Private Jets: The $100K Secret Most Entrepreneurs Miss | Sarah Naska DHS #977

The church is very divided.

I wonder what causes there to be so much different separation.

Man-made rules, denominations, right?

Everybody kind of has their own spin.

Their expression of worship is going to look very different, but then it kind of breaks down to what their

fundamental beliefs are.

We don't believe in praying in tongues, or we don't believe in miracles for today, or and so they kind of pick and choose some things out of the Bible, what they do and don't agree with based on their personal experience.

All right, guys, got Sarah here from LA.

You ready to do this thing?

Let's do it.

What you been up to lately?

Several things.

Thanks for having me on your podcast.

I'm super excited to be here.

Sure.

I just made the move out to LA, so I'm coming from Savannah, Georgia.

Oh, big change.

Huge change.

White-knuckled an RV across the U.S.,

out west with my kids and the dog to start a new brokerage out in Los Angeles.

Grab real estate.

So I work in real estate finance investments.

I also have a brokerage, SMH Aviation for corporate aviation.

Hmm, that sounds cool.

How'd you get into aviation?

Yeah, so that I got into aviation about 10 years ago.

It was kind of like a midlife crisis in my mid-30s.

I was like getting so crazy, wanting to travel a lot more.

So I was like, what could I do?

I was already working in finance investments and real estate and executive leadership development, but I was like, what do I want to do?

So I looked into kind of like, what's the best way to make the most money and travel so I looked into private aviation for flight attending and I started doing flight attending

for private owners and charter companies and traveled across the country across the group across the globe and internationally so I just started my foot there I worked myself up from management from the bottom up to management and then elite clientele and then I decided to start my own brokerage after 10 years.

Good for you.

Started from the bottom.

Now we're here.

Start from the bottom, go to the top.

Yep.

That's cool.

Yeah, that's the cool thing about the aviation business.

You get to travel the world.

Yeah, it was a really amazing experience.

It's, you know, less than 1% get to experience that kind of lifestyle.

And you get to see a lot.

You get to experience a lot.

And it was just really cool.

A lot of cool stories.

I bet.

Yeah, we'll have to dive into some of those.

What caused that midlife crisis, though, you mentioned?

Well, I mean, I was just working a lot with paperwork, and I was doing a lot of church work, and I was just on my computer a lot, working with people, and I just wanted to see the world.

I grew up traveling, so I just really wanted to get out and do more.

I have a curious mind, so I kind of hit that stage where I was like, let's tackle a new project, let's get new challenges going.

And so yeah, I started out doing flight attending, and then I hit my kind of stride there for about 10 years.

Was it a specific airline you started up?

So these were private owners and charter companies.

So through aviation, you can hire a jet as a charter or a lease back, and you can work that as a contract.

So I did contract work, said yes or no to any flight that I wanted to do, and kind of just built up my clientele from there through aviation brokerages across the country or private owners that had a jet that wanted a flight girl.

I like that, bro.

I'd rather do that than work for a commercial airline.

Yeah, I would not do commercial if my life depended on it.

Yeah, no offense to those employees, but they don't look happy sometimes.

I personally couldn't deal with the anxiety of being on a plane like that.

I don't even like traveling commercial, let alone wanting to work in it for my day job.

So yeah, that was the thought behind it when I went private.

I was like, I don't want to deal with chaos and craziness, but I want to make a lot of money so I can invest it and then travel.

And then, in that, I just fell in love with aviation more and more.

And the clientele kind of crossed over because I was working in finance and assets.

So, I just bring my computer, I'd talk to the clients on the plane.

I would work on my investments when I got to Hawaii.

I'd sit for a week, make some good money.

What a great life.

So, it was a good run for a lot of years.

That's so cool.

It was a really good run.

I'm big on energy, and when I'm in an airport or like a public flight, it's like really tough.

It's terrible to have all your energy sucked by other people, and your mood is dictated by that.

You're trying to work, trying to keep a clear head.

It's tough.

Private is the way to go.

Yeah, when I fly private or semi-private, because I fly JSX a lot, it's like a way different vibe.

It feels amazing.

I actually look forward to the flight instead of like dreading it.

Yeah.

JSX is a good, that's what, 30, 30 people on there?

Yeah, it's super small, but it's like barely any more expensive than like a regular.

Yeah, that's the thing.

There's a lot of opportunity in aviation.

It's a lot more affordable than people think.

Absolutely.

And it's, you know, you're buying back your time.

Oh, yeah.

And I'm sure you got to network with some amazing people while you're in the middle.

Oh, yeah.

Between the FBOs and on the flights itself or the locations that you go because you're an elite jet or elite clientele, you get a lot of exposure, a lot of networking is involved.

And yeah.

A private airport.

Oh.

Yeah, the private airports.

They're called FBOs.

Got it.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, there's a a couple in Vegas, I think.

Yeah.

I remember F1.

I was like,

yeah, F1 last year was completely full.

You couldn't even land.

Yeah, I actually came to

not the Formula One, but I got to go to the Grand Prix for just, I picked up some executives that were going down there, taking clients down there.

They had extra tickets.

That was one of the job perks.

Nice.

Hang out with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

Oh, that's about us.

In the box and watch the Grand Prix.

