However it might look from the outside, there’s more to superyacht sales than signing huge cheques and popping champagne. In short, there’s a lot more nitty gritty. The President of Denison Yacht Sales, Bob Denison, is a case in point, having grown up in a boatyard and spending his formative years sweeping up screws and nails from the shipyard floor. Bob gets us up to speed on how to enter superyacht brokerage – and why more diversity is needed now more than ever – the role of crypto within the industry, and gives plenty of time and attention to why we need to just “pick up the phone” and stop hiding behind our emails.
Transcript —–
Farah [00:00:07] Hello and welcome to the Shipshape Podcast, a series of podcasts where we meet amazing people and talk about their experiences, personal, technical and all related to the maritime world. Come and dive in. Dive in, Dive in.
Merrill [00:00:41] Today on the Shipshape podcast, we have Bob Denison president of Denison yacht sales. Your to host today our Merrill Charette on a liveaboard on a Ta-Shing Tashiba 36 in Boston Massachusetts.
Talha [00:00:54] Hey guys welcome to the shipshape podcast this is Talha and we have Merrill and we have Bob Dennison with us and I am aboard my 40 foot powerboat in Virginia and it’s not as cold as Boston. Bob, where are you joining us from?
Bob [00:01:08] I’m here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where it’s the kind of weather that would make both of you guys just in your lives a little bit because it’s perfect. The skies are blue. It’s like 60 degrees. And yeah, it’s just one of those days you’re really happy that you live in a town like this.
Talha [00:01:22] Nice. And that’s the place to be. A couple of friends who escaped winter, probably somewhere in your neighborhood. I don’t know if they’re on boats, but you know, they’re also liveaboard. So yeah, Thank you for joining us on the show. It’s going to be fun.
Bob [00:01:35] Yeah, for sure.
Merrill [00:01:36] So, Bob, you come from a legacy of being in the boating industry. Did you grow up on boats and what type of boats did you actually grow up, you know, boating on?
Bob [00:01:48] So we grew up mostly at the shipyard. My grandparents and then my uncles and my own parents built boats starting in the forties, obviously way before I was around. So my earliest memories are in Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach, and up in Saugatuck, Michigan, where our family had a yacht building plant, a broad Marine. But I spent a hell of a lot more time, sort of like sweeping up screws and aluminum shavings and stuff like that more than I was on yachts. I was sort of in and around them. We did have a 46 foot round sport fish that was a wooden boat. That boat was called the Angler. We were on that boat quite a bit, but yeah, I was more in the shipyard, less on the ice.
Talha [00:02:27] That’s cool. And this is like way back because it was a wooden boat. So what are we talking eighties?
Bob [00:02:32] So I was born in the late seventies. By that point, Broward had gone away from wood boatbuilding and they switched to aluminum in the seventies. So all the bridges that were built around the time that I was at the yard were built out of aluminum.
Talha [00:02:46] Nice. And do you have any sort of fond memories from back then? The down the ocean that brought you back? Was this like the way down the line? You coming back to the family business? Completely unconnected.
Bob [00:02:56] Yeah. So I don’t think I have ever really skipped a beat in my life or career. I wasn’t somehow involved in the industry, I mean, at the earliest age. So like around the backyard, anybody that grew up in a family business sort of environment might relate to the fact that we would spend our Saturdays just at the shop sweeping and doing random things. Maybe we would celebrate birthdays and my dad would invite all of our friends out on a like a quick boat trip. And then when we get back for our birthday, he would have us clean up crap around the yard as a pretty good example of that. So it was a lot of like, Yeah, I’m in the yachting industry, but it’s not as cool as you probably think it is kind of stuff, but it was a growing up that I wouldn’t trade for the world, especially now that that’s what I of course do for a living. And it offered a really neat perspective not only on the like cool part of the yachting thing and the being on a yacht is awesome, but also just the people that help build the boats. And that’s really what our industry I think needs to do a better job of is less, you know, Beyoncé cracking a bottle of champagne in the meadow somewhere with whoever the cool pretty people are. But the people that built that boat really is, is is what makes our industry what it is and you know all that stuff, the economic impact of it. So for me, even now when I look out at a yacht, it’s hard not to just see the people behind it that make that thing possible, you know?
