John with UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir at an event for Knockouts Haircuts
Family photo from our BounceU grand opening in 2007

My Story

Funny story….How did I become “ThatFranchiseGuy?” In 2016 as a new consultant, I found myself leaving messages for people and saying something like, “It’s John, that franchise guy from the other day.” People started calling back and asking for That Franchise Guy and the name was born! 

To take a step back, for practical purposes I have been in franchising since 2006. However, my very first introduction to franchising was in college when I operated a franchise of a student painting company. After school though, like most people, I went to work in corporate America and ended up in mortgage banking.

In 1998 our lives changed significantly when we had triplets, Kiersten, Austin and Nicholas. If you are thinking, “how the heck did you manage that?” Well, you just do. And we had a lot of help. Melanie was never happy going back to work though, and one day she came home and said, “Enough. I want to stay home.” With that, we left California and the mortgage banking careers that had provided us a great life. We excitedly moved to my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, but quickly faced the prospect of, “What now?”.

A primary purpose of moving was to allow us to spend more time with the kids and for Melanie in particular to stay home. I knew that I didn’t want to go work for someone again and owning a business would give us the lifestyle we wanted. The challenge was Melanie is fairly risk-averse and, frankly, I didn’t have any grand idea to get behind. I quickly turned to franchising with the idea that franchises mitigated a lot of risk. Plus, they solved my problem of not having a product or service to build my business around.

While planning our move, I began investigating franchises and struggled with overwhelming amounts of information available. It made sense that a franchise was like following a recipe and as long as I did so, my odds of success should go up significantly. I got it. But I had trouble finding the right opportunity for us. I really needed someone to guide me to finding a franchise that matched us.

It was during that process that I came across a franchise consultant and a light bulb went on. Much like franchise companies themselves, he had a process and as long as I followed his process, I was assured we’d find a business that was a good fit for our background, skill set, lifestyle, finances and, of course, a business we like as well! We had a series of consulting calls including one where we reviewed my business personality assessment (Try it out for yourself! Take Assessment Here). I quickly got to the stage with the consultant where he presented a few franchise ideas. One of the concepts was called BounceU.


The consultant made the introduction, and I began speaking directly to the franchisor. They also had their process to follow, and I was assured that all my questions would be answered before ever being awarded an opportunity to purchase a franchise. My consultant helped me understand everything in the process. I was given opportunities to call current franchisees and ask them anything I wanted to about the business. Every step along the way was really just about taking the next step. My consultant coached me through it culminating with an invitation to “Discovery Day” where we visited corporate headquarters, went through detailed training and met all the leadership in person. We also got to tour a facility and see the business in action.

We signed our franchise agreement shortly after and set upon launching our new business. Our business took off almost immediately. We have been number 1 in the system for our market size (DMA under 1 million people) since the first year. Franchise Systems helped us develop a team to operate our business, while I focused on leading the team. We’ve made good money on it working a lot less than full time. Melanie has been fully involved in all the kids’ activities. I had time to open a 2nd BounceU in Las Vegas, coach kids’ baseball and soccer, and pitch in with Boy Scouts, all while training and teaching martial arts several times a week.

Franchising has worked out very well for me. We operate one award winning BounceU franchise. We opened and sold a 2nd in Las Vegas. For 6 years I worked with corporate leadership on the direction of the brand as a member of the franchise advisory council. I learned a lot about operating a franchise at the highest level. As you can see, I have many years of experience as a franchisee AND I understand the perspective of Franchisors.

We didn’t stop there. With my consulting business, I see a LOT of franchises. In 2018 I began working with Knockouts Haircuts for Men. After placing several candidates with them we got excited ourselves. We signed a master franchise agreement to open five locations and now own 3 salons in the Tulsa metro area. Very few Franchise Consultants can bring that sort of experience and advice to their clients. They have not lived it and have never been where you are today. I’m so excited to be using that experience to help others achieve their dream.

In 2016 I became “That Franchise Guy” and formed Lakeport Franchise Group operating as a division of Lakeport Consulting Group, LLC. I began helping others learn about franchising and achieving their dream of starting their own business. Franchises change lives and I am so honored to be playing a role in helping people. If you’d like to talk to me about how the process works or if a friend or family member might be interested in starting a business, message me on Linkedin, or email me at John@LakeportFranchiseGroup.com

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