October 20, 2024 • 45 mins
Join us as we welcome Carlos Vidueira from Huizenga Holdings, a pivotal figure in the marine industry, to the Wards Way podcast. Discover Carlos's unique insights into transforming South Florida's yachting scene and his journey alongside Wayne Huizenga Jr. We'll explore their early lobbying efforts, the evolution of Fort Lauderdale into a yachting powerhouse, and the unsung heroes driving the industry's success. Learn how dedication and collaboration have shaped a once humble industry into a thriving professional sector.
In our conversation, we navigate the image transformation of yacht ownership from a luxury stereotype to a cherished family adventure. Carlos shares anecdotes highlighting the shift towards inclusivity and the impact of aligning marketing strategies with diverse customer expectations. By celebrating the industry's varied clientele, including families and grandparents, we challenge outdated perceptions and embrace a more welcoming representation of the yachting world.
Looking forward, we tackle the challenges of sustaining industry growth and nurturing a future-ready workforce. With an emphasis on attracting new talent and fostering innovation, we discuss the importance of creating an inclusive work culture and adapting to the changing landscape of boat shows. Carlos also shares insights on revitalizing industries through reinvestment and forward-thinking. This episode promises a deep dive into collaboration, transformation, and the vision for the yachting industry's bright future.
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https://www.wardsmarine.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristina Hebert (00:08):
Welcome to the Wards Way podcast.
I'm Christy Hebert, presidentand CEO of Wards Marine Electric
(00:36):
, where we're going to betalking today about amazing
lessons learned from businessleaders, and today I have the
pleasure of Carlos Bedouira withHuizenga Holdings.
Welcome, thank you for coming.
Carlos Vidueria (00:46):
Thank you very much.
It's a long way from our earlymeetings at Lester's Diner.
Kristina Hebert (00:50):
We have moved up, haven't we?
Yes, we have.
Carlos Vidueria (00:53):
There's no cockroach walking around.
Kristina Hebert (00:54):
Well, I don't know, hopefully not, hopefully
not.
We've come a long way, sointroduce yourself, so tell us
what you do, tell everybody outthere what you do.
Carlos Vidueria (01:05):
Well, I mean, I've been involved in different
business pursuits for quite sometime, but specifically, you
know, in the marine industry.
We started with Wayne HuizengaJr purchasing the Ravivich
Spencer Shipyard in 2004.
Kristina Hebert (01:19):
Which I cannot believe is 20 years ago.
Carlos Vidueria (01:21):
Yeah, that was 2004.
And we had a kind of a visionfor what that could become and
what South Florida could become,and I'm happy to say, thanks to
people like you andorganizations like the ones
you're interviewing for thisseries, that the industry has
come a long way.
Kristina Hebert (01:39):
Well, I would be willing to say that it's
thank you to people like you,because you know that that's one
thing that I'd really like tomake sure that we express during
this and through ourconversations.
And we had a lot of fun and Ihave to say you're one of the
most hard-working I I have tosay that, being around you I I
oftentimes feel lazy, I don'tknow you work and you have like
30 hours in your day or 36 hoursin your day, because the things
(02:01):
that you can accomplish and theflights that you're on and the
amazing things that you're ableto balance, and our industry is
very grateful to have had you besuch a part of it and continue
to be a part of it.
So I will say that one of thethings and I have this envelope
and I've not had an envelope onmy on my lap, but this is one of
the first times that I met youand it was really interesting
(02:23):
because I think I met youthrough Scott Miser when Scott
Miser started working forRybovich and for all of you that
don't know that name, scottMiser owned AMT, which is now a
Marine Max, and then went towork for Rybovich for many years
, but Scott was a past presidentof the Marine Industries
Association and at the time youand Junior were trying to get
(02:50):
you were doing an applicationfor the Mayrad Shipyard Grant.
So the Maritime Administrationand so the Maritime, the Mayrad
Shipyard Grant would givefacilities and at the time when
we were trying to do this, theywould give these facilities
mainly commercial facilitiesmoney.
And we were trying to do this,they would give these facilities
mainly commercial facilitiesmoney and we were trying to show
(03:10):
that the economic impact onrecreational facilities and
specifically Rybovich, which, bythe way, is still the only
shipyard in the coastal UnitedStates is that true that can
haul out boats of the size ofanywhere in the world correct,
the largest boats.
Carlos Vidueria (03:23):
I mean, now you have the Savannah.
In the Savannah you can haulbigger boats.
Okay, so I don't, I can't sayexactly.
Kristina Hebert (03:31):
I think that that's where it was, and now I
would say that, ironically,rybovich has led the trail on
that, but anyway, and so Iremember Scott saying Christy,
you should meet Carlos and heand Junior are going to be doing
some lobbying, and I was reallyinto it at the time and I was
on the legislative committee andI think I was maybe a past
(03:53):
president of the association atthis point, and this is the
picture I was going to show andthis is a picture of us in
Ileana Ross-Leighton's officeand what's funny to me about the
picture is that I was sonervous.
And this is a picture of us inIleana Ross-Leighton's office
and what's funny to me about thepicture is that I was so
nervous and also just kind ofour whole commute there and what
(04:15):
I learned a lot about Juniorjust as a human and you and how
people might see you as thiswealthy family and this big
business is going up to lobbyand get things for themselves.
But you weren't.
You were there to get things onbehalf of an industry.
We ate hot dogs from a hot dogcart.
(04:37):
We did not have caviar andchampagne, what people may think
.
And we were able to.
Really, I think we probably hadlike 10 meetings that day with
Justin.
Carlos Vidueria (04:46):
Yeah, we did and we were we got no money.
Kristina Hebert (04:48):
No, we didn't.
We didn't get any money afterall of that, but look, we took
pictures.
Carlos Vidueria (04:54):
You sure tried.
We learned a lot about whatit's going to take.
Kristina Hebert (04:56):
We did and we learned that it was a steep
climb and I think Ileana wasvery supportive and we had
bipartisan support, but peoplewere not wanting to understand
that the economic impact of ashipyard could be that of a
commercial shipyard, and evenmore so.
And now, look 20 years fastforward.
How could anybody say thatabout Rybovich?
Look at all that it is and allthat it's doing and all the
(05:17):
expansion still to this day.
Carlos Vidueria (05:19):
And it led the way yeah, and I think we're just
kind of starting to scratch thesurface of what's possible.
You know, we learned prettysoon, you know that, that we had
to kind of get our own house inorder get our industry in order
and make sure that we werepresenting have we done that?
I think I think we've improved alot.
I really do, but we still havea long way to go, you know, in
terms of, you know, creating amuch more professional industry
(05:42):
that people can get behind andsupport and understand.
Otherwise it just looks likeit's industry, you know, to
build toys for the rich and itis all caviar and champagne.
And you know there's a wholeworkforce of individuals, of
skilled artisans, that areworking in this industry and
they deserve the samerecognition that other
(06:03):
industries do.
Kristina Hebert (06:04):
I agree, and one of the things I remember I
learned from you too.
We talked about matching theexperience with the expectation
and going.
Let's switch topics to the boatshow.
So you were involved with theassociation.
Do you remember when you werethe executive director, the
volunteered recruited for free.
Carlos Vidueria (06:24):
Yeah, I mean, that was what I learned from the
trip up to DC that we took andhow little support we were
really getting from the industryand how there were people like
you that were fighting but youcould barely get any support for
the lobbying effort and peopledidn't understand it and that
(06:44):
the association was extremelywas the only voice, for whatever
reason.
That was the only unified voicethat we had and it had to be
very important and that thatassociation was really more
interested in.
As most not-for-profits do,they become consumed with just
maintaining the organizationmoving forward or alive, for
(07:08):
lack of a better description.
And that association was kindof in that place that they had
gotten used to a very largecheck from their part of the
boat show and now they hiredpeople and now they needed to
survive.
They had to get that big checkand they were willing to
sacrifice the future for theconvenience of today.
(07:29):
And when we talked about thatand there was some competition,
for the executive director wasleaving after a long tenure,
there was competition for whothat new executive director
would be and we were kind of ina panic about all that.
Kristina Hebert (07:44):
Well, the association didn't have any
money.
Well, the association didn'thave any money.
Carlos Vidueria (07:46):
Yeah, the association didn't have any
money and I thought thecandidates weren't so great.
Kristina Hebert (07:52):
Yes, there was a lot of that too, and it just
didn't seem like anybody wasgoing to be able to be the
future.
Carlos Vidueria (07:58):
It just seemed like it'd be easier to volunteer
to do the job you knowourselves, rather than have to
try to convince someone elsethat you know the short-term
objectives were not worth thelong-term sacrifice, which thus
goes back to Lester's why wewere going there every week.
Kristina Hebert (08:17):
In case anybody was confused on that in the
beginning it wasn't just likethe hot industry hangout.
That's where we would have ourexecutive committee meetings.
Yeah industry hangout.
That's where we would have ourexecutive committee meetings,
yeah, and, and sometimes wewould throw, throw out people
that were throwing tomatoes, oryou know, I mean, that's where I
learned uh, in other businessestoo.
Carlos Vidueria (08:34):
You know, first of all, that something happens
when you eat, eat with people.
You know like, uh, it's, it's,it's, uh, it's in human nature
that when you, when you eat withsomeone, you learn to trust
them.
Okay, so you can have aconversation and talk about
things and really pay attention.
And, two, most people won'tgive up a free meal.
So if you do that, you can geteverybody to kind of
(08:56):
consistently get together andhave a conversation.
So you and I would start to go,and then it was easy to get Jay
or get someone else to join usto go.
And then it was easy to get Jayor get you know, someone else
to join us, and pretty soonthere was four or five people
there, you know, able to addressthe issues of the industry
without it looking like a bigdeal.
Right, it wasn't like you'regoing like hey, we come to my
office at 1130.
You know, it's more like hey,we're having breakfast, we come,
(09:16):
and it's a lot easier to getthings done.
Kristina Hebert (09:19):
But there were a lot of things going on at that
time.
I know that we were dealingwith international competition.
Carlos Vidueria (09:24):
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (09:27):
I know that one of your objectives was to make
sure that this wasn't just ourindustry.
I don't know whatever happenedwith it.
I know you're the current chairof the Superyacht Life
Foundation.
President of that.
Carlos Vidueria (09:39):
Yeah, I gave up my presidency last year, but
I'm still on the board.
Kristina Hebert (09:44):
Oh, okay, so you're a past president, but you
were president for a long time.
Carlos Vidueria (09:47):
With that I founded it and stayed president
on six or seven, eight years, Ican't remember.
Kristina Hebert (09:51):
But the whole point of that is also to
remember it's kind of anotherconcept that you had, which was
the one ocean we're sharing,this ocean space.
These boats have so manychoices to go and even if they
happen to be in Europe, they'regoing to come back.
