Imagine a world where you can enjoy your favorite coffee, indulge in homemade desserts, and unleash your creativity with the beloved Lego brand all in one place! That's exactly what our guest, Daniel Johnson, brings to life with the first-ever Lego cafe in the Cincinnati region at Newport on the Levee. The Brickery Café & Play (The Brickery) is the name and you won't want to miss this episode. Join us as we uncover the incredible concept behind this unique cafe and how Daniel plans to provide a one-of-a-kind experience that both kids and adults will love.
In this fascinating conversation, we'll explore how the Lego cafe aims to cater to all ages, offering not just a retail experience with food and beverages, but also engaging services and experiences that set it apart from the traditional Lego store. Learn about the growth of Lego in the adult sector, the importance of brand identity, and the power of leveraging popular fandoms to create memorable experiences for every visitor.
But that's not all - we'll also discuss the potential of incorporating cutting-edge technology like machine learning and AI to enhance the Lego cafe experience even further. From setting up league nights for Lego building competitions to using a sorting machine to reduce human capital costs, the possibilities for innovation are endless. Listen in as we dive deep into this extraordinary concept and the strategies shaping the future of retail experiences in Legos. Don't miss this insightful episode that will inspire your creative side hustles!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for
joining us.
Our goal is to help you connectto real people who found
success turning their sidehustle into a main hustle, and
we hope you can too.
I'm Adam Kaler.
I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, myco-host.
Let's get started, all right.
(00:32):
Welcome back, everybody to theSide Hustle City podcast.
Today we got a special guestand Kyle Stevie is joining us
remotely from his cell phone, sothis will be fun.
Kyle, are you at work right now?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, I had to drop Charlotte off at all.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh, okay.
Well, we got Daniel Johnsonwith us.
Daniel is opening an awesomeLego experience down at Newport,
on the Levy here in Newport,kentucky, just right across the
Licking River from where we sitat the moment.
Daniel, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
This is going to be awesome, daniel.
So Legos man Me and you satdown We talked about it a little
bit, but tell people about thisfascination you have with Legos
.
What made you want to do theLego thing?
What were you doing before Allthat good stuff?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, so I'm opening up thefirst Lego cafe in the United
States in the Cincinnati area,and the idea just came to me
about a year ago and ramped upfrom there, and the whole thing
was just like.
(01:36):
It's really the perfect brandto build a business around.
It's the number one toy brandin the world.
They sell 600,000 sets everysingle day Just astronomical,
right.
And everyone obviously knowswhat it is.
It's ubiquitous.
(01:58):
So the idea was just likethinking that it's a high
quality product and it alsoprovides a high quality
experience in the home, but upto this point, there really
hasn't been anything that'sreplicated that experience in a
social setting.
And so just thinking about howeverything if retail is going to
survive at all in the future,then it all has to move towards
(02:21):
being experiential, right, andso that was kind of.
It was just trying to kind ofsolve that puzzle and say what
would actually make it makesense to build a Lego store in
2023?
Well, yeah, there has to bemore to it, right, there has to
be some kind of experienceattached to it.
Of course, there's already thatexperience there.
(02:42):
It just hasn't really been donein this way yet, and so that
was the idea was just that,bringing it all together, it's
thinking, yeah, this could besomething like a board game cafe
or a comic book cafe, but it'sa Lego cafe and you have
everything there.
(03:03):
You have food and beverage,retail, and then also services
and experiences, and that wasthe idea just to get that unique
combination together so that itcould be this awesome
experience that would drawpeople out of their homes and
into the cafe.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And this is a place where people go and they
actually hang out for a littlebit.
They're not just going therebuying a box of Legos like you
would at the Lego store in themall.
Yeah, This is an experience.
like you said, it's anexperience, it's a retail
experience.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, go ahead, kyle, sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I think it hasn't happened yet because they have
Lego Land in Los.
Angeles They have a couple LegoLans, right.
Yeah, like almost as if it'sparts with Legos.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, you're exactly right.
So there's Lego Land in Florida, new York, i think, la and Las
Vegas, and then they have LegoLand Discovery Centers which are
basically like a children'smuseum kind of experience, and
they have one of those inColumbus.
But that was really it And thatwas exactly how I thought about
(04:11):
Kyle.
After I thought about it, iresearched and I'm like I just
can't believe this doesn'talready exist.
But it didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, that is absolutely wild.
I mean, this is like I don'tknow.
it just seems like you, just itseems such like it's like one
of those ideas where it seems sosimple you're pissed off, you
didn't think of yourself, you'vebecome a huge.
but it becomes like a huge ideaBecause I mean, i'm assuming
(04:39):
this is going to be familyfriendly, right?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Oh, for sure, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It blows my mind that this doesn't exist anywhere
else, with the fact they've hadenough success with the museum
parks.
They've opened up four of them.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
They have hotels and all this other stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, and there's nothing else around you.
There's no like saturation ofthe market, there's nothing.
It's just you.
That's it.
That is one Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
And that's hopefully been.
You know, that's obvious.
I'm hoping that that's one ofthe markers of a good idea.
Is that it's the kind of thingthat's like, oh man, why didn't
I think of that?
But but yeah, you know, like,if you, Lego does have official
stores as well, if you're in theCincinnati area, they have one
in Kenwood Mall And you knowit's it's it's a great store,
(05:28):
but it's very clear, as from themoment you step in, that you're
there to buy and then leave,Like they're not really inviting
you in or asking you to stickaround for a while, even that
they have a couple of things youcan play with, but there aren't
any chairs.
The store is very small, It'svery cramped, It's very much
like, yeah, we'll take yourmoney and we'll see you next
time your kids want something,And so, yeah, it just seemed
(05:51):
like to me it made sense thatespecially, you know, 60% of
consumers are saying now thatthey'd rather purchase
experiences over products.
You know, and other research isshowing that, like by 2025,
basically, if anything is retail, yeah, more than half of the
(06:12):
space will have to be dedicatedto some kind of experience in
order to even draw people in.
And so it was just like this isthe way that Lego should be
taking it anyway, And so I justyeah, I was like well, let's
just go ahead and do it.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
This is wild, that nobody I mean.
So the one thing is is thingsjust keep leveling up.
You know the mall is dying.
You don't see anybody like, ohwow, we need to go to the mall.
You know it's just.
It's just not something peopleare doing right now.
You know, and you know to getpeople into those experiences
like has.
Where did this research comefrom?
Where did this understandingthat we need to move to a more
(06:51):
experiential thing, like who'sleading that research?
Where did you find the research?
Is this the mall people?
Is this like a?
is there like a retailassociation or something that
did this kind of research?
Do you know where that camefrom?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, i'm sorry I can't cite the exact source, but
I have been doing research andit is.
It is just like retailassociations And it is just, you
know, i mean, some of it isobviously common sense, but but
it also is them being backed upby research.
That it's just like.
This is the way that things aregoing.
(07:24):
And the other interesting thingwas, though, that, like it's
almost like anything else, how,like you know, everything's
cyclical and, like you know,records come back in as cool,
you know, even though they'reantiquated or whatever, and so
one thing that the research isalso showing is that, if you are
(07:44):
having some kind of retailexperience, it where, like, a
lot of stores have paired backwhat they have, that's actually
then frustrated customers,because you know, like, let's
just like reinforces the idearight that, like I'll go to the
store, it won't even be thereanyway, so it might as well just
buy it online in the firstplace.
And so some of the research isalso saying that, if you're
(08:07):
providing a product line, thatyou need to have the full
product line available, and soit's not that, yeah, it's not
that you can cut into yourproduct availability, it's that
you just have to expand intoproviding experience, and so
that's part of it too is thatwe're moving into 3100 square
feet.
It's probably four times thesize of the Lego store at
(08:29):
Kenwood.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's wild Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And so, yeah, like it's an investment, but I think
it pays off.
when you're looking at, youknow Newport sees about 4
million visitors annually Andyou know they get unreal foot
traffic.
the aquarium, the cinema, isstill the best performing
theater in the region And, yeah,to me it just made sense to go
(08:58):
there as a way to prove out theconcept and then hopefully take
it other places.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, one thing, kyle , i noticed about Newport on the
levee is you've got a lot ofpeople there that go with their
kids and just mill around inthat big open area And I'm sure
wherever you guys are listeningat you know a mall in your town
is probably dying Right.
You know this was one of thosekind of like transition malls,
like it was from the traditionalmall to the outdoor mall.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Exactly.
Yeah, That's exactly right.
It's so hard to explain.
I've come up against that somany times, like how do you
describe it?
It's, you know, mixed usedevelopment.
but even that's not liketotally accurate, because that
usually implies housing.
Well, now there is.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It wasn't originally built with that aqua apartment
complex And then there's there'san aloft hotel there.
That's correct, but that wasn'tthe original thing.
I mean, it was just parking,empty parking lot there And it
was just the movie theater wasthe biggest draw And then you
had like a couple of do hispizza was there And there was a
couple of bars and restaurants.
It was like kind of meant foryounger people and maybe
(10:00):
families during the day.
That's right, but the view isawesome.
Like you can't beat the view.
It's right across the riverfrom downtown Cincinnati, so you
got this really, really coolview.
People going dates there.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
People think it's straight into great great
American from it, you know yeah,during a game, yeah, but.
I totally agree.
It's like I'm my theory rightnow is that like probably, you
know, like a city the size ofCincinnati in the future moving
forward, already provenbasically is going to be able to
support one mall and we haveour one mall, Kimwood.
(10:29):
like you know, everything elsehas died and will die And like
that's, that's probably it.
There's still going to be amall in every city because
people still do occasionally goout and that can probably
survive.
It's not going to thrive likeit did use it didn't in the past
.
But yeah, like it's, obviouslythings have to adapt to how, to
(10:51):
how things are moving to thefuture.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, and I think the one mall that's going to be in
every city is going to be thatmall where there's people with
discretionary income, yes, wherethey can just throw money at
something.
They don't have anything elseto do.
Maybe one of them stays at homeand, you know, goes to yoga
class all day and drinksStarbucks and just wants a place
to go hang out, walk the mall,hang out with their, him, her
(11:13):
friends.
I'm not going to say it's women, there's guys out there staying
at home too, but the idea is islike, you know, you've got
discretionary income, there'smoney to spend, they can go to
the mall.
You don't have a lot oftroublemakers.
I mean, you know, when I was akid, people go to the mall just
getting to fights and you knowthose malls no longer exist.
That's right, and thereprobably shouldn't be a mall
where I grew up anyway.
And but you know, newport onthe levee is very unique in that
(11:37):
it is kind of a touristattraction to So if you're
staying at.
You're going to a Reds game.
You're coming from maybeSouthern Kentucky, somewhere
East Kentucky.
You're coming from up north inOhio or Indiana and you're
coming to Cincinnati.
What are you going to do?
You're probably going to justwalk around.
You can walk on the bridges.
You're going to walk across theriver.
You're going to go down by theriver.
Oh, what's this mall that'shere.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And then maybe you, if you're there for a game,
maybe you got your kids with youAnd next thing you know, you
stroll into Newport on the levee.
What's this Lego experience?
That's right.
I think your, your concept issomething that Newport and
Levy's missing right now,because, i agree, people bring
their kids are just millingaround Looking for something to
do.
They got ping pong tables setup.
I'm actually making it soundreally bad, but it's not new
(12:19):
person.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Actually kind of like they got the bowling alley
there.
Now that boy Yeah, it's reallynice.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, yeah, but I, but I do agree It's.
it's like, you know, like my,my daughter we were there a
month ago And she's, she waslike I want to buy something
with my allowance money.
I was like, looking aroundthere, there wasn't really
anywhere to buy something, andso I was like you know, like
There will be, could be that forsure, honey, you could buy
(12:47):
stuff from daddy's store.
Yeah, I'm sorry go ahead.
Yeah, i think everything youknow like that portion of it is
really serves like two purposes,and the first one is to be
another Revenue pillar, anotherrevenue stream, so that we don't
(13:11):
have to rely on, you know,selling Lego sets as being the
thing that we're either makingor breaking on, but then the
other thing is just using it asa way to basically Invite people
in and give them permission.
So so I'm really using it inservice of everything else.
(13:31):
It's not.
It's not gonna be the focalpoint, because people aren't
going to be coming to us for afine dining Experience, and so
it's.
It's really just it would.
It's gonna be more similar toan offering from something like
Starbucks, where it's justdrinks, snacks and desserts.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Like drink me.
Say drinks You mean likealcohol.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, we will.
So we're not.
We're not gonna be a Lego bar.
Yeah, we're not gonna be theLego bar.
Kyle, if you want to take theLego bar concept and run with it
, you're free to, but but I'mthinking just more like bottles
and cans, you know like it'savailable and and just let you
know Which potlays has, medullaor whatever, and it's just like.
(14:11):
Of course, you know that'sthat's just an easy thing to
offer great margins And peoplealmost expect it these days and
that's fine, like I thinkthat'll be good.
But, yeah, i definitely want tokeep it still like.
