The Mello Millionaire with Tommy Mello - The Sky Isn’t the Limit—It’s the Market. Dominating the Private Jet Industry with Steve Varsano

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Steve Varsano is the world’s most recognizable private jet broker and the founder of The Jet Business — a luxury aviation firm that has redefined how billion-dollar aircraft are bought and sold. A former Wall Street trader turned aviation power broker, Steve has facilitated billions of dollars in private jet transactions for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, royalty, and global elites. Known for his unapologetic honesty, sharp instincts, and larger-than-life presence, he’s become a trusted voice in an industry where trust is everything. From pioneering transparent jet sales to building the most iconic showroom in private aviation, Steve doesn’t just sell jets — he changes how power, speed, and access move around the world.Check Out My Social Media:Tiktok ⟶ https://www.tiktok.com/@officialtommymelloInstagram ⟶ https://www.instagram.com/officialtommymello/Facebook ⟶https://www.facebook.com/thomasmello/My other podcast:Home Service Expert ⟶ https://open.spotify.com/show/4WHQ3ldGThHsP1cfzNF33GLive Q&A submission form:https://homeserviceexpert.com/questionsLearn more about Steve: https://www.instagram.com/stevevarsano/?hl=en00:00 The Journey to Private Aviation Success09:59 The Role of Education and Client Empowerment20:06 Work-Life Balance in a Demanding Industry30:10 The Future of Aviation and Technology40:00 Lessons Learned and Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Failure is not the opposite of success, right? I mean, failure is a stepping stone to success, and you're going to have plenty of failures to get to your success. So if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. Ambitious, elite, influential. Our guest today is Steve Varsano, a pioneer who redefined the business of private aviation. You know, the harder you work, the lucky you get,

and, you know, more shit happens. Over the past four decades, Steve has brokered billions in aircraft sales, served on the boards of Virgin Galactic and ExoJet, and held executive roles spanning Europe, the U.S., and beyond. People love feeling good about themselves, and the way they do that is by buying a luxury product. He's also the founder and CEO of the jet business, an advisory company focused on the sale of large cabin and ultra-range private jets.

Brand is everything today. Get ready. This conversation will teach you about the business of selling to the elite. Welcome back to the Mello Millionaire. Today I got Steve Varsom. this is going to be an awesome podcast. He's a founder and CEO of the jet business. He's a pioneer who redefined the business of private aviation.

Over the past four decades, Steve has brokered billions in aircraft sales. Pleasure to have you, Steve. My pleasure. Thank you for having me on. So the jet business is a brokerage and advisory company focused on large cabin and ultra-range private jets. It sounds fantastic. I've done my fair share of these last couple years of private jets.

I haven't purchased anything yet. Can you explain to us a little bit more about your business, how you got started, and what you're looking forward to? I got my degree in aeronautical studies at a university called Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. It's really the sort of Harvard of aviation. And after I got out of there, I got a job on Capitol Hill, representing all the airplane manufacturers as a lobbyist. It was a great job, but it didn't pay very much money. So I was working at night in my roommate's nightclub that he owned. And During the course of being in a nightclub, I ran into a guy who used to come in with a tie with a jet on his tie pin in the old days when used to have tie pins and ties. And I asked him why he's wearing a jet on his tie and he told me he sold planes.

I was like, really? It was so weird to me. I was 21, 22 years old. And after a few months, he was coming in there showing off his commission checks in the old days when he used to actually have checks and show me how much money he was making. And I was like, okay, after three or four of those, I said, enough is enough. enough. I mean, where the hell do you work? I want to come and get a job there. So I convinced him to get me into his boss. I saw his boss, the guy said, I'm not going to hire you. You don't have any sales experience. And I said, listen, I got you listening to me for two hours.

So obviously, I got something in my DNA. And I said, tell you what, just let me get on board and you don't have to pay me. And I convinced him to hire me for free to I sold an airplane. and that was 40-something years ago. So that's how it got started. Yeah, I know your first sale I was watching at the Venezuela gunpoint that you had to pay them some commissions. Well, they wanted me to.

