Unbreakable Path: A Story of Loss, Resilience, and the Pursuit of Greatness, with Charlie Horky

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Order the book today: https://www.amazon.com/Unbreakable-Path-Resilience-Pursuit-Greatness/dp/1967424373/

Industry legend Charlie Horky returns to the podcast to celebrate the release of his new book, Unbreakable Path — a raw, fast-moving account of how he built one of the largest limousine companies in the world, lost it all, and rebuilt his life and career from the ground up.

In this conversation, Charlie shares what pushed him to finally write the book, the pivotal moments that shaped his rise at CLS, the missteps that nearly ended everything, and how he found his way back with Slade Services. This episode pulls back the curtain on one of the industry’s most talked-about figures — his wins, his failures, and the lessons he hopes operators of every size will take from his story.

If you want the truth behind the folklore, the mindset behind the risks, and the perspective that only 45 years in the industry can provide, you won’t want to miss this one.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome
01:00 Unbreakable Path
06:57 Pivotal Turning
11:38 Poor Choices
14:55 Failure Wasn't An Option
16:47 Broken Covenants
19:41 Making Connections & Shaking Things Up
21:55 Largest Revenue at CLS
22:32 Different and the Same
25:43 Charlie's Happy Place
31:26 Slade Services
36:21 Customer Care
40:33 Relationship Building
50:57 Ten Year Forecast
01:00:03 Parting Thoughts

Connect with Charlie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-horky-1320354b/
Visit Slade Services: https://www.sladeservices.com/

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

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

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

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

Episode Transcript

James Blain (00:27):
Hello everybody and welcome back to another exciting
episode of the Ground TransPatient Podcast.
I am sad that I don't have mytrustee co-host Ken with me
today.
He's probably off doing some bigdeal we'll find about later and
get to see what happens there,but we have something really
awesome today.
We have Charlie Horkey back onthe podcast.
Charlie, how's it going?

Charlie Horky (00:47):
It is going well.
Thanks for having me.

James Blain (00:49):
Yeah, I'm, I'm really excited about this
podcast.
I'm not gonna take your thunder.
I'll let you tell them whyyou're here, but this, this is
gonna be pretty epic'cause we'redoing something pretty big here.

Charlie Horky (01:00):
Well, I wrote this book called Unbreakable
Path and um, it's gonna bereleased today.
So I thought we should do thison your show because you know,
you've always been such a, agreat host and I always have so
much fun with you, and it wasnice to see you in Vegas.
So I think this was gonna workout well today.

James Blain (01:16):
Well, I appreciate it.
For, for those of you that don'tknow, that haven't heard the
episode, stop right now.
Go listen to the first episodeCharlie was with us on.
So Charlie has written a bookcalled Unbreakable Path.
I am lucky enough, I got apre-release copy I got to read
through.
And I gotta say, as someone thathears stories for a living,
right?
I mean that's, uh, being thehost here, working at PACS

(01:39):
training, going from operationto operation.
I travel the country.
I talk to people all the time.
I gotta tell you, this isprobably one of the most unique
and exciting stories I thinkI've ever heard in the industry.
I mean, where do I even start?
let, let me, let me start withthe biggest question.
What, what made you wanna writethe book?

Charlie Horky (01:57):
You know, a lot of people had told me that, that
I should write it.
I had a little bit of a, amisstep along the way and, um,
before I, uh, took a little bitof a time out in my life, Peter
Berg, told me that I shouldwrite my story.
And so I was gonna have a 20, 22months to do that.
So I sat down and just startedwriting and I wrote and I wrote

(02:21):
it and, um, I sent it to, um, mywife Megan, and she was able to
transcribe my horriblehandwriting and, uh, get it in
some kind of form that we couldget it to an editor.
And then it started taking this,and it is a good story and
people like it, but, um, you aresaying to me like, why did I do
it?
I I did it because I had nothingelse to do.

(02:42):
And, I had literally gone fromlike nothing to nothing, you
know, in 35 years.
And, um, I don't know.
It was just, It was good to do.
So, you know, I'm, I'm glad thatI did it.

James Blain (02:54):
Well, and I've gotta say, you know, one of the
things, and, and you've, you'vebrought it up, is from nothing
to nothing.
And I think it kind of, one ofthe things that draws you in
about this story, at least whenI was reading it, is it's raw.
I mean, you're, you're notholding mac punches, you're not
sugarcoating.
I mean, it's, here's kind of howI grew up.

(03:14):
Here's where I started, here'show I have this meteor rise in
this company.
Here's kind of what happens.
Here's how I end up now.
And so I think one of the, oneof the cool things about the way
you've written it is a lot ofpeople when they tend to write
books, right, we tend to, wetend to see ourselves as like
this hero and shed the bestlight.
And I think it's a really kindof honest reflection.

(03:35):
And anyone that's been luckyenough to hang out with you has
kind of heard some of thestories that you tell.
It's really neat to kind of see'em reflected on here.
Let me ask you, knowing thatthis is one of those things
where, you know, you were justkind of, Hey, I wanna get the
story out there, I wanna put itout there.
was there any kinda moment whenyou were writing those where
you're like, oh man, I gottahold that one back.

(03:55):
Or I don't know if I should putthat one in the book.
Like, did you ever have thatkind of moment, or is this one
of those things where you justkind of poured it all in?

Charlie Horky (04:03):
No, you know, the book is 109 pages and, um, I, I
could have, you know, what Ilearned in this whole thing is,
is that like my story in firstperson might be interesting.
There's a million interestingstories in, in to, in, in making
a story and doing a film anddoing a TV show and writing some
kind of a book.

(04:24):
You know, you gotta have lots ofcharacters and character
development and you know, whatwas going on.
Like, I had somebody read thisbook recently and they said,
well.
You know, you said that you grewup with, you know, you had a div
in a divorced family with yourmom raising you in the sixties.
Um, how do you think your momfelt about this?
And the story was about me andso I, I read the story, I wrote

(04:46):
the story in first person, andI, I don't, I don't know, you
know, it, um, what I learnedabout doing this is that you
have to be awfully careful.
I mean, when you talk aboutincluding stories, I'm only,
it's only interesting because Iwas in the limousine industry in
Hollywood, in, in a celebrity.
Had I been in Des Moines, Iowa,I don't think it would've been

(05:08):
so interesting.
I mean, I might have done someinteresting stuff, but the fact
that I was.
only an arm's length away frompeople like Michael Jackson or,
you know, the people that I wasdriving at the time and, and who
I was dealing with because itwas Hollywood and the story.
I didn't wanna tell a storyabout them because that isn't
what I do.
I, I wanted to tell my story andthey just happened.

(05:29):
I, I just happened to be next tothese people, you know what I
mean?
I mean, I didn't need to write astory about, well, one night I
was with Michael Jackson and wedid such and such, or one night
I was with so and so and theywere in a compromising
situation.
That was nothing that I wantedto do at all.
I thought my story was goodenough based on the fact that I
started with literally nothing.
I grew the company to, you know,a pretty successful level.

(05:51):
The company's still in businesstoday, under another name that
shares the original name,empire, CLS.
And to tell you the truth, thereal reason I wanted to write
this, not because I wanted totake anything away from Empire
CLS, but Empire CLS.
They have always looked at theirhistory as being that they
started in 1981, which isn'ttrue.

(06:11):
They started in 2005.
I was the one that started in1981 and brought the company to
2005.
So if anything, I just wanted totell my story because I felt
it's my legacy.
I mean, I've got, you know,three kids and, um, I'm happily
married and, and I'm proud ofthe things that I've done in
this industry and I'm proud ofthe, associations that I've

(06:32):
made.
when I talk to people today,they know who Empire CLS is and
they're amazed to find that I'mthe C and CLS and that means
something to me.
I mean, they would never beanything without my having done
what I did.
And so did I write the story forthem?
No.
Did I write the story to, youknow, to set the record
straight?
Yeah, for sure.

(06:53):
I mean, but not with avengeance, just because it was
mine to tell.

