Ammon McNeff, chief executive of Bricks & Minifigs, said it on the podcast of the real estate firm his franchise recommends, when the host asked him to name his single greatest strength. It was not the only thing the owners said in the hour.
CONFIRMEDThe recording is a public record; every quotation below is Ammon or Matthew McNeff’s own words, transcribed from the recording and the speaker identified by voiceprint. CONFIRMEDThe recommended real estate firm and the funding firms appear nowhere in BAM’s 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document. Documented.
The owners said a great deal more in the same hour. In the order a listener hears it.
The host asked each brother to name his own superpower. Ammon McNeff went first. He said he is strategic, that he thinks “five steps ahead,” and then he said what comes with it:
27:40“…because of that, I tend to not see people as humans. I tend to see people as… how is this person going to help us accomplish this thing. And if they can’t, we need a different… machine in there… I see, you know, people more like the output machines.”
Ammon described his brother’s role in the next breath. Matt, he said, is “very good at helping me see people more as… the individuals, not just the output machines.”
The question was about his strengths.
He had reached for the same idea sixteen minutes earlier, asked how the company grows:
11:05“…the right person in the right role at the right time… and then they expire… they can’t continue growing with the business… you’ve got to know when they are no longer the right fit because… their time has expired.”
On selecting new owners, Ammon McNeff described an eight-step process that ends with a required trip to Utah, and a purpose for it:
21:20“…we identify people who we feel like are going to maintain that culture and that are going to continue to be champions of the brand without significant dilution.”
He described the franchisees who came before a vendor was brought in to find their stores: “most of them were terrible at it… they’re not experts in that space.”
Toward the end of the same episode, asked what makes Bricks & Minifigs special, the owners answered in single words:
52:03“Passion… connection… people like to connect with each other over a piece of plastic… it is so much more… it is community, it is connection… the last word that I will say on that is joy.”
Both descriptions are from the same fifty-seven minutes.
The podcast is hosted by Jonathan Hill, co-founder of Morrow Hill, the real estate firm that Bricks & Minifigs’ own recruitment deck names as a recommended vendor “at no extra cost.” This site reported that deck, and the disclosure gap it raises, on July 22. Hill also listed both brothers and Bricks & Minifigs, publicly, inside a group he titled “Utah Franchise Family.” On the episode the owners described that firm in their own voice:
23:19“…find somebody that can help us manage the real estate side of things… bring them in and plug it into the system… up to that point every franchisee was left to their own devices to try and find a good retail location. And most of them were terrible at it.”
Moments after the praise, the host, who co-founded the firm being praised, said on the recording: “I promise I did not pay these two nice guys to say this.”
The brothers did not found Bricks & Minifigs. They bought the franchisor about a year after opening a store, and described the structure this way:
09:15“It was not investment bankers… Initially it was absorbed into the other business that we were running. And we didn’t take on the full stock either. There was a CFO who stayed on board as well, who ran the Boise, Idaho store. And Reed is still with us… as part of the board and our CFO… eventually we split it out from the other business.”
“The other business” was, in their earlier words, “legal structuring services for healthcare providers.” The franchisor was run inside it before being split out. This site has reported that CFO, Reed, and the roles he holds at once, and the enterprise built around the brand in The Enterprise.
Asked about the LEGO Group, an owner described a change to how product reaches the stores:
35:51“Starting in April we will be distributing all new, in-box LEGO to our entire brand… a direct distribution… relationship with the LEGO Group… a weekly meeting with them, with our rep.”
A franchisor supplying its stores their core product is an Item 8 subject. What Item 8 already discloses, and the rebates the company reserved for itself, is the approved vendor list.
The host put a figure to the pace, and neither owner disputed it: “since 2023, you’ve opened more than 150 locations.” This site’s store map, built from the company’s own disclosure filings, shows how many are actually operating. It is lower than the openings announced.
Ammon McNeff narrated where the brand came from. Two men were invited to look at an older woman’s LEGO collection:
03:26“…we can’t really get the story straight, whether or not she knew what she was doing by inviting two people there… instead of bidding against each other, they decided to partner up and buy the whole collection at a cheaper rate and then just split it amongst themselves.”
That is the company’s origin story, told by its chief executive: two buyers agreeing not to compete, so the seller was paid less.
The honest caveat. A person’s description of his own management style is not evidence of a crime, and this site does not present it as one. The founding anecdote is the owners’ account of other men’s conduct years before they arrived. That the recommended firms are not named in the disclosure document is a fact; whether the Franchise Rule required them to be named, and whether any referral money passed, are the questions analyzed in the entries linked above, not asserted here. Every quotation is the owners’ own words, spoken voluntarily, on a public recording.
Bricks & Minifigs tells prospective owners it sells passion, connection, community, and joy. On the same recording, its chief executive says he does not see people as humans. He says he sees output machines. He said it on the podcast of the vendor his franchise recommends, and that vendor is nowhere in his disclosure document.
The episode is public. The post is public. The disclosure document is public. The audio is above.
Corrections requested by Bricks & Minifigs or its counsel: none received as of the build date.
Sources: On Brand Slightly Off Topic, episode 29 (public podcast, July 21, 2026), timestamps as marked, audio excerpt above · Jonathan Hill, public LinkedIn post · BAM Franchising, Inc. Franchise Disclosure Document, Items 8 and 10 · prior reporting on this site, linked inline. Quotations are transcribed from the public recording and speakers are identified by voiceprint. Claims remain unadjudicated and every person and entity retains the presumption of innocence.
The BAM Map is independent reporting on matters of public concern. Nothing here is a finding of any person’s guilt; the criminal charges referenced are unadjudicated and every defendant is presumed innocent. Sources are linked so readers can check the record. · Home · Map · The law · Bodycam