Welcome back to Vision Pros. I'm very excited
to introduce to you John Ostenson, and he's calling
in from Atlanta. Got a really cool business going.
So, John, welcome to the show. Tell me a little
bit more about you, and then we'll dive right
in. well thanks for having me sue yeah excited
to be here and uh yeah based here in atlanta
wife three young kids and uh you know we we love
being active here in the community and uh you're
very very thankful for um the life that we get
to lead but um no my background spent many years
in the corporate world like many of your listeners
and always had that dream of business ownership
didn't know what it looked like and it was very
thankful for the time that i had in the corporate
world is a really good run but uh It was about
nine years ago that I saw the light and kind
of tiptoed into franchising. I hadn't been on
my radar previously, so I know we'll jump into
it here, but that's kind of the backstory, and
now I get to help others do the same. That's
really cool. I love that. This is what entrepreneurs
do. You had a problem. You solved it for yourself.
Now you help other people with that same problem.
You can hold them by the hand and walk them past
the pitfalls. Absolutely. Fantastic. Well, let's
dive right in. Tell me all about your vision.
Yeah, you know, my vision, I mean, at the end
of the day, it's about creating freedom, flexibility.
It's about living life on your own terms. And
we've all heard this. I mean, it's become cliche
these days, but, you know, doing what you want,
when you want, with who you want, all those different
lines. I heard it quoted actually this morning.
So Hill Bloom said, you know, in the past, the
ultimate flex was, you know, you had a luxury
watch, a luxury car. You had a $200 bottle of
wine. He said. today's flex is being able to
take your kids swimming at 1 p .m on a wednesday
and that is just so true and so i surround myself
with business owners they're all living out the
same thing and like i said it's my desire to
help others see what i saw you know for the longest
time i was helping others build their empire
and now i'm building my own but now i'm giving
back by helping our clients begin to build their
empire so i don't have to work for the man forever
so that's kind of a long way of getting around
to to my why but it's uh freedom independence
and uh you know living your best life oh that's
so great and then tell me you know a little bit
more you know how did this come about where did
this vision come from one day you're sitting
in corporate and then what happened yeah you
know i i had the stock options i'd gotten the
mba i could have done the corporate thing forever
you know i enjoyed it but you know you only live
once and as kardashians say yellow right um i
always have that desire to to build my own thing
there's and i think that's the desire that so
many people have probably you know a lot of people
are sitting on sidelines today they talk about
business ownership they dream about entrepreneurship
you know maybe they consume some contents they
kind of feel like they're in the game but they
haven't actually stepped in and so uh you know
through a lot of praying a lot of networking
had the opportunity to step in as president of
shelf genie franchise system so i went for me
this was a big step i went from a large public
company managing earnings calls every quarter
to running a private company it was a company
where it was large we had about 100 franchisees
across north america and i came in i ran the
home office supported all of our franchisees
And for me, that was a light bulb moment where
I realized franchising is so much more than fast
food. You know, there's so many other industries
that were never on my radar. And I just saw how
all these diverse backgrounds all across the
country could come together under a shared system
of support. So all the things that we were doing
for them to set them up for success and how they
would interact with each other is kind of this
built in mastermind. And really, we were, like
I said, setting them up for success and supporting
them along the way, allowing them to live out
their dreams. And so fast forward, I ended up
partnering with the founder. We spun off. We've
invested in franchises ourselves on the franchisee
side. Had multiple partners over the years on
that piece. Always had good operating partners,
which allows me to spend my time consulting,
which I started about seven years ago. You know,
it's been an Inc. 5000 company a couple of years.
growth here. And that's a testimony to the good
work that we've done on behalf of our clients,
helping them identify the top opportunities in
their markets, and then holding their hand as
they go through the exploration process, talking
to franchises. That's really cool. What kinds
of fields? Because of course, everybody thinks
fast food or a big box store or something, you
know, I'm not even quite sure, right? But definitely,
fast food is probably the most common. What kinds
of other industries are you involved with? No,
certainly when I say the F word franchise, people
think fast food and we've got nothing against
the food guys. We need them. We support them.
But my humble belief is they're easier ways to
make money. You know, opportunities that may
require fewer operating hours or less hourly
employees or less susceptible to the consumer
whims changing. Right. So the general theme that
we see out there right now, Sue, is understandable
cash flowing businesses, things that aren't trendy,
aren't going out of style. You know, some of
them are a little more fashion forward than others,
but for the most part, it's. understandable things
that AI is not going to displace, but only benefit
and maybe help you differentiate from your competition.
So it's things like home and property services,
so much smart money flowing into these property
services, health and wellness categories like.
kids or pets or seniors, so many different businesses
that roll up under these broad umbrellas that,
again, people are always going to spend on the
things they care about. They're going to spend
on their kids, their aging parents, their pets
in some cases, their health, their homes, you
know, B2B services to business to business. You
know, a lot of people have a background in the
corporate world and business to business services,
and they like the idea of selling into businesses.
