Setting Sail: Joe Zammataro's Journey from Marine Biology to Yacht Brokerage

[00:00:02] But entrepreneurs have to have a lot of guts. You know, they have to have an awful lot of courage And it's not for everybody And sometimes you get kicked in the teeth, you know

[00:00:14] Sometimes you have clients that disappoint you or you know people in your organization that disappoint you But you got to let go of that victim stuff You know that that's just that's a hole that you just you know, stop digging put down the shovel and crawl out

[00:00:34] Welcome to the in factor conversations with entrepreneurs who started stumbled and succeeded Today, I'm excited to welcome Joe Zammataros to a conversation with me about his experience Coming from a marine biology major at the University of Tampa to the founder of preferred yachts here in Tampa Bay, Florida

[00:00:55] Joe thank you for joining me today. Thank you for the invitation Yeah, so I'm really excited to have a conversation with you One of our students at the University actually I think worked for you Renee little and Connected us. So it's always fun when that happens

[00:01:17] Well, you're putting out some really talented students at the University of Tampa I'd like to include myself in that It was actually 50 years ago this month that I graduated from the University of Tampa it went by way quicker than I ever imagined

[00:01:34] Well, I love hearing that and I've really enjoyed being at the university myself for a number of years So let's go back and let's let's learn a little bit more about you. I always like to start with

[00:01:46] Just a quick overview of what you do now. Tell us about preferred yachts. What's what's that all about? Well 40 years ago, I started this little company in downtown st. Pete selling boats It was

[00:02:02] Something that I never thought I'd be doing once when I was at the University of Tampa I want to be another Jacques Cousteau and save the planet and save the whales and you know I did a research project on the deadly sand dollars very very dangerous sand dollars

[00:02:19] But it was it's been an interesting journey My company which is located downtown st. Pete and we specialize in selling pre-owned boats I was in the boat building business for a long time and we were just In Turkey a few weeks ago

[00:02:38] For the second time looking at some boat manufacturers there. So Maybe we'll get back into boat building business again on some level maybe not which we'll see Maybe not. We'll just have to wait to see well that that's really exciting as you know

[00:02:53] I'm a boater and love boating and also in the boating industry with some of the side work I do as a board member at marine max and I know they've been around

[00:03:05] That company's been around about the same time as it well you probably started before they they did I mean Bill McGill was probably a contemporary of yours The the founder of marine max so it's a small world I guess is the point

[00:03:20] Yeah, but I wouldn't want to paint it though Yeah, Bill has really done an amazing job and it's become one of the largest dealers on the on the plant in the planet My business is a little boutique business

[00:03:34] In that sleepy st. Pete, but we do sell boats, you know around the country around the world Well, of course and you know that there's room for both I think so it's a it's a it's a really fun industry, but let's back up

[00:03:46] I always like to try to find out how our entrepreneurs Made it to the point where they are today and how they found their opportunities. So You I'm guessing may have come from somewhere outside of Tampa Bay when you came to the University of Florida

[00:04:05] Maybe not that we get a lot of students from outside of the Tampa Could you tell us how you found your way to Tampa and the University of Tampa? Well, my high school sweetheart Went to the University of Tampa

[00:04:18] We were from Cleveland. I went to John Carroll University my freshman year of college came down here spring break to see my High school sweetheart and fell in love. I was already in love with her by fellow And you know it is it's been a love affair

[00:04:36] Ever since not so much with her anymore, but with Florida with Florida. Yes, I love it here I love the weather if you're a boater. This is a 12 month out of the year adventure up in Ohio Lake Erie, you know, you have about three four months, but

[00:04:53] Maybe five if you're really adventurous But if it's 40 degrees and blowing 40 knots you're going out because you have such a limited season here You don't like the weather wait until tomorrow. It's that nice

[00:05:05] Well, you know interesting parallel there when I was interviewing to come to the University of Tampa I also interviewed at John Carroll and my husband and I are voters and we looked at the difference of boating and

[00:05:20] There wasn't much of a comparison really although there's some great boating up there but it's it's limited to certain times of the year and and It's not the water is not quite as warm

[00:05:31] So I understand I'm guessing you changed your major when you came here because you're studied marine biology Did you also have that major at John Carroll? Oh heck no but I wanted to be a football coach and teach history When I came down to Florida

[00:05:49] I decided to change my major to art then decided to change it to philosophy But not quite sure what you do with a philosophy major And then I dove on a reef with the University of Tampa scuba diving club Diving on that reef was like a spiritual experience

[00:06:09] I hadn't seen anything like that diving in the quarries of Ohio or you know the lakes if you find a You know a sunken car or something. That was like an aha moment

[00:06:21] Diving on a reef it was so spectacular. So beautiful. I actually had tears in my eyes so and that wasn't until probably towards the end of my Sophomore year at the University of Tampa, so changing my major

[00:06:36] Was really a challenge because you know all the lab classes all the I had a minor in chemistry. So really worked hard and You know little did I know that when I got that degree I Couldn't find a job. Well actually had five interviews with SeaWorld and

[00:06:57] I thought I had a pretty good shot at getting that job at SeaWorld and I make a long story short I went back up to Ohio after graduation and After being up there a couple of weeks

[00:07:08] I called up my roommates and that was a four cell phones and have my phone number on the refrigerator that place that we shared and I Checked in hey, do you guys hear anything from I get any phone calls and I one roommate said yeah

[00:07:25] See what I'll call they go. Oh my god. What did they say? He said well Harold got the call So well, let me talk to Harold. Well Harold went to go see his family in Pompano I said when did

[00:07:37] When did he leave he said about a week ago Well They didn't call once they called twice but he my roommate was Indulged in some herbal Mmm stuff therapy Yeah, yeah therapy I needed therapy after this because I didn't find out until it was too late

[00:08:01] Then one of my dear dear friends one of my best friends at the University of Tampa heard me talking about SeaWorld so much that he just thought he would drive by and put his application in and You know, he got the job so

[00:08:15] Life has these little twists and turns and not exactly what I expected but We're still friends. Actually, I speak to them on a pretty regular basis he still lives in well, he lives in Orlando and also in West Palm Beach and

[00:08:32] Yeah, when I call him my brother took a little while for us to kind of reconnect pass that Yeah Well, so you didn't go to work for SeaWorld so what did you do after you graduated well I sold drugs

[00:08:48] legal drugs, I went to work for a pharmaceutical company. I was trying to make some money to go to grad school and This pharmaceutical company I worked for him for five and a half years it was a career I never

[00:09:04] Anticipated but while I was taking while I was doing this I took a Dale Carnegie sales training class some of my buddies that were in the Pharmaceutical business were also taking it. I didn't want to turn into happy Sam to use car man

[00:09:18] But you know the company was gonna pay for it. My buddies were gonna take it I thought we'd you know, go have a beer afterwards It was probably one of the very best classes I've ever taken in my life

[00:09:30] It was I can't remember was a six or twelve week class once a week the things I learned there has changed my life Selling is not a you know four-letter word. There's actually a lot of four letters in it, but it taught me that

[00:09:46] You know communicating in in a way that can be Convincing doesn't mean they have to make somebody do something They don't want to do it's being able to convey ideas whether it's Asking somebody out on a date selling a boat a car

[00:10:03] Selling an idea. There's a certain psychological process people go through Well, I was very skeptical and he started taking the class But I went from kind of having my arms crossed sitting there kind of waiting. Okay can't wait till we can go have a beer and

[00:10:20] After the first class you've let you learn that first day. You'll start using the next day Well, okay, you have to come back the next class and tell them how you did So after a couple of two three classes

[00:10:34] I went from this tight posture to you know leaning forward like I couldn't wait to you know find out what the next next step was and That class you know the Dale Carnegie sales training program. It really changed my life because I within

[00:10:53] About a year and a half of being a pharmaceutical rep it became salesman of the year When I decided to go into the boat business What I learned in communicating it I call communication skills rather than selling skills Really allowed me to you know, you know communicate

[00:11:15] So, you know be somewhat successful at selling boats but that was now I jump a step after five and a half years of being in the pharmaceutical business I bought a couple of boats and I looked at these guys selling boats and I

[00:11:33] think we're making money selling boats and their techniques seem to be selling me what they had instead of finding out what I wanted and after a couple of experience doing that and Being the scientist that I was trained at the University of Tampa

[00:11:47] I did research projects and how people built boats and comparing them. So I made an informed decision and I got to the point where I thought I may have known more about

[00:11:57] The boats that were out there. There were you know ones I was considering then the people selling them and Then they decided they made a living doing that let me give it a shot and You know, it was

[00:12:12] But been in the business pretty much ever since we're well except for one other incident We'll talk about them a little later, but life is a journey. It's not a destination That's right. That's right. So there's several things in there

[00:12:25] I think I'd love to pull out and kind of highlight one the importance of sales and communication especially I think for any entrepreneur and It's one of the one of the skill sets. I think You know we encourage at the University

[00:12:41] We encourage everybody to to take a sales class or at least learn some skills around selling Because you're constantly selling right whether you're raising money Or trying to get it your next customer or trying to even convince the best employee to come and work for you

[00:12:59] Exactly, and I think too in my business. I think it takes three things to be successful three You have to have some communication skills, you know how we can convey information effectively

[00:13:13] You have to have some product knowledge, you know, know a little bit about what you're talking about and you have to be enthusiastic Enthusiastic you can't be you can't convey Enthusiasm unless you have it yourself You can't get somebody enthusiastic unless you convey that enthusiasm

[00:13:31] And I've seen people successful in a lot of different careers that really knew nothing can't even communicate very well But their enthusiasm makes you enthusiastic and it's contagious Right. Oh, I think enthusiasm is an essential agreement

[00:13:49] Essential ingredient of just about anything you do and I take enthusiasm to also mean passion and I think you know living a passionate life You know boating, you know family, you know living a life of passion is is living life

