Exceptional Experiences Are What Drive Word-Of-Mouth Marketing With Jonathan Newar, Co-Founder and CEO at Captain Experiences
Jonathan Newar is the Co-founder and CEO of Captain Experiences. He has transformed his frustration over the complexities of finding, vetting, and booking fishing trips into a successful venture. Under his leadership, Captain Experiences has emerged as the largest fishing trip booking platform in the US, boasting over 80,000 trip hours since its 2020 inception. With a vision for broadening horizons, the company has raised $4.6 million and is gearing up to expand its offerings across various outdoor sports and geographies. Jonathan is also a Founding Member of Hampton, a highly vetted membership community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Jonathan Newar explains Captain Experiences’ origin story and where its name came from
What makes Captain’s fishing guides so good?
Captain’s outdoor activity expansion plans
Why Jonathan offers a full refund when the weather is not favorable
How the business functioned during the pandemic
Marketing strategies Captain has employed to fuel its growth
Why referrals have been a wildly successful customer acquisition tool
What you’ll learn in this episode:
As technology evolves and digital platforms keep expanding, so do marketing opportunities. Just because something worked a few years ago doesn’t mean it will indefinitely. However, one method never fails: word of mouth. How does a travel brand ensure customers will talk glowingly about it to potential new customers?
Outdoors enthusiast Jonathan Newar co-founded an online platform that helps people find and book fishing trips quickly and seamlessly, using a process they can trust. When clientele have an excellent customer experience, the road to expansion is limitless. Why? Because when you have a great experience, you share it with others. Jonathan explains that people who use his platform view it as unique and novel and refer his services to friends. Loyal customers are also incentivized when they take advantage of his referral program, which offers discounts to those who recruit new adventurers.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni discusses the most effective methods for marketing unique fishing adventures with Jonathan Newar, Co-founder and CEO of Captain Experiences. Jonathan reveals how the brand came about and what makes it unique, talks about the types of adventures he’d like to eventually offer beyond fishing, and shares his concerns and what excites him the most about the future. Jonathan also talks about the benefits of, and reasons for, word-of-mouth marketing.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design are the strategic foundation for your brand’s success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:31
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal where I get to use my expertise and consumer behavior to engage with top business leaders who are propelling their brands forward. Now before I get to today's guest, this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave.. At Off Madison Ave., we use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. And if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you truly can't unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavior models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand success. Visit offmadisonave.com to learn more. And today, I am so happy with me to have Jonathan Newar. Jonathan is the Co-founder and CEO of Captain Experiences. Already I know what you're thinking it probably has something to do with water. And it does. The company actually specializes in booking outdoor sports guides, but they first focused on fishing and hunting Captain plans to experience across all outdoor sports and geographies to unlock the outdoors for everyone, which I think is an incredibly wonderful mission. Jonathan, welcome to the show.
Jonathan Newar 1:59
Awesome, Roger. Thanks for having me.
Roger Hurni 2:00
All right. What did I screw up anything wrong? There? We need to correct?
Jonathan Newar 2:04
No, I think it's great.
Roger Hurni 2:05
All right. All right. Lucky me. I got right. Um, let's just kick off what is Captain Experiences origin story? And actually, why that name?
Jonathan Newar 2:15
Yeah. So the quick story on Captain is that I was working in my hometown of Houston, Texas, in oil and gas finance, when the company I was working for Sol said, Hey, guys, we always talk about it. Let's finally book that fishing trip. And they said, great job, Jonathan. You just nominated yourself to book a solo trip. So from there, I said, Okay, you're on how hard can it be drift fishing my whole life on the upper Texas coast Galveston Bay, but didn't know guides on a first name basis. So I just Googled it, I Googled Galveston Fishing Charters. And it was that quintessential Bounders moment that slap in the face where I just said, Hey, if you can book an Airbnb or call an Uber, why am I playing phone tag with fishing guides all day? So drove down to the docks on a whim and met with these guides. And they said, Yeah, we'd love to list on a site that made it easy for us to earn more trips, manage our calendars, that sort of thing. And so from there, I said, Hey, I think we really have something here, drove the opposite way to Austin, Texas, teamed up with my co founder, Addison on the tech side, and we launched captainexperiences.com in March of 2020. In terms of the name, you know, I was really thinking about a number of a number of different names. And so I did the, you know, the founder routine, where you just, you know, write them all down on a sheet of paper. And I you know, had things like, like trip hard, I remember was one and Captain Experiences was another and quickly throughout trip hard because it might have some sort of, you know, negative connotation that you don't want associated with a business. And so we said, Hey, Captain Experiences is a placeholder, and then it ended up sticking.
Roger Hurni 3:51
I love it. As a true entrepreneur, not everyone always sees an opportunity. Back in the mid 90s, I'm a little older than you I ended up for seven or eight years, booked a weekend hiking trip across the Grand Canyon for a boatload of friends. And I got to these trips of being like, 2024 people. I never thought of that as a business. Which maybe in hindsight was a mistake on my part. But congrats. I love it when someone sees an opportunity and just goes for it. In terms of when I was reading through the website, I have to tell you, I love any company that embraces an attitude. And what I saw with yours was the damn good gods. Now, I'm curious what exactly makes them so damn good.
Jonathan Newar 4:37
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it really goes back to you know, our strategy. And basically, we started this company because we are passionate about getting outdoors about fishing, hunting and all these other sports that we plan to attack. But really, the beauty of the model comes down to our guides, you know, people don't remember us because, you know, it was easy to filter by target species and price and things like that, or oh, you know, Captain Experiences, has verified reviews, those are all sort of the nice to haves, but really what people are doing is booking with us to get out on the water with a damn good guy. You know, for example, our trips are about eight hours on average, you know, so people are getting out there for a full day. And you want to know that you like, you know, your guide, and that you guys gel. And so we vet all of our guides, we make sure that their quality, they upload their license and insurance information. And then yeah, we have the verified reviews on the site, which are pretty unique. And I'm proud to say that after 1000s of trips, our average review score is 4.9 out of five stars. So yeah, that's, that's why we like to say that we have damn good guides.
Roger Hurni 5:41
I love it. I love it. Well, going through the site, seeing pictures of you holding gigantic fish that I don't know the name of. Clearly, you're a fisherman at heart, which is also probably buy, I looked at the list of cities, and there looked like there was more than 100 fishing destinations on the website. In you might be able to give me the exact number. Is there. Is there a fishing destination? You haven't covered that you want to yet?
Jonathan Newar 6:10
Oh, man, that's a great question. And yeah, I mean, to be honest, I couldn't even tell you the number of cities that we're live in at this point. You know, we were talking before we jumped on, you know, recording about Alaska, you know, I think that we have we have a handful of guides up there. But it is such a vast area. In such a an amazing fishery, a number of different fisheries there, that we definitely want to get deeper into into Alaska. And then also we, you know, have our sights set on expanding internationally. So we have a few amazing locations like Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Bermuda and places like that. But we definitely want to, you know, plant our flag around the world, Australia actually might be my top of my dancer for that, right.
Roger Hurni 6:54
That's right. Well, Mexico certainly makes a lot of sense. I know that the fishing industry is really, really big off Cabo. You talked on the site, in our pre conversation about, you know, expanding the outdoors for everyone, which I think is a wonderful mission. And moving beyond fishing, which you started focusing on naturally. Are there two or three other kinds of outdoor activities and destinations that that Captain Experiences will eventually expand into?
Jonathan Newar 7:29
Yeah, I mean, the way that we sort of, you know, build the fence around, what we're doing is that we focus on outdoor sports. So all of these off the map adventures. So you know, things like rock climbing, rafting, kayaking, mountain biking, scuba diving, snorkeling, spearfishing, all of those different things are definitely sports that we want to get into beyond hunting and fishing.
Roger Hurni 7:55
So what's your top? Next one? I mean, it may not be the one you do. So I won't hold you to it. But if you could pick the next sport, what would it be?
