How They Crushed It

Japneet Suri | Learning Business at Age 3, Living by the Golden Rule, & Creating Brand Equity

• Direct Mortgage Loans • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Japneet Suri and Sam Ajaz, owners of Executive CLS, share their journey and success in the concierge and limo services industry. They emphasize the importance of building relationships, treating others well, and providing exceptional experiences. Their business philosophy is centered around exceeding expectations and being proactive rather than reactive. They believe in collaboration and seeing competitors as family, working together to achieve exponential growth. Their commitment to customer satisfaction and personalized service sets them apart in the industry. They prioritize adaptability and learning in order to provide the best experience for their clients. They focus on word-of-mouth marketing and building strong relationships with their customers. They have a goal-oriented mindset and are always looking to improve and exceed expectations. They emphasize the importance of brand equity and brand awareness. The company has successfully adapted to challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by diversifying their services and finding new ways to meet their clients' needs.

Direct Mortgage Loans (00:

00.206) We build clients, we build relationships. This guy's definitely married to the gang. What is my goal at the end of the day? Treat others how you want to be treated. Nobody's going to work harder to be better than us. There's something that we could have done to make your experience even better. Give us an opportunity. Learn, adapt, treat everybody like family no matter who it is. If we can come together, how much more can we conquer? Your network is your net worth. Jeff, you're like Google, man. You're crushing it, times 10. Welcome everybody to episode two of season two of the How They Crushed It podcast sponsored by Direct Mortgage Loans, the place where I get to spend every day working in the mortgage world. But we have my friend, actually two friends, Japneet Suri and Sam Ajaz, both from Executive CLS. CLS stands for Concierge and Limo Services. They got quite a story. They got quite a history and they are doing it right. I know no better way to say it. They're definitely crushing it and I can't wait to dig in with those guys. Okay, welcome everybody to season two, episode two of the How They Crushed It podcast sponsored by Direct Mortgage Loans, the wonderful place where I get to work and spend time every single day. Today, our guest is a longtime friend of Direct Mortgage Loans, Jap Neetsuri. He also goes by Jap. Jap owns and runs executive concierge and limo service, short executive CLS, and you can find them on Instagram. And Jap has worked with our company, helps us move our clients and our employees around, and is just a phenomenal member of our extended family at Direct Mortgage Loans. And pumped to talk to you today, my friend. Thank you. Welcome in. We also, in a little bit, we'll also be interviewing Sam Ajaz. Sam Ajaz? Sam Ajaz, the ops leader for their company. So we're gonna kind of get two perspectives on how things go here, but. Welcome my friend, thank you for coming in. Greatly appreciate you having us. And you've been with Direct Mortgage Loans longer than I have. Yes, professionally, personally, I have definitely been. It's a great family environment, that's what I love. That is true, that is true. And you've got a similar culture at your place. Yeah, we've tried to instill for sure, definitely. Growing up, business at the end of the day, I kind of take back to when you're growing up.

Direct Mortgage Loans (02:

10.19) You know, the principles you're being instilled by your parents, by your elders and such, you know, treat others how you want to be treated. Absolutely. So business is like the perfect foundation to treat others how I want to be treated. So that's all I've been doing, as Sam has been doing, our entire team, you know, just goes out and above to make sure they are felt what we are actually trying to bring. I love it. Love it. You're jumping right in. I love this. So our segments normally. Jeff, the way we do it is we're gonna talk a little bit about your personal story as it relates to how you got into business. We'd like to do that for a little bit. And then we're gonna bring Sam in to talk about like what things are happening now with the business and since you guys merged and came together as partners, you know how that's been. And we always end with right now it's June of 2024, you know, you've been in business a long time, the economy's changed, things change, all, you know, every week, every month, what are you doing right now that's continuing to work? We always end with that. Because you know, We've had a lot of different types of business leaders on our, and not just business leaders, leaders in general on our podcast. So we're always just trying to end with what principles are out there that are working that kind of lead you and lead your business to make you remain successful. So we kick off with, we have a little fun, but have you ever, I mean, how many cars, automobiles does your business have right now? Right now, we're about to touch 40. 40? We're definitely in the mid -30s right now. We were definitely in the mid 20s, just probably three, four months ago, but the way, you know, with supply and demand, with the COVID pandemic that was amongst us, there was a lot of hold on vehicles and, you know, kind of controlling the market, supply and demand. So we just, we're putting orders in and then, you know, now the metal's coming, so we're like, all right, you know, just keep moving. COVID, cars and puppies. Two things you couldn't get, cars and puppies. Literally, everything went up. Or now homes too, right? Yeah, well now there aren't enough homes still to this day and that's everywhere. But I asked Google, what's the main car that companies like yours use for trucks? I know the answer to that one. What would you say the answer is? What will Google tell us? Obviously it would be any of the GM SUVs. Cadillac Escalade is our flagship SUV. Sedans wise, you are looking at the Mercedes S -Class or a couple of the Genesis GV70s and such. Jeff, you're like Google, man. You already gave the exact right answers. Now what's your favorite?

