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  • #261: Scott Paper – Rolling With The Times

    #261: Scott Paper – Rolling With The Times
    2026/06/17
    The Scott brothers saw opportunity when the ‘Crapper’ started to become a household name. Thank you 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. [Kooler Garage Door Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple and Steve just whispered the name of the next episode and we were chatting about it just as the recording started. But the theme is Scott Paper. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And immediately I went to the office for some reason, like Dunder Mifflin. Stephen Semple: I guess because they sell paper, but yeah. Dave Young: Yeah. Well, and Michael Scott. It’s like, okay, but Scott, so this is toilet paper. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: Yeah. And probably some other things, but toilet paper primarily. Stephen Semple: Well, toilet paper and paper towel. Dave Young: Paper towels. Yeah, Scott. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: I’m guessing some of the things we’re going to be talking about, trees and bathroom kind of stuff. Stephen Semple: Mainly bathroom kind of stuff. Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: They became a big business in 1995, they were acquired by Kimberly Clark for $9.4 billion. And at the time that they were acquired, they were doing 3.6 billion in sales and basically they’re the inventor of basically toilet paper and paper towel as we know it today. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: They kind of got the whole thing going. They were founded in Philadelphia, two brothers, Clarence and Irwin Scott in 1879. And to really understand the birth of this company, we need to understand the world in the late 1800s. Dave Young: Well, yeah. I mean, corn cobs and I guess a handful of poison ivy leaves. Stephen Semple: Moss, grass, hay. Dave Young: Yeah, all of those things. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And this is the time that’s actually considered America’s second industrial revolution. So while things are modernizing and the country’s changing with electricity, factories and roads and stuff along that lines, modern plumbing, especially in homes, was definitely not there yet. And hygiene was like primitive, man. Cities were bad smelling and full of animal and human waste because if you think about it, animal was still the primary mode of transportation, right? Dave Young: But yeah, the streets are full of it. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Most homes lacked indoor plumbing. It was chamber pots and things along that lines. And like you were talking about, in terms of personal cleaning, it was grass. The one that got me the most was corn cobs. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And really things had not changed much from the times of early Rome really. I mean, it was pretty primitive. Dave Young: The only way to get rid of it is get rid of it. Stephen Semple: Now there was the introduction of the flush toilet, which was starting to be popularized by an English plumber by the name of Thomas Crapper. Dave Young: Crapper, right. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah. Which I always find sort of funny because when people say, “I’m going to go use the crapper,” it’s not an insult. You’re actually talking with the guy who made it… He didn’t invent it, but he popularized it. Dave Young: I wonder, without being vulgar, I wonder if the phrase “take a crap” is shortened for… It was crapper before anybody called it crap. Stephen Semple: Yes, it was. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: I think there’s pretty good etymology for that. Dave Young: Yeah. Heading to the crapper. Yeah. Okay. Stephen Semple: Yep. Dave Young: It just occurred to me. I’m slow on the uptake. Stephen Semple: Yeah, no, absolutely. I expected us to go there. So the toilet was starting to come into homes of wealthy Americans, but this created a need for a new type of product because they need something that was good for cleaning but was also flushable. These old methods would clog these ...
