SPEAKER_02 0:00

As we're going into the next year, I'm freaking out. And I'm like, okay, gotta really figure this out. So I had to dig a little bit deeper. And then I decided to join the chamber in my local town of Falver, California. I joined the chamber and then the gal tells me, Did you know we have about seven wedding venues? We have some wineries here. I'm sure they could use your services. So I went home, I researched them, I start emailing them, and crickets. No one's replying back to me, no one's answering my calls, or at least not the people who I need to answer the call. So I go to the next chamber meeting and I said, Gosh, Jackie, I'm not having any luck getting through to anyone.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

And she says to me, You're listening to the Ground Transportation Podcast with Ken Lucci of Driving Transactions and James Blaine of PAX Training. Learn how you can build a thriving transportation business with real profits, repeat clients, and enterprise value. And now for your hosts, Ken and James.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Good afternoon, Ground Transportation Podcast audience. My name is Ken Lucci from Driving Transactions. I am usually joined by my partner in the podcast, James Blaine from PAX Training. But James is out, no doubt, training a group of chauffeurs. So I miss you, James, but I am really blessed this afternoon to be joined by a serial entrepreneur, a lovely lady named Jamara Gonzalez, who is the founder of Magic Carpet Shuttle and Tours. Welcome. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Fantastic, Ken. I'm honored to be on the show today, so thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Okay, just so you know, no need to be nervous. Frankly, you have a face for television. I have a face for radio. So you reached out to us, and we are really, really encouraging operators that are new to the game or newer to contact us because we want to have more smaller and successful operators on the podcast. So, first question to you, just tell me, just tell me your origin story, tell me past careers, your family. I know you told me a little bit about it, but tell me all about you, and then we'll get into this business that you've created.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Awesome, Ken. So I am born and raised in San Diego, California, the best place on earth, and we pay for the sunshine tax. And recently I relocated to Las Vegas, and I'm truly loving my experience here. My background is in financial institutional sales. So I worked for JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Citibank, which was the last institution that I worked for as a relationship manager. In 2022, I was picking up my daughter from school one day. Normally she'd go to after school program, but I got out of work early and I said, Oh, I'm gonna pick her up right after school's out. Little backstory San Diego and a lot of California has gotten rid of their school buses. So unless you are special needs, there was no school bus available for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

For anything after school. So you're either on the school bus right when school is out, or what happened?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Your parents are picking you up.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Oh, sure. And they're all right, they're all just sitting around. They're not working two family incomes to stay in San Diego.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

To survive, you know, minimum $250,000 households to survive there. So that day I said, Oh, how exciting! I'm gonna go pick her up from school, and had no idea that it looked like the exit of Coachella waiting for me at the school. Yeah, it took me about an hour, Ken. Yep, an hour to pick up my daughter from school that day. But in that hour, a light bulb went off. So probably about 30 minutes into the ride, I'm sitting there because I'm just beside myself. I said, parents do this every day. Gotta be a better way. There's no way you do this every single day. Exactly. How you said, how do people survive? People work, all these things. So then immediately a little light bulb goes off. And I said, gosh, what if I got my commercial driver's license, a van, and parents paid me to do this? Because recently we had a couple new developments in our area. We're talking 800, 900 million dollar homes, where I said, Well, clearly these parents need to work, right? In order to be able to sustain these homes. So by the time my daughter gets in the car, I've got a full-blown business plan in my head that the little wheels are turning. So I spend the next couple of weeks doing a little bit of research, trying to see if there's something similar, and I'm not finding anything. So I come to my husband, as I have with other ideas in the past, but this is probably the biggest. And I said, Hey, might sound a little crazy, but all I need is your support. I was like, everything else I'll take care of from there. But I said, I want to quit my career, you know, my high-paying corporate career that I've had for almost 20 years, and I'm gonna start a shuttle service. And I'm gonna be the one to take kids to and from school. And in a sense, and here was the selfish part is that I could be with my own kids because as a working parent, it is the most, I would say rewarding, but something that almost feels unattainable to be able to pick up your kids every single day, to be there for them right after school and make those snacks and not send them to after school program till 6 p.m. So to me, that was a big deal. And I had an incoming kindergartner that following year. So to me, it sounded like it made perfect sense. And so it did. I heard this great quote the other day. Every time I shared the idea with everyone, everyone, that is the best idea ever. What a great idea! So, of course, you hear that and you're like, gosh, I'm a genius. I really came up with a good one. This is all gonna be great. So give it about another 60 days, and I am in truck driving school, getting my CDL alongside people who are getting their second chances in life. Good for you. Good for you. So it was it was pretty funny how that all worked out.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Grit right there. That's the definition of grit. So flash forward for me, you get your CDL with a passenger endorsement. What do you do from there?

SPEAKER_02 6:23

I use my marketing experience, sales experience from my time at the bank, and I begin marketing in the neighborhood. I'm walking door to door, dropping off flyers that I created. I'm contacting the school, I'm contacting different programs to see if there's a need for this service because I had ran the math. And the math was every seat had to be filled in order for me to be able to sustain myself. And this is a whole new endeavor. And I began to get inquiries, but the inquiries were more like, oh, can we do one way? Can we do three days a week? And then that started to feel like a babysitting service instead of a business I was trying to go into. So the first year I made five thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

You made five thousand, or that was your total revenue?

SPEAKER_02 7:12

That was my total revenue, it was five thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Okay. I'm sensing a pivot coming on.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

So immediately, you know, as we're going into the next year, I'm freaking out. And I'm like, okay, gotta really figure this out. So I had to dig a little bit deeper. And then I decided to join the chamber in my local town of Falver, California. Cute little quaint town. I joined the chamber and then the gal tells me, Did you know we have about seven wedding venues? We have some wineries here. I'm sure they could use your services. So I went home, I researched them, I start emailing them, and crickets. No one's replying back to me, no one's answering my calls, or at least not the people who I need to answer the call. So I go to the next chamber meeting and I said, Gosh, Jackie, I'm not having any luck getting through to anyone. And she says to me, Can you write an email that I can send on my behalf and with what you want me to tell them? And I said, Awesome. She got me in through the back door. And now some of those wedding venues are producing hundreds of thousands of dollars for me in revenue every year.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Okay. So let's just just talk this through because I've done this myself when I was much younger, and lots more hair. I might not have, I might have a hair issue because of the ideas I've had. Anyway, I've done the same thing. I've started businesses thinking I'm gonna go in this direction. Okay, and the idea, the most important thing of an entrepreneur is number one, absolutely no way of giving up. Don't give up. Don't just don't give up. Run through the walls, whatever it takes. So what you did was you started on the premise that you're going to you're gonna pick up kids after school, drop them off, and and you said, This is not working. Great idea, but it's not working for a variety of reasons. Some logistics, some financial, and then you decide you're gonna join the chamber, traditional marketing, right? I'm happy you didn't say to me, I went to my husband, we maxed out our credit cards to do Google ads, etc. So you pivot. By the way, the most important thing here, besides the pivot, you recognized you had to pivot, is you networked and you found a key influencer in your market. Okay, you've created that relationship. She was in charge of the chamber, right? Okay, it is her job to put people together, but you did something incredibly important. She obviously trusted you, she liked you, and she put her name on what you were trying to do. Priceless, totally priceless, and that is the definition of networking. To me, that's what so many people don't do. So, flash forward, you start working with these wedding venues, and at that point you had your own sprinter?

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Yep. So I had my one sprinter van, and so when I would get an inquiry, I'd be so excited to share with them everything I could do with my one sprinter van. But then when it was an inquiry that needed more than a sprinter van, I had no idea what to do. Because remember, Ken, I didn't think I was getting into the transportation business. I don't know exactly what I thought I was getting into. I just thought I was shuttling kids to and from school. Sure. So there was this amazing pivot. Once again, you know, relationships. I got invited to a Christmas party of a gal that I had met that was in the wedding industry. And there I met a lady who ran a local hotel, and she told me on January 1st at 2 p.m., we're celebrating the anniversary of the hotel opening the previous year. She said, You should come because I have some of my transportation friends from San Diego who were going to be there. And this is gonna be a great opportunity for you. Well, what would a lot of people on January 1st at 2 p.m. be doing? They're getting over last night. Sleeping it off.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

By the way, any limo guy, because I've done this, I you know, all the vehicles were out. I was sweeping the floor and then popping champagne at one o'clock and going home and sleeping. Sleeping there. So, how did it work out?

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So I got myself out of bed at around noon. I said, This is you can't pass this up, you know. So I've there's too few opportunities that you've had at this moment, so you can't pass it up. So I go there, I meet three established operators, and one of whom I love this quote that he gave us there at the table. He said, We're not competitors, we're allies. Because he said, One day you might need me, another day I might need you. I came from the cutthroat world of finance. You were not allies with Schwab Fidelity, you know, it was you against me.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Okay, so let's stop there for a second. Do you want to give him a shout out? Who he is?

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Yeah, Fari Chieman from Highline Charter.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Very well known in the industry. Again, true story. Number one, I absolutely think his mentality is how local companies become regional companies. And because the same thing happened to me when I started as an operator, worst kind of operator in the world. I loved cars and I had money. Oh man, dangerous. I mean, I hired a great consultant, his name is Tommy Mazza, and Tommy said, Lucci, you are my best client and the worst kind of person to be in limo. Yeah, best client because you have money, okay, and worst client because you love cars, okay. I didn't do that. I did not do what you did. I had the these people my competitors' attitude. I was raised by a guy who was very successful, and other people that owned his grocery business, anybody who owned a grocery business in the area, they hated each other. It was bad, right? So that's how I went into it. That was my number one mistake is not realizing what the affiliate partnerships can mean both locally and nationally. How did you capitalize on this relationship?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

So about a week later, it already came to fruition. Part of what I had been doing in the months leading up to this was local hotels and venues. I'm dropping off cookies, I'm dropping off cards, I'm establishing relationships. Who cares that I only have a sprinter? I can do just enough with that sprinter, right? To survive. So about a week later, actually on January 9th, I get an email from a gal who has a corporate group coming in, and she was referred to me through a local Weston hotel. And she says, We have 120 people who need shuttle service from the airport. And San Diego to Carlsbad is about a 45-minute ride. Wow. So I said, let's figure this one out. So I reached out, those three people that I met that day. I reached out to all three. Two were like, uh, that's not really like they want the really big jobs, you know. And then Farry said, Absolutely, no problem. We can help you take care of that.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Number two, number two thing this guy gets right. Okay, then he taught you. He said yes. Always say yes, right? Yes, always, always, always. Okay, keep going.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yep. So that was the start of it. And I was like, Oh, wait a minute. So essentially, I can sell more than just my sprinter. Yep. And I had had the thought process that in order to grow my business, I was gonna need more vehicles. So I had exhausted a lot of energy on like, year two, how do I afford a bus? And that was all blown up. And it was in the most beautiful way. I'm so happy it happened before I got myself into, you know, another liability.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

