Do people misunderstand your business or doubt your niche idea? You’re not alone. In this week’s episode of the Spark and Ignite Your Marketing Podcast, we sit down with Roberto Capodieci, the innovative mind behind SimFly, an ethical “play-to-earn” platform for flight simulation enthusiasts.
If you’ve ever felt like your audience doesn’t “get” your business—or if you’re trying to market a niche product in a way that builds trust and loyalty—this episode is for you.
Key Topics:
- Building Trust in a Skeptical Market
Roberto discusses how skepticism surrounding blockchain technology and NFTs impacted SimFly’s growth and how they overcame it by refining their messaging and building transparency with their community. - The Power of Community-Driven Growth
The episode highlights how SimFly’s success hinges on an active, passionate community. Roberto shares how engaging users, listening to their feedback, and involving them in the development process have been critical to building loyalty and trust. - Turning a Niche Passion into a Sustainable Business
Roberto shares the journey of transforming flight simulation—considered a niche hobby—into a thriving business model that combines play-to-earn mechanics, real-world skills, and a growing market of enthusiasts who invest significant time and money into their passion.
Follow Roberto Capodieci:
SimFly | Take off and get more
Roberto (RCX) Capodieci | LinkedIn
Roberto RCX Capodieci
Transcript:
Beverly:
Did you know that global flight simulation market is expected to grow by nearly 7 percent annually reaching 8. 2 billion in 2027. SimFly is creating a revolutionary niche within this space through an ethical place to earn P2E model for flight simulation enthusiasts. Hello and welcome to the Spark and Ignite Your Marketing Podcast. I’m your host Beverly Cornell and today we have an innovative guest joining us, Roberto Capodieci. I have to practice my Italian Roberto.
Roberto:
Thank you for having me in this
Beverly:
show. He is the mastermind behind SimFly PTE Limited, an ethical plates earned platform for flight simulator pilots. He is originally from Italy. The business operates in Singapore. But Roberto lives in Bali. He’s truly an international man of mystery, right? He has been at the forefront of blockchain technology for over a decade, and in his free time, when he’s not advancing decentralized systems, he is enjoying the lush life in Bali and continues to push boundaries in the tech world. Roberto, I’m so glad to have you here today.
Roberto:
Yeah, likewise. I’m very happy to be here. Thank you for having me on the show again.
Beverly:
So you’re going to have to probably help me out with some of these technology terminology. So talk a little bit about your, like your background and how you became, what’s SimFly’s origin story? How did you get to where you are today? And what was the, like the sparks that ignited all of that for you?
Roberto:
Sure. I’ve been working in IT pretty much all my life. I actually always started and ran my business since I was a little kid. Actually, the first company I opened with the authorization of the court for minors, because I was still underage. And then I’ve been running company all time long. In the past decade, I was. And I am into specializing to decentralization, Web3, blockchain, and those sort of very complicated things I took some time off, some sabbatical, and pretty much during this time, I’ve been mentoring startups. And one of the startup I mentored, they were just starting. started that they wanted to enter into this web tree with these things about the flight simulator. He, I offered them half day per month pro bono, but it became a per week and then we can one day per week and then we can more. And I say, guys, that’s this point. I like also what they’re doing. So I joined the, in the company. Now I am one fifth owner with the other five partner. The company’s bootstrapped is paying his own expenses since day one. That’s so that’s. pretty much an amazing things. We got no investments, so we still own 100 percent of the company and it is a very special things is very interesting. Mostly when it comes to use cases of the famous play to earn, there is this trend where you can actually earn. Income by playing video games, which is a strange thing. If you think, considering how in the past, the parents were all upset when kids spent time with the video games and now it can become a career. So it is something interesting, but it’s very ethical because many of those things in this field are borderline scans. So it is something that I joined after a good consideration and is a fantastic word that I didn’t know the one of. Flight simulators. I had no idea. It hard to know somebody that does flight simulator because usually those people don’t have a life outside the flight simulation world, but there are a lot of people. Microsoft, which is one of the four producer of the most important flight simulation application, Microsoft Flight Simulator celebrated 10 million active pilots a couple of years ago. So it is it is a niche, but it’s a huge niche. And connecting the production of a token, what is this blockchain things, to the ability to fly is a guarantee that is not like a token like in all the video games that people just shoot shoot, shoot, and everyone talking, everybody can do, because flying an airplane, a flight simulator, it requires the knowledge of how to fly an airplane, almost like in real life. It’s just not everybody can do that. The economy that is generated around, which we do, we provide an actual economy to people that you see there in the flight simulator. So as a pilot, they earn something. It’s actually proven by the fact that only people that can actually fly can generate the economy. So it is not something that everybody can do. So it’s a very interesting a don to the flight simulator and he’s been successful so far a lot. So it’s pretty cool.
