0191: uBreakiFix: The Freedom, Flexibility and Autonomy Owning a Franchise Can Offer Brynson Smith

Ea interviews, episode 191, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect interview. Franchising for profits. I don't know about you, but I have thought about owning a franchise. I don't. I started my own business, but I thought about it and I know there are so many benefits to it. And that is why I'm excited to have sales expert and consultant Brinson Smith on today's episode. He works with franchises, one specifically that I'm excited to talk about. And he's going to be sharing with us the inside secret strategies and best practices for growing your business and profiting from franchising. I'm going to bring them up right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's free businessbook publishingcourse.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Brinson Smith. Brinson, how are you feeling today?

I'm feeling great. It's good to be here with you, Mario.

Oh, the pleasure is mine. I see you got, you break it, I fix it. Shirt on there. And I just want to ask you what, what does this franchise do?

So we are the largest electronic repair franchise in North America, so we like to say that we fix anything with a power button.

Well, that is fantastic. And I want to say again, thank you because.

This screen is yours.

That's awesome. I appreciate your business, man.

No, the pleasure really is mine and I thank you because when I saw not only what you did, but who you were with, I was like, I couldn't say enough good things. And I do want to, I really do want to know the behind the scenes and I got the customer perspective. When you fixed my phone, I had this thing five weeks right after it came out and it was the top of the line phone and I gently set it down on a chair on the front porch. The cushion ejected it onto the concrete step and it chipped just the corner. And I was like, what can I do? And I want to know about that because my perspective is I can buy a new phone, I can take it to a local place, but I just felt more comfortable with a franchise because, you know, a local place may or may not be the best, but the franchise is like at the very least, whether it's a good franchise or not, no matter which One someone's thinking of. At the very least, you don't get to multiple hundreds of stores or even dozens by doing something wrong. That much I know. That much I'm pretty confident about. So tell me the behind the scenes perspective and why did you choose this?

Well, so I think from an economic standpoint, I mean, repair makes sense now more than ever before. I mean, these devices, as you know, are practically your best friend. I mean, I don't know about you, but when I go to bed, you know, my phone's right next to me. When I take a shower, you know, it's, it's right next to the sink. It's, it's in my pocket 24 hours a day. So, you know, it's, it's, it's practically my best friend. So when, when these things break, you know, people, you got to get. Flip out, right? Yeah, they, they flip out. And one of the interesting things about cell phones today is people are using cell phones for the majority of their work. Now over 50% of the Internet usage that somebody, you know has during the day is, is done on a smartphone. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a great business. And I think to your point, we have 580 stores across the U.S. and Canada today. And out of the 580 stores, you know, we fix anything with a power button. Everything from smartphones to laptops, desktops, Xboxes, PlayStations, you name it.

But what about speakers?

Yeah, really anything. If it has a power button, we will take a look at it and do a free diagnostic on that device. So, yeah, and there I think, you know, to the point you made repair standards, training standards. We have partnerships with companies like Samsung, Google.

You know, many other OEM partners. So it really, you know, we give the best repair and the best experience that we can to the customer.

Well, I'm glad you do. And I had a great experience and I just looked over at one of my studio monitors. I got Yamaha HS8s and they're bigger than the screen. And I was curious because they don't have a screen, but when you said anything with a power button, I have a fair amount, let's say, of digital equipment in the studio here. And yes, yes, this has been on my mind ever since day one and when I engineered the whole process for the show. But contrary to belief, I actually keep my phone in a different room. I don't keep it near me all the time. I know statistically over 97% of people keep it within 3ft of them or something like that. All the time. But I get my fair share of this. So I'd like to just disappear when I'm not doing this. But it is so important.

But I don't.

I recommend boating in the lake, swimming. But the crazy thing is the phone is actually waterproof and so are a couple of my watches that I've, I've went in with it and not even thought twice about it. Got some underwater video. But the cool thing is you're out there and you're able to help people.

Right.

