Ep.562 ~ 10 Years to $1Million & a Few More Years to $1Billion from the Pioneer of Luxury Travel ~ Geoffrey Kent

 [00:00:12] Chris : Listeners, welcome to the podcast today. The gentleman that we have on this show was literally born while his parents were on a safari safari. He then went ahead and built one of the world's first, most successful luxury adventure travel companies. His name is Geoffrey Kent, and the name of the company is Abercrombie & Kent.

Not to be confused with Abercrombie and Finch. It was founded in 1962. Geoffrey founded it with his parents and, , , , over this past six decades, he built this company to be , one of the most lavish and And successful, , travel companies in the world. They have 56 offices all over the world in 30 different countries with 2, 500 employees.

Um, Abercrombie & Kent was sold in 2016 for a whopping 412 million. It was then reacquired and then sold again. And we'll love to chat with you a bit more about that, Geoffrey, but welcome to the show and how you doing?
 

[00:01:07] Geoffrey: I feel really well. I just flew in from Chicago, came back to see the tennis tournament here, the Rolex Masters, which was yesterday. An amazing game. Over, sadly, two sets. , The Greek player, Stephanos Tsipras. Won it, but, um, I love tennis and, uh, beautiful day, , Prince Albert and his family were there and, um, back to work here in Monaco
 

[00:01:30] Chris : Do you, do you play tennis yourself?
 

[00:01:33] Geoffrey: Yeah, I was a very keen tennis player, but I was mainly a polo player. You've probably seen the background, all the different tournaments I won. I won the U. S. Open twice, the U. S. Gold Cup, U. S. World Cup, captained Prince Charles, now King Charles's polo team, played with him for about 10 years. So I was really, that was my, I was the Rolex ambassador.

Along with Arnie Palmer, Jean Claude Kille, Jackie Stewart. And so those are all my glory days on horseback.

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[00:02:04] Geoffrey: Now I'm more of a working guy. I've done everything backwards. Everybody usually works and then goes to play. I played all my life, now I'm working.

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[00:02:13] Chris : I think I took the same route as you. I've been playing for a long time. Now I'm working. , no, I, I ask you because I just, , saw a post from Dr. Amen. Dr. Amen is one of the top neuroscientists in the United States. And he said, people that play racket sports live the longest because of the way that tennis or ping pong, uh, light your brain up.

And, maybe that's your secret to success playing tennis over the years or staying, staying active. I was just curious.

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[00:02:40] Geoffrey: Now I'm very active. Even now, I had a huge polo accident in, um, in 95. It was my third coma. Well, that's the problem. Playing polo, I tell you, I tell you a neurosurgeon, we have a problem playing polo. It's the most dangerous sport in the world. More than motor racing. More than downhill skiing. It's number one.

And that's of course what I played. And, um, and it's a third coma. And, um, it was a big problem. And I was told I could never play again. But, um, Even now, ever since I still go to the gym. Probably five days a week for an hour and a half each morning, and I make that a routine every day the gym.

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[00:03:20] Chris : Incredible. And what type of exercises do you do today?

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[00:03:23] Geoffrey: I always run, well, I don't run anymore. I now do a speed walk, and I announce you to run about six or seven for about 40 minutes, 45 minutes. Well,

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[00:03:37] Chris : good. Well, let's talk some business talk. And, , first I know there's a longing question that a lot of people are curious about, and I was curious as well. , where did the name come from? Abercrombie & Kent.

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[00:03:50] Geoffrey: you know, first of all, you know, we were farmers in Africa, in Kenya, and we, we, we had the, you know, there was the Maumaa Rebellion, and then the, um, the land was taken over in 1962, when the Kenyans got self government, and then they got independence in 63. But the point was, we lost our farms in 1962. And we were wondering what to do, and we traveled, and my dad was amazing.

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And my mother, both incredible. We used to take us off on safari every holidays. And one younger sister, five years younger sister, Ann. And I always asked my dad, where are we going? And he used to say to me, somewhere where you can't drink the water. That's so exciting. That means it's totally wild and mad out here.

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Can't drink the water. So we've been on, you know, in those days we were hunting, shooting, it was a different, different era. And so when we came, said, all right, we'll form a safari company. And we thought of Kent and I, you know, both of us, my father and I both want to be top of the yellow pages, the old Google search, you know, yellow

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[00:04:58] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:04:59] Geoffrey: Anyhow, we want to be at the top of that. So we came up with. You know, AA, thought about it, thought of the anteater, and then finally we thought of, what about Abercrombie? And you know, we'd, we'd, our pilot was called Abercrombie, I remember that. And I remember also that, of course, Abercrombie and Fitch, the old Abercrombie and Fitch, not the new one, outfitted, um, outfitted, uh, the President's, the President of America's big trip to Africa in the 19 20s or 30s Teddy Roosevelt.

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[00:05:34] Chris : Uh huh.

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[00:05:35] Geoffrey: the 20s or 30s. That was amazing. The tans, everything. And so we said to each other, well, let's call it Abercrombie and Cairns. And that was it.

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[00:05:45] Chris : That was it. Nice. And.

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[00:05:48] Geoffrey: now, even now, I still get letters, very nice letters, saying, Oh, Mr. Kent, we so enjoyed meeting you. You just had the most wonderful trip. And by the way, please give our warmest regards to the Abercrombie.

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[00:05:59] Chris : Ha ha ha.

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[00:06:01] Geoffrey: I still think he's a senior partner. By the way, I always said when I was building the business, he must be my partner one day. He's all the cash behind the business. He's the finance guy.

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[00:06:10] Chris : Have you ever had any troubles with the name?

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[00:06:13] Geoffrey: Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, for sure. When I opened up in America in about 1976, I was always a polo player, so I had a barn, and all the horses in the barn were beautifully taken care of. Upstairs was an old bar, an old barn, nobody in it. And so I took that, and we had three raccoons, myself, one yellow telephone, and I brought one lady in, from South Africa, one of my key lives, her name was Jane McKenzie.

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And that was the start of Abercrombie and Kent. Within about a month of me announcing it, a huge package arrived like this. It's a cease and desist legal suit from Abercrombie and Fitch. Uh, what's this about? I have no idea about America, about your laws, about, um, what are they? So I called up one of my friends called, I don't remember his name, uh, Eddie Caldwell.

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Uh, don't you have a big lawyer, legal company in New York called Caldwell something and something? Anyway, he was a partner there. And so I went up to see him in New York. He said, Geoffrey, this is serious. What are you going to do about it? I said, I have no idea. What, put it in a bin? You can't put something like this in a bin, you know.