There's no way you could have survived in financial services unless you did networking. So that's most likely where you learned it, right? 100%. So you start networking at the chambers, you're instantly starting to be recommended by hotels. We kind of did the same thing. We're extremely good at promotions. You've got a great website. Talk to me about how you evolved your website. What was your revenue second year after we had the 5,000?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

So the very first year was 5,000. The second year was 80,000. Okay. But then the third year is when I started to figure some stuff out. And that was when I met this affiliate. So I met him in January. And that third year, we did 250,000 in revenue. Nothing wrong with that. Yep. And you see, that tripled from just my sprinter the year before. Yep. So the systems were working with marketing, but it was just the sprinter, right? So now I was able to bring on, hey, I can offer he has a large fleet. So it gave me carte blanche pretty much of whatever we needed. And then we just kind of began to snowball. And it's like anything, things build upon themselves. I love the quote: you got to give time time in any business.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

You're right. And time is your really your only competitor. Meaning it's it's it's of course, capital is a scarce resource, but time is the most valuable resource as well. So flash forward a little bit. Your website is ride magic shuttle.com. Anybody who listens to this should look at your website because what I like about it is the beauty of our industry is you can make your company look much bigger than it is. And you you've got who trusts you for customers, you've got the types of service that you offer. Talk to me about the evolution of your technology, you the way electronically you promoted your business.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Yeah, so this was the third iteration of the website. And it's as I became very clear on who my ideal client profile is. I am going for a more affluent type of clientele. I do a lot of weddings, I do some conferences as well, but I've realized that I found a little space for me and my business in the wedding niche. I network very thoroughly with wedding planners in the area. I attend a lot of events. And what's really cool is that when you go to an event industry networking event, you're usually the only one in transportation there. So I spend more time at those types of events than maybe at transportation networking events, which are important as well. But you have to go where your clients are. And if you give yourself the competitive advantage to be there, to be able to answer questions, for them to see your face, they have your cell phone. That has been my competitive advantage with wedding planners. And when they bring me a job, the jobs are usually between four to eight thousand dollars for a wedding. So these aren't, you know, we're not battling for airport transfers or things like that. That's part of an add-on into the package. That's not the main service being provided.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

So, how is business this year? 2026 is a little strange. I mean, we're doing a mid-year economic re review. We're sending something out. Many of my clients are doing extremely well. Actually, all the retained clients are doing very, very well. But some people are telling me I'm a little bit down, right? So, where are you this year as far as your revenue compared to last year?

SPEAKER_02 19:28

We are at 79.5% of last year's revenue. Yep. And we're only 45% of the year.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

So it is very exciting for us.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

So you evolved the website, but now talk to me about you're a solopreneur. How did you create the internal processes? And then let's talk a little bit about after that first year of pivot. We're going to talk a little bit about what kept you motivated. But talk to me about how you built out your processes and built out your tech. Your website is very tech enabled. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

So in 2024, I used to listen a lot to a podcast called The Thrive Time Show with Clay Clark. He's out of Coastal, Oklahoma. Thrive Time Show. Yep. Business podcast, Clay Clark shout out, amazing. The amount of resources he would give away for free that were through his website on the podcast. So I spent about two years listening to him. And finally I told my husband, I was like, I've got to go to the in-person business conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So June 2024, I fly to Tulsa all by myself because I knew that I am ready to be able to take this to the next level. And remember, in 2024, we ended the year with $250,000 in revenue. But when I was flying into Tulsa, we only had $63,000 in revenue on the books. So by the end of that conference, I hired Clay to be my business coach. And we spent the next year working together. And I think that was a huge pivot for me and for my business to be able to create the repeatable systems and to be able to continue to strengthen all the marketing relationships.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

So talk about that. 23, you were 250,000. Nope.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

23, I did 80,000.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

80,000. Okay. And so talk to me about the impact of the coach and then let's unpack that a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

It's invaluable to be able to invest in yourself. I think in many industries, people don't realize the importance of being able to fold time. Essentially, you can be able to learn from somebody else who's been there, who's done that, and a business coach who's worked with thousands of people in different industries. You know, I'll be honest, it was probably a handful of takeaways that I got from my training with Clay that have been able to accelerate my business.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

So quantify the dollars.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Hundreds of thousands. And I probably spent $25,000 on coaching and it's turned into hundreds of thousands.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

We're going to talk about how supportive your husband is in a second. But it basically you tripled your revenue from the previous year, and you still only had one sprinter.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Only one sprinter. And listen, some months were tight where it was like, hey, pay for coaching, and you just got a little tiny bit left for yourself. But I knew that in time that would pay off. And you know, that's the heart of an entrepreneur. You just got to keep going.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Listen, being an entrepreneur is number one, being able to take pain over and over. And second of all, it's if you fail and you give up, you weren't meant to be an entrepreneur.

unknown 22:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Because right. The re go back to W-2 because the reality is success is fleeting. Success is fantastic, but it's fleeting. We had a saying when I was in sales management, managing 120 sales guys in the security industry. They'd come in with a big month, fantastic month. We'd celebrate them. And now the next day I would say, So what have you done for me lately? So the reality, right? So it's quick. But when we talked before, we had talked about a concept that Listen, I'm 61 and I love to. I think I learn more every day now because I read so much more. But John DeJulius, oh, by the way, this came in, which is John de Julius' new book, Customer Service Revolution. And when I when I interviewed John, he's and we've not published it yet. John talked to me and I talked to you about a concept called bought business versus earned. Everything you've done, you're earning. Meaning the hard way. The hard way. But wait a minute. You're networking. People believe in you. They're passing your name around. You're creating a growth flywheel that costs you much less than just throwing out so many thousands and thousands of dollars on Google Ads. And the concept of bot versus earned customers, bot is when you do those, and there's nothing wrong with Google Ads, there's nothing wrong with SEO, but you're buying that lead, you're going to have to convert. The concept of earned is when someone feels so highly about you, they're so impressed with you, they trust you so much that they are blessing you with a referral of a new customer. That's the difference between bought and earned. And as an industry, I have to say it, we do a terrible job at the earned part because the earned is more traditional. So I have to stop. I've never met this man, but I look forward to meeting this man. Your husband, every time you go back to this guy, by the way, tell tell us about him.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Yes. Okay, so my husband and I, we've been married a long time. We weren't high school sweethearts, but not too far from that, right? We're kids, I should say. And so he's a barber. We own a barber shop that's been around for 13 years. And what he says to me on my current journey is that you always supported me, so how could I not support you? Oh. And I think that's one of those things that when it's a true partnership, you know, you're there for each other on the good days, on the hard days, celebration. I need a hug. I've been kicked in my shit for three days in a row.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

