Today we’d like to introduce you to Friars Dice.
Hi Friars, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Issac, Zion, and I are all siblings. In fact, we are three of nine total siblings. Growing up with all those siblings, a stay at home mom, and a truck driver dad we found a lot of fun in games that cost very little money. We grew up in trenched in fantasy games, storytelling, and role-playing. Our game of choice, taught to us by our dad, was Dungeons and Dragons. Fast forward years later. Isaac was helping out a friend with a Ren Faire, and as thanks, he was given a booth. Isaac knew what he wanted to sell, but he recruited me, and another one of my brothers to sell at his booth. We started selling and found that not only did we have a passion for what we were selling we had a lot of fun doing it. We all got together after the Faire and decided let’s make a go of this. Thus Friars Dice was born. Friar literally means brother, or brother’s dice. Business has been booming ever since, we have officially been open for 60 days and have been to locations such as Evermore, FanX, and the Utah Ren Faire. We are scheduled to go to the LA Comic Con at the end of the month.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have been struggles along the way, and we expect to face even more. I have owned and operated businesses in the past and it’s tough to run things on your own. Working with two brothers that you can trust to share the load helps us to plow through the roadblocks. I think of it this way; brother James is the Brain, brother Isaac is the brawn, and brother Zion is the face. Between the three of us we have our bases covered. Challenges, in the beginning, were primarily surrounding money. It is not cheap to get a company started. Since we have seen success our biggest challenge is now focusing our time on projects that will bring the biggest yield. We had another brother who was also involved in the founding out of the company that had to drop out for personal reasons, he brought a lot to the table, and we wish he was still involved. Like I said, we keep moving forward and share the load even when faced with these challenges.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Growing up telling stories, acting and playing games, the three of us all learned to be salesmen. We take those skills we’ve been refining for years and put them to good use. Friars dice sells dice, and we do it through an incredibly fun dice-rolling game. You buy your mystery bag of dice, but you also get to roll a 20-sided dice down one of our hand-painted cathedrals. If the gods smile upon you and you roll a 20 we upgrade the dice in your bag to one of our amazing liquid core, metal, hollow, or wooden dice. Having little money growing up we never had a lot of money to go around. Our mystery dice game gives a chance for those who like us to get something that they would never be able to otherwise. Last week a young boy came to our booth with his mom. He told us he was finally old enough to play, and his mom was going to get him his first set of dice. His little hands were shaking as he dropped the dice down the tower. When it stopped rolling we all leaned in to see a 20 staring back at us. The boy was speechless, but we weren’t! We started screaming and yelling, causing a huge commission. When the reality set in the boy was beaming, he picked out his dice and went on his merry way. A few hours later he came back just to check to see if there were any more winners. We absolutely made that boy’s day and gave him a fun family memory he will never forget. Each of us see a little bit of ourselves in that boy, and it makes it all worth it. We love what we do.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I can speak for my brothers and say that they love Branden Sanderson’s work. I have yet to try it myself, but the way they pressure me to read it I know it’s good. Critical Role, a DND podcast, is a favorite among us, and every one we sell dice to. Zion has written and self-published several books on amazon, and we are proud of him for accomplishing that. I read a lot of self-help books on leadership. The first that comes to mind is the happiness advantage. We really love anything mystical, whimsical, or fantastic.
Contact Info:
- Website: FriarsDice.com
- Instagram: Friars Dice
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FriarsDice
- Etsy: Friars Dice
Image Credits
Mom
