What are your biggest regrets in life? 

A lot of people when asked this question feel a deep sense of mixed emotions. 

You might miss an important date, meeting, or birthday but missing it may have caused a drift between relationships. 

Regret can be from your personal and family life, business decisions that lead to a different outcome, and just a life, changing its course without you even knowing. 

In this sixth episode of Tourism Titans, the topic of regret and how it can affect your personal, business, and relationships in the long run. 

How did Andy, Kevin, and Steve handle their regrets?

Takeaways from the show:

"Money cannot buy a better funeral, than goodwill, honesty, and integrity." - Kevin O' Neil

"I think about the regrets that I have and look back at things I've done. There are only things that I regret most - the things that I didn't do. Mistakes can be fixed but the things that you don't do, can't be fixed. You can't go back and do it. It's too late." - Andy Kurtz

"I'm gonna have to let go of some things that I am used to doing. It's gonna be a big change but it's gonna be good though." - Steve Edwards 

"If you are somebody that's super stressed, adverse, somebody that can't handle stress, then you shouldn't be in business because that's part and partial of it. You've gotta thrive on it."

- Andy Kurtz

Follow the guys of Tourism Titans:

Andy Kurtz, Owner, and Operator of Seaforth Boat Rentals

https://seaforthboatrental.com/

Jared Broach, Founder, and President of Eat, Drink, Scare Tours

https://nightlyspirits.com/

https://www.temeculacablecar.com/ 

Kevin O'Neil, CEO of Destiny Water Adventures and Jeep Destin

https://destinywateradventures.com/

https://www.jeepdestin.com/

Steven Edwards, CEO of AAMP Agency and Vegas Jeep Tours

https://aamp.agency/

https://vegasjeeptours.com/

Join our Facebook community for more exclusives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourismtitans/

The state of California dropped unexpected news: they are phasing out (and eventually) banning vehicles that are powered on gasoline by 2035 to help combat climate change. The mandate challenges the impact on businesses and the possible exodus from California to other states.

Andy, Steve, Kevin, and Jared talk about the future of transportation tourism as California starts to phase-out gas vehicles, what that means for the future of their businesses, and the future of tourism as a whole. They also discussed the pros and cons of meeting California's standards and laws and the problems that come with transitioning from gas to electric. 

On the other hand, they mentioned an airline in New Zealand offering a monthly subscription to all-you-can-fly promos. They discuss the effects of a monthly subscription if US airlines adopted the same practice.

Major Takeaways in this episode:

"It's gonna be a problem. And as it trickles down into smaller vehicles, it's gonna start hitting actual people's pockets, not just businesses. " - Jared Broach

"They don't care about the impact that it has on a lot of businesses. They can tell that by the way their tax codes are structured. At the end of the day, it's just gonna mean more bad news for Californians, California businesses, and more." - Kevin O' Neil

"What we ran into was such an infrastructure problem because down in San Diego, they have an office where they rent them and the idea of taking 10 of these scooters and plugging them in to charge overnight at their facility. That sounds really easy except when you figure that most buildings don't have a charging dock. Just that idea of being able to charge all at once is an infrastructure problem in the building, because who has that much power coming into their building to just charge that many?" - Steve Edwards

"We all have shitty customers that treat our staff like crap- whether it's boss, a boat, or a razor. I mean, that's the nature of who we're dealing with." - Andy Kurtz

Follow the guys of Tourism Titans:

Andy Kurtz, Owner, and Operator of Seaforth Boat Rentals

https://seaforthboatrental.com/

Jared Broach, Founder, and President of Eat, Drink, Scare Tours

https://nightlyspirits.com/

https://www.temeculacablecar.com/ 

Kevin O'Neil, CEO of Destiny Water Adventures and Jeep Destin

https://destinywateradventures.com/

https://www.jeepdestin.com/

Steven Edwards, CEO of AAMP Agency and Vegas Jeep Tours

https://aamp.agency/

https://vegasjeeptours.com/

Join our Facebook community for more exclusives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourismtitans/

It doesn’t matter what kind of job you have and how much you like it at some point you’re going to feel burnt out. If you have customers, employees, and bills to pay, no matter how hard you try at some point you are going to be ready to call it quits.  

Steve, Kevin, Jared, and Andy talk about some of the times they have felt that burnt-out feeling over the years and what they have done to overcome those feelings and push forward.

