We had the good fortune of connecting with Tia Minzoni and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tia, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Taking risk has been a key element in my success. Throughout my entire life, I’ve never avoided risk, which sometimes leads to success, and sometimes leads to falling flat on my face. But even falling coming with lessons that helped me become a higher achiever. Without failure, the entire human race would not move forward, because the only way that we can grow, is through the lessons, and the best lessons are learned through risk taking, wins and fails. If you spend your life doing what is safe, living in the same place, being around the same people you grew up with, your kids going to the same schools you went to, never traveling, never doing things that are outside of your comfort zone, never taking on jobs that you’re under qualified for, then how can you ever become a high achiever? Being mediocre was never in the cards for me.

What should our readers know about your business?
Stella Jets offers the traditional custom private jet charter, with a high level of VIP service and custom offerings. We also do acquisitions (private jet sales) and management. Adding to that, we’ve just launched our sister company, Stella Jet Experiences, which curates one of a kind, memorable luxury travel experiences that include private jet travel with celebrity and pro athlete in air meet and greets, paired with major events, corporate and brand curated private jet experiences, and other really exciting custom experiences.

Being the Founder, and CEO of a woman owned and lead private jet company has had its challenges. However these challenges have offered inspiration and lessons and growth.

The industry has been built very well over the last 50 years, but there are some holes of opportunity begging for solutions. The most exciting part about coming in as a woman Founder and Executive in a male dominated industry, and bringing more diversity into private aviation, has been the ability to see things differently and come up with the creative solutions that have not yet been thought of or implemented in this space.

An infamous billionaire once said “if you want to get a company unstuck and back in a growth pattern, you should fire everyone who works there and bring in people from outside of that industry”. I think that’s a really good lesson because a lot of times when something works we just keep repeating it, and try to scale based on that one thing. We get stuck in a pattern of rinse and repeat, never actually adding new ideas. We never actually pull it apart and replant it, or take new risks, so that we can maximize growth even more. A lot of my experience and success is in scaling businesses through implementing creative ideas and processes that have not yet been seen across the industry. This is what we’re doing with Stella Jets and Stella Jet Experiences.

We are launching new ventures designed around aviation, technology, and luxury experiences that not only excite us, but excite everyone who hears about them.

That is really the most rewarding part of this business and being a founder, creator, and the head of a company. It’s being able to do things the way you are inspired to do them without other people limiting your ability to execute because they can’t see the vision or aren’t motivated to take the risks in doing something innovated.

Being an entrepreneur in a space that has been a historically good industry, but has not creatively grown new *wings, has been a very rewarding part of this journey

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This could be an entire magazine full of content because there’s so much to do around Los Angeles. Typically when I’m hosting friends, whether from my home state of Texas or across the world, I do have a few favorite spots that I will take them to.

Almost always we end up walking the Strand between Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. I feel like this is a part of the LA coastline that has both natural beauty with the ocean and beach, and architectural beauty with all the magnificent homes that line the sand. We typically take a day or two and really enjoy that area, walking out on the pier and watching the surfers, sitting in the sand, walking the beach, grabbing a latte and sitting on the water having great conversations, it’s easily one of my favorite parts of LA.

Lunch at the Maybourne rooftop cafe is also a must. It’s such a beautiful view and the food is fantastic. Since it’s in the shopping district, it’s the perfect peaceful retreat during a day of shopping.

And depending on who I’m hosting and what they enjoy, we will most likely hop on Stella Jets flight and visit either Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, or Flagstaff, Arizona. Each is just a quick private jet ride and have their own brand of experience. They are all some of my favorite places to visit and I appreciate their proximity to LA and the ease of bringing all of the combined elements together for my friends and family.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There have been many people throughout my lifetime that have offered words of encouragement, advice, or even a helping hand. The gratitude I have is not only for their help, but for their inspiring me to help others. They collectively inspired the philanthropist in me.
However, the biggest superpower to my success has been working with my daughter Jasmine Johnson. Jasmine started interning with me when she was 14, and now 12 years later, she is the VP of our private jet company, Stella Jets. She’s been my right hand, my left hand, my sense of reason, my encouragement, my back up, I couldn’t have reached the levels of success without a partner like Jasmine. Her brilliance and partnership has quite literally been my biggest strength.

Website: MyStellaExperience.com, StellaJets.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellajets?igsh=MXc4NXhmejBpdTVndA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/stella_experiences?igsh=OWxuNDF6MGxuMWpr&utm_source=qr

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@fighttofly?si=mPuY2VT774RHlLEJ

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