You Can’t Control the Wind, with Nathan Foy – Episode 425 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Nathan Foy, author, entrepreneur, and the CEO of Fortis, talks about overcoming your “milkshake moments”, how 9/11 almost toppled, then helped rebuild, his business, being relentlessly skeptical, “failing into” things, using their resources to help out during the pandemic, and channeling the Founding Fathers when creating a leadership team.

About Nathan:

Nathan Foy is founder and CEO of Fortis, nine-time Inc. Magazine honoree as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Fortis provides over 25,000 private, secure trips in 114 countries per year to clientele worth more than half a trillion dollars. These clients routinely rank Fortis on Gallup surveys as best in the industry. With offices in Greenville, South Carolina, and Hong Kong, Fortis offers ground transportation to more private jet owners than any other service in the world.

Nathan’s first book, What Rich Clients Want (But Won’t Tell You), translates the Fortis experience into a replicable, scalable business model any service provider can recreate. Nathan lives in Greenville with his wife Pam and their four children.

Prior to Fortis, Nathan got his start selling books door-to-door as an alum of Southwestern Advantage, which he credits for instilling him with the principles necessary for success.

Learn more at Fortis.co.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Dan Moore:
Nathan Foy Welcome to the Action Catalyst.

Nathan Foy:
Thank you, Dan, it’s great to be with you.

Dan Moore:
I think our paths crossed over 20 years ago when you were part of the southwestern advantage summertime program. So to see you now, like me a little grayer a little wiser, a little more established, it’s wonderful and so excited about all the success you’ve had with Ford. And we’re looking forward to hearing all about that.

Nathan Foy:
You said, grayer, wiser, one out of two ain’t bad.

Dan Moore:
Really what our whole program is about is providing inspiration for individuals in all different situations of life is always helpful to find out what some of the major pivot points in your own life were. Because I know you were a student, I think at Emory when you first got involved with our program. But now Florida switch has been in the Inc 5000 For nine years in a row, more than any company based in your state is pretty incredible story.

Nathan Foy:
Well, first, let me say, Dan, it’s an honor to speak with you because that call is experienced that I had, I could point to many different instances, your challenge when you’re to treat college like a job from eight to five, and either be in the library or in class or doing campus work. I took that challenge. And I did that. And it’s a privilege to talk to you about that. When I was a book man, my second year, I didn’t give it 100% My first year mediocrity was sitting on my shoulder talking to me quite a bit. I listen to him a lot more the first summer the second summer, I really felt convicted that no matter what the result of that second summer was, I would give 100% and just see what that actually looked like. And so it was a South Texas summer, Mexico was having wildfires. I had a zero day at five o’clock in the afternoon, I hadn’t sold anything. And all I wanted to do was go to a mall and get a milkshake. I read my note that I wrote myself about my commitment. I said like it’s not I can’t control that I can just control that. I just do what I said I’m going to do and work the hours I said I was going to work that evening, I had the best day I ever had up to that point. I was number one in my organization that week. And that day, I always say if I had sloughed off that day, I think my life would be different. I think it was that important to dig down deep and see if I could truly give 100% to kind of test my mettle, frankly, to see if I could even become an entrepreneur. And Southwestern was kind of a proving ground for me for that.

Dan Moore:
Because everybody has their milkshake moment. And we made that decision to go back into the jaws of defeat and so to speak, and savage a fantastic day. Well done.

