[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Pedal My Way podcast, where we talk about anything related to cycling and fitness. I’m your host Mukund. If you’re a fan of the show, please remember to subscribe to this podcast and follow the website pedalmyway.com. Also follow at pedal my way on Instagram to let me know of your cycling and fitness goals.

[00:00:27] Today we’ll be talking with Jake Hervey, the founder of NJ Bike Tours. Jake started NJ Bike Tours as his passion project, which he slowly turned into a small business. I invited him to the show to show us how he grew his idea from inception to a full-fledged operation. So, Jake, thank you for joining us.

[00:00:46] And to start off with, tell us a little bit about yourself. Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Mukund. I’m, I’m glad to share more about. New Jersey Bike tourist. The passion of mine. I consider myself a guide in all things. I’m a leadership consultant full-time, where I guide leaders on becoming their best selves, helping their teams and organizations be the same.

[00:01:11] Building cultures of high performance. I’m a youth minister, a guide to young people. Building, uh, character integrity and habits of success, and of course, a guide to my children. So everything I do is about being a guide in the bike. Tour businesses is just another extension of being a guide, but doing it in a way that brings me outdoors and with cool people and experiencing cool things, discovering new places.

[00:01:46] So those are, I mean, the being the guide is what summarizes everything that I do. Keeps me busy. Very nice. That’s a nice kind of, um, you know, kind of an introduction when you said that, you know, that you’re a guide kind of, uh, guiding light, uh, lack of a better word, right? Sure. It’s a good way to describe it.

[00:02:05] Yeah. Great. Absolutely. Nice. Very nice. Um, and what did you, what made you start this, um, initiative? Jake? So, uh, yeah. I’m a, I’m a very introspective person, and when I came to, actually, let me start here. When I was an undergrad mm-hmm. I had an offer to work for Johnson and Johnson. Nice. Okay. I looked up their headquarters and saw it was in New Jersey and declined the offer on that one criteria, man.

[00:02:37] Okay.

[00:02:40] And then 10 years later, I joined Gallup. Mm-hmm. Consulting firm, and their research is in Princeton. And begrudgingly took the job, moved the family to Princeton. And this was one of these moments where you realized how much you missed out on because of assumption and stereotype. And when I started, I’m a cyclist by nature, grew up in Belgium.

[00:03:10] My father worked for nato, so I grew up on a bike. Nice. You can’t drive till you’re 18. So if you’re going to a friend’s house, you’re on a bike. Mm-hmm. You’re going anywhere. You’re on a bike. I lived cycling mm-hmm. Growing up. Mm-hmm. And I come to New Jersey and realize that this is about as close to being in Belgium as I’d ever been in the us Wow.

[00:03:32] The Benelux area, farm country, rolling fields. Mm-hmm. The bakeries and the food and the. The fresh, uh, you know, the, the rows that aren’t too, um, busy with auto traffic. So, so good rows for riding bikes on. I mean, I was just blown away. And here I was thinking that I’d come to the Armpit of America, I’d accepted that.

[00:03:57] I’d accepted that stereotype. Right, right. And so two things happened. The first was humility. And I said to myself, what a great way. To share this experience with others and hopefully help them avoid missing out the way I have missed out for so long on this on New Jersey. The what now? I, I recognize is the garden state.

[00:04:25] It has a garden state. Mm-hmm. It does have an armpit. I’ve been there too. So one was like this philosophical moment and like, and almost, uh, giving back to the, to the world. If you would any participants just to say, who knew there was such beauty and such joy in your backyard? In New Jersey. And the other part of it was then also just wanting to get out and be a kid again.

[00:04:57] This is what I did as a kid. I rode bikes. Mm-hmm. We hung out, we ate great food, we explored new places, and we just took the day and whatever came without, without worry or concern. And that’s how we ride our tours, Jo iv. Nice. That’s a very nice kind of an intro to, you know, the existing stereotypes, which New Jersey does not have a great kind of a reputation outside for obvious reasons.