No, and guess what? No negativity, no judgment.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

And you know, two entrepreneurs, you get it, right? Versus if the other one, you know, wasn't, they'd be like, Well, why don't you just go back to your job? It's like real, it's not quite that easy, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

There's no question. So, first and foremost, I 1000% agree with a business coach. Okay. I have a relationship with a guy that that I've known forever. His name is Steve Firestone. Steve's been on this podcast before, and he owns Firestone Strategies. It was a C-suite and Office Depot. We met 150 years ago in the security space, and he's my business coach. Lovely. So I'm heading down to Miami to do a session with him at the chauffeur-driven executive conference. But we are spending the day before working on my business. What's the next level for us, if you will? So I would I'd like you to repeat the podcast and the business coach for the audience again. Who who was that?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

So it's the Thrive Time Show by Clay Clark in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Clay has been doing what he's been doing for over 20 years. He actually started as a DJ. So he started as DJ business, and then he turned it in, he made millions from that, but obviously from lots of hard work, lots of grinding, and then he learned ways to do this better, right? And he talked about, I think it's Chet Holmes, the Dream 100 list, and all those things that were taught to me. I I was learning them. Listen, my CRM was a Google sheet for probably the first year and a half of the business. And then I have a sheet that I still have. Well, I've evolved with my CRM, but sure, of all the venues and who were the contacts there, and what was the last time I dropped off cookies and cards? And you might be shocked to hear this, Ken, but I've never spent a dollar on Google ads. I also haven't paid for Yelp ads because we learned from the barber shop that it's kind of a ripoff.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

So you're trending at what $750,000?

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Yeah. So this year we're looking to hopefully double last year. Okay. So maybe a little more.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

So at the end of the day, you can make a nice six figures at this. How have you found your affiliate partners? Do they appreciate the business that you're sending them?

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Absolutely. I think they see me as an extension of their sales team.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

And once I learned the value, the true value that I was bringing, because once, you know, you start doing the end-of-the-year calculations and you see that you're sending each of them more than six figures, then it's like, hey, can we sit down and talk? Because I think that this is more than just like those one-off here, I'm going to send you a referral or I need this job covered. This is literally, I'm working for you.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

There's no question about it. And again, somebody made a comment to me the other day. What's the secret to your success? I said, My failures, I don't really consider myself that much of a success, but it's definitely my failures. And all of my retained clients, I typically start an email with, hey, last night I was thinking about this. Here's the things we need to worry about. And they're like, Ken, you know, why do you have time to think about this stuff in the shower? You have a bunch of retained clients. I said, because I'm not running a limo company. I mean, I'm not worried about, you know, drivers being on time, all these other things.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

I mean, listen, we were great at it. Okay. And the funniest thing in the world is some of my retained clients now are guys that I hung out with back then, right? So your story is an inspiration in the space. A few things were when we met, we talked about obviously I checked out your website, checked out the reviews. The fact that you've not spent a dime on Google Ads. Your website is very well placed on Google in San Diego.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

I have over 200 five-star Google reviews.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

So, how important do you think those are to your success? How important have they been?

SPEAKER_02 29:02

That was one of the things from my business coach. He hammered it like every single week. There were it was a minimum expectation of how many Google reviews I needed to have. So you'll find this kind of funny. And so when I'd be driving the sprinter, I had a whole strategy, right? I'd look at the map, and when we were eight minutes away from the destination, I would lower the music just a little bit and I'd say, hey, everyone, got a quick public service announcement for you. And I'd say, Hey, my name's Jamara. I'm the owner of Magic Carpet Shuttle. I'm a small business. Is everyone enjoying themselves? Yeah. Woo!

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Can everybody pull their phones out real quickly? I'm gonna have you Google Magic Carpet Shuttle. Do you mind leaving me a review of what your experience has been? It really means the world to me. And listen, if there was 10, 12 people, and then if even two or three of them did it, that's a win. Right. And then what I would do is once we got to the destination, the person who hired me, bridegroom, whoever it is, I'd say, hey, Casey, can I get just 30 seconds of your time? Right. Sure, Jamara, what is it? At this point, we're like besties. You know, we've been working together to make sure we have everything dialed in for their day. Right. And I'd say, I just need a quick video review of what your experience has been. So you pull them to the side. Clay taught me, right? You gotta record it horizontal so it can go on YouTube and back for its testimonials on my website. And then they would share. Those things have made my service undeniable. Because here's the thing Google, Yelp, they're all public services. They're available to everyone. So if you're terrible, people are gonna go on there and tell others. If you're great, people you have to, you know, give them a little nudge a lot of times, right? But people can go on there and share that as well. So it's hard to lie in that space.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

No, there's no question about it. I always brag on him all the time. He's a very good friend, Doug Schwartz, that owns executive in on Long Island. And I think he's surpassed 3,500 five-star reviews. Another, not a client, but a great friend is Carl Gunther on the NLA board that owns Statement.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Cleveland.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

He's like killed it on social media, five-star reviews all over the place. And that's when you transcend to me. That's when you transcend, and that's when you start to get it as an operator that the point A to point A logistics is literally the yes, 100% has to be perfect. Okay. But the hospitality that you deliver and the wow factor that you can deliver is gonna make your brand name and your reputation. Yeah, and there's no question that we are in an industry where hospitality is just as important as getting me from A to B. It's it's because otherwise you could just take an Uber. No question. No question. And I was gonna ask you, how do you deal with price objections? First of all, you're dealing with affiliates that are gonna give you a good rate because you do good business with them, you're obviously marking it up to make a profit. How do you deal with price objections?

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Yeah, I'm 32% more expensive than, you know, at the very least, than my competitors, aka my affiliates and others in the area. Number one, those reviews are huge. Yeah because hey, I'm over here, I'm like, awesome. If you're comparing me to somebody who has 24 reviews and they're mixed at a 3.7, that's not competition because the concierge level of service that you're gonna get from us is a big difference, right? Number one. Number two, we came referred from your venue. Your venue's not gonna refer us if we're not good. Yeah. Because they're putting our their name on our service. Or, you know, and then it once again, another price adjection. I tell them, I'm like, okay, paint the picture for me. How would you like this date ideally go? And I'm able to, because I've done this so much, I can say, hey, why don't we switch the vehicle size? Or why don't we have just this vehicle do a couple trips instead of you needing two separate vehicles and that can help save you money. And people like that because at the end of the day, I don't want to come off as a greedy person, right? The price is the price, but if there's a way that I can make this work for you, and you know, then they go back to the venues like, oh, she was so nice, she really helped us. That to me is the biggest win.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

And for all the operators that are out there that are starting out, just give us a couple of recommendations you would have for them.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Number one, I would say be easy on the liabilities that you take on early on. I talk to other operators, and many times it's like, I've got an escalade and I want to go buy a sprinter, but they barely have enough business coming in for the escalate. Oh, trust me. It's very easy to get into debt because unfortunately at the dealership, they'll approve almost anybody. Yeah, you know, and it's a lot harder to get out of it. So I would say be very conscientious of how much debt you incur because capital is like oxygen, yeah, and debt will suck it all out. No question. In my first season, when I finally started thinking, I knew what I was doing, right? And I was doing a lot of weddings, I had no idea the seasonality that the wedding industry had. And in our area, particularly, it's due to the heat. So everything's great, March, April, May. And I'm like, I figured it out. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

And then June comes, the phone starts ringing less and less. July, it's like the phone. I would call myself from my husband's phone just to make sure that the phone still worked. How'd you deal with the downtimes? Gosh, stress, freaking out. Wondering if, but you know, before I left my job, I had bandwidth, right? I had a parachute just in case, but you don't want to go through that. So, anyways, you got to be able to survive those downtimes because every industry has them. And then the number one tip I would say, especially operators who are paying for leads and such, work your leads. Work your leads. Follow up with your leads. People do not follow up and they wonder hey, listen, when I'm closing two, three, four, five thousand dollar jobs, it's not because I sent one quote and then they replied, Awesome, Jamara, this is perfect. That rarely happens, okay?

SPEAKER_01 36:13

100%. First of all, life gets in the way, okay? They'll send out and they'll get three prices. Maybe you're in the middle, maybe you're the highest, and they don't make a decision, right? You assume they did. Okay. You start getting a little resentful. No, don't do that. Reach out. Hey, you know what? I just had a question. Can we hop on the phone together? Yeah, I had another idea.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

There's something that kind of worked for you.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

So give me your cadence. What's your lead? If I'm a wedding lead, you know, let's just paint a picture. I'm an older guy. I'm an older guy, I'm an older guy. Oh, I deal with dads all the time. I'm an older guy marrying a 31-year-old. Only kidding. Stop it. Stop it. You're gonna get in trouble, Ken. By the way, do you deal with a lot of grooms or brides? Or is it always the bride?

SPEAKER_02 36:52

No, you're gonna laugh. So this is my theory. I deal with a lot of grooms because I think that the bride is dealing with everything. And she says to him, You gotta do something. You handle the transportation.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

No, because this is the best part. When I do call, when the lead comes in, right? And I call and I'm like, hey, Ken, it's Jamar from Magic Harpy Shuttle. Just received your lead. Love to be able to chat a little bit more about what you're needing, right? So why don't you paint the picture for me? And then he starts to stumble through the words. He doesn't know what time they need to arrive at the venue. And then you hear the bride in the background, and she says, We gotta be there at one. You guys have to be there too. And then I'm like, Oh, what's your bride's name? And then at that point, she goes on speaker and takes over the call. So it's pretty fantastic, and I enjoy it. And what I tell them, like, let's say the bride's not there and it's just the groom and I, I tell them, Hey, I'm gonna make you look really good.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

There you go. So you give them the quote, tell me what happens after that if they don't respond to you. What do you do?

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Yeah, if they don't respond, we have a sequence of light touches, right? A text message, an email, and these are all spread out originally over 14 days. And then we have a long nurture process because a lot of times we're already booking, you know, today I talked to a bride for next March. We've got bookings already a year from now. So people are thinking far out, and sometimes it takes a little bit longer. Like you said, they get busy, they got the initial quote to kind of get an idea. But just because they didn't just book doesn't mean you write them off. You keep nurturing, or they get an email from me that says, Hey, top tips when you're planning transportation. So what is that doing? That's just keeping me a friend of mine compared to the operator who sent the quote, had an automated follow-up two days later, maybe one more, and then done. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

You know, it's funny. True story, I did the first 300 weddings at Ambassador myself, only so I could write the manual on it. And we did the same things. We did, we went to every possible catering open house. We put a vehicle out front. We went to every single venue, we showed off our equipment, we did a massive amount of networking. Fast forward, been out of the business for a long time. An ex-girlfriend of mine calls me last year from Boston. She's been married a long time, and her daughter's getting married, is in Boston, and she knows I do consulting. She reached out to me on Facebook. She said, Listen, who should I trust in Boston? I gave the leado to two pretty sizable clients. Okay. And one client handed it off to his reservationist, okay, who sent an email, gave him a quote, that was done. The next client picked up the phone and said, I've been referred to you by Mr. Lucci. Tell me about your wedding. I'm going to handle it personally for you. Tell me everything you need and let's talk about it. And this guy closed, it was a pretty substantial deal because I know he had two motor coaches going over there. Anyway, your whole point, and the point I want to make to every operator is stop treating these leads, whether you paid for them or earn them. You absolutely need to follow up to the nth. We used to have a saying back in security, until they buy or die.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Oh, yeah, that was clay. They cry, buy, or die.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

I love that. I'm telling you, I'm gonna like this guy. We should probably get him on the podcast. Surely so you've had great success. Where do you want to take magic carpet? What's your goal for the company long term? How much bigger do you want to make it? What do you want? I mean, there's nothing wrong with keeping it manageable.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Well, I gotta be honest, I really do love what I do. And the part of that I love of what I do is the relationship building, is the trust that people put in me to make sure that day goes as cleanly and as smoothly as possible, right? On the day of, so although I'm affiliating all this work, I am very much dialed in with every single driver on the day of an event, right? We have a special text message template to make sure that they have the same schedule that I have, that they know any important points, like, hey, at the venue, you drop off here to the left. So I'm really enjoying what I'm doing, and I've gotten really clear on who my ideal client is. So I do want to lean further into that. I have done all of this with a part-time admin. Wow, maybe 15 hours a week. Wow. Handling more admin than not. So I'm gonna be looking for like a part-time sales assistant. I think that will definitely assist me in being able to make sure that I'm staying on top of the venue and the coordinator and planner follow-ups, you know, those types of things. But I'll tell you, Ken, about a year ago, when I still couldn't afford to hire someone necessarily, but I said there has to be a better way because I know how critical follow-ups are, and I hate when I'm not able to stay on top of it like I would like. I started researching more on automations and systems and really dialing that piece in. And I'll tell you, in the last six months, I think that has played a huge factor in us being at almost 80% of last year's revenue.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Expand on that project. Expand on specifically, because I think it's extremely duplicatable. I think every operator of a specific size, well, most of them need it if they'll use it. Tell us about specifically what your latest project is.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

So this industry has welcomed me with open arms, right? Unlike anything I experience in the financial industry, any card I go to, happy to give me tips, advice, everything. And so I had a moment where I realized, okay, they're giving me advice on transportation, operations, logistics, all that stuff. But I'm really good at one thing that's sales. And I'm noticing that my affiliates and a lot of operators that I chat with just don't have proper sales systems and they're losing leads, they're losing money. So then what I developed in my own system, I started figuring out if this is something that I could duplicate and help other operators with. So currently I've got a project called sales driven, and we're helping operators to be able to create a follow-up system that when a lead comes in. So in my system, when a lead comes in, they immediately get a text message like, hey, Kent, we got your inquiry, you know, and here you go. Here's a link to book a call. They get an email, and then when they get a phone call, right? So we're training the sales teams because I've also noticed that a lot of operators they have a sales team, but the team is just quoting, they're not a sales team.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

It is one of the things that I worry about for our industry because we've all gone over most of the larger companies, especially the ones I deal with, they have call centers over in Serbia or in the Philippines. And I say to them, the person who mentions price first is the one who loses. And what I fear is we've become so transactional. To your point, they're racing to give a price instead of building that relationship over the phone.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

You have to give the client a reason why they should choose you because they are just shopping price, right? They're gonna get three quotes. They tell me all the time. Well, guess what? I cannot give you an instant quote because I get my price from an affiliate. So automatically I don't compete on that, but I compete on having the first touch. So right away you're gonna hear back from us. So it's not like you inquired and it went into the abyss. No, you know that hey, we're gonna get to you very soon. And then we pick up the phone and we call. When you call that lead, you know, speed to lead, it is critical. You give them an opportunity to share with you, you know, hey, can you just take a few minutes and paint the picture for me? How would you like this ideally to go? And what about the wedding party? Do they need transportation? Huge opportunity for upsells right there. But what I hear from operators is this is what happens. The lead comes in, the reservationist gets the quote ready as soon as possible and sends it out.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Boom, done. Silence.

unknown 44:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

I'm like, you can even give them a chance to tell them that, hey, you have a wide fleet of vehicles. You guys have on-time, you know, service experience. Like you have to sell yourself. This is no longer the times where people have too much access to information. On Google, they can immediately get five quotes, right? So you have to compete on something other than just that.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

And how often are you the lowest priced?

