Uphill Climb

FromThe Distance

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Uphill Climb

FromThe Distance

ratings:

Length:

4 minutes

Released:

Oct 4, 2016

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

R. Russell Builders is still recovering from the worst housing market it's experienced in its 60-year history. But before "subprime mortgage" was a household term, company founder Ron Russell, Sr. was overcoming his own personal challenges so he could pursue the career he wanted.

Released:

Oct 4, 2016

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (84)

What's the hardest thing about business? Not going out of business. The Distance features stories of private businesses that have been operating for at least 25 years and the people who got them there. Hear business owners share their stories of hard work, survival and building something that lasts. The Distance is a production of Basecamp, the company behind the leading project management app.

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The World's Largest Laundromat: Yes, that's the actual name of this business, and there's more to it than just its 13,500 square feet. The World's Largest Laundromat serves free food, provides children's entertainment and offers workshops to customers on subjects like immigration refor by The Distance
12 min listen
Ideal Box Co.: When Al Capone needed crates to smuggle liquor to his speakeasies, he bought boxes from a Chicago manufacturer called Ideal Box Co. Today, the company is run the Eisen brothers, whose great-grandfather started the business in 1924, and the Eisens are sha by The Distance
9 min listen
Family Medicine: When Abdul Qaiyum, a young Pakistani immigrant, discovered Merz Apothecary in 1972, the Swiss German drugstore was on the verge of closing permanently after nearly a century in business. Qaiyum bought the store from the founding family and has run it eve by The Distance
15 min listen
Getting the Boot: Shaun Hildner, co-producer of The Distance, goes shopping for cowboy boots at Alcala's Western Wear and learns "an old cowboy trick" from business owner Richard Alcala. by The Distance
5 min listen
High Fidelity: Some of the audio world's most revered headphones come out of a narrow, graffiti-covered house in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. Grado Labs has been handcrafting phono cartridges and headphones at this location for six decades and remains under fam by The Distance
13 min listen
Cold Storage: The Great Depression hit shortly after Joe and Katherine Sapp opened their Chicago ice cream shop, Original Rainbow Cone, and subsequent generations of Sapps haven't forgotten what it meant to almost lose everything. In this mini episode, current Rainbow by The Distance
4 min listen
Pipe Dreams: The warehouse at Carma Labs in Franklin, Wisconsin is filled with boxes of the 78-year-old company's signature product, Carmex lip balm. But there's something else going on in this concrete storage facility. Carma Labs President Paul Woelbing, the grands by The Distance
14 min listen
Victory Auto Wreckers: Chicagoans of a certain age can recall growing up with the Victory Auto Wreckers television commercial, a low-budget ad that seemed to run endlessly on afternoons and late nights. It turns out that 30-second spot, featuring a shaggy haired guy whose car by The Distance
10 min listen
Hollymatic: In the early days of fast food, restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King made their burgers onsite, and they relied on Harry Holly's patty-molding machine to get the job done. The patty press helped standardize the fast food hamburger by ensuring that by The Distance
8 min listen
Bonus Episode: Jason Fried: Jason Fried co-founded Basecamp in 1999 and in 2014 launched The Distance. Shaun Hildner sat down with Jason to talk about The Distance and the kinds of business stories that interest him. by The Distance
8 min listen
(redux) - The World's Largest Laundromat: There's been a laundromat on this corner of Berwyn, Illinois for more than a half century. But it was the current owner, Tom Benson, who made the World's Largest Laundromat into the family-friendly destination it is today. This is an edited and improved by The Distance
13 min listen
Richard Bennett Custom Tailors: Albert Karoll started his custom menswear business from his Chicago apartment with just a phone, a legal pad and a book of fabric swatches that he took to customers' homes and offices. In the early 1990s, he combined his fledging business with five local by The Distance
13 min listen
It Soothes, It Heals, It Tingles: Alfred Woelbing made the first batch of Carmex at his kitchen stovetop in 1937. He was looking for a cold sore treatment and came up with a hit lip balm instead. Nearly 80 years later, Carma Labs is still independent and running under family ownership. F by The Distance
15 min listen
Ashland Addison Florist Co.: In 1932, an orphan named Roy Sheffield started Ashland Addison Florist Co. by selling bouquets of flowers at a busy Chicago intersection. Eight decades later, the fourth generation of Sheffields is still delivering flowers to customers. The Sheffields ha by The Distance