Merrill [00:04:11] Yeah, it’s certainly interesting perspective. We’ve heard that from several of the people that we’ve interviewed in the past, where you look at a yacht and you just realize all of the components and people that were involved in actually creating it. Sure. You see that like the end of it where people are enjoying it and popping some champagne. But the amount of work that goes into one of these yachts is quite fascinating.
Bob [00:04:34] Yeah, Yeah, for sure. It’s a really, really important part of it. And again, I think it’s our fault as a, as an industry for not bringing that back a little bit louder. But it’s if, if you Google yacht photos or something like that, there’s a lot of like TMZ stuff that’ll come up and it’s salacious and it’s fun and it’s cool to see Leonardo DiCaprio hanging out with whoever his new girlfriend is in a bikini. And it’s just all that stuff is sort of like clickbait ish stuff. But the reality is, you know, that boat that is on not only when it was being built, but as it’s being maintained, is really about a hell of a lot more than Leonardo DiCaprio and his new girlfriend. It’s about thousands and thousands of thousands of people and families that came together to make that thing possible.
Talha [00:05:13] So how are you seeing things change? So you’ve been doing this now for decades. How has sort of technology stepped in every time and changed things up a bit?
Bob [00:05:23] I think technology, you know, just like in any industry, it’s the technology as it makes. Life easier for the people using and having fun with the thing. In this case, it’s a better job, the better that thing becomes. And I think and our industry safety and just accessibility are the two big things. So like, you know, I think a lot of people don’t get into yachting because they’re a little intimidated. Like, how do I time that weird line? I can’t remember remember, and I’m going to look like a jackass if I’m pulling into the marina or like a restaurant. Everybody’s looking at me, my palms, I get sweaty, I don’t deal with that. And you just sort of embarrassed is there’s a lot of that, like unknown unknown. And I think on the technology side, it’s going to be and it has become way easier to operate a boat. And even just like the comfortability part of it, there’s a lot of people that want to be on a boat, but they get seasick. They’re sort of embarrassed by that. Things like stabilization make being on a boat just way more fun. So I think technology is going to continue to make it a lot more accessible. And I have a we have four little kids, and I really believe this one. When they’re in high school, they’re going to be able to take their girlfriend or boyfriend out at a date, press a button, and the thing will dock itself, which opens up this boating experience to a lot more people. They don’t want to be scared of that kind of scenario. You know.
Talha [00:06:40] What about the flip side? Because like, for example, nowadays everybody’s afraid that air is going to steal the jobs. What, like you again, you guys have been long enough. How has has technology previously stolen jobs.
Bob [00:06:51] Yeah I mean I think and any part of that so when we were building Broward, there was it used to be all handmade. And of course you have the weld torches, which still, of course play an important part or even a wood boat. But in the seventies, eighties and nineties, and even now there are advancements in making the cuts of aluminum more precise, more efficient, which is ultimately at some point going to result in less jobs for that part of the boat being built. But in other ways, technology introduces itself where it’s going to introduce new jobs, whether it’s electronics or different parts of the boat, where you’re going to need people to install things that didn’t exist on a boat before. So I think nowadays you actually have more hours going into a boat so you have more jobs as a result. But so the net net result is more hours, but in certain parts of it it’s less in terms of I do think at some point there will be a robot kind of operating a boat, but at you’re still going to want the human service you’re going to get you’re not going to want a robot coming out and giving you a plate of really good savage or whatever. It’s that human touch. I think part of it will remain, but I think you will see on the operations side, parts of that taken over by A.I. in the next 20, 30 years.
Talha [00:08:00] And somebody got to build them, right? So that’s a job.
Bob [00:08:02] Yep. The day I think that A.I., whatever you want to call it, Captain Experience will be. It’ll only happen if it’s better and safer. And when that occurs, it’s, you know, it’ll be a no brainer for that, for for that to happen.
Merrill [00:08:15] Getting back to your personal life, it seems like you you grew up in the Boatyard shipyard and then you went to school and then you got into the aerospace industry and and health care. What was that like? And then tell us about that experience of coming back into Marine. Yeah.
Bob [00:08:32] So I graduated college in 1999 from the University of Miami. I have to plug them because we are if you’re a football fan, we we need all the plug we can get right now. But I graduated from U-M that year. My grandparents or my grandfather sold Broward Marine, which I sort of thought my entire life growing up. That would be the thing I step into. And he sold it. Three months later, I graduated and I needed to go find a job. And I work for an Internet company that happened to be in the house air space and then and an aviation company right in like the early 2000. So 1999, 2000, 2001. And it was an awesome experience, you know, that was sort of on the forefront of of the Internet, changing a bunch of stuff. And then back then, right, right there in 2001, my parents pulled me aside and the only way they could and basically passive aggressively kind of like manipulated me into jumping back in. And I think they did the right thing in doing that. As much as I like to make fun of them nowadays for sort of pseudo and manipulating me into it, but they put some pressure on me. They said, Hey, this is what we do, this is who we are and we really hope you’ll come back again. And I did, of course, but it was about two years where I got to gain experiences in different industries that that certainly helped out a lot here.
Talha [00:09:40] I love that. So you saw the light, but tell me more about you brought up, for example, the Internet in there. Right. And again, in your business has been around way before. The Internet is down before the phone lines, even before computers even operate. And now we have the Internet and we have stuff like that. How over the years, especially, but especially now, how do you guys still find, like, you know, buyers for some of these super luxury yachts?
Bob [00:10:04] Well, two ways. I mean, the primary way is just word of mouth. And when you take really good care of people, whether you’re good marketer or decent at understanding how the Internet affects things, at the end of the day, you take awesome care of people. You’re going to very likely get those people that you take great, great care of them to tell their friends about you people on the dock. And that is our primary kind of I don’t know what you’d call that, our primary lead source, I guess. And we’re lucky enough to have a lot of good brokers that. Do that well. And then the other part of it is our our primary lead service or source is the Internet. And our philosophy from the very beginning was to make things really simple and easy for people. So we sort of embraced that UI UX thing really early on. And even today when you go on our site, it’s probably a little pedestrian, It looks a little bit, you know, not on the forefront of design, but we really, really cater to our core client is going to be a family, a man or woman in his 50 seconds or seventies that wants to very easily shop things on our search things on our site. So that’s sort of the core of what we do is to keep it really simple and not in any way in intimidating people that are a little bit older than us to go find a boat or Yeah.
Merrill [00:11:14] You guys are almost like the one stop shop if you guys are, you know, if someone’s looking to buy a boat, right? You have financing, you have charters. If you want to use boats, new boats. How does that factor into the overall business model of.
Bob [00:11:30] Dennison Yeah, we it’s really important to us. We of course, started just on the brokerage sales front after my grandparents sold Broward. And then what we what ends up happening when you start a business like this is you end up referring, let’s say, to charter or cruise services or financing insurance to other places. And most of the time it’s a pretty good experience. Sometimes it’s not. And the bigger you get and the stronger you sort of become, you become like obsessed with like we are of making sure the client experience is a good one. So we want to control that. And it sounds like a weird word, control, like we want to control our clients and but to make sure and guarantee that the people here are all working together to provide a good experience throughout, like the whole buying or ownership process is important to us. And yeah, that’s critical. And so our our newest division, which was started four or five years ago, is yacht management. And that whole thing is just about making sure people with the bigger yachts can own a boat and and provide sort of just an easy, good, safe ownership experience throughout with, with all the boring stuff like the lagging and crew issues and shipyard periods and things that go into that.
Merrill [00:12:38] During the process of, you know, selling the boat and then after it’s sold, How do you maintain contact with your clients? Because obviously we’re talking about word of mouth. You have to have some type of amazing customer service.
