SPEAKER_04 0:00

You have to go in with a plan. What are your objectives going to be? Look at the schedule. The schedule is action-packed.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Oh, it's it's looking at it.

SPEAKER_06 0:19

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

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_04 0:47

Well, good afternoon, Ground Transportation Podcast audience. My name is Ken Lucci from Driving Transactions, and I'm here today with my wonderful, uh handsome and talented co-host James Blaine from PAX Training. James, where have you been?

SPEAKER_10 1:05

Everywhere. Uh you're all over the place.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

This has been a from coast to coast. From coast to coast, like butter and toast. That's you.

SPEAKER_10 1:12

Yep, Space Ghost. That's me.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

I hear you. Yeah, this has been a traveling summer for you.

SPEAKER_10 1:17

It it has been a traveling year. This is the most I've traveled in the 10 years that we've been doing PAX. It's the most I've ever traveled.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Well, it's got to be good for you. I think you've expanded a lot. I think the platform's looking good. You you said you're doing some, and we'll talk about this on another episode, but you're you're revamping the platform.

SPEAKER_10 1:36

Massive change is coming. Massive. It is consumed. When I even traveling, it is all I think about, all I do. It's gonna be revolutionary when we finally get to roll that out at the beginning of next year.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

In your fall, in your fall is actually our travel schedules are not gonna converge this year.

SPEAKER_10 1:51

No, no, the stars are not aligning.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

I'm going to the chauffeur-driven NLA show, and you're going to be at the TTA.

SPEAKER_10 1:59

I will be at TTA, but I have great news. I know how much you enjoy getting to hang out with my missus. So I do. Um Casey, our head of marketing. Also, my wife will be over at CDNLA. And of course, Aaron, who everybody loves, our accounts manager. They will be there. And ironically enough, I said coast to coast, they will be with you in Washington. I will be in Anaheim helping with a safety and risk event out there.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

So that's fantastic. So you need three people to sub for you with the show for driven NLA show.

SPEAKER_10 2:27

Yeah, I'm heartbroken because you know, this year we also had the CBA California Bus Association, which I absolutely love their event. I love being a part of it. I guess part of BISC. Yeah, it's a great event. It is also that exact same weekend. So, you know, it is all that same week. It's all kind of overlapped, and there's only so much time and so many people that we have available.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

I mean, the sad part is I just want to call out to the industry gods to perhaps get on a phone call and coordinate 2027 schedules because this is not the first year that this has happened.

SPEAKER_10 3:02

No, no, and and I will say, you know, especially when you cross industry, yeah, I have a master calendar. I've worked with some of the associations. I'm blessed enough to be on the board for. We've tried to kind of create master calendars, but I think part of the problem becomes, you know, especially for the larger shows, they are making commitments years in advance. And when they're making those commitments, they don't always line up. And, you know, sometimes we get them widely apart. You know, there was the year that we had UMA. I literally was on the show floor for UMA in the morning, got on a plane, rebuilt the booth, and had that same booth on the evening event party in CD NLA Vegas. So you sometimes you just make the best you can.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

Now that you've got a full staff that works in your orbit, you're able to cover multiple events sadly. Absolutely. Sadly, I am a one-man show. My business partner, the chief financial analyst Cole Weber, his wife is expecting. Oh, that's great. And the rumor is that she'll be having the baby right around October 24th. So I'm not even gonna ask him to come to the booth. And this is gonna be a busy, busy, busy show. So my I've got three speaking roles.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

My first one is exciting. It's the RMA affiliate meeting, and that's on Saturday from one to five. We've got a cool announcement with them as well. Yeah, and I have to tell you that I'm very pleased that they're doing this because they're growing so fast. And I think I think that you know, when affiliates get in the room, it's an invitation only. When the affiliates see what's going on, they're gonna be pretty impressed. And then I'm doing the state of the industry intro.

SPEAKER_10 4:39

Nice, and then you always do a great job with the numbers and the stats. That is that is one of my favorites. I always try to get a front row spot.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

We've got some really good. John did a great job on the survey with our partners, it's chauffeur-driven, and we've got some good data to share on those survey respondents as well as our database of clients. And then I've got something special going. I've got on uh Tuesday, I've got a session on you'll be shocked at this, but it is a session on stop driving blind with your numbers. But I've got a special guest professor, he's one of our retained clients, his company is, and he's going to join me on stage, Jason Peary from Best Transportation out in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_09 5:25

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

I gotta tell you, the schedule looks fantastic.

