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S2: EP 3 - Jonny Dodge: Serial Entrepreneur - "I want to be dumbest, poorest guy in the room"
67 Plays1 year ago
Today's guest is Jonny Dodge, a serial entrepreneur and group CEO of MYOcean, YourSky, and GPM experiences. Jonny's companies offer anything you can possibly dream of, from a trackside view at the Monaco GP from the comfort of a Yacht, to experiencing zero gravity without flying to space. Jonny takes the dreams of others and makes them a reality.
Jonny is famed for his "Billionaire black book" of contacts, including some of the most influential people on the planet such as Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Bernie Ecclestone, as well as disruptors likeJake Paul, and many more.
In this episode, we discussed why taking action can be the biggest key to success; Why community is a key factor for growth in many industries over the next few years; Why being the least intelligent person in the room is something you should aim for; Why should always seek to add value; The thinking behind growing multiple successful companies, What it is like to work with Ultra rich clientele on a daily basis, and much more.
You can find Jonny on instagram:
@jonnydodge_
website:
https://jonny-dodge.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Johnny Dodge's Background
00:00:01
Speaker
Oh, Mr. Johnny Dodge, thank you very much for for coming to the show. It's very, very nice to have you here. So I normally get and my guests to introduce themselves. So for those who aren't familiar, who is Mr. Johnny Dodge and and what do you do?
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey, well, thanks for having me and appreciate the chat today. But yes, Johnny Dodge. um I'm Group CEO and we have a travel group which consists of everything from the world of Formula One to space travel, yacht jets, and um most recently real estate. So it's ah been an exciting journey to to build the group over the last 16 years and fun along the way.
00:00:45
Speaker
So that sounds like a playboy's dream that he got to Jetson to space travel, doesn't it? yeah I think that that that's the key to things, right? Doing what you're passionate about, following your passions. That's what creates the opportunity and the excitement in life. So yeah.
00:01:00
Speaker
Awesome. So I wanted to to start off by sort of getting an understanding of what it's like to run multiple businesses.
Building a Luxury Network and Business
00:01:07
Speaker
If you can take us back to when you were the first start in these companies, what was it for you that made you go, yeah, I think this is this idea has really got merit and um I think I really made this work.
00:01:20
Speaker
Look, I think that when I first started out in my first business, I mean, I i was already around that luxury world. I was um moved up to London after my master's degree or during my master's degree. And that exposed me to that London nightlife, the celebrities, the world of everything that that entailed. So that then gave me a very quickly a black book of the celebs, the millionaires, the people that I could connect with.
00:01:48
Speaker
And um so that evolved into me organizing the Gumbel Rally, which was a ah dream of mine to get involved with, and then going on to run and then own nightclubs. So really, it was all it's always been driven by the customer first, so the opportunity. i haven't kind of um gone in search of it, of course, but i've I've been passionate about things. I was very passionate about Formula One um and that's really where I got my first break and I'm grateful to Bernie for for doing that. So really it's been find find that opportunity where I've already got the customer base and the the network and and build from there.
00:02:28
Speaker
Okay. And you've, those sorts of fields and you've got sort of charters, all that sort of stuff, yachts, jets, usually space travel as
The Role of Relationships in Competitive Industries
00:02:36
Speaker
well. I can imagine, especially with the yachts and the jets, the the fields are very competitive. And so I wanted to kind of get an insight as to what what do you think, without obviously giving away your trade secrets, but what do you think sets you apart and your companies from the competition?
00:02:53
Speaker
Well, like I said, it it was driven by customer first. So with, um I mean, the yacht and jet business launched just over four years ago. Again, the world of COVID Formula One shut down and it meant that the events industry came to a halt at that time.
00:03:11
Speaker
So we were looking at other opportunities in the marketplace and we already had a um ah strong platform of doing yachts at Monaco Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi and we had that understanding of that network and the high net worth clients. So that was really a platform for customers from where we started and so to me it's about relationship and relationship drives everything. So your priority when starting a business building those things is really to build up your relationships within that industry. And it's less about um knowing the ins and outs and the details of the industry and far more about the connections. If you can connect two people, if you can connect um the the right seller with the right buyer in any industry, that's where your value lies. You don't need to know any details about what that product is or the the complications of the process. The reality is is you're just connecting people. So
00:04:01
Speaker
um I think that people get too caught up in a world of trying to to learn the depth of some of these industries. um And they always say the the biggest disruptors in it in an industry are people that have never been in it before, because we don't know
Innovating and Breaking Industry Rules
00:04:15
Speaker
the rules. And I think that that's what's such an exciting thing coming into a new industry. And in the yacht industry, you've got hundreds of years of legacy yacht brokers. um So the age of the companies you're competing with,
00:04:28
Speaker
have had processes and operated in that way for decades and centuries in some cases. So the reality is is that if we can come in and break all the rules, um because we don't know them, that then we're not held by those boundaries that other people create.
