# 173. How to Make ANY Business Go Viral (even if it's boring) ft. Kolin Jones (Amalfi Jets)

An episode of [THE 505 PODCAST](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1591279585), 18 Sep 2025, 1 h 55 min.

Audio: https://podcasts.beehiiv.com/3f71d8b4-2a8c-40eb-8500-c62b76bd9acc/019d43e4-0103-7741-b37f-b81b41dca056/019d43e4-6f04-79e5-8c72-c3c13f3d63d0/019d43e4-6fb0-7c43-9ae4-86a1642d117b.mp3

The 10 Minute Personal Brand Kickstart (FREE): https://the505podcast.courses/personalbrandkickstart What’s up, Rock Nation! Today we’re joined by Kolin Jones - founder and CEO of Amalfi Jets, one of the fastest-growing private aviation companies in the world. While most of his competitors stuck to polished ads and Google keywords, Kolin flipped the script and turned TikTok into his main growth engine, racking up billions of views with provocative office skits, culture clips, and disruptive behind-the-scenes content Kolin breaks down how to engineer virality in one of the most conservative industries imaginable, why safe is actually risky, and how consistency and volume beat aesthetics every time. From declaring war on industry “dinosaurs” to turning impressions into real revenue, he shares the exact systems that scaled Amalfi Jets from startup to tens of millions. If you want to understand how to make any business go viral - even the ones that look boring on the surface - this episode is packed with lessons you can put into practice today. Check out Kolin here: https://www.instagram.com/thekolinjones/ https://www.instagram.com/amalfijets/ SUSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: https://the505podcast.ac-page.com/rock-report Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/xgEAzkqAvs Kostas' Lightroom Presets https://www.kostasgarcia.com/store-1/p/kglightroompresetsgreece COP THE BFIGGY "ESSENTIALS" SFX PACK HERE: https://courses.the505podcast.com/BFIGGYSFXPACK Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro 1:10 – The most overlooked strategy brands don’t do on social media 2:01 – Not showing off the planes to go viral 4:21 – Kolin’s provocative approach to social media 5:27 – Declaring war on Dinosaurs 7:29 – How to make an unsexy brand viral 8:56 – Using tech & efficiency to scale Amalfi 11:03 – People buy from people 13:00 – The responsibility of flying private 15:44 – Personal Brand Kickstart 16:08 – Utilizing campaigns as a content strategy 17:17 – Strategically targeting an affluent audience 19:30 – Getting creative to generate success 21:48 – Bringing employees into content 24:02 – Building trust and brand equity with clients 25:15 – The absurd lifestyle of flying private 27:33 – Can virality be manufactured? 28:45 – Social media is a volume game 30:13 – Competing against legacy jet companies 31:51 – Why organic content beats paid ads 34:39 – Outworking and outposting competitors 38:01 – Handling criticism from the industry 39:35 – Turning views into qualified leads 44:06 – Why more friction creates better customers 45:46 – Data, attribution, and scaling systems 47:49 – Organic content as the best marketing 49:11 – Google, TikTok, and the future of search 50:32 – Copywriting & SEO for brand equity 53:31 – Competing against better-funded rivals 54:54 – Landing your first customers as a new founder 58:15 – Lessons for first-time entrepreneurs 59:45 – Scaling from $3M to $15M in revenue 1:02:44 – Using data to understand your customers 1:05:29 – Customer experience as a competitive advantage 1:08:01 – The power of branding and perception 1:09:05 – Surviving the early days of Amalfi Jets 1:10:22 – Sacrifices and risks of entrepreneurship 1:12:04 – Kolin’s mindset when building Amalfi 1:13:46 – Navigating rapid growth and challenges 1:14:55 – Why speed beats perfection in business 1:18:05 – Staying competitive in a cutthroat industry 1:18:54 – The pressure of leading a team 1:20:46 – Keeping consistency at scale 1:22:20 – Why competitors can’t copy Amalfi 1:23:17 – The importance of brand reputation 1:25:06 – Leveraging content for long-term trust 1:27:25 – Building resilience as an entrepreneur 1:28:44 – Kolin’s advice for new founders 1:30:43 – Advice to your 18-year-old self 1:32:13 – Post pod debrief If you liked this episode please send it to a friend and take a screenshot for your story! And as always, we'd love to hear from you guys on what you'd like to hear us talk about or potential guests we…

## Transcript

[0:00] Got our best three-month period. It was over a billion impressions in 90 days. It would take a dinosaur company hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy that in Google Ads.
[0:08] That's Colin Jones, founder and CEO of Amalfi Jets, one of the fastest growing private jet companies in the world.
[0:13] While his competitors waste money on ads, he's built an empire off of office chaos and behind the scenes clips that rack up billions of views.
[0:20] Anytime we have a marketing meeting, I always ask, "Hey, is XYZ Jets doing this? Is this company doing it?" And if they are, then I don't wanna do it.
[0:25] Colin's approach to content is simple: He's gonna beat you with volume and speed. We post more than anybody. We film more than anybody.
[0:32] If I have an idea that I wanna film, I wanna film it today, I want it edited by today, and I wanna see it live on our Instagram by tomorrow morning. He's also not afraid to speak his mind.
[0:38] In fact, being provocative is a strategy any business can use to stand out and go viral. If you're so provocative, we can bury our competitors in irrelevance.
[0:47] In this episode, Colin shares how he cracked virality in one of the most conservative industries, why authenticity beats aesthetics- And how he turned views into millions of dollars in revenue.
[0:55] Why would I spend $30,000 on a Google Ad if we could charter a private jet and race to Vegas with someone and get more views doing that than we would trying to bid for keywords that everybody else is doing?
[1:05] If you've ever wondered how to turn views into a million dollar business, this episode is your answer. Let's go. Right off the bat- Okay...
[1:12] I wanna know what is the most overlooked strategy that businesses don't do on social media- Overlooked strategy... that we've done here. Yep, most overlooked. Interesting.
[1:21] I would say, like, I think personifying the brand.
[1:24] I feel like the whole goal of social media to an extent is, like, to really make it a lot more authentic, and I feel like a lot of people go back to our brand is our name, is our logo, so everything's fully branded to the company, less on the actual people behind the company.
[1:36] And I think that's what's worked so s- like so successful for us, is that when people book with Amalfi, they wanna work with myself, they wanna work with Josh, they wanna work with Brian.
[1:46] So if you build up that, like, personality behind it, it makes it a lot more authentic. At the end of the day, people buy from people, less the actual brand itself.
[1:54] So I would say that people use social media to get their name out there separately from the brand is really important. What's interesting is that I think about a private jet company. Mm-hmm.
[2:05] And if I was to have gone into the social strategy and be like, "We gotta show off how sick the planes are," everything about the actual plane itself- Yeah... you guys took a completely opposite approach.
[2:15] So much of what makes your content successful is that it's in an office and you're going viral for that. What made you decide to not focus so much on the jets and more so about, like, the office culture?
[2:25] Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really good question. I think, one, honestly I think we fell into it, right? Like, so we're a, a full charter brokerage. We're kinda like a travel agency.
[2:33] So we work directly with the airplane owners, the 135 operators, kind of pairing up, you know, the aircraft with the clients.
[2:39] So I mean, if we were in a hangar, we'd probably have a lot more airplane content 'cause it'd be so easy, but the fact that we don't have access to that, it forced us to find something different.
[2:47] Um, I think within the private jet space specifically, there are so many people. It's so competitive.
[2:53] And honestly, there's, like, not a lot of barrier to entry to build a company like ours, which candidly, I think looking back on, I think there should be.
[2:58] There's a lot more safety regulations that I think should be implemented. Like, nothing's preventing you guys from, you know, literally starting 505 Jets, building a website. Boom, done, solved.
[3:06] Now you're a private jet broker, right? We've been working on it. That's a, that's my- \[laughs\] That's the backup plan if this thing doesn't work.
[3:11] \[laughs\] It's, uh, it's a good time to be in the industry, but I, I think the, the office content, again, goes back to, like, why we're on social media.
[3:18] We're on, we're on social media to be authentic, and I think being authentic is showing ourselves, so showing the people behind the brand and I think putting that kind of different spin on it.
[3:27] At the end of the day, like, I'm so competitive in so many things, especially business, that for me, like, I looked at, you know, social media right now, and again, there's a lot of private jet companies that post on TikTok, but again, it's like these really well professionally edited videos of the planes and stuff like that.
[3:40] At the end of the day, like, on social media, nobody really cares.
[3:42] Like, some, you know, 4K production video of a jet, it's cool, but i- it's not really gonna get the, the attention that, I don't know, like, you know, our clients calling in or, like, me firing Josh or something like that, you know, is gonna get necessarily.
[3:57] Um, and I think that's the stuff that people remember. So we wanna be as...
[4:02] A- A- I- I avoid the term disruptive, 'cause there's so many people in our space that say they're innovators and disruptors, and then they go BK in two seconds and now their company doesn't exist.
[4:11] So I would like to say that we're a lot more provocative than other people, so we try to provoke a reaction with the content, with the things that you see, and I guess kind of how we portray the Amalfi brand entirely.
[4:21] Were you scared at all to go with a more provocative approach to social? Oh, definitely. Okay. Yeah.
[4:26] I mean, I remember when we first started, like, our entire branding was I wanted to, like, be as, like, the preppy, pretentious, you know, kind of like Ritz Carlton-esque.
[4:34] And at the end of the day, like, that was great, but there's so many well-capitalized, well-resourced companies that have been in the space for the past 10, 20, 30 years, that we're not gonna out-brand them by being more professional than them.
[4:44] And I remember that's when we looked at ourself internally, and I was like, "Listen, you have these companies that have been around for 20, 30 years.
[4:48] Some of these companies literally invented the idea of flying private, like back to the '60s." And I was like, "Well, listen, we're not gonna build a stronger brand and be more professional than them."
[4:58] But looking at it, I was like, "Well, hold on a minute. They can't say the things that we do."
[5:03] By being that old, traditionalist, almost, like, dinosaur style brand, you have to always be professional, really conservative, very traditionalist.
[5:11] Whereas with us, I was like, well, if we say, oh, you know, if we post a TikTok and are just as ridiculous and funny and laughter and all this craziness, they can never do that, so that's gonna get us to stand out a lot more.
[5:21] And at the end of the day on social media, that's what people are gonna remember, less the, you know, most aesthetic video of the private jet necessarily. It's funny 'cause we just had a podcast with Christo. Mm-hmm.
[5:31] And he's super dialed on personal brand, and he teaches people how to build an incredible- Yeah... an incredible personal brand. And something that he
[5:38] said to us in the interview was, like, safe is risky and risky is safe. Mm-hmm. And to not be afraid to, like, have a point of view, and people are so afraid to have a point of view- Yeah...
[5:49] and say things that are provocative because they're, they're just afraid- Mm-hmm... 'cause it's scary, but they end up not creating a brand for themselves and kinda just blending in with- Yeah...
[6:00] everybody else and becoming a part of the noise as opposed to saying something provocative, standing for something, and building a brand that way. Definitely. And, and that's what you remember.
[6:07] I mean, it's such a crowded world of social media. Now after we've started posting-If you Google private jet on TikTok, there's 80,000 companies.
[6:12] It's funny, 'cause a lot of these companies are our competitors, and it's the really professional videos of the jets and stuff like that. But it's interesting, 'cause it really shows, I think, the difference in...
[6:23] I mean, and candidly, like, again, we, we haven't launched this yet, but we can talk about it. The companies in our industry, the, the industry in our, in our space is ruled by dinosaurs.
[6:32] Older, really conservative, really traditionalist. So we're launching a campaign next month where we're declaring war on dinosaurs. And if you wanna do the same thing for the next 10, 20, 30 years, that's fine.
[6:42] But we're declaring war on you and being more provocative than you.
[6:45] And it's funny, 'cause remember when we started posting a lot on social media in our campaigns, there was a LinkedIn post, uh, and everyone in the industry was just completely shitting on us.
[6:54] And I remember one comment always stands out to me, and it was like, "This is so unprofessional. This is not the way the industry has always been done."
[7:01] That's the whole point, that the industry is not always done like this. We can be loud on social media. We can show people the other world of private jets. We can show people what the clients are like.
[7:12] We can show people what goes on behind the scenes. If someone orders Chick-fil-A and you're taking off out of Cabo, we're fricking flying someone to Mexico with a bag of Chick-fil-A. No one else will do that.
[7:22] It's just the most ridiculous thing you could do. And, you know, that, again, may not do as well on LinkedIn, but it'll do really, really well on TikTok and Instagram.
[7:29] For someone who has maybe a less boring company- Mm-hmm... but also wants to go viral like you- Yeah...
[7:33] guys do on social, do you have any tips for them of how they can maybe take a, quote-unquote, "more boring company"- Mm-hmm... and spice it up a little bit- Yeah... to have success on social?
[7:43] Yeah, I think it's really interesting. It's funny, like, whenever we charter these airplanes, I always love, like, looking up what the owners of these airplanes do. 99% of the time it's a boring business.
[7:51] It's like, oh, they're the company that makes the part inside all of refrigerators. All right, when you really think about it, it's scale, but at scale they're making a lot of money, right?
[7:59] So boring businesses are where the money's at. I think looking at it in a different frame of mind, if I own a... Please don't come for me. If I own, like, a plumbing company, okay?
[8:10] Probably not the most attractive, right? Me filming myself cleaning out toilets and stuff like that. But if you think about it, every single other plumbing company's gonna be posting them doing that.
[8:20] So what if you did it differently? What if you personified the plumbers and the plumbing experience and bought into the kind of preconceived ideas about your industry? And I think doing that and just running with it.
[8:31] I think at the end of the day, like, people try so hard to stick to their brand and, again, like, we all see it. You go at, you know, these small businesses on their Instagram.
[8:39] All the graphics are, like, Canva graphics, really professional. Everybody's doing it. Like, anytime we have a marketing meeting I always ask, "Hey, is XYZ Jets doing this? Is this company doing it?
[8:48] And if they are, then I don't wanna do it." So let's do the opposite of whatever they do, and that will constantly keep us kind of one step ahead and almost, like, again, like, more provocative than them.
[8:57] Is there something that you and the team talk about in terms of social specifically- Yeah... that you're really trying to dive into in these next three to four months? Like, I, I know you've, we...
[9:06] What we've seen has worked. Yeah. Is there something that you're looking at on the horizon where you're like, "I really wanna dive into this"? Yeah.
[9:12] To, to not be a dinosaur is to look at what you're doing and say, "Well, this is great. In the next two to three years from now, this is, is not gonna necessarily be scalable."
[9:21] So we're actually kind of like half tech company now.
[9:23] We have some software developers, and essentially what we've been looking at is how we run the business, how can we build tech that will streamline it, make it more efficient, and make it scalable and easier to monetize?
[9:33] So on our social media, I think I've been wanting to push a lot more about the technology aspect that we're doing and how the tech that we're building is kind of applicable to the aviation side, but also other businesses.
[9:42] Like, we're working on some really, really cool attribution software, because right now I'd say over 70, 80% of our business comes from social media.
[9:51] And at first I was against it, 'cause I was like, "There's no way these rich people are on TikTok." Yes and no. I mean, we have a lot of people that are very embarrassed that they've heard about us on TikTok.
[9:59] Uh, older, kind of 50, 60-year-old people. Not that that's that old. Um, but it's their kids. The kids tell the parents, right?
[10:07] And the parents, or the kids tell their grandparents, and it's like, "Hey, we've been flying with this really conservative company for the past 20, 30 years, but my daughter's obsessed with you guys on TikTok, so we'll try you out."
[10:15] Push comes to shove, we're cheaper, on a bigger airplane, and I would consider us having considerably better customer service.
[10:22] So through social we're trying to show those wins, but also show how we have the platform, we know what we're doing, but we're using this to set the standard and build the tech to keep it scalable.
[10:31] And eventually to take our tech and say, "Hey, all the other companies that aren't doing this properly, use our tech. You know, build a safer business."
[10:37] We're building, like, sourcing platforms, um, ways that we can do a full risk assessment of a trip prior to the flight.
[10:43] So for example, if someone's filling an airplane with eight people, a bunch of golf clubs, flying into Aspen in the summer, our system will recognize, hey, that's near the maximum capacity of this aircraft.
[10:52] Maybe you should supplement it with this other airplane.
[10:55] So not to get, like, too aviation technical, but trying to find ways to build tech to make it safer for everybody, and then use our social media to scream it as loud as we can for everybody to hear.
[11:04] Was it a conscious decision to make the reels their own little thing? 'Cause the feed is still beautiful- Yeah... and still very luxury feeling. Mm-hmm. I actually literally talked about you guys in a meeting. Yeah.
[11:14] I was just in New York with all these big ad firms, and I gave the example of what you guys do on social, 'cause I don't think the big luxury brands will take any risks. Mm-hmm.
[11:22] Like, you look at the Guccis, Louis Vuittons. Yeah. They've done the same thing that's gotten them there. Mm-hmm.
[11:26] And there's nothing really, like, pushed that forward, and I feel like what they are missing is that more real, authentic side- Yeah... of their brand, but it doesn't exist. Yeah, they're almost scared to- 100%.
[11:35] They feel like the short form, less sexy stuff is- Mm-hmm... gonna dilute the brand in a way- Yeah... when instead it'll make you more human and make people wanna actually buy with you. Mm-hmm. Exactly.
