Airbnb was the stupidest idea for a business. The idea was to rent an air mattress in someone else’s occupied apartment. A Literal air bed and breakfast. I mean, who would pay to sleep on the floor of the apartment of a complete stranger?
Turns out quite a few actually. While no longer air mattresses, today Airbnb has over 150 million hosts who’s properties accommodate more than a half a billion guests a year
You Won’t Believe How airbnb Got Started!
Today, Airbnb is one of the most successful short-term rental businesses in the world today. Since its formation in 2008, it has experienced massive growth, starting out with just a few friends renting extra space in their home to an international multibillion-dollar corporation.
Here is the insane inside story of how 3 guys turned that into a $31 billion company.
The story is crazier than the idea. Watch founder, Brian Chesky explain the crazy story of how 3 college kids created one of the world’s largest companies on the stupidest for a business to LinkedIn Founder, Reed Hastings, at a Y Combinator event.
“All my life I’ve seen murders and robberies. I came from that world where everything was dog-eat-dog. If you had money or jewelry, if you couldn’t defend it or protect it, you’re going to loose it.”
– Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson was first arrested at 10 years old. 38 more times by age 13.
Needless to say, he grew up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn. If you couldn’t protect yourself, you got taken advantage of. Mike was in over 400 fights in his life.
He quite literally fought his way through life and still is to this day…
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How Mike Tyson Blew a $600 Million Fortune
By the age of twenty Tyson was one of the most famous figures on the planet. Namely for being the most talented boxers of all time. And for biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear off during one of the most televised matches in boxing history.
Here’s that throwback…
During his boxing career he amassed over $685 million and he accomplished to spending all of it. Every last penny…
He not only managed to blow through a half billion in cash, he then eventually owed over $50 million in debts, including another $13.4 million to the IRS.
So What Did Mike Tyson Spend $685 Million On Exactly?
Mike routinely traveled with an entourage so large it rivaled the size of a small country.
He owned Siberian tigers and spent hundreds of thousands/year to care for them.
He bought over $400k worth of pigeons too…it’s a long story
He had fleets of luxury vehicles, a posse of prostitutes, and a 21-bedroom mansion.
He was known to spend over $240k month for entertainment and another $100k/month for Jewelry and clothes.
During his lifetime, Tyson reached the peaks of fame and fortune most of us mere mortals will never know or experience. He climbed from the gutter to the height of success. But even at the top of the world by the age of 20, he still had a darkness inside of him…
Watch Mike explain his incredible life story and lessons of gratitude from his personal experiences literally fighting for his life.
Taco Bell is the largest Mexican restaurant on the planet by volume. Here’s how they did it…
Taco Bell has been dominating Mexican fast food since the 1960s. They own over 7,000 locations consistently generating over $10 billion dollars in annual sales.
Watch the full story how or read the summary below.
First and foremost, Taco Bell wouldn’t be a thing without it’s founder, who knew how to spot a potential opportunity when he saw one.
A cook who served in WW2, Bell returned home to start a restaurant in San Bernardino CA. Inspired by the McDonald’s franchise, Bell copied the model. Literally, Taco Bell used to be called Bell’s Hamburgers, they originally sold cheeseburgers and hot dogs.
Until one day Glen added tacos to the menu, altering the course of taco history…
2. Taco Bell Single Handedly Introduced the World to Tacos
The second reason for Taco Bell’s now icon status, was their role in introducing tacos the American market.
After 14 years in the restaurant business and having gone through 5 different restaurants and concepts, Glen launch Taco Bell in March 21, 1962 in Downey CA.
At the time, most Americans had no clue what a taco was. When ordering, most customers asked for a “tay-ko”, simply because they simply had never heard of a taco. Kind of like the whole gyro “guyroh” thing…
And they obviously fell in love with them. Putting Taco Bell on the map.
