YouSaid · the spoken record

Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor

lines on the record: 66
first: 2026-01-26
most recent: 2026-01-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“You're gonna put a tailor guitar in that dog's hands paws. That's Kurtlistug and Bob Taylor, co founders of Taylor Guitars. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show. And if you're interested in insights, ideas, and lessons from Spill of the World's greatest entrepreneurs, sign up for my newsletter at guyroz.com or on Substack. This episode was produced by Alex Chung with music composed by Rumtina Abluey. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Mermel Wood. Our engineers are Patrick Murray and Maggie Luthar, our production staff also includes Casey Herman, Chris Massini, John Isabella, Sam Paulson, Carrie Thompson, Catherine Cypher, Nora Gill, and Elaine Coates. I'm Guy Ross, and you've been listening to How I Built This.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bob, I think you are 70, and Kurt, maybe you're 72. 73. Okay. I mean, I know you're still involved in Taylor, but now you're not operationally involved in the day-to-day. You've got more time on your hands. What are you doing?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You guys think about the journey you took, you know, how much of where you guys got to today, the success that you have had, do you attribute to the work, the grind, and how much do you think has to do with just luck and good fortune? I want to put that to Kurt to you first.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bob's red mill, which means it's employee owned. It really does give the employees, I mean, they have a stake now in the business. They're not just like paid a wage. They actually have real equity in the company. And so they're incentivized to increase the value of the company because if the company ever gets sold, I mean, I think when Cliff Bar was sold, And so all your shares were sold to the employees.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, for sure. And I mean, you guys have made some pretty big changes to the business over the past few years. Because I'm Kurt, I know you stepped down as CEO, I think in 2022, and then you promoted your head of guitar development and the powers. He became the new CEO. And I'm curious about this other thing you decide to do around that time, which was you created an Aesop. And for people who don't know what it is, it's an employee stock ownership plan. Cliff Barr did it, New Belgian, Beer did it. I think King Arthur Flowers and Aesop company.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You guys have planted all these These trees and Cameroons, but they take like 70 years to mature, right? These ebony trees?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, I think Nike's doubling down on wholesale again because they've seen how it's been successful for other brands. I want to ask you about a very anomalous, weird period in the history of taylor guitars, the history of every business versus COVID. And it's interesting, you know, we've done some businesses on this show now over 10 years, we've done a lot, but there are a few that we've done that were really crushing it during COVID. There's one in particular I'm not going to mention the name, but they're having some major challenges now because they bought way too much inventory in the post-COVID period thinking that that was the new normal. How did you guys, I know that guitar sales went up by an order of magnitude during COVID, like crazy numbers. And you guys had your own, you're fully integrated, you guys, your own production facilities.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Interesting. So it's like running shoes. Like running stores still have a lot of pull, a lot of weight in the running shoe business. It sounds similar to guitars. Like you need to go to the shop and really talk to the people there. But you're saying the majority of your sales by far are still through retailers.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know that by the 2000s, I think by 2002, you cleared $50 million in sales. I'm jumping head for a sec here, but in terms of sales now, are most of your sales direct consumer theater website or is it still mainly through retailers?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm curious there are so many questions I have about guitars because it's not like a subscription, it's like diapers where you're buying them every week, right? Or shaving cream, right? It's a product that most people probably buy once, obviously if you're a very good guitarist, you might buy a few guitars, maybe more than that. But most people buy one guitar. And the other thing is, to what extent does this industry just depend on cyclical trends? Is it cyclical? I mean, we've talked about the disco era, the MTV unplugged era. I mean, it seems like there's things that are out of your control, that they're just going to be periods of time where people aren't interested in acoustic guitars. And when they are interested in acoustic guitars, or am I wrong about that?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, respect Gibson too, but her most famous guitar, which she brought on stage during this last tour, I think is the guitar A Koi fish guitar you guys made for her?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, that has love story on it. I know this because I've seen her in concert, so I'm fantastic. I've done the Air Sure, and it was.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've spent so much time looking to see which guitars are played by which artists I love. And so I'm not going to mention some of them because they don't all play your guitars, but you have Jason Muraz and Zach Brown, Dave Matthews, Katie Perry, and most importantly, Taylor Swift. She plays your guitars, not surprisingly because her name is Taylor. How did that relationship begin? I have to hear the story from the horse's mouth because this is a big deal.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, I know you're going to say that, but if I don't know anything about guitars, I'm like, hey, I can just get this off Amazon for 80 bucks. I don't care what it's made, but I can get yours for 250 bucks. Or let's just say I can get one for $200 from Asia and yours for $250. What is it about your guitar that sounds better? Why would I choose that guitar over a cheap factory-made one from China?