The Empire Builders Podcast

Alfred Butts worked on this game from 1938 until 1949 and then gave up the rights to James Brunot for royalties. 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. [JS Pest Control Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to Empire Builders podcast. I'm Dave Young. I'm sitting here with Stephen Semple. Well, I'm not sitting here. We're recording this. He's in wherever he is, and I'm wherever I am. You know this world, you know how it all works, the Zoomee River. Anyway, boy, I've led us right off into the weeds right from the start. Stephen Semple: Well done. Dave Young: Stephen told me the topic for today. It's another game. Stephen Semple: Yes, another game. Dave Young: A lot of empires in the game world. Stephen Semple: Completely. Dave Young: This one, I'm interested in the story. I'm not a very good player of it because I don't have very much experience with it. This is another one of those that we just didn't play that much, but I was aware of, and there are people that are just fanatics for Scrabble. They play all kinds of word games, and I probably got into word games a little late in life. I don't know if my family was ... I don't know what it is, Stephen. Maybe we were just Chinese Checkers people. Stephen Semple: And I'm with you. Now it's interesting how you started this podcast because as soon as I said Scrabble, your brain got a little bit scrabbled. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: But I didn't play Scrabble much. It's not a game that I enjoyed and I found actually almost frustrating. Dave Young: Kind of stressful, right? Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yes. But it's surprising how big a game it is. As of 2008, which was the most recent information I could find on this, it was sold in 121 countries, 30 languages. Although how do you do 30 languages? It's like, yeah, but 150 million sets have been sold worldwide. But here's the one that surprised me. It's roughly one third of American homes and half of British homes have a Scrabble set. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yes. And there's 4,000 Scrabble clubs around the world. It is everywhere. It is literally everywhere. Dave Young: It really is a game of skill, at least when it comes to having a vocabulary and keeping an eye out for possibilities and the different points on letters and things like that. And just I'm looking for reasons that maybe I didn't play it very much. Stephen Semple: And I'm with you. I didn't play it much either. Dave Young: I've enjoyed it when I've played it. It's always been somebody else's Scrabble set. I've never owned a set. So tell us how it started. Stephen Semple: It's quite an old game, actually. I was surprised when I came across it. It was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938. Dave Young: 1938. Stephen Semple: So it's actually a very old game. I was quite surprised by that. And he was an architect, and he lost his job because think about 1938, late '20s, early '30s, Great Depression, how many architects, how many buildings are being built? Dave Young: By '38, we started thinking about how we're going to have to be building tanks soon. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Well, it would have been a very, very tough time. And so he's struggling to make ends meet, and he starts to notice the increased popularity in board games. But he doesn't have money to go out and do things or money to buy games, so he's trying to find ways to pass time, but he also then starts thinking about,

J.W. Marriott had a gift for seeing what the public needed and made sure to give it to them. Marriott is the epitome of Entrepreneur to 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, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. Here's one of those. [ASAP Commercial Doors Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young, sitting here with Stephen Semple, and we're talking about people that built empires. Empires, sir. Not just a little business, an empire. As usual, Stephen whispered the topic into my ear just as we were counting down to start recording. And the word is Marriott. I guess that's a name, the Marriott, I don't know if it was one guy or a family. I know that it ended up being a bunch of Marriott's involved, but the Marriott hotel chain. Stephen Semple: The Marriott Hotel chain. Marriott Corporation. Dave Young: I'll tell you what I know about them. And this is weird. A Mormon family? Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And most of the brothers that were involved, maybe in the beginning, but anyway, they were all members of the same college fraternity that I was in. Stephen Semple: Is that right? Dave Young: I didn't know them, but that was the talk about them, "They're these BYU Sigma Chi's from Utah." Stephen Semple: And John Willard Marriott and his wife Alice, very devout Mormons and part of the origin of the Marriott chain actually starts with them doing a mission in New England. Dave Young: Cool. Anxious to hear the story. Stephen Semple: It started in March 5th, 1927 by John Willard Marriott, which is part of the reason why one of the Marriott's is the JW. Dave Young: Sure. This goes back way farther than I knew. I think by the time I was aware of them, this was the eighties. Wow. Big history. Stephen Semple: And today they have over 9,000 properties. There's a whole pile of different badges under it. Dave Young: Brands. Stephen Semple: And million and a half rooms, 400,000 employees. They do like 23 billion in revenue. And look, everyone knows the name Marriott. Dave Young: I think it qualifies as an empire. Stephen Semple: I think it does. And it starts with JW traveling to D.C, Washington, D.C after doing a mission in New England. And he experiences this really hot, humid summer, and he thinks to himself, "This city needs more places to buy cool drinks." He returns home to Utah. He finishes his degree at the University of Utah and returns to Washington where he buys an A&W franchise in Columbia Heights. Dave Young: Good idea. He should have invented air conditioning. I think we've talked about. Stephen Semple: That would've been a better idea. Dave Young: I always have to slide in some little weird bit of trivia that I know, but back in the days before air conditioning, the British Foreign Service actually paid people tropical pay when they were stationed in Washington, D.C. Stephen Semple: Wow, because it is so ugly in the summertime. Dave Young: It was dank and humid. Basically it's a city built on a swamp. Stephen Semple: It pretty much is. Dave Young: He buys an A&W franchise in? Stephen Semple: Columbia Heights. It's a suburb of D.C. It's great in the summer. Business is great in summer. Really slow in the winter. Because at the time, A&W did not sell food. They started off, first of all, it's just root beer. Now he gets permission to sell food, but does it under a different name called Hot Shop. Dave Young: Hot Shop. Shop or Shot? Stephen Semple:

A one point more TMNT action figures where sold than Snickers chocolate bars. Instantly qualifies as 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, 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: Dave, if I say to you the names Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael, what do you think of? Dave Young: I'm guessing that we're not talking about Renaissance artists. Stephen Semple: Not really. Dave Young: We're heading off into Turtleland. Stephen Semple: We're heading off into Turtleland, exactly. But isn't it interesting? That speaks to how big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are. Where you can say to pretty much anybody those names and yeah, you don't go to Renaissance artists. You go, oh, we're talking about the turtles, right? Dave Young: Yeah, for sure. Especially people a little bit younger than us, but absolutely. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Well, and they went through a revival just recently. There was another one of the movies out, and it's really interesting. That movie was an illustrated movie, and I went and saw that with my oldest daughter, Crystal, who's an illustrator. Man, the illustration style in it was amazing. When you talk about emotions, they really captured that teenage boy chaotic energy. You could really feel it, but that's what it's supposed to be. It was actually really, really well done. Really well done. Dave Young: Well, cool. Now, I have to confess, I don't know, other than I recognize the names and there's the cowabunga thing, the big catchphrase, but honestly, I raised four daughters that weren't into it, and it's after my childhood, so I didn't get into it either so I'm excited to hear the story. I've watched these turtles from afar. Stephen Semple: That's even interesting. When you think about that, and yet you still instantaneously knew what I was referring to, which tells you how strong a presence it had in culture given the fact that you've never seen the comics, you've never seen the movie. It didn't hit you at the right time, didn't hit your kids, and yet you were like zero hesitation. Dave Young: You couldn't hide from it. Stephen Semple: Correct, yes. Dave Young: It was so big. You couldn't hide from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Stephen Semple: But that just in itself captures how big it was. Dave Young: I'm trying to think of what else. Oh, they ate pizza. They eat a lot of pizza. Stephen Semple: That's it. The first comic was published by Mirage Studios, and Mirage Studios was started by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The first comic was published in 1984. Today, Mirage Studios is like a $17 billion multimedia franchise. In 1990, just give you an idea, at the peak, Target sold more Turtle action figures than Snickers bars. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Dave Young: More than Snickers bars. Stephen Semple: More than Snickers bars. Dave Young: These weren't even chocolate turtles. Stephen Semple: No, these were the action figures. No, not the chocolate turtles. Very good. Dave Young: See what I did there? Stephen Semple: Yeah, yeah, I did. In 2009, it was sold to Viacom for $60 million bucks. Dave Young: Man. All right. Stephen Semple: Yeah, so Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, they did well. They were artists, and they wanted to create this comic and it sort of started as a joke. In the eighties, if you think in the eighties, there was these tacky martial arts movies that ran overnight.

