Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb life, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_04 0:12

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

What is up, Micah?

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Man, I am good under the weather, but I'm pushing through.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Yeah, I thought my headphones were messed up earlier. You're like, I'm ready to go. I'm like, whoa, whoa, is this my my headphones? What's going on here? But um, yes, thank you for tuning in to this episode 241 of your favorite Airbnb VRBO, Uber Lyft, short-term, mid-term, long-term economy, and share economy podcast in the world coming at you from Fort Worth in Arlington, Texas, Micah.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Let's go, man. What we got going on on this beautiful Friday?

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Oh man, we're gonna talk about uh some some water, some fun in the water, bro. I think that's what we're gonna talk about. I got a new mic, I got a new before we jump into that. I got a new um, well, I got my microphone set up and I got a pretty fancy camera, the one that you said to to get. So I might have to, it's like HD, so I'm gonna have to start wearing some makeup now. I don't know. Anyways, looks pretty cool. Uh I got it, I got, yeah, I can see. I can see things better is better than the cheap ass um camera they put on these MacBook Airs, whatever. So ready to roll, baby. Uh, we have a special guest today. Who we got? Who we got indeed? Eric Pierce. Second time on the show, man. Back in the day, he was doing some short-term rental fun stuff, and he was um pimping uh roleys and and exotic cars and

From launch service to luxury boat valet

SPEAKER_03 1:50

stuff like that. And so now he's doing some other things. He's doing some like um Airbnb Your Boat is called Expert Marketer. He's an expert marketer and founder of 30A Boat Valet, a boat charter with a unique twist. Welcome to the show, Eric. Thanks, guys. What's going on? Oh, just having fun on this Friday, baby. Ready to talk some talk some um share economy stuff, baby. What's uh so what's the twist on this um boat valet you got going on?

SPEAKER_05 2:20

Well, it's uh it started as what you call launch and pickup service, where um boat owners and rental companies would call me and have me uh put the boat in the water and you know, when people are done, load it back up and put it back in storage. And uh one thing led to another and uh basically started a charter business after living here in this area, which is on the Gulf Coast of uh Florida, um you know, watching the area grow for the last 20 years. Um, everybody wants to be on the water here. That's the whole point of being here is being by the beach or being on the water in some form or fashion. So basically, um I, you know, I worked with some rental companies, worked with owners and so on, and got to hear kind of the inside scoop of what what the customers wanted. And basically uh 38 Boat Valley moved it morphed into this um luxury charter where we get pontoons, which are actually tritunes in this case. So there's three floats on them. It's a little bit more of a luxury setup, you know, plush seating and good stereo systems and you know, faster boats, more powerful things like that. Basically, instead of a customer going to a marina to get on a boat, uh, when they book with us, we actually come to them. So uh we have we have like you know pickup locations and stuff like that. We'll pick up at private docks if people are staying at a house that you know has a dock on it. Um, and basically what we do is we valet the people. So 38 boat valet turned into a person valet. So we we uh it's almost like an Uber on the water, except that it's higher end and um you know it's not driving all over the place, but we can. Um, you know, we've we've done some some pretty cool stuff with it. And uh so that that grew into um you know a luxury, basically the premier luxury uh pontoon charter in the area. And the funny the funny thing is when somebody hears luxury pontoon, they have this image in their mind of you know, from 20 years ago of a of this beat up granddad's pontoon that has a you know 50 horsepower motor on it, or if that, and the boat will do five miles an hour and it putt-puts along, and you know, it's got uh astro turf on the deck and you know umbrellas on it, all this other stuff. But we've we've kind of redefined that by uh getting these higher-end, you know, tritunes or pontoons, if you will, they're around $75,000, you know, new. Um and they're powerful too. Uh they're fast, um, they're somewhat economical at the same time, they have some luxuries to them. And and so anyway, we started we started taking customers out on that. And uh and now what's happened is I've uh e-commercized

E-commerce booking replaces the clipboard marina

SPEAKER_05 5:27

the business quite a bit. So it's it's become rather than this old-fashioned, you know, get on the phone, uh, you know, call up the marina, see if there's a boat available. You go to the marina, you get the instruction, you get on the boat, you drive it yourself. But everything's very old-fashioned, you know, there's a booking system, everything's on paper and a clipboard, you know, and all that stuff. Um, what they do with my site is they they see the ad or whatever it is they find, they go straight into the website, they book their captain from there, they book the boat or the cruise rather online. And basically what happens is they show up to a pickup location and the boat's there with the captain and everything on it. Captain helps them helps them load up their stuff, and then they're off. So it's become very e-commercized. Um, and uh it's kind of you know, it's kind of a cool thing, uh a cool spin on it because there's still people, you know, still companies doing this in the old-fashioned kind of sense. But but anyway, it's a lot of fun. Um going out on the water. I love the water anyway, and it was just uh it was no-brainer. And uh we're season two now um on the water, and uh it's fun, having a blast with it.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

So many things to jump into, and and one thing, one thing that that stands out is because um there was this other podcast I used to listen to called, I think it was called Dirty Jobs or something like that. And and um, and so he made a great point. And when you when you started talking about all the other boat, you know, rental places, whatever, where were just there still have a clipboard and you call a number and you say, ah, let me check and see if it's available and kind of thing. You go over there and you sign your name on some stuff, uh and you and you get your boat. And I'm and he it was his show, he would talk about there's so many jobs out there that if you just put a little effort in, you got it on the internet, you could you could rank number one like in a week because they don't they don't do any um you know anything on Google, you know, Google ads or Facebook ads or whatever. They don't promote themselves, they don't even have a good website, and they're they're not automated, you know, you can't you can't do anything with their website. And he goes, You could pretty much take over any industry, any job. He started naming like you know, plumbing jobs or roofing or mowing yards or whatever. If you just put a little effort into it, you could you could like be the go-to in that area, you know what I'm saying? And so that reminded me of what you did right away. You you put a little bit of uh uh internet onto it, and and then it really took off. So so that being said, I I do I do remember um I go to Padre a lot. I love Padre, but I was like, man, you just you can rent your own boat. I mean, that that's a that's a thing. We do I need a license to drive the damn thing, or how how did it work back in the day?

SPEAKER_05 8:19

Um basically, you know, they take your driver's license, you'd sign a uh one-page waiver, a liability release. You'd go through a a crash course, you know, driver's thing, which is basically you just answer some questions on a piece of paper. Um, and it's like, and and the people that you know that run the operation are there telling you what the answers are. Um, and you, you know, then they take you to the boat and you get on the boat and they see you off.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Yeah, that doesn't sound too safe, man.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Well, it's it's not partly because if you've never driven a boat before, you know, because a lot of people think, hey, um, you know, I want to uh I want to go drive this car so they go rent one to drive it rather than buy it. They want to get the experience. Well, same thing with boats. In fact, my first real I guess you can say real boat ride where