Nathan Foy:
Well, thanks. I had a lot of great people around me that helped to inspire me to do just that. After college, I started Fortis as a prepaid taxi cab card for college students. This was in 2000. And the prepaid meal cards or prepaid phone cards, especially for young people were all the rage. And I thought, well, there ought to be a prepaid transportation card. So I sent a letter to the incoming freshmen parents at Emory and said, Hey, I’ve got this card, and I’ve got a local taxi cab company that will accept it, I got a little bit of a response on that. I think I had nine signups off of one mailing. And so I raised money from friends and family, I think there’s about 18 to 20 Southwestern alumni that are investors and Fortis from the spring of 2001. And all of that money was geared to the fall moving season of 2001. Because the kids don’t have any money. You’ve got to sell the parents when they moved their kids into school. And so we had a network of cab companies up and down the East Coast, and major US cities like Boston, Philly, New York, and it was going reasonably well. And then 911 happened and the bottom fell out. parents weren’t traveling to see their kids for parents weekends, there was an anthrax scare. So direct mail completely went to nil. And I was literally on my knees just asking God, what am I supposed to do? You know, because it felt really crummy to lose money for my friends and family. And I really felt convicted that although I became a Christian a few years earlier, I was doing this for my own glory and my own ends, and that this was really God’s company, and I was here to steward it. And so I said, Okay, well, I will, I will run this as your steward. Let’s do that. And so I took a bridge loan from one of the southwestern investors. I made a deal with the local cab company in Atlanta to sell their corporate accounts, the ones that they invoice on my taxi cab card. Nobody gives me their client list, right? So they gave me their client list. I called 300 clients. I signed up two of them, and one of them wanted chauffeured cars instead of taxi cabs. So I’m 22. I knew nothing about chauffeured cars, but I said, Sure, I’ll set you up share for cars, and one referral led to another and that was the first private aviation company that we got. And this was now early 2002. TSA had started and a lot of people that had the means were choosing to charter aircraft rather than to fly commercial and they didn’t know who should pick them up on the backside. And so that was really the genesis of Fortis was becoming chauffeurs and security for really the world’s most discerning travelers started because we failed into it and had to pivot. Was it part of a grand plan? No. Or at least not my grand plan.

Dan Moore:
A lot of things turn out way better than our grand plan might have ever anticipated. Can you share a little bit more Nathan about your your thought process when you were facing all these setbacks? Because everybody has brick walls once in a while. And for some people, the brick wall is sort of the end. But other people develop coping strategies ways to get around it or or through it or take a different course. What can you suggest or share with us about what we should do or what worked for you, when we hit these unexpected brick walls?

Nathan Foy:
I think it’s good to have a network of support of people that she can lean on and talk to. It’s funny, we’re talking now on Sunday night, I had dinner with my dad. And I was reminding him, I said, Dad, you know, there’s this one point in the fall of 2001, where I just called you at work. And I said, I don’t know if this is going to work out. And I don’t I don’t know if this is what I should be doing. And you just said to me, you raise money. You told people that this is what you’re doing. So go do it. You know, I mean, you weren’t rude about it. But like it was very direct. And I just kind of got off the phone. And I said, he’s right. I did raise money. I said I would do this. So I’ve gotta go do it. You know, something about hearing just somebody else put that into words motivated me and helped get me out of my own headspace of maybe thinking dire thoughts. I shouldn’t be thinking but if I didn’t have people that could hold me accountable and challenge me, that would have been a lot tougher.

Dan Moore:
So the moral of the story is, reach out. Don’t close up. When you’re faced with these setbacks. Get some other people involved because they have a perspective that we often don’t have. Now you’ve had spectacular growth with your company. And it’s not a niche that is uncrowded. You know, there’s lots of people that are trying to do what you’re doing. Can you share some things that you feel like have helped you and your business, keep this edge so that you continue your growth, continue providing great service for your clients?

Nathan Foy:
I think you have to be relentlessly skeptical about your own efforts, and always willing to learn about, there’s a better way to do it, you can take this from something over there and incorporate it into what you’re doing and refine, refine, refine, you can never really stop that. So as soon as you start to believe accolades, or you know, to think that you’ve attained a level of service that puts you above the competition, I think that’s actually maybe other than quitting or thinking about quitting, you know, the most dangerous point. So one example of that for us in 2015, we had a few clients that just said, you know, we’ve been using you, we understand your service, we just don’t think you’re worth what you’re charging. Now, when stung a little bit, because we hadn’t had that, up until that point, people that had grown deep into relationship, they knew we were a premium service, but they weren’t really reluctant to pair pricing. And through a variety of conversations that we had. And this was also in the wake of the Paris attacks. At the end of 2015, we understood that the main thing that we needed to communicate to our clients was that we are the most secure form of ground transportation, literally all we did was come up with a PDF with a few bullet points, that somebody who’s booking a private jet can send to the principal who is flying the private jet, and say, This is why you should use for us. And for one client, we went from less than 50% of our quotes being accepted to about 80%. Acceptance. So you know, I think if we had dug into that point and said, No, our pricing is our pricing. And if they want to leave, then, you know, let him leave, we wouldn’t have found that deeper refinement that made us better.

