Ken Lucci 0:26

Well, welcome back to another exciting episode of the ground transportation podcast. I get to say, James, this thing has taken on a life of its own.

James Blain 0:34

Yeah,

Ken Lucci 0:35

We've got, we've had some great people on, but when you get this guy on your podcast, you know that you're being taken seriously. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm pleased to introduce a very good friend, Chris Weiss, who is the publisher of chauffeur driven magazine. Also the, organizer, the producer of the chauffeur driven NLA conferences that take place in our industry twice a year. We've got the main event coming up in Las Vegas that we're going to talk about today. Chris, welcome. Thank you for agreeing to spend an hour with us. You know, we always, we always start these things by tell us how you got into this crazy business.

Chris Weiss 1:19

Despite my youthful appearance, it goes all the way back to 1990 and yeah, yeah. So at the time, and I graduated high school in 88 and so at the time was going to Rutgers, you know, working some part time gigs, nothing serious. My background is art. I was an art major have been behind an easel since I was two years old. And. my business partner now, Eric and another friend had just out of high school started for whatever reason, a limousine parts and accessories business. And this business was taken off and they were running it out of a little chop shop. And it was a couple of guys I went to high school with Eric, who was my partner, like, like I mentioned, still with CD, we've been friends since we were in first grade. And. They, the company was growing and they decided that they wanted to start building a catalog out. And this was before the days of desktop publishing and, you know, Photoshop and illustrator and everything else. And so it was all line art. You drew it by hand. So Eric called me up and I, with pen and ink, all of the different products that they were selling, it was champagne tables and roll out wedding carpets and wedding horns and, you know, opera lights and all the things that would go in and on limos. And so, you know, I was there going to college, working part time drawing line art for this catalog. At the time, this company, which was MTG was advertising in the only limousine magazine that existed called limousine and chauffeur. It was before it was even LCT. And so we were doing a full page in there. You know, I was drawing the line art for it. We were building out a catalog. We were selling a ton of product to retail, to limousine operators, as well as the manufacturers of limousines. You know, at the time, it was maybe 15 or 20 of them. And, yeah, things were growing, building this catalog out. We you know, like I said, I was there part time. We approached Limousine and Chauffeur at the time. And Ty Bobbitt and said, Hey, we are interested in putting a 10 page catalog instead of our full page ad in, in the publication

James Blain 3:42

Oh, right in the magazine.

Chris Weiss 3:43

as an insert.

James Blain 3:44

Makes sense.

Chris Weiss 3:45

And, you know, they, they were the only game in town. We're not being flexible and the amount that they wanted to charge us was astronomical. And to us as a bunch of, you know, young entrepreneurs, we said, It was roughly 20 grand at the time. And we said, 20, 000, we can start a magazine for 20, 000. And that's what we did. And because we had the database, because we were selling a lot of products to limousine operators and we had a lot of great relationships with manufacturers and dealers, Royal, De West, Wynn. And they were willing to work with us and share some of their customer databases you know, the limousine operators that were coveting. And, you know, we gave them some discount advertising and we worked with them, helped them, helped them wrote them. And we built this massive database that was, you know, probably three times the size of what Limousine and Chauffeur was doing. And so we decided, hey, we're going to build this magazine out. And really the idea was that it was just a catalog that was surrounded by a little bit of content so that we could sell parts. No one had, no one had experience in producing a magazine. No one had, we were, we were just out of high school. You know, this is, this is 1990. 88 and my background is art and I know how to write, you know, had writing skills and art skills and And I, through in high school, I was the manager of an audio department for a company named Silo, which was before Circuit City, which was before Best Buy. And so I had that people experience and, you know, it was able to sell. So just for whatever reason, those skill sets aligned with starting a magazine.

James Blain 5:41

It all prepared you for it.

Chris Weiss 5:42

It all did somehow in some way. So we put out this issue of the magazine. It was 28 pages on newsprint. 18 of the pages were our catalog. And we put a free little ad in there and said, Hey, if you're interested in getting this free publication, you know, sign up. And, you know, it was before the internet, so everything had to be mailed in. And we put out this publication. And to our great surprise, it was published. Thousands of these subscription forms were coming in,

James Blain 6:15

Wow.

Chris Weiss 6:16

hundreds a day,

Ken Lucci 6:17

Those little bounce back cards. That was it.

Chris Weiss 6:21

it wasn't even the bounce back. We had, we did an ad, it was a cutout in the

James Blain 6:24

So literally cutting a page out of the magazine and sending it. That's awesome.

Chris Weiss 6:28

and we didn't even expect that to be the case. And yeah, the plan was to continue to produce a magazine, but we didn't realize how much there was a thirst for it out there. And immediately we started to get. You know, people who wanted to contribute. Arthur Rosina, believe it or not, contributed to

James Blain 6:47

Oh, I believe it.

Chris Weiss 6:48

to the first issue. He did a, you know, small article on marketing in our first issue. You know, a number of early supporters, Lancer Insurance. And, yeah, there was, there was, so we decided, hey, we need to get serious with this. And this was 91 when we launched, June of 91. And each month, the goal was just to try to make this a little bit better, find contributors, come up with ideas for content. It was all self taught, you know, and we were just kind of looking at Limousine and Chauffeur, and it was somewhat the model, you know, and we looked at other magazines, and, and, you know, magazines were big in that day, so there was a lot of inspiration out there. And, yeah, we got a couple of years into it, we, you know, about a year into it, we went glossy, because it was news praise to come off in your fingers, and then we went glossy.

Ken Lucci 7:36

That was big time. Glossy was big time.

Chris Weiss 7:38

Big time. It was a really, I mean, we would no joke. The limousine and chauffeur would come out. It would be 150 pages like this, like the Bible. It was giant. We had this 28 page newsprint rag and we would hold it up next to it and say, we're better. And so, you know, you have to be a little bit delusional.

James Blain 7:59

But that's every entrepreneur, right? Like we don't know we can't do it. We're going to do it.

Ken Lucci 8:02

Yeah.

Chris Weiss 8:03

so we just kept on, you know, plugging away and, you know, You know, they were you know, Eric and the other partner were running the parts business. I was running the magazine. And at, you know, at some point it was probably 93 or so. The other partner said, you know, limousine and chauffeur produces these events. Why don't we consider producing an event? And although we were a little hesitant because we had no experience doing that either, we said, yeah, let's, let's give it a whirl. And we, we, we initially hired an event manager who had experience and, you know, so that we can learn the craft. And we decided to put our first events on at the Meadowlands. It was in our backyard. We're in New Jersey. And we had, we had great success with it. And, you know, again, just like with the magazine, more than we expected. It

Ken Lucci 8:55

market. 40 percent of chauffeur just revolved around the tri state

Chris Weiss 8:59

was our bread and butter. Our backyard was the bread and

Ken Lucci 9:03

Yeah.

Chris Weiss 9:03

And that's why we then moved the show. It grew and outgrew that, you know, that area. And there was nothing else in New York City or in that surrounding area. So we moved the show down to Atlantic City and we stayed there for, you know, all the way through 20, 014 was our last event there. So there was quite a run in Atlantic City, started off at the old convention center, then moved to the Taj. And then, you know, at some point, and not to get into all the details, You know, one of the partners, you know, had some issues and Eric and I decided to leave and start chauffeur driven. The other title that we first started, it was called limo digest that we ran for decades, you know, for almost 20 years. And

Ken Lucci 9:47

timeframe.

