Russ: Thank you and this is the BusinessMakers show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show, the Champions' Innovation, by featuring entrepreneurs. And this is, as you can tell, a special feature edition in front of a live audience. Let's prove that one more time. Okay and it is my kind of audience because we're at the Houston Technology Center at their Tech Exec monthly meeting and the room is filled with about 50 or 60 innovators, entrepreneurs, CEO's and like minded people. And it's really a pleasure to be here. It is also a special feature edition because I am joined up here by none other than the author and the voice of the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook, Greg Price. Greg, thanks for having me and thanks for joining me.

Greg: Well Russ, thanks for being here. I know the members of Tech are going to enjoy our presentation today. We've talked about this a number of times; the journey's going to be a fantastic one but I'd like to turn the tables on you a little bit today. Because we're at Tech we're going to turn this thing upside down a little bit. Instead of you interviewing me like you've done in the past, I'm going to interview you. So we've got a few questions and I'd like to give everyone a chance to hear the story of what you've done there at the BusinessMakers show. When I last checked, you had over 400 guests, including notable people as Roger Stauback and Fred Smith from FedEx. With that in mind, I'd like you to maybe give us a little background on how you got started with the BusinessMakers.

Russ: You bet. I love to talk about it. But after participating in the entrepreneur world, starting back in 1980, I was just really affected by the process. It was real cool. And then I started networking with like-minded entrepreneurs and really enjoyed sharing our stories and eventually it started dawning on me that these innovators were the people that most positively affect our lives. It's just so significant. I remember hearing a couple of elected officials, back in the 80's, trying to take credit for the prosperity. And to me, it didn't make any sense because the credit for the prosperity then belonged to Bill Gates and Andy Grove and Rodge Canyon. And not only that, but I was upset that it seemed that the mainstream media seemed to completely ignore this sector unless somebody stepped out of bounds and did something wrong. And then it was big news. And it kind of hacked me off and so I decided to do something about it. And I started the BusinessMakers radio show.

Greg: I've been working with you about four years but tell us how this all got started.

Russ: Well, it was in early 2005 and once I sort of stepped across the line and said, "I'm going to do this", the first thing I wanted to do is find some like minded influencers. And that ultimately led me to John Beddow, publisher of the Houston Business Journal. And to say he and I are liked minded about this is an understatement. And John and I took off in June of 2005 and now we've done almost 200 shows and had almost 400 interviews and we're just as passionate and excited about it as we've always been.

Greg: Well, that's fantastic. Now this is available both on the radio and on the internet. Is that correct?

Russ: Well, that is correct and it's been kind of interesting because, obviously, the internet listenership has grown by leaps and bounds. It's real exciting. There's absolutely no question that that's the media of the future. In fact, we're pretty close to launching our new site. We're about 30 days away.

Greg: That's fantastic. So tell me a little bit. What have you learned about successful entrepreneurs?

Russ: Well, step number one, and I sort of knew this from the beginning – it's not easy. It's hard to start your own company. And I think everybody in the room here would agree with me. I mean, you have to sort of be a generalist in a broad category of talents and skills. Yet at the same time, you have to have a real good constitution about being able to learn quickly and get deep into a whole set of different areas from IT to intellectual property to recruiting to team building. And it's just really, really hard to do. But it's really, really fulfilling at the same time. And we certainly have to be thankful that there are many innovators that continue to dive in headfirst and make new companies, make new services, offer better communication devices, better information sharing devices, they cure diseases. They just make life better.

Greg: You know, one of the things that we've seen with some studies is that, even in economic times that are as uncertain as we face today, that's really the time not to retrench but to continue to invest. And a lot of start ups get started during that time period. So, I think studies have shown that if you're able to continue making investments you can accelerate out at a factor of 2.5 to 3 times your competition. So obviously, people who are able to accelerate, there are traits, patterns that you see in those successful entrepreneurs. What would be some of those that you've seen?

Russ: Well, before I tell you those I've got to tell you, your comment about launching companies and prospering in hard times is a cool subject right now. I just got back from Kansas City and visited the Kaufmann Foundation. And they've produced about four papers right now that completely substantiate what you just said. So it's actually prime time is the way that we have to look at it. But when you look at personality traits, we were excited in the beginning thinking that we would see a lot of them. And at the end of the day, there's a whole different variety of people that successfully start businesses. Although I would tell you, in the very beginning, we thought we were really onto something because after interviewing only eight male entrepreneurs, we discovered that three of them were high school cheerleaders. So we thought, "Man, we've got something here. We need to hang out on the sidelines and find these entrepreneurs." They were David Weekly of Weekly Homes. Dennis Murphy of Murphy Venture Partners and Doug Harris of Noisemaker Communications. It was kind of a fluke but we thought, "Hey, we got something going here." But when you really get down to it and what is key, this theme comes through loud and clear, is that there's absolutely no question that a strong commitment to survive, a persistence, a determination to succeed, a determination to break through barriers is a common theme amongst about 90% of the 400 plus guests on the show. And passion for the business just comes through loud and clear. Now obviously you have to have a good plan. You have to have a viable company. You have to have a little bit of good luck. And you have to really get after it but there's nothing that seems to come through louder and clearer. One of my favorites actually is Christopher Gardner. I went to Chicago the minute he said, "I'll talk to you." He was the guy that Will Smith played on the movie In Pursuit of Happiness. And this guy talks about it in a very special way. He talks about spiritual genetics. And his story is so cool because this guy started from way below zero but Christopher persisted and has been extremely successful.

Greg: Well, one of the things that you have obviously noticed is that these successful entrepreneurs have the ability to tell a lot of people, "no is not the answer". But as these companies have grown are there anything unique or any particular steps along the way that you've seen that make these companies successful?

Russ: Well, it is persistence again. But when I think of the journey, and along the way, I've really homed in on this one thing that I truly enjoy talking to some of these people about and it's idea triggers. It's what happened. What was that point when suddenly they made the commitment, "I'm going to step across the line. I'm going to proclaim myself the founder of this company and I'm going to get with it." One of my favorites is none other than Tom Fat Joe Junior. He's really the founder of the waste management industry. And Tom tells a story. He was a mid-level accountant for a small accounting firm, back in the early 70's. Bought his first home out in the northwest side of Houston in a mammoth subdivision that immediately had trouble with trash pick-up. So suddenly the whole subdivision got together and said, "We've got to do something about it." They called a meeting. He describes this very well in his interview and about 200 people showed up in a little association conference clubhouse. He said it was hot, everybody was real mad and nobody was coming up with solutions and he started just jotting down some numbers. He had heard that you could buy a trash truck for about $35,000 and he did some math, like you accountants do, and he said, "Man, this is a no brainer." So he raised his hand up and said, "Look. Why don't we consider buying a trash truck and just doing it ourselves?" He said there was kind of a hush over the audience and then he said some obnoxious guy way across the room stood up and said, "Hey Fat Joe. Why don't you buy a trash truck and why don't you do it?" And the rest is history. Not only did he do it but if you were here and you ask him to tell us what his net worth is, it's one of those numbers that takes at least three commas. And it's because he went out and bought a trash truck and did it.

Greg: There's money in trash, that's for sure. So who else have you had unique stories with in that area?

Russ: Well, when I think of big names on the show there's a few of them that I just really enjoy. Nolan Bushnell is just a piece of work. This is the guy that was the inventor of Pong, the founder of Atari and also the founder of Chuck E. Cheese. Sorry about that last one.

Greg: But those go all together, don't they?

Russ: Well, they do, they do. He's telling his story about really bringing Pong out of the computer workshop at Utah University and actually bringing it down to a small level and finding a night time establishment that would agree to put it in. He was real excited. He went down, he installed it, and everything looked good. He couldn't stay. He had another engagement so he calls the owner the next day at about noon and said, "Well how did it go?" And the guy said, "I don't know. I don't think this is going to work out." He said, "Why?" And he said, "Well it worked real well and suddenly at about 9:30 it just broke. I just don't think it's reliable enough." And he said, "Well, I'll come down and check it out right away." He went down and checked it out and the problem was the receptacle for quarters was overflowing and causing the machine to short out. So he knew he had a winner there for sure. Well, look. I think we're about out of time with this segment but I want to keep going with this. So we're going to be back with more after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at the businessMakers.com

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the BusinessMakers.com. And I'm in front of a live audience at the Houston Technology Center and we're continuing on. My guest is Greg Price with PKF Texas and he is actually asking me questions, so continue on.

Greg: That's right, Russ. I turned the tables on you this time so I did a little research. So tell me, one of my questions were are there any particular categories or segments that you found most interesting in these 400 plus interviews that you've done?

Russ: Well it's a great question because after a while it was real obvious that there are categories that have way significant meaning and they're just tied to who they are. Number one, immigrant success stories. We've probably had about six or seven on the show. And generally speaking they're tearjerkers and generally speaking they make you think how fortunate we are to be in the United States of America. And you can learn to appreciate it more so from them. We've had octogenarians on the show. And they're kind of cool because these aren't people that necessarily have anything to sell or they're not raising money. They're just telling that story about what it was like. And some of those are breathtaking. Then of course, you have the social media entrepreneurs. And I've always been an advocate of pushing and trying to stay young. And man oh man, do we have some interesting challenges in the future in the social media world. And then social entrepreneurship is kind of interesting too. Then we have these university based entrepreneurship programs that were not in vented back when you and I were in school, that are so cool. And I've travelled mostly all over the country and visited them all. Including two right here in Houston that are really cool and really happening and really winning awards.

Greg: Well, you know, its' very interesting. We do have some fantastic universities in the area and these entrepreneurial programs that they have set up. Something that we didn't have. Tell us what the future looks like for the BusinessMakers radio show. There's lots of conversations about twitter, satellite radio. What do you see kind of out there for the future?

Russ: Well, we're always in pursuit of more good stories. I say that everywhere I go if anybody's got a good story; we just love to have it and feature it. Back to the very beginning, when I told you what the motivation was to starting it: We want to get these things out there and we want to get them heard. And I mentioned a new website coming up soon. That's exciting. And the whole world of social media. Twitter, FaceBook, how all that integrates. We're real excited about what we're going to be able to do in the future for the show.

Greg: Okay Russ. I think we've got some people that are lining up. They look awfully eager. So we're going to ask them to step up to the mike here, introduce themselves and fire away their question. Go ahead, sir.

Ron Farmer: Ron Farmer. USLED. I'm the CEO. And I've got a simple question. Do you find any correlation between education and success? In other words, college degree versus not a college degree and such?

Russ: We've had a whole bunch of MBA's on the show that are obviously real smart and educated and often successful. But it's by no means a guarantee. Had quite a few just that have an undergraduate degree. But I kind of get really interested about those that even dropped out of undergraduate school. We've had a boatload of them. I don't mean to actually suggest that one not go out and maximize their education. But it's amazing. And we've actually had three high school drop outs on the show. Gordon Bathoon, from worst to first guy at Continental Airlines, was a high school dropout. Eric Elfman, the founder of Data Cert just has an incredible story. Ultimately went on and got his MBA of course. And Terra Jean Hart is really one of my favorite interviews. She is the founder and CEO of the Compliance Alliance. All three of them dropped out of high school and became very, very successful in this space.

Greg: We have another question here.

Billy Ladin: Russ, I'm Billy Laden of CEO of Internet America. I listen to your show religiously and I just looked – I have 57 of your interviews on my iPhone today. Quick question. I'd like to see these people as well as hear them. When are you going to get into the higher technology and give us video interviews?

Russ: Billy, I don't have a face for video. You can tell that right here! No. It is obviously going to happen. We almost did it today. It's really pretty easy to do now. It's exciting what goes on in the web. I didn't mention it when I talked about the future but we're going to do it. We have to do these things and get them on.

Greg: Well, Billy's right. One of the things we're able to track with the internet is the number of hits and access points. And so you can see a direct correlation between subject matter and guest speaker and number of hits so that's something that we want to see added to the show. We have another question right here.

Christine Hollandon: I'm Christine Hollandon with Hollandon Professional Services Marketing. And I noticed you mentioned several categories and topics that you had discussed. But are there any interviews focused on branding?

Russ: Great question Christine. There's one that I love. It's John Moore, the founder of Brand Autopsy. This guy is really cool because he spent time in marketing with Starbucks. And then followed that up with time in marketing, both at high level positions, with Whole Foods. And so he has this massive experience at these great, great brands. And when people always start talking to him about, "What do I do to build my brand to make it" and he starts referring to those experiences, particularly at Starbucks. And he talks time and time again about how they never thought about branding. All they thought about was making the best cup of coffee, having the best environment, the best customer experience that you can possibly have. And it makes me think, along the way, as modern business sort of took off and branding became so popular, that we seem to have forgotten that. You build the company first and the brand second and it's a lesson. And I would highly recommend listening to the John Moore interview at the BusinessMakers.com.

Greg: Very good. Brad, we have a question from you.

Brad Burke: Hey Russ, hey Greg. This is Brad Burke. The Managing Director of the Rice Alliance at Rice University. So you mentioned that you went around and you visited universities and colleges around the country to learn about their entrepreneurship programs. And you've mentioned the Kaufman Foundation. So what have you learned? What's your takeaway from university entrepreneurship programs?

Russ: Well, good question. And I really get excited about these because once again they weren't available when I was at business school and they're becoming fairly predominant. I've been to USC, seen that program. The Lloyd Graff Center for Entrepreneurship. I've been to Babson College up in Wellesley Massachusetts. Babson is in a category all by themselves. It's not just a university entrepreneurship program. It's a college totally focused on entrepreneurship. Professors become advisers and investors. Graduates of the school – it's almost like they tithe when the leave. They commit a percentage of their company in the future and it's by itself. But they're all growing in popularity. I've got to admit, you've got a very good one in your Rice Alliance Business Plan Contest; it's still the richest one in the country and is very successful. I have to mention also that the University – the Wolf Center at the University of Houston – also is ranked number one this year by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. TCU has an incredible program that focuses on high school students. So to answer your question Brad, they're all very different but they all seem to be very successful in promoting entrepreneurship very, very well. The Kaufman Foundation is – boy, it's like the epicenter or entrepreneurship. It was formed as the trust from Ewing Marion Kaufman and they have championed these entrepreneurship programs at quite a few universities across the country. And they do it well. One thing that I have noticed, and this is kind of like another "atta boy" to you Brad, one sort of little difference from program to program is that there's always a debate on whether or not it should be an academic leader to the program or an entrepreneur. Well, I think you know what side I would fall on, Greg. I think the ones that have business people coming in there and teaching are much, much better and far more successful.

Greg: Absolutely. Well, we got time I think for one more question before we wrap it up. And I think you have mentioned her name just a second ago. It was Terra Jean Hart. You've told me the story. Maybe you've mentioned it to some others but I think it's worth closing on that story because it's a great story of persistence. And I'd like for you to tell that story.

Russ: Terra Jean Hart is a very unique entrepreneur. She's the founder and CEO of the Compliance Alliance. And what makes her so unique is that she grew up in a dysfunctional family. And she tells the story very, very well. She says she grew up in a family where the guys are supposed to go college and go out and be successful with careers. And the girls are supposed to marry one of those guys. And she admits she just wasn't very good at marrying those guys and looks up one day, after being a high school dropout, and she was a single mom. A parent; I believe she had three children. Times were real, real tough and she was actually living on food stamps. And I mean, she was way down and out on life. And ultimately, obviously, it's a success story or she wouldn't be the founder of this very successful company, the Compliance Alliance. And I just remember asking her, "Well how in the world did you get from point A to point B?" And she's got a great sense of humor. But she says, "Well, I actually did know how to dress. My Mom did teach me how to dress. I guess that was because she thought all she was supposed to do was find a husband." And she said, "But my mom also really wanted me to win the spelling bee at school. So every night, for about five years, I did nothing but read the dictionary." And so she said, "I had a very strong vocabulary and I've used that. And I got myself in gear and ultimately this is where I am today." I would highly recommend listening to that.

Greg: I want to thank the host today, the Houston Technology Center and the Tech Membership Club for having us as guests today. And we hope that you'll have a chance to listen to the interview and some others on the BusinessMakersRadioShow.com. So please, let's give our thanks to Russ for sharing some of his stories with us today.

Russ: Thank you. Thank you very much for letting me share what's so important to me. And I think that wraps it up. You've been listening to the BusinessMakers show, heard here and online at the BusinessMakers.com.