Navigating challenges in finance, leadership, and tech integration – Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks This is a show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business stories, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used.

To start to grow their businesses. And today I’m really excited to welcome Joanne Liscano to the show. Uh, Joanne is the Chief Executive Officer of On-Air Parking. On-air parking is a US-based travel technology company specializing in affordable airport and city parking reservations. And today I’m going to ask Joanne a few questions about her business journey.

And some of the strategies and tactic that she had used to grow this business. Now, before we dive into this interview, if you enjoy this content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And for more interviews like this, please visit treptalks.com And with that, Joanne, welcome and thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks Really, really appreciate your time.

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Okay, so here we go. Um, I actually studied Airway Science management and I worked, um, for American Airlines for about 15 years, and I started as an agent and because I had that degree, um, I continue learning and growing through the, um, different positions.

And my last position at American Airlines was general manager in San Jose, California. When I decided to, um, put a hold on my career to become, you know, a caretaker of my family and I took care of my kids and, um, um, took a hiatus, if you wanna call it like that, um, to kind of like, uh, raise. My kids and, and, and the household and manage, you know, family life, which is a work in itself.

It’s just not, um, paid like a regular job, right? You get paid with other satisfactions in life. But, um, then when the girls, um, and the kids were all older, I said, I, I always did things here and there just to keep myself busy where I could, I did, um, soap. Customer services for a few 500 Co. Um. Fortune companies from home.

And then the pandemic happened. Uh, at that point I was actually doing organizing. I love, organize, get, organizing, so that was something I could do in my spare time when the kids were at school. So I was, um, a professional organizer for a couple of years, which was, you know, a fun job to do, um, part-time.

Then the pandemic happened, and then I stopped doing that. And I started looking for a job that was remote that I could do, uh, flexible hours, right? ’cause my priority is my family. And, um, I went into this website called the Mom Project and the Mom project. Um. Is a website that, um, this mom founder, um, conceived because she was in the same position as I was.

She took a break from working and then she wanted to go back to the professional life, but she had problems. Finding a job that was flexible, um, so she could continue to take care of the family. Um, so she founded, this is basically a job board where companies can post jobs that are flexible, remote, hybrid.

They can be either full-time, but they have that mentality where you can. Have and find great talent through this, um, amazing women that are out there that had to take a break from work. Right? Yeah. Um, so anyway, I was looking on that website for a long time and, um, I found honor parking and I’m like, what is this about on air?

Uh, obviously I’m a, I’m a aviation junkie, and I’m like, um, okay. So I started looking at the company and the description and I said, well, I already know. What happens at the airport? Let me find out what happens before you get to the airport. And that’s how I got the job. Um, with honor parking started, I started as a customer service manager for them part-time.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. I mean, this, this, uh, mom project, I believe you said it sounds like an amazing thing because you would assume, or Yeah. Not even assume, like, you know, that, you know, when women get out of the workforce to take care of their children or become moms, like it, it does put a. Um, limitation on their career going forward.

Like, you know, companies don’t necessarily look at them at, in the same way and so forth. So it, I mean, it sounds pretty amazing. So how long did it take you from, you know, you, you started as a customer service, uh, at this place to becoming a CEO.

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: So, um, I started with this company in 2021 and, um, I got the position in June of 2024.

So it took me three years. Whoa. Um, it was ever in, in my wildest dream that I was gonna become. CEO of this company. So I just, you know, I, like I said, I just wanted to use my brain. I just wanted to work, contribute, have my own money, not that I have to work, thankfully, God bless me for with that and my husband, um, who’s, uh, an amazing caretaker.

But I just wanted to do something I know I could, um, give, um, you know, professionally and, um, so I was part-time and when I started with the company, I organized. All the customer service team, which we actually call parking reservation specialists because that’s what we do. We sell parking spots. And I organized, um, that department and I learned all what it was on that side of the business.

Then I started learning the operational side. And um, the woman that I was replacing, she was living on maternity leave, so she trained me in all those aspects and then I continued to learn. And, um, got more involved in training other people delegating so I could learn other aspects of the business. Um, we had an amazing CEO before me, my predecessor.

Um, then he moved on to, um, bigger things and, and, and I replaced him because little by little I kind of like. Trained in all aspects of the company. I learned the IT side. Um, work with the developers, um, to make the website kind of like better, give my feedback. Um, I even did listings, um, created the listings.

Um. So, you know, my hands were on everything. So it kind of makes sense that then, okay, now it’s time for me to learn a little bit higher level with sales and marketing. And, and the owner was like, you’re the perfect fit to be the CEO. And I love the companies and I love the people that I work with. We’re a small and mighty team.

Um, so yeah. Um, the owners put the trust in me that I could continue running the company for them. So here I am.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Well, it, well, it sounds like it, I mean, I mean, that’s what you would want in A CEO, right? Someone who. Of course how is shows passion for the company and also has seen all the different, uh, business aspects.

And of course, you’re, you’re a, a great communicator. So I think that that makes perfect sense. So can you talk a little bit bit about this company on air parking? How big is it? Um, you know, I believe you focus mostly on the airport parkings. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, the product and, uh, the business?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Of course. Um, so yes. Um, our main focus is, um, uh, helping operators, parking facilities, um. Facilities with extra inventory in parking, help them sell their empty spots. Um, and the whole concept started, um, with us selling blind, um, parking. So what that means is like where that the hot wire of parking, you know, how hot wires started selling hotels where you didn’t know where you were gonna stay, but.

But you know, the rating of the hotel and then you pick then when you, you get the confirmation, you know where you’re staying. So that’s kind of like our, um, model and how it started. Um, because we didn’t wanna compete with the actual facilities and their regular rates, so they give us a certain amount of spots at a discounted rate, and that’s how we started selling blind for them, basically selling what they couldn’t sell.

Um. Once, once the day passes that, that inventory’s gone, you can’t do anything with it, right? Mm-hmm. So, so they were stuck with, with empty spaces that they couldn’t sell at regular rates. So we come in and we help them sell at discounted price. Um, we have grown to, um. Selling cruise parking spots and city parking spots.

And that’s an area where we would love to continue growing. Um, nowadays, um, we partner with professional parking facilities, with hotels, with car rentals that just have the extra space and when we’re an additional revenue for them, we help them sell those, those spots. Um, we also have. Learn that some customers would rather know where they parking before they purchase.

Right? So we’re now offering, you know, um, locations where we, the customer knows where they’re gonna park or the, the blinded ones where they would rather just pay less and then know later where they’re gonna park. And, and we offer those for, for the preference of, of the customers. And, um, we also like to think that we help with airport congestion, right?

When the, um, direct airport parking is full, that we’re, we’re, we’re a resource, right? Helping with the traffic and, and inventory of the airport. You know, they have limited spaces, right? Um, so we help, um, move those customers and most of our facilities around the airports have shuttles. So the customer gets to the facility parks and then a shuttle takes them to the airport.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. So basically your, that’s basically

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: it. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So basically your value add is really, I. The, I would assume the marketing part part of it, right? So you go out and you make your site more available for anybody searching for airport parking or something. And of course, you know, you’re, you’re getting discounted spots and then I’m sure you, you have some markup on that and that’s how you kind of make the profits.

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Yeah, we, we actually don’t mark up, um, we sell it at the price that the. Facility tells us this is the lowest you can sell it to. And then they give us a commission for selling it for them. Um, so we don’t mark it up, you know, the facility actually, our partners have the discretion of picking the price they want for their facility, and, and then they just give us a commission for, for selling it for them.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you’re focusing primarily on the airports. I mean, I would assume there’s other areas of the city, like, you know, downtown area and other places that can probably also benefit from this service. So what is, like, what is your coverage, right? Like Right, right now,

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: I’m glad you asked because we just recently signed up.

I’m a big partner in New York and uh, we are selling daily. Uh, rate in New York for 1499, that is in an incredible deal for parking daily rate in New York. Yeah. Um, and we are hoping we can grow, you know, there and help this partner sell their empty spots. So we’re super excited about that, especially when you go to New York where every, uh, parking is very expensive.

This is an introductory rate and we’re hoping we can help them with their, we with their empty inventory. Story. Right? We might, we’re starting a, a, a huge marketing campaign for that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So is your brand on air parking now kind of, um, easily recognizable brand in the us? Like people now know this app, uh, very easily, or like what kind of marketing do you have to do to sell the parking spot that, that is, you know, that’s usually vacant.

Like you probably have to do some, some sort of a push right?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Right. Oh, absolutely. That’s our biggest challenge. Right? Um, we are a fairly newer, um, company in comparison to our competitors. Um, so we have a combination of, uh, Google paid ads, you know, search, um. That’s the biggest, um, driver of new customers.

And we also obviously do the other marketing, um, areas like email marketing, um, Instagram, LinkedIn, um. And, um, SEO, right? So we have to, to invest in all those areas to make sure that our partners, you know, um, get customers. Because that’s, that’s the whole point. We, we, we really strive in win-win, win. Uh, situations, right?

Well, the partner gets to fill up, um, spots that they would have not been able to, um, and to provide traveling customers that are budget conscious with a least expensive, um, option for them so they can, you know, save in parking spend on life and in experiences and in other travel expenses. And then we also want.

Our, um, employees and shareholders to be happy with what we’re doing right. And, and our employees to feel that they are contributing. Um, and so yeah, we, we market in every way we can.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So is this, um, is this still like a privately owned business? Um, yes. Yeah. Okay. And, and, uh, yes,

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: it is. It.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’m, I’m, I’m curious, what is the, um, uh, like where are you, I guess, what’s the market opportunity for your business? Um, do you think, do you think there’s a lot of, I mean, in terms of your competition, as you said, you know, you have, uh, more, uh, traditional players who, who is your biggest com competition and like.

Is your strategy really to go after their, you know, their market? Or like, is, is the market big enough in the US that everybody can play easily?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Yeah, no, I, I think there, there’s plenty of opportunity for us to play in the, in the pond, right? Um, we are literally like a, a, a, a small fish in a big pond, right?

With bigger fish out there, um, that are bigger in size, you know, in employee size and, um, and have been longer in the industry. Um. We just wanna make sure that, again, we provide value for the partners, um, that they can trust us, that we’re gonna sell as much as we can. Um, you know, and to our customer. We wanna make sure that we provide the best customer service that we can.

Um, and, um, you know, and that they’re gonna find, uh, a least expensive, um. Parking spot than, than going to other facilities that are gonna be more expensive, right? Mm-hmm. Um, you, there’s plenty of inventory at plenty of different prices, um, that, um. That customers have options. Right? You know, if, if, if you have, if you don’t, if you have a big budget and you want to spend, you know, a lot of money to be right there at the airport and just walk, you can do that.

But if you have a limited budget and you rather spend your money in something else, then, then you have options, right? Yeah. And, um, a lot of people also use. Um, share rides companies to get to the airport. Yeah. Um, which is also kind of like a competitor of ours, right. Because you can either drive yourself or get a, a share ride.

Um, but some people live so far away from the airport that that is, becomes really expensive in comparison to, to just parking near the airport. Mm-hmm. So we provide in between 60 to 80% savings to customers with those specific scenarios. Right. Um, so yeah, I think, um, we, we all, we all have different customers and, and, and, um, and reach, right?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, for sure. Uh, what do you spend your time every day as a CEO right now? Like, are you, is your big focus towards like customer acquisition? Like where, what, what does your deal look like as a CEO?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Well, um, when I, um, get in, I make sure, um, you know, I look at, uh, the numbers, right? This part of, of the job. I look at the numbers, I look at our sales for the previous day.

I compare how we doing, you know, year over year. And then I make sure I respond to every email as fast as I can, just because I wanna make sure that everybody knows that I’m accessible and, and, um. I answer questions from my staff. They are free to text me, call me what? Send me message through WhatsApp. Um, a lot of calls, you know, talking about marketing, talking about sales talk, talking about if there was any issue at any facility.

Um, uh, I, I, I try to find, um. Innovative ways, um, to partner with other, um, parking industry, um, either operators or, or, or finding synergies in other companies that we can partner together and help each other collaborate. Um, so I spend a lot of time, um, doing that. Um. And, um, yeah, that’s kind of like how my day goes.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, that, that makes a lot. I’m also learning

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: about ai, I’m also learning about ai, which is a big thing. So, um, I have to mention that I spend a little bit of time doing some research in AI and how that can contribute to, to the company being more effective. Wow.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Very nice. Um. What, where do you see like AI playing in this?

Uh, is it more like price manipulation, like based on demands or, um, what is the opportunity?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: So, you know, yeah. For ai, there’s so many tools out there, which I’m just starting to explore. Um, you can just become more efficient with, you know, reports, right? Yeah. With content creation for marketing. Yes, please.