14 min listen
Chocoholic Anonymous: Athena Uslander is the Cyrano de Bergerac of brownies. The company she co-founded in 1983, Silverland Bakery, makes sweet treats that are sold under the names of grocery stores and restaurants across the U.S. and even internationally. Silverland Bakery m by The Distance
16 min listen
The Bales Girls: Stacey Bales has worked in almost every department at her family manufacturing business, from the front office to the shop floor. But when it came to running the entire company, she expected her father, Steve, to do that for at least another decade. That by The Distance
15 min listen
Grave Matters: The Peter Troost Monument Company has been making grave markers, headstones and mausoleums in the Chicago area since 1889. The issue of longevity has a particular resonance for fifth-generation president Lisa Troost, who knows that the product she sells by The Distance
16 min listen
Farming Like the Joneses: The Jones family has been farming in Iowa for generations. They have weathered tough winters, the consolidation of small family farms and the farm crisis of the 1980s. Today, 29-year-old Will Jones is in charge, and he's melding his own vision for the fa by The Distance
20 min listen
Wholesale Changes: Chicago's Fulton Market district is the city's last remaining food market, a hub for meatpackers and wholesalers of agricultural products. But a wave of new development, including high-end restaurants and luxury condos, is transforming Fulton Market and by The Distance
15 min listen
Cheesecake, the Chicago Way: The list of classic Chicago foods includes pizza, hot dogs, Italian beef—and Eli's Cheesecake, a creamy confection with a hint of sour cream and a butter shortbread cookie crust. The dessert was first served at Eli's The Place For Steak, a restaurant own by The Distance
14 min listen
If These Cubicle Walls Could Talk: The modern office has gone from private offices to cubicles, and from cube farms to more open spaces with lower partitions. All those changes have been good business for Office Furniture Resources, which is marking 25 years of buying and reselling the ch by The Distance
16 min listen
Ancient History, Modern Family: As students of history, Harlan Berk and his three children know that circumstances around them can change rapidly. They've learned to adapt the family business through 51 years of buying and selling ancient coins, as well as antiquities and maps. From ra by The Distance
16 min listen
Children of the Corn: The primary business at the Funk family farm is maple syrup production. But the farm also grows corn and soybeans to supplement the income from maple syrup. Mike and Debby Funk, the fifth generation to farm on the family land in central Illinois, met de- by The Distance
3 min listen
Homestead for the Holidays: The Richardson family arrived in Spring Grove, Illinois in 1840, when brothers Robert and Frank each claimed 80 acres of farmland that had become available for homesteading. Successive generations of Richardsons tried their hand at cash crops, dairy cows by The Distance
16 min listen
Pulp Fixing: Human history comes with a long paper trail, and Graphic Conservation Company's mission is to preserve and restore that record. The 95-year-old lab specializes in repairing works on paper, which range from priceless historical artifacts and artwork to pe by The Distance
17 min listen
The Man on the Wall: Willie David Langford Senior's picture is on the wall of Langford's Barber Shop, the business he founded in Atlanta in 1964. The barber shop has long been a neighborhood haven, not least of all for the many kids who grew up in the area. In this mini epis by The Distance
4 min listen
Dance Marathon: Kerry Hubata started dancing at the age of eight and hasn't stopped. In 1968, she and her mentor opened a classical ballet studio in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. The two women never set out to be entrepreneurs, but they ended up with a sustainable bus by The Distance
17 min listen
Bootstrapped and Proud: As an urban metropolis east of the Mississippi River, Chicago might seem like an unlikely home for a purveyor of cowboy hats, boots and shirts. Yet Alcala's Western Wear has flourished in the Windy City for over four decades, building a massive selection by The Distance
15 min listen
Always Glad You Came: Bill Carlson describes his business as "a little shot and a beer bar," but the 61-year-old Uptown Tavern has always been more than a dive. It's a place where third-shift workers can unwind in the early morning and where people without a place to go on Th by The Distance
14 min listen
(rerun) - High Fidelity: Some of the audio world's most revered headphones come out of a narrow, graffiti-covered house in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. Grado Labs has been handcrafting phono cartridges and headphones at this location for six decades and remains under fam by The Distance
12 min listen

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Rework - Sell Your By-products: This is the first episode of our brand new podcast called Rework. If you like it you can subscribe to Rework on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the first episode of Rework! This podcast is based on Jason Fried and David Heine by The Distance
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Business Model: Lily Liu was 16 years old when a talent scout approached her at a department store. She started her career as a model, but found her true calling behind the scenes, first representing her three daughters and then opening her own talent agency. For Lily, by The Distance
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Going to the Mattresses: Tim Masters describes himself as "just a mattress maker," but that belies the business acumen he's gained over decades of building and selling beds. Tim's store in the Chicago suburbs, Quality Sleep Shop, opened in 1969 and has held its own against the p by The Distance
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If It Ain't Baroque, Don't Fix It: Ben and Larry are longtime owners of two different music-related businesses, a payroll service for musicians and an auctioneer of rare classical LPs. They don't know each other, but they have something in common: They're both still running their business by The Distance
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Troy Henikoff: Troy Henikoff was a college student in 1984 when he wrote his first program, a piece of software to help his grandfather's steel warehouse manage their inventory. That summer project led Troy to start his own software consulting business a couple years l by The Distance
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The Business Cycle, Part 2: In 2010, as Worksman Cycles was emerging from the recession and ready to grow again, the maker of heavy-duty cycles saw an exciting opportunity to supply the bikes for New York City's bike share program. But the city rejected Worksman's proposal, and tha by The Distance
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The Business Cycle, Part 1: Worksman Cycles is the oldest American bicycle manufacturer that still makes its products in the U.S. Founded in New York in 1898, Worksman has outlasted the demise of American cycle manufacturing by focusing on a niche category: heavy duty tricycles tha by The Distance
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Steeped in History: Nom Wah Tea Parlor is New York Chinatown's oldest dim sum restaurant. For decades, it served Cantonese dumplings and rolls in the traditional way, from trolleys pushed around the restaurant. When Wilson Tang took over Nom Wah in 2011, he switched from tr by The Distance
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Make It Rain: Matt Stock is a business owner who loves marketing and has embraced the unglamorous job of selling a pretty mundane service: basement waterproofing. He's tried everything from Yellow Pages to billboards to Internet advertising at U.S. Waterproofing, his by The Distance
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You Butter Believe It!: Every year in the weeks leading up to Easter, the four-person staff at Danish Maid Butter Co. starts counting sheep. The Chicago company has made lamb-shaped butter for more than 50 years, moving from wooden molds dropped in cans of ice water to a more m by The Distance
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Jungle Jim, I Presume?: In an industry known for selling commodities at low margins, Jungle Jim's International Market in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio is something else entirely. It's a super-sized grocery store that's also a tourist attraction with animatronic characters, a dedic by The Distance
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The Richest Man In Town: Cullinan's Stadium Club and Beverly Records sit next door to each other in the Chicago neighborhood of Morgan Park. The owners of the two businesses have been friendly since Dan Cullinan opened his bar and grill in 1989. But even Dan couldn't imagine how by The Distance
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All the Art That's Fit to Print: In 1989, Deborah Maris Lader had recently moved to Chicago and was looking for a studio where she could make prints and meet other artists. She couldn't find a place like that, so she opened her own: the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. Deborah also to by The Distance
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Diamonds Are Forever: Jewelry tells a story. For Kathy, the owner of a 90-year-old jewelry store in Berwyn, Illinois, every piece of her jewelry adds up to a larger, richer history about the business that she joined as a 16-year-old part-time employee and ended up running. A by The Distance
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Neighborhood Fixture: The neighborhood appliance store is all but gone from the American retail landscape. But on Chicago's north side, Cole's Appliance and Furniture Co. has been selling refrigerators and sofas from the same corner since 1946. The Krasney family, which has o by The Distance
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(rerun) - If These Cubicle Walls Could Talk: The modern office has gone from private offices to cubicles, and from cube farms to more open spaces with lower partitions. All those changes have been good business for Office Furniture Resources, which is marking 25 years of buying and reselling the ch by The Distance
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Party in the Front, Business in the Back: When Gary Morrison's mother and her best friend got into the foil-stamped napkin business in 1979, the two women were just looking for a side project that would make them some extra money. Decades later, Gary is running AR-EN Party Printers, a company th by The Distance
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Cremains To Be Seen: From seagrass caskets to biodegradable urns designed for water burials, there is a growing number of options when it comes to burying the dead. In this mini episode, Claudette Zarzycki of Zarzycki Manor Chapels, a 101-year-old funeral home, talks about h by The Distance
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The House that Russell Built: The housing crisis wiped out half of the homebuilders in the U.S. This is the story of one that survived, but emerged from the recession to find both itself and its industry drastically changed. Ron Russell Sr. founded R. Russell Builders in 1956, and th by The Distance
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The Man on the Wall: Willie David Langford Senior's picture is on the wall of Langford's Barber Shop, the business he founded in Atlanta in 1964. The barber shop has long been a neighborhood haven, not least of all for the many kids who grew up in the area. In this mini epis by The Distance
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Uphill Climb

Uphill Climb

Description

Titles in the series (84)

More Episodes from The Distance