• #193: Jacuzzi – Propellers to Propellers
    Feb 19 2025
    The Jacuzzi Seven were obsessed with flight and engineered better propellers. What is the difference between propellers of air or water??? 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. [Tapper's Jewelry Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here, alongside Stephen Semple, discussing empires, entrepreneurial empires that started from just somebody's crazy idea and became something huge. And today, Jacuzzi. Stephen Semple: Jacuzzi. Dave Young: We're not talking about a hot tub, we're talking about a Jacuzzi. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: Which, sort of became the generic name for hot tubs, but I'm fascinated to hear the story. I'm guessing we're headed to the 70s, baby. Is that ring true or no? Stephen Semple: The business was founded in 1915. Dave Young: All right, so we're not headed to the 70s, but we'll still be around. Was it founded as Jacuzzi? Stephen Semple: Well, here's the interesting thing, here's the really fun part. Dave Young: Oh wait. Stephen Semple: Guess what their first business was? Dave Young: Wait, I'm thinking. These might be like therapeutic Whirlpool things too, no? I don't know. I'm getting ahead, I don't know what their first business was. Stephen Semple: Their first business was in the airplane business. Dave Young: Okay. The 1915 three engine Jacuzzi. No, I don't know. Stephen Semple: No, they started by making props for airplanes, that was their first business. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yes. How crazy is that? Dave Young: That's nuts. Okay. Stephen Semple: Isn't that nuts? Yeah. So, they were founded in 1915 in Berkeley, California by seven siblings, there were seven kids in the Jacuzzi family. Dave Young: Holy. Stephen Semple: And they were- Dave Young: Was Jacuzzi their name? Stephen Semple: Well, actually, it was Iacuzzi, and when they immigrated, the classic. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah, the classic mistake of being written down wrong, and that's the new spelling is what stuck. They were immigrants from Casarsa della Delizia in Italy, and I'm sure I'm completely butchering that. Dave Young: Yeah, just say Italy. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And as said, the original family name was Iacuzzi. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And it became Jacuzzi, and of course, it defined the hot tub business, which today is a $6 billion global market. Dave Young: But airplane propellers. Stephen Semple: Airplane propellers. Dave Young: Seven siblings had the bright idea of making airplane propellers. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: But this is shortly after Orville and Wilbur- Stephen Semple: Oh yeah. This is- Dave Young: Had invented airplane propellers. Stephen Semple: Well, this is the day of biplanes, right? So, it's 1915, and Rachele Jacuzzi, who's the youngest of the seven, is visiting the San Francisco Fair, and he sees biplanes. And one of the sons is working as an engineer for the founder of McDonnell Douglas, and they're obsessed with flight, and they see these stunt plane props, and they look at them and go, these are really inefficient. So, they invented propeller that is curved and smaller and more efficient, and it's called the toothpick propeller. Got these little tiny blades. And they open up a machine shop to start making these propellers,
    Show more Show less
    19 mins
  • #192: Polaroid – Instant Idea, Instant Pic, Instant Empire
    Feb 12 2025
    What happens when you are in the polarization film business and your daughter asks why she can't see the picture right away? You invent Polaroid. 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. [No Bull RV Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And today's topic, man, you keep picking topics that take me back to my childhood, Stephen. And for this one, it's the camera my dad had. It's the Polaroid. Stephen Semple: Is that right? Your dad had one? Dave Young: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And it was a great camera. He used to let me take pictures. And he'd set the timer and I'd peel the backing off. These were the old kind, not the SX-70, modern day seventies. Stephen Semple: You were old school. You had the little backing you had to peel off. Right? Dave Young: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Stephen Semple: Awesome. Dave Young: And he had extra doodads and things like a little timer that would snap onto the button so we could do a family pic. Stephen Semple: Oh, is that right? Dave Young: Oh, yeah. Stephen Semple: Wow. Dave Young: All the fun stuff. Stephen Semple: Well, when I got talking about this with my oldest daughter, Crystal, what I was surprised to learn, and I learned this when I said to her I was going to do this and then discovered more about it. Polaroid is still around. She is a camp counselor in the summertime. Little kids show up at camp with a Polaroid camera. And it's still the point it and comes out, and you've got to wait for a minute for it to it develop. But yeah, it's still a thing. Dave Young: And honestly, the nice part is the algorithm doesn't get ahold of that image. Stephen Semple: That's true. That's true Dave Young: Big data doesn't have a picture of your kid If you use a Polaroid. Stephen Semple: Well, that's maybe why they're giving these little kids to do that. It's estimated that they do around $770 million in business. Dave Young: Wow. Wow. Stephen Semple: So it's not insignificant. Yeah. Yeah. Dave Young: I'd say that's not insignificant, I think. Stephen Semple: Yeah. But as we know, it was revolutionary at the time, this whole instant picture. And at their peak, which was 1991, they were doing about $3 billion in business. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So that's- Dave Young: Man, I would've thought their peak was way earlier than that for some reason. Stephen Semple: Yeah, that was the peak, '91. Yeah. Dave Young: Just before digital kind of came in. Stephen Semple: And kind of messed with a bunch of things. Yeah. The company was founded by Edwin Land and George Wheelwright in 1937 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But didn't start off as a camera company. Edwin Land was in Harvard, and he dropped out of Harvard to pursue business. But what he had invented was the coating that polarizes lenses. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Stephen Semple: So hence the name Polaroid. Dave Young: Polaroid. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And I've always wondered about that. Why Polaroid? And it came from that. And the business became huge in 1941 when the US entered World War II, because it was being used for flight goggles. It was massive. Sales went from $760,000 pre-war to like $16 million in 1943. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: Selling this polarizing technology. But 90% of the contracts were military. There was no Sunglass Hut yet. Right?
