September 5, 2024 • 52 mins
Ever wondered how a passion for adventure can morph into a thriving entrepreneurial empire? Meet Jonny, an extraordinary entrepreneur whose ventures span from orchestrating once in a life time adventures to selling and leasing luxury yachts.
This episode is a testament to Jonny’s philosophy of pursuing passion over profit, an approach that has driven the success of his diverse array of businesses.
He speaks about dreaming big, embracing adventure, surrounding yourself with inspiring individuals, the evolution of digital nomad culture and the importance of pushing beyond comfort zones.
He shares his insights on seizing opportunities, nurturing dedicated teams, and catering to younger, tech-savvy clients in the crypto space all of which offer invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.
This episode is a treasure trove of inspiration.
Whether you’re looking to blend passion with your profession or seek extraordinary experiences in life and business, Jonny’s story offers a roadmap to success and fulfilment.
To follow Jonny Dodge on Instagram, see: https://www.instagram.com/jonnydodge_
If ever you'd like to connect, please don't hesitate to connect via my website www.jamiewhite.com.
I am always open to feedback, reflections, guest / subject recommendations and anything else that might come up.
Thank you for listening, Jamie x
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Johnny, I don't have a clue how I could even begin to
introduce you, Like how doessomebody introduce you and what
you do?
I think, Shall I introducemyself?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I think I'd fail miserablydoing justice to all that you do
.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Look, I think I'm passionate about experiences.
That's what's driven me to doeverything.
So that does mean I'm anentrepreneur.
It means I'm an adventurer doesmean I'm an entrepreneur.
It means I'm a adventurer andbeing passionate about creating
really unique opportunities forpeople across the planet and
whatever businesses we'vecreated.
And that takes us fromcompanies operating f1 events
(00:37):
through to building resorts,through to selling super yachts.
So now we've got a portfolio ofcompanies and offices around
the world that have started fromthat passion of building unique
experiences like.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So what I hear when you share that is that, like you
love this lifestyle yourselffirst and foremost and yeah,
it's not as if you went offworking for somebody else or
living somebody else's dream.
You're like I love doing thisand you know what, if I love
doing it, chances are so manyothers do too.
I'm gonna share it with others.
Would that be about right?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I mean I think that I mean it is one of those golden
rules is like don't start doingsomething you don't want to do
it, do it for the passion.
And I think that whenever I'vecome into opportunities, I've
I've not gone for the moneyfirst, I've gone for the idea
and the concept and the thingI'm passionate about and I see
how the money follows.
So, yeah, many a time I wouldhave put a project together or
an event or something with nointention of it having any
(01:27):
profitability, but to see wherethat then takes us At the moment
.
Recently I just launched theGlobal Committee, which is our
community of all of our nowyacht jet owners and clients
across our portfolio ofcompanies.
I mean there's eight companiesin the group now, but that was
driven as an idea of giving back.
But pulling those peopletogether creates stronger bonds,
(01:50):
stronger community and again,that's definitely up there with
my experience side of thebusiness and my intention is to
create community.
So I think those two words ifyou were to sum up what our
group of companies do do, it'scommunity and experiences for
sure wow, yeah, I uh I supposeI'm kind of jumping into it in
like a cliche way, but likeyou've lived so many experiences
(02:12):
, you've probably enjoyed somuch.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
What comes to mind is like oh, this was like.
This was the experience I wasmost proud of, I enjoyed the
most it's always got to beantarctica.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, doing one of the first ever tourist trips to
the center of Antarctica, flyingthere in a Russian Aleutian
bomber plane, in a cargo hold,looking at the icebergs as the
sun was rising over Antarctica,sitting in the bay, the glass
bay underneath the aircraft,like just landing on the ice,
like stepping off as if we wereon another planet, like not
(02:42):
seeing any greenery any way of,like understanding the landscape
or measuring scale, like alldressed up as if you were kind
of landing in outer space.
Making sure you've got yourgoggles on.
You'll go snow blind.
Making sure you've got all yourlayers you can't get moisture,
otherwise that freezes.
So this whole experience ofarriving there was like going to
another planet, and to do thatin my early 20s was definitely
(03:05):
what inspired me to travel moreand more, for sure and can I say
, is that like a personaladventure you went on, or a
commercial expedition that youyou went on, but you also sold
off as well?
so this was, yeah, like one ofmy first and only jobs, um,
organizing the gumball rally,which, of course, is probably
quite a cool job as a kid.
And again, again, that camejust because I watched it on TV
(03:25):
on Channel 4, so jackass doingit and all these things.
And I was just like this iswhat I want to be part of.
And there was one job there andI managed to find the people,
find the contact, get to theplace and got the job.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So yeah, Ah, so that job was organizing this trip.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, it was organizing all of the the
gumball supercar rallies for thecelebrities around the world.
But they, they had this onespin-off which was, um, they
wanted they had an opportunityto invite a load of clients this
first ever trip to antarctica.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So we took some clients and I went along as uh,
hosting the clients, yeah sowhen I hear that, like so,
you're like here, like this isone of the one, one of the only
jobs I have, but what I kind ofhear from that is that, like you
really wanted your job to workfor you.
So it wasn't as if you werelike doing what you needed to do
to get by or anything like that.
You saw, ah, if I get in withthis organization, I get to host
(04:14):
trips like this.
That's exactly what I want todo.
So even at that very earlystage, you made sure whatever it
is that you were doing wasworking for you first and
foremost.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I I mean prior to that I was working for an agency
in London as my internship andthat was with our client was
Dunhill and of course, at thetime, cigarette sponsorship was
still rife and we wanted to.
We sponsored every celebrityparty in London Fashion Week,
all the coolest events, whatevercelebrity party you name it.
(04:42):
I was the guy that went andsponsored all of those events
and therefore I became the mostinvited guy to a celebrity party
in London.
In fact, that's what it wrotein the Metro newspaper, like it
was like that I was the personyou wanted at your party and so
this became my circuit of goingto celebrity parties every
single night of the week andthat's what then got me the
opportunity at Gumball because Imet someone through that.
(05:03):
That's what then got me theopportunity at Gumball because I
met someone through that.
That's what then ended up mebuying a nightclub.
So what drove the opportunity isconnections, and through my
entire journey as anentrepreneur, it's always been
based on community or myconnections, my black book and
if I haven't built thoserelationships and I think that
(05:23):
so often people look toeducation in your sector, but
the reality is, is that whateversector you wanted to get into.
If you knew all the biggestplayers in real estate, if you
could connect those peopletogether, if you know the
biggest players in nightclubs,whatever it might be, you don't
need to know anything about thatindustry, but you go.
Well, if I can connect the twobiggest players in real estate
in this city, they probably wantto do a deal.
(05:45):
I can probably make some moneyout of the middle of that deal
and all I'm doing is connectingpeople and so building that
network is where the value comesfrom, not the knowledge.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So the start of your career comes from this really
great sponsorship opportunitywhere you're the person to know
if you want a really goodsponsorship in your party and so
boom, your network takes offfrom that and then that helps
get you into the next job.
But everything essentiallycomes from this vast network and
being able to really look afterpeople in the process too.
Yes, because I'd say peoplewanted to do that on Tardik Trip
too.
Yeah, absolutely, and providedyou're at the edge of
(06:20):
essentially what reallyinteresting people want to be
doing, you're the go-to personto know and their network
expands out from there.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That's exactly how it worked.
Yeah, and I think that that was, but of course, you've got to
be good at building therelationship too, and I
understood what the consumerwanted at that point, and that
was making sure that I couldcreate that experience for them
and speak to them in a way theyunderstood.
And there became a point.
And of course as a junior inany industry you get nervous,
(06:49):
you don't think you've gotcredibility, you don't think
many things.
But I think that because I'dtaken these quite great
opportunities early on going toevery celebrity party in London,
going to Antarctica all of asudden when I walked into a room
I had that air of confidencebecause I had had some pretty
interesting discussion points soI wasn't scared to walk into a
room full of billionairesbecause I could certainly go to
them and be and tell them aninteresting story and and they
(07:11):
would be enamored by that storyand want to know more.
So I could compete with them ona level where they were
interested in what I had to sayah yeah, because your work is
fascinating.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
You deal in adventure , in experience, in fun, and
people like, oh, that's soimpulsive, like in terms of
curiosity, people want to knowabout it.
And not only can you tellstories about it, but you can
also say hey, we're doing thistrip next time.
Do you want to come?
We've got this adventure comingup.
You should be a part of it.
And also because it's not likeunlimited tickets as well,
(07:43):
there's an air of exclusivity,so people really want to look
after you as well, to make surethat that's there for them as a
possibility.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, very much.
So that's what grew on from thenightclubs and at the time my
business partner this guy calledTony Fernandez, who a lot of
people will know for owningAirAsia as well as QPR football
team in the UK.
He bought Caterham Car companyat the time and then the Formula
One team, and that then led toan opportunity for him to
connect with me, with BernieEccleston.
I did the deal with Bernie tothen take Formula One rights
(08:11):
from him to run events aroundthe world with his brand, so
that those are really thosestepping stones through to then
me launching GP management, ourF1 business, and then GPM, the
events that we then do forcorporate incentives and
adventures that we've nowcreated, and that business has
been running 16 years.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Wow.
And then most recently, like soobviously I see you charter
yachts, so you're the go-toperson if somebody wants to get
one of these enormous yachts togo to you.
But you're also doing space.
Yes, yeah, like wow.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So space we've had.
We set that space experience upabout five years ago and with
the vision of where space wouldgo to, to be one of the first
travel agencies in that sectorwas a really important place for
me to be, I think, andsomething that I was very
passionate about.
So I started zero-G training,the weightless training, which
they call the vomit comet, thezero-G aircraft.
Yeah, yeah, yeah when you goweightless, the NASA astronauts
(09:04):
used to train the zero-gaircraft where you go weightless
, that the NASA astronauts usedto train.
So I personally started withthat experience and then we
started to be the reseller forthe UK for that product.
That then grew on and again Ihad great advisors along the way
a guy called Alex Tai whofounded Virgin Galactic with
Richard, and just theconnections I then made.
I then got to know Elon Muskand others through what we were
(09:26):
doing and then we sent our firstastronauts to space two and a
half years ago with Blue Origin,which is Do you want me to ask
you?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
that's them flying up , going into zero gravity, being
able to see the world as well?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
God knows what it looks like from space, what they
call the overview effect, thething that changes your life.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my gosh.
And all of these experiences,like what I love, is in a world
where everybody's trying toreach the masses, you're like,
no, I'm going for the super,super, super exclusive, the
super luxe experience isactually where, well, there's no
end to what possibilities arewhat people can do or want to do
(10:05):
.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, exactly, but it's never been about the super
lux.
It's been about the mostincredible experiences on earth.
Unfortunately, they do happento be pricey at the same time,
but the ability to access andexperience something completely
unique.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Nice, actually, correction, it's like no, jamie,
it's not about super luxury,because I can imagine parts of
the Antarctic were quite theopposite, but it's just almost
like money can't buy experiences.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I mean, we've had moments of being shipwrecked
on desert islands for 10 dayswith no food, water or shelter
to survive.
Now, for me, that was one ofthe greatest experiences I've
ever done and it showed one ofthe values of that exact
experience was that money had norelevance.
That six of us on the islandwell, it didn't matter how rich
you were, it wouldn't help youeat or drink or get food right.
(10:53):
So, um the, it didn't matter ifyou were CEO of a huge fortune
500 company.
None of those things mattered,because unless you could make
fire or catch food, you're, youwere irrelevant there.
So the whole focus of thatchange and that's why I'm so
intrigued by those types ofexperiences is because at that
very moment, money is irrelevant.
(11:14):
And I love looking to that wayof life because it's so powerful
in terms of how we can thenthink about our mindset.
And when I left the island, itdid give me that extra strength
and the ability to make fire byrubbing sticks together.
Not that I'm going to use thatwhen I'm in Mayfair next having
a meeting, but the reality isthat having that underlying
(11:36):
knowledge of your ability givesyou such an air of confidence in
what you do so.
That's why those things are sopowerful and, for me, one of my
most important factors ineverything you do.
So that that's why those thingsare so powerful, and for me,
one of my most important factorsin everything I do are actually
our top co is actually calledthe happiness company, and it's
because that's what everything'sabout at the end of the day.
It's about happiness, it's notabout money yeah, and.
(11:58):
I think that sometimes we forgetwhy we're doing this and we
think we're doing it for themoney.