SPEAKER_10 5:29

I was heartbroken to miss this year. And for me, it's always tough because you know, I have to tell you, some of my very I mean, we started the limousine industry, that's no secret. And I love these shows. And when you balance the Vegas show and the fall show, yep, it's a very yin and yang, and it's always a little different. And so I'm of course, we'd never not have our team there, but for me, I was a little bummed that I wasn't gonna be able to make this one because it looks incredible, it looks absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

I like you know, the Sunday, they do registration from 10 in the morning till seven o'clock, but their first session is 11:45, the leadership advantage, how great leaders sustain high performance without burning out. I mean, honestly, entrepreneur burnout, it's just not a mental burnout, but it becomes physical burnout. So I think that's a great session. The next they've got um be found trusted, SEO and GEO. So they've got somebody that's talking about search engine optimization, what's your exposure, the legal risks every operator should know. Navigating potholes and pivots. I love that on your business growth strategy. They've got the mentor program, which I think this one thing about this industry is the collaboration and the willingness for people to help. So I think that the mentoring and the operator mentoring program on Sunday is fantastic.

SPEAKER_10 6:56

I saw the lineup, and I gotta tell you, the big thing with that operator mentoring program is there's really something to be said about being able to sit down with someone and get to speak with them. And the one thing that I'll put out there, and I know Brett Barendholtz, I know a lot of our guests have put it out there, is getting to know that mentor and getting their contact information and not just looking at it as hey, I want and done, because the people that participate in that program truly want to give back, they truly want to mentor. And I think you can get some of the biggest value of the entire show comes from that operator mentoring program, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

Our friend Jamara from Driven is doing the session. She's actually she was very upset that my session is the same. Is the same thing? I said to her, I'll definitely try to pop in and we'll get connected. I'm very impressed with her. So if you are an operator, this is one of your first shows. Because the East Coast show, you're right, it has a different flavor. How do you get the most out of the show?

SPEAKER_10 7:56

I will tell you, for me, the most important lesson I've found is having a plan. If you don't look at the schedule ahead of time and you don't have that planned out, I think you're kidding yourself. But the other thing, and this is something that was huge for me in a game changer, is having a way to digitally scan business cards. Um, so there's tons and tons of applications. I'm an iPhone guy. Um, so I use an application that syncs everything between my phone, my computer, my iPad, and being able to scan in those business cards and digitally have it, and then being able to say, hey, this is the follow-up, here's there.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

Which app do you use? Do you know?

SPEAKER_10 8:37

So I use an app called Cardilio. Cardilio is really set up specifically for the iPhone world. And the reason I love that app is I reached out to the developer and I said, Hey, here is how we're using it. Here's what works for us, here's what we love, here's some things we'd love to see you do in the future. And he was very responsive, he was very good to work with, and he's willing to take that. It's C-A-R-D-L-I-O. And then to find it, you want to put a little colon afterwards and a space and put business Cardelio space business. We can drop a link, but the cool thing is it's a one-time cost. So if you want it on your iPhone, I want to say it's 30 bucks once. You get to use the app and it uses your iCloud to sync the cards across all your devices.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

And you can sync it, you can store it in Zoho if you've got a CRM.

SPEAKER_10 9:28

Yeah, I don't know how the CRM integrations, all those types of things work. For me, the big thing was we're an Apple-driven company and being able to use our iCloud accounts to be able to sync across, it really is nice and that it is designed to keep everything locally. I carry a laptop, a tablet, and a phone, and I have all of them synced across. The other cool thing is when you scan a card, me being the tech nerd that I am, it uses AI to actually go through and do that.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Nice. I think you're on to something. I understand the propensity to focus on socialization and seeing people that you haven't seen in a long time. But I think you have to go in with a plan and what are your objectives going to be? Look at the schedule. The schedule is action-packed.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Oh, it's it's no commitment.

SPEAKER_08 10:22

There's nothing going on. Let's go!

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Will we get in? Yes. Great. Ken and James, I'm sorry, I've officially hacked your podcast and hijacked the airwaves. This was Brett Baronald's president of the NLA, coming to you live from what appears to be a very successful podcast takeover. I just wanted to say hello to the ground transportation podcast audience and invite you all to join us at the CD NLA show October 25th to the 27th at the Gaylord National Resort in Washington, D.C. We've got incredible education, fantastic events, and unbelievable networking. And most importantly, you. So mark your calendars, pack your bags, and get ready. I'll see you in Washington, D.C. All right, Kenning James. I've said enough. You can have your podcast back.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

That just made my day. That made my entire day. How does that even work? I reached out to Brett.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

A ton of skullduggery is going on here.

SPEAKER_10 11:31

Yeah. We need to. I think I'm going to be in charge of security from now on because people are just busting up in our podcast in the middle recording. That's unbelievable. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

I can't believe that. I love it. I reached out to a few people. I have another video that I would like to share with you if you guys want.

