Create-A-Card: A Legacy of Transportation Company Branding and Marketing

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In this episode of the Crown Transportation Podcast, Ken Lucci and James Blain are joined by Arthur and Drew Messina from Create-A-Card. They discuss the essential marketing strategies for the ground transportation industry. 

The conversation highlights the role of business cards, postcards, and innovative swag items in cultivating relationships and growing businesses. They also address the relevance of modern tools like digital brochures and electronic marketing, sharing insights on how to balance traditional and digital marketing to build a successful brand. In this conversations, you'll hear:

• Marketing trends in ground transportation
• Essential collateral and leave-behinds to get past gatekeepers
• The rule of 7 touch points
• Importance of capability cards
• Life Items and other creative collateral
• Why it's important to know what your brand stands for

Visit Create-A-Card's website: https://createacardinc.com/

At Driving Transactions, Ken Lucci and his team offer financial analysis, KPI reviews,  for specific purposes like improving profitability, enhancing the value of the enterprise business planning and buying and selling companies. So if you have any of those needs, please give us a call or check us out at www.drivingtransactions.com.

Pax Training is your  all in one solution designed to elevate your team's skills, boost passenger satisfaction, and keep your business ahead of the curve. Learn more at www.paxtraining.com/gtp

Connect with Kenneth Lucci, Principle Analyst at Driving Transactions:
https://www.drivingtransactions.com/

Connect with James Blain, President at PAX Training:
https://paxtraining.com/

Episode Transcript

Ken Lucci (00:26):
Hey, podcast land.
Welcome, uh, to another excitingepisode of the Crown
Transportation Podcast.
Uh, my name is Ken Lucci.
From driving transactions weknew we do profit analysis,
financial performance reviews,business valuations, and I am as
always joined by my very, uh,capable, uh, co-host James Blame

(00:48):
from PAX training, the best, uh,customer service and chauffeur
training in the industry anddriver training in the industry.
And, uh, we are joined today.
Uh, a little emotional for mebecause the, the, the guy in the
lower right hand box, the, the,uh, the older gentleman, uh, on
the call was one of the firstpeople that embraced me when I

(01:09):
was an operator.
Back in 2006 and, um, he reachedout to me when he came down to
Florida.
We, we met up, um, and hereferred me to a lot of people.
Arthur Messina from Create ACard is joining us today, and
his, uh, very capable, uh, son,drew Messina, who is taking over

(01:31):
the reigns of Create a card, uh,is with us today.
if you have not been exposed tocreate a card as a brand, even
know that you can call yourselfbeing in the chauffeur industry

James Blain (01:42):
You are under a rock at that point.

Ken Lucci (01:44):
you're under a rock because these guys are
legendary.
The brand is extraordinarilywell known as far, every time I
go into an office, I'm seeingboxes with create a card,
collateral material by create acard because nobody knows this
industry like.
a card.
They, they know what works.
And that's what we're gonna betalking about today.

(02:05):
We're gonna be talking aboutmarketing your chauffeur
business.
So Arthur, we're gonna start offwith you.
Give us a, a, a, a history ofcreate a card and how did you
get into the crazy, uh,chauffeur?
Transportation, transportationindustry?

Arthur Messina (02:18):
First off, thank you, Ken, and to James for
having both myself and Drew onthis podcast.
It's a pleasure.
I'm not sure we, we weren't thefirst one, but I'm, we're here
guys.
Thank you.

James Blain (02:29):
We were waiting on the new marketing material.
We order from you guys to comein.

Ken Lucci (02:32):
Well, we wanted, to wait on the A list players.
So you are here now.

Arthur Messina (02:36):
There you go.

James Blain (02:37):
Oh.

Ken Lucci (02:38):
you.

Arthur Messina (02:38):
for those that have been under a rock, um, yes.
My name is Arthur Messina.
I am the founder and president.
Started back in 1986.
Um, we've been helping theluxury ground transportation
market that businesses since1986 were, so we're almost about
four and a half decades, um,close to it, of working with the

(03:02):
ground in industry.
Um, we started with the basic ofa business card, Ken.
It was just real simple.
Back in 1986, we started withpicture business cards and it
wasn't something that was outthere.
Um, back in the day when my dadhad a business, he was in the,
uh, ground sanitation business.
Would you believe that?
With the last name of Cena?

(03:23):
Go figure.
Um, but

Ken Lucci (03:25):
Stereotype stereotype.

Arthur Messina (03:27):
I didn't even realize until after the fact
that when I went back and one ofthe.
So our very first step into theground transportation industry
was working with a companycalled Richard James Limousine
that had a couple of Cadillacsparked at a gas station back in

(03:49):
86.
There were no really bigoperators, there was no big
facilities that you're lookingat as you do to today.
Uh, I stopped by and Jim Ferrawas the owner of the gas station
and the, uh, transportationbusiness, and I said, Hey, I'd
love to take a picture of your,of your vehicle and put it on a
business card.
And the guy looked at me like Iwas three way sideways.

(04:10):
I mean, it just, it just didn'tmake sense.
What do you mean you got put apicture of my limousine on a
car?
This is a calling.
When you pass out your businesscard, people will know exactly
what it that you do, and thatwas the concept for starting
create card.
We wanted to take an item thatpeople needed to see or didn't
understand, put the picture onit with the rest of the business

(04:31):
card information.
that their calling card.
And that was the start of Createa Card back in 1980s.
This was even before Drew, drewwas even born.
Um, here we are.
We, we come into the nineties.
We started doing business cards.
We were doing postcards, we weredoing brochures.
We're doing, um, different formsof marketing.

(04:51):
We come into 2000.
We're getting bigger into tradeshows, trade show, marketing,
trade show booth.
Um, fortunately both of you guysare clients as well.
We've done everything for adriving transaction.
We've done stuff for, for PACSas well.
From

James Blain (05:05):
The original logo, right.
Designed by create a card.

Arthur Messina (05:09):
pins,

James Blain (05:09):
Yep.

Arthur Messina (05:10):
the trade show boots

Ken Lucci (05:11):
You did my logos.

James Blain (05:13):
Yep.

Ken Lucci (05:13):
percent.

Arthur Messina (05:14):
so we.
I guess we're a marketingcompany, but we're really a
service company.
We are a relationship companythat our product is marketing
tools.
We understand from 19 80, 19 902000, 2010, 2020 right now, of

(05:34):
what the trends are.
We stay on top of that everyday.
When I'm out and I'm looking,I'm looking, you know, it's,
it's hard being in the marketingbusiness and looking at what
everyone else does because youdon't go on vacation and just
enjoy.
You look at the rack cards, youlook at the, the signage, you
look at everything.
What's good, what's bad?
How come they put a bullet pointthere?

(05:55):
How come they didn't put thebullet point there?
Where's the QR code?
Where's the phone number?

Ken Lucci (05:59):
Oh, it's occupational

James Blain (06:01):
Ah.
Yeah,

Ken Lucci (06:02):
hazard.
You have to, You have that eye.

Arthur Messina (06:05):
and going forward, so sometimes people
feel like, Hey, you're not atwork.
You're always at work.
I mean,

James Blain (06:10):
right.

Arthur Messina (06:10):
market, in the marketing business.
we come to the year 2000, 2020,um, you know, my predecessor or
my, my go-to guy has been Drew,drew.
Um, it's, it is funny when youhave children and those that
have children will understandthis.
You talk and you rant and youtell stories day after day, year

(06:31):
after year, and you think yourkids never listen until finally
comes back to at you and says,Hey, art, you're right.
I heard what you said.
I didn't acknowledge it.
Now I'm repeating it on a dailybasis, 3, 4, 5, 6 times a day of
things that you told me, thingsthat I heard.
So it, it does work.
It just comes around at maybeat, at a later time.

James Blain (06:53):
Yeah.

Ken Lucci (06:53):
Well, and you're being humble though.
You're being humble because thechances that a business will
transition to the nextgeneration are slim.

James Blain (07:02):
Okay.

Ken Lucci (07:03):
So you've taught'em, you've taught'em extremely well.

Arthur Messina (07:06):
Well, I, I'll, I'll take a little credit for
that, but that's really our vicepresident, Kathy Messina.
Uh, my wife.
My wife, his mom.

James Blain (07:14):
The real boss,

Ken Lucci (07:15):
we have to acknowledge the fact that the
real brains of the operationcouldn't make it today on the
podcast.

Arthur Messina (07:21):
Yes.
But she was the one that's, shewas the one that spoke to Drew.
Drew had a background as ateacher in the school system.
He was educating and the schoolsystem would push him down that
he was doing too well, and it'smaking the other teachers look
bad.
And he got frustrated and at apoint he took some time away
from the school and mom said,Hey, we could use your help.

(07:45):
Why don't you just come in andhelp out for a little bit?
It's not a job.
We're not asking to come and runthe business.
Just come and help out.
Drew, how many years has thatbeen?

Andrew Messina (07:55):
enough.

Arthur Messina (07:58):
So now, so now what, as Ken will tell you, with
every business, you need an exitplan.

James Blain (08:04):
Yeah.

Arthur Messina (08:04):
And as I look to Drew, drew is our exit plan.
We're in the process of thatnow.
Uh, Kathy and I still work on aregular basis.
We're still here.
You see us at the trade shows.
Uh, but we are transitioning.
Um, and probably we will look athanding over the res, our
anniversary, which is, that'sour.

(08:26):
When you create a business andyou run a successful business
and you, and you have a, aenjoyable run at it, you also
need to be able to enjoy thethings outside of business.

James Blain (08:36):
Right.

Arthur Messina (08:37):
don't live just to run our businesses.
That is the vehicle till we getto our next point.
And when you get to that point,you wanna be able to enjoy life
and you gotta enjoy life whileyou still can, while things
work, while you can walk, whileyou can think, while you can
talk, while you can enjoy thethings and the money you made,
you wanna spend back and putback into the economy.

Ken Lucci (08:55):
So tell me something, Arthur, how did you avoid
getting burnt outta thebusiness?
You, when I see you and Kathy,you're always smiling.
You bring it, you, you guys, thethree of you at, at, at, at the
NLA cd, NLA, that you are afixture there.
How, how did you stay somotivated over the 40 years?
And then we'll go to Drew onwhat's going on now?

Arthur Messina (09:17):
So I think Ken with that is we look at it as
every year we go to the tradeshow, it's a cousin family
reunion.
not going to talk to my clientsor pick up new clients.
I'm going to talk to ourfriends, our cousins.
And if I start a list, I mean,you could just go through the
affiliate pages in the back ofthe magazine, you could go
through.
Everyone advertises.

(09:37):
I mean, it's the A one A in theworlds.
It's the Urbans, it's theCarolina Limousines.
It's everybody.
It's it's Dave l.
It's Limo Anywhere.
These are all clients of ours.
Every name that you can pick up,whether it's a Leros, it's a
Park Avenue, and so on and soon.
These are clients of ours.
So when we go to the shows, weget to see our friends, we get

(09:57):
to see our clients.
We don't push, we don't hardsell.
In 40 years, you've never seenus push or hard sell or deadline
Today.

Ken Lucci (10:10):
No.
Listen, you've had competition.
Come in, try to infiltrate themarket and literally fail
miserably because they don'thave the secret sauce that you
have, which is the cultivationof relationships, the
networking.
You've always network, you'vealways referred me, you've
always networked with the yourcustomers.

(10:32):
Okay?
And these other guys don't getthat.
And that's a lesson for theoperators out there, right?
It is main, it is creating,maintaining the relationships
and networking.
And how many times have youcalled me and said, Hey Kent, so
and so is thinking of, ofexiting.
Or they may need your help,

Arthur Messina (10:47):
Give him call.

Ken Lucci (10:47):
you,

Arthur Messina (10:48):
It happens.

Ken Lucci (10:49):
of net.
The out of networking, youperfected it.

Arthur Messina (10:52):
It happens all the time.
Um, my dad, Drew's grandfatheralways said, you have two ears
and one mouth.
Listen more than you talk.
And you know, you don't realizethese things when people say
stuff until it really clicks.
And, and it's true.
We listen to our clients, welisten to the other vendors that
we do work with, and we try tohelp them the best way that we

(11:13):
can.
That is our goal.
Again, when we, when somebodysells, and Ken, you understand
this, you, you've been selling alot of businesses over the last,
you know, two years, threeyears.
But we lose clients because ourother clients are buying our
clients.
So we end up with less clients,but our client became bigger.
You know, but you, you, youstill work with that.

(11:34):
And our goal is to maintainthat, maintain the relationship,
maintain the networking, try tobe out there.
And that means whether it's inperson or online, we try to do
both the best we can.

James Blain (11:46):
think the other thing here that that often gets
overlooked is going back towhere you said you started
originally, business cards.
You get a lot of companies like,I'm gonna go on Vistaprint, I'm
gonna make a card and I'm gonnaprint and it's gonna be awesome.
Um, Go ahead.
Do you make business cards for aliving?
Is that someone that can adviseyou on it?
Is that someone that can say,Hey, while you're at the Yeah.

(12:07):
What works in the industry whenyou're at a trade show?
Can you write on that card?
Can you, you know, I have, uh,having the pleasure of having
worked with you guys throughoutthe 10 years that.
Past has existed.
I could tell you right now, I'vedriven both Arthur and Drew nuts
because you guys are ourpartners, right?
Yeah.
No, not me.
Not not picky James.
No, but, but to that point, youguys really operate more as a

(12:29):
partnership of, hey, you need toconsider this, Hey, this is
what's gonna work.
There's a lot of expertise andthere's a lot of knowledge that
they're gaining from workingwith someone like you.
And there's a lot of things thatyou don't think about in that
space.
I think one of the things thatI'd love to kind of hear about
is how that's kind of evolvedover the years.

(12:49):
'cause obviously, you know, Iwon't, I won't date myself, but
86 is pretty early on in, in myexistence.
Right.
If at all.
And so what, what is that looklike kind of growing through as
you've partnered and worked withall these companies?
What's been the through line andchanged?
Obviously you guys have evolvedso much.

Arthur Messina (13:08):
Well, I guess the comment is myself, Kathy,
um, bringing Drew in, we have aconsistency.
Um, I'm a phone call away.
I'm an email away.
I'm a cell phone away.
thing that Drew's learned overthe last five to seven years is
how come your phone rings atSaturday night at eight o'clock
when the operator thinks about,Hey, I need something to get

(13:31):
done.
And we, we answer the

James Blain (13:34):
Yeah.

Arthur Messina (13:34):
do.
If, if, Hey, I'm busy.
I'm out to dinner.
I'll get back to you tomorrow.
I'll get back to you later.
Um, again, I guess the best wayto look at it's, we're strategic
advisors.
We're just not a

James Blain (13:45):
No.

Arthur Messina (13:46):
We're there,

James Blain (13:47):
No.

Arthur Messina (13:48):
there for our clients, but not in a selling
process and a helping process.
And.

Andrew Messina (13:54):
conci, more of a more of a concierge marketing
firm versus just a standardmarketing

James Blain (13:58):
Ah.

Ken Lucci (13:59):
a hundred.
Absolutely.
How many times have you said tome, Ken, three words instead of
12, and this is how you can saythis.
You've edited my stuff down toperfection.
Don't be laughing at me anyway.
I only kidding.
So,

Andrew Messina (14:12):
facts.

Ken Lucci (14:12):
true.

James Blain (14:13):
Eh,

Ken Lucci (14:13):
gonna get that from Vistaprint.
And you've

James Blain (14:15):
no.

Ken Lucci (14:15):
me it's, it's literally what works in the
industry.
But you're being modest becauseyou pivoted to electronic
brochures and you've gotunbelievable graphics people,
right?
So you're not gonna get thatwith Vistaprint.
You're not gonna get that withthe online person, even if
you're local.
Minuteman printer doesn't knowwhat the industry doesn't know

(14:38):
what works.
So when I say to operatorsopera, I, I recommend rack
cards, I recommend use cases.
I recommend electronic andpaper, and I recommend marketing
materials.
So, drew, is working now?
pandemic.
What is working?
Now I'm gonna tell you my petpeeve to tee this up over the

(15:00):
past 90 days.
Look, the first quarter was alittle slow for 2025.
Okay?
So what I'm seeing now that I'venot, that I've not seen before,
I'm seeing a ton of people doingmassive PPC that they didn't do
before.
I'm seeing people doing tons ofpaid social media, and I'm
getting email blasts now.

(15:21):
Okay?
So what that says to me is youare reacting.
You don't have a sales andmarketing machine in place that
is constantly rolling.
You're reacting to down, you'renot building your brand every
day.
And that's kind of the reason weasked you on, I believe there is
a, there is a tremendous needfor a holistic, a pie approach

(15:45):
to marketing and advertising andpromoting.
I.
And I think people are ignoringsome of the tried and true
traditionals of regional blockand tackle marketing.
So what works, what's working,and what are you seeing for
trends?

Andrew Messina (16:00):
Well, first off, thank you guys for having me.
Um, it's definitely somethingthat you'd say it is a holistic.
You don't wanna wait till thatlast minute because then at that
point, then by the timesomething starts and you get
that ball rolling, it's alreadytoo late.
And then you have a gap in yoursales, which is, could be
catastrophic at best.
At worst, do have the option.
What does work is a return totraditional marketing.

(16:22):
Things that never fail.
You wanna go ahead.
You wanna go out and get yourpostcards out there.
You wanna get

James Blain (16:27):
Huh?

Andrew Messina (16:28):
cards out there.
You wanna do thank you cards.
The things I see all the time,the people go, oh, we're in a
digital world.
I don't need a business card.
Who needs a business card?
I go, that's great.
Your name's John.
Your name's Ken.
Your name's this one.
How many John, Ken, Sallys,Nicoles do you have in your

James Blain (16:43):
Huh?

Andrew Messina (16:43):
And then you go, oh, I met them.
And then you go home and youdon't even remember what you ha
what you said you were supposedto

James Blain (16:49):
You've lost the relationship.

Andrew Messina (16:51):
I.
Who you were talking to and then

James Blain (16:53):
I.

Andrew Messina (16:53):
trying to go through your phone and trying to
find someone and say, oh, I, Itapped their phone and I, I lost
it.
Forget it.
If you have, you keep your cardon your desk, you give it to
someone.
Even if you won't go so far asput your picture on it.
It goes so that people know whoyou are.
They know how to

James Blain (17:09):
Right.