We're doing it for happinessand when you start to reset and
understand that the end goal inlife is happiness and not money,
it totally changes your goalsand ambitions towards each of
the things that you're lookingat the money comes as a
byproduct.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
But if you're solely and totally focused on money and
first and foremost it corruptsand it'll actually probably
contaminate that possibility forhappiness.
But if happiness is the corepriority, changes everything
very much.
So I can imagine it was veryinteresting being in, let's say,
a survival setting like that,where somebody who's so sorry
not not you, perhaps one of yourguests, somebody who's so used
(12:38):
to their world revolving aroundthem because of financial
circumstance or celebritycircumstances, suddenly
confronted by a social dynamicthat turns on its head and it's
like hey, do you know how tocatch fish?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
know how to light a fire, and that must be really,
actually, really, reallyimpacting for people.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, very much.
I mean, like I said, I wouldsay it's one of the most
powerful experiences you can doand I'd recommend it to anyone.
I mean as long with silentretreats and things like this.
But the reality is when you'releft to fend.
That is when it really getsinteresting, that is when shit
hits the fan.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
So there's two kind of burning questions in in my
mind and I'm kind of thinkingthat, like so I've been
following you on social mediaand I've been like, oh my god,
he's flying there and he's, oh,he's on a yacht with Logan Paul
and he's like, wow, this life isincredible.
I'm always interested in likeit's very easy what people will
project onto someone's life andthey don't quite, perhaps,
(13:31):
recognize the challenges or thestruggles.
And even as you've talked aboutyour journey to now, it's like
I did this and it led to thisand led to next, but there's,
there's no doubt, a lot ofsacrifice, there's no doubt a
lot of challenge.
I'd love to ask you and andobviously feel free to go as
deep or as shallow on this oneas you like but, um, what are
the edges or what are thechallenges in building a career
like this and leaning into alifestyle like this, where
(13:53):
you're moving so often?
You're also, you know, you'rethe person in charge of so many
other people's adventure, ourhappiness.
How does that weigh on you?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I I think I mean personally I love the travel and
so that's never like somepeople like to be a homebody.
I could live out of a suitcase24 7, I think, and often do so.
I'm passionate about adventure.
Every day.
I'm excited to wake up everymorning like I struggle to sleep
because I just want to get upand see the next day.
You know so.
So I'm definitely passionateabout that.
I think that, um, going againstthe grain can be a struggle, of
(14:25):
course, like doing the thingsthat everyone else says is the
wrong thing to do.
Um, and I think you find thatas an entrepreneur, when you're
pushing the boundaries is, ifyou're going to make um, you've
got to take those big risks andyou've got to do what everyone
else tells you is the completelywrong move.
So that can create a lot ofpressure and my target for
perfection and that goal is sohard to meet that I then kind of
(14:50):
it can be challenging,especially with the teams and my
ability in terms of leadership.
It's challenging to manage theteam.
I've got a team across the UK,here in Indonesia, in Dubai and
in Monaco.
You are managing four time zonesof staff and it's employing the
(15:11):
right people.
It's managing that process andmanaging humans and giving them
the respect and support theydeserve.
Managing humans and giving themthe respect and support they
deserve and ultimately, I thinkthat's probably one of my
biggest challenges is in termsof appreciating the team I have
that actually deliver this.
It's really thanks to them.
(15:33):
I'm just one person.
The reality is is that allthese companies exist and have
grown because of the team thatwe've put together, and I'm so
thankful for them, but I thinkthat's probably where the
biggest challenge lies in termsof giving them that respect,
looking after them and managingthem for sure yeah, yeah,
because you're dealing with,like your clients are people
with varying standards but highexpectations, in settings that
(15:57):
are out of their comfort zone,and to learn to hold people in
that capacity and also, on yourside, taking responsibility and
employing people to hold peoplein that capacity.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, there's a lot of nerves, there's a lot of
pressure, I imagine, and I'd sayyou can find yourself quite
upset when things aren't goingright, but then also as well
like huge praise when things goright, because what you're doing
is new, it's innovative, it'sdifferent, it's there's no,
let's say, playbook of no,exactly, and I think that, um,
we go through a journey withthat, and I mean, a lot of our
(16:29):
side of the business is events,of course, or when it's a travel
experience, we're chartering ayacht for someone.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So I mean, we launched my ocean, um our yacht
business, during covid actually,so that that is at a point
where we had our f1 events andall our corporate incentives
died, so we had nothing runningin that side of the business.
So this very challenging time,um, where we didn't know what we
were going to do and how wewere going to move forward, we
(16:56):
then found the opportunity in itand I think that for me during
that time it gave me such agreat opportunity.
We launched my ocean.
In fact, that was one of myevents managers in our F1
business came on board and shewas the one she's now managing
director and a shareholder inthat business.
So you can see that theopportunity and journey that's
come on from some of my team andthat that that moment where
(17:18):
someone steps up and said I'mgoing to do this, then it
transformed people's lives andthat's a great story that I I
love to kind of remember andthink how, hopefully, that can
grow the rest of our businessesin the future.
But now we have um such afast-growing kind of business in
that sector um managingsuperyachts, chartering them and
selling them.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It's selling them too .
Yes, very much so, oh my gosh.
It's lovely because you oftenhear like there's a phrase if
you want to be successful, lookat what everybody else is doing
and do the opposite.
And at a time of contractionand COVID, when everybody was
just literally trying to savetheir bread, you're like, no,
actually there's a goodopportunity here, which I can
imagine.
There was all these charteredyachts probably sitting around,
(17:58):
not, yeah, in operation, and aperfect means for uh, to be,
let's say, isolated or be covid,okay, wow yeah, so that was a
great step for us.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And then launching the jet business about a year
after that as well, same kind ofthing.
Um, yeah, so jet charter andsales.
But we were very fortunate tostart at the top of that game.
One of our first charters wason an Airbus A330 private jet.
I mean this is something that's.
I mean this is the long-haulwide-body aircraft, yeah, so
(18:31):
that's almost like huge.
Yeah, I mean, this would be a343 configuration if you're sat
in economy.
We're talking about taking 12guests on board.
It has cinema rooms, gyms,bedrooms.
This is just, I mean, anincredible experience in the sky
, oh my God.
And that was actually at thetime for a client looking to
then acquire the aircrafthimself, and we're talking the
(18:51):
hundreds of millions of thesetypes of assets.
So that was really our baptisminto it, and, in fact, my MD in
that company worked for Airbuspreviously, so she had a lot of
that knowledge as well, so thatwas really valuable.
But, yeah, we started at the topof that game and we've been
very lucky as well to build.
Like I was saying aboutbuilding communities.
A lot of our communities comefrom tech and crypto, so a lot
(19:14):
of our young.
So we're doing it different aswe're looking after the younger
customers.
So you've got these people intheir 20s and 30s that have made
a lot of wealth through crypto,but they want to stick together
, they want to work with us, sowe're, by volume, we're one of
the largest brokers in the worldfor yacht and jet chartering
crypto crypto.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So, uh, that was really playing on my mind
because I think I had thisexperience of um coming back
from bali to ireland and I flewthrough south korea and going
through the korean airport.
I've never seen so manydesigner stores in my life and
actually people that just lookimmaculate, beautiful, radiating
out of wealth, and I was.
I was kind of kind of blown upby the experience and I had it
similarly in dubai where I waslike wow, wow, for whatever I
think is wealthy, let's say athome in Ireland or even in some
(20:03):
capacities in London, when we gooutside our world, it expands
our perspective and, as you'vebeen chatting, I've been like
what are these customers like?
And my imagination was like,are they like kings and queens
and oil barons and this?
But actually to hear you say no, there is perhaps some young
20s and 30s that have donefantastically well in crypto,
(20:24):
that's blown my mind.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I mean I think this is the thing to understand that
the wealth in these societiesand these communities, and it's
not traditional wealth, themodern wealth and how that's
evolved and there's so much tothat and there's so much
narrative about how theseyounger consumers live what they
do.
I mean we've got people buyingyachts before they buy houses
because that's the nowadays amentality people don't know
(20:46):
where they want to live.
They, they don't want to feelfixed people.
People have big families, buy ahome somewhere.
Like someone in your 20s, likewho's a just sold out of their
tech business is like I don'tknow where't know where I want
to live, I'll rent a place butI'll buy a boat because that can
go anywhere.
Like I'll own 25 supercars butI won't buy a house.
So again, it's those types ofthings and to give you an idea
(21:07):
of that wealth, it's just on ascale that's unimaginable.
I mean we had one of ourclients at the peak of the last
bull run was making near on 30million dollars a day, so that
the amount of money that youthink you can understand and
spend, it's just it's in adifferent league, realistically,
(21:30):
so that there is.
So what we're now catering for,is it a different type of
wealth and a different, youngergeneration.
That means there, and when wecoined this new term, when we
launched our our barley project,global base is around the.
You had the digital nomad.
Now we have the luxury nomad,and that really is the.
The digital nomad was alwaysjust the guy that worked from a
(21:51):
laptop that could be basedanywhere, but now real world
you're having ceos of largecorporations with the ability to
live nomadically, because maybeduring COVID, that was a
decision that people started tomake to move away from their big
offices.
Now maybe they're just a huband it gives them complete
flexibility.
We've seen people travel inlarger groups now and we can see
that trend through our travelcompanies.
So when they're flying awaythey're larger aircraft because
(22:13):
they're taking staff with them,they're taking family with them
and then the people, the.
The migration away from the oh,I've got my um summer house in
the south of france or inmarbella and I go there for
three weeks in the summer hasnow changed to I'm living
somewhere for three months andI'm bringing my staff with me
yeah and so that's why we'reseeing this huge trend and gold
(22:34):
rush in places like bali, um,which is why we've launched our
development here, and weactually launched as Bali Fields
.
We've subsequently rebrandedbecause we've seen the
opportunity as global base, andnow that's now connected to our
global committee community.
What that is is we're now goingto take this around the world
and create these nomadic homeswhere people can invest and live
(22:54):
and travel with it, which ishow we see the future of travel
for people.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It makes a lot of sense.
So these luxury nomads wanttheir base in Bali, their base
in Dubai, their base elsewhere.
Yeah, I remember when I cameout here four years ago, I met
people that were like, oh my God, you're going the path of the
hippie.
And when I come over here, Iwas like, wait a second.
All these hippies aremillionaires and they're doing
extraordinarily well.
And then there was this kind of,let's say, crusty association
(23:21):
with digital nomads that arethere in their backpacks, going
around and I was looking at mydigital nomad friends all flying
first class and bouncing aroundsome of the nicest resorts and
I was like, wait, there'ssomething interesting.
And I think it's funny how we,as humans, we create a bubble
around our world and weinstinctively think, well, this
is the best way to be doingthings.
And there's a little judgmentthat goes on for anybody that
(23:43):
perhaps is doing things a bitdifferently.
And the nomadic culture hasbeen, I think, looked down on
quite a lot.
And the remote working, it'slike, oh, they're going through
a journey when in actual fact,it's like, well, we actually
live in this global world wherewe can have bases, we can work
online, we're not tiedgeographically and actually,
when people start getting reallysavvy, they realize all the tax
(24:05):
advantages of it as well thatit becomes like wait, no,
there's this new, yeah, there'sthis whole new way of living
that's opening up and bang.
This is where you're investedinto and at the top, top, top
caliber of it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And I think that that's where you, that that's
where I'm seeing this forefrontof change and trends and
hopefully we're riding thebeginning of that wave.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So, yeah, wow, can we ?
I'm, I'm really curious in like, patterns of success are like
trends of success.
And one thing, like at thestart of this conversation, I
was like oh, johnny, it's sointeresting.
You always made sure yourcareer served you and it
complimented you.
It wasn't some chore that youhad to do, it wasn't something
that pulled you out of the lifeyou wanted to live.
It was something that reallycomplimented.
And and then you were soconscious of like, yeah, your,
(24:49):
your, your network is sounbelievably valuable and, by
the sounds of it, you you'danchored into that for years and
you rub shoulders with allsorts and all sorts of
situations.
And I'm, I'm really curious interms of like, if someone was to
ask you, you know these clichequotes online that you see and
it's like five traits of success.
But, like, I'm curious when youthink of like fundamentals for
(25:12):
for success.
So to kind of, um, yeah, Ipicked those up from you today,
but I'm just wondering, do anymore kind of pop into your mind
of like, yeah, you know, whenI'm working with somebody or
when I'm trying to teach them,these are really, really
important, I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I think something to touch on.
It is definitely about thatvision of dream big dream,
exponentially bigger and I oftenspeak to my team and say to
them, like right, they're like,oh well, this project's got to
turn over a million dollars onthat event.
And I'm like what if it had toturn over 10 million?
And they're like, well, we'dhave to change everything.
We need a new site, we need anew plan for marketing, we'd
(25:49):
need to scale up all these.
I'm like go and do that, comeback to me and maybe we'll make
2 million on the project.
Right, like I would rather aimfor a massive goal and fail.
So I think that that'sdefinitely something that's a
priority for me and so oftenoverlooked, and I view it as
that like I tell my team, it'sthe magic secret tool.
Like just imagine this eventbut 10x bigger, or this project
(26:12):
or this deal, whatever it.
Just imagine it 10 times bigger.
And then everything you thinkabout how you manage that
project completely changes andthat then I'm like great, now
you can fail at the 10 timesbigger idea because it will
serve you far better than justtrying to achieve that.
When I look at my team and theysend me forecasts and finances
and they're like I think we cando two percent more this year.
(26:34):
And I'm like, guys, we'relooking at this wrong.
And yeah, look, they'llcriticise me back and go look,
this is not possible and thisdoesn't work.
And I'm like, but just thinkabout it, let's just have a
think.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And so I really try and draw that into people no, no
, the thing that was buzzing inmy head was that I I
misinterpreted the dream big andwhen I thought of the events
that I was hosting or certainthings that I was doing, it was
always, yeah, more people.
And what I kind of get theimpression from you is you're
like no, not more people, likebigger experience, bigger
(27:08):
happiness, bigger buzz, but notnecessarily more people.
In actual fact, like whenyou're trying to cater to the
masses, you have to vanillathings down a little bit,
whereas I get the feeling thatthere was a really core
difference in yourself is thatyou didn't think bigger was more
people.
You thought bigger was inbigger experience, bigger
feelings, bigger emotions,bigger opportunities, but
(27:28):
perhaps for a select few.
That's a metric that very fewpeople will follow.
So many people are going forthe masses.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I mean, I think that's driven by one of the very
few things I took away from mymaster's degree in industrial
design randomly um, but it.
But you're always creatingconcepts, which concepts are
completely in outer space.
They don't make any sense andwill never go into production.
Whatever that concept phoneconcept, car, whatever it might
be but it takes, but you takethe little nuggets of the idea
(27:57):
away.
So all of a sudden we go right,well, the next experience we do
for our customers we need to doon mars.
Then all of a sudden, that willcome back with some ideas been
like well, why can't we takethem somewhere a little bit more
out there?
Why don't we go to antarctica?
Sounds, it feels like anotherplanet.
That's a good idea.
Why don't we?
Why don't we bring an astronautwith it?
Why don't we bring someonewho's been to space and bring
(28:19):
them to host the trip inAntarctica?
Like trying to create thoseexperiences by taking the nugget
of the craziest ideas you can.
It's the magic tool, it's thesecret tool.
These are my little list ofsecret tools that you can give
the team and go.
It doesn't take much thinking,you just go.
What's the craziest possiblething or the greatest thing you
can possibly do, then let'srefine that band to what's
(28:41):
possible there's I love this.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I feel I feel very, almost guilty.
I'm like tony, I want to askyou 100 questions, but one of
the things I I kind of um.
I feel is you've most havedeveloped an extraordinary kind
of capacity to deal with umtypes that have high
expectations.
So you're talking celebrities,you're talking high net worth
individuals, and there must besome unbelievable traits in
(29:07):
terms of actually working withpeople like that.
Well, and there's some veryfunny movie I'm forgetting the
name about it, but there's abriefing to the staff and all
the people come onto the boatand they're like anything, they
want anything at all.
You do, and I kind of get theimpression you'd have a much
smarter answer to the staff.
And all the people come ontothe boat and they're like
anything, they want anything atall you do, and I kind of get
the impression you'd have a muchsmarter answer to that, and
it's probably quite contrary tothat as well, would it be?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Look, I mean that can be.
I think we probably see thatmost in our yacht business
because you could be dealingwith a trip that's costing five
or six million a week for aclient at the top end.
So, and yeah, it can bechallenging.
I think that there isn't asimple answer for that.
I mean, again, on arelationship level with a
(29:47):
customer.
Sometimes I can be like guys,we're just having a bit of fun
here, this is just a holiday,let's not stress about the Wagyu
, right, like it's not the endof the world, like I just want
you to be happy and chill out,so let's go and find something
else that we don't need tohelicopter in today.
Like so, um, but also, theanswer can never be no, yes, and
I think the um, the answer isalways yeah, yes, and there's
(30:11):
and again this comes back tobusiness, rather than just
dealing with the consumers isand I've learned this so many
times when someone's gone andgone.
Oh, no, we can't do that andI'm like, but why?
And if you just ask why, andyou keep asking why, and the
amount of times there's beenevents where they go, no, won't
be allowed.
Council have said no, the venuehave said no, this is I'm like
(30:32):
can I speak to them?
Like what have they said no toLike what won't work here?
And every time I've turned itaround to a yes, because the
answer is always yes.
It might be a massive amount ofresources thing, or it might be
a massive amount of cost thing,but whatever the question is,
the answer is always yes.
Like again, it's about thinkinglike nothing's impossible.
(30:53):
Like you want to move thishouse and you want to move it
300 miles in that direction.
It's possible.
It's going to cost you a lot ofmoney and time and effort, but
it's possible.
And I think it's just trying toexplain to people.
The answer is yes.
It's just, how many hurdles doyou have to jump over to get
there rather than going?
The answer's no.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's so smart, because so many times, in terms
of customer service or whatnot,there's assumptions made.
There's assumptions withregards to how much you want
something, there's assumptionswith regards to your capacity
for making it a possibility, andwhat I hear from you in terms
of answering that question isyou literally partner up with
people and if there is a no,you're like, okay, they said no,
but of course, there's a yes inhere, so let's work on this
(31:30):
together and you actually get toenjoy that journey.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
oh so exciting the turnarounds when, like, we've
had situations where it's beenlike no, that this is, this is
cancelled, this is not happeningand I'm like what needs to
happen for this to be a yes?
And all of a sudden peoplestart to go well, no, it doesn't
, it doesn't.
I'm like, but just tell me,just humor me, and the amount of
times that that turns to a yesonce you take the little
(31:52):
stepping stones like like theyacht's got to travel 3 000
miles in the next flipping 10days and it's got to be able to
turn this around and do that.
Or this venue wants to cancelbecause they don't.
Whatever those things are.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I've been through them and it's such a fun journey
for the answer to end up beingyes, and I love it, I love and
it gives me a strength, thatunderstanding and ability and
confidence, the inner confidencefor that yeah, because perhaps
every single time you exceed anexpectation, our capacity, you
push beyond the boundary, yourworld expands, and I can
actually see that if there's abig problem, a real big problem,
(32:28):
you're probably the firstperson to call because you
recognise that, no, no, lifeactually is full of
possibilities.
It's just oftentimes we don'teven get to entertain them.
Give ourselves the opportunityto entertain them.
Yeah, very much Nice.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And I mean.
What was my other point?
I mean, I think that theyalways say you're the average of
the five people you spend themost time with.
I'd say that would be one of myother golden rules is your
ability.
If you're going to spend timewith a particular type of person
, if you're around a communityof people that are always happy
generally, you're going to behappy.
If you're around a community,that's going to be sad, that
(33:01):
will have the same effect.
But if you're around acommunity of billionaires,
there's a very high likelihoodyou're going to get drawn into
that because there'll be a sidedeal, there'll be a discussion,
There'll be a.
Why don't we do this?
I'll help you with that.
Why don't we do this?
Here's the connection Speak tothat guy about your little tiny
project because he might beinterested, even though he's a
billionaire too, because he's mymate, like.
(33:21):
Whatever those discussions are,if you're in that environment,
you just think bigger and theopportunities come.
So level up and be around thepeople you aspire to be.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That I'm keen to drill into.
If I was to ask you like yourfive closest friends, would they
kind of pop up to mind prettyquickly?
Oh, potentially, yeah, I guess.
Yeah, because I'd imagine yourphone book is like pretty
incredible, yeah, but when Ihear like the five people you
surround yourself with most,there's almost like a real
conscious thought of well,actually, do you know what?
(33:52):
If I realize the impact of that,I want to be in control of that
to a degree, because what Ifind is I'm amazed that
sometimes, if I'm a bit out ofsorts, I'm living a little bit
unconsciously.
I'm amazed how sometimesperhaps friendships will appear
that aren't actually reallyconsciously thought out.
Friendships, as in, people arekind of hanging out of me a
little bit, or maybe I'm hangingout of someone and the
(34:15):
connection isn't there, whereasI get the feeling that for
someone to say, hey, look, youknow you are the average of the
five people you surroundyourself with most, wealth is
infectious, depression isinfectious.
You want to be really, reallyconscious of this.
That's probably something thatyou're and again, building your
career on community andconnections.
It's something probably you'revery, very conscious of High
standards for your friends.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, absolutely, but I think that that's really the.
It's such a valuable key andjust another tool that doesn't
cost you anything.
Just takes that mental time andintelligence to go.
This is really important,remember, because it it is
really important, right?
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I loved what you showed, that you you
specifically said this littleproject and surround yourself
with people that are literallyessentially almost warfing you,
because it will put a wholedifferent perspective on what
you're up to, changes yourstress capacity changes.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
I mean, my goal is to be the stupidest, dumbest guy
in the room which is, which is asaying.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
That's said a lot, but so many people get off on
being the smartest person in theroom very much and and it's
it's actually it's not nicebeing the the, but I'm excited
about being in those types ofrooms.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Lots of people would be scared of that, yeah, and I
think that that's the wrong wayto look at it.
So you've got to change yourmindset, for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I, just going back to you, said you bounce out of bed
in the morning.
You said you were like I findit hard to even sleep and I'm
curious, like it's a bit of abasic question, but the guy
who's in charge of happiness?
You feel happy.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I think my goal is always to be happy.
I think I'm happier than most,for sure, but do I have high
expectations of my happiness?
Yes, I mean, I've been toBhutan, in the Himalayas, to
meet the king and speak onhappiness, a country that
manages their entire structureof governance on happiness and
they measure their GNH, theirgross national happiness, rather
(36:07):
than their GDP, their grossdomestic product.
But so it's really a.
It's such a fascinating kind ofworld to try and always put
happiness first.
It's not always possible and,yeah, business is stressful.
When I can't let my finger offthe pulse and when you have
several different companiesdoing different things every day
, of course that can be highstress and just reminding and
(36:31):
resetting that.
But again, having the community, having the mindset, having all
those things around you is aconstant reminder of the
direction and the way you wantto go.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
But that sounds like it's the edge, the personal
restraint, to perhaps buyingpersonal downtime.
Yeah, yeah, because when you'vegot so many things pulling you
in, so many different angles andsuch excitement in your life as
well it must be hard to be likeI actually need to just sit
down and read a book for a day.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yes, yeah but fortunately I love a lot of it
and that's what is.
But I mean we we do a trip toiceland where we drive up
volcanoes and over glaciers andwe've done everything from take
like the executive team ofSamsung going up there up to
then to celebrities and kind oflike our entrepreneur clients
and but we've ended up doingthat trip two or three times a
(37:17):
year for the last six, sevenyears and I pretty much go on
almost every single one and Istill do it because I enjoy it
and lovely.
You always find a new angle.
In fact, last time I went umjust earlier this year, I ended
up um scuba diving in betweenthe American and European
tectonic plates yeah, wow.
So there's always a newexperience with something to get
(37:37):
excited about, and I'm justlucky that I do what my passion
is oh my god, yeah, yeah, I, Iremember god coming to a, a kind
of emotional, motivationalevent.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
They were like energy creates energy.
So we have this concept that,like we'll get energy by, for
example, like what I just said,sitting down and reading a book
for the day that we'll recharge.
But in actual fact, like mostof the types that take it slow,
I find the flow, energy and theadventurers that I meet, the
types that are like meeting lifehead-on and trying different
things all the time.
Their energy is unbounded, andso many of them.
(38:11):
I've actually heard thatexactly what you've just shared
of like you know, I go to sleepmy head's racing and I but it's
not as if I like, by the time Iwake up I'm tired.
No, I bounce out of bed becauseI'm excited about what I'm
going to do.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
I mean, I think, yes, some people, one of the phrases
I hear quite a lot is like ohwell, sometimes you'll have done
everything there is to do.
And I'm like, absolutely not.
The more you do, the more youfind to do.
So it only drives me to go toevery country in the world,
climb every mountain, do allthese things you know like, and
it's pushing those boundariesand I've seen that.
I think the the other one ofthose golden rules is about
(38:43):
mindset, it's realizing, it'sall the power of the mind and,
like I said with Dream Bigbefore, it's really just your
mindset.
But the reality is whatsurprised me, and I saw it take
hold in an area that I'm notvery skilled in, which is going
from doing adventures but I wasdoing them not in a physical way
.
Going down to Antarctica, wehad a chef every evening and
(39:05):
champagne I mean, this wasn'tphysically strenuous and then I
went to the Amazon and did theseother things and then just
doing a silly thing that Icouldn't do, which is running.
That wasn't a skill set of mine, it's something I didn't
possess, I just didn't do it anddidn't have any passion for it.
And to see that the power ofthe mind.
(39:26):
That then controlled that towhere I am now on that journey
from going on a treadmill goingI've probably never run 2k
before because there's no reasonto.
I mean, you do the 1500 metersat school on your worst day of
the year, but other than thatthere wasn't a need to.
So one day in the gym I kind ofdid the 2k because I was like
let's do that, and then I waslike I could do three, I could
do four, I kind of got to fiveand I was like this is
impossible, I end up doing 10k.
(39:48):
I didn't sign myself up for a10k run and that then led on to
me now doing the seven summits.
I'm climbing the highest peakson the seven continents of the
earth.
Wow.
So this journey that has takenme from going I couldn't run to
now doing a huge physicalchallenge is created all because
of the power of the mind and,like the first couple of summits
(40:09):
, I've done it.
It wasn't about the training,it was about the mindset and
that confidence on summit day,which is challenging for sure,
but it's just resetting andrefocusing your mind and
realizing what's possible.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yeah, as you were sharing that, I was thinking
that perhaps somebody'slistening on and perhaps
somebody's like, well, I wasthinking that perhaps somebody's
listening on and perhapssomebody's like, well, I can't
go this adventure or thatadventure.
But what I'm hearing from yousharing that is that actually,
we all have our own adventures,and it might be as simple as
literally sitting on a treadmill, but there's an enormous amount
of fulfillment when we startpushing our edges.
And what's really interestingthen is that when we do overcome
(40:45):
an edge, what's on the otherside and it's opened up a whole
new layer of growth andexcitement for you.
Yeah, it really has.
I kind of have a clichecoaching question for you.
Is that all right, of course,but I'm like I've got such an
adventurous spirit here and alsolike such a zest and an energy
for life.
Do you ever sit with yourselfand get curious of what is it
about your upbringing, orperhaps the parenting that you
(41:06):
received, that inspired thiszest for life and does anything?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
come to mind.
I mean, of course, somethinghas to be there in the childhood
, right?
But, um, it's always a it'salways an interesting question
to look back and go.
Yeah, what's inspired?
And I think that, oh, my fatherwas always out and about, we
were cutting down trees orsailing, and he was used to race
sailing cats and, like we do.
There's loads of things that wewould, that my father was
always out and about, we werecutting down trees or sailing
and he used to race sailing cats.
There's loads of things that wewould do at Adventurous.
But from a childhood perspective, I mean, again, my mother used
(41:35):
to be an air stewardess withBritish Airways and she was
telling me that's when it wasglamorous.
She was in first class, flyingaway for a week in Honolulu and
the guests that she flew withwould stay like in the same
holiday resort, you know.
So like back kind of.
Then I guess travel was moreglamorous, um, but I think that
I don't know how much changed mychildhood and what came from
(41:57):
that, and my father had his ownbusiness, the aspirations there,
um, so it's very hard for me toplace.
I would love to deep dive intothat more for sure.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
There's one question, sorry, one point that's so
poignant for me is your attitudewith regards to no's, and I'm
like, ah, it feels like that'slike an anchoring attitude that
perhaps is fostered in you oflike no, there's like yes,
(42:26):
somebody might say no, butthere's actually, there is
always a way, and there's alovely trait in that.
I was just curious.
Perhaps did that come up whereperhaps somebody showed you
earlier on that like hey, youdon't.
You might hear a no, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean no and
in actual fact there's a waythrough it, and oftentimes the
way through it might be all themore fun.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
I mean, I think what I've pinpointed through my
career and through my educationwas finding those mentors.
And I think those are the onesthat helped me.
I think that my professor andmy undergraduate, roberto
Franquali Again, if you canremember what, a name Roberto
Franquali.
Roberto Franquali Again, if youcan remember the.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
What a name, Roberto Franquali.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
He was the design director at IDEO, which is one
of the most important productdesign companies in the world,
and he took me from being a Cstudent to an A student to get a
first class honours when Igraduated my undergraduate, just
because he told me what waspossible and explained that to
me.
And then, um, and then the ladythat took me on, uh, tammy
(43:29):
Smulders I'll give you the namesbecause that's the important
bit is remember, if you, if theywere that important, then,
tammy, um, she took me on forthat project that we were
working on with Dunhill and gaveme that opportunity and then of
course, tony Fernandez, beingalongside someone that had
billion dollar businesses aroundthe world with airlines and
Formula One teams.
So having those mentors isdefinitely a key part of showing
(43:53):
me nothing's impossible.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
No for an answer.
I have to say I love like asI'm hearing you.
I'm actually taking hugeinspiration from that, because I
do appreciate that there are somany people that live within
the confines of what they'retold to, and then there's those
that look at things a differentway and expand our worlds and
expand our horizons, and I thinkso much of what you're sharing
(44:20):
is exactly that.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
I mean, I think what I would do to start that process
for anyone is go find somethingthat someone said no to that
you think you can overturn.
And once you overturn one thing, you'll realize that you can
overturn everything.
So start with a small challengethat someone said no to and see
what it takes to turn that nointo a yes.
Once you've done it, once itwill just cascade from there on
(44:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
It's yeah, cascade from there on Thank you.
I think there's hugefulfillment in pushing the
boundaries, pushing the edgesand overcoming a no.
I think it's a really important, formative part of everybody's
lives to realize that we can gobeyond what we're told.
Two last questions for you.
Go on If you don't mind.
(45:04):
The first one is I'm curious IfI was a mate of yours and I
pick up the phone and I'm likeJohnny, I'm depressed, you're
the man of happiness, but I'mlike, I'm out of sorts here, and
I think so many people arefeeling out of sorts.
I'm curious, what would you say?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
And not necessarily to the masses, but to a friend.
I think that understandingwhat's affecting them deep
inside and what that relates toit's so difficult to.
I always want to take peopleout of their comfort zone as
soon as I can go.
Come on, let's step out of thecomfort zone.
Let's get away from all thesethings that you think are your
problem.
And if you reframe that andagain, it's like that kind of
idea of the desert island Doesthat problem still exist if
(45:49):
you're on a desert island?
If it doesn't, then you couldsurvive there, so you're good.
So I think it's taking peopleoutside of what they think their
comfort zone is and just goingright.
Can we just do that for alittle session, whether mentally
or physically?
That would be an important stepfor me, I think.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, because they say nothing shapes your
environment.
The second one is, like thecompany you keep and I think so
many of us do live within ourcomfort zone, which is what
you've spoken over and over tothe opposite, you're expanding,
you're pushing out, and I'm afirm believer that if we live
within our comfort zone, ourworld shrinks and that can start
to squeeze on us, hence thedepressing effect.
(46:27):
But if we can push beyond thatI love this phrase, zone of
proximal development Point, justbeyond our comfort zone, where
we're growing and we'reexpanding, we can't necessarily
do it on our own, we need a bitof a hand, but that's when we
really thrive.
And I get the feeling thatyou're living in that point.
And so to hear that your, yourmedicine be essentially look at
the environment, uh, change theenvironment and actually push
(46:48):
people out beyond the comfortzone, there's, there's real
medicine in that I think so andI I think like what you said is
it's not always a perfect world.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
So sometimes I dip down below that and you might
find yourself six months in andI'm working in the business, not
on it, and all of a sudden youstart to go hang on, I haven't
thought about scale, I haven'tthought about that vision, I
haven't been stepping out, I'vejust been looking at
spreadsheets and complainingabout things.
So it does happen for sure.
So you've always got to remindyourself.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
And, yeah, I think that that, coming back to
checking on yourself, is a hellof a practice.
I it's a cliche line working inthe business, not on the
business, but the amount oftimes I think, oh no, no, I'm
working on it, only to realise,oh no, I'm right back in the
middle of it and making a mess.
My parting question I've beencurious just with all the stuff
(47:35):
that you've done, when youreflect, if you ever do have the
time to slow down and checkback in with yourself, what do
you take the most pride from?
I guess slow down and checkback in with yourself uh, what
do you take the most pride from?
Speaker 2 (47:49):
I I guess I, and I always say the team, and it's
never just me, because it's whatthey've achieved as well.
But it's like having certainthings that you can say you're
the best in the world andeveryone can be the best in the
world at something.
It'd be very narrow.
We can be the best coffee shopon this corner, in this street,
in this town, but you're thebest coffee shop there is there,
um, and your competition mightbe one or two, but you're the
(48:11):
best in the world at that.
And so to to be the best in theworld at something and then to
keep expanding on that.
So if we're the best in theworld, it experiences on
superyachts, at formula oneraces narrow, but no one else is
doing it better.
And so to have a few of thosepools and we gradually expand
that to then be better at this,better at that.
(48:32):
So I think that having thoselittle pockets of things that
we're the best in the world atthat everyone can have, and I
think that everyone should takethat away and just try and grow
the pocket, but know that you'rethe one, because then when you
have that discussion withsomeone you go we're the best in
the world at this.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
And they go wow, what's that?
Is there a particular one thatpops up into your mind?
A favor out of all of them.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
I mean, ultimately it's got to be around creating
unique experiences.
I don't think there's anyonethat delivers it the same level
we do when you're talking aboutadventures and trips like that,
and certainly when we've beendoing that on a corporate scale.
No one's taking airbus andsamsung on trips like we do.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
I think so I feel so aligned with your soul as well
adventure gets to literally doit en masse, that's great, yeah,
very much.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
And then I'm proud of the community we've built, like
for me that's um really special.
I think that people andcustomers have come to us who
now been booking trips or comingwith us for seven or eight
years or longer and they've setup companies.
They've made best friends andI've been on to weddings and to
(49:40):
parties and to birthdays wherehalf the people in there are a
part of our community, part ofof our customer base, because
that's where they made thefriends, through our customer
base.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
And people.
I can remember someone set upthree different companies just
off the back of some tripsthey've done with us, with
different people that they'veworked with, and I think that
that's been for me.
So our community continues togrow and grow and as much as it
isn't formalized into tosomething, I like to see the
organicness of what's been builtthrough our customer base.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
that that makes me proud, that makes so much sense
because, if you go on one ofthese worldly experiences, the
likes of which you know justisn't the norm, you go through a
journey in a process and andfor those that you go through
that together with, there's abond, there's a connection,
there's a, there's a safety andthere's a security in that, that
no doubt then populates intoother projects yeah, I mean we
(50:33):
actually, as part of ourproposals, when we have to go to
the board to tell them why theyshould take their customers on
a trip to a volcano and not to afootball match, we sell that in
and we have the metrics on allof those types of experiences
and why that's so much moreimportant, that bonding that
with your customer, with youremployees, with your team.
So, um, yes, it's a clear metricand something that everyone
(50:55):
should strive to go and do,something that takes them
outside their comfort zone withsomeone they want to get closer
with yeah, I know I keep sayinglast question, but this is the
one that's popping into my mind,and that is that Would it be
bold enough to say that actually, for somebody that invests in a
trip like that, it probablypays for itself, based on that
exact note that you just sharedthere?
Speaker 2 (51:14):
100%, I mean.
I think, try it and find out,but for me that it's, it's paid
off beyond measure.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Yeah, there's a couple of high ticket, let's say
, uh, retreats that I've goneinto and I've walked away with
business to the tune of severalfold, and there's a mentor that
I have of mine and, uh, overcovid, I was like you should
stay in this resort, just come,it'll cost you a fortune, but
it'll pay for itself, and it did.
I mean, I I've always foundthat that, in actual fact, we
(51:41):
think some things might beexpensive when, in actual fact,
they're some of the bestinvestments you can make.
I think it's hard to put it ina spreadsheet.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
But if you really went back to analyze it, I think
the answer is yes okay.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
So for somebody listening on and they're like I
want to go on one of theseexperiences or I'd love to
charter a yacht, uh, best way toconnect with you is our follow.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
You is instagram, instagram is where I'm most
popular, so find me there atjohnny dodge, lovely, lovely
johnny, thank you so much a realpleasure, thank you.
Johnny, I don't have a clue how I could even begin to
introduce you, Like how doessomebody introduce you and what
you do?
I think, Shall I introducemyself?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I think I'd fail miserablydoing justice to all that you do
.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Look, I think I'm passionate about experiences.
That's what's driven me to doeverything.
So that does mean I'm anentrepreneur.
It means I'm an adventurer doesmean I'm an entrepreneur.
It means I'm a adventurer andbeing passionate about creating
really unique opportunities forpeople across the planet and
whatever businesses we'vecreated.
And that takes us fromcompanies operating f1 events
(00:37):
through to building resorts,through to selling super yachts.
So now we've got a portfolio ofcompanies and offices around
the world that have started fromthat passion of building unique
experiences like.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So what I hear when you share that is that, like you
love this lifestyle yourselffirst and foremost and yeah,
it's not as if you went offworking for somebody else or
living somebody else's dream.
You're like I love doing thisand you know what, if I love
doing it, chances are so manyothers do too.
I'm gonna share it with others.
Would that be about right?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I mean I think that I mean it is one of those golden
rules is like don't start doingsomething you don't want to do
it, do it for the passion.
And I think that whenever I'vecome into opportunities, I've
I've not gone for the moneyfirst, I've gone for the idea
and the concept and the thingI'm passionate about and I see
how the money follows.
So, yeah, many a time I wouldhave put a project together or
an event or something with nointention of it having any
(01:27):
profitability, but to see wherethat then takes us At the moment
.
Recently I just launched theGlobal Committee, which is our
community of all of our nowyacht jet owners and clients
across our portfolio ofcompanies.
I mean there's eight companiesin the group now, but that was
driven as an idea of giving back.
But pulling those peopletogether creates stronger bonds,
(01:50):
stronger community and again,that's definitely up there with
my experience side of thebusiness and my intention is to
create community.
So I think those two words ifyou were to sum up what our
group of companies do do, it'scommunity and experiences for
sure wow, yeah, I uh I supposeI'm kind of jumping into it in
like a cliche way, but likeyou've lived so many experiences
(02:12):
, you've probably enjoyed somuch.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
What comes to mind is like oh, this was like.
This was the experience I wasmost proud of, I enjoyed the
most it's always got to beantarctica.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, doing one of the first ever tourist trips to
the center of Antarctica, flyingthere in a Russian Aleutian
bomber plane, in a cargo hold,looking at the icebergs as the
sun was rising over Antarctica,sitting in the bay, the glass
bay underneath the aircraft,like just landing on the ice,
like stepping off as if we wereon another planet, like not
(02:42):
seeing any greenery any way of,like understanding the landscape
or measuring scale, like alldressed up as if you were kind
of landing in outer space.
Making sure you've got yourgoggles on.
You'll go snow blind.
Making sure you've got all yourlayers you can't get moisture,
otherwise that freezes.
So this whole experience ofarriving there was like going to
another planet, and to do thatin my early 20s was definitely
(03:05):
what inspired me to travel moreand more, for sure and can I say
, is that like a personaladventure you went on, or a
commercial expedition that youyou went on, but you also sold
off as well?
so this was, yeah, like one ofmy first and only jobs, um,
organizing the gumball rally,which, of course, is probably
quite a cool job as a kid.
And again, again, that camejust because I watched it on TV
(03:25):
on Channel 4, so jackass doingit and all these things.
And I was just like this iswhat I want to be part of.
And there was one job there andI managed to find the people,
find the contact, get to theplace and got the job.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So yeah, Ah, so that job was organizing this trip.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, it was organizing all of the the
gumball supercar rallies for thecelebrities around the world.
But they, they had this onespin-off which was, um, they
wanted they had an opportunityto invite a load of clients this
first ever trip to antarctica.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So we took some clients and I went along as uh,
hosting the clients, yeah sowhen I hear that, like so,
you're like here, like this isone of the one, one of the only
jobs I have, but what I kind ofhear from that is that, like you
really wanted your job to workfor you.
So it wasn't as if you werelike doing what you needed to do
to get by or anything like that.
You saw, ah, if I get in withthis organization, I get to host
(04:14):
trips like this.
That's exactly what I want todo.
So even at that very earlystage, you made sure whatever it
is that you were doing wasworking for you first and
foremost.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I I mean prior to that I was working for an agency
in London as my internship andthat was with our client was
Dunhill and of course, at thetime, cigarette sponsorship was
still rife and we wanted to.
We sponsored every celebrityparty in London Fashion Week,
all the coolest events, whatevercelebrity party you name it.
(04:42):
I was the guy that went andsponsored all of those events
and therefore I became the mostinvited guy to a celebrity party
in London.
In fact, that's what it wrotein the Metro newspaper, like it
was like that I was the personyou wanted at your party and so
this became my circuit of goingto celebrity parties every
single night of the week andthat's what then got me the
opportunity at Gumball because Imet someone through that.
(05:03):
That's what then got me theopportunity at Gumball because I
met someone through that.
That's what then ended up mebuying a nightclub.
So what drove the opportunity isconnections, and through my
entire journey as anentrepreneur, it's always been
based on community or myconnections, my black book and
if I haven't built thoserelationships and I think that
(05:23):
so often people look toeducation in your sector, but
the reality is, is that whateversector you wanted to get into.
If you knew all the biggestplayers in real estate, if you
could connect those peopletogether, if you know the
biggest players in nightclubs,whatever it might be, you don't
need to know anything about thatindustry, but you go.
Well, if I can connect the twobiggest players in real estate
in this city, they probably wantto do a deal.
(05:45):
I can probably make some moneyout of the middle of that deal
and all I'm doing is connectingpeople and so building that
network is where the value comesfrom, not the knowledge.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So the start of your career comes from this really
great sponsorship opportunitywhere you're the person to know
if you want a really goodsponsorship in your party and so
boom, your network takes offfrom that and then that helps
get you into the next job.
But everything essentiallycomes from this vast network and
being able to really look afterpeople in the process too.
Yes, because I'd say peoplewanted to do that on Tardik Trip
too.
Yeah, absolutely, and providedyou're at the edge of
(06:20):
essentially what reallyinteresting people want to be
doing, you're the go-to personto know and their network
expands out from there.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That's exactly how it worked.
Yeah, and I think that that was, but of course, you've got to
be good at building therelationship too, and I
understood what the consumerwanted at that point, and that
was making sure that I couldcreate that experience for them
and speak to them in a way theyunderstood.
And there became a point.
And of course as a junior inany industry you get nervous,
(06:49):
you don't think you've gotcredibility, you don't think
many things.
But I think that because I'dtaken these quite great
opportunities early on going toevery celebrity party in London,
going to Antarctica all of asudden when I walked into a room
I had that air of confidencebecause I had had some pretty
interesting discussion points soI wasn't scared to walk into a
room full of billionairesbecause I could certainly go to
them and be and tell them aninteresting story and and they
(07:11):
would be enamored by that storyand want to know more.
So I could compete with them ona level where they were
interested in what I had to sayah yeah, because your work is
fascinating.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
You deal in adventure , in experience, in fun, and
people like, oh, that's soimpulsive, like in terms of
curiosity, people want to knowabout it.
And not only can you tellstories about it, but you can
also say hey, we're doing thistrip next time.
Do you want to come?
We've got this adventure comingup.
You should be a part of it.
And also because it's not likeunlimited tickets as well,
(07:43):
there's an air of exclusivity,so people really want to look
after you as well, to make surethat that's there for them as a
possibility.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, very much.
So that's what grew on from thenightclubs and at the time my
business partner this guy calledTony Fernandez, who a lot of
people will know for owningAirAsia as well as QPR football
team in the UK.
He bought Caterham Car companyat the time and then the Formula
One team, and that then led toan opportunity for him to
connect with me, with BernieEccleston.
I did the deal with Bernie tothen take Formula One rights
(08:11):
from him to run events aroundthe world with his brand, so
that those are really thosestepping stones through to then
me launching GP management, ourF1 business, and then GPM, the
events that we then do forcorporate incentives and
adventures that we've nowcreated, and that business has
been running 16 years.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Wow.
And then most recently, like soobviously I see you charter
yachts, so you're the go-toperson if somebody wants to get
one of these enormous yachts togo to you.
But you're also doing space.
Yes, yeah, like wow.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So space we've had.
We set that space experience upabout five years ago and with
the vision of where space wouldgo to, to be one of the first
travel agencies in that sectorwas a really important place for
me to be, I think, andsomething that I was very
passionate about.
So I started zero-G training,the weightless training, which
they call the vomit comet, thezero-G aircraft.
Yeah, yeah, yeah when you goweightless, the NASA astronauts
(09:04):
used to train the zero-gaircraft where you go weightless
, that the NASA astronauts usedto train.
So I personally started withthat experience and then we
started to be the reseller forthe UK for that product.
That then grew on and again Ihad great advisors along the way
a guy called Alex Tai whofounded Virgin Galactic with
Richard, and just theconnections I then made.
I then got to know Elon Muskand others through what we were
(09:26):
doing and then we sent our firstastronauts to space two and a
half years ago with Blue Origin,which is Do you want me to ask
you?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
that's them flying up , going into zero gravity, being
able to see the world as well?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
God knows what it looks like from space, what they
call the overview effect, thething that changes your life.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my gosh.
And all of these experiences,like what I love, is in a world
where everybody's trying toreach the masses, you're like,
no, I'm going for the super,super, super exclusive, the
super luxe experience isactually where, well, there's no
end to what possibilities arewhat people can do or want to do
(10:05):
.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, exactly, but it's never been about the super
lux.
It's been about the mostincredible experiences on earth.
Unfortunately, they do happento be pricey at the same time,
but the ability to access andexperience something completely
unique.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Nice, actually, correction, it's like no, jamie,
it's not about super luxury,because I can imagine parts of
the Antarctic were quite theopposite, but it's just almost
like money can't buy experiences.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I mean, we've had moments of being shipwrecked
on desert islands for 10 dayswith no food, water or shelter
to survive.
Now, for me, that was one ofthe greatest experiences I've
ever done and it showed one ofthe values of that exact
experience was that money had norelevance.
That six of us on the islandwell, it didn't matter how rich
you were, it wouldn't help youeat or drink or get food right.
(10:53):
So, um the, it didn't matter ifyou were CEO of a huge fortune
500 company.
None of those things mattered,because unless you could make
fire or catch food, you're, youwere irrelevant there.
So the whole focus of thatchange and that's why I'm so
intrigued by those types ofexperiences is because at that
very moment, money is irrelevant.
(11:14):
And I love looking to that wayof life because it's so powerful
in terms of how we can thenthink about our mindset.
And when I left the island, itdid give me that extra strength
and the ability to make fire byrubbing sticks together.
Not that I'm going to use thatwhen I'm in Mayfair next having
a meeting, but the reality isthat having that underlying
(11:36):
knowledge of your ability givesyou such an air of confidence in
what you do so.
That's why those things are sopowerful and, for me, one of my
most important factors ineverything you do.
So that that's why those thingsare so powerful, and for me,
one of my most important factorsin everything I do are actually
our top co is actually calledthe happiness company, and it's
because that's what everything'sabout at the end of the day.
It's about happiness, it's notabout money yeah, and.
(11:58):
I think that sometimes we forgetwhy we're doing this and we
think we're doing it for themoney.
We're doing it for happinessand when you start to reset and
understand that the end goal inlife is happiness and not money,
it totally changes your goalsand ambitions towards each of
the things that you're lookingat the money comes as a
byproduct.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
But if you're solely and totally focused on money and
first and foremost it corruptsand it'll actually probably
contaminate that possibility forhappiness.
But if happiness is the corepriority, changes everything
very much.