[00:14:06] To be you know, not having passion is kind of like be an E or well. Thanks for noticing me You know, I I think anybody that wants to be successful Find something you can be passionate about and I think that's one of the key ingredients to you know

[00:14:25] Doing whatever it is that you choose to do. Yeah, and it's a lot of hard work to be successful anywhere really And I think passion make makes that easier right? Especially if you want to be an entrepreneur

[00:14:37] there's a lot of it takes a lot of effort and time and and persistence and Passion is one of the things that gets you over the hump when you have those failures and challenges along the way which everybody has success

[00:14:54] You know, the other thing that really struck me about your story is research and Finding your opportunity in in research some of it was personal you had your own issues and challenges With your own journey which a lot of people I think start businesses out of

[00:15:13] Seeing a problem that they experience themselves, but you became an expert in the field and You were able then to see opportunity. So how do you approach research now? Do you still focus? I mean, are you still somebody that

[00:15:29] digs in and tries to learn as much as you can about your customers or about New boats or you said you were just over in Turkey and I know we talked about that Recently and you had a great experience there

[00:15:42] So how do you approach research and how do you think about it as a part of everything else that you have to do? We got to be inquisitive I think reading, you know researching I think that's essential for any entrepreneur when you stop learning

[00:15:59] It's like somebody treading water in the middle of Tampa Bay You can tread water for so long but if you don't find a direction and start swimming at that direction eventually going to drown and

[00:16:11] And I I think learning is you know is stroking towards a shore that you know was success I think you know learning about chat GPT when I learned about that a little over a year ago

[00:16:24] I thought that was a mindblower. I mean, I had a hard time sleeping that night because I think I'm probably the weakest link. I have two people right now that have PhDs two people have master's degrees

[00:16:35] I've got you know some folks that I work with that have been in the business for for decades I have some people that are relatively young and as I'm I think what I learned in Dale Carnegie and I pass that along to

[00:16:50] The people that work with me so we do a lot of training So learning you know like chat GPT and sharing that with others to see the potential of the future That that holds is both. You know incredible and scary But we've applied it to our business

[00:17:06] So I you learn about that there's you know new products and new techniques on how to You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know

[00:17:18] There's you know new products and new techniques on how to build those there's Right now I'm investigating, you know CRM's to better manage our data I I think any entrepreneur once they stop learning, you know, they're gonna start drowning

[00:17:38] You know the guys that are in competition with you are gonna not only catch up to you They're going to pass you so if you don't have the passion to learn to keep moving forward to read to explore to travel I

[00:17:53] Think you're missing some of the greater aspects of life and a business business itself Don't necessarily have to reinvent the wheel But if you see somebody that is doing something in another industry That you can you know, maybe modify and apply it to your own business is

[00:18:09] I think imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I don't know if I've ever come up with any you know Innovative ideas myself, but I've seen what other people have done and maybe modified it and apply it to my business

[00:18:21] Well, that's kind of research. That's that's you know, kind of getting the brain cells, you know Kind of the synapses, you know synapsing and coming up with something that might work they don't always work but just like a sailboat a

[00:18:38] Lot of times where I go sailing the direction I want to go is the way the winds go and sailboats don't go that way. So you have to act

[00:18:44] And when you attack that means you got to you know, keep adjusting your course and hopefully you get to the destination so every time you do something you learn and

[00:18:54] I look at life as a schoolhouse where we learn rather than a person or we suffer so it's attitude You know what? What makes you tick? Are you a You know victim that's something happens to you or does it happen for you?

[00:19:09] I can look at some of the things that happened to me and I go. Oh, what was me? So what was there to learn from that, you know step back and get out of your ego and yourself hurt Because I don't think anything really happens to you

[00:19:23] To take a positive attitude and look at it Okay, what did that really mean? Well, there was a lesson in that Sometimes the lessons are very obvious sometimes or you know not

[00:19:34] Sometimes you never understand what the lesson is and then some ladies it may come to you somewhere down the road But that's also part of the learning experience and for entrepreneurs It's really really important to look at what happens and what can be

[00:19:49] Garnered from it to make your your company better make you better. Maybe make the people around you better Yeah, I love that you mentioned curiosity first of all because I think Richard Sir Branson said that was the one characteristic He recognized in entrepreneurs that sort of differentiated them

[00:20:09] So I love that you mentioned curiosity and I think it's really interesting that you have a science background When I talk to my students about and others who are interested in starting businesses

[00:20:21] I tell them that it's like the scientific methodology process that they learned in their science classes You know, you've got a hypothesis and you're constantly testing it and when you stop That's when you're in trouble. And I think that's something you pointed out, you know

[00:20:37] And and I am very impressed Joe that you're using Chet GPT and AI Other maybe other forms of AI in your business and I'd love to learn a little bit more about that. So

[00:20:50] What is what is AI doing for you and your company right now? And how are you integrating it? Well in our listings a listing is when you sell a boat we get a listing on a boat

[00:21:03] How do you present it? How do you make this list of equipment that's on a boat? You know, we know how old it is who built it what equipments on it

