S3E52 Jon Ostenson How to earn between $150K and $250K with a non-food franchise

S3E52 – Jon Ostenson – How to earn between $150K and $250K with a non-food franchise
Jon Ostenson – How to earn between $150K and $250K with a non-food franchise. My next guest left his corporate job to pursue a career in non-food franchising. Now today, he has a network of over 600 different franchise models that can help people escape the rat race and become full-time entrepreneurs. In this episode, we talk about some of the business models, including project-based revenue and recurring revenue, we also talk about which models can generate $1M/year in top-line revenue with 25% profit margins, and we talk about his process of finding the best franchise businesses for specific geographic locations. Please welcome Jon Ostenson.

Payback Time Podcast

A Podcast on Financial Independence. Hosted by Sean Tepper. If you want to learn how to escape the rat race, create passive income, or achieve financial freedom, you’ve come to the right place.

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Key Timecodes

  • (00:54) – Show intro and background history
  • (02:35) – Deeper into his background history and businesses model
  • (04:19) – How he started his franchising journey
  • (05:23) – Deeper into his business model and strategies
  • (06:40) – Few examples of the types of franchises he works with
  • (11:39) – Deeper into his strategies and investing model
  • (12:22) – How to achieve financial independence on exit day in this model
  • (14:33) – Which types of franchises have recurring revenue models
  • (16:06) – How to get involved with his business model~
  • (18:42) – How to choose the right franchise for each investor
  • (20:46) – It’s possible to work part time with that business model?
  • (23:10) – A key takeaway from the guest
  • (26:03) – What is the worst advice he ever received
  • (26:37) – What is the best advice he ever received
  • (27:38) – Guest contacts

Transcription

[00:00:04.540] – Intro
Hey, this is Sean Tepper, the host of Payback Time, an approachable and transparent podcast on financial independence. I’d like to bring on guests to hear authentic stories while giving you actionable takeaways you can use today. Let’s go. My next guest left his corporate job to pursue a career in non-food franchising. Now, today he has a network of over 600 different franchise models that can help people escape the rat race and become full-time entrepreneurs. In this episode, we talk about some of the business models, including project based revenue and reoccurring revenue. We also talk about which models can generate 1 million a year in top line revenue with 25 % profit margins. And we talk about his process of finding the best franchise businesses for specific geographic locations. Please welcome Jon Ostensen.
[00:00:55.250] – Sean
Jon, welcome to the show.
[00:00:56.650] – Jon
Sean, thanks for having me. I love the show and excited to be here with you.
[00:00:59.810] – Sean
Yeah, glad to have you. So why don’t you take us off and tell us about your background?
[00:01:03.950] – Jon
Yeah. Based here in Atlanta, Georgia, wife and three young kids, and like so many of your listeners, spent many years in the corporate world and had a good run post grad school and got to do some neat things consulting and then working with Carter’s, Ashkosh-Pagash, which is based out of Atlanta, a large worldwide clothing for children, and worked for the President, got stock options, got to do some neat things. We got those golden handcuffs that are hard to run away from. But after being there close to 10 years, I said, I’ve got to do something for myself. I’m tired of building someone else’s empire, ready to build my own. And I didn’t know what that looked like. And so for me, I sidesteped into what I’m doing today. I had the opportunity to step in as President of Shell Genie Franchise System. So I was still working for the man, if you will, but I had a lot more responsibility now and had the title, but got to support our franchisees all across North America. For me, that was the light bulb moment. That took place about eight years ago. And I just saw how franchising is much more than just fast food.
[00:02:01.520] – Jon
There are a lot of industries I never would have thought of, and I got to see all these different backgrounds that were participating and they got to become business owners and something they never had experience with in the past. So fell in love with franchising. Long story short, ended up partnering with the founder of Shellp Genie. We spun off. We’ve invested in franchises ourselves now on the franchisee side of the table. So I’ve sat on both sides and continue to invest actively in franchises myself. But I’ve got good people that run them and allows me to spend most of my time helping others do the same, to get plugged in and then take it to the next step.