    Show more Show less
    24 mins
  • #191: Three Levels of Trust – From Surface to Deep
    Feb 5 2025
    Stephen has been studying and learning how to use and explain trust for Organizations. Let's just say, you need to get vulnerable for this one. 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. [Out Of This World Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young, alongside Stephen Semple, and Stephen, you're supposed to whisper- Stephen Semple: We're going off the reservation, I know. Yes. Dave Young: You were supposed to whisper in my ear today's business that we're going to discuss, and you just mentioned trust, and I'm thinking, this is not like a bank and trust. This is not like a trust fund. Stephen Semple: In God, we trust, money. Dave Young: No, not that. Basically, this is like trust. This is like consumer trust, people trusting each other, people trusting businesses, people trusting, I don't know, government. Are we living in a post-trust age? Is that the question? Stephen Semple: Well, Gallup and other organizations that measure basically people's trust in institutions and organizations and businesses and things like that across the board all agree, it's at an all-time low. Across the board, our trust in organizations, businesses, other people, things like that has declined to a level not seen before. And what's disturbing on this is if you're coming up with an innovative idea, if you're wanting to create a movement, if you're wanting to get support from something, if you're wanting to sell a product or service, everyone agreed. I had the opportunity to run lots of workshops and speak at lots of places, and I'll ask people, is trust important to what you do? Everyone agrees, trust is super important. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: We all agree on that. Studies show trust is way down. So we all agree it's really important, all the studies show its way down, so it got me to thinking and really studying, how do we establish and build trust as organizations? And what I found was there's actually three levels of trust, and one of the things we're going to dive into here in a little bit, the highest level is this concept of parasocial relationships, which we'll dig into. But I just thought, if you're wanting to build something big and large and grand, there's a point where what you've got to recognize is you've got to get people to trust this new idea that you're doing. So when I get talking to folks about trust, I'll often ask, "What are the things that you do to build trust?" And we did this in the workshop that I did with Matthew Burns and Gary Bernier. Dave Young: Selling professional services. Stephen Semple: On the selling professional services, one of the questions was that, and people talked about how, well, you do what you say you're going to do and be on time and be polite and be transparent and all those things build trust, and it's true, but those are like level one trust things. They will form a basic level of trust. And the other challenge with it is, for the most part, they were things that you had to have an interaction with the client or the prospective client in order to even establish that. Dave Young: Man, this is a Gordian knot. [inaudible 00:04:46] This is a tough nut you want to crack. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: I think of a lot of things. When do you want to dive into the parasocial effect? It happens to me, oh, I don't know, three, four times a month. Somebody will show up at Wizard Academy at a class and they'll go, "Wow,
    Show more Show less
    23 mins
  • #190: Care & Repair – A True Empire Building Story
    Jan 29 2025
    Sergei Kaminskiy started his empire by taking jobs that he didn't know how to do and then hiring a professional to learn from. Wow. 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. [Tapper's Jewelry Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it's Stephen Semple here, and yes, it's unusual, I'm opening the episode. We've given Dave Young the week off because he's been working really hard lately. And I managed to meet Sergei Kaminskiy. We had a bit of a brief conversation and I was immediately, "Dude, I got to get you onto the podcast." There were so many things we talked about that were just really, really great lessons and he's in the home services business. We're going to be talking about handyman, but this is applicable to all sorts of different businesses. But the first thing that fascinated me was really how you got started in the handyman business before creating the franchise model. Tell me about the start, that was just a cool story. Sergei Kaminskiy: Yeah, I got married. I was really young, I was just 19 years old. Stephen Semple: Right there tells us you're a little nuts, but... Sergei Kaminskiy: I look at 19 year olds now and I'm like, "You're not ready to get married." But anyhow, we got married and then about three months into it, we look at the bank account, there's about $70 in the bank account. And here I am, I'm working as a framing contractor, I mean as a framer for a framing contractor and making $17 an hour. I went to the owner of the business and I said, "Hey, Jim, can I get a raise? I bought a truck, I bought the tools." And he goes, "Sergei, you are already making pretty much at the top of what