Katie: Welcome to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com/overtime. I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: And I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: And we feel like happy pretty birthday princesses today. It is our -

Esther: Pretty, pretty princess.

Katie: -Show 50; our 50th show!

Esther: Yay. Instead of wearing crowns though, we're wearing headphones.

Katie: That's right. I wish they were bedazzled. I knew I should have taken care of this.

Esther: I know. John actually gave us gummy bears as a gift, but I think maybe for 100 - what's the standard gift for 100?

John: Diamonds.

Esther: Bedazzled headphones.

Katie: I think so. I think it's rhinestones.

Esther: I read rhinestones, yeah.

Katie: Yeah, yeah. (Laughter)

Esther: That's the stone for 100 shows. Wikipedia just said so.

Katie: Exactly. Happy 50th Esther. (Laughter)

Esther: Happy 50th Katie. It's been a lovely and long and wonderful road so far.

Katie: It has been.

Esther: Many more shows to come.

Katie: I love it. So I found a few random little factoids about the number 50 just so we can feel this much more important -

Esther: Of course you did.

Katie: - now that we've hit this landmark. Of course it's random and weird. Of course I did. (Laughter) So 50 is the critical speed in the movie Speed, 50 miles per hour.

Esther: Oh yeah, better not get below 50.

Katie: Exactly. How could we forget. Fifty is also the length of an Olympic swimming pool and also the width of a basketball court.

Esther: Interesting.

Katie: Ah, the 50th wedding anniversary is traditionally gold. And finally, just because this wasn't quirky enough, the very first phonebook in United States history was actually one page with how many people? You guessed it, 50 names (Laughter) -

Esther: Fifty. Neat.

Katie: - in New Haven, Connecticut 1878. (Laughter)

Esther: I like it. How interesting. Who knew there was so much to know about the number 50?

Katie: Who knew, Wikipedia did.

Esther: I feel like I'm on Sesame Street. This Overtime Show is brought to you by the number 50. Well we actually have a great guest today. His name is Joe Schurman. He's the CEO and Founder of Evangelyze Communications. We're gonna have him talking to Russ Capper in Segment 2.

Katie: It's gonna be pretty cool.

Esther: We're also gonna do a segment that I will call it crowd source. It's a crowd sourced segment.

Katie: It is, yeah.

Esther: Because Segment 3 is gonna be all about advice. But it's not gonna be about advice now, it's gonna be, "What would you tell your younger self; what would tell that little kid who was just getting - you know, maybe just getting his degree or just kind of getting into the job force; what would you tell that person now, now that you've kind of established yourself in the business world?"

Katie: It's like a time travel episode.

Esther: I know!

Katie: This awesome. Woo. (Laughter)

Esther: I'm excited. We've got some great feedback too, which is the best part.

Katie: Yes, I love it. But first of all, as always, we're gonna jump right in with our business week in review.

Esther: Of course we are.

Katie: Woo!

Esther: Let's start with a little story about 4th of July because we just had the 4th of July -

Katie: Yes.

Esther: - I mean a couple of days ago and I mean we both saw the fireworks, but we've talked about other holidays on the shows and what big business it is, and did you know that people spent $600 million on fireworks?

Katie: On fireworks alone?

Esther: Mm-hmm. Isn't that insane?

Katie: Holy moly.

Esther: It's really, to me, quite crazy. There's all these facts. There's an article in MSNBC and according to the National Retail Federation 2010 Independence Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey -

Katie: Mmm. (Laughter)

Esther: - whatever, that's a lot of words; 87.8 percent of all Americans will take part in some sort of Independence Day festivity and they will spend a lot of cash doing it.

Katie: And looking at, of course, the big thing in America is the traditional picnic or barbeque cookout. It looks like there are about 36 million barbeques and picnics, costing a total of $2 billion just on outdoor cookouts.

Esther: And you know what, this is really crazy. That is crazy, but $92 million on chips and $60.3 million on dip.

Katie: What?

Esther: Pretty crazy; $70.4 million on buns!

Katie: Ah! (Laughter)

Esther: Wow, that is - oh God, oh how about this, $203 million for mayonnaise!

Katie: Mayonnaise -

Esther: Oh, and mustard and ketchup.

Katie: - mustard and ketchup. But I'm sorry, $203 million for condiments. We're crazy about cookouts.

Esther: I know, we really - we enjoy them.