Bob [00:12:51] Yeah, we do a pretty good job there. So like during the selling process and we talk about it a lot here, like when somebody decides to allow you as a yacht broker to sell their boat, you’re giving that firm and that broker a pretty good chunk of money there and we need to earn it. And a lot of times I think a yacht broker, even as good as they are, sometimes there’s not much to talk about until there’s an offer. So one of the things that we developed as an example is an owners dashboard. So you can see in real time the email marketing. We’re doing a social media marketing, we’re doing, we do a lot of video stuff and you can log in and really get access to all the stuff behind the scenes and then immediately be able to talk to your broker about it. So communication is a big part of it and sometimes brokers don’t have anything to talk about. Let’s say you were to sell your boat and there’s not much activity. The broker calls you up and says, Hey, I just wanted to let you know we’re working hard. See you later. But that dashboard gives sort of like data and meat to that conversation. So those are the ways that we try to be transparent about what we’re doing and give our brokers a really good reason to call somebody up and say, Well, we haven’t had an offer yet. We’re working like hell. And here’s an example of what we’re doing.
Merrill [00:13:59] We asked Ken Clayton, the owner of Intrepid Powerboats, the same question here. So you started from the floor and now you’re president now. And obviously through all those different experiences you’ve met diverse group of people. Can you give us any tips on communication skills in the industry?
Bob [00:14:19] Yeah, by the way, I’m a big fanboy of Ken. I think he’s he’s awesome and I’m very proud of my beard. But I traded in any day for just for a few minutes of that guy’s mustache. But the communication part of it’s really important. I think one of the most important communication themes is to have hard conversations in real life. And I think that too often and this isn’t specific to yachting, of course, this could be anything, but I think too often it’s easy to hide behind an email or text when you have to deliver hard news, whether it’s to a client or another broker or even to your spouse or I don’t know. And I think that’s one of the things we’ve been talking about lately as a company is when you have to have a hard conversation, pick up the phone and talk to the person or go meet them in real life. And I think oftentimes our industry does a bad job. First of all, even getting back to people when there’s bad news. And then secondly, delivering the bad news in a week, hide behind an email kind of a way. And I think that that’s a big way that we could do a better job as an industry. And and I think you’ll see more of that happening.
Talha [00:15:19] So. But tell us a little more about you do all this on a global scale. This is a bit more about that. Is it like more U.S. based or like is it well spread out? You know what? What sort of is it different target markets in different regions. You know, has the demand always existed worldwide or is that like a new endeavor?
Bob [00:15:39] Yeah, I think that’s one of the unique things about our industry, is boats, of course, move around quite a bit and you could be in Boston one day and Newport the next, and you can go to different harbor every week if you want to. So we very much consider ourselves a not only national but international company. We do have an office in Monaco, which is the place you’d want to be on the big boat side of things. And that activity on a sales and charter front is really taking off. And then here in the U.S., we have 21 offices. Every one of them, except only for one, is attached to a marina or a shipyard up and down the east and west coast of the U.S. And for us, it’s really important to be there physically. And we see it especially with the smaller brokerage market and even with the bigger. There’s a lot of movement with the boat seasonally. So it’s important for us to have a local, you know, peoples and a local office and all of those places.
Merrill [00:16:31] One of the things that we always hear in the industry is the issues with bringing youth into it. Can you speak on that subject?
Bob [00:16:38] Yeah, I think that’s an issue, but I think it can be a distracting issue for some companies that can become and there’s some marketing people that become obsessed with reaching out to Gen Zers and you can and I think it’s really, really freaking important, but I think there’s still an underserved market and the Gen Xers and the boomers that haven’t been made aware of how safe and voting has become compared to when it was in the sixties, seventies and eighties. So I think it’s really, really important and I think as industry we need to do it, but we also can’t take our eye off the ball and making sure that our core customer is looked after. My favorite thing about Gen Xers and Millennials getting into the industry I think is the shared consumption model, which is like boat clubs, of course, and charter companies and day boating and stuff like that. I think is is really where we’re going to get that younger guy or gal into boating. And I’d love to see much, much more of that and many more clubs pop up, but I think that’ll happen and I think you’re going to see a continued growth of younger voters coming into the market. They just might not own a boat. They may charter it or join a boat club, which is just fine.
Merrill [00:17:42] It is a gateway boat, right?
