『The Empire Builders Podcast』のカバーアート

The Empire Builders Podcast

The Empire Builders Podcast

著者： Stephen Semple and David Young
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 Reverse engineering the success of established business empires.The Empire Builders Podcast マネジメント マネジメント・リーダーシップ マーケティング マーケティング・セールス リーダーシップ 経済学
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  • #231: Lily’s Sweets – Sweeter Than Sugar

    #231: Lily’s Sweets – Sweeter Than Sugar
    2025/11/12
    Cynthia Tice started Lily's Sweets at the age of 60 and sold it to Hersey's 11 years later for $400 Million. 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. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young, that guy next to me is Stephen Semple, and we're talking about empires. We're talking about businesses that started with nothing and grew to be huge, as we say. And today, Stephen whispered in my ear the topic and I've never heard of it. No idea. Stephen Semple: Yay, finally stumped. It doesn't stump Dave very often. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to The Empire Builders Podcast. That's all we've got for you today. Oh, no, wait. Stephen Semple: Because clearly if Dave- Dave Young: Oh, wait. Stephen Semple: Because clearly if Dave's not heard about it, it's not interesting. Dave Young: Wait a minute. I forgot to have you tell me about them, so go ahead. Go ahead with your little story there, Stephen. Stephen Semple: Yeah, so it's a company called Lily's Sweets. Now, they're a chocolate company and they make sugar-free chocolate. And I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of them, but here's the reason why I think they're worth talking about, is 11 years after the business started by Cynthia Tice, it was sold to Hershey's for $400 million. Dave Young: That's a nice little getaway. Stephen Semple: Yeah, that's worth talking about. Don't you think? Dave Young: So it's owned by Hershey's now. Stephen Semple: It's owned by Hershey's now. Dave Young: Do they still operate under the name Lily's Sweets or is it all just a- Stephen Semple: Yes, they do. Dave Young: ... Hershey's conglomerated candy corporation. Stephen Semple: The bar is called Lily's Sweets, so you can still get Lily's Sweets bars. They're made by Hershey's. And as I said, Cynthia sold it to the company after 11 years for- Dave Young: 11 years? Stephen Semple: ... $400 million. Yes. Dave Young: That's brilliant. Stephen Semple: Now, here's the other thing is she started the company at the fine young age of 60. Dave Young: I love this story. Stephen Semple: Right? Now you understand why I wanted to share this story. Dave Young: There may yet be hope. Stephen Semple: And so they do these sugar-free chocolates, and the goal for her was always to make a good, enjoyable chocolate product. Because we go back to early days of the sugar-free products, they were marketed to people who are diabetic and who are trying to lose weight, and they really didn't taste good. But the anti-sugar movement triggered something that was bigger because people started to discover that sugar's tied in inflammation, and there's been this explosion in these products. To give you an idea, in 2024, the no-sugar chocolate area as a category doubled. That's how much the growth is. Dave Young: 2004? Stephen Semple: 2024. So still even today- Dave Young: 2024. Doubled in '24? Stephen Semple: Still even today, yes, the growth is really rapid. But this is what Cynthia saw, so let's go back to 2008 in Philadelphia. Cynthia Tice is a food consultant and a graduate of Temple University. And Temple University is actually a big presence in Philadelphia. I had a chance to speak at Temple and it's in downtown Philly, and downtown Philly's pretty neat. And look, if you're ever in Philadelphia, you have to go do the Rocky statue, right? Dave Young:
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    21 分
  • #230: French Florist (Part 2) – In The Business of Love