Dave Dave Young had no recollection of this game. Really, he didn't know. But after hearing this story he applauds Howard Wexler for knowing himself. 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, 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. [JS Pest Control Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple. And we're telling the stories of empires that were built up by people with an idea, business people. And Stephen just whispered today's topic into my ear and I don't know. Stephen Semple: You know the game. Connect Four. Dave Young: Connect Four. I don't think I've ever played Connect Four. It's a game? Stephen Semple: You've never played. Dave Young: You're telling me it's a game. Stephen Semple: It's a game. I'm telling you it's a game. Dave Young: Is it a computer game? Stephen Semple: No. Dave Young: It's a board game. Stephen Semple: No, no, it's not a board game either. And that's what makes it interesting. It's the one which is a vertical game and you connect four, you drop them in the top and you connect ... Dave Young: Oh, you drop those little things. Yeah. No, I've never played that. Stephen Semple: You've never played it? Okay. Dave Young: No, I never have. I've seen people doing it and I thought it was, well, it's just sort like cornhole or some stupid thing. Stephen Semple: But now you the game ... Dave Young: I've seen people playing it with a giant set and beers in their hands. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Okay. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: All right. Dave Young: It's that game. Stephen Semple: It's that game. Well, despite the fact you've never played ... Dave Young: Let me guess, let me guess. Stephen Semple: It's done pretty well. Dave Young: Let me guess. You have to have four colors in a row. Stephen Semple: You have to have four colors in a row. That's it. That's it. Connect Four. Dave Young: All right. Stephen Semple: Despite the fact that you've never played the game, it has done pretty well. Sorry. Dave Young: How many do they sell? Let's get that in. Stephen Semple: About 10 million a year. Dave Young: All right. That's it. Thanks for joining us on the Empire Builders. Stephen Semple: Wow. It's amazing how many times we do this stuff and you know something about the company. I would never have guessed that this is the one that you would not know it. Dave Young: Look, I don't even know if I want to admit this, but yeah, I don't have friends that invite me to play games. Stephen Semple: But I would've thought you would've at least remembered the advertisement. It's a pretty iconic ad that has been done. It was back in the late seventies and it was two kids playing. Dave Young: This was around in the 70s? Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Did I just wake up from a coma? Stephen Semple: You must have. There was a really iconic advertisement where the two little kids would be playing and the girl would say, "I won." And the boy would go, "I can't see it. Where?" And then she would point out the four in a row and he'd be like, "Pretty sneaky sis," and then pull a little thing and all the pieces would fall. Dave Young: Yeah. I have no memory of this. Stephen Semple: Where were you from? Nebraska. Dave Young: That's basically it. We were too busy working on cornhole technology. Stephen Semple: I guess. Anyway,

Conrad Hilton, despite being unlucky, created what we now know to be the hotel experience. Always improving customer experience. 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 HVAC Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back To the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, and we're telling the stories of empires, people that started with a little idea that ended up being huge. And as we got started here, Stephen whispered in my ear that we're going to talk about Hilton. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And we're not talking about Conrad's granddaughter Paris Hilton who made a big name what in the '90s? Stephen Semple: I was wondering if you were going to go there. Dave Young: She's like chapter three of this story, I think. Stephen Semple: We don't have time for that story. Dave Young: For her to have that lifestyle, grandpa's got to make a lot of money. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Well, Conrad Hilton, I mean, Hilton is huge. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: They now have over a million rooms. They have like 7,500 locations in 124 countries. But the interesting thing is Conrad Hilton really invented how we look at hotels today. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: He really is the founder of that idea. And as we go through this story, one of the things that really captivated me about this story, a lot of times when we're covering these things, yes, people have an observation, and yes, they're brilliant. But there's always this bit of element of luck. There's a little bit of this catching lightning in a bottle. Conrad Hilton was terribly unlucky and it's amazing the things that he had to overcome. Dave Young: Oh wow. Stephen Semple: This guy did not have luck on his side. So I want you to keep that in mind as we go through this story, which makes me admire him more actually. Dave Young: Sure. And as I think about what that brand means to me, before I know the story. I don't think in my youth I had a whole lot of experience staying at a Hilton hotel, but there were certain hotel brands that meant something, that people understood. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: If you knew if you were staying at a Holiday Inn on an interstate highway, if it had the word Holidome on it, you're in for a nice swim and a good time in an air-conditioned big space. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And if you had the money and you were traveling for business or something, you knew that the Hilton brand- Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Would be a consistently better experience than most one-off hotels. Most. But there was always, every downtown always had one grand hotel. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: But then if they had a Hilton too, you'd say, "Oh, well the Hilton, right?" Because the other ones have their quirks. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And I think- Dave Young: The Hilton was always going to be a traveler, a business traveler's hotel. Stephen Semple: I travel a fair bit and I like staying in Hiltons, but I think before we go into the story, I think there's one mistake though that the, and hopefully somebody from Hilton listens to this and calls us and we can help them clean this up for them. They have one mistake that I think they've all done because they all now have all sorts of different brands. Hilton's got like 24 different labels or whatever. Here's the thing that they need to do. They need to look at each one of them and make them ...

Would you remortgaging the house, driving around the country and put your home address in the public for Millions? 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 Sample 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. [JS Pest Control Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Sample and we're talking about empires and ideas that people had that turned into something big. And as Steve started the countdown for the recording, he told me that today we're going to talk about UNO, the card game UNO. And I got to admit that I didn't play UNO as a kid. Stephen Sample: Oh, you didn't? Okay. Dave Young: I didn't know anything about UNO until I got married and my wife liked UNO and we taught it to our kids. Stephen Sample: Yeah. Dave Young: And I learned- Stephen Sample: So you played it with your daughters then, did you? Dave Young: Yeah. Yeah. Stephen Sample: Yeah. My nephew- Dave Young: It's a vicious game. Stephen Sample: It is a vicious game. My nephew used to love playing UNO, so I'd play it with my niece and nephew, but what would be funny is, for whatever reason, he would end up being the one getting all the cards and you have these little hands and he'd be holding- Dave Young: Oh yeah. Yeah. Stephen Sample: Now the funny thing is he would think it was hilarious that he would have all these. So it was kind of fun because he would find it funny that he'd have, "Well I clearly had the advantage because I've got all the great cards because I have half the deck in my hand." Dave Young: Yeah. How can I lose? Stephen Sample: How can- Dave Young: How could I lose? That's like me on a golf course. I've got way more golf experience than you do because I hit the ball a lot more than you do. Stephen Sample: So as soon as I got looking into UNO, I couldn't help but have all these really great memories of Jeffrey and Robin and playing UNO with them because it really is a great game to play with kids. Dave Young: Yeah. It's fun and, like I said, I always feel bad giving somebody a card that loads their hand up. I don't know why. That's just- Stephen Sample: The way you are. Dave Young: I don't have that killer instinct. Stephen Sample: So just to put in perspective how big UNO is, UNO is the best-selling card game in history. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Sample: Yes. Number one. Dave Young: Okay. By defined as a game specifically with those like that? Stephen Sample: With cards, like a card game. Dave Young: Yeah, but not- Stephen Sample: Selling card game. Dave Young: They haven't sold more cards than Bicycle playing card company. Stephen Sample: No. No because- Dave Young: But just a specific game. Stephen Sample: Yes. They've sold 150 million packs in 80 countries. Dave Young: That's a lot of UNO cards. Stephen Sample: That's a lot of UNO cards. It sure is. Dave Young: And 80 countries? Stephen Sample: Yes. Dave Young: See, that makes sense because you don't need to speak English to play UNO. Stephen Sample: Right. It's very simple. Right. You don't need instructions for it. Dave Young: It's numbers and colors. Yeah. Stephen Sample: Yeah. So it was invented by Merle Robbins in 1971 in Cincinnati. So the 1970s- Dave Young: '71. Okay. Stephen Sample: Yeah. It was 1970s. Lots of tension. Gas prices are crazy. Gas rationing, Vietnam, the stuff going on with Nixon,

Anthony Pratt wanted to elevate playing board games from games of chance to thinking games. His wife was responsible for keeping it random. 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. [JS Pest Control Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple. Today, Stephen told me we're going to talk about the board game Clue, Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick. Something like that. Stephen Semple: There you go. Dave Young: It's been a long time. It's been a long time since I've played Clue. Stephen Semple: Did you play Clue much as a kid? Dave Young: Not really. Stephen Semple: No? Okay. Dave Young: It was never my type of game, and I'm not sure why. Stephen Semple: Okay. Well, because you would've had to play it with your sisters. That's probably the problem. Dave Young: Yeah, that's probably it. Stephen Semple: More therapy for Dave about to [inaudible 00:02:01] right now. Dave Young: Yeah, you had to think. There was that thinking involved and eliminating things and... Stephen Semple: Well, it's interesting that you bring up the whole concept of thinking because when Clue came out, so it was created in 1949, when Clue came out, pre-World War II games, especially for kids, were like these mindless games of chance or things that required a little bit of a degree of skill. That was sort of all the games. There were not really any games that were thinking games. And Clue was sort of one of the first ones to come along to break into that whole genre of how do we make a game that's more of a thinking game and, frankly, it's not just a kid game as an adult game. Dave Young: Sure, yeah. And then it became a movie and all kinds of things. Stephen Semple: Oh, all kinds of things. And the original name was not Clue. The original name was Cluedo, so C-L-U-E-D-O, Cluedo. Dave Young: Cluedo. Stephen Semple: And it was created by Andrew Pratt. Today it's owned by Hasbro, and they sold like 150 million games. So it's gone on to become like a really big deal and, look, if you ask most people about Clue, they know what it is. Dave Young: Surely. Yeah. We all played it. Stephen Semple: So it's pre-World War II and games were mindless games of chance and whatnot, and there's nothing in between, and Anthony Pratt decides he wants to develop a game. Now, he was a pianist before the war, and he often did entertainment at murder mystery parties, and he remembers people love the murder mystery parties. Dave Young: Murder mystery parties have been going on that long? Stephen Semple: Yes. Yeah. Dave Young: See, I had no idea about that. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And they were really hugely popular. It was driven by, remember there's Agatha Christie, when she was writing in her prime, was just huge. There was a whole Agatha Christie thing, and so that fueled a lot of these murder mystery parties. So here he is, it's World War II, they're in bunkers, killing time, trying to figure out how to create things that are fun. He starts thinking about, like, how could you build a murder mystery game that you could play. He's reading Agatha Christie books and discovers there's all these archetypes and whatnot. That's how he came up with the idea about, well, how about a colonel and a professor and a femme fatale and an entitled rich and a servant?