Bob [00:17:45] So it doesn’t matter what kind of friggin boat you’re on when you just get out on a boat, like it’s just less likely. You look at your cell phone, for instance, and I don’t know if it’s a rowboat or canoe or a little by rider. It doesn’t matter. And I think once you get that and once you’re like, Oh, man, this is a place I can interact with the people I’m with in a deeper, cooler way and the environment around me like it will hook you for life and you’ll continue very likely to climb in terms of boat size and all that stuff. So yeah, I think just getting people out on the water is the best first step.
Talha [00:18:17] I agree. So tell us, Bob, what does like a day in the life of a boat broker look like a yacht broker?
Bob [00:18:24] So it’s a hell of a lot less exciting than you think it would be. There’s a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails, a lot of behind the laptop stuff. There are some pretty cool perks, of course, when you get to go out and just be on the docks and get on a boat and go fly for a sea trial or go meet a client at a really neat destination. But it’s a lot of CRM, customer management, software stuff following up, even just like the boring things, you know, like just calling up. I just got off the phone about 20 minutes ago with an owner of a boat that was having a hard time, and he’s a good client of ours and I’m calling people up at Engine Places trying to advocate for them to respond a little bit quicker. It’s all that. And at the end of the day, while it’s less exciting, it’s really rewarding because it’s and it’s not like a yacht broker. It sounds like sort of this waspy. So it is, I guess for the most part, most young farmers are older white guys that wear yellow pants, but there are parts of it that are unbelievably meaningful because, you know, you’re truly like engaging with a family in a totally different way. And I really believe this. When you own a boat, your family is out in the water. Yet, you know, I’m going to sound a little cheesier, but but you do and enrich their lives and you make that experience better. It really is a life enriching thing to do for a living.
Talha [00:19:36] MM Agreed. And then you mentioned something crucial there, sort of what got married and I had to start shipshape at all. But how do you guys deal with the repair side of things and the server side of things when somebody bought the boat and you mentioned you’re calling people up and you try to make things happen, but what is the state of that industry in your mind? And you guys said you like to control the whole experience. How are you guys controlling that?
Bob [00:20:01] Well, we’re controlling it only for a segment of our So we have a new boat part of our company where we do warranty and conditioning and that kind of thing, but we don’t do a lot of the kind of retail brokerage like after like a boat that’s ten years old, taking care of helping that. But we are working mostly with third parties. I think that part of our industry sucks a lot. Yeah, hold on. And there are other ways that it’s awesome. It just depends. A lot of things on geography, on the type of thing you need fixed, but I mean. Many friends in that part of the industry. They’re all very well-intentioned and good people. But a lot of times it’s it could be a very small operation and there’s not good systems or processes in place and forget to call people back. You forget to order the part. You know, you’re you just are constantly battling with big time demand and not a lot of supply on the human talent side. And it’s a struggle, but it sucks, man. It’s it’s a really tough part of our industry, but there’s some people doing it really well. And again, a lot of it is based on geography and a lot of it’s based on time of the year. But it can be really, really frustrating. And that’s probably the was a few things that keep me up at night. That’s one of them long term is I hope one day I get to manipulate my own children to get it and the end of the industry. I think that maybe we really need to step it up.
Talha [00:21:16] Their morale was that crazy stat we have. On how many boat service providers for every boat?
Merrill [00:21:23] Well, if you exaggerate how many service providers there could possibly be, and then you look at how many boats are actually registered, it’s one Marine business, whether it’s a small mom and pop shop to one of those giant Marine maxes. There’s 175 boats. So there’s a huge problem when it comes to service. But that may last year they came up with some statistic where it was like, God forbid, if you needed some service, it would take if you needed a part, it would take them 30 days to just order the part and then it was like 30 days to work on it so that bam, a huge chunk of the season. But, you know, we’ll see how it all changes. I’ve seen a lot of younger companies enter in the space that are trying to become bigger. You certainly have like the old guard of marine repair and refit that are so busy with the work that they have now that they’re like, Oh, we don’t need anything else, which certainly messes the customer experience for the boat owner. Yeah, it’s going to be a journey for all of us. So here’s a question, right? You know, talking to people in the superyacht industry, superyacht industry has changed in the size of boats and the amount of boats that are actually being put out there. How do you see the future of the Superyacht industry headed? Like where is it going over the next ten years?