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    1 分
  • #259: Cinnabon – Putting The Cart Before The Horse

    #259: Cinnabon – Putting The Cart Before The Horse
    2026/06/03
    Rich and Greg Komen decided they wanted a empire and then went a built it. Not the normal path, but… Cinnabon! 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: Hey, welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple and today we’re going to unpack the story of Cinnabon. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Now Stephen told me the topic for today. He said, “Now I know you know about this one.” And then he said Cinnabon. And I’m like, “You know, actually I don’t.” Stephen Semple: Really? Dave Young: I’m really more … You know what I’m really more interested in is why you- Stephen Semple: Have you never gone to a shopping mall? Dave Young: … why you think I would know Cinnabon? Just one look at me and you go, “That guy’s seen some Cinnabon.” Stephen Semple: Well, they only have like 1,800 locations. Dave Young: Okay. Here’s the deal. Here’s the deal. Remember I spent the first 50 years of my life in a town that didn’t have a mall. Stephen Semple: I know, but you’ve grown up since then, Dave. Dave Young: I know. Stephen Semple: They’re still around. It’s not like … Dave Young: They’re around, but we would steer our children away from the Cinnabon when we went to a mall. It was like, “No, we’re not just making you all sticky with frosting.” So the times I’ve had any kind of Cinnabon product, and they’re in what, Wendy’s or places now. Maybe it’s not Wendy’s. Is it Wendy’s? Stephen Semple: I’m not sure. Dave Young: They’re somewhere, you can buy Cinnabon stuff. Maybe it’s Taco Bell. I don’t know. Again, remember, I’m not as familiar with Cinnabon as you thought I was. Dive right in, Stephen. Stephen Semple: You’re getting kind of defensive here, Dave. Dave Young: Edumicate us on the Cinnabons. Stephen Semple: Well, they are now like 1800 locations worldwide, 50 countries. They’re now part of go to foods, huge margins in this type of business. And what’s really interesting, all built around one product. And they sell over two million buns a day, just huge. But this is a very different story than pretty much all of the other stories we’ve done because most of the stories we’ve done have started with a problem that the entrepreneur faced. They solved that problem and turned it into a business. Many of them did not start with, “I’m going to do this thing and make it a business.” It’s like, “I’m going to do this thing. Oh, I should turn it into a business.” Dave Young: “Oh, hey, look, people seem to like this.” Yeah. Stephen Semple: Right. It was started by Rich Komen and his son, Greg. And Rich was an entrepreneur who had been involved basically in the food industry, developing franchises, things along that lines. And he got into the food business after graduating because he saw concessions in the malls and said, “These are crappy.” Dave Young: Right. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Because this was back in the early 80s when malls were just … And the food court in the mall was just sort of getting going. And he saw- Dave Young: Like a pretzel or a corn dog. Stephen Semple: He saw the growth potential and so his idea was to develop a food offering, but he was a retail strategist, not a baker. And he set out to create a product that he wanted to be so irresistible it could sell itself in this super competitive environment, the shopping mall, right? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So it was built all from the perspective of the consumer, not the kitchen. And what he wanted to do is have an idea that right from the start he could take national. So it’s 1985 and Rich and Greg Komen, who are [inaudible 00:04:53] father and son team wanted to just basically build this national company and he saw this growth potential in the food court space. He saw that exploding and he had been ...
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    18 分
  • #258: Xerox – An Empire By Necessity

    #258: Xerox – An Empire By Necessity
    2026/05/27
    Joseph Wilson was loosing the battle to Kodak when he discovered the xerography machine. Then he made it sellable. 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 Simple 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 to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young and that’s Stephen Semple. Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young and there’s Steve Semple. Welcome. Oh wait, I got stuck making copies of copies. See what I did there? Stephen Semple: You’re so clever. Dave Young: You know what I did there, right? Yeah. Stephen Semple: I saw it, yeah. Dave Young: Today we’re talking about Xerox. Stephen Semple: Talking about copies of copies. Dave Young: Copies of copies of copies. Stephen Semple: Oh, and back in the day there were a lot of copies. A lot of copies. Dave Young: Oh man. I have copier stories. Yeah. Stephen Semple: I bet. I think those of us of our genre- Dave Young: Honestly, so Xerox, and we’re going to learn the story of the Xerox corporation and we’re going to… I don’t know their whole story, but I can tell you this, the photocopier or before there was something else before that. There was carbon paper. Stephen Semple: Yes, yes. Dave Young: But nobody owned a printing press. Stephen Semple: Correct, yeah. Dave Young: And so I would make the case that a photocopier was the first social media meme sharing engine. Stephen Semple: Oh, because we could photocopy our butts and share it the office. Dave Young: No, no, no, no, not your butt. I mean, I don’t know what you do in Canada. Here, I remember as a kid going to coffee, but my dad, small town, small town America, and he went to coffee twice a day with his buddies, 10 o’clock and three o’clock. They’d go down to the local cafe and they’d sit around a table and have coffee, eight or 10 of them. And somebody would always have a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a joke. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: A cartoon, a usually off color story and they’d pass it around and then somebody would take it and make another copy of it and share it somewhere else. But you couldn’t do that if you didn’t have a copier. Stephen Semple: Well, that’s true. Dave Young: So thank you, Xerox. Stephen Semple: For making our lives richer. Dave Young: And now we can just electronically copy stuff and shoot it off as a text and a meme. Stephen Semple: One of the things you’re going to love about this story is it involves a fire extinguisher. So I’ve got your attention. Dave Young: Oh, I am all in. Stephen Semple: You’re all in. And Xerox is still pretty big. They do 7 billion in sales, but back in the early ’70s, Xerox was a monster. It’s estimated that over 10 billion copies a year were being done. Dave Young: 10 billion. Stephen Semple: That’s a lot of copies of copies of copies- Dave Young: Yeah. Once people had it, they were like, “I’m a printer.” Stephen Semple: Of copies. Yeah. Dave Young: I’m a publisher now. Stephen Semple: Yeah. In 1973, they did 3 billion in sales, which would equate to about 20 billion today. And they were close to 90% of the copier market with profit margins close to 20%. That’s just huge. It was one of the most valuable companies in the world. Dave Young: Until there started to be some competitors, Xerox became the generic word for a photocopy. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: “Give me a Xerox of this.” Stephen Semple: Yeah. So our story starts back with Joseph Wilson in Rochester, New York, which as we also know, is the home of Kodak. And Joseph was the new president of a company called Haloid, which was a Rochester based company doing photographic paper that was founded in 1906. And frankly, they were getting killed by Kodak, which at that point was 90% of the industry. And so Joseph’s trying to make headway in the photography paper business and basically is just like get nowhere. No matter what he does,...