Basically, i'm trying toequally market to Kids and
adults, because the place whereLego has grown the most in the
(14:32):
past five years is in the adultsector, where they've been
Making sets specifically foradults, and that there's been a
huge response as a result ofthat.
So, yeah, so we'll be offeringyou know like We'll have coffee,
but we're also not a coffeeshop Cafe, because the same
thing, like there's plenty ofplaces that already do that, and
we're trying to keep thatpretty quick and easy So that we
(14:54):
can focus on building out themost unique aspect of it, which
is that Lego experience right,so, yeah, we'll have maybe more
like packaged goods for snacks,and then I think we will have
homemade like desserts when youtold Kyle to take that other
concept.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I'm just gonna run with it.
What came to my mind was he'sgot like an entire bar made out
of Legos and then there's afight and it just comes crashing
down And then they have to hireyou guys to come out there and
rebuild his Lego bar.
There you go, kyle.
What do you think?
Kyle's that gonna be a roughsituation.
It's your Lego bar there.
I thought I think it would be.
(15:31):
I think I'm a little scared ofwhat Kyle would turn that into,
but, but this is gonna beawesome.
So the idea is is like you are,you're building this experience
for people, which is great.
It's something that I don'tknow Where else.
I would go, like where, whereelse you go?
Is there anything like thisanywhere else in the Midwest at
least that I could go to?
(15:51):
or and it's gonna be right hereAnd that's right in Newport
since an adding Newport.
That's right, you know it's.
It's all the same guys.
Even though Kentucky people InKyle explain this to you, for
some reason they act like theyreally hate Ohio.
Oh, i don't even really hateKentucky though, unless you're
in Cleveland the Clevelandpeople think, you know, they
think it's.
It's like if they make fun ofKentucky, it's like something,
(16:14):
but it's like no, actuallyKentucky's pretty nice, like the
entire state is really nice.
Yeah, a beautiful state, nicepeople.
You got bourbon and horses.
Like, what else do you need?
exactly You know, and yeah butI live in.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I live in Mount Washington right now, you know,
like 20 minutes outside the city, and I would tell people I'm
from Cincinnati.
But someone who lives, likeliterally You know, 200 meters
from downtown across the riverwould say, you know, i'm from
northern Kentucky.
Yeah, and it's like, come on,you're from Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Like if you can throw a rock and hit downtown
seriously you're you're fromCincinnati, really like that's
to be honest.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I think I told you this my mom.
My mom grew up in Dayton,kentucky, and so I can say that
that's true.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, yeah, you could say something.
Yeah, well, I own this buildingso I could say it.
I pay like 11,000 dollars intaxes every year for the schools
and stuff.
So I I could say what I want,but yeah, no, kentucky's awesome
and it's a really good placefor you to have it.
We put on a level, is a greatplace, very family friendly,
very family oriented.
So you're gonna have parents,they can drink a little
(17:15):
something if they need to.
You know, you got the kids.
Everybody's trying to put thesesets together.
Maybe keep the kids away fromall the sugar.
That might be a good, a goodcall, but there will be sugary
treats there.
There will yeah, if they, ifthey want to do something.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
But that's right.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But the idea is is you are not just creating A
place for yourself, but you know, obviously you're a capitalist,
you're making a business,you're doing your thing, you're
taking advantage of the economicsystem that we have here, but
this is economic development forthe area.
Yes you're actually helpingNewport on the levy.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's, that's honestly my hope.
You know, like I, you know likethe the dictionary definition
of an anchor store and retail isSomething that occupies more
than 10,000 square feet And,like I just told Newport, like I
want to be an anchor store forthe levy, like I think, will
definitely benefit from thetrack of traffic that already
goes there, but I want to drawtraffic to it as well And I
(18:11):
don't see any reason that itwouldn't end up.
You know, like I think that'spart of the reason A lot of
out-of-towners go to the levy is, if you search, like, what to
do in Cincinnati, if you'rethere for a day, it's going to
be on most of those lists,because the one thing that I
finally found It's like it is alittle bit like something like
Navy Pier in Chicago.
You know, oh, yes where it'slike it is this like mixed
(18:32):
experience, um, and so I think Ithink that's kind of the appeal
there.
But you're, you're still rightthat there there are some Parts
of the levy that like, yeah,it's still needs some revivals.
Then there needs some some lifeinjected into it, and I'm
really hoping that we can bethat.
I'd love to be like a communityhub as well, um, and so
(18:52):
absolutely I'd love to to bedrawing people, uh, even more
people to the levy, and uh, i'dlove to get involved more in the
community, and I really dothink that it will Uh just Just
elevate everything that'salready there.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Oh, i believe it will .
I, there's no doubt.
Kyle, how old's char.
Starlet 12 well, you better getthat right, your wife could be
listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You broke up a little bit.
You must be driving.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
No, i'm not driving, i'm in freaking Erlanger.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well, you better get, you better get your daughter.
Yeah, i can hear you.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, yeah, so charlotte, charlotte's 12, but
my nieces and nephews would lovethis as well.
I think, too, that Everythingthat happens, in northern
kentucky, that's like.
that could be big like this,which I think could be One
westchester as well.
Yep, i need to draw some of thebig curve.
(20:03):
That's a really good point,that's something you thought of
is like okay, so We're gonnamake it big in north hockey, so
we're gonna get people from youknow all over close to downtown,
but then you know westchesterhas like So much other shit
that's like only there and solike top golf and things like
(20:23):
that.
Well, i didn't know if that wassomething like you had.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You broke up.
You're breaking up Kyle.
I'll let him answer it.
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yeah, no, i think I got the gist of it And, yeah, i
basically the only other.
Well, one of the only otherplaces I looked at seriously is
that Development in LibertyTownship.
What is it called?
Liberty Center?
Liberty Center, yeah, and, andyou know, i do think that they
Could sustain something likethis as well, and I totally
(21:02):
agree that there's probablyenough distance If, if the
concept proves out and it doestake off, uh, i'm either looking
at doing something like that ormaybe Maybe it's a like One per
city kind of thing.
I don't know, i need to, i needto dig into it a little further
and see whether it would besustainable, because The the
(21:24):
other thing about Newport isit's still not that far, no,
from westchester, if you'recoming down 75.
It's just not not that far andit's so centrally located And
like I think we could still drawfrom that area that I don't
know if we need to.
I don't know if we'd need toput another one there and so,
but I, but I am definitelylooking at like, yeah, if we can
(21:45):
prove it out, i would love tobasically franchise it out, or,
or, yeah, basically put one inevery city, and That's really my
uh, you know you have to have Ab-hag.
Have you heard about?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
yeah, yeah, big hair, audacious goal.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, and mine, mine is like the, the BHAG, beyond
this, like you know, the planfor the next 10 years is like
have another store in a year,have you know 10 stores by the
end of year three or whatever?
And like obviously this is allyou know, you have to go beyond
to get to something.
But but really, like, at theend of 10 years it's basically
(22:23):
to be bought by Lego.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And I don't think that's too crazy.
They're actually super engagedwith their community.
There was an eBay for Legoslike exclusively.
That was built by just fans ofLego And Lego then acquired them
few years ago, yeah, and nowit's an official part of Lego.
You know, like they offer anlike an open source CAD.
(22:52):
That's Lego event essentially.
Wow, yeah, that's completelyfree And you can build anything
you could possibly think of, andso they're very giving to their
community.
They're very involved Andreally that's it.
It's like it's basically whatwe've already been talking about
that I want them to look at itand be like then.
Be like, this is what a Legostore always should have been,
(23:15):
and then just just fold it inAnd who knows?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, i mean, i agree .
I mean I think that you know if, if I'm Lego and this thing
successful, you know, yeah, theyjust let you build the thing.
Yeah, improve it out, yeah,it's just like any startup.
If you're going to sell astartup, it has to be valuable
And then you have to have acompany.
But you've already got yourexit mind And that's what you
need to do.
Like, if you guys are out hereand you're wanting to build some
(23:39):
kind of a startup you know mostof us build these technology
startups you think, oh, i got tohave a technology startup, i
got to have something that's,you know, scalable software
thing.
Not necessarily.
I mean, if you know you canmake this work in Newport, right
, and then say you do expand upto say, like a Westchester Mason
, something like that, orLiberty Center all the way out
(24:00):
there, which Liberty Centermight make sense a little
further than those other ones oreven Dayton, right.
You know, dayton peopleprobably chances are not going
to come all the way down toNewport, right.
But you know, i already knowthat the Kentucky people don't
want to cross the river ever, sothey're probably not going to
go to your Westchester location,but I could see people from
Louisville coming up.
I could see people fromIndianapolis coming down if
(24:20):
they're big Lego fans and doingit on a regular basis.
I mean at least twice, twice ayear or something.
if I'm from out of town, if I'mfrom another city an hour, two
hours away, come down every oncein a while, like when I go on
these websites in there you knowtalking about Oh what?
what do you do in Cincinnati?
It's always the same old stuffzoo, right.
(24:41):
Go to Red's game If the Bengalsare in town.
Go to Bangles, maybe Cyclone'sgame.
Go down and see Fountain Square.
It's always the same stuff.
Go to the casino.
It every city's got almosteverything now.
Like every city's got a zoo.
They've got it.
I mean, our zoo's awesome, yeah,and it's the second highest
rated zoo in the country, ithink, but at the same time,
(25:01):
it's like there is no uniquestate.
There's less and less uniquestuff.
That's correct.
Every time I go somewhere forsure, and if I see one of the
top five places to visit inCincinnati, this is a Lego store
.
It's like when I go out toCalifornia, i want to go to the
Lego amusement park.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Because that's cool And a guy from Cincinnati
actually developed that likebuilt it, like he built
amusement parks.
He had an agency or somethingback in the day that like
designed amusement parks andarchitect.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, and I remember I was working at Kinko's
downtown.
He comes in with this plan forthis Lego thing And I'm like,
what is this?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
It's like Oh, that's awesome, Like you did the Lego
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
So yeah, But I mean having that experience having it
tied to a brand.
Yes, Because you see these likeswap meat stores opening up in
malls.
Now, Like I, when I was a kidwe used to go to Northgate Mall
in Colrain And it's like you goin there now.
It's like what is this stuffthey're selling?
But you just random stores, nobranding associated with it, And
(25:57):
it's just like.
You know, people are attractedto brands.
They, you know, they're sold onbrands And you've created a
brand that's tied to Lego, whichyou know people are fans of
this stuff And, like you said,it's growing with the older
audiences.
Well, we're the older audience,That's correct, We grew up on.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Lego.
That's it Exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
So you've expanded the demographic.
10 years ago, 20 years agomight not have been the time to
build a Lego store, exactly, butnow you've got several
generations that are into thisbrand.
That's right.
So talk a little bit about that.
Like, did you have to get anylicense from Lego or anything to
do this?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, and it's funny you brought that up like 10, 20
years ago.
Actually, 15 years ago, legowas about to fold straight up as
a company And that's somethingthat we like at our age.
We don't really know thatbecause we disengage with it,
but they really struggled withidentity like late 2000s, and
they were about to go bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Was it the Lego movie that brought them back from
disaster That?
Speaker 3 (26:59):
was.
That was part of their overallplan.
They got to a point and this isreally interesting like there.
There are documentaries aboutit now like look up
Brickumentary And you can.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Oh yeah, I think I saw that on Netflix or something
, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Yeah, and so they.
One of the main things theybring up is that and I do think
this is important for anybusiness thinking about like,
yeah, what is your identity?
And like, as soon as you startstraight and further and further
away from that, you'redisconnecting from your
consumers, because they expectone thing.
Now you're giving themsomething different.
And so they got to this pointwhere they, you know, like they
realized one of their issues wasthe number of unique pieces
(27:32):
that they had.
They had something like 10,000unique pieces, and so what was
starting to happen was like theyweren't connecting with each
other anymore, because they werejust like, whenever they needed
something a little bitdifferent, they would just make
a whole piece instead of tryingto build it out of bricks.
And so they cut that from like10,000 to 3000 and their overall
(27:54):
production across all sets,which I know is like a little
heavy, but like that they werelike.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
They just like like uh, so this is like.
I mean, this is engineering, imean you have to bring people in
that.
That's exactly like.
Hey, how can we, instead ofusing 10,000 pieces, how can we
make this stuff out of 3000?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Exactly And that.
but that's the appeal.
Like, because every time you'reintroducing unique pieces, then
it was just becoming more likeany other toy.
Like well, what's thedifference between this and a GI
Joe vehicle that's alreadybuilt?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Built.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Built If you're just giving me four pieces to put
together that are big and chunkyAnd so they realized like we
have to get back to basics.
And that was like the start ofthem finding their way again.
And then, then really, the Legomovie was one of those massive
catalysts where it was likepeople remembered what it was,
and they did such an amazing jobwith connecting with the
(28:45):
nostalgia of the brand that theyhad built in that movie.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, they've got a sneaky.
They've got a sneaky fun videogame the Lego Star Wars video
game.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Oh, yeah, they're hilarious, aren't they?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, i played that.