00:04:45
Speaker
So it's always about run fast and break things. There's a great way to start in any business, I say. and You might ruffle a few feathers along the way, but it gives you that opportunity. So what did we start with? What was our USP? We started with our customers. We had the relationships. That was our USP. And we were also then looking after a younger demographic. As we've seen in the whole luxury industry and travel sector, and the The reality is is taking examples in the yacht industry, the average age of a yacht owner has dropped by nearly 10 years in the the last few years. So it means that your custom base has completely changed. Ultimately, the the age of wealth has become significantly lower because of
00:05:27
Speaker
what's been ah the tech industries and then crypto. um It's really opened up a brand new market and that desire for people in their 20s and 30s to be spending millions of dollars on um yachts, jets and other experiences.
Engaging the Younger Wealthy Demographic
00:05:43
Speaker
meant that the the legacy marketplace wasn't really understanding or looking after those customers. So for us, that that became the opportunity. So it it became out of necessity, our relationships with our customers already, that then were looking to do other things and weren't catered for by the existing industry. So I think that's what kicked us off and gave us huge opportunities at the very beginning of what we were doing.
00:06:08
Speaker
ah it It's interesting because I think with certain other industries as well, when you have someone and you talk about the legacy people, people that have been in a certain role or ah an industry for a long time, any sort of essence of change is like met with a lot of like, war don't people feel the unknown, don't they? so So this idea of sort of trying to disrupt an industry and and and create change. Did you experience a lot of pushback from kind of existing companies maybe the brands you're working with anything along those those sorts of lines or was it quite terrible pun smooth sailing
00:06:43
Speaker
Look, ah of course, yeah, absolutely
Handling Pushback in Legacy Industries
00:06:45
Speaker
pushback. Why would you not get that? Of course, anyone that's been in a legacy industry that's got processes is going to push back. And I think that that's bound to happen and people are going to question things. I think what was great and very fortunate for us is we were able to put our money where our mouth was. From day one, we came into the industry doing some of the biggest deals in it in history.
00:07:08
Speaker
So we really showcased what we were able to do so people couldn't question what we were achieving at the time. So by breaking those records in the industry, people stood up and looked at us and were like, ah, that's interesting. So I made it then a key part of my role is to make sure I met the CEOs from one of our competitors and built our relationships. Ultimately, we were bringing new people into the industry, but that's where the value was created by us.
00:07:32
Speaker
And um so I think that avoided anything too much. But in any industry, if you're breaking the mold or or doing things, there's always going to be um issues. And andm I'm used to that. And that's the way that it is if you don't want to conform. And that's the opportunity, ultimately.
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, I often ask my guests about the sort of skill sets they think they rely upon. And obviously you you are a CEO from multiple different, different sort of groups. So what would you say, it strikes me as communication as being a ah ah prevalent one for you. So you enjoy making these connections with these CEOs building up the rapport. Would you say that was a particular strength of yours that you've relied upon quite heavily as a skill?
00:08:18
Speaker
I think, like like I said at the beginning, I think both in terms of your own progression in business, as well as um the the relationships you create and the the wider scope for your clients, it's very much about your community. And also for me, that that's a big buzzword for the next few years. Community is a key factor in growth.
00:08:40
Speaker
and and in almost every sector of industry it's something that we're lacking nowadays and it's something that we need to spend more time focused on building community. You're you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and the reality of that means that you you want to level up to to create those relationships and so for me that was prioritizing that.
00:09:02
Speaker
And I think that a lot of people don't want to be um the dumbest, poorest guy in the room. and And that's an aspiration of mine to be that, is to constantly look and strive for that. And it's your ability to have confidence in those environments where you know that you can add value.
00:09:18
Speaker
So as long as you're adding value in those environments, that's where you can then level up. So you're not in a situation where um you feel unconfident meeting these people, building relationships. You you want to have some values offered back. So as long as you're in environments where you're offering value to these people that you may perceive as way above you or or greater than you.
00:09:39
Speaker
then you're you're very quickly going to gain those relationships and build on them. So I think that is definitely a key area and skill set is building those and building that community around you.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
00:09:53
Speaker
Where do you stand on imposter syndrome? Because being the dumbest, least smart person in the room is not something that people would so ah welcome with open arms, i' I'd say. People often fear that they're not good enough to be in the room that they're in or around those sorts of people. So the the default would be that's kind of where imposter syndrome would come in and go, yeah, actually I shouldn't be here. You sound like that's never really been an issue for you.
00:10:22
Speaker
What is it that's really enabled you to kind of back yourself and go, so ah I've got the value here, I know I can give value? Imposter syndrome in the reality is that it affects everyone and it has to to me to some extent in the past but I think that very early on I had the uh internal knowledge and confidence in myself in my ability. I don't need to be a billionaire, a political leader, a company leader to be able to have an interesting conversation with someone, someone be interested in me. And I think that was probably my priority is I don't, it's not about being an imposter, it's just having something that's having your thing that people are interested in. So if you can present forward something that you're adding value to your circle you're talking to. So what is it that you do that you're
00:11:12
Speaker
the best in the world at. And again, I say this to to my team often, it's like, find today the one thing that you're the best in the world at. It might be incredibly, c incredibly niche. It might be whatever. It's your baker shop in your village, in your area that does this particular um pastry. But the reality is you're the best in the world doing that thing. and Like, so it's just trying to narrow down um your area of scope. But if you can be confident in delivering a very specific product or service, and you know that in this area, this very narrow vertical on the best in the world, ah and then you spread that vertical.
00:11:48
Speaker
Um, so that gives you that, that confidence for sure. And I think I was lucky enough to be around that environment very early on where I realized about imposter syndrome and yet you kind of, now I'm in an environment where I'm very aware of the skill sets, knowledge and understanding of others around me. And so I really don't feel that there's, um,
00:12:11
Speaker
any areas where I'm lacking or feel that I shouldn't be in those rooms. I know that I had a significant amount of value. um And I think that that's come over time, of course. But yeah, the reality is some people can feel that, but I think that it's you level up quickly. And I had great mentors along the way. and um for For me, having Tony Fernandez as a mentor, just when he got into Formula One as well,
00:12:35
Speaker
um having him as a friend first and then going into business with him and having a business partner that owned an airline, a football club, a Formula One team. It was very easy for me to be like, well, why can't I have one of those? like That was my reference point really from a starting point.
00:12:51
Speaker
so i think um level up, fake it till you make it and keep ignoring it and drive forward and it'll give you that inner confidence and have that ability to give value back to your community. And people will come to you and be like, oh, you're the guy that can do this or that, like tell that story, be confident in your story, make it your little niche.
00:13:11
Speaker
You establish a name for yourself as being the person that can be associated with that thing. Yes, very much so.
Learning from Failures and Taking Action
00:13:18
Speaker
For people saying before that, basically everyone's winging it. No one really fully understands what's going on a lot of the time and when you said about fake it till you make it, that's... I think half the time you've just got to get started haven't you? and its I think people hold themselves back, I do especially with with what I'm trying to do but it's one of the reasons why I just keep trying to put episodes out, keep you know publishing content and just keep moving forward because I'm learning along the way, I'm learning what works, what doesn't work and then in the end you become known as the guy who looks like he knows what he's doing even though there's a lot of
00:13:53
Speaker
the swans gliding across the top of the water but the legs are ah paddling frantically underneath a lot of the time. like I think it's very easy like um for people not to take action and it's that that's a really big issue you know it's like I failed more times than you've tried is the answer to everyone that hasn't done it right like they're like oh it didn't work for them like I failed more times than you've tried that is the key message, right? It's understanding the amount, like how you're going to push those opportunities forward. So the reality of that is that then you can really take big massive action. And there's no, they they say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. And
00:14:40
Speaker
just take action and take massive action. That's what separates you, what puts you apart. When I'm speaking to my sales team or something like that, they'll be like, oh, trying a new idea or speaking to new customers. I've called a hundred people over the last week and not a single one has had any interest in anything I've got to say. And I'm like, cool, we'll keep trying. And then another week later, they're completely exhausted, fed up with it. And I'm like, and they go, and i yeah did you get a lead? And they're like, I've got one lead.
00:15:09
Speaker
I have 200 people and like perfect. Now we know it's one in 200 to get a lead. Now go and do a thousand. You're going to end up with five leads. Now you've got a metric. Now you can measure it. Now you can drive something forward. Great. Then what do they do? They go out and make a thousand calls. They get five leads and they make five massive deals out of it.
00:15:27
Speaker
So just take action and take it right now. Like that's the best time to do something. Like you're saying with the podcast, just put it out there. Volume, just keep doing it. 10x every idea you have. Like imagine if it was 10 times bigger than it was. What would you have to put in place? What would have to happen? The reality is if you create a vision that large and dream so big,
00:15:50
Speaker
then you're going to end up in a situation where it by default will be larger. I call it my cheat code. Cause I can just go to someone and be like, right. If this project wasn't an a million dollar project, it was a $10 million dollars project, this event or whatever it might be. It's like, you're like, well, we'd have to change the venue. We'd have changed all the marketing. We'd have to reach out to be at the volume of people, the things I'm like, go do all of that. And then if we end up at 2 million, we've had a massive success.
00:16:17
Speaker
So get everyone to shoot for the stars and hit the moon as the way forward. So sort of almost pretend as if you are at scale already and you're ah you you've achieved what you wanted to achieve, act in that way and then it kind of can help. I think just aim it. Set up that as your goal. Your goal needs to be so much bigger. I think people don't dream big enough.
00:16:38
Speaker
ah I think start out from a ah scenario, understanding if this one project I'm starting on, I'm like, what if every single project you started, you came in with a mindset of going, how would I affect over a billion people's life with this project?
00:16:53
Speaker
And you go, well, I'd have to do this and that, and I would have to look at it. And if that just changes you 1%, like each time, just 1%, you keep looking back at that and you go 1% more. and But it's so much easier to see that when you've scaled it so large, when you go like, how do I make things incrementally better? How do I do that? How do I get that 1%? That 1% is very hard to find. But if you look at it where it's 1000% more that you're aiming for,
00:17:19
Speaker
to find the 1% a lot easier because you just go, oh well here's a huge hole I'd be missing, let's just do it a little bit. So it's about not acting like you've achieved it but focusing on that. You can of course also talk about but when you're you're talking about your company and your um what you do, it's about talking about what you're planning to do, what you're planning to achieve rather than what you have achieved, especially when you're starting out. It's creating that platform for discussion that we're we're setting out to do this because then every time you're verbalizing something, you're verbalizing something about the future at a larger scale and what you would visit being the end of this year. If you tell a customer, oh, this is what we're currently doing,
00:17:59
Speaker
it it it doesn't add as much value as go, well, this is what we would be doing in a year. By the time you actually engage that customer, have done that deal, you'll you'll be closer to where that um reality is and they'll understand your journey in your direction to always speak in that future tense as if what you're working on and where you're heading to. Okay. That's very interesting.
00:18:19
Speaker
And it's it's it's obviously very out evident that you're you're very passionate about what you do. And I've heard you speak of passion being yeah quite a prominent thing for you and in some other interviews and and articles that you've you've been involved in.
00:18:33
Speaker
this idea of of following your passion is something i've I've ruminated over quite a lot recently and I think for many people that risk aversion kicks in quite early on and they go well I could do this where I could continue on what I'm doing quite now and and maybe get quite good at it or there's this sort of ah Someone described it as someone clearing the the the other version of yourself clearing his throat in the next room. It's kind of that nagging person in the back of mind going, what if you did this and you you did something you're actually passionate about?
00:19:05
Speaker
I think financial implications, and I've heard you talk about don't chase the money first when you're looking at foreign your passion, but that kind of, I think it's quite an important bit, which holds a lot of people back as well. They could be on a decent salary there are at the moment, but this this sort of unknown journey of where they could go and you know start something new, which is right into their passion, where they could scale infinitely yeah greater than what they're doing at the moment.
00:19:33
Speaker
but it's that short term, am I going to be okay financially? Am I really going to take that kind of big old um pay cut, for example, to pursue something that may or may not work?
Passion-Driven Business and Relationship Building
00:19:45
Speaker
Where where do you stand on following your passion? And a second question, sort of a part B to that would be, is there any stand out advice that you'd have or anything that helped you in sort of that pursuit of passion?
00:20:00
Speaker
This is a huge misconception when launching a business is that you have to build something and deliver it ready to go. I think I've seen so many startups fail where people invest all this money into building that website or i' creating this product or going through all the processes, employing all the staff, having everything ready to deliver and then never find the customer. You've got to start the other way around and No one started their podcast with the idea of making millions out of it, but you you look at the platforms and brands that are existing now, and no one started a YouTube channel and Mr. Beast didn't come along and just be like, this is going to be worth a billion dollars. like So the reality is is that you need to get into these things
00:20:53
Speaker
not with the mindset of money first, build the relationships, have the rapport, do these things. So every project I've started, it's not about completely switching overnight. It's about incremental steps. I'm very risk averse. I do take incremental steps. So you can still be employed and come and do your podcast on the side. You can still be employed and start your other projects on the side. um And it's relationships, relationships, relationships, build them.
00:21:23
Speaker
and meet people who have businesses in that industry, work for them for free, work for them at weekends, go and find out what they're doing, help them out, get connected with them, find other opportunities, connect other people in that industry sector. Before you know it, you'll have such a wealth of relationships in that sector that it will be a no-brainer for you to then be able to start your business and look at opportunities within that sector.
00:21:46
Speaker
But if you try and finance everything first, run your business plan through it, raise it investment, it's it doesn't work that way. You need to have the contacts, the relationships, the experience always work for free for someone. The biggest opportunities that came to me were through my internships. And I look at the interns that have come through our business. In fact, two days ago, one of them just celebrate their 10th anniversary with us um after coming to us straight out of school at the time.
00:22:16
Speaker
So, and some have gone on to work for great businesses and done amazing things or set up businesses of their own. that So take those opportunities, work for free, do those things, build the relationships, work at weekends, until you have an ability and a confidence where you can just pull this off, no questions asked. This isn't some wild jump where you just quit your job because you've come up with a business plan and you try and find a way to finance it. That isn't the right steps.
00:22:44
Speaker
Don't trade try and make money on your first deal. Do the first deal. Just make it happen. These are all just opportunities sat at your feet and you're always going to win those deals because someone's going to charge more. If you're operating offering the opportunity for free or connecting people or building the relationships and you have that, you're going to know the person better. You're going to do it cheaper. Of course, people are going to open up welcome arms and help you out with all these things. So I think that
00:23:16
Speaker
That's the way you build a business to start with. That's how you start out.
00:23:23
Speaker
I've never really heard it reframed in that way before. I think normally, I think when you get into the worlds of social media, and and it's it's both, I think, the best and worst thing because you you constantly kind of see these people like who ah have achieved what they need to achieve. And it's it's coming through a bit more now where people are sort of starting to you know lay down the foundations and they're going, this is what I did. And and sort of you can go through the journey with a lot of people, especially around YouTube.
00:23:49
Speaker
but for for a lot of people on on face value it does just look like it's like an overnight thing you don't see the kind of the missed deals the thousand phone calls in a day there whatever it may be no one really sees that anymore because it's just these cherry picked elements of people's lives and businesses to go yeah this is what we did and this is how we made this many millions and you think oh it looks it it makes it look so easy for a lot of a lot of people now and i think it's it's a trap i've fallen into before as well i'm i'll be be honest with it i've gone oh why is it ah how can i not make money when everyone else is making money doing these really bizarre things and random things and it just looks so easy but you don't see that you'll remind myself that you don't see this stuff
00:24:35
Speaker
behind closed doors. You don't see the failed deals, the long nights, the missed deadlines, whatever it may be. where you ah You only put the rosy picture on social media, right? Some people aren't telling you about their failures and it goes back to that adage of, I failed more times than you've tried, like keep going. You don't know how many times they failed because they don't put that on Instagram.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah. So you've had the very unique opportunity to be surrounded by, you talked about your black book earlier, you very high profile celebrities, ah ultra high net worth individuals, you billionaires.
Insights from High Net Worth Individuals
00:25:08
Speaker
Is there anything that you see in the way those kind of people, let's take that ultra high net worth individuals um as an example, is there anything that you see in the way they operate that sets them apart from and the rest?
00:25:21
Speaker
I think two of the key things that I can mention, you again, Tony's phrase was always dream big, and that was something that resonated in my head for sure. Dream big and take action. So so many things, yeah you're always going to fail if you don't take action. So just start. Whatever it is, just start. Start badly. but Start by failing. Start disorganized. Just start.
00:25:47
Speaker
That is what's going to push you forward. Make decisions quickly, fail quickly, keep moving forward quickly. know that everything is possible, nothing is impossible. The amount of times I've been told this is impossible, this will not happen. And I go and then make it happen, and I i prove the science to the team. like And it's it's a great feeling because it gives you that innermost confidence and ability in yourself. But the reality is, keep asking why. Why can't this happen? like Get a common sense out of the situation.
00:26:19
Speaker
Keep asking why. Take massive action. Dream big. That is your key agenda for for building anything and scaling it. keep asking why. So it's not so much it's just get started and I think looking at the way some of these people that we maybe idolize is more a case of you're stepping over, someone phrased it, um stepping over pounds to pick up pennies. So without having that, you know, that foundation of just getting started and and building it, don' need don't worry about what the way these people are operating. yeah it's kind of It's too far along the road, you need to take action first.
00:26:55
Speaker
People are way too distracted with trying to make something perfect, trying to think there's an ideology they need to follow. It doesn't work like that. If you take action and take massive action at scale, it'll work. It always does. It always works out. I can assure you of that.
00:27:14
Speaker
I'll see you i'll see on the other side then. So I think it would be remiss of me to to sort of skim over these some of the most, you know, these adventures that you're going on. So I know you're you're quite passionate about adventure.
Adventurous Projects and Innovative Requests
00:27:27
Speaker
um I've seen some quite outlandish requests ah in the stories and in the news. I know you're involved in the F40 that went on the yacht in Monaco, was it, 2023?
00:27:39
Speaker
and We re put a yacht in, we did we just did um but just in Abu Dhabi. We had so ah Lewis um and George come on to launch the new Mercedes supercar on the yacht we have there in the marina. We've put basketball courts on yachts, we've done loads, yeah.
00:27:55
Speaker
I imagine the logistics of that is fairly um brains and and complicated. bits yeah but that that's what makes it fun Did you see the guy who put a McLaren Senna in his penthouse in Australia?
