Affiliate Relationships: Growing Networks and Building Trust in Luxury Transportation, with Paul Pasternak

Episode Transcript
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James Blain (00:24):
Hello everybody and welcome back to another exciting
episode of the GroundTransformation Podcast.
I am your co-host, James Blainefrom PAXs Training.
I'm joined as always by mywonderful co-host, Ken Lucci of
driving transactions.
Today we're gonna be talkingabout the affiliate game, and
I'm super excited about ourguest today, Paul Pastor Nak,
the Director of AffiliateRelationships for Legends
Limousine.

(00:45):
I I don't typically start apodcast this way.
But I was lucky enough to do asite visit with them recently.
And so I want to kind of toottheir horn a little bit for
them.
'cause I know he is not gonna doit in the same way.
When I showed up, one of thefirst things that struck me is
we're talking about a companythat's in Brooklyn, right in the
city, right there in New York.
And guys that real estate'sexpensive being there is

(01:07):
expensive.
So that alone makes a statementthat they're still there in
Brooklyn.
I showed up, I was immediatelyimpressed.
You know, I'm a training guy.
That's my whole life.
And so when I came into thatconference room to talk to Paul,
and Paul showed me that thatdoubles kind of as their ready
room, so to speak.
They've got white button upshirts for their chauffeurs.
They've got their ties there,they've got their branded

(01:28):
umbrellas, they've got their VIPgift bags.
They've got everything that youcould possibly need as a
chauffeur, right?
They've got the winner overcoat.
They've got everything there tomake sure that every single
chauffeur.
Looks and acts the part and asif that wasn't enough.
This is a beautiful office.
They've even got an area in theback because they're focusing on

(01:49):
helping those passengers thathave kids with them, with the
car seats and, and a lot ofcompanies.
Right.
That's, that's something that Isee a lot.
We've got car seats, we've gotthis, but what I've never

Ken Lucci (01:59):
They're sitting in the garage in the back

That's right.

Ken Lucci (02:01):
right.
It's filthy.
Yeah.

That's right.
Yeah.
What I've never seen is I'venever seen a company that has
your ready car seats with thefreshly washed covers.
They've got a washer so they cantake that off and cover'em.
And not only that, hopefully I'mnot taking some of your thunder.
He's actually working to getcertifications for his
chauffeurs to make sure they'reprofessionally certified in
install'em.

(02:23):
Um, so I can't say enough greatthings.
I'm super excited to have Paulon board.
I'm super excited I'm here.
So, Paul, we always kinda startthese off by trying to learn a
bit about you and how you gotinto the business.
How do you get to legends?
How does this, how does thisjourney start for you?

Paul Pasternack (02:41):
First and foremost, James.
Ken, I want to thank you bothfor allowing me to be on your
podcast.
Definitely a great opportunity.
I'm a avid listener.
I follow you guys, so it's greatstuff and I'm just excited to be
a part of this.

Ken Lucci (02:56):
Hey, listen, it's all excitement's, all ours.

you.
Thank you.
So I actually got started in theindustry at a very, very young
age.
Young as, uh, nine years old,sweeping the floors of my dad's
local car service in Brooklyn,New York, in an area of, uh,
Canarsie.
Um, he was very fortunate.
He had four partners where theyowned five local car services

(03:22):
strategically placed throughoutBrooklyn.
All of the hotspot areas during,you can say the kind of nineties
pre Uber days, really.

Ken Lucci (03:31):
Sure.
The heyday, the,

yep, absolute.
So

Ken Lucci (03:34):
The heyday.
Yep.

especially listen in some markets.
I know those were the goldenyears.
Um, people paid cash.

Ken Lucci (03:42):
what, what, what fleet, what were you guys
operating back then?

During that time my dad ran four Tauruses
Chevy Malibu, um, DodgeCaravans, nothing luxury.
Again.
Local car service.
Branded to the localneighborhood to the company
names.
So the car service names werethe actual neighborhood names.
So he had a base in Georgetown,Brooklyn.

(04:07):
It was called Georgetown CarService.
He had one in Canarsie.
It was called Canarsie CarService.
The good thing is, is he was,there were several car services
there.
He was the one doing it on alevel where he actually had 30
base cars per base.
Some guys, again, the ownoperators, the guys with their

(04:29):
own cars, they're all over theplace, but when everything is in
house, it's more control.
And of course, not to speakabout the profits, you know, but
yeah.
And uh, from there I progressed.
My dad taught me everything Iknow about this business, and
I'm very grateful for it.
Um, definitely coming from thepre-Uber days, um, really taught

(04:52):
me a lot.
I.
It taught me to always beresilient, think outside the
box, and never kind of give upbecause this is an industry that
always grows.
So I.
From nine years old till about16, I was answering phones, I
was dispatching, I was cleaningcars.

(05:14):
Um, in New York City, there wasa time that all you needed was
250 bucks for, uh, maybe four orfive hours of your day, and you
could get a New York City TLClicense to actually be a
licensed taxi driver.
The minute I turned 17, I wentand got it.
I started doing local calls formy dad because to me it was more

(05:37):
than just a family business.
I know.
It's crazy to think, Paul, allthis opportunity and this is
what you chose to do.
Um, I'm a firm believer, um, aI.
I'm not homeless.
I have a great roof over myhead.
Um, I still went to school.
I still got an education, butI've come to realize that this

(05:58):
is something I realized I have atrue passion for.
At a young age, once you realizeyou have a passion for
something, you'd be silly towalk away from that because I
can, I have countless friends,as I'm sure you guys do, that
leave their office with theirhead down.
And walk into the office withtheir head down.

(06:18):
Never once at Legends at myother companies that I've had
the privilege of working at, didI ever come into the office with
my head down or leave with myhead down.
I know.
It's crazy to think, well, Paul,I'm pretty sure you were tired.
I'm pretty sure everybody hasbad days.
Everybody is stressed.

(06:38):
The difference is though, when Isay head down, I mean you're
miserAble to a point where youknow you're wasting your talents
there.
You're wasting your life there.
You need to move on and figuresomething else out in life
because what you're doing,you're not good at.
You're never gonna be successfulat, and the most important
thing, you're not gonna be happydoing it.

(06:59):
How can you continue to dosomething you're not happy
doing?
So I realized once I got my TLClicense that hey, I want to do
this on a different scope, on adifferent level, on a more
professional level.
My father did not want to makethat move.
Him and his partners looked atit as, we have a cash cow, we

(07:21):
have five of them to be exact.
We're gonna ride it out.
You know, a little bit of thestubborn, old Eastern European
kind of mentality kicked inwhere I said, you know what
guys?
I'm always here if you needhelp.
I've always helped my dad, evenafter I left and progressed to
now the more luxury side.

Ken Lucci (07:41):
When did this happen?

this was actually, I'm gonna say Ken, let
me go back really.
Uh, this was two years afternine 11.
So this was, yeah.
Two oh, uh, 2 0 3.

Ken Lucci (07:55):
Well, let's talk about you.
You hit upon something that,that is, that we live this life,
the two of us, where you've gotentrepreneurs that are kind of
stuck in this groove, right?
And, and they're happy with thebox that they've created, or
they're happy with what, youknow, the landscape that they
have that they survey, you know,the kingdom they've created, and

(08:18):
they don't want to take the nextstep.
So that was a pretty brave move.
How did you do it?
Did you do it on your own or didyou work for somebody else?

