June 9, 2025 • 52 mins
Charlie from Adventure Cat Sailing joins Rebekah to share how one of San Francisco’s most iconic tour businesses creates a smooth, guest-first booking experience on and off the water.
They discuss what it takes to build trust through branding, how FareHarbor tools help remove friction from the guest journey, and why thoughtful pricing, team culture, and follow-up reviews all matter.
If you're thinking of upgrading your booking flow, scaling your guest experience, or exploring reservation softwares built for tour operators, this episode is for you!
Listen in for insights on marketing, operations, and what makes guests come back for more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Okay, hello all hello to my favorite tour operators, the ones who listen to this podcast.
Welcome again to growth powered by Fair Harbor.
My name is Rebecca.
am the community manager of Fair Harbor as many of you know.
And I'm here with a wonderful operator today who also gave me the special chance to taketheir tour in San Francisco, a marketing extraordinaire and operator a sailor.
(00:29):
We have Charlie from Adventure Cat Sailing.
Charlie, how's it going today?
Going very well, thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
Of course.
Yes, I appreciate your time.
And like I said, I had the pleasure of going on your tour when I was in San Francisco forthe Fair Harbor meetup.
And it was nothing short of magical.
It was my first time in San Francisco.
(00:50):
And I can't think of a better way to spend my sunset than on a boat.
I'm in Denver, Colorado today, where I'm based out of.
So not a whole lot of boat time, not as much as I'd like.
um So being on your boat was like,
magic.
Thank you for ha I would love to get a about If you could t them about you as well.
(01:19):
H
Okay, yeah, happy to share this.
uh Plenty to unpack.
So Adventure Cat is in our 34th season in San Francisco.
uh Same ownership from start till still running.
uh And actually I've been there 11 years, so I can't say I'm a founder, uh my personalbackground is uh marketing first.
(01:48):
So I went to school for business degree, marketing, have a strong business background, butlifelong sailor.
had parents who were sailors, grew up on boats, around boats, racing sailboats here in SanFrancisco actually.
And so um for me to do marketing and sailing and tell people that they should go sailingand try and get people to go on boats is like, that's perfect for me.
(02:08):
So um I started with the company as just a marketing director basically.
um And then now I'm the general manager for the last few years.
ah
The company, as I said, was 34 years, started by a local husband and wife and then anothergentleman back in the late 80s.
It started as a business taking people out by the ballpark here in San Francisco, Pier 40,um in 1991.
(02:33):
So that was our first business year.
But it's an interesting story because um they set out, they're actually just sailors also,used to live on boats and deliver boats and all involved in that industry.
um
And they sail small catamarans as a hobby, they still do.
And they decided one day like, hey, maybe people would like to take a boat out under theGolden Gate Bridge and we could do a sailboat.
(02:56):
And then they thought, well, a catamaran would be a really cool platform for that becausecatamarans are actually, for those that don't know, that means it the two holes with the
nets and the cabinet.
So it stays, as you found out, stays very flat and stable and smooth.
And they're actually faster.
um Also, it's a really nice platform for people of all ages and all skill levels andpeople who have never been on a boat to people who are professional sailors.
(03:21):
It still feels like sailing, um but it lends itself really well to all age groups and allof that.
so it also, because it's faster, you can actually get to the bridge and back in a shortamount of time.
And so people can go out about their day and do other things.
And so they set out to do that in the late eighties and couldn't find the
boat that worked for them.
(03:43):
There aren't a lot of boats that are made like this.
so there's catamaran, but they just, it doesn't fit the tourism model.
um So they actually decided to take a loan out and build the first boat.
And so um the two original business partners, the two husbands, actually the three of thembasically, 10,000 man hours.
And they built what we have Adventure Cat 1, which is still in operation today.
(04:06):
And I can't recall which boat you went on.
would be the one that has the sort of blue canvas.
windows as opposed to the hardtop.
that boat, so that boat's 34 years old and they started that boat, built it by hand, gotit Coast Guard certified the whole process.
So it's literally custom built by us for us.
And then the second boat came along.
um So the first boat holds 47 people, the second boat holds 90 people.
(04:30):
um So the large catamaran are 55 and 65 feet long, about 34 feet wide.
So it's kind of like a big rectangle.
The second boat came online right around the year 2000.
So we've had the second vote for over 20 years.
But we take about 40,000 people a year out under the bridge.
We do an hour and a half trips three to four times a day out of Pier 39, out by Alcatraz,out on the Golden Gate Bridge, and then back down the city front.
(04:58):
And we also do private charters.
So private charters is roughly 25 to 30 % of our business.
And then we have what we call ticketed or the public trips, which are the other 75 to 80%,something like that.
But it's great.
So it's a wonderful way for people to see the city.
We get a lot of locals actually because it's people who live here who have never been onthe water don't think they want to go down to Pier 39.
(05:21):
But if we can get them down there, they become ambassadors and they bring every friendthat comes to town.
They're like, we got to go on the Adventure Cat.
We got to see the city from the water.
It's just such a different perspective, such a unique perspective.
And there's other elements of that experience that we can talk about, but why I think it'ssort of.
evergreen experience.
don't think it's going anywhere and why it means so much to people to see it and feel itand be on the boat.
(05:47):
yeah, I love what we do.
There's the smile that people have when they're there and the kind of awe factor.
It's real.
And so uh it's really, valuable.
Thank you so much for that.
That was more than I could imagine.
That was a great background on what you do.
And I'm sure my wonderful editor, Lloyd, is showing all of the smiles that me and mycoworker had while being on the boat.
(06:11):
And I loved what you said about that, like your guest happiness is very real.
Those smiles are very authentic.
When I was on your tour, saw the cutest older couple.
I imagine in my head they were on like their 50th wedding anniversary and they were likeJack and Rose in the front of the boat, like holding each other, watching the sunset
(06:35):
against the bridge.
And it was like the cutest thing I've ever seen.
as I drank alone in the corner with my box of wine.
uh It was just, it was magical and it was cute.
And it's easy in these times to focus on like the hardships that small businesses areseeing.
But I do think that in those moments, it's really nice to like believe in what you do,which was the case for me working at Fair Harbor.
(07:01):
But I think also I was standing uh with one of your staff,
pointed at them and we smiled and it was just very cute.
Another thing I heard in that was legacy.
So you said you started with one boat and that was custom built, right?
And then you got a second boat that was custom built.
(07:23):
ah That's incredible.
And that says a lot to the tenacity of a business to be open for that long.
ah And I'm curious to know for you, it's kind of a compound question here.
that I'm throwing at you.
One, what has changed?
What do you think?
I know you haven't been there all 40 years, but what do you think in marketing wise, whathas really evolved and changed in that 40 years that the business has had to adapt to?
(07:49):
um And two, I would love to see how local marketing plays into that because a lot of ouroperators, as things kind of change, they might have to market a little more locally.
So I'd love to hear the marketing piece on how that has evolved, how you've stayed up withit as a man of marketing, and how that tapped into local marketing as well.
(08:15):
Sure.
um Yes, there's a fair amount we can unpack there, yeah, it is legacy for us.
For me, for us as a business, I'll just say marketing in the high level sense um always tous boils down to that user experience, which includes online and how they book and things
(08:37):
like that.
But really, it comes down to the experience on the boats.
And you can trip and stumble.
even in the booking flow or the search, you know, that the people talk about the funneland all of that, like when someone from someone going from, want to go on a trip all the
way down to showing up at our dock.
You can trip and fall even in there somewhere and like lose them and get back to them andhave an email that went to the wrong place and stuff like that.
(09:02):
But if you can deliver when they are there in person and, and meet them where they areeyeball to eyeball, um it will only help you.
and it will always build your brand over the long run.
It's a slow growth thing.
It's not a big ROI and stuff like that.
(09:26):
if you can hack it long enough, that is where the money is made, in my opinion.
then we ask, so we have people ask us about like reviews, right?
Like we have a lot of good reviews, thousands of five-star reviews, and that's not a...
cocky statement, that's just a fact.
people say like, well, what did you do to that?
(09:46):
What program did you buy or what, you know, blah, blah, blah.
And the reality is we spend extremely little on anything that's around review technology.
We actually don't really do it.
One thing we do is send follow up emails, I think through Fair Harbor, asking for a reviewand that's it.
But the reviews are all organic and they come from what?
(10:09):
They come from the experience.
And we've always tried to
hammer that home, right?
So because you can do all the tech stuff, but if it's just not a good experience, it's nota good experience.
And I'm a user in my own travels, right?
And if something's not fun, you can hit me in 50 ways about, leave a review here, do this,do that.
I'm not really going to do it because it just wasn't really worth it, you know?
(10:31):
And so that's
I'm more likely to leave no review if I had a bad time than a bad review.
I think little reviews say a lot, I think, to consumers as well.
Before we started recording, we talked about when I went on your tour.
(10:51):
there were, I had no idea, I'm from Colorado, I had no idea California could be cold.
I really didn't know, I had no idea.
And then I got on the boat and I was like, what are these?
You had coats available.
And I was like, am I gonna need that?
And I sure as hell did.
And that was the way that really enhanced the experience for me is because I was reallycomfortable and I could actually enjoy myself.
(11:18):
What are some, what tips do you have for operators that, you know, are little investments,little things that could really amp up those reviews and amp up those positive experiences
from their guests?
I think it's listening more actually a lot of times.
So, and that doesn't mean that most operators don't, but it's just really payingattention.
(11:40):
We get the most feedback during a trip, right?
Like it's much harder to get feedback after.
You can get follow-ups, you can get reviews.
You'll get, know, if you get a negative review, like this, I forget what the statistic is,right?
But it's like you tell 15 people about a bad experience versus.
uh five people about a good one or something like that.
(12:02):
You'll hear about the negative stuff, but usually those are big things.
For us, we'll get negative reviews from time to time, but they're pretty much always aboutsomething else in the funnel.
It's actually not us when you really get down to it.
But to your question, it's really for us, it's about listening to what the needs are.
When we started the jacket example, we started the company.
(12:23):
Yeah, people underestimate San Francisco and how cold it can be.
um
still a super fun trip.
There's a reason we're, I tell people, there's a reason we're called adventure cat,because it's like going on a bit of an adventure.
And sometimes an adventure can be cold or windy or, and you know, we're sailboats, we needwind.
It's like, it's really windy out here.
And we're like, well, we can't really do what we do if we didn't have the wind.
So we've got to kind of find a balance.
(12:45):
But we noticed, you know, right off the bat, people are colder than they anticipate.
It's generally 10 degrees colder on the water than it is even on the dock, right?
So people think like, I can handle this.
They're at the pier and they're like, I got this.
And they don't really realize it.
in 10 minutes you're going to be out there in the breeze and 20 miles an hour wind andlike it's a different experience.
And you do actually want to be out there to see it because we have a stadium of views allthe way around us and the bridge and Alcatraz and the city and like there's just things to
(13:10):
look at everywhere.
And so you do want to be a part of it.
So we tinkered in the early days.
I we did blankets at one point and then we just realized you know what we got to invest insome jackets and people people love the jackets and it's become we've actually started
selling them.
not marketing them as uh mounted up for sale, but just because we've had people thatliterally walk up to the bar and they're like, I want to buy this jacket.
(13:34):
And we're like, okay, we can sell you.
they're like, no, want this jacket.
We're like, well, that's used.
They're no, want.
They're so committed that they're like, no, I want this jacket.
we're like, all right.
So jackets, just little feedback stuff like uh understanding.
um
(13:55):
what their needs are, what they like, what that's part of why we don't do a preset tour, aguided tour.
Sometimes people are like, you know, and you'll get a few people that want that and that'sokay.
So we have, it used to be an audio guide, like the old kind of cell phone looking thing.
Now we have a audio tour that you can scan with your phone on a QR code and you can listento facts.
(14:18):
So we have this script about all kinds, I think it was 20 something different scriptsabout different facts around the Bay if you're looking.
Some people love it, it's in eight languages.
Most people don't want it at all.
Don't ever use it, don't ever need it.
And so we've realized uh long ago that like shoving that down someone's throat is notreally what they're there for.
(14:40):
And there are companies where I think it can be tempting to be like, no, you're in SanFrancisco, we got to tell you about San Francisco or wherever you are.
This is what you're here for.
And it's not our job to tell them what they're here for.
And we are providing an experience and we've...
Refined it to understand.
Okay, if we just put on a little bit of like mellow background music serve up some drinksand Have things available somebody wants that audio tour they can do it.
(15:04):
But most people for our product want to just Soak in that experience like the experienceyou had you that you want to just look around and For a lot of people they're starting or
ending a trip with us most people end the trip with us if they can because they're likethey did a bus tour over the bridge or they
biked over the bridge or they did a hiking tour or they were doing all these other thingsin San Francisco and it's a really cool way for them to sit and be like, oh, look, we used
(15:31):
to walk over there.
we were just up on top of that building and blah, blah, blah.
And they're reliving that whole thing in their own little group of four people on theboat.
And who are we to blast this like, on your right is Alcatraz.
It doesn't, in the right setting, in the right product, other products that works reallywell.
Somebody's going for that tour that they should do that.
(15:51):
Like the big ferry boats should do that.
So it's stuff like that.
Just listening to me, it's all about listening.
And it was the staff too.
I mean, the staff came around and, you know, I'm taking a selfie with my coworker and yourstaff member come in and said, hey, can I take a picture?
Can I take that picture for you guys?
And I'm like, oh yeah, absolutely.
(16:13):
And it was a whole photo shoot and made it really, it really amplified the experiencethere.
And then they were also pointing out the dolphins, which I thought was really nice andsuper fun.
anytime I get to see them.
um Shifting gears a little bit, you also mentioned earlier local marketing.
(16:33):
Tell me a little bit about that because currently, you know, everything going on in theUS, a lot of people are, a lot of consumers from outside the US, there's a little bit of
change.
And I don't know if you're in the group Torpreneur.
Love that group.
Shout out to Mitch.
(16:54):
I love Tourprenoir, I love Trip School, and they talk in there.
I see a lot of operators talking in that group about things are shifting a little bit, andI'm starting to see a few cancellations come in from people visiting from out of the US,
and now they want to cancel their tour, they're not quite sure if they want to come here.
So people are looking for more advice around local marketing and how to tap into themarket of where they're at, which can be tricky for a tourism-based company.
(17:22):
What advice do you have for that?
What experience can you speak on with local marketing?
Sure, well, it's true.
It's absolutely true.
The international brand is hurting at the moment.
um And for us, it's the same, we're finding the same thing.
um It's also, it's a lot like, so the pandemic was like that for us.
(17:45):
It was a very big lesson, especially in San Francisco about, San Francisco as a market wasvery dependent on the foreign traveler.
And SFO as an airport was very dependent on.
foreign travel, and more than many airports, one of the hardest hits and slowestrecovering airports um in the country.
So we learned a lot because it was a wake up call of like, oh, we were really reliant onthose German families and French families and so on that would come to the pier.
(18:12):
um so for local marketing, on the flip side of that is Adventure Cat was actually kind ofbuilt on local grassroots marketing.
So
We've historically never pumped a lot of money into resourcing and pumped a lot ofresources into marketing.
We did a lot of ground game.
So in the old days with concierges, we used to just dedicate a day or two a week and we'djust walk hotels.
(18:35):
this is pre-internet, you know, not pre-internet, but pre like, you know, before peoplecould do bookings and things like that on internet.
But so it's changed over the years.
It was relationship building, kind of like the review thing.
It was just get out there, get in every physical space you could be in locally to have apresence and sacrifice.
(18:58):
Instead of pumping resources into advertising, what we typically do is just send people onthe boat like we sent you, right?
It's the cheapest way for us as a business.
It's the least of least.
most cost effective or least least expensive way for us to invest in marketing.
And it's the highest payback by far.
(19:20):
So we found that like, you know, paying for a display ad versus sending a person on theboat, there's no question that somebody like yourself will tell at least a number of other
people.
And that has so much more value to those people that hear it from you or whoever we'vesent than
(19:40):
flipping through it in a magazine.
It just never got the ROI.
It just never made sense for us.
And so we just said, you know what, we're fortunate.
Granted, I don't think it's not for everybody because if you're doing a walking tour, likeit's hard to just give up, know, X amount of spots on a walk, on a 10 person walking tour
or whatever.
um We have a boat that has seats that typically we're not selling out every single trip.
So there's trips to be had where we can just, the boat's going, it's already got 30 peopleon it and what's 32 and two of them are free.
(20:07):
Fine.
But
That's been our biggest local marketing.
It's been anybody we run into in the business, like, hey, do you want to go sailingsometimes?
Check this out.
Like, it's really fun and it's great way to see the city and ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
And we send them.
And that has built up a same kind of loyal following where people just say, oh, you wantto go?
You got to do this.
Also being in, you know, when we do the private charters, doing a...
(20:36):
a dual sort of referral marketing.
So if somebody goes on a public, we do a follow-up email that says, hey, you know, hopeyou enjoyed that trip.
Have you ever thought about doing a team, a team event, family reunion, you know, list outkind of because most people, right, they have a day job.
And so maybe a lot of those people might be looking for something to do and people arelooking for something interesting and vice versa.
(20:57):
So somebody comes on a team event that was booked through their business and they have noidea who we are.
They show up, they have a killer time on the lunch cruise.
um Then we send something that says, you bring family and friends sometime.
We do this every day.
We buy tickets.
We sell tickets every day.
Come on out.
You know, and somebody goes, my gosh, this is great.
Or they come with the business and then they decide to bring their family or that kind ofthing.
(21:21):
trying to do cross marketing as much as possible has been really helpful.
Basically, just utilizing the assets that we have um to market.
I love that utilizing the assets that you have in order to market.
What does it, a lot of the clients I talk to, like I said, I was in San Francisco for theFair Harbor uh meetups event and a lot of clients are still very confused on like, who am
(21:43):
I sending out?
Who should I be sending out to these tours?
Are they like social media influencers?
Are they like bloggers?
How do you navigate that?
How do you know who to send out and what does that communication look like?
Well, it's evolving all the time.
uh I would say we err on the side of Send'em anyway, right?
(22:05):
uh We're like anybody else.
We get hit by all kinds of influencers that are not really influencers.
They're like a husband, a wife that have a blog and they have got, you know, their 20followers and they're in town for the weekend and they're basically looking for a free
trip.
um You know what?
Go have fun.
Like, because we can do it.
(22:26):
going out anyway, like I said.
If it's not a huge cost,
differential, we'll just send them because even if they write it and they refer oneperson, that one person is going to maybe book a couple of seats and that's going to cover
their trip and we're still getting to kind of that, it's again, that kind of slow build.
So we err on that side.
ah But I will say we are, um we try and be efficient at least asking people to copy us onsomething that they write.
(22:55):
So make it a bit more official.
So hey, if you're going to
If we're going to send you, please copy us.
What do you plan to write?
What do you plan to write up?
What do you plan to post?
Whatever it is.
um I think it's trying to send people who can have a ripple effect.
Of course, that's not um rocket science.
But for us this year, we're trying to lean into more of organic influencer type ofmarketing, really.
(23:21):
I we used to shun influencers more than embrace them.
And the reality is,
the way things are shifting, have to really focus on.
um For us, it's kind of like local San Francisco, three hour drive, regional type of uhmarket.
And so uh it's a combination of basically just sending anybody who's kind of operating inthe area that might have that influence.
(23:45):
then, know, getting into starting to get into more of like geo tagging and actualprogramming of advertising.
If we're doing advertising.
making sure we're hitting people who are actually in market, less worried about the bigfunnel stuff.
We feel more confident that like, if somebody is up in the high in the funnel of travel,we'll get them when they get down to the San Francisco level and something in here.
(24:10):
We don't need to necessarily worry about fighting for every keyword up in the big SanFrancisco, like San Francisco keywords and stuff like that versus some other markets.
That's a good segue.
How close attention do you all pay to SEO in the Google of it all?
Is that something that's
We actually are surprisingly not at this point probably, but we are more grassroots thanthat.
(24:36):
I mean, we watch it.
We certainly um have built our website to try and incorporate the right strings of words.
I was just literally on a call before this um with Arrival trying to understand the AIstuff and really trying to wrap our heads around not just AI and what people are doing,
but also
I mean, that's multifaceted, it's such the hot trend word right now.
(24:59):
But there's AI in terms of content and generating content, but there's also the AI oflike, we want to make sure that we're being found by AI, right?
So that's early in this, it's early still to some degree.
ah I don't think you can be too early on that.
So we're trying to understand, because that actually changes SEO then, like SEO can becomeless valuable and.
(25:23):
in the AI tracking world, but then SEO is still valuable in the user searching Google,that kind of world.
So trying to balance all those things.
I think those are really easy wormholes to spend a whole lot of money and not know whatyour return is.
So I'm super skeptical usually about that stuff.
I, not that I won't do it, but we really try and just make sure that something istrackable, traceable.
(25:49):
Like what are we spending money on?
And is it actually developed?
generating something and obviously there's a time and a place to experiment and sometimesyou just commit resources and say, I don't really know what I'm to get out of this, but
I'm to give it a shot.
And that's fine too.
In this current climate, um we're watching everything harder than ever because there'sjust not the room to just be throwing buckets of money towards new ventures and seeing
(26:14):
what happens.
So we're kind of going back to the sticking to the bread and butter of the things that weknow work.
um And again, like if
If it's working and we have reviews, we want to lean into those kinds of things.
So something that can use our reviews to our power or use our past customers to our poweror whatever the things that we know would work and really flush those out before we start
(26:37):
just looking out at other worlds.
So any tools you use to target those past customers in your contact list?
I mean, we do a mix of mostly like email marketing.
Actually, had sort of like an opening when we opened our season.
We had just opened in the middle of March, brought the boat back.
(26:58):
But we sent a sort of series of a couple of emails for that.
And some people say your email marketing is dead.
I actually think it has a return, you know, and it's all how you do it.
we did it and we had on one sunset trip.
their crew said they had three or four different parties that all said they booked becausethey got an email.
And one guy said, I don't even know how I got here.
(27:20):
But I'm on the boat.
eh Yeah, and was like, you know, so those, just when you think, like I used to think, Idon't know if anybody's even opening these things, because I trash all kinds of emails.
But, you know, if you do it and you have a brand, um that's a, you know, it's all aboutthose touch points, right?
But not specific.
tools, it's not like there's one provider that we're like, this is what we do.
(27:42):
We do some programmatic ads, which is more, that is more top of funnel.
um For existing customers, it's usually email marketing um and reaching out to whatevercontact point we have for past customers.
Yeah, I had one client who had a pretty, pretty straightforward book form, they didn'thave a lot they needed to gather in order to go out.
(28:04):
And so they added a custom field for zip codes for you to enter in your zip code.
And they would segment their email marketing from there from using the Fair Harborreporting um in order to send out like, who's a local?
Let's we know these are the zip codes that are local, or these are the zip codes within acertain radius.
ah And then they would do their emails from there versus their strategy in their emailsfor people who may have come from out of town.
(28:31):
So a lot of stuff to, I don't think email marketing is dead at all.
I actually just went to a happy hour because they said, we have an all day happy hour onWednesdays.
said, girl, who's that click rate?
I opened.
I'll see you in a sec.
uh So I definitely don't think, and I also use a lot of,
video evidence, even if I find something on Google, I'm reinforcing what I'm going to godo with TikTok or Instagram reels.
(29:01):
So and I have used AI personally in my travels.
I went to Ireland for a 30th birthday.
Oh, my gosh, I think it was my 30th birthday time flies.
And I tried to use AI.
This was a year ago last November.
And like
70 % of the stuff that it gave me was closed, whether it was a hostel or a tour.
(29:24):
And I was like, yeah, I think it's getting there, but it's not quite there yet.
Or it was like a website where I was like, I don't want to put my credit card number inhere.
So it is interesting to see it evolve.
But I agree that while it's important to stay in the know about it, and I think Arrivaldoes a great job of that, it's still up and coming.
(29:48):
um Same with like Google things to do.
I also think that's one thing that a lot of clients don't fully understand or know andsome things Google doesn't fully like have fleshed out yet, but it's good to like stay in
the ether to know what's going on.
um Shipping gears again here.
um We talked about the coats earlier, the coats of it all.
(30:12):
Those coats were so cute.
loved them.
And if I'm so glad that I didn't know they were on sale, because I would have I this one.
It looked so good in the photos that like amplified the way like the call that brick colorof the bridge against like the blue of the coat looked so good with the blue of the water
(30:37):
and the white sail like it looked so I'm a girly pop right now but it just made mypictures look so cute.
Which brings me to questions around branding.
You're the marketing guy, Charlie.
So I gotta ask you about branding.
When you came on with Adventure Cat, did you have the same logo?
Did you have the same colors that you do now?
(30:58):
And can you give our operators some insight on if they feel like they wanna redo theirbranding or they're just getting started and they're trying to establish their brand
profile?
Like what things can they keep in mind and what's your story with establishing a brand?
Sure.
Yeah, I can't take full credit for a lot of it um from when I started.
(31:21):
So the logo was there.
The logo is the logo.
The sort of three color scheme that we have, which is red, white, and a blue.
It's typically more of like this kind of lighter blue than it is the blues of thosejackets.
It just so happens those jackets were sold in more of like a royal blue.
But it works.
um And red, white, and blue, you know, transfers for all kinds of things.
(31:41):
People are very familiar with it.
I think that's helpful.
um Yeah, in terms of building a brand or keeping a brand, for us, uh I personally thinkmarketing and brand specific can be tempting to redo your brand or like stay current or
(32:04):
like, it's kind of, I don't know, there's something like kind of attractive about like,we're going to do an overhaul and like, we're going to refresh everything and it's going
to be amazing.
And that's cool.
um
But there's also something about being timeless, right?
And something to me in my sort of history of branding and marketing is like when you havea brand, you don't overhaul the whole thing.
(32:25):
So that would be my tip is like, don't just break everything down and redo your brand towhere people cannot recognize it.
So if you study brands and the way people have like changed logos over time or havechanged brands and their names and things over time, right?
Like they have
Maybe a full, it might be like if we did Adventure Cat sailing charters and then at acertain point we felt like that's a mouthful and we just wanted to be Adventure Cat.
(32:50):
We wouldn't just just drop it entirely because we need sailing somewhere in there.
People understand and so then we might just use Adventure Cat in most places or we mightjust use Adventure Cat sailing and drop the charters and then not mess with the look and
the logo or the colors.
And so I guess if I'm if I was giving any tips, which I don't know them.
(33:10):
qualified to do, but I will.
would be don't just like throw everything out because I think we've all had an experiencewhere like it could be as simple as going to the grocery store, right?
And you look for your favorite milk and there's like the wall of milks and you literallyI've done it.
I like can't find the milk that I normally buy.
And then I see like after a few minutes I see it in the shelf and it's because they like,oh, same milk, new look or whatever.
(33:34):
And it's like it's completely different now.
Granted, I spend enough time to find it because I'm still like looking for that milkbecause I like it or whatever.
But I think that we can lose people sometimes where all of a sudden we change the look andwe're happy with it in our office, but we're not paying attention to the fact that a lot
of other people are used to this brand.
They've seen this logo for 30 years.
(33:55):
If I throw this thing out, I might pick up like trendy new things that are happening, butI might be losing everybody who's paid attention to this and who feels like an identity
with it.
And the more you have a brand.
the more people buy into it.
And so you can sort of castigate that the people that were part of your brand by going ina different, and they're like, oh, well, they're not the same anymore, or they sold out,
(34:18):
or, people make their own weird assumptions that we don't even translate, but it cantranslate that way.
So for us, it's always been core colors, core brand, core look and feel, but try and kindof evolve and keep things current.
So we do like the pieces that we do, like this is a...
kind of form fitted fleece, it's kind of athletic.
This is not available for purchase, right?
(34:39):
This is just for our crew and for us, but it gives us a certain look and feel.
And then we have beanies and jackets and things that go for the people.
Or we do things in limited edition.
Sometimes we've done shirts, like t-shirts for one season and done like a cool design.
And we tell people like, this is the 2023 t-shirt, you know?
And then that gives you a little bit of like, ooh, that's kind of cool.
(35:01):
I was here, I bought that.
And I know that like,
Not everybody's gonna have that.
Even if somebody went this year, they're not gonna get the shirt that I have, because Iwas there in 23.
um Those are little things that I think you can do, um which work really well.
Absolutely, thank you.
In the same vein as branding, I've really loved your website.
(35:22):
ah Obviously, I wouldn't think you've had the same website for 40 years, I would hope.
Otherwise, you were real ahead of your time.
Talk to me a little bit about the choices here, especially like on the homepage, what wecall Above the Fold.
uh see a few things here I wanna call out.
uh The San Francisco's best way to experience the Bay risk-free booking with our free24-hour cancellation policy.
(35:50):
I don't see a call out for that often on that cancellation policy.
Do you think that plays a big role in the bookings you get online?
I mean, I don't have a lot of hard data to back that up.
um But I think, you know, to be quite honest, it mostly came out of, um it came out ofCOVID largely.
(36:14):
We always had a very friendly sort of booking, but the idea of calling it out um reallyonly happened um when COVID was happening and people were fearful basically of booking and
being things.
And we were fortunate that, you know, we were shut down for a long time.
But when we could open that we were an outdoor activity, people felt generally safecoming.
(36:36):
But m yeah, so that's been, I think, a huge thing.
just puts people at ease.
It's just saying like, hey, because everybody will say they're the best at everything,right?
Every website should say, like, this is the most amazing tour you'll ever go on.
This is the most amazing thing you'll ever do.
And that's cool.
um But then when you can also say, hey, book and like, if you don't like it, just cancelor change or do whatever you want.
(36:58):
um
then people feel really comfortable and they book it.
And we all know most often people don't cancel.
They just want to know that they could if they had to.
Yeah, another thing I love is the call out here.
So for people only listening, not watching um on the home page, not above the fold, butwith a little bit of a scroll, I also see some data, which I don't see a lot for our
(37:20):
industry.
So you call out, we have 1,678 reviews and 97 % of the time we spend under sale poweralone.
I just did an episode a few weeks ago about how um people are
uh customers are really interested in the sustainability of a tour and the things thatthey're taking.
(37:42):
So I think that's really cool.
And then you have it listed.
We operate seven days a week.
ah And then the last stat is uh zero.
And it says number of other similar capacity sailing catamaran tours on San Francisco Bay.
I love the shade throwing there.
think it's very funny and fun.
(38:04):
ah That's really cool.
Can you tell me a little bit about that and what kind of advice you can have for people tokind of get creative with that kind of marketing on their homepage?
Sure.
um that line, that whole line across, I can take some credit for.
did put that together back in the day.
(38:25):
um It really stems from ah just my belief that people have less and less attention spansthese days, right?
It's kind like how we put everything, what's in short paragraph form, and then it becomesin bullet points because people just can't digest a lot anymore.
um And so the thought was just, if I'm scrolling, right, I don't...
(38:46):
we all know the different statistics and how many fractions of a second you have to getsomebody's attention and to keep them engaged.
That's the idea of our site of how you scroll down.
It's like, there's a good picture.
You get a little bit of a scroll, okay, it's risk-free, I feel better.
Then you just get four quick points about why this is good and we have that rating rightabove it.
(39:07):
have rated 4.8 out of five stars.
Without doing anything else, people just know, oh
couple thousand people that have reviewed this thing.
The one question we get a lot is like, do you actually sail?
Because what we find is most people who have done catamaran tours in other places havebeen, there are catamaran tours, build those catamaran tours, but they're not often
(39:28):
sailing a lot.
And they're in like tropical places where maybe there's not as much wind or whatever.
And people go out and it's like more of a booze cruise.
so we want people to understand, no, this is actually sailing.
This is like a really sailing experience.
um
It is to your point of sustainability.
It was only a couple of years ago.
think a year or two ago that we added the little there's a little line right above thosestats.
It says wind the original zero emission transportation, which is not shade throwing, butit's just a little bit of like, hey, like we can all talk about electric and all these
(39:56):
other things.
ah But let's be real, like wind has been around forever.
Sailboats have been around forever.
Like we are the original zero emissions.
So if anybody's worried about that, like that is what this is.
um And yeah, the stats are just to be there for a quick digestion and and.
I think, I don't know, but I think it gets people real comfortable, real fast andunderstands what we do.
(40:16):
And um yeah, the zero is just, uh it's just a fact.
And so I wanted to highlight that um because we are lucky and there aren't really, whenyou look at the capacity and other catamaran, there really isn't anybody doing what we do.
And that's an important fact.
But it's a hard thing to highlight without sounding too like uh cocky or like self, youknow, or.
(40:40):
We're stuck up about it, you know, used to marketing has to kind of like slipped in therea little bit.
Well, at the end of every episode, just to give you a heads up, I always ask the operatorto give themselves a humble brag about the work they've done at their business.
So just be prepared for that.
You'll have to be a little cocky at the end of the episode.
one more call out em before we get there is I'm noticing now on your item grid on the homepage, which I love, always recommend having that.
(41:11):
You have a call out for kids being half
price.
I think that's huge and I also don't see that a lot.
um Let's talk a little bit about pricing strategy.
I love the call out here as well.
Do you think that kids have price having that call out as well as having that availablehaving that pricing strategy there.
Do think that helps get you more bookings helps increase the number of those bodies on theboat.
(41:37):
100%.
Yeah, it's and it's and it's it's not just a marketing thing.
It's also just like a business principle thing.
We've always wanted to our owners have a big family.
I have three children like everybody that's involved.
We're all kind of like real people that understand what it takes to go on vacation withyour family.
(41:57):
And granted, not everybody is a family coming on the boat, but we've always felt likewe're here for all ages.
We're here for everybody and
The sunset trip is our most popular.
We as a business don't discount the sunset trip like with H brackets.
just, everybody's the same uh from babies on through because it's that competitive andit's like there's only one sunset a day and all of that.
(42:20):
So we always felt like, well, let's counterbalance that with some budget friendly optionsor some family options.
um And the reality is uh people love it.
And kids love this trip.
And for any parent out there, myself included, we all know if you can make an enjoyabletrip for the children, you're making an enjoyable trip for the parents, right?
(42:44):
And so if we can have the kids come on and they're paying half price, they don't take up alot of space.
We're probably not, you know, sell it.
We do it only in the daytime, which are, we sell out more sunsets than we do day times.
There's two trips on the day instead of the sunset.
there's just less pressure on the whole thing.
But yeah, it's been a huge way for us to stay and stay affordable for people, evenespecially in this economy.
(43:07):
know, it's costs have gone up, right?
Like it's tempting as a business to just raise prices all the time because our costs aregoing up to do business.
But we also have to remember everybody else's wallet is hurting also.
And so we try and have an option and it gives us as a business an opportunity to say.
Somebody asks, you know, hey, can is there a discount for even the sunset, right?
(43:31):
we want to go on the Sunset Isir discount and we say no, we don't have a discount forthat.
But we do have the daytime trips you can be, and it's free for five and under.
We do five and under free, six to 12 is half off, 13 and over is considered an adult andticket price.
So um that's gone a long way for us.
um So yeah, it's huge uh for us to just kind of, I think it's like an olive branch tocustomers.
(43:59):
Absolutely.
Thanks for sharing that.
then finally, before we get into your must, your much anticipated humble brag, uh youspoke earlier in the episode about user experience and you talked about that, you know,
kind of the user experience ends on the tour, right?
It ends as soon as they get off the boat, maybe even longer, depending.
(44:22):
Let's talk about it with your setup on the website.
So uh particularly,
with Fair Harbor.
talked about your home page.
We know most people don't leave the home page.
So we click on buy tickets.
Talk to me a little bit about the uh intention and strategy around your user experienceand what can you speak to for those who are looking for a little more booking optimization
(44:47):
making it as easy as possible to grab that conversion on.
Yeah, um so we want to make it as easy as possible to either find out information or tomake that booking ultimately, right?
And everybody pulls that last trigger in their own time and we don't have control of that.
I guess one of the main things I would say is we try and give them opportunities to bookat any stage, just jump to booking because at any point they can feel like, right, I've
(45:14):
absorbed enough information and now I'm ready to book.
And so
Oddly enough, sometimes you can provide a page full of information and somebody getsfrustrated because they're like, I just want to book this thing.
Like, where do I book?
I just, I'm done.
Like, I don't want to take in any more information.
So we've done that, or at least tried to do this, so like on the homepage, there's booktickets at the very top, first thing.
(45:36):
So if somebody knows that they're coming here to book, like they don't have to read thething.
They can just go there, click on book tickets.
It's also only like a third of the way down the page.
So if somebody's just reading the homepage, they feel really good, great.
It's also in every one of those tiles, right?
There's information and there's book now.
So if I know that I'm looking for the base sale, but I don't know until I scroll halfwaydown and I'm like, there's the base sale, book now, done.
(45:58):
um But if I'm like, a base sale sunset, I don't know.
And then I read information, then I get at least one more page where it's sort ofdedicated information.
They can read a little bit more about it.
And then again, they can book if they want to book there.
um All of those book buttons go to Fair Harbors, you know.
booking flow from there.
um But I think that's probably the main thing is just trying to keep it easy, also giveoptions.
(46:26):
it's lead a horse to water, but sometimes it's more difficult.
But yeah, we're just trying to do that.
Yeah, amazing.
um I look in your book form here and I like the customer types as well.
It's very straightforward.
Adults, children, we ones, which have no price on them.
So I know age is five and under or five and younger as it says in here is free.
(46:48):
Very easy.
And uh as far as going through the book form, also very easy as well.
So that's great.
um We've come to the end of the episode, Charlie.
Thank you so much for your time.
and it is now time to spotlight your humble brag.
What are you most proud of in the work that you've done in Adventure Cat?
(47:08):
We would all love to hear it.
Boy, ah I'm a Leo, so I can humble Frank with the belt.
First guest I've had that offers astrology information.
I have to grab that information by the horns.
That's limit of my astrology information.
(47:30):
I don't have much past.
I don't even know who does what.
I have to ask my wife all the time, like, what does that mean?
I don't even know what our kids are.
But yeah, I don't know.
What I'm most proud of, I guess, is just our staying power.
We're a legacy business in San Francisco.
Times get tough.
you know, last few years in San Francisco specifically, it's been a rough market, right?
(47:53):
And, and
We're all going through all kinds of different things, and I think we've managed to carveout our little niche here and keep going, and I'm hopeful that we are able to just keep
making the adjustments.
I feel like it's like the soundboard in a studio when people are recording.
It's got like a thousand knobs, and you're just always like, I'm going to turn that oneup, okay, let's turn that one back down, and let's turn that one up, and let's turn that
(48:17):
one back down, and you can't leave.
You just have to.
sit at the board.
And there were years in the past where you could get up and like take off for a while andcome back and then just check your situation and move it.
And the reality is you can't anymore.
So I'm most proud of that.
I'm most proud of our crew too.
I think we didn't highlight a lot of that in here, but second to the bridge or our trips,the number one thing we get reviews for is our crew and our staff.
(48:42):
And we've gone to great lengths.
I'm just sort of like a behind the scenes.
I feel like I work for them.
And so
I, we've just really understood that that's our customer facing strength.
And so for anybody out there that has staff, do hold onto your good staff and hiring ishard, firing is hard.
(49:05):
It's all of those things where no one's saying it's easy.
um It's expensive.
It's like all the things, but um it is where the rubber meets the road.
And I'm so proud of our staff and what they do and how we hire sailors and we hire peoplethat are good people that like what they do and it it matters.
(49:25):
as you experience it shows when you're there, you're like, these people, they're notclocking in and clocking out.
They're like, they're there.
They're ready.
And I
I'll say we had an all-female crew when I took your tour.
I looked at the captain and I said, it's the crew all-female.
(49:45):
And she said, it sure is.
So I love...
Girl power man girl power.
I'm a girl dad.
I got two girls and uh and you know our owners have four daughters and so you know, we'reall about that It's not like that.
We only do that but but but it's just it's real right and so our I Think for us.
(50:10):
Yeah, I don't know I just think I'm proud of who we are and what we stand for and andthat's the voice that we've tried to maintain even in marketing is just a real like
familiar friendly
but smart and capable voice.
so we always try to come off as approachable, but knowledgeable and happy and reallybelieving in what we do.
(50:33):
And that really came off.
That was a good brag.
That was a very diplomatic.
It gave president.
ah That was a great brag.
Loved it.
Thank you so much for your time.
And I will attest that everything you said in that humble brag comes so authentically inthe tours that you offer.
So anyone coming to San Francisco, definitely book with Adventure Cat Sailing Charter.
(50:57):
Do it.
So much fun.
And even though I did not do a private charter with y'all specifically, I have takenprivate charters before and there is nothing like it.
So if you are planning a trip to San Fran and have a good group going, know, Fair Harborhas payment links, you know, that's how I did it.
I forward everyone the confirmation and I'm like, girls, we got to split this.
(51:21):
Come on.
They got a bar on the boat.
Let's go.
ah It's the funnest thing ever.
So definitely check that out.
Charlie, go ahead and plug your website and your Instagram.
Where can people find you and hopefully book a tour with you?
You got it.
Website is adventurecat.com, pretty straightforward.
uh And the Instagram is at adventurecatsailing.
(51:43):
And actually if you go to the website, or if you go to adventurecat.com, you'll find thatthere's a feed down below.
So if you make some posts and you tag us, it should pop up there.
You'll your your photo.
I did hide you.
wonder, I'm going to have to see if I'm in there.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Cool.
Thank you so much, Charlie, for being on Growth Powered by Fair Harbor.
And thank you all once again for listening.
(52:04):
It means so much to me and it makes me look good for my bosses.
So I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Make sure to like and subscribe, especially if you're watching on YouTube and leave acomment of what maybe you want to see next.
Join the Fair Harbor community at fairharbor.com slash community.
and I will check you all next time.
Thanks for listening and thanks for being here, Charlie.
(52:26):
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it.
Super fun.
Okay, hello all hello to my favorite tour operators, the ones who listen to this podcast.
Welcome again to growth powered by Fair Harbor.
My name is Rebecca.
am the community manager of Fair Harbor as many of you know.
And I'm here with a wonderful operator today who also gave me the special chance to taketheir tour in San Francisco, a marketing extraordinaire and operator a sailor.
(00:29):
We have Charlie from Adventure Cat Sailing.
Charlie, how's it going today?
Going very well, thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
Of course.
Yes, I appreciate your time.
And like I said, I had the pleasure of going on your tour when I was in San Francisco forthe Fair Harbor meetup.
And it was nothing short of magical.
It was my first time in San Francisco.
(00:50):
And I can't think of a better way to spend my sunset than on a boat.
I'm in Denver, Colorado today, where I'm based out of.
So not a whole lot of boat time, not as much as I'd like.
um So being on your boat was like,
magic.
Thank you for ha I would love to get a about If you could t them about you as well.
(01:19):
H
Okay, yeah, happy to share this.
uh Plenty to unpack.
So Adventure Cat is in our 34th season in San Francisco.
uh Same ownership from start till still running.
uh And actually I've been there 11 years, so I can't say I'm a founder, uh my personalbackground is uh marketing first.
(01:48):
So I went to school for business degree, marketing, have a strong business background, butlifelong sailor.
had parents who were sailors, grew up on boats, around boats, racing sailboats here in SanFrancisco actually.
And so um for me to do marketing and sailing and tell people that they should go sailingand try and get people to go on boats is like, that's perfect for me.
(02:08):
So um I started with the company as just a marketing director basically.
um And then now I'm the general manager for the last few years.
ah
The company, as I said, was 34 years, started by a local husband and wife and then anothergentleman back in the late 80s.
It started as a business taking people out by the ballpark here in San Francisco, Pier 40,um in 1991.
(02:33):
So that was our first business year.
But it's an interesting story because um they set out, they're actually just sailors also,used to live on boats and deliver boats and all involved in that industry.
um
And they sail small catamarans as a hobby, they still do.
And they decided one day like, hey, maybe people would like to take a boat out under theGolden Gate Bridge and we could do a sailboat.
(02:56):
And then they thought, well, a catamaran would be a really cool platform for that becausecatamarans are actually, for those that don't know, that means it the two holes with the
nets and the cabinet.
So it stays, as you found out, stays very flat and stable and smooth.
And they're actually faster.
um Also, it's a really nice platform for people of all ages and all skill levels andpeople who have never been on a boat to people who are professional sailors.
(03:21):
It still feels like sailing, um but it lends itself really well to all age groups and allof that.
so it also, because it's faster, you can actually get to the bridge and back in a shortamount of time.
And so people can go out about their day and do other things.
And so they set out to do that in the late eighties and couldn't find the
boat that worked for them.
(03:43):
There aren't a lot of boats that are made like this.
so there's catamaran, but they just, it doesn't fit the tourism model.
um So they actually decided to take a loan out and build the first boat.
And so um the two original business partners, the two husbands, actually the three of thembasically, 10,000 man hours.
And they built what we have Adventure Cat 1, which is still in operation today.
(04:06):
And I can't recall which boat you went on.
would be the one that has the sort of blue canvas.
windows as opposed to the hardtop.
that boat, so that boat's 34 years old and they started that boat, built it by hand, gotit Coast Guard certified the whole process.
So it's literally custom built by us for us.
And then the second boat came along.
um So the first boat holds 47 people, the second boat holds 90 people.
(04:30):
um So the large catamaran are 55 and 65 feet long, about 34 feet wide.
So it's kind of like a big rectangle.
The second boat came online right around the year 2000.
So we've had the second vote for over 20 years.
But we take about 40,000 people a year out under the bridge.
We do an hour and a half trips three to four times a day out of Pier 39, out by Alcatraz,out on the Golden Gate Bridge, and then back down the city front.
(04:58):
And we also do private charters.
So private charters is roughly 25 to 30 % of our business.
And then we have what we call ticketed or the public trips, which are the other 75 to 80%,something like that.
But it's great.
So it's a wonderful way for people to see the city.
We get a lot of locals actually because it's people who live here who have never been onthe water don't think they want to go down to Pier 39.
(05:21):
But if we can get them down there, they become ambassadors and they bring every friendthat comes to town.
They're like, we got to go on the Adventure Cat.
We got to see the city from the water.
It's just such a different perspective, such a unique perspective.
And there's other elements of that experience that we can talk about, but why I think it'ssort of.
evergreen experience.
don't think it's going anywhere and why it means so much to people to see it and feel itand be on the boat.
(05:47):
yeah, I love what we do.
There's the smile that people have when they're there and the kind of awe factor.
It's real.
And so uh it's really, valuable.
Thank you so much for that.
That was more than I could imagine.
That was a great background on what you do.
And I'm sure my wonderful editor, Lloyd, is showing all of the smiles that me and mycoworker had while being on the boat.
(06:11):
And I loved what you said about that, like your guest happiness is very real.
Those smiles are very authentic.
When I was on your tour, saw the cutest older couple.
I imagine in my head they were on like their 50th wedding anniversary and they were likeJack and Rose in the front of the boat, like holding each other, watching the sunset
(06:35):
against the bridge.
And it was like the cutest thing I've ever seen.
as I drank alone in the corner with my box of wine.
uh It was just, it was magical and it was cute.
And it's easy in these times to focus on like the hardships that small businesses areseeing.
But I do think that in those moments, it's really nice to like believe in what you do,which was the case for me working at Fair Harbor.
(07:01):
But I think also I was standing uh with one of your staff,
pointed at them and we smiled and it was just very cute.
Another thing I heard in that was legacy.
So you said you started with one boat and that was custom built, right?
And then you got a second boat that was custom built.
(07:23):
ah That's incredible.
And that says a lot to the tenacity of a business to be open for that long.
ah And I'm curious to know for you, it's kind of a compound question here.
that I'm throwing at you.
One, what has changed?
What do you think?
I know you haven't been there all 40 years, but what do you think in marketing wise, whathas really evolved and changed in that 40 years that the business has had to adapt to?
(07:49):
um And two, I would love to see how local marketing plays into that because a lot of ouroperators, as things kind of change, they might have to market a little more locally.
So I'd love to hear the marketing piece on how that has evolved, how you've stayed up withit as a man of marketing, and how that tapped into local marketing as well.
(08:15):
Sure.
um Yes, there's a fair amount we can unpack there, yeah, it is legacy for us.
For me, for us as a business, I'll just say marketing in the high level sense um always tous boils down to that user experience, which includes online and how they book and things
(08:37):
like that.
But really, it comes down to the experience on the boats.
And you can trip and stumble.
even in the booking flow or the search, you know, that the people talk about the funneland all of that, like when someone from someone going from, want to go on a trip all the
way down to showing up at our dock.
You can trip and fall even in there somewhere and like lose them and get back to them andhave an email that went to the wrong place and stuff like that.
(09:02):
But if you can deliver when they are there in person and, and meet them where they areeyeball to eyeball, um it will only help you.
and it will always build your brand over the long run.
It's a slow growth thing.
It's not a big ROI and stuff like that.
(09:26):
if you can hack it long enough, that is where the money is made, in my opinion.
then we ask, so we have people ask us about like reviews, right?
Like we have a lot of good reviews, thousands of five-star reviews, and that's not a...
cocky statement, that's just a fact.
people say like, well, what did you do to that?
(09:46):
What program did you buy or what, you know, blah, blah, blah.
And the reality is we spend extremely little on anything that's around review technology.
We actually don't really do it.
One thing we do is send follow up emails, I think through Fair Harbor, asking for a reviewand that's it.
But the reviews are all organic and they come from what?
(10:09):
They come from the experience.
And we've always tried to
hammer that home, right?
So because you can do all the tech stuff, but if it's just not a good experience, it's nota good experience.
And I'm a user in my own travels, right?
And if something's not fun, you can hit me in 50 ways about, leave a review here, do this,do that.
I'm not really going to do it because it just wasn't really worth it, you know?
(10:31):
And so that's
I'm more likely to leave no review if I had a bad time than a bad review.
I think little reviews say a lot, I think, to consumers as well.
Before we started recording, we talked about when I went on your tour.
(10:51):
there were, I had no idea, I'm from Colorado, I had no idea California could be cold.
I really didn't know, I had no idea.
And then I got on the boat and I was like, what are these?
You had coats available.
And I was like, am I gonna need that?
And I sure as hell did.
And that was the way that really enhanced the experience for me is because I was reallycomfortable and I could actually enjoy myself.
(11:18):
What are some, what tips do you have for operators that, you know, are little investments,little things that could really amp up those reviews and amp up those positive experiences
from their guests?
I think it's listening more actually a lot of times.
So, and that doesn't mean that most operators don't, but it's just really payingattention.
(11:40):
We get the most feedback during a trip, right?
Like it's much harder to get feedback after.
You can get follow-ups, you can get reviews.
You'll get, know, if you get a negative review, like this, I forget what the statistic is,right?
But it's like you tell 15 people about a bad experience versus.
uh five people about a good one or something like that.
(12:02):
You'll hear about the negative stuff, but usually those are big things.
For us, we'll get negative reviews from time to time, but they're pretty much always aboutsomething else in the funnel.
It's actually not us when you really get down to it.
But to your question, it's really for us, it's about listening to what the needs are.
When we started the jacket example, we started the company.
(12:23):
Yeah, people underestimate San Francisco and how cold it can be.
um
still a super fun trip.
There's a reason we're, I tell people, there's a reason we're called adventure cat,because it's like going on a bit of an adventure.
And sometimes an adventure can be cold or windy or, and you know, we're sailboats, we needwind.
It's like, it's really windy out here.
And we're like, well, we can't really do what we do if we didn't have the wind.
So we've got to kind of find a balance.
(12:45):
But we noticed, you know, right off the bat, people are colder than they anticipate.
It's generally 10 degrees colder on the water than it is even on the dock, right?
So people think like, I can handle this.
They're at the pier and they're like, I got this.
And they don't really realize it.
in 10 minutes you're going to be out there in the breeze and 20 miles an hour wind andlike it's a different experience.
And you do actually want to be out there to see it because we have a stadium of views allthe way around us and the bridge and Alcatraz and the city and like there's just things to
(13:10):
look at everywhere.
And so you do want to be a part of it.
So we tinkered in the early days.
I we did blankets at one point and then we just realized you know what we got to invest insome jackets and people people love the jackets and it's become we've actually started
selling them.
not marketing them as uh mounted up for sale, but just because we've had people thatliterally walk up to the bar and they're like, I want to buy this jacket.
(13:34):
And we're like, okay, we can sell you.
they're like, no, want this jacket.
We're like, well, that's used.
They're no, want.
They're so committed that they're like, no, I want this jacket.
we're like, all right.
So jackets, just little feedback stuff like uh understanding.
um
(13:55):
what their needs are, what they like, what that's part of why we don't do a preset tour, aguided tour.
Sometimes people are like, you know, and you'll get a few people that want that and that'sokay.
So we have, it used to be an audio guide, like the old kind of cell phone looking thing.
Now we have a audio tour that you can scan with your phone on a QR code and you can listento facts.
(14:18):
So we have this script about all kinds, I think it was 20 something different scriptsabout different facts around the Bay if you're looking.
Some people love it, it's in eight languages.
Most people don't want it at all.
Don't ever use it, don't ever need it.
And so we've realized uh long ago that like shoving that down someone's throat is notreally what they're there for.
(14:40):
And there are companies where I think it can be tempting to be like, no, you're in SanFrancisco, we got to tell you about San Francisco or wherever you are.
This is what you're here for.
And it's not our job to tell them what they're here for.
And we are providing an experience and we've...
Refined it to understand.
Okay, if we just put on a little bit of like mellow background music serve up some drinksand Have things available somebody wants that audio tour they can do it.
(15:04):
But most people for our product want to just Soak in that experience like the experienceyou had you that you want to just look around and For a lot of people they're starting or
ending a trip with us most people end the trip with us if they can because they're likethey did a bus tour over the bridge or they
biked over the bridge or they did a hiking tour or they were doing all these other thingsin San Francisco and it's a really cool way for them to sit and be like, oh, look, we used
(15:31):
to walk over there.
we were just up on top of that building and blah, blah, blah.
And they're reliving that whole thing in their own little group of four people on theboat.
And who are we to blast this like, on your right is Alcatraz.
It doesn't, in the right setting, in the right product, other products that works reallywell.
Somebody's going for that tour that they should do that.
(15:51):
Like the big ferry boats should do that.
So it's stuff like that.
Just listening to me, it's all about listening.
And it was the staff too.
I mean, the staff came around and, you know, I'm taking a selfie with my coworker and yourstaff member come in and said, hey, can I take a picture?
Can I take that picture for you guys?
And I'm like, oh yeah, absolutely.
(16:13):
And it was a whole photo shoot and made it really, it really amplified the experiencethere.
And then they were also pointing out the dolphins, which I thought was really nice andsuper fun.
anytime I get to see them.
um Shifting gears a little bit, you also mentioned earlier local marketing.
(16:33):
Tell me a little bit about that because currently, you know, everything going on in theUS, a lot of people are, a lot of consumers from outside the US, there's a little bit of
change.
And I don't know if you're in the group Torpreneur.
Love that group.
Shout out to Mitch.
(16:54):
I love Tourprenoir, I love Trip School, and they talk in there.
I see a lot of operators talking in that group about things are shifting a little bit, andI'm starting to see a few cancellations come in from people visiting from out of the US,
and now they want to cancel their tour, they're not quite sure if they want to come here.
So people are looking for more advice around local marketing and how to tap into themarket of where they're at, which can be tricky for a tourism-based company.
(17:22):
What advice do you have for that?
What experience can you speak on with local marketing?
Sure, well, it's true.
It's absolutely true.
The international brand is hurting at the moment.
um And for us, it's the same, we're finding the same thing.
um It's also, it's a lot like, so the pandemic was like that for us.
(17:45):
It was a very big lesson, especially in San Francisco about, San Francisco as a market wasvery dependent on the foreign traveler.
And SFO as an airport was very dependent on.
foreign travel, and more than many airports, one of the hardest hits and slowestrecovering airports um in the country.
So we learned a lot because it was a wake up call of like, oh, we were really reliant onthose German families and French families and so on that would come to the pier.
(18:12):
um so for local marketing, on the flip side of that is Adventure Cat was actually kind ofbuilt on local grassroots marketing.
So
We've historically never pumped a lot of money into resourcing and pumped a lot ofresources into marketing.
We did a lot of ground game.
So in the old days with concierges, we used to just dedicate a day or two a week and we'djust walk hotels.
(18:35):
this is pre-internet, you know, not pre-internet, but pre like, you know, before peoplecould do bookings and things like that on internet.
But so it's changed over the years.
It was relationship building, kind of like the review thing.
It was just get out there, get in every physical space you could be in locally to have apresence and sacrifice.
(18:58):
Instead of pumping resources into advertising, what we typically do is just send people onthe boat like we sent you, right?
It's the cheapest way for us as a business.
It's the least of least.
most cost effective or least least expensive way for us to invest in marketing.
And it's the highest payback by far.
(19:20):
So we found that like, you know, paying for a display ad versus sending a person on theboat, there's no question that somebody like yourself will tell at least a number of other
people.
And that has so much more value to those people that hear it from you or whoever we'vesent than
(19:40):
flipping through it in a magazine.
It just never got the ROI.
It just never made sense for us.
And so we just said, you know what, we're fortunate.
Granted, I don't think it's not for everybody because if you're doing a walking tour, likeit's hard to just give up, know, X amount of spots on a walk, on a 10 person walking tour
or whatever.
um We have a boat that has seats that typically we're not selling out every single trip.
So there's trips to be had where we can just, the boat's going, it's already got 30 peopleon it and what's 32 and two of them are free.
(20:07):
Fine.
But
That's been our biggest local marketing.
It's been anybody we run into in the business, like, hey, do you want to go sailingsometimes?
Check this out.
Like, it's really fun and it's great way to see the city and ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
And we send them.
And that has built up a same kind of loyal following where people just say, oh, you wantto go?
You got to do this.
Also being in, you know, when we do the private charters, doing a...
(20:36):
a dual sort of referral marketing.
So if somebody goes on a public, we do a follow-up email that says, hey, you know, hopeyou enjoyed that trip.
Have you ever thought about doing a team, a team event, family reunion, you know, list outkind of because most people, right, they have a day job.
And so maybe a lot of those people might be looking for something to do and people arelooking for something interesting and vice versa.
(20:57):
So somebody comes on a team event that was booked through their business and they have noidea who we are.
They show up, they have a killer time on the lunch cruise.
um Then we send something that says, you bring family and friends sometime.
We do this every day.
We buy tickets.
We sell tickets every day.
Come on out.
You know, and somebody goes, my gosh, this is great.
Or they come with the business and then they decide to bring their family or that kind ofthing.
(21:21):
trying to do cross marketing as much as possible has been really helpful.
Basically, just utilizing the assets that we have um to market.
I love that utilizing the assets that you have in order to market.
What does it, a lot of the clients I talk to, like I said, I was in San Francisco for theFair Harbor uh meetups event and a lot of clients are still very confused on like, who am
(21:43):
I sending out?
Who should I be sending out to these tours?
Are they like social media influencers?
Are they like bloggers?
How do you navigate that?
How do you know who to send out and what does that communication look like?
Well, it's evolving all the time.
uh I would say we err on the side of Send'em anyway, right?
(22:05):
uh We're like anybody else.
We get hit by all kinds of influencers that are not really influencers.
They're like a husband, a wife that have a blog and they have got, you know, their 20followers and they're in town for the weekend and they're basically looking for a free
trip.
um You know what?
Go have fun.
Like, because we can do it.
(22:26):
going out anyway, like I said.
If it's not a huge cost,
differential, we'll just send them because even if they write it and they refer oneperson, that one person is going to maybe book a couple of seats and that's going to cover
their trip and we're still getting to kind of that, it's again, that kind of slow build.
So we err on that side.
ah But I will say we are, um we try and be efficient at least asking people to copy us onsomething that they write.
(22:55):
So make it a bit more official.
So hey, if you're going to
If we're going to send you, please copy us.
What do you plan to write?
What do you plan to write up?
What do you plan to post?
Whatever it is.
um I think it's trying to send people who can have a ripple effect.
Of course, that's not um rocket science.
But for us this year, we're trying to lean into more of organic influencer type ofmarketing, really.
(23:21):
I we used to shun influencers more than embrace them.
And the reality is,
the way things are shifting, have to really focus on.
um For us, it's kind of like local San Francisco, three hour drive, regional type of uhmarket.
And so uh it's a combination of basically just sending anybody who's kind of operating inthe area that might have that influence.
(23:45):
then, know, getting into starting to get into more of like geo tagging and actualprogramming of advertising.
If we're doing advertising.
making sure we're hitting people who are actually in market, less worried about the bigfunnel stuff.
We feel more confident that like, if somebody is up in the high in the funnel of travel,we'll get them when they get down to the San Francisco level and something in here.
(24:10):
We don't need to necessarily worry about fighting for every keyword up in the big SanFrancisco, like San Francisco keywords and stuff like that versus some other markets.
That's a good segue.
How close attention do you all pay to SEO in the Google of it all?
Is that something that's
We actually are surprisingly not at this point probably, but we are more grassroots thanthat.
(24:36):
I mean, we watch it.
We certainly um have built our website to try and incorporate the right strings of words.
I was just literally on a call before this um with Arrival trying to understand the AIstuff and really trying to wrap our heads around not just AI and what people are doing,
but also
I mean, that's multifaceted, it's such the hot trend word right now.
(24:59):
But there's AI in terms of content and generating content, but there's also the AI oflike, we want to make sure that we're being found by AI, right?
So that's early in this, it's early still to some degree.
ah I don't think you can be too early on that.
So we're trying to understand, because that actually changes SEO then, like SEO can becomeless valuable and.
(25:23):
in the AI tracking world, but then SEO is still valuable in the user searching Google,that kind of world.
So trying to balance all those things.
I think those are really easy wormholes to spend a whole lot of money and not know whatyour return is.
So I'm super skeptical usually about that stuff.
I, not that I won't do it, but we really try and just make sure that something istrackable, traceable.
(25:49):
Like what are we spending money on?
And is it actually developed?
generating something and obviously there's a time and a place to experiment and sometimesyou just commit resources and say, I don't really know what I'm to get out of this, but
I'm to give it a shot.
And that's fine too.
In this current climate, um we're watching everything harder than ever because there'sjust not the room to just be throwing buckets of money towards new ventures and seeing
(26:14):
what happens.