So I can imagine it was veryinteresting being in, let's say,
a survival setting like that,where somebody who's so sorry
not not you, perhaps one of yourguests, somebody who's so used
(12:38):
to their world revolving aroundthem because of financial
circumstance or celebritycircumstances, suddenly
confronted by a social dynamicthat turns on its head and it's
like hey, do you know how tocatch fish?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
know how to light a fire, and that must be really,
actually, really, reallyimpacting for people.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, very much.
I mean, like I said, I wouldsay it's one of the most
powerful experiences you can doand I'd recommend it to anyone.
I mean as long with silentretreats and things like this.
But the reality is when you'releft to fend.
That is when it really getsinteresting, that is when shit
hits the fan.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
So there's two kind of burning questions in in my
mind and I'm kind of thinkingthat, like so I've been
following you on social mediaand I've been like, oh my god,
he's flying there and he's, oh,he's on a yacht with Logan Paul
and he's like, wow, this life isincredible.
I'm always interested in likeit's very easy what people will
project onto someone's life andthey don't quite, perhaps,
(13:31):
recognize the challenges or thestruggles.
And even as you've talked aboutyour journey to now, it's like
I did this and it led to thisand led to next, but there's,
there's no doubt, a lot ofsacrifice, there's no doubt a
lot of challenge.
I'd love to ask you and andobviously feel free to go as
deep or as shallow on this oneas you like but, um, what are
the edges or what are thechallenges in building a career
like this and leaning into alifestyle like this, where
(13:53):
you're moving so often?
You're also, you know, you'rethe person in charge of so many
other people's adventure, ourhappiness.
How does that weigh on you?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I I think I mean personally I love the travel and
so that's never like somepeople like to be a homebody.
I could live out of a suitcase24 7, I think, and often do so.
I'm passionate about adventure.
Every day.
I'm excited to wake up everymorning like I struggle to sleep
because I just want to get upand see the next day.
You know so.
So I'm definitely passionateabout that.
I think that, um, going againstthe grain can be a struggle, of
(14:25):
course, like doing the thingsthat everyone else says is the
wrong thing to do.
Um, and I think you find thatas an entrepreneur, when you're
pushing the boundaries is, ifyou're going to make um, you've
got to take those big risks andyou've got to do what everyone
else tells you is the completelywrong move.
So that can create a lot ofpressure and my target for
perfection and that goal is sohard to meet that I then kind of
(14:50):
it can be challenging,especially with the teams and my
ability in terms of leadership.
It's challenging to manage theteam.
I've got a team across the UK,here in Indonesia, in Dubai and
in Monaco.
You are managing four time zonesof staff and it's employing the
(15:11):
right people.
It's managing that process andmanaging humans and giving them
the respect and support theydeserve.
Managing humans and giving themthe respect and support they
deserve and ultimately, I thinkthat's probably one of my
biggest challenges is in termsof appreciating the team I have
that actually deliver this.
It's really thanks to them.
(15:33):
I'm just one person.
The reality is is that allthese companies exist and have
grown because of the team thatwe've put together, and I'm so
thankful for them, but I thinkthat's probably where the
biggest challenge lies in termsof giving them that respect,
looking after them and managingthem for sure yeah, yeah,
because you're dealing with,like your clients are people
with varying standards but highexpectations, in settings that
(15:57):
are out of their comfort zone,and to learn to hold people in
that capacity and also, on yourside, taking responsibility and
employing people to hold peoplein that capacity.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, there's a lot of nerves, there's a lot of
pressure, I imagine, and I'd sayyou can find yourself quite
upset when things aren't goingright, but then also as well
like huge praise when things goright, because what you're doing
is new, it's innovative, it'sdifferent, it's there's no,
let's say, playbook of no,exactly, and I think that, um,
we go through a journey withthat, and I mean, a lot of our
(16:29):
side of the business is events,of course, or when it's a travel
experience, we're chartering ayacht for someone.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So I mean, we launched my ocean, um our yacht
business, during covid actually,so that that is at a point
where we had our f1 events andall our corporate incentives
died, so we had nothing runningin that side of the business.
So this very challenging time,um, where we didn't know what we
were going to do and how wewere going to move forward, we
(16:56):
then found the opportunity in itand I think that for me during
that time it gave me such agreat opportunity.
We launched my ocean.
In fact, that was one of myevents managers in our F1
business came on board and shewas the one she's now managing
director and a shareholder inthat business.
So you can see that theopportunity and journey that's
come on from some of my team andthat that that moment where
(17:18):
someone steps up and said I'mgoing to do this, then it
transformed people's lives andthat's a great story that I I
love to kind of remember andthink how, hopefully, that can
grow the rest of our businessesin the future.
But now we have um such afast-growing kind of business in
that sector um managingsuperyachts, chartering them and
selling them.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It's selling them too .
Yes, very much so, oh my gosh.
It's lovely because you oftenhear like there's a phrase if
you want to be successful, lookat what everybody else is doing
and do the opposite.
And at a time of contractionand COVID, when everybody was
just literally trying to savetheir bread, you're like, no,
actually there's a goodopportunity here, which I can
imagine.
There was all these charteredyachts probably sitting around,
(17:58):
not, yeah, in operation, and aperfect means for uh, to be,
let's say, isolated or be covid,okay, wow yeah, so that was a
great step for us.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And then launching the jet business about a year
after that as well, same kind ofthing.
Um, yeah, so jet charter andsales.
But we were very fortunate tostart at the top of that game.
One of our first charters wason an Airbus A330 private jet.
I mean this is something that's.
I mean this is the long-haulwide-body aircraft, yeah, so
(18:31):
that's almost like huge.
Yeah, I mean, this would be a343 configuration if you're sat
in economy.
We're talking about taking 12guests on board.
It has cinema rooms, gyms,bedrooms.
This is just, I mean, anincredible experience in the sky
, oh my God.
And that was actually at thetime for a client looking to
then acquire the aircrafthimself, and we're talking the
(18:51):
hundreds of millions of thesetypes of assets.
So that was really our baptisminto it, and, in fact, my MD in
that company worked for Airbuspreviously, so she had a lot of
that knowledge as well, so thatwas really valuable.
But, yeah, we started at the topof that game and we've been
very lucky as well to build.
Like I was saying aboutbuilding communities.
A lot of our communities comefrom tech and crypto, so a lot
(19:14):
of our young.
So we're doing it different aswe're looking after the younger
customers.
So you've got these people intheir 20s and 30s that have made
a lot of wealth through crypto,but they want to stick together
, they want to work with us, sowe're, by volume, we're one of
the largest brokers in the worldfor yacht and jet chartering
crypto crypto.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So, uh, that was really playing on my mind
because I think I had thisexperience of um coming back
from bali to ireland and I flewthrough south korea and going
through the korean airport.
I've never seen so manydesigner stores in my life and
actually people that just lookimmaculate, beautiful, radiating
out of wealth, and I was.
I was kind of kind of blown upby the experience and I had it
similarly in dubai where I waslike wow, wow, for whatever I
think is wealthy, let's say athome in Ireland or even in some
(20:03):
capacities in London, when we gooutside our world, it expands
our perspective and, as you'vebeen chatting, I've been like
what are these customers like?
And my imagination was like,are they like kings and queens
and oil barons and this?
But actually to hear you say no, there is perhaps some young
20s and 30s that have donefantastically well in crypto,
(20:24):
that's blown my mind.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I mean I think this is the thing to understand that
the wealth in these societiesand these communities, and it's
not traditional wealth, themodern wealth and how that's
evolved and there's so much tothat and there's so much
narrative about how theseyounger consumers live what they
do.
I mean we've got people buyingyachts before they buy houses
because that's the nowadays amentality people don't know
(20:46):
where they want to live.
They, they don't want to feelfixed people.
People have big families, buy ahome somewhere.
Like someone in your 20s, likewho's a just sold out of their
tech business is like I don'tknow where't know where I want
to live, I'll rent a place butI'll buy a boat because that can
go anywhere.
Like I'll own 25 supercars butI won't buy a house.
So again, it's those types ofthings and to give you an idea
(21:07):
of that wealth, it's just on ascale that's unimaginable.
I mean we had one of ourclients at the peak of the last
bull run was making near on 30million dollars a day, so that
the amount of money that youthink you can understand and
spend, it's just it's in adifferent league, realistically,
(21:30):
so that there is.
So what we're now catering for,is it a different type of
wealth and a different, youngergeneration.
That means there, and when wecoined this new term, when we
launched our our barley project,global base is around the.
You had the digital nomad.
Now we have the luxury nomad,and that really is the.
The digital nomad was alwaysjust the guy that worked from a
(21:51):
laptop that could be basedanywhere, but now real world
you're having ceos of largecorporations with the ability to
live nomadically, because maybeduring COVID, that was a
decision that people started tomake to move away from their big
offices.
Now maybe they're just a huband it gives them complete
flexibility.
We've seen people travel inlarger groups now and we can see
that trend through our travelcompanies.
So when they're flying awaythey're larger aircraft because
(22:13):
they're taking staff with them,they're taking family with them
and then the people, the.
The migration away from the oh,I've got my um summer house in
the south of france or inmarbella and I go there for
three weeks in the summer hasnow changed to I'm living
somewhere for three months andI'm bringing my staff with me
yeah and so that's why we'reseeing this huge trend and gold
(22:34):
rush in places like bali, um,which is why we've launched our
development here, and weactually launched as Bali Fields
.
We've subsequently rebrandedbecause we've seen the
opportunity as global base, andnow that's now connected to our
global committee community.
What that is is we're now goingto take this around the world
and create these nomadic homeswhere people can invest and live
(22:54):
and travel with it, which ishow we see the future of travel
for people.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It makes a lot of sense.
So these luxury nomads wanttheir base in Bali, their base
in Dubai, their base elsewhere.
Yeah, I remember when I cameout here four years ago, I met
people that were like, oh my God, you're going the path of the
hippie.
And when I come over here, Iwas like, wait a second.
All these hippies aremillionaires and they're doing
extraordinarily well.
And then there was this kind of,let's say, crusty association
(23:21):
with digital nomads that arethere in their backpacks, going
around and I was looking at mydigital nomad friends all flying
first class and bouncing aroundsome of the nicest resorts and
I was like, wait, there'ssomething interesting.
And I think it's funny how we,as humans, we create a bubble
around our world and weinstinctively think, well, this
is the best way to be doingthings.
And there's a little judgmentthat goes on for anybody that
(23:43):
perhaps is doing things a bitdifferently.
And the nomadic culture hasbeen, I think, looked down on
quite a lot.
And the remote working, it'slike, oh, they're going through
a journey when in actual fact,it's like, well, we actually
live in this global world wherewe can have bases, we can work
online, we're not tiedgeographically and actually,
when people start getting reallysavvy, they realize all the tax
(24:05):
advantages of it as well thatit becomes like wait, no,
there's this new, yeah, there'sthis whole new way of living
that's opening up and bang.
This is where you're investedinto and at the top, top, top
caliber of it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And I think that that's where you, that that's
where I'm seeing this forefrontof change and trends and
hopefully we're riding thebeginning of that wave.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So, yeah, wow, can we ?
I'm, I'm really curious in like, patterns of success are like
trends of success.
And one thing, like at thestart of this conversation, I
was like oh, johnny, it's sointeresting.
You always made sure yourcareer served you and it
complimented you.
It wasn't some chore that youhad to do, it wasn't something
that pulled you out of the lifeyou wanted to live.
It was something that reallycomplimented.
And and then you were soconscious of like, yeah, your,
(24:49):
your, your network is sounbelievably valuable and, by
the sounds of it, you you'danchored into that for years and
you rub shoulders with allsorts and all sorts of
situations.
And I'm, I'm really curious interms of like, if someone was to
ask you, you know these clichequotes online that you see and
it's like five traits of success.
But, like, I'm curious when youthink of like fundamentals for
(25:12):
for success.
So to kind of, um, yeah, Ipicked those up from you today,
but I'm just wondering, do anymore kind of pop into your mind
of like, yeah, you know, whenI'm working with somebody or
when I'm trying to teach them,these are really, really
important, I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I think something to touch on.
It is definitely about thatvision of dream big dream,
exponentially bigger and I oftenspeak to my team and say to
them, like right, they're like,oh well, this project's got to
turn over a million dollars onthat event.
And I'm like what if it had toturn over 10 million?
And they're like, well, we'dhave to change everything.
We need a new site, we need anew plan for marketing, we'd
(25:49):
need to scale up all these.
I'm like go and do that, comeback to me and maybe we'll make
2 million on the project.
Right, like I would rather aimfor a massive goal and fail.
So I think that that'sdefinitely something that's a
priority for me and so oftenoverlooked, and I view it as
that like I tell my team, it'sthe magic secret tool.
Like just imagine this eventbut 10x bigger, or this project
(26:12):
or this deal, whatever it.
Just imagine it 10 times bigger.
And then everything you thinkabout how you manage that
project completely changes andthat then I'm like great, now
you can fail at the 10 timesbigger idea because it will
serve you far better than justtrying to achieve that.
When I look at my team and theysend me forecasts and finances
and they're like I think we cando two percent more this year.
(26:34):
And I'm like, guys, we'relooking at this wrong.
And yeah, look, they'llcriticise me back and go look,
this is not possible and thisdoesn't work.
And I'm like, but just thinkabout it, let's just have a
think.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And so I really try and draw that into people no, no
, the thing that was buzzing inmy head was that I I
misinterpreted the dream big andwhen I thought of the events
that I was hosting or certainthings that I was doing, it was
always, yeah, more people.
And what I kind of get theimpression from you is you're
like no, not more people, likebigger experience, bigger
(27:08):
happiness, bigger buzz, but notnecessarily more people.
In actual fact, like whenyou're trying to cater to the
masses, you have to vanillathings down a little bit,
whereas I get the feeling thatthere was a really core
difference in yourself is thatyou didn't think bigger was more
people.
You thought bigger was inbigger experience, bigger
feelings, bigger emotions,bigger opportunities, but
(27:28):
perhaps for a select few.
That's a metric that very fewpeople will follow.
So many people are going forthe masses.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I mean, I think that's driven by one of the very
few things I took away from mymaster's degree in industrial
design randomly um, but it.
But you're always creatingconcepts, which concepts are
completely in outer space.
They don't make any sense andwill never go into production.
Whatever that concept phoneconcept, car, whatever it might
be but it takes, but you takethe little nuggets of the idea
(27:57):
away.
So all of a sudden we go right,well, the next experience we do
for our customers we need to doon mars.
Then all of a sudden, that willcome back with some ideas been
like well, why can't we takethem somewhere a little bit more
out there?
Why don't we go to antarctica?
Sounds, it feels like anotherplanet.
That's a good idea.
Why don't we?
Why don't we bring an astronautwith it?
Why don't we bring someonewho's been to space and bring
(28:19):
them to host the trip inAntarctica?
Like trying to create thoseexperiences by taking the nugget
of the craziest ideas you can.
It's the magic tool, it's thesecret tool.
These are my little list ofsecret tools that you can give
the team and go.
It doesn't take much thinking,you just go.
What's the craziest possiblething or the greatest thing you
can possibly do, then let'srefine that band to what's
(28:41):
possible there's I love this.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I feel I feel very, almost guilty.
I'm like tony, I want to askyou 100 questions, but one of
the things I I kind of um.
I feel is you've most havedeveloped an extraordinary kind
of capacity to deal with umtypes that have high
expectations.
So you're talking celebrities,you're talking high net worth
individuals, and there must besome unbelievable traits in
(29:07):
terms of actually working withpeople like that.
Well, and there's some veryfunny movie I'm forgetting the
name about it, but there's abriefing to the staff and all
the people come onto the boatand they're like anything, they
want anything at all.
You do, and I kind of get theimpression you'd have a much
smarter answer to the staff.
And all the people come ontothe boat and they're like
anything, they want anything atall you do, and I kind of get
the impression you'd have a muchsmarter answer to that, and
it's probably quite contrary tothat as well, would it be?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Look, I mean that can be.
I think we probably see thatmost in our yacht business
because you could be dealingwith a trip that's costing five
or six million a week for aclient at the top end.
So, and yeah, it can bechallenging.
I think that there isn't asimple answer for that.
I mean, again, on arelationship level with a
(29:47):
customer.
Sometimes I can be like guys,we're just having a bit of fun
here, this is just a holiday,let's not stress about the Wagyu
, right, like it's not the endof the world, like I just want
you to be happy and chill out,so let's go and find something
else that we don't need tohelicopter in today.
Like so, um, but also, theanswer can never be no, yes, and
I think the um, the answer isalways yeah, yes, and there's
(30:11):
and again this comes back tobusiness, rather than just
dealing with the consumers isand I've learned this so many
times when someone's gone andgone.
Oh, no, we can't do that andI'm like, but why?
And if you just ask why, andyou keep asking why, and the
amount of times there's beenevents where they go, no, won't
be allowed.
Council have said no, the venuehave said no, this is I'm like
(30:32):
can I speak to them?
Like what have they said no toLike what won't work here?
And every time I've turned itaround to a yes, because the
answer is always yes.
It might be a massive amount ofresources thing, or it might be
a massive amount of cost thing,but whatever the question is,
the answer is always yes.
Like again, it's about thinkinglike nothing's impossible.
(30:53):
Like you want to move thishouse and you want to move it
300 miles in that direction.
It's possible.
It's going to cost you a lot ofmoney and time and effort, but
it's possible.
And I think it's just trying toexplain to people.
The answer is yes.
It's just, how many hurdles doyou have to jump over to get
there rather than going?
The answer's no.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's so smart, because so many times, in terms
of customer service or whatnot,there's assumptions made.
There's assumptions withregards to how much you want
something, there's assumptionswith regards to your capacity
for making it a possibility, andwhat I hear from you in terms
of answering that question isyou literally partner up with
people and if there is a no,you're like, okay, they said no,
but of course, there's a yes inhere, so let's work on this
(31:30):
together and you actually get toenjoy that journey.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
oh so exciting the turnarounds when, like, we've
had situations where it's beenlike no, that this is, this is
cancelled, this is not happeningand I'm like what needs to
happen for this to be a yes?
And all of a sudden peoplestart to go well, no, it doesn't
, it doesn't.
I'm like, but just tell me,just humor me, and the amount of
times that that turns to a yesonce you take the little
(31:52):
stepping stones like like theyacht's got to travel 3 000
miles in the next flipping 10days and it's got to be able to
turn this around and do that.
Or this venue wants to cancelbecause they don't.
Whatever those things are.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I've been through them and it's such a fun journey
for the answer to end up beingyes, and I love it, I love and
it gives me a strength, thatunderstanding and ability and
confidence, the inner confidencefor that yeah, because perhaps
every single time you exceed anexpectation, our capacity, you
push beyond the boundary, yourworld expands, and I can
actually see that if there's abig problem, a real big problem,
(32:28):
you're probably the firstperson to call because you
recognise that, no, no, lifeactually is full of
possibilities.
It's just oftentimes we don'teven get to entertain them.
Give ourselves the opportunityto entertain them.
Yeah, very much Nice.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And I mean.
What was my other point?
I mean, I think that theyalways say you're the average of
the five people you spend themost time with.
I'd say that would be one of myother golden rules is your
ability.
If you're going to spend timewith a particular type of person
, if you're around a communityof people that are always happy
generally, you're going to behappy.
If you're around a community,that's going to be sad, that
(33:01):
will have the same effect.
But if you're around acommunity of billionaires,
there's a very high likelihoodyou're going to get drawn into
that because there'll be a sidedeal, there'll be a discussion,
There'll be a.
Why don't we do this?
I'll help you with that.
Why don't we do this?
Here's the connection Speak tothat guy about your little tiny
project because he might beinterested, even though he's a
billionaire too, because he's mymate, like.
(33:21):
Whatever those discussions are,if you're in that environment,
you just think bigger and theopportunities come.
So level up and be around thepeople you aspire to be.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That I'm keen to drill into.
If I was to ask you like yourfive closest friends, would they
kind of pop up to mind prettyquickly?
Oh, potentially, yeah, I guess.
Yeah, because I'd imagine yourphone book is like pretty
incredible, yeah, but when Ihear like the five people you
surround yourself with most,there's almost like a real
conscious thought of well,actually, do you know what?
(33:52):
If I realize the impact of that,I want to be in control of that
to a degree, because what Ifind is I'm amazed that
sometimes, if I'm a bit out ofsorts, I'm living a little bit
unconsciously.
I'm amazed how sometimesperhaps friendships will appear
that aren't actually reallyconsciously thought out.
Friendships, as in, people arekind of hanging out of me a
little bit, or maybe I'm hangingout of someone and the
(34:15):
connection isn't there, whereasI get the feeling that for
someone to say, hey, look, youknow you are the average of the
five people you surroundyourself with most, wealth is
infectious, depression isinfectious.
You want to be really, reallyconscious of this.
That's probably something thatyou're and again, building your
career on community andconnections.
It's something probably you'revery, very conscious of High
standards for your friends.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, absolutely, but I think that that's really the.
It's such a valuable key andjust another tool that doesn't
cost you anything.
Just takes that mental time andintelligence to go.
This is really important,remember, because it it is
really important, right?
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I loved what you showed, that you you
specifically said this littleproject and surround yourself
with people that are literallyessentially almost warfing you,
because it will put a wholedifferent perspective on what
you're up to, changes yourstress capacity changes.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
I mean, my goal is to be the stupidest, dumbest guy
in the room which is, which is asaying.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
That's said a lot, but so many people get off on
being the smartest person in theroom very much and and it's
it's actually it's not nicebeing the the, but I'm excited
about being in those types ofrooms.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Lots of people would be scared of that, yeah, and I
think that that's the wrong wayto look at it.
So you've got to change yourmindset, for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I, just going back to you, said you bounce out of bed
in the morning.
You said you were like I findit hard to even sleep and I'm
curious, like it's a bit of abasic question, but the guy
who's in charge of happiness?
You feel happy.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I think my goal is always to be happy.
I think I'm happier than most,for sure, but do I have high
expectations of my happiness?
Yes, I mean, I've been toBhutan, in the Himalayas, to
meet the king and speak onhappiness, a country that
manages their entire structureof governance on happiness and
they measure their GNH, theirgross national happiness, rather
(36:07):
than their GDP, their grossdomestic product.
But so it's really a.
It's such a fascinating kind ofworld to try and always put
happiness first.
It's not always possible and,yeah, business is stressful.
When I can't let my finger offthe pulse and when you have
several different companiesdoing different things every day
, of course that can be highstress and just reminding and
(36:31):
resetting that.
But again, having the community, having the mindset, having all
those things around you is aconstant reminder of the
direction and the way you wantto go.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
But that sounds like it's the edge, the personal
restraint, to perhaps buyingpersonal downtime.
Yeah, yeah, because when you'vegot so many things pulling you
in, so many different angles andsuch excitement in your life as
well it must be hard to be likeI actually need to just sit
down and read a book for a day.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yes, yeah but fortunately I love a lot of it
and that's what is.
But I mean we we do a trip toiceland where we drive up
volcanoes and over glaciers andwe've done everything from take
like the executive team ofSamsung going up there up to
then to celebrities and kind oflike our entrepreneur clients
and but we've ended up doingthat trip two or three times a
(37:17):
year for the last six, sevenyears and I pretty much go on
almost every single one and Istill do it because I enjoy it
and lovely.
You always find a new angle.
In fact, last time I went umjust earlier this year, I ended
up um scuba diving in betweenthe American and European
tectonic plates yeah, wow.
So there's always a newexperience with something to get
(37:37):
excited about, and I'm justlucky that I do what my passion
is oh my god, yeah, yeah, I, Iremember god coming to a, a kind
of emotional, motivationalevent.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
They were like energy creates energy.
So we have this concept that,like we'll get energy by, for
example, like what I just said,sitting down and reading a book
for the day that we'll recharge.
But in actual fact, like mostof the types that take it slow,
I find the flow, energy and theadventurers that I meet, the
types that are like meeting lifehead-on and trying different
things all the time.
Their energy is unbounded, andso many of them.
(38:11):
I've actually heard thatexactly what you've just shared
of like you know, I go to sleepmy head's racing and I but it's
not as if I like, by the time Iwake up I'm tired.
No, I bounce out of bed becauseI'm excited about what I'm
going to do.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
I mean, I think, yes, some people, one of the phrases
I hear quite a lot is like ohwell, sometimes you'll have done
everything there is to do.
And I'm like, absolutely not.
The more you do, the more youfind to do.
So it only drives me to go toevery country in the world,
climb every mountain, do allthese things you know like, and
it's pushing those boundariesand I've seen that.
I think the the other one ofthose golden rules is about
(38:43):
mindset, it's realizing, it'sall the power of the mind and,
like I said with Dream Bigbefore, it's really just your
mindset.
But the reality is whatsurprised me, and I saw it take
hold in an area that I'm notvery skilled in, which is going
from doing adventures but I wasdoing them not in a physical way
.
Going down to Antarctica, wehad a chef every evening and
(39:05):
champagne I mean, this wasn'tphysically strenuous and then I
went to the Amazon and did theseother things and then just
doing a silly thing that Icouldn't do, which is running.
That wasn't a skill set of mine, it's something I didn't
possess, I just didn't do it anddidn't have any passion for it.
And to see that the power ofthe mind.
(39:26):
That then controlled that towhere I am now on that journey
from going on a treadmill goingI've probably never run 2k
before because there's no reasonto.
I mean, you do the 1500 metersat school on your worst day of
the year, but other than thatthere wasn't a need to.
So one day in the gym I kind ofdid the 2k because I was like
let's do that, and then I waslike I could do three, I could
do four, I kind of got to fiveand I was like this is
impossible, I end up doing 10k.
(39:48):
I didn't sign myself up for a10k run and that then led on to
me now doing the seven summits.
I'm climbing the highest peakson the seven continents of the
earth.
Wow.
So this journey that has takenme from going I couldn't run to
now doing a huge physicalchallenge is created all because
of the power of the mind and,like the first couple of summits
(40:09):
, I've done it.
It wasn't about the training,it was about the mindset and
that confidence on summit day,which is challenging for sure,
but it's just resetting andrefocusing your mind and
realizing what's possible.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yeah, as you were sharing that, I was thinking
that perhaps somebody'slistening on and perhaps
somebody's like, well, I wasthinking that perhaps somebody's
listening on and perhapssomebody's like, well, I can't
go this adventure or thatadventure.
But what I'm hearing from yousharing that is that actually,
we all have our own adventures,and it might be as simple as
literally sitting on a treadmill, but there's an enormous amount
of fulfillment when we startpushing our edges.
And what's really interestingthen is that when we do overcome
(40:45):
an edge, what's on the otherside and it's opened up a whole
new layer of growth andexcitement for you.
Yeah, it really has.
I kind of have a clichecoaching question for you.
Is that all right, of course,but I'm like I've got such an
adventurous spirit here and alsolike such a zest and an energy
for life.
Do you ever sit with yourselfand get curious of what is it
about your upbringing, orperhaps the parenting that you
(41:06):
received, that inspired thiszest for life and does anything?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
come to mind.
I mean, of course, somethinghas to be there in the childhood
, right?
But, um, it's always a it'salways an interesting question
to look back and go.
Yeah, what's inspired?
And I think that, oh, my fatherwas always out and about, we
were cutting down trees orsailing, and he was used to race
sailing cats and, like we do.
There's loads of things that wewould, that my father was
always out and about, we werecutting down trees or sailing
and he used to race sailing cats.
There's loads of things that wewould do at Adventurous.
But from a childhood perspective, I mean, again, my mother used
(41:35):
to be an air stewardess withBritish Airways and she was
telling me that's when it wasglamorous.
She was in first class, flyingaway for a week in Honolulu and
the guests that she flew withwould stay like in the same
holiday resort, you know.
So like back kind of.
Then I guess travel was moreglamorous, um, but I think that
I don't know how much changed mychildhood and what came from
(41:57):
that, and my father had his ownbusiness, the aspirations there,
um, so it's very hard for me toplace.
I would love to deep dive intothat more for sure.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
There's one question, sorry, one point that's so
poignant for me is your attitudewith regards to no's, and I'm
like, ah, it feels like that'slike an anchoring attitude that
perhaps is fostered in you oflike no, there's like yes,
(42:26):
somebody might say no, butthere's actually, there is
always a way, and there's alovely trait in that.
I was just curious.
Perhaps did that come up whereperhaps somebody showed you
earlier on that like hey, youdon't.
You might hear a no, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean no and
in actual fact there's a waythrough it, and oftentimes the
way through it might be all themore fun.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
I mean, I think what I've pinpointed through my
career and through my educationwas finding those mentors.
And I think those are the onesthat helped me.
I think that my professor andmy undergraduate, roberto
Franquali Again, if you canremember what, a name Roberto
Franquali.
Roberto Franquali Again, if youcan remember the.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
What a name, Roberto Franquali.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
He was the design director at IDEO, which is one
of the most important productdesign companies in the world,
and he took me from being a Cstudent to an A student to get a
first class honours when Igraduated my undergraduate, just
because he told me what waspossible and explained that to
me.
And then, um, and then the ladythat took me on, uh, tammy
(43:29):
Smulders I'll give you the namesbecause that's the important
bit is remember, if you, if theywere that important, then,
tammy, um, she took me on forthat project that we were
working on with Dunhill and gaveme that opportunity and then of
course, tony Fernandez, beingalongside someone that had
billion dollar businesses aroundthe world with airlines and
Formula One teams.
So having those mentors isdefinitely a key part of showing
(43:53):
me nothing's impossible.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
No for an answer.
I have to say I love like asI'm hearing you.
I'm actually taking hugeinspiration from that, because I
do appreciate that there are somany people that live within
the confines of what they'retold to, and then there's those
that look at things a differentway and expand our worlds and
expand our horizons, and I thinkso much of what you're sharing
(44:20):
is exactly that.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
I mean, I think what I would do to start that process
for anyone is go find somethingthat someone said no to that
you think you can overturn.
And once you overturn one thing, you'll realize that you can
overturn everything.
So start with a small challengethat someone said no to and see
what it takes to turn that nointo a yes.
Once you've done it, once itwill just cascade from there on
(44:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
It's yeah, cascade from there on Thank you.
I think there's hugefulfillment in pushing the
boundaries, pushing the edgesand overcoming a no.
I think it's a really important, formative part of everybody's
lives to realize that we can gobeyond what we're told.
Two last questions for you.
Go on If you don't mind.
(45:04):
The first one is I'm curious IfI was a mate of yours and I
pick up the phone and I'm likeJohnny, I'm depressed, you're
the man of happiness, but I'mlike, I'm out of sorts here, and
I think so many people arefeeling out of sorts.
I'm curious, what would you say?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
And not necessarily to the masses, but to a friend.
I think that understandingwhat's affecting them deep
inside and what that relates toit's so difficult to.
I always want to take peopleout of their comfort zone as
soon as I can go.
Come on, let's step out of thecomfort zone.
Let's get away from all thesethings that you think are your
problem.
And if you reframe that andagain, it's like that kind of
idea of the desert island Doesthat problem still exist if
(45:49):
you're on a desert island?
If it doesn't, then you couldsurvive there, so you're good.
So I think it's taking peopleoutside of what they think their
comfort zone is and just goingright.
Can we just do that for alittle session, whether mentally
or physically?
That would be an important stepfor me, I think.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, because they say nothing shapes your
environment.
The second one is, like thecompany you keep and I think so
many of us do live within ourcomfort zone, which is what
you've spoken over and over tothe opposite, you're expanding,
you're pushing out, and I'm afirm believer that if we live
within our comfort zone, ourworld shrinks and that can start
to squeeze on us, hence thedepressing effect.
(46:27):
But if we can push beyond thatI love this phrase, zone of
proximal development Point, justbeyond our comfort zone, where
we're growing and we'reexpanding, we can't necessarily
do it on our own, we need a bitof a hand, but that's when we
really thrive.
And I get the feeling thatyou're living in that point.
And so to hear that your, yourmedicine be essentially look at
the environment, uh, change theenvironment and actually push
(46:48):
people out beyond the comfortzone, there's, there's real
medicine in that I think so andI I think like what you said is
it's not always a perfect world.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
So sometimes I dip down below that and you might
find yourself six months in andI'm working in the business, not
on it, and all of a sudden youstart to go hang on, I haven't
thought about scale, I haven'tthought about that vision, I
haven't been stepping out, I'vejust been looking at
spreadsheets and complainingabout things.
So it does happen for sure.
So you've always got to remindyourself.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
And, yeah, I think that that, coming back to
checking on yourself, is a hellof a practice.
I it's a cliche line working inthe business, not on the
business, but the amount oftimes I think, oh no, no, I'm
working on it, only to realise,oh no, I'm right back in the
middle of it and making a mess.
My parting question I've beencurious just with all the stuff
(47:35):
that you've done, when youreflect, if you ever do have the
time to slow down and checkback in with yourself, what do
you take the most pride from?
I guess slow down and checkback in with yourself uh, what
do you take the most pride from?
Speaker 2 (47:49):
I I guess I, and I always say the team, and it's
never just me, because it's whatthey've achieved as well.
But it's like having certainthings that you can say you're
the best in the world andeveryone can be the best in the
world at something.
It'd be very narrow.
We can be the best coffee shopon this corner, in this street,
in this town, but you're thebest coffee shop there is there,
um, and your competition mightbe one or two, but you're the
(48:11):
best in the world at that.
And so to to be the best in theworld at something and then to
keep expanding on that.
So if we're the best in theworld, it experiences on
superyachts, at formula oneraces narrow, but no one else is
doing it better.
And so to have a few of thosepools and we gradually expand
that to then be better at this,better at that.
(48:32):
So I think that having thoselittle pockets of things that
we're the best in the world atthat everyone can have, and I
think that everyone should takethat away and just try and grow
the pocket, but know that you'rethe one, because then when you
have that discussion withsomeone you go we're the best in
the world at this.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
And they go wow, what's that?
Is there a particular one thatpops up into your mind?
A favor out of all of them.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
I mean, ultimately it's got to be around creating
unique experiences.
I don't think there's anyonethat delivers it the same level
we do when you're talking aboutadventures and trips like that,
and certainly when we've beendoing that on a corporate scale.
No one's taking airbus andsamsung on trips like we do.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
I think so I feel so aligned with your soul as well
adventure gets to literally doit en masse, that's great, yeah,
very much.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
And then I'm proud of the community we've built, like
for me that's um really special.
I think that people andcustomers have come to us who
now been booking trips or comingwith us for seven or eight
years or longer and they've setup companies.
They've made best friends andI've been on to weddings and to
(49:40):
parties and to birthdays wherehalf the people in there are a
part of our community, part ofof our customer base, because
that's where they made thefriends, through our customer
base.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
And people.
I can remember someone set upthree different companies just
off the back of some tripsthey've done with us, with
different people that they'veworked with, and I think that
that's been for me.
So our community continues togrow and grow and as much as it
isn't formalized into tosomething, I like to see the
organicness of what's been builtthrough our customer base.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
that that makes me proud, that makes so much sense
because, if you go on one ofthese worldly experiences, the
likes of which you know justisn't the norm, you go through a
journey in a process and andfor those that you go through
that together with, there's abond, there's a connection,
there's a, there's a safety andthere's a security in that, that
no doubt then populates intoother projects yeah, I mean we
(50:33):
actually, as part of ourproposals, when we have to go to
the board to tell them why theyshould take their customers on
a trip to a volcano and not to afootball match, we sell that in
and we have the metrics on allof those types of experiences
and why that's so much moreimportant, that bonding that
with your customer, with youremployees, with your team.
So, um, yes, it's a clear metricand something that everyone
(50:55):
should strive to go and do,something that takes them
outside their comfort zone withsomeone they want to get closer
with yeah, I know I keep sayinglast question, but this is the
one that's popping into my mind,and that is that Would it be
bold enough to say that actually, for somebody that invests in a
trip like that, it probablypays for itself, based on that
exact note that you just sharedthere?
Speaker 2 (51:14):
100%, I mean.
I think, try it and find out,but for me that it's, it's paid
off beyond measure.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Yeah, there's a couple of high ticket, let's say
, uh, retreats that I've goneinto and I've walked away with
business to the tune of severalfold, and there's a mentor that
I have of mine and, uh, overcovid, I was like you should
stay in this resort, just come,it'll cost you a fortune, but
it'll pay for itself, and it did.
I mean, I I've always foundthat that, in actual fact, we
(51:41):
think some things might beexpensive when, in actual fact,
they're some of the bestinvestments you can make.
I think it's hard to put it ina spreadsheet.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
But if you really went back to analyze it, I think
the answer is yes okay.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
So for somebody listening on and they're like I
want to go on one of theseexperiences or I'd love to
charter a yacht, uh, best way toconnect with you is our follow.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
You is instagram, instagram is where I'm most
popular, so find me there atjohnny dodge, lovely, lovely
johnny, thank you so much a realpleasure, thank you.
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