I'm gonna be honest with you, um, to do it on
my own at that time just wasn'tfeasible for me.

Ken Lucci (08:34):
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I was very scared.
I was very nervous.
Um, it was kind of, it wasliterally, I look at it as, um,
you know, the pup is now leavingthe den out into the wilderness
on his own.
Um, I don't care how big yourego is.
Um, there is gonna come a pointwhere you're gonna realize, you

(08:58):
know what, should I just turnback?
I'm not too far down.
Should I turn

has that.

Ken Lucci (09:03):
Sure.

And for me, it was when I looked back, as soon
as I turned around and lookeddown the road, that I just
already kind of made it up.
I seen people there saying, keepgoing, keep going.
Tell us what you need.
This is what you need.
Here it is.
Keep going.
And that to me was big, youknow, um, I lost a lot of

(09:27):
friends, I lost a lot of familyduring that transition too, as
crazy as that sounds.
But that was a big move for me.
Again, I'm not speaking aboutjust doing this on a local
level.
Um, I like to consider myself areal professional in this
industry.
Not just so much hitting abutton, sending a car from point
A to point b.
I always.

(09:48):
Explain to my friends what I doon a daily and they look at me
and they're like, we had noidea.
We literally thought, dude, youjust send from point A to point
BA car and that's it.
And I'm like, man, if it waseasy as that, don't you think
everybody would be doing it?

Ken Lucci (10:04):
Sure.

and what, what prompted you to make the change,
right?
You talked about your dadrunning the Malibu, you talked
about him having a car serviceand then you make a shift to
luxury.
I mean, that's a big difference.
You decide you want to go toluxury.
What, what makes you decide tokind of veer down and decide,
I'm gonna go do luxury versuswhat Dad was doing?

Ken Lucci (10:23):
What did that look like?
Was it, was it with a partner,another company?
What was that like?

it was actually through kind of, um, networking
sort of speak.
That's, that's, that's what Iwould call it.
Always constantly being social,asking people, Hey, what do you
do?
What do you do?
Where am I taking you?
You know, and, uh.
Always the passengers thatalways intrigued me were the

(10:50):
financial bankers, the financial

Okay.
The Wall Street guys.

yeah, wall Street guys very organized.
They don't have time to waste.
They no bs.
They don't tolerate it.
Just say it, let it out.
Be as blunt as you can be.
As long as the information isfactual or logical.
Never be ashamed about

Ken Lucci (11:13):
Mm-hmm.

so how does that impact your business?
How do you end up targetingthose guys

that really impacted me.
'cause when I was driving, thenthey would constantly say, Paul,
why are you driving yourpersonality, man?
You can be doing other things.
One guy even offered me a job.
True story to work at JohnHancock.
Which, uh, I'm gonna lead intothat.
I wound up taking, I wound uptaking just to broaden my

(11:42):
horizons and try to network andthat opened up a whole new
sector for me doing what Icurrently do.
So one of the financial guysconstantly would tell me, Paul,
you have a great personality,man.
If you have a great personality,you know how to deliver great
customer service, so on and soforth.
So I said, you know what?
Let me see if I could get a jobfor one of the black car

(12:03):
companies here driving.
I did, um, I'm not gonna mentionwho,'cause some of them are
still in business to, to thisday.
Um, and I started out as a blackcar driver.
I owned my own car at that time.
Um, I had an Audi A six, um,which was a luxury vehicle.
But then again, I knew myself, Ican deliver that type of

(12:26):
service.
Where I knew at, uh, duringthose times, me charging$80,$70
for an airport run.
People aren't gonna look at melike I'm a maniac because they
knew, wow, this guy's wearing asuit, white shirt tie.
How many drivers in New YorkCity,

Yeah.

you know, during that time did that.
And plus young guy too, youknow, um, nice

Ken Lucci (12:53):
So while you are working for the black car,
company, are you also gettingyour other, your, your own
clients?

that's what my goal was, Ken.
My goal was, let me learn thisbusiness now on the luxury side,
but let me retain my own clientswithout really stepping on toes.
I'm not talking about.
Stealing clients.
I'm talking about when I dropoff somebody at JFK.
And yes, I hate to say it, butthis is the reality be before

(13:19):
Uber, it used to be very easyfor me to get a quick call from
JFK just by somebody flagging medown when I was a driver, and I
think it was by the grace ofGod, and I was just very
fortunate.
Every time that happened, itturned out to be us.
Somebody, A VIP, who wasliterally.

(13:40):
Like, and again, keep in mindthis is pre Uber,

Yeah, this is 20 years ago, if we're still in
that timeline.
Right.

yeah, this is during a time where you couldn't
just go on an app order a car atthe airport.
So essentially some people, yes,they, they would know constant
business travelers.
We would have our own littlespots at JFK that, you know, the
only people that will beflagging you down there were
corporate guys.
Same thing with LaGuardia, samething with.

(14:09):
You get them as long as you candeliver the service.
And I had my own business cardsat that time.
Made.
They weren't nice, weren'tprofessional, but it was a
business card at the end of theday.
It was something I accomplished.
Um, and one person called methen another, then I started
building.
Little by little, little bylittle, but then I realized, you

(14:29):
know what?
At that time.
It was some, uh, personal thingsgoing on in my life and my
family where there were, therewas a huge financial constraint
where I didn't have thefinancial resources to really
open up my own company.
I, I wanted to partner withother people.
It's not that I don't trustother people.

(14:50):
It's when you have an idea ofsomething you want to do, others
will always try to put you downand try to tell you what you're
doing is a waste of time.
At that time, I went to 1, 2, 3people.
That's the response I got.
So I said, you know what, even,even if I can convince them and

(15:13):
I know they have the capital, Iknow they can invest it.
Even if I can convince them, Icould never trust them just
because of what they just proveto me.
They prove to me that, that theyhave doubts in me.
My idea.

Yeah.

Ken Lucci (15:28):
didn't have the commitment.

And that's something I can't work with or
work for or work under.

So where does that lead?
What do you, what do you do atthat point?
You know, you, you've got thisdream.
What, where does that take you?

at that point, I realized, I said, you know
what?
let me not give up, but I stillhave to pay the bills.
I still have to do something.
So it was about, you know, um.
I would say 2206.
Yeah, 2 0 6, 2 0 7.

(16:04):
Um, I started really going tomore of the black car on the
dispatching aspect.
Now I stopped

Ken Lucci (16:12):
So, so you're inside.

You

office.

I'm in the office now.
Uh, I started dispatching, Ilearned how to dispatch a long
time ago because my dad taughtme and I started with the
company of Gold Seal, um, as adispatch manager.
They were in Long Island City,you know, but it was, it was
night, overnight.
The schedule didn't work for me,so I was just patient, waited my

(16:39):
opportunity until the next bestthing.
Came up, fell on my lap or untilI actually found it myself.
And I finally found it with acompany Chauffeur Executive
Transportation, where, um, Iwas, uh, I started out as a
dispatcher, but I worked my wayup to director of operations,

Ken Lucci (16:58):
Are they showing business?

uh, for the, they're still operating.
They're not really.
Doing much in New York Cityanymore.
Uh, they're more now towards thecruise lines, if I'm not
mistaken, down in Florida,because I know they did have,
uh, decent accounts with that.
And, uh, so funny, um, hopefullyI won't get in trouble saying

(17:22):
this, but, uh, Matt Doss, uh, weused to pick up Matt Goss, um,
and uh, take him a couple oftimes

So where does that lead?
So now you know, you've startedgrowing up in the business and
you've kind of, and and, andI'll, I'll share something that,
that some people now know.
My, my first time I triedstarting a business was kind
similar, right.
Run outta funds.
I mean that's, that's how on,that's how you learn about
business.
So now you've, you've gone,you've, you've been back
through, you're the operationsmanager.