[00:05:24] We are south of New York, which is kind of the bustling financial hub of the world. So we are kind of the afterthought, right? So, um, and having, you know, just a quick thing about, about me is I, having grown up in Jersey and being here for the past 25, close to 30 years, This is kind of a refreshing input from an outsider.

[00:05:44] So, um, you know, you know, thanks for the validate, validating that New Jersey’s not as bad as people think it is. Um, you know, and happy to, you know, actually very happy to kind of, you know, know that you started this in the state, um, and having that in the, in the, in the title of a business as well. So, so that’s what kind of drew me to you in terms of, you know, getting your inputs on why.

[00:06:07] Uh, why this and why this particular time and those things, right? So thanks for that, uh, you know, introduction on that. You’re welcome and you’re welcome. So, kind of leading into this, right Jake, so in terms of, you know, New Jersey bike tours, um, so how did you, how did you form this in terms of as a business?

[00:06:23] Um, yeah, from a business passion, right? Is there anybody else involved or was it a one, one person operation? No man is an island. So the way this came to Formation Uhhuh was started with the real realization. I started doing it just for, for fun as a hobby. Oh. And taking people out and got the reactions I expected, which were, wow.

[00:06:49] I had no idea. I hear that every tour. Wow. I had no idea. And I’m like, perfect. Mm-hmm. Let this be an example to, uh, don’t live with assumptions, don’t live with stereotypes. It’s, uh, I really hope Mun that this bike tour might in some way help with a lot of the problems we see in the Society of stereotyping and assuming, right.

[00:07:12] Anyway. Uh, and then at one point I realized, you know what, if somebody crashed, I might be in trouble. Maybe I should get some, uh, insurance. And boy was that a journey, trying to find insurance. So I called up as many bike tour companies out there as possible, just looking for insurance. That’s all I wanted.

[00:07:29] Uhhuh it was insurance. I didn’t necessarily want to form a business right away. Wasn’t really on my mind. And finally found some insurance, and it’s expensive. And I realized if I wanted to keep doing this, I needed a way to pay for the insurance. So, uh, just a quick minute. So when you say insurance, is it kind of a business insurance or is this something specific to what you’re trying to do?

[00:07:50] No, it’s in, it’s specific to outdoor, uh, athletic events. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah. So insurance to protect against anybody getting hurt, any property being damaged. Participants damaging other people’s properties. ’cause we were going into restaurants and farms, vineyards, and if anybody I was touring with messed something up, it could, I could be liable because I had organized these things.

[00:08:17] Now you could just say, oh, we’re just a bunch of friends. The problem was I was, uh, getting people touring with me that I didn’t know. Ah, so I was, it was, it wasn’t just a group of friends and I started, that started to become important. And then we also did an event. I stop at all these farms, farm table and vineyard tours are my most popular.

[00:08:42] Mm-hmm. And it’s one of the things that makes Jersey so great is you got all these organic farms around and land is too expensive for big farms, so you can hit a lot mm-hmm. In a short amount of time. Mm-hmm. Uh, one of the farms and I started chatting in one of my visits, like, why don’t we do an event?

[00:08:59] And it was, it was doing that event that sparked these non friend requests. Ah, okay. Because that event, I did an event, uh, just a four hour ride, and we had this big farm to table meal at the finish, and it was just such a perfect day. People were like, Hey, would you do this private tour? I was like, yeah, sure.

[00:09:18] Come on, we’ll do it. I’m doing it anyway. Come ride with me. Mm-hmm. And that’s where it was like, oh, I need, yeah, I need to get, I need to get some protection here. ’cause things could go wrong. We got insurance for the event itself and that helped, uh, get the wheels turning. And then the second piece, McKoon didn’t, then I’ll stop, is just the fact that no one else is thinking about riding bikes in New Jersey and doing tours in New Jersey.