    #230: French Florist (Part 2) – In The Business of Love
    2025/11/05
    Stephen Continues his discussion with Michael Jacobson about how he help save and ultimately revive his uncle's business. 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. [Travis Crawford Ad] Rick: Told you, Brian. Brian: Told me what? Rick: This is part two of last week's episode. Brian: Oh yeah. And it was getting good. Rick: And if you missed it, you can always listen to the first one. Just back up to last week's episode. Take it away fellas. Stephen Semple: In my TEDx Talk that I did, the very, very first slide, the very first slide is win the heart and the mind will follow. Michael Jacobson: That's exactly right. We're humans. We're emotion lead. That's exactly right. Stephen Semple: Even engineers make decisions emotionally. We are wired to make decisions emotionally and connect with things emotionally. So you're 1,000% correct on this. Michael Jacobson: Thank you. Yeah, I mean, so far so good. So ultimately, the market will decide if that's true or not, but I tend to believe that that is true. Stephen Semple: Well, it's already voted that way with you so far. Michael Jacobson: Yeah, I mean, it's coming that way. And so we really focus our brand on making the client feel like the hero because they are. Buying flowers from us should feel as good as receiving the flowers. It is a remarkable act to send flowers to somebody. You are literally creating a more loving world. Stephen Semple: Yes. Michael Jacobson: And I don't know what the meaning of life is, Kay, but when I ask people, a lot of times the response is it's human connection. Or if they want to go even deeper, the meaning of life is love. And so that's the business we're in. And if you're leveraging flowers, the most meaningful gift you can give to tell somebody that you love them, you should be praised for that. And so we make our centers feel very good about that as they should be. Stephen Semple: Well, if you think about it, your business is very, very similar. Let's just look at the emotional part. Your is very similar on the emotional level as engagement rings. The person who gives an engagement ring, yes, they want the person that they're giving the ring to feel good, but it's that I give this beautiful ring to this person. They feel good. I feel good in return. So you're absolutely right. The gift of giving when it's done right both end up getting positive emotional feelings about it. The receiver feels great. And when it's done right, the giver feels great as well. Here's the other thing that people discount in gift giving, it now actually creates a shared narrative. Michael Jacobson: That's right. Stephen Semple: Because we've actually shared in that gift, even if it's thousands of miles away, even if I never talk to the person, even if the person's in a coma and it goes to the hospital, I still have a shared experience now with that individual through emotionally taking that act. You're absolutely 1,000% correct on these things. Michael Jacobson: Yeah, thanks. It bothers me because we would not be doing what we're doing if somebody else was. We never had the ambition. So I want to answer your question on my franchise. We wouldn't franchise, we wouldn't even expand corporate locations if there was somebody in our industry that was doing it as well as we thought it should be done. But nobody is. Our market leader is 1-800-FLOWERS, and my job is not to bash the competitors. We shine our own lamp.
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    23 分
  • #229: French Florist (Part 1) – From Failing to Flourishing

    #229: French Florist (Part 1) – From Failing to Flourishing
    2025/10/29
    Michael Jacobson wanted to help his uncle sell his flower shop, but now it is growing like a weed. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick in business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad} Stephen Semple: Hey, it's Stephen Semple here and we are without Dave Young today because we have an opportunity for a really, really special interview. I have with me Michael Jacobson from French Florist and we had a conversation, it was probably about a month and a half ago, and I just thought some of the things that you shared was amazing and I was like, "I got to get Michael onto the podcast." Now, the first question I asked Michael is, what's your title? "We don't believe in titles." I said, "Are you the founder?" "Well, sort of." That's where we'll start. That's where we'll start the story about French Florist in terms of how you came to be the owner and what's happened in the time that the business has been with you. Michael Jacabson: Awesome. Thanks Stephen. This is a generous introduction. I appreciate that. Thank you. When I say we don't believe in titles, we really don't. As we get to be a bigger organization, we brought on a chief operating officer who's a lot smarter in operations than I am. And that's become my job is hire people that are smarter than you and give them the reins, so maybe, I don't know what title that is, but whatever that job is, and she tells me we do need titles because it helps with accountability and that kind of important stuff. I thought it was a little boring, but she did convince me. Stephen Semple: Before we go on, what size are you at today? You're large enough that you brought in a chief operating officer, so how many employees do you have now? Michael Jacabson: We've got just over 100 employees now. Stephen Semple: How many locations? Michael Jacabson: We have 10 locations now and we'll have 17 open by the end of the year. We'll have 60 open by the end of next, so a lot of our employees- Stephen Semple: Awesome. Michael Jacabson: ... right now aren't necessarily for the immediate now, but we're building the infrastructure to support tomorrow. Stephen Semple: That's cool. That's cool. That's amazing. That's amazing growth, so 100 people now, but you're really looking to go to that... You're at 17, going to 60 locations. That's awesome. Going back to the early days of how you found yourself owning French Florist. Michael Jacabson: Oh, gosh. Okay, so I don't know if this will resonate with the audience. Hopefully it does. I've graduated college... You hear the statistics of how many startups fail, whatever it is, 90, 95% of startups. I did- Stephen Semple: Most. Michael Jacabson: Most. And I actually joined a few startups in college that I didn't found but kind of joined their team. All of them, but one failed, so I saw firsthand too. And I took a job in super boring corporate consulting right out of college, paid super well, great opportunity. I could work alongside awesome executives at really awesome companies. That was the pitch. I didn't make it even a year. I made it about one year and it just didn't feed that fire in my belly. That was the wall that my ladder was leaned against and I could sit there and climb that ladder or if I'm not happy, do something about it. And so I had my ear to the ground with different opportunities and I got a call from my uncle one day and he says, "Mike, I've been running my flower shop for 38 years. I'm working six days a week, 60 hours a week or more,
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    27 分
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