The University of Life
The University of Life podcast has become my personal collection of fascinating learnings from the people I meet and experiences I have as I explore life and journey deeper in to the space of business mentoring & life coaching.
The University of Life
The University of Life & Jonny Dodge
Ever wondered how a passion for adventure can morph into a thriving entrepreneurial empire? Meet Jonny, an extraordinary entrepreneur whose ventures span from orchestrating once in a life time adventures to selling and leasing luxury yachts.
This episode is a testament to Jonny’s philosophy of pursuing passion over profit, an approach that has driven the success of his diverse array of businesses.
He speaks about dreaming big, embracing adventure, surrounding yourself with inspiring individuals, the evolution of digital nomad culture and the importance of pushing beyond comfort zones.
He shares his insights on seizing opportunities, nurturing dedicated teams, and catering to younger, tech-savvy clients in the crypto space all of which offer invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.
This episode is a treasure trove of inspiration.
Whether you’re looking to blend passion with your profession or seek extraordinary experiences in life and business, Jonny’s story offers a roadmap to success and fulfilment.
To follow Jonny Dodge on Instagram, see: https://www.instagram.com/jonnydodge_
If ever you'd like to connect, please don't hesitate to connect via my website www.jamiewhite.com.
I am always open to feedback, reflections, guest / subject recommendations and anything else that might come up.
Thank you for listening, Jamie x
Johnny, I don't have a clue how I could even begin to introduce you, Like how does somebody introduce you and what you do? I think, Shall I introduce myself? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think I'd fail miserably doing justice to all that you do.
Speaker 2:Look, I think I'm passionate about experiences. That's what's driven me to do everything. So that does mean I'm an entrepreneur. It means I'm an adventurer does mean I'm an entrepreneur. It means I'm a adventurer and being passionate about creating really unique opportunities for people across the planet and whatever businesses we've created. And that takes us from companies operating f1 events through to building resorts, through to selling super yachts. So now we've got a portfolio of companies and offices around the world that have started from that passion of building unique experiences like.
Speaker 1:So what I hear when you share that is that, like you love this lifestyle yourself first and foremost and yeah, it's not as if you went off working for somebody else or living somebody else's dream. You're like I love doing this and you know what, if I love doing it, chances are so many others do too. I'm gonna share it with others. Would that be about right?
Speaker 2:I mean I think that I mean it is one of those golden rules is like don't start doing something you don't want to do it, do it for the passion.
Speaker 2:And I think that whenever I've come into opportunities, I've I've not gone for the money first, I've gone for the idea and the concept and the thing I'm passionate about and I see how the money follows.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, many a time I would have put a project together or an event or something with no intention of it having any profitability, but to see where that then takes us At the moment. Recently I just launched the Global Committee, which is our community of all of our now yacht jet owners and clients across our portfolio of companies. I mean there's eight companies in the group now, but that was driven as an idea of giving back. But pulling those people together creates stronger bonds, stronger community and again, that's definitely up there with my experience side of the business and my intention is to create community. So I think those two words if you were to sum up what our group of companies do do, it's community and experiences for sure wow, yeah, I uh I suppose I'm kind of jumping into it in like a cliche way, but like you've lived so many experiences, you've probably enjoyed so much.
Speaker 1:What comes to mind is like oh, this was like. This was the experience I was most proud of, I enjoyed the most it's always got to be antarctica.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doing one of the first ever tourist trips to the center of Antarctica, flying there in a Russian Aleutian bomber plane, in a cargo hold, looking at the icebergs as the sun was rising over Antarctica, sitting in the bay, the glass bay underneath the aircraft, like just landing on the ice, like stepping off as if we were on another planet, like not seeing any greenery any way of, like understanding the landscape or measuring scale, like all dressed up as if you were kind of landing in outer space. Making sure you've got your goggles on. You'll go snow blind. Making sure you've got all your layers you can't get moisture, otherwise that freezes. So this whole experience of arriving there was like going to another planet, and to do that in my early 20s was definitely what inspired me to travel more and more, for sure and can I say, is that like a personal adventure you went on, or a commercial expedition that you you went on, but you also sold off as well?
Speaker 2:so this was, yeah, like one of my first and only jobs, um, organizing the gumball rally, which, of course, is probably quite a cool job as a kid. And again, again, that came just because I watched it on TV on Channel 4, so jackass doing it and all these things. And I was just like this is what I want to be part of. And there was one job there and I managed to find the people, find the contact, get to the place and got the job.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Ah, so that job was organizing this trip.
Speaker 2:Well, it was organizing all of the the gumball supercar rallies for the celebrities around the world. But they, they had this one spin-off which was, um, they wanted they had an opportunity to invite a load of clients this first ever trip to antarctica.
Speaker 1:So we took some clients and I went along as uh, hosting the clients, yeah so when I hear that, like so, you're like here, like this is one of the one, one of the only jobs I have, but what I kind of hear from that is that, like you really wanted your job to work for you. So it wasn't as if you were like doing what you needed to do to get by or anything like that. You saw, ah, if I get in with this organization, I get to host trips like this. That's exactly what I want to do. So even at that very early stage, you made sure whatever it is that you were doing was working for you first and foremost.
Speaker 2:I I mean prior to that I was working for an agency in London as my internship and that was with our client was Dunhill and of course, at the time, cigarette sponsorship was still rife and we wanted to. We sponsored every celebrity party in London Fashion Week, all the coolest events, whatever celebrity party you name it. I was the guy that went and sponsored all of those events and therefore I became the most invited guy to a celebrity party in London. In fact, that's what it wrote in the Metro newspaper, like it was like that I was the person you wanted at your party and so this became my circuit of going to celebrity parties every single night of the week and that's what then got me the opportunity at Gumball because I met someone through that. That's what then got me the opportunity at Gumball because I met someone through that. That's what then ended up me buying a nightclub.
Speaker 2:So what drove the opportunity is connections, and through my entire journey as an entrepreneur, it's always been based on community or my connections, my black book and if I haven't built those relationships and I think that so often people look to education in your sector, but the reality is, is that whatever sector you wanted to get into. If you knew all the biggest players in real estate, if you could connect those people together, if you know the biggest players in nightclubs, whatever it might be, you don't need to know anything about that industry, but you go. Well, if I can connect the two biggest players in real estate in this city, they probably want to do a deal. I can probably make some money out of the middle of that deal and all I'm doing is connecting people and so building that network is where the value comes from, not the knowledge.
Speaker 1:So the start of your career comes from this really great sponsorship opportunity where you're the person to know if you want a really good sponsorship in your party and so boom, your network takes off from that and then that helps get you into the next job. But everything essentially comes from this vast network and being able to really look after people in the process too. Yes, because I'd say people wanted to do that on Tardik Trip too. Yeah, absolutely, and provided you're at the edge of essentially what really interesting people want to be doing, you're the go-to person to know and their network expands out from there.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how it worked. Yeah, and I think that that was, but of course, you've got to be good at building the relationship too, and I understood what the consumer wanted at that point, and that was making sure that I could create that experience for them and speak to them in a way they understood.
Speaker 2:And there became a point. And of course as a junior in any industry you get nervous, you don't think you've got credibility, you don't think many things. But I think that because I'd taken these quite great opportunities early on going to every celebrity party in London, going to Antarctica all of a sudden when I walked into a room I had that air of confidence because I had had some pretty interesting discussion points so I wasn't scared to walk into a room full of billionaires because I could certainly go to them and be and tell them an interesting story and and they would be enamored by that story and want to know more. So I could compete with them on a level where they were interested in what I had to say ah yeah, because your work is fascinating.
Speaker 1:You deal in adventure, in experience, in fun, and people like, oh, that's so impulsive, like in terms of curiosity, people want to know about it. And not only can you tell stories about it, but you can also say hey, we're doing this trip next time. Do you want to come? We've got this adventure coming up. You should be a part of it. And also because it's not like unlimited tickets as well, there's an air of exclusivity, so people really want to look after you as well, to make sure that that's there for them as a possibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very much. So that's what grew on from the nightclubs and at the time my business partner this guy called Tony Fernandez, who a lot of people will know for owning AirAsia as well as QPR football team in the UK. He bought Caterham Car company at the time and then the Formula One team, and that then led to an opportunity for him to connect with me, with Bernie Eccleston. I did the deal with Bernie to then take Formula One rights from him to run events around the world with his brand, so that those are really those stepping stones through to then me launching GP management, our F1 business, and then GPM, the events that we then do for corporate incentives and adventures that we've now created, and that business has been running 16 years.
Speaker 1:Wow. And then most recently, like so obviously I see you charter yachts, so you're the go-to person if somebody wants to get one of these enormous yachts to go to you. But you're also doing space. Yes, yeah, like wow.
Speaker 2:So space we've had. We set that space experience up about five years ago and with the vision of where space would go to, to be one of the first travel agencies in that sector was a really important place for me to be, I think, and something that I was very passionate about. So I started zero-G training, the weightless training, which they call the vomit comet, the zero-G aircraft.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah when you go weightless, the NASA astronauts used to train the zero-g aircraft where you go weightless, that the NASA astronauts used to train. So I personally started with that experience and then we started to be the reseller for the UK for that product. That then grew on and again I had great advisors along the way a guy called Alex Tai who founded Virgin Galactic with Richard, and just the connections I then made. I then got to know Elon Musk and others through what we were doing and then we sent our first astronauts to space two and a half years ago with Blue Origin, which is Do you want me to ask you?
Speaker 1:that's them flying up, going into zero gravity, being able to see the world as well?
Speaker 2:God knows what it looks like from space, what they call the overview effect, the thing that changes your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my gosh. And all of these experiences, like what I love, is in a world where everybody's trying to reach the masses, you're like, no, I'm going for the super, super, super exclusive, the super luxe experience is actually where, well, there's no end to what possibilities are what people can do or want to do.
Speaker 2:Well, exactly, but it's never been about the super lux. It's been about the most incredible experiences on earth. Unfortunately, they do happen to be pricey at the same time, but the ability to access and experience something completely unique.
Speaker 1:Nice, actually, correction, it's like no, jamie, it's not about super luxury, because I can imagine parts of the Antarctic were quite the opposite, but it's just almost like money can't buy experiences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we've had moments of being shipwrecked on desert islands for 10 days with no food, water or shelter to survive. Now, for me, that was one of the greatest experiences I've ever done and it showed one of the values of that exact experience was that money had no relevance. That six of us on the island well, it didn't matter how rich you were, it wouldn't help you eat or drink or get food right. So, um the, it didn't matter if you were CEO of a huge fortune 500 company. None of those things mattered, because unless you could make fire or catch food, you're, you were irrelevant there.
Speaker 2:So the whole focus of that change and that's why I'm so intrigued by those types of experiences is because at that very moment, money is irrelevant. And I love looking to that way of life because it's so powerful in terms of how we can then think about our mindset. And when I left the island, it did give me that extra strength and the ability to make fire by rubbing sticks together. Not that I'm going to use that when I'm in Mayfair next having a meeting, but the reality is that having that underlying knowledge of your ability gives you such an air of confidence in what you do so. That's why those things are so powerful and, for me, one of my most important factors in everything you do. So that that's why those things are so powerful, and for me, one of my most important factors in everything I do are actually our top co is actually called the happiness company, and it's because that's what everything's about at the end of the day. It's about happiness, it's not about money yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I think that sometimes we forget why we're doing this and we think we're doing it for the money. We're doing it for happiness and when you start to reset and understand that the end goal in life is happiness and not money, it totally changes your goals and ambitions towards each of the things that you're looking at the money comes as a byproduct.
Speaker 1:But if you're solely and totally focused on money and first and foremost it corrupts and it'll actually probably contaminate that possibility for happiness. But if happiness is the core priority, changes everything very much. So I can imagine it was very interesting being in, let's say, a survival setting like that, where somebody who's so sorry not not you, perhaps one of your guests, somebody who's so used to their world revolving around them because of financial circumstance or celebrity circumstances, suddenly confronted by a social dynamic that turns on its head and it's like hey, do you know how to catch fish?
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:know how to light a fire, and that must be really, actually, really, really impacting for people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very much. I mean, like I said, I would say it's one of the most powerful experiences you can do and I'd recommend it to anyone. I mean as long with silent retreats and things like this. But the reality is when you're left to fend. That is when it really gets interesting, that is when shit hits the fan.
Speaker 1:So there's two kind of burning questions in in my mind and I'm kind of thinking that, like so I've been following you on social media and I've been like, oh my god, he's flying there and he's, oh, he's on a yacht with Logan Paul and he's like, wow, this life is incredible. I'm always interested in like it's very easy what people will project onto someone's life and they don't quite, perhaps, recognize the challenges or the struggles. And even as you've talked about your journey to now, it's like I did this and it led to this and led to next, but there's, there's no doubt, a lot of sacrifice, there's no doubt a lot of challenge. I'd love to ask you and and obviously feel free to go as deep or as shallow on this one as you like but, um, what are the edges or what are the challenges in building a career like this and leaning into a lifestyle like this, where you're moving so often? You're also, you know, you're the person in charge of so many other people's adventure, our happiness. How does that weigh on you?
Speaker 2:I I think I mean personally I love the travel and so that's never like some people like to be a homebody. I could live out of a suitcase 24 7, I think, and often do so. I'm passionate about adventure. Every day. I'm excited to wake up every morning like I struggle to sleep because I just want to get up and see the next day. You know so. So I'm definitely passionate about that.
Speaker 2:I think that, um, going against the grain can be a struggle, of course, like doing the things that everyone else says is the wrong thing to do. Um, and I think you find that as an entrepreneur, when you're pushing the boundaries is, if you're going to make um, you've got to take those big risks and you've got to do what everyone else tells you is the completely wrong move. So that can create a lot of pressure and my target for perfection and that goal is so hard to meet that I then kind of it can be challenging, especially with the teams and my ability in terms of leadership. It's challenging to manage the team. I've got a team across the UK, here in Indonesia, in Dubai and in Monaco.
Speaker 2:You are managing four time zones of staff and it's employing the right people. It's managing that process and managing humans and giving them the respect and support they deserve. Managing humans and giving them the respect and support they deserve and ultimately, I think that's probably one of my biggest challenges is in terms of appreciating the team I have that actually deliver this. It's really thanks to them. I'm just one person. The reality is is that all these companies exist and have grown because of the team that we've put together, and I'm so thankful for them, but I think that's probably where the biggest challenge lies in terms of giving them that respect, looking after them and managing them for sure yeah, yeah, because you're dealing with, like your clients are people with varying standards but high expectations, in settings that are out of their comfort zone, and to learn to hold people in that capacity and also, on your side, taking responsibility and employing people to hold people in that capacity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of nerves, there's a lot of pressure, I imagine, and I'd say you can find yourself quite upset when things aren't going right, but then also as well like huge praise when things go right, because what you're doing is new, it's innovative, it's different, it's there's no, let's say, playbook of no, exactly, and I think that, um, we go through a journey with that, and I mean, a lot of our side of the business is events, of course, or when it's a travel experience, we're chartering a yacht for someone.
Speaker 2:So I mean, we launched my ocean, um our yacht business, during covid actually, so that that is at a point where we had our f1 events and all our corporate incentives died, so we had nothing running in that side of the business.
Speaker 2:So this very challenging time, um, where we didn't know what we were going to do and how we were going to move forward, we then found the opportunity in it and I think that for me during that time it gave me such a great opportunity. We launched my ocean. In fact, that was one of my events managers in our F1 business came on board and she was the one she's now managing director and a shareholder in that business. So you can see that the opportunity and journey that's come on from some of my team and that that that moment where someone steps up and said I'm going to do this, then it transformed people's lives and that's a great story that I I love to kind of remember and think how, hopefully, that can grow the rest of our businesses in the future. But now we have um such a fast-growing kind of business in that sector um managing superyachts, chartering them and selling them.
Speaker 1:It's selling them too. Yes, very much so, oh my gosh. It's lovely because you often hear like there's a phrase if you want to be successful, look at what everybody else is doing and do the opposite. And at a time of contraction and COVID, when everybody was just literally trying to save their bread, you're like, no, actually there's a good opportunity here, which I can imagine. There was all these chartered yachts probably sitting around, not, yeah, in operation, and a perfect means for uh, to be, let's say, isolated or be covid, okay, wow yeah, so that was a great step for us.
Speaker 2:And then launching the jet business about a year after that as well, same kind of thing. Um, yeah, so jet charter and sales. But we were very fortunate to start at the top of that game. One of our first charters was on an Airbus A330 private jet. I mean this is something that's. I mean this is the long-haul wide-body aircraft, yeah, so that's almost like huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, this would be a 343 configuration if you're sat in economy. We're talking about taking 12 guests on board. It has cinema rooms, gyms, bedrooms. This is just, I mean, an incredible experience in the sky, oh my God. And that was actually at the time for a client looking to then acquire the aircraft himself, and we're talking the hundreds of millions of these types of assets. So that was really our baptism into it, and, in fact, my MD in that company worked for Airbus previously, so she had a lot of that knowledge as well, so that was really valuable.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, we started at the top of that game and we've been very lucky as well to build. Like I was saying about building communities. A lot of our communities come from tech and crypto, so a lot of our young. So we're doing it different as we're looking after the younger customers. So you've got these people in their 20s and 30s that have made a lot of wealth through crypto, but they want to stick together, they want to work with us, so we're, by volume, we're one of the largest brokers in the world for yacht and jet chartering crypto crypto.
Speaker 1:So, uh, that was really playing on my mind because I think I had this experience of um coming back from bali to ireland and I flew through south korea and going through the korean airport. I've never seen so many designer stores in my life and actually people that just look immaculate, beautiful, radiating out of wealth, and I was. I was kind of kind of blown up by the experience and I had it similarly in dubai where I was like wow, wow, for whatever I think is wealthy, let's say at home in Ireland or even in some capacities in London, when we go outside our world, it expands our perspective and, as you've been chatting, I've been like what are these customers like? And my imagination was like, are they like kings and queens and oil barons and this? But actually to hear you say no, there is perhaps some young 20s and 30s that have done fantastically well in crypto, that's blown my mind.
Speaker 2:I mean I think this is the thing to understand that the wealth in these societies and these communities, and it's not traditional wealth, the modern wealth and how that's evolved and there's so much to that and there's so much narrative about how these younger consumers live what they do. I mean we've got people buying yachts before they buy houses because that's the nowadays a mentality people don't know where they want to live. They, they don't want to feel fixed people. People have big families, buy a home somewhere. Like someone in your 20s, like who's a just sold out of their tech business is like I don't know where't know where I want to live, I'll rent a place but I'll buy a boat because that can go anywhere. Like I'll own 25 supercars but I won't buy a house. So again, it's those types of things and to give you an idea of that wealth, it's just on a scale that's unimaginable. I mean we had one of our clients at the peak of the last bull run was making near on 30 million dollars a day, so that the amount of money that you think you can understand and spend, it's just it's in a different league, realistically, so that there is. So what we're now catering for, is it a different type of wealth and a different, younger generation. That means there, and when we coined this new term, when we launched our our barley project, global base is around the.
Speaker 2:You had the digital nomad.
Speaker 2:Now we have the luxury nomad, and that really is the. The digital nomad was always just the guy that worked from a laptop that could be based anywhere, but now real world you're having ceos of large corporations with the ability to live nomadically, because maybe during COVID, that was a decision that people started to make to move away from their big offices. Now maybe they're just a hub and it gives them complete flexibility. We've seen people travel in larger groups now and we can see that trend through our travel companies. So when they're flying away they're larger aircraft because they're taking staff with them, they're taking family with them and then the people, the. The migration away from the oh, I've got my um summer house in the south of france or in marbella and I go there for three weeks in the summer has now changed to I'm living somewhere for three months and I'm bringing my staff with me yeah and so that's why we're seeing this huge trend and gold rush in places like bali, um, which is why we've launched our development here, and we actually launched as Bali Fields.
Speaker 2:We've subsequently rebranded because we've seen the opportunity as global base, and now that's now connected to our global committee community. What that is is we're now going to take this around the world and create these nomadic homes where people can invest and live and travel with it, which is how we see the future of travel for people.
Speaker 1:It makes a lot of sense. So these luxury nomads want their base in Bali, their base in Dubai, their base elsewhere. Yeah, I remember when I came out here four years ago, I met people that were like, oh my God, you're going the path of the hippie. And when I come over here, I was like, wait a second. All these hippies are millionaires and they're doing extraordinarily well.
Speaker 1:And then there was this kind of, let's say, crusty association with digital nomads that are there in their backpacks, going around and I was looking at my digital nomad friends all flying first class and bouncing around some of the nicest resorts and I was like, wait, there's something interesting.
Speaker 1:And I think it's funny how we, as humans, we create a bubble around our world and we instinctively think, well, this is the best way to be doing things. And there's a little judgment that goes on for anybody that perhaps is doing things a bit differently. And the nomadic culture has been, I think, looked down on quite a lot. And the remote working, it's like, oh, they're going through a journey when in actual fact, it's like, well, we actually live in this global world where we can have bases, we can work online, we're not tied geographically and actually, when people start getting really savvy, they realize all the tax advantages of it as well that it becomes like wait, no, there's this new, yeah, there's this whole new way of living that's opening up and bang. This is where you're invested into and at the top, top, top caliber of it, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that that's where you, that that's where I'm seeing this forefront of change and trends and hopefully we're riding the beginning of that wave.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, wow, can we? I'm, I'm really curious in like, patterns of success are like trends of success. And one thing, like at the start of this conversation, I was like oh, johnny, it's so interesting. You always made sure your career served you and it complimented you. It wasn't some chore that you had to do, it wasn't something that pulled you out of the life you wanted to live. It was something that really complimented.
Speaker 1:And and then you were so conscious of like, yeah, your, your, your network is so unbelievably valuable and, by the sounds of it, you you'd anchored into that for years and you rub shoulders with all sorts and all sorts of situations. And I'm, I'm really curious in terms of like, if someone was to ask you, you know these cliche quotes online that you see and it's like five traits of success. But, like, I'm curious when you think of like fundamentals for for success. So to kind of, um, yeah, I picked those up from you today, but I'm just wondering, do any more kind of pop into your mind of like, yeah, you know, when I'm working with somebody or when I'm trying to teach them, these are really, really important, I mean.
Speaker 2:I think something to touch on. It is definitely about that vision of dream big dream, exponentially bigger and I often speak to my team and say to them, like right, they're like, oh well, this project's got to turn over a million dollars on that event. And I'm like what if it had to turn over 10 million? And they're like, well, we'd have to change everything. We need a new site, we need a new plan for marketing, we'd need to scale up all these. I'm like go and do that, come back to me and maybe we'll make 2 million on the project. Right, like I would rather aim for a massive goal and fail.
Speaker 2:So I think that that's definitely something that's a priority for me and so often overlooked, and I view it as that like I tell my team, it's the magic secret tool. Like just imagine this event but 10x bigger, or this project or this deal, whatever it. Just imagine it 10 times bigger. And then everything you think about how you manage that project completely changes and that then I'm like great, now you can fail at the 10 times bigger idea because it will serve you far better than just trying to achieve that. When I look at my team and they send me forecasts and finances and they're like I think we can do two percent more this year. And I'm like, guys, we're looking at this wrong. And yeah, look, they'll criticise me back and go look, this is not possible and this doesn't work. And I'm like, but just think about it, let's just have a think.
Speaker 1:And so I really try and draw that into people no, no, the thing that was buzzing in my head was that I I misinterpreted the dream big and when I thought of the events that I was hosting or certain things that I was doing, it was always, yeah, more people. And what I kind of get the impression from you is you're like no, not more people, like bigger experience, bigger happiness, bigger buzz, but not necessarily more people. In actual fact, like when you're trying to cater to the masses, you have to vanilla things down a little bit, whereas I get the feeling that there was a really core difference in yourself is that you didn't think bigger was more people. You thought bigger was in bigger experience, bigger feelings, bigger emotions, bigger opportunities, but perhaps for a select few.
Speaker 1:That's a metric that very few people will follow. So many people are going for the masses.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that's driven by one of the very few things I took away from my master's degree in industrial design randomly um, but it. But you're always creating concepts, which concepts are completely in outer space. They don't make any sense and will never go into production. Whatever that concept phone concept, car, whatever it might be but it takes, but you take the little nuggets of the idea away. So all of a sudden we go right, well, the next experience we do for our customers we need to do on mars. Then all of a sudden, that will come back with some ideas been like well, why can't we take them somewhere a little bit more out there? Why don't we go to antarctica? Sounds, it feels like another planet. That's a good idea. Why don't we? Why don't we bring an astronaut with it? Why don't we bring someone who's been to space and bring them to host the trip in Antarctica?
Speaker 2:Like trying to create those experiences by taking the nugget of the craziest ideas you can. It's the magic tool, it's the secret tool. These are my little list of secret tools that you can give the team and go. It doesn't take much thinking, you just go. What's the craziest possible thing or the greatest thing you can possibly do, then let's refine that band to what's possible there's I love this.
Speaker 1:I feel I feel very, almost guilty. I'm like tony, I want to ask you 100 questions, but one of the things I I kind of um. I feel is you've most have developed an extraordinary kind of capacity to deal with um types that have high expectations. So you're talking celebrities, you're talking high net worth individuals, and there must be some unbelievable traits in terms of actually working with people like that. Well, and there's some very funny movie I'm forgetting the name about it, but there's a briefing to the staff and all the people come onto the boat and they're like anything, they want anything at all. You do, and I kind of get the impression you'd have a much smarter answer to the staff. And all the people come onto the boat and they're like anything, they want anything at all you do, and I kind of get the impression you'd have a much smarter answer to that, and it's probably quite contrary to that as well, would it be?
Speaker 2:Look, I mean that can be. I think we probably see that most in our yacht business because you could be dealing with a trip that's costing five or six million a week for a client at the top end. So, and yeah, it can be challenging. I think that there isn't a simple answer for that. I mean, again, on a relationship level with a customer. Sometimes I can be like guys, we're just having a bit of fun here, this is just a holiday, let's not stress about the Wagyu, right, like it's not the end of the world, like I just want you to be happy and chill out, so let's go and find something else that we don't need to helicopter in today. Like so, um, but also, the answer can never be no, yes, and I think the um, the answer is always yeah, yes, and there's and again this comes back to business, rather than just dealing with the consumers is and I've learned this so many times when someone's gone and gone. Oh, no, we can't do that and I'm like, but why? And if you just ask why, and you keep asking why, and the amount of times there's been events where they go, no, won't be allowed. Council have said no, the venue have said no, this is I'm like can I speak to them? Like what have they said no to Like what won't work here?
Speaker 2:And every time I've turned it around to a yes, because the answer is always yes. It might be a massive amount of resources thing, or it might be a massive amount of cost thing, but whatever the question is, the answer is always yes. Like again, it's about thinking like nothing's impossible. Like you want to move this house and you want to move it 300 miles in that direction. It's possible. It's going to cost you a lot of money and time and effort, but it's possible. And I think it's just trying to explain to people. The answer is yes. It's just, how many hurdles do you have to jump over to get there rather than going? The answer's no.
Speaker 1:That's so smart, because so many times, in terms of customer service or whatnot, there's assumptions made. There's assumptions with regards to how much you want something, there's assumptions with regards to your capacity for making it a possibility, and what I hear from you in terms of answering that question is you literally partner up with people and if there is a no, you're like, okay, they said no, but of course, there's a yes in here, so let's work on this together and you actually get to enjoy that journey.
Speaker 2:oh so exciting the turnarounds when, like, we've had situations where it's been like no, that this is, this is cancelled, this is not happening and I'm like what needs to happen for this to be a yes? And all of a sudden people start to go well, no, it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm like, but just tell me, just humor me, and the amount of times that that turns to a yes once you take the little stepping stones like like the yacht's got to travel 3 000 miles in the next flipping 10 days and it's got to be able to turn this around and do that. Or this venue wants to cancel because they don't. Whatever those things are.
Speaker 1:I've been through them and it's such a fun journey for the answer to end up being yes, and I love it, I love and it gives me a strength, that understanding and ability and confidence, the inner confidence for that yeah, because perhaps every single time you exceed an expectation, our capacity, you push beyond the boundary, your world expands, and I can actually see that if there's a big problem, a real big problem, you're probably the first person to call because you recognise that, no, no, life actually is full of possibilities. It's just oftentimes we don't even get to entertain them. Give ourselves the opportunity to entertain them. Yeah, very much Nice.
Speaker 2:And I mean. What was my other point? I mean, I think that they always say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I'd say that would be one of my other golden rules is your ability.
Speaker 2:If you're going to spend time with a particular type of person, if you're around a community of people that are always happy generally, you're going to be happy. If you're around a community, that's going to be sad, that will have the same effect. But if you're around a community of billionaires, there's a very high likelihood you're going to get drawn into that because there'll be a side deal, there'll be a discussion, There'll be a. Why don't we do this? I'll help you with that. Why don't we do this? Here's the connection Speak to that guy about your little tiny project because he might be interested, even though he's a billionaire too, because he's my mate, like. Whatever those discussions are, if you're in that environment, you just think bigger and the opportunities come. So level up and be around the people you aspire to be.
Speaker 1:That I'm keen to drill into. If I was to ask you like your five closest friends, would they kind of pop up to mind pretty quickly? Oh, potentially, yeah, I guess. Yeah, because I'd imagine your phone book is like pretty incredible, yeah, but when I hear like the five people you surround yourself with most, there's almost like a real conscious thought of well, actually, do you know what?
Speaker 1:If I realize the impact of that, I want to be in control of that to a degree, because what I find is I'm amazed that sometimes, if I'm a bit out of sorts, I'm living a little bit unconsciously. I'm amazed how sometimes perhaps friendships will appear that aren't actually really consciously thought out. Friendships, as in, people are kind of hanging out of me a little bit, or maybe I'm hanging out of someone and the connection isn't there, whereas I get the feeling that for someone to say, hey, look, you know you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with most, wealth is infectious, depression is infectious. You want to be really, really conscious of this. That's probably something that you're and again, building your career on community and connections. It's something probably you're very, very conscious of High standards for your friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, but I think that that's really the. It's such a valuable key and just another tool that doesn't cost you anything. Just takes that mental time and intelligence to go. This is really important, remember, because it it is really important, right?
Speaker 1:I loved what you showed, that you you specifically said this little project and surround yourself with people that are literally essentially almost warfing you, because it will put a whole different perspective on what you're up to, changes your stress capacity changes.
Speaker 2:I mean, my goal is to be the stupidest, dumbest guy in the room which is, which is a saying.
Speaker 1:That's said a lot, but so many people get off on being the smartest person in the room very much and and it's it's actually it's not nice being the the, but I'm excited about being in those types of rooms.
Speaker 2:Lots of people would be scared of that, yeah, and I think that that's the wrong way to look at it. So you've got to change your mindset, for sure.
Speaker 1:I, just going back to you, said you bounce out of bed in the morning. You said you were like I find it hard to even sleep and I'm curious, like it's a bit of a basic question, but the guy who's in charge of happiness? You feel happy.
Speaker 2:I think my goal is always to be happy. I think I'm happier than most, for sure, but do I have high expectations of my happiness? Yes, I mean, I've been to Bhutan, in the Himalayas, to meet the king and speak on happiness, a country that manages their entire structure of governance on happiness and they measure their GNH, their gross national happiness, rather than their GDP, their gross domestic product. But so it's really a. It's such a fascinating kind of world to try and always put happiness first. It's not always possible and, yeah, business is stressful. When I can't let my finger off the pulse and when you have several different companies doing different things every day, of course that can be high stress and just reminding and resetting that. But again, having the community, having the mindset, having all those things around you is a constant reminder of the direction and the way you want to go.
Speaker 1:But that sounds like it's the edge, the personal restraint, to perhaps buying personal downtime. Yeah, yeah, because when you've got so many things pulling you in, so many different angles and such excitement in your life as well it must be hard to be like I actually need to just sit down and read a book for a day.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah but fortunately I love a lot of it and that's what is. But I mean we we do a trip to iceland where we drive up volcanoes and over glaciers and we've done everything from take like the executive team of Samsung going up there up to then to celebrities and kind of like our entrepreneur clients and but we've ended up doing that trip two or three times a year for the last six, seven years and I pretty much go on almost every single one and I still do it because I enjoy it and lovely. You always find a new angle. In fact, last time I went um just earlier this year, I ended up um scuba diving in between the American and European tectonic plates yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:So there's always a new experience with something to get excited about, and I'm just lucky that I do what my passion is oh my god, yeah, yeah, I, I remember god coming to a, a kind of emotional, motivational event.
Speaker 1:They were like energy creates energy. So we have this concept that, like we'll get energy by, for example, like what I just said, sitting down and reading a book for the day that we'll recharge. But in actual fact, like most of the types that take it slow, I find the flow, energy and the adventurers that I meet, the types that are like meeting life head-on and trying different things all the time. Their energy is unbounded, and so many of them. I've actually heard that exactly what you've just shared of like you know, I go to sleep my head's racing and I but it's not as if I like, by the time I wake up I'm tired. No, I bounce out of bed because I'm excited about what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think, yes, some people, one of the phrases I hear quite a lot is like oh well, sometimes you'll have done everything there is to do. And I'm like, absolutely not. The more you do, the more you find to do. So it only drives me to go to every country in the world, climb every mountain, do all these things you know like, and it's pushing those boundaries and I've seen that. I think the the other one of those golden rules is about mindset, it's realizing, it's all the power of the mind and, like I said with Dream Big before, it's really just your mindset.