Jonathan Newar 8:05
Yeah, I'd say it's those mountain sports, rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting. Those are those are sports that we really want to expand into. But we feel like we have our work cut out for us just across hunting and fishing for the near term.
Roger Hurni 8:22
Okay, that sounds that sounds great. You also had something else on your website, I found really interesting. And that was, you give 100% weather guarantee. It's rare to come across a company that actually can guarantee something that, you know, is quote unquote, inactive God when the airlines of the airlines put it to what does that mean, exactly? In terms of your operations? And how can you how can you do that?
Jonathan Newar 8:47
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty simple. You know, like off the bat, if, you know, the seas are too rough, or if it's, you know, thundering and lightning or it's just, you know, too dangerous for the trip to take place, we go ahead and issue a full refund. So, you know, to go deeper on that. It is the call of our guides on whether or not you know, the conditions are dangerous to cancel the trip. But you know, if, you know, adventurers, as we call them customers, if they're saying, hey, you know, we're really not, you know, that hardcore, we don't want to go fishing in four or five foot seas. You know, we'd rather call it you know, our guides are understanding, they, you know, are damn good guides, they want that five out of five star review. And so they're they're happy to just cancel it. And, you know, what we see is that these groups are so you know, passionate about the outdoors that most times they'll just go ahead and reschedule that for a later date when the the forecast is looking at a little bit more appetizing.
Roger Hurni 9:43
Nice, nice. And do you cover the entire? I shouldn't say you don't cover it because someone pays for it. But do you end up taking care of all the logistics from flights and accommodations and everything or is it just the guide?
Jonathan Newar 9:57
Yeah, so right now we're focused on that guide. experience? We do, we do have a team of adventure success managers, as we call them. Pretty cool job title. But yeah, these these folks, Elena and Adam on our team, they're available to answer any questions that groups have, you know, so hey, what's what's, you know, biting the best, or what's the best time to go fishing in Cabo, things like that, they can really help steer you in the right direction. And then we have all of the information that you need for your trip, in terms of, you know, last mile logistics, where to meet your guide is fish cleaning included is bait included, all of that is on the site, but they can also help, you know, smooth things over there.
Roger Hurni 10:38
Very good. Cool. I'm kind of curious about about this. Also, you started in 2019, I believe. And, you know, obviously, you know, you're a year into it, or whatever the timeframe was, and you get hit with HIV pandemic, was it? Everything seemed to shut down? Or? Or was it okay, because you're outside and you're away from people fishing? How did the business function during the pandemic?
Jonathan Newar 11:04
Yeah, I mean, I think there's, you know, there's two sides to every coin. And I think it was a great lesson in entrepreneurship, you know, to sort of roll with the punches. So yeah, founded Captain in 2019. And, you know, we had to build the site, and all of that and figure out, you know, how to onboard guides and acquire adventures. And so yeah, we, we decided that we were going to launch in March of 2020. And we said, hey, you know, Spring Break really kicks off the busy season and fishing, we're gonna be ready to go, and we're gonna blast it out to the world. So we launch and I'm looking over my laptop at CNBC, and all the talking heads are talking about the pandemic and lock downs, and how no one's gonna leave their house, you know, and all of that. And we just said, Oh, my God, what a disaster. And so yeah, a lot of businesses ended up, you know, shutting down, especially in the travel space. But for us, what we realized is that, you know, we stuck with it, we weren't quite ready to launch in March of 2020, if we're being honest. So it allowed us to sort of Polish things and get into a better spot. And then yeah, we just stuck with it. And all of a sudden, bookings started coming in. And, you know, people were saying, hey, you know, I can't go back to work. And you know, I'm getting reintroduced to the outdoors, and I want to go fishing. And so our guides were, you know, wearing gloves, disinfecting their, their rods, and reels, and tackle and wearing masks and things and, you know, getting our groups out there. And so it ended up being a bit of a tailwind for us.