James Blain (06:57):
Well, and I think, you know, it's funny because we
live in this age of like allthese powerhouse CEOs.
You know, you think of likeSteve Jobs, bill Gates, all
these guys, you know, they're inthis basement, they're working
hard.
And it's funny because you'vegot, you've got a similar story,
but I feel like having read thebook, I feel like, you know,

(07:18):
it's almost like you fell intoit.
It started to kind of come uparound you.
You build it up around you andthen you are just kind of
building this empire and, and itkind, you kind of watch it go
through.
And it's interesting that yousay that because you know,
there's all of these companiesout there.
All of these big names and youknow, we don't always get to

(07:39):
hear the story.
We don't always get to knowwhere they come from.
We don't always get to know thehistory.
And so I think what's reallyneat about this book is that we
don't just start at CLS, westart at Charlie, right?
You go all the way back, say,here's how I came up, here's how
I got in, here's how Iaccidentally ended up with this
company.
Right?

(07:59):
And I, I think I, hopefully, Idon't, I don't take away, and I
don't, I don't wanna give any,any, any part away, but I think
one of my favorite parts aboutthis book is when you're talking
about being a security guard.
And we're not gonna ruin thebook for anybody.
I'm not gonna take this storyout of it, but you know, there's
this part where you're talkingabout that.
You're like, I'm working as asecurity guard.
I'm trying to figure it out.
And it just, I think a lot ofpeople are gonna think back to

(08:20):
their own lives, right?
How many times do you have thesejobs where, you know, you kind
of get this job, you're notreally sure what it is, but you
end up with these steppingstones that kind of take you in
a direction.
I think one of the coolest partsabout this book for me is it
kind of builds out and kind oftakes things to where now
knowing each other and knowingwhat you're doing at Slate

(08:41):
services and knowing whereyou're at, a lot of that makes
sense to me and I kind of seeit.
Let me ask you is, is thereanything that you kind of see as
this pivotal turning and, and ofcourse if it's in the book point
to the book, but is there any,like, is there any times where
you're like, man, if I would'vegone left instead of Right.

(09:02):
I don't know that I'd be here.
Or, you know, if I had to ziggedinstead of zagged, it wouldn't
have played out the way it did.
I mean, is there anything

Charlie Horky (09:08):
At.
At which point?

James Blain (09:10):
Well, and, and I guess that's the thing.
So it sounds like there'smultiple ones then, right?

Charlie Horky (09:14):
Well, I think everybody, you know, can, you
know, hindsight's 2020, right?
I mean, you know, I mean, I can,uh, I, I mean I, you know, I, I
made some real good choices andI made some poor choices and,
you know, looking back on ittoday, um, I think that if I was
gonna give anyone any advicewith regard to right choices or
bad choices, I think that thebad choices start when you're,

(09:37):
put in a situation that's rightin front of you and you need to
deal with it.
And instead of trying to figureout who you know, to change it
or to go around it, or under itor over it or try to change it,
or perhaps do something thatisn't legal, that's not the way
to go.
you, you need to deal withwhat's in front of you, you
know, transparently and withhumility and to be honest about

(09:58):
it and try to care about whatyou're doing.
And if it just takes longer toget there, and that's okay,
it'll, it'll work out better.
And that's what I found anyway,that, you know, all these years
later that, um, it's just easierto just go to work each day, put
your head down and be passionateabout what you do.
And if you run into an obstacle,you just need to sit back and

(10:18):
reset and look at it and see howyou're gonna deal with it.

James Blain (10:22):
So knowing that we live in a, and I say this
lovingly, we live in a, what'smost on fire industry, right?
I think, I think it's safe tosay, you know, operators across
the country, if you ask what themost important thing to that
owner is that day, it's gonna bewhat's most on fire?
How do you, how do you kind ofkeep that straight and how do

(10:44):
you keep that from becoming thefocus then

Charlie Horky (10:47):
What's on fire?
Like?
Like what do you

James Blain (10:49):
like, like what's what I mean by what's most?
So I'll give you a greatexample, right?
I live in the training space, soin my world, it's always what
got screwed up that day.
Did we have a service failure?
Did we have an accident?
Did something go wrong?
You know, I see the same thingwith quotes.
Hey, we have this big eventcoming up.
I've gotta find, you know, I'vegot this vehicle, it's not in my
fleet.
I gotta find there's, it's oneof those industries where what I

(11:10):
see, especially in the mid tothe smaller operators, is it's
always what is the thing that isstealing my attention?
That's the most important thingthat I've gotta deal with today.
And I think a lot of the timesthat I see decisions get made
that are those poor choices arethose, Hey, I've gotta do
something this second.
Hey, I've gotta get this takencare of.

(11:30):
Hey, this is the most importantthing, instead of taking that
step back.
And so I would ask you then, howdo you, how do you kind of take
the step back?

Charlie Horky (11:38):
how do I take a step back?
Would, but would be wind upgoing forward.
There's plenty of examples inthat book of, me making some
poor choices.
and I, I don't believe that, um,ultimately what happened, um, in
my life at the time, you know,would've, I don't believe it was
something that I made a leftinstead of making a right.

(11:59):
I, I think it was something thatwas, I should have, you know,
thought about maybe 15 yearsbefore.
You know, I got into thelimousine industry and every
time I got up to the plate, Iwas hitting the Grand Slams.
I mean, I, I literally in onesix week period of time in the
late 1990s, I took the FourSeasons New York from Manhattan.

(12:24):
I took, um, the St.
Regis from Dave Val.
I took the Los Angeles FourSeasons and the St.
Regis all in about a six weekperiod.
I mean, it was, I mean, it was ahuge, it was just a huge
movement.
And it was solely because, youknow, I had a general manager at
a hotel pitch me with an ideathat he wanted to have

(12:47):
Mercedes-Benz in front of hishotels instead of Lincoln Town
Cars.
And I didn't think about it.
I just said, sure.
and then went and tried tofigure out how I was gonna go
buy$2 million worth of cars.
I mean, you know, it, the guysthat are operating today are a
lot smarter.
I mean, there, there's, there,there's some pretty smart guys
out there that are in business.
I mean, really smart guys thatrun really big companies.

(13:09):
and, you can't think like thatanymore.
It, it's, it's much differenttoday, with regard to credit,
the regulation, how people work.
If they work, it's muchdifferent.
I'm grateful that, um, I'm notan operator today.
I'm grateful that I'm basically,a management company that
manages ground transportation,the idea of being in the space

(13:30):
and owning the vehicles andhaving to deal with so much
regulation, so many things thatthey have to deal with.
My hat's off to'em.
There's some really smart guysout there.
I don't know that I could dothat today.
I was in the limousine industryat a very, loose time, you know,
in the eighties and ninetiesand, you know, all you had to do
is step up to the plate and justtry to hit it as hard as you

(13:51):
could.
each and every time.

James Blain (13:53):
so I, I'm gonna push back on you a little bit
there, Charlie.
'cause having read the book,having seen, you know, and, and
knowing the stories, right?
I, for me, I've been in theindustry about 10 years and one
of the first stories that Iheard was CLS Los Angeles and,
and people that were there.
At the time, and the one thingthat I will say that I think

(14:13):
you're, you're giving yourself alittle bit of grace on is I
think there's a lot to be saidabout stepping up to the plate
and pulling the trigger.
And I think that's one thingthat comes up in your book over
and over again, and not evenhave in the back of your mind
that it, that you're not gonnaswing for the fences.
Right.
It seems like the, the biggestmiss shots are the ones that
people don't take.

(14:34):
And I, I've gotta tell you,having read the book, it sounds
like you, you tried to take'emall.
Now the, the one thing that Iwould ask is, you know, when
you're doing these things,right?
You're in New York, you'retaking business, you're doing
this.
As you're kind of on this riseand as you're building it out,
did it ever occur to you thatyou might swing and miss, or is
this one of those things wherethat just wasn't an option?

Charlie Horky (14:55):
it wasn't an option.
When you're at the Four Seasonshaving breakfast and your wife
tells you at the time to go sayhi to the general manager and
you know the general manager'sjust gonna give you lip service
and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, weuse Manhattan, or whoever it
was.
I just went up there and said,Hey, how you doing?
Da da da.
Actually I'd given the, the FourSeasons a big piece of business

(15:17):
with the royal family of Brune.
So he was, you know, prettyhappy to talk to me anyway.
But he said, oh, I have thisidea, and he told me this idea
and what are you gonna do?
I'm, I just opened up in NewYork, I was doing like$4
million.
I was getting doors slammed inmy face.
The rock stars were using me,some business people were using
me.
But a major hotel like this, thelast time I had a hotel contract
was the Ritz Carlton Marina delRey.

(15:39):
I mean, it was a a wonderfulhotel, a great start back in,
you know, in California in the,in the early 1990s.
But this was substantial.
This was like a, you know,$3.8million piece of business.
And, and What was I gonna do?
Say No, and then they liked whatI was doing and they said, well,
here, have this hotel, have thishotel, have this hotel.
And we're like, yeah, sure.
The hard part.
But what was the easy part forme was they wanted complimentary

(16:03):
cars.
Like they wanted 16 hours a dayof complimentary cars.
And they just didn't want liketown cars or Mercedes Benzs.
They wanted May Box and RollsRoyces.
I mean, those were$250,000purchases.
And you know, here's the, partthat I wouldn't suggest someone
do.
You know, I had Coer Bank thatsaid, here's$2 million to buy
the cars.
Here's another$800,000 line ofcredit, and here's another, you

(16:29):
know, 90% loan against yourreceivables.
So as far as I was concerned,then that was my money.
I mean, like, you know, I, I'mgonna do whatever I wanted to
do.
And the bank would come in atleast once a week and say, you
broke covenants.
And I'd say, well.
Then fix'em and get outta myoffice.

James Blain (16:48):
e explain that for a second.
When you say you brokecovenants, explain that a little
bit

Charlie Horky (16:53):
well, you take the money, you, you take, you
know, you get a loan and theyhave covenants.
Like there's, there's rules withregard to, you know, how much
money you can take and what isfor, and I saw a company in San
Francisco I wanted, which wastotally stupid, and it was like
$800,000.
And I wrote'em a check and I go,here you go.
And I bought their company.
And, and like, that was beforeSan Francisco was like urban
BCN, you know what I mean?
I mean, like, that was before itwas some 15 million or before,

(17:16):
you know, Don Mankey or, JoeLato, all those guys that, I
mean, they were in business,bill Wheeler, all those dudes.
But it wasn't, this was the midto late nineties that, that kind
of had taken a crap there withthat, you know, dotcom boom.
And this was the dumbest thing Iever did.
But anyway, If you're doingbusiness with a bank, you need
to consider them as yourpartners.
And you need to be respectfuland you need to be damn

(17:37):
concerned about what they viewthe money and how you're using
it at the time, coming off ofthe eighties and nineties where
you know, you, you do what wetell you to do, we're not gonna
use you anymore.
And pretty soon you're intothese guys for$10 million and
you know, I mean, it was allgoing pretty well, you know,
until, it wasn't until things,you know, life happens, you get
divorced.

(17:58):
That was expensive.
You know, nine 11 happens, theworld stopped, you know, the
recession came.
People didn't come to Las Vegasanymore.
Those were pretty big factorsthat were beyond my ability to
step up to the plate and smashit out of the park.
I was not trained to be in thebusiness that I was in.
I didn't go to college.
I didn't, you know, I barelyfinished high school.

(18:18):
I'm not saying I'm dumb, I'mjust saying that, you guys have
had some other guests on yourshows that, are pretty damn good
business people that I'm notsure, given the same
opportunities what they would'vedone.
I mean, look at a guy like DavidSelinger.
He, he took over the existingcompany, had a lot of work to
do, cleaning up my mess, andthey're still here today.
I mean, you know, clearly some,someone that knew how to speak,

(18:40):
uh, investment banker talk, thatwasn't me you know, my emphasis
was always the client.
My pursuit was to make thecompany great.
My pursuit was to make sure thatwe had a zero tolerance for
failure.
That we were the best.
in the 1990s, if you were amusic or a film executive, it
was a status symbol to have anaccount with CLS.

(19:02):
I've fired people from recordcompanies and they told me.
No way.
We can't leave.
What can we give you?
What can we give you to staybecause we need to keep this
account?
It was just a totally differenttime.
And then my competitors at thetime, they were good, but they
had not caught on.
And most of the people that Iwas competing against were done.
I mean, Harold Berkman, he wasretiring.

(19:22):
He eventually, unfortunately hepassed away too soon.
Um, Scott Brno, I don't knowwhat he was doing, but he wasn't
doing what I was doing, and itwasn't as organized.
It wasn't as strong as it istoday.
Today it's much differentindustry than it was when I
started.

James Blain (19:41):
Well, but I think, I think there's a, a lot to be
said about the times and, andwhat you were doing, right?
Because I think a lot of peoplelike to think, you know, Hey, it
was the times, hey, it was wherewe're at.
But I think one of the things,and we talked about it in our
last episode, and it comes up inthe book, is you, a lot of what
you were doing was buildingconnections and shaking things

(20:03):
up and doing it kind your way.
I can tell you right now, I, Idid some fact checking on you,
and I gotta tell you the storiesof having a guy jump off a pier,
having to run through thetunnels of Los Angeles, you
know, I, I gotta tell you, I, Ihave to yet to find a video.
But I do have access to peoplethat worked with you back in the
day and all of them have gone.
Oh yeah, we remember.

(20:23):
We heard about that.
Yeah.
You totally would have'em dostuff like that.
I mean, just it, the environmentthat you created, the way you
approached it, I think was sounique and different that you
kind of were the disrupter ofthe time, right?
You were the disruptor, you weredoing it different.
You're approaching it different.
But I think one of the bigthings, and there's some serious
star power in this book that youtalk about is, I think part of

(20:45):
this, and it comes up on ourpodcast all the time, Charlie,
is I think it comes down toconnections and understanding,
hey, you've gotta connect withpeople.
And it sounds like you've hadsome mentors along the way.
And I think that, and, andcorrect me if I'm wrong, it
seems like a lot of thoseconnections, a lot of those
people that you were able tobefriend and work with and build

(21:06):
confidence with are a lot ofwhat kind of put you on that
launchpad that lets you get towhere you were.

Charlie Horky (21:54):
Again, it was a different time, you know, it was
a much, much different time.
I mean, imagine your cell phonebeing a profit center in your
cars.
that doesn't happen today.
But when the cell phones firstcame out and all through the
1990s, you'd make more moneycharging the charging for the
guy that was on the phone, theride to the airport than the

(22:14):
cost of the car to the airport.

James Blain (22:16):
Yeah.

Charlie Horky (22:17):
I don't know how to say this well enough, but,
you could get away with a lotmore back in the eighties and
nineties than you ever couldtoday.
I mean, I can't really put myfinger on it exactly, but it was
just, it was just easier.
it was easier and it wasn't asdifficult.
And, it worked out.
It, worked out well.

James Blain (22:34):
so, so let me ask you, one of the things you
mentioned is you mentioned, youknow, there's so many great
business people today, all thesethings.
Do you remember at your peak, atthe largest that you were able
to build out CLS?
Do you remember what yourrevenue was that year?

Charlie Horky (22:48):
like 70 million.

James Blain (22:50):
so I wanna, I wanted to ask you that because I
had, I had a very strong guess,and I would say that I, I don't
know very many people in theindustry that wouldn't
absolutely be happy to have thatnumber.
And we're talking, you know,years and years ago.
Let me ask you, you know, youmentioned the times are
different and things aredifferent.

(23:11):
What do you see that stayed thesame?
You know, if, if I'm someonethat has a business, I read your
book and I, I think to myself,Hey, you know, it was an awesome
book, what are kind of the topthings that I should get from
that or that stayed the same, orthat still apply that I could
pull through?
What, what are you hoping togive people out of this book?

Charlie Horky (23:32):
You know, I hear that all the time.
You know, people say to me,what's the secret sauce?
And I hate that.
I mean,'cause I, I just don'tbelieve there is, secret sauce.
And I don't believe thateverybody that wants to be in
the limousine industry, gets totell my story.
And I don't think that everybodygets to be rich just because
they're in the, you know,they're in the limousine
industry.
we have everyone in thisbusiness literally from jail to

(23:54):
Yale.
I mean, you know, it's, uh, youknow, what, what do they say?
It's a three a, what is it?
A billion dollar or a$3 billionindustry, and 98% of it are made
up of like 250,000 companies.
I mean, of in two car guys.
I mean, look at RobertAlexander, they do over a
hundred million dollars a year.
I mean, is that my target?

(24:14):
when I first started doing this,I mean, my target was music
Express.
I just decided I was gonnaemulate everything that they did
as far as the professionalismand what I saw and, and, and
what they built.
They built an exceptionalcompany in Los Angeles and New
York.
They cornered the musicindustry, lock, stock, and
barrel.
And so I think that, you know,if you're gonna get good at

(24:34):
something, well you wannaemulate the guys that are better
than you or that can, you know,that, that look that you wanna
be like.
And so that, that's what I didwas, you know, I just kept
wanting to be better workharder, stay longer, get up
earlier, you know, do, do, dowhatever it took and, and, and
so it just worked out.
There was many, opportunitiesthat I had that I manifested.

(24:56):
I mean, from being in the rockand roll business at an early
age, you know, providing groundtransportation.
That was just what I did.
I mean, what do I think peopleare gonna get out of this, um,
in making this book?
the hard part was getting it onpaper.
And so I met a, publisher whereyou can record everything and so
you record everything and thenthey edit it.
And that's spooky because, thisguy's version of what you did.

(25:19):
So I would say that the story isa really, really good story.
You said it's a really goodstory, but it's a pretty watered
down

James Blain (25:25):
I love this story.

Charlie Horky (25:26):
you know, did I talk about the time I got in a
gunfight when I worked for theBel Air Patrol?
No.
Did I talk about, you know,things where that would
compromise?
family.
No, was there some pretty gutwrenching, horrible stories with
drug addiction and being inbusiness and, and failing my
children?
Yeah.
But I mean, that wasn't whatthis book turned into.

(25:47):
The, this book turned into moreof, kind of a cautionary tale of
to some extent.
I think it is a goodmotivational book, you know?
For sure.
I mean, it's, it's, it's, thebook does tell you that it's
possible.
but do I think I have somethingto share that I could give a
reader that I'm hoping he'sgonna get out of it, that's
gonna push'em forward?
I think that's up to theindividual reader what, what

(26:09):
they get out of it.
So far, people have been tellingme that the limited people that
I've read it, that they really,really enjoyed it.
And they say the same thing thatyou do.
They say, you know, Hey, it'sreally raw, but I mean, you
know.
What was I gonna do?
Lie about it, or, you know, Imean,

James Blain (26:22):
I think you've hit it, that really you've hit the
nail on the head in a coupleways.
You know, and I brought it upreally early in this
conversation for me, one of thethings that I liked about this
book is, you know, when peopletell kind of their life story or
their life story up to now,there's stories that they leave
out.
You know, even I even, I like, Iam, I'm a talkative person.
I got a whole podcast.

(26:43):
That's all we do is talk allday.
but even when I'm tellingstories, there's, yeah, these
are kind of the, at the barstories, these are kind of the
business stories.
What I think you've really donein this book is.
You've given enough context andyou've mixed the good with the
bad.
Now, like you said, is there,you know, are there times that
you could have, I'm sure there'sstories that could have gone

(27:04):
much deeper.
I'm sure there's enough to fill,you know, a whole encyclopedia
worth of volumes.
But I think in terms of when Iread it, there's a lot of things
to be learned in your personallife.
There's a lot of things to belearned in your business life.
And I think for me, one of thethings that comes up we'll give
just enough to kind of givecontext here.

(27:27):
I think one of the things thatcomes up for me is you really
kind of talk about your realdream.
Like if you had, if someonewrote you a blank check and
said, Hey Charlie, you get to dowhatever you want to do, where
would you go?
What's your happy place?
Where would you be?
And it's interesting because.
It sounds like from the book,that answer isn't the limo

(27:48):
business, right?
It's the limo business at onepoint became kind of this vessel
to get you there.
And that's really where, youknow, it kind of kicks off in
this, this kind of crescendo of,of where things kind of all
intersect.
It's you have this passion, youhave this, this ideal place you
want to be, and you're kind ofbuilding a business.

(28:10):
You're kind of doing things,you're kind of going.
And so I think for me, there'sso many lessons in personal life
and business that can be takenoutta this book that frankly
for, for being, you know what itis?
I mean, this is this.
The nice thing about it is, youknow, we're talking about a
hundred page read.
This is something that you cansit down in a weekend, you can

(28:30):
sit down in a week, you know,you can take your time, you can
get through it, but there'sstill tons of value.
And the irony is not lost on me.
And, and not to have anyforeshadowing that, that we have
the, the horse on CLS one and,and the personal horseback.
Now, whether or not that'sintentional or a happy
coincidence, that part was notlost on me.
That that's kinda what you choseas the cover is kind of where

(28:52):
that intersects.

Charlie Horky (28:54):
it was a good, that picture that I used for the
governor cover was taken by afriend of mine named Heidi
Gibbs, and we had done a photoshoot and the guy in the picture
was.
Um, a very dear friend of a lotof people.
His name is, um, Preston Snyder,and he's since passed away way
too soon.
Um, but he was, um, a premierchauffeur.

(29:15):
I mean, everybody wanted to belike Preston and the clients
loved him, and, and that, youknow, and that was, that was
pretty cool.
But, um, you know, I amseriously passionate about slate
services and what I'm doingtoday.
you know, I had a choice.
I could, I can, uh, get in andcompete with everybody on price
and I can, you know, see if Ican get my personality to bring

(29:35):
over business and do what I do.
But nah, it wasn't what workedout.
You know, I, I proudly say thatI think I'm probably one of the
smartest people in the limousineindustry.
And I, I think, and I don'tbelieve that there's anybody
that can do what I do betterthan me.
And, and so at that level, thatcomes at a price and so.
The people that use me, they'renot the people sending out RFPs.

(29:57):
They're not the ones that aretelling, you know, Hey, I'm
gonna take a cab.
'cause the car's only like 10minutes away and they don't
wanna pay for it.
Or are used to getting intoUber.
I mean, you know, the peoplethat are calling me today are
people that value what I do,which is a part of their normal
ground transportation needsbecause that's who they are.

(30:19):
That's the level that they workat.
I would say that I'm aspecialist today, if nothing
else.
I've been doing this for 45years and I'll do things that
most people won't.
Most people say that they're ina 24 hour business, but they
don't answer their phone 24hours a day or you can't get a
car out of'em 24 hours a day.
People call me and they say,Hey, it's 10 45 at night and I
need an as directed at one 30 inthe morning.

(30:40):
and it's the artist that'sperformed in that city and the
city's already sold out.
But we get them what they wantbecause they're paying for it
and because they want us todeliver.
And I get off more on that.
I like being successful and Ilike being successful in
complicated, difficultsituations.
And that's what my business istoday, the ho hum.
Day in and day out of being inbusiness in Las Vegas, you know,

(31:02):
and taking people back and forthto the airport.
been there, done that.
Not interested.
I like taking care of the 1%.
I like the 1% of the 1%.
I like the billionaire class.
I like, I like the challengethat, that I'm given.
I like the people that I workwith.
And quite frankly, guess what?
I'm not really competing withany of my friends to tell you

(31:23):
the truth, because they need meand I need them at the level
that I work at.
I don't think there's manypeople that are right behind me.
I think that there's everybodyelse and then there's us, and
I'm still here.
So I think they have to considerme.
And I think that I'm, um.
I think I'm a vessel ofinformation and that you, you
can ask any operator that ifthey call me and they ask me an

(31:43):
honest question and they want meto tell'em, you know, my feeling
about where I've been or how Ican help them, happy to do so.
I do not fear these guys.
I could care less.
I couldn't care less if my wifewould like to correct me.
I'm only interested in, I'm onlyinterested in what I do each day
with the people that areinterested in doing business
with me.
And I think I'm the best at whatI do.

James Blain (32:05):
So let me ask you Right, and, and having read the
book, knowing your background,why not go try to do it again?
Right?
You, you, you, obviously, you'vestill got the connections.
I'm sure you, you had, you'vealready done it once.
What led you to go in adifferent direction with Slade

(32:26):
services instead of going in andtrying to do what you did again,
why, why go the differentdirection?
Why the change?

Charlie Horky (32:35):
well, like everybody else, we, we were kind
of hoping we were gonna win thatPowerball that was worth$1.8
billion.
I, and, and, uh, I figured outit was probably about a$500
million net and I thought, youknow, maybe I would call David
up and ask him if he wanted tosell that company back to me.
You know, may maybe, you know,but, but I mean, that was a

(32:56):
fleeting thought and and Ididn't win it.
And, but a lot of people didn'twin it.
But, um, actually I did this,this is kind of interesting.
Um, it said that you had a onein 292 million chance of winning
that.
And I said, well, what's mychances of becoming a
billionaire if I don't win thelottery?
And they said, my chances werebetter than winning the lottery

(33:18):
to tell you the truth.
cause I was released to LasVegas after I, I was in federal
prisoner for 22 months.
And in Las Vegas you need tohave a privileged license, which
I had and was revocated due tomy actions and my conviction.
So there was no way in hell Iwas gonna get to be in business
in Las Vegas.
And quite frankly, as I think Isaid in the book, I was grateful

(33:39):
that my friend Mike Haggertygave me a job.
And it was only shortlythereafter, an old client called
and said, do you have an ideaabout what you wanna do?
And I did have an idea because Ithought about it when I was
away, that I didn't have anycapital.
There was no way that I wasgonna be able to buy cars and be
what I once was.
Like, what was I gonna do?
Even if I got let back into la,they're gonna give me what?

(34:00):
I'm gonna get a, an Escalade andstart driving around and post my
sign out front and say I'm back.
I mean, I, it, it wasn't reallywhat I wanted to do.
I felt that I was more valuableand that I could make more money
and that I could found a nichethat would be in the management
of ground transportation, thanbuying cars.
And, and, and swinging that bat.
There's a lot of people that dothis today in the ground

(34:21):
transportation space.
And they're serious businesspeople.
And I would not want to competewith them.
I mean, they're, they're not,not at all.
I.
I didn't have the money, Icouldn't get into it, and I had
to use my unique knowledge ofthe industry and my own
experience to create a business.
And that's what I did withSlate.

James Blain (34:37):
so you built a new path.

Charlie Horky (34:39):
yeah, I mean, I, you know, I, I don't think
anyone's gonna gonna doubt methat, you know, what, what this
company represents.
I mean, I, I'm finally to apoint now with Slade.
It's been about seven or eightyears now where I can go and
meet random people that do notknow of me from CLS and have
heard of Slade.
And that makes me happy.
So, you know, I'm, I'm, I feelI've, you know, accomplished

(36:05):
something there.
And, um.
Yeah, I that, that's why Ididn't get back into, to iron.
I mean, would I like to be backinvolved in it?
Yeah, sure.
In a limited way.
You know, I've got a young sonthat's 21 years old and he likes
what we're doing and he likesbeing involved in the limousine
industry.
And so you gotta startsomewhere, you know, and usually
the best operators I've ever metwere the guys that actually

(36:27):
drove the car.
The guys that buy limo companiesthat lead from the rear, so to
speak.
They're successful, but not assuccessful as the guys that
drove the car and worked all theway through the ranks and became
wildly successful.
Those are the guys that aresuper successful.
Those are the real, operators asfar as I'm concerned.

James Blain (36:44):
Well, and I think you've hit on something that's
really important and you know,in the book you talk about the
relationships, what you'redoing.
I think there's a lot of people.
And I've seen it happen even in,in larger, wildly successful
companies, that at a certainpoint they lose that passenger
centric focus.
They lose kind of that object ofyou have to provide a higher

(37:09):
level service, you have toprovide high touch service.
And I think that's somethingthat I have seen a lot of times
in companies to where at acertain point.
They become more focused on thelogistics than on the service
and the experience and the feeland the emotion.
And it's interesting because youcan see two vastly different
companies at the same scale.

(37:29):
You know, they might have, youknow, literal hundreds and
hundreds of chauffeur, but youmight have one company that
operates as a logistic companyand then you might go see
another company that has gothundreds and hundreds of
chauffeur and they operate moreas a service focused company.
And it's interesting because oneof the things that, that Ken has
shared with us on the podcastbefore is that the companies

(37:49):
that are focused on the service,on the training, on the customer
centric side of it tend to meanmore profitable.
So I've always found thatinteresting.
And that's something that youtalk about in the book that you
keep and that you had throughand through.
What do you where, I mean, foryou, where did that come from?

Charlie Horky (38:06):
well, you take care of the customer and the
customer will take care of you.
I mean, I worked in Las Vegas mwith the MGM property when they
were building city center, and Ihad a lot, and I got to, uh, be
around, you know, guys like, youknow, Bobby Baldwin and Bill
Macbeth and Steve Wynn, and theyall, you had this same thinking,
which was that if you take careof the customer, the customer's

(38:28):
gonna take care of you.
You take care of the company,the company's gonna take care of
you and.
You know, it's, it, it's gottabe all about the customer.
It's gotta uncompromisingly beall about the customer because I
don't even have a good exampleof not making it about the
customer or I, I just find thatthe guys that put their own
personal brand, I say this allthe time, people say, I provide

(38:52):
five star service.
And I always say, great.
Where'd you learn it?
And, and nobody has any, theydon't know, you know, they just
think because they say it, thatthat's who they are.
And that's part of it.
But if you don't have anybackground in it, you don't
really understand it and youdon't really understand an idea
that we truly are professionals,serving professionals.
Right.
if there's no ethos as to whyyou're doing what you're doing,

(39:15):
well, then you get to chauffeurthat'll show up wearing a
flowered shirt and a funny tie.
And by the end of the evening,he's wearing a t-shirt and a
backwards baseball cap.
And at the end of 12 hours, thesecurity guy calls you and says,
these guys supposed to bewearing suits.
our clients get pictures oftheir cars and their drivers and
how they're dressed in realtime.

(39:35):
You know, airplanes are landingand they ordered, they've
ordered cars from, I'm using RMAin, in Washington, DC I tell
Henry I want a picture of allthe guys lined up, ready to go,
and I send it to the tourmanager.
And the reason why I do that is'cause it makes'em feel better.
You

James Blain (39:50):
Yeah.

Charlie Horky (39:52):
you know, I've heard stories of tour managers
landing in, um, in, in the wrongcity.
You know, like Springfield,Missouri or Springfield,
Illinois.
I mean, like, you know, Iwouldn't want the cars to be at
the wrong city.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean, there's so much that wecan do, we have time to do and
that we can do with regard tomaking the, the customers,
Listen, I'll tell you a funnystory.

(40:13):
I was driving Sting in Miami andhe walked outta the studio and
the car wasn't there.
Well, he didn't call anybody.
He just pulled out his phone.
He knows how to use Uber, and hewent, click, click, click.
And two minutes later, a carwalked in.
He got in, he went where he hadto go, and he didn't care at all
about it.
It was just, had the car beenwhere it's supposed to been, he
would've got in it, but left totheir own thinking.

(40:34):
Everybody knows how to use Uber.
So the fact that they'recontinue to make make a
conscious choice to pay for a areal service, you gotta be
really, really good.

James Blain (40:44):
and I, I think the other thing that you bring up
and we talk about all time ishow many times is that gonna
happen before they stop usingcar service?
Right.
How many, how many times do youthink it's gonna take for that
person to not be there, for it,to not work out to where the guy
builds a habit, but a third timethey do that on an Uber now it's
a habit, right.
You've probably lost and let'sget real.
If you get to the third time,you're lucky.

Charlie Horky (41:03):
Yeah.
You know something though, ittakes a lot to get rid of a
client.
You know, it's, it's easy.
Um, it's easy for a limo companyto drop another limo company in
a matter of seconds, you know,before biting into a tuna
sandwich.
But a real customer that's loyalto you, to your company.
They're not gonna leave over, anincident or two or, you know,

(41:26):
something like that.
I mean, it, they're just not,that's not been my experience.
I mean, I don't have a bunch ofcustomers that are, you know,
telling me that they had to fakeUbers.
But I'm just saying that mostpeople, if you take the time to
get to know a real business, youknow, I, people always say to
me, they go, you know, can youget me this business from so and
so in the limousine industry?
And they all wanna do businesswith each other.

(41:46):
And I gotta tell you, this is atrue statement.
You ask anyone that worked forme at the time, I did not do
farm out business at CLS ever.
I did not grow my business doingfarm outs.
I wanted my cars available forbusiness people that were using
my company.
So I've always thought that theaffiliate business was decent.
But you know, you go to sellyour company and you go, oh,
this guy gives me X number ofdollars.

(42:07):
Ask your friend Ken Lucci, Ithink he's gonna tell you that
they deduct the amount of moneybecause that revenue is not
stable.
It's not like a real

James Blain (42:15):
because they, they, they could give it to another
company.

Charlie Horky (42:17):
in a second.

James Blain (42:18):
so you talk about, you know, one, one of my
favorite stories in here and,and we won't go too deep into it
'cause I think the book tells itreally well, is, is when you're
dealing with, I believe it's theroyal family of who you
mentioned earlier.
You know, you've, you'vementioned just now getting
these, getting these clientsthat are real clients that have
gotten the time to get to knowyou.

(42:39):
how do you go about for somepeople building relationships is
easy, it's natural.
Um, some people have gotta workat it more.
How do you go about building thetypes of relationships and the
types of connections with peoplethat will get you to a point
like that?
How do you, you know, obviously,you know, you started from, you
know, nothing all the way toserving one of the royal
families.

(42:59):
How do you build connectionsthat gets you there?
Is there any kind, and, and thisis probably a whole nother
series of books I'm sure, but isthere any one piece there that
sticks out?

Charlie Horky (43:11):
Yeah, there was a driver that worked with me, a
chauffeur named Massou, he's alovely guy.
He is still driving today and afabulous chauffeur.
And he had a relationship with aguy named Steve Hu, HUI, and he
was in charge of security at theBeverly Hills Hotel, which was
owned by the royal family ofBruna.
So when they would come to NorthAmerica, they would contact

(43:31):
their guy, Steve, we, for groundtransportation.
And he contacted Massou, Massudbrought me to the meeting and
the guy said, okay.
And that was in, I mean, it wasjust, it was a

James Blain (43:41):
Uh, just like that.

Charlie Horky (43:43):
just like that.
I mean, listen, I had to, youknow, I, I had to perform, you
know, but we did.
And I mean, the rest is history.
But yeah, that's how I got thataccount.
It's the same thing with, um,with NetJets.
You know, I was friendly with aclient of mine, Casey Wasserman,
who invited me to breakfast atthe Beverly Hills Hotel with a
guy named Richard Santui.

(44:04):
And Richard Santui was thechairman and chief executive
officer of Nut Shuts.
And so, you know, I had lunchwith, I had breakfast with him
and we talked a little bit andsaw that our businesses were
similar with regard to directionof what we were doing.
And then like, I don't know,eight months later, he called me
up and asked me if I wanted totake care of his entire company
because he was upset with a, thelimousine company that he was

(44:25):
using.
And it was really just a matterof getting on my airplane and
flying to Columbus, Ohio.
And I got the deal done.
I mean, it was, it, when youhave horsepower and you're
rolling and you're in business,it isn't hard to get more
business.
You know what I mean?
Like, like at the time that Igot to Royal Family of Bene,
that was 1995 and I probablyhad, I don't know, at least 20

(44:48):
or 30 cars in LA or so I wasdoing about$10 million a year

James Blain (44:52):
Okay,

Charlie Horky (44:54):
I can't remember ever really bidding for a piece
of business, to tell you thetruth.

James Blain (44:58):
But I, I will tell you something, and I don't know
if you've realized it or not.
The one thing that I've noticedis in all of these major
situations and, and most of yourstories, I've noticed something
that you do really well andyou're able to tell.
The person's first and lastname, how you knew them, the
connection to them.
Right.
One of the things that I'verealized is that it's very

(45:21):
people-centric and the samething comes up in the book,
right?
You are able to kind of drawthose links to say, well, I knew
this person and that led me tothat person.
I mean, to this person.
I mean, I would say if, if therewas ever a case for networking
and getting to know people and,and getting, you know, Hey, I
know this person.
They introduced me to thatperson.
They did, uh, getting out thereand getting to know people.

(45:42):
I feel like that is probably oneof the big things that stands
out for me here, because one ofthe things that you've brought
up is your story is not, well, Ifilled out the RFP the best and
I gave'em the best price and Idid this.
It's, no, I went and I talked tothis person who introduced me to
that person, and then they saidthey wanted to do this, so we
did that.
I think a lot of this is justopenness and kind of that

(46:03):
communication and thoseconnections.
I think that's probably one ofthe biggest things that I've
taken away from this, is that alot of what it looks like you
are able to do came from beingout there and being around and
with these people.
I mean, like you mentioned justnow with Net Jets, Hey, I had
the horsepower.
I jumped right on the jet.
I went out there to do the deal.
But again, it's people and it'speople centric, right?

(46:26):
You're not talking about RFPs,you're not talking about bids,
you're not talking about any ofthat.
You're talking about using yournetwork and your connections,
which I think is a big takeawayfor me.
Yeah.

Charlie Horky (46:36):
and you're smart to say that.
Um, I, I would not have beenable to put it like that.
Um, that was never my business,you know?
Uh.
Early on Music Express in LosAngeles and New York took care
of the record industry.
I did not take care of therecord industry.
I didn't, it was, there was noway I was gonna be able to
penetrate what he had going on.

(46:56):
I was in the rock and rollbusiness.
Now he was driving the samepeople, but I was driving him
for the concerts.
So just over time, he was quitehappy with Warner Brothers,
calling him with millions ofdollars worth of business.
I heard a funny story about him,which I heard was true, he had
screwed up Warner Brotherspretty good.
And it was a famous, uh, CEOthere named Mo Austin.

(47:18):
He's legendary.
And, um, they called Harold tothe office at Warner Brothers
and they were gonna fire him.
and he was done.
And he got there and he waited acouple of hours and he's sitting
in the waiting room and sittingin the waiting room.
And finally Mo Austin walks outand he looks at him and he goes,
music Express stays and walk.
Turned around and walked back inhis office.
It doesn't work like thatanymore.
And I couldn't compete withthat.

(47:39):
I had made my way into the rockand roll business through Avalon
attractions.
The reason why I told you thatwas he was only concerned with
his business as he knew it fromthe record company.
And I was more concerned with mybusiness as I knew it with the
artist and the tour manager.
I was much closer to the artistthan they ever were.
And that, my business grew fromhandling rock stars, from

(48:01):
handling movie stars, fromtaking care of people that are
nervous.
You know, you wanna meetsomebody nervous, go talk to
somebody that's standing on thecurb at a premier that works for
publicity, for Paramountpictures.
Those people are nervous.
You know what they say to mewhen they hire me?
They say one thing.
They go, are you gonna be therepersonally?
And I go, yeah.
And they go, great.
You're hired.
Good, Because that's all wewant.

(48:22):
If you're there in person, wefeel better.
And that's been my story for thelast 45 years with regard to
this business.
I have shown up, and if you showup and you can, you can perform
and you can be, transparent.
When you screw up, you get tostick around, you know?
I mean, I just, appreciate beingon your show.

(48:42):
I love being on your show.
I like what you're doing, butman, it's hard sometimes, you
know, because there's so muchthat I could tell you.
But, you know, we don't have allday, and I, a lot of stuff I
didn't put in the book, youknow, you talked about writing
that book.
I could write a whole book onjust my experience in Las Vegas.
I mean, if I looked at it

James Blain (48:58):
Oh, I can only imagine.

Charlie Horky (48:59):
from 1995 until, you know, current day, that's a
great story in itself.
I mean, there, there's, there'splenty to talk about.
My wife tells me on a regularbasis, you haven't really
written a story.
I basically took everything thatI, that I wrote and I've been
able to put it in a format thatbecame this book.
And so.
When you said, why did I writeit?
I'm hoping that if anyone readsit and they, and they get

(49:21):
something out of it and they'rein the limousine industry,
great.
If they're not in the limousineindustry, it gives'em some kind
of hope.
Great.
Um, but I wrote it as being acalling card to perhaps maybe
get a speaking job, you know,if, if someone wanted to hire me
for a podcast or something likethat, or for, um, you know, may
maybe it's, maybe it'sinteresting enough where, you

(49:42):
know, a screenwriter reads itand says, tell us more.
You know, at the time that Iwas, when I, when I first got
out, when I first got out and Icame back, there was a lot of
Hollywood interest in, in what Iwas doing.
But, um, you know, there's amillion great stories.
They only pick one and, youknow, and you have to have a
screenplay.
And I had a really famous, um,rockstar's wife, I think she

(50:05):
read it.
I, I gave it to her to read andshe was like, you know.
You, you have to realize thatthis stuff lives forever and
that you have children.
And the scariest part about ascreenplay is that somebody
else's idea of your life istheir version of your

James Blain (50:20):
It's, it's the, yeah.
Yeah.
And they're gonna, they're gonnachange whatever's convenient.

Charlie Horky (50:26):
and that, you know, I'm not here to be a
celebrity.
I'm not interested in, in allthat.
I got to be pretty well knownfor being in the limousine
industry, and I got to be reallywell known at a certain time of
my life that was veryunfortunate.
And I pivoted from that.
And I know what it's like tohave a lot of attention.
And I can just be, you know,remembered or respected for
someone that annuity was doingin this industry, and I can help
people, do well in thisindustry, then, that's good

(50:48):
enough for me.
I, you know, I'm, I'm aspecialist.
I, I'm not interested in being acelebrity.
I'm a specialist at what I do,and I hope this book gardeners
more of that attention.

James Blain (50:57):
I, I will tell you, as, as someone who read the
book, as someone who thoroughlyenjoyed the book, I would love
to see, a second book because Ithink in my mind when I read the
book, you know, I kind of, I,you know, and I've, I've read
several books from people I'veread, books from motivational
speakers.
I thought were great.
I've read books frommotivational speakers that, you

(51:17):
know, there was someone that,that I was at an event, they're
selling a book.
I read the book and it was okay.
It was kinda lackluster.
It was, it was kinda like, Hey,didn't look like you'd been
edited.
You know, I've read everythingfrom small ones.
I, I grew, I'm one of the, thegeneration that.
We didn't have iPhones, wedidn't have stuff like that
until later on in life.
So I, I still thoroughly enjoyreading.
I know that Ken is the same way,right?

(51:38):
We both thoroughly enjoyreading, and I think one of the
things that really jumped out atme is that this is, like I said,
it's an honest account of here'swhere I got, here's what
happened, here's where I am.
So I, I definitely think that Iwould love to see a second book,
and I think there's a lot ofvalue.
And one of the things that makesthis great is, you know, a lot

(51:59):
of times you read a biography,it's like this thick, it's like
a million pages.
I think you've got the rightbalance.
So for anybody that hasn't, allright.
If we haven't convinced you toread this book, right, one, you
need to start reading again, buttwo, you need to get on Amazon.
So for anybody that hasn'talready ordered it by now, the
book is called Unbreakable Path.
Charlie Horkey, if you're onthe, the YouTube, we'll, we'll

(52:20):
drop links below.
We'll drop everything in theshow notes.
I definitely would love to seeanother book because one of the
things that, at least for me,you know, knowing you
personally, I get to ask youquestions.
You know, obviously we've, we'vehung out.
My big thing becomes, as someonethat's been in the industry, as
long as you have, you're inVegas, there's autonomous
vehicles, there's all kinds ofstuff going on.

(52:42):
What do you think the next 10years looks like for us, having
been there for this giant lastchunk where you built out, what
do you think the next 10 yearslook like

Charlie Horky (52:53):
Gosh, I don't know, because, um, I thought
about those autonomous vehiclesand I don't know enough about it
to speak to intelligently aboutit, but, my thought was gonna be
if you're gonna be in thelimousine industry, you might
own a bunch of autonomousvehicles.

James Blain (53:07):
Yeah,

Charlie Horky (53:08):
yeah.
I mean, I, I guess on the onehand.
You take a metropolitan city andyou have all these autonomous
vehicles.
So ground transportation becomesa moot point.
And the norm is that anybody,you know, Uber's shown us that,
you know, will get in thesevehicles and move around.
But I still think at the, Istill think, you know, I tell

(53:28):
people this a lot, is that I sawcertainty with regard to my,
business.
And I think that people will,um, continue to want that.
So I think, you know, hey, ifyou're in business, maybe they
are all autonomous and maybe youdo own fleets of autonomous
cars, and maybe they areprogrammed to pick up so-and-so
at his house and take'em to apremier and, and then the car
goes to a, some holding area.

(53:49):
I, I really don't know.
I'd like to think that it's anindustry that's gonna be alive
in the next 10, 20 years easily.
but I don't know, you know,they're all concerned in Las
Vegas about the, Teslas arecoming outta the tunnel.
They say they're coming outtathe tunnel and they're gonna put
a hundred cars on the street.
Everybody was, um, concernedabout them building a monorail
that went from the hotels to theairport, and they spent 600

(54:11):
million on that.
That never really happened.
And the monorail is more of atourist attraction now than it
that was gonna work.
Um, I don't know, maybe in 30years it might be quite
different, but in the next 10, Ithink there's a huge resurgence
of outstanding operators.
I think the opportunities in LasVegas as far as entertainment
are huge.
I don't really buy off on thestudio thing just yet because I

(54:33):
can't really see it or touch it,but they are building a baseball
stadium and the pro sports haveembraced Las Vegas and the
industry has embraced Las Vegasand if the Super Bowl people
could have the Super Bowl in LasVegas every year, they would
solely, because it went reallysmooth.

James Blain (54:48):
Well, and you guys have got F1 now.

Charlie Horky (54:50):
Well, and you know exactly.
I.
So I, I, I see a bright futurefor Las Vegas.
I really do.
I think if you're, I think inthe next 10 years, I think, um,
it's gonna be exciting in LasVegas, more exciting in Las
Vegas than I think Los Angeles.

James Blain (55:05):
Now that said, I think one of the things that was
surprising for me is, is when Iwas out there last, I went and I
did the, the Tesla tunnels.
I did the zoo.
I, I found the zoo much moreimpressive.
And it was really interesting tome because, you know, the zoo is
basically, you like a littleminiature bus with doors that
open.
You walk in, you sit down, youstrap in, and it takes itself.

(55:27):
Now as interesting as I foundit, what I thought was really
unique was after I did that, Igot home and I showed my wife, I
said, this is awesome, this isgreat.
And she goes, I'd rather beshot.
And I went, what?
And she said, well, think aboutit.
You have this little tinyautonomous vehicle.
There's nowhere for you to putanything.
There's nowhere for you to doanything.
And if I'm a woman getting inthere late night and I get into

(55:50):
this autonomous vehicle andsomeone runs in real quick,
right as the door shut, and thenthey get in there with me, what
am I gonna do?
It's now gonna drive off ontoast.
And, and it was, it's brought upsome really interesting things
and it makes me think a littlebit about kinda like the
self-checkouts, whereself-checkout was a great idea
and then all the stores gotrobbed blind and they were like,
well, we probably need peoplethere.

(56:12):
So I think, for me, this,autonomous thing, it goes back
and forth and I think one of thethings, and, and again, I think
if there's anyone qualified totalk about it's you, I think one
of the concerns that I have is,I love technology, but how am I
gonna get high touch, high levelcustomer service from a
self-driving car?

Charlie Horky (56:31):
You are not.

James Blain (56:32):
That, that's the place I always come back to is,
is without someone to providethat high level, high service
touch.
I just don't know that at thatpoint, on the rideshare side, on
the taxi side, totally makessense, but I just don't know
that in our world.
if we truly become and stay onthe luxury side, I don't see

(56:53):
that being a thing and on amotor coach or a bus.
I just don't see how you couldhave 50 people on a bus with
nobody there to be that, youknow, bus driver, that person in
charge of it.

Charlie Horky (57:03):
I, I agree.
you know, I, I don't see anautonomous vehicle meeting a,
you know, a private Gulf Streamsix 50.
I don't see an autonomous,autonomous vehicles meeting, you
know, a tour manager, you know,with, you know, multiple, you
know, assets to, to meet them.
although I will tell you that Ido some business with a very
young group of, uh, travelingmusicians these days.

(57:26):
And, um, they're not so crankyabout, having to wait.
that eighties conspicuousconsumption is, that's about
gone.
I mean, there are people thatwant service and there's people
that demand it because it makestheir life easier.
I had, I had this one rock band,this is interesting.
I just wanted rock band.
And you know what they hired mefor?
They hired me to make sure thateach car had a rider in it.

(57:50):
And I don't know if people knowwhat that means, but basically
it's their, their request ofwhat they want in a car.
And these guys wanted like sixdifferent wa, you know, waters,
beers, energy drinks, pretzels,potato chips.
And, and they, it had to be acertain setup and there were
certain levels.
It was like the three passenger,the six passenger, and the 12

(58:10):
passenger setup.
Now, they would do a concert andthey would let the runner vans
take them all over and theywould just have these vehicles
show up to take them home.
They were simply transfervehicles.
And even in Europe, we did'emall over Europe.
They had to have the rider inthe car.
And when we told'em that somepeople didn't, wouldn't prevent
alcohol in the car, they said,no, gotta have alcohol in the
car.

(58:31):
There was, the only thing thatthey wanted was those riders.
It had not a damn thing to dowith the ground transportation
experience.
It only had to do with the foodthat was put in each vehicle.
That's what they wanted.
I had never seen that before inmy life.
And they spent, they spent a lotof money.
I mean, they spent a lot ofmoney with that.
Think about this.
Who would spend$750 forsomething that you could get

(58:53):
done for, I don't know, 200bucks, you know, without the
food?
But I mean, you had, you had toexplain it once in a while to
somebody that was like, youknow, paying the bill for them.
But I mean, for the most partit's just what they wanted.
It's the way they wanted it.
And, and I think people are, theyounger crowd today does not
seem to be so uptight aboutright here, right now.

(59:16):
It's gotta be a certain way andthat was the way I was trained
and raised was right here, rightnow.
It better be perfect.
That's not quite what's going onthese days.
If you're not available, Uber'sokay, Uber's are not available.
And maybe we'll take the subway.
It's a different mindset.
I do business with this bandthat they're, I, I don't wanna
mention who they are, but it's ayoung band and they're very

(59:38):
famous and they are notinterested in my expertise.
In other words, they don't needanother cook.
They know that I'm good at whatI do and that I can get it done,
and that's why they call me, butthey never ask me my opinion.
They never, I mean, once in awhile I have to interject and
say, Hey, I think you're gonnahit the wall if you don't pay
attention to this.
And, oh gee, thanks forreminding us.

(59:59):
But I mean, for the most part,they just need to be me to do my
job.
They, they don't need any, youknow, interaction from me or
about what I do or how to do itor how it pertains to them.
They just want it done.
And if it can't be done, that'sokay.
happy to say thank you and moveon.

James Blain (01:00:15):
but I think one of the things that we've also seen
is a lot of this is time andplace.
Right.
You know, it, it, it reallydepends on, and, and I think one
of the places that Uber hasexcelled is in most markets,
even the smaller markets, it isvery convenient to get an Uber.
It is very easy, you know, ifyou're out, you know, let's say

(01:00:36):
you have a group, they're goingfrom nightclub to nightclub,
they're going out.
It is very easy for them todecide, Hey, we're gonna go to
the next nightclub, and theUber's sitting outside and they
can order it and they can dothat.
I don't know that, at least inthe luxury ground transportation
space, I don't know that from atechnological standpoint that
you can easily drop yourselfinto a major city and have that
app and intuitively know how touse that app and have that same

(01:00:58):
experience in every city.
Whereas I think it's verydifferent because what you're
not gonna do is if you are, ifyou're out clubbing doing that,
that might make sense.
But if they've gotta go to theMet Gala the next night, I don't
think it makes sense for them toshow up in the same Uber that
they were hopping from club toclub in.
I think a lot of that, in myopinion, has come down to time
and place, and I think kind ofwhat you were doing there and

(01:01:21):
where things sit kind of havechanged in people's willingness
to do it.

Charlie Horky (01:01:27):
Yes.
think so.
I think you're right.

James Blain (01:01:29):
So I, I gotta tell you, I think at this point, you
know, kind of knowing wherethings are going, knowing where
things are at.
I guess my question would bewe've kind of, we've gone
through everything.
I've, I've tried very hard notto spoil anything in the book,
because again, I've gotta sayout of everything that I've read
recently, this one's gonna havea special place on my shelf.
Yeah.
As we kind of bring things to aclose.

(01:01:50):
Is there anything you wannaleave the listeners with?
Obviously go buy the book,right?
If you haven't bought the book,buy the book.
but is there anything you wannaleave everyone with?
Any, any last piece that youwant to kind of leave them with?

Charlie Horky (01:02:04):
Oh gosh, no.
I, I not really, you know, I, I,I not, not really at all.
Um, I, I, I hope you enjoy, Ihope you enjoy reading it.
I mean, it was an honest accountof, of my business, uh, career
and told in a, in a, I think ina pretty expeditious way.
Um, I'm grateful for thebusiness that I have today, and
that I have a unique ability tomake a living with, you know,

(01:02:25):
what I've known for the last 45years.
it's a, it's work every day, butI, I learn every day from the
operators that are in thisindustry, believe it or not.
and I'm grateful for theirfriendship and for the, you
know, for them, you know, havingme along with them.
You know, my relationship withthe client is quite different in
the way I feel about what I do,but I realize that I can't do it

(01:02:48):
by myself, and that I need thebest people.
And I'm, and I'm fortunate thereare, that there are some
outstanding operators out therethat take the cl LS thing
seriously, that there's enoughfolklore out there, and that
they want, and they want to begood at what they do.
They know that I, I think that'soutstanding.
I think that, that they care,that that's the nicest thing to
see is that they care.
I think that's great.

James Blain (01:03:09):
Well, Charlie, I can't thank you enough for
coming back on.
We will definitely have to haveyou on again.
one last time.
If you haven't ordered the bookright, if we haven't beat it
into you yet, get on Amazon,we'll drop.
There'll be links in thedescription.
Easiest thing to do, unbreakablePath by Charlie Horkey.
Look that up.
Make sure you get yourself acopy.
It'll definitely be worth yourtime.
Again, Charlie, I can't thankyou enough for coming on, and

(01:03:30):
thank you everybody forlistening.
Thank you for listening to theground transportation podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode,please remember to subscribe to
the show on apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
For more information about PAXtraining and to contact James,
go to PAX training.com.
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to

(01:03:52):
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.