May 6, 2025 • 37 mins
What if the secret to market dominance isn't competing with others, but finding spaces they've completely overlooked?
"On the island of the blind, the one-eyed man will be king." This powerful business philosophy—discussed by hosts Chris Collins and Dennis Siggins—reveals how smart entrepreneurs identify untapped markets and position themselves as the only solution, becoming leaders by default rather than through direct competition.
Dennis shares how Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys became the region's only dedicated gutter cleaning service by recognizing a need homeowners themselves didn't realize existed. Eleven years later, no competitors have emerged, demonstrating how identifying and owning an overlooked niche can create lasting market dominance. The hosts examine similar success stories across industries: how McDonald's revolutionized fast food with innovative service models, how De Beers created the diamond engagement ring tradition, and how companies like Rotor-Rooter and 1-800-GOT-JUNK invented entirely new service categories.
The conversation explores how true market leadership often comes not from superior talent or resources, but from recognizing opportunities others miss. Dennis explains how this principle guided his earlier business as an innkeeper, targeting specific recession-resistant communities rather than competing in overcrowded marketing channels. The hosts also highlight how companies that prepared for unexpected market shifts—like Seafood Sam's restaurants developing delivery systems before COVID hit—can turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
Whether you're starting a new venture or reinventing an existing business, this episode reveals how identifying genuine unmet needs and positioning yourself as the specialist can help you create a category where you're the default choice because few or no alternatives exist. It's not about being better than everyone else—it's about being the only one solving a particular problem.
Ready to find your own untapped market opportunity? Subscribe for more insights on building successful businesses through strategic positioning and market awareness.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Some say success is all about competition, but
sometimes it's simply aboutrecognizing an opportunity that
others overlook.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The philosophy that we're talking about here.
Chris is on the island of theblind.
The one-eyed man will be king.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
When a market has an unmet need, the business that
steps in and delivers withexcellence becomes the leader by
default.
But identifying the rightopportunity is only half the
battle.
You also need to positionyourself as the obvious choice.
Whether it's junk removal,gutter cleaning or fast food,
the companies that recognize aneed, deliver the best service
and make themselves the obviouschoice are the ones that win.
(00:38):
Today, we're breaking down howsmart businesses dominate their
space, create demand and buildunshakable brands.
We have a great show for you,so grab a cup of coffee, sit
back, relax and welcome toMonkey Business Radio.
Hello everyone, welcome toepisode 13,.
(00:59):
Island of the Blind.
I'm Chris Collins and, asalways, I'm here with Dennis
Siggins of the Cape Cod GutterMonkeys.
Hello, dennis, chris.
I'm here with Dennis Siggins ofthe Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys.
Hello Dennis, chris.
How are you doing Good?
Good Now, dennis.
Some say success is all aboutcompetition, but sometimes it's
simply about recognizingopportunity that others overlook
.
I know this is one of your coreprinciples.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Favorite topic.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, so I'm sure you're chomping at the bit to
expand on this idea.
So why don't you take it away?
The philosophy?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
that we're talking about here, chris, is on the
island of the blind, theone-eyed man will be king and I
don't know where I first heardit, but it was a long long time
ago, and what it basically meansis this refers to somebody
who's not maybe naturally gifted, doesn't have real special
talents, but he or she couldbecome a leader, an authority on
(01:48):
a topic if he's in a situationwhere everyone else is weaker or
less capable.
Right, remember, in the veryfirst movie, planet of the Apes,
charlton Heston.
They landed on a planet and helooked around and all the people
had been pretty much mentallyand emotionally castrated and
all they were doing was out in afield farming.
And Charlton Heston said onthis planet, if this is the best
(02:11):
they got, we'll be running theplace in two weeks.
Okay, that's the theory of theisland of the blind.
On a more realistic level, if alarge market exists, if there's
a need, or at least if there'sa perceived need, and your
product or service is notavailable anywhere else they
(02:31):
have nowhere else to get yourproduct or service then you'll
be king of this product line.
You don't have to be great atit, you simply win by default,
right, right.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So today we're kind of talking about something a
little different here, becausein the past we've talked about
how to be better throughcompetition.
This show is a little bitdifferent this time because
we're kind of talking about, youknow, recognizing and owning
spaces that others, either bychoice, don't get into or don't
recognize.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Sure, now there's the product that simply doesn't
exist anywhere else, and you andyour team, your company, are
the only ones who make itproduce it and sell it Right.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
One of my favorite examples is De Beers Diamonds
We've talked about that beforein the past or De Beers in the
1900s in 1947 actually, as itturns out, they actually ended
up.
Creating the idea of a diamondis forever Prior to that.
Diamonds weren't engagementrings, they used rubies and
sapphires and whatnot.
Diamonds weren't that popularand they weren't even that
expensive.
So in a combination of going outand buying up diamond mines and
(03:27):
making this idea of diamondsbeing an engagement tool.
They filled a need that peopledidn't know existed.
It's a great example, I think,of one of those island of the
blind companies.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
When my partner, andy and I.
We were kind of in our sort ofsemi-retirement, early to
mid-50s mode.
We were looking at a businessthat we could do and I said you
know, nobody on Cape Cod cleansgutters.
Nobody does it.
And there's a huge need and infact the need is so huge that
it's overlooked.
(03:58):
The people who need it the most, the homeowners, don't even
know that gutter cleaning ispart of your outdoor maintenance
.
They got window washers, theygot the landscapers, they got
lawn cutters, they got peopleshoveling or plowing their
driveways and a lot of themdidn't even realize that the
reason their basement is floodedis the gutters get filled up
and plugged up.
(04:18):
And within months of launchingour radio campaign, it became
very obvious to a lot of peoplethat this should be a part of
their regular annual maintenance.
And what we found was no oneelse does it.
Still, here we are, 11 years in.
There is not another company onCape Cod that cleans gutters.
(04:40):
We have a lot of companies thatinstall gutters, but no one
cleans gutters.
And that's when I revisitedthat philosophy.
And we are one-eyed men.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Right, and now you've kind of like the beer.
You own the diamond mine.
Right, you own all the diamondmines.
You're so big now it's hard forsomeone to come into this
market now and start throwingthe weight.
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When you become a local leader or regional leader,
it is it's hard.
When you become a local leaderor regional leader, it is it's
hard for somebody to crack inthere.
First comes the innovator, thencomes the imitators, then comes
the rest.
It's hard to crack into thatmarket.
And of course now you will hearoccasionally on a radio ad or
something like that that thisconstruction company also cleans
(05:22):
gutters.
They only do it in the fall,during the fall foliage season.
We do it year round.
So it really it hasn't takenroot.
But in my own personal journeyI've seen us.
We are the one-eyed man on theisland of the blind.
And going back to the beginning, I said someone who is not
naturally talented or gifted inany special way could do this
(05:45):
task.
And it's true.
It doesn't take a rocketscientist to clean gutters.
What it takes is a pretty goodcrew chief and one or two
assistants and then they canclean.
We can teach them to clean,repair and maintain gutter
systems.
Installing gutters is a wholedifferent category.
That takes a lot of talent anda lot of skill To do it right.
It takes a real lot of skill,but cleaning doesn't.
(06:07):
We are the one-eyed man in thatcategory.
Other businesses I've owned.
So I was an innkeeper.
My wife and I were innkeepersback in the 80s and 90s and the
word on the street back then isif you're going to be an
innkeeper and this is up in theski areas of New Hampshire Every
business consultant said here'swhat you have to do If you're
(06:28):
going to be an innkeeper, youhave to join the local chamber
of commerce.
You have to join ski 93.
You have to join and become amember of ski the white
mountains.
You have to join and become amember of white mountain summer
attractions, white mountainsummer guide, the white
mountains summer chamber ofcommerce.
You have to join all.
(06:48):
Become a member of WhiteMountain Summer Attractions,
white Mountain Summer Guide, theWhite Mountains Summer Chamber
of Commerce.
You have to join all theseclubs.
Now, if I joined all theseclubs my inn, my business, I'm
one of 350 lodging facilitiesand I'm not the one-eyed man on
the island of the blind, I'mjust another fish in that pond.
One of the things we did thiswas pre-internet.
(07:09):
I had a really good businessconsultant.
His name was Bill Matthews.
Hey, bill, if you're out therelistening long time, no see,
bill was really great.
He lived in Sharon,massachusetts.
I lived way up north in thetown of Bethlehem, new Hampshire
.
Bill was a marketing consultantand he had access to information
(07:29):
that I didn't have.
What he had access to waslittle pockets in New England
that even during recessions werealmost recession-proof.
So what he did for example, hesaw this county over in
Connecticut that has a lot ofgovernment work.
They build ships and he wouldsay, hey, they just signed $7.8
(07:54):
billion worth of shipbuildingover the next 14 months.
So we would hit that county,we'd hit their newspapers, we
would hit their radio stations,we would begin advertising ski
packages and white mountain golfpackages and hiking and this
and that we were perceived inthat county as the only avenue
(08:17):
to ski New Hampshire.
They didn't know 300 other innsand lodges existed.
We were.
What we did was we created theimage that we are the only place
to go.
And then when they come up andthey would meet my wife and
myself and my staff and we'resuper friendly and we had a
whole different shtick going onup there they would feel like
(08:40):
they're at home and it was likethe Bob Newhart show and they
would come back year after yearafter year and this is what we
did.
So we didn't blanket theNortheast.
And yes, I joined Ski theWhites and Ski 93.
I joined all the clubs you'resupposed to, but I never got
much business out of that.
All of my business came fromthis little micro marketing
(09:01):
projects that we did Back then.
I was spending probably morethan everybody else on marketing
, but it more than paid foritself.
We created the image at theNorthern Star Inn of Bethlehem,
new Hampshire.
We created the image that we'rethe only place to go.
If you want to do this you gotto call us, because it simply
doesn't exist.
(09:21):
And remember, there was nointernet back then so you
couldn't just look stuff up.
You had the yellow pages, whichwas local, and so they're
looking at a newspaper ad, wetake out a half a page in the
local paper.
Or we did a lot of direct mail,marketing and other stuff.
They have my direct mail couponin front of them.
They're dialing that phone.
They're not going to researchit.
(09:42):
So there was a case where wereally weren't the only caterer
in town, but we were perceivedat that.
So if you're the only companythat sells a product or service,
first of all it has to havesome broad market appeal and it
has to be affordable.
It must fill a need, and otherpeople either can't or won't do
(10:06):
that task.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I love that topic.
There's one company I wasactually researching for this.
It's a company called TraumaServices LLC.
Can you imagine what they do?
So they're basically abiohazard and trauma cleanup and
they do crime scenes, suicides.
Oh yeah, you know, you name it,they do it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
See, I'm thinking septic tank cleaning, but no,
this is even worse.
These guys are unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
One of their biggest things unfortunately for society
today, but it's an interestingone is fentanyl cleanup in a
house.
So if the fentanyl lab, youknow how poisonous and dangerous
it is, oh yeah, so this is thekind of stuff they do.
So talk about a company.
You know a niche that peoplejust do not want to do.
Servpro is another big companythat's in that field too,
probably a familiar company thatpeople know.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Mold remediation and other stuff like that, sure, and
affordability.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
One of the ones I was just thinking of when you were
talking about that is I don'tknow about Harbor Freight.
You ever go and shop at HarborFreight.
I know who they are.
Yeah, I love Harbor Freight.
We go through and kind of gothrough their stuff Great prices
on stuff that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know that I'm not a professional carpenter or
anything, so I don't need thetop of the line stuff, but
another great company foraffordability too.
So, creating the image of beingthe only company that sells a
product or service, that'ssomething that we hit on a few
minutes ago.
If you, the business owner, canwrap your mind around this,
we're all just a commoditybusiness, and creating and
designing and implementing isgoing to be your differentiator.
(11:31):
I talked to a lot of youngbusiness owners and a lot of
them say, oh, no, I'm not acommodity.
And I say, well, actually youare no.
No, because we're better thanthe other guy and we're
different from the other.
Yeah, but you're still sellingcheeseburgers, okay.
You know, mcdonald's has thespecial sauce, and at Burger
King you can have it your way,and Wendy's is fresh, never
frozen.
There's still.
You're just selling acheeseburger.
(11:52):
That's it, the fresh, neverfrozen.
Or you know, five Guys hashandcrafted burgers and fries.
Guess what that's called thedifferentiator.
We're all for the that youchoose is what's going to make
you appear to be the only guythat sells this product, and
(12:16):
that's when marketing andcreativity and that sort of
design comes into play.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Great companies out there that do that like.
Kleenex is like the classicexample, right?
Sure, there's millions ofKleenex.
Everyone calls it Kleenex.
I mean it's just Right.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Give me a tissue Because they've done such an
unbelievable job.
Coca-cola.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Coca-Cola.
Yeah unbelievable job.
Coca-cola, coca-cola yeah,velcro is a perfect example,
right, yeah, I got a good onefor you, though You'll get a
kick out of this.
One is dumpsters.
You know, dumpsters came about.
I don't I have a dumpster outin the parking lot, but
anybody's got a dumpster.
But it was two brothers.
This one guy, george Dempster,back kind of in the depression
era, actually came up with anidea of you know, they've got
(12:51):
their trucks out there all thetime and they're filling them
full of stuff and the truck'sgot to sit there, right, so you
can't use the truck.
So what they decided to do isthey would leave the bin, the
dumper, on the back of the truck.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Sure the back end.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, he invented a way of hydraulically loading
that onto a truck.
He called it the DempsterDumpmaster.
But people over time and hefinally latched onto it ended up
taking a dump and dumpster,putting them together and you
end up with dumpster.
So that's how you actually endup.
They actually had the trademarkon it, but evidently I'm not
familiar with trademark law.
After a point, if it becomes sogeneric and so reused, you
(13:24):
can't claim it as a trademarkany longer.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That just means they did a great job.
It was unbelievable.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
During the Depression they were selling these things.
It was huge.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You know they were making money during the
Depression A lot of the youngerguys and girls that I work with
and it's a high percentage theydon't view themselves honestly.
They view themselves asentrepreneurs because they
started a company.
I don't believe that to be true.
I was 35 years, 40 years intomy.
Work life began when I was 8,delivering newspapers.
I was cutting lawns by the Iwas 35 years, 40 years into my.
My work life began when I waseight, delivering newspapers.
(13:56):
I was cutting lawns by the timeI was 10.
I never agreed that I was anentrepreneur until I was in my
fifties.
And I look back on my careerand I say, okay, I've done some
interesting and creative things.
I'm not a Mark Cuban, I'm notan Elon Musk, I'm a good local
entrepreneur.
But so many kids they starttheir company, kids in their 20s
(14:19):
, and they call themselvesentrepreneurs.
And I tell them don't do that.
And they have their businesscard.
It says you know, chris Collins, ceo.
And I said you're not the CEO,the chief executive, you're the
only employee.
And if you just start yourcompany, don't tell me you have
a brand, because nobody knowswho you are.
You know you got to definebrand.
(14:41):
And here's another one.
I hear this all the time oh,I'm not a commodity.
I'm better than everybody.
Yeah, there's other people outthere doing what I do, but I'm
better.
That's actually the definitionof a commodity that there's a
lot of other people out theredoing it and because you believe
you're better, that's calledthe differentiator.
We're all in the commoditybusiness, for the most part, or
(15:01):
nearly all of us.
I have a lot of friends in therestaurant business.
I know some who are thrivingand booming and I know a lot of
them who have failed.
Okay, the ones that arethriving, the ones that are
booming, even during COVID.
And I have a lot of friends inthe restaurant business.
Some of them boomed becausethey're brilliant entrepreneurs
(15:22):
and they redefined theircommodity, their food product,
when the rest of the restaurantand the food service world
didn't, and that's why theythrived and that's why they
survived.
More on that later.
But when you're building a brand, you want to create the
differentiator, because that isgoing to make you appear like
(15:43):
you're on the island of theblind and you're going to be the
one-eyed man.
So you want to define whatbusiness you're in.
You're in the restaurantbusiness and where are we
located?
We're located here and whatmakes us different or better?
And if you can find thecombination of those three
things and then convey that tothe general public.
Hey, we're a seafood restauranton Cape Cod and if you want
(16:05):
authentic seafood you got tocome to my place.
Now that's a hard thing to dobecause Cape Cod has way too
many restaurants.
We have way too manylandscapers and way too many
restaurants and we who live hereare blessed we can go out and
have high-end dinner sevennights a week for a month in a
row and never overlap.
(16:26):
But what does the restaurant doto convince the public that
they are better than the otherguys?
Let's go back to the burgerthing.
Mcdonald's has the specialsauce and Burger King said you
can have it your way.
And they got the new thinggoing on now with that whole
that wrap sort of style thatthey have.
(16:46):
The McDonald's brothers openedthe first McDonald's in 1940.
And you know what it was.
In Southern California it'swarm all the time, they didn't
need indoor seating and it onlyrains in like March and part of
April.
The McDonald's brothersdesigned a restaurant style that
(17:07):
people would come up to thewindow and take their food
through the window and go sit inoutdoor picnic tables.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
There was nothing else like it.
It's a great movie.
What was the movie's name?
I can't quite remember.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
The Founder.
I did my senior project on RayKroc.
My senior project was theMcDonald's.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Corporation.
Yeah, that was a great movieabout Ray Kroc.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
There was a lot of fake stuff in there.
They made him look bad and Iwas watching it with my wife and
I said that's not true, that'snot how it went down, and I know
that.
But the McDonald's brothers hadan idea and in their county,
their little territory, theywere the one-eyed man on the
island of the blind.
If you want to go out and get aburger quick with a milkshake
(17:47):
back then it was mostlymilkshakes you got to go to
their restaurant and guess what?
You're going to sit outdoors inthe beautiful Southern
California weather and it's niceall the time.
If you've ever been to SouthernCalifornia other than, like I
say, six, seven weeks in thespring, it's beautiful.
They had created a situationthat simply didn't exist in food
(18:07):
service.
You can eat outdoors and thinkof the cost savings.
They don't have to build arestaurant Right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
They don't have to clear tables, do all that sort
of stuff.
Hire waiters and waitresses.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Ray Kroc was a world beater All through the
Depression.
He was selling cars, he wasselling cameras, he was selling
hats.
This guy was selling stuff tomake money.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Malt machines at the end there.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
This is how he met the machine.
He was selling restaurantequipment and he had a client
out in Southern California thatwas buying way more milkshake
machines than he could everbelieve.
He got in his car and he drovethere.
He drove from Illinois all theway out there to see what the
heck is going on and he wasblown away by this.
(18:48):
So you know McDonald's in 1940,the McDonald brothers basically
created the Island of the Blindand they were the one-eyed men.
And Ray Kroc took it further in1954 when he and the McDonald
brothers came to agreement onnational franchising.
So now Ray Kroc was going totake this model nationwide and
(19:11):
eventually worldwide.
So now they're going around thecountry and they're opening
little islands of the blind andlocal people could a local guy
or girl, a local couple couldbuy a franchise and they could
become their own one-eyed man onthe island of the blind and all
around the country he went andof course, after the innovators
(19:33):
comes the imitators and then therest of them.
And yes, you had the BurgerKings and the Wendy's and more
and more of these fast foodrestaurants, if you will,
started to come into play.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, wendy's is one of my favorites.
I love Wendy's myself.
But it's interesting how theykind of attacked them too.
Attacked them.
They came up with a fresh youknow never frozen beef.
That's their differentiatorSquare patties Even a square
patty was different Frostydesserts.
They came up with the firstdrive-up window, which I didn't
know who did.
1970, Wendy's.
Wendy's had the firstdrive-through window.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, McDonald's started with the drive-through
in 75.
I was not aware that Wendy'shad one before that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, when, of course , they did a where's the beef?
Yeah, they did greatcommercials and they have a lot
of actually they do a lot now,but they even started out very
early.
They did a lot of really savagelike social media not tax, but
parodies on Wendy, on McDonald'sand Burger King as well.
So that's kind of how theyapproached it.
Try to weasel their way inthere.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, their differentiator was a higher
quality product fresh, neverfrozen.
But by the mid-70s Ray Krocrecognized, as Americans were
becoming more and more focusedon efficiency and convenience,
that a drive-through might be aconcept that would be accepted
(20:54):
nationwide Out in Californiaback then you could pull up to
the clinic and you could getyour flu shot by rolling your
window down and hanging your armout, and you never had to get
out of your car.
And Ray Kroc took this samephilosophy into the fast food
world and probably mostAmericans you know, probably 90%
(21:17):
of Americans have had a burgerwhile driving down the road.
And Ray Kroc made that possiblewhen he began implementing
drive-thrus in all of therestaurants other than those
that were in the mall.
That was one of his objectives,and this was 1980 that I did my
project on him and it was.
He wanted all of the McDonald'slocations that weren't attached
(21:42):
to a mall to have a drive-thru.
And you could see the changeback in the 80s.
You're on the road, you'remaking good time, mom and dad
and 2.4 kids.
We don't want to pull off thehighway for an hour.
Nope, you pull in, you hit thedrive-thru and you're right back
out on the road Once again.
After Ray Kroc establishedMcDonald's and himself as the
(22:03):
island, and him being the oneeyed man in the mid fifties the
imitator started to come on andcatch up to him.
And what did he do?
He came out with the next newinnovation that set McDonald's
apart again, and this isnationwide drive-thrus.
So now you're driving down theroad and you see the sign and
there's a Burger King coming upand there's a McDonald's.
(22:24):
And you're looking at that andyou say I know, if we go to the
McDonald's we can hit thedrive-thru, and that gave them
the leg up on Burger King andeverybody else.
I think that's all kind of comefull circle in the fast food.
They all have drive-thrus andthey all have it going on now.
But Ray Kroc just kept stayingahead of the pack and he was
(22:44):
constantly recreating thatisland.
If you look at other businesses1-800-GOT-JUNK they made a new
industry where the averagehomeowner could get rid of junk.
Who else would you call backthen?
Right, would you call a localcontractor?
I don't know.
Do you call a handyman?
You know what, when you see1-800-GOT-JUNK, you just call
(23:06):
them.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, well, it's stuck in your brain too, you
hear it over and, over and overagain.
You can't get it out of yourbrain.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
It's a piece of marketing genius number one and
the timing was right.
And then, since then you've gothunks removing junks, two men
in a truck.
There's a bunch of others thathave come along, but back in the
beginning they created anisland and they were the
one-eyed men on that island.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
1-800-gut-junk A rotor-rooter is another one.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
There, you go.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Another company started in the Depression,
actually 1933.
They started.
He was trying to find a jobdoing all kinds of things but he
took a mechanics correspondencecourse and he learned basically
mechanical engineering.
His son had a clog in his sinkso he went over his house and
they tried to get rid of it.
It took him about two weeks toget rid of this thing because it
was roots in the sewer.
(23:56):
Because it was roots in thesewer, so he basically ended up
working on it for about twoyears and he ended up taking a
washing machine, motor, rollerskate wheels, a cable and some
things that he designed sort ofthese blades, these C-shaped
blades and turned it into arotor-rooter as it is known
today, basically patented it,trademarked it and during the
(24:17):
Depression, was selling them youknow, $200 a piece during the
depression and they were flyingoff the shelves because it was a
completely new, again, one-eyedman on the high end of the
blind.
No one had this, but everybodyneeded it because even during
the depression, sinks clogged,sewers clogged.
It was a great way ofdeveloping a product.
And so, yeah, by 1935, he had afull-size company and the rest
(24:39):
is history.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I have some friends down here.
They're customers here on CapeCod and they own a handful of
restaurants and they're calledSeafood Sam's.
Now, if you come to Cape Cod tovacation, you want to eat
seafood and these guys they gotit going on.
They got a great system.
The food is good, it'sreasonably priced, service is
great.
I love them and I was doingsome work for one of the owners
(25:04):
and he's my age and we just gottalking about.
We were cleaning his guttersabout two or three years ago and
he was telling me about COVIDand what happened was Seafood
Sam's.
I think they owned about fiveof them at the time and these
guys are true restaurant guys.
Right from their teenage yearsand it's an amazing story the
two brothers and prior to COVID,around 2018, 2019, these boys
(25:28):
had come up with an idea forcurbside pickup of meals and
also delivering high-end meals.
This is before Grubhub and anyof this other stuff.
Right, exactly Way before that.
And so what they were going todo was they were coming up with
a plan so that if people hadcome to Cape Cod on vacation and
(25:50):
they wanted to have a bigdinner at home.
So the boys at Seafood Sam'sdecided to set up a platform for
that and they had the design inplace and they were considering
a launch of this and then COVIDhit and two things happened.
All the restaurants shut down.
And the second thing thathappened is Seafood Sam's didn't
(26:11):
shut down.
So I think he told me they had.
One or two of their restaurantswere much more of a sort of a
sit-down style.
Some of them, like the one herein the town of Sandwich, which
is where I live, is right on thecanal.
It's really beautiful.
Big old parking lot.
You can look out over the canal.
You can see ocean-going vesselscoming and going through the
canal.
Sounds good.
(26:31):
We should go there after thepodcast.
It's actually very good, Ihaven't been there this year,
but they closed for a couple ofmonths and I think they reopened
March 1st.
But what he was telling me wasthis system that they were
designing, all of a sudden, agreat need for it.
It was no longer an option,this was a need.
Chance favors the prepared oh,right here, Chance favors the
(26:56):
prepared.
And when I was talking to him,I'm going to say it was the fall
of 2020.
And he said, yeah, we just hada record year.
And I said what?
I know restaurant owners thatwent under.
I know restaurant owners thatshut down in April and May of
2020 and tried to figure out away to reopen.
(27:17):
I mean, there were laws in placestate to state, no more than
this.