Roger Hurni 12:27
No, that's good to hear. So you probably grew then year over year through that, however, slowly, you're able to see a decline in business, because you've really just gotten started.
Jonathan Newar 12:38
Yeah, I mean, 2020 was, was, you know, kind of crickets. But then yeah, you know, 2021 is really when that tailwind started materializing. And so yeah, that was that was a boon for us. So we've been growing steadily every single year.
Roger Hurni 12:52
I mean, that's wonderful. I'm curious, switching sort of topics here and helping that growth. From a marketing perspective, what strategies have you employed? And what are you doing tactically now?
Jonathan Newar 13:05
Yeah, it's a little bit of everything. So it's a lot of a lot of search marketing, you know, so SEO, search engine optimization. So if you go back to my problem statement, right, I Googled Galveston Fishing Charters, that's a great place for us to start. And so now, if you Google Galveston, fishing charters, Destin fishing guides, Keywest, fishing trips, things like that, you should see Captain Experiences at the top we're pretty close to, but then we also do a lot of, you know, social media marketing. And so we went on our guides for their content, and we get that out there. And then we also have a great newsletter. So we're telling our adventures, you know, where the fish are biting, who's catching what when we have fishing reports that do the same. And then also, we're fortunate in that we have a lot of repeat bookings, and word of mouth. So, you know, people love using Captain Experiences, they view it as something unique and novel in the space. And then they go and tell all their their fishing buddies and friends about it. And, you know, they hear of us and book their own trips.
Roger Hurni 14:04
Well, I mean, word of mouth marketing is a real thing. And, and certainly, that really gets amplified by the experience that you're able to provide and for us specifically, with your damn good guides, I'm gonna, I'm going to be keeping I'm gonna keep using that forever now. How is that the only way you've leveraged the clients is just hoping that they do a word of mouth or do you? Do you do anything else with former clients to incentivize them to spread that word? Like, do they get discounts or, you know, swag, or do you do anything else for your current clients to help them spread that word?
Jonathan Newar 14:46
Yeah, we have a referral program where you know, if they refer a group to us, they get a discount on their future trip. And then we also incentivize adventures to share about their trips and post pictures and tag us on social media.
Roger Hurni 15:01
Well, in terms of expanding their experiences, I know you said you, you're focused right now on the actual trip itself, would you ever consider getting into I know that worked with a similar organization to yours different different subject matter. But the primary thing might be a trek from Lucca to base camp in, in the Himalayas. But along with that, they're like, Hey, here's this side thing. You can go to this temple, and here's this other thing, and they'll make all those arrangements. Are you ever thinking about doing some of those ancillary things that surround the fishing activity that aren't the primary activity that the reason people are going to these places?
Jonathan Newar 15:44
Yeah, I mean, I think that that comes with expanding into other outdoor sports. So like, right now we have done some stuff with, you know, scalloping, for example, you know, in Crystal River, Florida, in lobster diving in the Florida Keys and things like that. And so we do have groups that say, Hey, you know, we just booked a deep sea fishing trip on Wednesday. What can we do with you guys on Thursday, and we say, Oh, well, you're going deep. See, here's an inshore fishing trip, or here, you can try fly fishing, or here's a lobster diving trip. And so we we do some of that. But yeah, we also want to get into, you know, everything that encompasses booking that trip. So yeah, flights, lodging, all that good stuff.
Roger Hurni 16:25
So it's just a matter of time, where you see those growth opportunities. There's one other thing I wanted to cover because I, again, I've worked with some organizations like yours. And I know that because we do a lot of work for Arizona Game and Fish work. And I understand that, you know, protecting the outdoors protecting that environment is so critical. I didn't see anything on the website. But his Captain Experiences either associated with a foundation that has the similar kind of mission as yours. And if not, is that something you're also thinking about doing in the future?
Jonathan Newar 17:04
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think we could, we could do a better job of highlighting that, you know, on the site. But we're definitely close with CCA, coastal Conservation Association. And, you know, we're, we donate to them and do trip giveaways and things like that to help support their conservation efforts. And then the same goes for IGFA, the International Game Fish Association. But you know, really, we view what we do as core to promoting conservation. And what I mean by that, again, is going back to our damn good guides, you know, our guides are the ones on the frontlines of conservation, making a living in the outdoors and on the resource. And so they're sort of the, you know, the guardians of, you know, their respective fisheries. And so when you go out with a guide, you know, they're going to teach you about, hey, you know, this, this is the mangrove forest. And this is how you know, the mangroves filter out water and keep the water fresh and clean for all these different fish species. And this is how you should hold a fish, you should hold it horizontally, because you're doing the fish harm, if you just hold it vertically, you know, this is you should wet your hands before touching the fish, get a quick picture out of the water, and then release it. And you know, these are the fish species that you're allowed to keep, let's just keep one or two of the non breeders. And that way we can, you know, allow the population to reproduce. Like, all that sort of thing has our adventures going down to the coast or wherever they're fishing, learning about conservation, and then they take those lessons back to wherever they are. In Yeah, just sort of helps drive awareness.
Roger Hurni 18:42
I love the ecological sustainability. I see so many studies that brands that are great, do good. And so there has to be that component of it as well, whatever that means to your brand, if you're not in the same industry is as as you are. So things seem to be growing really well. And you're growing. You've got lots and lots of opportunity in front of you. What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now? What's what's keeping you up at night?
Jonathan Newar 19:10
Yeah, I would say what's what's keeping up keeping me up at night. And the biggest challenge that we're facing is just spreading the word, you know, and driving awareness. You know, so many people come to us and book a trip and they go, Wow, it was so easy. I just had no idea that this sort of thing existed. And so it's really just about Yeah, you know, making the world aware of what we're doing at Captain and, you know, spreading the word.
Roger Hurni 19:35
Excellent. Let me take the other side of that coin before because I got like a couple more questions. What are you most excited about right now?
Jonathan Newar 19:42
Man, what am I most excited about? I would just say, yeah, it's expanding and getting more guides and unlocking more geographies. And, you know, once we get to it, additional outdoor sports. I mean, what what I would say, you know, going back to what keeps us up at night is, you know, thinking about those groups. that might be sitting at work on a Friday afternoon saying, hey, you know, guys and gals like, let's let's all go fishing or, you know, let's let's get off the map, put our phones in the dry box and have a great experience together. And then someone says, Well, it's too big of a pain to book a trip, I don't even know where to start. And then they don't end up, you know, experiencing that that lifetime event, you know, and so that's, that's what we're trying to solve.
Roger Hurni 20:24
Makes sense? Makes perfect sense. Well, you've been great with your time, I have one last question for you and every show this way. And hopefully, this won't be too much of a curveball for you. But I'm curious as to what is the worst advice you've ever gotten that you said? No way.
Jonathan Newar 20:43
Man. There's, there's been so many times. I mean, I would just say, you know, some people said, Hey, give up, you know, like, this is never gonna work. You know, I don't know why you're trying this, you know, for a variety of reasons. You know, guides, guides won't be picking up what you're putting down, it's gonna be too tough to, you know, get the word out or whatever it is. And, you know, to those people, we've consistently just said, you know, shut up, you know, we've continued to pound the pavement and make it happen. And, you know, I think the journey is very difficult. You know, you can't underestimate how tough it is. But that makes it all the more rewarding.
Roger Hurni 21:23
Awesome, awesome. I love that advice. You always have to persevere. Well, again, you've been wonderful for your time. I really appreciate it. Everybody, I have been speaking with Jonathan Newar. He is the co founder and CEO of Captain Experiences. Jonathan, where can people learn more about you and Captain Experiences?
Jonathan Newar 21:45
Yeah, so people can go to our website at captainexperiences.com. They can follow us on social media Captain Experiences. And yeah, we look forward to helping people get out get out on the water on a great trip.
Roger Hurni 21:59
That's awesome. Thank you again, everyone. I'm Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal we'll catch you next time.
Outro 22:07
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