[11:46] 'Cause I mean, I mean, it, it really comes down... Like, someone I've admired ever since I was a kid was, like, Ryan Serhant, right? Yeah.
[11:51] And, you know, like, when I'm, you know, actually in the process of buying, buying another house, and it was like, wow, like, if I was buying a house in New York, I would wanna work with Ryan Serhant, 'cause I love his content.
[11:59] I wanna work directly with him. So if you take that approach, like, to the social media, like, you... People wanna buy from people. The brand is great.
[12:05] Obviously, the Serhant brand is very well known, but, you know, the people behind it is really what's important.
[12:11] Um, I mean, for us specifically, like, within all different aspects of our content, our focus is always, like, how can weI guess, show that we're human, but also go back to what people expect.
[12:22] So that's why we have the difference.
[12:23] Like, the reels are crazy and ridiculous, but on the feed perspective, like I want maybe an older dinosaur, per se, that's shopping around the block at all these other companies that, you know, if they heard us from social media, great, but when you go to our Instagram, if you put it next to all of our competitors, we look similar.
[12:41] So that's why, like, our website is very, still corporate, very professional. But if you know us from socials, you know that the website is a complete opposite of kind of our social media content.
[12:49] So we built it that way, I mean, again, one, to still be consistent. I don't wanna say necessarily to fit in, but to beat them at their own game. Sure. If you wanna be conservative, great. We can be conservative.
[12:58] But we got you there because of our social media. What's also interesting is you saying the comment like, "This is so unprofessional." Mm-hmm. I remember when me and Brayden were very blessed to partner with you guys.
[13:09] Yeah. You made it so clear to us that, like, you come from an aviation background. Mm-hmm. You know what makes, like, how to fly safe. Yeah.
[13:17] You know how to, like, create a professional and actually, like, the safest brand when it comes to aviation. Mm-hmm.
[13:24] So it's interesting that they would tell you that because you're probably actually the best company to fly with- Thank you...
[13:28] because of, yes, you have the brand of being more provocative, but, like, you were telling us how safe it actually is- Yeah... to fly with you guys compared- Mm-hmm... to your competitors. Yeah.
[13:36] And I mean, I think that comes with, like, kind of the responsibility of us having literally, like, on everything, like, four and a half million followers.
[13:42] Like, we looked at the data and, like, at our best kind of three-month period it was o- over a billion impressions in 90 days, which is crazy. Wow.
[13:49] It would take a dinosaur company hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy that in Google ads, but we could post a bunch of silly little videos and get that same amount in fraction.
[13:57] So I think with that kind of engagement comes a responsibility for why are you doing this?
[14:02] And for me, ever since I was literally, like, 12 and I took my first flight lesson at Camarillo, I always wanted to be an airline pilot.
[14:08] And then I shifted and kinda, you know, wanted to be a charter pilot, actually go fly for NetJets, like, this great, you know, kinda company in the space.
[14:15] And, you know, when I went to college and COVID happened, nobody was hiring pilots. It was the perfect time to kinda get in the space. I remember learning about it, I was so upset because in...
[14:25] Like, I, I created this fake rich person name. I've told this story many times. Uh, James Middleton III, reaching out to all of our competitors. \[laughs\] And trying to understand what the space was like.
[14:33] And I remember I reached out to all these companies, and all of these companies were telling me different things. Like, for example, let's take a, an Embraer Phenom 300.
[14:39] Seats anywhere from six to eight, range of about 2,000 nautical miles. So roughly here to New York without running out of fuel.
[14:45] This company I reached out to through James Middleton III told me that it could fly nonstop with 12 people from LA to London. And I was like, "There is no way that airplane can do that.
[14:52] You'll run out of fuel right around, like, New York." \[laughs\] And I remember this guy was like, "No, it's legit. Here, here's the, here's the invoice. Send us $50,000, sign the quote, and you can do it."
[15:00] And I'm like, "I know that, but for some high net worth person that doesn't know airplanes, he would've booked that, wired the money," and I'm curious what would've happened when he showed up with 12 people to this airplane that could never have done that.
[15:11] So I looked at that as, like, we have the responsibility to the industry to set the standard for what it should be. So that's how we built in our whole safety management system.
[15:20] You know, every single employee here, whether you're on the marketing team, to the sales and flight ops, literally goes through, like, aviation 101. And they learn about the plane crashes.
[15:28] Here's why people have died in plane crashes. Here's how that happened. Here's the risk factors that come from that. So when people can encounter these situations, you can recognize it.
[15:37] So I view that as now that we have this platform, we have the responsibility to educate, but also to set a standard that hopefully other people will kind of follow. Hope you're enjoying this episode.
[15:46] Real quick, wanna let you know about an awesome free product that we got linked in the description. It's our personal brand kickstart. What's in it? Okay, we got five prompts for you.
[15:53] It's gonna help you define your personal brand, get clarity, and start posting content that really resonates with your audience.
[15:59] It'll literally take you less than 10 minutes, and it's been super apparent with all the guests that we've had on our show, they have really strong personal brands, and it's allowed them to scale their businesses.
[16:07] So go check it out, top link, and let's keep it rolling. You bring up that you're gonna be launching a campaign. Yeah. You're declaring war against the dinosaurs. Yes, we are.
[16:15] Do you recommend businesses think about their content in forms of, in terms of, like, launching a campaign- Mm-hmm... having an ethos or something like a North Star that you're making content around to have success? Yes.
[16:29] And I think it's really easy to sway away from that. I mean, we post across everything, what, like, 10, 12 times a day across, across all platforms?
[16:36] And sometimes it's hard to film a lot and put out enough content to meet that, and have enough situations that we can share. And I remember in the past, we, we just got well all over the place.
[16:47] Like, we were posting videos... I mean, again, I know we still kinda do it, just of, like, me golfing. I'm the worst golfer on the planet.
[16:53] Like, what the hell are we doing me talking about how to golf to these people that know 10 times better than me? You're giving golf tips? Exactly.
[16:58] \[laughs\] To the point where I remember we posted this video, it was me giving golf tips, and I'm like, "What the hell are we doing, guys? \[laughs\] I don't know anything about golf."
[17:04] Um, but it's funny 'cause on, on, on two fronts, one, we post me giving golf tips.
[17:08] All the real big golfers are just destroying us in the comments, but the people that tend to, you know, in theory, like, are those big golfers tend to fly private, so now we're actually getting on that type of a TikTok.
[17:18] That's, that's interesting too, 'cause we were talking about this on the pre-show call. You told us that there's things that you'll incorporate- Yeah... into your videos to be able to attract your target demo. Yes.
[17:27] For example, golf. Yep. Someone might think that, "Who the hell is gonna be scrolling on TikTok that's also gonna be flying private?" Mm-hmm.
[17:36] But can you talk us through your strategy of incorporating certain attributes into the content- Yeah... to be able to target your target demo? Definitely. Yeah, I mean, I think that's... We call it, like, social seeding.
[17:45] Um, it is so important. For example, the Pebble Beach, like, if you're like the number one golf course there, they have the big Concours d'Elegance, like, that big car show a lot of people go to.
[17:55] So I remember we made a TikTok where Brian and I were talking about one of our clients that actually flew to Monterey with us. So we're talking about that. We're on the golf course.
[18:04] He was giving me golf tips while I was just smacking it all over the place and just losing all of our balls. And in that, like, we also plugged cars. Like, I'm a big car guy. Just got the new Ferrari. It's fantastic.
[18:14] So we were name-dropping golf....
[18:17] cars and all these different things, that all of the comments were people providing their very honest thoughts on my golf, you know, swing, um, and the different types of cars and things like that.
[18:27] And it serves, I guess, two fronts. One, I feel like every single person in this room, everyone's For You Page is entirely different. So if we all open up TikTok, our For You Page would be so different.
[18:36] Mine's probably watches, cars, airplanes, maybe hotels. Um, so when I'm scrolling, I'm gonna get that, you know, that type of content.
[18:44] So for a lot of our clients that, you know, like golf clubs are the biggest thing that are bought on board private jets.
[18:49] So when they're on scrolling on TikTok, in theory if they're engaging with golf content, they'll see ours, and that could show us to a newer audience.
[18:56] The second thing is also on an SEO perspective, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn all rank very well.
[19:01] So if there's videos of Amalfi Jets, Pebble Beach, Ferraris, 296 GTB, all in the same video and that video does well, when you Google any of those keywords, eventually we'll rank somewhere on page, like one to five.
[19:13] So it actually helps your SEO at the same time.
[19:15] So if you Google like private jet charter companies, you know, Amalfi now we rank on that keyword, but if you go to images, half of that is our videos and our content because we've social seeded those keywords into the different videos.
[19:28] So that's been really, really helpful for us. That is brilliant. Yeah. Is there anything else that you, you would say to any sort of business- Mm-hmm... that they could take and put in? That social seeding- Yeah...
[19:37] is super interesting. Is there another framework that you might have that you're like, "This is something that we found out working with our team," that you'd be willing to share here?
[19:43] Yeah, I mean, I think getting creative. Um, and I, I'm a big like guerrilla marketing person. 'Cause again, like when Calvin and I started the company years ago, like we didn't have any investors.
[19:52] We're just, still never taken on any investors, no VC or anything like that.
[19:56] So I, I like to attribute that to, I feel like we understand the value of a dollar a lot better than some of these people that raise series Gs and have $100 million in the bank to go spend on random stuff.
[20:06] Um, and it really comes down to how can you be creative?
[20:10] So one of my favorite things that we did was, this was during, I think a period when we were getting a lot of website traffic, probably three, four, five, 600,000 people a month on the website.
[20:17] You know, like we post a crazy video, everybody would go to the website, you get all the traffic. So on all social media pages, I killed our, uh, website from every single thing.
[20:26] So in order to find Amalfi Jets, you had to go to Google and type in Amalfi Jets. Our SEO pumped for the next couple months. \[laughs\] And we owned literally one through three on every single relevant private jet keyword.
[20:38] 'Cause from Google's perspective, people that are searching private jet charter and stuff are directly searching Amalfi Jets.
[20:43] So if you Google even the names of our competitors, we would literally outrank them on some of their own keywords, which is amazing. Because if you go on Google Trends that day, huge spike.
[20:53] It forced everybody to search Amalfi Jets. So for businesses, when you have that platform, try something new. And that was a big risk. I was like, "Hey, for the next week we're not gonna link anywhere to our website."
[21:03] Yes, our forms dropped slightly, but our SEO increased like crazy. So I think being willing to take some of those risks, but again, like calculated risks.
[21:12] And that's because if you have your website linked, you don't get the SEO if they click- Correct... from the- Yep... Instagram or TikTok. 'Cause it's a direct search. You're just going directly to AmalfiJets.com.
[21:21] It's so interesting because we actually stopped linking our podcast- Mm-hmm... on Instagram Stories. Yeah. Little bit different. You don't get the click-through rate
[21:30] if you click from an Instagram Story to a YouTube video. Mm. And, uh, the watch time, if you think of... It makes a lot of sense once we figured this out. Someone stopping their doomscroll to go watch- Yeah...
[21:40] the podcast- I was gonna say that \[laughs\]... the watch time's gonna plummet. And so- 'Cause then you're gonna wanna get back to what you were doing. Yeah.
[21:44] You're gonna close it, whereas as if you're on a new tab, you have higher intent 'cause you're directly searching for it. Yeah. A lot of what you're saying is reminding me of the conversation we had with Caleb. Mm-hmm.
[21:52] So we have, um, a good buddy of ours, Caleb Brauston. He worked with Gary Vee and Alex Hormozi. Nice. And he's like a G when it comes to branding.
[21:59] So the first thing that he talked about was branding being the pairing of two things to be associated with that. Mm-hmm. So he's brought up like Nike and Michael Jordan. Yeah.
[22:08] So Nike paired themself with Michael Jordan to be in the basketball scene. Mm-hmm. So that's one. I lost my train of thought, the other one. \[laughs\] Um... Find it, dude. Land the plane. \[laughs\] Land the plane.
[22:21] Oh, dude, I was on a roll. Come on, land the plane, please. I, I'm gonna have to come back. Yeah. \[laughs\] Pick me up, Pig. That's all we got too. I know. I, I can pick you up. Yeah, yeah. I can pick you up.
[22:29] What was the decision to make people in the office characters in the reels? Like, were people all on board with that?
[22:35] No, and I think that's definitely been an adjustment, where it's funny, like we'll be, you know, filming some content and we're asking the team like, "Hey, who's available for TikTok?"
[22:41] And everyone's like, "Oh, I'm busy, I can't." They're like, "I, I don't wanna do it."
[22:43] \[laughs\] It's like, well, listen, like this content is providing the business for us, so it's also to the point where we kind of changed the culture and I was like, "Listen, if you work at Amalfi, at any point you need to be available to be in any video whenever we ask, no questions asked.
[22:54] You're just gonna do it."
[22:55] 'Cause there's been a lot of fights that we used to have where \[laughs\] there would be fights, people would get upset, to the point where you'd have someone in the video who clearly didn't wanna be there, and it would ruin the content, and it would just piss everybody off and just create this like really negative energy.
[23:08] So that's been hard, but I also think it comes down to at the end of the day, like if people see a video of me booking a private jet, like, like literally yesterday when we booked a jet for Livvy Dunn to get her to LSU.
[23:17] If someone saw that video, called into the main line, you'll speak to Jayden, and said, "Hey, I wanna work with Collin." It's like, "Oh, well, Collin's unfortunately not available, but I can pass you to Brian."
[23:25] We want them to be like, "Oh, Brian, I remember him from this video. He's really cool. Yeah, I wanna work with Brian."
[23:29] So peop- like us getting their name out there is important, and then after they're done with Brian, they book the trip, then they're gonna work with Daniel or Holly Reed on the flight ops team. "Oh, I love Daniel.
[23:35] He's so funny in the videos. Yeah, I wanna work with him too." That, you know, we've seen that be very successful.
[23:41] I can remember a conversation I had literally last week where someone was like, "Hey, I have this quote from this other company and it's like 23K. Listen, I'm willing to pay 24K, but I just wanna work with Amalfi.
[23:50] I love the content." So there's that like brand equity that people still wanna just work with you because you're that.
[23:55] And I think, I mean, again, like I don't wanna refer to us as like celebrities or anything, but like when you have that like-... kind of celebrity style brand. People wanna be associated, people wanna be a part of it.
[24:04] I think it's the built-in trust, too. Yeah. Like, they already see the people in the vlogs. You know, they see all these different characters- Mm-hmm...
[24:09] and like, oh, when you call in you're like, "Oh, I remember you from this one video." Yeah. It just automatically builds that trust. I, I mean, it's similar to if like if we sell something.
[24:16] They're like, "Oh, I know you," or, "I can DM you." Yeah. You have that level of access that is probably different than some of the- Yeah... big podcasters. You're never gonna DM Ro- Rogan's not responding to you.
[24:26] \[laughs\] Rogan's not gonna respond to your DM, you know what I'm saying? But it's, it, it's interesting. I've been, like, pigeonholed a couple times 'cause like, for example, like, we fly a lot of the same routes.
[24:32] Like, you know, LA to New York is probably, like, one of the most popular routes in private jet, uh, in private jets.
[24:36] Same thing with, like, New York to Miami, where literally, like, someone called in, I was speaking to him and he's like, "Hey, um, you need a plane from New York to Miami," and I told him it was, like, 23K.
[24:43] And he's like, "Well, hold on." He's like, "Three weeks ago in a video you said it was 18K." And I was like, "All right, well, private jet world, airplane schedules move a lot."
[24:50] And he's like, "Yeah, you literally told this person in this TikTok. Here, I'll send you the TikTok." \[laughs\] And I was like, "Oh, my gosh." So it's interesting.
[24:55] So, you know, we've had to kind of review and I guess kind of explain this to people.
[24:58] Like, hey, listen, you know, airplane movements move, so one day it may be 18K, the next day it may be 19,000 or maybe this day you get a, a great deal and now it's 5K or something like that.
[25:07] So it's been funny to be quoted \[laughs\] my own TikToks to myself. \[laughs\] Yeah, man. Last week's price \[laughs\]- This week's price... and today's price. Exactly. It's so funny. Especially with jet fuel as well.
[25:15] \[laughs\] Always fluctuating. You brought up, you're like, "I'm not a celebrity" but I gotta ask, man. Yeah. You got a Ferrari. Yeah. We're partying in fucking sick villas in LA. Mm-hmm. We're flying private.
[25:25] We, I went to the Amalfi Reserve party. Mm-hmm. Feels pretty sick. \[laughs\] Are, do you ever, like, drive around LA and you're like, "This is kinda like Entourage"?
[25:32] \[laughs\] No, but I, the, the, the way I describe it is there's a lot of out of body moments where I'll just be like taking a step back and I'm like, "This is ridiculous." Yeah. Like when we flew to Mexico for the taco.
[25:41] Mm. Like, on the plane we're there, I'm drinking a Corona and I'm like, "This is ridiculous." Yeah. Like, this is just ridiculous. And I think for me that's what, you know, kinda keeps it going.
[25:50] I think it's really fun and exciting.
[25:51] But, um, yeah, I mean, again, I don't ever wanna refer to us as celebrities, but I, I will say the one thing there is, like, as a kid growing up in LA I always thought, like, I always saw those parties in the Hills and was like, "Ah."
