#90 - Balancing Flying, Business Ownership, and Financial Growth with Carl Valeri

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to Passive Income Pilots, another week of financial education here with Ryan Gibson. What's going on?

[00:00:08] Not much, you know, pilots are always wondering and even spouses of pilots are always wondering, what side hustles can I do? How can I get involved in my layover? I want to put that good time to use and I want to find another job or maybe I want to get into something. And also there's a lot of people that listen to our show that are like, hey, I'm 45 and how do I get into flying? I want to make a career switch.

[00:00:28] Or I have a friend that wants to make a career switch or whatever it is. We cover all those grounds today. So we're talking side hustles. We're talking ways to create tax shelters here.

[00:00:38] Talking about where you can go to learn how to transition your career. A lot of things are action packed here. And the guest that we bring on the show, Carl Valeri, he actually has his own podcast called Stuck Mike and he also has an aviation careers podcast. So check that out. Be pretty cool to see another aviation podcast. We like to cross promote other podcasts on the show.

[00:00:58] Absolutely. Yeah. Carl has really positioned himself with his own business. And also if you're thinking about buying a business, Carl's bought a business. So we talk, we get into that and we kind of cover a wine range of topics about how to be an airline pilot and have side hustles and make money on the side. So it's a great show.

[00:01:15] Yeah. It's a fun episode. Talk about buying businesses, starting businesses and yeah, transitioning. If you have a friend that wants to transition from a different career into an airline career, and it's been 20, 25 years since you went to flight school, there's some great resources that you can direct them to because your information might be a little out of date like Ryan and Liza.

[00:01:34] Yep. That logbook is pretty old.

[00:01:36] That's right.

[00:01:37] Pretty, pretty dusty.

[00:01:38] Well, with that, let's get to the show.

[00:01:46] Welcome to Passive Income Pilots, where pilots upgrade their money. This is the definitive source for personal finance and investment tactics for aviators. We interview world-renowned experts and share these lessons with the blind community. So if you're ready for practical knowledge and insights, let's roll.

[00:02:06] Carl, welcome to the show. Excited to have you.

[00:02:08] Thanks. Thanks for having me here. I'm actually really excited to talk about my background financially and helping other pilots. This is so exciting. It's what I like to do.

[00:02:15] Yeah, your name came across our desk as a must-talk-to fellow podcaster, actually. You run a couple of your own podcasts, which is great. And I think what's so compelling is that you also fly for the airlines.

[00:02:26] But one thing that really stuck out is some of our listeners are considering transitioning into a flying career. Maybe they're in a career right now and they're thinking about, hey, maybe I want to be a pilot. And it sounds like your Aviation Careers podcast is kind of a go-to place where people can kind of learn about what it's like to transition careers, even midstream.

[00:02:46] So can you tell us a little bit about your background and who you are?

[00:02:49] Yeah. So I'm a captain with a major airline. I'm also a serial entrepreneur, as they say. I like to call myself an opportunist more so than an entrepreneur.

[00:02:59] I never knew that term till about 10 years after I built my first business.

[00:03:04] And one of the things that I've done all my life is learned from my parents and my dad, who was an immigrant, is that you can make more money by owning a business.

[00:03:12] So that's where I started. I started out and I got a degree because that was important for an immigrant to get a degree.

[00:03:18] You know, and I got a degree in computers. But my first business was mowing lawns.

[00:03:24] And I learned a ton from that one little business. And I wound up asking my dad if I could borrow our lawnmower that we used at home as a sit-on lawnmower.

[00:03:35] He said, sure. I said, well, how am I going to get to the client? He said, well, I'll drive you over there. So he did.

[00:03:40] And he drove me to the client. I mowed the lawn, brought everything back. I said, look at all the money I made.

[00:03:45] And my dad said, wait a minute. How about the expenses? You got to pay me for the gas in the lawnmower.

[00:03:50] And by the way, there's maintenance. So that one thing I think was a big turning point in my life is understanding how a business is really run.

[00:03:59] And I think he did that on purpose. I'm sure he did to make me learn that there is just because you were able to do it in an hour as opposed to four doesn't mean you're going to make more money.

[00:04:09] It's how much money you take home is more important than how much money you make.

[00:04:13] I love that. And, you know, my kids and I started their seven and four and we started a vending machine business.

[00:04:19] And my daughter knows very well that she owes me $10,000 because I put up the money for the goods and inventory, the equipment, shipping, delivery and all that.

[00:04:29] And she knows that she's in debt for that. And that's an important lesson to know that like you need to invest in your business.

[00:04:34] And, you know, putting together a profit loss with her and inventory was just a world class experience for a kid to get that.

[00:04:41] So that's wonderful.

[00:04:43] I also think that, you know, everybody talks about their gross pay.

[00:04:46] You know, it's this is the old Robert Kiyosaki adage, right? It's what you keep. It's what you take home.

[00:04:50] And everyone loves to talk about what they made gross or what their pay rate is or or what they made in their W-2 for the year.

[00:04:58] But nobody talks about what they took home after tax.

[00:05:01] Absolutely. And that's the net net. That's what you got to talk about is how much I net net out of this whole thing.

[00:05:07] But it's really interesting, like we were just talking about, is those those early life experiences really, really do change you later on.

[00:05:15] And and that's kind of what my whole life was, is that I just said, hey, listen, you know, I'm going to make lemon out of lemonade.

[00:05:21] But I think a big point there is also being incredibly humble.

[00:05:25] Like you were saying, it doesn't matter if you're making five million a year and you're spending five and a half, you've lost money.

[00:05:31] Right. And so that gross number doesn't mean a thing.

[00:05:34] And that played a big role when when I actually got out of college.

[00:05:38] My parents paid for my education.

[00:05:40] I went to school for computer science because I was really good at programming.

[00:05:43] My senior year, I took up flying and as a hobby.

[00:05:48] And I decided I want to do this for a living.

[00:05:50] And my parents were like, wait a minute, we just pay for the four year degree and you got to do something with it.

[00:05:56] Well, I decided to go into the corporate world that only last about 11 months and wound up starting my own computer consulting firm.

[00:06:02] And one of the things I learned from that is just like you were saying, people like to throw around big numbers and words.

[00:06:09] I worked for AT&T and IBM, BMW, Mercedes.

[00:06:13] I did all these contracts.

[00:06:14] That didn't matter.

[00:06:15] The thing I made the most money on was turning two digits into four.

[00:06:20] And you probably know what I'm talking about.

[00:06:22] The Y2K thing.

[00:06:23] I started doing that back in the 80s and started a consulting firm.

[00:06:26] And that's all I did was it was from two digits to four.

[00:06:30] And I walked away with a lot of money after that.

[00:06:34] And it was so boring.

[00:06:35] It was here.

[00:06:36] I came from a background of artificial intelligence and computers and computer science.

[00:06:40] I went into the thing that people needed, even though everybody looked down on me.

[00:06:45] My cohorts were like, oh, what are you doing?

[00:06:47] Well, instead, I did something efficient.

[00:06:49] I decided to make more money with it.

[00:06:51] And I did enjoy it for a while, but then I realized it really wasn't my passion.

[00:06:56] But boy, the great thing about making money, though, that net net is that you can take that money and then you can design your life and you can make yourself a job that you're passionate about and make it money.

[00:07:09] Because now you have the experience of making money.

[00:07:11] You know, I want to pull on that thread because I actually, that's what I tell my kids when I talk to my kids about what they want to be when they grow up.

[00:07:19] I want to know what I want to be.

[00:07:20] I don't.