Direct Mortgage Loans (04:

23.374) Forget about Google, what's your favorite to drive? One of them we honestly just got, it's a 2024 Rolls -Royce Cullinan. It's a cloud. Did you see the look Tiffany, the camera person made right there? We wanna take a ride in that one, Tim. We haven't pulled up right to the HQ, but no, we actually just got that. Time out. You have to be crushing it if you got a Rolls -Royce on the roster. God's grace. Yeah, God's plan. Well done, well done, well done. That's all it is. Yeah, I didn't even know that about the Rolls -Royce. That's crushing it. Yeah, we actually wanted to get into the exotics just a little bit because like I said, we're a niche market, you know, the word limo, the word limousine, it's been glamorized and limo limousine doesn't really mean a high -end flashy vehicle. It's the transportation from one point to another and it can be special events or it can be special occasions. And in this market, we saw there's a lot of coming from Indian cultural backgrounds and being a Pakistani cultural background. There's a lot of culture weddings that happen that they want the vehicles for and the vehicles did not exist. And even while we were in business, even Baltimore, you know, we started bringing more and more luxury in because we were like, boy, why is Baltimore being slept on? Like, this is my hometown. I grew up in Baltimore, from West Baltimore at Sinai Hospital to East Baltimore and Bel Air and Frankfurt. And then, you know, along the... Maryland tenure you move up Bel Air Road or you move up one of the roads you live I live in Bel Air Road. Right so now I'm in Bel Air Maryland thanks to DML but just looking at that we're like we can definitely bring in what we want to see and that's why we were going luxury and bringing now the exotics even. You jumped in a little bit ago to you know growing up and where you grew up. Talk to me about you know your upbringing and how it related to you. becoming an entrepreneur and becoming someone that wants to be in business for themselves. That is a little bit of a heartfelt story, Dean. Growing up, I was blessed to be born into a entrepreneurship family. My grandfather, he came over in the mid to late 70s into the U .S. with his three sons and his wife, and he started basically from scratch. And I kind of wish I was born in that era, because, you know, my dollar would have been worth banging.

Direct Mortgage Loans (06:

34.062) Like we could have been way, you know, crushing it times 10. You're crushing it pretty well, but times 10, you know. 10X like they say, that's where we're trying to go. But growing up, being in the restaurant industry, like from a child, I would see my mom, my dad, my uncles, my grandfather, like, you know, it would be like a daily routine. And it was, the restaurant was like a place where we would all go. And it was from morning to evening, obviously we would have the... 11 to 2 lunch rush and then it would be a 5 to 10 dinner service. So throughout it like growing up, you know, I would doing various tasks. I remember growing up at the age of 3 I can still remember doing credit card transaction processes with my uncle at the keypad punching him in, you know, you know, culture labor signal. Three years old. Yeah, no child labor laws back then. And child labor laws don't count when it's family. No, not in a culture family. You're doing everything. You're getting the brink of everything. But growing up in that scenario, I remember processing those with my uncle, and even the big chargeback machine that you slide side to side, and things like that. This is fairly cool, and going through, I don't know if you guys remember Zoomerang back in the day, it was the Maryland zoo, Baltimore zoo back in the day. It was a huge, huge... I've been to it, years ago. Yeah, and it was like the five, like I wish Baltimore still had that, you know? It'd be a great time for our limo company to service it too. Right, totally. But Zoomerang was a great feat and then we would do like large events and I'm like, the exponential growth, the amount of people you get to touch, the amount of people you get to. But you're a kid at this point. Yeah, but again, I was a kid but I was always seeing things differently and I've always been a little different in that scenario. And I always say I'm cut from different cloth and they don't make that no more for sure. Yeah, they broke them all. Definitely. You know what, Jeff? That's a... I find this interesting. I could talk about this a lot. So you're a kid, you're watching your family business and you're so you're not thinking about, my God, I want to get out of here and go play catch or go shoot a basketball. You're sitting there thinking. Even that, that was I was playing with my uncle or my dad at the restaurant or my cousins, you know, that came because I'm the first grandson, the oldest of the family. And then my cousins, when they would come about or I would be running errands. And that was my playtime because I would be going to the restaurant depots with my grandfather. I would.