SPEAKER_02 45:19

And I think that's what helps me know that because I'm not gonna get you an instant quote and I'm not gonna be the lowest. So I must compete on something else.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

It's called value, it's called creating the relationship. You know, we're in the middle of doing something, and John, the producer here, is helping me with it. We're launching something called the CEO Limo Academy. And it's only because James and I have got a pretty decent following and people need help. The most important thing to me that we have as an industry is a problem, it's actually an opportunity, though. Our disruptors are transactional, so we have to drive relationships. We have to create and nurture those relationships. So a few things we've talked about here today that are critical. Number one, you established a long time ago who your ideal client was. I encourage every operator to do that. In every use case, who is your ideal client on a corporate side, on a private individual, private event side, but also vehicles, right? Who's your ideal client for that sprinter? Number two, you're actually responding to leads, right? You're figure. You're starting to, and there's so many ways to do that, really put the hook into the client, so to speak, right? It's say, listen, you know what? Thank you for the lead, but I've got a couple of questions for you. And there's also some strategies. Once you've created the relationship, everybody likes to do business with friends. The beauty of what you've done as far as building your business is you just don't have disciples out there. You've got brand ambassadors, you've got people evangelizing for you. Okay. Disciple, somebody who just like follows you around. An evangelist is goes out and says, Have you heard the word? Right.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

When I get a referral, like I'll have a wedding planner reach out and they'll say, Oh, someone on our Facebook page recommended you or on a Facebook group. That's huge. And I take that much better care of them because I know that if we don't do a good job, you're gonna let everybody know, also.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

But you've you've created something, you know, I've been studying this concept of creating a growth flywheel. And the growth flywheel starts with how you treat the inquiry. First of all, what's your brand reputation look like? Okay. And I tell you a little secret. If I always check people's reviews before I start doing business with them, everyone does. And if they're lower than Wales, I don't bring them on as a client because we're not even on the same page, right? You get people five-star reviewing you, and they're writing paragraphs of how great you are. The growth flywheel is such that you don't have to spend thousands of dollars on Google ads or wedding leads ads. I am a believer in presence on the knot and presence on the wedding wire, but I'm more of a believer on being in the Facebook brides groups and giving advice and giving to get, which you're doing. So, how do you see sales, your new project to help other operators? How do you see that ideally evolving?

SPEAKER_02 48:34

I'm very excited. Ken, I reached out to you particularly because I know what a huge influence you are in the industry. And it's a little small. I wanted to be able to help validate it because I validated it within my own business. I'm seeing my growth almost double year over year, with essentially, I have no fleet to be able to then bring this to other operators who are telling me they're closing 10, 15% of their leads that they get in at $275 a piece. I'm like, there's a huge need out there. One of the operators that I did a revenue audit on, just in Q1, they had $197,000 of a revenue leak, essentially, of leads that left on the table.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

Because number one, zero follow-up. No, and they admit it. And they have three reservation agents, zero follow-up because they're too busy sending quotes. And I said, You guys, this is not a quoting operation. The job is to close deals.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

Well, see, again, your training on finance has helped you greatly. I mean, I had a couple of decent sales careers and didn't know. When I stepped into this business, I didn't know anything, meaning nothing. And I made a lot of mistakes, but one mistake we didn't make was our brand was like gold. And our brand was critically important. And it was before the days of Google. You had to network. I went out and we brought vehicles to see people. I went to networking events. I created what I call my core 12 people. And it was pretty much in every kind of every service type. I had my core 12 in wedding. I had my core 12 in corporate. Core 12 and corporate were B2B salespeople like me. And we would say, hey, did you see what happened? There's a new CFO over at Jable. We need to go and meet that person. They would sell copiers, they would sell other stuff. And I'm like, look, let's just figure out how to get in there together. Or let's go to the St. Pete networking. You're doing the same things. Why do you think people don't do that in this industry?

SPEAKER_02 50:41

Oh, I think it's very easy to just get caught in the shuffle of, oh, I'm driving, or hey, we're so busy doing this and that. No, but guess what? If we're doing all of the activities that don't produce revenue, you were super busy, but you didn't make any money.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Well, it's a squirrel and it's like a hamster in a cage, right? It's on that. It's very easy to stay busy.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

You know, we're actually making revenue.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Well, it's funny that you said that. I remember our first year we did a million bucks, right? And it was because I I bought a ton of equipment. I was bored, I was retired, I was 41. And I started working with a buddy of mine, and we were doing it for fun part-time. And next thing you know, I'm looking around, there's like seven, ten vehicles.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

How do I do this?

SPEAKER_01 51:19

And when one thing I learned from being behind the wheel is when you're down, when you know tomorrow I have a 10 o'clock a.m. I have a 1 p.m. and then I have a 3 p.m., or maybe I have some back-to-backs, but you have that window available. First thing I did was figure out where I could drop things off. Okay, where could I stop by? The funny thing is, no one ever, ever turns away. Cookies, food works extremely well. We used to have Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. No one is ever going to turn down a guy who's got a black suit, gold tie, name tag on, and here I have a gift. We did paper cubes, we gave paper cubes out to executive assistants, doctors' office managers, and we collected business cards. So when I had down days, and I was, you know, you get depressed. Holy shit, I don't have two rides today. I would literally say, my goal is two rides and 20 business cards. That was my goal. To get out there. You have to get out there, and that's the key, right? We have to try to so let's just say we have that beautiful escalade. Show it off, show it to new prospects.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Let me tell you, okay. I was not above giving a free ride for the right people. And I got to share the story because it's a great one. So one of those wineries in my local town, they were having a group of wedding planners that were coming from LA, but they needed a ride from one winery to another, right? And it was about a 20-minute ride. And they're all wedding planners. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

No, no, don't give them a ride.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

So, in between my kids being at school, I was able to do this. So I go, I pick them up, and I got to stay for lunch and tour the venue and spend a little time with them and such. And I brought them back. I did my spiel on the bus. About two or three weeks later, I get an email from one of their assistants. Huge wedding at Pelican Hill, Newport Beach. This turned out to be a $20,000 wedding. Okay. Probably kiss once.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

You what did you lose when you gave away that free ride? What did you lose?

