Ammon McNeff and the Bricks & Minifigs Story | S2E23

Welcome to Emerging Franchise Brands, the podcast that introduces you to the visionary founders of America's fastest growing franchise opportunities. We'll also hear from industry pros as they share insights on what it really takes to achieve the elusive milestone of 100+ locations. I am your host Frank Fuming, founder of I9 Sports, and my 20-year journey from inception and acquisition has given me a unique perspective on how to succeed in franchising. Join me as we welcome today's guest. Hello everyone and welcome to the Emerging Franchise Brands podcast. On today's show I have the CEO of BRICS and Mini Figs, Amin McNeff. Amin, how are you today? I'm great, thanks for having me on. Amin is a pleasure to have you on. You are in the aftermarket Lego toy shop from what I understand. So how did this concept even come to be? Kind of a funny story. The founders of the brand, and obviously I'm not one of the founders, but the founders of the brand were two gentlemen, two fathers up in the Pacific Northwest area, whose kids had fallen in love with Lego as a product. And these two fathers were constantly looking for Lego that they could get more economically for their kids and so forth. And so they really kind of took a deep dive individually, you know, like separately from one another into kind of the online world. And so both had kind of been thinking to themselves like, hey, I wish there was a better way of doing this. Well, one night both of them had been called out to an elderly lady's home to buy some Lego, you know, a collection that she had kind of a mast and was ready to let go of. And so they both were excited about this kind of large collection and they show up there and then there's somebody else sitting there like, oh, hey, I offered it to me at this price. Well, no, no, no. And so then she started going, well, you know, maybe all if you offer me a little bit more money, I'll let you have it. You know, like, and then the other person, well, what you say, I like some of this stuff. I like an opportunity. And so they were clearly she was they they never really verified whether or not it truly was like an intentional setup to start a bidding war. But that's definitely what it was turning into and she was trying to take advantage of that opportunity. And so as she went into the back room, they said, you know what? There's a lot here. Like there's stuff that I'm sure you don't want their stuff that I want. They you know, like, let's let's just go with the original offer by it and then we'll we'll divvy it up ourselves and we'll both get, you know, a good price and everything. And so then she came back in and they're like, hey, you know what? We've decided, you know, like we're both just going to buy it together and keep the same price and she was just crestfallen. That was kind of the way that they met John and David, you know, John, Mason and David Ortiz. And so then as they they were divvying it up, they kind of were like, well, telling each other their stories and they ended up, you know, becoming pretty good friends and they started talking about how, you know, like they they both dreamed about, you know, opening up a retail store. One of them had, you know, like years of retail experience, you know, like in managing retail locations and so forth. Well, the other, you know, I could have been really deep dived in the longer period of time in the Lego kind of ecosphere. And so they kind of combined their knowledge to create the first bricks and many big store and then immediately after the second one in battleground Washington and the next and can be Oregon. So for the folks that are watching this podcast or listening, they're probably wondering, all right, it's a Lego aftermarket toy shop like how many stores can this guy possibly have, would you share how many franchise are currently open and how many are in development. Yeah, so currently if I've done my math correctly, I believe we have 91 open stores and in the next like actually starting in January through through March, we have 22 lined up grand openings. And so there's that, but yeah, we have signed franchise ease, oh, about 150 right now. Unbelievable 48 something like that in 30 year long, we signed on I think 60 new franchise ease. Wow, and this is in 36 states. So it's not even a regional. I mean, this is this is incredible. The company are saying, so these guys David and John, they meet back in like maybe like around 2009, 2010, 2008, I think. Okay, all right, and they start franchising in 2011 now, where do you come in? Cause I understand so you were one of the franchise ease that came in to take over the business. How did that whole thing happen? Yeah, so my brother and I and I come from a family with eight kids. So when I say my brother, you know, there's actually three other brother or I've got three brothers and then four sisters. But yeah, one of my brothers and I, we had been working together for quite a while and we were business owners and another venture together and we had developed a really good relationship and we had recently just become fans of Lego because we grew up with eight kids. We didn't have enough of a lot of money. We didn't have Lego growing up, but we both have our own kids. And so we both, you know, like found our way to Lego and and our kids love it. And we love building with our kids and based on a lot of the things that we grew up in an entrepreneurial household. And one of the things that we had always kind of been taught was like, hey, if you've got an idea or a hobby or something long those lines, find a way of making money at it. And then that might blossom and turn into some really positive things. And so we had another successful business and we were looking for additional ways that we could grow and develop with our kids and have a place for them to learn to work hard. Because that was something that we learned and we didn't want them to to miss out on the opportunity of having to, you know, go down to work at, you