Latest / The Weekly Run / Banana Bread Bagel, A Cinderella Story | #11
Transcript
- Jeff Perera: Welcome to the Weekly Run, I'm Jeff. Aaron: I'm Aaron. Jeff Perera: And today we're talking about what's hot at Jeff's Bangle Run. Aaron, it is peak Bagel Madness season right now. Aaron: I don't even know if anybody realizes that basketball is going on. I don't want to say we're competing for the preeminent tournament of the month, but I like to think we're throwing our hat in that ring. It's been exciting. Jeff Perera: I've seen plenty of conversation about how this is the only bracket people are filling out this year. The Bagel Madness bracket is all the rage. Yeah, mean, we're off to a pretty incredible start. the drama is high ⁓ in bagel world with Bagel Madness. ⁓ We an upset yesterday. ⁓ Aaron: Hahaha It feels right. Well, I was gonna say, like all good brackets, you know, we've already crested the first couple of games in and you've already got the people like myself that have bust brackets and are lamenting. You know, that's how you know when you're a proper bracket is when you've pissed people off within the first couple of games. ⁓ Jeff Perera: ⁓ most of today's business is booked, right? We a couple of West Coasters, and ⁓ it looks like the ⁓ favorite is gonna roll forward tomorrow. Cinnamon roll looks like gonna handily beat lemon but ⁓ yesterday, ⁓ banana bread, ⁓ I don't know, ⁓ banana bread ⁓ took sprinkles sprinkles. I even how to, beats sprinkles. ⁓ Aaron: so it ruined my bracket. I definitely, let's just be straight. What I find so funny about sprinkles is that's a classic example of like, is like a perennial favorite. gonna hold the day. It's just like any good thing. Is it the perennial favorite or is it like new flavors and exciting flavors? And so I had sprinkles, especially because here we talked about this last week. We're in spring break this week. I figured more kids would be in stores, which normally more kids means more sprinkles sold. I thought I had a lockpick and here I am on the wrong side of it. Jeff Perera: While I was on the correct side, I picked banana bread as an upset in my bracket. I know that it... I think you look at a banana bread bagel and you think there's no way it can hold up against sprinkles. There's no way. It's such a vanilla-based bagel coated with colorful jimmies. We're talking about a bagel that is visually appealing, that has mass appeal across all age groups. Aaron: That's just experience talking. Jeff Perera: And then banana bread comes in and just takes its lunch. So give me that. Aaron: It's, it's, I, so one of the things that are gonna be really fun when we finish all this is to look at some of these, some of this data and some of these metrics and just see, I'm curious on some of these upsets, like the bigger upsets, how many people are gonna have predicted it? do they all have the intuition that you have, Jeff? Do they have the finger on the pulse of the bagel taste of the nation or, or, you know, are you a part of a really small clairvoyant group? that sees these sorts of things. mean, the data will show. Only the data will tell. We'll have to do a data review ⁓ when this whole thing's done on a future podcast. We'll have to look at all of the funny prop bet side of all of this. Jeff Perera: The data will tell. It's gonna be a good time. I'm really excited for banana bread. I don't have it going deep. I have it getting beat next round, but I did predict this upset and, I will say it's close. today, 32 stores and cinnamon roll is beating, I can't even remember who it's up against. I didn't even care. Oh, lemon blueberry, lemon blueberry, lemon blueberry. Aaron: Lemon poppy. Lemon blueberry, sorry. Jeff Perera: So, cinnamon rolls beating lemon blueberry, which lemon blueberry is a very good bagel. By 150 bagels sold today. 32 stores, it's like what, five bagels on average per store, roughly. That's close, man. That feels really close by store level. So there's something interesting in that. Are people buying two cinnamon rolls, and then the next customer is buying one blueberry? I think there's something there. The data will tell us more as we get through the tournament. I'm excited to see how it pans out. We've got some great matchups for the rest of this week, too. Aaron: some really close margins. Yeah. So we're having an experience in store today. I was in Winter Park for some next gen bake testing and I happened to have a couple of other members of ⁓ HQ there. Cassie was there and Cody was there. And a surreal experience for all of us to have our apps open, checking brackets, reviewing pics, it's kind of wild. But there was some already just amongst the three of us, some real consternation between, you know, comparison like, oh, you had them going, I didn't pick them. Oh, you had tomato grilled cheese, I totally had. You know, like, and then everybody's saying why and giving the reasons. And so as this continues to march forward, there's gonna be, you know, people will be proven correct or not. Jeff Perera: I think it's all in good fun and tomorrow's matchup is the last of the first round of sweet. We have blueberry pancake versus funnel cake. This is a newer bagel of the day against, again, another favorite. And it'll be fun to see where people land. I pancakes are delicious and they're a breakfast staple. Do people jump on board the blueberry pancake to get a little bit of that maple in their morning or do they stick just? you know, to the fair food and lean in hard on that funnel cake. So we'll see. Aaron: I mean, it's curious to see if Churro, if Churro set any sort of precedent for funnel cake or not, or if, you know, it can win the day. That was a tough matchup for Churro, which is a good bagel. Jeff Perera: Yeah, it's hard to go against it. It's hard to go against the champion, right? It's hard to beat the reigning champ. Blueberry cinnamon sugar is head and shoulders above the other bagels. Savory bracket does start on Friday with garlic bread versus pepper jack everything. Aaron: See, this is the racket that I'm in at four. Yeah, yeah. I'm a savory bagel guy. I mean, if you put cheese on it, we're already leaps and abounds. Like, it's just a good day. Everything else is just, you know, it's just cherry after that. Jeff Perera: This is your side of the bracket. Yeah, you love savory. You're a savory guy. Well, we're gonna wrap up this week with a of strong Bagels of the Day. ⁓ again, Blueberry vs. Funnel Cake, Garlic Bread vs. Pepper Jack, everything. ⁓ And then the round continues ⁓ on Monday of week. ⁓ And we'll see ⁓ some of these end up. I'm excited, Bagel Madness has been a good time. There's been great engagement on social, great engagement in the stores. ⁓ I think this been a, ⁓ I know we about. ⁓ your team finding joy in this process and there's a lot of people out there that are that are participating in Bagel Madness that are finding joy in this process and it's it's fun to see it's really fun to see. Aaron: I'm still blown away by the engagement and just humbled by the people that choose to, you know, enjoy this brand with us and engage in it with us. just, continues to humble. ⁓ I don't know. It's just that part of it is, is a lot of fun. And this is, we have to find more reasons to do this throughout the year. That's what I'm really coming to appreciate is that this is a great annual event for us, not going anywhere. but I'm already looking at what's next. What more things can we do? Yeah, yeah, it's fun. Jeff Perera: We need more. We need more. 100%. We need more. Did we ever get a final bracket count? Did you see that number? What was the final bracket count? Aaron: Yes, so brackets, the ability to sign up and create a bracket closed right before the first game. And so the final total was 8,862 brackets created. It's insane. just, you know. Jeff Perera: That's insane. Aaron: What I love about that number two is like, okay, you take out all of corporate staff, which there isn't a ton of us, you've taken out all corporate staff, all store employees, yeah, exactly, all the store employees, all of our friends and family, anybody we could goad into like actually signing up for a bracket, even if you take all those brackets out, which trust me, nobody in my family that isn't like, isn't here eating bagels signed up for a bracket. know, that reach does not extend. Jeff Perera: 20, 20 of us. Aaron: Like that's nothing like those are all just true fans and what's even cooler and I don't know if we talked about this last time but what was really interesting about it is we mapped out all of so we mapped out where those customers. Jeff Perera: Yeah. Aaron: where sort of their home store of sorts. And so just based on like purchase history, and so as we map that out, the spread across stores is really wild. And stores that just joined the chain and have brand new markets saw fantastic adoption. So people that are just encountering, it's not just the diehards here in central Florida, they've known us for years, new markets were engaged, and even people that have never purchased, they didn't use the app before this. Jeff Perera: Yes. Aaron: was a huge number, I think it was in number one category, was brand new users. Jeff Perera: I found that that was the most impressive statistic in all this. Like 10 % of the brackets completed came from people with zero purchase history. So they saw the activation, they said they want to participate in this as part of this brand. What I would like to know, and this is going to be part of our data analysis at This Is All Over, of those 887 brackets that were completed by people with no purchase history, did they make a purchase? Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ trust me, you'll get it. It's coming. Jeff Perera: That's what I want to know. How many of those were converted? I'm fascinated by this. ⁓ It's really cool. Great job to the dev team. You and the team did a great job making this activation come to life. And the marketing team is crushing it with their graphics. And it's been fun. Aaron: Yeah. Yeah, I think it sets it great. It was a nice reward for a cool event. It's like, hey, we should do this again. To me, that's the audience. That's our customers and our fans saying, hey, let's do this again. We like this. So it just means there's more coming. Jeff Perera: 100%. Yeah. So what I'm hearing is there's more games coming. Yes, let's go. Sign me up. I'm in. Let's go. Aaron: There has to be. I have no idea what they are. In full disclosure, I don't have them yet, but like this is a pretty good feedback loop. Jeff Perera: That's okay. Well, I don't want to tease it too much, and obviously one of the 17 listeners is going to be really excited about this potentially, but you did build a Roblox game. Aaron: you Well, Roblox demo. Now you're really putting me on recording the history for this. Jeff Perera: I'm... you... you... I... I... don't know. think that, you know, I think there's a... ⁓ a... there's a little bit to that story, but yeah. ⁓ I... I we got something going here. It's gonna be fun. The gamification of Jeffs BAgel run is... ⁓ is... happening. It's happening. Aaron: There's more to that story than I just built a game. But yes. I mean, who doesn't want to be Jeff digitally? Like who doesn't want to jump into your shoes and run a bagel shop in a digital world? Jeff Perera: Please don't, that's great. That's what? Run a bagel shop, yeah. wild, I know. Let's go, ⁓ go. I can't wait. ⁓ know, from one set of madness to another, ⁓ week, ⁓ Bagel Run ⁓ ⁓ roll deep actually, at multi-unit franchise conference in Las ⁓ This is big show the show is geared towards franchisees who operate ⁓ brands ⁓ ⁓ have ⁓ operations within those brands. So imagine ⁓ who owns ⁓ KFC ⁓ owns ⁓ ⁓ &R Block ⁓ also has a Stretch Lab. These are people who ⁓ entrepreneurs, big ⁓ owners, and they come to see what brands are ⁓ there, emerging. And so ⁓ exhibit, we set up a whole booth, ⁓ have ⁓ sales team, we sample bagels. this is a ⁓ big opportunity for ⁓ to ⁓ kind show world ⁓ who we are, we've been working on, and where we're growing. ⁓ It's pretty cool. Aaron: Well, this is the first year we've been there with a local store, which is awesome. Jeff Perera: Yes, huge benefit. Last year we were there, our store was not open. We did sample bagels, we made them off-site at a ghost kitchen, hand-rolled, the whole deal. That was a good time. Adds a little bit of stress to the experience, but was fun nonetheless. And this is our third year exhibiting. the first year we showed up with a ⁓ little standee a table with a tarp on it, or whatever, a tablecloth, yeah. ⁓ Aaron: It's the classic. It's the classic like I'm starting to go to trade shows, which is I've splurged on a branded tablecloth, the card table from Freeman Services or whatever it is. And then maybe I have on Vistaprint, I have a wind sail or a backdrop on some piping. That's ⁓ exactly. Jeff Perera: Yes. Yes. Yes! Yeah, you've got the backdrop on piping, you've got a tablecloth, and you're all set. You're in business for three days or whatever. Aaron: Well, I know you've been on the road. I actually, I've got a question. Have you seen the new digital backdrop that the creative teams put together? Jeff Perera: Okay, so I know we got new video screens for the booth and I assume they're pretty similar to what we had been renting. ⁓ No, better. Aaron: Well, I mean, I thought we were renting like TVs. This is Florida to, like, this is like full standing height and it's all, yeah. Jeff Perera: Like a, yeah, yeah, yeah, so I think it's a similar video experience from what we had. ⁓ But yeah, it's great because if you imagine being at this like trade show booth, ⁓ that is 10 feet deep, ⁓ but we two booths wide, so we're 20 feet wide, and our booth looks like a store. ⁓ I mean is, ⁓ it's built look like a store, it's got similar finishings, it's got. ⁓ Aaron: So cool. Jeff Perera: small versions of our posters and our wall graphics up. It's pretty impressive and right at the center of it is a video screen that plays a loop of what life in a store looks like. So when you're standing in front of us at this, from an actual store, yeah, so when you're standing in front of us at this trade show booth in the middle of a convention center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Aaron: from an actual store. Jeff Perera: you're taking a peek inside of what happens at a Jeff's Bagel run. It's really, really cool. there's some graphical elements that come up as well and talk about store counts and ⁓ and whatnot, because it is to sell. But ⁓ a pretty cool experience ⁓ go there, have thing set up, ⁓ and I'm to like, ⁓ I know. Maybe I'm exposing myself here a little bit. I didn't understand how many brands were franchised until I went to one of these shows. Like, I didn't get it. You my kids play I-9 sports, and I'm walking around this trade show for the first time, like our booth set up, and ⁓ got my Jeff Bagel run on, and ⁓ people are like, booth looks booth looks great, and I'm... ⁓ Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: identifying all these brands and I see i9 sports. Did you know that i9 is a franchisable business? You can buy a city and start your own youth rec sports league. Mind blown. Had no idea. ⁓ idea. ⁓ amount of businesses ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ a way to bring their ⁓ to life ⁓ insane to me. Aaron: I did not. Yeah, yeah. Jeff Perera: It's insane to me. There's this layer of brand up at the top that's like thin. If you were filling out a graph, it's maybe like 10%. And then you've got this other layer of franchise, and there's like 60%. And then that remaining 30 is like the consumer, right? And it's just wild to me. I'm grateful to be a part of it. Really cool that there are people who are interested in it. Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: investing and being a part of Jeff's Bagel ⁓ Aaron: Was franchising ever on your radar in the early days? Like obviously it's a much bigger thing to sort of launch into, letting yourself, again, you've got Akoe, you've got College Park. Did you ever let yourself think, okay, if I were to blow this out, did you ever think franchising versus opening up your own locations? Like did that ever really registered? Jeff Perera: No. No. Never even registered. It was not on my radar. I don't think it was on Danielle's radar. We opened our second store. We were like hanging on for dear life. We thought maybe like once we started to get our arms wrapped around the two stores like okay a third one could be in the future. I could see an underserved area here in the local central Florida market that would benefit from a Jeff Bagel run but you know we're nowhere near where we need to be to do that yet and Aaron: Interesting. Jeff Perera: So franchising for us was definitely ⁓ not on radar, ⁓ but it's incredible ⁓ vehicle ⁓ ⁓ a and to reach a consumer ⁓ where they're And that's the part that is ⁓ most interesting for me to ⁓ about is that ⁓ when meet with a prospective or you have someone who expresses interest in our brand. ⁓ Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: and they talk about how there's no bagels where they live. And they wanna open our business and run it under our flag in their community because trying to meet an underserved need. ⁓ pretty, pretty To me, that's neat, because I would have never known that there was, I'm in San Diego this week for a different conference, ⁓ and met with a prospective franchisee for dinner last night, and ⁓ I realize there was an underserved. bagel community here in San Diego, I would have never known that. Now I do. And I just, it's fascinating. And it really just, it just affirms for me that there is abundance in this world. And that if, ⁓ if ⁓ wants to try fill a void, ⁓ there's someone who's to step up and fill it and ⁓ provide whatever it they're needing. Aaron: Now you do. Jeff Perera: Maybe it's bagels, maybe it's youth sports, whatever. Aaron: What I've always kind of been compelled with it, and I think is interesting is, I've done this twice now, this is time two for me, and it's the speed, ⁓ some challenge, you have to coordinate and orchestrate a lot more. but what's kind of cool about it is that if you can tame that, complexity, ⁓ everything just goes so faster because you're bringing in. smart, savvy, experienced operators that have more to bring than just their desire to buy into the business. bringing their own experiences. and as a growing brand, I know that, and I'm sure you could talk to this even more so when I get in operations and that side of it is like, we leverage that knowledge and that experience from those franchisees. And so it really is sort of an all ships rise and it just seems to go so much faster than it would if we had to do this, not just from the stores themselves opening, but even just the knowledge and how quickly we can build up a complex system. with the help of other smart people. I've always been blown away by that aspect of it. Jeff Perera: Yeah, 100%. That's the biggest takeaway for me is that because of the expertise that other people bring to us, we improve. Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: when you have an experienced operator come in that has this nugget of information that they've been waiting to deploy because we're young enough to say, hey, that makes sense actually. Maybe it can incorporate here. I love that idea. Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: We were already sort of thinking about it. We were thinking about it in this way. Maybe we can incorporate a little bit of that magic that you've got into this. You know, and I don't think it changes too much of who we are, but it changes our roadmap a little bit, right? We get these little divergent lines on our roadmap that give us a place to experiment or participate in a different way. And it's just, it adds so much value. So much value. Aaron: and highlighting the fact that this is all new. And so those new things, ⁓ there's ground to broken there. so ⁓ how we tackle that, we don't know until we encounter it. Jeff Perera: Absolutely. I'm just really excited. it's always fun to go to these shows ⁓ and for that it's ⁓ It's one of moments where can pause ⁓ and say wow ⁓ We've accomplished lot. This is cool. ⁓ Look what we're doing ⁓ because you're ⁓ you know you're out of ⁓ Store environment when you're out of you know when we're at the office like we're always working on something, you know, but when you show up in your ⁓ Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: you're really just solely set out to discuss what you're doing with other people who have no idea who you are, you get these realizations that like, we did do that, or ⁓ wow, we are doing this, that's pretty fascinating, or people are looking at you like, I can't believe you did that, and you built an entire tech stack in two years, you did what? You did, you know, so I think it's a little bit of opportunity to reflect as well and say. Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: cool, we're working on this and other people are validating that it's a good idea and it's helpful because I think even though we're all in this together and we do have a big team, we've got a lot of great resources, mean, we don't talk once a week on this podcast, we talk all the time and so we have these places to bounce ideas and we have all the, this is true, we have these places that we're able to communicate with, you know. Aaron: It's Jeff Perera: others so it's not like we're not siloed in this thing alone but it is nice to to sometimes validate the ideas against outsiders. Aaron: That's honestly, think one of my favorite parts about participating in the demo days that we do, ⁓ we will have some come into ⁓ a shop and just with them for a couple hours just to give them a flavor of ⁓ the business and information of ⁓ in context. But what always like about those conversations is I love seeing and hearing somebody's. ⁓ Jeff Perera: Yeah. Aaron: I want to say snap because it's not really a snap judgment, but it's a it's a very limited first take. And I love that limited first take because we haven't had a chance to really coach them into any understanding of the business yet. So it's kind of like it's truly a first blush look at the business. And it's like, I love that mirror. I love like what is the first thing that you saw? Jeff Perera: Yeah. Aaron: What was the first positive thing that stuck out? What was the first negative thing that stuck out? Like you said, and it's even better because, and I just, you when we talk, I try not to say too, too much and listen, I say answer questions, but like, I like to see, cause even if they're telling us like, hey, you should do this and we're already doing it. I love hearing that because it's validation. It's like, I'll just kind of let them go on and explain it just cause I want to understand what they're seeing versus just immediately addressing it with them. But like, I like to hear what they're describing. Is what we're doing close? Is it not close? Jeff Perera: Yes. Aaron: Is the intent wrong, even if we're playing in the right area? I love that first take. I imagine these trade shows must be just a constant wheel of those first takes. It must be interesting to hear what the consensus is from everybody talking to you. What's their first thought of Jeff's? Jeff Perera: It's... it's... Yes. 100 % that happens on repeat for like three hours straight. ⁓ Because a lot of the folks that are at these shows, if they have heard of the brand, only heard of it. ⁓ don't really ⁓ an understanding. When we have those in-person discovery days and ⁓ are coming and visiting us in store and they're meeting you, they're meeting Catriona they're spending time with our teams. ⁓ Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: They've already seen the franchise disclosure document. They've already been on a call with Danielle and I and talked about the history of the brand. They have an understanding of it. Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: You know, people roll up to this franchise show and they see this 20 foot booth with basically a bagel store in the middle of a convention hall. And they're like, wow, this bagel's good. How many ⁓ locations do you have? Where did you start? They're asking all the zero, primal, what's the first questions? And ⁓ such a ⁓ interesting experience ⁓ watch their eyes widen and then they start to percolate all the other questions, which that's the part that I love, to your point, ⁓ answered a Aaron: Yeah, starting from zero. Jeff Perera: lot of them already, right? We have something in the works or I just want to know their mindset, where and how do they get to the idea of ⁓ us about a thing that we're already doing or asking us, know, ⁓ let them ask and I want to know ⁓ we on the right track? If they're asking questions, ⁓ they're asking us questions, they value it, ⁓ we responding to that already and are... ⁓ Aaron: What do they value? Yeah. Jeff Perera: in our operations, our store design, in our technology package, in whatever it is in our people, like do we have that mapped or did we miss it? And if we missed it, how do we pivot? like, if it's a one, is it a one-off or is it eight people said the same thing and how did we miss that? I can't believe it. And then I'm calling Aaron like, dude, you missed this? No. Aaron: Yeah. It will be the first time. Now, it's clearly more games. That's unequivocal. Now, you've said this before, we've talked about store openings and we just went through a bunch of store openings and you're able to cherry pick out some really interesting experiences with customers and like... Jeff Perera: They'll be like, more gamification, more games, more games. Clearly more games. Aaron: in those openings, what are some of your franchise show experiences? Like what's one of the best questions you've got or one of the best, like the weirdest connections, like, ⁓ I knew you from this, from that, from that. Like give me, give me the store opening version, first contact experiences from a franchise trade show. Jeff Perera: Yeah. So last year we were at the same show, Multi-Unit Conference in... ⁓ I know exactly what it is. Yeah, it was crazy. So we're sitting, we're at the booth and ⁓ this couple walks up to Danielle and I and we're like, you know, we welcome them. like, hey, how are you? And they're like, we love Jeffs. And we're like, we look at each other. We're like, we have no idea who you are. Aaron: I love that you already have one. It didn't even take any time to warm up. ⁓ So I can see it in your face, instant. Yeah. Jeff Perera: And then they simply say, you have no idea who we are, but we have bought bagels off your porch. did. And I was like, like, what are you doing in Las Vegas, Nevada at a trade show where it's geared towards like multi-brand multi-unit operators? And they're like, ⁓ yeah, you know. ⁓ My dad was a franchisee for Yum! Brands and had a couple Taco Bells and a couple KFCs and you now I'm getting into the business and I'm doing this thing and blah blah blah blah and it's like... How is that real? It feels so surreal that that would be something that happens. The other thing that I still can't get my arms around is when I go to these shows. Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: I can just be walking through the hotel lobby to get a coffee in the morning. And they're always on the west coast, so I'm on like east coast time all the time, so I wake up at 4 a.m. over here like twiddling my thumbs like what do I do? At 7 a.m. it's like 7 a.m. I slept in, you know, like and you know so I'll go into like yeah I'll go into like a lot I'll go into the lobby of the hotel try to find a coffee and someone will be like hey Jeff Aaron: Yeah, that's just wondering. Especially for a baker. I baker's hours. Jeff Perera: Zero recognition. I have no idea who they are. They know me, I don't know them. I say, hey, how you doing? It's great to see you. And keep walking. And just keep walking. Aaron: your face is in so many places now you just have to smile and say hi. ⁓ I had a similar experience with just the brand. I'm not even Jeff, so I can't imagine your life, but. So I have, you've seen it, like on the front of my backpack, on the strap of my backpack, I have all the pins. a little pin collection going there. ⁓ they're very prominent, because it's kind of where I wear the strap. ⁓ prominent as like a one inch pin is, but still. ⁓ we were at the golf tournament. You were traveling, so you didn't go this year, but we were at that golf tournament, and I'm walking, I'm checking in, know, showing my ticket or whatever. ⁓ guys like, you know, gives you a little wristband and says, have a great time, sir. ⁓ then goes, and keep making the world's best bagels. Jeff Perera: Yes. Haha Aaron: And I looked at him and I tried to figure out what in the world he was talking to me about because it's like I'm not I wasn't wearing anything branded No shirts, no hats, anything like that. It's like what is going on? And then I think he looked he looked at me like I was a little confused and he goes I noticed your pins I'd notice that logo anywhere. Love you guys as bagels. Have a good time. I'm just like man, that's I almost kind of seek it out now just because I'm just dying to see Jeff Perera: That's awesome. Yeah. Aaron: who's out there and who's paying attention and to your point, it's kind of wild to me. It's still wild to me. I still geek out when I see a magnet on a car and we have what, a dozen stores in the market? It doesn't get old. Jeff Perera: Yeah, it doesn't get old and I do enjoy it and I'm grateful for it. It's still a bit weird but I'm happy that it happens. I ⁓ hope it doesn't stop. I think that's something that I want us to grow to this place where people feel so connected to who we are as a brand that if they see someone wearing a pin or a shirt... that they say, I love Jeff's too. They don't have to know who we are. just want, like, the fact that there's like, they have this connection. They have, no, no, it's not exactly. It's like they have a connection to the brand and then suddenly because they see someone else who has an affinity because they have a t-shirt or a hat or a pin, a magnet on the back of their car, they feel like they now have a connection to that human. And that's really cool. That's really cool. Aaron: Yeah. It's the brand, yeah, not the people, the brand. And I think as a brand, that is a very difficult but also sort of a fun high bar to set to say, how far can we take this and have it still feel this way? Because there is a theoretical logical limit. where it no longer feels personal and community and all stuff like, don't believe, I think that's our number one North Star to never lose that. But, you know, I'm sure we're not the first brand to wanna not lose that identity as they grow. I think ⁓ that's a really fun challenge to on is, ⁓ you know, the franchisor of this trying to maintain it. Jeff Perera: And I think that's part of the beauty of, ⁓ We end up ⁓ franchises to people who have an for the brand, who trying to fill a void for bagel lovers in their community. ⁓ They just happen to also see it as great opportunity for them ⁓ to ⁓ meet some financial goals they have their life. ⁓ It's a great way for them to... Aaron: Yeah. Jeff Perera: make money, it's a great way for them to fill that gap in bagels in their community. And I think if we find those people and we, as the franchisor, have operators in markets that feel the same way about bagels that we feel about them, that part's gonna be easy. That part's gonna just, we'll get big, we'll grow, we'll have more stores, but because all those stores are operated. Aaron: Cut it. Jeff Perera: by people in communities that had a love for the bagels to begin with and happened to see a good business model attached to something that they knew would bring joy to their community, it's done. It's easy. Doesn't matter. That's easy because, you know, they're already invested. ⁓ know that their community needs bagels. ⁓ see this as way to bring bagels to the community and make some money along the way for themselves, their family, their investment, whatever. Aaron: nationally local. Jeff Perera: And I think those, what is it ⁓ when incentives align? I think that part of feeling small and feeling local will still of show up because ⁓ franchisee's incentives are aligned with our incentives ⁓ the community's incentive to have a great bagel. ⁓ so that ⁓ of trifecta coming together. ⁓ Aaron: Yes. Jeff Perera: will make it really easy for them to show up and wear their Jeff's Bagel Run shirt and be like, I love your bagels. It doesn't matter if it's me or you or them in a different place. That'll still happen. Aaron: that made think of ⁓ a question as you were ⁓ ⁓ as you're working the and like you said, you're having ⁓ 10,000 ⁓ compressed into a three or four hour period. ⁓ What. What is the thing that you're, you you've got, let's just say you've got 30 seconds, 60 seconds maybe with a person. And maybe if you, you know, if they're interested, you know, breaks that into a longer conversation, but you're just sort of banking on, have a couple of minutes with this person tops, couple of back and forths. What is the thing that you want them to understand most about Jeff's Bagel Run on a first touch? Like what's the first, if they're not eating a bagel as a customer as their first experience, they're meeting you in this context. What do you really want them to walk away with if you only had to pick one thing? Jeff Perera: When you're at these shows and you're walking the floor, let give you a little point of view of what it feels like to be on the other side as an attendee, not as an exhibitor. When you're walking that floor, you've got this long list, probably upwards of 2,000 exhibitors in this giant center. It's bit intimidating, it's a bit overwhelming. ⁓ And... My first goal, whenever someone's walking by, is to make them feel seen and have that same experience that they would have when they walk into Jeff's. And so, while they're in this sea of people, you you can feel a little lost in that. You can feel a little kind of alone in all these people, because everyone's kind of out doing their own thing. And so... Aaron: Hmm, interesting. Jeff Perera: If someone's walking by the booth and I can make eye contact and I can smile and that's enough of a ⁓ them to say, what's Jeff Bagel Run right? Then I know that I've accomplished a very simple goal that we try to accomplish in our stores is that you've been seen, you've been appreciated, and if that hospitality can flow through from that exhibit booth to a prospective franchisee. then I feel like I've accomplished a big part of the goal. Because that's who we are as a brand and that's what I want them to feel. Aaron: That's really interesting. from that perspective then, not surprisingly, but the way that you approach, the way that the booth has been approached, being a mock store, having very experience related aspects to the booth itself, sampling, whatever it is you're doing like. Basically, which if I'm hearing you right you're basically saying hey the first experience I want them to have is to really be in the store and if they're not going to be in the store I'm going to do everything I can to give them a store experience as the first touch because that's where it all begins and ends if I'm hearing it right Jeff Perera: Yeah, I mean, you said it better than I did. That's exactly right. We want them. I think there's just like that feeling of coming into a Jeff's, hey, welcome in. Here's what's hot. Let me talk to you about that's what we're creating and Aaron: ⁓ Go ahead, I get to warm up as you were talking about it. It's... yeah. Jeff Perera: whether it's in this giant conference center or in your 1200 square foot store in your hometown, that's the goal. So that's the outcome that I hope is the first contact and maybe then they ask some questions about the business and the numbers or they have tons of ideas or questions, who knows? There's always something that comes up. if you make someone feel seen and appreciate it. It opens the door to conversation and I believe that is what makes us special when we're in these situations. And that's one of the reasons why people want to sit and have a conversation with us about what Jeff's is and how they can bring it to life in their neighborhoods. pretty cool. anyway, I get to do that like on repeat 10,000 times next week. Aaron: I mean... And. Well, and let's be honest, we also have a coffee table that looks like a giant bagel, so that's worth checking out, even if, even if nothing else. Jeff Perera: So fun. So fun. I mean, if you're out here listening to this podcast thinking, wow, this is a brand I want to invest in, swing by the Booth just for the coffee table. It's totally worth it. It looks like a giant bagel. It is awesome. Just for the coffee table. It is pretty cool. It is pretty cool. The Booth design is 10 out of 10, for sure. Aaron, this has been ⁓ another awesome edition of Aaron: Just for the coffee table. Jeff Perera: the weekly run. ⁓ Bake fresh, bring joy, build community. We'll see you next week.