So from a business standpoint, maybe I want to start a franchise, maybe I don't. But what are some success secrets and profitability secrets? Because again, you don't get to 500 plus stores, nearly 600 now, and not do a few things. Right. What would you say is the most important thing that you should consider when you're a company you want to grow and you want to be profitable?

Yeah, I mean, I think our business, our model, I mean it's the, it's the textbook find a need and fill it, you know, model. And I think that, you know, when you go back to this business was actually started in 2008. It was a mail in company where people would send devices to us back in 2008. We decided to open up our first door in 2009, brick and mortar retail store in Orlando, Florida. And that first year we did about $700,000 in revenue and doubled the revenue that our online business did. And basically, you know, from that point, we, from 2009 to 2013, we grew 47 corporate stores before we ever franchised. And you know, I think that one of the beautiful things about franchising, one of the reasons we decided to franchise is it's a way to garnish market share very, very quickly. It's a way to take a product to market quickly and infuse a lot of capital into the business with people that live, you know, in their market, in their community. And, you know, that's what we did. So I think that first and foremost for us and our model and how we grew the business, I think we got the dirt of the business under our fingernails. You know, we, we grew this thing. Our executive team, till this day spends time in stores, is involved in the business. Our CEO can pretty much probably repair any smartphone you put in front of them. And I think that's important, you know, to, to really understand the product that you have and lead your, your techs and your team by example. I think that's really been the key to our success thus far.

I'm glad, I'm really glad you brought that up because I know so many entrepreneurs, including myself, who even with this production, I've. In the beginning especially, I was at the point where I'm supposed to be hosting and booking killer guests like yourself, you know what I mean? There's certain things only I can do.

Sure.

And I find myself climbing behind a computer because I know how to build computers and I actually designed and built the one I'm using to live stream this, the whole studio. I'm a geek, so all the electronic stuff, I've done the whole process and I have people on my team that help me with the production side of it. But I've found in so many entrepreneurs, it's like, how do you best balance your time going, hey, I should be doing more hosting and speaking, not necessarily playing with the wires, but at the same time it gave me a ton of confidence and it gave me a clarity with that. When people are asking, it's not just like, oh, grab any mic A, B or C. There's distinct reasons why you want to go with this one versus that one versus the other one.

Yeah. And I think, I think you bring up a really good point. I mean, for, for us in our stores, I mean we're, we're, we're essentially a support organization that gives business owners the foundation to be successful in their own communities. And you know, one of the things that we've encouraged these owners to do is get involved in the business, you know, learn initially, go through our training, do repairs, handle customers, and over time, you know, once you have that involvement in that knowledge, you know, I think the hardest thing to do is to step out from that role and empower your people to kind of take your place. And I think a lot of, a lot of businesses, especially service based businesses, fall into that trap where, you know, they, they just can't empower that person to do that. And I think the only way to scale your business is to, to really do that. And one of the things that I think we've done fairly well is we've relayed expectations properly to, you know, our people and given them clear cut expectations on, on, you know, what they need to do and if they do it and do it well, what they'll get and if they don't, what will happen. And I think that's just given us the ability to grow the business properly, you know, while holding people accountable within their stores.

So I got to ask you about certification and training now because I love what you're saying. About holding them accountable and having a system. One of the things I love doing when I'm helping people design courses, publish their books. And even if it's a video production, we have to systematize it. There's no way you're just turning on a camera and just randomly, let's see what happens. I mean, you can do that. And I'd say do that instead of do nothing. But at some point you're going to go, we need to get a shot list, we need to know what we're doing. You know, even file size is a big thing to concern. Now I record every single one of these episodes in 4K and stream it in HD. That's a lot bigger than VHS file size. That's a huge concern that no one even thinks about. So what did you do to figure out, hey, here's the certification. If I say I want to buy one of your stores, great. How long is it going to take me to get up, up to snuff with not only me being competent but also my team, depending on the size, before you say, okay, we're going to release you into the wild, you get your own and you're fully certified, you're good to go.