00:28:10
Speaker
yeah Yeah, very cool, right? Yeah, that's pretty crazy. and what what do you think is So look at the customer requests then and and some of the experiences that you've been involved in. What's been ah stand outless like some of the most outrageous things, in just in terms of how crazy the idea is and then you you made it happen. what What stands out to you? I think it's usually my request to my staff.
00:28:32
Speaker
yeah
00:28:35
Speaker
Like closing down London's Erased Formula One cars when we ah set up a street circuit in Canary Wharf and drove the cars around there um was an idea we didn't think was possible and then got approvals by everyone to make it possible. so um That was a pretty cool and experience and momentum breeds momentum and so yeah moments like that are pretty exciting to stand there when I've got Formula One cars around me know and in the middle of London um on the streets on a Sunday morning. It feels pretty special. Yeah I've got my little Formula One car right here. Yeah and in terms of
00:29:20
Speaker
your your adventure center i know you're a i've heard you're an astronaut in training as well you got your space your space kind of are you still doing the astronaut training at the moment what's how's that going Yeah, very much. So we launched Space Experiences five years ago. We launched it with Astronaut Training, zero-g weightless trips, where you um we take our customers up on zero-g flights. They float and feel that experience of complete weightlessness, which is just a life-changing experience. you got It's just such a fascinating thing to be spinning in the air and not stopping until you hit something else and like catching ah globules of water in the air and things flying through and just this whole
00:29:57
Speaker
You start swimming, which actually does nothing, of course. But like yeah you you don't really understand how to control yourself. It's such a fascinating experience, weightlessness and um ah incredible.
The Impact of Space Travel Experiences
00:30:08
Speaker
um So we started with that and we were doing jet fighter trips and all these amazing things. And then we sent our first customers to space two and a half years ago.
00:30:15
Speaker
So it's been a real whirlwind journey, um that business is so exciting. And again, that business was launched out of passion and the opportunity to be one of the first travel agencies in the space industry, something that will grow into billions and billions of dollars.
00:30:30
Speaker
um And in reality, it already is for private space travel. people who already um People have been doing commercial space travel for the last 20 years. um Going up to the space station, people just probably don't realize it. So I've been around for a long time, but it's a very yeah very exciting experience and something I'm glad to be part of.
00:30:52
Speaker
So what what would ah training to be an astronaut entail and what are some of the sort of things that you get put through? I mean, the main thing is making sure you don't throw up. Yeah. It's the training aircraft that we use is called the vomit comet. Nice.
00:31:12
Speaker
I mean, we take a managed diet before then. It's managing g's, how many g's you can pull um as well as experiencing a weightlessness. All that to get those sensations out of the way because the value is the overview effect. And that is something that is life changing. That ability to go up out of our planet, look back down, see the blackness of space and see the earth beneath you. No borders, no issues. You just see this beautiful planet.
00:31:40
Speaker
And that always undoubtedly changes people, changes the way they look at the world. So that is the overview effect is one of the most life-changing experiences any human can go through, and something that many of us will now get to do in our lifetime with commercial space travel.
00:31:58
Speaker
I like sometimes looking at the videos of that just prove how infinitesimally small we are compared to the scale of the universe. There's some great animations normally on sort of YouTube and things like that where they start with you know very much like a cell or a you know ah microbe and then it scales right up and then you realise, shit, I'm actually i'm pretty small and pretty insignificant when it comes to grand scheme things.
00:32:21
Speaker
I think that actually helps a lot of the time when you're looking at that you're going well my little trivial matters over in this corner here in the grand scale of things don't really matter too much and that can be used as a tool sometimes I find it quite useful to to kind of help me just push past some of those kind of more small irritations so to speak and you go actually it doesn't really matter because I'm so small and and ah you know hopefully like when I'm like 100 I'll hopefully live to a hundred, then I'll know die and the cycle continues. But you're not around for very long in the scale of the universe. and yeah I think that that's really right. And I think that taking your time away from the challenges of business, these and types of things has been what's driven my passion for this exploration. and
00:33:06
Speaker
um and the search of things that are completely opposed to what I currently do in a world of glamour and billionaires. I get excited by getting shipwrecked on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean, you know, and ah those types of experiences are are incredible. I mean, they they make such an impact on you and really do start to reset what you understand about the world. At that point on a desert island, money doesn't matter. Your connections don't matter. so Whether you're a CEO, doesn't it's not relevant.
00:33:40
Speaker
So that experience of being in that environment and the only thing that mattered at that time was the the guy that could make fire and the guy that could catch fish. you know like That was the relevance of that situation. takes away and Taking away all money money out of a situation starts to make the things really super clear like because money can mess things a little bit. So having that ability to step back and go,
00:34:08
Speaker
It really doesn't matter. if if If I sustain myself and live on this island, this is no longer relevant to me. And having that wild understanding that that's the case is just such a powerful experience. And at that same time, I also had no connection with the outside world, and no phone signal.
00:34:27
Speaker
um being disconnected from the rest of the world um is also a very powerful tool. So I find that in the adventures and exploration I go on and is such a powerful reminder of the value of life and our own experiences outside of this modern day constructs of reality and society. If I can go climbing mountains, there's such a an interesting fact that I learned along the way is
00:34:57
Speaker
that so much the power of your mind and that also gave me that inner strength, that ability. like I was just like the next guy or worse to be honest when I never gone on a big long run other than when I was at school. I've already never went over the 1500 meters and to then scale that up to knowing that I could do a run and then climb a mountain, then climb some of the biggest mountains in the world.
00:35:20
Speaker
um that ability to go and summit a mountain and and realizing that the majority of that was all up there and it was the power of one's mind. Because if you were just relatively fit, you can go and climb some of the biggest mountains on earth.
00:35:33
Speaker
And these things aren't impossible. And it's amazing how much is controlled by your mind and how much more you can do than you think you can do. So resetting what you believe is possible, it's it's questioning that impossible again.
Overcoming Mental Barriers
00:35:48
Speaker
Because definitely a couple of years previous, I wouldn't have thought I could have summited to is the highest mountain on two continents in two years. Like it just wouldn't have been something I thought was possible. ah But then you have that inner confidence now.
00:36:04
Speaker
I can look back at that and be like, look, I have this ability to climb mountains. It gives me that inner confidence that's completely um missing from people before. And that strength that you can garner from these experiences is so powerful. Yeah. I've heard it described as a ah stack of undeniable proof that you are how you say you are. That's how you build building your confidence. Yeah, very much does it.
00:36:26
Speaker
so i had a had a guest on and it was interesting to talk about the mind there and and how much it's how much more capable and we tell ourselves a lot of stories i think a lot of the time and about why we can't do stuff rather than why we can and i had a guest on who's she's just got the guinness world record for she did 36 marathons in 36 days but she's got cystic fibrosis as well she's done killer manjaro she's paddle boarded like 80 miles from coast to coast it's it's pretty crazy what she's what she's done and she says everything she comes back to is that you're you're capable and your body's actually capable of so much more than you think it's capable of and a lot of it is down to that, it's down to the mind and what you kind of believe to be true until you kind of get get past that and prove yourself otherwise. Yeah it's interesting.
00:37:16
Speaker
So was that, that shipwrecking name, was that intentional or was that by accident? but Absolutely. Yeah, we actually took it down. The Bear Gryll film films on and Survivor was filmed on in the Pacific ocean, um, and to get outside of their filming time. And, uh, we had six of us on the island for 10 days, cause it's just something really unique I wanted to experience. I'm very powerful, Jenny. Hmm.
Unique Travel Experiences in Turkmenistan
00:37:40
Speaker
I saw you recently went to Turkmenistan as well. and yeah a they l Yeah. Tell me about that. Turkmenistan, it's kind of, um well I guess it's close to North Korea and it's kind of format and closed off nature. um The number of visas they issue for um people to come and visit the country as i mean in the single digits each each day. So to visit the country is quite a unique experience. They're not used to tourists and um they have incredible laws like every car has the white
00:38:21
Speaker
Just these mad, and the um the the president there really creates these huge monolithic buildings to showcase the wealth of their country. there They have huge stores of natural gas, and um but they haven't invested that externally. They're building enormous and unnecessary infrastructure, but quite an incredible place.
00:38:45
Speaker
um And it seems that the people there are pretty happy. um Social media and things like that is blocked, um which in some societies I think may be a nice value to be honest. Maybe it's tarnished us a little bit too much these days. um So yeah, it was a fascinating experience and to go to this incredible pit of fire burning in the middle of the desert is just overwhelming experience. I spent the night there in a year sleeping next door to this and incredible um ah just crater in the middle of the earth. So yeah, an experience to remember for sure. Yeah, I looked at the footage, you looked it it looked amazing. i And it did, it was weird. It it was just, there wasn't anyone there. It just, every sort of creepy were like, there's no one here again.
00:39:35
Speaker
Yeah, i mean that and I think that what's so interesting nowadays when you look at a lot of experiences, people are craving those, people want to go to places and it does create, of course, you go to the wonders of the world and they're packed, you go to see any of those things. They're full of humans, they're over um like tourists now, there's too many, you know.
00:39:54
Speaker
and Even climbing Everest on the on the very few windows of days there is the ability to summit. yeah People have seen that iconic image that was in the newspapers of a queue to summit Everest, something that is one of the most difficult challenges on Earth and it very much belittles it. But I think there probably is not enough context given to the very narrow windows of ability to to summit um and therefore creating those kind of days when it's possible.
