Ep. 154 – The Unexpected Path: How Brands Like Netflix and Amazon Transformed

Don (00:01) really remember those Amazon days, where they had the tabs at the top, and we were all on our blueberry iMacs, our little 10-inch blueberry iMac, ⁓ and that's how we looked at Amazon. It was so strange. Rob (00:09) You're it. Well, that was the first real unlocking of the power of the internet. Don (00:42) We're back, Rob, episode 154. I know you're distracting from ⁓ what's happening over on the other side of the face by scratching the nose. So yeah, I mean, what, you know. Rob (00:44) Scratching my nose. You mean this? ⁓ I thought we were not also wearing bandages because Trump got shot. I thought we were doing, ⁓ we're done with that? We're not doing that? Don (01:00) ⁓ my lord, okay. I have full faith that your ⁓ ear will miraculously look just as well as everybody else's then. It's going to be good. Rob (01:11) Well, I tried to get my wife to reenact the photo and I was going, I did like this, but it's not as dramatic with the bandage versus the blood on the face and the stuff like that. No, had a, I had a basal cell carcinoma removed from the back of my ear. Don (01:22) Now, now, now that's funny, that's funny. All right. wow, we're getting personal. Are we allowed to say this because of hip hop? What's happening? Rob (01:36) Well, we just did, so, HIPAA knows where to find us. ⁓ Yeah, so then my PSA for today is sunscreen, kids. Use your sunscreen. Use your sunscreen. Don (01:40) Yeah, seriously. All right. Sunscreen, okay. Yeah, the ear is a often overlooked sunscreen application, right? I mean, you think about your nose, you think about your, you know what I mean? But like, you gotta hit those ears, everybody, right? Yeah, oh man, yeah. Rob (01:51) Yeah. Yeah. I mean us, us baldies hit the head really good. I get the neck, we get the shoulders, but the top of the ear or the back of the ear. Don (02:01) I'm a shade dweller. mean, I just run from umbrella to umbrella. I'm fine with the reflective quality of the lights, you know, like I don't I don't I don't. Gone are the days are laying out and baby oil and you know, no. But somebody's reflectors. There's a dated reference. No one who ever sees this is even going to know. Yeah, yeah, but that was remember. But somebody's dude that was the beginning. That was the opening scene. Tom Hanks and the other guy, you know. Rob (02:07) Yeah. Well, no more. the sun, the sun things? Yeah, well, I'll tell you this. ⁓ No more naked sunbathing for me, slathered in baby oil. That's gonna be my 20 years resolution, one of them. Don (02:29) Ha Okay, I'm gonna go. Here's where I always get sunburned, even though I apply all the time, all the time. Okay. I always put it on the ears, which I'm generally a good foot. Tops of feet. It's the top of your foot because you put it on and then the sand rubs it off or the this or the that, you know what I mean? And then if anybody has burned the top of their feet, they know that that shower the day after where the water is just pelting up. Brutal, brutal. Rob (02:42) Yeah. Yo! ⁓ Go. It's no good. It's no good. Don (03:03) But I'm telling you, man, I will put sunscreen on the top of my like all the shins and all that stuff. And it still it just gets wiped off or something happens, you know, so. Rob (03:09) Yeah. Well, my I told you my my worst sunburn ever story. It's a quick and I'll tell people I was on I was on an outward bound trip out in the out of the Rocky Bounds out in Colorado. And this was summer of 94. Yeah. Alpine Mountaineering trip outward bound was great for a month. And as part of it, we did a three day solo. Don (03:14) I don't know. Remind me. Remind me. Okay. Okay, in the summer, okay, lovely. Yeah, awesome. Okay. Rob (03:36) where they drop you off, but you're by yourself and you have three days to commune with nature and be by yourself. Don (03:42) Okay, now after three days, do you have to extract yourself to a point or do they come and get you? They come and get you. Okay, so for three days, you stay within a certain confined area or Rob (03:47) they come and get you. So you march as a group. You march as a group and they go, okay, your spot's here. And then they walk a mile away. I mean, think the closest person was like a mile or something like that. You're not gonna see him, let's put it that way. ⁓ And so the first, they dropped me off on the solo. And mind you, I mean, I'm up at... Don (03:55) Okay. Okay. Okay, got it. Got it. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rob (04:11) 11,000 feet, 10,000 feet out in the North San Juan range of the Rockies. And the first thing I did the very next morning, my sleeping bag was black. Okay. And I unfolded it, I laid it out on the ground, not in a tent or anything, just out in this pasture where I was. And I stripped off all my clothes. I went completely naked. Don (04:38) Yeah, mountain man, we're doing it. Rob (04:39) I'm a mountain man, I'm gonna be one with naked and not afraid. I'm doing it, and so I did. I laid out and I fell asleep on a black sleeping bag at 12,000 feet in the middle of the summer. And I woke up and was like, oh no. And I didn't have any, I don't think I had any sunscreen to apply at the time. I probably did in my bag, but anyway. Anyway, it was. Don (04:42) Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ At 12,000 feet. Yeah, yeah. row. Yeah, yeah, yeah. SPF 50 didn't exist back then. mean, Rob (05:09) It was the worst. was, was bad. That might've been where this happened. I mean, it could have been that, that long ago. And then I just remember, you know, I mean, the packs we were carrying were like 50 pounds or something like that. And I remember when they came to pick me up, having to put the pack on my back, on the shoulders, like, and then everyone's just, I mean, it was, it was, it was laughter all around. Anyway, that's my funny anecdote, that sunscreen kids, sunscreen. Don (05:13) Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ on the shoulders and everything. ⁓ Yeah. boy. Well, I don't know how we pivot from 154 sunscreen and ⁓ mountain man behavior to today's topic. ⁓ How do do that? How do we we're just going to do it. We're going to give it a hard left. Hard left. Today's topic is going to be brands that have evolved, right? Or by brands, mean companies, you know, but but the brand evolves with the company as they do different product offerings and things like that. Right. And the reason why this came to pass is ⁓ I'm in the market for a new couch. Rob (05:47) Which is the hard left? What is today's topic? Don, tell us. Okay. Don (06:06) I need a new couch. Okay, it's time for it's time for time for a new piece of furniture, right? snooping around. We've got the usual cast of characters. We've got our West Elms and our Crate and Barrels and all the different wayfares and all the online stuff and whatever like that, right? But we have we've got a pal who absolutely lives the love sack brand. Okay. The ambassador for love sack. Did you got to love sack and I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? Like love sack like the the expensive bean bag or I mean love sack. Rob (06:07) Okay, yep. Sure. Okay, he's an ambassador. to that. Was that a shark tank thing? I think that may have been a shark tank. Yeah. Don (06:39) I have no idea. I just remember years ago when Lovesac came out, it was like, oh, it's the college dorm grown up experience of like, it's like a $300 bean bag or whatever it was. But everyone's like, it's the greatest bean bag. And I'm like, I'm not. But in the cycle of my life, that didn't line up with where I was. Like no one's going to look at and get like bean bags or whatever that, right? Anyway. Rob (06:52) Yeah, it's like the nice feedback. Yeah. Sure. Don (07:07) mutual pal, you know, like, hey, you got to check it. You know, so believe it or not, there is a love sack showroom around, right? And was like, you know what, let's run over there and take a look, right? My wife full blonde neck. What are you talking about? Right? I will say this, before we went to the store before we went to the store. Yeah, yeah. And, ⁓ you know, it's it's it I'm gonna say it's love sack has grown up. Rob (07:20) You mean before you went to the store, was like she wouldn't know this is crazy. Don (07:31) I mean, still kept the name and everything like that, but they have developed a very interesting product. Are we going to get one? I have no idea. So I wouldn't say this is a commercial for Lovesac quite yet, but ⁓ you know, furniture is expensive. You got to pick and choose and you to find the one that fits your space right and fits your vibe and where you are in your life. Right. But it was like I was I was pleasantly surprised they have a modular ⁓ sofa system, right? Or basically like you buy I'll call it the base, right? Rob (07:31) You're in. Yeah. Okay. Don (08:01) Everything's totally like it's like adult Legos. It's like here's the base you put the back on. Do you want an angled back? Do you want a straight back? Do you want to this? But you know like and then the way the ⁓ the couch cushions or the way the system works is you know, everything's call it on the three by four golden rule ratio, right? So you can rotate everything around based on however, you know, whatever fits your space, right? So if you want a deeper couch, you can do that. If you want a shorter couch, you can know what you can do an L. You can do all these different things, right? Rob (08:08) Okay. Yeah. Yeah. They snap together, do they like? Don (08:32) Yeah, so like you take the top cushion off right and then so then you have like the base in the base and then there's like a clip system that holds it together right so that when you sit down it doesn't like scooch you around or things like that right. They have the full blown recliner thing, but like you know like the hidden recliner if people are into that, but it doesn't look like a record doesn't look like a lazy boy or anything. Yeah, yeah, so I mean they have a whole Harmon Harmon carton. Is that the correct is that way? I'm saying that