Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. Episode Number 370, I believe -
John: Wow.
Russ: - of that show that features the entrepreneurs of the world.
John: That's right, the artists and the athletes of the free enterprise system are featured here every week.
Russ: You bet.
John: And here is gonna change.
Russ: That's right.
John: Right, we'll be - this is our last show on Clear Channel.
Russ: Right.
John: Wonderful folks at Clear Channel. We got a great relationship with them but -
Russ: Our flagship station.
John: Our flagship station, now.
Russ: 950 AM.
John: And then we'll be moving to another station.
Russ: Right.
John: You'll have to consult your Houston Business Journal next week -
Russ: Right.
John: - to find out where. Yes.
Russ: And for those of you who are loyal fans on the Web -
John: Yes. Yeah.
Russ: - just keep showing up.
John: Yeah. Just show up on the Web and it'll be on there.
Russ: Yeah, including video, HD video format.
John: That's right.
Russ: If you're watching on traditional radio. Traditional radio, I think, is still trying to figure out how to show video.
John: Right.
Russ: But it just hasn't worked out very well, far - so far.
John: No, it has not.
Russ: And that's not - I'm not trying to disparage them.
John: No, radio's here to stay.
Russ: Yeah.
John: It's just staying here in a different way.
Russ: Right, just for your ears, right?
John: Yeah, for your ears only, right. Okay.
Russ: And that part of our audience that listens just with their ears -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - and not their eyes will find a new station to listen to us -
John: That's right.
Russ: - in, just in Houston, Texas. Now those other stations that are part of the Business Talk Radio Network -
John: Right.
Russ: - they continue on business -
John: Yeah, but our flagship station, the anchor of The BusinessMakers Radio Network -
Russ: Right. Yeah, yeah.
John: Yeah, okay. All right.
Russ: I'm kinda getting confused. Are you?
John: I know.
Russ: All right and also -
John: Yeah?
Russ: - we are completing our shout out to the EO Houston Group -
John: Yes we are.
Russ: - for a while, we're still huge fans of theirs, too.
John: Oh yeah, absolutely, right.
Russ: Yeah, here's to EO Houston.
John: EO Houston.
Russ: There you go.
John: That's right. What a group. What a group.
Russ: All right, all right.
John: Okay.
Russ: All right and here's our lineup for today. First up, I sit down with Tom Amoruso, founder and President of Shelving Concepts, a manufacturer of commercial shelving successfully competing against the Chinese. How about that? And then that's gonna be followed by Leisa Holland-Nelson interviewing Beth Wolff, founder and President of Beth Wolff Realtors, a successful residential real estate brokerage approaching their 35th anniversary. But first -
Russ: That's right, it's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business and this is where John and I spend the entire week -
John: The entire week.
Russ: - along with our staffs of putting together our weekly curriculum.
John: Our vast staff.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah, we have a vast staff.
Russ: And we have competitors on The BusinessMakers School of Business.
John: Yes we do, yeah.
Russ: We don't - I don't think we have any competitors yet in China.
John: No.
Russ: Or India.
John: No, of course not.
Russ: But we've got them here in the USA, both sorta public type college universities. You've got your junior college competitors. You've got these new for-profit -
John: That's right.
Russ: - competitors.
John: I know.
Russ: And I think all of them cost money.
John: That's right.
Russ: And this one doesn't.
John: No, it's free.
Russ: That's why we ought - we should be the low-cost choice -
John: That's right.
Russ: - with the high-quality education.
John: That's right. That's the way we should be.
Russ: That's right.
John: Low cost but great quality, yeah.
Russ: That's right. All right and we kick it off each week with the Quote of the Day.
John: The Quote of the Day.
Russ: And we chose - now, I'm gonna surprise you -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - and discuss some of these.
John: Yeah.
Russ: I'm gonna have a second Quote of the Day, too.
John: Oh, right.
Russ: But we chose the topic being healthcare -
John: Right.
Russ: - since that's sorta been talked a lot about lately.
John: Oh yes, it has, yeah.
Russ: I don't -
John: Very popular topic these days.
Russ: - I'm sure that you thought of this, too. You know the way when people got dissatisfied with their education system, they started home-schooling.
John: Right.
Russ: I think what's gonna happen, there's gonna be home surgery.
John: Do it your own, yeah do it at home surgery.
Russ: Well you got it on the Web now, you just look up appendectomy and it's probably step one, step two, step three.
John: They probably have - and there's probably some companies that'll sprout up that'll have the -
Russ: Just on home -
John: - home courses where they'll send you a cadaver every six weeks and you'll have to schedule these various operations -
Russ: That's right.
John: - on the cadaver.
Russ: Well they've always been talking, too, though, about telemedicine.
John: Yeah.
Russ: You know, just using Skype if you're performing your surgery like on your spouse.
John: Yeah, mm-hm.
Russ: And you had Skype there, at least they could see what you're doing.
John: Like you're talking - be like those old airline, airplane disaster movies where the flight attendant would be the only one who could fly the plane.
Russ: Fly the plane, yeah.
John: And they would walk her, "Okay, that lever to the left, turn it one degree clockwise," you know -
Russ: Right.
John: - and she would land the plane.
Russ: That's right. It worked.
John: You know, it works. That's what this would be. "Take that scalpel and cut a five-centimeter diagonal line, okay?"
Russ: Only three centimeters deep, though.
John: Deep, right, okay. Now, fold the incision back and get a staple gun and sta- I mean it's gonna be like that.
Russ: It is, you know, I'm sitting here listening to you and thinking there's probably really some opportunity - you know you could even perform surgery sort of on a Webinar type -
John: Will you look at all the money that's gonna be floating around this healthcare system. I'm gonna get me some of that.
Russ: You could have a whole audience contributing.
John: Yeah, a whole audience. That's right.
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: They get pay-per-view of the -
Russ: Right, so -
John: - of an appendectomy.
Russ: So here's the first quote on healthcare.
John: All right.
Russ: And as you'll see, I'm gonna quote both sides.
John: Yeah, okay.
Russ: This quote was provided by Ann Coulter.
John: Right, uh-huh.
Russ: And you might imagine what side that would be on.
John: Yeah.
Russ: It works like this: "I might be in favor of national healthcare if it called for all democrats to have their heads examined."
John: Yeah. That's good quote. I like that quote.
Russ: That's pretty good.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Now -
John: What's the other one?
Russ: Well, I felt obligated to show the other side, too, and for briefly there apparently was a Republican healthcare plan that went around, too, and a Democrat from Florida, named Alan Grayson -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - who's in Congress had this advice if the Republican plan passed:
John: Right, uh-huh.
Russ: "Don't get sick and if you get sick, die quickly."
John: Die quickly.
Russ: Yeah, you'd be much better off -
John: Oh, okay.
Russ: - than if you participated in their plan.
John: I guess we'll have to wait and see, yeah, which one is the winner.
Russ: Yeah, we will. Who knows?
John: 'Cause they have our system now and now we're gonna -
Russ: We try a-
John: - unless, you know, it gets repealed or changed dramatically after the next election -
Russ: Well, I think -
John: - which may or may not happen.
Russ: That's right. I think it's actually a real good time to stay healthy.
John: Yeah.
Russ: There's never been a better time -
John: I know, you're right.
Russ: - in the history to stay healthy, right?
John: Okay, there we go.
Russ: All right, and that brings us to This Week in Business History, so what happened during this July week in business history?
John: Okay this week in business history in 1854, George Eastman was born in Waterville, New York. He's the godfather of popular photography.
Russ: So that's impressive. So how did he, you know, it became Eastman Kodak for a while -
John: That's right, and what happened was he was - before he'd gotten really involved in photography, they had these big, clunky boxes that people would take around on tripods -
Russ: Right.
John: - but in a trip to the Dominican Republic, a friend suggested he bring along a camera and he began work on simplifying photography so ordinary people could swiftly take pictures -
Russ: Cool, cool.
John: - which, so and there you go.
Russ: Okay.
John: He died in 1932, killed himself, had some spinal disorder -
Russ: Wow, okay.
John: - problems and ended his life.
Russ: All right.
John: This week in business history in 1889, the first issue of the Wall Street Journal was published. It doesn't say here whether it was under a buttonwood tree but you never know, you never know.
Russ: 1889?
John: 1889, yeah.
Russ: So that means 11 and 111 and 12, so 123 years old.
John: That's right.
Russ: That's pretty good. That's older than your paper, right?
John: That's older than me.
Russ: Yes, it is, a little bit.
John: It's older than you and me combined, almost.
Russ: Combined. Almost.
John: Yes. All right. This week in business history in 1927, Theodore Harold Maiman, he build the first working laser. He was born July 11, 1927.
Russ: Wow.
John: A working-class family. Grew up supporting himself fixing electrical appliance. Had a PhD from Stanford and he got into this high-tech physics business and developed the laser.
Russ: I wonder, do you think he could've possibly envisioned that he created this invention that you and I both like just a week ago -
John: Yeah?
Russ: - saw a spectacular laser show -
John: Yeah, yeah.
Russ: - and the Coldplay -
John: The Coldplay concert, right.
Russ: We were at the Coldplay - we digress but what a digression that was.
John: I know, all kinds of laser lights flashing around and -
Russ: I know and you were responsible for -
John: That's right.
Russ: - introducing me to that experience.
John: Yeah, never heard. Yeah, it's quite big.
Russ: I heard a little bit but they were great.
John: Yeah.
Russ: It was entertaining and there were lasers involved.
John: And lasers, yeah, lots of lasers. Look at Star Wars, where would Star Wars be without -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - the light saber, light, light laser -
Russ: That's right.
John: - or whatever it was.
Russ: Okay.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1928 the item that all great things are compared against -
Russ: What's that?
John: - the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Russ: Oh, this is when it -
John: When sliced bread was first introduce by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri. It sold for the first time.
Russ: I wonder who had the idea, you know, "Hey," -
John: I don't know. I think the laser was involved.
Russ: Right.
John: Because it sliced so evenly.
Russ: That's probably true.
John: Yeah, right, right.
Russ: But now you have all these -
John: The bread laser, yeah.
Russ: Yeah, well now, now like the converse idea came back with all the restaurants, you know, they bring you out a little loaf and you tear it apart.
John: Yeah, this'd be better. That looks more manly that way.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yes.
Russ: Okay.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1934, Ole Evenrude, the inventor of the outboard motor for boats passed away.
Russ: Oh, my God.
John: He was originally born in Norway; family moved to the US and his invention started in 1906, he was picnicking on a small island with his future wife and he went to get some ice cream and it took so long to get it back that the ice cream melted, so he figured, "Well, I need to find a faster way to get across this lake."
Russ: Now are you making this up?
John: No, it says so right here.
Russ: Yeah, I know but you, you've told our audience before that sometimes we have to extrapolate.
John: Oh no, this - so far, I have not made anything up.
Russ: All right but -
John: I have on the home surgery thing.
Russ: Yeah, okay. All right.
John: This week in business history Frank Sinatra makes his record debut, recording debut in 1939.
Russ: Now did the Godfather have anything to do with that?
John: He may have, yeah.
Russ: Yeah?
John: Yeah but I think that -
Russ: Might've arranged it for him or something.
John: Yeah, 'cause by then he may have been recording with the Tommy Dorsey band.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Or whatever band it was that -
Russ: Well, which that - the Godfather got him that job, right?
John: Yeah, well actually he got him out of the contract.
Russ: Oh, got him out of the contract?
John: Yeah, said either your brains or your signature are gonna be on the contract. Yeah. That's just a movie.
Russ: Guy's got a way with words.
John: He gots a way with words.
Russ: Yeah, but you know -
John: Now Frank Sinatra didn't say that.
Russ: No, I know.
John: It was Vito - Don Corleone.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: Yeah.
Russ: But you know if it was in a movie, it was true.
John: It was in a mov- well, yeah. Well, it's also on the Internet, so -
Russ: That's right, that's right.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1951, J.D. Salinger's only novel, The Catcher in the Rye is published by Little, Brown in 1951. I didn't read the book. I was never interested in reading the book.
Russ: I read the book.
John: Did you like it?
Russ: I did like it.
John: Yeah?
Russ: It introduced me to -
John: It's the only book this guy ever wrote.
Russ: Yeah, I know. A one-hit wonder.
John: A one-hit wonder.
Russ: It was kinda like he went, "Whew, finished that.
John: Right.
Russ: To hell with that."
John: Okay, yeah and then he died in, you know, in 2010.
Russ: Yeah, kind of lived a reclusive life.
John: That's right. I guess he did, yeah.
Russ: Right, yeah.
John: Guess he didn't like the book, either.
Russ: I guess not. I guess not.
John: He went into hiding.
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in business history in 1953, Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out on this trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. Now this trip was depicted in the movie The Motorcycle Diaries -
Russ: Right.
John: - which is a highly romanticized version of this murderous thug.
Russ: That's right.
John: You know, it's too bad he didn't die somewhere on the way to Bolivia or something.
Russ: But they portray him as having, you know, such a heart for the downtrodden, the working man, the poor.
John: Well as long as you went along with the program.
Russ: Yeah, I mean he is revered in Cuba.
John: Well he was anti-
Russ: Well now what -
John: He's revered more and more because he kept his policies as working with Fidel Castro created more and more of these downtrodden.
Russ: Yes, it did.
John: It, you know -
Russ: It still is.
John: - and if they didn't get along with the program, you were put into prison -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - or executed or tortured or what. I mean -
Russ: Part of the People to People thing that I was on required us to go by his grave.
John: That's right.
Russ: We really did.
John: Oh really?
Russ: Yeah and he was entombed in this huge monolithic stone, granite facility.
John: And there's kids in this country walking around with T-shirts with his likeness on it.
Russ: That's right.
John: They have no idea what this guy -
Russ: That's right.
John: - okay, it's like having an Adolph Hitler on your T-shirt.
Russ: Yeah, but I understand the movie was pretty good.
John: Well - Let's just say that it was more inaccurate than our most inaccurate broadcast of the -
Russ: All right.
John: - BusinessMakers Show.
Russ: All right.
John: This week in business history in 1962, the Rolling Stones perform their first ever concert at the Marquee Club in London. Wow.
Russ: Now, do you know what that means?
John: No.
Russ: Now, think about it. Do some math, here.
John: Marquee, 1962.
Russ: 1962.
John: Yeah.
Russ: 2012.
John: Yeah, uh-huh.
Russ: It's their 50th anniversary.
John: Oh, since their first - 50th anniversary.
Russ: There's a book out. I'm surprised you don't have it.
John: Well, I'm not -
Russ: I've got my copy.
John: I never was a big Rolling Stones fan.
Russ: Well you shoulda been and a -
John: I know, I shoulda been but I just never caught on, you know?
Russ: There were people that wanted them to go do a concert on their 50th. I think they're blowing it off and saying we're gonna wait till our 60th or 70th to do it.
John: They're too old. They're too old. There's not enough oxygen in the oxygen tank to get those guys to -
Russ: Right.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1969 the Rolling Stones released "Honky Tonk Woman".
Russ: There we go.
John: Which is a pretty decent song, actually.
Russ: Yes it is.
John: This week in business history in 1978, Lee Iacocca is fired as Ford Motor Company President by Chairman Henry Ford, II. A big clash of egos in that story.
Russ: Which shows that don't - if you've been fired, you still have a chance in this country, you do.
John: That's right. Yeah, right.
Russ: Some, you don't.
John: Yeah, some you get put - you're in the prison, get sent to the gulag.
Russ: Well yeah, or if you just have that on your resume, you're -
John: _____ fire - put in front of a firing squad or something.
Russ: Right.
John: This week in business history in 1981, US President Ronald Reagan appoints Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Russ: Yep.
John: It's a nice gig, you know?
Russ: Yeah.
John: You're there for life.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know?
Russ: You can just kinda be one of work whenever you want.
John: Work like six months out of the year or something.
Russ: Yeah.
John: I mean, these guys have it pretty, you know -
Russ: Lots of reading involved, though.
John: Lots of reading and writing.
Russ: Yeah, writing too.
John: Yeah.
Russ: You can probably get somebody to write for you, though.
John: Yeah, I'm sure they do.
Russ: Get students.
John: Yeah, good stu- yeah like, some poor clerk, you know, paying them minimum wage say, "Here, write this 40-page opinion."
Russ: Go look up on the Web and tell me what we should say.
John: Yeah. I don't know. Maybe that's what happened with the healthcare decision.
Russ: Yeah, it was -
John: John Roberts, you know, I think he went on the Web and concocted that whole thing.
Russ: And say but what about the research? We go to Wikipedia, what do you think? My God. Yeah. Come on.
John: What do you think they made Wikipedia for?
Russ: Right.
John: Okay, last but not least, this week in business history in 1985, in Wembley Stadium in London Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened the LiveAid rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans.
Russ: Yep.
John: I guess the coolest thing about this was Phil Collins. He performed in -
Russ: In both of them, yeah.
John: - in London and then flew the Concorde to Philadelphia where he performed -
Russ: With Led Zeppelin, I think.
John: - later, yeah, later in the day, yeah.
Russ: I heard there was pictures of him on the Concorde; he was looking, reading Led Zeppelin music and had a little drum thing out there, so he was learning it on the way.
John: That's right. The LiveAid concert raised $127 million. It doesn't say here how much of that actually went to relieving the country of, the continent of famine.
Russ: Right.
John: I'm sure it had to pass through a few dictators.
Russ: I'm sure.
John: Took their skim.
Russ: I'm sure.
John: Kinda like in that movie Casino where the mafia took the skim, you know?
Russ: Everybody, yeah.
John: Anyway, so that's it.
Russ: All right and that wraps it up?
John: That wraps it up, baby.
Russ: That was good.
John: Yeah, not bad.
Russ: It was real good.
John: All right.
Russ: It was great. All right and that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon -
John: Okay.
Russ: - also known as our vocabulary lesson.
John: Okay, yeah right.
Russ: Where I go out and pick a new word or phrase or acronym, hide it from John all week -
John: Yes sir, all week.
Russ: - he's always trying to figure out what it is, looking over my shoulder and stuff.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: And then he, right here in front of a live audience -
John: A live audience, yes.
Russ: - guesses the meaning and often gets it right on the head.
John: Well I do my best.
Russ: All right, you ready?
John: It's a dirty job; somebody's gotta do it.
Russ: Yeah, ready?
John: Go ahead. I'm ready.
Russ: Idea hamster.
John: Idea hamster. Hm. Okay a hamster runs in that treadmill all the time.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, that's a person. Let's say that's a person who is, you know, just keeps running in circles all the time, thinking they've got ideas but they're just running in circles, so they're just totally wasting everybody's time.
Russ: Boy, you're real close.
John: Oh, don't _____ ____. Don't pay any attention to him, he's just an idea hamster.
Russ: Keep going.
John: I think that's what it is.
Russ: Well, maybe we'll give you a win. The official jargon definition -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - is a person with a creative and inventive mind who is constantly turning out new ideas. Now, it doesn't say here whether they're good ideas or not.
John: See mine, mine -
Russ: You were just sort of disparaging the guy that's just spewing them out, so I think we give you a win.
John: It's one answer. Well, I'll take a half a win.
Russ: All right.
John: All right.
Russ: You got it.
John: I got the idea part right.
Russ: You got it. All right.
John: Okay.
Russ: That brings us to Dumb Moments.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Did anything dumb happen out there in the business world this week?
John: Yeah, well I think so. There's a push in the Pentagon to make the US Navy - they have what they call the green fleet -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - and it runs on biofuels.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Now it sounds like a good idea and there's a ship called the US Naval Ship, Henry J. Kaiser, carried nearly 900,000 gallons of biofuel blended with petroleum to power the cruisers, destroyers and fighter jets of what the Navy is now calling the Great Green Fleet, and this is all according to Reuters.
Russ: Okay.
John: I'm quoting from Reuters, here.
Russ: Reuters, all right.
John: Okay, now there's one big problem with this.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Is that, you know, the biofuels are more expensive than traditional fuel.
Russ: I would imagine that and sometimes they make our food prices go up, too.
John: That's right, well it's making our Navy go up.
Russ: Yeah, okay.
John: You know the conventional fuel runs $3.60 a gallon.
Russ: Yeah.
John: So $3.60 times 900,000, carry the 4, $3.24 million for that.
Russ: To fill up.
John: To fill up the ship.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, now under the new green navy -
Russ: Yeah?
John: - the new, improved fuel -
Russ: Yeah?
John: - is $26.00 a gallon.
Russ: Yeah.
John: So -
Russ: So do the math.
John: - what would normally costs $3.24 million now is at, you know, 26 times 9, and carry the - okay, it's $23.4 million.
Russ: You're kidding.
John: Yeah.
Russ: No.
John: Now it's kinda funny but you know these high-performance jets, I mean those engines are very finely calibrated and if you're putting some gunky corn ethanol in there, that's gonna - that could slow the pilot down a tad.
Russ: You know what I think about our defense -
John: I think it's ridiculous -
Russ: -mechanisms and machines and -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - engines. I just want them to work if they have to defend us. I don't care if they're out -
John: Right, I know.
Russ: - it doesn't bother me if they're heating up the globe a little bit in the process 'cause the globe's gonna heat up a lot if we don't do it.
John: Well the bad news is our fleet just got wiped out by the Russian Navy. But the good news is we really helped save the environment by using these -
Russ: There you go.
John: Yeah, you know.
Russ: All right and before we wrap up today's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. All right and that wraps up today's School of Business. Stay tuned in for my interview with Tom Amoruso, founder and President of Shelving Concepts, followed by Leisa Holland-Nelson's interview with Beth Wolff, founder and President of Beth Wolff Realtors. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.