[00:02:35.560] – Sean
Cool. Before we dive into what you’re doing today, I’d like to talk about that transition moment from corporate America to what you’re doing now. You mentioned the Golden Handcuffs. I tell you what, we have a lot of people on the podcast that they have great benefits. They’ve got a great 401(k) match and they tell themselves every day I got to get out of this corporate job. Yet a moment later, they’re like, I don’t know if I can give up the benefits here. There. Let’s start here. When did you officially leave corporate America?
[00:03:07.650] – Jon
Yeah, it took me a couple of years. It was probably seven and a half years ago and had started thinking about it for a few years before that. I started talking to different private equity companies out there. I wasn’t sure where I was going to plug in, so I was trying to get ideas of what existed out there or where I could potentially fit. For me, it was a big step, just going from a public company to a private company. That was a big change. But I would tell all of your listeners that you’re in the mainstream. Those are the conversations I have all day, every day with candidates and clients all across North America that are saying, Hey, it’s been a good run, but I’m ready to do something else. There’s more to it. I want to spend time with my family. I want to have a business that I can take a lot of pride at, where I’m calling the shots, is there a risk? Yeah, but working for someone else is even riskier, in my humble opinion. So they’re ready to bet on themselves. And a lot of times it’s taking soul-searching to lead them to that point.
[00:03:55.440] – Jon
But they realize there’s a trifecta to business ownership. It’s not only the cash flow, which can be equivalent to an income, but you’re also building an asset that you can sell down the road. You’re also able to hire your kids in your business, and you’re able to realize all sorts of tax strategies that you just can’t as a W2 employee. So yeah, I love helping people have those light bulb moments.
[00:04:19.590] – Sean
Sure. Now, it sounds like you bootstrapped it a couple of years, you said two years. Is that right? In other words, you were with Corporate America. You were building a franchise on the side for two years.
[00:04:32.210] – Jon
I’m sorry to clarify. So when I first got into franchising, I was on the franchisor side. I did not buy a business. I stepped in from the corporate side of franchising as a franchisor and ran our business supporting all of our franchisees across North America. It was after leaving the franchise or side that I did participate in now buying franchises myself as a franchisee. So I went public company, private company, and then business owner. Love that time during shelf genie, worked for the founder and felt like I was running my own show, even though technically I wasn’t.
[00:05:03.210] – Sean
Got it. Shelf Genie, I’m not familiar with his brand. Could you.
[00:05:06.010] – Jon
– Yeah. Custom pull out shelving for kitchens and pantries. Great product. We had probably 75 owners across North America, and they were helping customers really with getting access and additional storage in their kitchens, which is the room we all live in, after all.
[00:05:22.420] – Sean
Right on. So you did that. You were on the, would you say, the corporate side, franchising side, and then you want to be like an owner-operator of a particular franchise?
[00:05:33.600] – Jon
Yeah. So, as President of Shell Genie, supporting all of our franchisees. And then from there, spun off with the founder and we became franchisees of other brands. We started buying into other brands as a franchisee.
[00:05:44.660] – Sean
Got it. Okay. So it’s a pretty seamless transition there. It sounds like you didn’t have to, for example, bootstrap. I say that because I did that. For example, with my own company, I worked for a full-time somewhere. You bootstrap something on the side part time until the revenues are sustaining, then you jump ship. I like those stories because people don’t go all in. They reduce the risk, you could say.
[00:06:09.120] – Jon
Well, in going to shelf, Genie, I reduced my salary by 80 %. So even though I went and gave up a lot of benefits, I believed in what we’re building and then ultimately, I split off and went off on my own from there. So it put together some savings ahead of that. But no, it’s great. I’d say two-thirds for our clients now are getting something going on the side, what we call semi-absentee, like you’re alluding to you can call it bootstrapping, but it’s, hey, let’s keep the day job. Let’s start building something in the interim that we could potentially step into full-time.
[00:06:40.620] – Sean
Awesome. Well, that’s a perfect segway. Let’s get into some of the type of business models and types of franchises you’re helping your customers with. Can you give us a few examples?types
[00:06:50.750] – Jon
Yeah. We work with about 600 different companies out there, so you see a lot of different industries represented. But where we’ve seen a lot of interest in the last couple of years are in things I jokingly call them boring businesses sometimes. They’re not all boring, but that would be home and property services, things from dumpsters to insulation to gutters to floor coatings, things we’re still doing some oil changes in different markets. Lots of interest in health and wellness, and’t have to worry about that. That’s a wide umbrella of a lot of different types of businesses. But end of the day, where our clients are gravitating are things that people are going to spend on regardless the economy. It’s the things you care about. It’s your kids, your pets, your aging parents, your to some degree, your homes, your health. So businesses that fall into these buckets, specific examples from this past year where we’ve seen probably the most interest, Kids Soccer. We’ve done seven or eight client placements there. Senior Care with a unique model that’s different than all the other noise that’s out there in the market today. I think we’ve had nine or 10 clients placed, a lot in the property services arena, the gutters.
[00:07:54.210] – Jon
I think we’ve had nine or 10 clients jumping there, everyone from a Wall Street attorney to doctors to insurance backgrounds to corporate backgrounds. So a wide array that had no experience in that industry before they said, hey, there’s opportunity. Now, I just pulled the trigger myself on yet another franchise. I think I’m up to five or six now. This is a unique one. And I’m putting the locations down in South Florida just due to the demographics down there. But this is one where the franchise order is actually going to run the business for me. It’s in the customer orthotics and wellness space. We cater to the senior population. So every now and then you’ll have a few franchises where the Franchisor will offer to run the business for you in what’s called a passive model. Those are very rare in franchising. Only about four or five companies out there do it. But obviously, when we do have those, our clients love them.
[00:08:43.780] – Sean
Right. Franchisor would be, correct me if I’m wrong here, that would be like the corporate entity franchisee would be like John or Jane Doe saying, hey, I want to become a business owner. I want that franchise. I want to run it myself.
[00:08:57.440] – Jon
Exactly.
[00:08:58.220] – Sean
Got it. Okay. All right. Can you share names, some of the names of these franchises with us, and then we can dive into the model a little bit?
[00:09:07.930] – Jon
Yeah. What I can do is I can describe them. The brands typically don’t want us, prefer giving the specifics. But more than happy to share those if people reach out to me individually, more than happy to get those away. But no, the Senior Care one, it’s one where you have a founder that has been in the industry for over 30 years in the Senior Care space and said, hey, there’s a better mousetrap to be had. And let’s create a model that’s based more on recruiting and serving as a vendor rather than the middleman. As an owner, you don’t have to have a large team of caregivers. Instead, you’re matching up caregivers with the families. I’m making it sound very simple here, but ultimately, and then you’re processing payroll and doing that piece for the family. Just such a need out there in that senior space. Obviously, that’s a growing demographic out there. Oftentimes, we’re working with kids of the seniors. Youth soccer, not one of our clients that eventually ended up there ever thought they would be in youth soccer. That was not on their radar. And probably 90 % of our clients come to us not knowing what they want until they see it right there in front of them and they say, Wait a minute.
[00:10:09.920] – Jon
It’s a great idea. Our community needs that. I like what the day-to-day looks like there. Property services, I’ll just use the gutter example. No one came to us looking to get into gutters, but when they understood the financials behind this business and the culture that the founders created, as we’re talking more gutter installation versus just cleaning. Average franchise in their system is doing about one and a half million, and they’ve continued to grow that comp every year, and they’re doing about a 25 % bottom line margin after you pay all the expenses. That’s real money. And that’sThat may not be year one. Maybe that’s year two, year three, you ramp up to that. But when you start comparing that to what some of the corporate gigs are out there, it’s pretty attractive. And that’s the reason why you see attorneys and doctors getting involved. Not everyone has a 25 % bottom line margin, but I would say a lot of the opportunities we work with are 15 to 20 %. At this moment in time, here’s another example. This one is a little bit more forward. It’s not boring, in my opinion. It’s a men’s testosterone clinic.
[00:11:10.820] – Jon
And this is one, gosh, there’s such an awareness out there. If you look at YouTube or anywhere, every guy knows having conversations with their doctor about, should I be looking into testosterone replacement? And this is one that’s quickly going to become the largest one. It’s definitely the fastest growing out there in a very fragmented market. So we just have tons of clients jumping on board wanting to be part of a first mover. And it’s a clinic that does men’s health with the biggest focus being on TRT, great financial. Yeah.
[00:11:39.440] – Sean
I love the breakdown of different business models here. And thanks for giving us ideas of some of the profit margins on these businesses. Using basic math, let’s say it’s between 15 and 25 % bottom line on top line revenue of a million. It’s like, okay, so your take home is between 150 and 250. Okay, there’s a lot of corporate jobs out there that don’t even pay that. That’s pretty solid.
[00:12:05.000] – Jon
And you can write off expenses. If you’re really trying to put apples to apples, I mean, that’s the beautiful thing. I just set up a cash balance defined benefits plan myself last week. First time I’ve done one of those, but essentially allows you to put a whole lot more in a retirement, save it from the tax impact today. And there’s just things you can’t do as a W2.
[00:12:22.430] – Sean
Right. And then I look at the exit. Let’s say you work on this thing for five, six, seven years, and these are a lot of service businesses. So I’m thinking about a multiple of like two X, maybe three X, maybe four X on EBITDA, maybe revenue. But it’s like, okay, you might have a solid payday to exit, and that might be enough to reach financial independence or retirement.
[00:12:47.850] – Jon
You’re exactly right. In a service based business, I oftentimes use revenue as a metric. So the rule of thumb I use is 0.75 to 1.25 of revenue, which translates to exactly what you’re saying, 2, 3, 4 EBITDA for an exit. And there was actually an interesting study that came out a couple of years ago where they looked at over 2,000 transactions across the 10-year period in light kind industries. So essentially exits of different businesses. What they found was those that were franchised traded at a multiple one and a half times those that were not franchised. And so happy to share that study with anyone that reaches out to us. But that was really eye opening because I think when you’re paying a multiple for a resell business, let’s say that buyer, there’s risk involved. Even on paper, hey, it’s cash flowing, it looks great, there’s market awareness, we’ve got a team in place. What if a key team member leaves next day? What if you lose a key customer that next day? You’re in business all of a sudden for yourself. I think there’s some comfort knowing there’s a franchise or on the sideline that you can go to for training, you can go to with questions that’s got your back.
[00:13:54.230] – Jon
So I think that’s why you see that multiple hire.
[00:13:56.060] – Sean
That’s brilliant. That’s a brilliant perspective because there are systems, there’s standard operating procedures. You go to corporate right away. I need help. What do I do? We got this guy over here who’s two hours away. He’s looking for something he can fill in. Whereas you create some custom business. I think, on my business right away. It’s a custom SaaS, like Findings. If I sell this thing, it’s like, yeah, there’s going to be a bit of a handoff period, that’s for sure.
[00:14:24.360] – Jon
Yeah, exactly right. So when you sell it, you’re not having to train that next guy you can send to the franchise or something.
[00:14:32.030] – Sean
Yeah, that’s right. You mentioned, circling back into the business models, I look at the gutter business installation. To me, it’s a project-based business. Do you have any models or franchises that are more reoccurring revenue models?
[00:14:49.090] – Jon
Yeah, definitely. I’d say large ticket transactions, like you’re talking about, and you’ve got the recurring revenue models, and a lot of clients really like that. Certainly anything in the fitness realm is recurring. That one I just mentioned, the testosterone one, that’s recurring. The senior care that I mentioned would be recurring. Now, the only thing in senior care is you do have people pass away from time to time. So you do have to get new customers. But yeah, quite a few in the recurring arena, and it’s such a wide spectrum. Even we’ve placed clients before in business coaching. Just to give you an idea. I mean, that’s recurring revenue right there. There are some in the property services, whether it be pool cleaning, whether it be quite a few in the pet arena now, which is more of pet cleaning or pet boarding. Those are recurring revenue type models, certainly the youth soccer. So just zeroing in on those examples I previously shared. And there are some businesses where you have national accounts. They’ve built up a large enough footprint and you’re able to draft off of that. I always have my clients. When we go through the process, let’s ask the branches or not only what are your differentiators from customer standpoint, but what are your true value adds?