Beverly:
So who exactly is your client then? Your clients are pilots?
Roberto:
Clients are people that play with flight simulators. Oh, actually I wouldn’t say play. People don’t like to hear that they are play because it’s not a game. And we consider a game is something you sit there and play. One game we play simulator. You see there, if you don’t have a course and training, you cannot fly the airplane. And there are usually are retired pilots. So they like to keep exercising people that have a passion for flying airplanes. So is a very particular kind of people consider that the computer to run such things that are very expensive. Some people even have all the hydraulic things to have a gap in the simulator. The real moment. Costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, those things. So it is a passion, a hobby for people that can afford it. And they devote a lot of times. People spending several hours per day using these things. Consider if they do a flight that is intercontinental, they need to stay seven hours, eight hours, ten hours. And this is a very particular niche. So it is a niche that is easy to address because it’s easy to find. So marketing wise, the effort that limited, but it’s also a very compact community, so you need to pay a lot of attention because as soon as some bad boys go on the side, it’s very easy to get in fire and burn down.
Beverly:
So I have very little experience with fight simulators, but my son is a Cub Scout. And we went to a military base in Pennsylvania and the kids got to participate in a helicopter flight simulator.
It
Beverly:
actually went, when they simulated it, it went over our area so they could actually see where their seat was. And yeah, and it moved and the whole thing, like those seats moved and it really is a training tool for the pilot or the military. And it was very fancy, very big. And I’m sure lots of money, but the kids absolutely love it. I think that it ignited a little bit of a fire in my child. They’re like, I want to fly.
Roberto:
Yeah, it thinks he’s and with the computer capacity that there is today, the graphic cards that are in computer, you barely understand if it is produced by the computer or if it’s actually video reality. Incredible. Also, but not only inside the airplane or the cockpit of the airplane, but also the landscape that you see outside is so realistic, is impressive from both inside the airport to around. In fact, the day. They meet in groups. It is people. They use a flight simulator and there is somebody that prepared and when the flight together says you look outside the window on the left, you’re going to see it is and they do this geography license history license and stuff. It’s very interesting. They do around the world. So they all land in an airport and then they go from the airport. They keep going to the next destination. So there are a lot of people that he creates really interesting. Okay. Community friendships and so on. And so it’s an interesting activity that people do.
Beverly:
I love this so much. It, I think that the idea of, we, I read books and I travel or, this is like a different way of like really experiencing things that technology has allowed us to have access to that we would never have had access to. I get to talk to all sorts of interesting people. And there’s so many different business models and it’s so cool to hear of these ones that maybe aren’t as like publicized, you’re not like a Coke Cola or, but you have this really niche market that creates such an adventure and also a skill in the process. And I love it. It’s a community of people and that there’s like planned adventures, like that is so cool. We forget sometimes as adults to play, and I think that’s like a way for people to play. Play as adults,
Roberto:
right? Yeah, it is to live. This is a second life adventure. It is yeah is interesting. And the most for example in Italy, I had an apartment there and there is a bar underneath his apartment and the guy that managed the bar, somebody that speak only dialect, somebody I would have never guessed. He had the 60, 000 set up a home with a flight simulator. Oh my God. And I discovered by chance just because I was telling him about this business that I’m doing. And I would have never ever said if somebody says put a hundred dollars that nobody there does. I will say, sure, nobody does it. Why they do? So it’s a very hidden thing that that is actually very much common more than we think. So it’s interesting.