Yeah.

What a time.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

You said you used to work at the church a little bit?

Yeah, so I did executive leadership development and I worked in, we had a church for 20 plus years.

We did ministry, so yeah.

You still doing that or no?

No, I actually quit the church about a year ago, year and a half ago,

formally as a career and focused solely on corporate America.

Got it.

I've been dabbling into both industries for 25 years.

Was that a tough choice for you?

It was, but it was,

there was a lot of tough choices around it, but leaving the organization of salary church life, that I didn't, I don't miss that at all.

That's my one qualm with churches, actually.

Yeah.

Like the payouts and stuff.

Yeah.

So what is it that you, what is your.

Just I hear these stories of like these mega churches and how they're using the money and the owners are buying

like expensive things or whatever.

And it's like, I don't know.

I'd love to hear your perspective on that, if that helps.

Yeah.

So in my perspective, I think that the church is very similar to a business corporation.

You have to run it as such in the sense that you have to have overhead to supply everything that's going to go on and what you're doing.

Most churches, if they're really functioning well, they're going to be doing a lot of community outreach and events.

You need people that are willing to work 40, 50, 60 hours to do the grunt work of service, going into people's houses, cleaning for them, doing yard work, whether it's events that you put on.

This takes hours of time like you would expect for any other corporate

vendor to go to an air show.

It takes hours and days and weeks to do a lot of this stuff, planning for years.

So it turns into a business because

you need people to work it, and people can't live off of $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a year anymore.

And so the church is a non-profit, so the non-profit doesn't really bring in a lot of money.

So then they're constantly trying to get donations.

So there's obviously an abuse of power in a lot of churches and a lot of mega churches.

And I've seen stuff too that makes me want to throw up.

You know, I'm just like, ugh.

Thank God I am not associating God god with that kind of church because that's not who god is that's an expression of ego excessiveness maybe grandiose personalities or just you know gluttony whether it's money or food or whatever it is so um i i definitely can see why people would have like a thought about that in a negative way because most people when you see it it's kind of gross but ultimately the people that are really doing a lot in the community, there's a lot of really good solid churches that need money to support like communities and that can sit with people that are going through hard seasons that need that pastoral care, the hospital visits.

So I'm a firm believer in the organization of the church.

I think it should be an expression of who you are as a person.

And, you know, everybody's got to eat.

So I think people should be fed and paid well if they're in service because I don't think just because they're doing stuff people don't want to do that it's not highly valuable.

I could see that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah.

Yeah, I could definitely get behind that.

I think the megachurches are where it gets a little extreme.

Yeah, and I think it's just more people, people, more money to manage and more opportunities to kind of, you know, take advantage of situations.

But yeah, ultimately, it's just, it's just like anything else.

You need money to pursue something that your vision is to go forward.

Absolutely.

So church has been a big part of your life growing up and everything, too.

Yeah.

I was raised in the church by a single mom, and

she

She lived a radical life and she made a lot of radical choices.

She actually left my dad when I was two from an abusive relationship.

She had three kids under the age of eight and went to a women's house for abused women and children in troubled teens and left in the middle of the night.

This is early 80s when there was no laws to protect against domestic abuse for a partner.

So she didn't have any support or help.

And so she went to

a shelter.

She started to rebuild her life.

She stayed with family and friends, extended friends, and then decided to put herself through college.

So

I learned a lot about faith through my mom and through her life, and she raised me with my foundation of faith.

Humble beginnings.

Yeah, humble beginnings for sure.

Wow.

Yeah, I grew up in a single-parent household too.

Yeah.

I hear a lot of guys talk about it.

I've never heard a female actually talk about growing up in a single parent household.

Yeah, I mean, she's obviously, she was my hero,

and she lived a beautiful life.

And I can't imagine the stuff she had to go through in the season of life, in the economic times that she was in, in the governmental times she was in, and all the experiences that women dealt with prior to even today.

There's so many things that women have been held back on.

So, I really highly respect her.

I found myself too in a single parent situation, which is something I never expected.

I was married for 23 years.

Wow.

And so now I'm kind of mirroring her life, which in itself is super weird to think about, but it's actually really beautiful and powerful because I took a lot of her life lessons.

And I don't look at it as like

a hindrance or like a handicap.

I think I'm like, this is amazing.

I have my amazing kids.

I get to choose what I want to do and think how I want to think and lead my life and lead my kids into a legacy that I feel is lasting and powerful.

And so I don't feel like it's a handicap for me.

Clearly, I would love a male support.

They're important.

I think men and women are better together 100%.

And I think a woman should not necessarily be doing it on her own.

But if it comes down to it, I think there are choices that need to be made.

And I think if it comes to that, then that's okay.

And I feel really good about it.

Yeah, the other partner's not stepping up.

It could actually be doing more harm than good, right?

So it depends on the situation.

100%.

More damage can be done by staying than actually taking the leap of faith to leave.

And I think a lot of people stay too long.

Oh, yeah.

I think I stayed probably eight years too long.

Whoa, that's a long time.

Yep.

So you had the thought eight years prior.

I looked back through journals and I had been writing the same feelings for about 12 to 15 years.

When I packed up to move out west in LA, I thought, oh my gosh, this is 2009.