[00:09:45] So it’s a beautiful niche, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. And that’s like, Top. That’s like goal number one of an entrepreneur is to find a niche where no one else is playing, where you can be the owner of it, where you can master it and just be the best at delivering your niche. And so New Jersey bike tours, no one had claimed that U R L, well I’m gonna claim it.

[00:10:08] No one’s biking in New Jersey. I’m gonna do it. This is, it was just such a perfect niche. That I couldn’t resist. So it was those two com combined, the insurance and the opportunity for a, to be the, if you would, the monopoly. Right. So, and, and then the getting the insurance kind of forced you to form, um, an entity and that’s how kind of, you know, form the formal corporation and those types of things, right?

[00:10:32] Yeah. I’m assuming. Yep, that’s exactly right. And like anything, this was. Uh, a process. It was me trying to, so originally I built this for road roadies, uhhuh, skinny tire bikes. Mm-hmm. Racing bikes. ’cause that’s what I do most. And over, over time I was getting fewer and fewer of those. And more and more hybrid bikes, mountain bikes, gravel bikes, people Yeah.

[00:11:01] People riding much slower than I would, but, Not, not there for fitness necessarily. They just want activity. Whereas I was going out for fitness. Mm-hmm. And I realized that this was actually a good thing for me even because as a kid I didn’t care about fitness. I was just out. So I’m like, this is actually good for me to like settle down a little bit.

[00:11:27] I still do the road biking, still go for speed on my own, but my tours are more about me being a kid. Relax, chill. And so in about a year or two I realized over time what my target market was because that’s who I was getting calls from. So we adjusted our tours to be shorter duration in time and distance, and more active in non Viking like the vineyard and the farms and the historical sites.

[00:11:55] Very nice. That’s a very nice description of, you know, what you’re trying to do, Jake. Amazing. Um, quick question that I’m sure a lot of people is gonna ask is, how did you kind of start with customers in terms of, you know, when you initially started, before the company is formed up mm-hmm. To get your demand, um, demand estimation, right.

[00:12:12] So was more like through family, friends, or did you, like, on Facebook, did you put something as, you know, Hey, I’m doing this right. You know, what did you kind of, uh, do initially? Definitely a lean startup approach. Mm-hmm. And my goal was to do one thing every day, to vet, to progress a relationship with people who I thought were already, uh, selling to my captive or my, my target audience.

[00:12:40] Target audience. Ah, okay. So you have the farms. Most of the people on those farms are probably interested in going on a bike tour. With and visit farms. And so I started to form relationships with these farmers. Mm-hmm. In the area. Same thing with the restaurants that, especially restaurants that were organic, local, farm to table, those are the kind of people that would be interested in the tours.

[00:13:09] Uh, historical societies. And then I did bike clubs a little bit. Mm-hmm. But again, I started to realize that most of the people. And the bike clubs weren’t my target audience. They wanted the speed, the workout and mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Already had rides. They were going on, so they didn’t need the tour. Right, right.

[00:13:29] Yeah. And so I started building relationships over time with these folks and just, uh, some would give me a tent on the farm, or I’d have brochures in their farm stand or whatever it might be. So it was through that process and then, Uh, and then, and then the ss e o using New Jersey Bike tours as such a niche U R L.

[00:13:53] Right. I started getting a lot of Google searches. It turns out people do want to tour this area. Right. And I had no idea. Very nice. Very nice. That’s a very kind of, uh, you know, kind of a happy, not a ending yet, but you know, a happy kind of, uh, beginning stages, um, right. Yeah. So, uh, other than you, how many other people do you have as your team?

[00:14:14] Is it a team or do you have employees, or how does it work? How, how have you con contracted tour guides? Okay. There’s, well, over the years I’ve, I’ve had a total of 10. Right now I have three. Hmm. And I put, I put postings up in the universities riders nearby the. There’s a couple universities, Princeton, that I put, and I’m, I’m here out of Princeton, right?