I said, okay, what shall I do? He said, you have to fight this. And I said, well, I have no money. I can't buy it. I just own a few Land Rovers in Nairobi. And, uh, and he said, okay, I'll tell you what you do. I love you so much, and my family loves you so much. If you give me three, three, free safaris, I will have this for no cost.

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I said done. And so he handled it and we got out of them quite fast within about six months. Uh, we, we agreed that, uh, the cease and desist would vanish. They would never get into travel business. Abercrombie Fitch would never enter travel and I would never sell accessories. No dark glasses, no hats. I could never sell Anything, any, anything like that, shirts, trousers, shoes, and we went ahead.

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[00:08:11] Chris : . So I know you started off as an entrepreneur at the ripe old age of 15 and you were selling elephant bracelets. If I, if I heard this correctly.

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[00:08:19] Geoffrey: Absolutely, yeah. They were,

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[00:08:21] Chris : What do you think, , sparked that innovation at such a young age? Were your parents, you said they were farmers, were they entrepreneurial as well?

Um,

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[00:08:31] Geoffrey: were, my mother, my mother especially, my mother. My father was very solid, incredibly smart, way cleverer than me, good looking guy. But military. And everything was organized to the spot. Mom, well, Mother was doing everything. She started something called Mountain Stream Mineral Waters, which made imitation Coca Cola, ginger pops, or whatever, out of the local river that went through our farm, the Chania River.

She did that. We had market gardening with all the flowers you'd want. We lived at 8, 900 feet. in the mountains. And so we had daffodils and all the beautiful flowers which you'd take to Nairobi once a week on a Thursday. We had eggs and we sold eggs. And we had pigs and we sold pigs. And we had we had cattle and we had, we had a mixed farm.

We had pyrethrum which was a yellow, a white flower imitation DDT insecticide. And so that was my mother, beautiful, charming, gracious. And I always, I always complained to my mother, Why do we have so little money compared to all of our friends? Remember Kenya was where everybody went to, the second sons of all the ruling families.

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So they all came with their inherited fortune and we were just an army officer and his wife. So we all had to We had to do more. And so, yes, so, and I was determined. Our next door neighbors would always buy two Mercedes every five years. One for the wife, one for the husband. While we would have a five year old Wolseley or something like that.

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And I said, no, we're gonna have, we're gonna have Bentleys and Mercedes and everything. So I was driven very, very young to make money. I knew that was the answer.

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[00:10:08] Chris : and where'd the idea for Abercrombie & Kent come from?

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[00:10:12] Geoffrey: Well really, the three of us, we were all sitting down and um, you know, we had to do something and we'd lost the farm. And we'd all, my, my mother and father, my father was already working in a torque company, advising them. And my mother was the first lady guide in Kenya, but working somebody else. So we said, why don't we do it on our own?

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[00:10:32] Chris : And then you went after it.

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[00:10:34] Geoffrey: One Land Rover, one Land Rover and a hundred pounds.

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[00:10:37] Chris : that's how the best businesses start with little, very little money, I think, but one of the things I appreciate about appreciate about you and it's where I heard about you, um, Cody Sanchez put out a real recently talking about how she met you and then how you were talking to her about building a business over the longterm, you know, six decades, uh, in one company.

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Right. And so few people focus on that. So many entrepreneurs have this shiny object syndrome. They think, Oh, I need to start this or get into involved in this and start this side hustle and do this crypto thing. And, and, you know, they're keep completely diluted. Right. And, and to be fair, in my early days, I did the exact same thing.

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And then I started realizing the most successful people had focused on one thing for a very long period of time and then shift to another. And I think that's what she said about you as well. What do you think for you gives you the ability to put the blinders on and to be able to focus on a business for so many years without getting tired or burn out?

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But yeah.

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[00:11:46] Geoffrey: sit on a plane to London and sit next to somebody as attractive as Cody. So that was a very, this is a very good spot to my bed. And Cody, if you're listening, do give us a call sometime. I'd like to take you out to lunch in, in Monaco or whenever you're in here.

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Yeah. So. Cody and I started talking. I think, I think, you know, we started off as a safari business, but I'm, I read, I read so much every day. Still, I read the, you know, Financial Times, Economist, uh, I read the Daily Mail for gossip. You've always got to know the gossip that's happening. And always it gives me ideas.

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But within the Abercrombie & Kent brand, remember, it started off as me being a guide. My mother was a guide, I was a guide, my dad ran the office. That's how it started. They left pretty young. They left when I was 27. They left Kenya. And they went to Andorra. They moved out of Kenya. And I took over. I was so proud.

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Managing director, 27 years old. Abercrombie and Kent. Three or four cars outside. Not bad. And then I started to think more and then I created my own product and I built the very first tented camp ever using, because I've been in the military. I also went to the Royal Military Academy and yours like in West Point.

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I, you know, did everything like that. Went to Aden, North Yemen, uh, Houthis, they're still there by the way. There's no change. I've been doing this for years. Um, and then I ended up being an aide de camp to General John Frost, but I took all that expertise. and actually made a cam and put it into trucks and said why did we take photographs and then came up with the slogan shoot with a camera not with a gun and i went to ironically i went to america and i went to abercrombie i went to abercrombie and fish the big stores in those days And they loved it.

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Oh, Abercrombie, Abercrombie. They liked me a lot. And there was a guy called Buzz Chapin who ran it. And his lovely wife called Jane. And I said, we believe in you. So what, you want to sell a photograph? We shoot things here. They said, no, no, no, I don't want you to shoot things. We're shooting with a camera, but not with a gun.

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And so that's how I started. Then I did big lectures. And we sold all the first departures for two years out flat. And I led every trip. And they were amazing, you know? And that's how we did it. But I think as the company grew, I added to it. So now we're a ground operator with camps. The very first camps ever.

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Forget all these new ones you see today. That was number one. We have a lot. But then of course, I got fed up with everybody knocking me down in price in Kenya because I was an operator, a ground operator. We call them DMCs today. So I said, you know, I'm going to open up in London. So I came to London, found an old place, took a girl with me from Nairobi.

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We painted it for a month and did this, did this at the top of a building, cost nothing. But the Kenya tourist office was down below, but that's another story. So they got everybody that came to see them, they'd send them to me and I'd sell a safari. So it was kind of a good marketing idea. So I was thinking, and I was thinking, by the way, how do I sell them?

That's what I always thought. I don't, I'm not one of those, I'm going to build and then sell, no. I sell and then build, apart from the original 10. So then we started that. Then we opened up in Chicago, Oakbrook, Illinois, the same as London. Then I thought, then I became a wholesale. Now I'm a distributor, and now I'm selling, and operating, and of course, all the people who were selling hated that, because I'm a competitor.

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So I went to all the travel agencies. I lost all my business with the tour operators, Four Winds Travel, Raymond Wickham, so many. And I lost a lot of business when I opened up. You can't, that's why it's usually all subdivided. But I said, you know, I don't have a big overhead. I do most of it myself. So that's fine.

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I'll catch up. And we did catch up. And then I got a deal of a lifetime. I took over from Limblad Travel the British Airways program out of America, right from start to finish, and they gave me 10, 000 seats to promote my project. 10, 000! Imagine getting that today from an airline. And we'd had a five year program of bringing travel agents to Kenya.

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Many, um, I met one the other day who actually came in 1977. He remembered it very well. And so, so, that got me going. And then, then I said, well, why just Kenya? And then I started, I put up in Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and on and on. I said, why not India? So I went wherever, anywhere British Airways went.

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I went, no, India, Egypt, everywhere they went, I followed and used them as the background, used their marketing offices with me, they sold tons of airplane seats, I sold all the ground, both selling and going, and I built a business. Really, for the first 10 years, I've gone from zero to, to about, to about a million dollars, right?

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1. 2. I got the British Airways contract in 78, 79. Launched it. Suddenly, by then, I'm at 1. 5 million.

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[00:16:57] Chris : hmm.

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[00:16:58] Geoffrey: So, and then it went. 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, 40 million, 50 millions. I thought, wow, I've got a business. 70 million, 80 million, 90 million. And I was off and running. Then I said, why am I doing this?

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Why don't I own the hotels? No, why would you buy more cars? I built ships in Egypt, never been done before. Small ships, never, it's just a big one. Small ships in Egypt. I bought more, I built permanent tender cabs. The first ever. I bought more river ships. Um, and then, more cars. Then I said, well, why don't I do this in every country?

And then every country had to open up. So, but, I'm in many businesses. I'm selling it. I'm operating it. I'm a ground operator. I'm a land rover vehicle operator. We own canoes and boats and everything to do with the trip. But what it really taught me for an entrepreneur, I suddenly realized that why I'd been successful, I always said to myself, why has nobody done this?

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And I was one of my big competitors in Kenya. Why haven't you done this? They said, we're petrified of entering America. I said, really? Why? They said, we don't want any lawsuits. I said, great, I don't care about lawsuits. I have nothing to take, I'll go. So, because they were the biggest. So I went. And of course we had lawsuits, you know.

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And by the way I read a wonderful phrase the other day. Somebody said, if you've been in business a long time and you don't have a lawsuit, you're doing something

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[00:18:24] Chris : Right. I've heard that too. Yeah.

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[00:18:26] Geoffrey: said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew there was a reason I went there. And so, I really, and then I just got more and more countries, more and more things.

Um, you know, and the company grew, and it's now, it's now a billion dollar business. But that's what you do, right?

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[00:18:43] Chris : Yeah. Well, did you guys start off as a luxury company or was there a shift?

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[00:18:49] Geoffrey: No, we, no, we were always a luxury company. Always. Mom and Dad and me. We were kind of, um, kind of luxury people. I know that sounds weird, but I never stayed in a hotel until I was 16.

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[00:19:03] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:19:04] Geoffrey: And I rode my motorbike, there's another story, from Nairobi to Cape Town, when I was 16, and I stayed one night in a hotel.

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And it was so amazing, this hotel, they washed my bike, and they took all my clothes and pressed them, I had a bar, I thought, this is so cool, a motorbike during the day, and all this at night. And I thought, I'm going to do that one day. Active during the day, with all the comforts at night, wherever you are.

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So that was the actual, the kernel of the idea of Abercrombie, as it became.

[00:19:35] Chris : Those first 10 years you were in business, did you ever think about quitting?

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[00:19:41] Geoffrey: Never.

[00:19:43] Chris : Never.

[00:19:44] Geoffrey: You know, never.

[00:19:46] Chris : What about?

[00:19:47] Geoffrey: the military taught me so much.

[00:19:50] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:19:50] Geoffrey: The military taught you that you can never quit. There's no such thing as quitting. Never. If you're sick, we had one thing at Santa's, the Royal Military Academy, and I'm sure you have it at West Point. And the answer, the real answer was, officers do not get sick. Don't come and tell me you're sick. Well, leave the army. not sick. Get better. You're never sick. You never quit. You know, however hard you get hit, jump up again, do it again. And you know, listen, I'm here. Look at me. I've had many things happen. And I feel just, just like I'm starting.

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[00:20:23] Chris : Did you ever think about quitting in the previous, in the, uh, after that 10 year period? Was there ever a time when you're thought about throwing in the towel?

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[00:20:31] Geoffrey: Never, never, no, never, because this was what I knew. And you know, we did so many things. We're now a hotelier, we're a ship operator, we're a ground operator, we're guiding, we do, we do everything in Abercrombie Kitts. So it was like a huge businesses within businesses. What were those funny balls that you used to buy in Russia, where all the dolls inside, remember?

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[00:20:54] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:20:55] Geoffrey: That was Abercrombie Kitts. Doll, doll, doll, more and more and more.

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[00:21:00] Chris : How long did it take you to start expanding? Because originally it was just luxury trips and safaris. When did you start adding more to the company? 

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[00:21:11] Geoffrey: realized was, well, yeah, by the way, we bought a ship. We owned the Explorer ship, the Red ship, first to Antarctic, first Northwest Passage, first Amazon, and it's because I wanted to be in that expedition cruising area too, expedition cruising. Now I realized that, and by the way, I always said one thing, all my trips, were inherently dangerous when we started and I said I would always do it first and work out I'd always do it for every trip I've done myself and then I'd work out what's dangerous what's not dangerous and should we should we do it again or not do it again and when I realized early on the last mile that counts everybody books a trip today and they book through their traveling which is great but the travel agents should actually book with Abercrombie Kent.

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Because if they book with anybody else, there's nobody there who cares. There's just people, small little operators, even big operators who don't care. We care. As you can see, I'm totally passionate. Anybody can write me. You can give my number to anyone. I'm very happy to hear. But I realized the last mile was the key.

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So I chose the guides myself. All the early guides. All the early teams of Abercrombie & Kent, I chose myself. And they didn't have to go through any long interview process. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Have you done it? Nah, nah, nah, nah. No. No. Don't give me any PowerPoint presentation. Rubbish. I looked them in the eye, talked to them.