Many people gathering indoorsat the same time Must be so many
feet in between parties who aresitting down.
A whole plethora of newlyimplemented regulations and the
compliance was wicked.
And Seafood Sam's just overrodethe whole thing.
(27:39):
You just come here and you'regoing to get great food and you
can pick it up or we can deliverit.
And they didn't miss a step.
They didn't miss a beat.
And what they did on one of therestaurants?
They didn't even open it to thepublic.
They used it just for cookingfood.
It was an amazing story.
I haven't really revisited themyet and I really ought to.
Next time I see them bring thatup with them, but I thought it
(28:01):
was a stroke of genius.
Again, right place, right time,chance favors the prepared and
that island.
They didn't form the island, itwas formed for them and they
happened to land on that islandon both feet.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, in that case yeah, yeah, we had that similar
experience with a company up inNew Hampshire called Top Notch
Glass during COVID and theybasically set it up.
So they were very good fortheir vendors and stuff like
that.
They took very good care oftheir vendors.
They had a very deep set ofvendors, duplicates in all
different areas for thedifferent materials they bought,
and what was their product?
Top Notch Glass.
So they were a glass company.
(28:36):
So we just happened to be doingduring COVID, like a lot of
people, we decide, oh, let's doa little renovation.
So we renovated our bathroom,put in a glass shower, and they
would come by the house and wewould talk to them and I started
, caught up a conversation withthis owner and it turns out he
had the best year he ever had.
He had best, I think, the twoyears that he had, or three
years of the best he ever had.
And it was because, again, hewas prepared.
(28:57):
He had very deep vendors, veryestablished vendors, and so when
the shit hit the fan, hebasically was on top of their
list For what.
He was able, for all thismaterial, for the glass and
stuff that he was buying, oh,plexiglass, yeah, plexiglass To
set up in the stores and in thehe set it up around banks.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Right, of course, super bank tellers, supermarket
cashiers.
Everyone needed plexiglass.
Everybody needed plexiglass.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Oh my gosh, and he had this deep, deep set of
vendors that he could get theplexiglass from, and he had the
best couple of years of his life, wow.
So again he became the one-eyedman.
But it didn't happen justbecause he happened to be the
only guy in town.
It was because he had done allthis work before, similar things
setting up this sort of islandthat he could sit on and sort of
dominate in that market whenyou look at innovation, when you
(29:41):
look at change.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
You know sports is a great analogy, because sports
you can make a movie out of it,you can.
It tells a story and you cantell a story about life in one
season.
You know, Tiger Woods changedthe game of golf so fast.
He was young.
He was a black man playing awhite man's game.
(30:04):
He was big and he was strongand he was athletic.
Golf didn't have big, strongathletic guys and he started
training when he was two.
He came into a dusty, old,well-established industry and he
rattled their cages.
They didn't even want himplaying in the masters because
he was the wrong color and thatcourse was closed to blacks.
(30:27):
But he had the best golfer inthe world was black and they had
to let him in.
In fact, when he won his firstmasters, I don't think he was 21
yet, so he couldn't even drinkthe champagne.
He changed the game.
You know, bobby Orr changed thegame of hockey.
A defenseman is not supposed tolead the league in scoring.
He changed the way the game wasplayed.
(30:49):
Then there's the situationwhere somebody goes even bigger
and Chris and I here we werehigh school teammates, right,
yep, chris and I ran crosscountry and track together for
four years in high school andgreat teammates, great coach.
We really we were blessed.
And there was a couple of guysout of Worcester area and Dick
(31:14):
Hoyt began pushing his son in awheelchair.
Ricky, oh yeah, ricky was ayoung kid, a teenager who had
cerebral palsy, and his dad sothe story goes pushed him in a
charity three-mile road race.
It wasn't a 5K.
Back then, remember, we were inthree miles, five miles or six
miles.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
No 5K.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Pushed him in a three-miler, loved it so much
they just started doing it.
They didn't mean to build abrand, they didn't mean to build
a business.
He was in the service I don'tknow it was a Marine Corps or
Army, I don't really rememberbut he was still a serviceman
and he had a wife and kids andone of his kids had cerebral
(31:56):
palsy and he started.
They started going to roadraces every weekend and we
watched them from up close.
I used to see those guys atroad races all the time back
then because they wereMassachusetts central mass,
local people.
They created something thatdidn't exist.
Now, rick and Dickie eachpassed away in the last several
years, but the legacy they leftbehind it's simply.
(32:18):
It can't be overstated.
It's amazing what they did.
They created something only outof passion.
There was no money involved.
They weren't doing this as abusiness.
They were doing it out of theirpassion for running and their
passion for one another.
Mr Hoyt Dick Hoyt is the mostdecorated father in the world.
Mr Hoyt Dick Hoyt is the mostdecorated father in the world.
(32:39):
He has the most Father of theYear awards.
I think I'm a good dad and I'lloften throw that out to my kids
.
I remember back then who's thegreatest dad?
And they would say you are Dad.
And I would say no, no, I'm notAt the very best, I'm a distant
second to Mr Hoyt.
I love him.
I never knew them.
I, I love them.
(33:01):
I never knew them.
I knew them only at a distancebecause they were always so busy
when they got to the road racehe had to take out the chair and
he had to pick up his son andcarry him out and set him up in
the chair and he was so busy andI was just a young teenager at
the time.
It was so amazing that it wasintimidating.
He was such an amazing man andeven then, as I got through my
college years and into mypost-college, I was still
running competitively.
(33:21):
I would still see the Hoyts outthere.
And just an amazing group ofguys.
When you talk about the Islandof the Blind, these two guys
were amazing.
They created something out ofnothing and something that is
going to exist for the rest oftime, even though they're not
here anymore.
That will never go away.
So here's my little shout outto the Hoyts.
(33:43):
And, by the way, whenever wetravel, my wife is from Ashland
and we would travel back toAshland or Framingham, that area
If we're coming in off of Route495, we come in Route 135 every
time we stop at the startingline of the Boston Marathon and
we would walk over and there's astatue, there's a bronze.
(34:04):
Have you seen it?
No, I haven't seen it.
There's a bronze statue of Rickyand Dick Hoyt oh really yep
right in front of the library bythe starting line.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Oh, I didn't know that we always go over and say
hello.
I lived a couple miles fromthere.
I never knew that it'sbeautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
It must have been a more recent thing.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I kind of want to end on that, actually, before you
go up the street from where yourwife grew up was actually the
original start of the BostonMarathon.
Yeah, exactly, probably about ahalf mile from our house.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
It changed over the years to its now current 26.2
miles.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
It was right down there on Pleasant Street, right
down the street from her.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, yeah, think of the Hoyts when you're out there.
Think of the Hoyts when you'reout there.
Think of what they did.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Google them, yeah, anytime you see someone pushing
someone in a stroller andrunning.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That's basically they created that whole.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, they have, and they did an awesome job.
You see everybody doing that.
Nowadays it's so common.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yes.
So when you want to create yourbusiness, when you want to
create your brand, when you wantto become the one-eyed man on
the island of the blind, go totheir website, go to the Hoyt's
website, see what they did, seewhat they're all about.
When I was building my mostrecent group of companies here,
the gutter monkeys I went to theuh, the duck boats up in Boston
.
I spent days on that websitebecause they have a crazy quirky
thing going on up there that I.
(35:12):
It just intrigued me.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
It's amazing they're.
They're drivers.
Every single one of them isquirky different.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Funny, funny stuff.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
It's a whole different experience.
So you can go over and overagain because it's a different
experience every time you go,because the personality it's not
scripted or anything.
They all have differentpersonalities.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And then I also spent a little bit of time on
Jordan's Furniture, Elliot andBarry.
Yeah, man I came back in the 70sand 80s and these guys took
over a business, a one-locationbusiness that their parents
started, and they turned it intoa.
They created the need forspecialized bedding.
Yeah, they told the public, hey, you shouldn't be sleeping on
(35:49):
the mattress that everyone elsesleeps on.
We have a mattress that we candesign for you.
And boom and I spent a lot oftime on their website too.
Whenever I'm doing somethinglike I'm going to start a
business, there's so much dataout there.
Look around at these companiesthat you respect.
Look at around at thesecompanies that are different.
You know what makes themdifferent.
How did they create the islandof the blind and then land in
(36:12):
the middle of it?
And in creating this companythat I, these small companies
that we own now spend a lot oftime on those websites.
And give Ricky and Dick Hoyt alittle bit of a look.
Check out their website.
A lot of cool stuff out there.
And with that, chris, I'llwe'll sign off.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I guess that's it for this episode.
All right, thanks for listeningand, as always, no monkeys were
harmed in the making of thispodcast.