right? Rob (08:36) Yeah. Yeah. Okay, it clips them together. Gotcha. Yeah. Thank you. Doesn't look like your traditional lazy boy. speakers. Don (09:01) They have an entire speaker system that ties into your entertainment system inside the couch. So like it's, it's inside, like underneath where you sit, like, like the rumble, like you feel the music and then at all, like, yeah, yeah, it's like subwoofers and speakers and stuff. Like it's, it's anyway, point being I'm giving a love sack commercial, even though I just said I wasn't going to, but it did, it did kind of spur me on a today's topic, right? Which was, huh, I thought you guys were this, but really Rob (09:06) Meaning there's a real. of the speakers is like so so built into the cow. Yeah. That's all right. Yeah. Don (09:30) you're now this or like sort of companies and or brands that really have grown up, right? You know what I mean? Like to a certain extent or just evolved and changed dramatically from maybe what they founded as, does that make sense? Rob (09:45) started, it's kind of the antithesis of the one of other podcasts we did, which is brands that started off with a product and then grew staying true to that. There's a lot of Don (09:50) Yeah. Never changed. Yeah, the opposite of Tabasco, right? Didn't you say Tabasco has been the same for like 100 years? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Rob (09:58) Tabasco is good when they've been the same WD-40 was another good one WD-40 has a whole new campaign out by the way since we ⁓ did the podcast I've noted maybe I'm just noticing more now or maybe it's because we talked about it so now I'm getting ads for it which is probably more likely scenario but anyway ⁓ Lovesac has a I think they've got one in Linux I think there's a Linux I've done that I've been by it Don (10:07) as we did our podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think they do. think they do. There's a photographer who I'm talking to, the photographer that we've used in the past fair, he's the one who's like in love with the Lovesack couches, or whatever, you know, was full blown like so excited, you know, for the downstairs to LA loves, you know, and I'm like, this is what are you talking about? And I will say this, it is it is a heavy it's in it's in the contention set right now for, you know, it it feels like, you're the little beanbag company that like grew up into like, furniture company. Rob (10:33) ⁓ is. All right. Don (10:51) if that makes any sense, you know? Rob (10:52) Somebody fact check us, but I think they were on, I think they started on Shark Tank, or at least at some point were on Shark Tank, back with the bean bag. We have a giant bean bag in our basement. Yeah, but it's a ripoff. It's a ripoff. It's not a Lovesac one. Don (10:57) Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Do you? It's the Kirkland brand. It's the Costco derivative. Yeah. Okay. Rob (11:10) Yeah, it's what it's it's a knockoff, but it's a giant. It's one of those like, you can fit like three people on this thing. Don (11:16) my God, hilarious. Yeah, that's never been our jam. you so, but anyway, I thought that was a good example of a brand that like surprising, you you take another look at it however many years later. Of course, the company has to exist for it to evolve. You know what I mean? It has to be able to pivot and things like that in marketplace. but I, you know, it made me think of some other companies that you wouldn't really think about. We all use today, but kind of forget what the origins might be, if that makes any sense, you know. Rob (11:42) Yeah. Don (11:43) You have any companies on your side of fence? thoughts? Would you want me to jump in and go with one? Okay. Rob (11:46) ⁓ One that is... No, I've got one. One that most everybody knows but started off as one thing and is now kind of grown ⁓ that comes to mind is... And they have a very, very, very, very brand loyal ⁓ audience. And that is Yeti Coolers. Okay. So Yeti started off and... Don (12:05) Mm. ⁓ yeah. Rob (12:11) If you don't know this, you've been living under a rock, whoever says these, but yet he obviously started off as they were kind of the first ones to introduce the high end cooler, right? To the market. And it was before that, it was like, we've got our dad's Coleman or a glue, you know, coolers. And yet it came out. I know when it was. Um, and it was like, what do mean you have a $300 cooler? Like what you talking about? But it was like, Oh no, no, no. You can fill this bad boy with ice and it may not melt this year. Like it'll. Don (12:14) Seriously. Yeah, yeah, the igloo. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, six days later, it's still, yeah. Rob (12:40) Yeah, it'll stay forever. And so I remember that they launched that cooler ⁓ and seems like a risky move and even talking about it now, but people adopted that immediately. ⁓ They went, okay, there's value here. And I think what happened was they got a lot of buy-in initially from like, they're big in the fishing community, right? So like offshore fishing, you got a whole bunch of ice. Don (12:54) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Rob (13:10) for when you catch your wahoo and you gotta put it on the ice. And so I think they were kind of the early adopters there. But anyway, and so then, but then it became a huge, huge brand and they have since, whenever that was, grown into now, ⁓ look, here's my Yeti water room. Yeah, there you go, look at that. You've got your cup, I've got my water thing. But they have backpacks now, they have chairs, they have... Don (13:12) Yeah, totally. It's my head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rob (13:39) They have every type of cooler you could ever want. ⁓ Don (13:42) Yeah, yeah. But to your point, they've grown into like lifestyle brand, you know what mean? What? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do they have do they have clothing? They don't have clothing yet, do they? Okay, wow. Okay, there you go. Rob (13:46) They're an outdoor lifestyle brand and not they're not a cooler company anymore. They are now an outdoor lifestyle. They do have clothing. Jason, my buddy was fishing in a Yeti. He's got a Yeti fishing shirt. noticed the other day. So I think they have. ⁓ Don (14:00) Okay, there you go. See? Okay, perfect. Pretty soon they'll be like L.L. Bean. Rob (14:06) They've got full on retail storefronts as well. ⁓ Don (14:09) Yeah. Well, there were a couple years there, man, where like they were sold out of everything everywhere. Yeah, it was like you couldn't get like it was insane. So Rob (14:15) Everything everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. People who adopt Yeti as a brand are, I mean, they are loyalists. We'll spend a lot of money. I the things are not cheap. Nothing to make is cheap. Don (14:25) Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, mean, it's a good, that's a good, that's a good loyalty play for sure. So, all right, along those lines, I'll keep with the loyalty thing. I was going to say Netflix is another company. I thought that has, if you think about it, has truly evolved. And then you can make an argument that has kind of revolutionized entertainment to a certain extent, right? So, I mean, it was, Rob (14:35) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don (14:56) We all are subscribers to Netflix now. We plop down on our couch. What are we going to watch? What are we going to stream? What are we going to do? Whatever. But Netflix, people might forget, didn't start as a streamer. It started as a mail subscription service for DVDs for movies only. It was just kind of the... I mean, they were completely reliant on the post office, as crazy as that sounds. It was an online subscription service to combat... going to blockbuster, right? Rob (15:27) I'd say yeah, they were the David that conquered the Goliath right out of the gate. Don (15:30) Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you recall, you know, it was how many movies do you want to have at a time, Rob? Because that's how we're going to price it. Do you want just one DVD at a time? Do you want three DVDs at a time? Or do you want five? Yeah, exactly. And it's like, oh, well, I can't just have one because then I'll have nothing to watch when I mail it back and another one's mailed back to you. So everyone had at least three. Right. You know, but it's insane to me that like, oh, yeah, it started at like it didn't even exist as as its own like Rob (15:42) Who are you You're fighting. Yeah. Don (16:01) Like it was was a mail order, you know, movie rental house, right? Rob (16:04) Well, the beauty of it when it launched, and that's a good one, the beauty of it when it launched was twofold. Number one, it was, I don't have to go anywhere. The catalog was good and grew. then it was also, I mean, you remember, we're dating ourselves, but we were walking into the video store and it was like, oh, we only have three copies of, know, of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and they're all checked out. Don (16:17) was every movie. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're out. Like, you can't watch this tonight because it's already been rented. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rob (16:33) You can't watch it now. So now you gotta pick something else and it's a disaster. So that never happened with them. You could always get whatever movie you wanted. Don (16:40) I had a weird behavior where every time I went into a blockbuster, right, I would go by the counter where the movie returns had gone in first to see what's come in on the off chance. Yeah, okay. So we're speaking the same language on the off chance there was anything in there that I wanted to rent versus going into the store to then go snoop around and just have my, yeah. Yeah, but they used to blockbuster be like, my God, we have 15 cops. would advertise in store like Rob (16:47) You have to see what's come in. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. there's a copy of Red Dawn that just came out. I'll take that one. Don (17:09) We have 20 copies of Terminator or we have 20, you know, like that type of thing, right? And I want to believe I could be wrong on this. I want to believe it was a cheaper membership than it was at Blockbuster at the time, right? Or it was at least price commensurate, right? Rob (17:22) Well, and remember there were no late fees. Don (17:27) No, yeah, yeah. Hold the movie as long as you want. Yeah. Great call. Yeah. Yeah. Rob (17:29) No late fees, keep it as long as you want. We're not gonna send you the next one until you send it back, but the Blockfuck blustered late fees were the worst, absolute worst. Don (17:37) my god, I know. I know. Hey, and be kind rewind. Okay. Yeah. Rob (17:41) Be kind, agree what? And now, what was it in the news last week? I mean, is it Netflix that just offered? No, Warner Brothers. Netflix buying Warner Brothers from DVD, from male DVDs to like, now, will that deal go through? Probably not, but. ⁓ Don (17:46) Netflix wants to buy ⁓ Warner Brothers Discovery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? But yeah, I mean, that's a complete and total like Netflix is not even remotely the same company that it was when it first started, you know? Yeah. And let's not forget. Let's not forget from a brand perspective, the little quickster thing in the middle. Do remember quickster? Rob (18:13) yeah, they tried to change it. Don (18:14) Yeah, you remember the remember the story of this or whatever that so, okay. Rob (18:17) I don't remember the story, now that you mention it, I remember they tried to change it and everybody freaked out. Don (18:21) The fog of memory was Netflix goes, you know, they're only mail order DVDs, right? And then they decide we're going to start streaming, okay? And they wanted to split, they wanted to split the businesses, right? So was streaming is going to be called, you know, Netflix. And then the mail order, you know, DVD situation, right? We're going to rebrand and we're going to call a quickster, okay? Q-U-I-K-S-T-E-R. And... Rob (18:26) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don (18:50) That was the first time they didn't have, because it was also the rise of social media at that time, was starting to kind of starting to take hold, right? And it was, they didn't own the Quickster Facebook name, they didn't own the Quickster Twitter name, right? And it was some crazy burnout was quick, was at Quickster, right? So everybody's freaking out, but then they all, they search and they're all finding some guy's personal. Rob (18:58) Yeah. URL. Yeah. Yeah. Don (19:18) Twitter account from like, you know, again, 20 years ago, right. And it's all crazy, crazy. And they're like, Okay, stop, we can't now. They had done the logo, they had done everything. And then it was okay, fine, forget it. They pivoted then to Netflix your way, you can have it. What you can have it what you know, three ways, right? You can do just this, just this or both together, right. But it was, I want to say for like a couple weeks, it was kind of one of those like epic branding fails, you know, like the new gap logo, stuff like that. So yeah. Rob (19:25) out. But doesn't that seem like that if it was some burnouts account, should be just paid like, here's $100,000. But yeah. Don (19:51) I know. It was a different time back then, man. It was a different time. yeah, ⁓ is one that think ⁓ definitely has reinvented themselves. was an interesting one. Yeah. Rob (20:01) Yeah, I mean, still a distribution company, but with a massive, massive content creation arm now. Don (20:08) yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And pretty soon, I mean, they're going to buy all the libraries and then it'll just be them will be them. You know, I mean, I wonder like, is the business model truly to eliminate movie theaters in general? Like, are we just like we want to like no one go to the movies, everyone stay home, you know? Rob (20:23) I don't think it'll happen. don't think movie theaters will ever totally go. Yeah. Yeah. Don (20:26) I think there'll always be a place for him for sure. I mean, even with the megaplexes, you could say like the 90s, we got 21 theaters and da da da, that didn't totally kill the one room art houses. They still exist, that type of thing. Rob (20:34) Yeah. No, no. And there's, mean, of course we think about it for blockbusters, but there's certain movies that you cannot beat the movie theater experience. No matter how wonderful your home theater system is with your love sack and your parmine garden things happening, it'll never be. Don (20:46) Scott of San Theaters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I prefer watching movies on the back of an airplane in front of me with screaming children in front. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's my, my preferred method of watching Oscar award-winning movies. So, all right, what you got? Rob (21:00) Just right, especially when the seat leans way back. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I got another one. ⁓ Don (21:14) I got one and a half more, because one of them kind of doesn't. Rob (21:17) I got one ⁓ and it started off ⁓ as an exercise bike. Peloton. Yeah, so Peloton came along and it was, everybody gets your Peloton bike. Here we go everybody. ⁓ And that has since grown into they are a full lifestyle fitness company where they were a product, a bike. Now it's... Don (21:26) Peloton, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Rob (21:46) Now it's full. got treadmills. We got bikes. We've got all kinds of online yoga classes and it's the whole it's yoga Pilates. It's the whole thing. And it started with, we have a handful of instructors and now it's like, no, no, no. We have like a global network of fanatics. Yeah, totally. Totally. Totally. Don (21:48) Yeah. Yeah, I was about to say the yoga, Pilates, the whole deal. Yeah. And the instructors became like celebrities to a certain extent. Would you make the argument that COVID actually helped that company? Rob (22:09) 1000 % it helped that company. ⁓ Don (22:11) Okay, I would too. I would too. The fact that we're all kind of at home and then looking for an outlet and then it was this live sort of stream environment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rob (22:18) Well, again, I mean, no one's going to the gym at that time, like a sweaty gym where everyone's coughing and, you know, huffing and puffing, breathing arguably harder than anywhere else. Yeah. I mean, everyone was like, yeah, I'm not going there. So, I think they, I think absolutely. And I think they were also one of those companies though, that because of that, they grew, they inflated so quickly. Like their sales went so crazy that then, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don (22:24) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, good point. Good point. It's almost borderline unsustainable. You cannot continue that trajectory, right? Rob (22:48) And then once COVID counted out and it came back, then it was like, uh-oh, uh-oh, we got a counter. Don (22:52) Yeah, well, they also had they also had a blip. Rach is going to listen to this and is going to yell at me, but they had a blip when the Sarah Jessica Parker show Sex and the City when that came back around again. And then remember, one of the characters was on a Peloton has like a heart attack. Yeah, Mr. Big, Mr. Big. Yeah. And dies getting off the thing. And I feel like there was like Rob (23:06) Yeah. Yeah, was Mr. Big? Yeah, right. Don (23:19) Not, were there lawsuits? I don't even remember. I feel like there was some type of little blurb about it and it was like just bad, call it bad press. You know what I mean? So. Rob (23:26) Yeah. Yeah. There was something. Yeah. There was something. And they did a lot of great work for a while. ⁓ And that was that came out of the mechanism. ⁓ So shout out to those guys. It was a great brand. It was a great brand building job. did. They did great. ⁓ But then I think they got a little too big for their britches. Everybody went, I'm not going to ride my exercise bike in the basement anymore. I've been in my house for two years straight. I mean, I know mine's not mine's collecting dust. I'll be honest with you. Don (23:36) I love their logo. love their brand. mean, it's super cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Two years. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm with you on that one. Rob (23:56) But my quick anecdote about Peloton, for anyone who cares, is I thought when I got my bike, I'm like, oh, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna put on like Metallica and like heavy music. I tried that and it didn't work. It was like, is not right. Don (24:02) Air up. Doesn't work, dude. I'm exactly the same way. It doesn't work. Rob (24:19) So the next thing you know, I'm listening to what's his name? Cody, Instructor Cody. Super flamboyant. I've got Britney Spears playing. I got Backstreet. Backstreet's back, all right. And I'll never forget, like, because I used to have it in my room for a while. And my kids coming in and like peeking around the corner and being like, what is going on in here? Don (24:25) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, yeah. what is going on? Yeah. Yeah, I tried every one of those like, not everyone, but like a fair amount of like hard rock, heavy metal, and they even have kind of like a dude, like that's like, all right, you know, anthrax. And I'm like, no, this isn't working for me. It's weird. You know, like I need something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100 % agree. 100 % agree. That's so funny. Rob (24:47) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's rock, let's go. Didn't work, no, no, no. I needed 90s, early pop, 90s music and Cody to get me through my rides. Go figure, go figure. Don (25:07) Yeah, Palitone's a good one. All right. I got another one. It's another tech company ⁓ I'm gonna say it starts with an A. I'm gonna go Amazon Amazon started as We sell books Do a bookstore. We are direct. We are the online competitor to Barnes & Noble Right Barnes & Noble doesn't have your book and they have to order it because I mean, know a retail brick-and-mortar can only store as many books as fit in the shell, know, like Rob (25:14) Mmm. Yep. It was a bookstore. Yeah. Yeah. And you know why I was, you know why they started with books? Because Bezos was trying to think, he knew he wanted to do an online retailer and it wasn't his love of books or anything like that. It was because the sheer volume and number of books that are in the world. He came up with something, he was like, there are more books than arguably any other product in the world. ⁓ And so that's why he, that's specifically why he started with books. Don (25:35) Why? Yeah. OK. Okay, there you go. Yeah. It's a good point. It's a good point. Yeah. Yeah, but they were a bookstore. And they were a bookstore for years, right? And then, now they're everything. Rob (26:06) Yeah! And not only everything, but everything in like an hour. Don (26:12) Everything. Yeah, everything, everything. So it's like, we started it as a bookstore. mean, it's like, imagine if Barnes and Noble started as a bookstore. And then it's like, you can buy everything at Barnes, like literally anything. And that's not even to mention like the AWS and the whole backend component, which is where Amazon actually makes all of their money. ⁓ Rob (26:32) Yeah, their cloud services, corporate, all that. Don (26:34) Yeah, the delivery stuff and all, I mean, that's great, but that's not the vast majority of their profits, or Whole Foods or anything like that. It's all the AWS and the backend scenarios is where they really, really make their money. it's weird to think about, I started as I sold these things. I sold whatever, I sold pens, and then, now whatever you want anywhere in the world, like we sell it. I just think I find that bizarrely baffling, but like, do people even... Rob (26:50) Yeah. Don (27:02) really remember those Amazon days, where they had the tabs at the top, and we were all on our blueberry iMacs, our little 10-inch blueberry iMac, ⁓ and that's how we looked at Amazon. It was so strange. Rob (27:10) You're it. Well, you could argue that that was the first real unlocking of the power of the internet. That was the first unleashing of how big and what the internet could do. And you could make a case now for, well, now AI is the second massive unlocking of what is about to happen. Don (27:26) Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go backwards. I'm going to say that that is the third, right? Because I think you had Internet, you know, you may disagree with me on this and this is going to I'm taking a hard hard pivot. Okay, we had Internet 1.0 the transition from Internet 1.0 of CompuServe of chat rooms and things like that, right to Internet 2.0 is Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson's video. That is single handedly the minute. Rob (27:46) Okay. Ooh, controversial stand, let's hear it. Yeah. Yeah. Mmm. Don (28:10) that the internet changed from text-based everything to image-based and video service, right? And so I like to think of like, that's the second phase of the internet, right? Where speeds got faster, it got out of chat room. We're looking at actual video. You can watch a video on the internet, which was like, no one ever did that before, right? Yeah, yeah. Rob (28:24) Yeah. Well, what a video it was. I mean, let's, let's... It was quite a movie. Don (28:36) I'm telling you, it's a controversial talk, but that you that kind of broke 1.0 and ushered in a new version of the internet, in my opinion, right? Rob (28:44) Yeah. Yeah. Some would have called it the feel-good movie of the year at the time. Don (28:49) There is a Dr. Feelgood component to it for sure. ⁓ But yeah, Amazon, it's a weird evolution. Like, we sell one thing, to your point, we sell all of them, but now we sell everything. Amazon could be its own series of 10 podcasts in terms of how they manage their pricing and how that affects all of the companies on the internet, not just Amazon, that type of thing. mean, they kind of set... Rob (28:57) Yeah. We sell all the things. Yeah. Don (29:17) the price for everyone across the entire internet. It's insane. Rob (29:19) We went from selling books to we're launching rockets into space. What are you doing? We're sending Katy Perry into space. Of course we are. Why would we not do that? Don (29:23) Dude, what in the world? know, we're crazy. Yeah, William Shatner, William Shatner was on the Amazon one, I think. Blue Origin, right? Yeah, Shatner was brought to tears. Yeah, yeah. It was pretty awesome actually when he came back down and was like, I mean, he did actually seem like a transformed man. Yeah. Yeah, he's like, yeah, we're screwing this up. We need to turn this around and figure it out. So, all right, Amazon, got another one? Rob (29:35) Chatter was brought to tears. Chatter was brought to tears. was like, is nothing. This is like, there is nothing. Like we are, there is nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The last one I have is a local one and I'm going to throw out Spanx. Spanx. Which started off Sarah Blakely, who is an Atlanta native I believe, and went selling pantyhose. Let's call it what it is. Like cut off pantyhose for slimming purposes. Don (30:03) Okay, I will accept thanks. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Rob (30:23) beat down all the doors and was incredibly resilient. It's a great story. Entrepreneur and has since grown Spanx into, I mean, she's a billionaire at this point, but now they make everything from men's garments to women's garments to they've now, I think they make those sneaks, which are the high heels, comfortable shoes things. So that is one that started off as a very unique individual product that has now grown into both a Don (30:34) Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah. Yep, I'm actually very familiar with those things. Rob (30:52) I would say primarily still women, men and women's... ⁓ Don (30:57) Yeah. But but I think if you had if you had asked somebody when they first started like, hey, are you going to jump into the the male side of Ashen and you know, target audience and things like that, people would have thought you're crazy, you know. But it makes sense, you know, so yeah, no, that's a good one. That's a good one. So my last one, don't know, it's kind of lame. It's I didn't mean to cut you off if you still have more about Spidey. Now, I was gonna say like, I would say Apple. Rob (31:07) Yeah. That's right. That's right. No, no, no, that's it. Don (31:26) only because there's a phone sitting literally right in front of me, right? And it's like, Apple's not really a computer company anymore. I mean, they're a phone company, you know? But you could make that argument about a lot of the technology companies, do know what I mean? It's really, you know, or and or are we really calling things the wrong names, right? Not necessarily an evolution of Apple, right? Or the tech industry in general, but like, you know, Rob (31:29) Yeah. phone. Yeah. Don (31:54) This is technically the personal computer now. You know what mean? Like we shouldn't actually be calling this a phone. Like, cause we probably talk on this thing the least, right? This is the evolution of personal computing, right? It's not the laptops that we're looking at each other on right now, right? So I don't know, is it really an evolution of a company? I I don't know. It's kind of just the evolution of, you know. Rob (32:02) No. in. Yeah, I mean, and some might not call the phone. Some might call it a conduit to the downfall of civilization, which I can make a solid case for ⁓ as well. We won't go down that rabbit hole right now. This is another podcast. Don (32:20) Well, there is that aspect too, and I don't. I think again, that's it. That's another podcast, which I, don't disagree with you on. I, you know what I mean? We managed to not really talk about social media, I think a little bit on this one, you know. Oh no, I did with quickster. But yeah, that's a whole nother. That's a whole nother thing. But it's, you know, it's, Rob (32:40) But yes, they are. ⁓ They have grown into quite the behemoth from the first Apple Apple to our Apple. Don (32:47) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you can make an argument that the phone is the worst part of the phone. You know what mean? Like actually talking on this thing is the least functional aspect. But I also recognize there's there's the carrier involved in that aspect. Right. I mean, so Apple, for example, or Nokia or, you know, T-Mobile or whomever, you know, or not T-Mobile, but you know, Rob (32:54) Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. Don (33:11) the manufacturers of the phones are tied to the Verizon's and the, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's an interesting thought. It's an interesting like, hey, companies that started as one thing and we kind of focused on newer companies. I'm sure we could dig back into like why Shell Oil is called Shell Oil, all that kind of weird stuff. That's just ancient, ancient news. But yeah, it's kind of an interesting topic, so. Rob (33:15) They're only as good as the carrier. Yep, congrats to all those companies. They've done well. Don (33:39) Yeah, making all the billions, you know? We're right behind them, Rob. Our billions, they're coming, you know? Rob (33:42) making all the of dollars. The billions, the comfy couches, and the women's undergarments. I what else do you need? That's right. All right. Well, that kind of brings us to an end here. Don, where can the people find us? Don (33:52) What a blender of topics today. All right. People can find us on at mocktheagency.com and then link to all of those wonderful social media channels so you can doom scroll to your heart's content. but yeah, drop us a note. Let us know what some of your favorite brands are that have evolved over the years, things like that, right? Rob (34:03) They can't That's right. That's right. All right, we'll catch up with you next week. Don (34:18) Alright, deuces.