Andrew Messina (17:10):
put a face to the name.
That's just something that'salways key, especially even in a
digital world.
'cause then they can take that,they could scan the QR code on
there, go to your website, theycould scan it, input them into
your phone so you become that,uh, that person that they can
just pick up and dial easily.
going back to those simple basicthings that work, the tried and

(17:30):
true methods of marketing, youwant to go out and you want it,
send out something in the mail.
I know personally when I getmail, I actually open it.
I don't, my email is a 50 50,whether I just sit there and I
scroll all the way down atLightspeed, like it's a Star
Wars movie and I'm sitting theregoing just delete, delete,
delete, delete junk spam.
I don't care.
And sometimes, you know, I'llsee someone's name, I know I'll

(17:51):
click on it.
But if you send me something inthe mail, you drop something at
my office, you bring somethingto me, hand it to me in person.
You have exponentially betteropportunities for me to look at
what you're looking at or whatyou want me to look at and how
to even address it, maybe evencontent and absorb it.
And then you have your ROI rightthen and there.

Ken Lucci (18:10):
it look, it, it points to the tried and true
method of cold calling, okay?
And, and I don't care whetheryou're at the airport.
I don't care whether you're outand about a business card to me,
the best ROI, you get 500 or athousand cards, right?
Every card you pass out is a, isa basically a, A, a Penny's

(18:30):
created impression.
Most importantly, you give abusiness card, you get one back,
or you give the business card.
Here's my contact information.
What's your email address?
Gimme your business card.
I don't have one.
What's your email address?
I'm gonna send you follow up ofeverything that we do.
You know, there's a reason whyit's called the calling card

(18:51):
from back in the day.
Okay.
And I do, I think people havemade a massive mistake in
cutting down on their paperbusiness cards for the exact
reason that you said at the ahundred percent.

Andrew Messina (19:04):
But it, but it, but it it goes, it goes to the
point too, that people go aheadand say, all right, I can get
them cheap or I can go get'emonline.
I can go on Vistaprint or

James Blain (19:11):
yeah.

Andrew Messina (19:11):
have them done.
But that's great.
And then, you know how manybusiness cards I get that don't
have an email on them, thatdon't have something spelled
correctly on them?

Arthur Messina (19:20):
A location.

Andrew Messina (19:21):
my favorite, favorite business card I ever
got, it had the file, it had theprinted on the front on the
backside of the business card.
It said backside on other file.

Ken Lucci (19:30):
Oh

Andrew Messina (19:30):
Like, who puts that into production?

Ken Lucci (19:32):
Right

Andrew Messina (19:33):
Like when we sit there, we look at everything
before it goes into production.
We try to work with you.
You see it, make sure you seeit, we see it.
And that's the difference.
Versus you going online, you'reprobably doing it at 11 o'clock
at night.

James Blain (19:44):
Yeah.

Andrew Messina (19:45):
half awake, your kids are screaming, you're like,
submit, and then you get whatyou put into something.
It's same way you don't drive,you don't drive an old hoopty,
um, to pick up your clients.
You put, you bring out a nice,clean vehicle that's modern and
up to date.
You wanna make sure yourmarketing materials represent
your company if you're runningthese luxurious

Ken Lucci (20:04):
it, it, it re it recommends it's the, it, it's a
direct reflection of your brand.
And when it has the littleVistaprint logo on it, to me,
it's like a guy that, that hisbusiness email address is Gmail
or Yahoo.
Oh, my favorite one.
We're not gonna say who it is,aol.com.
So the business card, what'smost importantly to me is, you

(20:26):
know what works because you'vebeen doing this in the same
industry and your graphics,people catch stuff all of the
time.
So your experience is worth thedelta, whatever it is.
Hey, look guys out there andgals out there, you anybody, you
can get an illegal operator totake you to the airport and you
can also do an Uber X, but youuse chauffeur transportation.

(20:46):
Your clients use chauffeurtransportation because they know
the, they are early morningexperts.
The vehicle's gonna be safe,it's

James Blain (20:55):
Yeah,

Ken Lucci (20:55):
insured.
The same with these guys.
They know what works.
They know the trends.
There's 40 years of knowledge inthat's transferring in this
business.
It's critically important.

James Blain (21:05):
well, there's, there's something else there,
Ken.
And I think the, the thing thathas really kind of risen to the
top in our industry is that ourindustry right now, we are
having to differentiateourselves.
Like you said, you, you're notgonna show up in a hoopty.
How many times do you havesomeone that has a beautiful
vehicle, a beautiful experience,and they hand you that card?

(21:25):
What we so often forget is thatwhen someone hands you a
business card, your firstexperience with it isn't
actually gonna be your eyeslooking at it.
It's how it feels in your hand.
Uh, and Drew is laughing, right?
Because I, I all but tortureddrew on this, right?
And, and, and Arthur wasinvolved in this because, you
know, we spent what, like amonth or more talking about, I.

(21:49):
How does my business card feelin someone's hand?
What is the cut?
Yeah, yeah.
Right, right, right.
The truth is coming out sixmonths later,

Andrew Messina (21:57):
That was the last round of revisions.

James Blain (21:58):
yeah, but how does it feel in the hand?
How does it, you know, go withthat.
And so a lot of time and effortwent into that.
And I can tell you, for me,there was that moment of, that's
a waste of time until the firsttime I handed someone a card and
they, oh wow, this is nice.
Because the second, yeah, theyfelt it the second their hand
touched the card.

(22:19):
We talk about this in PAXtraining all the time.
It's very hard to put adefinition on what customer
services define customer servicedefine luxury to me.
But if I tell you.
What does it feel like?
Oh, well, we all know what itfeels like.
And so I think it's reallyimportant to note that one of
the key takeaways here isknowing that you have to do that

(22:42):
when you go in, when you don'tspend the time it's there.
So I guess my question would be,knowing that that's an issue,
knowing that that's somethingthat operators aren't focusing
on, what do you guys see rightnow as the opportunity for
someone that's listening to thisand going, holy crap, I've never
thought about that.
Is that a phone call to youguys?
Is that, you know, Hey, Irethink my mark.

(23:03):
What?
What do they do to fix that?
And what are the things you wantthem to have in mind that are
gonna help them get there?

Ken Lucci (23:10):
What are the basic elements that they can't be
without?
Period.

James Blain (23:14):
Absolutely.

Andrew Messina (23:15):
So looking at your business card, I always
first say, when you look at astack, go look at the stack
sitting on your desk.
So when you go through that,you, they're sitting on your
desk for a reason.
First off.
And that, so this way, if youneed to reach them, even though
they may be in your phone, eventhough you may know them, you
still have their cards.
But as you start going throughthat stack in that pile, does
anything make it stand out?
There's a reason that on yourtable at home you have, you have

(23:37):
magazines.
Let's go back to.

James Blain (23:39):
So,

Andrew Messina (23:40):
advertising with a stack of magazines, who ends
up on top?
Does it have the right, is it aspecial size?
Is it a special thickness?
Is it a special coloring scheme?
Is what makes you stand out,because everyone can have a
business card and that's great.
Everyone should have a businesscard.
But if you need to differentiateyourself from the rest of the
mainstream that's out there sothat your company can

(24:02):
differentiate itself, key thingsthat you definitely wanna make
sure you wanna be very, veryclear.
Who you are and what you do.
I can't tell you how many peopleI've seen give me a card and
I'm, and I'm looking and I'mupside down trying to peel it in
the middle to figure out what dothey do.

James Blain (24:17):
yeah.

Andrew Messina (24:18):
sit there and I'm like, oh, you're a B, C 1,
2, 3.
Are you a company?
Are you a transportationcompany?
Do you, what do you, what do

James Blain (24:26):
Yeah.

Andrew Messina (24:27):
I need, I need It needs to be clear.
Yeah.
And that's always the thing Isay, it needs to be clear.
If it's not in your logo, itneeds to be a, a subheader.
It needs to be somewhere that isvery visible and very easy to
read because you don't wantpeople to think, they let, they
think the easier it is forpeople to want to communicate
with you.
And that's something that's abig trend that we're noticing

(24:48):
that I constantly will getpeople just like Ken, who will
love to go ahead and give you anentire encyclopedia and put it
on a two by three, three and ahalf inch little piece of paper.
And that's great.
You have a lot to say.
That's awesome, but let's makesure that we use the correct
mediums.

Ken Lucci (25:02):
are free.
Words are free.

Andrew Messina (25:04):
Yeah, but the edits aren't.

Ken Lucci (25:06):
That's why I come to you.
That's why I come to you guys.
And Arthur was literally thefirst guy that said to me when I
had him look at my PowerPoint.
She's like, Ken, too many words.

Arthur Messina (25:16):
No one's.

Ken Lucci (25:17):
is worth a thousand words.
Listen, the other piece of thispuzzle is, if you are going
after the corporate trade andyou really, that's a big part of
it.
I'm a big believer in having awedding business card and

James Blain (25:30):
Yeah.

Ken Lucci (25:31):
an airport corporate business card because they're
special.
Exactly

Andrew Messina (25:35):
Mm-hmm.

James Blain (25:36):
Yep.

