Speaker 1: 0:00

So what was that first deal like Cold calling? Are you on JetNet? Did you have a client that made you decide like, okay, now that I have a client I'll start. Or did you just you know it's Monday time to start my brokerage?

Speaker 2: 0:11

Yeah, it was more like it's Monday time to start my brokerage.

Speaker 1: 0:14

Wow, Okay, Hello and welcome to the JetLife Podcast. My name is Tom Lelio. On this channel, we pull back the curtain on private aviation, help you buy or sell private jets with no experience necessary to get started with her dad. And then she earned her private pilot certificate at the age of 16, but not without its own obstacles that we'll talk about later in the podcast. And in 2022, she opened her own brokerage like just went for it right out of the gates and since then she's been selling multi-million dollar jets. She's partnered with industry leaders, creating amazing events that are bringing together high net worth individuals with educating them with aviation knowledge to help them grow their businesses. I'm very, very excited to introduce you all to Sierra Lund.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Hey, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Yeah, I'm really glad that we were able to make this happen. I know we've been in contact for a little over a year because our brokerages, funny enough, started at the same time in 2022. And I remember seeing you on Instagram just being like, wow, she's killing it, like she's doing an amazing job, and I just was always fascinated, just kind of watching your journey, so welcome.

Speaker 2: 1:39

Yeah well, same to you. I know the beginning is probably a facade, but yeah well, same to you.

Speaker 1: 1:45

I know the beginning is probably a facade, but now I feel like I hit my stride Right. Right, it took a while, but yeah, I mean, tell us about, like, how did you get into selling jets? Like, what made you want to sell private jets? Did you have, like, were there other things that you were looking at? Did you go to school for aviation or sales? Or like, what was kind of going on in your world around 2022 that you're like, yep, it's time to open up a brokerage and sell jets?

Speaker 2: 2:10

Yeah, so growing up I wanted to be a pilot um from Atlanta or not originally, but I grew up here pretty much so obviously home of the Delta pilot. I thought I was going to be a Delta pilot my whole life and ended up having an engine failure on takeoff, umoff on my first solar cross country at 300 feet. Oh my God.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Not even like up there. Oh, my God.

Speaker 2: 2:33

No, I think the total flight time was 13 seconds, so maybe 23 seconds, most 13 seconds, I mean 13.

Speaker 2: 2:44

I would have been amazed that 23, 13 seconds from the time the engine quit till the time was on the ground. So um was pretty crazy. Um, obviously that garnered quite a bit of attention. So I was able to speak um on a bunch of different platforms, from Oshkosh to to honestly good morning America, so a bunch of platforms that from Oshkosh to to honestly good morning America, so a bunch of platforms that weren't aviation platforms. And with that I just found that I really love sharing aviation and I also learned um through that experience that maybe there's something a little bit more for me. Wanted to try to open my own business, actually tried to do it um in the health and wellness industry it's my second love other than aviation Ended up, for one reason or another, not really working out, but found that I really loved sales At that time.

Speaker 2: 3:34

I wanted to go back and actually get the rest of my ratings and become a professional pilot and ended up coming down with a heart condition. So I lost my job. And in that same month a friend of ours needed help selling an airplane and I sold it for them. I got a $2,000 check. It was $175,000 airplane. But with that I said, hey, maybe I don't have to not be in aviation. But I can kind of merge the two gifts of mine sales and aviation. So that's how I landed here. I know that was a long, drawn-out story, but a lot of unfortunate and fortunate events kind of led me to sales.

Speaker 1: 4:16

So in case I missed it, then did you have anyone in your family or around you that was selling airplanes? How did that? Even, I guess because of the pilot thing, oh, because you were talking a lot about it around in the networking. That's kind of why, like, why would a friend turn to you and be like, hey, by the way, can you, sierra, sell my plane? Like how did that? Where did that idea kind of spawn from?

Speaker 2: 4:38

Yeah, so super active in the general aviation community, always flying, been in it since I was shoot 15. My dad got his license when I was 14 and I convinced him to let me get it, and he actually has owned an engine shop for a very long time. He's been an IA mechanic my entire life. So I grew up working in his shop and he had a friend that flipped airplanes and needed to to sell this. He couldn't, he just didn't have time. Um, there were too many projects on his hand. My dad was too busy. So they turned to me and they said you know a lot about airplanes. Uh, you want an opportunity. So I took it.

Speaker 1: 5:18

Wow, that's okay. Okay, so, so a little. So you've been in aviation, but the sales side what, what was some of the? And then you haven't started the brokerage yet, but just selling the airplane. The first, the very first time you were selling an airplane. What was it like going from pilot operator to on the other side trying to sell and represent things? What, what were some of the big like how was this a lot different than than being on the pilot and the operator side, I guess.

Speaker 2: 5:43

So it's interesting because I don't think if I had not had the background of my dad being a mechanic, I wouldn't have been as successful. Um, there's a lot of questions that had to do with the engine and performance and ADs that were were or were not cleared. Uh, the ability to look through logbooks, because that's what I did, uh, over the summers working for him, was actually doing the logbook entries, making sure the logs were in place. So that was very beneficial when I switched to sales and you know, I could speak the language of someone that wanted to buy their own aircraft obviously very different than the clients that we work with now. They just have different priorities but it felt like I was talking to a peer of mine about a really cool airplane. So that was really beneficial to have that background working in the maintenance shop.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Like I said, I don't think if I had just gotten my private pilot's license and jumped into sales, I would have been as knowledgeable and had the negotiation power, because I knew what the upgrades cost already. I knew what the overhaul of the engine cost. So I don't think I would have had the enough negotiation power to really get the best price for my client or our friend. But, yeah, just grateful to have that experience. It was a pretty seamless transition, though. I love talking about airplanes, I love talking to people about airplanes, so, um, it was cool to just be able to show someone around and getting a small check. At the end I was like how do we make these checks bigger?

Speaker 1: 7:18

And when you had questions about the engine or 80s or things that you didn't know, were you able to go to dad or did you also have other resources that you could reach out to?

Speaker 2: 7:26

Totally so. Initially just my dad, um, but, like I said, had a lot of mentors in the aviation space, especially general aviation, uh, with flipping aircraft and, um, you know, avionics and, uh, even paint. So I was able to go to them and say, hey, how much does you know this upgrade cost? Or how much would you know paint touch up costs with this? So that was very nice to be able to have.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Did you type up the first contract? Did you have a template? Did you? How did you know like, did you open up escrow or did they just work together? How did they navigate the pre-buy? Did dad kind of explain to you how those, those kinds of steps? How did you learn those along the way?

Speaker 2: 8:15

So I also did pre-buys with my dad over the summer, so I would get a little bit of extra money by working pre-buys with him, and so I knew that that was part of the process. I did know that it wouldn't be ethical if my father was the one doing the pre-buy, so he connected me with a mechanic I didn't know and set up the pre-buy, because it was such a small transaction. The buyer and the seller just worked together, so it was just like a wire transfer. So that was definitely something that I didn't have to deal with my first time around. That being said, honestly, working with escrow and escrow agents takes a lot off of you, because I did have to do all the registration paperwork by myself and send all those slips in. Oh, you did, oh, okay, but the seller was already privy to all of that because he had been flipping airplanes. This was just one he didn't have time to do, and so that was nice. It was kind of a mentor slash letting me work, work for them.

Speaker 1: 9:12

I think that's a great way to do it. You, you, you learn by doing it right. You, you were, you learned how to do the pre-buys and the logbook, reviews and stuff by doing it. Learn how to do the transaction just by doing it. And so you know, I'll tell people all the time like, listen, if you really want to do this, like find a deal, and just bring it to me or bring it to any broker and negotiate with the broker and be like hey, will you show me how to do this? If I bring you a client and I think a lot of brokers would, I know I would, um, if somebody brought me a client and they wanted to kind of see, they wanted to learn more about it and I knew them a little bit, you know, through the community, or something you learn by doing so how did you? How did you go from? Okay, I made a sale, I want to make these checks bigger. Why didn't you just join a brokerage? Like what, what, what made you decide like I'm going to do this on my own?

Speaker 2: 9:57

No, honestly, I've always wanted to open a business. I kind of knew that, you know I'd either join a brokerage and I'd go down that route or I'd start my own brokerage and seek out mentors, like you just said, and I knew it was going to take a lot longer and there was definitely going to be a bigger learning curve, but in the long run it would be the best decision. Knowing that I already wanted to open a brokerage, I didn't think that I wanted to create a network and tie it to someone else's business. I'd rather it take longer, create a network for myself and tie it to my own name, Um, so I have that flexibility to move, move around where I want to move around and um, and just have full control over how I want to treat my clients.

Speaker 2: 10:40

There's a plenty of amazing brokerages that, um, we definitely could have knocked down their doors and and, um, you know, gotten a job or gotten some sort of internship position. Um, and some days I wish that I would have. But I'm very grateful now, um two, two and a half years later, that I did it the hard way, but it wasn't wasn't the easiest way, I would say Okay.

Speaker 1: 11:05

So so what was that first deal Like? How did you find your first client? Like, what was the first year? Like, are you spraying and praying? Are you cold calling? Are you on jet net? Are you leveraging your network? Like what? What were you doing? What was day one? And today, like 60, like when you first decided like, okay, I'm going to do this. Did you have a client that made you decide like, okay, now that I have a client, I'll start. Or did you just you know, it's Monday time to start my brokerage?

Speaker 2: 11:29

Yeah, it was more like it's Monday time to start my brokerage. Wow.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Okay.

Speaker 2: 11:34

Yeah, Did a lot of honestly reaching out to industry professionals.

Speaker 2: 11:38

So, like I said, trying to get some mentors and you know as well as I do this industry is so small and a lot of people in it are just so gracious with their information and help.

Speaker 2: 11:51

I don't think anyone that I reached out to really looked at me as competition maybe because I was so young and naive but they were just really gracious with their help, especially in the Atlanta area. There's just a lot of brokers out here that are extremely experienced that I look up to. Still, that offered up a ton of help, introduced me to lawyers and escrow agents and CPAs, and that was amazing. So the first year was definitely setting up my internal network to be able to help my clients more, and you know I was blessed with a really great network just from being in aviation for such a long time. On personal note, Um, there were leads that came to me just because I I already had all of these relationships built, so that was nice. So I really focused on building my network and building my skillset within the business aviation space Cause it's obviously vastly different than general aviation.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Did you? Did you buy JetNet or Amstat right out the gate, so you had a list of people to call?

Speaker 2: 12:58

No.

Speaker 1: 12:59

Okay, no, how did? You find leads. That's the question of the day.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Like people, want to know. I cold called.

Speaker 1: 13:06

But who did you call If you didn't have the owner's contact information through a aggregator? Did you hunt down the owner information other ways?

Speaker 2: 13:13

Yeah. So I actually went to people who I knew would represent clients like mine, so adjacent industries, people like luxury real estate brokers and car brokers and investor groups and stuff like that. So I really targeted adjacent industries that I knew would have access to the people that would want to buy a jet and really develop strong relationships there, because I know that one. I want to obviously have a second degree connection to my client, so I know that they're legitimate. Um, and I, yeah, um, I learned that the hard way as well. I need to know my client. I like to go shake their hand in person. I won't work with someone if I can't.

Speaker 2: 14:01

Um, that's just how I am. I'd rather turn down business than not know who they are. That's really something that I love about what we do is we get to meet our clients. I mean, I'm 26 years old, so to be in a room with someone that can buy a $12 million jet at 26 years old let alone them, look at me for advice is pretty abnormal and I that's not lost on me, so I definitely take it. As you know, I'm going to soak up as much information and knowledge from my clients and hopefully do my best to represent them and obviously protect them during the transaction, but I know there's so much more value out of it than just the commission check, so I really like to work with people that I know.

Speaker 1: 14:43

So does that mean you won't represent somebody in Alaska if you can't hop on a plane and go get them or just move somebody?

Speaker 2: 14:49

else, yeah, I will hop on a plane and go get them. I haven't gotten too many requests from Alaska, but that is correct. I mean you know as well as I do.

Speaker 1: 15:00

We probably get tons of random emails South American, Africa, Europe.

Speaker 2: 15:03

Yes, and that's just not where I'm at yet.

Speaker 1: 15:06

So what was the story then that triggered this like oh, I learned that the hard way.

Speaker 2: 15:10

There's just a lot of cold emails and I know I'm sure LinkedIn requests that you get to have people that reach out and they say, hey, I'm looking for a seven 37. I'm looking for five of them and we're in, we're in South Africa, and I'm just like no, I can't waste my time.

Speaker 1: 15:27

But did you chase one down, like, I guess, cause you said you learned the hard way, so was there. You don't have to go into the details of it, but did you chase a few of them down, or you're?

Speaker 2: 15:33

just like. No, thank God. I just felt like a trap to me. I was like I'm not experienced enough to vet this.

Speaker 2: 15:47

Smart, smart, you were, you were smart at filtering through what, what would be worth your time and what wouldn't be worth your time Totally. But, yeah, I so I made relationships with people that I knew would have personal relationships with clients or potential clients of mine, and did my best to, you know, do right by them and provide them with you know, business or knowledge or whatever I could to help them out, um, and gain their trust and really build a relationship, and I knew that leads would come from that. So it's definitely a longer way to do things and I still did do the cold outreach to, you know, everyone under the sun that I could, but really making a point to make a relationship with the bankers, with the investor groups, with people adjacent to my clientele.

Speaker 1: 16:32

That's great. I definitely want to talk about that and some of the events that you set up to kind of do exactly that in a minute, but do you mind sharing? You don't have to, but like how many transactions you were able to do in your first year or two.

Speaker 2: 16:45

Yeah, my first year is one. My second year, two listings, which is amazing and we are on the second year, so I have a pretty big pipeline for 2025, it seems, which is good. A lot of people that were going to close this year decided to delay for one reason or another, which is okay with me, and I always try to and I've tried to operate like this from day one give the best advice to my clients, whether that ends up in them not buying an airplane or delaying for a year. I know that one karma will come back to me better. And two, you know, I'd rather have the trust of these individuals and get them into something they're not ready for, so try to be fully transparent with them.

Speaker 2: 17:33

One of my initial clients actually my first year was going to be a PC-12. They had a $7 million budget, so exciting. And you know, 2022 was a timeframe where prices were still pretty inflated and I knew that and I knew they weren't going to last. And so, um, you know, I had worked for five months for this person and loved them. They're they're an amazing person. I still talk to them, um, but I had to sit them down and say, look, you're going to overpay by maybe a million dollars and and that value is not going to hold. And I have to be transparent with you. I know that might not be what you want to hear, but they were, at the end, really grateful that I told them that and that I was that transparent. It did not end up in a transaction, unfortunately, so that was a bummer for me, but I felt good knowing that that person, when they are ready to buy a jet, will come to me knowing that I'm going to give them my honest opinion.

Speaker 1: 18:31

Are you leaning more into acquisition the acquisition side or the listing side, or you try to keep it kind of even? Are you looking to grow your team? What do things look like now? After you've done it for two years, you're into three.

Speaker 2: 18:44

Yeah, so definitely creating partnerships with people is my main kind of focus right now to create some leads. Obviously that I know there's a lot of leads that come in from random places that you spend a lot of time and money on that don't pan out, unfortunately. So that's really what I'm trying to do and be more selective with who I work with, obviously, but I'm not really focused on listings or acquisitions. Work with, obviously, but I'm not really focused on listings or acquisitions. I had two listings this year. Loved every one of them. I actually enjoy the listings a lot. I like doing the media for them. I like educating people on the aircraft. A lot of times they have a personal connection with the aircraft, even if it's a jet and they're flying their executives around in it. They always have a story. So I love really learning that aircraft?

Speaker 1: 19:35

What kind of jets were you? Were you listing this year?

Speaker 2: 19:37

Yeah, so I had a Citation XLS and then I had a Falcon 2000 EXEC. So, um, definitely specializing into that like mid to super mid range, so, and I love, I love those aircraft, so, uh, it's definitely a specialty that I've fallen into. But after being in it the past year, uh, and then two of my buyers coming up will also be in the super mid category and uh, so just really had a lot of experience in that particular category for some time now.

Speaker 1: 20:08

Um. Feel free to share if you like Um, but I don't have as much experience in the mid or the super mid. I'm used to the light jets, $3 million and below kind of a thing Commission. So I'm usually negotiating between 4% and 6% commission on those listings. If it's going to be a commission that's over 100 grand, then I'm going to really sit down with myself and be like, how am I going to ask for this much money? And sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. We just closed on a deal that was a six figure total gross commission to the, to the company and your and your experience with the super mids. Like what's kind of the commission range that you, that you've seen, um, if you can pull back the curtain a little bit there, it doesn't have to be with yours, but just kind of like in general what you've seen over the last two years.

Speaker 2: 20:52

Yeah, it's obviously a little bit lower than the four to 6%, but not too much lower, honestly.

Speaker 2: 20:58

And you just have to really assess how long it's going to take to sell or how long it's going to take to work with the um, the buyer. I usually do a flat rate with buyer, just so they know I'm trying to get the price rather than get a higher commission check. I know I'm trying to get the price rather than get a higher commission check. That's how I operate. That's not how everybody operates. But you really just have to assess how much you are going to be pouring into the listing. Obviously, with the supermids in the midsize, they might take a little bit longer to sell. So, assessing how much time you're going to pour in and how much resources as far as media goes, and obviously flying out to do showings, to assessing all of that and then negotiating the commission um, that way is really how I go about it, but it's pretty standard. It's a little bit lower than four to 6%, obviously, but I try to be super transparent with where that money's going as well.

Speaker 1: 21:48

That's great. I really appreciate that. Well, I want to keep talking to you for a lot longer. I know we have to run in a moment. Uh, two things I'd love to to just what advice would you give to someone who's thinking about becoming a private jet broker? I explained multiple times there's no license or certification to become a jet broker. I love that you got into this without any kind of license or certifications. Have you joined any communities or any networks like NBAA, glada, iata? Have you joined any of those? What do you see there? What do you see like? Yeah, let me ask you that have you joined anything like that? That has been helpful. I mean, you're definitely networking with people on your own, which is great. I think it's a great lesson for people.

Speaker 2: 22:27

Poured into NBA, poured into the Yopro community, poured into GBAA just joined that. So the Georgia Business Aviation Administration I just love all of those groups and you get a lot out of talking to your peers and what I would say is be fully transparent with where you're at, fully transparent with what you don't know, because people are willing to help you, even if it might be your competition. It's not competition. I mean, I wasn't competition to someone that's been doing it for 20 years, and so I was super glad that they didn't look at me like that. But they looked at me as someone knew that they could hopefully trust, since I was so transparent with where I was and what I didn't know.

Speaker 2: 23:12

The last thing I would say is it's going to take 10 times, 15 times, 20 times longer than you think it's going to take, and that's okay, than you think it's going to take, and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 23:26

So give yourself that runway and don't get caught up in how many times you're turned down. I know I've had plenty of times where I've been turned down for one reason or another, whether it be the first year, lack of experience, how young I was, and that's okay, I get it, and they rightfully so should have had those concerns, and so I didn't take this personally, but I really dove into making sure that, as young as I am even though I'm young in the industry and I'm young, I'm actually young I am really knowledgeable and I'm really honest with my clients and very transparent during the whole transaction with the other broker, with whatever management company they're working with and with, most importantly, your clients. So that would be what I would say is be totally transparent with where you're at, totally transparent with where you're looking to go and know that it's going to take 10 times longer than you think it will.

Speaker 1: 24:30

Amen to that. Okay, great. Well, two last things. I know I said that before, but I'd love to know more about the event that you put together for high net worth individuals to bring people together, to kind of cross-pollinate. I think that's a great way to do it, putting live events together. Can you tell us about that event, what you learned from that event and how you would encourage maybe someone who's looking to connect with people to either attend those events or put one on their own?

Speaker 2: 24:50

Yeah, putting on events is a full-time job, I'll say that, but it was a really, really great learning experience. The Jetson Capital team they're great, they're amazing. We actually did step away from Jetson Capital team. They're great, they're amazing. We actually did step away from Jetson Capital just for bandwidth issues. Like I said, it is a full-time job, but it was very cool to be able to share aviation with a room full of people that are either connected to or are qualified to be patrons of business aviation and be able to share with them the benefits of business aviation, what to look out for, how to protect themselves, and just made so many amazing connections with the team and with you know, the people that came to the events that I still talk to to this day so wonderful. I think, as much networking as you can do, do it, like I said, be honest about who you are, where you're at, where you're looking to go, and people, especially when they get to an event that's actually designated for networking, they're going to be so willing to help you however they can.

Speaker 1: 25:55

So it was really cool. So, speaking of events and causes, as you kind of wrap up, tell us a little about some of the causes that are near and dear to your heart. I know you recently are partnering up with Aviators for Autism. Why don't you share a little bit about what's going on there?

Speaker 2: 26:13

Yes, Anthony, I know you know Anthony, this is actually his nonprofit. We're 501c3 pending. He graciously asked me to be a part of the team. We actually worked together with the Jetson Capital events, put on two of those events together with the Jetson Capital team and we were both aviation partners there and it was awesome to work together. We had such a great time and when he asked me to be a part of Aviators for Autism, I was so excited.

Speaker 2: 26:39

So a little bit about what we're trying to do and what Anthony's building. It is 501c3 pending. His son is actually nonverbal autistic but loves to travel. That's not the case for a lot of families that have children on the spectrum and so he's really trying to open up the autistic community, regardless of where they're at, from kids all the way to young adults to aviation, so desensitizing them so that they're better travelers and it makes it easier for the families to travel, but also opening up some career opportunities in commercial aviation and business aviation. So there's so many routes that they can go to really be contributing factors to the aviation community and to our industry as a whole. So opening those doors up and making their families and these kids know that this is a space for them and there's definitely opportunity to come into aviation, whether it be traveling or working.

Speaker 1: 27:50

That's great. Yeah, I look forward to reach out to Anthony and see if there's anything I can do to help, because it looks like a great organization Very cool. Well, sierra, our time coming to a close, tell us where can people reach out and find out more about you or your brokers, whether they're wanting to buy or sell a private jet as an owner or seller, or maybe an aspiring broker that maybe just wants to pick your brain the way that you asked people for help when you were getting started.

Speaker 2: 28:15

Yeah, sierra Bravo Aviation is the website, sierrabravoaviationcom. You can find me on LinkedIn, not so much on Instagram, although I should be more. So, yes, you can find me on Instagram too. I'm super active on LinkedIn, super active on, obviously, the website and in NBA and Yopro groups. And so, yeah, if you're in the Atlanta area, I know we do a lot of little happy hours and always post those on the LinkedIn. So it's for, like, the aviation community we love, for, even if you're just interested in the aviation space, especially business aviation, you find me on LinkedIn and you can come to those. Pick everyone's brain about the industry. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Linkedin and my website would be the best places.

Speaker 1: 29:01

Cool. Well, thank you again for being here, sierra, and we look forward to seeing everybody on the next podcast.

Speaker 2: 29:07

Yeah, thank you so much.