framers make." And he was right, they were already compensating me fairly, but yet, it was not enough for us to make ends meet. My wife brought in a nice BMW into the marriage that we had to make payments on, and by the time we did all the things we had to do, we were running out of money. So I told my wife, I said, "Listen, what I do know is that I can do a business on a small scale. I can do some handyman work, I can take on some side jobs." Going to my parents and asking them for money was not an option. I said, "I have to figure out a way to make this thing work." And so literally it was raining outside that day, and we went to the club room of our apartment complex. There was a little room with a computer and a printer. We didn't even have a computer or a printer in our apartment, so we started our business with no computer, no printer, nothing. Literally went to the complex and printed out 25 flyers. I designed them on Microsoft Word and I had little palm trees around the piece of paper, and it says San Diego County. Stephen Semple: I bet you wish now that you had some old copies of those. Sergei Kaminskiy: I have a photo actually. Stephen Semple: Do you really? Sergei Kaminskiy: Yes. Stephen Semple: Oh my God, you've got to send that to me. You have to send that to me. Sergei Kaminskiy: It's amazing, so literally printed out these flyers. It's raining outside, we wrapped them real nice with the bow. And I'm running door to door as Elena's driving in the rain, and she's kind of following me as I'm running door to door. I pass out about 25 flyers and I'm like, "Oh, great, we passed out some flyers. Let's wait for the phone to ring." And sure enough, one guy called me. One guy called me and he said, "I need some service done on one of the rental units that I own.
    Show more Show less
    29 mins
  • #189: Birkenstock – Went Public At 7 Billion
    Jan 22 2025
    You know you have a great idea when you start having competitors copy you. Well, Dr. Scholl's copied the foot bed from Birkenstock. 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. [Out Of This World Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young, here with Stephen Semple. And today, man, today is the day, man. Dude, we're going to rap about Birkenstocks. It's the crunchy granola shoe from the seventies. That's what I think of with Birkenstocks, and I want to like Birkenstocks. I tried them on many times in my life and I don't know that I could get through the learning curve or whatever it is. They just didn't. Anyway, I'm anxious to hear the story, because I think we're headed to Europe. Stephen Semple: So the average, so people who own Birkenstocks on average own Fortair. Dave Young: Yeah, I get it. Stephen Semple: In 2023, Birkenstock went public. Dave Young: Oh, did they? Stephen Semple: At a $7 billion valuation. Dave Young: Dang. Why? Why would they need to? Stephen Semple: A lot of times, I think when things like this happen, it's to free up money for the family. Dave Young: Yeah, they're cashing out. Stephen Semple: It's the give ability for key employees to have ownership. Often, there's a lot of reasons for doing an IPO, and in future, we're going to do one on Jacuzzi where it'll really highlight that really well because it's a crazy story. Dave Young: Cool. Well, take me back to the beginning of Birkenstock, man. Stephen Semple: Yeah. The model that Birkenstock is really known for is that classic one with the strap and whatnot. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And it's called the Arizona. And it has been growing, sales on the Arizona have been growing like 24% a year. It just Dave Young: Just year over year? Stephen Semple: It's just growing, and growing, and growing, and growing year over year. But Birkenstock is a really old company. It was founded in 1774 by Johann. Dave Young: Well, that's pretty old. Stephen Semple: Yeah, Johann Adam Birkenstock in Germany. And the original idea was to create shoes that gave support and contour to the foot. And in 1896, the Fußbett, which is footbed, was designed. And by 1925, Birkenstocks were being sold all over Europe. And in 1966 is when they were brought to America. And literally the first documented mention of Birkenstock was basically March 25th, 1774 as a vassal and shoemaker in some local church archives is where it was first mentioned. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: Right. I mean, holy crap. We're talking generation, after generation, after generation of master shoemakers or part-time shoemakers, all called Birkenstock. This is a business that's gone from Birkenstock to Birkenstock to Birkenstock to Birkenstock. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: It's been really quite incredible. Dave Young: That is amazing. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And so basically where they really had their big breakthrough was following World War I, because shoes were now starting to be mass-produced. It started to become cheap. But here's the crazy thing is the early mass-produced shoes, there were no arch support. And in a lot of cases there was not even a left or right. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And so this is when they created this whole idea of a footbed being able to be put in the shoe to create better comfort and whatnot.