SPEAKER_04 11:46

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

We'll see it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

What's going on, ground transportation podcast audience and family? Paul Pasternak here. And yes, your friendly industry, New Yorker. I'm absolutely fired up for the CD and LE show in Washington, D.C. this year. If we've never met before, don't be shy. Come say hello. I'm a New Yorker. Talking to strangers is practically a sport for us. I'm also the founder and principal of Provenzava. And after more than 22 years in the ground transportation industry, I've decided it was time to take everything I've learned working inside the industry, building relationships, developing operations, and seeing firsthand what helps companies grow and what can hold them back, and put that experience to work in a bigger way. Today, my focus is helping operators and industry partners strengthen their operations, affiliate relationships, strategy, sales, safety, compliance, business development, and overall organizational growth. I've also had the privilege of contributing to the NLA events as a speaker and panelist. I've always believed you can't just talk about supporting the industry. You have to show up. Contribute, share knowledge, build relationships, and do the work. That's also a big reason why I'm running for the Maryland Livery Association Affiliate Board. So, folks, in DC, I'm coming ready to network. Build meaningful relationships. Talk and educate about child passenger safety. And frankly, anything, transportation. Now, James Blaine, I hear you're going to be in California for the mobilized TTA conference instead. James, from one hockey guy to another. You're basically healthy scratching yourself from the DC lineup. Sorry, James, but I had to tell Ken Lucci and John Tyroman, five-minute major, straight to the penalty box for this one. And Paul Pasternak, come say hello, ask me about Provenzava, and let's talk about how we can keep pushing this industry forward. See you folks in DC.

SPEAKER_10 14:05

I would love to say this is the first time I've been sent to the penalty box, but I would be lying through my teeth.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

So, James, in general, I think the schedule is pretty packed. I think it's got the education committee did a great job. Any sessions you'd point people to?

SPEAKER_10 15:28

Legal risk. Legal risk. I know. Legal risk.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

I know.

SPEAKER_10 15:32

I think I think we've had the slide on the podcast before, and I know we've had tons of conversation, and we can pull it back up, but one of the slides that I always show in my presentations now talks about how, from an insurance standpoint, they are pricing on severity, not frequency. When I was presenting in Atlantic City as part of Greater Northeast Motor Curve Association's disc sessions, one of the things I talked about was pricing on severity and not on frequency. And we had several insurance people in the room, and all of them immediately just that big, huge head nod, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:05

What do you mean by that? Explain that, please.

SPEAKER_10 16:06

So what I mean by that is the problem right now is the cost per accident is continuing to rise. It's not so much, you know, if you had five accidents last year and you had four accidents this year, you would think, well, you know, it's an improvement. If you had five accidents last year and you had two this year, you're like, oh, that's a huge improvement. But the problem is if those five claims last year were still lower than your two claims this year, even though the number of accidents has gone down, it's not a net win, especially because as much as we love to think, you know, hey, it's about safety, it's about this. At the end of the day, for the insurance guys, it's more your world than mine because they're worried about safety, they're worried about all that, but they have to make sure that they are profitable. And if you start looking, and I our guests have talked about it, if you start looking at commercial auto, commercial auto is not a good, profitable business right now.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

Commercial auto has been a loser for the past three years, and it's not just the chauffeur space. We've talked about the fact that operators need to understand the ecosystem of insurance. I know that people will flock to the SEO and the website. I think they'll flock to navigating and business growth strategies. But at the end of the day, we are in the safety business. And you can be put out of business if you're not taking risks seriously. I know it's not the sexiest subject, but I think it's a can't miss. I think uh, and that this one is Sunday, 2:45 to 4 o'clock. What's your exposure? What are the legal risks? Every operator should know. I think you need to get there, and I think you need to take copious notes. Definitely don't just sit there, take copious notes. What are the action items? What are the things that we're doing on our session? And I insisted when I work with Jason Peary on this, is we're creating a workbook. There's no way that I can, in this hour-long session, teach you everything you know about creating a breakeven budget or creating a ground up budget forecast, but gonna get you a workbook. And here's the reality of our industry is we're in a business of stacking dimes. What do I mean by that? We may do a million dollars a year, we may do a $500,000 operator or a million-dollar operator, but at the end of the day, you've got to scrimp and save and make sure you're managing your costs in order to make maximum profit. And the session we are gonna talk about is I'm looking at two companies that are almost the exact same revenue, but one is barely profitable and the owner doesn't take out a W-2, and the other is unbelievably healthy, and we're gonna take them through that session. So I'm hoping the other sessions, we're gonna have a workbook at the end. And I think on every one of these sessions, I would ask myself if I'm an operator, what's my takeaway? Yep, what's my action item? And most importantly, get in touch with the people that are putting on the sessions, get in touch with and make sure you come out of there with a bigger network of people than you went into it with. I mean, we're not alone. No, the industry is an industry of sharing. There's no question that from an education perspective, these two shows, the Vegas show and this show, it's great material. But the NLA is also putting on material on the website every single month. Yeah, so I'm pretty happy with the entire schedule.

