October 8, 2025 • 58 mins
In this episode of the Ground Transformation Podcast, James Blain sits down with Dr. Umut Aslan from the Growth and Success Institute. They discuss Dr. Aslan's journey from working in a small family business to managing a successful transportation company, Men in Black Transportation, which grew from a single vehicle to a mixed fleet including motor coaches.
Dr. Aslan shares key insights on the importance of networking, marketing, and strategic planning for business growth, as well as the evolving role of technology in the transportation industry. The episode also highlights the value of mentorship and peer groups in achieving business success.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:26 Welcome
01:32 Background
04:52 First Business: Men In Black Transportation
08:50 Growth Factors
10:59 Moving To Larger Vehicles
14:10 Entreprenurial Evolution
21:25 Current State of Business
23:55 The Adoption of Robotaxis By Businesses
28:29 Mentoring Or Networking?
41:40 Future Opportunities
45:44 Coaching Peer Groups
54:18 Conclusion
Dr. Alsan: Umut@growthandsuccessinstitute.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/umut-aslan
Growth and Success Institute: https://growthandsuccessinstitute.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/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
James Blain (00:26):
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode
of the Ground TransformationPodcast.
Uh, unfortunately today I do nothave my esteemed co-host Ken
Lucci.
He is probably off doing anamazing deal, selling, buying
all those wonderful things thathe does.
I'm sure we'll hear about theamazing deal he's cutting right
now at some point in the future.
But I'm super excited todaybecause although I don't have
(00:47):
Ken, I have someone that I haveactually known for quite some
time.
Um, I've had the pleasure ofworking with him when he was on
the ground transportation side.
Now I am really excited to seewhere he's going with things.
Um, I gotta tell you, I, I'mgonna use the introduction,
right?
So it's Dr.
Uma Aslan from the Growth andSuccess Institute.
(01:07):
Um, hey bud.
How you doing?
Dr Umut Aslan (01:09):
Good.
How are you, James?
James Blain (01:11):
I am good.
I gotta tell you, I'm prettyexcited about this because I
remember when you were workingin the family business and
working together, implementingPax, doing things there, and I'm
pretty excited to see whereyou're at now.
Um, for those that don't know,obviously give your family
business the shout out.
Tell us how'd you get into theindustry.
Dr Umut Aslan (01:32):
A great question and how we started the business
with my brother Alim.
That was 2009, and before thatwe were working for a guy, I
don't wanna give him his name.
Everything was being done underthe table.
It was not like, professional,but it gave us like a learning
platform to learn it.
(01:52):
And I was also doing my master'sin business administration, so
something happened with theowner and my brother, so, and
then he, my brother decided to.
part his way.
And the owner a day later calledme, said, I cannot keep you
because you have your brother.
And I said, okay.
And interestingly, SEM alwayswanted to start his own
(02:16):
business.
In the past, he applied for alimousine company, local
limousine company in San Diego.
They're not in the in businessanymore.
And they rejected him because ofhis age and he tells me, Hey,
you know what, I always wantedto start my business.
In limousine.
What do you think?
I said Fine.
Let's go ahead and do it.
(02:37):
So this is how we started.
We started with one vehicle in ashort amount of time that we
grew up to, I think in sixmonths, six vehicles, and then
things
James Blain (02:48):
In six months.
Dr Umut Aslan (02:50):
six months.
James Blain (02:51):
So what did you guys start with?
What was the first vehicle?
Dr Umut Aslan (02:54):
It was a Lincoln Town guy.
James Blain (02:57):
Okay.
And this is like 2009, so thatmakes sense.
Dr Umut Aslan (03:01):
2009.
And then we added, the secondvehicle was an SUV.
And that idea, we said, some ofthe people were asking, Hey, do
you have more than four people?
And then we added the SUV.
And then the reason behind of itwas because we could use the SUV
both for as a Satan and also asA-N-S-C-V.
James Blain (03:25):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (03:26):
I had a background in the corporate
marketing, so I did some morelike the marketing ideas that
caught a fire, and also that wasthe moment of the Google
starting a, becoming GoogleMaps, Google business webpage.
So that helped us a lot in areal quick, fast.
Way that we grew up and otherthings I knew and SLI initially
(03:51):
was resistant.
I tell that people, because nowAlim doesn't wanna get out of
the events of the NationalLimousine Association or part of
the peer groups.
Right?
I said, let's go to the, at thattime it was LCP in Mega.
I said, let's go give it a try.
He said, what are we gonna do?
We don't know anyone.
I said, look.
When I was working for acorporate, this is what we would
(04:13):
do.
We'd go to the, and then youlearn.
You meet people, it'll take yousome time.
After first one, it goes toalmost all of them.
It doesn't miss anything.
And actually it's a great,because you learn, you meet
people, you learn, you learn thedeep details of the how to run
your business, and you meet
James Blain (04:31):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (04:32):
And one thing that this industry is different
than so many differentindustries because there is a
way that to share.
You don't learn it maybe atfirst meeting, but when you keep
going there, people, when youbuild connections that they'll
share, they'll help you to growyour business.
Not like a pizza joint.
You cannot that work together.
James Blain (04:52):
no, but I think, I think one of the things, and
this comes up on literallyinterview after interview
episode after episode.
Is that we see people that areable to find mentors, that are
able to find people to workwith, that are able to really go
out there and, and network.
Um, one of the things that Kenand I say all the time is that
(05:13):
the most backwards, the mostridiculous, the most poorly ran
companies that we see.
Are often kind of the littleislands, the ones that don't
want to go to meetings, thatdon't wanna talk to anyone else,
that don't wanna figure it out,you know, because they have to
figure everything out bythemselves.
They don't have peers that theycan network with.
They don't have anyone they canwork with.
So I think, I think that in mymind makes a lot of sense that
(05:35):
early on you'd be going, nowI've gotta know and just outta
curiosity.
So you guys go to your firstevent, you go to your first LCT,
you guys are building out thebusiness.
Is it MIB at this point?
Have you, have you guys, is thatmen in black or are you guys
flying under a different flag?
Or what does that company looklike at that point?
Dr Umut Aslan (05:54):
It was men in black transportation.
It was men in blacktransportation.
And I think at that moment it'sjust like we quickly, I quickly
wanted to go in there'cause I, Isearched and I found it and I
remember like, okay, so was it,I think it was Jim l he had a,
(06:15):
he had his own business inBakersfield and we were asking
him, Hey, what, what do yourecommend?
He, the first question he asked,are you guys still driving?
We said, yes.
Get out of the driver's seat.
James Blain (06:26):
So six cars and you're both still driving.
Dr Umut Aslan (06:29):
at the beginning.
You're doing everything to runthe business.
James Blain (06:33):
what, what changes at that point, right?
Jim gives you this advice, getoutta the driver's seat.
What happens once you guys stepoutta the driver's seat?
Now you guys have this hugeadvantage, right?
And that you've got two brothersrunning the business who kind of
starts doing what?
Dr Umut Aslan (06:49):
So what we bring my sister.
She is really, she
James Blain (06:53):
More family.
I love it.
Dr Umut Aslan (06:55):
Yeah.
It's a family business.
And what we decide, she takesover, we get her ready, we train
her to answer the phones, andshe's smart.
She's intelligent, she is verydetail oriented.
Celi is more like a picture, bigpicture oriented.
I'm detail oriented.
Visionary.
I'm like, and my sister is kindof integrated between us'cause
(07:18):
I'm detail oriented.
He is a big picture guy.
And then she comes in and.
She takes over the reservationdispatching and she learns real,
real quick and we start hiringpeople.
So Celine becomes the financeand also the hr.
And I become the marketing andsales guy that I go to the
(07:39):
network and events and at thatmoment we start branching out.
More to the networking events inthe industry, both of us.
But at the same time, I branchout to the local associations
that to create like a IB brandby networking and also doing
some activities like marketing,et cetera, in the local arena.
James Blain (08:03):
So this, this is 2009 ish, so that's where we
start.
At what point do you bring yoursister in?
Is that a year or two down theline.
Dr Umut Aslan (08:13):
I, I don't exactly remember, but it was
quick.
It was quick.
It took us a while to get her onboard.
Initially, we asked her toanswer the phones.
She was living in Turkey and shedidn't wanna come in here.
So what we asked her, Hey, atleast can you pick up the phones
while we can have a sleep.
You know, this is a 24 hours joband there is a time differences
(08:34):
in Turkey.
So we initially convinced herand then we say, look, the
business is good.
Why don't you come here?
Join
James Blain (08:42):
actually convinced her to move from Turkey to the
United States.
Dr Umut Aslan (08:46):
She's been, she's been here, yeah.
A few times in, in the UnitedStates.
James Blain (08:50):
Okay, so what does that start to look like or how
does that start to shift andchange for you guys?
So now you guys have kind of gotyour visionary, which is your
brother Celine.
You've got yourself, which iskind of the the integrator or
the type A personality that'sgoing in this detail oriented.
You've got the sister now who'srunning kind of the phones and
those pieces.
(09:11):
what does that now start to looklike in terms of growth?
Are you guys still.
Staying on that same path ofbringing on more SUVs or what is
the, what does the business kindof start to become at that
point?
Dr Umut Aslan (09:22):
It become to grow more faster, more vehicles.
And I think in a year or so, wecould even offer this is, and
remember this is a time thatUber is was born and they even
offered us to be part of it.
And we, and then the pricingwere radicalized and I know some
of the companies accepted.
We said, no, we don't need you.
(09:44):
We have enough business.
We even have more than enoughbusiness that we can handle it,
sustain it.
And I think we grew up up to 15vehicles
James Blain (09:54):
Okay.
Dr Umut Aslan (09:55):
with the sedans and the SUVs, and we had the.
along the way.
I don't remember the exactterms, but we also purchased a
company, that local company, alimousine company with the two
limousines.
We added them to limousines inour entire fleet, and here comes
2015.
James Blain (10:12):
Okay.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:13):
Now we're starting like seeing the growth
is going down.
James Blain (10:17):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:18):
If you remember, Uber is catching traction.
James Blain (10:22):
Yeah.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:23):
Everything that we're doing, it not resulting
it, and we come up with theidea, okay, so we're doing
whatever we need to do, but it'snot like bringing results.
We're not getting the results,what we wanna do.
And then people are saying it.
Even the big corporation sayingit, Hey, heard you.
I love you, but Uber is cheaper.
(10:46):
I'll only use you for the CEO orthe top level executive.
So.
Okay.
And then we added minibus,
James Blain (10:55):
Okay, so you guys jump straight to the larger
vehicles.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:58):
larger vehicles.
Yes.
James Blain (10:59):
And this is, and we're talking, you know, 2015,
so this is well before, when westart seeing in 20 18, 20 19, a
lot of the companies jumping up,you guys are getting way ahead
of that.
Especially being in California,I can only imagine the fun it
was to try and jump up to thatlevel.
So what does that look like?
When you guys entered that firstmini bus, was that something
(11:21):
where Alim had the idea and thenyou went and implemented?
Or is that something that youguys came to together?
What was kind of the catalystthat made you guys say, Hey, we
should go to this largervehicle?
Dr Umut Aslan (11:33):
So one of the catalysts was like the efforts
are not bringing any results andlooking at the, that, how can we
diversify, find the ways that tocapture the customers.
And some of our customersstarted asking.
When they stopped using us in acertain, they were asking, Hey,
can you cover that?
I have that many people.
(11:54):
We added that.
That's one of the reason, and wewanted to be proactive.
We didn't wanna just sit thereand then see Uber taking us all
of our like business share, andwe wanted to see where we can
grab a customer and think aboutSan Diego.
It's a group and conventioncenter that is a, Every, every
month we have events that comeslarge groups into San Diego.
(12:18):
So we said, let's give it a try.
We know nothing about it, butlet's give it and learn.
about it.
So we started one mini bus, thenwe added another 49 passenger
bus.
I don't remember exactly years.
But also we added down later on,after 2, 2 49 passengers, we
added, larger buses.
