Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com and this is that show about the innovators and the entrepreneurs.

John: You know, it's a fine time to be talkin' about this stuff because you know, it's spring and spring is, you know, rebirth and the growth of new things and -

Russ: You bet.

John: -and that's what entrepreneurship, kinda what it's all about. Yeah.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: New companies, new ideas springing forth.

Russ: So the spring season of business.

John: Yeah.

Russ: All right and here's what we've got lined up for you this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, the topic is international commerce, where I got to sit down, last week, with the U.S. Ambassador to Norway, Ambassador Barry White. We talk about connecting U.S. Entrepreneurs with Norwegian markets. And then for our featured guest segment, finally we are going to be able to do another one of our DealMakers Series. This is a snapshot, real deal review, by Blair Garrou, the managing director of DFJ Mercury. And he is going to be reviewing new and real cool company Spredfast with co-founder and CEO, Kenneth Cho. But first...That's right, it's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business. And this is where John and I go out and put together this advanced curriculum just for you, our listeners.

John: That's right. This is graduate study course work.

Russ: That's right and we kick it off each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And today's one of those famous anonymous quotes. So if you wanna claim this one, please go to theBusinessMakers.com and claim it.

John: Claim it. Claim your quote.

Russ: There you go.

John: That's right.

Russ: Here it is. "I don't want the cheese, I just wanna get out of the trap."

John: Oh. Hmm.

Russ: [Laughter] Did somebody move your cheese?

John: Someone moved my cheese.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Yeah, I would say that was probably Mickey Mouse said that -

Russ: It might've been.

John: -in a Walt Disney cartoon or something.

Russ: You're probably right. All right, all right and that brings us to This Week in Business History, so what happened during this May week in business history, John?

John: Well we've talked about Amerigo Vespucci having the continent America named after him.

Russ: Right, right.

John: And he actually left on his first voyage in the new world this week in business history in 1497.

Russ: Wow.

John: Five years after Columbus discovered there was a huge big land mass -

Russ: Right.

John: - between Europe and Asia.

Russ: Right and Amerigo probably had no clue that this continent would be named after him.

John: I think he bought the naming rights.

Russ: Yeah, while he was over here.

John: Yeah, right - yeah. Yeah and you know, along with that he got a luxury suite on the ship.

Russ: Right. [Laughter] good.

John: And some -

Russ: All right, cool.

John: - yeah, okay. This week in business history in 1752, Benjamin Franklin's theory that lightning is electricity is first tested.

Russ: Okay.

John: And two years earlier in 1750, he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm.

Russ: Okay.

John: This week in business history in 1930 - man we're skippin' into some time, here -

Russ: Yes, we are.

John: - this May 15, 1930, this is history's first crew of airline stewardesses. They called them stewardesses back in those days.

Russ: Whoa.

John: And it all happened because of air travel, you know, more people could fly on airplanes -

Russ: Right.

John: - and the flights were longer.

Russ: Right.

John: And they would need someone to tend to the comfort of the passengers. And there was a woman named Ellen Church and she was a 26-year-old registered nurse with a pilot's license -

Russ: Wow.

John: - and she approached Boeing Air Transport with a proposal to include nurse stewardesses on long flights. So most of the stewardess' back in those days were nurses.

Russ: Yeah, were nurses, yeah.

John: In case you had a heart attack or -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - you know. Or needed a lung transplant. You know, someone would be there to help you out.

Russ: But it was for comfort. It didn't have anything to do with safety back then.

John: Well, no. But I'm sure safety was on their minds when they hired nurses.

Russ: Uh huh.

John: Of course.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah, but I mean not like air safety - or they might not even had seatbelts for all we know.

John: Yeah, now get this. The first flight was between San Francisco and Chicago.

Russ: Yeah.

John: It was a 24-passenger plane that took 20 hours with 13 stops.

Russ: [Laughter] My goodness! Thirteen stops.

John: Oh gosh. Man oh man.

Russ: Might've been better to take a bus.

John: Can you imagine what that would've been like?

Russ: Yeah.

John: All right. This week in business history in 1936 is the birthday, I'd say one of my favorite singers.

Russ: Okay.

John: Is Bobby Darin.

Russ: Wow.

[Music: "Mack the Knife"]

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1940 Churchill says, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

Russ: Yeah. What a leader.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1947, BF Goodrich announces development of the tubeless tire. Hmm.

Russ: Goodness gracious, yeah.

John: Yeah.

Russ: For those of you who are young, never knew that tires had tubes in them.

John: Well, if you have a bicycle, most of the bicycle tires have tubes.

Russ: That's right, that's right, yeah. So -

John: Okay this week in business history in 1959 the song "Kooky Kooky, Lend Me Your Comb" by Ed Burns and Connie Stevens hits number four.

[Music: "Kooky Kooky, Lend Me Your Comb"]

John: Well Ed Burns had a very interesting show biz career 'cause he gained fame on a TV show called "77 Sunset Strip,"

Russ: Yeah.

John: Which is about two private eyes. A lotta Warner Brothers' series were about private eyes.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And this one was one of the best ones.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And Ed Burns played a parking lot attendant at this night club where these two private eyes would tend to hang out -

Russ: Okay.

John: - and solve mysteries.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He -

Russ: And the character Ed played was Kooky, right?

John: Yeah, Ed Burns played Kooky.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And he was the parking lot attendant and he was so popular - one of the things, one of the gimmicks he had on the show is he would comb his hair all the time.

Russ: 'Cause it was long.

John: It was long. He had a little duck tail thing goin' there which is a popular hairstyle back in the 50's.

Russ: He was a good looking parking attendant.

John: Well he had to be. So -

Russ: But why did a parking lot attendant become so famous?

John: 'Cause he was good lookin' and he's kinda hip, you know?

Russ: Yeah.

John: And he was helpin' out the private eye. They kept expanding his role -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - where he became very instrumental into the solving of whatever crime these two -

Russ: That's kinda similar to OJ's pool boy.

John: Yeah. Kato!

Russ: Kato. Yeah.

John: Kato, Kato, the one your alibi.

Russ: Yeah. [Laughter]

John: You know? Okay. All right.

Russ: Okay. All right.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1960 the first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.

Russ: Goodness gracious. I think people underestimate the impact that had on society.

John: Oh yeah.

Russ: My goodness.

John: This week in business history in 1963, Decca signs the Rolling Stones on the advice of Beatle George Harrison.

Russ: My goodness. Wonder if George got kind of a royalty off of the Stones.

John: I don't know. It seems the Beatles probably would - you know you think they wouldn't wanna have any competition like that -

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: This week in business history in 1965, speaking of the Rolling Stones, record "Satisfaction."

[Music: "Satisfaction"]

Russ: That's the song that Rolling Stone Magazine, when they did their best rock n' roll songs ever was number one. Wow.

John: This week in business history in 1968 Richard Harris releases "MacArthur Park."

[Music: "MacArthur Park"]

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1969 the last Chevrolet Corvair is built.

Russ: Wow, speaking of epics, man.

John: Yeah, right and -

Russ: What a car!

John: It was a great little car until -

Russ: I had one.

John: - well yeah, then - so did Ralph Nader.

Russ: Yeah. It was pretty [Laughter] dangerous.

John: He killed the car, yeah.

Russ: It was pretty dangerous. That's -

John: It was, yeah. He wrote the book Unsafe at any Speed -

Russ: Right.

John: And he's still livin' off that rep, 'cause I don't think he's done anything since then except run for President.

Russ: Right.

John: Several failed attempts.

Russ: Right.

John: But he's still out there, flappin' his jaw.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1982 the U.S. Football League forms.

Russ: Oh man. That was kind of exciting.

John: Yeah, 'cause it was a competitor -

Russ: Yeah but they played like in the off season, too.

John: And they ran outta money before the championship -

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: - and the players wouldn't play until they saw the money out there on the table.

Russ: That's right.

John: Actually, put the money on the table.

Russ: That's right.

John: This week in business history in 1998 the last episode of "Seinfeld" on ABC. Commercials - man, $2 million for 30 seconds.

Russ: For that show, right?

John: For that show.

Russ: Wow, yeah.

John: This week in business history in 2008 the Wenchuan earthquake in China occurs in Sichuan, China killing 69,000 people.

Russ: Man, that was a -

John: Think it's about an 8.0 -

Russ: That's a tough one, too.

John: It was about an 8 on the Richter Scale.

Russ: Yeah, boy it was. Woo.

John: Yeah, so anyway that's it.

Russ: All right well, an incredible history lesson, talkin' about Bobby Darin, there, "MacArthur Park" -

John: Don't forget about "77 Sunset Strip."

Russ: "77 Sunset Strip." Cool lesson.

John: That's right, yeah.

Russ: All right and that brings us to the Jargon Challenge Round. This is that part of the show that's our vocabulary lesson that we present in a contest format. John shows up, clueless about what word I'm gonna choose.

John: Well, don't say I'm clueless.

Russ: [Laughter] He has no idea.

John: That could be taken outta context.

Russ: He has no idea what word I've chosen and I select the word -

John: Right.

Russ: - and I say the word.

John: And then I try to guess the word.

Russ: That's right. Tries to guess the meaning of the word.

John: Yeah, the meaning of the word, yeah.

Russ: Are you ready?

John: I'm - hey, I'm ready to go.

Russ: This morning's word is a verb. Recombobulate.

John: Okay discombobulate is when you get all emotionally, physically, out of sorts.

Russ: That is correct.

John: Okay, recom-

Russ: Or discombobulate.

John: - yeah, recombobulate is the process of getting out of sorts into sorts. It's like you're reconstituting -

Russ: Ladies and gentlemen, hold your calls, I think we've got a winner.

John: All right. Hey.

Russ: Recombobulate. It's a good word, too.

John: Yeah.

Russ: It's to recover from a state of confusion or disorganization.

John: There you go.

Russ: I'm recombobulated.

John: Recombobulated.

Russ: Yeah, that's a good one. I like -

John: That's like duck shuffling.

Russ: I know.

John: It's a pretty good -

Russ: I might put it up in my top ten.

John: That's a top ten - we gotta, you know, some episode we oughtta go through our top ten.

Russ: Top ten. We could.

John: Yeah, we could.

Russ: We could. All right.

John: Okay.

Russ: All right and that brings us to Dumbest Moments in Business. Do you have one for us this morning?

John: Yeah. I tell you I fell outta my chair when I saw this one.

Russ: Okay.

John: I mean this is, this is probably the king of dumb moments.

Russ: All right, all right.

John: There's a newspaper in the U.K. called The Daily Mail.

Russ: Okay.

John: And the headline just kinda says it all.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Remember that ash cloud? It didn't exist, says new evidence.

Russ: Not at all.

John: Right and you know, Britain's air space was closed under false pretenses with satellite images revealing there was no doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the entire country.

Russ: [Laughter]

John: Skies fell quiet for six days leaving as many as 500,000 Britons stranded overseas and costing airlines hundreds of millions of pounds.

Russ: Well, yeah.

John: Okay, estimates put the number of Britons still stuck abroad at 35,000.

Russ: Yeah.

John: However, new evidence shows there was no all-encompassing cloud where dust was present. It was often so thin that it posed no risk.

Russ: I think it was a conspiracy with the train companies and the hotels. Said, "Let's keep 'em here, man."

John: This is one of my favorite lines. The satellite images demonstrate that the skies were largely clear which will not surprise the millions who enjoyed the fine hot weather during the flight ban.

Russ: [Laughter]

John: And the National Air Traffic Control Service decision to ban flights was based on the MET office computer models which painted a picture of an ash cloud being blown south of the volcano.

Russ: Interesting.

John: But the model should've been tested by their main research plane. But here's the problem. It was in a hangar to be repainted and could not be sent until last Tuesday -

Russ: [Laughter]

John: - the last day of the ban. So they only had one plane that would go up there.

Russ: To contest it.

John: You think they couldn'tve found another airplane?

Russ: Or would it been okay to send it up there before they painted it? You know.

John: Yeah, or right, yeah but that so anyway.

Russ: No I know well, I got to participate in it indirectly. My daughter, who goes to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland -

John: Yeah.

Russ: - was on a little spring break trip over in Europe and boppin' around havin' a good time and had to stay like three extra days in Paris.

John: Wow.

Russ: All right. And before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: And here's the man who's always on time.

Russ: You bet.

John: His name is Greg. Greg Price is his name.

Russ: And let's welcome him on the piano.

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

So in our last segment on this topic we talked about how our CEO used Aerial Photography and Two Bricks to make a stand and get his people the same page.

Any thoughts?

Well first he organized a meeting in a neutral site and brought the entire organization together. He laid out his plans, his vision and asked for their cooperation. He committed to them that if they followed his vision, they would indeed become successful and make their organization one of the best places to work in the cities that they were located in.

After that discussion he worked with setting up some groups of employees, mixing together folks from both organizations and then created a ruse of performing some "treasure hunt" activities. Eventually they all ended up in the parking lot of the location they were at.

Afterwards they returned to the auditorium and were stunned to see an aerial photo of them spelling out the Company's name in the parking lot. A plane flying overhead took the photo and it was submitted digitally, via electronic email to the CEO. He then presented it via projector on screen.

As they left the meeting he saw that each employee was given two bricks. No explanation, just two bricks. Later an employee came to him and said that he couldn't do anything with two bricks. The CEO's response was, "Exactly!" Soon, word got around that they were expected to work together and build something with their bricks.

In both instances the employees found the exercise highly motivational and successful.

Who is this organization you ask? "The Planet and Doug Erwin is the CEO."

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. Stay tuned in for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback where we are going to roll back to last week when I got to sit down with Ambassador Barry White, the U.S. Ambassador to Norway, and talk about international commerce. And then that is going to be followed by our DealMakers series with Blair Garrou sitting down and talking with Kenneth Cho, co-founder and CEO of Spredfast. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.