Chris Weiss 9:49

yeah, it was 2012 is

Ken Lucci 9:50

2012. I remember I was an operator at that time. I mean, I think the Taj was one of the first shows I ever went to which was 10.

Chris Weiss 9:58

Yeah.

Ken Lucci 9:59

so yeah. Incredible.

Chris Weiss 10:01

Taj. We, yeah, we were doing the Taj from probably 96 or 97 all the way up to 2000. And. And 14. And then Atlantic City was just ragged after that. The city had just gone so far down. The properties had gone so far down. And we were hosting sweet parties. And when you're, you know, when you're recognizing stains and you're familiar with the rats, you know, they're there from the

Ken Lucci 10:26

time to go.

Chris Weiss 10:27

it's time to go.

James Blain 10:28

Time to move on.

Chris Weiss 10:29

So that's when we decided to move and take the show to different places. And Miami was the first spot that we went to. And it was, you know, it was a great event in a lot of different ways. And that was our breakout event.

Ken Lucci 10:40

So, you know, it can be said that you absolutely were David and you took down Goliath at one point. I mean, at some point, not to get into the details, but LCT changed hands,

Chris Weiss 10:53

Yeah. So, I mean, we were just running neck and neck with, with LCT.

Ken Lucci 10:57

but you started like this.

Chris Weiss 11:00

yeah, yeah. From a magazine standpoint, we, we had surpassed them from the show standpoint. They were doing the show in Vegas and we were doing the show in Atlantic city. They really had the crown jewel. Their show was bigger. The more well attended show, but we had a great following. People loved our shows. And we were happy with it. and when When we just when eric and I decided to start show for driven There was just a lot of confusion in the marketplace And lct at the time decided to come east and say hey, we're gonna make our claim on atlantic city, which was where Which was where we were doing our shows And there was always this understanding that they stayed in in vegas. We stayed in atlantic city No one stepped on each other's toes and You know, you could have, you have the bigger show, but we won't step on each other's toes. And when we started chauffeur driven, that all changed. And we even contacted Ty and Sarah at the time and said, Hey, we want to play nice and you do your thing. We'll do our thing. And they didn't want to have it. And so, you know, we were forced to compete directly with multiple shows in, in Atlantic city. And. Yeah, we figured out before they did Atlantic City was dying. So we decided to move our shows to different places. And yeah, we were, we were competing and eventually maybe 2018, 2019. Um, venture capitalists decided to buy Bob at publishing, which is not just, it wasn't just LCT. It was or

James Blain 12:31

Yeah. The whole suite that they had.

Chris Weiss 12:32

Yeah. And shows and titles and all of that. And, you know, they came in and that. You know, that changed everything. For whatever reason, they decided that they didn't feel like their partnership with the NLA was valuable to them. And for a long time, you know, we had made it apparent to the NLA that we would like to work with them and do business with them. And so when that opportunity came and, you know, they couldn't find an understanding or, you know, negotiate a deal Gary Bufo came to Eric and I. And, And then we worked out something that we thought was, you know, fair for everyone involved and they felt the same way and we put together a deal. We started, we hosted our first show together, even though we had booked the show and it was really just a show for driven show, but then we made it a, you know, the CDNLA show in Boston in 2019.

James Blain 13:23

I remember that

Chris Weiss 13:24

Yeah. Phenomenal show. Phenomenal

Ken Lucci 13:27

was the first show I did. When I started this company, I remember that I remember Boston, like it was, yeah, like it was yesterday that the old, not the old normal, so to speak. And, you know, it's funny that I think that when it changed, Bob had changed hands from a privately owned company to private equity, you know, that's just a case, a simple case of what happens when private, private equity takes over businesses, right? Because the relationship was the most important thing. And at the end of the day. The collaboration between CDN and L. A., talk a little bit about that, because to me, it's the holy grail of why this works.

Chris Weiss 14:06

Yeah, I will, but I'm just going to circle and finish this, finish the, you know, the delay, David and Goliath thing. So then, you know, fast forward to 2020 and LCT was hosting a show in Vegas a week before CD and the NLA were hosting our show in Vegas. And this was right before COVID. No one had any clue what was going on. They had their show, there was, you know, 300, 400 people at the event and ours was close to 2000. And, you know, we, we, they were already struggling. And so we had this great show and right after the show COVID hit. And so by March 19th of 2020, just a week after the country shut down. The new ownership over at Bobbitt reached out to Eric and I and said, you know, we're, we're throwing in the towel. We're putting the title up on the market at a respect and courtesy to you guys. We're going to offer it to you first. If you don't, if you don't want it, then we're going to put it up on the market. And this was, you know, the first week of COVID. And yeah,

James Blain 15:25

Oh yeah.

Ken Lucci 15:26

for you.

Chris Weiss 15:26

It was wild, but we said, you know, it makes sense to acquire this and, you know, and, and just do what everyone wanted us to do initially, which was to kind of unify things. Because at one point there were so many shows and so many events and there wasn't consolidation and not everyone was rowing in the same direction. And we just said, this will close the loop. We'll, we'll acquire LCT. We've got this great partnership with the NLA. And we're going to, you know, just all steer in the same direction so that operators aren't have to having to make decisions, vendors aren't having to make decisions, people don't have all of these events that they have to deal with. And, and, you know, we can just join forces and, you know, just all, you know, all for the, for the common good and to produce the best events that we can and that's, and then COVID hit and, you know, we were sidetracked for a little bit, but then, you know, once, you know, Once the world started getting normal, we got back on track. And in fact, our, our Texas event that we did in at the end of 21 was one of the first events in the entire country that came back. So we were, we were ahead and we were willing to take chances. And, and it worked out because each and every show from then just built back and built back and and it's been great. And.

James Blain 16:48

Well, and I, I remember being in Texas and giving that opening talk and, and, you know, everyone was, well, is it going to be busy? It's not gonna be busy. And that, that room was packed. I mean, it, it came back with vengeance. I mean, everybody had that pen up need.

Ken Lucci 17:01

Even though the airlines didn't cooperate with us that show because the airlines had something was it

James Blain 17:06

Oh, geez. Oh, that was a nightmare.

Ken Lucci 17:09

I asked this question of everybody because I I look at the airlines and the airlines are are way back above where they were in the pandemic Their weight 2024 was the year everybody came back. Do you see your numbers? Did you come back fully in 23? Or when did you think, see yourselves that the attendance come fully back? Was it 22 or 23?

Chris Weiss 18:40

Yeah, no, it, it fully came back. Yeah, I, I would, I I think our 22 numbers beat our 19, our, our 22 numbers beat, our 20 numbers and our 23 numbers were better as well. And actually, no, we didn't do an event in 22. Sorry. I apologize about that. So 23 was stronger than 20. And 24, we're stronger than 23 and we're projecting 25 to be stronger than, than, than 24. And it's, it's definitely trending that way. And from an ex, and that's just attendance. You know, from the standpoint of, you know, exhibit space and fuller space and sponsorship. We, just to give you, for instance, the, our first show back was, was at the Paris where we're hosting the show this year. We filled one third of the exhibit space this year. The entire exhibit space is full with no, no extra space at all.

Ken Lucci 19:37

That's incredible.

