Welcome back to Eye on Franchising as we talk with Business owners, CEO's, Franchisors and Franchisees. Today our Owner, CEO and franchisor is Cliff Kennedy and the brand is Frios Gourmet Pops. Cliff is the captain of the Frios ship, also the CEO, the OG. Cliff bought a Frios franchise in 2018, and not even a year later, he purchased the ENTIRE company. Why? *MAGIC* Cliff was stuck in traffic. (Queue the worst traffic jam of your life, yea, this was that kind of traffic jam.) He saw a Frios stand on the side of the road, and the MAGIC intervened. (Do you believe in magic? They do at Frios!) Cliff pulled off, walked up to the Frios stand to escape traffic for a minute, and took a bite of his future. A Key Lime Pie Frios was chosen on this fateful day. It was Cliff’s first flavor, and it transported him to a beach in Florida and out of that crappy traffic. This is the power and magic of a Frios. Cliff was so mesmerized he called his wife and told her, “we are buying a “Popsicle” company.” Randomly buying a dessert company could sound like a crazy statement. Still, Cliff wanted in because of the moment of HAPPINESS and MAGIC it delivered to him while being stuck in traffic. The company has grown from a brick-and-mortar shop to pivoting to survive in the middle of the pandemic of 2020 to tie-dye for food trucks or ice cream trucks. As Cliff’s vision for Frios has evolved, the happiness it brings stays the same. They love rolling in tie-dyed “Sweet Rides” to neighborhoods, events, and parties! These frozen delights on a stick take you away. They have 76-year-olds and kids alike who get so excited to see their “ice cream truck” that is affectionately named “The Frios Sweet Ride.” they love these moments of joy, happiness, and dignity that is exchanged daily with their guests. "We love brain freeze, sticky fingers, and a little sugar rush; we know it comes with happiness, laughter, and a moment to SLOW THE HECK DOWN and look for the MAGIC in every damn day." The Frios Team The culture of Frios is second to none and you can learn about this directly from their website. Frios started in a tiny garage years ago, trying to escape the doldrums of life. They continue to try to escape the ordinary monotony by employing humans who try to live magically every day. They call themselves “Happiness Hustlers." What is a Happy Hustler? The job is simple, to be bound and determined to leave people better than we found them, with a bigger smile on their faces and more joy in their hearts. This is done inclusively with a lot of smiles and a Frios in their hand. Tune in to learn more about Cliff and Frios Gourmet Pops in this week's episode! Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA --- Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising Eye On Franchising
Welcome back to Eye on Franchising as we talk with Business owners, CEO's, Franchisors and Franchisees. Today our Owner, CEO and franchisor is Cliff Kennedy and the brand is Frios Gourmet Pops.
Cliff is the captain of the Frios ship, also the CEO, the OG. Cliff bought a Frios franchise in 2018, and not even a year later, he purchased the ENTIRE company.
Why?
*MAGIC*
Cliff was stuck in traffic. (Queue the worst traffic jam of your life, yea, this was that kind of traffic jam.)
He saw a Frios stand on the side of the road, and the MAGIC intervened.
(Do you believe in magic? They do at Frios!)
Cliff pulled off, walked up to the Frios stand to escape traffic for a minute, and took a bite of his future.
A Key Lime Pie Frios was chosen on this fateful day. It was Cliff’s first flavor, and it transported him to a beach in Florida and out of that crappy traffic. This is the power and magic of a Frios.
Cliff was so mesmerized he called his wife and told her, “we are buying a “Popsicle” company.” Randomly buying a dessert company could sound like a crazy statement. Still, Cliff wanted in because of the moment of HAPPINESS and MAGIC it delivered to him while being stuck in traffic. The company has grown from a brick-and-mortar shop to pivoting to survive in the middle of the pandemic of 2020 to tie-dye for food trucks or ice cream trucks.
As Cliff’s vision for Frios has evolved, the happiness it brings stays the same. They love rolling in tie-dyed “Sweet Rides” to neighborhoods, events, and parties!
These frozen delights on a stick take you away. They have 76-year-olds and kids alike who get so excited to see their “ice cream truck” that is affectionately named “The Frios Sweet Ride.” they love these moments of joy, happiness, and dignity that is exchanged daily with their guests. "We love brain freeze, sticky fingers, and a little sugar rush; we know it comes with happiness, laughter, and a moment to SLOW THE HECK DOWN and look for the MAGIC in every damn day." The Frios Team
The culture of Frios is second to none and you can learn about this directly from their website.
Frios started in a tiny garage years ago, trying to escape the doldrums of life. They continue to try to escape the ordinary monotony by employing humans who try to live magically every day. They call themselves “Happiness Hustlers."
What is a Happy Hustler?
The job is simple, to be bound and determined to leave people better than we found them, with a bigger smile on their faces and more joy in their hearts. This is done inclusively with a lot of smiles and a Frios in their hand.
Tune in to learn more about Cliff and Frios Gourmet Pops in this week's episode!
Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA
---
Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
franchisees, people, business, flavors, franchising, territory, pop, gourmet, product, events, selling, fritos, support, hear, company, fun, resonate, brand, cliff, franchisor
SPEAKERS
Lance Graulich, Cliff
Lance Graulich00:06
Hello everyone and welcome back to another fabulous episode of Eye on Franchising. I'm your host you might know me by now Lance Graulich. Welcome and thanks for listening. Today we have well this is a fun story. Sweet Home Alabama. Don't hang up. Don't stop listening because of my terrible voice here. But this is my buddy that this is a hell of a story. It was a there was a traffic jam. And then a franchise system is born as a result of that sort of detour. Can't wait to hear his story right now. 13 years in the family business, and he is the CEO of Frios Gourmet Pop's Welcome to the show, Cliff Kennedy. Cliff, how you doing?
Cliff 00:48
That was one of the best introductions I've ever had. I'm gonna have to just get that on record. And that might just be my new ringtone.
Lance Graulich00:56
Thank you for that liar. I'm just kidding. So Cliff, nice to have you here on the show. And let's start with what I always call the obvious how the heck did you get into franchising? How did this all come about? What do you know? But what do you know about franchising? Way back when and what do you know now? So let's start with that whole history.
Cliff 01:18
Yeah, so you know, I love it. Because there's everyone in franchising said, Oh, I've got a crazy story of how I fell into franchising. And mine's no different. For me, my was just being miserable, getting stuck in traffic on my way home every day. And I kept seeing this free trailer over there with kids and parents smiling. I wasn't smiling, I'm miserable. And eventually, one day I was like, Okay, I just got to stop and see what this is all about happy food. Exactly. So I stopped and looked at the menu and I got the key lime pie pop that we make. And I'll never forget that moment where I was standing. It wasn't about the pop. It was about what that pop made me feel the experience. I tell everyone, the skies opened up the bird started seeing colors got more vibrant. I mean, it was just is an amazing experience. And it literally changed my life forever more I was and like you said, I've been in a my family business selling safety supplies and oil and gas industry that my grandfather started out of the trunk of his car with an eighth grade education. So wow, entrepreneurship has always been in my blood. And so I kept getting stuck in traffic. And I kept stop it and try more flavors. And I went to the most risk adverse person I've ever met in my life. My father in law said, There's something here this is this is amazing. So yeah, absolutely. And so luckily for me, I went to the franchisee at the time. And I said, Hey, can I be your partner what he was like, well, actually, I'm needing to get out of the business. Because my career my full time career has taken me in a different direction. And in May 1 of 2018, I became a franchisee of Fritos. And then I was like, great. What am I doing here? I don't know anything about franchising. So I did some googling. And I was like, Alright, so there needs to be support needs to be all these things. So, but there was none of that with this company. There was no conference calls that were planned out, there was no training, there was no communication. I was on an island by myself at that point. And so I went back to my father in law said, Hey, got a great product, poorly run company could be my opportunity to do something big. And so then I called the owner of the company in August of that year of 2018, and said, Hey, I want to buy the company. So I'll call you back tomorrow, he called me back. We started negotiating. And then December 21 of 2018, I took over as owner and became the franchisor. So from May 1 to December 21. It was a wild ride, a franchisee the franchisor and then pick the company up from where it was founded and moved into my hometown of mobil and been growing the company ever since and selling happiness for a living.
Lance Graulich04:01
There's that Alabama connection again. Sweet Home Alabama. So that's right, as a franchisee you recognize while the product was amazing, it was a young brands still, although the product was obviously perfected. They didn't really have the support and the systems behind it. It was just a great product. And you realize as you're buying the company, Alright, I gotta I have to create that blueprint or that plan. So people have a path to follow to success other than just one great, you know, bunch of great products. Is that fair to say?