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    25 分
  • #256: Hermes – Being Craftsmen

    #256: Hermes – Being Craftsmen
    2026/05/13
    From the beginning, the Hermes Family knew they were in the craftsmen business. Making products that last for generations. 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] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here, along with Stephen Semple. And Stephen, just before he whispered the topic in, this tells you what Stephen thinks about me. He said, “Yeah. I’ll tell you this one, but I don’t think you’re going to know about it because it’s a really high-end fashion.” Yeah. Stephen Semple: It’s not exactly what I said. Dave Young: Not … Well, I’m telling the truth in a more powerful way. And as we call them in Nebraska, Hermès, but it’s Hermès. Say it for me. Stephen Semple: I think it’s Hermès because it’s French. Dave Young: Hermès? Hermès? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Is the H pronounced at the beginning or not? I don’t know. Stephen Semple: I think it would be very soft. Dave Young: Scarves and things like that, that’s all I know. Stephen Semple: Well, the big thing they’re known for is handbags. Dave Young: Things I don’t own is what they’re known for. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: And I will admit you were absolutely right to think that I probably don’t know a whole lot about these people or this brand. Stephen Semple: The more I looked into this company, the more interested I got on it because I got fascinated by some of the history. Dave Young: I got to share with you just how much I don’t know about them. You see this shirt I’m wearing as we record? Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: This is from the fishing department at Walmart. Not the men’s clothing section. Fishing. And I- Stephen Semple: And, Dave- Dave Young: Here’s the other thing. Stephen Semple: Dave, you don’t fish, dude. Dave Young: I don’t fish. No, I don’t. I don’t fish at all. I stumbled across these shirts one time. I’m like, “I love these shirts.” But yeah, anyway, they’re not Hermès. Stephen Semple: So this is a really interesting company. It was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès. And he’s a German-born craftsman. And the company started in Paris. Now, what makes it super rare is here we are, close to 190 years later, and it’s still primarily owned by direct descendants of Thierry. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: There you go, Dave. Dave Young: Okay. That’s pretty cool. That’s a family business. Stephen Semple: That’s interesting on its own, isn’t it? Dave Young: Mm-hmm. Stephen Semple: So the family owns somewhere between 65 and 70% of the business, and is publicly traded at around a valuation of about $200 billion. Dave Young: That’s a lot of billion. Stephen Semple: That’s a couple of billion, isn’t it? Dave Young: Yeah. Wow. Okay. Stephen Semple: They only have like 70% of that 200 billion, so … Dave Young: Oh. Well, just downgraded their jet. Stephen Semple: Yeah. That’s it. So in 2010, the luxury giant LVMH tried to take the company over, and the family blocked it. There was a time where they tried to take over. And the CEO, Axel Dumas, is a sixth generation member of the Hermès family. So today, they have 300 stores. They do 14 billion EU, which is about 16 billion US in sales, which means they sell $50 million per store. Dave Young: I was going to say that’s not very many stores. Stephen Semple: No. And put in perspective, Gucci does about 25 million. Prada does half of that. Tiffany’s does about 15 million per store. $50 million per store. Dave Young: It’s got to be a front for something else. Stephen Semple: Now, their big product, so we talked about … Is this handbag called the Birkin bag. And the Birkin bag sells for anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per bag. Dave Young: Get out of town. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And often sells for more- Dave Young: Is it bottomless? Can you crawl into it? Stephen Semple: Seemingly, it’s a pretty ...
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    21 分
  • #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