[00:07:21] Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out.

[00:07:22] But, you know, they can do whatever they want, you know, but it's a lot easier when you have a passive income stream.

[00:07:28] Right.

[00:07:28] So if you're making passive income from something, you can really kind of go do whatever you want.

[00:07:33] Absolutely.

[00:07:33] But if you're not making passive income from something, then you kind of got to go find a job that pays the bills.

[00:07:38] Absolutely.

[00:07:39] Yeah.

[00:07:39] You can find something you're passionate about that pays the bills.

[00:07:42] And that's totally fine.

[00:07:43] A lot of airline pilots find that passion.

[00:07:45] But if you have a passive income stream or two, now all of a sudden you can kind of go do whatever you want.

[00:07:51] Absolutely.

[00:07:51] So when my kids talk to me, that's real conversations that my kids is like, hey, you got to have this passive income stream coming in, you know, and then it's like, and it doesn't really matter.

[00:08:00] And so, like, let's learn how to do passive income streams.

[00:08:02] And then you can go do whatever you want to do for your career or for your hobbies.

[00:08:08] That's a really important point.

[00:08:09] And I think people are confused by passive income because passive income means you're not always active in it.

[00:08:15] In other words, you're not working by the hour putting a widget into a machine.

[00:08:20] It doesn't mean you're not working.

[00:08:22] And you can add to this if you like.

[00:08:24] It means that you're not working as much as somebody else.

[00:08:27] In other words, whatever you're doing is multiplies.

[00:08:30] And it's multiplicative.

[00:08:31] I mean, you go out and you work for an hour and then you have something that turns to 100 hours of work as far as, you know, bringing money back into you.

[00:08:40] That's more what I define as it.

[00:08:42] Exactly.

[00:08:42] The Warren Buffett quote, right?

[00:08:44] Make money while you sleep or work until you die, I think is the quote.

[00:08:49] Exactly.

[00:08:49] Absolutely.

[00:08:50] You've got to find something that has income streams.

[00:08:53] And that could be accumulating in your 401k.

[00:08:56] It could be mailbox money from a rental property.

[00:08:58] It could be mailbox money from a syndication.

[00:08:59] It could be multiplying and building a business, which is one of the best ways to make money.

[00:09:04] Absolutely.

[00:09:05] And Warren Buffett was really huge in my life.

[00:09:07] Just because in the beginning, I started out in the computer business and I was actually in Omaha.

[00:09:14] And I was doing work for AT&T and their wire business and helping them computerize and make it more efficient, their warehousing.

[00:09:22] And I heard of this guy named Warren Buffett while I was there and no idea who he was.

[00:09:26] And what's really interesting is one of my businesses, there's a company right down the street called ConAgra who actually wound up wanting to buy my company when I did the food trading business.

[00:09:37] And I love listening to whatever he has to say because a lot of times we hear people, especially older people, we do this or like, oh, you know, what do they know?

[00:09:45] It doesn't work now.

[00:09:46] Well, it does.

[00:09:47] I mean, his wisdom is his wisdom and it works today just like it did before.

[00:09:52] Yeah, that's amazing.

[00:09:54] Real quick, let's talk about what made your passion to work for the airlines.

[00:09:58] I mean, it sounds like you had all these businesses going on, all these entrepreneur things going on.

[00:10:02] What was your bug to get into flying?

[00:10:04] Because there's probably a lot of people listening thinking of the same thing like, hey, I have a business.

[00:10:07] I've started a career.

[00:10:09] You know, I've got this weird calling in the back of my head.

[00:10:11] You know, should I answer it kind of thing?

[00:10:13] Absolutely.

[00:10:14] And that's a big question I get.

[00:10:15] Hey, can I still do my other thing?

[00:10:16] Well, yeah, you can do that part-time maybe and do flying full-time.

[00:10:20] But the great thing about aviation is, especially with the airlines, and that's the real, the key is I looked at the airlines and focused there because it enabled me to design the life that I wanted.

[00:10:30] Because I'm one of these men's schedule type of person where I will actually give away my whole schedule for a month.

[00:10:36] Last month, I flew three days.

[00:10:38] This month, we're almost, you know, three quarters away from it, I think.

[00:10:42] I've given away most.

[00:10:43] I haven't even flown yet.

[00:10:44] And so one of the things that I do is I enable myself to actually do this, do my podcast and all that by designing that lifestyle.

[00:10:52] And that's what really changed my life when I went one day, those pivotal moments.

[00:10:56] And my dad, he knew an airline pilot from United who took me out on a flight.

[00:11:03] And it's actually in an old beach travel area.

[00:11:06] It was like number three.

[00:11:07] It was all, but anyway, it was really cool.

[00:11:09] And he takes me up and we're flying around.

[00:11:12] And he says to me, he flew DC 10s for United and said, you know, from Friday till Sunday, I fly for the airlines.

[00:11:20] From Monday till Friday morning, I run a cement company.

[00:11:25] And I was like, wow, how do you do that?

[00:11:29] So that really, really resonated with me.

[00:11:31] How can you can do more than one thing as an airline pilot?

[00:11:36] And the great thing is you make good money, great benefits, great retirement benefits.

[00:11:40] And it gives me so much free time and enables me if I want to, and I want you to raise money, I can go fly a few more trips.

[00:11:47] I can pick up trips when they're double time or whatever they may be, even triple time.

[00:11:52] So that's the reason I like that.

[00:11:54] But remember though, you have to go into something you really enjoy.

[00:11:57] If you don't like being in the air flying around, then don't do it.

[00:12:01] And that's the thing.

[00:12:02] Remember I said I got into it as a hobby, but I turned a hobby into a moneymaker.

[00:12:06] And that's how I wound up doing it.

[00:12:07] That's great.

[00:12:08] I want to talk more about the career transition for people who have friends that want to do it.

[00:12:14] But before we go there, let's talk about the airline pilot because our core demographic of listener here is line pilots.

[00:12:22] And I want to tie this back to what Mark J. Kohler said on our podcast, who's an amazing tax strategist.

[00:12:29] And he was saying, listen, if you don't do rental properties, you don't have some sort of a side hustle, I got nothing for you.

[00:12:34] So this show is called Passive Income Pilots.

[00:12:37] We talk a lot about how to turn cash into cash flow.

[00:12:42] But when it comes to tax benefits, there's really nothing like having your own company.

[00:12:47] So what would you say to those line pilots that are like, yeah, I'm too busy.

[00:12:50] I don't want to start a company.

[00:12:53] What's some wisdom for them?

[00:12:55] Well, let me sum it up to you this way.

[00:12:57] You want to buy that airplane?

[00:12:59] Go ahead and buy it and do it at zero cost to you.

[00:13:03] And there's a great way to do that.

[00:13:04] And that's start a business where you can incorporate that airplane into your business because we all still love flying.

[00:13:10] And you want to buy a Stearman?

[00:13:12] Buy a Stearman.

[00:13:13] Put it in a business that does airplane rides.

[00:13:15] You know, and it doesn't have to be a ton of rides.

[00:13:17] Put it into, own a flight school if you're into that type of thing.

[00:13:21] It's having a business where you can, and I hate to use this term, write off things, but all your expenses can be within that business.

[00:13:29] I learned that from my dad.

[00:13:30] I remember one day, my dad was a physician.

[00:13:32] We went to a pharmacy one day.

[00:13:35] And by having a business, he picked up this package of paper towels.

[00:13:39] And he said, you see this paper towels?

[00:13:41] You know, this cost a dollar, but it cost me 50 cents.