This is 2011.

So yeah, I have endurance, so I'm pretty good at stuff.

So I endured a little bit in that marriage, and I'm sure he did too, because we were not.

compatible in the long run.

A lot of factors that play into that, but yeah, definitely.

Do you think you were growing faster than he was?

Oh, yes.

And that's actually a conversation we had years earlier.

But yeah, I outgrew him for sure.

That's common in relationships.

person's growing a little quicker and the other one is comfortable at that stage, right?

Yeah, it's easy to do when you divide and conquer, and you try to build an empire together, and you're like, Oh, you do this, I'll do that, and let's come back in the middle.

Um, and that was kind of what we had done in that season, but um, yeah, personal development is super important to relationships that are lasting.

And if you get together super young in a relationship,

like I was twenty, he was nineteen, and now I'm forty-four.

I have a very different mindset on things at 44 than I did at 20.

100%.

Based on life experience.

So, yeah,

I'm a firm believer in mental health and doing the inner work and doing the deep dive and so that you don't sabotage your relationships and you can build on what you, you know, a lasting legacy, build on love and life.

And personal development's needed at every level.

Some people think just because they're super rich, they don't need it.

No, I think the richer you are, the more you need it because

you don't want to, you know, outgrow your wealth.

You don't want to be your own cap to your own ceiling.

And yeah,

I agree.

Yeah.

I see a lot of people with big egos, and it's like, dude, that's going to ruin you in a long time.

Yeah, pride comes before a fall, and the egomaniac or the ego that leads the way is definitely going to be the one that falls first.

Yeah, you got to keep it under control.

And I feel it creeping up even to this day.

It's just something that's like an ongoing thing.

Oh, it is.

And like, this is a silly reference, but I was in like the Louis Vuitton store with a girlfriend.

She was buying a gift gift for another friend and I could feel this materialism thing just kind of jumping on me.

And I was like, oh my gosh, like I want this and I want that.

I want this.

And I started feeling this thing and I'm in Vegas and I'm like, ah, ah, and I'm like,

I step out of the store.

I'm like, holy cow, that was powerful.

Obviously didn't buy anything, but I listened to my body of how I felt in the environment.

And I was like, dang, there's some materialism going on here.

This is crazy.

I step out of that.

Yeah, not just Vegas, any city, but the feeling of it, knowing that I don't usually want this stuff.

Now I'm in here, I'm like, I want it, I want it.

I mean, they got it down to science with the lighting, the music, the smell, yes, the people in there, yeah, and who you're with can also influence you.

So they got it down.

Yeah, even gambling, they want you to gamble and they'll get you on the tables.

Yeah, definitely pulling at that moral compass for sure.

Yeah, I don't gamble.

I don't either.

I like to invest my money.

I don't like to spend it on things.

But if it's an entertainment, you know, maybe you're at a slot machine or maybe you want to play blackjack or something, you have 50, 100 bucks, whatever.

Your entertainment budget,

you can do it.

But as a whole, I'm not into that kind of stuff.

What have you been investing in lately?

So crypto obviously has taken a massive jump.

Bitcoin's at $84,000.

I am literally shocked.

I was just texting my guy in Miami today.

I just sold online last week.

I couldn't upset.

No, that's why I was texting him.

I was like, I should have just held on.

Oh, you sold?

I sold a lot over the last year and a half because it was crazy.

You know, you lost money.

I lost money.

And now that there's a new administration in there, I think it's going to look very different back to 2020 type of times or before 2020 when we were trading a lot better.

So I think that's going to be a good thing.

Yeah, if you could withhold that bear market that lasted two, three years, you're chilling right now.

I have

a little bit still, but not my head.

But let's see.

I'll log in and see what it's at.

We'll see what happens.

This next bull run is going to be crazy.

I think I'll hit 100K.

You think so?

Yeah, it's already at 84.

Yeah, it's the highest it's ever been, right?

Yeah.

Trump's not even in office yet.

I know this administration's going to do some wild things.

Based on the world leaders that have joined on so far, it's pretty impressive to see the support that he's received from across the world.

Yeah.

Maybe not so much in our home country, but

the average person, I think some people like and some people don't.

But living in L.A., I get a little more of an earful.

Yeah, so I spoke at a church in LA a couple weeks ago.

I spoke at Mosaic.

Oh, yeah.

I was actually there.

Oh, you were there?

I was in the audience.

Yes, I signed up because they asked me to go to leadership advance for the church because i go to mosaic okay that's where i go to church wow i started going there yeah so i went because you that's awesome and because of them interesting audience for me obviously because that's a super liberal audience and you know yeah so just speaking there was interesting yeah how did you feel when you left great people were coming up to me saying i was like really cool honestly good response yeah so i was like all right yeah you did incredible it was great it was my first time on stage that big living the dream yeah irwin's a great guy he's amazing i love that family i know i don't really know them that well, but I've followed them for like 30 years back before online was a thing.

Wow.

We had cassette tapes back in the 80s and that was crazy.

He actually was like a part of my Bible college.

And so like he would speak at it and come in and go out in Florida in 2000.

So I remember him for a lot of years.

Yeah, he just came on last week and just hearing his story about how he was doing his work for 15 years, making minimum wage.

