Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is episode 337 of that show that features those that most positively affect our lives. And this is a special edition of the Business Makers Show, because Mr. John Betto is off on a family mission and sitting in for John today, I have none other than Leisa Holland-Nelson, founder and president of Content Active. Leisa, welcome to The Business Maker Show.

Leisa: Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here.

Russ: Well, you've been here before. In fact, we had an interview with you and your partner probably three or four years ago. But for those who didn't hear it, tell them about Content Active.

Leisa: Well, Content Active is Houston's leading web and mobile technology company. We pride ourselves on driving web and mobile innovation every single day. Our clients are among Houston's top businesses and game changing startups.

Russ: Really cool. What I think is one of the most interesting things about the role that you play at Content Active, is your background in preparing for this mission. Share with our audience how you grew up in the business world.

Leisa: Well, my background is in fashion merchandising and marketing. I started as a buyer at Neiman Marcus, ended up at Federated department stores in New York and sort of cruised out as president of Evan-Picone and years ago and then became an executive search consultant as a partner at Hydric and Struggles. All in New York City. Came back to Houston in 2002 and through a friend, went on a marketing project in 2003 and sort of never left. Here I am in the technology business thinking I was coming to chat about business strategy, branding and organizational development.

Russ: Well, it's such a cool and unique background. In fact, you sort of told me one time that your world that you lived in was perhaps best personified by the movie "The Devil Wears Prada", right?

Leisa: Without a doubt. The difference between my world and "The Devil Wears Prada" or Anne Hathaway's role and me is that I never would have gotten out of the back of that car. I would have stayed there. And even more fun and I think exciting, I have a, as you know, I have a 23 year old daughter who writes a blog that's published in the Boston Globe and she was writing - she writes about yoga in Boston. And one blog she was talking about how she's given up her stilettos and pencil skirt for yoga clothes and she said she couldn't believe it when her mother, the queen of the fashion industry, went into the technology business, but don't you know that technology is the new black?

Russ: There ya go.

Leisa: And we definitely believe that around our house.

Russ: Okay, now, furthermore, for some of our audience members, you might recognize this voice and name because it's associated with a very popular vignette that we've had on this show now for close to - are we getting close to a year?

Leisa: I think we're like six or seven months, but it feels comfortable.

Russ: Okay. Called "Women Mean Business" and it is authored and delivered by Leisa Holland-Nelson. If we got a listener to the front end of the show that's never heard "Women Mean Business", tell them about it.

Leisa: Well, Women Mean Business is a weekly segment of The Business Makers radio show and online, and we're highlighting weekly extraordinary women doing extraordinary things from all segments of business. They're entrepreneurs as well as corporate executives. But what we really focus on with each of these women is their career, how they got where they are, how they chose where they are and what they tell the next generation, because I think that's really important that they're thinking about someone who'd like to do what they do and sharing with them.

Russ: Okay. And tell us how that name came about.

Leisa: That name, Russ, you're making me laugh. That name really came because when I was trying to think of what to title it; I had lots of different ideas. And we kept talking about women in the driver's seat, and women this and women that and one day I had a flash of my mother being mad at me when I was little and telling me she meant business. And I thought, "You know, women do mean business." They mean business at the cash register. They mean business when they're running businesses and if you're in trouble, they really mean business. So women mean business and that's where the name came from.

Russ: Well, I love it. Relate to it completely because my mom really meant business quite often, too. Who is this week's guest on "Women Mean Business"?

Leisa: This is gonna be an exciting week for us. We're going to interview Andrea Young who is the president and chief operating officer of Sam Houston Race Park. She's young. She's been in the sports business for her entire career, which is probably 10 years. I mean, it's not really long, but she's worked for the Tennessee Titan's, the Houston Rockets, the Houston Comet's -all before getting to Sam Houston Race Park, which she's done an extraordinary job of. I don't know if she was turning it around, but she's really built the business and built the fan base and I think is in her early 30s, oh my goodness.

Russ: No, I'm definitely gonna tune in to that one cuz we did actually have her as a guest on this show. I believe it was back in '05 or '06. In her mid-twenties she was a president and CEO of, I believe, the Houston Comet's at the time.

Leisa: She was. She was. And she orchestrated the sale, which was a very successful sale of that team.

Russ: Really cool. All right. We're looking forward to that, but we need to move forward now. In fact, what we always like to do right up here up front when we're talking about entrepreneurship is give a shout out to the EO Houston Group. They are integrated into our show more and more these days. A fascinating group. And here's our line up for today's show. Our featured guest is Bill Fogarty, co-founder and co-chairman of FKM and at a leading edge advertising agency and Bill has had several decades in the business. I assume you know Bill?

Leisa: I do know Bill. We've done some great work with FKM at Content Active.

Russ: Okay, well, I'm looking forward to being able to sit down and talk with him, too. But first, that's right, it's time for the Business Makers School of Business, and as we like to say here, it's not your business as usual school. Now I'm always real careful about sitting in a substitute professor to come in and replace Mr. John Betto, but I am optimistic that you're gonna be able to do a great job, Lisa. And we kick off The School of Business each week with the quote of the day. And today's quote is about using the right word and it comes from Mark Twain. "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lighting bug." What do you think of that?

Leisa: I think that's an extraordinary difference. I mean, you know, without a doubt. Drown in the bathtub or drown in the ocean. I mean, you know.

Russ: Well, and golly, having a strong vocabulary, writing skills, communication skills, is so important these days and using the right word in business is just extraordinarily important. All right and that brings us to this week in business history. So this is your part of the show, Leisa so take it away.

Leisa: Well, I'm excited to start my part. Here I go. This week in business history, in 1701, Andrew Celsius was born in Sweden. Celsius invented the centigrade scale for measuring temperature. Pretty cool, don't you think?

Russ: Well, yeah. And I remember from other history lessons, in the very beginning, he had these numbers reversed. Today, I think it's 100 degrees is boiling and one degrees is freezing and in the beginning it was the other way around. Quite interesting. John Betto, every year when we bring this up, loves to make up the story - not make up the story - loves to offer the story that he was pretty certain that the Celsius family and the Fahrenheit family had a big family feud going on and when they divided up the planet, the Fahrenheit's got the United States and the Celsius got the rest. But continue on.

Leisa: I love it. It's like those farmer families that are always feuding.

Russ: Oh, absolutely. The Hatfield's the McCoy's.

Leisa: Yes, definitely. That's terrific. Well, this week in business history, in 1837, American inventor and grandfather of the plastics industry, John Wesley Hyatt was born. Do you think that he would have thought that 200 years later, Dustin Hoffman would be on a float, you know, talking about him in the movie "The Graduate?"

Russ: Probably not, but man, what a highlight piece of the movie that was and what a great movie that was as well.

Leisa: It was a great movie. One of my favorites. This week in business history, in 1867 - this is a big one - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. You know, I don't know if you know the story about the Nobel Prize, but it really was Alfred Nobel's feeling so bad about inventing such a dangerous product and creating the opportunity to blow up the world that he felt like -

Russ: That that's what inspired him to start the Nobel Peace Prize.

Leisa: He needed to do something to really honor and award someone who was responsible for creating peace in the world because he created dynamite.

Russ: Well that's cool. All right. Good deal.

Leisa: Okay, this one I really love. This week in business history in 1936, the first issue of Life magazine was published.

Russ: Oh absolutely.

Leisa: Who didn't collect those around the house?

Russ: It was a big event every time it showed up, you know and as young kids and me and my sister in the '50s, we immediately had it opened, we were flipping the pages and learned a lot from it. Even though it was mainly a photographic magazine, it just had such cool pictures of the era involved.

Leisa: And extra special when movie stars were on the cover.

Russ: Oh absolutely. Totally.

Leisa: Much better than the geographic images.

Russ: Totally.

Leisa: This week in business history in 1962 is a big one. The Cuban Missile crisis ended. I don't know if you remember that -

Russ: Oh, totally.

Leisa: I mean, I was in junior high school and I think we were doing all those air raid practices. We thought the world was coming to an end.

Russ: Well, it might have been pretty close to it. When you think about it, that the Russian's had nuclear missiles just down in Cuba pointed at us. And I don't know sometimes if the younger generations can appreciate what that was like. I mean, the world's not very peaceful right now either, but that was very different to have those nuclear weapons pointed at us.

Leisa: Well, I think atomic weapons are gonna blow everything up so you don't practice and hide from them. You know, they're not really building bunkers. Remember the underground bunkers?

Russ: We had bomb shelters. Yes.

Leisa: So now, it's very different. Here's a big one. This week in business history in 1963, I know pretty much anyone who was alive at that time on November 22nd remembers where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was in drama class.

Russ: Well, I was in - I think I was in the 7th grade and I heard about it between classes. It was actually this girl that I liked and I would always pass her in the hall at these two classes and I run into her, you know, ready to flirt with her or something and she just looks at me and said, "Did you hear?" and I said, "What?" and she said, "Kennedy was shot". Couldn't believe it. And then the next class, you know, the teacher kinda tried to get us back on course but even the teacher was shook up. I mean - and then that whole weekend, my God, on the television. The television was just showing it time and time and then we all got to watch Jack Ruby go in there and kill Oswald live -

Leisa: I mean, I saw that. I mean - well because there wasn't anything else on for like three days, so we were -

Russ: They took over the networks and that was back when all that there were were three networks generally so that's all we saw. Huge, huge. You're putting on a good history lesson, Leisa.

Leisa: I love history, I do. It was my minor in college. I had a double minor. That was one part of it.

Russ: What was the other part?

Leisa: English.

Russ: Okay, well, cool.

Leisa: So we've done words and history so we're doing well here, for me certainly. Now we're gonna do a little segway into a lot of cool stuff for someone like me. This week in business history in 1963, the 29th Heisman trophy was awarded to former Business Makers guest, Roger Stawback. Oh my goodness.

Russ: What's sort of interesting about that, you know, from there, he went into the Navy, like, for two years, I think, at least and then he went into the NFL and then he became a star quarterback. But when he played, Lisa, when you finished, you still needed a job. Not like it's today. If you're in it at all, you almost don't need a job. And so he started his commercial real estate business. He was a great guest on the show. The interview still gets listened to all the time.

Leisa: Well, he's just a really dynamic guy.

Russ: Class act, for sure.

Leisa: Really. Excellent. Yes. Okay, here's another good one. This week in business history in 1967, Arlo Guthrie released his landmark debut album "Alice's Restaurant". Who doesn't remember that?

Russ: And it was a long funny cool song that got played over and over again on the radio. I think it even turned into a movie, too, yeah.

Leisa: It did, and we're only, what, eight months ahead of Woodstock.

Russ: That's right.

Leisa: It's coming, it's coming. Oh my gosh. Even more exciting, let's fast-forward two years, to this week in business history in 1969, a Seminole moment. The Rolling Stones start their four-night gig at Madison Square Garden that lead to what many say is the best live rock and roll album ever. "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out".

Russ: Well, I have the album -

Leisa: Don't we all?

Russ: Yeah and I totally agree. Who would have thought back then, though, that now, 40 years later, after that they're still out there -

Leisa: Touring!

Russ: Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable.

Leisa: They're about to do another one.

Russ: I know. I know.

Leisa: I mean Mick's gonna be 70 and they're on the road. And he hasn't gained a pound. How could that be?

Russ: I don't know. I don't know. But they just keep going.

Leisa: Well here's a biggie. We're sort of going to segway out of my rock and roll - get in those - here and talk about this week in business history in 1971, hijacker parachutes into thunderstorm. Do you remember DB Cooper?

Russ: Absolutely.

Leisa: I mean, he jumped out of that plane with $200,000.00 and no one ever saw or heard from him again.

Russ: Right. He hijacked it and got what today would be a small amount of ransom, $200,000.00 but successfully parachuted out, disappeared, and then only about two months ago, family members have said, "We're pretty sure we know who he is now that he's passed away" but he pulled it off successfully. DB Cooper. Oh my God.

Leisa: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Okay, here's something exciting for those of us here in Houston. This week in business history in 1985, Pennzoil won $10.53 billion US dollars in the judgment against Texaco. I know Joe Jamell remembers that with a lot of fondness and then my friends - I mean, you know, I've been really good friends with the family that owned Pennzoil, the Litke family. Their grandson, Blake Mark, worked for us here at Content Active for several years and wow.

Russ: They were happy after that, too.

Leisa: I hope so.

Russ: There ya go.

Leisa: Okay.

Russ: Keep - you're doing a great job.

Leisa: I'm okay, huh?

Russ: Yeah, you bet.

Leisa: This week in business history in 1985, Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released. The first version ever. I understand it was terrible. I had no idea even what it was at the time.

Russ: I don't think anybody -- not much of anybody used it, but that was always their MO at Microsoft. They would - they had the courage to release almost anything and when it went out there, my God, you know - of course the computers weren't strong enough. There weren't enough memory; enough processing speed and I don't think I used Windows until maybe 3.0, maybe 4.0. I can't remember. But that was a monumental day. You bet.

Leisa: Wow. Well, we were laughing earlier that I still love Windows 95 cuz it had the fonts I liked in it. It was revolutionary and that's really what I learned to use the computer on. I hate to give away what a late bloomer I was but definitely, especially in the business that I'm in today - forgive me Brian. This week in business history in 1990, pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy award because the duo did not sing at all on "Girl You Know it's True" album.

Russ: Well, I don't think they sung on any of their songs

Leisa: No, but oh what great hair. Remember?

Russ: No, they were good looking. They were pretty good dancers, too, yeah.

Leisa: Handsome, hair - unbelievable. And last but not least, this week in business history in 2008 - feels like five minutes ago - after critical failings in the US financial system began to build up after mid-September, the DOW Jones industrial average reaches its lowest level since 1997.

Russ: Oh my God, yeah and man, that was the beginning of that mess that we're still in to this day and it was awfully painful and wow, that's a sad note that you end your history lesson on.

Leisa: I can make it a happy note by saying how fortunate we are to be in Houston, Texas.

Russ: Well, that's true, too and it did come back. The market did.

Leisa: And the market's righted itself really. I mean $12, 00.00 is nothing to sneeze at.

Russ: No, I know, I know.

Leisa: It's not just horrible and -

Russ: Totally agree. And a great job on the history lesson.

Leisa: Well, thank you.

Russ: It was obvious that you were a history minor, so fantastic. Okay and that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is also our vocabulary lesson and Lisa, just so you know, the way that this works is that I go out and pick a new jargon word or a jargon phrase. I keep it hidden from you or John Betto all week and here on the show, right in front of the audience, I challenge you to guess the meaning. Okay? Are you ready?

Leisa: Yes.

Russ: I specifically chose this one for you. The term - it's a noun. It's a two-word noun. Omega Male. Male as in M-A-L-E.

Leisa: Omega Male. I have no idea. I'm gonna guess, don't ask me why, I'm gonna guess that Omega has something to do with energy. An energetic male?

Russ: If you had left it at energy, you might have been okay. No. It's the man who is least likely to take on a dominant role in a social or professional situation.

Leisa: How interesting. The first thing I thought of was soft.

Russ: All right, well, that would have been right.

Leisa: Cuz I was thinking that omega three gel caps. And vitamins so I should have just stuck where I was but we already had that conversation a little bit about jargon.

Russ: Yes, we did.

Leisa: My first experience with jargon was in the mid '90s, pretty close to Windows '95 -

Russ: Which was kind of late in the jargon world wasn't it?

Leisa: Yeah, but for me, it was the first time - as we've talked before - I came out of the fashion business and I was involved with a lot of big public fashion companies. And we reported first quarter, second quarter whatever kind of results and suddenly I found myself with a partner in a consulting business who was a tekkie and everything was Q1, Q2 - I'm going, "Can't you speak?" Not when he first said it. I mean, like, what is he talking about, you know? What happened to third quarter? What's this Q3 stuff, you know?

Russ: So nobody used jargon in the fashion industry?

Leisa: No. Well, no, we used garmentese. It was different.

Russ: Oh, well, garmentese.

Leisa: Garmentese. Garmentos spoke Garmentese but it was different. It wasn't jargon, like jargon that everyone gets. Like LOL, which I'm doing right now.

Russ: Right. But you get it now, so I think in the future, it's gonna make this even more challenging with you. I'm excited about it.

Leisa: I want to know where you look em up.

Russ: Well, it's amazing. The World Wide Web - oh, there's hundreds of jargon sites. I have my favorites and they publish new ones all the time, too and it's really cool so there you go. Hey, you did an outstanding job. I want you to do this again with me sometime.

Leisa: I would love to. This is really fun.

Russ: All right. So that wraps up todays school of business so stay tuned in for our interview with Bill Fogarty, co-founder and co-chairman of FKM and also, Lisa's "Women Mean Business" with -

Leisa: Andrea Young, president and chief operating officer of Sam Houston Race Park.

Russ: And this is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.