The Road to the Dallas 100™ – DFW Private Luxury Aviation (Million Air, Leviate Air Group)

You buckled in because we're about to hit the road, and we're ready to go zero to one hundred, or should I say we're hitting the runway today. I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b, and welcome to the road of the Dallas one hundred, the biggest show in Dallas since Dallas, brought to you in collaboration with Market Scale and SMU's Cox School of Business. So welcome back, folks. If you're a returning guest, you know what's in store. We've got some great entrepreneurial and leadership focused discussions here to learn from DFW's best. But if this is your first time joining us on the show, welcome, and we're happy to have you here. The road to the Dallas one hundred is a precursor to the SMU Cox Dallas one hundred Awards, where we showcase the stories behind the fastest growing privately held companies in the larger Dallas DFW area, and we celebrate the company's founders and leaders. Right? We celebrate their achievements. We learn from their business journey, their challenges, and their strategies. So you're gonna be joining a a great show today here to learn from Dallas's best. Right? So you can take the keys, so you can get behind the wheel and pave your own road to the Dallas one hundred. So let's hit the gas y'all. Who are we showcasing today on the show? Well, today's episode, like I said, is a special one. It's not really the road to the Dallas one hundred. It's the runway to the Dallas one hundred. It's another roundtable episode where we're bringing multiple leaders from multiple companies to the same discussion. Twice the insights, twice the inspo. Per usual, we make it a mission on the road to the Dallas one hundred to capture the heartbeat of, DFW's most vibrant industries. And this time, we're taking the wheels off the road. We're hitting the skies, and we're gonna learn about what defines business success in the competitive luxury private aviation industry. Now with DFW becoming a hub for high net worth individuals, whether that's a mass exodus from the coasts or whether it's new routes and expansion from major corporate HQs, DFW is a hotspot for business and naturally a hotspot for luxury air travel. But it's also a changing industry. It's one that's finding new ways to compete on both the low and the high end, and it's leveling up its experience and finding ways to appeal to its most expensive customers. Right? But how do you actually differentiate in this space? What does it take to run a successful luxury aviation business when the competition is stiff? And in an industry with a lot of big talk and big talkers. Right? How do you walk the walk and really prove yourself with knowledge, with technical expertise, through service, and, of course, some needed street smarts? Well, today, we're sitting down with two of those DFW private luxury aviation leaders. I'm pleased to welcome our two panelists and guests on today's episode of The Road, the Dallas one hundred. Let's go ahead and welcome them to the show. Welcome, gentlemen. We're joined today by Luis Barros, CEO and founder of Leviate Air Group, and Kirill Yakimovsky, VP of marketing and sales at Millionaire Dallas. Luis and Kirill, welcome. How are you both doing? Doing great. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think, you're leveling up the swag here with us today with the great hat and the pin. No. For real. It's a it's a good vibe. So, I'm excited to learn from both of you today. You know, this is an industry we haven't covered on the show before, and it's one that, you know, has a lot of, surface level appeal. But as we're going to dig in and understand today, real success comes from understanding some of the more intricate personal and human dynamics of the industry. And that's what I think is really exciting to learn from both of you. So thanks for being here, and let's go ahead and dive into your stories. Right? So per usual, we like to paint, you know, a timeline here on the show, kinda hit on some core shared story beats to better understand y'all as leaders. So let's start with the fact that this is an industry with a lot of appeal. A lot of people dream of being in aerospace in some capacity, of being in aviation, maybe being a pilot or something. For me, it was you know, I was an astronaut for a year when I was five, and then I said, I don't wanna die in space. So I gave that one up. But I know, Kirill, you were fascinated by engineering and aerospace from a really young age. Right? That led you to a career in aviation. Luis, you were also inspired early. You were taken to the county airport early. It was like, hey. Time for you to find some interest in a career, and boy did it spark your imagination. So why don't you both just think back a little bit for us and recount some of that inspo. Right? What got you into aviation in the first place, and what made it such an attractive and, you know, limitless potential style of industry. Right? What sparked some imagination for both of you? No. I'll let you go first. You you have a a story. So, you know, what got me into aerospace was, as as you mentioned it early, from young age, I was always trying to break something and fix it myself and, kind of, you know, put it together than building little models of airplanes. It was just fascinating how this, object is you know, has enough power to go fly at certain level of altitudes and whatnot. And, you know, just kind of going through it and learning more at, at a young age, kind of, you know, started looking at my brother. I have an older brother who's a pilot. He kinda went on the airline side, and, I just, you know, looked at the private aviation. The business aircraft was more appealing to me. And, you know, I started at Learjet back in ninety six as a intern, and, here we are decades later still with with the same business. I love it. I love it, man. Kind of, you know, my story. No. Well, pretty cool to go from, you know, let's rip this thing apart and see how it works to being in a position where