Ken Lucci (25:36):
addition to the business cards.
I think that, that, thatpostcards have returned in
vogue.
You know why I'm not, I'm notgetting a hundred of them in the
mail anymore.
I think mail, direct mail isback in vogue.
And I also believe that rifleshot direct mail mean we send

(25:57):
out a gift card style that youguys designed the envelope and I
don't send out a hundred of'em.
I send out maybe it'sregimentation 10

James Blain (26:10):
Oh.

Ken Lucci (26:11):
a week.
You know, I I, I think that,look, we all have overhead
hanging around.
Okay.
Especially operators withreservation and dispatch staff.
I, you, you telling me thatdispatcher on third shift or
that reservationist at 11o'clock in the morning is busy?
No, they're on Facebook.
So how about they send out somecollateral material?

(26:33):
What is, what is essentialcollateral material if you wanna
grow your business?

Arthur Messina (26:38):
So, Ken, uh, something, I wrote an article
back in probably early 1990s,was called Five a Day.
Five a day.
Day means that you can create apostcard and mail out five cards
per day.
This was for a small operator.
Somebody's got one to two cards.
Can't handle doing the mailingof a thousand pieces, 5,000
pieces, but if you've got yourpostcards, you personally

(27:00):
address them five per day.
That's say you work a five daywork week, that's 25 a week.
Four weeks of the month, it's ahundred a month.
It's a great way and an easy wayjust to get your message out
there.
In this particular case, thisclient said 50% off your, your
round trip or$50 off your roundtrip.

(27:20):
So there's times right now inthe corporate market where
you're losing your airportcommunity, you're losing your
night on the town, you, you'relosing the accounts of the
corporate account.
But if you can make them anoffer to get them into your
vehicle, because the clientneeds to be in the vehicle, the
client needs to see it.
It's no different.
That why we come to trade shows.
And we're just not online.

(27:41):
There's, people need to touch.
James said he wouldn't haveknown the difference if he
didn't touch that soft touchfinish of that postcard, which
all of a sudden became Wow.
And it's not about theinformation on the business
card, it was the fielding.
I caught his attention.
Second, he looked at it to seewhat the business card says.
So it's very important to getthe people back in.
So postcards is very simple.

(28:01):
Five a day.
If you're a largest sizecompany, you can do 25 a day,
and, and the numbers just equalup.
But if you mail out 5,000 or10,000 cards in one day, you're
gonna kill your, yourreservationist with the calls
coming in and not being able toget each client or potential
client the time and answers thatthey need.
So you spread it out over time.

(28:22):
So postcards.

Ken Lucci (28:23):
question.

Arthur Messina (28:24):
Are correct.
The envelope is key.
So you can do a holiday card,you can do a Thanksgiving card,
happy New Year card.
You can do a birthday card oryou can even just do a gift
certificate.
But when a card comes in, in anenvelope and hand addressed, not
running it off the computerbecause we're running 5,000, we
don't wanna write 5,000, buthand address, you guys know what

(28:45):
it's like.
I used to get a, a, a check frommy grandmother for my birthday.
And whether it was$5,$10 thatweek of your birthday mail came
in and envelope, you opened itup right away.
Now we're getting less real mailin, in our mailboxes, so when
you get something, it gets yourattention more.
So, like Drew said, your Eboxgets inundated with a hundred to

(29:08):
300 emails.
And how many of those do youactually look at?

James Blain (29:11):
Well, and something else there, Arthur, is, we
haven't talked about this.
You know, I was always taughtwhen I was growing up in small
business that it wastouchpoints.
And something that we haven'ttouched on is you are typically
not going to have onetouchpoint, one contact, and
there's a magic sale.
Um, now, guys, correct me, I'mnot the expert on this, I was

(29:32):
always taught, right?
Seven's a holy number inmarketing and in church, right?
So you have to have se well,yeah.
Yeah.
And the casino.
Don't forget the boat.
Don't forget the boat.
You really need God to help youat the boat.
Um, but you know, your seventhere is, you have to have seven
touch points.
And this is something in thepast 10 years of Pax, at least
internally, that's the numberwe've lived and died by, is we

(29:54):
knew that no matter who it was,if we meet'em once, right?
If I meet you and I hand you acard, like Arthur said, I'm
gonna write a thank you or I'mgonna write you something.
I've, I've got seven touchpoints that I have to make.
Before my chances go up ofactually getting you as a
customer.
Is that still true today?
And how does that kind of playinto the concepts that we've

(30:17):
talked about so far?

Andrew Messina (30:18):
That, that's still definitely true.
That, and that goes back to theidea of what Kim was saying
before.
You know, you can't just go oneidea.
You have to go the entire routeof marketing.
Marketing is a broad term, andif you go ahead and you say, I'm
just going to email someone, andyou email them and email them
and email them and they don'tanswer, they don't pick up.
You have to pick up the phone.
You

James Blain (30:38):
Yeah.

Andrew Messina (30:38):
another way to get involved in.
One of Arthur's favorite line isjust pick up the phone.
Just pick up the phone.
Millennials, gen Z.
You see there's a, there's a lotof things I heard.
I didn't realize that I soundjust like Arthur now.
It's kind of wild.
Pray for me,

Ken Lucci (30:54):
Listen,

Andrew Messina (30:54):
it works.

Ken Lucci (30:54):
call.
Cold calling.
Cold calling works.
Especially when you, when you,when you legitimately, I, I'm
gonna give you an example.
We, we had a major transactionthat took place.
We weren't involved in it, butwe called and congratulated the
new owners.
And guess what?
We are doing a complete reviewof the business that they just

(31:17):
bought because they're fromoutside the industry.
Right.
And that was a massive, it's amassive contract for us and it
was cold calling.
Okay.
Congratulations for buying thebusiness.
My name is Ken.
We do profit reviews, financialreviews, et cetera, et cetera.
If you're looking for any otheracquisitions, that was it.
It was a 32nd phone call.
I left a voicemail.
The guy calls me and I sent a, afollow up email and I sent a

(31:40):
card.
Okay, congratulations.
And those were the three touchpoints.
The guy calls back.
So cold calling to me.
You don't have to be gregarious.
It helps when you have somethingin your hand, so you have that
business card.
You need your 32nd commercial.
drew, it was great to meet youtoday.
Okay.
Tell me something.
Do you do, do you travel a lot?

(32:01):
We do a lot of airport business.
We do a lot of out night outbusiness.
If you ever need anything, letme know.
Right?
So I, I, I think that that's a,there's a lost art, but if you
do it without a business card,right?
Even if you, even if you do textthem or something to me, you've
lost it.
It's not, it's not tangible.
And

Andrew Messina (32:19):
Do you need something to hold on?

James Blain (32:22):
Now

Ken Lucci (32:22):
The ROI of the business card and the postcard
and, and I, it's funny talkingto a small operator the other
day, uh, he bought ourfinancials course and he's like,
look, I'm finally outta theseat.
finally outta the seat.
I'm finally, literally at five

James Blain (32:38):
try to,

Ken Lucci (32:38):
driving anymore.
I said, okay, guess what?
Congratulations.
Now, you're, you're taking offyour chauffeur hat.
Now you're in the b the BD hat.
What's BD Business developmentevery single day.
What is your personal salesagenda?
Right?

James Blain (32:53):
yep.

Ken Lucci (32:53):
don't, I don't really have time to do.
Yes, you do.
You,

James Blain (32:56):
You gotta make time.
You better make time

Ken Lucci (32:59):
So, so if you're, if you're a small operator, sending
out those 25 business postcards,right?
Do it when you're downtime atthe airport.
Don't have'em all over the car.
Bring a little leather valisewith you and handwritten notes
always make a huge difference.
The business card, if you havethem and you've got 500 that you

(33:19):
bought for the show,'cause youwant all that affiliate
business, Jesus Christ, pleasenow

James Blain (33:24):
and, and put your city on there for God's sake.
I can't tell you how manyaffiliate, how many affiliates
go to the show with the samecard that says Worldwide, right?
They're going to a show.
They're trying to get affiliatebusiness worldwide.
So you have locations in everycity on the planet, for god's
sake.
Make a separate set that saysyour city.
Where are we sending you theaffiliate work to?

Andrew Messina (33:43):
where do you have boots on the ground?

Ken Lucci (33:45):
Rudder.
Dawson Rudder said that,remember that He said that, uh,
from Commonwealth, he

James Blain (33:49):
Yep.

Ken Lucci (33:50):
want my business and I'm leaving with business cards.
They have literally, what am Isupposed to know?

James Blain (33:54):
Why do I send this?

Ken Lucci (33:56):
do I,

James Blain (33:57):
Yeah,

Ken Lucci (33:57):
So

James Blain (33:57):
and it's.

Ken Lucci (33:58):
a big.
Look, I'm a big believer in, Imean it, it's good for an extra
set of business cards, samebranding message, which you guys
are always on me on about logo,the same colors, the same
branding, the same.
But I think special purposebusiness cards are important.
I, I'm not gonna hire acorporate driver who's got all

(34:18):
over business card that we'rewedding specialists.
At the same time, if I'm goingto a wedding show, which by the
way, love the wedding shows thebiggest, if you ask me what I
miss about the industry, it'sthe Rolls Royce at the bus, at
the wedding shows, right?
Always miss that.
But the business cars have tosay, wedding specialist, we know

(34:39):
how to take care of you on yourspecial day.
Less words, I know, but you're awedding specialist.
You're not gonna use a corporatebusiness card for that.
It's the same thing with thepostcards.
Arthur Breezed over somethingthat again.
He always drives home to me iswhat's the offer, Ken?
What's the

James Blain (34:55):
Oh,

Ken Lucci (34:55):
Cut

Arthur Messina (34:56):
Call.

