Latest / SkyTalkDoc / E266 Air Force Pilot turns Anti-Human Trafficking Mission
Transcript
- SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Good morning, Jared, and welcome to the Skytalk Doc podcast. I am pretty excited to dive into your backstory because it's a pretty wild one. So you are former Air Force turned sex trafficking advocate. So we're going to talk about kind of like all these wild topics blended into one. And I am no stranger to having ⁓ variety of odd backgrounds that kind of come together in weird ways. ⁓ what's really cool is you also have ⁓ luxury handbag line. ⁓ And I love that. I'm also working on an aviation inspired clothing line. So we'll have a lot to chat about, but maybe you could just share with the listeners a little bit about who you are and you got to where you are today. Jared Lilje: Yeah, very well. And thank you for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity. So like you'd said, I'm retired Air Force pilot. I spent 25 years in the Air Force. Shortly after that, I got into the anti-human trafficking scene. I had a friend of mine that was working for a rescue company, and they needed a pilot. So I quickly volunteered to do that work. But when we got into that, I saw that it's a nonprofit. and all the nonprofits in that space, there's a lot more rescues and rehabilitation that needs to be done that's not really funded. During that time, I was also flying Gulfstream 450 for a private family, and that's what got me introduced to the luxury handbag environment and to see what that was all like. I didn't know anything about it before, obviously, but I quickly learned that that's a big market. and with a bright shiny light on it and maybe we can turn that into some anti-trafficking awareness. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah, it's pretty wild that you even mentioned that because I stumbled on something the other day when I was looking for the aviation inspired things. And I found a lady and that's what she does is she seeks out these luxury handbags and does like a whole analysis of them. And it's really fascinating. There's this entire industry on that. It's like perfume, right? There's an entire industry on perfume that's similar. And so talk to me a little bit about Jared Lilje: Right. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: You said you went to work as a rescue pilot. And so is this like working as a pilot for the Air Force and then somebody calls you up and is like, can you like drop into this country ⁓ pick up these girls? ⁓ mean, how does that work out? Jared Lilje: No, no, it was was right after I retired, a former squadron commander of mine called me up and the rescue company he was working for said they'd like to have a pilot on staff that could go perform in the event one of their rescues needed, done or something like that. And so I was a bit of a border colleague trapped in an apartment, if you will, because I'd call about every week. hey, you got anything for me? You got anything for me? You got anything for me? And then that's when they said, hey, we'll call you when it's necessary, but we're working on some stuff. We're trying to line up some things, but we're working on funding. And that kind of a common theme is we got to get this funded. And I thought when I talk to my friends that were also pilots, every time I'd mention doing rescues or having the opportunity to go out and work with this rescue company, They all volunteered. Hey, if you ever need help, let me know. If you ever need, how do I get into that? And you know, what did I know? I didn't know anything. I just got asked to do this. I hadn't gone out and done anything. I realized very quickly that there is no lack of people that'll go out and do the mission. you know, there is a ton of my friends that are pilots that are happy to go do the mission. But what I also noticed is nobody's writing $50,000 checks to go make sure rescue happens. And I thought, you know, I had a wonderful career in the Air Force. did the craziest stuff I ever thought I would ever do with airplanes, stuff that I'd never thought ever let me do with airplanes. And I thought, you know, I need to just build a and this empire to go the people out on the front lines. I don't have to be on the front line. You know, I've done all that stuff. I've fulfilled everything ever wanted to fulfill, flying airplanes throughout my career, and I'm still a commercial airline pilot now. And it's great, but who are the people that are out there writing donation checks? Well, what if we could turn this industry into instead of nonprofits going out and having fundraisers and things like that, what if we just built for-profit companies that built in their DNA was anti-trafficking and we're going to make a difference doing that. And that's the entire premise behind Jay Kristoff. Now, obviously my aviation background, wanted to put some Easter eggs and all of our designs and things that we did so it's our bags are based off of things in aviation that I thought hey we could turn that into a handbag But really that was the long and short of it I want to be more effective instead of going out on one rescue with an airplane Every now again when it's needed Why don't I just build an industry that ⁓ we can help as many kids as we can so that that that was the whole ⁓ premise SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah, that's really interesting because I do think that a lot of times nonprofits are run by people with bleeding hearts that don't have pockets, right? So you're kind of saying like in order to actually see anything translate here, we have to have ⁓ an avenue like a piggy bank that's filled up. ⁓ know, I worked for as a therapist for a sex trafficking organization in my area for a brief amount of time and it was pretty heavy. Jared Lilje: That's right. That's right. ⁓ huh. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: ⁓ I did not realize intense those backstories are. Now, that being said, I feel like it starts way before the point of trafficking and it starts in the nuclear family system. And so for think that, you know, ⁓ what exposed the most ⁓ is there's a lot of stuff that's happening really young and youth that's contributing to that stuff. That's not even when, ⁓ by time they get to the trafficking spot, ⁓ it's not usually a random kidnapping, you know? And I think that, ⁓ yeah. And, you know, I think for travelers who might even be listening to this podcast, there's, you know, probably every woman's been in the bathroom at an airport and has seen the sign, you know, are you here on your own free will or are you being lured somewhere kind of a thing? But I don't think that the general public really thinks about it. And I don't know if that's because we don't want to. Jared Lilje: Right, no, you're absolutely right. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: right, like a stick your head in the sand kind of thing. Like if it's not, if I can't see it, it's not happening. if it's because there, you know, this is something I've been talking with my partner about lately, just kind of, cause obviously, ⁓ know, I have a background in clinical sex therapy and ⁓ this whole kind of side of life that involves fantasy and desire and can feel taboo. And then there's this side of the world that is is actually like pure evil, right? And really needs help. And I think that people get confused on that. Like, if I'm watching something like pornography, what am I watching? Is that someone that's there consensually or is that someone that's been, you know, drugged to perform a certain kind of way? And so I feel like there's a much bigger conversation that needs to happen about this topic that Because it really, I think, confuses a lot of people. In the practice that I have, I've worked with couples, know, church-going folks who are struggling with different kinds of addictions or feeling that their thoughts are perverse and trying to out like what's healthy, ⁓ imaginative, and and what's evil, yucky, dangerous, and gross. Maybe you can some light to that. Jared Lilje: Well, that's, ⁓ well, let's just, I'll try to peel it back for where I understand, I'm certainly no expert in any of this. just see a need, I wanna do something about it. But think you're right, it does start back in the nuclear family. I think it starts back in raising children that have good role models ⁓ and values that are instilled in them when they're young. Because I you can get into, you know, when families break up and children start to feel insignificant and talk about, you your book, Seven Primal Wounds, got a lot, you know, addresses a lot of that kind of stuff that, you know, where they may feel inadequate or insignificant or not recognized or not valued. And so they start hanging out with the wrong people that give them that value that aren't, you know, when we talk about good and evil, that they're not good people, they have evil intent. And I think it's one of the hardest things as a parent. is to get your child to understand that there is nobody else in the world that is willing to make sure they sacrifice everything for the best for their children except that parent, right? I think everybody else has an angle. know, when you're starting to talk to your teenage kids about something, you know, and teenager doesn't understand why that midnight's the curfew and you shouldn't be out after midnight or whatever the case is and ⁓ so-and-so's parents don't care, like, Yeah, I can see so and so's parents don't care. You know, you need to be home. You need to be home. And I love you. And that's why you need to be home, because I'm trying to protect you from things you don't even understand. But a lot of that trafficking that you're speaking of does happen because of runaway children finding themselves vulnerable, hooking up with the wrong people that then have ill intent. It could be even from other people in their family that SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Right, right. Jared Lilje: know, pimp them out for a lack of a better term. But it always starts some type of trust that the victim, you know, puts into a relationship and then they're in deeper than they realize. But typically it's not somebody in a van luring somebody into it and, ⁓ like movie stake out. And I think one of the you would, the question was, you know, why don't, why doesn't the general population, you know, think more about it or know more about it, think because generally when you speak about it, people think about that movie Taken or situations that are like that, right? Where it's very Hollywood and that's just not the majority of it. That's just not typically how it goes down. And I don't think people like to recognize how our society can be, right? So for example, if we wanted to talk about doing well in our society, there is, all sorts of good programs out there to bring breast cancer awareness. So much so that the NFL will wear pink breast cancer awareness and things like that, right? But that's not a black eye on our society, right? That doesn't point a mirror ⁓ our face and say, what are you doing? Everybody wants to get on board and help breast cancer. And ⁓ so, it's something that needs to be addressed. So it's easy to, I say it's easy. I've never raised money for it, but I can imagine it's kind of It might be easier to raise money and bring awareness to it because it's not a black guy in our society. But when we talk about things like domestic violence, we talk things about trafficking, that is a reflection of humanity right there at our worst. So I think that's why it's a little bit taboo or maybe it doesn't come up in conversation or things like that. And quite frankly, at Jay Kristoff, I want to change that. I want people to know that we can talk about it and we'll never fix it if we don't talk about it, recognize it, and end. Call it for what it SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I think you bring up a really good point. It's the mirror. It's the reflection situation where people go, ooh, that makes me feel uncomfortable. It's easy to champion something like dog rescue. ⁓ can get on board with that. Like, ⁓ yeah, save the helpless animals. But right. There's this other component where you really have to look at your own actions and behaviors in order to champion something like this. Jared Lilje: Right, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: ⁓ that's a really good point. And I was shocked looking for couples massage the other day. I was shocked at how quickly inappropriate things were just readily available on my phone. ⁓ it's like, ⁓ specifically looking for Thai massage. And I was just like, you've got to be kidding me. mean, this is where we are. You know what I mean? And it's kind of like, ⁓ Jared Lilje: ⁓ huh. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: And I think about like our boys, like our teen boys and how quickly that can be right in their face. It doesn't matter all the protections you can put on a phone. If you can find something so easily with such an search term, you know what I mean? Like that's a little concerning. ⁓ I've got to believe that there's no reason that that isn't able to be blocked. It's like something fundamentally wrong with the entire system that's much bigger than us, that's not doing. Jared Lilje: Right. Right. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Well, let's pivot and talk about your handbags for a second because I'm really fascinated about your journey with that process because I'm actually developing a suitcase right now aviators, also for people that travel like I do, right? Which is usually fast, spontaneous, small airplanes, foreign countries, et cetera. Jared Lilje: Okay. Sure. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: And in my own travels, I kind of started to go like, there's nothing out there that is exactly what I need. So I'm just going to make it. ⁓ But the luxury side of handbag, yeah, it's been really fun. I've been working with a company on designing the tech packs and all that stuff. And I'm just now in the phase where I need to start sourcing companies to actually produce the spec, the product. And so I'm learning so much, especially within the fashion side of it about Jared Lilje: Right. Good for you. Sure. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: fabrics and all these different things that I never even thought was a thing. Like I'll give you an example that you can probably relate to. The buckles ⁓ the suitcase. It's like, holy buckets. I did not even realize. Like I was like, no, that kind of buckle is going to stretch if that leather is going to stretch and then it's not going to latch right. then, you know, like all these different things you don't even think about, there's this whole fascinating world and it's actually been a really nice distraction. from my mind from some of the other heavier things I've been dealing with is to kind of get creative and play with this. So talk to me about your journey in coming up with these luxury handbags. Jared Lilje: It was, so the record, I have zero background in design, I zero background in marketing or any of this stuff. I've got an industrial technology degree and I've been flying airplanes forever and a day. So when I doing it, ⁓ the very time I thought, well, okay, this is something that we can do, I was holding the Birkin bag and I looked at it, I was trying to figure out, What makes this thing $25,000? And I thought it's just, it's the name. It's not that it's, I mean, it's a beautiful bag, it's well built, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's the name. And so how do we develop something that's gonna attract people that wanna buy things like a Birkin bag or a Chanel or whatever and get there? So I thought, well, I have no name. I mean, that's my first initial and middle name, but. It doesn't resonate with anybody for anything. So what am I going to do different? Well, we've got a mission behind it. And I want there to be stuff about me in it, because I've been in aviation for my entire adult life. So every bag has a little nod to something in aviation. But it's not a big nod. It's not something like a restoration hardware desk made out of a wing. It's a design feature that came out of a wing. It's a design feature that came out of something structural or some structural integrity. I spent a lot of time as a mechanic on airplanes before I ever started flying them. you know, I leaned on that to make some of our stuff. And everything has to be a nod, even in our ⁓ the J and the C there. ⁓ so ⁓ just the, you know, it's part of that aviation experience. And then we name all the bags to honor different pioneers ⁓ aviation that were women, right? Everybody knows Amelia Earhart. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Notice the wing and the J, yeah. Jared Lilje: Betsy Coleman. So those are two that I won't make for quite some time, but I want to there's so many women aviators out there that have paved the way that if you go on our website you can read about each one of them and what they've done. And the one that's featured right here in the in our stand-up there that's actually our our smallest bag it's a that's a clutch named after Katherine Wright that was Wright brother's sister and she kind of took care of all the business aspect for them while those two knuckleheads were out you know. trying to fly their airplane. And the bag's actually based off their airplane. So I took some design features of what they did to build the structure of that airplane and did it and quilted, ⁓ Italian leather and came out great. I love it. So it's of my favorite bags. Yeah. So. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: How fun is that? I recently did an article for Women Rock Wings Magazine about Catherine Stinson. It's like there are so many other incredible women in aviation that are doing amazing things and did for ton of years ⁓ of Amelia, but she's kind of the only, ⁓ had the marketing money ⁓ she had the proper to kind of be showcased. ⁓ Jared Lilje: Yeah. Right. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I don't know if you know this, but Amelia Earhart actually had a clothing line. Jared Lilje: No, I didn't know that. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah, and it tanked. So ⁓ that's kind of been a fascinating part of my journey too. I've been diving into the military belts ⁓ ⁓ different things with that. Yeah, it's really fun. So have you put rivets on any of your bags yet? Jared Lilje: Yeah. Right. So we've got, know, ⁓ look at other bags to make sure that when somebody says, hey, that looks like this or that looks like that, I can defend anything I do. So rivets have not been incorporated in anything, but I've got two new designs that I'm waiting to go through the production that ⁓ think will lend themselves to, you ⁓ maybe some weep holes and things like that that you'd see in a wing and whatnot. So, but no rivets yet. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I at a bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama during the Air Race Classic, because I always try to go to bookstores wherever I am. The lady had these incredible bookmarks that were made from sales, from sailboats that had been retired in the Mobile, Alabama area. It was so cool. It was such a neat way to incorporate things. I would think ⁓ Jared Lilje: Okay. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: You know, Commander joked when he was restoring the, well, I should say he was ⁓ making the bomber airworthy enough to fly to its museum home that it was going to after it had been left out by someone else and kind of dilapidated and destroyed. But when he pulled off the fabric, he was like, do you want me to make you a dress? I was thinking ⁓ probably sneeze for like a lot of hours wearing that. Jared Lilje: Right? SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: but to incorporate it into a bag or something, now that would be pretty cool. Have you considered like some of these maybe vintage retired fabric airplanes and incorporating some of that? Jared Lilje: That's a great idea. We haven't thought about the fabric coming off of some of the vintage airplanes, but I have started to work on getting some of the different metals that are used in aviation instead of going through a normal casting process. Like we've done some custom hardware, but it's just, know, cast nickel and things like that, which is fine. It works great in the industry, but I want to introduce, you know, titanium and ink canal and have it machined instead of cast. implated, we'll have it machined so you can see, it done in a nice manner that you can see that it was tooled and it's out of different metals that you see inside engines that hold airframes together or whatever. I think that'd be kind of a neat thing. So that's what we're working on on our next design. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Wow, that's really cool. I like how you've taken kind of this passion and turned it into a passion project that's got like this creative component, but also has a purpose driven, you know, like mission. That's really exciting. And so where are you at in the process? Are your bags for sale yet? Are you doing a soft launch? Where are things at? Jared Lilje: Yeah, we just got back from Dallas Fashion Week. We opened the show. It was great. We had a great reception there. And then we've got clips of it on our Instagram account. We're fully open. have anybody can reach us at jchristoff.com. And the way I set it up, so if a person wants to go buy a bag, one of the things I like to be is very transparent. I want you to decide where your money goes. So we've vetted 13 different nonprofits. If there's one that speaks to you, you can tell us that when you're checking out that, we want it to go here, we want it to go there. So you feel like you're choosing where the money goes off the donation. And if you want a private conversation with us before you purchase, you can sign up for that, and we'll sit and talk to you. I'll walk you through the bag, find out what best fits your needs, and let you see. put laptops in it or whatever you want to see for our tote, you know, and all that good stuff. so because it's things are online and I understand you can't touch it. You can't smell the leather. You can't see that stuff. So I wanted to create a different digital experience, the best that I can to make you feel like, hey, this is a great, this is a great purchase, going to a great thing. And I get to pick where my money goes. So stay flying airplanes to support my family, you know, and I don't take any money other than to what's required to run the company. run production lines and pay employees. But take no money out of the company myself. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: would think you could get like a glass case in millionaire FBOs or something like that, that would probably be pretty cool, you know, to have like one featured for that area, like, okay, it's the millionaire FBOs in the state of Kansas and we're featuring this one aviator who made changes here or something. I imagine you could do a lot with the marketing on that. Jared Lilje: Yeah, that's one of the things we have started looking into. I haven't reached out, but we're developing that strategy. of the big things about it is making sure that we have enough information out there so when somebody, when they walk by and see a $3,000 handbag marketed by the FBO and not a brand they understand, they need to be able to look up and say, ⁓ here it is and see, ⁓ here are on social media. ⁓ they made that fashion show. so they can see legitimacy, right? Because otherwise there's no trust. that's a big thing is brand trust so people know that, hey, we're here to stay. We put our money where our mouth is and we're gonna do it. So I that's probably a little bit down the road, but we'll get there. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: The story's pretty cool though. Like if somebody sees it and then they research it and then they find out kind of the mission and what you're doing there, that's really neat stuff. You know what I mean? That kind of pulls everything together. These days, I feel much more compelled to support companies that are mission-driven like that, you know, that are really, easy to do fast fashion and I'm guilty, you know, and I know ⁓ impacts ⁓ the planet. But But when you're supporting something and you know there's a mission behind it or you know that somebody's really working to just create a legacy that's gonna last for the right reasons, I mean, you kind of hit on it earlier when you were talking about intention, what are the intentions of people? And I think that is starting to matter more to me than anything else. I think we live in a very instant gratification, reactionary society of impulse-driven humans. intention behind it is pretty cool. We've been watching some of the older Robert Redford movies like The Sting and we just watched The Natural. That was just such a cool time on the planet where ⁓ was really organic and very purpose-driven. It just, I don't know, it's kind of like the nostalgia is pretty cool. Jared Lilje: I think that I think you're right. And I think one of the things with going to this digital era, obviously I can't afford to be a brick and mortar store right now. And I can't afford to sign contracts with a Neiman Marcus yet, but we can, you know, I think what we are trying to do to try to make it a little bit more like that is have that connection over having that, that personal meeting with me. You know, I'm happy to sit with people, you know, cause I think so you can so quickly just order from Amazon, you have it delivered to your house, but you have no connection with any human being. And I think the more that we go towards that digital era, companies that actually try to make it personal are gonna do well. And I'm counting on that. So I look forward to having those opportunities to meet with people and talk to them about, hey, do they look for in a bag? What do they want in their bag? And giving them the history on why I designed a certain bag a certain way and why I named it. What was going through my mind when I was... going through the design features of it. I think that's kind of something special and something neat, especially now that because we're a startup and once you get in on the beginning of it, you can kind of watch the whole, a consumer, watch what you were a part of from the very beginning as we grow. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: You know, I've been following Aviate, the watch company for quite some time. ⁓ And they do, they feature a lot of really cool aviator themed, like, you know, they'll have, it's not just an aircraft. It's like a person that drove the mission behind that in this particular battlefield or whatever. ⁓ they came out with the Snoopy line and sells out the minute. Like just add the sheer morbid curiosity, you know, they'll say our Snoopy line, we just launched and I click it. It's like sold out. Jared Lilje: Hmm. ⁓ I bet. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: sold out every time. It's kind of funny. You wouldn't think about it, but they've stayed focused on the aviation branding and the aviation concepts. It's just funny to me that their Snoopy one is the one that sells out the fastest. Maybe you need a loose one. Jared Lilje: I think that's hilarious because on my bag I carry on every trip I go on for my airline, my bag tag with my name on it is on the back of it has Snoopy flying his doghouse. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yep. The ace. ⁓ ⁓ kid inside all of us, right? ⁓ who doesn't love a cute little beagle? Well, this was fantastic. So listeners can find out about your mission and the bags at jchristoff.com. That's the best place for them to get in touch with you. Jared Lilje: Yeah, so that's funny. Yep, yep, and you can sign up for any social media below there. Instagram and Facebook are our primary means, but they have links down there if they want. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I'm sure the aviator listeners on this podcast are going to be really bummed out that I didn't ask you a bunch of like Air Force pilot questions, but we stay true to the mission. We'll have to have you back on and talk aviation things, I'll probably, invite Commander in for that one too, so that you guys can do the ratatat stuff and ⁓ can ⁓ back and enjoy the banter. ⁓ Jared Lilje: Would love to. Awesome, very good. All right. you so much. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Thanks for coming on. Jared Lilje: Take care.