(17:51):
Where do things take off fromthere?

From there?
it was more of, now, you knowwhat, I've got the operations
down in terms of the technicalstuff.
The behind I, I, I've alwaysreferred to it as behind the, Uh
behind the scenes, working withthe fleet managers, the dispatch
managers, the the reservationmanagers, the customer service

(18:14):
managers, making sure that thatdaily routine.
Is running like a well-oiledmachine.
Everybody's focused, everybodyknows their job, everybody
understands their job, andeverybody knows the routine.
A routine sometimes is bad.
In our industry, I think routineis very good in some cases and

(18:38):
in some aspects.

Ken Lucci (18:40):
company when you were ops director?

uh, when I was ops director?
on every shift, we had roughly 8people in terms of mixed
dispatch and CSRs.

Ken Lucci (18:50):
So that means you were doing about how many trips
a day?

Per day.
Again, we were lucky, veryfortunate, we were averaging
about a hundred eighty, twotwenty a day?
during its, uh, golden years.
Golden years and weekends.
Forget about it.
Weekends, I would myself come inthe office two full-time
dispatchers.
And for CSRs, you know, it waspre-Uber.

(19:16):
I always tell people, you know,especially I would say newer
affiliates to our industry, thatbefore Uber you have No.
idea how business was, howclients were, and how we all
interacted with one another.
Once Uber came out, I feel likeit divided our industry

Were you still there when Uber came out or had
you, had you, okay, so what,what is that?
What happens at that point,right?
You're in New York.
I mean, we've, you've got morecar service companies per
capita, basically anywhere elsein the country.
What, what happens at that time?
What's, what's it like atcompany?

I share this with everybody.
It affected us, but it didn'taffect, uh, more so the black
car companies.
Then it did the local carservice companies like my dad's.

No.
was he still, in business at the

he was still in business at the time?
The problem was, is again, whenyou don't, um, when you don't
Invest in what the future couldbe, and you

Ken Lucci (20:23):
and evolve.
Invest and

and you think that this cash cow is going to
keep producing milk year afteryear after year.

Ken Lucci (20:32):
Yep.

I guess you, didn't see the big dust cloud
that the bulldozer was makingfive miles down heading towards
your farm.

Ken Lucci (20:41):
you're hitting upon something.
You're hitting upon somethingthat, that most entrepreneurs
are guilty of, and it'somniscient thinking, which means
basically I know everything.
And basically today and tomorroware gonna be just like yesterday
and the day before.
and I think it's, it, it, to mewithout question is, it is the

(21:04):
worst thing that you can do.
Unfortunately, we all get, weget stuck in it, right?
Uh, because you're working inthe business and not on the
business.
It's not a knock for your dad.
Your dad probably was workingharder during those days than
ever.
He just didn't look up to seewhat was going on.

No.

I, I think there's something important here though,
because we're talking about dad,right?
And I've seen this with my ownfather-in-law.
I've seen this with familybusinesses.
You know, when you are young andyou've got the ambition and
you've got the vigor, and I havesomething to prove.
You don't have a ton to lose,right?
You're at a point where you've,you're, you've got everything to
gain as you get older, as youget to that point where you've

(21:44):
amassed that kingdom, as youcalled it, Ken.
Now it's, okay, well I've, I'vegot the kingdom.
I'm living a good life.
I'm happy where I'm at.
That ambition starts to fade.
And one of the side effects ofthat, as you said, is kind of
like, like you alluded to Paul,you don't see the dust cloud on
the bulldozer because as Kensaid, now you're in your

(22:04):
kingdom, you're down behind yourwalls, you're happy, and all it
can take is a big disruption andit can change your whole
business life.
So what happens to dad at thatpoint?
What, what happens to hisbusiness?

And I always share this with people.
I have no shame in it.
Neither does my dad, because atleast he learned from it.
And I was very grateful

the most important

that, it didn't affect our family financially,
like I know it did.
Others, um, overnight.
And I kid you not James,overnight Uber came out, people,
can book.
Literally the next day.
His phones did not ring, maybe acouple of calls here and there,
but it was literally anovernight thing.

(22:47):
A month later, they, they closedall the bases and filed for
bankruptcy.
I.
There was nothing.
There was nothing left.
And that's the effect it had onthe local car services.
So

right?
One month.
Wow.

It hit that quick, that quick, just like,
just like, uh, covid.
What, what, what, what Covid didUber had that effect because
keep in mind, you know, everymarket is unique to itself.
New York City is very unique.
In its own right, that it's sucha melting pot, that we're not

(23:24):
only losing the local business,we're losing the local tourist
business.
We're losing ev like everybodythat used to use local car
service Now, uh, Uber.
Lyft.
Uber, Lyft.

Ken Lucci (23:36):
So let explain for the people, for the listeners
that don't know, the New Yorkmarket, you have yellow taxi
with a medallion,

yes.

Ken Lucci (23:44):
and then you have.
You have local car services,black car services, and then you
have the luxury chauffeur space.
Is that right?

Uh, let's add maybe two or three more there,
Ken.

Ken Lucci (23:58):
Mm-hmm.

We have what now is called the green taxi.
It's the local borough taxi.
It's exactly like the yellowtaxi.
Just green lime green almost,you know, like a forest green.
It only works in the boroughs.
They cannot pick up inManhattan.
The yellow taxis are the onesyou constantly see.

(24:21):
Those are the well-known ones ofNew York City are the medallion
ones.
Okay.
So the green one's alsomedallion.
Then we have the local carservice, non-black.
These are guys running white,green, blue, red, Toyota,
Camrys, Kias, uh, Hyundais, soon and so forth.

(24:41):
it's

so, so so like your dad's business was

much,

Ken Lucci (24:45):
So he was TLC.
He was a TLC plate, not amedallion.

No, he was TLC Plated.
He was not a medallion.
The medallion.
Just a quick, quick history.
Really low lesson.
pre-Uber.
Each medallion you could easilyget 1.5, 1.7 million.

Ken Lucci (25:03):
Yep.

Present time, 2025.
I can get you one for 20,000 ifyou really

And, and let's take a second, right, because what,
explain, explain what themedallion is for those that
don't know.
What does a medallion do?
How does it work?
Just to, and, and we don't needto go super in depth, but, but
give an idea for those that havenever heard of medallion.
What, what, how's a medallionwork?

In New York City, you want to be a yellow
taxi driver operator.
Your yellow taxi has to havethat medallion on its hood.
That medallion is issued by thecity and You.
have To purchase it.
At one.
time, there was a waiting list.
Of thousands and thousands ofpeople who were willing to pay

(25:46):
half a million, 750,000.
I'm pretty sure when some peoplehear that, they're gonna think
you are insane.
All of you, new Yorkers to someextent are, but if I were to
tell you these people made theirmoney back within two or three
years, would just still thinkI'm insane and profited because
keep in mind the yellowmedallion.