First pontoon rental on Lake Lanier sparked the boat career

SPEAKER_05 9:18

I drove a boat was a pontoon. It was up in Atlanta, and this was in 2018 or 19. I think it was 2019, so four years ago. Might have been 18, I don't remember now. Anyway, um, that's exactly what it was. I was uh I was trying to find you know place to rent a boat because I just got this idea one night. Like, hey, why don't we they have that this is a lake? Why don't we rent a boat? Go on a boat for a little while. My wife was like, yeah, let's do that. Okay. So I went and you know, Googled some, you know, boat rental, you know, boat rental near me or whatever. And um place came up, it was 195 bucks for two hours. And um took a little bit to find the place. We got lost twice trying to find the place. And uh we get there, and that's exactly what they did. I walked up, it's this kind of hut looking thing, it's like you know, just wood structure. Uh, you walk in there, there's a desk and uh real small place. There's three kids working there. Um, they hand me a couple papers to sign. I had no idea what I was signing, and they're like, just sign this liability release, and here's the course. Uh, just answer A, B, D, G, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's the answers, and you're, you know, you're good, you're fine, whatever. You drive a car, right? I'm like, yeah. They're like, okay, well, you'll be fine. So they literally walk me. I'm like, uh, okay. And um, they they walk us out to the boat, and I had no idea what I was looking at because I did, I did back then, I did not know boats. I had no clue. So I just saw a motor and you know, and and seats. We get on there, and I'm like, okay, I've never driven one of these before. This is my first time or anything. I should know. I'm like, nah, this is your throttle forward is forward, is uh push push the throttle forward. You go forward, pull it back, and it backs you up. Steering wheel, you're fine. I'm like, okay. He's like, you don't need to mess with it, it's simple. So we get in there and we we kind of uh we drove around Lanier Island, uh, which is where we were staying, and um uh we went out there for two hours. It was freezing cold and windy and choppy. I had a blast though, and uh the funny part was is we're sitting there and um we just stopped for a minute just to kind of you know enjoy floating. And I told my wife, I said, uh, I said, I don't know why I'm saying this, but but I'm gonna say it. It's a it's a thought I have right now. I was like, somehow, some way I'm going to find an opportunity to work with boats. And it's gonna become my how I make a living, and it's gonna become how I how I produce. Like, I don't know when, how, or where this is gonna happen, but when the opportunity comes up, I'm gonna take it. And she goes, Okay, sounds good. I'm like, cool, done. And then we just kept going. Well, um, I'll just make a long story short. A year later, an opportunity pops up. A friend of mine calls me up and says, Hey, uh, can I get some uh can I get some help with with you know with something I got going on? Gig I got going on. I'm like, yeah, sure, what's up? He's like, I'm um towing some boats, gotta launch, gotta do what's called a launch and pickup. I'm like, what okay, what is that? He goes, you're gonna uh hook up to a trailer with a boat on it, you're gonna pull it over to the ramp, you're gonna put the boat in the water on the trailer, you're gonna pull the boat off the trailer and put it on the dock and tie it off. And then uh it's some renders that are going out. When they come back, you'll load the boat back up on the trailer and you'll take it back to where it's stored. I'm like, okay, sounds simple enough. Well, this ended up turning into about a I don't know, year

$150,000 from Facebook groups alone in six months

SPEAKER_05 13:36

and a half, two-year deal. I became contractor and I was doing, you know, like anywhere from three to five boats a day, which was taking me 6 a.m. till sometimes 10 or 11 p.m. Damn with all the work that was going into it. And um it it started growing, it did well. And then next thing I know, I went and buy my own boat and um start it. Started my own charter. And even the way that happened was was a funny story. I'm one of those guys that um I'm not going to wait until I go get something and then make something happen from it. I'm gonna go, it's kind of like uh like a like a proper sales system. If you ever listen to Grant Cardone, um he talks about you know a proper sales system. You you uh you sell it the product before you have the product. So you create the demand, build get the revenue, then you go create the product and deliver it. Because if it doesn't sell, then you're stuck with it, right? So so what I did was I um I narrowed down over the period of, I don't know, probably three, four months of just research or just hardcore research and getting to know because at this point I had run probably 750 boats or something like that. Um, got a lot of experience. Like I knew what I was doing. I understood I understood boats, I knew all that stuff, learned personalities of boats because boats have their own personalities, depending on how they're built and you know, all that different stuff. It's kind of weird to say that, but if you got into boating world, it'd be like, okay, that makes sense. Um, they all had their own quirks to them, each one, even if they're all the same boat, not one boat is the same in personality. It's the craziest thing to experience, but the more you run, the more you figure out, even though these two boats are identical, this one does this and this one does this. It's weird. Never seen anything else like that before. Only boats. And uh um, and so anyway, did a bunch of research, narrowed down the boat, blah, blah, blah, blah. Took me a month to put a deal together. Um, I use Facebook groups a lot. I've just I've become a Facebook group like fanatic. Um I just know how to use them really well and leverage them. Um in fact, I used uh the first what six months of my charter. Um, I used Facebook groups to make uh what did they produce? About a hundred and I think a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in revenue.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Um just purely for from boat charters, just Facebook groups alone. Um, just understanding how they work, um, understanding how to speak to the audience, how to get attention, doing things that others aren't doing. Uh it just became a sweet spot for me. So I use Facebook groups purely, Facebook groups to build uh to start the business. And then just from there, you know, produced the income to then go into paid advertising, Google, Facebook, Instagram.

Which Facebook groups tourists actually use

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Yeah. What kind of Facebook groups are you are you are are these people that are just like um boat lovers or what what kind of Facebook groups are these?

SPEAKER_05 17:02

Not boat lovers because that's not the audience. Oh, okay. The audience that you're talking to are if you're in a tourist town like I'm in a tourist town here, we get we get almost 30 million visitors a year in our area, 50 mile radius. Wow. What area? So what area is this? Uh Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:22

If you if you look at Santa Rosa Beach, uh you could type in 30A Florida, like 30A Florida, uh Destin, Florida, Miramar Beach, Florida. Not Miramar, because there's a Miramar, Florida as well. That's down south, but Miramar Beach, Florida. Um, Panama City Beach, Florida. That's kind of your your 50-mile radius right there. Um, and it's just it's growing massively. Um, our population is increased. Well, we when I first moved here 30 years ago, we had a what 10, 10, 12,000 person population. We're now pushing a hundred thousand just in Walton County alone. And there's you got Okalusa, Walton, and Bay County, those three counties. So we're we're growing hugely. Like we're the development that's happening here is insane. Um, we it's almost like we have our own economy here. So whatever happens around the country, we're kind of in our own bubble. Um and the boat market is just you know soaring here, which is uh, which is what you know, I kind of got in in during COVID, and that's when the business really exploded. Everybody wanted to get on the water, they they didn't want to stay in the house, they couldn't go do anything else. They're like, okay, let's go on a boat. So it was uh it was mind-blowing to see how how you know how big and fast that grew. Um and and and so uh going back to the Facebook groups, these are local groups where um people are trying to find things to do, places to stay, places to eat, stuff like that. Um so if you're in a you know, every every city has them, um, especially more populated cities or cities where there are things to do, uh, you can search for you know that local group, like like in our area, uh they'll search, you know, like Destin, Florida, for example, just to be very general. You search Destin, Florida in the group section, and you'll see like Destin and the Emerald Coast, Destin, Florida, Miramar Beach, Miramar Beach, Florida. We love Miramar Beach, all these different groups, right? Well, uh, when you go into those groups, it's mostly tourists that go in there because they're they want to go in and talk to the locals and find out what they have to offer. And so what I was doing is I was finding uh I got into about 55 local Facebook groups. And I was going in there on a daily basis, and I was posting so much that the admins were contacting me asking me if I was purposely spamming your group. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm not spamming your group. Um, I am just trying to get attention and I would like for this to be mutually beneficial. If you'll like, you know, if you'll let me post and promote my group, um, do you just let me know whenever you want to go out on the water and I'll take care of you? Oh, nice. And and they all every single one of them, oh, okay. Like the whole tone changes, right? Well, what ended up happening is um I got into about 10 of the most influential Facebook groups in the area, and um, and I was able to go in and you know, and and do this. So it was kind of it was a trade. It's a you know, it's a barber. Something give them something of value, and they'll give you something of value, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:04

