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The Empire Builders Podcast

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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Episodes
  • #152: Social Media & Recruitment – A Case Study with No Bull RV

    #152: Social Media & Recruitment – A Case Study with No Bull RV
    May 8 2024
    Building trust is not easy, but when you are consistent, unique and true to yourself people take notice. No Bull RV has done this very well. 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. [Tommy Cool Air Ad] Matthew Burns: This is not Stephen Semple or Dave Young. I've commandeered the entire podcast at the request of Stephen. So I am here for a reason. I've got with me a client of Stephen's, Rick Showers of No Bull RV in the Edmonton area of Alberta, and you guys have heard us talk about him before, he's been on the podcast before, but we've had a very specific topic that we want to talk about today, and we're talking about the amazing use of social media that him and his team, we have one of his team members here, her name is Natacha. Natacha, what's your role with No Bull? Natacha: Technically by title I'm HR. Matthew Burns: That'll be part of what we talk about. Great. And then what are some of the other things that you're doing there? Natacha: I'm doing anything I can to support Rick, I guess, and just build the business and making sure all our pieces are aligning together and that we're really approaching things from a whole business level, not just bits and pieces at a time. Matthew Burns: Okay, fantastic. And Rick, that's a very politically correct answer. What is Natacha to you? What does she do for you? Rick Showers: She does pretty much all the stuff I don't want to do. Matthew Burns: There we go. That's the answer. That's the answer we wanted. Rick Showers: She sees to it that it gets done. Let me put it that way. Matthew Burns: Exactly. Well, no, and her job is to support you and all the things that we're honestly, truly ... Business owners, especially entrepreneurs, we get caught up in doing everything at the beginning and then we realize I'm really not good at this list of 20 things, so I'm going to get somebody else who's much better at it than me. I'm going to concentrate on what I'm good at. And that's your Natacha. What we really want to talk about today is how you guys are using social media and its effect, the kind of the bonus effect it's had on your recruiting and the onboarding of new staff members. Rick, talk to me a little bit about your perception of this and how it's affected you guys there at No Bull. Rick Showers: The perception of the social component? Matthew Burns: You got it. Rick Showers: Well, as a user, I always thought it was a bit of a pain in the ass, frankly, because there's one more social channel coming after another. As a business owner, I was always skeptical and never really liked the fact that competitors, for example, or other business categories were actually using it to try and flog product, which to me always seemed a little bit counterintuitive because it's not really a social thing. They're looking at it as an advertising channel. So we approach it a little bit differently and wanted to stand out by just being different. Matthew Burns: You're highlighting your people on social media, you guys are spending time talking about the vulnerabilities of some of your units because you guys are in used RVs and you're pointing out the negatives and saying, "Hey guys, well, we take care of this for you." And you're very upfront. I remember one post where you were trying to do a video when a bird was squawking in the tree next to you and you're like, "Come on, man, we're doing a video." It was so funny. But yeah, I mean, social media really is meant to be social.
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    16 mins
  • #151: Anacin – Unique Selling Proposition or Feelings?