That's right.
We'll catch you next time.
See ya.
Making of this podcast.
That's right, we'll catch younext time, see ya.
Thank you for tuning in toMonkey Business Radio.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please make sure to subscribe,
like and follow us wherever youget your podcasts.
(36:49):
It really helps us reach moreaspiring entrepreneurs like you,
and if you got a question ortopic you'd like us to cover,
leave a comment or reach out tous on social media.
We'd love to hear your thoughtsand keep the conversation going
.
Don't forget to leave us afive-star review if you found
the episode valuable, and makesure to share it with anyone who
might benefit from our tips andstories.
We'll see you next time.
(37:10):
This podcast is produced byAmerican Gutter Monkeys LLC.
Build real wealth throughbusiness ownership.
For details, visit us atAmericanGutterMonkeyscom.
Some say success is all about competition, but
sometimes it's simply aboutrecognizing an opportunity that
others overlook.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The philosophy that we're talking about here.
Chris is on the island of theblind.
The one-eyed man will be king.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
When a market has an unmet need, the business that
steps in and delivers withexcellence becomes the leader by
default.
But identifying the rightopportunity is only half the
battle.
You also need to positionyourself as the obvious choice.
Whether it's junk removal,gutter cleaning or fast food,
the companies that recognize aneed, deliver the best service
and make themselves the obviouschoice are the ones that win.
(00:38):
Today, we're breaking down howsmart businesses dominate their
space, create demand and buildunshakable brands.
We have a great show for you,so grab a cup of coffee, sit
back, relax and welcome toMonkey Business Radio.
Hello everyone, welcome toepisode 13,.
(00:59):
Island of the Blind.
I'm Chris Collins and, asalways, I'm here with Dennis
Siggins of the Cape Cod GutterMonkeys.
Hello, dennis, chris.
I'm here with Dennis Siggins ofthe Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys.
Hello Dennis, chris.
How are you doing Good?
Good Now, dennis.
Some say success is all aboutcompetition, but sometimes it's
simply about recognizingopportunity that others overlook
.
I know this is one of your coreprinciples.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Favorite topic.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, so I'm sure you're chomping at the bit to
expand on this idea.
So why don't you take it away?
The philosophy?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
that we're talking about here, chris, is on the
island of the blind, theone-eyed man will be king and I
don't know where I first heardit, but it was a long long time
ago, and what it basically meansis this refers to somebody
who's not maybe naturally gifted, doesn't have real special
talents, but he or she couldbecome a leader, an authority on
(01:48):
a topic if he's in a situationwhere everyone else is weaker or
less capable.
Right, remember, in the veryfirst movie, planet of the Apes,
charlton Heston.
They landed on a planet and helooked around and all the people
had been pretty much mentallyand emotionally castrated and
all they were doing was out in afield farming.
And Charlton Heston said onthis planet, if this is the best
(02:11):
they got, we'll be running theplace in two weeks.
Okay, that's the theory of theisland of the blind.
On a more realistic level, if alarge market exists, if there's
a need, or at least if there'sa perceived need, and your
product or service is notavailable anywhere else they
(02:31):
have nowhere else to get yourproduct or service then you'll
be king of this product line.
You don't have to be great atit, you simply win by default,
right, right.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So today we're kind of talking about something a
little different here, becausein the past we've talked about
how to be better throughcompetition.
This show is a little bitdifferent this time because
we're kind of talking about, youknow, recognizing and owning
spaces that others, either bychoice, don't get into or don't
recognize.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Sure, now there's the product that simply doesn't
exist anywhere else, and you andyour team, your company, are
the only ones who make itproduce it and sell it Right.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
One of my favorite examples is De Beers Diamonds
We've talked about that beforein the past or De Beers in the
1900s in 1947 actually, as itturns out, they actually ended
up.
Creating the idea of a diamondis forever Prior to that.
Diamonds weren't engagementrings, they used rubies and
sapphires and whatnot.
Diamonds weren't that popularand they weren't even that
expensive.
So in a combination of going outand buying up diamond mines and
(03:27):
making this idea of diamondsbeing an engagement tool.
They filled a need that peopledidn't know existed.
It's a great example, I think,of one of those island of the
blind companies.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
When my partner, andy and I.
We were kind of in our sort ofsemi-retirement, early to
mid-50s mode.
We were looking at a businessthat we could do and I said you
know, nobody on Cape Cod cleansgutters.
Nobody does it.
And there's a huge need and infact the need is so huge that
it's overlooked.
(03:58):
The people who need it the most, the homeowners, don't even
know that gutter cleaning ispart of your outdoor maintenance
.
They got window washers, theygot the landscapers, they got
lawn cutters, they got peopleshoveling or plowing their
driveways and a lot of themdidn't even realize that the
reason their basement is floodedis the gutters get filled up
and plugged up.
(04:18):
And within months of launchingour radio campaign, it became
very obvious to a lot of peoplethat this should be a part of
their regular annual maintenance.
And what we found was no oneelse does it.
Still, here we are, 11 years in.
There is not another company onCape Cod that cleans gutters.
(04:40):
We have a lot of companies thatinstall gutters, but no one
cleans gutters.
And that's when I revisitedthat philosophy.
And we are one-eyed men.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Right, and now you've kind of like the beer.
You own the diamond mine.
Right, you own all the diamondmines.
You're so big now it's hard forsomeone to come into this
market now and start throwingthe weight.
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When you become a local leader or regional leader,
it is it's hard.
When you become a local leaderor regional leader, it is it's
hard for somebody to crack inthere.
First comes the innovator, thencomes the imitators, then comes
the rest.
It's hard to crack into thatmarket.
And of course now you will hearoccasionally on a radio ad or
something like that that thisconstruction company also cleans
(05:22):
gutters.
They only do it in the fall,during the fall foliage season.
We do it year round.
So it really it hasn't takenroot.
But in my own personal journeyI've seen us.
We are the one-eyed man on theisland of the blind.
And going back to the beginning, I said someone who is not
naturally talented or gifted inany special way could do this
(05:45):
task.
And it's true.
It doesn't take a rocketscientist to clean gutters.
What it takes is a pretty goodcrew chief and one or two
assistants and then they canclean.
We can teach them to clean,repair and maintain gutter
systems.
Installing gutters is a wholedifferent category.
That takes a lot of talent anda lot of skill To do it right.
It takes a real lot of skill,but cleaning doesn't.
(06:07):
We are the one-eyed man in thatcategory.
Other businesses I've owned.
So I was an innkeeper.
My wife and I were innkeepersback in the 80s and 90s and the
word on the street back then isif you're going to be an
innkeeper and this is up in theski areas of New Hampshire Every
business consultant said here'swhat you have to do If you're
(06:28):
going to be an innkeeper, youhave to join the local chamber
of commerce.
You have to join ski 93.
You have to join and become amember of ski the white
mountains.
You have to join and become amember of white mountain summer
attractions, white mountainsummer guide, the white
mountains summer chamber ofcommerce.
You have to join all.
(06:48):
Become a member of WhiteMountain Summer Attractions,
white Mountain Summer Guide, theWhite Mountains Summer Chamber
of Commerce.
You have to join all theseclubs.
Now, if I joined all theseclubs my inn, my business, I'm
one of 350 lodging facilitiesand I'm not the one-eyed man on
the island of the blind, I'mjust another fish in that pond.
One of the things we did thiswas pre-internet.
(07:09):
I had a really good businessconsultant.
His name was Bill Matthews.
Hey, bill, if you're out therelistening long time, no see,
bill was really great.
He lived in Sharon,massachusetts.
I lived way up north in thetown of Bethlehem, new Hampshire
.
Bill was a marketing consultantand he had access to information
(07:29):
that I didn't have.
What he had access to waslittle pockets in New England
that even during recessions werealmost recession-proof.
So what he did for example, hesaw this county over in
Connecticut that has a lot ofgovernment work.
They build ships and he wouldsay, hey, they just signed $7.8
(07:54):
billion worth of shipbuildingover the next 14 months.
So we would hit that county,we'd hit their newspapers, we
would hit their radio stations,we would begin advertising ski
packages and white mountain golfpackages and hiking and this
and that we were perceived inthat county as the only avenue
(08:17):
to ski New Hampshire.
They didn't know 300 other innsand lodges existed.
We were.
What we did was we created theimage that we are the only place
to go.
And then when they come up andthey would meet my wife and
myself and my staff and we'resuper friendly and we had a
whole different shtick going onup there they would feel like
(08:40):
they're at home and it was likethe Bob Newhart show and they
would come back year after yearafter year and this is what we
did.
So we didn't blanket theNortheast.
And yes, I joined Ski theWhites and Ski 93.