[26:02] Mm-hmm. I always, like always wanted to go and, you know, get invited to those. And I always thought, like, all these rich people were, like, a part of this club. And I'd, like, join all these clubs.
[26:09] I was like a member of Soho House, like, Equinox, and I'm like, God, you know, that's still not, like, the club that I thought it was.
[26:14] So that's why we launched the Reserve membership on the app, 'cause I was like, there's gotta be, like, these, you know, clubs and these events where it's like you get invited to these parties in the Hills and it's fun and it's cool that you can just go to.
[26:24] So I was like, well, shit, you know, these clubs don't exist but we're gonna build our own now that we have this platform. So, like, Reserve is kinda like my little passion project- Yeah... 'cause it's fun.
[26:31] I mean, again, we throw our own parties. Like, on October 25th you guys sh- totally should be there, we have our Halloween masquerade party. We have this gigantic brutalist mansion in Bel Air. It's, like, 500 people.
[26:40] Wow. Black tie Halloween party, so tuxedos, dresses, heels, but, like, full Venetian masks. Sick.
[26:46] And we have, like, these mermaids and the magician and the fire-breather, and I was like, literally, like, the inspiration, I literally sent them the movie The Great Gatsby.
[26:53] \[laughs\] And I was like, "I want you to recreate this party." It's just awesome. And again, like, I remember, like, someone asked on the sales team, like, "Hey, how does this help us sell more private jets?"
[27:01] And I was like, "Well, it creates a community that people wanna be a part of, so it builds that brand equity" \[laughs\] \[laughs\] "... and it's just awesome."
[27:07] At the end of the day, you always have to consider when you do anything the cool factor of things. Totally. Like, buying a Ferrari, is that the best fiscal idea? Probably not.
[27:15] But the cool factor of it was pretty awesome. 'Cause I figured, you know, 20, 30 years I wasn't gonna look back and be like, "Ah, so upset that I bought that Ferrari." Yeah.
[27:22] No, I'm gonna be like, "Oh, I remember when I was 24 and owned a Ferrari. That was ridiculous." That's so funny. It's a write-off. Yeah. \[laughs\] It's, it is. It's a good write-off. Yeah.
[27:28] It, it appears in all the content. It's, it's in enough TikToks that- Yes. Yeah... the IRS is listening. It's a mark of expense. It's, uh, rational. I feel like the tax guy will approve on that one.
[27:34] Okay, do you think virality- Mm-hmm... is luck? Or, like, do you feel like you can work with your team on something- Yeah... and you'll see, be like, "Calling my shot now," or no? Yes and no.
[27:42] I think at the end of the day, like, I'm grateful that we've got lucky, but I also think that we're so data-driven and our team works so hard and is so excellent that yes and no, we also kinda create our own luck.
[27:55] I think that we post more than anybody. We film more than anybody.
[27:59] I think one of our competitive advantages, it's funny, I was literally, like, right before this we had a really big corporate meeting of this person came in, and we were trying to buy their product.
[28:07] And she was like, "Well, yeah, like, it needs to go through corporate review. It'll take about two to three weeks." And I'm like, "Oh, no, no, no."
[28:11] If we do something in Amalfi, if I have an idea that I wanna film, I wanna film it today, I want it edited by today, and I wanna see it live on our Instagram by tomorrow morning at 9:00.
[28:19] And I think that's a big competitive advantage that we don't have that, like, some dinosaur company is gonna want, "Oh, like, our marketing team needs to review this, then maybe legal, then our CEO, and then maybe we'll launch in a campaign next month."
[28:28] By that point, no one cares. So I think the virality can be created to an extent, but also if you post more than anybody or are more aggressive and just, again, more ridiculous, that tends to do well.
[28:42] But we also already have the platform and kinda the algorithm that I guess is kinda built up to that point. Yeah. You're, but you're giving yourself more at bats. Yeah. I think a lot of people try to get on social.
[28:51] Mm-hmm. Everyone's got five to 10 videos in them. Yep. And when you start, it's exciting. It's like shiny ball syndrome. Mm-hmm. Like, all right, I'm gonna give this a shot.
[28:59] And then they do maybe five videos or 10 videos at the most, and they're like, "It's not working." Yeah. But it's because you haven't stayed consistent. Mm-hmm. You haven't tried different formats.
[29:08] You haven't found what works for you. Maybe you're not provocative enough. Yeah. But I think at the end of the day, it's like you just gotta put out more content. Mm.
[29:16] And people aren't putting out enough content to- Yeah... give themselves a chance for it to work. Yeah. I think, I think Hormozi said it, but you have to put out so much content.
[29:24] Like, I was, am so, like, again, as a kid I did all these different sports. Hated sports, was always terrible at it, but I'm very competitive with business.
[29:30] Like, I know exactly how many employees all of our competitors have, how much money they make, where their employees live, how much money their employees make, everything.
[29:38] And on a business perspective, I think if you're so provocative, we can bury our competitors in irrelevance, that we post so much that now, I mean, I,
[29:47] I don't really hate to see it, but if our competitors post a TikTok, all the comments are, "Oh, Amalfi's better. You're just copying Amalfi." \[laughs\] I look at it and I'm like, "Oh, no, that's, that's terrible."
[29:55] But it's true. Like, I mean- Gotta stop... you know, you have to be- \[laughs\]... louder and more provocative.
[30:01] I mean, again, it's like I sound like a broken record, but it's so true.That once you've posted so much, you've buried them in irrelevance that they can't even...
[30:09] Like, if anyone else in the private jet space wanted to post TikToks and wanted to copy our format, everybody, I think, would see through it. What did it look like day one, though?
[30:16] 'Cause now, I mean, we're sitting here- Yeah... in this gorgeous office. Yeah, I think you guys saw the original, like, tiny, really small office I had. This one's a lot nicer. \[laughs\] I, I know, I did.
[30:24] I remember, I remember when I walked in there, I was like, "We're in Jurassic Park." Like, what? Oh, it's awesome now. It's so cool. Like, it's insane. It's stunning. But now the team obviously has grown. Mm.
[30:31] We have amazing creators. Yeah. We have people that are helping you with stuff. Go back to day one, though, and what do you feel like you've kinda kept that same philosophy on? Mm-hmm. I would say being impatient.
[30:40] Everyone knows that I'm very impatient. So if we want to film an idea, I want to do it right now. Like, our... You know, one of my favorite videos that we filmed was Josh and I race to Vegas.
[30:51] So we flew private, he flew spirit, and we raced there. And the goal was for us to get to Vegas and show them how much we could do.
[30:57] \[laughs\] And I remember we talked this idea on Monday, and they're like, "Yeah, when do you wanna do this? Next month?"
[31:01] And I was like, "Oh, I booked the jet for Friday, so I need an entire shot list and we're just gonna do it on a Friday. We're just gonna see what happens."
[31:06] The influencer trip that you guys flew with us on, that was planned that Monday, and I already booked the plane. I was like, "We're just gonna do it. We're just gonna figure it out." Maybe you could tell I...
[31:12] You know, being on the trip. But, um, you know, that, I think, is the energy of, like, I always treat it like still we're kind of in that startup phase.
[31:19] Like, I don't wanna call us a, you know, a startup, and I think we're growing fast and I'm very grateful for that growth.
[31:23] But I think if you take that startup mentality of let's be ridiculous, let's be fast, but let's also appreciate the value of a dollar.
[31:30] Like, still today, like, again, we do literally, like, every month, tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and we still don't spend a dollar on paid advertising. I w- I just wouldn't.
[31:39] Why would I spend $30,000 on a Google ad if we could charter a private jet, race to Vegas with someone, and get more views doing that than we would trying to bid for keywords that everybody else is doing?
[31:50] I wanna stay on this for a sec. Okay. Because we talked to Gary Vee about this- Yeah... and he's like, "These fucking companies
[31:58] are so stupid 'cause they'll pay to amplify bad creative instead of trying a lot, seeing if it works-" Mm-hmm... if it's working, then you can maybe put some pay behind it. Yeah.
[32:11] But it's like at the end of the day, he's like, "Organic is life." Mm-hmm. He's like... And which is exactly what you're doing. It's like we're gonna have such a better ROI- Yeah...
[32:18] on crushing organic social, building the brand awareness, than trying to compete against all of our other competitors with the Google Ad Words. I think it's also, like, the, I guess, like, state of the world right now.
[32:29] Like, there is so much content being put out. You have new streaming platforms every day. Like, funny, like, we bought this TV, the, the Frame TV or whatever, and it's showing the different art.
[32:38] And I remember at one point there was, like, an ad, and I was like, oh, my gosh, just your TVs are showing ads now. Like, everything is an ad, that I think people get... like, see the paid aspect of it.
[32:47] They see it being sponsored. They see the hashtag ad. People see through it now. That's such a good point. 'Cause you're so trained that everything is an ad now, it's kind of ridiculous, that I think the organic sells.
[32:58] And b- even people can tell. Like, we have a lot of great brand partners, but people can still tell on some content when it's paid and when you're not genuinely believing it.
[33:08] Like, so many things that I talk about in our videos were not paid, but I just genuinely love it. Um, like Fiji water. I always drink Fiji water. This is great too. I love everyone. Big, big, big home guys. Boom.
[33:16] Um, and I remember literally they, we posted that video and it was just an organic, no one was talking about it, and then they literally sent us, like, this whole PR package of, "Ha, that's so funny, like, McKenna loves Fiji."
[33:26] And then they sent us a T-shirt that said Amal Fiji, which was really funny. \[laughs\] Um,
[33:31] but, like, content like that, I think people want the organic-ness, and I think that there's been this culture shift less from paid into organic, but into more authentic content where you can see that people genuinely care about it.
[33:44] Um, so I think that's it. As well as, like, I would say that our content quality improved when we stopped filming on an iPhone and bought fancy cameras and bought lights and so forth. Interesting.
[33:52] So that did help a big amount. As well as when we got proper editors to edit it properly.
[33:57] Um, and again, there's plenty of data of, like, for example, like, our content performs better, I think, if I wear black and if we're in less of, like, a, you know, light background. So this is great.
[34:07] Versus if we're standing in our kitchen with terrible lighting, the content won't perform. The mic quality is really important. Um, you know. So we're gonna go viral. Out of the first two sec- So- Oh, 100%.
[34:16] We're going all- Everyone's wearing black and we're in a light background. Oh, so- We're set. Okay. We planned this. I knew, I knew it.
[34:20] \[laughs\] Zoe texted me before and said w- "Please wear black," or like, "Don't, don't go in front." Very, very smart. Did you buy your ticket? Yeah, I bought my ticket. Did you guys get your ticket? Hmm? To the moon?
[34:28] To the moon? We're going viral. We're on a plane. Oh, perfect. Yeah. Great. Yeah. So we got, we got you guys a three-seater, so don't worry. I remember the second Caleb point. Hmm. Okay, you found it?
[34:36] He said that it's- That's a late, dude- Yeah. \[laughs\]... a late plane land, dude. That was like 14 minutes ago, bro. \[laughs\] It's been, it's been in the background.
[34:41] He said that if you're trying to copy your competition- Mm-hmm... the best you can ever be is number two. Valid. Which I think is super interesting. That's really valid.
[34:51] So the fact that you guys are t- What reminded me of it is you're saying, like, "Is this person doing it? Is this company doing it?" Yeah. "Is our competitor doing it? I don't wanna do it." Mm-hmm.
[35:00] And having that outlook as like- Yeah... I wanna be as different from my competition as possible- Mm-hmm... because if I copy them, the best I could ever be is number two. Yeah.
[35:09] And that's probably why these other, uh, companies are getting the comments of, like, "Amalfi's doing it better." I, I think there's, um... And again, it's, it's hard.
[35:15] Like, you know, being an entrepreneur, and I think every entrepreneur can relate to this, of you're literally putting kind of all of your eggs in one basket.
[35:22] Like, you know, I went to college, I have a great degree, but, I mean, once you have that entrepreneurship bug, you're kind of just head down, you know, betting on yourself. And I would...
[35:30] Like, not to get kinda too deep, but I think there's two points here. The first is, like, I feel like every business needs a mission greater than themselves. When we first started the company, our goal was to make money.
[35:39] Then, after we saw the traction in the industry and the fact that people were mimic our, uh, mimicking our content, you had these really older, traditional companies that are actually now putting content out, it's like, well, listen, like, our mission now is to genuinely spread the authenticity of this industry and to share the world of private jets with as many people as possible.
[35:56] And then I think the kind of second point there is there's that point where you kinda need to go all in on plan A.
[36:03] For example, I remember we were looking at all the data, and we track everything.Like we launched a subsidiary, Amalfi Technologies, to build it out, and the slogan of that is, "The future is certain," 'cause with enough data, the future is pretty freaking certain.
[36:15] And we tracked everything, all of our attribution, which videos perform well, which, you know, platform provides the most quality leads. TikTok provides the most number of engagement, but TikTok reaches the kids, right?
[36:28] We- we're very relevant. Like, when we filmed content with Camilla and Livvy Dunne and people in the Bop House, that reached the kids, who then told their parents.
[36:35] And it was funny, 'cause I remember one of the \[laughs\]... These dads called in and was like, "Yeah, my son was telling me about the Bop House. What is the Bop House?" \[laughs\] I'm like, "Oh, this is great.
[36:41] Let me explain what that is to you." Um, but TikTok reaches the kids. Instagram is an interesting between because you have both kids and the actual end users, and YouTube is that older audience that are on YouTube Short.
[36:53] So we track different qualification rates of each platform. But we're looking at this, and we recognize that a good majority of our, of our business was coming from social media.
[37:02] And prior to this, I mean, we ran a bunch of, like, EDDM campaigns, or Every D- Every, Every Door Direct Mail marketing, so we're like the junk mail in your mailbox, 'cause you can guarantee deliverability through the post office.
[37:11] Pretty cheap, it's like a buck, uh, per postcard. But we're spending a lot of money on that. We were spending a lot of money on different events that we were going to. Never Google Ads.
[37:18] We did it for a little bit, like 1,000 bucks one day. Um, and I remember we looked at it, and I was like, "Well, shoot, most of this is coming from social media.
[37:25] Rather than trying to manage it both, we're just gonna go all in, and we're literally going to be the best at social media."
[37:32] And I think that was a big risk, 'cause we were kind of betting the entire farm, betting all of our lead flow, all of our business on this one platform that, you know, thank God paid off. But I remember I...
[37:41] This was literally a conversation with Calvin, business partner.
[37:44] I remember I was joking with him, I think we were at a bar, and I was like, "We're either going to be the leader in the private jet space, or we will no longer be in private aviation \[laughs\]...
[37:53] because it's going to tank, and it's gonna fail h- like, horribly."
[37:56] So I think if you take that approach to your business, obviously it's a little bit scary, but you need to really look at your data on what's working and go all in on it.
[38:03] Did people saying the TikTok thing was crazy fuel you? Like, when you look back to those comments or pe- like, what people said on LinkedIn, do you look at that and you're like, "I'm gonna show you," like...
[38:11] I y- honestly, it was the opposite. Mm. There was a lot of people in the space that went to Embry-Riddle, the school I went to, that were in the comments saying, "This is unprofessional."
[38:20] And, and this, and I'll explain that story in a moment, but I remember reading the comments, and it actually discouraged me. I was like, "Oh, maybe, maybe we should stop.
[38:25] You know, they're really, like, they're really big in the space. They said we should do it, maybe we shouldn't." Then I was like, "Well, hold on a minute.
[38:30] As you said, if we keep doing what they're doing, we're just gonna be just another private jet company." And I was like, "We're getting recognized by people that I admire."
[38:39] Like, there was this big CEO of a really big competitor of ours. I was at an event, and he was there, and I introduced myself, and he's like, "What's your name again?" And he was like, "Amalfi Jets?
[38:45] I've never heard of you guys." And I remember I left that, and I was so upset. And now looking back, I was like, "Oh, he's totally heard of us." \[laughs\] Like, there's, there's just no way that in this space you haven't.
[38:55] Um, so that, I think, was hard, and I also made the mistake of reading every single comment on every video. Never do that. Never... I never read the comments anymore.
[39:04] Um, 'cause everyone's always willing to give their opinion. There's so many people that wanna give their opinion that I think at the end of the day bet on yourself. I'm proud of the team. I'm proud of what we're doing.
[39:11] I'm proud of the kind of change that we've pushed in this industry, and I think that is rewarding, and I think that fuels me. Are you hoping to bump into that other guy again?
[39:21] Uh, yeah, I got invited to speak at NBAA, their big base convention in Vegas, and he'll be there, so. You're gonna dab him up and be like- Dude... "I know you know who I am." I know you know, brother. I'm gonna...
[39:30] No, because knowing me, I'm so... I am gonna be like, "I'm so sorry, what was your name again?" Even though I know who he is. \[laughs\] Have we met before? Have we, have we, have we shook hands before? That's- So funny.
[39:37] Yeah. You mentioned, though, that, you know, we're getting so many views a little bit earlier. Mm. Like, you know, have a billion views in a 90-day span. Yeah. How do you actually turn that, though, into qualified leads?
[39:47] Yeah. Because I think, like, we see... Like, I mean, views are cool. Yeah. But at the end of the day, like- Views don't pay the bills. Yeah, views don't pay the bills.
[39:53] Uh, there's not enough ad spend that you're gonna get through, like, YouTube or TikTok Creator Fund to, you know, kind of pay for anything. Mm-hmm. Um, at least that we've found.
