The Empire Builders Podcast

Written by: Stephen Semple and David Young
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  • Summary

  • Reverse engineering the success of established business empires.
    The Empire Builders Podcast
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Economics Management & Leadership Marketing & Sales Personal Success Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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Episodes
  • #180: Rebecca Cassel – Part 1 – Helping Contractors Succeed

    #180: Rebecca Cassel – Part 1 – Helping Contractors Succeed
    Nov 20 2024
    Rebecca meets Lon and they build an empire of home services companies that lead to the best Contractor Coaching Program. 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 in 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. [ASAP Commercial Doors Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it's Stephen Semple here with the Empire Builders Podcast. And we've given Dave Young the week off. So, he's sitting back and chilling and relaxing and drinking drinks by some pool somewhere, I'm hoping. I'm really excited. I have Rebecca Cassel with me. And her story, when I first heard it was just one of these ones where I'm, "How is Rebecca, especially in the home services space for what she's accomplished, not a household name?" And for full disclosure of the business that Rebecca has now, which is certain path that does this amazing training for people in the home services space is a customer of ours. I've got a team of people working with Rebecca and their group to promote their business more. But one of the things that was exciting is when we got together for the day and you started sharing some of these stories, I was like, "This is an incredible journey that you've gone on, let's face it, especially as a woman in the home services space." So, I guess what I want to do is go right back to that beginning when you first got exposed to the home services space. And please, don't forget to tell the story about the wearing of the booties. That's one of my favorite ones. Rebecca Cassel: Great. Thank you. Stephen. I'm excited to be here. I can't believe it's been 25 years of CertainPath. And obviously, we used to be Success Group International. And my story is unique. I graduated with an accounting degree, SAT for the CPA exam, thought I was going to go into public accounting and realized really quickly that I didn't like it and was looking for opportunity to use my financial degree to help small businesses. And I actually answered an ad. And this is okay, so '90s, this is how you found a job back in the '90s is a newspaper and there's this amazing newspaper ad. And it did tell me exactly what the company was. But it said, "If you want to use your accounting degree or your financial experience, if you want to help implement systems and processes in a small business and help them operationally expand, this is the job for you." Such a cool written ad. I decided to pick up the phone and schedule an interview. And at the end of the phone call, of course, they give you an address and there was no way to Google it back then. And so, she's like, "Turn here by the McDonald's and then go down." So, I was like, "Okay. Great." And I really don't remember if in that call I heard the name of the company because I was so excited that I got the interview. So, I pull up for the interview and I quickly realized maybe I'm not in the right spot because on the sign it had a name of a heating and air conditioning company. I was like, "Well, surely, this is not the company that put the ad in the paper." Because I just thought appearance of the building, the sign that was cracked, the weeds in the parking lot, did not screen professional, professional. But I kind of thought, "Well, I got to go find out if I'm in the right place or not. And if I'm here, so it is." So, I walked in. And you got to remember back then, this is when women were pantyhose and I was in my black patent heels and my gray suit, totally looking super corporate. And I walk into this little ... Stephen Semple: Did you have shoulder pads in the ... Rebecca Cassel: Yes.
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    27 mins
  • #179: Banana Ball – Frictionless Baseball