(26:07):
There are no restrictions.
That car can run 24 7 7

it's not just one driver.

Ken Lucci (26:13):
All five boroughs.

You'd have four drivers, all five boroughs.
Mainly their cash cows were theairport.
'cause they get priority in theairport.
They used to have dedicatedlines.
They still do.
But since Uber and since nowUber is buttering up all the
airlines to, you know, I don'teven wanna.
Dive into that.

(26:35):
'cause that's a separateconversation, but,

Oh, it's a

but yeah.
yeah.
Yeah.
so the yellow taxis.

Ken Lucci (26:41):
Tel TLC plates?

So the TLC plates?
you can be black car, you can beluxury, or you can be the local
home in the wall, car service,you know, kind of, um, you have
10 local cars.
It's mixed.
Uh, some of them are branded,some of them are not.
Some of them are missinghubcaps, some of them are not.
Some of them have a brokentaillight.

(27:03):
Some of them don't.
And I'm, I know it sounds funny,but I am being as realistic as

But, but they're your, they're your different
levels, right?
That you've, you've got yourblack car, you've got your, I
gotta get from one part of townto another.
I mean, what you're describingis the discrepancies and the
different levels of that, butthey're lumped into that same
type of category

same category because again, at the end of the
day in New York City, we all getkind of, uh, governed by the New
York City Taxi and LimousineCommission, which is the

Ken Lucci (27:35):
what happened?
What happened to during Uber?
What happened to the black carand the luxury space?

Um, business declined.
Corporate was now, becauseagain, the, the, uh, the
majority of clientele that theblack car company's luxury bases
were getting were the corporatepeople.
Even, even the luxury bases.
Those, those corporate events,those Christmas events, man,
when they would get 150 cars,well.

(28:04):
Some of them, they still doexist, but it's not how it was
before Uber, simply because thedemand isn't there.
Because now you, Uber is used asa bargaining tool.
They use it as collateral.
They hold it over your head.
I can tell you.
Two handfuls of my own clientsthat I know for years that they

(28:28):
know I.
know, and they know they willnever leave me, but they know,
you know what, today I'mfeeling, you know, I'm feeling
very dangerous.
Let me threaten Paul with theUber to get 50 bucks off my next
ride.
And they know they will.
and, it's ironic, but again,that's the reality of it.
Do I have to do it in somecases?

(28:48):
Yes.

Ken Lucci (28:49):
so flash forward and, and talk to us about how you
came to legends and tell usabout legends.

All right.
So Legends, that's a, that's agreat question, Ken.
Um, I actually left, uh,chauffeur executive
transportation in, you can sayalmost 20, 20 18, if I'm not
mistaken.
2019.

Ken Lucci (29:09):
Okay?

Ominous timing.

You know what, and it wasn't only that I was
just so burned out guys where Ineeded a break.
Uh, I needed time with myfamily.
I needed time with my son.
I needed time with my dad to goon a fishing trip.
I just needed time to myself,and I forgot what the comfort of

(29:34):
my own bed and pillow felt likeat a certain point where.

Well, you're working crazy hours.
You're putting the time in.
You're giving it your

Absolutely.
Even though I'm not an owner,it's not my company, the
position that I'm in, the rolethat I'm in, and of course the
commitment that was made, viceversa between me and ownership.
Um, I, I have to, I have tostick to that commitment, you
know, but I got to a point wherethat's it.

(30:04):
I needed to recharge.
So I said, you, know what?
I'm not done with this industry,and I, I don't think I'll ever
be.
I, I've tried to walk away twicewhere to try something else and
it just, it, it pulled me backbecause this is what I've come
to realize.
And even at a young age, I lovedoing this.

(30:24):
I have a passion for it.
It's exciting.
Uh, every day is different.
The people I get to meet,interact with, uh, the stories I
get to hear.
Uh, and the best part is.
The memories I get to create,because at the end of the day,
there's some, some, um, in someway, shape or form, you're

(30:48):
actually creating a memory foran individual.
You're actually doing somethingfor somebody.
So I took a career break.
I went

Ken Lucci (30:57):
long were you, did you, yeah.
How long did you break between

Uh, I took, you can say almost a good two years.
Two, yeah.
Close.
Close to two and a half years.
I took a personal, uh.
Goal Pro, uh, goal, career breakyou can call it.
Uh, I went down to Florida, uh,through word of mouth.
There was a startup company downthere in the industry.

(31:21):
You know, even though I said I'mnot gonna do this again, I found
myself going to Florida as aconsultant to help us, startup
company, that really grew veryfast.
But didn't know what the nextstep was when I got,

company,

uh, yeah.
Yeah.
They were actually, they were alimo and shuttle company based
in Northwest Florida.
Uh, they are still in businesstoday.
Um, very,

Ken Lucci (31:47):
Florida is a

very, very tough market.
You're limited to who, what andwhere.
So you really have to pick andchoose your, your niche markets
very carefully andstrategically.
Um.
They did it very well.
The problem was, is they wereusing Excel spreadsheets to

(32:08):
dispatch and take reservations.
So when, when I got there, I gotthem Right.
away on Limo Anywhere.
At that time, it was the easiestone to transition to.
Very user-friendly, exactly thefeatures they needed.
Within their budget.
I got them set up on there.
I changed their customerservice, like everything about

(32:29):
their company.
I changed, I separated intothree different divisions where
You, had the family shuttle, youhad the luxury, and then you had
the coach side.

Ken Lucci (32:38):
Mm-hmm.

And, uh, the guy offered me a full-time
position.
But you know what?
Something about New York justpulls me back, guys.
I don't know what it is.
Um.
I just couldn't adapt to reallythe Florida lifestyle.
Very laid back, very, and, andit's northwest Florida.
It's very humid.

(33:00):
Um, I am originally, I was bornin Russia, so yeah, I'm that guy
that sleeps with a window openwhen it's, uh, minus two

You, you were melting down in

Yeah.
Yeah, pretty much.
So I

Ken Lucci (33:14):
how did you come to, how did you come to, Legends,
Paul?

Legends was when I came back, I was just
simply, I wasn't really lookingfor anything.
So happens.
Um, I got a notification fromIndeed that my resume was still
up and in public view for twoyears, and I haven't edited.
I need to, you know, kind of login, take a look at it, or it's

(33:39):
gonna be deleted.
The moment I logged in, I had amessage from a company called
Legends Limousine Worldwide.
True story.
And it gets better, guys, Ipromise you.
Um, I open it.
Legends Limousine Worldwide.
Never heard of them.
Honestly, I'm, I'm ashamed tosay this, I never heard of them.
I heard of a Legends, laine, butnot this particular one.

(34:02):
I heard of a different one.
And I said, okay.
let me look into it.
I, I called a few people that Iknow within the industry, Hey,
yeah.
Oh, oh, oh, okay.
So it's worth a shot.
So I message them back and theygive me a call back on my
birthday for an interview.
So happens.
The person that called me is theowner's daughter who also works

(34:25):
with the company.
She's the legends marketingdirector.
She said, Hey, we'd love for youto come in for an interview.
I said, great, I'll come in.
I came in first meeting with theowners, hired right on the spot.
Um, you know, just as anycompany being out of the game
for two and a half years, youstill gotta prove yourself.