    #151: Anacin – Unique Selling Proposition or Feelings?
    May 1 2024
    The marketing for Anacin was brilliant and studied. Creating emotion around how you make others feel was a master class of messaging. 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. [Colair Cooling & Heating Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here, along with Stephen Semple. I really don't have much for the topic that Stephen just whispered into my ear other than I know the brand name. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: It's pain relief and it's Anacin. Stephen Semple: Anacin. Dave Young: Anacin. I'm trying to remember, there's one of those brands, it was either Anacin, or Beyer, or Excedrin, that combined a little Aspirin with a little caffeine maybe, or something like that, but I don't know if this is the one. Stephen Semple: You're actually really, as usual, David, very, very close. Pretty much on the money. Dave Young: All right. Okay. Stephen Semple: The first commercial painkiller created was Aspirin. That was created in 1897 by a German chemist and the product was branded Bayer, with Bayer being- Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: If you remember on it, Bayer was done as a cross. It was Bayer, Bayer. It was Bayer left to right, Bayer vertical, the Ys meeting in the middle and it formed this little- Dave Young: Like the Red Cross. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: All of that, yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Now it first false started. In 1897, it was a powder, and it was in 1914 where it changed to a table and had that branding on it. Bayer was marketed by promoting the product to doctors who then told patients. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: It was all about inform the doctor, the doctor would inform patients. Anacin changed the rules and changed the rules for marketing of medicinal products forever because they came into the market and decided to advertise to the patient who would then go to the pharmacist and demand it. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Up until this point, everything was marketed to the doctor, to the doctor, to the doctor, to the doctor. Instead, Anacin was the first to come along and say, "No, we're going to go direct to the consumer." We're going to market to the patient, and the patient is going to walk up to the pharmacist and say, 'Hey, I want some Anacin. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: If that happens enough, guess what's going to happen? The pharmacist is going to carry Anacin. Dave Young: Yeah. It's like the Wrigley Spearmint Gum story all over again. Stephen Semple: Wrigley Spearmint Gum story, but done in the medical space. Again, it's one of these things where, for so long, you could sit there and go, "Yeah, but that works for gum, yeah that works for this, that works for parcel services, that works for all this other stuff," but all of a sudden it's like, "But medicine is different." Medicine is not different. We're seeing it today. How many drugs do we see being advertised today, where it's advertised direct to the consumer or it's, "Ask your doctor. Talk to your doctor about this." Because what they know is if you walk into the doctor's office asking about it, the doctor will then make sure they know about it and likely prescribe it. Anacin started advertising in the 1940s on the radio. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Here's what the spot claimed. That, "Anacin is like a doctor's prescription, not just one but a combination of several medically active ingredien...
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    16 mins
  • #150: United Parcel Service – Delivery by Model “T”

    #150: United Parcel Service – Delivery by Model “T”
    Apr 24 2024
    California joins the union and messages need to be delivered. UPS had a solution and decided it needed to be luxury and efficient. 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. [Colair Cooling & Heating] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple. And we're talking about empires and how they were built. Get it? That's the name of the pod... that's what we do here. Stephen Semple: I've never put that together before. Dave Young: Wow, I see. Aren't you glad I'm here? Stephen Semple: I'm so glad. Dave Young: You whispered the three letters, UPS, into my ears just as the countdown started. And I'm trying to think of a UPS story, and mostly what I think of when I think of UPS, think back years ago, I sort of remember, I think their start but I remember that being a UPS driver was a way better job back then than it is today. But that's probably not a big part of this story. So let's talk about how they started. Stephen Semple: Pretty sure it was UPS recently that actually just put through a new pay package and benefits, and things along that lines. That really ramped up what people are being paid at UPS, if I remember correctly. But you're right, this is not a big part. It's not a big part of the story. Dave Young: I think it started... how long have they been around, Stephen? Stephen Semple: They were founded on August 28th, 1907. Dave Young: I feel like probably I lived in a town so small that we didn't have one until maybe the sixties or seventies. They just didn't show up. Stephen Semple: Well, and this is an interesting part. There was a big challenge to them becoming nationwide. They were founded in August 1907 by James Casey and Claude Ryan in Seattle. I didn't realize that they had started in Seattle. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Stephen Semple: And they actually first started as their original name was the American Message Company. And today of course is known as UPS, United Parcel Service. They do like 90 billion in sales and have over 500,000 employees. Just what a monster they have become in this space. But basically they started around the time California joins the union. And you know what ends up happening now, I know Seattle's not and before people go nuts, I know Seattle's not in California, but I was just trying to, you know, Historic landmark. Dave Young: It's the West Coast, yeah. Stephen Semple: Exactly. But I get it, before people know- Dave Young: Didn't all join at once. Yeah. Stephen Semple: ... So, California joins the union. There's this growth happening. In the west, there's this need to transport items and it's hard getting things to the new territories. And lots of delivery services pop up. Wells Fargo pops up for the transportation of money. The Pony Express is created for transporting of mail. Now, of course, the Pony Express only lasts 18 months because the telegraph wipes them out. Right? Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: But here's the interesting thing, with the telegraph, you still need a messenger service to run the last leg. To take it from the telegraph station to the person. So, Jim Casey's, 19 years old, he's in Seattle and he sets up this business for basically running the telegraphs. That's how they start. Dave Young: Okay. They're the last mile guy. Stephen Semple: That's the reason why they're the American message service. They start off as being the last mile guy.
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    19 mins
Leadership Management Marketing Economics
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