The Empire Builders Podcast Stephen Semple and David Young

Liquid Death is what happens when a very creative marketing guy got frustrated with the lack of courage from clients and bosses.



Dave Young:



Welcome to, The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Simple, is a Marketing Consultant, Story Collector, and Storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is... Well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those.



[Tappers Jewelry Ad]







Dave Young:



Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young, here along with Stephen Semple. Stephen just told me that today's episode is Liquid Death. So I don't have any direct experience, but there's something in the back of my mind that tells me it's a fairly recent product and it's just canned water.



Stephen Semple:



Yup. You got it. Ring the bell. Ring the bell. Once again, Dave Young, is on the ball.



Dave Young:



There was a YouTube video for water. I don't even think it was real, but it was Earth Juice. Yeah, Earth Juice. So Liquid Death, who thought this was a good idea?



Stephen Semple:



Here's what's different about them is its canned water rather than plastic bottles.



Dave Young:



Yeah.



Stephen Semple:



It's put into metal cans. And the guy who thought of this idea was Mike Cessario, and he launched the business on December 18th, 2018. And in 2024, the business was valued at $1.4 billion. And what was reported that time is they were doing $263 million in sales, and he grew this without any outside investment. He bootstrapped this whole thing at the beginning, which is really quite remarkable. And the bottled water business is a huge market. There's like 16 billion gallons sold, $53 billion over like 80... And there's like 80 brands in the United States. So it's a big crowded business.



Dave Young:



And these aren't even flavored waters. These are just bottled still water.



Stephen Semple:



He does do some flavored waters now and some sparkling waters. But it started as just bottled water. Yes.



Dave Young:



Nestle, it comes to mind. Nestle and Coke and Pepsi have their big brands, Dasani and whatever the other one is.



Stephen Semple:



Yes.



Dave Young:



You and I are about the same age. When I was a kid, you couldn't find a bottle of water to buy if your life depended on it. If you're traveling and you're thirsty, you stop at a gas station that has a water fountain or you have a thermos or something. I don't even remember how I got a drink of water when I was a little kid on a trip.



Stephen Semple:



It was brutal. I remember in university when I was working as a DJ and I'd be on the road traveling and the only thing that you could get, you could get an iced tea or pop, and I didn't like pop. So it was like... and you would get to the stage of I was sick and tired of these ice teas, I just wanted to water. And bottle water was not around. It's a big business today. And Mike actually had no experience in water. He came from the advertising industry. I thought you would like this story.



Dave Young:



Think about this product, right? It's called-



Stephen Semple:



Liquid Death.



Dave Young:



Death, Liquid Death.



Stephen Semple:



Liquid Death.



Dave Young:



And it's made of one ingredient plus an aluminum can.



Stephen Semple:



Yes.



Dave Young:



And some paint.



Stephen Semple:



Correct.



Dave Young:



So it's 99% marketing.



Stephen Semple:



Yes.



Dave Young:



That's it.



Stephen Semple:



Yes. So he did graphic design for a big agency in California called, Crispin, but in advertising and working for a big agency he got burned out. He bounced around between different agencies, and he also got really frustrated with customers not wanting to do things that are bold and in

Brian Cook is a force to be reckoned with and figured out how to redefine in-person service during a pandemic.



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]







Stephen Semple:



Hey, it's Stephen Semple, and we've got a special episode for you today. Once again, boy, Dave seems to be getting a lot of time off lately. I hope he's enjoying it. But who I have with me today is a special entrepreneur, Brian Cook, who he's got a couple of really interesting things to share with us today. So Brian founded a company called MedStretch. He's a franchisee of this program. They've had a bunch of success, and there's definitely a few really cool things that he shared with me that I think are going to be awesome lessons for everybody. So Brian, starting off, correct me, I couldn't remember, because I had a bunch of different notes from when we spoke. When did you found MedStretch? How long ago was it now?