This way, we all are oneindustry and we all need to be
working together and we need tobe recognized over here in the
(10:12):
United States as a place that'sworthy of these boats coming,
the economic impact, thegreatest concentration of
services before they go to theCaribbean.
That that needs to berecognized and we need to be
working together, not againsteach other.
Carlos Vidueria (10:24):
Yeah, I mean that seemed like a distant dream
at the time.
Little by little we got thereand I think very much so.
I think at the time people likeDean Dutrois National Marine
were doing exactly that in theirown kind of way and we kind of
needed to change everyone'smindset to a little bit bigger
(10:44):
and that there's a biggeraudience and you know, when one
boat comes in not everybody'sgot to feed off of the one boat.
You know we can try to attract10 boats and then there's more
room for everybody, you know,but first you got to create
space for those other people andtrain them and you know, train
your competitor basically.
So when people come you havemore than one option and that
(11:05):
was hard to stomach for a lot offolks early on.
But I think you know you can'targue with the results.
Kristina Hebert (11:09):
The number of boats that we have in South
Florida now is well beyondanybody's imagination, and the
size of those boats it really isincredible and even during
COVID I think people saw thefruits of that labor that while
other industries and a lot ofbusinesses were struggling,
there were more boats down here,there were more boats coming,
(11:30):
there were more boats going tothe Bahamas, there were more
boats being used and suddenly wehad, you know, a lot of focus
on us and a lot of Well, I thinkif you look at the industry,
the number of players in theindustry back when we started
together to what it is today,the industry of back then, when
(11:52):
COVID hit an opportunity, kindof struck that everybody wanted
to be on a boat because youcould leave and do all the
reasons why post-COVID we had aboom.
Carlos Vidueria (12:01):
The industry before was not strong enough to
have expanded, so theopportunity would have come and
then it would have passed us by,it would have gone somewhere
else or nothing would havehappened.
But because we had expanded it,expanded the capacity when
opportunity knocked, we wereable to.
I don't know exactly how muchbigger the industry is, but I
imagine it's probably 50% atleast larger than it was before.
Kristina Hebert (12:24):
But I also think it's a mindset, that one
we can say it's an industry,it's a recognized industry, it
is a professional industry.
You're still going to havealways room for growth there.
But I think that most of thoseobjectives were accomplished and
I want to say that there were alot of people and not assisting
(13:05):
in making this better.
I feel like we, at this time ofyear, as the world's largest
boat show and there were a lotof people fighting us on that
back then.
Carlos Vidueria (13:16):
Well, I think the attitude back then was kind
of like hey, we're FortLauderdale, we're the yachting
capital of the world, and I usedto say it's good to have the
pride and say, look, we're proudof who we are.
But honestly, if you see therest of the world, it's.
Kristina Hebert (13:33):
Are we really?
Carlos Vidueria (13:34):
Yeah, do you really want to say we're the
capital?
I mean, that's verypresumptuous on our part when
you've seen some of the otherplaces, like you know, monaco
and so many other places, thatmake you kind of go like, well,
this was a pretty goodcompetitor for capital too, you
know.
And so if we want to be thatcapital which I think in a lot
of ways we have a very strongargument we need to expand our
(13:55):
offerings so that we can trulysay that we are and we can't
rest on our laurels from 1980,you know, and think that's going
to work in the 1990s and the2000s and the 2010s and now in
2024.
It's going to work in the 1990sand the 2000s and the 2010s and
now in 2024.
And I think you know it'sexpanded enough where you know
we have as good of a claim asanybody to that.
Kristina Hebert (14:15):
But I will tell you it wasn't without fight,
and I think you're breezing overthat.
We took a long time and we did,but I saw at many a meeting
that, in fairness, it requiredsomebody with your skills and
your qualifications.
I remember just watching youand you would be able to sit in
a room and we had people thatwere really trying to fight
against our industry and youknow where I'm going with this
(14:37):
and and and fight for, for whatwe have.
And I watched.
I watched these people come in.
I sat in meetings with you withpeople slamming their fists on
tables and, yeah, can I giveaway your telltale sign?
Yeah, yeah, because I'm the onethat.
Carlos Vidueria (14:53):
I knew you were going there.
Kristina Hebert (14:54):
I had to.
So yeah, so the telltale signfor everybody listening if
you're ever in a meeting withCarlos that it's not going your
way, you're going to know whenit's over.
When the phone comes out of thepocket and sits on the table
and he crosses his legs See,right now there's no phone, he's
good, he's comfortable, but ifhe crosses his leg and puts that
(15:15):
phone down, you're done.
Just go ahead, get up, takeyour water with you, but not in
a disrespectful and, in mostclarity, forceful argument to
the point.
That's not the way it's goingto happen and this is the way
it's going to be.
And you fought time and time andtime again.
I remember you showing up toLester's after being on a plane
(15:36):
for 18 hours because you decidedto go have a meeting with Miba
or go have a meeting withSeabass or go have a meeting
with the principals of Monacoabout the show.
And how can we?
Because there were times withthe dates and people weren't
sliding dates and and peoplecouldn't get back from Monaco to
go to Fort Lauderdale.
And there was this and justbeing able to go down, break
(15:57):
bread, go over there, have aconversation, sit down with them
and say, hey, we're a force tobe reckoned with?
We're not.
You know we're not just goingto get steamrolled here.
Look at our show versus yourshow.
You know we're not just goingto get steamrolled here.
Look at our show versus yourshow.
Only somebody like you.
You did that.
That's not a me, that was a you, and you were able to do that
and sit down because you alreadyhad the ears of many of these
people and that didn't benefitjust your business, you
(16:19):
benefited a whole industry bydoing those things, and I don't
know how many people really knowall that you did.
Carlos Vidueria (16:28):
Yeah, I mean it benefited us because, like you
know, we could not just be onepart in it.
The whole team had to elevate,you know.
So we spent a lot of time, onechanging people's perception of
us, but then also changing us,and and and and you know the,
the conversations you're talkingabout.
We'd go to meetings, christyand I, and you know we would
just for 30 minutes we would beinsulted, torn up and down why
(16:48):
we don't know what we're doing,and we would sit there quietly
listening, listening, andeventually you let people talk
long enough.
Then they kind of realize thatmaybe what I'm saying doesn't
make that much sense and youdon't have to do that.
And then by the end of themeeting they come around.
Kristina Hebert (17:05):
But every once in a while.
Carlos Vidueria (17:07):
They don't figure that out.
They listen to themselves for30 minutes and they're even more
agitated than before and yeahand then.
Then you have to kind of say,all right, this is not redirect
them in your way.
Yeah, yeah okay, we tried rightwe can do it the nice way, or
we can, we can be a little bitmore direct, but I mean, there's
never, never a need to to yellor scream or insult or just kind
(17:28):
of like look, this is what ourexpectation is, and then make
sure you can back it up.
Kristina Hebert (17:32):
You always handle it.
You leave the room With classand with grace and just never,
ever raise your voice ever.
But the people that weretalking to us did.
They sure did, and they wouldcall us names after.
But I do remember.
So another story I remember youdon't have to keep holding on
to that picture, even though Ihave a funny on that one that I
(17:55):
remember because I went with youguys and I remember showing up
to the hangar and I didn't wantto give the guy the keys to my
used F-150.
Carlos Vidueria (18:05):
Yeah well, you never know who's going to steal
your car, oh yeah.
Kristina Hebert (18:07):
And meanwhile I look over to my left and it's
you know, nice car, nice car,nice car.
There's that old F-150 that, bythe way, my son drives up in
New Hampshire now, oh good, yeah, yes, she's still around.
And I laugh because I was solike why am I worried about
(18:29):
giving my keys?
Carlos Vidueria (18:29):
keys, but yeah, um, we used to.
We used to for the audience, weused to pseudo babysit, uh, her
kids.
We'd be at lester's diner, youknow, eight in the morning on a,
on a, when there's no schoolthat day for whatever reason.
Oh, yeah and she'd drag them inthere, you know, and they'd be
sitting there, the table next tous eating chocolate chip
pancakes and chocolate milk.
Kristina Hebert (18:42):
You know what, though?
To this day, my kids lovelester's yeah this is like, and
I'm like, really you guys wantto go to less.
Oh they, nothing againstlester's, we love lester's,
we're gonna big plug but, um, ohyeah, they used to come to a
lot of meetings and and uh yeah,they sat at that table.
They probably know half theseissues yeah, yeah, that's funny
(19:02):
but I I do to go back to that.
I do remember you also weretalking about one thing in
changing the image.
You were saying we have to getpast the older guy going through
a midlife crisis.
He's going to go buy a yachtand go get a girlfriend.
Instead, we need to focus onthe families that are going on
(19:23):
these Not everybody that buys ayacht is this midlife crisis guy
that there are so many familiesand grandparents and and really
kind of changing the the imagethat all the images that used to
be to the Fort Lauderdale BoatShow was.
You know, sex sells and smutand not that there's anything
wrong with beauty and andelegance on a yacht but it was
(19:43):
also just kind of going downthat path and I remember you
saying wake up people.
Like, change your own companyads, let's talk about an
industry, let's talk about whatthat yacht is.
We don't need to have bow babeson everything.
And that was part of theprofessionalism, even speaking
to the board, getting allbusinesses to really up their
game and professionalism, and Idon't think anybody had ever
(20:03):
told them that before.
Carlos Vidueria (20:04):
I mean, the first step was to get a woman on
the board.
Kristina Hebert (20:06):
Yeah.
Carlos Vidueria (20:07):
So you did that .
Kristina Hebert (20:08):
Yeah, and that was not easy.
Carlos Vidueria (20:09):
Oh no, and then second was to kind of elevate
the statute of the industry andto not make it about that.
Maybe we have some customers,but the largest customer segment
is the family, thefamily-oriented use of that boat
, absolutely, and I think that'ssomething that really seemed
(20:32):
crazy when we presented it.
Kristina Hebert (20:35):
You wouldn't believe the people that were
against you.
Carlos Vidueria (20:37):
I remember you Against us, yeah, but I think
today it's pretty well accepted.
Everybody understands that,that that's not what we're
trying to do.
And for us, here we had, likeyou said, the divorcee or the
playboy wayward husband, thatkind of thing, but around the
world we had the same thing withthe image in different
(21:01):
countries and different types ofbuyers, and I think that that
started here and has spreadaround the world.
And one other was that startedhere and has spread, you know,
around the world.
Kristina Hebert (21:09):
And one other was matching the experience to
the expectation.
You know, what did we find out?
Let's see if you remember Iknow you do what's the number
one reason people go to a bojo.
Carlos Vidueria (21:22):
I don't know.
Kristina Hebert (21:22):
It was to have fun.
Carlos Vidueria (21:23):
It was to have fun, but you said let's match
the experience.
Kristina Hebert (21:26):
And I'll still remember this analogy and this
was when you were kind oftalking to us about how do we
engage that owner that comes,because you know people that are
coming to the boat show andagain within the focus of the
association that's why we'retalking about the boat show you
won't recognize a super yachtowner.
They're not coming in.
You know silk suits and anentourage of 30 people.
(21:50):
They could just be a plain Joeperson and how do we make sure
that their experience when theycome in?
Are they getting bombarded inthe trinket tent or by the
Budweiser girls, or are theygetting hit with the garbage
people that are driving by?
Like, how do we provide thesame experience to everybody?
Like, how do we provide thesame experience to everybody?
(22:10):
And I remember you gave theexample of there was somebody
that was new to the, was it toRybovich and you gave them a VIP
parking pass and a ticket to agame.
And the kid was so disappointedbecause his friends were
tailgating and he was up frontin this parking.
And you said you know, eventhough it was the best parking
pass ever and it was the bestavailability, it didn't match
the expectation of theexperience he was hoping to have
(22:33):
.
And what did you gain?
You can throw money atsomething and that doesn't make
it better.
And see, I remember that howmany years later yeah, yeah,
that's, that's.
Carlos Vidueria (22:40):
Uh, that takes a little thought, a little
planning, a little get to knowyour customer and understand
what motivates.
Kristina Hebert (22:45):
But you did that for the boat show.
You spent time talking withpeople, talking with show
management at the time beforeinforma and talking to the board
and talking to the and talkingto business leaders yeah, you
know, but those, those meetingsdidn't go so well.
Carlos Vidueria (23:01):
You know like they were you say that took a
while.
It took a while to kind of, andnothing against them, but they
had a business model that wasnot necessarily aligned with
what we were trying to do tomake the industry better.
You know, show managementeventually sold, you know, for a
handsome profit.
That was really their primaryobjective, you know Right, and
they were.
You know we were aninconvenient obstacle to doing
(23:25):
that.
Kristina Hebert (23:25):
Right.
Carlos Vidueria (23:26):
And, and you know, you know, ironically,
probably they would have waiteda little bit longer.
They would, they would havemade even more money.
Right, they kind of took thefirst exit that became available
and but today we, we enjoy thebenefit of that, although you
know, we need to reinventourselves again, you know.
Kristina Hebert (23:42):
I was just going to say that we can't sit
back and I think that that's oneof your.
Don't you find that in allelements of businesses that
you've worked in that it'susually when you there was
another statistic you used togive.
But whenever you're leading achange or part of an evolution
that you have so many, youreally only have to convince 15%
of the people.
85% are followers.
Carlos Vidueria (24:04):
Everyone else will follow.
It's a tough 15, but once youget to there that becomes a
tipping point and then everybodyelse will follow If you've kind
of created the infrastructureto support everybody else.
That's what I was kind ofsaying with COVID.
We kind of set in motion allthese things to make a bigger
industry and then when, finally,because of the timing, I mean
(24:24):
if COVID would have— you know, Inever thought about that, but
you're so right.
Kristina Hebert (24:28):
You're right.
We wouldn't have been preparedfor COVID 10, 15 years ago.
Carlos Vidueria (24:31):
Right, yeah, you know.
And COVID, if COVID would have,the timing would have been
different.
That leak would have been,instead of in November, december
.
If it would have been in July,you know, we would still be
where we were because the boatswould have been stuck in Europe.
They never would have come andwe would have had lost one
entire year of no business.
Boats would have gotten used tothe service in europe and maybe
(24:52):
they would never have come, youknow.
So we really, I mean, wecouldn't have timed it.
You know any better than thanthan you know, for a long term,
for our industry, the boats werestuck on this side of the world
, you know, and then that gaveus a chance to to well, just to
be clear, we didn't do it right.
We didn't.
Kristina Hebert (25:09):
We didn't, of course not All right, just
making sure Somebody did it.
Somebody did I agree with you.
It wasn't us.
Okay, but it wasn't us, itwasn't me, it wasn't you.
Okay, we're good, all right.
Carlos Vidueria (25:17):
But the timing couldn't have been any better.
But to the lot of the islandsin the Caribbean.
Yeah, you know, as soon asthings got bad, you know the
government kicked everybody out.
They had nowhere to go, theycouldn't cross the Atlantic,
they didn't have enough fuel,they didn't have the provisions.
(25:38):
They had to come back up to usand to the credit of of, you
know, florida and localgovernment, the counties.
You know they welcomed theseboats.
You, you know they welcomedthese boats.
You know we quarantined, we didall sorts of crazy things but
ultimately, you know, we letthem in and we took care of them
, you know, at great risk to usor perceived risk to us at the
time, but the industry was readyand the industry understood.
(26:01):
You know we weren't taking thecustomer for granted, we were
welcoming that customer and that, I think you know, started in,
you know, back in the early2000s when we started this whole
idea of don't assume we're theyachting capital of the world.
We need to earn that titleevery single day.
Kristina Hebert (26:19):
So what do we need to do next?
You said we still need to keepevolving, which I agree.
I feel like I'm always, justeven in my small microcosm of a
business, I'm always looking for.
What do we need to be ready for?
What do we?
How do we need to be agile?
What business, what?
How do we need to be able toengage in that, should it come
our way?
And looking at that, but whatdo you?
(26:40):
What do you think?
Well, I think, I think.
Carlos Vidueria (26:42):
I think during COVID, you know, you know,
before COVID a lot of the yachtbuilders were in trouble.
You know they were.
They hadn't quite gotten backto the boom times.
They were trying to get back tothat.
We created a lot of extracapacity and somehow we were
selling the boats.
But it was tough.
During COVID there was a hugedemand for the boats and those
(27:06):
boats- In all sizes too, In allsizes.
Yeah, Exactly right, in allsizes.
And now those boats.
You know which kind of happenedalso with the treadmill company
.
I forgot, I always forget thename.
You know the one, the ped,where you can bicycle, you can
cycle and see the.
Kristina Hebert (27:27):
Peloton, peloton, yes, peloton yeah.
Carlos Vidueria (27:30):
So Peloton had the same issue, except Peloton
was able to manufacture these alot quicker.
So all they did was pull thisdemand forward and then, when
COVID was over, there was nobodyleft that wanted to buy a
Peloton, because everybody thatwas going to buy a Peloton any
time between now and the nextthree years already bought one,
and there's no one left to buyit.
You know, and so we got to becareful that that's not what
(27:51):
happens to us here thateverybody that was going to buy
a boat didn't kind of buy it,you know.
So now all these boats are ineverybody's hands.
They need to have a greatexperience.
Kristina Hebert (28:00):
Agree.
Carlos Vidueria (28:01):
And if they have a great experience, then
they'll share it with theirfriends, and then those friends
will buy boats.
You know, if they have a badexperience then they'll tell
their friends.
The last thing you want to dois buy a boat, which we've been
talking about this for decades.
So now that's what we have todo.
We have to realize that theboats have gotten a lot bigger,
that they're much morecomplicated and there's a lot of
(28:24):
opportunity to have a boat comein and really take advantage of
them and get a big invoice outof them and then never see them
again.
But instead we need to bethinking how do I minimize this
invoice so that this guy willcome back every year for the
next 20 years?
That's really probably the nextstep.
The industry has been expanded.
Now we got to hold it here atthis level and then grow it
(28:48):
moderately in the future years.
Kristina Hebert (28:50):
And I think we have to worry about workforce
too.
Carlos Vidueria (28:53):
I think that's something that you can't do
without people, absolutely,absolutely, and people don't
want to.
You know it's not just ourindustry at all.
You know it's a lot moreglamorous to either go to
college and and and and or to,you know, be an influencer, all
these kind of phony short termcareers that are out there, you
(29:14):
know, and.
But if you don't get a personworking as an electrician early,
it's hard to get them to beproductive, you know, once they
get a little bit older.
So so you have to get themearly and, and you know we got
to make it attractive for fornew people to enter our industry
.
Luckily it's a beautifulindustry and the water there's a
(29:34):
lot of things a lot better thanothers, but it's still an
effort.
Kristina Hebert (29:38):
It is, and I think it has to be and remain a
full-time effort.
I know that we have a full-timerecruiter and if it's not every
day, it's probably four out offive days a week that we're
interviewing for something.
You've got to keep it goingBecause at the same time I know
for me and I'm sure in yourbusinesses as well, you have
people retiring.
(29:58):
There's this whole workforcethat is coming up and retiring.
I have to say I've had nothingbut really good experiences with
young people I've hired.
I believe there is a wholegreat young generation that's
really smart, that has a lot ofgreat ideas.
I think you just you have tofind people with similar work
(30:18):
ethic and discipline and build aculture, and I think you can
find it.
I think that the companies thatstruggle don't have a culture
that's open to young people oropen to different thoughts or
different avenues to differentthoughts or different you know
avenues.
Carlos Vidueria (30:31):
I think it's important for you to tell other
companies about that.
You know, because I think if Iwas, if I was in the industry
and I did or you know it wasn'tquite didn't know about the
industry like I would I wouldworry about that and then would
I want to buy a business.
So when someone's trying toexit, you know, will an outsider
buy it, right?
If I was going to leave mybusiness to my child, you know,
(30:52):
would I want to leave them witha business where there's no
people to do it?
You know.
So you know, whatever yourexperience is, that there's hope
.
I think that's an importantmessage to get out.
Kristina Hebert (31:03):
I agree and also I think you know let's
shift back to the boat show.
What do we see about boat shows?
I kind of am.
You know I'm going to havesomebody from Informa in this
season and you know I will askthe same question, but at some
point are boat shows going tolive forever?
Are boat shows going away?
Carlos Vidueria (31:31):
I think boat shows should be able to live
forever, except for the realestate upon which they you know,
the water upon which they exist, and you have some large
players that basically get paida large amount of rent to
subsidize the rest of theoperation and I just don't know,
as we talked earlier, ifthere's enough money to go
around to make it fun plus paythese rents.
(31:52):
You know, and most you know,we're not the only industry that
has this problem.
You know, professional sports,you know, has had a similar
problem and they're able tosubsidize that with television.
And then the television revenuestarted to be like is it going
to be enough or not?
And then the television revenuestarted to be like is it going
(32:13):
to be enough or not?
And then when gambling kind oftook off and became legalized,
it opened up a whole otherrevenue stream and that kind of
revitalized that whole segment.
So for Bocho to survive, we'regoing to have to find a new
revenue stream, evolve like yousaid, the exhibitors and the
admittance ticket is not goingto be enough.
So so you know, I know weexperimented with trying to get
(32:34):
some sort of television coverageor some other revenues, revenue
stream.
We were not able to find thatUh, but for it to survive, uh,
where people want to attend toit, you're going to have to,
you're going to have to think ofthat and it's possible.
I mean you, I mean you know,with you know influencers and
all the things that arehappening there's, you can
imagine a lot of different waysthat the boat show could
reinvent itself, but it has tofirst have to want to reinvest
(32:57):
itself that's what I was goingto say.
Kristina Hebert (32:58):
It has to want to, and then those that exhibit
have to demand that it does andhold it accountable.
Because I don't, I don't see alot of that.
I I see a lot of the same andthe same and the same and the
same, and it just gets moreexpensive and more expensive and
at some point that's an elastic.
That's taught.
And then you know, even talkingabout the Fort Lauderdale, look
(33:19):
at all the development sites.
Las Olas, you know, just kindof completed its redevelopment,
but the Convention Center is notgoing to be done until 2025.
Pier 66, beautiful renovation,but it's not going to be done
until 2025.
Pier 66, beautiful renovation,but it's not going to be done
until 2025.
Now behemr is starting.
You know, I just think you're.
You're always fighting withsome of these facilities that
(33:39):
should absolutely upgrade andand do the very best.
But is that going to and?
Carlos Vidueria (33:44):
after the upgrade do they still welcome
you?
You know like I don't know,that's right.
That's the big unknown, you know, right.
So you know, when we started,you know, monaco was kind of
like by far the best show.
It was amazing, you know.
And then over years they kindof took advantage of that, you
know.
And now there's a lot ofpushback about about monaco, uh,
and and so they all have their,their issues.
(34:04):
You know, palm beach became thedarling, you know, but but you
know, doesn't take too beforebefore.
Palm beach would fall into thesame trap if you don't reinvent
it.
Kristina Hebert (34:13):
Right, it's going to be an interesting time.
What else are you?
What are you seeing?
So so talk to me about the Palmbeach County health board that
you're chairman of.
Carlos Vidueria (34:25):
Oh yeah, it's the Palm beach County healthcare
district.
You know, when we, when webuilt the Marina up in West Palm
, we were very interested in inchanging the neighborhood,
improving the neighborhood,improving opportunity for the
residents that were there.
It's a historic neighborhood isas much as you can have.
History, and in in Florida, Imean our history started at the
(34:47):
turn, at the 1900s.
Basically In Florida, I meanour history started at the turn,
you know, at the 1900s,basically you know.
So when you talk about historyand some of the European
locations, it's a wholedifferent game.
Sure, but for us it's animportant history and the
residents there.
So when we first got there,wayne Housing and Junior's
vision was to kind of, you know,greatly improve that
neighborhood without, you know,gentrifying the residents that
(35:09):
were there.
And we tried all sorts ofthings in terms of providing
jobs for the local residents andincorporating, buying homes and
doing all sorts of things tokind of transform that.
Kristina Hebert (35:20):
Which, by the way, you were not welcomed at
doing that either.
Weren't there caricatures thatpeople you had to drive this
Crown Vic around that I thoughtwhat kind of car what's
happening over at Rybovich?
And it was just because youwere beat up for that for a long
time.
Carlos Vidueria (35:35):
Yeah, the Crown Vic is still a habit that I
have.
I don't drive a Crown Vicanymore, but it's not that much
better, okay.
But so the three things thatreally kind of change a person's
future outcomes are education,housing and health care.
(35:57):
You have to be healthy enoughto take advantage of the
opportunities that are in frontof you.
So we have a hospital districtbasically up there, basically up
there, and so the governornominated me for that board.
Have you learned a lot I mean,is that really out of your?
(36:20):
Well, I mean, like everythingelse, I, you know, I asked how
much time it was going to take,you know, like because I want to
make sure I could devote thetime that would be required, and
they said no, no, really, youdon't do much, you know you're
kind of on a board of seven.
And you know, anyway, at thefirst meeting they made me the
chairman, so that kind ofchanged the amount of work that
(36:42):
I had to do and that's a tough.
That's a tough, you know, justlike the marine industry when we
first started, you know healthcare is changing dramatically
(37:06):
around the world, and so lookingat that with the same kind of
way that we looked at the marineindustry and saying what's this
going to look like in 5, 10, 20years?
That's got to be bleak.
Look is it.
I mean, is there any optimism?
I think you're exactly right,that's got to be bleak, Is it?
Is there any optimism?
And all sorts of monitors thatcan prevent a lot of the
(37:27):
ailments that we have.
So I think if you do it theright way, you could greatly
improve the health.
Kristina Hebert (37:36):
Again, start with the youth.
Get them involved in this earlyprevention and healthy life and
healthy living.
Carlos Vidueria (37:43):
That's the easiest way.
It's a little difficult becauseyou don't want to trample on
people's freedoms, so you don'twant to force somebody to
necessarily not go to Dunkin'Donuts on the way into work, but
they should be aware of whatthat, what the consequences of
that are.
Yeah, what the consequences are.
(38:04):
And then make a decisionaccordingly.
So those are all.
I mean.
I think there's a tremendousopportunity, but anyway I got in
it because that was one of theelements, you know, to try to
help the residents.
You know on the north end ofWest Palm Beach, which
historically has been the partof all of Palm Beach County that
you know kind of got lessattention than the rest of the
(38:24):
county.
Kristina Hebert (38:25):
And you're still involved with Rybovich,
correct?
Carlos Vidueria (38:28):
Yeah, I mean we own the land where Rybovich is
at Safe Harbor marinas runs theactual marinas now, but we own
the land and our idea from thebeginning was to build a
facility there that would rivalMonaco.
So we have more boats therethan Monaco.
We have, I think, twice thenumber of super yacht or maybe
(38:49):
more of occupancy.
So we have a lot more boatsbecause we have them there 10
months out of the year, asopposed to Monaco is really four
or five months.
So we have a lot more activitythere.
And now we want to buildsomething on the upland, on the
land, that matches what's in thewater but build it in a way
that makes it a great place tolive but also a place that is
(39:12):
very conducive to the marina andencourages the marine industry
to continue to grow.
That without a great,prosperous marine industry,
those boats eventually will stopcoming and then you'll have a
big empty.
Kristina Hebert (39:21):
marina 100% agree.
Carlos Vidueria (39:22):
So the same thing that we talked for so many
years about doing at Bahia Mar,that, hey, how do you build a
great development here worthy ofFort Lauderdale but also
something that can still housethe boat show?
It's a tricky, tricky thing.
It's a lot easier when you havea committee of two than when
you're dealing with associationsand different businesses.
Kristina Hebert (39:45):
Do you have any insight on that at all of
what's happening with thebehemoth development?
Carlos Vidueria (39:49):
I don't, I don't have anything, anything
specific.
Kristina Hebert (39:52):
Me neither, yeah, yeah.
Carlos Vidueria (39:55):
But I think I think you guys have done a good
job of letting the city know howimportant that is and how
important the boat show is.
Hopefully, hopefully, that thatwill be done, but but it has to
come with a reinvention of theboat show itself.
I agree.
Kristina Hebert (40:08):
I agree Because then, in and of itself, not
only will it be profitable, butit'll be supportive for the
industry.
The industry will get behind it, the city will get behind it.
What's good for the cities,what's good for the industry?
So, politics, what are wethinking?
Is the world going to be overin the second week of November,
(40:29):
or are we going to?
Carlos Vidueria (40:29):
be in a good place.
Come on now.
I know it's a hard question,but you know you hate to say
things and then they just seemso ridiculous.
A month or two months later,after what happens, and the
world has changed so much, whowould have guessed that we would
be where we are today?
I agree.
So what I think isunquestionable?
That we are in uncharted watershere, that what has happened
(40:53):
nobody can believe has happened.
What has already happened, it'shard to believe happened.
Kristina Hebert (41:01):
And I feel like the show's not over yet.
I feel like there's a lot oftime between now and the
election and then post-electionand and not to use show, but I
feel like there's just everyweek there's something new
whatever, whatever happens afterthe election, uh, you know, we
have to get back on a coursewith either either party, back
on a course of where america'sleadership?
Carlos Vidueria (41:23):
uh uh, everybody's focused on, on
america leading.
You know, there there is no oneelse.
I can.
I can lead the world the waythat we can, for a lot of
reasons, and it would require usto, you know, go through a very
painful downturn for a longperiod of time for anyone else
to kind of challenge ourleadership, and that's not good
(41:44):
for anybody, even whoeverprevails.
So I think that we need to kindof focus back on the reasons
that we ended up on top in thefirst place and try to reinvent
ourselves and figure out how toget us back to there.
And that goes with everyindustry, all the industries.
(42:06):
What's going to happen in thenext five years?
Like I was talking abouthealthcare, that's going to
happen to every industry.
You know.
Ai is going to, you know, makeso many things much more
efficient, and it's going toallow us to research and
understand things that we neverknew were possible.
And that's going to displace alot of people.
And then those people need toreinvent themselves and they
(42:27):
need to prepare for that, not beafraid of that, but be prepared
for that.
Kristina Hebert (42:30):
How do we get people to not be afraid?
Because all I hear about AI notall that I hear, but comments
that I hear from people are thatyou know they're scared about
it, they're worried about it,that what happens when the bad
people take it over and it'slike, well, I feel like you
could say that about anythingthat you really just need to be
in front of it and you need toembrace it, and it's, it's, it's
(42:51):
really.
Carlos Vidueria (42:52):
Honestly, I don't think it's any different
than when we were in the marineindustry in 2004 and you could
see that what we were doingwasn't going to work forever,
you know, and you could see 2004, this association, you know, if
the boat show goes down, we'regoing to.
You know, we're going to loseeverything.
And, sure enough, four yearslater, that's where we were, you
know.
And but what did we do?
(43:13):
We figured it out, you know,and that's what you know,
everybody in this country hasdone, you know, since, since its
inception.
There's no reason to believethat's going to be any different
.
Right, you know?
So AI is just that next thing.
It's just gonna be a lot faster.
Yeah, you know, it's gonna.
I mean it's gonna because itfeeds on itself, and it's gonna
(43:34):
just gonna.
You know, uh, all of a sudden,everything's gonna be quite
different and you're gonna haveto go like, okay, now how do I
adjust?
But things are already quitedifferent, you know, I mean, I
mean they really are yeah, withyour phone.
there's nothing that you youknow.
Any question you have, you canget it answered already you know
, which is not at all what itwas like before.
So you know, we're not beholdento those people that had
certain knowledge or access toknowledge.
The knowledge is available.
(43:55):
The question is, what are yougoing to do with it?
Right, and that requires youknow some formal training
no-transcript should haveconfidence that we did it before
(44:16):
and we'll do it again.
So, uh, but we can't do italone.
We gotta, we gotta find out whoelse is like-minded and work
with them.
They may be your competitor,but you can work with your
competitors 100% agree.
Toward making the industrybetter.
And the better the industry,the more customers you'll have.
The more customers you'll have,the stronger you are.
(44:38):
And then it circles back tothen you can make a better
industry.
Either put that money in yourpocket or you can make the
industry better.
Kristina Hebert (44:45):
Well, if you make the industry better, yes,
yes, in your pocket, or you canmake the industry better and I
can make the industry better,yes, yes, and reinvest and and I
know for us, I, I, I preach alot with our company that we've
made it to 75 years, but I don'twant to celebrate the
anniversary.
I want to celebrate the yearsand and also we're just getting
started.
We didn't reach a milestone andnow we're going to go sit down
and and be tired.
We're just getting started andthere's so many wonderful things
(45:07):
to look forward to in thefuture and I'm happy that,
because of my anniversary, I hadthe weird idea to do this and I
got to sit with you for an hour.
So I appreciate you being hereand thank you so much for your
time.
Oh, of course, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Welcome to the Wards Way podcast.
I'm Christy Hebert, presidentand CEO of Wards Marine Electric
(00:36):
, where we're going to betalking today about amazing
lessons learned from businessleaders, and today I have the
pleasure of Carlos Bedouira withHuizenga Holdings.
Welcome, thank you for coming.
Carlos Vidueria (00:46):
Thank you very much.
It's a long way from our earlymeetings at Lester's Diner.
Kristina Hebert (00:50):
We have moved up, haven't we?
Yes, we have.
Carlos Vidueria (00:53):
There's no cockroach walking around.
Kristina Hebert (00:54):
Well, I don't know, hopefully not, hopefully
not.
We've come a long way, sointroduce yourself, so tell us
what you do, tell everybody outthere what you do.
Carlos Vidueria (01:05):
Well, I mean, I've been involved in different
business pursuits for quite sometime, but specifically, you
know, in the marine industry.
We started with Wayne HuizengaJr purchasing the Ravivich
Spencer Shipyard in 2004.
Kristina Hebert (01:19):
Which I cannot believe is 20 years ago.
Carlos Vidueria (01:21):
Yeah, that was 2004.
And we had a kind of a visionfor what that could become and
what South Florida could become,and I'm happy to say, thanks to
people like you andorganizations like the ones
you're interviewing for thisseries, that the industry has
come a long way.
Kristina Hebert (01:39):
Well, I would be willing to say that it's
thank you to people like you,because you know that that's one
thing that I'd really like tomake sure that we express during
this and through ourconversations.
And we had a lot of fun and Ihave to say you're one of the
most hard-working I I have tosay that, being around you I I
oftentimes feel lazy, I don'tknow you work and you have like
30 hours in your day or 36 hoursin your day, because the things
(02:01):
that you can accomplish and theflights that you're on and the
amazing things that you're ableto balance, and our industry is
very grateful to have had you besuch a part of it and continue
to be a part of it.
So I will say that one of thethings and I have this envelope
and I've not had an envelope onmy on my lap, but this is one of
the first times that I met youand it was really interesting
(02:23):
because I think I met youthrough Scott Miser when Scott
Miser started working forRybovich and for all of you that
don't know that name, scottMiser owned AMT, which is now a
Marine Max, and then went towork for Rybovich for many years
, but Scott was a past presidentof the Marine Industries
Association and at the time youand Junior were trying to get
(02:50):
you were doing an applicationfor the Mayrad Shipyard Grant.
So the Maritime Administrationand so the Maritime, the Mayrad
Shipyard Grant would givefacilities and at the time when
we were trying to do this, theywould give these facilities
mainly commercial facilitiesmoney.
And we were trying to do this,they would give these facilities
mainly commercial facilitiesmoney and we were trying to show
(03:10):
that the economic impact onrecreational facilities and
specifically Rybovich, which, bythe way, is still the only
shipyard in the coastal UnitedStates is that true that can
haul out boats of the size ofanywhere in the world correct,
the largest boats.
Carlos Vidueria (03:23):
I mean, now you have the Savannah.
In the Savannah you can haulbigger boats.
Okay, so I don't, I can't sayexactly.
Kristina Hebert (03:31):
I think that that's where it was, and now I
would say that, ironically,rybovich has led the trail on
that, but anyway, and so Iremember Scott saying Christy,
you should meet Carlos and heand Junior are going to be doing
some lobbying, and I was reallyinto it at the time and I was
on the legislative committee andI think I was maybe a past
(03:53):
president of the association atthis point, and this is the
picture I was going to show andthis is a picture of us in
Ileana Ross-Leighton's officeand what's funny to me about the
picture is that I was sonervous.
And this is a picture of us inIleana Ross-Leighton's office
and what's funny to me about thepicture is that I was so
nervous and also just kind ofour whole commute there and what
(04:15):
I learned a lot about Juniorjust as a human and you and how
people might see you as thiswealthy family and this big
business is going up to lobbyand get things for themselves.
But you weren't.
You were there to get things onbehalf of an industry.
We ate hot dogs from a hot dogcart.
(04:37):
We did not have caviar andchampagne, what people may think
.
And we were able to.
Really, I think we probably hadlike 10 meetings that day with
Justin.
Carlos Vidueria (04:46):
Yeah, we did and we were we got no money.
Kristina Hebert (04:48):
No, we didn't.
We didn't get any money afterall of that, but look, we took
pictures.
Carlos Vidueria (04:54):
You sure tried.
We learned a lot about whatit's going to take.
Kristina Hebert (04:56):
We did and we learned that it was a steep
climb and I think Ileana wasvery supportive and we had
bipartisan support, but peoplewere not wanting to understand
that the economic impact of ashipyard could be that of a
commercial shipyard, and evenmore so.
And now, look 20 years fastforward.
How could anybody say thatabout Rybovich?
Look at all that it is and allthat it's doing and all the
(05:17):
expansion still to this day.
Carlos Vidueria (05:19):
And it led the way yeah, and I think we're just
kind of starting to scratch thesurface of what's possible.
You know, we learned prettysoon, you know that, that we had
to kind of get our own house inorder get our industry in order
and make sure that we werepresenting have we done that?
I think I think we've improved alot.
I really do, but we still havea long way to go, you know, in
terms of, you know, creating amuch more professional industry
(05:42):
that people can get behind andsupport and understand.
Otherwise it just looks likeit's industry, you know, to
build toys for the rich and itis all caviar and champagne.
And you know there's a wholeworkforce of individuals, of
skilled artisans, that areworking in this industry and
they deserve the samerecognition that other
(06:03):
industries do.
Kristina Hebert (06:04):
I agree, and one of the things I remember I
learned from you too.
We talked about matching theexperience with the expectation
and going.
Let's switch topics to the boatshow.
So you were involved with theassociation.
Do you remember when you werethe executive director, the
volunteered recruited for free.
Carlos Vidueria (06:24):
Yeah, I mean, that was what I learned from the
trip up to DC that we took andhow little support we were
really getting from the industryand how there were people like
you that were fighting but youcould barely get any support for
the lobbying effort and peopledidn't understand it and that
(06:44):
the association was extremelywas the only voice, for whatever
reason.
That was the only unified voicethat we had and it had to be
very important and that thatassociation was really more
interested in.
As most not-for-profits do,they become consumed with just
maintaining the organizationmoving forward or alive, for
(07:08):
lack of a better description.
And that association was kindof in that place that they had
gotten used to a very largecheck from their part of the
boat show and now they hiredpeople and now they needed to
survive.
They had to get that big checkand they were willing to
sacrifice the future for theconvenience of today.
(07:29):
And when we talked about thatand there was some competition,
for the executive director wasleaving after a long tenure,
there was competition for whothat new executive director
would be and we were kind of ina panic about all that.
Kristina Hebert (07:44):
Well, the association didn't have any
money.
Well, the association didn'thave any money.
Carlos Vidueria (07:46):
Yeah, the association didn't have any
money and I thought thecandidates weren't so great.
Kristina Hebert (07:52):
Yes, there was a lot of that too, and it just
didn't seem like anybody wasgoing to be able to be the
future.
Carlos Vidueria (07:58):
It just seemed like it'd be easier to volunteer
to do the job you knowourselves, rather than have to
try to convince someone elsethat you know the short-term
objectives were not worth thelong-term sacrifice, which thus
goes back to Lester's why wewere going there every week.
Kristina Hebert (08:17):
In case anybody was confused on that in the
beginning it wasn't just likethe hot industry hangout.
That's where we would have ourexecutive committee meetings.
Yeah industry hangout.
That's where we would have ourexecutive committee meetings,
yeah, and, and sometimes wewould throw, throw out people
that were throwing tomatoes, oryou know, I mean, that's where I
learned uh, in other businessestoo.
Carlos Vidueria (08:34):
You know, first of all, that something happens
when you eat, eat with people.
You know like, uh, it's, it's,it's, uh, it's in human nature
that when you, when you eat withsomeone, you learn to trust
them.
Okay, so you can have aconversation and talk about
things and really pay attention.
And, two, most people won'tgive up a free meal.
So if you do that, you can geteverybody to kind of
(08:56):
consistently get together andhave a conversation.
So you and I would start to go,and then it was easy to get Jay
or get someone else to join usto go.
And then it was easy to get Jayor get you know, someone else
to join us, and pretty soonthere was four or five people
there, you know, able to addressthe issues of the industry
without it looking like a bigdeal.
Right, it wasn't like you'regoing like hey, we come to my
office at 1130.
You know, it's more like hey,we're having breakfast, we come,
(09:16):
and it's a lot easier to getthings done.
Kristina Hebert (09:19):
But there were a lot of things going on at that
time.
I know that we were dealingwith international competition.
Carlos Vidueria (09:24):
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (09:27):
I know that one of your objectives was to make
sure that this wasn't just ourindustry.
I don't know whatever happenedwith it.
I know you're the current chairof the Superyacht Life
Foundation.
President of that.
Carlos Vidueria (09:39):
Yeah, I gave up my presidency last year, but
I'm still on the board.
Kristina Hebert (09:44):
Oh, okay, so you're a past president, but you
were president for a long time.
Carlos Vidueria (09:47):
With that I founded it and stayed president
on six or seven, eight years, Ican't remember.
Kristina Hebert (09:51):
But the whole point of that is also to
remember it's kind of anotherconcept that you had, which was
the one ocean we're sharing,this ocean space.
These boats have so manychoices to go and even if they
happen to be in Europe, they'regoing to come back.
This way, we all are oneindustry and we all need to be
working together and we need tobe recognized over here in the
(10:12):
United States as a place that'sworthy of these boats coming,
the economic impact, thegreatest concentration of
services before they go to theCaribbean.
That that needs to berecognized and we need to be
working together, not againsteach other.
Carlos Vidueria (10:24):
Yeah, I mean that seemed like a distant dream
at the time.
Little by little we got thereand I think very much so.
I think at the time people likeDean Dutrois National Marine
were doing exactly that in theirown kind of way and we kind of
needed to change everyone'smindset to a little bit bigger
(10:44):
and that there's a biggeraudience and you know, when one
boat comes in not everybody'sgot to feed off of the one boat.
You know we can try to attract10 boats and then there's more
room for everybody, you know,but first you got to create
space for those other people andtrain them and you know, train
your competitor basically.
So when people come you havemore than one option and that
(11:05):
was hard to stomach for a lot offolks early on.
But I think you know you can'targue with the results.
Kristina Hebert (11:09):
The number of boats that we have in South
Florida now is well beyondanybody's imagination, and the
size of those boats it really isincredible and even during
COVID I think people saw thefruits of that labor that while
other industries and a lot ofbusinesses were struggling,
there were more boats down here,there were more boats coming,
(11:30):
there were more boats going tothe Bahamas, there were more
boats being used and suddenly wehad, you know, a lot of focus
on us and a lot of Well, I thinkif you look at the industry,
the number of players in theindustry back when we started
together to what it is today,the industry of back then, when
(11:52):
COVID hit an opportunity, kindof struck that everybody wanted
to be on a boat because youcould leave and do all the
reasons why post-COVID we had aboom.
Carlos Vidueria (12:01):
The industry before was not strong enough to
have expanded, so theopportunity would have come and
then it would have passed us by,it would have gone somewhere
else or nothing would havehappened.
But because we had expanded it,expanded the capacity when
opportunity knocked, we wereable to.
I don't know exactly how muchbigger the industry is, but I
imagine it's probably 50% atleast larger than it was before.
Kristina Hebert (12:24):
But I also think it's a mindset, that one
we can say it's an industry,it's a recognized industry, it
is a professional industry.
You're still going to havealways room for growth there.
But I think that most of thoseobjectives were accomplished and
I want to say that there were alot of people and not assisting
(13:05):
in making this better.
I feel like we, at this time ofyear, as the world's largest
boat show and there were a lotof people fighting us on that
back then.
Carlos Vidueria (13:16):
Well, I think the attitude back then was kind
of like hey, we're FortLauderdale, we're the yachting
capital of the world, and I usedto say it's good to have the
pride and say, look, we're proudof who we are.
But honestly, if you see therest of the world, it's.
Kristina Hebert (13:33):
Are we really?
Carlos Vidueria (13:34):
Yeah, do you really want to say we're the
capital?
I mean, that's verypresumptuous on our part when
you've seen some of the otherplaces, like you know, monaco
and so many other places, thatmake you kind of go like, well,
this was a pretty goodcompetitor for capital too, you
know.
And so if we want to be thatcapital which I think in a lot
of ways we have a very strongargument we need to expand our
(13:55):
offerings so that we can trulysay that we are and we can't
rest on our laurels from 1980,you know, and think that's going
to work in the 1990s and the2000s and the 2010s and now in
2024.
It's going to work in the 1990sand the 2000s and the 2010s and
now in 2024.
And I think you know it'sexpanded enough where you know
we have as good of a claim asanybody to that.
Kristina Hebert (14:15):
But I will tell you it wasn't without fight,
and I think you're breezing overthat.
We took a long time and we did,but I saw at many a meeting
that, in fairness, it requiredsomebody with your skills and
your qualifications.
I remember just watching youand you would be able to sit in
a room and we had people thatwere really trying to fight
against our industry and youknow where I'm going with this
(14:37):
and and and fight for, for whatwe have.
And I watched.
I watched these people come in.
I sat in meetings with you withpeople slamming their fists on
tables and, yeah, can I giveaway your telltale sign?
Yeah, yeah, because I'm the onethat.
Carlos Vidueria (14:53):
I knew you were going there.
Kristina Hebert (14:54):
I had to.
So yeah, so the telltale signfor everybody listening if
you're ever in a meeting withCarlos that it's not going your
way, you're going to know whenit's over.
When the phone comes out of thepocket and sits on the table
and he crosses his legs See,right now there's no phone, he's
good, he's comfortable, but ifhe crosses his leg and puts that
(15:15):
phone down, you're done.
Just go ahead, get up, takeyour water with you, but not in
a disrespectful and, in mostclarity, forceful argument to
the point.
That's not the way it's goingto happen and this is the way
it's going to be.
And you fought time and time andtime again.
I remember you showing up toLester's after being on a plane
(15:36):
for 18 hours because you decidedto go have a meeting with Miba
or go have a meeting withSeabass or go have a meeting
with the principals of Monacoabout the show.
And how can we?
Because there were times withthe dates and people weren't
sliding dates and and peoplecouldn't get back from Monaco to
go to Fort Lauderdale.
And there was this and justbeing able to go down, break
(15:57):
bread, go over there, have aconversation, sit down with them
and say, hey, we're a force tobe reckoned with?
We're not.
You know we're not just goingto get steamrolled here.
Look at our show versus yourshow.
You know we're not just goingto get steamrolled here.
Look at our show versus yourshow.
Only somebody like you.
You did that.
That's not a me, that was a you, and you were able to do that
and sit down because you alreadyhad the ears of many of these
people and that didn't benefitjust your business, you
(16:19):
benefited a whole industry bydoing those things, and I don't
know how many people really knowall that you did.
Carlos Vidueria (16:28):
Yeah, I mean it benefited us because, like you
know, we could not just be onepart in it.
The whole team had to elevate,you know.
So we spent a lot of time, onechanging people's perception of
us, but then also changing us,and and and and you know the,
the conversations you're talkingabout.
We'd go to meetings, christyand I, and you know we would
just for 30 minutes we would beinsulted, torn up and down why
(16:48):
we don't know what we're doing,and we would sit there quietly
listening, listening, andeventually you let people talk
long enough.
Then they kind of realize thatmaybe what I'm saying doesn't
make that much sense and youdon't have to do that.
And then by the end of themeeting they come around.
Kristina Hebert (17:05):
But every once in a while.
Carlos Vidueria (17:07):
They don't figure that out.
They listen to themselves for30 minutes and they're even more
agitated than before and yeahand then.
Then you have to kind of say,all right, this is not redirect
them in your way.
Yeah, yeah okay, we tried rightwe can do it the nice way, or
we can, we can be a little bitmore direct, but I mean, there's
never, never a need to to yellor scream or insult or just kind
(17:28):
of like look, this is what ourexpectation is, and then make
sure you can back it up.
Kristina Hebert (17:32):
You always handle it.
You leave the room With classand with grace and just never,
ever raise your voice ever.
But the people that weretalking to us did.
They sure did, and they wouldcall us names after.
But I do remember.
So another story I remember youdon't have to keep holding on
to that picture, even though Ihave a funny on that one that I
(17:55):
remember because I went with youguys and I remember showing up
to the hangar and I didn't wantto give the guy the keys to my
used F-150.
Carlos Vidueria (18:05):
Yeah well, you never know who's going to steal
your car, oh yeah.
Kristina Hebert (18:07):
And meanwhile I look over to my left and it's
you know, nice car, nice car,nice car.
There's that old F-150 that, bythe way, my son drives up in
New Hampshire now, oh good, yeah, yes, she's still around.
And I laugh because I was solike why am I worried about
(18:29):
giving my keys?
Carlos Vidueria (18:29):
keys, but yeah, um, we used to.
We used to for the audience, weused to pseudo babysit, uh, her
kids.
We'd be at lester's diner, youknow, eight in the morning on a,
on a, when there's no schoolthat day for whatever reason.
Oh, yeah and she'd drag them inthere, you know, and they'd be
sitting there, the table next tous eating chocolate chip
pancakes and chocolate milk.
Kristina Hebert (18:42):
You know what, though?
To this day, my kids lovelester's yeah this is like, and
I'm like, really you guys wantto go to less.
Oh they, nothing againstlester's, we love lester's,
we're gonna big plug but, um, ohyeah, they used to come to a
lot of meetings and and uh yeah,they sat at that table.
They probably know half theseissues yeah, yeah, that's funny
(19:02):
but I I do to go back to that.
I do remember you also weretalking about one thing in
changing the image.
You were saying we have to getpast the older guy going through
a midlife crisis.
He's going to go buy a yachtand go get a girlfriend.
Instead, we need to focus onthe families that are going on
(19:23):
these Not everybody that buys ayacht is this midlife crisis guy
that there are so many familiesand grandparents and and really
kind of changing the the imagethat all the images that used to
be to the Fort Lauderdale BoatShow was.
You know, sex sells and smutand not that there's anything
wrong with beauty and andelegance on a yacht but it was
(19:43):
also just kind of going downthat path and I remember you
saying wake up people.
Like, change your own companyads, let's talk about an
industry, let's talk about whatthat yacht is.
We don't need to have bow babeson everything.
And that was part of theprofessionalism, even speaking
to the board, getting allbusinesses to really up their
game and professionalism, and Idon't think anybody had ever
(20:03):
told them that before.
Carlos Vidueria (20:04):
I mean, the first step was to get a woman on
the board.
Kristina Hebert (20:06):
Yeah.
Carlos Vidueria (20:07):
So you did that .
Kristina Hebert (20:08):
Yeah, and that was not easy.
Carlos Vidueria (20:09):
Oh no, and then second was to kind of elevate
the statute of the industry andto not make it about that.
Maybe we have some customers,but the largest customer segment
is the family, thefamily-oriented use of that boat
, absolutely, and I think that'ssomething that really seemed
(20:32):
crazy when we presented it.
Kristina Hebert (20:35):
You wouldn't believe the people that were
against you.
Carlos Vidueria (20:37):
I remember you Against us, yeah, but I think
today it's pretty well accepted.
Everybody understands that,that that's not what we're
trying to do.
And for us, here we had, likeyou said, the divorcee or the
playboy wayward husband, thatkind of thing, but around the
world we had the same thing withthe image in different
(21:01):
countries and different types ofbuyers, and I think that that
started here and has spreadaround the world.
And one other was that startedhere and has spread, you know,
around the world.
Kristina Hebert (21:09):
And one other was matching the experience to
the expectation.
You know, what did we find out?
Let's see if you remember Iknow you do what's the number
one reason people go to a bojo.
Carlos Vidueria (21:22):
I don't know.
Kristina Hebert (21:22):
It was to have fun.
Carlos Vidueria (21:23):
It was to have fun, but you said let's match
the experience.
Kristina Hebert (21:26):
And I'll still remember this analogy and this
was when you were kind oftalking to us about how do we
engage that owner that comes,because you know people that are
coming to the boat show andagain within the focus of the
association that's why we'retalking about the boat show you
won't recognize a super yachtowner.
They're not coming in.
You know silk suits and anentourage of 30 people.
(21:50):
They could just be a plain Joeperson and how do we make sure
that their experience when theycome in?
Are they getting bombarded inthe trinket tent or by the
Budweiser girls, or are theygetting hit with the garbage
people that are driving by?
Like, how do we provide thesame experience to everybody?
Like, how do we provide thesame experience to everybody?
(22:10):
And I remember you gave theexample of there was somebody
that was new to the, was it toRybovich and you gave them a VIP
parking pass and a ticket to agame.
And the kid was so disappointedbecause his friends were
tailgating and he was up frontin this parking.
And you said you know, eventhough it was the best parking
pass ever and it was the bestavailability, it didn't match
the expectation of theexperience he was hoping to have
(22:33):
.
And what did you gain?
You can throw money atsomething and that doesn't make
it better.
And see, I remember that howmany years later yeah, yeah,
that's, that's.
Carlos Vidueria (22:40):
Uh, that takes a little thought, a little
planning, a little get to knowyour customer and understand
what motivates.
Kristina Hebert (22:45):
But you did that for the boat show.
You spent time talking withpeople, talking with show
management at the time beforeinforma and talking to the board
and talking to the and talkingto business leaders yeah, you
know, but those, those meetingsdidn't go so well.
Carlos Vidueria (23:01):
You know like they were you say that took a
while.
It took a while to kind of, andnothing against them, but they
had a business model that wasnot necessarily aligned with
what we were trying to do tomake the industry better.
You know, show managementeventually sold, you know, for a
handsome profit.
That was really their primaryobjective, you know Right, and
they were.
You know we were aninconvenient obstacle to doing
(23:25):
that.
Kristina Hebert (23:25):
Right.
Carlos Vidueria (23:26):
And, and you know, you know, ironically,
probably they would have waiteda little bit longer.
They would, they would havemade even more money.
Right, they kind of took thefirst exit that became available
and but today we, we enjoy thebenefit of that, although you
know, we need to reinventourselves again, you know.
Kristina Hebert (23:42):
I was just going to say that we can't sit
back and I think that that's oneof your.
Don't you find that in allelements of businesses that
you've worked in that it'susually when you there was
another statistic you used togive.
But whenever you're leading achange or part of an evolution
that you have so many, youreally only have to convince 15%
of the people.
85% are followers.
Carlos Vidueria (24:04):
Everyone else will follow.
It's a tough 15, but once youget to there that becomes a
tipping point and then everybodyelse will follow If you've kind
of created the infrastructureto support everybody else.
That's what I was kind ofsaying with COVID.
We kind of set in motion allthese things to make a bigger
industry and then when, finally,because of the timing, I mean
(24:24):
if COVID would have— you know, Inever thought about that, but
you're so right.
Kristina Hebert (24:28):
You're right.
We wouldn't have been preparedfor COVID 10, 15 years ago.
Carlos Vidueria (24:31):
Right, yeah, you know.
And COVID, if COVID would have,the timing would have been
different.
That leak would have been,instead of in November, december
.
If it would have been in July,you know, we would still be
where we were because the boatswould have been stuck in Europe.
They never would have come andwe would have had lost one
entire year of no business.
Boats would have gotten used tothe service in europe and maybe
(24:52):
they would never have come, youknow.
So we really, I mean, wecouldn't have timed it.
You know any better than thanthan you know, for a long term,
for our industry, the boats werestuck on this side of the world
, you know, and then that gaveus a chance to to well, just to
be clear, we didn't do it right.
We didn't.
Kristina Hebert (25:09):
We didn't, of course not All right, just
making sure Somebody did it.
Somebody did I agree with you.
It wasn't us.
Okay, but it wasn't us, itwasn't me, it wasn't you.
Okay, we're good, all right.
Carlos Vidueria (25:17):
But the timing couldn't have been any better.
But to the lot of the islandsin the Caribbean.
Yeah, you know, as soon asthings got bad, you know the
government kicked everybody out.
They had nowhere to go, theycouldn't cross the Atlantic,
they didn't have enough fuel,they didn't have the provisions.
(25:38):
They had to come back up to usand to the credit of of, you
know, florida and localgovernment, the counties.
You know they welcomed theseboats.
You, you know they welcomedthese boats.
You know we quarantined, we didall sorts of crazy things but
ultimately, you know, we letthem in and we took care of them
, you know, at great risk to usor perceived risk to us at the
time, but the industry was readyand the industry understood.
(26:01):
You know we weren't taking thecustomer for granted, we were
welcoming that customer and that, I think you know, started in,
you know, back in the early2000s when we started this whole
idea of don't assume we're theyachting capital of the world.
We need to earn that titleevery single day.
Kristina Hebert (26:19):
So what do we need to do next?
You said we still need to keepevolving, which I agree.
I feel like I'm always, justeven in my small microcosm of a
business, I'm always looking for.
What do we need to be ready for?
What do we?
How do we need to be agile?
What business, what?
How do we need to be able toengage in that, should it come
our way?
And looking at that, but whatdo you?
(26:40):
What do you think?
Well, I think, I think.
Carlos Vidueria (26:42):
I think during COVID, you know, you know,
before COVID a lot of the yachtbuilders were in trouble.
You know they were.
They hadn't quite gotten backto the boom times.
They were trying to get back tothat.
We created a lot of extracapacity and somehow we were
selling the boats.
But it was tough.
During COVID there was a hugedemand for the boats and those
(27:06):
boats- In all sizes too, In allsizes.
Yeah, Exactly right, in allsizes.
And now those boats.
You know which kind of happenedalso with the treadmill company
.
I forgot, I always forget thename.
You know the one, the ped,where you can bicycle, you can
cycle and see the.
Kristina Hebert (27:27):
Peloton, peloton, yes, peloton yeah.
Carlos Vidueria (27:30):
So Peloton had the same issue, except Peloton
was able to manufacture these alot quicker.
So all they did was pull thisdemand forward and then, when
COVID was over, there was nobodyleft that wanted to buy a
Peloton, because everybody thatwas going to buy a Peloton any
time between now and the nextthree years already bought one,
and there's no one left to buyit.
You know, and so we got to becareful that that's not what
(27:51):
happens to us here thateverybody that was going to buy
a boat didn't kind of buy it,you know.
So now all these boats are ineverybody's hands.
They need to have a greatexperience.
Kristina Hebert (28:00):
Agree.
Carlos Vidueria (28:01):
And if they have a great experience, then
they'll share it with theirfriends, and then those friends
will buy boats.
You know, if they have a badexperience then they'll tell
their friends.
The last thing you want to dois buy a boat, which we've been
talking about this for decades.
So now that's what we have todo.
We have to realize that theboats have gotten a lot bigger,
that they're much morecomplicated and there's a lot of
(28:24):
opportunity to have a boat comein and really take advantage of
them and get a big invoice outof them and then never see them
again.
But instead we need to bethinking how do I minimize this
invoice so that this guy willcome back every year for the
next 20 years?
That's really probably the nextstep.
The industry has been expanded.
Now we got to hold it here atthis level and then grow it
(28:48):
moderately in the future years.
Kristina Hebert (28:50):
And I think we have to worry about workforce
too.
Carlos Vidueria (28:53):
I think that's something that you can't do
without people, absolutely,absolutely, and people don't
want to.
You know it's not just ourindustry at all.
You know it's a lot moreglamorous to either go to
college and and and and or to,you know, be an influencer, all
these kind of phony short termcareers that are out there, you
(29:14):
know, and.
But if you don't get a personworking as an electrician early,
it's hard to get them to beproductive, you know, once they
get a little bit older.
So so you have to get themearly and, and you know we got
to make it attractive for fornew people to enter our industry
.
Luckily it's a beautifulindustry and the water there's a
(29:34):
lot of things a lot better thanothers, but it's still an
effort.
Kristina Hebert (29:38):
It is, and I think it has to be and remain a
full-time effort.
I know that we have a full-timerecruiter and if it's not every
day, it's probably four out offive days a week that we're
interviewing for something.
You've got to keep it goingBecause at the same time I know
for me and I'm sure in yourbusinesses as well, you have
people retiring.
(29:58):
There's this whole workforcethat is coming up and retiring.
I have to say I've had nothingbut really good experiences with
young people I've hired.
I believe there is a wholegreat young generation that's
really smart, that has a lot ofgreat ideas.
I think you just you have tofind people with similar work
(30:18):
ethic and discipline and build aculture, and I think you can
find it.
I think that the companies thatstruggle don't have a culture
that's open to young people oropen to different thoughts or
different avenues to differentthoughts or different you know
avenues.
Carlos Vidueria (30:31):
I think it's important for you to tell other
companies about that.
You know, because I think if Iwas, if I was in the industry
and I did or you know it wasn'tquite didn't know about the
industry like I would I wouldworry about that and then would
I want to buy a business.
So when someone's trying toexit, you know, will an outsider
buy it, right?
If I was going to leave mybusiness to my child, you know,
(30:52):
would I want to leave them witha business where there's no
people to do it?
You know.
So you know, whatever yourexperience is, that there's hope
.
I think that's an importantmessage to get out.
Kristina Hebert (31:03):
I agree and also I think you know let's
shift back to the boat show.
What do we see about boat shows?
I kind of am.
You know I'm going to havesomebody from Informa in this
season and you know I will askthe same question, but at some
point are boat shows going tolive forever?
Are boat shows going away?
Carlos Vidueria (31:31):
I think boat shows should be able to live
forever, except for the realestate upon which they you know,
the water upon which they exist, and you have some large
players that basically get paida large amount of rent to
subsidize the rest of theoperation and I just don't know,
as we talked earlier, ifthere's enough money to go
around to make it fun plus paythese rents.
(31:52):
You know, and most you know,we're not the only industry that
has this problem.
You know, professional sports,you know, has had a similar
problem and they're able tosubsidize that with television.
And then the television revenuestarted to be like is it going
to be enough or not?
And then the television revenuestarted to be like is it going
(32:13):
to be enough or not?
And then when gambling kind oftook off and became legalized,
it opened up a whole otherrevenue stream and that kind of
revitalized that whole segment.
So for Bocho to survive, we'regoing to have to find a new
revenue stream, evolve like yousaid, the exhibitors and the
admittance ticket is not goingto be enough.
So so you know, I know weexperimented with trying to get
(32:34):
some sort of television coverageor some other revenues, revenue
stream.
We were not able to find thatUh, but for it to survive, uh,
where people want to attend toit, you're going to have to,
you're going to have to think ofthat and it's possible.
I mean you, I mean you know,with you know influencers and
all the things that arehappening there's, you can
imagine a lot of different waysthat the boat show could
reinvent itself, but it has tofirst have to want to reinvest
(32:57):
itself that's what I was goingto say.
Kristina Hebert (32:58):
It has to want to, and then those that exhibit
have to demand that it does andhold it accountable.
Because I don't, I don't see alot of that.
I I see a lot of the same andthe same and the same and the
same, and it just gets moreexpensive and more expensive and
at some point that's an elastic.
That's taught.
And then you know, even talkingabout the Fort Lauderdale, look
(33:19):
at all the development sites.
Las Olas, you know, just kindof completed its redevelopment,
but the Convention Center is notgoing to be done until 2025.
Pier 66, beautiful renovation,but it's not going to be done
until 2025.