Um. With analyzing data, you know, so it just, it’s just does things so much faster than if you sit down with an Excel sheet trying to yourself to evaluate it. So there’s plenty of opportunities there. It is just a matter of finding the right one that fits your needs at the moment. But I’m, I’m starting to learn all that, which I think is fascinating.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, it’s, uh, I mean, from an operational perspective, it, it can definitely bring a lot of efficiencies. Um, I know that you have the apps, you have the iOS app, and you have the Google Play app. Mm-hmm. I’m assuming that’s where most of the customers access your platform, or, or is it more on your website also?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: We have a good combination, um, a lot of mobile, um, uh, usage. Um, we are super happy that, um, our app users are growing. Um, we, um, start, um, offering, um, discounts, right? Basically if you use the app or the, um, browser and, and. That’s, um, helping a lot grow our customers in the app, which I’m very happy, um, that that’s happening because it creates also a convenience for the customer.

When you have, where you have the reservation right there, the QR code comes up, you just scan it and, and those facilities that are gated is just super easy to look at all your reservations and, and use that. Um, so yeah. Uh, I’m super excited that actually our abusers are growing, you know. So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: no, that’s great.

What does your team look like? I mean, it seems like there’s different aspects of the business and seems like, uh, it could be a small, I mean, I believe you said you, you have a small team. Can you talk a little bit about your team?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Yeah, yeah. We are a very small but mighty team. Um, I have, um. Um, my right hand, um, woman, um, I also found, found her in the Mom project and she’s amazing.

She is. Director of, of customer care and, and, and, um, communications. And, um, I have my director of sales and marketing, um, and he is also a superstar. He works with our partners. Making sure that we can get to, to a, a price point where we sell good for them. Um, and he also, you know, reach out, um, for more people that can benefit of our services and he kind of handles our marketing.

Um, he’s just a rockstar as well. And then, and then we have our, our PRS team, and then we have our developers. Which are great. And now that I’m learning about AI and coding, I more than I appreciate them even more, you know, with all the work that they have to do to keep the website running and implement all the changes that we wanna do and, and how they think about it and code for it.

So, and that’s it. That’s our team. We’re very, very small, small but mighty.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. How do you see your business, uh. Two to three years down the road. Like do you see it becoming like just growth? Uh, is your focus primarily on growth? Is your focus on like moving into different markets? What do you focus on?

Uh, like a two to five year horizon?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Um, so. Our vision is to create brand awareness, right? Um, we would like for more people to know about who we are, um, how devoted we are, and provided a great, you know, parking experience. We pride ourselves that we try our best to only partner with facilities that have four to five stars.

Um, so they, they. Get really good reviews. We also. Posting our website, all of their reviews, whether they’re good or bad, because we wanna make sure that the customers can read through them and make a conscious decision. You know, some things are gonna happen, it’s just inevitable. Um, but we want those reviews to be out there for customers to see what’s happening in.

The different facilities that we partner with, right? Because at the end of the day, we don’t control the operations of the facility. The facilities do. So we depend on customer’s review to tell us how well the facilities are doing. So we really encourage customers to, to write in their review and um, we, I know at the moment.

With our size and our resources. I’m not gonna be the number one aggregator for parking, but at least I wanna get to third place, right? I wanna get to third place. I would love, um, to find that viral thing that, that, that, that click that makes everybody aware of who we are and that we’re an option for them.

That, that would be my goal In between, you know, this next few years. Um, I don’t know if, um. Well, yeah, that, that’s it for now.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think for, from, from becoming that, I think in this space, at least my hunch is that just giving the customers a really seamless experience. Like, you know, from the moment they find your app or their website to, you know, getting a great rate to be able to book it like in a few clicks.

I think. The, the seamless the experience is going to be. I think that will probably get, get them to come back to your site again and again. I think that that’s really what’s going to do, do it probably.

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Right. Right. And so far we have like a, um, depending on the markets, because it varies by market, but there are some markets that we have up to 64% repeat users.

So to me that’s a sense of pride. You know, we found good locations and our customers are happy, so they’re coming back. Yes.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s, uh, airport parking is a pain point everywhere. And if you, if, if a person finds a solution that can solve that problem easily, I think they will bookmark it.

They will be like, you know, they would want to use it again and again. Um, do you, do you ever think about future where, um, you have self-driving cars? I mean, which is coming up? I think in some cities, at least San Francisco and other places where. I mean, I would assume they would still want to park even the cars if they’re self-driving.

Um, like do you, do you think that far, like that, you know, because I think transportation is getting disrupted slowly but surely. Um, I. How, and, and parking is like a big, big thing because it takes space. It’s not very, um, it basically waste wasted space. Like, any thoughts on, on this? Have you thought that that far?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: You know what, um, I have not think that far about. Um, self-driving cars, um, because it seems still so far away. I know they’re here, but I know they’re not trusted completely. Right. Um, my, um, we, we used to have an electric car that had a little bit of self-driving, but not a hundred percent. And it’s, you still can trust it completely.

Right. You know, you always have to keep an eye on it. Um, I don’t know if I would go into us, you know. Self-driving car taxi yet, you know, like I would give it more, a couple more years for it to be, you know, proven that it works a hundred percent. Um, but that is actually a great idea to think about how we can collaborate, you know, with those, um, with that product and, and how we can help them find parking when they have a destination, right?

And, and help them. Okay? These are safe spaces that where you can park. I, I would love to explore that. Absolutely. So thank you for the idea.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, in terms of, uh, I mean anybody who, uh, is, uh, who wants to pursue, uh. Executive roles in a company or want to become a CEO, especially like, you know, from a female point of view as well.

I mean, given that you’ve kind of, uh, cracked that, uh, would you have any advice in terms of, you know, how other women can pursue this? Is it really just about working hard? Is it something else?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Oh, you know, I have to tell you, when you, when you become a mother, you learn pretty fast how to multitask, how to delegate, how to prioritize, how to do conflict resolution, um, how to manage a budget, how to, um. Keep a calendar. So all those things that you use to kind of manage a household. Are translatable to the workforce.

This is, is exactly just the same, just in a, maybe in a bigger scale, but the skills are there. So my advice would be is don’t sell yourself short because you took a break. If you had to take a break, because you know, some women decide to keep working and that’s perfectly fine. It’s whatever works for each.

Family. Um, but if you decide to take a break and then you’re, you have that, um, inclination of going back, go and, and use those abilities and skills that you used in the past and then that you gained by being away from the workforce to then combine them and become a better version of yourself, I think is, is, is just a matter of not working harder, is being more efficient with your time and with your skills.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you, are you able to get enough time for family now?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Family comes first. Absolutely. And that’s one of the reasons I love working for honor parking. It gives me that flexibility to do so, and it gives me the ability to contribute to the company and then be present with with my family.

So it is one of the reasons that I love working here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Now, when I interview entrepreneurs, I usually ask them, you know, what has been like a big mistakes that they’ve made? Um, I would ask you what has been like a learning experience for you when, since you’ve been the CEO, um, that was like, you know, maybe you didn’t know what you were doing that you had to learn or was like a big aha moment for you, uh, in, in this, uh, journey.

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Um, it’s gonna be a year in June, so I am still learning. I am, I am still trying to find my way in, in. What direction I wanna take the company. Right? Um, so every day for me is a learning process. The challenge for me is numbers. I am not a number person. I, I am an organizer. I can, um, put procedures in place.

I, I, I. Run a lean machine, um, an effective machine, no redundancies in, in, in, in, in bureaucracies and to get things done. But the numbers is my challenge, right? So I count on people to advise me, right? Marketing, you know, the technical marketing. I never did that. You know, I worked for a huge company that did that for us.

So that’s a learning curve for me. But, um, I’ve surrounding myself with people that are smarter than me and more knowledgeable than me in those areas that can advise me, you know, in the right direction. So that’s, that’s what I would tell anybody, you know, that get into this job. You don’t have to know everything, but know the right people to get you the right answers.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure, for sure. That makes a lot of sense. Um, I think there’s also, I somebody, um, I saw a video of Jack Welch, I think, who was the previous CEO of ge. Um, he, he had a video somewhere where he gave a really succinct good, um, information on how, you know, how to, how, how, what is, what do executives need to know from, like, numbers point of view.

Um, and I think it was, it was very educational. I think he, he talked about you need to know, you know. Uh, variance year over year and all, all those things. Like, if you know these specific things, uh, you’ll be good. Good. Like at the leadership level, you need to know what the, what’s the number this year?

What’s the, what was the number last year? Are we good growing? Are we not growing? So I think it’s more of a high level understanding. Right.

Track 1: Right. Yeah. And remember back when you told me, how’s your day looking? That’s the first thing I look my year over year numbers.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that

Track 1: makes really good sense.

But I would love to watch that video. So I’m gonna Google it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment. In this segment I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so. Um, one book recommendation and why.

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: So diary of a CEO by Steven Barrett.

Barnett. Okay. Oh my God, that book is incredible. I don’t know if you know about it. Um, he has a podcast, um, yes. And the way he just, you know, communicates the things that you should know and then the things you should focus on. And, um, I just love that book. I

Track 1: read it over and over again and like I go back and look at different things and different strategies.

He’s a marketing, um, guru I would say. So I would love if he would take me in his podcast, but Okay. Um, and, and show me, show me the ropes. Right. I would love it. Um, so that’s the book.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Yeah, I, I know, I know him. He has a great podcast as well. And yeah, I, I watched those videos on social media, uh, quite often actually.

Um, and innovative product or idea in the current, uh, business landscape that you feel excited about? Innovative product or idea?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Um,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I know you mentioned ai, but is there anything else that you feel excited about?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Yeah, I, I, I have to say, you know, AI comes to mind. Um, in my class I was, um. You know, playing a little bit with the different chatbots that are, uh, out there and, and you know, the learning machines and how, you know, it’s, it’s taking the current data and, and, and, and evolving from the current data to create new one.

To me that seems fascinating and I think there’s so much possibilities when used in a good way. Um, to do good and to be more, um, productive during your day. So yeah, that’s what I’m excited about. I know there’s a lot, uh, more that’s to come.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Well, we we’re kind of fans of chat, GPT, you know, that that’s the product that we’re using more at the moment as a company.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Another startup or business that you think is currently doing great things?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Well, I.

Um, ocra. Yeah. Ocra is the name of the company, and what they do is they actually help facilities manage their inventory and pricing because obviously facilities have the ability. To provide inventory to more than one aggregator, right? Like hotels, you can get hotels@hotels.com, Hotwire, Expedia. So okra helps the parking industry manage all that inventory in the different platforms to avoid over sales and to maximize revenue.

And the CEO, good friend of mine, Ethan, um, he started. His story is amazing. You should also interview him. I actually can refer him to you. His story is amazing. He started selling parking spots from houses, you know, in their yards for huge venues that didn’t have enough parking for other people. Hmm. Uh, and, and he started as a college kid doing that.

And now he’s created a great company and I admire him. You know, he’s super young and, and, and he’s doing great things. You should look him up. Awesome.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’ll, I’ll check him out. I’ll check him out. Um, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Um, so, you know, I, I have to say, uh, my husband, you know, he’s a leader at American Airlines. He, he, he still works at American Airlines. That’s how we met. Okay. And he has. Through the ranks as well, starting from an operations agent, um, to now he’s a, uh, an officer in the company and he is a servant leader.

He motivates people in a way that is just admirable. He, he has a way to, um, develop leadership.

Track 1: That

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: is second to none. The leaders that come out of his, you know, umbrella are out there in the company doing amazing things, and I am super fortunate to, to be able to, to count on his brain and, and his personality, to give me advice when I meet,

Track 1: when I meet some advice.

So he’s the one that I look up to.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. That’s, that’s a great, uh, great answer. Final question, um, best business advice that you have ever received or you would give, give to others, other CEOs, maybe

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: business advice? You know, I would say that, um. I was talking to the owner of the company the other day and he’s like, you are the perfect fit for this company. And, uh, some of the things that we spoke about is because we love what we do. We love the company, we want to make sure our employees are taken care of.

We want to make sure our customers are taken care of and we wanna make sure our partners are taken care of, like we really believe. In that win win win aspect in life where you are doing things for the right reasons and and, and that you wanna make sure that. Even when things get tough, that you are making the decisions because it’s the right thing to do.

And not just because you want to make a buck, um, obviously you have to create a balance because at the end of the day, companies are there to, to bring profits. But, but it’s a delicate balance and always trying to do the right thing. So that’s my biggest advice to anybody in any position. Just do the right thing and good things will come back your way.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think that’s a great advice. I mean, from a CEO perspective, I think that’s awesome. Uh, well, Joanne, tho those were all the questions I had. Thank you so much for sharing your story, for sharing a little bit about on air parking and the problems that you’re solving. Uh, if anybody wants to utilize your service, what’s the best way they can do that?

Joanne Liscano  of On-Air Parking: Well, you go to www.onairparking.com or you can look us up. In a mobile app, which I strongly suggest, um, just for the convenience of having it in your hand. And, um, please, um, um, contact our phone number also, um, which is on our website. Our, our, our parking reservation specialists are there to assist you in any way they can.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, Joanne, thank you so much again for your time today for sharing your story and, uh, I wish you all the very best. Thank you so much.