I joined all the clubs you'resupposed to, but I never got
much business out of that.
All of my business came fromthis little micro marketing
(09:01):
projects that we did Back then.
I was spending probably morethan everybody else on marketing
, but it more than paid foritself.
We created the image at theNorthern Star Inn of Bethlehem,
new Hampshire.
We created the image that we'rethe only place to go.
If you want to do this you gotto call us, because it simply
doesn't exist.
(09:21):
And remember, there was nointernet back then so you
couldn't just look stuff up.
You had the yellow pages, whichwas local, and so they're
looking at a newspaper ad, wetake out a half a page in the
local paper.
Or we did a lot of direct mail,marketing and other stuff.
They have my direct mail couponin front of them.
They're dialing that phone.
They're not going to researchit.
(09:42):
So there was a case where wereally weren't the only caterer
in town, but we were perceivedat that.
So if you're the only companythat sells a product or service,
first of all it has to havesome broad market appeal and it
has to be affordable.
It must fill a need, and otherpeople either can't or won't do
(10:06):
that task.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I love that topic.
There's one company I wasactually researching for this.
It's a company called TraumaServices LLC.
Can you imagine what they do?
So they're basically abiohazard and trauma cleanup and
they do crime scenes, suicides.
Oh yeah, you know, you name it,they do it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
See, I'm thinking septic tank cleaning, but no,
this is even worse.
These guys are unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
One of their biggest things unfortunately for society
today, but it's an interestingone is fentanyl cleanup in a
house.
So if the fentanyl lab, youknow how poisonous and dangerous
it is, oh yeah, so this is thekind of stuff they do.
So talk about a company.
You know a niche that peoplejust do not want to do.
Servpro is another big companythat's in that field too,
probably a familiar company thatpeople know.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Mold remediation and other stuff like that, sure, and
affordability.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
One of the ones I was just thinking of when you were
talking about that is I don'tknow about Harbor Freight.
You ever go and shop at HarborFreight.
I know who they are.
Yeah, I love Harbor Freight.
We go through and kind of gothrough their stuff Great prices
on stuff that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know that I'm not a professional carpenter or
anything, so I don't need thetop of the line stuff, but
another great company foraffordability too.
So, creating the image of beingthe only company that sells a
product or service, that'ssomething that we hit on a few
minutes ago.
If you, the business owner, canwrap your mind around this,
we're all just a commoditybusiness, and creating and
designing and implementing isgoing to be your differentiator.
(11:31):
I talked to a lot of youngbusiness owners and a lot of
them say, oh, no, I'm not acommodity.
And I say, well, actually youare no.
No, because we're better thanthe other guy and we're
different from the other.
Yeah, but you're still sellingcheeseburgers, okay.
You know, mcdonald's has thespecial sauce, and at Burger
King you can have it your way,and Wendy's is fresh, never
frozen.
There's still.
You're just selling acheeseburger.
(11:52):
That's it, the fresh, neverfrozen.
Or you know, five Guys hashandcrafted burgers and fries.
Guess what that's called thedifferentiator.
We're all for the that youchoose is what's going to make
you appear to be the only guythat sells this product, and
(12:16):
that's when marketing andcreativity and that sort of
design comes into play.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Great companies out there that do that like.
Kleenex is like the classicexample, right?
Sure, there's millions ofKleenex.
Everyone calls it Kleenex.
I mean it's just Right.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Give me a tissue Because they've done such an
unbelievable job.
Coca-cola.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Coca-Cola.
Yeah unbelievable job.
Coca-cola, coca-cola yeah,velcro is a perfect example,
right, yeah, I got a good onefor you, though You'll get a
kick out of this.
One is dumpsters.
You know, dumpsters came about.
I don't I have a dumpster outin the parking lot, but
anybody's got a dumpster.
But it was two brothers.
This one guy, george Dempster,back kind of in the depression
era, actually came up with anidea of you know, they've got
(12:51):
their trucks out there all thetime and they're filling them
full of stuff and the truck'sgot to sit there, right, so you
can't use the truck.
So what they decided to do isthey would leave the bin, the
dumper, on the back of the truck.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Sure the back end.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, he invented a way of hydraulically loading
that onto a truck.
He called it the DempsterDumpmaster.
But people over time and hefinally latched onto it ended up
taking a dump and dumpster,putting them together and you
end up with dumpster.
So that's how you actually endup.
They actually had the trademarkon it, but evidently I'm not
familiar with trademark law.
After a point, if it becomes sogeneric and so reused, you
(13:24):
can't claim it as a trademarkany longer.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That just means they did a great job.
It was unbelievable.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
During the Depression they were selling these things.
It was huge.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You know they were making money during the
Depression A lot of the youngerguys and girls that I work with
and it's a high percentage theydon't view themselves honestly.
They view themselves asentrepreneurs because they
started a company.
I don't believe that to be true.
I was 35 years, 40 years intomy.
Work life began when I was 8,delivering newspapers.
I was cutting lawns by the Iwas 35 years, 40 years into my.
My work life began when I waseight, delivering newspapers.
(13:56):
I was cutting lawns by the timeI was 10.
I never agreed that I was anentrepreneur until I was in my
fifties.
And I look back on my careerand I say, okay, I've done some
interesting and creative things.
I'm not a Mark Cuban, I'm notan Elon Musk, I'm a good local
entrepreneur.
But so many kids they starttheir company, kids in their 20s
(14:19):
, and they call themselvesentrepreneurs.
And I tell them don't do that.
And they have their businesscard.
It says you know, chris Collins, ceo.
And I said you're not the CEO,the chief executive, you're the
only employee.
And if you just start yourcompany, don't tell me you have
a brand, because nobody knowswho you are.
You know you got to definebrand.
(14:41):
And here's another one.
I hear this all the time oh,I'm not a commodity.
I'm better than everybody.
Yeah, there's other people outthere doing what I do, but I'm
better.
That's actually the definitionof a commodity that there's a
lot of other people out theredoing it and because you believe
you're better, that's calledthe differentiator.
We're all in the commoditybusiness, for the most part, or
(15:01):
nearly all of us.
I have a lot of friends in therestaurant business.
I know some who are thrivingand booming and I know a lot of
them who have failed.
Okay, the ones that arethriving, the ones that are
booming, even during COVID.
And I have a lot of friends inthe restaurant business.
Some of them boomed becausethey're brilliant entrepreneurs
(15:22):
and they redefined theircommodity, their food product,
when the rest of the restaurantand the food service world
didn't, and that's why theythrived and that's why they
survived.
More on that later.
But when you're building a brand, you want to create the
differentiator, because that isgoing to make you appear like
(15:43):
you're on the island of theblind and you're going to be the
one-eyed man.
So you want to define whatbusiness you're in.
You're in the restaurantbusiness and where are we
located?
We're located here and whatmakes us different or better?
And if you can find thecombination of those three
things and then convey that tothe general public.
Hey, we're a seafood restauranton Cape Cod and if you want
(16:05):
authentic seafood you got tocome to my place.
Now that's a hard thing to dobecause Cape Cod has way too
many restaurants.
We have way too manylandscapers and way too many
restaurants and we who live hereare blessed we can go out and
have high-end dinner sevennights a week for a month in a
row and never overlap.
(16:26):
But what does the restaurant doto convince the public that
they are better than the otherguys?
Let's go back to the burgerthing.
Mcdonald's has the specialsauce and Burger King said you
can have it your way.
And they got the new thinggoing on now with that whole
that wrap sort of style thatthey have.
(16:46):
The McDonald's brothers openedthe first McDonald's in 1940.
And you know what it was.
In Southern California it'swarm all the time, they didn't
need indoor seating and it onlyrains in like March and part of
April.
The McDonald's brothersdesigned a restaurant style that
(17:07):
people would come up to thewindow and take their food
through the window and go sit inoutdoor picnic tables.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
There was nothing else like it.
It's a great movie.
What was the movie's name?
I can't quite remember.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
The Founder.
I did my senior project on RayKroc.
My senior project was theMcDonald's.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Corporation.
Yeah, that was a great movieabout Ray Kroc.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
There was a lot of fake stuff in there.
They made him look bad and Iwas watching it with my wife and
I said that's not true, that'snot how it went down, and I know
that.
But the McDonald's brothers hadan idea and in their county,
their little territory, theywere the one-eyed man on the
island of the blind.
If you want to go out and get aburger quick with a milkshake
(17:47):
back then it was mostlymilkshakes you got to go to
their restaurant and guess what?
You're going to sit outdoors inthe beautiful Southern
California weather and it's niceall the time.
If you've ever been to SouthernCalifornia other than, like I
say, six, seven weeks in thespring, it's beautiful.
They had created a situationthat simply didn't exist in food
(18:07):
service.