SPEAKER_10 19:39

I gotta tell you, I want to applaud you for doing the workbook because one of the things that I talk about all the time, especially when I do sessions on education learning, is that going to a presentation is the worst possible way to learn something. Like you're practically watching TV. The absolute biggest thing that people need to know, if you go to a presentation on something, and if by the end of that week you have not actually gone and applied and done and used what you thought you learned in that session, you're toast. It's gone. It's like watching an episode of TV. You're gonna get like the highlights and you might remember them, but if you don't do anything with them, you're toast. So the fact that you're doing a workbook means that people are gonna get way more value out of that. And the ones that actually take that workbook home and actually use it and do stuff with it are gonna get even more value. So you're absolutely right on track.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

It's gonna be step by step. You're gonna lead there with our cost of goods PL format. Cole is doing a PL for fixed cost, variable cost, fixed expenses, variable expenses, because we want you to know what it costs to break even every month. I mean, look, I know what it cost me to run my house. I know what it cost me, you know, in the spring and the summer, it's all about the landscaping, obviously the electric bill. Why don't we do that with our businesses? So, you know, my message to everybody that's going to attend is yeah, I know the socialization is fantastic, and I know you want to go there and you want to make affiliate relationships, but at the end of the day, this education is absolutely fantastic. And I know what we put in it for time, and I can only imagine what the others have put in to do sessions as well. So I think it's the state of the industry is always fun. I'm not sure the operators are gonna be for the state of the industry. I hear some rumors about who they're gonna be, but it's half the fun. That is half the fun.

SPEAKER_09 21:30

It's after fun.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

Right. Our survey results, I'll tell you, are gonna be very favorable. John and I went through them yesterday or the day before. So I think it's gonna be a good show, and I would definitely suggest everybody come and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_10 21:44

I want to go back real quick to one thing you said because I'm sure you'll nail and really bring it home in your session. But one of the things that, you know, I bring you up in every single talk in a positive way, I promise. But I bring you up in almost every single talk because one of the things I always find myself saying is, you know, as my friend Ken loves to say, the companies that set aside the time and the money and the resources for safety and training are the most profitable. Out of everything that I think we've ever had on the podcast, that is the one that I always remember is you you have said it time and time again. The companies that put the time and money and resources into safety and training are the most profitable. And I think one of the things that we see all the time, and I had Julie Chalmers, who is a guest that'll come on at some point. Julie had this saying where, you know, I was talking to her about when she made the investment of having me come on site and work with her. And I said, Well, you know, how do you how do you justify how you're gonna do that? And she goes, How do I justify not doing it? How can I not afford to invest in safety and training and development? And I think there's so many people that, like you said, they're stacking dimes and they look at how they pull stuff back for years now. I've had it's in the corner of my desk, but I've had a stick of Wrigley's gum on my desk. And the reason I keep a stick of Wrigley's gum, and rabbit hole number one, the reason I keep a stick of Wrigley's gum is if you read about what happened. During the Great Depression, all of the companies scaled back on marketing. They tried to figure out where they could scale back. How can we save money? How do we save money? How do we save money? Wrigley went the other direction. And he said, I have to pour everything I have into marketing. When people think of that one last piece of the good life, I want it to be when they have that stick of Wrigley's gum. You know, things might be bad, but I can still afford my sticker. He plowed it into marketing. And to this day, you can go into any grocery store and get a stick of Wrigley's gum. But when people start pulling back money to try and save a dime, cutting off your nose to spite your face, that's when they get most hurt. And I know your sessions do such a great job of illustrating those types of things. I would go to this conference just for that session.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Well, it thank you for saying that. And I think the dealing with the NLA Education Committee, I mean, sometimes they come in with their own agenda, what they want you to do.