you're guiding, you know, whole teams, to, you know, deliver on layered and, you know, impactful service for the whole industry. Right? And we're gonna connect the dots a little bit for why it's important to have that kind of background, so you can be a successful leader in this space. Luis, let's hear your story. Yeah. You know, like you said, I started off very early, when I was fifteen, sixteen. Family took me to the small county airport, in Ohio where I'm from. And it just it was something I knew right away. I'm like, hey, this is for me. I really took to it, took to the skies Yeah. If you will. Nice. Badumpsh. Badumpsh. Badumpsh. We're gonna have a lot of those today. But no. I I literally went from that to an aviation program at my, high school to Ohio State's aviation program, to getting hired on at NetJets in Columbus, Ohio literally the week after I graduated college. Nice. So, it was very quick. It's almost I don't wanna say I had no choice, but, the road, it was really paved for me. Yeah. And then it it was just very early on. I started in operations and dispatch and, you know, just learning everything from the ground up. You know, to be a very, very, entry level position. And then it wasn't until years later, you know, I discovered I had a real a real knack for the the sales side of it Yeah. The retail side of it, the the user facing, side of it. And that's where it really took off. And then from running teams of that size and bigger and then eventually leadership positions and and then starting a company now ten years ago. So Yeah. It's that's kind of where I I found my focus and and success. What was it about because I mean, you know, you you were exposed to, this industry at an age where, you know, there were probably a lot of options for okay. If I gotta get started somewhere, I guess I can plan my route somewhere. Right? What was it about this industry that, you know, sparked some early imagination or I guess that got you feeling like, you know what? If I'm gonna if I'm gonna play my roots somewhere, it's gonna be here in aviation. Yeah. For me, I kinda had the same path that all young kids in this this field want. Like, I wanna be a pilot. I wanna apply these things. Thank God that never worked out for me because I you don't want me behind the stick of No. One of these jets. Alright. Noted. But that was it. You know, I think all I think all young kids kind of start there and just say, I wanna fly. I wanna fly. I wanna be up up in the air, up in the skies. And that that's kind of the, you know, romantic side of the romanticism, that got me into it. Yeah. And that just never really, you know, went away. But it it it's like anything. If if you find out that you're good at something, you know, you just really dive in and that's that's what worked for me. And it's, what, twenty some years later? Totally. Yeah. And can't can't shake it. No. I mean, here you are rocking and leading the industry. So this is great stuff. You know, we also like to highlight mentors and the role that, you know, learning from established leaders, plays in guiding y'all to being your own leaders. Right? What you synthesize, the right and wrong learning lessons that you apply now as leadership. Right? So I know you both have experienced different forms of mentorship, that significantly impacted both of your careers. Carol, I know you benefited from strong mentors throughout your career that guided you a lot in leadership, business strategy. Luis, I know that you built your business with pretty little guidance and was really kinda learning as you went along, but a lot of the way that you approach professionalism, leadership, gumption. Right? Had a lot to do with how you saw your mom build your family up. Right? I know that's just really scratching the surface, but if y'all could expand a little bit on, you know, if you had to reflect the mentors and the leadership figures that you think most impacted and molded you into the leaders you are today and what those core learning lessons were that, you know, helped shape you. Sure. So, just to kinda touch on, you know, it's it's crucial to have a good mentors Yeah. In every organization you're at. It's your boss, it's the boss's boss, or whatnot. But, also, you will learn a lot from customers. And, I'm gonna bring one example as, I had a I had a customer in Chicago, and we were supposed to meet at nine o'clock. And, I had to go and print some material. I was at his office. It's nine zero three. And this gentleman was very particular on his time, and he said, you're late. And I apologize and everything, but it it didn't matter. We ended up signing the deal. But just from that one thing I learned that, you know what they say, on time is late. Yeah. Early is on time. Yeah. So, you know, not just mentors, but I think you can learn a lot from your customers, especially with the customers we deal with, high net individuals. You know, everybody's time is money. Yeah. So you have to be very specific. What are you doing? If you're having a meeting, go, you know, do your meeting, do finish up and everything. Don't don't waste anybody's time. Interesting. I love that. I think that's maybe the first time we've heard that takeaway. The best mentor is actually the customer sometimes. No. I I love that. There's no better way to learn how to lead in the industry than by understanding who you're serving really intimately. Right? And what makes them tick and what makes them excited to work with you. Right? What about on your end, Luis? Yeah. I would say early on, I I know I was hired on by, you know, probably the largest company in our space in NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway company. Mhmm. But I got hired I also got hired on by a very small, charter company directly across the runway from them, and I ended up taking a chance on that company. And they said, you know, we have, you know, NetJets at the time had three hundred aircraft. They had three. And they're like, you know, we're a growing company. If you choose us, you're gonna see how a company really develops and grows and and builds from every aspect of it. It was my early, you know, my early trainers, my early managers, and they talked me into it. They talked me into doing that. And by the time I left there, they were up to nearly thirty aircraft. Wow. And I really did get to see how everything works from, you know, just the very, very bottom to the top and how you grow and you kinda figure these things out. And it's funny because there was, you know, maybe ten years later after that, doing the same, like, doing what they showed me Right. Building my own company. So it was it was, you know, just very fortunate, very serendipitous almost that I got to see that firsthand and then put it into action. Yeah. Totally. Well, and I I love this idea that, you know, this is something I've experienced a lot myself is that, you know, really good leaders often see something in you before you even see it in yourself. They push you. They motivate you. They give you the opportunity to seize that latent, whatever it is, skill, maybe latent leadership within yourself, and then give you the opportunity to to prove yourself. Right? Tell me a little bit about any experiences you had like that where you feel like, you know, you had a leader that really set the stage for you to shine in a way you didn't even know you could. Right? Where it was more the it was more about the room they gave you than the literal, like, how they pulled you along. Right? Well, you know, obviously, earlier, we mentioned several mentors, in different organizations that I had. One specific one I can mention from my days at Flexjet that, my boss basically after the interview, the department that I was gonna be in didn't even exist. So we started from scratch, which was the sales support side with, analytics and technical, aircraft descriptions and financials and whatnot. So he basically, gave me a carte blanche and said, we need to make this happen. And I see potential in you. Can you make this happen? I said, yes. And and then we started from there. And what made it successful was, you know, at first, under his guidance is what the what Huey's vision was. Yeah. And once we set the tone on it, everything was just flowing perfectly. Yeah. You know, for me, it it never really came to light until, you know, after starting the company. I've always been the, you know, first to leap sort of guy Yeah. And, you know, leap without looking sort of guy. I was always okay with that. You know, I had no discomfort in trying new things. You know, and especially back then, just quitting my job. No plan. No no past business leadership experience. And, yeah, that was ten years ago this November. But what it really started to click, like, oh, maybe maybe this is something that that that it could work. And there's some leadership, qualities that that I possess here really came from my, you know, my business partners that came along. Nice. You know, I have two business partners, Rob Rosenberg Randomize. It wasn't until then, you know, we just Robert came on board into early twenty fifteen. And it was in my head, I'm like, really? You you wanna do this with me? Like Yeah. Like, we're we're doing this? Like, alright. Let's let's go, man. Yeah. I love it. You know, we always talk about the next guy in the door behind, behind him was our what is now our EVP of our retail group, our retail sales. And same thing. I I was very surprised at how, almost as a matter of fact, they wanted to come join and be be part of our group. I remember taking this specific individual to, a lunch. I wanted to, you know, take him out, recruit him, talk him into joining our our fledgling little operation. I had no I had no money. I mean, I was, like, maxing out my credit card on the salon doing, oh, please don't let him order anything expensive. And literally, as soon as he walked in, he's like, hey, we don't have to do this. Like, I'm in. Like, it's it's fine. He's like, I'm like, I'm like He's like, I'm like, I'm like He bought everything. So it it was little things like that, that have helped. And it's, you know, it really is the team around you that that has inspired me and shown me, you know, these qualities that you talked about. I love that. Just something to add on, that, I will say, until you try, you don't know if it's gonna work. Yeah. You have to try. Not everything you try is gonna be a success, but you learn something from it. Yeah. And when you surround your people with, yourself with good teams and people, you know, you learn from each other, you know. Yep. So that's also. Totally. Yeah. Absolutely. No. I I couldn't agree more. You know, I know I feel the most motivated working alongside other passionate people that believe in me and that know that I believe in them. You know? And it's that kind of unspoken, shared vision, and sharing of the weight of the responsibility of guiding a team or a business forward. Right? Nothing nothing beats that. You know, having real people passionate about what they're doing together. So pretty awesome. I wanna highlight something that I think is, unique to both of y'all's careers that you share. And that is that you both transition from sort of behind the scenes or more technical roles in the industry to now being leaders. Right? I think that differentiates you. I think that gives you a unique lens to offer to the industry, and it lets you flex different muscles and sort of show value now to the clients you work with, beyond just your service. Right? But the eye you have for the industry and the the way you're able to to talk the talk of the industry a little more uniquely. Right? So again, Kirill, you progressed from engineering roles, right, to leadership, in sales and marketing, and even sort of, that blend of technical sales roles and sales support now into leading a larger sales team. Luis, you were in entry level roles in aviation. Right? Now you're leading a company. So, tell us a little bit about some of the advantages that come from knowing the sort of intimate details of the industry, the backbone of the industry, and, some of the most important learning lessons you gained from those early days, in the industry. Yeah. What you know, I'm I'm sure you've experienced some of this, Carrillo. But I think a lot of it is the respect, from your team. You know, if they say, oh, well, he's asking me to do something he's done before or he's not asking just completely, you know, dumb questions. Yeah. Right. Because he has he has been in my shoes at one point in his in his life or his career. I think that was the biggest benefit of coming from that that side of the house. You know, really, if you can't inspire your team, you know, you're you're not gonna go anywhere. They're they're the real driving force. So them being able to say, hey. This guy can't ask me that or knows what he's talking about because he's done it before. I think that goes a long way. So, you know, just to kinda add on to it as well. Yes, my background was engineering. And coming through, you know, it helped me out understand how this object is moving into the space. Right? But the respect is is from your team is a crucial thing. And, you know, you just have to lay it down and, you know, ask them what you wanna do and collaborate all the ideas because not always you have the best idea. You wanna listen to your team because Right. You know, you this is why great leaders lead and then, you know, they the followers are right behind them because everybody is collaborative, listening to, you know, what they're doing, what they're saying, and then putting the the plan together. Totally. Yeah. I think that's huge. We that's something we preach, having open door policies Mhmm. All the way to the top. We always like to say, we have no egos. If you see us doing something stupid, tell us. Yeah. And we'll we're happy to listen to you. We're we'll shift. We're we like everyone contributing to our our success. Yeah. And then I wonder how does that kind of background make y'all more competitive in the industry too? I mean, you know, I know when we're dealing with something like the luxury private aviation industry, there can be a lot of a lot of big talkers. You know what I mean? Folks that are kinda flexing, and being able to sort of communicate on the, I don't know, the sort of intrinsic swag that's part of the industry. Right? I mean, that matters. But at the same time, y'all are able to bring that as well. I mean, shout out, grill swag here today. But you're able to also bring a level of sophisticated technical expertise and an understanding of the ecosystem of people that make that industry possible. So if you had to translate that into actual business strategy, how does that make y'all more competitive in the space, better leaders, and, you know, able to throw your weight a little stronger, in the ring? Yeah. Well, you know, I know at least for us, even when we were very small, we're just a couple of guys, you know, sharing a a desk. We always launched the company with the intentionality that we wanna operate at the highest level. No matter what we're getting into, we wanna be a top tier company, highest rated, highest everything, everything, everything. We almost had a I don't wanna say a snobbiness about it, but we did we were very protective of our brand. We never wanted to put something out there that didn't look good, didn't look professional, didn't, you know, live up to our expectations. And we've literally been that way since day one. Yeah. Even as we we merged, we acquired some companies, we, acquired an air carrier a few years after we started. We always knew that we wanted our brand and our product to be at the highest caliber. And that's tough because as, you know, Carol can attest, in some of the divisions that we operate, you you don't need to be certified. You don't have to have any. There there's no government oversight regulation on some of the sales aspects of what goes on. Right. And so that lends itself to some, you know, sometimes some bad operators or some some not so great activity out there. And we we said, we don't care. It doesn't matter that we don't need these certifications. We're gonna behave as if we do anyway. Yeah. And, you know, shout out to to his company, Millionaire. I think they're one of when we started, they're someone we kinda looked up to and said, alright. These guys have done it right for a very long time. If you just look at their their branding, the material, the product they put out, their customer service, like, that's it. That's that's the direction we wanna go. Love it. Mhmm. You you know, you have obviously, you you you you're selling a product that's a luxury product. Right. You have to be at a certain standard. And people who you deal with, you have to understand them as well. Do we go through a lot of tire kickers that everybody thinks can own a jet? Of course. But you have to learn, you know, to kinda scale your customers. To to kind of, qualify your customers in a sense. And, that's not just in the in the jet industry. I think it's in in every sales. If you know how to read your customers, you'll be successful. That's that's the key to it, you know. Either you're buying pencils or or or jets. It's the sales process is the sales process. Right. It's, you know, you bring something more to the table if you have the the, you know, the extra customer service, the, you know, the little touches that they go around it. Yeah. We we train our guys to that, you know, that same kind of mantra. I think we in the industry, we get so used to these very big numbers. I mean, some of some of these aircraft are worth sixty, seventy million dollars Yeah. Maybe more. I think for our even for our sales team, sometimes it gets easy to forget about, alright, this is a lot of money. These are very, very big purchases or transactions that are happening. We need to act that way. We need to, you know, really support it to the level that they're actually, you know, at because that's a lot of money chain trading hands. Totally. You know, one thing from an earlier question. I was gonna, mention something. How you measure the success back to the teamwork and stuff we talked earlier. It's it's I don't know how to explain it because it's something like an adrenaline. When the year end comes in and you said, we're gonna hit the goal and you did it or overachieved it. And, you know, you come in December thirty first and you're like, oh my god. We did this. Right? Another year behind us. Yeah. And the whole team is there to kinda celebrate with you. You know? That's something that very crucial back to the open policy open door policy that people can throw their ideas and stuff back to the leadership. You know? Because everybody celebrates this success. Totally. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's an important ingredient to success. Right? To to be able to build a culture of hardworking driven, colleagues, really, peers that are equally invested in the mission. So it's not just coming in every day and doing a good job, but it's coming in every day with the passion to drive the company forward and have that that unique footprint on the whole industry. Right? So if we had to look at what that, you know, looks like in practice for both of y'all of actually growing for you, it's growing your company from scratch. Right? And maneuvering through these different periods of mergers and acquisitions, of expanding the, you know, the actual services that you provide. And then, Kirill on your end, right, this journey of stepping through different positions of leadership, eventually having to, you know, own an entire sales territory, and essentially craft the sales strategy for that entire territory. Walk me through all those learning lessons and how y'all now apply them during those phases of key growth for your business and your team? What worked? What didn't? And how did you approach kind of fine tuning your success strategies, especially in this industry and, you know, luxury private aviation? Yeah. You know, I can speak to it first a little bit. Going back to what we were discussing, it it really is who you surround yourself with. Yeah. You know, in my career, not just with this company, but just overall, you know, private aviation is very in tune with the economic cycles that we go through, but it seems like every ten to fifteen years or so. So, Carol, you're probably there through, you know, the two thousands dot com bubble, that sort of thing. I was there during, the financial crisis of o seven zero eight. Yeah. You know, and then obviously COVID and the pandemic Right. In twenty twenty one. It it's wild. You know, I think, especially for private aviation, you have to be nimble. You have to be flexible. You can't just see your industry take a twenty, twenty five percent hit and not move. You know, that that's that's lethal to to any other industry. So, you know, we surround ourselves with some good people, people that have seen it before, people that know, some of the moves to make. You know, COVID and the pandemic comes to mind. I still remember when when it would have been early early April when or I'm sorry, middle of March when everything just shut down. And we all obviously didn't go in the office anymore. Our leadership, we were just on Zoom calls every morning, you know, eight AM. Hey, guys. What what next? Yeah. And that's where everyone kinda contributed and started saying, well, why don't we try this or try that? So, yeah, it really goes back to the people that help you navigate these these funny cycles. Totally. Mhmm. So, to add on to that, you know, you asked me about you have a territory to carve it, you know, and all that. Back to, you know, who you surround yourself with. Right? The mentors. I mean, through my career, that I had several mentors, you learn from them, you know, how they did it, you know, because they were at the beginning at one point, and they, you know, grew to what they were. And you're always like, I wanna be like them. You know, what makes them successful? And, you know, back to Luis' point is you learn through, you know, the cycles. You know? When I first started in the industry and I had a senior engineer who was telling me, you know, this industry is in a cycle. I lived in Wichita, Kansas, and I saw when stuff happened in the entire city, it's, you know, sixty percent of people there work in aerospace industry. When the aerospace industry is dead Yeah. The entire city is dead. You know what I mean? It's a cycle. Right? Wichita is like the capital of aviation. Yeah. So, I've seen it. I you know? And then we went through two thousand and eight, the financial crisis, two thousand nine, whatever. Mhmm. You know, we we came out at two thousand seven as a strong year, and we broke all the records. And in two thousand eight, we have to do thirty percent of what you did year before. So it's you know, you just have to learn and adapt and, again, open open, you know, to your team, and let's get some ideas and move this ship totally. Yeah. And some of it is a fundamental just shift in how you even approach your industry, your business. I remember o eight, o nine, I had just gotten into retail sales, which is a terrible time to do that. Yeah. Right. And I it's funny because then you later you know, years later, I'm training people, training my team. And I would say, you don't understand how easy you have it. Now back then, I had to get people just to admit that they flew private at all. Just period. Not to use us, but to just say, oh, yeah. I do fly private sometimes. Since back then, it was almost faux pas. People didn't wanna discuss spending that way. Right. So, yeah. It's it's being able to see how good you have it sometimes as well. Totally. And that brings us to a great little transition point here, which is and we've talked about this already on the interview a bit, but having to understand the nuances of your audience and how your customer base changes in relationship to some of those macro trends. Right? The major market cycles and then adapting your sales strategies, your solutions, and services to that, customer base and some of their changing eccentricities, I guess you could say. Right? So, again, right, y'all's core customer base is high net worth individuals. And, you know, we're in a unique period here too in Dallas more recently where, over the last several years, we're seeing an increase in business leaders moving down to Dallas, and becoming a a real hub for business growth. So, hopefully, that means more sales too and, you know, luxury private aviation. So tell us, you know, and tell our audience here how y'all approach understanding that customer base, some of its changing needs, and what the strategies look like in practice to execute on, you know, not only service, but sales and know how, for a high net worth customer base. What are the realities of having to operate in that kind of environment? Yeah. You know, I know for us, it's really about the the organizations that we, surround ourselves with, that we, become a part of, try and find some leadership roles there. Yeah. You know, on the aircraft sales side, IATA. It it does it gets you out of this tunnel vision of just my little product and my little, you know, serviceable, market here. Right. You get to see all your industry peers, at least, you know, the top top level ones, and you get their input. You get their feedback. Here in North Texas, there's NTBA, the North Texas North Texas Business Aviation Association. Yeah. They love their acronyms in aviation. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a whole thing. So we we really surround ourselves and get in tune with the industry. We never wanna be those guys that just kind of like put our heads down, focus on on just us, and then look up twenty years later and we're left in the dust. Yeah. You have to be very innovative. You know, how we did business three years ago or five years ago, we don't do it anymore. You know, in the past, you wrote a check and you pay your bill via mail. Right? Now you have a credit card, debit card on file and they just you know, every time when it's the bill is due, they draw money. So if you don't get innovative and you kept the old ideas, you're gonna be in the back of the bus. You're not gonna be in the front of the bus. Yeah. So, you know, the product that worked three years ago, get more creative to to to do a upscale product of that, you know, beef it up, whatever it might be. Yeah. This is where the strategy comes in and you have to kinda, you know, again, work with your team to to get a, different ideas. Different generations work differently. My first time, when I started in sales, I was five days out of the week in a suit and tie. Then we had no no ifs or buts. And, my, you know, CEO at the time always said, you never know who's gonna walk through that door. Might be a customer. Yeah. And nowadays, you know, where, you know, people don't even, you know, wash their clothes or I mean, the the wrinkles, you know Yeah. Right. Stuff. Everybody wants to work from home and it's it's, it's just a different generation. Yeah. You know, and people do it, you know, they they text. They don't call each other, you know. Yeah. Most of our pilot communication now is text and WhatsApp. Yeah. Wow. It's crazy. Yeah. My one of my mentors, in the sales side said, you know, a a co worker was, oh, I send them an email. I send them an email. He said, stop sending emails. Emails are evil. Pick up the phone and call. Because I don't have I cannot transfer via text or email how upset I'm with you or how happy am I with you. You know? You're gonna hear my voice. You're gonna know. Right. If somebody screwed up or not. Yeah. Right. Doesn't need an emoji to let you know that I'm pissed. Yeah. Right. And you can tell. You can tell when I say, hey. You know? Yeah. Right. But, you know, y'all mentioned another layer of this, which is having that operational excellence and that radar for changes in the market to be able to detect when it's time in a more proactive fashion to change some of your business strategies, change maybe at some of the solutions you offer, change maybe your pricing, right, to match, where the macro environment is or maybe where your competition is at. Right? If you had to think back on the last couple years, right, what are some of the most recent business changes that y'all have made that really capture that ability to gauge where the market's going and make a pivot that's in the company's and your team's best interest? Yeah. What are some of the recent changes you've had to deploy and why, and how have you made them a success? Yeah. You know, I know for us, a big, you know, watershed moment was the pandemic Yeah. And lockdown and all that. You know, the pandemic created a just vast amount of new wealth that the world never seen before. And the demographics of that wealth, you know, shifted, big time from, average ages of, you know, fifty, sixty, and up to maybe thirty and forty now, were were players in this ultra high net worth, world at a at a bigger and bigger level. Yeah. And we really had to adapt to that. You know, it's funny, like like you mentioned, you you would see people that just couldn't imagine texting or or emailing or something sometimes. And now these young these younger clients, that's all they wanna do. Yeah. You know? So you have to know your audience because sometimes you need to know when to call. Sometimes, what? They just really just wanna text or or or email. You know, I will say we we are a younger, group at our company. Me and my three business partners are, you know, late thirties, early forties. I'm actually the baby in the group. But I think some of that has helped too, you know, where we're kind of in tune. Our sales team's pretty pretty younger, as well. And they kinda say, like, hey, why are we doing it this way? Like, no one operates that way. No one pays that way anymore. Why am I sending a fax? You know, we should be able to send a link with a payment Right. You know, portal or something. And it's little stuff like that that we just we lean on, we hear, and we we adapt to it. Yeah. Believe it or not, people some of the younger generation don't even know what