The thing with a private aircraft is you
do it once and you hear the word want.
Oh my God, this is great.
I want one.
If you be careful audience.
If you do it twice, the word
want gets replaced with need.
I need one.
The hook is in.
Nobody ever gets hurt
because they just unleash.
It's like a super power Cape
and it's not just the visual.
It's not just the convenience.
It's not just the security.
It's not just the safety.
It's a force multiplier.
One in 10 of those trips will make you
over a million dollars.
Welcome to Own the Jet by Aspen Aero
Group, where we share perspectives from
some of the leading voices in private jet
ownership and business aviation.
I'm your host, Derek Savage, along with
my co-host Jason Spoor,
president of Aspen Aero Group.
Our guest today is Roger
Wolsey, the CEO of Millionaire.
Roger oversees a global network of five
star FBO facilities
that provide a seamless
and luxurious experience
for jet owners worldwide.
Join us as we dive deep into the
mechanics, mindset and moments that
define jet ownership.
And together we'll learn
what it takes to own the jet.
So much for being on Own the Jet.
Absolutely.
It's a pleasure, believe me.
Yeah, absolutely.
Glad to have you.
It's a pleasure, believe me.
For everybody that's listening, everybody
that's watching, we are shooting on
location here at
Millionaire in White Plains, New York.
Millionaire is an FBO, that means fixed
base operator, and
that is basically like a
private...
Am I describing this right?
Is it like a private air terminal for
people who own their own aircraft?
That's right.
Just like an airline has to have a
terminal to put passengers
on and off or get a rental
car, get back to their vehicle.
You have to do the
same for private aviation.
So we're really a...
It's kind of a combination of a gas
station, if you want to
look at it that, versus a...
or a terminal, but it's
really a VIP terminal.
So terrible, terrible nomenclature FBO,
but that's what it is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, it's one thing I'm finding
with aviation, there are so many
acronyms that like I
get lost sometimes, right?
That's right.
So I have to remind myself and I guess a
lot of the people that I talk to in
aviation, it's like, I
don't know what that means.
So in other words, Roger, I could have a
whole conversation and you would have no
idea what I'm talking about.
It's just alphabet soup to me.
The V1, go to the T2
and then, you know, yeah.
Yeah, it's like the flaps up there.
Yeah.
And then all the letters are words and
all the times are like military.
It's a lot.
Well, fixed base operation, people don't
realize, but when aviation first, first
started, it was barnstorms.
I mean, these were the red barons with
twin aircraft and they would literally
give rides by landing in fields, talking
a farmer out of some free gas and he'd
give rides.
So there was no fixed airport, which is
the F for fixed and
then the base, because
the military and then the float planes
back in the day, the Clippers, they were
on water moving.
So then it was based.
Yeah.
So the military is
really kind of what gave it.
And then of course, operations, because
you've got jets moving and towing and
fueling and fixing and hanger.
And it's like a boat dock Marina.
When an aircraft lands, they're going to
need a rental car or their families
here to pick them up.
So the family can gather here, their
friends, if they're doing business,
they're, they're, they're bank or their
customers can be waiting on them.
So when they land,
they have a place to meet.
We actually have conference rooms for
them to have meetings.
And you've got these in multiple cities.
I mean, this isn't
the only one you've got.
How many, how many millionaires exist?
We're in 30, 38 cities
across North America right now.
So few in Canada, down in Columbia, all
the way up to the, to the
Americas right now.
That's awesome.
Yes.
So, so how, how did
you get in this business?
How, how does one become the, the leader
of an FBO organization?
Well, I don't know.
It's a, they fall there.
I think, you know, no, it's, no, I start,
I, I lived close to an airport when I was
young. So of course, you know, looking
through the fence, I saw airplanes and
thought that'd be really cool.
And you know, one day when I was at six,
you know, 15, 16, I took my first flying
lesson. Okay.
This is one of the few great privileges
of our country and nation.
You can actually start flying before you
can drive, which is amazing.
So 15 started taking the lessons.
High school got my ratings.
I had made it through all my professional
ratings by the time I graduated high
school.
And yeah, it's impressive.
Lucky for me, one of the, one of the
gentlemen, I mowed his yard and painted
fences and, you know, to
make money to learn flying.
I did not know that he was even a pilot,
but he was Eric
Clapton and, uh, uh, really,
it was his personal pilot.
Oh yeah.
Personal pilot.
Yeah.
Oh, and Julio Iglesias.
Yeah.
He told me one day and said, you know,
Hey gee, did you ever.
So you just happened to have a neighbor
that flew these guys around.
Please guys.
Right. It was his weekend home, uh, that I used
to take care of and I didn't know this,
but, uh, next thing I knew three days
later, I was the co-pilot to Stevie
Nicks and her world tour
with Fleetwood Mac and, uh,
and your life changed like that.
My life changed overnight.
So, you know, it's, uh,
my life changed overnight.
So started flying the rock bands.
Started my own
company with the rock bands.
Uh, you know, a lot like what you do.
Yeah.
Um, a band would Lisa
playing cause it's pretty.
Yeah, for sure.
And I happen to also be
in your A and P mechanic.
So I would fly it the day, work on it at
night, fly the day
and work out the night.
We almost missed a concert one time.
I was flying the bay in Chicago.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
I owe them a lot.
Right.
So they, uh, showed up early and I'm
still grieving from
working on the airplane
all night and, uh, they're making fun of
me and I'm young and I'm like, guys.
It's not a guitar.
It's not a drumstick.
It's, it's an airplane and
you lease a pretty plane.
You call me to fly it.
I said, would you please let me pick out
your airplane because behind the paint
might be termites, right?
It's good.
You know, maybe, maybe
it's a great airplane.
You need some paint interior.
Yeah.
Agreed.
So they said, you know,
that'd be a good business.
Yeah.
And, um, all fight, I at 19 years old, I
heard them tell me to start my business.
Not that that would be
a good business anyway.
I started my business, um, uh, and, uh,
within about three years, I was running
90% of all the rock and roll bands in
North America on tour.
Yeah.
We're pretty good.
Uh, good for having a good reputation,
staying on time and getting them good,
safe transportation.
Yeah.
What kind of planes were you using?
Primarily Gulf streams.
I had, you know, back in the day, we had
by counts Gulf streams primarily.
We had a few Lear jets, several honors,
you know, small jets, but, uh, we
were running the jets on tour from that
one night I had a particular country
Western band that,
uh, a wife broker femur.
We had to get a Medivac.
Then one of those showed
up sort of the same thing.
I went, huh?
Yeah.
Why is it not nice?
Just cause it's an ambulance.
I mean, it looked kind of beat up.
So within six months I
was in the air ambulance.
And today, so all these
things keep happening.
They're just like, I'm going
to get in this business now.
Well, it's, it, I don't mean to, you
know, it's honestly, uh, you
remember the Gillette commercial is my,
the guy said, you know, I love the
razor so much about the company.
Yeah.
I see things need to be fixed.
And then I ended up getting
in it for the wrong reason.
I just want to fix the product.
And then God, they've made money, you
know, so the touring made money.
It led me to the Medivac business, which
today we are probably one of the
largest Medivac, even though millionaire
is known for our luxury terminals.
Yeah.
And, uh, but I have a
boutique business that does Medivac.
We've done 27,000 heart, lung liver
transplants since we've been a business.
Wow.
Outstanding.
Yeah.
It's a, it's astonishing really.
That is.
So we probably any given day have 10 to
14 aircraft in the sky
doing medical transplants,
which is another business.
People don't think of
general aviation doing.
So are those airplanes based nationally?
Yeah.
They're strategically placed where the
transplant centers are.
So we have some in California, some in
Texas, some in Florida.
Yeah.
Okay.
And, um, and then we have the, and then
what that did is it caused me to
keep coming back to the same
gas station, same in the middle.
And again, I got frustrated with that
because like gas stations, they
were gas stations and
I thought these really.
Are the first and last
impression of a flight department.
And, you know, people
get private aviation wrong.
Actually, I think, um, they're there.
Yes.
They they're in the movies.
They think they're luxury.
They think it, you know, it's rock stars
and movie stars that fly them,
but they're business tools.
Exactly.
They're absolute business tools.
Yeah.
And, um, I mean, the way I've always
described them is like one of these.
I mean, they look, I
remember the first cell phone.
I thought it was luxury.
Yeah.
But exactly.
I could go back to using my rotary dial
phone, but how productive what I lose.
Right.
And so that's what the
private airplanes are.
They're high productive tools.
And I just thought they're a big deal and
the facility should be a big deal.