know, like somebody shop, you know, like an earn money for dances or gas money, all this other kind of stuff. And so we, we were looking and we were doing something else. I believe we ended up finding out about this shop called bricks and minifigs that just opened up, you know, like a few towns north of us. And we thought that was really cool. And so I started looking up the directions there and saw sitting right there, you know, like franchise opportunities. And, you know, like again, we were in love with Lego and I had looked into, you know, like what, you know, what kind of Lego businesses that were out there. Anyway, and so as soon as I found out it was a franchise, I went to my brother and I just said, hey, like what would you think about us opening up our own shop. And so in 2017 is when we, we found out, I guess it was, yeah, it was 2017, like in March, I think. And by May, we had signed our franchise agreement. And then we opened up our first store in Little Old orm, Utah. And then we opened our doors. We had our grand opening September 9, I think. So just a couple months later. And, you know, we had a blast. And for us, you know, we had opened and run and operated and sold several other businesses previously, you know, like again, kind of growing up in an entrepreneurial household. And so we've kind of developed this skill of building some things. And so we saw franchising is just such an awesome opportunity. Like again, from somebody who has opened multiple businesses, some that, you know, turned out very successfully, some that, you know, didn't or otherwise. It was such an easy transition for us to just go from zero to 60 that quickly, right. And so I just fell in love with franchising. And it was about a year after our initial introduction to the founders went when they were, you know, like helping us get signed on as franchise ease. And so we found out that the CFO of the brand who actually was also previously a franchisee and then had been brought on as the CFO and, you know, gained ownership in the company. He reached out to us to say that, you know, one of the original founders had been in a car crash. And it wasn't like life threatening, but, you know, like it created a lot of complications for him. So he was just finding it difficult to keep up with everything that he was trying to do to get healthy as well as then running a growing brand. I believe our store was like number 30 or 32, like open something like that. And so we were still in the first, you know, like within the first 50. And so, but he just said, look, based on your other business experience, they'd be very interested in you talking about potentially taking over the franchise corporation. And he said, look, I've worked with you guys and I like it. And I feel like I could, you know, like stick around with you guys too. And so the two original founders, they then started talking to us and, you know, like felt good about transitioning their ownership to my brother and I. And in 2018 is when we did that and took over and then started from there, you know, like making changes and some moves and different things. So that's so cool. I don't think I've talked to anybody yet who was a franchisee of a brand. And that inevitably became the franchise or I'm curious what was life like as first of all your first experience in franchising right because you said earlier you've been, you know, you had been in businesses before, but you've never done franchising before. Yeah, I want to know what was life like as a franchisee of a brand that was, you know, 30 plus franchise is big. Yeah, you know, like, and it's funny because I look at where we're at now and I think to myself, wow, like that was a bit of a risky move, you know, like and you know, like thinking about some of those things and sure, you know, but I do I really love the franchising model because I do think that regardless of, you know, like where we have grown from there, it was still a great model that had proven itself time and time again. And so yeah, somebody who investigated the brand, I also found out that we were kind of a little bit, at least from our perspective, odd ducks, because when we went to training, I had already read the training manual completely, probably twice. When we went through the FDD process, I had read the entire FDDs, I actually visited with a friend of mine who was an attorney just to see if he had any additional thoughts on it and he gave me some thoughts and we looked at the risks and for sure thought, you know, this is a great opportunity, you know, like, but when we talked with with John and David at training, they were like, yet you're the first franchisees we've ever had who have read all of that documentation before signing. and who read the operations manual before coming out to training. - Yeah. - And so, you know, like I was like, no, that's weird. You know, like, and so, but you know, like, honestly, in talking with a lot of other franchise organizations and consultants and some of these things, I guess that's pretty common. So, I guess to a certain extent, you know, what we did was was a little bit more uncommon, but I think it's because we had other business experience. - Sure. - We jumped in and we like, we're definitely not as, I guess, outgoing as franchisees. We were a little bit more quiet, you know, like we utilized Slack for all of our inner store communications. We have different channels and some of those things. And we were still using Slack back when we were franchisees too. And we were more observatory, right? We just kind of saw everything else that everyone was doing, but we weren't posting a lot of, you know, questions or some of these other things. We just kind of digested everything that was put out there. And so, when we took over, a lot of people like, well, you know, like you guys have been in the system, but we don't, we know nothing about you, right? But yeah, we were definitely more like just follow the system, plot it along. And we knew like, because we, you know, like had not, you