57 56
James Blain (12:39):
All the way up.
Yeah.
So you start making your way allthe way up into the Motor Coach,
and I think you've, you've hiton something really important
and we talk about it a lot onthe show, and that's, you were
listening to what your customerswere looking for, but you were
also mindful.
Of how your city, how your areaworks, you know that you've got
(13:00):
these large conventions comingthrough, you know that you've
got that opportunity.
Let me ask you, do you rememberwhen you guys got that first
mini bus?
Was that something where youguys were able to hit the ground
running and you had it fullybooked?
Or is that something where youhad to slowly try and build up
the usage on it?
Dr Umut Aslan (13:17):
We slowly, you know, so some people go, there
is a saying that build it,they'll come.
I think ours is kind of likethat.
Build it, they'll come, we'vegot it in and then it's gonna
come in.
And some people, what they dodifferent approach.
Is they wait, they measure howmuch the business, they farm it
(13:37):
out, and then they buy theirvehicles.
So two different approaches.
When I speak to the otherbusiness owners and they would
say, Hey, I don't have thebusiness.
Why would I invest in it?
Rightfully there, there is noright or wrong, but we took to.
Whether we call it the risk orin initiative to be able to
start with it and we were ableto build it because of our
(13:59):
current clientele plus San Diegobeing a, a convention center,
that gave us like the leverageto be able to add other vehicle,
other larger vehicles.
James Blain (14:10):
Well, and I think what you're talking about there,
right?
You've got, you've got kind ofthat mentality of I'm gonna farm
it out, farm it out, farm it outtill I have the work, and then
put it in there.
I think you guys saw anopportunity, you said, Hey, we
can get some work immediately.
Then we can backfill, we can nowstart to move into that area.
And so rather than trying tokind of get there ahead of time
(14:32):
and then bring in the vehicle,you guys saw the opportunity to
get the vehicle, start buildingout the work and kind of back
yourselves into it, which Ithink makes a lot of sense.
So where do things go right thenat that point, obviously now
you're, you become.
A, a mixed fleet.
You've got your motor coachesall the way down to the sedans.
What starts happening, kind ofthe evolution of the company and
(14:54):
most importantly, let me askyou, having having started right
within six months, you guys aresix cars.
What kinda happens with theevolution of you and your
brother as entrepreneurs andwhat you guys are learning and
what you guys are focusing on?
How does that kind of shift andwhat do you guys kind of become?
Dr Umut Aslan (15:13):
So every time that your company grows, you
have to bring a different levelof skills.
You have to learn.
You're delivering this service,but at the same time, when you
grow up, you want your.
Drivers or your reservationagent, your dispatch agent, to
deliver the same level ofservice in.
(15:33):
In other words, your values thatyou want it to be delivered,
even if you're not doing itbetter than you is in this case,
is then your switching yourskill level to be able to lead
or show them this is what youwould like them and you would
like your also input to be ableto do it better than you do.
(15:55):
One, one of the key things, Ithink we, we had one of our core
values.
Is it just like, I even, it islike even sometimes the
employees joke about that.
I said, okay.
It, it is like if, like being ontime is late, I understand that
every company almost has it, butwe were obsessed with it.
(16:19):
One of the things that also, westarted early when the GPS is
coming into the picture, I waslike adamant that I told Alim I
want vehicles to be GPS tracked.
There was, there was a companyfrom Florida, and if you
remember, it wasn't Verizon, itwas a different company.
They were super expensive.
So I said, let's give it a try.
(16:39):
This is like, I wanna see it.
And then this GPS would monitoryou if you're on time or not.
And initially.
Of course there's a resistance.
We're testing it, but thedispatcher loved it.
The moment, if the moment this,the system is not working, the
GPS, they would call, Hey, GPSsystem is down.
(17:00):
I don't know how you guys wereworking.
I don't know how we, we workedbefore, but it just drives me
crazy.
I cannot see the driver.
And here's one of the things Iwould do initially just to
understand them, that I'm crazyabout like being in a car
earlier than the scheduled time.
Sometimes I would wake up in themiddle of the 4:00 AM going to
(17:21):
the bathroom, right?
I would call the dispatch, say,Hey, is the audio drivers like
early?
She said like if she said, Hey,this, this for a second, what
happened?
No, I'm just like, you know, Iwas busy with something else.
Can you make sure that yourdrivers are 15 minutes earlier?
Even that sign being like early.
(17:43):
On time is late, was everywherein the bathroom, everywhere
inside of the office.
And I would, me and Selinecontinuously ask the first
thing, is everyone 15 minutesearly, are the old drivers
dressed and they come into theoffice and are the cars clean?
Did they go clean?
Did they clean up before?
(18:03):
It may sound simple, but at thesame time it's not because
sometimes.
People don't wanna do it or theywanna do the easier way.
But if you tell them this iswhat we care about it and these
are the values that we wannadeliver to the customer, they
understand that when you growup, that message gets distorted.
(18:25):
So we kept that message and,hey, is everyone 15 minutes
early or the cars are clean?
First thing that for me, on adaytime after greetings, Hey,
can you tell me if everyone islike early?
Are the cleans, are the vehiclesclean?
Is everyone dressed to the dresscode?
James Blain (18:45):
No, I, I couldn't agree more.
You know, if you, if you lookand, and obviously you've,
you've guys have used pac, so,you know, but if you look in our
world, right, we have kind ofthis pyramid that you build up.
The very first part of that ison time and early is on time.
And on time is late.
And it's one of the things Ithink, especially for me as
(19:07):
someone who, you know, I, when Itravel, when I'm doing anything.
I am one of those people thatit's not uncommon for me to run
a little bit ahead of scheduleand want to go somewhere ahead
early, and I cannot tell you howmany times, you know, I've got a
(19:28):
chauffeur that thinks they're ontime.
That shows up right at thepickup time.
I've already been standing therefor five minutes.
Right.
Because I knew what time it was.
And you know, for me it, it, itcomes down to a generational
thing because when I was growingup, I grew up with not only, um,
you know, no one in thetransportation space, no family
(19:50):
that did anything, but my dadhad been a pilot in the Army and
my dad had then gone into thecorporate world.
And so literally my entire lifeI was taught.
If you're on time, you need tobe there 15 minutes early so
that when the button hits,you're already in the door,
you're already there, right?
If you're going for a jobinterview, that person should
(20:12):
look out and see you there.
And if you gotta sit there for15 minutes, that's fine.
And the only place I've foundthat's a horrible idea is the
doctors, right?
Because really, you're justgonna sit there another extra 15
minutes.
But guess what?
That doctor's car should stillbe there 15 minutes early.
Um, so for me, I think that's abig thing in my mind because the
other problem becomes if you aredriving for a living like
(20:36):
chauffeurs do, or even likemotor coach drivers, anyone in
this industry, if you're tryingto get there right on time, any
kind of traffic whatsoever.
Is going to cause you to belate.
And so especially in your majorcities, right?
Your, you, New York, la,Chicago, Dallas, um, anywhere
(20:56):
that's got traffic.
I think trying to target that,you've gotta learn how to work
backwards and you've gotta thensay, Hey, if I'm gonna be there
15 minutes early.
I need to have a little bit ofbuffer time.
And I think at, at least itsounds like you guys are similar
to, to me and, and the way thatwe think impacts in that if you
are not constantly thinkingabout it and you're trying to
(21:18):
run on time, inevitably you'regonna run late.
Dr Umut Aslan (21:22):
Exactly.
A hundred percent agree.
James Blain (21:25):
So let me ask you, as you guys have kind of grown
and evolved.
what does that look like for youin the business heading into now
what's, what's going to be,obviously we know what's coming
now, but you know, back then wehad no idea what was coming
around the corner with COVID and2020.
What does that kind of look likeas far as where you're in the
(21:46):
business and what that starts tolook like as we start moving
past.
2015, you guys are now a mixedfleet, bit of a, a motor coach
bus and, and you know, still asedan and, and SUV company.
What does that kinda look likefor you and, and what does that
kind of turn into?
Where do you end up?
Dr Umut Aslan (22:05):
So I can say that the company right now, which I
sold my share to my brother, I'ma, I'm out of it, so out of the
business.
By still involved here, kind ofbusiness coaching consultant
with him.
So I could tell you right now islike mostly the majority of the
business comes through the largegroups and then small, small
(22:26):
amount of it comes in from the,like the sedan and SUVs'cause
the ground is shifting and it'sgonna shift a lot.
And one of the things that.
I'm gonna like to mention it.
So I, I did a research in my,during my doctorate for business
management and strategy, focusedon more strategy.
(22:47):
And I interviewed verysuccessful business people that
they, they grew up theirbusinesses and one of the things
I know they, one of my conceptscame out of it.
Some of the business owners, andespecially in our industry,
they're more focused on shortterm planning.
Either day to day, monthly orquarterly planning.
(23:09):
And there was some of themplanning for one, one year to
three year planning.
So one thing I would tell andsuggest to people based on the
data and experiences that I havenowadays, people or the
companies, organizations shouldlook into a little bit further
to into the feature and see.
What they can do come up withsome services is, you know,
(23:33):
right now the robotaxis arespreading out.
And a few people I spoke andsome of the business owners that
they, they share that they usethe robotaxis and they even
prefer a robotaxi to have it fortheir kids versus a car with the
driver.
James Blain (23:55):
I, I mean, it makes sense, right?
Because if you think about, youknow, some of the things that
have happened in the Rideshareworld.
You know, I think we all saw thearticles that came out about the
sexual assaults and all theissues that they've had in kind
of the rideshare space.
I think if you can eliminate theperson from that equation.
Obviously at that point there,it's just you in the vehicle.
(24:17):
At that point, the concernbecomes more of the same as
someone in a dark, dimly litparking lot at night, right?
You're safe once you get in thecar.
You just have to get into thecar safely, and so I think that
makes a lot of sense and that ifyou can safely get into the
vehicle and the vehicle getsmoving at that point, you're
good to go.
Now, I guess my question wouldbe, you know, as you're kind of
(24:38):
doing this research, as you'rekind of getting ready there.
What, I guess what is the bigfactor that a lot of these
successful companies had incommon in terms of their
adoption of that kind oftechnology?
Was there kind of a thread therethat was, that's common in terms
of leveraging technology?
Dr Umut Aslan (24:58):
Not really, but like my, my research was trying
to figure out the factors thathelped them to grow from a, like
a small vehicle number ofvehicles to more 10 or more
vehicles.
The common themes that came up,number one is networking at the
national, like the industryassociations and local
(25:21):
association.
Marketing, that was number oneof them.
And being part of integratednetworking regularly with the
people, whether in the industryor outside of the industry, and
keep marketing
James Blain (25:34):
Yep.
Dr Umut Aslan (25:35):
to the marketing continuous with the strong
presence, uh, website, maybe wecan integrate that as a part of
the technology, a CEO andanother part of it, but that's
not enough.
Delivering the service.
Providing the service, but notas a low, low cost provider to
be able to sustain it.
The keys that companies shouldbe able to deliver, the service
(25:58):
they promised, which was a cleanvehicle, well dressed offer, and
on time vehicle plus, anotherkey is who's behind the wheel
and who's behind the phones.
That answering the phone that todeliver the service when they
call.
When they call the customers,you can't believe sometimes if
you call a certain companies,they still pick up the phones.
(26:20):
Dispatch.
James Blain (26:22):
Oh yeah, yeah.
No, look, when I first got intothe industry, right, you know,
we were, we were unknown.
We had just come out, you know,PAX was, was brand new and I
remember calling people and, andI'd hear car service.
And I'm like, oh, hello.
you know, now that you've yelledcar service at me, but it's
true.
There are still companies that Ithink that operate that way, and
I think one of the things thatwe have talked about since the
(26:45):
inception of pax, and this issomething I've been and will be
adamant about, is that you haveto be able to provide an
experience to that passenger.
That is going to be differentthan the others that they're
dealing with.
So if your goal is, I'm gonnacompete directly with Uber,
guess what?
(27:05):
Unless you have the sameconvenience level, the app, the
same availability as the app,the same on demand experience,
the same everything, you are notgoing to be able to compete with
Uber.
One of the things that makesRideshare work is they've got
this national footprint, they'vegot this single application.
I can call up and I can havesomeone here to pick me up in a
(27:26):
couple minutes.
What I can't do though, is havethat same level of expectation
of service.
My expectation when I go withRideshare has got to come down.
the easiest way if you're tryingto lure people away from
Rideshare is to make sure thatyou have, people on your team
that are.
Literally blowing the doors offof the experience for that
(27:46):
passenger.
It's a pristine vehicle.
It's someone dressed that looksthe part, you know?
It's someone that understands,Hey, I'm gonna help you with the
door.
I'm gonna help you with this.
They're like we said, they'renot right there on time.
They're 15 minutes early,they're hitting their spot time.
You are putting yourself in adifferent category.
It's the same reason someonewould stay at a Ritz Carlton
(28:09):
instead of a Holiday InnExpress.
Holiday Inn Express has itsplace in the market and so does
the Ritz Carlton.
But if I'm going on a trip, I'mprobably never gonna go, you
know, my choices right now, I'mstuck between the Ritz and the
Holiday Inn.
I'm not sure which one I'm gonnapick right there.
There are different levels and Ithink that says a lot to it.
(28:29):
Um, now I'd love to know one ofthe things that we hear.
Over and over and over frompeople that are successful in
the industry is mentorship.
When you were doing yourresearch, was there any level of
having a mentor or someonespecifically mentoring them that
came up?
Or was it more so towardsnetworking groups?
Dr Umut Aslan (28:48):
Is is I'm gonna tell you the one concept that
networking associations andspecifically many people share
that the Limousine AssociationNLA shows that was big for them,
plus the peer groups.
That's one of the reasons that Iembarked on the peer group and.
So what they, what people sharedthat going to the industry show.
(29:13):
That was for us, same because wefound some people to guide us
and we were part of Arthur,Arthur Messina's peer groups.
Me and Celine were at differentgroups and that created building
that relationship.
You build deep connections,dependant, and you can call, say
hey.
I need the help.
(29:33):
What would you do in this cases?
And imagine that also what itgives you an advantage because
you're, you're thinking from oneperspective, but when you go to
that peer groups or closerrelationships, you have a smart
people or smarter people thanyou, that who has done the
(29:54):
business before or they're doingit and they tell you, why don't
you do that if you're open?
To learn.
And if you're open to becoachable, you can say, okay,
let me see that.
Can I implement it?
An example that when, when yougo to the, okay, you start past
business, right?
You have no idea, but where doyou get the customers?
(30:17):
Google is money eater.
Yes, Google has a portion willbring you, but not only will
bring you, but there are anotheravenues.
People tell you, Hey, go to thecolleges.
An example.
James Blain (30:28):
Yeah.
Dr Umut Aslan (30:28):
do that?
Have you done that or are youpart of that?
Associations that people arepart of it.
Okay.
It just, you'll learn it, butyou don't have to learn from the
beginning.
Try to find the inventive toolsthere already exist there, and
you're having that not only onementor, you have like multiple
mantras in your group tellingyou, guiding you.
(30:50):
To find you're running in issuesthat you could say, Hey, this is
what I'm running.
What have you guys done it?
Have you ever experienced thisone?
James Blain (30:58):
Well, and I, I think the big thing there, you
know, it's, it's funny.
So I was at a neighborhood blockparty the other night with my
family, right?
And every year our, ourneighborhood has this block
party.
Uh, and I was talking to someonewho had just started a business,
nothing to do withtransportation, nothing at all
to do with our industry.
Um, but he started talking to meabout marketing And, you know,
(31:19):
kinda what he was thinking andwhat he's, and this person had,
gimme this advice, this personto gimme me that advice.
And, you know, I couldn't helpmyself immediately.
It was, okay, well, tell meabout your business.
Right?
We, once you're an entrepreneur,you're an entrepreneur for life,
right?
And so it was, all right, well,tell me about your business.
And I quickly found out that,and, and this is true, I think
(31:40):
of a lot of differentindustries, there are no lack of
people.
That are going to tell you whatto do.
They're gonna tell you how torun things.
They're gonna tell you how to dothings that want to tell you
everything without taking thetime to learn about what you do.
To learn about what yourbusiness is.
And so through thisconversation, you know, I felt
(32:02):
bad'cause I just tell me more.
Okay, what are you doing here?
What are you doing there?
What are you doing here?
What are you doing there?
Um, because I, I was trying tounderstand the business and, you
know, after talking to him for awhile, it was very clear that he
had talked to some marketingpeople that were like, oh yeah,
we're gonna set you up on Googleads and you're go talk to these
people and talk to those peopleand do this and do that.
But what they hadn't done isthey hadn't actually sat down
(32:24):
and tried to learn.
The business to kind of figureit out.
And I think one of the thingsthat in our industry makes peer
groups and the associationevents and all of these
different things so successfulis that you are there with
people that are doing the samething that you are.
You're there with people thathave been exactly where you are.
(32:44):
So whereas for you, you may bebuying your bus for the first
time and thinking, oh, you know,I've got this great idea.
I'm gonna do this and this andthis.
You'll have the opportunity totalk to someone and says, oh
yeah, I did all of those things.
That was a great idea.
That was an okay idea.
That was the worst day of mylife.
Don't do that one.
Right.
And so I think there's this hugevalue there.
(33:05):
And being able to do that, I, Ithink you can still move forward
without it.
Uh, but I, like I said, it'skinda like the, the companies
that don't.
Kind of leave their sphere ofinfluence, they end up with
their own kind of solutionsthey've had to fight and work
for.
So I guess the, the otherquestion I'd have is, when you
were doing your research, youknow, were there any other key
(33:27):
things that stuck out in termsof the most successful companies
as it relates to that space?
Was there anything that kind ofsurprised you or you went, oh, I
wouldn't have thought of that.
Dr Umut Aslan (33:38):
You know, now it's something that is, the
concept that I came in was, yousign simple,
James Blain (33:46):
Yeah.
Dr Umut Aslan (33:46):
but you, you think that even, even one of my
chair commented, isn't thatcommon sense?
One of the things is keepingyour financial, your company
financially healthy
James Blain (33:58):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (33:58):
is you think that, but in when you
investigate, you're gonna seethat some of the business
owners, they only know about theprofit or they don't know the
details of the numbers.
What is the gross margin?
What is the e EBIT or EBITDAthat so, and.
We discuss about delivering theservice.
(34:18):
That's like no brainer, right?
We say it's simple that you haveto do that, but we come across,
we experience working with anathlete that they send you
crappy vehicle, a driver.
You tell them, Hey, this is, I'mhaving large groups.
I would like you to make surethat all your guys are dressed,
your vehicle are cleaned up.
Guess what?
(34:40):
It seems like you know the othercompany didn't hear anything
from you.
If you talk to certain providersin the nest, they'll sell,
they'll tell you how many timesthey burned out because of using
an athlete, or some of theoperators start entering the bus
business because of level ofservice they you receive from
(35:02):
the motor coach companies.
So they decided.
You know what?
Screw you guys, I'm gonna buy myown motor coach and build my own
businesses.
That you hear that stories too,and it is all simple being like
a networking at the associationsor local associations being part
of the group and delivering theservice with the right pricing.
(35:24):
But you see also at the sametime, people price it so cheap
and they cannot make it and.
Keeping financially healthy.
Recently, someone shared withme, there was a guy that he
purchased for vehicles and nowhe cannot continue his business.
He cannot stay in it.
(35:44):
And then when he was asked, whydid you buy so many vehicles?
And the answer is, I wanted tohave a different variety.
You want it to have a differentvariety without like having
enough business for each ofthem.
So it sounds simple, but whenyou look at it, the, the, the
sharings that comes with frompeople, successful people, the
(36:09):
biggest key is execution ofthat.
What we think that is a commonsense or simple ideas to be able
to make it reality, to executethem.
And another one is constantplanning is.
Some of them is focused entirelyin the business, and some of
them focus on str like inStrategic Planet.
But now what I would suggestbased on my studies and what's
(36:33):
happening in the industry or inall over the life that changes
Rapid, is I think that Moore lawthat mentions about the
exponential change, right?
So in this moment, companiesshould look into also into the
future.
Okay, what's happening?
(36:53):
What will happen and how we canmitigate it, or how can we be
ahead of the game when therobotaxis comes in?
Many people in the industrialthink that robot taxi may kill
the limo business.
James Blain (37:07):
You know, I, I will say in, in my opinion, I think
you, you've hit on a lot ofthings and I want to take a
second and try and unpack acouple of'em.
'cause some of the things yousaid early on are coming back
now and I think there's a lothere that's relevant.
I think something you said earlyon, um, and it's really
important is.
You who you are when you're aone car operator, as a person,
(37:31):
as a leader, has to be differentthan who you are right now that
you've got a larger fleet orwhen you hit a larger fleet.
And the way that I've alwaysheard that and the way that it
was always taught to me is whatwill get you to your first
million?
Is not what you're going to needto get to 2 million and beyond,
right?
It's, it's not the same in termsof where you're at, where you're
(37:54):
focusing on.
And I think what we see a lot iswhen you're that one car
operator, you can be a lotscrappier, you can be a lot more
out there.
You can be in the car, you candrive, because at that point you
are kind of the business and asyou grow the business and you
have to step up and you have tostart delegating, pushing things
out.
(38:14):
You have to change.
I think one of the biggestthings that I've seen, and I was
having a conversation withsomeone about this and then an
announcement came out, is Ithink a lot of companies are
already trying to see down theroad and figure that out.
A great example of that is thecar rental industry.
(38:34):
Look, when we get to the pointwhere there's autonomous
vehicles.
We still have to have themcleaned, serviced, checked out
and put back on the road.
great news for mechanics.
If you're a mechanic, guys, aOK, you're good.
You're good.
now the difference is who'sgonna do that?
So, you know, if you've got waymore operating a fleet, well
(38:56):
guess what?
The rental car companies, and,and don't quote me on who it
was, I wanna say Hertz, but Icould be wrong, have already
stepped in and said, Hey.
We're going to clean service andturn around autonomous vehicles.
So the autonomous vehicle willdrive to us.
We'll clean it, we'll serviceit, we'll take care of it, we'll
put it back on the road.
if you are thinking as a driver,if you're thinking as an owner,
(39:17):
one of the things to keep inmind is I don't think we ever
get to the Jetsons where we haveRobot Betty.
Right.
You know, zipping around with,with things.
It doesn't make sense, right?
If I think of, and, and look atthe hotel industry.
If you look at the hotelindustry, when you go to check
in, what is the base level?
(39:38):
Check-in the kiosk, right?
The kiosk is the base level.
Check-in.
Now who in their right mind isgonna, you know, you go to
Vegas, you go to a large hotel,you go to the nicest hotel in
New York.
Do you expect that your highestcustomer service level hotel is
gonna have a kiosk?
(39:58):
No, of course not.
There's somebody there towelcome you to the hotel, right?
To make sure things are takencare of, to be that face of it.
And so I think it hearkens backto what we talked about earlier
of what is on time, what isappearance, what is a clean
vehicle?
Because if the base level ofservice becomes.
(40:19):
Everything's automated.
Everything's a kiosk.
Everything is this and that.
You then have this higher tierthat becomes.
This is hands-on, this is whiteglove.
This is what that might be.
because what we're seeing rightnow, even in regular rideshare
is if I order, you know, yourbase level rideshare vehicle,
(40:39):
they might send me a RAV4,right?
Nothing against Toyota LoveToyota, but they might send me
someone in a RAV4 if I ordertheir premium luxury, their
chauffeur.
They're basically sending me thesame person, but that person's
driving a suburban or maybe anEscalade, depending on the
market, the color of thatvehicle.
(41:01):
Is not going to define for mewhat the level of service is.
My experience with that personin that vehicle is what's gonna
define it.
And so I think it's importantthat when we're looking ahead,
that you have to keep in mindthat we are a service-based
industry.
So let me ask you, what are yourthoughts in terms of what does
(41:23):
that look like?
You know, obviously you are outof the, the business with your
brother, but you are still now.
Coaching and, and you're doingdevelopment and you're helping
companies.
When you're helping them try tofigure that out, what are you
looking towards?
What do you see as theopportunity?
Dr Umut Aslan (41:40):
One of the opportunities I see, I think
similar to what you mentionedthere, there will be open up
different opportunities like afleet management the, of the
autonomous vehicles, because Idon't think.
Either Google or Wemo or Teslawill wanna to manage that
vehicles for running a fleet ofvehicles that run or run that
(42:01):
eventually that vehicles will berun down.
Or imagine that also at the sametime that even in Texas or Uber
people, at least some of them,not all of them will clean up
their vehicles, but if you'rerunning a robot taxi all the
time, who's gonna clean thatvehicle?
And at the same time, how longwe, I, I don't know if these
(42:23):
companies have the data ofrunning the whole vehicle,
mechanically maintaining it,what kind of maintain
maintenance needed, and, andthen who's gonna keep it clean?
Who's gonna keep it, who's gonnamaintain it?
But at the same time, I seepeople are crazy about trying to
test them.
I, I think I, I saw one articlesaid one guy.
(42:45):
To try the driverless vehicle.
He canceled all of the driver,but just to be able to try
driverless vehicle.
But at the same time, there arepeople that they don't feel
comfortable.
They don't feel safe in it,whether the data shows that
they're safer than the humandrivers, but at the same time,
(43:07):
people will want the humanconnection.
That's what we all want.
Everything when it goes to.
Automate it.
People will still look forsomeone to drive them.
Also someone to experience orhelp them at.
So there are opportunities,there will be opportunities may
the niche will be smaller, butat the same time for any company
(43:29):
to be able to capture this.
They have to look a little bitforward and then experiment with
their ideas, come up withdifferent ideas.
During that talk, you mentionedthat, okay, cleanliness services
or maintenance of the vehicle.
What about for people?
Okay, but they still want thehuman touch.
They don't want to be driven orthey want someone to be present
(43:52):
and then also handle their lagebacks.
James Blain (43:55):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (43:57):
So it should be.
I can't tell you what the futurewill bring, but I also, what I
could tell companies who in theindustry to keep looking,
discovering or looking,exploring the opportunities that
they could use with their, theirown competencies in the
business, in their ownbusinesses.
'cause again, we always needlike a human touch, human
(44:18):
service.
Some people will not give awaythat one.
They'll prefer to interconnector receive the human services,
as you mentioned with the RISCarlton.
James Blain (44:28):
Right.
Well, I think the other side ofthat is I also would say, you
know, people talk aboutautonomous, like it's happening
tomorrow.
You know, I think and, andagain, you know, we, we saw this
happen.
If we start looking back throughhistory, you saw this happen
with emissions, you see thishappen with vehicle safety
features.
You see this happen with all ofthese different major changes to
(44:49):
transportation, right?
The infrastructure is not there.
To just take every car off theroad and have autonomous
tomorrow.
you know, obviously we're seeingthese slowly deploying fleets in
major cities.
But the other thing is, if youstart looking at providers in
smaller rural areas, I don'tknow that it makes sense in the
next five or 10 years for waymore autonomous to really kind
(45:12):
of try and get a foothold.
I think the other side of thatis, as I mentioned earlier,
knowing kind of the level thatyou're gonna play at and the
level you're gonna provideservice at.
So I guess my thing would be,you know, obviously we wanna
keep looking forward to that.
What does an operator do today?
If, you know, let's say you aresomeone that, that is looking to
(45:34):
implement what we're talkingabout in terms of I wanna find a
peer group, I want to get moreinvolved with the associations,
I want to kind of grow mybusiness.
I know that you are working on aproject to kind of put some
groups together.
Can you tell us a little bitabout what is it that you are
doing and how is that anopportunity for someone to get
that type of support that we'vebeen talking about?
Dr Umut Aslan (45:56):
So as, as you mentioned, it is like the key is
to be able to find out otherpeople's ideas.
All everyone has a differentlike knowledge.
Everyone has a differentperspectives.
And the key that in my project,the peer groups, other than
one-on-one business coachingapp, the peer groups here helps
(46:19):
you to be able to learn fromothers.
Not only one person, even whenyou and I sit at any events that
I learn from you, every time Ispeak to you, I learn from other
people.
And I'm gonna tell you somethingthat one of the most successful
guys in the industry, GeorgeJacobs, so everyone knows him.
And funny thing he said, likewhen I say I learn a lot from
(46:40):
you, he said, I learn from you.
And I learn even from like asmaller guy operations that that
the way that to learner is notabout size of the organization,
but at the same time to be openand then ask the questions.
Because everyone has adifferent, like collecting
different knowledge.
But when we come together, andthis is, I call it partially
(47:00):
working on the business, whenyou are away from your
operations, when operations,day-to-day business, when you
get out of that daily huddles,daily challenges, and you sit
with the like-minded successfulpeople that you see something
different.
you are away from your ownbusiness.
You are learning.
You're building your knowledge.
(47:20):
You're seeing something that youdidn't catch or you didn't grasp
it by talking to people.
And also in that peer groups orwhat the expert speakers comes
in from the industry and whetherit's technology, marketing,
delivering the serviceoperations, you grab something
(47:41):
that you can take out andimplement it in your day-to-day
real life business.
And again, I keep saying thatone you have, there's a Japanese
saying that we're not as smartas all of us.
So if you can elicit the wisdomof the grow up, that'll help you
to take your business to thenext level.
James Blain (48:03):
I, I agree entirely.
I think one of the things thatwe have seen over and over and
over with all the successfulpeople we've talked to is that
they are always very big to givecredit where credit is due in
terms of people that havecoached them, people that have
helped them, people that havetaken them under their wing.
You know, I, I did a, a podcastinterview recently.
(48:24):
On, uh, on the Raise Up podcastwith Charlie and Athena Grim,
which happened to be two of mymentors in the industry, right.
I was lucky enough to, to havethem at, at one of the shows,
kind of when I was first gettingin, say, Hey, you know, why
don't you come to dinner withus?
And that kind of blossomed intohaving mentors.
And I think there's a lot to besaid about being able to find
(48:46):
the people that you can connectwith and that get it.
And to George's point.
I think there's an opportunityto learn from anyone and
everyone.
it might be learning what not todo, um, or it might be learning
what to do.
But I think, I think one of thethings about learning that
you've really nailed is that youhave to be open and you have to
(49:08):
be able to kind of see thelesson and absorb the lesson.
I, I often find that the peoplethat think they are the smartest
in the room are usually the mostclosed off in the room.
Usually the ones that are, aremore willing to absorb
everything are truly the onesthat are getting the benefit.
So let me ask, you know,obviously you've got your groups
that are, you're puttingtogether.
(49:29):
if someone's wanting to join oneof your peer groups, if they're
wanting to learn more about whatyou are doing, how you can help
them, where would they go forthat?
Yep.
Dr Umut Aslan (49:37):
You can go to growth and success institute.com
or they could, I think majorityof the people are connected to
me on Facebook.
They can send me, message orthey can gimme a call and my
cell phone if they wanna talkmore about it.
James Blain (49:53):
All right.
So you guys heard that Connecton Facebook.
I'm guessing they probablyconnect on LinkedIn as well.
Uh, growth and SuccessInstitute.
Now, let me ask you, how oftenare your groups meeting?
How often are you having thesepeer groups?
Dr Umut Aslan (50:07):
so we're having it three times in a year, yeah,
three times in a year.
James Blain (50:11):
And can you tell us a little bit about what you
know, what does that kind ofentail?
Is that something where they'reflying in?
How do they get involved withthat?
Dr Umut Aslan (50:19):
So another key factor, and especially in person
versus in in Zoom or virtually,you see the operations of
another operators, like the, ourfirst meeting will be in San
Diego, so we're gonna visitminimum black transportation.
The key gives you, when you comein here, you step into the other
operator.
Place the running like, or let'scall it business or house, that
(50:43):
you see how they're managing it.
And when you see it, you see theway that they're managing it.
Is it something that you canadapt it or you may see it,
they're, they're doing somethingthat you may take.
Implement it.
Of course, you're not gonna takeanything just like to look at
it, but you see like you canadapt it and then take the idea
and implement the businesses.
(51:04):
And also you have theopportunity to talk with the
employees, ask them questions.
With the challenges that you'refacing, are they similar to your
challenges?
Another learn opportunity,seeing it, how they're design
their operations, how are theyrunning their operation?
And who are behind the scenes?
What are they doing it?
And when you ask people.
(51:26):
That their opinion.
People love to talk.
They, they love sharing theirlove, sharing their expertise,
their information as whereveryou go.
People love to help otherpeople.
I think helping other people isin need like expression of love
that we show.
We care about the people.
And when people come fromdifferent part of the
(51:47):
transportation companies,they're not competing
confidential people.
Open up, tell, hey, this is whatI'm doing, or.
And I'm gonna give you our,like, sometimes people call our
sales director the MIB sales andask her what she's doing, how
she's doing it, and she, shetells me she loves sharing it.
Hey, are you doing this?
(52:08):
Are you doing this one?
And you're coming here.
You're getting like a free reallife that is proven to bring the
company to certain level forfree.
That's, that's priceless.
James Blain (52:21):
Well, and, and look, I am fortunate enough that
kind of in my role in training,I get to travel the country and
I get to do site visits all thetime.
I have lost count of the numberof operations that I've been to,
and what I found is that theredoesn't seem to be, you know,
there's things that, that theyhaven in common.
If you go visit a hundredoperations, you may see a
(52:43):
hundred different ways to dothings from something as simple
as, how we store the keys, howthey check in to something as
complicated as, Hey, here's ourmaintenance schedules.
it's very eye-opening when youget to go to operations and do
that because one of the thingsthat I found is.
Al like you said, almost all theoperations are very forthcoming.
(53:06):
because here's the thing, thelittle battles are just as
important as the bigger battlesin certain places, but if I'm
coming to visit you from anotherpart of the country.
The way that you organize yourfleet in the parking lot is not
necessarily going to affect.
If I take that and I apply whatI've learned, but the other
(53:27):
thing that I've seen happen andI've watched these conversations
is I've watched someone on asite visit say, Hey, that's
really neat.
Why are you doing it that way?
Well, we do it this way becauseof this.
Oh, well we do this.
And then the next thing youknow, they've shared the
information.
They've each shared a piece thatbrought them further to where
they want to be.
And the next thing you know,they, both sides have been able
(53:49):
to improve their process,whereas they never would've seen
it.
They never would've shared it.
They'd have no idea how they doit.
And so I have to say, for me atleast, I think that's one of the
neatest things.
About getting to do site visitsis you get to find out those
pieces that are the things thatwe see every day that no one
else probably ever gets to see.
(54:10):
Um, so obviously the first one'sin San Diego, when is that one
gonna be?
Dr Umut Aslan (54:15):
It's gonna be in December, first week of
December.
James Blain (54:18):
All right, so you guys, first week of December, if
you are looking for a peergroup, I know somebody.
Um, no, but more importantly, Ithink the big thing here is this
really ties into what we'vetalked about almost since the
exception of the podcast, andthat's that having mentorship.
Having somewhere where you'regoing for knowledge, getting to
be able to hear the differentopinions and see the different
(54:41):
ways that things are done andkind of interact with the others
in the industry is trulysomething that gives you an
edge.
Um, I can't thank you enough forcoming on the podcast.
one last time.
Where is it?
They can go if they wanna signup and learn more.
Dr Umut Aslan (54:54):
So they can, if they want, I'll give my cell
phone(619) 723-8104.
They can text me, call me, orthey can go to the Growth and
Success Institute.
Or I can give my email UD UM utat growth and success
institute.com and you could findme on LinkedIn or Facebook.
James Blain (55:16):
I can't thank you enough for coming on.
Uh, thank you everyone forlistening.
Hopefully you've liked andsubscribed.
One thing worth noting, if youlove what you're hearing, if you
want to hear more, drop us a,like, drop us a comment.
Let us know what we can do tohelp you guys get the support
you need from the podcast.
And as always, thanks youeverybody for listening.
Bye-bye.
Thank you for listening to theground transportation podcast.
(55:39):
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.
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
(55:59):
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode
of the Ground TransformationPodcast.
Uh, unfortunately today I do nothave my esteemed co-host Ken
Lucci.
He is probably off doing anamazing deal, selling, buying
all those wonderful things thathe does.
I'm sure we'll hear about theamazing deal he's cutting right
now at some point in the future.
But I'm super excited todaybecause although I don't have
(00:47):
Ken, I have someone that I haveactually known for quite some
time.
Um, I've had the pleasure ofworking with him when he was on
the ground transportation side.
Now I am really excited to seewhere he's going with things.
Um, I gotta tell you, I, I'mgonna use the introduction,
right?
So it's Dr.
Uma Aslan from the Growth andSuccess Institute.
(01:07):
Um, hey bud.
How you doing?
Dr Umut Aslan (01:09):
Good.
How are you, James?
James Blain (01:11):
I am good.
I gotta tell you, I'm prettyexcited about this because I
remember when you were workingin the family business and
working together, implementingPax, doing things there, and I'm
pretty excited to see whereyou're at now.
Um, for those that don't know,obviously give your family
business the shout out.
Tell us how'd you get into theindustry.
Dr Umut Aslan (01:32):
A great question and how we started the business
with my brother Alim.
That was 2009, and before thatwe were working for a guy, I
don't wanna give him his name.
Everything was being done underthe table.
It was not like, professional,but it gave us like a learning
platform to learn it.
(01:52):
And I was also doing my master'sin business administration, so
something happened with theowner and my brother, so, and
then he, my brother decided to.
part his way.
And the owner a day later calledme, said, I cannot keep you
because you have your brother.
And I said, okay.
And interestingly, SEM alwayswanted to start his own
(02:16):
business.
In the past, he applied for alimousine company, local
limousine company in San Diego.
They're not in the in businessanymore.
And they rejected him because ofhis age and he tells me, Hey,
you know what, I always wantedto start my business.
In limousine.
What do you think?
I said Fine.
Let's go ahead and do it.
(02:37):
So this is how we started.
We started with one vehicle in ashort amount of time that we
grew up to, I think in sixmonths, six vehicles, and then
things
James Blain (02:48):
In six months.
Dr Umut Aslan (02:50):
six months.
James Blain (02:51):
So what did you guys start with?
What was the first vehicle?
Dr Umut Aslan (02:54):
It was a Lincoln Town guy.
James Blain (02:57):
Okay.
And this is like 2009, so thatmakes sense.
Dr Umut Aslan (03:01):
2009.
And then we added, the secondvehicle was an SUV.
And that idea, we said, some ofthe people were asking, Hey, do
you have more than four people?
And then we added the SUV.
And then the reason behind of itwas because we could use the SUV
both for as a Satan and also asA-N-S-C-V.
James Blain (03:25):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (03:26):
I had a background in the corporate
marketing, so I did some morelike the marketing ideas that
caught a fire, and also that wasthe moment of the Google
starting a, becoming GoogleMaps, Google business webpage.
So that helped us a lot in areal quick, fast.
Way that we grew up and otherthings I knew and SLI initially
(03:51):
was resistant.
I tell that people, because nowAlim doesn't wanna get out of
the events of the NationalLimousine Association or part of
the peer groups.
Right?
I said, let's go to the, at thattime it was LCP in Mega.
I said, let's go give it a try.
He said, what are we gonna do?
We don't know anyone.
I said, look.
When I was working for acorporate, this is what we would
(04:13):
do.
We'd go to the, and then youlearn.
You meet people, it'll take yousome time.
After first one, it goes toalmost all of them.
It doesn't miss anything.
And actually it's a great,because you learn, you meet
people, you learn, you learn thedeep details of the how to run
your business, and you meet
James Blain (04:31):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (04:32):
And one thing that this industry is different
than so many differentindustries because there is a
way that to share.
You don't learn it maybe atfirst meeting, but when you keep
going there, people, when youbuild connections that they'll
share, they'll help you to growyour business.
Not like a pizza joint.
You cannot that work together.
James Blain (04:52):
no, but I think, I think one of the things, and
this comes up on literallyinterview after interview
episode after episode.
Is that we see people that areable to find mentors, that are
able to find people to workwith, that are able to really go
out there and, and network.
Um, one of the things that Kenand I say all the time is that
(05:13):
the most backwards, the mostridiculous, the most poorly ran
companies that we see.
Are often kind of the littleislands, the ones that don't
want to go to meetings, thatdon't wanna talk to anyone else,
that don't wanna figure it out,you know, because they have to
figure everything out bythemselves.
They don't have peers that theycan network with.
They don't have anyone they canwork with.
So I think, I think that in mymind makes a lot of sense that
(05:35):
early on you'd be going, nowI've gotta know and just outta
curiosity.
So you guys go to your firstevent, you go to your first LCT,
you guys are building out thebusiness.
Is it MIB at this point?
Have you, have you guys, is thatmen in black or are you guys
flying under a different flag?
Or what does that company looklike at that point?
Dr Umut Aslan (05:54):
It was men in black transportation.
It was men in blacktransportation.
And I think at that moment it'sjust like we quickly, I quickly
wanted to go in there'cause I, Isearched and I found it and I
remember like, okay, so was it,I think it was Jim l he had a,
(06:15):
he had his own business inBakersfield and we were asking
him, Hey, what, what do yourecommend?
He, the first question he asked,are you guys still driving?
We said, yes.
Get out of the driver's seat.
James Blain (06:26):
So six cars and you're both still driving.
Dr Umut Aslan (06:29):
at the beginning.
You're doing everything to runthe business.
James Blain (06:33):
what, what changes at that point, right?
Jim gives you this advice, getoutta the driver's seat.
What happens once you guys stepoutta the driver's seat?
Now you guys have this hugeadvantage, right?
And that you've got two brothersrunning the business who kind of
starts doing what?
Dr Umut Aslan (06:49):
So what we bring my sister.
She is really, she
James Blain (06:53):
More family.
I love it.
Dr Umut Aslan (06:55):
Yeah.
It's a family business.
And what we decide, she takesover, we get her ready, we train
her to answer the phones, andshe's smart.
She's intelligent, she is verydetail oriented.
Celi is more like a picture, bigpicture oriented.
I'm detail oriented.
Visionary.
I'm like, and my sister is kindof integrated between us'cause
(07:18):
I'm detail oriented.
He is a big picture guy.
And then she comes in and.
She takes over the reservationdispatching and she learns real,
real quick and we start hiringpeople.
So Celine becomes the financeand also the hr.
And I become the marketing andsales guy that I go to the
(07:39):
network and events and at thatmoment we start branching out.
More to the networking events inthe industry, both of us.
But at the same time, I branchout to the local associations
that to create like a IB brandby networking and also doing
some activities like marketing,et cetera, in the local arena.
James Blain (08:03):
So this, this is 2009 ish, so that's where we
start.
At what point do you bring yoursister in?
Is that a year or two down theline.
Dr Umut Aslan (08:13):
I, I don't exactly remember, but it was
quick.
It was quick.
It took us a while to get her onboard.
Initially, we asked her toanswer the phones.
She was living in Turkey and shedidn't wanna come in here.
So what we asked her, Hey, atleast can you pick up the phones
while we can have a sleep.
You know, this is a 24 hours joband there is a time differences
(08:34):
in Turkey.
So we initially convinced herand then we say, look, the
business is good.
Why don't you come here?
Join
James Blain (08:42):
actually convinced her to move from Turkey to the
United States.
Dr Umut Aslan (08:46):
She's been, she's been here, yeah.
A few times in, in the UnitedStates.
James Blain (08:50):
Okay, so what does that start to look like or how
does that start to shift andchange for you guys?
So now you guys have kind of gotyour visionary, which is your
brother Celine.
You've got yourself, which iskind of the the integrator or
the type A personality that'sgoing in this detail oriented.
You've got the sister now who'srunning kind of the phones and
those pieces.
(09:11):
what does that now start to looklike in terms of growth?
Are you guys still.
Staying on that same path ofbringing on more SUVs or what is
the, what does the business kindof start to become at that
point?
Dr Umut Aslan (09:22):
It become to grow more faster, more vehicles.
And I think in a year or so, wecould even offer this is, and
remember this is a time thatUber is was born and they even
offered us to be part of it.
And we, and then the pricingwere radicalized and I know some
of the companies accepted.
We said, no, we don't need you.
(09:44):
We have enough business.
We even have more than enoughbusiness that we can handle it,
sustain it.
And I think we grew up up to 15vehicles
James Blain (09:54):
Okay.
Dr Umut Aslan (09:55):
with the sedans and the SUVs, and we had the.
along the way.
I don't remember the exactterms, but we also purchased a
company, that local company, alimousine company with the two
limousines.
We added them to limousines inour entire fleet, and here comes
2015.
James Blain (10:12):
Okay.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:13):
Now we're starting like seeing the growth
is going down.
James Blain (10:17):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:18):
If you remember, Uber is catching traction.
James Blain (10:22):
Yeah.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:23):
Everything that we're doing, it not resulting
it, and we come up with theidea, okay, so we're doing
whatever we need to do, but it'snot like bringing results.
We're not getting the results,what we wanna do.
And then people are saying it.
Even the big corporation sayingit, Hey, heard you.
I love you, but Uber is cheaper.
(10:46):
I'll only use you for the CEO orthe top level executive.
So.
Okay.
And then we added minibus,
James Blain (10:55):
Okay, so you guys jump straight to the larger
vehicles.
Dr Umut Aslan (10:58):
larger vehicles.
Yes.
James Blain (10:59):
And this is, and we're talking, you know, 2015,
so this is well before, when westart seeing in 20 18, 20 19, a
lot of the companies jumping up,you guys are getting way ahead
of that.
Especially being in California,I can only imagine the fun it
was to try and jump up to thatlevel.
So what does that look like?
When you guys entered that firstmini bus, was that something
(11:21):
where Alim had the idea and thenyou went and implemented?
Or is that something that youguys came to together?
What was kind of the catalystthat made you guys say, Hey, we
should go to this largervehicle?
Dr Umut Aslan (11:33):
So one of the catalysts was like the efforts
are not bringing any results andlooking at the, that, how can we
diversify, find the ways that tocapture the customers.
And some of our customersstarted asking.
When they stopped using us in acertain, they were asking, Hey,
can you cover that?
I have that many people.
(11:54):
We added that.
That's one of the reason, and wewanted to be proactive.
We didn't wanna just sit thereand then see Uber taking us all
of our like business share, andwe wanted to see where we can
grab a customer and think aboutSan Diego.
It's a group and conventioncenter that is a, Every, every
month we have events that comeslarge groups into San Diego.
(12:18):
So we said, let's give it a try.
We know nothing about it, butlet's give it and learn.
about it.
So we started one mini bus, thenwe added another 49 passenger
bus.
I don't remember exactly years.
But also we added down later on,after 2, 2 49 passengers, we
added, larger buses.
57 56
James Blain (12:39):
All the way up.
Yeah.
So you start making your way allthe way up into the Motor Coach,
and I think you've, you've hiton something really important
and we talk about it a lot onthe show, and that's, you were
listening to what your customerswere looking for, but you were
also mindful.
Of how your city, how your areaworks, you know that you've got
(13:00):
these large conventions comingthrough, you know that you've
got that opportunity.
Let me ask you, do you rememberwhen you guys got that first
mini bus?
Was that something where youguys were able to hit the ground
running and you had it fullybooked?