Beverly:
So you mentioned earlier. And in your introduction that there are scams out there.
Roberto:
Absolutely.
Beverly:
So talk a little bit about that and how you all are different in that process.
Roberto:
But if you think about something in an economy, you hardly can take out more than you put inside, right? So the first thing that you think, if you’re giving to somebody, where you get what you’re giving, right? So it is the simplest economy look like a Ponzi scheme, a little bit in order to pay The last to use the money from the first, and
Beverly:
I see
Roberto:
That’s usually the first mechanic if there is not articulated the system for which you balance and step up an economy is easily that the way and usually they collect some money and they disappear or, they have no end while what we do is very particular because I was saying. When a pilot fly, you earn a little bit for every hour and the quality of the fly, fly wells or not. So the difference create a different amount of token, but we have the possibility for people to have not only the active income, also the passive income. So we then come that they made, they can buy. An airport, for example, and every time somebody land in the airport to go from the airport, they can make a little bit of tokens as well, or they can buy an airplane and rent it out to people that need it because there is all the logic. For example, if an airplane lands in New York, he cannot take off from Paris is in New York. So somebody need to fly it out to New York somewhere else. And even if a pilot land in a. Particular city. You cannot then fly an airplane from another city because it’s there physically. So there are a lot of aspect of this. They emulate the reality. Sometimes you see pilots that take a ride on somebody else’s airplane to go to another airport to then fly an airplane from there. So you need to do these sort of things as well. There are other systems coming up, like you need to insure your airplane because if somebody is crashing a mountain with your airplane, you need to cover the cost. It’s a, there is a. Such an articulation on these things with an economy that grows together with the quantity of users that are there. Because the only produced token, a coin, let’s say, in the economy are those created by people or airplane or airport, let’s say. It is interesting. And then, you can buy an airplane or an airport or a license of a pilot using both dollars or the token that you earn in the game. So people can actually sell the token that they earn in the game to other users and so cash out actual money. As a pilot, I make my flight and at the end of the month I go out to eat a pizza with my friends, which is paid off by my activity of flying. Which is a satisfaction, nobody’s becoming a millionaire, but it’s for sure a satisfaction. And in a career that can last long because you buy a small airport, And then the more they are used, the more the level goes up. So the more they earn, then you can resell for more money, buy a bigger airport. If you want to buy Dubai, London, they cost 100, 000. But not because somebody comes with the cash, but because it’s the goal of a career the last few years to arrive to own a large airport. So that’s quite interesting. Yeah.
Beverly:
Like monopoly in real life, you’re owning property, you have like things you have to do. So what are some of the things where people can lose money? You said, obviously, crashing would be a way that they would lose it. What else?
Roberto:
Maybe they have an airport and nobody ever land in their airport, so they can not collect enough to do maintenance. The, you need to do the maintenance. So they have
Beverly:
to do the marketing to get people to come to the airport.
Roberto:
That’s correct. They need to go in a news group in where those other they are consumers, the people that fly airplanes in flight simulator and invite them to fly in the airport. Is so it creates also a community in the playing of the game itself. So that’s pretty neat.
Beverly:
Do you have a competitor in the
Roberto:
space? Honestly, there is one, but I think they made a big mistake. Making look like a cartoon rather than looking as a real realistic because with people that use this, they are all about reality as a simulation of reality. So things has to be like super professionals are super obviously with the gamification in the, Use of it. Yeah. So your satisfaction, congratulation, you collect the badge or something like this, but the UI, the interface is super neat, super clean, super nice. And it’s five of us. I’m the technical guy. Yeah, consider We hired about 10 different people beside us to help to develop and to do graphics. And there are excellent people doing these jobs. And this competitor, unfortunately, for them, it’s good to have a competitor. It’s very important to have a competitor. They, they don’t have enough people joining them. I think because this interface is too much like a video game which, and like a cartoon, it’s just. So it’s far from a professional thing. So as my take, maybe some other reason, I don’t know.
Beverly:
Yeah. So you’ve only been with the business for two years.
Roberto:
Yeah, correct.
Beverly:
So in the two years, since you started to now, what has evolved the most?
Roberto:
Oh my God. As you can see there, we. Are delivering the product since January this year, before we was just Developing community, developing just some demo part, not really fully functional. And yet people pre purchase a set. So people start purchasing airport airplanes, which allow us to implement everything, and that’s something interesting bootstrap business rather than having an investment. And on the other side as being useful to also create the community and around it. Managing the community is the difficult part. Because people don’t understand how much work is on the other side. A lot of people is afraid to be ripped off. A lot of people is afraid that suddenly we disappear, which are legitimate concern because, we put our face, I put my face, I have a reputation, still, it is not a guarantee that things goes well, even in a good faith. It’s interesting to see how people support, how people is frustrated, how we can help them feeling okay, those that are more participant or not. The community management is a very interesting aspect of all this thing, besides the implementation the architecture, but technically for me, it’s been a good thing. big satisfaction studying and implementing those things. But and also the cooperation between the business partner, none of so hardly business people that is to come from the world of flight simulation to come from Collateral things. I was the only technical person. Oh, yeah. So sometimes it’s difficult to balance everything between everybody. So it’s not but there’s been a huge learning curve as well. So I come working. For so many years of professional, SOP, standard operating procedure and doing things. Okay. And this is more an adventure of showing things and magically works.
Beverly:
You’re right. I worked for a tech startup before I started my business. And We didn’t have a lot of SOPs at the beginning and it was a very creative space, like very creative, but also a little maddening because there wasn’t a lot of structure and system in place.
And
Beverly:
as we got more system and structure, as well as growing the team, I think that’s what happens is as you grow your team, you need more systems in place so that everyone’s on the same page. Otherwise it’s the wild west. So it’s interesting, but there is a creativity that happens. When you’re not so structured, how do you balance that?
Roberto:
Correct, there are pros and cons. I find it stressful to have a meeting and five people to decide something that a single person should be delegated to take decisions by themselves. Wasting the full day. Yes. So stressful. Stress. Yes. On the other hand, sometime people bypass everybody and take decision without even discussing with others, so yes, it is really no very clear rules and not much fate in the others, I think, or trust in the others. And it creates a situation that is much more difficult. But, nonetheless, I to say the product is Excel is fantastic. I myself, if somebody were telling me, look, this is a group of people structured in this way with this money, with these people that work for them, they will ever make it. I will say no. So that’s been the revelation for me doing this thing.
Beverly:
Interesting. You talked about the community a little bit, and I feel like the community is something that we as marketers are always, In developing a community for a business or a brand. How did you start the community and how do you feed it? What is it that makes it successful?
Roberto:
For example, the big lesson learned here is that the YouTubers are the biggest boosters of a message and there is nothing else. Facebook came second. It was an interesting aspect. At the beginning we put$20 in Facebook advertisement and we make$800 in income. So the proportion was huge R away.
Wow.