[00:13:45] I was like, how could that be?

[00:13:47] He said, because I paid for this within my business before taxes.

[00:13:51] I didn't pay any taxes on this.

[00:13:53] And I get a discount because I get a wholesale from the business.

[00:13:56] And I was like, wow, that's pretty neat.

[00:13:58] And that's the same way.

[00:14:00] If you're an airline pilot and you're thinking about starting a business, and I've had guys come up to me recently because, like you said, all the salaries have really gone berserk right now.

[00:14:10] But they want to figure out some way that they can actually reduce their tax burden.

[00:14:16] Well, there's no better way than actually having a business.

[00:14:19] My only caveat there is just make sure it is a real business and it's not just a hobby because I have seen people get audited by the IRS and they've deemed that business a hobby.

[00:14:31] One of the best ways to make sure it's not a hobby is to employ people and to have people working for you.

[00:14:37] And I have people that work for me.

[00:14:38] I don't do my own editing.

[00:14:39] I don't do a lot of different things.

[00:14:41] And that actually will help you show that you are actually a true business and you're giving value to people.

[00:14:47] But going back to what you were saying, the key point here is that you can generate income within that business and buy things within that business that you may actually enjoy using.

[00:14:57] And so a good example, I know someone's into motorhomes and he started a motorhome business and he started selling motorhomes, but he likes to drive them himself.

[00:15:07] So he actually is able to pull any of those motorhomes off the lot and he can go out there and drive them.

[00:15:11] I'm another friend that's into boats.

[00:15:13] He redesigns the dashboards on the boats.

[00:15:15] I don't know a lot about yachts, but he redesigns those.

[00:15:17] And then he actually gets to go use those on his yacht or he actually gets to use the people's yachts that he's actually fixing up.

[00:15:24] So there's so many ways to incorporate your passion into a business, whether it's Indian motorcycles, it could be airplanes, it could be real estate.

[00:15:33] And I'm a big fan of real estate.

[00:15:35] Full disclosure, I don't really own any rental properties.

[00:15:38] We can talk about that later, but it is a good way to, it's a great way to make money.

[00:15:44] It really is.

[00:15:44] Carl, you said so much there.

[00:15:46] First of all, hobby loss rule.

[00:15:48] We talk about that on the Mark Kohler show.

[00:15:50] So if you want to go back to that episode, you know, you can't just into perpetuity, just write off, write off, write off, write off, write off, write off.

[00:15:56] And not make money.

[00:15:57] Yeah.

[00:15:57] And not make money.

[00:15:58] However, real estate, that doesn't apply.

[00:16:00] Real estate, you could have losses forever because you have depreciation and things like that.

[00:16:04] Obviously, we're not giving tax advice just from the conversation.

[00:16:07] But the point here is that the government wants entrepreneurs and Americans and people to take risk.

[00:16:13] And they're going to reward you with tax breaks.

[00:16:16] So one thing that Carl talked about was, you know, hey, when I started hiring an employee to do my editing and all the things for his businesses, the government wants you to hire employees.

[00:16:27] They want you to go out and take risks because this is what drives our economy.

[00:16:31] And that's why they're giving a tax break to people to do that.

[00:16:34] They're incentivizing you to do this behavior, right?

[00:16:37] Absolutely.

[00:16:37] If you're doing something that's not really producing anything or hiring employees or growing the economy, you're probably not going to get a tax break.

[00:16:45] I mean, that's like an easy way to sort of, you know, stick your finger in the air and see what, hey, is this passing the hobby loss test?

[00:16:52] I mean, obviously, talk to your CPA about it.

[00:16:54] But, you know, you're hiring people, you're buying equipment, you're moving the economy in a direction.

[00:17:00] You're going to get a tax break.

[00:17:01] And this is a good thing because this is why entrepreneurs are incentivized to take risk because they get reward from the government.

[00:17:08] Absolutely.

[00:17:09] And that's how this whole thing comes together.

[00:17:10] You know, the thing that we see a lot is, oh, I need to have a business, right?

[00:17:15] So let me just start an LLC.

[00:17:17] And now they're like, oh, I have a business.

[00:17:19] It's like, no, that's a legal structure.

[00:17:22] A business is something that is generating revenue.

[00:17:26] Absolutely.

[00:17:27] So think about the LLC later.

[00:17:30] Think about the business first.

[00:17:31] And what you touched on is go get some tax advice.

[00:17:34] I've had at least seven different corporations and my accountant is who I go to first.

[00:17:40] And don't just listen to us, you know, get some legal advice, an attorney or an accountant.

[00:17:45] That's great advice because that's the next thing that I wanted to touch on is if somebody, if you just lit a light bulb in someone and they said, oh, my God, okay, I really like dirt bikes.

[00:17:54] And I got five of them in my garage.

[00:17:57] How do I turn this into a business?

[00:17:58] Like, what's the next step for that person?

[00:18:00] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:18:00] Figure out how that's going to make money.

[00:18:03] Interestingly, my friend is into dirt bikes and motorcycles.

[00:18:06] He's an incredible motorcycle mechanic.

[00:18:08] He wound up opening a dive shop.

[00:18:10] And how did that happen?

[00:18:11] He wound up realizing he loved diving also.

[00:18:14] And he took his mechanical skills and turned them into a dive shop.

[00:18:17] And he has a huge dive shop.

[00:18:19] But how do you start that?

[00:18:21] First of all, you have to figure out, is there a need?

[00:18:24] You know, the most important person in the world is your customer.

[00:18:27] You know, and your customer, it could be if you have rental properties, it's the person that's in your rental property or in your storage unit, whatever it may be.

[00:18:34] And are you fulfilling that need?

[00:18:36] And also, are you fulfilling that need incrementally better than the next person?

[00:18:41] It doesn't have to be double.

[00:18:43] It could just be a little bit better than the next person.

[00:18:45] If you can do that, that's great.

[00:18:46] Now you have to figure out how do you do that and also make money?

[00:18:49] Because, you know, otherwise it's just a hobby.

[00:18:52] And that's where you start.

[00:18:53] You say, okay, what do I do?

[00:18:55] And I call it sneaker marketing.

[00:18:57] It's not a proper term.

[00:18:58] But I get my sneakers on.

[00:18:59] I run out.

[00:19:00] And I got them on right now.

[00:19:02] Actually, people always make fun of me.

[00:19:03] I wear sneakers all the time.

[00:19:04] And I'm running around and asking people, hey, if I made this, would you use it?

[00:19:08] And if they say yes, then I'll make it.

[00:19:10] And then I'll figure if I can make money with it.

[00:19:12] If I can't, I dump it.

[00:19:13] I'll be honest with you.

[00:19:14] There's been a bunch of projects.

[00:19:16] I hate to admit this, but I have totally fallen flat on my face on.

[00:19:19] And what I've done is I said, okay, what did I do wrong?

[00:19:22] And oil had to change one or two things.

[00:19:24] And all of a sudden, boom, it started making money.

[00:19:27] I mean, it's a great example as I published this scholarships directory.

[00:19:31] And people are like, well, who's going to buy a list of scholarships?

[00:19:34] I was like, well, there's a lot of people.

[00:19:36] I mean, there's a whole bunch of people.

[00:19:37] And now we have the largest directory on the planet.

[00:19:40] And we're selling bunches of them all day long.

[00:19:43] But the most important thing, going back to your question, is definitely define a need.

[00:19:46] I just thought of something.

[00:19:48] If you're going to start a business, you should put yourself through three tests.

[00:19:51] One, you should be thinking top line revenue.

