Ascension Aircraft: Jamail Larkins Turns a Childhood Passion for Flying to $8.4 Million in Sales

Torrey McGraw: Welcome to another edition of Grind & Thrive. I'm Torrey McGraw, your host. And thank you guys so very much for tuning in yet again now. A question that we get as very often, very frequently on Grind and Thrive is, "Torrey, how do I take my passion and make it my life's work?" And it's interesting because today's guest definitely has done that and then some. Today we're chatting with Jamail Larkins.

Now, Jamail at the age of 15 founded his first company, Larkin Enterprises which was an aviation sales and advertising company. Now, since that Jamail has transformed Larkin Enterprise into two successful business units being an aircraft sales and leasing company, as well as an aviation consulting firm, once again at the age of 15, guys. So I brought Jamail on and invited him to Grind & Thrive to kind of talk about some of those lessons he learned and how he got started.

So Jamail, thank you so much for joining me on Grind & Thrive. How are you?

Jamail Larkins: Torrey, thanks for having me this morning. I'm doing pretty well, man. How about yourself?

Torrey McGraw: I can't complain. I can't complain. Now, we briefly talked about how you got started in aviation and you said it started when you were 12 years old which is at 12 years old I'm thinking about playing basketball and shooting hoops and really starting to get into girls and you're getting into aviation. So talk about how that really excited you at 12 years old.

Jamail Larkins: Well, I still had some of those same thoughts but at the same time around the age probably 10, if I remember correctly, I had the opportunity to go to Space Camp. I always had an interest in aviation and aerospace even before then. But at 10 I went to Space Camp, kind of gotten exposed a little bit more and I started playing like Microsoft Flight Simulator every single day when I was getting home from school.

And at the age 12 I found out about a youth program called the Young Eagles program which basically is a worldwide program designed to give anyone between ages of 8 to 17 an opportunity to take a completely free flight inside of an airplane and see if it might be something they're interested in. I took that first flight right outside of my hometown in Augusta, Georgia. I hooked on flying and realized that it was definitely something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Torrey McGraw: Okay. And then just reading on you, I mean it's really cool to hear this go from step A to step B to step C to where you are today because I read at the age 14 you contacted the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, to get an exemption to fly by yourself before 16 which it sounds like was the permitted age for you to be able to do that, and they really didn't show you much love.

And so you took some matters into your own hand because it sounds like you were really into doing this thing. It sounds like you contacted a lot of companies to get their help and assistance in helping you fly. What did you do and why did you remain so persistent about wanting to fly? I mean you couldn’t wait two more years until you turned 16?

Jamail Larkins: Well, the biggest thing was I started taking flying lessons when I was 12 and then shortly after that I got to the point where I could actually safely handle an airplane in solo flight and it's pretty expensive to start off with. Inside the US it's typically between $7,000 and $10,000 to get your private pilot's license. And imagine being a 13-year-old kid or a 12-year-old kid at the time trying to fund that coming from an average middle class family isn’t necessarily the easiest thing in the world to do.

So I started trying to look at other ways that I could be creative, to fly more and lower the cost of flying for myself, stretch out the budget that I had as well as figure out other ways of paying for flying. And one of the ways I thought about trying to stretch out the budget that I had was instead of paying someone $50 an hour, they essential babysit me every single time I went up which was what it would cost me approximately to give a certified flight instructor. I might as well just go ahead and try to get an exemption to fly solo since I had another two to three years. And over the next couple of years that would add up a little bit at $50 an hour and give me a couple extra flying lessons.

So that's where the whole entire concept of petitioning FAA came from. I wrote them a letter when I was 13. They wrote me another letter saying that they basically needed more information which was their kind way of saying, "We're not going to deny your request just yet, but we're definitely not going to grant it just yet, but some additional information on why we should do this." And when they did that during that time frame I was trying to come up with some additional information. I found out in Canada that you only have to be 14 to fly solo up there.

