A look inside one of Bricks 4 Kidz’s most decorated franchisee partnerships, and the playbook other prospective owners can learn from.
Tim and Kristi Walker didn’t set out to become franchise leaders. They set out to reclaim their evenings.
Thirteen years later, they’re one of the most decorated Bricks 4 Kidz franchisee teams in North America. They’ve been recognized as a corporate Top Performer, voted the best educational service in their community, and have quietly inspired thousands of kids across the South Puget Sound to fall in love with STEM.
This is the story of how it happened, and what they want every prospective franchisee to know.
The Tipping Point
It was a three-hour daily commute that finally tipped the scale.
Tim had built a strong corporate career: retail management, a software startup, software engineering at Intel, then another Seattle tech firm. Kristi was an adjunct college professor teaching composition and literature. They had two small children at home and not enough hours in the day to actually be with them.
“I wanted to be in control here. I wanted better hours and to be in control of my own destiny instead of somebody else.”
Tim Walker
Tim wasn’t initially looking at franchising. He just knew he needed out. But the more he explored, the more one thing became clear: starting completely from scratch meant inventing a business, a brand, a curriculum, and a customer base all at once.
Franchising offered something different. A turnkey path with a proven playbook, a network of operators who’d already solved the hard problems, and the freedom to still be the boss of his own community business.
Why Bricks 4 Kidz
The decision wasn’t financial. It was personal.
For nearly two decades, Tim had volunteered with a youth robotics competition program. He loved watching kids embrace STEM. The spark in their eyes when a circuit came alive, when a robot moved for the first time.
“I’d think, man, I wish I could do this full-time,” he recalls. “But it was a volunteer thing.”
When he started researching businesses, Bricks 4 Kidz showed up. He read the model. He looked at the curriculum. He saw the themes: Star Wars, Minecraft, robotics, coding. And it clicked.
“I couldn’t have invented a better business for what we wanted to do. Hands-on Lego, technology, robotics, coding. It was perfect.”
Tim Walker
Kristi and Tim flew out to observe another owner before signing anything. Within minutes, Kristi was on the floor helping kids snap pieces together. “It was instantly natural,” she says. “It was everything we had been looking for.”
Their first event as owners, a workshop at a local childcare center, confirmed it. They were home.
Building It: One Class, One Camp, One Community at a Time
The Walkers will be the first to tell you they didn’t arrive with a sales-and-marketing pedigree. “We’re a teacher and an engineer,” Kristi says plainly. “We became a success because of passion and work, just putting in the work.”
Tim taught himself marketing along the way and discovered, to his surprise, that he loved it. They invested in their community before the community had a reason to invest in them: helping host locations, supporting parks and rec programs, showing up at the Chamber of Commerce, mentoring fellow franchisees.
“You give to get,” Tim says. “There’s no immediate ROI on most of it. But people notice. Your community notices. And eventually, that translates into business.”
The recognition came in waves. A Top Performer award from Bricks 4 Kidz corporate confirmed they were on the right path. Community-voted awards followed. Most recently, in October, the best educational service in their area and a bronze medal for summer camps. Tim was eventually invited to join the Bricks 4 Kidz Franchise Advisory Council, where he now mentors other owners across the network.
“There’s a network of other owners. Some are really good at marketing, some at finance. Just hearing their experience is really, really helpful.”
Tim Walker
The Moments That Matter
Ask the Walkers what keeps them going after 13 years and they won’t talk about revenue. They’ll talk about kids.
The five-year-old at BrickCon
A young boy joined them at age five for a Minecraft-themed summer camp. He stayed through years of classes. Years later, the Walkers were running a booth at BrickCon (the largest Lego convention in the United States and the longest-running in the world), and there he was. An exhibitor, demonstrating a cooperative ball coaster built with the same motorized technic models that had first hooked him at age five. He’s now preparing for college.
“Every time I see him, I’m just so excited,” Kristi says. “His mom and I always hug. Watching what they started with us expand on and grow, it just gives you all the warm fuzzies.”
The twins who broke the model
Kristi’s favorite class session, ten years on, involved a set of mischievous twins who decided to build their models as fast as humanly possible, so they could modify them to fly apart spectacularly. They turned the whole room into a competition. “I’ve never seen kids build faster, with more giggles, more fun,” she says. Years later, those twins came back as camp counselors at a Bricks 4 Kidz event. They still talked about that class.
“This is the greatest day ever.”
A Bricks 4 Kidz camper, mid-class
What They’ve Learned (And What They’d Tell You)
Thirteen years in, the Walkers offer the kind of advice that only comes from doing the work:
- Give before you ask. Invest in your hosts, your community, and your fellow franchisees with no expectation of return. The return comes.
- Plan the night before. Kristi maps tomorrow’s tasks in order of operation: what must get done first, then in order of importance, every single night.
- Delegate whenever possible. Not specific to Bricks 4 Kidz. Specific to staying sane as an owner.
- Read Profit First. The Walkers credit the book with completely changing how they manage a cyclical business. “Wish we’d learned it sooner.”
- Ask for help, then pay it back. The Walkers leaned on the franchisee network in their early years. Today, they mentor owners around the world.
“Get out of your comfort zone as soon as possible. The anxiety and fear slow you down. The sooner you do it, the smoother the ride is going to be.”
Kristi Walker, to her younger self
What’s Next
The Walkers aren’t slowing down. They’re focused on continued growth, reaching more communities in the Pacific Northwest with Bricks 4 Kidz programs. And they’re actively integrating new technology into their curriculum, including the responsible use of AI for the next generation of elementary-aged kids.
“Kids learn better when they’re having fun,” Kristi says. “That’s no debate. We’re just going to keep having fun. If they learn something along the way, and they always do, that’s the bonus.”
If You’re Thinking About a Franchise of Your Own
The Walkers have a message for the person reading this who’s wondering whether they could do what they’ve done:
“You’re not Kevin Costner in a cornfield. It’s not ‘if you build it, they will come.’ You have to do the work to get the word out. But once people see what you’re about, they’re in.”
Kristi Walker
You don’t need a sales background. You don’t need a marketing degree. You need willingness to learn, the discipline to put in the time, and a reason to do it that’s bigger than the paycheck.
The Walkers had one: they wanted their evenings back, they wanted to be present for their kids, and they wanted to spend their working hours doing something that actually mattered.
Thirteen years later, they have all three.