[40:00] Um, I think this is when it comes to, like, I call it, like, the whiteboard phase. I'm like, I'm the big whiteboard guy. We have whiteboards all in this office. Um, and I'm like the only one that uses them.
[40:09] But it comes to top of funnel, right? So social media fills top of funnel. So let's take the, like, billion impressions that we get. Well, what do we want these people to do?
[40:17] Well, we want them to go to the website, or we want them to download the Amalfi Jets app. So we'll have those two conversion points in our social media bio, either the website or the download the Amalfi app.
[40:26] And we'll kind of switch it. It, it... We find it better, you get better data just doing one versus doing, like, a split or doing, like, a Linktree.
[40:33] It just doesn't You're saying, like, a split landing page, or like- Yeah... or a split campaign? So we used to do a split landing page. Oh.
[40:37] But then literally now just the only link in our bio will literally just be one thing, either the website or download the app. That's interesting. And that converts a little bit better.
[40:42] So the goal of social media is to hear about the name, you build that brand equity, but also what do we want these people to do? Well, we want them to go to the website. Great, now they're on the website.
[40:49] Well, now what do we want them to do on the website? Well, we want them to either request a flight, or we want them to give us their data so someone from the sales team can reach out to them.
[40:57] So we did that in a couple ways. You can go to the top right, the big button that requests a charter. The left-hand side, you have to tap the menu, then you click Contact Us.
[41:05] Or if you're on the page for more than 15 or 30 seconds, our white paper pop up, pops up, and that actually is really good 'cause that gets a lot of data.
[41:12] So great, now we have all of this data of people, you know, at our, you know, like, when... Like, for example, let's take, like, a, a, a video that got, like, 50, 60 million views.
[41:20] If you look at that, that day probably would be, like, maybe 8 to 10,000 forms. Great.
[41:25] Well, and the problem in the private jet space is some people think that private jets are cheaper than Spirit Airlines, and some people have no idea how much it costs.
[41:31] So we, we kind of talk about our qualification rate a lot. Average that we've seen is about 15 to 20%. So of 10,000 forms, 2,000 people can afford to fly private. That's a fucking high percentage. Yeah. That's so crazy.
[41:44] Because, but now it's 20%. Okay. It's actually a little higher than that, but it used to be, like, 2%. And how do we change that? Well, we used to put first name, last name, email, and phone on the form. Great.
[41:55] Everybody would fill it out 'cause they just wanted a quote, right? But then we changed it. Let's add your full address.
[42:00] You add the address, now your forms are gonna drop, but your qualification's gonna increase 'cause it's harder. We're creating more friction.
[42:05] And the people that are willing to give you their full address tend to have more intent to actually want the service. So that brought us from, like, a 1% to, like, an 8%. Great. Now let's add more questions.
[42:16] So let's create more friction to reduce the number of people that fill it out but increase the quality. So we added our qualifying questions.Are you currently flying private?
[42:26] Uh, or no, uh, how are you currently traveling? Commercial airlines is first. That auto-fills for most people. Privately, and then the different versions of a private jet card membership. Then we ask a follow-up.
[42:37] How many times do you fly privately? One to five, five to 10, over 20. Great. Then, how did you hear about us? It's good to get that data.
[42:44] Not really the most accurate, but we noticed the more questions we asked, the, the harder it was to fill it out, the increase in quality. So we did that, and then we also even switched it too.
[42:54] Then we re-put where the forms were on the website, so we made it harder to find it.
[42:58] We have the big button in the top, but the Contact Us form and the whitepaper now only popped up for certain people, either only in the United States, um, only in certain regions, and only after a certain number of clicks or interactions.
[43:10] You can get really granular with that to really look at the data and increase it.
[43:15] 'Cause the big problem we had in the beginning was when their TikToks first started going up, we had, at this point, I think three or four salespeople.
[43:21] So we had 10,000 forms, but across three people, so they would literally get 3,000 emails in a day.
[43:27] Their inbox was buried, that we had to shove all of this into a separate inbox, like Sales@EmolfiJets, just to clean it up. And from that point, it was constant complaining from the sales team. Everybody knows it.
[43:36] Every two seconds, "Oh, there's too many leads. Oh, there's too many leads." It's crazy. I s- I had, like, a 30-minute conversation with a 13-year-old today that saw us on TikTok that can't afford to fly private.
[43:45] \[laughs\] So the more friction you've created, the more we've kind of wire framed it out, we can get better data. And then we launched the app.
[43:52] The app and the website are connected, so if you view us on the website, view us on the app, we know how many times you viewed across each platform, and we can get really good insight there.
[44:00] So it really just comes down to, like, I describe it as, like, a big game. Playing a big game on how can we increase these different numbers. It's so interesting because
[44:08] it's rare that you hear a company say, "We got too many leads." Yeah. But if they're not qualified leads, it doesn't matter how many- Correct... views you're getting or how many people are coming to your website. Yeah.
[44:18] And I think that's such an important tip for business owners- Mm-hmm... to hear is, like, sometimes adding more friction to how you get the lead- Yeah... is gonna lead to a more qualified person. Oh, yeah.
[44:31] And, and, and it really comes down to, like, a lot of people, I think, are so afraid to create that friction 'cause it's- Yeah... "Oh, I'm gonna lose the leads," but really do the math, right?
[44:39] You'd rather have 10% of 100 people than 1% of 10, right? So yeah, that, that made sense. That, that math adds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're, we're mathematicians.
[44:50] But essentially, like, you know, it's funny, like, and that was a hard thing for the sales team of, like, all right, we had too many leads. Then it was the opposite.
[44:56] Hey, the lead flows are down, but it's like, well, we know that because the qualification rate's increasing.
[45:01] So you're getting less people, but the people that you're getting are, I don't wanna call it better quality, but better qualified people, um, in order to actually book these flights.
[45:10] So that's something we track, and then you can look at the data. All right, of the 2,000 people that are really qualified, what are the trends? And of that, where did they hear about us?
[45:17] And also, like, even further, how'd you hear about us? Oh, I heard about you on TikTok. Great. Which video? Which video did you hear? Oh, it was the one on golf. I thought that was funny. Oh, my friend sent it to me.
[45:26] We were golfing. We saw this. Oh, um, this video about, like, McKenna, one of your top customers.
[45:31] So you can get really granular that you look at the data, and then when you're looking at it, it's like, oh, the golf content performed well. Great.
[45:37] Brian, let's go get a tee time, and let's go golfing, and we'll go film on the golf course again. Um, so that's kind of how we make decisions, like, always data-driven.
[45:44] Like, I feel like sometimes externally people are like, "Oh, it's just a bunch of random stuff," but everything's very, very calculated.
[45:49] That's so interesting 'cause I, I would bet that a lot of business owners have a, a very slim idea of how they're getting new customers- Yeah... where they're coming from, and even to the video. Yeah. Like, that...
[46:03] It's like, "Oh, how'd you hear about us?" And it's, it's just asking. Social media. It's literally just- Yeah... sending a text. "Hey, ha, thanks so much that you know, lovely to book a trip with us. Which video?"
[46:09] And then we'll have a conversation about it. "Oh, like, you know, what do you love about our content?" "Oh, I love that it's engaging. I like that it's authentic.
[46:16] I love seeing the jets every now and then, but I love Colin, his energy," or, "I love Brian," or something like that. So it's like, great.
[46:21] Brian, now we need you for 10 more videos 'cause we have a proof of concept that it'll work. Yeah. Um, I feel like most business owners don't keep track of data. So many businesses that I talk to don't have a CRM system.
[46:32] They don't attribute anything. It's like, oh, well- What is your favorite software? Um, for attribution, I would say, like, a good CRM system, like Salesforce, HubSpot, are probably the best.
[46:42] Um, I would say in terms of, like, data analytics, I mean, Google Analytics is great just to get some good insight there.
[46:47] But after we hired our software developers, we've been building our own stuff, where I'm literally, like, speaking with our software engineers, and I'm like, "All right. This is the problem we're having.
[46:55] Here's where all of the data is across, like, these 10 softwares. I need you to centralize it into a system." So we built Zeus, and Zeus is everything.
[47:02] You can see it better, get better, you know, analytics, better data that we can use to make better decisions. Mm. That's so good.
[47:07] So I, I, like, again, like, I, I don't wanna sound like a, a tech bro, but after we've launched our tech arm, it's been really interesting.
[47:12] And it's, I don't wanna say easier, but it's, it is simpler to scale when you have really good access to data that you can use to make decisions.
[47:21] So everything we do, there's evidence to support why we're doing it, to the point where if we're seeing $3 million in revenue attributed from Instagram, great.
[47:32] Now the marketing budget next month, we can spend $3 million on whatever content we want because we already have the proof of concept that it will work. So it's been fun to spend a lot.
[47:40] Obviously, sometimes as a business owner, it's a little bit scary to spend that much money on private jets and fancy stuff in order to do it. But if you look at the data, I don't consider it spending money.
[47:49] We're just investing in what's already working. Mm. So good. Yeah. It's, uh, but it's a marketing expense. Yeah. And some people might say,
[47:58] you know, the original way is, like, I'm gonna pay for some sort of ad, whether it's in a newspaper- Yeah... or online, however it may be.
[48:05] Like, the way you spend money on ads is maybe different now than it was, you know, 10, 20 years ago. Yeah. You're just doing it in a different way, but you have the data to back it up. Yeah. And I think that's important.
[48:15] It's funny.
[48:15] When, when TikTok was gonna get banned, I actually got interviewed by Fox and CBS on that topic, and the way I described it was social media is an alternative to your traditional billboards and print advertising 'cause it levels the playing field.
[48:28] You can have a mom-and-pop shop that can open up their phone, open up TikTok, spend $0, reach the same amount of people as a $2 million TV ad during prime time.Um, and, and that's the thing. Like, I really...
[48:39] It, it comes down to the business owners themselves of realistically what's stopping you, right? And I think Google keywords are, can be good, but it's so crowded and competitive.
[48:48] You have people bidding for different keywords.
[48:50] Your cost per clicks can get really, really high, and the, my wariness of that when we first started, 'cause that's what everyone in our space does, it's always Google keywords, is for a business that doesn't have any investors, that we really didn't have any money, Google keywords, you can hemorrhage cash very, very quick.
[49:05] Whereas if you play it safe and kind of use that value of a dollar, we can post 30 videos on TikTok spending zero dollars. So... What do you think it's gonna be like now that people are asking ChatGPT or, like- Yeah...
[49:18] another AI software, "Oh, what is the best private jet network?" Do you feel like OpenAI is gonna make some sort of situation where it ends up being pay to play on OpenAI in a situation like that?
[49:30] 'Cause now I feel like- That's a really good point... I keep asking- Oh. I keep asking Chad. I'm like, "Oh, what is..." Like, I was just in New York literally a few days ago.
[49:36] I was like, "What's the best restaurant near me at Hotel 32?" Yeah. And it just, boom, showed me all the best sushi restaurants. Mm-hmm. And it's interesting 'cause a year ago I wouldn't have done that.
[49:44] I would've went to Google- No... or I would've went to Yelp and been like... Yeah, or I would've went to TikTok.
[49:48] No, that's a really good point, and I think eventually, I mean, that's a good way for them to monetize in the future. Dude, I might give Sa- But \[laughs\]... I might call up Sam. Just give Sam a call. Yeah.
[49:55] That's, that's not a bad thing, but I think that that's when social media kind of is there as the, like, kind of leveling the playing field of that's great.
[50:04] But anytime I find a restaurant, like we're going to DC tomorrow, and literally the restaurant reservations are made for, on TikTok, coolest restaurants in Washington, DC, and then that's social proof and their credibility is kind of- TikTok is better for what I will say.
[50:15] Yeah. I went to, I went to TikTok after, but I was just curious if- Yeah... you know, what that might look like here in the next year.
[50:21] I think that's a good point, but I think it also encourages business owners to be as aggressive on social media. So when you do Google that, your content is so relevant that OpenAI has to link to it because- Yeah.
[50:32] Mm-hmm... there's so much of it- Mm-hmm... on that topic. Can you talk about copy on your website? Yeah. And how that plays into building brand equity- Mm-hmm...
[50:44] and, um, not necessarily attracts a different customer- Yeah...
[50:47] but, like, the words you use and the copy that you have on your website makes your, is gonna make your brand feel different depending on the kind of business that you have. Mm-hmm.
[50:57] Can you talk about the strategy you have for copy on your- Yeah... actual website? Yeah, I mean, I think
[51:02] that's a whole other kinda Wild West because when you get into the world of SEO, that's where still a lot of people find it.
[51:07] Like, there's still a lot of people that book chats with us every single day that have never seen our TikToks, that Google private jet companies. We rank well, so they book it through us.
[51:14] Um, my, I think, approach to that is it's still such a crowded market that I still want our website and our feed on Instagram and stuff to look like that of everybody else.
[51:24] So if you have someone that has only seen that in their research, we blend in, but I think we, we spend a lot of time on copy, but our copy is nowhere near as playful and- Mm... loud as our social media. Yeah.
[51:36] Um, I think that plays into kind of, like, my experience on, like, how can we be a very professional aviation company, but also set the standard? I don't wanna say that we,
[51:44] we don't gaslight our competitors, but on our copy on our website, we pose questions that we encourage people reading the website to ask that we know our competitors wouldn't be able to answer. So we look at that.
[51:56] We also analyze the hell out of all of our competitors' websites. We know how many pages there are, what their site health is based on, like, SEMrush, um, what keywords they rank at.
[52:03] So if, like, one of our competitors ranks really well on a certain keyword, you best bet our homepage is gonna be littered with those keywords so when you search that we rank, too.
[52:11] Um, same thing with, like, image alt text. That's something that a lot of businesses forget.
[52:14] Your images have SEO that if you have really good image alt text when you G- like for example, if I Google one of our competitors and I go to images, our images rank on their website. What does that mean exactly?
[52:23] Can you explain that a little bit further? Yeah. So, like, you know, for example, you have SEO. So you have, like, your homepage meta description, your, your homepage title, your meta description.
[52:31] Image alt text is, like, SEO for Google. So Google's looking at the image. Google doesn't necessarily know what it is, so you're explaining. This is an image of a private jet.
[52:38] Like, this would be three dudes wearing black sitting on a green couch, like, at the Amalfi Jets headquarters in Calabasas. So we use that, and we use really aggressive keywords in our thing.
[52:50] For example, a lot of companies' names is blank jets. Some of their company names are also common things. So we put that in our SEO that allows our keywords to rank on very similar things.
[53:05] For example, if you Google, like, private jet charter to Los Angeles, you're gonna see the sponsors. You're gonna see who's paying for those keywords.
[53:13] So all of my image alt text on our Los Angeles page is geared towards that.
[53:17] So when they're paying for that keyword, Google gives us more credibility 'cause we have the website traffic, we have a good site health, and we have more images on our website than their single ad.
[53:27] So we'll actually rank on their ad, which is great, and we still get their people. And I feel like most people still scroll past the sponsor because you think it's, like, a weird spam. Yes. So we still rank there, too.
[53:35] It's interesting that it feels the same on social as it does on Google. Yeah. That, that's so interesting. When I type in something and I see the first three sponsored, I'm like g- get the sponsored away. Yeah.
[53:45] I always scroll right past them. I want the first actual... Oh, that's really interesting. Although if it's ever our competitors, I always tell our team click on it 'cause you can cost them some money.
[53:51] \[laughs\] So we can drain their budgets. Um, again, I'm very competitive business-wise 'cause I think at the end of the day, like, there's so many brands, it's interesting. I've talked to...
[53:58] Like, my girlfriend has a marketing agency, and we share different views. Like, it's funny. Like, she's a marketing agency, but we're very separate. Like, she doesn't...
[54:04] You know, they've helped us a lot, um, helped us a lot with our content, but it's so separate. We have very different philosophies on, you know, kind of the business aspect.
[54:11] But she is less angry towards her competitors than my, than, than I am with ours, and it's like in this world, it's you're, you're dealing with people's lives.
[54:21] Like, we have 23, 24 employees here whose sole job is this, right? So we're putting food on the table for people, so it's kind of a big battle of if we go bankrupt, then everyone is out of a jobs. I take that personally.
[54:33] So I consider it like a big war. So it's the war of who's getting the customers, who's making the money, and I think some people are like, "Oh, like, that's our competitor. It's fine."
[54:41] Like, literally, like, I got invited to panel, and one of our competitors was gonna be on the panel with me, and I was like, "Why?"I was like, "Why would I sit next to them and talk about that?"
[54:48] \[laughs\] So, I mean, maybe that's just me. But I think that when it comes to that, you need to be very aggressive. It kind of is like a kill the other person business, in my opinion. I think it is.
[54:58] I mean, it's if you wanna grow, it's grow or die. Yeah. You know? There's no, there's no other option. When you were in the early days and you're trying to get to that first million- Mm-hmm...
[55:07] then the two, then the three in those first two years, what did you do to try to beat the competition? Were you more responsive? Obviously, we had the social at play. Yeah.
[55:15] But what was it to get those first initial customers to trust you when in reality they were like, "Why would we go with you when we- Yeah... could go with someone who's been here for 20 years?"
[55:24] No, that's a good question. I mean, Molfie's five and a half, almost six years old. We only really started posting on social media, like, the first year, year and a half ago.
