Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. This is that show about those people that put it on the line, the risk takers, the people that most positively affect our lives. We're talking about the entrepreneurs.

John: That's right. They're the ones who really create the idea. They put it into practice, they hire the people, they innovate and all this time they're risking everything.

Russ: You bet.

John: And there's no guarantee they're gonna make it, but a lot of them do.

Russ: Absolutely. Boy, they have great stories and we've got a great one lined up this morning. That's right. Our featured guest, our own John Pacini, our new host at the BusinessMakers Show is gonna sit down and talk with Richard Yu, co-founder and former CEO of Rack Space and if you know anything about that major league success story, this is a real cool interview that I'm looking forward to, but first. That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business powered by Champion Energy Services. Finally a real cool company that's seen the light and is joined us here at the School of Business -

John: That's right. They've joined us and I'm sure they're aware of this by now, but the School of Business is the most downloaded segment of the show.

Russ: Yeah; well they knew what they were doing.

John: They knew what they were doing.

Russ: Right. And that's why Champion Energy Service now powers the School of Business.

John: Okay; alright.

Russ: Alright. We kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And this morning's quote comes from Ernst Ben, a publisher and writer in Britain.

John: That's right. Uh huh.

Russ: And here it is. Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy.

John: That's right.

Russ: I think he hit all of the key points of today's politicians.

John: I know.

Russ: Let's get into the history lesson. What happened during this July week in business history?

John: This week in business history, 1893, a guy named Henry Perkie patents shredded wheat. Now how did he know that wheat needed to be shredded anyway -

Russ: What a visionary.

John: I know -

Russ: In 1893.

John: Okay. This week in business history in the year 1900 the hamburger was created by Louis Lasson in Connecticut.

Russ: Oh, thank goodness for Louis Lasson.

John: I know. Where would we be without the hamburger? Okay. This week in business history, in 1914 the Fox Trot was first danced at the New Amsterdam roof garden by Harry Fox.

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

John: Thank goodness; yeah.

Russ: And you're not makin' any of it up, right?

John: I'm tryin' not to. This week in business history, in 1943 is the birthday of Mick Jagger was born this week in business history.

[Music: "Sympathy for the Devil"]

Russ: My goodness. So wait, let's do the math. He's 67 years old.

John: That's right. Yeah; he's still a pretty young thinking type of person. Okay. This week in business history, in 1943 President FDR announces the end of coffee rationing in the U. S. A lot of the coffee was going over to the GIs in the Pacific -

Russ: Wow. So here you could only have one cup of Jo a day or somethin' like that. I wonder what -

John: Oh yeah; gees. I know.

Russ: So boy, just think if Starbuck's, if they did that today how much it would impact that company and all the other coffee companies.

John: I know. Instead of having three Starbuck's every corner you'd only have one.

Russ: That's right.

John: This week in business history, in 1944, this woman's only one year younger than Mick Jagger, which is surprising, but is the birthday of Bobby Gentry who had the one hit wonder. Had Ode to Billie Joe.

[Music: "Ode to Billie Joe"]

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1944 the first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.

Russ: My God, we go from Bobby Gentry to the V-2 rocket.

John: But here's the thing about the German V-2 rocket, the Germans, they had two rockets that they used in World War II. The first one was the V-1. It was called the buzz bomb and what they did, it was kind of a glider with a gasoline engine on it and they just aim it and then when the thing ran out of gas it just dropped and big explosion. But the V-2 was like a guided missile -

Russ: Okay; so it was a really -

John: -- but they had it gyroscopically controlled -

Russ: -- upgraded version.

John: Upgraded version. It could hold more payload and it did a lot of damage and -

Russ: Wow. That's a serious component -

John: This week in business history, in 1953 Fidel Castro begins his rebellion called the 26th of July movement against Filahencio Batista.

Russ: Wow. So Fidel, that was 57 years ago and he's coming back again. Like he was dead like a year ago.

John: I know.

Russ: And now he's alive again and talking.

John: I think they went to Disney studios and he's an animatronic -

Russ: That's not really him.

John: This week in business history, in 1965 Bob Dylan performs an electric concert for the first time at the Newport Folk Festival and is booed off stage.

[Music: "Maggie's Farm"]

Russ: For using electricity instead of that folk kinda' -

John: Well yeah, he has the acoustic guitar and the -

Russ: Wow.

John: But they must have had a microphone or something.

Russ: Yeah. Why did they get so upset?

John: I think they can use one of those megaphones like cheerleaders do. This week in business history, in 1965 President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs a bill requiring cigarette makers to print health warnings on all cigarette packages about the harmful effects of smoking.

Russ: Wow. Imagine if you were with a tobacco company back then and you still thought this is a good product we're selling. People enjoy. If you see some of those old cigarette ads they talk about it steadying your nerves and really calming you down after a tough day.

John: And all those Hollywood stars, Jack Webb and all these guys died of cancer and -

Russ: Oh yeah; yeah. But wow, working for a company that they suddenly discover you're just killing people, it might be a tough pill to swallow.

John: This week in business history, in 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride the Lunar Rover, the little vehicle they tooled around in outer space.

Russ: Yeah; they're just like about the third group that went up to the moon and they decided man, these guys need a vehicle and there it was.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1975 Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappears in suburban Detroit.

Russ: Where do you think he went?

John: I think he's a pillar in the community somewhere. They say he's in the end zone of the Giants - actually they're tearing that down. Maybe they'll dig in one of the end zones and see if he's there.

Russ: There ya' go.

John: This week in business history in 1978, Louise Brown became the world's first test tube baby. She was born on this week in business history.

Russ: And I think there are quite a few of those now, right?

John: That's right. This week in business history, in 1987 Ben & Jerry's, that's Jerry Garcia agree, Ben & Jerry's and Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, agree on a new flavor called Cherry Garcia.

Russ: I guess it's probably still in existence although -

John: I think it is.

Russ: Although Jerry's not still in existence, right?

John: No; he died. They should have put the warning label on his ice cream.

Russ: Too much ice cream.

John: This week in business history, in 1990 the first Saturn automobile rolls off the assembly line. Now the Saturn was supposedly an innovation, the new way that automobiles would be made with quality and then at the end result at the dealer, no haggle pricing.

Russ: Right; the new way that they're sold.

John: They had a point there because the automobile business has always had this dichotomy. People love cars. Detroit, Tokyo, Japan, they love makin' 'em, but nobody enjoys the car buying experience. I mean people hate that.

Russ: Right. Well it might be because of their distribution strategy in the beginning that to authorize lots of dealerships in the same product in the same market and when you bring it down to that level, boy, it's difficult to differentiate to yourself unless you do it on price and personality and have TV commercials where you're shouting and saying we've got way too many vehicles; come out here and buy 'em.

John: That's right.

Russ: We were stupid when we bought.

John: We were stupid when we bought them. You're gonna be stupid if you come here and believe all this. Alright. This week in business history, in 2002, talking about the definition of politics, this is where it's actually put into practice, the accounting law referred to as the Sarbanes Oxley Act, now Sarbanes was a Democrat and Oxley was Republican. They both put their name on the bill and it was signed into law by President George W. Bush and it actually misidentified the problem, incorrectly assigned a remedy for it and it's been a mess.

Russ: And it's caused all kinda' problems.

John: That's right. It's really hurt the public markets. A lot of public companies have registered on foreign exchanges and it's called the law of unintended consequences is one that always attaches itself to any law passed by Congress.

Russ: Yeah; and we had Michael Oxley on the show probably about two years ago. He was -

John: He's now the head of NASDAQ or something.

Russ: I think the vice chairman of NASDAQ.

John: Yeah; right.

Russ: He was trying to defend it, but even the Supreme Court now is coming down on parts of it finally, but my God.

John: I know; took awhile.

Russ: And to me the thing that's worse about it and you alluded to it when you talked about people doing their offerings outside of the country, it hurt the United States.

John: I know; right. All the things that Enron did and World Comm did were all terrible, were terrible, but they were illegal. There was laws set up. You think another layer of laws is gonna stop all that?

Russ: No.

John: Of course not. Just look at Bernie Madoff.

Russ: That's right.

John: This week in business history, in 2006 Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to his brother Raul. This leads to a celebration in Little Havana, which is right there in Miami, Florida. Some really nice cigar stores and cigar factories there by the way. Many Cuban Americans participated in this celebration, but the power he handed over to Raul was kinda' short lived 'cause Fidel is still pulling the strings over there.

Russ: I think so, too. Wow. That wraps up this - what a history lesson.

John: I told ya'.

Russ: You did. Shredded wheat, hamburgers, the Fox Trot.

John: I know. I had some good back stories.

Russ: Boy, no kiddin'.

John: Most of those were true.

Russ: I know. Alright. That brings us to the jargon challenge round. This is that vocabulary lesson where I get to go out and find some new words, techno speak, acronyms or make 'em up, right. Hide them from John during the entire week.

John: I know. I scoured. I broke into your house.

Russ: That's right. You can't find 'em. I got a special place for 'em.

John: Special place for 'em.

Russ: That's right. And then I bring the word in here, I say the word. And then John tries to guess the meaning.

John: Yeah; and I don't even know the word.

Russ: That's right. You ready?

John: Okay.

Russ: Alright. Here it is. Carcooning.

John: Carcooning. Cocooning is when you're highly insulated, like in a metamorphosis type situation.

Russ: That's right.

John: So carcooning is when you're in your automobile. Automobiles are like computers. They got sound systems, they got video display terminals in them and everything and you're so insulated with all that wizardry and all those distractions that you don't know what the hell's goin' on -

Russ: Ladies and gentlemen, hold your calls. You're not right down the center, but you're so close to it we're gonna call this a winner.

John: Alright; yay. I've done pretty good this year by the way.

Russ: Well ya' have. Ya' have. Here's the official definition -

John: Official -

Russ: Using one's car for working, playing, eating, grooming and other tasks normally performed at home or at the office.

John: That's pretty -

Russ: Carcooning. I think it's much more common these days -

John: I like that.

Russ: It's a good one, particularly with the down economy. I think there's a lot of people carcooning actually living in their cars. That brings us to dumb moments in business. Do you have one to share with us this morning?

John: Yeah; this is incredible. It's from the BBC News, the Latin American and Caribbean bureau I guess.

Russ: Okay; right.

John: A man was arrested smuggling 18 small monkeys into Mexico from Lima, Peru. He had them in a suitcase and he wanted to protect them from the x-ray. Saul Cabrera said he paid $30.00 for each monkey and the fair market value smuggling them in would be $775.00.

Russ: Wow. That's a nice profit.

John: So he wanted to protect them from the x-ray so what he did is he wrapped them around his waist.

Russ: How many were there?

John: Eighteen monkeys. A couple of them were already dead.

Russ: And then put his clothes over them?

John: Yeah; put his clothes over them and they were discovered when they went through Customs.

Russ: And he still had to walk through the deal. He wasn't worried about that or anything?

John: Can you imagine what the smell would look - 18 monkeys.

Russ: They had to be small monkeys.

John: They were small monkeys, yes, very small monkeys.

Russ: Were they moving and stuff and making sounds?

John: Well yeah, I guess there was some movement.

Russ: He said I've just got a little indigestion here.

John: And the thing is you can't make this stuff up.

Russ: No, you can't. No, you couldn't -

John: You could try, but it wouldn't come out the same.

Russ: That's right. Before we wrap up this morning's School of Business powered by Champion Energy Services -

John: We love Champion Energy Services.

Russ: We do; absolutely. But it's time for the PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price.

John: And he has no monkeys tied around his waist.

Russ: No; he doesn't.

John: Come on in, Greg. A one, and a two, and a.

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

In the current economic climate, young professionals (YPs) have started asking themselves: 'What else can I do to add value to my company? How do I venture out into the marketplace to network on behalf of my company?"

Networking can be intimidating to a YP walking into a room filled with more experienced professionals. The key is training your YPs to be prepared to speak intelligently about your company when presented with the opportunity, no matter the setting. The good news is that YPs don't need to know everything; they simply need to know, in general terms, what they are selling.

They should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What products and services does my company offer?
2. What are my company's strengths over our competitors?
3. What are my company's specialties?

The ability to effectively communicate these three key points allow your YPs to pave the way for the introduction to the appropriate people at your company who do know the answers to all of the specific technical questions.

Have your YPs seek out organizations that have a YP focus such as the Greater Houston Partnership's HYPE group or the World Affairs Council Young Pros programs. Getting your YPs into the networking game early allows them to build relationships for the future of your company and their careers.

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: A one and a two and a. Alright and that wraps up this morning's School of Business powered by Champion Energy Services. Stay tuned in for our featured guest, Richard Yu, the co-founder and former CEO of Rack Space. He's gonna be interviewed by our brand new host, John Pacini. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at the BusinessMakers.