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What do you think? Are you passionate? Are you good at this? What have you done? Do you like people? Do you not like people? Would you go to breakfast on Christmas Day with them? If the answer was no, we don't want them. If the answer is yes, we do want you. And I remember my final thing I always said to them, Are you lucky?

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Do you think you're lucky? And if this lady or man said, No, I'm not lucky. They never got the job. I only want lucky people. I'm lucky. Oh, I make my own luck, but I'm lucky. I don't want any, anybody who feels they're unlucky.

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[00:23:03] Chris : yeah, that's a

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[00:23:04] Geoffrey: So it was all, it was all instinct and, and the last mile makes a difference. So, and um, You know, I was doing, maybe I want to do river trips, and I did many river trips, right down the Tana River, and then I was doing one down the Maasai, Maasai, the Mara River in the Maasai Mara, and I had a, um, you know, one of these small rubber boats, inflatable dinghies, with an engine on, and we're going down, it was so beautiful.

Wow, hippos here, hippos there, birds, lilac breasted rollers, you know, lions,

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[00:23:38] Chris : uh huh,

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[00:23:39] Geoffrey: buffalo, oh, this is so cool, whoa, this is such a winner. And then suddenly from nowhere, a hippo, this is a true story, a hippo came out, right? Grabbed the front of the inflatable, and there were like four or something,

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[00:23:52] Chris : oh wow,

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[00:23:53] Geoffrey: of them, and shook it, boom, boom, boom, like a, like a sheet. I flew miles through the air and landed near the beach, on the side of the river. One other guy landed, which is full of crocodiles. The Mara River has more crocodiles. That's where all the migration goes, yeah. And he was in with the crocodiles, and I was screaming to get out. I scrambled ashore, and the other guy was nearby.

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He was fine. And we all got to shore, and the hippo just destroyed the boat. Crushed the engine. There was nothing left.

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[00:24:24] Chris : wow,

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[00:24:25] Geoffrey: I said to our guys, you know what? That's an easy one. We will not be doing trips down the Maasai River. an easy one. So, so we all, you know, I even went to the edge of space. I took an English Electric Lightning plane, 2.

2 Mac, Mac 2. 2. We went 60, 000 feet in one minute.

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[00:24:45] Chris : wow.
 

[00:24:47] Geoffrey: Just me and a pilot, just two of us, right? I had to go for two weeks of pilot training. But I used to fly when I was young, so I used to fly that. And then we came down, saw this curvature of Earth, da da, da da, da da, da da, da da, da da. Okay, and then we went down, did it out of Cape Town.
 

Went down over the sea, about 600 feet over the sea. And I love my South African pilot. He said to me, Crotty of me. This would be a really bad time to have a sneeze. 600 feet into the ocean. Anyhow, I came out of that, and we were going to have a NK space.

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[00:25:22] Chris : yeah,

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[00:25:23] Geoffrey: I spent another four days running. I used to do big runs in those days, running. And I always think when I run, I don't just run. I think that this is really dangerous. I'm not sure we should be going to space. This is way back 2003, about that.

I'm not sure we should be doing this.

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[00:25:40] Chris : yeah,

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[00:25:41] Geoffrey: Then I called up our chief pilot. We already had like 20 people employed in Oakbrook, Illinois. We called him up and said, You What are the, I've just done this, was it cool? I said it was amazing, extraordinary. And I said, what are the chances of having an accident? I mean, I went, because you don't wear a suit, you literally went, you know, it took out like six, six G's, six, seven, it was incredible.

And I had a video taken of it, if you ever want to see the video, uh, ask me for it, alright? And, um, so, so they sent that to me. And I then said to him, so what are the chances of having an accident here? Well, he said, 100%. I said, you hear me correctly? I said, what are the chances if you have a space program for to, of having an accident?

And he did. He did the, he did the American spy plane. So he was well, well versed. He was, he knew all this inside out, he said, 100%. I said, okay, so you're telling me if we do space 100% we're gonna have an accident? He said, yes. I said, okay, let me think about it. And I went away for about three or four hours.

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I thought about it and said, you know what? We're not going to do this. I'm in the holiday business. I'm here to give people a good time, not kill people. So let others do it. Let Branson, all these others do it. We're, we're, we're getting out of this right now. We fired everybody. NK Space came to a halt. And we sunk all the money and wrote it off.

But it was the best decision ever. We shouldn't be in that business. Anyhow, that's just one story.

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[00:27:11] Chris : Yeah. That's, uh, have you ever done any trips to, you know, recently there was that accident where people went to see the Titanic and they didn't come back, which was horrible and we, I don't know, I don't know if you know about our company, but we. Do events for entrepreneurs, fun, adventurous events, events like that.

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And that's one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you because you do a lot of those experiences that, you know, we want to offer to our entrepreneur community. Um, but, , we looked at doing that trip and, , you know, it was very expensive. I think it was 250, 000 a pop. , but then I looked at it and I was like, you know what?

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That seems a little, just too much, you know, a little, little, that's a scary You know, the worst could happen, which did, unfortunately, , it could be very bad for a lot of people. , but, , I understand that feeling because there's some things that would be fun. It'd be fun to go to space and to take a bunch of people on to space on a regular basis.

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But if the risk is just too much these days, it's not worth it. You know?

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[00:28:10] Geoffrey: Not worth it because I mean you don't, you don't need that. So yes, we never did that. But I've been to the South Pole. I went there. I've been to the North Pole. Um, did you know that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have been to the South Pole? Did

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[00:28:26] Chris : I didn't. I didn't. But seeing the pictures of Mt. Everest these days, I'm not surprised, actually, because it looks like a highway.

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[00:28:34] Geoffrey: and I beat a base camp Everest, but yeah, so, so I've traveled a lot and, um, South Pole's interesting actually, but it's quite, it's quite rugged.

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[00:28:43] Chris : I could imagine. Yeah. , I was reading about you before the show and, uh, I heard a couple of stories that seemed, , really exciting and I want to, wanted to, , chat with you about. And one of the things that I heard that you did is , you heard that the, um, I think it was a. I believe the CEO of chase, one of the Rockefellers were coming

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[00:29:04] Geoffrey: Yes, David Rock is one.

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[00:29:05] Chris : Yeah. And you went straight to his office and told him he was going to go on a safari. Uh, in your, one of your safaris when he came to Nio Nairobi and you might share in that story a bit.

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[00:29:19] Geoffrey: Yeah, it's quite a long, it's quite a long story, but very true. So, when I was trying to get Abercrombie & Kent launched and had a few cars and had one or two camps, I realized I needed a famous person to be with us. Karen Downey, our big rival in Kenya, we did all the big game hunting. Been there since, since the 1930s.

​

Always had all the movie stars. They had this guy, this guy. And we're like Abercrombie and Ken. Who's heard of Abercrombie? I said, I have got to get a rich guy. And I saw on the cover of Time magazine that David Rockefeller was the richest man in the world.

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[00:29:54] Chris : hmm.

[00:29:54] Geoffrey: I thought, well, that's a good place to start. Why don't I start with David Rockefeller?

[00:29:59] Chris : Why

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[00:30:00] Geoffrey: dad had left me. I'm on my own now, you know. Young guy, trying to make it. And so, I said, but we had exchange control in Kenya. We couldn't get any money out. Couldn't buy a ticket. I, you know, I was just in Nairobi. How was I going to see David Rockefeller? So in the end, I persuaded the Sabina, the head of Sabina.

​

His name was Tony Danvers. I would teach him polo. I was always a good polo. I would teach him polo if he would give me a free ticket on Sabina to Brussels and get me to New York. Long story, we did that, and I went with the flowers from Nairobi to Brussels, in with all the flowers, cut goods, it was half, half passages, half flowers, and then I, then I got to New York.

​

When I got to New York, I went into the, into the Rockefeller Center, and uh, went up to the top, there's a, you could just do that, and asked to see Mr. Rockefeller, alright? . His aide was somebody called, ambassador Joseph Reed III.

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[00:30:55] Chris : Okay Yeah, yeah

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[00:31:03] Geoffrey: are you? Oh, I said, my name's Geoffrey Kent. I'm from Nairobi, Kenya. I think that Mr. Rockefeller should come on a safari with me. I understand he loves beetles. I found that out. I understand he loves beetles.

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I show him all the best beetles. And, um, I know he'll be coming. So Joseph Reed said, oh, you know that Mr. Rockefeller will be coming to Nairobi? I said, yeah. There's a bank. There's a Chase Bank being built near my office. And I'm sure he must come down to open it. Joseph Reed said, I'm sure he'll come. Mr. Rockefeller does not open bags. I said, okay, I guess I got that wrong. I just thought it would be. And so he said, anyhow, you're very nice and loved all my stories. And he took me out to lunch and sent me home. So I never got, and so I went back. Six months later I'm thinking, that was pathetic. I was right in Mr.

Rockefeller's office. Right there. I knew he was in there. And I never saw him, alright? And so I went back again. Repeated the whole process six months later. This time I just walked in and Joseph reads it. Fancy seeing you here again. But at that minute, see I'm lucky, out of the office came David Rockefeller. So I went straight up to him and I said, Mr. Rockefeller, my name is Geoffrey Kent from Nairobi, Kenya. I have a lovely company called Abercrombie. I want to do safaris. I understand you like beetles. Why don't you come on safari with me? I can show you. I can introduce you to Dr. Richard Leakey. We're going to look for early man.

​

And we can do all of this, because I was at school with Richard Leakey. Richard and I were very close friends. And we can do all of that. And he turned, you'll love it, he turned around, he turned around to Joseph Reed and said, What a wonderful idea! Joseph, why didn't you tell me about that? We can go, we're going to Egypt, why don't we extend our trip afterwards and go and visit Geoffrey and do the safari he talks about.

​

And Joseph got so angry, he said, yes, yes, Mr. Rockefeller, yes. So David went out and he said to me, well I guess you got Mr. Rockefeller. And so, that's, that's how he came. There's a picture up there, here's a picture of David . I actually, he then went on to do like 45, I'm going to find you a picture, 45 trips with us

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[00:33:10] Chris : Yeah.

[00:33:10] Geoffrey: in his life, um, gave a huge party for me in his house with all his family and said, uh, this is Geoffrey Kent who changed my whole life.

[00:33:19] Chris : . Heh

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[00:33:19] Geoffrey: And that's what I've done to so many people. I've actually made them do something they would never normally have thought of. We went swimming in, in Lake Titikaka, in with the crocodiles, and David said, will they eat me? And Joseph Reed said, you can't do this to Mr. Rockefeller. He said, no, he should swim with crocodiles.

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It's fine. They don't eat people here. and so,, we're celebrating his 100th birthday. We're in Morocco with my wife. And he asked me to , a private dinner for his 100th birthday. And he had both, Joseph Reed and himself there, right? So I said to, I said to David, would you mind if I just told the story about how I met you?

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I know Joseph. This is going to be so embarrassing to you. Do you mind? And they both said, 'Cause my wife never believes a story. She said, 'I just made it up. Would you mind if I tell you? And they said, 'Sure. And so this is me telling them the story and giving them the

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[00:34:13] Chris : Oh, wow. Wow. I can see it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:17] Geoffrey: And that's Joseph.

[00:34:18] Chris : Wow.

[00:34:19] Geoffrey: Both in wheelchairs,

[00:34:19] Chris : Heh heh heh

[00:34:20] Geoffrey: was 100 years old. That was his 100th birthday.

[00:34:22] Chris : How old were you at the time when you went to his office the first time?

[00:34:26] Geoffrey: Oh, 27?

[00:34:28] Chris : a young man.

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[00:34:29] Geoffrey: Yeah, I couldn't believe it. You know, the other thing is, I never cared. So many people always worry about what somebody's gonna say. Don't worry about what somebody's gonna say. It doesn't matter what they say. Just go and do what you wanna do. And do it.

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[00:34:41] Chris : I agree. I agree.

[00:34:42] Geoffrey: know.

[00:34:44] Chris : Yeah. Uh, it's one of the reasons, on this podcast series, we're interviewing a hundred founders of billion dollar companies , and same thing, you know, I, I had that little voice come up in my head, like, who are you to think that you can interview a hundred people that have built billion dollar companies?

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And then I just started doing it and, uh, everybody seems really open and, thoughtful and wanting to share their, their life story and how they grew their business. And, , it's been one of the best things I've done. , to this day.

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[00:35:08] Geoffrey: I think, I think anybody who has built their business from zero to a billion, to a billion dollars is A, remarkably surprised.

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[00:35:16] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:35:17] Geoffrey: I'm remarkably surprised when I think about it. And then they love to show off a little bit because they like to say, oh, that's what I did. We actually, what we like is to go back to the memories.

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I've been doing this a long time. I was 20 years old.

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[00:35:32] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:35:33] Geoffrey: Seems a long time ago. I guess it was a long time ago. So you actually always like to reminisce a bit about this?

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[00:35:40] Chris : When you were 20, did you ever think you would be doing the same thing? 60

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[00:35:43] Geoffrey: Absolutely. No, I knew I was going to make, you ask anybody. I always said I was going to make a million. I said then I was going to make a million dollars for sure. I told everybody. And the funny thing is, when we all started in Kenya, and we were, a lot of the entrepreneurs, a guy did this, a little this, a guy was making swimming pools, I thought it was a nice business, another guy nightclubs, I said, hmm, that's an interesting business.

And so I was always looking at these ideas, and I had my little business, which nobody really thought of, you know, it wasn't very much. And, um, yeah, yeah, we always said we'd made it, once you get a Rolex watch.

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[00:36:19] Chris : Uh huh.

[00:36:20] Geoffrey: You had to get a Rolex watch, you had to get a Mercedes Benz car,

[00:36:24] Chris : Uh huh.

[00:36:25] Geoffrey: and if you really made it, you had a small plane, which you flew yourself. Three things. I got the Rolex watch, I've still got it, yeah, it's actually, I've got it on today, I, uh, for some reason.

[00:36:35] Chris : Nice.

[00:36:35] Geoffrey: And so this is the original Rolex.

[00:36:37] Chris : Wow. Yeah.

[00:36:39] Geoffrey: my Rolex watch. And then I got a Mercedes, 1972 Mercedes. And then I had a small plane, I had a twin engine Aztec, Piper Aztec, which I used to fly around

[00:36:50] Chris : You fly yourself.

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[00:36:51] Geoffrey: Yeah, and then, then I thought, I, actually I never, I never actually, I flew single engine, but I never actually, I was so busy, I never even got my license for twin engine, so I was just single. So I had a pilot with the Aztec, and I started with a Piper Cherokee, which I flew myself.

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[00:37:08] Chris : Oh, wow. One of the things I learned about you, Geoffrey, is that, , you like to act on instinct and intuition and you even mentioned that you don't care so much for like, who you are. Marketing plans or business plans because they take out the instinct and, the kind of gut reaction. , do you mind sharing some times in your life when you acted on that instinct and, , how you do that, , regularly and how, , you apply it to business?

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[00:37:36] Geoffrey: Yeah.

I mean, the problem is today, everybody gives a long lecture. They come in with a, , you know, photographs of everything, PowerPoint presentation. And there's always a reason when you're starting something. Much more easy to say no than yes. Because if it was yes, it would have been done already.

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So nobody's going to say yes to anything new. They're going to say no. Then they protect their position. They haven't made a mistake, but you don't grow that

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[00:38:09] Chris : Right.

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[00:38:10] Geoffrey: So actually only an entrepreneur who owns his own business and doesn't care actually should do this, right? So I'll just give you why. I mean, there's so many times, I believe my own instinct from building the ships in Egypt to, I don't know, the tender camp idea, which was the best ever, um, actually doing photographic so far is a really good idea.

​

Cause everyone, anyone could do it. , but what a very quick one. I was looking around London about 10 years ago and I said, and I thought we should have, we should be selling. I always got bothered that we, being traveled, we never have anything to show anybody. So I can sell you a Mercedes, because look at my Mercedes.

​

I can get a LaFerrari, take you for a ride in it. You'll buy a LaFerrari with me in it. You'll buy it in a second, okay? In a minute. But I can show you the car. We have nothing to show. It's just an idea. And everyone can say, well, I can do that idea, but cheaper. Or why go with them? We can do it better.

​

There's no reason to do it. And so I said, we should actually be retailing. We should actually have a shop to go to, you know, a bricks and mortar shop. And so I told my. Driver. I'm off to, um, I was going off to Africa for a while to do a movie for about a month and you're going to be sitting here in London doing nothing.

​

Go to, go and sit outside Harry's Bar. Harry's Bar is, uh, where all the ladies go to lunch. It's one of the top, top, top, top clubs. And then I go there a lot. And I said, go and sit outside Harry's Bar at lunch. Every lunch, sit outside. And I want you to, I want you to follow every car which costs more than 250, 000, right?

​

Don't, don't follow a normal car. Big luxury car. Follow them. After lunch, with women, you know, and find out where they're going. Because they're going shopping. They go to Harry's Bar and then they go shopping. So find out where these luxury cars go to. So he said, yeah. Okay, good, okay, good. So I got back, and I got so busy, and doing this and that.

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And finally he said to me, Mr. Kerr, you know that, that, that , idea you, you, you gave to me before you left? He said about going to Harry's bar. I said, yeah, I remember, what was it? By the way, I make yellow notes beside my bed every night. Every night when I wake up, I have like five notes, . He says, what about it? He said, you told me to go and stand outside Harrods, , to Harry's Bar. And so I did that. And I thought, oh, wow.

​

So, did they all go to one place? Or did they, did they move around everywhere? Did they go to one? And he said, yes. And over, over half went to one place. I said no. Over half of Harrisburg went to one place. He said yes. He said, guess where it is, Mr. Kidd? I said, you know, I have no idea. That's why I spent a year looking.

​

I've looked at, you know, I've looked at Knightsbridge, I've looked at St. James, I've looked at everywhere, where all the rich people should go, and I'm never quite sure, because London's sort of split in half, you know? And he said, . , they all went to Harrods. And a good friend of mine owned it then. And so I said, wow, so I went to Harrods. And there, after lunch, the ladies went there. And then, then he cut a long story short, I made a deal with Harrods.

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There was a travel company there already. I said they're a three star business. Get rid of them, which we did. There's a break in the clause. I opened up Abercrombie & Kent. I had to pay 280, 000 pounds to have it decorated. I made it look like a beautiful inside of a yacht, and the rest is history. It does, it does millions of pounds every year.

Perfect, perfect. So that's Instinct.

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[00:41:41] Chris : I, I love that. I, I'd like to ask you more about your thinking process. So you did mention that you write, , Post it on Post it notes every night. And, and then you said, you mentioned you give those to Samantha. , what's that process like if you have a list of Post it notes that come in every week, what does she do with them?

​

Do they come back through you to you in email to remind you or how's that process look?

​

[00:42:05] Geoffrey: No, you take, you take the post it note, right, that could end up in a phone call, email, use a phone call or an email, right, and off we go. always write everything down because I'm old fashioned, all right? I write everything on a yellow pad, like that, okay? Simple. So every post it note or idea goes down there.

​

You see, I'm crossing them off here. And then I'm signing another one today, all of which has to be done today, right?

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[00:42:29] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:42:30] Geoffrey: like everything done today. I don't want anything waiting. It's got to be done quickly. Some of the posts don't go anywhere, but I always have good ideas. And sometimes they form, they make big, huge businesses.

They can do anything.

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[00:42:46] Chris : Do you ever, do you ever find yourself like, I'll do something similar, but I find myself getting a collection of ideas that get back backlog that I never get to. And then they come, back. Like, what do you do? Do you find 

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[00:42:58] Geoffrey: yourself?

You mustn't have a collection. Every single day. No collection. Every day, I'll have three today. She's got them already. We've already done it. 

 And then, so, I just follow up every single day. Has to be done. And

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[00:43:12] Chris : Fair enough.

[00:43:13] Geoffrey: we work weekends too.

[00:43:15] Chris : What do you think makes your thinking?

[00:43:17] Geoffrey: one? We work weekends. We work weekends.

[00:43:22] Chris : All through the weekends.

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[00:43:23] Geoffrey: No, you do not take time off on weekends.

It's the stupidest thing any entrepreneur can do. So dumb. You're giving away two days doing nothing. What's that about?

​

[00:43:36] Chris : yeah,

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[00:43:37] Geoffrey: You should work. And then you're two days ahead of it. So only seven days in a week. Almost one third. So one third of the week, 99 percent of people don't work. 99. 999, don't work.

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[00:43:52] Chris : yeah. It's

[00:43:53] Geoffrey: I always work on this.

[00:43:55] Chris : I love it. Um, I want to ask you more about your thinking process. What do you think about your thinking process makes you unique or makes it unique for you?

[00:44:05] Geoffrey: On my thinking process?

[00:44:06] Chris : Yeah.

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[00:44:07] Geoffrey: I don't think it's all thinking. I think it's more, more, you've heard the expression, being in the right place at the right time. I think I've always started off being in the right place with a good idea. Many other people could have done it, but it was the right place, right time.

​

Um, I had huge passion. I have mammoth energy. I never get tired. You can see I'm like, I feel full of energy right now. So mammoth energy, man, and determination to get it done today, not tomorrow. Um, you have a, you're gonna have a huge ambition. You've got to be, you'll never be beaten. You don't want anybody to ever beat you.

​

You've got to be totally, 100 percent competitive, all right? Go for it, all day long. Um, yeah, and follow through. Most people do not follow through. They have good ideas, and they don't follow through, you know? . One of my favorites.

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Keep moving!

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[00:45:03] Chris : Keep

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[00:45:04] Geoffrey: Never start moving, because all the time I'm moving. Breakfast here, lunch there, dinner here. Use up the time. Don't go and have a coffee on your own. Meet somebody. Because if you're moving, out of every meeting comes an idea. Look, I'm sitting on the plane, and there's, we wouldn't be talking if I hadn't been sitting on a plane and Cody and I started

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[00:45:24] Chris : Yep, it's true. It's true.

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[00:45:26] Geoffrey: Wouldn't have happened. I'm just sitting on a plane. What do most people do to sit on a plane? Read a book and do nothing. If the person looks interesting, I'm just sitting. Talk to them. If they look boring, cut them off, pretend you're dead, pretend you're sleepy, have nothing to do with them. Don't waste your time.

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[00:45:42] Chris : , couple more questions. We'll wrap right up. , best book you've ever read except the one that you wrote.

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[00:45:48] Geoffrey: Oh, I knew you were going to say that. I just about, oh yes. One book, right? Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, I've got so many books. I read all the time.

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[00:45:59] Chris : how about, how about like

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[00:46:00] Geoffrey: so many books. I got hundreds of books. 

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[00:46:02] Chris : How about, how about like this, Geoffrey, the best book you read in your early days as an entrepreneur and the best book you read in the past couple of years.

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[00:46:11] Geoffrey: okay. Well, the best book I read as an entrepreneur is, was called West with the Night

​

[00:46:16] Chris : Okay.

[00:46:17] Geoffrey: by Beryl Markham.

[00:46:18] Chris : Okay.

[00:46:19] Geoffrey: you had never read that book,

[00:46:21] Chris : heard of it. Okay.

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[00:46:22] Geoffrey: Read it. Everybody listening should read that book. It's all about Africa. She was a pilot. It's so well written, so beautiful. It's a magnificent book. West with the Night by Beryl Markham. That's that one. , Well, I think somebody, um, yeah, who, who I may be having something to do with in a minute, uh, called, um, Ben Mezrich, he's a big writer, big New York

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[00:46:47] Chris : He's one of my favorites.

[00:46:49] Geoffrey: Ah, so you may be hearing something.

[00:46:51] Chris : Yeah

[00:46:52] Geoffrey: that's good. I

[00:46:53] Chris : He's a great author

[00:46:55] Geoffrey: uh, uh, and I'm just, I love it. The Accidental Billionaires.

[00:47:01] Chris : Yeah, is that is that the new book? Okay,

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[00:47:08] Geoffrey: Dumb Money, I think. Um, but I've been reading, I've read all of his books and, Yeah, that's what Ben Mezrich, yeah, he did a great one about the MIT, MIT guys who played blackjack. Made into a movie called 21.

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[00:47:21] Chris : it. Yep. Read it and saw it.

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[00:47:24] Geoffrey: So Ben, Ben Mezrich, the best.

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[00:47:26] Chris : I actually spent a few months of my life trying to learn how to count cards just because that book, but unsuccessfully, it didn't work out so well.

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[00:47:34] Geoffrey: By the way, my wife, we do these around the world trips. Yeah, that's the other thing. Sorry, let me finish that. So, the last ten years, I wanted to create something different again. This is about instinct, right? This answers many of your questions. The company grown a lot, it was pretty big, but I thought that we, all of our product was all great, but it was becoming, they'd cut back in areas, you know, which, they weren't utterly like, they're full of adventure, but not quite as much, full of luxury, but not quite as much.

They were cut back. It was rather like a chocolate factory, chocolate to cut back the bar of the chocolate, and sell it at the same price. That's what we would do. You're cutting everything back. So why are you doing this? To my board of people. They said, Oh, well we've got to remain competitive. We've got this company doing this, this company doing that.

​

We've got a company in that price range. We've got to cut this, we've got to cut that. I said, You know, that's so stupid. Say we don't do it. Oh, then we lose all our sales. Then we won't have the sales. Then we won't have this, we won't have that. So I said, Okay, I'm going to start something, and I can make it fast.

​

I eventually called it Inspiring Expeditions. Go and Google it, actually, after this, you can see it. Inspiring expedition by Geoffrey Kent. This was No Holds Barred. Unlimited price. Unlimited adventure. Private yachts. Diving off Palau. Caviar every night. The best champagne. Beautiful bottles of wine. French, Italian.

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Everything was perfect. Each body had a personal diver. And I do all these things. I dive and do all this stuff. So, done. And it, it had sold out, because you don't have a few people. And I modeled it after Chanel. Because my wife was buying a bag in Chanel. Which cost like, I don't know, 15, 000 for a bag this big.

​

So I asked them, how do you guys get away with selling a thing this big for 15, 000? So they told me, they say, one or two of them, they'll never make them again, they're only there to distribute them here and there. I said, I'm going to do that to travel. So, inspiring expeditions, I only do it once. So if you don't travel with me, that's it, gone.

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[00:49:40] Chris : get to again.

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[00:49:42] Geoffrey: And we sell it out. We've got another trip going in October, completely sold out, 48 people, gone. We're going to land on where Napoleon was imprisoned, we're going to go to Nagaland in India, we're going to go to Kanazawa Castle in Japan, and we're going to finish up in Brando's Island to chill out at the end.

​

We're going to Easter Island, we're going to go to Ecuador, Amazing trip. Three nights in each place, and each place is better than the next. So that's been a huge hit. This year, one trip I did, I went to Ethiopia. Two people, each had a helicopter. I went all over Ethiopia, from the lowest land to the highlands, to the Omo River tribes.

​

It was spectacular. So, you can Google it. South Pole, I took a lot of people to the South Pole. Thank goodness I only have to do it once. I'll never do it again, ever. Never did it again, but it did it. And so that's what I do.

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[00:50:41] Chris : I love

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[00:50:42] Geoffrey: And so that's been our, our recent, uh, recent big idea. And, and it worked, by the way. I told all my crew, because none of them liked it in the office. They said, no, it won't sell. I said, tell you what, I'll do it. I'll sell it. I'll do it. I'll operate it. If it loses money, I'll make up the difference. If it makes money, um, you keep the bonus. And they've always done that.

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[00:51:04] Chris : If you were going to give one piece of advice to your younger self, 20 years old, what would you tell him?

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[00:51:10] Geoffrey: Oh my goodness me. Um,

maybe, maybe, maybe don't live quite as dangerously. I think I'm, I'm really lucky. I'm really lucky. You know, for military life, polo life, I was jailed in the sedan. That was a horrific experience.

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[00:51:35] Chris : like a fun story.

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[00:51:37] Geoffrey: Rivers, yeah. But on the other hand, if I hadn't been like that, I've never created Abercrombie kids.

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[00:51:45] Chris : It's true.

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[00:51:46] Geoffrey: Um, hard to say.

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[00:51:47] Chris : I I've loved this chat, Geoffrey. And, , you know, for somebody that does events for, , people as well, I've loved to get behind your mind and creativity and the way you think in the events that you, you've created for others, because it makes a difference. Like you said, even, uh, David Rockefeller said you changed his life and I'm sure thousands of thousands of thousands of other people can say the same.

​

And, , I always like to ask, cause we have some pretty amazing people on the podcast and come. Come across some great people. Is there any way the listeners can keep an open ear to help you out or anything you're looking for? Any projects you're working on that, that, , we can keep our eyes open to

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[00:52:26] Geoffrey: Yeah, two things, two things. Two things I'm trying to do, alright? One of which, I've never been to Angel Falls, but I've almost had that under control. I've got to get there, it's the only big falls there. But the other one, I once was um, with His Royal Highness Prince Sultan from Saudi Arabia, and he's the one who went into space, and we're hanging out, having a coffee together, and so I said, and he's a very adventurous guy, so I said to him, it's the one thing in your life, like, he was like, that you wish you'd done. And he said, yes, I wish I'd been an air, an air force pilot in the Royal Navy or the American. I said, why? He said, well, to take off a jet plane from a land, from an aircraft carrier and land it, must be one of the most incredible feats of bravery and ability. And I said, wow, that's really good. That's what I want to do.

​

And I've been trying to, anybody listening here, I've been trying to contact, and the Italian Navy were going to give us one of their aircraft carriers, but it probably, Probably was going in reverse and sunk by now, but anyhow, that didn't go through. But if anybody knows anybody in the British Navy in America who can lend us an aircraft carrier, we'll pay, obviously.

​

And for about 10 people to take off and land in one of their planes as a passenger, that's what I want to do.

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[00:53:45] Chris : Incredible. Incredible.

[00:53:46] Geoffrey: we've got people working on it, but that's one thing.

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[00:53:49] Chris : Okay. Listeners. If you guys can help us out with that, let us know, and then we'll connect you with Geoffrey. Geoffrey, thank you so much for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. I could talk to you for another three hours, but I know you've got limited time and, , we're going to get a show.

We're going to get the interview out to the listeners soon, but thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.
 

[00:54:06] Geoffrey: Where are you based?

[00:54:07] Chris : I'm in Barcelona.

[00:54:09] Geoffrey: Oh, you're in Barcelona.

[00:54:11] Chris : Yeah. Not too far from you. Yeah, just around the corner.

[00:54:15] Geoffrey: Oh, I thought you're American. You're American,

[00:54:17] Chris : I'm American. Yeah, but I live in Barcelona.

[00:54:20] Geoffrey: Well, I mean, come and, come and, you know, come and let's have a lunch here. Come to Monaco.

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[00:54:26] Chris : I come through Monaco, I go up to Italy a lot in Tuscany, but I've never been to Monaco, but if I come that way, I'll let you know for sure.

[00:54:33] Geoffrey: You're

[00:54:34] Chris : vice versa.

[00:54:35] Geoffrey: Come to Monaco. We'll have a lovely, we'll have a lovely dinner, I can show you this one square mile of 30, 000 people, that's how we all live.

[00:54:44] Chris : It'll be great. And likewise, if you're ever in Barcelona, I'll take you out as well.

[00:54:49] Geoffrey: We will, I'd love that. But you actually, you live, you live, live there,

[00:54:53] Chris : I do. Yeah. Right, right near Picasso museum, actually like 30, about 60 seconds away from Picasso museum.

[00:54:59] Geoffrey: I've been there, I've been there.

[00:55:00] Chris : Yeah.

[00:55:01] Geoffrey: Yeah, Barcelona's a very nice place.

[00:55:03] Chris : a beautiful city. Yeah. Beautiful. So I know you got to go. Thank you so much again. And, uh, we'll let you know when we go live. Okay.

[00:55:11] Geoffrey: Okay,

[00:55:11] Chris : right. Thank you.

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