Yeah, it's a great question. From signing franchise agreements to store opening is typically around six months. And believe it or not, the big, the big delay there is usually identifying real estate. And because we have a brick and mortar presence, we also have a mobile repair presence as well. You know, we have almost 600 stores open and we have hundreds of vans deployed throughout the country as well. But that real estate process takes a little bit of time. And to your question, ramping up and getting an owner up to speed happens pretty quickly. I mean we have, we basically have a six week training process that happens. Part of it is, is in, in Orlando at our home office and then we have somebody go out to the owner and you know, from a proficiency standpoint, if there was a new tech or new hire in our stores, typically within three weeks, that new hire can get up to speed fixing these smartphones. They're obviously not going to be doing board level micro soldering, you know, and a lot of this like super technical advanced stuff. But in time they can, you know, and we have, in franchising, I think one of the, one of the beautiful things is you're buying the, you know, you have the Martha Stewart, you know, cake recipe and you know, it's been proven, everything's been laid out. So it's plug and play and you know, franchising is a beautiful thing. You know, whether somebody does you break, I fix or decides to go on the IFA website and explore the other 4,000 different opportunities, there's a lot of support and I think that's a big part of starting your business is getting the lift that you need and having all those resources behind you.

So you're saying six weeks is all it takes?

Yeah, so six weeks is really all it takes. Three weeks is in Orlando. And I say that pre Covid right now. I don't think anybody's getting on a plane and headed to Orlando right now. But three weeks happens in Orlando at our home office and then we actually, believe it or not, we fly a launch team, corporate trainer out to the franchisee and they're in their store for three weeks with that owner helping them get everything set up. And you know, on top of all the back end resources and you know, resources for the franchisee once their stores open, that's really all they need in order to launch the business and be successful right out of the gate.

Let me ask how many hours? Because three weeks is a pretty short deadline. But three weeks could be 120 hours or it could be 30. And I know you said people aren't going to be working on my Mobo and RAM chips right out of the gate, but how many hours are we looking at in those three weeks?

So you're looking at over 120 hours. I mean, you know, for somebody to go through and be onboarded, you know, our business properly. Yeah, yeah. And hiring a tech in general, you know, you can teach anybody how to, you know, make a hamburger or make a sub pretty quickly, usually the same day. But our businesses is, is a little more technical. So, you know, that proficiency again is usually anywhere from about three, three weeks. And we have a training system that's pretty intensive. It really is immersion where we're throwing that new hire, that tech into a process that's worked thousands and thousands of times before. So it's, it's. Yeah, it's a pretty good system that we've put together.

Well, I'm happy to hear that. And I kind of figured it was over a hundred hours, but.

I didn't think it was just 30. I really was curious though, because not only, I mean, you could have a successful business just doing screen repair and now you don't have all the variables of is it a motherboard or is it a speaker or is it a tv? It's only. And then you could take us a step further. I talk, I tell my Clients all the time to niche down. You could say, not only is it cell phone repair, it's only the iPhone, or only Androids or iPhone would probably be easier because there's only like one. You know, it's. It's more controlled instead of 20 different brands. But I have no doubt you could have a successful business for just that and keep it real simple and cut out the 80 other different things you do. How come you chose not to do that, though?

We don't want to limit our customer base. And I think that, you know, for us it's the broad approach. You know, we want any and every, you know, customer that what we're after is household acquisition. And I say that when you think about the community that you live in and you think about the, you know, the thousands of households. My household today has over 20 devices. I've got a toddler. My. My toddler actually has four that are Bluetooth connected already. He doesn't know it yet, but he does. And when you look at all of the devices that we have in the home, that is what you break eye fixes after, in general, is all of those devices. We want that customer to come in with their Samsung Galaxy or their Google Pixel or their iPhone. They break it, have an incredible experience, and then come back with the Xbox or with the hoverboard or the drone or the Roomba vacuum, which I have one of those as well. And we want to be that company to take a look at it. So that's really what we're after.

What about nest thermostats?

The answer is yes.

Really?

If it's got, if it's got a. Now, I will say this. There are devices that when we diagnose it, the customer brings it in. If, if, if the part is more expensive in some cases than, Than replacement. What we do is we'll tell the customer, hey, look, we can re. We can fix this for you, but we looked it up online and you can actually get the, you know, this item for 80 bucks or a hundred bucks or whatever it is. So we're always advising, trying to do what's best for the customer. And what we've learned over the years by handling our customers that way, people will now just come in and get that genius advice, if you will, where they're walking in going, hey, I have this issue. What do you recommend here? What should I do? And that's really where you want to be as a business, is you want that customer loyalty. I mean, today, where we are right now, we have over 7 million customers as a brand, 33% of our customers are repeat, which is really unheard of in our industry. So, yeah, yeah, it's. It's a lot of fun.

Well, that does make sense. I mean, I've been to places where they're like, oh, we can fix it. And it's going to be, you know, they just give you a quote and they're like, so do you want to do it today or tomorrow? And it's like, you know, there's times where I've. Because I'm pretty astute with financial stuff and just, you know, knowledgeable. You know, you don't need. You really don't need to be a rocket scientist to look stuff up. I'm like, right, okay, it's gonna be a buck and a half to fix it, and it's $75 to buy it new. Why? But what irks me is because I do not take on any clients that do crap like that. They have an application process, and I just won't. I don't need to, don't want to, never did. Even when I did need them. It's just wrong. And again, if it's cheaper to buy it new, I'm glad you're putting them in the right direction. And it's no wonder, you know, even when I went in there for the first time, it was like, you know, what are my options? And thankfully, I guess you could say the silver lining, since the phone was like $1,000 and it was only five weeks old, there was no way it was cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it. But.

It all worked out, and it's still working great. And I will tell you, I did test the water seal.

Oh, man. I've lost, personally, I think two or three phones to water damage over the years. I'm one of our best.

Are you on iPhone?

I'm an iPhone guy now. I was a Google Pixel guy before, but my whole family's on iOS and it just. It's easier with all the FaceTime calls and all of that. But I'll be. I'll.

I'll be nice. I think they're waterproof now, but this was the first one I got was eight. Eight. Yeah. Eight years ago. And it's been waterproof. I remember jumping in the pool and going in the hot tub and all kinds of stuff, and it was like, I don't care.

That's awesome.

And that was like four or five years ago.

That's awesome.

But you can't break, you know, concrete. I don't have a workaround for concrete without putting it in one of those boxes that weighs four times more than, you know, me.

So there, you know, there's a give and take to it. So I'm glad you're growing and I'm glad you're successful. I want to ask you, who is your biggest success story.

That you've been able to help? I'm leaning towards. It sounds like it might be a family or. So let's ask from a customer standpoint and from a franchisee standpoint.

Yeah, I think, I think from a customer standpoint, I mean, there's a lot of stories of franchisees really going over and beyond and doing things for, you know, customers that are either in need or, you know, a veteran that served our country and giving them a free repair. I think one of the cool things that that happened was a collaboration between us and Google when the hurricane came through and impacted Houston. So we, we have partnerships with a lot of companies, and Google's one of them. We're a direct partner of Google's, which is really cool. So if you go on, on Google's website, we're actually, you know, on their website as their repair arm. So during the hurricane that came through Houston for that month, we collaborated with Google and gave free repairs to all of the customers, you know, in that market, which was really cool. So I love, I love those stories when we're able to, you know, work with a, with a, with a company like Google and just give back to people that need, you know, need help. But, yeah, I would say that's probably one of the biggest, one of the coolest things that we were able to do for all of the customers impacted by the hurricane in Houston.

That is a great story and I'm glad you shared it because, yeah, I've heard of Google. They're a nice little startup and just giving back. And I, it was. One of my main reasons to starting the company is you can do what you want. When you get it to a point where you have the freedom of time and money.

There are people that are hurting and you can help them. It's not, hey, I want to go do this. Can I have an hour off to do community service? And the boss is like, no, because he's. Use your words. Not as nice as most people.