[55:30] So we have this three, four years of prior history where it was literally none of that. It was literally, like, how can we get a better SEO-optimized website? How can we post better graphics on Instagram?
[55:39] We had, like, two likes on them. \[laughs\] Um, so for us it really was just putting in more work. For example, the average competitor of ours, most of them work remote, which I'm not a big kinda remote work person.
[55:48] So everyone in the office from literally day one, Calvin and I got our first office, like, the day we started the company, everyone shows up. It's easier. It's just better culture, in my opinion.
[55:56] Um, and then it was if we got to the office at 6:00 and we left at 6:00, we're working for 12 hours, right? If our competitors are working, let's say, 9:00 to 5:00, an hour for lunch, it puts them at seven hours.
[56:07] In one of our days, we're doing five hours more work than them. You're not taking lunch. So at the end of the week... No. No, not at all. \[laughs\] We order lunch in. Super easy.
[56:15] So at the end of the week, we're talking five hours a day, 25 hours a week. Now, obviously we're working seven days, we're talking 35 hours.
[56:22] So in our week, we could literally get a couple extra days on them, and I think that was really the beginning of literally just outworking the competition. I feel like it's such a simple thing, but it's so true.
[56:32] Literally just always be working when they're not. And I think it's, too, being more data-driven. Like, in the beginning, from day one we tracked everything.
[56:38] 'Cause at the end of the day, like, I was always wondering how these big businesses made these decisions.
[56:42] And honestly, I was really shocked looking at a lot of these companies, a lot of these companies don't really look at their data. They don't keep track of anything. So it's like, "Oh, why are you doing this?"
[56:49] They're like, "Oh, well, this is how we've always done it." And I was like, "That's exactly why you're gonna fail." You always have to look at everything. So we've never done anything... Like, this office is targeted.
[56:57] Kim Kardashian's house is literally.6 miles away.
[57:00] So if you Google private jet charter, we will rank before anybody for every single house in Hidden Hills behind the gates, 'cause it's, like, average 26, 27 million, before anybody else 'cause our nearest competitor's office is 30 miles away in Van Nuys.
[57:11] So literally this office, yes, it's really expensive. We spend, like, $40,000 a month for this office rent.
[57:15] But in theory, we are so near all of these people in Calabasas that we only need to get, I don't know, a couple extra flights a month and now this is paid for, and it's a good place to be.
[57:25] Um, and I also think, I mean, not to go down this path, but when you're in that fiscal situation, spending more kind of just forces you to work harder 'cause you, you kind of have no other choice but to work hard.
[57:35] Um, but on terms of kind of what businesses can do, I think on that relevance aspect, I think it really comes down to keeping track of the data and also staying aware of what your competitors are doing.
[57:49] So if they're launching a promotion targeting, like, one-way flights, all right, well, how do we compare to that? So always ensuring that you know where you stand.
[57:57] So if any client calls in, "Oh, I'm comparing you with XYZ Jets." "Oh, great.
[58:01] Well, I remember they ran a promotion last month meaning their average co-" Like, we literally have a binder of what all of our competitors are doing. It's updated every single month, so we know everything.
[58:08] So for any salesperson that hears a competitor's name, "Oh, great. Easy. Go to page six. That's everything about their company. We already know how we can beat them."
[58:15] And I think that's something that a lot of people don't do. Yeah, keeping track on what everyone's doing. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. What do you think that most new founders mess up with scaling?
[58:24] What do you think they're not thinking of now that you have 25- Yeah... people here? I mean, you know, it's growing quickly. We have a great group around you. What do you feel like have been some of those key learnings?
[58:33] I would say not setting up things for scale. Like, everything we do. Like, literally, like, stupid stuff, like, you don't even think about. Like, having an office, all right, you need a dress code.
[58:39] You need, like, an out of office and PTO policy. So and I always look at it like, great, in five years from now if we have 100 people, is the current way that we're doing it going to be ready for that?
[58:48] And nine times out of 10, for a business owner, no, this is not gonna work. So try to put yourself in the situations where whatever you're doing, if you hire 1,000 people, you're ready to receive that.
[58:59] Um, and again, I... Broken record. Data. Keeping track of everything so every decision that you're making is based in some sort of evidence and some sort of proof of concept.
[59:09] And then I think, three, like, simply put, just replicating the wins.
[59:12] Like, we have a full touchpoint map where someone will see us on TikTok, usually stay followed for about a month or two, then reach out, then have two or three conversations with the sales team.
[59:22] The entire time they're getting enrolled in our email marketing, and then they'll convert. So if you look at that and it's, like, what, 15 touchpoints? Great. That's a game. Replicate 15 touchpoints.
[59:31] So if we can scream at someone loud enough and do 15 things that are relevant in their life, whether it's golf, cars, um, like, going to Aspen and all these, like, you know, high net worth places, make content about that, um, that will reach them, that will convert them, and again, that'll lead to a sale.
[59:48] Is there something that you did that was able to take you from that three to 15? Yeah. 'Cause I feel like that $1 to $3 million a year in revenue, not that you can, like, will your way there- Yeah...
[1:00:02] but there's a lot of businesses that aren't as dialed as you guys are- Yeah... and they're still doing a decent amount in revenue, maybe a few million dollars- Mm-hmm... a year. But you can't really use- Yeah...
[1:00:13] that playbook to get to, you know, eight- Yeah... and nine figures. So is there something that you incorporated or you did that allow you to scale from that three to 15, and now this- Yeah...
[1:00:23] year on track for, like, 85, 90? I, I think that's a really good, really good point.
[1:00:26] Like, one of my favorite quotes is the first million is the hardest, but the second million is inevitable because the person that you need to become to make a million dollars is very different than the person that's doing two to 10.
[1:00:36] Um, I agree with what you said. I think you can always will your way.
[1:00:39] You can always outwork someone to get your way to one to three, whether you're literally selling, you know, like, trays or books or something like that into private jets.
[1:00:46] Um, three to fiveOr three to like 15 and 15 over, the biggest difference is who's keeping track of their data, who's replicating their wins, and who's setting up something that is scalable.
[1:00:57] Um, something as simple as your CRM system and the way that your website receives traffic. So I feel like most websites, you have a form on your website, then you just get an email, right?
[1:01:04] What happens if you get 1,000 emails a day? You're buried your inbox. So how can we have this data funnel into some sort of a system that can weed out the wins?
[1:01:13] Well, in theory, if you're keeping track of your data, let's say I have a company that's a year old, I know what the attributes are of my, you know, my target customer, like my ideal customer profile.
[1:01:23] Oh, it's someone that lives... Like let's say I'm a plumbing company, go back to that, and I'm in LA.
[1:01:28] So it's someone that lives in a house that's between 300,000 and 800,000 that is over two bedrooms, that lives in this ZIP code, that gave us their full complete legit phone number and full and complete address, and you can even get funny, and literally has a Gmail or a Hotmail or something like that.
[1:01:45] Great. So your system, when everyone goes on your website and fills out the form, filters into a CRM system that looks at those attributes. Show me all the data that's actually complete. Okay, great.
[1:01:53] Now the 1,000 comes into 800 people. Great. Now call every single 800 person, 'cause that data's gonna be 10 times better than all the other 200 people that gave you incomplete information.
[1:02:02] Um, and you only know that by looking at your wins. Like so many people don't do post-mortems. Like we had a big meeting this morning 'cause one of our flights went horrible.
[1:02:09] The airplane broke and couldn't control that, so we had to find an airplane to fly in from the Caribbean into Florida, save them, we ate the cost 'cause it's a big customer.
[1:02:17] You know, airplanes break, it's a part of aviation, but we did the post-mortem of how do we handle it? How quickly do we, did, did we tell the customer? Um, the customer missed his meeting. Great.
[1:02:26] Well, did we get him a free hotel and a car service there? Uh, looks like the catering also missed the airplane in this situation 'cause the caterer is old. Great.
[1:02:33] So i- when he landed in that black car, was there already food waiting for him? Great. Now we have the kind of like SOP of how to handle it when things go wrong.
[1:02:43] And I think by doing that constant post-mortems of everything is really, really beneficial. What do you do to bring someone in here that's brand new, day one?
[1:02:51] I remember we, we've talked to multiple people of very large companies, 1,000, you know, person teams, and what they do is so different than people that are at like 10 or 15. Yeah.
[1:03:00] And how when they get in, like they're running out of the gates. What have you implemented here? 'Cause now you have a tight-knit, like well-oiled machine.
[1:03:07] People understand it, they understand the dress code, all these little things. Mm-hmm. What does it look like though when someone comes in that you've- Yeah... developed over time?
[1:03:14] I think that starts in the interview process as well of like we're very transparent. Like again, like I'm really big about people working in office.
[1:03:21] 'Cause if we wanna have a marketing meeting or if I wanna launch a video and then have it go live tomorrow, I can walk three feet to the marketing team versus having to Slack and then schedule a Zoom call and talk about it.
[1:03:30] So I think we're very transparent about what like wh- We took it off 'cause, um, everyone said it was kind of petty, but one of our things said, "Amalfi Jets does not do remote work.
[1:03:38] If you're looking for remote work and a flexible schedule, we encourage you to apply to our competitors. We're always hiring." \[laughs\] So petty. It was stupid.
[1:03:44] Um, but I think separately from that, like when people come in, in the past it was literally I would sit down with them, I'd meet them, I'd kind of give them that culture and then let them go and kind of honestly like that trial by fire.
[1:03:54] I think as we've scaled, it's all right, this doesn't work. So I always meet with every employee for the first day for the hour.
[1:03:58] Go over who I am, why we started the company, what we expect, what we love, what we don't want.
[1:04:03] Then they'll go into either like our Embry-Riddle, like that's where the school I went, but like our Embry-Riddle kind of aviation 101 course. So here's how our industry works. Here's the need for our industry.
[1:04:13] Here's the companies that we're up against. Here's how they're ruining the aviation industry, and here's what we're doing.
[1:04:18] And I think if people believe in that core mission separately from their revenue, from their profits and stuff like that, of like, listen, like we're genuinely changing the way the industry is forever. Um,
[1:04:28] that gets people excited. And then we look at the wins. So if they're on the sales team, looking at the best closed deals for the past 30 days, where they came from, um, what we said that closed the deal.
[1:04:38] Looking at the worst deals that we've lost, why we lost it. Oh, we didn't talk about this, or oh, they were really traditional and we took a more non-traditional approach, so we can kind of like do it differently.
[1:04:48] Like for example, one of our, our brochures that we send to sales or that we send to clients is different depending on who you are.
[1:04:56] So if you are a very conservative traditionalist person, we're gonna give you that very traditional view on our company. If you're a younger entrepreneur, you're gonna get an entirely different brochure. They...
[1:05:05] Night and day, the photos, the imagery, the copy, but it all goes back to the same product. It's the same system.
[1:05:10] But we know that because in polling our clients, all of them came in from different people, and we literally bring this approach literally to our new employees of like who are you gonna be working alongside?
[1:05:20] Recognize that everybody's different, and I think that you need to show them a different view depending on who you're speaking with.
[1:05:27] So that's one aspect, and then just again, letting them get up to speed and kinda start working with clients. You often hear in sales- Mm-hmm... it's much easier to sell an expensive product. Yes. In, in a way. Mm-hmm.
[1:05:39] Because you're not necessarily dealing with the friction of can I afford this? Yeah. It just comes down to like, is this the best product for me?
[1:05:49] Do you still get friction on price from people looking to work with you guys? That I think was the hardest part, and I'm glad you asked that, on bringing on new salespeople. 'Cause I feel like...
[1:05:59] And again, like again, like I love flying private. We fly private, um, when we travel, but again, like I'm not spending $250,000 to charter from here to, to London.
[1:06:07] Um, and that was a hard thing for new salespeople to understand that they'd instantly go out on a price. Oh, well we're cheaper.
[1:06:13] But if someone's gonna spend $250,000 to charter a Global 6000 from Van Nuys to London, it's not necessarily about how much it costs, it's about the level of service that you're providing and who you're working with and how you're getting there.
[1:06:23] So our service offerings change on, listen, do you want the most economical aircraft? All right, well, it's probably gonna be like an older G5, okay? It's still a great comfortable aircraft.
[1:06:33] It's very different than flying first class, but it's not a 2024 Global 7500 with fricking iPads built into the wall, right? Very different.
[1:06:41] So whether someone's gonna spend 260,000 versus 280, it's less on like, I want 5K off. It's more on what you're getting beyond that, and I think rationalizing like the service offerings.
[1:06:53] Um, some of our clients, rare-That are entrepreneurs do appreciate the value of a dollar. Everyone wants to get a deal. So some people are like, "Oh, I wanna save 5K." It's like, "Sure," um, depending on the trip.
[1:07:04] But I think it really is interesting 'cause it's hard for new salespeople who instantly go out on price that you have to understand that the people that are spending this money, it's not necessarily how much it costs, it's the entire experience, and it's why you fly private.
[1:07:17] Like, some of our richest clients still fly commercially because if you live in, like, New York and you're going to London, there's a direct first class flight there. But what if you're going to Sicily?
[1:07:26] Well, now if you wanna fly first class, it's a three-stopper. It's like a 37-hour travel journey through multiple countries. It's different.
[1:07:33] So for there, they'll spend $250,000 to fly direct on a private jet 'cause it's the convenience factor. Now I get my three days back. For a public company that owns a jet, maybe people are tracking it.
[1:07:42] So fly with us, you buy the invisibility.
[1:07:45] But if it's a public company flying between LA and New York, there's plenty of direct options via commercial airlines that, again, I'm not supposed to say this, that realistically, like, make more sense in this specific situation.
[1:07:56] Whereas if you're going on, like, a tour of middle America and you wanna do it all in the same day and be back by dinner, well, that's where a private jet can allow you to buy that time back.
[1:08:05] We were talking about maybe doing, like, some road trip- Mm-hmm... and then we were like, "Dude, we should just fly-" We're just gonna call Collin.
[1:08:09] Yeah, we should just call Collin and fly him off and- It, it, it could make sense. \[laughs\] It really could. Dude, the podcast gear is heavy. Yeah, dude. It's a whole thing.
[1:08:17] Yeah, I mean, all the- Don't have to go through security... the oversized bag fees. Yeah. Yes. Oh my God, it's ridiculous. Hong Kong, maybe that. Okay, what would it cost to fly LA to Hong Kong- Okay... me and Brayden?
[1:08:29] Round trip? Round trip. Like $400,000. Phew. But, but it can fit up to, like, 14 people. Okay. So if you get 14 other people \[laughs\] We sell the seats. The Venmo \[laughs\] the Venmo request is gonna go crazy. Can, can...
[1:08:41] Yeah, maybe I sell them for a little- But, but, but- Maybe profit off this. Yeah, yeah. But then, but then hold up, what if you filled it with previous podcast guests?
[1:08:47] Gary Vee, high net worth people- Now we're talking... you sold six seats for 50K. Maybe they have a meeting in Hong Kong. Well, now you're not spending 50K. Now you're buying the opportunity to network with these people.
[1:08:56] I would spend 50K on that, flying a private jet to Europe, or to Hong Kong, with a lot of, like, Hormozi, Gary Vee. I would do that 100%.
[1:09:04] 'Cause I'm making so much more in value than whatever you charge for a seat like that. That's really interesting. What have you noticed about, you know, kinda the group that does fly private? Yeah. Yeah.
[1:09:14] What are some of the things that they indulge in? Whether it be cars, whether it be very nice luxury hotels.
[1:09:21] And let me tell you, man, I'm, I'm flying a, I'm living a little different post-Lakers with the whole hotel thing. \[laughs\] You know, really used to Four Seasons. \[laughs\] I really like those hotels.
[1:09:30] Haven't stayed in a Four Seasons since, and I will... I'm gonna get- How's that Holiday Inn treatin' you? \[laughs\] We're gonna... No, dude, we're not at the Holiday Inn. We're a little bit up.
[1:09:36] But I, you know, I was just in New York and I'm thinking, like, I was at the Equinox hotel last time I was here, and it was a little bit different- Ah... of a bad, little bit different experience.
[1:09:42] I didn't realize the Lakers were so spending on that. Equinox though, that's nice. Oh, yeah. It, it was Four Seasons everywhere, Equinox.
[1:09:47] It was, uh- Did you work better with that, like, private- I f- I felt, I felt really a part of the crew, you know? \[laughs\] You'd walk down to the mill room and it would just be, like, spread out.
[1:09:55] I'm like, "Let's go, dude." Yeah. "Come on," you know? But it was a different, a different hotel experience. Definitely. What have you no- what have you noticed about some of the, some of the group?
[1:10:03] It, it- it's funny, like, I feel like I always would have thought it'd be, like, oysters, caviar, champagne. Like, literally nobody orders that.
[1:10:09] \[laughs\] Like, nobody wants to eat cold oysters on a 45-minute flight to Vegas. \[laughs\] Just nobody, nobody wants to do that. The fresh fruit platter, though, that we got on your thing was great. That was good. Yeah.
[1:10:17] Simple. Fruit, sandwiches. Chick-fil-A's, like, one of the most popular things ordered on board private jets 'cause it's great, it's easy, and it's in, like, every single place, and it's, like, 30 bucks.
[1:10:26] Have you ever had someone be like, uh, flying on a Sunday and they order, or they want Chick-fil-A and you're like, "Can't do it"? Yeah. Well, we... That's a thing. And, and we had that exact discussion.