I would play that with my boys,i don't know, when they were
like nine, 10 years old, and itwas fun.
Yeah, it was one of those gameswhere it was hard enough to
challenge you, but it was easyenough that you could, like do
well on it.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
That's exactly.
Yeah, I think I think younailed it, because that was part
of it was like, yeah, it couldbe fun for an adult to play it
with their child, But it wasn'ttoo frustrating for the child to
still try to get through it.
And so, yeah, they did.
They've done such a good jobthere, Like for like they were
also like trying to get intoboard games and like they're
trying to do other things Andlike the board games were a
(29:32):
failure too, because it justwasn't what people came to Lego
for.
You know, it's not their thing.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
They try to expand to into too many things, exactly,
yeah, yeah, i can see thathappening.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, and so so just to get back to you know like,
sorry, the question you wereasking me related to licensing
licensing.
Like, yeah, i'm not directly incontact with Lego, but they are
not.
They're not just a manufacturer, right?
They are a distributor.
And so you know they wanttarget to sell lots of their
(30:07):
product.
Just, they want Walmart to selllots of their product.
And they also then haverelationships with independent
resellers And so they have likea second party distributor for
the United States And so you canestablish a wholesale
relationship with them And thenthey have a fair use policy
around their IP.
That they're like again, likewe want target to say the name
(30:31):
Lego and to advertise it and tosell it.
We just don't want them topretend like they are Lego, you
know, and that's that.
That trickles all the way downto any any kind of reseller.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
So you've had to do research and stuff on this.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I mean, this is like.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I mean, people listen to this podcast.
You know they're, they'retrying to start something that
they want to do.
You know, and, and a lot oftimes I tell people hey, you
know, don't just you got to bepassionate about something that
gets you through the tough times, but you can't be passionate
about something that doesn'thave a market.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Like I can be passionate about wigs Yeah
exactly.
You know or something, yeah,but where's the market for it?
You know, it's like you knowmaybe there's no market for it,
so why would I go into thatmarket?
But and actually we had a ladyon that was doing really good
with wigs- I believe that He'sselling them a target and stuff.
But?
but it's like, if I'm notpassionate about that thing, or
(31:21):
if I am passionate about it, itdoesn't have a market.
See, you are passionate, yeah,but it also has a market.
Yeah, there's a brand We'vealready talked about that.
It's established.
You did your research, you wentout there and found out Hey,
what do I need to do to openthis thing?
How do I make it different?
How do I differentiate it?
But then, on top of that, let'slook at where the trend is
(31:42):
going for retail.
That's right.
Where can I get ahead of thattrend?
That's right.
Or be part of the trend changing.
Yes, And people don't alwaysthink about this stuff when they
think about, you know, startinga business.
If you could give some of thesefolks you know, based on some
of the stuff, maybe I said yeahjust give people some some sense
(32:02):
.
And you've been in business fora while and you've you've done
some really cool stuffthroughout your career.
Yep, but get talk to people alittle bit about being an
entrepreneur and the upside, thedownside, the research.
you know the passion, some ofthose things that you've come
across since you've done this.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, for sure, you know.
I think you made a really goodpoint about trends.
you know, like the easiest wayto illustrate, you know, whether
you want to be you never wantto be looking toward the past,
like you always want to belooking ahead, and the easiest
way to illustrate is that thatis like if I was telling you
(32:42):
right now I'm going to open up apoppet store.
It's like, do you know whatpoppets are?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
It's like I'm sorry, but like you're already too late
, like you've already missed itYep, you're looking, you're
already like trying to grab ontoa dying thing, that you are now
going to have to pivot tosomething else, because when you
talk about market, is themarket there?
The market was there and it wasa flash in the pan, and now
it's going to move on to thenext thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Like fidget spinners, or that was fidget spinners.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You know, and it's like you have to make sure
you're not just trying to grabonto the latest thing that you
think is the latest thing,because before you know it it's
gone, and so that was part of it, was the calculus was looking
at Lego This is a brand that hasexisted for 90 years and the
public conscious it's more ofthe past 40 years And so that
(33:33):
was definitely a part of itwhere I was looking at and say,
yeah, this, this actually issomething that you can build a
brand upon.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
But just yeah, it goes back to.
It.
Just goes back to it's amazingNobody's done this before.
Because it is a, it is like alegacy brand.
I mean, right, legos have beenaround for so long.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And not, and not.
And it had so much success withdifferent concepts in terms of
bringing people to locations topurchase or play with or
whatever They're they're,they're product.
Yeah, again, i'm stuck.
I can't.
I can't believe it.
This is a thing.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I know, i know I hear you, I really do.
But beyond that too, the, the,uh, you know it.
It is important and we we'retouching on it when looking at
if you're going to try to builda brand or build your own brand
off of an existing brand or anexisting IP.
You do have to be careful,right Like there.
(34:33):
There are risks there because,uh, it's not my brand, right, So
there are things that I can'tdo.
That's why it's not called theLego cafe, by the way.
I don't know if we've ever saidthe name yet but it's going to
be called the name.
For God's sake, it's going to becalled the brickery, yeah, so
which is a great, a great name.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I actually liked that better than if it was branded
the Lego cafe.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Because now you have a separate thing that you could
build.
You have separate IP, you havea separate name that you can
build up without having to worryabout paying them a licensing
fee or any of that weird stufffor their name.
The brickery What's thebrickery Like?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
it's not just about the Legos.
It's about family time It'sabout.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
You know it's about doing a lot of other things.
You know somebody could have adrink there before the movie, or
whatever.
Yeah, And imagine one day whenthere's another Lego movie out.
What's everybody going to wantto do?
They're going to come therebefore, even without a Lego
movie at the AMC there There'sgoing to be people that want to
go there before the movie withtheir kids or after the movie I
mean you could spend a whole dayat Newport on a levy now, yeah,
(35:36):
I mean if we had been open forthe to coincide with this Mario.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Oh, my goodness Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
You know, like that's the other thing with Legos that
they have, they have access toall the largest fandoms already.
And so, yeah, like they havetons of Mario sets right now,
they have Star Wars, disney,marvel, harry Potter any kind of
fandom you would want to haveaccess to, you already do, and
they always have, like thecoolest version of the toy for
that brand And so like, all ofthat's good And but I, but I
(36:05):
would like you know caution, anylistener, you definitely do
have to be careful when you'reworking with existing IP.
If you were like I want to, youknow, make bangles, shirts you
like, technically can't, yeah,unless you engage with them and
become lice and license throughthem, right.
And so there are hoops that youneed to make sure that you're
jumping through, because, yeah,of course you could be doing
(36:28):
that as a side hustle on Etsy,you know, for a few months, at a
certain level, but if you everwanted to move beyond that,
you're eventually going to geton their radar and they're not
going to be.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
They'll send you a cease and desist letter and yeah
tell you that it's going tocost you the monies Exactly.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Exactly So.
So I just do want to to mentionthat, like uh and that is
something that's unique aboutthis is that, yeah, we are tied
to the Cypion, so I do have tobe careful in certain respects,
um, and like certain things,like they protect their brand
too.
Like all of their largest setsthey try to, they try to, they
try to treat as uh exclusives,like I wouldn't be able to get
(37:06):
them wholesale through theirdistributor.
So, uh, they do some brandprotection there.
That uh is, you know, makesgood sense on there, and I
totally get why, um, but it'snot, it's not something that you
can't overcome, Um, but it'sdefinitely something to look at.
But what I found on this journeyagain, you know, like, uh, i
(37:28):
was looking back through mytexts.
Like, uh, it was like almost ayear to the day, uh, like a
couple of weeks ago, for me everlike having this idea.
And then I texted a friendright away that morning And, um,
you know, like I had neverengaged with like this level of
(37:49):
entrepreneurship and I mean,it's an investment for sure.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Put some money out there, That's right.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
I'll talk about that in a second, but yeah for sure,
But, but you know, like, sothere was a huge learning curve,
Um, but it was.
It was important to see that,like, the resources are there,
Um, you know like, there's allkinds of resources within the
city that you can engage with.
Uh, you know like, especiallyif you're going into a brick and
mortar spot, that's a wholeother beast, right?
Uh, you know like, uh, it wasit totally a game changer to
(38:19):
engage with a retail broker, uh,uh, real estate broker for, for
retail or for commercial.
And then, um, you know, on topof that it was, but part of it
was like, you know, just, Ithink it came across that this
was something I actuallybelieved in, that I had done the
(38:41):
work or the research, and like,uh, you know, I, I engage with
one of the largestestablishments in the city and
they took me seriously the wholetime.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You know like, North American properties right.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
And that's, that's who owns the.
Yeah, that's right.
Newport and Levy.
Yeah, you know, like, and like,you're doing them a favor,
whether, like, let's be honest,you're doing them a favor, i
know but but there's that,there's always.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
you know, like, like with anything in life, there's
that imposter syndrome whereit's like I'm just some guy who
had an idea, like why are theytaking me so seriously?
But you know, like, instead ofpsyching myself out or being
like you know, this is crazy,like it was just like yeah,
maybe this is a good idea.
And and I really kept comingback to and I'm not trying to
say it in a denigrating way, butit is just the actual truth
(39:25):
It's like dumber people withworse ideas or opening
businesses.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh, that's 100% true.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Every single, 100% true people.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
It, just it's true.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
So if they could do it, why not me?
You know, like, yeah, likesomeone I like I don't know And
I'm sorry if you're listening tothis dude but someone open up
like a beef jerky store inWestchester And like I'm sorry
if he was your friend, but it'slike I don't know, i don't know
any beef jerky Sure, i don'tdrink Yeah.
Like shock of all shocks.
It's not there anymore.
You know, like I don't know ifthe market demanded a standalone
(39:58):
beef jerky store, Like that'swhat it was.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
And it's like but someone like they put all the
time, money and all of theirresources into doing that.
It's like this is not a beefjerky store.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
I don't even know how you turn that into an
experience, like I mean, itactually goes back to your point
that if it's retail it needs tobe an experience.
And I can't see, i can't eventhink and I'm pretty good at
like just putting thingstogether sometimes Like I can't
think of how you turn beef jerkyinto an experience, like I
guess you could dehydrate itthere yourself, but that takes
(40:30):
hours, so it's like that Ittakes you long.
You're going to sit there andwatch beef jerky dry out.
It's like watching paint dry,watching paint dry.
I don't.
I gotta get started on it intosomething, but yeah.
So I mean you're doing Newportand Olivia Favour And this is
going to be an experience.
This is going to be somethingpeople take their kids to.
They sit down with a set rightLike they can open up a Harry
(40:52):
Potter set.
Yep.
That's right, and buildHogwarts right there with their
family.
And they can actually rent timeand rent the set.
That's right They don't have tobuy the set Mom and dad, you
don't have to go home and worryabout toys being all over the
floor and worry about steppingon Legos.
Yeah, Yeah, don't, don't worryabout that.
Yeah.
Just go in here and rent theset.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Leave the mess with us.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Yeah, and they'll actually do it.
But we also talked about, bythe way, how much is that Like?
let's talk a little bit about,like pricing, yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I mean for sure That's that's a big part of it
is that you know, like I don'tknow if you look lately, but
Legos are super expensive.
They really are Like there's noway around it.
Like the Hogwarts castle, whichis huge, it's, you know, it
would basically take up thiswhole table, but it's five, It's
literally $500,.
You know, woo, yeah, you knowyou get.
(41:37):
You get 5,000 pieces, so thenthey're usually the, the, the
math that you're supposed to doon it, on it is like, if it's 10
cents per piece, which is whatthat comes out to, right, then
that's pretty good value ifyou're into Legos.
But you know, like, yeah, ifyou're not, that's a $500 for a
toy, regardless of of for manypeople.
(42:00):
And so that was part of it too,where it was like, yeah, like I
don't, a lot of people don'tknow if they want to invest that
much in something like this.
And so, yeah, maybe if it wasthe Hogwarts castle, if we had,
like we would trade it almostlike an escape room, where you
know, like you have your groupof four to six people and you
could be building itsimultaneously, and then you
(42:21):
know, maybe it's $25 per person.
But you know, like, if you loveHarry Potter but you're like I
don't know where I put that AndI don't know if I want to spend
that right now And you haveother friends that do as well.
Then it's like, yeah, you canjust come and do in the cafe for
a few hours and then boom.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
I could see you.
I could see you have a littlespeed competition Oh for sure,
for sure, for sure.
Individual and teamcompetitions and make it like
make it almost like a league.
Yeah, tuesday night, tuesdaynight, league night, or whatever
.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yeah, i love that idea.
Basically, i was thinking ofessentially doing that like just
like a spin on like trivianight at a bar, where it's like
instead yeah, it's like you havefive teams, they each have a
pile of Legos on the table andyou're like all right, you got
five minutes to make the besthouse you can make And then let
the cafe vote on which one theylike the best, or whatever you
(43:12):
know.
Like, just make it like almostlike a game show And that's the
thing, like it's a fun brand.