Cliff 04:37
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, being in my family business. I kind of knew how to run a company of sorts, just through the eyes of my mom and dad who owned the business still. And being a sales as like you need to support your sales team and we're all of our franchisees are salespeople. We're an event based business I was like, Yeah, you might be great at accounting, but not great sales, but you can try and people learn how to do these things and find the right operator. And I was like, if there were more systems and processes in place to support the franchisees, this could be an incredible company. And so that's one of the first things I did when I took over as I went on a listening tour, I called every franchisee at the time. And I said, Tell me, what am I getting myself into? What's good? What's bad? What, you know, what's, what do you need? Yeah, exactly. What can I do to help I was trying to figure it out, too. I was just doing Google search and like, reaching out to everyone I possibly could. It's like, Hey, I'm a franchisor. Now. And it's not like I've been doing this, but six months. So just through hard work, grit determination, figured it all out, are still figuring it out, like we all do, and just constantly putting in those mechanisms and strategies in place to help our franchisees grow internally to be successful.
Lance Graulich05:51
Yeah, and you have a unique brand, there are some brands that are construction related, that are a lot more technical. You know, at the end of the day, a franchisor just needs to provide that support, and the purchasing and the marketing and just help in every facet of the business, you know, how do we from a technological standpoint, etc. But let's talk about your process. How are you selecting franchisees? And in fact, who is right for your brand? And how do you know when someone's not right for your brand?
Cliff 06:24
Yeah, so we resonate with so many people, we check all those boxes of low cost, highly flexible, very simple system, like all those badly oriented like, we check all those boxes that people really look for. But we're always looking for someone with that sales marketing background, sort of, because you have to be willing to pick up the phone and go work the events and put a smile and face and be happy. You don't really want that introvert doesn't be like, here you go, here's a free, here's what you want. Somebody says, Hey, how are you doing today? This is like, that's what you really need. And if it's not you, and you want to be a completely absentee owner, make sure you have an operator that does that I'm a completely absentee franchisee myself still. And I have a great operator and she's out in the community and doing those givebacks and so and when and where is that? Is that a mobile, of course, and Alabama immobile my home state here. And so it's she's doing a great job with that, because she is that type of person. She's very vibrant, and she's getting involved in the community. And so our process is super simple. You said it like all of our franchisees they get so like caught off guard, we say, Look, we're a simple system, we're just the modern day ice cream person. And once they come get their van from our place, airmobile they're like, Wow, it really is just a freezer and a refrigerator. I was like, Yeah, we are not a food truck. We're an ice cream truck. This is No, you're not making anything. So we're like, okay, so our process is super simple. And to finish up, you said it is like how do I tell if someone's good or not for our system? When we get introduced to candidates or people call us 90% of the time, they're always saying, Oh, I can go sell here. I can go sell there. I was like, Yeah, as long as it's legal and ethical. We're never going to stop you from selling. But the people that say, Well, how do I sell a popsicle? How do I sell this? Like, that's when I kind of like, well, you're not really that salesperson got it in you. That kind of catches me off guard a little bit.
Lance Graulich08:24
So well, yeah, obviously you win, you know, you gotta go getter. That's certainly a big part of the process. And then you start to learn whether they fit your culture or not one thing cliff, why don't you share with the listeners? What is Frios Gourmet Pops, you know, you got everybody excited. You know, how is it different? What is it? What is the what are the options as far as a format? Does anybody have a retail store? Is this all mobile? Is this only events that they have fixed? You know, regular locations where they may be paying rent somewhere, but you know, brick and mortar, I should say, so share with us. You know what Frios really is?
Cliff 09:08
Yeah, so when I bought the company, it was all brick and mortar. And, you know, we know what the world did to us with COVID. And everything. It was complete devastation. But for us at Frios COVID was the best thing that ever happened to us, because it was my aha moment that said, Hey, we're an event based business, we need to be going to the people. And so once we started mobilizing the people because we have pushed cards and everything else, people started putting on trailers and pushing them through neighborhoods. And people are saying thank you so much, and writing and sidewalk chalk on their driveways and writing us letters and saying thank you, like, start to really look at the business like, you don't get in your car and say I'm going to free us you get in your car to say I'm going to the pharmacy or I'm going to the grocery store dinner like we're just in passing. But now that we're completely mobile system, and yeah, there's a couple of brick and mortars that are still out there. it like you can go to a corporate event at lunchtime, you can go to a school party in the afternoon, you can go to a wedding that afternoon or a festival, your van can be in multiple locations and it's not static. You know, I had a franchisee that had to give out 3000 Frios pops in two hours, but you can't get that at your location. But the van can do that as it mobilizes and going goes to that corporation or the festival and everything. So yeah, now we're completely mobile. And they also have the ability, which is rare. You know, the shaved ice companies that are out there, the donut companies and all these other brands that are out there. Obviously, they can't wholesale, like they've got to make the product. Our franchisees can also wholesale, so I say as working smarter, not harder. So because it's a pre packaged product that has nutritional labels on there, they can set up at country clubs, resorts, schools, concession stands, bars, restaurants, all those different places that are kind of called mailbox money, because all they got to do is go drop it off. And then they're going to order several cases or 20 cases if it's a resort, but they also have the ability to go work in the van or car. So yeah, we got multiple revenue streams.