know, fully transitioned over. And we had other business ventures that we were still involved in, that we were not going to be directly involved in the store day to day. We were more, you know, we hired a manager and some of those are the things. And that's not necessarily also typical of most of our, our franchisees, but I know a lot of franchise brands, that's the case. So we just kind of made it work with what we did. And we had, you know, good, slow, steady growth. And so it was great. We found that to be very successful. And it's been profitable for us, you know, like in everything in that capacity. So, yeah, it was a good experience as a franchisee first, which is obviously what attracted us to, you know, moving forward, looking for ways of improving the process. You're probably like, well, he's never going to let me ask a question, but that's the one thing that my brother and I have really discovered working together for years is that we, we work so well in calling each other out on, you know, like our own pitfalls, you know, like, hey, you have this idea that's not going to work because of this, this, and this. And it's like, great. Well, then we'll just, you know, like account for this, this, and this. And then we're good, right? And it's like, well, yeah. And then it's the same way whenever he's got this idea, it's like, that's never going to work because of this, and this. But we, because we can call each other out on some of those things, we work pretty well together. And so we compliment each other very well. And so, you know, everything I try and do, and I always tell people he's the smarter brother. So, you know, like he's smarter than me. And so I always drag him along wherever I go. So that's part of the magic to the success of you and your brothers that you're not the same because if you have the same personnel and you had both the same strengths and the same weaknesses, you wouldn't be getting anywhere. You owe for sure, right? It's really funny because whenever I'm anxious about something, or I feel like, I don't know if this is going to work, he is calm as can be and vice versa. And so we kind of just make sure that, you know, like, we help each other whether whatever storms come our way. And we really have found that to be an effective way of helping us overcome a lot of different challenges. Sure. My assumption is that one of the things that really helped you guys, when you made that transition from being the franchisee to being the franchisee, or is that obviously you had the credibility in the franchise network because you had done it, you had already had operated the franchise. But at the same time, I'm curious to know how the relationship evolved because you went from being one of the guys to now it's, I gotta listen to you and your brother. And suddenly you're not one of the fellas. Yeah, yeah. How did you navigate that relationship shift? Reading a lot of books and talking to a lot of other franchisee or as many as would let me talk their ear off and ask as many questions as I possibly could. And that's really what it boils down to. And, you know, me personally, I found Greg Nathan's book, "Proffable Partnerships" to be instrumental in helping me and my brother and then the whole organization really navigate through the franchisee, franchisee or relationship. And so we love that book. We get a copy of it for every single new signing franchisee and just want them to know that look, we're all human. And if as long as we can communicate together and work together, we're gonna find solutions. And yeah, there's still gonna be times we're gonna disagree with us or we're gonna disagree with you. And, but we're gonna make things work. And it's gonna, and it's been very helpful for us. And that, so I would definitely say that has been instrumental for that. And that book was recommended by a franchisee or I think the development director at a Lendio. - Okay. - Which is a financial services franchise that's also based in Salt Lake City. - Nice, I'm a big fan of Greg. I've known Greg many years and I do love his book. I think one of the great things about giving that book after you franchisee is that you're giving them a peek into what life is gonna be like after they were out of that honeymoon phase. Because they were super excited when they get there and then they enter that grind, right? That second phase is not easy, but everybody, I don't care how successful you are, everybody goes into that second phase of grinding and trying to figure it out. And that's where your relationship with the franchisee becomes so delicate, right? I mean, yeah, kinda talk me through how, how are you able to navigate that with franchises and how you do that with franchises that are going from that honeymoon phase to all of a sudden, they're having their own struggles. And it's not for maybe lack of success or lack of systems, but it's no more part of running a business, you go into it. - Yeah, I think the hardest time period for us was when we transitioned from being franchises to the franchisee or and then kind of opening our eyes, you know, like, and the founders of the brand, you know, they did not set out to start a franchise, right? So their systems kind of developed after the fact and they didn't have a ton of experience developing systems for a large group of franchisees. And so they were attacking most of their problems from the standpoint of, okay, what's the biggest emergency right now? And, you know, like, so, and that's, I think, pretty natural for a lot of founders to deal with things in that capacity. - Yeah. - But when we took over, we looked at a lot of things and said, okay, great, here's all of these problems, here are the short term problems, here are the mid-range and then the long term problems. And we can't be focusing on fixing the short term problems only, we have to be looking at short term problem like solutions that will then also result in long term success. And so we had to be a lot more methodical about some of that and a lot of the original franchisees had a hard time dealing with us being methodical about our approach to some of these things. And so they wanted some immediate solutions right now and there was just no way for us to just immediately, like flip a switch and say, great, here's your solution. So we had to approach it a little bit differently and I think that that created some, some rifts and, you know, like, we had a few franchisees decide that it was time to sell because they, but because a lot of those solutions meant that we had to completely change how the franchise model worked, meaning like, it wasn't gonna be just a free for all, you can do whatever you want, you feel like it. And I think that's also pretty, pretty normal in some emerging brands, right, for franchising. Absolutely. Well, you, you had to triage first of all the problems and you can't do everything. And I just can't look, we, the beauty of franchising, I believe is that push pull relationship that we have with the franchisee and franchisee or as long as we're rowing in the same direction, we might have differences of opinion on what needs to be the highest priority, but then in the day, we have to come to some sort of resolution and we have to keep moving forward, right? And what when you were, let's see, so you were out 32 franchises strong. Well, actually, no, how many franchises were you at the time that you and your brother took over? By the time we took over, there were at least five or six additional grand openings that took place and people like you had been signed. So by the time we took over, there had been at least one or two stores that had closed prior to us taking over the store or it's gonna be the franchise. And so we kind of did a deep dive analysis as to what occurred there. And some of them were pretty, like just whatever the case is. So by the time we took over and we were in place, I wanna say we had gotten to 38, if not 40 stores, but then there were a couple of those franchises that just immediately right after when we took over and we're trying to put together long term solutions that they just said, no thanks, we don't wanna deal with you guys and say that they just up and quit the system. And at the time we weren't equipped to rescue any of those stores. We just didn't have some of the knowledge base and whatnot to be able to kind of take care of that. And so we dropped down to I believe or some around 35 stores when we were kind of in full swing of things and ready to really start moving forward again. So. - And Amin, you've had explosive growth though since that time. You obviously put a lot of new systems in process in place and you were able to accelerate that growth at a much faster pace. What do you think as a CEO? What do you think that you had implemented that said, you know what, we're ready to accelerate this growth? - Yeah, well, I would say the first thing we did was kind of rebuild a lot of the financial data from all the stores. That was something that again, the founders again love them to death, but they did not put together financial data from all the stores. They're monthly reports, you know, like some of these other types of things. And so we didn't really have a large historical database of how the stores were performing and growth trends or any of that stuff. So we got to work immediately putting that together and it took us a good little while to kind of go grabs some historical data. One of the other big first things that we did was to find a point of sale system that would enable us to grow versus the one that we had that was very much going to be stacked integrate with. didn't have an open API for us to be able to integrate other programs to be able to help franchisees grow and see reporting and all sorts of things. And so those two big things is understanding the unit level economics and really pushing for ways that we could identify what they were missing on a large scale versus anything else like that. That helped set the stage for as we then saw these stores start implementing some of those things, you know, like that we identified as needing to be fixed. The stores then began to then as that growth happened obviously our FD. And became really like much better than it was previously and became much much more attractive to people. I guess you know that that was the big thing that we did the other thing I think would I would say is identifying the missing set of skills that a lot of our essentially you know early adopting franchisees didn't have. And then looking to complement those and so a lot of our franchisees came from corporate America they did not have a lot of retail experience retail management experience things along those lines. And so we identified a couple of different resources that our stores could, you know, utilize as kind of third party education or or you know even coaching programs for retail that like made a tremendous difference for a lot of our stores. And as some of you know, and especially in franchising as one store start seeing success and developing they they kind of look to those stores and say well what are you doing like oh well I was introduced to this program you should try it too. And so then some of those stores start seeing some of the same success and then we can you know gardener some of that and so that's really I think what made a big difference was putting some of the right systems in place initially upfront identifying kind of some of the pitfalls and then introducing solutions for those. That then enabled the growth of each of the individual units to start seeing some of that growth. So before you guys took over did the prior founders not collect the financial data of each individual franchisey I think they they viewed the fact that they could go back into the individual point of sale systems whenever they felt like it. Good enough if that makes any sense yeah but there was like a scorecard and correct right and so like again it's not that they were ignoring any of that stuff is just that they just didn't feel the need to put it into spreadsheets and analyze some of those different types of things and that's again like they they they they were very successful in their own right managing retail locations to grow the brand you know like to the point where people wanted to franchise with them which drove them to start franchising but. You know and I truly do I love the founders of our brand john and David were you know fantastic getting this up and running and and I think you know like and and we actually still work with with one of them David is kind of came back and and and been working with us again on a lot of different things and continue to help help us you know like with some of that growth and so there's just phenomenal things that we can see from them but just whatever their their training was and so forth in life they they just didn't. I probably see the need to gather some of that and analyze it my degrees in psychology and so I always laugh with my brother again I tell people he's smarter than me he's got a degree in physics and so you know like we in psychology we have what's called hard science envy because we're not one of those you know like math you know like physics you know like even geology you know I love geologists that was one of my other potential you know majors or whatever but. Because all of our you know psychologists you know like psychology and everything else is all in the head and it's harder to like really like measure something that's in the head you have to quantify everything sure so you like with a degree in psychology I really learned how to maximize the ability to quantify a lot of things and if you can quantify something then you can obviously measure if you can measure it you can improve it if you can improve it then you know like you can set goals to make that improvement absolutely. That's what we did yeah no well I was definitely not criticizing the founders about not collecting data because I can tell you I didn't when I started my company as the founder I didn't collect the financial data all the revenue from all of our franchises came in through our database so I had access to everything but I wasn't privy to knowing how profitable the franchise is were at each individual location I can tell you like for me like everything changed for my system once we started collecting you know once we start having a standardized chart of accounts and we started having a network. Scorecard where franchisees where everything was transparent they can kind of see how they were doing versus each other because it's just the dialogue that's so much deeper and so much better than just knowing you know how we're doing on top of on revenue that doesn't tell the whole story. Yeah. Yeah for sure. Yeah you started to talk about you know the ideal franchise owner or who wasn't ideal how would you say today that differs and who is your ideal franchise owner. That's a great question so I mean obviously I think almost every franchise brand that you know like develops and evolves kind of initially has the like hey anybody can be a franchise he please come be a franchise. Right right and there are going to be some that that you know like want to take that risk and you know like they are definitely more entrepreneurial I think to a certain extent you know like if they are early adopters. But then as you start to grow and develop you you identify you know like what makes a good franchise of your brand and so I think we've done that you know to a certain extent you know and we have franchisees from from all over the place most of them I would say have a love and a passion for the product you know there are definitely a handful that really don't know much about the product but they see it as a good venture and they see you know like the great community like involvement that the stores can bring. And so they really like that and it's good and profitable in that capacity but again for the most part we kind of mixes both those that see that but are also really big fans of the product and so there's good passion that goes into a lot of our franchisees and so most of our franchisees I would say have a lot of passion not only for the product but for being involved in their community and so that makes for for our brand I do feel like that makes a good franchisee because they bring that passion to the table. And so they really want to be a part of a growing and thriving community not just in their local areas but also network with the other franchisees. So they typically owner operated or do you also manage operated stores we have both I would definitely say the majority of them are owner operator currently though we are seeing a little bit of a trend moving more towards the you know owner with a managing partner something along those lines. And so I think that the other side being passionate which I think is a great foundation for somebody to have what are some of the other traits business wise that you look for in a franchise owner in order for them to be successful or where maybe some of the common traits of your most successful franchisees. I mean definitely I mean like if I will say those that have come to the table with previous either retail experience or business ownership experience that usually is indicative of somebody who's going to drive good success because they they don't fall prey to as much of the roller coaster that first time business owners can fall into. But we definitely have some first time business owners who have weathered that storm and have become very successful in their own right but for sure I would say those that do have some form of retail management experience and or business ownership experience tend to you know like make really good successful franchisees. You know like because otherwise first time being in business you know like the first time you know like you struggle with the fact that you know like your deposits were delayed because of a holiday and you. You know ran your payroll you know like sooner than you thought you were you know like you were going to have funds