Bob [00:22:46] There’s a lot of conversations years ago that have led to real things happening in real life in terms of boats embracing greener technology on the Cypriot side, which I think is great, and those builders and designers and owners aren’t doing it just to sort of look like they give a damn about that. But they really, really do give a damn about that. So I’m very much encouraged at that. And I’m not even talking about propulsion and emissions stuff, but just even the use of plastic cups on board and things that are just widespread for years on boats have been just really stupid things to do for them. But like all that stuff’s being cleaned up and I love it in terms of demand, massive demand with not as the on the supply side, again, it it’s hard for the shipyards to keep up. So you’re seeing a lot of these shipyards in Europe that have backlogs of years and years and years and years. So on that side of things, our industry is looking pretty healthy. But again, it goes back to the human part of it. One of the struggles we’re having is the captain and crew part of it where there’s not enough people to service these boats, which becomes an issue. So that trickles down and that’s going to mean really nice family here. And let’s say Fort Lauderdale wants to hire a captain and a few crew are not going to have a lot to choose from. So it’s going to get more expensive for them to hire crew and they may get service. That’s not great as a result of just paying too much for somebody not quite as experienced. And that may push people out of that, out of the industry. But overall, it’s really healthy. It’s mostly just the people stuff that that we need to get our arms around.
Talha [00:24:09] And then, I mean, I remember working on a real estate planning website five years ago, and back then it was like million dollar properties were selling for at the end they’d be like, you know, Bitcoin or Etherium it. And this is again, five years ago. How was that in the yachting industry?
Bob [00:24:24] You mean it’s here and it doesn’t matter so much the value of Bitcoin today or tomorrow. It’s just guys like my dad or women like my mom. And just the more people that are out there five years ago would roll their eyes at a conversation with bitcoin. Perhaps they might own some themselves and are more comfortable talking about it and using it. And we’re seeing we’re continuing to see a real growing demand there. We just closed on our 30th actually might be 14th. Now I need to check, but it’s a little more than a dozen transactions using crypto charter and sales and we’ve had three of them over $10 million. And I don’t think that’s going to let up. And again, it has less to do with the price of Bitcoin today and more to do with how comfortable boomers are and using it or Gen-Xers. And I don’t think that that side of the buying process is going to go anywhere.
Merrill [00:25:09] Previous years, you guys were the number one in both sales. How many boats have you sold in totality? You have any like range of numbers? Yeah, I.
Bob [00:25:18] Hate answering that question because it just sounds so obnoxious when I’m like you, the biggest or the best is amazing, but we are. I’m just kidding. But we do. It’s hard to measure that stuff because unlike real. The state or automotive industry doesn’t keep track of those stats as well as they do. But voter national keeps track of all superyacht sales over 80 feet. We just concluded our fourth year in a row where we responsible for the most transactions there, but we do a lot of smaller boats. So we are the last three years we sold about 3000 boats and yachts. And obviously that’s just the very literally the people behind the wall on the marketing closing out admin side, just of course, the sales team, they just work their butts off to make sure that that while it’s a big number, I want to make sure and we as leaders here want to make sure every single one of those 3000 something people had a great experience. They didn’t I don’t care how much where we were on the rankings, we freaking we screwed up. So that’s important to us is not like the big number, but just making sure that guy last Tuesday when he closed on his boat felt really good about it and he and he had an awesome experience.
Talha [00:26:21] Yeah. And again, one of our crazy stats was something like it was it one was about a year that if somebody managed to make a season, yeah, they were sort of in it for four years and then that four years, that was it. If a person made it to four years, then they were basically hooked for life and then they do a second boat, a third boat or whatever. Yeah. And it’s interesting how just inviting the ocean is in that way. You know, once you actually hear about, like you say, the kayak or you make you feel that way right.
Bob [00:26:45] Now, I was just going to say, but it all kind of ties back into the post-sale when your air conditioner isn’t working, I don’t care how cool your boat is when it’s 90 something degrees here in Fort Lauderdale, you really, really want to make sure that you get that thing fixed. And if that side of our industry is broken, it kind of screws up everything else. So that’s where I think one of the big opportunities lives.
Farah [00:27:07] This show was sponsored by.