Speaker 2:But the reality is what surprised me, and I saw it take hold in an area that I'm not very skilled in, which is going from doing adventures but I was doing them not in a physical way. Going down to Antarctica, we had a chef every evening and champagne I mean, this wasn't physically strenuous and then I went to the Amazon and did these other things and then just doing a silly thing that I couldn't do, which is running. That wasn't a skill set of mine, it's something I didn't possess, I just didn't do it and didn't have any passion for it. And to see that the power of the mind. That then controlled that to where I am now on that journey from going on a treadmill going I've probably never run 2k before because there's no reason to. I mean, you do the 1500 meters at school on your worst day of the year, but other than that there wasn't a need to.
Speaker 2:So one day in the gym I kind of did the 2k because I was like let's do that, and then I was like I could do three, I could do four, I kind of got to five and I was like this is impossible, I end up doing 10k. I didn't sign myself up for a 10k run and that then led on to me now doing the seven summits. I'm climbing the highest peaks on the seven continents of the earth. Wow. So this journey that has taken me from going I couldn't run to now doing a huge physical challenge is created all because of the power of the mind and, like the first couple of summits, I've done it. It wasn't about the training, it was about the mindset and that confidence on summit day, which is challenging for sure, but it's just resetting and refocusing your mind and realizing what's possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you were sharing that, I was thinking that perhaps somebody's listening on and perhaps somebody's like, well, I was thinking that perhaps somebody's listening on and perhaps somebody's like, well, I can't go this adventure or that adventure. But what I'm hearing from you sharing that is that actually, we all have our own adventures, and it might be as simple as literally sitting on a treadmill, but there's an enormous amount of fulfillment when we start pushing our edges. And what's really interesting then is that when we do overcome an edge, what's on the other side and it's opened up a whole new layer of growth and excitement for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really has. I kind of have a cliche coaching question for you. Is that all right, of course, but I'm like I've got such an adventurous spirit here and also like such a zest and an energy for life. Do you ever sit with yourself and get curious of what is it about your upbringing, or perhaps the parenting that you received, that inspired this zest for life and does anything?
Speaker 2:come to mind. I mean, of course, something has to be there in the childhood, right? But, um, it's always a it's always an interesting question to look back and go. Yeah, what's inspired? And I think that, oh, my father was always out and about, we were cutting down trees or sailing, and he was used to race sailing cats and, like we do. There's loads of things that we would, that my father was always out and about, we were cutting down trees or sailing and he used to race sailing cats. There's loads of things that we would do at Adventurous.
Speaker 2:But from a childhood perspective, I mean, again, my mother used to be an air stewardess with British Airways and she was telling me that's when it was glamorous. She was in first class, flying away for a week in Honolulu and the guests that she flew with would stay like in the same holiday resort, you know. So like back kind of. Then I guess travel was more glamorous, um, but I think that I don't know how much changed my childhood and what came from that, and my father had his own business, the aspirations there, um, so it's very hard for me to place. I would love to deep dive into that more for sure.
Speaker 1:There's one question, sorry, one point that's so poignant for me is your attitude with regards to no's, and I'm like, ah, it feels like that's like an anchoring attitude that perhaps is fostered in you of like no, there's like yes, somebody might say no, but there's actually, there is always a way, and there's a lovely trait in that. I was just curious. Perhaps did that come up where perhaps somebody showed you earlier on that like hey, you don't. You might hear a no, but that doesn't necessarily mean no and in actual fact there's a way through it, and oftentimes the way through it might be all the more fun.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think what I've pinpointed through my career and through my education was finding those mentors. And I think those are the ones that helped me. I think that my professor and my undergraduate, roberto Franquali Again, if you can remember what, a name Roberto Franquali. Roberto Franquali Again, if you can remember the.
Speaker 1:What a name, Roberto Franquali.
Speaker 2:He was the design director at IDEO, which is one of the most important product design companies in the world, and he took me from being a C student to an A student to get a first class honours when I graduated my undergraduate, just because he told me what was possible and explained that to me. And then, um, and then the lady that took me on, uh, tammy Smulders I'll give you the names because that's the important bit is remember, if you, if they were that important, then, tammy, um, she took me on for that project that we were working on with Dunhill and gave me that opportunity and then of course, tony Fernandez, being alongside someone that had billion dollar businesses around the world with airlines and Formula One teams.
Speaker 2:So having those mentors is definitely a key part of showing me nothing's impossible.
Speaker 1:No for an answer. I have to say I love like as I'm hearing you. I'm actually taking huge inspiration from that, because I do appreciate that there are so many people that live within the confines of what they're told to, and then there's those that look at things a different way and expand our worlds and expand our horizons, and I think so much of what you're sharing is exactly that.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think what I would do to start that process for anyone is go find something that someone said no to that you think you can overturn. And once you overturn one thing, you'll realize that you can overturn everything. So start with a small challenge that someone said no to and see what it takes to turn that no into a yes. Once you've done it, once it will just cascade from there on Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's yeah, cascade from there on Thank you. I think there's huge fulfillment in pushing the boundaries, pushing the edges and overcoming a no. I think it's a really important, formative part of everybody's lives to realize that we can go beyond what we're told. Two last questions for you. Go on If you don't mind. The first one is I'm curious If I was a mate of yours and I pick up the phone and I'm like Johnny, I'm depressed, you're the man of happiness, but I'm like, I'm out of sorts here, and I think so many people are feeling out of sorts. I'm curious, what would you say?