Direct Mortgage Loans (08:

55.822) you know, I'm his helper, I'm his aide, you know, things like that, helping and fetch things. And like, it was a point where it was either just me and him, you know, for a day or for a longer period of time with my grandmother. So I'm like, I kind of saw a story or something that I wanted to see in my future. I just didn't know where, but there was a disconnect that came about in 05, because my grandfather had a heart attack and then his health started to decline. And then obviously that late 70s up to the 2000s, you know, that's the corporate era of. America. That's when the blue collar jobs, the white collar jobs are you know more so coming about not so much entrepreneurship and such. Talk to me, you know what's funny? You just said something that struck me that I've talked to some of our other guests about. So you knew the world had something for you. That's what I kind of heard you say. You knew that there was something out there. You just didn't, what you said was you just didn't know what it was yet. Yeah. And we've heard, I've heard a lot of other entrepreneurs say you have to let the world come to you. That's 100%. In entrepreneurship, what I've definitely noticed is one growth has to be exponential, right? So with that mindset, I've always like, why would I want to join a table when I want to create a table to have others join? And that honestly has been such a big blessing in itself. And not just kickback, but like to see that actual happen. Like I've seen other... great businessmen in our city. And like, I've seen them, you know, in the public image and I'm like, man, that's such a great story. That's such a great brand. That's such an amazing. But you had faith as a kid that it was something was gonna come your way. Something, yeah. I mean, I've always been different, you know, I've... You mean the easiest path would have been for you to be a restaurateur now. Since your family. It could have, it would have been if it was there, but like I was saying, five. because the blue collar, white collar jobs, my uncle, my dad, they already had their corporate jobs, they already had their bureaucratic jobs. So they didn't really put into the restaurants. The restaurant was closed and we don't have that anymore since 05, but it was the top Indian restaurant, Jahind Indian restaurant in Baltimore off of 5511 New York Road. So the mid -Goldman's area and everything. So it's very popular happening area. But if we did have that, I'm sure we could have made that into...

Direct Mortgage Loans (11:

05.774) something out of our imagination. I find it fascinating that you knew something was coming. You just didn't know what it was yet. Yeah, I didn't know. And also, the way my upbringing was, my parents were married to Yong, arranged marriage with the culture and such like that. That's why I'm so not there yet. I'm like married to the game. Like, let me get set up. This guy's definitely married to the game. Absolutely. But seeing them and kind of going through the trials and tribulations, I grew up with my parents. So we kind of, had the same growth stages, growth periods and like, you know, whether it be financial, whether it be scholarly, whether that be academic, whether that be growing into, you know, homes and such like that, or as a family into an apartment, leaving your extended family and things of that sort. So I was like always on that verse. I'm like, I guess I am kind of the one that has to do something or do or something will come about. So I was just like, you know, God's plan, I just put my effort in and something will happen. You know, it's funny, before we started filming, you and Sam both have said the term God's plan a couple of times. And I love that, that you guys knew, you know, you're crushing it. The best entrepreneurs know there's an opportunity coming. They just keep their eyes open, watching for it. You have to. You have to. And again, like that God's plan, you know, we don't just say that. We're a very small player in his big picture, you know. I don't know what tomorrow's going to hold. I don't know what holds after I leave here. or I didn't even know if this was held today for me. But obviously thanks to Mr. Ashley, thanks to Mr. Mike, that's family. And they've even seen something because this is my second time with DML. Before I was called back into the HQ office and they're like, Chap, can you give us what your brand is, we need to understand this. And I'm like, what? I was like, all right, cool, I'm down with it. And then Mike's there, Ashley's there, MP's there. I'm looking at this crowd, I'm like. wow, like, you know, I'm glad others are able to see what I'm feeling. Because you know, I never want to voice it. And our business and your business are unrelated. Right. But we do a lot of business together because it feels like, I mean, it just fits. You guys do a wonderful job. We want to work with you. Right. And, you know, talk to me about how the company, I mean, you've got this idea. I mean, I'm not an idea yet. You know there's an opportunity coming. How do you get started?

Direct Mortgage Loans (13:

27.086) How I get started, at the time with Uber coming about, it was Uber Black and Uber SUV. And when that was coming about, I was in college. I was at Towson University, my alma mater. So when I started, it was one of our family friends suggested, hey, you should get your son to do this. It's something that is, you know, booming or coming about and he can do it while he's in college. And I was like, that's interesting. Let me try that out. So I'm like, But it's still, you know, said that there's demand 20, there's work 24 seven, but I quickly realized there's no work 24 seven. This is a corporate city. This is a corporate state. It's corporate country. Everybody sleeps. Everybody, you know, there's, you can plan out a calendar year. That's why it's kind of scheduled out. So, you know, when high times are, when low times are, when things are. So, I was sitting in class and I'm like, I can't be in class and missing out on work and then having homework, classwork, and then trying to go find work. This is not going to work out. So when I was working, I would also, like my style of business, my body language, everything was always, you know, as I would want it to be for myself, like I stated. So everybody would be like, can I get a car? Something's different about you. Something's different about this car. Something's different about the way you're doing business. Even though they just stepped into that car as an Uber. First time, again, I'm just giving them that experience that, hey, let me treat you like I would want to be treated. And from there, I was like, okay, I'm not doing marketing. I'm not getting into it. We're doing word of mouth up until COVID 2020, 21, even we were all word of mouth. No branding, no marketing, no. Creating experience. Yes, just creating, creating, we sell experience. We are everything about experience. When we say, you know, we exceed your expectations. That's the good, the bad and the ugly. God forbid there is something that, you know, can go wrong. Unfortunately. Yeah. We're going to make sure that's not the taste in your mouth. we're gonna make sure that sour taste or that negative is not. People can feel when you're married to the game. They can feel when you're married to the game. So when you're talking about selling experience and trying to differentiate yourself, people feel that. Absolutely. I mean, I believe that. I mean, clearly you believe it because you've built your business based on it. 100%. I mean, what I can give is good, I know is 10 times better than anybody else can give. You can pull up a better vehicle, you can pull up a better, you can wear a better suit.