Pier 66, beautiful renovation,but it's not going to be done
until 2025.
Now behemr is starting.
You know, I just think you're.
You're always fighting withsome of these facilities that
(33:39):
should absolutely upgrade andand do the very best.
But is that going to and?
Carlos Vidueria (33:44):
after the upgrade do they still welcome
you?
You know like I don't know,that's right.
That's the big unknown, you know, right.
So you know, when we started,you know, monaco was kind of
like by far the best show.
It was amazing, you know.
And then over years they kindof took advantage of that, you
know.
And now there's a lot ofpushback about about monaco, uh,
and and so they all have their,their issues.
(34:04):
You know, palm beach became thedarling, you know, but but you
know, doesn't take too beforebefore.
Palm beach would fall into thesame trap if you don't reinvent
it.
Kristina Hebert (34:13):
Right, it's going to be an interesting time.
What else are you?
What are you seeing?
So so talk to me about the Palmbeach County health board that
you're chairman of.
Carlos Vidueria (34:25):
Oh yeah, it's the Palm beach County healthcare
district.
You know, when we, when webuilt the Marina up in West Palm
, we were very interested in inchanging the neighborhood,
improving the neighborhood,improving opportunity for the
residents that were there.
It's a historic neighborhood isas much as you can have.
History, and in in Florida, Imean our history started at the
(34:47):
turn, at the 1900s.
Basically In Florida, I meanour history started at the turn,
you know, at the 1900s,basically you know.
So when you talk about historyand some of the European
locations, it's a wholedifferent game.
Sure, but for us it's animportant history and the
residents there.
So when we first got there,wayne Housing and Junior's
vision was to kind of, you know,greatly improve that
neighborhood without, you know,gentrifying the residents that
(35:09):
were there.
And we tried all sorts ofthings in terms of providing
jobs for the local residents andincorporating, buying homes and
doing all sorts of things tokind of transform that.
Kristina Hebert (35:20):
Which, by the way, you were not welcomed at
doing that either.
Weren't there caricatures thatpeople you had to drive this
Crown Vic around that I thoughtwhat kind of car what's
happening over at Rybovich?
And it was just because youwere beat up for that for a long
time.
Carlos Vidueria (35:35):
Yeah, the Crown Vic is still a habit that I
have.
I don't drive a Crown Vicanymore, but it's not that much
better, okay.
But so the three things thatreally kind of change a person's
future outcomes are education,housing and health care.
(35:57):
You have to be healthy enoughto take advantage of the
opportunities that are in frontof you.
So we have a hospital districtbasically up there, basically up
there, and so the governornominated me for that board.
Have you learned a lot I mean,is that really out of your?
(36:20):
Well, I mean, like everythingelse, I, you know, I asked how
much time it was going to take,you know, like because I want to
make sure I could devote thetime that would be required, and
they said no, no, really, youdon't do much, you know you're
kind of on a board of seven.
And you know, anyway, at thefirst meeting they made me the
chairman, so that kind ofchanged the amount of work that
(36:42):
I had to do and that's a tough.
That's a tough, you know, justlike the marine industry when we
first started, you know healthcare is changing dramatically
(37:06):
around the world, and so lookingat that with the same kind of
way that we looked at the marineindustry and saying what's this
going to look like in 5, 10, 20years?
That's got to be bleak.
Look is it.
I mean, is there any optimism?
I think you're exactly right,that's got to be bleak, Is it?
Is there any optimism?
And all sorts of monitors thatcan prevent a lot of the
(37:27):
ailments that we have.
So I think if you do it theright way, you could greatly
improve the health.
Kristina Hebert (37:36):
Again, start with the youth.
Get them involved in this earlyprevention and healthy life and
healthy living.
Carlos Vidueria (37:43):
That's the easiest way.
It's a little difficult becauseyou don't want to trample on
people's freedoms, so you don'twant to force somebody to
necessarily not go to Dunkin'Donuts on the way into work, but
they should be aware of whatthat, what the consequences of
that are.
Yeah, what the consequences are.
(38:04):
And then make a decisionaccordingly.
So those are all.
I mean.
I think there's a tremendousopportunity, but anyway I got in
it because that was one of theelements, you know, to try to
help the residents.
You know on the north end ofWest Palm Beach, which
historically has been the partof all of Palm Beach County that
you know kind of got lessattention than the rest of the
(38:24):
county.
Kristina Hebert (38:25):
And you're still involved with Rybovich,
correct?
Carlos Vidueria (38:28):
Yeah, I mean we own the land where Rybovich is
at Safe Harbor marinas runs theactual marinas now, but we own
the land and our idea from thebeginning was to build a
facility there that would rivalMonaco.
So we have more boats therethan Monaco.
We have, I think, twice thenumber of super yacht or maybe
(38:49):
more of occupancy.
So we have a lot more boatsbecause we have them there 10
months out of the year, asopposed to Monaco is really four
or five months.
So we have a lot more activitythere.
And now we want to buildsomething on the upland, on the
land, that matches what's in thewater but build it in a way
that makes it a great place tolive but also a place that is
(39:12):
very conducive to the marina andencourages the marine industry
to continue to grow.
That without a great,prosperous marine industry,
those boats eventually will stopcoming and then you'll have a
big empty.
Kristina Hebert (39:21):
marina 100% agree.
Carlos Vidueria (39:22):
So the same thing that we talked for so many
years about doing at Bahia Mar,that, hey, how do you build a
great development here worthy ofFort Lauderdale but also
something that can still housethe boat show?
It's a tricky, tricky thing.
It's a lot easier when you havea committee of two than when
you're dealing with associationsand different businesses.
Kristina Hebert (39:45):
Do you have any insight on that at all of
what's happening with thebehemoth development?
Carlos Vidueria (39:49):
I don't, I don't have anything, anything
specific.
Kristina Hebert (39:52):
Me neither, yeah, yeah.
Carlos Vidueria (39:55):
But I think I think you guys have done a good
job of letting the city know howimportant that is and how
important the boat show is.
Hopefully, hopefully, that thatwill be done, but but it has to
come with a reinvention of theboat show itself.
I agree.
Kristina Hebert (40:08):
I agree Because then, in and of itself, not
only will it be profitable, butit'll be supportive for the
industry.
The industry will get behind it, the city will get behind it.
What's good for the cities,what's good for the industry?
So, politics, what are wethinking?
Is the world going to be overin the second week of November,
(40:29):
or are we going to?
Carlos Vidueria (40:29):
be in a good place.
Come on now.
I know it's a hard question,but you know you hate to say
things and then they just seemso ridiculous.
A month or two months later,after what happens, and the
world has changed so much, whowould have guessed that we would
be where we are today?
I agree.
So what I think isunquestionable?
That we are in uncharted watershere, that what has happened
(40:53):
nobody can believe has happened.
What has already happened, it'shard to believe happened.
Kristina Hebert (41:01):
And I feel like the show's not over yet.
I feel like there's a lot oftime between now and the
election and then post-electionand and not to use show, but I
feel like there's just everyweek there's something new
whatever, whatever happens afterthe election, uh, you know, we
have to get back on a coursewith either either party, back
on a course of where america'sleadership?
Carlos Vidueria (41:23):
uh uh, everybody's focused on, on
america leading.
You know, there there is no oneelse.
I can.
I can lead the world the waythat we can, for a lot of
reasons, and it would require usto, you know, go through a very
painful downturn for a longperiod of time for anyone else
to kind of challenge ourleadership, and that's not good
(41:44):
for anybody, even whoeverprevails.
So I think that we need to kindof focus back on the reasons
that we ended up on top in thefirst place and try to reinvent
ourselves and figure out how toget us back to there.
And that goes with everyindustry, all the industries.
(42:06):
What's going to happen in thenext five years?
Like I was talking abouthealthcare, that's going to
happen to every industry.
You know.
Ai is going to, you know, makeso many things much more
efficient, and it's going toallow us to research and
understand things that we neverknew were possible.
And that's going to displace alot of people.
And then those people need toreinvent themselves and they
(42:27):
need to prepare for that, not beafraid of that, but be prepared
for that.
Kristina Hebert (42:30):
How do we get people to not be afraid?
Because all I hear about AI notall that I hear, but comments
that I hear from people are thatyou know they're scared about
it, they're worried about it,that what happens when the bad
people take it over and it'slike, well, I feel like you
could say that about anythingthat you really just need to be
in front of it and you need toembrace it, and it's, it's, it's
(42:51):
really.
Carlos Vidueria (42:52):
Honestly, I don't think it's any different
than when we were in the marineindustry in 2004 and you could
see that what we were doingwasn't going to work forever,
you know, and you could see 2004, this association, you know, if
the boat show goes down, we'regoing to.
You know, we're going to loseeverything.
And, sure enough, four yearslater, that's where we were, you
know.
And but what did we do?
(43:13):
We figured it out, you know,and that's what you know,
everybody in this country hasdone, you know, since, since its
inception.
There's no reason to believethat's going to be any different
.
Right, you know?
So AI is just that next thing.
It's just gonna be a lot faster.
Yeah, you know, it's gonna.
I mean it's gonna because itfeeds on itself, and it's gonna
(43:34):
just gonna.
You know, uh, all of a sudden,everything's gonna be quite
different and you're gonna haveto go like, okay, now how do I
adjust?
But things are already quitedifferent, you know, I mean, I
mean they really are yeah, withyour phone.
there's nothing that you youknow.
Any question you have, you canget it answered already you know
, which is not at all what itwas like before.
So you know, we're not beholdento those people that had
certain knowledge or access toknowledge.
The knowledge is available.
(43:55):
The question is, what are yougoing to do with it?
Right, and that requires youknow some formal training
no-transcript should haveconfidence that we did it before
(44:16):
and we'll do it again.
So, uh, but we can't do italone.
We gotta, we gotta find out whoelse is like-minded and work
with them.
They may be your competitor,but you can work with your
competitors 100% agree.
Toward making the industrybetter.
And the better the industry,the more customers you'll have.
The more customers you'll have,the stronger you are.
(44:38):
And then it circles back tothen you can make a better
industry.
Either put that money in yourpocket or you can make the
industry better.
Kristina Hebert (44:45):
Well, if you make the industry better, yes,
yes, in your pocket, or you canmake the industry better and I
can make the industry better,yes, yes, and reinvest and and I
know for us, I, I, I preach alot with our company that we've
made it to 75 years, but I don'twant to celebrate the
anniversary.
I want to celebrate the yearsand and also we're just getting
started.
We didn't reach a milestone andnow we're going to go sit down
and and be tired.
We're just getting started andthere's so many wonderful things
(45:07):
to look forward to in thefuture and I'm happy that,
because of my anniversary, I hadthe weird idea to do this and I
got to sit with you for an hour.
So I appreciate you being hereand thank you so much for your
time.
Oh, of course, thank you.
Thank you so much.
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