Speaker 2:And not necessarily to the masses, but to a friend. I think that understanding what's affecting them deep inside and what that relates to it's so difficult to. I always want to take people out of their comfort zone as soon as I can go. Come on, let's step out of the comfort zone.
Speaker 2:Let's get away from all these things that you think are your problem. And if you reframe that and again, it's like that kind of idea of the desert island Does that problem still exist if you're on a desert island? If it doesn't, then you could survive there, so you're good. So I think it's taking people outside of what they think their comfort zone is and just going right. Can we just do that for a little session, whether mentally or physically? That would be an important step for me, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they say nothing shapes your environment. The second one is, like the company you keep and I think so many of us do live within our comfort zone, which is what you've spoken over and over to the opposite, you're expanding, you're pushing out, and I'm a firm believer that if we live within our comfort zone, our world shrinks and that can start to squeeze on us, hence the depressing effect. But if we can push beyond that I love this phrase, zone of proximal development Point, just beyond our comfort zone, where we're growing and we're expanding, we can't necessarily do it on our own, we need a bit of a hand, but that's when we really thrive. And I get the feeling that you're living in that point. And so to hear that your, your medicine be essentially look at the environment, uh, change the environment and actually push people out beyond the comfort zone, there's, there's real medicine in that I think so and I I think like what you said is it's not always a perfect world.
Speaker 2:So sometimes I dip down below that and you might find yourself six months in and I'm working in the business, not on it, and all of a sudden you start to go hang on, I haven't thought about scale, I haven't thought about that vision, I haven't been stepping out, I've just been looking at spreadsheets and complaining about things. So it does happen for sure. So you've always got to remind yourself.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, I think that that, coming back to checking on yourself, is a hell of a practice. I it's a cliche line working in the business, not on the business, but the amount of times I think, oh no, no, I'm working on it, only to realise, oh no, I'm right back in the middle of it and making a mess.
Speaker 1:My parting question I've been curious just with all the stuff that you've done, when you reflect, if you ever do have the time to slow down and check back in with yourself, what do you take the most pride from? I guess slow down and check back in with yourself uh, what do you take the most pride from?
Speaker 2:I I guess I, and I always say the team, and it's never just me, because it's what they've achieved as well. But it's like having certain things that you can say you're the best in the world and everyone can be the best in the world at something.
Speaker 2:It'd be very narrow. We can be the best coffee shop on this corner, in this street, in this town, but you're the best coffee shop there is there, um, and your competition might be one or two, but you're the best in the world at that. And so to to be the best in the world at something and then to keep expanding on that. So if we're the best in the world, it experiences on superyachts, at formula one races narrow, but no one else is doing it better.
Speaker 2:And so to have a few of those pools and we gradually expand that to then be better at this, better at that. So I think that having those little pockets of things that we're the best in the world at that everyone can have, and I think that everyone should take that away and just try and grow the pocket, but know that you're the one, because then when you have that discussion with someone you go we're the best in the world at this.
Speaker 1:And they go wow, what's that? Is there a particular one that pops up into your mind? A favor out of all of them.
Speaker 2:I mean, ultimately it's got to be around creating unique experiences. I don't think there's anyone that delivers it the same level we do when you're talking about adventures and trips like that, and certainly when we've been doing that on a corporate scale. No one's taking airbus and samsung on trips like we do.
Speaker 1:I think so I feel so aligned with your soul as well adventure gets to literally do it en masse, that's great, yeah, very much.
Speaker 2:And then I'm proud of the community we've built, like for me that's um really special. I think that people and customers have come to us who now been booking trips or coming with us for seven or eight years or longer and they've set up companies. They've made best friends and I've been on to weddings and to parties and to birthdays where half the people in there are a part of our community, part of of our customer base, because that's where they made the friends, through our customer base.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And people. I can remember someone set up three different companies just off the back of some trips they've done with us, with different people that they've worked with, and I think that that's been for me. So our community continues to grow and grow and as much as it isn't formalized into to something, I like to see the organicness of what's been built through our customer base.
Speaker 1:that that makes me proud, that makes so much sense because, if you go on one of these worldly experiences, the likes of which you know just isn't the norm, you go through a journey in a process and and for those that you go through that together with, there's a bond, there's a connection, there's a, there's a safety and there's a security in that, that no doubt then populates into other projects yeah, I mean we actually, as part of our proposals, when we have to go to the board to tell them why they should take their customers on a trip to a volcano and not to a football match, we sell that in and we have the metrics on all of those types of experiences and why that's so much more important, that bonding that with your customer, with your employees, with your team.
Speaker 1:So, um, yes, it's a clear metric and something that everyone should strive to go and do, something that takes them outside their comfort zone with someone they want to get closer with yeah, I know I keep saying last question, but this is the one that's popping into my mind, and that is that Would it be bold enough to say that actually, for somebody that invests in a trip like that, it probably pays for itself, based on that exact note that you just shared there?
Speaker 2:100%, I mean. I think, try it and find out, but for me that it's, it's paid off beyond measure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a couple of high ticket, let's say, uh, retreats that I've gone into and I've walked away with business to the tune of several fold, and there's a mentor that I have of mine and, uh, over covid, I was like you should stay in this resort, just come, it'll cost you a fortune, but it'll pay for itself, and it did. I mean, I I've always found that that, in actual fact, we think some things might be expensive when, in actual fact, they're some of the best investments you can make. I think it's hard to put it in a spreadsheet.
Speaker 2:But if you really went back to analyze it, I think the answer is yes okay.
Speaker 1:So for somebody listening on and they're like I want to go on one of these experiences or I'd love to charter a yacht, uh, best way to connect with you is our follow.
Speaker 2:You is instagram, instagram is where I'm most popular, so find me there at johnny dodge, lovely, lovely johnny, thank you so much a real pleasure, thank you.