You know, so that could be, you know, freight
brokerage, insurance adjusting, you know restoration
there's just and there's some consulting type
firms you know cost mitigation uh cost reduction
type analysts so many different opportunities
and most people 90 of those that we work with
end up going with something in an industry that
was never even on their radar so until it's right
in front of them and then they look at their
spouse and say gosh i never would have thought
about that but that makes a lot of sense and
they have their own light bulb moments That's
really, really cool. And then it might even be
an advantage to them because it wasn't an industry
that they came up in and they're so used to working
in the business. It must be a lot easier to make
that leap to we're working on this because they
don't have the skills necessarily, right? Yeah.
Well, in a lot of cases, they have skills that
they're bringing with them, transferable skills
that may be more front end to the house or back
end. But it's a new industry, right? And so they're
coming in oftentimes with a fresh perspective.
They don't have all the baggage, right? And so
they come in with a little more humility, which
is exactly what you need in franchising because
you're stepping in, running someone else's established
playbook, right? Where I see people fall down
sometimes is they come in and they think they're
the smartest one in the room and try to do everything
their own way. And it's like, well, why do you
buy into a franchise system? It sounds cliche,
but in my experience, when I was running Shelf
Genie franchise system and I looked across all
of our owners across North America, our top owners
were halfway decent with people. I mean, end
of the day, this is business 101, right? And
then secondly, they're willing to follow the
system. They had the humility to say, hey, I'm
going to trust and the process works. And those
were our top performers. That's really, really
neat. Oh, I mean, humility serves a long way
across any business. And that's something we
learn, I think. That's cool. Tell me a little
bit about, you know, your personal why, because
you've mentioned freedom and, you know, having,
I love that, the way that you encapsulated it
with 1pm on a Wednesday, a swim lesson. That's,
I mean, that's fantastic. How has this played
out in your life, this why? I think that why
is maybe more on the business side a little bit.
It's more of how it manifests. Really, if I go
deeper, it's all about stewardship. I believe
that to whom much is given, much is expected.
I feel I've been very blessed. Nothing's been
easy. I'm the hardest boss I've ever had. I work
hard, but the fruits of the labor are there.
I would say, as far as the why goes, I think
about life through five domains. This time of
year, I'm setting goals for the next year the
next quarter you know i kind of nerd out on this
type of stuff uh very uh you know visioning visioneering
if you will um if i think through in the five
f's faith family fitness finances and franchising
some people call it business i would call it
franchising so i've got five ups um but everything
i think through from how do i prioritize How
does it align with my why? And it's kind of in
that rank order of putting the first things first
and putting the big rocks in and then the pebbles
later, right? Oh, that's huge. That's huge. And
is there a story behind your why? Sometimes this
evolves as we go. You've been in business, corporate
for a while, your own thing for a while. I'm
sure that your why has kind of... shifted over
the years, I would imagine, as you mature, as
you figure out what really matters to you. So
is there a story behind this? Yeah, I would say
how I was raised, you know, I was very, you know,
I'm very thankful. I had two great parents. They
sent us to private school, but here's the thing.
We were probably the poorest family in the private
school. You know, we were always having money
conversations in our household. I heard my parents
talking, and it was very much a scarcity mentality,
and there was never quite enough. And we're,
you know, so I'm thankful that they made the
sacrifices to give us a good education. I mean,
I certainly paid my way through college and everything
beyond that. However, you know, they gave us
a good foundation. So that's something I wanted
to take with me. You know, I built my own family,
and we've got three young kids today, 14, 10,
and 7. i one thing that i knew i wanted to do
differently was have very different money conversations
you know i wanted to be i believe that the debtor
is slave to the lender right and i wanted to
be on the other side of the equation than we
were growing up and so it is great now that we're
able to help my parents and financially support
them and come alongside in their older age here
um so we want to steward that that opportunity
but no it's you know i try to teach my kids you
know it's not normal that I have some of the
time freedom that I do have, but it's because
I've worked very hard and I've also been very
strategic. Not every investment we've ever made
has worked, right? I mean, there have been a
lot of lessons learned. I've lost money on some
things, but by and large, the trajectory has
been upward and it allows us to now be in a position
where we can, again, kind of live life on our
terms. You are making some money while you're
sleeping and provides for that financial independence
that I know is such a buzzword today and so many
people are going after. So thankful that we got
started early. But I would say that's kind of
the story behind it is a little bit of a drive
and a decision around what to take from my childhood
and what I wanted to do differently. That's amazing.
Have your kids been receptive? It's hard for
them because they've always lived in the same
family they've lived in. They haven't seen how
it might be a little bit different, but are they
able to kind of... grasp what you're talking
to them about? It depends on the day. We took
a family trip to Nicaragua this past summer.
There's a great nonprofit down there that we
support financially, and we wanted to show our
kids firsthand some of the good work that's being
done. Certainly, they got exposed to how many
parts of the world operate and live. So we try
to get them outside the bubble as much as we
can. I've taken my son also on a mission trip
to the Dominican. So we're trying to expose them,
but that is a constant challenge, right? there
are things that they have now that we did not
have growing up. And there's probably not that
same level of appreciation. So it is a constant
conversation that my wife and I are having of
how do we steward what we have now? We try to
show them how we... I mean, we're very active
in the community supporting causes that we believe
in. And hopefully that's rubbing off on kids.
That's beautiful. Thank you so much for being
here. This has been a fantastic beginning of
our conversation. I hope you will come back.
I look forward to it. Thank you for being here
today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to
Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing
your reactions as these episodes continue to
move forward. This is going to get more and more
fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.