Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is episode number 313 of that show that features those that most positively affects our lives.
John: That's right, a memorable show, too, as we will find out later.
Russ: That's right. That's right.
John: Yeah.
Russ: All right, and here's what we've got lined up for you today: first, from our thought leader team, Greg Price, the Entrepreneur's Playbook today will be focused on innovation. A little bit later, we're gonna have another Women Mean Business, where Lisa Holland Nelson sits down with Karen Love, director of Practice Growth PKF Texas, and then the newest member to our thought leader team, that would be Brand Extract, delivering Brand New Money, presented by Jonathan Fisher, chairman and COO of Brand Extract. Today's topic: Becoming a thought leader. And then our featured guest for today's show, none other than Welcome Wilson, cereal entrepreneur, founder, and chairman of GSL Welcome Group, academic and community leader, former chairman of the board of regents at the University of Houston, and friends, personal friends, with five presidents. But first... That's right. It's time for the Business Makers School of Business, and this is where John and I feature our specially selected curriculum.
John: That's right. We work on it all week long. We have research, we try to found out the best ways of conveying this information in ways that we think will help you run your business better, or at least be more knowledgeable, so that when you go to this weekend's cocktail party, you know, you'll know some stuff that nobody else knows, and they'll say, "Boy, that guy is smart."
Russ: That's right.
John: Or, "That woman is smart."
Russ: That's right. We're here doing it for you.
John: Yeah, so you owe all your success to us.
Russ: That's right. All right, and we kick off the School of Business each weekend with the quote of the day.
John: The quote of the day, yes. The quote of the day.
Russ: Yeah, and here's one. It might be the first time we've ever repeated a quote, but it's a great one, it's appropriate, it's -
John: Well, some things bear repeating.
Russ: That's right. It's by Ronald Reagan.
John: Ronald Reagan, yeah, all right.
Russ: Yeah, here you go. The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
John: There you go. And that's what we're going through right now. You know?
Russ: That's right. It's a dirty shame. That's the name of the game, right?
John: All right.
Russ: Okay, all right, that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this June week in Business history, John?
John: A lot of interesting things. I'd say this is an interesting week.
Russ: That's good.
John: Last week was kind of mediocre.
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: But this is interesting.
Russ: I'm ready.
John: All right. This week in business history, 1742, Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove.
Russ: Whoa!
John: Hey, interesting.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, a stove, it keeps you warm, you know , cook some food.
Russ: So before the Franklin stove, I mean, how did - well, I guess you had, like, a little fireplace, or something.
John: I think there were other types of stoves.
Russ: Okay.
John: But they just weren't the same thing.
Russ: Okay, okay. He just improved it.
John: He improved the stove, okay. But I could be wrong. Well, he might've just had a better marketing organization.
Russ: I know, it's all in the marketing.
John: Yeah.
Russ: We all - you know, we're living proof of that.
John: That's right. All right, this week in business history, in 1847, the Chicago Tribune begins publishing.
Russ: Whoa!
John: Interesting.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, that is.
John: Good newspaper, still around.
Russ: Yep, still here, yeah.
John: Still here. Having trouble, though, like all dailies.
Russ: Right.
John: You know, because of the web, and all those pesky ones and zeros.
Russ: Right, right.
John: All right, this week in business history, 1876, patent number 178,333 granted Harriet Shandeville of East Saugass, Massachusetts, for a combined skirt/supporter/corset. Now, that's huge.
Russ: Yeah, that's huge. Well, you'd have to be - it was for people who were huge.
John: That's right.
Russ: It was for huge people.
John: But interesting, you know.
Russ: Yeah, I agree. Yeah, innovation.
John: You know, that's when this was - 1876.
Russ: Yeah.
John: That's Custer's last stand, 1876.
Russ: That's right, right. And also the invention of the skirt support corset.
John: That and the year's 100th - the country's 100th anniv - birthday party, 1876.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
John: This week in business history, Levi Strauss made his first pair of blue jeans.
Russ: Now, what year was that?
John: It was in 1850.
Russ: Okay, wow.
John: Okay? All right, this week in business history -
Russ: All right.
John: All right? June sixth -
Russ: Okay.
John: Interesting.
Russ: Yep.
John: This week in business history, in 1882, the electric iron was patented by Henry W. Sealy, the electric iron.
Russ: Wow.
John: At that time it was called - hey, the electric flat iron, but 1882 they had enough electricity out there to - so you could iron your clothes.
Russ: That's big.
John: That's interesting.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, this week in business history, 1903, another patent, patent number 701, 839, was granted to Americus F. Callahan of Chicago, Illinois, for the window envelope.
Russ: Whew! Wow!
John: You know how much time that saved people?
Russ: Oh!
John: Ink, you know, you didn't have to type the address twice.
Russ: Right, right.
John: Yeah, amazing.
Russ: Wow.
John: Interesting, okay. This week in business history, 1934, the first showing of a Donald Duck cartoon.
Russ: Oh! I was more of a Donald Duck fan than I was of a Mickey Mouse fan.
John: Yeah, oh, yeah.
Russ: You were, too?
John: Of the two ducks, I was a Daffy Duck fan.
Russ: You were a Daffy Duck fan.
John: Over Donald, yes.
Russ: Wow, okay. But I liked Donald. Donald was mischievous.
John: Yes. This week in business history, in 1953, Amos and Andy, the TV comedy, also was on radio from 1929, last aired on CBS. The problem with the Amos and Andy show, the cast was African-American, and they thought they were too stereotypical.
Russ: Right, right.
John: But I always thought it was a pretty funny show, as I remember it.
Russ: Well, I thought it was a comedy, and I loved it. The only thing I didn't like about it, I'll be honest, that the start of the show, I thought, he was - should've been Andy, but that was Kingfish.
John: Oh, the Kingfish, he was the guy -
Russ: Yeah, the Kingfish, yeah.
John: He was the guy that always had the scam.
Russ: Yeah. Always had the - he was creative, very creative, and funny and getting in trouble. But it just wasn't appropriate.
John: Well, at that time, yeah, at that time. It wouldn't be at this time, either.
Russ: I think it would be. Well, it probably wouldn't, but I liked - I thought it was funny, not because of the -
John: Right.
Russ: I didn't even think of the stereotyping.
John: I didn't either. All right, this week in business history, in 1960, Roy Orbison releases the song: Only the Lonely. All right!
Russ: What a musician he was.
John: Oh, yeah, that - he had a great voice.
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in business history, in 1963, patent number 3, 093, 346, granted to Maxim A. Faget and Andrew J. Meyer, of Newport News, for the space cap - the Mercury manned space capsule.
Russ: Wow, wow, wow, had it patented.
John: Had it patented.
Russ: That's pretty cool.
John: That's pretty - hey, you had to get out in space in something.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies from his wounds when he was shot the previous night in Los Angeles, California.
Russ: That was - God, that was just so eerie at the time, because -
John: Oh, yeah, you had him, you had his brother, and then -
Russ: Oh, wow.
John: Him, and then Martin Luther King Jr.
Russ: Right.
John: I mean, it was a pretty tumultuous period of our history.
Russ: Right, right. It was tough, yeah.
John: Yeah, really, yeah. This week in business history, Coca Cola announced they were gonna bring back their 99 year old formula, rectifying one of the biggest blunders in business history.
Russ: Right, it was replaced by the new Coke.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: And it wasn't - we've talked about this so many times - it wasn't so much that, okay, here's another new tasting coke, it was here's a new tasting coke, and we're gonna get rid of this one that 60 million of you people like.
John: They like, right.
Russ: Which is not - we're gonna prove to you, you shouldn't have been drinking that all along. This one is far better.
John: Forget that, we've got this brand new formula.
Russ: Right, we think - we know you're gonna love.
John: We think it will compete better in the Pepsi taste challenge, and we don't wanna cloud your mind with that old good coke.
Russ: Yeah, right, yeah.
John: But it was this week in business history that they got wise and smart and said -
Russ: Well, yeah.
John: You gotta give them credit for eating crow.
Russ: Right, right.
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1991, Boris Yeltzin, who some people consider a true patriot of the world, okay -
Russ: Right. He kind of changed the -
John: Elected president of the Russian Federation.
Russ: Right.
John: Now, things have gone downhill significantly over there.
Russ: Right, right.
John: Anytime you get an ex-KGB guy in there running your country -
Russ: Right, right.
John: It's not a good thing.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay, this week in business history, in 2005 - this is June sixth -
Russ: Of 2005.
John: Of 2005, the first broadcast of the Business Makers Show.
Russ: Holy smokes!
John: And the night before - the day before -
Russ: Yeah?
John: June fifth is when I met my wife.
Russ: Wow.
John: Right, Tina, yeah.
Russ: It was a heavy duty time period in the Beddow family.
John: Oh, boy, a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure.
Russ: Yeah, wow, so we are now six years old. Maybe it warrants a happy birthday song from you in the a-la Marilyn Monroe format.
John: [Mimics sultry singing] Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Business Makers -
Russ: [Laughs] All right.
John: Happy birthday to you.
Russ: What a job! Thank you very much. Unfortunately, now that song is also gonna be related and connected to Arnold Schwarzenegger's affair moment, yeah.
John: Oh, man, he's the Tiger Woods of politics, man.
Russ: Boy, he's - all right, all right.
John: Oh man.
Russ: And that brings us to the jargon challenge -
John: All right, okay.
Russ: Also known as our vocabulary lesson.
John: All right, let's get on with it.
Russ: All right, are you ready? This morning's word -
John: You betcha. I had one last week. I'm starting a new winning streak here. I feel good.
Russ: Yeah, you bet.
John: Lay it on me.
Russ: Today's word: Murketing.
John: Murketing?
Russ: Murketing: M-U-R-K-E-T-I-N-G.
John: Okay, marketing is when you're marketing something.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And marketing is when - probably when you're over marketing somebody, and people get confused about what you're marketing about, and then the message gets lost, and it happens all the time.
Russ: Ah, you've got a real good definition, but that's not right.
John: Oh, okay.
Russ: I'm not gonna give you a win, but it was close.
John: Well, I bet my definition is better than your definition.
Russ: Well, maybe. Murketing is a blend of murky and marketing, so that might be -
John: Murky? What's murky?
Russ: It's real murky, kind of cloudy, not real clear.
John: Well, that's what I said!
Russ: Yeah, well, let me tell you, it's a form of marketing where the product, or service, is not mentioned or shown.
John: Oh, right.
Russ: It's just kind of left hazy out there.
John: Kind of like those original Infiniti commercials.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, those were -
John: You didn't see the car.
Russ: Yeah, murketing. Yeah, you could just see waves rolling in [Laughs] on the sea and stuff, but they - that should be up there - right up there with when Coca Cola changed their winning formula.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: That's why they got behind, from the get go, to Toyota and their Lexus. They both came out at the same time.
John: Right.
Russ: But Infiniti had this murketing program.
John: Yeah, hey, I've got an idea. We've got this brand new car. We want people to buy it. But we won't show them anything about the car.
Russ: That's right, we'll just show then scenery.
John: Fleeting images of scenery, right.
Russ: That's right. All right, that brings us to this week in business. Do you have a story for us?
John: Okay, this just goes to show you how government planning, when you've got somebody in an office in Washington -
Russ: Right.
John: With some dials and levers -
Russ: Right, right.
John: Why it usually doesn't work.
Russ: Right, right.
John: Okay? Because - okay, the government takes a big stake in Chrysler Corporation.
Russ: Right.
John: Screws over the bond holders in the process, but we won't get into that part.
Russ: Right, right.
John: Okay, what happens is, they decide, "Well, we're gonna bring Chrysler back, because we're the government, and we know more than anybody else."
Russ: Right, of course they do.
John: So they demand that they - that Fiat, who's one of the partners in this whole episode -
Russ: Right.
John: Bring this car, the 500-eurobox Fiat to the States, and they're gonna make that the prime - the showcase car for Chrysler.
Russ: Okay, yeah, yeah.
John: Well, that didn't bring Chrysler back. Nobody liked the car.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: The car showed in a couple -
Russ: You mean the government was wrong?
John: The government was wrong.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And what happened was the exact opposite. You know, Chrysler's coming back.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: They still have a lot of debt, but the government's kind of getting their way out of it, although they still -
Russ: They're making some good cars right now.
John: And they're making some good cars. Their commercials aren't murketing.
Russ: No, they're not.
John: They're hot commercials. But what's bringing back Chrysler are the gas guzzlers.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Dodge Durango -
Russ: Right, right.
John: All these cars are the ones that are - they're bringing them back, because people like the big cars.
Russ: Right, right.
John: And so, you know, they don't wanna drive around - you know, they do - you know, how's that gonna look?
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, you drive up your street in your neighborhood, and your neighbor sees you pulling in your driveway in a Eurobox. That's not gonna do a whole lot for your image in the neighborhood.
Russ: No, no.
John: But if you drive up in a revamped, hot Jeep Grand Cherokee, or a Dodge Durango, or you know -
Russ: Right, right.
John: And you know, I think that's gonna probably, you know, make the - make your neighbors stand up and take notice.
Russ: Absolutely. All right.
John: And so, you know, people buy cars - I mean, they go - they buy cars to get from point A to point B, but I think people buy them for their self esteem. They wanna look good.
Russ: That's right, that's right.
John: It's like you - why you buy nice clothes.
Russ: That's right.
John: You know, the best clothes you can afford. You don't wanna look like some schlub off the street, you know. You wanna look like you know what the hell you're doing.
Russ: So once again, the government missed the target there.
John: Yeah, yeah, the dials and lever guys back in Washington didn't - you know, they don't know cars.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, and before we wrap up today's School of Business, it's time once again for Greg Price and the PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.