I escaped. I didn't pay them. We were signing a deal with a Venezuelan buyer. He had two of his henchmen representing him. We signed the deal. They were transferring the funds. We were flying the airplane to Miami. We were halfway from North Carolina. to Miami and the two people on the plane with me said to me, Steve, we have to talk to you

about something. I said, what's that? He said, we want to get our commission. What do you mean you're going to get your commission? You're representing the buyer. There's no commission for you. No, no, we need to get our commission. I said, no, there's no money for you. He said, don't worry about it. When we get to Venezuela, you'll be able to go back home after we get our money and everything will be fine. That was a hell of a first encounter to get into the business. That was for sure. I thought I was going to die. I was going to get cut up in little pieces in a box and get sent home. Is the way that it works, is it like commercial real estate is like 3%?

Is that the fee? No, it's weird. I mean, there is no set number. And it's quite funny because it's not like property, real estate. It's not like yachts. There's no industry standard, you know, runs anywhere from, you know, one to four percent depending on the value. Obviously, the higher the value of the airplane, the low of the percentage.

And we built this showroom basically to give us a USB, you know, the unique selling proposition that differentiates ourselves from everybody else. So we believe really in educating our client and empowering them with enough information to make an intelligent decision, not say you should buy this or this is the price of this. I really educate them. And there was an old clothing store in New York when I grew up. Guy named Cy Sims had a store. And his advertising moniker was an educated consumer is our best customer.

And for some reason, I don't know why, but that saying always stuck in my head. And the way I feel is if we really educate the customers so well and answer every possible question that they can have, they move forward much easier and more confidently. Because if they don't have all the answers to the questions, usually they're hesitant or don't move forward. And we can get a deal done much quicker and at a better value if it's going through an education rather than just trying to sell them something on price. So you've been doing this over 40 years, and we were talking before the podcast.

You obviously love what you do. Sounds like it's a lot of hours. Yeah, it is a lot of hours. Listen, I mean, you know, people talk about this, you know, homework balance, you know. Well, yeah, I guess I have a homework balance, but it's not 50-50. It's 100, 100. I really, you know, definitely the definition of my life is work hard and play harder. So being in London basically allows us in the morning to be working in 18.

Asia and then in the afternoon in the Middle East in Europe and then as the afternoon goes on in the evening into America. So we really can cover the whole globe from morning tonight on a time zone. That's good news and it's bad news. So, you know, we're always connected around the world. So depending on where the clients are, these people obviously don't really care what time they call you. If you pick up the phone, that's great. And if you don't, they'll call somebody else. So, you know, I pick up the phone as soon as it rings, no matter where it's coming from, no matter what time of day or night it is. And it really doesn't bother me.

I really is part of my lifestyle. It's part of the drug to being in this business. And you never know who's going to call you. Sometimes I look at my phone at the end of the day and, you know, shock myself. I'm, you know, a kid from the streets in New Jersey who, you know, was waiting tables and busing tables. And then I'm looking at my phone and looking into some of the names. Those are people I've talked to. How much does social media influence your business?

because of the showroom concept, which I started about 12 years ago, we always had a different presence in the media because of the showroom. A lot of standard or usual media of newspapers, magazines, TV, they would always do stories on us because we have such a crazy idea of a store. And so we always got a lot of promotion from that. Everybody in our industry knew who we were. When we started with social media, I was quite shocked, quite frankly, to see how the algorithm caught, and we got unbelievable traction. We're now up to about 300 million views and about 5 million followers.

And we've actually sold some airplanes from it, to tell you the truth. I'm getting so much more satisfaction now when I have all these young kids come up to me and tell me that they're being inspired by watching what we're talking about. about and and you know I got this job because of what you said I went to the school because of what you said I you know I negotiated this deal because of what you said quite frankly before I started social media you know I want to do deals on money this is my main interest that's all I want to do but I've actually discovered I have this other side of me that has a huge satisfaction knowing that I am helping the younger generation and somehow inspire them in work in home in

and friendships and just the way they carry themselves and work ethic. So you said you play just as hard as you work. What do you do for fun? What does playing look like for you? Well, my other half, she here in London, is probably the most social woman in London. So literally six nights a week, we are out.

She is in charge of my life after 8 p.m. And before 8 p.m., I'm the king of my castle. and literally she's calling me up at 7 o'clock. I'm coming to pick you up at 8, 8, 8.30, 9 o'clock. And I say, okay, what's the dress code and where are we going? I must say that, you know, I am fortunate enough that our social circle is also part of the people I do business with, especially in the summertime when we're traveling through different places around the med, south of France or in Italy or Greece.

We're traveling a lot. And we're going to some amazing, beautiful, luxurious, exotic places. but that's where a lot of my clients are too. So even though I'm out in a beautiful place, I'm still working all the time. I'm on the phone. I'm on Zooms. I'm meeting with people and trying to blend in in the social world.

But my main focus is always around the business. How do you balance that? Because it's something that I'm trying to build this life I want. I'm 42. I figure by the time I'm 45 because we're private equity backed and they like you to work a lot, as you can imagine. And I'm fine with it. I enjoy what I do.

But how do you balance that? Just how much you like to sleep? I'm now much more and more and more into longevity and the aging programs and a lot of stuff. And they tell me that my biggest thing I have to do is increase my sleep that you should be getting between seven and eight hours. And it really destroys your cognitive functioning, whether you think it is or not. So I'm trying to push myself up to that seven hours average. But it's hard.

and there's just not enough hours in the day. After I started selling jets, I went to work for a private equity guy. In those days, it was a corporate mergers and acquisitions takeover, an activist, and they used to call merchant banking. And I worked for him for 17 years, and that literally I was working around the clock as well and traveling everywhere. But, you know, my whole life was focused on doing the impossible for them. and so I've always had a work ethic in my life.

I mean, I was brought up in a single, you know, my mother with four kids, no father my whole life, and she worked two jobs supporting the four kids. So ever since I'm seven years old, sweeping floors in a beauty salon, I've been working since I'm seven. So it's not something foreign to me, and it's actually normal for me.

And I actually, it's a drug that I really enjoy. And thank God that, you know, Lisa, my other half is, you know, understands it. She's busy in her social life. So she's not nagging me, call me 10 times a day. What are you doing when you're coming home? And that's how it works so well. So it's just, if it's not in your DNA

and you don't really enjoy working, then you're in a wrong line of work. So how many people are on your team? We have 10 people. We have sales people, research people, IT, craft design. But I'm looking now opening up another place in the U.S., so I'll double the team, but it's one of those things where it's the right thing to do for my business, but probably not the healthy thing to do for my personal life and my health.

But I'm still going to probably do it anyway. So you started this. this fascination with aviation at 14 and your first solo flight happened at 16. What got you into that originally? Well, it was bizarre because I was in the streets of, you know, Hackensack, New Jersey, which is, you know, not a huge metropolis of New York City. And I never thought I'd have been an airplane. And a friend of mine, I was over my friend's house and his older brother was going up for a flying

last and he just said, hey, you know, there's four seats in a plane, at two empty seats, if you want to come for a ride, you know, you come with me. So I was like, yeah, you're kidding me? Go up in a plane. And I didn't know what he was talking about, but it was this little single engine, tiny airplane. And but I got up in that airplane and I was sitting back there saying, this is amazing. You're like in this little sports car up in the air flying around.

It was just, you know, I was 14 years old. This was, it was just something I couldn't believe existed. And I can actually learn how to fly this airplane. So, you know, I was working in those days when I was 14 as busboy, a dishwasher, in different restaurants, you know, trying to get money wherever I can. It wasn't really legal, but we did it anyway. And I'd work two, three weeks, you know, to pay for one hour of flying. And I did that until I was 16 where you're legally able to solo when you're 16 and

you get your license when you're 17. So I did all that. And then I actually went to university and Ford degree in aeronautics. studies. So I've always heard this phrase, I've got to be careful here, but basically anything that flies or floats and some other stuff, you rent. When people make a lot of money, what is your take on? When's the right time to buy an aircraft or a jet? It's funny. I probably tell 30% of the people I talk to that they should not buy a jet specifically for that reason. First of all, the idea, the impression that people buy airplanes just to fuck around and just fly around and have a good time, it's not true.

I'm not saying people don't do it, but that's not why they buy an airplane. If you don't have a real need of at least 150 or 200 hours a year, that's where you really need to buy an airplane. Not because it's more economically feasible or practical, it's because logistically it makes more sense. And to give you an idea what 200 hours means, when you're flying 100,000 miles on the airlines, that's about 175 hours. So really, you know, 150, 200 hours is if you're at a platinum level on an airline or flying 100,000 hours, then that's where you sort of say, you know what, I should really get an airplane because I'm constantly trying to find one, charter one, rent one.

The alternative, of course, is buying a fractional piece of an airplane. And that has become much more, if you want to call it in vogue. Because you could buy a 16th and eighth, a quarter, a half, which equalize to 25 hours, 50 hours, 100 hours, 200 hours, and you buy a share of the airplane, and then you pay an hourly rate going forward from there. But that gives you consistency, reliability, and you know what the price is going to be per hour when you fly it. It's a little more expensive per hour, but you don't have to buy the whole airplane and you're only paying for the time you're on the airplane. Yeah, so I was listening

to an interview with John Travolta. I think he's got three planes. He said one's always been getting worked on, so his idea is have a second one. Even if you buy a new plane, there's still a lot of maintenance that goes into that. I wanted to dive into this is understanding a lot of people start Delaware company and they charter it and then they got access to the airplane plus others. When do you go that route versus keep your full-time plane? So, yeah, I mean, if you're not using the airplane a lot and you want to reduce your fixed costs, then it makes sense to rent your airplane at the third parties. And about a third of the airplane owners actually do that. So the way the economic model works is you have, when you have an airplane, you have fixed costs and you have

variable costs. The fixed costs are basically what you pay for, whether you're flying an hour or you're flying 400 hours. It's your pilot salary, your insurance, your hanger costs, things like that. A mid-sized jet is, let's say, a million dollars a year. And then your variable costs or your direct operating costs are every time you crank the engine up, you're paying for fuel and maintenance and parking and catering and hotels for the pilots and all that kind of stuff. That's, let's say, for example, that could be 3,000. $3,000 an hour. So what happens is if you can rent that airplane out for $7,000 an hour, and it cost you $3,000 an hour to rent to your cost out of pocket, you're making $4,000 an hour.

So if you're flying at 200 hours and you could rent it out 200 hours, you're going to make 200 hours times 4,000 profit, which is about $800,000 in profit. So if you have a fixed cost of a million that now has been absorbed 80% and your fixed cost only cost you 200,000 a year, and then it only costs you $3,000 an hour to fly it. So that's the basic math model. But, you know, the negatives are, you know, the airplane's out for a charter and you want to use it, and that gets annoying after it happens a couple times. Or the other thing that happens is sometimes people who rent the airplane out,

they put restrictions on it. You know, you can't have red wine, you can't smoke, you can't have a dog, you know, this kind of stuff. And sometimes people don't listen to you. And they're inside the airplane and they pull out a bottle, red wine, and it accidentally drops on your carpet. You know, carpet on these airplanes is 50,000, 100,000, depending on the size of the airplane.

And yes, you could say they're responsible for it, but, you know, they'll say, we'll just clean it. It leads a big stain. And it'll annoy you when that happens a few times. No, I could imagine. I was just thinking about all the, legislation that's passed this last year. How is that affected, you know, advanced depreciation? The depreciation schedule is what you're speaking of. So today you can get, you buy an airplane

this year or any year. You get a hundred percent depreciation the year you buy the airplane on the full purchase price. You do have different clients who are actually wanting to get that right off because it does reduce your purchase price in a way because either you're going to give the money to the government for your taxes, or you apply it toward your purchase price of an airplane. Again, you're not going to do it unless you really have a use. It sounds great to do it as a tax benefit, but you're still not going to do it if you don't have use for the airplane because it's going to cost you $1,000 a year to operate it. Have you read the book Buy Back Your Time? That's a good book by Dan Martel. A very good book. He's actually a good buddy of mine.

and the idea that you could fly in, for example, I fly directly to San Point or Cordillade from Scotts Hill. So I don't have to go to Phoenix and fly into Spokane. That saves hours and hours and hours, unless you just drive right up and take off. So this time factor of being able to fly into a private airport makes a lot of sense. It seems like probably a lot of people

that probably come to you are saving a lot of time. Well, there's no question. The one word I hate using in our industry, which everybody seems to use, is luxury. But the only luxury that the true user of a corporate jet has is that it creates time and convenience. So you don't have to go two hours early. You don't have to wait for your baggage. You don't have to get into the security line. You don't have to all that kind of stuff.

Go to an airport that's closer to you. You don't have to make a connection. We calculated that basically at 200 hours a year of flying, you can get 31 more. more eight-hour days a year. Now, what's that worth to a company? I mean, that is priceless. And that does not include that the person is online connected on the plane, working, bringing teams of people with them that, you know, he works with or he needs to talk to on the phone while he's in the airplane. You can't work when you're on the airline, even if you're on the phone or on a laptop. So it is immensely beneficial to the executives and the shareholders of the company.

That is just an intangible number that is hard to explain to somebody who is really not in the business world. So that's another question I had for you is Starlink. That's probably my biggest pet peeve is not having great Internet. And, you know, I've used a lot of different charter companies. and it seems like it's spotty at best. That's like my main, main thing when I buy a plane. It's going to be like needs perfect internet. What does the future look like with technology and internet on planes?

Well, there's no question about it. Starlink has come up from behind and taken a nice piece of market share. And the only thing I told them back now is the number of place that can install it. On most jets, it's going to cost you between 325 and 600. $100,000 to install Starlink on your airplane. And it sounds ridiculous, but the fact of the matter is, is you get unbelievable connection. The connectivity you have around the world is super fast and very reliable. And you have to pay, obviously, a monthly rate, which is unlimited on the Starlink is

somewhere around 15,000 a month. But this is talking about unlimited use, you know, if you want to flow movies and and emails and all the kind of stuff. If you want basic emails and that's it, you can get it for much, much cheaper. But it is becoming much more of the favorite in the corporate jet world. So these are a few questions I ask every guest.

So what's one piece of game-changing advice you wish you knew in your 20s? One thing I have learned is never take no for an answer. And when you think a deal is dead, it's not. And you've got to keep going back and brushing off, you know, the, the bruises and get up and go fight again. Because you can repackage any problem that has caused the deal to crash and figure out another way to get to the end result. Don't listen to that little devil on your shoulder and give up because you can always go back and try again. And, you know, just in general, failure is not the opposite of success, right?

I mean, failure is a stepping stone to success, and you're going to have plenty of failures to get to your success. So if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough to succeed. If you had to start over today with just $10 million, how would you invest or what would you do with the $10 million? The two biggest, I think, growth places in our industry. or one maintenance facilities for airplanes because the fleet's getting bigger and bigger and older and older. And these airplanes need maintenance and parts. And the other one is, is what they call

EVTALs, which is electric vertical takeoff landing. So a VTol is a helicopter, a vertical takeoff landing. A EVTol is an electric vertical takeoff and landing. Basically, it's a passenger carrying drone or a flying car. This is the future. If you want to call helicopters that are electric or hybrid, eventually in the future, it'll be hydrogen. They're going to be super, super efficient to run. They're quiet, no engine noise because you'll get a little drone noise,

but you won't have an engine noise. And atmosphere from a carbon footprint is zero. The operating course is going to be very, very cheap, and they're going to become the Uber of the skies. So those are two places on a big ticket item. But if $10 million, well, I mean, I think I would, you know, try to buy little airplanes and flip them and make some money. I mean, that's my business.

I know that business the best, but you really need to know really deep down that industry to play in that industry because you can get hurt pretty easily. I was just looking yesterday at a plane called the Jetson. I don't know if you're familiar with it. That's your Ivettoe. That's a single pilot, tiny little cage that you're flying around. It sort of looks like something, you know, out of store truck. What do you think of those?

I don't know what they are now. They came out. They were $75,000. Maybe they're over $100 now, whatever. But it's something where you'll be able to, they're in the experimental category. So you can probably take it off in your backyard and fly around. Right now they only have, you know, maybe an hour of endurance on them. And they go maybe 60, 60 months.

miles an hour. I can't remember exactly the number. But it is really the first step to, you know, to democratizing, flying around in your own personal craft. I mean, it is, it's cheap in most cars nowadays. Which is your favorite EV? There are basically five top runners or four or five top runners in that flying car space. It's Jobi, it's Archer, it's Eve, it's Beta, and those are really the top four that are all public companies, by the way, Archer, Jobi, Eve, and Beta. Beta just won public a couple weeks ago, and the other three have been public. So you've had a lot of different leadership and advisory roles in companies like Virgin Galactic

and other things. You've held executive roles in private equity, real estate, global restaurant brands. What did those experiences shape, how do they shape your career and eventually leads you to starting the jet business? I mean, as far as leadership and just, I guess, still negotiations.

For sure, it gave me the confidence to deal with every kind of person from every country in the world because that is really the difficult part. You have people the who's who from every industry, every sector, every country in the world that we deal with. And unfortunately, you know, most of the Americans think that everybody in the world should think and act like the American does or a Western mind does. And it's just not the case. And when you deal with people from China or India, Nigeria, you know, Russia, these people don't think the way we do.

And we take it as, oh, these guys are trying to rip us off. They're trying to screw us. They're, you know, this or that. And that's not the case. I mean, these people just have a different way. They've been brought up in a different mentality. And you have to just be more patient, understand what they're trying to do, and work around those parameters.

So that has definitely helped in doing a lot of international business with people. It made me learn to understand them better. figure out what they're trying to achieve and try to figure out how you reshape your package that's acceptable to them and to you. Because at the end of the day, the end result is the same thing both people want. But how to get there is the different approaches. And that's what I think I've learned a lot from doing business with a lot of the international people and the leaders of companies and the confidence to sit across anybody in the world

and just not be intimidated by them. Who is the largest, I guess, country right now that you deal with that's like, I know China was making more millionaires per day than the United States was making per year for a while there? So, the shocking statistic I'll give you is, yes, you're right. China minted tons of wealthy people and billionaires and companies. But to give you a statistic, there's 24,000 jets in the world, corporate jets, okay? 14,000 are in the United States. So it's the majority are in the United States. In mainland China, there's 300. 300.

Okay. So, and maybe another 75, if you count Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan. It's a tiny part of the market. And the reason is, is two things. One, mainland China is 70% airspace is controlled by the military, so you can't fly there. The second thing is that in the United States, which is about the same size as China, landmass-wise, there's over 5,000 airports you can land the corporate jet at. And in mainland China, there's 145 airports you can land at. Wow.

So the opportunity is just not there. But the biggest reason is, is if you got a lot of money in China, you don't want to flash it around. Even if you're a corporation and you're a big success because you're worried that the country, you know, the country, government will just think, you know, you must have done something wrong to get it. So they keep a much more lower profile and they charter planes and run planes more than they do own them. But answering your question, what are the markets? Believe it or not, the next closest under the United States had 14,000 jets. Mexico and Brazil each have a thousand jets.

All of Africa has 900 jets. All of Asia, including China, has about 1,000 jets. You know, all of Europe is about 3,000 jets. And the Middle East is probably about 3,000 as well. It's a small industry and even small when you look at how many airplanes are actually trading hands every month. It's a tiny number of people. Obviously, AI is a pretty big buzzword.

So where do you see the future with machine learning, artificial intelligence, things of that nature? For sure, these flying cars, these EV-TOLs, those really could be. completely autonomous right now, but they're not making them autonomous. Well, they're not going to deliver them originally autonomous because they think people won't feel comfortable being in them without a pilot, even though the most accidents, probably 70, 80 percent of accidents happen because of the pilots, not because of the airplane. But on these little flying cars, they're going to be completely autonomous where you're going to, just like an Uber, you're going to get on your phone eventually, call for one, it's going to land close by where you're

You're going to basically put your phone to it or your fingerprint or whatever. It's going to already know where you're supposed to go, your complete longitude latitude, take off land, nothing to touch, nothing to bill. It's all going to get done autonomously and digitally. And that is the technology is really there. It's the regulatory process that really holds things back. Obviously, no one really knows for sure because there's a lot of legislation and red hey, but when do you think that's going to be a real thing?

It will happen in the Middle East before probably anywhere else. These guys are much more advanced thinking. They're quicker with the regulatory process, and they're going to put it into effect. I would say they're going to have it in test mode next year. Listen, you have places like Indonesia and Malaysia has 30, 40,000 islands with no infrastructure. You know, this is something where it could really be utilized there. It's like the old days with the Internet when you had to have a cable. you know, go and fiber optic cable to be able to get on the internet. Now, to satellites,

no matter where you are, you just plug in and you're done. So I think when you start seeing the Middle East, you know, Africa, Southeast Asia, or China start incorporating and using these things much more often and people start seeing that it is working, then, you know, United States will pick it up much quicker. Whether it's going to be downtown New York to LaGuardia Airport, Kennedy Airport, I'm not sure that's the immediate use or need for it. I think it should be be used in other places, air ambulance and cargo and emergency search and rescue, those kind of things first, and then they'll get passenger carrying. What personal principles have guided, you know, your biggest career decisions, especially getting into the jet business? I think my work ethic

is by far the number one thing that pushes me. It just doesn't bother me to work. But I think in work, And in my personal life, loyalty and respect for your partner and your customer, I think is, bar none, you know, non-negotiable. And I believe in that 1,000 percent. And if you have, you know, loyalty, respect, you know, with your partner, whether it's in home or in business or your client, you know, you don't look back. guide me through kind of what if anybody's listening right now and thinking about getting into the buying one what what are what are all the questions and thoughts that need to start taking place

probably 90% of the answers could be answered with four questions okay how much do you want to spend how many people you want to carry a maximum what's your longest trip you're going to take five or six times a year and how old is an airplane would you feel comfortable in getting. If you can give me those four answers, I can narrow it down to a very small handful of airplanes said, this is your choices. And as far as the last question, how old of an airplane would you be comfortable? Because people ask me, what's old? So the only answer I can give is that the bank will tell you they will loan you money if the age of the airplane plus the term of the loan does not exceed 20 years.

So if you want to get a 15-year-old airplane and you want a five-year loan, that's okay. If you get a 20-year-old airplane, you know, they're not as willing to finance it. So 20 years is what the bank thinks they're comfortable with. Theoretically, and reality-wise, even an airplane 40 years old is safe. The problem is that the maintenance facilities

don't want to fix some of the equipment and you have to start replacing some of the equipment and that gets expensive in the cockpit. But if you can give me those four answers, I could tell you in two minutes really a good choice of airplanes to consider. And then, of course, you go into, all right, these are the size airplanes,

these are the operating costs, and these are the differences between them. So, yeah, it depends on what your mission is, but on the small side, I'd say, there's an Embryer F-E-N-O-M-300, okay, P-H-E-N-O-M-300. That airplane's been the best-selling jet and would have lasted out of 10, 14 years or something like that since 2009. It's a brand new, it's $14 million, but if you buy it 2009, it's maybe $6.5 million. It holds eight people.

I wouldn't say super comfortably, but it's like being in a minivan van, okay? You sit down, you're sitting down. There's a toilet in there, but you got to really need to go. But that airplane can go, you know, 1,700 nautical miles. So you want to take the plane, you know, from New York to Miami or, you know, maybe make one stop going across the U.S. You can do it. And then for people in that airplane, it's great.

And then you can go to a mid-size or a super mid-size, which also hold a people, but you can stand up in it, have a proper toilet, it has a galley, and you can go three or four thousand nautical miles. So you can easily go across the country. And with 4,000 miles, you can make it from New York to London. That airplane also is going to cost you anywhere from 5 to 30 million, again, depending on if it's 20 years old or new. And the operating cost is going to cost anywhere between, you know, 1.2 and 2.4 million depending on which model you'd get. And then you go to the large cabin or the ultra-long-range airplane,

which is a Gulfstream, you know, G-650 or G-700, a global Bombardier or Falcon 7X, and these airplanes, those airplanes are going to cost you $3.5 million a year to run them. Those are airplanes that can fly from New York to Hong Kong or from London to L.A., and holds 14 passengers. So really it depends, you know, which category you're going to need. Or you can get into this airplane, which is, this is a Boeing or an Airbus. This is like a 737 or an Airbus 319, 320.

This airplane, you can buy them anywhere from $20 million to $120 million, depending if it's 25 years old or new. And that airplane will also go from New York to, let's say, from, it can go from New York to anywhere in Europe. It can go from London to LA. And the operating cost is probably a million bucks more. Let's say four and a half million dollars a year, more than, let's say, a Gulfstream. So three and a half million for a Gulfstream or a global and four and a half million for a Boeing or an Airbus.

Is there any cool client stories? And I know, obviously, there's probably some things you don't want to discuss and privacy is a big deal. But do you got anything that you could talk about? That's a really cool story. Listen, there's been good or bad stories, I guess. I mean, I can tell you what just went happened on Friday. That some guy tried to screw me, which happens occasionally in this industry.

It wasn't a good story, but it turned out that I won anyway. I had a client that was a Central American country. I always have fun with these guys. And we were supposed to close on Friday with his jet. And I'm talking about an airplane that was, you know, in the $35 million area. And we was closed on Friday. And on Thursday at 5 o'clock,

he sends an email to the escrow agent, and he said, we're going to, don't pay jet business at closing. We're going to pay him after the closing. Now, this is a Central American company that has another different Central American company that owns an airplane that's registered in the United States. Now, what this means is,

when we'll pay you after closing means in translated terms, we're going to fold our special purpose vehicle up the second we close. And if you want to sue me and get your money, be my guest. So literally he was just trying to cut me out of our fee. He wanted to get his money and end the deal. And thank goodness, I immediately got our phone. I got lawyers. I got the trustee on the phone.

I got the escrow age on our phone. And we had to run around literally all night, Thursday night. and I finally got the trustee to tell the escrow agent, because I called the trustee, and I said, listen, you know who I am. I don't want to cause you any problem, but the fact of the matter is, if we close this deal and they close up their entity, I'm suing you because you are the registered owner as a trustee,

and I don't want to do that. So if you really want to save the trouble, I would tell your customer, hang me at closing, or you know, you're going to risk yourself getting into a lawsuit, which you don't want to do. So he was super, super accommodating, which I was shocked at that he was so nice about it. And so he told the customer, hey, if you don't do it, and the customer really started giving me a hard time, he called me screaming, why'd you call the lawyer, why'd you call the trustee, this isn't right? And I was like, come on, we're all big boys and girls, you know exactly what you were going to do here.

and by the way, you know, I said you have 30 minutes. This is Friday, you know, 30 minutes before a closing call was taking place. If you don't give them instruction to pay me, the buyer is going to ask the escrow agent to send the money back and who worry about doing the deal next week. But, you know, you have a risk of losing a deal now because it's almost 12 o'clock. He wants his money back in his account to earn an interest on that much money. So you have 28 minutes now. Go decide what you want to do.

And so I got the tables turned around. I saved that I got paid in closing. I wouldn't say it's common, but it does happen from time to time. We have people who just, for sport, they just want to fuck with you. Is there any books, Steve, that changed your life?

Atlas Shrugged is a book. I don't know if you ever heard of it, Anne Rand. I mean, that's a book basically about altruism versus capitalism. It was written by a woman in Russia in the 1950s, which is incredible. But it really, something that really just put me in such a capitalist state of working for everything. If you want anything, you're going to work for it and don't expect the handout and don't respect anybody that just sits around expecting handouts. That's probably the most influential book I've ever read.

And if someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way to do? do that. I mean, go on our website to jebisness.com or you can just email me, which is easy at SV at the jetbusiness.com. Well, I really appreciate the time today, brother. And thank you very, very much. And I'm sure we'll be talking here in the next six months. Thank you so much. I appreciate this opportunity and really good luck with that exit you're going to make. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. Like always, we're going to close it out with the Tommy Truth, which is a little slice of wisdom from me to you that can help guide you in whatever you're striving towards right now. You know, if I think about my own success, I think a lot of it is just not being afraid to fail.

I think a lot of it is just, it's a speed bump. And I embraced failure because I'm like, well, we learn from that. We're not going to do that again. And then all of a sudden, you have these stories of failure that just, you took the wrong road so many times. I was talking to Nick Sabin. And I asked him, I said, is it will or skill? He says, both. It's like nature versus nurture. your brain's got to be able to function at a high level to make complex decisions. And that's it, guys. We'll talk to you next week.