Sylvester Stallone was not making it, trying to be an actor. So, instead of giving up, he tried a different path. 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. [ASAP Commercial Doors Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young. That's Stephen Semple sitting to your right, however you're facing your podcast listening device. As we normally do, Stephen whispered the topic into my ear just as the countdown thing was going, and I'm a little flustered and confused because I'm not sure what we're talking about. He said, "We're going to talk about the Rocky franchise." And literally, the first thing that came to my mind was Rocky and Bullwinkle. Stephen Semple: Oh, no, no, no. Not Rocky and Bullwinkle. Dave Young: And I'm like, really? That's an empire? Really? Stephen Semple: No, no, no, no, no. Dave Young: No, you're talking about Sylvester Stallone. Stephen Semple: I'm talking about Sylvester Stallone. Dave Young: Yo, Adrian, and all of that. Stephen Semple: All that stuff. All that stuff, yeah. That movie is almost 50 years old. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Came out in 1976. There's been five Rockys. There was, then, Rocky Balboa, there's been three Creeds, there's another Creed coming out. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: There's plans for a prequel to be done on one of the streaming ones. There's a spinoff that's being talked about to be done on Drago. Remember the Russian, the Russian fighter? Dave Young: Oh, sure, yeah. Stephen Semple: When you go to Philadelphia, there's the Rocky statue in Philadelphia of him holding his hands up near the stairs that he ran up. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: And today, there is a lineup. There's a lineup of people to take their picture with that statue. And it's 50 years ago. 50 years ago. Amazing. Dave Young: Well, Sylvester Stallone, he's got to fund his retirement somehow. Stephen Semple: The story was first shared with me by Tony Robbins, and it blew me away. And I did a little bit of additional look into it like, is this an urban legend? And it turns out much of this is true, although some of the details, I don't know the exact numbers, but it is actually really speaks to Sylvester Stallone's determination and understanding and ability to get things done that I believe every entrepreneur needs to embrace and understand. Dave Young: Awesome. Stephen Semple: And that's why I wanted to talk about Rocky. One of the other things I want to talk about when it comes to Rocky, it won best picture, best director, best film editing. It's considered, by many, one of the greatest sports films of all time. Stallone was nominated for best actor, and also was nominated for best supporting actor in Creed. And is wild today that when you're at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, you still see people who run up the stairs and do the whole thing. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: And it's that, the statue is there, and there's a lineup. There's a lineup to take your picture with the Rocky statue. And yes, I have a picture of myself with the Rocky statue. I had to do it. Dave Young: How long was the line? Stephen Semple: Actually, I was there during the week on a weekday, so it was not too bad. It was probably about 15 minutes. But here's the story behind Rocky that I find remarkable. So Sylvester Stallone found himself, like many in Hollywood, wanting to be an actor,

Sol Price had and idea that he was not going to let go of. No matter how many times others tried to take it away. 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. [ASAP Commercial Doors Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple. And Stephen, shoot, just as you hit the button, I was compiling a list because Julie and I, we've got to go pick some stuff up and you reminded me about it. Stephen Semple: Glad I can help. Dave Young: Right? We have a Google Keep list. I don't know if you use Google Keep. It's just sort of a list software that you can share with other people. And so that's where we keep our Costco list. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: And it's actually a Costco/Sam's list, but we hardly ever pick up anything from Sam's. Sam's has some things that Costco doesn't and vice versa. Anyway, we're going to talk about Costco, to try to make a short story long. Stephen Semple: I hope we still have some listeners at this point. Dave Young: Right? Come on, we're only a minute in, so I think we're okay. Stephen Semple: Here's the thing I find it's really interesting about Costco. Today, they have basically almost 900 locations. They do like 243 billion in revenue. They have over 130 million members, and they have over 300,000 employees. They have a reputation of paying and treating employees very, very well, especially for a discount outlet. But to put in perspective, they do a little bit more than half the revenue of Walmart. But Walmart has like 10,000 locations. Costco is like 900. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Think about that volume that they do. Dave Young: Do. The product turn has to be amazing. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Unbelievable. It's just mind-boggling. It's just mind-boggling. And it's really interesting to stand outside of Costco and just look at carts full of stuff. Nobody goes to Costco and buys two things, right? It's just incredible. There's some legal things that we need to talk about to really understand the history of Costco, because back in 1936, there was this Robinson-Patman Act that was passed and it prevented the discounting of goods below the manufactured list price. So when we see manufacturers list price, it used to mean something. And what it used to mean is you could not go below that price. And this was to protect manufacturers and small retailers, and you could not do large purchases at discounts. It didn't matter how much you were buying, couldn't go below that price. And in the 1960s, these laws started to change, but large retailers still resisted this idea of lowering prices, because they'd sort of gotten very used to that. Along comes Sol Price, and it's the early 1950s and he's working as a lawyer in San Diego, and he has a client in a jewelry business that's selling watches to non-profit member owned retail operation in LA called Fedco. And Fedco was a non-profit, like basically it was founded by 800 postal workers in LA, and they were leveraging the buying power to negotiate with distributors and eliminate store markups. And there was a membership fee. It was $5 for a lifetime membership for federal employees. And Sol visited Fedco and he noticed that the property was really similar to one that his mother-in-law had inherited in San Diego that sat empty. So he suggested the location to the client of his and his mother-in-law, and they agreed, and they opened under a different name instead of Fedco.

Seeing that the world was getting faster and smaller, Howard Johnson started a hospitality empire. The first restaurant franchise. 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: So, are you going to actually tell me the topic, because the countdown is done? Stephen Semple: Oh, right. Howard Johnson. Dave Young: Howard Johnson, HoJo's. Right on. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Right on. The aqua building with the orange roof. We stayed at some when I was a little kid. Stephen Semple: Oh, is that right? Dave Young: Howard Johnson's, all right. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Hey, let me do something real quick. Hey, welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, it's Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, and today we're going to talk about Howard Johnson's as seen in Mad Men. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: It was a monster. It sort of preceded the Holidome trend that Holiday Inn... I think Holiday Inn kind of kicked their ass with the Holidome concept. Stephen Semple: Oh, yeah. Dave Young: That's my guess. Stephen Semple: Here's the thing, in 1965 sales of Howard Johnson's exceeded that of McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC combined. Dave Young: Wow, that's many exceeds. Stephen Semple: Yes. When we talk about how it used to be a powerhouse, it was a monster that just seems to have disappeared. You see the odd one here and there. Dave Young: Yeah. If I had to guess the trend of, as I mentioned, Holiday Inn, Holidome sort of things, but my guess is that HoJo's, Howard Johnson's big rise was before the Interstate Highway system was built or right along with it- Stephen Semple: Right along with it. Dave Young: ... in some places. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: But in the East probably predates it. Stephen Semple: Yeah, because there's a couple of really interesting things. As we mentioned, it's not a big powerhouse today. There may even be people that we're talking to that might not even know what the heck Howard Johnson is. At its peak, it was massive, and basically it was a motor hotel along with a restaurant. They would have both. They had the restaurant, they had the motor hotel along with it. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: Now, it started on the restaurant side. That's where it started. In fact, it was the first ever restaurant franchise. They were the first ones to do franchising for a restaurant. Dave Young: So it was the prototype for Denny's and all of those. Stephen Semple: All of those, yeah. Dave Young: Howard Johnson's was there. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and the type of restaurant it was was that fast casual dining. Yeah, really. It was kind of like a diner. It was the first ever franchise and the first location, this wasn't the franchise location, but the first location was Arlene Cape Cod, right at the intersection of Route 28 and Route 6A. Howard Dearing Johnson grew up outside of Boston in Quincy, and his first business was a drug store that he inherited from his father in 1925, along with a whole pile of debt. The business was a money-loser. It had a soda fountain, a newsstand, and sold ice cream. Again, very much like those 1920s drugstores. We think about a drugstore today, and it's not a place that you hung out. In the 1920s, it was a place that you hung out, and I said there was soda fountain, all that other stuff. They sold three flavors of ice cream,