[00:19:54] How are you going to make money?

[00:19:56] Two, you are passionate about it.

[00:19:58] When Tate and I started this podcast, we weren't looking for a tax break.

[00:20:02] We weren't looking for big income.

[00:20:06] We were just passionate about this show.

[00:20:08] So we just started it, right?

[00:20:09] And it's kind of turned into maybe potentially a revenue producing thing.

[00:20:14] But not really.

[00:20:16] I mean, it's more just passionate.

[00:20:17] We just want to share.

[00:20:19] But three, if you're starting a business for the write-off purpose, you're probably starting from the wrong spot.

[00:20:24] So if you're like, I'm going to start a business to do write-offs.

[00:20:26] It's like, why don't you make sure that A, it either makes money or B, you're just really passionate.

[00:20:31] Because at the end of the day, if you're one of those two things, you're probably going to work out.

[00:20:34] Because it's either going to make you money to survive, and then you'll have those natural deductions.

[00:20:39] Or you'll really enjoy what you're doing, and you'll just love doing it for the purposes of doing it anyway.

[00:20:43] Right?

[00:20:44] And hopefully that turns into money.

[00:20:45] So anyway, just some thoughts.

[00:20:47] Yeah.

[00:20:48] And going back to the business, it could be a real estate business.

[00:20:50] It could be whatever.

[00:20:51] You could also go into a business of cleaning homes.

[00:20:54] I have friends that have done that.

[00:20:55] You go in and you clean the homes either before or after the sale, or you keep cleaning their house.

[00:20:59] There's so many different things that you can do.

[00:21:01] And you'd be shocked at how much money you can make.

[00:21:04] As a matter of fact, I live in Florida.

[00:21:06] I have a friend called Mars Pizza.

[00:21:09] It's near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

[00:21:10] Go check it out.

[00:21:11] He actually runs his business from Florida and remotely.

[00:21:14] He's got cameras everywhere.

[00:21:16] And you can do it.

[00:21:17] I mean, here's a pizza place.

[00:21:18] How do you run a pizza place?

[00:21:19] You've got to make the pizzas, right?

[00:21:20] No, you don't have to make the pizzas.

[00:21:22] You can have someone else make the pizzas, and you just watch them make it.

[00:21:24] But that's really important.

[00:21:26] I heard a cool one the other day.

[00:21:27] A friend of mine is for burial sites, graveyards, people get buried, and then their family moves out of town.

[00:21:35] And they want flowers and things put on their grave sites every holiday or whatever it might be.

[00:21:42] And they offer that service remotely, and they take a picture and send it.

[00:21:45] And I was like, that's such a cool idea.

[00:21:46] And I mean, it's wildly popular.

[00:21:48] They can't even keep up with all the business that they're getting.

[00:21:50] Wow.

[00:21:51] That is awesome.

[00:21:52] Yeah.

[00:21:53] And so you touched on something right there, something that becomes wildly popular.

[00:21:57] And then all of a sudden, what do you do next?

[00:21:59] So here's another problem.

[00:22:00] You're going to go out there, and you're going to get a business.

[00:22:02] And it becomes popular, and now what?

[00:22:04] And that's what every business I've had, my biggest problem is growth.

[00:22:07] Yeah.

[00:22:08] Is that what do I do now?

[00:22:09] You have to determine, do you want to scale or do you not want to scale?

[00:22:13] And when you do scale, it turns into something different, like your friend taking these pictures.

[00:22:17] They can't do all the pictures themselves.

[00:22:19] So I've found you have to trust in humanity, and you have to trust people.

[00:22:26] But you also have to confirm that what they're doing is the proper thing.

[00:22:30] Trust but verify.

[00:22:31] I think someone famous said that.

[00:22:33] Roosevelt.

[00:22:34] And there's so many different avenues of that.

[00:22:38] And I've had people steal from me.

[00:22:40] I've had people take from me.

[00:22:42] I own ice cream machines, those big soft serve machines.

[00:22:45] I had 36 different stores with ice cream machines in them.

[00:22:48] And I had a guy steal an ice cream machine, a 400-pound machine.

[00:22:52] Holy cow.

[00:22:53] And you have to realize it.

[00:22:55] And took it across state lines.

[00:22:56] So I had to get the FBI involved.

[00:22:58] It was the internet, interstate crime.

[00:23:00] And those are the kind of things you're going to have to deal with in a business.

[00:23:04] But that was a negative I just said.

[00:23:07] That happened years ago.

[00:23:08] But those are the things we remember, right?

[00:23:10] Yeah.

[00:23:10] You got to remember there's so many other positives.

[00:23:12] And you just have to trust in humanity that, hey, listen, people do want to help each other.

[00:23:17] Yeah.

[00:23:18] I have people stealing from my vending machine business right now.

[00:23:20] So my kids are eating the inventory like crazy.

[00:23:22] Yeah, I'm sure they are.

[00:23:26] That's awesome.

[00:23:27] No, I think the analogy that my business partner or I say is when you're starting a business,

[00:23:33] it's like you're a dog chasing a car.

[00:23:35] But then you might actually catch the car.

[00:23:37] And then you got to figure out what to do when you catch the car, right?

[00:23:39] Absolutely.

[00:23:40] So it's like you get a bunch of clients or a bunch of business.

[00:23:43] It's huge.

[00:23:43] I do want to put a bookmark in this for anyone listening to this right now.

[00:23:47] We are going to do an episode sometime soon on buying businesses.

[00:23:51] So if that interests you more, that will be a forthcoming episode.

[00:23:55] But I love this conversation about starting something from scratch because it's what we've

[00:23:59] all done.

[00:24:00] And it's something that is really a fun, incredibly arduous, but fun process.

[00:24:05] We can go down that rabbit hole if you want a little bit because I did buy one business.

[00:24:10] Oh, okay.

[00:24:11] Let's preview it now.

[00:24:12] Let's do it.

[00:24:12] Yeah.

[00:24:13] I actually stuck my Gavcast.

[00:24:15] That's the other podcast we have.

[00:24:16] I actually purchased that and it was making revenue.

[00:24:19] And the way it was generating revenue is from the online courses.

[00:24:21] And it was more for general aviation pilots.

[00:24:26] And it was airline pilots and giving advice to general aviation pilots kind of thing.

[00:24:29] And it was really doing well, but that's the other route you can go.

[00:24:33] We never did talk about that.

[00:24:34] And I started a bunch, but that's one great way to start a business is get into one that's

[00:24:39] already generating revenue.

[00:24:40] And people are like, well, how can you make money in the podcast?

[00:24:43] Well, in reality, you don't.

[00:24:45] You make money from the podcast, not in the podcast itself.

[00:24:49] Full disclosure, I do have sponsors, so I do make some money on the podcast.

[00:24:53] But with all that said, I think that's important.

[00:24:55] And I'm not going to say I'm an expert in buying businesses, but I think that's another great

[00:24:59] route to go.

[00:25:00] Nothing wrong with getting into a franchise or purchasing a business that's out there.

[00:25:04] I just had a friend just sell his insurance company.

[00:25:06] And now he's an airline pilot.

[00:25:08] You know, he went from that business ownership.

[00:25:10] Now he wants to own another business again.

[00:25:12] It's in your blood sometimes, you know, and that's really important.

[00:25:16] Let me give you a great example.

[00:25:17] My kids and I go buy one vending machine.

[00:25:19] We get a contract, place it at one property.

[00:25:21] It's producing income, right?

[00:25:23] I have to go find the vending machine.

