Russ: Good morning, this is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show about those that most positively affect our lives, the people who are charge of bringing back the economy.
John: That's right. It's going to take these people to kick in big time to overtake and to counteract a lot of what the government's been doing.
Russ: I agree okay. And here's our lineup for this morning. First for the AFLAC Businessmaker's flashback, about a week ago I traveled down to San Marcus, Texas and visited with Dr. Bob Hill from the McCoy School of Business at Texas State University. And Bob is leading the charge to setting up the center for entrepreneurial action at Texas State. And then for my featured guest segment this morning, I'm going to visit with Gay Gaddis, founder and President of T3, that stands for the Think Tank, which just happens to be the largest independent advertising agency owned by a woman in the country. Gay has been recognized as one of Fast Company's Top 25 business builders, as well as one of Inc magazines Top 10 entrepreneurs of the year. But first... that's right, it's time for the School of Business, and this is our version of business school.
John: That's right, Russ, it's our version. I think it's the better version. May not be the best, but we're far better than any of those other business schools, which right now are falling on some hard times.
Russ: Boy , it is tough. You've got to be a make-it-happen person now.
John: Right.
Russ: And we kick off the School of Business every Saturday morning here on the BusinessMakers Show with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And there's always lots of pressure on me to come up with a good quote but from my partner John Betto here as well as from the market patients.
John: Hey, everybody needs a critic right? And you've got me.
Russ: That's right. But I think I've got it wired this time, because I went out and found a actual newspaper guy who had a pretty cool quote. It comes from Doug Floyd. He's up in Spokane.
John: Spokane.
Russ: He's a newspaper guy. And here's the quote. "You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note." Now you're a music guy too, yeah.
John: You're right, yeah.
Russ: All right, that brings us to this week in business history. What happened in this November week in business history?
John: Well, you know, there's two temperature scales out there, all right? Fahrenheit, and what's the other one called?
Russ: Well, would that be Celsius?
John: Celsius, also known as Centigrade, and the guy who invented Celsius, Anders Celsius, was born November 27th this week in business history in 1701 in Sweden.
Russ: Wow.
John: He was a pretty prolific inventor. He also invented a tool for measuring the brightness of starlight.
Russ: Okay, well that's pretty cool.
John: And when invented the Centigrade scale the way he originally put it together a zero was the boiling point for water and 100 was the freezing point.
Russ: That's a little different than it is today.
John: They reversed it; that's all they did. They just reversed it. And now the Celsius scale is standard for most places in the world. He died at the age of 42.
Russ: Wow, too bad. Okay.
John: Okay, this week in business history another famous inventor. We probably don't know this guy like Celsius, but he was born this week in business history November 28th 1837 and he's considered the grandfather of the plastics industry. Now just think if it weren't for this guy that movie the Graduate would have made no sense because it's plastics, right, the future is plastic?
Russ: That's right.
John: If you had no plastics they'd have to think of something else.
Russ: Is this guy's name plastic?
John: No, it's John Wesley Hyatt. Okay, he was born in Starkey, New York. Now he first got started by entering a contest to find a substance to replace the materials that go into billiard balls, a replacement for the substance which at that time was ivory. The elephants, you know, were happy about this.
Russ: I'm sure they were.
John: And the price was $10,000 and he came up with a substance called pryroxiline.
Russ: Okay, pryroxiline?
John: Pryroxiline. It was a semi-synthetic plastic and it was also called celluloid, so it derives from cellulose. The problem with this, it didn't work because the billiard balls made out of this celluloid tended to explode upon contact.
Russ: Just on trick shots or something or-
John: Yeah, eight-ball, corner pocket, boom.
Russ: Cool.
John: I don't know about the shrapnel, if anybody was hurt, but it didn't work out. But later he was able to make celluloid to replace very expensive materials, whalebone, tortoiseshells and the film used in motion pictures.
Russ: Wow, cool.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1891, get this, the banjo was patented by Hobart C. Middlebrook of Rock Rapids, Iowa.
[Music: "Dueling Banjos"]
John: This week in business history we're really fast-forwarding here to 1936. The first issue of Life Magazine is published.
Russ: Oh, man, I was an avid fan of Life magazine.
John: Who wasn't?
Russ: Yeah, and the photography was incredible.
John: I know. But it didn't start out that way. It started out as like a humorous publication, like the New Yorker magazine. But it folded during the Great Depression. A guy named Henry Loose bought it. Henry Loose was the publisher at Time Magazine, and this theory was well Time will tell the news but Life magazine would show the news.
Russ: Okay, yeah. So in 1936 was the rebirth when the version that we knew came out.
John: Yeah, right. The death of Life as we know it was in 1972 when it began losing audience and advertising dollars to television.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, later on in 1961 this week in business history, one of my favorite groups, the Everly Brothers, joined the Marine Corps Reserves at Camp Pendleton in 1962. they'd already recorded most of the songs on Warner Brothers before they were in the Marines.
[Music: "Wake Up Little Suzie"]
Russ: Now that was a little bit of a controversial song if you think about it.
John: Wake up, Little Suzie, Wake Up.
Russ: Yeah, he was out parking with his girlfriend and they fell asleep.
John: And now their reputations are thought-
Russ: Particularly back in the '50s.
John: Yeah, nowadays you get a medal. There would be many accolades coming from his peer group.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay, later on, November 22nd, 1963, this week in business history, John F. Kennedy assassinated.
Russ: Goodness, goodness, me.
John: We all know what happened there.
Russ: Well, we do, and those in the audience our age, but just think about how many people listen now that didn't experience it.
John: Where were you at?
Russ: I was in seventh grade, I remember between classes, you know, the bell range, we were all changing classes and this girl that I crossed paths with and always spoke to and she always spoke to me, said, "Did you hear?" And I said no. And she said, "Kennedy was shot." I couldn't believe it. Then we went to the next class and there was just total chaos and the teacher was obviously upset and then spent that whole Thanksgiving weekend watching it.
John: Oh, man. It was huge. The thing is the conspiracy theory in history that this spawned.
Russ: Boy, it did.
John: Okay, now we go to this week in business history 1964 Willie Nelson plays at Grand Old Opry in Nashville for the first time, three years to the day after Patsy Cline had a huge hit with his song Crazy.
[Music: "Crazy"]
Russ: Oh, that was an incredible song in-
John: Oh, it was, yeah.
Russ: Yeah, and at that point Willie Nelson was mainly known just as a songwriter.
John: I know. Right. Yeah. He was not known as an outlaw back then either. I saw pictures of him back in those days. He's about as country western as you can imagine back in those days.
Russ: That's right.
John: Right.
Russ: All right.
John: Okay. On to 1967 this week, Arlo Guthrie released his landmark debut album, Alice's Restaurant, This Week in Business History in 1967. The first side of the LP was a single 18-minute folk song telling the tale of Alice's Restaurant massacre.
Russ: You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.
John: Except Alice.
Russ: That's right.
[Music: "Alice's Restaurant"]
Russ: Now that really was a classic, and he's Woody Guthrie's son, too, right?
John: I know, right.
Russ: Yeah, yeah. What a family.
John: Okay, in 1968, moving right along in the music business, Steppenwolf first album went gold as their new single is peaking. "Magic Carpet Ride" was their group's second biggest hit.
[Music: "Magic Carpet Ride"]
Russ: Man, we could use a magic carpet ride right now, couldn't we? You know, get this darn economy back going.
John: It might help the magic carpet industry.
Russ: That's right.
John: Everybody go out and buy a magic carpet.
Russ: And we'll all be in better shape.
John: Okay.
Russ: All right.
John: All right. Last but not least, This Week in Business History, on November 24 of 1971-this could be a dumb moment in parachuting history because a guy named D.B. Cooper-
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: -parachutes into a thunderstorm over Washington state. He had $200,000 in ransom money in his possession.
Russ: Well, we don't know if it's dumb or not. They've never seen him again-you know.
John: I know.
Russ: And I bet if he had it to all do over again, if you think about it, that was, like-what-37 years ago-
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: That $200,000 wouldn't go very far over-
John: I know.
Russ: Inflation, he should've gotten a lot more-
John: I know.
Russ: -to take that kind of risk, don't you think?
John: I know. It was ridiculous.
Russ: Maybe that's the dumb moment, that he just didn't take enough.
John: Dumb moment. Yeah, dumb moment in robbery parachuting history.
Russ: All right. You have that look on your face like that's the end of the history lesson.
John: That is it.
Russ: All right.
John: Over and out.
Russ: Good job.
John: Okay, thank you, sir.
Russ: You bet. All right. And that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon, and this is our vocabulary lesson. So first and foremost, we've got to hear your rules review.
John: That's right, and it's all prerecorded, packaged, and ready to go. Attention BusinessMakers radio audience. The following is a Public Service Announcement in integrating new modern jargon into your personal vocabulary. Number 1) It is dangerous to hear these words and then run out and use them in public or at home without practicing its use. 2) Be careful at home. You do not want to mess up your home life through jargon abuse. 3) The best way to learn how is to practice, practice, practice. Say the words 100 times in the mirror, use it in a sentence all 100 times, and then repeat often. And 4) Then it is safest to use them in public where there is heavy drinking, although use the word early in your drinking. 5) Then when you feel comfortable, and only then, when you have mastered the word, jargon, and technospeak, then you shall feel comfortable in its use. Again, this has been a Public Service Announcement for listeners of The BusinessMakers Radio Show.
Russ: And the way we do this is in contest format.
John: Yes.
Russ: We agreed to that in the very beginning of the show.
John: Yeah, you make up the word on the way over-
Russ: That's right.
John: -and then I'm supposed to guess it.
Russ: That's right. But they're logical. And I don't really make them up. I find them because they're used out in, but you enjoy it. You enjoy the challenge.
John: I do. I enjoy the challenge.
Russ: Let's see if you get it. I think you're going to get this one. Here's the word. Today's jargon word is anecgloat.
John: Anecglote. Okay, an anecdote is an amusing story.
Russ: Right.
John: An anecdote is an amusing story that makes you look good in the telling of it.
Russ: You got it. Man, right on the button.
John: All right.
Russ: Hold your calls, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a winner. Right on the button.
John: I know. I'm a winner this week.
Russ: Anecgloat. That's a good word, though.
John: I did not know the word-
Russ: There you go. Good job. All right. And that brings us to Dumb Moments in Business History. You got a story for us.
John: Yeah, this is about a company that really did something kind of dumb, okay, but turned it around and made something good out of it.
Russ: Well, that's good.
John: There's a home electronics chain store called Silo-this was back in 1986-and they run these TV commercials in 23 markets offering stereos for 299 bananas. Now, of course, when they say banana they mean dollars.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay. But there are some people that took them literally and started bringing bananas to the stores. Instead of turning them down, they realized, "Well, we have to sell this-sell these things for the bananas."
Russ: Okay, stayed good to their word.
John: Yeah, so they took in about 11,000 bananas and they donated them to the zoo-
Russ: Whoa.
John: -and they also gave some money to the local food banks.
Russ: Whoa.
John: See, not all dumb moments turn out bad.
Russ: That's right. That one's good.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Good job. Okay. All right. And before we wrap up the School of Business, we have to bring in Mr. Greg Price-
John: That's right.
Russ: -and do the very popular PKF Entrepreneur's Playbook.
John: Well, here he is right now.
Russ: So let's welcome Greg and his piano.
John: Hello, Greg. Hello, Greg. How are you doing?
Russ: Here we go.
Russ & John: A one and a two and a-
[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook]
Russ: And that wraps up the School of Business. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. Stay tuned in for the flashback with Dr. Bob Hill from the McCoy School of Business at Texas State University and then followed by our featured guest this morning, Gay Gaddis, founder and president of T3.