Direct Mortgage Loans (15:

51.246) You're not going to be more personable than me or my team. You're not going to be better than me or my team. And you're not going to be as on point as us. And that's not to, you know, toot our own horn or anything of that sort. It's just we've kind of I remember even the first DML pitch, I was like, guys, you know, we don't have too many things that we can break down or personalize. So I'm over here dumbing down water. If I see you picking up or bringing a LaCroix. or if I see you bringing in a Perrier, a Fiji, a Voss, I'm gonna make sure somehow that that is there for you next time because that's your preference. So tailored around you, custom baseball, transportation, accommodations, just so you feel you're getting the bang for your buck. Because the main thing in today's world, whether it's a relationship, whether it's a business, whether it's anything, it's value. What value does it have for yourself and for the one receiving it? Totally, and I want everybody to hear what he said. He didn't say anything bad about his competitors. He just said, we're going to do everything to be on point. We're going to leave you with a great experience and nobody's gonna work harder to do a great job than us. That's a great way to put it. Not that we're better than others, just nobody's gonna work harder to be better than us. And like you said, competitors, competition, I honestly don't see competition. And that's not a, I'm not trying to be senile or be anything of that sort. You're not senile. I see everyone as family. Whether it's a complimentary business, another limousine service, another transportation business, could be larger, could be smaller, anything. I always see it as family. How can we come together and grow? Because I can't do everything. You can't do everything. Tiff can't do everything. But if we can come together, how much more can we conquer? And that's, again, business 101. Exponential growth. Make sure you're doing something to get ahead and strive. you're not just content, never content. I can't be content. I've said this on some of the previous episodes, I tell my kids, be ambitious. Be ambitious. That's not, you being ambitious is not a negative towards anybody else. It's just you, what you said earlier, trying to separate. You didn't say we're better than everybody. You said nobody's gonna work hard to be great than us. That's a difference. Absolutely, and I mean, with God's grace, I mean, one of the biggest things, you know, I hold over my team's head on a...

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17.87) daily basis as our five -star rating. You know, being in business over 13 years and trying to maintain a five -star, my heart is, you know, it's a hard thing. It's a very hard thing, you know, because we're making sure each and every expected, and no little hiccup occurs across the board, across the globe, because, you know, we're not just doing Baltimore, D .C., Virginia, New Jersey, Miami, L .A., we're doing international. We have an affiliate. network just like you know you guys have. Now you can connect people here, here and here. We can do the same thing. We become your one stop shop. You don't have to worry about shopping your credentials around. You don't have to worry about vetting other companies. You don't have to worry about negative experience. You know you're talking to Jap. You know you're talking to Sam. You know you're talking to someone from our team or one of my GMs in my areas. And you know that's that personal ability. If God forbid something goes wrong, I'll listen to you chew me out. I guarantee you that time will come. But I'll still listen to it if it were ever to come about. I love that. Well look, we're gonna pull Sam in and talk to him, you know, just to get a different perspective. Absolutely. We'll come back to you, because I want to, I definitely got so much written down here, I want to end with a couple of, you know, I got some things that I want to ask you about as we end, but let's grab Sam and we'll jump back in. So now we have my friend Sam Ajaz, pronounced correctly? Absolutely. Okay, who's the Chief Operations Officer for the company. We talked to Jap quite a bit about the story and we're gonna talk to Jap a little more about... you know, what's happening today for you guys. But talk to me about as you guys have grown the company, what you've done, what things, you know, again, this podcast is for anybody in any business to listen to and try to grab some principles. Talk to me about like what you think as the guy running the ops day to day, what what things and principles have been working that have helped you guys remain successful? So one thing me and Job, especially Job always reiterates, you know, precautionary rather than reactionary. We're always hands -on, we're always there. If our chauffeurs, our team, rather that be the dispatch, you know, guys behind the wheels, guys detailing the vehicles, they have our cell phone numbers, they can reach out to us 24 -7, you know, sleep is nothing to us. We're there for the company. I'm writing that one down. Absolutely, you know, we're there for the company, we're there for our people, our clients, you know. We take care of the business like it's our kid, our child, you know, and you know, we want nothing but the best for everybody.

Direct Mortgage Loans (20:

38.638) rather that be the people that are running ops, people that are giving us day -to -day work, new clientele that's coming about, we're there for them, and that's why we're in business. I love that, and so do you think your customers feel that? Absolutely, 100%. I think one of them is direct mortgage loans. Direct mortgage loans is the customer, everybody. Follow them on Instagram, I'm gonna say that a couple of times. Absolutely, the nailers and the mills, they're our extended family. taking care of their kids, them, multiple times throughout the state, overseas, within the states and other states. So, like we said, we're only on a phone call away for anybody and everybody. And everybody, do you hear that one? Proactive, not reactive. Absolutely. Proactive, not reactive. That's one we've heard, you know what, Sam, we've heard from some of the other people we've interviewed in different industries and not exactly the same language, but being proactive and going to make it happen as opposed to waiting for something to happen. Exactly. You customers do, that's why I ask the question the way I do. I think customers feel that. They do, they have to. They do, yeah. You know, that's the only way they're gonna understand the nature of the business, why we're in business and why we're on the other end of the service, right? Right. They're coming to us, we're not going to them. Well, right. And you guys are in a service business. So, you know, having them feel it, it's important because anybody can, I mean, we sell mortgages, there's lots of companies that can sell the same stuff. You're selling, you know, four wheels. you know, anybody can get a car and sell four wheels. Absolutely. You know, you guys told me my mortgage as well. Thank you for that. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. Look, you do need to sleep, by the way, but saying sleep is nothing to us, you know, we need you rested to do a great job, too. Yeah, absolutely. We take time where we, you know, take our power naps and then we're back to it again. But, you know, this business requires a lot of time and a lot of attention to detail, because if you don't pay attention. You know, there could be a small hiccup and we don't have no room for hiccups. And talk to me a little bit, I mean, because it was clear to me when you and Jap came in today and everybody, I hadn't met you before today. I've met Jap before, but it was clear to me you guys have quite the relationship. I mean, you guys are working in tandem, in partnership every day. Talk to me a little bit about that and how that has made a difference for the business. Absolutely. So it's definitely business, but apart from business, I consider him as a brother, a younger brother. We're only a year apart.

Direct Mortgage Loans (23:

01.294) I believe. You should have said you're the younger brother. You know, it's the salt and pepper. I can't do much about it. I got that too. He has less salt and pepper than me, so he definitely looks younger. But we're only a year apart, and we share a lot of the same ideas, mindset, and whatever I lack, he completes whatever he lacks. In my mind, I complete that end. And having that brotherhood. And then reliability, you know, 24 -7 around the clock is a very big thing to me, you know. Well, trust can't be faked. But talk to me, I mean, so when you joined, I mean, is this something that has evolved over time or did you guys have a relationship before you joined? Talk to me a little bit about the history of that. So we started separately. I was my own operator. I had my own vehicles. Ever since a kid, my family business, we've been in the automotive industry. We've owned mechanic shops. And ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to own like gas stations and have my own business. At some point somewhere in life, do something that I don't want to work for nobody. And there came a time where I was finding it difficult to find a regular job, you know? And it was due to... Sometimes entrepreneurs are very unemployable. You know? And it was due to some sort of a name issue, but then I had to change. And right after I changed, I got the job. And it just changed a lot of things in my mind. So I'm like, if a name has to do something to get a job, I'd rather work for myself. Watching my parents, watching uncles owning gas stations and businesses, I started the limo company. And I started with one vehicle, got a contract, went from one to a couple. And then down the road, me and Jap, we came about on the same event in the industry where we were. what do you call, operating at the same time, at the same event. And when we came across each other, we just connected really well in the sense that afterwards, if I had any issue, I'm calling Jap. If Jap had any issue, he's calling me. We're going back and forth. And then, you know, eventually after, you know, purchasing multiple companies on both ends, we merged. And then after we merged, we're here today.

Direct Mortgage Loans (25:

13.806) You know, we're crushing it. Yeah, I love that. That's not. Hold on. That's my thing to point out. No, no, no. I was like, let me give it a try. It's got that orange. Talk to me. So you guys are separate. You join forces. Obviously, there's a familiarity there at that point. But how do you because now you're talking about brotherhood. Now you're talking about trust, which is has to be developed. Talk to me about that transition. And what was it like to like you start on day one now working together as partners? How do you get from that? to this brotherhood and this complete trust and ability to pass back, you know, pass things back and forth. I mean, we go way back. We're talking 2012 till, what is it, 2024 now. Yeah. I think that's a... No, but I'm talking about in the business. You guys had to learn to work together. -huh. And how was that transition? So, we till date learn on a daily basis, you know. I mean, there's new things to adapt to every day. And, you know, we proceed with things that are gonna, are better for the company. And overall, the clients, our employees, just in general, what's better for the company? We put the company first, and we make decisions on behalf of the company, and we move forward with it. I love hearing that, because all good companies, and we've heard this from a number of the people we've interviewed, learn and adapt, learn and adapt. If you're rigid and unwilling to learn and adapt, it's hard to keep. adjusting to what's going on out there. Absolutely. I mean, that's the only reason why we're very blessed to be in business. There's people that have been in business before us and they're not in business anymore. They're bankrupt. After COVID, as you mentioned in your previous podcast, I've seen in a couple of them that a lot of people didn't last. And thanks to our extended family, which are our clients, they kept us up to par. We survived and we came back strong and we're still building upon. We started from zero. Now we're back to where we were and some. Correct. See you now. Crushing it. Crushing it. We're looking for another prosperous year and looking forward for many more to come. You know, bigger numbers. Let's see. I love that. Learning and adapting, though, is one that you see. I write my notes down. Learning and adapting, I think, is one that's worth always stopping and talking about even a little more because you joked earlier, you know, the best entrepreneurs are hard to, you know, sometimes don't want to work for others. But the best entrepreneurs are also people that are willing to adapt.