Chris Weiss 19:38

So yeah, it's, it's tripled from, from that first show back in terms of, you know, the exhibit space, not the attendance, the attendance is steadily grown and it's going to continue because the numbers are, yeah you know, it's all based on how well people are doing and people seem to be doing pretty well.

Ken Lucci 19:55

The vendors, the vendors are doing the coat. The coach builders are doing well. The now, you know, obviously the motor coach, the motor coach manufacturers are taking our industry a lot more seriously than they used to their.

Chris Weiss 20:08

that's been gone for a bit, and we have them all. Every major motorcoach manufacturer is on the show floor. We have more OEMs than we've ever had. If you add in the automotive manufacturers with the motorcoach manufacturers, it's, it's yeah, it's astronomical.

Ken Lucci 20:26

So, the lore of Las Vegas can take a lot of people's minds off business. Considering that a lot of the, you have a lot of first timers, you had a lot of first timers last year. What is your advice, you've been doing these shows since the mid 90s. What's your advice for an operator to come in, so that he gets his ROI, they get their ROI. And they, they get the most out of the show. God knows the entertainment is fantastic food and booze. We're going to have our fill, but how do you get, how do you, how do you tell a younger company how to get there the most out of these shows?

Chris Weiss 21:07

Half the battle is finding out that they exist. And, you know, once you do, then it It's a game changer. And my advice, because it's a crash course, you're going to learn more and gain more and meet more people in the span of three, four days than it could take you years to do that.

James Blain 21:25

it's a fire hose, an absolute fire hose. I remember my first show.

Chris Weiss 21:29

It's yeah, it's outrageous. And yeah, it's rewarding you know, to, to be able to bring people together like this over the years and, and, you know, help them meet each other and grow their businesses and build these friendships and all that stuff. But what I would say to the. You know, whether you're new, you know, especially to someone who's new to it, but this really holds for everyone. Two things that are the most essential. One, attend everything on the schedule that you can. I mean, you can't attend everything, probably because, you know, you might have something going on in your life that's, that it might be disruptive, but try to attend everything on the schedule. Every session, every networking event, every meal. Every party, every function and maximize it

Ken Lucci 22:16

Fill up your dance card well, before you get to Vegas,

Chris Weiss 22:19

well before it's all,

Ken Lucci 22:21

is fully published now.

Chris Weiss 22:23

it's fully published and yeah, it's on the site and, and, and, and we, the way we design it is there's not much concurrent sessions, so you really go to everything and you should, and there's breaks, there's a giant break for dinner that we put in there every night so that people can, you know, refuel and, and come back to the evening events. And that's critical. But what's even more important than that is to not be a wallflower. You have to, you have to be able to open up conversations and just say hello to people, introduce yourself, and just ask questions. You know, what do you do? Where are you from? What kind of business do you run? Talk about your business, talk about your fleet, your operation, and just introduce yourself to people. It's, we, we have events that foster that. There's a first timers event. We do mentoring programs. You know, there's plenty of opportunities to do that within the structure. But really, the, it's all throughout the event. And then, you know, even at the social events, you know, we're, you know, we've hosted, you know, costume parties and 80s parties and casino nights and, You know, we're doing a nightclub night this year at the show that overlooks the fountains and, you know, it's super cool. And, yeah, when you're there, you know, that's just as good of a place to strike up a conversation and to meet someone as at the First Timers event. It doesn't really matter what the setting is, so don't be shy.

Ken Lucci 23:59

And I think I want to add a little bit to that is, you know, perfect your 32nd commercial, who you are, what your market is, and then. Ask for the business card, have an electronic business card, ask for their electronic business card and make notes of who you talk to because it is a fire hose. You can go and you can come back with a stack, right? But you've got to prioritize and you have to have some follow through. Right. So don't get don't overindulge so that you can't get up the next morning and hit the breakfast. Don't over crazily overindulge so that you don't focus on what your main goal is an ROI. But you're right. I mean, at the end of the day, there isn't many people that there's not many missing people. If you want to get to know everybody in the industry. The Vegas show is the place to go.

James Blain 24:48

and I think you're hitting on something important there too, Ken, because you can't meet the whole industry at one show. And I see so many people that they're, you know, they, they really love to get to work, they really want to get out there and they're running and they're putting their card in as many people's hand as

Ken Lucci 25:02

And they're putting their card at my, at my booth and other people's booth that I'm, I can't help you as this one. Right. So

James Blain 25:10

value of the conversations you have. It's making those legit connections.

Ken Lucci 25:14

and make notes.

James Blain 25:15

and just, Hey, here's my card. It's, you know, let me get to know you help. Let me get to trust you. Because when you make those first couple connections with those people, they're going to be able to then introduce you and help you and get you out there.

Ken Lucci 25:29

Yeah. You hit upon something that people, every business owner needs to understand is your network equals your ultimate net worth.

James Blain 25:37

Yes.

Ken Lucci 25:38

and I made this mistake as an operator, I was not a friendly guy to the locals that were my competitors. Oh, there you go. Right. To me, to me, the most important thing is once you do meet someone is to take a few minutes. Make notes either in your phone or on the, I do it on the back of a business card.

James Blain 26:00

Same here. Old school.

Ken Lucci 26:01

And then, and then ultimately send them a thank you note. It was great to meet you, right? Send them a thank you note with your face because they have met a thousand people, but they will remember. They more than likely will remember your face. Hey, this is Ken from Tampa. Just thank you so much for the five minutes we spent. If I can ever help you let me know. The other piece of it is understanding the sales function. People aren't going to do business with you just because they met you. They already have relationships. The idea is they have to be exposed to your brand four or five times, right? But, but again, you, you, you will get to know the faces. This is the, this is the ultimate venue. This is the Superbowl of our industry. Vegas is the Super Bowl. I think, I think DC, I'll call it the Sugar Bowl, but Vegas is definitely the Super Bowl. And, and I just got to say this, if you are a wallflower and you feel whether it's because you're not a good speaker, or maybe you speak with an accent, don't be shy. Just, just perfect the 30 second commercial, you know, watch, watch what's going on and listen and learn. And these, there is no better place to get education. And but you get in, you get out of these shows what you put into them.

Chris Weiss 27:16

It's like anything. That's like anything. And the advice of taking the notes is really brilliant. Because when you get back, and you've got like a hundred cards,

James Blain 27:24

You do remember nothing.

Ken Lucci 27:25

Prioritize.

Chris Weiss 27:26

so, so, so, I, I use these little post its.

James Blain 27:30

I love

Chris Weiss 27:31

Because it's hard to write on cards sometimes.

Ken Lucci 27:34

They're glossy. Good. Great example. Great example.

Chris Weiss 27:37

these are perfect. And I, I carry them in my backpack. I carry them everywhere because, You know, that's I believe in that you have to take a note or two or you're never going to remember you just wasted, you know, a lot of time for nothing.

Ken Lucci 27:50

So download the schedule in advance.

Chris Weiss 27:53

Yeah.

Ken Lucci 27:54

your business cards because I've seen operators do that and they go, they go to Vegas, they go to a printer in Vegas, bring the post its notes and a pen and ask. I think everybody should have an electronic business card today. I'm guilty of not having one, but they should have the. The QR code and the electronic business card and perfect your 30 second commercial.

James Blain 28:15

And I think the app is key too. I would definitely throw that out there. If you're, if you're a tech person like I am, if you love your stuff like that, I go through the app. I flag everything. I put my schedule in. I know where I've got to be when what I'm doing and when I've got time to meet with people, go to dinner. All that

Ken Lucci 28:30

because it's overwhelming. It can be, it could, it could be overwhelming.

James Blain 28:34

And

Chris Weiss 28:35

for a newbie. And we were saying with, you know, someone who's a first timer, it's not just overwhelming, it's intimidating. So

James Blain 28:42

it can be.

Chris Weiss 28:42

there and you see, you know, everyone knows each other and there's these clicks. And so, you know, you can't. Do it all in one show or in one day. So like you were saying a little earlier, you know, you meet some people and then the next time you'll know some people and you have a foundation and then you meet more people and that foundation grows and then you meet more people and you know, eventually you're on the inside and you know, everyone, but it does take a little

Ken Lucci 29:09

sit through the education and I'm guilty of this as well, if you sit through the education, I think the key is to make it actionable. I think the key is you're never going to find a place where there's more concentrated education. Than the Vegas show. But if you've gotta make it actionable, you can't just say, oh, that was a great session. Now now I'm gonna go home and I'm going to be, I'm gonna work in my business. The education sessions are designed to teach you to work on your business. And regardless of what the subject matter is, I mean, we've got some massive hot buttons in this industry today. The safety aspect, the insurance aspect, the answers are in Vegas, okay? It may be nice, I agree, the states are doing some great things, but the answers are in Vegas. The questions that you Are going to hear the answers to from an operator that may be a little bit one step above, above you, et cetera, or appear that, that in a bigger market, the answers are going to be in Vegas and it's up to you to make them actionable for your business.

James Blain 30:14

Well, and I would take that a step further because I've been lucky enough to be on the stage, you know, presenting, giving those bits, but I spend a lot of time in the crowd actually taking notes, seeing what's going on, seeing what's there. I've learned two really key things and it's helped me be a better presenter, but it's also helped me be a better business owner. And that's the, if you're in a session, if you're in, if you see something that you say, man, I want to use that two things. Thanks. Make a note of it, but put it into action immediately. When I'm on the road, I drive my team nuts. Because if I'm driving between somewhere, yeah, me drive people nuts. Oh God. No, but, but seriously, I, I call my team constantly and I'm saying, Hey, I want to put this into action or, Hey, we need to do this now. Or, you know, I'll go back to the room early. I might leave, you know, the bar or whatever, a little early and go up to the room and work, right? Crazy thought, right? You're in Vegas in a room working instead of out drinking. But, you know, I, I know that I've got to put things into action and I go back and I get started on it. That way I know exactly what I've taken from it, what we're going to do, because like we've talked about so far, this is a fire hose.

Ken Lucci 31:22

And where did you get that nugget from? Who dropped that nugget? Right? Because you, if you wait to get home, you're not going to remember who said it. So what session did it come from? And, and that's the best place to network is after the sessions, when you've seen people really engage, don't be afraid to walk up to them and say, you know, that was a terrific question. I would like to pick your brain after the fact, you know, one thing that we've not talked about is. This is an incredibly giving industry from peer to peer from operators that were willing to are willing to help you out. You know, at the end of the day, you can't best advice I ever got was from Julie Herring, you know, God rest her soul before. I mean, when, when she was alive and I had just started, she called me, she was the only operator locally that called me and said, Hey, I want to tell you two things. Number one, you can't own every piece of equipment out there. This is what I have in my fleet. It's available to you every time. The other thing is. You can't, you're not going to know everything. You absolutely have to pick people that you trust to do business with locally. And sadly, I mean, she, she was battling cancer when she made that call. But my point, my point is that when you hear, when you hear somebody ask a question and you hear a conversation, you know, make note of who you, who, who it was. And I guarantee you, if you send them an email and say, do you have five minutes for me? This industry will, these people will help you.

James Blain 32:52

Oh,

Ken Lucci 32:52

They will help you. And contrary to popular belief, everybody at that show's been through it all. They, they've been through nine 11, they've been through the financial crisis, they've been through bad credit times, good credit times. They've been through high ends, high ends of the market. So if, if this to me is like an MBA, Vegas is an MBA if. You approach it the right way. You can sit in the back of the room and you can play on your phone or you can deal with your own reservations at home, right? I see that explative all the time, or you can focus on what's in front of you and who's in front of you, because you literally have the best people in the industry at your, at your beck and call. You've, when you put these conferences together, to me, it's a world class conference, it's like, it's like the consumer, what's the consumer electronics show. I

James Blain 33:42

Yeah. CES. Yep.

Ken Lucci 33:43

CES everything new in the world comes to CES. Okay. To me, everything topical in our industry and the motor coach industry, because we've really I don't want to use the term disrupted, but we've infiltrated that industry. To your point, every motor coach company builder now are at our shows. Tell me something. When did that happen? When did you, you, you obviously had to reach out and say, look, I want your motor coach at my show. But when do you think that tipping point was when the motor coach company said we need the limo guys?

Chris Weiss 34:15

It, it's, it's, yeah, obviously started with like the cutaway buses and, and then there, there, you know, I would say MCI was probably the first motor coach manufacturer to dabble. I had a little relationship with them. I used to go to UMA. We started meeting each other. And just getting familiar and yeah, they, there was. You know, there was a point when they were starting to see people who were, you know, buying their product and they saw the opportunity and, and each one of them, you know, you know, eventually Prevo, ABC

Ken Lucci 34:48

They're all there.

Chris Weiss 34:49

yeah, yeah. They, and Tempsta, they, they all would, they were all seeing you know, business, you know, operators were purchasing equipment and, you know, and we were generating some results for them. So it, it just, it grew. I, I would say probably at least 10 years you know, close to that. And yeah, there's, there's probably more motor coaches than cutaways. It's like a lot of sprinters and a lot of motor coaches and, and less cutaways. And, and, and I did wanna circle back on one of the things that we were just talking about and, you know, in producing these events for all of these years. You know, I, I can't tell you how seriously, you know, the, the show for driven team and the NLA team. Take putting these events on, and we know the type of impact that these events make on people, their lives, their businesses, their ability to feed their families, their friendships, their relationships. This is a really unique industry. And we're always challenging ourselves to try to be better and do better and produce better events. And same with the content of the magazine. We never sit idle and, and we regularly think about. The people who were impacting and just trying to put our best foot forward so that they could be better people, better business people, more successful, better partners, all the above. So we,

James Blain 37:21

and, and you bring up a great point because the industry even, you know, I'm, I'm coming on 10 years in the industry and even my time being here, it's changed. There used to be a wall between kind of the motor coach side of the business and kind of the black car side of the business. Yeah. And interestingly enough, I've seen that now really is, is turning more into a speed bump. I've, you know, we were lucky enough. We work on both sides of that. I've got customers on purely the motor coach

Ken Lucci 37:45

So do we.

James Blain 37:46

purely on black car But Here's what's interesting. I now have companies that were heavily in the motor coach space, you know, built a whole company was raised up the motor coach space. Now they're coming to us and saying, Hey, we need training because we're gonna start operating black cars because we've got these contracts. We see the same thing on the other side. So I love that you've kind of brought that up because you've kind of teed us up. How do you kind of see the industry evolving? What do you think about, you know, the future of businesses and mixed fleet? How do you see that playing into your vision and the events and kind of what you guys do?