(34:46):
No matter how much knowledge youhave, no matter how much, how,
how, how many people may vouchfor you, you still have to prove
yourself to some degree toreally show them, well, this is
what I'm still capable of doing.
And six months into dispatching,they were like, no, Paul, we
need, like, we need you to dothis.
Can you do this?

So, so is that what they brought you in as?
Did you come in as a dispatcher,or what role

I actually came in to become their dispatch
manager,

Okay.

but uh, after six months of dispatch and they
said, well, no, uh, if we keephim at dispatch, we're just
simply wasting him and.
You know, several conversations.
Uh, we came to the conclusionthat being, uh, the affiliate
manager at that time would bethe best role for me within the

(35:40):
company.

Ken Lucci (35:41):
What year was

Um, this was two years ago, Ken, so

Ken Lucci (35:46):
How much outbound work were they doing at that
point?

at, at, at that point, outbound.

Ken Lucci (35:51):
just, yeah, just nothing proprietary, but

that much.
I, I would say

Ken Lucci (35:57):
percentage of the, yeah, what percentage of the two
of the business was it?

Oh my God.
Maybe 2%.
It wasn't,

Ken Lucci (36:05):
wanted you to build a

how's this, Ken?
It was there, but it was neverput together.
They had

So was

cards.
They No.
Nobody was

So this is a role that was created for you

Ken Lucci (36:19):
So

that

Correct?
Correct.

Ken Lucci (36:22):
at that point there about, just rough numbers.
How big is that business?
When you, two years ago, how bigannual revenue was it?

annual Honestly, Ken, I wouldn't be
able to, to give you a numberoff the top of my head just
'cause I started calculatingnumbers.
Only when

Ken Lucci (36:38):
Right.

from that year on, I know I have it some year
per day?
We were lucky to do one if that.

Ken Lucci (36:46):
But,

How's this?
Two a week?

Ken Lucci (36:48):
York, how,

meaning?
Oh, in

Ken Lucci (36:51):
many lo local trips you have?

Oh, local trips?
No low lo local trips Roughlyabout, you can say anywhere
between 80 to 90 on a good day.

Ken Lucci (37:03):
most of them were airport

The majority of them were airport.
transfers.
Yes.

Ken Lucci (37:07):
so let's just talk about, so let's talk about this.
So Legends was how old, twoyears ago?
How many, how long have you beenin business?

legends this year, 31 years officially since

Ken Lucci (37:19):
so they're doing, so so they're doing a hundred trips
a day and they have in New York,and they have the opportunity on
every single one of thoseairport calls to say, can I
provide service to you?
Okay.

Huge opportunity.

Big,

Ken Lucci (37:35):
opportunity.

Huge

Ken Lucci (37:37):
how did you attack it?
How did you create the affiliatenetwork?

uh, first wave.
I.
You attack any affiliatenetwork, and this is just my
opinion, this is the way I didit here, is you have a meeting
with the staff, you have ameeting with the people who are
the face of the company, on thephone and on the road, because
these are the people who areessentially gonna bring in the
business as good as I am.

(38:02):
Ken James, I'd be a fool to tellyou absolutely I got all these
clients.
No, I'd, I'd be, I'd be a foolto say that.
Did I get.
Some accounts that produceworldwide.
Yes, absolutely.
But you sit down, you start atraining session with your
staff.
You have to teach every CSR howto ask for the worldwide

(38:26):
business.
People aren't just gonna tellyou about it because they might
not even know you provide it,even though it's in your name.
They don't,

Ken Lucci (38:37):
Now, and that's the biggest mistake people make.
That's what, that's the biggestmistake people make.
They rebrand themselves, youknow, uh, Luci Worldwide
limousine, and now we doaffiliate work.
They don't understand thetraining of asking and asking
for the third leg.
So how did you go about do that,doing that?

(38:58):
Did you train the

Yes, Yes, I created multiple scripts,
hands-on training, lot of roleplaying, and I'm a firm
believer.
Show and tell.
Don't, don't, don't just dictateto somebody, Hey, say it.
Let them hear you say it.
Roll up your sleeves.
Nobody.
I've never, and that's onething, I'm just gonna throw this

(39:20):
out there.
That's one thing I truly respectabout the owners of Legends.
They will roll up their sleeves,sit next to me and say, Paul,
let's get this done.
You tell us what you need fromus.
And I really respect that.
That's why I go so hard.
That's why I work so hard.
That's why I have, you know, thepassion that I do.

Ken Lucci (39:40):
What challenges did you have to overcome to build
the department?

So these are the biggest challenges is in the
beginning, getting everybody onboard when, uh, after they've
gotten rejected once, twice, tomake them understand.
It's just, just keep asking,keep asking, keep asking.
A lot of, I'm gonna be honestwith you, six months every day

(40:05):
coming in, I know I sound.
I know I was annoying a lot ofpeople.
But guys, good morning.
Don't forget we're takingsomebody to the airport.
Make sure and you literally heareverybody say, yes.
Yes, Paul, we know.
Ask for the return.
Ask for the return.
Yeah, that's right.
Ask for the return.

(40:25):
And also we're asking for Hey,uh, we noticed we're taking you
to San Diego, and before we evenget to that point.
Let's ask for the flight number.
Let's teach your representativesto, while you have that person
on the phone, open up a Googletab, type in that flight number.
Oh, that's nice.
You're flying into Palm Beach.
I love it.
there.
I actually have family there.

(40:47):
Let me ask you a question.
Do.
you have family picking you upat Palm Beach?
No.
We can arrange transportation tohave you picked up, brought to
your hotel.
When you're ready to come backto New York, I'll have you
picked up.
Brought you back to PBI and thenof course, as always, we'll pick
you up here in New York.
How does that sound?

Ken Lucci (41:03):
W why do I want to do that with you, Paul?

Well, one stop shop.
I'm, I'm, I mean, if you reallywant me to go into sales mode, I
can.
Ken.
Um, well, I'm, I'm, I mean, itlooks like you have a busy
schedule ahead.
As you mentioned, you're goingon a business conference to West
Palm Beach.
I wanna make sure that groundtransportation.
Is the last thing you, have toworry about.
Plus, um, I highly doubt youwant to use somebody you don't

(41:32):
know, like an Uber or a Lyft.
You don't know what kind of caris gonna come pick you up.
You don't know this person.
At least you're traveling with atrusted provider who's insured.
You know, our chauffeurs aretrained.
And the key thing is, you know,any, any request you have, you
know, you can always get intouch with a live person, not a
robot, not a chat.

Ken Lucci (41:54):
How do you describe the provider in the other city?
Is it your partner?
Is it an affiliate?
How do you describe that?

nope.
Never to a client.
I never ever use the wordaffiliate, and I have a reason
behind that when I say the wordaffiliate in a business setting,
when we're talking aboutbusiness and when we're taking a
reservation, I, um, I alwayscall it guys, you're on a
business call.

(42:24):
That's a business call.
You're on the phone with aclient discussing business, even
though you're only taking areservation, it's a business
call.
When you say the word affiliatein business, they think third
party, you're you're passing meoff.
What, what am I to expect?
So when you say affiliate, oneof the very first questions you

(42:44):
probably will get asked, I wouldsay 90% of the time is is it
your company?
Is it the same as your company?
I.
And Right there.
you've just opened up severaldoors that are gonna open on
their own as you start providinginformation as opposed to, Hey
Paul, I didn't know you were inWest Palm Beach.

(43:06):
Listen, I'm a worldwide company.
I have the privilege of having aworldwide network of partners
that we have vested interest inone another where we work
together.
This is my partner down in WestPalm Beach who's gonna take care
of you.
They run the same exact type ofvehicles I run here in New York.

(43:31):
And then obviously I always tellthem, listen, this is a person I
personally know.
I personally visited them,whatever, you know, depending on
the company and market.
Will dictate what conversation Ihave with that client and you
know how I break it down tothem.
But I never use the wordaffiliate.
I always use my partner.

(43:52):
I always explain to them, thisis not some company I found on
Google.
This is a fully vetted company,no different than mine that
provides the same exact

like today?
Right.
You said there was a point wherethere was maybe one or two trips
that you guys were, were sendingout.
What is that?
Yeah.
Yeah.

Ken Lucci (44:12):
week, wait, it w wait a minute.
80 trips a day, times five, 400trips a day, 400 trips a week,
and we're doing One or two.
out of town.
What does it look like now?

Yeah.
What was the payoff?

Uh, now I can happily say we're averaging
about close to 15 a weekworldwide.

Ken Lucci (44:36):
That's not your bad.
That's not bad

15 a week wor worldwide, where now at least,
I'm gonna say a transfer a daysafely.
We're, we're at least doing onea day.
Some some weeks are are verygood where we can knock out
maybe two a day on on average.
Some days we might not have any.

(45:00):
Like today I have.
I think six worldwide.
Tomorrow I only have one

Ken Lucci (45:07):
how are your dispatchers handling the calls
or the trips out of town?
Are they, how do you train themto make sure they're tracking
them in the same way they'retracking your in-house vehicles?
So your local trips, how did youhandle that?

Um.
Our system plays a big role init where we have our screen
separated.
My dispatchers can work off ofabout six different screens in
terms of what information theysee and what type of information
they see, so they can justfilter out a screen with only
our worldwide transfers, meaningall of our farm outs to other

(45:48):
affiliates.

Ken Lucci (45:49):
How are you sending the trips out?
Are you use, are you callingemailing?
Are you using

Currently, uh, it's mixed.
It, it's gnet.
Some affiliates, we still areemailing?
but, um, I'm gonna say by theend of April, um, we will not be
emailing any more jobs.
Calling to give reservations.
Everything is gonna run throughGnet, everything has to be
digital, where.

(46:16):
I'm gonna rely on the technologythat's right in front of us.
That's been proven to work.
That saves me a lot of time, alot of headaches, gives me peace
of mind, and more importantly,it alleviates my staff to focus
on other things where, know,

Ken Lucci (46:35):
What challenges do you come across doing the
affiliate work?

Getting affiliates to be on board with,
not, not all affiliates, Ken,so, let me rephrase that.
Getting some affiliates on boardwith the technology to get it
synced on gmat.
To be able to find a way to makeour operation more efficient and

(47:03):
more effective amongst eachother while doing the most
limited amount of things,meaning sending the most limited
amount of emails or just um.
Phone calls, you know, uh,another big challenge I have is

(47:24):
finding reliable providers incertain markets with car seats,
because that's a big, big partof our business.
A big,

So talk about that for a second.
'cause we, we, you and I havetalked about that.
That was something that youshowed me and we went through
when, when I came out and I didthe site visit.
But walk us through why that'simportant, why that's a part of
your business, who you'reserving.
Why is that important for youguys?
And, and how is that differentfor you than a typical car
service?

Yep.
So for us, that's a big, bigpart of our business.
a big, big part of our business.
Um, Yeah, Um, what you've seen,James, was just what we have in
our office.
I don't think I mentioned thatevery single driver.
That we have is in one of ourvehicles, which allows us to

(48:15):
make sure that every car has twobooster seats and two car seats.
'cause our car seats are.
Uh, interchangeable, meaning thetoddler is the infant, the, the
newborn seats.
Those, we only have 10.
Reason why we don't keep them inthe cars is those are by special
requests.
'cause in New York City, I don'tknow how it is in other states,

(48:37):
when there's a newborn car seatrequests, that means we're
usually picking the newborn upfrom the hospital.
And it's a certain process thatthe parent has to go through.
They have to take the car seatupstairs.
Get it certified by thehospital, so on and so forth.

but let's go back to what you said a second ago
because you said somethingreally big.
You said that's two seats percar.
That's every car in the fleethas two seats.
You know, I do site visits.
I might go visit someone that'sgot 20 cars and they maybe have
four or five car seats total.
You're talking two per car.
So it's that big a part of thebusiness that you're

Huge.
Huge.

So how does that work?
Or what are you guys doingthere?

Uh, well, I'm, I'm, how is this?
I'll tell you about the cake,but I can't tell you about the
recipe.

Of course,

Um, 90% of our transfers on a day, and now I'm
very happy to say, you know,we're, we're slowly 1 20, 1 50 a
day, steady.

Ken Lucci (49:38):
Hmm.

I.

80% Of those transfers.
Our car seats, it took us, weput a lot into it, and you'd be
surprised how many corporateclients already had their
allegiances with their corporatecompanies that their company
pays for, which I completelyget.
Listen, Paul, I'd use you for mycompany runs, but we already

(50:03):
contracted to a company and thecompany pays for it.
However.
I don't trust them to pick up myfamily.
So when I hear that, to me,honestly, that's the biggest
compliment any client can give.
Not

But that's a way in down

That is let, let, me tell you mommy and baby
groups in certain markets, andI'll just, like I said, I won't
give the recipe, but mommy andbaby groups, if people are not
jumping on them and if theydon't learn how to get into
those type of groups or havesomebody in your office that can
associate themselves with amommy and baby group, you guys

(50:41):
have no idea how much businessyou're really, really

Ken Lucci (50:44):
Well, because, because you know what, at the
end of the day, safety is,safety is number one.
And, and, and price becomes downthe list, right?
The quality and the safety ofthe service and the fact that
you are saying you created aunique use case.
You've created a unique niche.

Yep.

Ken Lucci (51:07):
That you can basically expand.
And most people don't do that.
They, they don't, they don'ttake the time to create that
value niche.

Well, and I think you're, you're hitting on
something really importantthere, Ken, because.
You know, how many times do youdrive different when your kids
are in the car?
Or do you think, yeah, this isfine for me, but it's my kids.
Right.
You know, so now you're hittingon and, and most importantly,
even though they might say, Hey,I can't use it at corporate, I
can't use it there.

(51:38):
The second that opportunityopens.
Well, this is the guy thatdrives my kids, right, the
second that's there.
So, and, and of course it's,it's bound to happen because you
are taking care of the mostimportant thing in their life,
which means you have a level oftrust other companies are
probably never gonna get to oreven aspire to.
So I think it's interestingbecause you've really built two

(52:00):
different areas.
You've built up that affiliateside, you've built up that car
seat side.
Now a affiliate vetting isalways something that comes up.
Always something important.
You know, talk to us a littlebit about how does that vetting
work for you guys?
Do you have a different vettingprocess?
You know, if they're doing carseats, what does your typical
vetting process look like?

(52:20):
How are you making sure theseaffiliates, you're using fit
that model that you're creating?