facts, Michelle. What's the facts? Even I know what a fact is. Okay? I'm not even through it yet. But, just to add on to, the the conversation. You know, pandemic happened in, twenty twenty two. We saw, like, increase in charter hours across the board. It was crazy. You know, people are flying private more privately because the airlines had their own issues or whatnot. So people who are on the edge said, hey. We're gonna use private aviation and go places. And, you know, that was really a hype year and then since then kind of leveled off back to normal, so to say. But, you have to adapt to it and you have to get kind of have a vision and see what's going on, what's going to be the next thing. That's what will put you above your competition. Yeah. Twenty years ago, we didn't have all the tools that we have today. Today, you have, you know, different platforms for sales folks, different, analytics platforms and stuff. And you can always, you know, gauge the market how things are. I mean, thirty years ago, forty years ago, you had to build your network and then you make a sale based on that. Right. And then people who were in the private aviation industry had to work very hard to build that book of business. Today, the sales processes are different. Everything is based on analytics. How many people live in Dallas? Well, how much is the wealth? Well, let's go, you know, get them. Just some of the examples. Right? So, you always have to adopt yourself and kind of look what's next. You know, what's next? Millionaire Dallas has been around forty years. You know, we started as an FBO from from, you know, just basic operating building, one building. We own nine buildings now in Addison Airport. And then that feels a private the private terminal that we use. Right. You know, we don't wanna stop growing. I mean, it's we'll look at another forty years, hopefully. You know? Yeah. Absolutely. You know, we've we've seen so many changes. You know, I I think I think a lot of the ways that we we decided that we wanted to remain, you know, at the forefront, but was really spending, spending a lot of time on these analytics and tech. You know, I remember when your CRM was literally at least for me, it was a spreadsheet. It was just one spreadsheet with city, phone number, email, name. Like, that that was it. Classic Excel days. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And now, you know, we have people just constantly, you know, telling us, no. Hey. Invest in this CRM, in this Salesforce portal, in this, this thing. And again, Levia Levia's only been around ten years as opposed to forty. But we really have. We've invested so much back in the company, back into the research and the tech. I think the budget for tech and analytics now are are higher than, you know, anyone would have ever thought ten years ago. Yeah. But there's so much value there. There's so much, success just in the data. So if you're not, you know, utilizing that data appropriately, you're gonna be left behind. Right. And that's really where we've we've focused a lot the past couple years. I mean, from the Excel spreadsheets, now we you know, with the push of a button, you can send a mailer, you know, or email blast or whatever. You can see who opened that, who who didn't open it, who opt out. There's a lot it's full of information that you can use that, you know, to help you, you know, how to, you know, carve the the future for Mhmm. For your company. Totally. Mhmm. Yeah. A lot of industries are facing this challenge now where it's almost like they have too much data. And it's like, how do we parse through all of this and actually make actionable business decisions off of it? Right? So it takes it takes not only an adaptation to all of these new sources of data and these new insights to guide strategy, but what, you know, I I think I'm getting from y'all strategy here is also keeping your roots planted in things that do work for the industry and, like, synthesizing the old with the new. Right? Understanding, you know, how to have that clear vision through all of this now cluttered data and and be able to parse through what's really important to guide our business forward. Right? So that gets me to my last question, which is about scale and just the future of y'all's businesses and teams. You've both obviously played critical roles in scaling, you know, business in the luxury private aviation space to much success. And I'm curious what you know, if you had to think back on the most important strategies that have gotten you to this point of scale, What strategies did you plan to deploy for the future? Right? What does this next phase of scale and growth look like for y'all's businesses? And how would you crystallize that into some advice for other pros in the industry? You know, not that you gotta tell your competition how to do it right here. But, you know, for hopefuls out there that maybe wanna get in such an exciting industry, you know, tips and tricks for scaling through the current macro and industry environment. Yeah. You know, I at least for us, you know, like I said, Levy, it's been ten years. We're fortunate enough to be in a very solid position. I think we have now hit, at this ten year mark, a time where we can step back and say, alright. Well, do we just wanna grow organically ten percent next year, fifteen percent the next year, see where we end up five, ten years from now? Yeah. We're not. We're probably in a space now where we can make some fundamental shifts and say, alright. What's what's happening on a big level, on a macro, level with the industry? Get your timing right, know when to strike. And a lot of it is, alright. Well, does this mean then we get into other sectors of private aviation? Do we start looking at, finance, mergers and acquisitions, that that sort of thing? Right. Because there's so much I mean, there's so much investable capital out there that, you know, I don't think is deployed, very well in private aviation. For some reason, people people love, you know, private jets and this this big, you know, wealthy, sexy