So I got the bright idea that maybe if I traveled to a different country, flew solo there and did it legally and safely, when I came back to United States that the FAA would probably grant my exemption. I didn’t quite understand that's not necessarily how it works, but I wanted to try that and go that route and see if I could make something happen. And also I didn’t want to ask my parents for the fund.

So I wrote over a hundred different companies asking them if they would sponsor my trip and well over 90% of them said no, but a few of them did say yes and I was thankful, Shell , Embry-Riddle, Cox Communications, and a few others. And those few that said yes gave me the funds that I needed to to be able to go up to Timmins, Ontario, Canada when I was 14, fly solo up there, and then come back to the United States.

Torrey McGraw: And you tell that story and there's a consistent theme going throughout learning about you is not taking no for an answer, finding alternative avenues to get something that you are really passionate about done because you could have just as easily said, "Okay, they said no. I'm just going to wait. I'm 14. I'll just wait two more years." But you went and sought out more information and you reached out to a lot more companies to make sure that, "Hey, I'm really going to get this thing done."

Why was it so important for you to be able to do that and be so resourceful in getting it done by reaching out to the other companies and then even making the decision to try to fly to Canada once you learned that you only need to be 14?

Jamail Larkins: Well, for me it was just I had this dream. I had this goal. I wanted to fly. I wanted to fly as much as I could possibly afford to do it, and I was going to stretch it out the best that I possibly could. I wanted to make the most out of the limited resources that I had and that involved me in trying to figure out ways of stretching that budget, lowering the cost of flying for myself. It involved me.

Once I figured out that there is really no legitimate way of lowering the cost of flying for myself, that's when the whole company came about and I decided, well, hey, if I can't lower the cost flying for myself, I'm going to do whatever it takes to be able to afford it on my own.

Torrey McGraw: And then you also just to pay for your pilot's license I believe, you started to sell some flight training products. Tell me about that experience and some of the things that you've learned from doing that because I think that starts to shift you over towards more of the entrepreneurial, the entrepreneurship realm, as well as just having the passion to fly.

Jamail Larkins: To be honest, the entrepreneurial thing I can't really take credit for it. It was 100% once again me wanting to be able to learn how to fly. So it's the means to an end. I looked at the people that were flying the types of airplanes that I wanted fly there, flying as often as I wanted to fly. The vast majority of them were professionals. They were doctors, they were lawyers, they were teachers, or some other full-time profession.

I was in middle school and high school at the time. I realized there's no way I was going to get a full-time job. But there was also nothing that said that I couldn’t start up my own company and then quite few people that I ran into had their own companies. So I called up a couple distributors, King Schools [0:09:55] [Inaudible] flight-training products and asked them if I could start selling their materials online. And basically, they said yes.

So I started selling those products to local people in my hometown. About a year after that I got a website. I started selling pilot supplies online. And then also I was fortunate enough to get a distributorship with a company called Gulf Coast Avionics, one of the largest avionics distributors in the US. Between the flight training products as well as Gulf Coast's distribution, I was able to sell quite a bit or at least a wide range of different products to clients all throughout the US now that I have this website, and that helped fund a good portion of my flying.

And then we also started doing a little bit of consulting stuff for some companies when I was in high school, and I was fortunate that those activities allowed me not only to achieve my original goal which was just learning how to fly and fly a little bit more but actually a little exceed and I was fortunate enough to be able to even purchase my own airplane before I even graduate high school.

Torrey McGraw: Which is just amazing just to begin with. Some kids can't even get their own car and you're sitting with your own airplane which is pretty cool. Now, let's jump ahead to college because I think in college is where you really got started with the buying and leasing and that sort of thing of the airlines. How did that even come about that you started and then started what we know as Ascension?

Jamail Larkins: Well, I was fortunate enough when I was in college. I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of Arnold Leonora who's involved in commercial aircraft sales and leasing. Mr. Leonora and I had the opportunity to meet a little bit. He is also alumni at Embry-Riddle. And then a friend of mine from Augusta at one point a couple of years later after I met him called me up and said that he was looking at purchasing his very first airplane that I have anyone that I can recommend him to.