SPEAKER_10 24:01

Yeah, they have their own vision of how they want it to go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

This time I have to tell you, I mean, I I I got two phone calls about it, and then I said no both times. And then the third phone call was here's the title, do whatever you want with it. And I said, Okay, well, I'd like to include Jason Peary because you know, he's uh he's one of the only employees in it that he, you know, he runs the company, but he's one of the only employees that I deal with that's got a founder mentality. And he's taken it to the next level on dashboards, and I every operator in the room will relate to him. Um, but but you know, in general, I I think that one of the challenges dealing with entrepreneurs, and uh, and I have one or two that you know I tell this to all the time, is they're their own worst enemies because they think that because they know everything everything about their business and they've always done it this way, that they're almost impervious. The state of the industry is the anchor to this conference. And you will you will learn in that session what's going on globally while you've been running your business for the past 365 days, you will see what else is going on in the world, and we're touching upon some growth statistics from 200 or so operators, and then plus my retained clients, how they've done, as well as you're gonna be hearing from operators that have, and I won't spoil it as to who they are. Their companies are growing tremendously. So there's so much to learn in these conferences. I would just tell entrepreneurs come with an open mind, yes, bring an agenda, and don't look upon it as, hey, this is a weekend or a few days away from uh my operation. You need to think back, think about what am I gonna bring back to my operation. Yeah, the other issue is make sure you're on the show floor. There's gonna be a lot this year. There's a lot of vehicles, but there's also there's a lot to hear about from the software companies. There's a lot to hear about from all the exhibitors that are going to be on the show floor. So just don't whiz through the show floor, but absolutely spend your time. John, do you have the attendee, the uh, the exhibitor list?

SPEAKER_10 26:25

Here's the current show floor. I think it's worth mentioning here that I see a lot of people that don't have intention when they go to the show floor. And I think that is also one of the places where you need to have intention. You need to think about what are the booths I'm gonna go to, who am I gonna go see, where are they at, because it is very easy and very happens all the time. You go onto the show floor, no intention, you get pulled in over here, you get pulled in over there. What I really wanted to look at this year was telematics, or you know, I really wanted to go see James's team at Fax Training, or I really wanted to go look at this new bus model. And people that have that know that, hey, I've got to go to those major points. I can walk the show floor, I can look at everything, but I have the key things that for me are the focus right now. Because if you look at this list, I mean, and and the same is true, you know, I'm gonna be in Anaheim, I'll be with the mobilized group, you know, and the same as true in that industry, you know, and and it's it's very, very much a matter of knowing what you're trying to get out of it there, and then being able to go and get what you need, and being able to then say, okay, now that I've gotten what I need, now comes the gravy. Now comes where I can go see and discover and be there, but I want to take care of the things that I've identified as important or that'll move the needle, or that I want to go and see and talk to.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

100%. And just because insurance is a big hot button. Oh, yeah. If I was an operator today, I would be going to every single insurance company and getting to know who the people are and not saying, well, I already have a broker that handles that. I would be looking at everything going on as far as the software, as as far as telematics, everything you see that can help you be a safer operation, help you reduce your labor costs. There's probably, I'm looking here, probably three, if I'm not mistaken. Three or four call centers.

SPEAKER_10 29:29

It's becoming very popular.

SPEAKER_04 29:30

It is. So if you've not examined the call center, that's a perfect example of what I said. Well, we've always done it this way. Well, the reality is you're really burdening your people. If you're putting your best people on nights and your weekends, okay, when you could be closing at 10 o'clock, giving the instructions to the call center, or the same with a Saturday or Sunday, or at least have a backup plan. So I like the lineup, I like the schedule. I think the vendors look fantastic. Obviously, you know, there's a social aspect. I do need to drop a little bit of a bomb.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Oh boy, what do we have?

SPEAKER_04 30:08

I've been I was invited to the NLA president's dinner. This is the third year in a row he's done this. Oh but this year, I actually donated a thousand dollars to be able to sit between two people.

SPEAKER_10 30:25

Who are you sitting between? Who are you sitting between?

SPEAKER_04 30:28

I'm sitting between Douglas Schwartz and Tracy Raymer. Oh my gosh. Douglas Schwartz from Executive Transportation on Long Island and Tracy Raymer, senior VP of RMA.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:41

And I was joking, and the joke went a little bit too far. It cost me.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Oh no, what'd you do?

SPEAKER_04 30:47

Kyle Hammersmith from the NLA invited me to the NLA president's dinner, and he said, you know, Brett would like you to come. And I said, Okay, well, I'm gonna have to send you a list of people I don't want to sit next to. And and I said, But why don't we do it this way? How about if we sit? I give you a list of people I want to sit near. So obviously I wanted to sit near Doug because I really enjoy Doug. And somehow Tracy got in the mix, so I said, All right, I'm gonna end this. A thousand dollars to go to PAC, the political action committee, to sit between the two of them. But I think I started a precedent. I think that I'm not gonna be the first person, I'm the first person, but not the last person to do that. I think that's the premium seat in the whole play. I really, really do.

SPEAKER_10 31:34

You know, I gotta say, I haven't been invited to the president's here yet. I think we might be revamping our security. I don't know that we're gonna let Brent get past our firewalls here and get on this podcast. Where's my invite? Where's my invite?