Lance Graulich11:18
I love it. No, that's absolutely fantastic. All right. So the listeners are probably thinking, Cliff, you sound like an awesome guy. Sounds like a great brand. But you know, I've never had one of these gourmet pops that Fritos puts out. What about in the grocery store? Like, don't we have something in the grocery store that's similar? What Why is free is different. It's just the taste.
Cliff 11:42
And I love it when people come into our system, and they try it like a lot of our franchisees that are in our system. They're like, Oh, my gosh, I was at this event, visiting family and Fritos was there. And it's the most amazing thing I've ever had, I need to have this back at home where I am. Look, you got me to leave my family business. I love my parents to this day. But it got me to leave a very successful career in the family business. And so no, we're not going to retail because I'm not going to bite the hand that feeds me where I'm dealing with retail locations where my franchisees are trying to sell as well. And so no, we're really focused on just supporting our franchisees not being in competition with them by going to grocery chains and retail locations. If they want to set those up, we'll support those in their territories and help them land as corporate deals that they'd like.
Lance Graulich12:28
And what about competition, though? Because some people would think, why does Fritos need to be mobile when I can go to the grocery store and get some, you know, popsicle or ice cream on a stick that might be similar? But what what are what's Fritos is secret, secret ingredients that makes it so amazing.
Cliff 12:48
Well, the Frios secret is not telling it. So it's always the secret. But it's also it's just some of the gourmet aspects of it is like you get our caramel cheesecake Horoskop Paul Graham crackers and caramel in there. It's just the aspect that hours are handmade and just with love and passion, it's like, you know, behind me where I'm sitting right now, so I'm surprised if you can't hear him jammin out my production team is like the music that goes into it. It's the energy that goes into making these. And it's just, you know, I could consider these permissible indulgences. Like, it's an experience around when I was a kid going out and my parents would get me an IC on Thursdays, you know, and that was an experience for me. But going out into the community, you've never had that experience that I'm going with my mom or dad to the grocery store to get a pop or something. It's the same thing. We're just different. Because as you know, we've all grown up and seeing the ice cream, man, that's different, you can go get those at the grocery store as well. But we're just the modern day version of that, which with a much cleaner product, we're not putting additives and preservatives in all of our products. They're simple ingredients that you can read.
Lance Graulich14:00
And you have a very unique product. Obviously, I haven't had the pleasure of tasting it yet, but I will. And obviously you have something that's unique, and it's the experience and all that great stuff. But let's let's talk about the process. If somebody wants to be a franchisee, and let's say myself, like a franchise broker introduces them to you. Are you the first phone call? Are there other folks involved? And how does that process work? And, you know, talk about validation a little bit, you know, how you do this whole thing?
Cliff 14:33
Yes. So understand that our business is low cost. And so and how much is let's talk about that. Yeah, it's $17,000 for one territory, and that's 200,000 people and for two territories which most people get into is 27,000. So we discount that is that's real money to the people that are coming in. I'm not saying that people that are millionaires and they're investing but it's just a little different mindset. And so that first call is to me, the CEO of the company, they get direct access, because I know how important that money is to them. So they deserve my attention and know how important it is that this decision is very big to me as well as to them. So yeah, that first call is always going to be to me, building that relationship, seeing if we fit what they need in their lives. And then from there, you know, to kind of keep going a little bit, so then they have to get the van, they don't have to get the van for six months, they can finance it, or if they have the capability to buy it outright, they can. So then on average is around $13,000 downpayment. So let's just say it's a two territory deal, or it's 27,000, that they want to put the downpayment on the van, it's 13,000, and then it's around $15,000, and just getting startup inventory, or shirts and coolers and everything else. So they can be in for less than 60,000. But the beautiful thing about our business is let's just say they don't want to get the van, they don't have to get it for six months, and they want to set up wholesale accounts and get good revenue coming in. That is only 27,000. And then it might be 1010 15,000, just another startup cost. So they're in freedom significantly last, get the wholesale accounts go and then maybe three, four or five months down the road, they got good cash flow, hey, now I want to pay that down payment on the band.
