Russ: Good Morning, this is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show that is championing entrepreneurship.

John: Hmm Mmm.

Russ: Alright. Our topic this week with our guest lineup is coffee.

John: Coffee, I'll drink a cup of coffee.

Russ: You bet.

John: Yeah.

Russ: First up, for the Aflac BusinessMaker's Flashback we're gonna roll-back to the beginning of this year, episode 193, when we had the Coffee Groundz guys on. That's J.R. Cohen –

John: Yeah.

Russ: And Jonathan Zadok. This is that boutique coffee shop in mid-town Houston –

John: Right.

Russ: That has built a huge following with Twitter.

John: And with the tech people. Hey, they do sell some good coffee.

Russ: Man, they do.

John: Alright.

Russ: And then, for our featured guest segment, I'm gonna sit down and visit with Robert Vu, the founder and CEO of SoloBrew, another guy that has a great idea in the coffee world. He is a mechanical engineer. Left a real prospering career to dive into the coffee business. SoloBrew produces a disposable and refillable French press coffee offering.

John: Oh, wow.

Russ: It's really cool.

John: Alright.

Russ: But, first... that's right, it's time for the BusinessMaker's School of Business. And this is not your business as usual school.

John: No, it's more than that. It's so much more than that. I can't even come up with the words to describe what it really is.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Other than the fact that you learn a lot.

Russ: There you go.

John: Alright.

Russ: Right. And we kick-off the school of business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And today's quote – now, I don't know if this is the author of the quote, or if he just loves this saying. It's actually from Ken Jones of KJ Partners.

John: Yeah.

Russ: And here's the quote: "An entrepreneur is one who knows the outcome is up to him and wants it that way." Likes all the pressure. Come on, I know. If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose.

John: Alright.

Russ: That brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this October week in business history?

John: Well, we started in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Russ: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

John: Okay, he reaches a new world. He was one of the first entrepreneurs, he was a geographical entrepreneur.

Russ: Man, he was.

John: Because he had this idea that you could go to the east by sailing west.

Russ: Yeah, and he was willing to take the risk, man.

John: And take the risks.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He didn't know that big land mass called North America was gonna be in the way.

Russ: Right, right.

John: Matter of fact, he thought he had hit –

Russ: He thought he'd hit. He thought he'd succeeded.

John: Yeah. This week in business history, in 1846 the first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery.

Russ: (Laughs) Wow.

John: Can you imagine what surgery was like without anesthesia?

Russ: (Laughs) Jesus...

John: Yeah, well, most of the credit goes to a guy named William Thomas Greenmorton. He was a dentist studying medicine in Boston when he began experimenting with ether.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And he had a patient, Gilbert Abbot, with a tumor in his jaw. And he performed the operation before a group of people who – some people scoffed at the idea of –

Russ: Yeah.

John: Of anesthesia, but can you imagine?

Russ: God.

John: Before, they had to just hire strong-men to restrain the patients from bucking and squirming, and you know, just going out of their mind –

Russ: So, you mean - ?

John: Or, they'd get them drunk, like they did in Braveheart. Remember, they cut-off that guy's hand, and they got him drunk?

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: That's how they used to do it.

Russ: So, you mean they hired people to come in and hold them during surgery before the - ?

John: To restrain somebody you have to hold them, don't you?

Russ: So, are you telling me all those guys lost their jobs after anesthesia got in?

John: Yeah, that's right.

Russ: My God, there should've been –

John: The unemployment lines –

Russ: There should've been some sort of protection for those poor people.

John: Well, there was a stimulus package for them.

Russ: Alright, great. Alright.

John: This week in business history, in 1908, Keynesian is born.

Russ: Okay.

John: Like, a star is born.

Russ: Yeah.

John: As John Kenneth Galbreth.

Russ: Oh, my goodness.

John: Strong proponent of Keynesian economics, which basically states that the government is responsible for everything.

Russ: Yeah, for everything, yeah. Which – which is kind of different than the real capitalist deal.

John: I know. We have a Keynesian as president of the United States.

Russ: That's right. That's right.

John: Big time. Okay, this week in business history, in 1911, Henry Ford is granted patent number 1005186 for the automatic transmission.

Russ: Cool, man.

John: He – they called it a transmission mechanism.

Russ: Yeah.

John: After that, people didn't have to buy the stick shifts anymore.

Russ: Wow. 1911, already thinking about automatic transmissions.

John: Well, the guy was a genius.

Russ: Yeah, apparently so.

John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1935, on October 11th is the exact birth date of renown Soul men, first Sam Moore of Sam and Dave was born.

[Music: "Hold On I'm Coming"]

John: Okay, and then Luciana Pavarotti.

[Music: "Nessum Dorma"]

Russ: Whoa! (Laughs)

John: What a dichotomy that is.

Russ: So, Sam of Sam and Dave was born on the same day that Pavarotti was born on?

John: Right, uh huh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Russ: Whoa.

John: Luciano and he –

Russ: You don't get this stuff in regular business school, do you?

John: Of course not. Okay. This week in business history, in 1941 Paul Simon is born.

[Music: "Mrs. Robinson"]

John: Okay, he was born in Newark, New Jersey. He grew-up in Forrest Hills, New York. He befriended Art Garfunkle in the sixth grade.

Russ: My goodness.

John: And the two became famous crooners.

Russ: Cool, cool.

John: And they did great songs, Sounds of Silence –

Russ: You bet.

John: Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And then they broke-up.

Russ: That's right.

John: This week in business history, in 1941, the first traffic jam in Russian history.

Russ: Okay, what caused that?

John: Well, the Germans invaded.

Russ: And they were trying to get out of town?

John: I know, they were –

Russ: Heading – heading east,

John: They were not too far from the gates of Moscow.

Russ: Wow.

John: Yeah. People in the traffic jam were headed to Kuibyshev, 600 miles east of Moscow.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And you know, Stalin has a bunker there and could hide eight stories underground.

Russ: There weren't that many cars, though.

John: Well, the rich people –

Russ: Okay.

John: See, even though we all know –

Russ: Right.

John: That the Soviet Union was a worker's paradise.

Russ: (Laughs) That's right. That's right.

John: Not all of them had automobiles.

Russ: That's right.

John: Very few of them. Only the rich, you know, people connected to the government had vehicles.

Russ: Right. A worker's paradise?

John: Well, that's what they called them, worker's paradises.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: That's what we're trying to get here, by the way.

Russ: Yeah, yeah. (Laughs)

John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1947, Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier.

Russ: Oh, man, can you imagine that?

John: Born – born in West Virginia.

Russ: They didn't know what would happen once these jets went faster than the – than sound.

John: I know, they didn't know. And it was the same – same way when you had the first nuclear reaction.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Or the atomic bomb. They didn't know what was gonna happen.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Same thing when they broke the sound barrier.

Russ: Yeah, I think they thought that – that the plane just might disintegrate. So, whew, man.

John: They didn't know that – they broke the sound barrier and a famous movie would be made about it.

Russ: What's that?

John: The Right Stuff.

Russ: Oh, yeah, yeah.

John: The whole first half hour or hour of the movie –

Russ: Yeah, that's right, that's right.

John: Is about Chuck Yeager and the sound barrier.

Russ: Well, don't you remember – I lived in an area where there were lots of air bases around. And back in the late '50's, early '60's, there was lots of sound barriers broken in my area. Just all of the sudden, you'd hear this incredible crash.

John: Well, you know, I led a similar life. I had a lot of air heads living around me. No, I'm just kidding here, okay. (Laughs) I would've broken their barriers, okay.

Russ: There you go.

John: This week in business history, in 1950, the first use of a commercially available pager.

Russ: You're making that up.

John: I'm not making it up. A guy named Sherman Amston –

Russ: Yeah?

John: Born in 1889, lived until 1958, and native of Michigan.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He served as a U.S. Army Air Force pilot in both wars.

Russ: Wow, wow.

John: He was in World War I, and World War II.

Russ: Wow.

John: Had a family emergency and needed his doctor immediately, but the physician couldn't be reached. Doctor was not in his office –

Russ: Wow.

John: Couldn't afford a secretary.

Russ: Wow.

John: So, his experience inspired him to do the mobile pager thing.

Russ: Cool, cool, okay.

John: Alright, okay.

Russ: But, where are all those people that had pager stores about five or ten years ago? They're wiped out, too.

John: They wiped – hey,

Russ: They're in the same place that those strong-men –

John: The strong-men, right.

Russ: That used to hold people –

John: And the buggy whip manufacturers.

Russ: That's right.

John: I mean, just – you know, just – there's such a dynamic characteristic of our economy that –

Russ: Right.

John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1958, Billboard Magazine featured the Teddy Bears. And this is an article –

Russ: Yeah.

John: About the group as the song, "To know him is to love him."

[Music: "To Know Him is to Love Him"]

John: It was climbing the charts on the way to number one in 1958.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Now, they interviewed a member of the group –

Russ: Yeah.

John: And also, its song arranger.

Russ: Okay.

John: And his name was Phil Specter.

Russ: Oh, yes, okay.

John: And he developed the wall of sound –

Russ: Yeah.

John: Which a lot of rock groups are still now using.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And he exposed himself in the interview –

Russ: Yeah.

John: That he wanted to become a court reporter, because he was studying to become one of those.

Russ: (Laughs) You're kidding.

John: No.

Russ: (Laughs) Bill Specter, court reporter.

John: And, you know, we all know, recently –

Russ: Yeah.

John: Which is 45 years after this interview, he – he realized his dream when he had to report to court on murder charges, so.

Russ: (Laughs) Good story.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1975, the first Saturday Night Live aired and was actually funny.

Russ: (Laughs) Yeah.

John: Okay. And they had rock groups that didn't suck, okay?

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: Alright, 'cause it starred Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner.

Russ: What a show, well. And they are still going, and they have a great audience. I like it sometimes, these days, but these guys, man, these were – whew – incredible people.

John: And lastly, this week in business history, in 1976, one of my favorite songs, Disco Duck, tops the charts. It's a satiric send-up of the 1970's disco craze and becomes number one on this week in 1976.

[Music: "Disco Duck"]

Russ: Okay, and that wraps-up the history lesson for today.

John: Unfortunately, it does.

Russ: Good job, though, man.

John: Well –

Russ: Our history department digs out this stuff. It's impressive.

John: It just comes into my head, you know. It just – it just happens, you know. Very, very little work here.

Russ: (Laughs) Great. Okay, and that brings us to navigating business jargon, and this is our actual vocabulary lesson for the school of business, where we go out and get new acronyms, new techno-speaks, just the new words that come together, and help our audience understand them. Instead of just coming in here and saying one and telling you what it means, we have been required from the beginning, by contract, to do this in a contest format.

John: Yeah.

Russ: And the way that contest works is I choose the word –

John: Right.

Russ: I say the word. And then John has to guess the meaning. And he does it quite well, too.

John: I guess. I've been on a streak.

Russ: I think you've been three in a row.

John: I know, that's – that's never happened before. I got – and those of you out there listening to this, I do not know the word.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay.

Russ: Are you ready?

John: Yeah.

Russ: Here it is, a new modern word.

John: A modern word.

Russ: It's a noun.

John: A noun: person, place or thing.

Russ: Yes.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Bleacharexia.

John: Bleacharexia?

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay. Anorexia is – rexia is a malady, kind of a psychological thing that happens to you.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And bleach is something people do to their hair to make it look yellow. So, bleacharexia is just someone who is compulsively bleaching their hair until it all falls out, 'cause anorexia will eventually kill you, because you purge your food all the time.

Russ: Alright, wait. We're gonna give you a – a hint, and a do-over, 'cause you were heading down the correct path for a while, but hair is not the only thing that is bleached these days.

John: Oh, teeth, teeth, teeth.

Russ: There you go. Hold your calls.

John: Right, because bleaching your teeth harms the enamel after a while, right.

Russ: That's right.

John: It causes your teeth to yellow even more when the bleach wears off.

Russ: That's right.

John: Yeah, okay.

Russ: Bleacharexia.

John: Yay!

Russ: Bleacharexia: an obsession with having one's teeth whitened.

John: Right.

Russ: All the time.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Alright. Okay, and that brings us to dumbest moments. Do you have a story for us this morning?

John: Yeah. When President Obama went over to pitch the U.S. for the Olympics, I thought that was kind of a presidential thing.

Russ: Yeah.

John: I mean, there's a lot of things you can criticize the man for –

Russ: Yeah.

John: But, going over there, I thought, was okay.

Russ: I think he pitched a big softball, man.

John: But, he got – he got drubbed.

Russ: Yes, he did.

John: You know, the thing is, when your president of the United States is going over to negotiate something –

Russ: Right, right.

John: It has to really be already decided upon, so he looks good.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: But, they just sent him over there not knowing what was coming off. So, I don't really credit him with a dumb moment.

Russ: Yeah.

John: I think whoever advised him to go over there –

Russ: Well –

John: Is probably, you know, not living a good career right now.

Russ: Right. Well, some people actually blame that on Mayor Daley, now. I don't know, Mayor Daley, I just – I –

John: Yeah, so I don't know who to pin the dumb moment on.

Russ: Yeah, I know.

John: I think Obama, maybe, for maybe putting all his trust into the mayor –

Russ: Yeah, and then saying, "Yeah, okay, I'll go."

John: Yeah,

Russ: But, maybe he had a real high confidence level, 'cause he's been winning everything he – he's gotten involved in.

John: He hasn't been winning anything, okay. All he's been doing is apologizing for America, which is why I was glad he was going over there. Finally, he's gonna speak-up for the country, here.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But, a lot of good it did.

Russ: Well, there is a global economy out there, now, so there are some strong competing cities, man, that's for sure.

John: I know. And I think, you know, South America, you know, they need a win.

Russ: Yeah, they do.

John: Okay, and –

Russ: Now – now, I would've loved to have gone to the Olympics in Chicago, but I think I might like Rio better. (Laughs)

John: I mean, Chicago's got the same kind of murder rate as cities that we're fighting wars in, you know.

Russ: That's true, yeah. That's true.

John: So, I'm glad we didn't go.

Russ: Alright, and before we wrap up this morning's school of business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas entrepreneur's playbook.

John: That's right, and here we have Mr. Greg Price.

Russ: On the piano.

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook. When was the last time you asked your clients about your performance? Do you have a regular survey process or, a debrief meeting at the end of each project?

The ideal situation would be to have consistent ongoing communications with your clients, so you know exactly where you stand. Be sure you're asking the right questions. Communications consultant Scott Cytron of Cytron and Company suggests that it's easy to ask, "How are we doing?" but the answer is usually along the lines of "Just fine..." This doesn't get you the answers you need to make any necessary adjustments. A better question would be, "How can we serve you more effectively?" It leaves room for the client to truly tell you what, if anything, needs to be changed.

If the feedback is negative, be sure to ask enough probing questions to get to the root of any issues. Though tough to hear, you need to have as much information as possible to rectify or improve the situation. On the flip side, if the feedback is overwhelmingly positive, ask the client if they would be willing to provide a written testimonial, or have their experience profiled for a case study.

As we near the end of the year, now is the time to be having these conversations. Your clients will appreciate you are taking the time to make sure their needs are being met.

To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. PKF Texas – The Fit That's Right!

Russ: And that wraps-up this morning's school of business. Stay tuned-in for the Aflac BusinessMaker's Flashback when we roll-back to episode 193, with the Coffee Groundz guys, and then our featured guest segment with Robert Vu, founder and CEO of SoloBrew. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online, at the businessmakers.com.