Or is that something where youhad to slowly try and build up
the usage on it?
Dr Umut Aslan (13:17):
We slowly, you know, so some people go, there
is a saying that build it,they'll come.
I think ours is kind of likethat.
Build it, they'll come, we'vegot it in and then it's gonna
come in.
And some people, what they dodifferent approach.
Is they wait, they measure howmuch the business, they farm it
(13:37):
out, and then they buy theirvehicles.
So two different approaches.
When I speak to the otherbusiness owners and they would
say, Hey, I don't have thebusiness.
Why would I invest in it?
Rightfully there, there is noright or wrong, but we took to.
Whether we call it the risk orin initiative to be able to
start with it and we were ableto build it because of our
(13:59):
current clientele plus San Diegobeing a, a convention center,
that gave us like the leverageto be able to add other vehicle,
other larger vehicles.
James Blain (14:10):
Well, and I think what you're talking about there,
right?
You've got, you've got kind ofthat mentality of I'm gonna farm
it out, farm it out, farm it outtill I have the work, and then
put it in there.
I think you guys saw anopportunity, you said, Hey, we
can get some work immediately.
Then we can backfill, we can nowstart to move into that area.
And so rather than trying tokind of get there ahead of time
(14:32):
and then bring in the vehicle,you guys saw the opportunity to
get the vehicle, start buildingout the work and kind of back
yourselves into it, which Ithink makes a lot of sense.
So where do things go right thenat that point, obviously now
you're, you become.
A, a mixed fleet.
You've got your motor coachesall the way down to the sedans.
What starts happening, kind ofthe evolution of the company and
(14:54):
most importantly, let me askyou, having having started right
within six months, you guys aresix cars.
What kinda happens with theevolution of you and your
brother as entrepreneurs andwhat you guys are learning and
what you guys are focusing on?
How does that kind of shift andwhat do you guys kind of become?
Dr Umut Aslan (15:13):
So every time that your company grows, you
have to bring a different levelof skills.
You have to learn.
You're delivering this service,but at the same time, when you
grow up, you want your.
Drivers or your reservationagent, your dispatch agent, to
deliver the same level ofservice in.
(15:33):
In other words, your values thatyou want it to be delivered,
even if you're not doing itbetter than you is in this case,
is then your switching yourskill level to be able to lead
or show them this is what youwould like them and you would
like your also input to be ableto do it better than you do.
(15:55):
One, one of the key things, Ithink we, we had one of our core
values.
Is it just like, I even, it islike even sometimes the
employees joke about that.
I said, okay.
It, it is like if, like being ontime is late, I understand that
every company almost has it, butwe were obsessed with it.
(16:19):
One of the things that also, westarted early when the GPS is
coming into the picture, I waslike adamant that I told Alim I
want vehicles to be GPS tracked.
There was, there was a companyfrom Florida, and if you
remember, it wasn't Verizon, itwas a different company.
They were super expensive.
So I said, let's give it a try.
(16:39):
This is like, I wanna see it.
And then this GPS would monitoryou if you're on time or not.
And initially.
Of course there's a resistance.
We're testing it, but thedispatcher loved it.
The moment, if the moment this,the system is not working, the
GPS, they would call, Hey, GPSsystem is down.
(17:00):
I don't know how you guys wereworking.
I don't know how we, we workedbefore, but it just drives me
crazy.
I cannot see the driver.
And here's one of the things Iwould do initially just to
understand them, that I'm crazyabout like being in a car
earlier than the scheduled time.
Sometimes I would wake up in themiddle of the 4:00 AM going to
(17:21):
the bathroom, right?
I would call the dispatch, say,Hey, is the audio drivers like
early?
She said like if she said, Hey,this, this for a second, what
happened?
No, I'm just like, you know, Iwas busy with something else.
Can you make sure that yourdrivers are 15 minutes earlier?
Even that sign being like early.
(17:43):
On time is late, was everywherein the bathroom, everywhere
inside of the office.
And I would, me and Selinecontinuously ask the first
thing, is everyone 15 minutesearly, are the old drivers
dressed and they come into theoffice and are the cars clean?
Did they go clean?
Did they clean up before?
(18:03):
It may sound simple, but at thesame time it's not because
sometimes.
People don't wanna do it or theywanna do the easier way.
But if you tell them this iswhat we care about it and these
are the values that we wannadeliver to the customer, they
understand that when you growup, that message gets distorted.
(18:25):
So we kept that message and,hey, is everyone 15 minutes
early or the cars are clean?
First thing that for me, on adaytime after greetings, Hey,
can you tell me if everyone islike early?
Are the cleans, are the vehiclesclean?
Is everyone dressed to the dresscode?
James Blain (18:45):
No, I, I couldn't agree more.
You know, if you, if you lookand, and obviously you've,
you've guys have used pac, so,you know, but if you look in our
world, right, we have kind ofthis pyramid that you build up.
The very first part of that ison time and early is on time.
And on time is late.
And it's one of the things Ithink, especially for me as
(19:07):
someone who, you know, I, when Itravel, when I'm doing anything.
I am one of those people thatit's not uncommon for me to run
a little bit ahead of scheduleand want to go somewhere ahead
early, and I cannot tell you howmany times, you know, I've got a
(19:28):
chauffeur that thinks they're ontime.
That shows up right at thepickup time.
I've already been standing therefor five minutes.
Right.
Because I knew what time it was.
And you know, for me it, it, itcomes down to a generational
thing because when I was growingup, I grew up with not only, um,
you know, no one in thetransportation space, no family
(19:50):
that did anything, but my dadhad been a pilot in the Army and
my dad had then gone into thecorporate world.
And so literally my entire lifeI was taught.
If you're on time, you need tobe there 15 minutes early so
that when the button hits,you're already in the door,
you're already there, right?
If you're going for a jobinterview, that person should
(20:12):
look out and see you there.
And if you gotta sit there for15 minutes, that's fine.
And the only place I've foundthat's a horrible idea is the
doctors, right?
Because really, you're justgonna sit there another extra 15
minutes.
But guess what?
That doctor's car should stillbe there 15 minutes early.
Um, so for me, I think that's abig thing in my mind because the
other problem becomes if you aredriving for a living like
(20:36):
chauffeurs do, or even likemotor coach drivers, anyone in
this industry, if you're tryingto get there right on time, any
kind of traffic whatsoever.
Is going to cause you to belate.
And so especially in your majorcities, right?
Your, you, New York, la,Chicago, Dallas, um, anywhere
(20:56):
that's got traffic.
I think trying to target that,you've gotta learn how to work
backwards and you've gotta thensay, Hey, if I'm gonna be there
15 minutes early.
I need to have a little bit ofbuffer time.
And I think at, at least itsounds like you guys are similar
to, to me and, and the way thatwe think impacts in that if you
are not constantly thinkingabout it and you're trying to
(21:18):
run on time, inevitably you'regonna run late.
Dr Umut Aslan (21:22):
Exactly.
A hundred percent agree.
James Blain (21:25):
So let me ask you, as you guys have kind of grown
and evolved.
what does that look like for youin the business heading into now
what's, what's going to be,obviously we know what's coming
now, but you know, back then wehad no idea what was coming
around the corner with COVID and2020.
What does that kind of look likeas far as where you're in the
(21:46):
business and what that starts tolook like as we start moving
past.
2015, you guys are now a mixedfleet, bit of a, a motor coach
bus and, and you know, still asedan and, and SUV company.
What does that kinda look likefor you and, and what does that
kind of turn into?
Where do you end up?
Dr Umut Aslan (22:05):
So I can say that the company right now, which I
sold my share to my brother, I'ma, I'm out of it, so out of the
business.
By still involved here, kind ofbusiness coaching consultant
with him.
So I could tell you right now islike mostly the majority of the
business comes through the largegroups and then small, small
(22:26):
amount of it comes in from the,like the sedan and SUVs'cause
the ground is shifting and it'sgonna shift a lot.
And one of the things that.
I'm gonna like to mention it.
So I, I did a research in my,during my doctorate for business
management and strategy, focusedon more strategy.
(22:47):
And I interviewed verysuccessful business people that
they, they grew up theirbusinesses and one of the things
I know they, one of my conceptscame out of it.
Some of the business owners, andespecially in our industry,
they're more focused on shortterm planning.
Either day to day, monthly orquarterly planning.
(23:09):
And there was some of themplanning for one, one year to
three year planning.
So one thing I would tell andsuggest to people based on the
data and experiences that I havenowadays, people or the
companies, organizations shouldlook into a little bit further
to into the feature and see.
What they can do come up withsome services is, you know,
(23:33):
right now the robotaxis arespreading out.
And a few people I spoke andsome of the business owners that
they, they share that they usethe robotaxis and they even
prefer a robotaxi to have it fortheir kids versus a car with the
driver.
James Blain (23:55):
I, I mean, it makes sense, right?
Because if you think about, youknow, some of the things that
have happened in the Rideshareworld.
You know, I think we all saw thearticles that came out about the
sexual assaults and all theissues that they've had in kind
of the rideshare space.
I think if you can eliminate theperson from that equation.
Obviously at that point there,it's just you in the vehicle.
(24:17):
At that point, the concernbecomes more of the same as
someone in a dark, dimly litparking lot at night, right?
You're safe once you get in thecar.
You just have to get into thecar safely, and so I think that
makes a lot of sense and that ifyou can safely get into the
vehicle and the vehicle getsmoving at that point, you're
good to go.
Now, I guess my question wouldbe, you know, as you're kind of
(24:38):
doing this research, as you'rekind of getting ready there.
What, I guess what is the bigfactor that a lot of these
successful companies had incommon in terms of their
adoption of that kind oftechnology?
Was there kind of a thread therethat was, that's common in terms
of leveraging technology?
Dr Umut Aslan (24:58):
Not really, but like my, my research was trying
to figure out the factors thathelped them to grow from a, like
a small vehicle number ofvehicles to more 10 or more
vehicles.
The common themes that came up,number one is networking at the
national, like the industryassociations and local
(25:21):
association.
Marketing, that was number oneof them.
And being part of integratednetworking regularly with the
people, whether in the industryor outside of the industry, and
keep marketing
James Blain (25:34):
Yep.
Dr Umut Aslan (25:35):
to the marketing continuous with the strong
presence, uh, website, maybe wecan integrate that as a part of
the technology, a CEO andanother part of it, but that's
not enough.
Delivering the service.
Providing the service, but notas a low, low cost provider to
be able to sustain it.
The keys that companies shouldbe able to deliver, the service
(25:58):
they promised, which was a cleanvehicle, well dressed offer, and
on time vehicle plus, anotherkey is who's behind the wheel
and who's behind the phones.
That answering the phone that todeliver the service when they
call.
When they call the customers,you can't believe sometimes if
you call a certain companies,they still pick up the phones.
(26:20):
Dispatch.
James Blain (26:22):
Oh yeah, yeah.
No, look, when I first got intothe industry, right, you know,
we were, we were unknown.
We had just come out, you know,PAX was, was brand new and I
remember calling people and, andI'd hear car service.
And I'm like, oh, hello.
you know, now that you've yelledcar service at me, but it's
true.
There are still companies that Ithink that operate that way, and
I think one of the things thatwe have talked about since the
(26:45):
inception of pax, and this issomething I've been and will be
adamant about, is that you haveto be able to provide an
experience to that passenger.
That is going to be differentthan the others that they're
dealing with.
So if your goal is, I'm gonnacompete directly with Uber,
guess what?
(27:05):
Unless you have the sameconvenience level, the app, the
same availability as the app,the same on demand experience,
the same everything, you are notgoing to be able to compete with
Uber.
One of the things that makesRideshare work is they've got
this national footprint, they'vegot this single application.
I can call up and I can havesomeone here to pick me up in a
(27:26):
couple minutes.
What I can't do though, is havethat same level of expectation
of service.
My expectation when I go withRideshare has got to come down.
the easiest way if you're tryingto lure people away from
Rideshare is to make sure thatyou have, people on your team
that are.