[00:14:42] It’s the Princeton area. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Huntington, Hopewell, that area. And then I get into, down into Lambertville New Hope on the PA side a little bit, my tours as well. Mm-hmm. But those advertisements of, of jobs to be a tour guide, but on a contract basis, ah, ended up getting me access to. Uh, a community of cyclists who, and people who wanted to just, uh, be a kid like me.

[00:15:11] Of course. Very interesting. Nice. So it’s more seasonal kind of a thing. Right. And I’m assuming summer is the highest demand and winter is kind of low or zero kind of a demand. What, what would you expect? I’ve never done a tour in winter, but it’s a totally, any of us, any of us guides will do a tour anytime.

[00:15:31] Understood. Understood. Yeah. And you know, the New Jersey winters, I don’t think anybody’s gonna ride when it’s like 20 degrees with ties on the, on down the road. Not, they won’t pay for that anyway. True. Um, very nice, very nice. Um, so in terms of, uh, your target audience, right, so it’s designed for all age groups, right?

[00:15:50] I’m assuming? Yeah. Yeah. I’ve had as young as seven years old. Wow. Uh, and as old as, uh, we did a 80 year, 80 year old birthday. With Oh, wow. Him and his family. The, the beauty of these tours is I don’t need to make money. Hmm. I need to pay for the insurance, pay for the food, pay for the guides. So it, it might look expensive to some, and it, and it is, it’s not the best business model.

[00:16:20] Mm-hmm. If I took volume and did public tours like 10:00 AM Saturday, let’s tour. Then I could lower my prices because it’s a better, more efficient business model. But I’m not here for efficiency. I’m here for experience. So we take couples, I need at least two. That’s the, my pricing is set so that with two people I break even.

[00:16:43] Ah, okay. Okay. And then I offer discounts above four. So we take couples out, we take, uh, and we can customize anything. That’s as a result. So, you know, double dates are common birthdays like that are common anniversaries. But that birthday, for example, we had a a 10 year old grandson up to the 80 year old grandfather.

[00:17:08] The whole family biking, it was 12 of ’em, is beautiful. And we customized the, the ride. We put two guides on this one so that we could take two groups and they would meet up at spots and, and we were able to make it work for everybody. Nice. Nice. Very nice. And uh, you said it’s like mixed, uh, terrain rides, right.

[00:17:29] In terms of people, most of the people I know have hybrid bike or mountain bikes. Mm-hmm. You are okay with them bringing bikes or do you supply bikes as well? We say it’s B Y O B, bring your own bike, bring your, and B Y o B, the other part also. Right. Yeah. Also, because I don’t, it’s true I don’t have an alcohol license and I don’t have a, uh, I don’t have a license.

[00:17:50] My insurance doesn’t cover like, uh, My own bikes. However, however, we do offer rentals through bike shops that are in the area. So we can get you bikes, but you rent directly from those bike shops. And that’s an additional, uh, cost. We don’t get involved in that relationship except to, uh, we’ll get you, we’ll, actually, Uh, physically bring you the bike Hmm.

[00:18:14] And get you the bike so you don’t have to go outta your way and da da da. We make it easy on you. Mm-hmm. But you pay and sign and whatever else with the bike, shop directly for their bikes. So you understand the transportation of the bikes, but not on the renting part of it. More the logistics part of it.

[00:18:30] Correct. Very nice. Very nice. Yeah. Um, and how do you kind of, you know, coming to, uh, for people who are curious, right? So if, um, If somebody, like you said, like 80 years old person who’s old, you know, not, not necessarily kind of physically, not, not, uh, fit, but people who have fallen sick on the rides. Have you had any experience like that and how did you deal with them?

[00:18:55] Yeah, so we have, well first of all, we, we require helmets. That’s number one, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, and then we check the bikes before going out. So that is a risk to bring your own bike ’cause it may not be in great condition. All of our tours start at bike shops. Oh, so if we find something faulty with your bike, we’ll fix it on the spot.