SPEAKER_04 31:44

It's a good point. Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up, John. You should bleak this whole thing out.

SPEAKER_10 31:49

I'm giving you a hard time. No, I will say I think I think the big thing, the big thing with with something like that is people don't realize that things like the pack, those types of fundraisers, those types of things are huge. One of my favorite events that we do every year is stay on the hill. And I think that one of the things that we've talked about time and time again is regulation. And there are so many people in this industry that they don't understand how that works, they don't understand where regulation comes about, and most importantly, they don't understand that we need to have the ability to make a friend before we need a friend. And it is the people like yourself that are making those pack donations, that are doing those types of things, that are what allow the time and the ability to do that. And I think but you know, that was a bit tongue-in-cheek in that, you know, I commend you for that because, like I said, for me, those are some of the most important things because we talk a lot about regulation, but the only way you get a voice in that is having funding to be able to do that type of stuff through our pack and having that political involvement. So I think it's absolutely wonderful.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

Well, and and I did the Day on the Hill last year, I sponsored sponsored the lunch, but I've enjoyed this these the pack uh fundraisers at the shows. Most of them are my clients, so to me, I feel like I'm giving back. And the fact that there's so much coming up about autonomous vehicles, there's so much coming up in reference to insurance reform and a bunch of things. And I do think the operators need to hear it from us that the NLA does an unbelievable job as far as our lobbyist is one of the best lobbyists in Washington.

SPEAKER_10 33:33

Cornerstone is no joke.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

Cornerstone is one of the premier lobbying organizations in the country, and they've done great things for the NLA. So you have to have enough dry powder to, as you say, you have to make friends well before you need a friend. So I was happy to do it. And I get to sit next to Doug and Tracy all night. So it's good.

SPEAKER_10 33:58

I I gotta tell you, the the thing that you've also hit on that is really important, and I'd be remiss if we didn't bring it up, is that you should not view it as just the show. The show should be your opportunity to find out about things like the pack, to find out about events like Day on the Hill, to find out about things like the executive retreat. This is really just one part of that. And so I think it's also a good opportunity at this show to start thinking about how am I going to be involved with the association throughout the year? What is my next involvement with the association? I said, I said it's so important to plan before you get to the show. It's important to, while you're at the show, then be using that information to plan how you're going to be involved with the association, how you're going to continue to interact with it, and what you're going to do next. I think that's equally as important.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

And I'm going to challenge every operator. We get calls constantly. I'd like you to help me. I'd like you to be a strategic consultant for us. And we can't take on every client. We've started the Limo CEO Academy for the newer operators, but these shows are absolutely for a new operator or a veteran operator. These shows are there for you to network. And I would challenge everybody to come out of there with a variety of operators, contact information, business cards from around the country, learn about their operations, and your net worth depends on your network. And to me, that's one of the most important things. For these shows are not an expense. They're an investment. Even for us, they're an investment. I've got a list of people that I know they're of the age that some point they're either going to need a succession plan or they're going to want to exit. And I've got my list of people that I'm going to email before the show and say, I'd like to spend 15 minutes with you just to update you on what's going on in MA and see where things go. At the end of the day, I think you're missing an opportunity if you don't holistically approach, take a look at the schedule, and then listen, look at what you think you need inside your operation. Definitely figure out what's going on in the insurance landscape. I would stop by research underwriters. I'd stop by Atlancers.

SPEAKER_10 36:24

Domatiate over a pick.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

Absolutely. There's been a lot of changes in insurance. I would absolutely go to see each one of them, collect their business cards, make sure they know who you are, get safety and risk best practices from them, because I'm seeing a lot of changes. I'm seeing a lot of operators that aren't taking safety seriously, and the insurance companies are for better or worse. You're going to end up without insurance. They're making some tough decisions. But the same thing with telematics, the same thing with any vehicles that you well, I don't need a vehicle this year. I would be looking at what's on the floor, what is hot out there, what is coming down the pike that you want to do some capital planning for if it's not now, you know, certainly in the years to come. But I think it's a good opportunity. We are blessed in the industry to have two shows. This one has a different feel, but and I apologize that I can't come out to the TTA mobility conference, but you know, it is just me.