Um, certain affiliates, I, I've had the
pleasure to work with them priorto my arrival at Legends.
So I already know what I'mgetting with them.
For newer affiliates, um, I liketo ask questions.
I like to meet them in person.
Um, especially when it comes towhere, where I know, uh, a

(52:48):
particular market is gonna havea lot of car seat work.
Um, I'm gonna tend to stick toone or two affiliates and.
This is something that I knowother affiliates might not do
business like this, but I guesswe do things, every company does
things differently, so I, uh,I'm a firm believer that

(53:11):
regardless if you send me workor not, that's not why I'm
choosing to work with you.
Because I know 90% of the time,that's what they'll bring it
down to as well.
I sent you all this work.
How come you haven't sent meanything?
So when I choose an affiliate,particularly for car seats, this
is how I look at it.
I, this is what I need from you.

(53:31):
I need you to be able to providethis service.
If you can do it, I absolutelywant to do business with you.
I want to do business with you.
Don't worry about anything else.
Just please take care of myclients and their car seat
needs.
That's all all I need you forright Now, If you wanna do
business with me, that'sperfectly fine.

(53:53):
However, I need from you, andI'll ask for pictures sometimes
if I'm really on the fence.
Normally if I'm on the fence.
Um, my gut has never failed mein those situations, so, um, I
always like to read reviews aswell.

Ken Lucci (54:15):
So, by the way, I can tell you a specific company in
in Chicago that you're gonnawant to completely stay away
from, but let's, but let's notbring up

we won't, we won't throw them out there on the

Ken Lucci (54:23):
No, no.
They're all over Facebook and,right, right.
But you, you don't even need to.
Anyway, that's interesting thatyou read the reviews.
That's really a good tip.

yeah.

and, and take that deeper.
'cause you and I have talkedabout this.
Paul, we, we chatted over lunchon this.
Tell me about what, cause I'mnot gonna steal your thunder,
but it, it gets better Ken.
You're gonna like this.
It gets better'cause youactually goes deeper and this is
something that I think everyoneneeds to hear.
Let tell, tell him what I'mtalking about here.

I am a very, those that have worked with me
and know me, know I'm a veryoutgoing person.
I'm very blunt.
I'm a New York guy.
At the end of the day, you'regonna know Paul from New York if
you meet.
However, I like to work insilence as well.
What I mean by that is if Iwanna work with you and you and
I met you at the NLA and youtell me, Hey, I have 10 cars, I

(55:18):
have 20 cars, I have 10Escalades.
I own all of my cars.
Yeah.
I have all of this, no problem.
I make my notes mentally orsometimes when I go back to my
room, there's certain pockets Ihave business cards in that I
filter out and do my research.
First thing I do, I go onGoogle.
However, Google isn't the bestsource'cause people can buy

(55:40):
reviews as well.
Let's be real.
But I, I think I'm a pretty,pretty good at knowing when it's
a chat bot writing a review andwhen it's an actual genuine
review from a genuine person.
Yes, it might take me an hour ortwo, but listen, this is a
company I might send.

(56:01):
10 K of business to, or 20 k ofbusiness to where, you know,
there's a good client of minethat I'm gonna send to them,
that, that expects a certainlevel of service.
Uh, then I'll go on theircities, you know, kind of, let's
say they have, um, I'm gonna useNew York City as an example.
New York City has the New YorkCity, TLC.

(56:23):
I'll go on the TLC's website,I'll pull up their base number.
I'll see how many violations,what complaints do They have on
their base.
Then I'll pull up plates.
I can get their plate numbersoff of Google Photos, which will
tell, me, are these really yourcars?
So when an affiliate says, Ihave 20 cars, I own them.

(56:44):
Be very careful making thatstatement'cause that's a very
powerful statement, verypowerful statement.
Simply because a guy like me caneasily within 10 minutes find
out if you truly own your cars,just by the pictures.
You have on your own website ofyour cars, whether they're
generic or not, I can type inyour license plate number.

(57:06):
And this is any state.
Any city, it's publicinformation and they'll tell me
who the car is registered to.
So in our industry, if you'retelling me you own 20 cars,
it's, I can find out in fiveminutes by typing in your plate
number.
It'll tell me insurancecoverage, who it's registered
to, if you have the properlicenses, when the renewal is,

(57:30):
when you're up for registration,so on and so forth.
All these little things matter,because also it tells me what
year is your equipment.
Everybody in that.
in LA has brand new cars.
Everybody

Ken Lucci (57:44):
Sure.
Yeah.

industry has brand new cars.
But

Ken Lucci (57:48):
tell you

what's a brand new car, you know?
It's.

Well, and, and it, it goes back to two episodes
that we've done really come tomind.
The first one is, we had Sam on,and Sam talked about, you know,
having photos, putting time in,caring about your marketing,
right?
If I'm just grabbing randomstuff off the internet and I'm
just throwing stock photos upthere, I'm putting things on
there.
People that actually care,people are doing the vetting,

(58:15):
people that are looking aregonna see that and go, okay,
well I can't see any of youractual fleet.
I don't actually know if that'syours or not.
So that's key.
But the other thing that you'vebrought up, and it really echoes
in my mind, when Ken and Italked to Brett, behold the
first time, Ken, you'll rememberone of the big things he said is
when we talked about him andaffiliate work, guess what?
Price didn't come up.

(58:35):
Price wasn't the issue.
It was don't screw up.
My clients that sat with me,that's really stuck with me.
Brett Baren Holt, president ofthe NLA.
The most important thing to himwith affiliates is don't screw
up my clients.
Now that we're talking with you,Paul, it's, Hey, I've worked
with Wall Street, I'm workingwith people's families.
I'm working with this.
You're going the extra mile todo research.

(58:56):
You're going the extra mile tolearn about them, to make sure
they are who they say they are.
Right?
All of these things come backto, again, we haven't said a
word about price.
Not once in this conversation.
Has it been, who's the cheapest?
What's my rate?
It's what are all the differentways that I can look up and find
out and pull them?
And guess what guys?

(59:17):
You know, beyond what we'retalking about here.
You know, my favorite being inthe training world.
You go on our website and PAXhas got listed.
Everyone that's a PAX member,'cause we see that too, right?
Everybody's got a hundred carsin their fleet, they're a PAX
member, they've got brand neweverything, this and that.
I think it's important thatpeople on the podcast, listen,
and Paul, you're making the casefor us.

(59:37):
These are things where peopleare gonna inspect what they
expect.
And if you wanna be in that toptier, if you want to truly be
luxury, you've gotta walk thewalk, talk the talk, and do what
You

you have to, you have to.

Ken Lucci (59:50):
and, it all comes down to, you have a relationship
with your clients built ontrust.
Okay.
Um, when I, when I, I think thebiggest challenge that I see
people have is they're trying tocapture clients using
pay-per-click.
The only denominator there inmost cases, is price, right?

(01:00:12):
So what you've done is you'vecreated relationships.
The company has relationshipswhere they trust you, and you
are doing the same thing withyour affiliates.
And I know your company, and Iknow your prices are not the
lowest in your market.
Your prices are me.
You've got a phenomenal fleet,and I think your, your prices
are, you know, market level orabove for a, for a reason.