So we're kind of going back to the sticking to the bread and butter of the things that weknow work.
um And again, like if
If it's working and we have reviews, we want to lean into those kinds of things.
So something that can use our reviews to our power or use our past customers to our poweror whatever the things that we know would work and really flush those out before we start
(26:37):
just looking out at other worlds.
So any tools you use to target those past customers in your contact list?
I mean, we do a mix of mostly like email marketing.
Actually, had sort of like an opening when we opened our season.
We had just opened in the middle of March, brought the boat back.
(26:58):
But we sent a sort of series of a couple of emails for that.
And some people say your email marketing is dead.
I actually think it has a return, you know, and it's all how you do it.
we did it and we had on one sunset trip.
their crew said they had three or four different parties that all said they booked becausethey got an email.
And one guy said, I don't even know how I got here.
(27:20):
But I'm on the boat.
eh Yeah, and was like, you know, so those, just when you think, like I used to think, Idon't know if anybody's even opening these things, because I trash all kinds of emails.
But, you know, if you do it and you have a brand, um that's a, you know, it's all aboutthose touch points, right?
But not specific.
tools, it's not like there's one provider that we're like, this is what we do.
(27:42):
We do some programmatic ads, which is more, that is more top of funnel.
um For existing customers, it's usually email marketing um and reaching out to whatevercontact point we have for past customers.
Yeah, I had one client who had a pretty, pretty straightforward book form, they didn'thave a lot they needed to gather in order to go out.
(28:04):
And so they added a custom field for zip codes for you to enter in your zip code.
And they would segment their email marketing from there from using the Fair Harborreporting um in order to send out like, who's a local?
Let's we know these are the zip codes that are local, or these are the zip codes within acertain radius.
ah And then they would do their emails from there versus their strategy in their emailsfor people who may have come from out of town.
(28:31):
So a lot of stuff to, I don't think email marketing is dead at all.
I actually just went to a happy hour because they said, we have an all day happy hour onWednesdays.
said, girl, who's that click rate?
I opened.
I'll see you in a sec.
uh So I definitely don't think, and I also use a lot of,
video evidence, even if I find something on Google, I'm reinforcing what I'm going to godo with TikTok or Instagram reels.
(29:01):
So and I have used AI personally in my travels.
I went to Ireland for a 30th birthday.
Oh, my gosh, I think it was my 30th birthday time flies.
And I tried to use AI.
This was a year ago last November.
And like
70 % of the stuff that it gave me was closed, whether it was a hostel or a tour.
(29:24):
And I was like, yeah, I think it's getting there, but it's not quite there yet.
Or it was like a website where I was like, I don't want to put my credit card number inhere.
So it is interesting to see it evolve.
But I agree that while it's important to stay in the know about it, and I think Arrivaldoes a great job of that, it's still up and coming.
(29:48):
um Same with like Google things to do.
I also think that's one thing that a lot of clients don't fully understand or know andsome things Google doesn't fully like have fleshed out yet, but it's good to like stay in
the ether to know what's going on.
um Shipping gears again here.
um We talked about the coats earlier, the coats of it all.
(30:12):
Those coats were so cute.
loved them.
And if I'm so glad that I didn't know they were on sale, because I would have I this one.
It looked so good in the photos that like amplified the way like the call that brick colorof the bridge against like the blue of the coat looked so good with the blue of the water
(30:37):
and the white sail like it looked so I'm a girly pop right now but it just made mypictures look so cute.
Which brings me to questions around branding.
You're the marketing guy, Charlie.
So I gotta ask you about branding.
When you came on with Adventure Cat, did you have the same logo?
Did you have the same colors that you do now?
(30:58):
And can you give our operators some insight on if they feel like they wanna redo theirbranding or they're just getting started and they're trying to establish their brand
profile?
Like what things can they keep in mind and what's your story with establishing a brand?
Sure.
Yeah, I can't take full credit for a lot of it um from when I started.
(31:21):
So the logo was there.
The logo is the logo.
The sort of three color scheme that we have, which is red, white, and a blue.
It's typically more of like this kind of lighter blue than it is the blues of thosejackets.
It just so happens those jackets were sold in more of like a royal blue.
But it works.
um And red, white, and blue, you know, transfers for all kinds of things.
(31:41):
People are very familiar with it.
I think that's helpful.
um Yeah, in terms of building a brand or keeping a brand, for us, uh I personally thinkmarketing and brand specific can be tempting to redo your brand or like stay current or
(32:04):
like, it's kind of, I don't know, there's something like kind of attractive about like,we're going to do an overhaul and like, we're going to refresh everything and it's going
to be amazing.
And that's cool.
um
But there's also something about being timeless, right?
And something to me in my sort of history of branding and marketing is like when you havea brand, you don't overhaul the whole thing.
(32:25):
So that would be my tip is like, don't just break everything down and redo your brand towhere people cannot recognize it.
So if you study brands and the way people have like changed logos over time or havechanged brands and their names and things over time, right?
Like they have
Maybe a full, it might be like if we did Adventure Cat sailing charters and then at acertain point we felt like that's a mouthful and we just wanted to be Adventure Cat.
(32:50):
We wouldn't just just drop it entirely because we need sailing somewhere in there.
People understand and so then we might just use Adventure Cat in most places or we mightjust use Adventure Cat sailing and drop the charters and then not mess with the look and
the logo or the colors.
And so I guess if I'm if I was giving any tips, which I don't know them.
(33:10):
qualified to do, but I will.
would be don't just like throw everything out because I think we've all had an experiencewhere like it could be as simple as going to the grocery store, right?
And you look for your favorite milk and there's like the wall of milks and you literallyI've done it.
I like can't find the milk that I normally buy.
And then I see like after a few minutes I see it in the shelf and it's because they like,oh, same milk, new look or whatever.
(33:34):
And it's like it's completely different now.
Granted, I spend enough time to find it because I'm still like looking for that milkbecause I like it or whatever.
But I think that we can lose people sometimes where all of a sudden we change the look andwe're happy with it in our office, but we're not paying attention to the fact that a lot
of other people are used to this brand.
They've seen this logo for 30 years.
(33:55):
If I throw this thing out, I might pick up like trendy new things that are happening, butI might be losing everybody who's paid attention to this and who feels like an identity
with it.
And the more you have a brand.
the more people buy into it.
And so you can sort of castigate that the people that were part of your brand by going ina different, and they're like, oh, well, they're not the same anymore, or they sold out,
(34:18):
or, people make their own weird assumptions that we don't even translate, but it cantranslate that way.
So for us, it's always been core colors, core brand, core look and feel, but try and kindof evolve and keep things current.
So we do like the pieces that we do, like this is a...
kind of form fitted fleece, it's kind of athletic.
This is not available for purchase, right?
(34:39):
This is just for our crew and for us, but it gives us a certain look and feel.
And then we have beanies and jackets and things that go for the people.
Or we do things in limited edition.
Sometimes we've done shirts, like t-shirts for one season and done like a cool design.
And we tell people like, this is the 2023 t-shirt, you know?
And then that gives you a little bit of like, ooh, that's kind of cool.
(35:01):
I was here, I bought that.
And I know that like,
Not everybody's gonna have that.
Even if somebody went this year, they're not gonna get the shirt that I have, because Iwas there in 23.
um Those are little things that I think you can do, um which work really well.
Absolutely, thank you.
In the same vein as branding, I've really loved your website.
(35:22):
ah Obviously, I wouldn't think you've had the same website for 40 years, I would hope.
Otherwise, you were real ahead of your time.
Talk to me a little bit about the choices here, especially like on the homepage, what wecall Above the Fold.
uh see a few things here I wanna call out.
uh The San Francisco's best way to experience the Bay risk-free booking with our free24-hour cancellation policy.
(35:50):
I don't see a call out for that often on that cancellation policy.
Do you think that plays a big role in the bookings you get online?
I mean, I don't have a lot of hard data to back that up.
um But I think, you know, to be quite honest, it mostly came out of, um it came out ofCOVID largely.
(36:14):
We always had a very friendly sort of booking, but the idea of calling it out um reallyonly happened um when COVID was happening and people were fearful basically of booking and
being things.
And we were fortunate that, you know, we were shut down for a long time.
But when we could open that we were an outdoor activity, people felt generally safecoming.
(36:36):
But m yeah, so that's been, I think, a huge thing.
just puts people at ease.
It's just saying like, hey, because everybody will say they're the best at everything,right?
Every website should say, like, this is the most amazing tour you'll ever go on.
This is the most amazing thing you'll ever do.
And that's cool.
um But then when you can also say, hey, book and like, if you don't like it, just cancelor change or do whatever you want.
(36:58):
um
then people feel really comfortable and they book it.
And we all know most often people don't cancel.
They just want to know that they could if they had to.
Yeah, another thing I love is the call out here.
So for people only listening, not watching um on the home page, not above the fold, butwith a little bit of a scroll, I also see some data, which I don't see a lot for our
(37:20):
industry.
So you call out, we have 1,678 reviews and 97 % of the time we spend under sale poweralone.
I just did an episode a few weeks ago about how um people are
uh customers are really interested in the sustainability of a tour and the things thatthey're taking.
(37:42):
So I think that's really cool.
And then you have it listed.
We operate seven days a week.
ah And then the last stat is uh zero.
And it says number of other similar capacity sailing catamaran tours on San Francisco Bay.
I love the shade throwing there.
think it's very funny and fun.
(38:04):
ah That's really cool.
Can you tell me a little bit about that and what kind of advice you can have for people tokind of get creative with that kind of marketing on their homepage?
Sure.
um that line, that whole line across, I can take some credit for.
did put that together back in the day.
(38:25):
um It really stems from ah just my belief that people have less and less attention spansthese days, right?
It's kind like how we put everything, what's in short paragraph form, and then it becomesin bullet points because people just can't digest a lot anymore.
um And so the thought was just, if I'm scrolling, right, I don't...
(38:46):
we all know the different statistics and how many fractions of a second you have to getsomebody's attention and to keep them engaged.
That's the idea of our site of how you scroll down.
It's like, there's a good picture.
You get a little bit of a scroll, okay, it's risk-free, I feel better.
Then you just get four quick points about why this is good and we have that rating rightabove it.
(39:07):
have rated 4.8 out of five stars.
Without doing anything else, people just know, oh
couple thousand people that have reviewed this thing.
The one question we get a lot is like, do you actually sail?
Because what we find is most people who have done catamaran tours in other places havebeen, there are catamaran tours, build those catamaran tours, but they're not often
(39:28):
sailing a lot.
And they're in like tropical places where maybe there's not as much wind or whatever.
And people go out and it's like more of a booze cruise.
so we want people to understand, no, this is actually sailing.
This is like a really sailing experience.
um
It is to your point of sustainability.
It was only a couple of years ago.
think a year or two ago that we added the little there's a little line right above thosestats.
It says wind the original zero emission transportation, which is not shade throwing, butit's just a little bit of like, hey, like we can all talk about electric and all these
(39:56):
other things.
ah But let's be real, like wind has been around forever.
Sailboats have been around forever.
Like we are the original zero emissions.
So if anybody's worried about that, like that is what this is.
um And yeah, the stats are just to be there for a quick digestion and and.
I think, I don't know, but I think it gets people real comfortable, real fast andunderstands what we do.
(40:16):
And um yeah, the zero is just, uh it's just a fact.
And so I wanted to highlight that um because we are lucky and there aren't really, whenyou look at the capacity and other catamaran, there really isn't anybody doing what we do.
And that's an important fact.
But it's a hard thing to highlight without sounding too like uh cocky or like self, youknow, or.
(40:40):
We're stuck up about it, you know, used to marketing has to kind of like slipped in therea little bit.
Well, at the end of every episode, just to give you a heads up, I always ask the operatorto give themselves a humble brag about the work they've done at their business.
So just be prepared for that.
You'll have to be a little cocky at the end of the episode.
one more call out em before we get there is I'm noticing now on your item grid on the homepage, which I love, always recommend having that.
(41:11):
You have a call out for kids being half
price.
I think that's huge and I also don't see that a lot.
um Let's talk a little bit about pricing strategy.
I love the call out here as well.
Do you think that kids have price having that call out as well as having that availablehaving that pricing strategy there.
Do think that helps get you more bookings helps increase the number of those bodies on theboat.
(41:37):
100%.
Yeah, it's and it's and it's it's not just a marketing thing.
It's also just like a business principle thing.
We've always wanted to our owners have a big family.
I have three children like everybody that's involved.
We're all kind of like real people that understand what it takes to go on vacation withyour family.
(41:57):
And granted, not everybody is a family coming on the boat, but we've always felt likewe're here for all ages.
We're here for everybody and
The sunset trip is our most popular.
We as a business don't discount the sunset trip like with H brackets.
just, everybody's the same uh from babies on through because it's that competitive andit's like there's only one sunset a day and all of that.
(42:20):
So we always felt like, well, let's counterbalance that with some budget friendly optionsor some family options.
um And the reality is uh people love it.
And kids love this trip.
And for any parent out there, myself included, we all know if you can make an enjoyabletrip for the children, you're making an enjoyable trip for the parents, right?
(42:44):
And so if we can have the kids come on and they're paying half price, they don't take up alot of space.
We're probably not, you know, sell it.
We do it only in the daytime, which are, we sell out more sunsets than we do day times.
There's two trips on the day instead of the sunset.
there's just less pressure on the whole thing.
But yeah, it's been a huge way for us to stay and stay affordable for people, evenespecially in this economy.
(43:07):
know, it's costs have gone up, right?
Like it's tempting as a business to just raise prices all the time because our costs aregoing up to do business.
But we also have to remember everybody else's wallet is hurting also.
And so we try and have an option and it gives us as a business an opportunity to say.
Somebody asks, you know, hey, can is there a discount for even the sunset, right?
(43:31):
we want to go on the Sunset Isir discount and we say no, we don't have a discount forthat.
But we do have the daytime trips you can be, and it's free for five and under.
We do five and under free, six to 12 is half off, 13 and over is considered an adult andticket price.
So um that's gone a long way for us.
um So yeah, it's huge uh for us to just kind of, I think it's like an olive branch tocustomers.
(43:59):
Absolutely.
Thanks for sharing that.
then finally, before we get into your must, your much anticipated humble brag, uh youspoke earlier in the episode about user experience and you talked about that, you know,
kind of the user experience ends on the tour, right?
It ends as soon as they get off the boat, maybe even longer, depending.
(44:22):
Let's talk about it with your setup on the website.
So uh particularly,
with Fair Harbor.
talked about your home page.
We know most people don't leave the home page.
So we click on buy tickets.
Talk to me a little bit about the uh intention and strategy around your user experienceand what can you speak to for those who are looking for a little more booking optimization
(44:47):
making it as easy as possible to grab that conversion on.
Yeah, um so we want to make it as easy as possible to either find out information or tomake that booking ultimately, right?
And everybody pulls that last trigger in their own time and we don't have control of that.
I guess one of the main things I would say is we try and give them opportunities to bookat any stage, just jump to booking because at any point they can feel like, right, I've
(45:14):
absorbed enough information and now I'm ready to book.
And so
Oddly enough, sometimes you can provide a page full of information and somebody getsfrustrated because they're like, I just want to book this thing.
Like, where do I book?
I just, I'm done.
Like, I don't want to take in any more information.
So we've done that, or at least tried to do this, so like on the homepage, there's booktickets at the very top, first thing.
(45:36):
So if somebody knows that they're coming here to book, like they don't have to read thething.
They can just go there, click on book tickets.
It's also only like a third of the way down the page.
So if somebody's just reading the homepage, they feel really good, great.
It's also in every one of those tiles, right?
There's information and there's book now.
So if I know that I'm looking for the base sale, but I don't know until I scroll halfwaydown and I'm like, there's the base sale, book now, done.
(45:58):
um But if I'm like, a base sale sunset, I don't know.
And then I read information, then I get at least one more page where it's sort ofdedicated information.
They can read a little bit more about it.
And then again, they can book if they want to book there.
um All of those book buttons go to Fair Harbors, you know.
booking flow from there.
um But I think that's probably the main thing is just trying to keep it easy, also giveoptions.
(46:26):
it's lead a horse to water, but sometimes it's more difficult.
But yeah, we're just trying to do that.
Yeah, amazing.
um I look in your book form here and I like the customer types as well.
It's very straightforward.
Adults, children, we ones, which have no price on them.
So I know age is five and under or five and younger as it says in here is free.
(46:48):
Very easy.
And uh as far as going through the book form, also very easy as well.
So that's great.
um We've come to the end of the episode, Charlie.
Thank you so much for your time.
and it is now time to spotlight your humble brag.
What are you most proud of in the work that you've done in Adventure Cat?
(47:08):
We would all love to hear it.
Boy, ah I'm a Leo, so I can humble Frank with the belt.
First guest I've had that offers astrology information.
I have to grab that information by the horns.
That's limit of my astrology information.
(47:30):
I don't have much past.
I don't even know who does what.
I have to ask my wife all the time, like, what does that mean?
I don't even know what our kids are.
But yeah, I don't know.
What I'm most proud of, I guess, is just our staying power.
We're a legacy business in San Francisco.
Times get tough.
you know, last few years in San Francisco specifically, it's been a rough market, right?
(47:53):
And, and
We're all going through all kinds of different things, and I think we've managed to carveout our little niche here and keep going, and I'm hopeful that we are able to just keep
making the adjustments.
I feel like it's like the soundboard in a studio when people are recording.
It's got like a thousand knobs, and you're just always like, I'm going to turn that oneup, okay, let's turn that one back down, and let's turn that one up, and let's turn that
(48:17):
one back down, and you can't leave.
You just have to.
sit at the board.
And there were years in the past where you could get up and like take off for a while andcome back and then just check your situation and move it.
And the reality is you can't anymore.
So I'm most proud of that.
I'm most proud of our crew too.
I think we didn't highlight a lot of that in here, but second to the bridge or our trips,the number one thing we get reviews for is our crew and our staff.
(48:42):
And we've gone to great lengths.
I'm just sort of like a behind the scenes.
I feel like I work for them.
And so
I, we've just really understood that that's our customer facing strength.
And so for anybody out there that has staff, do hold onto your good staff and hiring ishard, firing is hard.
(49:05):
It's all of those things where no one's saying it's easy.
um It's expensive.
It's like all the things, but um it is where the rubber meets the road.
And I'm so proud of our staff and what they do and how we hire sailors and we hire peoplethat are good people that like what they do and it it matters.
(49:25):
as you experience it shows when you're there, you're like, these people, they're notclocking in and clocking out.
They're like, they're there.
They're ready.
And I
I'll say we had an all-female crew when I took your tour.
I looked at the captain and I said, it's the crew all-female.
(49:45):
And she said, it sure is.
So I love...
Girl power man girl power.
I'm a girl dad.
I got two girls and uh and you know our owners have four daughters and so you know, we'reall about that It's not like that.
We only do that but but but it's just it's real right and so our I Think for us.
(50:10):
Yeah, I don't know I just think I'm proud of who we are and what we stand for and andthat's the voice that we've tried to maintain even in marketing is just a real like
familiar friendly
but smart and capable voice.
so we always try to come off as approachable, but knowledgeable and happy and reallybelieving in what we do.
(50:33):
And that really came off.
That was a good brag.
That was a very diplomatic.
It gave president.
ah That was a great brag.
Loved it.
Thank you so much for your time.
And I will attest that everything you said in that humble brag comes so authentically inthe tours that you offer.
So anyone coming to San Francisco, definitely book with Adventure Cat Sailing Charter.
(50:57):
Do it.
So much fun.
And even though I did not do a private charter with y'all specifically, I have takenprivate charters before and there is nothing like it.
So if you are planning a trip to San Fran and have a good group going, know, Fair Harborhas payment links, you know, that's how I did it.
I forward everyone the confirmation and I'm like, girls, we got to split this.
(51:21):
Come on.
They got a bar on the boat.
Let's go.
ah It's the funnest thing ever.
So definitely check that out.
Charlie, go ahead and plug your website and your Instagram.
Where can people find you and hopefully book a tour with you?
You got it.
Website is adventurecat.com, pretty straightforward.
uh And the Instagram is at adventurecatsailing.
(51:43):
And actually if you go to the website, or if you go to adventurecat.com, you'll find thatthere's a feed down below.
So if you make some posts and you tag us, it should pop up there.
You'll your your photo.
I did hide you.
wonder, I'm going to have to see if I'm in there.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Cool.
Thank you so much, Charlie, for being on Growth Powered by Fair Harbor.
And thank you all once again for listening.
(52:04):
It means so much to me and it makes me look good for my bosses.
So I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Make sure to like and subscribe, especially if you're watching on YouTube and leave acomment of what maybe you want to see next.
Join the Fair Harbor community at fairharbor.com slash community.
and I will check you all next time.
Thanks for listening and thanks for being here, Charlie.
(52:26):
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it.
Super fun.
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