So thank you for doing that and I'm glad you were able to.

Yeah, no, for sure. And I think on the franchisee side.

Not on the customer side, franchisee side, I think our best success story is probably the 35 techs that now own their own franchise today. And I think we have a very unique offering where yes, there is a barrier to entry. I wouldn't call it low, but I would say it's a barrier to entry that most people can hurdle over if they work really hard or they partner, they get SBA funding or you know, whatever. But we've got about, you know, again, 35 technicians that started, they worked with us, started as a tech. They were able to save up enough money to where that now they own their own business. And some of those techs today have grown over the last, you know, decade from one location to, you know, five plus, which is just a really cool thing. So.

That is really cool.

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, business isn't free, but I bet it's not, you know, like most restaurant franchises that are 800,000 1.2, 1.8 million to get started.

Yeah, I agree. I mean when you look at restaurant and I, you know, growing up, my dad was a entrepreneur and had a bunch of restaurants and I love to eat food. I'm six foot six. I didn't get this tall by just looking at it. So I love food, I love restaurants. But when you've worked in food service, it does take a toll on you dealing with serve safe, dealing with the, you know, the health department restaurant equipment that is really, really pricey. So. And also.

You know.

I would say we've got a pretty pandemic proof business and I know we're still kind of, you know, dealing with, you know, Covid, but that, that first surge, you know, that came through, you know, we were an essential business. Our stores were pretty much all open nationwide. And you know, when you look at where we are today in July versus where we were last year, July, we're up 20% year over year in gross sales. So. So it's a huge blessing for us. But I think that, you know, there are a lot of great service based businesses out there that are definitely worth looking at for sure.

Well, excellent. And it sounds like you break it iFixit is definitely a good one.

Yeah, it is, it is. And there's a lot of good ones out there again, but I think it's, it's just, it's super rewarding, you know, and I love the stories seeing the customers come in and hear, hearing the different devices they bring in. You know, we had a, we had a woman bring us device into Orlando that are, you know, her pit bull, you know, had, had sank his teeth into and we were able to bring that back to life. And you know, you just hear these stories and it makes it fun. You know, there's just.

Wow.

It's. It's a different. It's a different customer, a different device every day.

I would be curious to know how you did that. That seems like almost an 80% replace. Because I know the microchips and the radio antenna inside, you can re solder and do stuff even with the magnetic coils for different things. But how would you just replace it? Like a bite mark. Wow. Interesting.

Yeah, so it was mainly just. It was mainly just the screen and the digitizer. It was also where, where the dog bit the device. So I think we were lucky. But yeah, just hearing the different stories, you know, it keeps it, it keeps it fun.

Excellent. Well, it is time for. I'm having a blast this whole time, but it's time for the wheel of whatever.

That's awesome.

And this thing always ends exactly where it needs to, on the question it needs to ask. It's not a Ouija board, but I don't know. That doesn't make sense. Whatever. And it's. Oh, look at that. It stopped right where I needed it to. Again, I want to ask you what, where do you see the company going in 10 years? How many stores would you like to have and what would be the ultimate goal?

Oh man, that's a, that's a good question.

So I see us, you know, over a thousand stores throughout the US and Canada growing our partnerships, you know, more mobile, mobile units, you know, deployed. And also I think international expansion would be fun. We are in Canada and we are in the Caribbean as well. But you know, doing a pan European expansion, expanding into South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Asia, you know, would. Would be a lot of fun. Not sure if that's where we're headed, but we do have a global product and you know, we have the supply chain, we have the support. We really have the foundation in place to do that. And I think that would be really fun and I hope that's where we're headed. Time will tell.

I would love to see that and I believe it's totally possible. I thought you'd say 5 or 10,000 at least because I know McDonald's ended up with 35,000 plus last I checked. And I'd rather have your service than, well, whatever, I'll behave. But I mean, do you think there's like the square footprint? People are only going to drive so far to do it. So have you taken a calculation and go, hey, we need X amount of stores in the US to cover a. I Don't think you need to be down to a point 8 or 1 mile radius like some other people are. But if you were to have a store every five or ten miles apart, I think that's a safe driving distance to do it.

