

Inspiration

Hear and share success stories and gain insight on job search and career development strategies!

Join Us for an Upcoming Event!

View our calendar

Learn skills to grow your career from the comfort of home or office.

Learn strategies and techniques from the pros!
Be introduced to other influencers that may help you “get a foot in the door”.
Get valuable, honest feedback.
Build a community.

FAQS

Our attendees are primarily mid to senior level executives and professionals in job search or career transition.

Every other month we have an expert presenter on a timely job search or professional development topic or a panel of experts on working with recruiters or career transition success. In the alternate months, we employ a “Peer Advisory” format in which each attendee gets a few minutes to tell us about their functional expertise and what they’re looking for, and then receive feedback from the group. We also encourage everyone to “Pick 5” other attendees to schedule one-on-one sessions with, to gain a better understanding of how they can help each other!

As long as the meetings are held online, there will be NO FEE to attend!

The day before each meeting, you’ll receive a “Meeting Format” document that will include a short list of questions to answer in your personal introduction. We ask that attendees spend some time prior to the meeting preparing their answers as briefly and succinctly as possible, in order to stay within time limits yet have maximum impact.

Here is the link to our events page. Click any event title to view details and register for an upcoming event. A couple of hours before the meeting, you’ll receive a roster of everyone who is registered, along with the Zoom information.

Meet our Facilitators

Mark Cory

Mark Cory has participated in and/or lead Transition Café (and its predecessor, ExecuNet) meetings since 2004 and has connected thousands of professionals over the years! Mark has over 40 years of business management experience. He has been owner/operator of Franchise Network (FranNet) of Michigan since 2002. As a franchise placement specialist with FranNet, Mark assists individuals in career transition on a daily basis. For those desiring to explore franchise ownership as a career and/or investment alternative, he provides educational seminars and one-on-one consulting to strategically guide them through the search and selection process. With almost 300 franchise opportunities to choose from in a multitude of industries and investment levels, Mark helps his clients find just the right fit based on their interests, goals, personality, skills and resources. His services are provided to clients on a no-fee, no-obligation basis. The many clients that he has placed over the years own and operate hundreds of franchise units and several are top performers in their systems.

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Mark earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from the University of Michigan, and spent three years as a CPA with Ernst & Whinney, auditing mostly privately held companies and not-for-profit organizations. He spent the next 20 years with Olympia Entertainment, Inc. in Detroit, where he attained the level of Senior Vice President. Over the years, Mark had responsibility for multiple disciplines, including finance, IT, marketing and sales, operations, human resources and new business development.

Mark is a member of the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club of Grosse Pointe (past President) and the Michigan Association of CPA’s. He has served as a school board member, a pension fund trustee, and as a church and civic volunteer. Mark was elected by his peers and completed a two-year term on FranNet’s Franchise Advisory Council (FAC), and over the years has received the “Rising Star” award and several “Commitment to Excellence” and “Top Performer” awards.

In addition to owning the Michigan FranNet franchise, Mark also owned a second franchise, Little Caesars of Emporia, KS, from 2010-19, in partnership with his brother.

Jodi Ellis

Jodi has been in the recruiting industry for close to 25 years and is currently the Director of Executive Recruitment with Harvey Hohauser & Associates. She manages the executive recruitment process to identify and attract key leaders to fill critical positions. She partners with the clients to gain a solid understanding of the position requirements and corporate culture and then customizes a recruitment strategy. Honesty and transparency are paramount to Jodi in the identification of the right fit and it also produces expeditious results. Jodi is approachable and adaptive. She is professional and warm while helping to guide executives through a sensitive transition. Her attention to detail, disciplined style and poise cultivates a professional constitution that is deeply rooted. She feels that open and honest communication is key to establishing long-term connections. She has a strong character and is thorough and respectful, which fosters long-standing relationships.

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Jodi’s spare time is spent with her family. Her son and daughter are her first thoughts of the day, her motivation, her growth, and her love. They are active explorers, travelers, and camping enthusiasts. She believes in teaching her children strong character qualities, morals and ethics which are clear when you meet them. She expects a lot from herself, and personal growth is most important, such as setting intentions, taking moments throughout the day to reflect on what she is grateful for, practicing self-care and striving to do and be more for herself and those around her.

Brigitte Betser

A serial networker and connector, Brigitte’s entire career has been focused on helping folks in transition find their next perfect role. Whether helping to place caregivers with the right family or guiding individuals exploring career options, her expertise and skill in developing relationships makes her a strong resource for all in transition.