SPEAKER_10 37:26

It's always difficult because I want to be at every single event, right? CBA, mobilize, C D N L A, right? I'm gonna hurt someone's feelings that I don't have a favorite, right? And there's always somebody that is upset with me, or oh, I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you picked them up. It's always tough because for us, I genuinely look at my role as I want to elevate the entire industry across the board. You know, and I've got all of Grand Transportation. I had this incredibly unique opportunity with mobilize to be able to do a risk and safety pre-conference event with them. And so for me, obviously, I knew I had the team available. I have Casey on my team, I've got Aaron on my team, I've got people on my team that know just as much as more as me. They probably know a better than I do at this point, right? And that's part of surrounding yourself with people that are better than yourself. But again, we can't be everywhere at once. I think what's really special about what we're talking about here, though, is I don't care if you've been going to shows for 15 years or 15 minutes, or this is your first show, planning ahead, looking at, hey, what worked at this show, what didn't, what do I wish I would have got, you know, doing a recap. All of these things, everything we're talking about, applies to every single show that you would go to. And, you know, especially with you talking about the insurance and the risk and understanding that, knowing the key things in your business and knowing, hey, at this show, I'm gonna go learn more about it. It doesn't matter which show it is, it doesn't matter what time of year it is. These are all kind of universal things that apply specifically there. And so I think, you know, for me, I love doing these episodes because when I came back, I recently came back from a show myself, and Aaron was with me at that one, and we sat down and we said, Hey, what did we do really well at this show? What did we think we could improve at this show? What were we happy with? What were we unhappy with, you know, and really sat down and talked about what worked, what didn't, how we make it better. And that's the step that gets overlooked in business 95% of the time is you move on to the next thing, but you don't examine how it went, or you go jump right into something and you don't plan ahead. It's that planning ahead and then reviewing afterwards that often goes out the window. Because if you're an entrepreneur, chances are you're a trigger puller. That's how you ended up an entrepreneur, right?

SPEAKER_04 39:51

But at the end of the day, in every one of these sessions, if you're picking out the golden nugget, or you're picking out the one concept or two concepts that you can go back and execute on takeaways, those takeaways to me make this an investment, not an expense. If you're just there for the party, you know how I feel about that. To me, you're either in it to win it or you're in there for the party. And there's enough meat, there's a ton of education, enough meat on this bone where if you do it right and you come away with 25 business cards from everybody on the floor, everybody that you meet, any session, you're gonna have there's not much you're gonna come across in the next year that you're not gonna be able to pick up the phone and call somebody and talk through it. I'm pretty happy with the education session the way it is. I'm always critical of our sessions, but I'm really hoping that Jason, he keeps joking with me that he doesn't want me to make him famous, but I am gonna make him famous because he's extremely impressive. What he's done with best transportation in St. Louis is pretty solid. Again, you know, he is someone that's got a founder's mentality, someone that's got an owner mentality. That's why he's done so well. Right. So I'm looking forward to it. But I'm, you know, I'm a little sorry that I won't see you. So but I will see Casey. So yes, yes.

SPEAKER_10 41:10

I I would much rather see Casey than myself in a mirror. So I gotta imagine that seeing Casey is probably much more pleasing to the idea.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

And I will completely shake my head and try to figure out why is she so happy with and how did you attract such a beautiful woman?

SPEAKER_10 41:23

But I ask myself, and when I roll over every morning, I ask myself the same thing. Now it's a mystery of the ages, and now you'll appreciate this, Ken. I am not an early morning person. Casey's always the first run out of the bed. So I always roll over and have that morning of, okay, is she in the bathroom or has she finally come to her senses?

SPEAKER_04 41:39

I think she's she's hung in with you this long.

SPEAKER_10 41:41

You you two are you I think we're gonna write it out, but I do want to bring up, joking aside, I do want to bring up one thing, and this is a bit, I don't know that it's a shameful admission, but it's something that I saw happen to me throughout my career in this industry, and I think it's important because it applies to new and old people that have been in the industry. One of the things that I found when I first got into the industry is I was very guarded and I was trying to put on the face that everybody wanted to see. I think the way that Athena or Charlie, who are two mentors of mine, would describe it, is I wasn't my most genuine self. And I almost wore a little bit of a mask.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

I've never seen you that way.

SPEAKER_10 42:20

Um, well, remember, about the time you met, I had started to come out of my shell a little bit, but I was always worried about offending someone, or I kind of walked around on eggshells, and I can be loud, I can be obnoxious, I can be a fairly intense personality.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

Excuse me. Out of the two of us, I got you beat. Yeah, absolutely loud, obnoxious, annoying. My business partner called me annoying East Coast. My business partner called me annoying. So I don't, don't, don't you've you've got me on the nerding out. There's no question about that. But as far as obnoxious, annoying, and loud, got you beat.

SPEAKER_10 42:54

But I think to that point, I think there's I don't give a shit. I think that's the most important piece is being able to go and be yourself and be genuine and not try to be a different version of yourself or who you think people want you to be, to just genuinely be yourself. And you know, when we started the podcast, someone sat me down and they said, Hey, you're gonna piss people off, you're gonna upset people, you're gonna have people that love you, you're gonna have people that hate you. But if you don't have haters, you're not doing it right. If you're not willing to make people upset, if you're always trying to please everybody, you're not gonna please anybody. And I think genuinely being yourself with these shows and not being afraid to hide who you are is a massive, massive part of success.

SPEAKER_04 43:40

Well, you've also built a hell of a platform.

SPEAKER_10 43:42

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 43:43

Okay, and I think a part of it was for both of us was well, is driving transactions gonna really take off? Is Pax really gonna take off?

SPEAKER_10 43:54

Imposter syndrome.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

And you and Bruce did a fantastic job. And I do believe, I remember the time when the two of us on the podcast, you know, it may have been said by a few people that we were, quote, overplayed. But the funny thing is that the funny thing is, those are the same people that like to visit with us on the podcast. So I'm pretty happy with the way the podcast is gone gone. I I think we are adding a lot of value. I would like to continue to give you total credit that this was your idea.

SPEAKER_10 44:28

You got me into this, and with it's a beautiful collaborative effort. We worked together and created something beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 44:35

And you know what? We have to hand it to our producer, John. Why don't you come on?

SPEAKER_10 44:39

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you surprised us. Now we're surprising you, John.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Thank you for doing a great job producing. Thank you for letting Brett hack in here and Pasternak. I think Pasternak owes us for some sponsorship money there. I'm not positive. But you've done a great job taking the podcast to a great level. Before we want to sign off, John, can you pull up September's numbers for us?

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 45:05

Am I putting you too much on the spot?

SPEAKER_00 45:06

No, you can't be on the spot. Let's let's go log into our YouTube platform here. Just give me just a quick minute to pull it all up.

SPEAKER_10 45:14

Yeah, don't don't don't share it while you're putting in the password. We've already had one security incident today. We don't need two.

SPEAKER_04 45:20

Yeah, you'll let somehow Brett get in. I do want to point out that we will in 2027 be really pushing for sponsors. We've got a couple of good lines on some sponsors. It is always our objective to inform. Sometimes that information might be a little bit controversial because the industry's changing, but it is information we believe everybody should have. So, John, walk us through where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

All right. So, what we're looking at is our YouTube statistics, and that we do have an audio version of the podcast too. But we did have a very good month in September where we had nearly 4,000 plays of the long form content. This is just the long versions of the podcast.

SPEAKER_09 45:59

We do have all three of our listeners really like to play that back over and over, don't they?

SPEAKER_04 46:04

What's up with that? How many views? What is it? How many views?

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Yeah, this they really like. This is nearly 4,000 views of the long form content in September. But if we take off and just look at all views in total, we're getting about 6,000 views a month over the last couple months. And then if we flip over to our audio version of the podcast, this is always my favorite, is the audio. September was nearly the biggest month, but we did see a major uptick in September, over a thousand downloads of the audio version of the podcast. So between Apple, YouTube, Spotify, Overcast, wherever folks are listening, your voices are reaching the ears and eyes of many operators in the ground transportation industry.

SPEAKER_10 46:54

And I think we we should take a second and say thank you, right? I never thought people would listen to us in that quantity or that amount.

SPEAKER_04 47:01

And just think if you hadn't been bleeping out my swear words all these time, how many more people we would have? Because of that would have been so much more entertaining.

SPEAKER_10 47:09

I think if we had more rabbit holes, they would they would listen on it.

SPEAKER_04 47:13

I do think that people probably do.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Ken, I think you need to go after more CEOs like how you did with the Uber CEO. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 47:19

Let's you know, until we get a cease and assist letter. I go after some people have that that you know play button. Ken's wanting that cease and desist letter.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

I go after Uber CEO, the Uber executives, the way Red Sox fans go after the Yankees. Now, I say that lovingly, lovingly, as having grown up in Boston, but also been a very highly paid Yankees fan. But my opinions are what they are based on a lot of research and a lot of data, and we'll leave that for another episode.

SPEAKER_10 47:51

Yeah. I think that's fair.

SPEAKER_04 47:54

Okay. Well, this has been another exciting episode of the Ground Transportation Podcast. Everybody, we look forward to seeing you in Washington, D.C., October 25th and through 27th. I better get my room squared away. Yeah. James, we will miss you, but I will make sure that everybody stops to see Casey and stops to see the PAX training booth.

SPEAKER_10 48:15

I am giving you guys my better half. It is much better to have that part of the team than me. I assure you. I'm heartbroken. I can't be two places at once. But I promise the show will go on without me.

SPEAKER_04 48:27

I think it'll be fine. I think the team will take care of the audience, and I think uh PAX Training will do very well. All right, guys. This has been another episode of the Ground Transportation Podcast. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you back here next Friday.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

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 Podcast.