So you're saying there's some power to this networking thing? Nah, not really. Because most of us just stay on our computers and you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 21:14

We don't know exactly. It's like it's like if you're gonna be on social media, do something with it. Be social. Be social. That's the whole point. It's like this is so many people don't understand. Like, if you want to, you know, build a network, if you want to build a business, it's right there and it's free for the most part. And I basically didn't have any advertising costs for the first uh several months of starting this business because I was just using Facebook groups. That's what I knew. I didn't know how to use Google, I didn't know how to use all that stuff, just Facebook groups. And then from there, people started trying to find me. So fortunately, I'd started my other, you know, my Other profiles, which were 30A uh at 30A vote ballet. So what I would do is I would go in and post, I would put my my um uh my profile call sign. And then what I was doing is using Venmo, uh Venmo and Cash App, my social profiles, and Google Calendar. That's how the business started. And then it was all me. And there were captains I was working with, because again, it was it was captain. And then from there, it just got to the point where it started getting so busy. I'm like, okay, I gotta, I've got to start putting some systems in place, which I knew was gonna happen at some point. I just didn't realize how quickly it was gonna happen.

One boat to eight boats in months, then bad weather

SPEAKER_05 22:42

And um, you know, started running some promotions and then all this other stuff. It just like it just exploded. I'm like, wow, I need another boat. So from there, I went from one boat to this was last year, went from one boat to eight boats in the matter of months. And what happened was I, you know, had some uh had some partnerships, and I wouldn't do it the way I did it again because I didn't know I didn't really know what to do. It was just saying yes and you know, doing it, just say yes to the opportunity. Well, I mean, that was the yesterday last year was the first full year of doing this. Um, and you know, we did what did a half a million in revenue. And the problem was is my advertising costs started to shoot through the roof because Google started working really good. And uh Google started working really good, like really good. And I decided a couple months in a row, I was like, well, let's double down because this is not gonna last. So let's do it while it lasts, and then you know, the month that usually starts declining, I'll just I'll just you know cut the budget in half or in a quarter, and then let it run from there, and then gear up again, you know, in the winter time. So what ended up happening was I spent a ton of money in advertising, mainly in Google. And then we we had bad weather hit uh the the third month going into this. Um uh bad weather hit had $75,000 on the books going into August. This was in July, which was about 20 grand ahead of um July. Started, you know, June going into July, July going into August, right? Um, August hits August 1st. Bad weather, just rained out, and this ends up going on for the entire month.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Damn.

SPEAKER_05 24:53

All but maybe a week's worth of days, and uh, and then it was like it was just a decline from there. Um, and it was just all you know, all trying to trying to save it and stuff, but but the wild part was was that you know the ride up there. So this year things are you know start a little bit differently. Um three boats and I own um, I'll have you know, the two of them will be company owned, one is sewer partner. So this year is kind of simplifying, you know, it's that first that first three years of business where you're trying to you're figuring out what works and what doesn't. So it's like you you figure out what doesn't work first, and then you find what does work. So that's what you know, that's what I've been uh what I've been doing, but but this concept still remains.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Now, now is there any way to arbitrage boats to do what you're doing?

SPEAKER_05 25:48

There is. Um and that's what I'm that's that's kind of phase two. So my whole thing and what I'm doing here, just to give you a general picture, is building a sellable brand. I trademarked the brand in the business model. Um, and now I'm putting the tech behind it with the systems, you know, booking system and and procedures and all that. Basically, what I'm doing now is since I learned what what I learned stuff that does work, but I learned a lot that doesn't work. So now I'm taking that uh putting it, molding it into a package, putting the tech behind it, which is you know, booking system, all that stuff. Um what's gonna happen next is I'm gonna end up with three of my own boats or three three company-owned boats. Um, and then what I'm gonna start doing is bringing other boats into the fold from other companies and become the booking agency. Um, where you know I already have the marketing platform in place, I already have the booking system in place and all that. So it'd be kind of like a getmyboat.com, except I won't have the bureaucracy that those apps have.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Now, here's something that jumps out to me, an idea, because like I, you know, I love Florida too, and I'd love to be able to have a boat, right? That'd be cool to have a boat. I've always wanted to have a boat, and um, but most okay, most people here that have boats that they come to lakes and

Boat arbitrage models: leasing vs booking agency

SPEAKER_03 27:21

stuff, they just sit in their driveway all year. They might use them a couple times, right? But if I can give my let you you know buy a boat over there where you're at and just give it to you, hey, make some money on this thing for me. And when I come to town, I can use it myself. I think that would be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 27:37

That's basically what I was doing with uh with the partners I had last year. The part that you've got to be careful of doing that is uh where advertising funds are coming from. And the mistake I had made is I was covering the advertising and I had eight boats to cover, and that's eats a lot of revenue. So they do well in the end, but you don't because your your net gets cut way down because your advertising costs get so high. So um the way around that is uh there's a couple of options I'm working on. One is um leasing. So basically I buy a boat and I lease it out like a 12-month lease type of deal. So somebody does a down payment and then a monthly, you know, a monthly payment. They don't have to do um, they don't have to keep the boat up. But what happens is is they get the access to the boat, even though it's kind of expensive, it's just like uh it's like having a jet charter or fractional ownership in a jet, right? They don't want to have to um take care of the you know the maintenance and all that other stuff. They just want the use. So the cost of the lease would then cover maintenance and things like that. So what I'm what I'm you know working on is the potential of I have a boat, I lease it out, um, I make the profit off the lease, I keep it maintained, all they do is basically pay for the fuel. So that's an option that I'm uh looking at doing. And then the other option again is being the booking agency. So uh their boat gets listed on my website and on my platform because basically I built a platform, it's not running on an app just yet, but it's it's a platform I built where the advertising is behind it and it continues to expand. Partnerships, advertising platforms, etc. etc. Um, and uh uh so basically they'll pay a fee to do that. So let's say if I if I'm charging 500 bucks or or they charge 500 bucks or something like that, um a hundred bucks or 200 bucks uh will go to me, is basically how that would work. And they take their net. So something simple, but very profitable if you can uh set that up right.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

I love how you pivoted in business and you've seen that. That's awesome. So, one question I have. So I have two friends in Florida. Uh they're out in Florida, but they used to actually uh be a part of this catering, this uh charter thing with boats. They used to work on the boats, um, but they'd be like the uh what is it? Basically, they'd provide for like the people that are renting the boats out. Yeah. Yeah. So what you would she would they used to tell me, you know, I just talked to them about this two weeks ago. They were like, yeah, they they stopped being that person on the boat so they could hop into real estate, but they would get like $20,000 tips from these people, right? Is that the same target clientele? Like on your boats, they have a captain, and then do they have someone like catering to them? And and is it that is it that type of deal? They can.

SPEAKER_05 30:52

Now I operate under a different set of uh regulations that those type of charters do. Those those type of charters under uh what's called commercial law, and I'm operating under what's called recreational law.

SPEAKER_06 31:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 31:06

So when someone books uh books a cruise with us, they're getting the boat, and then they have to go hire the captain andor crew. Um, you know, if they want food, they have to go do the hiring for that because it's called it's uh it's a different type of law. So basically, um when they book a cruise with us, they are taking ownership of the boat for the term of their booking. So when they're on the water, that's their boat by law. And by contract, they own the boat, the crew or captain are their employees, and they're responsible for all their passengers and so on. And so it's a different type of law. Now, those charters down like in Miami and stuff like that, that's under commercial law. So what happens is the charter company is the one who employs the crew and the catering and all that stuff. So basically, I don't have employees because the law I operate under the person that books the the crews, they are the employer. So it's the difference between the law's recreational law. Um, you uh uh relinquish control of the vessel and crew, commercial law, you maintain control of them. So there's it's it's like an opposite way of doing it.

Recreational vs commercial charter law explained

SPEAKER_05 32:27

Um but the goal, the goal is that in three years, I'm gonna have um uh three what's called mangousta 104 revs. Those are 304-foot yachts. If you Google Mangusta, uh it's M-A-N-G-U-S-T-A, Mangusta 104 Rev, it's the sexiest yacht you'll ever see. And they are they have a presence like when they come into uh a pass, they come into the um, you know, when they're coming into the to the marina or the harbor, if you will, they have a presence about them because of their design. Um, but but that's the goal is is have that um and and actually build a staff of you know crew and caterers and and things of that sort. Um, but I got to get there. The the pontoons are a way for me to get there because they they produce well. So really by the end of this year, the goal is to step up to uh the next level boats, which would be what I what I call a cabin class. So it's you know, heat, air conditioning. Uh the particular boat that I'm wanting to get has two bedrooms, two baths. Um, it's 36 feet, uh 15 feet wide, it can go out in the ocean, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Okay. So you do plan on going to that commercial side soon. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Because they they taught me so much, because we're both in real estate, and they taught me so much, like how they could stack their money. And he was like, Oh, it's easy. These people will tip you $10,000, $15,000. But it's like you're there, these are like one percenters. So once you start catering to that crowd, it's just like in the short-term rental space in Airbnb, you cater to the right crowd, you're gonna get the right income.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

Um, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's the same thing here, it's not quite the same um crowd in Miami. However, it's a much more close-knit group of people here. Um, and the particular market I'm working to is called it's the 30A market. 30A is about a 35 mile radius area where it's very affluent. It's like if you were gonna move, you know, high-end Miami, take all that or Jupiter Island or something like that, stuff that into a 35-mile radius, that's what you got.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

Multi, multi, multi-million dollar homes. Like one of the one of the there's a house that sold there, I think it was a year or two for 35 million. Oh my god. Um uh right on, you know, right on the Gulf of Mexico. Um, so you've got and and these aren't main homes, these are second, third, fourth, fifth homes. They're and they're they're huge. They all fly in and they're private jets. Like if you go to uh what's called the you know, Dustin Airport or Panama City Beach, private, the private FBO, you'll just see lines of you know, like G5s, G650s, citation tens, like just rows of jets, and they're all going to this 30A area. Um, and uh, you know, they invest heavily in the area, their their rentals, um, they own a lot of real estate here. Um, in fact, have you guys heard the name Adrian Morrison?

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Adrian Morrison.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

He he does uh he's known for e-commerce, he he has Shopify stores and all that stuff. He was actually endorsed by Shopify to train people to use Shopify. Um, he's a Facebook ads expert and all that. Um, but the dude's worth like nine figures. And he um he owns a bunch of real estate in this area, um, you know, like penthouses and big homes and commercial real estate and all that. There's like 34 in that area, and um, and so he comes in here, he charters jets all the time and comes over here, and uh um, but speaking of which, if you guys want to learn Facebook ads, check him out. That dude is he he's like I would consider him top as far as doing Facebook ads and and and building the business off of that, I would consider him probably one of the best out there, um, besides these large you know agencies that run like you know, that ran ads for Trump when when he had like a two billion dollar budget. You know, um the guy that ran those the political ads, but that's all but that's all that agency does is just political um stuff, and that's what they're known for. Um Adrian Morrison is specific to e-commerce, you know, drop shipping. Um he knows like the cycles that you know, Facebook ads go through, exactly how the algorithm works, all that stuff. He has a course too. And I'm not paid by him. I sound like I'm promoting this stuff. It's just I've learned a lot just from watching his um uh like his webinars and stuff like that. Yeah, I've learned so much stuff just from watching his webinars, like even his free stuff, that just blows my mind, the kind of stuff he puts out there. But um, if anybody wants to learn Facebook ads, go check out Adrian Morrison. Highly, highly recommend. Um, very cool guy, too.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

Um, so like on this type of stuff, because you're renting out boats and stuff. What kind of insurance do you guys have? Like I know you said you you hit some tough times with weather. Do you guys have any type of like loss of income insurance,

Non-refundable deposits replaced full refunds

SPEAKER_04 38:02

anything like that?

SPEAKER_05 38:03

I don't have loss of income insurance, but what I've done is I've gone to a uh deposit system. So I have um basically take a percentage. I do it as a flat rate, but it's a uh a percentage um of the uh the cruise, like what they pay for a cruise. Um, part of that is a non-refundable deposit. Then under no circumstances is it refundable, even if there's bad weather day of, they can get a full refund minus their non-refundable deposit. And um, and people on, you know, most of them they understand it because they're like, well, if it's bad weather, they still got to put food on the table. We can't just take a complete loss. I mean, that's what I wasn't doing that last year, and that's why I took a complete loss because there was no revenue. In fact, it all kind of went out the window because I had to refund so much. Um had I thought about doing a deposit last year, that probably would have saved things from from taking such a big hit. Um, but you gotta learn somehow. Um, so I did. And um uh but anyway, as far as insurance goes, there's a specific type of insurance that you use for uh for recreational chart uh charters. Here's the thing that a lot of people run into. If any, if anyone, uh if any of you listening to this decide you want to um you know start a boat charter or want to learn more about it or anything like that, I have a very, very, very small Facebook group that I created for it. Um it's called um how to start and scale the boat charter business. Very simple. Um there's like maybe several people in it, like very, very small. And the reason it's so small is uh not a lot of people realize that there's a method, there's a technique, there's an understanding that goes into it. And I always tell people when they because I've helped, I don't know, seven, seven different charters start up and get going. Um you have to decide if you're gonna go commercial and you're gonna have you're you're gonna pay a captain yourself to run your boat, or if you're gonna go recreational where the customer pays the captain. And the reason you have to make this decision is because if you don't and you cross borders, you cross that line, um you can get in big trouble with Coast Guard. You can actually get fined because they board boats here, like they'll board the boat, do an inspection, if they find that you've kind of crossed laws, then the big no-no is really going uh trying to do recreational, but but just one little area you didn't cross your T's on, and you're commercial on this side. Or if you do this and you fall over on this side because of give you an example. If you're running recreational, you've got more people on the boat than uh than deemed commercial, but you paid the captain, or the charter company paid the captain, you're on you're in commercial law, and now you've got violations uh because you've got more people than what's allowed for that law. So it's called like a I'll give you a quick example just so um just so the audience can wrap their head around a little bit in a simplistic way. There's a caption license called a six pack. And what six pack means is you're basically rated to be able to take up to six people on a boat. Um, it's kind of the entry-level license that you get. From there, it goes to a 25 ton, uh a 50 ton, 100 ton, 200 ton, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, until you go to unlimited. That just means that the higher the tonnage, the bigger the boat, and you can go up to that uh that maximum. With a six-pack, it's just very limited. It's um you can drive, uh you can basically drive a under 25-ton boat and you can take up to six people. Uh, technically it's seven, but I'll spare all those details. It's a lot of details. Um, so if you're running a what's called a six-pack operation, this would be commercial law, right? You're running what's called a six-pack operation. You can take up to six people, and the charter company is not relinquishing control of the vessel of the boat to the customer. They maintain control and they're paying the captain. Okay, that's commercial law. If they take eight people on a boat, they're gonna get a violation and they're gonna get cited for it. Um, and if they find more violations, they can ground the boat and basically stop the operation, and then you have a you know $5,000 fine. Um, uh, and which is really bad for an operation that's just getting started. So let me jump over to the other side of things. Let's say you're um you're under recreational law, you've got eight people on the boat, but you're paying the captain. They're gonna deem that a commercial operation and fine you for it because the customer didn't hire the captain. The customer, the person who's the the renter, they have to be able to show proof that they paid the captain, and the captain should have proof. You know, I I do this, imagining it's my phone, because that's how everybody pays it. So they have to be able to show proof that the customer is their client and they were paid by the customer, not by the charter company. So there's there's this line, and not a lot of people study this. It took me two years to understand how this law works. I studied the definitions of it, I studied the statutes, I studied what this means, what that means. I I I know that law really, really, really well. And you have to because it You don't, that's where these fines can come in. That's where you can get in trouble with Coast Guard, all that other stuff. Um, um, but as far as commercial law goes, yeah, that's where the money is because you can get into these larger boats. Like when I'm talking those 104 mangoustas, 104-foot mangousta yachts, these are like four-bedroom, you know, four-bath. You can you can sleep eight people in them, right? Wow. That's a commercial operation, full out commercial. You're gonna be paying the captain, you're gonna be paying, you know, you're gonna have a stewardess, um, you're gonna have a caterer, you're gonna have, you know, a chef, you're gonna have all that stuff.

