Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com and it's guest time on the show and I am out on the road so to speak all the way over in Caen, France. And with me is Michael Phillips, the Founder of Perception Travel Company. Michael, welcome to the BusinessMakers Show.

Michael: Thank you.

Russ: Why don't we start by you telling our listeners about Perception Travel Company.

Michael: Perception Travel Company was formed by myself some 15 years ago in response to a need to take people around the D-Day Landing Sites of Normandy. I chose Perception Travel because it implies an angle of approach, a perception of viewpoint, and my particular way of wanting to present the D-Day Landing Sites of Normandy Wars as a personal story from the soldier's point of view rather than as a historical or an Army presentation of regiments, and ranks, and battalions, and so on. So it's a personal, private point of view; perception travel.

Russ: Okay, and you are actually from London, England?

Michael: That is correct.

Russ: Okay, but you have a residence over here as well?

Michael: I do. I bought a holiday home here about 20 years ago, prior to setting up this business.

Russ: Okay, and it's an English speaking tour, correct?

Michael: This is correct.

Russ: I've been on a tour with Michael and it's just sensational. Obviously the whole subject matter is interesting and overwhelming to say the least. I'm real interested though in what it was that got you to this point to start this company 15 years ago?

Michael: I had a professional career in London working in the insurance industry as an insurance manager, a risk manager in commerce, until the company that I was employed by which was a private company was taken over by an American organization. And they came in and of course within a few days, we were all out on the street with nowhere else to go.

Russ: Okay, well but I also understand this might be one of the best things that ever happened to you too. (Laughter)

Michael: This is very true. I'd reached a menopausal point in my life I guess of my early 40s and I didn't really want to go back into the business world, so I just wondered what else that I could do. And I came over here to my French house and I wondered around for a little and I simply put the question out into the atmosphere, "What do I, Michael Phillips, do for the rest of my life?" And within a few days the answer came back as a moment of epiphany if you like. It simply said, "Become a tour guide of the D-Day Landing Beaches. It was very profound and I remember thinking, "Well, that's a strange request," because there was nobody else doing it; and actually, that was part of the attraction. There wasn't anybody else doing it.

Russ: Okay, so as recently as the 1990s, there was nobody here in France offering tours of the whole Normandy beach scene and the whole D-Day occasion?

Michael: In English that is correct.

Russ: Okay. So you had this epiphany and take us from there.

Michael: (Laughter) Indeed. I of course as a matter of faith, I just then got around to qualifying as a tour guide in England, learning my subject which of course is absolutely imperative, speaking to people, putting together a business plan, and I put it all on the Internet which was very young in those days, not really knowing what was going to happen. But what did happen of course waiting in the wings was this wonderful film Saving Private Ryan, and when that hit the screens, my business exploded. I was, as they say, "in the right place at the right time" to take advantage of the interest that came from Saving Private Ryan and the touring of D-Day landing beaches that came about as a result.

Russ: You say you decided to do it because you were interested, but were you that much in tune and educated with all the bits and pieces of this incredible story in the beginning?

Michael: No, not at all, not at all. It was a passion of mine and interest, and quite simply if you have it within you to develop any sort of hobby, any sort of plan, it can evolve into a business. And I was very lucky in that my passion met with a business that also earned me a living; and so that's what I do today.

Russ: Well, and from what I can tell, you're doing quite well at a living at this profession and still seem to enjoy it with great passion.

Michael: Indeed I do, and my father was involved in the D-Day landings. He was 1 of 64,000 cooks that arrived over the D-Day period. He arrived on the 6th of June on Gold Beach and he fought his way through to Berlin - he cooked his way through to Berlin if you like, and a cookhouse was a dangerous place to be, quite apart from my father's cooking. But you know, it always had smoke rising from it and both sides would know that so they would bombard it; and of course men were there and they were being killed, but my father managed to survive.

Russ: Whoa, whoa. So you're not kidding when you say it was a dangerous place with smoke rising up from it.

Michael: There are plenty of Army catering call cooks buried in the British military cemeteries here in Normandy.

Russ: And did I hear you correctly, you said he was 1 of 64,000 cooks in the military during that period?

Michael: Correct, on both sides. On the allied side, both the American and the British side.

Russ: Okay, okay. Well I know for a fact that this story goes on to include your mother as well, correct?

Michael: This is very true. My father ended up in Berlin with the troop and he was eventually put in charge of a cookhouse in a city called Lippstadt in Germany, and the cookhouse was staffed by young German girls, one of whom is my mother.

Russ: Such a cool story. So, perhaps this, your parents, and their background and association with D-Day had a whole lot to do with your interest in the topic in general.

Michael: This is correct, yes. I think it was probably in my genes to do it that way.

Russ: Okay, and so how did you go about gathering the breadth of knowledge that you have today?

Michael: Oh, simply by reading material, by going around theatrical sites themselves, which of course are not that well signposted even today, and putting together an itinerary based on a series of day tours to make it make sense, because of course when the attack came in, they weren't thinking of tourism quite naturally; although it is a very nice part of the world to come to, so you have to put it all together in the right strategy to be able to present it as a business plan two days in the American sector and two days in the British landing sector, and that just about does it.

Russ: I'm talking with Michael Phillips, Founder of Perception Travel Company and I'll be back with more with him after this. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com.

[Aflac Commercial]

Russ: this is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com and continuing on from France with Michael Phillips, the Founder of Perception Travel Company. Now, I find it interesting Michael that you did this in the '90s because just nobody was doing it. I think today, there's a few more people offering private, English speaking trips around the Normandy area, correct?

Michael: This is correct. It was an anomaly in many ways that there was this sudden gap in the market where to me it seemed perfectly obvious that people coming to look at the D-Day landing beaches wanted tours in the English language, not from the French people speaking to the Americans in their own tongue, where sometimes it's difficult to convey nuances of meaning. Now when I set up Perception Travel of course I was not really knowing what I was doing and the first thing I tried to do was to print off hundreds, if not thousands of flyers and sent them out and around. But of course for every 100,000 flyers that you have printed and send off, you may get one person who will even look at it.

Russ: If you're lucky. (Laughter)

Michael: If you're lucky, yes. (Laughter) So of course the next best thing and in fact, very, very much the best thing was of course the Internet. And Perception Travel being a niche market, the Internet via Google, was absolutely perfect in being able to find me if somebody was interested in finding me.

Russ: Right.

Michael: So of course the next step was to find somebody who I could trust to be able to put my website together and who could promote it properly. And initially, I approached a student from Oxford University who was pretty good I have to say and he got me up there, and he then went on to do a proper job whilst I gave the business to another organization who frankly weren't so good, but of course you don't know what's going on behind the scenes, because whereas you're out there on the front line so to speak, taking people around, you don't know quite what's going on with the advertising part of it.

Russ: Were you an active website visitor in this era? I mean this was kind of early on, so it was rather proactive of you to be doing this.

Michael: Well indeed, but I'm Internet stupid really. I mean it's horses-for-courses with me because I'm a tour guide. I'm not technical.

Russ: Okay, but you had the foresight to know that you need to be there too.

Michael: That's true, that's very true. Although that seems logical I have to say, but of course, finding the right people was really quite difficult. But eventually I found a fellow, Cliff Taylor, who he's a Godsend for me and he's interested in what I do, and he's put together a wonderful website that has lots and lots of hits every year, mainly from America. Ninety percent of my clientele are American. I get a tremendous amount of business from America through the Internet, through Google, and I love every minute of it.

Russ: Did you even mention the Internet in your original business plan?

Michael: Oh no, no. (Laughter) I'm a tour guide.

Russ: (Laughter) Right, right. So you found that it was important to be there. You found out that it was important to have some talent there representing you and therefore enabling you to be found through Google, and then you just had to hope that some movie like Saving Private Ryan would come along and make people even more interested.

Michael: That's absolutely right you know. One goes into these things with a measure of faith and in your heart-of-hearts you kind of know that it's going to be alright. You just know, you trust it somehow. And as I think I mentioned before, if you work too hard at it, then there's something wrong, that it isn't going right, and it is then time to take a step back and have another look at it, a bird's eye view of it to see where it's going wrong if you can identify it, perhaps speak to somebody else. Always take advantage of your friends. Always take advantage of people who know a bit more about a particular part of the subject that you don't very much about who can help you. And then all the bits and pieces come together and they form at the end of the a perfect jigsaw.

Russ: Cool. One more time, I keep bringing this up. But this Saving Private Ryan, did you plan the launch of the business around that movie?

Michael: No, absolutely not. Serendipity. Saving Private Ryan came along at exactly the right time for me when I was perfectly located, qualified, raring and ready to go and then suddenly it appeared on the screens, and my business exploded. It was wonderful.