[00:15:53.790] – Jon
What am I getting for this royalty stream? What innovation is going to be there in national accounts, proprietary products, like proprietary service, really wanting to make sure that you’re getting what you’re paying for.
[00:16:05.410] – Sean
Right. Let’s talk about if somebody wants to get involved, what does that process look like? Minimum requirements. Typically, do they need to put any their own personal money down or can they go to a bank, get a loan? Maybe walk us through some of those details.
[00:16:21.440] – Jon
Yeah. So hitting first on the funding side, I’d say a lot of the opportunities our clients are getting involved in when you look at the franchise fee, startup cost, and several months of working capital, it’s all grouped in. I’d say a lot of them these days, certainly there’s some very large ones, but many are in the 150-250 ballpark from an investment standpoint. Some of our clients are using cash to fund that. Some are using maybe 50,000 of cash plus an SBA loan. I’d say typically you’re putting in at least 50,000 from your own pocket. Some are using an old retirement plan, IRA or 401(k), you can roll it over through what’s called the Robbs program, so you don’t have the tax impacts. And we’ve got partners to help our clients with all of these. Some people will use the HeLocke or self-directed IRA, there’s a lot of different ways to go about it that we consult on. But from a process standpoint, a beautiful thing, I’m essentially a buyer’s agent. Think about the real estate model representing my clients. Our clients never pay us a nickel. We’re funded by the franchise companies, placements happened. It’s for them, it’s a sales and marketing expense.
[00:17:19.580] – Jon
So it’s a very clean model. And like I said, we work with over 600 different franchise companies. What I’ll do with a client is I’ll get on a call. We go through some questions. We’ll talk through their situation. I’ll give them some color of what we’re seeing out there in markets like theirs. And then I have them fill out a very simple profile. It takes two or three minutes. And then usually about a week later, I come back to them with the opportunities that, hey, if I’m in your shoes, here are the 10 or so opportunities I want to be looking at in your market that are available. And here’s why I like each one for your situation. From there, our clients would usually narrow it down to maybe three or four, and we would then make those introductions to the franchisors. They may get off the first call say, Hey, John, that one’s not for me. After all, it’s totally fine. We’ll hit pause on it. We can always bring others back in for consideration as well. And what’s so fascinating is it’s usually the one that’s number four in our clients’ minds when they get on the phone that they end up falling in love with.
[00:18:13.350] – Jon
And so it’s cool to see those light bulb moments take place in real time. And where we get our validation is when ultimately our clients come back and buy additional locations or they come back and buy additional companies through us. We just see that time and time again and that’s what gets us excited. So the goal through the whole franchising process is to get them as much information as possible. They get to talk to other franchisees. They get to see the business from all different angles prior to ultimately signing that franchise with Premos.
[00:18:42.860] – Sean
I like that part of your job a lot because you do the heavy lifting on the analytics to understand what markets have the highest demand for this specific franchise. Because some people, they might be at their end of the line with corporate America, I’ve got to get out of here. And they’re like, I don’t want to make a rash decision into the wrong franchise. Whereas you can say based on your location, these are probably some of the best opportunities.
[00:19:10.600] – Jon
Yeah. And not every franchise is created equal. There are good ones and there are bad ones, just like any industry out there. And the lenses through which I view it, it’s obviously the financial model, but business has to be there, the competitive advantages within their industry. Then I put so much weight on that leadership team. That’s who you’re getting into bed with. That’s going to be your business partner. And the older I get, the more importance I put on the people that are involved. And so, knowing these leadership teams, that’s a big piece of value that we bring to the table. And then I’ve been very blessed. Last couple of years, I have done more placements than anyone else out there. And so it gives me visibility first-hand into what’s resonating with different backgrounds and why. I bring that in and work with the clients.
[00:19:50.570] – Sean
Do you work in all 50 states or close to?
[00:19:53.430] – Jon
We do. In Canada, yes.
