Unleashed Brands® isn’t successful just because we offer great experiences for kids. Our brands are successful because they choose to inspire and build relationships rather than manipulate the customer. You know what manipulation looks like: dropping prices, using the fear of missing out and aspirational messaging. The hope of businesses that employ these tactics is to alter human behavior and incite anxiety in customers.
Take the trampoline parks space for example. When we started out 10 years ago it was a race to the bottom with endless price-cutting wars, until all the other trampoline parks went out of business one by one. At Urban Air®, however, we chose to inspire and provide a place where kids can celebrate, escape and connect instead of focusing our energy on cutting prices down to nil. Customers want a high-quality, high-value experience, not the cheapest experience.
Pioneering and Franchising: Two Sides of the Same Coin
The goal of our founders is to seek out franchisees who believe what we believe, not just what each of our brands does on the surface. We believe that kids don’t have to wait to be great. We also believe that our brands and processes will help parents know where to start and what’s next in every step of the journey.
Never before has a company set out on a mission to do what we are about to do—to form relationships with parents that assist in the development of their kids. Everyone franchising with Unleashed Brands is a pioneer. It started with The Little Gym®, Snapology® and Urban Air®, but we’re going to keep adding to our roster until we can guide kids along, from birth until they’re heading to college.
At The Little Gym, children begin their growth as young as four months old, with a program focused on the whole-child, where children develop their balance, strength, coordination and group cooperation through imaginative play. Snapology helps kids build confidence, social skills and problem-solving through design, creation, interaction and invention. Urban Air helps kids celebrate special moments, escape the hardships of life and connect with kids off screen and onto the world’s best attractions.
We’re better together and more powerful than we are on our own. Through these relationships, we’ve opened more than 750 franchise units, accrued over $650 million in sales profits and served over 25 million kids annually.
The Franchisee’s Journey Makes Their Destination
Although we’re on this journey that seems crazy, I can guarantee that we’ll look back a year from now, and Unleashed Brands will be the new normal. We can forge this reality, but we have to prepare. The way we think and act can change the trajectory of our lives, so I want to impart to you five keys to success:
Get on a relentless pursuit of perfection that you will never achieve. Not perfectionism at all costs, but a refusal to accept mediocrity or make excuses for not being good enough. If you believe something can be made better, put in the effort to do it. You’re not in the business of just making things, you’re in the business of making things great.
Fall in love with the journey. We overestimate the one big moment and underestimate the value of small gains. Focus instead on improving 1 percent in every little area of your franchise. If you improve by 1 percent daily then you’ll be 37 times better at the end of the year.
Do your part: your job. High achievers don’t act like mediocre people and mediocre people don’t act like high achievers. It’s true that everyone wants to be #1, but it’s also true that not everyone wants to do the work it takes to get there.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Bob Iger, Chairperson of Disney, said in his memoir, “With enough energy, thoughtfulness and commitment, even the boldest ideas [can] be executed.”
Don’t quit. The most powerful outcomes are delayed. Habits need to cross the plateau of latent potential before we see results. Greatness for everyone is just on the other side, so keep going.
Will it be easy? No. Will we be misunderstood? Yes. Will we be called crazy? Absolutely—it’s already happened. Will we feel like square pegs in a round hole? Welcome to my life.
Every time you feel this way I want you to remember that each of our founders was considered crazy early on. But they didn’t quit, they pushed forward because they had a vision and they stuck to it, even when no one else could see it. It was through their journeys that they confronted the status quo and impacted the lives of millions of people across the world.
For every franchisee that partners with one of Unleashed Brands’ companies, and every franchisor that has yet to join our family, I urge you to keep going; we have some incredible things in store for our future.
Do you have a vision like we do at Unleashed Brands? Contact us today to learn more about partnering with us.