Ken Lucci (34:57):
and what's the offer?

James Blain (34:58):
tailor it to them and have the offer.
Yep.

Arthur Messina (35:01):
It could be, it could be a call to action of a
percentage off, a dollar amountoff.
It could be that you're justlooking to get a phone number
and email address.
You need to for them to be ableto respond.
So this way, you know, it'sworking for you.
Uh, James, to get back to yourpoint, you were saying what are
the different things that youcan do, uh, in-person?

(35:21):
Networking is very

James Blain (35:22):
Yep.

Arthur Messina (35:23):
Online presence is important.
The website, it's the socialmedia presence, it's the trade
show.
It's attending the, uh, thelocal meetings.
It's attending the associationmeetings and again.
When we come to trade showswhere there in person you can
touch and feel industry wise,it's important to go to
associations because you're notworking against the other guy,

(35:43):
even though they're in yourcity.
You are working together

James Blain (35:46):
Right.

Arthur Messina (35:46):
for 30 years plus, I've been telling if you
got five cars, James and Ken has10 and Drew has six.
How about we're a company of 20plus vehicles.
I'm not worried about competagainst you.
You'll get your business.
I'll get my business.
But together now I can handlelarger groups'cause I got 20
vehicles because I'm next to meinstead against.

James Blain (36:06):
You are out of the scarcity mindset.
You're getting into that mindsetof the size of the industry.

Arthur Messina (36:11):
important to understand that

James Blain (36:12):
Yep.

Arthur Messina (36:12):
what we do.
There's, yes, there's a lot ofcomparison in ground
transportation as there is inmarketing.
There's the Vista point, uh,Vista Print.
There's the four imprint.
But the reason you go to acreative cart, and Ken, you hit
this right on this, we knowthis, I've been doing this 40
years.
I could have spread myself deadinto 17 other industries as a
lot of vendors that you see.
They go to all these differentindustries.

(36:33):
We focus on luxury, groundtransportation.
We understand.
I sat on the board as a vendordirector for three years.
I speak with all the people thatare on the board.
They're clients of ours.
We attend the, the, the tradeshows.
We attend the, the meetings.
We attend local associates.
We understand groundtransportation.
So when you go to a Vista print,and it's no different than

(36:56):
luxury ground transportationversus Uber.
There's

James Blain (36:58):
Right.

Arthur Messina (36:59):
for everybody.
The Uber client is not theclient for the luxury ground
Transportation and Vistaprint isnot our client either.
If you're looking to dosomething better with your
company market and brand yourcompany, then you choose us.
Go back and look at how Gem LiGem Limo changed their brand and
change their look.
Go look at Mike Rose from mylimo.

(37:19):
Change the brand, change hislook and what they're doing
moving forward.
Look at the association fromLANJ of how they change the
brand, how they change theirlook.
That's what Create a Card does.
That's how we help you with.

James Blain (37:32):
Yeah.

Ken Lucci (37:32):
right.
So when Mike and, and.
Mike's a client and, and, and hebasically said, look, we need
to, we need to evolve the brand.
So he didn't go to Vistaprintand, and to his credit, he
didn't go to a generic marketingor advertising company.
You've seen other people theirbrand to be able to do larger

(37:54):
equipment and, and, and so, youknow, I want talk a little bit
about the electronic capabilitybrochure and the capability
sheet, or the, or, or thecapability rack card, why it's
so important.

Andrew Messina (38:07):
So, so those are great because rack cards are a
very simple thing.
For those that don't know what arack card is.
It's a four by nine postcard.
Real simple.
It gets the size of a brochure,uh, fits right into a standard
envelope, fits right into yoursport Jacket, fits into most
women's pocket books.
It's easy, it's movable.
It's a great opportunity.
It gets you what you're tryingto do.

(38:28):
It communicates, hey, who youare.
What services you offer andgives you an opportunity to even
show what fleet you have ordifferent things that you're
trying to feature.
The best part about this is thenyou could then take this and
turn it into a digital medium aswell.
You can then take a version ofthis.
We can create you a digital PDFso that you can attach this.
So you're sending out an email,you're trying to get a quote,

(38:49):
you're trying to do, um, somesort of, uh, acquisition of, uh,
an account or something.
You have that opportunity tothen say, Hey, here's the
physical thing I gave you.
Let me reattach in case itsomehow it got lost in the mail.
Your dog ate it, whatever thesituation was, because it
happens as an adult too, youknow, so you, you have that
opportunity.
You can then go ahead and attachthat to have marketing materials

(39:10):
that build across your, yoursystem.
So you don't just have a, here'sa business card, here's a rack
card, and here's a umbrella andnothing coordinates.
The whole point of working witha

James Blain (39:22):
line.

Andrew Messina (39:23):
is to coordinate everything.
Same way you don't go out in apurple shirt and some other
color pants, and you, you wannamake sure everything matches and
corresponds to each other sothat when you send out a
booklet, when you send out your,your mailing, everyone starts to
know and get your brand, getyour brand identity out there.
And it's not just your logo.
Your logo is, is your logo, butyou want to build your brand and

(39:45):
build the whole picture that'sout there.
And that's the most importantthing.
And that's why when you havethese opportunities to make a
card.
Followed up with a coordinatede-blast.
Say, Hey, you know, so it lookssimilar.
It shows similar fields, showshow to reach you.
Um, and it's a great thing.
Brochures say a lot ofinformation and people love to
read them.

(40:05):
People need information, butmaybe not all the time.
They don't have all the time inthe world.
That's where I call, it's thecliff notes version of, of a
brochure.
That's what a rack card'sperfect for.
So it gets you that opportunityto go ahead and get people to
see and get a quick overview,and then you can turn it and
grow it into a brochure.
Take that brochure, turn it intoa digital PDF, so that as you're

(40:26):
submitting, uh, in for thesecontracts, you can attach that
information and that people canlook more.
And then if they wanna knowmore, then they can go to your
website.
Going back to that entirepicture of what you're

James Blain (40:38):
If you're setting up your seven

Andrew Messina (40:39):
pigeonhole something.
You

James Blain (40:41):
Yep.

Andrew Messina (40:41):
that entire thing and grow your brand like
you would grow a family.

Ken Lucci (40:46):
and you've always asked me this question, Ken,
who's the audience for this,right?
So after I give you like 15minutes of what it is you say,
okay, so what you want to do ispeople who are buying, great.
speak to the buyers, right?
It's not the co to me, the fullcapability brochure or, or e
electronic or the rack card, itshould give.

(41:07):
Like you said, a cliff note ICliffNotes version of of and,
but speak to your audiences ifyou are a corporate specialist.
A hundred percent.
I'm a big believer in, in usecases, right?
I'm a big ca especially Iweddings group and meeting the
same thing.
The, the attributes of a groupand meeting what the most
important thing is on timeflawless performance.

(41:32):
people we're going to, you worryabout your group and meeting,
we're gonna worry about gettingthem there.
I, I need to tell kind of whatwe talked about and the reason
we invited you on this podcastis I have several pet peeves
fucking list.
One of them is long list.
Um, one of them is, look, did Isay this is the highlight of my

(41:55):
day?
'cause I've been dealing withtrans of my

James Blain (41:58):
Doesn't get any better than this.

Ken Lucci (42:00):
Look, uh, is, is, is hearing is is on Facebook.
Okay?
Who are we using for PPC or whoare we using for SEO?
Okay, great.
Terrific, wonderful.
True story.
I was visiting a client, um,that time ago when I was doing
strategic consulting in 16 or17, and they wanted me to come
out and do a full financialreview and really a full review

(42:23):
of the business.
So I get in there the brother'stalking about, oh, we do SEO Oh,
we spend 3000 a month in PPC.
Okay?
We do this.
Nothing traditional, just it wasall about electronic because,
and I was an old man still atthat time.
He, he was a young kid and waspissing me off.
So I said, okay, you literallyare in a commercial office park

(42:45):
and I'm looking at 8, 2 8 storytowers, right?
And then I'm looking at all ofthese A buildings, B buildings,
C buildings, who are in thosetower.
Who are the businesses in thosetowers?
Well, well, what do you mean?
Who's next to you?
Left to the right.
Well, what do you mean?
So this is the whole point.

(43:06):
It's great.
I, I love that we're in theelectronic age, but if you are
doing solely PPC or you areslamming money into just SEO,
you are missing the biggestpiece of territory marketing,
which is the people that you seeand you meet every day.
And you, if you, you have tohave something compelling to

(43:27):
give them.
And to me, I think we've lostthat.
I think we lost that asbusinesses.
I know this for a fact.
If all you're doing is PPC 100%,you are attracting someone who's
doing low price for low price.
You are also, it's verydifficult to distinguish
yourself among five sponsoredads.