[00:19:14] Hmm. I mean, that may, and that has at times meant that you need to buy a new part, but me and my guides know how to fix ’em. So you don’t have to pay for labor. We can typically take care of it, unless it’s some, it’s, that hasn’t happened yet, but unless it’s something very. Complex. We, we would, that’s the point of starting at the bike shop.

[00:19:32] Mm-hmm. Is we can get everybody ready. Makes sense. From a mechanic standpoint, the guides carry a pack with the typical tools you would need and spare parts. We usually ask people what size tires and things before, and so we can have tubes ready and we have patch kits if we don’t have the tube size. So it’s happened plenty of times where we’ve had a flat or a chain breaks or a spoke.

[00:19:54] It comes off or something. Mm-hmm. That was the worst ones. Um, we did have someone, um, crash. We’ve only had one crash in 10 years. Oh God. Okay. I know, knock on wood. It was not involving anyone else. They just ha I honestly think they had too much to drink at the vineyard and kind of veered off the road and went off to the, went off on the side of the road, so it wasn’t a bad crash.

[00:20:18] Wow. Okay. Yeah, we were very fortunate, but the way, what we’re set up to do, With crashes, of course, we have a first aid kit, take care of whatever, and you call an ambulance, which we will, we did in that instance. But, uh, we’re never more than, uh, five to seven miles from our starting point. And so that means we don’t need a SAG wagon, which means a car following you with a bunch of stuff.

[00:20:45] Mm-hmm. We’re self-sufficient, but it means that if something happens, if you’re not calling an ambulance or you’re not calling any kinda mercy help, we have, our guides are all fast and within less than uh, 30 minutes, we’re able to get back to. If you would, the starting point to get cars where we, and it has happened where we’ve gone back to pick up people, uh, who can’t finish, uh, or whatever it might be.

[00:21:15] Whatever the bike is broken, we can’t fix it. So within 20 minutes we’ll be in a car going to pick them up. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Oh, so it’s not kind of, uh, like how the European, you know, I’ve looked at some of those things, uh, where in France they have a. Like a van that you, that you said, right? Like the, like the support van coming with them.

[00:21:37] Yeah. Um, right. So even without that, you know, it’s good to know that, you know, help is on the way. Plus, as you know, New Jersey is densely populated and, you know, right. I’m sure it’s like, I mean, yeah, help can be found at the, you know, at the moment’s notice, you know? Exactly. That’s it. Mun, that’s the real, I mean, we have a plan and we have used that plan before.

[00:21:54] It’s a very simple one, but practical one, but half the time, You know, I’m getting tired. Well, we’ll stop at the next Wawa. Exactly right. Yeah. We’ll tour a little bit. We’ll get you your Gatorade. You’ll be on your way. It’s all good. Uhhuh, or we’ll stop at the next bike shop. There’s probably seven bike shops we go past in a, in each of our tours.

[00:22:13] So it’s not like we’re in the middle of nowhere, uh, Arizona, and if something happens, we need to be life-flighted. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Plus it’s a, it’s a small state up. What I’ve heard is some of the other bike tours, not bike tours, like bike rides, they start in North Jersey. They go till South Jersey in a day.

[00:22:33] Yeah, those are, yeah, that’s the, not the s shortest shore. What do they call that? Like, I don’t remember the name, but I’ve seen a couple of them starting from different points up north and you know, ending one in Cape May one at the tip. Um, you know, so it’s interesting, like, like, like you said, it’s a densely populated state.

[00:22:51] At the same time it’s a small state. Um, so help is not, you know, miss this, it’s just norms reach away, right. So, yeah, it’s a, it’s a great blend. Like I said, I’m in love with it. I mean, that’s why I’m still here 12 years later. Yeah. It’s like I, I work remote so I could live anywhere in the world right now.

[00:23:09] Well, not world obviously with but anywhere in the country for sure. But I choose to stay here. I’m a kid, I’m home. I’m comfortable. It’s. Such a good, there’s it’s farm country, it’s beautiful, right? Yeah. You get these views, but at the same time convenient. Of course. Yeah. I, I agree with you because I am next to kind of a rural area, not rural.

[00:23:33] New Jersey doesn’t, it’s not made up of big towns. It’s just like bigger, big suburbs. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, and suburbs are mixed with farmlands. Um, you know, like, uh, residential, uh, spreads as well. So it’s kinda a mix most of where you go, especially in central and, and southern jersey where we are.

[00:23:50] Correct. Very interesting. So now that you kind of, you know, touched, touched on some of the, um, you know, the challenging aspects of it, what would you say are some of the memorable milestones that you kind of passed or, you know, happy, happy moments? Happy moments. Uh, look, any time. So getting guides was such a huge milestone to making this available to more people.

[00:24:17] Mm-hmm. I’m a father of four. You heard. I, I run a ministry group, right. I’m doing my full-time consulting gig. I’m out of town most of the week. Like there I was not able to do many tours and so, When I, there’s a, and I’ll give a plug for Sour Land Cycles in Hopewell, the bike shop that was opening up at the time.

[00:24:40] Mm-hmm. And I met the owner and just told him what I was doing and he was like, oh, we have employees that might be interested. And that was a huge breakthrough. Nice. It had nothing to do with me, just like I said, I have a goal. Of one day every day. One thing for relationship momentum. Mm-hmm. It’s all built through relationships.

[00:25:01] And so, you know, yes I’m in the game that way, but it just so happened that this bike shop opens, he has employees and they, and there were three of them that all said, yes, I’ll be your guide. And that was such a breakthrough about eight years ago when I started to do this more at scale. I. Oh wow. Huge milestone.

[00:25:25] Yeah. Wow. And then the other happy milestone for me personally was getting out of events and into private tours fully. So I did events in the beginning every year or twice a year. Big groups of people. Again, it makes sense financially. It’s one and done. It’s great for branding. You get scale, you get a bunch of hype around it.

[00:25:54] So I think it was an important start, but it wasn’t, it’s not my gig. I, I want to be close to the people I’m touring with. I want to know who they are and what their motivations are, what their ambitions are, what’s, you know, like I get to know people on these tours. That’s much more rewarding to me. That’s much more Jo IV than a big.

[00:26:17] Like concert type experience and so personally. Mm-hmm. Being able to fund this business as a private tour was a huge milestone. And that just came over time with, again, with those guides being able to bring in more tours and people learning more about NJ Bike tour. So when you said, you know, a first big milestone, um, How do you measure success for this business?

[00:26:46] It’s because it’s a passion project for you. Um, and, you know, you are more for the experience of the, of your customers. Mm-hmm. So, uh, what would be kind of, uh, you know, what, how do you measure success is, you know, lack of a better word, how do you Yeah. It’s interesting because I’m such a measurement guy.

[00:27:04] Mm-hmm. If you were to talk to me with my consulting hat on, you probably would hear that word too often, and. Uh, coming from Gallup, that’s what we did, but I don’t have a survey necessarily that goes out. I don’t have a quantitative measure. I’m not looking at the financial performance as my key performance indicator.

[00:27:30] Mm-hmm. Although it’s important to justify continuing this, but there are Google ratings, so the same way a customer. A potential customer might answer that question, are these guys, are this gonna be a good experience? I’m also looking at those and saying, are we giving people good experiences and how, uh, what are the ratings?

[00:27:54] And they’ve been great ratings so far. And repeat customers is also something I do measure. True, true. Yep. And repeat customers, obviously. That’s a big deal. And we’ve had, every year we have had. At least one out of five. Repeat. Oh, nice. Uh, so that’s, that’s actually quite impressive. I don’t know what the industry standard is, but when you think about what we do, you do a tour and you think, oh, I’ve done it, I’m done.

[00:28:25] I’ve seen Jersey. But we, we do a beach, a shore tour. We de we do a tour that involves more of the Delaware River, so you get more. Uh, you get vineyard tours and you have farm tours. So there is variety and the repeat customers is, is for me, the most important measure next to the ratings mm-hmm. At Google, uh, because it shows that we’re delighting and giving the true jo de iv experience.