Katie: Yeah. Poor little cow. (Laughter) The 4th of July is coming for you. (Laughter)

Esther: I know. Well, I don't know about you but I didn't watch them from my home, but you did watch the fireworks from your new house.

Katie: Yes, from the foot of our driveway.

Esther: Wonderful.

Katie: It was the absolute best way to go. Totally avoid all those crazy drivers out there. (Laughter)

Esther: That was a really lame way to segway into our next story about houses.

Katie: (Laughter) But I still honor that you tried, you know. (Laughter) That's right. So now that I'm living in a neighborhood, this may be something that I need to worry about - the Homeowners Associations gone wild!

Esther: I didn't realize they had so much power.

Katie: I didn't either. I just thought that they were people that like were made of really active retired people that got -

Esther: Yeah, policing lawns, giving out, you know, lawn of the month awards, that kind of thing.

Katie: Yeah, yeah. Looking at like Christmas lights or, you know, different festive Halloween holiday.

Esther: Mammoth July, Christmas is over. But no!

Katie: No!

Esther: Apparently they can foreclose on your house.

Katie: They can foreclose on your house. See, and what's more, they don't even have to step foot in front of a judge. If you live in the state of Texas, they can actually process this in 27 days if they are upset because you haven't paid your homeowners association fees. Like for a couple of hundred dollars, they can foreclose and sell your house for whatever it is that they get. Now I did some more reading up on this and it's funny. I kept reading quote after quote from lawyers that are regularly contacted by homeowner facing these militant homeowners associations, and what they say is that the homeowners associations have so much power legally, that what they tell people on the other end of the phone is, "Don't bother calling us, we can't do anything fast enough. Go and beg and cry to your homeowners association. Good luck." And that's what they can do.

Esther: Can you imagine a lawyer saying to you, "I can't take your case. Go beg for mercy."

Katie: Yeah, "And tell me how it goes. Talk to you later." Like that's horrific.

Esther: It's a travesty.

Katie: Watch out and be very friendly with your neighbors, especially if they're actively involved with the Homeowners Association.

Esther: With Mildred down the street.

Katie: Just cut the lawn.

Esther: She looks nice.

Katie: Yeah, but she's angling for new neighbors. (Laughter)

Esther: She's ruthless, yep.

Katie: So, in a slightly and do mean kind of slightly, more light-hearted look at someone else's home, this of course is a story that is funny to us, but probably not at all funny to the person that it happened to. (Laughter)

Esther: Right.

Katie: So let me begin this little business week in review tidbit by reminding everyone of the delicious, sugary, monstrosities that pop up every year around Easter time called "Peeps".

Esther: Mmm.

Katie: I know that you love Peeps.

Esther: Rocket fuel.

Katie: Yeah, seriously; and John is arm-pumping it. Is that what you're calling it? You're fist-pumping.

John: You bet. Mmuuh!

Esther: Woo-woo.

Katie: That's right.

John: Love 'em.

Katie: There's a lot of Peep-lovin' here and I promise this does something to do with this story.

Esther: They are cute.

Katie: They are cute, and what has become kind of popular is these Peep dioramas where people use different peeps to build out different scenes, like religious scenes, like anything you can imagine - scenes from movies using Peeps.

Esther: Someone in my office actually made Peep sushi. I guess they had Peeps that are in the shape of fish -

Katie: Really? (Laughter)

Esther: - and made Rice Krispy treats and then - yeah.

Katie: It's just funny. So imagine living in an apartment, you're really into Peeps and building Peep dioramas. You decide to display - I think there was even a contest in their apartment complex. You display a Peep diorama on your front door and you get evicted. You get in a fight with your landlord and you get evicted because you refuse to take down your Peep diorama off of your door. This is a story that we're looking at now. (Laughter) So this happened and it was a bloody, sugary, Peep-filled battle, and essentially, you know, they met in court, the tenant and then the landowner. They had these crazy witnesses that were - one of the guys was actually a self-described Peeps expert and -

Esther: Can you imagine looking for that expert?

Katie: Yeah! (Laughter)

Esther: You're a lawyer and you're calling up a Peep expert.

Katie: Exactly. (Laughter)

Esther: I have a lawsuit involving Peeps.

Katie: And we'd like to have you on the stand.

Esther: Because he was an expert witness.

Katie: Yeah. (Laughter) So long story short, the Peeps witness who was actually trying to explain that he's been around Peeps for years, and after they sit outside, they become hard and crunchy, but no bugs ever infested, like which was like the whole running argument that there were trying to propose that nothing bad would have happened. They shouldn't have made her try to take down her Peeps and then kicked her out. It didn't work! And she's still evicted, she's still having to pay damages. So yeah, thing we've learned from today's broadcast. Don't mess around with homeowners association fees or your neighbors, and keep the Peeps in your belly. (Laughter)

Esther: Yeah. Peeps in the pantry, in your stomach, in your lunchbox -

Katie: Exactly. (Laughter)

Esther: - not hanging on your front door.

Katie: Not on your door.

Esther: Arranged in an Easter display.

Katie: Yes. (Laughter) I feel like we should have some sort of Overtime Show contest, you know.

Esther: I know.

Katie: Like send us in, you know, post them on Flickr of your favorite business-themed Peep diorama. Like how amazing would that be?

Esther: Yeah, your favorite Peep display.

Katie: Exactly.

Esther: If people actually would go to our Facebook page and post their favorite Peep pictures, we will give you a prize. I don't know what it is, but we will give you something. We will find a way to reward you for posting Peeps dioramas, because I think they're kind of cute. I like them. Last week, did you - okay. We have a segment on this show called "CEOs Say the Darndest Things". We don't always do it. We try to do it only when some CEP has really said something awesome.

Katie: Worth repeating.

Esther: Something darned awesome.

Katie: Exactly.

Esther: So I don't know if everybody knew this, but last week was it I believe, Woot.com was acquired by Amazon. And Woot is a crazy, funky company. To be honest, like I'm not even sure all the stuff that they do, but I'm sure they do a great job of it because they acquired by Amazon.

Katie: Woot is a really funky - I mean, you're exactly right. Like they are funky, and what they do, it's Woot, W-O-O-T.com - is that they are a store that only sells one thing a day, only one item a day. And the thing is that it's a really good deal, they get tons and tons and tons of them. For instance, I'm looking right now on their home page and you get a queen-size wave memory foam mattress$250.00 plus $5.00 shipping.

Esther: Wow.

Katie: Like the deals are stupid good! And so they're just this really interesting clearinghouse, and not only that, they have the most quirky and hilarious forums, like this community that's built around this website that literally sells one item a day, a single item a day.

Esther: That's pretty cool.

Katie: And they have hundreds of thousands of people that buy, so now Amazon is like, "Woo-hoo," you know. Let's purchase another quirky cultured company and Woot is the next one, you know.

Esther: Cool.

Katie: They've got Zappos and now they've got Woot. (Laughter)

Esther: It wasn't Jeff, it was the CEO of Woot that said.

Katie: So Matt Rutledge of CEO of Woot.com and he is the CEO that has said the darndest thing. And now problem with his darndest thing that he said is that it's actually quite a long email, but it is so amazing, we're gonna post it, we're gonna tweet it, we're gonna post it on Facebook and then there'll be link on theBusinessMakers.com/overtime. It is one of the funniest announcements that I have ever read, ever.

Esther: It's amazing.

Katie: It's absolutely amazing and I feel like we're completely not doing it justice. I'm just gonna read the first paragraph.

Esther: Great.

Katie: It's too funny, it's just too funny. Okay, so Matt sends this out to every single one of the Woot employees and he says, "I know I say this every time I find a picture of an adorable kitten, but please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. Today is a big day in Woot history. This morning I woke up to find Jeff Bezos, the mighty, had seized our magic sword. Using the Arthurian model as a corporate structure was something our CFO had warned against from the very beginning, but now that's water under the bridge. What is important is that our company is on the verge of becoming a part of the Amazon.com dynasty. And our plans for Grail.Woot are on indefinite hold." Like, absolutely hilarious.

Esther: Amazing.

Katie: Just going step-by-step in the quirkiest way that you could possibly imagine to the point of discussing universal deities that , you know, what the meaning of free will and ultimate destiny is and mankind. I mean like completely fitting for their corporate brand, but really just such an exciting turning point for this little - what used to be a tiny little website is now growing into this big daddy. (Laughter)

Esther: Yep. It's really phenomenal. We'll post it on Facebook like Katie said and we posted it to Twitter already, so you can find it there.

Katie: Exactly. CEOs do say the darndest things.

Esther: Yeah. Well that wraps up Segment 1. Coming up in Segment 2, we've got a phenomenal interview with a guy named Joe Schurman. He is the Founder and CEO of -

Katie: Evangelyze Communications.

Esther: There we go. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com/overtime. I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: We'll be right back with Segment 2.