(43:48):
So ISEO is critical.
Websites are critical.
We all know that.
you guys, you cannot, to me,have a full.
Pie of marketing and, andadvertising, unless you have
collateral.
Talk about some of the othercollateral materials that work.
You know where I'm going withthis.
The

James Blain (44:08):
Well,

Ken Lucci (44:09):
cubes

James Blain (44:09):
yep.

Ken Lucci (44:10):
coffee mugs.
What, what, what, what works andhow do people use them?

James Blain (44:15):
And while we're going down this direction,
right.
This is something that Drew andI have talked about a lot,
Arthur and I have talked about alot.
Tell us a little bit about howyou initiate conversations,
right?
That relational marketing.
That conversational marketing,because I feel like there's so
many people that think justbecause they buy this marketing
item and give it away, they'remagically gonna get business.

(44:37):
How do they take that and turnit into a conversation?
Uh, Arthur, you're, you're anabsolute genius at this, right?
Arthur could show up with a pen,hand it to you, and he's your
new best friend.
But how do you, how do you takethat and turn it into a
relationship in a conversation?

Arthur Messina (44:54):
So this is a great, this is a great segue
into the branding and swag.
Um, we're swag, we're marketinggurus.
Ken is right.

James Blain (45:05):
Yeah.

Arthur Messina (45:05):
used to be that you could drop somebody off at a
corporate building, knock on 25doors and drop things off, but
that doesn't work in today'ssociety anymore.
So you need to own real estateon your client's desk or home

James Blain (45:19):
Oh,

Arthur Messina (45:20):
And what I mean by that

James Blain (45:21):
yep.

Arthur Messina (45:21):
you need to be able to get, which is the mouse
pad that you're currently using.
And you guys laugh, but thisgoes back to LAN's Mouse pad
that we did over 10 years ago,and I'm still using it because
it, it was real estate on mydesk.
It's so important.
What's even better is realestate at home.
Where can you get

James Blain (45:40):
Oh,

Arthur Messina (45:40):
a oven mi with an imprint on it that you use on
a regular basis?
Where can you get that pizzacutter?
People order the pizza once aweek and they cut their pizza.
This is a great item to use.
So the goal in the conversationis, how can I help you brand
your business?
And I'm gonna tell'em, I canhelp brand your business through
the means of marketing, such asswag items, where gonna find

(46:03):
what we call a life item.
A life

James Blain (46:05):
oh.

Arthur Messina (46:05):
is something that you want to take with you
on a regular basis when youtravel.
How great is this little cordhere that has a USB, A-U-S-B-C
and a apple cord with yourimprinted logo?
There we go.
Imprinted logo right on it.
Then Ken has a carry kit.
This is something that goes inmy, in my backpack when I travel

(46:26):
all the time.
So when I pull out that cord, Iact accidentally or on
purposely.
I see that logo of that company.
It reminds me who they are, butI'm using something that they
gave me, which is great.
of you have seen this from TitusLeasing for years?
They've been passing that thisout at trade shows.
It's a highlight that sits onyour desk.
So when you can, from a brandingstandpoint, and this is

(46:49):
something I really instilledinto Drew for him to understand,
is you want to own real estateon the CEO's desk, on the
secretary's desk, on the personwho's buying all the
transportation from you.
So the goal in the conversationis, how can I help you brand
your business?
And I'm gonna tell'em, I canhelp brand your business through
the means of marketing, such asswag items, where gonna find

(47:12):
what we call a life item.
A life

James Blain (47:14):
oh.

Arthur Messina (47:14):
is something that you want to take with you
on a regular basis Mark, thereyou go.

Andrew Messina (47:19):
down to notepads,

Arthur Messina (47:21):
there you go.

Andrew Messina (47:22):
all the time.

James Blain (47:23):
help.

Arthur Messina (47:23):
know, so the items and, and James, if you
look around your desk in thearea, there's probably four or
five items that you said, theseare important to me.
And I kept them and theyprobably have a logo on them.
That's something you didn't gointo Office Max or to buy or
Staples,

James Blain (47:36):
Absolutely.

Arthur Messina (47:36):
someone gave it to you as a gift.
Going back to this, this issomething that we put together,
which has the business card, asKen spoke about, it has custom
socks, it has their literature.
It's also a cup and somesanitizer.
This is a great leave behind.
Yes, it's a little bit moreexpensive than most people might
wanna use, but if you get theopportunity to get to the

(47:57):
gatekeeper, you get theopportunity to get to the person
doing the buying and you dropthat off and you have a five
minute conversation.
So James, that's really what itis.
It's us telling the clients orus.

Andrew Messina (48:08):
directing.

James Blain (48:09):
Oh.

Arthur Messina (48:10):
to understand the conversations that have to
have this cannot go through theemail.
This cannot be a digital PDF.
That cannot be something thatsimple, but that's a
face-to-face.
And boy, the art of face-to-facelost.
It's just not the way it waswhen Ken started his business
and when I started my business.

Ken Lucci (48:31):
I need to tell the story about the paper cubes
because when, and I ownedAmbassador, I, I was, what I, I
would tell you flat out I wasthe best top line operator in
the world.
I just thought, wish I had alittle maniac like me on the
shoulder that said, why the fuckare you buying another mini bus?
That other mini bus hasn't movedin four days, but I digress.

(48:52):
The paper cube, the paper cubeto me, I look at anything that
he just, uh, explained.
To me, you are looking for howmuch is this gonna cost compared
to the life value or the life's,the life use, or the annual
revenue of the

James Blain (49:10):
Yep.

Ken Lucci (49:11):
So gotta tell you, I I used to be, I used to do
office.
Uh, if I went to my doctor'soffice, I would, if I'm in the
building, I'm literally droppingthat stuff off.
It, it, it's gotta be a littlebit more tangible than a
business card and it to own realestate on that desk.
The paper cubes, we had a papercube.
I remember the cases coming inand the chauffeurs having to

(49:34):
bring'em in.
What we did on the paper cubesis the last sheet.
literally put the name, put asticker that said for refills,
call this number.
Okay, call, call the number onthe, on the, on the cube.
I had sold the company in 2013,14.
My assistant down there stillworks there.

(49:55):
Like Ken, they're still callingin about the paper cubes.
They want more paper cubes and,and we got a lot of corporate
accounts, a lot of law firmsthat way, lot of doctor's
offices that way.
We use them at networkingmixers.
You, you can't give them toeverybody.
When he, to me, what he justhanded out, that's to the most
important person that comes upto

James Blain (50:16):
Oh

Ken Lucci (50:16):
at the Chamber of Commerce meeting.
That comes up to me at the, thenetworking happy hour, et
cetera.
And again, if you just go in a,the best way to work a room is
somebody leaves with somethingtangible of yours.

James Blain (50:30):
well, and

Andrew Messina (50:31):
it just goes to the idea that you just need to
know your audience the same way.
If you're going up to, if you'regoing to a wedding show, you
wanna start marketing weddingmaterials to them, you wouldn't
start putting your corporatematerials out to them.
Same thing too, you know, COVIDhappened.
We all were here.
What's the number one thing wewanted?
Hand

James Blain (50:49):
sanitizer.

Andrew Messina (50:49):
throw your logo on it.
Still, the Ira COEs beforeCovid, there were COEs after
Covid.
They're all a real thing.
You people are still gross.
People are still out there.
We're in the industry of shakinghands and kissing babies and
making in physical interactionsand, and talking to people and
getting out there.
And when you do that, handsanitizer will never lose its
place.
Something simple too.
Oh, if I happen to throw mylogo, my phone number, my

(51:12):
website on there, and you happento keep this, put this in your
pocket and now you have it everysingle time you go through it.
There's an opportunity forrepeat marketing, subliminal
marketing, the same way that youstill see Coca-Cola commercials.
You still see McDonald'scommercials.
They're billions and billions ofdollars in revenue, these
companies.
But why do they advertise?
Because they want to keep yourbrand, their brands in your

(51:33):
hand.
The same thing you need to dofor your clients.
You need to keep your brand intheir hand.
They don't see you, they forgetabout you.
Half the world now has a DHD, soif it's not there right away,
you forget about it.
It's gone.
too.
If you keep something in frontof you and you go back to what
Arthur said, those life items,things that you actually use,
there's a lot of stuff out thereand, and you can buy whatever

(51:55):
you want and great, we'll putyour logo on it and that's
wonderful.
But at the end of the day, we'regonna tell you, Hey, there's a
thing that you want to get thisTumblr.
Yeah, it's$2.
Great, okay, you saved a milliondollars, but where is that gonna
end up?
Even in the kid's toy box?
And you're never gonna get anyopportunities to get a
relationship and build theclient base outta that, versus

(52:15):
if you hand them, maybe itdoesn't have to be a full blown
Yeti, it could just be somethingnice, something

James Blain (52:20):
Drew, drew is specifically talking to me here,
by the way, for anybody that is,that is using

Andrew Messina (52:25):
conversation.