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32.238) and not stay rigid and can adjust to what goes on out there. Do you consider, and I'm gonna talk to Jap again in a little bit, do you consider Jap the same way? Absolutely, if not 1000 % more. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. No, because that's important. I mean, if only part of the company's willing to adapt and learn and not everybody, it's not gonna be quite as successful. Absolutely, that's why they're leaders. He's a leader, I'm a leader, and we're trying to make sure that the ship sails, you know? Well, look, and as somebody who's used your service, it feels that way. As a customer, not as somebody who knows you guys, but as a customer, it feels that way. We're always at your disposal, you know? And if there's anything that you can tell us to change and adapt and make our service better, we're all ears, man. You know, we love to hear feedbacks. At the end of every trip, every customer gets a link to leave us a review. And you know, we always look for a positive review and we always deliver, we always exceed expectations. Well, I have a question though. Hold on, I'm going to cut you off for one second. What if you get a bad review? What do you guys do when you get somebody that's maybe critical or maybe giving you feedback? So number one, we're the type of folks that we, you know, we show up at the doorstep, meaning like we actually physically make the customer feel like we're family, welcome. We literally come to the door and knock on the door like, hey, what can we do to make your experience better? In our all honesty, we've, on our part, delivered 100%. If there's something that we could have done to make your experience even better, give us an opportunity. We're here to better ourselves. We're human at the end of the day. We make mistakes. It's an industry of service. We're 100 % service. We move with people that move the world. We haven't messed up yet. we don't look forward to, but if we do, that's what we're looking forward to say, you know, like, hey, give us an opportunity, let us know where we lack, and we'll make it up to you 100%, you know, if not 1 ,000%. I can feel it from you. I just wonder, you know, some people like to act like that, you know, they like to ignore that kind of thing. Absolutely not, you know. I want to take care of them as if somebody would take care of my family or my kids, you know. That's one thing that we've always said, you know, service -wise, one.

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54.126) have somebody like, if they're providing us service and our kids love that, that's something that we want for our clients, you know? You've said the word family a bunch of times. Absolutely. And that you've said it in relation to your partner, you've said it in relation to your customers, and you've said it in relation to your employees. Funny thing is that customers alone, we go out to dinners with our clients, you know? We have cookouts with our clients. If we're not having cookouts with our clients, we're having cookouts at each other's houses. It's early in the morning right now. I'd go out right now with you. Absolutely. You're more than welcome, man. Bring the whole team. You guys are family. Do you hear that, Tiff? Hey, please. Absolutely, Tiff. You're more than welcome. But yeah, man, that's where we're at. And with God's grace, looking to a bright future and something that we can leave behind for our kids and leave a legacy or something. Look, legacy, family, learning and adapting. These are things that these are principles. Anybody listening? any business, learn, adapt, treat everybody like family, no matter who it is. It's a differentiator. 100%. Well, dude, thank you so much. I appreciate you, man, for having us. No, absolutely. Let us know if we could be of any further assistance. You're already in my phone. No problem. No problem. You got it, man. Thanks, Sam. Carry on with Jap and again, crushing it. Thank you. Thank you. So back to my friend Jap. Sam was incredible. I know you were standing over there listening. Of course, learn and adapt. I mean, and family. I mean, He said the word family, I didn't count, but it was more than a few times. 100%. So look, one thing I didn't ask you too much about I wanna dive a little deeper into and you and I talked a little earlier, you sold experience, right? From the earliest days when you were just still in college and you were driving Uber, but you were trying to differentiate yourself and build a brand for yourself. Talk to me about like, you know. What has been your marketing journey for this company? I hear you loud and clear, we're selling experience, I'm trying to differentiate. But in the early going, you didn't have 40 cars. In the early going, you had one car. And you're a young man still in college. So talk to me about how you marketed the company or what you've done or are doing these days. Right, I would definitely throw a shout out to Towson University for this. Great program, great undergrad.