Yeah.

It's like, oh, wow.

He's the original hard worker.

Like you just see him just plowing.

And they're also so relevant and they're so creative.

The family is so gifted in communication and just what they bring to the world in general.

It's, it's beautiful to see.

He's so knowledgeable.

And it's healthy.

He's a healthy leader.

I'm telling you, I've been a part of the church for so many years.

He's changed my opinion on church.

Incredible.

Like, and for what I come under, because I had a lot of spiritual abuse and a lot of religious like stuff over the years.

I, for me to sit under his leadership has been extremely healing

and empowering because some people would be so embittered at the church, you know, for all all the things that I've experienced and just walk away completely from God.

But it's like, if you can find a healthy leader and learn and glean from them as a person and then spiritually apply it to your life, you will, you'll have an experience and a lot of change for sure.

A lot of people tie their identity to their church that they attend.

Oh, yeah.

And so if that crumbles or the person that you're following crumbles, then all of a sudden there's hurt and people, you know, just fall off.

They fall through the cracks through hurt and disillusionment a lot of times, especially in the religious circle.

So, yeah.

Yeah, because then you blame the whole religion.

Yeah, you turn your back on God and it's like, hey, that was a person who was in their ego.

Yep.

Don't turn your back on God.

He still loves you.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, I do believe in something now.

I think I said at that talk, I was atheist before the show.

I heard you say that.

I didn't know.

I didn't know a ton about your spiritual history.

That's awesome.

Yeah, well, I went to church a little bit, but as a kid, you're like bouncing off the walls.

Like your

church setting is not really conducive.

It depends on also the environment.

Like you saw mosaics, very different environment.

Oh, yeah.

If you go on a Sunday, it's not, kids can bounce around.

Really?

So they just let them wander around?

I mean, not wander, but like they have their own kid space.

But like if they were brought into worship, they would be allowed to bounce around.

It wouldn't be controlled.

Like, hey, don't do that.

Like, it's a very free environment.

So depending on where you go, it might be a different experience.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I really found my purpose through God.

It's a.

I love that.

I think it's just about a matter of time.

People can argue with theology all day long, but they cannot argue with the changed life.

Yeah.

You know, you can't argue with my experience.

I had this experience.

You can't argue with that.

And I've seen so many miracles.

Yeah.

So at a certain point, it's like,

what was your miracle that was like most eye-opening or that you didn't think like could be explained away?

I've had a couple near-death experiences.

I've had, I've witnessed people recover from stage four cancer.

I've just seen like surgeries that the likelihood of you surviving and they survive.

Yeah.

Just like so many stories like that.

It's like at a certain point, is that a miracle or was that supposed to happen?

Yeah, I think God is a just God and I think he cares and I think he listens to people when they pray.

So that's that's amazing you're experiencing miracles.

Absolutely.

Hopefully you'll experience many more.

Yeah, hopefully.

What did you used to pray?

Like what do you mean?

Just like silly stuff when I was a kid.

If my stomach hurt, I would pray.

If I felt lonely, I would pray.

But I used to pray a lot.

That's amazing.

Almost every day.

I mean, that's what it is.

It's just relationship, right?

It's not

a place to go, an organization, or an experience.

It's literally just relationship.

It's you communicating how you communicate to a living God that hears you and responds in

his way.

Yeah, a lot of the stuff would come true, to be honest.

Yeah.

I think it's a form of manifestation, too.

Yeah, I mean, manifestation, I think sometimes people, it depends on the side of church you're on.

Some of these words can get like caught up in translation with certain religions.

Like they think visualization and manifestation and some of these things are all occultic.

Really?

Yeah, it depends on how extreme of the faith you're in.

I've been in a few circles that are pretty extreme.

But with that said, like

there is so much to it with scripture.

It's like it says in scripture to call things that are not as though they are.

Well, what is that?

What is calling something that's not as if it is?

manifesting or calling a vision being a visionary and visualizing it forward um so there's so many scriptures that back up that stuff so i firmly believe it but but it's one of those things that, depending on who you talk to, they'll say, is that demonic?

Are you really worshiping God?

Are you, you know, are you new age?

Yeah.

That's good to know.

So there's a lot of division within the.

Oh, yeah.

The church is very divided.

Huh.

Yeah.

I wonder what causes there to be so much different separation.

Well, man-made rules, denominations, right?

Everybody kind of has their own spin,

whether it's an assembly of God versus a Baptist versus a Protestant, a Presbyterian, their expression of worship is going to look very different.

It's going to be quieter if you're a Presbyterian.

Now, if you're at Mosaic, it's going to be loud and all kind of music.

So they kind of divide on those little things, carpet colors, pews, children's ministry, but then it kind of breaks down to what their fundamental beliefs are.

We don't believe in praying in tongues or we don't believe in miracles for today.

And so they kind of pick and choose some things out of the Bible, what they do and don't agree with based on their personal experience.

And then they teach off of that.

And And there's a lot of pastors that do that.

I could see that because a lot of the Bible is subjective, right?

It's not very subjective.

It's left for interpretation.

And based on how you're filtering it, you can see things.

Yeah.

That's super interesting.

Yeah.

So I guess you really got to do your research on where you go to church.

