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  • #255: Top Golf – Identity Crisis???

    #255: Top Golf – Identity Crisis???
    2026/05/06
    Steve and Dave Jolliffee realized that driving ranges lacked feedback. Golfers need feedback to improve, so they created a way to get feedback. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, but well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young. I’m sitting here with Stephen Semple. Well, actually, I’m not sitting here with him. I see him. He’s on the screen. Stephen Semple: We’re virtually together. Virtually. Dave Young: This is an international podcast. Stephen Semple: It is, actually. It is actually very good. Dave Young: By the way, I know I think the He-Man episode has dropped. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah. Dave Young: The artwork that Matt Burns or whoever did it for that one. Stephen Semple: Yes. Matthew did it. Dave Young: Yeah, that was great. He sent me that. Stephen Semple: Actually, the one that I really like was the one that he did for PT Barnum. I thought that that was fun, where you’re the guy hocking the tickets. Dave Young: I haven’t seen that either. He sent them all to me. For some reason, he sent that one to me. I should probably subscribe to this podcast and listen to it. Anywho, Steve. So, Stephen whispered in my ear the topic that we’re going to cover today, and it’s actually one that I sent him. Stephen Semple: You actually whispered in my ear. Dave Young: Yeah, I did. I kind of did. I was surprised that you were ready to do it. And it’s the story of Rose Blumpkin and Nebraska Furniture Mart. She’s one of my local heroes back in my home state in Nebraska. Stephen Semple: Sorry, that’s not the one we’re going to be talking about. Dave Young: Oh, sure. Stephen Semple: You sent me another idea. That one, I’m going to do, but I don’t have all the research on it. Dave Young: Okay. So we have to start all over. Stephen Semple: No, or we could just keep going with this, Topgolf. Dave Young: Oh, right. Yeah. Stephen Semple: You also sent me… You want to just keep going with this? Dave Young: So now people know that we’re going to talk about Rose Blumkin at some point. Stephen Semple: Yes. Yeah, sure. Dave Young: That’s a cool story. You just want to make me look as scatterbrained as I really am. So, Topgolf. Stephen Semple: Authenticity. We’re just going for authenticity here. Dave Young: Yeah. So, Topgolf. I just thought we were talking about this other thing that I sent you. So yeah, I’d love to talk about Topgolf. So both of these businesses, since we’re not talking about Rose Blumpkins, I’ve been to each of them one time. Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: My experience level is X equals one. Sample equals one size. Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: But I saw the story about Topgolf or it was a video, wasn’t it? Stephen Semple: It was a video that you sent me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was super interesting and so much so that I ended up, as soon as it was done that night I had some time. I did a bunch of research, wrote it up and said, “We’re going to cover it,” because it’s a very interesting story. Dave Young: To me, if you want the TLDR version of it, the guys that started Topgolf thought they were in the golf business. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: No, they weren’t. Stephen Semple: No, they weren’t. Dave Young: They had no idea what business they were in. Stephen Semple: And this is the reason why I wanted to talk about this. So this is an idea, Dave, that you suggested to me. And when I looked into the history, there’s a couple of twists in this that I thought were super interesting that every business could learn from. And yeah, the story of this is that they didn’t really understand what business they were in. And when they found out what business they were in, they became super successful. And then the company that bought them lost sight of what business they were in and failed. It’s this crazy thing. So ...