$120,000 per week on a Mangusta 104 yacht

SPEAKER_05 44:39

And these are the these are the type of things where it's what's called a term charter. So they're gonna they're gonna charter the boat for a week or two weeks or something like that. And that particular boat will do uh about 120,000 a week. Damn. If you have three of those, do the numbers, and your your overhead, uh, your overhead is about 30 percent. So you got a 70% profit margin.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

Holy smokes! Yeah, we're in the wrong business, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:11

So that's that. Well, now you understand why I'm trying to get up there. So, but see, here's part of my uh my plan though, is build the charter business up, build it into a sellable business after I haven't decided if I want to do five or 10 years. We'll get to five and see how it goes. But the goal is to get to 100 million, all the while setting aside funds and dumping it into real estate. So that's the whole plan. Real estate and uh buying businesses. The goal is to have a portfolio of businesses. I'd I would love to see myself with a portfolio of 50 businesses across multiple uh sectors, multiple verticals, and I don't run a single one. I just own them and take my, you know, take my percentage. Um, and then uh there's a few different things I want to do, you know, lending, I want to uh be a um a private lender, um, which is something super simple. I mean, everything in doing is really arbitrage, is what it comes back to. Exactly. Um it's like give you another example. If somebody doesn't know how to get a boat, uh a boat charge started up, if they let's say you have an audience, an audience member or section of audience that they're like, well, I don't have the money to do that. Um, my credit's bad. How do I go get a boat with that? Well, here's a couple options. One is you can go find someone that has a boat or someone that'd be willing to get a boat. Um uh go into my Facebook group and I'll show you how to do all that stuff. Um, but basically you find someone, tell them, hey, um, you keep the boat, I'll run the whole thing, I'll charter it out. Let's just, you know, come up with a percentage split. I'll do all the marketing, but you got to pay for that because you know, obviously I can't pay for marketing out of my pocket right now, but I'll run the whole thing. Um, I'll get it filled with customers, and we just do a profit split. That's one way. Another way is um find stuff you can flip. Like one of my uh one of the other things I do is I arbitrage golf cards. Micah's reaction. Um I arbitrage golf cards. Okay, so I go on Facebook Marketplace, for example, find a golf cart that's for sale. I go, uh, I talk to the seller, I go see the golf cart. Then what I do is I work out a deal with them where I say, hey, um, I'm interested in buying this, but here's what I do. I don't have a place, because literally, this is what I've got going on right now. I don't have a place to put golf carts, nor do I really want to, which gives me the leverage. So what I do is I say, all right, here's my process. Here's how I buy and sell. Um, I negotiate my purchase price with you. I am then going to take my pictures and my video, which I have a certain way of doing that. I'm going to create my own listing. I'm going to use my audience, which through Facebook groups is about an audience of about 2 million right now. Um, I'm going to market the uh the golf cart. I will bring the buyer, I'll show the buyer, the buyer will pay me, I will then pay you, and I'll do a bill of sale on each side. And then I make the difference. So I create a spread in the price, which is my profit. And I just bought and sold a golf cart on one uh in one spot within a few minutes of uh of making a deal, bill of sale on each side. I basically flipped it without taking possession. It's beautiful. So, you know, you do a few of those. Um, you know, if it's titled, I broker it, which is a side subject, but that's a way to create some revenue or some funds to get into a boat business. And you know, you can make this the smallest profit I've made doing a golf cart was 400 bucks. Most I've made was 1800. Um and then I have a I have a couple in the process right now where they'll be either around 22,500 bucks. Um, and all it takes is just some texting, a couple of phone calls, and you know, knowing how to do the deal is really what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

Kind of like a golf cart wholesaler.

SPEAKER_05 49:43

Kind of, except I'm taking it, I'm being a wholesale deal and then selling it to a retail buyer. It's all on Facebook.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

Nice. This is one question I have about it because you said you can make end up making like 120 a week. And by the way, I'm looking at these mangoustas, and damn, those are some nice ass boats, man.

SPEAKER_05 50:01

It's like you're those gorgeous or what?

SPEAKER_04 50:04

Out of a house, man. It's like these nice showers, all that stuff in there. But I know what I was gonna ask you was how like, okay, how often are you written these things? And it's a is it by the hour, is it by the day? And then, like, what's the turnover to get it back out there?

SPEAKER_05 50:20

These boats, these yachts, the money is made on what's called a term charter. So you rent it out by you have a weekly rate. So they're gonna rent it for a week, two weeks, maybe a month. Um, on average, it's two weeks. So you if you're doing 120,000 a week, uh, let's just say 100 grand a week, just for numbers' sake. 100 grand a week, that's 200,000 in a month. So you could have two weeks on, two weeks off if you wanted. But if it's going out, if it's going out for two weeks and then going back out for another two weeks with one customer, you're doing 400 grand a month on one boat, and 70% of that's profit. Damn. Yeah, it's insane. It's crazy. I mean, think about doing that for 12 months.

SPEAKER_04 51:10

That's crazy. The price of the boat's 800K.