[00:28:56] Right, right. Yeah. And they want it again. Very nice. Very, very happy to hear the um, Jake. Um, but along the way, right, you must have kind of, you know, um, may, maybe not as a continuous thought, I’m sure you also thought about, you know, hey, where do you see this in the future? You know, um, I don’t know if growth is the right word for this, because, you know, you are not seeking to, to monetize it as, you know, like as a business, but rather as an experience like you mentioned.

[00:29:26] Um, where do you see this going? Like, you know, in the future? Like, you know, the, the next two years, five years, 10 years and beyond? Have you given, given it a thought or any ideas? Yeah, I would love to see it grow. Mm-hmm. I don’t know if I’m the right person for that now. Okay. So when you gave those time periods mm-hmm.

[00:29:46] Uh, I would say in 10 years maybe I’m at a place where I can spend more time on it and it won’t. There’s opportunity costs anywhere you spend your time. So I have to think about my, what I want to accomplish in life. Mm-hmm. And where does the NJ Bike Tour experience fit in those priorities? And right now it’s probably number three and everything I have going on, so I don’t want it to grow, uh, for, for.

[00:30:17] My sake, I want to keep it where it is, but it’s such a rewarding experience for people. Mm-hmm. And I have such a passion for it that I want more people to experience it. So what I would love to happen is to have one of my guides, or have somebody who is interested in, in, uh, growing this. Do that and, and give it to more people without me having to be caught up in the investment required the time, in particular investment required to, to get this to more people.

[00:30:56] So I do want to grow the availability and access. Mm-hmm. But I don’t want to grow the investment of time in particular that it would take to get there. So I’m a. It’s, it’s just a matter of timing and people, uh, coming into my life and world, uh, that will determine what I see N J bike tours actually becoming in the future.

[00:31:25] Ah, okay. So if, if by, you know, not only through, through this being word of mouth, you know, Google reviews, people are given you, you know, like, uh, I mean, I even, I’ve seen the reviews. It’s actually, you know, very nice to get, get those feedback. Mm-hmm. Um, you’ll eventually see a growth more than you can handle.

[00:31:46] Hopefully that that’s a good problem to have in most businesses. As you can, as you can, uh, you know, understand. But I’m just wondering. Right. So if this is more on, um, kind of, uh, you know, your approach to this is more holistic rather than just a financial. So I’m just wondering, would you form kind of a take on full-time guides or something like that?

[00:32:08] I mean, just a kind of, you know, wondering how the business might go as you start. I, I would, with the right general manager, call it Understood. Understood. Like I need that kind of a role and I don’t have a whole ton of income to give. It’s seasonal, so it’s gotta be somebody who. Has another source of income is semi-retired or whatever it might be.

[00:32:27] Makes sense. Yeah. And if I could find that person who’s all in and aligned from a values and vision perspective and purpose and mission Uhhuh, then uh, I think that would be the catalyst for growth. Understood. Great. Nice. Um, and for you to have, and and you said you’ve been doing this for the past seven, eight years, correct?

[00:32:47] I’m almost at 10. This is, uh, we formally my first. Uh, event, this was before I had formed the L l C was June of 2013. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. Almost was it a couple of months. Nice. Yep. Do you have any, any tenure parties, any, any event planned or, uh, there’s only one guy that’s been with me for the full 10 year ride Uhhuh, and, uh, I’m glad you said that.

[00:33:17] I should do something for him. And, you know, if I was looking to grow, this would be the perfect opportunity. Oh, 10 year anniversary and put it out on Facebook and push it in social media, which does work. I, every once in a while I will put something in Facebook and pay for, pay for it to go out. Mm-hmm. Um, but you know, like New York and Philly, I have, there are such untapped markets that I could go into if I, but I don’t, again, I need the right person, but there is really a ripe audience.

[00:33:48] Here to attract. And if this was a typical business, you’re right, this would be the best moment, one of the best moments to just be like, Hey, you know, discount, we’re celebrating, invest in some media and like, really work, work. It might even be a good year for an event. As much as I, um, don’t wanna do those regularly.

[00:34:10] Mm-hmm. An event from time to time is, is not, is a great way to inject some energy in a brand, but, uh, I am glad you said something. I’m gonna go to this guy, his name’s Dave. I’m gonna go to Dave and we’re gonna go out to a nice dinner, have some drinks, uh, celebrate the 10 years. Nice. Good idea. A good shout out to Dave right at this point.

[00:34:33] Nice. Um, so what, do you have any guiding thoughts or, you know, I mean, um, by, by, by the way, Jake, you know, you know, I think we are close to the end of, you know, end of the time you have allocated to me, you know, thank you for that. Um, you know, just as a closing remarks, anything that you can kind of offer as a thoughts or guidance for people starting their own mentors like this?

[00:34:55] Yeah. Uh, I, I’ll start with reiterating that practical advice. I think the success of my launch came from this one being disciplined to the idea of doing one thing to advance a relationship every day. Everything is built through relationships. Mm-hmm. And momentum. So that’s my biggest advice on actually getting something to launch.

[00:35:23] Even if you’re frustrated, stuck, whatever, just do one thing every day to advance a relationship that can help your business the other. But then backing up from that, I do think the niche goes a long way. Uh, if you can find a niche that you truly. Think you can service. That’s the, that’s two parts. One, find the niche, and then two, truly service.

[00:35:46] That’s where my passion comes from, being able to service this with true, uh, energy and, and, and joy, because I love it so much. Mm-hmm. You know, those are the other, the other keys. It’s hard to find. I didn’t find it on purpose. I found it by being thoughtful about my life’s experiences, so maybe that’s something to consider.

[00:36:11] I don’t know if that’s transferable, but that’s how I ended up with this. It wasn’t like I did some kind of smart market analysis. It was me paying attention to what gives me energy and joy. Mm-hmm. And then trying to share that with others. Yeah, that’s a very good point actually. Right. So your passion or your kind of a niche was in cycling and you know, the beauty around you.

[00:36:40] Um, for somebody else it might be electronics and you know, their workstation, you know, something, you know, um, doing something along those lines, maybe having a tutorial or kind of a teaching, you know, teaching sessions. Um, but, but your overall idea of, you know, people connecting to people. Because without people, you know, you can’t do anything.

[00:37:00] Right? So you need to know, know people at the right places, I would guess because you had strategically kind of reached out to bike shops, you know, through the farms for the farm to table, kind of an experience. You know, those things really matter and you know, it can be expanded to any industry, you know, from what I understand.

[00:37:16] Totally. I agree. That is transferable. Yeah. So great. Um, um, you know, thanks Jake. Um, you know, it was a, Revealing conversation or rather, you know, we learned a lot. Um, you know, and thanks for taking us on a journey on how we started and you know where you are now and congratulations on the 10 year anniversary, right?

[00:37:38] So hope you, hope you launch a 10 year, uh, you know, edition bike or something, right? Yeah. So a 10 year tour. There are a couple tours we have in the works, uh, but Koon thank you for asking the question. You know, it’s your curiosity, wanting to learn more, asking the question. I’m using that broadly in all the questions you ask.

[00:38:00] Thank you for asking the question. That’s how we learn and that’s what opens up the world to us. So thank you. Yes, likewise. Jake’s again, you know, thank you for your time and, you know, letting us learn more about it and they can find more information on nj bike tours.com. Correct. You got it. Yes, sir. So once again, Jake, thank you and, uh, congrats on the anniversary and you know, hope you have a nice weekend.

[00:38:20] And you the same. All the best, Macun. That was a very interesting conversation. Wouldn’t you agree? Follow Jake and NJ bike [email protected]. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you on the next episode. Cheers.