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Farah [00:28:08] Welcome back to the SHIPSHAPE podcast.
Merrill [00:28:15] So you sure, you know, sold so many of these boats. Is there one story in particular where you were like, you know, this was the greatest boat I’ve sold?
Bob [00:28:23] No, I mean, there’s a few stories that stick out for me. And this is Joe, and I haven’t been responsible for selling anything for for a pretty long time just because I’m busy doing this stuff and running a business. But one of my favorite boat buying experiences was a couple from Canada, and they came down. And of course, when you’re selling somebody something like this, you really get to know the people. And they came down to buy a boat. And as it turned out over lunch, I found out that the gentleman had terminal stage for cancer and it was his life’s dream to live on a boat. And it did a great need. And he married his childhood sweetheart and they had never been in a place financially where they were able to do that until very recently. And he came down and of course they became friends. And that process of finding the right boat for them and then the process of helping them kind of make some really, really neat trips together. And to see a couple like that live out this childhood fantasy during the latter stage of their life was unbelievably important and sticks with me today. And I remind our brokers of that a lot because that was a very small boat, but it was a major, major deal to that husband and that wife. And that’s sort of the magic of what we do. And again, I said it sounded cheesy, but like that enriching part of people’s lives is really important. It has less to do with the size of it and more to do with this guy was able to like tap into that 11 year old version of himself that got really excited and giddy around the boat and he got to live out that dream.
Talha [00:29:53] Dude, That was a complete tear jerker. I love it. We should make a movie out of that one.
Bob [00:29:58] Yeah, Yeah. But that happens a lot and it’s and it’s neat. And I think that’s part about the boating magic I talked about is an easy place to put down your cell phone, but it’s also an easy place being on a boat to feel like a kid again. And I think you have a lot of that happening with grandparents wanting to relive that part of their lives with their grandchildren. And that’s just that’s just sort of the magic of being on the water, you know?
Talha [00:30:17] No, it’s okay. So maybe then, just like as we start closing things off, you can give us some tips. If somebody wanted to get into like the brokerage business, you know, what are some of the avenues you should explore and certifications he needs or she needs?
Bob [00:30:34] Yeah. So I think I would say and I’m glad you said it, because I think our our industry on the brokerage side really needs more men and women of color and more women especially. We are such a white dominated industry and it’s okay. I mean, there’s nothing inherently like it’s like we tried to do that as an industry or we were in some way conspiring against. But it was it’s really refreshing. And there’s a lot of men of color and women that are coming into our industry. I think it’s an awesome thing. And so I would say if you are not white, jump into it regardless of you are not a man, jump freaking into it because we need you in great ways to do that. Ah, I mean, there’s a few avenues. One of them is the cruise front where you just get on board a boat and you learn the yachting industry by serving, which I think is unbelievably important because the best people in sales or service have a very service minded outlook on their work. Life is a great one. And then also just anything on the I believe we have a lot to learn from on the real estate side. And the process of buying or selling a house is extremely similar to buying or selling a yacht. So we’ve had some success with some realtors that have switched over. But it’s just that like learning how to serve people really well no matter what you look like or how old you are, you do that in, you know, boats and you can really help people with the process of it. It’s not just the product knowledge, it’s also the process knowledge and knowing the right steps of buying or selling a boat and also the right people to refer to them to make sure that your experience is a good one. But we need you. Our industry needs you not just on the sales side, but on the training and rent side. There’s a lot of ways to make an awesome living in the boating and yachting world and I hope more people do it.
Merrill [00:32:16] But looking at you over Zoom here, you look like a young guy. Where do you see Denison going? You know, by the time your old man and your sons are taken this over.