Direct Mortgage Loans (32:

07.758) I don't think I need to do a master's, I kind of feel a master myself, you know? You should be teaching a master. God's grace, you know? Definitely have done some classes with my alma mater, but shout out to Towson for the professors they have, for the program they have, just because in my undergrad, I was like able to dissect so much and so much as a sponge that I was like, wow, and this was from like... Probably only five. You majored in business? Majored in international business and finance, double major. While you're working. While I'm working. So you got real world experience as you're going to class. Yes, and then marketing came about with a few great professors and I love these words, brand equity, brand awareness, and just developing. So in the initial days, as you know, I didn't have the 40 cars or anything of the sort, but we had, I had 40 hours at that time, right? So time was of the essence instead of vehicles of the essence. but how could I use that time to the most value? I had to make sure the people that are coming in, because again, doing rideshare, picking up people, you're gonna have ones that like you, ones that don't. I didn't care about the ones that weren't happy or didn't like me, or in the sort of, that was very rare. That was just because of maybe what they were charged or a surcharge they were hit with or something. So I was like, that business model isn't really there. And if you guys watch the... Video on them or the Netflix special on uber. It's crazy and how that Program even still exists with the company still exists with all the negative energy I know that's a disruptor and stuff but at the end of the day it is still use it It's easy. It is easy, but it's not safe. You know there's no safe reliability there and there's again There's no personal experience, but we've known and we understand that hey everybody's gonna have their own taxis have business shuttles have business, ride share has business, private jets have business, so does Southwest, right? Everybody's gonna have their own. So, you know, we're an itch market, we understood that. So my big marketing thing was word of mouth, because word of mouth would get me into the nailer circle, would get me into the mill circle, right? And then from there, they'd be like, no, you gotta use this person. But were you asking? I mean, so you weren't asking something. And again, it wasn't something that needed to be.

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21.197) per trade business cards were there or they would be asked for by me, but just because I was making sure all my deliverables were there. Because if I go out with the idea that, hey, I need to score X amount of clients today, that's not happening in any which way, you know, you're going to beat yourself up, you're going to be so depressed, you're going to be so stressed and you're going to be quiet. But if you go out and you're and I say this a lot goal oriented, right? You have to be goal or my what is my goal at the end of the day? My goal is to have a brand. is to be able to leave behind something that can be for the generations to come. And whether it's my generations or generations of employees or anything, you know, as long as it's there to create, then I know I've made that substantial effort and I've succeeded in that. But that comes from that genuine connection where if Mike is telling Ashley, hey, Ashley, you need to use Chap because I felt this, he's gonna pick up on that and be like, yeah, let me pick up on that one. Let me go with it. and boom, we have that. But that word of mouth really helped because it was more valuable rather than marketing, rather than networking, rather than. So focusing on brand, separating yourself so much that people have a memorable experience. Yes, exactly. And your personability again, you know, making sure their experience, even till date, that experience, whether I'm not there, whether Sam's not there, any of our chauffeurs come, any of our other cities you come to, like we've gone ahead the profiles that are created for our guests. are so intuitive that they can make sure that personable effect is in Spain, that personable effect is felt in London, in Mauritius, anywhere you wanna travel. And that's because we made sure that it's catered around you and fully around you. And then marketing basically kinda came about post -COVID, the organic, the inorganic, the SEO, the pushing the website back channels. Has that been part of what's catapulted your business? At least in the expansion part of it. A little bit, but even till date, we're not so heavy on one -time clients. And I'm, you know, we'll take them. It's a blessing. Any guest, any client, anybody who sees value in us to bring them value is a blessing. So we would love to. But I say it's not a one -time client because I guarantee you we're going to build a relationship out of them as well. Because we're here to just build. We don't build clients. We build relationships because they understand our value and they're not looking for the next value ride. They're not looking for this.

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46.542) They understand if they call us, they can have their child taken from the Beyonce concert because it's getting rained out and put in the back of another chauffeured vehicle and he's gonna be brought home safe to his dad. And you know, things like that. All referrals come from relationships. Yes. So, in any industry, in any industry. And again, you just make it, any industry you're in, any business you're in, you take it on as you, you wanna do it fully, you'll get that out of it. The brand is you. Brand, you have to live that and breathe that. And again, Even with Sam, even with my employees, like, I'll go off at them or they'll go off at me, but just to make sure we're bettering our brand. And it's always in a good way, you know, it's constructive criticism. Like whenever we're at a table of this sort, like if I go off at you, Dean, I don't want you to think I'm coming at you personally. Because afterwards we go out, we're probably going to grab a few cold ones and have a good time, right? But over here, you got to understand, hey, this is the way you're doing business. This is the way how somebody's going to feel. That precautionary or reactionary comes about in us. If I can't see it and prevent that, that's not gonna ever happen. Family. 100%. Family, treat everybody like family. Build a relationship. So tell me, look, I always end with, and by the way, you and I could do this for hours and hours and hours. Yeah, give us a topic, we got this. Yeah, we could go everybody. We'll be guests on any podcast. I always end with this one, and we've gotten all kind of different answers, which have all been helpful, but it's right now June of 2024, and you made a funny face earlier when I said the economy changes, and... things, you know, we've had a pandemic that you've talked about as it relates to your business. But what thing, and I don't want to guide you in any way, what thing are you doing right now that you think is helping you continue to crush it in any way? So, you know, any answer is a good answer. I think it would be from the, just the same thing we've been doing since day one. We are in the industry and business of adaptation. If we don't adapt, if we're not foresighting, if we're not forecasting, If we're not being precautionary in all elements, there's no way you're gonna crush anything other than yourself or your hopes and your dreams. You need to be able to project and you need to be able to, whether they're good circumstances, negative circumstances, whatever, scope them out, figure out how you're gonna have a rainy day fund. We've been through COVID. We understand the cash strain that brings about. Make sure you have a little bit more DI on the side. Make sure you're not so...

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11.278) heavily invested on one side that's taking away from another. Make sure you're not trying to put in somewhere where there's too many liabilities and not enough assets. I mean, somebody would be like, well, you have 40 vehicles. How are they not liabilities? Well, because those 40 liabilities in your perspective make us revenue that generates as an asset. So what I'm hearing you say is don't just wake up with a mindset to be adaptable. You have to have that too. You have to be teachable. build a business that allows you to adapt. Having that rainy day fund allows you to adapt so you don't have to answer to your balance sheet. You can answer to the situation. Again, your network is your net worth at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if you have zero dollars in your pocket. Again, I'm not trying to simulate or say things that Grant Cardone has, also a great client, 10X. Now we're gonna give, hold on, we're gonna give you, we're gonna give Jap credit for the quote, not Grant Cardone. we'll give him credit too. But just being, ready to dive into it, it doesn't matter again if you have zero dollars or if you have 100 % experience, you should be able to do it because you're gonna be goal -oriented. And if you're goal -oriented, whether you're in the restaurant industry, whether you're in the mortgage business, whether you're in a limousine, concierge service, anything, you're building a brand. And where do you see that brand? Mike, I hear you. They saw, they were like, we love baseball, we wanna do something with the org. Where do you see it? All of Rose Stadium. Where do you see it? Baltimore Sun, best place to work, best thing to do. I'm like, wow, like this is tremendous. And that's gold oriented. They don't care what the tasks are, golf outings you have to do. And I'm not talking about all the leisure fun we get to have, but even the endless hours, the no sleep, the lack of, we don't look at it as a lack, we look at it as, we're gonna fill that void with something bigger and better. Yeah, I learned today, Sam doesn't sleep, he tells me. Honestly, it's being married to the game, it's usually hard to and one thing we've learned, especially in our because we're such a niche market and a service based industry, when they work, we play, when they play, we work. And in my business and my industry, if you can get down with that, you're gonna succeed. But then again, we have a lot of those again, you know, hiring chauffeurs is not easy, labor is hard to find these days. When people are out there, they're like, man.

Direct Mortgage Loans (41:

33.614) why are they out at the clubs or why are they out having this dinner with their family and I can't? Well, you definitely can, but you wanna do it on prime time or do you wanna do it on your time? Like, you know, let's figure that out. Well, that's, you said adapt. That's, that you are - It's a hardcore adaptation. Yeah, you are embodying adaptation. Yeah, we have to. Yup, even with COVID, you know, when that came about, March 22nd, 2020, till about June 12th, zero, quiet, nothing moving. We're like, what is this? And I'm like, no, this can't be. I'm like, we're in a niche market. I'm not trying to say our people have expendable funds or something like that, but they have multiple homes. They have places to be. What can we do? That's when we started adapting and bringing in our NMT. We're non -emergency medical transport now, since COVID. Just making sure that we are doing what is not expected in the best way, in the way of exceeding expectations, right? Like you call the car service, you're not gonna expect them. to come to your door to grab the luggage that you just left outside, you're thinking you're gonna take that to the car. Or you're getting in the vehicle with a child trying to fixate a booster seat, this, that, the other, and then you're realizing in five minutes it's pure bliss and quiet because the kids are connected to Wi -Fi, the others are watching something, the wife's ordering food, you're like, man, this is vacation. So we're making sure we're doing for those that are using our service, but without them, realizing and they're like, no, this is because of that. And then, you know, when you have that one reflection moment, you're like, no, this is it. It clicks, you know? So adaptation, I love that. And industry and business, any business at the end of the day, you know, since COVID, you know, election year going on, it's trialing times. You know, I've even heard that all great, what was it, nations or whatever, at the first 250 years, I'm like, no, we're almost there, but no, not our great nation, with God's grace, you know? Don't you wish you and I could live 250 years to keep doing this? Man, we're definitely here to crush it, right? We're here to kill it. Jeff, this has been awesome. And Sam, thank you. Absolutely. This has been wonderful. Look, we're going to post their info. Definitely reach out if you're not just in Baltimore, but anybody seeing this. These guys can help you. These guys, Concierge is in their name. It's not just about four wheels and transportation always. Absolutely.

Direct Mortgage Loans (43:

53.742) They're definitely crushing it and I can't thank you enough for coming in. Thank you. Let us know. We're on Google. We're on Facebook, Instagram. You can find our direct website, book online, call us, contact us. Say the name of the company again. Executive CLS, Contean and Limousine Service. We are the ones you want and the ones you will never forget. I can't say anything better to take us out than that. You will never forget them. I'm forgettable. This guy's not so much. But thanks everybody for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Thank you. Thank you.

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Dean Johnson

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