Yeah, and our, and I think it's a great question. We, our focus, you know, has been really growing the North American footprint. And you know, for us and this isn't a knock on McDonald's or you know, any other food retailer, you know, it's just a different model. You know, you drive by a McDonald's, you see the sign, you're hungry, you drive in, you pull in, you go through the drive through. For us, you don't typically look up a U break. I fix until you break a device. And when you break your device, you tend to look on an unbroken device where you can get your broken off one fixed. And we want to be relevant to that search. So for us, from a marketing standpoint, we do the majority of our marketing online and we also have a partnership with Samsung where you know, we're really close with Samsung and got a great relationship with them. Google and, and also a company you might have heard of called Assurian and they're basically a big electronic, you know, warranty, you know, company that's in 31 countries. They're massive. And so for us those customers are being driven to when a customer calls Assurian and they have their, their, you know, their warranty, they're calling Assurian and Assurian is actually pushing that customer to UBreak. Samsung same thing. If they have an in warranty, they have a warranty with Samsung. They call Samsung and Samsung pushes them. The call center will direct them to UBreak to get their device replacement. So on that note, for us, you know, we don't need as many stores, you know, as some of the other retailers out there. And we're also super, super mindful of, of infringement. Meaning, you know, we don't want to put too many stores in a market where ultimately they're just taking business from one another. And I think we're just super, super conservative, you know, on that front. So yeah, I don't know what the future will hold, but I definitely think in the next 10 years, you know, over a thousand stores, could it be 2000? Could we look into repairing other devices inside the home potentially? And I think that would be exciting to just adding on additional additional revenue drivers.

Well, I'm loving what I'm hearing here because that is a concern you don't want, you know, your own Stores choking out your own store. And I know they're independently franchise owned and that, but just from a corporate standpoint and a business standpoint, I mean, you don't want them so close that I'm deciding should I go to A, B or C? And it really makes no nevermind. But.

I'm glad you are out there. And yeah, Verizon is partnered with Asurion because when I called them they were like, oh, take it to one of our authorized facilities. I wasn't questioning who it was and I didn't really think Verizon had this armor. Samsung had this arm where they have warehouses where it's like so and so owned. I knew it would be a partner and I was like, oh. Because I had actually heard of the franchise prior, I just never went to it because nothing broke. And when I did, I was like, this is awesome. I want to ask you one thing. And then we're, I got to cue the sponsor and we'll be back for the imperfect action round. But I'm thinking of my experience and what I'm hearing is a lot of smart business planning, partnering and figuring out who you can collaborate with in your market. Like you said, all those, you said it so nonchalant. All those leads just keep coming in. For anyone listening, who can you collaborate with and set up the same type of partnerships? And this is where this idea came from.

Do you know statistically how many people wait in the stores or come back later?

Oh man.

Or could you get that info?

Yeah, I, I could probably get that info most of. Well, and, and I, I kind of know the answer, but I, I don't know the exact answer. One, one of our, our, our big focus has been convenience from the start. You know, much like a, you know, a dry cleaner, you never see dry cleaners inside megamal malls. And I'm not knocking mega mall businesses or retailers, but for us, you know, we looked at growing over the years and we looked at indoor malls. Should we go inside of them? In some cases, you can set a kiosk up. It's super cheap, red. And for us, we want to be that business that's just right there for the customer. They see the signage from the road, they see the business from the road. They can get out of their car, go in, drop off their device and be on their way. Most of our customers, I do know this will drop off their device and then they'll go to the Starbucks next door, go to Jimmy John's, go to Target, run some errands, right? And then come back. Most do. However, a smaller percentage I do know kind of hang out in the store and they'll wait for the repair. But it also depends on the queue. You know, if we. If we don't have a device in front of you and you're the first customer in the morning, it could be a 20 to 30 minute repair and you might wait. Versus if it's an hour and a half to two hours, you're probably going to be more inclined to jump in your car and take a drive.