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    22 分
  • #254: Tiffany & Co – Pantone 1847 Is Their Color

    #254: Tiffany & Co – Pantone 1847 Is Their Color
    2026/04/29
    Tiffany & Co was one of the first companies to introduce fixed pricing. Then became the luxury brand of New York. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients, so here’s one of those. [Maven Roofing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Stephen Semple is right there. I’m Dave Young and we’re talking about empires. We’re talking about the businesses that started small and grew into empires. And today we’re talking about, man, these guys have been, I mean, a long time ago. I don’t know. I’m anxious to know the history because I don’t know the history. Stephen Semple: 1837. Dave Young: 1837. And I’m trying to think if I’ve ever been in one of their stores. Maybe. I’ve walked by a couple of them. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: We’re talking about Tiffany & Co. So that one, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the little blue box, all of that. Stephen Semple: All of that. Well, and here’s the thing I’m going to say. Anytime I’m in a mall or somewhere that has a Tiffany’s, I always go and take a look at the display windows. And I cannot tell you how many photographs I have of Tiffany’s display windows. Tiffany’s display windows. Dave Young: I have walked by Tiffany’s. Yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: Tiffany display windows are the best in the business. No one does it better. I will go out of my way to go see one. I probably have got 50 pictures in my phone of Tiffany displays. They’re spectacular. And they update them. Their website, here’s one of the other things that’s crazy. I don’t know how often they update their website, but I continually go back and take a look at their website and it’s almost always completely redone with brand new photography, brand new feature items, brand new stories. But here’s the interesting thing. So they were founded in 1837. Today there are about 300 stores worldwide, 14,000 employees. They do five billion in revenue. A chunk of the company was bought by LVMH back in 2021 at a valuation of $16 billion. Everyone recognizes the Tiffany Blue Box. It’s a part of pop culture. And it’s frankly, probably one of the largest, most recognizable luxury brands on the planet. Did not start out in jewelry. Dave Young: Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. Now I have to guess. Stephen Semple: What do you think it started out as? Dave Young: Probably not… It was 1837, so it wasn’t cars. Stephen Semple: 1837. Dave Young: No? Stephen Semple: No. Nope. They started off selling stationary, paper, ribbons, and small little items. Dave Young: Really? I was about to guess watches, but that… No. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: They’d still be making watches if that was the case. Stationary. Stephen Semple: Yeah. It was located on Broadway in New York, and it was originally Tiffany, Young and Ellis. And the first day they sold $4.98 worth of stuff. Dave Young: Wow, that’s a start. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Got to start somewhere. Stephen Semple: But here’s some of the first bold things that they did. So we got to remember, it’s 1800s and shopping was a negotiation game. Everything was bartered. Okay? What they did, and retailers would argue with you at that time, it was part of the fun, part of the adventure. You can imagine this conversation, right? People like negotiating. They want to feel like they’re getting a deal. Even today, how often do we hear this? They want to feel like they’re getting a deal. And here’s what Tiffany’s did. They said, “Screw that. We’re introducing fixed pricing. No haggling, no exceptions.” And at that time, that was considered crazy. Now, it’s interesting. Here in Canada, along a similar timeline, company which is no longer around today, but grew to being one of the biggest businesses in Canada was a retailer called Eaton’s, and it was founded by Timothy Eaton. Same thing, fixed pricing. Fixed pricing. Dave Young: You know what you’re ...
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    21 分
  • #253: Foxy Box (part 2) – Becoming a Franchise

    #253: Foxy Box (part 2) – Becoming a Franchise
    2026/04/22
    Sometimes you need to listen to the universe when it is trying to help you. Kyla Dufrense listened and survived. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Handyside Ad] Speaker 6: Told you, Brian. Brian: Told me what? Speaker 6: This is part two of last week’s episode. Brian: Oh yeah, and it was getting good. Speaker 6: If you missed it, go back and listen to part one first. Take it away, fellas. Stephen Semple: It’s funny how often we see this mistake. It’s even interesting. There’s a famous marketer, Al Rice, and Jack Trout wrote a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. And one of the things that they talk about in the book is, don’t extend brand. Look, it’s amazing how many times companies try to just go, “Well, let’s just make it this bigger thing and we’ll talk…” And it almost always never works. You’re much better off multiplying the thing that you do well than trying to add around the edges. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, you got to keep it simple. I will tell you, it is very challenging to train one person to be the best at five different services. Really it is. Stephen Semple: Absolutely. Kyla Dufresne: We know how to train someone to be the best waxer in a five-day program. We can turn someone with the right personality, obviously, but we can turn somebody into a fantastic hair removal expert in five days. To be great at nails and lashes and hair, I mean, God, that takes a really long time. And then you want to go, okay, you have to do all of these things. How do you get one person to be great at all of those things? You’re going to be putting out a mediocre product, maybe, for the convenience of a one-stop shop. Truly, you can’t be the best at all things. Stephen Semple: Well, and I’m going to put it to you another way too, because that’s the operational challenge. I’m even going to look at it from the marketing challenge. So, what we want to be, in anytime we’re marketing a business, we want to be thought of first and we want to be like the best, right? But thought of first for what? Now, if it’s thought of first for being a salon, well, there’s lots of salons, right? Thought of first for waxing, that’s a little bit different, right? And it’s way easier than to lean into that and really be liked about, because even the whole thing, Foxy Box, people like that. Well, now it’s this other name that was a little bit safer and more conservative because we’re in this area. It was also harder to be liked for that. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So this whole strategy had of being thought of first for this thing and liked the most for this, you had to deviate from that. And I’m going to say, even if you got the operations going, I don’t think it would’ve been a success. Kyla Dufresne: Yeah, for sure. Stephen Semple: In fact, I think if you got the operations going, it would’ve been a trap because it would’ve worked okay. I actually think the universe gave you a gift of it burning to the ground, and causing you to go, wait a minute, I should just focus. I think the universe was actually looking out for you there. Kyla Dufresne: Oh, for sure. Yeah. It was bringing me back to my roots. And I mean, I learned so many lessons in there. Every experience shapes the leader that we are today. I used to lose so much sleep. I used to cry a lot and now I just don’t. I always say to people, things don’t get easier, we just get better at tackling them. Stephen Semple: Yeah, for sure. Kyla Dufresne: Your business doesn’t get easier. At the top of one mountain, you’re at the bottom of the next. Literally it’s just a constant like, okay, now what’s my next challenge I have to face? But the great thing about that experience is, I lost a lot of sleep. I got a lot of gray hairs, I cried a lot, and now I’m ...