You can eat outdoors and thinkof the cost savings.
They don't have to build arestaurant Right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
They don't have to clear tables, do all that sort
of stuff.
Hire waiters and waitresses.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Ray Kroc was a world beater All through the
Depression.
He was selling cars, he wasselling cameras, he was selling
hats.
This guy was selling stuff tomake money.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Malt machines at the end there.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
This is how he met the machine.
He was selling restaurantequipment and he had a client
out in Southern California thatwas buying way more milkshake
machines than he could everbelieve.
He got in his car and he drovethere.
He drove from Illinois all theway out there to see what the
heck is going on and he wasblown away by this.
(18:48):
So you know McDonald's in 1940,the McDonald brothers basically
created the Island of the Blindand they were the one-eyed men.
And Ray Kroc took it further in1954 when he and the McDonald
brothers came to agreement onnational franchising.
So now Ray Kroc was going totake this model nationwide and
(19:11):
eventually worldwide.
So now they're going around thecountry and they're opening
little islands of the blind andlocal people could a local guy
or girl, a local couple couldbuy a franchise and they could
become their own one-eyed man onthe island of the blind and all
around the country he went andof course, after the innovators
(19:33):
comes the imitators and then therest of them.
And yes, you had the BurgerKings and the Wendy's and more
and more of these fast foodrestaurants, if you will,
started to come into play.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, wendy's is one of my favorites.
I love Wendy's myself.
But it's interesting how theykind of attacked them too.
Attacked them.
They came up with a fresh youknow never frozen beef.
That's their differentiatorSquare patties Even a square
patty was different Frostydesserts.
They came up with the firstdrive-up window, which I didn't
know who did.
1970, Wendy's.
Wendy's had the firstdrive-through window.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, McDonald's started with the drive-through
in 75.
I was not aware that Wendy'shad one before that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, when, of course , they did a where's the beef?
Yeah, they did greatcommercials and they have a lot
of actually they do a lot now,but they even started out very
early.
They did a lot of really savagelike social media not tax, but
parodies on Wendy, on McDonald'sand Burger King as well.
So that's kind of how theyapproached it.
Try to weasel their way inthere.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, their differentiator was a higher
quality product fresh, neverfrozen.
But by the mid-70s Ray Krocrecognized, as Americans were
becoming more and more focusedon efficiency and convenience,
that a drive-through might be aconcept that would be accepted
(20:54):
nationwide Out in Californiaback then you could pull up to
the clinic and you could getyour flu shot by rolling your
window down and hanging your armout, and you never had to get
out of your car.
And Ray Kroc took this samephilosophy into the fast food
world and probably mostAmericans you know, probably 90%
(21:17):
of Americans have had a burgerwhile driving down the road.
And Ray Kroc made that possiblewhen he began implementing
drive-thrus in all of therestaurants other than those
that were in the mall.
That was one of his objectives,and this was 1980 that I did my
project on him and it was.
He wanted all of the McDonald'slocations that weren't attached
(21:42):
to a mall to have a drive-thru.
And you could see the changeback in the 80s.
You're on the road, you'remaking good time, mom and dad
and 2.4 kids.
We don't want to pull off thehighway for an hour.
Nope, you pull in, you hit thedrive-thru and you're right back
out on the road Once again.
After Ray Kroc establishedMcDonald's and himself as the
(22:03):
island, and him being the oneeyed man in the mid fifties the
imitator started to come on andcatch up to him.
And what did he do?
He came out with the next newinnovation that set McDonald's
apart again, and this isnationwide drive-thrus.
So now you're driving down theroad and you see the sign and
there's a Burger King coming upand there's a McDonald's.
(22:24):
And you're looking at that andyou say I know, if we go to the
McDonald's we can hit thedrive-thru, and that gave them
the leg up on Burger King andeverybody else.
I think that's all kind of comefull circle in the fast food.
They all have drive-thrus andthey all have it going on now.
But Ray Kroc just kept stayingahead of the pack and he was
(22:44):
constantly recreating thatisland.
If you look at other businesses1-800-GOT-JUNK they made a new
industry where the averagehomeowner could get rid of junk.
Who else would you call backthen?
Right, would you call a localcontractor?
I don't know.
Do you call a handyman?
You know what, when you see1-800-GOT-JUNK, you just call
(23:06):
them.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, well, it's stuck in your brain too, you
hear it over and, over and overagain.
You can't get it out of yourbrain.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
It's a piece of marketing genius number one and
the timing was right.
And then, since then you've gothunks removing junks, two men
in a truck.
There's a bunch of others thathave come along, but back in the
beginning they created anisland and they were the
one-eyed men on that island.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
1-800-gut-junk A rotor-rooter is another one.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
There, you go.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Another company started in the Depression,
actually 1933.
They started.
He was trying to find a jobdoing all kinds of things but he
took a mechanics correspondencecourse and he learned basically
mechanical engineering.
His son had a clog in his sinkso he went over his house and
they tried to get rid of it.
It took him about two weeks toget rid of this thing because it
was roots in the sewer.
(23:56):
Because it was roots in thesewer, so he basically ended up
working on it for about twoyears and he ended up taking a
washing machine, motor, rollerskate wheels, a cable and some
things that he designed sort ofthese blades, these C-shaped
blades and turned it into arotor-rooter as it is known
today, basically patented it,trademarked it and during the
(24:17):
Depression, was selling them youknow, $200 a piece during the
depression and they were flyingoff the shelves because it was a
completely new, again, one-eyedman on the high end of the
blind.
No one had this, but everybodyneeded it because even during
the depression, sinks clogged,sewers clogged.
It was a great way ofdeveloping a product.
And so, yeah, by 1935, he had afull-size company and the rest
(24:39):
is history.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I have some friends down here.
They're customers here on CapeCod and they own a handful of
restaurants and they're calledSeafood Sam's.
Now, if you come to Cape Cod tovacation, you want to eat
seafood and these guys they gotit going on.
They got a great system.
The food is good, it'sreasonably priced, service is
great.
I love them and I was doingsome work for one of the owners
(25:04):
and he's my age and we just gottalking about.
We were cleaning his guttersabout two or three years ago and
he was telling me about COVIDand what happened was Seafood
Sam's.
I think they owned about fiveof them at the time and these
guys are true restaurant guys.
Right from their teenage yearsand it's an amazing story the
two brothers and prior to COVID,around 2018, 2019, these boys
(25:28):
had come up with an idea forcurbside pickup of meals and
also delivering high-end meals.
This is before Grubhub and anyof this other stuff.
Right, exactly Way before that.
And so what they were going todo was they were coming up with
a plan so that if people hadcome to Cape Cod on vacation and
(25:50):
they wanted to have a bigdinner at home.
So the boys at Seafood Sam'sdecided to set up a platform for
that and they had the design inplace and they were considering
a launch of this and then COVIDhit and two things happened.
All the restaurants shut down.
And the second thing thathappened is Seafood Sam's didn't
(26:11):
shut down.
So I think he told me they had.
One or two of their restaurantswere much more of a sort of a
sit-down style.
Some of them, like the one herein the town of Sandwich, which
is where I live, is right on thecanal.
It's really beautiful.
Big old parking lot.
You can look out over the canal.
You can see ocean-going vesselscoming and going through the
canal.
Sounds good.
(26:31):
We should go there after thepodcast.
It's actually very good, Ihaven't been there this year,
but they closed for a couple ofmonths and I think they reopened
March 1st.
But what he was telling me wasthis system that they were
designing, all of a sudden, agreat need for it.
It was no longer an option,this was a need.
Chance favors the prepared oh,right here, Chance favors the
(26:56):
prepared.
And when I was talking to him,I'm going to say it was the fall
of 2020.
And he said, yeah, we just hada record year.
And I said what?
I know restaurant owners thatwent under.
I know restaurant owners thatshut down in April and May of
2020 and tried to figure out away to reopen.
(27:17):
I mean, there were laws in placestate to state, no more than
this.
Many people gathering indoorsat the same time Must be so many
feet in between parties who aresitting down.
A whole plethora of newlyimplemented regulations and the
compliance was wicked.
And Seafood Sam's just overrodethe whole thing.
(27:39):
You just come here and you'regoing to get great food and you
can pick it up or we can deliverit.
And they didn't miss a step.
They didn't miss a beat.
And what they did on one of therestaurants?
They didn't even open it to thepublic.
They used it just for cookingfood.
It was an amazing story.
I haven't really revisited themyet and I really ought to.
Next time I see them bring thatup with them, but I thought it
(28:01):
was a stroke of genius.
Again, right place, right time,chance favors the prepared and
that island.