SPEAKER_02 53:30

Gosh, I don't know. I won't even call the time a loss because I had a great time. Let's call it $40 in gas. You know, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

But here's what you did. Your lead creation was a soft cost of the fuel. The vehicle was already there. You know, I said this at a session one time in Vegas, the same thing. I don't believe in discounting. I believe in gift certificates, or I want you to try us, try us. You're gonna love us, okay? And I had somebody in the front row just like, give me a grimace. And I called on them. I said, you know, one of it was QA time. I noticed you give me one. I'm not giving away anything for free. I said, really? How do you market? Well, you know, I have Google Ads. What do you spend on Google Ads? $3,000 a month. How many leads do you get? You know, maybe 30, maybe 70. What's your cost of lead? I don't know. What's your cost of sale? I don't know. Okay. So if I'm sending, even if I'm sending a chauffeur, I used to do them a lot myself, but if I'm sending a chauffeur, I'm paying the chauffeur for maybe two hours, right? And I'm showing off my vehicle. Is that cheaper than you doing that on Google Ads? It's like Costco. Why does Costco give samples? It's giving your sample. There's no question. And we have similar stories. Kevin Harrington was on Shark Tank. He was in the building with Tony Little. Tony Little was the exercise guy. Okay. So one day we we took our brand new, we had an Escalade CEO version, which is it had the partition. We brought it over. We didn't have any appointments. We just brought it over, right? We brought food to Tony's floor and to Kevin's floor and said, guys, if you have a minute, we want to show you the first in the first in the Tampa Bay area. Tony came down, and Kevin came down. First and foremost, Kevin became an immediate client. Second of all, we pulled Tony away from Carrie. Third of all, we closed Home Shopping Network because Kevin called Home Shopping Network and I think her name was Mindy and said, You've got to see this vehicle. You're always talking about not wanting people to hear what you're saying. And we went over, we took the vehicle right over. And she said, I need this vehicle every time I go to and from the airport, and every time I go to and from dinners. I said, Done. Guaranteed. No question. Easy as that. But but the whole thing is two leads to start with, three leads, all of them became corporate accounts. And it's just getting out there and doing traditional marketing. Listen, you are an inspiration. That's why I wanted to have you on. How do you want people to get in touch with you? I think honestly, I'm going to just say it right now. You should be on the stage in Vegas instead of me. I'm getting long on the tooth. I need to stop that crap. We could be a duo, dynamic duo. Oh, there you go. So how do you want people to reach out to you either to talk about how you've done your business or to talk perhaps about the service that you're providing, sales driven? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

So you can find me on LinkedIn at Jamara Gonzalez. And for sales driven, it's on all social media, salesdriven.co. But I am super excited. I feel like I am on a mission to be able to help other operators to really recover that revenue. And I'll leave you with one last story. I'm not above anything, right? So last week I was a little bit slow in sales. So I said, let me go shake some trees because I see how much I have out in quotes. Let me see how much I can take from this or, you know, how much I can get out. And guess what? I made personal calls and personal text messages to everyone who had a quote over $3,000. And I ended up closing $15,000 in business. So it's great to have automations and systems, but there's also nothing wrong with you as the owner, having your reservation team, especially if you're paying for a team, having them give that personalized service, giving that phone call. Because guess what? I was getting messages back. It's like, oh my gosh, Jamar, I'm so sorry I've been so busy. Thank you so much for getting back to me. Their intention was not to forget. They just got back to me.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

This is a squeaky wheel. I'm renovating a guest house on my property, and I did the same thing with plumbers. Okay. Three quotes. Two of them never call me back. The third one calls me back, Ken, I've been thinking about this. What do you think of this instead of a tub? Because the porcelain tub's going to be really expensive. But why don't we do this? What do you think about this? Why don't I quote you on this? And I'm like, I haven't given you the business. I in my mind, I haven't given you the business yet. But guess what? I just did, right? Yeah, absolutely. And his whole thing was, you know, Ken, I want to talk to you about something. Do you have a few minutes? By text. He wasn't being intrusive, right? And that's the beauty of today. We have so many ways to reach out to people. Text message, you know, or just thinking about something for your project you're working on. The other thing we have going for us is FOMO, fear of missing out, right? You call someone and say, listen, Jamara, I wanted you to know we have another proposal for that day. I really want to reserve this for you. All I need is a deposit, but I really think you need to move forward with this. There's just not this many equipment in San Diego, believe it or not. You know, the good stuff goes really fast.

SPEAKER_02 58:44

Yeah, the big buses, I tell them, hey, the big buses, you get the best bang for your buck, so those go fast. And this is my favorite line. I tell them, I'm like, hey, you know what? I can help you to scratch this off your to-do list. So that way it's one less thing you have to think about.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 58:57

Don't we all want one less thing to think about?

SPEAKER_01 59:00

That's that's the assumed close right there. Here's your pad, right? Here's your pad. It's a good one. Just an initial here. Just an initial here. Jamar, it's been great. I'm glad we met. And I think that we'll have you back on the podcast again because I want you to come on with an operator that you've kind of changed their world as far as leads and improve their closing.

SPEAKER_02 59:23

So that'd be fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 59:25

Give us your magic carpet domain name again, please.

SPEAKER_02 59:28

Yeah, www.ridemagicuttle.com.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

I love it. Okay. Thanks and have a great weekend. Thank you. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 59:37

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 PaxTraining.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 Pod.