Roberto:
Fantastic. Because it can be targeted with level that you only hit at those 10 people you want. So very powerful. But it remains that YouTubers. They are influential, are the best channel that we have found. The technical aspect was that because at the beginning our message was very close to cryptocurrency and if these are because your airport is an NFT and a lot of people that is illiterate in the technical aspect of the topic says NFT are scams. This is scam so much that important publication refused to let us advertise there. So we found the wall around that. So people screaming scam. That somehow slow us down a little bit and made us change people to the technical aspect of it. So we don’t have this connection with Web3 like we were thinking to have because, You had to change the
Beverly:
language. You had to change the language. And
Roberto:
absolutely change the language and the communication. In fact, that’s what happened. And now we have some people says, Oh, come, I joined you because you were Web3 and now you don’t do it anymore. Ah, you cannot make everybody happy. Fortunately is only 1 percent of the people, even less that were focused on. Consider we have 13, 000 users subscribed. So it’s not a small number. We aim to the millions, obviously, but we are doing very well under the point of view. But out of 13, 000 people subscribed, many are asleep, dormant. They bought something and they never show activity. Those that participated are just a few thousand. And but they’re very passionate. I. Always say we are the community. The community empowered us to build what we have built. The community tell us what they like or not. We are a reflection of what the community tell us because we are here. Thanks to the community. So we appreciate a lot the feedback.
Beverly:
I think the companies that are the most successful are the ones that are personalizing the experience in some way, shape, or form, which is very personalized.’cause they get to like literally choose their own adventure, right? It’s also the the tech that I love is the tech that actually does take feedback and does develop and they’re constantly staying on top of things. They listen to their community. We are the users and we’re using it every day and we’re finding the ways in which it can be used. On top of it like hey, what if it did this or what if it did that? Having invested community and sharing and being vocal that makes them extremely passionate and also have some sense of ownership in some way too was there any other big marketing mistake or learning that had to happen in the growth of the business?
Roberto:
I think sometimes, and this has been a big discussion internally, how to communicate with the community itself, how to share. We have a newsletter that goes out weekly. We had a YouTube video with a recap of the week But some stuff people don’t want to share. And not sharing something means that as soon as the This thing become bigger. People get upset that you didn’t share with them before because they, but on the other hand, they’re afraid they’re sharing it now affect how people gonna spend money tomorrow. There is no absolute right, but they should be, I think, a clear rule set that should be always be the same. It should be decided at the zero and then this is how you communicate because cannot change. Can it be the one time you say stuff and then not, then you’re allowed to communicate in a way, then you change it. People feel confused, like making this weekly video. is a guarantee for the community to see that we are still progressing. If you skip the video one week, there is panic in the community because they can see this as a disaster, something wrong happened etc. So sometimes it says, but we have nothing to say, it doesn’t matter. Let’s do a video saying we have nothing to say, but we should be there. Being constant is being something that we notice the difference. People need that is it is. It is an aspect that is important.
Beverly:
Okay, Roberto, I have a lightning round this is a little bit more short answers and just come from the gut. Don’t overthink it. Okay. So share a fun fact about SimFly that maybe even your most dedicated users might not know. Maybe it’s a ritual in the office or something that happens behind the scenes.
Roberto:
We are fully remote and we met in person only one time and one person was missing as well.
Beverly:
How do you usually connect with new clients or users in the flight sim community?
Roberto:
Reaching new areas. I think the next things we’re going to do is translating different languages. Now we’re only in English, so that’s a big limitation.
Beverly:
AI certainly is going to help you with that. Don’t you think? So technology on top of technology is helping you, which is amazing to me. I think that is there’s so much potential in that. If SimFly had a voice, what emotion or word would resonate most strongly from its core?
Roberto:
I think the voice of a captain announcing information during a flight, right?
Beverly:
Hello, I’m your captain. What book, podcast, or entrepreneur, it can be multiple, has influenced your entrepreneurial journey the most?
Roberto:
I am a big fan of Elon Musk lately because it’s not something that I knew long before. Long time. I don’t have any specific beside the people that I know personally, that nobody knows who they are, but they’re important in my life.
Beverly:
There’s so many smaller entrepreneurs that make a huge impact on who we are. There’s no question. What’s one unconventional tool or app that has become your secret weapon in running your business?
Roberto:
Sidebar. I think
Beverly:
Sidebar. What is sidebar? It
Roberto:
is an AI tool to help you with many different things, FATTOM, to resume the meetings. A phantom. I love
Beverly:
Phantom. Yes. The
Roberto:
number one application to do that. Yes. Yes. And is let me tell you the correct name, because I use it every day. Cider is called cider, not cider, the one you drink, the one that stays next to your
Beverly:
cider. Cider, okay.