James Blain (52:26):
and it, but it, it brings up a really great point
and, and I am lucky enough that,that I, I get to call Arthur and
Drew among my actual friends,right?
Just beyond working with them,just beyond vendors.
I, I truly consider them bothfriends, and so I, I probably
get away with a little more thanI should, as a, as a matter of
that.
But the other side of that isthat we have a lot of

(52:46):
conversations of.
Does this feel like Pax?
Does this feel like somethingPax would give away?
Is this something they'd have ontheir desk?
Because to that point he justmade about the Tumblr.
If, if we as Pax are giving oneof our members or, or a
potential member, a Tumblr.
I don't want it to go throughthe wash and my logo to fall off

(53:08):
and to fall apart.
It's the exact same reason thatyou hear about, man, they dug a
giant hole and they buried allthese Louis Vuitton purses.
Why?
Because they never want you tosee that brand devalued, right?
They never want you to see thatbrand got put in the trash or
thrown away.
They would rather destroy thatmerchandise and hide it.
You know, I think of things thesame way.

(53:30):
I, I'm never right?
It doesn't matter if there's adefect on a business card, I'm
gonna put that in my backpocket.
If I'm at a show and I see, oh,this business card's got a, a
nick on the corner, I always putit in my back pocket because I
never, in my wildest worstnightmare want someone to see my
card in a trash.
So you really have to thinkabout as well, what is your

(53:52):
brand image?
What do you look like?
How do you hold, you know, thatbrand?

Ken Lucci (53:57):
And a lot of people, a lot of operators have lost it.
They've not, they don't dedicatetime to brand image.
What's the brand stand for, et

James Blain (54:06):
Who are we?

Ken Lucci (54:08):
who are we?
And they,

Andrew Messina (54:09):
Yeah, but, but look, look at what they're doing
right now with China.
So they're saying like, all, allthe handbags, Louis Vuitton,
Hermes, all these fancy handbagsare, we make them in China.
They're actually$3 and you don'teven have to worry about them.
Don't spend$20,000, they're$3.

James Blain (54:24):
But then I don't.

Andrew Messina (54:24):
and that's what they're saying.
But you know what Hermes did?
Hermes says, boom, they turnedon the camera.
They showed their factory andsaid, here, we don't have, we're
not in China.
We have French women sittingthere showing we don't do.
They protected their brand.
They said, Hey, we have a luxuryitem.
Just like you guys have luxuryitems that you're selling here,
and you want it to say, we'renot your mom and pop random Joe

(54:45):
Schmo here.
We are a nice brand.
We are a luxury brand.
We want you to work with us.
The same way that they turnedaround and said, Hey, you, they
could say whatever they wantabout us, but this is the actual
situation.
This is our brand.
We have an identity to protect.
So when they go ahead and youshow

James Blain (55:00):
Yep.

Andrew Messina (55:00):
out there, that's what you wanna do as your
company.
You're not, you're not runningan Uber, a black car company.
You're running a chauffeurtransportation service.

Ken Lucci (55:07):
and that's right.
The, the brand is the only thingthat separates you from what I
call the also rans in the lowprice leaders anywhere, in any,
any industry whatsoever.
And I can tell you this, topthree brands in every market
always sell.
They always sell.
Those companies always sell.

(55:29):
It's the ones that are notanywhere.
They can't be found anywhere inthe

James Blain (55:33):
oh,

Ken Lucci (55:33):
25 wealthiest zip codes.
They don't have the largestcorporations in their region, et
cetera.
And I think we've lost in, Idon't know why in this industry
is a lot of operators are like,oh, look at my$120,000 Escalade.
Great.
Who sees it?

James Blain (55:48):
now,

Ken Lucci (55:49):
What?
Where's your logo?

Andrew Messina (55:51):
Put, put a little, put your little logo on
the back corner.
When someone's at a red light,if you put a little dome call

James Blain (55:56):
huh?

Andrew Messina (55:57):
of your car and then someone's at a red light
there, everyone stops.
We all break.
We all hit red light.
Stop signs.
If they can see your logo,that's a little chance to go
ahead even with that subliminalmarketing again.

Ken Lucci (56:07):
a, this

James Blain (56:07):
Oh

Ken Lucci (56:08):
funny story.
I would, I did not play wellwith others when I was an
operator.

James Blain (56:12):
no.

Ken Lucci (56:13):
Go figure.
Uh, all of my, I had Cadillacs'cause I was always a Cadillac
guy and like Arthur designedthe, the Ambassador Crest.
Back in the day, that was onthe, the sail panel of ev Back
in the day in the sedans, we hadsail panels, but it was always,
always the on the trunk.
Right.
and we didn't do phone numbersor anything like that.

(56:33):
Then he put mul, we had licenseplates with the phone number on
the front and the back.
I can't tell you it, it, to meit was a force multiplier.
People thought I had 20 vehicleson the road when I had three
because it was branded.

James Blain (56:46):
Yeah,

Andrew Messina (56:47):
The same way you could buy a billboard, but you
don't need to buy a billboard.
You own moving

James Blain (56:51):
around the city for you.

Andrew Messina (56:53):
have a fleet of moving billboards that you
already pay.
Why pay for a billboard?

Ken Lucci (56:57):
that's another perfect example is you're out on
the road, you pass office parks,small office parks, and small
all over the place.
Small businesses.
best thing that you've got goingfor you is that gorgeous piece
of equipment.
And your business card and aswag.
I'll tell you something Ilearned way back in the medical
business, medical arm businesswhen I was in another Works,

(57:21):
right?
So when I owned and sweets,

James Blain (57:24):
it does.
Yes it does.

Ken Lucci (57:27):
I mean coffee mugs.
I remember literally the boxesof coffee mugs coming in.
And we would, the reservationswould fill'em with, uh, jelly
beans and then put Saran wrap onthem.

James Blain (57:39):
Yep.

Ken Lucci (57:39):
we would do Hershey kisses for Valentine's Day.
And I would say to thechauffeurs, here's the deal.
Give out five of these.
Bring me back five businesscards.
Okay?
And that's how we built thedatabase.
We had a huge data base.
We, we would send offers all ofthe time, but it was from the
business cards where, yeah, youcan't get into the high rises

(58:01):
some no question.
But you certainly can get intoprofessional offices, especially
by the way.
you are getting your teethcleaned, when you are

James Blain (58:10):
Oh,

Ken Lucci (58:10):
eyeglasses, why aren't you telling people that,
that you already give money to?
Hey, you know, this is I, thisis what I do for a living.
If you know anybody that'sinterested, please let me know,
but

Andrew Messina (58:22):
Ken, that Ken that goes to, that goes to one
of Arthur's great lines.
He puts it in the emailsignature.
The, the lifeline of my industryis a referral.
The blood, everything that

James Blain (58:31):
oh.

Andrew Messina (58:32):
is a referral.
You, you can save my life, youcan help my life, I can help
your life.
If we go ahead, you tell me whatyou do, I'm out of someone.
You go back and you build yournetwork.
That life, that lifeline of, ofsharing your referral, it goes
so far because you don't evenrealize who, everyone has a
partner.
Everyone has a dog, everyone hassomething else.
They know, have a friend, theyknow someone who needs something

(58:54):
and then, oh, gimme that guy'snumber.
Oh, gimme that girl's number.
And then you just keep goingahead and you build your little
circle

Ken Lucci (59:00):
networking is all about give to get.
Okay?
And that's what I think we'velost.
There's a generation that thinksit's all about the frigging
smartphone, and it's all aboutsocial media.
It's all about don't, I'm, I'm60, I can say

Andrew Messina (59:12):
I was gonna say.

Ken Lucci (59:14):
Look, you, you net your network, your network has a
direct correlation to your networth.
Okay?
When I, when I met that guy thatbought the big company, and I
said to him, what else do youneed?
He said, well, you know, we'relooking for such and such.

(59:35):
And I said, I know a guy.
I will connect the two of you.
Um, know, we're looking, wereally would like a legal
counsel that understands theindustry.
I connect him to Matt Dawes,like Matt Dawes has been in the
industry for a thousand years.
He, he calls me the next day,Jesus, thanks for the referral.
I'm like, I.
You've referred me.
I mean, you guys do but youdon't do financial reviews or

(59:59):
values.
You refer me all the time.
Your network, the network youcreate has a direct correlation
with your net worth.
And I don't think you can getthat on PPC.
Uh, you can't, you can certainlysay thank you on social media,
but there's a lost art there ofthe traditional marketing that
dovetails into what you do.
And I think we've gone fullcircle,

James Blain (01:00:20):
I agree.

Ken Lucci (01:00:21):
you did a, you went into you, Arthur, you pivoted to
the electronic brochures andcapability brochures, et cetera,
landing pages.
But now I think we're going fullcircle because we are all
inundated with all of theseelectronic messages.
It's, it is definitely, to me,back to the basics.
Create your, your marketingagenda.

(01:00:42):
Create, I don't care, like yousaid, five postcards a day, five
direct mails a day.
Five thank you notes a day.
You know what's a lost art?
Every single business journal.
Every business journal has thepromotions people on the move.
How about you send'em a thankyou note now that they got
promoted to executive vicepresident.
If you ever need a ride to theairport, I'm your guy.

(01:01:04):
Well, what do you think the oddsare that maybe they may have
that as a perk.
Okay, but what have you, you'vecreated an impression that
probably cost you, what the hellis a forever stamp cost today?
Right?
I

James Blain (01:01:16):
50 cents.

Andrew Messina (01:01:16):
73.

Ken Lucci (01:01:18):
right?
And

James Blain (01:01:19):
what?

Andrew Messina (01:01:20):
73

James Blain (01:01:20):
73.
Okay.
Well now I'm feeling old'cause Iremember buying'em for cheap.