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    24 分
  • #252: Foxy Box (part 1) – Powerful & Energized

    #252: Foxy Box (part 1) – Powerful & Energized
    2026/04/15
    Kyla Dufresne built up Foxy Box from the dining room table to 24 locations by creating an experience and culture of comfort and trust. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Wagmore Garage Doors Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it’s Stephen Semple here with the Empire Builders Podcast, and I’m here with Kyla Dufresne instead of David Young, which is always so much fun. So we’ve given Dave a little bit of time off. And so we’re going to be speaking about, instead of one of these big companies and going back in time, instead we’re going to be speaking to an entrepreneur that I met at the Canadian franchise show and we got chatting and I was looking at our business and this is going to be a great story. I’m so excited. And I want you to tell me the name of your business and how you came up with the name. Kyla Dufresne: Oh my gosh, you’re setting me up for big expectations for your listeners, so I better … So I’m Kyla. I’m the founder and CEO of Foxy Box Laser & Wax Bars. We are a hair removal concept that specializes in the art of the Brazilian. And I always say we’re not just a transaction for hair removal. We really are a movement to make people feel powerful and energized in their bodies. We have 24 locations open across four provinces here in Canada with our- Stephen Semple: Yeah, just I want us to think about this for a moment. 24 locations, and I’m going to say it. It’s an idea that if a lot of people were presented with the idea, I think they would go, “Really? Franchises?” And it’s like, “Yeah, really 24 franchises,” which is an awesome number. That’s not an easy number to get to. Kyla Dufresne: It’s not an easy number to get to. I think for us, a lot of it was, a lot of our success was timing as well, Stephen, because when I started this business, the hair removal concept was not a concept really in Canada. The US, they’ve got one big player called European Wax Center. They’ve been around for years and years and years, but this concept was a new thing here in Canada. So truly a big part of our success, one is, I mean, obviously our culture and our brand and the success of our franchisees, but it was also timing because we were one of the first hair removal concepts on the market here in Canada. So we really brought this business model to the market, so I think that was a big part of our growth to get to 25 locations within a five-year time span, truly. Stephen Semple: It’s been pretty quick when you think about … Because you started off with one location that was your location, correct? Kyla Dufresne: You got it. I started off actually, I don’t even know if you could call it a location. A house, that’s where I started it. In the dining room of my house where I had four roommates, there was a dining room area off of my kitchen. I set up a table there and a curtain and got to work building Foxy Box. I joked on when I was speaking with someone not long ago on their podcast that when I built Foxy Box, I always said, “Oh, come see me.” I always was Foxy Box. And so I would give my business cards, but it was my cell phone number on it and then Foxy Box was inside this little weird room in my house. And so I’d have people showing up thinking that they had just showed up at Fight Club and not Foxy Box. Like, “Where in the hell [inaudible 00:04:39].” Stephen Semple: Am I in some strange room in Amsterdam? What the heck’s going on here? Yeah. Kyla Dufresne: They were like, “What is this place?” But truly, those early days was what shaped and formed the culture that we have today because when I reflect back, that experience that I was giving to customers, I had to make people feel confident and comfortable enough to take their pants off in the dining room of my shared house to get a...
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    27 分
  • #251: Gatorade – Not Just A Sports Drink, Anymore.

    #251: Gatorade – Not Just A Sports Drink, Anymore.
    2026/04/08
    Coach Ray Graves has 25 young, physically fit players all go to the infirmary after practicing on a hot day. He needed to fix that. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients, so here’s one of those. [AirVantage Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young, alongside Stephen Semple. And today, Coach, you look like I could use some Gatorade. So Gatorade is the topic? Stephen Semple: That is the topic for today is Gatorade. Which it’s now part of PepsiCo, but it didn’t start out that way. It started as a little tiny thing. Dave Young: I don’t know a lot about it, but I know that I’m guessing in its early days, it was almost exclusively this sports drink that teams drank. Like football teams would have it on the sideline. And I don’t know if it came in powder that you just mixed into the big cooler that everybody got their drinks out of, I think that’s right. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and here’s how exclusive it was. It was developed specifically for a football team. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: The Gators? Stephen Semple: The Gators, exactly right. Dave Young: Go figure. Stephen Semple: So it’s 1965 in Gainesville, Florida, and really our story starts with a football coach and a doctor. And when we look at energy drinks today are a thing, but back then basically all you could get to drink would be either a pop or a glass of water. Dave Young: Yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: I even remember when you couldn’t even get bottled water. It was you could get pop. You couldn’t get juice, pop. That was basically … Dave Young: But I also remember- Stephen Semple: You could barely even find orange juice back then. Dave Young: Sure. But I do remember football teams, and just me playing in high school or I was student manager for a while, and there was no energy drink like that. Not an energy drink, Gatorade’s not an energy drink. An electrolyte kind of a drink. Stephen Semple: Correct, sports drink. Yeah. Dave Young: A sports drink. So you had the little squirt bottles and there were always a bunch of salt pills handy. Players would swallow a salt tablet with their drink to replenish electrolytes, but that was about it and it was just basically table salt. Stephen Semple: What we’re going to discover here is even that idea of it being electrolytes wasn’t even known before the mid-’60s. Dave Young: Just like I know there’s a lot of salt in my sweat and I seem to have lost a lot of sweat and a lot of salt, so maybe I’ll replace some of that salt. That was all they knew. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So basically, here’s where we go. So sports drinks is a huge business today, it’s like a $30 billion business, and Gatorade is by far the market leader with 70% of the market share. And it’s part of Pepsi and for a while it was part of Quaker Oats, and before that it was independent. So we’re going to go back to Gainesville, Florida in the early 1960s, and we’ve got a football coach and a doctor. Ray Graves is coaching the University of Florida Gators- Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: … and he notices that there’s a problem. There’s a particularly tough practice on a hot day that sends 25 players to the infirmary for exhaustion and dehydration. And I want to think about this for a moment. This is not old guys like you and me. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: This is young men who are athletes who are in the peak of health. Dave Young: Yeah, being overworked by coaches on a hot, humid day, but sure. Yeah, they’re not- Stephen Semple: Right. But at the same time, these are young men at the peak of their physical conditioning, 25 of them finding themselves in the infirmary. And initially they were told, “Drink more water. What you need to do is drink more water.” But he knew something was wrong because they were drink more water, but still getting dehydrated and ...