Roberto:
So phantom, Fatto is the number. You can even start asking question. It brings you to any point. Is exceptional. Very useful. It’s so
Beverly:
great. Yes.
Roberto:
Yeah,
Beverly:
absolutely. Love it. What are three most important ingredients for your recipe for success?
Roberto:
Be able to smile in front of everything you know, and be consistent and keep going no matter what. Fall and get up and fall and get up. I think. I tell my kids, one thing you want to do that one, do it for hours a day for your life. If you don’t become a superstar in the things that is a problem with you, that is, of a different kind.
Beverly:
Who is the person who said 10, 000 hours makes you an expert or whatever? So how do you stay inspired? How do How do you stay ahead of your community in some way? What inspires you?
Roberto:
Yeah. Curiosity. I know that kills the cat, but he’s empowering me. So yeah, I think you know, you by natural aspect. I’m curious. I don’t have a memory that remember. Things of fact, I have a logical memory, so everything is connected logically one things to another. If I need to reconstruct what I did yesterday, it’s not that I remember what I did, but I grew up, so obviously I did this after that, and so on. And this same mechanics, when it’s applied to understand how something works, or to understand how I can do something better, or I can solve a problem, is different. The kind of synapses in my head that makes it happen. So that’s what is powerful for me,
Beverly:
what’s your educational background? I know you’re like in tech, but what’s your educational background?
Roberto:
Honestly, I got a small. My parents wanted that, but what they learned that it’s been useful in my life, I learned it by myself. I even sneaked in university following a business organization license. Even I wasn’t registered at the university at all. There was this classroom with 400 people. They know the difference. One was an intruder. So that’s what I did to learn. I never relied on a piece of paper as something valid and nowadays even less because I’m 50 years old. I know I look 25, but when I was a little kid, either you have an encyclopedia at home, you have an uncle, he’s old, but or you go to school and the teacher tells you. Today knowledge is in the hands of a young. Physically in our hands with the cell phone. So we don’t really need anymore to go to somebody to learn what we need is to know how to learn how to discern good information from bad information. Yes, but there is no excuses to say, I don’t know where to know that you want to, whatever you want to do, there is a way to learn it online. That’s, I think that’s the important thing.
Beverly:
It’s really interesting, because I was listening to somebody talk about that education now you don’t need to know, obviously, I feel like, as Americans, I think it would be beneficial if we know world geography, however, you can go to Google and search in where is Italy or whatever, and you can see the map and see all the cities and whatever. That what they need to learn is like how to live a life, like how to budget, how to interact with people, how to consume information and analyze it for truth and for, those are the things that were the skills that kids need to learn now.
Roberto:
If I, for you and anybody listening to this, I suggest to search John Taylor Gatto. John Taylor Gatto was a teacher in the state of New York. They resigned because he understood that the school system was terrible. And and there is a lot of interesting things that he says about what is important to learn in life rather to what they teach.
Beverly:
So I think that’s a very big conversation. We probably will not solve today, but I like talking about it cause it is compelling and I think it’s very relevant. So if SimFly were an animal, what animal would it be? It
Roberto:
would be an eagle for sure. I love it.
Beverly:
What was the moment that you realized that SimFly was successful?
Roberto:
Yeah, this is a very good question. This is a very good question because he applied not only SimFly, but many other things I’ve done in my life. Sometime you are on a horse that is going to win the race, even if you are the worst jockey in the planet, doesn’t matter. Okay, and this is the blessing of many entrepreneurs. That really you learn to be a CEO as you go, probably you made all the wrong choices, all the big mistakes, but you are racing on something that is going to win no matter what. I think SimFly has this thing. SimFly is the perfect Assembly of things that is not chance and we can do all the mistake we want is going to succeed anyway, and I realized is I will say less than a years ago on going on a certain way. It is a Tiffany. I realized that how what we offer to the community is what the community wants. And pretty much we are making it happen. And that’s it. I think if in place of the five of us, I put myself into the word, five of us, Five top professionals. These will be at the sky already, probably, but it doesn’t matter.
Beverly:
It’s a power of belief in such a strong level, Roberto.
Roberto:
No, I think if you sell umbrella in a rainy day, it doesn’t matter how polite you are in selling your umbrella, you’re going to sell them all outside the train station or whatever, so it is really being in the right place with the right things in the right moment, et cetera, et cetera. Sometimes it’s luck, sometimes it’s the ability to put yourself in that place. But some stuff, really exactly the umbrella things. The guy can be ugly, grumpy, and unpolite and sell you the umbrella. That’s exactly the point, when you are in that condition, you’re going to win. Doesn’t matter what they think of this is a very interesting aspect.
Beverly:
It is interesting. So what area of running the business did you have to learn the most about finance, HR, leadership, operations, communications, marketing?
Roberto:
If somebody is a good chef, he can cook fantastically, he want to open a restaurant, he better sit in the kitchen and do the chef and hire a restaurant manager, hire HR, hire the other people that are needed in the business because if you start doing those work. You cannot be a chef anymore. Found myself forced to cover roles that were not really my inspiration. All my life is the dream to find somebody that I can put there to take over that role, to let me do what I’m good at. Yes,
Beverly:
I think one thing I wish I learned earlier It was how important it is to invest in people who do that.
Roberto:
Because these people, they love to do it. It’s not,
Beverly:
It’s, I think we can learn it and figure it out, which that’s entrepreneurial in its own way, but it’s a mistake because you’re slowing your progress. It’s a delusion
Roberto:
to think you’re good at something you’re not good at,
Beverly:
yes, the best thing I ever did was hire a bookkeeper and a CPA. Like that is not my forte. Yes, exactly. In fact,
Roberto:
delegation is the most difficult thing and the most important things when you start your own business. Not everybody can do that. Yes.
Beverly:
Okay. That’s the end of the lightning round. You totally survived.
I
Beverly:
want to hop into a time machine with you. And I want to travel backwards to young Roberto, who’s 18, and look at one piece of advice that you wish someone had shared with you early on that could have saved you some headaches in your life.
Roberto:
Oh, my God. I’m a father of four with four marriage. Okay. And three kids living with me with my current wife. Probably I would say, pay attention if you’re super intelligent with computer doesn’t mean you’re super intelligent in finding the right woman for you. Trust your friend more than than you do because they are seeing things objectively, probably that’s what I would tell myself,
Beverly:
okay, so now let’s fast forward and let’s look at your long term vision for SimFly. Tell me where you see SimFly going and what does it look like?
Roberto:
He has the possibility to keep growing forever because it’s structured in a way that new missions can be created, the new functionality. So there is no hand on how we can expand and grow. So for this reason, I see that he still lives with his own identity. Surely is very appealing because of the number of users, because these people, this niche is a niche to spend money. It’s an issue that is very appealing for a lot of reasons. So people that sell hardware for computer, people that sell solutions for flight simulation, and companies that do flight simulation like Microsoft or others, probably there will be an accident at a certain point, at least for what concerns me. There are so many other things that are good to be done. So now he’s a little embryo that is growing
Beverly:
so what is the legacy that you want to leave behind? Through SimFly,
Roberto:
I love the idea that A lot of people can follow the story of SynFly, so there is a human side beside the technical aspect of it. And doing this weekly video that I do is a way to, to share also a little bit of, Hey, we are humans, we are like you, we are trying to do something, we are not a big company, whatever. See us growing, support us growing, because we are the reflection of the community. And the day that SynFly can SynFly. com Close for several million, an extra something. There is this legacy, there is this fact that everybody can put yourself into it. Stay broke, don’t pay yourself for one year, use the little money that are coming in just to pay some developer, paying other people. And, people think we are covering money, we’re doing this thing from a yacht. No, the truth is if we have some money, it’s because of other things that we do. But when it comes to SimFly, Every penny that comes in, actually every penny plus 10 percent more that we put in our book is reinvested into SimFly. So there is no, swimming in gold, but nonetheless, he made a lot of money so far. A lot of money being, built used to build what we have and probably we didn’t do some mistake with ever saved a little bit, nonetheless, as I was saying before, we’re moving. So I think this is the message.
Beverly:
So what is one practical piece of advice that you could give to our listeners who are either in the middle of, of growing, but they’re frustrated or they feel a little stuck or a new entrepreneur that could help them today.
Roberto:
Call Beverly for the marketing.
Beverly:
I did not pay him to say that just so I need you on every podcast. I love that so much. I think investing in marketing is a huge thing. No, honestly,
Roberto:
No. This was a good, absolutely supported joke that I did is something I believe, but in truth is the people. That has a capacity is focused. Let’s say a chef for a restaurant. They’re so focused on the quality of the plate. They don’t advertise it. So they’re going to be sitting by themselves eating this plate that they cooked, marketing sometimes comes above. the cost of the product. That’s why I say Business card, for example, it seems stupid, but the business card, which is the website today, maybe more than a business card, is the first impression people has about you.
And
Roberto:
if your website doesn’t work, they think that all your product doesn’t work. It seems silly, and maybe there is no correlation whatsoever. But and like somebody answering the phone and being not polite or being like That’s really what can kill a potential client. So the first impression comes absolutely from whatever it is that the first connection they do. That’s why I’m saying marketing is important. Marketing, not just that I put an ad in the newspaper. Marketing is studying correctly, the messages, studying correctly, the communication style, the methods. That’s the key. Then you can sell dog poo made in plastic and you can make a million dollar with that. It’s true. What is important is bringing the message to the people that need to purchase your things. So then. As soon as you build a reputation, you can lower, usually it’s 30 percent of the income goes in communication, but because you already have a, so is it much easier to get the current client to spend more money that achieve, I think it’s 10 time more expensive to get the new client coming
Beverly:
in. So
Roberto:
it is more obvious that the more client you have, the more you can come out with the new product is more strategic. The things you keep cashing in. But the beginning. Oh my God, it has to be 2, 000 percent in giving people a good experience. This has to be true throughout the experience from first contact to delivery of the product, the
Beverly:
customer journey and how they feel along that journey has to be exceptional so that word of mouth can be built also on top of the marketing, your spending. And I think you’re right. Like I, I believe. That if you don’t have a clear message either, like on your website of what you do, who you serve, the problem that you solve, if it’s confusing it, the customer is going to be confused. So having to like really simplify that and focus that in a way that resonates with your customer, your potential customer. So before we wrap up please share with our listeners where they can learn more about you and SimFly and your business. Like where can they find information about you?
Roberto:
All right. The SimFly website is SimFly. io. I don’t know. I, my LinkedIn handle is rc10. So classic linkedin. com slash I N slash rc10. And a short link to my website is rcx. it. It because I’m Italian or it because the information technology works.
Beverly:
It’s a double entendre. I love that. Before we wrap up, I just want to say thank you so much for joining me today. This has been a very unique and unusual conversation, but so completely lovely. So thank you.
Roberto:
Likewise. It’s been a pleasure being your guest. Thank you very much.
Beverly:
To our listeners, I hope you found this episode as fun as I did. Remember to take all of the insights that Roberto has shared with you and put them into action in your business. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to Roberto or myself. We’d love to help you in any way we can. Please stay tuned for more inspiring conversations and actionable marketing tips on future episodes of the Spark and Ignite Your Marketing Podcast. Until next time, keep sparking and keep igniting! Igniting.
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1. 📞 Schedule a Complimentary 15-minute Call and let’s delve into your goals and answer any questions you may have.
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