The Life Is Good Company: Bert and John Jacobs

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2019

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the late 80s, brothers Bert and John Jacobs were living as nomads, traveling from college to college selling t-shirts out of their van. It wasn't a sustainable living – until one day, they created a new design. It was a simple sketch of a grinning face, with three words printed underneath: Life Is Good. The optimistic message was deeply personal to the brothers, who grew up in what they describe as a dysfunctional home – and it also resonated with customers, who started buying Life Is Good designs printed on just about anything, from towels to tire covers. Today, the Life Is Good Company has a reported annual revenue of $100 million. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," Jim Malone of CounterEv Furniture describes how he turns reclaimed wood from bowling alleys into tables and chairs for fast-casual restaurants. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	So really quick before we start the show, I want to tell you about our how I built this live tour.
0:32.0	It's happening this fall, supported by American Express.
0:35.0	I'll be in New York, talking with Christina Toecy of Milkbar, in Boston, with Luke Holden, and Ben Conniff Founders of Luke's Lobster,
0:42.0	and wrapping up the tour in Denver, with Kurt Richardson, Founder of Otter Products.
0:47.0	You can get tickets for all these shows and get more information at nprpresence.org, and I hope to see you there.
0:57.0	Well, there was a lot of absurd exchanges.
1:00.0	We had this guy who had run Champion the Brand, and he was helping us out.
1:05.0	And he would ask us very basic questions like, what do you got for assets?
1:09.0	Bert and I were like, we get a mountain bike, and we were dead serious.
1:15.0	We didn't even know how to answer the question.
1:17.0	Like, we got the VCR, we got picture of mom, and he was just like, dumbfounded looking at us.
1:24.0	Like, these guys are so clueless.
1:33.0	From NPR, it's how I built this.
1:36.0	I show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:45.0	I'm Guy Ross, and on today's show, how Bert and John Jacobs rescued their floundering t-shirt business with three simple words.
1:53.0	Life is good, and then turn that phrase into a brand and a $100 million business.
	...

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