[00:19:55.460] – Sean
Nice. Okay, very cool. Let’s take a quick commercial break. Have you ever lost money in the stock markets? Maybe you heard or saw a comment on YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, or another social platform, or maybe you just received bad advice from a friend. Yeah, I think we’ve all been there. Most people lose money in the stock market because they make decisions based on emotions. What if you could remove emotions from investing? What if you could make consistent returns in the stock market based solely on logic? And what if there’s a software that handled that logic for you? Introducing Ticker, a platform that helps you manage your own investments with confidence. Get started today with a free trial. Visit Ticker. Com. That’s T-Y-K-R. Com. Again, Ticker. Com. Based on the majority of the people you work with, would you say most of them jump all in? Or do you get a good percentage that say, hey, I want to do this part-time for 3, 6, 9, 12 months, something like that?
[00:21:00.240] – Jon
Yeah, that’s a great question. I’d say a third of our clients roughly jump in as the owner-operators. Most of them have the anticipation of running it for a period of time and then stepping back, putting a manager in place and maybe moving on to that next thing. But about two-thirds of our clients would say, Hey, I either want to keep my day job or keep my current business and get something going over here. And that means typically putting a manager in place that you’re now managing the manager. And the great thing in franchising is you’ve got a franchisor that’s also helping with the management of that manager. They can be that technical resource on a day to day basis. I am candid with my clients. I don’t sugarcoat it. I say, hey, there’s still a lot of work in standing up a business in that model. The franchising does make it much more doable than trying to do it out on that franchise. Right.
[00:21:43.560] – Sean
I have to touch on a fun conversation I had with Kim Daly, who’s in your space. I think I had her on about three or four months ago. She runs into every once in a while somebody who gets into analysis, paralysis mode. They just want more data, more data, more and they just want to sit there analyzing for two months, three months. What do you say to these people after you presented them with all the data? What do you say to them to get them off the bench and in the game or just part ways and move on to somebody else?
[00:22:14.250] – Jon
Yeah. I mean, ultimately, I’m not going to push anyone and everyone’s got their own way of processing data. I will say the timing is never great for buying a business. Life will always get in the way. And if you’re looking for reasons, then you’ll find reasons. But so many of our clients do, and we run into that sometimes too. But ultimately, I want what’s right for the client. I want them to be able to sleep at night. I want them excited. I do encourage them to have a couple of conversations with franchiseors. There’s zero commitment on their end. But I’ve just seen too many examples where someone was reluctant or their spouse was reluctant, then they have that conversation. And again, the light bulb goes off. And we can sit on the sidelines theorizing about businesses. But when 90 % of our clients end up purchasing something that was never on their radar until you have the conversations, you just don’t know. So we’re willing to do the hard work on our end. For clients, we’re willing to jump on two or three calls, and that usually works out pretty well.
[00:23:09.100] – Sean
Sure. That’s great. Before we jump to the rapid fire round, is there one key takeaway or a bit of advice you can give to somebody who wants to become a business owner or achieve financial independence?
[00:23:22.880] – Jon
Yeah. We see so many people out there that talk about it and think about it, and explain that one day they’re going to do it. And again, the timing is never right and there’s always a reason. So I’d say get off the couch, go through the process. I just see too many people hypothesize and we call want to be pre nurse. And for me personally, I could have done the corporate role forever. Again, there’s attractive reasons to stay, but I never once look back. I absolutely love what I do. I tension myself every day. It’s not right for everybody, but it is right for the majority of people, I would say, especially this day and age. I mean, working for someone else who wants to do that for that long. You only have one life. I mean, get out there. Service as an example to your kids. Service as an example to others. I was in Charleston, South Carolina, all last week with a handful of guys. We’re all small business owners. We take two trips a year. We go out on retreats and we talk a little bit of business, but we have a whole lot of fun as well.
[00:24:24.360] – Jon
And we’re wearing shorts and T-shirts and I never looked back.
[00:24:29.560] – Sean
Living the life. Good for you. That’s awesome. This last snippet was very motivational. Thank you for that. Let’s jump into the Rapid Fire round. This is the part of the episode where we get to find out who John really is. If you can try to answer each question in 15 seconds or less. Are you ready?
[00:24:48.250] – Jon
Let’s do it.
[00:24:49.040] – Sean
What is your favorite podcast?