[00:25:25] I have to find the business.

[00:25:26] I have to find the contract.

[00:25:27] I have to find the, find, find, find.

[00:25:28] A lot of inertia, a lot of energy, a lot of horsepower, right?

[00:25:33] Or I can just go buy a vending machine route that's already established with already producing

[00:25:39] income vending machines and probably pay one times EBITDA for it, which is great cash flow.

[00:25:44] Absolutely.

[00:25:45] I still get the depreciation and I don't have to go knock on a bunch of business stores

[00:25:49] to go find it.

[00:25:50] So like, I think you've got to be a little crazy to start your own business.

[00:25:54] I'm a little bit nuts.

[00:25:55] Yeah.

[00:25:55] Like you, you've got to be a little crazy to start your own business.

[00:25:58] Right.

[00:25:59] Cause it's Carl.

[00:26:01] I mean, you, you, you were talking before the show, you know, 70 hour, you know what

[00:26:04] like people, you, you gotta be a little bit, you gotta be, you gotta, you gotta have a lot

[00:26:09] of energy.

[00:26:09] You got a lot to have enthusiasm.

[00:26:11] You gotta be consistent.

[00:26:12] You gotta be all these things.

[00:26:13] Right.

[00:26:13] But when you buy a business can be very different than starting a business.

[00:26:18] Absolutely.

[00:26:19] And yeah.

[00:26:19] Yeah.

[00:26:20] And think outside the box where you're talking about vending business, you know, we're

[00:26:22] airline pilots, right?

[00:26:23] So we can go anywhere in the world for free.

[00:26:26] Hey, I have a friend went down to Mexico and you started a business doing vending machines.

[00:26:29] So you can, you can do that as an American, uh, you know, some legal hoops to jump through.

[00:26:33] And I think that that's also really important to put in there.

[00:26:35] But, but I think, you know, going back to starting a business as an airline pilot, I think, you

[00:26:41] know, the, the old adage is, you know, if you want any type of financial advice, don't

[00:26:45] ask an airline pilot.

[00:26:46] And there is some truth to that because they don't have experience being a entrepreneur

[00:26:51] or investing and stuff like that.

[00:26:53] But listen to like this right here, a podcast where there's people that are actually doing

[00:26:57] it and, and get advice from people where it's a coach or a business coach, listen to book

[00:27:03] to, to podcasts, listen to books, read books, and, and do all those things that'll actually

[00:27:09] help you move forward.

[00:27:11] One of the things that I do, and this is kind of a key to, to my quote unquote success is

[00:27:15] that I read every day at like four in the morning for an hour.

[00:27:18] I try to at least.

[00:27:20] Can you list your top few business books that you would recommend to someone who's considering

[00:27:24] starting a business?

[00:27:26] Yeah, I'd say think and grow rich is a, is a big one.

[00:27:29] How to win friends and influence people.

[00:27:31] I think another one is Kiyosaki's, the different, I forget what he called it, the different

[00:27:37] cashflow quadrant.

[00:27:38] Thank you.

[00:27:38] And, and that, those are really big ones too.

[00:27:41] There's some other ones.

[00:27:42] If you're me, like I was a math major, so I was into derivatives and stuff like that.

[00:27:47] I wouldn't suggest that, but if you're into that, there's some really good books out there

[00:27:49] as far as, you know, options and there's, it's a really thick book, but I wouldn't recommend

[00:27:54] that too much.

[00:27:55] I'd also recommend the one big one I give to people is The Millionaire Next Door.

[00:28:01] And I tell you, you can learn so much from how millionaires work and act.

[00:28:07] And I, my brother gave this book to me and we both looked at it and we turned to each

[00:28:11] other.

[00:28:12] It's like, who's this described?

[00:28:13] And my parents.

[00:28:15] I mean, we, we look at them and they, and I learned so much from that book and, and I

[00:28:20] can relate to that because they're, they're just like that.

[00:28:23] Millionaire Next Door is just awesome.

[00:28:24] You know what those interesting, it's interesting about those books.

[00:28:26] They all have one thing in common.

[00:28:29] Not a single one of those books is going to tell you a step-by-step playbook on how to

[00:28:34] start a business.

[00:28:35] Absolutely.

[00:28:36] Every single one of those books is going to teach you one thing and one thing only mindset.

[00:28:41] Like Cashflow Quadrant.

[00:28:42] I remember I was in the Palm Springs layover on a hike when I was at Alaska and I was reading

[00:28:49] Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki over Audible while I was on my hike.

[00:28:54] And that's the moment I realized that for my whole career, I had been either self-employed

[00:29:00] or working W-2.

[00:29:02] And that's the, those are the two quadrants that.

[00:29:05] Your employee and self-employed.

[00:29:06] Pay the most taxes.

[00:29:07] Yep.

[00:29:08] Employee and self-employed, you're going to pay the most taxes.

[00:29:11] And a lot of people confuse their business with self-employment because they think, oh,

[00:29:14] I'm, I have my own business, but you really are just doing all the work as the, as the

[00:29:18] sole employee.

[00:29:18] You're just, you're working in self-employment.

[00:29:21] You're 1099 contractor to yourself, basically.

[00:29:23] And what I didn't realize is that, you know, starting a business is really the best way to

[00:29:28] make money.

[00:29:29] And that's the B quadrant.

[00:29:30] And then the I quadrant is being an investor and an investor is the, is the Rubicon here.

[00:29:35] That's where you get all your passive income.

[00:29:37] And you pay little to no tax as an investor.

[00:29:41] And so if you haven't read that book, it's a great mindset book, a millionaire next door.

[00:29:47] Like you're talking about thinking and growing rich.

[00:29:48] There's, there's a whole bunch of them, um, that, that help you kind of shape, reshape

[00:29:53] your mind and your thinking.

[00:29:54] Cause I think as pilots, we get a little bit like into this, you know, this attitude or

[00:29:59] this mindset that we can only do this and everything's going to fail and nothing works.

[00:30:04] And I heard from this one guy or gal that did this and it didn't work out.

[00:30:07] And this person got scammed and we were, we hear all the negative stories and like the

[00:30:12] mindset is going to shape the way you think and the way that you make decisions.

[00:30:16] And I think, I think Carl, that's why, you know, a lot of the same books I read that,

[00:30:20] you know, kind of make me go, yeah, we're, we're, we're like-minded and aligned with what

[00:30:25] we've, with some of the knowledge that we've gotten.

[00:30:26] So, well, absolutely.

[00:30:28] You know, it's interesting what you said though, about pilots that you said as far as, as pilots,

[00:30:33] you know, it's okay to be like that.

[00:30:35] There's nothing wrong with you.

[00:30:36] You should be paranoid because you want to keep people safe, right?

[00:30:40] Skeptical.

[00:30:40] Yep.

[00:30:40] Always thinking that way, be skeptical.

[00:30:42] And, and that's good.

[00:30:43] That's good to be skeptical, but now you have to move beyond those psychological boundaries

[00:30:48] somehow.

[00:30:49] And, uh, and the biggest thing is, you know, don't be afraid of failure, but make sure you

[00:30:53] manage those failures well.

[00:30:55] And believe me, I've, I've failed and I've been dirt poor and, uh, and was able to bounce

[00:31:01] back from that.

[00:31:01] Uh, and that's because I understand money management.

[00:31:05] It's not, I think money management is sometimes more important than investing because anybody

[00:31:09] can learn investment, investing, you know, it's actually how you manage that money.

[00:31:13] You know, don't bet it all in red or don't, don't go out and buy that yacht.

[00:31:16] And, uh, and that's really important.

[00:31:18] And that's something that I think is a key takeaway is don't, don't act like a millionaire.

[00:31:23] Be a millionaire.

[00:31:24] In other words, try to, and try to fit in.

[00:31:26] I mean, I, I bought a fancy car one, two, two cars ago and I didn't like it for the

[00:31:32] only reason is that people thought I was rich.

[00:31:35] So I went and bought a Mazda.

[00:31:36] That was my next purchase.

[00:31:37] So now I kind of blend in and I like that.

[00:31:41] You really need to, need to blend it.

[00:31:42] I think that's a, that's incredibly important too.

[00:31:44] You waste cars too?

[00:31:45] Oh, no, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them, but, but I'm, you know, you're not

[00:31:49] going to go out, you know, this other, the other cars that are as soon as being

[00:31:52] quote unquote wealthy.

[00:31:53] Right.

[00:31:54] Right.

[00:31:54] And believe me, my friend, he, he, he, uh, he's as a hobby.

[00:31:58] They turned into business.

[00:31:59] He collects Bentleys and like, you know, you know, Bentleys, Rolls Royce.

[00:32:03] And what he does is he fixes those up and he wound up selling me and started a car business

[00:32:07] on the side.

[00:32:08] I mean, go figure.

[00:32:09] And cause it was fun for him.

[00:32:11] It's a little expensive.

[00:32:12] I think that's an important point.

[00:32:14] Like, you know, my business partner's a, you know, an army veteran, you know, served in

[00:32:18] the military.

[00:32:19] He makes mistakes.

[00:32:20] People die.

[00:32:21] You know, as airline pilots, we make mistakes.

[00:32:23] People die.

[00:32:23] Like it's kind of actually level set us pretty well for business because we make mistakes

[00:32:29] in investing in our business, but no one dies.

[00:32:33] I mean, yeah, we lose money, but like you kind of got to get over the, the perfection

[00:32:37] or the, the striving for, you know, no, no failures.

[00:32:40] Right.

[00:32:41] I think that's a mindset difference in business than, than flying, but you know, flying teaches

[00:32:45] you all kinds of stuff that is, you know, parallels to business, you know, checklist

[00:32:49] driven approaches and the manuals we read and the organization of, of, uh, training people.

[00:32:55] I mean, we, we have a lot of really good best practices that we can apply that I apply to

[00:32:59] my business every day.

[00:33:00] Um, you know, the airlines do an exceptional job of so.

[00:33:03] Absolutely.

[00:33:04] They do.

[00:33:04] Absolutely.

[00:33:05] I wanted to talk a little bit about your business, um, more about helping somebody

[00:33:11] in another career transition to learning how to fly.

[00:33:15] Can you, can you kind of talk about, maybe share a story or two on, on somebody who's

[00:33:20] maybe later stage in life that, that has transitioned to successfully in a career through

[00:33:24] your, through your program?

[00:33:25] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:33:26] And I, I'm going to tease a future episode if you don't mind.

[00:33:29] Um, I, some of the, the people, I have a lot of very passionate people that listen

[00:33:33] to my show and I do, you know, individual career coaching.

[00:33:36] And I also do this career coaching mentorship where people can come on.

[00:33:40] We're actually doing one tonight, uh, where it's only $20 a month, but they can actually

[00:33:44] come on and ask any question they want.

[00:33:46] And the stories that I hear are phenomenal.

[00:33:49] One of them I absolutely love.

[00:33:52] And it was a lady who came to this country and wound up working just anything to make money.

[00:34:02] And she really decided she was going to become a pilot.

[00:34:05] She didn't know how, but she did anything.

[00:34:08] She was cleaning homes.

[00:34:09] She was homesitting, babysitting.

[00:34:11] She wound up researching and didn't speak English that well, but went to an American college

[00:34:17] and wound up speaking English.

[00:34:19] She no longer actually cleans home.

[00:34:22] She's the first officer on the 737 at United Airlines now.

[00:34:25] Fast forward.

[00:34:26] What an incredible story.

[00:34:27] Here's somebody who had nothing and just was so happy to be here and said, Hey, listen,

[00:34:33] I can make this happen.

[00:34:34] Another story I have is coming up in the next couple episodes as a gentleman who went from

[00:34:39] being a teacher and a principal to becoming an airline pilot.

[00:34:43] And now he's a, he's a captain in an airline.

[00:34:45] I can actually name one over and over and over again doing this, you know, for a couple decades,

[00:34:51] just helping people transition for something they liked, but now they're doing something

[00:34:57] they love.

[00:34:59] And, uh, I mean, one of my most recent stories I think is terrific is a gentleman who used

[00:35:04] to fly off carriers and he wound up becoming the head of transportation for Disney and said,

[00:35:10] listen, I'm, I miss flying.

[00:35:11] I'm not too old yet.

[00:35:12] I'm close to 60.

[00:35:14] I want to do this again.

[00:35:15] Now he's flying for a corporation.

[00:35:17] Now he's doing a flying for flex jet as a corporate pilot, loving life.

[00:35:21] So here you have different people from different avenues of train.

[00:35:24] I've had, uh, actors, uh, decide to transfer.

[00:35:27] Um, and in college, cause a lot of my clients are in California, people that work in Hollywood

[00:35:31] that do, you know, commercials and interacting actors and some movies.

[00:35:35] And they've decided I want to become an airline pilot.

[00:35:37] I've had people that are truck drivers that want to become airline pilots, you know, attorneys.

[00:35:41] I have to say probably the hardest thing to switch from is a job that makes really good

[00:35:46] money to becoming an airline pilot.

[00:35:48] Yeah.

[00:35:48] A good example is an attorney.

[00:35:50] I mean, if you're an attorney, you're like, well, gosh, I'm going to give up everything.

[00:35:54] Well, you don't have to, you're still an attorney.

[00:35:56] You could actually be an attorney and, and work as an attorney part-time.

[00:36:00] And just like one of my guys I have on all the time, they turn out my aviation careers

[00:36:04] podcast.

[00:36:04] He's actually an airline pilot also.

[00:36:06] So there's, there's so many things that you can, and to help people transfer, all they

[00:36:10] got to do is listen to the podcast.

[00:36:11] And of course we, we help them out through direct coaching.

[00:36:14] And the thing with the direct coaching that's important is that there are certain things

[00:36:18] that you can't talk about on a group session.

[00:36:21] Like we're talking here.

[00:36:22] Right.

[00:36:22] And especially if you have some issues in the, in the background, you know, arrests and,

[00:36:26] and that type of thing where we can work through that process.

[00:36:29] And, and I tell you, there's, there's nothing that gives me more satisfaction than hearing

[00:36:34] their stories.

[00:36:34] As a matter of fact, after every coaching session, you know what I tell everybody, send me an email.

[00:36:39] Let me know how you're doing.

[00:36:41] Let me tell me your successes.

[00:36:42] Cause that's what feeds me, you know?

[00:36:45] And basically by doing that, it makes me happy.

[00:36:48] So in other words, I'm, and someone told me this years ago, I'm actually filling other

[00:36:52] people's buckets, but by filling other people's buckets, my bucket just overflows.

[00:36:57] That's amazing.

[00:36:58] And that's what I want them to do.

[00:36:59] So I want them to make my bucket overflow by just telling me how well they're doing later

[00:37:03] in life.

[00:37:03] Or remind people about what the name of the podcast is and what the, how do they, how do

[00:37:08] they find the coaching?

[00:37:09] Yeah.

[00:37:10] It's just aviationcareerspodcast.com and you click on the coaching aviationcareerspodcast.com

[00:37:14] slash coaching.

[00:37:15] And you can find out both about our career coaching mentorship, where we do that at least

[00:37:20] once a month.

[00:37:20] It's at night and you can come on, you can ask questions.

[00:37:23] We do all sorts of different things.

[00:37:25] Like we'll do a mock check ride.

[00:37:27] We'll do a mock interview.

[00:37:29] We'll talk about the upcoming hiring cycle that's about to happen with all this hiring

[00:37:33] going on, how to prepare for that.

[00:37:35] But yeah, it's real simple.

[00:37:37] Aviationcareerspodcast.com.

[00:37:38] And this is great for anybody who's got a son, daughter, niece, nephew, who's getting

[00:37:41] into it as well.

[00:37:42] So it's interesting you mentioned that.

[00:37:44] I do have a lot of, this is interesting.

[00:37:46] I have a lot of airline pilots that send their kids to me.

[00:37:49] And you know why?

[00:37:50] Because, and you'll know this if you're a parent, kids don't listen to you, right?

[00:37:54] So they point you to go listen to somebody else.

[00:37:58] So they'll pay them to go listen to me and they'll come on the call.

[00:38:01] That's the other neat thing is sometimes I have some really young folks.

[00:38:04] And a big part of my business, and this is something, you know, we don't know how our

[00:38:09] business is going to evolve, is I help people move into this country, into the U.S.

[00:38:13] to do their training, even possibly stay here.

[00:38:15] And the reason being is that the salaries are so high here for airline pilots compared

[00:38:19] to most places in the world.

[00:38:20] So that's actually become a big part of it where I can help people maneuver and navigate

[00:38:26] that whole process of getting into the U.S.

[00:38:28] And that's a bit fun.

[00:38:29] Can we just take a moment to appreciate what an amazing career this is?

[00:38:34] You know, I mean, we've all flown with the grouchy FO who's just like, man, or the grouchy

[00:38:42] captain who's like, man, you haven't worked a real job in your life.

[00:38:47] If you think this is a drag, man, come on.

[00:38:53] It's the best job in the world.

[00:38:55] People ask me, you know, hey, you know, I'm growing a large business now.

[00:39:01] And, you know, they go, oh, do you want to retire?

[00:39:02] It's like, no, I want to be like Carl.

[00:39:05] I want to fly three days a month.

[00:39:06] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:39:08] And so that's something that's important is defining why you like what you're doing.

[00:39:14] And let's go back to the business part of this.

[00:39:16] Think about this.

[00:39:17] I get in an airplane.

[00:39:18] I fly somewhere.

[00:39:19] I love the Caribbean.

[00:39:20] I can go to the Caribbean, stay in a hotel, in a resort.

[00:39:22] They pay for everything, all the food I want to eat, which I don't need.

[00:39:26] And you actually get to stay there for free and have fun for sometimes 30 some odd hours.

[00:39:31] And I get to fly a really cool airplane.

[00:39:34] It has air conditioning.

[00:39:35] It has a Coke.

[00:39:36] And that was the big thing for me.

[00:39:38] I wanted to fly an airplane.

[00:39:39] I had an air conditioning and a Coke, a Diet Coke, actually.

[00:39:42] And these are things, these are the little things that make life grand.

[00:39:45] And in the meantime, I get paid really well for it.

[00:39:49] And it also gives me that opportunity to massage my schedule so that I can actually do other things with friends and family.

[00:39:56] And the other really big thing is the fact that I can go anywhere I want in the world whenever I want to.

[00:40:03] If I want to visit my, I live in Florida, I want to visit my family in Colorado, I can go to Denver.

[00:40:07] If I want to go visit family in New Jersey, I just fly into New York.

[00:40:11] And that is something, it's a superpower.

[00:40:14] It is.

[00:40:14] It's a superpower and it's called location freedom.

[00:40:18] Absolutely.

[00:40:18] And it's something that so few people on this planet Earth have.

[00:40:21] Hey, if I want to go to Rome, I take the jet.

[00:40:23] Yeah.

[00:40:24] Think about it.

[00:40:24] The only people that say that are really wealthy people like here in the FBO and airline pilots.

[00:40:29] Yeah.

[00:40:30] Absolutely.

[00:40:31] Nice to stop and just have a moment of gratitude for the careers that we all have.

[00:40:36] And again, you talk, and that's why people like to fly with me is that I actually, I like to show them things.

[00:40:41] Like I don't do the slam click link.

[00:40:43] I want to show them at least one thing wherever we go that they haven't seen before.

[00:40:47] Whether it's going to the Dominican Republic and taking them to a great Italian restaurant, which blows their minds.

[00:40:53] Or if it's going somewhere and learning about the history of an area, say in Canada, where Benjamin Franklin's son was actually a big real estate investor.

[00:41:02] I'll do things like that.

[00:41:03] That's in Mumpton, by the way.

[00:41:04] I mean, it's just, there's so many fun things that you can do with this job.

[00:41:07] You just have to make it happen.

[00:41:08] I think that's true in anything in life.

[00:41:10] It's not just being an airline pilot.

[00:41:12] And being an airline pilot isn't for everybody.

[00:41:14] I mean, I think it's a great job.

[00:41:16] But you have to find that thing that really, really turns you on and makes you get up in the morning and can't wait to go to work.

[00:41:24] I mean, I get up in the middle of the night thinking about my podcast.

[00:41:27] I get up in the middle of the night thinking about clients.

[00:41:30] And it's really, it's exciting.

[00:41:32] Not because I'm nervous or anything like that.

[00:41:34] But like with this, I mean, I sent you guys an email three in the morning.

[00:41:37] I started thinking about it.

[00:41:38] I was like, oh man, this is great.

[00:41:40] Being able to help other people like what you're doing with passive income and making them understand that.

[00:41:45] I think that is so important.

[00:41:46] There's people that I know that I work with that say, hey, Carl, what can I do?

[00:41:51] I was like, well, you know, I'm not a real business consultant per se, but there's other stuff out there.

[00:41:56] I mean, the great thing is this passiveincomepilots.com.

[00:41:59] I mean, you can actually find out more there.

[00:42:01] And I haven't really been listening a lot to it, but I've been going through some of the episodes.

[00:42:04] There's some cool stuff out there.

[00:42:05] If you just take one episode and learn one thing, that'll actually put you on a trajectory towards success.

[00:42:11] And that's what you need to do.

[00:42:13] Yeah.

[00:42:13] 1% every day is over 300% better.

[00:42:17] It compounds.

[00:42:18] Absolutely.

[00:42:19] It compounds.

[00:42:20] Yeah.

[00:42:20] And that's what's so cool about your show.

[00:42:22] And I'm not, and I love to, this is me.

[00:42:25] I love to watch people succeed.

[00:42:26] And I think that's what's cool about your show is you're helping people succeed in another manner.

[00:42:31] I'm helping them move forward in their careers.

[00:42:32] You're helping them move forward in their investing and being able to have some type of passive income.

[00:42:38] And that definition of passive income can mean many different things.

[00:42:41] And what happens is it gets in your skin and then you realize, hey, I want to do more.

[00:42:46] I want to start investing in this.

[00:42:48] I want to start investing in that.

[00:42:49] You know, it really is a creative to your life and to your family.

[00:42:55] You know, imagine what you can do with that money.

[00:42:57] I mean, think about this.

[00:42:58] Is that I, just because of the money I was able to make, I actually lit up a soup kitchen for a year.

[00:43:06] I bought a year's worth of chafing dish fuel to fuel that place.

[00:43:11] I backed up a truck of chafing dish fuel.

[00:43:14] I couldn't do that if I didn't make money.

[00:43:16] And that's something that, you know, money is not bad.

[00:43:18] I know sometimes we think about that, but money is just money.

[00:43:21] It's a medium.

[00:43:22] You can do good or you can do evil.

[00:43:24] So the wealthiest people I know are more interested in giving it away than they are earning it.

[00:43:30] I mean, they're ruthless business people that earn lots of money, but they are more interested in giving it away.

[00:43:36] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:43:37] Absolutely.

[00:43:38] You know what's really weird about being in business too?

[00:43:40] And this is going to sound, I know you guys will probably relate to this.

[00:43:43] You're seeing me on camera right now.

[00:43:45] My studio is very Spartan.

[00:43:47] I mean, I have a 20-year-old desk sitting in the corner right there.

[00:43:51] You don't see it here.

[00:43:52] You know, the equipment I need, that's important.

[00:43:54] I have good lights.

[00:43:55] I have good cameras, but that's all I need.

[00:43:57] I don't need much else.

[00:43:58] And that's really, you start looking at life that way is that you say, what's most important?

[00:44:04] But when it comes to giving money to a charity, I'll write a check, you know, and I won't think twice about it.

[00:44:09] But when it comes to buying a car for myself or something that is a want, I really think twice about it, especially in my business.

[00:44:17] Am I buying that to make my business look good or am I buying that to make my business good?

[00:44:24] Two different things.

[00:44:24] Yeah, so great.

[00:44:25] Yeah, totally.

[00:44:27] Absolutely.

[00:44:27] And that's why, like I said, and that's something that I know with your passive income pilots, I think that's important.

[00:44:35] I like that word is helping people that are pilots do this.

[00:44:38] But a lot of these things can work in many other different fields, whether you're an attorney or doctor, whatever it may be.

[00:44:44] But it really is important that we focus on one industry because there are certain things unique to pilots, right?

[00:44:51] And there's a couple of things that we don't sometimes talk about, some uncomfortable things.

[00:44:55] Our medical, our medical health, you know, that's big.

[00:44:58] That's really important to us, right?

[00:44:59] So tomorrow I'm going to get my medical two days from now.

[00:45:01] I could be done for a while.

[00:45:02] And I've had that happen, you know, where I walk in the door, I walk out the door and I get a letter from the FAA saying, by the way, we're not going to issue your medical.

[00:45:10] Oh boy, you know, right at Christmas.

[00:45:12] And so you're, you know, that will change your life.

[00:45:15] But it also makes you realize how important this is because say whatever you're doing turns like you're flying and you need to go back to your passive income.

[00:45:25] And that's where, you know, I have friends that own real estate agencies.

[00:45:28] And if they lost their job as a pilot, they could turn around and start doing that full time.

[00:45:33] It just, it does work and it's not impossible.

[00:45:35] I know we get paid really good money, but trust me, I actually make more in my passive investments

[00:45:40] and my passive income than I do actually as an airline pilot.

[00:45:43] By choice, some of it, you know, I don't fly much, but, but it's, it's hard.

[00:45:48] I never thought that would happen, but it's pretty phenomenal.

[00:45:51] It really is.

[00:45:52] It absolutely is.

[00:45:53] No, I would just say like anti-fragility is the book.

[00:45:58] Anti-fragile is a great book.

[00:46:00] And it talks about how you should make your life.

[00:46:03] So if something gets bad, other things get good.

[00:46:08] Right.

[00:46:08] So, you know, great example for me when COVID hit and the airlines were, no one knew what was going to happen.

[00:46:14] You know, people were, the airlines were losing like $50 million a day.

[00:46:17] Um, guess what got really good during COVID self-storage.

[00:46:21] Right.

[00:46:22] So here I am, you know, airline career is who knows what was going to happen.

[00:46:26] I mean, in hindsight, it all worked out great.

[00:46:28] The government dropped a bunch of money on the airlines and everybody stayed home and got paid for the most part.

[00:46:33] But for a minute, you know, there was people signing up to drive Uber.

[00:46:37] There was people panic.

[00:46:38] There was people taking truck school, whatever it was.

[00:46:41] And my business just took off like a rocket during COVID because everybody was downsizing their, their home office.

[00:46:48] That's cool.

[00:46:49] You know, they had to get rid of the stuff at their house because they had to no longer go to the office.

[00:46:53] They had to get rid of stuff in their house to get, because the people were no longer going to go to gyms, you know, businesses were being shuttered.

[00:46:59] So they had to put stuff into storage, you know, and my, my business took off.

[00:47:03] And so I had a lot to do during COVID.

[00:47:05] I was busier than ever during COVID.

[00:47:06] So when you think about your airline career, you know, think about what would, if, if my airline career ground to a screeching halt, you know, what, what thing could I be having on the side that would then take off?

[00:47:19] Like a rocket, right.

[00:47:20] Or, or, or be the yin and the yang to, to how the airlines are doing.

[00:47:25] And, you know, it's really easy right now.

[00:47:27] If you're 25 years old and you just got hired at Delta, you know, the world is your oyster.

[00:47:31] You are going to have a great career guaranteed.

[00:47:34] Um, but, uh, at the same time, like what, you know, just ask any airline pilot, you know, every 15 or 20 years, something just happens.

[00:47:45] And, uh, I mean, God, look at spirit.

[00:47:48] I mean, you know, I've got friends there for, you know, 10, 20 years and they're right up on the edge of, you know, bankruptcies, you know, could be a good thing.

[00:47:54] They restructure their contracts and get out of some things and they emerge.

[00:47:58] But I mean, you know, talk about an airline that was doing so well for so long.

[00:48:02] And then all of a sudden it's, it's completely flipped around.

[00:48:04] So you're not safe anywhere.

[00:48:07] Nothing is guaranteed.

[00:48:08] Your medical is not guaranteed.

[00:48:10] Nothing is, you know, you can't assume anything.

[00:48:12] Absolutely not.

[00:48:13] And so you just got to, you know, kind of, you know, so, well, Carl, uh, you've been very gracious with your time.

[00:48:19] Uh, thanks for coming on.

[00:48:21] How do listeners get in touch with you?

[00:48:22] Learn more about you.

[00:48:24] Um, what's kind of your, uh, your calling card.

[00:48:26] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:48:27] Just go to aviationcareerspodcast.com.

[00:48:29] You can find us on YouTube, on the internet.

[00:48:32] Uh, actually you can find us on Amazon podcast now.

[00:48:35] I just put it out there.

[00:48:36] Uh, if you're interested in me helping you go to our, our career coaching page.

[00:48:40] Uh, we also, uh, give away some coupons, uh, for our monthly career mentorship and that's, uh, coach it forward.

[00:48:48] Use that coupon.

[00:48:49] You can get a free month of, of coaching and our mentorship program at aviationcareerspodcast.com.

[00:48:54] Check it out.

[00:48:55] Uh, it's free.

[00:48:56] And if one of those people can help you, it's worth it.

[00:48:59] You know, for those listening to the show mentioned, you heard, uh, about Carl through passive income pilots.

[00:49:04] Uh, that would mean a lot to us.

[00:49:06] Um, that helps us, you know, get great guests like Carl on the show and keep this thing going.

[00:49:11] So, um, that'd be really helpful for us.

[00:49:13] Uh, but with that, thanks for listening, everybody.

[00:49:16] Catch you on the next show.