Brian Cook:



So we founded StretchMed in November 2019. That's we opened the first location.



Stephen Semple:



Right, because I remember it was pre-pandemic and I couldn't remember how close. So you open up this thing that is in-person exercise in November of 2019, and I think something special happened in 2020? Like holy crap.



Brian Cook:



Yeah, definitely. We had a blistering success, sold a few franchises right off the bat. Actually, one of our first customers came in and loved the program so much, he bought three franchises. We got a few open, and then COVID shut us down, and then we had to do that whole thing. And it definitely took some wind out of the sails, but after a year or so, maybe even two years, we kind of get back on track and things are going great now.



Stephen Semple:



So you almost had a start and then almost a reset start again when the world tried its best to get back to normal and if you do any travel these days, whatever the heck normal is.



Brian Cook:



Yeah, definitely. And it did force us to get really deep into digital marketing, where we hadn't done that yet. We were mostly doing pop-up events and kind of in-person things, which is frankly a lot of work. Effective, but a lot of work, where COVID really forced us to get real granular in the digital marketing. Organic posting in some ways did us a favor where now we do really, really well with the marketing.



Stephen Semple:



It's amazing how many businesses that I've talked to and researched where they actually sit back and said not that they would ever want to go through it again, and not that they would ever wish it upon the world, but surprisingly they really improved their businesses during COVID. It's like, it's amazing the things that we all said was impossible. Like, oh, you can never sell this remotely, suddenly became possible.



I remember with one customer, I had a conversation with them because they were in the home renovation business and saying, "Hey, you know what? You always have to be in the home." Three weeks later we're doing online selling via Zoom. It's amazing how all of a sudden it became possible and now that's how they're doing it. And it's not like we went a hundred percent back. It's really quite incredible. One of the things that you shared with me that was also interesting is how many franchises do you have now? I know you're on track to get to a hundred pretty quickly, but how many are you at right now?



Brian Cook:



Yeah, so we've got 30 open and we've got 25 more in the queue. So 25 more that are purchased in the process of site selection,

A failed suspension idea for the navy, slinky becomes a toy so popular they sell over 300 million of them.



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.



[Seaside Plumbing Ad]







Dave Young:



Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. I mean, that assumes that you've listened to an episode already I guess.



Stephen Semple:



Very presumptuous, very presumptuous.



Dave Young:



That was very presumptuous of me. I'm Dave Young, Steven Semple's here, and he's got a new story for us and told me just before we got started here that it's going to be slinky. It's Slinky. It's Slinky. Yeah. Childhood favorite. I used to love playing with a Slinky, and I could keep one without getting tangled for about an hour. Then it'd just be a tangled mess of scrap iron. So I'm going to take a wild guess as to the origins.



Stephen Semple:



Okay, go for it.



Dave Young:



Because I could be completely wrong. I don't have any basis for this other than a hunch, because it feels almost like the Silly Putty story. He made a thing that was, oh, this is stable and it's industrial and it won't hold its shape, and it's of virtually no use. Let's let children play with it. I feel like a spring made out of flat steel that's springy, but not springy enough to really help you as a spring, somebody just said, well, this is kind of fun just to play around with in your hands. Is this an accidental toy or did somebody set out to say, oh no, we're going to build a toy out of a spring?



Stephen Semple:



You're pretty close. It was started in 1943 by a mechanical engineer, Richard James, and to date, they've sold over 300 million of these things. It was inducted in the Toy hall of Fame. It's on the Toy Industry Association Century Toy List. In 1999, Slinky was a US stamp.



Dave Young:



Really?



Stephen Semple:



Yeah. But the origin goes back to, if you think about 1943, World War II was going on, and the control of the sea is critical to supply lines. Richard James is working on a way to keep sensitive instruments safe at sea and what his ideas are-



Dave Young:



To suspend them from springs.



Stephen Semple:



Suspend them from torsion springs and what does he do? He accidentally knocks over one of the springs and it looks like it starts to walk. So what he does is he goes home and he says to his wife, "I think we got a toy here now." Now he seemingly had brought home all sorts of strange things. Keeping in mind, during World War II toys were also made a cardboard because there was a shortage of steel and things along that lines.



Dave Young:



He can't go making toys out of spring steel in 1943.



Stephen Semple:



Yeah, a little tough. Also, the Navy rejects the idea for the equipment, but he continues to tinker with it and for two years he experiments with different wire. He finally lands on, it's 98 coils of Swedish steel, and it's about two and a half inches tall. It's Betty who comes up with the name Slinky because they're running around trying to come up with the name. Betty goes, "I think we should call it Slinky."



Dave Young:



Springy. No, it's stretchy. No.



Stephen Semple:



Right. Yeah.



Dave Young:



Slinky is great.



Stephen Semple:



Slinky is a great name. So they decide to borrow $500 and they make 400 of them. Look, it's like no other toy in the market, and no other toy has really come along like Slinky really, if you think about it.



Dave Young:



No.



Stephen Semple:



But now he has to convince... So he's got this thing that's completely diffe

Taking a true look at where your business is taking you and working hard to give customers what they want. Bill Rosenberg, way to go.



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 to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here, along with Stephen Semple, talking empires. And what better way to get an empire started in the morning than to have a donut?



Stephen Semple:



There you go.



Dave Young:



And a cup of coffee.



Stephen Semple:



That's it.



Dave Young:



So today's topic is Dunkin Donuts.



Stephen Semple:



Dunkin Donuts. There we are. America runs on Dunkin, right?



Dave Young:



I don't know a lot of history about them. I have childhood memories of Dunkin Donuts and then no memories for a long time, and then sort of rediscovered them when my daughter was going to school in Boston. I think they're a Boston or Massachusetts origin story.



Stephen Semple:



They are. Very good.



Dave Young:



But I feel like they've had some ups and downs maybe.



Stephen Semple:



Oh, they've had a bunch of ups and downs. There's no question. But they are. They're from Quincy, Mass, just outside of Boston.



Dave Young:



Okay.



Stephen Semple:



Yeah. So they were started by Bill Rosenberg in 1950, and today they have close to 13,000 stores. They're the second-largest restaurant chain in the US, they're worth about $9 billion. And if you're in New York City, they have an unbelievable concentration in New York. There's one every five blocks. And I'll tell you, it was weird when I was in New York last summer, and you're walking around, it felt like there was one every two blocks. It's more how it felt. But there's literally one every five blocks in New York City.



Dave Young:



Including the airports, right? They're everywhere.



Stephen Semple:



They really are. So the origin of Dunkin really goes back to the late 1930s because the US economy at that point had been struggling for close to a decade. With the Great Depression, unemployment peaked at 20% in an era where there was little in the way of safety nets. And this actually had a big impact on the food business because at this time, snacks have started to be reinvented as lunch. So we're seeing this movement towards these smaller packaged foods. People wanted something small that was a fun to eat item, that was not expensive, that really started to dominate the food market. And we've seen that in other podcasts that we've done with other foods. So Bill Rosenberg is from Boston, and he has a successful food truck business. And by 1946, he's starting to make enough to start a brick-and-mortar location. So when he launches the business, here's something Bill notices, is that in his food truck business, 40% of the sales were coffee and donuts.



Dave Young:



Wow. Okay.



Stephen Semple:



That was 40% of the sales from the food truck. So when he launches the business, he realizes that he wants to create a new idea centered around coffee and donuts. And you know what, it's interesting. When we go back to companies like Toys R Us and things like that, or even a Dollar Store, it's this observation of, "Hey, here's this thing that's selling." Or in Toys R Us cases, they looked at it and said, boy, toys are a big part of a department store. Maybe we should just do something along that lines. So this is similar to what he saw. He saw, look, coffee and donuts is a big part of the sales. Why don't I create something around that?

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.

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