Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. And this is that show about those people that make it happen; the entrepreneurs. We're talking about the private sector, here.

John: That's right. These are the people that make it happen and I'm proud to announce, I think this shows the power of our show -

Russ: Yeah?

John: - they must be getting it in Cuba 'cause Raul Castro -

Russ: Yeah?

John: - is gonna fire a couple hundred thousand Cuban workers -

Russ: Whoa.

John: And he's encouraging them to become entrepreneurs.

Russ: All right. Well maybe they're tuned in. Let's welcome them to The BusinessMakers Show.

John: To welcome, welcome to the, yeah. Welcome Cubans.

Russ: Yeah, I didn't know we quite had that reach but I guess maybe -

John: Well we must. Why else would he do it?

Russ: Yeah. I don't.

John: I mean, we might have really made a conversion here out of the - one of the Castro brothers.

Russ: I think we have.

John: All right. Okay.

Russ: All right, all right. And here's our lineup for this morning. First up for our flashback, ealier this week our own John Pacini was in the studio with Mark Bent, founder and CEO of SunNight Solar, the company that invented the BoGo light and is out to light up the world in an affordable way. Mark was a featured guest on the show back in 2006 and this is an update on his initiative. And by the way, there is a video version of this interview being presented at thebusinessmakers.com. And then for our featured guest, I am going to visit with Morrie Shechtman, founder and chairman of Fifth Wave Leadership, the firm specializing in the development of human capital. But first... That's right it's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business Powered by Champion Energy Services. The guys that have electricity for our audience.

John: That's right and we are Mr. Electricitys, here.

Russ: You bet.

John: You know, we've got the power to turn normal common folk into entrepreneurs.

Russ: You bet and a key thing -

John: Yeah. What's the key thing?

Russ: - about Champion Energy Service for our audience is that this is the company that focuses on transparency and authenticity. You can go there and find exactly what you're paying. They're not gonna ever try to trick you into paying more.

John: No mumbo-jumbo.

Russ: None. None.

John: No. None.

Russ: None, whatsoever.

John: None, whatsoever.

Russ: All right. All right and we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.

John: Yeah, quote of the day, yes.

Russ: Yes. And today is a quote by an anonymous contributor. "I found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances, be more active, show up more often."

John: That's right. Luck is -

Russ: I love it.

John: - yeah, it's perspiration -

Russ: There you go.

John: - the hard work. Create your own luck.

Russ: You gotta be there, you gotta be there to make it happen.

John: Yeah, a guy I used to work for said, "You know, you gotta be at the right place at the right time but you gotta hustle to get there."

Russ: That's right.

John: You know?

Russ: All right, cool. That brings us to This Week in Business History. So what happened during this August week in business history?

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1173 construction of the Tower of Pisa begins and takes two centuries to complete.

Russ: Pizza?

John: Oh, I mean Pisa. Sorry. I'm getting a little hungry here, when I read this. Okay, it takes two centuries to complete and, you know, during all that time, you know, the foundation, you know the ground was kinda soft where they -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - built it so it started tilting.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And every now and then they have to, you know, correct it.

Russ: Yeah, yeah. But they don't wanna correct it completely, do they?

John: No, 'cause it -

Russ: Cut down on the tourist attraction.

John: - yeah, the tourist attraction.

Russ: Right.

John: This week in business history 1851, Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.

Russ: Goodness gracious.

John: And he named it after him - Singer Sewing Machine becomes the first way to work in a practical way as far as, you know, sewing things.

Russ: Right, right. Quite an invention. Cool.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1888 Bertha, the wife of inventor Carl Benz makes the first motor tour. In other words, I guess he invented a horseless carriage.

Russ: Well, yeah he had. And we knew that story well, 'cause we had Dr. John Lienhard on the show, probably two years ago, Dr. Lienhard is the author and the guy, the voice of "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," and -

John: Oh right.

Russ: - and this is one of his favorite stories because he really gives Bertha credit, almost more so than Carl. Carl kept wanting to get it perfect before he'd take his automobile out.

John: Yeah, right.

Russ: And she just jumped in it one day and drove it across country.

John: That's right, enough's enough. I'm going for it.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: You know, you can perfect it when I get back. All right.

Russ: You bet.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1911, the millionth patent is filed in the United States Patent Office by Francis Holton for a tubeless vehicle tire.

Russ: Geeze. 1911. That was the millionth one.

John: Millionth.

Russ: That's kind of interesting.

John: That's kinda like a McDonald's sign, you know, 1 million served, you know?

Russ: That's great.

John: This week in business history, also in 1911, the birth of Crisco, which gave birth to the word obesity.

Russ: Yes it did.

John: All right?

Russ: You know, if you think about it, you would think that the focus now, on healthy foods would make that product go away, but boy you can get into some sectors, some geographical areas and they don't serve anything but fried food by Crisco.

John: In Crisco.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Yeah. The Count of Monte Crisco.

Russ: It's Crisco territory here.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1913 is the invention of stainless steel by Harry S. Stainless.

Russ: No it -

John: I'm sorry. Well a lot of these inventions, like the Singer Sewing Machine -

Russ: I know.

John: - you wonder why stainless steel wasn't named Brearley Steel.

Russ: Oh, so his - that's his name?

John: That was Harry's last name. Harry Brearley.

Russ: Brear- wow. Wow.

John: B-R-E-A-R-L-E-Y. Okay. This week in business history in 1930 Betty Boop debuts in Max Fleisher's animated cartoon "Dizzy Dishes".

Russ: Was there a Betty Boop cartoon?

John: Yeah, of course there was. Yeah.

Russ: Okay, so "Dizzy Dishes" was just where she first appeared?

John: Right. This week in business history in 1935, I would say the biggest fraud in national history was founded.

Russ: And what was that?

John: It wasn't the Ponzi scheme, it was the Social Security Act became law.

Russ: Ah, okay. Yes, 1935.

John: And you know people were duped into thinking that well there's an account with my number on it -

Russ: Right.

John: - that all this money's going through and I'm gonna get that back plus about two percent more.

Russ: Right.

John: Of course, that's not what it is. There's a, you know, younger wage earners are paying -

Russ: Right.

John: -into a fund which immediately goes to pay out -

Russ: Right.

John: - the recipients. This week in business history in 1945 the U.S. drops a second atomic bomb, called Fat Man, on part of Nagasaki; destroyed part of Nagasaki.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And then one day later, Japan, you know - they shoulda done this the day before. They would have not lost another city.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Japan announces a willingness to surrender.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And then the allies in return provide status of Emperor Hirohito unchanged. This week in business history in 1950 the birthday of Steve Wozniak, American computer pioneer and you've met him.

Russ: And yeah, former guest here on The BusinessMakers Show.

John: Former guest, yes you have.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And you can go to theBusinessMakers.com and punch in "WOZ" and his name probably just -

Russ: That's right.

John: You can listen to him.

Russ: That's right.

John: In 1963, this week in business history, the Kingsmen release the big time hit "Louie Louie".

[Music: "Louie Louie"]

John: This week in business history in 1968 Republican Convention in Miami Beach nominates Richard Nixon for President.

Russ: Well I remember the convention. Me and my sister used to love to watch the conventions. There was mystery in the conventions, then. You didn't know for sure who was gonna be nominated.

John: You know, you're right.

Russ: It was exciting.

John: I know and his nomination speech actually was one of the better ones -

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: - that's ever been written.

Russ: Yeah.

John: This week in business history in 1974 - wow, how ironic is this - President Richard M. Nixon announces he'll resign his office 12:00 p.m. August, the next day, on August 9th. And he resigns his presidency the next day and Gerald Ford becomes the 38th President of the United States.

Russ: Wow, so this is a big week in Richard Nixon's past.

John: Yeah. Right.

Russ: He got the nomination and he announced - six years later he announced the resignation. Wow.

John: That's right. Okay. This week in business history in 1981 - you know a lot about this - The IBM Personal Computer is released. IBM introduces PC and PC-DOS version of 1.0.

Russ: This is huge. This is - this has more to do with the productivity gains than anything. I mean, -

John: I know.

Russ: - it wasn't so much that IBM did it by themselves.

John: Yeah.

Russ: It was that IBM legitimized the microcomputer world when they got in it, you know -

John: Right.

Russ: - and spawned off all these other neat, neat tools that increased productivity.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 2003 there's a wide scale power blackout in the Northeastern United States and Canada.

Russ: I experienced it first hand and the biggest part of the experience was you just can't imagine how important electricity is. [Laughter] When it goes out everywhere and, you know, the people that wanna try to run it all with batteries and solar cells and stuff -

John: They don't know what the hell they're talkin' about.

Russ: [Laughter]

John: You know? Thing is I lived through the blackout - they had a big blackout in the mid-70s.

Russ: Yeah, they did.

John: And I was there and I was stuck in New York for two days.

Russ: Yeah, it's hell.

John: It's hell.

Russ: What do they - what caused this one? You should know. You have enough, you know, information.

John: It was aliens. It was - I saw it was on -

Russ: Aliens? Illegal aliens?

John: - it was on the X-Files.

Russ: Illegal aliens?

John: No, these are aliens from outer space.

Russ: Are they illegal or can they just come in?

John: Well they've been invited in.

Russ: We need to build a wall for those sons of guns.

John: See, we've got the, we've got those SETI - they call 'em SETI -

Russ: Yeah.

John: -S-E-T-I computer dishes out there where -

Russ: Oh we're in- we've invited 'em in.

John: - 'cause they're sending these signals out -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - 'cause they want the aliens to come in.

Russ: They're gonna take our jobs, man.

John: I know!

Russ: We don't want 'em comin' in here takin' over.

John: Well they're - hey, if they come over here, it's not - I don't think it's to, you know, they wanna play Canasta with us. I think they want the - they wanna come back here and take our stuff.

Russ: [Laughter] No!

John: If I were an alien, I'd say, "Hey you invited us here."

Russ: Yeah. And that started - it was seven years ago -

John: We didn't know -

Russ: - in this power outage.