“I always smile when I hear people say that they never had a taco until Taco Bell came to town”. – Glen Bell
3. Pepsi Gave Them a Shit Load of Money
Another reason for their success was their partnership deal with Pepsi.
In the 1970s Pepsi was expanding and looking to invest in new markets. They bought Pizza Hut for $315 million, giving them access to sell their sodas to customers dinning in the largest Pizza Chain on the planet up until that time. Pepsi wanted to saturate the Taco consumer market too. So they gave Glen a handsome $125 million for the right to sell Pepsi products at every Taco Bell.
Pepsi’s infusion of cash enabled the franchise to massively scale. They went from just under 1,000 locations in 1978 to nearly 7,000 by 1998. Meaning, almost every Taco Bell you’ve ever visited was started between the 80’s-90s Pepsi infused growth period.
4. Absolutely Bat-Shit Crazy But Catchy Menu Items…
While declaring to serve Mexican food, no one buys into that claim when it comes to Taco Bell. That’s because they have become famous for coming up with bat-shit crazy menu items.
The fourth key to the mega taco franchise model was their dedication to marketing. Especially standing out in crowded markets through their off the wall menu item.
Items like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch, the Mtn Dew Baja Taco Blast, their most successful product launch; the Crunch Wrap Supreme, and most recently the Doritos Locos Tacos. Or finally the rather nachos fries.
5. Taco Bell Excels at Marketing to Drunk People too…
Despite how much you want to hate them, Taco Bell continues to stay relevant across generations. They have a consistent track record of being customer focused and keeping their cost low. Something they have been promoting in their ads for decades…
One of their most successful marketing campaigns was “the forth meal of the day” commercials. After noticing a high influx in sales late at night (wink wink), the Bell starting promoting a “4th meal of the day”.
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On a more serious note though, probably the biggest reason Taco Bell has been so success over the years has been their commitment to their original mission; “thinking outside the bun”. Mission accomplished…
Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley. And more than 70 percent of its sunflower oil…
The war in Ukraine is preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe.
World food prices were already climbing, and the war has made things worse, preventing over 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain from getting into the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia.
According to this article in Intelligencer, West Africa is facing its worst food crisis in a decade, with the number of people in need of emergency food aid standing at 27 million in April and rising fast. Another 13 million face severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, and as many as 19 million will be food insecure in Yemen by the end of this year.
Europe embraces for another mass migration crisis sparked by food shortages in Africa and the Middle East.
Sri Lanka, once more prosperous than its neighbors, applied last month for 100,000 metric tons of food aid from a regional food bank as its debt crisis threatens to leave millions hungry.
Watch this video for a full explanation of the developing food crisis…
Host of Dropping Bombs podcast and CEO of LightSpeed VT dropped a knowledge bomb on a recent episode of Dropping Bombs podcast. Host, Brad Lea commented on the importance of developing a personal brand for C-Suite Executives.
When talking about the importance of creating a personal brand, Brad stated:
“People don’t follow brands they follow people. So your personal brand is ultimately what’s going to tee up doing business.”
In short, Brad believes everyone should develop a personal Brand for their business, no matter what business you’re in.
With over a half million social followers and hundreds of thousands of monthly podcast downloads, Brad knows a thing or two about how to leverage a personal brand.
Here are Brad Lea’s tips on getting starting creating a digital brand presence.
Brad Lea’s Step By Step Advice to Create a Personal Brand:
Let the world know who you are
Get on the big 6 social media platforms and put yourself out there; share your thoughts, opinions, values, beliefs. Don’t just repeat what everyone else is saying.
Don’t be afraid to be polarizing, not for the sake of confrontation, but for the sake of confronting the elephant in the room as it relates to your industry.
But that can often be scary, that’s where tip #2 comes into play…
Don’t be afraid of what other people think
The biggest reason Brad says executives are not active on social is they worry too much about what other people think. Especially on social media where anyone can leave a comment or offer a difference of opinion.
Remember, not everyone will agree with you but that doesn’t matter. You’re goal is to connect with those who do.
As Brad says” “if you never feel the hate, you never feel the love.”
Now for the last and final tip.
Continue to push out content over time
While the actual amount of time will depend on your individual business and circumstances, for a small to medium-sized business, a strong content marketing strategy generally takes between six and nine months to yield real results.
These are just a few of the tips Brad Lea shared in a recent podcast episode. Watch the full clip below.
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About Brad Lea:
Brad Lea is the founder of Lightspeed VT, the most advanced training platform on the market. Soon-to-be billionaire and host of the Dropping Bombs Podcast, Brad Lea built LightSpeed VT into a multi-million dollar global tech company from scratch.
As its Founder and CEO, his vision led to LightSpeed VT becoming the world’s leading interactive training system, a system that he’s proud to share with others. In addition to being a CEO, Brad is also the author of The Real Deal.
Brad has helped generate millions for countless companies and individuals, including heavy hitters Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Grant Cardone, Tom Hopkins, World Series Poker, Top Chef, Chase Bank, and so much more. He’s also been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Inc. Magazine, GCTV, and is a regular guest on several top-rated podcasts such as The $ales Podcast,Success is a Choice and The Inner Changemaker.
Best Seller TV, the only show dedicated to covering today’s best-selling business books on C-Suite TV, is announcing a new season starting with a new episode featuring Mark Victor Hansen, author of You Have a Book In You: Make Money With Your Story.
Mark Victor Hansen is known for co-authoring the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and has written a total of 309 books, including his most recent, You Have a Book In You: Make Money With Your Story. The purpose of this book is to serve as a reminder for anyone to “plug back into their genius.” Hansen believes that everyone has a story to tell. He says, “What writing does is it refines you, refines your spirit, your soul, and your heart. It defines who you are.” He stresses that writing is the outlet that allows people out of their own confinement.
Hansen says throughout his travels around the world promoting Chicken Soup, people often asked him “Can I tell you my story? That sparked an idea about writing a book that featured several stories about several successful writers and what catapulted them into greatness, including Michael Crichton. He says, “Michael is a great writer because you get intrigued by the people.” He adds, “All of us are supposed to have peaking life experiences and writing a book does get you out of mediocrity, gets you out of your complacency.”
Hansen has collaborated with many industry giants as well as many others in the age spectrum – from a 4-year old, to 98-year old Art Linkletter.
It is essential that everyone writes their story – whatever that is, to leave it as a legacy, as ancestral wealth because “the world needs more intellect, more thinking, more spirit, and brightness and expand those opportunities for everybody.
All episodes of Best Seller TV air on C-Suite TV and are hosted by TV personality, Taryn Winter Brill.
Best-selling author, speaker, and former Fortune 100 CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett created Best Seller TV to give top-tier business authors a forum for sharing thought-provoking insights, in-depth business analysis, and their compelling personal narratives.
“Mark Victor and I go way back and he has an incredible ability to weave a story that’s compelling and memorable,” Hayzlett said. “He’s someone that has written 309 books and believes everyone should write a book. His credibility on the subject is unparalleled and we’re honored to have him on the show.”
Best Seller TV, the only show dedicated to covering today’s best-selling business books on C-Suite TV, is announcing a new episode featuring Jeff Brandeis, author of Becoming a Rainmaker: A Guide for Accountants and CPAs.
Brandeis is the CEO of Brandeis Training Solutions, and wrote this book to bring a more specific approach to helping those in the accounting and CPA professions hone the sales skills needed to become rainmakers. He defined the term as someone who brings in revenue and in the CPA world, that person is referred to as a “rainmaker.” He adds, “To become a partner, you need to bring business through the door. If you’re not bringing revenue in, the chances of sharing the profits will be a lot slimmer.”
