Russ: This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is that show that features those that most positively affect our lives. And this is episode number 339, all about entrepreneurs. And once again, Mr. John Beddow had a conflict today, so I have an entrepreneur, the same one I had about two or three weeks ago: Leisa Holland-Nelson, cofounder and COO of Content Active. Leisa, it's great to have you here again.

Leisa: Russ, I am really glad to be back. I could get used to this.

Russ: All right. Well, it seems like you have sort of a full-time job. By god, Content Active that once again was named to the FastTech 50. I believe that's the sixth year; do I have that right?

Leisa: Absolutely, six times.

Russ: Okay, for those of you that don't know what it takes to be named six times, you have to have record growth year over year, and man, you gotta be pretty proud of that.

Leisa: We're very proud at Content Active to be on the list for the sixth time. We're trying to figure out how we're gonna stay here.

Russ: Right. That means you gotta grow again, hit a new record, right.

Leisa: A lot of companies that are on the list will come and go pretty quickly. Last night we received one of the three awards for making it 6 out of the 11 years, and our company's really only 6 years old.

Russ: That's cool.

Leisa: So we're pleased to be here. I think we'll continue to cultivate our team and hopefully stay on this list for the -

Russ: Cool. If we've got somebody that -

Leisa: - long run.

Russ: - doesn't know about Content Active still, after this long, fill 'em in.

Leisa: Well, Content Active is Houston's leading Web and mobile technology company. Our clients are innovators that dominate their markets. That's the easiest way to explain what we do. We do back-end and front-end development - websites, internets, extranets, payment systems, registration systems - anything our client needs to make their business grow, and a lot of mobile applications. We're probably Houston's leader in the mobile space, and proud to be that.

Russ: Really cool. For those of you that might be regular listeners to the show, you will know that Leisa is also the actual voice and composer of all the episodes of Women Mean Business, which is just fantastic and well received. And I understand we're having this week probably the third episode from one of your favorite guests, who is...

Leisa: Bambi McCullough, who is actually my business coach, and probably Houston's best coach, even though she really coaches teams for major corporations like Toshiba. But she's just awesome, and she is the founder and CEO of Chrysalis Partners.

Russ: And I understand this time the challenge, the question that you're gonna give to her is what she would tell an aspiring entrepreneur.

Leisa: Yes, absolutely. And Bambi in her past life was one of the cofounders of Sterling Bank.

Russ: Cool.

Leisa: So she's got a lot to share with women on the move-up.

Russ: Cool, really cool. All right, and here's our lineup for today. [Silence from 00:02:58 to 00:03:08] But first... [Silence from 00:03:09 to 00:03:19] That's right, it's time for the Business Makers School of Business, and as we like to say, this is not your business-as-usual school. And Leisa's actually a veteran now, and she knows that we kick it off with me sharing a quote of the day, and we talk about it. And our quote today comes from Lou Holtz. Do you know who Lou Holtz is?

Leisa: Oh, absolutely.

Russ: Okay. Football coach.

Leisa: Yes. Yes.

Russ: Where did he coach?

Leisa: I love football. I'm blanking on where he coached.

Russ: Okay. Well, several places. There's most of 'em. He coached at Notre Dame, and he -

Leisa: That's right.

Russ: - coached, I believe, at Arkansas as well. Here's his quote: "Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

Leisa: I love that quote.

Russ: All right. Cool.

Leisa: I think that that really speaks to every man, because I think that you can because you think you can.

Russ: Absolutely.

Leisa: Weren't we talking about this the other day?

Russ: Yes, we were.

Leisa: I mean, I was laughing about this thumbprint drawing that I bought in college at a Starving Artists Show. It was a thumbprint that was sketched into birds, and basically it said "You can because you think you can."

Russ: Cool.

Leisa: And honestly, I've carried it everywhere with me for a few years.

Russ: The power of positive thinking.

Leisa: Yes, yes.

Russ: Well, and in fact, it might even play a huge role in your life. The thing that we left out when we were talking about Content Active and Women Mean Business is that the first decade, or two maybe, you spent in New York City in the fashion business, right?

Leisa: I definitely did. Yes, and -

Russ: Before you became high-tech.

Leisa: Before I became high-tech.

Russ: And before you became a media star.

Leisa: Well, the media star is the best part of all. But I have to say, it's very interesting because no one ever asked me if I could do a job. I just kept getting great offers and big promotions, and I never thought that I couldn't do it. I remember one time when I went to Evan Picone, my mother asking me if I could actually do the job, and I thought, "What a weird question."

Russ: [Laughter] Well, that's a great way to look at it -

Leisa: I mean, I've never actually -

Russ: - and a fantastic positive attitude.

Leisa: Why can't you?

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

Leisa: I mean, you can. If you think you can, there's lots of - there's always someone to ask a question of.

Russ: Cool.

Leisa: And there are no stupid questions.

Russ: Cool. I believe.

Leisa: So I try to remember that.

Russ: All right. Good job. All right, but that brings us to This Week in Business History. This is your part of the School of Business, Leisa, so what happened during this December week in business history?

Leisa: Oh, my goodness, a lot of stuff. In 1805, the inventor of the modern pencil died.

Russ: Pencil. Wow.

Leisa: Yes, Nicolas-Jacques Conté was born in 1755 in the French countryside. He studied art and physics, and during the French Revolution, which began in 1789, his noble patrons were not faring well, so he started a pencil factory.

Russ: Wow, cool.

Leisa: Unbelievable. Just imagine -

Russ: Cool, what an entrepreneur.

Leisa: I wonder what they were - well, I guess they were using quill pens before that.

Russ: I guess, yeah. Or maybe they were using some sort of lead that didn't have wood around it or something, but the pencil, what an invention.

Leisa: I wonder if we'll continue to use - are we gonna write or just keyboards?

Russ: That's a great question. I think they don't even teach cursive writing anymore in elementary school. I know my youngest, who is now almost 20, can't write in cursive writing, and I go, "Golly, that doesn't seem right to me."

Leisa: How are they gonna read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution? I mean, what if they wanna question it?

Russ: Great point. I don't know.

Leisa: Will you need a translator?

Russ: Yeah, probably. If you and I were in charge, I think they'd still be learning to write cursive writing.

Leisa: [Laughter] Probably, but we're not gonna -

Russ: That's right.

Leisa: - declare ourselves as dinosaurs.

Russ: There you go. [Laughter] Right.

Leisa: This week in business history in 1901, oh my gosh, Walt Disney was born -

Russ: Oh, man.

Leisa: - in Chicago on December 5th, 1901. How about that? I mean, Walt Disney affected every single one of us.

Russ: Oh, totally. What a visionary. And I grew up in central Texas, and Disneyland, at the time only in California, was way too far away, but the TV productions just totally entertained me and my sister. And we watched 'em all the time, and it was a highlight of the weekend when the Disney show came on. Huge, huge.

Leisa: Oh, and The Mickey Mouse Club. I mean, who didn't race home -

Russ: Oh, The Mickey Mouse Club, yeah.

Leisa: - to see them after American Bandstand, of course.

Russ: That's right.

Leisa: Mickey Mouse Club.

Russ: Annette Funicello was on.

Leisa: Yes. [Laughter]

Russ: And I probably can make this up -

Leisa: And Spin and Marty.

Russ: Spin and Marty.

Leisa: Yes. [Laughter]

Russ: Geez.

Leisa: I wonder where Tim Considine is today.

Russ: I have no idea, but interesting story on Spin and Marty. This was probably five or six years ago. My daughter, who is now 23, had a little accident, and we were in the emergency room for a long time. And they had a TV in there, and they were playing - it was late at night, and they played a Spin and Marty show, and she thought it was the funniest thing, and I did too, actually. But I was so into it in that time, but the drama was not very sophisticated at all.

Leisa: Oh, I'm sure not. I mean, we were nine years old.

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

Leisa: I mean, it was dramatic enough for us.

Russ: That's right.

Leisa: Well, let's go on. Oh, my gosh. This is really a big one for all Americans and probably the entire world, and I know that I'm not surprising anyone that in 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Russ: Oh, yeah. What a huge -

Leisa: Isn't that just incredible? Sixty years ago.

Russ: Well, it is amazing that -

Leisa: Sixty? Seventy. Seventy.

Russ: No, 70 years ago. Yeah.

Leisa: Do the math, Leisa. Seventy years ago.

Russ: Seventy years ago.

Leisa: Wow.

Russ: And it was such a dramatic thing. I have toured Pearl Harbor and the monuments there, and it's breathtaking, and there's always people around with tears in their eyes too. What was most surprising to me is that the battlefield that took place in the harbor - and there's one of the famous ships that was sunk there, and many of the bodies stayed with it. Well, many survivors from that same ship, later on in their lives when they passed away, they requested to be buried there.

Leisa: Wow.

Russ: When we were there, the most recent funeral had only been, like, three or four weeks previous, so incredible experience.

Leisa: It's unbelievable. I mean, and what occurred afterwards just -

Russ: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Leisa: All of it is just amazing.

Russ: Absolutely.

Leisa: 1974, Linda Ronstadt - we're getting to my favorite stuff - recorded her only number-one hit, "You're No Good."

Russ: Wow. Well, I thought she would've had -

Leisa: "You're No Good."

Russ: - a lot of number-one hits.

Leisa: I thought she had a lot of number-one hits, but I guess -

Russ: But go ahead.

Leisa: - she just had one.

Russ: Sing it.

Leisa: I'm not singing. Trust me, I'm not allowed to sing.

Russ: Well, I was a huge Linda Ronstadt fan. During that era, I just thought that her sound and the songs were just fantastic.

Leisa: Really distinctive.

Russ: You bet.

Leisa: I think she's still singing somewhere, but I haven't heard her in a very long time.

Russ: You bet.

Leisa: We're gonna stay with the musical world. In 1980, on December 8th, John Lennon was murdered, two months after he turned 40.

Russ: I know.

Leisa: God, he seemed so old then.

Russ: That's one of those deals that I remembered, 'cause I was watching - like, it was a Monday night football game or something, and then all of a sudden, at the end of a touchdown and before a extra point, they announced it because it was such breaking news and so tragic and unnecessary.

Leisa: I mean, I lived in Manhattan at the time.

Russ: Wow.

Leisa: So it was really - it was an overwhelming thing. Like, it rocked the city, needless to say, and then all of the flowers and the memorials, and they're still going on today.

Russ: To this day.

Leisa: I mean, there'll be a huge crowd on December 8th in front of the Dakota, and then again in the park, I'm sure. 1988, more music: Roy Orbison died -

Russ: Oh, no.

Leisa: - at the age of 52. That's one of my favorite singers.

Russ: Wow, he was incredible. This is a bad week for -

Leisa: It's a bad week. Yeah.

Russ: - losing musicians.

Leisa: I mean, yeah. What is it - they talk about the 27-year-olds are all these young people, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and -

Russ: Dying at 27.

Leisa: - dying at 27. But oh my gosh, rock legends, the week of December 5th is a tough time.

Russ: Right, right.

Leisa: 1991, Pan Am went bankrupt.

Russ: Oh, that was interesting. And now it's a TV series.

Leisa: It's a TV show, yes. [Laughter]

Russ: Wow. So 1991, so they went away 20 years ago, and now they're a famous TV show.

Leisa: It's unbelievable. I have to say, when the credits rolled on for the new TV show, which, of course, being a television addict that I am, I was watching. I spent a lot - in the fashion business, I traveled a ton for years and years and years, and of course, we flew Pan Am to the Orient.

Russ: Wow.

Leisa: And I spent so much time in the building which they're filming the TV show in. It was really very interesting. And, I mean, I knew half the crews, and it's -

Russ: Well, the airline was prestigious, and being an airline hostess was prestigious -

Leisa: It was, yes.

Russ: - at the time, too, 'cause you got to travel internationally.

Leisa: Yes.

Russ: Yeah, wow, interesting.

Leisa: It wasn't like being a flying waitress.

Russ: Right, right.

Leisa: Unfortunately, we're not as nice to them today.

Russ: Right.

Leisa: This week in business history, in 1999 - this is a big one - the Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client, alleging copyright infringement.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

Leisa: Napster was cofounded by Shawn Fanning, John Fanning, and Sean Parker, the character that Justin Timberlake played in the movie Social Network.

Russ: I thought Justin Timberlake was the founder of Napster - no, I'm kidding.

Leisa: No, Justin Timberlake wasn't, and Sean Parker actually says that Justin Timberlake was brilliant in the movie but that wasn't him he was playing, he's a much nicer guy.

Russ: I thought Justin Timberlake did a fabulous job of acting. Now, and I don't know if Sean Parker was like that or not. I know that, boy, there was a lot of heat. There were a lot of lawsuits that were going on in the middle of it, and he tried to continue to defend his sharing structure, but my goodness, did that not change the recording industry business.

Leisa: It turned it upside down, and, I mean, people are still sharing today, even though there've been some attempts to stop it.

Russ: Yeah, and I think that Steve Jobs and iTunes and selling songs for $0.99 kind of started legitimizing digitized music, clearly at a lower profit margin, so those guys have to, I think, make a lot more of their living now at concerts than they do in selling CDs and so forth. But man, it was a huge change.

What it did - it opened my eyes, Leisa, to what this Internet thing was, because in 1999, we were still kind of adjusting to e-commerce and stuff. But suddenly, when you understood that file-sharing meant that you would open up your computer and your collection of digitized music to anybody else through Napster that wanted to borrow it, the fact that we could all look into each other's computers and take little pieces was like, wow, this is -

Leisa: I think that's sort of probably the beginning, and now their major business is based on document-sharing -

Russ: Totally, yeah.

Leisa: - and unfortunate instances of identity-sharing when you don't want to.

Russ: Right, absolutely. Absolutely. Anyway, Napster, 1999, so that's 12 years ago now. Interesting.

Leisa: It was a game-changer.

Russ: You bet.

Leisa: A game-changer.

Russ: Is there more?

Leisa: In 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States stays the sixth Florida recount.

Russ: Wow.

Leisa: And guess who became the president of the United States?

Russ: W. George W.

Leisa: Our very own.

Russ: Yeah, and what a controversial election. You know, how I like to characterize it is that, for all practical purposes, it was a tie. I mean, when you have numbers of that many people that voted and they were only separated by that little, I mean, it's a statistical tie. Now, what's also interesting, though, is that after all the debate and the Supreme Court ruling just about like the way they had been appointed to the Supreme Court, I did hear that after the last exhaustive recount, it still came out where W., in Florida, was like 1,100 votes ahead, which is nothing, which kind of almost argues that we need a better way to elect people than that way.

Leisa: Well, probably. I mean, maybe not electoral votes and counting the votes themselves.

Russ: Yeah. I mean, I remember the night. The TV guys kept flip-flopping on Florida, and when I went to bed, it was just a real close call that said W. had won, and then when I got up in the morning, we turned on the Today Show. I'm sure this is what you might've also experienced, and my god, they're saying, "Wait a minute. If you went to bed thinking it was over, it's not."

Leisa: "It's not over." I remember that. It's really amazing. I mean, a controversial election, probably a controversial presidency.

Russ: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Leisa: But I would say, following in his father's footsteps as a great ex-president, he's been such a gentleman as an ex-president.

Russ: Well, both of those Bush boys might've been better ex-presidents than they were presidents, but -

Leisa: Well, I'm truly a huge fan of 41.

Russ: Well, he's a class act, that's for sure.

Leisa: He sure is, and we're glad to have him here in Houston.

Russ: You bet.

Leisa: He's our very own.

Russ: You bet.

Leisa: Okay, here's the last one. Last year, 2010, with the second launch of SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft.

Russ: So that was the beginning of the commercialization of this process that's supposed to be going on right now, since we no longer have the shuttle. And I kinda have mixed emotions about it, because I'm a capitalist in general and I like private industry to take over initiatives, and I sorta have confidence that they're gonna be able to do a great job. But the transition sure doesn't feel good because -

Leisa: And what's gonna happen with NASA?

Russ: Yeah. Well, I think it just shrinks down to something a lot smaller than it was, and I guess that's okay. Mixed emotions there too, because we're so close to the Johnson Space Center, which has sorta become the backbone of the area where we live in. But privatization's gonna be interesting, for sure.

Leisa: Well, there are a lot of brilliant engineers at NASA, and I know a lot of opportunities - I mean, at the Johnson Space Center, and I know there's a lot of opportunities here in Houston for entrepreneurs to work with them.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

Leisa: So if you have an idea, I know that you can go to Houston Technology Center and connect to the engineers at Johnson Space Center and get it developed.

Russ: Well, and we had Steven Gonzalez on the show only about three months ago as a guest, and he's a NASA engineer that's on loan to the Houston Technology Center and totally focused on this area, so it's a happening area. So for any of you space nuts out there, it's time to get into the business, for sure.

Leisa: There you have it. I think that's it for this week.

Russ: That wraps up today's - well, good job.

Leisa: Thank you.

Russ: Just as good as last time that you did it. We got to talk about some rock and roll in there, and then some unbelievable things like Pearl Harbor, and then, of course, the invention and patenting of the pencil. Couldn't forget that.

Leisa: I mean, hello? From the pencil to Napster.

Russ: There you go.

Leisa: It's a big curve, I guess.

Russ: In one history lesson.

Leisa: Yes.

Russ: All right, and that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon, also known as our vocabulary lesson where I get to go out and choose a new vocabulary word or phrase to challenge Leisa with her ability to using her brain, her cognitive skills, her vocabulary, to guess the meaning. It's always real hard to do, as you know. But maybe you can get this one. It's a two-word noun, and it's "proletarian drift."

Leisa: What the people want?

Russ: Sort of. I might in my leniency give you a win on that, but I think you can relate to this pretty well, after I tell you, from your fashion world: the tendency for originally upscale products to eventually become popular with the lower classes. And it happens, like, in furniture; it happens in lighting design; it happens in fashion.

Leisa: Fashion, across the board.

Russ: Somebody will have some spectacular designer dress, and then two years later you can buy it at - well, not at Wal-Mart, I don't think. And you're not buying the exact same thing; you're buying a copy of it.

Leisa: It's not two years anymore. It's overnight at the Academy Awards.

Russ: Right. [Laughter]

Leisa: I mean, there's entire businesses built on having it in the stores in six weeks after the Academy Awards end. I have to say, as one of the first people to ever do product development, there were a lot of designer shirts on the floor at Bloomingdale's before the designers got them there, because I was at the runway show and could get to my vendors and sketched them and owned the fabric and got them cut.

Russ: Well, and it's interesting. It happens in furniture. It happens in lighting. Suddenly you'll see - I mean, even sorta watching - this might be an extreme version, but what's happening right now with Restoration Hardware/Gallery Furniture, and then you're gonna see those same things closely designed to mimic 'em at about 10 percent of the price within probably six months.

Leisa: Without a doubt, but I will say one other thing: I think we should be watching what's happening with Restoration Hardware, because they're going in the other direction.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

Leisa: They're trying to drift up.

Russ: Yeah. Oh, wow.

Leisa: They've just opened here in Houston their state-of-the-art store, and a lot of it is custom order, and it's much more expensive than it's ever been. It's sort of Gary Friedman becoming Ralph Lauren the Second and building this incredible palace that's very modern, as opposed to the mansion on Madison Avenue in New York.

Russ: Oh, I know.

Leisa: And a real look that's Restoration Hardware that an upscale person - I mean, I know two of Houston's leading socialites who are buying the bedroom off the floor, every bit of it.

Russ: It's impressive. It's very impressive merchandising, and the sales clerks are walking around with iPads. I didn't see prices, so -

Leisa: It's very chic.

Russ: Yeah. But my point is, what will happen is -

Leisa: They'll do -

Russ: - six months from now, it won't be the same, it won't be as nice, but it will -

Leisa: It'll be close.

Russ: - be close. Yeah.

Leisa: It'll be close. You'll be able to -

Russ: Proletarian drift.

Leisa: - do it at Target.

Russ: There you go. All right. [Laughter] All right, well, once again, I thank you for helping me out. You did a fantastic job.

Leisa: My pleasure.

Russ: All right. Okay, and before we wrap up today's School of Business, it's time for The Entrepreneur's Playbook, so let's welcome Greg Price.