and all this other stuff and a vendor you know like sent in a bill that they they you know all these things hit it once and suddenly you're going to have to go to your employees and say hey payroll is going to be delayed by two days but don't panic don't worry it's just because of this. But that is a really difficult thing for a lot of people and if they've never experienced that before it can put you in a a negative spiral that is sometimes hard for people to get out of. Yeah I bet what about people that are looking to get into the franchise and then what for your brand what would be a common misconception of what bricks and many figs is all about. That all you you know like all you do is play with Lego all day. You know that there I mean I would say that's maybe not as common because I mean we we've we've brought on a really great process for the friend of process we have an eight step process for those or I guess the discovery process for our brand. And that eight step process really helps walk them through a lot of things but I would definitely say that that's probably like especially to the you know somebody who's just like casually interested in like well maybe I would want to be a franchise. Sometimes they may think that I just get to sit and build Lego sets all day and everything else and well you probably could probably not going to turn into a lot of success if you as the owner spending all of your time focused on building upsets and. You know some of those types of things but for sure hiring the right people is going to be you know the thing that will help overcome that you know like right off the bat so that that's probably one that probably is is a misconception that's a lot of times people think that it's going to be easy for them to just be in an owner operator even as an owner operator you have to hire the right team members to because like if you try and do it all by yourself all the time 24 seven you know like seven days a week you know like at 12 months out of the year you're going to burn yourself out so fast. And we really try hard to pound that into people's brains as they're going through the process to be like hey think about you know like the hiring process isn't and who you know like you're going to be able to work well with so that you can make sure that you're taking time out for yourself because then you're going to be more successful. What about since you guys are in the aftermarket of Legos you guys have a relationship with the with the next. manufacturer at all and with Lego. Yeah, with Lego. So yeah, so tell me how that works. Well, it's funny because through some interesting miscommunications early on by the founders, there was actually a little bit of, I would say, bad blood between the Lego group and our brand. So that was one of the first things that we started doing when we got things taken care of us. And there had been some attempts previously, but not like as we talked with them, they all fell on deaf ears when we talked with Lego just because of some of the, again, the misconceptions or the miscommunications that had taken place. And so we kind of first started trying to make some inroads with the brand. So when they found out that there was new leadership in place and all this other stuff, they decided, well, maybe we'll open up our ears a little bit and here what they have to say. And so we worked with them and they were very, very accommodating, helped us understand what things had taken place previously and what we could do. And so we worked with them. And so now we work with their small business distributor in the US and we have a great relationship with Lego and yeah, hopefully continuing to grow that relationship. For sure. Yeah, okay, very cool. What's been your biggest surprise since franchising? Since you got into franchising? Biggest surprise, oh boy. I guess how difficult it is to convey two franchises, how much we care and how much we want them to succeed without still being viewed with a skeptical eye. I think sometimes it's more difficult for franchises to see the long, longer term play, you know, like in certain capacities and sometimes being able to communicate with that with them can be difficult. I definitely have made my fair share of fumbles when it comes to trying to communicate something and coming off totally wrong or different than what I was trying to convey. So learning how to communicate more effectively and efficiently without offending people. And sometimes we totally mess up and no matter what we do, we're going to offend somebody and that's also a difficult place to be in. We've all done it. It is a very challenging relationship. Within the day, we're working with independently owned and operated individuals. And it is. That's what makes franchising unique and it's a, it can be a challenge at times. I'm right there with you, man. I've messed up before. It happens. I think at the end of the day, though, people need to know that you care. If they know you care and we own up to our mistakes, I think people are very forgiving. Look, running a franchise organization, I always say one of the challenging things is doing what's right now, what's popular. If I did what was popular, yeah, it would be great to everybody. They'd be happy with me, but we wouldn't be necessarily going the right direction. Yeah, I think a lot more franchise brands would fail if they did what was popular versus what was right and or best for the brand. Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. What's one of the biggest challenges that you guys are facing now as a growing brand that has 90 plus open, 50 plus in development? Yeah, you know, like we actually just brought on a new chief technology officer to kind of help us move in some really positive directions with the technology that can help stores be more efficient and quicker in certain aspects and certain things. Not only that the new inbox Lego that we get, you know, like from Lego and distribution and so forth, but also the community source Lego, you know, through the buy sell trade process, it's treated differently. And the ability to translate that into like certain things like e-commerce or some other things and have a unified e-commerce platform. It's a lot more difficult than people realize because every one of those, you know, like you may have again, over 100 franchisees with the exact same, you know, pre-owned Lego set that came in the door, but they're all different because maybe one of them is missing this piece, maybe one of them is 100% complete but doesn't have the instructions, one of them this. So, you know, like being able to translate that well into a unified e-commerce platform has been a bit of a challenge for us and we've been working with a couple of different organizations to find the right solutions. But some of those solutions take time and we've had to set certain stages. Again, now we're talking about short term versus long term solutions, right? We had to make sure all of the other aspects of the franchise point of sale systems and other systems that they use can integrate with the solutions that we're putting together for that before we can even start because you're going to have to build certain components to this e-commerce platform that will enable a longer term solution that will be available for all franchisees, long term, even like even 10 years down the road. But if you don't set the stage of the right way in the first place, it can really be just years of just completely rebuilding everything time and time again because you didn't get it right the first time. Sure. What's the long term vision for the company? Long term vision. World domination is that, you know, like easy to, you know, like, sure. We've mapped out from what we can, you know, like based on our current metrics of territory sizes and so forth, we've mapped out, you know, like the majority of the United States, what we feel like and so we feel like, you know, growing and maximizing all of our territories in the US. We've started to expand more into Canada. We already have the one-store in Canada, but we now have a growth plan for Canada. We have some interest down in Mexico, another, you know, central and South American countries. We also have a lot of interest internationally, like in Europe as well as Australia and some other places. So we definitely see ourselves growing much more internationally and developing great relationship with partners outside of the US and really growing the brand. Because Lego is a product that's loved worldwide. And, you know, like our big goal obviously and we really do try and make this shine forth in everything that we do. We tell people all the time, our product is not Lego. That's not what we sell in our stores. We sell joy and experience. And really when you walk into a bricks and minifigs and you see the, you know, both kids and adults, their faces light up because you get, you get, you know, parents who are bringing their kids in, who see sitting on the shelf there, the same set that they had growing up that they lost years ago. And it's sitting right there in the nostalgia that just floods back and the positive emotions and the joy that they feel. And then being able to share that with their kids, their family, you know, even if they're in college, you know, some people, times we get people who are just so excited by that. Anyway, that's really what we sell. Lego just happens to be that medium. And who doesn't want to be able to experience that wherever they go? You know, and look, we've, we've looked at a lot of different business models and then there's so many great franchise concepts out there. But, you know, like how many of them get letters written to them by kids almost on a weekly basis, thanking them for being in the community because that's their happy place. That's where they get to go and spend time with mom or dad or their older brother, whoever, you know, or sisters, you know, like who, you know, especially some of the really cool Lego sets that are coming out for, you know, like that's geared towards everybody. There's just so much that's available. And there's just really truly the joy. And so, you know, as much as possible, I still love going into the store. I love being able to interact with customers. And so it's still a great, you know, like opportunity for me to continue to remind myself why we exist. Yeah. Yeah. You figured out that you were in the business of joy and experience. I think that is so spot on and we take the business to a completely another level when you realize that you're not in the Lego business. Yeah. And, you know, and I would even say that's going going back to some one of your earlier questions. That's, that's one of those other things that I think that we also recognize in what makes a good franchisee is somebody who also recognizes that same thing. And as much as we can teach it and preach it, you know, they have to adopt that themselves. And those franchisees who understand that, you know, niggling, diming their customers is not going to create a successful store. The more you give the more you get. And so the more, you know, those franchise prospects that are coming in or brand new franchisees, the sooner they learn the lesson of, hey, I'm here for my community. And the more I give into my community, the more the community is going to give back it. And that's what drives those successful locations. Absolutely. It's an abundance mindset, not scarcity mindset. It sounds like it's exactly what you're looking for. Yep. And a franchisee. Cool. Absolutely. Tell me the advice you give to people who are considering joining the brand. Definitely bring your experience. Come with with all of the experience that you have. But don't think that there's nothing else you can learn, right? Because again, like, be a sponge to soak up all of the information and knowledge that we can give to you and then take your already pre-existing knowledge and work ethic and, you know, like desires to grow and develop. And you can definitely drive the success. That's, you know, like, again, there are sometimes that I've seen franchisees, not only for our brand, but other brands that think that it's just, you know, like, hey, the franchise will give me every piece of knowledge and information that I will ever need to be a business owner. And that's not true at all, right? Right. And I'm sure you've seen that with other brands. Absolutely. We work with the American franchise academy that has some great educational, you know, like, horses and some other things to help, you know, like, franchisees learn and grow and develop and so forth. But that was definitely something that, you know, like, sometimes I felt like, as, you know, like, the CEO that, man, like, do I need to be like creating a whole university geared towards, you know, this, that, the other and, and, you know, and working with some other brands are like, no, like, they have a responsibility to develop themselves as business owners, just as much as you have a responsibility to teach them your brand and everything else. So, you know, for sure, any franchisee looking at our brand or any other brand, just recognize that, you know, you have just as much of a responsibility to continue to learn and to grow. And we've developed programs and systems and almost reward systems for franchisees who go above and beyond to get more more education for themselves, because we know that the more education that a franchisee gets on being a business owner or anything on those lines is going to help them be more successful as a business owner. Amin, have you gotten all this explosive growth just organically or have you used brokers? Tell me what's been some of the lead sources you guys have used for this growth? We've tried using brokers in the past to very, very little success. I think we've only ever successfully onboarded one franchisee through a broker network. It's not to say that we don't like brokers or anything like that. We just maybe we're not necessarily a big flashy, shiny object for a lot of brokers to sell with. But I will say that, again, that the eight-step process that we utilize has been very successful in helping us. So, yeah, pretty much organic growth. And then obviously our eight-step process has helped really refine those that are coming in as leads that want to become franchisees, that we can walk them through how the process works, what we're looking for, what they can expect, and all sorts of things. And that process has really helped us grow much more than we ever envisioned. So this process, I assume, being internal, you don't use a franchise sales organization all, you guys do all your own franchise development in-house. And all internal. Now, we worked with a consultant that we've actually brought on as our fractional chief development officer, who's worked with multiple brands. He's worked with the kid to kid uptown Sheepscape. He's worked with probably ten or so different franchise brands over the last 30-some odd years and really seems some good success there. So he's helped develop this eight-step process and worked with others who utilize the same process and just continues to help hone and refine that. But it's been very, very effective for us. Nice. Amin, if someone was interested in learning more information about the franchise, where can they go? So, bricksandminifigs.com and the end in bricksand minifigs is all spelled out. But, yeah, so bricksandminifigs.com and then we've got a link there, franchise opportunities and there's a lot of, you know, kind of an FAQ section that people can kind of read through and understand a little bit more if they want to look at that. But then there's also a form to fill out there that will kind of put you in touch with our franchise development team who will are more than happy to answer lots of questions and kind of walk you through the process and see what they can help you discover for yourself. Cool. Amin, I am impressed. I love your story on how it came to be, how you came to be, you and your brother got to be involved in the company. And it's fascinating. I am super impressed with the growth. Last thing I like to finish with I call the tip jar. So, if I was that entrepreneur looking at a franchise, my concept, what advice would you give me? Surround yourself with smart people. People who have done this before, you know, like, again, you don't have to hire them, you know, or you don't have to make them your partners or anything like that. But, you know, go find people that have done it before, ask them questions, work with people who, you know, are dedicated in some of those spheres. And again, like by not thinking yourself to be the smartest in the room all the time, you're going to, you're going to soak up a lot of really great insights from other people who have been there and done that. And that will propel you forward much faster than, you know, thinking that you can do it all by yourself kind of thing. You don't have to, right? Because you don't have to do it by yourself. Somebody's done it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amin, thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate it. This was a great conversation. Thanks again. Yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity and loved being a guest on your show here. So that's great. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into the Emerging Franchise Brands podcast. For additional insights, guest applications, and to stay connected, visit us at efbpodcast.com. The Emerging Franchise Brands podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent those. When Emerging Franchise Brands, its host Frank Fumay, for Emerging Franchise Group LLC, any discussed franchise or investment opportunity requires thorough investigation, obtaining proper disclosure documents, and expert consultation before making any investment decisions. The podcast and its host do not offer professional advice or endorsements, and they hold no responsibility for actions, representations, accuracy, or consequential damages related to the podcast content. [Music]