Lance Graulich16:22
Love it. So they're like, there must be some sort of insulated bags with ice packs that you're transporting these things in unless, of course you're in Wisconsin in the middle of winter, you don't need anything, you just throw cases in your car.
Cliff 16:37
Yeah, exactly. So a lot of our franchisees, when they're given away pops and everything like that they have little insulated to go bags, where they're handing out samples, or somebody wants to take 10 of them home and put them in the insulated bag. You know, even our franchisees we've mobilized and become like the, we do porch pop drops where families get them and we deliver them to their house. Because even though it's cold during the wintertime, people still eat ice cream, you still put ice in your drinks and everything else. And so yeah, we just changed up strategies. So we try to take out some of that seasonality and have some fun with it.
Lance Graulich17:12
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about the seasonality because, you know, a lot of people are thinking, well, how seasonal is it? I heard a report one time that in Alaska, supposedly the place we all envision being the coldest on the planet. hate a lot of ice cream there all throughout the year.
Cliff 17:31
Yeah, it's just that mindset people, Oh, it's cold. I can't eat outside. And I can't do all this. Yeah, you're not standing outside shivering while you eat it, but you're eating it indoors where it's nice and warm. So absolutely. Just go into it. You just have to change up your sales strategy.
Lance Graulich17:44
I still eat ice cream in the winter. That's for sure. So, so right now, how many, how many franchisees Do you have?
Cliff 17:52
Yes, we have 51 franchisees in 14 different states. And so we've been excited about that. We've seen a lot of tremendous growth, that it because just starting to resonate now that we are a mobile system like everyone's wanting that have flexibility. We have people that are buying into our system just to be involved with their family, because it resonates with them where hey, my kid is in high school, I want to teach them a value of $1. Or, you know, I've got three kids under the age of 10 is like, hey, they want to be involved. I think they're more involvement is having their friends come over, they hang out on the street randomly enough, and they go into our freezer and get some free us. So I tell them, I kill my profits, because they're eating them all off. But that's what makes it so fun is like the family gets involved. And you become like the pop king and queen of your neighborhood. And your territory is like it's just such a fun brand to be around.
Lance Graulich18:43
You know, Cliff, I know that this is a fun, obviously a fun brand. anybody listening is gonna go oh my gosh, this is fun. I talk to people all day, as you know about getting into a business and so many people. It's their first business venture leaving the corporate world or their teaching job or whatever. And so many people feel like they have to do something fun or something that they get to follow their passion or whatever. And I tell people I said look, when you want to be your own boss, especially these days, it's all about finding something that you will absolutely be successful. If I don't set people up for failure. I set people up for success of course, and only give them great brands. And there's a lot of unsexy non fun businesses, but you can make a lot of money and then you could go do what's fun and what's you know, spend your extra time not commuting to the office and your corporate job, whatever it might be. Okay, so the reason I gave that kind of setup for what I normally talk about, you are just in the fun business I mean you're in the business to make people's day and I absolutely love that you know hearing about the you know, the the porch parties, if you will, and all these different things. So I applaud you for doing that. So an AVI usually isn't going to be difficult selling the entire country soon enough, right?
Cliff 20:05
Yeah, exactly. Just because like I said, it resonates with so many people with, you know, the layoffs and everything else. And it's this semi retired FBI or the people that are wanting to think they go into retirement, but then they sit around their house or like, I'm bored to death, like, I want to do something, this resonates with them, because then they get their kids involved in their grandkids involved. And so it just, it's fun for the entire family, or for the people that want to be entrepreneurs and create a big business. Or it's fun for the people that just want to go work a couple events a week or a month or something just to teach their kids about and just be moving and do something. So that's why it's, that's why it's fun for me is because being the fixed royalty, you know, so many people, Todd, that royalty to revenue, so they're always trying to like grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.
Lance Graulich20:49
And what is the royalty?