[00:24:51.370] – Jon
Outside of your podcast, I’d say Entrepreneurs on Fire with J. L. D, had the chance to go on there several times. He’s been a great partner to us. I love catching the content myself.
[00:25:01.790] – Sean
Nice. I do enjoy that podcast myself. All right. What is a recent book you read and would recommend?
[00:25:08.510] – Jon
Yeah, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardie. It’s not rocket science, but great reminders. Again, very motivational that it’s small decisions we make on a daily basis in every aspect of our lives that really leads to those outsized compound results.
[00:25:21.470] – Sean
Awesome. All right, to the movie question. What is your favorite movie?
[00:25:25.510] – Jon
Now, I am not much of a movie guy, so I would have to go back a few years to just love. To me, that was motivational. I love his humble approach. And yeah, that’s a classic.
[00:25:36.910] – Sean
It is a great film. I have to keep it in the same vein here. Do you watch TV shows or you don’t really watch a lot of TV at all. Watch a.
[00:25:46.560] – Jon
Lot of sports. My Georgia Bulldogs, they’re back-to-back defending Champions and the College football, which we’re on The Braves. I love sports. I probably watch a little more of the news than I should. But ultimately, when you have three young kids, you watch whatever your kids want.
[00:25:59.530] – Sean
To watch. That’s it.
[00:26:00.910] – Jon
Yeah. That’s probably my best answer.
[00:26:03.180] – Sean
There you go. All right, a few business questions here. What is the worst advice you ever received?
[00:26:09.890] – Jon
Worst advice would be, I think, just play it safe. Blend in, do what others are doing. And I see that even in franchising. So many franchise or so many others who do what I do are trying to just be another flavor of the same thing. And so, again, my book, Non-Food Franchising, I’m going against the grain. I’m speaking to what I think people really care about. I think just blending in would be the advice that I would stay away from.
[00:26:36.720] – Sean
Yes. Good. Very good. All right. Put that equation. What is the best advice you ever received?
[00:26:43.580] – Jon
Yeah, again, you really know me, they’re on the personal side. My grandfather, before he passed away, he was a minister for many years. I said, Grandpa, what’s the one piece of advice after 80 years of living, that you would pass on? He said, Trust God. It’s all your heart and they’ll take care of just about anything. That’s a mantra. That’s a North Star for me personally. I believe a lot of myself, but I believe even more in the higher power.
[00:27:07.270] – Sean
Right. A lot of wisdom there. I can agree. Last question here is a time-machine question. If you could go back in time to give your younger self advice, what age would you visit and what would you say?
[00:27:18.140] – Jon
Yeah, it would be coming out of college, out of the University of Georgia. I went into consulting with Accenture. I got to spend six months in India. I had a great experience, but I was putting so much pressure on myself at the time to figure out what that career path is. And I think the advice to myself would be just relax, enjoy the journey. You have no idea where it’s going to take you and just keep saying yes. Awesome.
[00:27:38.890] – Sean
All right, Jon, where can the audience reach you?
[00:27:41.810] – Jon
Yeah, come out to franbridgeconsulting. Com, which I’m sure will be linked to in the show notes. Follow me on LinkedIn. I put out content on a daily basis. We’ve got a great tribe out there. And yeah, we’d love to share a copy of our book, Non-Food Franchising, with all of your listeners. Free copy. So come out to our website, just share email address. We’ll get the digital copies over to you. Certainly, if you would like to buy it on Amazon, All Profits go to a great charity that we support, Hope International. So we’d love to share a free copy of that.
[00:28:10.830] – Sean
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. This is great.
[00:28:13.390] – Jon
Great. Thanks for having me.
[00:28:14.560] – Sean
All right. See you, John. Hey, I’d like to say thank you for checking out this podcast. I know there’s a lot of other podcasts you could be listening to, so thanks for spending some time with me. Also, if you have a moment, could you please head over to Apple Podcast and leave a review? The more reviews we get, the more Apple will share this podcast with the world. So thanks for doing that. And last thing, if you do hear any stocks mentioned on this podcast, please keep in mind this podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please do not make a buy or sell decision-based solely on what you hear. All right, thanks for your time. Talk to you later. See you.