Literally blowing the doors offof the experience for that
(27:46):
passenger.
It's a pristine vehicle.
It's someone dressed that looksthe part, you know?
It's someone that understands,Hey, I'm gonna help you with the
door.
I'm gonna help you with this.
They're like we said, they'renot right there on time.
They're 15 minutes early,they're hitting their spot time.
You are putting yourself in adifferent category.
It's the same reason someonewould stay at a Ritz Carlton
(28:09):
instead of a Holiday InnExpress.
Holiday Inn Express has itsplace in the market and so does
the Ritz Carlton.
But if I'm going on a trip, I'mprobably never gonna go, you
know, my choices right now, I'mstuck between the Ritz and the
Holiday Inn.
I'm not sure which one I'm gonnapick right there.
There are different levels and Ithink that says a lot to it.
(28:29):
Um, now I'd love to know one ofthe things that we hear.
Over and over and over frompeople that are successful in
the industry is mentorship.
When you were doing yourresearch, was there any level of
having a mentor or someonespecifically mentoring them that
came up?
Or was it more so towardsnetworking groups?
Dr Umut Aslan (28:48):
Is is I'm gonna tell you the one concept that
networking associations andspecifically many people share
that the Limousine AssociationNLA shows that was big for them,
plus the peer groups.
That's one of the reasons that Iembarked on the peer group and.
So what they, what people sharedthat going to the industry show.
(29:13):
That was for us, same because wefound some people to guide us
and we were part of Arthur,Arthur Messina's peer groups.
Me and Celine were at differentgroups and that created building
that relationship.
You build deep connections,dependant, and you can call, say
hey.
I need the help.
(29:33):
What would you do in this cases?
And imagine that also what itgives you an advantage because
you're, you're thinking from oneperspective, but when you go to
that peer groups or closerrelationships, you have a smart
people or smarter people thanyou, that who has done the
(29:54):
business before or they're doingit and they tell you, why don't
you do that if you're open?
To learn.
And if you're open to becoachable, you can say, okay,
let me see that.
Can I implement it?
An example that when, when yougo to the, okay, you start past
business, right?
You have no idea, but where doyou get the customers?
(30:17):
Google is money eater.
Yes, Google has a portion willbring you, but not only will
bring you, but there are anotheravenues.
People tell you, Hey, go to thecolleges.
An example.
James Blain (30:28):
Yeah.
Dr Umut Aslan (30:28):
do that?
Have you done that or are youpart of that?
Associations that people arepart of it.
Okay.
It just, you'll learn it, butyou don't have to learn from the
beginning.
Try to find the inventive toolsthere already exist there, and
you're having that not only onementor, you have like multiple
mantras in your group tellingyou, guiding you.
(30:50):
To find you're running in issuesthat you could say, Hey, this is
what I'm running.
What have you guys done it?
Have you ever experienced thisone?
James Blain (30:58):
Well, and I, I think the big thing there, you
know, it's, it's funny.
So I was at a neighborhood blockparty the other night with my
family, right?
And every year our, ourneighborhood has this block
party.
Uh, and I was talking to someonewho had just started a business,
nothing to do withtransportation, nothing at all
to do with our industry.
Um, but he started talking to meabout marketing And, you know,
(31:19):
kinda what he was thinking andwhat he's, and this person had,
gimme this advice, this personto gimme me that advice.
And, you know, I couldn't helpmyself immediately.
It was, okay, well, tell meabout your business.
Right?
We, once you're an entrepreneur,you're an entrepreneur for life,
right?
And so it was, all right, well,tell me about your business.
And I quickly found out that,and, and this is true, I think
(31:40):
of a lot of differentindustries, there are no lack of
people.
That are going to tell you whatto do.
They're gonna tell you how torun things.
They're gonna tell you how to dothings that want to tell you
everything without taking thetime to learn about what you do.
To learn about what yourbusiness is.
And so through thisconversation, you know, I felt
(32:02):
bad'cause I just tell me more.
Okay, what are you doing here?
What are you doing there?
What are you doing here?
What are you doing there?
Um, because I, I was trying tounderstand the business and, you
know, after talking to him for awhile, it was very clear that he
had talked to some marketingpeople that were like, oh yeah,
we're gonna set you up on Googleads and you're go talk to these
people and talk to those peopleand do this and do that.
But what they hadn't done isthey hadn't actually sat down
(32:24):
and tried to learn.
The business to kind of figureit out.
And I think one of the thingsthat in our industry makes peer
groups and the associationevents and all of these
different things so successfulis that you are there with
people that are doing the samething that you are.
You're there with people thathave been exactly where you are.
(32:44):
So whereas for you, you may bebuying your bus for the first
time and thinking, oh, you know,I've got this great idea.
I'm gonna do this and this andthis.
You'll have the opportunity totalk to someone and says, oh
yeah, I did all of those things.
That was a great idea.
That was an okay idea.
That was the worst day of mylife.
Don't do that one.
Right.
And so I think there's this hugevalue there.
(33:05):
And being able to do that, I, Ithink you can still move forward
without it.
Uh, but I, like I said, it'skinda like the, the companies
that don't.
Kind of leave their sphere ofinfluence, they end up with
their own kind of solutionsthey've had to fight and work
for.
So I guess the, the otherquestion I'd have is, when you
were doing your research, youknow, were there any other key
(33:27):
things that stuck out in termsof the most successful companies
as it relates to that space?
Was there anything that kind ofsurprised you or you went, oh, I
wouldn't have thought of that.
Dr Umut Aslan (33:38):
You know, now it's something that is, the
concept that I came in was, yousign simple,
James Blain (33:46):
Yeah.
Dr Umut Aslan (33:46):
but you, you think that even, even one of my
chair commented, isn't thatcommon sense?
One of the things is keepingyour financial, your company
financially healthy
James Blain (33:58):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (33:58):
is you think that, but in when you
investigate, you're gonna seethat some of the business
owners, they only know about theprofit or they don't know the
details of the numbers.
What is the gross margin?
What is the e EBIT or EBITDAthat so, and.
We discuss about delivering theservice.
(34:18):
That's like no brainer, right?
We say it's simple that you haveto do that, but we come across,
we experience working with anathlete that they send you
crappy vehicle, a driver.
You tell them, Hey, this is, I'mhaving large groups.
I would like you to make surethat all your guys are dressed,
your vehicle are cleaned up.
Guess what?
(34:40):
It seems like you know the othercompany didn't hear anything
from you.
If you talk to certain providersin the nest, they'll sell,
they'll tell you how many timesthey burned out because of using
an athlete, or some of theoperators start entering the bus
business because of level ofservice they you receive from
(35:02):
the motor coach companies.
So they decided.
You know what?
Screw you guys, I'm gonna buy myown motor coach and build my own
businesses.
That you hear that stories too,and it is all simple being like
a networking at the associationsor local associations being part
of the group and delivering theservice with the right pricing.
(35:24):
But you see also at the sametime, people price it so cheap
and they cannot make it and.
Keeping financially healthy.
Recently, someone shared withme, there was a guy that he
purchased for vehicles and nowhe cannot continue his business.
He cannot stay in it.
(35:44):
And then when he was asked, whydid you buy so many vehicles?
And the answer is, I wanted tohave a different variety.
You want it to have a differentvariety without like having
enough business for each ofthem.
So it sounds simple, but whenyou look at it, the, the, the
sharings that comes with frompeople, successful people, the
(36:09):
biggest key is execution ofthat.
What we think that is a commonsense or simple ideas to be able
to make it reality, to executethem.
And another one is constantplanning is.
Some of them is focused entirelyin the business, and some of
them focus on str like inStrategic Planet.
But now what I would suggestbased on my studies and what's
(36:33):
happening in the industry or inall over the life that changes
Rapid, is I think that Moore lawthat mentions about the
exponential change, right?
So in this moment, companiesshould look into also into the
future.
Okay, what's happening?
(36:53):
What will happen and how we canmitigate it, or how can we be
ahead of the game when therobotaxis comes in?
Many people in the industrialthink that robot taxi may kill
the limo business.
James Blain (37:07):
You know, I, I will say in, in my opinion, I think
you, you've hit on a lot ofthings and I want to take a
second and try and unpack acouple of'em.
'cause some of the things yousaid early on are coming back
now and I think there's a lothere that's relevant.
I think something you said earlyon, um, and it's really
important is.
You who you are when you're aone car operator, as a person,
(37:31):
as a leader, has to be differentthan who you are right now that
you've got a larger fleet orwhen you hit a larger fleet.
And the way that I've alwaysheard that and the way that it
was always taught to me is whatwill get you to your first
million?
Is not what you're going to needto get to 2 million and beyond,
right?
It's, it's not the same in termsof where you're at, where you're
(37:54):
focusing on.
And I think what we see a lot iswhen you're that one car
operator, you can be a lotscrappier, you can be a lot more
out there.
You can be in the car, you candrive, because at that point you
are kind of the business and asyou grow the business and you
have to step up and you have tostart delegating, pushing things
out.
(38:14):
You have to change.
I think one of the biggestthings that I've seen, and I was
having a conversation withsomeone about this and then an
announcement came out, is Ithink a lot of companies are
already trying to see down theroad and figure that out.
A great example of that is thecar rental industry.
(38:34):
Look, when we get to the pointwhere there's autonomous
vehicles.
We still have to have themcleaned, serviced, checked out
and put back on the road.
great news for mechanics.
If you're a mechanic, guys, aOK, you're good.
You're good.
now the difference is who'sgonna do that?
So, you know, if you've got waymore operating a fleet, well
(38:56):
guess what?
The rental car companies, and,and don't quote me on who it
was, I wanna say Hertz, but Icould be wrong, have already
stepped in and said, Hey.
We're going to clean service andturn around autonomous vehicles.
So the autonomous vehicle willdrive to us.
We'll clean it, we'll serviceit, we'll take care of it, we'll
put it back on the road.
if you are thinking as a driver,if you're thinking as an owner,
(39:17):
one of the things to keep inmind is I don't think we ever
get to the Jetsons where we haveRobot Betty.
Right.
You know, zipping around with,with things.
It doesn't make sense, right?
If I think of, and, and look atthe hotel industry.
If you look at the hotelindustry, when you go to check
in, what is the base level?
(39:38):
Check-in the kiosk, right?
The kiosk is the base level.
Check-in.
Now who in their right mind isgonna, you know, you go to
Vegas, you go to a large hotel,you go to the nicest hotel in
New York.
Do you expect that your highestcustomer service level hotel is
gonna have a kiosk?
(39:58):
No, of course not.
There's somebody there towelcome you to the hotel, right?
To make sure things are takencare of, to be that face of it.
And so I think it hearkens backto what we talked about earlier
of what is on time, what isappearance, what is a clean
vehicle?
Because if the base level ofservice becomes.
(40:19):
Everything's automated.
Everything's a kiosk.
Everything is this and that.
You then have this higher tierthat becomes.
This is hands-on, this is whiteglove.
This is what that might be.
because what we're seeing rightnow, even in regular rideshare
is if I order, you know, yourbase level rideshare vehicle,
(40:39):
they might send me a RAV4,right?
Nothing against Toyota LoveToyota, but they might send me
someone in a RAV4 if I ordertheir premium luxury, their
chauffeur.
They're basically sending me thesame person, but that person's
driving a suburban or maybe anEscalade, depending on the
market, the color of thatvehicle.
(41:01):
Is not going to define for mewhat the level of service is.
My experience with that personin that vehicle is what's gonna
define it.
And so I think it's importantthat when we're looking ahead,
that you have to keep in mindthat we are a service-based
industry.
So let me ask you, what are yourthoughts in terms of what does
(41:23):
that look like?
You know, obviously you are outof the, the business with your
brother, but you are still now.
Coaching and, and you're doingdevelopment and you're helping
companies.
When you're helping them try tofigure that out, what are you
looking towards?
What do you see as theopportunity?
Dr Umut Aslan (41:40):
One of the opportunities I see, I think
similar to what you mentionedthere, there will be open up
different opportunities like afleet management the, of the
autonomous vehicles, because Idon't think.