Some takeaways from this episode:

"You've got to look for ways to make it interesting, exciting, different - to be able to learn, to change, or else you can't keep that happy face. You can only pretend for so long. I look for different opportunities to kind of keep it real, making it the dream that I want to be living." - Andy Kurtz (05:22)

"Some days it's a lot and you're just grinding through it. Because you know that at the end of it all, it all makes sense. And you're running a good business and it's a lot better than having a fucking boss." - Steve Edwards (37:49)

Follow the guys of Tourism Titans:

Andy Kurtz, Owner, and Operator of Seaforth Boat Rentals

https://seaforthboatrental.com/

Jared Broach, Founder, and President of Eat, Drink, Scare Tours

https://nightlyspirits.com/

https://www.temeculacablecar.com/ 

Kevin O'Neil, CEO of Destiny Water Adventures and Jeep Destin

https://destinywateradventures.com/

https://www.jeepdestin.com/

Steven Edwards, CEO of AAMP Agency and Vegas Jeep Tours

https://aamp.agency/

https://vegasjeeptours.com/

Join our Facebook community for more exclusives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourismtitans/

Have you thought of using social media ads to reach goals and reach out to influencers for more exposure?

In this episode, the guys talked about social media marketing and if it can help move the needle for tour operators. They dug into influencer marketing and some of the guy's experience in trying it and whether or not you should be spending money or investing in social media for your tour business.

Major takeaways from this episode:

"You need to have a circle of people that you listen to and that you can get info from. Because you're not going to get everything that you need to know from your accountant. " - Andy Kurtz (10:00)

"If you are not getting your hands in the dirt with them (your employees) and learning about some of this shit. And having somebody on your team like there's only so much that somebody can do from X amount of miles away." - Kevin O' Neil

Follow the guys of Tourism Titans:

Andy Kurtz, Owner, and Operator of Seaforth Boat Rentals

https://seaforthboatrental.com/

Jared Broach, Founder, and President of Eat, Drink, Scare Tours

https://nightlyspirits.com/

https://www.temeculacablecar.com/ 

Kevin O'Neil, CEO of Destiny Water Adventures and Jeep Destin

https://destinywateradventures.com/

https://www.jeepdestin.com/

Steven Edwards, CEO of AAMP Agency and Vegas Jeep Tours

https://aamp.agency/

https://vegasjeeptours.com/

Join our Facebook community for more exclusives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourismtitans/

The pandemic has caused businesses to slow down, relapse, and eventually, not thrive. The tourism industry has affected operators and business owners including the guys of Tourism Titans. As a result, the recession made businesses halt and stop.

In this episode, the guys talked about their lives and their businesses pre-pandemic and post-pandemic - how their business was and their consistent income stream from tourists, how the tourism industry is coping with the cause and effect of the lockdowns, how other businesses in the same field also thrive in a new perspective and if the industry is indeed recession-proof.

Major insights from this episode:

"Nothing is recession proof, but anything can be the recession." - Andy Kurtz (2:47)

"Those big cities that people always want to go to the people that do have money, they end up going to (by people) and you've got to like just outmaneuver your competition to get that smaller amount of traffic." - Jared Broach (11:27)

"The problem with being a digital marketer or coming from the digital marketing agency side is that there's a lot of operators that think that just by hiring us that they don't have any more problems anymore." - Steve Edwards (37:01)

Follow the guys of Tourism Titans:

Andy Kurtz, Owner, and Operator of Seaforth Boat Rentals

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-kurtz-99a95525

https://seaforthboatrental.com/

Jared Broach, Founder, and President of Eat, Drink, Scare Tours

https://nightlyspirits.com/

Kevin O'Neil, Destiny Water Adventures

https://destinywateradventures.com/

Steven Edwards, Owner of AAMP Agency

https://aamp.agency/

Join our Facebook community for more exclusives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourismtitans/

The guys of Tourism Titans - Andy Kurtz, Jared Broach, Kevin O'Neil, and Steven Edwards, share their stories and tips on running a business in the tourism industry.

With over 50+ years of combined experience in the business, the guys sit down and talk about the day-to-day problems business owners have to go through.

In the first episode of Tourism Titans, the guys chat about growth and exit strategies, their love for marketing, etc.

Takeaways from this episode:

"You do have to have an exit strategy, or you have to have a reason for wanting to scale." - Andy Kurtz (12:24)

"Everybody that's in this business is like didn't really want to get into (private equity), because they thought they're gonna get rich overnight. Most people got into it because it seemed like a cool way to make money." - Kevin O' Neil (18:31)

Follow the guys of Tourism Titans:

Andy Kurtz, Owner, and Operator of Seaforth Boat Rentals

https://seaforthboatrental.com/

Jared Broach, Founder, and President of Eat, Drink, Scare Tours

https://nightlyspirits.com/

https://www.temeculacablecar.com/ 

Kevin O'Neil, CEO of Destiny Water Adventures and Jeep Destin

https://destinywateradventures.com/

https://www.jeepdestin.com/

Steven Edwards, CEO of AAMP Agency and Vegas Jeep Tours

https://aamp.agency/

https://vegasjeeptours.com/

Join our Facebook community for more exclusives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourismtitans/