Russ: This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show about the true business makers, the entrepreneurs and the innovators.
John: That's right. And then we're gonna be hosting a whole bunch of these people in another about two to three weeks, right?
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Yeah, mm-hmm.
Russ: The BusinessMaker of the Year event, March 10th, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the brand new Tasting Room at CITYCENTRE.
John: Mm-hmm, and talk about an entrepreneur, I mean the guy that started the tasting room -
Russ: That's right.
John: - empire was a Continental Airlines pilot.
Russ: That's right. [Laughter]
John: He got tired of flying around and pursued his passion of, you know, drinking affordable wine that tastes pretty good to boot.
Russ: That's right.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Plus, you know, he dove into that business head-first, and we all know that the restaurant-bar business is really tough and he just doesn't make it looks like it's tough, [Laughter] does he?
John: I know, I know. And it's - you know, we wish him the best -
Russ: You bet.
John: - but it's an ongoing saga running a business and growing it. You never know where those twists and turns are gonna take ya.
Russ: You bet.
John: If it's not off a cliff, you know.
Russ: [Laughter] You bet. And we'd love for you all to join us at the Tasting Room at CITYCENTRE on March the 10th for the Business Makers Live. We're gonna have some real cool awards. We're gonna be giving away stuff.
John: Man, I know.
Russ: Our sponsors just keep saying, "Hey, I like this group and we're giving away a bunch of Kodak HD video cameras. We're giving away a Recompute computer and we've got some other things lined up.
John: The government's giving away free health care -
Russ: [Laughter] There you go.
John: - if you wanna sign up for the new health care bill, you know, free health care.
Russ: It is happening. And I have to think there's gonna be more entrepreneurial DNA in that room than there's -
John: I know.
Russ: - ever been collected in one room before.
John: Okay.
Russ: All right, and here's our lineup for this morning. First up, we have Susan Deison, the Founder and CEO of one of the fastest growing Chambers of Commerce in the country, and the fastest growing Women's Chamber of Commerce. And then that's gonna be followed by our own, Katie Laird and Esther Steinfeld interviewing the Founder of Sprinkles, the first ever cupcake only store. And we're talking about Candace Nelson. But first - That's right, it's time for the Business Makers School of Business. And this is not your business as usual - or I don't know, John. Are we turning it into your business as usual school?
John: I don't think so. Okay, this is not your radio show as usual either. I mean everything we do is a little off-center and half a bubble off plum, and that's what makes it interesting, 'cause nobody really knows what we're gonna come up with next.
Russ: Nor do we.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: [Laughter] That's the way we're able to keep it going though.
John: Nobody I know can accurately predict the future consistently.
Russ: There ya go, all right.
John: So who knows what we're gonna come up with.
Russ: And we kick off the School of Business with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And today's quote is anonymous, but it's really cool. "The secret of life is not to do what you like, but to like what you do."
John: Yeah, well.
Russ: Well see, I responded different. I wish somebody would have told me that a long time ago, [Laughter] I could have had a lot better time.
John: I know, I know; especially like when you come out of college -
Russ: That's right.
John: - 'cause you got one thing on your mind, that's making a lot of money, and sometimes doing what you like to do may not bring ya big bucks immediately -
Russ: That's right.
John: - but eventually, I think you'll do well, ya know.
Russ: Well, that's good advice.
John: Yeah. And I coach everybody that way. If you don't like what you're doing, don't do it.
Russ: That's right.
John: Right, okay.
Russ: That brings us to This Week in Business History. So what happened during this February week in business history, John?
John: Yeah, this week in business history in 1431, England begins a trial against Joan of Arc. Now she was a peasant girl who led the French Army. This is really quite an amazing story. She claims she was inspired by God, and I think to have a little girl like this defeat the British in a couple of battles, maybe she was. And she was responsible for the coronation of King Charles VII; however, she was captured by some French people and sold to the English. And I think they - the way I understood it, the French wanted to get the English off their back, so they thought, "Well we'll just take this, you know, nemesis -"
Russ: Right.
John: "- of the British and sell them to the British."
Russ: Make some money and get the English upset.
John: Right, upset the English, of course, you know, in their efficient way, took the girl and burned her at the stake. She's a 19-year-old girl.
Russ: [Laughter] Gosh.
John: Now 24 years later, Charles the VII who, you know, wouldn't have king without this little girl -
Russ: Right.
John: - appealed to the pope at that time. The pope at that time reviewed the decision and found her innocent of hierarchy and declared her a martyr.
Russ: Well that's cool.
John: Isn't that nice?
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: It's kind of like Arthur Anderson in that deal. They were declared innocent after they were gone.
John: Yeah, after they were -
Russ: - after they'd been burned at the stake. [Laughter]
John: Right, yeah; so you know, thanks a lot pope.
Russ: Right. [Laughter]
John: You know.
Russ: Okay.
John: This week in business history in 1630, Indiana - now people refer to them as Native Americans.
Russ: Right.
John: But anyway, Indians introduced the Pilgrims to popcorn.
Russ: Wow. Okay, cool.
John: And then feature motion pictures came about ten years later.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, right, so -
John: 'Cause you have popcorn -
Russ: - you have a good place to eat it.
John: Yeah. And you have to have a movie to watch.
Russ: Yeah.
John: I mean it's what makes the popcorn. Okay, this week in business history in 1836, the Alamo is besieged by General Santa Anna and about a 3,000 Mexican Army. And that number's always been up the conjecture.
Russ: Oh, absolutely.
John: It could have been 1,500 to 3,000 or 4,000. Nobody really knows.
Russ: I don't know. No, I seen the movie -
John: With John Wayne?
Russ: Yeah, that one.
John: Oh, yeah. I tell ya, if you watch that movie, that is the most factual account.
Russ: [Laughter] Yes, it is.
John: That's right, you know. But it's a terrible movie, but the action sequences are pretty good.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They held off for 13 days which allowed Sam Houston to help raise an army, which he was partially successful at that time.
Russ: Right.
John: And then later, the Mexicans were defeated in San Jacinto, right outside of Houston.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1858, Edwin Holmes installs the first electric burglar alarm.
Russ: 1858, yeah.
John: That was pretty amazing, 1858, I mean that's before the Civil War so it must have been some battery thing or generator.
Russ: Yeah, 'cause you didn't have an infrastructure with the grid and you didn't have any wires yet.
John: And no power company.
Russ: Right, yeah.
John: Right, yeah.
Russ: You didn't have solar or wind power yet.
John: Well it could have been wind. They had windmills that then.
Russ: They had windmills, but I don't think they had generators.
John: No.
Russ: They just pumped the water.
John: I know. So I don't know how he did it, but hey, let's give him a tip of the hat there.
Russ: There you go.
John: This week in business history in 1865, the plow is patented by John Deere. Talk about entrepreneurship, in Moline, Illinois, and you know, the John Deere organization -
Russ: Has done quite well -
John: Done quite well, right.
Russ: - since they patented the plow.
John: Yeah, they had the plows.
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in business history in 1878, the first telephone book is issued with 50 subscribers. In other words, at that time in New Harbor, Connecticut, there were 50 people, I guess, that had access to a telephone.
Russ: So here we are about a hundred and what; thirty-three or four years later and we're probably at the end of the - we're probably at the last telephone book now.
John: Yeah, right; 'cause nobody - it's easier to look the number up -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - you know, call information or something.
Russ: Yeah, or just say it into your PDA, "Call John."
John: Yeah, and it calls you. But you have to program it to say that, correct?
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1896, the Tootsie Roll, one of the most delicious pieces of candy ever invented, in my estimation, was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.
Russ: Wow!
John: Man, the tootsie roll.
Russ: Yeah.
John: All right, this week in business history in 1902, Dr. Harvey Cushing, the first US brain surgeon, does his first brain operation while eating a tootsie roll.
Russ: [Laughter]
John: No, I was just kidding about the tootsie roll. But hey, first brain surgery 1902.
Russ: 1902!
John: Yeah, you know, I don't think the anesthesia was that good back in those days.
Russ: And we have no idea of whether it was successful.
John: Although, I've heard according to one of the Hannibal Lecter movies, when you operate on the brain you don't feel pain.
Russ: [Laughter] That's true.
John: I mean going into the skull there's nerves, but once you get into the brain, you know.
Russ: You see hallucinations and stuff probably.
John: Yeah, right; but you don't feel the pain -
Russ: The pain, yeah.
John: - but I've never verified that.
Russ: Yeah, okay.
John: I just saw it in a movie.
Russ: In the movie, all right.
John: It must be true -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - if it's in a movie.
Russ: Yeah, I agree.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1920, the first artificial rabbit used at a dog race track.
Russ: Wow, yeah.
John: How about that; in Emeryville, California. This week in business history in 1931, Alka-Seltzer introduced to the marketplace.
Russ: Wow. Plop-plop, fizz-fizz.
John: Oh, what a relief it is, you know. A lot of heartburn was going on in those days, and I mean there's that acid reflux. I don't know whether you've ever had any of that, but I tell ya, it's hard to think how you could survive that without anything to take for it, you know.
Russ: Yeah, but boy, just like it always happened to free enterprise, Alka-Seltzer has a lot of competitors now, too.
John: Oh, yeah, right.
Russ: I mean you can take something that keeps you free for years. [Laughter]
John: For years, right. This week in business history in 1957, Buddy Holly and the Crickets record That'll Be the Day.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1970, the Jackson 5 make their TV debut in 1970 on American Bandstand.
John: Thirteen years later, Michael Jackson's Thriller album goes Number 1.
Russ: The same week.
John: So same week.
Russ: It was a big Jackson week.
John: It stays Number 1 for 37 weeks and that was quite a musical enterprise, that album. And the video -
Russ: Oh, yeah.
John: - was iconic.
Russ: Oh, yeah. I watch it every morning when I get up, yeah.
John: Really? You have it on your PDA?
Russ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John: I imagine you do. Right?
Russ: [Laughter]
John: Okay, all right.
John: All right, this week in business history in 1993, the first act of war, I guess you could say, by Muslim terrorists occurred against the United States when the New York City World Trade Center was bombed.
Russ: That was the basement one, right?
John: That was the basement one, and they treated it as a crime. So they prosecuted these people in civil court when they should have said, "Hey, we've been attacked." I mean when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they didn't say, "Okay, we're gonna go arrest hero Hedo and bring him into, you know, court and try him for mass murder." No, we declared war.
Russ: And even though they didn't bring down the World Trade Center then, it was a heroine experience for those that were in it.
John: Absolutely.
Russ: I mean 'cause it knocked off the power and you had to walk downstairs 102 floors.
John: I know. And then they thought - and they did this with the full intention of bringing down the tower.
Russ: Absolutely, yeah.
John: It was just not something to scare people.
Russ: Right.
John: They actually wanted to bring down the tower.
Russ: Yeah. I knew people that worked around there and they interpreted it correctly. They said, "We don't wanna go in those buildings anymore." It was like this was the first attempt.
John: Right
Russ: Certainly they're gonna try again.
John: Well they did and they did bring down the towers by flying those jets in there.
Russ: That's right. They used airplanes.
John: Okay, anyway; it starts off - you know, we start off with a tragedy in a 19-year-old girl -
Russ: Yeah. Joan of Arc.
John: - burned at the stake over a political dispute between France and Great Britain. And then we end it with, you know, I would say the beginning of our war - certainly one of the beginnings of the war against the terrorists.
Russ: Yeah. Tough, tough, tough bookends on your history list today.
John: Yeah, right, yeah. It's not a pleasant episode.
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: Okay, all right.
Russ: And that brings us to the Jargon Challenge Round.
John: Ah, yes.
Russ: This is where we try to help our audience understand the new technospeak acronyms.
John: It's a vocabulary lesson.
Russ: Absolutely, it is.
John: Yeah, right, yeah.
Russ: And it has to be done in a contest format.
John: Yeah, 'cause that makes it interesting.
Russ: Well, it does.
John: Who said education could not be entertaining.
Russ: That's right. [Laughter]
John: And you said that.
Russ: I don't know who did.
John: I know. A lot of people think that.
Russ: That's right.
John: Well, if it's education, it's boring. Well we beg to differ.
Russ: That's right, that's right.
John: All right.
Russ: And I have to commend you because you come here every week -
John: 'Cause I'm good-natured about this.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, I'm putting my reputation on the line here, you know.
Russ: You could really embarrass yourself.
John: I could.
Russ: Yeah.
John: I have done that a lot -
Russ: [Laughter] Yeah.
John: - in other places, but not here.
Russ: All right.
John: For some reason -
Russ: And what we're talking about is that John has no idea what word -
John: None!
Russ: - I'm gonna challenge him with today.
John: None.
Russ: And he's gonna give his best shot -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - using his brain -
John: Right.
Russ: - to come up with the meaning.
John: What's left of it.
Russ: That's right, that's right. [Laughter]
John: Yeah, right, okay. And I've done pretty well.
Russ: Yes, you have. All right, no wagering please.
John: Yes, please; yes, please. It's against the law to gamble -
Russ: That's right.
John: - unless you're in Nevada listening to this.
Russ: You can go ahead and wager if you're there.
John: Right.
Russ: All right. Here's this morning's word or phrase.
John: Okay.
Russ: Tiger mother.
John: Tiger mother.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay. Well this is a big controversy right now about the way the Asians, specifically Chinese females are raising their kids, and they're using it to contrast the soft approach that American mothers or parents have.
Russ: Well - you've got it, you've got it.
John: The tiger mother supposedly - that's the way you need to raise your kids.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And you know, since these people live in a dictatorship -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - I guess it would make sense that, you know -
Russ: The mother is the dictator.
John: The mother is the dictator, right.
Russ: [Laughter] Right, right. Well that was actually an easy word; maybe I should give you another one. But you did an excellent job. The official definition is a loving, but strict mother who demands from her children obedience, respect, and academic excellence.
John: Right, yeah. But applies that philosophy very ferociously.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: That's why - you know, 'cause they're called tiger mothers, they're not called poodle mothers.
Russ: [Laughter] You're right.
John: They're tigers.
Russ: In fact, I am gonna give you another word for this morning. You think you can handle two words. We've never done this.
John: I know.
Russ: We're almost at 300 shows and we've never done it. Or do you wanna blow it off?
John: No, no; go ahead.
Russ: All right.
John: I'll take your dare.
Russ: All right.
John: All right. But just remember folks, just because I guessed the word doesn't mean it's easy.
Russ: [Laughter] That's right.
John: All right. I mean that's an insult.
Russ: Okay, so you're up for it, thank goodness. Here is the second jargon challenge word of the day.
John: All right, yeah; lay it on me.
Russ: Flunami.
John: Flunami.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay. Well tsunami is a bit - I mean the nami part, I mean that is an overwhelming surge of bad stuff.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And the flu is like - a flunami is when there's such an epidemic and everybody's catching this disease.
Russ: We got two for two today.
John: It's overwhelming, it's a populous.
Russ: Two for two.
John: Just like a tsunami would overwhelm a geographical location -
Russ: Yeah, that geographical location was important too in the definition, because it's an overwhelming number of flu cases in the same area at the same time.
John: Yeah, right. So I got - well, I pretty much nailed it.
Russ: Two for two today.
John: Two for two, baby.
Russ: Man, [Laughter] what a hitting streak.
John: Yeah, all right; okay, all right.
Russ: All right. That brings us to Dumb Moments in Business. Do you have a story for us today?
John: Yes. You know, it's early in the year, and you know, we had this 2,700-page health care bill to pass last year.
Russ: Oh, yeah. Have you been reading it? [Laughter]
John: Well no, but here's one of the things that - I mean they have to start implementing this, right? So one of the first things out of the cage on this thing, you'd think it would be a better way to access your doctors -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - or just maybe they've come up with a new way of administering medical treatment -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - that's conducive to good customer relation; or the relationship you had with you and your doctor. Well here's something new that's gonna happen. Maybe this will make it easier, you know.
Russ: Yeah, well.
John: Okay, but no, that's not the first thing - that health care. One of the first implementation steps is they're going to be hiring 1,054 new auditors and staffers at the Internal Revenue Service, and new facilities -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - for a price tag of $359 million; and this is to watch the initial implementation of President Obama's health care reform.
Russ: Oh, we're talking about all the rules and regulations, yeah.
John: So these are not doctors, these are not health care providers overseeing the first implementation steps.
Russ: Yeah.
John: These are IRS auditors. For example, they're gonna 81 workers to make sure that tanning salons pay a new ten percent excise tax.
Russ: [Laughter] That's part of the health care reform?
John: Yeah, part of the health care bill.
Russ: [Laughter] The rules and -
John: So what do ya think about that?
Russ: Geez! I think the rules and regulations of bureaucracy by itself is nuts.
John: I mean you put the government in charge of something. You know, here it is, everybody's concerned about their health care, the cost of health care. The quality I think has pretty much always been there.
Russ: Yeah.
John: But no. This doesn't have anything to do with that. They wanna make sure that these are IRS auditors. They're gonna make you pay through the nose, you know. And then go to your tanning salon, you know, they're gonna have an IRS worker overseeing the tanning salons. These tanning salons are small businesses.
Russ: Yeah, they're gonna go out of business now that there's this tax on top of it.
John: That's right, yeah.
Russ: People are gonna start looking paler now because they're not gonna be able to go to their tanning salon.
John: I know!
Russ: [Laughter] It's just gonna be terrible.
John: I know. And then what happens if, you know - there's this process called "dynamic scoring" as opposed to static analysis.
Russ: Right, right, yeah.
John: Static analysis says, "Well, there's a thousand tanning salons, and you know, they bring in $10,000.00 a month," and so you do the math and you think, "Well, if we're gonna at ten percent tax," you're still gonna have the same amount of business or not. People will maybe go take less trips to the tanning salon -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - or maybe they'll get their tan the old fashioned way.
Russ: The solar way.
John: The solar way. Buy a heat lamp, and you know. Yeah, I mean there's all kinds of things that's bad about this.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: But you know, and what does the IRS have to do with improving people's health care?
Russ: Nothing.
John: Can you come up with anything?
Russ: No, I can't.
John: Yeah, I mean -
Russ: Okay.
John: I mean we talked about the flunami.
Russ: Right. [Laughter]
John: This is a BS nunami, okay.
Russ: [Laughter] You're absolutely right.
John: All right.
Russ: All right, and with that, before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time once again for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.
[Entrepreneur's Playbook]
Russ: All right, and that wraps up this morning's School of Business. Stay tuned in to our interview with Susan Deison, the Founder and CEO of the greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce, to be followed by Katie Laird and Esther Steinfeld's interview with Candace Nelson, the Founder of Sprinkles. You're listening to the BusinessMaker's Show, heard here and seen online at the businessmakers.com.