They didn't form the island, itwas formed for them and they
happened to land on that islandon both feet.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, in that case yeah, yeah, we had that similar
experience with a company up inNew Hampshire called Top Notch
Glass during COVID and theybasically set it up.
So they were very good fortheir vendors and stuff like
that.
They took very good care oftheir vendors.
They had a very deep set ofvendors, duplicates in all
different areas for thedifferent materials they bought,
and what was their product?
Top Notch Glass.
So they were a glass company.
(28:36):
So we just happened to be doingduring COVID, like a lot of
people, we decide, oh, let's doa little renovation.
So we renovated our bathroom,put in a glass shower, and they
would come by the house and wewould talk to them and I started
, caught up a conversation withthis owner and it turns out he
had the best year he ever had.
He had best, I think, the twoyears that he had, or three
years of the best he ever had.
And it was because, again, hewas prepared.
(28:57):
He had very deep vendors, veryestablished vendors, and so when
the shit hit the fan, hebasically was on top of their
list For what.
He was able, for all thismaterial, for the glass and
stuff that he was buying, oh,plexiglass, yeah, plexiglass To
set up in the stores and in thehe set it up around banks.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Right, of course, super bank tellers, supermarket
cashiers.
Everyone needed plexiglass.
Everybody needed plexiglass.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Oh my gosh, and he had this deep, deep set of
vendors that he could get theplexiglass from, and he had the
best couple of years of his life, wow.
So again he became the one-eyedman.
But it didn't happen justbecause he happened to be the
only guy in town.
It was because he had done allthis work before, similar things
setting up this sort of islandthat he could sit on and sort of
dominate in that market whenyou look at innovation, when you
(29:41):
look at change.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
You know sports is a great analogy, because sports
you can make a movie out of it,you can.
It tells a story and you cantell a story about life in one
season.
You know, Tiger Woods changedthe game of golf so fast.
He was young.
He was a black man playing awhite man's game.
(30:04):
He was big and he was strongand he was athletic.
Golf didn't have big, strongathletic guys and he started
training when he was two.
He came into a dusty, old,well-established industry and he
rattled their cages.
They didn't even want himplaying in the masters because
he was the wrong color and thatcourse was closed to blacks.
(30:27):
But he had the best golfer inthe world was black and they had
to let him in.
In fact, when he won his firstmasters, I don't think he was 21
yet, so he couldn't even drinkthe champagne.
He changed the game.
You know, bobby Orr changed thegame of hockey.
A defenseman is not supposed tolead the league in scoring.
He changed the way the game wasplayed.
(30:49):
Then there's the situationwhere somebody goes even bigger
and Chris and I here we werehigh school teammates, right,
yep, chris and I ran crosscountry and track together for
four years in high school andgreat teammates, great coach.
We really we were blessed.
And there was a couple of guysout of Worcester area and Dick
(31:14):
Hoyt began pushing his son in awheelchair.
Ricky, oh yeah, ricky was ayoung kid, a teenager who had
cerebral palsy, and his dad sothe story goes pushed him in a
charity three-mile road race.
It wasn't a 5K.
Back then, remember, we were inthree miles, five miles or six
miles.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
No 5K.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Pushed him in a three-miler, loved it so much
they just started doing it.
They didn't mean to build abrand, they didn't mean to build
a business.
He was in the service I don'tknow it was a Marine Corps or
Army, I don't really rememberbut he was still a serviceman
and he had a wife and kids andone of his kids had cerebral
(31:56):
palsy and he started.
They started going to roadraces every weekend and we
watched them from up close.
I used to see those guys atroad races all the time back
then because they wereMassachusetts central mass,
local people.
They created something thatdidn't exist.
Now, rick and Dickie eachpassed away in the last several
years, but the legacy they leftbehind it's simply.
(32:18):
It can't be overstated.
It's amazing what they did.
They created something only outof passion.
There was no money involved.
They weren't doing this as abusiness.
They were doing it out of theirpassion for running and their
passion for one another.
Mr Hoyt Dick Hoyt is the mostdecorated father in the world.
Mr Hoyt Dick Hoyt is the mostdecorated father in the world.
(32:39):
He has the most Father of theYear awards.
I think I'm a good dad and I'lloften throw that out to my kids
.
I remember back then who's thegreatest dad?
And they would say you are Dad.
And I would say no, no, I'm notAt the very best, I'm a distant
second to Mr Hoyt.
I love him.
I never knew them.
I, I love them.
(33:01):
I never knew them.
I knew them only at a distancebecause they were always so busy
when they got to the road racehe had to take out the chair and
he had to pick up his son andcarry him out and set him up in
the chair and he was so busy andI was just a young teenager at
the time.
It was so amazing that it wasintimidating.
He was such an amazing man andeven then, as I got through my
college years and into mypost-college, I was still
running competitively.
(33:21):
I would still see the Hoyts outthere.
And just an amazing group ofguys.
When you talk about the Islandof the Blind, these two guys
were amazing.
They created something out ofnothing and something that is
going to exist for the rest oftime, even though they're not
here anymore.
That will never go away.
So here's my little shout outto the Hoyts.
(33:43):
And, by the way, whenever wetravel, my wife is from Ashland
and we would travel back toAshland or Framingham, that area
If we're coming in off of Route495, we come in Route 135 every
time we stop at the startingline of the Boston Marathon and
we would walk over and there's astatue, there's a bronze.
(34:04):
Have you seen it?
No, I haven't seen it.
There's a bronze statue of Rickyand Dick Hoyt oh really yep
right in front of the library bythe starting line.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Oh, I didn't know that we always go over and say
hello.
I lived a couple miles fromthere.
I never knew that it'sbeautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
It must have been a more recent thing.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I kind of want to end on that, actually, before you
go up the street from where yourwife grew up was actually the
original start of the BostonMarathon.
Yeah, exactly, probably about ahalf mile from our house.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
It changed over the years to its now current 26.2
miles.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
It was right down there on Pleasant Street, right
down the street from her.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, yeah, think of the Hoyts when you're out there.
Think of the Hoyts when you'reout there.
Think of what they did.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Google them, yeah, anytime you see someone pushing
someone in a stroller andrunning.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That's basically they created that whole.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, they have, and they did an awesome job.
You see everybody doing that.
Nowadays it's so common.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yes.
So when you want to create yourbusiness, when you want to
create your brand, when you wantto become the one-eyed man on
the island of the blind, go totheir website, go to the Hoyt's
website, see what they did, seewhat they're all about.
When I was building my mostrecent group of companies here,
the gutter monkeys I went to theuh, the duck boats up in Boston
.
I spent days on that websitebecause they have a crazy quirky
thing going on up there that I.
(35:12):
It just intrigued me.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
It's amazing they're.
They're drivers.
Every single one of them isquirky different.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Funny, funny stuff.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
It's a whole different experience.
So you can go over and overagain because it's a different
experience every time you go,because the personality it's not
scripted or anything.
They all have differentpersonalities.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And then I also spent a little bit of time on
Jordan's Furniture, Elliot andBarry.
Yeah, man I came back in the 70sand 80s and these guys took
over a business, a one-locationbusiness that their parents
started, and they turned it intoa.
They created the need forspecialized bedding.
Yeah, they told the public, hey, you shouldn't be sleeping on
(35:49):
the mattress that everyone elsesleeps on.
We have a mattress that we candesign for you.
And boom and I spent a lot oftime on their website too.
Whenever I'm doing somethinglike I'm going to start a
business, there's so much dataout there.
Look around at these companiesthat you respect.
Look at around at thesecompanies that are different.
You know what makes themdifferent.
How did they create the islandof the blind and then land in
(36:12):
the middle of it?
And in creating this companythat I, these small companies
that we own now spend a lot oftime on those websites.
And give Ricky and Dick Hoyt alittle bit of a look.
Check out their website.
A lot of cool stuff out there.
And with that, chris, I'llwe'll sign off.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I guess that's it for this episode.
All right, thanks for listeningand, as always, no monkeys were
harmed in the making of thispodcast.
That's right.
We'll catch you next time.
See ya.
Making of this podcast.
That's right, we'll catch younext time, see ya.
Thank you for tuning in toMonkey Business Radio.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please make sure to subscribe,
like and follow us wherever youget your podcasts.
(36:49):
It really helps us reach moreaspiring entrepreneurs like you,
and if you got a question ortopic you'd like us to cover,
leave a comment or reach out tous on social media.
We'd love to hear your thoughtsand keep the conversation going
.
Don't forget to leave us afive-star review if you found
the episode valuable, and makesure to share it with anyone who
might benefit from our tips andstories.
We'll see you next time.
(37:10):
This podcast is produced byAmerican Gutter Monkeys LLC.
Build real wealth throughbusiness ownership.
For details, visit us atAmericanGutterMonkeyscom.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.