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    18 分
  • #250: iPhone – To Save the iPod

    #250: iPhone – To Save the iPod
    2026/04/01
    iPod saved Apple from chapter 11 and there would be no iPhone with it either. Oh, and Jony Ive helped, a little, too! Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Steven Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Steven’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young and Steve Semple’s here and we’re talking about empires. When you told me the topic for today here just a few seconds ago, it’s like, “Oh, we’re talking about an empire inside an empire. We’re talking about an empire that changed lots of things.” Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: So we’re going to talk about the iPhone. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: Oh, man. Man, did it change things? Stephen Semple: Well- Dave Young: I mean, so- Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: … you think people that aren’t… Gosh, I keep thinking that, gosh, there were a lot of years I didn’t have a cell phone, let alone an iPhone. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: But cell phones changed everything, and then iPhone changed it more. And gosh, what year are we talking about? Early 2000s? 2000-ish-four, ’05, ’06, somewhere in there? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Is that about right? I’m just trying to think of when I got one. Stephen Semple: Oh, you’re talking about when it launched? 2007 is when I- Dave Young: Seven. Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. 2007 is when it launched. And when you think about it, we used to have our Palmpilot for our contacts, we had our dicsman for our music, we had our cell phone for telephone calls, and we had internet cafes for our internet access. Dave Young: For our laptops and all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: All these devices. Stephen Semple: And today, it’s both the bestselling phone of all time, the best-selling camera of all time, the bestselling music player of all time, the best-selling GPS of all time, and the best-selling game console of all time. Dave Young: Crazy, isn’t it? It’s a ubiquitous product, really. Stephen Semple: Yes. It’s the most profitable product of all time. 2.3 billion have been sold. One fifth of humanity has one. Dave Young: Man. Stephen Semple: Right? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: It created a whole brand new economy called the App Store that did not exist before. And it was not an obvious product. Steve Jobs initially hated the idea. I want to say this again. Steve Jobs initially hated the idea. He thought smartphones would never take off and they were a dumb idea. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: This is how not obvious the product was. Dave Young: Yeah. Every now and then you hear somebody saying, “Oh, I wish I could go back to a flip phone.” And you think, “Yeah, that would be nice.” But then it’s like, “Well, no. No, I don’t know if I could get by without all this stuff.” Stephen Semple: Yeah. It’s really incredible. The birth of the iPhone, to really understand the birth of the iPhone, is you actually have to go back to the iPod. It’s predated the iPhone. And Tony Fidel invented the iPod. Here’s what’s really important about the iPod, is Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the iPod saved them from bankruptcy. The iPod is what saved Apple. And basically Tony Fidel, back when he was 12, he bought an Apple 2, and it was really his first true consumer product. And in 1991, he graduated. And of course, that was the early days of the internet. We forget how even new the internet is. And a couple of people had left Apple to start a company called General Magic to build handheld computers. Tony joins General Magic, and it’s amazing. There’s lots of ideas. But what he found is there was these tons of ideas and no focus, nothing ever made it to development. And that frustrated him because he actually wanted to develop things. So he goes over to Phillips, and Phillips had an MP3 player. And Napster came along, which was allowing people to download music,...
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    26 分
  • #249: Drunk Elephant – Yep, A Skincare Company

    #249: Drunk Elephant – Yep, A Skincare Company
    2026/03/25
    Tiffany Masterson was a stay at home mom who wanted to help out the family. With grit and a willingness to be different she built an empire. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [AirVantage Heating & Cooling Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young. Stephen Semple is here with another just enticing story of someone who’s built an empire, mostly sold it. Sometimes they’re still running it. And today he told me we’re sticking our toe back in the cosmetics industry. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And then he named a company that I’ve never heard of. If you told me the name of it, I wouldn’t have guessed it was cosmetics. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: Elephant what? Elephant. Drunk Elephant. Stephen Semple: Drunk Elephant. Dave Young: Drunk Elephant. Stephen Semple: And you think of it. It’s a crazy name for anything in cosmetics because it’s not like- Dave Young: I mean, it’s a crazy name for anything. Stephen Semple: It’s not like you aspire to have skin like an elephant. Dave Young: Especially a drunk one. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Drunk Elephant. It was started by Tiffany Masterson in 2013. And six years later, it sold for $845 million to the Japanese company, Shiseido. Dave Young: Dang, Tiffany. Way to go. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Right? Crazy, right? And so she’s a 40-year-old stay-at-home mom of four and her brother-in-law got involved in the business and she had no background in skincare business, didn’t have anybody around her in the skincare business. And it was like really her brother-in-law who gave her the seed money. And again, when I came across this and was like, “What the heck does elephants or drunk have anything to do with skincare?” Because elephants are wrinkly. Dave Young: Well, and so may I take a detour? Stephen Semple: Absolutely. Dave Young: I love that kind of a name. The worst, in my opinion, which is correct. Stephen Semple: If you do say so yourself. Dave Young: If I do say so myself, in my humbly correct opinion, the most intriguing business names are not descriptive names. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: They’re names that make you stop and snap your head around and go, “Wait, what?” And descriptive names are okay if you’re just counting on people searching in Google for whatever it is your business describes. Stephen Semple: Yeah, but I’d even argue- Dave Young: But even then- Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Yeah. We could go on this one for a long time, but I love the name and I love that it’s not Drunk Elephant lipstick. I mean, maybe it is. I don’t even know. It’s skincare. Stephen Semple: Everybody around her tried to talk her out of the name and she was like, “No, I’m sticking with this name.” And there’s a little bit of a reason for the name. But coming back to your point, when we go out and take a look at successful businesses. Your very, very, very hard press to find successful businesses where the name is descriptive. And even the ones that are descriptive, we do not even refer to them that way. Case in point, we do not call General Motors General Motors, we call them GM. We do not call General Electric General Electric, we call it GE. There’s Ford. There’s Chrysler, there’s Tesla. Dave Young: There’s International Business Machines. Stephen Semple: Yeah, which we do not refer to them as I refer to them as IBM. Apple. Microsoft. Now, Microsoft is slightly descriptive, but not at the same time. Dave Young: But I love names like Drunk Elephant, Caterpillar. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Yeah. I love it. Stephen Semple: Absolutely. So back to Tiffany. So back to Tiffany. So Tiffany grew up in Houston. Her dad was actually a quarterback. She was not a good student, couldn’t focus in school. She did okay in college. What she really wanted to be, she wanted to be a mom. She wanted to be a mom. She wanted to...
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    19 分
  • #248: P.T. Barnum – You Must Capture Attention

    #248: P.T. Barnum – You Must Capture Attention
    2026/03/18
    P.T. Barnum realized very quickly that entertainment is currency and was one of the first to use outdoor mass media. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from Mom-and-Pop to major brands. Steven Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Steven’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Tommy Cool A/C & Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here and alongside Steven Semple. And if you were going to tell what Steven’s role is in this and what my role is in this, if we were going to use a theme that revolved around today’s topic, it would be Steven is the ringmaster in center ring. Stephen Semple: That’s where you’re going? Okay. Dave Young: And I’m like the chief clown driving the clown car because that’s where I’d rather be. We’re going to talk about Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. Are we just talking about P.T. Barnum? Stephen Semple: We’re going to talk about P.T. Barnum because that’s really the origin of all of this is. Dave Young: P.T. Barnum. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: I mean, what a guy. And I’ve never read a biography or anything, but what I know is, I’m guessing that he maybe invented the three-ring circus, but it’s the kind of thing where, man, to me, what he invented was just constant distraction. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Right? Like you go to a three-ring circus, it’s just going to be you’re going to be constantly distracted because you can’t see everything that happens in a three-ring circus. Stephen Semple: It’s true. Dave Young: And so there’s so many examples. We can talk about those. I’ll let you get going because I would just talk about all this stuff. Stephen Semple: Well, here’s the interesting thing. There’s a lot of historians who believe that his was the first use of mass outdoor advertising in America. Dave Young: Okay. That, I believe. Stephen Semple: Right? Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: That he really invented the use of that as a medium. Couple of interesting things he went through. So his full name is Phineas Taylor Barnum, and he was born in Bethel, Connecticut in 1810. And he wasn’t born wealthy or talented or connected, but he kind of knew that attention was a form of currency. And it’s kind of interesting when we think about the world today with social media and things along that lines, attention is a form of currency. Dave Young: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Stephen Semple: And by the age of 12, he was selling snacks, lottery tickets, anything he could do to make a buck. And he was quoted as saying, “I’m a showman by profession and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me,” right? Like he just basically saw those things. So his first commercial breakthrough, and it was also pretty controversial, was promoting Joice Heth, a Black woman, that he marketed as George Washington’s 161-year-old nurse. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Guess what? It was not true. Dave Young: Well, so what year was this? When was this? Stephen Semple: 1835. Dave Young: Good grief. 1835. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. But, but he was this relentless promoter who believed if there’s no story, there’s no audience. So the next thing he did was what he called the American Museum, and this started in 1841, ran from 1841 to 1865. And basically in 1841, he bought Scudder’s American Museum, and he renamed it Barnum’s American Museum in New York. And basically, again, this is considered one of the very first modern mass entertainment facilities, and here’s what he did. He exhibited things of science, oddity, theater, stunts. There was new attractions weekly, so people had to come back. And there was live performances like the General Tom Thumb, magicians, and the first use of mass outdoor advertising, went all around New York City putting up billboards, pasting billboards up all over the city. And on peak days, it’s reported that on peak days, he drew 15,000 people into a single building without electricity, AC, or ...
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