[1:10:34] That literally happened a couple weeks ago. I was like, "Well, hold on. All of our competitors will say, 'Oh, they're closed.' No, no, let's buy it the night before. Let's freeze it. Let's defrost."
[1:10:40] It won't be as good, but at least we're the only company that's serving fricking Chick-fil-A on a Sunday. So that is how we like to stay aggressive. Um, but I think- I like that...
[1:10:50] yeah, I mean, honestly, it's, like, very simple. Like, I always thought...
[1:10:52] Like, we literally had a cl- uh, w- a long time ago, we used to have, like, these reps that we'd fly out to meet a lot of our clients at the airlines.
[1:10:58] We still do it for some clients, like celebrities and stuff like that, if there's paparazzi. Um, but I remember one of our, our new reps met the wrong person in the FBI.
[1:11:06] This guy showed up with, like, a diamond-encrusted watch, like, a chain, and, like, the Gucci and Louis and stuff like that, and our rep was like, "Oh, this guy looks rich. I'm gonna do it."
[1:11:15] No, our client was literally there in jeans and a Fitbit. But on the other hand, had, like, a Patek Philippe, like a $250,000 watch. So that's the thing of, like, like, as...
[1:11:23] I'm, I'm sure everyone says this, but, like, the highest net worth customers are the most, I don't wanna say frugal, but the most efficient, the most down to earth, and the most understanding, and it, and it makes everyone so happy.
[1:11:34] Like, we've had a couple of clients whose airplane will get delayed. Like, one of our clients got stuck, I think it was in Jamaica, 'cause the customs was closed on the weekends. We couldn't get a permit to leave.
[1:11:43] So they were delayed for, like, another three days. We comped the rooms or whatever, and he left, and he was like, "Well, listen, there's worse things to happen in the world than being stuck in Jamaica for three days."
[1:11:51] Sent a replacement airplane, was very, very nice about it, whereas you have some clients that, you know, the, uh, sandwich is too cold and they're losing their head. But realistically, that's very rare.
[1:12:00] The, the wealthiest customers are the most understanding 'cause most of them have started a business, so they understand the value of a dollar and they're very understanding of the entrepreneurial, you know, kinda aspect behind it.
[1:12:08] Is there something that you've noticed as the company's grown in revenue- Mm-hmm... and the circles that you've been able to be, you know- Yeah...
[1:12:14] turn into, that you've taken from another founder that you're like, "That's something that actually really changed a lot of what we do"? Is there anything that you can recall? That's a really good question. Um,
[1:12:29] I mean, there's so many customers that we've met, and I think that is one of the coolest parts about my job, is the people that you meet and the circles that you're in, and, like, being put in a group chat with some A-list celebrity saying, "Hey, Collin's my jack, I help him out."
[1:12:39] It's like, "Oh, that's so cool." \[laughs\] Um, I would say the discipline and the work ethic. Like, a lot of our clients have a very strict morning routine, so it's always up very early.
[1:12:50] They're always the first in our inboxes emailing, asking questions.
[1:12:53] Um, they have a very strict, either it's the gym, it's Pilates, it's, like, some healthy diet, it's some sort of skincare routine, and they hard block their deep work time.So they're on the airplane, they need fast Wi-Fi, and that's it.
[1:13:06] And they're working or they're on a work trip or something like that, so they really prioritize their time.
[1:13:10] Like, a big part of the times when we fly private, you know, when, when people charter with us, is literally to make it back home so they can be in the office on Monday.
[1:13:17] 'Cause for some people it's like, "Oh, I've just spent 80 grand to make it in the office." Well, if you think about a high performer, if they could be in the office, how much is one day worth?
[1:13:25] And for every person it's entirely different. For some people it's probably, like, a billion bucks. For some people it's maybe 30,000.
[1:13:30] But if you're able to have that day back where you can be in the office and get work done, you can make a lot more than 80,000. And for some people it's time with family.
[1:13:38] People that are so busy all the time that if they're on a family vacation, they will always prioritize that time. So it's really interesting.
[1:13:44] But I would say strict discipline and very regimented in their ways, um, that they really protect their time. Do you have, like, a, a wild morning routine or do you feel like it's just quite normal?
[1:13:54] Well, I'm gonna be honest. Meeting some of our customers, which I like because they always say, like, you always wanna be... Like, you never wanna be the smartest person in the room.
[1:14:01] You wanna surround yourself with people who are doing good. Every time I hang out with our clients, we have dinner with them, I always just feel so poor and so unsuccessful. \[laughs\] 'Cause they're just...
[1:14:08] \[laughs\] And, like, I always leave, like, so inspired 'cause I'm like, "Damn, like, I could be doing so much more."
[1:14:13] Um, for me, Equinox is probably, like, 6:00, 6:30, workout, here to the office, and then I try to beat everybody here but everybody knows I've been a little bit later lately. Oh, you slacking?
[1:14:21] Kira and I bought a little puppy. His name's Napoleon. He's been taking up all our time, so it's, it's just crazy. But he's really cute though. So that's been affecting the, the morning routine a little bit.
[1:14:30] But for me it's, like, the same kind of movement in the morning. Yeah. Equinox is really big 'cause I've met so many clients at Equinox 'cause it's a good, high-performing place.
[1:14:40] Um, and again, it's like putting yourself in situations where the people that you wanna be like would be. So I feel like a lot of people are like, "Oh, country clubs." Like, yeah, but I mean, it's the other places.
[1:14:49] It's the, like Equinoxes. It's the kind of workstations. It's the, you know, different places where you can be around, you know, those kinda high-performing, achieving people.
[1:14:59] Have you noticed anything about the top.1% of people in the way that they buy? Is it more, like, based off of emotion or logic?
[1:15:10] Like, is there a, is there something you've noticed about super high worth net individuals- High worth net... high net worth individuals- Yeah... that buy differently than regular folks like me and Brady?
[1:15:21] \[laughs\] Um, \[laughs\] I, I, I don't know. I mean, I think there's... We have such a vast range of clients. Mm. From exited founders.
[1:15:33] We, we've had people that have sold companies, like, three times over for 100 million, 200 million, billion dollars. A-list celebrities that...
[1:15:40] We've had people that have never worked a day in their life, that, you know, it's their parent's money or something like that and they will never have to work a day in their life.
[1:15:47] Um, I think the buying amongst the richest, richest customers is always for the convenience.
[1:15:54] Like, literally we have a client of ours, one of my favorites, coolest guy ever, worth well over a billion dollars, and he still flies commercially. And he's like, "It just doesn't make sense.
[1:16:02] Why would I spend $100,000 if there's a direct flight that will get me there at the exact same time?" But when he's flying to Sicily or if he's going to Africa where you need to stop three or four times, it's easy.
[1:16:12] You get in, have your meeting, and you leave.
[1:16:14] Um, and for them it's about putting themselves in situations where they can buy back their time, and I think that's, like, ultimately a big reason why people fly private, right? If you...
[1:16:25] Like, for example, if we wanted to go to, like, for example, um, if we wanna go to New York tomorrow, the, like, LAX from here is probably, like, an hour, hour away.
[1:16:33] I mean, right now with traffic probably, like, an hour and a half.
[1:16:35] I'm a big, you know, if you're flying commercially, you wanna get to the airport, like, an hour and a half, two hours before, so that's three hours right there.
[1:16:41] Let's say it's a five and a half hour flight, so that's, like, eight and a half hours. And then JFK from the city's, like, an hour, hour and a half away, so we're at 10 hours. Whereas it's a 10-minute drive to Van Nuys.
[1:16:51] Van Nuys to Teterboro is four and a half hours, wheels up, wheels down. And then if you take a helicopter from Teterboro to East 34th Street, you can literally be there and get a full four or five hours back.
[1:17:00] Now we're talking. See, that's what we need to do next time we go to New York for the FUBAR. I forgot about the helicopter. The helicopter's a big one. Helicopters are even better. I said what are you...
[1:17:07] I, I didn't know that there was a completely- Teterboro's also closer. Like, still only, like, 25, 30 minutes. Sure. But the helicopter is pretty awesome. Didn't even know about Teterboro. I, I knew about it.
[1:17:15] I just knew about JFK, New York. \[laughs\] Yeah, it's okay, dude. \[laughs\] Me and Colin know about Teterboro. \[laughs\] I'm learning. Dude, I'm learning a lot. The helicopter though. Yes. That's a play.
[1:17:23] People like helicopters. They're easier for getting places. Like, the Hamptons, really popular. Miami. Um, LA.
[1:17:28] But the thing is, helicopter's, like, a good, like, Sikorsky S-76, it's pretty expensive, to the point where it's actually sometimes cheaper to charter a smaller jet than take the helicopter. Hm.
[1:17:36] 'Cause sometimes a helicopter's, like, $79,000 an hour. So, like, Teterboro to East 34th Street on, like, an S-76, you're at, like, $70,000. Um, you know, you could drive an hour- Wait, 70... What'd you say? 78? Seven.
[1:17:48] It's like 7,800 to, like, $8,000. Um- Oh, I see. Okay. That's in the pocket. Yeah. But, again- Is that, is that your budget for us? I mean, you're taking 30 minutes to four. Should we call Art List? Right? Yeah.
[1:18:00] Maybe that's our next partnership with them. I'm gonna talk to my girl. I'm gonna say, "Leah, what do you think about that? What do you think about us doing-" It's cheaper than the jet there.
[1:18:07] I mean, you'll still get an hour back from Kennedy if you're flying into the city. Best hotel in the country that you've stayed at? You can give me top three. I wanna- In, in the country? In the country. Got it.
[1:18:15] This country, specifically United States. What do we got? Equinox Hotel, my favorite hotel. In New York? Really? Amazing. Dude, see- It's beautiful... I'm telling you, dude, it was elite. And you got the gym. Yep. Gym.
[1:18:24] Nice gym. Right there. And it's Equinox in yours. The best one. And it's, and it's huge. The barrel saunas, the pool. Um- Overlooks the whole city... that's my favorite.
[1:18:30] I think the second's probably The Edition in Miami. That's a really nice hotel. Mm, I've never stayed there. Nice beach club, really cool vibes. Like, I like The Edition 'cause it's, like- Right on the beach?
[1:18:40] Yeah, right on the beach. Uh-huh. It's modern. It's funny, it kinda looks like our marble and, like, the wood here- Mm-hmm... everything's lit up. Like, very calming. Um, less like...
[1:18:48] Like, I love, you know, a good Ritz Carlton or a Four Seasons, but I feel like a lot of them, like, Be- Beverly Hills, uh, Hotel's a good example.
[1:18:54] Nice hotel, beautiful, a lot of history, but it's very, like, like pompous in a way. The Edition's very calm- Mm... very minimalist, and I can, like, relax there. Mm.
[1:19:04] Now, is that something-You help a lot of your clients with? Oh, all the time. Yeah, we have a 24/7 concierge team.
[1:19:10] So that- that's the whole thing, too, is like when you book with us, I don't want it to be, oh, we're the jet people. No, no, we're the everything people. So through the Amalfi app, um, you can book a car service.
[1:19:18] You have a 24/7 literal, like, your own personal assistant. So when you book a trip, um, we'll book the villa, book the hotel. Most popular hotel brand, always say that by our clients, Aman.
[1:19:27] Everyone stays at an Aman hotel. Okay. The fucking Aman in Beverly Hills that they're building- Looks awesome Insane... it looks insane. Aman is like- Yeah... I've never stayed at one, but it looks unbelievable.
[1:19:40] It's nice. The one in New York is really nice, but it's like, what? Like 35, 4,000 a night. Ooh. Like minimum entry level. Where's it, where's it at? Um, Fifth Avenue, I think. Mm.
[1:19:49] Other people would know better than I would. But- Really high up. Really high up, dude. Yeah. God, fuck yeah this is great. But yeah, Aman, always, always in Aman. Um, for New Year's everybody goes to St.
[1:19:58] Barts, always gets a villa in St. Barts. Um, that's one of my favorite hotels. Les 20 hotels over there, like also cool, really nice, like mini little villas on the beach. Um, but yeah, it's interesting.
[1:20:08] Like we, we gather all that data, too, because I wanna know when we're launching new partnerships, if all of our clients are staying at Amans, we should partner with Aman.
[1:20:16] I have a recommendation for you when it comes to a single hotel. Okay. I just proposed, and we did it at the San Ysidro Ranch. Oh. Have you heard of San Ysidro Ranch? I've heard of it. I never stayed there.
[1:20:28] I've never had better service. Wow. It is one of the most special places. It's up in Montecito. Yeah.
[1:20:35] If you are working with someone or you have a client that is like, it's like a special occasion, it's fucking unbelievable. Okay, that's awesome. I gotta keep that in mind. I would, I would write that one down.
[1:20:45] \[laughs\] Highly recommend San Ysidro Ranch. It's done. It's, it's fucking insane. \[laughs\] Amazing. Congrats on that, by the way. Thank you. Come on. I, I wanna talk about the Amalfi Reserve- Yes...
[1:20:53] uh, membership 'cause it's awesome. For people who don't know what Amalfi Reserve is, can you explain it to us? Yeah.
[1:20:59] Yeah, so it's a $99 a month membership on the Amalfi app, and essentially it's like our kind of take on, like, a social club.
[1:21:05] So we have, one, a 24/7 literal concierge personal assistant, and not like your typical credit card concierge. So let's say, like, you got a nail in your tire. Send them a photo of your tire and say, "Hi.
[1:21:17] Find me the nearest tire store that has these tires. Make me an appointment. Do that." "Hi. I want Nobu on f- you know, at Malibu on a Friday night at 7:00. Please make me that reservation."
[1:21:26] So literally anything, you just chat us and we'll handle it. So there's that. We have events every single month.
[1:21:31] Most of our events right now have been in LA, but we're launching New York, Miami, Chicago, and Dallas next. That's our next biggest member growth.
[1:21:37] Um, but it's like we wanna build this community of people that may not necessarily be flying private but are entrepreneurs, high-achieving people, so you can meet other people.
[1:21:46] Um, I feel like everyone's always looking for that way to meet other people. Some people go to, like, Bumble Friends. Definitely not like that. Um- \[laughs\]...
[1:21:54] kind of this cool community that we're building, and again, this kind of stems from that, like when I was a little kid always seeing these parties in the Hills and I was like, I always wanted to get invited.
[1:22:01] Never got invited. Well, now we host our own parties and we invite other people, which is really cool to kind of foster this community of people.
[1:22:07] So it's through the Amalfi app, 99 bucks a month, you can cancel at any time, and literally, like, we just had our event, um,
[1:22:12] couple months, a couple weeks ago, and literally, like, this rooftop, it was in West Hollywood. You were there, um, at the Aster. And literally it's, like, free drinks, free food, all for 99 bucks a month.
[1:22:22] So it's like if we keep adding these events, you know, don't focus on the $99 a month. And the people you meet are sweet. That, I feel like that's the coolest thing- Yeah...
[1:22:27] that you guys are doing, is it's not just the service. Yeah. It's this whole other side of the business. Is that something that surprised you percentage-wise of what- Yeah... the Reserve app brought in?
[1:22:38] Yeah, I mean, I would say, like, I mean, again, the Reserve solved, and I guess its goal was a couple, like a couplefold.
[1:22:43] So first, kind of that, like, little dream I had when I was a kid, again, invited to these parties.
[1:22:47] Two, there's a such a big percentage of people, like 99% of people that see us on social media, that can't afford to fly private. How can you be a part of the brand without spending $100,000?
[1:22:56] Well, you can spend 100 bucks a month, be a part of the membership, get invited to the events, um, meet me, meet other founders and entrepreneurs there. So kind of fostering that community.
[1:23:07] Um, and then I th- and I think three, on, like, just a monetization perspective, I mean, we have literally thousands of members that pay us $100 a month.
[1:23:14] So on an MRR perspective, that's good income that can cover fixed expenses and allow us to invest in ar- you know, kind of other areas of the business.
[1:23:22] Is that something you knew you always wanted to incorporate into Amalfi? Yes and no.
[1:23:26] I mean, I think that we always tried to target those kind of private jet flying folk, but I think through social media it's like there are so many people that wanna be a part of the Amalfi brand.
[1:23:36] Like, we launched a merch store. We did that for a couple months and we sold like 10,000 dollars worth of merch in literally the, like, the first day.
[1:23:42] And it was like people like the Amalfi brand, they wanna be a part of it, so how can we make something a little bit more tangible to kind of build that community?
[1:23:49] So in the future, some cool updates that we're doing is, like, if I get a table at, like... That's a good example.
[1:23:54] If I get a table at maybe let's, let's say Nobu at Friday at, like, 10 people, I can post my table on the app. So I can open up six seats and I can meet new people in LA.
[1:24:02] So we wanted to have it kind of like a Raya meets, like, a Soho House meets, like, an Equinox membership.
[1:24:08] So again, building a community separately from the flying private kind of aspect to people, but like a social community, a business and networking community, and just meeting cool people.
[1:24:18] So we literally have so many different people at our events, but it's really cool to meet new people every single month. I always forget that we have the membership, and I'm like,
[1:24:28] I've yet to use it to get, like, a hard-to-get reservation- Yeah... and I'm for- It's, it's great... I need to use it. 24/7 team. Literally anything. Yeah. Like, literally I got a nail in my tire. Send them a photo. "Hi.
[1:24:37] Find this." They did. \[laughs\] Um, anything, and that's the whole thing. It's literally, like, find me the nearest... Like, someone's using it to literally plan a proposal in Paris right now.