00:40:22
Speaker
um So the reality is it is a rarely done feat, but to go to these natural wonders and experiences and it be full of other humans is to be expected. So um it's such a shame that we we want to experience some of these iconic um moments of our lives where we explore these things.
00:40:42
Speaker
in peace and solitude and I was very lucky with Turkmenistan it being such a remote and inaccessible place. I think I only ever felt that with Antarctica when I went to the interior there and um the Great Wall of China as well, because luckily it's so enormous that you can always find your own little private bit of it. But ah yeah, those types of experiences are a few and far between in this populated world now.
00:41:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's almost a bit like what do you, and especially for, I would imagine for some of your your clients as well, what do you, how do you make something different for someone who's had the ability to go to some of these places and share in that moment, how do you create something that's different and unique? And I think that's probably, yeah, that's probably quite an interesting challenge for you to to get your head around. Well, I think that's what I'm very passionate about. And it's the giving that access to people. And I think that we,
00:41:38
Speaker
Really, our mission as a group across across the business is that we get to influence some of the most powerful and well-connected people on the planet with our experiences that we create with them, whether that be in our residences and resorts, whether it be in um our yacht charters, whether it be um in the aircraft we supply them, whatever those experiences across anything or just our exciting adventures.
Building Community and Inspiring Change
00:42:05
Speaker
um We get that ability to inspire them and I think it's one of the most powerful tools we have to inspire people through experiences. So I ah take that honor um and I'm very humble about being able to ah give people these op but this opportunity, a huge aspiration of people and give them this in these experiences.
00:42:28
Speaker
so I read a book called Stolen Focus by a chap called Jan Hari and he was talking about experiences in in it as well but he was saying how we're in such a ah digital world now where everyone's enjoying these experiences through their phones and you have you have VR and things like that that make it you know make it you know it's quite impressive what you can do with virtual reality but he said he was like baffled when he was at this museum and they were walking around this exhibition and you could literally see the exhibition and people were watching yeah it and interacting with it through their ipad and he just couldn't quite get his head around like where we kind of lost this where it all went wrong between you know
00:43:09
Speaker
actually experiencing something and doing it in the flesh. I see it in concerts all the time, especially with someone popular, people will record the whole thing on their phone like, are you going to watch the whole thing back again? You might, you might, like you're not, and it's like I try and be a bit more intentional in that and go,
00:43:26
Speaker
actually I'm in the moment I mean I'm here now I want to just enjoy it I don't want to watch it from my I'll take a couple of clips nothing wrong with that I'm not saying it's it's a bad thing but just the people that watch it through their screen and they're actually there I'm still a bit like what do you doing yeah very much very bizarre so so what's next then for for Johnny Dodge um I think I touched on the value I found around community and how I see that as a big trend across all industry sectors, but certainly in luxury travel. um People were so disconnected from each other that it's that ability to connect and reach out in person. So um we we have a nonprofit, the Global Committee, which is
00:44:14
Speaker
our way of bringing together a lot of our ultra high net worth clients, entrepreneurs, and visionary thinkers to talk about impact, things that we can really do to change the planet. So using that as a platform to bring people together to inspire people.
00:44:28
Speaker
We then off the back of that launched global base, which is now our residences and resorts that we're building around the world. this um And and we've we've seen this as a new ah new way of living. So people now live nomadically. We see this is ultimately the way that the world is going.
00:44:46
Speaker
and what we've now coined as the luxury nomad. We used to have the digital nomad, the guy on his laptop. Now um we have the CEO with his offices around the world, with his team, um traveling, not on holiday, but traveling for periods of time, two, three months and living seasonally.
Luxury Nomads and Global Base Residences
00:45:06
Speaker
And the the growth and change in that opportunity of people to work remotely, live remotely, travel in larger groups and experience the world has then created what we decided would be global base as our residences around the world, which people can live live in seasonally. So we've launched our first one um in Indonesia in Bali. um Phase one of the project opens next month.
00:45:33
Speaker
And the vision is is we build these homes around the world for entrepreneurs and like-minded thinkers. um So that's an exciting project of ours. We've certainly got a lot of growth um still to go in our F1 and events business, challenging the norm, um doing more exciting things. um And across the yacht and jet industry, I think there's huge growth again in that that younger marketplace. So we're we're here to capitalize on that longer term. um Me personally, we're looking at um bringing in a group CEO, um looking at growing the business, evolving that. So I can vote focus on the vision and and building what I'm passionate about. So lots of exciting things to come.
00:46:19
Speaker
Awesome. So if anyone wants to find out a little bit more about what you do, is there any way they can go to to have a look?
Following Johnny Dodge's Adventures
00:46:24
Speaker
ah Johnny Dodge on Instagram, you'll find me and then from there you will go into a whole world of experiences, adventures and ah get lost in the excitement of it. So go check it out and find what sparks your passion. Wonderful. Johnny Dodge, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate for it. as no