Andrew Messina (01:01:25):
That's a different conversation.

Ken Lucci (01:01:26):
a Trump did that.
They damn eggs and stamped, no.
Anyway, but you've created that.
You've said thank you everythank you.
Listen.
Good luck.
Congratulations on your move,your promotion.
Here's one thing that I'velearned.
Corporate travel managers neverleave corporate travel.
They just move to another BUbusiness.
Okay.
Procurement officers, they moveto another business.

(01:01:48):
A, a, a vice president of salessame way.
So if you are following thewho's who in your area and they
know who you are, that was thebig key to our success.
There were 700 limo companieswhen I started in Tampa and we
became the biggest, thankfullyafter the presidential
conventions, somebody walked upto me and asked me, Hey, I'd

(01:02:11):
like to buy your company likepiece of cake.
No problem.

James Blain (01:02:14):
Uh

Ken Lucci (01:02:14):
but the key was networking and the key was
everything.
We just talked about it.
I don't think we are, we couldhave built that brand without
the logo that they designed, thepaper cube.
I mean, I we're talking aboutthat worked.

James Blain (01:02:29):
huh.

Ken Lucci (01:02:29):
mean, I'm not talking about the things that, the wacky
ideas I went to him with.
That's the other piece.
Vistaprint won't

Arthur Messina (01:02:36):
Some things on a shelf.
Still don't worry.

James Blain (01:02:38):
Yeah.
Vista Print's now gonna tell youthat's

Ken Lucci (01:02:41):
This?

James Blain (01:02:41):
stupid.
Right.
I've, I've had that conversationof, I have this idea and it was.
Dammit, James.
No, no, no, no, no, no,

Ken Lucci (01:02:50):
Ken.

James Blain (01:02:50):
But you need someone that'll, yeah, you need
someone that'll push back.
You need someone that is gonnabe an honest partner,

Arthur Messina (01:02:57):
So as Drew would say, this one, a thousand
condoms with your logo on itisn't really the best promotion.
But for a strip club, it's agreat promotion.
All right.
So again, knowing your targetaudience, knowing who's gonna
receive it, what message you'regoing to get.
But Ken, it's true what yousaid.
A lot of things recycle.
I have a leisure suit I'mwaiting to wear again.

(01:03:18):
It's gonna come back.
You know, I have bell bottoms.
be in, man.
I know.
I'm just.

Ken Lucci (01:03:25):
Hey, look, wait a minute.
Some things are obsolete.

James Blain (01:03:28):
Yeah.

Ken Lucci (01:03:29):
Networking is networking, and I think we miss
it.
And what bothers me when I go toconferences is all of these
small operators, they'respending all of their time and
effort trying to get affiliatework, which is good, but it's
filler work.

James Blain (01:03:42):
Right.

Ken Lucci (01:03:42):
need to create, you need to create relations.
Every, you know, there's commonthreads to this podcast.
Every single successfuloperator, a successful business
that we interview, you can takeit.
Maurice Brewster from Mosaic,all about the relationships he
created, Dawson Rudder and TammyRudder from Commonwealth, the

(01:04:02):
pivotal relationships he createdback in the day when he was a
driver and, and the relationshipI created with Arthur.
Uh, honestly, Arthur, I can'tremember whether Ma Tom Mazda
referred you or you referred MaTom Mazda to me, but it was,
look, is the guy that knowseverything, marketing and
advertising in this space.

(01:04:23):
How many printing shops arethere in Tampa?
But I went

James Blain (01:04:26):
Oh

Ken Lucci (01:04:26):
and, and he told me what worked and said, don't
waste your time with thatmatches, don't work anymore,
Ken, because smoking has gonedown.
Uh, the condom idea never camefrom me, Arthur.
But anyway,

Arthur Messina (01:04:39):
Ken, you,

Ken Lucci (01:04:39):
I,

James Blain (01:04:40):
yeah.

Arthur Messina (01:04:40):
at this, but one of those visits to Tampa.
When we came to see you, we wereon family vacation.
I think Kathy drew his brother,were at a park when I said, Hey,
I need to take an hour and govisit this gentleman while I'm
here.
And that's, that's how that camein is we were, I think on a bus
gardens, maybe a Disney vacationhappened to be in your area.

(01:05:01):
And I made sure, and I think Iprobably called you two or three
times that week, and we finallygot that one hour together,
which started everything.

Ken Lucci (01:05:07):
he collected a business card.
So the IRS was listening.
He could write off that wholetrip

James Blain (01:05:11):
Uh,

Ken Lucci (01:05:12):
he did visit me.
He did visit a customer,

James Blain (01:05:15):
so,

Ken Lucci (01:05:16):
listen was about networking.

James Blain (01:05:17):
ah,

Arthur Messina (01:05:18):
I.

James Blain (01:05:20):
no, and we're, we're coming to a close, so, so
if you wanna leave us with yourclosing thoughts.
This is perfect, Arthur.

Arthur Messina (01:05:25):
new, new and forward thinking.
Um, AI is gonna play a lot inwhat you do.
Take it for advice.
Don't take it for the the rule.
Use it and figure out how toadapt to it in your marketing.
It will not replace yourface-to-face.
Some of the new things thatwe're doing to help people brand

(01:05:46):
on a small basis is our companystores.
create company stores where you,you, your logo's on?
There's probably a couplehundred items now that are
available in apparel.
So the shirt that you arewearing, um, James.
And the

James Blain (01:06:00):
Oh.

Arthur Messina (01:06:01):
for Ken.
The, the, the stuff.
So there's, there's shirts.
If somebody in the office had ababy and you need a onesie with
that company logo on, you can doit.
We set them up for free.
You just write to us, send usyour logo.
We can get that created within48 hours.
You'd be up and live and you cansee your company store.
That's great for staff and orclients to promote your brand.

(01:06:22):
Um, the other thing also is wespoke high a lot about the
business card.
We have a digital white paperavailable for a business cards.
So James and Ken, if you leaveour name, Drew's email address
and they request that, we'd bevery happy to send that out to
them.
It talks about the making of abusiness card, how to use the
logo, what information to put onit to touch the field.

(01:06:42):
It's a short five page digitalwith less words.
Lot more pictures, Ken, lesswording, uh, but we have that
available as well.
And again.

Andrew Messina (01:06:50):
It is right on our website too.

Arthur Messina (01:06:52):
plus years.
40, 40 years.
It's great having vendors andfriends like, like you both, um,
Ken, we, we go back so manyyears, James.
I, I feel like you're still,you've been around a long time,
even though it's been a shorttime.
It's been 25% of my career.

James Blain (01:07:06):
Ah.

Arthur Messina (01:07:06):
Um, but it's, it's great to see everybody and
it's, it's also sad to see we'relosing a lot of people that are
retiring and or passing away.
Um, but this industry has beenwonderful to the Messina family.
And we thank you guys and wethank the industry for that.
And the honest thing I could sayis is networking.
I said that before, but tell thetruth.

(01:07:29):
Stop the lies.
Stop the bs.
Tell the truth.
You don't have to worry aboutwhat you said because what you
said was the truth.
And that's what we do.
We run a business.
I'm family morals.
Uh, we are a, a small businesswith large thoughts.
We help a lot of the people inthis industry, but we do it
because we care.
And that's why we're here.

James Blain (01:07:48):
Well, and we, we appreciate you guys coming on
and, and we're gonna drop linksin the show notes, phone number
if they wanna get ahold of you,drew, or they wanna get ahold of
you.
Arthur, what is the best way forsomeone to get in touch with
you?

Andrew Messina (01:08:01):
Best way to

James Blain (01:08:02):
Call true?

Andrew Messina (01:08:03):
us.
Yeah, call me because if youcall Arthur, he'll forward it
over anyway, so it's good.
So just gimme a call.
Call it, call us at the office.

Ken Lucci (01:08:11):
He's at that stage of his life.

James Blain (01:08:13):
Uh,

Ken Lucci (01:08:14):
How do

Andrew Messina (01:08:14):
Yeah, you,

James Blain (01:08:15):
yeah.

Andrew Messina (01:08:15):
always give us a call at the office,(631)
584-2273 or just shoot us anemail.
Um, drew at create a card,inc.com real

James Blain (01:08:25):
So that's create a card inc.com for the website for
everybody listening.
If you're driving, when you pullover, all you have to remember
is create a card inc.com.
Right.

Andrew Messina (01:08:34):
even easier for you, it's CAC swag.com.

James Blain (01:08:38):
A c swag.

Andrew Messina (01:08:39):
swag less characters.
Make it easier while you'redriving.

James Blain (01:08:42):
All right.
Awesome.
We appreciate you guys comingon.
Thank you for everything you do,and thank you everyone for
listening to the GroundTransportation Podcast.
Uh, Ken has said it at least 10times.
We'll say it 10 times more.
This is the highlight of Ken andI's Week.
We love getting to share theseguests with you, getting to
share what we do with you, andwe really hope you'll tune in,
drop us a comment, drop us alike, or subscribe.

(01:09:03):
Let us know the topics that youguys want to hear, and we look
forward to hearing you, seeingyou being with you on the next
podcast.
Thanks.

Ken Lucci (01:09:10):
this is the best continuing education in the
industry and it doesn't cost youa hotel room.
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.

(01:09:32):
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.