[1:24:45] Like, literally someone even was like, "Hey, can y'all maybe plan our wedding?" And I was like, "Well, I mean, in theory, yeah." So literally you can do anything. That's the whole goal is, like- Wow...
[1:24:52] in the future I want to be able to be in LA or New York and Miami, and when I call a car, I don't wanna call, like, an Uber.
[1:24:58] I wanna call an Amalfi-branded car that has the Amalfi logo with a guy in a suit that comes out, and they think it's that premium service.
[1:25:05] So whether you're on board the airplanes, whether you're just in your daily life, you can have that same level of Amalfi experience no matter where you are. When you were first creating the app- Mm-hmmOr the service.
[1:25:16] Um, how did you go about locking in partners? Yeah. That was... It's a, it's a funny story.
[1:25:22] Like, our first partnership years ago was the Ritz Carlton because I remember when we first launched, no social media, this was years ago, we were, again, literally I was just emailing thousands of people every single day.
[1:25:34] I literally Google, like, Los Angeles attorney. I'm like, I don't know, attorneys are rich, they fly private. I emailed every single attorney in Los Angeles, like guaranteed, and said, "Hi, we're Amalfi Jets.
[1:25:42] Nice to meet you to fly private. Please book with us. Here's my direct cell." Just waiting for someone to reach out to us.
[1:25:47] But I remember I was like, you know, speaking with Calvin about this, and I was like, "Listen, nobody knows who we are." And I was like, "That's a problem. They don't trust us.
[1:25:54] It's just some random cold email from a random company." And I was like, "Who do you trust?" And we were talking about, like, luxury brands, and he was like, "Oh, the Ritz Carlton." And I was like, "Great. That's it.
[1:26:03] I trust the Ritz Carlton. They're like the most, like, kind of pinnacle of luxury." And I was like, "So we need to partner with the Ritz Carlton.
[1:26:09] Maybe just one property that anytime our client's in LA, we can send them to that property. We'll be exclusive. We'll never book our clients at any other hotel except for that property."
[1:26:17] And we reach out to the Ritz Carlton, and we're like, "Hey, listen, we'd love to partner. We have a couple requests every now and then of people flying to LA. We'd love to offer your hotel as, like, our featured partner.
[1:26:25] Um, do you mind if we lose... Like, if we, like, use your logo on a part of our website?" And they're like, "Yeah, no problem." I was like, "Great."
[1:26:31] So now we're not just Amalfi Jets, we're Amalfi Jets trusted by the Ritz Carlton. It's your partner. That was really helpful. Um, I think now we've looked at it more in a data perspective.
[1:26:39] So we look through the concierge logs of, like, what's the biggest brands that people request? For people that fly private, it's Amán.
[1:26:44] For people that don't fly private that are on the app, it's dinner reservations, it's black car service, because a lot of people don't want just like your typical Uber Black.
[1:26:52] This sounds pretentious, hopefully this reaches the right amount of people, but you know when you call an Uber Black and it's like a Tesla Model X and you just get car sick the entire time?
[1:27:00] Like, not an Uber Black, right? So I was like, how can we build a program where you have that guaranteed standard? Yeah. So it's a proper 2024 newer SUV, someone in a suit that opens all your doors.
[1:27:12] That's worth paying a little bit more than your typical Uber Black. With the Amalfi logo on the ground- That's the goal... with the light. Exactly. Yeah, shows the lit. That's awesome.
[1:27:20] I mean, imagine pulling up to, like, a nightclub in Vegas with a bunch of black cars that say Amalfi Jets. Kind of awesome.
[1:27:27] So the fact that you can do that through the app in the future is something that I'm really excited about. What, what do you think the future looks like right now- Mm...
[1:27:34] on the horizon for Amalfi Jets going into this next year? Yeah. Going into this next year, I think it's very big on our social strategy of, like, how can we continuously be more authentic?
[1:27:42] How can we share more about what we're building?
[1:27:44] But also how can we kind of encourage, not necessarily people in our industry, but how can we encourage business owners to literally be authentic, be on social media, and kind of like, I guess, like, revolutionize your typical advertising space.
[1:27:56] Like, it's funny, like, I think every business needs to have a mission greater than themselves, and I think in, for us, it's changing the aviation industry, but I think it's also, for me, being a young entrepreneur, like, I'm very passionate about encouraging people to try new things and to take that leap.
[1:28:11] And I think I'm really passionate about encouraging all business owners, regardless of what industry you're in, to be on social media, and to be as loud, as aggressive as possible, and to kind of attack a lot of your competitors to differentiate yourself.
[1:28:21] So that, and then I think the second point is building cool tech. We're building really fun stuff to aid... Like, we're building our own over- like flight operation system called Maverick, named after Top Gun Maverick.
[1:28:32] Mm. So that is a big part of it, streamlining how we currently handle that.
[1:28:38] I think building our attribution software so we can know more about our current customers, where they're coming from, what we can replicate, um, and then some other fun stuff that we'll be launching in the future through Amalfi Technologies.
[1:28:49] Do you have a dream collab for Amalfi? You guys have started- Dream collab? Yeah, like you guys have started to do collaborations with other brands and stuff. Yes. Um, many. Uh, Rolex would be- Ooh... would just be cool.
[1:29:00] \[laughs\] He's, he's starting it now. He's starting, he's starting now. Got it on, got it on the pod.
[1:29:05] Um, I would love that, but I also think, like, there's one entrepreneur that I've always wanted to meet, 'cause I read his book, The Ride of a Lifetime, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. Oh, yes. Really cool guy.
[1:29:13] That's a great book. Probably the- God... best book I've ever read. Yeah. It's amazing. I need to read it. It was really good. Really, really good. Talks about the acquisition of, uh, with the- Pixar... Pixar. Yep. God.
[1:29:23] And deep wor- It was a really, really good book. We'll see if he wants to fly to Hong Kong. We'll give him a call. Perfect. I'll give Bobby a call. We're on a first name basis. \[laughs\] Give him a call, dude.
[1:29:30] I'll call Bobby. You got lunch with him last week. Yes, yes. That was awesome. Perfect. We're gonna give him, we're gonna give him a ring, get him on. He's gonna start doing animations for the pod- Yeah...
[1:29:37] which is why I brought it back to- That'd be awesome. That's why, that's the banner that you're seeing. Yeah. It's coming. Mm-hmm. That's awesome. That'd be awesome. Rolex would be sick. That would be pretty cool.
[1:29:44] I think that and just any other brands that wanna get access to our clients that I think kind of heightens that. I think on social media, there's so many different brands that are out there.
[1:29:52] Um, and I think it's interesting, like you have all these different brand trips that keep happening. What's that, the, the Tarte Cosmetics? Mm-hmm. They always do that big brand trip. Yeah.
[1:29:59] Love it if they flew with Amalfi next time. That would be great. Oh. You just gotta let them know to not give the different gifts. Did you hear about this? I did not. Dude, they gave- What's the tea?
[1:30:06] They gave out different- \[laughs\] Spill the tea... different gifts to different levels of, like, a creator that was going. Oh. Oh, boy. There's one gal that I really... Uh, her videos are super funny on TikTok.
[1:30:15] My girlfriend always gets them. I'm like, "Let me see what Ken's up to." \[laughs\] Her name's Ken Urich. She just... Do you know this gal, Ken Urich? She just, like, goes- No, she's funny. I like her... she's hilarious.
[1:30:23] She just goes, she goes, "Tarte gave me the fucking B gift, dude." \[laughs\] "What is up with this?" And she goes, "I saw someone got, got the little Her- Hermes bag."
[1:30:30] And it's like, I feel like I should've gotten the bag, and it was funny. They're giving Hermes bags? Damn. No, I don't think it was... It was a, it was the bracelet. It was the bracelet, not the bag. Sorry.
[1:30:36] Little different. I embellished a little bit right there. But they, they do fly private on their trips. Oh. And every time I see it, I get upset. I'm like, "Goddamn, they're not flying with us." Have you hit them up?
[1:30:43] I don't know. Have we, have we DM'd them? Immediately after this, we'll be DM'ing Tarte Cosmetics- I love that. I love that... and see what's the deal. What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self- Yeah...
[1:30:51] before you go on this journey- Mm-hmm... and to other aspiring entrepreneurs starting out on the path? Ooh, big, uh, big advice.
[1:30:58] Um, I think first believe in yourself, but I think, two, find ways to center your emotional intelligence.
[1:31:05] Kind of random, but I think throughout the process of building a business, and it's funny, like, I, I, we made a video about this.
[1:31:12] I always used to watch entrepreneurship content when I was a kid, Ryan Serhant, you know, Gary Vee, that kind of content, and it's always how to be successful.I've really yet to see any content that's like, "Great, well, what happens when you actually become successful?
[1:31:23] What happens when you actually start making millions of dollars?" I've never seen content like that.
[1:31:26] And I think it's really interesting to focus on that, of like how do you center yourself, but also like how do you grow into the CEO? I think every little kid wants to build a business and become a CEO.
[1:31:37] Well, what happens when your company has 100 people?
[1:31:39] Now you have a responsibility to every single one of these employees to take risks, 'cause when you take risks as a business, you're risking all of your employees as well.
[1:31:46] So I think you have that responsibility to be responsible, to be smart, to be calculated, and to better yourself and have that emotional intelligence to stay calm and make the right decision, less be like this erratic.
[1:31:58] And that's why a lot of those like founder CEOs get fired, 'cause they're not good to lead the company to the next phase.
[1:32:03] It's good to get you to that one step, but who are you going to be and how are you gonna have the emotional intelligence to take your business to the next step, eventually if you go public to having 10,000 employees?
[1:32:12] I love it. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been episode 173 with Colin Jones from OnMafy Jets, and we'll see you all next week. Peace. Back on the couch. They were asking for it.
[1:32:21] \[laughs\] I think that this is the spot for us. It's comfy, dude. The more I think about it, I'm like, "How do we get this for..." You guys really wanna know what the office is looking like? Yeah. Nonexistent right now.
[1:32:33] Yours? No, no, no. I'm talking about like our pod studio. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We don't have a pod studio. No, we're getting there. This is... This feels, though, just incredible. Mm-hmm. Very comfy, very cozy.
[1:32:44] You know who loves it? Who loves it? My fiance. Really? Yeah. Yeah. She loves- Just having the, the light and- Bringing the lights and the cameras... It just feels right. Yeah. You know? It is comfy.
[1:32:52] It's one of those things where I just feel like, you know, it's just, it's for us. What'd you think of this ep? I'll tell you what, man, I can't believe that 98% of their revenue comes from social.
[1:33:02] When he shared that fact with us, I was shocked. For any business, let alone a private jet company.
[1:33:10] Because I think all of those companies who sell a really luxury premium product, they'd be like, "Oh, that dilutes the brand," or, "There's no way that we can post those TikToks and it'll actually lead to sales."
[1:33:20] Exactly. Listen to the episode, captain, 'cause this is, this is where the world we're in right now. I think one of the
[1:33:27] smartest things he said, and it makes a lot of sense once I heard him say it, but I don't think I would've originally thought to do it if I was starting a private jet company, the, I think the obvious answer is let's flex the jet.
[1:33:41] Of course. And he took the opposite approach. He's gonna show the office culture. And also, I mean, they're not, it's not like their jet. Their- Yeah. That's a good point... you know what I'm saying?
[1:33:51] It's not like they have a fleet of- Mm-hmm... 100 jets. Their, their clientele jets that are... It's almost like an Airbnb for jets. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
[1:34:01] And I think that originally, like we were saying, it'd be like, "Oh, let's get a bunch of jets," and you're always showing them. It's like you don't have the luxury of doing that. They're for your clients. Mm-hmm.
[1:34:08] They're not for you. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. We originally were like, "Dude, maybe we can record this ep on a private jet." On a- It's like, oh yeah, we'd have to rent it.
[1:34:17] \[laughs\] Whether it's in the sky or on the \[laughs\] on the floor. On the floor. \[laughs\] That's hilarious. But what I also thought was interesting too is
[1:34:26] he's making content talking about other luxurious things, like cars and golf, things where more... things that are, um- Aligned... aligned with a more affluent person than- The watches, the cars, the golf...
[1:34:42] And so I think that's super important too. Like, if you're a business owner thinking about wanting to create content or thinking about your brand, it's not only just your own product.
[1:34:51] What else can you bring into your content that's gonna land on people's for you pages that is maybe like, uh, adjacent to the industry that you're in? I mean, I think it makes sense.
[1:35:03] We've been really familiar with this, I feel like, with personal brands. Yeah. 'Cause you have people who are like, okay, if I wanna be i- i- you know, there's two different types of ways to look at this.
[1:35:12] You could go, "Oh, I'm, I'm much more casual.
[1:35:15] I don't wear fancy stuff," or you have the guys and girls that are, like, in the suits or wearing the fancy watches or driving the nice cars, and it's two totally different categories of people who are- Yeah...
[1:35:27] maybe some people are, like, really turned off to that, but some people are like, "That's very aspirational." So I think it just kinda depends.
[1:35:32] There's, there's a different flavor for everybody, and you're not going to be everybody's cup of tea. You shouldn't aim to be, though. No, you don't wanna be.
[1:35:39] And I think that was also super interesting, 'cause Colin's young. Colin's 24 years old, right? Which is \[laughs\] dude- Dude... wild...
[1:35:46] they have, they have a, a g- mo- one of the most beautiful offices I've ever seen- Yeah... in Calabasas. It's absolutely gorgeous. The company culture there is just humming. Like, people are very excited to be there.
[1:35:57] And it's, it's apparent that what he wants and, like, the energy that he's putting out, he's attracting those kind of people that wanna really grind and, like, make something awesome and be a part of a company that's growing fast.
[1:36:10] \[laughs\] Hmm. The whole like, "Oh, if we're starting out, we need to beat the competition. I'm working 12 hours a day and we're not taking lunch. We can order in." Wild. Dude, Uber Eats? Yeah. That's amazing.
[1:36:21] Straight startup culture.
[1:36:22] It's funny, though, 'cause I think about it in terms of kinda like what we were talking about with what we're doing and our, our ability to be able to travel with our setup because we don't have to rely on a third-party company- Sure...
[1:36:35] is an advantage for us. Totally. We can say to someone like, "Oh, we can bring this to you," or- Yeah... like, when Gary Vee was like, "Oh, can we change the date?" It's like, "Sure, we'll change the date."
[1:36:43] It's like we can move around things to be able to go out of our way to make it to people, and, like, if we're gonna travel across the country, which sounds like we might be doing pretty soon, which I've- We're going far.
[1:36:54] We're going far. And the ability to be able to do that, though, is something that only, like, smaller companies can do. When you have a 30-person fucking team- Yeah...
[1:37:02] it's really difficult to be able to, like, uproot them or something or, like, oh, we have to bring all the lights and stuff. Yeah. It's like we own all the stuff.
[1:37:08] It also allows you to operate faster, and I think that was one of the biggest takeaways I took from this episode, was the speed in which he moves. He's like, "I have an idea for this TikTok.
[1:37:18] I need it filmed this week or tomorrow." Or today. Today. Yeah. And it's, it's being posted tomorrow. Yeah. I think he said that. He was like, "Oh, we're gonna film a ton of stuff that will be up tomorrow."
[1:37:28] And I think it's something that a lot of-... businesses or if you're a creator or whatever, you can take that and put it into your thing.
[1:37:35] 'Cause I feel like so many times you're like, "Oh, I'm waiting for this product to drop," or, "I'm waiting for this thing to happen," or, "I'm waiting for the sun to be in this perfect spot."
[1:37:43] And it's like, just post the damn thing. Jay Hawk just did something interesting. When he was at the airport, uh, he was like, the iPhone had just dropped.
[1:37:50] He's like, "I could've waited till I got home to shoot and, like, film this iPhone video." He goes, "Dude, I just did it in the airport, just got the damn thing up."
[1:37:56] Like, stop, stop the BS of like, "Oh, this has to be... I have to have my lighting and my studio." He's like, "I'm at the airport, dude.
[1:38:02] I'm busting out the camera in a quiet little portion of the airport, and I'm ripping this video and getting it up." And I think that's something that we can take from Colin, from some of our friends, and just, like,
[1:38:11] get the damn thing up. We can put every exc- you can always find- Yeah... an excuse. We can find an excuse. Oh, we don't have our studio set up. Dude, I have found all the excuses. We love excuses. Dude, there's...
[1:38:21] And there's a lot out there. There is. I think I've found them all. You can... Dude, here, let me grab... I got a few in here, yeah. Yeah. \[laughs\] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna save those for a rainy day.
[1:38:29] Keep those tight. Yeah. I think I've tried to use every single excuse in the book. I think another big thing is speed, but also volume. Mm-hmm. He's like, "We, we're posting more than anybody else."
[1:38:41] And he's zigging when they zag, and if then they try to copy him, the competition's getting called out in the comments.
[1:38:49] Yeah, and I think at first glance, you think private jet, you think super flashy, and like we were saying earlier, it's...
[1:38:55] A lot of their content, 90-something percent of it is in the office, and they're bringing the team into the stuff, so at least you have a better picture of, like, who is behind the scenes and, like, who is building this brand.
[1:39:08] I think that's super important. That's a great point.
[1:39:10] So, like, whether you have an HVAC company, a plumbing company, a traditional, like, in quotes, "non-sexy business," there are still so many different content pieces to make around a business like that.