So like the possibilities areendless.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, you're even working on some technology
around Legos And I don't know ifyou want to talk about that, if
it's like a secret or whatever,but when we mentioned Harry
Potter, i thought of the sortinghat And then I thought of our
conversation about yourtechnology, your sorting
technology.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
Yeah, i had a meeting with someone yesterday and like
that was the one thing thatcomes.
It's like how is thisdefensible, right?
Like which is a part ofbusiness, right?
It's like you know, someoneopened up the first axe throwing
place and like how many arethere now?
It's like who else doesn't knowhow to buy axes in plywood?
Like it's not, there's not thatmuch that's actually unique to
(43:59):
it.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
I know how many are not open anymore Exactly.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
That's exactly right too.
Is that, like that's anotherthing, that it could be a fad,
and so, yeah, you have to makesure you're not just doing the
thing that everyone else isdoing And so, but in talking
about it, making it defensible,i think there is a lot of
technology that could beleveraged these days, especially
like we talked about it,talking about the thing that
(44:25):
everyone's talking about, ai andmachine learning, and there's a
lot that could be leveragedthere.
I mentioned it before the LegoCAD.
There's actually already proofsof concept on YouTube or in
other places where people havebuilt automatic Lego sorting
machines using things likeTensorFlow, which is the machine
(44:48):
learning language, and thenjust using actual Legos to build
the machine because they'resuper robust.
Any school that has a roboticsclub they're using Lego.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
That's true.
Yeah, I've seen it.
Yeah, they totally do.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
It's easy and immediate And you just get
results quick from it, and soyou can.
That's the nice thing aboutLego If you don't have it, you
could build it out of what youare already working with, and so
, yeah, you build this machine,and that would be one place
where I think we could add somedefensibility.
That would be a little bitharder to replicate is to have
(45:22):
some kind of automatic sortingmachine.
That would help us to cut downon the human capital costs.
But more, i would almost treatit as a spectacle, as something
that classes could come forfield trips and see how it works
, and we could talk about how itworks and how we got it up and
running.
But then, beyond that too, ithink there's also an app right
(45:43):
now called Brickit that I'mhoping to partner with, and it's
amazing Like you dump, pileLegos on the table, take a
picture of it, it will scan thepicture And then we'll instantly
tell you how many Legos thereare, exactly to the number.
Then it will tell you exactlyhow many of each you have right
(46:05):
there in the pile, and thenit'll tell you.
It'll give you a list of 10different things that you could
build with that pile of Legosthat you have in front of you.
Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Dude, that's pretty cool.
Brickit, Yeah, maybe you couldtie that into potentially
hardware.
That's right.
Yeah, that's.
oh, that's really cool.
That would make it.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
And if you had like an exclusive agreement with them
or something, oh, you would bedoing really really good, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
So I'm looking at that And then that is somewhere
like things like that.
Then could also maybe tie intoa subscription model, because
obviously having some kind ofpassive recurring revenue is
what everyone's looking forthese days.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
You should totally have a club, exactly That.
People join like a LegoBuilders Club, that's right.
Classes Yeah, they come in andthey get, yeah, so many hours or
something a month that they cancome in and do their thing.
They get a free drink, that'sright, yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Oh man, Yeah.
So I think that there's a lotof opportunity there.
We just have to make sure, Andthat was the thing again, I was
just like.
I wanted to provide this highquality experience that matched
what Lego's already doing.
Like there are they.
About 10 years ago, they triedto trademark the brick itself.
Oh, They already have a patenton it, but they tried to
(47:20):
trademark it And basically theylost.
That's wild.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
And how did Ohio stake it?
The like they, they, theytrademarked the word the and
Lego can't even trademark thebrick.
I know they made it.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Well, they did it.
They, that's another story, butbut yeah, they, they couldn't.
And so, like everyone knows,there's already like mega blocks
or there's, there's theknockoffs, but there are.
there are literally probably ahundred knockoffs at this point.
They're, you know, they'recountless Chinese knockoffs of
Lego that are a fraction of theprice.
If it's Hogwarts castle, thenthey call it wizards castle and
(47:55):
only costs $100, but it's justas many pieces.
But why have they persevered?
Why have they sustainedthroughout this?
It's because you, they're, youcan't match the quality, you
just can't.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
I don't want your bootleg wizard castle.
That's right.
You got to have the HarryPotter castle.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
And who's going to?
Speaker 2 (48:11):
get the licensing deal.
That's exactly.
It's going to be Lego.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
That's right, but but it's still like you can even
feel it instantly.
You can feel that it's inferior, like if it's a knockoff Lego,
and it feels so silly but thatkind of ties into it.
Like I was, i was watching aninterview with Howard Schultz
where it was like the theStarbucks CEO.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, oh, it wasn't the con congressional hearing.
Yeah, No, no, no, no, and thatone Okay.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
This was before all that.
He was just saying you know,like he, he, he prefers to be in
the luxury space because priceis a losing game.
Like you, just, you're notgoing to be able to.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, you're going to keep going down.
You're pricing yourself out ofbusiness.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
It's it Like that's, it's a, it's a losing game.
So like, if you're, if you'reliving in the luxury aisle,
where it's like you know, you'llhave a million coffee stops,
tell you that there's a millioncoffee places that make better
coffee than Starbucks.
But why?
why are they on every singlecorner?
It's it's because they'vethey've branded themselves as
this luxury brand and they'reable to still charge, you know,
(49:13):
$6 for a coffee, and they have asubscription model.
And they have a subscriptionmodel Exactly.
Yeah, and and and so.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
I get alerts on my phone all the time that if I buy
two coffees on Tuesday orsomething, that I'm going to get
an extra a hundred points.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
And I'm like.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Oh, that's not bad.
That'll come handy when I'm outof, when I'm down at a Disney
or something and I need to get acheap coffee my points.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
Thanks for gamifying my caffeine addiction.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
That's exact, yeah, and sugar, which they're the
biggest drug dealers on earth.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
That's right Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Yeah, so I I just think you know there's a lot of
things that that you want to beaware of And, like you need to
think about, yeah, how do youwant to engage in the space that
you're trying to engage, butbut, like, when thinking about
being an entrepreneur, the thingthat's really just been so
(50:02):
amazing about this journey hasbeen, you know, like I was also
a part of the corporate worldfor for a decade And the diff,
the main difference, and thiswas my issue with it was that is
that, like you know, the amountof effort that you put in in a
corporate world, like the outputis never going to be the same.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
I mean, I threw up a little bit in my mouth when you
said corporate world, I justalmost my stomach churned and
then I got sick.
It's the absolute worst.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
It's the worst And it's like, yeah, like everyone
knows, everyone knows, like weall know that what we're doing
is basically useless.
If you're a cog in this massivemachine and if you stop doing
it, basically nothing wouldchange.
That's a terrible feeling.
It really is, and like that ispart of that, like that where,
(50:53):
like it's, it just feels liketoil, like which is just doing
something for nothing, did you?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
ever read that report .
I think it was a collegeprofessor, somebody put it out,
said like a certain percentageof employees at a big
corporation are essentiallyuseless, yeah, like they're just
there to, to beef up thenumbers and make the company
seem like it's bigger, orsomething like that I mean the.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
did the tech industry just prove that Like 100%?
AI just laid off 250,000 peoplein the past three months And
somehow all these companies arestill operating.
Ai is writing their code.
Well, yeah, And even beforethat.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Elon.
I mean he came out and said it.
He was like look, it's like itturns out.
you know there were three timesas many people at Twitter than
there needed to be.
That's right.
Twitter is still running rightnow, and now somehow it's a
political thing.
I don't get it.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Well, they didn't need to be there They didn't
need to be there.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
That's right.
But that that's that issuewhere it's like you know, if I
put in 50% or I put in 90%, it'snot going to move the needle
either way.
So why would I put in 90%?
and that's just trying to getback to say what I found in this
journey is that, yes, of courseit's been a ton of really hard
work and it's going to it's onlygoing to get worse, you know,
(52:05):
like until eventually it willget better, but but it's not
going to be worse, because thedifference is I get out of it
exactly what I put into it whenit's my thing, right.
Yeah, i could, like I could notdo this, this and this and they
won't get done, and then thebusiness will suffer.
Or I can do do these thingsbecause I know how they're going
(52:26):
to impact the business And asmuch effort as I put in is
exactly what I'm going to getout, and that is so satisfying.
Yes, It really is.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
That's 100% true And I think that's what drives a lot
of entrepreneurs And the thingthat's interesting to me about
your business.
So what you just did was we'regoing into a recession, or a lot
of people say we've been in arecession and two economic
quarters of negative GDP, butsome people doubt it.
But people have less money.
That's right now, at thismoment, you could say you can
(52:57):
argue recession or not?
People got less money.
That's correct.
Do I get that Kings Islandmembership?
Do I take my kids to KingsIsland on a day pass and spend
you know, $100 ahead with foodand everything.
Yeah, Four people, there's 400bucks.
That's a $400 day.
Speaker 3 (53:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Do I take them to Newport and Levy Yep?
Go in and sit down for a couplehours and try to build the
Hogwarts Castle?
maybe four hours for theHogwarts Castle?
Sure Sounds like some timeinvolved there.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
It would definitely be the best, But yeah and then
go see a movie.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
And spend less money And then also, at the same time,
instead of spending $500 onthat set, yeah, i can come in
the kids crying I want the set,i want the set.
Yeah, just sit down and let'sjust do it, yeah.
And then maybe the kids spendhalf the you know an hour doing
it and gets bored with it orsomething and wants to leave.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
Well, good thing I didn't spend the $500 on the set
right, like what was I doing?
Speaker 2 (53:48):
I was about to spend all this money, you know.
But whether or not they do itor the kid loves the set Yeah,
that's the other thing.
I love it.
Hey, we spent an hour doing it.
We'll finish this up at home.
give us the $500 set and off wego.
That's right.
But this is changing things forpeople, right.
This is giving people otheroptions for entertainment.
Yes, that is also, at the sametime, an economic development
(54:12):
play for the city of Newport,and Newport on the levee in
particular.
Yeah, that's drawing people inand giving them another thing to
do in Cincinnati.
I think it's freaking brilliant.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
I appreciate it, i really do.
Another thing there isaccessibility.
where it's, like you know, thatis so far out of the range for
so many families that I do liketo come in at a lower price
point where they can play withit without having to buy it.
Like I'd love to make Lego ingeneral more accessible to
underserved families orcommunities where, yeah, it's
(54:44):
probably not something that theytypically get to play with.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Oh, that's true.
Yeah, i mean I like I'd playwith people in my apartment
buildings Legos, because wenever had any Legos.
Speaker 3 (54:53):
Sure, exactly, yeah, so I think there's just a lot
there where it's, you know, i'mhoping that it's a net good for
the community.
And yeah, i just want it to besomething that's, you know,
beyond just this, like I don'twant it to be the next axe
throwing, and I think, hopefully, the difference is that, yeah,
(55:14):
this is a brand that's enduredand is in the public psyche in
general, and and then this isgoing to be something that it's
going to be more like you know,like more, something more like
Starbucks where, like no oneknew they needed to go out and
spend six dollars by coffeebecause they're brood and
(55:35):
folders, but they've now foundthat they still don't experience
.
I hear you right, but but theyfound that, that they enjoy that
experience, and then that'ssomething that has now endured
and has has grown in general assomething that's just a part of
our public fabric now.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Well, Kyle Stevie wants to know when he can get
down there with his daughter andstart building some Lego.
So yeah, So when?
when do we?
when do we get to go down there?
When do the doors open?
Speaker 3 (56:00):
That's a great question.
I'll just tell you real quick.
We we just submitted forpermitting this week.
We are actually still preconstruction.
The space used to be Claire'sin the main building And so now
it's.
It's basically a gutted area,and so we do have construction
still ahead of us, but it's notnothing too crazy.
So we're looking at eight to 10weeks after permitting gets
approved.
(56:20):
So right now that's putting ushopefully at the end of July,
and if not, then then hopefullyAugust, or if not, then then it
should be August, and so, yeah,we're hoping to be open before
the end of the summer for sure.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Man is awesome.
Well, dana, thanks for being onthe show man, this is great.
You know is a website anythingelse People can just kind of
make plans I mean based on thattimeline like, yes, they go to
the website, they can check itout.
learn a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Absolutely Yeah, so you can go to the brickery
cafecom And then we will have.
You know, we're gonna havebirthday parties there as well,
so if that's something you wantto look into, we don't have a
booking system up yet on thewebsite, but we will ahead of
opening.
And then, in addition to that,we're super active on social
media, but not in a way that'ssuper annoying, just trying to
(57:12):
lighten your day a little bit.
And so, yeah, if you want tofollow us anywhere Facebook,
instagram, tiktok, twitter thenyou can just look for the
brickery cafe and we should comeup.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Daniel has been awesome.
man, daniel Johnson, guysentrepreneur of the brickery
gonna be an awesome funexperience for the family.
You guys get down there andcheck it out.
Thanks, daniel.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
I'm excited, I still cannot believe, Like every,
every parent who's listening tothis right now is like are you
fucking kidding me?
Nobody's done this yet.
Speaker 2 (57:51):
I know I know I'm sorry, soon, kyle, soon, kyle,
cool.
Well, daniel, thanks a lot.
Kyle, thanks, and yeah, getback home safe man.
Thanks for joining us on thisweek's episode of Side Hustle
City.
Well, you've heard from ourguests.
Now let's hear from you.
Join our community on Facebook,side Hustle City.
It's a group where people shareideas, share their
(58:12):
inspirational stories andmotivate each other to be
successful and turn their sidehustle into their main hustle.
We'll see you there And we'llsee you next week on the show.
Thank you.
Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for
joining us.
Our goal is to help you connectto real people who found
success turning their sidehustle into a main hustle, and
we hope you can too.
I'm Adam Kaler.
I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, myco-host.
Let's get started, all right.
(00:32):
Welcome back, everybody to theSide Hustle City podcast.
Today we got a special guestand Kyle Stevie is joining us
remotely from his cell phone, sothis will be fun.
Kyle, are you at work right now?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
No, I had to drop Charlotte off at all.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh, okay.
Well, we got Daniel Johnsonwith us.
Daniel is opening an awesomeLego experience down at Newport,
on the Levy here in Newport,kentucky, just right across the
Licking River from where we sitat the moment.
Daniel, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
This is going to be awesome, daniel.
So Legos man Me and you satdown We talked about it a little
bit, but tell people about thisfascination you have with Legos
.
What made you want to do theLego thing?
What were you doing before Allthat good stuff?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, so I'm opening up thefirst Lego cafe in the United
States in the Cincinnati area,and the idea just came to me
about a year ago and ramped upfrom there, and the whole thing
was just like.
(01:36):
It's really the perfect brandto build a business around.
It's the number one toy brandin the world.
They sell 600,000 sets everysingle day Just astronomical,
right.
And everyone obviously knowswhat it is.
It's ubiquitous.
(01:58):
So the idea was just likethinking that it's a high
quality product and it alsoprovides a high quality
experience in the home, but upto this point, there really
hasn't been anything that'sreplicated that experience in a
social setting.
And so just thinking about howeverything if retail is going to
survive at all in the future,then it all has to move towards
(02:21):
being experiential, right, andso that was kind of.
It was just trying to kind ofsolve that puzzle and say what
would actually make it makesense to build a Lego store in
2023?
Well, yeah, there has to bemore to it, right, there has to
be some kind of experienceattached to it.
Of course, there's already thatexperience there.
(02:42):
It just hasn't really been donein this way yet, and so that
was the idea was just that,bringing it all together, it's
thinking, yeah, this could besomething like a board game cafe
or a comic book cafe, but it'sa Lego cafe and you have
everything there.
(03:03):
You have food and beverage,retail, and then also services
and experiences, and that wasthe idea just to get that unique
combination together so that itcould be this awesome
experience that would drawpeople out of their homes and
into the cafe.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And this is a place where people go and they
actually hang out for a littlebit.
They're not just going therebuying a box of Legos like you
would at the Lego store in themall.
Yeah, This is an experience.
like you said, it's anexperience, it's a retail
experience.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, go ahead, kyle, sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I think it hasn't happened yet because they have
Lego Land in Los.
Angeles They have a couple LegoLans, right.
Yeah, like almost as if it'sparts with Legos.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, you're exactly right.
So there's Lego Land in Florida, new York, i think, la and Las
Vegas, and then they have LegoLand Discovery Centers which are
basically like a children'smuseum kind of experience, and
they have one of those inColumbus.
But that was really it And thatwas exactly how I thought about
(04:11):
Kyle.
After I thought about it, iresearched and I'm like I just
can't believe this doesn'talready exist.
But it didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, that is absolutely wild.
I mean, this is like I don'tknow.
it just seems like you, just itseems such like it's like one
of those ideas where it seems sosimple you're pissed off, you
didn't think of yourself, you'vebecome a huge.
but it becomes like a huge ideaBecause I mean, i'm assuming
(04:39):
this is going to be familyfriendly, right?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Oh, for sure, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It blows my mind that this doesn't exist anywhere
else, with the fact they've hadenough success with the museum
parks.
They've opened up four of them.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
They have hotels and all this other stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, and there's nothing else around you.
There's no like saturation ofthe market, there's nothing.
It's just you.
That's it.
That is one Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
And that's hopefully been.
You know, that's obvious.
I'm hoping that that's one ofthe markers of a good idea.
Is that it's the kind of thingthat's like, oh man, why didn't
I think of that?
But but yeah, you know, like,if you, Lego does have official
stores as well, if you're in theCincinnati area, they have one
in Kenwood Mall And you knowit's it's it's a great store,
(05:28):
but it's very clear, as from themoment you step in, that you're
there to buy and then leave,Like they're not really inviting
you in or asking you to stickaround for a while, even that
they have a couple of things youcan play with, but there aren't
any chairs.
The store is very small, It'svery cramped, It's very much
like, yeah, we'll take yourmoney and we'll see you next
time your kids want something,And so, yeah, it just seemed
(05:51):
like to me it made sense thatespecially, you know, 60% of
consumers are saying now thatthey'd rather purchase
experiences over products.
You know, and other research isshowing that, like by 2025,
basically, if anything is retail, yeah, more than half of the
(06:12):
space will have to be dedicatedto some kind of experience in
order to even draw people in.
And so it was just like this isthe way that Lego should be
taking it anyway, And so I justyeah, I was like well, let's
just go ahead and do it.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
This is wild, that nobody I mean.
So the one thing is is thingsjust keep leveling up.
You know the mall is dying.
You don't see anybody like, ohwow, we need to go to the mall.
You know it's just.
It's just not something peopleare doing right now.
You know, and you know to getpeople into those experiences
like has.
Where did this research comefrom?
Where did this understandingthat we need to move to a more
(06:51):
experiential thing, like who'sleading that research?
Where did you find the research?
Is this the mall people?
Is this like a?
is there like a retailassociation or something that
did this kind of research?
Do you know where that camefrom?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, i'm sorry I can't cite the exact source, but
I have been doing research andit is.
It is just like retailassociations And it is just, you
know, i mean, some of it isobviously common sense, but but
it also is them being backed upby research.
That it's just like.
This is the way that things aregoing.
(07:24):
And the other interesting thingwas, though, that, like it's
almost like anything else, how,like you know, everything's
cyclical and, like you know,records come back in as cool,
you know, even though they'reantiquated or whatever, and so
one thing that the research isalso showing is that, if you are
(07:44):
having some kind of retailexperience, it where, like, a
lot of stores have paired backwhat they have, that's actually
then frustrated customers,because you know, like, let's
just like reinforces the idearight that, like I'll go to the
store, it won't even be thereanyway, so it might as well just
buy it online in the firstplace.
And so some of the research isalso saying that, if you're
(08:07):
providing a product line, thatyou need to have the full
product line available, and soit's not that, yeah, it's not
that you can cut into yourproduct availability, it's that
you just have to expand intoproviding experience, and so
that's part of it too is thatwe're moving into 3100 square
feet.
It's probably four times thesize of the Lego store at
(08:29):
Kenwood.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's wild Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And so, yeah, like it's an investment, but I think
it pays off.
when you're looking at, youknow Newport sees about 4
million visitors annually Andyou know they get unreal foot
traffic.
the aquarium, the cinema, isstill the best performing
theater in the region And, yeah,to me it just made sense to go
(08:58):
there as a way to prove out theconcept and then hopefully take
it other places.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, one thing, kyle , i noticed about Newport on the
levee is you've got a lot ofpeople there that go with their
kids and just mill around inthat big open area And I'm sure
wherever you guys are listeningat you know a mall in your town
is probably dying Right.
You know this was one of thosekind of like transition malls,
like it was from the traditionalmall to the outdoor mall.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Exactly.
Yeah, That's exactly right.
It's so hard to explain.
I've come up against that somany times, like how do you
describe it?
It's, you know, mixed usedevelopment.
but even that's not liketotally accurate, because that
usually implies housing.
Well, now there is.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It wasn't originally built with that aqua apartment
complex And then there's there'san aloft hotel there.
That's correct, but that wasn'tthe original thing.
I mean, it was just parking,empty parking lot there And it
was just the movie theater wasthe biggest draw And then you
had like a couple of do hispizza was there And there was a
couple of bars and restaurants.
It was like kind of meant foryounger people and maybe
(10:00):
families during the day.
That's right, but the view isawesome.
Like you can't beat the view.
It's right across the riverfrom downtown Cincinnati, so you
got this really, really coolview.
People going dates there.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
People think it's straight into great great
American from it, you know yeah,during a game, yeah, but.
I totally agree.
It's like I'm my theory rightnow is that like probably, you
know, like a city the size ofCincinnati in the future moving
forward, already provenbasically is going to be able to
support one mall and we haveour one mall, Kimwood.
(10:29):
like you know, everything elsehas died and will die And like
that's, that's probably it.
There's still going to be amall in every city because
people still do occasionally goout and that can probably
survive.
It's not going to thrive likeit did use it didn't in the past
.
But yeah, like it's, obviouslythings have to adapt to how, to
(10:51):
how things are moving to thefuture.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, and I think the one mall that's going to be in
every city is going to be thatmall where there's people with
discretionary income, yes, wherethey can just throw money at
something.
They don't have anything elseto do.
Maybe one of them stays at homeand, you know, goes to yoga
class all day and drinksStarbucks and just wants a place
to go hang out, walk the mall,hang out with their, him, her
(11:13):
friends.
I'm not going to say it's women, there's guys out there staying
at home too, but the idea is islike, you know, you've got
discretionary income, there'smoney to spend, they can go to
the mall.
You don't have a lot oftroublemakers.
I mean, you know, when I was akid, people go to the mall just
getting to fights and you knowthose malls no longer exist.
That's right, and thereprobably shouldn't be a mall
where I grew up anyway.
And but you know, newport onthe levee is very unique in that
(11:37):
it is kind of a touristattraction to So if you're
staying at.
You're going to a Reds game.
You're coming from maybeSouthern Kentucky, somewhere
East Kentucky.
You're coming from up north inOhio or Indiana and you're
coming to Cincinnati.
What are you going to do?
You're probably going to justwalk around.
You can walk on the bridges.
You're going to walk across theriver.
You're going to go down by theriver.
Oh, what's this mall that'shere.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And then maybe you, if you're there for a game,
maybe you got your kids with youAnd next thing you know, you
stroll into Newport on the levee.
What's this Lego experience?
That's right.
I think your, your concept issomething that Newport and
Levy's missing right now,because, i agree, people bring
their kids are just millingaround Looking for something to
do.
They got ping pong tables setup.
I'm actually making it soundreally bad, but it's not new
(12:19):
person.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Actually kind of like they got the bowling alley
there.
Now that boy Yeah, it's reallynice.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, yeah, but I, but I do agree It's.
it's like, you know, like my,my daughter we were there a
month ago And she's, she waslike I want to buy something
with my allowance money.
I was like, looking aroundthere, there wasn't really
anywhere to buy something, andso I was like you know, like
There will be, could be that forsure, honey, you could buy
(12:47):
stuff from daddy's store.
Yeah, I'm sorry go ahead.
Yeah, i think everything youknow like that portion of it is
really serves like two purposes,and the first one is to be
another Revenue pillar, anotherrevenue stream, so that we don't
(13:11):
have to rely on, you know,selling Lego sets as being the
thing that we're either makingor breaking on, but then the
other thing is just using it asa way to basically Invite people
in and give them permission.
So so I'm really using it inservice of everything else.
(13:31):
It's not.
It's not gonna be the focalpoint, because people aren't
going to be coming to us for afine dining Experience, and so
it's.
It's really just it would.
It's gonna be more similar toan offering from something like
Starbucks, where it's justdrinks, snacks and desserts.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Like drink me.
Say drinks You mean likealcohol.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, we will.
So we're not.
We're not gonna be a Lego bar.
Yeah, we're not gonna be theLego bar.
Kyle, if you want to take theLego bar concept and run with it
, you're free to, but but I'mthinking just more like bottles
and cans, you know like it'savailable and and just let you
know Which potlays has, medullaor whatever, and it's just like.
(14:11):
Of course, you know that'sthat's just an easy thing to
offer great margins And peoplealmost expect it these days and
that's fine, like I thinkthat'll be good.
But, yeah, i definitely want tokeep it still like.
Basically, i'm trying toequally market to Kids and
adults, because the place whereLego has grown the most in the
(14:32):
past five years is in the adultsector, where they've been
Making sets specifically foradults, and that there's been a
huge response as a result ofthat.
So, yeah, so we'll be offeringyou know like We'll have coffee,
but we're also not a coffeeshop Cafe, because the same
thing, like there's plenty ofplaces that already do that, and
we're trying to keep thatpretty quick and easy So that we
(14:54):
can focus on building out themost unique aspect of it, which
is that Lego experience right,so, yeah, we'll have maybe more
like packaged goods for snacks,and then I think we will have
homemade like desserts when youtold Kyle to take that other
concept.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I'm just gonna run with it.