Chris Weiss 38:19

think it's going to continue on and, you know, for now, at least for the short foreseeable future, the way that it's going. You know, these sprinters are super popular. The motor coaches are super popular, and there's always going to be that need for SUVs and, and whether it's sedans or crossover sedans seem to be disappearing, but, you know, people need to get to the airport. People need to, you know, get back and forth to dinners and, and things like that. And, and then there's always going to be groups that are traveling and whether that groups 10 people or 40 people or 50 people or more. It's, you know, so these hybrid companies that you're talking about, it is the direction and we are seeing a ton of new blood at the shows

Ken Lucci 39:01

Oh God.

James Blain 39:01

Oh, absolutely.

Chris Weiss 39:02

over over the last, you know, four or five shows were averaging, you know, probably somewhere between 350 to 450 new first timers at each given show. So we're talking about thousands over the course of these last few shows. And it, and it's, it's like a cleansing. There's

James Blain 39:21

Well, and the age of your average operator, right? The operators that have been established, I think part of that is we're kind of reaching that age. And Ken, you can probably talk to it more than any of us because you're, you're seeing it happen on the M and a side. You've got people that are effectively aging out and moving out of the business. And you've got kind of a younger generation that's starting to move into the

Ken Lucci 39:40

And you know, there's goods and there's good and bad with that. I mean, listen, obviously from, we used to deal with that in inquiries to value my business used to be three, four or five a month now it's three, four, five a week yesterday, we had four that people inquired, I would like to see the younger people. In the industry. Cause I turned 60 March 22nd and I can say young people now, I'd like to see the younger people take more seriously the, the, the, the blocking and tackling and working on working on their businesses from a, from a financial perspective, from a risk mitigation perspective, there is no better place to come now. I will challenge everybody that listens to this instead of looking for your answers on Facebook, which drives me out of my explative mind. Okay, make a list of the top 10 issues that you're having in your business and bring it to Vegas.

James Blain 40:38

know what you're looking

Ken Lucci 40:39

know what you're looking for. And I, and look at the end of the day, everybody will sit and buy each other drinks, but you have more of a wealth of knowledge coming to that one place. Okay. Bring your top 10 issues, bring your top 10, what you want to see your business evolve into. At the end of the day,

Chris Weiss 41:00

going to share everyone.

Ken Lucci 41:02

Everybody, everybody's willing to share and I've never seen in the security business. That was my, my background. You know, the, the guys were very, they always thought they had some sort of a secret sauce, but there was no ecosystem, right? So a home security guy, he compete, he would compete in his region and that would be his reach. Right. But we have an ecosystem in this industry that's, that's mutually dependent on each other. And I do think it's changed a little bit because there's a lot of new people coming in, but they need to understand the ecosystem. Right. So the ecosystem, you, that is the key to you growing your business is look at the people who are three steps ahead of you. If you want to grow your business and you want to grow a sellable asset, come to the show with here are my top 10 challenges operationally, I would like to see you come to the show with here are my five financial goals that I'm going to hit. And then where do I want to take my business? Again, you are coming to the place where all of the best minds go. It bothers me tremendously to see on Facebook. Well, I'm not going to go to that show. I don't need any vehicles. That's not the point. You can, you can see a vehicle ad anywhere you can go. Okay. The key is the, is the two way communication. Okay. Because again, understanding the ecosystem, the problems that you go through in your little area, yeah, you can get a lot of the answers from the state, your brethren in the state, your competitors, if you will, in the state. But if you really want to see how somebody is maximized. Okay, specific opportunities that you want, you want to achieve, go to the show, go to the show.

James Blain 42:55

And I think another big part of that is understanding, you know, like you talked about, Chris, when you, when you develop the magazine, when you built stuff out, it was getting information out to people. I think part of this is understanding that those resources don't end. You know, one of the projects that you and I are lucky enough to be working on is an upcoming safety column. Can you talk to us a little bit about how, you know, chauffeur driven is putting information, is putting educational pieces, is keeping that flow of information going throughout the year in addition to the shows,

Chris Weiss 43:28

Yeah. Yeah, of course. I mean, we're, we're thankful and very fortunate to have both you gentlemen contributing to CD on a regular basis and both, you know, Rob and Susan, thank you as well, as do all of our readers.

Ken Lucci 43:39

For, for the, for the operators that don't know, Rob and Susan, they run the, they run the magazine. He sets the tone, but, but they're tremendous people. You meet them at the show. Rob is always directing traffic for some reason. But they are the backbone of the magazine and the content, it's not just the really, it's not just the gorgeous vehicles in it. The content is world class. Not just because we write for it, by the way, James, but

James Blain 44:07

but, but partly because we write

Ken Lucci 44:08

but partly because we do write

Chris Weiss 44:09

Yeah, no, it's important. No doubt. We were very, you know, blessed to have a lot of great contributors and we focus on the topics that are the most important and ones where we see people fail H. R. For instance, and that's been a column. That's a monthly column in the magazine. Obviously, can you do a lot of stuff on the financial side of stuff? I think you've done a lot of training stuff, but we just started this new initiative with our, you know, our training, our safety group where we just decided, you know, we were always self analyzing and, you know, especially towards the end of the year when we're looking at how we want to improve for the next year. And we just felt like there was a void in the magazine for safety content. And we felt like, yeah, this could be a monthly thing where we put a little bit more energy into. The topic of safety, and that's a pretty broad topic. So it's all over this. And so, you know, we decided to form a committee and, you know, it's, you know, James and, and, and Tom Holden and Joe Gwynn and

James Blain 45:13

Dan Tomlinson from Lancer,

Chris Weiss 45:15

And, and, and so we put together this really, and, and and Jeff Shanker, I don't want to

James Blain 45:20

Yep. Jeff.

Chris Weiss 45:21

And we put together this great group and we just sussed out a Way more topics than we could ever publish in a given year. And we just started hashing out great topics that everyone felt was essential for readers and for operators. And then the group would take ownership in those topics. And so for the, you know, no doubt for this next year and the foreseeable future, there's just going to be a steady stream of safety related content in the magazine and, you know, thank you, James and, and the whole group. And. And, and, you know, that was just one way, you know, another area of the magazine that you know, that we're always trying to, not only do we feel is the most popular part of the magazine, but we always feel like it's, it's you know, something that's extremely useful is our benchmark and best practices section. Or we'll ask a question, you know, Rob Smentek, our editor, we'll send it out to, you know, hundreds of people. And it varies on topic. And then we published the answers from different operators from all over the world could be 15 or 20 different answers. And, and it's just super useful. You there, the answers are all over the map. And it just shows that there's more than one way to go about doing things successfully. Yeah,

James Blain 46:32

think one of the things that's really worth mentioning is that you guys are willing to think outside the box. So when Rob and I teamed up and did our benchmark on how long training should take, you know, we decided to take it a little further. Once we had all the information on what everybody was saying and how they were doing it and what they use, we went in and the following month I wrote a article that was, Hey, here's what everybody's saying. Here's how we recommend you do it. Here's how you apply it. Here's how you decide when to go longer. Here's how you decide to go shorter. And one of the coolest things about writing that article was that we got to pull all of those benchmark responses. So it's not just me saying, Hey, this is how you do it. I was able to call back and say, Hey, this is how, you know, this person does it. This is how they're doing it. This is where they found value and really kind of bring that in. And so it kind of leads to this great evolution of always trying to make things better, which I think is awesome. And I can't wait to see how you guys take things even further.

Ken Lucci 47:28

Well, and and the topic is you the topic is not just check off the box for safety Fundamentally corporate America uses us number one reason they use us is safety Because there are other cheaper alternatives. They that's the number one reason they use this for safety is safety number. That's number one. Number two, you've taken a subject that to me is permeating the entire industry is risk mitigation. Your total safety plan as far as I'm concerned, I, in 2025, I think the insurance issue is going to, they're going to, it's going to get worse and they're going to, and they're going to absolutely without question, grill you as far as what your safety program is. Regardless, I don't care if you're, you're still driving on your own. Oh, I'm a good driver. That's not the point.

James Blain 48:19

It's not enough.

Ken Lucci 48:20

a foundational issue. Now, to me, it's one of the pillars of your business. It used to be a check off the box because anybody can get insurance. Not the case now, not the case. And you've taken that subject and you know, where in the industry could you could accept this venue chauffeur driven and the conference, can you wrap your arms around a problem and have the, have the thought leaders right there? So, you know, it's funny. The most backwards, and I'm going to say it, the most backwards companies that I deal with from a financial perspective are the ones that exist in their own little box and they don't go to the shows. I can, I can, I can draw a large black line with a yellow highlighter and tell you the worst companies, regardless of size, by the way, are the ones, it could be a 10 million up or it's, Oh, I haven't been to those shows in year. Yeah. Well, that's why you're so backwards and everything that you do. I mean, you,

Chris Weiss 49:22

It's, it's, it's unbelievable.

Ken Lucci 49:24

you're, you, when you are your own echo chamber, you're not going to be successful when you go to Vegas and you pose questions and say, you know, I'm having a little bit of an issue here. I'm trying to get my reservation is to be more sales and upsell. You know, how are you doing it? Bring the top 10 questions you've got are the top 10 problems and what opportunities and listen. And you know, you, you cannot in this industry, you cannot exist in a vacuum because of the ecosystem,

James Blain 49:57

Get off your island.

Chris Weiss 49:58

Yeah. And in addition to that, to, to add to that. So, you know, this was said to me probably 15, 20 years ago, and it was a friend from Cary, Cary International at the time was like one of the biggest, if not the biggest in the space, they said, even we are not, are not too big to the fact where we don't need people. Everyone needs others. And whether that's clearly you're going to need people in cities that you don't operate. That's obvious You can't operate it. If you're not in that city, you need a you know an affiliate a vendor But even locally is where you're also needing people You know, you're there's going to be a time when you double double booked or you don't have quite have fleet or whatever it may be And and i've seen even more of a reliance on local operators and You You know, having there's still competition out there, but people are playing more nicely with each other than locally than they have in the past.

Ken Lucci 50:57

Do you think that's because of the pandemic?

Chris Weiss 51:00

Yes.

Ken Lucci 51:01

I agree. I think I look, I was not that person I had a long story, but I had a competitor stock me to try to figure out why we were growing so fast. And it really turned me against participating. That was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my business career is there's a guy down there, a great guy down there that I, there's, and they're all over the place. I mean, Mike Rose is the guy in New Jersey now. with the New Jersey Association, but there are, you know, Joe Galeno and there's usually all

Chris Weiss 51:31

Serve on that board.

Ken Lucci 51:32

right. Absolutely. I mean, the people that are in that association, I missed out on that because I let one person say, I'm not going to, I'm not going to go to the West Coast Limousine Association. People, Dave Shaw made ovations for that. to have me join. And I said, No, Dave, I'm not gonna because so and so, you know, was what did something wrong. You can't judge the industry by that minority. You have to adopt the policy of rising tide lifts all boats. You just said something. One of the biggest companies in the industry, the oldest company in the industry, by the way, just changed hands, just was purchased. Very, very, very, very happy to been introduced to the new owners. Just leave it at that. Anyway, everybody, you don't, that's the, that's that they could just adopt the policy of they are their own little brain, their own brain trust. But the reality is across the board, the most backwards companies, regardless of size I have ever seen since 18 in this business are the ones that are their own little, their own little echo chamber. Right? I don't care. I think you could get as much education from a smaller operator as you can from a bigger operator. You never know where the golden nuggets going to come from. So,

Chris Weiss 52:51

I agree. That's why we do a lot of round tables and such because, you know, we, we know that philosophy that not every. You know, not just the four or five people that we put in the front of the room are going to have nuggets of advice. There's, there's people in, you know, in those chairs, in the room, in the seats, in the, on the, you know, sitting around those tables that are doing things that no one thought of or, or, you know, have a different perspective, whether it's fresh or old, whatever it may be. But yeah, that the round tables serve a big, you know, they're great form for that. And that's why we, we keep the round tables in on a, on a consistent basis. You know, for that, that sole purpose, really,

Ken Lucci 53:31

and you know, I think the other misnomer is, well, my business is different and my problems are different. No, they're not. And then everybody at that show has had the same challenges that you've had, whatever they are. I mean, I, I, whatever they are, everybody's been through it. I, you know, I'm having a problem work life balance. Definitely. Everybody in this industry has gone through that. I'm having a problem with finding a good dispatcher. Everybody has been that so you can either go it alone and and you can adopt the island Okay. Or you can literally be part of the ecosystem, which is,

Chris Weiss 54:07

community, this giant community,

Ken Lucci 54:09

it is, it is. And, and again, I've been in four industries. I've never seen where people are so willing to help each other. I look at the answers on Facebook and I got to call them out. Jess Sandu from he's a good

James Blain 54:22

Gotta love Jess. Gotta love

Ken Lucci 54:24

Any mechanical question you have about anything you, you, you go to Jess.

James Blain 54:29

Oh, yeah.

Ken Lucci 54:30

I want you to tell the audience multiply that times at least 5, 000 or 3, 000. You have those experts coming to the show. You have those people that are, that are willing. He does it on Facebook constantly. I give him a hard time from being on Facebook all the time, but at that show, if you come with your top 10 list. Of of question questions that you have and you work them into conversation and you leave with an action plan. I think that you'll get the most out of the show. If if, you know, if you just come into the show to have a party, that's great too, but it's the best place you can go for business development. operational development, you know, I like to think financial development as well. And, and get to know if you want to know how to grow your business as far as revenue, these are the people that you need to spend time with. All right. So let's kind of recap. So from a show perspective, we, we are all going to bring our business cards. We're all going to bring notes on the back because good point. You can't, you can't make notes on a glossy, glossy business cards. We're going to come to the show with a list of, of, of our challenges, maybe our opportunities, our objectives for 25, a

Chris Weiss 55:45

and maybe even, maybe even some people you want to meet.

Ken Lucci 55:48

hundred percent, make a list, make a list, make a list of the people. And it's, it is,

James Blain 55:54

love of God, be genuine.

Ken Lucci 55:55

I know, but at the, you know, at NBJ learn, do your 30 second commercial, come out, come out of your shell. Okay. Be, be, I think, I think you, it's more quality than quantity. Don't leave your business cards everywhere. If you're going to, I, we haven't touched on this affiliate central.

James Blain 56:13

Oh, geez.

Ken Lucci 56:14

Holy moly. It is Scott huge.

Chris Weiss 56:18

The Mosh Pit.