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In 2002, you broke ground on a factory in Tecade in Mexico to increase capacity. And I'm curious, I mean, it's interesting because a lot of people think that inexpensive products from China have been around forever, but they haven't. I mean, in the 90s, it wasn't as common, certainly not in the 80s. There was a shift in the 90s when China became a member of the World Trade Organization. A lot of U.S. companies and other European companies started to move production to China and manufacture in China. Did you guys also start to see a shift in sort of cut rate acoustic guitars coming into the U.S. market from Asia?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When we come back in just a moment, another tailor enters the picture. This one, probably the most famous tailor in the world. Stay with us. I'm Guy Ross, and you're listening to how I built this. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This I'm Guy Raz. So it's the early 90s and acoustic guitars are becoming popular again. And in a bit to drive growth for Taylor guitars, Kurt launches an ad campaign. One of the ads I've seen, this in the early nineties, it's very unusual to put these in guitar magazines, and it wasn't even a guitar in the ads, a tree. It's a tree and it says, you know, here's a tree, it's a piece of wood, it can become a coffee table in one pair of hands. In another pair of hands, it can become a sweet sounding guitar.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it seems to me that because you guys both got into this business because you wanted a job after high school, right? Like it wasn't like you were any different from the people who were now working for you. You were a couple of guys were like, this sounds like a cool job. But you didn't really begin to care about it until you owned the thing.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tell me what do you mean by that? What was the challenge that you would face on a day-to-day basis? You're just, I don't know, employee.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, so I read that in 1990s. You're 16 years in. I guess there was this feeling you had about 40 employees at the time. And I guess there was this feeling that the two of you had that you didn't have a professional company, that you didn't have a professionalized workforce, and that you hired a consultant to kind of help you guys, maybe, I don't know if this is the right description, but turn you into like an adult-run business. Is that fair to say?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Eric Clapton, sorry, yeah, which I think he won Grammys for. And this is going to, even though it wasn't like MDV Unplugged sponsored by Taylor, it was going to bring about a renaissance in acoustic guitars. All of a sudden, acoustic guitars, like the disco era was disastrous. Opposite. What did the MTV unplugged thing mean for your business?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you were definitely looking. Looking at them and saying, we have an opportunity here. Okay, so this is the late 80s, and something is going to happen, because anybody, I mean, you know, my age or, you know, anybody sort of over 40, let's say now, will have remembered a time when MTV actually was relevant and played videos and music and everybody watched it. 1989, they launched this thing called MTV Unplugged, which would be unplugged series of concerts, the most legendary one, of course, is Nirvana's MTV Unplugged.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm curious because I want to we're going to get to the 90s in a second here. But at this time, right, this is still the late 80s, you've broken a million dollars in sales compared to Martin, you're still small. I mean, Martin was founded in 1833 or something like that. It's been around for so long. It was an old company. And it's obviously a venerable, widely respected brand. I mean, this is like what Elvis played and Johnny Cash. Bob Dylan, I mean, they played Martin guitars, right? Hank Williams. So this is a storied brand.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And each, I mean, this was not automated. This was all, it was like table saws and hand saws and lathing machine, like, right? Like every, it was entirely handmade.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Finally, big deal. Now you're starting to feel some momentum I mean, from what I gather in 1988 that year that you are doing a million dollars in sales, you're making eight guitars a day. And I hear that, and I'm thinking, so you're selling all those guitars, right? There was demand. Each guitar you were making was basically spoken for.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, I want to stick to the 80s for a moment because I know that by 1988, so this is now, what, 14 years in, you break a million dollars in sales for the first time.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fair enough. All right, I want to talk about what I think could be maybe pivotal. I don't know, but this happens in 1985, which I think is just so cool. You started to make specialized guitars, I guess you had a technique where you would use watercolors and you could paint the wood and it would kind of look funky. And it was a way to get the guitars in the hands of more prominent musicians. And I guess Kurt or Bob, one of you guys wanted to get a guitar in the hands of Prince.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Kurt, where you stressed about that, though? I mean, it was one guitar at a time that had to be great. People had expectations. And it was one Bob. He was the guy. Like if he got hit by a truck, that would have been a problem.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It must have felt kind of overwhelming, right? Because on the one hand, I imagine at this already by the mid-80s, I know word of mouth is getting around, people are getting excited and interested in your guitars, and you're limited in how many you can make because you, Bob, you have to touch every single guitar that is being sold. You have to see it and inspect it, right? Am I right about that?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you were making each guitar so there was, and presumably there were people that you had to bring on to help you, Bob. But you would have to also train and apprentice everybody, right?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, so about nine years into the business, 1983, I guess the two of you offer and then agree to buy Steve, your third partner out. Tell me what was going on with Steve. I know, you know, he's not here to, you know, we're going to be respectful, obviously, but I think there was tension. Was it the two of you versus Steve, or was there tension between the three of you? Tell me what was going on with Steve.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, but still, like, the other thing from what I understand is, this is 1979, this was like a dark, dark period for acoustic guitars. Like the next three, four years, this is the disco era. There's like punk, and then there's rock. From what I read, like people just stopped playing acoustic guitars in the early 80s and late 70s.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I read that the last year you worked under this agreement where this company would distribute your guitars, you had 11 people, eight other people helping build the guitars. That year you built and sold 448 guitars as 1978. The next year, 1979, hit to let everybody go. So it's just the three of you. You built and sold 399 guitars. So actually your productivity went way up. Even with eight fewer people.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When we come back in just a moment, a purple tailored guitar shows up front and center on one of the most popular songs of 1985. Stay with us, I'm Guy Ros and you're listening to how I built this. Welcome back to How I Built This I'm Guy Ross. So it's 1979, five years into the business, and Kurt, Bob and the partner Steve have ended their relationship with their one distributor, and they have to lay off the small group of guitar makers that were working for them. But meanwhile, the business is actually not doing so bad.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And did you really, I mean, that to me seems very precocious. I don't think I would have been that optimistic. I mean, eight years in, I would have been like, what is going on? We've barely grown. In eight years, we're still struggling. You really thought that way that, hey, you know what? This is like an education, a free education.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know you'd mention that when you bought this business in 1974, it was doing about 30 grand a year in sales, were you able to substantially increase revenue by 1978, four years in?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So you were, I mean, so I have to assume that you were getting paid less, but were you selling more guitars? Was the math making sense?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, if they were selling, they were giving you $150 for a guitar, and they were probably selling it for maybe $300, and then the shop was selling it for maybe, what, 500”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, this guy was kind of legendary, right? I read about Janice Joplin. He produced Crosby Sales and Nash. He's coming with a lot of credibility. Presumably, you're thinking, wow, these guys are the real deal.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, even when you adjust for inflation, right? All right, so the business that you've got is struggling, and I guess around this time, you're approached by these two brothers, the Rothschilds, who are making, they've got a company called Rothschilds Musical Instruments, and they have an idea for how to help scale your business. Who were these guys and what was the pitch they made to you?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, alright, so I read that your first full year in business was really challenging. And your second full year in business was also pretty challenging. I mean, you were having success selling these guitars. I think you went up to LA But it was like 30, 40 guitars total that you would sell over time, right? And so once you got paid, it wasn't much money, right?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Kurt, you sort of become the public face of this thing, of selling them and going store to store. Before you tell me about trying to sell these guitars to guitar shops, what was it about them? Like what was your sales pitch to people when you were trying to explain why they guitar store should buy these acoustic guitars?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And when you say in a batch, it's like you make one part of the guitar at a time, and then you would put them all together at the same time.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But at that time, I read that it would take you about two months to build six guitars. So just help me understand why, again, and some people listening are going to be like, guy, you're an idiot. What do you mean? Why are you asking this question? But why would it take so long to build a guitar?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Did you guys, Bob? I'm curious. Let's take me back to 1975, right? Because from what I understand, the ambition was let's make 10 guitars a month or something like that initially, right?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was that a hard decision to make? Because it's like, I imagine the repair work was constant revenue, even though the money from guitar sales was bigger, you probably still needed the cash coming in from repair. So shutting that part of your business down would have meant, at least for some time, you would have had less money coming in.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. Okay, so what were some of the things you decided to do to try and salvage this business? Because you were doing repair work, you were selling parts, and you were also making custom guitars.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, so let's talk about division of labor now. It's 1974. Now you guys are running your own shop. Clearly, Bob, you had the best skills to make the guitars. What was your role going to be, Kurt? Were you going to focus on business operations more or were you also going to make guitars and what was Steve going to do? How did you start to talk about who was going to do what?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you could have called it Lista, guitars, or your other partner, Shemmer. But why, I mean, Bob was the guitar maker. So now, of course, it makes sense.”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, and you take over the shop October 15th, 1974, and it's doing about 30,000 sales a year. So it's, you know, tough business, but I'm assuming you guys are thinking You had to come up with a new name for what you were going to call it. Tell me about how you eventually landed on Bob's name, Kurt. I mean, why did you guys decide to name it after Bob?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“His brother's number, okay. Yeah So you would not get the phone number, which was critical at the time because that was how people yellow pages, right? So Kurt, how did you get the money? Both of you guys, I guess, went to your parents. What did your parents? I mean, you were, you said your parents, hey, I want to buy this guitar shop. And they said, what?”
2026-01-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Taylor Guitars: Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor. From $3,700 Shop to Global Icon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT