Jack Ezon on Working with Dior & Hermes and Luxury Travel for Billionaires

Jack Ezon built 2 of the world’s largest luxury travel companies. Most recently, he founded Embark Beyond, a $250M+ business with over 300+ employees that plans unbelievable getaways around the world. In this episode, Jack opens up about quitting big-law to chase his passion, renting out private islands for $40 MILLION parties, and how he launched a travel business just 6 months before COVID. Brought to you by Goldburd McCone LLP, the very best that tax law has to offer: https://www.goldburdlaw.com Check out the Faks Brothers on Momentum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKGIS-8kI48 (0:00) Coming up… (1:56) How do you describe what you do? (2:47) Growing up and struggling in school (4:21) How community service taught Jack fundamental lessons (5:46) Incorporating travel into community service (6:50) Stuck in a big-law career that he hated (7:55) Launching a FAILED tech startup in 1999 (11:15) Struggling to network in law school (14:02) Getting into travel consulting after his failed startup (16:42) Becoming a travel agent BY ACCIDENT (18:59) Reputation is everything (19:46) Building a business from $0 to $400 MILLION (21:31) Starting his own travel business 6 months before COVID (22:59) Turning COVID into an opportunity to grow (23:45) Developing relationships with the press (26:24) Sleeping 3 hour nights when growing the business (28:09) Coolest destinations/events ($40M wedding, renting out private islands, private concerts) (29:29) The $200k mistake when trying to expand the business (31:35) Struggling to network at event conferences: “it was humbling” (34:28) Exclusive trips that exploded Embark’s business (35:49) Hanging out with the CEO of Dior and Hermes / incorporating luxury brands into travel (37:41) Clienteling - making people feel special (40:38) Should people follow their passion? (41:27) Qualities noticed in A+ players (42:29) Scaling a service business (44:06) Giving back to the community (45:03) True happiness is not enjoyment, it’s fulfillment: reflecting on community values (48:20) Momentum Moment (49:32) Closing thoughts (50:47) Outro