March 19, 2025 • 51 mins
Imagine leaving your business behind while fighting overseas. How do you ensure it thrives without you?
Our guest, James Spearman, founder & CEO of James Spearman Aircraft, shares his inspiring journey, shedding light on the challenges he faced and the turning points that defined his path. From a childhood marked by adversity to discovering the transformative power of structured processes, he reveals how perseverance and the right guidance can lead to success. Listen in as we explore his story and the entrepreneurial vigor that drives him forward.
Transitioning from a traditional job to becoming an Air Force pilot and eventually an entrepreneur wasn't easy, but it was fueled by the stories of successful individuals and the wisdom found in books like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." I recount my transformation, highlighting the importance of learning from others’ experiences and embracing uncertainty. A poignant encounter with a mentor who turned his life around motivated me to pursue my ambitions, underscoring the essence of resilience and the willingness to face the unknown.
Experience the tension of a high-stakes military operation involving a KC-135 refueler amid a direct threat to Israel. Our remarkable guest, James, played a crucial role in this mission, showcasing the power of teamwork and calmness under pressure, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. This experience significantly influenced his entrepreneurial decisions, particularly in niching down within the aviation industry. By focusing on high-end aircraft like Cirrus and Diamond, he highlights the strategic value of specialization and targeting the right audience to achieve business success, offering a compelling narrative of triumph and determination.
James Spearman shares his compelling story of overcoming challenges in both his personal life and aviation business. Listeners are encouraged to learn from mistakes, focus on personal development, and understand the importance of effective teamwork and clear operational processes.
James Spearman: co-founder & CEO of James Spearman Aircraft
Website: https://www.spearmanaircraft.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-spearman-b897bb107/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesspearmanaircraft/
Blog: https://www.spearmanaircraft.com/blog
#Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #BusinessGrowth #Leadership #SuccessMindset #VeteranEntrepreneur #MilitaryLeadership #AirForce #AviationBusiness #AircraftMaintenance #MentorshipMatters #BusinessStrategy #ScalingABusiness #Resilience #PodcastEpisode #BusinessPodcast #EntrepreneurPodcast #AviationPodcast #SmallBusinessPivots #GrowYourBusiness #SmallBusinessCoach #EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessSuccess #BusinessPodcast #MichaelDMorrison #BOSS #BusinessOwnership #OklahomaCity
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
And again we have anotherspecial guest from around the
world and literally he's beenaround the world.
But I know that business ownerscan only say their name and
their business like the businessowner can.
So I'm going to let youintroduce yourself where you're
from, a little bit about yourbusiness, so we can kind of
catch up where you're at todayof catch up where you're at
(00:25):
today.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, michael, hey, thank uh, thank you so much for
having me on a big fan of theshow.
I really appreciate theopportunity and especially what
uh?
The work that you're doing.
Uh, in the industry, I'm asmall business owner.
Uh, we just passed year five.
Uh, we own aircraft maintenance.
Uh, you know, um, it's all theups and downs, the mistakes.
You know it's all the ups anddowns, the mistakes, the hard
times, and so, man, I'll tellyou it wasn't until about year
(00:49):
three that I started workingwith a coach and it was like way
too, it wasn't too late.
It's never too late.
But I should have started likeimmediately, so I have a huge
appreciation, yeah, hugeappreciation for what you do.
I think it's good and, yeah,thanks again.
We do aircraft maintenance onlight GA aircraft, mostly Cirrus
(01:12):
aircraft and Diamond aircraft.
We're talking four to six seatairplanes, normally flown
privately.
Once you realize how nice it isand how much time you can save
by owning your own aircraft,where there's zero TSA and you
can take whatever you want inthe plane and you take off and
(01:34):
land when you want to, that'swhen a business owner, when they
have the resources, they startan airplane is a time machine.
It really starts saving you amassive amount of time.
For example, I'm in EastTennessee and you fly down to
Orlando in two and a half threehours.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Where it's just really buys you back a lot
amount of time, and so we doupgrades on those, Also
maintenance upgrades.
You see the Garmin sign behindme.
We're a Garmin dealer.
All of the nice avionics andinstruments that airplanes use.
We take those and upgrade themto glass screens and we do some
(02:14):
flight training as well andaircraft management.
Other than that, I also fly forthe Air Force National Guard in
Knoxville, Tennessee.
I fly the KC-135.
So I'm a pilot and beendeployed and that is a lot of
fun, essentially going from asix-seat plane behind me to an
airliner.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow, yeah Well, thank you for your service.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You bet, you bet.
Well, how do you think we'regoing to help our small business
owner listeners today?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I think your eyes start getting really big,
especially mine.
Let's say, let's just talkabout me and the mistakes that I
made, but you start.
You're like man, let's justcrank this thing to 10, right?
And you don't realize what it'sgoing to take, what it looks
like.
I've never been to 10, you know.
And then the people that I washiring I had no process set up.
I was definitely one of thosepeople where, you know, you see
(03:25):
those coaches and they say, oh,my salesman made a huge mistake,
you know he's like, ok, well,what's the process that you have
for your salesman to use?
And he's like I don't have one.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well, there's your problem.
Right, that's your problem.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, and that was me .
I had no first off.
I knew nothing about sales, Iwas only a pilot and mechanic.
I knew nothing about marketing.
(04:00):
So we grew past a million onlyby word of mouth, and I got
pretty good at hiring mechanicstoo.
And four would have been a lotnicer to me had I have gone to a
coach first to talk about mygoals and then develop a process
to get there other than justjust go for it.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah Well, you know that's the freedom we have as
entrepreneurs.
So I always say we don't knowwhat we don't know, so let's
introduce the show real quickand we'll be right back.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast produced for
small business owners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where
(04:34):
we make business ownershipsimplified for success.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(04:56):
All right, welcome back toSmall Business Pivots.
You have quite the story so,but let's first start with kind
of your growing up, yourchildhood because I know lots of
business owners have trials,tribulations.
We lack self-doubt not all ofus, but many of us do so kind of
(05:17):
catch us up to your adulthood.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, so.
So growing up, you know there'sactually a really good stat
that most of the successfulpeople in the in in the world
have had an extremely traumaticchildhood.
I don't know if you've heardthat, but most and very most of
my customers that I encounterthat made their, their wealth
within one lifetime.
They also had some sort ofinstability.
(05:43):
You know, uh, unstablechildhood and uh, so if you're,
if you're not alone in a lot ofthe things, that uh, that that
creates is ability, where notsaying it's right or wrong, but
you're little, and if the homelife isn't that stable, you've
got to figure things out on yourown as a child, and so those I
it actually makes you a muchstronger entrepreneur later on
(06:06):
in life.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Survivor yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, that's right.
So, um, yeah, my parents theygot, uh they got divorced when I
was little and and, uh, my dadhad a, had a uh really nice art
business.
Uh, my dad was an amazingartist and uh, he, he, uh he
made some uh poor decisions andended up losing it.
And I watched him, he and I,and then going back and forth
(06:30):
between my parents, kind ofstruggle for the rest of my
pretty much seven years old onIn essentially extreme poverty
until I was about in high school.
We had like a normal-ishsituation and so those things.
Now, my dad, though he was, hewas an entrepreneur the whole
(06:52):
time.
He still was trying to make hisart business, build it back and
grow.
So he, I never saw my dad havea job until things got bad
enough where he just he had toget a job, um and uh, just to
bring in the bills.
And this is somebody that I hadto swallow his pride and just
take it on.
(07:12):
And I've heard, I've heard, uh,you know, other other business
coaches talk about that in thebeginning.
You know, having you may haveto.
You probably heard this.
Where there are, there arepeople that are working, uh, a
normal job, 40 hours at a normaljob and then they're building
their business after hours.
Yes, you know they'll work till5 pm and then after work
(07:33):
they'll work till midnight orsomething on their business and
grow that over years.
And so I saw that and luckily Istarted playing football in high
school.
That kind of kept me away froma lot of the you know other poor
decisions I could have madegrowing up.
And football, just it gave mesomething to really work after
and I've always had a reallystrong competitive side of me,
(07:57):
especially internally, like Iwanted, I want to be the best
for me.
And and um, football gave methat Avenue and it was a lot of
fun Uh, but then it ended and Ididn't have anything to go past
that and uh for me anyways.
And my grandfather was a worldwar two aviator.
Um, he flew B-25s in world wartwo.
(08:19):
My dad would always tell mestories about my grandfather
fighting the war in the Pacificand I've got pictures of him
with bullet holes down the sideof the plane.
And uh, my dad did take me whenI was little.
He would go to uh air shows andwe'd stop in and see airplanes
and those wheels were alwaysturning and obviously my dad was
pushing me to join the airforce and uh, so I joined uh
(08:43):
straight out of high schoolbefore I turned 18.
You know I had already had allthe paperwork ready to go.
So graduated high school, wentstraight to basic training,
enlisted initially to be amechanic, and then went through.
I was a mechanic for sevenyears.
Meanwhile I was working on mydegree, so that was kind of
(09:03):
getting me to, you know, theearly years anyways.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
What degree were you working on?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So I went to Middle Tennessee State University.
They have a really goodaerospace program there.
Think about you probably heardthe term Embry-Riddle, Purdue,
Auburn those schools all havegood aviation programs.
So they train pilots, theytrain mechanics, air traffic
(09:32):
controllers, stuff like that,and you come out with a
bachelor's degree as well.
So I was doing aerospacemaintenance management the whole
time while I was a crew chiefor a mechanic for the Air Force,
while I was a crew chief or amechanic for the Air Force, and
that really it helped me get mythe rest of my civilian ratings
(09:56):
license to be a mechanic,because the military rating
doesn't exactly flow over.
So I think it prepped me well.
It was a good time.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah Well, you're already ahead of most at that
age, because most of us didn'tfigure anything out until we
were at least 30.
So you were aviation college,aviation job, aviation military,
et cetera, et cetera.
I know military.
When us civilians think aboutit, we think of very, very
(10:24):
organized right.
So what are some of the thingsthat you learned in the military
that you think is applicablefor business owners?
Because I know there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, there is a lot I would say, and as I grew and
became an Air Force pilot too,Air Force pilot training has
some of the highest washoutrates in the world.
Right, You're being trained bythe world's best Air Force.
People are being sent home allaround you.
And then any normal training bythe Air Force is also difficult
, and I think I learned in thebeginning you know, if you can
(11:02):
just not quit, you're probablynot going to fail.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
That's a powerful lesson.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Very early on and it is like okay, so all I have to
do and I would go from meal tomeal and a lot of people talk
about this that have that, haveserved and gone through basic
training you wake up, you'relike just make it to lunchtime
you know or make it to breakfastyou know, and then you eat
breakfast.
Okay, let's see if I can makeit to lunch.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And then lunch, make it to dinner, and then you just
repeat that and don't quit, andyou're probably going to make it
, you're probably going to befine, and I think that's.
There's a huge lesson to that,in this as well.
In business I've heard thatsaid a lot.
I'm sure there's extenuatingcircumstances that shut people
down, but for the most part thepeople that I see fail.
(11:52):
They just quit, they're done.
You know, they gave up, it's,it's gone past, whatever they're
willing to give.
Um, what are your thoughtsthere?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I agree, uh, just keep going.
No-transcript all that.
(12:32):
You can find hundreds andthousands of tips and insights
and everything on marathontraining, but I loved her answer
and that's kind of what you'resaying Just don't quit, don't
give up.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, there's, there's.
Uh, you know, I think ineveryone's year one,
everything's a fire, right?
Yeah, oh, you wake up in themorning, oh, get one email.
Oh, we're done, that's it,we're over.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Everybody's dead.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, well, one customer pulls out one person.
One customer complains about abill.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, that's it.
We suck.
You know Well.
You have a pretty fascinatingstory in how you got into
entrepreneurship and then thechallenges of.
I don't want to give the storyaway, but tell us a little bit
about serving across seas andhow you were running a business
(13:22):
as well.
Or do you want to start withyour business in general, of how
you started and some of thosetrials and tribulations you went
through at the first?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, sure, I'll start there.
Uh, so I had graduated, got mydegree and I had started reading
.
Um, I was, I got selected to goto air force pilot training as
well.
So it does help, um, that I hada little bit of security there.
Um so, but in the meantime Iwas reading rich dad, poor dad,
(13:51):
and I never really was satisfiedin a job.
I just was not.
Um, I mean, for whatever reason, whatever normal people have
that makes them happy in a job,I just don't have it.
I can't.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I know, whatever that thing is right, I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You know, and I would always you probably we were
talking about this a little bitin the beginning of the show.
It's like, hey guys, why don'twe do this?
We could probably like three Xthis if we do this and they're
just like, no, we're not gonnado that oh my gosh yeah, you're
stuck yeah, yeah.
So I was reading rich dad, poordad and pretty much everything
else I could get my hands on.
(14:28):
And when I say read it, my wifemakes fun of me.
She's like you don't read anybooks.
I was like you're right, Ilistened to it on audible.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Okay, just to be clear well, yeah mean you're
still learning to earn.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
so that's right.
So, uh, the wheels weredefinitely spinning and I knew
my dad had done it.
You know, I'd watched him foryears.
And um, at the time I was likelet's, um, I, I don't know what
this is going to look like, butI think I can get make this
happen.
And um, I started, uh, I wasworking for Sears Aircraft at
the time.
They're the largestmanufacturer of GA airplanes
(14:58):
right now general aviation,small six-seat planes.
Actually, technically they're afive-seat plane, just if any
airplane people are on here aregoing to correct me.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Oh, I promise you, there's someone out there that
will correct anything we say.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's the nicest GA plane out right now, but I was
working for them and everyonethat purchases these aircraft
are millionaires.
For the most part, the plane's$600 to $1.5 million, and then
they've got a jet that's $3million.
And so I would get to sit in aseat with these people and
interact with them, and I alwaysI'm like James, you're an idiot
(15:35):
if you don't ask these peoplewhat they do and just kind of
rub shoulders with them.
And I would always try to justbe, you know, nonchalant.
Hey, what do you do?
That's cool, you know, tell meyour story.
And I started flying withcustomers periodically and when
you fly with them, you'recompletely trapped in a plane
with them for three hours, nocell phones, no, nothing.
And so you've got theopportunity to just pick their
(15:57):
brain if they're willing.
And I just hey, do you mindtelling me your story?
And one gentleman in particularhe's a mentor to me.
Now he's the reason I quit myjob.
I asked him and he's like James, I was just a normal guy, I was
working a dead-end job and Ieffing hated it.
(16:17):
And me and my wife, we juststarted saving a little bit of
cash.
And he's like all my friendstold me.
I was crazy this is never goingto work, you're going to fail,
we'll see you back in a year.
And he's like well, we'll see.
And he quits his job and buys asuntanning place.
And he said he was making atthe time like 50 or 60,000.
(16:38):
He said within three years, Imean, his income went to like
600,000, which is probably anextreme.
That's an extraordinary case.
However, it still was he's like.
And he said each day, he's likeyeah, I'm sending back my bros
the pictures of the bankstatements, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
F.
You guys, you're wrong.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And uh, I was like I can do this.
I think you know if this guycan do it, I can do it.
And uh, so I uh I actually leftfor air force pilot training
and, um, I was like, if I I toldthe guys when I left, I was
like, if you ever see me backhere just now, my plan went
horribly wrong.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I will never work another job for anybody ever
again other than the air forceas a pilot yeah, what would you
say is probably the best advicewith all those entrepreneurs at
that level that they gave you um, I think the at sorry, just to
be clear, you're at from theirlevel or the level of yeah, from
(17:40):
them just getting there likethem to you because a lot of
entrepreneurs that listen tothis show they're stuck and they
haven't gotten to that level.
So you know kind of coming fromtheir insights the.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
The biggest thing that they've taught me is
there's levels to this,especially in.
I think of it almost likeprofessional athletes.
You can go tell when you watchmiddle school, high school or
the pros, right, I mean there'sa big visual difference on the
field, the product on the fieldand the people that are at like,
for example, the person I toldyou he's got a $200 million net
(18:14):
worth person I told you he's gota $200 million net net worth.
Um, he taught me grace andslowing down.
You know, in the beginning Iwas just so everything made me
freak out everything.
You know I was hot.
You know somebody would get saysomething wrong or or, or, you
know whatever, something didn'tgo the way that I wanted and
(18:35):
you're just hot, like somebodysends you the wrong bill or
whatever.
You just freak out overeverything.
And he, he taught me how tohandle things with grace and and
slowing down and having a touch.
You know, having having moretouch on things and that has
helped me a ton.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Um, and it's hard to really explain that, but, um,
and it's hard to really explainthat, but I think that's
probably the best thing thatI've learned from their level
slowing down on your decisions,having grace when you respond to
people, and it goes a businesscoach and I'll ask them if a
(19:17):
young entrepreneur or someonewanting to start a business
asked your advice.
It's never what you read in thebooks.
It's things as simple as whatyou just shared For me one of my
mentors that I really liked andfollowed.
He simply said learn what notto do, not what to do.
(19:37):
He said.
If you learn that which mostentrepreneurs can give you a
long list of what not to do hesaid you'll make it Because
there's plenty of stuff to do.
It's learning those things whatnot to do.
So it's amazing when I hearstories like that.
So you learned fromentrepreneurs.
(19:59):
You're like, okay, let's go.
So you took off and you openedup this massive aviation machine
shop.
Is it a machine shop?
Do you upgrade?
What does it actually do?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, Maintenance, repairs, management and then
flight training.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Maintenance, repairs, management and then flight
training.
Okay, and so you prepare thesefor people that own them, or do
you buy and sell them?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
So each airplane kind of like the one you see behind
me every single year, the entireplane, it's federally mandated
by the FAA.
The whole plane has to comeapart, wow, it goes through a
massive inspection checklist, um, and then, uh, we have to, you
know, put it back together andmake sure everything works good,
(20:45):
right, so it's a big job it'sabout?
it's about two weeks, you know,worth of labor, um.
You know one, one to two weeksworth of labor, um, and so we uh
primarily do the annualinspections on these planes
where quite a bit of dollarsthat go through a surprising
amount to keep the planeoperating each year.
You know, it's not reallycommon with your car, where you
just take it to the dealer andthey're just going to take it
(21:07):
all the way apart and look forstuff you know?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Put it back together.
It's kind of a foreign concept,but that's how airplanes work.
And then, while we've got it,you know, it's an excellent
opportunity to say you know, hey, have you heard about Garmin?
We can make all thistouchscreen, you know, and
beautiful.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
And operational.
More accurate, I guess, wouldbe the word.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, it's more safe, true, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So you know.
That's how they sell it to thewife.
You always got to make the wifeOkay, yeah, yeah, so you know.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's how they sell it to the wife.
You can say, oh, he's got tomake the wife.
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Now we're talking.
Now there are some helpful tips.
How do we sell to the otherside of the family?
So, on the aviation side, Iknow there's some things that
are more important than otherson a plane.
So how do you make sure thatthose things happen?
I know, of course, you'relistening to Small Business
Pivots.
(22:03):
This podcast is produced by mycompany, boss.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
(22:24):
subscribe button and share it aswell.
Now let's get back to ourspecial guest.
So, on the aviation side, Iknow there's some things that
are more important than otherson a plane.
So how do you make sure thatthose things happen?
I know, of course, we want tokeep it safe and that it depends
(22:44):
on your life, but the reason Iask that is because so many
business owners they have thesesame challenges that they can't
seem to correct, but they'relike, the vitals of their
business, and so in the aviationit's like I know there are
certain things that either haveto be checked before every
takeoff, like some.
You can count on the screen,some you can count on this, but
there's some things you have tomanually do.
(23:06):
Tell us what that's like so you, so business owners, can hear
how to get that done.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So, and what I, what I hear you asking is operations
right, like the thing that youdo.
How do you make thatconsistently good?
Yeah, and it is a little bitunique in my industry just
because there's already likepilots and mechanics and
everyone that works for me is,you know, they're rated, they've
(23:33):
got a license that they had tospend years to achieve, so
they're licensed professionals,but there's already all these
checklists.
You know, if you do somethingon a plane, there's a checklist
to do it.
If you change a tire, change awheel, change an engine, take
the wing off, put it back on theinspection, there's an
inspection checklist.
You know hundreds of itemswhere you got to just go down
(23:55):
the list and check each one.
You know hundreds of itemswhere you got to just go down
the list and check each one, andso that is kind of unique to my
business, where I was alreadyfamiliar with the checklist.
And if you're, you knowsomebody that's still working on
the product.
You know that's where you takethe biggest step when you start
hiring people is okay, how can Iput this in a checklist form so
(24:16):
that it'll be, you know, atleast 80% as good as when I do
it Right, and so that is alittle bit unique.
But at the same time, there'sstill the coaching, there's
still the training, and thenthere's still the I'm the
business owner and I totallyswung and miss on the wrong
person.
(24:36):
You know, I hired the wrongperson and that didn't um, you
know, because you take, you gotto take responsibility when um
so another, what am I?
I brought on a wrong partner atone point and boy, it almost
ended me, um, but I was like youknow, he's this, he's that,
he's done all this and and he'smy friend was like well, he's
done all this.
And my friend was like well,who hired him?
(24:58):
James?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Who brought him in Yep.
That's the part that reallystinks about the business owner.
I always tell business ownersthat the business you have today
, all those challenges,weaknesses, all those things you
(25:20):
need to fix you either createdthose or you allowed them to
happen.
Because you're the businessowner, you know so.
You should take responsibility.
So let's keep moving through.
You started your business andlet's we talked about how you
had some stumbling blocks upuntil you know year three, year
four.
Let's let's talk about some ofthose, cause that's, that's the
stuff that business owners canreally learn from.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, yeah.
So, like I said, word of mouth,I pretty much got past a
million and I was like, well, wejust need to do more of what
we're doing, which is true.
I had no clue.
I had zero sales training, zeromarketing training.
We had a website and a Facebookpage and that was it, and we
would post on it.
I don't know, maybe like once amonth or something, there's no,
(25:59):
we were not even trying.
We had no clue.
I had no clue what more looklike, how do we bring in more
customers.
And then, you know, I was like,well, maybe we just need to do
more products, more business, soI'll open all these other
businesses.
I'll open five businesses thatare, you know, complimentary to
this one business.
You know, at at the point whereI'm at, like year three, which
(26:19):
is, uh, your, your eyes areprobably opening like whoa Jay
let's focus on one thing, right?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's a terrible idea.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
So so I was like, well, let's do that.
And and uh, so I was like Idon't know how to sell things,
or I thought I didn't know howto sell things.
I thought somebody could do itbetter than me, and that's
actually a good lesson forsomebody that's in that range.
The best salesman on the teamis the owner.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You can ride that for a while, amen, before you start
tossing big, big dollars atsomebody.
But needless to say, I tossed ashit ton of money at somebody
that.
I thought was going to take thisthing to 10 million and, uh,
you know, with no realexpectations, no, no SOPs, no
structure whatsoever, I justthought this was gonna, this was
(27:07):
gonna work and uh,unfortunately it was a friend
too, um, so that that ended, youknow, poorly, um, and had to
take out a ton of debt, and itput me behind the eight ball, uh
, big time, because I took out alot of very expensive debt in
the time, which, uh, I don'tknow if anyone.
Here's another great lessonDon't do MCA loans.
(27:28):
Talk to, uh Michael, you know,you know, so I just the most
expensive debt I could possiblyfind, and I had to do what I had
to do, though I got through itright, so it is what it is.
So, year three and four was, youknow, baking up for that huge
mistake, but it taught me somuch about myself.
(27:49):
It taught me how much more Icould actually do in sales and
marketing.
It taught me, or forced me, tolearn how to actually sell and
get better and better and betterat it.
Um, it forced me to kind oflean out everything else and
you'd be surprised how muchthere's just kind of floating
around, uh, money going out thedoor.
Um, so, you know, we thoughtthis one big vendor was the way
(28:10):
to only buy this.
We're like, oh, we can also getthat on Amazon for, like you
know, 10% or something.
Uh, so it forced us to lean out.
And then, um, and then I'lltell you the biggest thing in it
and, um, what this is what youdo, right, you're, you are
encouraging people to invest inthemselves.
Right, that's the heart ofheart of coaching, right, I
(28:31):
started at that time investingin myself and I started working
with a coach.
I started, um, I startedworking with a therapist.
I started working with somebodyto help me, um, with my
advertising, with, uh, teach mehow to run ads, and then
eventually took it over.
But I started investing inmyself and I, looking back from
(28:53):
now, compared to two years ago,it's just there's zero
comparison, and so that's huge,the hard times you got to.
You really got to be thankfulfor them as well.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
You make a great point because it's not just one
person you delegated or reliedon.
And I know sometimes businessowners they think if I find one
mentor or one coach and you knowI've got four coaches there for
different reasons, differentparts of my life but you know,
try to keep me rounded becauseit can be, it can be rough as a
(29:27):
business owner, you know, likeyou're on an island by yourself.
I was trying to sugarcoat it.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
You know it's rough and you either got it or you
don't.
Yeah, well, so on the flip side, you've got control over that
you can this you takeresponsibility to, to create a
life and I read this on yourpage, right, you know turn your
business into something that youdon't hate you know, that's
where I feel like so many peopleare.
They're just like man.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I effing hate this and I was there too.
I was like there's no way.
We've all been there, I learnedover two decades ago.
When I'm in those situationsand I'm like the world around me
is falling apart, take a lookinside.
And I always say until I change, nothing around me will change,
so invest in those outsideresources.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Boy.
I'll tell you there's so muchwisdom there because in the
moment I mean well, it felt likethere for a solid full year
every day I was.
You know, bankruptcy wasknocking at the door, right Like
it was just right there waitingfor me.
They were like all right, youready.
Today I felt like in here, Ifelt like everybody, everybody
knows I'm done except for me.
Yet, you know, I was like whenam I going to accept it?
(30:40):
But that's, that's a limitingbelief that I was giving myself.
It wasn't true and and I alwaysI was like, and people kept
telling me that they're likeJames.
You know, just focus on yourself.
Try to be the best you can,that you can be, and stop
focusing on the result all thetime.
You can't affect the result.
Sometimes you get lucky.
You know you can have badinputs and get a really good
(31:00):
result.
You got lucky.
Sometimes you put bad, you knowyou know really good inputs and
get a bad result, vice versa.
So, you know, just focus on thethings that you know that will
make you successful.
What's, what can you do thatwill make you successful?
Running more ads, calling morecustomers?
What about handwriting lettersto people?
(31:21):
You know, do you think thatwould get you more customers.
Yeah, how much does that cost?
Nothing, except for the stampsyou know and the paper to print
it out on and pens.
You know so, but in my heart Iwas just like well, how's this
going to?
You know, work on myself.
I need cash now, yeah, but yeah, it was short-sighted.
(31:43):
And then looking at it, whenyou start dragging that out and
the timeline out, you realize,okay, yeah, things started
changing a lot when I startedfocusing and investing in myself
and trying to make myselfbetter.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Great advice there's a go ahead.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
May just not happen as fast as you want it.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Oh no, never, never.
There's a great book out there.
It's a little lengthy, but Iencourage business owners to
invest in Mindset.
It's by Carol Dweck.
I mentioned earlier.
I'm running my first marathonand from my coaches, they all
say, yes, strength training isimportant, running, all that
(32:25):
stuff is important.
Your legs will feel likethey're going to fall off.
You'll feel like you hit a wall, but the number one they're all
training me on is mindset toget through it, and that's what
you're saying about businessownership.
It's yourself, it's your mind,your limited beliefs, and so
powerful, powerful, powerful.
(32:45):
So let's talk about you gotdeployed and I'll let you tell
the whole story because it's ait's an incredible story.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah.
So when I was enlisted, I wasdeployed a few times, but most
recently first deployment as apilot, deployed to the Middle
East and we were flying out ofQatar and that was really scary,
because imagine being away fromwhat you're building for 60
(33:13):
full days, where you'reliterally thousands of miles and
most people if you're listeningto this and you're in the early
stage, or at least you canresonate with it if you're way
past it but who's who's fixesevery problem.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You do Most, can't even leave for the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, and then you get addicted to that because
you're like oh this, you knowyou're Superman, right, you just
fix every problem.
You know it goes to your.
If you haven't worked on yourchildhood trauma, you know
that's addictive addictivefeeling, Right.
So, um, it forced me to.
Finally, I had no control overyou know, I could not touch
(33:51):
anything physically and so I hadto work through people for 60
days, only Forced.
There was no way.
Wow, it was tough.
I mean, I primarily do sales.
Right At the time I was onlybringing in sales, so we would
do an eight, nine-hour sortie,uh, in the middle East combat
sortie and land and I'd hop onthe phone.
(34:12):
Uh, by the time I landed it wasdaytime back home, hop on the
phone, start calling customers.
All the all my bros are at thebar drinking beer, you know
they're like James.
Come on, give up with that, justgo to the airlines.
Uh, all my friends are at theairline, my peers are, are
flying for American and Deltaand, uh, you know, for them they
only work like 15 days a month,60 hour weeks, um, but so it
(34:42):
forced me, uh, forced me to towork through people, um, and it
I I'm super grateful for it.
Also that you know one of thesorties, um, we flew.
It was uh during, um, if youremember, back to this past
summer, around April, spring,april, iran launched at Israel
directly for the first time andwe had known that was going to
(35:04):
happen, that there was anescalation in the area and we
didn't know exactly when it wasgoing to pop off.
But we had a good idea untilsaying that you know, very
likely Iran is going to launchdirectly at Israel and we're
going to try to do everything wecan to thwart the attack, and
so normally we're doing routinecombat stories.
(35:25):
That night we had a decent ideait was going to happen and the
crews that launched that nightwe knew we were going to be
going.
I can't say where we wereflying, but it was, uh, right
between Israel and Iran, is thearea there and um, so there's a
one way path between Iran andIsrael.
(35:46):
We're going to be directly inthe middle of it, or they didn't
know exactly.
They said they may use missiles, they may use drones, but
likely just drones, is what theywere telling us.
And we're like, okay, well,those are probably several
thousand feet beneath us.
And so we took off that nightand everyone we knew something
was going to pop off and we werejust dead silent.
(36:06):
But we knew in our heartsthat's our job.
Right, here we go, let's go doour job, no questions asked.
Every crew that launched thatnight um, normally you at least
have a couple planes thatmaintenance break.
They just push through them.
They got it, um, got the planesin the air, got past adversity
we did as well, um, and we tookoff and we flew up to our
(36:27):
operating area and and the allthrough that area, uh, united
Arab Emirates and all the othercountries, they had all ceased
all their flying.
None, no airlines were flyingwhatsoever.
Some of the biggest, um, uh,the the most, uh, busy airspace
in the world is through thatarea and there was not a single
(36:48):
airline or flying.
And we're like, oh my gosh gosh,this is serious this is serious
.
So we went and we hit some, uh,we refueled some f-15s that, um,
that night.
Normally there's some when theyhook up to us which I fly a
refueler kc-135.
We refuel the other planes inair and, um, you know, normally
(37:10):
it's like, hey bro, how youdoing?
Uh, this night it was allbusiness.
They're like we need as muchgas as we can get right now, as
fast as you can, we're going tobelt feed the jets to you.
And so they took every ounce ofgas that we could give them and
a little bit more.
To where we were, you know,feeling a little testy and
making it back, not like we'reafraid we're going to run out of
(37:31):
gas, but we need a certainamount just in case, if anything
goes wrong, to add it to it.
But we gave them everythingthat we could, and you could
hear it with the radio.
They're shooting down thingsleft and right On the way back.
We also had an in-flightemergency up at 30,000 feet.
We lost our electrical system.
We lost our electrical systemand so for a moment and mind you
(37:54):
, iran is launching and we'relooking at it and you can see it
.
You can see the missiles.
You know the contrails from themissiles overhead and there's
Tourette's in the area and allthis.
And we had this in-flightemergency and me and my crew
(38:18):
there's three people on it on arefueler Um, that that team was
awesome and we worked togetherthe whole, the whole deployment
and, uh, we worked through whatwe did and made it back safely,
um, and then when we got back,we were notified, we were
awarded the distinguished flyingcross uh, us and the other
crews that flew that night,which is the uh, the nation's
fourth highest award, threebeneath the medal of honor, um,
so it was just just really,really special.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Congratulations, and that shows the power of teamwork
.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, especially when and I I
felt like in that moment, youknow, we were in the cockpit,
you know, um, and we're workingtogether as a team to make it
through.
There are so many lessons thatI was like, well, this is just
like a normal day back at theshop.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I was going to say you're probably like this is
nothing, guys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
There's missiles flying at me every day, exactly,
exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Well, what are some of the go ahead?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I was just kidding.
It was definitely terrifying.
It was tough, but we workedtogether as a team.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Oh, just listening to that, you had me on needles.
So what are some pivots thatyou learned along the way in
your business that you feel likewere well done, or maybe not
well done at all and you wouldnever do them again?
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, so pivot as something that we were going to
try and it didn't work out oryeah, yeah, that's right, you
know, one of them was um.
Actually this was during thistime where I was gonna okay, I
need to open five new businessesyeah and so I actually opened
(39:52):
this little um, um I one of myfriends who's a one of my
customers and mentor I told himI was like I think I want to
start a sea plane flighttraining business, um, and kind
of have it as a complimentary towhat I'm doing and I think we
can make money with it.
And um, he was like, well, yeah, man, I'll make the capital,
(40:14):
I'll do the capital, but you'vethe capital, but you're going to
manage it.
And so we went out and boughtan Icon aircraft.
I wish it was right behind.
It's actually out in front ofme.
I wish I had it, but it's alittle two-seat, it's like a jet
ski with wings.
It is so much fun.
And you know, over the pastcouple years, should I have sold
(40:47):
that thing and made my life alot easier?
Yeah, probably.
But now it's actually making alot of traction and it's
actually because it's actuallyforced me to start working with
more people that actually knowhow to do Facebook and Google
ads yourself, if you're truly awizard.
But for the most part, you needsomebody to help you, um and so
now that's helped me, uh, growwhat I'm doing, like this right,
doing podcasts, getting my facein front of the camera and
learning, uh, that, hey, this is2025.
You're doing it right.
I sell your Instagram andFacebook.
(41:08):
I mean.
You're posting.
You're probably doing multipleposts a day.
You're doing a podcast.
You're on everyone else'spodcast.
This is 2025.
If you're not doing this,you're I mean, you're going to
get left in the dust.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
So it is what it is.
Yep, yep, totally agree.
Well, I know a lot of peopleprobably want to learn more
about you or from you, so what'sthe best place to follow you at
?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah from you.
So what's the best place tofollow you at?
Yeah, so, um, on Instagram orYouTube, the same, uh, same uh
handle at the James Spearman,and then, uh, obviously, a
website is, uh,wwwspearmanaircraftcom, and, uh,
I try to make as much.
If you, uh, if you have anyinterest in in aviation
whatsoever, I try to makecontent that kind of shows
people, um, you know littleairplanes or you might not be
(41:57):
used to it.
You'd be surprised how many ofmy customers are in their
forties and fifties and they'vegot now.
Now they're, the business hascaught up.
They've got some money to spendand I'm like I think I want to
be a pilot.
Maybe I'll start buying back mytime.
They'll fly with a friend thathas like a King Air or something
or another plane and they'relike, wow, this is awesome, I
could do this, and so that'sreally who I help.
(42:18):
A lot is those people, becausebuying an airplane is not like
buying a car.
The percentage of pilots in theUnited States is like 1%, and
then the people that own anairplane on top of that is
probably, you know, half of thator less, and so it's not like
you can just ask your brotherhey, man, when you bought an
airplane.
(42:38):
What was it like?
So it's very rare and theprocesses are completely
different, and so it's good tohave some sort of professional
to help coach you into orthrough the process of buying an
airplane.
Are you going to hire a pilot,or are you going to learn how to
fly?
Or you know, how do you getinsurance on it, how do you pay
the sales tax on it?
(42:58):
All of these things are prettymuch foreign and not there's uh,
I haven't there's.
There's good like AOPA is agood website that gives you this
, but there's not like exactlybooks written on it.
So that's where I, where I liketo help out.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Well, that brings up a great point.
If only 1% fly and less thanthat own their own aircraft,
that's a very small percentageof the world's population and I
know for most business ownersthey won't niche down, they
(43:31):
won't find their little.
As they say stay in your lane.
So they might be a landscaper,so they do pools and they do
golf courses and it's like no,no, no, you got to find your
lane.
How do you differentiateyourself in such a small space
so they can go?
Yeah, I really do need to nichedown.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, I mean, probably the first thing to
niche down is you need to workwith people that have money to
pay for your services.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
That's a good start.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
It is way easier to deal with people that have the.
You know they have thefinancial resources.
When you send them a bill, it'snot like, well, did it really
take 10 minutes for this?
Why did it do that?
They're just like keep the cardon file, james, I don't care,
just run it, just make sure it'sready to go on Tuesday, got it?
And so I would say that's thenumber one.
(44:22):
But for me yeah, my customerbase realistically, the amount
of people that I can affect inservice is probably like 100,000
total in the United States.
Um, something, something verysmall to that.
Now there are, um, actually,actually I think there's only I
forget the numbers, but you know, let a hundred thousand or less
total people that I couldactually help.
(44:44):
Um, and there's the.
Uh, what I really try to focuson is the is the Cirrus and the
higher endend aircraft Diamond.
There's only, you know, 5,000,6,000, 7,000 of those planes
total in the United States.
Or actually, I think, worldwide,but you know, so there's
probably, down to me, there'sprobably only like,
(45:07):
realistically, 10,000 planestrue customers that I want to
work with, thousand planes truecustomers that I want to work
with.
And it took me getting kickedin the you know where, over and
over and over again, taking onjobs that we couldn't be,
couldn't be, you know,profitable on customers I didn't
want to work with, untilfinally I was like you know, ok,
(45:29):
I'm going to, I like workingwith these people.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
My life would be so much easier if I just only
worked with these people, andthat's that's what really forced
me to kind of niche down.
So I'm I'm a niche within aniche, I guess.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Well, it's an important part because so many
business owners they're afraidthey're not going to make
payroll if they don't take everysingle client, and so that was
kind of my point here you have avery, very small population to
that even can afford yourindustry, your service, aviation
, and yet here's othercontractors that have hundreds
(46:09):
of thousands and they're soworried about missing a customer
, you know.
So.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's actually a limiting,
that's a big limiting beliefright there, because you're,
you're actually what you'redoing is sabotaging yourself.
Uh if the the longer that youcontinue to just say yes to
everyone, you are sabotagingyourself, um and.
I mean, there's been jobs whereI said yes and made payroll and
it cost me way more in the longrun.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, I think we've all been there.
I got uh.
One last question before wesign off here.
It's, uh, if you got a secondto think about it, that's all
right, but it's.
If you're in a room full ofentrepreneurs, different sizes
of business, lengths of business, what's something that's
applicable to all of them Could?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
be a tip, it could be a book, a quote, something that
I would give them.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Sure.
Yeah, or something that youwould say you would share.
That could be applicable to allentrepreneurs, no matter what
business they own.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Well, you know now I'm really big into sales.
I'd ask which ones of you ownan airplane that I can help with
.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
I would say our listeners probably, maybe one.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
That's one.
Really, I only service 100customers a year, so that's 10%
of my volume.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
Yeah, that's right.
1%.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Yeah.
So, um, uh, yeah, I would.
I would say something thatevery one of them would have in
common is I don't think there'sany way to escape that how
difficult this is to do it.
And if, um, each person thatsomebody told me you know money,
(47:55):
actually it exaggerates who youare.
And so if you have a lot of youknow, if you've got addictions,
or you got a lot of thingsgoing on that you're not good at
right now, or limiting beliefs,or the way you sabotage
yourself, if you have all thoseright now, toss in a million
dollars, $2 million, it's goingto make it that much worse.
(48:17):
And so I think every person atthat level that owns a business
realizes how hard this is andhow it's.
You really got no choice.
You're either going to putyourself in the hospital, or
you're you know, or you're goingto work on yourself and try to
get better and work with peoplelike you that can make your life
(48:38):
.
You can.
You can do this and enjoy lifeat the same time.
That is that is true.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
That is words of wisdom, because I'm often asked
have you ever seen a businessowner as bad as me?
And we're all bad, we're.
We all have our challenges.
We're not bad, we're justlearning.
And we're all bad, we all haveour challenges.
We're not bad, we're justlearning.
And we're doing something thatmost others won't kind of like.
Your pilots, we are very asmall percentage there was a
really good I started working.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Uh, when things got really bad right, like when
anytime things get bad rightit's, it's easy.
When the coach is winning,everyone's like, oh yeah, he's
got that he's got everythingfigured out.
You know, as soon as things gobad, right, you normally tend to
internalize all of it.
You try to close down.
That's a normal process andyou're like well, I'm just.
You know, I said I just suckthis bad.
There's no way anyone elsesucks as bad as I'm doing you
(49:26):
know that's a normal, normalreaction.
Uh, I went to this company thatwas going to help me.
You know like, look intofinances and try to start making
a plan, and I just wasinternalizing all this and I was
like God, I just feel like I'mreally, you know, this is really
tough and I suck and he's likehe slaps me on the back.
He's like James, you know, ifyou've never had to put payroll
on on a credit card before,you're not a real entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
That's a good point, entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
That's a good point and it just it made it like I
almost released.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
I was like okay, uh yeah, bad credit scores almost
bankrupt payroll on credit cards.
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Yeah, you're not anentrepreneur if you haven't done
just those few things.
So, james, you've been a wealthof information and fun to talk
with.
Wish you continued success andwe'll see you around over on the
(50:21):
social channels.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, thank you so much, Michael, appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots.
This podcast is created andproduced by my company, boss.
Our business is growing.
Yours.
Boss, offers flexible businessloans with business coaching
support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(50:48):
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
subscribe button and share it aswell.
If you need help growing yourbusiness, email me at Michael at
Michael D Morrison dot com.
We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.
All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
And again we have anotherspecial guest from around the
world and literally he's beenaround the world.
But I know that business ownerscan only say their name and
their business like the businessowner can.
So I'm going to let youintroduce yourself where you're
from, a little bit about yourbusiness, so we can kind of
catch up where you're at todayof catch up where you're at
(00:25):
today.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, michael, hey, thank uh, thank you so much for
having me on a big fan of theshow.
I really appreciate theopportunity and especially what
uh?
The work that you're doing.
Uh, in the industry, I'm asmall business owner.
Uh, we just passed year five.
Uh, we own aircraft maintenance.
Uh, you know, um, it's all theups and downs, the mistakes.
You know it's all the ups anddowns, the mistakes, the hard
times, and so, man, I'll tellyou it wasn't until about year
(00:49):
three that I started workingwith a coach and it was like way
too, it wasn't too late.
It's never too late.
But I should have started likeimmediately, so I have a huge
appreciation, yeah, hugeappreciation for what you do.
I think it's good and, yeah,thanks again.
We do aircraft maintenance onlight GA aircraft, mostly Cirrus
(01:12):
aircraft and Diamond aircraft.
We're talking four to six seatairplanes, normally flown
privately.
Once you realize how nice it isand how much time you can save
by owning your own aircraft,where there's zero TSA and you
can take whatever you want inthe plane and you take off and
(01:34):
land when you want to, that'swhen a business owner, when they
have the resources, they startan airplane is a time machine.
It really starts saving you amassive amount of time.
For example, I'm in EastTennessee and you fly down to
Orlando in two and a half threehours.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Where it's just really buys you back a lot
amount of time, and so we doupgrades on those, Also
maintenance upgrades.
You see the Garmin sign behindme.
We're a Garmin dealer.
All of the nice avionics andinstruments that airplanes use.
We take those and upgrade themto glass screens and we do some
(02:14):
flight training as well andaircraft management.
Other than that, I also fly forthe Air Force National Guard in
Knoxville, Tennessee.
I fly the KC-135.
So I'm a pilot and beendeployed and that is a lot of
fun, essentially going from asix-seat plane behind me to an
airliner.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow, yeah Well, thank you for your service.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You bet, you bet.
Well, how do you think we'regoing to help our small business
owner listeners today?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I think your eyes start getting really big,
especially mine.
Let's say, let's just talkabout me and the mistakes that I
made, but you start.
You're like man, let's justcrank this thing to 10, right?
And you don't realize what it'sgoing to take, what it looks
like.
I've never been to 10, you know.
And then the people that I washiring I had no process set up.
I was definitely one of thosepeople where, you know, you see
(03:25):
those coaches and they say, oh,my salesman made a huge mistake,
you know he's like, ok, well,what's the process that you have
for your salesman to use?
And he's like I don't have one.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well, there's your problem.
Right, that's your problem.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, and that was me .
I had no first off.
I knew nothing about sales, Iwas only a pilot and mechanic.
I knew nothing about marketing.
(04:00):
So we grew past a million onlyby word of mouth, and I got
pretty good at hiring mechanicstoo.
And four would have been a lotnicer to me had I have gone to a
coach first to talk about mygoals and then develop a process
to get there other than justjust go for it.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah Well, you know that's the freedom we have as
entrepreneurs.
So I always say we don't knowwhat we don't know, so let's
introduce the show real quickand we'll be right back.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast produced for
small business owners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where
(04:34):
we make business ownershipsimplified for success.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(04:56):
All right, welcome back toSmall Business Pivots.
You have quite the story so,but let's first start with kind
of your growing up, yourchildhood because I know lots of
business owners have trials,tribulations.
We lack self-doubt not all ofus, but many of us do so kind of
(05:17):
catch us up to your adulthood.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, so.
So growing up, you know there'sactually a really good stat
that most of the successfulpeople in the in in the world
have had an extremely traumaticchildhood.
I don't know if you've heardthat, but most and very most of
my customers that I encounterthat made their, their wealth
within one lifetime.
They also had some sort ofinstability.
(05:43):
You know, uh, unstablechildhood and uh, so if you're,
if you're not alone in a lot ofthe things, that uh, that that
creates is ability, where notsaying it's right or wrong, but
you're little, and if the homelife isn't that stable, you've
got to figure things out on yourown as a child, and so those I
it actually makes you a muchstronger entrepreneur later on
(06:06):
in life.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Survivor yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, that's right.
So, um, yeah, my parents theygot, uh they got divorced when I
was little and and, uh, my dadhad a, had a uh really nice art
business.
Uh, my dad was an amazingartist and uh, he, he, uh he
made some uh poor decisions andended up losing it.
And I watched him, he and I,and then going back and forth
(06:30):
between my parents, kind ofstruggle for the rest of my
pretty much seven years old onIn essentially extreme poverty
until I was about in high school.
We had like a normal-ishsituation and so those things.
Now, my dad, though he was, hewas an entrepreneur the whole
(06:52):
time.
He still was trying to make hisart business, build it back and
grow.
So he, I never saw my dad havea job until things got bad
enough where he just he had toget a job, um and uh, just to
bring in the bills.
And this is somebody that I hadto swallow his pride and just
take it on.
(07:12):
And I've heard, I've heard, uh,you know, other other business
coaches talk about that in thebeginning.
You know, having you may haveto.
You probably heard this.
Where there are, there arepeople that are working, uh, a
normal job, 40 hours at a normaljob and then they're building
their business after hours.
Yes, you know they'll work till5 pm and then after work
(07:33):
they'll work till midnight orsomething on their business and
grow that over years.
And so I saw that and luckily Istarted playing football in high
school.
That kind of kept me away froma lot of the you know other poor
decisions I could have madegrowing up.
And football, just it gave mesomething to really work after
and I've always had a reallystrong competitive side of me,
(07:57):
especially internally, like Iwanted, I want to be the best
for me.
And and um, football gave methat Avenue and it was a lot of
fun Uh, but then it ended and Ididn't have anything to go past
that and uh for me anyways.
And my grandfather was a worldwar two aviator.
Um, he flew B-25s in world wartwo.
(08:19):
My dad would always tell mestories about my grandfather
fighting the war in the Pacificand I've got pictures of him
with bullet holes down the sideof the plane.
And uh, my dad did take me whenI was little.
He would go to uh air shows andwe'd stop in and see airplanes
and those wheels were alwaysturning and obviously my dad was
pushing me to join the airforce and uh, so I joined uh
(08:43):
straight out of high schoolbefore I turned 18.
You know I had already had allthe paperwork ready to go.
So graduated high school, wentstraight to basic training,
enlisted initially to be amechanic, and then went through.
I was a mechanic for sevenyears.
Meanwhile I was working on mydegree, so that was kind of
(09:03):
getting me to, you know, theearly years anyways.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
What degree were you working on?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So I went to Middle Tennessee State University.
They have a really goodaerospace program there.
Think about you probably heardthe term Embry-Riddle, Purdue,
Auburn those schools all havegood aviation programs.
So they train pilots, theytrain mechanics, air traffic
(09:32):
controllers, stuff like that,and you come out with a
bachelor's degree as well.
So I was doing aerospacemaintenance management the whole
time while I was a crew chiefor a mechanic for the Air Force,
while I was a crew chief or amechanic for the Air Force, and
that really it helped me get mythe rest of my civilian ratings
(09:56):
license to be a mechanic,because the military rating
doesn't exactly flow over.
So I think it prepped me well.
It was a good time.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah Well, you're already ahead of most at that
age, because most of us didn'tfigure anything out until we
were at least 30.
So you were aviation college,aviation job, aviation military,
et cetera, et cetera.
I know military.
When us civilians think aboutit, we think of very, very
(10:24):
organized right.
So what are some of the thingsthat you learned in the military
that you think is applicablefor business owners?
Because I know there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, there is a lot I would say, and as I grew and
became an Air Force pilot too,Air Force pilot training has
some of the highest washoutrates in the world.
Right, You're being trained bythe world's best Air Force.
People are being sent home allaround you.
And then any normal training bythe Air Force is also difficult
, and I think I learned in thebeginning you know, if you can
(11:02):
just not quit, you're probablynot going to fail.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
That's a powerful lesson.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Very early on and it is like okay, so all I have to
do and I would go from meal tomeal and a lot of people talk
about this that have that, haveserved and gone through basic
training you wake up, you'relike just make it to lunchtime
you know or make it to breakfastyou know, and then you eat
breakfast.
Okay, let's see if I can makeit to lunch.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And then lunch, make it to dinner, and then you just
repeat that and don't quit, andyou're probably going to make it
, you're probably going to befine, and I think that's.
There's a huge lesson to that,in this as well.
In business I've heard thatsaid a lot.
I'm sure there's extenuatingcircumstances that shut people
down, but for the most part thepeople that I see fail.
(11:52):
They just quit, they're done.
You know, they gave up, it's,it's gone past, whatever they're
willing to give.
Um, what are your thoughtsthere?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I agree, uh, just keep going.
No-transcript all that.
(12:32):
You can find hundreds andthousands of tips and insights
and everything on marathontraining, but I loved her answer
and that's kind of what you'resaying Just don't quit, don't
give up.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, there's, there's.
Uh, you know, I think ineveryone's year one,
everything's a fire, right?
Yeah, oh, you wake up in themorning, oh, get one email.
Oh, we're done, that's it,we're over.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Everybody's dead.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, well, one customer pulls out one person.
One customer complains about abill.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, that's it.
We suck.
You know Well.
You have a pretty fascinatingstory in how you got into
entrepreneurship and then thechallenges of.
I don't want to give the storyaway, but tell us a little bit
about serving across seas andhow you were running a business
(13:22):
as well.
Or do you want to start withyour business in general, of how
you started and some of thosetrials and tribulations you went
through at the first?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, sure, I'll start there.
Uh, so I had graduated, got mydegree and I had started reading
.
Um, I was, I got selected to goto air force pilot training as
well.
So it does help, um, that I hada little bit of security there.
Um so, but in the meantime Iwas reading rich dad, poor dad,
(13:51):
and I never really was satisfiedin a job.
I just was not.
Um, I mean, for whatever reason, whatever normal people have
that makes them happy in a job,I just don't have it.
I can't.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I know, whatever that thing is right, I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You know, and I would always you probably we were
talking about this a little bitin the beginning of the show.
It's like, hey guys, why don'twe do this?
We could probably like three Xthis if we do this and they're
just like, no, we're not gonnado that oh my gosh yeah, you're
stuck yeah, yeah.
So I was reading rich dad, poordad and pretty much everything
else I could get my hands on.
(14:28):
And when I say read it, my wifemakes fun of me.
She's like you don't read anybooks.
I was like you're right, Ilistened to it on audible.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Okay, just to be clear well, yeah mean you're
still learning to earn.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
so that's right.
So, uh, the wheels weredefinitely spinning and I knew
my dad had done it.
You know, I'd watched him foryears.
And um, at the time I was likelet's, um, I, I don't know what
this is going to look like, butI think I can get make this
happen.
And um, I started, uh, I wasworking for Sears Aircraft at
the time.
They're the largestmanufacturer of GA airplanes
(14:58):
right now general aviation,small six-seat planes.
Actually, technically they're afive-seat plane, just if any
airplane people are on here aregoing to correct me.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Oh, I promise you, there's someone out there that
will correct anything we say.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's the nicest GA plane out right now, but I was
working for them and everyonethat purchases these aircraft
are millionaires.
For the most part, the plane's$600 to $1.5 million, and then
they've got a jet that's $3million.
And so I would get to sit in aseat with these people and
interact with them, and I alwaysI'm like James, you're an idiot
(15:35):
if you don't ask these peoplewhat they do and just kind of
rub shoulders with them.
And I would always try to justbe, you know, nonchalant.
Hey, what do you do?
That's cool, you know, tell meyour story.
And I started flying withcustomers periodically and when
you fly with them, you'recompletely trapped in a plane
with them for three hours, nocell phones, no, nothing.
And so you've got theopportunity to just pick their
(15:57):
brain if they're willing.
And I just hey, do you mindtelling me your story?
And one gentleman in particularhe's a mentor to me.
Now he's the reason I quit myjob.
I asked him and he's like James, I was just a normal guy, I was
working a dead-end job and Ieffing hated it.
(16:17):
And me and my wife, we juststarted saving a little bit of
cash.
And he's like all my friendstold me.
I was crazy this is never goingto work, you're going to fail,
we'll see you back in a year.
And he's like well, we'll see.
And he quits his job and buys asuntanning place.
And he said he was making atthe time like 50 or 60,000.
(16:38):
He said within three years, Imean, his income went to like
600,000, which is probably anextreme.
That's an extraordinary case.
However, it still was he's like.
And he said each day, he's likeyeah, I'm sending back my bros
the pictures of the bankstatements, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
F.
You guys, you're wrong.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And uh, I was like I can do this.
I think you know if this guycan do it, I can do it.
And uh, so I uh I actually leftfor air force pilot training
and, um, I was like, if I I toldthe guys when I left, I was
like, if you ever see me backhere just now, my plan went
horribly wrong.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I will never work another job for anybody ever
again other than the air forceas a pilot yeah, what would you
say is probably the best advicewith all those entrepreneurs at
that level that they gave you um, I think the at sorry, just to
be clear, you're at from theirlevel or the level of yeah, from
(17:40):
them just getting there likethem to you because a lot of
entrepreneurs that listen tothis show they're stuck and they
haven't gotten to that level.
So you know kind of coming fromtheir insights the.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
The biggest thing that they've taught me is
there's levels to this,especially in.
I think of it almost likeprofessional athletes.
You can go tell when you watchmiddle school, high school or
the pros, right, I mean there'sa big visual difference on the
field, the product on the fieldand the people that are at like,
for example, the person I toldyou he's got a $200 million net
(18:14):
worth person I told you he's gota $200 million net net worth.
Um, he taught me grace andslowing down.
You know, in the beginning Iwas just so everything made me
freak out everything.
You know I was hot.
You know somebody would get saysomething wrong or or, or, you
know whatever, something didn'tgo the way that I wanted and
(18:35):
you're just hot, like somebodysends you the wrong bill or
whatever.
You just freak out overeverything.
And he, he taught me how tohandle things with grace and and
slowing down and having a touch.
You know, having having moretouch on things and that has
helped me a ton.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Um, and it's hard to really explain that, but, um,
and it's hard to really explainthat, but I think that's
probably the best thing thatI've learned from their level
slowing down on your decisions,having grace when you respond to
people, and it goes a businesscoach and I'll ask them if a
(19:17):
young entrepreneur or someonewanting to start a business
asked your advice.
It's never what you read in thebooks.
It's things as simple as whatyou just shared For me one of my
mentors that I really liked andfollowed.
He simply said learn what notto do, not what to do.
(19:37):
He said.
If you learn that which mostentrepreneurs can give you a
long list of what not to do hesaid you'll make it Because
there's plenty of stuff to do.
It's learning those things whatnot to do.
So it's amazing when I hearstories like that.
So you learned fromentrepreneurs.
(19:59):
You're like, okay, let's go.
So you took off and you openedup this massive aviation machine
shop.
Is it a machine shop?
Do you upgrade?
What does it actually do?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, Maintenance, repairs, management and then
flight training.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Maintenance, repairs, management and then flight
training.
Okay, and so you prepare thesefor people that own them, or do
you buy and sell them?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
So each airplane kind of like the one you see behind
me every single year, the entireplane, it's federally mandated
by the FAA.
The whole plane has to comeapart, wow, it goes through a
massive inspection checklist, um, and then, uh, we have to, you
know, put it back together andmake sure everything works good,
(20:45):
right, so it's a big job it'sabout?
it's about two weeks, you know,worth of labor, um.
You know one, one to two weeksworth of labor, um, and so we uh
primarily do the annualinspections on these planes
where quite a bit of dollarsthat go through a surprising
amount to keep the planeoperating each year.
You know, it's not reallycommon with your car, where you
just take it to the dealer andthey're just going to take it
(21:07):
all the way apart and look forstuff you know?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Put it back together.
It's kind of a foreign concept,but that's how airplanes work.
And then, while we've got it,you know, it's an excellent
opportunity to say you know, hey, have you heard about Garmin?
We can make all thistouchscreen, you know, and
beautiful.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
And operational.
More accurate, I guess, wouldbe the word.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, it's more safe, true, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So you know.
That's how they sell it to thewife.
You always got to make the wifeOkay, yeah, yeah, so you know.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's how they sell it to the wife.
You can say, oh, he's got tomake the wife.
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Now we're talking.
Now there are some helpful tips.
How do we sell to the otherside of the family?
So, on the aviation side, Iknow there's some things that
are more important than otherson a plane.
So how do you make sure thatthose things happen?
I know, of course, you'relistening to Small Business
Pivots.
(22:03):
This podcast is produced by mycompany, boss.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
(22:24):
subscribe button and share it aswell.
Now let's get back to ourspecial guest.
So, on the aviation side, Iknow there's some things that
are more important than otherson a plane.
So how do you make sure thatthose things happen?
I know, of course, we want tokeep it safe and that it depends
(22:44):
on your life, but the reason Iask that is because so many
business owners they have thesesame challenges that they can't
seem to correct, but they'relike, the vitals of their
business, and so in the aviationit's like I know there are
certain things that either haveto be checked before every
takeoff, like some.
You can count on the screen,some you can count on this, but
there's some things you have tomanually do.
(23:06):
Tell us what that's like so you, so business owners, can hear
how to get that done.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So, and what I, what I hear you asking is operations
right, like the thing that youdo.
How do you make thatconsistently good?
Yeah, and it is a little bitunique in my industry just
because there's already likepilots and mechanics and
everyone that works for me is,you know, they're rated, they've
(23:33):
got a license that they had tospend years to achieve, so
they're licensed professionals,but there's already all these
checklists.
You know, if you do somethingon a plane, there's a checklist
to do it.
If you change a tire, change awheel, change an engine, take
the wing off, put it back on theinspection, there's an
inspection checklist.
You know hundreds of itemswhere you got to just go down
(23:55):
the list and check each one.
You know hundreds of itemswhere you got to just go down
the list and check each one, andso that is kind of unique to my
business, where I was alreadyfamiliar with the checklist.
And if you're, you knowsomebody that's still working on
the product.
You know that's where you takethe biggest step when you start
hiring people is okay, how can Iput this in a checklist form so
(24:16):
that it'll be, you know, atleast 80% as good as when I do
it Right, and so that is alittle bit unique.
But at the same time, there'sstill the coaching, there's
still the training, and thenthere's still the I'm the
business owner and I totallyswung and miss on the wrong
person.
(24:36):
You know, I hired the wrongperson and that didn't um, you
know, because you take, you gotto take responsibility when um
so another, what am I?
I brought on a wrong partner atone point and boy, it almost
ended me, um, but I was like youknow, he's this, he's that,
he's done all this and and he'smy friend was like well, he's
done all this.
And my friend was like well,who hired him?
(24:58):
James?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Who brought him in Yep.
That's the part that reallystinks about the business owner.
I always tell business ownersthat the business you have today
, all those challenges,weaknesses, all those things you
(25:20):
need to fix you either createdthose or you allowed them to
happen.
Because you're the businessowner, you know so.
You should take responsibility.
So let's keep moving through.
You started your business andlet's we talked about how you
had some stumbling blocks upuntil you know year three, year
four.
Let's let's talk about some ofthose, cause that's, that's the
stuff that business owners canreally learn from.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, yeah.
So, like I said, word of mouth,I pretty much got past a
million and I was like, well, wejust need to do more of what
we're doing, which is true.
I had no clue.
I had zero sales training, zeromarketing training.
We had a website and a Facebookpage and that was it, and we
would post on it.
I don't know, maybe like once amonth or something, there's no,
(25:59):
we were not even trying.
We had no clue.
I had no clue what more looklike, how do we bring in more
customers.
And then, you know, I was like,well, maybe we just need to do
more products, more business, soI'll open all these other
businesses.
I'll open five businesses thatare, you know, complimentary to
this one business.
You know, at at the point whereI'm at, like year three, which
(26:19):
is, uh, your, your eyes areprobably opening like whoa Jay
let's focus on one thing, right?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's a terrible idea.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
So so I was like, well, let's do that.
And and uh, so I was like Idon't know how to sell things,
or I thought I didn't know howto sell things.
I thought somebody could do itbetter than me, and that's
actually a good lesson forsomebody that's in that range.
The best salesman on the teamis the owner.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You can ride that for a while, amen, before you start
tossing big, big dollars atsomebody.
But needless to say, I tossed ashit ton of money at somebody
that.
I thought was going to take thisthing to 10 million and, uh,
you know, with no realexpectations, no, no SOPs, no
structure whatsoever, I justthought this was gonna, this was
(27:07):
gonna work and uh,unfortunately it was a friend
too, um, so that that ended, youknow, poorly, um, and had to
take out a ton of debt, and itput me behind the eight ball, uh
, big time, because I took out alot of very expensive debt in
the time, which, uh, I don'tknow if anyone.
Here's another great lessonDon't do MCA loans.
(27:28):
Talk to, uh Michael, you know,you know, so I just the most
expensive debt I could possiblyfind, and I had to do what I had
to do, though I got through itright, so it is what it is.
So, year three and four was, youknow, baking up for that huge
mistake, but it taught me somuch about myself.
(27:49):
It taught me how much more Icould actually do in sales and
marketing.
It taught me, or forced me, tolearn how to actually sell and
get better and better and betterat it.
Um, it forced me to kind oflean out everything else and
you'd be surprised how muchthere's just kind of floating
around, uh, money going out thedoor.
Um, so, you know, we thoughtthis one big vendor was the way
(28:10):
to only buy this.
We're like, oh, we can also getthat on Amazon for, like you
know, 10% or something.
Uh, so it forced us to lean out.
And then, um, and then I'lltell you the biggest thing in it
and, um, what this is what youdo, right, you're, you are
encouraging people to invest inthemselves.
Right, that's the heart ofheart of coaching, right, I
(28:31):
started at that time investingin myself and I started working
with a coach.
I started, um, I startedworking with a therapist.
I started working with somebodyto help me, um, with my
advertising, with, uh, teach mehow to run ads, and then
eventually took it over.
But I started investing inmyself and I, looking back from
(28:53):
now, compared to two years ago,it's just there's zero
comparison, and so that's huge,the hard times you got to.
You really got to be thankfulfor them as well.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
You make a great point because it's not just one
person you delegated or reliedon.
And I know sometimes businessowners they think if I find one
mentor or one coach and you knowI've got four coaches there for
different reasons, differentparts of my life but you know,
try to keep me rounded becauseit can be, it can be rough as a
(29:27):
business owner, you know, likeyou're on an island by yourself.
I was trying to sugarcoat it.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
You know it's rough and you either got it or you
don't.
Yeah, well, so on the flip side, you've got control over that
you can this you takeresponsibility to, to create a
life and I read this on yourpage, right, you know turn your
business into something that youdon't hate you know, that's
where I feel like so many peopleare.
They're just like man.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I effing hate this and I was there too.
I was like there's no way.
We've all been there, I learnedover two decades ago.
When I'm in those situationsand I'm like the world around me
is falling apart, take a lookinside.
And I always say until I change, nothing around me will change,
so invest in those outsideresources.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Boy.
I'll tell you there's so muchwisdom there because in the
moment I mean well, it felt likethere for a solid full year
every day I was.
You know, bankruptcy wasknocking at the door, right Like
it was just right there waitingfor me.
They were like all right, youready.
Today I felt like in here, Ifelt like everybody, everybody
knows I'm done except for me.
Yet, you know, I was like whenam I going to accept it?
(30:40):
But that's, that's a limitingbelief that I was giving myself.
It wasn't true and and I alwaysI was like, and people kept
telling me that they're likeJames.
You know, just focus on yourself.
Try to be the best you can,that you can be, and stop
focusing on the result all thetime.
You can't affect the result.
Sometimes you get lucky.
You know you can have badinputs and get a really good
(31:00):
result.
You got lucky.
Sometimes you put bad, you knowyou know really good inputs and
get a bad result, vice versa.
So, you know, just focus on thethings that you know that will
make you successful.
What's, what can you do thatwill make you successful?
Running more ads, calling morecustomers?
What about handwriting lettersto people?
(31:21):
You know, do you think thatwould get you more customers.
Yeah, how much does that cost?
Nothing, except for the stampsyou know and the paper to print
it out on and pens.
You know so, but in my heart Iwas just like well, how's this
going to?
You know, work on myself.
I need cash now, yeah, but yeah, it was short-sighted.
(31:43):
And then looking at it, whenyou start dragging that out and
the timeline out, you realize,okay, yeah, things started
changing a lot when I startedfocusing and investing in myself
and trying to make myselfbetter.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Great advice there's a go ahead.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
May just not happen as fast as you want it.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Oh no, never, never.
There's a great book out there.
It's a little lengthy, but Iencourage business owners to
invest in Mindset.
It's by Carol Dweck.
I mentioned earlier.
I'm running my first marathonand from my coaches, they all
say, yes, strength training isimportant, running, all that
(32:25):
stuff is important.
Your legs will feel likethey're going to fall off.
You'll feel like you hit a wall, but the number one they're all
training me on is mindset toget through it, and that's what
you're saying about businessownership.
It's yourself, it's your mind,your limited beliefs, and so
powerful, powerful, powerful.
(32:45):
So let's talk about you gotdeployed and I'll let you tell
the whole story because it's ait's an incredible story.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah.
So when I was enlisted, I wasdeployed a few times, but most
recently first deployment as apilot, deployed to the Middle
East and we were flying out ofQatar and that was really scary,
because imagine being away fromwhat you're building for 60
(33:13):
full days, where you'reliterally thousands of miles and
most people if you're listeningto this and you're in the early
stage, or at least you canresonate with it if you're way
past it but who's who's fixesevery problem.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You do Most, can't even leave for the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, and then you get addicted to that because
you're like oh this, you knowyou're Superman, right, you just
fix every problem.
You know it goes to your.
If you haven't worked on yourchildhood trauma, you know
that's addictive addictivefeeling, Right.
So, um, it forced me to.
Finally, I had no control overyou know, I could not touch
(33:51):
anything physically and so I hadto work through people for 60
days, only Forced.
There was no way.
Wow, it was tough.
I mean, I primarily do sales.
Right At the time I was onlybringing in sales, so we would
do an eight, nine-hour sortie,uh, in the middle East combat
sortie and land and I'd hop onthe phone.
(34:12):
Uh, by the time I landed it wasdaytime back home, hop on the
phone, start calling customers.
All the all my bros are at thebar drinking beer, you know
they're like James.
Come on, give up with that, justgo to the airlines.
Uh, all my friends are at theairline, my peers are, are
flying for American and Deltaand, uh, you know, for them they
only work like 15 days a month,60 hour weeks, um, but so it
(34:42):
forced me, uh, forced me to towork through people, um, and it
I I'm super grateful for it.
Also that you know one of thesorties, um, we flew.
It was uh during, um, if youremember, back to this past
summer, around April, spring,april, iran launched at Israel
directly for the first time andwe had known that was going to
(35:04):
happen, that there was anescalation in the area and we
didn't know exactly when it wasgoing to pop off.
But we had a good idea untilsaying that you know, very
likely Iran is going to launchdirectly at Israel and we're
going to try to do everything wecan to thwart the attack, and
so normally we're doing routinecombat stories.
(35:25):
That night we had a decent ideait was going to happen and the
crews that launched that nightwe knew we were going to be
going.
I can't say where we wereflying, but it was, uh, right
between Israel and Iran, is thearea there and um, so there's a
one way path between Iran andIsrael.
(35:46):
We're going to be directly inthe middle of it, or they didn't
know exactly.
They said they may use missiles, they may use drones, but
likely just drones, is what theywere telling us.
And we're like, okay, well,those are probably several
thousand feet beneath us.
And so we took off that nightand everyone we knew something
was going to pop off and we werejust dead silent.
(36:06):
But we knew in our heartsthat's our job.
Right, here we go, let's go doour job, no questions asked.
Every crew that launched thatnight um, normally you at least
have a couple planes thatmaintenance break.
They just push through them.
They got it, um, got the planesin the air, got past adversity
we did as well, um, and we tookoff and we flew up to our
(36:27):
operating area and and the allthrough that area, uh, united
Arab Emirates and all the othercountries, they had all ceased
all their flying.
None, no airlines were flyingwhatsoever.
Some of the biggest, um, uh,the the most, uh, busy airspace
in the world is through thatarea and there was not a single
(36:48):
airline or flying.
And we're like, oh my gosh gosh,this is serious this is serious
.
So we went and we hit some, uh,we refueled some f-15s that, um,
that night.
Normally there's some when theyhook up to us which I fly a
refueler kc-135.
We refuel the other planes inair and, um, you know, normally
(37:10):
it's like, hey bro, how youdoing?
Uh, this night it was allbusiness.
They're like we need as muchgas as we can get right now, as
fast as you can, we're going tobelt feed the jets to you.
And so they took every ounce ofgas that we could give them and
a little bit more.
To where we were, you know,feeling a little testy and
making it back, not like we'reafraid we're going to run out of
(37:31):
gas, but we need a certainamount just in case, if anything
goes wrong, to add it to it.
But we gave them everythingthat we could, and you could
hear it with the radio.
They're shooting down thingsleft and right On the way back.
We also had an in-flightemergency up at 30,000 feet.
We lost our electrical system.
We lost our electrical systemand so for a moment and mind you
(37:54):
, iran is launching and we'relooking at it and you can see it
.
You can see the missiles.
You know the contrails from themissiles overhead and there's
Tourette's in the area and allthis.
And we had this in-flightemergency and me and my crew
(38:18):
there's three people on it on arefueler Um, that that team was
awesome and we worked togetherthe whole, the whole deployment
and, uh, we worked through whatwe did and made it back safely,
um, and then when we got back,we were notified, we were
awarded the distinguished flyingcross uh, us and the other
crews that flew that night,which is the uh, the nation's
fourth highest award, threebeneath the medal of honor, um,
so it was just just really,really special.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Congratulations, and that shows the power of teamwork
.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, especially when and I I
felt like in that moment, youknow, we were in the cockpit,
you know, um, and we're workingtogether as a team to make it
through.
There are so many lessons thatI was like, well, this is just
like a normal day back at theshop.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I was going to say you're probably like this is
nothing, guys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
There's missiles flying at me every day, exactly,
exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Well, what are some of the go ahead?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I was just kidding.
It was definitely terrifying.
It was tough, but we workedtogether as a team.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Oh, just listening to that, you had me on needles.
So what are some pivots thatyou learned along the way in
your business that you feel likewere well done, or maybe not
well done at all and you wouldnever do them again?
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, so pivot as something that we were going to
try and it didn't work out oryeah, yeah, that's right, you
know, one of them was um.
Actually this was during thistime where I was gonna okay, I
need to open five new businessesyeah and so I actually opened
(39:52):
this little um, um I one of myfriends who's a one of my
customers and mentor I told himI was like I think I want to
start a sea plane flighttraining business, um, and kind
of have it as a complimentary towhat I'm doing and I think we
can make money with it.
And um, he was like, well, yeah, man, I'll make the capital,
(40:14):
I'll do the capital, but you'vethe capital, but you're going to
manage it.
And so we went out and boughtan Icon aircraft.
I wish it was right behind.
It's actually out in front ofme.
I wish I had it, but it's alittle two-seat, it's like a jet
ski with wings.
It is so much fun.
And you know, over the pastcouple years, should I have sold
(40:47):
that thing and made my life alot easier?
Yeah, probably.
But now it's actually making alot of traction and it's
actually because it's actuallyforced me to start working with
more people that actually knowhow to do Facebook and Google
ads yourself, if you're truly awizard.
But for the most part, you needsomebody to help you, um and so
now that's helped me, uh, growwhat I'm doing, like this right,
doing podcasts, getting my facein front of the camera and
learning, uh, that, hey, this is2025.
You're doing it right.
I sell your Instagram andFacebook.
(41:08):
I mean.
You're posting.
You're probably doing multipleposts a day.
You're doing a podcast.
You're on everyone else'spodcast.
This is 2025.
If you're not doing this,you're I mean, you're going to
get left in the dust.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
So it is what it is.
Yep, yep, totally agree.
Well, I know a lot of peopleprobably want to learn more
about you or from you, so what'sthe best place to follow you at
?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah from you.
So what's the best place tofollow you at?
Yeah, so, um, on Instagram orYouTube, the same, uh, same uh
handle at the James Spearman,and then, uh, obviously, a
website is, uh,wwwspearmanaircraftcom, and, uh,
I try to make as much.
If you, uh, if you have anyinterest in in aviation
whatsoever, I try to makecontent that kind of shows
people, um, you know littleairplanes or you might not be
(41:57):
used to it.
You'd be surprised how many ofmy customers are in their
forties and fifties and they'vegot now.
Now they're, the business hascaught up.
They've got some money to spendand I'm like I think I want to
be a pilot.
Maybe I'll start buying back mytime.
They'll fly with a friend thathas like a King Air or something
or another plane and they'relike, wow, this is awesome, I
could do this, and so that'sreally who I help.
(42:18):
A lot is those people, becausebuying an airplane is not like
buying a car.
The percentage of pilots in theUnited States is like 1%, and
then the people that own anairplane on top of that is
probably, you know, half of thator less, and so it's not like
you can just ask your brotherhey, man, when you bought an
airplane.
(42:38):
What was it like?
So it's very rare and theprocesses are completely
different, and so it's good tohave some sort of professional
to help coach you into orthrough the process of buying an
airplane.
Are you going to hire a pilot,or are you going to learn how to
fly?
Or you know, how do you getinsurance on it, how do you pay
the sales tax on it?
(42:58):
All of these things are prettymuch foreign and not there's uh,
I haven't there's.
There's good like AOPA is agood website that gives you this
, but there's not like exactlybooks written on it.
So that's where I, where I liketo help out.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Well, that brings up a great point.
If only 1% fly and less thanthat own their own aircraft,
that's a very small percentageof the world's population and I
know for most business ownersthey won't niche down, they
(43:31):
won't find their little.
As they say stay in your lane.
So they might be a landscaper,so they do pools and they do
golf courses and it's like no,no, no, you got to find your
lane.
How do you differentiateyourself in such a small space
so they can go?
Yeah, I really do need to nichedown.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, I mean, probably the first thing to
niche down is you need to workwith people that have money to
pay for your services.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
That's a good start.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
It is way easier to deal with people that have the.
You know they have thefinancial resources.
When you send them a bill, it'snot like, well, did it really
take 10 minutes for this?
Why did it do that?
They're just like keep the cardon file, james, I don't care,
just run it, just make sure it'sready to go on Tuesday, got it?
And so I would say that's thenumber one.
(44:22):
But for me yeah, my customerbase realistically, the amount
of people that I can affect inservice is probably like 100,000
total in the United States.
Um, something, something verysmall to that.
Now there are, um, actually,actually I think there's only I
forget the numbers, but you know, let a hundred thousand or less
total people that I couldactually help.
(44:44):
Um, and there's the.
Uh, what I really try to focuson is the is the Cirrus and the
higher endend aircraft Diamond.
There's only, you know, 5,000,6,000, 7,000 of those planes
total in the United States.
Or actually, I think, worldwide,but you know, so there's
probably, down to me, there'sprobably only like,
(45:07):
realistically, 10,000 planestrue customers that I want to
work with, thousand planes truecustomers that I want to work
with.
And it took me getting kickedin the you know where, over and
over and over again, taking onjobs that we couldn't be,
couldn't be, you know,profitable on customers I didn't
want to work with, untilfinally I was like you know, ok,
(45:29):
I'm going to, I like workingwith these people.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
My life would be so much easier if I just only
worked with these people, andthat's that's what really forced
me to kind of niche down.
So I'm I'm a niche within aniche, I guess.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Well, it's an important part because so many
business owners they're afraidthey're not going to make
payroll if they don't take everysingle client, and so that was
kind of my point here you have avery, very small population to
that even can afford yourindustry, your service, aviation
, and yet here's othercontractors that have hundreds
(46:09):
of thousands and they're soworried about missing a customer
, you know.
So.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's actually a limiting,
that's a big limiting beliefright there, because you're,
you're actually what you'redoing is sabotaging yourself.
Uh if the the longer that youcontinue to just say yes to
everyone, you are sabotagingyourself, um and.
I mean, there's been jobs whereI said yes and made payroll and
it cost me way more in the longrun.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, I think we've all been there.
I got uh.
One last question before wesign off here.
It's, uh, if you got a secondto think about it, that's all
right, but it's.
If you're in a room full ofentrepreneurs, different sizes
of business, lengths of business, what's something that's
applicable to all of them Could?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
be a tip, it could be a book, a quote, something that
I would give them.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Sure.
Yeah, or something that youwould say you would share.
That could be applicable to allentrepreneurs, no matter what
business they own.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Well, you know now I'm really big into sales.
I'd ask which ones of you ownan airplane that I can help with
.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
I would say our listeners probably, maybe one.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
That's one.
Really, I only service 100customers a year, so that's 10%
of my volume.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
Yeah, that's right.
1%.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Yeah.
So, um, uh, yeah, I would.
I would say something thatevery one of them would have in
common is I don't think there'sany way to escape that how
difficult this is to do it.
And if, um, each person thatsomebody told me you know money,
(47:55):
actually it exaggerates who youare.
And so if you have a lot of youknow, if you've got addictions,
or you got a lot of thingsgoing on that you're not good at
right now, or limiting beliefs,or the way you sabotage
yourself, if you have all thoseright now, toss in a million
dollars, $2 million, it's goingto make it that much worse.
(48:17):
And so I think every person atthat level that owns a business
realizes how hard this is andhow it's.
You really got no choice.
You're either going to putyourself in the hospital, or
you're you know, or you're goingto work on yourself and try to
get better and work with peoplelike you that can make your life
(48:38):
.
You can.
You can do this and enjoy lifeat the same time.
That is that is true.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
That is words of wisdom, because I'm often asked
have you ever seen a businessowner as bad as me?
And we're all bad, we're.
We all have our challenges.
We're not bad, we're justlearning.
And we're all bad, we all haveour challenges.
We're not bad, we're justlearning.
And we're doing something thatmost others won't kind of like.
Your pilots, we are very asmall percentage there was a
really good I started working.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Uh, when things got really bad right, like when
anytime things get bad rightit's, it's easy.
When the coach is winning,everyone's like, oh yeah, he's
got that he's got everythingfigured out.
You know, as soon as things gobad, right, you normally tend to
internalize all of it.
You try to close down.
That's a normal process andyou're like well, I'm just.
You know, I said I just suckthis bad.
There's no way anyone elsesucks as bad as I'm doing you
(49:26):
know that's a normal, normalreaction.
Uh, I went to this company thatwas going to help me.
You know like, look intofinances and try to start making
a plan, and I just wasinternalizing all this and I was
like God, I just feel like I'mreally, you know, this is really
tough and I suck and he's likehe slaps me on the back.
He's like James, you know, ifyou've never had to put payroll
on on a credit card before,you're not a real entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
That's a good point, entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
That's a good point and it just it made it like I
almost released.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
I was like okay, uh yeah, bad credit scores almost
bankrupt payroll on credit cards.
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Yeah, you're not anentrepreneur if you haven't done
just those few things.
So, james, you've been a wealthof information and fun to talk
with.
Wish you continued success andwe'll see you around over on the
(50:21):
social channels.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, thank you so much, Michael, appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots.
This podcast is created andproduced by my company, boss.
Our business is growing.
Yours.
Boss, offers flexible businessloans with business coaching
support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(50:48):
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
subscribe button and share it aswell.
If you need help growing yourbusiness, email me at Michael at
Michael D Morrison dot com.
We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.
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