It was like, you're reading my mind now. My Starbucks was actually Timmy hose, but I think I did get some donuts.

Okay.

And yes, and I got the iced cap. And what I was getting to was the closest one near me was 25 to 30 minutes away. And he said, it'll be an hour, hour and 15 minutes. I wasn't going to drive half an hour to come back half an hour to go back half an hour. So, yes, I also wasn't going to walk in a circle for an hour. I mean, I had a case and everything was cool, but. And I know expanding the footprint in the store like Xfinity does with like, couches and all this stuff, and I think that's a testament to. You should have better turnover times and be quicker. But thanks for the couch. I was getting to. Have you ever considered partnering with Starbucks? Timmy hoes all the places you're near and going, hey, while you're waiting, go check out any of these places and enjoy a lunch or a coffee on us or at least half price. Just some sort of collaboration, because that's exactly what I did. And then I came back and it was another 10 minutes or so. I was like, no big deal. I'll just go get another coffee. I was wound up. I was excited to get the phone back, and I had two ice caps with chocolate and caramel. It's a good day.

That's awesome. Yeah. And I. I think. I think you bring up a good point. We. My. So my brother Justin actually owns a U break I fix in Athens, Georgia, and I've got family involved in the business as well. And it's off of Epps Bridge Parkway in Athens, and right next to it is a Jittery Joe's coffee shop, and they do that exact thing. And I think it's really. I think it's smart because you can have a customer come in and what we'll do is, you know, in this location is they'll hand the customer a free drink so that while they're waiting they can go grab a free drink. And it's really up to the franchisee, you know, if that's what they want to do. We encourage our franchise owners to, you know, make friends with your neighbors, you know, and if there is a coffee shop in your, in your retail plaza, do those sort of things. Things. And, and also, you know, take care, take care of the coffee shop. Baristas. Baristas. Break a device, fix it for free, you know, because they're going to be a great source of revenue for you. They'll let people know whenever they see a broken phone, hey, go next door to you. Break I fix. You know, they'll take care of you. They're great.

Yeah. Referral partners in the collaboration. I mean, you, you get all the businesses on every side going. Yeah, I mean, perfect testimonials with foot traffic coming through. And when you were talking about the, the locations and all of that, I was just like, I gotta ask this because I didn't get a bonus coupon or anything, but they're still gonna buy. You know, even if I did get a free drink, I for sure would have still got the donuts or a sandwich. I think I got both because I was, it was hot. It was a couple summers ago and it was like, hot. And I don't like hot, so definitely iced. And I wanted to relax. I like my food too, and I just thought about that. But yeah, if you had all the stores doing it.

I'd be curious to see between now and next year if you implement it, you know, how much it does spike it. Because I think it would be at least 5, 10, 15%.

Yeah, no, I think, I think you're right. I mean, we encourage owners to do those sort of, of things. And, you know, we do carrier runs bi weekly to you know, AT&T Verizon, T Mobile. We bring them donuts, we bring them pizza, we bring them coffee, we bring them cookies. And I think those touch points are really big. You know, it's all about relationships. And even though you're not walking into that Verizon store, giving them gift cards or, you know, paying them for those referrals just by going in there and connecting with the salesperson, knowing them by name, getting to know them, following up with them, it really goes a long way. And, you know, we've gotten a lot of business over the years just by being personable and, you know, reaching out to local businesses that could refer us, you know, customers at the end of the day.

Yeah, it is all about the relationships. And I'm glad you're focused on it. And I can say one more time that it definitely shows.

Awesome. I appreciate that, man.

All right, we're gonna cue the sponsor. Thank our sponsor. I'm going to hit the sponsor button and we'll come back with the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why you should Visit free businessbook publishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction leading and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what? Don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having an idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published. Or Catherine, thank you for making my.

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Unmanageable. John Cody. I've worked with Mario over the phone.

And online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner.

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And we are back with the imperfect action round. Brinson, are you ready to take imperfect action?