Yeah.

I think the big thing is trusting your intuition, trusting your gut.

If you feel like you're in the right spot, you'll know it.

You know, like I didn't, I was going to check out a bunch of churches when I moved to L.A.

and I realized, I was like, oh my gosh, I forgot Erwin lives here.

Oh my gosh.

I remember I went to Beverly Hills High School years ago when he was here.

Oh, I'll go Sunday.

So I took my kids and we went and it was amazing.

I was like, I don't need to check out anybody else.

Like, there's a lot of great pastors in LA, but I'm like, I don't need to sit in any other leader.

Like, he is healthy.

He's sound.

He's amazing.

We're good.

We found home.

So, yeah, you'll know when you find home.

That's cool.

You dealt with a major surgery?

Oh, yeah.

This last year, I had cervical cancer.

So I dealt with that.

Yeah.

Sorry to hear that.

Yeah, it's okay.

It was just kind of like, hey, you got to to deal with this.

Erwin went through that too.

Yeah.

First time he came on the show, he talked about it.

Yeah, you don't expect to kind of go through something like that.

You know, I've dealt with cancer a lot.

I actually lost my mom to breast cancer 12 years ago.

My ex-partner, husband, had stage four cancer, and I dealt with that during COVID.

So there's a lot of touch points with cancer in my life through extended family or friends.

And yeah, so I dealt with it.

And I was just like, well, I guess we're, we're doing it.

And it's just basically, they took out my female organs, basically.

Left my ovaries, but I'm still a lady.

But yeah, it was a surgery.

They did a hernia.

They had to fix a hernia and a bladder issue that they found in there from a C-section from years ago.

But yeah, so they fixed it all, and then we're good.

That's it.

We're ready to rock.

Was that the scariest moment of your life?

No, honestly, I didn't really care.

Really?

I didn't.

I mean, I was just like, this is something else I have to muscle through.

I had just walked through a divorce, which was terrible.

I had just left a church community, which was terrible.

I I left all my friends and family, which was terrible.

I've lost my sister.

I've lost my mom.

There's a lot of terrible stuff.

A lot of loss.

Yeah.

So

that wasn't terrible.

I was conditioned kind of more like you kind of got numb to the loss.

Not necessarily numb, but just like, this isn't that hard.

This is doable.

I can do this.

I'm not going to stress about this.

It's the surgery.

I've got to keep my mental health clear.

And we're ready to rock.

Let's heal, recover, and move forward.

Wow.

That's kind of the approach I took with it.

Was that genetic, you think, the cancer?

Yeah, I think there's some genetic stuff going going on there.

I actually have a genetic doctor that's trying to do all these tests in LA, and I'm like, I don't want to know.

Sometimes it's ignorance.

I promise you that.

I'm not going to live in fear.

So thank you, but let's call that test off.

But yeah, a lot of females in my family have dealt with a lot of stuff like this.

Whether it's breast cancer or cervical cancer, endometriosis, things like that.

Yeah, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I like to live that world.

Ignorance is bliss.

I mean, I just got a pernuvo scan.

It's like a thing in LA.

Oh, yeah.

It's like a preventative thing.

Oh, yeah.

I've heard about that.

Yeah.

but a couple things came up and i'm like damn this whole week i've been thinking about it you know i got to be careful because i don't want to like actually manifest this disease into me you know yeah no it i think like don't stress in that way because fear obviously is false evidence appearing real right so there's no way there's no reason to be in fear about something of hypotheticals and that's the thing you know you gather the information make educated decisions and move forward in faith just make just make a clear clear thought and move forward but ultimately everything has to be kind of just compartmentalized because if you let it roll your whole life, you can, you know, and some people do.

And they get stuck in that.

And that's okay, but that's not where I want to be.

And Google's a dangerous place sometimes.

Yeah.

Because when you're looking up these.

Don't Google.

I know.

No, for real, because I'm pretty holistic and natural.

But when you Google these cures for like disease and stuff, none of that pops up.

Yeah.

It's all like.

No, it doesn't.

And even my doctors, I have hormone doctors.

And I was trying to do holistic, even with this surgery.

And he gave me, he's like, I'll give you till June.

It has to be done by June.

So I started holistic from January till April.

I ended up up doing it at the end of April because I was moving.

I decided to move.

But he was like, everything's looking a lot better than I thought.

So, you know, I think the holistic approach is the way to go if you can do it.

But obviously, if it's life-threatening, you need surgery, you need chemo, do what you got to do.

Agreed.

But yeah,

life is the end goal.

Yeah.

The quality of life.

So what's your relationship with death after seeing it so many times?

You know what?

It's funny because for a lot of years,

I had kind of like a death wish, if that makes sense.

Not that I wanted to die, but I was just just not afraid to die.

And I was like, life is good, but I'm good.

I can go whenever.

Like, I love.

You felt like you did everything.

I just felt like it was good, but it's not that good.

You know, like, life is good, but I've done it all.

I've had kids.

It's good, you know.

But for me, like in the last few years, when I started doing a lot of really peeling back

personal development, I really started to start to feel differently about life, which is wild.

As the layers started to kind of peel off through, you know, vulnerability and transparency of just digging deep into these stuff that I've dealt with, I started to love life.

