Speaker 1: 0:00

My third year, I made over $600,000, and that was, I would argue, probably in one of the biggest aviation bubbles we had seen. It became a seller's market. Hello and welcome to the channel. My name is Tom Lelio. I'm your ultimate jet guide.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Today we're pulling back the curtain on private aviation. Whether you're a buyer or an aspiring broker, we help you buy or sell private jets without wasting time, losing money and with no experience necessary. Today we're taking a look at some of the FAQs that we get on a regular basis for aspiring brokers, so I'm very, very excited to be sharing these questions with you. If you have any questions, you can go ahead and click on the comments below and I will answer your questions later on in the video. Good morning, hayden. Always good to see you, my friend. All right.

Speaker 1: 0:55

So number one how do you get to be a jet broker? What does it take? What do you have to do to become a private jet broker? So becoming a private jet broker is really interesting, because there's no license or certification to be a private jet broker. One of the best parts about being a private jet broker. One of the worst parts about becoming a private jet broker is there's no license or certification needed to become a private jet broker. And what I mean by that is, sometimes you just don't know what you don't know right? If you want to be a real estate agent, you go take a real estate course. If you want to be a doctor, you go to med school. You want to be a lawyer, you go to law school.

Speaker 1: 1:32

When it comes to being a broker, I guess there's a few ways to figure it out. Number one you can join a brokerage and they'll teach you how to become a jet broker and they'll show you how to do market research, how to talk to high net worth individuals, how to navigate a deal, all the paperwork, all the documents that you need. But at the same time, now you're stuck with a brokerage. Whether you like them, don't like them, you might be capped at your commission. You might have to move somewhere to be a part of that brokerage. You might not be able to get into a brokerage because there's none around you or there's none hiring. So you might be out of luck if you just want to become one, because no one's going to let you into the brokerage.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Another way to become a broker is just your circles that you travel in. Maybe you were born into a broker family, or maybe you're born into an aviation family or surrounded by aviation. Maybe you're a mechanic, maybe you're a pilot, and so you just kind of see deals get done from time to time and you're just kind of used to it by now. And so you pick up little things and you're just like, well, I could find a jet, well, I could sell a jet for you, and you just kind of figure it out as you go along, but you're still just kind of stumbling, you know, on your own. Or maybe you're someone has no aviation experience whatsoever and you just don't even know where to get started.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Again, there's no license or certification to become a broker, but there are resources. So I want to shout out my buddy, alex at the aircraft broker Academy. Uh, he's got a fantastic online course that you can take. It's like a hundred videos. I mean this is a great course for people that want to become a broker and do it on their own, because he goes through setting up your business, setting up your marketing, it's all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 3:12

But I know some people don't want to start their own brokerage and start from scratch when you have no idea. You've never done this before and some people just want to learn how to do it. But within the context of a community and maybe within the context of a remote-based brokerage, and that's where JetLife Arrow comes in. We can train you how to be a broker, but also it gives you an opportunity to work with us as a broker. So that's one way, another way that you can do it. So becoming a broker, there's a lot of different ways to do it. But if you have no aviation background whatsoever, I recommend that you go to the ultimatejetguidecom and schedule a call with me and I'd be happy to give you some more background on that.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Let's take a look at frequently asked question number two how much money can you make as a private jet broker? Now I'm going to preface this a little bit by saying you know it depends, and I hate that answer. Anytime I ask somebody that question, like how much can I, how much is this, how much is that, or what do we do, and they say it depends. And the reason it depends is because it depends how hard you're willing to work. And so my first year as a jet broker, I had no aviation background whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 4:23

I came into it as a music school marketing manager, sales and marketing manager, and prior to that I was a youth minister for 10 years. The only aviation background I had was watching the original Top Gun, and so all I knew was that I had to make this work. I knew I was in sales, I knew I was going to be on commission. I had a little bit of a draw when I first started out a couple hundred bucks a week. But I knew if I was going to be successful at this I had to push, and so I really leaned into Grant Cardone's 10X rule. His 10X rule says if it's going to take you 100 calls a day to be successful, you should be shooting for 10X 1,000 calls a day.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Now, I never called more than 120 or so people in a given day. But my attitude, my hustle, my job I didn't go to lunch. Everybody else went to lunch, I stayed in and I just kept making phone calls. I didn't spend a lot of time researching people. You know who I was calling. I didn't Google them and find out what their business was and found out that they sold, you know farming equipment and then try to make a phone call and tell them about farming equipment or actually I'd probably have to Google like what half the farm equipment was and then make the phone call and that would take up 10 minutes. No, no, no. I picked up the phone. There was a phone number there, I was going to call it and I, I. So there's the hustle.

Speaker 1: 5:37

And so my first year, to kind of get to the point how much I can make, I sold 20 jets and I made over a hundred thousand dollars in my first year. There's a lot of hustle, a lot of. I was the first one in the office. I was the last one leaving because I knew I just I wouldn't leave the office until I hit my call goal for the day. Now, granted, it was, you know, kind of COVID time, so I didn't have, you know, my kids having to go to soccer practice at that time, but I would still do that today. I mean, I'm still here today. You know eight, nine o'clock in my, in my office still working, so you got to stay hungry.

Speaker 1: 6:11

My second year I did another 20 transactions, but now I was dealing with better aircraft, and so the commission's doubled. So I made $200,000 in my first year. My third year I made over $600,000. And that was, I would argue, probably in one of the biggest aviation bubbles we had seen. It became a seller's market, so planes were selling for high dollar amounts and that impacted our commissions and we knew if we got a listing that we would sell it. But let me say this yeah, it was a booming market, but you know what. Everybody was succeeding, but you know what. Not everybody succeeded at the same level and you needed to have a listing and a lot of people were calling to get listings. But I found at least 20 deals. Some people only found two or three for the year and they made their a hundred grand and they were done. They were fine, I wasn't. And so how much money can you make is really up to you.

Speaker 1: 7:00

The key to making money as a jet broker number one is you got to master the cold call. You got to master picking up the phone and doing the work, and that's going to get you your first 10 grand just picking up the phone. Then you have to start to master what you're saying on the phone call and how you're negotiating deals. Then you have to maybe get your 25K. Then to get the 50K you have to master doing multiple deals and then to get to 100K. You need to master doing all those four things cold calling, negotiating the deals, navigating the deals, getting them to close and then multiple at a time. So, for example, when I was busy, I had almost 20 listings between 12 and 20 listings at any given time under my name and I probably had three to six deals going on at once. And that's the level you need to play at if you want to make multiple six figures.

Speaker 1: 7:53

And just to be clear again, if you want to learn how to be a jet broker and make six figures, I can help. If you want to be a jet broker and be a millionaire, I can help. If you want to be a jet broker and be a millionaire, I'm not your guy, I haven't done that. There's some amazing, amazing professionals in the industry that have been around for generations, literally like third generation, and they can, they can. I'm sure they can help you. Now it might be harder to get their attention, it might be hard to get them to pay attention to you, for them to actually train you, and it might be a whole different process. But I just want to be super transparent on what I offer when I talk about pulling back the curtain and talking to people about becoming jet brokers. So how much money can you make? My goal when I work with people is to help them make $100,000 in their first year. Not everybody does the work that needs to be done, but that's my goal.

Speaker 1: 8:44

As far as how much money people can make, this was a great question. I got actually yesterday on a phone call. They were asking will artificial intelligence replace brokers? And what I like about this question is that it's very timely, right? I mean, it's something that we have to talk about, something that we'd be aware of, and, in my personal opinion, I said no, I don't think so, because every deal is different, and so I'm actually currently working with a piece of software that I'm really excited about. It's a piece of software specifically designed for brokers, so that when you put all the details of a deal into it will not only track it, but it can actually automate some of the process of the deal. I can put data into it and it can spit out a valuation on an airplane. I can put data into it. It can spit out a whole contract with a template. I can put data into it and we can almost use it like an escrow, and it's fantastic.

Speaker 1: 9:36

I love technology, but I was on the phone with the developer yesterday because I had two deals both that were different. That required different ordering. It required different ordering a day where a lot of the transactions are automated be able to be as flexible and a machine's not going to talk to an owner or a buyer when things are hitting the fan and calm them down. So when the seller has gone through a pre-buy and now they have to fix $100,000 worth of squawks, ai is not going to make that phone call and be like hello, sir, you need to fix $100,000 worth of squawks on your airplane. That you thought was perfect because it just went through an inspection with the manufacturer six months ago and now you owe $100,000 because that's the agreement that you agreed to. Here's the contract. Ai is not having that conversation. That's going to require a professional to navigate. When that seller hits, the roof, tears up a new one and we're able to still get the deal across the line. So I don't think AI will replace brokers, but I do think it will play a pivotal role in how transactions are done, moving forward.

Speaker 1: 11:11

All right, we've got just a few questions left, but before I get to our last two questions, talking about the broker field and being a broker in a down market. I do want to just encourage you if you haven't already checked out the Circle community. That's a great place to get started if you're an aspiring broker, so just check out this quick little announcement. Thank you so much for watching. If you haven't already, go to circlejetlifearrowcom and check out our online community for aspiring brokers and current brokers. Here you'll find discussions, all things aviation-based things that you're going to want to know as an aircraft broker. You can also check out our free training as well as more resources that are available to help you to become a better jet broker. That's circlejetlifeaerocom to begin your journey within the broker community absolutely free, all right. So the next question is is the broker career field saturated?

Speaker 1: 12:12

I mean, if you look at real estate, right, I mean, there's so many real estate. It's like you go to a party, you throw a rock and you're going to hit like three realtors. Everybody does real estate. I just saw another buddy of mine. He was on Facebook. He was a youth minister and he's like hey, I need to make some extra income. So I became a real estate agent book. He was a youth minister and he's like hey, I need to make some extra income so I became a real estate agent. Cool, um, I believe. If I Google it, it's roughly 3 million real estate agents in the United States right now. When I go to jet net, um, there's 3000 registered broker dealers on there. Let's say each of them has 10 brokers, which they're mostly one or two guys per group. Some of them have like four or five or six, whatever. That's 30,000. So compare brokers to real estates. I very rarely go to a community party and I say I sell private jets and I've never actually unless it's been an NBAA event I've never been at a party or social gathering where there's other jet brokers. There's pilots, sometimes there's charter brokers, whatever. It doesn't happen. So I don't think the career field is saturated. I think the career field has been kept from a lot of people and I feel very blessed that the agency that I worked with took a chance on someone with no aviation background and this is what I'm doing here is trying to.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Aviation changed my life. I want to help more people change their life through aviation. I think it is becoming increasingly saturated with aspiring brokers and notice how I say aspiring brokers, not new brokers, rookie brokers, neophyte brokers, anything. I'm not saying that in a condescending way. Yeah, more people are coming into the industry and there's a reason why part of jet life arrow's vision is to raise the level of professionalism in in in aviation and and we're going to make mistakes along the way, but that's our ultimate goal, and so I think it's important, if you want to be in aviation, that you partner with a group or an individual that can help you do it the right way and that can help you do it with professionalism. We have our core values for a reason Honesty, transparency, humility, responsibility, education, positivity. I mean it's all there because we want to raise the level of professionalism.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So I would caution, I would say no, it's not a saturated field, but it's becoming more and more full of brokers that don't know what they're doing, and sometimes it's not their fault. Everybody was a new broker at some point. But if they keep making mistakes over and over and don't grow for them, then I have a problem. But just because you are brand new, I'm not going to write you off and I would say that maybe the career field is becoming saturated people that don't know what they're doing. But I think that's a good thing, because we're going to change the way aviation is done and it's going to allow more people who wouldn't have had the opportunity to be brokers to do it. I like that, hayden. I like what you're saying there. Neophy is my new favorite word. All right, so throw your questions in the comments if you have any. This is going to be our last question for today.

Speaker 1: 15:16

How do brokers do in a down market? Now again, I started in 2020, right as COVID was hitting. It was a down market in so far as there weren't a lot of transactions. A down market in so far as there weren't a lot of transactions. Owners started to panic sell because they saw that we weren't going to be able to fly anywhere mask mandates, all this kind of stuff and this was the excuse that a lot of owners used to say I've owned my jet for X amount of years, I don't use it as much. I'm not using it, so let me just sell it while I can get a good number. Well, that triggered some panic buying. Sell it while I can get a good number. Well, that triggered some panic buying. And it became a buyer's market in 2020, but there were still transactions happening.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Then things started to shift and people were like, oh, I haven't spent money in a few years, now I can go places. There's a great tax write-off, interest rates are fantastic. It was a perfect storm for aviation. So it boomed and became a seller's market. They can name their prices. As long as there's volatility in the marketplace, there's a role for brokers, right. If sellers want to sell, if buyers want to buy, we can help them.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Now, in a down market, the number of transactions gets smaller and actually what I would recommend is I would recommend you check out let me see if I can find him the Russo Report. The Russo Report If you're really into markets, dennis Russo is a great resource to check out. The Russo Report just came out with two days ago. I should probably do a rewatch of this, but he does a whole thing on where the market's currently at, how people bought and sold, you know, and where things are going with it. Okay, so there's a record number of cj4s on the market here. He was talking about the cj3s, so he does a really good job.

Speaker 1: 17:10

I liked listening to what he had to say. Yeah, june 21,. The Gulfstream G200s were 2.6 and then went to 3.7, 4.3. Now they're down to 3.4. 41 aircraft available. Ask price is ranging. Market time is 188 days. At one point it was 139, but the absorption rate is a lot lower or a lot longer.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Anyway, all this to say all that, to say how do brokers do in a down market? You might have to work twice as hard to get the same results, or maybe a little bit less. But that's how I take it. I take responsibility. It's up to me to find success. No matter what the market is, there's always opportunity. And so I think this is a challenge.

Speaker 1: 17:53

A down market is a challenge. If you're a broker on your own, you're just kind of like oh my gosh, what do I do? But if you're in the right group, with the right team, you guys as a collective can have the right mindset and spur each other on so that you guys can all find success. And that's what I like to do with Jet Life Arrow is that, yeah, we might be going into a down market. That just means we work harder, you know, and we do what works. So, for example, like we spend more time on the cold calls instead of making videos or sending out direct mail, like we do what works and we double down on that stuff, and then that's where we're going to find success. So that's how I think brokers will do in a down market. So I hope this was enjoyable for y'all. I really do appreciate your time. I hope you will go to theultimatejetguidecom and schedule a call with me and find out more about being a private jet broker, and we'll see you next week.