Dan Moore:
So you chose to take that criticism as not an attack but as an opportunity. A lesson there as well. Because when you have his level of success as you’ve had, there can be a natural tendency to coast a bit. But what are some things that you found helpful to avoid Mr. Mediocrity getting a foothold on that shoulder again, and causing you to maybe give less than your best?

Nathan Foy:
So I think, you know, just as today as in the beginning, when I went through those trials and those pivots, having a support group, I’m in a CEO forum where we, you know, share everything. This can be personal struggles, or professional struggles, or child rearing struggles that you have, and trade notes. And with that with a group of people that you can be candid with, it’s easy to be inspired. And to continue learning. That’s extremely helpful. It’s extremely helpful for me to set goals. We have a semester system here. So every six months, we’re going over our goals for the semester, and how are we tracking on each one. And just that discipline of every week, or every two weeks, I’ve got to give an update on how my goals are doing, you know that built in accountability is something I don’t think at least I’ve never outgrown.

Dan Moore:
She mentioned a leadership team. At what point did you know that you started to need to bring people on board? And what are some things that can help those people tie in and really be loyal, and yet also feel a sense of ownership and independence.

Nathan Foy:
So I think we set up our leadership team about five years ago, and it reached a point where I realized that I have big ideas, I have big visions, but I was causing whiplash on the team. And sometimes I could walk into a meeting and kind of see them like oh, what’s what’s even thinking about today? You know, what did you have for breakfast because it’s going to be a totally new thing. And so it helped to have a leadership team to kind of be, you know, I think I think this was one of the founding fathers called the Senate. This is like a saucer where the tea spills over. So it kind of cools down a little bit. So the leadership team kind of served that purpose, I think, for me, and then vice versa, also helped me to get a little bit more intelligence about more broadly, you know, what is the perspective of somebody who’s working frontline operations for us was the prospective client you just saw, and not just have to rely on myself more for that. So you know, every Patrick Lencioni book, you know, I’ve read, and I’ve marked up and pretty much done my best to implement. So in terms of incentives, we instituted a profit share. And you know, in the travel business, we went to about a 95% decline. And now we are above pre COVID, revenue numbers. Wow. So there’s a humility that’s built into that. But the thing I told the team is, as I said, you know, you guys have stuck with us through an incredibly tumultuous season, you’ve acted like owners, so we’re going to treat you like owners.

Dan Moore:
I think that’s inspiring, because Nathan, a lot of really strong entrepreneurial types have this impression that they have all the answers, and they know what to do, it’s really hard to share. But your humility really came through a realization that you have certain strengths when other people do too, what were some of the things that you did to help people feel like owners, instead of them collapsing in a sense of despair when the lockdown occurred, and all that business went away.

Nathan Foy:
So I think it’s really important to have a visual image that tells the story of what we’re facing, and just continue to cite that visual image. So the communication, I think, was very important. So our image was that we had a world class sailboat, and the wind died, you know, and it didn’t mean the boat was any worse, didn’t mean the crew was bad or lacking. It’s the one thing we can’t control, we can’t control the wind, I can’t ultimately control if a state or country is going to lock down. And ultimately, I can’t make a billionaire fire up his jet. You know, he’s, he’s got to want to do that. But then downstream from that, there’s a lot of things that we can do for him. And so that metaphor, I think, just kind of helped us align, because a super basic point I’ve learned is that if you don’t capture the narrative, the narrative is crafted for you. And it never cuts in your favor. You know, you have to find that illustration, I think that people can kind of latch on to we were completely candid, we’ve always been more or less an open book company with our financials, we were upfront about, you know, this is the reality. This is what we’re facing, in good to great. I think he talks about the Stockdale paradox of, you know, a focus on optimism, which Admiral Stockdale had when he was in the Hanoi Hilton, but also a steely eyed resolve on what the situation really is, and holding those to intention. And so we we did that. And then practically, when we were down 95% volume, we used our network to do nurse rides in New York, we had chauffeurs that had nothing going, we knew that there was a lot of this is when they had tents in Central Park. And we said, Well, look, we have all this capacity, we have all this ability, our people literally have almost nothing to do, let’s do something good with that. And that became kind of a rallying point for us in those early days.

Dan Moore:
I think that’s so fantastic. Because it gets your mind off yourself and under somebody didn’t really needs to help. You are definitely part of the solution to this whole mess tonight. And so thank you for that. Now I’m kind of curious, in terms of the personal perspective, you seem to have the ability to keep these ideas in mind have the optimistic point of view, but also that realism that’s so important. Do you have like a daily routine, when you start your day, anything that gets your brain where you want it to be?

Nathan Foy:
So I usually am the first one awake in my house. And so I’ll get up and I do a quiet time of prayer and Bible reading. I know when other guests that you’ve had was Michael Hyatt, I am a fan of his full focus planner. Just about every day I have review the schedule the calendar, my big three, what am I trying to do today, big appointments, just review those kind of mentally imagine what that’s going to be like, that’s basically it, then I take the dog for a walk and start breakfast.

Dan Moore:
I think that’s perfect. The dog will not wait beyond a certain point anyway. Now some of our listeners are just on top of the world right now. But there’s some others that are looking at the hand that they’ve got, and they can’t find a single face card, let alone any aces whatsoever. What advice would you give to somebody right now that just doesn’t know where else to turn?

Nathan Foy:
I think that ultimately knowing your purpose of why you work. And you know, in our company, we have a vision statement on our wall. And it says that we are creating a legendary level of service for secure private travel. And then we have five display cases underneath that tangible reminders of what that actually is. So probably to the 20 year old me that would seem cheesy, but I need that and it’s in our lobby and every day I go out I see that it reminds me This is why we do what we do. And this is examples of that. And I think you have to really No, it can’t be money, it can’t be fame, it can’t be beating your competitor, those things will all just kind of fade away at a certain point and not have any meaning to you. So I think you have to really know why you’re doing what you’re doing just like my second summer of selling books. And my purpose that summer was to give 100% And to prove to myself I could, and then if I sold five books all summer, if I had done that I was a success. And that was my purpose. And in that moment of craving, the milkshake that helped me not to just give in to that temptation to remember the the purpose that’s there. And then I think, too, I think it’s always good to have a bias towards action. You know, I’m a firm believer in routines. And, you know, even if some days when you work out, maybe you don’t feel like working out that day. And, you know, sometimes you put on your gym clothes and go to the gym, and you just do a little bit of your normal routine, and maybe didn’t even do everything you wanted. But just you did that. Okay, so I was gonna go to the gym and do that today. I did that. It just helps to take the focus off yourself to have a routine that you can hang your hat on.

Dan Moore:
And even if you’re not too conscious at the start of the routine consciousness comes as we get into it. Well, Nathan, this has been so inspiring to me to hear your story to see how things have developed for you. And above all the important work that you do, because secure travel is top priority for so many people and business wouldn’t happen if not for what you do. Thank you for that mission. But also thank you for the lessons that you’ve shared and the good that you do in the world.

Nathan Foy:
Thank you, Dan. Again, you and southwestern are part of that. One of the reasons I started for this is I did the career planning exercise that I was taught to me of doing a bracket of all the different things you’re looking for in a career. And that led me to doing what I’m doing. So thank you not just for this chat, but for your influence.

Dan Moore:
You’re very welcome. Thank you again, Nathan, and please keep up the great work. We are so proud associated with you and grateful for you shared with everybody today. Thank you, Dan.