I am ready.

60 second answers. First question. What is the fastest path to the profits?

Oh, man. Fastest path to the profits. I would say serving customers well, you know, finding out how you can support your customers in doing whatever it takes to serve them well.

That's my answer.

Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

I'm sorry, man.

I am so sorry.

I don't know. That's a. That's a good one.

Next.

Okay, number three. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Do whatever it takes. Do whatever it takes. To serve your customer well, is what I would say. I mean, we go over and beyond. We'll jump over hurdles. In some cases, customer can be wrong and we'll still, you know, take care of the customer and serve them right.

I like that. I thought the customer's always right.

They are always right. Sometimes they're not. But, you know, it's how you handle that customer. And we have found that sometimes the customers that walk into our stores that are yelling the loudest, if you can, if you can take care of that customer, even if they're in the wrong, you will have that customer for life. And, you know, right now I think we have 130,000 five star reviews and, you know, across all our stores. And, you know, that's what it takes, you know, to get there, is just serving the customer day in and day out.

Yeah, I know the goal isn't to get 100,000 people that are screaming all the time when they walk in, but in the instance that you do, they are a very passionate individual. That's their personality type and whatever they think is correct. So if what they think is advantageous to you, and like you said, you serve them and now that's their new reality.

Right?

Yeah. You're never gonna have to send them sales stuff again. They'll go, they'll, they will go fight for you. I had one of my clients, he never really. He's always been nice. He's been a client for over 10 years. He's never been hard to work with or screaming or anything. But I'll never forget when he called me and says, hey, there's three people in here that claim they know you and everything and they're trying to get my business. And I told them to go away.

And it was people I knew that are always nice to me at networking and business stuff. And they're trying to take my client and he's calling me saying, you might want to rethink a couple of them. Guess who's never getting on the show.

All right, books. What are some good books you can recommend?

So I, I'm, I read a lot of the older books and I read them over and over and over. Think and Grow Rich. You know, I just read that book. I love Malcolm Gladwell's books. I've read all of his outliers, David and Goliath, Blink. Anything he writes, I read. But yeah, I read a lot of the older books. I always recommend for, you know, people in, in sales and development. Dale Carnegie, how to Win Friends and Influence People. An incredible Book. I mean, it's, it's an older one, but the principles in a lot of these books will never change. Think and Grow Rich. You know, book was written in the, you know, early 1900s. And again, the book will be relevant 300 years from now.

Absolutely agree, 100%. I actually prefer if the book's not 50 to 100 years old. I'm like, let's see what kind of reviews it got. One of my favorites is How I Raised Myself. How I Raised Myself from.

Yeah, I'm saying it right. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettcher. Okay, very good one.

I'm gonna have to read that one.

And that one was, I don't know the exact year. Let's say sometime between 1920 and 19, pre World War II. It was good though. He. I remember one part talking about. This one really stood out. And this, you'll really appreciate this with your business. He talks about always keeping pennies and quarters in your pocket so you can make a call to phone the home office to get stuff approved.

That's awesome.

I'm like.

Not need to do that. But there's a lot of great tips in it. Multiple pairs of shoes and just being ready and yeah. So thank you for the recommendations and I've thoroughly enjoyed this and thank you again for sharing. Where would you like people to learn more?

So if people want to learn more, we'd love to chat with you. If you go to ubreakifix.com at the top right corner of the website, you'll see a franchising link and you can learn a little more about franchising. Also on the About Us page, you can see a video of our founder and CEO Justin Weatherill, given kind of an overview of our story, which I think is pretty cool. But yeah, go to the franchising link, fill out your information. We'd love to chat with you. You know, set up a 30 minute call, just get to know you and see if this is a fit for you.

Excellent. Well, thank you again and I appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Mario.

All right, Expert Authority world. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless. You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate and qualify leads while increasing profit for you 24. 7 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With the Expert Authority Effect publishing method, it's easier and faster than ever. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started. Now once again, that's freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.Com hey, thanks for listening to today's episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out eainterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow.