Above and Beyond: Inside the World of Private Jet Travel with Cory Bengtzen Ep. 124

Cory Bengtzen: 00:00:00

In my opinion, it's all mental attitude and thinking, you know, that you're gonna hear no a thousand times shit is gonna go wrong. You know, I mean, those are the true trials. So I, I dunno if I'm giving you one answer, but it's really grit. It's just not giving up and convincing yourself that it's gonna work and just imagine it in the future and then finding a way to make it work.

Natasha Miller: 00:00:23

Welcome to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS. How do people end up becoming an entrepreneur? How do they scale and grow their businesses? How do they plan for profit? Are they in it for life? Are they building to exit these and a myriad of other topics? Will be discussed to pull back the veil on the wizardry of successful and FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS. My book, RELENTLESS is now available everywhere books can be bought online, including Amazon and BarnesAndNoble.com, try your local indie bookstore too. And if they don't have it, they can order it. Just ask them. The reviews are streaming in and I'm so thankful for the positive feedback as well as hearing from people that my memoir has impacted them positively. It is not enough to be resilient. You have to be relentless. You can go to TheRelentlessBook.com for more information. Thank you so much. Cory Bengtzen is the founder of Skys Share, a private jet company that saves their clients time and gets them back to their families faster. We talk about how his team is structured, their strategy for growth, and just who is flying private in this current economy. Now, let's get right into it.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:01:46

So we are a private jet company. Our headquarters are here in Utah. We've got a couple different facets within the company, but we do private charter. So if someone wanted to just charter an airplane for the weekend with their friends and go to Vegas, or a business meeting, what have you, they can call us and we can help 'em with either our aircraft or we have a lot of colleagues that we work with and we can use other people's aircraft as well. And then we also have a fractional program, so that's like a timeshare where you buy a portion of one aircraft and then you have access to the entire fleet. And then we also do full aircraft sales management and charter. So we're a boutique private jet company that really works with the clients and figures out which avenue is the very best way for them to fly, and then we kind of help them achieve their goals.

Natasha Miller: 00:02:33

I was able to hear a little bit about your story at the Genius Network Mastermind. Can you tell me a bit about what private jet flying means to you and why it is meaningful to you?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:02:47

Yeah, first, like it's my biggest passion. I absolutely just love airplanes. I wanted to be a pilot since I was in high school and then actually got in the car industry and I stumbled into that and it was just gonna be a one or two year deal and ended up being in the industry for about 15 years, owning a couple car dealerships, but always wanted to get back into flying. I think there's. This beautiful freedom when it comes to being able to get an airplane, especially I'm a pilot, so I love flying the airplanes and pilot in the airplane and just when those wheels leave the ground, it's like all of your problems and everything else also leaves the ground. And so what flying private for me ultimately means is it's ultimate freedom and we're able to help many of our clients and it's helped me personally achieve their goals. Whether it's spending more quality time with our family, creating these epic amazing experiences, because I promise you, nobody does not like walking up the doors of a private jet. I mean, avoiding all the TSA, all the lines. You drive up to the jet, you walk up and you take off. It's just an incredible experience and a lot of our clients, they use business tools too. My most favorite part of my job is when I'm working with a client and I pilot 'em and they're sitting in the right seat and I get to talk to these different CEOs and learn about their story and how these awesome sexy time machines we call airplanes can help them grow their business as well as give 'em a better quality life, spend more time with their family. So, I don't know, I guess I'm pretty lucky cause I've, I've been so passionate about, Airplanes in general, that now I can combine my profession and my career with something that I absolutely love.

Natasha Miller: 00:04:29

And what is the target demographic? Who are your clients? Are they mega billionaires? Are they mega millionaires? Are they startups who could consider private jet flying?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:04:41

Yeah, great question. Flying private is crazy expensive. Like it's never going to pencil out if you just compare it to flying First class and on Delta or what have you, until you take in consideration what your time is worth. And for the C-level executives on medium to large size companies, you know, probably most of our companies are, that we do business with are doing. 50 million in revenue or more. I would say that's our client. Our perfect demographic is one of two people. One, it's the business owner, sea level suite that has multiple remote locations and they wanna be able to go visit those. And so what would take them a week to do via the airlines? We can do in a day or two days, we can visit three, four days, correction, three or four cities in a day and have them home. For dinner with their family. And then the other, that's probably 60% of our flying is for business people. The other 40% is for the people that have worked really hard that can afford to not fly via the airlines and use it to go to their lake house or to golfing up to Bandon Dunes or take it to Hawaii. More of the vacation lifestyle type of flying. Yeah.

Natasha Miller: 00:05:52

You are a pilot and you sometimes fly these people, but that is not your core. Role at the company is it?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:06:00

It's not the core role. I, I founded the company 14 years ago. It's actually 14 years ago this month. So we're celebrating that and it's taken a long time and a lot of hard work and a lot of sweat to get to where we're at right now. And so I handle most of the sales. I run the sales team and work intimately with all of the clients coming in on the fractional or looking to buy and sell an aircraft. And then I recently brought in a, a business partner, Tommy. A couple years ago has been just a godsend, one of the smartest humans I've ever met. And so he runs the whole finance side and HR and operations. So between the two of us, we're doing pretty good. So,

Natasha Miller: 00:06:38

That's so great you found an operational integrator to your visionary, whimsical, CEO brain. Right?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:06:47

And you're using the exact language. We talk every day. So we're an EOS company and so he is the most amazing integrator and I'm all visionary. I'm all looking forward and trying to figure it out and then helping the sales team when I can and so I guess-

Natasha Miller: 00:07:00

When did you find that when your company really ignited and took off in a different direction as far as trajectory.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:07:08

A hundred percent. And it would've been three years ago. So luckily Tommy, my partner, I've known since seventh grade, we grew up together as friends and he went and did corporate America again, one of the smartest humans I've ever met and, and Seaville executive and some very big corporations. And then was doing consulting, but I had grown this company. And that would've been eight years I had it, but we just hit this new streak of where we were getting really busy. I came up with the idea of the fractional program and buying our charter certificate, and so we were on this amazing growth, but it was like I was drowning. It was above my skillset in a lot of areas. I'm like a salesman and a visionary, and not really good at the cleanup and the follow through and all that stuff. So I called Tommy and I said, Tommy, just, I need to go to lunch with you. I just need to pick your brain for a little bit. And I took my financials and for about a year he consulted for free just to help me. And I was like, I just feel like I'm drowning.

Natasha Miller: 00:08:05

Thank God for those seventh grade friendships.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:08:08

Oh my God. Seriously. And I was hoping that during this time that he could see that we were just on this. Awesome. Like we had incredible momentum and he did. And I said, okay, are we gonna do this? Like, let's partner up on this company and let's really take it to the next level. And with the combination of bringing Tommy in, the combination of before Tommy, we didn't even have an org chart, but if there was an org chart, it would've been me and 17 people reporting to me, which. Obviously not scalable at all with his help and then getting really structured. I'm a fan of the EOS system and we run our business very tight it within their recommendations and it's just been incredible and, and then we're lucky, like Covid during the time it hit was the scariest thing it's ever happened. Like we had all these airplanes and all these pilots and everything was just grounded and I didn't know if we were gonna make it through it for a little bit, but then, coming out of that, and we had this, we had this saying within the company, we're not just gonna survive, we're gonna thrive through Covid. And we just, it was a mantra. We just kept saying, the goal is not to let go any of our managers and any of our pilots, and we didn't. And then coming outta Covid, it's like all these people now that had the means to fly private. But didn't justify it before. They didn't want to go get in a tube with 400 other people, so they were looking at ways to fly private and so it's just been this awesome ride since.

Natasha Miller: 00:09:29

How quickly after the pandemic set in and it was clear that it wasn't going to be just two weeks.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:09:35

Right.

Natasha Miller: 00:09:36

Did that fuel the rest of like that inertia?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:09:41

It was probably a good six months, and then soon as people felt safe to get outta their house and start moving again, then it was like, okay, I would rather charter that airplane and just have it, me and my family, and nobody else be able to avoid all the lines and TSA and all and whatnot. So, yeah, to answer your question, about six months and then it's just. It's been crazy. Now, it's interesting. We go into, this year we're definitely feeling a little bit of slowing. There's been a couple of our big competitors that just actually shut their doors in in the last few weeks.

Natasha Miller: 00:10:12

Do I hear an acquisition about to happen?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:10:15

Not yet. We're gonna do it the right way. Are you a published author? Have you always thought you had a book inside of you? Have other people told you you've got to write a book? If so, I highly suggest you work with us at Poignant Press. We can help you write, figure out the best publishing path and market your book to a bestseller status, go to poignant press.com. That's P-O-I-G-N-A-N-T-press.com. How do you market to this demo? They're easy to find, right? If they've got a business at that level, you can find them. You get their information. So I won't ask you how you source them, but how do you get their attention? Yeah, great question because they're easy to know who they are, but they're incredibly difficult to actually connect with. You know, they've got many gatekeepers to get up to it. We track our advertising and 60% of our new business is all through referral or repeat clients. And so what our secret sauce is, one of our core values is deliver the wow. And although we're not perfect, we still stumble and make mistakes and whatnot. We really try and put our best foot forward and and deliver this incredible experience because that's what I believe. What. Our business is more of an experienced business and we're just using these sexy airplanes to deliver that experience. So we've been really fortunate that, again, more than half our business has come from referrals. We do do the normal other advertisement. We're on social media. We do a lot of networking, so the different networking clubs like. Um, genius Network and I'm in a couple other Y P O and stuff like that, but that's more personal development, I would say. YPO O is. And then we do some sponsorships, like on high-end golf tournaments. We've done, we've been at Pebble Beach a bunch, and we'll put up a hole in one where they hit the hole in one, they get a trip in the Gulf Stream or something like that.

Natasha Miller: 00:12:09

And how many times has that happened?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:12:11

No one's got the hole in one on, which I hope they do. I insure it, so I'm like, yeah, hit it. Let's go.

Natasha Miller: 00:12:16

Yeah. Okay, so the planes private jet. For me, if I'm thinking about like where do I see them? I see them online with people like posing in them with their cigars and outside and they're all glammed up. Is that an expectation people should have or is that like really special, like rigging up your touring rv? Totally different situation.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:12:39

Yeah, these are very normal people, at least most of our.

Natasha Miller: 00:12:43

They are no trying to do a photoshoot there?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:12:45

No, most of our clients actually don't wanna be seen on the airplane. Some of our younger clients, they're a little bit more, you know, the selfie and posted on their Instagram and whatnot. But 90% of our clients, this is for privacy and to grow their business and just create experience for the people they love. So it's, yeah, very discreet. A lot of times. Drive right up the airplane and get on.

Natasha Miller: 00:13:07

Yeah. Are you marketing to, or do you get request from, like I was just talking about a headline artist that we brought in for an event yesterday. A lot of the headline talent that we book flies private when they can or when they've negotiated. Do they know about your company?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:13:25

Yeah. We work with a lot of skier agents and so we actually have. Four. I can't say which ones, but four big bands that you would definitely hear of that we fly around all the time. There is some of those celebrities that we, but again, really it's the business tool. They're flying to their concerts. Right. They, as soon as the concert's done, they're quietly going to the FBO and getting in the airplane and heading home. On our charter side, we'll do some celebrities just once in a while. But again, our core business, it's really the entrepreneur or the business owner or the C-level executive that's using it as a tool and then using it to create experiences with their family.

Natasha Miller: 00:14:04

Right. Let's talk about your team. So earlier you had talked about yourself as a visionary, 17 people. That's really common actually, until you start building an executive team or the levels of management. What does it look like today? What is your management team comprised of?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:14:22

So we have six people, including myself, that sit on the leadership team and then underneath them there's a layer of directors. And so we're just about a hundred employees right now, which is crazy because four years ago we were at 20, you know, 20.

Natasha Miller: 00:14:37

Yeah. That's crazy growth. And, and so on that C-suite, is it CEO, COO, CFO, CMO? Can you walk me through that?

Cory Bengtzen: 00:14:45

Right now we have myself as the CEO. Tommy's the president, and then we have the other four that are vice presidents. I believe that there's a lot of companies that'll give the C-level titles just a little premature, you know, and so we're close to that. I think the next step. I don't know if I wanna attach a revenue amount to it, but the next step would be that that would be, chief marketing. And then we have, so right now we currently have a Vice President of Maintenance, Vice President of Brand and Marketing, Vice President of Business Development, and then Vice President of Flight Operations.

Natasha Miller: 00:15:18

Good. See, we always learn something on these. What do you attribute to your success if you just were like to close your eyes and think back for the last, over a decade that you've had this, you're a small business, you've made it through. There was some crazy statistic that, you know, small businesses, they have a hard time staying alive after even just a year or two. So if you can imagine what that could be for you, The, just the success of staying open, but now you're scaling and growing.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:15:51

I would say number one is like, I'm always trying to learn. I didn't do have any formal college education. I went right out high school to selling cars and then into this. But I've probably listened to 90 books a year. Like I'm always, instead of listening to the radio every day in my car, if I'm working out, it's an audio book. And if I really like it, I'll listen to a second one, and then it's just grit. Never given up. I mean, it's all, in my opinion, it's all mental attitude and thinking, you know, that you're gonna hear no a thousand times shit is gonna go wrong. There's been times that I didn't know how I was gonna make payroll. You know? I mean, those are the true trials that starting a company, especially, we didn't have any VC or PE money. We've bootstrapped this company from the beginning, and so we had to get very creative. So I don't know if I'm giving you one answer, but it's really grit. It's just not giving up and convincing yourself that it's gonna work and just imagine it in the future, and then finding a way to make it work.

Natasha Miller: 00:16:54

So today, as of today, we're midway through the year a little bit more. What has been your strategy for growth? We could say this calendar year, this fiscal year, however you wanna answer it.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:17:05

This year for us, we are gonna grow probably about another 25% over the last year, but I really call this year for us is our foundation year. This is the year to create those processes and SOPs and put the right people on the right seat so that. We are ready for some amazing growth. Like I have some very big dreams of getting into the heavy jet space in our fractional program, doing some acquisitions, but we wanna make sure that the boat's ready to go to sea. So right now, that is the year we're, we're obviously still folks on sales and still moving the business forward, but it's our foundation year because, big things are happening, but we're gonna do it right. We're gonna do it slow.

Natasha Miller: 00:17:46

That's so great. You can't really do it wrong in your space. Like that wouldn't go very well. Yeah. I mean that's just safety. But also, you know, if 60% of your sales is really referral based, you need to make sure that you're offering something that is just untouchable.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:18:05

Yeah. Yeah.

Natasha Miller: 00:18:05

And those systems and processes do change from 17 people to a hundred people to a bigger fleet. Right.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:18:13

You're so right. What got us here is not what's gonna get us to the next level, and that is our processes. It could be the, the certain people. And so it's looking at that and, and figuring out. I also believe hire people that are smarter than you. Like Tommy is so much smarter than I am in those areas. Michael, our VP of brand and marketing, like he is brilliant in those areas and releasing like my ego to let them run.

Natasha Miller: 00:18:38

Yeah.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:18:39

Is one of the hardest things sometimes, but as like bringing Tommy in as a partner, for example, I promised myself I'd never have a business partner again. My last partnership in my car dealership ended up horrible. My two best friends that I never speak to, you know, it just was like, no, that was worse than my regular divorce. But this now

Natasha Miller: 00:18:58

the starter divorce

Cory Bengtzen: 00:18:59

Yeah, right. Hopefully not another one. But now it's like, okay, I know that I need to. Allow the people to, in their zone of genius, run with it and then support them and do everything I can to remove the obstacles outta their way.

Natasha Miller: 00:19:16

Yeah. So I see your business as branded Sky Share, and sometimes I see CB Skys Share, which I'm going to assume are your initials. Tell me about that.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:19:26

So the company started as CB Aviation 14 years ago. Seven years ago, we rebranded to CB Sky Share when we started the fractional division and the charter division. And then just this year my ego finally got small enough that we took, this is an old shirt. We took my nipples off the company and now it's just Sky Share. Yeah, so that's the next evolution of the company.

Natasha Miller: 00:19:52

I really like the name, especially because you're doing fractional, like sharing the sky. And also I hope that when we are sharing the sky, that we're not sharing it with too many planes that we actually can see with our own eyes. Okay. That's my own aside.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:20:07

Right.

Natasha Miller: 00:20:08

Yeah. So what is today your biggest challenge that when we get off this call, you're gonna go right back to solving, solving for planning.

Cory Bengtzen: 00:20:18

Yeah. Great question. So last year was one of the busiest years in private aviation. Like everything, aircraft prices went up 20%. You couldn't, it was like trying to buy a house, everything. You couldn't buy it. I mean, people were just making these stupid offers. Well, this market changes very quickly. And so we went from one of the hottest markets to now it much slower. And so we're working harder for, and we still want increase. To answer your question is like my mind is always back in sales and what's the next step? So I've got a sales meeting after this to meet with my team, and then I've got a proposal for a client later on this evening.

Natasha Miller: 00:20:59

For more information, go to the show notes. We are listening to this podcast. Want to know more about me, go to my website, NatashaMiller.com. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you loved the show. If you did, please subscribe. Also, if you haven't done so yet, please leave a review where you're listening to this podcast now. I'm Natasha Miller. And you've been listening to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS.