How Flying a Plane Gives This Jeweler’s Business a Lift

By Rob Bates | February 14, 2025

When jewelers discuss techniques for boosting business, they usually single out social media or customer outreach. But Dan Moran, head of Concierge Diamonds, a Los Angeles–based custom jeweler, has his own secret weapon: an airplane.

“Flying has changed my life; it’s changed my business,” he says. “It’s become a unique differentiator for me.”

Moran has flown for a dozen years. He received his pilot’s license a little over a decade ago, and bought his first aircraft not long after that. He is now on his third plane, a Piper PA-46 JetProp, and about half the flights he takes in it are work-related—meeting with clients, going to trade shows, even traveling for prospective purchases.

Speaking to JCK last week, Moran came across as a happy evangelist for what he calls “more than a hobby.” Yet when the third-generation jeweler first set his sights on soaring through the skies, he wasn’t thinking business.

“Flying is something I always wanted to do. I was one of those kids that when I was 2 years old, I would scream up at the sky, ‘Airplane!’” he recalls.

“I used to ride motorcycles pretty enthusiastically, and I met a group of guys through that. There’s a lot of overlap between people who ride motorcycles and people who fly planes,” Moran continues. “So I found myself knowing guys who did both. They took me along as a passenger a few times, and at some point I started to get this sideways look from them, like, ‘Hey, are you going to do this or what?’

“I decided if I waited until I had enough free time, or I had enough money, I would never do it. So I did it.”

Moran generally takes his six-seater plane for a spin at least once a week. Some of his flights are for charity, including transporting cancer patients for treatment.

He believes owning a plane has certain business benefits—which he’s happy to enumerate. First, it gives him a mobility most jewelers can only dream of.

“I work with private clients all over the country, and the ability to go and see somebody is dramatically enhanced by the airplane,” he says. “I can talk to a client in Oakland and say, ‘I’ll come see you tomorrow.’ And they’ll say, ‘What?’

“Could I have flown commercial to Oakland? I guess I could have, but it doesn’t wind up actually happening. Because you may find a cheap flight next Thursday, and then you’re busy next Thursday, and then you say, ‘What about the following Tuesday?’ And before you know it, the moment has passed.

“Whereas being able to say ‘Okay, I’ll see you Friday’ blows people’s minds. I don’t have to match schedules with the airlines. As long as I’m free and the client’s free, it’s happening.”

On one particularly fruitful day, Moran flew to five different clients in the Bay Area, and created five different rings.

“Absent a small airplane, that would be completely impossible,” he says. “You can’t do it with the airlines. It would have taken three or four days in a car. But with the airplane, you can make it happen. It lets me do things I couldn’t do any other way.”

Having a plane has even afforded him an unexpected buying opportunity.

“I had a client who said, ‘My mom’s in town. Her mom just passed away, and she’s got some stuff. She would love to show it to you but time is of the essence.’ I was able to be there the following day, and I wound up buying a stone that I did really well with, and helping them out of a bad situation.”

The plane also comes in handy for quick trips to trade shows. “I’m taking three of my teammates to the Tucson [gem] show, because they’ve never been. How else would they do that? It’s not practical to just go out for the day flying commercial. But with the airplane, why not? Pile in. Let’s go.”

Not only are the trips “dramatically faster,” they’re more reliable, Moran says.

“If I’m going to go see a client in San Diego from my office, it’s a two-hour drive if there’s no traffic. But anyone from Southern California will tell you that, unless you’re going at four in the morning, there’s no such thing as ‘no traffic.’ [The trip] could be two hours, it could be five hours.

“In the airplane,” he says, “it’s 35 minutes. I don’t care what day it is, I don’t care if it’s rush hour, I don’t care if it’s a holiday weekend—it’s 35 minutes. If it’s really windy, it’s 37 minutes. So not only does it shorten the trip, it makes it predictable. I know when I’m gonna get there. I know when I’m getting back.”

On top of that, most clients can’t help but be impressed that their jeweler has jetted over to deliver their ring. Moran usually meets them at general aviation airports, which are small and noncommercial.

“You can borrow a conference room at most of them,” he says, adding that clients “think it’s the coolest thing. Most people have never walked out onto [a tarmac] and had a chance to check out the airplanes.”

It also gives customers quite a tale to tell.

“The clients think it’s awesome. They’ll come out and take pictures and put them on Instagram. ‘My jeweler flew out to see me.’ I’ve gotten phone calls from people who say, ‘My cousin bought a ring from you six months ago, and I saw him at the family reunion and he told me the story of how you took him in the airplane and you flew over the Golden Gate Bridge together.’ The client tells his friends, and that becomes a very natural source of referrals for me.

“The jewelry buying experience is so important. You’ll hear jewelers say, ‘Don’t cheap out on your boxes, because opening the box is part of the experience.’ This is that, times a million. If the box comes out in my hand from a private airplane, there’s a cool factor.”

Moran also has customers who are rich enough that a private jet is not such a novelty to them, but he believes the plane sends a message there as well. “My ultra–high-net worth clients are the kind of people who don’t want to feel that the person they’re working with is desperate. They want to feel the person they’re working with is established, and will be there, and can support them. And when I offer to fly up to someone’s golf club, it’s validating.”

Of course, none of this would work if Moran didn’t love to fly. “If I have to drive to Vegas tomorrow to see a client, I go, ‘Ugh,’” he says. “But if you tell me I have to fly to Vegas tomorrow to see a client, I go, ‘Woo-hoo!’ I’m happy to do it.”

Moran says he’s not attracted to flying for the thrills—in fact, he doesn’t find it nerve-racking.

“I get that it’s intimidating and scary for some people. I guess I was born without that gene. I wouldn’t call aviation inherently dangerous or frightening. I would call it inherently unforgiving of errors. You need to be fully present and fully aware to make it safe. That’s what it demands of you, and that’s what I love about it.

“People always say, ‘You must be some kind of adrenaline junkie. What a rush.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth. I go up there because it’s peaceful. I go up there because when I’m up there, I don’t have a job, I don’t have a mortgage, I’m just flying an airplane. I’m doing what I’m doing, and I’m fully present in the moment.

“I’m the kind of person whose brain is going 100 miles an hour all the time. Being able to shut that off—which is what happens when I’m in the airplane—is just everything to me. I don’t go up there for excitement. I go up there for relaxation.”

Moran occasionally puts videos of his high-flying escapades on social media, though he concedes there’s a fine line between “making people aware of it and being boastful.

“I try not to go over the line to where it’s distasteful,” he says. “There’s an old joke among pilots: ‘How do you know if somebody’s a pilot? Don’t worry, he’ll tell you.’ I don’t want to be that guy.

“But at the same time, is a bird showing off when it flies? It’s just something the bird does, you know?”

(Photos courtesy of Concierge Diamonds)