John: - we didn't know there were any rules of decorum or protocols so give us your stuff.

Russ: [Laughter]

John: Or we'll kill ya. Anyway.

Russ: And that wraps up this morning's history lesson.

John: That's right.

Russ: All right and that brings us to the Jargon Challenge -

John: Wow.

Russ: - Round. And the Jargon Challenge Round is really our vocabulary lesson.

John: I know every school has one. We're no different.

Russ: That's right, that's right where I go out and I select a word and John doesn't know the word.

John: I literally don't know what the heck you're comin' up with.

Russ: Yeah and it's interesting 'cause the word today is a noun. It's a two word noun. You ready?

John: I'm ready.

Russ: Here's the word.

John: All right.

Russ: Range anxiety.

John: Range anxiety.

Russ: Yeah.

John: That's when you're trying to find the range of a signal or a, or an electronic impulse, a pulse or something and you're - it's going out there and you don't know what's happening to it and you become very worried and you get -

Russ: Okay. Well -

John: - it's like War of the Worlds -

Russ: No, but -

John: - like the radio show War of the Worlds.

Russ: - but no but you're close. But so I'm gonna give you a hint. It involves battery operated vehicles.

John: Oh right, okay, of course.

Russ: Range anxiety.

John: That's right. I read that. It was in the -

Russ: You're right. You're right.

John: I think it was in the - yeah, and people buy these cars -

Russ: Wall Street Journal.

John: - and they, you know, they're told what the range is.

Russ: Yes.

John: But that's assuming perfect driving conditions. You don't have the air conditioning on - 'cause it varies -

Russ: Yes.

John: - just like the EPA mileage estimates.

Russ: Right.

John: I mean those are just estimates, you know.

Russ: Right.

John: You drive different - everybody drives differently and all that.

Russ: So you're -

John: Same thing with the range estimates. So you know, if you got a 40 mile range estimate, you better make sure you get back in 30 miles.

Russ: Yeah. [Laughter]

John: 'Cause you may not -

Russ: Or maybe 20 if you got some uphill, against the wind. So there's all this mental distress -

John: Yeah.

Russ: - consternation, uneasiness caused by concerns about running out of power while driving an electric car.

John: All right.

Russ: That brings us to Dumb Business Moments. Do you have one to share with us?

John: Oh this is a potential one, 'cause - reason why I bring this one up is how many times have we discussed dumb moments and it's usually over what somebody has said or predicted would happen?

Russ: Yeah.

John: Or all that.

Russ: Oh yeah.

John: Only to find out later that they were completely wrong.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Or completely off base.

Russ: Or they're completely right.

John: Well very -yeah, we don't talk about those people.

Russ: Right.

John: So this could be one of those things where somebody says something and may, you know, eat those words.

Russ: Okay.

John: No pun intended here, but - BP's Chief Operating Officer recently wanted to give a boost to the U.S. fishing industry in the gulf and last Sunday said that he would absolutely eat Gulf of Mexico's seafood after the massive oil spill kinda devastated the region.

Russ: Okay.

John: Okay.

Russ: Now I get the pun, you know. He might have to eat his words.

John: Yeah, he might have to eat those words because I mean I'm not sure if I have on the menu, you know, Louisiana Gulf shrimp -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - I'm not so sure I wanna eat that right away.

Russ: He's volunteering like to be the canary in the coalmine. We'll just watch him and see how he does.

John: Canary in the coalmine.

Russ: Yeah, which always indicates if we got a problem of poison in the air.

John: That's right.

Russ: And he's gonna show if we got poison in the sea.

John: He's like a food tester for us.

Russ: Yeah, we'll see.

John: And if he lives - I'd say if he lives another two years, I'd say it might be -

Russ: It's okay.

John: It might be okay.

Russ: It's okay to eat gulf seafood.

John: Okay.

Russ: All right, all right.

John: All right.

Russ: All right, speaking of okay and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business -

John: Ah.

Russ: - it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook.

How often does ineffective communication hamper your sales efforts? Is your sales team asking the right questions and are they listening for the answers you need to convert a prospect to a client?

The consulting arm of Franklin Covey offers six tips to build this skill with your sales team:

1. Set expectations, ask permission to ask questions
2. Make sure there is enough time for the conversation and that the timing is right
3. Ask one question at a time and wait for the answer
4. Acknowledge their response, then ask your next question
5. Be cautious of leading questions, those designed to get agreement, not information or understanding
6. Ask how" or what" rather than why"

The proper training is necessary to see results, but these tips can be a starting point for your sales team. When you are armed with the information you need, converting prospects to clients should be a smooth process.

To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. And be sure to check out the new mobile ready website at PKF Texas.com - PKF Texas, The Fit That's Right!

Russ: And that wraps up this mornings School of Business, powered by Champion Energy Services. Stay tuned in for the Flashback featuring an update with Mark Bent, founder and CEO of SunNight Solar, the company making a solar powered flashlight with game changing technology. And then that is going to be followed by our featured guest, Morrie Shechtman, founder and chairman of Fifth Wave Leadership. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.