    #179: Banana Ball – Frictionless Baseball
    Nov 13 2024
    The Banana's asked one fundamental question to revive a defunct minor ball team. What do fans hate about going to a game? 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 in 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. [ASAP Commercial Doors Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple, and as you know, this is the time when we usually have Stephen whisper the topic of the podcast into my ear. But today I'm turning the table, Stephen. Stephen Semple: You are? Dave Young: Uh-huh. We're going to talk about one that I'm sort of interested in right now. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and I'm excited. Dave Young: I did tell you what it was. I mean, honestly, I will admit I told you what it was before. Stephen Semple: Well, we had a conversation last time I was in Austin and you mentioned this business, and I started doing a little bit of looking into it and I thought, "Wow, we should talk about this." But since you had already had a lot of knowledge on it, I was like, "Dave, we should talk about this." Dave Young: I mean, cool, huh? Stephen Semple: Yeah, Dave Young: It's really kind of interesting. Stephen Semple: So let everybody know what we're talking about. Dave Young: We're talking about baseball, sort of. Sort of baseball. It's a new form of baseball called Banana Ball. Stephen Semple: Just before you had told me about it, I'd heard about someone else had mentioned it to me and I thought it was pretty fascinating. But give us a background on Banana Ball. Dave Young: So this guy named Jesse Cole and his wife buy this summer baseball league team in Savannah, Georgia that had gone belly up, I think before maybe they were called the Sand Gnats or something like that. Stephen Semple: Okay, so basically it was a defunct, bankrupt out of business junior baseball team. Dave Young: I think the kind of league that plays summer times with college kids. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: So it came with the stadium, right? Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: Whoever owns the franchise gets use of the stadium. So they spent a couple of years just trying to figure out how to make baseball more interesting. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: Here you've got this weird little baseball team that nobody's been able to make succeed. Stephen Semple: Okay, before you go any deeper, Dave, how sold out are they? Dave Young: Dude for the 2025 season, they've got more than a million people on their waiting list. Stephen Semple: On their waiting list. Dave Young: These are people that are saying, "Please, please let me buy a ticket." Stephen Semple: Right, right. Think about this. Wouldn't you love to have a baseball team that not only is sold out, you have a million people on the waiting list hoping for tickets. And this is not a major league team. Dave Young: This is in Savannah, Georgia in a stadium that's just basically, it is not even fully surrounding the field. Stephen Semple: I just wanted people to understand the success this team is having. Dave Young: Here's the really cool thing. Their success is not based on wins and losses. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: It's based on entertaining people. This guy understands customer experience to a deep, deep level. And what he was looking at, and he's a baseball player, he coached. Baseball flows in his blood, but he looked at it and he is like,
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    22 mins
  • #178: Spin Master – Yep, The Toy Company

    #178: Spin Master – Yep, The Toy Company
    Nov 6 2024
    Going from public domain toys to Spin Master Originals was a must. How did Harari, Rabi and Verity do it? It wasn't with the devil sticks. 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. Here's one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast recording live this morning from the North Patio at the Wizard Academy classroom tower. Stephen Semple: I always get turned around. So this is north, is it? Dave Young: That's north. Stephen Semple: Okay. All right. I always get turned around here. Dave Young: The causeway, the ditch thing that runs- Stephen Semple: Oh, right. Of course. That's east-west, of course. Dave Young: No, that's north-south. Stephen Semple: Oh, right. Dave Young: North-South. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: If you stand in the middle of it and look up, you can see the North Star over the, and so we're on the other side. Stephen Semple: Right. Of course we are. Okay. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: I always get turned around. Dave Young: Yeah, that's okay. Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: It has taken me a while. Anyway, we're recording a podcast. Stephen Semple: Yes. We talk. Dave Young: And we're sitting outdoors. And just as I was hitting the record button, you said Spin Master. Stephen Semple: Spin Master. Dave Young: This is an exercise bike. Stephen Semple: Toy company. Dave Young: Toy company. What am I thinking, spin cycle? First of all, I don't play with toys and I don't ride exercise bikes, so I'm at a loss. Stephen Semple: They're best known for Paw Patrol. And you wouldn't know about that either 'cause you don't have any little kids in your life. Dave Young: No, my little- Stephen Semple: Anybody who's got little kids in their life know Paw Patrol. Dave Young: All right. Well, I am all ears. Stephen Semple: Give you an idea how big the Paw Patrol franchise is, 14 billion. Dave Young: Wait. 14 billion? Stephen Semple: Billion in sales when you add all their stuff up. Dave Young: Wow. Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And these are toys? Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: They are toys and they are a Canadian company, and my niece used to work for them. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: This was actually a little extra fun to do. Dave Young: Some insider info. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Well, not really, but yeah, they're a Canadian company in quite a little success store. Dave Young: Little, yeah. Stephen Semple: Then we'll talk about later, they also went on to have bought some other brands such as Rubik's Cube. They now own Rubik's Cube. Dave Young: All right. Stephen Semple: Yeah. It was founded by Ronan Harari, Antoine Rabi and Ben Verity. They started the business in the late 1990s. And around that time, patterns of play does not change. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Toys may change, way kids play with things, the way even adults play with things don't change. And so the key is to find things that fit into those play patterns. That idea has basically led this company to be one of the greatest success stories in the toy space in the last 20 years. Yeah. And this whole idea, the key to find things that fit in those play patterns basically led to the creation of Paw Patrol,
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    19 mins

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