And so I contacted Arnold and Arnold basically said, "You know what? Instead of me giving this to one of my guys to handle, how about I show you how it's done and see if it might be something that you're interested in?" And I fell in love with it. I loved the negotiating aspect of it, loved the research aspect of it, and just loved the entire process. And now I was dealing with airplanes and I was dealing with high dollar ticket items and it was just something that was absolutely interesting, amazing, and something that definitely kept my interest.

So I decided that this is what I wanted to do and kept on doing that. I did a JV with Arnold's company for a couple of years and then a couple of years after that I decided to start up Ascension and Ascension was basically my full-fledged effort to getting inside of the aircraft sales and leasing full-time. I've been very fortunate over the past couple of years that the entire company has changed from literally a way of me learning how to fly and being able to pay for that to a way that seven full-time people make their living now as well as a couple of part-time people.

And it's been really interesting to go from just that concept of selling flight training materials when I was 15 to now running a company that manages multi-million dollar airplanes for corporations that now buys and sells airplanes on a regular basis that structure this large fleet leasing and financing bills for some pretty large companies out there and also just buying and selling airplanes to individuals that are looking to buy their very first airplane. So it's definitely been a big rollercoaster. I've learned a lot and I hope that I still have a lot more to learn as time goes on.

Torrey McGraw: And I'm curious. I mean you're a young man. I mean we're dealing with, like you said, multi-million dollar aircrafts. And so when people contacted you or reached out to you and maybe they didn’t know your age and I mean they knew your name or got your name passed along from someone else and they meet you or talk to you or what have you and they see how young you are, has that at anytime been a hindrance to doing business? I mean I guess not too much. I mean you're doing really –

Jamail Larkins: Absolutely. It's funny especially when I first started trying to go into banks and giving loans and lines of credit to be able to purchase airplanes. They definitely took a second look but not even just with the banks. Sometimes when we go out there and we're negotiating with vendors who we've never worked with before and they're expecting some seasoned personnel walk through the door and here I come walk through the door either by myself or with one of my associates.

It's definitely typically something that makes them question whether or not this deal was legitimately going to happen. But the thing that I found out in most of those situations is you come to the table prepared no matter what age you are, what you look like or how you're dressed. People are going to have to take you seriously if you know what you're talking about and you show that you have some experience there.

It's not just being able to kind of BS your way through stuff. You got to legitimately know your product, you have to legitimately know the market, and you have to know how to take care of business. And if you can do that and do that effectively and respectfully, you'll earn the trust and respect from people whether they know you or not.

Torrey McGraw: And we talked about just at the beginning, a lot of people — when I created the introduction here, a lot of people ask about just passion, "How do I make my passion my life's work?" And you've been able to do that with your love for flying and now you're running this multi-million dollar company based around flight and aviation. But sometimes people kind of have the wrong perception of passion. They think, okay, just because I'm passionate about something that means that I can do it versus knowing if there's an actual audience for what you're passionate about. Just give me your thoughts on passion just as a whole in relation to creating a business around it based upon your experiences.

Jamail Larkins: The one thing I can say about that is I would much rather be passionate about what I do and make a little bit less money than make a lot of money and not be passionate about what I do. And the reason why I say that is because most entrepreneurs can tell you there's a few that don’t necessarily fall in this particular box but the vast majority of them do that you'd live, breathe, and eat as startup because if you're doing it right, you'll realize that it's going to either survive or not survive with you and by the efforts that yourself and those that you surround yourself with, their efforts that they put into it.

So you want to give yourself the best chance of actually making this business viable. So with the amount of energy and the amount of time that you have to dedicate to it, in my opinion, it's very important that you have something that you enjoy doing and something that to a certain degree you would probably be willing to do it whether you're getting paid or not. Now, with that stated, you got to be able to make a living and you have to be able to kind of put food on the table and keep a roof over your head and actually provide for yourself or your family if you have one. So that's definitely important to have that economics behind it.

But definitely find something that you're passionate about, and when you're finding that passion or trying to figure out how to make that passion be able to provide a living for you the biggest thing that I can say is try to figure out your niche. Even though you may be passionate about sports or you may be passionate about flying, figure out what inside of that passion you truly have a niche for that you can do and you can do it better than what other people can do it. And if you can do that, then you'll be able to figure out the basis for a business most likely and figure out how to be able to make that effective.

Torrey McGraw: That's really, really great advice. And another thing we want to touch on is let's go back because you talked about some of the steps that you had or some of the process that you put in place in order just to fly. I mean you went and you wrote a hundred letters. You found out that you could go to Canada and so you did that and you reached out to companies who didn’t know you from anybody. You're a 14-year-old kid. And you said that "That was just something that I had to do because I had this burning passion for flying."

But some people have a passion for something but they're afraid to take it to the next level whether it's when someone tells them no, accepting that no versus saying, "No, okay, I'm going to find a different door to go into." What advice would you give for that person who may be easily persuaded to give up versus finding every avenue possible to get their passion started?

Jamail Larkins: The biggest thing I can say to that is you're going to get nos no matter how successful of a company you have. There's going to be some people that doubt your abilities to actually make it happen. There's going to be some people that just don’t believe in the industry or the concept of what you're doing. But the biggest thing is take that and then — we've now been involved in a couple of different startups and a couple of different lines of businesses that we've grown from just initially selling flight and training materials to become an avionics distributor to brokering airplanes and then starting to buy airplanes to starting to lease airplanes.

And most of the time each one of those different things happen. We ran into people that were that's not going to work for this reason or that reason or I would be concerned about that reason or that line of business for this reason or whatever the case may be. And the biggest thing that I can say is utilize that advice to help you solidify your business plan for you can overcome any of those logical obstacles that may happen.

So now when I go and I may pitch a new business or a new division to somebody, I always kind of listen to both the positive feedback but to a certain degree even more so the negative feedback because then if I can figure out the problem to — or the solution to this problem, then when it actually comes up in real life I'm already prepared for it and I can go ahead with my business.

So the concept is continue to refine the business plan and the program and how you actually operate your company until there's no other excuses and there's no other reasons why people have particular doubts of why their company won't work. And then once you do that, you can kind of go through a lot of the trials and tribulations that probably most people go through before you even start up the company on day one.

Torrey McGraw: Right, right. Absolutely. And maybe saving you some money from that research so you won't run over some of those mistakes. So you've been running this company for a while. We talk a lot about risk. A lot of people are afraid to take risks when it comes to a business. Any risk that you've taken that either did work out or didn’t work out that maybe just come to mind just so we can just get an idea of the successful entrepreneur that we have before us. He did it because he took some risks. Anything come to mind that you can think of that you can just talk to?

Jamail Larkins: Absolutely. There's risk in almost every single thing that you do. I mean getting out of bed in the morning there's a certain degree of risk, not a large one but there's definitely better ones you can take. But inside of starting up your own company, I mean it's gotten riskier every single year that I've gotten more involved in it just because the dollar value of the items we're dealing with get higher.

For instance, when I was in college — right when I graduated college one of the first lease deals that I did, I signed my name on a dotted line or close to $3 million worth of debt to be able to do that by going out there and buying a fleet of airplanes that we utilize. And fortunately it worked out. But there's definitely could have been a complete opposite.

Nothing is guaranteed in life but the biggest thing, like I said earlier, is I took that and I structured things based off of both the positive and the negative advice I received from other investors that were involved in projects that we're in to just advisers and people, mentors that I have that I've been able to call up and develop relationships with and say, "Hey, I've been thinking about doing this idea. What's your thoughts on it?" And then taking everything that they provide to me and basically trying to develop a true legitimate plan off of that data and that's worked out pretty well for us.

So the biggest thing that I can really say is that I would highly recommend to everybody that they do similar type things and go out there and figure out ways that they can make their goals and dreams happen.

Torrey McGraw: And you mentioned something, you mentioned a keyword that I'm a really big proponent of and you said you reached out to mentors. Where did you find mentors to help you along this journey and how important has it been for your success and the success of your business to have these mentors to be able to reach out to?

Jamail Larkins: It's been vitally important. I mean I think that's been one of the biggest things that have helped me kind of overcome a lot of the trials and tribulations that probably most entrepreneurs my age encounter is the fact that I've been able to develop this network of people that have been successful in their own businesses or running businesses in various aspects of their own niche and kind of call upon those people and then ask them for their advice.

And by asking them for their advice it's been really helpful in allowing me to overcome a lot of issues that I would have had to face and probably some of them had I not have the advice ahead of time I probably wouldn't be sitting here today running Ascension. I would be doing something else because of the errors that we encounter or make that would have prevented us from continuing to actually survive. So I think the mentors and gaining the advice has been critical to allowing me to overcome some of those typical mistakes that most people make.

Torrey McGraw: Absolutely. And one thing also, wrapping up here, I really appreciate that you've done — you've also launched something kind of giving back to encourage some up and comers to experience and get involved in aviation which is the DreamLaunch Tour. So can you just briefly talk about why you launched that and what the DreamLaunch Tour is all about?

Jamail Larkins: Sure. When I was in college, I actually approached Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where I went to school at and said, "Hey, I really believe inside the aviation industry. I am very fortunate for what it's providing me. I also realized though that there's a lot of people out there that don’t realize that the opportunities in aviation exists, but even more importantly that the opportunities in whatever field that they have that they can go out there and start making their dreams become a reality.

Would you be willing to help support this tour that I had that we'd travel all across the country and go into cities and schools, middle schools and high schools, and kind of educate kids about two things: (1) that the aviation industry is important, that if it wasn’t for aviation, we would have the opportunity to travel halfway across the country for business or to visit family in a matter of hours, (2) that no matter what goal or dream that you may have that you can honestly make your wildest dreams become your reality."

A few years ago, if you would have came to me and told me that this 12-year-old kid from Augusta, Georgia who started taking flying lessons, flew up to Canada at the age of 14, soloed up there, came back to US, started up his own company, purchased his own airplane because he graduated high school, et cetera, I would have told you that all that was just a dream where it's like in a book. It's not a reality.

And the weird thing is that and a whole lot more has been my reality and the biggest is (1) I've taken advantage of learning from those that have been around me and picking their brains, (2) I haven’t given up when I had a goal that I wanted to accomplish even when people told me no. If you combine those two things and you're smart about it, you can honestly do the craziest things in your life and live a life that you'll definitely have no regrets at the end of the day.

Torrey McGraw: And last piece of advice, we always like to ask entrepreneurs to give just a last piece of actionable advice that someone, once they're finished watching this, can go out and implement or start. So I'm going to ask you the same thing. What piece of advice would you give to any aspiring entrepreneur, someone looking to take their business to the next level?

Jamail Larkins: The biggest thing that I would say is do your research before you ever launch anything. Talk to those around you that you trust and value their opinion and then get their positive and their negative feedback, incorporate that into your business plan as much as feasible, and never give up because like I said, you're definitely going to have some doors closed in your face but if you're willing to actually go out there and work as hard as you possibly can, you can make those dreams become your reality.

Torrey McGraw: That's great. That's great. Once again guys, this is Jamail Larkins. He is the creator of Ascension Aircraft. Jamail, anyone who wants to reach out to you and say "hey" or just drop you a line or pick your brain, what's the best way to do that?

Jamail Larkins: Absolutely. They can go to my website, JamailLarkins.com to find out more information about like the DreamLaunch tour and some of those different community initiatives I'm involved in or feel free to go to the company website, AscensionAircraft.com.

Torrey McGraw: Okay. Well, Jamail, thank you so much for you time chatting with us today. And guys, thank you for watching another edition of Grind & Thrive.