Getting interviewed by my interns.

Josh: "Have any more questions? Can you expand more about how Co impacted the industry and the lasting effects we still see today?

When Co first hit us, everybody thought the end of the world was here, right? Everybody locked themselves in the houses; the world was ending, and nobody was going to fly anymore, and that was the end of it. So, the whole industry went down, not just airplanes, but cars and everything. That lasted for maybe a couple of months, and shortly thereafter, people started to think, 'Wow, you know, maybe the world's not ending,' and things started smoothing out.

We lost a lot of deals that were in the pipeline, and people signed and they canceled the deals because they thought the world was ending. But really, right after that, in a couple of months, people started coming back and said, 'We see real value in what's out there; the world doesn't look like it's going to end. Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel.'

We started seeing the market coming back. That was in March, April, May of 2020. From there, for the next really 18-20 months until December of 2022, the market went up, up, up, up, up, and prices went up. There were no airplanes available for sale, and in the charter or rental market, the market increased by 50% in the number of users. A lot of those people who came into the market actually never flew on a corporate jet before.

People in companies that really never thought could afford to spend money on it, or they didn't justify it in their head, once they used it—because the commercial airline service wasn't servicing the places they wanted to go—they started utilizing corporate jets. They really saw how much of a time advantage it gave them, and from there they basically stayed in the industry.

The demand, after the market started to come down, which has been since January of 2023, has probably risen up from the baseline where it was. I think there's probably 20% or 30% of the people who came into the market that were never here stayed in the market. The demand is still pretty good, but it's in different pockets of the world.

I think overall, Co brought more people into our marketplace than there were before. Even though the speed of the deals is going down, there's a much higher demand for those aircraft today.

With the market expanding, how do you plan to grow in that industry to meet that demand?

The market grew really exponentially during Co. It really went about 30-40% higher; much more interest came in, many more people were flying, and the demand really soaked up while supply went down, making it really hard to get a deal done.

Now, things have come down, and we see the market sort of becoming much more normal, as it was pre-Co. Going forward, we have to just sort of innovate to see how we can stay much more active.

Using social media has given us a bigger platform to get our name out there around the world, and I think there are other avenues where we think we're going to expand to be able to take advantage of things that, say, occurred going forward.

And technology in corporate aircrafts—do you think how it is today shapes and differs from how people flew 20 years ago compared to today?

Yeah, for sure. First of all, it's made the efficiency of flying much better. You're getting better fuel efficiency, flying at higher altitudes. The altitude is lower, so you're getting a better experience. You'll be able to take off and land on shorter runways. The communications, especially Wi-Fi and being in touch with the ground, are a thousand times better than it was 20 years ago, and that has been able to make people move much more frequently and easily because they can always be in touch with their office.

Even though it's much easier—what is your biggest challenge today in this industry?

I think the biggest challenge today could be interest rates; it could be the wars going on, it could be geopolitical issues, it could be the price of oil going up or down, it could be industry issues. One thing that's a real problem is the supply chain because things are taking much longer to get delivered, and parts are not readily available, and that is slowing down getting deals done.

I have another question for you—okay, on a personal level, did you ever have a setback or a lesson that you've learned throughout these years in this industry that have helped you come back stronger?

One thing I keep on thinking I have learned is after a deal falls apart, to sort of just brush it off and say, 'Okay, too bad,' and I'll get on to the next deal. But no matter how many times that happens, you think you get over it, and they hurt. They really hurt because sometimes these transactions are big transactions. You work on them for a long time, and these people in these companies just change their minds on something you've been working on for months, sometimes a year, and the deal just falls apart.

You really have to have strong stamina. You have to really get about yesterday and just think about today. That's the problem with a lot of people; they sort of mourn the past, and they feel sorry for themselves. You get pushed and kicked and punched in your form; you just brush yourself off, man, just get your ha back up and just go again.

It’s almost like you get whacked. Every time you fix a problem, the problem falls again. You hit it, and that’s this business. So you really almost just have to have a sheet of armor in your body, and every time something comes at you, just step over the next problem and keep going.

Because any problem is usually never permanent. Of course, if you have a medical issue or something like that, but in business, things just change, and they'll get better. You just have to have that mindset—put the bad stuff aside, don't feel sorry for yourself, and just move forward. It's the best thing anybody could do for themselves.

Okay, boys, great to have you here over the last couple of weeks. I hope you learned something, and hope it helps you want to get into the aviation world.

Yeah, thanks so much, guys."