Russ: (Laughter) Did you see it, the movie right away?

Michael: Not for a little length of time I have to say. Strangely enough, I'm not a movie sort of person -

Russ: Okay.

Michael: - but I did see it because I kept on having to explain why I hadn't seen it. So that's why I did see it and then I was able to talk on a par with people.

Russ: Great. Well I know for a fact that you have been able to attract some fairly important and famous Americans to come over and take a personal tour with you. Why don't you share that with us.

Michael: (Laughter) Well indeed I've been very, very lucky, but of course being an Englishman, I don't necessarily know who the celebrities are in America. But I received a telephone call a couple of years ago from a travel agent, "Could I take a VIP round," and I said, "Yes, of course." And I stood on BIA Railway Station waiting for a gentlemen with a bowtie to appear holding a sign saying "George Will". Well of course I had no idea who George Will was and we had a wonderful time together. And before I had a chance to get nervous, he was back on the train going back to Paris and I'd done my day's tour. But it was really only afterwards that I found out what a great man he is. And indeed on tour, he's a wonderful man.

Russ: He is. No, that is real interesting. I noticed that on your website even that he had a testimonial there on your behalf which is cool. And you have a certain leader of an American Airline that's been with you as well, correct?

Michael: Oh yes, yes, yes. A very special gentleman indeed. A gentleman by the name of Herb Kelleher who is the former president I believe of Southwest Airlines.

Russ: Absolutely.

Michael: A remarkable man. A man who is capable of sideways thought. He's a lateral thinker, hugely entertaining. A man who is entirely approachable and we had a wonderful time together here oh, about a year and a half ago now.

Russ: He is quite the character, that's for sure too. One thing before I let you go, I sort of wanted to circle back again on the way you described Perception Travel Company in the beginning. You were really focusing on that word "perception" and now having been out on tour with you, I'd love you to emphasis what the objective is when you take, particularly Americans on this tour of this incredible occurrence in world history.

Michael: One of the things I try and do, I always ask people whether they have had any personal or family involvement with the story of D-Day because when I get them talking about this, usually there's something there which I can expand upon, which I can help the people on, to be able to present the story of D-Day from a personal angle from their point of view, from their perception. And that was my idea to call it Perception Travel, to open up the insights within the tour of D-Day of Normandy.

Russ: Well and I know you also do a great job of pointing out the terrible thing about war. I mean your tour not only includes the American Cemetery, but it also included the Germany Cemetery which you never hear talk about. It quite accurately depicts the casualties of war.

Michael: This is very, very important indeed. It really goes to show that at the end of the day, all of these soldiers fought with no less conviction for their own side than any other soldier did. And they were all mothers sons at the end of the day, but also of course, the German side, were fighting under a mad man as a leader - Hitler, who was a mad man. But they were following him because they believed that what he was doing was right. They had no idea what was going on behind the scenes half the time. So of course you go to the various nationalities of cemeteries, to the British Cemeteries, the Canadian Cemeteries, the Germans, and the Americans of course, and they were all young boys and they all fought against each other because they are being told to do so.

Russ: Absolutely. Well, before I let you go, let's just say that somebody's listening right now and they're interested in knowing perhaps more about you, or perhaps they're interested in a tour. How would they get in touch with you?

Michael: Oh, my website is www.d-daytours.com. That is the way to find me, and I had managed to grab that website address after prevaricating for a couple of days as to whether or not I should do so, and I think I had to pay 25 pounds for it, which was maybe $40.00 in your money and that website address today is probably worth a hundred times that.

Russ: That's right, and that's d-daytours.com.

Michael: Yes.

Russ: And so, also I might add that if somebody's doing this like I did it, you actually offer a day round-trip version of your tour if you're over in London even.

Michael: Absolutely. As a result of demand from people who were visiting London wanting to see Normandy on a day trip, the only way to do a day trip from London is by private light aircraft charter, which you have done Russ and for which I'm very grateful. And from the time of being collected from your hotel room at 7:00 in the morning and getting back in to your hotel room at 7:00 in the evening, you've had a six hour tour of the highlights of the American sector of the D-Day landing which is Normandy.

Russ: And an incredible tour I might add. Michael, I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.

Michael: Thank you very much indeed Russell.

Russ: You bet. That's Michael Phillips, the Founder of Perception Travel Company. And you're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com.