Brandeis says that accounting professionals are trained to handle numbers, but one skillset that is not taught is sales. “There’s no college degree for sales,” he adds. The book serves as a guide to help build better and faster rapport, with prospects and potential clients to cut down the sales cycle some might not fully understand. He adds, “How people learn is how people buy” and the book teaches how to match presentation and learning styles in order to build that rapport three times faster and in one-third of the time.
During the episode, Brandeis also discussed the three types of learners – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. He says that 75 percent of people fall in the kinesthetic category, which is a mix of both audio and visual learning. Since it’s impossible to determine how a specific person learns, it’s essential to say things such as, “I’ll show you the numbers, explain things in detail, and I’ll make you feel comfortable.” That encompasses all three major learning styles, making it easier to discern the type of learner you are working with.
With businesses changing at a higher speed thse days, Brandeis wants people to succeed, adding, “Even though times have changed, it’s actually brought opportunity that we probably would never have had if this hadn’t happened.” In simpler terms, success comes to those who embrace opportunity and the ever-changing landscape of business.
All episodes of Best Seller TV air on C-Suite TV and are hosted by TV personality, Taryn Winter Brill.
Best-selling author, speaker, and former Fortune 100 CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett created Best Seller TV to give top-tier business authors a forum for sharing thought-provoking insights, in-depth business analysis, and their compelling personal narratives.
“Jeff Brandeis embraces a philosophy I believe in – you constantly have to adapt to new ways of doing business, change your model or risk your business,” Hayzlett said. “The episode is a perfect example of someone who trained in a field where practicality and certainty are expected and transformed it to a world that is always changing. The value that can be found in this episode is immense for the world we’re living in right now.”
Best Seller TV, the only show dedicated to covering today’s best-selling business books on C-Suite TV, is announcing a new episode featuring Troy Korsgaden, author of Inflection Point: Redefining Your Role in the Insurance and Financial Services Industry When the Existing Model No Longer Works.
Korsgaden wrote the book for everyone in the financial industry – whether you are a team member, agency firm owner or a broker. However, this book is specifically for carriers. He defines those as everyone within the industry – regardless of the type of insurance provided. Carriers are the ones, he says, that are retooling business models to make an industry traditionally slow to adapt to change and become more customer-centric.
Korsgaden says, “We’re all in the same game, it’s just that we’re all in a different inning.” The goal of this book is to encourage carriers not to take a 7th inning stretch, but instead stay in the game and retool your business model.
While many industries have been quick to pivot in order to become more customer-centric, and customer-driven, the insurance industry has lagged behind in some aspects. Korsgaden says, “There’s a tsunami of change just in the last year and a half.” The change taking place is in the way the industry delivers the product, the way they underwrite the product, and how that product is marketed. He continues, “Ideas are awesome but you have to get them to the public and this is what inflection is all about. The customer is in control, the customer has the keys to the kingdom, just like they do in retail.”
Throughout the episode, Korsgaden offers practical advice that can be applied to any organization or industry. Here are three key insights:
The pivot is to stop and assess where you are
Everything we need to do is put customers first
Every interaction must be a meaningful interaction
With customers demanding companies deliver on every promise, Korsgaden makes the case for more personalized transactions as “meaningful interactions create revenue because people connect and they buy more in person.”
Korsgaden believes the industry, overall, has a bright future ahead. It’s not just about offering a product anymore. It’s about saying you have a great product, showcasing the entire portfolio of products and services and admitting your product is better. It’s about letting the customers make decisions that are based on facts, not emotions.
All episodes of Best Seller TV air on C-Suite TV and are hosted by TV personality, Taryn Winter Brill.
Best-selling author, speaker, and former Fortune 100 CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett created Best Seller TV to give top-tier business authors a forum for sharing thought-provoking insights, in-depth business analysis, and their compelling personal narratives.
“Any business who hasn’t changed their business model by now, is no longer in business. It’s that simple. This episode reiterates the need to adapt and change, while ensuring the customer is always in control,” Hayzlett said. “The old way of doing things may be comforting, but it doesn’t work. Troy brings years of expertise to the table and great insights that can be applied to any industry.”
Best Seller TV, the only show dedicated to covering today’s best-selling business books on C-Suite TV, is announcing a new episode featuring John Lee Dumas, author of The Common Path to Uncommon Success: A Roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment.
Dumas, best known for building a successful podcast empire where he shares value with his more than 1.4 million listeners each month, wrote the book, because he wants to help everyone – not just his audience, achieve financial freedom. He said, “I want everybody who has a dream of finding their version of uncommon success. Everybody who has a dream of achieving financial freedom and fulfillment. This book will get you there.”
Dumas says that so “many people out there live in their comfort zone,” including himself and that’s why he decided to write a book. However, he knew he had to have the right team in place to ensure the book was successful and help as many as possible. Deciding what to include was a thoughtful process that Dumas describes as painstaking process boiling down over 3,000 interviews into 17 core principles.
The book is a roadmap to achieve success and financial freedom. Dumas adds, “The path to uncommon success is not a secret, it’s not complicated, it’s not hidden. It’s a common path but it takes hard flipping work.”
After chasing success for over three decades, he kept coming up short. Whether it was law school, commercial real estate, or other ventures, it was an Einstein quote that launched his future. That’s when he decided to stop chasing success and become a person that adds value.
Dumas has been able to build a successful empire but that didn’t come without 6 years of struggle. Throughout his journey he has learned plenty from his guests and from the process of building a business. He offers the following advice, “Listen to your audience’s biggest struggle. That will lead you to create the product, the service, the community….to offer them as a solution. When you create the best solution to their problem, you will always win.”
All episodes of Best Seller TV air on C-Suite TV and are hosted by TV personality, Taryn Winter Brill.
Best-selling author, speaker, and former Fortune 100 CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett created Best Seller TV to give top-tier business authors a forum for sharing thought-provoking insights, in-depth business analysis, and their compelling personal narratives.
“John Lee has build an amazing podcasting platform that has made him incredibly wealthy – not just financially but also in insights gained ,” Hayzlett said. “In this episode, he provides great advice about how often people pursue their passion, but more as a hobby than career opportunity. Big mistake! Watch this episode to find out why.”
Wayfair, the online home goods retailer, announced today it was laying off close to 900 employees. This comes after the company announced a hiring freeze back in May.
The layoffs represent about 5% of the company’s global workforce and 10% of its corporate team. 400 jobs are being cut in Boston alone at the company’s HQ).
This announcement came as an alarm to investors, causing the stock to plummet…
Wayfair has been struggling to keep customers after a spike at the start of the pandemic. Earlier in August, Wayfair said it lost 24% of active customers since last summer.
Recent regulatory filings revealed that the job cuts will help Wayfair “manage operating expenses and realign investment priorities.”
CEO Niraj Shah wrote in an letter to employees that the layoffs were a “difficult decision” resulting from Covid-19.
“We were seeing the tailwinds of the pandemic accelerate the adoption of e-commerce shopping, and I personally pushed hard to hire a strong team to support that growth,” Shah wrote. “This year, that growth has not materialized as we had anticipated. Our team is too large for the environment we are now in, and unfortunately we need to adjust.”
Is This the Beginning of the End for Wayfair?
Wayfair had flourished at the beginning of the pandemic, when demand for inexpensive furniture and other home decor upgrades that it broke global supply chains and caused lengthy shipment delays.
But fast forward to the present economy, inflation has killed discretionary spending for middle-income shoppers, who have pulled back their purchases to focus on paying for necessities like groceries, gas and rent. Wealthier customers have shifted their spending from furniture and other goods to travel and services. Mortgage rates have climbed significantly, cutting into demand for new homes as well (a key demographic for the company).
Overall, Wayfair posted a net loss of $378 million during the quarter. Wayfair’s shares have lost about 70% of their value since the start of the year. The layoffs will cost Wayfair between $30 million to $40 million for employee severance and benefits.