Brigitte has valuable knowledge driven by her past franchising experiences in executive management, franchise sales, franchise training, and franchise support that make her a strong resource for people who are considering business ownership as the next phase of their lives, or as an additional income stream as they remain employed corporately. She provides free seminars and consulting to those who are interested in franchising and business ownership.

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Brigitte grew up in franchising where her family operated a successful Master Franchising in the State of Michigan and Northern Indiana. But it wasn’t until after completing college that Brigitte began her career as a marketing representative with a home care company that launched franchising shortly thereafter.

Before joining FranNet in 2011, Brigitte spent almost 13 years with ComForcare Senior Services, a Bloomfield Hills, MI based company, where she gained expert knowledge in the recruitment, training and support of franchisees. Brigitte’s most recent role at ComForcare allowed her to oversee the development department, managing a team that spent their time recruiting franchise owners around the world.

Invest in yourself.

BUSINESS OWNERSHIP as an alternative career or ADDITIONAL INCOME STREAM.

Could Business/Franchise Ownership be an OPTION for you? Business ownership and/or franchising are definitely NOT for everyone. Yet for many, being the owner could provide a desirable alternative to traditional employment or a better way to invest capital, produce supplemental income and offer continued involvement or an exit strategy for the future. Before proceeding with such a venture, it’s important to determine that you have a very compelling reason to do so. Here are some frequently cited reasons that new business owners articulate:

Experiencing “Career Pains”, e.g. overbearing boss, corporate politics and bureaucracy, threat of downsizing.
Being a victim of age discrimination in the job market.
Tired of trading hours for dollars, “When I stop working, the money stops!”
Currently own a business, but need to diversify as a hedge against industry threats or to accommodate a family member.
Not seeing the Corporate World as a long-term solution for reaching income potential and providing the flexible lifestyle desired. This is often the case with Millennials and even GenXers, who may also fear missing out on ground-floor opportunities.

The franchise model can mitigate the inherent risk of business ownership by providing a proven, systematic approach to starting and staying in business.

Have you stopped short of looking into franchising because you think it’s all fast food, it’s all too expensive, it’s too time intensive, or requires prior industry experience?

If so, you may want to think again. Franchising offers an array of categories and investment levels (starting at $50K). There are various points of entry ranging from full-time owner-operator to a multi-unit developer, to the semi-absentee investor. You may not even have to quit your day job or abandon your job search to become a franchise owner!

Rarely is prior industry experience required, as the franchisor is more interested in the transferable skills that you bring to the table from prior employment that can be put to effective use by learning and following their system.

Want to learn more? If so, here’s a great place to start:

Mark Cory and Brigitte Betser, operators of FranNet of Michigan (est. 2002) are engaged in helping aspiring entrepreneurs select the right franchise business opportunity by strategically guiding them through the search and selection process. Mark and Brigitte know that investing in a business can be a fearful decision, so they’ve designed seminars and a consulting process to help people manage the fear in order to determine if business ownership is the right path for them, and to discover the wide range of investment levels and categories. Learn about our seminars and online events at michiganfranchise.blogspot.com.

Schedule a brief, no-fee, no-obligation phone consultation with Mark or Brigitte to address career options and determine if franchising could be a viable path to explore? Please select a convenient time at www.calendly.com/markcory or www.calendly.com/bbetser. Alternatively, visit the contact page to send us an email.

What People are Saying

I landed at Allison Transmission at the end of July. It is a good fit with my experience and knowledge. Thanks to you and the opportunities you provided through Transition Café such as networking, meeting great people, recruiter events, coaching and mentoring from experts, etc. I learned and improved my skills for job searching and the meetings helped me a lot.

Carlos Pinotti

I can’t thank you enough for your support and advice over these last several months. I have met a lot of great people, including you, and I will miss seeing everyone and attending the meetings. I will definitely keep your group in mind as I hear of other opportunities in the area.

Susan Mann

Thanks so much for all you do to support the in job transition community. It is so appreciated. I just wanted to let you know that I have accepted a position leading HR for a mid-size manufacturing company. Thanks so much for your support. I will keep you in mind and do not hesitate to reach out if I can help you.

Lisa Bell

I am so happy to inform you that I have accepted a new position as the Plant Nutrient Director of Operations. In this new role, I will have responsibilities for 6 facilities located in Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina. Thank you and the Transition Cafe members for your support and encouragement. Continuous networking was the key to landing this role (as well as my previous position).

Scott Tatro

“The networking event was amazing! In fact, it was provincially directed. The speaker spoke directly to my current status. It was that day that I took a huge step towards my dream. Thank you and I look forward to the next event.”

Craig Tillman

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