[00:21:13] People don't buy from you know facts. You know, the boat is so long. It's you know got this big of an engine It's got this many hours, you know People buy what the benefit is so in coming up with what what makes this boat come alive

[00:21:30] Chat GPT has really been helpful a lot of people in Writing is not one of their greatest gifts. I'm probably an average writer by an average student but chat GPT helps me to You know create, you know

[00:21:51] Some marketing pieces that it gives me a framework that I can work with and It makes my presentations that much more effective and it does it in a fraction of the time if I did it all by myself It's it's kind of like Google on steroids and it's

[00:22:11] It forms some really great outlines some of the copy. Yeah, it does is really excellent But it even when I was trying to do you know, like an ad or are doing something for YouTube it creates

[00:22:24] You know the whole script I sit there and it does it in the nanosecond And I just sit there and shake my head because I don't know if I could have ever created something like that

[00:22:35] So I think it's a valuable tool but it also could be a crutch you still have to you know put your own personality in it and You know the information that it comes up with is exquisite and powerful and it helps make the listings that I create

[00:22:51] Come alive. They're they're more than just a list of equipment There's some background to it. I usually call it broker notes So it's you know information that I would share that from my experience and something I may have picked up through chat GPT

[00:23:05] That you know help somebody really appreciate that that boat and maybe pick up the phone and give me a call or Email me or make some sort of contact you have to solicit a response. So any marketing piece has to

[00:23:19] Create something that you know generates enthusiasm enough for somebody to respond Then chat GPT has been a very very effective, you know tool and helping to promote that Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting because AI has really that Generative AI has really changed the way we teach as well

[00:23:40] We have to rethink The way we challenge students and it's it is pretty obvious when when a student or someone else uses chat GPT Or other forms of AI directly without putting their own Ideas thoughts personality into it. It's it's pretty generic and and can be even off-putting

[00:24:03] So it's learning how to use it and I'm sure that's something you're working on with your team You know is how to use it effectively it's like every technology you've been doing this I think you said 40 years and

[00:24:17] That's a lot. There's a lot of staying power in that and I'm I'm really interested in What you've seen some of the biggest Changes things, you know businesses tend to go through evolutionary growth and then revolutionary growth and

[00:24:35] Where they change dramatically, so I'm very curious as you look back at these Years, how has your business grown and what have been some of those? Flexion points that you know have sort of been transformative

[00:24:49] Like we're seeing with AI for example. Well the way I view my business is we're in the people business You know and I think any entrepreneur that misses that point that they are in the people business First you're only as good as the people you surround yourself

[00:25:07] I try to find people that are entrepreneurs themselves that Don't know what that is I try to find entrepreneurs because everybody that's a yacht broker is a has to be an entrepreneur It's their business underneath my business. So I guess they're entrepreneurs You've got to find people that

[00:25:31] You've got to find people that You know like people But we're also in the information business When I first started my company 40 years ago There weren't computers

[00:25:45] Everything was done through the mail you had to get information from other brokers around the country if you're part of the good old Boy network and you would get a letter once a month of other boats that were for sale and you put them in notebooks

[00:25:57] So we have notebooks on sailboats notebooks on power boats Sport fishing boats and so on so when somebody would come in you You know find out what they're interested in you take down this notebook And it would have their listing from a broker say in the Chesapeake

[00:26:13] But you would put your letterhead over their letterhead and you have a little code in the back So you knew where you know who had the listing? well Back in the early 80s. I thought that was kind of a archaic way to do it so I

[00:26:31] Tried to hire programmers to program some sort of You know database to keep track of all this stuff And it was hard to train somebody teach somebody the business so I wound up learning a software program called our base and

[00:26:48] Preferred yachts was actually the first completely computerized yacht broker yacht brokerage when I started in Yeah, 1984 and that was with DOS and green screens and you know it was Pretty you know it was a different world then wasn't it? I remember it

[00:27:06] Oh, I spent a King's ransom trying to have people produce something and now you can buy a program for a hundred bucks, but That was kind of revolutionary in the business and and I teamed up with a company and it became the first MLS system

[00:27:23] in the business and then You know I actually went around the country promoting it to other brokers because the more people on the network The more information that was out there and what we're doing is we're selling information So that was pretty revolutionary now. There's

[00:27:38] Everybody has a multiple listing service in the boat business What's happening right now is the first company that the MLS got greedy and got really expensive and everybody kind of? You know left them and went to this other company now over the past year this company

[00:27:56] That's the current 800 pound gorilla in the multiple listing services for that boats that are for sale around the world Has gotten greedy and now there's another company that I'm working with you know very Heavily to try to get brokers out of that guy into this new system

[00:28:12] Which is owned by the yacht brokers company, so we think as a as the industry has grown I think technology has really you know come to the forefront where we have to be more effective more efficient in In in handle our clients better

[00:28:28] So I think the advent of computers really helped to revolutionize the you know the yacht business So we're in the people business. We're in the yacht business. We're in the The dream business, you know

[00:28:42] Our tagline for preferred yachts is dream makers and yacht brokers and it's in that order because we Nobody needs a boat except a drowning man So we work under the pretense that nobody really needs a boat

[00:28:55] There's so much psychology in the thought process somebody has to do something as crazy as buying a boat It doesn't make any financial sense It's what you're buying is probably not going to be worth what you paid for five years from now

[00:29:11] But if somebody you buy a boat from your heart not from your head So for us a lot of times. It's the our we built this floating office that we work out of in downtown st. Pete and

[00:29:27] People call it a yacht brokerage. I call it our little ministry So when somebody comes into the office they think we're gonna talk about boats We do talk about boats, but it's about life as well It's about if this is your dream and you could afford it

[00:29:43] Why don't you do it and a lot of times they talk themselves out of it because if you read the newspaper watch TV It's I oh way. Oh, it's off the work. I go and then you die

[00:29:53] So you got to do something in life that's you're passionate about if it's not boats Maybe it's you know fishing or sewing or quilting or artwork or gardening or something Otherwise, what do you hear? Otherwise

[00:30:08] What are you here for? I don't think we were put here to suffer so when I saw a plaque once when I was in St. Lucia and the plaque said God doesn't take away from there a lot of time on earth that time spent while sailing

[00:30:23] And I should have bought that plaque because I thought no I didn't want to pack it I was going down to Grenada and I figured I'd see it again And I'm sure they have that plaque that would it'll say that time spent while golfing or fishing

[00:30:35] But I think when you have something that That creates that positive energy within your body. I think you live longer So for clients to come in thinking they're just coming here to you know, well tell me about that potent

[00:30:49] It's a lot more than that. So we're in the people business. We're in the information business We're in the marriage counseling business. We're in the finance business. We're in the insurance business Yes, and oh, yeah, we sell boats

[00:31:02] I think you know if there's a lot more involved than just You know matching a client with a boat and you build these long-term relationships with clients It's you know when you could turn your clients into friends

[00:31:18] Right now I'm working with one one client I'm on it my 14th boat with him I had a client last year that I sold them about 13 years ago. They sailed it, you know to the Caribbean all every year except during hurricane season they go back to Colorado and

[00:31:38] 13 years later, they brought the boat back to me to sell It's it's very very gratifying. I mean, so I think if you do something that you're passionate about the money will come You know, I think too often we focus on the money and the ROI and forget about

[00:31:56] You know what it is that we really do. What is it? What's our purpose? I think to be successful you have to have goals as an entrepreneur or In any type of career having a goal is extremely essential But then you have to have a purpose

[00:32:12] You know a passion and a plan Without that you're just kind of like a boat without a rudder. You're just kind of wandering around and for entrepreneurs I think we are I never thought he'd be an entrepreneur. This is total by accident

[00:32:29] There's one of my college excuse me one of my high school Classmates I saw on Facebook many years ago he was living in Italy and We weren't that close in high school, but you know, I wrote home. Well, you know Doug

[00:32:48] what he'd been doing the past 40 some odd years and Doug was a A forest ranger in Oregon and when he retired he got a huge percentage of his salary as a pension and He's living in Italy and I'm going I

[00:33:05] Might have been better off being a postman because I mean, I don't have a pension You know, I got to keep the clock going and keep the motor running So there's a lot of merit to people that aren't entrepreneurs that you know

[00:33:20] You don't have to risk it all. I think we're a little bit like thrill seekers because sometimes we're on the edge But entrepreneurs have to have a lot of guts, you know, they have to have an awful lot of courage And

[00:33:36] It's not for everybody and sometimes you get kicked in the teeth You know, sometimes you have clients that disappoint you or you know people in your organization that disappoint you

[00:33:46] But you got to let go of that victim stuff, you know that that's just that's a hole that you just You know stop digging put down the shovel and crawl out There's so many opportunities out there

[00:33:58] And I think the only thing we really have any control over is our attitude I can't control the government, you know, I can't control the people around me The only thing I could do is a control my attitude and I think the biggest challenge most people have

[00:34:15] Is the distance from the right ear to their left ear. You know what's going on in your mind? And as an entrepreneur you you it really helps it's essential to be you know filled with an attitude of gratitude a positivity that You can't lead if you're a curmudgeon

[00:34:34] I think it's really important to have a positive attitude that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel that you have a goal and That sometimes you're gonna get pulled off the tracks

[00:34:48] But you get back on it and when you have a plan as part of your your passion You know, it's easier to write the ship you learn you redirect and you know keep going And people will follow If you're kind of wishy-washy, it's you know

[00:35:06] They lack the confidence in you because you have lack of confidence in yourself You need to sit down and kind of get re centered and figure out what's going on between your right ear and your left ear

[00:35:17] Yeah, would you you know a lot of the difference between successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful ones Is that or people who become entrepreneurs and those who don't is that the ones who do take action, right?

[00:35:29] They and I think when you're lacking in confidence, would you say that one step is to move forward? Like if you're talking to some, you know, some of our listeners have ideas they have concepts

[00:35:42] They want to move forward. They don't know what to do. What do you tell them about that first step? I mean, how did you take it and and you know, what would you say to somebody who's sitting out there thinking?

[00:35:54] Well that I get all that that's all well and good. This is what I really want to do I'm passionate about it, but I don't know where to start and I'm scared of that I don't have the confidence in myself

[00:36:07] Well, that's that's there's a lot of different ways to approach it one of the books I read was By Tony Robbins, you know, he's a great mentor for entrepreneurs and for anybody What he taught me at a point when I was just having been very successful

[00:36:29] I want to being very unsuccessful when the luxury tax came out and I went from being on top of the mountain to the mountain on top of me 90 days late on my mortgage 120 days late on my card payment working my tail off and

[00:36:45] For 11 months nothing I did resulted in any money and And What Tony Robbins was saying that what you do is you make a decision and It's kind of like back to the analogy of tacking if that doesn't work

[00:37:02] Make another decision and then another and as you make these these choices you get a little bit closer to Where you really want to be? And I think that's really The fear of failure sometimes is one of the greatest motivators a fear of loss is a great motivator

[00:37:23] but Motivation means do something, you know, even if it doesn't work out then do something else I think too often we're afraid to make a mistake and we're afraid of failure And I think that gets back into the victim thing. I think you know

[00:37:41] We're put here to be successful. There's no reason We can't be successful whatever we visualize we can actualize our brain has much more power Then we really give it credit for so I look at it and then there's two voices on my shoulder

[00:37:58] one is build a good side or I kind of stay connected to my true self and My hobby or power away you want to call that God Jesus Allah Buddha I don't care as long as you think there's some sort of connection with the universe

[00:38:13] And then there's also this other side that's kind of like, you know the dark side it's you know Oh if you do this gonna fall on your face and it's always trying to pull you down It's recognizing who's doing the talking in my brain

[00:38:25] Is it my my spiritual self or is it how the ego and somebody told me once ego? Stands for HEO is easing God out So I know oh When I realized I thought that was really profound

[00:38:41] So what voice am I listening to and and sometimes you just have to be quiet You know, we're always we're humans being not humans doing so sometimes getting centered meaning turning the TV off and just you know, I

[00:38:59] Think one of the best things I ever did for myself was learning how to meditate To quiet my mind and just you know be in the moment sounds kind of corny, you know

[00:39:08] But you know whatever works, you know find a system that works and you know, some people go to church, you know Some people don't that doesn't mean you're a good person bad person But have some sort of belief system that allows you to kind of you know

[00:39:24] Get quiet and know who you are because I think the more I understood who I am as a person and What I wanted to accomplish in my life it gave me

[00:39:35] You know more purpose more passion, you know and help me, you know live my life at the level that you know some people I think it's a conscious level Some people just go through the motions and you know, I oh, you know It's off

[00:39:49] I work to go and I think was Thoreau that said most men in light of lives is quiet desperation And go to the grave with a song still in their heart. I Don't want to do that. You know, so you know give it your best shot

[00:40:02] Make a decision, you know if it doesn't work. Okay, make another one. We control our own destiny so whatever you perceive you can achieve I think it's When we visualize what we want I Visualized, you know having kids I visualized having all this little house on the water

[00:40:23] I visualized, you know doing this crazy thing which I designed and built this floating office Which is 45 feet by you know 16 and you know, it's it's really cool I probably spent most of my kids inheritance, but you know, they'll manage

[00:40:42] And I visualized having these incredible people, you know that I'm surrounded with that make going to work not going to work I mean, I They say if you love what you're doing, it's not work To see you know people that I've hired and trained succeed to see

[00:41:02] You know my company, you know still in existence after all these years, you know Kind of you know, we're in our 40th year in a business where you know, people are lucky to be in business for 40 days so I feel really blessed and it's it's

[00:41:18] And here I am in I should be phasing out But I can't imagine you know, somebody asked me oh Joe when are you gonna retire I said well My retirement party will probably be the same day. We do my celebration of life I

[00:41:36] Get it. I get it. It's I'm like you you know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs have have a lot of energy and they that you you brought up this this sort of

[00:41:46] Mental conversation that goes on in our brain and I'm so glad you did that because I think That it can be common to feel like you're the only one out there going through this and That there's something wrong with you. But the reality is that's life, right?

[00:42:02] Did you know it's it making these if you're an entrepreneur? You're making a lot of decisions and making decisions is Stressful and tiring and you need time you need to be able to rest which you brought up and finding ways through meditation or reflection

[00:42:20] To rest your brain and get in touch with yourself. I think it's so powerful So I'm glad you brought that up now you mentioned earlier that That you may get back into boat manufacturing. So I just have to ask

[00:42:35] Tell me you know, what what do you think I guess it's two-part question What do you see? You know, the boat industry has been through some real highs and some real lows Recently and I can still remember the early conversations during kovat

[00:42:53] You know, what's it gonna look like and then kovat became this amazing time for boats I live in a boating community and that's how everybody Spent their time right? That's how they could get out. So boating had this huge

[00:43:08] Growth period and then now we're back into reality with inflation and and the high prices So there's been a lot of ups and downs. I'm imagined in those 40 years So I just I just have to ask you, you know, how do you think?

[00:43:25] where do you see the boating industry going and What's preferred thinking about as you move into the next ten years five years What do I think? Well, I going to Turkey for the past two years. There was a boat show there and

[00:43:45] Going to Turkey was never on my bucket list having been there twice now It's a huge boating community. It's huge industry in Turkey They're the third largest builder of big boats in the world It's a very vibrant Culture. I mean the food the people the water is incredible

[00:44:07] They're building some really incredible boats there So we were at the Izmir boat show and then we went up to Istanbul to see some manufacturers I think there's a you know some potentials There in Turkey where they're building some very very nice boats and

[00:44:26] At a would what I think will be a much more competitive price than stuff that's currently on the market So we're exploring, you know with a couple different manufacturers You know potentially having them build some boats for us and importing them here

[00:44:42] We're doing a research. You know, we You know, we'll see if that comes to fruition but I'm always optimistic about the boating industry I think man has this primordial need to get back to the sea

[00:44:55] There is you know, if you don't feel something spiritual being on the water You know with dolphins swimming alongside your boat and the wind blowing through your hair and the sun warm in your face

[00:45:06] then maybe boating isn't it maybe you need a log cabin in North Carolina or Something else that you know, there's I think we have to get out of this mindset of a lack and this

[00:45:19] This you know, my god is better than your god and this thing about color skin and so on When you're on the water Whether the guy is a fortune 500, you know CEO or he turns a wrench at the local Ford dealer

[00:45:33] You know and in a marina there's this camaraderie. You don't find you know, maybe out there in regular life But that also happens with RV years. It happens with fishermen There's got to be something that somebody can do that really adds passion to their life

[00:45:49] So I think with the boat business, you know, we have to be a little bit more sophisticated in the way We handle our clients. I think You know, even though I had one of the first MLS systems and computer systems in the business

[00:46:06] I need to up my game in managing the data because again, we're in the people business information business and And I think if we're more efficient doing that Maybe it was one out of 20 clients we talked to way back when bought about now might be one out of 500

[00:46:22] I don't know what the number is. I probably should But I think that's one of the big changes now. We have to be more efficient So it's not a matter of working harder. It's working smarter. I think there's always going to be people wanting to buy boats

[00:46:38] We just have to adjust to what's going to make the most you know sense for the clients. They're available right now So I'm pretty optimistic and I think I'd rather be building boats than selling them most in the boat building business for quite a while

[00:46:53] so that's always I Would have thought I would have been out of that phase But when you're creating something out of rolls of fiberglass drums of resin and raw lumber You see these things being created that now sit in on you know

[00:47:07] At the marina to me. They're like pieces of artwork and people that own these boats Those boats are gonna be floating on the oceans a lot longer. We're gonna be walking on land

[00:47:18] So I think you have a responsibility to maintaining that boat for future generations. So, you know You know, I'm always been bullish on the on the boat business. It does have ups and downs You just have to you know, adjust your the way you do business

[00:47:36] We do a lot more with virtual tours I take these 360 pictures of the interior and It gives somebody a really good presentation rather than just you know a regular flat two-dimensional picture and when you can buy these little goggles from

[00:47:54] Amazon for $15 and you can take your cell phone and put it in these goggles and now you have a full immersion Where you're actually in the boat? Magnificent we've sold a lot of boats because you know somebody from California didn't want to make the trip here

[00:48:10] But it's the next best thing to you know being on the boat is these virtual tours So that's a way that we can kind of maybe compensate for being a little company amongst all these companies have multiple offices I think you have to be a little bit more

[00:48:25] Intimate with your clients and and really You're you're a coach a counselor an advisor not just a salesman. You know, you got to be a lot more than just you know Sending him a listing You got to help him overcome his objections and so on

[00:48:42] So yeah, they're there were probably not at the same level may never be at the same level we were during covid But I think with the proper Management and with the right kind of people I'm pretty excited about my company

[00:48:58] That's great. I love hearing it. I love hearing it and I share so many of your Perspectives about boating. It's we always say that when we're boating we just worry about sunrise sunset high tide low tide

[00:49:12] You know the direction of the wind and just when you think you've got it figured out mother nature will Teach you better. So I've learned so much about communication and about myself even on some of those experiences what I was capable of and I

[00:49:28] Highly recommend that it build. It's a confidence builder to I I learned to sail after I married my husband and We've we sailed a 45 foot Catalina for about 10 years, which we loved We went over to the dark side now after I after I joined marine max

[00:49:49] And have power boats, but I love it. Joe. This has been remarkable. I would love to keep talking You know, I think we have to have you back on another time and and get a few more stories

[00:50:01] But so much wisdom that you've shared today. I have a couple more questions before we close What is the one book that you've shared? What is the one book that you would recommend you mentioned? Carnegie course and you mentioned Robin's book and you mentioned some other things

[00:50:20] But if if the entrepreneur is out there listening and they'd like to get a little bit of a jump start On all the experience that you've learned and by the way, maybe you need to write a book if you haven't done that yet

[00:50:33] But but what's that one book you might recommend? Wow so many um Or you can recommend a couple or more if you want to well one that's uh, it's um Well for me, you know, i'm kind of spiritual Uh, there was a book that uh

[00:50:56] Is kind of a cult book. It's uh called the course and miracles, which is a Book on uh, it's actually mind training It's it's thinking in the world beyond the five senses. It's uh, you know that Book has 365

[00:51:14] Lessons oddly and one for every day of the year and it changed the way I looked at the world um It's it's not for everybody but that was one of the books that uh, you know helped me to

[00:51:27] Kind of rethink, you know the world in general and me in particular um That book, you know stimulated a lot of other followers like deepak tropra and Dwayne dyer and I mean you know gary zucoff and a lot of other folks that um

[00:51:48] You know, I think that was a pretty influential book um So I think that was probably one of the and that's a It you don't just read it once. It's a you become a student of it So it might not be for everybody

[00:52:03] But it was something that kind of gave me um A little bit different perception of The world and how I view it, you know and help me with this thing where i'm not a victim

[00:52:17] I'm a student, you know that somebody doesn't do something to me. They do something for me So when somebody gets me mad i'm supposed to thank them because now I could look at what made me You know angry and take ownership of it. Wow, that's hard

[00:52:32] It's much easier to blame them. Look what you did But I think that was a you know, it was a probably one of the turning points When I got into that book about 25 years ago and probably changed the way I looked at the world and even my business

[00:52:49] You know, I think uh self-responsibility is something we all need a lot more of in this world today Because there's a lot of blaming and finger pointing going around So of course in a course in of miracle, of course, of course in miracles, of course in miracles

[00:53:03] Okay, that's i'm gonna check that out and the definition of a miracle is a shift in perception So when you look at something this way and you have this 180 degree shift That's the miracle is to Find you know something, you know beneficial and what you thought maybe was

[00:53:21] You know And what an amazing, uh What an amazing skill to develop because I know I've noted that in my own life the times when I had a change in perception and the difference it made so Great advice. So last question

[00:53:37] If you had one piece of advice for somebody out there that wants to start a business become an entrepreneur What would that be? You've already given us so much, but if you had to Distill it down into one piece of advice. What would that be? Do it

[00:53:53] It's it would you'll again the voices in your brain um You know If you've got to trust yourself If you think it's a good idea give it a shot um Too many people they're they're right at the verge of being successful And they back away

[00:54:12] And it's kind of like a baseball player, you know All you have to do is take one more swing. You may have been I mean if you're a 300 You know hitter in baseball You're making millions that means seven out of ten times you failed

[00:54:25] But you can't just sit at the plate and just you know, watch the pitches go by Take a swing Take a swing It's better to know and then the wonder god if I were only done that and or you know, the the other corollaries

[00:54:39] Somebody else took that idea and words. It's ah, man. I woulda coulda shoulda It don't live a woulda coulda shoulda kind of life Take a swing at it. You know See what happens and you might be shocked

[00:54:52] Visualize what you want to actualize and you have the potential of realizing, you know those dreams And you'll learn something right? That's exactly that's the promise Joe this has been fantastic. Where can our listeners find out more about preferred yachts?

[00:55:08] Um, and maybe follow you or your company. Oh preferred yachts.com is our website We're downtown st. Pete at the harborage marina um, it's uh addresses 11 10 St. South we have right now

[00:55:24] You know about 14 boats on display anybody looking for a boat or just want to talk about boats um I stumbled into this business and I may have you know told you before when I was at the university of tampa

[00:55:37] I was sitting at the cafeteria where it used to be and there was a boat across the uh, On the hillsboro river on the where the print of six and used to be

[00:55:47] And one day I just I saw this boat for weeks and one day I walked over to Just get a closer look. I didn't know what the sailboat looked like

[00:55:55] And the guy was hosing down the deck and I said nice boat mister said would you like to see it? well Little did that guy know that that little act of kindness changed my life because I went on this boat and

[00:56:12] My eyes were just I I wanted to own a sailboat. I wanted to live on a boat I just I I wound up then making a research and I wound up living on a boat

[00:56:23] I wound up getting into the boat business and it was all because this one guy just said would you like to see it? um Life has these little You know changing moments that at the time didn't seem to be much

[00:56:37] But be aware be conscious of these little opportunities And you know Your life can change and you can also change other people's lives. So So it's kind of like ever since then it's you know paying it forward

[00:56:53] And I can never thank that guy and all the people that helped me along the way to where I am today so You know helping other folks that have this dream of being in businesses

[00:57:03] You know makes my business more than just making money. It's it's helping other folks And here I am still doing it And we never know the impact we're having on other people's lives so Thank you for sharing today. This has been great joe

[00:57:19] I really appreciate you coming on the show my pleasure. Thank you so much for the opportunity If you enjoyed this episode and would like to learn more about entrepreneurship, we would love it if you hit that subscribe button

[00:57:32] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of in factor