[1:39:19] I actually saw a gal who was making a TikTok about she, she was going to laundromats, like, or- Mm...
[1:39:26] or dry cleaning businesses and was like, "I'm gonna just completely revamp the social strategy here and tell the stories of the people that work behind it."
[1:39:33] Every video's just going absolutely off because you don't see that. Most... I, I'd assume if a creator went to make something for a dry cleaning business, it's gonna be slow mo, 60 frames per second- Sure...
[1:39:43] throw a song behind it. It's like there's no humanization behind the brand at all. Here's a perfect example, and this'll be a really funny story if you wanna go into detail of it. Sure.
[1:39:52] My check engine light has been on for about two to three weeks. I'll tell a story. \[laughs\] So I need to go get it serviced. Granted, I'm gonna go to a Jeep, uh, a Jeep dealership- Mm...
[1:40:03] because it's under warranty and stuff. But I'm thinking about... And granted, maybe my For You page isn't tailored towards, uh, like, car content, but I'm thinking you have a certain connotation with mechanics- Oh...
[1:40:18] that is, like- Something... scammy- Some of them are scammy... and they're, and they're gonna tell you something that's wrong that's not actually wrong. They're just trying to get more money out of you.
[1:40:27] If there was a mechanic that was, like, super friendly and bubbly and, like, made it more inviting, I'm going to that mechanic over somebody else, and you might think that a mechanic is, like, a boring business, but there's a way to go against the grain- There's a bazillion-...
[1:40:42] and stand out... there's a bazillion cars out there. You had a great experience with a mechanic recently, right? Yeah. They basically planted a rat in my girlfriend's car. Wild. And, dude, this is insane.
[1:40:52] I actually have to tell you guys this story 'cause it burns my ass so hard. Dude, Carotech in West Hollywood. Never go to these guys. Anyways, AAA, like, bus- I got time today. Hold on. Say their name again. Carotech.
[1:41:03] Carotech. Don't, don't go there. Yeah. Don't go there. Fuck them.
[1:41:05] \[laughs\] Anyways, she gets a picture sent on, like, Wednesday of a rat that's under her hood, and I'm like, "That's weird," 'cause I feel like I would've smelled the rat under the hood. Yeah.
[1:41:15] Regardless if they placed the rat there, okay, that's up to the viewer discretion. You guys can decide for yourselves. If it was placed there, if it actually was under there. The car was just sitting in the garage.
[1:41:25] She's... We... Like, she's been using my car for quite a bit 'cause it was having trouble. I feel like I would've smelled the rat. Got a big nose. I would've smelled it, dude.
[1:41:32] Anyways, dropped the car off, say there's a rat under the hood. Go back to get the car. We show up randomly on Tuesday, I believe, or Monday. Was it Monday or Tuesday? Which is a key, right?
[1:41:42] You're supposed to show up unannounced. You're supposed to show up unannounced to see what the hell is going on, right? So we're like, "We're gonna take the car back. We'll pay your stupid little fee."
[1:41:48] When I got there, I noticed that people were kinda acting a little weird. Sure. And, like, one guy's kinda, like, making his way over to the car, but I'm just, like, watching like a hawk. Chloe's paying.
[1:41:55] I'm, like, watching. Chlo- And Chloe's like, "Watch these guys." I'm like, okay, I feel like I'm doing, like, a CIA mission over here to, like, get this car back, you know?
[1:42:02] And, like, everyone's kind of being weird, and as Chloe walks back over, once she gets her keys, this guy that's like, "Yo, uh, uh, let, let me just check something under the hood real quick." And I'm like...
[1:42:12] Chlo- And then Chloe's like, "No. Don't even touch my car. Get away from the car." Chloe pops the hood. The rat is on top of the engine when she popped the hood. Wild.
[1:42:23] So they literally have left this rodent there from Wednesday to Tuesday or Wednesday to Monday, whatever it was, and then I c- uh, I was like, I was like, "I'm gonna... I got time today." Yeah.
[1:42:32] So just had to rip into this guy. I was like, "Is that customary? Just... Because we're not a, a rodent, uh, company." And I was like, "So you're just gonna leave it there?" Wow.
[1:42:40] So then I flipped it off with a piece of paper. I'm like, "This is crazy." They're like, "You don't have any oil." Oil's full. Completely full. \[laughs\] It's just actually insane.
[1:42:49] It's like, dude, like, what is wrong with people? Yeah. I'm like, you know what? I have a podcast. Yeah. We're gonna talk about this on the podcast. I remember listening to a Chris D'Elia podcast a while ago. It...
[1:43:01] And he had a really bad experience with a hotel. Uh-huh. And he's, like, getting into it, and he goes, "Oh, I cannot wait to talk about this on my podcast."
[1:43:10] \[laughs\] And I've, like, been waiting for a moment like that, and I feel like that's this moment. This is this moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just craziness. It's crazy.
[1:43:15] Back, back to what we were talking about, though, with just speed and all of these good things, I think that it's something all of us as, as people who are posting content online can take away from this episode.
[1:43:28] It's, it's the speed factor. It's the fact that doesn't matter what industry you're in, social wins. Doesn't matter, dude.
[1:43:35] Any industry that we can think of, like, humanizing the people behind the brand, talking more about the behind-the-scenes, it clearly works.
[1:43:41] It's something that's worked for a long time, ever since it really started, and I think that-The longer form that you can do, I'm really excited for when they start to do long form. I think it's gonna crush for them.
[1:43:53] Did he say that he's gonna start? No, but I have a feeling once people crush short form, I feel like the transition, feel like they use- Man, I would've loved to have talked to him.
[1:44:01] I, I- Like, is that part of your strategy? I totally forgot. Yeah. I, I was just, I was excited about the short form. But could it, it could be sick to do long form. Oh yeah, they could...
[1:44:08] And they have so many interesting things. I mean, even if eventually one day if their clientele is into maybe potentially being in some content- Yeah...
[1:44:16] 'cause it could be b- good publicity for them, I think that could be also interesting. Would you be down to be in some of the content? Yeah, I'd be down to be in the content as we're, like, flying and stuff.
[1:44:24] Fly- \[laughs\] Yeah. While we're flying private. While we're flying private. By the way, the way we got connected with Colin is that me and Brayden actually got to do a partnership with them, what, like a year ago maybe?
[1:44:36] About a year ago, I think. Yeah, we flew to Vegas. It was really sick. We flew private. Got a little fruit platter. Yeah. Hung out on the plane. Did a little helicopter ride around, uh, Vegas. Around Vegas.
[1:44:47] Yeah, it was cool. We just zipped up, zipped down, and then we came back home. Yeah, it was pretty lit. It wa- it was super, it was super fun.
[1:44:53] Another thing that I forgot to mention that I think they do really well that traditional creators don't is they lean into data. So much data. So much on the data.
[1:45:05] Even after the pod wrapped, we're chatting about, like, the different things that they're thinking about and they're looking through on their content.
[1:45:11] I mean, dude, even Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, just came out and he was like, "Number one thing, dude, is average view duration." If it's like, if something's going viral, he's like, "It has a ton of watch time."
[1:45:22] People are watching it, like, all the way through. If someone's not watching it for three or five seconds...
[1:45:26] And I even noticed, dude, I can tell pretty quick if something that I post is gonna do well, that average view duration is, like, 50, 60, 70%. I'm like, "Oh, this one's gonna, this one's gonna crush."
[1:45:36] If it's below 25%, you're done for. Yeah. And you're no longer... Also, what's, what's really interesting too about social media for the most part, you're not making videos for people that know you.
[1:45:48] Like, if you have a b- Sure... if you have a business, it's not like you're making videos for the customers that already know you exist.
[1:45:54] Like, they're, they're testing it right off the bat with people who don't follow you, and they're deciding whether it's worth pushing out to another group. So
[1:46:03] we're getting in this mindset, I feel like, of like, man, if I post this, these kids from my high school or something gonna, like, make fun of me- Yeah... or from college.
[1:46:08] It's like, dude, they're realistically not gonna be fed it for the most part. It's gonna be people that don't know who you are, which is why the first second and a half or two seconds is so important.
[1:46:17] Like, that hook rate is wicked important if people are gonna stay. I think data when it comes to insights for how your video is performing or your content's performing is important.
[1:46:25] I also think data for how a customer found them, like, down to the exact video, I think most businesses probably have no idea how their customer even found them or heard about them.
[1:46:39] You see the generic, like, oh, social media, word of mouth, through a friend, website, Google. But knowing specifically, like, what video on social media did you find me through?
[1:46:54] And if you, uh, if you're talking to a lot of your customers and there's a common thread of... He said this, he's like, "Oh, they like the golf content. They found...
[1:47:02] A lot of my customers or clientele found me through the golf content." Okay, guess what we're filming on Friday? More golf content. He said that the certain is future with data or something along the lines of that.
[1:47:14] That feels right.
[1:47:15] And it's so, it's such a valid point because if you look at the data and you see what is working with, for you, lean more in, lean into that more and do more of that as opposed to trying to, like, reinvent the wheel every single time or just kinda going at it with a blind eye.
[1:47:33] I also think that their format allows them to be super consistent because it's so run-and-gun and there is a format behind it. And so because he's figured out this format that works, he's like, "Okay, we can crush that.
[1:47:46] We know it works. Let's lean into that heavy." It's also almost like a show. Yeah. You have these developing characters.
[1:47:51] You have Josh who's in their office or, like, the different people that work, Zoe that works on their team, Tatum that works on the team. You're seeing them pop up in the content. It's not like it's just Colin.
[1:48:00] You get this, like, full circle of everyone that's in the office, and there's these, like, developing storylines and developing plot lines that make it like you're tuning back into a show.
[1:48:09] And dude, I read their comments. Like, it is a show. People are tuning back in- Yeah... asking questions. Like, regardless if those are some of the people that are end up
[1:48:18] maybe even, like, using their service, it's pushing it out to more people. It's more eyeballs, and they're driving that attention into revenue. And in a way you're almost world building by- For sure...
[1:48:30] bringing in- 100%... the employees. W- it was so interesting. He said a guy told him he would pay him 25,000 instead of 24,000.
[1:48:39] I might be misquoting here, but he said he would pay him more if he could work with a specific member on the team. That's insane. Which is crazy. Yeah, it's wild. And super, super fun. It's- Yeah...
[1:48:49] it's, it's super interesting. Also, their, our last five episodes have all got over 10,000 views, which is a- Yeah, huge milestone... crazy milestone for the show.
[1:49:00] So thank you, guys, for hanging with us, sharing the stuff- Yeah... commenting on the stuff, subscribing. It means a ton. We couldn't do it without you.
[1:49:09] We can't go all around the country, and eventually all around the world, bringing you guys these guests if you don't help us out. So we owe you guys a ton.
[1:49:19] If there are certain guests that you would like to see on the show, please leave them in the comments. DM them to us. We have... Yeah, DM them. We have some really great leads on some awesome guests coming up. God.
[1:49:31] We've been doing some outreach, and, uh, I'm really stoked for the future. It's gonna be an interesting rest of the year. Yeah. I'll just say that. I, I mean, I can't wait, man.
[1:49:41] We're investing in different camera angles for you guys. Yeah, dude, we're about to- Come on... cop another- Another FX3... FX3.
[1:49:47] We're gonna sell both the ZV-1s, get an FX3.So we have all, so we all look handsome Yeah, me and Brayden- Handsome and pretty... were noticing.
[1:49:54] We were like, "Okay, we have this second angle on both me and him, but I think it's better if it's a second angle and third angle on each of us individually." Yeah, I think it's gonna up the production value.
[1:50:04] Dude, so we'll have four angles? God, just- The struggle that we've had with gear, it was like- So many angles. Yeah, dude... first we only had one angle, then we had one Sony and two Canons. It was great.
[1:50:15] Then we had all Sonys, but we had a ZV-E1, which has a 30-minute record limit. We're like, "Excuse me, we gotta pause real quick." Yeah. "We gotta, we gotta do the, we gotta do the ZV-1 thing." And
[1:50:25] we're close to having it all set up. Also, shout out to Max for giving us the RODECaster. Yeah, Max Cheoning gave us a RODECaster. I literally texted him about that yesterday.
[1:50:34] Uh, it's super cool that he, he had an extra one and gave it to us. It's actually made our workflow so much easier. I'm really interested to figure out how to do the Riverside remote pods with it.
[1:50:46] Yeah, we should probably figure that out. \[laughs\] We have one coming up, right? We have one on Monday. Oh, yeah, Monday. Monday. Yeah, we should figure that out. We got...
[1:50:51] Dude, we got a guest from Australia we're about to bring you guys in the next few weeks. Oh, dude. I'm telling them. Tell them. We got Sabri Suby coming on the pod, which is great.
[1:50:59] He's a shark in Shark Tank Australia, which is gonna be so fun, dude. Dude. Pre-show call Sunday night, dude. I was... Dude, I was laughing so hard. Why? I sent you the, the Instagram reel he posted.
[1:51:09] He's like, "Yeah, my gym costs $2,000." He said, "I wanna- "I wanna work out with broke people." Dude. \[laughs\] Oh, my God. I was like- And he said, he-... "Let's go"... I, I think he said it in there.
[1:51:18] He was like, "Comments are gonna go nuts on this video." Yeah. I'm like, "Dude." But okay, to circle it back- Okay... that's a more provocative- For sure. You-... thing to say...
[1:51:27] you're eliciting, you're going to elicit a reaction out of people Which is a big thing that Colin does. Colin definitely does that.
[1:51:35] I mean, I'm really curious to see how their new campaign goes when they attack the dinosaurs. Yeah. It's gonna be a fun next few months. I'm trying to think if I have any more updates for them, for the Rocks. The...
[1:51:48] I think, though, that we gotta call the post-pod debrief. I think it's, this is Rock Talk. Rock Talk? Yeah, this is where we just chill- Okay... with the Rocks. Yeah. We vibe, we hang out.
[1:51:56] And we're also thinking of doing a solo episode with just Coast and I every, like, six to eight weeks. Probably every eight weeks. What do you guys think about that? I'm curious. Yeah.
[1:52:07] I feel like eight's perfect 'cause it gives us enough time to be able to have things to talk about. It's more so figuring out new shit to talk about. 100%. 'Cause we wanna provide value, but also have some fun.
[1:52:20] I do wanna shout out Chris Motions- Mm... 'cause he texted us- Mm... and he posted in the DCA, um, in the group chat that he had his first 30K month. Holy shit. Which is crazy. Dude. 'Cause we're doing our third DCA.
[1:52:35] It's our last time ever doing it, which has been super fun. Um, but it's been crazy to see some of the, the student wins. It's gonna be... Th- that's actually insane. Yeah. 30K is amazing, dude.
[1:52:46] It's like, it's life-changing money. 100%. I think this is where we, we cap this one out. Yeah. This has been a, an amazing episode, Episode 173. You know what could be fun- Oh... for the Rock Talk? Tell me.
[1:52:56] Maybe some Q&A's. We also didn't do a one-handed crack- Ah... for the Rock Talk, but it's all good. F- for the what? For the Ro- for this, Rock Talk. You wanna do, so two an episode?
[1:53:07] Dude, the more one-handed cracks, the better. I think so, too. I don't know if we told you guys this, too. It's, people have been DM-ing me like, "Yo, where the fuck's the one-handed crack?"
[1:53:15] It's because when we would start the episodes out with a one-handed crack, we noticed that there was, like, a huge dip in retention. So what we're gonna end up hopefully doing, we're trying to find a drink sponsor.
[1:53:27] Like, for the love of God, if you, your mother, your grandma, your friend has a fricking drink brand- 'Cause, dude, we're getting views now... dude, we're getting a couple views. Dude. \[laughs\] A few views for sure.
[1:53:36] 180K views- That was-... I believe in the past 28 days. It's wild- The-... type shit... we need a drink sponsor though. And how we would do it- Yeah...
[1:53:44] we're thinking, right, you got the drink, 15-minute mark in, we hit them with the thing. We do the one-handed crack. Sponsored one-handed crack with a fan-submitted question- Oh, I actually-...
[1:53:53] or rock-submitted question... lied, I lied about that. It would be, 15 minutes would be the first read, like 35 minutes or something, 40. Sure, sure. 30 minute. 40 minutes- Okay...
[1:54:01] we, we do the one-handed crack- I like it... in the middle of the show. After, people are already here, they're hanging out with us, we're, like, vibing together. And it'll be in the episode the whole time.
[1:54:08] Yeah, it'll be in- We're sipping it. So, exactly. So I don't think that, I don't think you need to say that- Yeah... right off the rip. The goal was to turn the one-handed crack into a social specific piece of content.
[1:54:18] It's been really hard to balance everything, so our social- I'll tell you what... our short form social game \[laughs\] has gone downhill. Our short form social game is kinda non-existent, but dude- But long form...
[1:54:28] dude, long form, we're really putting the team on the back for you guys. Yeah. That's what we're trying.
[1:54:31] We're trying to just keep this damn episode going up every single week, and it's been, it's been really hard lately, but we've been, we've been getting it done. Oh, yeah. And it's just part of the game, baby.
[1:54:42] We're hyped. Love you guys. We'll see you guys all next week, Episode 173. Drop us a comment, leave us a subscribe button. Do that thing, right? Yeah. And we'll see you guys all next week. Peace.

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