And now it's like, oh my gosh, I don't want to die.

That's terrible.

That's a terrible thought.

And so it's funny because I have more of a healthy fear of death than I've ever felt.

Because I definitely don't want to die.

And it kind of scares me now.

Like you find a second wind almost.

Yeah.

I feel like I felt like I came back to life and I rediscovered my purpose.

I felt like I was dead for a lot of years.

I think I went through a little mini phase of that.

I used to think about dying a lot and who would care, like who would be at my funeral type thing.

But I barely have that thought anymore.

Now I'm just so in the moment.

Well, you will definitely have a lot of people at your funeral.

Not at the time when I was having these thoughts.

I don't have like six.

No, no, I know.

No, but I honestly, it's funny because my cancer journey, like

the small little one that it was in April, I had very little support.

And I had a church.

I mean, I did nonprofit for 25 years.

I did missions overseas.

I've done so much to serve people.

And after I quit the church and and

there was a lot of divide with that social circle because of me being a pastor's wife and things like that,

it was very lonely.

I had like two girlfriends reach out,

bring me dinners.

I had two girlfriends from the church.

I had one girlfriend reach out to me from Canada.

She came down for the surgery.

And my sister and my cousin, that was it.

Handful of people,

which is something that, you know, you're like, dang, if I did die, that was sad.

But I also just made a life, huge life change, and I, I wouldn't have wanted the support from all those other people because they weren't authentic, and they clearly, it wasn't a genuine relationship where they would have been there, right?

It was just an act of service to them, not to me.

100%.

I was like, sometimes it's good not to have a lot of friends, I think.

Yeah, you know, I try to keep my circle small, like Jesus.

How small was his?

Well, he had 12, and then the 12 disciples, and then he had three, Peter, James, and John.

And then John was the closest.

Okay.

It was like one who had the intimate connection with jesus so it was like the 12 and then the inner circle was three and then the closest one was i like that a little three-tiered system twelve three and then one so we should model our lives like that and our businesses can function pretty well off that too i would say i'm actually pretty close to that system i got one guy i can count on with everything three close friends and maybe like 10 yeah friends That's amazing.

I mean, I only have a handful that I, that you call inner circle.

You got your family and your couple that you would tell things to.

And it's important to keep it close because you got to trust people, you know, and you don't have enough margin or energy to give all of yourself to everybody.

No.

So reserve it for where you need to put your emotions and your energy.

Yeah, family is a tricky one.

I tried to please all my family at one point, but now I realize I need to be a bit more selective.

Yeah.

I think something I've learned is boundaries, and that's with people pleasing through service over the years, is not being everything to everyone.

And that's okay.

I know the Bible says to be everything to everyone and you can be that, but you don't have to be giving everything that you are to everybody that asks for it.

Yep.

I used to be a huge people pleaser, and I still am a little bit, but it was so bad back in the day.

Your quality of life is so different.

Yeah.

When you're worried about what everyone else is thinking, and you're just like, I'm just trying to make decisions for myself and lead.

Like, I wouldn't do this if I didn't want to do this.

I don't want to do this.

So, yeah, keeping your circle small and boundaries strong are very important.

Absolutely.

For sure.

You just went to Costa Rica, right?

So I went to Costa Rica for, I was researching out some property that I was looking at to purchase there.

There's a 20-acre homestead farm

that I want to purchase, and it has enough fruit trees on it that's already planted to kind of fund the community and give back.

But I wanted to build like a retreat center or a burnout center for entrepreneurs that go through extreme burnout or high

elite celebrity clientele that need somewhere to go.

So I was there researching out some land.

I also went to a retreat, a retreat there with some CEO entrepreneur female women, and it was good.

We were up in the jungle jungle in Uvida.

You know, it got rainy and the air went out and, you know, you got bugs in the jungle and the spiders, but it was, it was an amazing experience.

Costa Rica's on my bucklist.

Yeah, it's definitely worth exploring.

I've been several times, but Uvida is a very cool area.

Is that in the rainforest?

It's definitely in the jungle.

The ocean's right there, so you get kind of a mix of everything.

And it's just got like a surfing community.

It's really cool.

People.

Yeah.

You're big on personal development, I noticed.

You've you've gone to these retreats and doing a lot of self-yeah so i've probably spent close to a hundred thousand dollars in the last two years on personal development wow i had to hire a life coach to get a divorce because i didn't know if i was making the right decision and i hired her for several months prior and she would help me teach me how to create boundaries and what does that mean and then when it doesn't work what do i do next so i'm really big on personal development and i think people should be healthy in their relationships and in their work environments with corporations, you know, and in the industry that I work in, it's it's all customer service and you gotta be healthy.

You can't, you know, can't get triggered and pop off when somebody doesn't like what you're doing.

You got to just make adjustments and keep moving forward.

Yeah.

You got good emotional control now.

Yeah.

I feel like I've had decent emotional control throughout my life.

I think more compartmentalized than the average woman, but I think you just rein it in and do better.

Yeah.

I've always been the opposite.

I'm so logical that I don't have enough emotion, but now I'm working on actually being better with that because you can't have none.

Yeah, well, that's it.

