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  • #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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    17 分
  • #247: He-Man – I Have The Power

    #247: He-Man – I Have The Power
    2026/03/11
    After Mattel took a loss on the Clash of the Titans toys the almost did it again with Conan the Barbarian. 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] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Steven Semple, and we’re talking about empires, empires. And Steven whispered the subject of today’s empire in my ear, and I would’ve been hard-pressed to call it an empire because I don’t know all that much about it. But I think again, it’s cartoon property that happened after I was pretty much done watching cartoons. He-Man, right? As in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, that He-Man? Stephen Semple: That He-Man. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: That He-Man. When you think about it, it’s toys. There’s been movies. There’s the cartoon. It’s pretty huge. Dave Young: Yeah. Okay. I’m anxious to hear about it. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And is he the one that’s become kind of a meme, too? Like, there’s He-Man meme? Stephen Semple: Oh, sure. Oh, look, there’s a meme for everything today. So it’s really a story of lost opportunities, but at the same time, sort of seeing changes in the marketplace and doing some really interesting things because in 1975, The Six Million Dollar Man really changes action figures. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: Because to make an action figure, you’re only licensing from others, and it was product-orientated rather than brand-driven, and along came The Six Million Dollar Man, and it was a guy. Right? Dave Young: I mean, we were all running around going… Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dave Young: Pretend we could see, and hear, and lift things. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And along that time, out was coming the movie, The Clash of the Titans. And so there was this whole thing of, okay, let’s create action figures around Clash of the Titans. And the movie did poorly. And so the toys did poorly. And Mattel had been involved in that. And this shaped Mattel’s thinking because when Star Wars came along, Ray Wagner at Mattel passed on it because of his experience with Clash of the Titans. It’s like, “Well, we’re not doing this.” Dave Young: Wow, okay. Stephen Semple: Because again, they wanted to create the toy, right? The Star Wars they wanted to create the toys before the movie came out. So another movie comes along, Conan the Barbarian. Dave Young: Sure. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Right? And Mattel is like, “All right, we’re going to get all over this.” And they end up buying the license for Conan. They made samples, and they had all these expenses, and then Mattel discovers Conan the Barbarian is an R-rated movie. Dave Young: Yeah. No kids are going to see it. Stephen Semple: Can’t do it as a toy. Dave Young: Oh, no. Stephen Semple: But at the same time, they sort of started looking at all of these action figures that are out there, and all of the male figures are kind of wimpy. And they had started down this exploration of making a Conan the Barbarian style action figure. So they thought, why don’t we do this massive figure? And they first did these ones called Tankhead, and Bullet Head, and H-Man. And they wanted them to be comic book-like and bring action to the figure and how they stand. And they were making them bulkier and create this visual shelf presence and over-the-top muscles, all these ideas that they had drawn from Conan the Barbarian. Dave Young: All right. Stephen Semple: And what they also noticed is that when kids play with things, they want to have the power to do what they want to do. Dave Young: Absolutely. Stephen Semple: Which is where the line, “I have the power,” came from. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Where Conan holds up the sword, and he says, “Oh, I have the power.” Right? That whole idea came from watching kids play with toys. And in fact, a lot of the ideas that ...
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    13 分
  • #246: Firestone & Goodyear – Innovation By Competition

    #246: Firestone & Goodyear – Innovation By Competition
    2026/03/04
    Two start-ups a couple of years apart became the inspiration for each other to get better and better and better. 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 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. [AirVantage Heating & Cooling Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the … Wait, what? Gosh, you told me the title, and I have some thoughts, and I forgot the name of the podcast there for a second. Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Stephen Semple: We’re doing two together here, Dave, Firestone and Goodyear. Dave Young: Stephen Semple’s over there. I’m Dave Young. And this morning we’re talking about Goodyear and Firestone, both? Stephen Semple: Yes, together. Dave Young: Because it’s kind of one thing now, right? Stephen Semple: No, they are separate. Dave Young: Was it? Stephen Semple: They’re separate. Dave Young: No, they’re separate. Stephen Semple: The story is so intertwined between the two of them. I couldn’t figure out a way to break it. But it’s almost kind of like when we did Hertz Avis, like they’re so interlinked. Dave Young: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So we’re doing it as a single podcast, the two of them. Dave Young: All right. Where do we start? Stephen Semple: Well, what’s interesting is they were both started within two years of each other, both in Akron, Ohio. So Goodyear was founded on August 28th, 1898 in Akron, Ohio by Frank Seiberling. And today they’re the third-largest tire maker in the world with about 18 billion in sales. And Firestone was founded in August, two years later by Harvey Firestone in Akron, Ohio. And in 1988, Firestone was purchased by Bridgestone for $2.6 billion. Dave Young: That’s the one. That’s the one I was [inaudible 00:02:51] yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and Bridgestone today is number two behind Michelin with Goodyear being number three. So both really, really big, really big companies. Dave Young: And in 18 when? Stephen Semple: So 1898 was Goodyear, and 1900 was Firestone. Dave Young: And this is before, this is before mass production of automobiles. Stephen Semple: Yes. Yes. Because if you go back to Episode 35 where we talk about Ford, 1908 is the Model T. So it’s pre-model T. Dave Young: Yeah. So which came first, the tire or the car? Stephen Semple: Well, because there were tires on carriages. Dave Young: No, that’s true. All right. Stephen Semple: And today Michelin is the largest in the world. So if you want to learn about Michelin, go back to Episode 27, because it’s also really interesting how Michelin grew their business. But so we’re dealing with Goodyear and Firestone. Dave Young: All right. So Goodyear- Stephen Semple: And if you think about it, you’re right. Most of the transportation at this time when these companies started were either horse-and-carriage or bicycles. That’s what basically people were using. And Harvey Firestone, he grew up on a farm and went to a business school and was a carriage salesman in Detroit. And at this time, the use of natural rubber is expanding due to vulcanization being created. Because before vulcanization, natural rubber was not very durable. It would crack and all these other things. And carriage wheels were basically a wood wheel with a metal rim around it, no give, a hard ride. Dave Young: Right. Yeah, yeah. I mean, even a rim made of rubber would be better than a rim made of steel. Stephen Semple: Right. So basically he’s a carriage salesman. What he realizes is that what we should do is we should put rubber, instead of steel around the wheel, and that would make a smoother ride. So he leaves Detroit, moves to Akron, Ohio, because Akron, Ohio at the time is the center of the rubber industry. Dave Young: Okay. Why is that? Stephen Semple: I think it had to do with just the fact there was a couple of companies that sprung up in the area. There was the resources in terms of water and a few things along that lines. Dave Young: And the rubber ...
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