They should represent you when you land
in depart, because your bankers,
your family, your investors, your friends
are walking through these facilities.
Right.
And the experience
doesn't end at the aircraft.
And, uh, so that's why we got into the
millionaire FBO brand.
And that ends up now being the really the
bigger business of everything we do.
Yeah.
Nice.
And that's, that's absolutely right.
You know, looking at different facilities
that, that do the same thing, you know,
millionaire seems to with every, every
facility takes it to the next level.
And we take it to the next level.
Well, we try to mimic
the environment too.
I mean, you know, we, we, we were in
prior to the
pandemic, we were in Beijing.
Well, everything was very Chinese inside.
It wasn't like, uh, an American luxury.
Right.
When we're in the Bahamas, uh, we're not
really in suit and tie because when you
come to Bahamas, 95% of our
customers are on vacation.
So we're literally in short
sleeve shirts and Bermuda shorts.
And we actually greet the aircraft with a
margarita when you're like,
so it's a, we try to take on and be a
representative of that community.
That's great.
Uh, but, uh, but they're absolutely
supposed to, you know, feel safe, feel
luxurious, uh, because you're typically
conducting business and we're trying to
help you.
I mean, they say you first taste your
food with your eyes.
So we want to be a part of that
experience, whatever purpose or mission
you're doing with that aircraft, whether
you're on vacation with your family or
you're raising capital for your business,
or you're trying to close that very
important deal with a customer.
We want to make sure we, we first help
your, you know, your entourage
taste the food with their eyes.
We want to be a part of that experience.
And this facility here
definitely does that by the way.
Thank you.
We've, we've been operating kind of out
since we've been here.
We have all this gear
and we have all this stuff.
So we've, we've been operating out of one
of your conference rooms that you have
here, which has been great because now
we're able to like, you know, actually
conduct business because, you know, not
only are we doing on the jet, but Jason
owns a business and you know,
he's trying to do some stuff.
So, um, you know, we,
we have things to do.
We have, you know,
business to take care of.
You've got the facilities here to do it.
So that's been great.
Uh, your staff has been great here.
I mean, we've had, uh, Arvin helping us
out ever since we've landed.
And even before to scout out locations
and, and just make sure
that everything was great.
So yeah, I mean, it's, it's really been a
different experience and a better
experience than, you know, the last time
I flew Delta and, or, you know,
and I take your shoes off,
you know, it's different.
It's a problem is they
can't keep a schedule.
I mean, I mean, it's, it's
really, really tough right now.
And what was it?
Susan are to war.
It says, you know, when your enemy's busy
killing themselves, don't interrupt them.
You know, the airlines are really driving
a lot of people to us.
And yeah.
And, and the thing with a private
aircraft is you do it
once and you hear the word
what, Oh my God, this is great.
I want one.
If you be careful audience.
Yeah.
If you do it twice, the word
want gets replaced with need.
Yeah.
I need one.
The hook is in.
Nobody ever gets hurt
because they, they just unleash it.
It's like a superpower Cape.
And it's not just the visual.
It's not just the convenience.
It's not just the security.
It's not just the safety.
It's a force multiplier.
One in 10 of those trips will make you
over a million dollars.
I mean, you know, I mean yesterday I did
a meeting in, in, in one state.
By the afternoon I gave a speech in, in
Denver, and then yet I was able to get
here this morning for accounting meeting
this morning and able to do this.
And I'm a nobody.
Yeah.
If I didn't have a
private aircraft, right.
There's no way I could, each of those
were in a different city, except for the
county and this this morning, they were
all in different States.
Yeah.
So to be in four meetings and less than
24 hours in three different states.
That can only be done, right?
Just like I can do an
email and a phone call.
Whereas if I have to go back to the old
day of writing a letter, licking a stamp
and using my rotary doll phone, right.
You're just less productive.
And that is literally the
world without a private airplane.
Yep.
And it's a time machine, right?
It creates tons of time.
Just like you said, you just, you got it
out of time yesterday.
It just does.
What's the thing that you feel makes
millionaire the gas station that people
want to go to now that I'm calling it a
gas station, but no, no, you're right.
You're right.
For this is the only FBO
that I personally been to.
Right.
Um, but, but your brand from what I can
tell is about the experience and about
the luxury, um, well, what, what can,
what can you say about that?
Being a pilot myself
and flying executives.
Uh, businesses, uh, rock rock stars.
Yeah.
I really understand the power of
everything around it, helping
to communicate the message, the quality.
So literally we're just
trying to elevate that experience.
So millionaire, you know, I mean, to, to
use a cliche, we, we, you know, we
probably are the four seasons, uh, or the
Amman, uh, in, in a sea of, uh,
best Westerns.
Yeah. I, I, I, as a pilot
myself, I agree with that.
Yeah.
I agree.
But even a best Western is better than
going commercial or, or, you know,
when you're trying to get things done.
I mean, you know, and, and not every, you
know, not every city can
have three or four, I mean, we've got
seven fireplaces in this facility.
Yeah.
We've got four, I mean, yes, this is a
little over top, but we're New York City.
Yeah.
So we have ambassadors, we have CEOs of
almost every major fortune, 100,
you know, 500 coming
through the facility.
So we need to reflect that.
Now, if you get into Indianapolis,
Indiana, we're very, very fantastic too.
But guess who one of our top clients are?
What are we talking about?
All the, all the race cars.
So we got a race theme, you know, the
Indy 500 and it's a little more.
So it's, it's, um, we just try to take on
the local, local field, but, but, but
aviation as a whole, it's about making a
force multiplier for the end user.
So whether you're in Falfarious, Texas,
Tawnytown, Arkansas, or New York City,
you're going to have
maybe some different levels.
Uh, but having a private aircraft,
whether it's a piston
plane, turboprop or jet,
you're going to, you're
going to get things done.
You never dreamt you can do.
And you're going to, you're going to
provide your employees the ability to
have a life with their family while they
massively produce, and you're going to
have a loyalty out of your employee base
that you've never had before.
Yeah.
So cause you're providing them.
Time.
Elegance time, quality of life and
getting back to their
family, keeping them safe.
And you're having really, really good
conversations while you're playing.
It's exactly the most productive time I
have in my day is in the airplane.
I'm not getting interrupted.
I'm, I'm focused on my customer, my bank,
or if I'm on the internet, I can
really get things done.
So, so airtime is extreme productivity
opposite of what you're used to.
If you've never used an
aircraft, because if you're on the
airline, there is no privacy, right?
Right.
There is no conversation.
There is, you know, in
you internet, good luck.
It might work.
We're anticipating this year is going to
be a lot of new jet owners, right?
Because you've got the bonus depreciation
situation happening.
And like everybody in the business that
I've talked to, it's like, yeah, a lot of
people are going to be buying jets and
there's going to be a lot of new jet
owners, what are some things that like
new jet owners might need to know about,
you know, owning a jet and coming to an
FBO, coming to millionaire.
What are some things that like, maybe
they don't know that they need to know?
Well, a couple of things.
One, you're, you're good FBOs out there
with, and there's, there's quite a few,
you know, we're, we, we, you know, not
the only one, even though we like to
strive to be there.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
But you got to look at us
like a concierge center.
I mean, we've got staff, we've got
conference rooms, even if you live,
uh, okay.
I'm in Houston, Texas, FBO, and you live
in Houston and you're my base tenant.
In other words, you keep
your jet in my facility.
You know, what you do is you call us and
you say, we're leaving at 11 in the
morning, I'd like to have food.
I want this.
I want that.
We can still come in and have meetings in
our conference rooms prior to you
leaving, or when we can help you on the
other end, hotels, restaurants,
recommendations, facilities work.
So we are a concierge, but on top of
that, then we also take care of your
aircraft so that you
don't worry about it.
I want my customers.
They're so diverse.
I have tugboat operators.
I have lawyers.
We have, uh, medical
center, uh, operators.
I have heart surgeons.
Yeah.
Uh, we have aircraft brokers.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, hanger, big people who make
clothes, pins, I have chicken
producers.
That's awesome.
I want you to worry about the chickens
and the clothes pins and the aircraft
sales, let us worry about the logistics
behind the scenes so that you just get
to point eight point B go close a deal,
create value, open a new plant, get
some new jobs, the airplane can take
that's what it's supposed to do.
It's supposed to empower you to do your
magic seamlessly stress free.
Let us handle the rest.
And I'd say another thing that we can do
a millionaire can do for a new aircraft
operator is in a really weird way.
We can be the silent partner.
Okay.
Meaning you buy the aircraft, your
corporation by the airplane and in, and
think of it like an Airbnb.
Okay.
If you're not using it every day of the
week, let me go put some passengers on
it a day or two and you're not using it.
And I can help to free your costs.
And, uh, you know, we, we, uh, that,
that, that's not a bad partnership.
And I say it's the silent partner because
you still own the airplane.
You design it.
It's not like, well, I don't want
somebody to dirty my plane.
They're not going to.
And number two, if you need it and they
need it, guess what?
You own the plane.
You get it.
We've got 80 airplanes.
I mean, we're very boutique, but you
know, that are in charter fleets,
plus other operators, we'll just put them
in another airplane, but it helps
bring some costs down on the owner.
So they're not carrying
the full financial burden.
So if you're brand new,
you've never done it before.
Right.
I highly recommend that test it out
because you can say
no to the trips or you
can say yes, and if you end up using the
plane so much that you don't need that,
don't want that kind of cut it off.
You don't have to Airbnb
your, your, your house.
Yeah.
So, so, so talking about costs and
talking about
expenses, like that's, that's
a big part of owning a plane or owning a
jet that, you know, you, you have to, I
know Jason, you have to talk to people
about that all the time when they're,
when they're like, I
want such and such jet.
You're like, well, it's not
just the price of the jet.
You got to worry about everything else.
So there's operations, you gotta, you
gotta pay for this thing and it doesn't
go, you know, so you've got a lot,
certain amount of money
every year to keep this
happening.
And you've kind of got three buckets in
owning an airplane, right?
You got the purchases.
Good news is you'll get that back when
you sell it, but that is bucket one.
Bucket two then is never fly it.
Don't ever fly it.
Think of it like a horse.
You still got to put her in a barn.
Yeah.
You still have insurance and your pilot
salaries, even if you don't fly.
So that's what we call the fixed costs.
Yeah, that's fixed.
Yeah.
And then you have the hourly, when you do
use it, you are burning gas and you're
putting some catering on the plane and
paying some landing fees.
So those are your three buckets.
What you can't do is take all those costs
and compare it to an airline ticket.
Right.
Again, you want to compete with me with a
rotary phone and sticking a stamp on
your mail.
Right.
Right. You want to let me close the deal and
steal the acquisition or take your
customer while your mail is
still at the US Postal Service.
Yeah.
Right.
It is literally like that.
Yeah.
In the meetings.
I mean, um, I'm sure it's a big flex if
like, you know, your, your, your
competitor flies in on Southwest and you
know, you've been there for a day or two.
Yeah.
And rolling up in your private jet.
And I'll tell a true
story that happened again.
I'm a nobody compared
to most of our clients.
Right.
And, uh, I, I had a particular, uh,
airport I was wanting
to get on really badly.
Okay.
Not so easy to get to.
I had just happened to hear that, that
the opportunity finally popped.
Yeah.
So I called down and I'm like, Hey, I
hear, and I said, Oh,
you don't understand.
We already have a deal.
I'm like, what do you
mean you already have a deal?
I thought this, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're going to be in, you know, on
Saturday, we're going to sign it.
We're going to close in a week.
I'm like, but today's Wednesday.
Why are they not there now?
Well, they got to make the logistics.
I mean, it's not easy to get to.
They got to go change planes.
I said, I'll see you this
afternoon at four o'clock.
And he's like, it is 11.
I said, I'll see you at four.
And I ran out, got my jet.
I flew down.
I closed the deal that night.
The next morning I took it.
Yeah.
I took the opportunity.
That's great.
So, you know, if you sell, you run power
plants or your, it doesn't
matter what business you're in the
trucking industry, you know, you can go
close a deal with the orange producers
or, you know, before your competitors
can get there, or if you're in a
production company, you know what I mean?
Though even if you're in manufacturing
and your plant gets shut down,
cause you need a part,
don't wait for it to be shipped.
I mean, I one time flew a pipe, a piece
of pipe three feet long to dead horse
Alaskan, it was an
$80,000 charter, right?
And I thought, my God, that is an
expensive piece of pipe.
They're like, yeah, but we're losing a
hundred grand an hour
for the rig to be down.
Yeah.
See you, sorry.
Yeah.
Hurry up.
So most your aircraft owners are in
businesses that they have more uses for
that asset than they've ever even dreamt.
Even when they're thinking about buying
one, they don't even know all the
ways it's going to save them.
Right.
So it's pretty good.
And I guess it's what's the opportunity
cost of not having it.
So, so that's where, that's
where a lot of this comes in.
And so it's the opportunity
cost or closing that deal.
So again, if I were to go back and say, I
own my own airplane to fly to that
opportunity and I divided out all this
cost, holy cow, I spent
30 grand to do that trip.
I could have bought an
airline ticket for a thousand.
Yeah.
But I lost a $60 million deal.
Yeah.
Adds a lot of perspective.
Yeah.
It's, it kind of makes sense when
something's that way.
Yeah.
So that, that, that, that, that's, you
look at those costs,
but that's where you,
and you get that a lot, right?
And whether it's a public company or
private, you know, how do I justify the
airplane and you see guys getting wrapped
up with this all the
time and just because
of the opulence of an airplane.
But at the same time, like you just said,
you know, if you took that and divided it
out, ran it against your budget, the
airplane's going to win every time.
You can't compare it to just your
transportation to cost to transportation
costs, you have to throw the opportunity.
Yep.
Always.
What did you win?
What did it, what did it create for you?
Right?
That's, I mean, you go buy a semi truck.
It's expensive.
You could have bought a bicycle.
Why didn't you buy the truck?
Cause it hauls things and makes me money.
Okay.
The airplane's going to make you money.
Yes, it is.
That's why it's there.
Or you've already made your money and
you're going to have a quality of life
you've never had.
So you're in one of the buckets, but 90%
of our buyers, 90% of our operators,
yeah, are, are, are business uses.
They really aren't just
the vacation of the family.
You just happen to be able to take a
vacation with it when you want.
It's a twofer.
Yeah.
It's a one plus one
equals seven transaction.
What's your favorite plane?
What do you, what do you fly?
Yeah.
What do you own?
What are you flying?
What's, what's your,
what's your, what's your jam?
Right here.
That's a hard question.
And honestly, you're a pilot though.
You're a pilot for it.
Since you're 15, 16, right?
I have a small Bonanza, which is a little
six passenger prop plane.
Okay.
Uh, I love that airplane because of
anything I do, even business.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, it's the
price of a Ferrari to buy.
So it's not that expensive and it wants
to God and gas and
it's the same as driving.
I mean, I'm doing 200 mile an
hour for 13 gallons an hour.
Right.
So it's, it's great
machines like driving.
So I love that little airplane for my
small stuff, but obviously it's not big
enough to do a New
York, LA or Texas, New York.
So I do have a small jet.
So I have a citation.
Yeah.
Um, but also because I'm in the Medivac
business, I actually have a fleet of
airplanes, so I have Lir jet citations.
I have King Air to King Air 350 eyes.
Okay.
Yeah.
There were props.
Um, and then for the fun side,
I do have an L 39, which is a
Czechoslovakian fighter jet,
which is fun for air show work.
You have a Czechoslovak.
You can just blast it through the
Czechoslovakian fighter jet.
Oh, by the way.
Yeah.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
So that's nuts.
Yeah.
Well, you know, it, it, it, it, for,
okay, again, it's a lot of fun.
Okay.
And, uh, it's, uh, it's
just, it's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's
really what it's for.
But I'll tell you again, that can't
possibly make you mind.
Right.
It's interesting.
You can sell rides.
Well, you know what I do, I mean, Elton
John happens to be a client of ours.
Yeah.
It still stays with us.
I mean, I fly a lot of hospitals and they
do, they do charity work.
And I donate, you know, I'll donate a
fighter jet ride as an auction item.
Yeah.
And awesome.
One of Elton's that raised $50,000.
We just did one last week in Colorado
for, uh, uh, you
know, uh, another charity.
And then, uh, they, they just raised
$30,000 for the ride.
Yeah.
So again, and, and, and it, it, there's
no quid pro quo for it, but these are
clients, they're their friends.
I mean, you know, and so
it's a great, it's a great tool.
It's a lot of fun.
It's kind of cool that you're taking
something that was built as a tool of war
making charity work with it.
Yeah.
That's right.
We've done stuff for, for the
children's hospital, the, uh,
Shriners, the burn centers.
Uh, we do a lot of military, uh,
awareness, uh, things like that.
We'll, we'll show up for
things flyovers, things like that.
And the air shows.
And then we have, and then another one,
uh, is a World War II bomber.
Okay.
We have an eight 26, uh, invader.
Yeah.
And if you, if you stick a gun in my head
and make me choose my favorite airplane
of all those, it's
going to be the bomber.
Really?
Yeah.
It's uh, okay.
Is that even legal?
Like, I know it's a bomber.
You're like, it's cool
if you don't bomb anyone.
Right.
Exactly.
Well, it's a World War II.
Uh, it's unique.
Okay.
It, uh, it was in the
Battle of the Bulge.
Oh, wow.
It also was in the Korean war.
Okay.
Um, so what is amazing about that is we
still have a lot of vets that
were losing them fast.
Yeah.
Uh, but they're still with us.
And so this is something that millionaire
put together restored and
made it a flying piece of history.
Nice.
Uh, we like to go to grand openings.
We like to, you know, we open a new
facility or a new hanger, you know,
we like to have events.
Yeah.
We also fly to air shows.
We'll put it on display, but every World
War II pilot or World War II vet.
I mean, when we were in Normandy, just
last summer, we had one that was in the
death March on the ground
when the A26 came over his head.
He came up to the aircraft, held it and
just balled like a baby.
There were 30 of us around
him and we all started to cry.
Oh yeah.
For sure.
So, uh, it's a way to honor our past, but
it's also a way to inspire our future.
And why I say inspire future because I
want to be honest,
when I was in my public
education in Northwest
Arkansas, I hated history.
But you show up with an aircraft like
this, it's got stories and you've got
young kids and they'll look
at it and they get enthused.
They get enthusiastic.
They enjoy history.
Maybe they want to be in aviation.
I mean, it makes it real.
If you're a pilot, an engineer, a
mechanic, which is a
great, great, great career.
Yeah.
Um, it starts usually at an air show.
So they say, a picture's worth a thousand
words, but an
experience is worth a thousand
pictures.
Yeah.
So we love to honor our
past, inspire the future.
And that's really what
the eight 26 is about.
So we get it out as much as we can.
We just last week at Oshkosh with it.
Yeah.
You know, we, we, we love it.
So it's a great tool.
That's awesome.
That is awesome.
Yeah.
I was expecting you to just be like,
yeah, I love my citation, but yeah,
that's a great story.
Citation is the magic carpet ride that
makes things happen.
I, I mean, I've closed
deals being two cities at once.
And if I'm going somewhere, uh, myself, I
don't like empty seats.
I'll load up a six, seven more of my
teammates and police.
Yeah.
And say, come with me sometimes.
I'll tell you what I one time left
Houston and was going
to Austin and I had four
empty seats and I looked in the facility
and I grabbed four of my housekeeping.
Now housekeeping has
never been in a private jet.
Right.
Yeah.
And I'm like, you're coming
with me, get in the plane.
Like, Oh my God.
Why?
I said, one, I want you to experience the
people that you serve every day.
Two, I want you to go
see another facility.
Three, they do something better than you.
I want you to learn it and bring it back.
Number four, you do
something better than they do.
I want you to teach it and leave it.
Five, we're going to jump in a crew car.
We're going to go get a great meal.
We're going to have a good time.
Yeah.
All those employees,
this was eight years ago.
They're all still with me.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
You know, stuff like that.
Yeah.
It creates an environment of, uh, you
know, family versus a job.
And so again, yeah.
Yep.
Does it sound like I
like private airplanes?
Yeah.
I mean, I love your business.
I love that you're infecting new people
and you're helping people get into this
because they will never regret it.
It is not, this is not
the business of the boat.
Best or worst day buy it, sell it.
It's not this business.
That's right.
What's in the future for millionaire?
Well, we love this face.
Um, I, I do try to think strategically
sometimes, um, you know, uh, there's
always a downward pressure or
commoditization and every business you're
ever in, I don't care what you're in.
There's a pressure on you.
Uh, there is an R so I want to continue
to try to keep it personal and relevant.
I do not want to turn into the, you know,
uh, Sanford and sons
of gas stations again.
I think that these need to stay very nice
and elegant and hopefully
our customers still do that.
Yeah.
You know, the fax machine
never saw email coming, right?
And just took them right out of business.
I mean, Kodak did not see
the iPhone, take them out.
Right.
Yeah.
But I think until Star Trek, you can beam
a person from point A to point B.
You're going to be here.
You need airplanes because I can call you
on the telephone and talk to you.
Yeah.
Uh, I can, you know, cut a deal on zoom,
just as good, but I have
never in my life actually done it.
I need to see you face to face.
I want to be there.
I want to shake your hand.
I need to see the property.
I need to meet your
people to do business.
And if, and if, and I don't know a human
being that doesn't have that same trait.
So we need transportation.
We need to get, uh, from
point A to point B to do deals.
The world is spinning faster.
Businesses is more competitive.
And, um, so I don't see this as a fad and
I don't see some new
innovation knocking us out of business.
So I think we're relevant.
We just need to keep doing our job well.
Uh, and, uh, so, so millionaire wants to.
Continue to grow, you know, build, build
out the management team a little bit,
build out the locations to more airports.
And, um, you know, we don't
want to take over the world.
I'd rather be again, not, I don't know.
I gotta be careful naming out brands.
Don't I mean, but I would run it.
Shit, dude.
It's cool.
Yeah.
It's all good.
Well, I'd rather be
Ferrari than, than, than Ford.
Yeah.
I just would, you know?
And so we're never going to try to take
over every airport in the world.
I want to stay tight and
boutique, but I want to be nimble.
And I want to stay quality.
Yeah.
So that's really where millionaires had.
Awesome.
Well, awesome.
Is there anything that you can think of
that, that might be, um, you know, just,
just a good kind of like, like, here's,
here's a great piece of advice for people
that are considering owning the jet.
The thing that maybe you wish you would
have known before owning a jet or the
thing that you see a lot of people run
into that, that might be a good thing to
say, like, you know, here's not to put
any pressure on you to come up with
something on the spot, but like, you
know, a good, a good
parting words of wisdom
sort of thing about owning a jet and what
it means to own a jet.
Well, you just, all you have to do is go
back into history and go thousands of
years and who are the
superpowers of the world?
Where were they?
They were the ones
that ran the sea, ports.
Yeah.
Yep.
You know, you had Spain, Italy, you know,
your, I mean, they all ran ports because
ports is where you move trade.
It's where you move people.
It's where you moved ideas.
That's where the
superpowers of the world were ports.
This is an air port.
Yeah.
And so Walmart will tell you over and
over and over again, Bentonville,
Arkansas was isolated and
no one took him serious.
Sam Walton was not taken
serious until he got an aircraft.
And when he got an aircraft and an
airport, he started to be able to take
Walmart and you now see what it is today.
Right.
Cargill, small town, a
champion spark plug, small town.
You, an aircraft seems expensive at
first, if you've never been around it.
It is the most brilliant acquisition you
will ever make in business.
And if you've got the money and you don't
need it for business purposes, it will
make your life better as it is just, you
know, giving you the freedom of life.
But you are turning
your port into the world.
You know, so there was a, you know, one
great congressman once said, you know,
a mile of concrete on a highway is a mile
and a mile of concrete at the
airport opens the world.
Yeah, that's pretty good.
So you really are unleashing your
business in a way that
you, you can't even imagine
today, you know what, you're wrong.
Sell it next year.
Yeah.
You had a great time for the year.
You get your money back, took the
depreciation, right?
You get right back where you were.
But I've never, I've
never seen it happen.
They always go bigger.
Yeah, exactly.
Wow.
Right.
I had no idea.
Yeah.
That's what you'll hear.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yep.
Awesome.
Roger.
We'll see.
Thank you so much for
joining us on on the jet.
I really want to have you back some time.
Oh, for sure.
This has been great.
And I really enjoy being here at
millionaire in white planes.
This is like this, this as an experience
for somebody that
doesn't do a whole lot of
private aviation.
Like this has been crazy to me.
Like this facility.
So thank you for your hospitality.
Thank you for being on the show.
Looking forward to having you next time.
We appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, I've enjoyed it a lot.
Yes.
Thank you for having me.
For sure.
Thank you for watching on the jet.
If you want to see more on the jet, make
sure to subscribe to our
channel on YouTube and leave a
comment telling us what aspect of jet
ownership you'd like to know more about.
On the jet is brought to
you by Aspen Aero Group.
Your trusted partner in private and
corporate jet ownership.
Learn more at Aspen Aero Group dot com.
This has been a Savage Media production.