Either Google or Wemo or Teslawill wanna to manage that
vehicles for running a fleet ofvehicles that run or run that
(42:01):
eventually that vehicles will berun down.
Or imagine that also at the sametime that even in Texas or Uber
people, at least some of them,not all of them will clean up
their vehicles, but if you'rerunning a robot taxi all the
time, who's gonna clean thatvehicle?
And at the same time, how longwe, I, I don't know if these
(42:23):
companies have the data ofrunning the whole vehicle,
mechanically maintaining it,what kind of maintain
maintenance needed, and, andthen who's gonna keep it clean?
Who's gonna keep it, who's gonnamaintain it?
But at the same time, I seepeople are crazy about trying to
test them.
I, I think I, I saw one articlesaid one guy.
(42:45):
To try the driverless vehicle.
He canceled all of the driver,but just to be able to try
driverless vehicle.
But at the same time, there arepeople that they don't feel
comfortable.
They don't feel safe in it,whether the data shows that
they're safer than the humandrivers, but at the same time,
(43:07):
people will want the humanconnection.
That's what we all want.
Everything when it goes to.
Automate it.
People will still look forsomeone to drive them.
Also someone to experience orhelp them at.
So there are opportunities,there will be opportunities may
the niche will be smaller, butat the same time for any company
(43:29):
to be able to capture this.
They have to look a little bitforward and then experiment with
their ideas, come up withdifferent ideas.
During that talk, you mentionedthat, okay, cleanliness services
or maintenance of the vehicle.
What about for people?
Okay, but they still want thehuman touch.
They don't want to be driven orthey want someone to be present
(43:52):
and then also handle their lagebacks.
James Blain (43:55):
Right.
Dr Umut Aslan (43:57):
So it should be.
I can't tell you what the futurewill bring, but I also, what I
could tell companies who in theindustry to keep looking,
discovering or looking,exploring the opportunities that
they could use with their, theirown competencies in the
business, in their ownbusinesses.
'cause again, we always needlike a human touch, human
(44:18):
service.
Some people will not give awaythat one.
They'll prefer to interconnector receive the human services,
as you mentioned with the RISCarlton.
James Blain (44:28):
Right.
Well, I think the other side ofthat is I also would say, you
know, people talk aboutautonomous, like it's happening
tomorrow.
You know, I think and, andagain, you know, we, we saw this
happen.
If we start looking back throughhistory, you saw this happen
with emissions, you see thishappen with vehicle safety
features.
You see this happen with all ofthese different major changes to
(44:49):
transportation, right?
The infrastructure is not there.
To just take every car off theroad and have autonomous
tomorrow.
you know, obviously we're seeingthese slowly deploying fleets in
major cities.
But the other thing is, if youstart looking at providers in
smaller rural areas, I don'tknow that it makes sense in the
next five or 10 years for waymore autonomous to really kind
(45:12):
of try and get a foothold.
I think the other side of thatis, as I mentioned earlier,
knowing kind of the level thatyou're gonna play at and the
level you're gonna provideservice at.
So I guess my thing would be,you know, obviously we wanna
keep looking forward to that.
What does an operator do today?
If, you know, let's say you aresomeone that, that is looking to
(45:34):
implement what we're talkingabout in terms of I wanna find a
peer group, I want to get moreinvolved with the associations,
I want to kind of grow mybusiness.
I know that you are working on aproject to kind of put some
groups together.
Can you tell us a little bitabout what is it that you are
doing and how is that anopportunity for someone to get
that type of support that we'vebeen talking about?
Dr Umut Aslan (45:56):
So as, as you mentioned, it is like the key is
to be able to find out otherpeople's ideas.
All everyone has a differentlike knowledge.
Everyone has a differentperspectives.
And the key that in my project,the peer groups, other than
one-on-one business coachingapp, the peer groups here helps
(46:19):
you to be able to learn fromothers.
Not only one person, even whenyou and I sit at any events that
I learn from you, every time Ispeak to you, I learn from other
people.
And I'm gonna tell you somethingthat one of the most successful
guys in the industry, GeorgeJacobs, so everyone knows him.
And funny thing he said, likewhen I say I learn a lot from
(46:40):
you, he said, I learn from you.
And I learn even from like asmaller guy operations that that
the way that to learner is notabout size of the organization,
but at the same time to be openand then ask the questions.
Because everyone has adifferent, like collecting
different knowledge.
But when we come together, andthis is, I call it partially
(47:00):
working on the business, whenyou are away from your
operations, when operations,day-to-day business, when you
get out of that daily huddles,daily challenges, and you sit
with the like-minded successfulpeople that you see something
different.
you are away from your ownbusiness.
You are learning.
You're building your knowledge.
(47:20):
You're seeing something that youdidn't catch or you didn't grasp
it by talking to people.
And also in that peer groups orwhat the expert speakers comes
in from the industry and whetherit's technology, marketing,
delivering the serviceoperations, you grab something
(47:41):
that you can take out andimplement it in your day-to-day
real life business.
And again, I keep saying thatone you have, there's a Japanese
saying that we're not as smartas all of us.
So if you can elicit the wisdomof the grow up, that'll help you
to take your business to thenext level.
James Blain (48:03):
I, I agree entirely.
I think one of the things thatwe have seen over and over and
over with all the successfulpeople we've talked to is that
they are always very big to givecredit where credit is due in
terms of people that havecoached them, people that have
helped them, people that havetaken them under their wing.
You know, I, I did a, a podcastinterview recently.
(48:24):
On, uh, on the Raise Up podcastwith Charlie and Athena Grim,
which happened to be two of mymentors in the industry, right.
I was lucky enough to, to havethem at, at one of the shows,
kind of when I was first gettingin, say, Hey, you know, why
don't you come to dinner withus?
And that kind of blossomed intohaving mentors.
And I think there's a lot to besaid about being able to find
(48:46):
the people that you can connectwith and that get it.
And to George's point.
I think there's an opportunityto learn from anyone and
everyone.
it might be learning what not todo, um, or it might be learning
what to do.
But I think, I think one of thethings about learning that
you've really nailed is that youhave to be open and you have to
(49:08):
be able to kind of see thelesson and absorb the lesson.
I, I often find that the peoplethat think they are the smartest
in the room are usually the mostclosed off in the room.
Usually the ones that are, aremore willing to absorb
everything are truly the onesthat are getting the benefit.
So let me ask, you know,obviously you've got your groups
that are, you're puttingtogether.
(49:29):
if someone's wanting to join oneof your peer groups, if they're
wanting to learn more about whatyou are doing, how you can help
them, where would they go forthat?
Yep.
Dr Umut Aslan (49:37):
You can go to growth and success institute.com
or they could, I think majorityof the people are connected to
me on Facebook.
They can send me, message orthey can gimme a call and my
cell phone if they wanna talkmore about it.
James Blain (49:53):
All right.
So you guys heard that Connecton Facebook.
I'm guessing they probablyconnect on LinkedIn as well.
Uh, growth and SuccessInstitute.
Now, let me ask you, how oftenare your groups meeting?
How often are you having thesepeer groups?
Dr Umut Aslan (50:07):
so we're having it three times in a year, yeah,
three times in a year.
James Blain (50:11):
And can you tell us a little bit about what you
know, what does that kind ofentail?
Is that something where they'reflying in?
How do they get involved withthat?
Dr Umut Aslan (50:19):
So another key factor, and especially in person
versus in in Zoom or virtually,you see the operations of
another operators, like the, ourfirst meeting will be in San
Diego, so we're gonna visitminimum black transportation.
The key gives you, when you comein here, you step into the other
operator.
Place the running like, or let'scall it business or house, that
(50:43):
you see how they're managing it.
And when you see it, you see theway that they're managing it.
Is it something that you canadapt it or you may see it,
they're, they're doing somethingthat you may take.
Implement it.
Of course, you're not gonna takeanything just like to look at
it, but you see like you canadapt it and then take the idea
and implement the businesses.
(51:04):
And also you have theopportunity to talk with the
employees, ask them questions.
With the challenges that you'refacing, are they similar to your
challenges?
Another learn opportunity,seeing it, how they're design
their operations, how are theyrunning their operation?
And who are behind the scenes?
What are they doing it?
And when you ask people.
(51:26):
That their opinion.
People love to talk.
They, they love sharing theirlove, sharing their expertise,
their information as whereveryou go.
People love to help otherpeople.
I think helping other people isin need like expression of love
that we show.
We care about the people.
And when people come fromdifferent part of the
(51:47):
transportation companies,they're not competing
confidential people.
Open up, tell, hey, this is whatI'm doing, or.
And I'm gonna give you our,like, sometimes people call our
sales director the MIB sales andask her what she's doing, how
she's doing it, and she, shetells me she loves sharing it.
Hey, are you doing this?
(52:08):
Are you doing this one?
And you're coming here.
You're getting like a free reallife that is proven to bring the
company to certain level forfree.
That's, that's priceless.
James Blain (52:21):
Well, and, and look, I am fortunate enough that
kind of in my role in training,I get to travel the country and
I get to do site visits all thetime.
I have lost count of the numberof operations that I've been to,
and what I found is that theredoesn't seem to be, you know,
there's things that, that theyhaven in common.
If you go visit a hundredoperations, you may see a
(52:43):
hundred different ways to dothings from something as simple
as, how we store the keys, howthey check in to something as
complicated as, Hey, here's ourmaintenance schedules.
it's very eye-opening when youget to go to operations and do
that because one of the thingsthat I found is.
Al like you said, almost all theoperations are very forthcoming.
(53:06):
because here's the thing, thelittle battles are just as
important as the bigger battlesin certain places, but if I'm
coming to visit you from anotherpart of the country.
The way that you organize yourfleet in the parking lot is not
necessarily going to affect.
If I take that and I apply whatI've learned, but the other
(53:27):
thing that I've seen happen andI've watched these conversations
is I've watched someone on asite visit say, Hey, that's
really neat.
Why are you doing it that way?
Well, we do it this way becauseof this.
Oh, well we do this.
And then the next thing youknow, they've shared the
information.
They've each shared a piece thatbrought them further to where
they want to be.
And the next thing you know,they, both sides have been able
(53:49):
to improve their process,whereas they never would've seen
it.
They never would've shared it.
They'd have no idea how they doit.
And so I have to say, for me atleast, I think that's one of the
neatest things.
About getting to do site visitsis you get to find out those
pieces that are the things thatwe see every day that no one
else probably ever gets to see.
(54:10):
Um, so obviously the first one'sin San Diego, when is that one
gonna be?
Dr Umut Aslan (54:15):
It's gonna be in December, first week of
December.
James Blain (54:18):
All right, so you guys, first week of December, if
you are looking for a peergroup, I know somebody.
Um, no, but more importantly, Ithink the big thing here is this
really ties into what we'vetalked about almost since the
exception of the podcast, andthat's that having mentorship.
Having somewhere where you'regoing for knowledge, getting to
be able to hear the differentopinions and see the different
(54:41):
ways that things are done andkind of interact with the others
in the industry is trulysomething that gives you an
edge.
Um, I can't thank you enough forcoming on the podcast.
one last time.
Where is it?
They can go if they wanna signup and learn more.
Dr Umut Aslan (54:54):
So they can, if they want, I'll give my cell
phone(619) 723-8104.
They can text me, call me, orthey can go to the Growth and
Success Institute.
Or I can give my email UD UM utat growth and success
institute.com and you could findme on LinkedIn or Facebook.
James Blain (55:16):
I can't thank you enough for coming on.
Uh, thank you everyone forlistening.
Hopefully you've liked andsubscribed.
One thing worth noting, if youlove what you're hearing, if you
want to hear more, drop us a,like, drop us a comment.
Let us know what we can do tohelp you guys get the support
you need from the podcast.
And as always, thanks youeverybody for listening.
Bye-bye.
Thank you for listening to theground transportation podcast.
(55:39):
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.
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
(55:59):
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.
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