    Show more Show less
    18 mins
  • #188: Walmart – Big Dreams for Small Towns
    Jan 15 2025
    Sam Walton left JC Penny and realized that people in rural America had to travel to shop in department stores. He changed all 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 Heating & Cooling Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And Stephen just told me the topic for today's podcast, and it's Walmart. Stephen Semple: That's it. You're so excited. Dave Young: Oh my gosh. We're finally going to talk about Walmart. Stephen Semple: Walmart's just one of those companies that they've been unbelievably successful, and I'm going to defend Walmart here, but they're hard to love. Dave Young: They're hard to love, but man, if you live in a small town, they're hard to avoid too. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And you got to hand it to Sam Walton. Stephen Semple: Yep. Dave Young: I've read his book. It is actually the one that was ghostwritten while he was dying in the hospital. And it's a really good read and it's got some great lessons, so I'm anxious to hear what you found out. Stephen Semple: It's a great read. It has some fantastic lessons in it. I think there are a few things that Walmart as a corporation has started to deviate from those ideas that if they had kept closer to them, Walmart is a company that would be deeply loved. There's a few things I think they've moved away from, but here's one of the things that I'm going to say I admire about Walmart is that if we did not have a Walmart in the marketplace, I think it would be far easier for prices to increase for consumers on certain products, groceries, and things along that lines, Walmart being in there, to a degree, has managed to keep prices for certain commodities at a certain level because Walmart is dedicated to that, keeping prices down. And I think having somebody in that space is good. And this was stats from a couple of years ago was over 10,500 stores in 24 countries, that number surprised me. I didn't realize it was 24 countries, and it was started in 1945 by a former JCPenney employee. I didn't realize that Sam Walton had worked for JCPenney, and the first thing he did when he left JCPenney is he bought a branch of Ben Franklin stores from the Butler brothers. So he started with those stores, and what Sam saw was retailers were putting a few large stores in big cities, but those big stores in big cities was inconvenient for rural shoppers. And what he decided to do was open a large department store in Rogers, Arkansas. Now, here's the crazy thing is, this was a place with a population of 6,000 people. So one would go, "This is nuts. Why would you open a store in a town of that size?" So it's 1962, and he opens basically the first Walmart. And his primary focus was to sell products at low prices, higher volume sales, lower profit margin, and really do this crusading for the consumer. And the funny part is the name Walmart was derived from Fed Mart, which was, if we remember when we did the episode on Costco, was the first version of Costco that was done by Saul Price, was Fed Mart. And Walton has also stated he liked the idea of calling the chain Walmart because he really liked Saul's name, Fed Mart. He even talks about how a lot of his really good ideas came from studying Saul. So it's really, really interesting. But within its first five years, the company expanded to 18 stores in Arkansas and was 9 million in sales. So it really did this... Really, really, really,
    Show more Show less
    18 mins
  • #187: Willy Wonka – More Than A Movie!
    Jan 8 2025
    Stephen and Dave stroll down memory lane to discover just how the Willy Wonka bar came to be. Dave was a little disappointed. But you won't be. 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. [Waukee Feet Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And the topic whispered in my ear this morning was one that Stephen reminded me that I requested because we've- Stephen Semple: And you've remembered so well. Dave Young: That's the fun part of being me is I like to hide my own Easter eggs. We have talked about so many brands of chocolate, and I think I mentioned that sometime we need to talk about Wonka. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And I kind of wish you'd told me beforehand because I'd go back and watch the movie just for the fun of it. I haven't watched the latest one, the Timothée Chalamet or whatever. Stephen Semple: I watched it on a flight recently because it was one of those ones where I didn't want to run the risk of spending the money and going to the theater for it. Dave Young: Sure. Yeah. Stephen Semple: So I was on a flight and it was one of the movies, and I thought, "Oh, I'll watch this." And it was actually a good rendition. It's the prequel, is how it's set. Dave Young: Oh, it's the origin story. Stephen Semple: It's the origin story, and it's good. Dave Young: Oh, cool. Stephen Semple: It's good. I enjoyed it. Dave Young: I'm going to have to watch it. Stephen Semple: I thought they did a nice job of it. Yeah. Dave Young: Well, we're actually recording these on a Saturday morning. Maybe I'll talk to Julie and see if we can watch Wonka this afternoon. Stephen Semple: I think you'd enjoy it. Dave Young: It might be kind of fun. Stephen Semple: I think you'd enjoy it. Dave Young: So what'd you find out? I'm dying to know. Was there really a golden ticket? Stephen Semple: Well, you're just going to have to wait and see. Dave Young: Did he really dress that way? Stephen Semple: It's the late 1960s, and the candy business is in a bit of a slump. There hasn't been really much innovation. It's completely controlled by Mars and Hershey at this point. Dave Young: Probably the American Dental Association had just formed. Stephen Semple: And what we've got is we've got this food executive, Kenneth Mason, who's looking to shake things up at Quaker Oats. He's an executive at Quaker Oats. And Quaker Oats is famous for oatmeal and Cap'n Crunch cereal. Dave Young: And the old Quaker dude in the hat staring at you from the box. Sure. Stephen Semple: Yeah, that's it. And Kenneth Mason sees a bigger opportunity. Now, he graduated with a degree in English from Yale before going into the food business, and he has aspirations to become president of Quaker. And he's about to head into candy. So he goes, "You know what? I really want to make a big splash in this division." Because in the 1960s, candy is boring, there's no new innovation, there's no advertising going on. Mason believes, "This is my opportunity to create the next new thing, make my mark, and become president of the company." But he needs a launching pad to create that splash. And he's read the book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it inspires him what to do. And this idea went on to become a $2.8 billion business. Wonka is a big deal. But it starts with this book that's about to become a film,
    Show more Show less
    16 mins
  • #186: Rolex – How To Promote a Premium Brand
    Jan 1 2025
    Affinity marketing at it's very, very finest. Rolex has made Mariners, Aviators, Drivers, etc, seek out and own a luxury time piece. 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. [Bonney Home Services Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And Stephen whispered in my ear, as we all know he does at the very beginning of the show, but he whispered in my ear that he's not going to tell me the topic. He's going to keep it to himself and tell a little story. Stephen Semple: Yeah, I'm going to rob you of your preparation time. Dave Young: See, it's the thing that my brain loves is to hear the thing and remember my story about whatever the product is. So you go ahead with your little story. Stephen Semple: And you go into your imaginary world and ignore me. Dave Young: I'll be over here just doodling. Let me know when we're ready to start. Stephen Semple: So what inspired this was I was in Vegas recently and I was speaking at one of these big international cleaning conferences- Dave Young: As one does well. Stephen Semple: And these things are huge. Like Vegas is so big, man, it's crazy. But what I did each morning is there's a coffee shop I really like in the Bellagio that has just great espresso. So my morning routine was get up, go over to this coffee shop, grab an espresso. And if anyone's been in the Bellagio, the retail outlets in the Bellagio are phenomenal. Dave Young: Oh, God. Stephen Semple: They're Harry Winston, and Tiffany's, and Cartier, and Rolex. They are all the big fancy brands. Dave Young: I am so clumsy. I can't afford to sneeze if I go into one of those places. Stephen Semple: And what's incredible actually, if you're a retailer, and I've said this a lot, if you're a retailer and you're looking for ideas on how to do store displays, spend two days wandering through Vegas. The store displays are just phenomenal. But here's the thing that stood out to me. Each morning I was there just before the retail stores would open, and there's one store that every morning had a lineup, and that was Rolex. Dave Young: Rolex? Stephen Semple: Every morning there was a lineup at Rolex. Not at Cartier, not at Tiffany's, at Rolex. And I went, "Wow, that says something about the power of Rolex." So I looked at it and said, we all know Rolex is a super powerful brand. People who have Rolex stores can't keep Rolex in stock. But that just really did it for me. Dave Young: It turns out Rolex means coffee in Italian or something. They were just in the wrong place. Stephen Semple: Might've been. Might've been. So what I want to do with Rolex is we'll talk a little bit about the early innovation of Rolex, but the big thing I want to talk about is how Rolex promoted its brand. Because they did some really interesting things how they promoted the company. So Rolex was founded by Hans Wilsdorf, and he really was a pioneer in taking the pocket watch to the wristwatch. And legend, whatever has it that the name Rolex, as he describes it, the name Rolex was whispered in his ear when he was in a horse-drawn carriage going through Cheapside in the City of London. It was just this inspirational name. And it didn't mean anything, but he just liked the sound of it. And the first breakthrough came in July. He was given Class A Observatory Certificate was awarded to the wristwatch,
    Show more Show less
    21 mins