Ken Lucci 56:19

It is a mosh pit. So if I'm coming there and I'm, I'm kind of, we will have the webinar before the show on the state of the industry. And we'll talk about the biggest demographics, the biggest cities for chauffeured, the biggest States for chauffeured, but I would be coming with the idea that I want to give as much as I want to get, and I want to try to. Really get my best relationships in the biggest communities or excuse me, in the biggest. Markets. And that is definitely quality over quantity. You can't just drop a thousand business cards and expect business a hundred

James Blain 56:55

Well, and I think there's a really key point there, and this is, this is older than anyone on this call, but people do business with people they know, like, and trust. If you walk up to me, Shove a business card in my hand and say, Hey, I'm your affiliate and blah, blah, blah. I can take care of your, I can tell you, look, I was at a, I was at a show in Vegas and I was talking to a good friend of mine, Richard, who had just flown in from overseas. And guess what? We are catching up. I'm super excited. And someone walks up to, it's just me and him talking. They walk up and interrupt our conversation, shove business cards in each of our hands and say, Hey, I'm in this city. Can I do your work there? Well, the immediate answer is, well, no, we haven't seen each other since before COVID. We're super excited. Cause we're reconnecting. And not, you haven't come and introduced yourself and said, Hey, I'm new. I'm training to know people like that. You've come and just expected us to give you business one. I can TV each of training. I don't have business to give you, but you didn't take the time to ask. And two, why would he send you business? When you don't even have the courtesy to do that. So you've got to know it's no like and trust. You've got to go in there building relationships, earning trust, earning respect, and trying to earn the business from people

Chris Weiss 58:10

Great.

Ken Lucci 58:10

you, you really, you just had, you just said a mouthful and by the way, you don't lead with, Oh, I have a 2025 Cadillac Escalade ESV. No offense. Okay. So at the one, one advice I would give anybody who perhaps doesn't have the gift of gab, like all three of us is. The book called how to win friends and influence people. Okay. You as a business owner cannot, even though you, if you are an introvert in your private life, which by the way, believe it or not, I've become one, you can't be in your business. You can't be, you cannot be the silent person in the elevator. And so take a look at what you just said. There's an etiquette to creating a business relationship. Affiliate Central without question is the mosh pit. You will be lost if you don't come in with an agenda, with an agenda of the cities and, and what your goals and objectives are, because now after the show. You, you should have that data and you should be sending thank you cards or thank you emails. I personally think the lost art of a thank you note is I mean, I, I was amazed at how many Christmas holiday cards, Christmas cards, and Christmas presents I got from clients this year. I felt a little bit bad because we were so busy. I didn't do anything on our own. I think the art of a thank you note is incredible. Hey, it was James. It was great, Chris. It was great meeting you in Las Vegas. You know, what you said really resonated with me. It is again, your net, your network absolutely equals your ultimate net worth. After the show, the people you meet, I guarantee you 99 out of 100 will answer your call and your email and help you any way they possibly can. And I just don't see that in other industries.

James Blain 1:00:08

And you hit on something and I want you to talk about it for a second here, Chris, because one of the things you hit on was time and place, right? There's a time and place if you're in affiliate central. And if you don't mind, Chris, I'll have you kind of explain for anyone that hasn't been what to expect, but you know, I think, I think time and place because affiliate central is when you actually can lead with, Hey, here's where I'm at, here's what I do. There's that expectation. Can you tell us a little bit, Chris, about, you know, what makes affiliate central different. And what makes the interactions you'd have there different than, you know, when someone walked up and interrupted that conversation I was having.

Chris Weiss 1:00:44

Yeah. So Affiliate Central is, an event within the event and You know, we typically have it in Vegas, about a hundred companies that have tables where they, you know, exhibit their wares and they're from all over the world. You know, probably 20 percent of them are for out from outside the U.S And companies just we open it up to all the attendance. And so there's probably 1000 people or more. 1500 people walking around trying to meet affiliates not only to feed their work too but to obtain work. And it is there's so many people. And that's why I called it a mosh pit. It's you have to be strategic about, you know, where, like You know who you're going to go see, it's just impossible unless you have a handful of people on your staff to hit every single table,

James Blain 1:01:32

Well, and you have to be an operator, right? There's no exhibitors. This is purely operators

Ken Lucci 1:01:36

to operator. That's the best place for operator to operator delivering your 30 second commercial. As to why people should eventually do business with you, understanding that they probably have relationships, right?

Chris Weiss 1:01:49

but, but everyone needs more than

Ken Lucci 1:01:53

Especially now, especially after the pandemic.

Chris Weiss 1:01:56

tertiary. So yeah, you know, even though at the moment you might hand a card to someone and they don't need that affiliate in your market, that doesn't mean that at some point they're not going to. And it doesn't mean that someone's not going to you know, that their current affiliate just can't handle the work or something, something blows up or whatever it may be, but opportunities do present themselves. And yeah, you know, going around making the rounds, that's where you get that opportunity to, you know, to meet the other operators and like you gents were saying, it's really, you know, specifically for operators and not to the, you know, suppliers and vendors in the industry. There. You know, there's plenty of events that we have and host for, for everyone, but that's the one event that's very operator centric.

Ken Lucci 1:02:42

And and I'm just going to give a shout out also, if you want to be taken seriously as someone to do work or. To be the, the go to person or the top five grow to people in a specific city. You also should have, you should have a presence in the magazine in the, in the affiliate side in the affiliate section. In addition to that, because you'll be able to say in my 30 second commercial, listen, here's my business card, but if you lose me, I'm in the affiliate directory. The other piece of it is don't just take the business card and put it in a stack. Make it part of your monthly communication. Tell people after the shows. Tell people of any development in your market or what you're doing. A friend, excuse me, a client and friend just bought a jet sprinter. And I said to him, he said, this is the only one in the market. Okay. Thank you for telling me. But you need to now tell every one of your affiliates and your top 100 customers that you now have this jet sprinter.

Chris Weiss 1:03:41

And chauff And chauffeur driven, for that matter. You send us a press release, we run it in our e newsletter.

Ken Lucci 1:03:45

percent, a hundred percent. You're always looking, you're always, and you know, you'd never turn down. Anything newsworthy. That's one thing I've noticed about the magazine. And so it's upon you as the owner of your business. Again, no one's going to do PPC ads are great, but they're not going to do it in this area. You need to own these relationships and create these relationships. And I feel bad for the guys that think they can do it as an island. They don't think that they need anybody, or I don't take in affiliate work. Well, let me tell you something, adding affiliate work, because I was one of them in the beginning, But adding affiliate work allows you to pay your insurance bill, you know, for that extra two or three rides for the week. Or, or, you know, hopefully the minibus, when you tell people you have a brand spanking new Sprinter, et cetera, et cetera, it helps you with just prime the pump with revenue that you need. The other piece of this puzzle is. Don't be afraid to tell your best clients that you can help them in any city that they travel to ask the question, where do you travel? I'm taking you to the airport. Where do you go? Consistently as a business person. Let me do it for you with one secure transaction. Nothing is going to get the attention. Of an affiliate in that city, like you sending them work and actually paying by credit card the same day. So at the end of the day, it's, it's a give and take. It's not, it's not just, oh, I don't want to do a ton of affiliate work on my own. First of all, very myopic thinking. The second of all is you have the ability to turn every one of your transactions, your one way into a round trip, your round trip. Into other segments where they're traveling secure transaction. I'm going to track you around the country, just the way I've tracked you here. They're going to show up early. This is the same level of service. I think it's a great opportunity. It's an easy way to grow your business without buying metal.

Chris Weiss 1:05:42

There's endless missed opportunities, not only with, you know, that airport work and, you know, landing in another city, but even Local stuff and, you know, asking, it's asking questions and trying to figure out what their needs are. People love one stop shops. People love to have their lives made easy and if you can present them with solutions and they don't have to really think about it, they're going to take you up on it. It's, you know, there's a, there are not many, but there are some operators in the space who have taken that to the nth degree. And are really concierges for their clientele. They will find homes for them. They will help them move they will you know do do like personal things for them and it and it goes way above and beyond just providing transportation a to b So it's endless really where you can take

Ken Lucci 1:06:34

And that's, you know, it's so interesting. The small guys, I can tell you that the number one reason, the number one way I grew my business is being that person. For a small group of people in the beginning, and then you groom other people to deliver that kind of service. The way you did, but small operators can compete just as, as, as the bigs can. If you don't want to tell the world, Hey, I'm, I can provide a service for you everywhere. No, start with your top 50 customers and the place you're going to find out about who the best people are, are in Vegas, not on Facebook. Okay. It's Vegas. It's Hey, James, who do you use in Boston? Who do you trust in Boston? Oh, yeah. Oh, I use these three. These three are my go tos. You know, it, it, it, it gets me a little bit crazy that people are trusting us with the safest form of community of transportation, right? And that's what we're known for in chauffeured. If the safest way on ground is to use this industry, but yet on Facebook, if five o'clock at night, I need somebody at six o'clock in the morning in Naples. Okay. And I, I'm going to text you my customer, right? Who, who that is. But at the end of the day, pick out the top 10 cities that your customers travel to your customers. It's like knowing when they come into your restaurant, what their favorite drink is, and then go to Vegas. They listen, you know, I really need somebody in Los Angeles. Who do you use? This is who I trust here. Tell them I told you, tell them I told you to call. Again, building out your network,

Chris Weiss 1:08:09

Really great advice

James Blain 1:08:10

Well, and I think it's funny because we've talked about just how jam packed these shows are, and obviously this has become one of our longer episodes, and we're just scratching the surface. So as we kind of wrap up, I'd love to ask you one last thing, Chris. What's the future look like for chauffeur driven? What's, is there anything you can tell us about what's coming down the pike, what we can expect, what you guys are working on, kind of what that future holds for chauffeur driven.

Chris Weiss 1:08:34

Yeah, well, you know, we're, we're very close to launching a brand new website and hopefully within the next 30 to 60 days, closer to the 30 side. And that's, that's the first time that we've produced a new site since we launched the company in, in 2012, 13. So we're super excited about that. It's, you know, a lot, a lot more and newer and fresher content. Yeah, it, it's it, it's a complete and total redo and, and overhaul and so really excited about that.

Ken Lucci 1:09:04

big investment.

Chris Weiss 1:09:05

A big investment. It was more the time, I mean, you know, clearly big investment financially, but it's the time because we, there's a lot of content that we've accumulated over the decades and over the last decade plus, and, and so, you know, organizing that and have it searchable and. And, you know, making it so that it's a really, really useful tool for people with all of the historic data and all of the information from past issues and, and making it so that everything's tagged so that you could search and really find the stuff that you're looking for was, was a huge, huge task, but we're super stoked about it. We've got a you know, a new affiliate section too. We were talking about the affiliate world, which is way, way more robust than anything that we've ever done. And, and, and that'll, you know, ties in with the affiliate directory in the magazine as well. And we just, we felt that was an area that we, you know, we needed to vastly improve with

Ken Lucci 1:10:01

One of the best investments you can make is to, is to, is to give yourself that credibility by being in the magazine and now.

Chris Weiss 1:10:10

on the online directory,

Ken Lucci 1:10:11

On the online directory, I got to tell you, I think it's going to be, it's much needed, it's much needed, so now people won't necessarily think the first thing I'm going to do is post on Facebook that I need a ride tomorrow morning at seven o'clock,

Chris Weiss 1:10:23

And what's cool about this new directory is it's, you know, people get to manage their own profiles where you can upload videos, you can upload photos, you can make alterations, change it, list, you know, there'll be opportunities to list out all the airports that you serve, You know, secondary markets. It's, it's you know, a lot more complex than anything we've ever done. So we're super, super stoked about that. And, you know, I would say you know, people think that print is dead, but we see it differently. The magazine only spikes when we print. And when we decided to not print for a bit after COVID, we seeing a fall off and when we made the decision to go back to print, it jumped, it punched so much life back into the magazine and. So for the foreseeable future, we're, we're still rolling that way, but we're putting a lot more energy into digital as well with the revamp of the website, you know, the constant information that we're putting out on social media as well as our e newsletter. And we're seeing, you know, more content that we funnel to the site and revenue wise, we're seeing our revenues digitally passing our revenues in print. Even though it's all tied together, it's all the same time that we tie together through the website, you know, we're seeing that shift and, you know, we're still seeing people who want to subscribe to the print quite a bit, you know,

Ken Lucci 1:11:42

The tangibility, the tangibility and touchability, it's pretty, it's pretty damn good quality.

Chris Weiss 1:11:47

it's there and yeah, when, you know, it was COVID that forced us to you know, to, to stop printing, but it, it, it didn't, it took less than a year to realize that that was the wrong, you know, it was a decision we had to make. Okay. But we realized that we had to, to rethink that decision and, and, and relaunch and yeah, we're, we're just, you know, just like we were doing with the safety you know, the safety column and, and you know, the, the new content that we put in the magazine, just always thinking of fresh stuff and always trying to, you know, keep it more interactive, more so the new site. We'll also have more surveys, more benchmarking questions. And then the ability to see the results live as well as the results on past questions that we've done. And that should be super useful. And yeah, we're, we're, we're excited about that.

Ken Lucci 1:12:35

I mean, it's a big investment, but I think it's going to be very well worth it. I really do.

James Blain 1:12:41

Well, and Chris, we can't thank you enough for coming onto the show. We were excited to have you. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell everyone, yes, of course, both Ken and I will be there, we'll be on the show floor. We are actually side by side, so we will be, I will be in booth 45, Ken will be in booth 43,

Ken Lucci 1:12:56

We need to, we didn't give the dates. We didn't give the

James Blain 1:12:59

That's, that's right. So, For those of you that don't know, this show is February 23rd through 26th. We are at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas, right? Chris,

Chris Weiss 1:13:10

We are.

James Blain 1:13:10

what else do they need to know? If you are crazy enough to have not registered by now, what do they have to do to get registered? What do they have to do to make sure they've got a room to stay in and they're ready to go?

Chris Weiss 1:13:21

Yeah, really just go, go to the website. See it at cdnlavegas.com cdnlavegas.com cdnlavegas.com cdnlavegas. com.

Ken Lucci 1:13:26

Easy. cdnlavegas.com

James Blain 1:13:30

Well, again, Chris, thank you for coming on. Like I said, everybody, if you haven't subscribed to us already, make sure you subscribe. If you're coming to Vegas, which if you're listening to this, you probably should come and see us. We'll be in the center of the show floor and we will look forward to talking to everyone again on the next episode of the ground transportation podcast.

1:13:48

Thank you for listening to the ground transportation podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe to the show on apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more information about PAX training and to contact James, go to PAX training.com. And for more information about driving transactions and to contact Ken, Go to driving transactions.com. We'll see you next time on the ground transportation podcast.