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PrivateJetBS | Edition 23

This is the first PrivateJetBS newsletter of 2026, and the first of 28 editions planned this year.

When I launched this platform, the goal was simple: cut through the baggage and surprises of private jet transactions by sharing lessons learned from real deals, real markets, and real conversations.

To start the year, I want to share one of the most important professional lessons I’ve learned, and one I wasn't looking for when I learned it.

The Moment That Made Me Pause

Early after joining jetAVIVA, I was sitting on an internal call discussing an aircraft opportunity. The conversation shifted toward a model outside of my primary experience.

Without hesitation, another teammate stepped in.

Not to offer a general opinion.

Not to reference market summaries.

Not to “circle back after reviewing data.”

He spoke with immediate clarity — referencing serial number differences, inspection exposure trends, ownership patterns, and pricing nuance that only comes from living inside that aircraft segment.

It wasn’t rehearsed. It wasn’t researched — It was instinctive.

And I remember thinking something that stuck with me:

This isn’t just knowledge. This is mastery built through repetition.

That moment didn’t challenge my past experience.

It expanded my understanding of what brokerage could look like when specialization is built into the culture of a firm.

Learning Through Observation, Not A Course Correction

I didn’t arrive at jetAVIVA questioning my approach as a generalist.

For most of my career, being able to speak across multiple aircraft platforms felt like a strength — and in many industries and environments, it is.

But stepping into a company which has been built around platform specialization exposed me to a different operating philosophy.

​jetAVIVA didn’t become successful by trying to know every aircraft equally.

Over the last 20 years, the firm built its reputation by developing deep expertise across select aircraft platforms and creating a collaborative bench of specialists who support each other — and more importantly, support clients with precision.

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The more I observed internal discussions, deal strategy sessions, and how aircraft assignments naturally aligned with broker expertise, the clearer the model became.

This wasn’t about limitation.

It was about elevation.

What Specialization Actually Means

One of the biggest misconceptions in aviation brokerage is that specialization means working on only one aircraft model.

That isn’t reality.

True specialization means mastering a model or select group of closely related aircraft platforms. Usually two or three models where maintenance behavior, operational performance, ownership costs, ownership progression, and resale dynamics overlap.

It creates depth while preserving flexibility.

For me, that focus lives primarily inside the super-mid segment... the Challenger 300 series and Gulfstream G280s primarily.

That doesn’t mean I only work on one airplane.

It means I know a family of aircraft deeply enough to advise beyond the data sheet — to understand nuance, trends, and risk exposure that only surface after repeated transactions inside the same segment.

When Depth Replaces Preparation

As I leaned into platform specialization, conversations changed almost immediately.

Not because I was trying to sound more knowledgeable — but because I no longer needed to prepare the same way.

I wasn’t reviewing inspection timelines minutes before calls.

I wasn’t cross-checking program exposure before answering valuation questions.

I wasn’t referencing notes to confirm ownership cost patterns.

The information lived in experience.

And when knowledge lives in your head instead of your notebook, confidence stops being something you project — it becomes something you carry.

Clients feel that difference instantly.

They may not be able to explain it, but they recognize when their broker has lived inside an aircraft market instead of studying it from the outside.

The Certified Broker Standard

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As an International Aircraft Dealer's Association Certified Broker, specialization aligns directly with what certification is designed to represent, .

Certification is not simply about tenure or transaction volume. It reflects proven expertise, ethical accountability, and advisory standards built on uncompromising, client-focused advocacy.

At its core, certification embodies the foundational values that define IADA professionals:

It means a non-negotiable commitment to Doing What’s Right, grounded in the IADA Code of Ethics and reinforced through every client interaction and transaction decision.

It means choosing to Put Clients First, consistently placing owner interests above personal or transactional incentives through honesty, transparency, and trusted guidance.

It means striving to Elevate Each Other, recognizing that no single broker can master every segment, and that true representation often requires collaboration, shared knowledge, and mutual respect among trusted peers.

It means working to Raise the Bar, pursuing continuous improvement, developing best practices, and maintaining professional integrity that strengthens both individual advisors and the industry as a whole.

And ultimately, it means helping Set the Standard — representing the world’s only accredited and certified network of dealers and brokers committed to measurable expertise and accountable representation.

Part of maintaining that responsibility is understanding where your knowledge runs deepest and ensuring clients are supported by the right expertise when their mission evolves.

It isn’t about knowing everything.

It’s about ensuring your client always has access to the people who do.

Collaboration Is the True Advantage

No single broker can master every aircraft type in business aviation.

There are:

• Too many models
• Too many maintenance programs.
• Too many performance variables.
• And, Too many shifting market cycles.

That’s why jetAVIVA operates with a specialist bench developed over decades.

Each broker focuses on select aircraft platforms — typically spanning two or three related aircraft — allowing them to build true subject-matter expertise.

When a client transitions aircraft categories, they don’t lose advisory strength.

They gain it.

If a client moves from a Challenger 300 into something like a Falcon 7X, they’re introduced to a teammate who knows the Falcon platform the same way I know the super-mid segment — serial number by serial number, inspection by inspection, market cycle by market cycle.

It isn’t a handoff.

It’s an expansion of expertise in their advisory bench.

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Why Specialization Improves Client Outcomes

Clients don’t hire specialists because they want more information. They hire specialists because uncertainty disappears faster.

• Answers come immediately.
• Risk is identified earlier.
• Negotiations become sharper.
• Market positioning becomes clearer.

Specialization reduces surprises... and in aircraft transactions, surprises rarely come without cost — very expensive costs.

It also allows brokers to recognize market patterns before they appear in public data, giving clients strategic insight that spreadsheets alone cannot deliver.

The Industry Is Evolving

Business aviation has never been more data-driven or transparent, and the use of AI is only going to increase this fact.

Buyers are sophisticated.

Sellers are informed.

Market analytics are widely available.

But, data alone doesn’t create judgment.

Judgment comes from repetition. It is formed from operating inside the same aircraft platforms through multiple ownership cycles, maintenance events, and resale trends.

That’s where advisory value is built.

The Clarity That Came With Experience

I didn’t step into jetAVIVA believing my previous approach needed to change.

Operating as a generalist is the most commonly taught method of brokering within the industry. When you land a new project, you deep dive into the available data to learn as much on a model you have not worked on recently, and then roll forward. The overall steps of a deal are the same from LOI, to Visual Inspection, to Purchase agreement, and then Pre-Purchase Inspection. Its the details within those steps that greatly change depending on the make/model you are trying to move.

I stepped in open enough to learn from a firm that had spent 20 years refining a different focus.

And the more I observed, the clearer it became:

• Depth creates trust.
• Repetition creates mastery.
• Focus creates confidence.

Specialization didn’t narrow my career. It has elevated it.

• My skill sharpened.
• My experience compounded.
• My expertise accelerated.

And my clients have felt that difference immediately.

I’ve said it before, and it remains a guiding principle:

Trust the Process. Not the Promises.™

Because in today’s aviation market, real success isn’t built on claiming expertise across every aircraft — turboprop to commercial airliner.

It’s built on mastering where you bring the greatest value — and collaborating with professionals who do the same, all in service of the client.

Trust the Process, Not the Promises.™​
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Michael Barber PrivateJetBS Newsletter Managing Director & VP, Sales Operations at jetAVIVA​ Mobile, WhatsApp, & Signal: +1.919.475.8506 ​​​​

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