SPEAKER_05 51:15

You're making oh no, it's a lot, it's more than 800k. Um, a Mangusta 104 Rev, because the 104 Rev RED is their newest, uh, one of their newest ones. And I think they're around eight to eight to ten million, I want to say. Oh. But you're not the thing, the thing that that you know that the audience has to understand here is no one goes and pays eight million dollars in cash for a boat. It's gonna be financed. And there's specialty finance companies out there that only do yachts. So what you're doing is you're getting a uh just you're getting like a mortgage on a piece of real estate. It's a it's a 20 to 30 year term, and you're gonna put you know, three percent down, five percent down, maybe maybe 20 down at most, and then it's gonna be financed, so you're gonna have a monthly payment. So it's very doable. You can put 3% down on a yacht. Yeah, so there's some companies that do that. Most of them on average will do 10%. But if you're you know, like in good standing and all that, you can get the other thing you can do is equipment finance. Because if you have a company set up, you can actually uh go get equipment financing, which you can get on a you know, 20, 25, 30 year term, um at actually pretty good interest rates. We're looking five to eight percent somewhere in that area. Um, and some of them do zero down. It's it's nuts. So you get that. And sometimes um with the equipment

Financing an $8 million yacht at 3% down

SPEAKER_05 53:01

financing, there's always they also do a lease option. So they'll lease it to you with the option to buy it out via the lease. So there's different options with this stuff. I mean, what you got to look at is it's just like doing real estate, or if you have a construction company and you're um and you're you're buying equipment, it's the same thing, it's just a boat. It's but it's equipment. Um, you know, it's cost of goods, so it's also tax write-off. I write my boats off, I write all my equipment off. Um and the other thing too is good.

SPEAKER_03 53:34

Oh, the only big difference is I would imagine a boat's gonna depreciate where uh an eight million dollar property is gonna appreciate, right? Except that.

SPEAKER_05 53:47

Um, right now the boat market has actually uh done pretty good since uh since COVID. Values are actually way up because the cost to manufacture the new boat is so high now, um, it's driving prices up.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

Um in 20 years, that boat's not gonna be worth near as much.

SPEAKER_05 54:08

In 20 years, no, but nobody's keeping it for 20 years. If you're a charter company, you're keeping the boat for maybe two years, maybe three at most. And then you turn around and sell it. That's why I would never pay cash for one. Unless I was buying one that was, you know, five years old, 10 years old. But most people don't want to go in a five or 10-year-old boat unless the price reflects that. Most people want a new boat. Um, that's the audience I'm talking to. Uh, what I call the 30A market, the 30A audience, they want primo, they want ultimate luxury, and they're willing to pay that for it. So uh what I do is I just get uh more of a top-end boat, um uh finance it, and then my I mean, one, I'll put it this way in simple terms, one booking covers my cost of the boat. So with the with a yacht charter, it's the same thing. One charter, one charter is like double your expense. I mean, think about it. If somebody, if somebody charters the boat, let's say they charter it for two weeks, and you're you know, you're at because my number is 120,000 a week on that boat, uh, that's $240,000 in two weeks. Um, and your payment is well, my I'm using my phone for the camera right now, but um, your payment's gonna be the payment's usually around one percent, maybe two percent of the value of the vessel, the cost of the vessel, the boat. So if it's a it's a five million dollar boat, let's say, uh, let's see, 10% be 500k. So you're looking at 50k. 50,000 is your boat mortgage. Your insurance is about 1% a year of the value of the boat. So on 5 million, go back to that 1% number, you're looking at again, what's that? 50,000 for the year. So 50,000 divided by 12, you're looking at about six, 5,500. Let's see, 55, 55, 5800 a month. Um, your costs of fuel, because the fuel turns into a profit, also. The customer pays for the fuel. That's one of the requirements under recreational law. Now, not in commercial, because commercials, um, commercials different. So, your cost of fuel, you're probably looking at 10 to 20 grand a month. Well, it depends. If it's a term charter, it's gonna be more than that. So basically, you get one charter and you're break even at worst.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

Nice. But how do you at worst? Now, if you what's cool is like one of those um mongustas that you're talking about. Yep. Let's say you buy a $10 million mongusta and and one quick trip to Colombia and you 100x your money, right? Oh yeah, bring back some yamu.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

I mean, seriously.

SPEAKER_03 57:26

Oh Micah, quick trip to Colombia and you can 100 200x your money with one of those mongustas. Yeah, but well, I mean you're putting on it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:39

Well, think about well, we're go to well no, I wouldn't say go to Cuba. That's probably the best idea. Colombia, Colombia would work, Jamaica. Yeah, that's another option. Um Mexico, there you go. Yeah, okay. Voted up.

SPEAKER_03 57:57

I don't see nothing, right?

SPEAKER_04 58:00

Uh one question I do have since like we're talking what kind of laws, I know you guys have laws because you have Coast Guards and whatnot. So to charter over the Mexico, is there certain laws and precautions you have to f follow to do that?

SPEAKER_05 58:14

Um honestly, I'm not sure what uh what laws you have with Mexico because most of the trips that I would be doing would be in the Caribbean. Okay. Uh Caribbean, uh, you know, Bahamas, um Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands, you know, places like that. Um, even down to the Keys. So I wouldn't be going west that often. I'd be going east.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 58:39

Stay stay east, stay safe. That's what I that's what I say. So, but but I mean, look, uh, easy numbers, like I said,

$3.6 million annual profit per yacht at 70% margin

SPEAKER_05 58:50

400 grand a month, 70% of that's profit. Um, you know, I mean, it's it's ridiculous almost. It's like you're about basically 300 grand. I mean, just easy numbers, 300 grand a month profit. You know, 12 months out of the year, you're looking at C 3.6 million dollars profit um per boat.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

Okay, that's man.

SPEAKER_05 59:16

So ish. If you have three boats, you're basically almost a $10 million business on three boats. It's insane.

SPEAKER_04 59:28

Yeah, it is, man. And I knew it was after I talked to my friends, and like when they said they used to work the business, be inside of it. I was like, that's yeah, people pay you that much in test, but you know, it's the target clientele for it. Once you hit that yacht level, yeah, it's sky's the limit from there.

SPEAKER_05 59:45

Well, I mean, think about a $15,000 to $20,000 tip, that's that's 10, 15.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

True.

SPEAKER_05 59:53

Yeah. I mean, think about it. If they're if they charter it for a month, just again, for numbers sake, keeping it easy, 400 grand a month on one boat, 10% of that, 10% is $40,000. Wow. So, I mean, yeah, that's very that's very easy. I mean, I've seen captains that were um uh running our boats um do, you know, this is a pontoon boat. I had a captain get uh or or I should say it this way, uh a captain I knew um got a thousand dollar tip one night. Damn. On top of his fee. So he basically made like uh he made like 1500 bucks on one trip. That was an eight hour, that was an eight-hour day. And uh, and they bought him lunch too. So I'm like, and that's a pontoon boat. We're not even I mean, we're not even talking higher level stuff. So like the goal, uh goal in you know, end of this year. In fact, I can I can show the audience a little something just for if they're curious. I don't know if these uh these numbers come out backwards.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:12