(01:00:37):
Um, I think the biggest, no mis,the biggest misnomer in this
industry is I have to the lowestpossible price.
And the sa and the sad part isthat's the low.
That to me is the recipe fordisaster.
Um, and it.
people who value quality, peoplewho value the relationships that

(01:00:59):
you have and trust you withtheir family and trust you with
their employees.
Prices lower on down the list.
Um, so, uh, it's, it's in, tome, it's endearing and it, it
gives me kind of hope that theindustry's moving somewhat in
the right direction, at least onthe luxury level.
On the luxury level,relationships are the most

(01:01:21):
important things, and the, I Ialways say he who owns the
relationship, owns the revenue,right?
So at the end of the day, it'snice to see you doing that.

Paul Pasternack (01:01:30):
Yep.

James Blain (01:01:31):
and, and I would say you take that a step
further, Ken, I think it doesn'tmatter if you're in the motor
coach business, it doesn'tmatter what business you're in.
You know, if you're in abusiness where you're wanting to
capture and hold the client,right?
It doesn't matter any businesswhere your goal is to capture
and continue serving thatclient, the more trust you can
build up, the more you can takecare of them.

(01:01:51):
Like Paul talked about, it tookhim months, right?
Six months in, he's stillharping on them, Hey, we gotta,
we gotta own that entire trip.
But being that trusted providerand taking care of them, I mean
that's, that's how you build abusiness.
Because to the point that wasmade earlier, like you said, if
you're doing paperclip or you'redoing things like that, you are

(01:02:12):
depending on that new influx ofbusiness every month.
The second you can get to apoint where you have that base
that you're serving that arethose return customers, that you
build up that loyalty, that'swhen you start getting that
stability.
That's when you're able toreally build and grow

Ken Lucci (01:02:28):
and look at your revenue per client.
Look at your revenue per client,right?
And, and, and look at your salescosts.
I mean, you have expended acertain amount of money to get
the client, and now by askingfor the return trip, you've
doubled the amount of revenue byasking them and saying, how
often do you travel?
Right?
And being the niche that you've,you've created, now you've

(01:02:49):
turned one into two, two intofour.
I wish every operator knew thoseskills.
How difficult was it for you?
My last question, how difficultwas it for you to get the
company owners and to get the,the CSRs to buy in to asking the
question, to taking the effort?

Great question.

Um, I'm gonna answer this the honest way
because some, some people willlie about it, but I'm gonna
answer it the honest way.

Ken Lucci (01:03:23):
sure,

Once, because this is the way I presented it
to them.
So for me it was very easy, Kenand James, and this is why I
rolled up my sleeves and I satthere for a full week and proved
it led by example.
I showed them, watch me, I'mgonna ask every single person.

(01:03:46):
And I was literally like.
It, it was almost where I waspushing people off the phone so
I could answer the phone where,let me take that call.
And lo and behold, in a, week Imanaged to book on my own.
And this is no credit to me.
It's just, again, I've beendoing this for so long, I love
doing this I have a passion forit.

(01:04:06):
And people hear that ittranslates through whether I'm
on the phone or in front ofthem.
They hear it in my voice throughcomments I make, through how I
direct that call.
Um.
I booked 12 worldwide trips inthat week by just simply asking
them, Hey, do you needtransportation here?
And every single caller I asked.

(01:04:27):
This was their response too,guys, I didn't even know you had
service down here.
I didn't even know you guyscould could do this.
And then it led them to ask meanother question.
Hey, let me ask you a question.
My daughter is flying to LosAngeles.
Can you pick her up there too?
Absolutely.
And your mother that's going onvacation to the south of France,

(01:04:51):
so on and

Ken Lucci (01:04:51):
look,

you

Ken Lucci (01:04:53):
I had a, uh, I had a discussion this week that
dovetails into this.
I had a discussion this weekwith the president of one of the
larger networks, and he didsomething really bad.
He questioned my data.
You wanna, you, if you wanna,piss me off, you question my
data.
'cause all I do is research.

(01:05:13):
Okay?
75% of airline travelers aretraveling for personal reasons,
okay?
He has nailed the person,getting the personal client
through the car seats, right?
Because that's when money is noobject, right?
we spend, we spend, the most on.

after you too, Ken,

Ken Lucci (01:05:35):
We spend the most money on our pets and our kids.
So, but most of the networks andmost of the people that do
affiliate completely ignore theprivate airline traveler.
And it's 75% of the people onthat plane not traveling for
business.
And he's nailed it.

(01:05:57):
By the way.
I, I corrected that individualwith an email and with the, with
the entire, with the entire dataset that I got from the airline
industry.

Oh,

Ken Lucci (01:06:06):
not gonna bring up his name, but he knows who he is
and he'll never, he'll never doit again.
But he's now, but he's, theniche of the car seats is
incredibly important.
But yet you've made a commitmentthere because those, those car
seats are not cheap.
The organization has made acommitment, You made a
commitment, but you also, butyou also also created something

(01:06:31):
where you, you turned.
Turn the ask into muscle memory.
So now your entire CSR staff istrained to ask And leading by
example.
'cause I know that the operatorshave a tough time with this.
I'm a reservationist.
I'm not gonna be a salespersonleading by example and saying,

(01:06:51):
let me show you how easy thisis.
And it comes down to numbers.
It, you know, if, if, if you'renow, if you're getting one out
of 10 or one out of 15, whateverthe number is, I, I mean, that's
good.
That's exceptional progress.
But I don't think you would'vegotten there unless you sat down
and did it yourself for theweek.

No.

Ken Lucci (01:07:09):
think you would've gotten there.

Now and, and coming from the training side of
things.
I mean, a big thing for me isalways you, you have to walk the
walk.
You have to talk the talk.
You have to, everybody has to bedoing it because the number one
enemy, the number one enemy ofgood training and good behavior
is when the person gets outthere and someone says, yeah, I

(01:07:31):
know you saw this video.
Yeah, I know they touched that.
Yeah, I know.
This is how we really do it.
Right.
If there was a single phrasethat kills service, that kills
safety, that in some cases haskilled entire businesses,

Ken Lucci (01:07:44):
hospitality.
It kills all

Yeah.
Yeah, that's, that's not real.
I know that's what they taughtyou, but that's not really how
we do it.
Lemme tell you how we really doit.
Right.
So going in there and reallymaking a shift and a change and
saying, Hey, we're gonna movetowards affiliates.
We're gonna move towards carseats.
We're actually going to makethis how we do it, and we're
gonna push that is what allowsthese types of changes to happen

(01:08:07):
in business.
I mean, Well, done Paul.

Well,

Ken Lucci (01:08:10):
Yeah.
Nice, nice work.
And look at the end of the day,the, the other piece of this is
continually.
Reinforcing it with the staffand to me, if the owners are not
going to be the ones to help youpush it, it's not gonna work.

Yeah.
Continuing education is key.

Ken Lucci (01:08:31):
to do it.

No,

Ken Lucci (01:08:32):
they have a commitment to do it.
Hey, Paul from LegendsTransportation in New York.
We really appreciate you beingon the podcast today and, um,
this has been a great, uh,podcast for the people to
understand how to do affiliate,what you do to create a niche of
value in this big world, andthen what you expect from your
affiliates.

(01:08:52):
So thank you very much.
We really appreciate your timetoday.
Thank you for listening to theground 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 PAXtraining and to contact James,
go to PAX training.com.

(01:09:12):
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.

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