Cliff 20:52
Royalty is $400 a month. And so it's super simple. Like, I understand that that's very low, and people like, wow, that's extremely Yes, I'm not going to punish your success. I know, I have many franchisees that should be paying me well, more than that, if I were to tie that to their top line revenue, but I don't do that. Because now they can put that money back into their pocket. Now they can buy more territory if they want to. And I'm setting them up for their idea of success, not mine. So with our fiction, like, okay, you don't want to grow your business 30% Every year, whatever, you're just happy working. That's you're happy, that makes me happy. We're all in it together.
Lance Graulich21:31
Well and they're buying product from you, you mentioned that, obviously, like McDonald's, they're required to buy their product and their items from you, or through a vendor that you designate. Are you set up for distribution everywhere at this point?
Cliff 21:46
Yeah, so we have a manufacturing facility here, we shipped to all of our franchisees. And so that's what I really care about is like, you know, that's you can consider that my royalty is where I'm selling in the Pops. So it'd be at someone that's buying, you know, 100,000 Pops from us a year or buying 30,000 parts from us a year like, it's all happy to me for them.
Lance Graulich 22:07
And what is an average pop retailing for an average franchisee? What are they selling for?
Cliff 22:14
Yeah, they retail for four to $5. And so it's a great price point. And a lot of them like near that $4 price point so they can have the tip jar out there and make good tips along the way.
Lance Graulich22:26
Yeah, love it. So let's, when I mentioned that we were talking about the process earlier, let's talk about validation. A lot of listeners don't necessarily know if they've never investigated any franchises before. And by the way, anybody listening, I'm happy to help you with that. So when it comes to validation, a lot of people don't even realize this step or this process exists, because you like most great franchisees will allow franchisees to have conversations with existing franchisees to hear about their success, how long did it take you to ramp up your business, how much money you making all these fun? Little things. And it's always best to hear from the franchisees. So, clearly something is working with the amount of franchises you've sold thus far, you probably have a lot of happy franchisees.
Cliff 23:21
Yeah we do. Because again, we're not pushing them to sit there and say you kind of grow your business this much like we have, we're going to push them as hard as they want to be published. And so when they're validating them, they get all walks of life. But yeah, we're heavy on events, and we do events a certain way or no, we only do corporate events, or no, we really are based solely on wholesale. And so they kind of say, Okay, well, this is who I want to model after and this franchisee, but that's just it, they realized that our franchisees don't have to find a certain way to run their business or hey, you have to have this many wholesale accounts. That's the flexibility as well as run the business the way you want it to be run in your because this is your business. What we're going to do is supply you with every bit of support we can do to find out what your idea of happiness and success is and support you in that measure. So I tell everyone, it's like, I'm going to be when they call me or I'm gonna be their big brother and say, Yeah, you're doing great, or if they're, they're wanting to really grow. And I say have you done this, this this? I'm gonna shoot him straight. I'm like, Well, why haven't you done this? And that's because we're the Frios family. I mean, that's what we literally say. So I tell everyone to say, I'm going to be your best friend one day or I'm going to shoot you straight and tell you how it is.
Lance Graulich24:34
I love it. You mentioned earlier that it sounds like the average franchisee might have two territories. Who is your biggest franchisee? And how many territories do they have? Yeah, so we just started so I've really got 51 or so open. So which Yeah, so
Cliff 24:53
we just now started getting into multi unit territories in the past year or so because we weren't really set up for At multi units, I just don't have the processes in place. So now because I've wanted to make sure we're set up for future growth and scale grow, it's now more than people that are doing that. But we just had a recent franchisee that came in for two territories. And then he called me back like a week later, and he's like, Alright, I need to go ahead and lock up that third territory. And then he's been Texas he's like, Alright, now I'm really considering this fourth territory. I know I don't need it right now. But I'm just might do it. So. Yeah, so right now is three territories and hopefully we'll see what happens with that.
Lance Graulich25:37
And what are some of the hot areas that you don't have a franchisee yet?
Cliff 25:42
Just a few that I'm about to say we go over 30 minutes about that territory. So just imagine all the key college towns like Athens, Georgia, or Jacksonville, Tallahassee, we'd love to have you know, South Florida wrapped up like Miami, we just signed up in Palm Beach County. We got tons of prom territory in Florida, I'd love to be in San Antonio Austin. Go on and on.
Lance Graulich26:09
So give me your top most popular flavors, the top three.
Cliff 26:15
Top three always will never fail is cookies and cream. And then here's the question, but I'm always honest with everyone the Yeah, number two is usually strawberry mango. And everyone says, Well, what's your favorite flavor, they're like, You got to say all of them. But I will be honest with everyone. Even though it's the number two flavor, I would cut that one out two marks I just don't like it doesn't resonate with me. So there's a little bit of how I am honest about some of our flavors, but everyone absolutely loves it but me. And then third is usually rotates between like strawberry, which is just kind of a fail free flavor for anyone you just know you can get it. And sometimes luckily for me, I got in a serious game of paper rock scissors with my he was seven at the time. And my son really wanted a blue pop. So we had to make blue raspberry. And so now something about color. But blue raspberry gets up there to the number four spot every once in a while.
Lance Graulich27:11
I love it. Yeah, it's the color that attracts everyone.
Cliff 27:14
That's all it is. And look, there's no such thing as a blue raspberry. But we made it with you know, with all this kind of stuff in there and everything.
Lance Graulich27:20
And their tongue gets blue and it's fun. And so So Cliff, who does all the r&d, the research and development for flavors, and do you do flavors, seasonal flavors? How do you handle it?
Cliff 27:32
Yeah, we do a lot of seasonal flavors. But innovation comes from you right now you could tell me your favorite flavor. And, uh, my production team goes and makes their innovation comes from anyone anywhere. And that's what we love about it's just but all of a sudden, it goes back to my production team, and they, through trials and everything else. And you know, that's a bad day in the office, when I see it, when the production team come in with like four different pops in their hand. They're like, Hey, you got to try these flavors. And I will say that, you know, obviously kill on pie is very important to me, because it changed my life forever. And I always said, that's gonna be my number one, but my production team just developed a peach lemonade a couple of weeks ago. And I immediately went to our internal Facebook page, all franchisees and made a video and said, I have to make this pop up. But this is the new greatest pop that we have ever created.
Lance Graulich28:23
I love it peach lemonade. So I think you need you know, if you don't mind my suggestions, you need one called traffic jam. Because that's how it ran was discovered. And it could be, you know, a combination of a bunch of things, because, you know, I have ideas, so we'll talk afterwards.
Cliff 28:41
I like it, I like it.
Lance Graulich28:42
So what is what is next, like how do you grow this thing? Because I see some pretty fast growth and a lot of happy franchisees very low, fixed royalty of 400 a month. No Limit within your territory of what you can do, you're not limited by a location. So is your production facility geared up for 500 franchisees?
Cliff 29:09
Yeah, we're fully geared up and ready for that the infrastructure is in place the team is in place and we're that's what I've been trying to do with my team for the past years getting all those things in place. So going into the broker network now where we can really put fuel to the fire and you know, really go from, you know, 25 to 30 franchisees a year to 50 to 75 deals and territories a year. I firmly believe that we can do that and we're that next big brand is going to everyone can say and what what it's like with our simplicity, the a product that resonates with 90% of the people in this country that everyone enjoys a pop and all the flavors that we offer. Yeah, just again, it goes back to simplicity. We're not teaching you rocket science.
Lance Graulich29:57
Do you have like sugar free II or I'm sure some of the Pops might be gluten free. I mean, what do you have? For those?
Cliff 30:05
Yes we have, we have gluten, we have gluten free, we have all those little dairy free, we have low sugar, we're working on some strategies around like no sugar at all. So we're in trials on that one. We also have a couple of more products on the innovation platform that we're trying to get ready for protein pop. We're super excited about a couple of different things like that. And so we'll see what happens, you know, there's innovation is always on the forefront for us.
Lance Graulich30:34
Now, that's great. So if I was, you know, we're going to talk to three franchisees magically, if we were going to right now, on the marketing front, you have a fun product, you have a great brand. What are they doing when you're a new franchisee? What's the best way? You're the boss? What's the best way to gain your following? I can guess because I was a Krispy Kreme donut franchisee in two states. And I know how we get a lot of traction. So I want to hear the answer on this.
Cliff 31:06
So you mean like via social media? Or you mean like just get busy?
Lance Graulich31:08
It could be social media? Absolutely. What are your best? What are your best? Like your top marketing?
Cliff 31:17
Bullet how to get the business out there and everything else? God you
Lance Graulich31:20
have a brand new franchisee? What's the number one thing they have to do?
Cliff 31:25
Number one thing I tell them that people get so worried about them. This is so many people just overlook this. And this could be for any franchisor to tell their franchisees go into your phone and text the last 20 people in your phone and tell them the business that you're in. We're all so because there's probably going to be your closest friends and family that you've most recently texted. But we're all so worried to reach out to them. Because Oh, they're my friends. But those are the people that want to see you succeed the most. And so it just like that's your network, and that's your voice you need new friends, or exactly like if I tell my friends Hey, I'm now in the popsicle business and selling these gourmet pasta burritos and Tata rep bands. Do you have an event or know someone that has an event coming up or a birthday party, you're going to go ahead and book some events that way or wholesale accounts. That's the easiest thing for our franchisees to do. And you can immediately Book 3 to 10 events.
Lance Graulich32:22
Love it. No and that look that goes you're 100% Correct cliff that goes for any business. So many people I know. They're a lot of their closest friends have an idea what they do, but they couldn't really tell anybody what they do.
Cliff 32:36
And that's what I don't get is like, why are you overlooking and trying to go get business from people that you don't know that you have to sell to get yourself comfortable selling to your friends first, to build up that confidence in your strategy, and then go up because we're again, we're a simple system. If I told you and you were one of the last 20 People I text like hey, I've got this new gourmet popcorn, come bring you some samples. I'd love for you to try it. If you don't know something I would have been okay. Yeah, you're not gonna turn it down.
Lance Graulich33:09
Yeah, you know what we did at Krispy Kreme. And I know you do this also, you mentioned it earlier, and Krispy Kreme, all we did was we had a cute little box look like a dozen box. But all it fit was two donuts. And we made them hot and fresh, hot, fresh glazed, and we dropped them off to offices, we dropped them off to schools, and just gave them to the office managers, you know, whoever, whatever bosses we encountered, and boy, you know, and you handed a business out a business card or a phone number tape to the box. You got phone calls like crazy or people just flooded the flooded the store because they needed more. You only gave them two. And I know you're doing the same thing.
Cliff 33:47
Exactly. So we always give them this top three flavors, and we bring it to the receptionist or the food and beverage manager. And I just got there like, Oh, you got all this flavors do you got these flavors? And it just goes from there and it sells itself.
Lance Graulich34:01
I love it. I love it. So when you look at your 51 franchisees are so is there anything in common other than a passion to serve people and some sales ability more than likely, as far as what walk of life they came from there was some corporate folks, I mean, anything in common.
Cliff 34:21
There is nothing in common because that's the beautiful thing about our business. I mean, we're 75% Diversity owned. We just resonate with young, old all demographics, all races, all walks of life. Because again, I tell them brokered all the time that's like, reach out and if you've got a cold lead or deadly just show them our brand and even if they don't stick with us or anything, it makes them think like huh, that's interesting. That's, that's happy it just so we just, again, we just resonate with so many people so it's we struggle internally all the time with our like, how do we go to market strategy and our SEO and All this kind of stuff because we really do. So we've only focused it down as much as long as that helps somebody has a sales background, a marketing background, like involved with community. That's what we key on the most other than that, you're wide open.
Lance Graulich35:13
And that's the beauty of franchising people. You know, you probably have a teacher, you probably have a lawyer, you might have an accountant might have somebody that picked up trash for a living, who knows. They're from all walks of life in the world of franchising, right?
Cliff 35:28
Yet we've got people that are in hospitality has been in the hotel industry, we've got nurses, we've got corporate executives that are passive. We've got entrepreneurs who just want to have another business for their family, we got
Lance Graulich35:42
to talk about those passive guys, though, for a second, because a lot of people hear about multiple streams of income, they hear it all the time, and nobody, you know, a lot of people can't figure out how to do that. So what are the corporate guys do they hire, hire somebody who's running
Cliff 35:56
or an operator. And same thing as me like I can consider myself a corporate person now but I'm a completely I haven't worked in event and probably three years now. But I have an operator who is passionate about this business and then has four or five people that she can call out at any time because I mean, just two weeks ago, we had five events all at one time. And so she's got a stable of people that she can call upon to help and she puts the cards out she puts the vans out and then she brings them back in.
Lance Graulich36:27
I love it. Well Cliff FINAL THOUGHTS final words of wisdom for the listeners, you've been great telling your story? No thanks.
Cliff 36:34
It was just you know for us if you're looking for something that's just simple to operate and you know, your passion is just bringing happiness out into this world if there was simple product like a gourmet pop of Frios. I'd love to talk to you introduce myself.
Lance Graulich36:50
I love it. Well Cliff thank you for being here and I really appreciate your time. love spending time with you love your energy and continued success. We'll talk soon. Thank you take care all the best.