Bob [00:32:26] Yeah. So I we just got acquired and I’m third generation, which is a weird thing to say because it’s sort of a mixed thing there. But we just got acquired by the good people of One Water who have been freaking awesome. And I mention that because there’s a lot of things that we as a company want to do in terms of growing and getting into new markets and the one water, and it’s not just publicly traded, so they’re financially really sound and all that stuff, but they’re just really good people with a different spirit respective. So I think it’s sort of revitalized. I’m in my forties, but I’ve been doing it my entire life and sort of revitalize my energy and love for this industry. And I think I was just talking to. The other day. I would love to see our boy or one of my three girls jump into it, and I think they will. But for us, it’s going to be just about making sure that they’re in and around it the right way. And they understand that it’s not about the champagne and it’s not about looking cool on the back of a yacht with, you know. DICAPRIO Although, by the way, that would be awesome. But it’s just more about serving the everyday person and making sure that they know our kids, know that that decision to buy a boat is a really, really, really big deal for their family and to have to sacrifice for them and to understand that it’s a big moment and to take it really seriously.
Talha [00:33:41] So, Bob, so you might have just answered this, but like, how do you make a family business survive like multiple decades?
Bob [00:33:49] I think my grandparents did as well and then my parents did, of course, and uncles and I hope I am, but they really understood that like that word sacrifice. And I think it’s easy to say and everybody has like customer client experience is really important to me. So we’re going to figure out how to make it happen. But at the root of it is sacrifice. And it’s about inconveniencing yourself so that somebody else can have a good experience. And so for a yacht broker, that might mean waking up really, really early to pick up somebody from the airport or showing up to the boat way ahead of time, making sure that it’s looking good. And it’s just all those really annoying hard parts of life, but doing that consistently with the right attitude. And so for them, for boat building, it was the same thing. They were constantly sacrificing themselves for their employees and of course their clients and really making sure that they were aware of. And so as a good example, when they inconvenienced themselves and sacrifice their time or their money for their employees, it really resulted in the employees being ready and willing to do the same thing for clients. And yeah, for us, I think generationally that’s a really important thing, is just to make sure that we’re willing to suffer for a good client experience that doesn’t have that.
Talha [00:34:57] Some suffer.
Bob [00:34:59] I guess, but I think it’s not very you must know that’s what we’re teaching our four year old. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Talha [00:35:04] I mean, I think it’s good that element of sort of service attached to it. And one thing I think I caught in there basically was sort of attention to detail. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Bob [00:35:13] Yeah, I didn’t say that. So that must be something you were wanting me to talk about, which I am, I think in detail is unbelievably important, not just from like the website UI UX thing, but also we’re talking big numbers. Even on the smaller boat, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. And to make sure that eyes are crossing. TS Or how does that go? Eyes are dotted and DS across and making sure that you’re looking out for the client with again, all the boring details is unbelievably important. And that’s, that’s is all the stuff we learned in the fifth grade, right? Like proofreading, double checking stuff and that attention to detail stuff on board. If you’re a captain or crew or if you’re fixing an air conditioner, that that stuff is so important.
Merrill [00:35:53] So, Bob, where can people find you? And, you know, check out the yachts that you guys have for sale and charters and all that.
Bob [00:36:00] So we are online at Denison Yachting, Ecom, and then we are at pretty much every big boat show. And I made fun of yacht brokers a few minutes ago about wearing yellow pants, but you will probably find me wearing yellow pants at these boat shows. And and we really, really love meeting new people. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a client or not. We like we just love it. And I think that’s one of the annoying parts of the Superyacht industry in particular is there’s a little too much pretense and like, are you even allowed to go in there at that display? Are we really here? I Dennison want to make sure that people feel really, really welcome to get not only and display and and talk to us but also get on board some of the bigger boats. So if you got a boat you like that and you want to go see some cool boats, please come see us because it’s really important to us that you feel you feel it. You’re only welcome to do that.
Merrill [00:36:46] Yeah, It’ll be the big orange banners with Dennis yachting on it.
Bob [00:36:50] Yes, exactly.
Merrill [00:36:51] Awesome. Well, it was a great episode. Thank you for coming on the show.
Bob [00:36:55] Thank you guys so much for thinking of me. And I admire what you guys do. And it was a big deal for me to talk to you guys. So thank you.
Talha [00:37:00] Appreciate it. Bob, thank you so much. Stay in touch and hopefully we’ll discuss more adventures. Yeah, soon.
Bob [00:37:06] Awesome. Thanks, Steve.
Farah [00:37:18] Check back every Tuesday for our latest episode and be sure to like, share and subscribe to ship Shaped Up.
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