Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the BusinessMakers.com. And now it's time for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by Aflac, ask about it at work. And this morning's Flashback we're going to share the thoughts that triggered the ideas that led 3 of our guests to start their companies. Up first we have Bill Spencer, the co-founder and CEO of Hawaii Oceanic Technology. Listen to Bill as he described the thought process behind the company that uses clean technology to farm the oceans - we're talking about aqua-culture here.

Bill: My partner and cofounder, Paul Troy, is a PhD oceanographer, and he assures me that this challenge that we've faced is something that oceanographers have dreamed about throughout their careers. Jacques Cousteau, I think, could be credited as the 1st person who said that we really need to farm the ocean as we farm the land. It's not a new idea, but I think we've finally reached a point where circumstances are colliding, and the food shortage problem, the need to start being proper stewards of the ocean, and taking care of the ocean environment comes into play. You know, we can no longer be hunter/gatherers in the ocean. We can't act like primitive cavemen. We need to apply the sophistication of land-based farming to farming seafood.

Russ: Ok, up next, we have the cool story of the background of the founding of Riazul Imports, Check out Inaki Orozco's cool story about why he started his company focused on the rapidly emerging premium tequila market.

Inaki: I am blessed in a way that I inherited a piece of land that was passed on to me by generations and I guess it all starts going back to the independence days of Mexico where my great-great-grandmother was involved-not directly in the armed forces but yes-as a strategic advisor to the conspiracy group. To make a long story short, she kept part of that land which she passed on generation after generation-which I'm blessed it got passed on to me-and I seized the opportunity because I saw an unused piece of land within the denomination of origin for tequila and I started growing agave when there was shortage. And that's where I put my business cap on and understood that it could be a good business going forward.

Russ: Okay. What size is the land that you inherited?

Inaki: The land today-I want to say-is about 250 hectors, which is about 500 acres.

Russ: Okay-wow. Can you grow lots of agave on that?

Inaki: Just to give you an idea Russ, you can grow about 6,000 agaves per acre.

Russ: Whoa.

Inaki: So you do the math. That's a lot of agaves we can have there. Just so you know-agave is a plant that takes anywhere from six to eight years to mature. It's a very hardy plant and what I mean by that is that it doesn't take the usual care of an annual crop. It still takes some care-you apply fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, etc., etc.,-but it's a succulent plant. So what that means is that in the rainy season, it sucks the water that it then auto-administers itself when it's dry-because it's a semi-deserted plant.

Russ: Describe the opportunity-because in that era, we already had tequila here.

Inaki: Tequila has progressed from being a shooting and a mixing drink to a sipping experience and at Riazul, we firmly believe that we have-as I said-the connections and the relationships in Mexico where we can satisfy that need that the consumer is laying out for us today.

Russ: And so you're actually seeing the interest in a sipping tequila taking off in the United States.

Inaki: Oh-it's overwhelming Russ. Tequila-in its premium category-has been growing at double-digit growth for the past couple of years and there's no relenting.

Russ: Ok, and for this morning's last "idea trigger" story, we're going to featured the founder and CEO of the Billion Dollar company that's bringing jobs to the US., one of the world's leading hair care companies, and that would be Farouk Systems Inc. We are going to review the descusion I had with Farouk Shami, the founder and CEO. It's the company with the Chi line of products. Listen to the story development as Farouk describes how he got into the hair salon business to pay for graduate school - and where that lead is pretty interesting.

Farouk: What really attracted me about the profession is the artistic part of it. I love art, I like to paint, and I actually specialize in hair color, which is the most artistic part of it. It is living art on a living human being. Really, that is what keeps me going. There is physics and there is chemistry in that profession, and I really took it very seriously. I just adopted that, and it became the love in my life and my style of life. It is my hobby too.

Russ: And apparently, along the way, you started getting more and more interested in the products that you were using and seeing ways to improve them. Would that be accurate?

Farouk: Actually, Russ, I could say necessity is the mother of invention.

Russ: OK.

Farouk: As a hair color artist, I won the United States championship and the world championship. Then I became allergic to ammonia.

Russ: OK. And ammonia was pretty important in all of the hair color products.

Farouk: Yes. All of the manufacturers told me that you have to have ammonia in hair color, and the doctors said, "You cannot work behind the chair anymore."

Russ: Uh-oh.

Farouk: So, there was the challenge. Give up or zero on?

Russ: OK.

Farouk: So I really started researching about color and studying color, the chemistry of color, the physics of color, and all aspects of hair color. In no time, I was able to replace ammonia with monoethanolamine, which is an ingredient which comes from corn and wheat. It is natural - no fumes, no nothing of that. It does not have a smell. And, really, I found out that so many hairdressers are suffering from the same thing. Long exposure to ammonia may cause asthma and emphysema. A lot of clients are exposed to that. Hairdressers are exposed to that on a daily basis. And OSHA actually limits the exposure of ammonia. Of course, the law was put in place in 1938 for twenty to twenty-five parts per million per day over 8 hours.

Russ: Right.

Farouk: And if you do one application of hair color, it is more than they required. In 1938, women did not color their hair like they do now. Now, we can do twenty, thirty, fifty colors a day. It is a very dangerous workplace environment. So, that became my concept - my mission. I wanted to free the hairdressers and their clients from harmful and hazardous chemicals in the salons, so I was able to invent and patent the first ammonia-free hair color in the world.

Russ: Ok, and that concludes this week's session of entrepreneurial idea triggers. And that wraps up his morning's Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by Aflac Ask about it at work. Stay tuned in for our Featured guest interview with Ray Davis, founder and CEO of Behavioral Recognition Systems. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen on line at thebusinessmakers.com.