Oh, they look good.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:15

So right here, you're looking at uh three pontoon boats because that's the operation this year's three pontoon boats. So uh looking at about $1,200 per boat per day on average. That's $48,000 on 20 days, 20 days out of the month. Um uh this is the partner boat I have every year. So uh basically it's a 50-50 split with with him. So um 60 grand a month, that's on 20 days out of the month. Now, if I can get a full 30 days a month, that number jumps to 108,000. Uh 360,000 six months out of the year, 480,000, eight months out of the year. If I can squeeze 10 months, we're you know, we're pushing, we're pushing a million-dollar business right there. Nice. And then here's the operating expenses. So basically, your boat operation, your slip, so wet slip, thousand bucks. That's overestimating just a little bit. Um, a pickup location. If you have to pay for a pickup location, they typically charge 500 bucks a month. Insurance 400, which I just found out that's going to be lower this year, which I'm very excited about. Um, and there's only three insurance companies on the planet that do recreational coverage for charters. Here's your loan, 500 to 600 bucks a month. Fuel, you're looking around 2,000 a month, maintenance about 300 a month, which is you know, oil change and some different things. I'll I'll spare the details of that. So then I gave myself a $5,000 a month ad budget, which is conceivable. Here's my uh phone system, here's my um CRM. Here's my uh, you know, you guys know a Zapier is I use Zapier to connect all this stuff. Here's Clavio, that's email and text marketing. Um, and then my uh web host. So we're looking at uh just under 9,900 bucks a month in expenses.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Um so we're looking at you know 50 grand a month net with three votes.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

I love that 400,000 in eight months now have you like man, because I'm happy you're showing marketing because that's something the short-term rental space that they just don't do, right? Right. Have you like honed in on who your target clientele is? And then like oh yes, can you even can you get to the point of where you can even push those numbers higher by going to even a little bit different tier, higher tier clientele?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:08

So here's here's what I do. Um, just to give everybody uh an idea of uh of a proper way to market for you know tourism.

Target female bookers on mobile, not boat enthusiasts

SPEAKER_05 1:04:19

Um for example, if you have a boat charter and you're running Facebook ads, Google ads, don't ever target the boat audience because you're talking to other charter companies. Okay, you're talking to other charter companies and other people that own boats. You're not talking to people who want to rent them. The way to target people you that want to rent them is target those who have visited your city. So you target frequent travelers, target people who are interested in the beach, people who are interested in your area. So for for me, target people that have visited Santa Rosa Beach. So target the whole US and then the people who have visited your city, and then target um, you know, mostly women, because women are usually the ones that book. Really? That's a funny. They're the ones with the credit cards.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:23

Well, that doesn't make I thought dudes wanted to be on these boats. I don't understand. They're not usually the ones that book the boats.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:28

90% of the time it's women. Why? Because they're the ones that are shopping for the activities. The guys don't care what they do, the women do care.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:38

My wife's friends, they all want to rent a yacht for her birthday.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:42

Yep. Yep. So it's it's the same thing. So, like my wife, she's the one who's scheduling all the activities. I could care less what we do. Just tell me what we're doing and I'll go. That's what all the guys do. So, why would you target men when men aren't the ones who are gonna book it? Yeah, even if there's five percent of the Even if there's five percent of them, target the women, I'll sacrifice the five percent for the 95% every day. Geez, I guess that would be a good idea. If I look at my CRM, there's that I can think of maybe five or ten guys out of 360 customers in that CRM. There's like five or ten guys' names in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:25

Now, okay. Now, now, if you were you're not, you're not a fish and charter. So no, you're the fish and charters, fish and charters would target men. That's men. Okay, cool. Okay, okay. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:37

Even in the short-term rental space, it's a different audience.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:39

Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:40

Even in the short-term rental space, you would you would target women. I mean, even if you look at like even if it's a dude who's booking, like let's say you're booking a family. What's the first thing he's gonna say after he asks every single question? Well, let me go check on my wife. I'll make a decision. I'm dead serious every every time.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:58

So we're not staying there.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:00

Yeah, exactly. So let her do it, and then we just go, just like he said. He's absolutely exactly well.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:07

Here's the other thing, too. Another thing the audience needs to think of, and this works for anything that rents, target mobile users because even if they're gonna go on their computer, all they'll do is just send the link to their email or messenger, and they'll go to their desktop or their laptop. Who uses a desktop anymore for the most part? So target mobile users. Um make your website mobile user friendly. Um something I've learned from from Grant, which I've I've it really is a mind-bender and it's very difficult to stop doing is offering discounts. Offer something of value, not a discount. What do you mean by that? In other words, instead of offering them 200 bucks off, give them something of value for free. Give them an extra night's stay. Give them an extra hour on the boat, give them extra

Value-adds beat discounts, price anchoring sells large

SPEAKER_05 1:08:12

toys for the boat. If they get a discount, that only goes so far. But if you actually give them something they will use, um uh if you give them something they'll actually use while they're on the boat, um, that means something more to them. Like, oh, I'm getting this for this, I'm paying a thousand bucks, but I'm getting all I'm getting the toys. I've got a cooler with ice, I've got um an extra hour, I've got this or that. So you give them something like uh, like you know, you're giving them something of value at no cost, but they are paying for it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

Yep. I have learned that through email marketing. Just giving somebody a percentage off is nothing. If you tell them, I'll give you a free night, immediately somebody's gonna book. Like, hey, if you stay four nights, I'll give you the fifth free, they'll immediately book. It's because tangibility always sells if you give them tangible, it sells immediately.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:13

Not only that, but um there's also price anchoring that you can complement your your value with. So with price anchoring, I get this, I I learned this from Alex Ramosy. If you ever listen to Alex Ramosi, this dude is just genius. Again, 30, I think he's 32 or 33 years old. Um and he's built his company from a thousand dollars to over a hundred million in four years. And now all he does is he goes and invests in companies and buys companies and and helps grow them. Um and um ironically, he hired Grant to be his mentor. He's paying like 120,000 a year uh for the guy. Um, they do a call a month basically. Talk on the phone for an hour, right? Anyway, that's beside the point. Um I learned uh price anchoring from Alice. So let's say you go to the movie theater and you've got three sized drinks. You know, somebody wants to, I hate soda, so I'm not gonna use soda as my example. Let's use popcorn, there we go. All right. So small popcorn, five bucks, large popcorn, nine bucks. So then what you're gonna do is you're going to tell your customer which one they're gonna buy by where you place your medium size price point. If you want people to buy more of the medium size, you price it at $599 or $650 or something to that effect. $6.99. If you want them to buy more of the large, you price it eight bucks, or uh let's say $7.99. Let's just call it eight bucks for the ease of numbers. So you got a five dollar small, you've got a um eight dollar medium and a nine dollar large. It's like I'm getting a large for just a dollar more. I'll take the large, they'll do that every day, all day long.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:26

Well, yeah. When I discovered that, you know, I heard the same the same thing you did, a price anchoring. I was so I was like, man, they've been doing this to me all my freaking life, everywhere, man. And they even said, like, at restaurants, menus, nobody orders the most expensive thing on the I mean, and maybe if you go to Hoity Toity place, but you go to Chili's or Vinegans or whatever. I'm dating myself with those restaurants, but anyways, it's something like that. Um, if you go to like a restaurant like that, TGI Fridays, that still exists. Um, if you go to one of those spots, they they yeah, they you're they're telling you what to order, you don't even know it, you know. I'm like, oh, you're they're gonna guide you to this part this most you know profitable item on their menu. And I don't I'm like, what the you know, I was just so yeah, perplexed.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:11

Here's the other one. I'll I'll use the movie theater again as an example. Um, you get the endless refill popcorn or whatever, right? So they say that the extra large, but if you buy the bucket for $15, instead of just getting the large for nine, you buy the bucket for $15, but you can get as many refills as you want and take the bucket home. That's usually what they do, except it's not like $15 is a bad example. They'll usually do that for like $19 or $24. So you're like $24, and I get the bucket, and I can get as many refills as I want for just three dollars each time.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:51

Because when you get home, you're gonna throw the bucket away, and two, you ain't gonna eat that whole bucket of popcorn, so you're gonna be another one. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:58

So their whole thing is they're making instead of making nine bucks, now they're making 24. And then every time they come back, they're making another three. If they keep the bucket, if they don't, they're paying another $24, another nine dollars. It's like it's all psychological. So you do the same thing with you find how find out how you can do it with your with your short-term rental, with your bow charter, your uh with your you know, car rental. Um golf cart rentals, that's another big one around here.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

You know, you know, it's funny. Real, I'm sorry, uh one more

Golf cart flips and why watches took too much time

SPEAKER_03 1:13:32

on that topic. We go back to golf cart rentals. This the show is going long, but anyway, this is exciting stuff. Um, so even in grocery stores here, it's illegal to do that crap where you say, you know, you buy two and they're only a dollar fifty each, right? And you or you buy two and they're three dollars, right? And people always buy two. They don't need two, but they buy two, right? But if you buy one, it's a dollar fifty because you can't do that at grocery stores, but people still fall, they still advertise it and people still fall for it. But you just buy one of those two that are on promotion, and it's a dollar fifty. I don't know, it's it's hilarious, so funny. They still do it anyways, but yeah, it's like buy one, get one free.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:14

Um, that's probably the best promotion you can do is buy one, get one free.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:18

Then they went to BOGO. Then I went to BOGO, buy one, get one half price.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:22

That right, screwed it up, or two for five bucks. They if it's it's normally, let's say it's normally you know, three dollars each, and they do two for five bucks. You're like, okay, I'm saving a dollar. So what I usually do is I'll just get one.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:38

Yeah, and that's a that's the thing in grocery stores, it would be half half that price. There's no you can't do that at grocery stores, you can do anywhere else, but not grocery stores, right? It's so funny.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:46

It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:47

But like today, I was buying avocados, it was four for five dollars.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:50

I'm like, okay, so it's the same price it usually is, it's just marketed different. It's so funny. The people don't do math. Think about it. I know they don't do the math in their head, they just see the promotion. It's just it's only how they word it.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:07

It's word it and put it on a sign that has read on it, right? And manipulate the fuck out of us, anyways. Before we hop off this, it's gone long, but it's been great. Um, so you did watches for a while, right? Uh high-end watches. Why did you get out of that market? And I think you got out the right time because it kind of got saturated, right? It did.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:26

Well, the reason I got out of it is, you know, dealers, a lot of dealers don't make more than on a good day, they might make a couple thousand a watch. I was making maybe 500 bucks a watch, maybe a thousand on a good day. I think I made two thousand once or twice. The problem for me is it's it's the time to money ratio because it takes so much time and effort and manual marketing, and it takes it just takes a long time, it takes a long time to build a reputation. It it's just it became it came to the point where it just wasn't worth it to me. Um, whereas like with a golf cart, for example, that's that's what you know uh held me over in the winter. Um it's a bigger profit margin and and and less time. And I kind of had fun with it, you know, drive around, drive golf carts around and you know, take a few pictures of it, market it, and usually that would move very quickly because of the area we're in. Everybody's buying a golf cart for the rental property. So, you know, it was people, even though they came with budget, it's like pretty easy to negotiate with. Um, and you know you're gonna make, you know, at least 500 bucks on a golf cart and you can do it pretty quickly. Um, plus I didn't have to take possession of it the way I was doing it. So there was that. So yes, I did um I did the watches, but ultimately the you know, voting is really my passion and I love sharing that passion. Um, but knowing that I could build a sellable business um with you know very little costs, it doesn't have the same kind of cost or overhead that a lot of businesses do um in in any other industry. And the profit margin is you know, again, I'm probably about a 20, probably about a 20% profit margin if I have a big marketing budget. I mean, I showed you guys the board. You know, um make 60,000 a month and you know, 10,000 of that is overhead.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:32

Nice.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:32

So it's like not it's 15. It's crazy. It's nuts, and I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:41

It's awesome, man.

Building 50 businesses and a sellable brand

SPEAKER_03 1:17:42

Well, dude, I'm glad you're doing. I'm doing, I'm glad you're doing awesome. That's something that you're pressed passionate about. It's great to have you on again. I know you want to have 50 businesses where you don't got to do nothing at them. That's pretty sweet, and putting it all into real estate, like Grant Cardone, pouring all into real estate. Um, that's right. That's sweet, man. Where can people find you, brother?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:01

Yeah, uh, they can find me, uh, I would say mostly on social. Um, at Eric J. Pierce, uh, is my my you know personal brand profile. Uh Pierce's P-E-A-R-C-E. And then uh 30A Boat Ballet at 30A Boat Ballet. Um, and then my golf cart uh business is uh at golf cart flipper. So those three areas, um, the main one I'm doing the most on is uh at 30A boat ballet and my personal. My personal is obviously just I share everything you know going on in my life pretty much. And then the the the the boat charter is just all boat content.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:41

So one thing I'm part one thing I gotta say before you leave is can I say it? I I don't want to say it the whole show. What's that? Boats and hoes, but you never hear that being in the boat industry, right? Never thanks for hopping on, man. It's been a great show. Grad, glad to catch up with you again. And we yeah, when I'm in Florida, I'm gonna hit you up. For sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:14

Hey, and if your wife wants to come over here and uh and girls stick around on a yacht, I do have um a buddy that's got a 75-foot yacht. I can I can get her hooked up.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:26

Okay, definitely will. Thank you for that. We'll be hitting you up if we do make it out to Florida for sure. For sure. Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:33

Appreciate it being on, guys. I appreciate a lot. Been fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:37

Thank you for coming back on, man. Thank you for sure. For sure. Peace, guys. Peace. All right, man. That was another great episode. Second time guest, EJP or Eric J. Pierce. Man, that was a good one. I've been looking up boats, and the reason why I I just knew it was like a high-end business because I have two friends who um they do real estate out in Florida, and man, they are killing it, they were killing it doing that boat stuff, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:04

So yeah, it's it's cool to have uh a different um something, a different topic, you know, because we always say, you know, we're the share economy podcasts, and it's very short-term, middle heavy, but it's cool to get there's it's it's like he said on the show, it's all arbitrage, no matter what business you're doing, it's all arbitrage, man. And so um find what find what the you know something you like to do, see how you can arbitrage that shit to make some money. It's there's money everywhere, baby. If you ain't making it, you ain't looking hard enough.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:34

Facts, man. Facts, man. This is awesome. This is a good cast, man. But yeah, cool, man. Where can they find us? Find us at live. You can find us at Live Let Thrive on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Make sure to join the Facebook group. Lots of good stuff going on in there. We have a meetup coming up next Thursday, March, what? 2nd? Yeah, next Thursday, 2nd uh in Dallas. Uh, so definitely come check that out. We're gonna be talking about what's going on with the short-term rental ban, um, how to survive if it is banned. Uh, it ain't, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:05

I'm not gonna say it's not looking pretty, but they are making thrive when it does get banned, if it does get banned.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:10

How to thrive and survive, you know. So uh that happens March 2nd. Uh join the Facebook group, follow us on Instagram. Instagram's where we're gonna be posting most of the updates as well. And uh make sure to subscribe, leave us a review, all that good stuff. And yeah, thanks y'all for continuing to listen. And uh, we're gonna keep pumping out this content. Peace later.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:31

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.