world we live in. But when it comes to that side of it, just it's funny. A lot of a lot of companies like us, I mean, we're self funded, bootstrapped. You know, me and my three business partners, we own it a hundred percent. Nice. And we're like, wow. Look at these other industries that are taking, you know, fifty, a hundred million from private equity and doing these huge, you know, great big things. You know, it's it's little things like that, knowing when to maybe shift and start looking other bigger directions. Yeah. You know, for us, obviously, we're we have several divisions, of the private aviation. We our owners are great. We don't have private equities as well. And, it tells you a lot that if the owners are able to support you instead of, you know, not supporting you, it tells you a lot for the future of the company. So, you know, we're always looking for something new and exciting. If you want a fast growth, you you obviously have to inquire different companies so you can get yourself on the map quicker. But, I think you just have to be innovative and kind of see how everything goes. You don't have to grow from zero to one hundred in one year. You can do a slow growth and then but do it do it slowly and solid. Mhmm. Don't just be zero to a hundred and then stop. Right. So and you know what? What I like about y'all's answers too is, you know, it's important to know and be, like, sober and honest about what phase of growth your company is in. Right? Because, you know, seeing all these other industries, for example, you know, getting involved with private equity and using that capital to scale, sometimes you can jump into that ship a little too early. And now suddenly you're beholden to, these new players that get to define the future of your business when maybe you still needed all of that control, you know, in house. Right? But then it's gauging when is it right, you know, to bring other players to the table. We have a confident business model. We've gotten to this point. Now it's time to bring other folks to the table so they can ride along with us. Right? So it's about, you know, sussing out and being honest about where we are in the growth of our company. Or for example, deploying, you know, new strategies for a team that has decades of tenure. Right? What does it mean to kind of mix up that environment when you've got that legacy operation, legacy folks involved, knowing when to mix things up and when to stick to your guns? You know, I think that blend. And I think y'all's roots deep in the foundations of the industry Mhmm. Helps y'all have that radar, you know, while still obviously being go getters who know when to bring something fresh to the table. So Yeah. It's good to have some self awareness. Totally, dude. And take some of the ego out. So Yep. You have a clear clear vision of things. Totally. Totally. Alright, y'all. I think that does it for the interview today. Thank you to the both of you for helping us better understand your journeys as leaders through the luxury private aviation market, how you've grown your teams and businesses to the point they're at today, and what's in store for both of you. I know you're gonna continue to, you know, guide the industry forward, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how both Millionaire and Leviate, continue to set new standards for the industry in terms of service, collaboration, and swag, obviously. And swag. Gotta have the swag. Alright, y'all. Thank you so much. Again, folks, we've been joined today by Luis Barros, CEO and founder of Leviate Air Group, and Kirill Yakamovsky, VP of marketing and sales with Millionaire Dallas. Let's do some quick final plugs. If folks wanna learn a little bit more about both of your companies, what are y'all's websites? Where should they find you? Yeah. Everything's on our website, you know, leviate air dot com, or fly at leviate air dot com, for the email. Love it. We, millionaire dallas dot com or, we are launching a new brand, m a next dot com, which is gonna be our, new division, part of Millionaire Dallas. Oh, cool. Can we get a sneak peek? What's that division on? Basically, it's gonna what's gonna happen is, we're shifting our, charter side and management under a new name Nice. M a next dot com. And, with that, we're also providing, like, destinations and kinda like click and book. You know, you wanna go to the Bahamas, and it's a one stop shop where we can, we partner up with en suite, get you a luxury villa, get you a private plane, get you to the destination. And you don't have to worry about any activities. They're all taken care of. That's exciting. The experience economy is really the new way that folks are gauging value, you know, so I like that. I like I like what's in store for y'all. Yeah. The experiential part of this is huge in private aviation right now. So Totally. Really good. Cool. Well, I'm excited to see how y'all continue to level up your businesses on that front, and who knows? We might need to bring y'all back next year for some updates. So Let's do it. Alright. Luis and Kirill, thank you so much to the both of you. This has been great. Thank you for having us. Thanks, guys. And let's go ahead and hit the road with us again next week, folks, and the rest of the summer as we showcase the stars of the Dallas one hundred. Make sure you watch out for the winners of the d one hundred awards, the biggest celebration for successful entrepreneurs and big d. Applications are closed for the twenty twenty four class of the Dallas one hundred. So keep an eye out for who those winners are as we gear up to figure out who those top ten and who that number one spot is. And we've got some great content and, of course, a big award ceremony to celebrate in due time. So keep an eye out for all that. Check us out on market scale dot com for previous episodes of the show. Until then, I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b. We'll catch you on the next episode of The Road to the Dallas one hundred. I I can tell, like, I've had to do some interviews where