What came to my mind was he'sgot like an entire bar made out
of Legos and then there's afight and it just comes crashing
down And then they have to hireyou guys to come out there and
rebuild his Lego bar.
There you go, kyle.
What do you think?
Kyle's that gonna be a roughsituation.
It's your Lego bar there.
I thought I think it would be.
(15:31):
I think I'm a little scared ofwhat Kyle would turn that into,
but, but this is gonna beawesome.
So the idea is is like you are,you're building this experience
for people, which is great.
It's something that I don'tknow Where else.
I would go, like where, whereelse you go?
Is there anything like thisanywhere else in the Midwest at
least that I could go to?
(15:51):
or and it's gonna be right hereAnd that's right in Newport
since an adding Newport.
That's right, you know it's.
It's all the same guys.
Even though Kentucky people InKyle explain this to you, for
some reason they act like theyreally hate Ohio.
Oh, i don't even really hateKentucky though, unless you're
in Cleveland the Clevelandpeople think, you know, they
think it's.
It's like if they make fun ofKentucky, it's like something,
(16:14):
but it's like no, actuallyKentucky's pretty nice, like the
entire state is really nice.
Yeah, a beautiful state, nicepeople.
You got bourbon and horses.
Like, what else do you need?
exactly You know, and yeah butI live in.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I live in Mount Washington right now, you know,
like 20 minutes outside the city, and I would tell people I'm
from Cincinnati.
But someone who lives, likeliterally You know, 200 meters
from downtown across the riverwould say, you know, i'm from
northern Kentucky.
Yeah, and it's like, come on,you're from Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Like if you can throw a rock and hit downtown
seriously you're you're fromCincinnati, really like that's
to be honest.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I think I told you this my mom.
My mom grew up in Dayton,kentucky, and so I can say that
that's true.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, yeah, you could say something.
Yeah, well, I own this buildingso I could say it.
I pay like 11,000 dollars intaxes every year for the schools
and stuff.
So I I could say what I want,but yeah, no, kentucky's awesome
and it's a really good placefor you to have it.
We put on a level, is a greatplace, very family friendly,
very family oriented.
So you're gonna have parents,they can drink a little
(17:15):
something if they need to.
You know, you got the kids.
Everybody's trying to put thesesets together.
Maybe keep the kids away fromall the sugar.
That might be a good, a goodcall, but there will be sugary
treats there.
There will yeah, if they, ifthey want to do something.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
But that's right.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But the idea is is you are not just creating A
place for yourself, but you know, obviously you're a capitalist,
you're making a business,you're doing your thing, you're
taking advantage of the economicsystem that we have here, but
this is economic development forthe area.
Yes you're actually helpingNewport on the levy.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's, that's honestly my hope.
You know, like I, you know likethe the dictionary definition
of an anchor store and retail isSomething that occupies more
than 10,000 square feet And,like I just told Newport, like I
want to be an anchor store forthe levy, like I think, will
definitely benefit from thetrack of traffic that already
goes there, but I want to drawtraffic to it as well And I
(18:11):
don't see any reason that itwouldn't end up.
You know, like I think that'spart of the reason A lot of
out-of-towners go to the levy is, if you search, like, what to
do in Cincinnati, if you'rethere for a day, it's going to
be on most of those lists,because the one thing that I
finally found It's like it is alittle bit like something like
Navy Pier in Chicago.
You know, oh, yes where it'slike it is this like mixed
(18:32):
experience, um, and so I think Ithink that's kind of the appeal
there.
But you're, you're still rightthat there there are some Parts
of the levy that like, yeah,it's still needs some revivals.
Then there needs some some lifeinjected into it, and I'm
really hoping that we can bethat.
I'd love to be like a communityhub as well, um, and so
(18:52):
absolutely I'd love to to bedrawing people, uh, even more
people to the levy, and uh, i'dlove to get involved more in the
community, and I really dothink that it will Uh just Just
elevate everything that'salready there.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Oh, i believe it will .
I, there's no doubt.
Kyle, how old's char.
Starlet 12 well, you better getthat right, your wife could be
listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You broke up a little bit.
You must be driving.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
No, i'm not driving, i'm in freaking Erlanger.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well, you better get, you better get your daughter.
Yeah, i can hear you.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, yeah, so charlotte, charlotte's 12, but
my nieces and nephews would lovethis as well.
I think, too, that Everythingthat happens, in northern
kentucky, that's like.
that could be big like this,which I think could be One
westchester as well.
Yep, i need to draw some of thebig curve.
(20:03):
That's a really good point,that's something you thought of
is like okay, so We're gonnamake it big in north hockey, so
we're gonna get people from youknow all over close to downtown,
but then you know westchesterhas like So much other shit
that's like only there and solike top golf and things like
(20:23):
that.
Well, i didn't know if that wassomething like you had.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You broke up.
You're breaking up Kyle.
I'll let him answer it.
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yeah, no, i think I got the gist of it And, yeah, i
basically the only other.
Well, one of the only otherplaces I looked at seriously is
that Development in LibertyTownship.
What is it called?
Liberty Center?
Liberty Center, yeah, and, andyou know, i do think that they
Could sustain something likethis as well, and I totally
(21:02):
agree that there's probablyenough distance If, if the
concept proves out and it doestake off, uh, i'm either looking
at doing something like that ormaybe Maybe it's a like One per
city kind of thing.
I don't know, i need to, i needto dig into it a little further
and see whether it would besustainable, because The the
(21:24):
other thing about Newport isit's still not that far, no,
from westchester, if you'recoming down 75.
It's just not not that far andit's so centrally located And
like I think we could still drawfrom that area that I don't
know if we need to.
I don't know if we'd need toput another one there and so,
but I, but I am definitelylooking at like, yeah, if we can
(21:45):
prove it out, i would love tobasically franchise it out, or,
or, yeah, basically put one inevery city, and That's really my
uh, you know you have to have Ab-hag.
Have you heard about?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
yeah, yeah, big hair, audacious goal.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, and mine, mine is like the, the BHAG, beyond
this, like you know, the planfor the next 10 years is like
have another store in a year,have you know 10 stores by the
end of year three or whatever?
And like obviously this is allyou know, you have to go beyond
to get to something.
But but really, like, at theend of 10 years it's basically
(22:23):
to be bought by Lego.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And I don't think that's too crazy.
They're actually super engagedwith their community.
There was an eBay for Legoslike exclusively.
That was built by just fans ofLego And Lego then acquired them
few years ago, yeah, and nowit's an official part of Lego.
You know, like they offer anlike an open source CAD.
(22:52):
That's Lego event essentially.
Wow, yeah, that's completelyfree And you can build anything
you could possibly think of, andso they're very giving to their
community.
They're very involved Andreally that's it.
It's like it's basically whatwe've already been talking about
that I want them to look at itand be like then.
Be like, this is what a Legostore always should have been,
(23:15):
and then just just fold it inAnd who knows?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, i mean, i agree .
I mean I think that you know if, if I'm Lego and this thing
successful, you know, yeah, theyjust let you build the thing.
Yeah, improve it out, yeah,it's just like any startup.
If you're going to sell astartup, it has to be valuable
And then you have to have acompany.
But you've already got yourexit mind And that's what you
need to do.
Like, if you guys are out hereand you're wanting to build some
(23:39):
kind of a startup you know mostof us build these technology
startups you think, oh, i got tohave a technology startup, i
got to have something that's,you know, scalable software
thing.
Not necessarily.
I mean, if you know you canmake this work in Newport, right
, and then say you do expand upto say, like a Westchester Mason
, something like that, orLiberty Center all the way out
(24:00):
there, which Liberty Centermight make sense a little
further than those other ones oreven Dayton, right.
You know, dayton peopleprobably chances are not going
to come all the way down toNewport, right.
But you know, i already knowthat the Kentucky people don't
want to cross the river ever, sothey're probably not going to
go to your Westchester location,but I could see people from
Louisville coming up.
I could see people fromIndianapolis coming down if
(24:20):
they're big Lego fans and doingit on a regular basis.
I mean at least twice, twice ayear or something.
if I'm from out of town, if I'mfrom another city an hour, two
hours away, come down every oncein a while, like when I go on
these websites in there you knowtalking about Oh what?
what do you do in Cincinnati?
It's always the same old stuffzoo, right.
(24:41):
Go to Red's game If the Bengalsare in town.
Go to Bangles, maybe Cyclone'sgame.
Go down and see Fountain Square.
It's always the same stuff.
Go to the casino.
It every city's got almosteverything now.
Like every city's got a zoo.
They've got it.
I mean, our zoo's awesome, yeah,and it's the second highest
rated zoo in the country, ithink, but at the same time,
(25:01):
it's like there is no uniquestate.
There's less and less uniquestuff.
That's correct.
Every time I go somewhere forsure, and if I see one of the
top five places to visit inCincinnati, this is a Lego store
.
It's like when I go out toCalifornia, i want to go to the
Lego amusement park.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Because that's cool And a guy from Cincinnati
actually developed that likebuilt it, like he built
amusement parks.
He had an agency or somethingback in the day that like
designed amusement parks andarchitect.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, and I remember I was working at Kinko's
downtown.
He comes in with this plan forthis Lego thing And I'm like,
what is this?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
It's like Oh, that's awesome, Like you did the Lego
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
So yeah, But I mean having that experience having it
tied to a brand.
Yes, Because you see these likeswap meat stores opening up in
malls.
Now, Like I, when I was a kidwe used to go to Northgate Mall
in Colrain And it's like you goin there now.
It's like what is this stuffthey're selling?
But you just random stores, nobranding associated with it, And
(25:57):
it's just like.
You know, people are attractedto brands.
They, you know, they're sold onbrands And you've created a
brand that's tied to Lego, whichyou know people are fans of
this stuff And, like you said,it's growing with the older
audiences.
Well, we're the older audience,That's correct, We grew up on.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Lego.
That's it Exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
So you've expanded the demographic.
10 years ago, 20 years agomight not have been the time to
build a Lego store, exactly, butnow you've got several
generations that are into thisbrand.
That's right.
So talk a little bit about that.
Like, did you have to get anylicense from Lego or anything to
do this?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, and it's funny you brought that up like 10, 20
years ago.
Actually, 15 years ago, legowas about to fold straight up as
a company And that's somethingthat we like at our age.
We don't really know thatbecause we disengage with it,
but they really struggled withidentity like late 2000s, and
they were about to go bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Was it the Lego movie that brought them back from
disaster That?
Speaker 3 (26:59):
was.
That was part of their overallplan.
They got to a point and this isreally interesting like there.
There are documentaries aboutit now like look up
Brickumentary And you can.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Oh yeah, I think I saw that on Netflix or something
, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Yeah, and so they.
One of the main things theybring up is that and I do think
this is important for anybusiness thinking about like,
yeah, what is your identity?
And like, as soon as you startstraight and further and further
away from that, you'redisconnecting from your
consumers, because they expectone thing.
Now you're giving themsomething different.
And so they got to this pointwhere they, you know, like they
realized one of their issues wasthe number of unique pieces
(27:32):
that they had.
They had something like 10,000unique pieces, and so what was
starting to happen was like theyweren't connecting with each
other anymore, because they werejust like, whenever they needed
something a little bitdifferent, they would just make
a whole piece instead of tryingto build it out of bricks.
And so they cut that from like10,000 to 3000 and their overall
(27:54):
production across all sets,which I know is like a little
heavy, but like that they werelike.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
They just like like uh, so this is like.
I mean, this is engineering, imean you have to bring people in
that.
That's exactly like.
Hey, how can we, instead ofusing 10,000 pieces, how can we
make this stuff out of 3000?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Exactly And that.
but that's the appeal.
Like, because every time you'reintroducing unique pieces, then
it was just becoming more likeany other toy.
Like well, what's thedifference between this and a GI
Joe vehicle that's alreadybuilt?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Built.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Built If you're just giving me four pieces to put
together that are big and chunkyAnd so they realized like we
have to get back to basics.
And that was like the start ofthem finding their way again.
And then, then really, the Legomovie was one of those massive
catalysts where it was likepeople remembered what it was,
and they did such an amazing jobwith connecting with the
(28:45):
nostalgia of the brand that theyhad built in that movie.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, they've got a sneaky.
They've got a sneaky fun videogame the Lego Star Wars video
game.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Oh, yeah, they're hilarious, aren't they?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, i played that.
I would play that with my boys,i don't know, when they were
like nine, 10 years old, and itwas fun.
Yeah, it was one of those gameswhere it was hard enough to
challenge you, but it was easyenough that you could, like do
well on it.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
That's exactly.
Yeah, I think I think younailed it, because that was part
of it was like, yeah, it couldbe fun for an adult to play it
with their child, But it wasn'ttoo frustrating for the child to
still try to get through it.
And so, yeah, they did.
They've done such a good jobthere, Like for like they were
also like trying to get intoboard games and like they're
trying to do other things Andlike the board games were a
(29:32):
failure too, because it justwasn't what people came to Lego
for.
You know, it's not their thing.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
They try to expand to into too many things, exactly,
yeah, yeah, i can see thathappening.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, and so so just to get back to you know like,
sorry, the question you wereasking me related to licensing
licensing.
Like, yeah, i'm not directly incontact with Lego, but they are
not.
They're not just a manufacturer, right?
They are a distributor.
And so you know they wanttarget to sell lots of their
(30:07):
product.
Just, they want Walmart to selllots of their product.
And they also then haverelationships with independent
resellers And so they have likea second party distributor for
the United States And so you canestablish a wholesale
relationship with them And thenthey have a fair use policy
around their IP.
That they're like again, likewe want target to say the name
(30:31):
Lego and to advertise it and tosell it.
We just don't want them topretend like they are Lego, you
know, and that's that.
That trickles all the way downto any any kind of reseller.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
So you've had to do research and stuff on this.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I mean, this is like.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I mean, people listen to this podcast.
You know they're, they'retrying to start something that
they want to do.
You know, and, and a lot oftimes I tell people hey, you
know, don't just you got to bepassionate about something that
gets you through the tough times, but you can't be passionate
about something that doesn'thave a market.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Like I can be passionate about wigs Yeah
exactly.
You know or something, yeah,but where's the market for it?
You know, it's like you knowmaybe there's no market for it,
so why would I go into thatmarket?
But and actually we had a ladyon that was doing really good
with wigs- I believe that He'sselling them a target and stuff.
But?
but it's like, if I'm notpassionate about that thing, or
(31:21):
if I am passionate about it, itdoesn't have a market.
See, you are passionate, yeah,but it also has a market.
Yeah, there's a brand We'vealready talked about that.
It's established.
You did your research, you wentout there and found out Hey,
what do I need to do to openthis thing?
How do I make it different?
How do I differentiate it?
But then, on top of that, let'slook at where the trend is
(31:42):
going for retail.
That's right.
Where can I get ahead of thattrend?
That's right.
Or be part of the trend changing.
Yes, And people don't alwaysthink about this stuff when they
think about, you know, startinga business.
If you could give some of thesefolks you know, based on some
of the stuff, maybe I said yeahjust give people some some sense
(32:02):
.
And you've been in business fora while and you've you've done
some really cool stuffthroughout your career.
Yep, but get talk to people alittle bit about being an
entrepreneur and the upside, thedownside, the research.
you know the passion, some ofthose things that you've come
across since you've done this.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, for sure, you know.
I think you made a really goodpoint about trends.
you know, like the easiest wayto illustrate, you know, whether
you want to be you never wantto be looking toward the past,
like you always want to belooking ahead, and the easiest
way to illustrate is that thatis like if I was telling you
(32:42):
right now I'm going to open up apoppet store.
It's like, do you know whatpoppets are?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
It's like I'm sorry, but like you're already too late
, like you've already missed itYep, you're looking, you're
already like trying to grab ontoa dying thing, that you are now
going to have to pivot tosomething else, because when you
talk about market, is themarket there?
The market was there and it wasa flash in the pan, and now
it's going to move on to thenext thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Like fidget spinners, or that was fidget spinners.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You know, and it's like you have to make sure
you're not just trying to grabonto the latest thing that you
think is the latest thing,because before you know it it's
gone, and so that was part of it, was the calculus was looking
at Lego This is a brand that hasexisted for 90 years and the
public conscious it's more ofthe past 40 years And so that
(33:33):
was definitely a part of itwhere I was looking at and say,
yeah, this, this actually issomething that you can build a
brand upon.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
But just yeah, it goes back to.
It.
Just goes back to it's amazingNobody's done this before.
Because it is a, it is like alegacy brand.
I mean, right, legos have beenaround for so long.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And not, and not.
And it had so much success withdifferent concepts in terms of
bringing people to locations topurchase or play with or
whatever They're they're,they're product.
Yeah, again, i'm stuck.
I can't.
I can't believe it.
This is a thing.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I know, i know I hear you, I really do.
But beyond that too, the, the,uh, you know it.
It is important and we we'retouching on it when looking at
if you're going to try to builda brand or build your own brand
off of an existing brand or anexisting IP.
You do have to be careful,right Like there.
(34:33):
There are risks there because,uh, it's not my brand, right, So
there are things that I can'tdo.
That's why it's not called theLego cafe, by the way.
I don't know if we've ever saidthe name yet but it's going to
be called the name.
For God's sake, it's going to becalled the brickery, yeah, so
which is a great, a great name.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I actually liked that better than if it was branded
the Lego cafe.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Because now you have a separate thing that you could
build.
You have separate IP, you havea separate name that you can
build up without having to worryabout paying them a licensing
fee or any of that weird stufffor their name.
The brickery What's thebrickery Like?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
it's not just about the Legos.
It's about family time It'sabout.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
You know it's about doing a lot of other things.
You know somebody could have adrink there before the movie, or
whatever.
Yeah, And imagine one day whenthere's another Lego movie out.
What's everybody going to wantto do?
They're going to come therebefore, even without a Lego
movie at the AMC there There'sgoing to be people that want to
go there before the movie withtheir kids or after the movie I
mean you could spend a whole dayat Newport on a levy now, yeah,
(35:36):
I mean if we had been open forthe to coincide with this Mario.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Oh, my goodness Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
You know, like that's the other thing with Legos that
they have, they have access toall the largest fandoms already.
And so, yeah, like they havetons of Mario sets right now,
they have Star Wars, disney,marvel, harry Potter any kind of
fandom you would want to haveaccess to, you already do, and
they always have, like thecoolest version of the toy for
that brand And so like, all ofthat's good And but I, but I
(36:05):
would like you know caution, anylistener, you definitely do
have to be careful when you'reworking with existing IP.
If you were like I want to, youknow, make bangles, shirts you
like, technically can't, yeah,unless you engage with them and
become lice and license throughthem, right.
And so there are hoops that youneed to make sure that you're
jumping through, because, yeah,of course you could be doing
(36:28):
that as a side hustle on Etsy,you know, for a few months, at a
certain level, but if you everwanted to move beyond that,
you're eventually going to geton their radar and they're not
going to be.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
They'll send you a cease and desist letter and yeah
tell you that it's going tocost you the monies Exactly.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Exactly So.
So I just do want to to mentionthat, like uh and that is
something that's unique aboutthis is that, yeah, we are tied
to the Cypion, so I do have tobe careful in certain respects,
um, and like certain things,like they protect their brand
too.
Like all of their largest setsthey try to, they try to, they
try to treat as uh exclusives,like I wouldn't be able to get
(37:06):
them wholesale through theirdistributor.
So, uh, they do some brandprotection there.
That uh is, you know, makesgood sense on there, and I
totally get why, um, but it'snot, it's not something that you
can't overcome, Um, but it'sdefinitely something to look at.
But what I found on this journeyagain, you know, like, uh, i
(37:28):
was looking back through mytexts.
Like, uh, it was like almost ayear to the day, uh, like a
couple of weeks ago, for me everlike having this idea.
And then I texted a friendright away that morning And, um,
you know, like I had neverengaged with like this level of
(37:49):
entrepreneurship and I mean,it's an investment for sure.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Put some money out there, That's right.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
I'll talk about that in a second, but yeah for sure,
But, but you know, like, sothere was a huge learning curve,
Um, but it was.
It was important to see that,like, the resources are there,
Um, you know like, there's allkinds of resources within the
city that you can engage with.
Uh, you know like, especiallyif you're going into a brick and
mortar spot, that's a wholeother beast, right?
Uh, you know like, uh, it wasit totally a game changer to
(38:19):
engage with a retail broker, uh,uh, real estate broker for, for
retail or for commercial.
And then, um, you know, on topof that it was, but part of it
was like, you know, just, Ithink it came across that this
was something I actuallybelieved in, that I had done the
(38:41):
work or the research, and like,uh, you know, I, I engage with
one of the largestestablishments in the city and
they took me seriously the wholetime.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You know like, North American properties right.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
And that's, that's who owns the.
Yeah, that's right.
Newport and Levy.
Yeah, you know, like, and like,you're doing them a favor,
whether, like, let's be honest,you're doing them a favor, i
know but but there's that,there's always.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
you know, like, like with anything in life, there's
that imposter syndrome whereit's like I'm just some guy who
had an idea, like why are theytaking me so seriously?
But you know, like, instead ofpsyching myself out or being
like you know, this is crazy,like it was just like yeah,
maybe this is a good idea.
And and I really kept comingback to and I'm not trying to
say it in a denigrating way, butit is just the actual truth
(39:25):
It's like dumber people withworse ideas or opening
businesses.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh, that's 100% true.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Every single, 100% true people.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
It, just it's true.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
So if they could do it, why not me?
You know, like, yeah, likesomeone I like I don't know And
I'm sorry if you're listening tothis dude but someone open up
like a beef jerky store inWestchester And like I'm sorry
if he was your friend, but it'slike I don't know, i don't know
any beef jerky Sure, i don'tdrink Yeah.
Like shock of all shocks.
It's not there anymore.
You know, like I don't know ifthe market demanded a standalone
(39:58):
beef jerky store, Like that'swhat it was.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
And it's like but someone like they put all the
time, money and all of theirresources into doing that.
It's like this is not a beefjerky store.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
I don't even know how you turn that into an
experience, like I mean, itactually goes back to your point
that if it's retail it needs tobe an experience.
And I can't see, i can't eventhink and I'm pretty good at
like just putting thingstogether sometimes Like I can't
think of how you turn beef jerkyinto an experience, like I
guess you could dehydrate itthere yourself, but that takes
(40:30):
hours, so it's like that Ittakes you long.
You're going to sit there andwatch beef jerky dry out.
It's like watching paint dry,watching paint dry.
I don't.
I gotta get started on it intosomething, but yeah.
So I mean you're doing Newportand Olivia Favour And this is
going to be an experience.
This is going to be somethingpeople take their kids to.
They sit down with a set rightLike they can open up a Harry
(40:52):
Potter set.
Yep.
That's right, and buildHogwarts right there with their
family.
And they can actually rent timeand rent the set.
That's right They don't have tobuy the set Mom and dad, you
don't have to go home and worryabout toys being all over the
floor and worry about steppingon Legos.
Yeah, Yeah, don't, don't worryabout that.
Yeah.
Just go in here and rent theset.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Leave the mess with us.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Yeah, and they'll actually do it.
But we also talked about, bythe way, how much is that Like?
let's talk a little bit about,like pricing, yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I mean for sure That's that's a big part of it
is that you know, like I don'tknow if you look lately, but
Legos are super expensive.
They really are Like there's noway around it.
Like the Hogwarts castle, whichis huge, it's, you know, it
would basically take up thiswhole table, but it's five, It's
literally $500,.
You know, woo, yeah, you knowyou get.
(41:37):
You get 5,000 pieces, so thenthey're usually the, the, the
math that you're supposed to doon it, on it is like, if it's 10
cents per piece, which is whatthat comes out to, right, then
that's pretty good value ifyou're into Legos.
But you know, like, yeah, ifyou're not, that's a $500 for a
toy, regardless of of for manypeople.
(42:00):
And so that was part of it too,where it was like, yeah, like I
don't, a lot of people don'tknow if they want to invest that
much in something like this.
And so, yeah, maybe if it wasthe Hogwarts castle, if we had,
like we would trade it almostlike an escape room, where you
know, like you have your groupof four to six people and you
could be building itsimultaneously, and then you
(42:21):
know, maybe it's $25 per person.
But you know, like, if you loveHarry Potter but you're like I
don't know where I put that AndI don't know if I want to spend
that right now And you haveother friends that do as well.
Then it's like, yeah, you canjust come and do in the cafe for
a few hours and then boom.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
I could see you.
I could see you have a littlespeed competition Oh for sure,
for sure, for sure.
Individual and teamcompetitions and make it like
make it almost like a league.
Yeah, tuesday night, tuesdaynight, league night, or whatever
.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yeah, i love that idea.
Basically, i was thinking ofessentially doing that like just
like a spin on like trivianight at a bar, where it's like
instead yeah, it's like you havefive teams, they each have a
pile of Legos on the table andyou're like all right, you got
five minutes to make the besthouse you can make And then let
the cafe vote on which one theylike the best, or whatever you
(43:12):
know.
Like, just make it like almostlike a game show And that's the
thing, like it's a fun brand.
So like the possibilities areendless.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, you're even working on some technology
around Legos And I don't know ifyou want to talk about that, if
it's like a secret or whatever,but when we mentioned Harry
Potter, i thought of the sortinghat And then I thought of our
conversation about yourtechnology, your sorting
technology.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
Yeah, i had a meeting with someone yesterday and like
that was the one thing thatcomes.
It's like how is thisdefensible, right?
Like which is a part ofbusiness, right?
It's like you know, someoneopened up the first axe throwing
place and like how many arethere now?
It's like who else doesn't knowhow to buy axes in plywood?
Like it's not, there's not thatmuch that's actually unique to
(43:59):
it.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
I know how many are not open anymore Exactly.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
That's exactly right too.
Is that, like that's anotherthing, that it could be a fad,
and so, yeah, you have to makesure you're not just doing the
thing that everyone else isdoing And so, but in talking
about it, making it defensible,i think there is a lot of
technology that could beleveraged these days, especially
like we talked about it,talking about the thing that
(44:25):
everyone's talking about, ai andmachine learning, and there's a
lot that could be leveragedthere.
I mentioned it before the LegoCAD.
There's actually already proofsof concept on YouTube or in
other places where people havebuilt automatic Lego sorting
machines using things likeTensorFlow, which is the machine
(44:48):
learning language, and thenjust using actual Legos to build
the machine because they'resuper robust.
Any school that has a roboticsclub they're using Lego.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
That's true.
Yeah, I've seen it.
Yeah, they totally do.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
It's easy and immediate And you just get
results quick from it, and soyou can.
That's the nice thing aboutLego If you don't have it, you
could build it out of what youare already working with, and so
, yeah, you build this machine,and that would be one place
where I think we could add somedefensibility.
That would be a little bitharder to replicate is to have
(45:22):
some kind of automatic sortingmachine.
That would help us to cut downon the human capital costs.
But more, i would almost treatit as a spectacle, as something
that classes could come forfield trips and see how it works
, and we could talk about how itworks and how we got it up and
running.
But then, beyond that too, ithink there's also an app right
(45:43):
now called Brickit that I'mhoping to partner with, and it's
amazing Like you dump, pileLegos on the table, take a
picture of it, it will scan thepicture And then we'll instantly
tell you how many Legos thereare, exactly to the number.
Then it will tell you exactlyhow many of each you have right
(46:05):
there in the pile, and thenit'll tell you.
It'll give you a list of 10different things that you could
build with that pile of Legosthat you have in front of you.
Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Dude, that's pretty cool.
Brickit, Yeah, maybe you couldtie that into potentially
hardware.
That's right.
Yeah, that's.
oh, that's really cool.
That would make it.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
And if you had like an exclusive agreement with them
or something, oh, you would bedoing really really good, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
So I'm looking at that And then that is somewhere
like things like that.
Then could also maybe tie intoa subscription model, because
obviously having some kind ofpassive recurring revenue is
what everyone's looking forthese days.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
You should totally have a club, exactly That.
People join like a LegoBuilders Club, that's right.
Classes Yeah, they come in andthey get, yeah, so many hours or
something a month that they cancome in and do their thing.
They get a free drink, that'sright, yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Oh man, Yeah.
So I think that there's a lotof opportunity there.
We just have to make sure, Andthat was the thing again, I was
just like.
I wanted to provide this highquality experience that matched
what Lego's already doing.
Like there are they.
About 10 years ago, they triedto trademark the brick itself.
Oh, They already have a patenton it, but they tried to
(47:20):
trademark it And basically theylost.
That's wild.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
And how did Ohio stake it?
The like they, they, theytrademarked the word the and
Lego can't even trademark thebrick.
I know they made it.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Well, they did it.
They, that's another story, butbut yeah, they, they couldn't.
And so, like everyone knows,there's already like mega blocks
or there's, there's theknockoffs, but there are.
there are literally probably ahundred knockoffs at this point.
They're, you know, they'recountless Chinese knockoffs of
Lego that are a fraction of theprice.
If it's Hogwarts castle, thenthey call it wizards castle and
(47:55):
only costs $100, but it's justas many pieces.
But why have they persevered?
Why have they sustainedthroughout this?
It's because you, they're, youcan't match the quality, you
just can't.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
I don't want your bootleg wizard castle.
That's right.
You got to have the HarryPotter castle.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
And who's going to?
Speaker 2 (48:11):
get the licensing deal.
That's exactly.
It's going to be Lego.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
That's right, but but it's still like you can even
feel it instantly.
You can feel that it's inferior, like if it's a knockoff Lego,
and it feels so silly but thatkind of ties into it.
Like I was, i was watching aninterview with Howard Schultz
where it was like the theStarbucks CEO.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, oh, it wasn't the con congressional hearing.
Yeah, No, no, no, no, and thatone Okay.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
This was before all that.
He was just saying you know,like he, he, he prefers to be in
the luxury space because priceis a losing game.
Like you, just, you're notgoing to be able to.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, you're going to keep going down.
You're pricing yourself out ofbusiness.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
It's it Like that's, it's a, it's a losing game.
So like, if you're, if you'reliving in the luxury aisle,
where it's like you know, you'llhave a million coffee stops,
tell you that there's a millioncoffee places that make better
coffee than Starbucks.
But why?
why are they on every singlecorner?
It's it's because they'vethey've branded themselves as
this luxury brand and they'reable to still charge, you know,
(49:13):
$6 for a coffee, and they have asubscription model.
And they have a subscriptionmodel Exactly.
Yeah, and and and so.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
I get alerts on my phone all the time that if I buy
two coffees on Tuesday orsomething, that I'm going to get
an extra a hundred points.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
And I'm like.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Oh, that's not bad.
That'll come handy when I'm outof, when I'm down at a Disney
or something and I need to get acheap coffee my points.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
Thanks for gamifying my caffeine addiction.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
That's exact, yeah, and sugar, which they're the
biggest drug dealers on earth.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
That's right Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Yeah, so I I just think you know there's a lot of
things that that you want to beaware of And, like you need to
think about, yeah, how do youwant to engage in the space that
you're trying to engage, butbut, like, when thinking about
being an entrepreneur, the thingthat's really just been so
(50:02):
amazing about this journey hasbeen, you know, like I was also
a part of the corporate worldfor for a decade And the diff,
the main difference, and thiswas my issue with it was that is
that, like you know, the amountof effort that you put in in a
corporate world, like the outputis never going to be the same.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
I mean, I threw up a little bit in my mouth when you
said corporate world, I justalmost my stomach churned and
then I got sick.
It's the absolute worst.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
It's the worst And it's like, yeah, like everyone
knows, everyone knows, like weall know that what we're doing
is basically useless.
If you're a cog in this massivemachine and if you stop doing
it, basically nothing wouldchange.
That's a terrible feeling.
It really is, and like that ispart of that, like that where,
(50:53):
like it's, it just feels liketoil, like which is just doing
something for nothing, did you?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
ever read that report .
I think it was a collegeprofessor, somebody put it out,
said like a certain percentageof employees at a big
corporation are essentiallyuseless, yeah, like they're just
there to, to beef up thenumbers and make the company
seem like it's bigger, orsomething like that I mean the.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
did the tech industry just prove that Like 100%?
AI just laid off 250,000 peoplein the past three months And
somehow all these companies arestill operating.
Ai is writing their code.
Well, yeah, And even beforethat.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Elon.
I mean he came out and said it.
He was like look, it's like itturns out.
you know there were three timesas many people at Twitter than
there needed to be.
That's right.
Twitter is still running rightnow, and now somehow it's a
political thing.
I don't get it.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Well, they didn't need to be there They didn't
need to be there.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
That's right.
But that that's that issuewhere it's like you know, if I
put in 50% or I put in 90%, it'snot going to move the needle
either way.
So why would I put in 90%?
and that's just trying to getback to say what I found in this
journey is that, yes, of courseit's been a ton of really hard
work and it's going to it's onlygoing to get worse, you know,
(52:05):
like until eventually it willget better, but but it's not
going to be worse, because thedifference is I get out of it
exactly what I put into it whenit's my thing, right.
Yeah, i could, like I could notdo this, this and this and they
won't get done, and then thebusiness will suffer.
Or I can do do these thingsbecause I know how they're going
(52:26):
to impact the business And asmuch effort as I put in is
exactly what I'm going to getout, and that is so satisfying.
Yes, It really is.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
That's 100% true And I think that's what drives a lot
of entrepreneurs And the thingthat's interesting to me about
your business.
So what you just did was we'regoing into a recession, or a lot
of people say we've been in arecession and two economic
quarters of negative GDP, butsome people doubt it.
But people have less money.
That's right now, at thismoment, you could say you can
(52:57):
argue recession or not?
People got less money.
That's correct.
Do I get that Kings Islandmembership?
Do I take my kids to KingsIsland on a day pass and spend
you know, $100 ahead with foodand everything.
Yeah, Four people, there's 400bucks.
That's a $400 day.
Speaker 3 (53:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Do I take them to Newport and Levy Yep?
Go in and sit down for a couplehours and try to build the
Hogwarts Castle?
maybe four hours for theHogwarts Castle?
Sure Sounds like some timeinvolved there.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
It would definitely be the best, But yeah and then
go see a movie.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
And spend less money And then also, at the same time,
instead of spending $500 onthat set, yeah, i can come in
the kids crying I want the set,i want the set.
Yeah, just sit down and let'sjust do it, yeah.
And then maybe the kids spendhalf the you know an hour doing
it and gets bored with it orsomething and wants to leave.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
Well, good thing I didn't spend the $500 on the set
right, like what was I doing?
Speaker 2 (53:48):
I was about to spend all this money, you know.
But whether or not they do itor the kid loves the set Yeah,
that's the other thing.
I love it.
Hey, we spent an hour doing it.
We'll finish this up at home.
give us the $500 set and off wego.
That's right.
But this is changing things forpeople, right.
This is giving people otheroptions for entertainment.
Yes, that is also, at the sametime, an economic development
(54:12):
play for the city of Newport,and Newport on the levee in
particular.
Yeah, that's drawing people inand giving them another thing to
do in Cincinnati.
I think it's freaking brilliant.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
I appreciate it, i really do.
Another thing there isaccessibility.
where it's, like you know, thatis so far out of the range for
so many families that I do liketo come in at a lower price
point where they can play withit without having to buy it.
Like I'd love to make Lego ingeneral more accessible to
underserved families orcommunities where, yeah, it's
(54:44):
probably not something that theytypically get to play with.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Oh, that's true.
Yeah, i mean I like I'd playwith people in my apartment
buildings Legos, because wenever had any Legos.
Speaker 3 (54:53):
Sure, exactly, yeah, so I think there's just a lot
there where it's, you know, i'mhoping that it's a net good for
the community.
And yeah, i just want it to besomething that's, you know,
beyond just this, like I don'twant it to be the next axe
throwing, and I think, hopefully, the difference is that, yeah,
(55:14):
this is a brand that's enduredand is in the public psyche in
general, and and then this isgoing to be something that it's
going to be more like you know,like more, something more like
Starbucks where, like no oneknew they needed to go out and
spend six dollars by coffeebecause they're brood and
(55:35):
folders, but they've now foundthat they still don't experience
.
I hear you right, but but theyfound that, that they enjoy that
experience, and then that'ssomething that has now endured
and has has grown in general assomething that's just a part of
our public fabric now.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Well, Kyle Stevie wants to know when he can get
down there with his daughter andstart building some Lego.
So yeah, So when?
when do we?
when do we get to go down there?
When do the doors open?
Speaker 3 (56:00):
That's a great question.
I'll just tell you real quick.
We we just submitted forpermitting this week.
We are actually still preconstruction.
The space used to be Claire'sin the main building And so now
it's.
It's basically a gutted area,and so we do have construction
still ahead of us, but it's notnothing too crazy.
So we're looking at eight to 10weeks after permitting gets
approved.
(56:20):
So right now that's putting ushopefully at the end of July,
and if not, then then hopefullyAugust, or if not, then then it
should be August, and so, yeah,we're hoping to be open before
the end of the summer for sure.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Man is awesome.
Well, dana, thanks for being onthe show man, this is great.
You know is a website anythingelse People can just kind of
make plans I mean based on thattimeline like, yes, they go to
the website, they can check itout.
learn a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Absolutely Yeah, so you can go to the brickery
cafecom And then we will have.
You know, we're gonna havebirthday parties there as well,
so if that's something you wantto look into, we don't have a
booking system up yet on thewebsite, but we will ahead of
opening.
And then, in addition to that,we're super active on social
media, but not in a way that'ssuper annoying, just trying to
(57:12):
lighten your day a little bit.
And so, yeah, if you want tofollow us anywhere Facebook,
instagram, tiktok, twitter thenyou can just look for the
brickery cafe and we should comeup.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Daniel has been awesome.
man, daniel Johnson, guysentrepreneur of the brickery
gonna be an awesome funexperience for the family.
You guys get down there andcheck it out.
Thanks, daniel.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
I'm excited, I still cannot believe, Like every,
every parent who's listening tothis right now is like are you
fucking kidding me?
Nobody's done this yet.
Speaker 2 (57:51):
I know I know I'm sorry, soon, kyle, soon, kyle,
cool.
Well, daniel, thanks a lot.
Kyle, thanks, and yeah, getback home safe man.
Thanks for joining us on thisweek's episode of Side Hustle
City.
Well, you've heard from ourguests.
Now let's hear from you.
Join our community on Facebook,side Hustle City.
It's a group where people shareideas, share their
(58:12):
inspirational stories andmotivate each other to be
successful and turn their sidehustle into their main hustle.
We'll see you there And we'llsee you next week on the show.
Thank you.
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