The last couple of years since I started digging, that's when I say I started feeling, I started getting out of my logic brain and more into my emotional brain.

And that's like, oh, wow, it's different out here.

Yeah, because you can use emotions to kind of

to your benefit, actually.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

Emotions are a good thing.

Yeah, but you can't let it like control you.

That's the problem.

No.

Yeah, you are who you are.

Your emotions don't tell you who you are.

Your feelings don't dictate who you are.

You are who you are, you know?

Yeah.

So you kind of have to rise above feelings and thoughts on a regular basis.

Absolutely.

Actually, video games have helped me control my emotions.

Really?

Yeah.

That's good to do.

You can get really mad.

Yeah.

Well, I was going to say, I feel like that's the opposite because, like, my son plays and he's throwing stuff.

And I'm just like,

dude, like, calm it down.

But I think it's great that it provokes emotion.

Yeah.

It does provoke it.

So it's on the person to control it from there.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I used to throw stuff.

And, you know, my friend broke a TV in my house once.

Dang.

Yeah, it gets heated.

And you're making some money on that game.

Well, now kids.

Hoping so.

Now kids are making a living off video games.

Growing up, it was like you got made fun of if you played them.

The beauty of social media, the beauty of the internet, the beauty of all the things that's digital, you know.

It's cool to see you adapt to it, too.

Yeah.

Because

it probably helped you a ton of business, right?

A ton of connection.

Well, it's funny.

I was only on it.

I got on Instagram last year for the first time.

That's lazy.

I was on it a little bit earlier, years earlier, just I didn't know what it was.

I'm like, what do you do with this?

You just play with it.

I mean, social media was not a thing when I was growing up.

We didn't have cell phones until it was after college.

Wow.

We didn't have, we had beepers, pagers.

I don't even know what that is.

You literally get this little box and you page your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your friend, and you text them your number, like, call me.

And they, when they got it, they're like, I need to call her.

Oh, so just beepers.

And then they stop to a payphone and they call.

Wow.

Anybody over 40 knows this.

Crazy.

I did have a house telephone.

I remember that.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

So now that everything's just online, it's been a learning curve for sure because just getting online last year, I'm like, oh, dang, it's not just for play.

This is for work.

Yeah.

And I've utilized it since then.

And now I'm scaling it.

I'm doing a lot more content for the aviation stuff.

I love it.

A lot more educational space that's coming.

So yeah.

Do you have a podcast on the plane?

No, but we are going to be doing, I have another guy who's an investor and he is a private pilot as well.

And he does a ton in the brokerage space.

We're going to be doing a lot of content, taking ferry flights from LA to Vegas and just filming on it for fun.

We're going to Vanuys on Friday to film a G5 and just talk about the breakdown, the cost, the price point, fuel hours, educate people so they know more about private aviation and kind of what that space looks like and how affordable it can be for an entrepreneur.

That's cool.

One of the best investments I ever made growing up was in this company called Jet Smarter.

Oh, yeah.

I bought a membership and I met some amazing people.

Yeah, it is amazing.

And what wasn't it, was that the $900 a month one?

Yeah, it was like $15K a year.

Yeah, you buy in and then it's like a decent price point.

Yeah, I would be on G4s from New Jersey to Miami.

Yeah.

And I did that like three times.

Yeah, those are amazing brokerages if you can get in.

That's one part of the aviation sector that you can kind of, you know, just do some fractional ownership, leasing the jet, charter it.

Obviously, sales looks very different for a different entrepreneur, different purchase price point and different need.

Some people are going on vacation, but most people are buying back their time.

For me, it was great because I couldn't afford the whole jet by myself.

I was like 20 years old.

That's amazing that you're buying a jet.

I know, right?

Well done.

Good job.

I wish.

Golden.

I'd be the youngest kid on the flight in sweatpants and like a hoodie and just meet amazing entrepreneurs.

And it was inspirational.

Yeah, I met so many people when I was flying.

Like, I met some really cool people along the way that challenged me and were constantly saying, why are you still flying as a girl, as the flight girl?

I'm like, I love that.

This is the service.

I know I work in finance investments, but they're like, no, really.

I'm like, no.

They're like, get where the real money's at.

And I'm like, I know.

But it wasn't until I went through the divorce that I was like, I can't fly and be away from my kids.

I got to make the big jump.

And so sometimes you have these things in your heart and kind of life pushes you to go there.

Yeah.

And then you're forced to do it.

And then it becomes something you're, you know, successful at.

I love it.

And you're around a lot of successful female entrepreneurs.

So what do you think separates them from the rest?

I think women in general are really incredibly powerful.

I think if you look at any

part of the world where women are congregated, whether it's prison, whether it's hospitals, whether it's in a work world or in a home, they're very creative and resourceful with what they have.

And so there's a lot of women that just create businesses out of nothing.

Oh, you need a script writer, Aquan Hand script.

And so I think women are very resourceful.

And so in the entrepreneur space, I just think women that do the hard work and keep showing up and keep doing the reps every day, just...

Those are the ones that stand out.

It's the non-negotiables that you keep doing what you're doing, not because you want to, but because you know you have your end goal in mind and you're working your way backwards.

You know what I mean?

You have your vision for your life.

And so with the women that I'm around, it's really inspiring because you get to sharpen each other and you get to be challenged and encouraged and inspired.

I think women are super inspiring.

You can do a lot of things and create a lot of different differences in this world, which a lot of women do that.

They give back, whether it's nails, they're giving back to kind of help make another woman look beautiful or whether it's, you know, education or, you know, women.

seem to like to rally together.

Yeah, that's cool.

Do you see them have limiting beliefs about their potential?

oh yeah there's a lot of limiting beliefs with women still today as a generalization for sure um women did not even have the ability to work their own company or run their own finance till 1988 wow that's without a co-signer of their husband or their father or a male colleague

that's 36 years ago so they couldn't start a company they couldn't be their own female-led company with their own female-led financing wow now i work in private equity and i'm lending money to women that are in the entrepreneur space that are helping people at a low percentage, super, super low, to give them a hand to kind of scale.

And that's just 36 years later.

Crazy.

And before you need a co-signer.

So it's just crazy where we've come from in a short amount of time.

Now there can be a women president, you know, like that was on the table this year.

36 years ago, women were just fighting for the right to work.

Nuts.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's going to be a woman president in our lifetime.

Yeah, I think so.

I think Tulsi Gabbard could have a real shot at it.

There's some solid people out there.

Yeah, if not her, I could see, yeah, there's you know, it does pose with like, I've always thought this.

Now, I might get some flack for this, but I'm not 100% sure if I think a woman president is the best person.

Really?

Like,

I think if the woman can lead with logic and not emotion, and that's kind of where the emotions come in, because I think men do better leading in logic a lot of times.

I'm not sure, I'm not sure if a woman would do the same job as a man in that sense.

Now, together, yes.

This is why I love the power couples.

Yeah.

Because you can sharpen each other.

So maybe as a VP or

even if she's present, though, it will be interesting to see.

Now, I know there's other prime ministers and people that have done it over the life

of the years, but it's just, it'll be interesting to see how it does in an American culture, what that looks like.

I could see that.

Because women are pretty, can be pretty, like...

We've seen it in the last campaign trail.

There's a lot of emotions.

A lot.

A lot of slip-ups with their talks.

They pop off and say stuff.

Not that all women do that, but I I think that as a woman myself, I know I have to rein that in.

So that could be a potential downfall for a female president.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think people should get mad because that's just human nature.

That's biology.

You can't argue that women are wired differently.

Their hormonal cycle is a month long.

Yeah.

Ours is 24 hours.

I know.

You get new testosterone every 24 hours.

Look at you.

You guys, it takes a month.

So I know certain days of the month are going to be harder than others.

I got it in my calendar.

Yeah.

That's a good man right there.

Okay, take some notes, people.

You got to be a man.

That's a good man.

Lead the way.

That's real, though, because you got to know where they're at.

Yeah.

So you can act a little differently.

No, that's amazing.

Maybe surprise him with Boba or something that day.

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You need to start like a leadership program.

Yeah, I got to get like Bradley's been giving a lot of dating advice lately.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

That's hilarious.

He's got a funny show.

I've caught up a little bit with him.

I haven't watched it lately.

That's funny.

What have you been watching these days?

Oh, I'm really into like murder crime stories.

Oh, you're one of those girls.

Terrible.

I know.

Those podcasts do well.

I like, well, yeah.

No, as far as entrepreneur stuff, that's what I I watch on TV sometimes.

But like entrepreneurs, I like, obviously, the Mindshift podcast.

I love that.

I like Huberman.

Yeah, that's it.

You know,

Real Estate Ones, like the Bigger Pocket podcast.

I follow certain missionaries that are doing some stuff in the world.

I like listening to their stuff, their stories in the community, what they're doing.

But yeah.

Wow, you didn't strike me as a murder mystery.

Yeah, I like the science.

I like the forensic science side of things.

Like I like just, I'm like, I can solve their crimes well before they even,

dude, you missed it how did you miss this and it's so cold case i'm like should i call somebody there's reddit uh communities that solve murders did you know that i've seen it yes tiktok is

crazy

with all my extra time that must be so fulfilling actually like you you provided this evidence and it led to a case yeah i mean it probably would

i can't imagine they sleep very well at night in general just because of their line of work well even the detectives they're seeing they're seeing all this stuff you know and they're like i can't imagine it being a job i would ever want to be a part of but

watching it secondhand without the graphic stuff.

I don't want to see the dead body, but I definitely want to kill the killer.

Yeah, feel that.

Feel that.

Sarah, where can people find you and keep up with you?

Yeah, so I'm passionate about women entrepreneurship.

So any entrepreneur that's looking to scale their business, I have a goal setting worksheet that I want to share.

So DM me goals on Instagram on theSaramarie.net.

TheSarah Marie on every social site.

And if you're interested in corporate aviation or jets or anything with fractional ownership, charters, or purchasing, be sarahmarie.net.

Message me the word jet, and I'll make sure that I can get to you.

We've got off-market stuff and on-market stuff, and all kinds of connections across the globe.

So, yeah, whatever I can do, get you started.

We'll do it.

Awesome.

We'll link below.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks so much for the chat.

Appreciate you.

Thanks for watching, guys.

If you want to fly, hit her up.

Peace.